Innehållsförteckning för Issue164 från WellBeing

One recent morning around 4.30am, one daughter woke up and came into our bed. A few hours later, on waking, the first thing she said to my wife was, “What’s your go-to song in your mind?” As a matter of public record she revealed that hers is One Call Away, a song with the lyrics, “No matter where you go/You know you’re not alone/I’m only one call away/I’ll be there to save the day/Superman got nothing on me/I’m only one call away.” On one level, I’m glad that is the soundtrack of my little girl’s life. I hope she always and ever knows that she is not alone. However, there’s a bigger question here: what is your go-to song? Do we, as was implicit in my daughter’s question, all have…

Hemidesmus indicus (Indian sarsaparilla) is a fast-growing perennial vine whose roots have similar properties (and uses) to those of the herbal sarsaparilla used in Western herbal tradition. In Ayurvedic medicine, it has been revered for thousands of years for its healing properties and aromatic qualities. It has also been popular as a magical-spiritual dream herb. Its Sanskrit name means “endless root”. TRADITIONAL PREPARATIONS Traditional preparation of hemidesmus calls for the roots of the plant to be dried and ground into a fine powder, which is then either mixed with other medicinal herbs to make salves and balms or steeped in warm water and then ingested as a tea. Hemidesmus root is used as an infusion but not as a decoction, as boiling dissipates its active volatile principle. Around 56g of…

What was your initial vision for Smitten Merino and has that changed over time? When we first began Smitten in 2007, our vision was to establish a business that creates beautiful garments from renewable and sustainable resources. We wanted to offer quality Tasmanian superfine Merino products while also benefiting Tasmanian farming and manufacturing. Our philosophy was to be ethically based, locally made and to create jobs and a future for the next generation of Tasmanians. We foresaw an opportunity to use world-class Merino wool from happily grazing sheep in the midlands and we wanted our brand to be known all over the world. Over the years, we’ve witnessed the social conscience people have when it comes to shopping, wanting to buy locally made products, so that remains a critical part…

Approximately 2000 years ago, the great yoga sage Patanjali set out eight limbs of yoga in his classical text The Yoga Sutras. While all eight limbs are key to truly practising yoga as a whole, principles one and two, the yamas and niyamas, offer specific guidelines for living a fulfilling and meaningful yogic life. Yoga is such a personal practice and a yogic life is about living in a way that respects your true nature and helps you find union with all the sheaths of your being. The yamas and niyamas act as the stepping stones that work to cultivate self-awareness so you can find this balance and harmony within you. Having said this, Patanjali’s lengthy verses aren’t always the easiest to digest and some elements can feel slightly out…

Despite having been around for less than a century, refrigeration and airconditioning are now widely seen as essential in a modern home. What tends to be overlooked, though, is the environmental ramifications of this technology. Refrigerants are generally absent from the media and product brochures and are very rarely mentioned by environment groups that are more focused on more tangible issues, such as land clearing and coal seam gas mining. However, the stakes are high. In 2012, the refrigeration and airconditioning sectors consumed an estimated 22 per cent of Australia’s electricity production, while other greenhouse emissions come down to the powerful global warming potential (GWP) of some refrigerants where released, measured against carbon dioxide with its GWP of 1. A further related issue is ozone depletion. THE MONTREAL PROTOCOL &…

Prema Shanti Yoga and Meditation Retreat Australia offers boutique rooms, a yoga temple, a meditation room, library, bikes for hire, a network of rainforest tracks and a long stretch of safe freshwater swimming holes, plus of course a seven-day-a-week program of yoga and meditation classes and vegetarian dinners. premashanti.com.au Mount Sorrow Walk. Captain Cook didn’t have such a lush time of it up in FNQ. Cape Tribulation was so named when his ship Endeavour ran aground on a reef in 1770; nearby Mount Sorrow was similarly named in a fit of despondency. The walk to the top however is stunning and relatively quiet. The 7km trail climbs from the coastal lowlands of Cape Tribulation up the rainforest-clad ridge to a lookout offering views of the coastline, Snapper Island and beyond.…

HEALTHY ESSENTIALS ORGANIC IMMUNE Healthy Essentials Organic Immune is a superfood drink powder made from high-quality ingredients from around the world that contain powerful immuneboosting properties. Health Essentials has even sourced Kakadu plum from Western Australia, used by the Nyul Nyul people for its rich vitamin C and antioxidant properties. Available in healthfood stores nationally. W: healthyessentials.com.au RETREAT TO BYRON BAY Banish the winter blues — book a retreat to Byron Yoga Retreat Centre! The tranquil eco haven has affordable eight-day and five-day mid-week and weekend retreats. Plus, launching in September is a series of special interest weekends: Cooking, Yin Yoga and Surf & Yoga retreats. W: byronyoga.com.au EAT WELL : BE WELL An essential guide to plant-based wholefoods, The Gawler Foundation’s Eat Well : Be Well cookbook shows you…

