Thoughts on the world, homeopathy, mindfulness and food...
A collection of blog posts - feel free to respond with your thoughts and comments - I love to have feedback - thank you!
I like the idea that we can be responsible for our own health. Even if only a little bit. We can make choices – organic or standard, veggie or meat, to enquire further or to accept what we’re told. One of the issues with the conventional medical model is that some of that can appear to have been taken away from us. We’re part of a procession to be prodded, poked, cut and healed in someone else’s way. I’m not saying this is wrong, or to go against convention, but to take some power back too along the way. There are choices we can make that can enhance our health. We can support ourselves with listening therapies, taking time out for a massage to complement our wellbeing, or even make simple food choices. I’m here today to talk a bit about food. It’s something we’re all deeply involved in – and can be used to help our bodies help themselves. We can set up a situation where we’re able to assist in providing healthy conditions for healing to happen. I don’t believe that nutrition heals, chemotherapy heals or homeopathy heals. Our bodies heal themselves – and what we can do is help to provide the basis for them to do this from. I decided to switch my diet earlier this year to a whole food, plant based, nearly 100% raw food diet – really as a bit of an experiment, but also with the knowing that if I had been given a serious diagnosis of illness this is the way that I would eat. I’m not going to suggest that everyone goes 100% raw – although it can be a great way to eat. However there is increasing and strong evidence around animal based foods causing detriment to our health. My personal belief is that no one should be consuming milk (known to contain an incredibly potent cancer promoter), eggs (coming in about second behind milk), meat or fish if they’d like to improve their health in one quick and easy step. Studies around animal based proteins have shown that consuming more than 10% of your diet from animal based proteins, the risks of cancer greatly increases. Reverting back to less than this, or ideally cutting it out altogether, has often helped with reducing tumours. Eating at less than 10% for research animals, usually showed no development of cancer growths, even with exposure to known carcinogens. The adoption of a whole food, plant based diet has been shown in many instances to improve health, reduce risks or relapse and has knock on health benefits – such as reducing risks of heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes and certain autoimmune illnesses. Whole food, plant based? It means no processed (or minimally processed) foods, and from plants. It might sound initially as if it will be restrictive, but realisitically you’re talking about enhancing the one thing that you really need. So even if there is a small sacrifice – and I know just how addictive cheese can be! – it’s potentially a big gain. And ultimately as you discover more you find out just how much choice there really is. My parents have adopted this way of eating and eat more varied meals with more choice than they ever have. Granted, eating out is slightly harder but learning to ask for what you want really helps along the journey. It doesn’t have to be all raw. It doesn’t have to be raw at all – although I would suggest that you did incorporate more raw foods into your diet. To make gradual changes – depending on your state of health – and cut things out at a manageable rate. Mum, for example got rid of milk one month, cheese the next, overt butter the following one and covert milk products after that. Whilst you’re removing things, remember to add them in. The UK suggests we all eat our 5 a day. I like the Japanese suggestion better – the 17 a day campaign. Japan suggests people eat 13 portions of vegetables and 4 of fruit a day. I probably average around 17-20. So add in an extra fruit snack, more steamed vegetables with your dinner, a big salad at lunch and see how easy it can be to get towards 17 instead of our measly recommended 5 portions. There’s some brilliant resources out there – it’s great to discover more around the why – I always think anyway. So if you’re a reader then The China Study is a brilliant place to start. If you cook then The China Study Cookbook is fantastic. Forks over Knives (the film, cookbook and book) is worth a mention, as are the books by the Gerson’s around cancer and their work with nutrition. The web is a fabulous resource to have at our finger tips – and I also give recipes, thoughts, tips and more on my blog and within the website under the nutrition tab. I also have a newsletter which you can sign up to and share information on my facebook business page as well as on twitter. Feel free to get in touch to find out more. I love my work with Homeopathy, Food Intolerance testing and supporting clients to eat a more Whole Food, Plant Based diet and do offer free 15 minute consultations to discover a little more.
