Surrender

Almond milk

Frozen mango

Red pawpaw

Cinnamon

Coconut oil

Barley grass powder

Pea protein powder

Chia Seeds

Whizzed up in our pimping BioChef blender

What was in your smoothie this morning?

118. Top Five Things I LOVED This Week:

1. Watching a young tradie pull his ute over and scoop up three tiny plover chicks and reunite them with their mummy and daddy who were distressed that they couldn’t jump up the gutter. Bless. I on the other hand have taken out a restraining order against all plovers...
2. Pomegranate sorbet after wandering through the Bangalow markets.
3. Stopping over at our favourite antique shop on the drive home. Yes I did need that goose-shaped serviette holder.
4. The craziness of the teepee markets at the Byron Bay Surf Festival.
5. The sweet elderly customer who knitted a pair of booties, mittens and a little hat for my bub -all wrapped up in waxed baking paper!

Emma the Naturopath xx

PS. “The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or a hostile universe”
-Albert Einstein

It’s good just to check in with ourselves every now and then to see how optimistic our view on our world really is

119. Top Five Things I LOVED This Week:

1. Listening to ‘Turn Your Lights Down Low’ by Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill.
2. The cat that sat on our window sill at 2:30 this morning and began serenading us at the top of its lungs. We were in hysterics.
3. Sneaky Spell purchases…!
4. Incredible jacaranda trees lighting up my life like exploding purple fireworks.
5. Mum’s perfect lamb roast and veg with homemade mint sauce followed by a gluten-free apple and date lumberjack cake =food coma for days.

Emma the Naturopath xx

PS. There are three things my dad has always tried to instill upon me for as long as I can remember. The first is to not attach unnecessary emotion to a situation. The second is not to live beyond your means. And the last is to have patience...

I’ve always sucked at the latter. It’s a work in progress.
The yoga affirmation card I pulled out this morning read:

PATIENCE (Kurmasana Pose –Tortoise Pose)

Patience is not a command to wait.

It’s a relaxed approach to this moment,

so the next moment can reveal itself with ease.

Your patience creates excellence.

What an eloquent way of describing patience… Please borrow this sentiment this week if it resonates with you. It hit the nail on the head for me.

*MATERNAL MONDAYS*
SURRENDER

I’ve always had such a fear of giving birth.

After a lot of reflection, I figured out that the fear stemmed from the lack of belief in my own body as I felt that I was “too yin”. I thought the tougher, stronger and “more yang” you were, the better you would be at birthing your baby. “Why can’t YOU do this?” I’d say to my husband (the most yang person I know).

But after doing the HypnoBirthing course, hearing positive birth stories from women I align with and reading Sarah J. Buckley’s book ‘Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering’, I have really transformed my feelings.

This passage by Buckley completely clicked for me:

“Surrender is not a popular virtue in the West. In fact, surrender is often seen as weakness in our culture; we are instead encouraged to be active and in control of our lives. This very yang, masculine attitude may serve us in some circumstances, but we cannot birth our babies through sheer force of will. We need to learn more subtle –yet equally powerful, path of surrender.
When we surrender conscious control, we allow our deeper innate rhythms to surface. In allowing her labour to go at its own pace, without hurry or interference, a woman learns to trust her own , and her baby’s, natural rhythms.

In surrendering to birth, we also learn about our role on the Earth: we are neither the rulers nor the architects of creation. Life comes through us, simply and gracefully, when we allow it”.

Did you have fears around giving birth? What helped you and what did you discover about yourself?

Emma the Naturopath xx
*picture taken last wk at 6 months*
(27 wks –length of a continental cucumber)

I am so head over heels for what Elizabeth Gilbert wrote last week about staying true to yourself that I just had to share it:

Thought of the Day: DON'T LIVE SOMEBODY ELSE'S DREAM.

Dear Ones -
I found this picture today that my husband took of me in 2011, doing research for THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS. This photo captures exactly what I did for three straight years. I sat in a chair, reading books about botany, evolution, abolition, women's history, missionaries, Dutch 18th century commerce, and more...in order to fill my brains (and index cards) with enough information to write that novel.

There is no situation in which I could possibly be happier than this — submerged in the vocation that I love, vanishing for hours a day into my work.
Un-showered, greasy hair, eyes tired, totally falling down the rabbit hole of research...this is me, living my dream.