Sleep is a basic but essential part of your beauty routine and the great news is that it’s completely natural — and free. A good, deep sleep boosts your immune system, improves cognition and short-term memory, enhances moods, balances hormones and gives your skin a radiance that no cosmetics can replicate. After a good sleep, you wake feeling energised and ready to cope physically and emotionally with whatever the day brings. Great sleep also supports your skin and digestive health. Conversely, poor sleep can make you feel depressed, forgetful and lethargic. It impairs your ability to regulate glucose and increases the stress cortisol that triggers a rise in insulin and inflammation in the body and contributes to premature ageing. In the long term, insufficient sleep can raise your risk of…

I have fallen in love with a garden. Again. This time it is with the windows of a cafe that have green curtains. Genuine green, not fabric — solid rails across the window that support four lines of hanging pots, just enough to let in needed sunlight but block the interior from the outsider’s gaze. And they are beautiful: stunningly wonderfully lovely and, even better, watered with a tiny thin pipe along each rail and a single dripper onto the pot, so they stay moist but never overflow to leave dirty trails coursing down the window. Window boxes look gorgeous in Europe, where you need to cherish every bit of sunlight that peeps through the clouds, but here we need protection from the sun. Even in midwinter there’s enough to…

Pharmaceutical companies would love to make it easy for us to lose weight. They also know that we love to eat. Factor in the obesity boom and our recidivism with weight-loss programs that might initially yield spectacular waistline reductions only to culminate in devastating disappointments once layers of fat reaccumulate with interest and we have the recipe for a medicinal superhero. In March 2016, with glittering Facebook fanfare and gilded media hype, Saxenda, a drug that suppresses hunger and promotes rapid satiety, was unveiled by pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk. The research scientists behind this drug commence their rationale by indicating that one of its commendable contributions is preventing the weight gain that inevitably occurs over time once anyone who attempts long-term weight loss succumbs to the reverse pedal. It was…

WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO Editorial assistant Kate (top left) fled the chilly south for tropical Darwin, celebrating remote Indigenous communities and culture at Barunga Festival near Katherine while she was at it. Meanwhile, editor Danielle whipped up a solstice feast at Foodbank NSW & ACT headquarters in Sydney to help feed four of the 81,000 people the charity provides food for each month in NSW and ACT alone. She’s pictured (left) with Foodbank’s ambassador Matthew Hayden, Foodbank NSW & ACT CEO Gerry Andersen and blogger Josie Gagliano. Find out more about the charity’s work at foodbanknsw.org.au. WHAT’S COMING UP FOR YOU August 2–September 2, Global World Water Week worldwaterweek.org August 20–27, Kangaroo Island, AU Kangaroo Island Food Safari southernoceanlodge.com.au/package/ki-food-safari August 21, Sydney, AU Italian Food + Wine Festival sydneyitalianwine…

Did something resonate with you in this issue of WellBeing? We’d love to hear your feedback. Write to us at WellBeing, Locked Bag 154, North Ryde, NSW 1670, email wbletters@universalmagazines.com.au, comment on our Facebook page or tweet us: @WellBeing_Mag. We reserve the right to edit all submissions. FROM THE EDITOR I’ve been thinking a lot about food lately. Oh, hang on ... I always think a lot about food. What I’m cooking for dinner, what healthy treat I’ll take to a friend’s place, which seasonal vegies will arrive in this week’s food box, what magic spices will make my next meal zing, whether it’s gluttonous to eat a huge slice of chocolate cake if it’s raw, vegan and contains vegetables ... And they’re just the thoughts related to my own…

Picture this: it’s 7am on a Monday and you’ve slept through the alarm. You wake in a panic, already feeling anxious about an important meeting today. Rushing around getting ready, you feel more agitated by the second. You trip over the dog, spill your coffee and yell at the children. Nothing is running smoothly. Once in the car, the children argue on the way to school and traffic is chaos. By the time you get to work, your palms are sweaty and your heart is racing. You feel like you’ve already run a marathon and it isn’t even 9am. Now for that meeting ... How will you concentrate when you’re so worked up? Relax. You just need to use your senses. As much as they can be the source of…

Treats are definitely something I only indulge in occasionally, but there’s no way I’ll ever reach for anything refined. Instead, I opt for nourishing ingredients with just a little bit of natural sweetener. That’s because it’s important to remember a treat is called that for a reason: sugar is still sugar, regardless of the source. When I was younger, I used to love freshly squeezed fruit juice until I realised it was doing me more harm than good. You see, fruit juice is very high in fructose, and any excess sugar, whether from natural sweeteners or the nasty refined stuff, causes you to gain weight, accelerates the ageing process and has a cumulative effect, meaning it builds up in your system over time and causes numerous mental and physical diseases,…

