Monday, August 29, 2016

Chakra 1 - Root Chakra




Root Chakra | 1st Chakra | Muladhara


As the image above says, Chakra 1 or your Root Chakra is all about being grounded. This chakra is located at the base of the spine or the perineum. The colour for chakra 1 is red.

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My favourite ways to connect with my root chakra and stay grounded are:

* to get out in nature, even better if it can be barefoot and really feel my feet connect with the ground

* surround myself with red and start to notice it everywhere I go

* pop on some music and dance barefoot and just let my body do what it wants to do

* meditate outdoors

* eat or juice root vegetables - especially beetroot!

* really connect with my lower body, my hips, legs, feet. Try to think about them and feel them as I do day to day activities. This is great for mindfulness.

* I love to wear an organic essential perfume oil that resonates with each chakra. I personally use Lemon Canary's chakra range of perfume oils. They're exquisite and come with matching stones which I like to meditate with. They also have a chakra candle range and a chakra mist range. All organic. Jasmin infuses them all with Reiki too. For chakra one think notes of sweet orange, clove, fennel, cinnamon, cardamom, and pepper. 


This is my absolute favourite of each of the chakra oils. The picture above is only the sample size, which I started out with when I started my level 1 journey with School of the Modern Mystic. I've since bought the full size of each as they're so amazing at helping me connect to each of my chakras, open, and balance them. 


Painting my nails the colour of each chakra I'm working on is fun and helps to constantly remind me get out of my head and just connect with that chakric point. 

I love the idea of choosing yoga poses to support each chakra. Warrior I is great for the root chakra. You can read more about different yoga poses for each chakra here


For a much more in depth course on your chakras and learning how to cleanse and balance them along with becoming more intuitive, soul aligned and mindful, and also learning to work with the white light, I highly recommend Belinda Davidson's School of the Modern Mystic. Enrolment is opening up very soon and there is only one intake per year for this course. You can read more about how it has radically changed my life here.

I'll leave you with this video of Belinda talking about the importance of chakra cleansing and how you can change your mood completely in 3 minutes.


Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Chakra Cleansing & Why I've Made it a Daily Habit



I truly believe in filling your own cup so that it can overflow toward everyone else in your life. For me, I know that a happy Mama means a happy toddler and a happy hubby. So I ensure I take part in little self-care rituals each day. Little things that allow me to fill my cup. Some days that can be difficult because my little guy is like my shadow. As someone who enjoyed her me-time pre-baby, suddenly having someone attached to me 24/7 has been the hardest thing for me to deal with as a mum. 


Self-care rituals can be things like:

* using a gorgeous body scrub in your morning shower

* a dash of peppermint organic essential oil in the corner of your shower to pep you up

* a face mask

* using a really lovely hydrating body cream / oil all over your body after your shower

* an epsom salt bath with a few candles after the kids are asleep

* stretching or moving your body a little each day even if that's a few yoga poses with the kids jumping all over you ;-)

* meditation

* choosing a beautiful organic essential oil aromatic blend to wear as perfume each day

Then obviously if you have time away from the kids or are kid-free it can be things like just sitting in the moment and truly enjoying a hot cup of coffee / tea, going for a massage or a mani/pedi, reconnecting with nature and being truly present... you get the drift.


For me, one thing I do almost every single day when my little one is sleeping is a chakra cleanse meditation. If I miss it, I tend to feel tired and sometimes grumpy. By working on my energy every day I am radically changing my life. 

I had read plenty of books about meditation and dabbled in it here and there, read a bit about chakras, and had read Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now" but came to realise that you can read all the spiritual books in the world but you are simply not walking a spiritual life unless you are physically practising. So, last year, feeling a little lost as my baby was nearing his 1st birthday, and not really knowing where my life was headed anymore and just feeling a deep need to align with my soul purpose, if not for me, then most definitely for my amazing little boy, I joined Belinda Davidson's School of the Modern Mystic. It was here that I learned more about our energy field and each chakra in depth, what they love and how to cleanse them, and got myself to the point of practising a daily chakra cleanse meditation. I learned from Belinda and then physically learned myself that by changing your energy, you can truly change your life. Everything that is happening in your life is a result of what's going on within. I also learnt to work with the White Light and have a better understanding and daily practice in mindfulness. 

So for me, I relish the chance to do my daily chakra cleanse meditation. Even if that means I've had to face shadows at points along the way, I know that my life is shifting in a huge way. I am shifting in a huge way. 

If I were to look back a year ago, I really wasn't taking any time for myself at all. I was suffering lower back and hip problems which I have now dealt with, suffering anxiety which I've now dealt with, I was considering going back to a soul-sucking job after maternity leave, which I realised was something I absolutely couldn't do any longer and instead started my own business, I let go (with love) of the people in my life that weren't in alignment with me. But the most important things I've learned since starting my School of the Modern Mystic journey were:

1. To follow my intuition

I can't tell you how much more intuitive I have become. I'm learning to trust it more and more every day. It's so important to me as a Mother to be intuitively aware of my own child and his needs as well and shut out the outside noise of society's expectations. I'm making better, more soul-aligned decisions for myself and him now.

2. The Empowerment of Self-Healing

Knowing that through chakra cleansing, working with the white light and practising mindfulness I am healing my energy myself and changing my life myself! I'm no longer searching outside of myself constantly for answers.  That is so, so empowering!

Click Belinda's photo below to listen to her speak about how to keep your vibe raised when you live in a big city. This is wonderful for empaths. 

credit: Belinda Davidson

I thought over the next few posts I could share a little more about the chakras for those that might want to know more.

