It's A Disastrously Fabulous October and I Declare I Need A Roman Holiday, Drops of Gold, Organic Bubble Baths and Shatavari for She Who Has a Hundred Husbands
It's been a while dear reader since I last wrote an edition of my Disastrously Fabulous Letter from the Editor Column with my journalist extraordinaire, girl scout, tried and trusted ways to fly luminously, through life and thrive, not just survive, no matter what! Let's go.
The Power of Deep Breathing and Meditation
Yes, the disasters and the enormous challenges and trauma I have faced defeated me for a while. The one thing that has helped me to keep going when I thought that I couldn't come back from the novel 2021 product injury (v injury) is meditation and deep breathing every day and walking in beautiful nature.
I practice neuroplasticity training with The Gupta Program. I stumbled across this programme when I was in the midst of profound injury trauma last year. I don't know what I would have done without Ashok Gupta. I felt he was holding my hand and guiding me in a world I did not recognise. I paid for the basic, core programme, and I did the meditations and followed the brain retraining for months. The result was profound and I was able to start to rebuild my life, my health and work. What I love is the compassion, when there wasn't any compassion in my world when I needed it so desperately. Neuroplasticity is rooted in scientific studies and so it meditation and deep breathing. Put simply. Do the work and you will reap the transformation. It is in your hands and you can be independent and start to recover from profound stress and trauma, whatever the root cause.
I have also found Melissa Romano's Vagus Nerve Miracle via the Daily Om. Melissa is a wonderful teacher and I feel so much calmer after I complete all the lessons, which are fun and can easily be incorporated into our daily lives to achieve lasting resilience. My favourite exercise is putting my hands together and resting them on the crown of my head for about a minute. Who knew that could instantly relax the nervous system? Try it and see.
The other things that help is writing my story and watching a dash of comedy every day, doctors orders. Right now, I am watching Lily Collins live a fantasy, disastrously fabulous life in Paris and Rome in the latest instalment of Emily in Paris which pays tribute to the iconic film Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. You can read my review discussing the EIP tribute to the film here. Emily in Paris Review. I love the film because it offers a fascinating glimpse into the relationship between monarchy and the fourth estate. For the film, I have my own treasured DVD, so I can watch it whenever I feel the need to see Hepburn looking in the window at Tiffany's in that Givenchy miracle of a dress with the walnut whip up-do. It lifts my spirits every time.
A Vintage White Dress Shirt Makes a Perfect Nightshirt, A La Holly Golightly
As my birthday fast approaches, I think I will treat myself to an aegean blue face mask from Holistic Silk inspired by Holly Golightly and wear it with the beautiful vintage gentlemen's white dress shirt I wear in bed, which is almost identical to the one worn by Hepburn in the film. Posh charity shops are a great place to find a dress shirt. For a DVD of Breakfast of Tiffany's to watch whenever the 'mean reds' appear, I recommend your local Oxfam shop or their Oxfam Online Shop which is full of preloved treasure.
A Trip to Italy and the Land of Organic Shepherds
Then, I am seriously thinking about a return trip to Italy. I would like to stay at Palazzo Tronconi, a small biodynamic hotel and vineyard in Ciociaria, the land of organic shepherds and learn how to make pasta, go to the fishing village of Sperlonga and tread in the footsteps of Brigitte Bardot and just get lost in my favourite slow country on earth, Italy.
How I yearn to fly around the Coliseum on the back of a moped with my own Marcello, vintage Hermes scarf fluttering in the breeze. Check out Oxfam Fashion Online and Rokit for rare preloved scarf treasures. Read my Emily in Paris 4 and Roman Holiday Film review here. You can watch Roman Holiday on Amazon Prime, Paramount + Apple TV or buy the DVD.
So, given the ongoing disaster recovery, there is so much to talk about! Let's keep going. I have decided to talk about what happened to me until the world takes notice. I want to scream and shout that I was injured within two hours of having a single dose of the Astra Zeneca Vaccine in May 2021, and that most of the 14,000+ claimants in the UK for the vaccine damage payment are for the AstraZeneca Vaccine and that my life has been hell and filled with suffering and fear and visceral, unliveable pain and a criminal lack of help from my own government and the GP surgery where I had the vaccine in order to see my dying mother. I also want the world to know that I was told I could not discuss my diagnosed vaccine injury with a doctor at my last appointment.
