Tired but wired? 

Are you tired during the day but wired at night? Do you have trouble falling asleep or wake during the night and can’t go back to sleep? Sleeping pills may provide a short-term solution but there are natural alternatives that can create long lasting change.

Current research indicates that up to 30–50 percent of the general population is affected by acute (short-term) insomnia at any given time, and up to 10 percent have chronic insomnia that lasts more than several months. 

Having insomnia is another way of saying that you can’t fall or stay asleep. There are many factors that might be the root of insomnia such as not having a regular sleep-wake cycle, eating an unhealthy diet, chronic pain, emotional stress and more recently the overuse of screens and mobile devices. 

Everybody struggles to get a good night’s sleep now and then, but insomnia is an ongoing problem that causes sleep disruption. The impact of insomnia includes day time fatigue, physical and mental problems, moodiness, and an inability to concentrate. 

So how can a Naturopath help? My top 3 strategies for naturally improving sleep include changing the diet, creating a new bedtime routine and using essential oils and herbal support.

Diet: A common issue for many people is overeating too late in the evening, giving the body too much food to digest into the evening. By eating early and lighter, this allows the body to digest the last meal before you are ready for bed. Also, stimulants should be avoided as they frequently mess with the body’s natural sleep/wake cycle. 

Bedtime Routine: Many people have simply created unhealthy habits that are not conducive of a healthy night sleep. I recommend all my clients to put away their phones and screens 1 hour before their intended sleep time to avoid overstimulation and create a quiet space before bed. Reading a book, writing a journal or simply having a shower are much more relaxing options to prepare you for a good night’s sleep. 

Essential Oils and Herbs: There are a range of oils and herbs that are widely researched for their benefit with relaxation and sleep, and my top 2 favourites are lavender and chamomile. Lavender essential oil is a great sleep aid that can be massaged onto your feet before bed or add 1-2 drops on a cotton ball under your pillow. Chamomile is great to have as a herbal tea an hour before bedtime. 

There are many other options that can be implemented to overcome insomnia, and by seeing a Naturopath, we can assess your unique symptoms and create an individualised wellness plan to support you through these changes as well as providing quality supplements to support you naturally. 

What can I expect from a Naturopathic Consult?

A naturopathic consult is a one on one appointment with a qualified Naturopath to improve your wellbeing naturally. 

Naturopathy can be used to improve a variety of common chronic health conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, acne, allergies, sinusitis, headaches, migraines, fatigue, hormonal imbalances, diabetes, endometriosis,  polycystic ovarian syndrome, stomach pain, digestive issues, stiff achy muscles, joint pain, back pain, arthritis, poor circulation, anaemia, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression, sleep irregularities,  insomnia, snoring, weight gain, and high cholesterol. Naturopathy is also valuable for acute health conditions such as colds, coughs, fever, and infections (bacterial, fungal, viral). 

The Initial Consult: 60 -90 minutes

·     Prior to the consultation you will be sent a detailed questionnaire that covers your health history, current signs and symptoms, medication and supplements currently being taken and an overview of your diet and lifestyle. 

·     This questionnaire helps to shape the direction of the consult and indicates areas that need more clarity and attention.  

·     During the consult, we will discuss your health concerns and goals, investigate all relevant areas of your body systems and carry out physical examinations as needed (temperature, blood pressure, ears/nose/throat/eyes/nails…)

·     Any previous pathology results may also be requested and/or viewed in the consultation

·     After the consult, time and research are invested to craft an individualised wellness plan to address your current needs for the next 4-6 weeks. 

·     The wellness plan will be emailed to you within 7 days and we will schedule a 20 minute phone call to go over the plan together.

·     After 2 weeks, you will receive a friendly follow up call to check in with your progress and to schedule a follow up consult in a few more weeks. 

The Wellness Plan:This is carefully crafted for you based on your current health and your goals. A detailed cover letter is written summarising the focus of the treatment. The wellness plan includes:

·     Specific nutrition advise with guidelines and recipes 

·     Specific herbs, essential oils and/or supplements to take with instructions for use. These are carefully assessed for any interaction or contraindications.

·     Lifestyle advice such as exercise and stress reduction techniques to improve your physical and emotional wellbeing

·     Relevant handouts with helpful info and advice. 

Follow Up Consult: 30-45 mins

·     We usually schedule this 4-6 weeks after you began following the wellness plan.

·     We assess how the wellness plan is going noting any changes in symptoms, discussing the benefits and challenges.

