During lockdown I was training for a 50km ultra marathon. You see for me, when life becomes a little chaotic, uncertain and out of my control, I throw myself into moving my body daily to keep my mind focused and to release all that heavy energy we absorb from this fast pace, modern world. 

Until, my physical body needed rest. I started getting warning signs to slow down such as fatigue, muscle soreness, not sleeping properly, and my mood was feeling low. But I ignored the signs and continued to get up at 4am meditate, film yoga sessions, run, work, be a Mum........

Getting appendicitis and having surgery was such a blessing. The surgeon was a real champ and fixed a stomach hernia on his way out, so there was that as well. (insert face palm giggle here)

It was the universe pulling on the handbrake and I came to a complete STOP! 3 days in hospital with no visitors, just me, in a room, by myself, with my thoughts, my breath, and the horrendous pain coming from my physical body. 

I remember laying in my room after surgery drugged up on Endone, not being able to move from the pain and thinking..."Well played Spirit, ok... I'm listening now." I spent 14 days in complete stillness. Going from the couch to the backyard where I would sit amongst our garden and listen to the sounds of nature. 

I came to realise that life has just become so fast! We're constantly on the go, being an employee, a Mumma, a partner, self employed, athletes....the list goes on. We are constantly in our fight or flight response and because of the lack of self care and recovery, we rarely tap into our rest and digest response which means:

- We're not absorbing the nutrients of our food properly.

- Not sleeping enough hours.

- We are constantly tired.

- Our emotions are all over the place.

- Our immune system is compromised.

- We are left feeling completely burnt out.    

My morning routine changed to a 30min breath-work and meditation practice for the first 3 weeks of my recovery, week 4 I introduced restorative yoga, as well as a 3 day juice cleanse, & now in week 5 I have just introduced bodyweight strength training within my yoga sessions. I am feeling stronger not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well.

Being in stillness, connecting to nature and juice fasting has energised me. It has cleared my brain fog, reduced inflammation in my body, and connected me to my true nature. We don't realise that our environment matters for our overall health and wellness. Not only WHAT we are putting into our bodies matters, but also what we are watching, listening to, who we are interacting with....it's all energy that is either moving us closer, or further away from our true nature.

"We can't control what goes on outside, but we can control what goes on inside."

              ~Unknown