Category: HEALTH & WELL-BEING

Hey, Maybe There Is Another Way

by Natalie Hawthorne, London, UK

My life is and always will be forever developing, and I’d like to share just two examples of where I started to look at it and say “hey, maybe there is another way”. Such as when I started to play with the idea of Self-Love and things stuck out like a sore thumb…

I was living the ‘normal life’ as a general manager of an extremely busy restaurant/bar; I started to realise that the way I was choosing to live wasn’t loving, nor did it feel right. I would take the deliveries, and as you can imagine, it’s with large quantities of stock involved with the beverage side of things… back then to me moving the kegs of beer and carrying all the bottles of wine to the storeroom to prove that I didn’t need any help and I was strong! (This being part of my Kiwi upbringing: girls can do anything – even play rugby!) I was ignoring any signs that I felt when I was straining myself, as it was good for me and making me strong! Continue reading “Hey, Maybe There Is Another Way” →

From ‘One of the Lads’ to a Gorgeous Woman… Through Self-Love

by Rebecca Wingrave 

I spent about 20 years of my life drinking, partying, trying to be ‘one of the lads’ and generally having a complete lack of self-worth. I got really ill as a teenager from overindulgence in alcohol, but just carried on as it was what I felt gave me confidence and was what all young people did; I didn’t know another way of being.

I began suffering from digestive issues and so decided to seek help. I was advised by a nutritionist to stop eating gluten and dairy and to cut down on my alcohol consumption; over the next couple of years I started to feel better. I noticed how sick the alcohol made me so decided to stop drinking it altogether – the problem was that my social life was based around drinking and my friends found it hard to understand why I wanted to stop… I really felt like the odd one out. Continue reading “From ‘One of the Lads’ to a Gorgeous Woman… Through Self-Love” →

What Will $5 Buy In 2012?

by Gayle Cue, Practice Manager, Bangalow, NSW

Will $5 buy a pack of cigarettes? I don’t think so, although never having been a smoker, I can’t say for sure. Will $5 buy a schooner of beer at the local pub? Maybe; I haven’t been in a pub for several years and never did buy beer. Will $5 buy a glass of wine? Back a few years ago when I did enjoy a glass of wine, yes, I could buy one for $5, if I chose the “house” wine. Will $5 buy a cup of coffee?  Just. Will $5 buy a block of really yummy cheese? No, not anymore. Will $5 gain admittance to a concert, to a cinema, to a play? No. Continue reading “What Will $5 Buy In 2012?” →

Listening to my Exhausted Body

by Carmel Reid, BEng DMS CertEd MCMI, Somerset, UK

When I was a teenager I used to cycle to school; it was a pleasant journey of around three miles through some beautiful countryside on the edge of suburbia in Surrey.

One day as I was going along, I suddenly realised I had no idea how I had cycled the last mile or so. It scared me – I’d obviously been thinking about something else and I resolved there and then never to drive a car – I mean, just how dangerous could that be if I did the same thing?

Well, of course I learned to drive, and guess what? I do it time and time again. Sometimes I find myself thinking about work, or some major issue in my life. Continue reading “Listening to my Exhausted Body” →

From Abuse to Responsibility

by Michael Dixon, Lismore, Australia

When I was 15, a friend of mine offered me a cigarette. I tried smoking it, coughed a lot, got about half way through it, then threw the rest away, spending the rest of the day trying to get the horrible taste out of my mouth. At that age, smoking was cool; all my friends seemed to be doing it, even cigars on special occasions. I wanted to feel like I belonged to the club, so to speak, and by the age of 16 I was hooked. Continue reading “From Abuse to Responsibility” →

Acne Rosacea: My Face could tell a Story

by Dragana Brown, London, UK

In 1991 I went to the Dominican Republic to a wedding. I was 28. Whilst I was there I suddenly started getting spots on my face, particularly around the cheek area. Prior to that my face used to be absolutely crystal clear. Even throughout my teen years I never suffered from acne, and many people, women in particular, used to ask ‘what my secret was’. There was none.

At first I thought this was just some ‘strange’ phase I was going through, perhaps too much Caribbean sunshine, and that soon it would all be back to normal. I was wrong. Over the next few years it got much, much worse, and I ended up with very large and very prominent patches of redness on my face, mixed with spots. It left me feeling devastated and at times livid that it was happening to me – which didn’t help my already red face. Continue reading “Acne Rosacea: My Face could tell a Story” →