My 2020 Story

Coming off the meds

I started taking thyroxine after having my third child – over 21 years ago. I was stressed in trapped in a bad marriage with a baby and my body objected. The baby, I believe, was the stress that pushed my body over the edge.

I had a career and business that needed me, a husband who offered nothing to the family and 3 children all with different needs. It struck me that spending time working on balancing my body would be optimal – but as it was just taking the prescription and getting on with it was the route I went down.

Over the years I upped and downed the dose – trying to drop it but never in a good enough place to focus on what was needed – time to spend on me.

4 years ago I sold my business and began the long process of uncovering my inner self. And now I’m finally ready to work on balancing my inner chemistry.

I had bloods done in February – looking at T4 and the conversion to T3 – and even though i was taking 175mcg those stats were distinctly average. I want not to be part of the community relying on the pharmaceutical industry – I want to be in control of my health my way!

In March I took a visit to kinaesthiologist Zena of Newcastle based Vital Fours ( https://www.facebook.com/vitalfours/ )in the hope she could help me. She advised it could be a long journey – but help me she would. There were body adjustments and natural supplements which my body needed.

Then isolation happened – was this a good time to start?

I took the plunge – an online meeting with Zena to learn self-adjustments, daily supplements in addition to my Nrf2 – and a took it upon myself to drop the amount of Levothyroxine.

4 weeks later I’m down to 100mcg daily. I feel amazing – lots of energy, great sleep and less brain fog. How can this even be?

I’m excited to continue my journey and intend to get a blood test once the doctor is back to normal service. Watch this space!

What’s your Superpower?

What even is a superpower?

I’m doing an online challenge by Tony Robbins and today’s question is ‘What is you Superpower?’ – where your superpower is defined as that gift you have to offer others: the knowledge you hold which will be of service to others.

Other questions so far relate to mindset with the rest of the challenge geared towards offering this knowledge moving forwards.

It’s easy to observe in others their special skills – and so I decided to ask a few friends and family for their take on this: what am I good at?

Answers included the following:

Good and yoga and crossfit (physically)

Good at describing a scene and how the body moves

Supportive

Kind

A good friend

Self discipline

Clear

Trying new things

Strong in mind and spirit

Incredibly intelligent and emotionally literate

Connected

A spiritual teacher

A good mum (Thank you eldest son!)

So all things considered – where does that lead me in terms of the challenge? – 2 days down, 5 to go: watch this space!

A brave new world

Yesterday I signed up for an online challenge – one of those business related ones that leave you totally inspired.

Day 1 yesterday – all about mindset which totally resonated. How to be a role model – how to have great relationships and get what you desire.

It’s all about focus – gratitude for what you have not what you don’t have: focus on the things you can control not the things you can’t: live in the present towards the future – not he past. Where do you want to go – and what are you going to do about it?

I believe that we are given this body for the duration of our journey in this lifetime – and it is within our capability to look after it. I believe that although I’m no celebrity that people are ready to hear this message – and for some that message will best reach them through me.

So I’m working towards the brave new world where I’m putting myself out there for the benefit of those who are ready to invest in their health my way.

A kind of magic

Yoga is a kind of magic – there, I said it. Magic – creating circumstances or emotions beyond the simply logic.

How can yoga be magic? – When I teach I set an intention for the class – I may not verbalise what that intention is. Lately my intentions have ranged from dispelling fear, giving control, grounding, creating joy in the moment, going with the flow – trying to work with the emotions that come to me from the place I’m in and that my students are in.

I offer yoga sequences, flows, postures and affirmations relevant to the intention. These often come to me as I’m teaching.

So that at the end of the class it’s usual for participants to comment that they feel so much more joy, freedom, love – whatever. And all from a little bit of yoga. Must be a kind of magic!

Recharge

This Sunday there are 5 of us getting together to offer a wellbeing event online. All 5 of us experienced in our field we aim to deliver an at-home event designed to reset and recharge.

For too many weeks we’ve all struggled to make sense of our circumstances and (in many cases) lost sight of ourselves – our goals, fitness, wellbeing. So as we all move towards the ‘new normal’ take a little time out for YOU.