I was thinking today about all the other paths that I did not take in life, no matter how shiny and appealing they may have looked. I've had the possibility of living so many different kinds of life that could have been a dream for somebody else. I never choose those lives. I've never lived the dreams that other people wanted for themselves — nor have I lived the dreams that other people may have wanted for me.

I never had children...because that's somebody else's dream.
I never took the opportunities that were offered to me after the success of EAT PRAY LOVE to have a TV show of my own...because that's somebody else's dream.
I never took a good steady job teaching writing at a nice college...because that's somebody else's dream.

I didn't remain in Bali or Rome, gorgeous as those places are...because that's somebody else's dream.
I turn down 99% of the invitations I get to attend to fancy parties and stellar gatherings...because that's somebody else's dream.

I sold my big beautiful house with its fabulous gardens and lovely library...because one day I looked around at that gorgeous home and realized: "This is somebody else's dream." (Happily, I sold the house to the family whose dream it actually was. So we all win.)
I never hired a team of personal assistants and staff and consultants to help me "grow my brand"...because that's somebody else's dream.

I know what makes me come to life — working on my books — and this picture tells the whole story. Knowing what makes me come to life has helped me to distinguish between my dreams and the dreams of others.

WHAT MAKES YOU COME TO LIFE?
Ask yourself this question, whenever you are given any choice or opportunity. Ask: "Will saying YES to this path bring me closer to the source that brings me to life? Or will it take me further away?"
No matter how alluring, no matter how beautiful, no matter how sparkling and fancy and delicious — do not say YES to other people's dreams.

Do your own thing. Live in your own waking dream. Stubbornly.

Even if it means not washing your hair for a week. (ESPECIALLY if it means that!)

ONWARD,
LG

Emma the Naturopath xx

Essential Health

0266 514 533

carrots_and_apples@hotmail.com

Facebook: Emma the Naturopath

Do nothing

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, 

and then to rest afterwards"

-Spanish proverb

116. Top Five Things I LOVED This Week:

1. The insane icing on the vegan, wheat-free chai carrot cake we shared at Santos.
2. Our new BioChef blender that I ordered through work. A little Father’s Day present to my husband from our unborn baby –gosh it’s a generous little foetus isn’t it? This blender could liquefy a brick!
3. Sitting in a chattery church waiting for the ceremony to begin, then all of a sudden a wave of Chinese whispers swept through the crowd of “She’ here!” and everyone hushed.
4. A refreshing swim in the eery tea tree lake at Lake Ainsworth.
5. Nathan’s chai, Eliza’s foot massages, the way Noa always thoughtfully sets the table with a plant, Blossom’s shy smiles and River’s belly kisses.

Emma the Naturopath xx

PS. In the words of Elizabeth Gilbert:
“Embrace the glorious mess that you are”

117. Top Five Things I LOVED This Week:

1. The new Country Road campaign featuring Gemma Ward with her baby girl. YouTube the clip.
2. Vicariously eating whatever Jamie O is cooking during his Comfort Food series. Did anyone see that lobster macaroni and cheese the other week? Or the one with the sticky date pudding? I feel as though I’ve gained 6 kilos after watching an episode!
3. The little chats I have with my newly planted seedlings. “Oh aren’t you getting big!” “Are you thirsty? Do you want a drink of water?”
4. That luxurious hour of solitude after my husband leaves for work at 7:30am til I have to leave the house at 8:30am. It’s usually spent sitting on the east side of the house which has been warmed by the sun, sipping a smoothie or green juice while scrolling through beautiful pics on Tumblr or watering my garden. Can you tell we don’t have kids yet?
5. Spending a Saturday afternoon drinking tea and making a raw vegan choc mint tart with my Mother Bear. (Recipe posted this week).

Emma the Naturopath xx

PS. I randomly pulled out one of my trusty yoga affirmation cards yesterday while in a complete fluster. It was Utkatasana Pose and the heading was ‘CONTROL’.

It read: Do not make a decision simply to end your discomfort of ambivalence. Connect to your strength. Allow the right choice to find you.

