You are the Medicine

It was an absolute pleasure in this conversation to explore the theme of birth-death-rebirth within the context of community and how important the medicine of community is in this context and wider.  Georgia shared Khalil Gibran's words of wisdom on Pain and many philosophical musings that have arisen as a result of her life experiences to date and most recently the death of her dad.  At such a young age Georgia (early 20's) is navigating this life experience with grace and courage in a way I could only have dreamed of accessing at a similar age.  The powerful medicine we each hold inside is as transformative as we allow it to be.

Georgia is a performer, writer, researcher and facilitator whose work is influenced by the intentionality of experience and environment. She loves playing with the conventions of perception. The products of her wandering wonderings often fuse linguistic, phenomenological and metaphysical concepts to create existentially provocative experiences. She feels most at home when foraging within the intersubjective fields of meaning, and finds the processes involved in brewing evocative blends from her findings to be incredibly cathartic. 

Following the unexpected death of her dad in early 2021, she became fascinated with how humans possess a significant need “to speak” and “to be heard”. In order to engage with this dynamic in collaboration with others, she founded The Space Speaks (www.thespacespeaks.com). The collective creates projects that relate to the dissection and de-stigmatisation of grief. So far, they have provided regular community-focussed and conversation-based workshops at The Space to Speak and produced Georgia's debut performance of 'OUR FATHER'. 

Rosie-Maria dived straight in with 'the medicine' being the whole of us, body, mind and soul, a theme that keeps on cropping up with the amazing souls I am speaking to.  Her language around 'bad things' that 'happen to us' offers a 180degree shift from the perspective many of us were brought up with or used to hearing/using.  Moving from victim hood, the blame-shame game and the stories we create or co-create about ourselves, our past and what might happen if we do/don't do something.  I totally resonate with her perspective that what works for one may not work for another and that is exactly why 'you are the medicine' because only you can explore your own life, learning and evolving along the way to become the greatest version of ourselves that we were always meant to be.

In this episode, Sarita shared her journey of discovering how beneficial Bach flower remedies (essences of different plants and flowers) were in profoundly impacting the behaviour of the dogs she used to look after - she was known as the Dog Whisperer of NW London. The dogs that came to her were totally transformed in terms of their behaviour, driven by emotional imbalances often reinforced by their unwitting owners, who she also treated."

She also shared how the remedies supported her journey through life including times of repeated bereavement, deep grief and much more.

I had the pleasure of spending some time with Izzy in this chat as we explored her journey from the corporate world to family life and a deeper understanding of how your health is in your hands and you have the power. Izzy inspires women of all ages as a women’s health coach with a background in holistic nutrition and yoga. She uses an integrated approach to help women reconnect and tap into their inner wisdom. She strongly believes we have all answers within  - and if we nurture the ‘terrain’, healing can take place. She works 1:1, with groups coaching and offers specific courses, masterclasses and workshops. 

Jason is a dedicated Qigong teacher of around 14years, a journey that started when he was 18 with Tai Chi, Meditation and various Martial  arts.  His work focuses on the mind/body connection, as many body workers do, and removing ‘Blockages’  (misalignments, trauma (physical, emotional) energetic stagnation, etc).  Through his teachings he explores and encourages exploration of the opening up the body to smooth and improve the flow of Qi throughout;  this in turn allows the body’s natural functions to become optimised  (fluid flows, endocrine balance, physical alignments, restorative  processes, bowel movements, etc) rather than working under pressure from  deficiencies, therefore allowing one’s natural health balance to  improve.

Injury, illness and/ or trauma from the past often resides within the  physical body and these ‘blockages’ restrict fully smooth functioning  of certain internal innate functions or processes. Only with direct  access from physical manipulation and/or awareness practices can one  begin working out these remnants and allow the body to fully heal and become well.

Jason has numerous teaching certificates in Tai Chi, Qigong and Bagua and have been teaching for over 14 years, both locally  and helping to run seminars in London, and international retreats in  Spain and Crete.

As his understanding of the internal techniques and effects has grown,  through both his own practice and teaching students, so too has his appreciation of the uniqueness of how these arts, both Physical,  Meditative and Energetic, affect the human physical and personal  condition. Through cultivating a deeply relaxed and present state of  mind and body, whilst moving through increasingly fine choreographed  movements, you can bring about an expanded state of awareness and  presence, or Mindfulness, of your entire system and behaviour.

In 2005 Sonia and her husband were set on a path they never imagined for themselves, when their children were diagnosed with autism. They were told their younger son would never speak and would need to be institutionalized when he was a teenager as he would become violent aggressive and unmanageable.  This was the catalyst that propelled Sonia into her current passion. She found herself researching and studying the root cause of autism, as well as many other western world ailments such as cancers, heart problems, and autoimmune diseases, etc:

Sonia spent her childhood travelling and lived in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, France, and Italy, which encouraged the love of food, first given to her by her Algerian mother. These experiences gave her a unique ability to combine traditional foods and lifestyle and to create delicious dishes.  

Out of the sheer need to rescue her sons she "dug deep" observing the children's difficulties, developing a bespoke program for each child, also drawing on alternative therapies where necessary.  She implemented a specific dietary protocol in her family that manifested changes both physically and mentally. After 3 years the family migrated to a wholefoods diet. Observing the seasons and correctly preparing the ingredients the ancient way, the family continued to benefit.

Sonia and her husband encouraged their boys to discover themselves exploring emotion and finding their voice; literally. This was a quantum shift for them that set them on the path of discovery, expression, and connection to their emotions.  She noted that the application of potent probiotic homemade foods (building and nurturing the micro-biome the inner ecosystem) was a significant move and instantly noticed changes in the boys and family.

For the last 8+ years, Sonia has been teaching individuals and holding fermentation workshops encouraging folk take responsibility for their own health in a world with conflicting points of view. She is engaging, practical and thorough and thinks outside the box. Her ethos is to understand the person she is working with at a root level.  She demonstrates how to successfully migrate from a standard western diet to nutritionally dense replacement foods that will impact health in both the short and long-term by using old world ways. She incorporates all the therapeutic techniques she has acquired to create an effectively bespoke program.

For more information on Sonia and her food and fermentation workshops email her at:

intestinekindcuisine@gmail.com

For more information about how to nurture your amazing brain-body or work with Rebecca go to: 

Today I have the pleasure of chatting to Cathy Radcliffe about all things stress related from a neuroscience perspective.  Neuroscience is her particular passion and the perspective from which she sees and experiences the world around her and her place in it.  Neuroscience also underpins the work that she does as a corporate coach and trainer, business owner and entrepreneur.  It's also been super helpful in her personal life as she has navigated (and continues to play and explore) the ways that work for her to successfully manage (through succeeding and failing) stress and the mental and physical symptoms that we all have the possibility of experiencing and learning more about ourselves from.

I love Cath's passion for life and her positive outlook on what is often viewed as a negative 'thing' that happens to us, over which we have no control.  Cathy's perspective blows that mindset out of the water and is a fascinating introduction into stress from a brain-body perspective and how much power and influence we have to be the medicine through self-awareness and slowing down amongst other great tips.