WB Issue#160

Australia’s leading natural health & living magazine

Where will 2016 take you ?

YOGA

FOR JOY

TURNING THE TIDE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

15

NO-FUSS TIPS TO TAME PICKY EATERS FINDING MONEY HARMONY

Issue 160 AUS $12.00* NZ $12.00 (Both incl. GST)

Follow the moon for

abundance SPECIAL REPORT

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Here’s to

Summer!

Healthy holiday meals + berry delicious desserts

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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 ADVERTISING MANAGER Tracey Dwyer Ph +61 3 9694 6403 RESOURCE GUIDE SALES Chris Middleton Ph +61 2 9887 0629 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 160 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

D

o you know what kids have in abundance that adults don’t?

Yes, they have far more dextrous thumbs; yes, they have a fascination with repetition; yes, they have no fear or respect for gravity; and, yes, they make an artform of food-fussiness. These are all qualities that diminish as we wend our way into adulthood, but they aren’t as valuable as the commodity I was thinking of: kids have a natural sense of awe.

I see in my daughters that as the world unfolds to them they experience each new revelation with an unabashed sense of wonder and joy. It can be major things like realising the implications of it being nighttime on the other side of the world when it is daytime here. At the other end of the scale, I’ve witnessed their thrill in realising that the same actor can play different parts in different television shows.

As they begin to understand them, both astronomical stars and Hollywood stars and the orbits in which they move, can elicit in my daughters the same sense of wonder mingled with respect and happiness. Yet as adults we smooth out those peaks from our experience. Somehow, “Yeah, yeah, what else is new?” becomes more acceptable as an adult than, “Wow! Can you believe that?

How cool!”

Why do we as adults embrace cynicism so readily? Is indifference an insulating cloak against possible disappointment?

Are we trying to allay our fears by convincing ourselves, as much as others, that we know what life is all about? Is feeling safe really worth what we lose in its pursuit? Look at the vitality of children compared to the lassitude of adults. I would suggest to you that a good portion

of that vitality comes from the awe that daily flows through a child’s system.

Just think: we are living on this improbably water-covered third rock (coincidentally comprising the same percentage of water as our own bodies), which just happens to be orbiting a magical 149.5 million kilometres from an unlikely spinning ball of hot gas and nuclear reactions that burns at 15,000,000°C. That is awesome! Every bit of that is awesome ... yet to survive we, as adults, learn to numb ourselves to the everyday amazement that surrounds us.

Terry Robson, Editor-in-Chief Special note: This issue is the last in which a column will appear from Karin Cutter. Karin was a founding columnist for WellBeing and has been writing for us for 30 years. This kind of longevity is rare and it speaks of depth and quality. Karin’s writing was always meticulous yet spiced with a fair sprinkling of passion and compassion. Karin, thank you for your flawless dedication. We will miss you.

JOIN THE WELLBEING COMMUNITY Connect and share with a group of caring, passionate experts and motivated people.

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WELLBEING.COM.AU | 3

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CONTENTS ISSUE #160 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 try out an eco retreat in the NSW Blue Mountains.

20 Holistic Journey The team behind Brauer Natural Medicine is committed to upholding the Brauer family legacy.

22 Art for Art’s Sake Ra Churchin paints beautiful birds with the intention of uplifting the viewer so they live a full, positive life.

86 Growing Old Together We meet three couples who have chosen to live their later years together in order to create rich, healthy, connected lives.

149 Real Life Experience The grandmother of two young boys with autism shares her story.

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 how naps lower blood pressure and

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more in our medical news section.

14 Supplement Silica within the human body is vital for the health of many tissues.

16 Functional Food Delicious apricots offer multiple nutritional and healing benefits.

48 Naturally Beautiful Nails Strong, shiny nails aren’t just attractive assets: your nails can give you valuable insight into underlying health conditions.

58 Festive Food Want the secret to healthy, scrummy, crowd-pleasing meals and snacks this holiday season? Keep it simple, keep it fresh.

114 Health While Travelling Stay in tip-top physical and mental shape when you jet off for adventure.

134 Recipes: Vegetables, Grains & Other Good Stuff Devour tasty, inventive dishes from Simon Bryant, a passionate chef who’s all about ethical eating.

BODY, MIND & SPIRIT 10 Lifelines Read about the benefits of crying and more in our body and soul section.

24 Thinkers & Doers: Christina Stevens Filmmaker and author Christina Stevens shares a powerful message of personal liberation and planetary responsibility.

28 The Rhythm of The Moon Connect with the moon’s yin and yang cycles to start to foster true abundance in your life.

32 Your Stars for 2016 What do the stars hold for you in 2016? All signs point to large changes and shifts, and opportunities to unfold into your fullness.

38 Log on to the Real World The internet and social media have revolutionised our lives, yet there are downsides to always being “connected”. Is it time to put online in its place?

42 Finding Money Harmony If you find it hard to make sense of your dollars and cents, it might be worth trying to weave your finances together with your values.

64 After the Sweat Through using appropriate nutrition to recover from a high-intensity workout, you’ll be able to do more exercise sooner.

70 Yoga for Fun Has your search for a healthy, enlightened lifestyle become too serious? Inject some fun back into life with a playful, yogic approach.

76 Special Report: Back on Track A strong, flexible spine is the framework for a full life and, when back pain strikes, it can destabilise everything. We examine therapeutic methods that can help give you back your freedom.

92 The Healing Power of Horses Innovative forms of equine therapy are creating new

124 Burma’s Sea of Tranquillity Journey with us to Burma’s Inle Lake, a soulful masterpiece of ancient temples, Buddhist monasteries and breathtaking scenery.

OUR SECTIONS

COMMUNITY

EVERY ISSUE

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124 and holistic pathways to facilitate personal awareness and change.

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

HOME, PARENTING & RELATIONSHIPS 54 Food Wars If your kids are fussy eaters, you’ll know well the war they wage on food. Fortunately, there are positive ways you can tackle the issue.

104 Pitch Perfect Nature’s music can profoundly impact on your wellbeing and incorporating sounds into your outdoor space will help you reap the rewards.

108 Creating a Soulful Garden for Your Pets While your garden

may suit you down to the ground, is it giving your pet the safety and solace it needs? Create a balanced space for the whole family.

PLANET & TRAVEL 12 Green Beat Read about cacti and more in our environmental news section.

98 Carbon Reversal Climate change is here but there are ways in which humanity — and individuals — can move the figures into reverse gear.

118 Uncovering Flinders’ Hidden Gems Below the peaceful exterior Flinders Island presents to the visitor lies the Killiecrankie Diamond — and we go on the hunt for it.

132 Education Focus News from our naturalhealth educators, this issue Angela Rojas.

134 Natural Source Health products from our advertisers.

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

140 Food Source Healthy food products from our advertisers.

141 Natural Beauty Carla Oates delivers her remaining four principles for healthy, beautiful skin.

142 Quick Kitchen Lee Holmes doles out three berry delightful summer treats.

143 DIY Detox Sally Mathrick shares ways in which you can protect your brain against environmental toxins.

144 Digging In Jackie French sniffs out some superbly scented plants that repel pests.

145 Pet Care Karen Goldrick reveals how to calm thundersensitive pets.

146 Stargazing Christine Broadbent explains the planetary influences for January and February, 2016.

147 Ageing Well Michael Elstein discusses the true causes of anxiety and depression.

148 Back to Basics In her final column, Karin Cutter gets to the bottom of a case of mysterious anaemia.

150 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 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

D

o you ever get bored?

The other day, nothing much happened.

I woke up, did yoga, took the bus to work, worked, came home, cooked dinner and went to bed.

The next day, I did the same — except I drove. The day after, it was much the same, save I went for a walk and met the friendliest dog. This continued for a couple of weeks, with some social occasions thrown in, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Now, I’m grateful to exist in a safe environment in which this can happen: nothing much. I’d even say that’s not an untypical fortnight. Yet for some reason a sense of ennui had crept in, a boredom that I couldn’t shake. You know that feeling you’d get as a child while on a family drive “just around the corner” — for four hours — and you’d pinch your sister or brother to see what they did? It felt like that, but without the siblings to pinch.

So, the dubious sport of goading loved ones aside, how do you relieve boredom?

I’m not big on social media but I went on Facebook, to see what friends were up to; I spent hours outside walking, to see what nature was up to; I read the newspapers loads, to see what the world was up to. I finally meditated, to see what I was up to.

I sat there and breathed. Nothing much “happened”. But something did shift.

Life, after all, is just a series of moments that we judge “good” or “bad” or just “meh”: they are finite; they pass. Together, they are life — and, if we’re lucky, they will continue and I suppose there will be days or weeks or months where nothing much “happens”, when we don’t go anywhere special or do anything extraordinary.

Except ... we are living. We are alive.

Some moments of “boredom” and “wonder” and “challenge” and “joy” illuminate the others; some cast shadows. Yet it seems that it’s not what we’re doing or what’s happening around us that creates our experience in those tiny, discrete pockets of time. What matters is how we think about them — and that we’re present enough to notice they exist.

Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote, “Do you think that I count the days?

There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk.” Next time boredom strikes, I hope I have the grace to be thankful for that moment.

Speaking of gratitude, longtime WellBeing contributor Karin Cutter has penned her last column for us this issue. Thank you, Karin, for the wisdom you’ve shared with your readers over the years. We are deeply grateful and we wish you well.

Danielle Kirk, Editor

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IMPERFECT ENCOURAGEMENT WellBeing, you have done it again! Thank you for bringing Taryn Brumfitt’s story to us; Kate McKee wrote it exceptionally well. In a time of technology and constant images of photoshopped, perfect faces and bodies, it was so enlightening to read such an encouraging story. I have certainly taken a lot from it and have shown a few of my friends. It has been a great topic of conversation over a cuppa!

We should embrace the body we were born with and see every wrinkle, dimple and pimple as a reflection of who we are and what our bodies are capable of. Thank you for such a lovely story.

Holly Thompson

LEARNING SELF-LOVE I gave birth to my fourth baby six months ago and, since then, have experienced real animosity towards my body. I have felt an enormous amount of pressure to lose weight quickly and it just isn’t happening as expected. I found your story on Taryn Brumfitt in issue #158 both eyeopening and relevant to how I’m feeling. I understood exactly how she had felt about herself, and it is so comforting to know that loving and embracing yourself is a possibility, one that’s certainly worth it.

Now my journey begins.

Rachel Wright

A “SOUL JOURNEY” WellBeing issue #152 really amazed me and your magazine is what I have longed for, it seems forever: my soul journey.

I feel locked into this busy, busy world with no chance of escape or freedom to exist with nature. I am in my early 60s and have fibromyalgia and rely on medication to get me through. It seems life is so unfair. I have a loving husband, a home and all that others think matters, but I yearn for a soul retreat to find my true inner self again.

Both my sister and I survived an abnormal, terrifying and abusive childhood and each of us has coped in her own way and developed our syndromes to protect our psyches.

Life is not about possessions, keeping ahead of everyone else or achieving accolades. Life is your own soul journey that progresses you from a child to an adult and enables the individual to live with love, passion, creativity and great joy that surrounds your psyche and blends with all those other yearning souls.

Dianne Laver

COMMUNITY TWISDOM

STAR LETTER The first issue of WellBeing I bought was the Nurture Me edition (#157).

I had intended to give it to a friend in the electronic version but I couldn’t because the actual physical magazine is such a visual delight that I now buy a copy and give it to her, and then I buy one for me!

She and her husband are young, scrimping and saving every penny and totally committed to the planet, environment and so on. They wouldn’t buy it for themselves, so I made it her 30th birthday present.

She’s the most beautiful young person and deserves something lovely that “nurtures” her, so this great mag is fitting.

Thanks for providing such a beautiful publication — spiritually, visually and practically. It’s a credit to your team.

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 HEALTHY DISH WILL YOU BE MAKING FOR LOVED ONES THIS SUMMER? Sounds like a great issue. I created a chocolate pumpkin spiced cake on the weekend ... it’s gone already! It was delicious and, if you have children, they won’t even know they’re eating the goodness of pumpkin!

Kylie Carmody I’m going to be making tomato chutney and something cool and crisp ... perhaps

a pomegranate salad with goat’s cheese, walnuts, leafy greens, mint and maybe some couscous. Yum! Grace Maloney Mangoes are my favourite fruit, so I’ll be whipping up a chilled pudding with mango, coconut cream and maybe some chia seeds. I think the kids will love it.

Amber Tighe

Susan McCarthy

CONVERSATION POINTS UPLIFTING & SATISFYING I was in a doldrum of a mood when I perused the magazine aisle after a listless day at work; I was looking for an uplifting read, when I spotted WellBeing. I brought it home and, while reading it over a cup of coffee, knew I had made the right decision.

I read WellBeing from cover to cover in less than 24 hours. I was impressed by a number of articles — so much so that I feel compelled to sign up for a subscription! I am rarely so engaged by magazines.

Learning to Love Yourself (#158) really resonated with me. I am faced with immense change and feel I need as much guidance as I can get to pull me through. I have lost all my family to cancer in the past few years, and am still working through my grief and loss to find myself again.

The article on beating burnout spoke to me, as I feel just this way now, and Honour Your Ancestors, Heal Yourself was very powerful and relevant as well. I am craving connection to my ancestors, and the idea of building a shrine and creating time to talk to them spoke volumes to me.

The Wilds Inside, meanwhile, just made me want to pack up and go on a road trip! I also loved the final article The Lightness of Yoga. It inspired me to get out the yoga mat.

Thank you for producing such a great magazine. I loved the images, the layout and paper quality: the result is so uplifting and satisfying. I am a very happy reader and will be coming back for more.

Anita Ozolins

There is no such thing as junk food.

It’s either junk or it’s food. #realfood @_Nutritionist We create our own happiness: it’s entirely up to us to see the positive rather than the negative sides of any situation. @ThomaSorgeL Meditation is the ultimate act of friendship toward ourselves — like looking inside and saying, “It’s OK, just breathe. I’m here for you.” @Thejasongarner There’s always the option to slow down and take things one moment at a time. #dailyintention #thenow #yogalife #tao @keithmmac Take time out from working, walk in the sunshine (when it’s there), breathe the air and still the mind. You will work better for it. @jesswellbeing

Feeling the synchronicity! I created an intention to find a business coach; today I sat next to my new business coach in a cafe. @kwkinesiology Just saw the LARGEST bee I’ve ever seen in my life. The interwebs say it’s a native great carpenter bee (Xylocopa aruana). #insects #Brisbane @anne_giacoman The outside looking in, such a different #perspective. @msmarionmiller #IAmHappiestWhen I can be present in the moment. #mindfulness @AnExpansiveMind No matter how old I get, I still love dressing up as a fairy. Face painting today! @Emmylee86 Avocado man at the markets gave me four free AVOCADOS. Made my day! @elleloudiddams

WIN

The writer of this issue’s star letter wins a gift pack worth AU$321 from Briese Botanicals.

Take your skin to the next level and experience the potent results of Australian native botanicals. This beautiful pack includes Briese Botanicals Gentle Crème Cleanser, Antioxidant Serum, Eye Rescue Serum, Crème Moisture Infusion and Healing Facial Masque. All products are formulated using natural, organic and Australian ingredients. To find out more, visit briesebotanicals.com.au.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 7

THE PULSE COMPILED BY TERRY ROBSON

Recent medical findings for a healthier body PROTEIN FOR YOUR HEART This study used data drawn from 2000 female twins. Each subject was investigated to establish blood pressure and blood vessel thickness and then the results were compared to their diets. The results showed that those women who consumed the highest amounts of amino acids — components of protein — had lower blood pressure and reduced arterial thickness.

However, the source of the amino acids and protein was important. The specific amino acids looked at in this study were arginine, cysteine, glutamic acid, glycine, histidine, leucine and tyrosine. Foods like meat, fish, dairy, beans, lentils, legumes in general, broccoli and spinach are all good protein sources. However, the greatest benefit in this study as far as blood pressure goes was found when the protein came from plant-based sources. Additionally, protein intake was found to have as much impact on blood pressure as factors like salt intake, physical activity and alcohol consumption.

Source: Journal of Nutrition

NAPS LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE This study involved 386 people with high blood pressure and an average age of 61.4 years. All subjects had their blood pressure measured when at work and also over a 24-hour period. Additionally, they were interviewed to establish their lifestyle habits and their body mass index. After adjusting for age, gender, BMI, smoking status, salt, exercise, alcohol and coffee there was still an effect from having h i a midday nap. Those who did nap had an average 5 per cent lower systolic blood pressure throughout the day (about 6 points on the scale) compared to those who did not nap at all. The nappers had systolic blood pressure readings that were an average 4 per cent lower (5 points) when they were awake and 6 per cent lower (7 points) when they were asleep. Reductions by as little as 2 points can decrease heart disease risk by 10 per cent.

Source: European Society for Cardiology

SLEEP & SNEEZES People who sleep less than six hours a night were found to be 4.2 times more likely to catch a cold than those who sleep more than seven hours a night. Those who slept less than five hours a night were 4.5 times more likely to catch a cold. In fact, lack of sleep outweighs stress levels as a risk factor for catching a cold.

Source: Sleep

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Researchers in this new study searched for all available studies on tai chi up to 2014. They found 1102 studies but only found 21 of them to be of high enough quality to be used.

They then analysed the studies to see if tai chi improved symptoms and quality of life in people with cancer, osteoarthritis, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The ages of subjects ranged from mid-50s to early 70s and the average length of the tai chi training was 12 weeks consisting of 2–3 one-hour sessions per week.

Tai chi was associated with definite improvements in physical capacity and muscle strength in most of the health conditions. Specifically, tai chi was associated with improved pain and stiffness symptoms in osteoarthritis, reduced breathless in COPD and improved sit-to-stand times in osteoarthritis. Additionally, tai chi showed no worsening of other symptoms. Source: British Journal of Sports Medicine

WATER FOR WEIGHT LOSS Obese adults took part in this study over 12 weeks. Subjects were given a weight management consultation and advised how to adapt their lifestyles to improve weight. Some of the subjects were asked to drink a 500mL glass of water before meals while others were asked to imagine they had a full stomach before eating.

The subjects drank tap water only; even sparkling waters were not allowed. Those who were asked to drink water before meals lost an average 1.3kg more over the 12 weeks than those who did not. Those who drank water before all three meals lost 4.3kg over the 12 weeks compared to an average of 0.8kg among those who only had water once a day or not at all. The beauty of this is that the water makes you feel full, so you eat less, but you need the water anyway.

Source: Obesity

Photography Bigstock

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LIFELINES COMPILED BY TERRY ROBSON

Interesting slices of life HAPPINESS IS CATCHING This study looked at data drawn from more than 2000 teenagers and measured how they were influenced by each other’s moods. The participants were each classified as having depressive symptoms or not being depressed (healthy mood) according to scores achieved on mood testing. Analysis of the data revealed that depression did not spread; that is, having a friend with depressive symptoms did not increase an individual’s likelihood of having depression. However, having friends with a positive healthy mood halved the likelihood of developing depression and doubled the likelihood of recovering from depression if you did develop it.

Specifically, adolescents with five or more mentally healthy friends have half the probability of becoming depressed compared to adolescents with no healthy friends. Plus, teens with 10 healthy friends have twice the chance of recovering from a depressive episode. It seems depressive moods are not transmitted from friends but positive mood is contagious. Source: Proceeding of the Royal Society

ALCOHOL & ATTRACTIVENESS after that. So a little alcohol, like one standard drink’s worth, makes you look more attractive by causing blood vessels to open, giving you a healthy, flushed look and boosting positive mood, which is apparent in subtle muscle relaxation.

So it seems “beer goggles” operate in reverse and make the drinker look good to the observer rather than the other way around ... or should that be “beer goggle”: after all, it only works for one glass. Source: Alcohol and Alcoholism

DID YOU KNOW?

CREATING SARCASM People who have used sarcasm and those who have been subjected to sarcasm do better on tasks requiring creativity compared to the people exposed to sincerity or neutrality.

To create or decode sarcasm, you need to psychologically resolve the contradiction that exists between the literal and actual meanings of the sarcastic expression. This resolution of psychological distance involves abstraction and that in turn promotes creative thinking. So maybe sarcasm isn’t so low after all.

Source: Harvard Business School

THE WAY TO A WOMAN’S HEART T This study involved young women in their late teens and early 20s and used fMRI to measure brain activity during the experiment. Some of the women were fed a meal before the study while others remained hungry. All the women were then shown romantic pictures. Previous research has shown that there is greater activation in reward centres in the brain when people are hungry and see pictures related to money, food or even drugs. However, this study found greater activation in brain reward centres in response to romantic pictures when the women had eaten. This was both for women with a history of dieting and those with a history of normal eating. The theory goes that being fed and feeling happily satiated may prime the brain for rewards beyond food. It also suggests shared neural pathways for food and sex — which is great news for the restaurant industry. Source: Appetite

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A GOOD CRY Researchers in this study had subjects view either the Oscar-winning 1997 film Life Is Beautiful or the 2009 Hachi: A Dog’s Tale starring Richard Gere: both well-established tearjerkers. Just over 50 per cent of participants cried while watching the films. The subjects were asked how they were feeling immediately after the film, then again 20 minutes later and again 90 minutes later. The mood of the non-criers was not altered after the film or after time. However, the criers experienced a drop in mood immediately after the film but this had returned to normal mood after 20 minutes. After 90 minutes, though, the mood of the criers was better than it had been before they watched the film. It seems that somehow crying is an emotional cleanser and you can boost your mood with a cry. Apparently “a good cry” is not a random choice of words.

Source: Motivation and Emotion

Photography Bigstock

In this study, heterosexual people viewed pictures of people and rated them for attractiveness. The people in the pictures were photographed when sober and then after consuming 100mL, 250mL and then 500mL of wine, which equates to around 1, 2.5 or 5 standard drinks respectively. After drinking one glass of wine, the subjects were rated as more attractive than when they were sober, but they were rated as less attractive the more they had consumed

GREEN BEAT COMPILED BY TERRY ROBSON

All the latest in environmental issues SINGING THE BLUES-BIRDS

CACTI UNDER THREAT An international group of scientists has placed cacti among the most threatened groups of plants on the planet. They found that 31 per cent of the 1478 cactus species assessed were at risk of extinction. This is a higher rate than the 25 per cent of mammals or 12 per cent of birds rated as vulnerable to dying out because of human influence. The most significant threats facing cacti are the use of land for agriculture, the collection of cacti as biological resources and residential and commercial development. The study found cattle farming in arid lands, spread of other farms and of roads and urban areas were threatening cactus habitats. Use of arid land for eucalyptus plantations in Brazil was just one example. As a group of plants or animals, cacti are the fifth most threatened behind cycads, amphibians, corals and conifers. Despite their spiky nature, they need some love.

Source: Nature Plants

ELEPHANTS RESIST CANCER Theoretically, an animal’s cancer risk should increase with its size and lifespan: the bigger an animal, the more cells they have, which should increase the rate of cell division and susceptibility to gene mutations. Yet, despite being significantly bigger and having 100 times more cells than humans, the cancer mortality rate for elephants is only 4.8 per cent, compared with an 11–25 per cent cancer mortality rate in humans. In a new study, researchers have assessed information on disease and cause of death for 36 mammalian species, including African and Asian elephants. The genomes of all species were assessed and, based on their data, the researchers believe the reason for elephants’ protection against cancer is that elephants have at least 20 copies of a major tumoursuppressor gene called TP53 while healthy humans only have one copy, with two alleles (gene variants) inherited from each parent. Source: JAMA

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PLASTIC PROBLEM FOR TURTLES Annual global plastic production has grown from 1.5 million tonnes to 299 million tonnes in the past 65 years and, as a result, plastic pollution is increasing, both on land and at sea.

In a new study, researchers wanted to see what effect this is having on the ocean’s turtles. They found that all seven species of turtle can be harmed by plastic debris. When turtles ingest plastic, they can suffer intestinal blockage that can result in malnutrition, which can in turn lead to poor health, reduced growth rates, lower reproduction and even death. Entanglement in plastic debris can cause lacerations and increased drag when swimming, which may result in drowning or death by starvation. Beach litter may also entangle nesting females or trap emerging hatchlings. The researchers say we need to understand the effects of plastics on turtles so we can start taking appropriate action to protect them.

Source: ICES Journal of Marine Science

Photography Bigstock

In a new study, a researcher from the University of Exeter in the UK recorded songs produced by 32 male bluebirds. Two songs were analysed from each bird: those produced during the quietest and noisiest times of the day respectively. It emerged that as background noise increased, the bluebirds produced songs that were louder and lower-pitched. This tells us that the birds are able to detect the increase in ambient noise levels and respond to try to make themselves heard above the clamour. For the bluebirds, it’s the equivalent of a human trying to make themselves heard in a noisy restaurant or nightclub but without the option of leaving.

Human-generated noise pollution is only going to escalate and there will be a threshold beyond which some species will have difficulty competing.

When a species can’t communicate effectively, then all activities, including mating, are compromised. At some point, we will have to tone it down.

Source: Integrative and Comparative Biology

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SUPPLEMENT SILICA/SILICON

Silicon: the hair, skin, nails & bone mineral Silica/silicon is the second most prevalent element in our world after oxygen.

It is also the third most abundant trace element in the human body.

WORDS / DR KAREN BRIDGMAN

S

THERAPEUTIC USES Hair, skin & nail health Deficiencies of silica manifest as thinning of the hair, increasing brittleness of nails, the formation of wrinkles and premature drying and ageing of the skin. It restores the skin’s natural glow and helps prevent many skin problems. Silicon is also important for effective wound healing.

Silica is vital for hair health. It has been used to improve hair growth in alopecia (thinning and baldness) as well as by improving the lustre and shine of hair, making it thick and healthy. Silica also strengthens nails, preventing brittleness and infections.

Cognitive function

Beans are a major dietary source of silica.

formed joints, reduced cartilage and poor cartilage repair, poor collagen repair and a disruption of the mineral balance in the femur and vertebrae. Silicon plays a vital role in assisting calcium in the growth and maintenance of bones and joints by increasing the amount of collagen (the protein component of bone) and improving the deposition of calcium to strengthen the bone. Lowered levels are potentially a crucial factor in the development of osteoporosis. Silicon also assists in the healing of bone fractures and joint dislocations.

Immune system Silica’s role in strengthening the mucous membranes of the gut and respiratory tract, plus its role in strengthening and improving the texture of skin, fortifies our protective mechanisms against various pathogenic organisms. These areas of the body are your first line of defence — your barrier mechanisms for the prevention of pathogens entering your body.

Detoxification Silicon is exceptional at removing waste material, toxins and heavy metals from the body, as these are excreted in the urine when one supplements with silicon.

Research has shown there is little danger of taking too much as long as adequate water is consumed and vitamin B1 and potassium levels are maintained.

Bones & joints

Zeolite

In its capacity of strengthening bones and increasing the flexibility of joints, silica functions by intensifying the overall benefits of vitamin D, calcium and glycosaminoglycans (cartilage).

Major deficiencies show as deformities in the skull and peripheral bones, poorly

The most bioavailable forms of silica are colloidal silica and zeolite. Zeolite is an interesting aluminosilicate, known to release an unusual form of highly bioavailable orthosilicic acid. It is frequently supplemented to detoxify heavy metals and toxins from the body.

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An intriguing study was conducted on the effect of minerals in drinking water and it was found that water high in aluminium and low in silica is a factor in the increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease in elderly women. Another study determined that low silica was a major factor leading to cognitive impairment.

Silica has been shown to prevent the absorption of aluminium in the gastrointestinal tract, as well as binding to aluminium and excreting it. There is a unique affinity between aluminium and silicon where silicon mediates the bioavailability and cellular toxicity of aluminium. Silica deficiency therefore contributes to the increasing bioavailability of aluminium and the damage it causes in humans.

Ageing The observed decrease in silica concentration as people age has been linked to the increasing incidence of many of our chronic degenerative disorders, including atherosclerosis and osteoporosis. Silica/silicon is therefore considered to have therapeutic potential for the prevention of the degenerative diseases associated with ageing.

SOURCES OF SILICA Drinking water has reasonable levels of silica in areas of high-silica soils as part of the mineral content of “hard” water.

The major dietary sources of silica are beer (surprisingly), bananas and beans (string beans). Other important sources are apples, cereals, raw cabbage, peanuts, carrots, onions, cucumber, pumpkin, honey, fish, unrefined grains, oats, almonds and oranges. The herb Equisetum arvense (horsetail) is a particularly high source of available silica.

TOXICITY While few toxicity studies have been done, silica is considered safe. A few studies on toxicity of silica in rats indicated no adverse events recorded even with high doses.

References available on request.

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

Photography Bigstock

ilicon has multiple uses. In the technological world, it’s a critical element in high-tech devices and semiconductors. As a food additive, it’s used as an anti-caking agent, to control viscosity of liquids, to clarify beverages, as an anti-foaming agent and dough modifier and as an excipient in various drugs and vitamins.

There are many forms of silicon, silica being an oxide (silicon dioxide), colourless or white and insoluble in water. When it’s combined with minerals, the family of silicates is formed — many of which are water soluble.

In human health, orthosilicic acid is the most bioavailable form absorbed by humans (commonly called silica) and is vital for the health of many tissues, particularly connective tissue. The highest body levels are found in bones, tendons, liver and kidney, the aorta and the skin.

Silica has a strong affinity in the body with molybdenum (particularly), calcium and aluminium. It also has relationships with magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K. While silica has been determined to be essential for health, no recommended daily allowance has been established.

FUNCTIONAL FOOD APRICOTS

Apricots: delicious nutrition The golden orange small delicious fruits we know as apricots (a relation of the peach) have a long and distinguished history.

WORDS / DR KAREN BRIDGMAN

W

hile the apricot has been cultivated in Armenia since ancient times, its origins are disputed as apricots have also been grown in China and India and the Himalayas since at least 3000 BCE. Apricot trees were taken to Greece by Alexander the Great (circa 300 BCE). The fruit has been grown in Persia since antiquity and dried apricots were an important trade item for the Persians.

Today they are a major (traditional) fruit in Iran. The English settlers took them to the New World in the 17th century and the Spanish cultivated them on the West Coast of America around this time.

degenerative diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. When eaten regularly, these antioxidants also help reduce eyesight deterioration.

APRICOT KERNELS

The Chinese associated the apricot with education and medicine. Even today the written language contains a term “apricot altar”, which refers to an educational circle — with the accompanying story that Chang Tzu, a famous Chinese philosopher in the 4th century BCE, told how Confucius always taught his students in a place surrounded by the wood of apricot trees.

In Chinese medicine, apricot kernels were widely used. An ancient story from the Three Kingdoms period tells of the famous physician Dong Feng, who never asked his patients for payment except that they plant apricot trees in his orchard when they recovered — giving him a large orchard of apricot trees and an accompanying supply of medicinal ingredients. The term “Expert of the Apricot Grove” is reputedly still a reference to physicians.

CULTIVATION Apricots grow better in cooler climates, needing a chilling factor of 300-900 hours (in total) in winter for sufficient fruit set.

They are also said to not grow far from the “mother tree”, indicating they like specific soil conditions, with a pH of 6.0–7.0 (slightly acidic). The main species of apricot tree is called Prunus armeniaca (from Armenia), although there are other trees in this genus with fruit with similar properties.

APRICOT FRUIT Reputed to be one of the most nourishing fruits available, apricots have substantial

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nutritional benefits — whether fresh or dried. They contain significant levels of beta carotene, vitamins B and C and a range of essential minerals such as readily absorbable non-haem iron, manganese, potassium, magnesium phosphorus and some zinc. The bioavailability of the iron makes apricots useful for anaemia. Raw apricots contain 11 per cent carbohydrates, 3 per cent fibre and 1.5 per cent protein, while dried apricots (being dehydrated) contain 63 per cent carbohydrates with 7 per cent fibre, 3.4 per cent protein and very little fat. With their high fibre-to-volume ratio (both soluble and insoluble), dried apricots are often used as a laxative to relieve constipation.

Vitamins A & C In fresh apricots, the level of (pro-)vitamin A is equivalent to 13 per cent of the daily requirements in a single fruit — usually as compounds of the antioxidant carotenoid.

Along with 12 per cent of the daily vitamin C requirements, these assist in maintaining correct vision as well as maintaining healthy skin and mucous membranes.

High antioxidants Along with beta-carotene and vitamin C, apricots contain high levels of polyphenols (flavonoids) such as quercetin, catechins, proanthrocyanidins and lutein, all of them powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds. High dietary levels of them assist in the prevention of most of our major chronic age-related

DRIED APRICOTS Dried apricots are a dark brown colour if not treated with sulphur dioxide (and other sulphites as preservatives). The sulphur keeps them an orange colour and softer to eat. However, it is estimated that 1 in 100 people are intolerant to sulphur, especially asthmatics in whom it can trigger an attack in those sensitive to it. In these cases, the dark-coloured, unsulphured dried apricots would be a better option.

References available on request.

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

Photography Bigstock

APRICOT STORIES FROM CHINA

The apricot kernels grown in Central Asia are so sweet they can be (and often are) substituted for almonds. They contain a cyanide component: the cyanogenic glycoside vitamin B17 or laetrile that has been used as a cancer therapy. Cancer cells are thought to be more sensitive to cyanide than normal healthy cells — although this is hotly debated. The cyanide component is about 2.4 per cent.

Many stone fruit seeds, apple seeds, mung beans, barks and leaves also contain this cyanide component but usually in lower amounts. Apricot kernels were used against tumour growth as early as 500 CE and, in the 17th century, apricot seed oil was used against tumours, swellings and ulcers.

The Italian liqueur amaretto and amaretti biscuits are flavoured with apricot kernels, which have a marzipantype flavour similar to almonds. In fact, almonds are supposed to be derived from apricots when the Romans, not liking the bitter taste of the B17, bred trees with only sweeter-tasting seeds — a possible ancestor of today’s almonds.

The kernel oil has been used as a cooking oil in some parts of Asia and the Mediterranean. Used topically, apricot oil relieves inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema.

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ROAD TEST THE INNER SPACE

Finding the space within A Blue Mountains retreat offers the opportunity to embrace a deep reverence for nature and to nourish your inner space.

WORDS / KATE DUNCAN

I

feel wonderful. Truly rejuvenated and restored, as though I’ve been on a month’s holiday somewhere tropical and remote. Rather, I’ve been in the frosty Blue Mountains with my partner Henry, exploring The Inner Space.

The Inner Space is an eco retreat located in Katoomba, just under two hours west of Sydney. Owners Jen Hall and Peter Fry transformed the large shed into a passive-solar-design space two years ago. It’s north-facing and captures the sun’s beautiful heat during the day. This, along with mud brick walls and straw bale insulation, keeps the place warm at night.

The rendered walls are slightly curved, which Peter fondly describes: “They feel like hands, as though the space is being held.” After two mornings of yoga and meditation indoors here, I feel the weight of his words: it’s a place of deep healing.

There’s something special about the Blue Mountains. No matter what the season, weather or mood, the mountains evoke a feeling inside me, a feeling I can only describe as presence: pure, momentto-moment presence. The kind that fires up your mind and vibrates through your body, drawing you into the now — your surroundings and their sensations. I think it’s the air. It’s layered with subtle, calming qualities that swallow you entirely. As you breathe in, you inhale spaciousness and softness; as you exhale, a feeling of expansiveness floods your body.

The mountains moved Henry and me into this presence. We’d just survived a tough few months where our lives revolved around reaching a certain date in August.

Living in anticipation of a future date isn’t living at all. Each day we willed away, and each night we wished for the morning light to arrive. To hit pause and experience

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presence was too horrible; to stay open to the moment too stressful. This became our existence: full throttle, eyes glazed over, spinning through time. But, through those months, we had something to look forward to: a weekend away in the mountains, to stop, reconnect, be in nature, be with each other and explore The Inner Space.

We arrived at The Inner Space late Friday night. It was dark and cold as we walked carefully up the garden path to our accommodation. We were greeted by the soothing scent of lavender, a bush standing tall by the front door. I picked a bunch, crushed it in my hands and inhaled its perfume as we walked in. The place was modern, clean and warm from a wood fire blazing in the corner. Excitedly, Henry and I explored the space. We then collapsed onto the couch, sharing smiles and letting the past few months of tension slip softly away.

We spent our weekend enjoying yoga in this nurturing space, dining at delicious restaurants and cafes in Leura, going to the movie theatre, admiring the views of The Three Sisters and Echo Point and chatting with Jen and Peter about their creation.

Jen, a yoga teacher, and Peter, a builder, were inspired by the lack of warm studios in the mountains. In 2013, they decided to design their own space. Their vision was to create a warm, nourishing studio that people could hire out for workshops, performances, recordings and other activities. The space is 70 square metres, so there’s plenty of room to move and the beautiful curvature of the walls creates fantastic acoustics.

The couple wanted the space to be energetically effective, so they built it with LED lights, solar panels and mud-rendered walls. For insulation, they used straw bales and Earthwool, a more eco-friendly type of

filling made from recycled plastic bottles.

Recycled timber seconds were used for the floorboards and frames and the garden’s native plants came from tube stock bought at the local plant rescue centre.

The outdoor garden was designed according to permaculture principles and is a standout feature. With its gentle waterfalls, mossy rocks and gurgling streams, I can see why the native birds and frogs have moved in. There’s also a big green oval at the front that can be used for outdoor group work and exercise.

As the space was evolving, Jen and Peter decided to add accommodation for the facilitator hosting the workshop — or, in this case, Henry and me. The cottage was cosy and romantic. Beautiful timber stairs led to the comfiest bed I’ve ever slept in; the modern kitchen had everything we needed for Sunday pancakes; the bath was luxurious and deep; and then there was our personal favourite: the infrared sauna.

On the horizon are plans to retrofit the front house, where Jen and Peter currently live, to turn it into accommodation for 12 other people. Paired with the main studio space, this will offer a lovely retreat-style stay. Now, The Inner Space accommodation is available for hire, but to include the main studio space means an extra fee. Similarly, just the main studio space can be hired for group bookings or workshops.

Come Sunday morning, it was time to leave our blissful abode. We were sad to go, but deeply grateful for the presence The Inner Space instilled within us. We had arrived on empty but were leaving full; in fact, overflowing, with a deep reverence for the sacred Blue Mountains and this newfound space.

The writer was a guest of The Inner Space.

Visit theinnerspace.com.au to find out more.

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HOLISTIC JOURNEY BRAUER NATURAL MEDICINE

Honest healing The committed team behind Brauer Natural Medicine is determined to uphold the Brauer family legacy. We find out why.

Tell us all about Herman Brauer, the founder of Brauer Natural Medicine.

Herman Brauer, a young entrepreneurial pharmacist, opened a pharmacy in Tanunda in 1929. His son Warren, also a pharmacist, took over the store from his father but then later sold the pharmacy to help grow Brauer into larger-scale manufacture as the demand for homœopathic medicines was growing. Warren and his wife Joy developed their own manufacturing and production facility for orthodox and natural medicine. In 1984, they established what is now the production and laboratory facility of Brauer Natural Medicine. Warren and Joy would often travel to Europe to ensure they were keeping up with the latest formulation and manufacturing developments of homœopathic medicine. Sadly, Warren passed away in 1994 and, while Joy owns the Brauer building, she doesn’t have any day-to-day input with the running of the business. We credit both Warren and Joy for starting a trusted Australian-owned and -made brand and upholding Herman’s legacy and reputation for premiumquality, trusted natural medicines.

What are the core values of Brauer?

At Brauer, our team believes it is integral to love what we do and be great at it. What makes our work fun is that we’re doing meaningful work that improves people’s health. Brauer products offer traditional natural solutions for common health problems and people love them because they’ve found a natural solution to help relieve common symptoms. We also believe in the importance of being honest in all of our dealings and think for the long term, not just for today.

Have has the Brauer vision changed over time?

Our vision has evolved over time due to the increased capabilities of our manufacturing facilities. We’ve purchased new machinery, which has allowed us to produce a wide range of high-quality

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products, plus we’re able to produce larger quantities of stock and so reach a larger market.

What is homœopathy and how does Brauer use this system of medicine?

Homœopathy is a system of natural medicine developed by the doctor and chemist Samuel Hahnemann over 200 years ago. It is based on the “law of similars”, which states: “Let likes cure likes.” This principle was first described in 400BCE by Hippocrates, the father of medicine. The law of similars states that a substance which can produce symptoms in a healthy person can be used in very small amounts to treat similar symptoms in a sick person.

With this approach, homœopathy uses nanodoses (extremely small doses) of mostly natural substances, which are traditionally thought to work with the body, stimulating its own healing abilities and starting the body’s process of recovering from illness.

Where do you grow and source your product ingredients?

Brauer products contain a wide range of ingredients sourced from all over the world. We work hard with our suppliers to source the finest-quality ingredients and are mindful to respect the natural flowering and seasonality of the ingredients used to ensure ongoing sustainability.

Please share the three most common plants you use and their treatments?

The three most common plants we use are Arnica montana, passionflower and German chamomile. Arnica montana is used in the Brauer natural pain relief range ArnicaEze, which works traditionally to help relieve arthritic

pain and reduce the joint inflammation and swelling associated with arthritis.

Passionflower is used in the Brauer stress range to help reduce the effects of mental stress. It helps to treat conditions related to sleeplessness, insomnia and nervousness.

German chamomile is used in the Brauer sleep range to help induce and maintain restful sleep by helping to relax the body and mind and overcome restlessness during sleep. This gentle and versatile flower has found its most useful application in relieving stressful states of restlessness, irritability and pains, particularly those experienced by babies and children, such as teething and colic.

What tips does Brauer have for the changing season?

The most important thing to do is listen to your body. Stay in tune and make healthier choices every day, working to bring your body back into balance.

Leading into the warmer months, it’s important to stay hydrated by drinking a minimum of eight glasses of water a day.

Water not only hydrates your skin from the inside out but it is also great for your metabolism. Eating a healthy balanced diet rich in fruit and vegetables will ensure you’re meeting your necessary daily vitamin and mineral intakes. This will help to reduce the likelihood of colds and flus, which can occur during the change of season.

What’s next for Brauer?

We have an exciting year ahead for us with a national television campaign running from September right through until mid-2016. These TV advertisements will spread the word about our fantastic Australian-made products and will be complemented by print advertising, digital and an increased focus on social and online media. We know people are seeking more traditional and natural treatments, so we’re looking forward to seeing our brand awareness grow along with our happy customers.

