the most heart-full interview I’ve ever given…

I recently did an interview with Joi Murugavell  who does “oodlies”. Oodlies are cartoon-y embellishments that tell the intimate back stories of people Joi meets online. She cyber stalks people that grab her interest, learning about their quirks from Twitter, FB, blogs and so on and forms an intuitive picture of them. She then sends the quirkiest interview request in Christendom and from the answers she gets back, she “oodlies”.

Picture 119 the most heart-full interview I've ever given...

I was her latest victim. The experience was expansive, real, raw, risky, exhilarating, kind, true. I got super teary typing out my responses because I was so grateful for the depths she’d gone to to ask questions that dug deep.

Oh, how I’d love all journalists to dig like this, to reach for the humanity in a person and share something true and gutsy about the people they meet.

For the full interview go here. She’s also ‘oodlied’ a children’s book which is just gorgeous and has lovely adult lessons for us all throughout.

But I’ve pulled out some of the bits I enjoyed answering the most….

Joi: What do you often think about before the cameras start rolling?

Sarah: I have a phrase that goes around in my head when I’m about to do something big and a bit scary and a bit lonely, “This is serious Mum”. It started when I was a kid and I think I started saying it before TISM. Somehow it reminds me of all the times life has been vast and boundary-less and confronting and I’ve been alone… and all the times I’ve managed to get through it, regardless. It calms me down.

Then I don’t think anything at all and I concentrate on connecting with the person I’m meant to be talking to

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fourteen rules for eating by Michael Pollan (and me)

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

In seven words, Michael Pollan succinctly sums up the best way to eat. He’s famous for this mantra, from his superb book In Defense of Food. It sticks, hey!?

Picture 115 fourteen rules for eating by Michael Pollan (and me)                            photo via Cannelle et Vanille

 Michael has just released his latest book Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual in which he lays out the most deadset simple rules for eating that don’t tax willpower and brainpower. And they work. For health and for the planet. Here’s some of his highlights:

some tips from Michael:

1. if it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.

2. when shopping in a supermarket, shop the periphery of the store and avoid the centre aisles laden with processed foods.

3. avoid sugar… (and) note, too, that refined flour is hardly different from sugar once it gets into the body.

4. avoid foods advertised on television…and food products that make health claims. No natural food is simply a collection of nutrients, and a processed food stripped of its natural goodness to which nutrients are then added is no bargain for your body.

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if you’re stuck creatively, this might help

This week in Sunday Life I trust the process94837 8 468 if you're stuck creatively, this might help

 

I had dinner with a guy recently who dedicated entrée to telling me that all writers are self-indulged w*nkers. “You all go on about the pain of writing,” he said. “Plumbers don’t write about how hard their work is, you don’t read about ‘plumber’s block’.”

I’m a writer. I had to respond. First, I said, with the spine tingle of a good comeback, plumbers don’t write. “Perhaps they take out their frustration on an S-bend,” I suggested gently. “We know about writer’s pain because we read their work. “

Second, writing is a creative process. And any creative process – whether it’s painting or interpretive dancing or inventing a new S-bend wrench – is the expression of the human struggle to share our inner selves. Displaying our inside, or “true”, selves is all about standing out on the farthest limb, exposed and vulnerable, and saying “here!”. We all have, at our core, an important urge to do this, and yet at the same time a primal fear of it. Ergo, creative block.

Funnily, not long after I found myself at the Byron Bay Writer’s Festival chatting to a bunch of writers about the pain of the creative struggle. (Here’s a new collective noun for you: “a writer’s festival of whingers”.) Whether you’re a writer or wrench inventor or embarking on a big, formative project, you know this struggle. It’s an important one. A damn tough one, too.

There was consensus from most of the writers: just start. It doesn’t matter if you produce crap. From the crap, something always emerges.

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great bike satchel ideas, from you!

I recently shared my fixation of finding the perfect bike satchel so that I can ride light and free. To be honest, I think you guys provided some infinitesimally good suggestions. Here they are, if you’re still in the market.

4860586299 e7481637ec great bike satchel ideas, from you!

And  many cheered triumphantly about a Crumpler bag being the perfect solution…

Some other ideas for stylish satchels or bags:

Gala Darling says: I loooove C.S.C. but zatchels have some great options also!

