The importance of finding your place

So many of us put up with living in less than ideal places and circumstances, especially if we feel we are stuck with them, but what if they are the missing piece of the whole health jigsaw. If we also happen to be neurodivergent, feeling "out of place" can be become such an innocuous-seeming sensation across the course of a lifetime because we become so acclimatised to feeling like a misfit in a lot of situations; our version of "normal". This makes it all too easy to ignore times when we are really in the wrong place or situation, when we should be doing something about it, especially when our health is being badly impacted. Clues might be subtle but we, of all people, are past masters at piecing together all the signs and patterns that tell us there is a better kind of life waiting for us somewhere, one that better fits the way we are wired.

Central heating as a potential trigger of vagus nerve atrophy?

Central heating can be a blessing but also such a curse. I strongly suspect that there's a need for the living environment to become more closely related to what nature has in mind, per the season we happen to be in. I don't mean that we need to make it frigid and uncomfortable but at least not stuffy, coddled or so artificially consistent...because all manmade consistency does for us is reduce the natural capacity to deal with variety and change (a case of use it or lose it). Personal zone temperature consistency sends confusing messages to a body that needs to still be able to cope with a highly variable world out there all of the rest of the time. If adaptability to change isn't your strong suit (particularly if you are neurodivergent) this can create real problems with the autonomic system and thus your health.

Learning to slow down

Letting a day of nothing in particular be an accomplishment, even more so than a day of “productivity”, is a necessary mind re-program I am steadily adopting for my health. Allowing myself to feel equally good about myself and, most importantly, relaxed because I managed to go slow today rather than ticking things off a list is a crucial reinvention of myself on the way towards, somewhere down the line, reaping a far healthier nervous system than I ever had in my life. I’m playing the long game now, the fruits of my labours no longer some transient thrill gained from fighting down another dragon but the slow and steady harvest gained from peaceful seeds planted in the ground on some equally slow and steady day and all the intervening patience I had to watch them grow. 

Hypermobility and the moon (and other natural cycles)

When we notice how our bodies work so closely (as does eveything in nature) with the cycles of waxing and waning, we gain the tremendous power that comes from accepting what is and ceasing to resist the natural rhythms that can also be our best source of strength when we harness them for our recovery.

If you’re an empath, you’re probably feeling all this at a whole other level…

So honour that, own it, work with it too. We’re all feeling rattled, thrown around and turned inside out at the moment but, if you’re an empath, you’re likely to be feeling it at a whole other level. You may well have felt all this global chaos and overwhelm coming our way even before it … Continue reading If you’re an empath, you’re probably feeling all this at a whole other level…

CBD for IBS, menopause and pain

A number of articles are springing up to discuss the interest in CBD from an irritable bowel syndrome point of view and I was curious about this due to my own experiences in this regard, which I will relate below. The reason why cannabis is theorised to be a new and appropriate means for tackling … Continue reading CBD for IBS, menopause and pain

Taking a breather

In many ways, looking back at 2017, it looks like I did or "achieved" next to nothing (and I'm not the only person to be saying this) and yet...sometimes, when we take a breather, its the most important thing we can be doing. Some thoughts on some of the powerful things that I feel I got out of a the long slow breath of 2017; perhaps you too.

The point of a holiday – and the hotel that reminded me

How do you reconcile a desire to "tread softly on the earth" and all your particular health requirements and preferences with the unpredictability and other variables of travel when you go on holiday? And what is a holiday or vacation meant to do for you? La Vimea is a unique "biotique" hotel in the South Tyrol that helped me to find out what was possible to achieve now and (hopefully) even more easily in the future...