This month Mukti connects with Madelaine “Mirva” Vallin, an Inspirational Speaker, Holistic Entrepreneur, Singer/Songwriter and an Author.
Mirva is passionate about the human mind, positive psychology and spreading joy through music and has dedicated her life to sharing her message and positive vibes into the world, and will be joining us at our upcoming Embrace Life Festivals.
From early age, Mirva struggled with negative self-talk, and thereby her creative flow. Her personal journey through depression led her to the great realisation that choosing to be creative from a positive mindset gave her complete artistic flow.
She decided to document her findings to assist other creative souls and released her first book The Art of
Soulful Living in 2014. Her music has been described with words like “soul-soothing”, “immaculate adult-orientated pop” and “hooks to die for”.
Mirva has just released a new EP called “Get Ready”, her first EP after her well acclaimed EP “One”.
Madelaine “Mirva” Vallin is currently collaborating with MindPT or Mind Power Technology to create a new technological power tool in the from of an App to help people find creative flow and peaceful minds. The tool is aimed to assist all creative souls to stay connected through the heart and thereby their creativity.
BOOK:
www.madelainevallin.com/products/book/
MUSIC:
www.madelainevallin.com/products/music/
FREE SAMPLE OF MAD ABOUT LIFE- MADELAINE “MIRVA” VALLIN’S NEW CREATIVITY SESSION:
www.tinyurl.com/MadAboutLifeFreebie
In a world full of hustle and bustle in our busy high tech lives we have become disconnected from Mother Earth and more reliant on our mobile phones, our ipads and less connected to Nature. This is creating a symptom of what I call ‘Soul Sickness’. A phrase I have coined as a separation sickness. A separation not only with Mother Earth but also our authentic self and higher truth.
When we think of the time we spend on the internet, how much time is committed to the restoration of Mother Earth? We have been loaned the Earth by our children and the generations to come and we need to explore this gift and create greater exposure to the natural world for ourselves and our childrens future.
Our soul needs a few fundamental things and one of those is the need for sacred space. It also needs harmony with the greater cycles of nature. To allow yourself to be the truly creative expressive being that you are. A soul also needs to feel safe and filled with peace. How can that happen when we are plugged in to electromagnetic fields of technology?
Nature allows us to find that peace. Automatically by looking at pictures of nature and all its greatness, creates more balance in our breathing. By spending 15 minutes in a nursery allows the brain to produce more serotonin which keeps our hormones more balanced. Everyone has their ‘sanctuary’, the place we go to in our daydreams, maybe the beach or the forest, or a beautiful lush paddock with spring flowers. Being out in nature brings all of our 5 senses alive and if we spend more time in nature, our automatic 6th sense will be activated naturally as the veil is drawn to one side, allowing clarity to emerge.
Spending time in nature allows our brain to create space for our natural creativity to be expressed and even short spurts in nature inspires us to be more productive. As well as the vibrational resonance of nature being documented, it is naturally healing and can reduce depression.
I believe we have a commitment to the restoration of Mother Earth and her constitution and it is our sacred responsibility to know who we are!
“Boori Boori” is a spiritual haven for the world weary.
Come and immerse yourself in the reverence of Nature aligning with the ancient wisdom and the natural rhythms of the land.
Karen is a Transformation Catalyst and runs workshops and programmes out of Boori Boori, incorporating the outdoor labyrinth to open up new dimensions, find healing and create transformational change for her clients and visitors.
For more information about Boori Boori and Karen, go to www.karenquant.com.au or email info@karenquant.com.au.
People who live with a high level of stress all the time often don’t notice that their physical health is declining as well. Stomach problems, headaches, muscle aches and pains and insomnia can all be attributable to the consequences of long-term stress!
Where do all these physical symptoms come from?
Notice how you breathe when you are stressed. Typically you breathe from the top of your chest and you really don’t get enough oxygen where it’s needed.
Blood flow to some areas is reduced by up to 75%. Muscles and joints tighten up and you start feeling cramps, aches and pains. When you are stressed your shoulders start to head up towards your ears. Sit up, let your shoulders soften and take a few deep breaths with your hand on your belly. Notice the difference. If you are feeling really overwhelmed try doing the breathing with one hand on your forehead it may help calm the brain as well.
