Category: Healing

The Mother and The Warrior

2/1/2019

Pic courtesy of https://www.writeups.org

James Cameron has directed and produced some of the best movies of all time IMO. The run of action movies he directed in the 80's was pivotal in forming the fertile ground of my childhood imagination - The Terminator series, Alien trilogy and in the early 90's, Point Break (which is so bad, it's good, y'know?)

I have spoken of my love for Aliens in this blog on intuitive eating (Aliens and intuitive eating? YES!)

Sigourney Weaver plays the central character Ellen Ripley, a leader and a warrior. To get a taste of Ripley, watch the clip below where she is about to enter the alien hive in order to find and rescue her adoptive daughter, just as the colony is minutes away from exploding. It's pure badass.

Aliens is one of the rare movies where a female is the lead role heroine AND she is not hyper-sexualised.

I mean, Wonder Woman and Tomb Raider are OK and maybe make small inroads in the eternal quest for equal gender representation in action movies, but who seriously fights villians in high heeled boots whilst maintaining deep cleavage, and a full face of make up? Practicality and believability factor: zero.

Ripley is also a mother.

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Purity vs. hybridisation

19/12/2018

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When it comes to the work I do, I've never been 100% sure about what to call it, or if it even has (needs?) a name. Try as I might (and I have, numerous times), the stuff I "do" can't be put into a single box.

And it's not for lack of direction; I know what I am good at and what I love to do. It's just that there are so many directions I feel I am being pulled in.

Perhaps a nicer, less divisive way to say that, is that I have many colourful threads that form my web of being! :)

I often feel this pressing need to categorise "it", to pack it down nice and neatly into a label, to be able to explain to people what I do in a concise sentence without feeling like I've left large chunks of who I am stranded by the side of the road, all for the sake of simplicity.

And so here I am, eating disorders dietitian by day; (newly) Zenthai shiatsu practitioner by candlelight.

In one studio a yoga teacher emphasising the importance of play; in the next a nutritionist distilling hours of reading textbooks and research papers into digestible information that my clients can understand.

Studying naturopathy and Chinese Medicine on one hand; investigating the clinical applications of CBT and DBT for eating disorder clients on the other.

Sometimes I feel like a bit of a jill of all trades. Master of none. A case of shiny object syndrome. A fraud. Not really good at any one of those things.

Hello, voice of my inner critic, I hear you loud and clear.

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Spring energetics - moving from darkness into light

12/10/2018

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Wild edibles have been popping up everywhere in our hood - check out these bitter dandelion greens. Perfect with some sour lemon juice, olive oil and salt for a simple spring salad.

Spring is here, and although I LOVE it, the transition has been rough...

Winter just isn't my thing (as nice as all those warm cups of chai tea are!) Spring is my favourite season of the year - and not just because it's my birthday season. As the weather started warming up, our little family enjoyed daily expeditions to a local mulberry tree. It seemed our hands and faces were perpetually stained purple, and life was sweet.

Then we had a car crash.

And it was as if our whole world was turned upside down.

Someone rear ended us on the highway. Miraculously no one was hurt, but it shook us all up. Since then, my family and I have encountered battle after battle. Physical, emotional, mental, you name it.

It started with that car crash involving all of us (such a scary experience with babies in the back). Between us we've been through a bout of hospitalisation for appendicitis, some heavy repressed memories resurfacing, a shitload of emotional processing (with anger, shame and vulnerability at the forefront), the extreme physical fatigue that accompanies such emotional processing, a teething baby (aren't they just always teething?!) and learning about the "tantrum explosion" stage of a certain ginger haired three-nager.

Kairi eating dirt. Might be some Wood energetic medicine I don't know about?!

Yin to Yang, dark to light

You could say that the car crash not only shook us up: it woke us up from various slumbers we'd all been sleeping through. For me, it has shone a spotlight onto some dark places I've been ignoring for a long time.

Seasonal transitions can be interesting to say the least. And the transition from winter to spring is perhaps the most tumultuous transition. It’s a tug-o-war between the quiet, dark, restorative, inward Yin energy of winter into the bold, outward, ascending, bright Yang energy of spring – and the shift can be massive!

