Blog
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…It only took a year (Thailand)
It seems pretty representative of how busy and crazy life has been that it took me a whole year to finish and upload some photos from Thailand. These memories do however seem even more precious looking at them a year on……..Time really does bring more perspective and this time we spent away changed how we view and respond to life. We had big plans for our return to Ireland on the top of that list was building the new cottage on our land, however just before leaving Thailand the way in which we wished to do this changed drastically. The plan was for us to knuckle down, me take the…
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Ireland to Vietnam with two minis in tow…..
Traveling as a family was something I’ve always held in my dreams. I never foresaw having kids to be the end of these fun adventures but a motivation to keep reaching further & exploring deeper into all aspects of life. That said it didn’t mean I was without my doubts when booking a trip thousands of miles away from home with 7month old & 2-year-old in tow. I had so many questions & worries running through my mind I seriously considered canceling a few weeks before. I also didn’t tell a lot of mom friends as I didn’t want to face their concerned questions, where are you going to stay?…
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What happens when we breathe deep?
Breathing is something that happens automatically, all day every day. It’s an automatic process driven by the brainstem, an area of the brain which controls life-sustaining functions like heartbeat, hormone release, and sleeping patterns. We can move through life without giving it much thought. However, we know it changes as we move through various emotions. When we’re stressed, it can become very slow and shallow, when we’re anxious it can be fast and relentless. On the contrary when were calm & focused it becomes deep and elongated. Amazingly humans are the only species who also have conscious control over this automatic system, we can change our breathing pattern just by…
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The Neuroscience of Yoga
I started doing yoga daily whilst amidst intense study, an MSc Neuroscience followed by a Ph.D., I was stressed and needed something to counteract it. Yoga was my savior, my destress tool. I could feel the positive effects but being me I wanted to know what was going on inside at a biological level. What I began learning fascinated me, so much so that I left my Ph.D. and became a yoga teacher. Here is a snippet of what I’ve been learning recently, hopefully, it will interest you too…. As far back as Krishna (3228 BC), India’s greatest prophet, there are writings referring to electricity in the body, the spine…
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Surviving jet lag
Whether you travel for fun or for work there’s no escaping the jet lag….or is there? On all the previous trips I’ve taken I’ve always resolved to a few days of feeling pretty rotten on arrival. However this time we were traveling with two kids so I really wanted to minimize the effects of long haul flying, both for us & them. So I did some research, added in some of my own tweaks and came up with a plan that would leave us feeling fresh on arrival and jet-lag free. No Caffeine, No junk The first thing we did the morning of the flights was vow to keep it…
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Plant medicine, my current love Cacao….
It might just be me, but I’m pretty sure there’s an increasing interest in plant medicine and what it can do for us. As modern life pushes us to work more, buy more, do more, we’re all feeling the disconnection from our natural rhythms and nature. We’ve been pushed so far in the direction of consumerism and with it our rate of unhappiness has risen. Were all looking for a way back to contentment and its never going to come from more money or stuff. Our fast-paced world has put our most valuable possession at risk, our Earth. We can’t see past the monetary need of being too busy &…
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Eden’s Homebirth Story
Birth. What words spring to mind when you hear this word? This was a question put to us in one of my first birth class in the hospital. The words that jumped onto the board were pain, labor, work, hard, blood and I think this is pretty reflective of how we in the western world view birth. The images we’re fed from main stream media are of women screaming down the hospital corridor as her partner looks on helplessly in horror, this partnered with the strange phenomenon of women loving to tell expectant mothers how horrific birth is has lead to a society filled with birth fear. But what if…
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Homemade elderflower cordial
We are luck to be surrounded by elderflower trees where we live, all along our lane and at the bottom of the garden we are gifted an abundance of flowers & berries each year. Last year I never got around to doing anything with them which seems like such a wasted resource so this year I found the simplest recipe I could ‘elderflower cordial’ , it may be simple but its delicious. The recipe below makes lots of cordial! more then we’d ever get through so half the mixture if its for personal use, We made a big batch as it makes the perfect summer time gift x Ingredients 2½…
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Breastfeeding the Early Days
Breastfeeding is so special and I wish more women got the support they needed to get through the first few weeks which for some can be difficult. Im not a location consultant but below are some things I found helpful in my first few days/weeks of feeding my two girls, Eden is now 1 month old and feeding like a champion, Iza is no longer feeding however did continue to breastfeed until she was two years old ( & I was six months pregnant with Eden, did you know you could feed whilst pregnant?). There are so many cool facts about breastfeeding and its benefits for mom & baby, which…
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Preparing for a Smooth Birth
The last few weeks in pregnancy are my favourite, I finally have a bump and gain all the benefits & spoiling that come with it, I’ve finished up work (I finished up 5 weeks before my due date this time = best decision ever!) and I feel I really get into the head space for birth. I believe birth takes preparation and is not something to be ignored or handed over to medical staff (unless theres a medical reason), women know how to birth babies but we do need to prepare physically, mentally & spiritually. Below are a few things I try to incorporate into my day as I near…