·     Diet and supplementation is reassessed for effectiveness and adjusted as required. 

·     Relevant physical examinations are also performed if required. 

·     An updated wellness plan will be emailed within 7 days to continue on for 4-6 weeks. 

Will I need supplements?

Some clients benefit hugely by starting nutritional supplements but we only prescribe them when and if they are needed. Herbs, supplements and essential oils can be posted or picked up from the clinic. 

It is important to note that we are very happy to work alongside your current GP and health care professionals. We believe that integration between Practitioners and modalities is how our clients get the best outcome!

The MOST important factor for abundant health

🤷🏽‍♀️ Last week I was asked what are the most important things I recommend for abundant health, and without much thought, I responded first with inner peace and stillness

🧘🏽‍♀️ Yes that’s right, as a Naturopath, I have learned about the body, nutrition, herbs, supplements, essential oils, and so on. And yet the most outstanding factor for optimum health to me is inner peace and stillness 🙏🏼

This may seem ‘airy fairy’ and yet there is so much science on the huge benefits of having inner peace and incorporating a stillness practise such as meditation into our daily life and the benefits of regularly being in nature and natural environments 🌳

We are all unique, and there is not a one size fits all when it comes to what brings inner peace, but the question is, do we prioritise this aspect of health 🍃

On a physical level, when our sympathetic nervous system is running our body (fight of flight mode) it prioritises go go go and neglects digestion, beauty and rejuvenation🏃🏽‍♀️

When we activate our parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest mode), we are in a state of peace -not panic, a state of calm -not chaos 🕊 Then our body is able to utilise nutrients to nourish us, cleanse, heal and flourish 🌷

We are more than a physical body, we are a spiritual being having a human experience and when we nourish our WHOLE being -spirit, soul and body, we have life changing results💫

Sometimes I neglect my stillness practices, and it doesn’t take long before I notice myself out of balance and lacking vitality 🤦🏽‍♀️ I choose to live my life from a place of inner peace and harmony…what about you?

Health and Harmony,
Rani

My Big WHY for Juice Fasting

Today is day 24 of my 30 day juice cleanse and I have decided to write my story and what motivated me to do this. Many of you know, last month I went to the USA to do some additional study/training to add to my Naturopathy training and to attend a Young Living Retreat with my global essential oil family. My trip was so amazing and I had a wonderful time, making beautiful lifelong connections, learning, growing, upgrading, awakening with lots of tears and laughter along the way.

 My last 24 hours in the USA were not so fun because I started to have pain in my left ovary and the pain became more and more intense. My roommate Karlyn loved and served me so well, applying oils, running a bath, contacting others for support and so much more. I was so loved and supported by all my new friends and Young Living family, however, the pain only increased to the point where I was shaking and needed to go to ER. My check in time for my flight that day was 4:15pm and I arrived at ER about 11.

As the Young Living retreat was ending many had to catch flights and make the trip home, but my amazing brand new friend Leslie took me to ER.  I will forever treasure in my heart the love and care she showed me. The pain was so intense I continued to tremble and cry. I was quickly seen and taken for an ultrasound which was very uncomfortable while being in so much pain. While I was walking back to the room after the ultrasound, I was overcome with pain and emotion. Here I was, due to fly home today, and I was in ER in incredible pain. 

That’s when I broke down. I started to cry, and weep and then I was overcome with a full blown panic attack. 

Fast breathing and unrestrained sorrow poured forth from me. Leslie quickly came to me, and she embraced me. Even as I type this now, tears are filling my eyes as I recall the intensity of my pain and yet, the intensity of love that held me in that moment. I heard the overhead speakers declare that there was a panic attack taking place, and despite some of this being a blur, I was aware there was a rush of activity and a screen was placed around the area I was.

Words cannot fully describe that moment, but as you read this, I know your heart can feel my inner world. So much pain, yet so much love. So much fear, yet I was wrapped in arms of love and peace. Within a few minutes, I was able to slow my breathing down and peace overcame me. This is the first time the pain severely reduced and I knew I was going to be ok.

The rest of the story I will summarise quickly. I had a cat scan to make sure there were no other source of this pain and the ultrasound results came back inconclusive because I was shaking too much during the scans. I finally was able to get some serious pain meds to calm the pain and give me confidence that I could travel 17 hours in a plane. Leslie continually engaged my vision with hope. She kept asking me how I will feel once I am home with my family. She kept faith that I would make it to my flight and begin my journey home. I am forever grateful for her faith and love. 