There’s yoga, nutrition, dance, mindset and meditation. The outline of the program is here –

Date Sunday 17 May 9.45-10.00

10.00 – 10.05 Welcome (Steph Edusei)

10.15 – 11.15 Session one – Yoga (Amanda Cartner of Inner Strength Yoga – me!!)

11.20 – 12.20 Session two – nutrition (Shamshad Shah of Simply Diet)

12.25 – 13.05 Lunch

13.10 – 14.10 Session three – Dance (Hildy Hartland)

14.15 – 15.15 Session four – Happiness (Michelle Minnikin)

15.20 – 16.20 Session five – Meditation (Silvia Mather of Hummingbird Hypnotherapy)

16.20 – 16.30 Close

For further information and tickets go here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/recharge-an-online-wellbeing-event-tickets-104183451508?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

To listen to Steph and Shamshad in conversation about the event go here: https://headhearthands.podbean.com/e/the-lockdown-series-recharge-an-online-wellbeing-event/

Message me if you’d like to know more!

Will we ever know the truth?

As we prepare to come out of lockdown with the most unclear of roadmaps – which leaves a lot to interpretation and seems to make little sense to many individual situations I’m left wondering (as usual) how does any of this make sense?

The whole global situation from the start has brought to the fore so many theories – the origin of this virus, the motives of some of the big world leaders (as well as others with a high public profile who are not elected world leaders but who choose to make their opinions known as if they are indeed authorities) – and we are left wondering who is actually in charge and what is the underlying truth here.

I doubt that we will ever learn the truth. Not the whole truth from all parties.

In the meantime our physical and mental wellbeing is being held to ransom. I urge you to consider as many of the truths you can so that you can look after yourself and those you love.

A different perspective

We were at the beach last night at low tide. In all the times I’ve visited the beach I don’t think I can recall such a low tide!

We could walk out on the rocks and sand that would normally form the sea bed. Seaweed still perky as it stood high attached to the rocks, kelp patches not far from where we stood. The waves were breaking by what I presumed to be a drop in the sea bed height.

This with the full moon rising, the sun setting and the beach as quiet as you’re likely to find it made for a most delightful experience.

The main picture in this article show the view from the end of what I assume to be a pier of old – I would so love to know the history of those wooden posts that pave the way from the beach in front of the Rendevous Cafe into the sea.. any ideas?

But standing there looking up towards the cafe – a new far-away perspective. It’s good to see things from a different angle!

A symbol of hope

When Lockdown began a few of these piles of stones began to appear on the beach. As time passed more and more people added to the collection of stone sculptures.

On our walk to the beach yesterday we visited the area – actually for the first time. Hundreds of piles of stones stretching for a large area along the beach. An inspiring site and quite spiritual in its feel.

The stones left me with a feeling of hope and joy – and though I’m not sure of their actual meaning, that is the meaning I’m giving to them.

The Whitley Bay stones – a symbol of hope.

Deck of cards

If a workout was a deck of cards – you’d allocate a movement to each suit and go through the workout taking a card from the pack – performing that number of reps of the movement allocated to the suit. Simple.

If life went by the same rules – no choices, just chance? Maybe simple, maybe taking away choices and options would be good for people. Perhaps that’s how we live anyway?

I don’t want to live my life like a ‘game’ of cards. I want to choose how my life goes from a full range of options – that’s why I keep myself fit and active. Have you considered how you want to live your life when this whole situation comes to a resolution?

Eye yoga

This week for my face yoga I’ve opted to focus on the eyes.

As an aesthetic practitioner I have to say that the most common complaint/area that ladies wanted fixing was the under eye area. It’s a tricky one.

Botox/wrinkle reducing injections don’t do the job – that just stops the muscle working, and under they eyes that would result in a droopy under eye area with the inability to properly close the eyes. Using fillers under the eyes is notoriously tricky and unless done by an expert can leave the client looking and feeling worse than they started.

So here we’re looking at eye exercises – to lift and tone the under eye area, look at symmetry over the eyes and look at how moving the eyes in a certain way can help elicit the relaxation response.

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