Coral Sea Kayaking offers ecologically sound paddling trips ranging from short half-day seakayaking tours to week-long wilderness expeditions, group charters and private sea kayak hire. coralseakayaking.com Big Mama is a family-operated sailing business operating out of Mission Beach offering a range of sailing expeditions from day-long reef snorkels to overnights private groups of up to six. Big Mama operates between April and January. bigmamasailing.com Sanctuary Retreat is an affordable and unique rainforest eco-lodge and yoga retreat set on 50 acres of natural tropical rainforest near Mission Beach. Less than 2.5 per cent of the land area is actually used for the hotel, the rest set aside under a perpetual Conservation Agreement for wildlife preservation. As such, it is one of the most likeliest places to see a cassowary, for which…

Nutritious, seasonal wholefoods hold an innate power — in just one bite, they can bring people together to share in “a moment”. And that is Jacqueline Alwill’s precise intention in Seasons to Share: to create beautiful memories with people you love by celebrating food, all year round. The Australian nutritionist’s new book is divided by the four seasons to ensure you’re buying and cooking with the freshest produce and subdivided into categories such as date night, Japanese feast, detox lunch, barbecue and more. Dishes such as pumpkin and ginger dumplings, slow-roasted pork shoulder, cacao bean crepes and sesame honey mocha attest to Alwill’s creative genius in the kitchen. She also lists pantry essentials, helpful kitchen gadgets and wonderful entertaining ideas, and shares her insights from being a nutritionist and a…

AWE COSMECEUTICALS The Zithila Multi Oil is a combination of jojoba, pomegranate, hemp and raspberry seed oils. For face, body and hair. Suits all skin types. RRP AU$45. W: awecosmeceuticals.com.au CLARIFIED DESIGNS The handcrafted essential oil necklaces at Clarified are worn to achieve holistic balance. They can enhance your mood, heal emotional wounds and attract spiritual protection. Worn as a protective talisman around your neck, their scent will transport you to Nirvana. W: clarifieddesigns.com IN ESSENCE SKIN THERAPY ORGANIC CAMELLIA TREATMENT OIL This silky oil is the ultimate antioxidant. Rich in oleic acid and vitamins A, B and E, it protects against environmental damage, premature ageing and pigmentation. Just a few drops will deliver intense hydration to the skin and restore a natural, healthy glow. RRP AU$49.95. W: inessence.com.au THE…

If you want to stay fighting fit during the colder months, one of the first things to tackle is your sleep. Studies show sleep is our biggest ally when it comes to the health of the immune system. It’s particularly important for initiating effective adaptive immune responses, so sleeping well equals quicker immune responses. Loading up on antioxidants through your diet can also help ward off any bugs. Make a batch of protein-dense quinoa on the weekend and place in jars in the fridge ready for early-morning starts, then just warm in the morning and layer with vitamin-C-rich fruits. Or, on weekends, try my delicious peach and berry pancake. Another area to look at for winter health is the gut. The gut wall houses 70 per cent of the cells…

Does your dog bark or howl all day while you are at work? Does he destroy your sofa cushions, dig holes or frequently escape? It may be that he’s exuberant and playful, with extra energy to burn, but if that’s the case then he will usually do these things whether or not you are home. What may also be happening is that your dog is stressed when left alone. Separation anxiety occurs in dogs when they are overly attached to their owners. Dogs that have been rehomed, or shelter dogs, are more likely to feel insecure. Older dogs may show anxiety due to medical issues, so make sure they have a veterinary checkup. There may be clues your dog is stressed when you are away. She may continually seek contact…

A 45-year-old man presented to the clinic, crippled by the pain of gout. He had been prescribed colchicine, the derivative of the autumn crocus (and it helped); however, prolonged use may cause bone marrow damage or side-effects such as dermatitis, neuropathies, myopathies or kidney and liver damage. Pain relief is essential though for several reasons: the person’s quality of life, for one, plus the trigger for pain (inflammation) can cause significant damage in itself. The pain of gout can sometimes be controlled with anti-inflammatory herbs or drugs if caught at the onset of an attack, but this is not dealing with the cause. Gout, a painful form of arthritis, is defined as dysfunction in purine metabolism, leading to an increase in uric acid in the blood (hyperuricemia). This can be…

INVERSIONS & BEYOND Thank you for the wonderful, insightful and practical article Upside-Down Yoga (#162). It offered me ideas and concepts to reflect on. While on the mat recently, I discovered that my fears of inversions were not actually fears but self-limiting beliefs disguised as fears. Thank you for helping me move forward with my yoga journey. Simone McClenaughan THE BUZZ ABOUT BEES WellBeing is so wonderfully awesome! I have just finished reading issue #162 and have to say that every article resonated with me on some level of my being. From all the regulars — The Pulse to Lifelines, Green Beat, Supplement, Functional Food, Road Test, Holistic Journey and Art for Art’s Sake — to all the columns — Natural Beauty, Quick Kitchen, DIY Detox, Digging In, Pet Care,…