Then there are all the stomach problems; you are either going to the bathroom too often or not at all. The same neurotransmitters that are in our head are also well represented in our stomachs (approx 90%). Not surprisingly when we are running on adrenaline or our cortisol is staying high, our stomachs start to act out.
Stomach problems can also be partly related to the type of diets that we prefer when we are stressed. Typically we want food that will convert quickly to glucose and give us an energy hit. Whilst providing the brain with a short term hit by eating lots of carbohydrates we don’t provide the proteins we need for production of neurotransmitters so over time we effectively short change ourselves. Then we start having problems with irritability or insomnia. Further the heavy load of refined carbohydrates is often at the expense of fresh fruit and vegetables leading to a sluggish bowel.
Managing stressors will help you with all the physical symptoms as well. Make sure your diet is well balanced, favouring small amounts of good quality protein and lots of vegetables. In addition, think about adding good quality magnesium with between 400-800mg of elemental magnesium a day, particularly if you are getting cramps and having trouble sleeping or staying asleep. Consider getting some supportive physical therapy such as massage or osteopathy to help keep your shoulders where they belong.
Christine Pope is a Nutritionist and Homeopath who practices at St Ives and runs regular workshops on “Managing Your Stress” in conjunction with Coach, Cheryl Alderman at the adjoining Be Ultimate offices.
This life – changing workshop will help you understand the physical and emotional symptoms, as well as the triggers of stress. Packed full of information and easily applicable tools to help you manage the ups and downs of daily life with renewed zest and productivity, body & mind.
To find more details on this workshop, click here.
One of our community members, Toni Whitmont, has a crystal sound therapy practice called Sacred Vessels Sound Healing. Here she explains why crystal bowls are such a profound healing tool and she invites you to experience them at her upcoming fundraiser to help Cambodian orphans.
“If you want to find out the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration” – Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla, who died in 1943, is recognised as a great inventor and a futurist. More than that, he is recognised as a great visionary. At the heart of his incredible body of practical and theoretical work was his understanding that energy, frequency, and vibration resonates throughout the universe from the furthest galaxy to the tiniest cell. He understood that resonance and energy define absolutely everything.
There has always been great reverence for the transformative possibilities of energy, frequency and vibration. This has been at the centre of most of the great wisdom traditions – think of the didgeridoo, Gregorian chants, Tibetan bowls, shamanistic drumming to name just a few.
One very exciting new ways of experiencing these possibilities is with quartz crystal singing bowls. We all know about quartz and its potential for transducing (changing the form) of energy. Crystal healers have been working with that for eons. The communication industry is built on silicon chips for precisely the same reason.
If they are made from 99% pure quartz, and if they are played with intention for healing, crystal singing bowls will amplify, store, focus, transfer and most importantly transmute energy. And since our bodies are also crystalline in structure, there is also the possibility that experiencing the sounds can produce profound beneficial effects on our organs, tissues, and all the way down to our cells.
These bowls each have a unique voice that can be utilized for anything from meditation to sound healing and can significantly enhance a number of modalities. Played intuitively with a wand or a mallet, these bowls seems to awaken in us an ancient remembering, touching the essence of the soul. In one sense, we are talking music therapy. But on a deeper lever, the vibrations that emanate from the bowls allows for the possibility of healing body, soul and spirit. If a body part is vibrating in harmony with the rest of the body, then the possibility for wellness exists. And all this is absolutely magnified if the vibrations are created with clear and pure intention to create a shift in consciousness.
I use Crystal Tones bowls because I think that their level of purity is unmatched. About half of my 14 piece “orchestra” of bowls are Alchemy bowls – which marry the energies of one or more high quality gemstones, crystals or precious metals with the quartz. My latest obsession is an 8 inch amethyst A# true tone. While the amethyst evokes serenity and intuitive ability and is the perfect companion for balancing heart and mind, A# works directly on the crown chakra and pineal gland.
Last year, along with 10 other sound healers, I took my quartz crystal bowls to the NBIC orphanage in Phnom Penh and played to the 100 or so orphans with multiple disabilities and their carers. For one afternoon, that energy, frequency and vibration brought smiles, relief and laughter to people that normally have to endure extraordinary hardship. Among the things we left behind – nappies, wipes, basic clothes – was the gift of a bowl to keep. You can read about that experience here.