Spring energetics - wood element

In Chinese medicine Spring is associated with the element Wood. The energy of new growth and germination marks this season, and here in SE Queensland new plant life is springing up all around us. This is my favourite time of the year for urban foraging and wildcrafting edible weeds.

The meridian that corresponds with the wood element is the liver / gallbladder meridian. Wood element within us governs our sense of vision, the emotion of anger, and the sound of shouting. Wood energy can aggravate the mind by allowing pressure to build (like a seed germinating), propelling us forward into creating, planning and working.

Wood element is about us having purpose and vision in our lives, our planning ability. Type A personalities this is the time to be careful to keep your perfectionist / overworking tendencies in check! (talking to myself here - I’ve taken on WAY too much work lately resulting in thoughtless shortcuts, frustrating setbacks and angry outbursts, and I now need to reassess my workload. AGAIN!)

When vision is stifled, we feel that anger and frustration and want to shout, and at the right time and place we can and should shout. Anger is an energy that needs space and if pent up that pressure can become dangerous.

Anger, indigestion... and growth

Amidst the storm of emotional turbulence that has marked this year's dark to light seasonal transition, I’ve had some seriously angry outbursts. As a bunch of shit has happened and painful repressed memories from my past have resurfaced, I've been feeling more than my usual lot of anger towards myself and others from my past and present.

I find yelling into the earth, punching a pillow, or just roaring while standing in my kitchen helps me let some steam off and transmute my pain so I (hopefully) don’t dump it onto other people - usually my poor husband!

I've found that yelling and moving my body helps me tap into the deeper emotions of grief and pain, so that I can then cry and move through those - and hopefully come out the other side to a lighter place.

The energy of new growth and germination marks this season - and clearly that growth isn't always comfortable! If too much Wood energy builds pressure and is not released, it can result in symptoms like hypertension, headaches, sore muscles, indigestion, allergies, irritability, insomnia and outbursts of rage.

This year's winter into spring has been a gloriously turbulent, disastrously beautiful, emotionally and physically exhausting transition for us - maybe it has been for you too. Personally I've had to reach out and practice extreme vulnerability with close friends (not one of my strong points), and practice those uncomfortable skills of feeling unpleasant emotions, releasing through crying and yelling, and applying bucket loads of self-compassion.

But it's not all emotional turbulence and digestive ails. With Spring there's also that palpable quickening in the air; that shimmer of morning dew on newly sprouting herbs in the garden; that pulsation of warm, wet earth underneath bare feet. New growth, even if it's forced and we don't feel ready for it. The promise of new life.

As I wake from a winter slumber (physically and metaphorically) I'm beginning to see how old ways of being are no longer working for me, and have been forced to deal with issues that have been sitting in the dark for years.

I'm also seeing the seeds I planted many months and years ago start to germinate into exciting new projects which I'll be sharing with you in the coming months.

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3 things you MUST know about Postpartum nutrition

29/3/2018

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"Eat ENOUGH food. This is where you need to put your big girl pants on, ignore the ridiculous cultural push to lose the "baby weight" as fast as possible... and eat like a grown-ass woman."

What you eat during the month after you give birth has the power to radically improve your strength and recovery.

And, it is said in Chinese medicine, what you eat and how well you take care of yourself during this crucial time has the power to impact your health 20, 30 or more YEARS down the track.

There are other important things to think about in your Golden Month, which I mention here - but of course, being a nutritionist, I believe the food you eat after having a baby is crucial.

Nutritional requirements during recovery and breastfeeding unsurprisingly increase, and in the case of some specific nutrients, quite significantly so.

If you're breastfeeding your requirements for protein, zinc, iodine and vitamin A literally double.

And to produce milk, you need to be getting more overall calories than even during your third trimester of pregnancy; around 500-600 calories more for the first six months postpartum if breastfeeding exclusively (as recommended by the World Health Organisation), which is an extra meal or 2-3 extra snacks a day.

