Wardrobe Wellness Interview- Meg & Co

Find full interview on the Meg & Co website linked here.

Future of Wellness: Finding her path to healing herself, others and the planet- Interview with Endeavour College

See full interview on the Endeavour Website here

Half-way through her environmental science degree, Amy Parin decided to put it on hold to pursue her passion in natural health. She’s now in her first year of naturopathy at Endeavour.

“It was a big step, but I trusted my intuition. I have always been drawn to the holistic nature of naturopathy,” Amy said. “Plus, I’m also curious about how I might combine it with environmental science in the future. I’m so passionate about both. After all, if we’re doing the right things by our bodies, we’re doing the right thing by the environment.”

Amy is from Perth, Western Australia. While she was growing up, she travelled up and down the state’s coastline camping with her family and was often exposed to rural places. “I developed a strong connection to nature and the physical world from spending so much time outside, by the beach and exploring.”

Amy’s interest in naturopathy was sparked by her desire to be in her best health. “A naturopath was the first health professional to properly listen when I spoke about my challenges,” Amy said. “Rather than just giving me a prescription, she took the time to look at my overall health and lifestyle as well as educating me about how I could take better care of myself.”

“When I decided to enrol in naturopathy, I had been looking into it for a couple of years,” Amy said. “I went to an Endeavour College Open Day, and it was so friendly and welcoming. The atmosphere on campus is the same. I like that everyone there is on the same health journey.”

“I believe you can’t go wrong studying naturopathy – the knowledge is priceless. You can apply it in everyday life as well as use it to help others. I also never realised that there is so much nature entwined with natural health,” Amy laughed.

With COVID-19 restrictions, Amy’s first semester moved online, and she’s navigating webinars and screencasts. “I’m missing the instant Q&A sessions that we had in class,” Amy said. “The teacher-student ratio is great at Endeavour, and I was always the kid asking the most questions. Everyone at Endeavour is incredibly helpful, and there are so many resources. You’ve just got to ask, and even if they don’t have it, they’ll find a way of helping.”

Although she’s in her first year, Amy is already thinking about what she’ll do once she finishes. “I want to practice and maybe develop an online consultation model or resource that’s easily accessible to everyone and helps others to start their healing journey.” Amy is already sharing her knowledge via Instagram, building a committed following interested in natural health and sustainability.

Finding Strength and Ease Throughout Life’s Challenges

We all go through tough times and challenges its part of being human. Sometimes it feels like you are taking one step forward and two steps back.  However, as bad as they may seem during the moment we must have a sense of ease and peace of mind during our situation, reassured by the fact that these feelings will inevitably pass and are here to be experienced for a reason that may serve us now or later on in life.

We should instead, however, begin to see challenging times and failures as moments we can capitalize on and experiences to learn from. Think about this, how often do you look back at a tough time in your life where you considered yourself challenged or perhaps you feel you failed something, someone or yourself. Did it enable you to grow and learn as an individual? What were you able to learn or gain from the experience? Perhaps you discovered more about yourself- your mindset and mentality and that you’re stronger than what you may first think. Perhaps you learnt that you no longer like what you were trying to achieve as you have newfound interests. Its all about your perspective and how you choose to perceive a given moment.

You have the choice to decide how you want to feel about a situation in any given moment based on the perspective you have of it.

You could choose to perceive these times as failures and negative due to the stigma around ‘failing’ or not ‘succeeding’. Maybe you hear yourself saying such things internally like:

I’m unsuccessful.

I’m feeling so embarrassed, I can’t believe that happened?

I’m not worthy of that person’s attention, they don’t care about me.

I can never get what I want, it just never seems to work for me.

Why do I keep failing, why does this keep happening to me?

Does any of this negative self-talk sound familiar? What if I told you that the challenges and failures you experience could potentially be a gateway to success.

Challenges and failing = pathway to learning and success.

Yes, you heard me. Your perception around challenges and failure could be forever altered if you adopt the perspective that they are opportunities for growth and learning.

When one door shuts another one opens…

Perhaps that failure will lead to something greater and more amazing later down the track, more aligned with your life purpose and path. Maybe you didn’t get the date with the guy/girl you’ve been crushing on because your dream partner may be around the corner! You never know what life can throw at you and how things could change within very short periods of time, what is meant to be for you will be. The challenges and failures are there to serve you. This can help create ease during the uncomfortable moments where you feel challenged and gives you a greater sense of freedom to know that whatever occurred or is occurring for you is happening for a reason. You are meant to be going through these tough times for one reason or another. You can learn and choose to grow from this.

You are not defined by your failures or challenges nor do they define you. 

As a personal example, year 12 in high school was probably one of the most challenging years of my life I am yet to experience. I was studying like a madwoman and waking up early to study before school, staying up late after school. I didn’t get to spend time with my beautiful family and limited my time with friends due to the pressure I had put on myself to achieve results. Having just come out the other end of puberty I was battling body image thoughts and going to the gym and doing strenuous workouts and not nearly eating enough to fuel myself for what I was doing. This was incredibly damaging and harmful to my body not to mention how all the stress I was experiencing also was affecting me. Not only did this severely affect my energy levels, ability to concentrate, my hormones and mood it was counterproductive to what I was trying to achieve; good results.

This time taught me so much and more than many other lifestyle events could have ever taught me…

I learnt that my body and my mental health should be a number one priority in my life as without my health everything I do is limited in potential. I learnt how to better manage my stress and how to look after myself when doing large amounts of study and work. I learnt that exercising so much can be incredibly damaging to the body and has taken me to where I am now to appreciate, love and care for my body and mind. I also learnt that the results you get in your exams for year twelve don’t mean shit in the real world! LOL. But guys honestly, that was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of that year and what it has taught me about myself, my health and how to manage life.