As I said, my check in time was 4:15 and we made is to the airport at 5pm. Phew! I checked in and it was time for me to fly solo. I cried my way through the airport. I looked a mess, I felt a mess, but I also felt so relieved that I was beginning my journey home. I had a 2 hour flight to Houston (which I slept) and I was wheel cheered through the airport to my next flight (now that’s an experience for a young fit mama). When I awoke on my final flight home, I was pain free and have not experienced any pain since then.

Sooooo, all this to say, this was the major push to do my juice cleanse. My body had whispered in the past that there was an issue here, but this time it SHOUTED and I heard my body loud and clear. I could choose to have surgery and have the cyst on my ovary removed, or I could have faith in all that I have been learning …the healing power of food, faith, declarations, emotional release and my God given ability to heal. My good friend Jack who I met in the USA advised me that a 30 day juice feast would give my body the nutrients and time it needed to heal, and so here I am.

I used to be able to feel the cyst each day, as it was up to 10cm and caused my tummy to look bloated, so I have enjoyed seeing my tummy flatten and I can no longer feel anything there. I am overjoyed with this miracle and I am booked in for a scan to confirm what I know has happened. I know so much more has taken place in my body than I can know, so I celebrate this transformation deep within my being. I am on my final 7 days of my cleanse and then I will transition gradually into eating whole foods again next week. I am so thankful for this opportunity to upgrade my health and experience the healing power of juice feasting. 

The Importance of Recognizing Self

Yesterday I began my new assignment on the immune system as part of my studies to be a Naturopath. I love to study and learn new things and I especially love it when God begins to show me a parallel between the human body and spiritual truth. Well, I had this expectation in my spirit yesterday and as I was reading I could sense the spirit of wisdom and revelation lingering, ready to unlock some truth to me. Over the next few hours as I read and answered assignment questions I received this beautiful and timely word for the Body of Christ. I awoke today with an excitement to share it.

The one particular part of our immune response that I received revelation on was the development of self-recognition. You see, our immune system provides us with protection from ‘foreign invaders’ that seek to attack and destroy us causing sickness, death and disease. Without this system, we would easily die from invading pathogens. However, of equal importance is our system’s ability to recognise which cells are ‘self’ and which cells are ‘foreign’.

There is a very complex process that our body goes through to develop our immune system to recognise ‘self’ so that we do not attack and destroy our own cells (as seen in autoimmune diseases). There are two processes known as positive and negative selection which ‘weed out’ immune cells that do not recognise self and this is where I received revelation of what is happening in the body of Christ.

We are in a process of developing recognition of ‘self’ as the children of God. And by self, I do not mean just me as an individual. We are a body. One body. Jesus himself prayed that we would be one as He is one with the Father (John 17:21). We are in a season where we must embrace and recognize Christ in us and Christ in others and complete Oneness as a body.

There is a ‘positive and negative selection’ taking place which is eliminating those cells in the body that try to attack ‘self’. We could call it self-sabotage. See, what I didn’t tell you was that those immune cells that try to attack ‘self’ cells are destroyed. Yes your body completely annihilates these cells and entire cells lines that are ‘out of line’.

Anything we do or say that attacks ‘self’ is up for annihilation. Whether it is myself or my neighbor, my friend or another church member, my children or a careless driver, these ‘cells’ or thoughts or actions need to die. This is the process of crucifixion. For a body to thrive, we must not attack ourselves. We must rightly discern ‘foreign invaders’ and attack with full force, but we cannot live with self-sabotage.

The good news here is that the immune cells that do not attack ‘self’ are then multiplied and sent all over the body to do their job of attacking only foreign invaders. This is where my spirit is excited. There is a multiplication that is about to happen. Everything in us that walks in LOVE towards the body is about to be multiplied and sent throughout the body to deal to the real enemy.

So I am encouraged today to embrace the ‘weeding out’ process of any thoughts, ways or actions that are attacking ‘self’ which includes myself and others. Let us remember we are ONE BODY. Any thought that is less than love is not worthy to be reproduced and not worthy to ‘serve’ the body. Every time we choose love towards others and recognize that it really is our ‘self’ we are setting ourselves up for greater service towards mankind.

I pray that those who have ears to hear will hear what the spirit is saying today. I pray for grace to confess our shortcomings and ‘crucify’ anything that is less than love towards ourselves and others. I pray for an awakening to love the ‘whole body’ and begin to recognize ourselves as one body.