Picture 15 great bike satchel ideas, from you!

 

Alison: Another satchel I was tempted with was from the Canadian company Roots – they have some really classic designs

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Tuesday Eats: a green detox for spring

It’s almost spring. Which, for all kinds of reasons, is a good time to get fresh with our foods and clean things up a bit.  Our bodies respond so well at this time of year to a “cleanse” – it shakes us from the winter heaviness and gets us digesting light and breezily ready for the heat. Oh yes, heat!

Picture 11 Tuesday Eats: a green detox for spring

From an ayurvedic POV, it’s all about enlivening kaphic energy (spring needs an alert kaphic energy to withstand the dampness). (I’ve written rundowns on ayurvedic doshas, and the vata effect previously)

Personally, I’m not a massive fan of full-on, restrictive eating detoxes. And, indeed, it’s the principle behind the new show I host Eat Yourself Sexy, which launches THIS THURSDAY!!! Our bodies naturally detox far better when fed good food, aided with a few tricks. Honestly, eating our way through a clean out is soooo much more fun.

If you feel like cleaning things out ready for the warmer weather, a few tricks and recipes (and please add your own ideas at the bottom…these are just the things I’m going to be doing):

1. Get plenty of sleep – our bodies detox throughout the night. We need to get to bed by 10pm to align with the detox/cell regeneration processes throughout the night.

2. Eat ginger. And other digestive herbs and spices as much as you can: cumin, fennel, cayenne pepper, turmeric.

3. Drink digestive teas. Licorice, fennel, mint, dandelion…

4. Eat green. As much as you can. Green cleans. Silverbeet, spinach, kale, broccoli…and be sure to start to move into the cooler green things as the weather warms: avocado and cucumber, mint and parsley. I love this recipe for rawvocado soup from wholeliving (pic above). It pretty much combines the top cleansing ingredients in the one little package….

Chilled ‘Rawvocado’ Soup with Coconut Water

This recipe makes two servings.  If you want more soup, double the amounts accordingly.

  • 2 large, ripe avocados
  • 1 cup coconut water (you could also use nut milk or filtered water)
  • juice of 1 lime (about 4 tablespoons)
  • ½ cup coriander leaves
  • ¼ cup chives
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

Cut open and pit avocados. Scoop out flesh, reserving a small portion of one half for garnish.

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend on high until smooth. If the soup is too thick, add more coconut water until the desired consistency is reached (it should coat the back of a spoon, but not be solid).

Pour into a large jar with a tight-fitting lid and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Serve when cold. Garnish with avocado cubes and chives or coriander.

5. Chlorella is great. The benefits are

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Yes! Louise Hay tells me her #1 healing trick

photo2 Yes! Louise Hay tells me her #1 healing trick

Louise Hay, the world’s biggest self-help publisher and author, is laughing at me. What’s your first thought when you wake up, she asks.

“Um, most days it’s, ‘Shit, I have so much to do’. Then I start composing emails and conversations in my head…” I stop and look at Louise’s face.

“OK. Correction. I used to wake up that way.”

This week Hay gave me a lesson in affirmations as she ate breakfast (scrambled eggs, three sausages and five prunes). (For more tips from my i/v with Louise click here.)

“Become aware of your self-critique and turn it into past tense,” she instructs.

This proves challenging. Yet highly entertaining for Hay. Hay’s 84 and I’m astounded by her energy and sparkle (her whole being is awesomely clear and bright) as she helps me switch my negative self-talkin’ ways.

If Hay didn’t invent positive-speak, she packaged and delivered it to the masses. Her first book, You Can Heal Your Life – which explains illness in terms of negative emotions in your body – has sold more than 50 million copies. When folk tell you your throat infection is about trapped creativity, they’ve read Hay. When they start quoting pretty much any self-help mantra they’re read one of her authors (she publishes Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer and dozens more).

I was born acerbic and I’m one of those people who protects their ego by taking the piss out of themselves before someone else can. “So I’ve got a lot of resistance to affirmations,” I tell her. (Dammit! Correction. I used to.)

So Hay shares her favourite trick after forty years of healing others and curing herself of cancer. “Get a mirror.”

