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

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

The Power of Harmony

The past few years have been a wonderful journey of health and wellness for our family as we discovered the power of essential oils and natural health. It has been a fascinating journey that has opened our eyes and minds to so much more about health and wholeness. 

Along the journey of striving for good health, we discovered the most powerful protection for our family was not nutrition, essential oils or even prayer, it was actually a HOME filled with love, peace and harmony. 

Now don't get me wrong, I am ALL FOR nutrition, essential oils and prayer, in fact, I wholeheartedly embrace these things, however my journey has taught me that love, peace and harmony are the key that override it all (I was gonna say 'the key that trumps it all' but maybe that is not fitting during the US elections. lol). Psalm 133 puts it this way, "How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity (harmony)! It is like precious oil poured on the head."

I would love to be able to say that we have perfect harmony in our home, but that would be a lie. There have been many times when peace and harmony are not present in our home and fear, strife and anger have been present. In these times, I have learned about the power and protection of harmony.

Harmony is beautiful. Harmony is when everything is united in love. Harmony is a sweet sound. It is peaceful. It is blissful. When you hear a sound that is out of harmony, it creates discord. It is unpleasant. It causes us to not feel at ease. It actually causes dis-ease to your ears and being. 

That was a big clue for me right there! Dis-ease!

We were created for harmony. Our body is designed for harmony. Love, joy and peace flow freely from harmonious relationships. When there is harmony, the bible describes it like precious oil being poured on the head (Psalm 133 as mentioned above), and you know what, that oil flows down to the rest of the body.

When my husband and I are in harmony, our home is filled with love and peace. It is just incredible. The children are happy and healthy, things go smoothly and even our pets benefit from our harmony. However, when we are out of harmony because we get offended or annoyed by one another, the atmosphere of our home changes quite obviously. There is more conflict among our children, things go wrong and I have even noticed that we become more susceptible to sickness.

I have tested out this revelation time and time again, and this has only further revealed the truth about harmony. As a couple, we have learnt the power of unity and harmony. We have learnt that nothing can penetrate that bond of love. We have learnt that if the enemy cannot put a wedge in between us, he has no way of getting in at all. This is the power of harmony that has led to breakthrough after breakthrough in our home with our health, our relationships, the atmosphere of our home and our business.

It is now obvious to me why the bible says to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit (Eph 4:3) because it is SO POWERFUL! I encourage you to test this out for yourself. Place HARMONY and UNITY as the top priority for your home today and step back and watch your family blossom. Sure, it might not happen over night, but as you continue in harmony, you will see blessing after blessing flood your home, your health and your family. 

Written with much love
Raneeta

QUIT * COMMIT * GROW * DECLARE * OILS

So August is almost here and we need to do a few things to prepare for our winter wellness journey. Let's go through the 5 points and remember what we may need to prepare. Preparation is the key!
If you have not read the first post, please refer back to it here
http://harmonichealthnz.blogspot.co.nz/2016/07/invitation-to-winter-wellness-journey.html

QUIT:
We are all quitting wheat (gluten) and refined sugar (white, raw, brown, coconut sugar). Identify all the items in your daily life that you would usually consume with these things in them and start to say goodbye. But its not all sad. Now we find healthier alternatives to replace them with. You can buy gluten free bread if you would like to but I would recommend not over eating this either.

There are lots of natural sweeteners you can use in raw baking or to make your own sweet treats. I personally use honey and dates but you can also use rice malt syrup or 100% pure maple syrup. Read the label carefully as there are many syrups that are not pure. I'll post some of my raw baking fav recipes soon.

COMMIT:
Hydration is  key to wellness. We often think we may be having enough water but the best way to know is to have a big drink bottle and keep it with us. If its a 1 litre bottle, make sure you get through it twice a day. If its a 500ml, refill it and drink at least 4 times. Please don't just estimate. Aim for a minimum of 2 litres. This is actually not easy for me to do as I forget, but I will be committing to do this.
Also, schedule in 3 x a week for exercise. If we don't plan for it, we plan to fail. So plan each week with this in mind. Include your children if you can on bikes and in prams or enjoy the luxury of exercising while they are in daddy day care :)
I will also be having communion each day so if you want to join me in this, grab a bottle or two of mccoys dark grape juice and some gluten free bread or wraps.

GROW:

Choose 3 plants that you feel drawn to and grab some seeds/cuttings to get you started. You will need a pot, potting mix and lots of love. This step is really important, as I feel it will enable us to see how we are loving and nourishing ourselves just like the plant. I am looking forward to hearing revelations from this step and seeing photos!

DECLARE:
Now is the time to prepare your declarations for the month ahead. Think about anything you have struggled with recently and choose to focus on restoring this area with your declarations. Again, if you need help with this, please ask me. I would love to help. Keep it simple but powerful and to the point.

OILS:
Remember to select an oil to apply each day to help you on your journey. If you have not got an essential oil yet, please contact me asap so we can get it to you in time. Oils are very powerful and effective for supporting us physical and emotionally and work very nicely together with declarations. For a full list of essential oil blends, click here:
 https://www.youngliving.com/en_US/products/essential-oils/blends

I am excited to be doing this with you. August is going to be a powerfully loving and healing month for us all who are choosing this path. Please feel free to get in touch and tell me what ways you would like support.

Love,
Raneeta