Of course I don't recommend calorie counting and nothing is set in stone - listen to your hunger and fullness cues and you will be fine. Note: If you have a history of or current disordered eating you may find it difficult to follow your body's hunger and fullness cues, in which case seeing a HAES or non-diet health professional would be super helpful for you.

Even if you cannot or choose not to breastfeed, extra nutrition is required to heal from childbirth and replenish your body after nine months of pregnancy.

And if your kids are more school age than newborn, you need some serious fuel to keep up with all the crazy demands asked of you, mama. You have important shit to do and you need energy and nutrients to do it.

So without going into a huge amount of detail on exact postpartum nutrition requirements, here are the three big nutritional principles from TCM you can aim to follow in your Golden Month.

And by the way, nourishing yourself well is as crucial in healing immediately after childbirth, as it is 10 years postpartum. These three tips apply just as much years after your last child is born, as they do as soon as the baby is born.

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I'm recovering from an eating disorder: can I still be VEGAN?

18/10/2017

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I work with a lot of yoginis and yogis, alternative lifestyle leaders, animal rights activists, and environmentally conscious folks. I also work in the field of disordered eating.

So naturally I often find myself in the situation where I'm chatting with somebody who is very keen to heal their troubled relationship with food... but they don't want to budge on their vegan ideals.

This person may have been through the psychological hell that is a full blown eating disorder...

... OR they may fall into the spectrum of disordered eating on the end of the continuum that wouldn't be classified as a clinical eating disorder, but disordered eating and disordered body image - an issue that faces a significant number of women in Australia.

OFTEN, they've experienced both.

The big question here is, "If I'm actively recovering from a clinical eating disorder - or any other form of disordered eating - can I be vegan and still get better?"

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How I failed at Postpartum yoga

20/9/2017

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I've waxed lyrical about my disdain for the commodification of yoga and how until very recently, it drove me away from yoga for nearly two years. You can read me being all anti-mainstream yoga Ranty McRantus, here.

But the other big reason I quit yoga was this: after I gave birth to my first child, my personal yoga practice was feeling spiritually unfulfilling. And physically depleting as hell.

Following Archie's birth, the yoga I knew and loved - the dynamic, acrobatic, energetic practice full of dance and strong postures, inversions and fast flow - it just no longer... worked. It was not giving me the vitality, peace and stillness it once did.

It has taken many painful mistakes, a near-complete abstinence from yoga for a time, and a rediscovery of yoga at a deeper level for me to come out the other side. Here's what happened after I had my first baby, and how you can avoid making the same mistakes I did.

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Summer body WOES are made in winter

20/8/2017

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It's the end of winter, nearly spring. This is Imbolc - the time of metaphoric rebirth. Half way between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, this is traditionally a time for purification and spring cleaning in anticipation of the new surge in life approaching.

We may well still have a few cold snaps ahead of us but the energy has shifted.

Both energetically and in the natural world, now is the time we see new growth following the seeming dormancy of Winter. Imbolc is a time of hope, a time filled with the excitement of new possibilities for the future, the time for manifestation of whatever dreams we've been seeding over winter.

And troublingly - but not surprisingly - there are plenty of body-shaming industries ready to capitalise on the collective feelings of hope and excitement that coincide with the change in season.

One industry that plays a huge part in forming the mass constructed social expectations placed on bodies associated with this time of year is, of course, the diet industry.

Being late winter when the growing warmth is reminding us of the bikini season 'just around the corner', this is when we hear an escalation of mantras like, "Summer bodies are made in winter" along with increased pressure to buy those programs and products that employ this infuriating rhetoric.

The marketing strategies of those selling diet plans, weight loss products, 8- or 12-week training regimes and body-beautifying yoga challenges adopt this kind of tagline in order to incite a feeling of urgency or even panic in those who, shamefully, 'still haven't started working on their summer body.'

Well fuck that.

I say, "Body shame is perpetuated by stupid sayings like 'Summer bodies are made in winter.'"

Your body is not the problem. Your belief that your body is the problem, is the problem.