ART FOR ART’S SAKE RA CHURCHIN

WellBeing gives space to the creative souls in our community RA CHURCHIN W: facebook.com/romeo alphagallery, instagram.com/ romeoalphagallery E: romeoalphagallery@gmail.com

Te Waipounamu 700×900mm

I’m an artist. I paint birds and I’m based on the Gold Coast. The intention behind every one of my unique paintings is to allow the viewer to feel uplifted to live a full, naturally high and positive life.

My theme is birds, which I feel resonates with the idea that life is about letting go and allowing the freedom of flight to naturally take its course. Or, in human form, learning to trust that life organically guides us. My artwork is my manifesto that I have watched develop with me as I’ve grown. I’d love for others to see my work as a sensory and affirmation experience that not only reflects my path, but their own journeys within.

The painting featured here was part of a body of work I did for the NZ Art Show. It is titled Te Waipounamu, which is the official Maori name for New Zealand’s South Island. I was inspired to paint birds of New Zealand after I’d spent 12 months living there while I healed from a life-changing experience.

My medium is acrylic on canvas.

I also specialise in prints of my art, which are featured on my website.

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.

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THINKERS & DOERS CHRISTINA STEVENS

CHRISTINA STEVENS:

A message of love Australian award-winning filmmaker and author Christina Stevens followed her vision to film and talk with Mother Teresa, and now she’s sharing a heartfelt and powerful message of personal liberation and planetary responsibility.

WORDS / TERRY ROBSON

I

f I said to you that Christina Stevens’ first memoir, Love: The Saint and the Seeker, published

by Hay House, really is all about love then you might be expecting a fluffy, cosy little book. There certainly is warmth and heart in every page but, at the same time, Love is possibly the grittiest spiritual book I have encountered. Christina takes you with frank honesty through the challenges of being a child in a theatrical family and then every difficult step in putting her successful filmmaking career on the line to follow a vision driving her to achieve the almost impossible: filming Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

There is no sugar-coating here, yet Christina shares her journey with real optimism and compassion — a compassion that now fuels her as she advocates for the environment on a regular basis at the United Nations.

Christina Stevens’ story is one of personal challenge, commercial success and spiritual courage, but most of all it’s about the truest meaning of love.

CHILDHOOD DAYS As I meet with Christina Stevens, we sit in a private room in a Sydney hotel with the harbour behind us and we are not all that far from where Christina grew up in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.

Although she now lives in the US, Christina is the fifth generation in a prominent Australian theatrical family. She is the great granddaughter of Randolph Bedford, Member of Parliament, granddaughter of Madam Bedford-Young (acclaimed as Australia’s first female writer-producer-director) and daughter of “Baby Peggy”, beloved child star of the Australian Theatre once painted by Norman Lindsay in his work The Spanish Dancer. Although illustrious,

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Christina frankly acknowledges, “I came from a rather dysfunctional family, to say the least.”

One of the most moving and insightful quotes from her book Love is, “The scars of our childhood become the jewels in our crown once they are healed.” I ask her about this and she says, “I bless my mother for what she gave me. She was an alcoholic, but she was a beautiful person when she wasn’t in that strange place.” Characteristically, Christina has a philosophical approach to her childhood, observing, “You choose your parents for a reason, so wear the consequences. Look at what you have done to bring that to you and look at

“You can’t love the environment unless you love yourself first.” where that resides in you. As soon as you do that you can deal with it and move on; it’s not scary any more.”

In her book, Christina shares the scars of childhood with simple candour, and part of that was her schooling. She was ready to leave school early, as she calmly observes: “I wanted to leave the country so I had to be able to make enough money to make a living to be able to leave.”

ADVERTISING ANGEL & FAB FILMMAKER Christina left school and immediately worked for a young John Singleton making his way in the advertising game.

By the time she left Australia at age 19, she’d already won a Golden Lion award for a TV commercial she had made.

Arriving in the UK with an impressive showreel already, Christina started work with Ogilvy & Mather in

London, beginning a global advertising career that saw her work for Young & Rubicam in New York, Australia, Hong Kong, Paris and then again in New York. From there, she moved to Los Angeles with Ogilvy & Mather. She was directing commercials in LA and the company had effectively set up a film company around her.

Christina recalls, “I had 83 people working for me” — she pauses to give weight to what comes next — “but I have to touch the work and I wasn’t touching the work. At the same time, this awakening was happening for me.

It was bursting inside me. I had just bought my ranch and I was writing. I didn’t want to be selling people things they didn’t need. There was so much more I had to do, but I didn’t know what it was. At the time I was just writing down what was happening to me.”

Soon, Christina left Ogilvy & Mather and started a production company with a partner. She became an independent filmmaker making commercials and documentaries. One documentary she made was for Steven Spielberg’s Starbright Foundation, a foundation aimed at empowering seriously ill children and teens to address the challenges that accompany prolonged illness. One person saw the film and immediately wrote a cheque to the Foundation for US$7 million.

Christina has achieved many amazing things in this life, but her biggest project was awaiting her.

MOTHER TERESA The book Love: The Saint and the Seeker is a memoir that revolves around the story of how Christina came to film and talk with Mother Teresa of Calcutta (now Kolkata). Very few people were granted the opportunity to film this

THINKERS & DOERS CHRISTINA STEVENS of it and I thought, ‘No, I have to write a book that’s meant to be read.’ Coffee table books are looked at and sit on the coffee table and few people read them cover to cover. I had to say, ‘No, you can’t have this contract; you can’t publish this book. It’s not ready, it’s not right, it’s not time.’” This was in 1997 not long after Mother Teresa’s death.

So Christina rewrote the book as she knew it needed to be. She recalls, “So I finally finished it, had an agent and then no one wanted it. Everyone had their Mother Teresa biography and they thought this was a Mother Teresa biography. So I thought if no one wants it I’m not going to hit my head up against a brick wall. So I put the manuscript in the garage and thought I would let it die.”

The book remained a file on her computer and then in 2013 Christina was drawn back to it. “I thought, there is so much going on in the world right now, I have to get this message out,” she says. “So I sat down and I was writing like there was no tomorrow. It took about three weeks of absolutely intense, obsessive writing, doing nothing else, and then I thought, ‘I’m done.’ So I spellchecked and checked all punctuation and I pressed ‘Save’ and the title of it was, Be the One.” Then, apparent disaster struck.

Photography Kurt Sneddon

BEYOND BE THE ONE

saintly lady, but you can read the story of how that filming came to be in the book; here, we will revel in some of the backstory to the book itself.

Christina’ determination to film Mother Teresa was founded in a vision that came to her while meditating.

She reflects, “It’s tough to have faith in your dreams and visions. I have to tell you when I left Hollywood and went to Calcutta hoping to film Mother Teresa, people, including my business partner, said I was crazy.”

There were times to follow when Christina thought it was all “crazy”

herself, but she persisted and, despite initial denials, Mother Teresa finally permitted the filming to take place. The filming happened in 1993 and, following many a miracle, a profound and beautiful film resulted. Then, in 1997, Mother Teresa passed away and after her death Christina experienced another vision in which Mother Teresa asked her, ”When are you going to write?”

According to Christina, “That was an order. I immediately started writing and writing and writing and I immediately got a publishing contract and we were going to make a coffee table book out

To understand the significance of the title Be the One, we need to visit a small section of the book. After a meeting with Mother Teresa on one occasion, Christina was in a taxi and, seeking inspiration, had opened a small paperback book that Mother Teresa had just given her. She writes, “She [Mother Teresa] had handwritten one phrase in pen and ink under a woodcut illustration of Jesus wearing the crown of thorns.

The printed words beneath it read: ‘I looked for the one that would comfort me and I found none.’ And Mother had written beside it, ‘Be the One.’ Gandhi had said, ‘Be the change you wish to see.’ And here was Mother Teresa echoing his words in her own way. Be everything you wish to see.”

So the title was settled and the book was written but, as Christina reveals, everything was not settled at all.

Christina says, “The minute I pressed ‘Save’ the entire manuscript turned to numbers. I knew if I touched something I could ruin everything permanently.

So I took it to a computer technician and they kept it for days and then said, ‘We’ve never seen anything like this

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 25

THINKERS & DOERS CHRISTINA STEVENS before and we can’t get it back. We can’t get it back for you.’”

After so much work on such a precious resource, Christina was devastated but not despairing. “I was a little teary and upset with myself and then I thought, well of course it has happened for a reason, I don’t know what the reason is just yet, but it has happened for a reason. I didn’t do anything and then a week-and-ahalf later I woke up one morning and I thought, ‘The title was wrong. It’s got to be Love — that’s the title. I sat down and I started rewriting all over again, but it was very, very different because in changing the title I knew what I was meant to do. I knew where I was meant to go; it gave me such a strong direction. That’s when I really opened myself and poured it all out in there.”

The rest is publishing history and now we have the marvellously alchemical memoir of a passionate writer and filmmaker, Love: The Saint and the Seeker, to show for it. According to Christina, “It had to be called Love.

Be the One is kind of instructional, but I didn’t want to write an instructional book. It’s a bigger picture and love stretches across everything. You can’t love the environment unless you love yourself first and I am very much about the planet.”

Which leads us neatly to Christina’s other driving passion.

THE PLANET Christina tells me, “The numbers are in and we are in trouble. Fossil fuels should be a thing of the past. We are just not loving our trees or our birds or our bees. It’s not sustainable. What we need to do comes back to love. It has to start with the source and the source is you, and it has to begin with you taking care of your loved ones and let it spread out from that. Nature is our strength, it is our power, and we are not respecting it. Every time I buy something I say, ‘Don’t give me a receipt, save the trees.’

“It’s about the choices that we make every single day. We should have trees growing on the roof of this hotel. We should be using grey water. We would be using far less energy to cool and heat the building. It’s massive, what we should be doing, and everyone should be doing it.”

The more time you spend with Christina you realise that a positive outlook is always on the horizon. She adds, “I’m optimistic because what we hear happening is the tiny percentage;

26 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

Christina in a dress made from mosquito netting to promote nothingbutnets.net, a UN Foundation program where you can save an African child’s life for $10.

we don’t hear about the good things happening out there. There are so many entrepreneurs out there creating companies where they give back. We are in a time of unity consciousness now — no more polarity consciousness — and people are opening and opening. I am so energised and delighted to see the people in Australia who are energised by this topic. I think Australians are moving forward in a really good way.”

“Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams, to express your love, to live.”

A DUCK AT THE UNITED NATIONS Typically, Christina has taken her passion for the environment and translated it into concrete action. She is a former Board Member of ECO (Earth Communications Office) and media consultant for Greenpeace US and the American Council for Renewable Energy.

She serves on the Special Projects Committee of the Directors’ Guild of America and is on the Board of Directors of the Captain Planet Foundation, whose mission is to inspire youth to work as environmental stewards.

Christina also speaks regularly at the United Nations, but in her usual wry and pragmatic way observes, “I’m an odd duck at the UN. I’m not like everyone else there. I don’t prepare my talks. I was invited to give the opening address to World Energy Day at the World Energy Forum in a room as large as the general assembly hall and I thought, ‘What am I going to talk about?’ All the member nations were coming in to give their

energy reports about their infrastructure and what they are doing about energy and moving into renewable energy.

“I thought, ‘I’m not going to talk about that. They already know all that.’

So I decided I would talk about their energy and I told them the story about Mother Teresa and how I sat down with her and how we together turned her No into a Yes. It was the energy exchange and the working to just be there and be with each other and not have an agenda but to have the intention of walking out with a win-win situation for both of you.

That’s what I talked to them about, their personal energy.

I’m an odd duck, but somehow the doors are open to me.”

NO FEAR Time has flown as I sit chatting with Christina. Her easy familiarity and sharp mind make conversation a breeze. Yet I know she has pressing engagements, so I ask her if she has one final message for people and, no surprises, it centres on love but also love’s polar opposite: fear.

Christina says, “I’m always a storyteller. I tell stories. The book was written to change your system. Inspiring someone is just telling them that there is no fear and not to be afraid of anything in the world. There is no fear. Fear is the opposite of love. There is no time to be afraid of anything. I know; I had to deal with fear. That book was 20 years in the making and it wasn’t going to come out a second before I had dealt with my fear.

The reason we are not moving forward more rapidly in the world is because we are afraid. Don’t be afraid. If you are feeling afraid, ask yourself, ‘What’s the worst thing that can happen?’ It’s probably already happening. Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams, to express your love, to live.”

There is a powerful statement in Christina’s book: “You can’t experience on the outside what you don’t have on the inside.” Now she rests back in her chair and with calm certainty echoes the wisdom of that statement as she says, “The minute you have a fear of failure, you will fail. Love keeps coming back to you and it dissipates any fear that you might have. It begins with you loving you. Don’t be afraid of yourself, your innermost desires, your dreams. If you adore yourself, people will adore you.”

You can connect with Christina Stevens at christinastevens.co.

Terry Robson is the editor-in-chief of WellBeing.

Just as the moon pulls on the Earth, so too does it affect your internal landscape. Learn how you can tune into the rhythm of its cycles, and work with them, to bring balance and abundance into your life.

WORDS / AMY TAYLOR-KABBAZ

The rhythm of the MOON T

here’s always been something quite mystical about the moon for me. Looking up into its wondrous glow, and marvelling at its ever-changing form, I’ve always been drawn to its power.

What power that was, I wasn’t quite sure ... but there was something there.

I’m not alone. Since the dawn of time, humans have wondered if the moon pulls at us with something more than just its beautiful light. If the moon pulls on the Earth’s tides and gravity, then surely it also “pulls” on us? We are, after all, 70 per cent water. Surely our water is pulled, too?

In a way, it is. But the moon’s power goes beyond just affecting our moods and personal cycles. The changing phases of the moon can also help you

28 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

set goals, create more abundance and connect more deeply with your own inner wisdom.

When you consider that we are all pulled and affected by Earth’s rotations and gravity, it becomes quite obvious that we, too, move in and out of cycles.

Ancient wisdoms and cultures knew this: they would use the moon to farm, to conceive, to celebrate milestones. If we, in our modern times, can start to tune back in to the same cycle of time — the yin and yang of time — we can become co-creators of our lives. And learn a lot about ourselves in the process.

UNDERSTANDING THE MOON CYCLES The term “moon cycle”, or “lunar cycle”, refers to the moon’s continuous orbit

around Earth. As the moon orbits Earth, its appearance changes, with each change known as a “phase”.

The sun always illuminates exactly one-half of the moon, but we see it at different angles as it rotates around Earth. With the naked eye, we can see only the part of the moon the sun is illuminating. For instance, a crescent moon is what we call the moon when we see only a small portion of its lit surface.

Each phase of the moon is given a name (in order): New — also called the dark moon Waxing crescent First quarter — commonly called a half moon Waxing gibbous Full — we can see the entire illuminated portion of the moon

SPIRIT MOON CYCLES and then incorporating it into your life and, more particularly, your goalsetting, can bring great comfort into a stressed, modern life.

Illustrations Getty Images

UNDERSTANDING & WORKING WITH THE CYCLES

Waning gibbous Third quarter — another half moon, but the illuminated part is the opposite of the first quarter Waning crescent New — back to the beginning Most of us are aware of the role the moon plays within astrology. It’s believed that the moon’s cycle can affect the way you feel about things, in particular your emotions. When the moon is full or new, both males and females can experience dramatic changes in their moods and behaviour. The scientific evidence is yet to be gathered but we’ve all heard the anecdotal evidence of more admissions to hospital emergency rooms and more call-outs for police during the full moon.

In fact, just learning how to tap into the ancient energy of the moon

The starting point for any type of connection with the moon is to simply begin tracking it yourself. Keeping a journal and taking notes of the phases and how you feel at each stage is the best introduction. This also allows you to connect to what the moon phases mean to you rather than just follow the astrological description (although there are consistencies in each phase).

This is what speaker, coach and creator of the Lunar Abundance technique Dr Ezzie Spencer suggests.

As a former high-powered (and highly stressed) lawyer working in human rights and law reform, and having completed her PhD in women’s wellbeing after sexual violence, Dr Spencer’s life was far removed from lunar cycles. But, as someone who loved to journal and record her thoughts, she started making notes on what she saw the moon was doing and how it corresponded with her own feelings. And from there, a massive change of career — and life — evolved.

“I was in my mid-20s and it all started very organically,” she recalls.

“I hadn’t read anything about lunar tracking and it just really sprang from just looking up at night and always being fascinated by the moon. And so I just started tracking it, starting with the main lunar phases (new and full), and then I started to notice the rest of the moon phases. Then, over the next few years, I started to notice a pattern between where the moon was in the sky and how I was feeling.”

From there, a whole new understanding of how to work with the moon to support every area of life began.

this moon cycle, people’s emotions get back to normal, their determination returns with a positive and optimistic feeling and there’s more energy and acceptance of others’ ideas.

Once you can connect with those simple markers in the cycle, you can move on to tracking the other phases and how they can help you move through life. And, instead of working against the flow of this natural cycle, you can start working with it.

“Each phase of the moon is categorised as either a yin or a yang phase and this is at the very core of understanding when to push or when to pull back in life,” explains Dr Spencer.

“What this can really develop in us is the understanding that there are times when you just do need to go and get things done and to move forward and to achieve, and there are times when you need to rest and restore.

“The yang phases are about doing and moving forward and are more action-

If we, in our modern times, can start to tune ourselves back into the same cycle of time — the yin and yang of time — we can become co-creators of our lives. oriented, and then the yin phases (which will come around every three or four days) are there to remind you to slow down, rest and stop pushing yourself.

This is an opportunity to practise being kinder to yourself and actually draw back, take your foot off the gas and allow yourself to connect more.”

In our fast-paced, action-focused lives, this can be a very new concept.

Yet, as Dr Spencer says, “Working with these phases is the key to stopping pushing in life so much and bringing real abundance into existence.”

THE MOON & YOUR EMOTIONS

NEW MOON: YANG

Starting with the two main phases of the moon — the full and the new — allows you to begin to tune into the effect on your body. When the moon is full, stress becomes a major factor and people become more sensitive to details.

If you have an overload of work or a deadline looming, it will feel even more overwhelming and there’s often a strong urge to deal with your own needs rather than pay attention to others’ needs.

The new moon, on the other hand, brings with it a sense of calmness. In

This is a time of new beginnings, literally and figuratively. It’s usually accompanied by a feeling of excitement and possibility.

Embrace it! This phase is about selfdiscovery, and intent, and is the phase that involves the emotional body. It’s time to embrace the passion, desire and excitement of this stage and be at peace with the fact that you may not know how it will manifest, but trust that it will.

Lunar trackers and astrologers David and Sandra Mosley describe each of these phases as having an

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 29

SPIRIT MOON CYCLES energetic focus: with the energy of the new moon phase relating to sight, inner and outer. Since the whole picture cannot be seen, they say, the function of this phase is to become aware of the intention; later there will be opportunities to revise and reorient.

The question to ask yourself is, “What do I desire?” It’s vital to picture your goal: make it emotionally satisfying. Create a visual representation of it that you can look at throughout the cycle. Trust yourself and your potential to manifest.

Trust your ability to learn and adapt.

This is the first testing phase of the month. You will feel tested and old habits and limiting beliefs may rear their ugly heads. Know that this is part of the cycle and breathe into it. Relax into your intention, trusting the process.

This phase pertains to the instinctive body: intuition, reflex and basic survival.

The energy of this phase is stimulated by the senses of taste, smell and touch.

Let your instincts guide you. Nourish yourself with your favourite foods. Relax in a bath with essential oils. Give yourself plenty of rest and self-compassion. This is the stage of building your resources before the next push forward.

FIRST QUARTER MOON: YANG This can be a turning point, even if it feels full of resistance and fear. Work with the energy of the moon and focus on what you need to do to move towards your intention.

This phase involves the feelingmoving body. The idea is to use body movement to generate energy that can then be channelled into creative expression. You can feel sensitive, like you’re wearing your heart on your sleeve but no one understands you. It’s important to move beyond the need for approval from others. It helps to use physical activity to feel like you are moving through these obstacles, so the vision set in the new moon will have space to develop and grow. You are creating a secure foundation.

Take decisive action, moving through any blocks.

GIBBOUS MOON: YIN This phase is all about trust. Even though you’ve been focusing on action, it’s important to also step back and allow your goals to manifest in their own way.

The energy of this phase is about taking what you’ve learnt this cycle so far, gathering all the information and

30 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

THIRD QUARTER MOON: YANG

Just as the moon is now completely illuminated, so too is your intention, so take a good look at everything that has come to light and take action to bring it into existence. refocusing. Ask yourself, “How can my plans be refined? What details have I overlooked?” Review your original idea and intent and see what might need to be changed. It’s important to suspend criticism of yourself or the process at this stage, too. Trust in the process.

An affirmation to use in this phase is, “I trust that the perfect intention is coming into form at the perfect time.”

FULL MOON: YANG It’s now time to move ahead with your intention with the full support of the full moon. This is the time when the light finally shines on your intention and goals, when the full extent of your plans may be revealed. This may mean it becomes obvious that your intention or goal needs to be tweaked — and now is the time to do so.

This is also the time to move into action with others. Make plans, take formative steps forward and accept help and guidance. The function of this phase is to begin the process of reshaping the goals in accordance with the awareness of the true meaning of the original vision.

Just as the moon is now completely illuminated, so too is your intention, so take a good look at everything that has come to light and take action to bring it into existence.

DISSEMINATING MOON: YIN Now is the time for gratitude; to pause and be grateful for this process. It’s also important to be open to receive whatever is coming and acknowledge

This phase is all about transition and completion. Listen to your intuition and take note of everything that’s coming to you, as it will help you complete the final actions. At this stage, you’ll need to take either correcting action or the final push needed to bring your goal to fruition.

You know instinctively what needs to be done now: this is the time to follow through. Through the phases there has been a chance to reflect and coursecorrect — this is your final stage to do so, but it needs strong action to work.

Sometimes it will feel like there’s some risk in the swift final actions, but that’s OK. Trust yourself and move forward.

This is when it all comes together.

BALSAMIC MOON: YIN Withdraw, relax and make room for the future. Although this is the last phase, it’s also the bridge to the next lunar cycle. It’s in the quiet of these final days that the seed of the next new moon is discovered. It’s time to reflect again.

Whereas in the full phase the awareness is of what is, in balsamic the awareness is of what was and what is to be.

During this final phase it’s important to withdraw from the outer world as much as possible. This is a time for dreaming and contemplation. Ask, “What do I need to release?” and “What do I choose to take with me into the next cycle?” Heal through meditational practices and prepare for the next cycle.

Working with the moon cycles to set goals, create intentions and plan your work and life allows you to stop striving (and burning out) all the time and start getting back in touch with the true ebb and flow of life. Through the power of the moon’s cycles, you can become familiar with your own cycles and allow true abundance to enter your life.

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 at @amytaylorkabbaz.

Illustrations Getty Images

CRESCENT MOON: YIN

that process, too. Sharing your thoughts and gratitude with others at this time is also a very powerful process, as you reflect on the lessons learnt.

It’s also important to reflect on how your intention or goals affect others.

David and Sandra Mosley suggest you ask yourself, “How am I contributing to the wellbeing of others? Is my goal for the good of others as well as myself, or is it just self-absorbed?” The function of this phase is to gain perspective.

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SPIRIT ASTROLOGY FOR 2016 ARIES Practical commitment to your interests and beliefs is a feature of 2016 involving hard work and likely to peak in late August. Proper attention to details will protect your reputation while meditation practices will keep you peaceful in this productive year.

An eclipse cycle of 18 months reaches its finale at March 23’s lunar eclipse.

Powerful events that felt fated reach completion now, so let the moment seize you rather than forcing your will on things. This Full Moon illuminates necessary changes, allowing a new start at Aries New Moon of April 7. The next 10 days are dynamic then things get complex: April 17 to June 30 hosts a rare “retrograde” Mars cycle when it is important to narrow your focus. Do not take on too many different tasks in May and June; take time to ask what really matters. Early July brings emotional insights, renewing your pleasure in home and family, through into August. In late September, “life as fun” means setting to work — with the right people! By Full Moon in Aries on October 16, important partnerships in love and business are lucky for you. As this new Jupiter pattern develops, midNovember to late December brings some of the best results.

YOUR STARS for 2016 The year ahead is a mutable one specialising in changes and shifts and opportunities await for you to unfold into your fullness. Discover what your stars have planned for 2016.

WORDS / CHRISTINE BROADBENT

GEMINI This year smiles upon Gemini’s inventive skills and there will be likeminded others urging you to try something new.

Yet caution is needed in a year when your Mercury cycles show that finances and practical strategies need review.

In January, late March, late May and from June 2–5 and 16–21, attention to detail protects you. The creative rush of April-May requires slow development, since other people share control of your direction. Your sense of abundance is hard-wired to home and family now, so protect them. With both business

planets in hard angle to Gemini and Neptune evoking grand dreams, navigate your vocation with caution! Making wise decisions takes patient restraint during Gemini Time, from May 21 to June 21. New Moon in Gemini on June 5 challenges relationship harmony and this needs patience plus humour. New ventures will work well once Jupiter enters your creativity and love sign for a year, on September 9. September is a time to put love first and be proactive about problems at home; October 1’s New Moon shows you the best way forward.

By December 14’s Full Moon in Gemini,

Your 2016 begins with an emphasis on other people and shared adventures, with regular routines back in force

by April 20’s Taurus Time. A shift in perspective comes with April 22’s Full Moon, then a Sun-Moon-Venus team propels necessary changes from May 7.

Jupiter emphasises new allegiances and some old connections get a huge jolt of energy between May and August. You are ready for extra responsibilities and, while June may test and stress you, July 4’s New Moon begins an easy phase of assimilation. Love is most clearly on the agenda in May, July, August and October with family bringing a lot of pleasure.

When mid-November’s Taurus Full Moon reminds you that the travel bug has not gone away, it’s time to consider special treats that soothe your soul. Address partnership concerns when Venus joins Pluto November 25–30 and stay wary if travelling then. This very busy year is quite able to tilt you from contented to conflicted in a flash. Other dates to hold onto your serenity are February 6–7, May 25–26 and August 7–8. Enjoy the creative portal Jupiter opens this year with late December highlighting your talents.

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Illustrations Getty Images

TAURUS

SPIRIT ASTROLOGY FOR 2016

the intimate or business partnership you dreamed of starts to take shape.

CANCER This is your year for gathering with others to achieve common goals, for building community. To get your heart’s desires you must look in the right places and February 3 to July 4 opens the door: Venus in your partner sign and Mars in your love house is a potent pairing,

supporting tender connections February 14–23. Venus-Mars love opportunities cycle back in late June. Between June 26 and July 7, the willingness to open your heart can revolutionise the rest of the year. Cancer New Moon on July 4 begins your lunar year and it can be an extraordinary one. Yet 2016 also specialises in mutation and shifts, so prepare for the unexpected: both March 9’s solar eclipse and March 23’s Full

Moon carry the chaos factor. Then, on July 8, 11, 17 and 30, people around you may be hurting; your challenge is to remain serene, to cultivate healing energy. Continue to be a calm centre at the Full Moons of August 18, September 17 and October 16 — moons that stir uncertainty. The emotional strengths you build now facilitate the right decisions in late November, leading to a December that celebrates partnership.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 33

SPIRIT ASTROLOGY FOR 2016

Your 2016 begins as a slow burn with a lot of effort required for the results you want. Then Leo New Moon of January 24 and a Venus love cycle from February 18 to March 12 spell pleasant times. It’s the late-March Full Moon that gets your year fired up and by April you’re in superfast creative mode: travel, learning and collaboration all benefit. From May 6–22 a lunar cycle emphasises ambition, making this an excellent time to refine your vocational choices and redesign any pertinent support systems. This is especially illuminating from May 10–11.

Shifting and erratic demands from others in June make July 17 to August 2 the best period to implement important changes. Nothing should be rushed: your Leo New Moon on August 3 begins a lunar year which just keeps getting better for you once generous Jupiter joins the party from September 9. Family or friends could require support and a stabilising base around mid-September; your time becomes more truly your own in October. Leo rules the heart and the heart centre is your place of safe harbour in the last quarter of 2016 when your roles and their demands accelerate.

VIRGO With Jupiter in Virgo, this is a year of flux, with opportunity for expansion and fulfilment. Added Saturn and Neptune

tests warn against unrealistic grand plans. Awareness protects you and an introspective Virgo eclipse cycle boosts your understanding of larger life patterns. Material good fortune flows from your creative thinking and from people you love — Virgo Full Moon of February 23 illuminates this. Late March and late May through June are times to reduce your expectations and avoid the chaos and consequences of bad judgement. Yet, in general, March, May and July are transformative in a healing way. Being proactive comes naturally, working like a charm to increase your hold on life. September 1’s Virgo New Moon is a solar eclipse and Full Moon of September 17 a lunar eclipse, both with Mercury retrograde, so look back to learn rather than get anxious by trying to fix everything. If you embrace contemplative techniques that force your mind to let go, you will stay calm in midOctober and gather illuminating insights on October 28. Financial decisions in the first week of November will set you up for a busy and fun December, well designed for happy changes.

LIBRA Serious communication goals, upgrading your skills and enjoying a learning curve make 2016 an exciting year to pursue your ambitions. Your drive to succeed becomes clear at Full Moon in Libra

on March 24, a lunar eclipse which completes an 18-month “destiny” cycle: you now have a new “normal”! Active partnerships are the theme of April while May is a month to clarify financial strategies and recharge your batteries with rest and gentle exercise. In late May, June and September, keep stress at bay by refusing to take on too many roles. Jupiter’s year in Libra begins on September 9 and by mid-September the “everything” of your work, ambitions and relationships all falls together. The last quarter-year is your time to be a change agent and a New Moon in Libra on October 1 makes this clear. Public roles and partnerships are the place for constructive change and Full Moon of October 16 rings those changes.

It’s in matters related to home and family that the deepest transformation occurs, especially from mid-November through December. When Jupiter makes harmonies with Saturn in late December, you get the first taste of the big roles coming your way in 2017.

SCORPIO In 2016, the Greater Fortune — planet Jupiter — boosts your social networks and friendships, opening up your life to wider influences and to wielding more influence on others. Intensity steps up with your Scorpio Full Moon on April 22, when teamwork and practicality score triumphs. Yet late April also begins a rare retrograde cycle of Mars, your ruling planet, through to June 30.

This means that in April and May your credibility and expertise gain visibility but it’s too soon to capitalise on this.

Privately, you can reconnect and rebuild intimacy where life’s demands have previously reduced it. May 22–26 and June 2–5 bring challenges that require a cool head and impartiality and, in June, an opportunity to reassess your financial choices should be seized. Plan to make your fresh start between July 4 and 20, when Mars in Scorpio and water-sign harmonies are particularly helpful. Mid-August to midSeptember requires a concerted effort to defeat any anxiety about money. You solve problems naturally, with great finesse, helped by Venus in Scorpio from September 24 and, on October 31, a visionary New Moon in Scorpio.

November 1–21 is your most productive period, with happiness covered as well.

SAGITTARIUS Ambitions fire up in 2016: Saturn in Sagittarius pushes hard work and

34 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

Illustrations Getty Images

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SPIRIT ASTROLOGY FOR 2016

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

Dwarf planet Pluto continues its long transit through Capricorn, adding psychological intensity to daily affairs.

In 2016, Pluto’s transformative energy is easier to integrate, leading to greater material and emotional security. The earthy harmonies of your new lunar year, beginning January 10, ensure progress. On March 23, a chaos-and-uncertainty eclipse cycle ends. Reminders that other people’s behaviour is not yours to control have come thick and fast and now that becomes a positive. First March 26, then April 7’s New Moon, are baby steps to the big heart-opening time of April 17 to May 20. Communicating from the heart is your learning curve and your strength in May and it might be facilitated by travel. Late May to late June demands the best of your problem-solving skills and from July 2 to Capricorn Full Moon on July 20 you find a most satisfying rhythm. This may involve creating a new home, marriage, children or simply a great spring-cleaning of your emotional life. Thanks to planet Uranus, the most liberating changes relate to home and hearth. In December, Jupiter and Uranus add enthusiasm and reform to your ambition while thrilling new commitments start to take shape as your birthday month unfolds.

As a fixed sign, you don’t readily change your opinions or your habits, even though you support social change. Yet 2016 is a mutable year and planet Saturn is likely to confront you with this through flux and uncertainty with your friends and social roles. In fact, New Moon in Aquarius on February 9 sets the theme of a vocational challenge that can go very well and alerts you to the chance to be an agent of change in 2016. March 20 to April 22 is a potent time to build alliances and identify habits that contribute to your energy fluctuations. In this way, your health can be greatly improved this year. Your success path goes into a hard-work-behind-the-scenes phase from late April to late June and small personal adjustments support this. July is dynamic and mid-July’s emphasis on following your heart suggests a break away would benefit you and partners.

By Full Moon in Aquarius on August 18, your commitment to work and to friends will ensure a few months of extreme busyness. December 2–26 is particularly fortunate, with both Venus and Mars drawing close and prompting you to showcase your talents. How sweet it is.

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PISCES Pisces New Moon on March 9 is a rare total solar eclipse and Pisces Full Moon

on September 17 is a lunar eclipse, making your year regenerating and transforming. If confronted by a sense of destiny, be receptive but also clearminded. It will be many years before you get an eclipse opportunity like this again and the presence of visionary and cathartic planets also in Pisces makes it “once in a lifetime”. To prepare for March 9, both spiritual serenity and intellectual clarity are required. Once January 10’s New Moon shifts you into networking gear, find a way to rejuvenate your spiritual regime and integrate spiritually sustaining activities into daily life. If you don’t lose your cool March 23–26, and stay philosophical when people or things mutate strangely in late May and June, you’ll sail into September 17’s Full Moon with a happy heart. Jupiter is in your partner sign until September 9, so your intellect feeds best on useful problemsolving that serves others. Your desire to pursue joint investment, to share resources, takes shape from late September to mid-November; November 12 to December 26 gives birth to a new sense of love as a driving force.

Christine Broadbent loves her work as a travelling astrologer. She does in-person readings in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland and also offers personal consultations by phone and Skype. For information on Christine’s schedule and seminars, email christine@ astrologyspot.com.au or phone or text +61 402 664 101.

Illustrations Getty Images

Jupiter prompts expanded vocational roles. Yet, shifting realities on the home front might constrain you. It may seem you’re redefining your identity and that just who you are remains fluid for most of the year. As a mutable sign you are flexible and cope with uncertainty — but Saturn pushes for certainty and order! Compromise by creating an ordered environment but don’t stress by insisting on “should”s. For inner peace and effectiveness, take things and people as they come, particularly in the challenging periods of March 23–31 and May 22 to June 23. A Full Moon in Sagittarius on May 22 conjoins Mars, which signals June as the month to guard your health via rest and relaxation with loved ones. Love and affection can be harmed by Saturn control issues and harsh judgements. Remember this from August 7–15 and September 1–17, when self-responsibility and healing regimes are the way to go. From October 11, you receive a welcome boost, friends gather and words come out just right.

Now a new Jupiter cycle leads to a joyful Sagittarius New Moon on November 29 and an extraordinarily creative December.

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Log on to the REAL WORLD Is your virtual life ruining your real life? It might be time to step away from the screens and move into that wondrous experience we call living.

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o you link in, log on, like, hook up, blog, Instagram or tweet? It’s likely that during the course of reading this article you will be pinged or poked or receive a popup. It’s even more likely that you will allow your attention to be diverted by a screen just in case you miss out on something important.

The smartphone or tablet has become a part of the human anatomy

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— virtually. In a time when people would prefer to lose a wallet or, even worse, a wedding ring rather than their beloved device, isn’t it time you logged off from your virtual life and had a reality check?

I POST, THEREFORE I AM There is no doubt that the internet and its spawn — social media — have revolutionised the way we interact with others. It’s a wondrous virtual world

where you can create connections with a click of the finger. People from all over the globe with marginal interests, from solving the Rubik’s Cube to finding the Loch Ness Monster, can come together and share solutions and theories.

Communities are formed, bonds created.

For many, this has been a gamechanger; for others, a lifesaver. But there is a dark side to this marvel. It’s not called the web for nothing and once

Photography Getty Images

WORDS / MARIE ROWLAND

MIND VIRTUAL LIFE entangled in it you could find yourself ensnared, not knowing how to crawl out, or, worse still, not wanting to leave this enchanted world.

The 16th-century French philosopher René Descartes proffered the proposition, “I think, therefore I am.” He theorised that self-awareness separated us from other species, which led to our propensity to contemplate our own being in order to seek meaning in our lives. It seems now we have surrendered self-reflection, an intrinsically individual pursuit, for deflecting our every thought so that others can reflect back to us who we are.

Do we exist because we recognise our own existence or because others click their acknowledgment? If you are not online or are absent from the multitude of social-media platforms or forums, then effectively you may indeed not exist.

Cyberspace has replaced real space.

At last count, there were 1.5 billion active Facebook users and this number is growing. So, if we exclude children under 13 and those without internet access, just about everyone else is on it. This is neither a good nor a bad thing but it does show that our lives play out in the main through virtual rather than real communication. We have all exchanged intimacies, images, confessions, admissions, secret desires and dreams with people whom we may never meet.

Social media in its purest form is better than benign — it is inclusive and welcoming. But so often it takes on a proprietorial role where we no longer use it to serve us; rather, we become slaves to it, unable to switch off or tune out. If you think this is too dramatic, how long has it been since your last post?

DITCH FACEBOOK FOR FACE-TO-FACE The Buddhists tell us that everything in moderation, including moderation, is a sound approach to life. So this is not an article disparaging social media — social media has been a wonderful addition in many ways to human existence.

When you think of the Arab Spring streaming messages and images out of Iran and Syria, you must give the devil its due. Further, for those in crisis or incapacitated in some way, social media forums can be a way back to meaningful contact with others. For instance, people suffering from agoraphobia can open up a new world of friends in the online world. The downside is, of course, that this diminishes the need to address their debilitating illness.

It’s not called the web for nothing and once entangled in it you could find yourself ensnared, not knowing how to crawl out or, worse still, not wanting to leave this enchanted world.

Online communities can be emancipating but they can also be mediums for anonymous trolling, bullying and stalking where the victim can never escape or find respite. This can have tragic consequences, not excluding suicide. Social media is dualedged: a force for good can be a weapon in the wrong hands. The pen may be mightier than the sword but clickthrough can be devastating.

As well as its darker side, social media is addictive: like any drug, it’s a tough habit to kick. You can see children as young as two utterly compelled by the images on their iPad. We time-poor parents think if it’s educational it can’t hurt — but research shows it does, affecting and rerouting neural pathways.

The damage is further compounded by the fact that viewing is an inherently passive activity. Moreover, have you ever tried taking an iPad away from a toddler?

The dinner table is now a place for touch-typing rather than talking.

Alongside dinner plates sits a buffet of devices and family members are riveted by online conversations as opposed to engaging with the people next to them with whom they have real connection.

Social media taken in small doses is what any mental health practitioner would prescribe. So manage it, rather than let it manage you.

GET HACKED! Privacy is not as cool as it’s cracked up to be. Until it’s gone, that is. In September this year, the technological behemoth Apple discovered its devices are susceptible to hacking after Chinese users bypassed Apple protocols and downloaded apps from an illegal provider. This in turn infected legitimate apps and unsuspecting consumers found their phones hacked when they downloaded those apps. Do you have an iPhone? What did you download today?

We are seeing this invasion of privacy more and more with supposedly secure sites being plundered by hackers. The

questionable dating site Ashley Madison was a victim of malicious hacking, leaving its unsuspecting clients in a real pickle. At a more insidious level, many platforms mine individuals’ data and even share it with third parties.

Anonymity never looked so good, perhaps. You have to weigh up what matters to you. Undoubtedly, as we broaden our digital footprint, we also invite greater access into our digital lives that may have unintended consequences in the real world.

Speaking of the real world and the power smartphones have over our lives, many of us can’t even go to bed without being within arm’s length of these pet devices. Research shows that the backlit screen is hazardous to sleep patterns as it doesn’t allow you to produce the hormones which induce sleep.

More sinister than that, you may find yourself inadvertently reliant on your devices. You constantly check and recheck, creating a heightened state of anxiety as you track your popularity and endeavour to keep up with the online Joneses. A new pathology with the acronym FOMO (fear of missing out) has become an ongoing torment for people who feel inferior to their online contemporaries. Most prevalent in people aged 18-33, it means they need to be continually connected and as a result can become blinkered to what is going on in real life. They’ve been sucked into a cyber vortex where they only relate to a virtual version of themselves and others.

There was a time when what we didn’t know didn’t hurt us but now not being in the virtual loop renders us anonymous or worthless. Sadly, for some this is a fate worse than death.

GET A LIFE, NOT A PROFILE More and more people are presenting in therapy now with a truly 21stcentury problem. They find themselves chronically despondent with their own lives, which pale in comparison to the digital lives of their Facebook friends who are all smiles and likes.

Jane, a vibrant and funny liaison manager in a thriving company, found herself becoming more morose and dejected. At the behest of her partner, she found herself in a therapist’s practice wondering how she got into this situation. After all, there had been no major life event that could have triggered this change in her emotional state. Digging into her lifestyle, it was unearthed that Jane spent much of her free time on social media, extensively

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THE SUPERHIGHWAY TAKES THE FUN OUT OF DISCOVERY Peta is a planner. There is not a place, hotel or activity that she hasn’t fully researched online before getting on that plane. Trip Advisor is her best friend and she freely admits she will trawl page after page of reviews, cross-referencing with images and related websites.

Now, this is of course a sensible thing to do but, inevitably, when she does book the perfect place and arrives only to find that it’s not as amazing as the pixelated version, she is thrown headlong into disappointment, righteous anger and even self-recrimination for her lack of due diligence.

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Is there anything better than a walk in a rainforest, playing touch footy with your kids in the park, sharing a latte with the girls or turning your face up to the sun rather than putting your head down facing a screen?

Her expectations not met, Peta’s holiday is inevitably spoiled. Added to that, she is suddenly deprived of her opportunity to show off her grand holiday to the punters back home.

Many of us are so busy recording our lives rather than living them. After all, you haven’t been on holiday until you’ve posted the sun-soaked happy snaps.