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oh glory be! a Conscious Club

Frankly, I’m bored. Mostly. Not of life. But of my ways. I want to live more, I want to live life more fully, I want to engage. I cry this out from my very being sometimes. But I default often to pastimes and company that are not always full of growth. You too?

Picture 111 oh glory be! a Conscious Club

Frankly, again, I’m crying out for intimate relationships with big minds and hearts. I want true relationship. I want to relate. And be intimate.

It’s been too long. Honestly. I’m being frank here.

Now I say all this as a preamble to a concept that my meditation teacher Tim and a few others have devised, that you might be interested in. On Wednesday next week The Conscious Club launches in Sydney – a night of real chats, real thinking, real food with folk after same. In the founder’s words:

The Conscious Club was born of the ever increasing desire of many to enjoy a social outing that was fun, social, informative and uplifting in every way.

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creativity tip: fake it and you always make it

It upsets me sometimes that so many people stand back from what they really want to do because they don’t think they’re good enough, or don’t have the skills, or won’t ever be a great painter/swimmer/public speaker/writer/jewellery maker/jumper knitterer. So why bother.

doll things creativity tip: fake it and you always make itBut the more creative people I meet, the more I know this: rarely do you start out good at anything. You become it.

And not through anything particularly sloggish. But by just doing it.

Now. No run-up or special conditions.

And by getting messy. And being bad at it.

And while you’re getting good you fake it. You pretend you know what you’re doing, until you do.

Because it’s in the faking it – the role-playing – that you become it.

Take Michelangelo. His rivals persuaded Junius II to hire him to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. They knew Michelangelo didn’t use color and had never painted in fresco. They were sure he would turn down the commission because he’d be too scared to fail, or he’d accept and stuff it up. The former they’d use as proof of his lack of talent. The latter…well, the amateur results would show him up as a failure.

Michelangelo accepted the gig. And this is what happened.

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Question: how do you travel and not fall apart, health-wise

Every now and then I answer a question that crops up a lot from you lot. This week: how do I travel so much and not fall apart at the seams?

92183 2 468 Question: how do you travel and not fall apart, health-wise

I do travel a lot. I fly from Byron Bay to Sydney or Melbourne every week or so. Sometimes it’s a day trip. Sometimes I have to stay a few nights and I stay in air-conditioned hotels and friends spare rooms that aren’t always ventilated etc as I like. It’s really very disruptive to my health. And I DO fall apart at the seams a bit.

Don’t know about you but travel also grinds my digestive system to a halt. I don’t go to the loo. Plus, I get puffy and lethargic. And tired. Plane travel is so bad for us. Ditto air-con (which is everywhere when you travel). It’s hard to eat well on the road and we have odd timetables and sleep patterns.

And so I’ve had to learn ways to make it work for me. It’s taken some trial and error, but I have a flow now. Of sorts.

My key advice is to create routine. As much as possible.

To replicate what you do at home, on the road, as much as possible.

And lesson the toxic load at all turns.

So a list of the routines and toxic-reduction tricks that work for me:

In hotels:

* You’re going to think I’m bonkers: As soon as I arrive I go around and turn off all powerpoints in the room. All of them, including the one to the fridge. The EMF load in hotel rooms is crazy – fridges, phones, alarm clocks, internet…plus the load from surrounding rooms etc. I do what I can… (and am sure to turn them all back on when I leave…. although I do feel bad I stuff the clock radios).

* I request a room away from the lift well and away from the power room. Again to lessen the EMF load.

* I wear earplugs and an eyemask. Again, bonkers? Nah.  It’s all about minimising interruptions and stimulus wherever you can.

* I go to bed early, as much as I enjoy sitting in bed watching news channels to all hours.

Exercise:

Exercise is key. You really have to make sure you get your lymphatic system moving – to flush toxins and to help facilitate routine (bowel and otherwise).

* If there’s no gym and/or I arrive late at night: I run up and down the firestairs in the hotel. I know it seems mad. But you do what you have to do. I came across others doing the same after arriving in HongKong when we filmed MasterChef. We laughed as we passed each other. Just make sure you remember what floor you entered from and that the firedoors allow you back out.

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