That visit profoundly affected me. Since then, I have continued to help, sending them almost everything I have earned though my Sacred Vessels Sound Healing practice.
If you would like to experience pure quartz and alchemy vibrations as well as help the children of the orphanage, your next opportunity is on Saturday July 18 at the Body and Soul Vibration Fundraiser – thanks to the generous support of the Yoga Institute, Level 1/498 Miller St, Cammeray from 3pm to 4.30pm.
Bookings are essential.
The cost to participate is $35, with all proceeds going to children with multiple disabilities at the NBIC Orphanage, Phnom Penh.
Booking details : Contact Toni on sacredvesselsounds@gmail.com , call 0408 693 742 or visit her Facebook page for more details, bookings or donations.
Being creative can mean so many things to so many people, be it you are an artist, musician, fashion or jewellery designer. Or perhaps, you see being creative as being a fantastic cook, home decorator or author – and it can be all of these things, and more! Creativity, is the soul expressing itself, and we create everyday.
But what if no matter how much you tried, there is a component of your personality that is not being heard, seen or expressed because you have lost that childlike quality of playfulness?
As I write this blog, I am sharing an internal dialogue that I often have with myself. The balance of the disciplinary approach of my upbringing and the playfulness of my Irish heritage. This playfulness comes out every now and again, and when she arrives in the room my face “shines” and the whole essence of who I am, steps out and beams!
We often talk about taking the steps towards ascension, and that our life purpose is to attain enlightment. The way I see it, it is a delicate balance of how we tap into the creativity and flow of the intuitive ( the “child like innocence and playfulness”) whilst grounding and mastering the art of manifestation, and is one of the main purposes of why we are here in this school we call life.
The Dalai Lama is a beautiful example and role model of one that enjoys all that presents, I love how he sees everything in an innocence and teaches that life is about being happy.
Yet I often get puzzled on how do I create without stepping into my state of being in control, needing structure and the precision of project management?
Wonderful skills exercised regularly in my days of corporate life, they served me well; could they also be holding my creativity back?
With the growth of our Embrace Life community, I am often reminded that the best days and outcomes, have been when I have allowed things to go with the flow, still holding onto the vision and intent with a strongly held belief that things will occur the way they are meant to be, and that I too may not have all the answers. Letting go of that little “ego” that wants to know what happens next?
Is this the part of the creative process that I am here to learn?
The gentle balance between the sweet joy of creativity and possibilities coupled with a sense of grounding and action, navigating and facilitating but not holding back due to fear and uncertainty.
So what do I do, to allow myself to exercise this balance between creativity and discipline:
1. Allow myself to let go of expectations, holding onto the belief and trusting that whatever the outcome will be, it will be the best for me right now and filled with many blessings;
2. Introduced playtime, only recently I was introduced to the concept of colouring in books, yes, I know we had them as children and I loved them – so why now that I have “grown” up, did I stop doing what I enjoyed?
3. I have noticed how my energy lightens when I have a good “belly” laugh, so making time out of my work schedule to be with the people I love, enjoying what surrounds me and making the time to laugh, bringing moments of joy; while letting go of the need to be “perfect” is also an invitation for myself to play;
4. Giving myself permission to be me, and not what I believe others want or expect of me, I remember meeting a lady a few years back, that on her 50th year told her mother, that for the last 50 years she had done what her mother had asked for and she was now going to do what she wanted.
And after the next 50 years, she would come back and renegotiate – this can be very liberating if a parent or someone we care for, are putting their expectations on our behaviour
5. I have given my disciplinary side a name, her name is Hilda, she taps into my German heritage. I am yet to name my Irish counterpart, I am still getting to know her, but I am aware that I need to integrate both and both are needed in my life.
One is not more important than the other, I see it as my invitation for a little more of the Irish craic!
So invite time in your life to play, this does not mean you do not hold a vision, work for your beliefs and goals, or to put energy and focus to things that resonate, it is all about balance, so make sure you also take the time to laugh, play and enjoy this wonderful planet and embrace all that life has to give us.