There was a time when you relied on a travel agent, a word-of-mouth referral or a meagre line reference in Lonely Planet — or took pot luck. You followed the road and hoped for the best, knowing full well that there were many unknowns. While this approach is fraught with issues, the level of disappointment is considerably less. Furthermore, with this approach you’re more likely to accept what comes your way and adapt accordingly. This makes us much more resilient as well as resourceful. The net has made spoiled brats of us, as opposed to a kid who has to find another way to look at life when it’s raining on their birthday: “We’ll have a water party instead.”

We live in a time when we research things to the nth degree so we know exactly what to expect. We’ve seen a zillion Photoshopped images of our chosen destination, so much so that it takes all the fun out of it. We deprive ourselves of being surprised. There is no wonder any more.

In contrast, the “book and go” approach allows for terrible and fabulous surprises. Humour and stoicism get us through the disappointing moments, so making us more resilient and adaptable.

THE CONSCIOUS LIFE VS THE VIRTUAL LIFE The 5th-century-BCE philosopher Socrates warned that the unexamined life is not worth living. Two-and-a-half thousand years later, this observation still rings true. He was of course imploring us to have an internal life and to consider what really matters to us. We live in a time of all-consuming

distraction where there is very little self-contemplation. We externalise and are constantly seeking validation from people we will never meet. Is this a life worth living?

We post photos of soufflés we’ve just taken from a hot oven. On our own, we can’t enjoy or take pride in the fruits of our labour unless given the thumbs-up from our online peeps. We wait eagerly for that first sign of approval — and God forbid the derisive post. This can send us into a psychological tailspin. Our selfworth is contingent on this validation.

Post-WWII existentialist French writer Jean-Paul Sartre stated categorically that “hell is other people”.

That epigram could be modified today as “hell is other people in cyberspace”.

If you subscribe to the teachings of Socrates and you seek self-acceptance, how much happier can you be? No doubt, social media is a major part of our lives and it can enhance the way we interact, learn and communicate.

Of course there can be meaningful connection but relationships formed on line are no surrogate for real relationships. Moreover, when you find yourself addicted to arbitrary online connections it’s time to review how you use these technological platforms. From social media to online gaming, there is no substitute to life in the real world.

To live your life in a conscious way where you are not passive but engaged in life means that you become an active participant. You also come to value the quiet, the still, and can be present in the moment. Is there anything better than a walk in a rainforest, playing touch footy with your kids in the park, sharing a latte with the girls or turning your face up to the sun rather than putting your head down facing a screen?

Now, more than ever, it’s time to think about the role social media and technology has in your life. Can social media live up to the purposeful life you want to lead? Can it provide comfort and love in the same way as those who matter? How do you spend your time?

Microsoft launched a global campaign a couple of years back with the tagline, “Where do you want to go today?” They of course wanted you to spend all your time trawling the web. But why not shut down, log out, disconnect and discover where you really want to go today? You might just discover yourself.

Marie Rowland is a writer and psychotherapist in private practice in Manly on the northern beaches of Sydney, Australia. For more information, head online to talking-matters.com.

Photography Getty Images

Facebook and to a lesser extent Instagram. Even at work, she would steal a peek when her smartphone pinged, alerting her to yet another fabulous moment in someone else’s life.

The 20th-century American intellectual, commentator and writer Gore Vidal famously said, “Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.” Inside this quip there is an uncomfortable truth. No matter how supportive we are of those who orbit our lives, being inundated with their wins only serves to reinforce what losers we are. Of course, when Vidal coined that phrase, social media didn’t exist; you could shut the door on these people. But now they inhabit our every waking moment through screen technology that has pervaded our lives at both conscious and unconscious levels.

For Jane, she not only lamented her own lacklustre life but harboured negative thoughts about her cyber friends — some of whom she had very little face-to-face contact with. For those with whom she had more intimate relationships, she began to avoid them as she felt inadequate and not interesting enough.

An intervention was required. As part of her “homework”, she had to drastically reduce her screen time. She was further encouraged to see her actual friends in real time. Gradually, it dawned on Jane that what she was regarding as real life was merely the highlights reel of other people’s lives. People only post the good stuff and even that is heavily edited and sometimes even Photoshopped. Like Jane, most of her friends had problems or felt unfulfilled in some way and felt that real life could never measure up to the cyber version.

By switching off, Jane found perspective and discovered real life had more to offer on every level.

For the

of your life...

MIND MONEY HARMONY

Mindfulness frees your mind to live in every moment and allows you to use your money purposefully and in alignment with your values. unable to relax and come up with creative solutions to your financial situation. When you’re mindful, you’re able to pay attention to the present moment and not get caught up in the stresses of the past or worrying about the future. This frees your mind to live in every moment and allows you to use your money purposefully and in alignment with your values.

UNDERSTANDING THE FLOW OF LIFE It is one of the most natural things in life to want to prosper and to want your loved

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Finding

MONEY HARMON Y Cultivating a money mindset means weaving your values and your financial resources together so that you direct your dollars towards what really matters.

WORDS / ELIZABETH McLARDY

ones to prosper, too. But it’s important to remember that it’s the focus on “my money” or “my wealth” rather than the prosperity of all that separates us each from the other and causes fear.

If you’re doing a job primarily for the money, you will never be truly rich and in touch with the natural flow of life. You may achieve your money success and reach your targets of financial wealth but you will most likely end up feeling empty. Focusing only on “your” wealth might be the mindset that gets you your million-dollar mansion but it will also be likely to cause you so much suffering from loneliness.

By understanding the importance of giving and receiving and how it relates to money, you can have a more fulfilling and positive relationship with your finances.

IMPORTANCE OF GIVING & RECEIVING Finding a balance between giving and receiving with yourself and others is a universal law that brings positive energy into your life. Every day you are constantly giving and receiving energy with time, thoughts, words, actions and money. Money is just another form of energy that can be exchanged.

When you’re doing what you love and allow life to flow freely through you, then

you offer your gifts and talents to your community out of love rather than a drive for profit. It’s then that others will love what you share and want to give back to you and contribute to your prosperity.

You are sure to feel this sense of gratitude and desire to give when someone sings from their heart or creates a unique solution that makes your life easier. In situations like these, we are happy to give back to others and show our gratitude by giving money and allowing life energy to keep flowing.

Some people might consider a spiritual teacher charging for a healing or therapy to be inauthentic and that they should never ask for money. But what about their security, comfort and prosperity? If you find yourself thinking, “They should be giving this to me for free!”, remember that you’re not recognising the energy the teacher is giving you in the form of new knowledge and that, to balance this, you need to provide an energy exchange in return.

MORE THAN NUMBERS & DOLLAR SIGNS “Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticise, wait.

Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try.

Before you retire, save. Before you die, give.” ~ William Arthur Ward

Photography Getty Images

S

pirituality and money seem to live at opposite ends of a spectrum. Many people think of money as being “unspiritual” and often associated with greed and ego; however, it’s not money that is the problem — it’s often the way we think about it. Money is simply a representation of energy. It is our greed and fear surrounding money that causes so much suffering and is detrimental to our wellbeing.

Being mindful about how you manage your money can have a significant impact on your overall wellbeing and enable you to be more financially creative. Money used wisely — for example, to help the people you care about or to build a savings buffer against unexpected crises — can be empowering and increase your wellbeing and happiness.

By cultivating a mindful money mindset, you can weave your values and your resources together and be purposeful about how you use your money. To paraphrase James W Frick’s notion, don’t tell me what your values are; show me where your money goes and I’ll tell you what you value.

Money mindfulness is particularly useful if you find yourself worrying,

MIND MONEY HARMONY

ACHIEVING FINANCIAL BALANCE & HARMONY Trying to achieve balance and financial wellbeing can seem difficult. It can be hard when you find yourself spending too much when you should be saving and avoiding your finances when you should be planning for the future and budgeting.

Unfortunately, today’s culture may make you feel that managing money well is only for those with cold, greedy hearts. But being someone who loves managing their money thoughtfully, investigating new investment ideas to look after their future and finding great deals on presents for their family means you will enjoy the freedom of choice that money provides.

By adopting the following money mindfulness suggestions, it’s possible for you to experience a deep sense of balance and satisfaction in managing your money’s flow and future uses.

You can imagine it in a similar way to how a gardener feels when planning next season’s patch, nurturing its growth and then enjoying the harvest.

Managing your money mindfully can help melt away your financial stress and

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Focusing only on “your” wealth might be the mindset that gets you your billion-dollar mansion but it will also be likely to cause you so much suffering from loneliness. help you achieve financial abundance.

From the guidance of the Tao, Lin asserts, “Everyone deserves abundance.

That abundance includes love, friendship — and financial prosperity.

You deserve it all!”

MAKE THE SHIFT TO MINDFUL SPENDING Mindless spending is so common and is the primary cause of increasing levels of debt around the world. Our spending habits are often automatic and we dig ourselves further and further into debilitating debt. This kind of spending and relationship with money is unsustainable as well as unkind to yourself and others.

One of the keys to developing a better relationship with money is to cultivate a greater awareness of your moneyrelated beliefs and habits. Then you can try to understand and work with them rather than letting them control you.

You don’t need to eliminate the desire for money and the things that it can buy;

just stop confusing money with feelings of greed, guilt and ego.

Often, when we think of mindfulness we think of meditation and yoga but we don’t think about the way we spend our money. Dr Jan Chozen Bays, author and Zen teacher, believes that practising mindfulness gives important insights into our relationship with money and why we spend it.

She offers a few important suggestions for those interested in undertaking this exercise in conscious, mindful spending.

1. Surf the urge. When an impulse to buy something arises, ask yourself, “Do I really need this? Do I need it now?”

What are the alternatives to buying it and what if you saved the money?

2. Question the desire. “We have a notion that our desires need to be satisfied right away,” says Bays. But what need are you trying to fulfil? Are you really hungry? Do you need a distraction?

3. Avoid habitual momentum. This type of momentum comes from habit and impulse, not from being present. Resist the momentum and become more conscious about your spending habits.

4. Stay with discomfort. You will encounter suffering in life. We try in modern society to buy our way out of it but of course we can’t, says Bays.

Mindfulness teaches that there is no place to go but the present. With a focus on the present, you will find that the discomfort changes.

Photography iStock

It is our motivations and intentions that make managing money mindfully so empowering and liberating. Derek Lin, author of The Tao of Success and an expert in Eastern philosophy, writes: “A poor person can be highly spiritual, not spiritual at all or anywhere in between.

The same is with a rich person. If you think you have to choose one or the other, [it’s] a false dichotomy.”

By being mindful about your money’s flow and considering the importance of giving and receiving, you can add to the prosperity of the world. Money undoubtedly has the ability to transform people and situations in a hugely positive and healthy way.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to make money — it is our wish to contribute to the world. When you have money, you’re able to do more of what brings you joy and in turn add to the joy of others. Lin takes the teachings he has received on monetary abundance and writes, “No amount of poverty on my part will help ease ... the many people in the world who live under such crushing poverty. On the other hand, the more resources I can utilise, the more I can do for them.”

When an impulse to buy something arises, ask yourself, “Do I really need this? Do I need it now?”

MIND MONEY HARMONY

5. Value your life’s energy. Money is a symbol of energy, says Bays. It’s a way to exchange energy. Before you make a purchase, ask yourself if it’s worth your effort. “You may decide to buy the shoes,” notes Bays, “and that’s fine. Just be sure you’re making the decision consciously.”

CHOOSE THE PATH OF ABUNDANCE Buddhist teachers Kulananda and Dominic Houlder write in The Buddhist Path to Abundance: “The root of suffering in our financial lives is our desire to use money to make us feel complete, and the problem is that money cannot do that — in fact, nothing can.” Kulananda and Houlder suggest the Path of Abundance, which offers practical strategies for countering our suffering.

The path is formed on the five precepts — kindness, generosity, contentment, honesty and awareness — which together teach us to earn

When you have money, you are able to do more of what brings you joy and in turn add to the joy of others.

SIMPLE STEPS TO FINDING FINANCIAL BALANCE If you’re seeking to create financial balance and wellbeing, here’s a quick checklist of some practical things to consider. These simple tips will help you start to track and manage your money and so help you better direct it toward what matters.

Budgeting & money management Create/update your budget Set savings goals and spending limits Look for ways to cut/reduce costs Credit Reduce credit card spending/debt Switch to a no-fee credit card Refinance and/or consolidate loans

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Investing Set investment goals Look and research ways to reach these goals Check your superannuation and consolidate funds to reduce fees Insurance Check on your life, income and disability insurance Make sure your beneficiaries are up to date Keep all policies in a safe place

BANISH THOSE NEGATIVE MONEY MANTRAS Many of us get stuck in a cycle of negativity when it comes to money, yet the things that you say to yourself can have a huge impact on your overall wellbeing and ability to find financial balance. Rather than focus on the negatives, try practising the art of possibility instead.

Rosamund and Benjamin Zander, authors of The Art of Possibility, write that in the face of difficulty we

can despair, get angry — or choose possibility. So, if you find yourself facing debilitating debt or are unable to break your mindless spending habits, give yourself permission to take a deep breath and think through the possibilities.

Zander suggests “defining yourself as the chessboard”, not as a piece being “played” in life. In the same way we create dangers and obstacles around us, we all have the power to invent a different way of managing our money so that it enhances the quality of our life and the lives around us.

By creating a more mindful and conscious relationship with money you are far better at channelling your energy to help yourself, others and the world at large.

Elizabeth McLardy is a mum, CPA and finance consultant in her early 30s. She finds balance by taking breaks to travel with her family, practise reiki, volunteer, complete Vipassana meditation retreats and hike in nature.

Photography Getty Images

and spend creatively: the key to living peacefully with money.

The lesson here is that it’s our underlying attitude toward money that matters most. Handling money lightly and thoughtfully, not seeing it as an end in itself but for what it can do, will make it more like embodied energy than a trophy. The meaning of any object comes from what you bring to it.

To find financial balance, try creating or updating your budget or look for ways to cut or reduce costs.

NATURALLY BEAUTIFUL NAILS

Healthy nails are beautiful nails, but you have to use the right things on your nails and even in your diet to keep them healthy and attractive.

WORDS / LISA GUY

BEAUTY NATURAL NAILS

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o your nails split easily? Are they weak, brittle or hard to grow? Did you know that the appearance of your nails is a good indicator of your internal health? Naturopaths often use nail diagnosis as a tool to help identify nutritional imbalances in the body. They might not be absolute windows to your inner health, but they can certainly provide insights into possible underlying health conditions.

To improve the health and look of your nails you must first consider what you put in your mouth to ensure that you’re eating a wholesome, wellbalanced diet, rich in nail-nourishing nutrients. The right foods, together with appropriate nutritional supplements — where needed — will give your nails the boost in vitamins, minerals and amino acids they need to grow strong and healthy, with the added bonus of benefiting the health of your hair and skin, too.

Though it might seem somewhat paradoxical, it’s also apparent that using many commonly available nail-care products may actually damage nails and make them more unhealthy and unattractive-looking.

Adopting healthy manicure methods is also important for protecting your nails, to reduce the risk of nail infections and breakages and to support your overall health.

DID YOU KNOW? Fingernails actually grow faster than toenails, at around 3mm per month.

So, if you damage your fingernail, it’s going to take around six months for a new nail to grow from the root to the free edge. Toenails grow around 1mm per month and can take 12–18 months to grow out completely.

Photography Getty Images & Bigstock

THINGS TO AVOID THAT DAMAGE NAILS Don’t cut your cuticles Leave your cuticles alone. They’re a natural protective barrier to bacteria and fungus. Cutting cuticles can make them look ragged, red and swollen, and it increases the likelihood of nail infections. A better option is to gently push your cuticles back.

Wear gloves Whenever you immerse your hands in soapy, hot water or use harsh cleaning

A good habit to get into is applying a natural hand lotion after you wash your hands.

This will help prevent skin and nail dryness. products, make sure you wear gloves to protect your hands and nails. Soaps and cleaning products are very drying and strip away the skin’s protective natural oils, leaving nails dry and damaged.

Don’t use your nails as a tool Avoid using your nails as a tool to open things. Putting extra stress on your nails will weaken them, which can lead to breakages and risk bending a nail back.

Avoid toxic nail polish Many women use nail polish regularly without realising they’re putting a cocktail of toxic chemicals on their nails, which could be damaging nails and putting their health at risk. Nail polish contains chemicals called endocrine disruptors, which have shown adverse effects at even very low doses. The effects are even greater for pregnant women and young children. If you are pregnant, you should avoid toxic nail polishes all together.

Among the three main toxic chemicals found in nail polish is dibutyl phthalate (DBP), which has been found in animal studies to cause birth defects and damage to the testes, prostate and penis. This toxic compound has been found in highest levels in women of childbearing age, according to a 2000 Environmental Working Group study. Toluene, the

second of the toxic three, is linked to anaemia, liver or kidney damage and lowered blood-cell count, and may damage a developing foetus.

Finally, formaldehyde is a known carcinogenic substance associated with leukaemia as well as being an eye, skin and respiratory irritant.

A healthy alternative if you like to paint your nails is to buy a chemical-free eco-friendly nail polish, like 3-free polishes, or the newer generation of 5-free polishes, which are also free from the chemicals formaldehyde resin and camphor. Try not to wear nail polish all the time, though, as it can be drying, making your nails weak and less flexible. Instead of applying polish, just file your nails and give them a gentle buff to make them look healthy and shiny.

Limit salon manicures & pedicures According to a study by Stern and colleagues at Mt Sinai Hospital in the US, those who have regular manicures and pedicures are more likely to suffer from dry, brittle nails. Nail infections are more common, too, and you’re also exposing yourself to toxic chemicals.

If you enjoy going to the salon, ask for a simple manicure and pedicure.

Have your nails filed, lightly buffed and cuticles pushed back, not cut. Take your own chemical-free polish to the salon with you. Avoid putting your hands under the UV light dryers as they can increase your risk of skin cancer.

Avoid acrylic nails Wearing acrylic nails will end up weakening and damaging your nails as well as increasing your risk of getting nail infections.

Avoid all acetone-based nail polish removers Only use acetone-free nail polish removers, as acetone strips your nails, making them dry, brittle and unhealthy.

Recognise signs of infection If you have any nail redness, swelling or pain, or if the surrounding tissues are inflamed, you may have a nail infection, which will require treatment.

Follow the natural self-help tips in this article and, if symptoms don’t improve, see your doctor.

TIPS FOR HEALTHIER NAILS Moisturise your cuticles Using a cuticle balm daily is a great way

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BEAUTY NATURAL NAILS

Apply a hand lotion A good habit to get into is applying a natural hand lotion after you wash your hands. This will help prevent skin and nail dryness. Make sure you buy a natural handwash, too, that won’t be as drying.

Use a smooth emery board Avoid using rough emery boards that are too harsh for nails and can cause small tears. To avoid breakages, use a fine, smooth file and file slowly in one direction, from the outside edge in towards the centre of your nail. Sawing nails back and forth can weaken them and increase the chances of breakages.

Don’t forget your toes Your toenails deserve the same attention as your fingernails. Often stuck in shoes all day, toenails are a prime target for fungal infections. Make

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TROUBLE-SHOOTING COMMON CONCERNS Ridged nails Ridges that go vertically up and down the nail are more common and become more evident as we age. Traditionally, naturopaths see vertical nail ridges as a sign of mineral or protein deficiency from having poor digestion. Without a good supply of amino acids and minerals in the diet, which are the building blocks to grow strong nails, ridges can form. Vertical ridges can also be caused if the nails have been injured, if you have had an illness or fever, or if you suffer from eczema.

Horizontal ridges can also be caused by nutrition deficiencies; however, sometimes they may indicate that you have a more serious underlying health problem such as diabetes, kidney or liver disease, or a circulatory disease. See your doctor if your horizontal lines persist.

A single ridge down the centre of your nail can indicate an iron or folic acid deficiency, or it may be a sign that your diet is lacking in protein.

Discoloured nails If your nails are a yellow or greenish colour, this is a sign of a bacterial infection that affects the nail bed, called pseudomonas. Fungal infections are a common cause of discoloured nails.

Other symptoms associated with nail fungal infections include thickening and flaking of nails (due to the fungus breaking down the nail) and an unpleasant odour. Fungus thrives in damp, dark environments, so fungal infections usually develop on toenails continually exposed to warm, moist environments like sweaty shoes or shower floors. Try to air your feet and keep them dry as much as possible.

Yellow nails may also be an indication of a serious underlying condition such as liver, kidney or heart disease or diabetes. Smoking or constantly wearing nail polish will also cause yellowed fingernails. Soaking your nails in lemon juice, which has a mild bleaching effect, can help reduce yellowing.

On the other hand, if you’ve knocked or injured your nail, or have an ingrown toenail, blood can collect under your nail and result in a red or black nail.

Nails can also appear a white or pale colour due to a protein deficiency or anaemia. If there has been some separation from the nail bed, your nail will also appear white.

There’s a number of natural remedies you’ll find in your kitchen that can effectively treat fungal infections.

Try soaking your toenails in one part apple cider vinegar and one part water for 15 minutes, a couple of times a day.

Apple cider vinegar can help inhibit fungal growth. Tea-tree oil is a powerful anti-fungal and is useful for treating fungal nail infections. Rubbing a drop of tea-tree oil into your nails daily can help clear up nail infections.

Weak nails that break & split easily Nails naturally become weaker as you age, but if your nails are soft and weak

Photography Getty Images

to nourish dry cuticles and Your toenails deserve the same attention improve brittle and damaged as your fingernails. nails. This will also help prevent hangnails, those annoying and often painful torn pieces of skin at the root of your fingernail. You can also rub natural oils like coconut, jojoba or almond oil into your cuticles to keep them well hydrated and healthy. Massage the cuticle balm into your nails around the nail bed every morning and night. Massaging will also increase circulation and blood flow to the area, which will improve the delivery of nutrients to your nail bed, helping your nails grow strong and long.

It’s easy to make your own cuticle balm. Simply place three tablespoons of shea butter, three tablespoons of cocoa butter, one tablespoon of beeswax and the contents of four vitamin E capsules into a medium jar. Place the jar in a small saucepan quarter-filled with water and bring to the boil. Mix Silica is important for ingredients together until they are strong, healthy nails well combined. Pour the balm into that won’t split. smaller containers and allow to set.

You can also add around 20 drops of sure you cut your toenails straight your favourite essential oil after you across and give them a file and buff. take it off the heat. Calendula essential Don’t dig under your nails as this will oil would make a nice addition, as increase the risk of ingrown toenails. it’s healing with natural antiseptic properties to help prevent infections.

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BEAUTY NATURAL NAILS and tend to break easily, this can be a sign that you are deficient in iron.

“Spoon nails”, where the edges of your nails are raised, is also associated with low iron levels.

Nails can also become weak from using harsh detergents like dishwashing liquid or bleach. Dry nails are more prone to breakage.

Your nails can become drier in winter, too, or may dry out from using nail polish regularly. Drinking around two litres of water daily is an important way to keep nails and cuticles well hydrated and prevent nail and skin dryness.

TOP NOURISHING NUTRIENTS FOR YOUR NAILS

Omega-3 fats Omega-3 essential fatty acids, found in high levels in oily fish, are needed for the body to grow strong, healthy nails.

These beneficial fats help nourish and moisturise your nails. A deficiency in omega-3 fats can cause brittle nails that split easily and are slow to grow.

They also help to promote healthy nails by reducing inflammation within your nail bed. Plant sources of omega-3s include flax and chia seeds, walnuts and dark-green leafy vegetables.

Silica This vital nail nutrient is needed to make connective tissue in the body, including nails, hair and skin. Silica is important for strong, healthy nails that won’t split. Good sources of silica include oats, banana, leeks, green beans, brown rice, strawberries, asparagus and rhubarb. The herb horsetail is also rich in silica.

Iron Including iron-rich foods in the diet, such as red meat, fish, lentils, eggs and green leafy vegetables, will help prevent low iron levels and enhance the health of your nails. Supplementing with spirulina or barley and wheat grass

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Nature’s beauty mineral, sulphur, is abundant in fish.

Known as nature’s “beauty mineral”, sulphur is vital for making collagen in skin and keratin in your nails. is also a great way to boost your iron levels. If you have been tested low in iron you should also take an organic iron supplement to boost your levels.

Protein Including good-quality protein in your diet will ensure that your body has the raw ingredients to produce keratin, the protein our nails are made of. Nutritious protein-rich foods include nuts, seeds, red meat, fish, organic chicken and eggs, yoghurt and legumes.

B vitamins If your diet is lacking in B vitamins, your nails will start to suffer. They can become weak and start splitting, and ridges can start to appear. A deficiency in vitamin B12 can also cause the white moons on your nails to disappear.

Taking a good-quality B-complex vitamin is a great way to support healthy nail growth, to harden the nail plate and prevent ridging and splitting. The best sources of B vitamins include legumes, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, red meat, fish, dairy and eggs.

Biotin, also called vitamin H or vitamin B7, is a member of the B family that is particularly important for increasing nail thickness and for preventing nail breakages and splitting.

Supplementing with biotin at a dosage of 2.5mg a day can help make your nails thick and strong. Egg yolks, whole grains, cauliflower and avocado are all great sources of biotin.

Sulphur Known as nature’s “beauty mineral”, sulphur is essential for making collagen in skin and keratin in your nails. Sulphur is most abundant in egg yolks, poultry, grass-fed meat, fish, garlic, onion and brassica vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage). Sulphur can also be taken as a dietary supplement, MSM (methyl-sulphonyl-methane), at a dosage of around 2000–6000mg daily.

Start off on a smaller dosage and work your way up. A study conducted by Ronald M Lawrence, MD, MSM: Increased Hair Growth, Nail Length and Nail Thickness, showed that individuals taking MSM daily for six weeks had significant improvement in their nail health, with increased nail length, strength and nail thickness compared to placebo.

Lisa Guy is a highly qualified naturopath, author and passionate foodie based in Sydney, Australia, and the founder of artofhealing.com.au.

Photography Getty Images

Zinc This important mineral is needed to maintain the structural integrity of your nails. Zinc is also required for a strongly functioning immune system to fight off infections, including nail infections. The best sources of zinc are grass-fed meat, seafood, chicken, eggs, pepitas, sunflower seeds, nuts, raw cacao and tahini. Supplementing with 50mg of elemental zinc daily is also recommended for anyone deficient in this important mineral.

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PARENTING FUSSY EATERS

WAR of WILLS Has your little one declared war on foods that are a) new, b) colourful or c) just not quite right for whatever reason? Rejoice, because here are some ways to get your fussy eaters interested in their chow.

WORDS / CARROL BAKER

You may be able to get the child interested in food by letting them help with shopping or meal preparation.

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PARENTING FUSSY EATERS

S

ometimes persuading a child to try a new food or even to eat foods you know they enjoy can be a battle. Temper tantrums, threats, sulking, even frustrated tears are common scenarios — and that’s just the parents.

Why do kids turn their noses up at (or throw bowls of) perfectly tempting tucker, and what can parents can do to encourage fussy little eaters? It seems there really is no clear-cut answer.

But individual likes and dislikes, age and developmental milestones and a parent’s own attitude to food and mealtimes have a significant impact.

And, according to experts like Kate Di Prima, a dietitian and co-author of More Peas Please: Solutions for Fussy Eaters, picky eating habits are an issue that’s on the rise.

So is the increase in fussy eating habits the result of environmental factors like TV advertising? Busy lifestyles? A reliance on takeaway or quick-service restaurants? Or even increasing choice and variety of foods? “I can’t give you a definitive answer,” says Di Prima, “but the flow through my door of parents concerned about their child’s eating habits has increased substantially.”

The good news is, however, there are some positive ways parents can tackle the issue.

Photography Getty Images & Bigstock

GROWTH SPURTS & DIETARY NEEDS Between birth and two years of age, most of a child’s energy is expended on growth, then from age two to five their growth slows. Accredited dietitian Milena Katz says this means your kid’s food (or energy) requirements during these later years may be less. “A one- or two-yearold might only eat marginally more than a four-year-old — an extra cheese stick or piece of fruit,” says Katz.

It can be confusing understanding a young child’s appetite. In fact, Dr Julie Green, executive director of the website Raising Children Network, describes the early childhood palate as “volatile”. “Because of their stage of development, it’s not uncommon for a child to like a food one day and refuse it the next,” she says.

It’s also perfectly normal for kids to eat a lot one day and very little another.

THE PRICE OF PEACE Understandably, parents want harmonious mealtimes, but maintaining

an upbeat atmosphere can be a challenge if your child is secretly feeding the dog their broccoli, ramming peas up their nose or shrieking because you’ve put an unfamiliar vegetable in front of them. And, as any parent knows, kids have short attention spans.

Toddlers, in particular, will be happily enjoying their yogurt one minute, the next smearing it on the walls, just because it feels nice and squishy in their fingers.

The secret, it seems, is to not give your fussy little eater too much attention. If a child learns their tears or tantrums will be rewarded with attention, you may be inadvertently encouraging the behaviour.

TAMING YOUR FUSSY EATER Want your child to come to eat a wide variety of nutritious, tasty foods? Here are some ideas to help.

Try buffet style To keep the peace at mealtimes, some parents fall into the habit of restricting the family’s meals to a handful of favourite things they know the kids will eat. Eve Reed, an accredited dietitian and author of several books on kids’ nutrition, says that’s not a good practice. “Rotating four or five dishes you know the children will eat not only restricts the parents’ enjoyment of food but also the child’s exposure to new foods and tastes,” she says.

Instead, provide a range of nutritious foods on the table, buffet style, so the family can serve themselves. Allowing a child to self-serve (with a bit of assistance from Mum or Dad if they aren’t old enough) can be empowering for fussy eaters. “My only proviso is there needs to be at least one food on the table you know the child will eat if they are hungry,” says Reed.

It’s equally important not to make a big deal about the meal you are eating.

“Comments such as ‘just take a bite’, ‘this broccoli is yummy’ or ‘three more peas and you can have dessert’ are seen as pressure by the child,” she says.

Lead by example If you go out for lunch or dinner, do you try new things or stick to tried-andtrue favourites? To encourage kids to step outside their culinary comfort zone, parents need to be seen doing the same. Let your child witness you sampling new foods and enjoying the different taste sensations.

Beat boring vegetables Slice them, dice them, dress them up

any way you like and some kids will still roll their eyes and lament that vegetables are boring! But, of course, they don’t have to be. Start your own vegie patch so the kids can grow and harvest their own vegetables. Then get your child on board to peel the vegies or arrange them in a salad. Experiment with different flavour combinations and try adding herbs, nuts or seeds to enhance flavours.

Experiment with temperature & texture You might find your child turns their nose up at some foods because they simply don’t find the texture palatable.

To tempt their tastebuds, instead of serving up limp cooked beans, offer crunchy raw ones or carrot sticks in place of diced, cooked carrot pieces.

Some children are also oversensitive to hot and cold foods, just like adults. The temperature that people prefer to eat their food is an individual decision, so if your child won’t eat warm eggs, for example, try serving them at room temperature.

Make it look good As humans, we eat with our eyes, too!

So, if your child won’t eat orange sweet potato, maybe try the purple kind.

But beware bright and vibrant food and bowl colours if you are looking to create peaceful mealtimes. Red is an emotionally intense colour and, while it can stimulate the appetite (hence its use in fast-food restaurants), it can also overstimulate fussy eaters. In contrast, blue and green create a sense of serenity and calm.

Researchers at the Cornel Food and Brand Lab in the US have shown the bigger the bowl, the more you’ll eat, so cute kiddie-sized themed bowls, where you can only fit a morsel of food, won’t always encourage a fussy eater to tuck into their meal.

QUICK, HIDE THE GREEN BEANS! For parents at their wits' end who want to encourage their kids to eat healthy foods, some resort to trickery, stealthily adding zucchini to pancakes or slipping finely chopped broccoli into chocolate cupcakes. Is camouflaging vegies a good idea? According to the experts, it’s not a big issue if you grate a few vegetables into bolognaise sauce, for example; but making a habit of hiding

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PRACTICE THE 3 PS The co-authors of Feeding Fussy Kids, Antonia Kidman and Julie Maree Wood, say to remember the three Ps: persistence, positivity and praise. To help kids make progress, you need to be persistent, always maintain a positive vibe around food and eating, and praise even the smallest step forward or change in attitude.

foods children won’t try defeats the purpose of introducing them to new foods, flavours and textures.

HUNGER STRIKE! So what if your cheerful little cherub clamps their choppers together and flat out refuses to eat dinner? Kids who continually snack during the day may simply not be hungry at mealtimes.

A nibble on a cracker or two, a few apple slices or a bite or two of a cheese stick can all add up. If your child is grazing all day, Reed’s advice is to stick to mealtimes only. “Children thrive on structured mealtimes — including breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner,” she says.

“Between-meal snacks shouldn’t be offered at whim.”

BUT IT TASTES YUCK! Sound familiar? After one taste some kids won’t try a certain food again, while others simply refuse to try new foods, full stop. Extreme fussy eating is also called being a neophobic eater, which translates in lay terms to a fear of trying new foods. For the child who says they don’t like a particular food although they’ve never laid eyes on it before, here’s a way to overcome the problem.

Let them see it, admire its colour, feel its lumps and bumps or smooth shiny surface and even play with it, so the child becomes familiar with its name, smell, shape, and colour.

Then try this simple exercise: it all begins with one little pea.

Day 1. Touch it (the child feels the smoothness of the pea, and sees it rolling around).

Day 2. Kiss it (the child smells it and a small amount of residue is left on their lips).

Day 3. Lick it or hold it between the front teeth.

Day 4. Put it in your mouth (the child

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places it near their back teeth and then chews).

If you’ve offered a food that is constantly refused, try again a few months later — you might find that next time around your child not only cleans his plate but he’s asking for seconds.

“The reality is it can take 10 to 15 times to recognise a particular food as a ‘normal’ food, whereas parents tend to give up after two or three presentations,” says Di Prima.

SUGAR ADDICTION There is nothing sweet about meltdowns and mood swings, and excess sugar consumption can be the culprit. It’s no secret that processed foods are often laden with the stuff, but sugar is also present in seemingly innocuous foods.

For example, did you know some tinned tuna, tomato sauces and yogurts can actually be high in sugar? So why do children love sugar so much? Milena Katz says foods that aren’t sweet to the taste might be initially rejected by babies and young children because of how humans have developed biologically. “If you look at our evolutionary origins, if it tasted bitter, it was more likely to be poisonous,” she says.

Your tenacity will eventually pay off when trying to introduce new, more savoury foods — so keep at it! And, if you do buy packaged products, always check food labels. If your children are old enough, encourage them to read them, too.

THE GREAT WHITE DIET

TASTY TIPS FROM THE EXPERTS

Dietitian Kate Di Prima says there’s a little-known connection between poor appetite, fussy eating habits and constipation. “Picky eaters can sometimes avoid whole food groups — often fruits and vegetables which contain insoluble and soluble fibre, which means their bowels start decreasing in movement,” she says.

Many young children subsist on a diet Di Prima has coined “the great white diet”, consisting of bland, easy-to-chew foods. When Di Prima questions parents, she says many do have a profound aha moment.

“They’ll say, ‘Oh my gosh, yes, they eat cheese, pasta, milk, white bread, rice cakes,’” she says.

If that’s the case, introduce more fruit and vegetables slowly to your child’s diet. “For example, if they’re eating a cream cheese sandwich, mash some cannellini and butterbeans [into it],” she suggests.

There are also other dangers associated with a smooth, fibrefree diet. Di Prima says a child doesn’t develop their jaw muscles as they should. “There is a strong relationship between chewing, swallowing and learning to talk,” she says.

Milena Katz. Don’t use treats as a reward: for example, “Eat your beans and you can watch your favourite TV program.” Forcing a child to eat for the

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

IS THERE SOMETHING MORE GOING ON? If your child continually refuses food, is underweight or becoming lethargic, or you’re concerned, seek the advice of a paediatrician.

Photography Bigstock

Start your own vegie patch.

wrong reasons teaches them to ignore their body’s hunger cues and increases the risk of weight issues.

Kate Di Prima. If a child refuses a meal, remove it. If they’re still hungry, return the reheated meal and don’t offer anything else or a milk drink, or the child learns they’ll be rewarded for their refusal.

Eve Reed. Good mealtime habits start early and uppermost is setting the scene with no distractions. No TV, iPhone or iPad, and it’s good if one or both parents eat with the children.

Julie Green. You may be able to get the child interested in food by letting them help with shopping or meal preparation — even young toddlers can help to stir a cake. It’s empowering, they feel a part of the family activity and they get a sense of satisfaction if they complete a task.

To check out Eve Reed’s e-book Do you have a Fussy Eater?, go to familyfoodworks.com.au.

Insta

Festive food

The secret to cooking healthy, delicious meals and snacks for the holiday season is to get back to basics and keep it simple and fresh.

WORDS / TERESA CUTTER

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FOOD HEALTHY HOLIDAY FOOD

Photography Getty Images

The delicate sweetness of golden and red beetroot is accentuated when they are roasted in the oven then allowed to cool gently, slowly developing their flavours.

T

o me, the holiday season is about getting together with family and sharing good food that will nourish our bodies and be lovingly prepared.

Growing up in a European household, Christmas dinner was an eclectic mix of traditional recipes mixed in with fresh Aussie fare.

My dad would often catch fish before the event, which would be lovingly prepared by my mum and great aunt.

We would wrap fillets of fish in foil with a squeeze of lemon and drizzle over olive oil, then bake them in the oven

until cooked through. Polish people love their salads and our table was full of wonderful beetroot salads drizzled with apple cider vinegar and cold-pressed olive oil. We enjoyed cucumber salads drizzled with buttermilk dressing and heirloom sun-ripened tomatoes served with homemade ricotta and fresh herbs.

For dessert, Mum would often make a pudding cake infused with orange, vanilla bean and plump sun-dried fruit. It could be served cold or warm with a creamy custard or thick Greekstyle yoghurt. Aunty used to pick fresh strawberries from her garden and serve bowls of them sprinkled with a little raw sugar and served with vanilla-scented Chantilly cream. No matter what food was served, the day was all about family, being together and celebrations.

These days, I try to let that “keep it simple and keep it fresh” philosophy flow through when I’m preparing for summer celebrations.

I focus on seasonal fresh salads and vegetables that are effortless to prepare, look and taste amazing and are good for you. Platters of blanched garden peas, snap peas and asparagus served with micro-herbs and lemonscented Persian fetta; a beetroot salad with fig and smashed raspberry dressing or a simple insalata caprese, an Italian salad made with buffalo mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, lemon and olive oil. I do fish fillets baked in baking paper served with roasted sweet potato chips. I love ratatouille and my roasted baby carrots on beds of freshly made hummus and dukkah.

Growing up, not a single Christmas would go by without a traditional Christmas pudding being served for dessert. Staying with tradition, we now celebrate with my “healthy Christmas pudding”, a delectably dense and moist fruitcake with naturally dried fruit, which provides a subtle sweetness so you don’t need to add any extra refined sugar to the recipe. I like to serve it in small portions after lunch or dinner, or warm it up and serve as a pudding with

vanilla-bean custard or thick natural yoghurt and orange-blossom honey.

No matter what is on your summer menus, keep it fresh, keep it simple, keep it healthy and the rest will fall into place. The essence of good food, friends and family is what truly makes a healthy celebration.

BEETROOT SALAD WITH POMEGRANATE & PISTACHIO Serves: 6 The delicate sweetness of golden and red beetroot is accentuated when they are roasted in the oven then allowed to cool gently, slowly developing their flavours.

Pomegranate dressing 3 tbsp pomegranate molasses Juice ½ lemon 60mL cold-pressed olive oil Salad 1kg baby beetroots (I use golden & red beetroots) 150g wild baby rocket 80g labna, or your choice of Persian feta or grilled haloumi Handful pistachio nuts, chopped Pinch ground black pepper Fresh pomegranate seeds or rehydrated goji berries (see note)

Beetroot Salad with Pomegranate & Pistachio Warm baby beetroot & sorrel salad

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FOOD HEALTHY HOLIDAY FOOD Steamed White Fish with Ginger & Turmeric

For the dressing, combine all the ingredients until creamy. I like to whisk them together. Taste and adjust if needed.

Store in a screw-top jar in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

To make the salad, preheat your oven to 180°C. Cut off the leaves from the beetroot and wash well with the skin still on. Wrap each whole beetroot in foil and place on a baking tray. Roast for about 30–35 mins.

Remove beetroot from the oven and allow to rest in the foil for about 1 hour — this process allows the skin to be removed easily. Remove the foil and peel the skin off with your fingers. Cut beetroot in half and leave a few whole if they are smaller.

Arrange beetroot on a serving platter or large bowl along with wild rocket leaves.

Arrange the labna then pistachios over the top. Drizzle the dressing over the top just before serving. (My smashed raspberry dressing is also fantastic on this salad.)

Enjoy this delight.

Note: As it’s hard to find non-imported pomegranates until autumn, you can use rehydrated goji berries in place of pomegranate seeds.

INSALATA CAPRESE Serves: 4 This is one of the easiest salads of all time to create. Its flavour hit depends solely on the quality of the ingredients you use. I especially enjoy making this salad in summer as juicy, ripe tomatoes are bountiful. For me, healthy cooking is all

about simplicity and keeping things as fresh and pure as possible. The ingredients in a classic caprese salad are minimal: tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, salt, pepper. This is the way it should be eaten and my favourite way to eat it, as the clean selection of flavours is brought out and every mouthful is pure heaven.

Buffalo mozzarella is traditionally used for a caprese salad as opposed to cow’s milk fior di latte. The buffalo milk base provides the benefits of high levels of calcium and protein. Scatter fragrant basil leaves — whole or torn — delicately over the top of your salad and drizzle with the best cold-pressed olive oil you can find.

Add a gentle touch of flaked sea salt and a small grind of freshly cracked pepper for your perfect summer salad. Enjoy!

800g sun-ripened tomatoes (decent sized), juicy & at room temperature 2 balls of buffalo mozarella 2 tbsp cold-pressed olive oil 2 tsp lemon juice 8 fresh basil leaves, torn Generous pinch flaked sea salt Freshly ground black pepper

Insalata Caprese

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Slice the tomatoes or cut into generous wedges and place in a bowl or on a serving platter.