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I had a brilliant consultation with a client the other day where we talked about making food changes to support her health and the reasons behind it. I've been thinking this for a long time but it was her that put into words how important it was for her to do it from a place of love. Important may not even be the right word, essential doesn't quite fit either as I guess you can make changes from whatever place you wish to. Changes from a place of fear feels very different from that loving place though. I think everything is longer lasting, deeper, more real when performed from a place of love. Changes are more congruent, easier to maintain and happier to take part in. That doesn't always mean it's easier, but more real works well for me. Getting back to who I really am, who I always was, not who I'd got a little bit lost being. Taking the time to discover that place of love may, well, take time. But I would wager, time well spent. Probably the most worthwhile time to spend right now. Because what will give us joy and excitement is living our purpose, wholeheartedly and with love. I think on it's deepest level, homeopathy has the power to enable that process, to assist with living in the now, being as whole as possible on every level. Mindfulness too - looking within with assistance to guide and enable the most amazing discovery process. And sometimes too we can do it ourselves, we can learn to listen to the whispers, the bubbling joy (I remember in some of my darkest times feeling that I was overflowing with joy - just moments, but still valuable pointers that I was on the right path despite of the distance I had to walk to get through), and also to the disquieting feelings. Listen and be aware. To be true to what is, here and now, right in front of you and to let go of the 'what if's, 'what might have been's that can only ever stop you from really experiencing the beauty of this moment. For all we have is right now. I invite you to, with love, gently let go of that which doesn't serve you and embrace that which fills you with love, passion and excitement for the pure joy of life. With unbounded love, Em x It's coming up to almost two years since our beautiful family horse decided it was time to move on. Tonight on twitter I saw a tweet from the vet who I consider as starting my whole homeopathic journey so it got me thinking. Kara our Czech Warmblood mare had developed uveitis, which it transpired was recurrent for her. Conventional treatment was steroid injections into her eyelid, which I'm sure you'd guess, wasn't possible without an initial sedative. Every 6 weeks. And, as a precaution, she used to head into the field with her 'half pirate' mask on, a modification of a racing mask that meant her eye was able to be shielded from bright sunlight (or there was the total blockout mask that meant she could still go out and graze whilst having the attacks). Not a huge barrel of laughs. With pretty limited conventional options mum took it upon herself (she's a fabulous researcher), to investigate. And chanced upon Chris Day, a veterinary homeopath who works in the south of the UK. Following this lead further took us to a more local practice, a week of homeopathic remedies given to Kara. Not knowing what to expect we waited. And waited. And when she died 15 years later I guess we were still waiting for anything to happen. Cured? Remission? Healed? Do they all mean the same thing? I don't know the answer to that. But I do know she never had to have steroids into her eyelid again, we relegated the pirate masks to the tack trunk and she enjoyed life to the full. We used homeopathy on and off for the rest of her life, although towards the end after developing Cushing's disease and having ended up (not totally sure quite how but she did) on conventional medication which nearly was the end of her, we were pleased to restart remedies on a more regular basis which again served her well. I love that our horse started my homeopathic journey. I love that my first ever experience of homeopathy blows the placebo effect out of the water. And I love that I am able to say thank you for the first seed of homeopathic awareness that was sown for me (I've thanked him tonight). Homeopathy in the UK. It's been a funny old time recently, and yet I feel increasingly positive the tide is turning. We needed a wake up call, we needed to work together as an organisation and we needed to grow together as a profession. Which has been one of the gifts that the skeptic movement has given us. Many of us practice homeopathy slightly differently to each other, indeed just as many General Practitioners practice slightly differently to each other. We are working towards the same goal (both homeopaths and GPs too I guess albeit from even more different angles) - that of an increased level of health. For the Homeopaths amongst us that may include a lower dependence on medication, a greater feeling of wellness, as well as a concrete reduction in symptoms for the patient. Sometimes it's an education about living well as well as the remedy prescribed. It's an individual thing - and I believe it has to be. Afterall, my needs are very different from yours. It's the memory of the same goal, the same healing potential that we're aware of with this very incredible medicine that for me means it's essential to work as a coherent whole. We work with holistic medicine, so surely being holistic in our approach to each other is the way forwards? It is for me anyway - and to be honest in all areas. I want to see integrated healthcare where the medics and complementary practitioners work to each others' strengths. I feel we have much to give. Working with food choices, homeopathy and other complementary medicines can make significant changes and improvements