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The SSSW ideal: What it is & why it hurts women

3/7/2017

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It's mindful eating misused as a weight loss technique in a "Meditate Yourself Thin" program.

It's crash dieting rebranded as a juice cleanse that's an "integral part of your wellness journey".

It's a 12-week yoga shred challenge that focuses on making you lean, toned and taut, rather than preparing you for seated meditation (the traditional purpose of yoga asana).

It's a $5000 program that promises to "reveal your inner goddess" and make you happy, sexy, spiritual and confident all in one weekend... because once that goddess is unleashed, every man will want to be with you and every woman will want to be you.

It's a female sexuality course, a yoga training, or a detox program that teaches you how to be female - the "right" kind of female: Sexy, Slim, Successful, and let's not forget the one caveat that makes it all cool: Spiritual.

For years this has bothered me. As a yoga teacher and health professional, I've innately felt that there's something really icky about this kind of marketing, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. "It's just business, honey," I imagine the creators of these taglines would tell me, "It's the nature of marketing. It's just smoke and mirrors. Take a deep breath and exhale that negativity! Don't get your knickers in a knot."

Clearly, I only felt uncomfortable with this kind of marketing because I was "not ready for success", or deep down I "didn't think I deserved it."

And so, I'd uncomfortably push it to the back of my mind, tell myself I was being silly... and swallow the bile that had involuntarily made its way up into my throat.

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Yin & Yang Foods

4/9/2014

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I have a question for you.

What do you think your body wants most?

Better food? Cleaner air? More sex? All of the above?

Balance, or homeostasis, is what your body wants most. Your body naturally wants to be balanced. Any tiny change to your environment that alters your blood's pH and oxygen saturation will elicit a cascade of events that ultimately attempts to bring you back into a state of perfect balance.

Did you know that the food you eat is a major contributing factor to the overall balance of the body? According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the energetic effects of some foods on the body are mild, such as vegetables and whole grains.

Foods such as meat, milk, sugar and salt have more extreme effects on the body, and when consumed in excess, can throw it off balance. This struggle eventually leads to a craving for whatever the body needs to regain balance. Extreme foods can be divided into two categories: contractive and expansive. Traditional Chinese Medicine recognises these food qualities as Yin (expansive) and Yang (contractive).

Sometimes my clients seem to be eating all the right things - their macronutrient intake is spot on, and they are getting adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals - but their bodies are still showing serious signs of imbalance.

This is when I might look to traditional, more energetically-based approaches like TCM for clues on how to get that person feeling better.

Contractive Foods

The most common and powerful contractive food is salt, which many people consume regularly and in large quantities especially if they eat a lot of takeaway or cured meats.

Animal foods (including fish) are also extremely contractive foods. These yang foods can imbue us with feelings of strength, aggressiveness and increased physical and mental power, partly due to the residues of adrenaline left behind in the muscles of these animals at their death, which we then consume.

When we eat too much of these foods, we create an imbalance and quickly feel bloated, heavy, sluggish and mentally slow, and we will crave expansive foods as a way of maintaining balance.

Ancient grains, root vegetables, and sea vegetables are examples of more balanced contractive or yang foods. You can eat these in place of processed meats, large amounts of red meat, and white bread to bring your diet back into balance, and ensure you're getting plenty of vitamins and minerals.

Even if you don't look at your diet from an energetic point of view at all, these recommendations still make sense! I find it amazing how traditional wisdom and science frequently line up to tell us the same thing.

Expansive Foods

Less extreme, more balance-creating yin foods include fruits, leafy vegetables, seeds and nuts. The main extreme expansive food is refined white sugar. Expandsive foods provide a feeling of lightness, elevations in mood and relief from blockages and stagnation. However, extremely yin foods like refined white sugar also cause rapid elevations in serotonin, followed by rapid declines.

When serotonin levels fall, we may experience feelings of depression, low energy, anxiety and loss of concentration.