Maybe you can relate to my story above in one way or another and have your own stories and tough times that have taught you well. During the moment they are incredibly hard but later on, down the track, they will serve you for the better and keep encouraging you onto the right life path. Failures and challenges have a purpose and are there to benefit you as an opportunity for growth and learning. Changing your perspective around these challenging times will help you master these moments when you’re feeling down, stressed, worried or anxious about certain situations enabling you to see the bigger picture and see them as a possibility for change.

You are not your success, failures, challenges good or bad times. you are a limitless being who is able to choose how each moment is perceived. You have the power to decide how you feel about your life and situations.

Everything you experience is only temporary…

Sending love as always, Amy xx

Balancing the Masculine and Feminine Energy

There is an undercurrent of energy that runs within all of us.

Your energy is the essence you give off, your vitality and brightness or also known as your ‘vibe‘. There are two types of energy states that you can be in different ratios and this energy is known as masculine and feminine energy. It is an ancient known energy originating from the male and female persona or could be interpreted as opposites. Everyone has a ratio of masculine to feminine energy found within them based on holistically looking at your lifestyle, personality, and sexuality.  Perhaps you have more feminine energy or more masculine energy naturally, or are a combination of the two, which most people are.

What is masculine and feminine energy I hear you ask? Masculinity and feminity can also be referred to as yin and yang energies. Yin being feminine and yang being masculine. They hold the key to having a more balanced life, more stability, and a sense of greater wellbeing.

Feminine embodies creativity, sensuality, sensitivity, caring, compassion, intuition, flow, slow, yin and openness.

Masculine embodies power, control, direction, decisiveness, achievement, breaking through, success, high energy, yang and dominating.

Now ask yourself which of these categories do I resonate with more? Maybe you can notice that you have characteristics of both within yourself which ultimately would be the perfect balance.

However, so often these days people are found to be more in a masculine state than what they naturally feel inclined to be. Traits such as power, ambition and drive are all seen as successful and more desirable to have in our working lives in order to appear ‘successful’. Perhaps at work for you at work there is little time for emotional reflection or time to even acknowledge how you’re feeling let alone being able to follow how you’re feeling and what you need at any given moment. As lets be honest, sometimes it can be quite inconvenient and you may even end up loosing your job depending on how accepting your work force is! Don’t get me wrong often you need to call upon the masculine traits as they are essential for getting work done, meeting deadlines and having that fire, drive and motivation within you. However, being in a constant state of masculinity sees massive problems with your bodies stress hormones. Signs of this is that you often feel burnt out from the over-expenditure of your energy, lack creativity and inspiration, hormonal issues/ monthly cycle issues for women and you feel stressed or anxious for large amounts of time. For our bodies to run in homeostasis we really need time to be more yin; reflective, calm and quiet and yet so many of us deny ourselves permission to acknowledge how we’re feeling. Being in a feminine state is essential for your emotional and physical wellbeing for both men and women.

I have personally found that putting more thought and energy into being more in my feminine has done wonders for my hormones, vitality, energy and ability to be present and give to people more often. I am less burnt out and thoroughly enjoy the creativity and health benefits of slowing down and giving the body more time to restore and heal. For me delving deeper into my feminity brought more self-love than I thought was imaginable. I stopped judging my emotions and asking myself what is wrong with me? Why am I so moody today? Instead I starting seeing my emotions as strengths and indicators as to whether something is right or benefitting me in any given moment. I have also been able to become more aware of what I enjoy and what I do not. Where my body is in my cycle (natural contraception) and also helps me understand why I may be feeling the way I do! I have shifted my perspective to honor my femininity and it has helped massively in the balancing of my hormones, mental wellbeing and my sense of creativity and self-expression.

Tips for getting more into your feminine:

• Journalling how you’re feeling at times of stress, when you begin to feel something come up for you emotionally, when your period begins, full moon and the new moon or whenever you’re feeling up for it. Journalling is such a quick and wonderful way to tune into how you’re actually feeling. Ask yourself how am I feeling today?

• Connecting to your cycle (for women): We are actually so gifted that each month we get the opportunity to bleed and start a new cycle, allowing the release of old energetic patterns and to formulate what we wish to manifest in the coming cycle. Do not resist your blood and cycle as it is sacred, special, powerful and is something so unique to yourself and other women! When you have a good bleed it means you’re in an ultimately healthy state of being and homeostasis between the mind and body.

• Spend more time in nature, mother nature is where we all originated from and where we will return to. Nothing makes you feel better than some fresh air, a swim in the ocean or a walk in a forest.

• Dressing in a way you love! Express yourself how you desire by wearing what you love and what makes you feel beautiful and sexy as a woman or handsome and fun as a man. Be fun and fearless in what you want to wear in whatever form that may be.

• Get creative, Be it journaling, painting, drawing, writing, singing, dancing etc! This allows you to get more deeply into flowing and allowing self-expression to flourish.

These are some tips I have been practicing however, it is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of ways to get more in your feminine. I encourage you to get creative and find ways that make you feel you feel the best practicing to what you’re most attracted too 

Ultimately what is most desirable is to have both masculine and feminine qualities to have the unified balance of yin and yang. But too often now societal expectations to have a more yang existence is creating burn out and emotional destruction. Learning to harness more feminine and yin energy is incredibly beneficial for both men and women. I share these with you purely from my personal experience on how beneficial embracing my feminine more often was for me. It is the rest and digest state our body needs to be able to keep up with and manage the world we live in today!

I hope this helped you in some way

Sending love always, Amy xx