in health. Working together, both parties can provide better care for the individual. However I digress. Tangents I am good at. Working together as a profession, as professional homeopaths is what 4 Homeopathy have created. A partnership between the leading registering bodies for homeopathic practitioners, patients groups, charities and other stakeholder organisations. And this is what I'm calling homeopathy lovers, facebook users and tweeters for. There is lots to do, much to be involved in and with and much we on the ground can help with. Have you benefitted from Homeopathic treatment? The Find a Homeopath website is collecting testimonials from patients who've found homeopathy and helped their complaints using it. It would be brilliant if you could take 2 minutes to share your story. Do you tweet? Follow @HomeopathyWFM - there's a fabulous, fresh new awareness campaign coming very soon. Facebook more your thing? Homeopathy Worked for Me is where it's at on facebook. You can like the page and follow updates as they evolve. YouTube? I love to listen to videos whilst I'm cooking - whether it be homeopathy, food or... well usually it's homeopathy or food. FindaHomeopath on YouTube enables you to listen to brilliant, world famous homeopaths in the comfort of your home. So check out the links, follow for brilliant information, and watch out for the really, really exciting awareness campaign that's coming very soon! With gratitude and love, Em x I was at a marketing workshop today (where I did discover some useful hints, as well as that I'm not doing a terrible job of the marketing side of my business which was reassuring), and got chatting to the trainer guy. His wife is involved with nutrition and reflexology. Apparently she thought about studying homeopathy but decided to help people not get ill in the first place. Which is a fantastic goal and one that I would love to add to my list of lifelong goals. People do get ill before I've talked to them about food and before I'm able to make a difference here. So I think it's brilliant that homeopathy can assist in one's journey back to health. Food too. And there is study after study (I'm currently reading Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr and the evidence presented is nothing short of astounding) which details how switching to a whole food, plant based diet can have hugely positive implications on one's health. At a very measurable level. To go back to homeopathy and here I wish to call on Hahnemann, whilst he is not the earliest authority on food and eating this way by any means, as the founder of homeopathy and a great mind, it's interesting to hear what he says to avoid: 'Coffee; fine Chinese and other herb teas; beer prepared with medicinal vegetable substances unsuitable for the patient's state; so-called fine liquors made with medicinal spices; all kinds of punch; spiced chocolate; odorous waters and perfumes of many kinds; strong-scented flowers in the apartment; tooth powders and essences and perfumed sachets compounded of drugs; highly spiced dishes and sauces; spiced cakes and ices; crude medicinal vegetables for soups; dishes of herbs, roots and stalks of plants possessing medicinal qualities; asparagus with long green tips, hops, and all vegetables possessing medicinal properties (herbs - translation mine), celery, onions; old cheese, and meats that are in a state of decomposition, or that possess medicinal properties (as the flesh and fat of pork, ducks and geese, or veal that is too young and sour viands), ought just as certainly to be kept from patients as they should avoid all excesses in food, and in the use of sugar and salt, as also spirituous drinks, undiluted with water, ...' So to cut out tea, coffee, beer, liquor, chocolate, very spicy foods, herbs in cooking, strong flavours (I've cut out onions recently and feel better for it), many meats, sugar, salt as well as avoilding all excesses in foods would be his recommendation here, at the footnote of aphorism 260. It all makes sense to me. Making dietary changes may help to restore health that has been impaired, just as working with homeopathy may. In my humble opinion, working with them both together can enable us to gain and sustain greater levels of long term health. With love and healthful wishes, Em x The here and now is the best place to be here and now, for if I'm in the past or in the future, who can possibly make sense of the present moment? Many of us, most of us I would wager, can spend a lot of time in the past or the future. In terms of our overly analytical thinking brains anyway. The focus is not in the present. And yet, the past is gone, it doesn't need repeating, it may never get repeated exactly as it was, no matter how awful or how brilliant. The future isn't here and may never appear how we envisage. All we really have is right here, right now. That's not to say planning and looking forward isn't an option, of course we want to know where to go to on a car journey and it makes sense to have the forward focus for business, life and the rest. But not for it to be the sole focus. I believe the beauty of a well prescribed homeopathic remedy can give us the most amazing gift of enabling us to shift into the here and now with a greater element of ease. The melting of past anxieties, conditions, symptoms and the softening of future worries, projected traumas and more is a wonderful concept. And I see it in my cases, in seminar cases, in live observed cases in teaching clinics. It's a beautiful thing, to move with ease in the here and now. We can be truly, totally present in the moment and appreciate it like never before. I was thinking yesterday, as a result of seeing a tweet around migraines and homeopathy, how nice it is not to have them. In fact I can't really remember when I last had a headache.