Break up the creamy white mozzarella with your fingertips and mingle it among the tomatoes. Alternatively, you can also slice the mozzarella and arrange delicately.

Drizzle olive oil and lemon juice and scatter torn fresh basil over the top. Finish with flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

STEAMED WHITE FISH WITH GINGER & TURMERIC Serves: 4 The omega-3s DHA and EPA are absolutely essential in your diet and must be obtained from the foods you eat. Fish is high in the omega-3s that help support the health of every cell in the body. Omega3s play a role in immune function by regulating inflammation and encouraging the body to fight infection. Other health benefits of omega-3 are helping to lower cholesterol levels, reducing high blood pressure and helping to improve symptoms of arthritis.

1 tbsp fresh ginger or galangal, grated 1 tbsp turmeric, grated 2 garlic cloves, smashed 1 tbsp tamari soy sauce Juice 1 lime 2 tbsp olive oil Bunch coriander, leaves & stalk finally chopped 2 × 200g white fish fillets (wild snapper or any fish of your choice) ¼ cup coconut water 1 tbsp butter Combine ginger, turmeric, garlic, tamari, lime juice and olive oil in a mortar and

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FOOD HEALTHY HOLIDAY FOOD smash ingredients well. Add the coriander and fold it through.

Place the fish in a bowl and coat with the turmeric mix. Leave the fish fillets to marinate in the fridge for 15 mins.

Heat a pan over medium heat. Lay the fish fillets in the pan and pour in the coconut water. Reduce the heat and pansteam for 8 mins, occasionally coating the fish with the marinade. Stir through the butter at the end, to lightly emulsify and make the loveliest sauce.

Serve and enjoy.

Note: Try serving the dish with a little kimchi or a warm broccoli salad with kale, lime and roasted tamari almonds.

Cinnamon Roasted Sweet Potato

Raw Christmas Cake Truffles

Combine the sweet potato with olive oil, salt and cinnamon. Add a little more olive oil if needed. Arrange on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Make sure to spread the wedges out in a single layer so they roast properly.

Bake for 40 mins or until they are tender and golden.

Serve immediately and enjoy.

RAW CHRISTMAS CAKE TRUFFLES CINNAMON ROASTED SWEET POTATO Serves: 6 Sweet potatoes are divine, especially when oven-roasted with generous amounts of cinnamon and a little sea salt. You don’t need to do too much to prepare them — they practically make themselves and the final result is truly pure deliciousness!

500g sweet potato, cut into wedges 1 tbsp olive oil Pinch sea salt 1 generous tsp ground cinnamon Preheat oven to 200°C.

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Makes: 20 balls Bursting with antioxidants, mineral-rich cocoa and pure vanilla bean, this potent blend provides long-lasting energy. These balls enhance both mental and physical performance. A daily protein ball is a healthy way to get more out of every day.

225g pitted fresh dates (approximately 10–15, depending on their size) Zest 1 orange 250g organic dried apricots, chopped 150g almond meal or ground almonds 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract 1 tsp ground cinnamon ¼ tsp ground nutmeg ¼ tsp ground ginger 1–2 tbsp orange juice

Naturally dried fruit provides a subtle sweetness, so you don’t need to add any extra refined sugar to the recipe.

Garnish for rolling Coconut, goji berries, cacao, almonds, pistachio Combine the dates, orange zest, apricots, ground almonds, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in a food processor.

Process until the mixture is combined and looks like fine crumbs.

Spoon the mixture into a large bowl and add orange juice, then mix again. Your pudding mix should come together in your hands when lightly squeezed.

Form the mix into 20 balls. Roll in coconut or any other suggested coatings and store in the refrigerator until needed.

Note: You can store these in the fridge for about 2 weeks.

You can find all of these recipes in Teresa’s new cookbook Purely Delicious, available in selected book stores and online at thehealthychef.com.

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BODY EXERCISE RECOVERY

AFTER THE

sweat

Using appropriate nutrition to recover from your workout means you will be able to do more exercise sooner.

WORDS / ROY STEVENSON

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BODY EXERCISE RECOVERY

W

hy do we need to pay attention to using nutrition to recover properly from our workouts? The benefits of recovering properly from your hard training are clear: the athlete who recovers quickly can train hard again with shorter recovery time, more quality training in his or her schedule, fewer injuries and an enhanced immune system.

In fact, when you consider that the human body is not designed for the extended, high-intensity workouts we put ourselves through, it’s a wonder we don’t break down more often.

The strategies you use to speed up your post-exercise recovery are

rehydration, glycogen resynthesis and protein and antioxidant supplementation. These techniques replenish your muscle fuel supplies, hasten the repair of muscle damage and combat free-radical formation in your cells.

The devil, however, is in the details.

You can pop vitamin pills, drink protein powder shakes, guzzle sports drinks and eat all the carbohydrates you can stomach but, if you don’t eat and drink the right kinds of food, drink and supplements at the right times, you’ll be wasting your time and money. It’s not just what you eat but when you eat it that counts in your recovery. Here’s how to use recovery nutrition to get the

THE GOALS OF NUTRITIONAL RECOVERY Replace fluids and electrolytes Replenish energy stores (glycogen, ATP etc) Hasten muscle, tendon and ligament tissue repair Reduce residual delayed onset muscle soreness and pain (DOMS) Return immune system to healthy status

most out of yourself after your hard training efforts.

REHYDRATION Your first priority is to fully replace fluid and electrolyte losses in muscle and blood immediately after exercise.

Weigh yourself before and after your workout and make sure you drink your lost weight back on within an hour or two. In fact, aim to drink 125 per cent of the weight you lost from sweating because you still continue to sweat while you’re rehydrating.

Recent research shows we absorb more fluid when electrolytes are added to water, thus achieving better restoration of body water. Sodium in particular helps retain water, stimulates thirst and prevents low plasma sodium.

REPLENISH GLYCOGEN

Reading the labels of sports drinks is important because many of them are simply soft drinks in disguise with excess amounts of sugar and caffeine.

Glycogen is the main storage form for carbohydrates in your body and exists mainly in muscles and the liver.

Glycogen is burned during intense exercise and carbohydrates consumed immediately after and from two to five hours after exercise enhance muscle glycogen restoration. This is most effective if ingested from fluid because fluid absorption is faster than digestion of solid foods.

Edward Coyle PhD, exercise physiologist at the University of Texas in Austin, says the more glycogen you can get into your system within the first two hours of stopping the better, as this is the most crucial time. “The muscles absorb glycogen like a sponge,” he says,

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 65

BODY EXERCISE RECOVERY

“[but] four to six hours after the race the absorption rate starts to decline.”

Choose carbohydrate-rich fluids to replace your water losses, electrolytes and muscle glycogen. Reading the labels of sports drinks is important because many of them are simply soft drinks in disguise with excess amounts of sugar and caffeine. Select fruit juices or reputable sports drinks according to your preference — and there’s no rule that says you can’t drink both.

You’ll know you’re rehydrating adequately when you start urinating again, which can be an hour or more after working out. Urine should be clear and pale. Despite the refreshing taste, beer (or any alcohol) is counterproductive to good recovery because its diuretic effect prevents you from rehydrating properly at a critical time.

Researchers have discovered that carbohydrate solutions, when mixed with protein, have an important benefit.

They have found that a mix of protein and carbohydrate taken immediately after exercise tops up your glycogen and amino acid stores much faster than a carbohydrate solution only.

The general consensus is that carbohydrate/protein mixes double the insulin response and increase the rate of glycogen synthesis by 30 per cent. Why are these insulin responses desirable? Insulin is the hormone that takes up sugar and deposits it into our muscle cells, so it follows that a solution that creates a high insulin response will build high intramuscular glycogen levels and do this quickly.

I recommend that runners ingest 0.4g/kg of bodyweight of protein immediately after training and again two hours later. The protein is best absorbed in the form of whey or casein powder.

CHOOSING YOUR CARBS What carbohydrates should we be ingesting after hard training? Some carbohydrates cause rapid rises in blood-sugar levels (high glycaemic index) while others promote a slower release of sugars into the bloodstream (low glycaemic index). You should aim to eat and drink high-glycaemic-index foods immediately after exercising to boost your blood glucose levels quickly, thus causing a fast release of insulin, which in turn drives more glycogen into the muscle cells. Note that this is a recommendation for after high-

66 | WELLBEING.COM.AU

You should aim to eat and drink highglycaemic-index foods immediately after exercising to boost your blood glucose levels quickly,

HIGH GLYCAEMIC INDEX FOODS & DRINKS Bagels Baked potatoes Bread Crackers Honey Maple syrup Raisins

White rice Sports drinks (with sugar) Jelly beans Dates (dried) Pineapple Apricot (tinned)

intensity exercise only, not a general health recommendation.

The recommended amount is 0.5 to 0.75 grams of carbohydrate for every 450g of bodyweight. A second dose of high-glycaemic-index carbs is suggested from one to four hours post-exercise.

There’s an important dosage requirement for this carbohydrate/ protein mix to be effective. The ratio of carbohydrate to protein is most effective at 4:1. This new research on carbohydrate/protein synergy has great implications for people who work out or do sports training strenuously every day.

You should be taking on board a mixture of protein and carbohydrates (preferably in fluid form) in a 4:1 ratio, immediately after training.

THE NEED FOR PROTEIN The need for extra protein for people who work out strenuously is well documented. You need to compensate for the physiological demands that rigorous exercise places on your body: increased breakdown of muscle

BODY EXERCISE RECOVERY

contractile proteins, increased production of red blood cells, increased mitochondrial protein content, faster replacement of glycogen stores and increased oxidation and use of amino acids as fuel when muscle glycogen is low.

ANTIOXIDANTS FOR MUSCLE REPAIR The downside to strenuous aerobic activity and weight training is the increased stress on your body’s cells caused by the huge amount of oxygen you process while exercising. This process, called oxidation, damages the membrane, internal structure and organelles of muscle cells, impairing their function. The result: muscle soreness and inflammation, and fatigue — all done by nasty little molecules called free radicals.

Some antioxidant vitamins assist in growth, repair of tissue damage and disarming free radical damage from stressful environments such as pollution and extreme cold. A strong case can be presented in favour of taking antioxidant vitamins to hasten recovery of damaged muscle and connective tissue, free-radical damage, immune system suppression and oxidative stress caused by exercising.

Antioxidants, produced naturally in the body or obtained from our food, block most free-radical reactions.

Evidence exists that certain antioxidant supplements reduce free-radical damage in athletes. One study found that five months of vitamin E supplementation in racing cyclists reduced markers of oxidative stress induced by extreme endurance exercise.

Some studies show that vitamin E can reduce leakage of cell membranes to result in less creatine kinase (an inflammatory enzyme) and several other indicators of oxidative stress. Another study found that three grams/day of vitamin C administered for two weeks before and two weeks after damaging eccentric resistance training exercise significantly reduced delayed onset muscle soreness in their subjects.

Monique Ryan, in her excellent book Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes, summarises: “For endurance athletes, [supplements] are crucially important.

Because of your training and the stress it imposes on your body, you may need higher amounts of vitamins and minerals than sedentary people. And, as an athlete, you have a highly vested

interest in keeping your immune system healthy so that illness does not put a halt to your training.”

She continues, “Vitamins and minerals are essential for metabolising energy, building body tissue, maintaining fluid balance and carrying oxygen in the body. Vitamins and minerals also play a role in reducing the oxidative stress that is brought on by endurance training.”

IMMUNE SYSTEM RECOVERY A balanced training program of exercise and rest leads to better performance of your immune system. Studies have shown improved immune function and fewer colds and flus in athletes as compared to their more sedentary counterparts. This is especially true in older athletes and it appears that regular exercise can help reduce the age-related decline in immune function.

On the other hand, too much exercise can lead to a dramatically increased

GUIDELINES FOR VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTATION Take your multivitamin supplement with a meal to enhance absorption.

Choose a supplement in which the majority of vitamin A is actually beta-carotene. Vitamin A, or retinol, should not exceed 3000 IU daily.

Look for a mix of vitamin E from tocopherols and tocotrienols.

Choose a multivitamin in which the vitamin D source is D3, or cholecalciferol, the type that is most easily absorbed.

Vitamin C administered for two weeks before and two weeks after damaging eccentric resistance training exercise significantly reduced delayed onset muscle soreness. risk of infections and the stress of strenuous exercise does transiently suppress immune function.

Only one nutritional substance has been shown to restore the immune system after exercising: drinking a carbohydrate solution during and after exercise. Drinking one litre per hour has been shown to lower blood cortisol and epinephrine levels, reduce adverse changes in blood immune cells and lower anti-inflammatory cytokine levels.

Proteins also play an important role in helping your body fight off infection, especially in the two hours or so after exercise when you’re particularly susceptible to catching upper respiratory tract infections. As proteins make up the infection-fighting agents like macrophages, Natural Killer Cells, immunoglobulins and white blood cells, ingesting proteins after strenuous exercise will, in all probability, help you fight any intruding infections and bacteria.

It’s a good idea to adopt a holistic approach when devising your postexercise nutritional recovery program.

Attempt to take carbohydrate/protein sports drinks, fluids with adequate electrolytes and antioxidant supplements as indicated in this article. If you persist with this program, you will find that your overall health will improve and your workouts will also progress significantly after just a few months.

Roy Stevenson has a Master’s degree in exercise physiology and coaching from Ohio University in the US. He teaches exercise science at Seattle University in Washington State and has coached hundreds of serious and recreational runners and triathletes in the Seattle area. W: Roy-Stevenson.com

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 67

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BODY YOGA FOR FUN

YOGA FOR FUN Adopting a playful yogic approach to your spiritual and wellness journey can bring help foster a lighter, more connected, more conscious way of living.

WORDS / KYLIE TERRALUNA PHOTOGRAPHY / JAMIE CLEARY

“There is nothing we have to give up other than our need to control things” ~ David Frawley

H

as your quest for a healthy, spiritual lifestyle become too serious? Are you trying too hard for selfimprovement at the expense of your relationships and sense of humour? A playful yogic approach to your spiritual journey brings the fun back into your life, moving you out of heaviness or rigid thinking, enabling healthy choices, laughter, lightness in spirit, love and compassion: the essence of sattvic (pure) yogic living.

When you’re having fun you are free of judgement, worry and insecurity.

You feel exhilarated, connected and energised. You can’t demand it: fun simply arises. Without fun, life is dull and lacking in lustre. When you’re having fun you are fully present, engaged in the joy of the moment. In this state, you effortlessly arrive at dharana (one-pointed concentration), the sixth limb of yoga.

So how is your health regime and spirituality? Is the devotion joyful, the curiosity vibrant and each thought and act a loving, peaceful one? Is it fun or is it forced?

LEELA: DIVINE PLAY The Sanskrit word leela or lila means “divine play”. You can purify your diet and lifestyle with right intentions, becoming a playful expression of a higher, mystical nature. With a fun approach, you can enjoy your practice (abhyasa), surrender

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BODY YOGA FOR FUN

(isvara pranidhana) more easily, let go of the outcomes and willingly detach from your efforts (vairagya). These are paths for moksha (liberation), as outlined by the great saint Patanjali in The Yoga Sutras thousands of years ago.

When things get too serious or intense, you are most likely ensnared by maya: the illusion of what is real. By refocusing on inner joy with devotion to your heart space, leela uplifts.

Be grateful for health creation and aim to flow with life circumstances.

Drop into meditation as a profoundly light, serene experience of fun. Aim to renounce the goals themselves.

As David Frawley explains in Vedantic Meditation, be “open to what is intrinsically yours rather than trying to make something belong to you”.

SIMPLIFY Contemplate needless expended energy and then redirect it to nourish and contribute to conscious expansion.

When you’re free of restrictions, you are enlivened and can openly embrace funfilled practice. Healthy food preparation becomes sensual when approached playfully. Improvise with ingredients, bless the food and notice the effects on your system.

THE SHEATHS & ADVENTURES IN ASANA Just as a healthy diet is filled with variety, so is a yoga program that offers different asanas (postures) and techniques to ensure that each of the five koshas (the sheaths over the self) is thoroughly cleansed.

Kinaesthetically contemplate the koshas, allowing for radiance on the discovery toward self-realisation.

From the outer to the inner sheath, the koshas are: Annamaya kosha: casing made of food — the physical body Pranamaya kosha: psychosomatic energy sheath Manomaya kosha: casing made of mind Vijnanamaya kosha: casing made of awareness Anandamaya kosha: casing made of bliss To create variety in your yoga routine, change the environment in which you practise; for example, try doing poses in the water, on the sand, on the grass or even on a moving pontoon. Practising inversions outside will challenge your

proprioception. Safely learn poses that are new and different from your usual routine. Adorn yourself with colours that uplift you, provided they don’t distract from your inner odyssey. Express reverence while exploring your body.

Roll and play in floor poses, flow in and out, up and down and to the sides in standing poses, gently open the body in backbends and relax inwardly when folding forward. Colour in mandalas (sacred circles) as a creative, meditative practice. Practise tratak (candle gazing) to liberate the mind.

Conscious relationships are the great litmus test for higher living. If you are in a relationship and your efforts for self-improvement are not embraced by your partner, they may perceive that you’re overloading yourself and struggling and want you to relax. In this case, simply slow the energetic detoxification process down for the health of your relationship.

Consider also aspects of the relationship that may need addressing.

Be honest with your true motivations for self-improvement and aim for self-acceptance on the path for better health. By purifying and cleansing your mind as well as your body from negativity, you move towards peace. Aim for conscious forgiveness, conscious awareness and ahimsa (non-harm).

If you’re detoxing negative emotions, refrain from expressing them to your lover. Extending the exhalation in pranayama (breathing practice) will support the prana (life force) and ease the intensity of the karmic release of toxins. If your partner can witness in you a healthier mindset along with your improved physical health, they may join your newfound path of freedom.

THE AYURVEDA OF FUN A fiery intensity or overt seriousness is a pitta (fire) imbalance; relaxed play is the solution. Playful partner yoga can help you discover your playful self. The cooling inversion sarvangasana (shoulder stand) will help cool the heat of your health goals and balance your aims.

If your quest for self-improvement has a heavy inertia, kapha (water) is likely out of balance. Strong vinyasa sequences with devotional music will help uplift you. Vata (air) needs grounding if you have become scattered, spaced out or exhausted. Slow sequences with grounding poses help move creative energy for peace. Aim to

enjoy health improvements, whatever your Ayurvedic constitution, as well as the svadhyaya (self-study) involved.

INVERT YOUR PERSPECTIVE Going upside-down can detoxify your mental state and bring exhilaration to your body and mind, provided the inversions are not overheating. The intensity of pitta requires easing off handstands and headstands as they overheat the system. Pitta likes a challenge, so take a more playful attitude to arm balances without overdoing them. Sarvangasana, its variations and halasana (plough pose) assist in changing your outlook — they turn your perspective upside-down. The cooling effects are soothing.

ADORE NATURE Be light, going deeply within, opening to the charge of blissful energy during meditation. Focus on sensations, then on a single awareness like the breath or the primordial sound of aum (om).

If practising outdoors, commune with nature and adore her; become one with the surrounding beauty, taking it inside your heart. Bring the harmony of the bird’s song, the flowing water or the sun’s caress into yourself; feel the same qualities arise from within. Absorb the state of oneness in your cells. Relax and become physically attuned to bliss, mentally and emotionally accepting it.

The play of the divine is about evolving consciousness towards SatChit-Ananda (Truth-ConsciousnessBliss). Unite with the lunar energies of evening that beckon if you listen, if you quieten the rajasic (passionate) desires and allow yourself to simply be. A life filled with spirit is richer, deeper than surface desires, accessing realms of beauty and joy from within.

Sri Ramana Maharshi taught that it is not karma that binds but the desire for its results. David Frawley explains, “Desireless action is the foundation of the spiritual path and all of its methods, which should be free from selfish motivation.” Move your intentions to selfless ones, aiming to evolve for service to all. If your mind is unable to focus on peace, perform karma yoga (yoga of service) in your community.

Lighten your efforts for health and spirituality. Evolve through the subtle, delicate pulse of nature that aligns, invites and liberates your being for love.

Om prema (Love).

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 71

BODY YOGA FOR FUN A FUN YOGA SEQUENCE Practise outside in the sunshine where possible. Release any serious expectations and, if you fall out of poses, shift your intentions to play.

Intend joy and a sense of fun.

Philosopherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pose.

on floor beside left knee, right elbow resting on right knee. Cup chin in palm. Place left hand on left knee. Lift spine, work right hip down, abdomen back, shoulders down, keep hips centred. Close eyes. Relax, steadying the breath, bringing your inner gaze to the eyebrow centre. Remain here for two minutes. Repeat on other side.

Next, warm up with a series of surya namaskar, salutations to the sun.

Warrior preparation into parsvottanasana vinyasa Standing, step right leg one leg-length back on mat. Turn right foot 60 degrees to left. Inhale, raise arms above head, palms of hands facing each other, draw shoulders down. Square hips to centre.

Moving slowly on exhale, pull abdomen back towards spine then pivot from hips to come forward with straight, energised legs, placing hands on floor.

On inhale, with straight spine and energised legs, slowly rise back up to starting position. Move with the breath, repeat four more times. Change for other side. Bring a lightened endurance and fun to the sequence.

Philosopherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pose (veerasana) This relaxing pose helps cultivate awareness of the unconscious realms, calming ruminating thoughts.

Kneeling, sit on heels. Place right foot

Warrior preparation into parsvottanasana vinyasa (see right).

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Message of Shiva Standing with straightened right leg, wrap left foot around right ankle, square hips to centre. Bend right elbow, open palm at shoulder height and express

Message of Shiva.

fearlessness. Bring left upper arm close to torso, open palm at hip height, and express mercy. Breathe, draw shoulders down, abdomen back toward spine. Feel the expansive energy of this simple yet powerful pose. Breathe in divine support from the cosmos and compassion toward all. After a few minutes, repeat on other side.

Half handstand.

Half handstand (ardha adho mukha vrksasana) Sit on all fours, heels touching wall.

Walk feet up wall, hips perpendicular to feet. Straighten legs. Line shoulders up with wrists. If not in line, come out of pose, move hands closer to wall then resume position. Breathe.

Embrace courageousness, and continue into handstand.

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BODY YOGA FOR FUN Handstand (adho mukha vrksasana) Face the wall. Place hands on floor, close to wall, shoulder width apart. In a sprinter’s position, bend right knee and move left foot back slightly, removing weight from it. Spring up, kicking left leg to touch toes to wall, followed by right foot. Straighten legs, lifting shoulders from floor. Free balance feet away from wall if possible, coming back to wall for support when needed. Play!

Note: If you have high blood pressure or a heart condition, hold downwardfacing dog instead. Don’t invert if you are pregnant or menstruating.

Handstand (adho mukha vrksasana).

Wild thing (camatkarasana).

Wild thing (camatkarasana) Begin in downward-facing dog: hands and feet on floor, buttocks raised. Shift weight onto left hand and leg, raising right arm and leg off floor, rotating toward sky into side plank position.

Lifting hips, reverse or “flip the dog” over, allowing right hand to float over the head towards the ground, bending right leg. Sweep shoulder blades into back of ribs. Feel the sense of elation this heartopening posture brings. Change sides.

Cross-legged twist Sitting cross-legged, place left hand on right knee. Inhale, lift spine, exhale, with outstretched right arm, pivot from hips, twist to right. Breathe. On inhalations, lift spine, after each exhale, twist further, looking beyond hand. Change cross of your legs as you repeat on other side.

Affirm joy encircling you from within.

Shoulder-stand sequence (salambha sarvangasana) Carefully stack two half-folded blankets on mat. Lie down with shoulders on blankets, head and neck on floor. Bend knees, curl pelvis then back torso away from floor. Raise pelvis over shoulders so torso is perpendicular to floor as you bring hands up your back for support, elbows in line with shoulders.

Straighten legs, soften gaze. Remain in pose for a few minutes.

Keeping back straight, bend knees to bring soles of feet to touch, opening knees to sides. Breathe, hold position.

Next, straighten legs, lifting pelvis to straighten back. Inhale. On exhale, square hips, slowly moving straight right leg so right toes touch ground over head.

Stay for a few moments, then come back to centre and realign. Change legs, then resume sarvangasana.

Holding your back, on exhale, bend from hips and slowly lower both legs overhead into halasana, plough pose, toes on floor. Torso is perpendicular to floor, legs straight, backs of knees soft.

Lift thighs and tailbone up, relax throat.

Note: Do not perform this sequence if you are pregnant, menstruating or have high blood pressure.

Finish by lying in savasana, resting on floor, allowing the body and mind to refresh. Affirm intentions for divine light and natural expressions of leela. Feel for the bliss; have fun.

Kylie Terraluna is a regular contributor to WellBeing, a yogini, writer, yoga teacher and mum.

She travels the Vedic path of wisdom, teaching with devotion to the heart space and illuminating love. To receive your free 21-Point Yoga for Fun Checklist, text “Yoga for fun” to Kylie on +61 416 162 755. For more, visit kylieterraluna.com.au.

Shoulder-stand sequence (salambha sarvangasana) Cross-legged twist.

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SPECIAL REPORT

Back on track A strong, supple spine supports a flexible, full life but backache can be a persistent pain. You can achieve a balanced back by applying therapeutic pieces that fit your puzzle.

WORDS / CAROLINE ROBERTSON

SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH BACK PAIN

B

ack pain can come suddenly through injury but for most it creeps up slowly. Niggling whispers get louder until one day they scream as nerves pinch or muscles seize, forcing you to stop and pay attention.

Back pain is the second most common reason for a doctor visit and the most prevalent work-related illness, according to the National Health Survey 2004–9. Eighty per cent of Australian adults have backache, as yoga teacher Eileen Hall (yogamoves.com.au) attests: “Over 35 years teaching yoga, back pain is the ailment that bothers most people.”

Back pain can destabilise our serenity and security in everything including sleeping, moving, lifting, sitting, relating, working and thinking.

Pain phobia can rock your foundation and kidnap your confidence. However, there are ways back from the brink.

As Prince Charles’ physiotherapist Sarah Key (simplebackpain.com) says, “Understanding is half the cure and self-treatment is all-empowering.”

The three steps to painless freedom are learning what went wrong, rectifying it and preventing relapses.

THE MUSIC OF YOUR SPINE A healthy back is like a piano accordion. The 33 vertebral keys have back facet joints and side pedicles cushioned by tyre-like intervertebral discs. The spine creates a protective tunnel through which the string-like spinal cord and spinal nerves travel. The frame is the surrounding muscles, ligaments and tendons, which give your keys stability and musical movement. Air from the bellows or lungs stretches the spine and increases circulation. The bones are kept juicy and alive with nutrients from blood vessels. These all play a part in keeping our body dancing.

Photography Getty Images

WHAT’S WRONG? Back problems can be complex, with many contributing factors. Sometimes tests and clinical examinations identify issues but not always. Don’t get disheartened if tests do show deviations from the “norm”. Many live well with “abnormal” backs as MRI research reveals it’s not uncommon to have damaged discs and no pain.

If you get diagnosed with a long Latin label, it isn’t a life sentence, just

a message to tend to it. An optimistic, proactive and patient approach will pave your path to recovery. Beneath most baffling back issues are simple, surmountable dynamics. Your body has incredible regenerative powers and compensatory mechanisms. Embrace pain as a catalyst for positive change.

NAME CALLING Back issues are a whole-body imbalance rather than an isolated symptom: they arise from anywhere and affect any tissue. Spinal issues call for care by spreading to areas such as nerves (in sciatica) and muscles (in spasm).

Systemic issues can originate in an organ yet manifest in the spine, such as kidney stones causing lower back pain.

Spinal disorders fit into four categories: degenerative, traumatic, inflammatory and congenital.

Degenerative disc disorders are preceded by a stiff spinal segment caused by damage to the disc wall, usually from long-term compression, and they include osteoporosis, facet joint arthropathy, prolapsed disc and spinal instability.

Traumatic disorders include fractures, vertebral endplate ruptures, spondylolysis and disc wall trauma.

Inflammatory disorders include spondyloarthropathies as well as rheumatoid arthritis.

Congenital disorders include scoliosis, kyphosis, spinal stenosis, lumbarisation, sacralisation, spina bifida and short leg syndrome.

A spinal tumour can cause back pain as well.

BACK IN BALANCE Back pain often results from neglecting your needs. Repetitive mistakes such as poor posture, movement and diet ruin a good back. Once damage is done, recovery is gradual. Repairing a bad back enlists exercise, nutrition, proper posture, relaxation, herbs and therapies.

Protecting your back now is the best insurance for a pain-free future. Try these tips to sidestep setbacks.

Stand tall How’s your position now? Smile softly and scan your body for sensations.

Release soreness and tension. Squeeze an imaginary string with your urinary (PC) muscle. See that string rise straight up your spine from coccyx to crown.

Sense a helium balloon is attached to your crown. As your head drifts up, the back of your neck lengthens. Your chin tucks back with ears above your

Back pain is the second most common reason for a doctor visit and the most prevalent workrelated illness, according to the National Health Survey 2004–9. shoulders. Roll your shoulders forward, up, back and down. Open out your elbows so you feel a gap in your armpits.

Breathe into your belly and up to raise your chest. Exhaling, brace your belly.

Tuck your bum behind you using your lower back muscles and pelvic corset.

Let your hips and knees soften. Spread your feet and toes flat on the floor.

Feel the difference?

It’s hard to hold this at first but with constant practice you’ll re-pattern your stance. The Gokhale Method and Alexander technique imprint your primal posture and prevent and pacify pain.

The Alexander technique was developed by Australian actor FM Alexander, whose voice was cured by being conscious of cranio-spinal alignment. After years of severe pain, posture guru Esther Gokhale discovered ways to sit, stand and move comfortably and functionally. She believes relief from therapies can only be sustained with modifications in movement and posture.

Her classes teach one to rewire the brain for better bio-dynamics. Lessons include tall standing, glidewalking, proper breathing, better bending, easier lifting, stretch sitting and hip hinging to prevent the pelvis parking forward.

Gokhale’s focus is on letting muscles relax when appropriate and tense only when required. Her Eight Steps to a Pain-Free Back is a richly illustrated instructional book with practical tips.

Sitting pretty As Dr Eric Goodman of D.C Foundation Therapy (foundationtraining.com/finda-foundation-trainer) explains, “Sitting at desks, hunching over devices and curling over steering wheels are daily habits that directly clash with how our bodies are designed. As a result, back pain is unprecedented in our culture.”

As I type this, I’m shifting from kneeling, standing, rolling on a ball and sitting with back support. Occasionally I get up and stretch, following Dr Goodman’s advice that one shouldn’t exceed “30 minutes in a chair without standing, deep breathing, walking and stretching”. Constant compression and

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SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH

stagnation from sitting will eventually cause back pain and degeneration. Yet, like sitting ducks, we spend most waking hours seated. The damage accumulates over time as discs loose lubrication.

As babies, our discs are 90 per cent water, a figure that decreases to 70 per cent by age 70. As we age, we shrink as much as 5cm from thinning discs and spinal curvatures. Sitting either while driving or at a computer strains the neck and trapezius muscle.

Sarah Keys explains, “Long hours with the heavy head dipped forward in front of the line of gravity, the trapezius must work constantly, like horses’ reins, to stop the head from dropping lower.

This invokes tonic contraction of both sides of the neck for every moment you’re upright.” Hence come headaches, neck and upper back pain.

Frequent stretching and proper posture while sitting are vital. If you’re sitting now, align your head, link your hands behind you, squeezing your shoulder blades together, and raise your hands and eyes to the ceiling. This counters the stooping pose.

Kit Laughlin of Kit Laughlin Stetch Therapy (kitlaughlin.com) shares an effective isometric neck stretch online that can be done while sitting (see youtube.com/watch?v=IjOa9vkKRWU).

Driving can disturb back pain due to the shock impact of movement, working gears, stepping on pedals, holding the steering wheel and poor posture. Choose a car that’s a little higher so it’s easy to get in and out of. An automatic also reduces asymmetrical arm movements.

Sitting properly in a car has several components. Put the seat close to the wheel so you can steer with your shoulders back and reach pedals easily.

Initially, you might feel like you have tiny dinosaur arms but you’ll adjust. Use the car’s inflatable back pillow or strap a soft feather pillow to your lower back.

If you spend hours sitting at a screen, you need to save your spine with proper posture. Sarah Key says, “Having the keyboard at the right height and the screen at the right distance is essential to minimise postural strain.” Aligning the arms and upper body prevents pain and chronic muscle tension called fibrosis. An ergonomic arrangement supports a relaxed body.

Esther Gokhale teaches “stretch sitting”, which entails hoisting your upper back up against the chair to decompress the lower back. She explains, “Your lengthened back muscles contribute to improved circulation,

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Consider sitting on a fit ball at work.

Frequent stretching and proper posture while sitting are vital. which hastens healing and helps to decompress discs and nerves.”

Vary how you sit and what you’re sitting on. Consider a fit ball, kneel in Japanese seiza position or sit crosslegged if flexible. Place feet on a circulation booster to counter effects of long hours sitting.

Positive posture Do you have a “down” or “up” posture?

Those with an upright, aligned posture have more energy, enthusiasm, confidence and cognitive recall, studies show. Conversely, those with slumped, poor posture feel more fear, sadness, anger and fatigue. Good posture not only looks good, it feels good. As we emanate a more commanding, appealing presence, it increases circulation and oxygen levels from better breathing.

Standing tall raises testosterone and lowers cortisol, says psychologist Amy Cuddy, conveying confidence in others and yourself. Hunched introverts have a protective posture whereas extroverts have an empowered appearance, which may be why they’re more energetic.

Your walk also talks. A 2012 study had students walk in a slouched position then a skipping action. All students reported feeling less energy after slouching and more after skipping.

Psychologist Erik Peper says slouching

impedes problem solving and creative thinking. If your body expresses weakness through poor posture, your brain believes you’re weak, fuelling stress, anxiety and depression. I’ve noticed that patients with chronic back pain often have a history of depression. By improving their posture, they shift their mental state and improve their back.

Fortunately, it’s possible to “fake it till we make it”. As you retrain yourself to have better posture, you project positivity and confidence. This breeds better feelings in a biofeedback boost and new postural patterns become habitual. Try power posing to shift your state, as Cuddy recommends. “Wonder Woman” pose has both feet spread apart and hands on hips.

“Victory” stance has feet together, arms straight up in a V-shape and chin tilted upward. Feel the effect?

Get up “Sit still,” we’re told at school, but kids naturally shift position, stretching, experimenting. Animals are the same.

Your body's meant to move. The best way to counter compression and stagnation from sitting or lifting is to exercise.

Your back and brain benefit from regular blood-flowing breaks. Set a reminder alarm every 30 minutes for a stretch break. Put up notes such as “posture”. Every 30 minutes, squat and stretch. Try 10 rounds of up dog to down dog. This gaps the lumbar vertebrae, stretches muscles and activates the sacral pump for circulation. Hang upside-down on an inversion frame for 10 breaths or rest on a back block to unwind. Lie on your back with arms outstretched by the sides, bum close to the wall and legs resting up the wall.

Bed bliss A serene sleep is vital to mental and physical rejuvenation. According to Sarah Key, “A bad bed can be the undoing of a not-so-bad back. This happens when a bed that’s too soft brings a lurking stiff spinal link to the fore through lying spread out on a weaker support.”

The best bed is firm yet springy enough to support movement during sleep. A pocket-spring mattress on a dense base is a therapeutic aid as it assists your spine to decompress and the discs to plump up. Says Sarah Key,

Photography Getty Images

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accelerating spinal disc degeneration.

Move mindfully You don’t realise how you are slouching or walking weirdly until you catch your reflection or someone mentions it.

Mindful movement makes every step a dance, every gesture graceful. This is achieved by assessing your habits with ongoing awareness. When in acute pain, don’t freeze in fear. Smile, breathe deeply, touch the area, thank it for telling you and continue — consciously. Basic incorrect actions can climax as pain.

Feldenkrais offers excellent exercises to move mindfully. Functional walking, rising, sitting, lying, turning and lifting are all key to back recovery. A general rule is to maintain symmetry and equal weight on both sides. Moving from a strong core protects your back better than any brace. When in pain, bend less by using a pick-up stick and sit to dress.

Being barefoot stretches and strengthens stabilising muscles of the ankles and feet, improving overall balance.

Those with an upright, aligned posture have more energy, enthusiasm, confidence and cognitive recall, according to studies.

Bra-vo Being buxom can be a burden and back pain is the commonest reason for breast-reduction surgery. Maintaining ideal weight, strengthening muscles and wearing a supportive bra can counter the strain of a big bust.

Figures estimate that up to 80 per cent of women wear the wrong size and type of bra. This leads to back pain, restricted breathing and poor posture. A tight bra blocks circulation and restricts breathing. An unsupportive bra causes a well-endowed woman to slump forward.

Posture or encapsulation sports bras are best for large-breasted women, supporting each breast in a sturdy cup.

To ensure the correct size, get professionally fitted. Wear a bra for at least five minutes to ensure comfort.

Check the shoulder straps don’t dig into you, the back doesn’t ride up and your cups don’t overflow. The centrepiece of underwired bras should sit flat against your chest and the wire should rest under your bust with no gaps.

Strengthen the inner bra of your pectoral muscles by placing your hands together in prayer and pressing your palms firmly together for three breaths.

Go braless and massage your breasts daily to ensure proper circulation and lymph flow.

Work well Back-breaking jobs demand long hours sitting, standing still and lifting or repetitive actions. Income is important but the price of a paycheque shouldn’t be your health.

Back pain can be a call to reassess your workstyle. If you can’t change jobs, minor adjustments can make a major difference. Altering posture, seating, desk, location, hours, organisation and stress management can help.

If you want to change careers, start taking the necessary steps now.

Wonderful work can help healing as we engage energy in meaningful pursuits. Being passionate about your profession is a health elixir whereas health declines when you lack a fulfilling occupational outlet, according to studies of unemployed and retired people.

Careful carrying “I only have one regret in life: lifting that piano,” said a client suffering herniated discs. Sometimes our mind is stronger than our body and we think, “I can quickly carry that 50-kilo pot!”

— but you’re not superhuman. Even lifting lighter weights incorrectly such as a baby on a hip can have painful repercussions. Follow these basic guidelines to lift off: Avoid heavy lifting.

Photography Getty Images

“The same quantity of fluid lost by day is brought back in again by night. Our spines actually grow by nearly 2cm overnight, as discs imbibe fluid.”

Sleeping mostly symmetrically on your back reduces spinal twisting. On your side, place the upper leg over a pillow to reduce twisting. Ensure your pillow supports the gap between your head and neck, moulding to your shifting positions. During severe joint or arthritic pain, a convoluted foam mattress overlay can be a godsend. Research has revealed that patients with chronic pain using grounded carbon-fibre mattresses sleep better and experience less pain.

Free your feet Torturous shoes are tootsie prisons, preventing feet from moving as they should. This creates physical stress through the whole body. Heavy shoes strain ankles, knees and hips. High heels throw you off balance, particularly your lower back. Unsupportive shoes affect your arches, which alters your stance. Orthotics are useful if the foot is the origin of a back problem, which is rarely the case. If there’s an anatomical leg-length difference, a shoe lift can reduce symptoms.

Pamper your feet with comfortable, light shoes. The best shoes are nothing.

Walking barefoot or in socks is a great way to absorb the Earth’s electrons, which are antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, alkalising and relaxing. Being barefoot stretches and strengthens stabilising muscles of the ankles and feet, improving overall balance.

Back breathing Every breath lengthens and stretches the spine. Each exhale stimulates lymphatics, increases circulation, massages organs and releases acidic carbon dioxide.

Dr Eric Goodman suggests structured decompression breathing to improve posture and banish back pain. It lengthens hip flexors, stabilises the spine and supports the core. To do this style of breathing, put your thumbs at the base of your rib cage and your pinkies on your hip bones. Take three slow deep breaths with the distance between your thumbs and pinkies increasing as you inhale. Exhale with braced abdominal muscles so your ribcage doesn’t collapse. Repeat this for five breaths three times a day and gradually it will be instilled in your muscle memory.

For fresh oxygen and strong circulation, stop smoking. Smoking impedes blood flow to the spine,

Use a trolley, pram, pulley, wheels or assistance.

Carry minimal weight in your bag and wear it symmetrically. Properly fitted backpacks with stomach straps are ideal.

Hold a baby securely on your back, not your front.

Teach your child to climb independently into chairs.

Before lifting a heavy object, gauge its weight by moving it from side to side, forward or back.

Mentally rehearse how you’ll lift it. Establish a path and place where you’ll set it down. Position yourself face on, close to the object. Get a balanced, firm footing. Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Keep your back straight and perpendicular to the ground.

Bend your knees, not your waist, and slowly squat.

Get a good grip. Tighten your core and lift with your legs, not your back. Keep your load close to your body and never above shoulder level. Never twist while lifting. Turn with feet first then your body.

Take small steps. After lifting, slowly rock your pelvis back and forth or do a gentle cat stretch.

Restorative rest Take regular gravity breaks to ease compression and tension. Horizontal meditation can be more effective than medication. Lying on a back block or in astronaut’s position gently tractions the back.

(See youtube.com/watch?v=MJUBCbusUbE.)

GET THE MENTAL MESSAGE “There’s nothing like a little physical pain to keep your mind off your emotional problems,” says Dr John E Sarno, author of Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection. He asserts that back pain can sometimes be a distraction to repress unconscious emotions.

The mind manifests pain messages so we focus on them instead of painful emotions. With thousands of patients, Dr Sarno found that, by accepting and addressing negative emotions, pain lost its purpose and vanished. He says people prone to psychologically based pain tend to be perfectionists or people pleasers or have repressed anger and fear of activity.

Back pain can stem from many emotions. The lower back is connected with material insecurity: feeling you don’t have safety in your situation around relationships, home, work and finances.

Hip pain is feeling stuck. Middle back is feeling overwhelmed by people on your back. Upper back is overburdened by the weight of the world. The neck is suppressed sadness. These feelings may have no basis in reality.

As Louise Hay explains, even when there’s support, people with lower back pain “don’t trust in the competence or intentions of people around them”. This leads them to criticise and over-control the situation in order to feel secure, which sabotages things more. Affirmations to clear emotional issues beneath back pain include: “Life always supports me. I trust life. I have all I need. I am secure. I am balanced. I easily flow forward.”