School of the Modern Mystic opens up for the next intake very soon. Click here to find out more and also to receive Belinda's well-known FREE white light healing sessions and chakra course. 

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Manuel Montt - organic threads for your wild ones



Since having our little guy we have been conscious of lowering our chemicals around the home. He suffered mild eczema as a bub which he hasn't had for quite some time now thankfully. However, at the time it prompted us to think more about the clothing we put on him. He already had a mostly organic diet, and had been exclusively breastfed (still is actually - can't get him off the boob!), and we only used all-natural skincare. So with a love of fashion and hubby's love of all things creative including screen printing, Manuel Montt was born. 


Everything is 100% organic cotton, made in Australia, and completely sweatshop free. All hand screen printed with love by us! Sizes range from newborn to 3 years. We've kept everything fairly monochrome and unisex so they can be shared between siblings, maximising the wear out of each item. 



Above is our signature range. All tees available in both black and white. 




Now for the water babes, as it's warming up, we'll be grabbing our beach-inspired prints and heading out to chase the blue...




The Byron tee above is my favourite for mini poets. 




For little La Bamba fans.




Manuel Montt is the name of the street in Santiago, Chile, where my hubby's Grandparents lived. He has the fondest childhood memories of visiting there and whenever all the family get together and share stories it's always "remember in Manuel Montt...." So naturally it was the first name he thought of for our label.

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You can shop the Manuel Montt range here.

Follow our journey on Instagram / Facebook / Pinterest




Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Wall Art Wednesday


Just getting into the Olympic spirit. "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie..."


Pulling his favourite face ;-)

Check out my other recent #wallartwednesday posts here, here, and here

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Have Baby Will Travel : Sunshine Coast, QLD

We've actually had two Sunny Coast holidays in the past year. The first was when Master C was 11 months old. He's a highly sensitive bub so I was nervous about the plane trip but figured it was just over an hour and we could get through it. We had everything ready, blankets, toys, an iPad with games and nursery rhymes, our trusty ergo carrier, you name it. Turns out he fell asleep shortly after take off both ways and only woke to cry a little on descent so I popped him on the boob and that helped. Then he was asleep upon landing again. Success!


We stayed at Novotel Twin Waters Resort in a modern, comfy 2 bedroom suite overlooking the lagoon. We were there in August so it was fairly quiet and meant we could go for a peaceful stroll around the lagoon each afternoon and get bub off to sleep in the ergobaby carrier. We spotted quite a few wallabies just hanging around the resort right outside guest's rooms. We were right next to Mudjimba Beach which made for a blissful afternoon walk as well. 




The resort had an amazing aqua fun park in the lagoon filled with inflatable slides and lots of other exciting stuff. It looked so fun and although the weather was gorgeous on the Sunny Coast in August, the water wasn't quite warm enough for me haha! I bet in spring/summer the place is packed!

Here were our top picks on the Sunny Coast this holiday....

Eat


Filled with delicious gluten free baked delights, we were in heaven. Well, we would've been if we got there earlier. We missed out on many of the treats we really wanted to try but the coffee was delicious and so were the cupcakes they had left.





We had to try Betty's Burgers in Noosa after hearing so much about it. I had the Betty's Classic on a gluten free bun with fries. Great food, fun vibe, lovely staff, and right across the road from the beach. Needless to say we were very satisfied. Hubby delighted in one of their signature concretes for dessert (frozen custard with all sorts of wonderful toppings). I popped next door for some coco whip




Montville is such a gorgeous place to visit. When we arrived our little guy was fast asleep in the car so my parents kindly sat with him so hubby and I could have a little coffee date. We popped in to Mayfield Patisserie & Chocolates for coffee and cake (thankfully for me, there were some delightful gluten free options) and took in the spectacular view of the Glasshouse Mountains. There was hardly a soul around on this particular afternoon. It was unbelievably peaceful and oh that view....



Shop


Nothing beats Hastings Street in Noosa. You'll find just about every gorgeous little boutique you could ever want along this strip. We found a few gorgeous things at Eumundi Markets too. More on the markets below.



See


Besides sunning ourselves on all the gorgeous beaches the Sunny Coast has to offer (ok, well obviously not all of them), we shopped and ate in Noosa, cooked up a big BBQ brekkie on our balcony, went for lots of beach walks and strolls around the lagoon, had afternoon drinks by the pool at our resort, and caught up with friends in their new home. Here were a couple of other fun family-friendly things we did & loved on this trip....





I love a little trip to Eumundi Markets when on the Sunshine Coast. It's a gorgeous artisan market with some seriously good food stalls. We were in foodie heaven! The atmosphere was buzzing and bubs loved the music, bopping along in his pram. There were some beautiful baby & kids stalls too. We picked him up some summer shorts and as you can see in the pic above, a hand made teething ring. We also went home with a homemade quiche for our dinner from Topliss Tarts



Montville is the quaintest of towns. The main strip is a village of art galleries, cafes, chocolate shops, gift shops, homeware and fashion stores, set on a hill with the most charming European style architecture. On one side, you can see the breathtaking Glasshouse Mountains. 

I'll leave you with my two favourite pics of the trip.



Next up, our second trip to the Sunshine Coast. This one was only a couple of months ago. 


In a few weeks we'll be in Byron Bay so feel free to share any tips or must-see/do/eat places for us.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Wall Art Wednesday


Picnics over summer at Hazlehurst Art Gallery had us admiring this Mulga mural.
#wallartwednesday


I'll be back very shortly with my first of two Sunny Coast holiday posts to share....