Wandering Into Wellness

Denis Healy - Earth Day Every Day

Nobody can tell Denis Healy he doesn't do enough for our planet. From planting literally thousands of trees and flowers every season around his organic farm in west Wicklow to preserving and introducing new wetlands and watercourses, Denis' farm is a flourishing empire in celebration of the bounty of nature.

 

To many of those out there in our capitalist society, Denis may just seem plain crazy, recklessly planting and ploughing what profits come from a small market garden business back into the land.

 

His instincts are so strong for his craft of growing and tending plants, both edible and not, that his actions are like a man possessed, possessed by the spirit of abundant nature, and committed tooth and nail to leaving this earth, at least the part of it he can influence, in a better state than when he started on it.

 

He's a beautiful man, and his affection for his family and his burning passion for life in all forms is infectious. We want a bit of what he's having....

Rachael Fionda - A Journal Of Birth And Loss

***This podcast contains conversations around infant loss. Please be careful of who's listening***

Let us tell you a story about bravery. A story of grief. Of loss. And one of true courage. This is also a story of finding joy in what can seem like dark and heavy times A story of a life that although cut short in the cruelest of ways, still inhabits the world and plays a role the family they were just getting ready to join.

Rachael Fionda is truly a brave mother. Having suffered the loss of her baby boy, Wolfhart, just months earlier, she felt compelled to share her story with us on Wandering Into Wellness - which we recognise as a very special gift. Her story is powerful, and traumatic, but also uplifting, and we hope, empowering for the many mothers who may have walked a similar path.

But for all of us, opening ourselves up to the worlds of grief, death, and loss is useful to develop our language around these topics and to come closer to understanding the emotions involved. To be able to connect with greater vulnerability in a moment that we will face many times throughout the journey of our lives.

Our deepest thanks go to Rachael for talking to us about her experience. Rachael has since welcomed another baby to the world. Her little girl, Cordelia was born on the 23rd of March, and we are thrilled for her and her family.

Rachael mentions the charity below who provide memory boxes to parents going through baby loss. https://feileacain.ie/remembering/feileacain-memory-box

 

Another resource for parents who resonate with Rachael's story is the Other Side of The Door Journal - a journal which aims to support women & men who have experienced miscarriage and baby loss. Find out more about it here https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-other-side-of-the-door-journal

 

 

 

Sarah Tobin - Helping Mamas Tap Through Trauma

No time in life requires more support than early motherhood - for child and parent alike, the journey starts out with huge pressures on both nervous systems as life throws more and more on a pair that just need to take rest and seek connection.

Through her own trauma, losing a child soon after birth, Sara came to EFT and with the help of this powerful tool she processed and released the grief and cured herself from the PTSD that engulfed her. She went on to train professionally and now educates mums and others online to free themselves from their own trauma.

Her new journal, "The Other Side Of The Door", is an effort to put a powerful tool into the hands of parents who suffer the loss of an infant, to help them navigate and come to terms with the devastating loss of a child. The Other Side Of The Door Journal is set for release within a few weeks, so we felt now was a good time to release this powerful conversation.

Ali Murphy - Your One Minute Midwife

Did you know: At the 1 minute mark post partum, midwives make a judgement of a newborn's state of health with a scoring mechanism known as the APGAR test? Well. This is not that test. We scrambled around looking for a birthing expert to consult on our podcast.

But silly us - one was there staring us in the face - Lydia's own midwife Ali Murphy came on our podcast to talk all things birth in the way birthing is today, what's good about it, and what needs to change early last year.

This time she's back - with a set of rapid fire quiz questions sent in from you listeners and viewers - the burning questions you have about birth - from recommendations for VBAC preparation, to iron deficiency during pregnancy.

Whether you're a new or expecting mum, an experienced momma, or just a curious head like Finn, you'll learn lots from this birthing quick fire quiz.

Your Essential Oils Toolkit for Children's Health - Eliane Zimmerman

Essential oils are harmless.  FALSE. Essential oils are powerful plant extracts.  TRUTH

 

In this brief but comprehensive walkthrough, Eliane, our resident aromatherapy expert, takes you through what oils are safe for use with kids, and how to use them.