Superficial treatment of back pain often brings only shortterm relief; long-term cure radiates from inner realisations to outer manifestations. Pain forces you to come out of emotional denial and take responsibility for your role in the problem.

See pain as your mind asking you to assess your emotions and actions, then respond with psychological and physical changes. Face money, work and relationship issues. Take an inventory of any life events that could be triggering pain and write about them. Observe meditation and dreams as mirrors of your true emotional state.

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SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH BACK PAIN Tap into your positive life force through uplifting meditation.

On waking, look at a picture that personifies what a strong back feels like to you. Close your eyes and see your body at its prime. Repeat “strong, stable, supported” three times. Acknowledge assistance in your life. Don’t add to suffering by feeling bad about negative emotions. Each moment be aware, accept and feel at one with reality and it will reveal your way to recovery. Once understood, pain stops talking.

PRIORITISE PLEASURE

ENLIGHTENED EATING A happy back comes from a healthy body.

Ideal eating, assimilation and elimination support your back structures. Deranged digestion or diet influence the back.

Blockages such as kidney stones, gall stones, endometriosis, cysts and spurs aggravate pain. Depletion from dehydration or malnutrition weakens the back. Acidity and food allergies increase inflammatory pain. Constipation, diarrhoea or prolapses strain the lower back and hips.

Ayurvedic doctor Rama Prasad (drramaprasad.com) perceives back pain as symptomatic of digestive problems: “Back pain is a call from your struggling internal organs. When your intestines are healthy, your sacroiliac joints are better. When your liver is at ease, your middle back is content. When your stomach’s smiling, your neck relaxes.

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When in acute pain, don’t freeze in fear.

Smile, breathe deeply, touch the area, thank it for telling you and continue — consciously.

When your lungs are strong, your shoulders are loose!”

Chinese abdominal massage therapy Chi Nei Tsang also treats back pain by optimising digestion. “Any spasm, blockage or toxicity from digestive organs will filter through to back bones and muscles,” says Chi Nei Tsang master Wanalee Kesornsri. Massaging your own abdomen and cleanses assist, along with the following nutrition tips: Check for food allergies or intolerances as inflammation and malabsorption contribute to back problems.

Relax muscles with magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, calcium and B complex.

Build bones with vitamin D3, calcium citrate, magnesium, phosphorus, hydroxyapatite, boron, chondroitin, glucosamine and MSM. Reduce acidic inflammation with omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil, flax seed oil, mussels, salmon, sardines, tuna and trout.

Drink at least a litre of pure water daily.

Reduce acidic foods such as sugar, carbohydrates, trans-fatty acids, grains, alcohol, red meat, caffeine and cocoa.

Reduce nightshade vegetables such as eggplant, tomatoes and potatoes.

They aggravate arthritis as they contain solanine, an inhibitor of cholinesterase, which facilitates flexibility.

Alkalise with alfalfa sprouts, broccoli, chlorella, kale, sodium bicarbonate and

spirulina. Check first with your health provider if you have hyperthyroidism.

BACK OFF! Pharmaceutical pain killers and antiinflammatories provide short-term support in back pain management.

The upside is they can get you up. The downside is that they can be addictive and mask important pain signs. This allows one to do unconscious damage.

Natural anti-inflammatories include astaxanthin, curcumin, Boswellia, bromelain, rosehip and omega-3 fatty acids. External oils that may ease pain include glucosamine, magnesium, cayenne, Chinese Zheng Gu Shui and Ayurvedic Dhanwantharam oil.

Soothing essential oils include blue chamomile, camphor, frankincense, peppermint and wintergreen. Applying black sesame oil to your spine and hips once daily will relax muscles and nerves while nourishing bones.

EXERCISE When movement precipitates pain, we can withdraw into a sedentary shell.

This is fine for a few days but it may develop into physicophobia: a fear of activity. If you rest too much you rust.

Lack of circulation, stretching and strengthening causes stiffness as well as wasting, inflammation and weight gain. Appropriate exercise is essential to attain and maintain health. Listen to your body and avoid aggravating exercise while opening to new moves. Try the therapeutic methods below to kiss back pain goodbye.

Spinal appeasing During acute, intense pain you need to slowly unlock the back with very soft movements. Gentle massage, rocking and stretching will help to dissolve the

Photography Bigstock

Wallowing down in the dumps only deepens pain pathways — you’re much more than your body. Yoga teaches we’re all essentially sat, cit, ananda: eternal, omniscient, blissful beings. Detach from your pain body by increasing your inner aliveness. Feel all the pain-free areas of your body. Note all the blessings in your life. Tap into your positive life force through uplifting meditation, music, movement, a makeover, laughter, deep breathing, hobbies, nature, work, social interaction and charity — whatever makes you smile.

Treatment doesn’t have to be torture.

Sometimes, just by letting go, your pain goes. This happened to Norman Cousins who, as he recounts in his book Anatomy of an Illness, laughed his agonising ankylosing spondylitis away.

Pleasure overrides pain pathways through pain-killing hormones. These euphoric endorphins alleviate the anxiety, stress and depression often paired with pain. Every night before bed, schedule three joyful things to do tomorrow. Show yourself love every day and your body will love you back.

stress. Once you learn to pacify pain you’ll deal with a flare-up with calm confidence. Sarah Key offers effective appeasing exercises on her video at youtube.com/watch?v=B8eTYU4bjFg. Foundation Training Developed by chiropractor Dr Eric Goodman to overcome his own back pain, Foundation Training is a movement program that brings balance, strength and flexibility. Many professional athletes including surfer Lakey Peterson swear by it. “I had recurring lower back problems when I was younger but, since starting Foundation Training, I’ve felt constant improvement with little to no pain whatsoever,” Peterson says.

Foundation Training is a simple set of structural exercises that address the weakness underlying recurring back pain. Dr Goodman says, “By teaching you to reengage with your body and take control of your movement, health and ultimately your wellbeing, this program helps you find your physical freedom.”

It recruits the core to align posture, lengthen the front of the body and fortify the back of the body.

The key exercise is called “The Founder”. As the saying goes, “A chain

is only as strong as its weakest link,” so The Founder strengthens all the back links for strong, long alignment.

It distributes weight evenly through the body so the lumbar spine doesn’t get dumped with constant pressure.

For The Founder instructions, see foundationtraining.com/videos_and_blog/ our-back-pain-solution-the-founder.

Stretch Therapy Australian Kit Laughlin has shared his Stretch Therapy techniques in his classic book Overcome Neck & Back Pain. Laughlin won his own struggle with a leg-length difference and musculoskeletal issues through rigorous research and self-study.

His comprehensive method uses stretching, strengthening, repatterning and relaxation.

Laughlin puts prime emphasis on releasing the hip flexors: “Many people’s middle-back pain and neck pain have their genesis in tight hip flexors and the consequent anteriorly tilted pelvis. Most of the tension in people’s spinal muscles is tension that is necessary to hold the person upright because of this anterior tilt. Change that and the whole body-tension pattern changes. After having their hip flexors

stretched, the majority of people describe the internal state of the body as literally feeling liberated.”

For stretches, please see youtube.com/user/KitLaughlin/ search?query=hip+flexors.

Yoga Yoga adepts move with admirable poise and sit with strong, straight backs. Yoga teacher Eileen Hall says, “In most cases of back pain, with correct guidance and regular practice of yoga postures, relaxation and correct breathing techniques, the pain can be reduced and even become a past memory.”

She emphasises the importance of “working the entire spine symmetrically, breathing correctly to open the spine and stretching then strengthening in equal amounts”. Hall has discovered that “older injuries require a practice that moves from the edges to the core of the problem. New injuries, once inflammation has subsided, can often be dealt with directly.”

Yoga teacher Simon Borg-Olivier of Yoga Synergy (yogasynergy.com) says, “The most common cause of back pain is due to compression and excess muscle tension in the back; the simplest solution is to lengthen and relax the

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SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH back.” Yoga postures for pain are best prescribed by a yoga teacher in a private session. An individualised program will ensure you avoid aggravating postures, address specific weaknesses and get ongoing support.

Rebounding Get your bounce back on a mini tramp.

This high-intensity exercise doesn’t jar joints so you can work out without shock impact injuries. Utah University studies found “a high-intensity workout on a rebounder’s soft surface can absorb approximately 87 per cent of impact”.

Sydney physiotherapist John Conomos recommends rebounding for recuperation: “Rebounding is a wonderful way to recover post injury.

It helps gain muscle strength, recruit muscle fibres, re-educate and enhance co-ordination and balance.” It also shakes out stress and builds bone.

Pull-ups The blue Wiggle Anthony Field is a survivor of severe back pain. He’s now pain free and fitter than ever. Field attributes this largely to a pull-up routine as detailed in his fascinating book How I Got My Wiggle Back: A Memoir of Healing.

Pull-ups strengthen the upper body and core while stretching the spine.

Proper form is essential with pull ups as hanging from the hands improperly strains the shoulders, arms and hands.

Build up slowly and before long you’ll be swinging like Tarzan: youtube.com/ watch?v=fQ_WQVJYGp0.

Pilates Jenia Goulter is inspired by her clients at Palm Cove Pilates (palmcovepilates.com): “Students in their 60s with crippling pain have improved incredibly with commitment to consistent practice.”

Pilates, with its precise instructions, is a safe place to expand your back’s boundaries. It brings you back to basics by stabilising the spine and perfecting posture. Pilates tips translate into daily life as you always replay cues to correct alignment and engage the inner corset.

As Goulter explains, “Pilates works from inside out. You visualise the deepest muscles rippling through to the superficial layers. You learn to listen to your body and talk to it confidently.” For clients in pain, Goulter advises an initial private session to devise a personalised program.

Water works Submerging stress in warm water can melt pain away. Water gives weightless relief whether via a borax bath, swim, hydrotherapy or Watsu water massage.

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Inverting reverses the gravitational grind, aligns the spine, juices joints and frees nerves.

Three-dimensional, even resistance around the body provides great strength and balance training. Swimming strokes suited to stretch certain tissues and strengthen others are healing when done with alignment awareness.

Poor swimming form can create or compound back pain, however. Olympic swimmer Shayne Gould turned to the Total Immersion swimming technique to solve her shoulder problem. This teaches effective, enjoyable swimming from a strong core. For free freestyle lessons, view totalimmersion.net/blog/videos.

SPINE SOLUTIONS One may turn to a fleet of therapists and spend squillions to cope with back pain.

However, it will ultimately be conquered through constant commitment to proper posture, exercise, eating and relaxation.

Therapies support your efforts but are no substitute for self-care.

Acupuncture can enlist your own chi to unblock back pain. It reprograms nerve messages from the brain to the body. The TENS tool (for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) can also do this. Ayurveda has powerful body therapies for back pain. Potent herbalised oils or milk are poured or pooled over the patient to allay aches and their origin.

Chiropractic care employs education and spinal adjustment to crack the client back into balance. Expert massage

eases emotional tension, relieves pain, lowers stress chemicals, increases flexibility, stimulates lymph, reduces recovery time and realigns tissues.

Osteopathic treatment is a hands-on holistic approach encompassing all tissues, employing massage and manual manipulation for integration.

Physiotherapy has three general principles of treatment, according the physiotherapist Sarah Key: separate spinal segments; condition spinal, abdominal and pelvic floor muscles to work well; and relearn normal, unselfconscious, unguarded movement.

She advises, “Even with your own selftreatment, you have to make your spine do its stuff as naturally as possible.

With all treatment you have to proceed carefully, using a proper proportion of appeasing exercises to proactive, mobilising and decompressing ones.”

Inversion frame Hanging upside-down counters the accordion crunch of gravity. Inverting reverses the gravitational grind, aligns the spine, juices joints and frees nerves.

It often gives instant relief of sciatica.

In fact, a Newcastle University study showed that sciatica patients who practised inversion were 70.5 per cent less likely to require surgery.

Personal trainer Dana Eden (danaedencorporatefitness.com) found, “Regular inversion with my clients improved circulation, flexibility, back pain relief, reduced muscle tension, stimulated lymph flow, assisted posture correction and reduced effects of ageing due to gravity.”

An inversion frame is the ideal option as it provides support, easy transition and angle options.

Back brace or posture corrector Wearing a back brace or corset is like an external band of muscles giving extra support. These are particularly useful in the short term after exercise, extended sitting, prolonged standing or when lifting. Sacroiliac belts stabilise the pelvis during pregnancy and reduce hip pain.

If braces are worn for too long, though, they’ll cause lazy muscles.

A study of active home-health workers revealed that wearing a back brace halved their average number of painful days. For a 2015 review of the best back braces, see healthbestreviews. com/best-back-support-braces-reviews.

Caroline Robertson is a passionate practitioner of complementary medicine. She uses naturopathy and many modalities to facilitate self-healing.

For consultations, guided meditations and health retreats, see carolinerobertson.com.au.

Photography Getty Images

BACK PAIN

A traditional medicine to improve your immune function, stamina and general health Immune Plex is a herbal medicine in a convenient, pleasant tasting liquid form that can be diluted with water or other fluids if necessary.

• Traditionally used to assist the body’s natural ability to resist infection • Traditionally used to improve immune function, stamina and general health • Traditionally used as an aid during times of stress Immune Plex contains Reiishi Mushroom, Astragalus, Echinacea Purpurea and Olive Leaf. Based on evidence found in traditional use of herbs across different cultures, PPC’s liquid herbal medicines offer choice for health and well-being. We are an Australian owned and operated manufacturer of herbal medicines with 25 years experience in formulating and manufacturing.

To order Immune Plex, or to see our range of other herbal medicines and personal care products, go to www.ppcherbs.com.au or visit your local Health Food store.

Exclusively for ‘WellBeing’ readers, please use this product code – IMMUNEWELL for free shipping* on any order of Immune Plex placed on our website within Australia. * offer valid until 1st March, 2016

WARNINGS: ALWAYS READ THE LABEL. Use only as directed and consult your Healthcare Practitioner if symptoms persist.

Immune Plex is not to be used in children under 2 years without medical advice. Contains Ethanol. Store below 30˚C. CHC70964-10/15 6122PPC

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COMMUNITY COMMUNAL LIVING

GROWING OLD TOGETHER Three couples, six dear friends, have chosen to share their later years together, and their lives and experiences are immeasurably richer for it.

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY / KYLIE TERRALUNA

Y

oga teacher Eve Grzybowski is about to turn 71. Together with her husband Daniel, 67, and four of their closest, married friends — Michael, 72, Judy, 65, Heather, 69, and Rick, 70 — they made a decision about 15 years ago to grow old together with their friends.

They simply did not want to see each other end up in nursing homes as they age, or be alone when partners die, so they created their own communal house and trialled living together, renting a large three-storey, six-bedroom house on the water in Longueville, NSW, for two years. They then joint-purchased an acreage property, making a tree change retirement to Mitchells Island, NSW. This is their adventure, their wild ride with meticulous future planning.

They have been living at Mitchells Island for six years now in their beautiful, purpose-built, luxury designer home that none could afford without one another’s contributions. Besides their frequent sojourns overseas, they don’t ever plan to leave.

While in Longueville, the six attracted the attention of documentary filmmakers who captured the intimacy of their lives with a full 18 months of “reality” filming. The filmmakers gave up when they couldn’t capture the drama and infighting they were hoping for.

These three couples know how to live in harmony. They all engage in ongoing personal-growth activities and are collectively known as “The Shedders”. Their property began with nothing more than a two-bedroom shed on five acres, now the yoga studio and guest accommodation. They grow their own food, pursue their own passions, mark special occasions and celebrate life together.

Could The Shedders have the answers to conscious living into old age? Could we all celebrate through

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intimate social connection rather than suffer the fate of mental health breakdowns and further isolation that growing old often brings? Could designing your life together with your closest friends actually be a preventive health treatment and a financial solution for your happy, elderly existence? If you can imagine it, who you would like to grow old with? Are you nurturing those relationships for lifetime friendships?

LIFE BY DESIGN “We knew it would be hard work and we had to look at agreements, but that’s part of designing your life,” explains Heather. Yet, for Rick, “Most of it wasn’t hard work — it was fun! Life by design is creating your own adventure.”

Each decision has been a collective one and, for this group of friends, learning to let go when mutual agreement can’t be reached is part of the ride. “Take everything with a grain of salt,” advises Rick. “As we get older we get more set in our ways and get snarly when things happen, but [being a Shedder] keeps me young!”

“Of all the options for people to cohabit, the method we chose is one of the most intimate,” reflects Heather.

“Not many couples choose to live with two other couples and only one kitchen and living area. In some ways, it would be easier to set up a community village but, personally, the rewards we reap are commensurate with the challenges of greater intimacy. To go down to the kitchen and have a cup of coffee and know the other people will be there gets me socialising in the world,” she smiles.

Still, it’s a big decision to invest in your friends like this. What if it doesn’t work out? Do you sell? What if someone divorces — what then? For The Shedders, there are exit clauses in place in case any couple or individual

wants out at any time. Rick says, “We’ve all known each other for 30 years ... You better know them well, and love them.”

“Most of the time our house is in wonderful harmony,” explains Heather, who says she doesn’t like being around volatile people. “There is no difference between this and any good marriage.”

MARRIAGE Most of the six are well into their second marriage by now. “Living in a group like this takes the heat out of your marriage and we often lean on each other for support,” says Eve. In a marriage, she says, “You keep communicating in the way you do, and you will get the same result, but when you bring marital stuff to the group, you get a different result for the marriage.”

Judy explains, “People wonder if we are sexually active with each other and, no, we are not. We are sexually active within the privacy of our own marriages.”

“As soon as you choose this, you are making your life more complex and that’s a good thing — the complexities of relationship,” asserts Heather. “As soon as you combine your life with [those of] other people there are more decisions to be made, more feelings to consider, more conversations to be had. You can’t avoid intimacy, even if you weren’t thinking about it at the time.

Part of the reason why you would do this is to have your friends close at hand.”

FOOD & FINANCES Daniel explains that the evening meals are all shared. “There’s no schedule as to who cooks, but we cycle through the couples. No one is uptight,” he says. The Shedders run the bills as a strata unit fund, with everyone putting in AU $700 a month, including capital expenses. Food is bought separately when not grown and the cooks share the food that evening.

COMMUNITY COMMUNAL LIVING

Above, from top left: Michael, Rick, Daniel, Judy, Heather and Eve. Clockwise, from top right: The shed, in its early days; Eve and Daniel; a view over the fields; the Sheddersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; home; Rick and Heather on the beach.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 87

COMMUNITY COMMUNAL LIVING Eve and Judy in the organic garden; left, Eve and Heather in the early days, before the building works.

There are two fridges and cleaning is a joint household activity. Michael is a character: “Heather created a spreadsheet, which I mostly ignore. I do my bit and I don’t tick it. There’s a house calendar and we can see what’s happening — you were on it, Kylie.”

Heather says the financial benefits mean “we save close to half”. Expands Rick, “You don’t need three washing machines ... and, because we don’t have to pay as much for the basics, we have luxuries.”

Heather and Rick travel to Canada for three months each year and sometimes there are four of the six Shedders away. Heather explains, “We pass on responsibilities organically. You ask, ‘Eve, will you water the plants on my deck?’ and ‘Michael, will you do the lawns for Rick?’”

“Not many couples choose to live with two other couples and only one kitchen and living area but, personally, the rewards we reap are commensurate with the challenges of greater intimacy. adventurers, world travellers, organic gardeners and supports to the community. The men attend men’s group, something new for Rick and Michael, and Judy encouraged the group to join a choir, bringing an unexpected additional joy to their lives.

JOINING A CHOIR AT HOME If spaces speak — and they do — the home of The Shedders speaks of gentle celebration, laughter, acceptance and relaxation. It has a welcoming, relaxed feel to it, full of light and thoroughly grounded with neutral colours. It has been designed for simple pleasures: to share coffee, meals, stories and passions. Each couple has their own private area: a bedroom, ensuite, living space and balcony. The communal area is spacious, well planned and embraces the beauty of nature with large windows to enjoy the serene views and double curtains to keep the warmth in. They have clerestory windows for additional light to overcome the slope of the block.

Heather shares, “We like to celebrate. If there is nothing on the calendar we make something up. There is always something to celebrate. We create positivity.”

These are not your typical 70-yearolds. They are active yogis, singers,

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Research on mental health indicates that, for all age groups, social isolation is a considerable contributing factor.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics states that, in 2007, 45 per cent of all Australians between 16 and 85 at some point in their lives experienced mental disorders. For the elderly, dementia is a concern. Music psychotherapist Kirstin Robertson-Gillam (kirstinrg. com) explains that social learning promotes cognitive functioning and can slow down the onset of dementia in later life. It seems this household is constantly learning socially, so is already ahead of the curve.

Further, Robertson-Gillam’s PhD studies show that choir singing could stimulate cognitive functioning and increase quality of life, wellness, meaning and purpose. EEG studies show that depressed and anxious people have unbalanced brainwave frequencies, which balance up after only eight weeks of choir therapy,

she explains. The Shedders are avid members of community choirs.

What other factors make their situation work?

COMMUNITY “We each have a vision of stimulation of the things we have taken on,” says Michael. “This tends not to happen as people get into their 70s or older because they are in a nuclear situation, or on their own, yet we are interested and engaged in life because we have the stimulation of other interests. There’s always lively discussion and sharing and opening up to other possibilities.”

Michael teaches mindfulness, Eve teaches yoga, Heather joined a gardening club and they are all involved in Scribblers, a writers’ group. Judy and Eve are volunteers in palliative care, supporting the nurses in the area.

Eve explains, “Our neighbour had breast cancer and owns a farm, so The Shedders helped with their crops.

There’s a bond that’s created and a recognition that we are contributing to the community as The Shedders.”

Heather takes the neighbour to appointments. It’s kindness that’s recognised: The Shedders are “so lovely” the way they take care of her, says their neighbour.

Says Judy, “We stand for something — we’re contributors in the community.”

Eve adds, “We can reach out into the wider community as The Shedders and not just as individuals. This helps to get things off the ground.”

The friends’ life by design is based on research. “It’s luminosity,” says Michael.

“There is scientific evidence that these things work. People are better off socialising because the evidence is that social contact is what people need from birth to death. It’s about finding a way to meet that social need.”

COMMUNITY COMMUNAL LIVING Clockwise: Eve, Daniel, Michael and Judy with the yoga shed at the rear; a gorgeous view from the homestead.

Judy says, “We all met doing the Landmark Forum (landmarkforum.com) and it is the basis of our communication style.” Michael explains: “We know not to let things rot; we can work things out.”

Adds Judy, “We fertilise each other.”

“We like to celebrate. If there is nothing on the calendar we make something up. There is always something to celebrate.

We create positivity.”

THE ART OF DYING What is it like, to help other people in their later years? Judy and Eve have a unique view after doing a Midwifing Death Course together. Explains Judy: “It’s an exquisite experience being with people who are dying. It’s subtle and delicate and incredibly tender, as close as you can get to the mystery of life.”

Eve says, “We can go through life on the surface of things ... In the death process, you realise how much of a spiritual journey it is for the person making the transition.” Daniel jumps in, “So the rest of us are planning to go before Eve and Judy do,” and Michael declares, “I’m planning not to die!” At which point, Judy looks over at both of them and says, “You’ll get tired of this.

You’ll wonder, what else is there?”

In terms of their own needs for palliative care as they age, Judy is realistic: “This is the last post. At some point in ageing or illness, if we are six in a household, it would be easier to get support services than if we were alone.”

SEPARATE LIVES The Shedders don’t do everything together. Michael explains, “We welcome and engage with anyone who comes to stay, but you are not obliged to show up and be attentive to other people’s guests.”

“The challenge is in being treated as a group,” Daniel says. “We don’t have a separate place where you can have a private dinner and this means more flexibility. We go out for dinner if we want to be private, and then it’s just us.

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It changes the conversations you have.

We are always working to break the assumptions people have about us.”

Only Heather and Rick are actually retired. “Work is more fun,” exclaims Michael. “But there needs to be a balance,” continues Judy. Each of the six seems to have it. They take beach walks, Judy kayaks, they go bike riding. “Each of us has a custodian relationship with the area ... We have a wider interest in the whole island and that comes out of our commitment to the planet,” says Eve.

FLOURISHING For the past three or four years, Heather, Rick and Eve, with four friends outside of the household, have been sharing a weekly personal report together. “We reflect back, based on the work of Martin Seligman and his book Flourish. As human beings we are meant to flourish,” explains Rick.

Each of their personal reports consists of five components: 1. Positive Emotions 2. Engagement 3. Relationships 4. Meaning 5. Accomplishment “We swap reports to see how we are going in these areas,” says Rick. “It’s a good discipline to look back over the past week and see that life wasn’t that bad. I don’t want to sit around killing time.”

Eve says, “I go out into the yoga studio each morning and I look across the garden and feel into the day. I enjoy nature and the exchange is not predicted. I didn’t give myself time when I was in the city.”

Michael agrees. “Being in nature causes a recalibration of the spirit that assists people. It’s deeply nurturing to the spirit; it’s so soothing to live here.”

“It has taken 10 years from our first conversation to the house being built,” explains Eve. So, if you’re considering following this model, give yourselves plenty of time. Judy says, “When you come over the river, you sigh and take in the sunset and think, ‘This is my life!

How did I get this life?’”

You designed it Judy, as part of the six, with a commitment to honest communication, to right intentions, to follow-through, to love, to pursuing passions, to living an adventure, with a willingness to dive in. Could you?

To learn more about The Shedders’ experiences, Heather has written an entertaining, in-depth account of their journey from her unique point of view, called Shedders by Heather Bolstler. It’s available on Kindle.

Kylie Terraluna is an impassioned writer, yogini, yoga teacher and mum. She teaches Vedic lifestyle practices for sacred, harmonious living, liberation and love. W: kylieterraluna.com.au

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I

t is a beautiful, sunny morning in Otaki, a small town on the Kapiti Coast of New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s North Island. At the Horse Sense farm, a block slightly inland from the expansive coast, a young man walks around the horse paddock slowly and awkwardly, looking studiously at the ground. As he sits down on a brightly coloured barrel in the middle of the enclosure, one of the four horses in the paddock walks over, stops right in front of him and gently nuzzles his face.

Although the young man continues to gaze only at the ground, a gradual and noticeable change comes over his physique as the hunched shoulders slowly relax and his whole body comes to be at ease.

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The healing power of

HORSES The therapeutic ability of horses has long been acknowledged but, now, novel forms of equine therapy are creating new and holistic pathways to facilitate personal awareness and change.

WORDS / DR TANYA ALLPORT PHOTOGRAPHY / JENNIFER HOBSON

SPIRIT EQUINE THERAPY Equine therapy utilises the remarkable characteristics of horses to assist people with a variety of psychosocial challenges.

This physical relaxation is just the first stage of Paul’s weekly therapy session using Equine Assisted Development and Counselling, where the mere presence of the calm, regal horses surrounding him seem to have an immediate soothing effect. As a young person from a severely disadvantaged background, Paul lives in a residential care facility and, during his initial sessions, he refused to communicate with either the trained psychologist or the two equine specialists who co-ordinate the therapy. Now, after several sessions, Paul — although still shy and hesitant — engages with the herd of horses who are part of the “therapy team” and has started to articulate his feelings, both verbally to his therapist and by writing in a journal at the end of each session.

“Just last week Paul had an amazing moment with one of the horses,” comments Geraldine Keith, psychologist at Horse Sense. “And then he said he was happy! For him to say that was stunningly out of the blue, because this is a very sad boy.”

Photography Getty Images

HOW HORSES CAN HELP Equine Assisted Development and Counselling, and related therapies such as Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy and Equine Assisted Learning, are innovative healing models that utilise the remarkable characteristics of horses to assist people with a variety of psychosocial challenges. Although

equine therapies have become increasingly mainstream in the US and Europe, where they are widely used and educational institutions and health insurers recognise their validity, in Australia and New Zealand these forms of therapy are still in their early stages in terms of public awareness of methods and outcomes. However, with steadily rising numbers of people looking for new and holistic ways to answer deep-seated questions, such as “Who am I?” and “What is life all about?”, horses may just provide a way to access those answers.

In Australia and New Zealand, equine therapy is currently used to help with a wide range of issues, from personal development, stress management and coping with lifestyle changes to dealing with anxiety, grief, depression, recovery from trauma and other serious mental health challenges. According to Alison Selby and Alexa Smith-Osborne, researchers on the effectiveness of equine interventions, equine therapy “works across all age groups and cultures, and has been applied to work with families, groups and individuals and is not gender-specific”. In the US, it has been used within prisons, military services, hospices and hospitals, and even in medical schools, where Dr Allan Hamilton pioneered the “Barnyard to Bedside” program, using horses to teach medical students calm, nonverbal communication principles and stress management.

Although the young man continues to gaze only at the ground, a gradual and noticeable change comes over his physique, as the hunched shoulders slowly relax and his whole body comes to be at ease.

Equine therapy and the recognition of the powerful bond between humans and horses is not a new concept: in countries and cultures throughout the world, the horse has occupied an important place in history. The use of horses in a therapeutic setting can be traced back to 5 BCE, where interaction with horses was used to cure a variety of illnesses. There are multiples stories that highlight the significance of the human/horse relationship, from ancient to more recent times, showing that the horse has been a constant companion in the development of human life.

According to “horse whisperer” and advocate of natural horsemanship Buck Brannaman, “Over the eons the horse has done so much for the human being.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 93

SPIRIT EQUINE THERAPY The horse has helped them conquer continents and he’s gone places with the human — just because of the ancient bond between the horse and the human, he went there with him. So the human being owes a lot to the horse in how the world has been settled.”

Brannaman, whose 2011 documentary Buck is a personal testament to the healing power of horses, also states that a horse “is a mirror to your soul.

Sometimes you might not like what you see ... sometimes you will.”

A FINELY TUNED INTUITION During the process of equine therapy, the human becomes part of the herd.

The ability of horses to mirror your innermost being is precisely the reason they are perfect for this type of holistic therapy. Horses are non-predatory

In equine therapy, the emphasis is on giving people the space to make their own interpretations rather than be told by “an expert” what their feelings mean. animals whose survival depends on reciprocal communication with their herd. This means they are highly attuned to social and interactional behaviours, as well as to minute physiological changes in their herd mates. During the process of equine therapy, the human becomes part of the herd and the idea is that the horse’s intuition and its subsequent reaction to a person’s emotions provide an immediate insight. If the client’s non-verbal communication is incongruent with their verbal communication, a horse will always react to the non-verbal.

According to psychologist Geraldine Keith, “One of the reasons for using horses is that they are walking sensate. They are this extraordinary mix — more so than other animals — of mindfulness and being in the present and being grounded. And they are a superb teaching device for teaching mindfulness.” Animal healer Margrit Coates describes horses as being “allround teachers and metaphors for learning to deal with feelings of being overwhelmed by something bigger than yourself. They are also catalysts for healing and empowerment.”

In equine therapy, the non-verbal communication of horses with a client is a metaphoric expression of the person’s underlying emotions.

According to researchers Alison Selby and Alexa-Smith Osborne, “The dynamic interchange which occurs

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between clients and horses offers a dimension to clinical work that is not possible in the traditional confines of the office setting.”

The concept of creating a new and alternative space for the exploration of the self is affirmed by Geraldine Keith, who says, “One of the dilemmas of being a very experienced psychologist is that I have seen it through waves and waves of fashionable models — from psychoanalysis to behaviour therapy to hypnotherapy, to psychodrama etcetera, and trying to find the merits and blending it in, knowing what’s useful. But [equine therapy] is a field where somehow all that sits quietly in the background and signals itself as I observe what is happening out there in the paddock.”

WHAT’S IN A SESSION? According to Jenny Gibbons, equine specialist at Horse Sense, there is no such thing as a “typical” session in her experience of Equine Assisted Development and Counselling. The sessions are defined as a “learning experience” for the client and the therapists at Horse Sense are quick to point out that they themselves are constantly learning from the horses and the clients and are still often surprised by the results of their sessions.

Therapists work with a wide variety of people from all walks of life, from children to adults, male and female, with a range of personal issues. This

means that, while there is always an outline to a session that has been personally tailored to the individual’s needs, it can become quickly diverted.

“What happens is we call it ‘doing the 360’,” says Gibbons. “We have a great plan, we talk about it, we email and then we go in there and it goes somewhere else completely, and the horses are doing all sorts of things, and that’s where we have to be quickly figuring it out. Because it’s always about the client. Some therapists will go in and say, ‘No, these are the prescribed goals’ ... but for us it’s about where the client needs to go.”

In equine therapy, the emphasis is on giving people the space to make their own interpretations rather than being told by “an expert” what their feelings mean. Keith comments on equine therapy’s difference from conventional modes of therapy: “I think that is one of the areas where people struggle, as they are so used to being in a commanding or authoritative therapising relationship. But horses are such powerful, therapeutic agents — working in this field is an art and a science. To me this holds a constant sense of absolute wonder.”

Another major departure from other kinds of therapy settings is the impact of the natural environment on the session. For many people, being out in nature, as opposed to being in some kind of counselling room, achieves an immediate connection with the beauty and simplicity of nature itself. This is a direct contrast to perceptions of personal problems and life stresses.

Horses live in the moment, and exercises in an equine therapy session create experiences in the “here and

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SPIRIT EQUINE THERAPY now”, where the immediacy of being in the same space as these impressive, 500-odd-kilo animals is unavoidable.

Literally, hiding from the horse — physically or mentally — is impossible.

“The horses start acting — or reacting — as soon as the people arrive here,” explains Keith. “For instance, one young boy we worked with, the moment he got out of the car the horses went berserk and then later we were told that is exactly how he behaves at home.”

This means horses are powerful messengers: their feedback is uncompromisingly honest and they require a person to work hard. There is no quick or easy way of building trust

The slow emergence of research on the effects of equine therapy has highlighted increased self-image, trust and general life satisfaction as just some of the positive impacts reported by participants.

and a real relationship with a horse and, as the horse provides a constant mirror to ourselves, it can provide an unflinching reality of patterns and beliefs that we would otherwise prefer to keep quiet.

“We are bringing really complex mental health issues into this arena,” says Keith. “That includes quite a few very high-functioning people who have had a critical episode, who have lost confidence or have had big issues which they need to find a way through. And with the horses, people find courage. They identify the components of the problems and begin to work out what they need to attend to and what they don’t need to attend to. They feel the feelings and work out what is important.”

EFFECTS THAT LAST What is important, of course, varies from one person to the next. What’s certain, though, is that clients of

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equine therapy who learn to relate to horses with kindness, respect and responsibility are empowered to apply those skills to themselves and their lives. The slow emergence of research on the effects of equine therapy has highlighted increased self-image, trust and general life satisfaction as just some of the positive impacts reported by participants.

According to Rose, who is using equine therapy to overcome dysfunctional family dynamics, “I benefit just as much as the children coming here. It’s chill-out time, and working with the horses — just as with the kids — that’s very therapeutic. I’m a grandmother raising my grandchildren and there is not much help out there for us. When you get knocked back all the time, everything is negative — you see life a bit negative — whereas coming here has helped me to gain confidence and self-esteem as well. So it’s made a huge difference. Huge.”

For clients like Paul, whose life history taught him to withdraw from relationships and emotions, equine therapy is providing a safe space to once again explore how to feel and how

to communicate. “At the end of the day,” says Jenny Gibbons, “it’s about realising the true connection — and that’s what we are all doing here. This form of therapy works. I don’t even really know how; maybe our understanding of the precise reasons is still limited. But, if you look, wherever we have been, horses have been helping us — and this is a new paradigm at the moment, of a new age, and horses are again helping. Helping us to understand ourselves.”

RESOURCES EAGALA Australia & New Zealand, eagala.org/Australasia Equine Psychotherapy Australia, equinepsychotherapy.net.au Australian Equine Facilitated Learning, efl.net.au Peakgrove Equine Assisted Experiences, peakgrovesolutions.com.au Horse Sense, horsesense.org.nz Dr Tanya Allport is a freelance writer and researcher with a great interest in natural therapies, horsemanship and travel. You can find out more by visiting livingwritingreading.com.

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PLANET CARBON NEGATIVE

CLIMATE REVERSAL Climate change is under way but, more than just slowing the rate of change, it is possible to push the change in a different, more positive direction.

WORDS / MARTIN OLIVER

Research shows that wheat cultivation can be carbonnegative.

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CARBON CAPTURE & STORAGE One of the options available for tackling climate change, carbon capture and storage (CCS), involves underground sequestration of carbon emissions from large industrial facilities such as coal-fired power stations. Results have so far been very limited; at present there are just eight operational industrial-scale CCS projects globally and none is located in Australia or New Zealand.

As five of these eight projects sequester carbon to facilitate production in depleted oil fields, a process known as enhanced oil recovery, net carbon reduction benefits are thrown into question.

Limited to capturing new emissions rather than mopping up what is already in the atmosphere, CCS faces several hurdles. These include competition from the falling price of renewables, availability of suitable storage sites, long-distance transport infrastructure to the storage location and the risk that CO2 could leak out. According to the US National Research Council, CCS carries a higher risk of causing earthquakes than fracking for unconventional gas.

GOING CARBON-NEGATIVE Today, few people seriously think CCS will play a central role in tackling the climate crisis, but the notion of going carbon-negative is increasingly entering the debate. Finding a means to suck the 51ppm of unwanted carbon out of the air is increasingly looking like a necessity. Several ways to help achieve this are already known and, while some are receiving major attention, it appears that others are being deliberately ignored.

At present, the most developed carbon dioxide removal technology is bioenergy combined with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Biomass feedstocks are often considered to be close to carbon-neutral and, if the CO2 emissions are stored underground, they are likely to become carbon-negative.

However, in addition to the range of issues associated with CCS, large-scale BECCS represents a threat to native forests and land rights.

Perhaps what we should be doing is looking elsewhere.

SOIL CARBON The world’s soil holds more carbon than its total biomass and the atmosphere combined. Like an enormous carbon bank, when soil erodes it loses carbon to the atmosphere. Alternatively, it can soak up atmospheric carbon while enhancing its fertility and water content, in addition to boosting food security and the economy.

Most soils are in a worsening condition and much of this is due to monocultures, tillage and a lack of cover crops. Soil carbon-storing systems are commonly no-till or utilise conservation tillage where at least 30 per cent of the previous year’s crop residues are left on the field when cultivating. Groundcover plants are excellent at preventing carbon loss. As the health of soils improves and they become carbon-rich, they develop a healthy spongy humus aided by the mycorrhizal fungi that occur in a symbiotic relationship with most plant species. By buying organic, consumers are more likely to be supporting soil carbon sequestration.

In Australia, soil carbon advocate Dr Christine Jones has identified carbon

Photography iStock

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ccording to climate experts, including James Hansen, former lead climate scientist at NASA, the atmospheric concentration of carbon needs to be kept below 350 parts per million (ppm). However, the level has already reached 401ppm — and is rising by about 2ppm a year.

While there are uncertainties in climate prediction, according to the best scientific consensus we will need to limit warming to a rise of 1.5–2°C for a realistic chance of stabilising the climate. Since 1880, the planet’s average temperature increase has been 0.85°.

Without strong emissions cuts, scientists predict a 4° rise by 2100 and have warned that the temperature increase could be as high as 6°. Either scenario would have very serious consequences for civilisation, including sea level rises, extreme heat waves, crop damage, species extinctions and loss of coral reefs.

Focusing on catastrophe is ultimately unhelpful as a means of encouraging people to take action on climate change because it tends to induce a state of paralysis. A more optimistic perspective would be to look at whether it can be reversed rather than just slowed down.

The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s soil holds more carbon than its total biomass and the atmosphere combined.

PLANET CARBON NEGATIVE

decades down the track. After 20–50 years, trees usually stop absorbing carbon and can become net greenhouse gas emitters through avenues such as methane emissions from fallen leaves.

Forests may be chopped down, attacked by pests or lost due to forest fires exacerbated by climate change.

So is timber itself carbon-negative?

Some lifecycle analyses indicate it is if sustainable timber is used, coupled with renewable energy and energy efficiency at the manufacturing stage.

Pasture-fed beef has the scope to be carbon-negative.

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CARBON-NEGATIVE FOOD Beef has a bad reputation for its sizeable ecological footprint, but grass-fed beef is very different from its feedlot cousin. Pastures that are managed under regenerative grazing regimes where animals are concentrated in a small space for short periods can be powerful carbon sinks and the meat produced even has the scope to be carbon-negative.

A 2014 study by Yantai Gan in Nature Communications looking at wheat cultivation found that it can be carbonnegative, too. By using a carefully chosen

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Beef has a bad reputation for its sizeable ecological footprint, but grass-fed beef is very different from its feedlot cousin. range of techniques (fertilising crops based on soil tests, leaving the stem and roots in the soil at the end of the growing season, reducing summerfallow bare soil periods and rotating cereals with grain legumes), for each kilogram of wheat up to 380g of carbon was sequestered from the air. The follow-up question is whether this remains in the ground for an extended period.

FORESTS: NOT IDEAL CARBON SINKS As the average tree absorbs around one tonne of CO2 during its lifetime, reforesting the planet is commonly seen as a cure-all climate solution.

Unfortunately, things are not so simple.

Trees are slow to grow and carbon reductions that are achieved now are far more valuable than those that will occur

STRAWBALE & BAMBOO Another renewable material used for construction, strawbale can also be carbon-negative. Its super-insulated qualities are particularly suited to colder climates and it meets the Passive House standard for houses that maintain a comfortable temperature with no active heating or cooling.

In the UK, a company called Modcell has developed prefabricated panels made from a mix of carbon-sequestering materials including strawbale and hemp. DIY strawbale home building in Australia and New Zealand is becoming more common, with regular workshops

Photography Getty Images

sequestration rates of up to 33 tonnes per hectare per year. This compares to more conservative figures from the soil carbon business CarbonLink of 2–10 tonnes per hectare per year when there is a shift from cropping to pasture.

Accurate measurement systems over large acreages are difficult to achieve.

Unlike Australia, where the soils are arid and weathered, on the whole those in New Zealand already have a significantly higher soil carbon content, and so there is less scope to pursue this strategy.

Planting forests offers only a temporary carbon sink. We need something that gets the job done faster, with far less uncertainty, such as the right type of biomass.

