I have played with this recipe (originally from my friend Jules) to make it perfect for my tastes but do enjoy being creative yourself with it too:)
Read MoreOver the years I’ve been a fan of cutting down on refined carbohydrates, dairy & sugar and eating a more plant based, whole food diet. In these times it’s especially important to keep our immune system strong and one of the ways we can do this is by making healthy choices with the food we eat. This can be easier at home but often more difficult when we go out. I love finding new, interesting, tasty & healthy places to eat out and I wanted to share some of them with you :)
These are just some of my favourite places where I can go to get a ‘healthy’ option but some have ‘naughtier’ options too ;)
Read More‘Generally we waste our lives, distracted from our true selves, in endless activity. Meditation is the way to bring us back to ourselves, where we can really experience and taste our full being.’ Sogyal Rinpoche
‘The mind is its own place, and in it self can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.’ John Milton
Meditation
Meditation ultimately allows us to find peace within by observing our thoughts and becoming aware of the space between our thoughts.
Meditation is something we can all easily learn to do. From 5 minutes to half an hour a day, meditation has amazing benefits on our health and wellbeing. We often find time to keep our body fit but do little for the health of our mind which in turn keeps our body healthy.
There are many different types such as sitting quietly and focusing on your breath, chanting a mantra or dancing meditations. It can even be something we can do whilst going about our daily lives. Reiki, Hypnotherapy and Self Hypnosis are also forms of meditation.
Read MoreI was chatting to my daughter about gratitude the other day and then I remembered one of my favorite films ‘Pay it Forward’. The film is about a young boy who partakes in random acts of kindness to change the world for the better. We decided that we would focus on this and chat about what we’ve done each day.
Gratitude is an important part of our every day life and we express thanks to family, friends and colleagues in various ways. It encourages us to appreciate what we have in our life and to pay them forward. To sociologist Georg Simmel gratitude is the ‘moral memory of mankind’.
Benefits
Experiencing and expressing gratitude is an important part of our daily lives. It opens the heart and activates the positive emotion centres of the brain. Regular practice of gratitude can change the way our brain neurons fire into more positive and automatic patterns…..Gratitude is an emotion of connectedness and this reminds us we are part of a larger universe.
Dr Robert Emmons (researcher and writer on gratitude, University of California) has discovered how gratitude gives life meaning. However he says it is a ‘chosen attitude’ which needs to be cultivated which can take effort. He says ‘Without gratitude, life can be lonely, depressing and impoverished…Gratitude enriches human life. It elevates, energizes, inspires and transforms. People are moved, opened and humbled through expressions of gratitude.’ With eight years of research on this topic he has found gratitude:
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