DANIELLE I first contemplated standing up at work in 2013. I’d never considered myself inactive before then but full-time work, part-time study and a lengthy commute had created the perfect sedentary (non?)storm. I ummed and ahhed about forking out for a standing desk but eventually decided enough was enough. So I built my own. Out of boxes. To stand, I’d stack them one atop the other: screen on top of two boxes, keyboard on an old wine carton turned on its side, mouse on a smaller box with books on top. To sit, I’d pack them away under the desk. A tad unsightly, a bit of a faff, but free. It was glorious. A standing desk meant I could use my body in a more natural way than hunching it…

We all want to look our best and have naturally radiant skin shining with health. Beauty starts with healthy skin and the secret to a glowing complexion comes from within, as the skin is the mirror reflecting how well we nourish and nurture ourselves. Your skin is the largest organ in the body. It protects your insides from infection and radiation, helps control body temperature, aids in waste excretion and allows you to feel sensations such as touch, pressure, pain, heat and cold. The skin is also the organ most exposed to damage from the outside. Your genetic makeup, living environment, digestion, circulation, stress levels and diet all affect the condition of your skin. For example, cold sores can indicate immune system infections, clogged pores may be caused by air…

On holiday at Queensland’s Gold Coast when my son was a bright and cheery four-year-old, we decided to go for an early-morning stroll. Rounding a corner in the busy tourist mecca, Mitch stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide with wonder and pointed at a Muslim woman wearing a hijab and very long, flowing jacket. He then said very loudly (as only a four-year-old can), “Why is that lady wearing a sheet?” and then dissolved into fits of giggles. She had the good grace to smile, while I turned 20 shades of red and offered an apology. As parents, most of us have experienced a few, well, awkward moments with our offspring. Perhaps your child has shouted something they shouldn’t. “Daddy, why is that lady in a wheelchair dribbling?” or…

For 28-year-old nutritionist, TV personality, cook and MasterChef grand finalist Georgia Barnes, food was always an integral part of life. It was this overriding passion, combined with a love of working with people, which led her both to study nutrition with Endeavour College of Natural Health and to audition for MasterChef. The latter turned out to be a pivotal decision in Georgia’s life, as she quickly proved she had what it took to take on some of Australia’s most talented home cooks with their eyes firmly on the prize. It was Georgia’s talent combined with her creative flair and laser-like focus that saw her battle her way through the MasterChef Australia 2015 grand final. Narrowly missing out on winning the series, she finished two precious points behind fellow competitor Billie…

ORGRAN BREKKI PORRIDGE Pack your breakfast with nutrition from ORGRAN in just under a minute! Try ORGRAN Brekki Porridge, now in Berry or Apple Cinnamon, for fresh flavours and a source of fibre in your diet. Available in seven ready-to-go sachets for a healthy start every morning. W: orgran.com NATVIA Natvia is a natural sweetener made from stevia with only 0.4 calories per serve. It’s certified GMO free, low GI and good for your blood-sugar levels. It’s easy to use in baking, coffee and tea. Now with 50 per cent more for free! W: natvia.com QI DETOX Qi Detox combines single-origin naturally sweet green tea with milk thistle, dandelion root and hints of ginger, lemon and peppermint. It’s a delicious way to help cleanse the body and restore your natural…

Broadly we can define a toxin as something that hinders life, vitality, health or wellbeing, meaning toxins are everywhere. Once people start to identify the toxins in their world, it’s like inviting overwhelm and despair for dinner. It’s not pleasant. However, this discomfort is valid, if not even vital for survival. It alerts us that something is threatening our lives. Over the past year, I have run six Detox Your World workshops at a range of festivals and events, have collected many people’s ideas, opinions and knowledge and generated some fresh thinking on how to detox our world. It’s worthwhile to share it around and illustrates how all of us hold part of the solution. Each workshop is based on considering the deeper ways of thinking and living that require…

VIRGO When Sun entered Virgo on Aug 23, Mercury and Jupiter added a strong theme: expanded interests, juicy ideas, exciting meetings of colleagues and friends. But in September your ruler Mercury is “retro”, so you may need to revise some of August’s plans. Virgo New Moon adds further mental intensity: a solar eclipse Sept 1, driving a burst of problem-solving. Get busy, give loved ones time and attention Sept 16–21; then October’s mad rush will leave no guilt or regret. LIBRA Libra is diplomatic if possible, hard-line when necessary. You’ll explore a larger version of this Sept 9, 2016, to Oct 10, 2017, when Jupiter transits Libra. This will reveal a revitalised version of “relationship”. Some friendships become business oriented. All relationships will need boundaries and tact to thrive. Be…