Promoted as a wonder-crop, hemp is fast-growing, requires no pesticides, has modest water needs and enriches the soil. Hemp fibre represents roughly 1.4 times its weight in absorbed CO2 and the ideal way to lock this away for an extended time is via construction.

Options include in walls, roof and wall insulation, and as a fibreboard substitute. Even when the impact of other materials such as lime binders are factored in, a cubic metre of hemp wall stores about 110kg of carbon.

Switching from high-embodiedenergy materials to hemp has a huge environmental benefit. A UK distribution centre built for the brewing company Adnams would have whacked the planet with 300–600 tonnes of carbon if conventional construction methods had been used. Instead, it used hemp and locked up 100–150 tonnes.

Industrial hemp is legal to cultivate in both Australia and New Zealand and is being used in a growing number of new dwellings and renovations.

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Biochar production instead involves the use of pyrolysis (low-temperature combustion) to convert organic matter to carbon-negative charcoal.

A range of feedstocks can be used, including domestic organic waste and agricultural wastes that are in some cases produced in great quantities and often pollute the environment or are wastefully burnt.

According to its supporters, biochar added to the soil in granular form has great benefits. They believe it can sequester carbon in the soil for hundreds to thousands of years and that it encourages additional soil carbon uptake, and point to studies showing increased yield. Biochar is sometimes “inoculated” with mycorrhizal fungi to boost its results.

Equally ambitious are moves to produce power in a carbon-negative

Hemp fibre represents roughly 1.4 times its weight in absorbed CO2 and the ideal way to lock this away for an extended time is via construction.

held and several straw construction companies. The eco-construction bible YourHome has technical tips for strawbale builders.

Also carbon-negative is bamboo, the fastest-growing plant on the planet. Left to its own devices, it reaches its capacity as a carbon sink after 5–8 years, after which point it requires managing via selective harvesting to remain a sink.

Bamboo is a mainstay of traditional homes in Southeast and East Asia. In Australia and New Zealand it’s used in construction as unprocessed poles and is sometimes made into panels as a plywood substitute while bamboo laminate can be used in flooring and furniture instead of hardwoods.

BIOCHAR & GASIFICATION FUELS Plants and trees absorb atmospheric carbon while they are growing and if they are burnt as biomass this is later released back, together with soot, which also contributes to climate change.

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way. Biochar can yield two fuels: bio-oil, which serves as a substitute for fuel oil, and hydrogen-rich syngas.

A type of biochar tabletop stove was created by researcher and inventor Robert Flanagan and another, known as “The Beaner”, was formerly sold by a company called WorldStove.

Gasification of coffee grounds and walnut shells was used to power a vehicle retrofitted by Chicken John, an eccentric who ran for mayor of San Francisco in 2007. At present, the only carbon-negative gasification fuel system on the market appears to be the Power Pallet, an industrial-sized 20kW electricity generator.

As with many other types of biomass, if biochar was scaled up sufficiently, experience suggests it would threaten forests and agricultural land and risk “land grabs” in Africa and other continents. Activist group Biofuelwatch is critical of biochar for these reasons and also questions whether the hype stacks up.

CONSUMING CARBON NEGATIVE While consumerism is generally viewed as a bad guy in environmental circles, is there a way of flipping it around by

making products carbon-negative? A range of items are made from bamboo and hemp, for starters.

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with 28–84 times the globalwarming potential of CO2 and fugitive emissions are being captured

by California company Newlight Technologies. These are used to make a novel plastic with negative greenhouse emissions known as AirCarbon. A growing number of products are made from this material, including chairs, mobile phone cases and laptop packaging.

Carbon Capture Pak is a special type of packaging made especially for the green cleaning-product manufacturer ecostore in New Zealand. About 92 per cent of the raw material comes from Brazilian sugar cane byproducts and the final product is identical to polyethylene, making it recyclable.

A lifecycle assessment has found that Carbon Capture Pak stores 2kg of CO2 for every kilo of plastic used. As with AirCarbon, the carbon is locked in for the life of the plastic unless it is incinerated. This figure compares with the roughly 2kg of carbon generated from the manufacture of an equivalent weight of petrochemical plastic.

BEYOND OFFSETTING A 2015 study led by Thomas Gasser in Nature Communications used computer modelling to conclude that keeping warming under two degrees will involve both highly aggressive carbon cuts and negative emissions. Any notion that carbon-negative techniques can justify business as usual at the pollution end can be dispelled.

If carbon removal initiatives are tied to emissions trading and the carbon market, the likelihood of seeing unsustainable industrial-scale projects is multiplied. At a time when CCS tends to dominate the carbon-negative debate, some carbon removal solutions might not be as complicated as we imagine.

RESOURCES Hempcrete, hempcrete.com.au Australian Hemp Masonry Company, hempmasonry.com.au Strawbale building advice, yourhome.gov.au/materials/straw-bale AirCarbon, newlight.com Carbon Capture Pak, ecostore.co.nz/ pages/carbon-capture-pak Martin Oliver is a writer and researcher based in Lismore, NSW, Australia.

Photography Getty Images

Bamboo, the fastestgrowing plant on the planet, is also carbon negative and so an excellent building material.

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HOME MUSICAL GARDENS

PITCH PERFECT

Tuning into nature’s music can have a profound impact on the human body and psyche, creating a healing, uplifting effect that lasts long after you leave the outdoors.

WORDS / CARROL BAKER

Photography Getty Images

L

ooking for an easy way to destress? Or perhaps to be inspired by nature? Just kick off your shoes and go for a stroll in the garden.

Taking a walk through a garden or simply finding a place to sit and commune with nature can be a sensory delight. This is because tuning into the melodious sounds of nature’s music has a profound effect on the human body and psyche. The crisp crunch of autumn leaves underfoot, the sweet echo of birdsong, even the effervescent bubble of a flowing stream all have the ability to motivate and uplift the spirit.

Sometimes finding the right words to express feelings can be elusive but the music of nature within a garden can transcend verbal communication.

Sharing special time in the garden by listening and being in the moment with those you care about, including yourself, can deepen existing relationships. The music of nature can truly soothe and heal.

Toni Salter, president of the Horticultural Therapy Society of NSW, says that tuning into the natural beat, flow and rhythm of nature is something we can all enjoy. “The sounds of nature can create a calming effect on the body, lowering blood pressure and reducing stress levels,” she says.

But, just as sounds within nature can produce feelings of serenity, they can motivate and stimulate as well.

“Sound can focus and enhance your creativity,” she explains. “For example, you might be painting in the garden and looking to add some dramatic brushstrokes. The jarring sounds, the sharp elements in among the twitter, can provide creative contrast.”

GETTING INTO THE GROOVE Understanding sound and its effects on the human body is complex. Our bodies’ cells vibrate at a natural

frequency and rhythm, so immersing ourselves in the sounds around us can get them humming along in sync with our surroundings. This means generally that faster-paced music, sounds or beats produce more alert or focused thinking, whereas a slower, softer pace or tempo can promote a calm, meditative state.

It’s also key to consider that sound and its potential to affect the listener is uniquely individual. Some people prefer turning up the beat; others like a softer, more melodious ebb and flow.

Dr Grace Thompson, president of the Australian Music Therapy Association, says that to fully comprehend the profound impact of sound we need to look back at our evolutionary origins.

“Sound was important for our early survival — birdsong and sounds within nature helped us feel calm and secure,” she says. “In those early days, perhaps the most terrifying sound of all for humans was the sound of silence.”

These days, we don’t have to be hyper-vigilant about a lion or tiger licking its lips and sizing us up for dinner but it’s definitely still a jungle out there. Modern-day 21st-century living has given us a whole new set of challenges to deal with. So having a place to escape to, even at home, can be important. Next time you’re feeling a bit out of sorts, sit in the garden, close your eyes and listen to the whisper and crackle of the breeze among the trees or the early morning call of birds as they greet a new day.

The good news too is that the effects of sounds you enjoy can be lasting. Dr Thompson says we’ve all experienced a lasting mood after going to a concert or seeing a movie with a powerful soundtrack. Mood and emotion can be fleeting, she says, but the effects of a relaxing walk in the garden in the morning can stay with you long after you’ve sat down at your desk at work.

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HOME MUSICAL GARDENS

Water features or garden ponds can also filter out noise from busy roads or neighbours; also, they create a living habitat, inviting birds, frogs and butterflies into your garden.

CREATING A SOUND GARDEN So how can you enhance, harness or even introduce the sounds of nature in a garden? There are the natural sounds of wildlife: the rhythmic ribbit of frogs, the buzz of a bee or the rustle of long strappy grasses. Then there are manmade sounds: the gentle tinkle of wind chimes or the smooth sound of water flowing in a sculpted water feature. Here are some ways you can help Mother Nature’s soundtrack to flourish.

Just add water The sounds of running water evoke many feelings and images: long, lazy summer days soaking up the sun’s rays by the pool or the joyous sounds of kids splashing in the waves at the beach. The melody of flowing water is also intrinsically beautiful — it appeals to the senses and adds texture and movement to your outdoor landscape.

Water features or garden ponds can also filter out noise from busy roads or neighbours; plus, they create a living habitat, inviting birds, frogs and butterflies into your garden.

Water features or ponds may be custom made, sculpted or crafted by artists or designers, or pre-made. It could be a sheet of water, a cascading stream, an arc, a fountain or a trickle that bubbles gently over in a bowl or urn. Many modern water features also incorporate spillways: the water flows in

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a sheet to a lower point in the feature, adding more movement.

For a moving feature, you’ll need a pump and power supply. The pump creates movement and the flow of water, which of course also helps to create a healthy ecosystem. Many pumps are submersible and low-wattage for added safety. A pump kit may also include cable, a transformer and even inbuilt underwater lights. Depending on the size of your feature, various pumps offer different flow capacity, from a gentle trickle to a powerful sheet of water.

Leaves & chimes The gentle whisper of rushes or the soft rustle of leaves dancing in the breeze can be enormously soothing. Largeleaved plants, long grasses and trees such as Weeping Birch create their own beautiful melodies.

Mass-plant strappy-leaf plants like New Zealand flax, cordylines or agapanthus near pathways so you can hear nature’s song as you walk by. Plant Knobby Club Rush by a dry creek bed or ‘Alphonse Karr’ bamboo in an Asianinspired garden and hear the rhythmic swish of the plants in the wind.

Bringing wind chimes into the garden is another way to introduce sound. You can purchase a wind chime or make your own with foraged and recycled objects. Driftwood with sparkling glass beads threaded onto fishing line also

catches the sunlight and adds reflected light and sparkle. This also works with vintage perfume bottles, coloured wine bottles and broken pieces of tile, or seashells threaded on thin chain or rope.

Alternatively, get creative with old metal keys, cutlery and coloured stones or bamboo. Use your imagination and tap into your creativity to design your own unique wind chime to sing in the wind.

No matter what you choose, be aware that some wind chimes do create a lot of sound. Make sure you try before you buy, or give your DYI wind chime a test run before installing it in a place that’s too close to neighbours.

Call of the wild The sweet chirpy sounds of a willie wagtail, the gentle hooting of a southern boobook, even the up-tempo sound of a laughing kookaburra bring life and energy into a garden. If you’d like to encourage birdlife, jot down the names of any frequent visitors to your garden.

Local councils and bird-watching groups can assist you with the species that are endemic to your areas while local nurseries can advise what you need to plant to attract certain species.

Holly Parsons, Birds in Backyards program manager from BirdLife Australia Discovery Centre, says you need a selection of plants that provide food, shelter, nesting material or a nesting site. Her advice is to use local

HOME MUSICAL GARDENS native plants rather than hybrids such as the popular hybrid grevilleas. “These large flowering plants may encourage large and aggressive honeyeaters such as noisy miners and red wattlebirds that can chase away smaller birds,” she says.

Aim for plants that will bring insects into your garden as food for birds, as well as those that have nectar, fruit or seeds.

Orderly or pristine gardens aren’t as bird friendly as those that are less formal, according to Parsons. “Plant native grasses and try not to ‘tidy’ too much — allow birds to take bits of spider web, small branches and leaves for their nests,” she says.

Of course it’s not just birds that bring colour, movement and their own unique song to the urban landscape. Toni Salter says the melodic hum of bees as they dart about pollinating flowers is a busy, lively sound in any garden. “Also add thick layers of mulch for skinks and other lizards to forage and scurry about in,” she suggests.

You can also create more biodiversity by bringing frogs into the garden, through providing moist ecosystems such as a pond or bog garden. As an added bonus, frogs will also eat mosquitoes that are buzzing about — and that’s a sound no one enjoys!

The sound of footsteps Buddhists in the 14th century created quiet contemplative spaces where they could simply commune with nature. The concept of the Zen-inspired garden has evolved and today’s Zen gardens are interpreted in numerous ways. At their very core, however, is respect for the harmonious balance of the natural world and the sensory appeal of nature.

When walking through a garden, says Salter, your footfalls create a variety of different tones that can be pleasing to the senses. “Walking over the wooden slats of a bridge [or] over a dry creek bed or the crunch of fine gravel underfoot makes a different sound resonance to smooth, chunky stones,” she says.

Making your own music Given that the effects of music can be uplifting, why not add to the enjoyment by playing your own tunes in the garden? Even for the musically challenged among us, it’s possible to learn some simple instruments.

Our bodies’ cells vibrate at a natural frequency and rhythm, so immersing ourselves in the sounds around us can get them humming along in synch with our surroundings.

According to Dr Grace Thompson, one of the easiest to master is the ukulele.

“They’re a wonderful little instrument, cheap and cheery and you can pick one up for around $30,” she says.

If the thought of a stringed instrument doesn’t appeal, what about a simple harmonica? Or even belting out a tune using your own voice?

“Singing has a powerful impact on your breathing and respiratory system,” says Dr Thompson. “You breathe more deeply and it can certainly be uplifting to sing songs that have special meaning for you.”

Photography Getty Images

If you’d like to encourage birdlife, jot down the names of any frequent visitors to your garden.

CREATING SOUND BARRIERS Not all sounds within the backyard garden are appealing. These days, with shrinking block sizes, many people find themselves getting more up close and personal with their neighbours than ever before and are exposed to increasing traffic noises, barking dogs and other noise pollutants.

One of the most environmentally friendly ways to mask unwanted noise is by planting a green wall to capture the sound. Steve Oatley, a landscape gardener from Living Colour Landscapes, says that clumping bamboo or layered planting will do the trick.

“As an example of layered planting, Acmena smithii Minor (or Dwarf Lilly Pilly) at the rear, with sasanqua camellia in front, then gardenia ‘Florida’ and finally strappy Liriope muscari,” he suggests. These types of layered, dense plantings not only give you a lush natural green fence to absorb unwanted sound but also add splashes of colour and fragrance to your garden for some more sensory appeal.

Or you might consider hard landscaping elements. Oatley says that, for man-made landscaping sound barriers, the key is density. “Thick concrete, brick or Hebel masonry concrete walls will help to absorb sounds,” he says. “In contrast, thin and lightweight products like aluminium create noise reflection and vibration.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION The Horticultural Therapy Society of NSW, cultivatensw.org.au/ horticultural-therapy Australian Music Therapy Association, austmta.org.au Birds in Backyards, birdsinbackyards.net

DID YOU KNOW? Plants make a sound as they grow!

Researchers from the University of Western Australia led by Dr Monica Gagliano have discovered that the roots make a clicking sound — but it’s detectable only via a supersensitive microphone. So those among us who have chatted away to our plants to encourage them to grow aren’t so kooky after all. (Well, maybe just a little bit ...). It’s just a pity we can’t hear their replies!

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

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HOME PET-FRIENDLY GARDENS

Creating a

SOULFUL GARDEN for your pets

Your garden can be a soothing sanctuary not just for you but also for that furry member of your family. Here’s how to give your pet an outdoor space it will love.

WORDS / KAYE ROBERTS-PALMER

A

fter a busy week inside the office, I can’t wait to get out into my garden. Spending quiet moments outdoors, I discover new planting surprises, say hello to the bees and reconnect with the Earth while my mind and body refresh for the next working week.

Recently, I ventured down the street and began noticing many dogs barking or whining under fences, desperate to escape their own gardens. I began to wonder: while our outdoor spaces are designed to suit us, do they meet our pets’ needs by providing a safe and revitalising place to express their own essential selves and a place to reconnect with nature? Are our outdoor spaces soulful gardens for all inhabitants?

But, first, what is a soulful garden?

A soulful garden is realised slowly through a gentle, holistic approach to planting and design that considers the local environment, the microclimates and creatures already there, the needs and safety of all inhabitants and the patience to let time play out in the garden. This last ingredient is important, as it allows well-chosen plants to grow and mature comfortably within their space. Soulful gardens are not always the most stunning or stylish, but they have a strong sense of feeling completely right and in balance.

When I come upon these gardens, my first response is one of pure joy and my second is sadness knowing I have to leave.

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SERENITY FOR STUBBS When health student Cherrie and her partner Kevin bought their first house on the outskirts of Melbourne, they inherited a large backyard full of grass and several small trees. Cherrie thought the extra space would be good for her terrier, Stubbs, but Stubbs was not impressed.

“I work night shifts, so Stubbs is not alone for hours in the day, but being such an expressive dog I knew he was not enjoying his new backyard. He would bark a lot and tear around,” she says. “He was getting pretty stressed.”

The couple already had design ideas for the garden but had not considered what Stubbs might need aside from a kennel. Says Cherrie, “It’s such a simple thing really, but I realised that we share our garden with Stubbs. It’s not just about us. I wondered what changes we could add into the design to make Stubbs feel calmer and enjoy the space more.”

Being interested in natural therapies, Cherrie began to look at some plants that could help bring a sense of serenity into the garden.

“I’m not a gardener and we both wanted a low-maintenance space,” she explains. “I went with perennials such as salvias, which are great at filling spaces. I also planted rows of lavender (Lavandula), a known relaxant for people and dogs. I created a raised herb patch that Stubbs can’t get into. It has herbs such as chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), marjoram

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Glimpse the world from your pet’s point of view. Go on, get down and have a look — it might surprise you.

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PET-FRIENDLY GARDENS

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HOME PET-FRIENDLY GARDENS

A JUNGLE FOR MITTENS For inner-city resident and public servant, Darren, falling in love with his rescue kitten Mittens meant considering some cat-friendly changes to his small garden. “Before Mittens, I hadn’t put any time into the garden; it was pretty bare, so it was a perfect opportunity to rethink what could be nice for both of us,” Darren says.

“I love working with pots, so I set up a wide bench with differing heights.

On each shelf is a set of glazed pots filled with cat-friendly herbs, including cat grass (Avena sativa), catnip (Nepeta cataria), marjoram (Origanum vulgare) and attractive scented geraniums (pelargoniums), so that Mittens can safely weave her way around and enjoy them all.”

Darren’s pet-friendly research revealed one plant in particular that was going to be a problem. “I had to pull out some lily bulbs that I had planted a year before Mittens [arrived], once I found out they were toxic to cats. I have given them to a work colleague.”

While he didn’t have room for a tree, Darren still liked the idea of living in a lush green space. “I wanted to make the garden a bit more leafy, particularly as it had many fences,” he explains.

“So I grew the climber purple coral pea (Hardenbergia violacea) up the brick walls. It’s a great climber with pretty purple-shaped flowers. I also included tubs of Timor black bamboo along the

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“I created a raised herb patch with herbs such as chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla), marjoram (Origanum majorana) and lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) surrounded by rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), all safe essential oils for dogs.”

you know their habits and what they’re drawn to in the garden. This may require some prudent surveillance.

Too often, pets are expected to fit into our gardens rather than adjusting gardens to fit them, which unsurprisingly leads to barking and escapeartist escapades.

Getting to know your pet, how they play and what they like to do, and taking into Planted rows account whether they of lavender are young or old, active (Lavandula), or sedentary, are which is a known relaxant for important first steps. people and dogs.

Glimpse the world from your pet’s point of view. Go on, get down and have a look — it might surprise you. We tend to enjoy colourful flowers, whereas they might like the interesting smells from mulched leaves and racing through gaps in the plants. This new perspective will influence what elements you include in your garden, such as whether you have a long lawn or not, choose surface toppings and create activity areas.

Once you are on familiar ground with your furry companion, the next three main elements to consider are safety, activity and relaxation.

SAFETY fence, which gives a lovely filtered light and the feeling of being in a jungle, which Mittens really likes.”

Darren also reused an old terracotta pot, finding a creative use for it as a drinking fountain. “I turned it into a small, shallow, bubbling fountain made out of an old terracotta pot. Mittens enjoys perching on the edge to swat the water.”

With these changes, Darren is rediscovering his garden as a tranquil space. “It has surprised me how much I look forward to spending time in my garden,” he says. “When it’s the weekend, I love being out there watching Mittens play under the bamboo. I never thought I would enjoy the garden so much. It’s such a mood lifter.”

HOW TO WORK YOUR PET-FRIENDLY MAGIC To create your own pet-friendly soulful garden it’s important to focus on your pet’s personality, as well as how well

Some dogs love to know what’s happening in their neighbourhood while others can find this stressful, so watch how they react to tantalising gaps and views onto the street. If this visibility is causing issues, consider putting up a screen along the fence or creating a run path away from the fence with screening plants, so external visual stimulation is reduced. Some dogs are excellent jumpers and extra height may need to be added to the top of fences — but check with your neighbours first.

Have a look at the palings and gates from your pet’s point of view; some pets are very clever at sliding under the smallest of gaps. Gaps between decking and railings can also catch claws.

Water features are great in the garden, adding light and play through reflections and the soothing sounds of flowing water. However, a pond or pool can also be a danger to curious pets. A better option is a sturdy raised water fountain. Your pet can enjoy the

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(Origanum majorana) and lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) surrounded by rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), all safe essential oils for dogs.

“We are in a sunny spot, so I changed my [original] plans and put in a grove of dog-friendly native callistemon (Callistemon viminalis) trees, something I hadn’t thought of before. It provides shade and a quiet place for Stubbs. We also put in some benches for us. Already, the garden feels more interesting and Stubbs loves smelling the plants; these improvements are definitely having a calming effect on him.”

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HOME sight and sounds without any nasty accidents. Some of my favourites are those that have a gurgling filter running the water down the sides — but keep in mind that your pet will use it as a drinking fountain.

ACTIVITY Being active in the garden brings its own joy and active dogs are happy dogs. As most dogs love to dig, consider allocating a digging space near the back of the garden and filling it with dirt and sand that can be contained and covered up if it gets used as a doggy toilet. Even better, have a dedicated play space where tunnels made out of old boxes or chewing toys can be set up.

Many dogs love racing around their garden spaces creating their own paths.

Use this as a basis for constructing paths that have a circular pattern or trail back to the house, like a racetrack. A friend gave up trying to grow lawn and set up sand-gravel paths instead; now her dogs get all the exercise they need without wanting to disturb her herbaceous borders.

Both cats and dogs benefit from having a grassy area to play or relax on. However, urination spots caused by excess nitrogen can damage the grass. Keep a watering can handy to dilute the urine — this will prevent nitrogen overload and lessen odour.

Consider a hard-wearing lawn species such as couch grass (but make sure it’s contained as it does like to run). Giving your pets time off the grass during rainy days will help it recover.

Surfaces are key: too much concrete can be hard on paws; sandy gravel surfaces are more forgiving. Mulches, particularly fine ones, end up becoming another litter tray. Chunkier pieces or large pebbles discourage exploration.

It’s important that the textures, tones and colours in those parts of your garden you wish to keep your pet out of continue to harmonise with the overall garden design.

RELAXATION A warm, dry kennel with soft bedding away from wind and rain is quickly a dog’s favourite retreat. But it doesn’t have to be boring. Put your own touches

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(Forsythia × intermedia) and especially grasses such as fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides) and liriope (Liriope muscari variegata) are flexible and resilient, recovering quickly after an enthusiastic trampling.

All new shrubs will need time to settle in. Consider fencing off these areas after planting so they won’t be disturbed. You also might want to consider planting some sacrificial plants such as catnip (Nepeta cataria) or nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus), which can be chewed and are a good distraction from your feature plants.

Before implementing your design, make sure you know what plants you already have in your garden and which you are thinking of purchasing. There are many common garden plants that range from mild to highly Many dogs love toxic to your pet and these racing around their garden can be deadly if eaten. In spaces creating particular, some popular their own paths. plants include lilies, oleander, daffodils, euphorbias and on the outsides. Consider different rhododendrons, which are quite shades or surfaces and harmonise its poisonous. Research and speak to your look with the surrounding plants. After vet first if unsure. all, it’s as much part of the garden as Structuring beds and relaxation the paths and benches. areas at differing heights can keep your All animals need spaces to relax and pets where you want them. A rounded get out of the sun. Depending on the size mound of lawn where your pet can see of your garden, consider having several you will help create less stress. small trees. Trees are the foundation When making changes to an of any garden that other plantings are established garden, consider that framed around. In my small garden, every garden has something unique I can’t have the luxury of large trees, about it. It could be a combination so I’m growing a couple of Japanese of plantings, an unusual wall or a maples (Acer palmatum) in glazed pots. delicate climber that’s so charming.

These are perfect for containers, they Start from this viewpoint and don’t be provide shade and, being in containers, tempted to change it; instead, try to I can move them around with the time work outwards with complementary of the year. They have a lovely weeping plantings and other elements, such as habit and the varieties I have chosen paving, mulches and walls. range from deep green to scarlet, By using thoughtful, balanced depending on the season. plantings, catering for the basic needs If you have a courtyard, consider an of all inhabitants and having the outside bench that you can also use patience to allow the shared garden while your pets lie underneath on hot space to create its own harmony, you days. Another option is an arbour made will enhance the flow of positive energy. out of wrought iron or wood covered in After all, ultimately, a soulful garden is climbers, creating cool green shade and a gift for everyone. a tranquil place to unwind.

Kaye Roberts-Palmer is a garden designer and Plants are the workers in any garden freelance writer with a passion for creating and and particularly in one with pets. exploring soulful green spaces that nurture health and wellbeing. W: bluebeegardendesign.com.au Multi-stemmed plants such forsythia

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BODY HEALTHY TRAVELLING

HEALTH ON THE ROAD

We all know the basics of travel health: make sure immunisations are up to date, bring basic first-aid equipment and so on ... but how do you manage your overall mental and physical wellbeing when travelling?

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WORDS / KIM McCOSKER

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BODY HEALTHY TRAVELLING

C

hances are if you are reading this you have your regular health and wellbeing routines at home, be they healthy eating, regular yoga classes, daily meditation, shopping at your local organic market or a well-loved gym membership. Travelling, while being exciting, engaging and fulfilling in its own way, can take a pretty serious toll on physical and mental wellbeing if this routine is broken. How do you keep fit when you don’t have access to your normal gym or yoga class? Is it possible to fit in downtime without missing out on the sights? And what about healthy eating when you aren’t familiar with the local cuisine?

from colds to stiff, aching muscles can manifest, particularly on long-haul flights. If you are on a plane for a long time, be sure to stretch or do some simple yoga whenever possible. Even going for a short walk around the cabin will help get your circulation pumping.

Drink as much water as possible (avoid coffee and alcohol if you can) and eat a healthy meal of lean protein, vegetables and complex carbohydrates.

When you arrive at your destination, spend some time in the sunshine and fresh air and take off your shoes to reconnect with the Earth: there’s nothing like digging your toes into the sand of a beautiful beach to get yourself into holiday mode!

THE BASICS

EXERCISING ON THE ROAD

Immunise, immunise, immunise There are some pretty nasty infections that follow travellers around, but the good news is you can protect yourself from many of them with immunisations.

Tetanus, polio, hepatitis A and B are the basics, but consider nasties particular to the region you are heading to: for example, typhoid is fairly common in parts of Southeast Asia, while yellow fever is present in some African nations.

Always consult your GP before heading overseas, or try talking to a specialised travel doctor if you have specific needs.

BYO first-aid kit Pack a first-aid kit. Even a small, basic one will help get you out of many situations. Include basic items like Band-aids, antiseptic wipes, an antibiotic treatment such as Betadine, a gauze pad, medical adhesive tape and a bandage or two, as well as basic medications such as painkillers and stomach settlers. Pack it all in a durable container and pop it in your suitcase — it won’t take up much room but might save you an unnecessary trip to the doctor or chemist.

Mind the mossies Protection from mosquitoes is particularly important in regions where diseases like malaria and dengue fever are present. The best ways to protect yourself from bites are to wear an effective insect repellent, be careful to cover up at sunrise and sunset, particularly around the wrists and ankles, and avoid dark-coloured clothing and heavy perfumes. Medications are also available to help protect against some mosquito-borne diseases.

Look after yourself on aeroplanes Planes can be a source of all sorts of nasty travel ailments — everything

Don’t let your usual routine slip If you’re someone who runs daily back home, aim to keep that up while travelling. If you prefer a yoga class a couple of times a week, build that into your schedule as well. Your body will love you for continuing to look after it even though everything around you is changing. Make a goal you would like to achieve by the time you get home and

Skipping, squats, sit-ups, mountain climbers, pushups, planks, jumping jacks, burpees and lunges are just some of the exercises you can do in whatever hotel room you find yourself in. keep track of your progress in whatever way is best for you. Bring the clothes you usually wear to work out and make time for exercise each day, just like you would at home.

Research fitness options You might be able to stay in a hotel with a pool or fitness centre, or there might be an inexpensive public swimming pool nearby. Expat guides might show you private tennis clubs or fitness centres you can join for a week or enter as a casual. You can always run in whatever city or town you are staying in — just be sure to check which areas are safe before you set off.

Keep an eye out for a park that might have fitness equipment or anything you can use: sturdy trees or kids’ playground equipment are good props for basic exercises.

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BODY HEALTHY TRAVELLING If you are a regular meditator, don’t let the habit slip when you are overseas.

Include exercise in your sightseeing Walk wherever possible! In big cities it’s not uncommon to walk up to 20km between sights each day and that’s of huge benefit to your body. A lot of cities offer cycling tours, particularly in Europe and Asia, or you can hire your own for a very cheap self-guided tour. Take in the natural beauty of your destination by hiking, climbing mountains, snorkelling or surfing, or check out the local golf or tennis club.

Plan a hotel room exercise regime The general rule when travelling is to work with what you have — and, for strength routines, that’s your bodyweight! Skipping, squats, sit-ups, mountain climbers, push-ups, planks, jumping jacks, burpees and lunges are just some of the exercises you can do in whatever hotel room you find yourself in. If you need a bit of extra weight, use what’s on hand: water bottles can add a few kilograms, or try filling your backpack with a few heavy books.

Consider taking some easy-to-pack fitness tools, such as a resistance band, skipping rope or water weights.

The beautiful thing about yoga is that it can be done virtually anywhere and with very little equipment. Travel yoga mats are available from a number of stores and are super lightweight and easy to pack, but it’s also easy to go without — digging your toes into the sand of a foreign beach or a beautiful city park can be a good way to ground yourself in the middle of an exciting holiday.

If you prefer the structure of a class, try bringing one with you on your laptop or tablet, or upload a spoken routine to your music player. You could also try being a yoga tourist: check out local yoga classes, particularly in Southeast Asia where many are run inside beautiful temples. Many cities also offer yoga retreats lasting anywhere from one night to a couple of weeks.

KEEPING ON TOP OF YOUR HEALTHY EATING Safety first Be careful about the food and water you consume, particularly in developing countries. Consider packing a small hand sanitiser to put in your day bag so germs are kept off your food while eating out. If you are eating street food, make sure it hasn’t been left out for too long: try to get the vendor to cook it fresh for you so you know no nasty bacteria have started to grow.

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HOTEL ROOM EXERCISE ROUTINE Try this 20-minute routine to give your whole body a workout on the go.

Modify the exercises as you need to suit your body. Repeat twice or three times for a stronger workout. Don’t forget to stretch at the end!

One minute jog in place One minute of push-ups One minute of jumping jacks One minute wall sit One minute of plank One minute of lunges One minute of burpees One minute of squats One minute of crunches One minute of rest Alternatively, five rounds of 25 burpees, 25 push-ups, 25 sit-ups will work all the main muscle groups.

Plan!

Research before you go: look for healthfood stores in the area you are staying in or try to get a hotel near the farmers’ market. Pack cutlery

and containers if you will be making snacks or preparing meals. Do a bit of research to find local meals with health benefits; for example, some Italian dishes have a superb blend of healing herbs, while some Asian curries are created with only coconut, spices, lean protein and vegetables.

Spending an hour or two researching before you leave will help with making healthy decisions when you arrive.

Avoid alcohol & fast food Avoid alcohol and fast food like the plague! It’s particularly hard to resist alcohol in Asia, where it can be as cheap as $1 a bottle, but limit yourself — your body and wallet will thank you! Don’t opt for fast food as a quick alternative to a healthy meal. A general rule is that if you wouldn’t eat it at home, don’t eat it overseas.

Don’t skip meals Although it can be tempting to skip lunch in favour of making it to another sight, don’t do it: remember, food is the fuel that will keep your body healthy enough to keep up with you on your adventures! Make eating a priority: not only is it fundamental to your health

Photography Getty Images

YOGA ON THE GO

BODY HEALTHY TRAVELLING but it also offers you a great insight into different cultures.

Make healthy choices at restaurants Make smart choices in restaurants, just as you would at home. Be wary of carbs, particularly in Asia where rice is a staple at nearly every meal.

As at home, opt for a menu item that balances protein with vegetables and avoid heavy dressings.

Keep hydrated Drink water as often as possible, particularly on planes and in cold weather. Check location-specific advice to see if bottled water is necessary and, if the tap water is OK, bring a water bottle from home so you can fill up on the go.

Prepare snacks Consider bringing some snacks from

Remember food is the fuel that will keep your body healthy enough to keep up with you on your adventures! home, particularly for the plane.

Nut butters, nuts, dried fruit, muesli bars, protein bars and rice cakes all keep well for long periods of time, so consider packing some of these into your checked luggage. Buy fresh fruits from local markets, head to the supermarket for snacks like yoghurt or piece together your own trail mix from local ingredients. If you are taking food internationally, be sure to check airline and customs regulations to make sure you don’t run into any trouble!

Try making sandwiches for lunch and eating healthy restaurant meals in the evening: it’s easy to piece together a tasty sandwich with some freshly baked bread, salad from the markets and a slice of ham from the deli.

LOOKING AFTER YOUR MENTAL HEALTH Don’t forget about your mind! It seems a bit silly to have to concentrate on emotional health while travelling; isn’t the point of a holiday to be relaxed and enjoy yourself? While that’s true, travelling does come with its own variety of stress factors: a hotel has been incorrectly booked and you have nowhere to sleep at night, your passport goes missing, a flight is delayed, or a long day of walking and sightseeing is making you physically and mentally drained. It’s important to do regular mental health check-ins to make sure your holiday is treating you well.

Attitude is key Just like back home, your emotional wellbeing is related to your attitude and how you react to situations. Be flexible: things don’t always go to plan, so accept issues rather than get angry. Take deep breaths before reacting to bad situations. Accept cultural and language difference rather than be frustrated by them. Let go of the things you can’t change and work on what you can: what you are thinking and feeling. Start each day with a positive mantra: think of how lucky you are to be on holiday and how exciting it is to be experiencing a new place and meeting new people.

Meditate & be mindful If you are a regular meditator, don’t let the habit slip when you are overseas.

Make it part of your daily routine: maybe you want to get up early and spend some time meditating in nature before breakfast, or perhaps spending 10 minutes right before bed is more for you. Travel mindfully: really appreciate the new sights, sounds and flavours of the place you are in. Mindfully reflect on your days and create memories in whatever way suits you best: take a heap of photos, start a travel diary,

Keep hydrated with water or fresh coconut juice.

scrapbook with entrance tickets and pressed leaves.

Travelling is also a great excuse to disconnect from the internet and devices, so take advantage of that! At minimum, limit yourself to half an hour of screen time each day, but if possible try to spend a few days without looking at a screen at all. Not worrying about emails or social media will help keep you present in your holiday.

Sleep!

Sleep is incredibly important to your physical health as well as your mental and emotional wellbeing. Make sure your bed is comfortable, particularly in budget accommodation — if it isn’t, consider changing rooms or even moving to a different hotel. If you need to, bringing some comforts from home, like a favourite pillow, might help you have a more restful night. Sleeping on planes is always a challenge, but bringing a neck pillow, eye mask and ear plugs will make you more comfortable.

Try to develop a night-time routine when you travel, particularly if you are away from home for a while; even if it’s as simple as a shower, quick meditation or yoga and reading a page or two of a good book, it will help you develop better sleeping habits.

Be inspired Reading a great book or magazine can keep you engaged as well as making you happier, healthier and smarter. Try learning something new on your holiday: consider a cooking class or enrol in a language school. Make a travel playlist of your favourite inspiring music and play it on long bus or car rides.

Relax Above all, remember you are on holiday: if all you want to do is lie on the beach with a good book and fresh coconut juice all day, do it. Don’t feel bad about not rushing around seeing different sights every day. Make your holiday what you want it to be!

THE RULE OF THUMB FOR HEALTHY, MINDFUL TRAVEL Do the best you can with what you have. Take the healthiest food option available, even if it isn’t ideal, and, if you only have 10 minutes for exercise or meditation, take it. Your mind and body will thank you for it later.

Kim McCosker is a photographer and journalist who’s based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

W: kimberleymccosker.com

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TRAVEL FLINDERS ISLAND

Uncovering Flinders’ diamonds Flinders F linders IIsland sland iisn’t sn’t tthe he m most ost ffamous amous o off A Australia’s ustralia’s iislands, slands, b but ut iitt iiss o one ne o off tthe he m most ost b beautiful eautiful a and nd p peaceful. eaceful.

We We garner garner some some insights insights iinto nto tthis his sspecial pecial p place lace w while hile ssearching earching for for the the ultimate ultimate h hidden idden gem. gem.

WORDS WORDS DS & PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO PHOT OGRAPH APHY Y / MEG MEGAN AN BLA BLANDF BLANDFORD NDFORD OR

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TRAVEL FLINDERS ISLAND

T

he term “hidden gems” is bandied about a lot in travel to describe little-known sights that are worth putting effort into finding. When it comes to Flinders Island, the island itself is an unknown treasure — a haven of mountains and beaches in Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, that few Australians have experienced.

Within its coastlines are many secrets, too: the gems that should make many bucket lists ... but we’ll get to that. On this occasion, I’m on a quest to uncover the literal hidden gems concealed on Flinders Island as I get stuck into digging for gemstones.

Fossicking is an interesting pastime: it’s gritty and dirty with no guarantee of any returns. It’s also a little addictive, because that next dig could produce the best gem you’ve ever laid eyes on. In moderation, however, it’s the best excuse an adult can find for playing in the dirt.

Killiecrankie Bay, on the island’s northwest, is the hiding place of the famous Killiecrankie Diamond.

Although the stone is actually a clear topaz, it’s named for a striking resemblance to the world’s most dazzling gem — and it’s only once I’m on the island, driving north, that I begin to see my chances of uncovering any dwindle. “I’ve never actually found one,” my passenger, also known as my guide, confesses. Oh dear.

The reasons behind this potential anticlimax can all be explained by taking a few steps back.

FLINDERS ISLAND TIME There’s a little sign hanging from my rental car’s rear vision mirror. It reads, “Slow down ... you’re on island time now.” While they’re talking about slowness for the sake of the island’s animals — you have to keep your wits about you as kangaroos and wombats appear in your headlights every few moments — it’s also the perfect reminder to settle your own sense of time when you arrive from the mainland.

Welcome to Australia’s most relaxed destination, where it’s a shock to find yourself in what feels like a time gone by.

The first surprise I receive is while driving to my accommodation, noticing that everyone driving past me (not many people, to be fair) waves. I begin to wave back uncertainly and selfconsciously; it takes me a couple of days to develop my own waving style. Some drivers give a lazy lift of one finger as an acknowledgement while others

Giant red-ochre boulders such as Castle Rock (left) dominate Flinders Island's beautiful red-rock beaches.

Giant ochre boulders dominate the perfect beaches, so reminiscent of those in southern Victoria and northern Tasmania that it’s easy to imagine all three islands joined in ancient times. wholeheartedly raise their hand from the wheel. I find a two-finger return wave satisfies both their expectation of manners and my own desire to be the perfect guest.

Reminders of the past continue when I discover that nothing moves fast on Flinders Island. The shops are closed on Sundays and, while that might be frustrating at home with limited time in which to get things done, here it’s a permission to stop. It’s stepping back into a simpler time when days stretched blankly ahead and you could choose exactly what you wanted to do with that expanse of time.

So, what was it you used to enjoy doing when you had whole days at a time free? I wasn’t expecting to receive a culture shock while still in my own country, but this shock comes from within myself. It’s a realisation that I need to be “bored” sometimes, to just be, and to figure out what it is that I’d choose to fill that space with. When was the last time you felt that freedom?

It’s all part of being immersed in a beautiful landscape that time forgot.

Giant ochre boulders dominate the perfect beaches, so reminiscent of those in southern Victoria and northern Tasmania that it’s easy to imagine all three islands joined in ancient times. It

makes people feel as though they have all the time in the world.

The best of these red-rock beaches can be seen on the walk to Castle Rock, an hour each way along the west coast and known among locals as the most beautiful sight on the island. They say here that if you see someone else on the beach you should go and find a quieter spot, so it’s lucky that bumping into others is unlikely — and this only adds to the feeling that this coastline might just be Tasmania’s quiet way of showing the world how beaches should be done.

White sand, sapphire-blue water and the ultimate giant granite boulder provide the trifecta of a perfect landscape.

Usually a fast walker, I expect this short trail to take no time at all, but I’m wrong. To rush here goes against every instinct, so I amble along with plenty of stops to bask in this place. It’s the only way to experience Flinders Island. Peace is what they do best here; however, it certainly wasn’t always that way.

A LONG, GRIM HISTORY Flinders Islanders are more than honest: they’re straight down the line, and a look at their evolution explains why this is.

Everything you see has been fought for, from attention by their home state

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TRAVEL FLINDERS ISLAND of Tasmania to gaining electricity in 1980, so there’s little wonder to the utter determination and fierce protectiveness locals have towards their homeland.

There are two places to begin understanding the history of Flinders Island: the Furneaux Museum, which tells the story in collections of various time periods, and the Wybalenna Aboriginal settlement.