From being at primary school, headaches and migraines were always 'my thing', and, whilst Beta Blockers dampened them down for a whilst over my A level exam period, really the only solutions were migraleve, paracetamol combined with neurofen, possibly a bit of vomitting and a dark room to sleep in. Not, really, the best of fun. My journey to banishing them with homeopathy did, to be honest, take some time - but not nearly as long as I'd suffered with them for, and to be free from them now is worth every day of it. Would I have got there with just conventional medicine? My inner wisdom says no, really anything I took for it then was merely to palliate the problem, not to resolve it longer term. My feeling is that conventional medicine can be great at that - the short term fix (as well, of course as many life saving interventions) but when it comes to deeper, gentler healing, there's not much that I know of as effective as the magic that is homeopathy. ... conference by the Society of Homeopaths this weekend. From cutting edge research to fundraising to remedies, philosophies of life and healing, a broad range of topics were covered and the energy of a large group of Homeopaths gathered together was simply fantastic. Great to see such amazing work going on and to have a taste of more to come.
And of course, thanks to the Homepathy Action Trust and Conference Aston for the brilliant 70s disco on the Saturday night. And in a random twist, our night ended with being serenaded by a barber shop quartet which was a magical end to a wonderful evening. It's my very special birthday tomorrow! And what I would really, really like is loads of wonderful, life giving presents. I've made it really easy and they're all available from my website (couldn't get more straightforward really could it?)...
Just here in fact and you can get me anything from the chance to help de-worm 5 children to running a Maasai school for a month. So very appreciative of your time reading this - thank you and have a beautiful day. Em xx PS If you'd like to get one of the gifts for someone else I'll absolutely promise not to be offended at all (and can even send you a card to pass onto them with details of how it helps). Back again, my juicing and smoothies workshop aimed at getting people started creating tasty smoothies and great juices with confidence is coming soon. On the 7th September 2-4 we'll meet and discover more about how, what, when and also why? It's always really important for me to know why I would choose to do something and eating this way has been no different. I want to do the research, make my mind up and then carry on doing more research. I guess that's just the way I am. I love to share what I've learnt along the journey and it's a practical, hands-on session where everyone gets to have a go at creating delicious drinks. Juicing and smoothies can be a great complement to homeopathy, or I suppose, visa versa. Both are working at enabling your body to heal itself and can work well together. It is my belief that great healing happens from the inside, and simplifying your diet to assist your body is a brilliant start on the path to increased health and vitality. £15pp including all fruit/veg to make and taste 4 great drinks, raw snacks and (time permitting) possibly we'll make an easy, tasty, delcious raw dessert. If you'd like to know more just get in touch. At the moment there's just 3 places left... |
AuthorI'm a Homeopath working in the Skipton (North Yorkshire) area. I am also able to offer food intolerance testing using Kinesiology and advice around diet and lifestyle. |
07734 861297
em@emmacolley.co.uk Em Colley Homeopath Practitioner of Classical Homeopathy BSc(Hons) Psychology and Neuroscience Laughter Yoga Leader Focussed Mindfulness Practitioner |