As above, so below. As within, so without.
This intriguing universal principle has vast implications for the way that we look at and understand the world around us. It is a concept that is well understood by Feng Shui masters as it encourages us to see the interconnectedness between all things – internal and external.
So what does your house say about you? What does the space around you tell you about your energy field? You may notice that things are tidy, yet when you open a cupboard, everything comes falling down on top of you. You may see that things are dusty or that the windows are covered in spider webs. Perhaps you have 5 different tasks on the go, all at the same time and there is plenty of clutter around. Maybe you’ll notice a piece of furniture that you love or a photo that transports you back in time. If you really tune in, you may notice certain areas that feel wonderful to be in and other areas where you don’t seem to feel at ease. All of this information is significant.
Not only are houses a magnification of our inner energies, but they are also an energy of their own. Houses can retain the energy of illness, arguments and accidents so it is important to neutralise the energy every now and then. You may like to burn a smudge stick (make sure you don’t set off your smoke alarms!), open all the windows and doors and set the intention for any residues/energies to leave with ease and grace. Bashing out your mattress and pillows or diffusing some essential oils can also be helpful from time to time. Indoor plants are also a great way to recycle and neutralise the energy.
If you haven’t already, set aside some time to find natural cleaning products that are gentle on your body and the environment, for example using bi-carb and vinegar rather than bleach. Prioritise keeping your home clean, clear and energised. Gift yourself with fresh flowers now and then to brighten up your table and if you notice your environment getting out of control, look at what is happening in your life. Wherever possible, reorganize, so that you can stop and bring everything back into balance.
Do little bits (like the washing up) throughout the day. Similar to showering and brushing your teeth, your environment, just like your body, needs regular attention and cleansing. You may also like to get rid of furniture that doesn’t resonate with you anymore, move things around and maybe even add in some new colours to calm or invigorate you. Tune into, and listen to, your body. Use it as a helpful barometer of where to place things so that you can maximize energy flow inside and outside yourself. Have fun and don’t be afraid to cleanse and let go. You may be surprised by the changes in your mood and the clarity of your mind as you acknowledge and release the burdens and complexity that have weighed you down.
Jeannine is an energetic healer, holistic counsellor and author who practices on the Central Coast.
For questions, appointments or further information about The Beauty Evolution book, please feel free to browse my website or email me directly on essencepower@live.com.au
Now is the season for a multitude of ailments. Whether you’re suffering from a croak in your throat that you just can’t shake, a runny nose that has been with you for weeks, or, like many of us, you are feeling lacklustre and heavy, it might be that you need just a bit of a boost to your system.
Luke Mollica, of Health Zoo in Sydney’s Parramatta, has been working in the Health and Wellbeing industry since 2005, including being a regular presence at a range of markets and festivals in the Health and Wellness arena. Health Zoo offers a wide range of nutritional supplements, assisting in a person’s day-to-day activities, be they strenuous and outdoorsy, emotionally challenging or office and desk-bound. His clients are aged between 30 to 60 years of age, with most (about 80%, Luke believes) being women.
“I started Health Zoo about 3 and a half years ago because of a self discovery with my own health issues, and I started to do the research on super foods and their benefits to our bodies” says Luke. “Along with my partner Meredith, we choose to eat fresh organic fruit and vegetables, an assortment of super foods, therapeutic oils and herb supplements as well”. It’s clear that Luke lives and breathes his passion for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
About the Health Zoo Range
“Our most popular product on sale through Health Zoo at the moment is the Organic and Unprocessed Baobab” says Luke, a powder that is ideal for aiding digestive health, your immune system and your day-to-day hydration, amongst other things. Luke also mentions that other top sellers popular with his customers are Hemp Seed & Oil, Baobab Powder, Organic Turmeric, Cacao, Chia Seeds & Black Seed Oil. “These are the top sellers due to their health benefits, and mainly because there is minimal processing”, Luke explains. “We need to look for foods high in plant based protein, antioxidants, anti inflammatory, detoxing and immune boosting”.
The Importance of Nutrition
Luke’s work through Health Zoo empowers him to assist others on their road to a healthy lifestyle. He says it’s easier for someone to change their lives and make positive, nutritional and healthy food choices when the choice to love your body comes from nutrition. “Do the research and take the plunge”, he offers. “Education is paramount, and I believe these days there are plenty of choices”.