If Flinders Island is like stepping back in time, then Wybalenna is like jumping into the pages of a history book. While Tasmania’s gory convict history is well known, its Aboriginal history is not.

Indeed, several generations were taught that Tasmanian Aborigines never even existed, as though that part of Australian history — and present — simply didn’t involve them.

Wybalenna provides a confronting truth. Tasmanian Aborigines were, in fact, removed from their homeland to be

Clockwise from main: Take a roadtrip to explore the island's green fields and serene beaches.

A hidden gem of a location, within a hidden gem of an island, to find hidden gems?

My luck might be turning around.

placed in what some refer to as a camp for their safety, away from the Black War, and what others call captivity. Whichever side of the story you choose to believe (both are represented here and at the museum), the facts are undeniable: they died in vast numbers at Wybalenna from the diseases brought in by Europeans and from mistreatment.

Visiting Wybalenna settlement is, quite frankly, uncomfortable. But sometimes discomfort is important in order to learn and empathise.

In the Furneaux Museum, I spend some time flicking through old documents that have been carefully curated by volunteers, marvelling at the importance placed on keeping as many memories as possible.

It’s here that I meet a local who perfectly illustrates a lack of rush.

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“How did you come to live here?” I ask, and he laughs. “How long have you got?” I assure him that I’m feeling like all the time in the world is at my feet, so he tells me the long tale of how he landed here. In short, it goes something like this: “We came here on holiday and were playing beach cricket with the kids.

We met a man who was renovating his house and he kept telling us to come and look at it, so eventually we went to his place. We were blown away by the view: it was so beautiful looking out over the water that I told him to give me a call if he ever decided to sell his house.

Thirteen years later, he rang.”

Memories are long on Flinders Island, particularly when it comes to recalling the feeling you get when you’re looking out over the depths of Bass

Strait, those infamous Roaring Forties winds clearing the cobwebs from your mind. Time doesn’t mean much around here.

It’s this skewed version of time that explains where my gemstone fossicking adventure — or was it to be a misadventure? — fell off track.

With an experienced guide arranged, who’d talked up the very good odds of finding a sparkler, all was well — until he decided time could wait. I’m on the island for a week, however, and although it’s like being a kid again when a week feels like a long space in life, this is my only chance to dig for those diamonds.

A volunteer steps up to the task and, while I’m grateful for his help, his lack of experience (“I’ve never actually found one”) doesn’t fill me with confidence.

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TRAVEL FLINDERS ISLAND FOSSICKING FOR DIAMONDS Not only has my new guide, Greg, never found a gemstone before despite much time dedicated to the prospect, he also drops a second bombshell as we drive towards Killiecrankie. “We’ve missed low tide,” he says, “so we can’t fossick at Killiecrankie Bay itself.” (Note to self: take matters into my own hands next time.) “What’s the plan?” I ask. “I’ll show you a spot no other visitors know about,” is the reply. A hidden gem of a location, within a hidden gem of an island, to find hidden gems? My luck might be turning around.

He directs me to the old tin mine where, I’m told, rumour has it there are plenty of “diamonds” because old-time miners ignored them for the money that was in tin. It’s a drive down a long dirt road and a blue ribbon tied to a post that indicates the track to this secret fossicking spot.

Explore uncomfortable truths at Wybalenna Aboriginal settlement and, below, fossick for gems at Killiecrankie.

We push our way through a narrow, bushy track, at the end of which Greg points me to the creek, hands me a shovel and a rusty sieve and says, “Go for your life.”

We push our way through a narrow bushy track, at the end of which Greg points me to the creek, hands me a shovel and a rusty sieve and says, “Go for your life.” I request some tips.

“Well, you’re searching for something that looks like glass. Good luck,” he chuckles with perhaps just a hint of sarcasm.

I dig into the dirt and stones on the creek’s edge, chuck it into the sieve and kneel down to wash it and begin my search. “Hey, Greg,” I call over to where my companion is digging. “Did you say it’ll look like glass?” He nods. “Like this?” I ask, holding up a clear gem measuring half a centimetre in length and a few millimetres in width. It’s the size of both the stone and my grin that has him dropping his shovel with a loud clang and striding over to me, and his jaw drops. To his credit, he appears genuinely pleased for me despite his own lack of findings.

“Beginner’s luck,” I declare as, over the next hour, I dig up two more glasslike stones, each time feeling excited to be the first person to have ever unearthed these particular gems.

The remainder of my time on Flinders Island is a continuation of the aimless wandering, cool beach sunsets and unhurried chats that have become daily rituals during my time here. It has only been a week but this place has crept under my skin with its irresistible

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peacefulness. It really is like a retreat for the soul.

It’s where walks become discoveries, locals deliver unexpected candidness, time becomes irrelevant and misadventures turn into the luckiest of adventures. And it occurs to me that maybe the disregard for time and plans on Flinders Island is really just a mask for letting things work out for the best.

Megan Blandford is a freelance writer and blogger at writingloud.blogspot.com.

EXPERIENCE FLINDERS ISLAND FOR YOURSELF Getting there Flinders Island is in Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania.

Sharp Airlines flies from Melbourne (Essendon airport) and Launceston to Whitemark, Flinders Island. Look out for regular specials to make the trip more affordable, particularly in the off-peak winter months. sharpairlines.com Staying there For those on low budgets, Flinders Island Cabin Park is great; mid-range options include Elvstan Cottages in Whitemark itself or Sawyers Bay Shacks on the west coast; and, if you’re splurging, check out West End Beach House.

Getting around With no public transport on this island that’s 75km long and 40km wide, the only way to get around is to hire a car. Rental cars are cheap from Flinders Island Cabin Park & Car Hire, flindersislandcp.com.au.

What to do Check out the history at the Furneaux Museum and Wybalenna Aboriginal settlement, walk to Castle Rock or do a half-day hike in the Strzelecki Ranges, or try for your own beginner’s luck fossicking at Killiecrankie Bay. Most importantly, take the opportunity to just chill out on Flinders Island.

More info visitflindersisland.com.au

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Clockwise from main: Balance and poise in action on Inle Lake; Buddhist relics at Indein; a moment of pause at Shwe Inn Thein paya; U Kon Da La, the abbot of Ywa Thit Monastery; Nyaung Ohaf's wild tangle of monuments; lovingly embellished gold leaf treasures; a merry scarf seller of Indein.

BURMA’S sea of tranquillity In the heart of Myanmar lies a lake surrounded by ancient temples, Buddhist monasteries, bustling markets, kind strangers, unforgettable scenery ... and a sense of calm like no other.

WORDS / CATHERINE LAWSON PHOTOGRAPHY / DAVID BRISTOW

O

n Inle Lake at dawn, our noisy longtail zips towards Nampan Market, gently rocking the bow of a slender wooden boat where a fisherman poises to cast his net.

Paddling in the traditional Intha style, one leg wrapped snugly around his wooden blade, he is the epitome of calm, his attention focused intently on the simple act of catching a fish.

We pass on by with necks craned, through the watery streets of stilted timber villages and past floating gardens where a beaming flower seller throws us bright pink chrysanthemum buds.

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High trestles of succulent tomatoes and beans tower above us, growing in unlikely garden beds and tended by farmers in canoes, not tractors.

Stretching for 22km, Inle Lake is one of Burma’s most fascinating landscapes, a sea of contrast where the rituals of daily life are played out against an ancient backdrop of crumbling temples.

Its waterfront villages, bustling markets and welcoming monasteries bristle with authenticity, providing ample opportunity to meet locals and gain insight into this traditional, ethnically diverse Southeast Asian culture.

MARKETS & THE MYSTICAL Taking a break from our boat travels we stop at Nampan Market and sip strong, silty coffee at a table shared with a trio of colourfully swathed villagers who have crossed the hills on foot for their weekly shop. A crowd surges through the stalls where sacks overflow with dried chillies and shallots, fresh vegetables and zesty tangerines, aromatic teas and sweet, sticky rice puddings.

There are bamboo poles for sale, just-caught freshwater fish and enough touristy trinkets — wooden carvings, gemstone jewellery and dazzling tribal

TRAVEL INLE LAKE

fabrics — to fill my backpack several times over. The sellers are persuasive but gracious and the smiles don’t diminish when I gently rebuff the offer of beautiful but impractical handicrafts. I don’t end the day empty-handed, though.

Across the lake at Indein, after a punchy upriver boat ride, I buy bright swathes of pink cotton from a merry band of scarf sellers for a dollar a piece.

Their scarves come in handy to bond tiny babies to their hips and they marvel at the oversized, unwieldy carrier I’m using to transport mine.

We leave the scarf sellers in a crumbling sea of stupas, or zedis, to explore Nyaung Ohak’s wild tangle of monuments, some of which date back to the 12th century. Sprouting shrubby mop-tops yet standing stoic despite the effects of the past 900-odd years, these red-brick ruins that grace Indein’s foothills transfix us. We lose our way on foot trails that clamber over tree roots and disappear through doorways where weathered stone elephants stand guard.

Stepping out of the midday glare into a secreted inner sanctum, we rest our eyes on a giant altar of golden

High trestles of succulent tomatoes and beans tower above us, growing in unlikely garden beds and tended by farmers in canoes, not tractors.

Buddhas whose glorious features are slowly revealed as our eyes adjust to the dark. Solitude and darkness disorient us, casting us adrift down an ancient timeline when, suddenly, a wizened, saffron-robed monk materialises.

He sizes us up for a moment; we nod and smile. Then, noticing my partner David’s tattoo, he presents his forearm and shows us his. In the absence of a shared language, we let the tattoos tell their stories and once our brief connection has been made he bows and disappears. It is yet another surprising “Myanmar moment” that magnifies our growing affection for this country’s genuine, generous people.

Out in the sunshine, a glittering hilltop scene lures us up through a promenade

of souvenir stalls, past slopes studded with 1054 whitewashed and gilded zedis.

Getting to the top is half the fun. As we climb a seemingly endless staircase, shopping and stopping for cold drinks along the way, our golden-haired threeyear-old gathers presents from adoring stallholders (confirming our theory that everyone in Burma has a soft spot for little ones).

When the last stair is conquered, we slip off our shoes to enter Shwe Inn Thein, a modern paya for Buddhist pilgrims surrounded by zedis of every shape and size. Outside there are vast, panoramic views and, down by the river, a string of modest Burmese cafes that lure us back down the hill to devour steaming bowls of noodle soup laced with fresh coriander and chopped chilli.

Over mugs of milky, sweet coffee, we rate Indein more than worthy of the 10 hours we’ve just spent getting to Inle Lake by bus. But we are barely half a day into our adventure — and yet to meet U Kon Da La. After visiting Nga Phe Kyaung’s jumping cat monastery where, since the head monk died a few years ago,

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TRAVEL INLE LAKE

the felines stay very much grounded, we hear about a beautiful old teak monastery near our waterfront room in the town of Nyaung Shwe. After visits to some of Burma’s more famous Buddhist temples — giant, crowded, gilded monuments — Ywa Thit Monastery provides a humbling contrast.

Sitting cross-legged on a foot-worn wooden floor, big windows framing rural scenes of rice paddies and a local soccer match in play, we meet the effervescent Abbot U Kon Da La, who impresses us with his grasp of languages and his world views. He offers us bananas and we eat and chat, revelling in stories of the 75-year-old’s life and the solitude he enjoys as the monastery’s sole occupant (bar a roof full of pigeons).

At his invitation we take a look around, admiring row upon row of centuries-old Buddha statues and artefacts, but find nothing more radiant than U Kon Da La himself. As we cycle away, the sight of U Kon Da La waving us goodbye from a high monastery window is one that brings a smile to my face every time I think of it.

THE ART OF CALM After our inspired afternoon on wheels we hire them again, this time tackling

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He offers us bananas and we eat and chat, revelling in stories of the 75-year-old’s life and the solitude he enjoys as the monastery’s sole occupant (bar a roof full of pigeons). a thin dirt track heading towards a peaceful forest monastery high above Maing Thauk. This picturesque riverside village that straddles both sea and land is bridged by a 400m-long elevated walkway and lies within easy cycling distance from the popular tourist centre at Nyaung Shwe.

If the monastery is indeed worth the long uphill climb, I can’t say. We end up spending the better part of the morning in the open-air workshop of the local motorbike mechanic, getting a puncture repaired and learning a lesson in the art of calm. I’m embarrassed to recall the amount of panic that an inconsequential holed tyre triggered but, at the time, we seemed well and truly stranded.

To our surprise, locals come effortlessly to our aid, accompanying us

back down the road and waking a sleepy bike mechanic who patiently resolves our crisis singlehandedly (literally — he had one arm in a sling!). For this, he might have earned a good day’s pay but when we finally persuade him to accept some money his asking price is a meagre 50 cents. Another Myanmar moment? You bet.

Our rides restored, we finally reach Maing Thauk and stroll the rickety timber bridge that provides passage to the other side of town. Boarding a canoe taxi, we pass stilted homes and some of Inle Lake’s most upmarket waterfront hotels where, during the high season, luxurious surrounds, exceptional views and utter seclusion come with an AU$250-a-night price tag.

We opt for cold beers and flash-fried noodles instead, lounging in the middle of Inle’s shimmering sea, watching the world buzz on by and pondering a long list of possible activities to fill the rest of our lakeside stay. A local guide has been tempting us with photographs of sheer-drop waterfalls and secluded swimming holes tucked deep in the forest and accessible only on foot. We can get there in a day and the asking price is modest, but we have bigger trekking aspirations, too.

TRAVEL INLE LAKE Clockwise from left: Market day at Nampan; golden spires above Indein; Inle Lake's floating gardens; downtown Nyaungshwe; two furry friends keep watch at Nga Phe Kyaung monastery; keeping pace en route to Maing Thauk.

Across mountains and through forests, overnighting in villages dotted between Inle Lake’s Nyaung Shwe and Kalaw in the northeast, a popular guided trekking adventure tempts travellers keen to revel in a more authentic side of Burma and stay off the bus. Equally appealing is the route to Kakku where a “stupa garden” of 2478 monuments dates back to the 3rd century BCE. But, before we strap on our hiking boots, there are more leisurely jaunts closer to town.

From a riverfront room in Nyaung Shwe, where bed and breakfast is ours for a tiny AU$25 a night, the entire lakeside region is within easy reach via boat and bicycle. Khaung Daing’s natural hot springs make a great biking destination across an incredibly scenic landscape dotted with whitewashed and gilded stupas, including the Phwar Ya Thay Paya, known as “Lady Monk” for the lone woman who resides there.

Sunset with a glass in hand from the elevated decks of Red Mountain Estate Vineyard is a popular traveller’s choice — as much for the views as the four sampler wines sold for a tiny AU$2.50 a head. In the heart of Nyaung Shwe, we join the throng of shoppers at Mingalar Market, sourcing a picnic

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO Getting there Air Asia flights from Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth can get you to Kuala Lumpur and onto Yangon or Mandalay. Visit yangonair.com for connecting flights to Heho (an hour’s taxi ride from Inle Lake) or bed down on an overnight bus ride to Nyaung Shwe for a fraction of the price.

Staying there The travellers’ hub at Nyaung Shwe on the lake’s northern end offers a huge choice of budget hotels, restaurants and booking agents. For upmarket options, stay lakeside (rooms at the popular Inle Princess Resort start from AU$250/night).

The Royal Inlay Hotel in Nyaung Shwe has a day spa as well as affordable rooms a cut above the town’s traveller digs.

of ripe avocados, bananas, papaya and crackers, which we carry to the river and devour from swinging hammocks.

In all, a week slips by at Inle Lake before the urgency of seeing the rest of the country takes hold. When we do board the overnight bus to Mandalay, we resolve to shake out our tightly packed itinerary of must-see sights and allow

Getting around Day-long boat tours of Inle Lake are arranged with ease, starting from about AU$22. Rent bikes for AU$2 a day.

Getting organised Apply for a 28-day Myanmar visa instantly online at evisa.moip.gov.mm (US$50 per person). ATMs are located at major tourist destinations and banks everywhere can exchange major currencies (as the country’s alternative currency, US dollars are recommended).

For more travel information, you can head to go-myanmar.com.

Don’t miss While in Nyaung Shwe, check out the Aung Puppet Show, a grassroots performance of traditional Myanmar puppetry (AU$4 a ticket).

much more time to get lost on the back streets and see, smell and discover the real Burma.

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.

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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 Michael Caton shines as a terminally ill cabbie in Last Cab to Darwin.

DVDS LAST CAB TO DARWIN DIRECTED BY JEREMY SIMS STARRING MICHAEL CATON, JACKI WEAVER, NINGALI LAWFORD-WOLF

THE ROAD WITHIN DIRECTED BY GREN WELLS STARRING ROBERT SHEEHAN, DEV PATEL, ZOË KRAVITZ Road trips: where would the movies be without them? From Mad Max to Charlie’s Country, they’re certainly a staple of Australian cinema and few are as celebrated as this year’s surprise hit, Last Cab to Darwin.

Based on a true story, this marvellous movie follows the final journey of Rex, a terminally ill cabbie who drives from Broken Hill to Darwin to avail himself of the Territory’s new right-to-die law.

Though Rex sees himself as a proud, stoic loner, it turns out he’s on the run from more than a bit of unfinished business, including his sharp-tongued neighbour and secret girlfriend, Polly (Ningali Lawford-Wolf). As Rex takes off, director Jeremy Sims can’t resist posting some portentous omens: a road train full of doomed cattle, a tree festooned with dead feral cats, even Rex’s burnt breakfast toast.

On the way the wouldbe loner collects other damaged souls. Mark Coles Smith lights up the screen as Tilly, a feckless waster who could be an AFL star if he didn’t prefer failure; then there’s Julie Laugh and (Emma Hamilton), an cry with The English nurse-turnedRoad Within. barmaid who rediscovers her vocation while caring

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for Rex. In Darwin, meanwhile, crusading Dr Farmer (Jacki Weaver) is hoping the cabbie’s story will shine a spotlight on her nifty euthanasia machine.

Though at times it veers into colourful outback travelogue teeming with knockabout Aussie types played by some of our best character actors, Last Cab never loses sight of its humanity.

That’s due in large part to Michael Caton who, after The Castle’s Darryl Kerrigan, has created a second iconic role in the twilight of his own career. Grizzled but not grizzling, down but not out, he does the real Rex proud. This one goes straight to the poolroom.

In the spiky comedy-drama The Road Within, a guy with Tourette’s, an anorexic and an OCD germaphobe get into a car. Sounds like a setup for a tasteless joke, but luckily the three young misfits are played by a trio of brilliant actors. Zoë Kravitz confronts her own brushes with eating disorders to play the rebellious Marie, who with Vincent — Irish actor Robert Sheehan, doing a fine line in tics and four-letter words — steals a car to escape a clinic for the psychologically disturbed and head for the ocean. With them, reluctantly, comes “clean freak” Alex (Dev Patel), who never removes his protective gloves.

Of course (and the title spells it out), this too is as much an inward journey as a physical one. In hot pursuit are Vincent’s estranged father (Robert Patrick) and the clinic’s director (Kyra Sedgwick), both with lessons of their own to learn. If this American remake of the 2010 German film Vincent Wants to Sea tries a little too hard to mix laughter and tears, neither does it resort to pat solutions or miracle cures. And the cast are always good company, which is all you can ask for on a road trip. CS

HOW TO LEARN ALMOST ANYTHING IN 48 HOURS TANSEL ALI, HARDIE GRANT We all experience it: forgetting the name of the boss’s wife, having to check your phone twice or forgetting the reason you came into the living room just now. It’s called a mental blank, and it confounds as much as it hinders and irritates. To put a stop to this, Tansel Ali — noted for memorising the Sydney Yellow Pages in 24 days — brings us How to Learn Almost Anything in 48 Hours. For Ali, there’s no such thing as a bad memory; rather, the techniques for remembering are just not there. He has compiled a range of welldocumented methods for learning and improving your memory and explains what each method is best for and why. If you’ve had it with mental blanks, don’t forget to pick up a copy. HC

MY NEW ROOTS SARAH BRITTON, PAN MACMILLIAN Recipes from Sarah’s popular blog My New Roots are often shared around the office, providing Sunday dinner inspiration and afternoon snack delights. When Britton’s cookbook landed on our desk, we were delighted: we now had a hard-copy version of her beautifully photographed dishes and cute, quirky anecdotes. My New Roots shares over 100 of her favourite recipes, making our minds explode with colour and creative inspiration: Green Galaxy Smoothie Bowl, Chunky Banana Bread Granola, Miso Sesame-Glazed Eggplants and a decadent Chai Upside-Down Plus Cake, for example.

In true My New Roots style, the recipes are vegetarian, free from processed ingredients such as refined flours, sugars and preservatives, and extremely delicious! KD

ASTROLOGY: SECRETS OF THE MOON

FAIR FOOD

PATSY BENNETT, ROCKPOOL PUBLISHING Do you enjoy reading your weekly horoscope? Love knowing where your zodiac energy resides for the month? For the year? Well, we’re all familiar with our sun signs, but what about the moon’s north nodes? This book shares an alternative angle on astrology, one that uses the moon signs to reveal the soul’s true path.

Astrologer and journalist Patsy Bennett offers predictions that cover all aspects of the self, including relationships, careers, talents and interests. Affirmations, inspirations and suggestions are also given, allowing you to enjoy a shift in perspective or boost in motivation.

Esoteric, yet an informative and interesting discovery, this book throws light and awareness on your soul’s true path. KD

EDITED BY DR NICK ROSE, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND PRESS Human communication revolves around stories. Good stories entertain, inform and inspire — and Fair Food contains some great ones. They’re all real, they’re all told by pioneers and changemakers in Australia’s fair food movement and they’re all about the paths these storytellers have trodden towards more equitable food networks, food plans and food futures. Dr Nick Rose has compiled 10 stories, including those of the toxicologist who turned his urban backyard into a food forest; the vegetarian turned free-range pig farmer; the mum turned GMfood myth debunker. Australia’s food system faces big challenges, from environmental damage to a powerful supermarket duopoly, but these stories give hope — and ideas about how you can create change, too. DK

VINEGAR SOCKS

CORNERSMITH

KARIN BERNDL & NICI HOFER, HARDIE GRANT BOOKS Vinegar Socks is the sweetest book, full of natural home remedies and a double dose of love and care. With its cute styling, strong design aesthetic and beautiful imagery, just glancing at it makes you feel better — even before you’ve run a soothing lavender bath or drunk a brew of hot onion milk. The authors share 40 home remedies that have been handed down through generations and, as the name suggests, some interesting concoctions are offered: socks soaked in vinegar, sap ointment, a horseradish necklace, and chamomile and salt inhalations. Using ingredients found in the cupboard, these simple remedies aid in curing fevers, sinusitis, sore throats, diarrhoea, wasp stings and much more. KD

ALEX ELLIOT-HOWERY & JAMES GRANT, MURDOCH BOOKS The Cornersmith Cafe is creating big changes in Sydney’s inner-west suburb of Marrickville. Owners Alex ElliotHowery and James Grant extend the cafe’s philosophy with the release of their first cookbook to help others live a more sustainable and resourceful existence, and create a like-minded community. Divided by the seasons, Cornersmith features the best of the cafe’s menu, such as Spiced Port & Veal with Pomegranate Syrup and Pears Poached in Red Wine. Beautiful photographs demonstrate the cafe’s processes of pickling, preserving and cheese and sauerkraut making, so these nutritional delights can become staples in your pantry. KD

OPENING THE DOOR OF YOUR HEART AJAHN BRAHM, HACHETTE Born and raised in the West, Ajahn Brahm became a Buddhist monk in the forest meditation tradition at age 23 and studied for nine years in Thailand. He’s now the abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery in Western Australia and this new edition of Opening the Door of Your Heart, first released in 2008, shares his playful tales from 30 years of living and teaching Buddhist philosophies.

For a monk, Brahm has a wicked sense of humour: for example, his parable of a monk who pulled out his own tooth with pliers, which illustrates the teaching that fear is a major ingredient of pain, is titled “TM or how to transcend-dental medication”. He wrote this book to convey through story the path to inner happiness. That may come, but for now it left us soothed — and chuckling. DK

MINDFULNESS FOR CREATIVITY DR DANNY PENMAN, HACHETTE Many of our daily experiences are governed by unconscious expectations. This in itself hinders mindfulness and, in turn, our inherent creativity. When we’re stuck in routine, we tend to approach problems the same way and end up with the same solutions. Mindfulness for Creativity is a four-week program based on the notion that by clearing your mind and practising meditation you can increase your creativity, productivity and overall efficiency. After thoughtfully introducing the ideas behind mindfulness in a way that’s comprehensive yet easy to understand, Dr Danny Penman — determined to bring out the creative side he is adamant exists in each and every one of us — shares the detail of his program. HC

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FOOD VEGETABLES, GRAINS & OTHER GOOD STUFF

VEGIES WITH

oomph Recipes & images from Vegetables, Grains & Other Good Stuff by Simon Bryant, Penguin Books, RRP AU$40

GRAPE, GOOSEBERRY & SPICED NUT SALAD Serves: 4 Spice mix ½ tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp coriander seeds ½ tsp ground cassia bark ¼ tsp allspice 3 cloves 10 green cardamom seeds (not pods) 60g sultanas 2 tbsp verjuice 1 cup mixed nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts) 1 tbsp olive oil 100g seedless grapes, some halved ½ cup cape gooseberries, lanterns removed, or regular gooseberries, halved 1 green apple, quartered, cored & sliced Large handful rocket 1 tsp walnut oil Pinch salt flakes To make the spice mix, grind the ingredients to a coarse powder in a mortar and pestle.

Place the sultanas in a small bowl. Warm the verjuice in a small saucepan, then pour it over the sultanas. Leave for 15 mins to allow the sultanas to soften and plump up.

S

imon Bryant is a passionate chef, TV personality and creative director of the food and wine festival Tasting Australia.

What a guy! You’d think his impressive qualities would stop there, but no — he proudly uses his public profile to highlight ethical food issues, from the importance of using native Australian foods to the kind treatment of animals to offering producers fair prices.

Bryant’s second cookbook Vegetables, Grains & Other Good Stuff shares his views, traditional cooking methods and delicious, inventive dishes. Separated into the four seasons, the book begins with an in-depth list of ingredients and their nutritional benefits then expands into sharing delicious vegetarian recipes like mustard leaf saag with yoghurtbaked haloumi, squash, taleggio and quinoa balls and steamed cumquat marmalade pudding.

Bryant finishes his beautifully photographed release by explaining basic techniques, such as how to make romesco sauce, mushroom paste and egg yolk mayo — secrets we’ve always wanted to know.

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Place the nuts in a dry heavy-based frying pan over medium–high heat and lightly toast them, moving them regularly so they don’t burn. Add the spice mix and fry for a couple of minutes until aromatic. Add the olive oil and fry for a further 1–2 mins, then remove from the heat and allow to cool.

In a serving bowl, combine the grapes, gooseberries, apple, rocket, sultanas and spiced nuts, tossing to combine. Drizzle over the walnut oil, season with salt and toss again to combine. Serve immediately.

BARBECUED CORN COBS WITH CHILLI MAYO & PARMESAN Serves: 4 as a side 4 corn cobs, in their husks ⅓ cup good-quality mayo ½ tsp chipotle chilli powder or 2 tbsp chipotle in adobo sauce 1 lime, grated zest Handful coriander leaves, finely chopped Salt flakes & cracked black pepper ⅓ cup parmesan, finely grated Lime halves, to serve Submerge the corn cobs in water for 30 mins Drain and pat dry with paper towel.

Preheat a barbecue to medium–high.

In a small bowl, combine the

FOOD VEGETABLES, GRAINS & OTHER GOOD STUFF

mayonnaise, chilli, lime zest and half the coriander. Season with salt and pepper and stir until well combined.

Place the corn cobs on the preheated barbecue and cook, turning every couple of minutes until charred all over. Turn the heat to low, then cover and cook for a further 10 mins or until the corn is tender.

To serve the corn cobs, open up the husks and remove the silks. Brush with the chilli mayo, then sprinkle over the parmesan and remaining coriander. Serve with lime for squeezing over and extra mayo on the side.

MUSHROOM TERRINE Serves: 6 200g portobello mushrooms, stems removed & set aside 150g king brown mushrooms, stems removed & set aside 150g fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed & set aside 20g dried porcini, soaked in warm water for 20 mins 1 tbsp olive oil Pinch salt flakes 200g enoki mushrooms, trimmed 150g oyster mushrooms, torn 2 cloves garlic, skin on, bruised 2 golden shallots, chopped, skins reserved Small handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped, stalks reserved 1 sprig thyme, plus 1 tbsp chopped thyme, extra ½ tsp black peppercorns 1 bay leaf 8g agar agar 1 tsp chopped marjoram 2 tbsp green peppercorns, roughly chopped Extra virgin olive oil or mayonnaise, to serve Chives, to garnish Toast, to serve Using a mandolin, finely slice the portobello and king brown caps, making them as

long and thin as possible. Set those sliced mushrooms aside on a baking tray. Slice the shiitake mushroom caps into matchsticks and set aside in a large bowl.

Drain the porcini, reserving the soaking water, then squeeze dry and chop into small pieces. Heat the olive oil in a small heavybased frying pan over high heat and fry the porcini with salt until browned. Add to the bowl of shiitake matchsticks, along with the enoki and oyster mushrooms. Set aside.

To make a mushroom stock, place all the reserved mushroom offcuts in a saucepan and add the garlic, shallot skins, parsley stalks, thyme sprig, black peppercorns and bay leaf. Add the soaking water from the porcini and top up with water to make 1.5L. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 mins. Remove from the heat and strain the stock into a bowl, squashing the mushrooms with the back of a ladle to extract all the liquid. Return the strained stock to a saucepan and whisk in the agar agar. Bring to a simmer.

Pour about 200mL of the warm stock over the portobellos and king browns on the baking tray. Leave for 5 mins to absorb, turning mushrooms over halfway through.

Add the shallots, parsley, thyme, marjoram, green peppercorns and one tablespoon of salt to the bowl of mushrooms. Pour the remaining stock over the top and combine well.

Line an 800mL terrine mould (or long, deep rectangular cake tin) with plastic film, leaving a slight overhang. Place on a baking tray. Line the bottom and the sides of the mould with two-thirds of the portobello and king brown mushrooms. Using a slotted spoon, carefully fill the lined mould with the mushroom and herb mixture. You want the liquid just clinging to the mix but not swimming; there may be a tiny bit of liquid remaining, depending on how much your mushrooms have absorbed. Top with the remaining mushroom slices, then cover

with the overhanging plastic film. Place another baking tray on top and weigh it down with a couple of tins of food. A bit of excess liquid will ooze out, but don’t worry.

Leave at room temperature overnight or refrigerate for 4 hrs.

To help remove the terrine, gently heat the bottom of the mould by submerging it in warm water. Use a knife to ease the terrine away from the sides. Knock it out onto a board and cut the terrine into 1 cm slices with a sharp knife (it’s best to leave the plastic film on for this).

Drizzle the terrine with olive oil or mayonnaise, garnish with chives and serve with toast.

BANANA POPS WITH BEE POLLEN Serves: 4 4 bananas, peeled or partially peeled 200g couverture dark chocolate (70% cocoa), grated 2 tbsp bee pollen Line a baking tray with baking paper. Either peel the bananas completely and insert a wooden pop stick into each one, or partially peel them, keeping the last few centimetres of skin attached. Arrange on the tray, cover with plastic film and place in the freezer for 3 hrs or until frozen.

Once the bananas are frozen, place twothirds of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Make sure no liquid touches the chocolate, as this will cause it to clump.

Using a thermometer, melt the chocolate until it reaches 45°C. Remove from heat and allow the chocolate to cool to 27°C, then add the remaining chocolate and stir through. Return it briefly to the heat until the chocolate reaches 32°C. Once all the chocolate has melted, it’s ready to use.

Dip the bananas into the chocolate and hold upside down to allow the excess to drip off. Just as the chocolate is starting to set, sprinkle with bee pollen. Enjoy!

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EDUCATION FOCUS ANGELA ROJAS

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR LIFE

ABOUT ANGELA ROJAS Angela has worked in numerous corporate organisations for more than 15 years and has created her own business in providing personal coaching, consulting and training to individuals and organisations.

Over the past 22 years, Angela has studied to understand the mind and people and, in particular, explored her interest in how beliefs direct our lives. Her training evolved in personal self-awareness to identify how beliefs serve us to stay in survival mode and how we can change beliefs and perceptions to move forward in creation.

Angela began her path towards change and transformation in 1990 and, over the years, delved deeper into the subconscious mind through her yoga and meditation training, Dr Dispenza’s model for change training and ThetaHealing.

To find out more, visit angelarojas. com, email me@angelarojas.com or call +61 3 9331 1313 or +61 418 569 439.

A

ngela Rojas is a corporate trainer, beliefs coach and consultant. Over the past three years, she has refined her training to cater for individuals and organisations that are inspired by conscious change and growth.

If you are serious about building an emotionally intelligent, resilient, creative and fully engaged personality or workforce, you have two workshops or individual belief-coaching sessions that offer powerful insights and tools for change and goal-setting results.

As a trainer and consultant certified

by Dr Joe Dispenza, Angela has the certification and capability to deliver Dr Dispenza’s work to your organisation.

CHANGE YOUR MIND, CREATE NEW RESULTS Change Your Mind, Create New Results, a workshop formerly known as Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, is an eighthour program that can be delivered in one day, two half-days or four two-hour weekly sessions. The program utilises new discoveries in the fields of neuroscience and epigenetics and applies these findings to change and manage individuals, businesses and organisations.

There is true science to “changing your mind” and, once you understand “how the brain works”, change comes naturally.

In this program, participants will: Identify a change they want to make Learn a model of change based on the field of neuroscience Learn about the “three brains” and their roles in the change process Apply practices based on neuroscience to the desired changes Incorporate all the lessons to activate the neurological process for change so as to mentally rewire the brain Understand what it means to “live in survival or creation” Angela will use a dynamic combination of science, engaging lectures, multimedia tools and interactive exercises to teach you how to maximise the most powerful tool in

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your body: your brain. The workshop will allow you to make significant shifts within yourself and your organisation.

Angela works with clients to design the best individualised option for this innovative and timely program. Transform yourself, your organisation or business to a whole new way of thinking, doing and being!

Neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author Dr Dispenza is a renowned researcher and lecturer in the fields of neuroscience and epigenetics. He has worked closely with master trainers and curriculum design experts to create this program.

Based on the book Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, this course teaches people how to harness their brains’ power to make significant life changes. Through a rigorous application, selection and certification process, Dr Dispenza has personally certified trainers to deliver his work.

THE GAME OF LIFE The second workshop or belief-coaching program Angela offers is called The Game of Life: Moving from Passenger to Driver of Your Life. It is for people who want to move into new paradigms and is unlike any other coaching program. It has been created to uncover and release all hidden beliefs and blocks that hinder you or your organisation from reaching maximum abundance, success and life or business goals.

The eight sessions (for individuals) or 16-hour program (for businesses) explores expanding your visions, comfort zones and self-realisation. It was originally created by a successful Japanese entrepreneur after he discovered remarkable success in his business when he worked on beliefs around income thresholds, attachments to previous workplaces, previous successes and failures and previous incomes.

From this revelation, the program expanded to finding and examining beliefs around society, parents, peers, receiving abundance, power and personal beliefs.

It takes these findings to another level through working on them, releasing them and empowering the individual to reach their personal or business goals.

The Game of Life is the most comprehensive program on business, goals and financial success, clearing beliefs so you can become the driver of your life. It is designed to teach you in an easy-to-follow seven-step structure to be the real master of your life and to play the game of life with success, fun and great achievement.

Here is an outline of the program: Release parental obligations Release past attachments Become accepted by society Handle peer pressure Receive infinite abundance Expand your comfort zones Vision of creation and manifestation

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COLUMN

NATURAL BEAUTY

BY CARLA OATES

PRINCIPLES FOR HEALTHY SKIN: PART 2

4. BOOST YOUR FIBRE INTAKE A healthy colon is key to healthy skin. According to traditional Chinese medicine principles, if faeces move too slowly through the bowel, toxins can be reabsorbed into the bloodstream and lymphatic system and recirculated around the body. This causes waste to accumulate in the body’s tissues and places a far greater load on the detoxification and elimination organs. This autotoxicity is linked to many skin conditions and is a clinical foundation of naturopathic treatment for almost any skin condition.

High-fibre foods include fruits and vegies with their skin intact, mucilage grains such as soaked rolled oats (soaking aids digestibility), chia seeds and freshly ground flaxseed.

5. PROMOTE DETOXIFICATION & ELIMINATION WITH DIET For good skin health, it’s important to regularly eat foods that supports detoxification and elimination. The body’s main detoxification organ is the liver and, when you support its detox functions, you take a substantial load off the other eliminative organs, notably the skin. Boost the liver’s eliminative functions with a healthy diet, water, nutrients, herbs, regular exercise, a daily bowel motion and low toxin exposure.

The best liver diet is full of fresh fruits and veg that offer water, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre. These are particularly beneficial: Lemon and bitter foods increase bile flow, cleanse, decongest and protect the liver, and reduce the liver’s load by enhancing digestion.

Indoles and sulforaphane found in cruciferous veg support phase-one liver detoxification.

Protein foods (in particular the amino acids arginine, cysteine, glutamine, glycine, methionine, ornithine, taurine) support phasetwo liver detoxification.

Your main elimination pathways are through the bowels, kidneys/urine, skin/sweating and lymphatic flow. To support these: Drink at least 2L of filtered water daily to promote toxin removal via the kidneys and urine.

Eat a diet high in alkaline foods (most veg and some fruits). These alkalise the blood and tissues by breaking down to bicarbonate ions, which boosts immune function and encourages body tissues to dump wastes and toxins into the blood so they can be processed and excreted.

Also, promote healthy elimination through the body’s eliminatory and detox organs, of which

skin is one of the most important. Along with the liver, kidneys, lungs and lymphatic system, the skin is constantly excreting wastes and toxins through perspiration and sebum. If any of the other organs become overworked or congested, the skin bears more of the elimination burden.

6. EAT FOODS RICH IN PHYTOCHEMICALS, ANTIOXIDANTS & LIVE ENZYMES

CARLA OATES is a natural beauty expert and the author of Feeding Your Skin.

Phytochemicals are non-nutritive plant chemicals that can prevent disease, balance hormones, reduce free-radical activity and block the processes that lead to cancer. There are many phytochemicals, with different benefits for skin and whole-body health. A key example is flavonoids, highly anti-inflammatory for all cells.

Tea’s major polyphenol is epigallocatechin-3 gallate, or EGCG. Oral and topical use of tea and EGCG helps to inhibit inflammation and oxidative stress and may help to prevent photoageing and cancers of the skin. EGCG is also a potent inducer of superoxide dismutase (SOD), an enzyme that quenches excess free radicals generated by sunlight, smoking and pollution.

Antioxidants prevent free-radical damage in the skin. Your antioxidant defence system is made up of enzymes and substances produced within the body, plus micronutrients from food.

Maintaining an adequate antioxidant defence system helps prevent free-radical damage and slow ageing and degeneration processes in the skin and body. Some of the most powerful dietary antioxidants are the carotenoid family, found in brightly coloured fruits and veg — vital for skin health. As antioxidants, they absorb UV radiation and help prevent photo-ageing and skin cancer.

In addition, members of the carotenoid family are used by the body to make vitamin A — one of the most important micronutrients for skin health.

Examples of carotenoids include: Lycopene in tomatoes, tomato paste and juice Carotenes in carrots, corn, mango, paw paw, oranges, pumpkin and sweet potato Anthocyanins in beetroot, blueberries, blackberries and eggplant.

7. EAT RAW FOOD DAILY Fresh, raw and live foods, such as fresh fruit and veg, are nutrient-rich, alkalising and packed with enzymes. Consciously choosing meals that are at least 50 per cent raw promotes improved digestion, reduces inflammation, boosts fibre and helps fight cardiovascular disease.

Increasing your raw, living foods intake is easy: just add sprouts, grated vegies and lots of green leaves to everything — salads, sandwiches, cooked meals, even as a snack in themselves.

Increasing your raw, living foods intake is easy: just add sprouts, grated vegies and lots of green leaves to everything.

Photography Bigstock

L

ast issue, I shared my first three principles for healthy skin. Here are the final four, which are just as important.

Combined, these seven tenets will keep your insides healthy and your outsides glowing.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 141

COLUMN

QUICK KITCHEN

BY LEE HOLMES

SUMMER BERRY RECIPES

O 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.

ne of my fondest moments of summer is the abundance of plump, juicy, scarlet-hued berries awaiting transformation into delicious seasonal dishes.

Nothing screams summer more than farmers’ market stands bursting with berries.

Berries contain a wealth of health benefits.

Strawberries are enhanced with high levels of vitamin C: just 100g of strawberries provides twice the daily requirement. They’re also high in antioxidants and are a good source of vitamin K, mood-boosting B vitamins and iodine. Plus, strawbs have been found to act as a protective factor against blood clotting and inflammation by improving the functioning of blood vessels.

Blueberries are perhaps the most beneficial of fruits from the berry family. Their vitamin C, folate and fibre quota provide the body with huge benefits and their high levels of flavonoids have been found to reduce anxiety, depression and inflammation in the body.

Delicate and fragile, raspberries need careful handling yet are blessed with innumerable health benefits. As a good source of vitamin C, they help the immune system and are a rich source of polyphenols anthocyanin and flavonol, antioxidants that decrease oxidative damage from free radicals and also reduce inflammation.

Do be careful when purchasing berries as they can be high in pesticides. Berries can be easily grown at home but, if you’re not able to tend to a garden, look for organic berries where possible. Frozen berries have slightly lower levels of nutrients but can still be used in place of fresh berries when out of season.

In Australia, strawberries have two seasons: winter strawberries are grown in Queensland; summer ones come from NSW and Victoria.

Photography Bigstock

Raw Berry & Chocolate Torte

Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries are all crowdfavourite summer fruits that can spark kitchen creativity.

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Base 1½ cups raw walnuts Zest 1 lemon ¼ cup melted extravirgin coconut oil ½ cup dried berries 1 tsp stevia powder Filling 1 cup raw cashews ⅓ cup raw cacao powder

115g cacao butter, grated & melted 2 tbsp rice-malt syrup, or 1 tsp stevia powder 2 tbsp additive-free coconut milk Juice 1 lemon 2 cups mixed berries, plus extra for decorating (optional)

Place cashews in a bowl, cover with filtered water and soak for 2 hours. Drain.