It can be incredibly tempting to take the easy way out to escape a physically or emotionally taxing situation… But it’s important to trust the timing of your life and live gracefully with patience in your heart. In the end, everything always works out for the best xx

CHOC MINT CHEESECAKE TART

The cacao nibs in the base give it an awesome crunchy choc chip texture and the minty-ness of the filling balances the sweet chocolatey-ness of the base! Now let’s not get carried away here, yes the recipe is raw and vegan with descent ingredients, but sugar is sugar so save it to have as a treat rather than for breakfast Enjoy!

Base:
1 cup almonds, ground into a meal
3/4 cup pitted, packed medjool dates
1/4 cup cacao powder
1/4 cup cacao nibs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a food processor, mix ingredients into a moist dough that presses together easily. Add a couple of teaspoons of water if needed. Press the mixture into a 6" tart pan. Set aside.

Filling:
2 1/2 cups cashews, soaked overnight in water then drained
1 cup lightly packed mint leaves
1 cup water
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons agave
8 drops mint extract or essential oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of Himalayan salt
3 tablespoons cacao butter, melted
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

In a food processor, combine everything until smooth and creamy. Taste the mixture - add more mint extract (or mint leaves) if needed. Pour into the crust and freeze overnight. Leave in fridge for 3 hours before serving.

There was a fair bit of mint filling leftover (maybe we'll add less water next time?) so we poured it into little ramekins and popped them in the freezer then ate them like little mint mousses the next day.

Emma the Naturopath xx

*SHARE this post or TAG a friend who loves you to subtly encourage them to whip this up for you*

*MATERNAL MONDAYS*

I have been offered SO many hilarious old wives tales about how you can tell if you’re having a boy or a girl. As soon as you tell someone that you didn’t find out the sex they’ll give you a theory based on how you’re carrying, if you had morning sickness or not, etc to give you a psychic prediction. Last week someone told me the sex of the baby was determined by whether the man or woman initiated the love making that resulted in the pregnancy! You just have to laugh

What wild stories have you been told or what do you swear by?

Emma the Naturopath xx
(24 weeks –length of a cob of corn)

WANT A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP?

Every night I massage my feet with some moisturiser and a few drops of lavender oil and then pop a pair of socks on and snooze the night away.

I think its the combo of the calming aromatherapy, the reflexology points and just a little self-love ritual to say "Thanks for carrying me around all day feet!"

Also a fan of magnesium as well as turning off all technology (phones/TV/laptop) by 9pm and reading in bed.

What night time ritual gets you counting sheep?

*MATERNAL MONDAYS*

INSTINCTIVE BIRTHING

I’ve just started flicking through Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Australian doctor Sarah J. Buckley. In a nutshell, we are reminded to have faith in our ability to birth our child as it is part of our innate wisdom. She affirms that by encouraging a trust in our intuition and body knowledge, this will assist in promoting a confident and calm birth: “In these circumstances, a labouring woman can let down her guard, switching off her rational brain and opening to the ‘unreasoned impulse’ of her instincts”.

In the chapter Vision and Tools for Instinctive Birth, she speaks of several key methods to enhance the power of our instincts:

-nourishing ourselves with wholefoods for optimal nutrition
-connecting to nature
-bodywork eg. prenatal yoga
-listening to our body clock rather than our watch
-honouring our own spiritual faith and practises
-taking time to contemplate, process and digest our internal feelings that arise through journaling, artwork, meditation and communicating with our partner

“We are all creatures of the Earth, and our bodies need the Earth’s nourishment to work effectively in any instinctive behaviour. For some women, pregnancy brings an urge to garden or to go walking, to hike or just to gaze at the scenery of earth and sky. All of these activities help align us with the Earth, our great Mother, and teach us respect and love for the natural order”.

Self-nourishment on a physical, emotional and spiritual level during pregnancy is a number one priority for all of us, but especially during pregnancy. I feel like when we connect with nature, be it walking on the beach, watching the sunrise or chopping up veggies from the farmers market for a juice, we are aligning ourselves with the flow of life.

Have you read this book or another one similar?
What are your thoughts/experiences regarding “instinctive birthing”?
How did you nourish yourself during pregnancy?

Essential Health

0266 514 533

carrots_and_apples@hotmail.com

Facebook: Emma the Naturopath