Luke believes barriers to living a healthy lifestyle started when we were children, in our homes as we were growing up. “If the parents weren’t aware or open to change, then you may keep doing what you believe is the correct methods of nutrition”, he explains. “Unfortunately, these days there are many GMO products on the market, and many corporations portray themselves as healthy alternatives. The big issue is that they are not and it has been proven time and time again – the less processed, the better”.
Health Zoo offers nutrients that will revolutionise your daily intake of nutrition. Luke says, “We believe in super foods that exceed the daily intake, such as Spirulina (or Chlorella) Pea Proteins, Turmeric, Black Seed, Baobab and Chia Seeds, just to name a few”.
What’s Next For Health Zoo?
Now that so many people are aware of the importance of nutrition in daily health and wellbeing, it’s only fair to assume that stores like Health Zoo will continue to be a beacon of light in the nutritional space. Luke is confident that Health Zoo will carry on offering customers alternatives to food choices found in bigger chain stores. “I feel we can keep doing what we have always done, educate through awareness at festivals including Embrace Life”, says Luke. “We also stock our products at The Peace Hub.”
Find Luke at Health Zoo, via info@healthzoo.com.au, or call them on 1300 720 788. Products can also be ordered online – visit their website at www.healthzoo.com.au.
Barbara Lindberg, from Duft Creations shares her insights around what it means, or doesn’t mean, to be spiritual. Barbara brings her down to earth approach to many questions, including the big one, “Who Really Cares?”
We are often bombarded by media obsessed with celebrity, and yet who actually cares if Keith and Nicole are breaking up for the 4th time this week? Or if Kim Kardashian has a great looking butt or not?
Do you REALLY care?
We spend an awful lot of time contemplating the lives of the famous and infamous and very little time contemplating our own lives and contribution to our very large world.
Will the earth stop moving if a celebrity bought a creamy donut instead of an organically certified wholegrain salad with pine nuts and almonds for lunch? What will change in the world?
Change happens in every split second of every day. We are very capable of changing people’s lives just by being in them; we have been changing lives even before we were born.
Have you ever thought about that?
How can we have been changing lives long before we were even conceived you might ask?
From pre conception we are changing lives, long before we were even a twinkle in our parent’s eyes, we were preparing, choosing our soul path, challenges and journey – deciding what our life lessons will be – some would call this our “soul contract”.
Even the idea of parent’s having a child has created a change their thought patterns. They are now thinking of all the things they will have to change in their lives to be able to bring their bundle of joy into being.
Hmm, what colour shall we paint the nursery? Do we need a bigger car? What will the relatives say? Or even, what religion or gender will our baby be?
Every day we make changes, our body renews its organs over hours, days, months and sometimes years – apparently in a 7 year cycle our entire body would have regenerated – now that is change!
Change is evident in our daily, supposedly inane questions:
- Do I have my regular coffee this morning or a hot chocolate? This is change…
- Do I wear my usual blue colour or red today? This is change…
- Does the way I react to the same situation still serve me? Just thinking about it, is change…
What is the worst thing that could happen if I don’t react that same way today? Could change serve me with a different approach, a better way to deal with a situation?
Yet in the same breathe, the core of you remains the same.
Questioning your health
There are many questions you may ponder in your search for meaning and to attain a healthy lifestyle balance. For example, do you really have to be eating a gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, paleo and dairy free diet to be healthy? Is your body only going to be toxin free by drinking greens?
To be spiritual, do you have to meditate 3 times a day sitting on an ergonomically designed yoga mat made from recycled car tyres? And is your life abundant, only when you have a job earning $100,000 a year? Some of this can cause more confusion, and leave us feeling lacking.
So back to my first question – seriously folks, who REALLY cares?
Your soul cares!
Your soul knows you inside and out – flaws, challenges and all the good bits.
So to change yourself is to know yourself better every second of every day, because change happens whether we plan it or not. It can happen over time or in a split second or the snap of your fingers. You can’t always choose what changes are made but we do all have choices.
Life is about change and having fun with those changes. Finding joy in every moment of every day will change not only you but also those people around you that you come in contact with.