Eating a diet too rich in sugar (yin) may cause a craving for meat (yang) to bring things back into balance. Being aware of the energetic properties of foods can help you to deconstruct your cravings and choose meals for optimum emotional and physical balance.

In my health consultations with clients, I assess not only the physical aspects of someone's diet and health, but the emotional and energetic aspects, too. These must all be balanced, just like the nutrient profile of a diet must be balanced and personalised for the individual.

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Following the trail to my calling

30/7/2014

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My first week back at university studying Naturopathy has been exciting, intense and above all, reassuring.

Reassuring because sitting in my first herbal medicine class, I felt like I had chosen a path of study that was like coming home. I was elated to be there, and hungrily mopping up the teachers' words. Not gritting my teeth in strong disagreeance with the lecturer, vowing to do things differently once I graduated!

One of the things my herbal manufacturing lecturer said really stood out for me:

"In life we may meander, take a convoluted path, or get-side-tracked. But if we persist, we are always drawn back to our true purpose, one way or another." Diana Bowman

In my class there are people in their 50's who have deferred following their dreams until their kids left home. Others who began their study a decade or more ago and had to stop when life (sickness, pregnancy, deaths, financial restraints) got in the way, who have now picked up the scent to follow the trail again. Others like me who have been in allied health for a few years, and want to widen their scope with some holistic sideview mirrors.

Looking back, I sometimes feel regret at not choosing naturopathy as my first degree (and consequently racking up a sizeable HECS debt!).

But I shake that regret off when I think of all I have learnt along the way. I feel that I needed to go through an entire veterinary science degree, to travel and live overseas, to do my masters in (mainstream) dietetics, to practise on my own as a holistic dietitian in a climate where dietitians are usually anything but... all part of nourishing my basic desire to heal using every tool I possibly can, whether that be allopathic or natural medicine. Whether that be for humans or animals. Whether people are rich or poor, sick or healthy.

Naturopathy is the closest thing I've found the embodies this wide-viewed approach. I love that we don't need to choose one over the other - natural/complementary medicine over mainstream medicine. We can choose both. For example, if someone with cancer decides to take a chemotherapy treatment approach, they can mop up the damage with herbs, nutrition and lifestyle changes and drastically reduce the harsh side effects of chemo.

Ironically, I remember telling my year co-ordinator and SOSE teacher in Grade 9 that I wanted to be a naturopath. Her advice was to "choose something else that better used my intelligence." A similar thing happened in Grade 11 when I talked to my careers adviser. Not that my convoluted path was their fault! I believe all my experience has enriched my life deeply, and given me a huge appreciation for being where I am, now.

"The wild woman is the source, the light, the night, the dark, and the daybreak. She is the smell of good mud and the back leg of the fox. She is the voice that says, "This way, this way."
Clarissa Pinkola Estes

In case you were wondering, I am continuing to practise as a dietitian. It's just that once I've graduated I'll be dual-qualified as an accredited practising dietitian and a naturopath, which is exciting!

A nutritionist first and foremost, I will always believe in the immense power of food, and will ALWAYS look at diet as one of the primary targets for anyone looking to improve their general health or move past their health issues.

Although I've nearly lost count of how much uni I've done (this is my third degree - gulp!), I do seem to have a sick affinity for study and have not stopped doing online courses, informal and formal mentorships, and in person trainings since I graduated from dietetics. Plus I decided it was time to put all those excuses and fears to bed and JUST DO IT!

I look forward to sharing my journey with you and all the loops, dog legs and hurdles that will inevitably pop up along the way!

Big love,
Casey

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<<Previous

Casey's blog

The Mother and The Warrior

Purity vs. hybridisation

Spring energetics - moving from darkness into light

Yin to Yang, dark to light

Spring energetics - wood element

Anger, indigestion... and growth

3 things you MUST know about Postpartum nutrition

I'm recovering from an eating disorder: can I still be VEGAN?

How I failed at Postpartum yoga

Summer body WOES are made in winter

The SSSW ideal: What it is & why it hurts women

Yin & Yang Foods

Contractive Foods

Expansive Foods

Following the trail to my calling

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