Warm words for weary minds
Our street is really quiet. Before the 1800’s this used to be a rural area, a patchwork of fields and nurseries and the silence of that, is still woven into the atmosphere. My window boxes filled with herbs, a tiny reminder of lands filled with food and wildlife.
Walking along the pavement earlier, the orange blossom was out and I could smell this as I walk past garden gates. I crossed the road where there’s honeysuckle growing and smelt that too. Delicious. Now, on a building the sun shines, dappled with shadows and ivy, it is the end of a peaceful day here on our street. The cat with big fluffy tail sauntering, and cool evening air turning day into night. Dan next door fixes his van, with his two tiny children standing on a suitcase, little heads peering under the bonnet.
Down the street and around the corner, night life begins on the main Gloucester Road; the sounds of drums and guitars, chatter, beer and laughter. The smell of onions and curry, pizza and wine. Across the road cocktails on the sidewalk and people out for forgetful moments before next week begins again. It is Saturday night in June, and the birds are asleep.
I walk beside the unlit park of trees swaying in the nighttime breeze, then onto low lit pavements with houses and twisty streets. I turn this way and that hoping to find a fox. I keep this up for about an hour, then wend my way back onto nightlife road; rolling humanity, shouting, giggles, post working week fun-time, mingles of voices, music; and then here I am, nearly back home, walking past that post box at the end of the street. The smell of orange blossom and honeysuckle again, as night lies still. And the ancient quietness of this particular place undisturbed, while morning, breezes in the distance, not so far away.
The next day, this morning, cloud thick in the sky but I know, up above there is blue sky and sunshine and there are stars twinkling, even if I can’t see them. I know it.
I know it in every cell of my body because, we are part of that, and I haven’t forgotten.
And then, the sun came out.
Ayurveda
For my new subscribers – a big friendly shout out to those who have been recommending me – Ayurveda is a nature-based holistic approach to health that is over 5000 years old. Yoga is an Ayurvedic therapy, and the Yogis of ancient India passed this healthcare system down to us. This approach to health reconnects us to the natural world we are a part of, with its simple rhythms that match our own.
After healing 15 years of digestive issues in 3 months with an Ayurvedic approach, I was so impressed I went on to train, now running a clinic. I’m going to start sharing everything I know, along with continued research into Ayurveda and how it can help us with the different chronic diseases and mental health concerns our culture is over-whelmed with, for my paying subscribers – I will be writing short books on the different chronic health conditions and how Ayurveda can help, serialised on this substack as I write them. I’m also going to be producing other things too.
Other things
I’ll also be offering a monthly Q&A; a wellbeing podcast; recordings of warm words to sooth weary minds and to support your brain to deal with stress; yoga nidra recordings; and all my books serialised as I write them, kicking off with “Your Peaceful Belly” which is already published.
I began this substack just over a year ago, and had intended to offer all this for just £4.99 each month, much sooner. However my mums dementia took a turn for the worse and a few other things needed to be moved through. But now, I have professional recording equipment – that I actually understand how to use – and 2 days a week freed up to start producing my ideas.
I switched on payments this week, but this Slow Sunday will always be free, along with the Ayurveda shorts, 2 minute reads that go out on Wednesdays, which will be expanded upon for my paying subscribers. For instance, I will be posting menu plans for each of the constitutions, recipes, along with seasonal changes to these, and plans for bringing each constitutional type back into balance, as well as supported Ayurvedic seasonal cleanses, digestive plans and Ayurvedic complimentary healthcare. And, as the Q&A sessions progress, this will let me know what materials would be useful for you all, that I will then produce so that you can look after yourselves with Ayurveda.
This is going to be a great option for anyone who either prefers not to have personal one to one sessions or who can’t afford it – when I healed with Ayurveda I couldn’t afford private health sessions and so did lots of research then patched together an approach, before going on to train. And so, by becoming a paid subscriber you’ll have me doing all the legwork for you, as I share everything I learned in my training and continue to learn through my clinic and research; plus you get to ask me questions to clarify any concerns, through the monthly Q&A’s.
The Your Wellbeing Podcast
The Your Wellbeing Podcast will bring Ayurveda together with my other passion; helping people address mental health, with easy ways to understand and address common mental health problems such as stress, anxiety, anger, depression, ptsd, Cptsd, and low self-esteem; that are so prevalent in our world today. The warm words in this free Slow Sunday letter are to help lower stress levels, and when I produce the 20 minute recordings, they will shift the brain from high beta waves to relaxed theta, helping to reduce the stress your brain is trying to manage, and firing up your positive neural networks – these reduce and sometimes stop firing when stress builds.
Another way of lowering stress levels and firing up your positive neural networks is with beauty, words and images, which is why I include beautiful images in these Slow Sunday letters.
I hope that you will join me as a paid subscriber but also really appreciate you being here if you don’t and, I’d love to get to know you, or how I could support you through what is turning out to be a challenging period of history, through your comments. Or feel free to email me at yourwellbeing@substack.com.
Another piece of land
I have the opportunity to grow food on another piece of land. It is just 64 square meters, and completely covered in 6ft high brambles, you can just see it in the distance of this photo. It is a 6ft bramble forest. I will share the journey of Turing this bramble forest into a beautiful kitchen garden.
The brambles will be cut down, I will cover the ground and gradually dig out their crown roots – virtually impossible to get rid of every piece of root. I have been growing food organically with the no-dig method for 30 years and it truly is one of my happy places and things to do.
So, I now have two small pieces of land to grow food on, this one and the no-dig allotment on the Roots site. I’ll be sharing the journey of these two pieces of land in my Slow Sunday letters, along with warm words, extracts from my ‘Fall Asleep’ stories that will become recordings, and ad hoc recipes – there will be a recipe book serialised in the future, I’m just deciding whether to focus on digestive health for the recipes, reducing stress, a combination of both, or bright colourful recipes for fun & cheer. Or, perhaps a combination of all these things, what do you think? Answers in comments much appreciated.
Soon, I will be in allotment heaven!
You can guess where I will be for the rest of this slow Sunday.
Wishing you the warmest,
Lucy x
So lovely to see your Substack growing and evolving Lucy and offering nourishment to people on so many levels. It seems to me that digestive health is inextricably linked to reducing stress, so I'd be hard pressed to choose between them 😊 Looking forward to learning more, and keen for gardening inspiration too as I need to get back into my own neglected plot of land in the coming months 😀
Allotment heaven indeed!! I look forward to all that you are planning to bring to the metaphorical table & seeing your work on both your allotments.