Those people in turn will effect change in their lives and so, on the ripples flow out from the centre.
This is how we change our world – one smile, one laugh, one silly deed, and one kindness at a time. Not by devouring the famous and infamous in society that tells us what society wants everyone to be like – clones or mannequins in a shop window.
So smile and be grateful that you can breathe and do something not only for yourself, but others and your world. You are valued and valuable to the existence of others on this planet – and we wouldn’t want you to change that!
Barbara Lindberg is the co-founder of DUFT Creations, with her husband Kim. DUFT Creations brings homewares, candles and gemstones into your home. Sight, smell, colour and style – products to bring balance to your life.
Their philosophy is that a stone chooses its keeper and their creations will grab you and own you. They take pride in being able to source the unusual and unique, and pride themselves on high standards of quality and good value.
On Sunday June 28 June, we celebrated the season of winter at the Sutherland Shire Embrace Life Festival, people walked up the stairs surrounded by beautiful white candles, the nurturing sounds of the crystal bowls and flickering fairy lights amongst bare trees, we invited them to enjoy the magic of Winter.
Our growing Embrace Life community was there with open arms, wonderful workshops, demonstrations, displays, musical and stage performances, treatments and readings, all to celebrate local through wellness, art and music, here are some highlights.
Why is the right kind of movement essential to our wellbeing?
Humanity didn’t evolve by standing for hours on end or sitting for hours on end, it was by moving in different ways at different times through different terrains, that our bodies evolved and became agile, strong and healthy, and the nutrition we were putting through our digestive system helped us feel more balanced in body, mind, mobility and emotions.
Yoga practices have taken off around the world and having just celebrated International Yoga Day it’s got even bigger publicity and press however, there is the ‘right yoga’ issue that is coming out more and more.
The practice of yoga is very much based on:
- Reconnecting to the body – most of us have checked out as we are so externally focussed.
- Reconnecting to the breath – the way we breathe is essential to our survival and deeper still our well being.
- Reconnecting to the stillness in the mind and body – this is the gem of yoga in that is helps reduce the fluctuations of the mind thus allowing us space and stillness on a physical, emotional and energetic level.
Traditionally yoga is practiced depending on your constitution and if you are affected by some form of mind, body or energetic imbalance a prescription for a way to practice is given to help, the aim being that the movement will aid recovery and help to create lasting and effective healing.
Our bodies are created in such ways that movement is necessary for some of the vital functions to operate on an optimum level for example:
- The Lymphatic – Moves waste and toxins from the blood.
- The Excretory System – Moves waste and toxins out of the body.
- The Digestive System – Helps move the food through the gut as well as nutrients around the body.
- The Skeletal System – Helps to keep the joints articulated and lubricated.
As humans we are meant to move and rest in equal parts, the types and kinds of movement matter and the time and investment we make is worth it to stay healthy and happy, thus to move is really medicine and meditation. If movement is done in a meditative way we can create beautiful harmony on many levels of the gross and subtle parts of ourselves, a great reflection of this is within ancient traditions of the world where movement through some form is used as medicine for the mind, body and soul.
Within in meditation we have the beauty of seeing the constant movement within our minds that creates the constant fluctuations in our lives, within the movement of thoughts there is a seed of some underlying form that can either create happiness and health or instability and disturbance.
Yoga, Meditation and Dance are a few wonderful ways to explore movement, of the mind, the body and our energy, within each there is a way of learning to reconnect, realign and heal emotional, physical and mental issues for a more happy balanced life.
![DarshnaSiva Photo[1]](http://gratitudeonline.com.au.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/30124045/DarshnaSiva-Photo1.jpg)
Darshna Siva is a Yoga & Meditation teacher, energy healer and shamanic medicine practitioner, based in Sydney.
Working with her clients on a very intuitive level she reads bodies and energies to allow for deeper healing and lasting health. Her passion is empowering clients to realize the wisdom that lies within them through the tools and teachings she studies and been given.
You can connect with Darshna at www.darshnasiva.com or www.facebook.com/darshnasiva, Darshna also writes regular blogs, and if you wish to ask a question or book a consult please contact Darshna on dasiva@gmail.com