This weeks letter has some warm words, joy dots, and what I’m playing with in the Peaceful Test Kitchen.
For my new subscribers, the warm words and joy dots are how I began this Sunday Letter 3 years ago. I’m a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist amongst other things, and I wanted to bring the power of relaxing the survival brain through hearing or reading about simple things, to help lower people’s stress response, as we were all trying to get back to ‘normal’ after the Covid lockdowns.
If you’re feeling stressed, curl up with a nice mug of something cosy and slowly read back through the warm words I’ve written and Joy Dots. After about 20-30 minutes you should start feeling relaxed– it does depend on individual circumstances. Listening to someone who knows how to use their voice to relax is the most powerful way for this to work. Soon I will start recording them for you.
I’ve been developing what I’m doing with my Slow Sunday and it’s now a mix of Warm Words for weary minds; articles on Ayurveda, metabolic health, and turning stress around; instalments of a fiction book I’m writing called The Peaceful Belly Kitchen recorded, and news from my Peaceful Belly Test Kitchen which will become a book at some point.
I hope you enjoy this weeks Slow Sunday.
Warm words for weary minds
Awake, early morning before the sun. Lights across the road on the outside of the old church, now lived in, still on from the owners late night out.
I open the window to early morning air moist with rain, raindrops on the window. All is really quiet. One window across the street has a light on. Back inside I watch the tree out front silhouetted, dark sky never totally dark in the city, and branches reaching up into that city sky.
I’m reminded of a project I helped out at during my gap year, away from the city sleeping in a caravan in the woods. I had to walk two fields and across a slender stream to reach it.
On dark nights without a full moon there was a lot of trust involved but all bathed in kindness and safety. On moonlit nights my walks across the fields were like another world. Sky lit up with full moon, and stars you could see so well. The milky way shining above me as I made my way from the fire, our little community had sat around telling stories and playing music, flames lighting up the night air, flickering with sparks that warmed our hearts.
With sleepy eyes and peaceful heart I’d wander across muddy tracks, climb the style and make my way across the fields under silvery moonlit starry sky, with squelchy mud beneath my feet. The trickle of stream moving slowly, sparkling under starlight, slender and easy to cross. Then there I was in the woods. Darkness all around finding my way between tree trunks to the little caravan, my stove fire had turned to embers greeting me, warm and cosy.
Other nights when the winds were strong I’d lie awake listening to the tall trees creaking and cracking as their branches swirled, and one night realised those creaks were coming from trunks. I thought, if those trees close to this caravan come down, I might be a gonna. So I got out of the caravan to inspect the trees in the darkness. Really I was just inspecting my own fear. I stood there in the dark cool night glimpsing stars as those branches moved in the roaring wind, this way and that, then after a while of wondering I decided, if my times up, it’s up and, with the company of sparkling sky appearing and disappearing above tree branches, I went back to bed, warm and snuggly. Happy to say my time wasn’t up and here I sit, looking at that tree out front, with stars hidden from view by cloud and rain. Quiet as quiet that trickle of rain is, and I’m cosy in the knowing that another day has not quite begun, and I am here right at the start of it, on this winters not quite day.
Soon, soon, it will be spring but for now it’s still time to burrow down and cosy up with fires and candles and walks on wet ground and visits to warmly lit cafes with books and friends and dreams of tomorrow.
I’d love to know how you wend away the wintery days to pleasant things when you get some time, and what your joy dots are, perhaps you’ll tell me in the comments.
And, I know that sometimes there is no time, with life’s responsibilities filling up your days and nights, and so, I wish you joy dots galore as you wend your way through that, and hope that when I start recording my warm words and fall asleep stories, they will accompany you to happy times 🌱
Joy dots
Rain trickles on window
The slow before new beginnings
Tree branches and sky
Friendship
Warmly lit cafes
Laughter
Playing
Taking time
The colour of beetroot
Peaceful Belly Test Kitchen
As it’s Valentine weekend, I’m going to be playing with beetroot this week in the Peaceful Belly Test Kitchen because, Beetroot has been linked to romance and desire in many cultures.
Legend has it Aphrodite from Greek mythology ate beetroot to enhance her ageless beauty, while English folklore says that if a man and a woman eat from the same beetroot, they are will fall in love, and the Romans considered beetroot an aphrodisiac. That last one has science to back it up, beetroot is rich in boron, a trace mineral that aids in the production of human sex hormones!
Borscht, the famous Eastern European beetroot soup was originally made using hogwead! It wasn’t until the 18th century that a version using beetroots became a staple. Then we have beetroot kvas also from Eastern Europe, a fermented probiotic drink, sometimes used as a base for soups.
Beetroots were a vital source of nutrients during harsh Eastern European winters because they store well.
Vasant Lad, a prominent Ayurvedic physician who brought authentic Ayurveda to the West, tells us:
Red beetroot is sweet and heating, which is great for grounding Vata types, a little heavy for kapha, who also like warmth. He warns that overconsumption can increase Pitta types due to the heating quality. He also says beetroot is essential for nourishing blood and the body’s primary life forces.
John Douillard, another pioneer of Ayurveda in the West, focuses on beetroot’s impact on digestion. He recommends eating one fresh beetroot daily for three months to thin the bile and flush the liver and gallbladder.
Roasted beetroot
I’m going to take this roasted beetroot and squash recipe I created a while ago and turn it into a small plate for vata types.
I’m also going to play with this soup for a pitta beetroot recipe. And, I haven’t decided what I’m going to do for kapha yet, to lighten up the heaviness and turn the health benefits of beetroot into something kapha types can enjoy.
And so, until next week. I hope you have been having a lovely Sunday and your week goes well.
Wishing you the warmest
Lucy x
Forgot to say, the fox I love to bump into in our street is back, I saw him the other evening. So happy I was.
Reading your warm words made me miss cozy wintery days... and also helped me take my nervous system down a notch. 😊 Love reading about beetroot and seeing mention of Vasant Lad, whose books were my introduction to Ayurveda years ago. Interestingly, Chinese Medicine also sees beets as a blood tonic. Thank you for a beautiful, nourishing read, Lucy!