 

From soothing our stressed out young folk, to preventing winter ailments, you'll want to have a pen at the ready as Eliane brings you through the critical recipes to build into your routine, and the list of essential oils to use safely when dealing with children.

 

Unearthing Birth ft. Ed Stafford

Our new slot pitches our guests to consider and confront some unusual aspects of their or their partner's birth process.

First up - Ed Stafford - Adventurer, survival expert and all round wilderness guy.

Catch our full length deep dive with Ed Stafford on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts🚀💯

@yogawithlydia @thehopsack @edstafford

Ed Stafford - No Man Is An Island

You can imagine Ed might have been talking about himself at one time when he says, "I find tough guys quite comical". From a conventional rugby playing, beer drinking, macho-man-adventurer kind of background, Ed Stafford has come a long way.

Through his treks up the Amazon and most crucially his solitary time whilst making the TV show "Naked & Marooned", he got to spend a lot of time disassembling and reconstructing his identity.

A year or so after filming, Ed suffered a complete mental breakdown, something he discusses quite candidly in his writing. We chatted through the struggles of isolation with Ed, and his tools to bring mental fortitude even in the toughest of times. He makes it seem so simple. So, um, perhaps it is...?

Thanks to Nuzest Nutrition (Ed is an Ambassador for the lovely nutrition brand, as are we) for hooking us up for this delicious chat. Grab a cuppa and cosy up for this one, and thank Ed who's gone there so you don't have to....even though you probably should!

Laura Kehoe - How To Solve "This System of Bullshittery" , Tackling The Climate Crisis

Laura Kehoe believes in innate human soundness. But she also see the systems we've created that allow psychopaths to reign, and that reward behaviours of domination and control.

 

In this revealing conversation you'll start to see how simple the switch is. How much we have to have faith in human kindness. But how having that faith isn't enough now. That it's decisive action that needs to be taken. And yes that means personal change. But now more than ever it means shouting from the rooftops to our political representatives. That THEY need to enact change. That it must be RADICAL. And that we will support them throughout.

 

Go and find more out about Laura and follow her @laurajkehoe on Twitter and get chatting to her - also log onto 400trees.org - where you can be a REAL changemaker - Laura set this program up when she realised that if each person alive today planted 400 trees, the world would be back to where it was before "we invented the axe". Time to get active people.

Eliane Zimmerman - Essential Oils During COVID

Eliane is the ACTUAL aromatherapy expert we've been waiting for.  Practicing for over 30 years now - she was talking essential oils before the berlin wall came down.  So when you hear her recommendations - this is not a half assed influencer with a 2 day weekend course in the topic.  This lady has written more than 10 books on essential oils and their various applications - from immunity to female hormonal health.   She now devotes her time to teaching the teachers - lecturing in the chemistry of aromas. We wanted to bend her ear on the very hip and happening topic of immune system wellbeing - how to assist it, how to top it up, and what to do when the world and this lockdown winter gives you the full ocean of the blues.

Maya Duncan - Dispelling Your Fear Of Food

Maya Duncan is an old soul in a new way. By the tender age of 19, she has already been down a long path with health. Having come through some serious struggles with eating disorders in her early teens, through a supportive family environment and many hours spent in self analysis during therapy she has developed a toolkit and a mature attitude to her food habits that hasn't involved leaving her love of food behind.

 

Growing up in Hong Kong, and with a food writer for a mum, her early life saw her in a good relationship to food, but when uprooted to come to live back in Ireland, Maya suffered the all too common schoolyard bullying that was intensified due to her 'alien' origin and her strict routine as a dancer, and this allowed her diet to spiral and take an unhealthy turn. We discuss the environment for teenagers now and the landscape of challenges that they face, along with Maya's fiercely determined path to recovery. Her story is truly uplifting and her words will hopefully provide some support to those going through their own struggles to stay in right relationship with food.