Surviving the mountains

The mountains can be challenging in many ways. Snow, ice, cold, skis and hard plastic boots but it seems that for me the social antics are much more painful than a tight boot. It's the cheese, wine, steak and my biggest weakness chocolate, that seem to be what people talk of most of their return from the slopes. General over indulgence, but it seems in the alps it would be criminal to deny one's self of such a feast.

Knowing these pitfalls I travel armed with an array of powders and potions to aid me through a week of hardcore skiing and epic indulgence.

Barley Grass- A powerful anti oxidant, helping keep my body alkaline despite the cheese and wine doing it's worst

Milk Thistle complex Tincture- To remind my Liver that I do care

Magnesium Ultra Muscle Ease- To help my muscles relax and restore after a long day climbing and skiing. Oh and magnesium is great for bowel movement too!

Digestive enzymes- to give my gut help when meeting things it didn't even know existed! Biocare do a good all round one and a small pot for gluten allergy suffers too

Probiotics- Udo's high potency- An army of friendly bacteria to boost my immune system and help keep damage to a minimum.

I have been trying hard to think which ones are essential and which I could leave behind but I am not sure I can choose. If I didn't love my food so much and was like a normal girl who ate 2 eggs for breakfast instead of one and wasn't tempted by the bread basket then I think Barley grass does the best all round job to keep you strong and the Probiotics serve as a life long friend not just in an emergency.

Ski hard, play hard. It really is the best holiday!

The boys asses our imminent climb....................

Please let me know if you want any more information on the potions above or if you have a miracle worker of your own you'd like to share. x

The Breath and beyond................

I want to write about something so simple we never even think about it. Something so natural we forget to use it, so easy we almost find it hard, but something so powerful it can transform any situation. 

The Breath............

It's not something we have ever been taught to do and hence tend to just do it however we started doing when we landed on this earth. More often than not our breathing is restricted by lifestyle and emotions such as fear and worry. We don't give ourselves room the breath; we don't honour that innate life force by taking time to enjoy open spaces and just breathing deeply.

Even though I have spent 10 days in silence, meditating on the sensations of the breath on my nostrils, that the last thing I do before I launch myself off the back of a mountain into knee deep powder is take a huge breath and when I am teaching my nieces to jump on their ponies and not be scared I remind them to breath, I know that I myself have not tapped into this magical source enough in the past. 

However life events have lead me to seek guidance and losing my father suddenly this January left me incurably empty, insecure and in desperate need of an opiate. Once the primary rush of organisation and duties were gone and jarring of the shock and trauma began to soften I found myself waking at 5.30am every morning in a blind panic. It felt as if I was being sucked into a huge vacuum with nothing to cling onto, I had lost my tummy on a nasty fairground ride and didn't know how to make it end or I had accidently stepped off the edge of the world into nothing but sadness.  

                                                                                              

As I lay there in bed I couldn't even move and just found myself breathing. I pulled so deeply on the breath, sucking it into every cell in my body as if I wanted to get high from it. Long purposeful breaths initially of desperation and anguish eventually turned to inhalations of strength, understanding and supportiveness. I don't know how the breath does this, but I do know that it works; it is our life force, our inspiration. Something so fundamental we have failed to see its power. 

There are always moments in the day when a few deep breaths could save our ass. From responding nicely to someone who has annoyed you or just making you feel more confident and alive in a moment of self doubt. 

So when our mothers said "Just breath" they were right.

I spend my life teaching people to breath, for an hour I tell my yoga students when to take every inhale and exhale. We move on every breath, creating a movement meditation. It can be as simple as opening your arms wide as you inhale and bringing them to prayer at your heart as you exhale. Even this basic invocation can be extremely powerful. It is an honour for me to guide my students to a more connected place. A place of clarity and calm but more importantly of centeredness and true authenticity. 

It has become wildly obvious to me over the recent years that the breath is a key and our best kept secret. A tool to relieving our suffering and anxiety as well as experiencing the fullness of bliss.