Much Love to you today

Rani

Daily Strategies for Living Free

While in prayer, Jesus revealed to me a strategy that the enemy has been using to enslave God’s children at this time. I saw spiderwebs. Hundreds of them like you sometimes see on clear days drifting in the sky (google informs me it is called spider ballooning). So thin and fine. So weightless and seemingly powerless. However I saw that the strategy of the enemy was to use that which seemed small and insignificant to go under the radar. These thin wisps of spider web represented very small occurrences. Little offenses. Little lies. Unforgiveness for little things. Small acts of unrighteousness.

 The only reason this strategy had any power was that God’s people were too busy, stressed or overworked to notice the small webs. One small web on its own could not do too much but as the number of small webs increased, it began to entangle people. I saw multiple small webs targeting people daily in an attempt to quickly enslave them and I saw a consistency of webs day after day, trying to find a victim.

Jesus revealed to me a few small webs that had come my way during the week and I was amazed at how small they were and yet how I had let them remain on me till this time. I was also amazed at the number of small instances that had occurred and how they had a negative impact on me.

The only reason I am sharing this is because Jesus only reveals the enemy’s strategy so that we can overcome with a greater and victorious strategy.  And this is our calling. This is our inheritance. And these are just 3 of many strategies that Jesus gave me.

1) Jesus said that the webs are easily discerned when we are present or still.

2) Jesus also told me that the webs easily disintegrate in the refining fire.

3) Jesus reminded me that the webs can also be washed off in the River.

The key is to make room for these activities daily.

When we are present and still, it is easy to see, feel or discern a web that has attached itself to us during the day. This is a KEY strategy for God’s children at this time. It is time to live present and increasingly aware in every moment. When we are present in love and light, discerning darkness or fear is much more obvious. We can easily remove the web ourselves when we see it.

When we invite Christ’s refining fire to purify us, it will reveal all impure thoughts and motives which can easily be dealt with. Again, this is simple and easy to do but it just takes time and intent. The more we embrace the refining fire, the greater the awareness of the state of our own heart.

We are blessed to be able to come and wash in the River of Life anytime we choose. We are blessed to have full access to this place of such purity, cleansing and fun. The webs easily wash off in this heavenly place and not only that, but there are many more beautiful things to receive in exchange.

So my prayer is that we have an awareness of Christ’s nearness in every moment of our days. I pray that we will not give the enemy a foothold, small or large. I pray that we would embrace the refining fire in both the Word and prayer. I pray that we would become more familiar with the River of Life and our inheritance in heavenly places.

I bless you this day with an awakening to Christ in YOU.

Much Love,

Raneeta

Love Whispers before He Shouts

God IS love. He is always speaking. He is always expressing His love towards us. Sadly, we are often not even aware of His love each day because His whisper can be drowned out by the clatter of this world.

I watched a movie last night that lingered on in my mind and heart. It lingered long enough to awaken areas of my parenting into greater love and joy (my funny accents and goofiness are back). I thought to myself, it may seem crazy but this movie has changed my life.

And then in dawned on me, the whispers in life can drastically change our lives if we choose to meditate on them and embrace the truth being spoken. However, sometimes in the busyness of life, the clatter of the world drowns out the whispers and we miss golden opportunities to grow in love. This made me ponder what maturity looks like.

I realised that…

Maturity can be measured by the level of resistance required for us to make adjustments in our lives towards greater LOVE. In other words, the mature respond to whispers.

Remember. Love whispers first. Only when we are still can we hear Him. If we constantly do not hear the whisper, love does raise His voice, because after all, He delights in loving us all. Love will speak up. Love will raise His voice. And ultimately Love will shout if necessary because Love never gives up.

Our bodies are the same. They begin by whispering to us when things are out of balance. A slightly sore knee, a sniffly nose, a headache. They all begin as whispers and if we give attention to those needs when they whisper, we find balance returns quickly.

However, if we ignore the whispers, just like Love, our bodies will raise their voice. The pain will get stronger, the symptoms will increase and the level of discomfort will increase. We have been magnificently made for balance and wholeness. If the whispers and nudges are constantly ignored, this leads to shouting which I would call chronic illness.

So if you feel that circumstances in your life are shouting at you or your body is screaming out to you, maybe it is time to pay attention. Maybe it is time to be still and ask yourself, “what is it that Love is teaching me in this season” or “What does my body require of me right now.” I dare you. Because I know Love has your best interest in mind and I know your body desires to be whole. Let us embrace the whispers of love and health today, and prevent the need for Love to shout.

May we have ears to hear what Love is whispering to us today.

Health and Harmony to you,

Raneeta Grace