To make base, place walnuts and stevia in a food processor and blend until finely chopped.

Transfer to a bowl and add lemon zest. Place coconut oil and dried berries in food processor and blend. Add to walnut mixture and combine well. Press mixture into a 20cm springform cake tin and chill in the freezer for 30 mins.

To make filling, place all ingredients in the food processor and blend until smooth.

Remove base from the freezer and spoon filling over the top. Chill for 2 hours in the fridge, or 1 hour in the freezer, until set. Scatter over extra berries before serving.

Note: This will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week in the fridge, 2 weeks in the freezer.

Raspberry-Studded Pumpkin Pie Coconut oil, or unsalted butter, for greasing Base ⅔ cup raw cashews ¼ cup sesame seeds 1½ tbsp chia seeds 1½ tbsp flaxseeds ¼ cup sunflower seeds ⅓ cup cooked brown rice ⅓ cup quinoa flakes 6 drops stevia liquid, or 1 tbsp rice-malt syrup 1 tsp alcohol-free vanilla extract ½ tsp ground

cinnamon 2–3 tbsp coconut oil, or 40–60g butter Topping 600g pumpkin or sweet potato, steamed & cooled 1 tbsp almond milk 2 large organic eggs, beaten 6 drops stevia liquid 1 tbsp coconut oil ¼ tsp ground cinnamon ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg 1 tsp alcohol-free vanilla extract About 20 raspberries

Preheat the oven to 190°C and lightly grease a 20cm springform cake tin or pie dish.

Combine all base ingredients in a food processor, adding coconut oil last. Process for about 15 seconds or until crunchy. Remove dough and press it evenly into tin, packing slightly around edges to make a crust. Bake blind for 10– 15 mins or until base is firm and lightly golden.

To make topping, combine all ingredients, except raspberries, in a large bowl and mash with a fork until smooth. Spoon over base and stud with raspberries. Return pie to the oven and bake for 35 mins.

Note: This will keep for 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge.

Strawberry Granita 3 punnets of frozen strawberries, hulled 1 tbsp rice-malt syrup, or sweetener of your choice

2 tbsp additive-free coconut milk Unsweetened coconut flakes, to serve

Place frozen strawberries in a blender with ricemalt syrup or sweetener. Blend until smooth, then transfer to a freezer-proof dish and place in freezer until top layer starts to freeze.

Remove from freezer, return to blender and blend again to icy flakes.

Divide coconut milk between two glasses, add granita, top with coconut flakes and serve.

COLUMN

DIY DETOX

BY SALLY MATHRICK

POLLUTION & THE BRAIN

O

ur brains are remarkable. They are mostly made from fatty tissue, communicate through protein-like structures and use glucose mainly for fuel. For healthy function they need to be well nourished with water, food, oxygen-rich blood, experiences and interactivity.

Our brains are protected from toxins by the “brain-blood barrier”, a network of specialised capillaries that controls what can enter the brain and its immediate environment. Over a lifetime, the integrity of this barrier can be diminished and toxins that shouldn’t can access the brain. Also, because the body stores excess toxins in fats, the brain can become a place where they are stored.

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is currently the sixth leading cause of death in the US. In Australia, dementia is the second leading cause of death, according to national AD and dementia organisations. With our ageing population, this disease is of great concern for individuals and their families’ quality of life, and also for the huge cost burden on the health system. Some suggest the incidence will double by 2030.

Different hypotheses exist about the cause of AD. One major theory is a lack in the neurotransmitter acetylcholine diminishing the capacity for transmission. Another is a buildup of amyloid plaques around brain cells, interfering with function. There is also a growing understanding that an impediment of blood flow to the brain, which occurs in diabetes, is a factor.

This explanation is why AD has also been called diabetes type 3. Evidence is rising that toxins can play a role in a number of these hypotheses.

Early detection of AD is vital in successfully slowing the brain’s deterioration. AD takes from five to 20 years to develop. There is a point in AD’s progression where no current treatment can successfully stop the brain’s deterioration.

Photography Bigstock

THE PEANUT BUTTER TEST One effective test to detect early onset AD is called “the peanut butter test”. To do this, a person is blindfolded and blocks off one nostril.

A teaspoon of peanut butter is slowly brought closer to the open nostril and, as soon as the smell is detected, a measurement is made.

Then the opposite nostril is tested. If there is an irregularity in the distance between the two measurements, there might be an issue.

People with early dementia have impaired smell in the left nostril. Interestingly, both smell and memory are partly processed by the same area of the brain, the limbic system. Nasal passages are very close to the pre-frontal cortex where our thinking capacity mostly resides.

AIR POLLUTION At the 9th Annual A5M conference in Melbourne,

Dr Manuela Malaguti-Boyle spoke about neurodegenerative disorders like AD and their links to environmental pollutants, especially particulate matter (PM) in the air. Many studies in the past five years have linked environmental toxins in the air to chronic diseases, including AD. Diesel and other air pollutants have been shown to increase oxidative stress in the brain by overwhelming the brain-blood barrier defence and triggering inflammatory responses.

Inflammation damages the brain, can lead to a buildup of plaques, further increases the fragility of the blood-brain barrier and affects blood flow to the brain.

Pollution can create excessive free radicals in the brain and, if there are insufficient antioxidants and the capacity to quench them, immune cells are activated, creating more damage.

SALLY MATHRICK is a practising naturopath.

She runs Sparkle Detox and Wellness Courses and Retreats. See sparklewell.com.au for more information.

HOW TO SUPPORT THE BRAIN To protect the brain from developing AD, Malaguti-Boyle suggests starting preventive healthcare well before the moderate to advanced stage of the disease occurs. At the later stage of AD, after around eight years of disease progression, the brain deterioration has reached a critical mass and is not treatable with current pharmaceuticals or natural product regimens.

Malaguti-Boyle’s top three botanicals to use for supporting the brain are Withania somnifera (ashwagandha), Curcuma longa (turmeric) and ginkgo biloba. Other herbs that may have a beneficial effect on the ageing brain include gotu kola and bacopa (brahmi). Speak to a qualified herbalist to develop an individual protocol.

There’s a number of studies from the 1990s that provide evidence of supplementation of phosphatidylserine over six-month periods improving cognitive function in early AD suffers.

Additionally, creating an internal environment that down-regulates the inflammatory response will minimise advancement of the disease. This involves optimising the ratio of omega-3 essential fatty acids to omega-6, good stress management practices, eating an antioxidant-rich diet and avoiding sugars and bad fats.

Learning new things and staying curious also help to keep brains in good shape.

REDUCING AIR POLLUTION Supporting electric cars and renewable energy sources is a huge way you can help reduce levels of air pollution. Use public transport or bicycles for short trips. Reduce your reliance on petrochemical plastics to lower the amount of air pollution. Keep your internal air healthy, too, by keeping healthy indoor plants and maintaining air flow through the living and working spaces.

Ask yourself how else you can protect your brain and chances are it will come up with many other ways to help it thrive.

[The] top three botanicals to use for supporting the brain are Withania somnifera (ashwagandha), Curcuma longa (turmeric) and ginkgo biloba.

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COLUMN DIGGING IN

BY JACKIE FRENCH

A SWEET DISGUISE

W 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.

hen humans talk of “repellent”, it brings to mind something nasty. But, in the garden, the sweetest perfumes can act as pest repellents — not because the pests necessarily dislike them, but because they disguise the scent of pests’ food supply.

Want to keep cabbage white butterflies from your cabbages? Stink bugs from the lime trees?

Aphids from the roses? Consider some of the plants below. Use them lavishly. As a rule, you need 10 “repellents” to disguise each plant you are trying to protect, but this can vary. Use your own nose as a guide. If you can smell sweet peas instead of cabbages as you pass the vegies, chances are your garden is truly repellent — as well as gorgeous, productive and pest-free.

BASIL Basil is possibly the best repellent or “disguising” scent I know. It’s easily grown, can be perennial in frost-free areas and is strongly scented. A few stunted plants, however, will be of little or no use: you need great, lush, knee-high groves of basil. Try massed purple-leafed basil under your rose bushes, among the cabbages or between the tomatoes to — possibly — repel fruit fly and helianthus caterpillars. Although, the scent of ripe tomatoes is stronger than basil, so you’ll need to pick your tomatoes as soon as they are coloured for this to work.

ANISE HYSSOP (AGASTACHE SPP) Anise hyssop is truly stunning in the garden, especially grown en masse. This strongly anisescented perennial grows to about a metre high, is easily hedged, drought-hardy and blooms superbly for at least six months of the year in most climates. It is excellent around citrus and other fruit trees to ward off pests.

Photography Bigstock

CORIANDER (CORIANDRUM SATIVUM)

Try massed purple-leafed basil under your rose bushes, among the cabbages or between the tomatoes to — possibly — repel fruit fly and helianthus caterpillars.

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Coriander has a reputation for repelling aphids and other sap suckers but, for it to be effective, plants need to be surrounded by the coriander.

It’s also most effective when flowering. Sadly, coriander flowers and goes to seed all too readily — any hiccup in its growing season may send it to seed. It grows best at our place in dappled light under fruit trees towards the end of summer and into autumn, rather than sown in spring. It’s too temperamental here to be really useful, but if you’ve found the secret to growing it large, lovely and long-lasting, use it as a pest repellent, too.

SWEET PEAS These have to be the climbing old-fashioned sweet peas with the strong, glorious, oldfashioned scent. The pest-repellent effect is only when they are blooming, and only if you have

LOTS. Try them on trellises around your veg garden to repel butterflies and moths that may lay caterpillar eggs, and other flying pests.

SALVIAS There are hundreds of perennial salvia cultivars and varieties in Australia. Most have strongly scented leaves and, if you choose the correct ones for your climate, are stunningly hardy, drought-resistant and beautiful plants, ranging from ground covers to large clumps or hedges over 2m tall. Check the label before you buy — some are not frost tolerant. All will accept dappled sunlight but they grow best in full sun.

I find tall-growing salvias excellent companions for fruit trees and roses, especially when they twine among the branches. There have been no pests whatsoever on any of my fruit trees or roses grown among the many salvias I have trialled here. The salvias only minimally compete for nutrients and water and are long blooming.

They also are superb bird attractors (and the birds will then eat pests, too) and will attract hoverflies and other predators.

Try fruit salad sage, a frost-sensitive salvia with richly scented leaves and stunning red flowers in winter and spring. Use it to flavour fruit salads or add young tender leaves to sandwiches.

Or try pineapple sage, a tall, wide sage bush with pineapple-scented leaves. It tolerates only light frost. It flowers through most of summer and into winter. Birds and insects love it.

Grow pineapple sage near climbing roses, under fruit trees and between fruit bushes to repel pests and attract predators. Use it to flavour cold drinks and fruit salads or use young tender leaves in sandwiches and wraps. Don’t cook with it, though; it turns bitter.

GERANIUM/PELARGONIUM Most so-called scented-leafed geraniums are of the allied genus, pelargonium. Both scentedleafed geraniums and pelargoniums will help repel pests, but only as far as the scent persists.

I’ve trialled ivy-leafed scented pelargoniums under our citrus. They repel stink bugs from the lower half of the tree, but not the top — and stink bugs prefer the top with its new shoots, anyway. But an understorey can be extremely useful to help protect young trees.

I have found the most repellent pelargoniums to be the slightly sticky ivy-leafed spicescented pelargonium and the soft downy-leafed peppermint pelargonium. The stronger the scent, the more effective they are: sniff before you buy.

In fact, just keep sniffing. Whenever you find a strong plant scent you adore, consider whether, or how, you can use it in the garden. You’ll be getting a “toofer”, or two-for-one: a stunning scent for all who pass through your garden and a sneaky disguise for the plants you love.

COLUMN PET CARE

BY KAREN GOLDRICK

THUNDER-PHOBIC DOGS

S

ummer is upon us and our four-legged companions face warm balmy nights, but with summer comes storms and, for many dog owners, the dread of thunder phobia.

Afflicted dogs may pace, shake, pant, bark, whine, run and hide. Some dogs will try to escape the noise and will break through a fence or door and run off, sustaining injury in the process. The anxiety symptoms displayed can range from mild to so severe that they interfere with the quality of life of dogs and their owners.

The tendency to develop these phobias may be inherited in some dogs. Working breeds, such as cattle dogs and kelpies, may be predisposed. Dogs with astraphobia are also more likely to suffer from other anxieties, such as separation anxiety. A lack of exposure to storms as pups may contribute, or a traumatic event like a severe storm. Underlying medical problems like hormone imbalances and “doggy Alzheimer’s” may complicate behaviour.

There is no single guaranteed solution to this complex problem. Most dogs will show some improvement if a combination of strategies is tried. The following solutions have helped some of my patients. Where possible, I avoid using medications to treat these dogs and focus on diet, exercise, training and behaviour modification.

DIET Although there is no specific dietary cure for behaviour, diets with high glycaemic foods or that are in general more processed may contribute to reactivity. So it’s worth (under your vet’s guidance) trying a less processed approach to feeding your dog, using a meat- and vegetable-based diet.

Supplements such as tryptophan may promote relaxation. Antioxidants and omega-3 essential fatty acids may support cognitive function and help ease anxious behaviour. Calming herbs such as chamomile can be added to your dog’s food.

Photography Bigstock

EXERCISE & TRAINING Regular exercise is a good general anxiety reducer. Training and play should also be introduced to give mental stimulus. You can try to train your dog to feel calm. This is best done away from storms and in places where storms are seasonal, in the “off” season. Use a safe bed and ask your dog to sit there at a time they feel calm (maybe at night after dinner). You can reward them with a treat or a massage. Use your “calm but in charge” voice and body language.

The next step is to teach them to feel this way during the storm. This is where recordings of thunder may help, although they cannot create the lightning and changes in barometric pressure your dog also experiences. Play the sound at a low level, which is unlikely to result in anxiety, and have your dog sit on the “calming”

mat and give them their reward. Gradually increase the intensity of the noise but back off if your dog starts to show their anxious behaviour.

A SAFE PLACE Dogs in the wild take shelter in dens, so try to establish a safe haven in your dog’s environment — if possible, away from windows or doors to the outside. Make it large enough for your dog to curl up and sleep, with a small entrance. This might be a place that is always associated with something happy like a treat or a toy and that your dog always has free access to. For some dogs, it helps to have some music playing — but perhaps not the radio because the static of lightning may add to their fear.

KAREN GOLDRICK is a holistic veterinarian at All Natural Vet Care, Russell Lea, Sydney, Australia.

T: +61 2 9712 5844 W: naturalvet.com.au

CALMING REMEDIES Thunder wraps are designs to be snug fitting.

They place pressure on calming points and can be used to provide comfort during times of stress. They can be purchased readymade or you can find instructions for wrapping your dog yourself. The downside is you need to be home before the storm to use them. It’s best to teach your dog to wear calming wraps away from storms, to reinforce their calming effect.

Dog Appeasing Pheromones (DAP) are synthetic hormones that mimic appeasing pheromones produced by the bitch when feeding her pups, and may calm dogs. They come as diffusers, which plug into the wall, sprays (which can work well sprayed on bandannas) and collars. You can place the storm bandanna on daily during the storm season and during desensitisation training. Rescue Remedy in water, or sprayed in the haven, is also a good idea.

Playing with familiar toys, engaging in games or practising obedience may help to distract your dog during storms. Give your dog a job to do. This worked well for a patient of mine who would bark and cower throughout the storm. His owner sat down in a comfy chair and commanded his dog to sit and drop beside him, and stay. These were commands he knew well from training. As soon as the dog knew what he was supposed to do, he calmed down. Try this with your dog. Reward him with a treat but don’t try to pet or soothe him because your tone will inadvertently reinforce his anxiety. For other dogs, using a lead and head collar or harness during the storm may work.

Calming massages may work, but you have to be present and awake! If no strategy is helping, discuss the behaviour with your vet. When behaviour is causing anxiety at home, I refer my patients to an animal behaviourist. Owners with a better understanding of their dogs’ problems are more confident in their response. If necessary, a short course of medications can be prescribed to reduce anxiety while training takes place.

Dogs with astraphobia are also more likely to suffer from other anxieties, such as separation anxiety.

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COLUMN

STARGAZING JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2016

BY CHRISTINE BROADBENT

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

January starts with a burst of potency — Pluto in Capricorn — while good fortune gets a Jupiter boost via your problem-solving skills, Jan 6–15. Capricorn New Moon Jan 10 lights a path with challenges and resolutions. Effective action Jan 10–14 sets up positive outcomes; don’t let Jan 21–22 or Feb 1 complicate matters. Be kind and nurturing, and all is well. In January and February, loved ones figure in adventures, likely with travel; Venus-Mars energies Feb 8–14 help relationships.

CHRISTINE BROADBENT loves her work as a travelling astrologer and does in-person readings in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland. She also offers personal consultations by phone and Skype.

For information on Christine’s schedule and seminars, email christine@astrologyspot. com.au or phone or text +61 402 664 101.

PISCES The ability of your sweet, easygoing sign to be a worthy adversary, a challenge that stays under the radar until good and ready, is on display Jan 5–9, late January and Feb 3–14. With Jupiter in your partner sign, you have a radically different clarity about what you want and are prepared to go for it. Fortunately, Feb 19 brings Pisces Time, while Venus sweetens communication.

Gather energy now for the big awakening shifts of March.

ARIES Rascal one moment and poor little lamb the next, Aries is all over the shop. An Aries square to Capricorn Jan 6–7 makes rebellion tempting, yet by Jan 13 reform occurs without the war cry! Things move fast mid-January to midFebruary and only a calm mind can keep up, so rise above any frustrations late January. With Mars in a Water sign for two months, you get emotional easily and a creative channel is a good idea. From Feb 25 it’s much easier to feel inspired.

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TAURUS With Warrior Mars and many planets accenting your urge for adventure, life wants you to act. Travel would suit, with lucky Jupiter boosting a blend of love and creative expression. Freedom from old duties and rituals is in order and a much-loved hobby long gone is due back. Ruled by Venus, you can be obliging to a fault: the fault line shows up Jan 21–30. Learn the lessons to rejuvenate a key relationship or to let a new one start. Feb 3–23 shows you the way.

GEMINI Family and home weigh on your mind, with financial ventures a close second.

Hold off on big decisions Jan 5–25, since Mercury is “retro”, easily complicating finances and any agreements. Be extra cautious Jan 21–22. An old communication problem could recur, destabilising a relationship that has been humming along. Witty repartee could go horribly wrong! Things move smoothly and quickly Feb 4–27, when the right partners at work and at home ensure stability, allowing your inventiveness to flourish.

CANCER Moon-wane, plus an old issue stirring up emotional storms, may make Jan 6–9 stressful, but you’re ready! With Jan 10’s New Moon in your partner sign, your inner light will shine brightly, becoming positively luminescent mid-January.

Partners or potentials move into go-slow mode, but passion and plans receive a boost from

Your mind works overtime in January, yet Mercury in Aquarius is retrograde. This month only becomes fun when you stop working it all out and just experience the emotional “aha” moments: Jan 5–9 confounds expectations; Jan 18–31 amplifies ambitions. Sun enters Aquarius on Jan 21, when an old, unresolved battle may stir, so wait for Feb 4–7 to get a new perspective. New Moon in Aquarius Feb 9 brings practical concerns; Venus in Aquarius from Feb 17 sweetens social pleasures.

Jan 24’s Full Moon; by Feb 3, love and creativity move ahead.

Your commitment is tested Feb 6 & 7, but from then to mid-February there’s a special chance to follow your heart.

LEO Jan 24 is the annual Leo Full Moon! Serious commitments have featured since early January: that big moon is a chance to let your mane fly free. By Feb 4, some pleasant reminders may get you back to an important task.

Creative fulfilment and helping a loved one are the likely hooks for this. With Communicator Mercury and a New Moon in your partner sign Feb 9–15, and Venus arriving just after, being available to partners is your line of least resistance and maximum pleasure.

VIRGO You are in a Jupiter year, a year for fulfilment, which applies a wider focus to your goals. In mid-January you may feel unstoppable, but Mercury “retro” Jan 5–26 is a cue to look behind, not ahead.

Now is the time for problem solving that identifies what could go wrong and considers remedies in advance. This lets you get that desired order in your life. With the buildup to an excitable Full Moon in Virgo on Feb 23, and an expansive March ahead, be sure to gather energy with regular rest.

LIBRA The Venus aspects of January and February test your peace but, if you handle this in Libran fashion, you pass with flying colours! The tests of Jan

9–14 will push you to consider your biggest aspirations and what committing to them feels like. Dipping into your past helps. Running away won’t work during Feb 6–7’s testing Venus-Pluto link. It’s about claiming the power of family, so don’t get distracted by erratic behaviour. Emotional bonds become stronger; investment projects take off Feb 8–14.

SCORPIO The easy Water and Earth sign links in January make this a standout month for Scorpio. On Jan 4 your leading planet, Mars, enters Scorpio and your natural gifts find a ready reception. A New Moon Jan 10 accents your practical communication skills — once Mars gathers allies Jan 18, it’s about manifesting dreams.

This happy trend continues into early February, then Feb 8–14 caps things with a romantic, sensual discovery or a creative burst that is just as fulfilling.

Savour these months.

SAGITTARIUS A fun-loving Venus is in transit through Sagittarius; a fiery Full Moon Jan 24 accents adventure, suggesting many pleasures ... Yet Saturn is also in your sign and its meeting with Venus Jan 9 requires restraint and could demand a commitment that thwarts pleasure. By Jan 13, feel-good changes lighten your heart, but again your certainty is tested Jan 18. The bottom line is, your ruler Jupiter is boosting an ambitious hard-working year that must be on track by midJanuary. That way, Feb 4–27's opportunities can work for you.

COLUMN

AGEING WELL

BY MICHAEL ELSTEIN

ANXIETY & DEPRESSION

A

nxiety and depression are a windfall for the pharmaceutical companies, whose coffers are only going to swell as a burgeoning ageing population struggles to battle these twin mental dragons. That is, unless you introduce Peter Gøtzsche, a Danish physician, medical researcher and co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, the world’s foremost body in assessing medical evidence, who has helmed a number of research papers that cast a giant shadow over the purported benefits of anti-depressant medications.

In a coruscating affront to the hallowed edicts of Western psychiatry, Gøtzsche’s extensive analysis reveals that for every 10 patients treated with antidepressants only one will respond positively. This is compounded by the shocking evidence uncovered by Gøtzsche that, even for those who did benefit initially when comparing the advantage of taking antidepressants with not intervening in a pharmaceutical manner, over time those who were medicated fared no better than those who weren’t.

Gøtzsche also asserts that depression is not caused by a chemical disorder and by a lack of serotonin, the brain neurotransmitter that is boosted when antidepressants are administered.

Rather, he says, anxiety, depression and other mental disorders result from a complex “interplay of psychosocial conditions, biochemical processes, receptors and neural pathways”.

The drugs, rather than correcting a chemical imbalance, are responsible for deranging brain chemistry, making it even more difficult to come off these medications once they have been initiated. Then there are the side-effects of medications, including weight gain and sexual dysfunction, which happens in more than half of those receiving antidepressants.

So, if anxiety is not about a lack of valium and depression is not caused by an absence of serotonin, what triggers these maladies and what can be done to combat their pervasiveness without resorting to pharmaceutical remedies?

Photography Bogstock

THE CAUSE Research shows that an excessive accumulation of free-radical stress and inflammatory substances lays siege to the cellular architecture of depressive brains. Free radicals are the unstable byproducts of our cells’ need to use oxygen to generate energy. While they can prime essential processes, once they unite their effects can be debilitating. Likewise with inflammation, which signals an overactive immune system.

It is this progressive destruction that derails mitochondrial function, the cellular batteries that power vital brain chemistry, which drives ongoing depression. The mitochondria of those suffering from depression has been shown to become so unhinged that they have become incapable of

creating sufficient energy for the brain to function effectively. It is for this reason that antioxidants such as N-acetylcysteine have been trialled to neutralise depression-promoting free radicals.

Further, inflammation undermines serotonin production, setting off an alternative biochemical pathway that leads to the seeding of quinolinic acid, a substance that further contributes to the dismantling of brain cells. In animals, disarming enzymes that normally foster antioxidant protection by increasing oxidative stress or the multiplication of free radicals has led to behaviour suggesting increasing anxiety, while inhibition of the oxidative process terminated this behaviour. If free radicals and inflammation are the primary instigators of anxiety and depression, what are the key triggers for such events?

FOOD INTOLERANCE & GUT BACTERIA IMBALANCE We might have to look no further than the foods we crave and the bacterial residents of our gut to find the source of free radicals and inflammation.

Gluten, found in wheat, rye, oats and barley and a core ingredient of cereals, bread, pasta, biscuits and cakes, is a non-digestible substance with no nutritional value. The overriding dogma has been that only those with documented coeliac disease need to avoid gluten. Now a whole new category of gluten-averse responders called the noncoeliac gluten-sensitives has been identified — folk who don’t have a medically identified reaction to gluten but who would benefit from avoiding it.

The harms of gluten extend way beyond the gut. Fatigue, migraine headaches, skin rashes, bladder infections, learning disorders, arthritis, muscle pain, balance disorders, anxiety, depression, autoimmune thyroid disease and cognitive decline culminating in dementia have all been attributed to the havoc caused by gluten.

Ingesting gluten leads to gut inflammation, which then permeates the rest of the body and especially the brain. Combine this with the generation of oxidative stress and a toxic stew is fomented that destroys those parts of the brain that orchestrate healthy emotional responses.

As we age, reduced levels of the protective gut bacteria called bifidobacteria makes us more vulnerable to harmful germs. A dominance of abnormal germs gives rise to gut inflammation, oxidative stress and the disruption of brain chemistry, ultimately leading to abnormal mood states such as anxiety and depression. Research shows that supplementing with probiotic strains of lactobacilli alleviates anxiety and depression.

At least 350 million people worldwide are burdened with depression, the number-one cause of global disability. In not addressing the underlying disharmony, Peter Gøtzsche warns, the medical solution may lead to a regrettable alliance with the devil.

DR MICHAEL ELSTEIN is an anti-ageing physician and writer based in Sydney, Australia. 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.

For every 10 patients treated with antidepressants only one will respond in a positive manner.

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COLUMN

BACK TO BASICS

BY KARIN CUTTER

A CASE OF “E” ANAEMIA

J

KARIN CUTTER runs a naturopathic clinic in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.

T: +61 2 6582 4435

anelle drooped in for her appointment.

There was no other way of describing her dispirited entry. She lost no time in coming to the point of her consultation.

“I seem to have no interest in food — nothing tempts me. Constipation is making my life extremely uncomfortable. I try not to take laxatives too often, but all the natural things like slippery elm, chia seeds, flax seeds, aloe vera and herbal compounds have made no difference. I think I must have swallowed every probiotic brand in town, but nothing seems to provide an answer. My husband is complaining that I’m becoming too irritable to be around.”

Janelle also mentioned that headaches and dizzy spells were common as well as difficulty concentrating on her work or tasks at hand.

On examination, both her hands and feet felt like blocks of ice. Janelle’s skin tone was verging on slightly mud-coloured; lips were bloodless and pale and nailbeds were almost white and showed a brittle tendency. Her eyes were puffy and she had surprisingly firm legs with abnormally shiny skin.

“All your signs and symptoms seem to point strongly in the direction of anaemia,” I told her.

“Have you had any blood tests?”

Yes, Janelle had brought a file of haematology results covering the past two years. Folic acid and vitamin B12 were well within normal range.

Her GP had prescribed an iron tonic, but Janelle found it exacerbated her constipation to the point that she developed a painful anal fissure. (As most people are aware, the most common cause of anaemia is a deficiency in iron, the mineral that makes haemoglobin, which attaches to oxygen and carries it round the body.)

When questioned regarding abnormal blood loss, Janelle said her periods lasted three to four days with no blood clots or heavy bleeding; she was not using an intra-uterine contraceptive device and she took no aspirin or anti-inflammatory medications.

As far as eating habits were concerned, Janelle described sensible, well-balanced meals with a sound basis of healthy protein, nuts and seeds, some organic cereals and fresh vegetables and fruits. There had to be a missing factor which, so far, was proving elusive.

Photography Bigstock

THE MISSING LINK

Vitamin E deficiency anaemia is much more widespread than generally suspected.

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Sometimes an in-depth look at inherited weaknesses can shed light on a puzzling situation. Janelle was quite familiar with her ancestral frailties: arthritis, hardening of the arteries, macular degeneration and cataracts, varicose veins, strokes and chemical sensitivities.

These all had a common link in nutritional terms.

As mentioned earlier, red blood cells have a most important job — one that is unique to them.

That job is carrying oxygen-rich haemoglobin to

every cell in the body. Deprived of life-sustaining oxygen, our cells would “starve” and disintegrate.

Red cells are not immortal. They have an average life span of about 120 days, after which they die and their haemoglobin is lost. Needless to say, not all red cells break down at the same time and our body has the innate capacity to replace deficient cells as fast as they are dying.

Sadly, this happy balance of supply and demand can sometimes go awry. Red blood cells may expire before their natural time span is up and bone marrow can lose its ability to reproduce them fast enough. In other words, the problem is not one of adequate cell quantity, but reduced cell longevity. There may be more than enough iron for the body to manufacture haemoglobin, but if haemoglobin-carrying cells expire prematurely, the outcome will not be conducive to the maintenance of energy and good health.

It had occurred to me that all Janelle’s ancestral weaknesses appeared to be linked to the biochemistry of the tocopherol family. In the case of a vitamin E deficiency, red blood cells are known to be abnormally fragile in their response to hydrogen peroxide, and hydrogen peroxide is generated through the action of the enzyme superoxide dismutase, an enzyme found in the body’s cytoplasm as well as in mitochondria.

Vitamin E deficiency anaemia is much more widespread than generally suspected.

The vitamin is one of our body’s essential antioxidants, protecting cells by preventing the formation of hydrogen peroxide when vitamin E reserves are insufficient. Essential fatty acids, especially linoleic acid, combine with oxygen to form hydrogen peroxide: a destroyer of red blood cells. Specific intracellular enzymes, supporting membrane integrity, may also be more easily oxidised if vitamin E is in short supply.

Janelle was, therefore, advised to add organic cold-pressed apricot oil and hazelnuts to her diet and given a supplement that encompassed all the known components of the vitamin E group.

Such a simple solution for a seemingly complex set of signs and symptoms.

THANKYOU KARIN CUTTER This is Karin Cutter’s last column. Since WellBeing began, for more than 30 years, Karin has shared her insight, healing skill, compassion, understanding and wry humour through this column. Words cannot adequately acknowledge Karin for this incredible gift but, on behalf of all at WellBeing and all the readers who have been touched and uplifted by her writing over the years: Karin, we thank you and wish you well.

COLUMN

REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE JENEFER WARWICK JAMES & PETER STONE

AUTISM: A FAMILY DILEMMA The grandmother of two young boys with autism speaks from her heart.

Photography iStock

H

ow will I cope? Inwardly I shudder a little. It’s early morning and I have been tossing and turning all night worrying about how to get my three grandsons off to school. Two of them are autistic: Jay, 12, and Jimmy, 8. I have volunteered to look after them while their parents are away for two nights on a much-needed break. I aim to care for them often, and do, but it’s always a huge, ever-changing challenge.

In preparation, I took up meditation.

I practise twice a day for 20 minutes in my own special quiet space at home. It definitely helps me keep cool and calm.

My partner and I also spend invaluable time beforehand discussing the best ways to help and care for our grandsons.

We both agree that unlimited love and patience are the keys.

I know only too well that Jay will deliberately drag his feet and push me to the limit of my emotional endurance.

Every morning he holds up the special school bus as he reluctantly trudges towards it. I feel really guilty but I don’t want Jay or Jimmy to miss their special school buses because it’s important for me to have a break. Looking after them all day is exhausting. I sometimes wonder how my son and his wife manage.

As Jay’s grandmother, I can see that the school social scene is vital for his development. Also, hopefully, the structured system will help modify his insistent obsessions; his endless fascination with birds and dinosaurs gets too much for us all.

Jay is slouched on the sofa watching TV although his school bus will be here in 15 minutes. He is in a special class at a normal school. Like so many children on the spectrum, he can’t see any point in going to school.

Since he turned 12, Jay has suddenly become a large, awkward adolescent.

“I don’t need deodorant,” he states, stamping his foot. “Dad told me to remind you,” I reply. “I will put it on after I’m dressed,” he acquiesces grudgingly. And grabs the spray can, holding his shirt out of the way of gluggy foam which oozes down the inside of his freshly pressed white shirt sleeve, leaving a dark stain.

“Remember your swimming bag, Jay,” I remind him. “You’ve already told me,” Jay snarls back. His teenage tone has become much more aggressive and catches me by surprise. But I keep cool, thanks to my

meditation techniques. “Mum asked me to make sure you don’t forget it,” I reply as I check his school bag to make sure he has put in his lunchbox and homework. I’m not surprised to see that he has flung it all in willy-nilly and his lunchbox has burst open, spilling sandwiches, bananas and sultanas all over his school books.

If Jay does not eat a snack as well as eating lunch, he goes into complete meltdown: stamping his feet, shouting and throwing things around. It has taken a very long time to persuade him to eat a broader range of food. With patience and perseverance and some bribery, we have succeeded and he will now even eat fruit and drink vegetable juice. Food has been a strong determinant in his behaviour.

Meanwhile, I am wondering how I will also get Jimmy, a severely autistic 8-yearold, ready for his dedicated bus, which takes him to his special school. He’s still in his pyjamas and has not eaten breakfast yet. As with many autistic children, Jimmy will only eat one thing at a time for months on end. Once he would only eat popcorn; now he has an obsession with pizza to the exclusion of anything else.

As a grandmother I would love to see the boys eat a really nourishing diet.

However, Jimmy has always been very small and thin for his age and at times would not eat anything at all, so we’re all relieved that he’s at least eating now.

When Jimmy has eaten his pizza he throws the crusts onto the dining room floor. Even at 8, he can’t yet get the

message to put them back on the plate.

Sometimes Jimmy feeds his pizza crusts to their pet chickens, laughing loudly as he does it. He loves his pets and we feel they’re a strong factor in his wellbeing.

Once again Jimmy is in his action habit of OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).

A common trait in autistic people, which usually accompanies stress, he’s busy “putting away” whatever he can lay hands on. I grab my mobile phone just in time.

We have realised that the best way of easing Jimmy’s pent-up frustration and tension, which seem to cause his OCD, is by physical games such as wrestling, rolling on the floor and swinging him round. This also helps reduce his aggressive behaviour when he throws himself unexpectedly onto us, biting and pulling our hair. Bouncing on the trampoline soothes Jimmy, as does the garden swing.

I heat some pizza and refill his muchloved tumbler, the only thing he’ll drink from. This is tricky as it can’t be replaced: the manufacturer has discontinued this style of tumbler with Bart Simpson on the lid. It’s really difficult for autistic children to switch over from the familiar object to the unfamiliar. Jimmy screams if he is offered anything else to drink from.

I notice 10-year-old Bill, who’s not on the autism spectrum, is dressed and ready for school and playing a computer game.

When I ask him if he has everything he needs for school, he smiles and replies, “I’m all good, thanks.” Soon he gives me a big hug and a kiss and glides away on his bike. He gives me a wave and is gone.

It always worries me that Bill may feel neglected because his brothers take up so much more of my time and energy. I love his company and try to make up for it when he comes to stay during the school holidays. We go on outings to museums, galleries and coffee shops. We have lots of fun and relax together.

I remind Jay, now deeply engrossed in a computer game, that his bus will be here in five minutes. “You are not to come out to my bus,” he insists disagreeably. But, at the last minute, I see he’s forgotten his swimming gear so I have no choice but to run after him with his bag. I am relieved to wave his bus goodbye and, since Jimmy has also left, can finally relax.

When all is said and done, I remind myself that the most important thing I can do is to continually be patient, loving and compassionate.

WELLBEING.COM.AU | 149

RESOURCE GUIDE EDUCATION HEALTHY LIVING YOGA PRODUCTS, SERVICES & RETREATS

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™

OGA Y EXPERIENCE

Yoga Experience is a companion designed to help people get more out of their yoga practice. Yoga science, yoga traditions and yoga festivals are all part of Yoga Experience.

the understanding “For those who have an intense urge for Spirit and wisdom, it sits near them, waiting.” ~ Patanjali

stand tall

stand tall

Yoga for good posture Better posture can give your aching back a break, open up your lungs to allow in more oxygen, raise your energy levels and boost your confidence. Let yoga help get you out of your slump.

Words Veronica Joseph

Many of us spend an ever-increasing amount of time hunched

extends beyond the physical. When considering long-term

over computers at work or home, lounging in front of the

practice, a strong spine and good posture are essential to

television and doing (or rather sitting through) a range of

maintain the stability needed to hold an asana for a greater

other activities that don’t offer sufficient lumbar support. Our

length of time so the full benefits of the pose (both physical and mental) can be achieved. According to the ancient yogic texts, the

sedentary lifestyle reinforces these poor postural habits, making

purpose of asanas is to prepare the body and mind for meditation.

back pain one of the world’s most common ailments. Yoga,

Therefore, a straight, strong spine also plays a role in helping one

however, offers a way to help.

to practise meditation successfully, without distraction.

Posture is important and is not something that should be ignored. Think back to the days when your mother constantly

The logic of prana

reminded you to pull your shoulders back and stand up straight.

She had a point. Poor posture can lead to a range of other

Wherever you are at this moment, try this exercise. Round your

ailments. In particular, it is linked to and can further intensify

back and slump your shoulders (if you were already in this

back, neck and shoulder pain, muscle tightness and spasms, lack

position, we’ve accomplished step one — making you aware of

of bodily awareness and poor breathing habits, to name a few.

the problem). Now, breathe in and notice how much air you are able to inhale. Then, straighten out your spine so it’s tall and

The spine is the central axis of the body and in yoga it plays a pivotal role in all postures or asanas. However, when considering

erect. Open your shoulders and chest and try taking another

correct posture and alignment, we must focus on the core

breath. You’ll notice here that you are able to take a longer, fuller

and pelvic floor, along with the spine. Alignment has a flow-on

breath. This is because poor posture impacts on your breathing.

effect in the body. When we engage the pelvic floor and core

When we slump, the bottom ribs are pushed down into the

we can almost naturally feel the chest opening and the spine

abdomen. In effect, rib movement is compromised and the lungs become restricted and unable to work to their full potential. In

lengthening and extending.

this hunched position, our ability to receive oxygen is limited and

Asanas that engage these areas together realign the spine,

additional pressure is placed on the spine.

enhance bodily awareness and ingrain habits for good posture.

Yoga, by improving bodily awareness, encourages good

By also working with poses that increase the strength and flexibility of the spine, we can help prevent slouching and avoid

posture, opens up the chest and lengthens and strengthens

the ailments that come with poor posture. Plus, there are many

the spine. This allows room for the lungs to work to their full

benefits to strengthening the pelvic floor muscles, including

capacity, meaning we are able to take slower and deeper

preventing bladder problems and enhancing sexual enjoyment.

breaths. In turn, this increases prana levels.

As we can see, good posture technically refers to a state of

Prana is the life force or energy that sustains all living things.

muscular and skeletal balance. However, in yoga this balance

T H E YO G A E X P E R I E N C E

Increased prana levels mean more oxygen will be transported

74

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T H E YO G A E X P E R I E N C E

“Understanding without practice is better than practice without understanding.

Understanding with practice is better than understanding without practice. Residing in your true nature is better than understanding or practice.” ~ Upanishads

For every copy purchased online at universalshop.com.au/yoga-experience , $1 will be donated to The Butterfly Foundation

SPIRIT WHAT’S ON

Illustration Tams at Soul Stories: soul-stories.com

WHAT’S ON

WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO Editor Danielle tried her hand at rustling up some homemade cooking this issue.

First, with Paul West (far left) at the River Cottage Australia cooking school in the NSW South Coast hamlet of Central Tilba, then with author and passionate foodie Luciana Sampogna (left) at her Italian cooking school in Sydney.

WHAT’S COMING UP FOR YOU December 27–January 1, Woodfordia, AU Woodford Folk Festival woodfordfolk festival.com December 28– January 3, Hobart, AU The Taste of Tasmania thetasteoftasmania. com.au December 30– January 3, Opoutere, NZ Prana Festival prana.co.nz

January 4–8, India India Yoga Festival indiayogafestival.com

Taupo, NZ Wanderlust Festival wanderlust.com

January 15–17, Thredbo, AU Thredbo Blues Festival thredbo.com.au

February 6–28, Victoria, AU Sustainable Living Festival slf.org.au

February 2 World Wetlands Day February 4 UN World Cancer Day

February 18–21, Thredbo, AU Wanderlust Festival wanderlust.com

February 4–7, Lake

February 20

UN World Day of Social Justice February 25–28, Hawaii Wanderlust Festival wanderlust.com March 1–7, India 17th Annual International Yoga Festival internationalyoga festival.com March 11–13, Auckland, NZ Voices of Sacred Earth Festival kawaipurapura.co. nz/voices-ofsacred-earth

March 11–13, Panama Forest, AU Panama Festival panamafestival.com.au March 12–14, Melbourne, AU The Natural & Organic Supershow thesupershow.com.au March 29–April 3, Ubud, Bali BaliSpirit Festival balispiritfestival.com April 2–6, San Diego, US Experimental Biology (American Society of Nutrition) experimental biology.org

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Health & Nutrition

GLUTEN FREE

Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s BIGGEST range of alternative i grain i nutrition t iti The nutritionists at ORGRAN have been developing alternative grain foods for 30 years. Add variety to your diet with the ORGRAN SuperGrains range including Quinoa, Buckwheat, Amaranth and Millet blends. With the biggest range of alternative grain foods in Australia, including Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s original Buckwheat Pasta, no other brand offers you so much choice or nutritional variety. Find ORGRAN in the health food aisle.

To see the full range of over 80 products and hundreds of recipes, visit our website or download the app:

www.ORGRAN.com The brand behind a healthier Australia.

Available in independent supermarkets and health food stores. SuperGrains Pastas available in Coles.