Category Archives: MIND.Instinct.THINK.

Beauty. Healing. Body. Art.

Written on December 27, 2011 by in BODY.Sensual.BE., MIND.Instinct.THINK., SPIRIT.Intuition.FEEL., Thriving Autoimmune.

As I Thrive Autoimmune, I’m learning to feel at Home in my BODY. My MIND. BODY. SPIRIT. are reuniting. In Me. A super cute. Knobbly kneed. Mindfully over-thinking. Spiritually seeking Team.

I am lucky to have always adored my BODY. for what it could do. I am in constant incredulous wonderment of it’s complexity and resilience. Most of the time I have even felt that it is pretty gosh darn adorable. Yet even in this one sentence, disconnect is obvious. This illness (which I’ve never claimed as MY illness, hoping to keep it separate from me) has disconnected me from my BODY. Because it would do scary things, or not do things I wanted it to do. Because I could not understand what was going on, why it was out out balance, why I could not control its kooky anomalies, no matter how disciplined, gentle, strict, nourishing I was. No matter how much Love I wrapped my little BODY. in, it still misbehaved.

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I’d love you to share the LIVELIGHTLY Love. Simply link to ilivelightly.com xo

Now I am on my journey to Vibrant Health, I must stop seeing my BODY. as separate from Me. My MIND. and SPIRIT. have been in a super-exclusive club. Team Intuition. Knowledge. Compassion. Intellect. Learning. Discovery. Spirituality. We’re on top of it.

But what about my poor BODY.? All alone?

Ever the uncoordinated, under-achieving, scrawny kid, picked last for netball. While the cool kids talk Philosophy (this is my story, I’m fairly sure this is what the cool kids talk about).

What about my Sporty Side. My Sexy Side. My Rough and Tumble Side. My Senses. Taste. Touch. Smell. SIght. Sound. What about Pleasure? My Instincts? My Sensuality?

I have enjoyed all of the things my BODY. has let me do. But because I was in pain most of the time, my enjoyment was through the lens of my MIND. and SPIRIT. .

I enjoyed Food on so many levels.

Academically. I’m passionate about Healing Holistically. History. Culture. Ingredients. Recipes. Techniques. Flavour combinations. Preparation. Through LOVE. Spoiling my boyfriend with a seriously over-the-top breakfast in bed, or Nourishing my Loves with a surprise picnic in the living room. I enjoyed food through my Passion for Sustainability. Supporting local producers. Exploring Farmers Markets. Discovering new local ingredients. But because of my Illness, I was limited in Tangibly Savouring. Tasting. Feeling. Inhaling. Salivating. Licking. Slurping.

I enjoyed exploring the spectacular limits of my BODY.

Swimming. Running. Dancing. Yoga. Kickboxing. Tai Chi. Cycling. Climbing. Gym-ing. Walking endlessly. Cuddling. Kissing. Holding Hands. And schtuff. So much of this was in an effort to heal myself. To find balance. Or in complete denial of my limits, just wanting to keep up with my friends. But the enjoyment was mostly from being involved. Immersed. In the Flow. I could block out the pain in my BODY. because I was having fun. And the more I blocked the pain. The more disconnected I became.

Because without the ability to Feel pain. I could no longer Feel pleasure.

So now comes the AMAZING part. I’m inviting my BODY. to join my Team.

MIND. BODY. SPIRIT. . We are One. And we are going to start acting like it.

How am I healing? Now that I know my Illness is being looked after by my team of Holistic Wonder Doctors, I can totally focus on following their Doctorly orders. Medicine. Diet. Physio. Ecetera. Along with the important stuff. Beauty. Nourishing. Nurturing. Loving. And being gentle with myself.

This looks like Yoga. Meditation. Breathing. Delighting in myself. Taking every opportunity to run my hands over my arms, legs, tummy. Not to mention my cute buttinski. It seems my poor nerves don’t know where one part of me begins and the other ends, so I’m reintroducing them one by one. Pampering. Letting myself sleep. Take naps. Relax. Walking slowly instead of rushing. Smelling flowers. Singing. Making myself feel beautiful. Rubbing Essential oils on my wrists. And coconut oil on my skin. And today, painting swirls of (hypoallergenic) hypercolour across my skin, because it felt gorgeous.

Luxurious Simplicity. Lots of LIVELIGHTLY BODY. Love.

It’s painful sometimes. But as I learn to reconnect and find home within myself. MY BODY. I’ll start to feel Pleasure too. And I’ll know that I am on my way to Vibrant Health.