If you have watched my interview with Dr Peter McCullough, the heroic doctor who has saved my health, you will know I didn't get to see my mother in person because of my injury. Login or subscribe to watch the 54 minute interview here. Then, please share it with your friends and family. I would also love to hear from you. Email me - editor@theluminariesmagazine.com
My Mother Loved to Play in Wildflower Meadows as a Girl
I am at peace now with saying goodbye to my mother via WhatsApp for all of a minute before she was gone. I spent a lot of time helping my remarkable mother in the last few years of her life and we had grown very close. We had said our goodbyes a year before she died as my brave mother had decided to stop the functional medical treatment that was keeping her alive. She loved to be independent, to walk everyday, to cook and to watch the Repair Shop and if she couldn't do those things, then she declared she had had a good life and she was done. The image I will always have of my mother Dorothy is of her playing in a wildflower meadow on the farm where she grew up, in the wilds of Wiltshire. My mother could remember the names of all the wild flowers she had admired as a child.
A Holistic Suit of Armour in a World of Instability
Given that I have experienced the total disruption of my life and severe health trauma for almost three and a half years, not to mention Covid itself, which was terrible for anyone in the arts, or running a small independent business, I have had to find new and ingenious ways to not fall apart and just keep going.
So here, I am going to share more of my holistic, naturopathic heroes that are restoring calm and equilibrium to one Luminary Hackette after I felt I could not cope with another day of fire fighting every which way I looked.
Ayurvedic Adaptogens Shatavari and Ashwagandha
Sebastian Pole, the medical herbalist and co-founder of Pukka Herbs told me about these two extraordinary and ancient adaptogens in an interview I did with him fifteen years ago. The point about adaptogens and how they work is that they grow in harsh, arid conditions in nature and they have adapted to survive and thrive and that's what they can do for us. They support us in hostile, difficult times. Sadly, Pukka have stopped making their amazing supplements. I have been taking Ashwagandha on and off since I met Sebastian, in times of stress and I now buy it from Wild Nutrition, who make food grown holistic supplements.
Shatavari - For She Who Has a Hundred Husbands!
In the last few year of profound stress and trauma, I have found that my body has grown used to Ashwagandha and it is not enough, although it does really help with fatigue. That's when I decided to start taking Shatavari again. In Ayurvedic tradition, Shatavari, a root, is said to impart the strength and vitality to a woman of a hundred husbands! Yes please!
Reader it works. I am also using up two precious bottles of Pukka organic Shatavari, pronounced shat-ar-vari, while I research a new maker for this remarkable Ayurvedic adaptogen with super powers for women. Shatavari is an effective tonic for women and it really helping to restore new levels of calm and build resilience. I will try Fushi Wellbeing for Shatavari once I run out. Fushi produce vibrant, organic, holistic supplements with no fillers or dubious additives and I'm a fan of their delicious organic turmeric juice.
Take a Bubble Bath with Epsom Salts
I find I can get very restless around the time I should be thinking about winding down to go to bed. If I don't reign myself in, I will start reviewing a film or drama after 10pm and then I don't sleep well. My consultant told me to take Epsom salt baths which contain magnesium which really helps to calm the nervous system and deeply relax in preparation for deep and restorative sleep. To make my bath really indulgent I add gentle organic bubbles from Child's Farm. I buy large bags of Epsom salts from The Natural Dispensary.
The Power of Perfume, Gold, Clary Sage and Rose - Aroma has the ability to regulate our mood, calm and uplift our spirits. I recently found some extra little bottles of armour at this holistic apothecary in the Cotswolds. I am currently experimenting with Beat the Blues - a potent roll on aromatherapy perfume for a perfumed cloak of invincibility with notes of clary sage, rose and petigrain to nurture feelings of happiness. I am also trying the homeopathic SOS Pearl Drops and I alternate with Beat the Blues with gold, gelsemium, saffron and pulsatilla.
Journalism You Can Trust
Please note that all the products and holistic services mentioned in this Disastrously Fabulous Column has been paid for by the editor. We do accept small samples for review but no 'gifts' before review. On this occasion no press samples have been featured. All the featured items are the result of research, discovery and independence, so that you can just our journalistic ideas, integrity and opinions. Isn't it time to refocus on real journalism, integrity and independent opinions, not paid for opinions?
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Copyright Alison Jane Reid/The Luminaries Magazine October 2024. All Rights Reserved. No Copying in Any Format Whatsoever Including Ai. Iconic Film Images are Copyright and Used with Permission for Editorial Use.