LIVING. LEARNING. LIGHTLY.

I am capturing lessons. Things I have learned, am learning, or re-learning. And in this way I anchor the messages within myself. I want to sink my fingers into Colour. Sparkle. So my idea is this. I am going to paint. Yes. With my hands. Paint. Brushes. I am so excited to push my boundaries. To try something new. To create something beautiful. It will be scrappy. Messy. Electric-hued. To embrace my inner artist. With an abundance of glitter, which is my idea of Luxurious Simplicity. 

A LITTLE NOTE I am sharing my experience with this yet-to-be-determined Autoimmune-ish illness as an impatient ‘patient’ (not a Doctor). If you or your Loves are suffering from anything similar, and I can help at all, I would be absolutely delighted to share more details with you. Simply tweet me @izennah or email izennahhogan@izennah.com. Sarah Wilson,  Jess Ainscough and Chris Kresser have provided inspiration throughout my journey. Their blogs are incredible resources.

I would be delighted to Tweet you!

Are your MIND. BODY. SPIRIT. acting like the magnificent Team you are? How do you do it? I’d Love your tips!

Mind. Lightly.

Written on November 5, 2011 by in MIND.Instinct.THINK., MY SELF.

I am an introspective detective.

I have lived so much of my life in my own head, forever following interesting threads of my intangible self. My MIND, thoughts and emotions. My CENTRE. My I.Q. Where each of these begins and ends I could not tell you, but I know they are the greater me, the overarching me, contained within my physical body, yet connected to all. It is this mind-bending abstraction that compels me to delve deep, nourish and discover myself, and therefore the Universe. This kooky adventure could very well have lead me down the rabbit hole, lost in the maze of my own mind.

You see, I am the archetypal monkey-mind, thoughts racing and colliding like an overexcited kindergarten class. I am an indigo child, my emotional landscape so sublimely treacherous, vulnerable to the slightest energetic shift. I am spirited, clumsily clamouring for meaning, truth, enlightenment, equanimous poise. And I am overzealously academic, aching to absorb and consolidate knowledge; the sole source of my frustration being the things I-do-not-know.

Cobbling together these natural tendencies inside one girl seemed at times like a cosmic prank, for I invariably existed in an anxious frenzy for years. So tightly wound, so frantically seeking that gemstone of truth that would let me see my purpose, my passion. So delighted by the world I could not let any opportunity escape, so intent on pinning-down colour-coding and labeling all the parts of myself.

I imagined at the end of this search, I would be ‘done’.

I would figure myself and everything out, and the puzzle pieces of my life would arrange themselves neatly in place. I would be elegant, my hair would be perfect, I would be well read, I would have an extremely important job, a doting husband, charming children, a home, a summer home, perhaps I would play tennis. Most importantly, my mind would be clear, my thoughts and emotions neat and tidy, and my intellect honed.

Thank goodness the journey did not end like this.

Nor at all. Far from finding that one magic key, I committed day-by-day to cultivating mindfulness and learning to Live Lightly. As I created space in the various spheres of my life, I started to experience little vignettes of stillness in my thoughts, emotions, spirit, and intellect. This has granted me glimpses of clarity, serenity, focus and delight, which up until recently, I could not even have imagined.

I am pouring every drop of this into Live Lightly, because living with Luxurious Simplicity is allowing me to gently align my intangible self in the most beautiful way, and I am so excited to be able to share it.

What is MIND Lightly?

Live Lightly. Simplicity.

I am learning to communicate and distill my experience through Live Lightly. I really want to be concise.

I love sharing my stories. Each story has the same theme. A part of me is super cluttered. My mind for example, chock-a-block full of limiting beliefs, negative self-talk, stagnant emotion, weird unquestioned associations, cu-razy assumptions ecetera. I learn to strip away the layers. I release something I no longer need. This is the hard part. However in doing so, I create space and lightness for another part of me to shine.

No ‘The End’. Sorry. It is an ongoing process. Not easy. Always beautiful. Worth it.

At least I think so. Because I wake up in the mornings, quietly filled with ridiculous excitement. And the quiet part is incredible, because I now carry with me, more moments than not, a strong CENTRE and a quiet MIND.

And that feels so Luxurious to me.

I would be delighted to Tweet you!

Do you have a monkey-mind? Are you and indigo-child? An academic? A spritual seeker? I would love to hear about your journey.