It’s just over four months since I started the Neural Retraining Programme and shared that I would post updates on my progress. Clearly I haven’t done that - see that’ll teach me to make commitments! Anyway, better late than never. So has there been progress?? I guess I should start by confessing that I wasn’t consistent in doing the program. I really struggled with it. I tried and tried to do the rounds (one hour a day, repeating mantras and positive visualisations) but as I didn’t enjoy it, I Continue Reading
Winter in the Kitchen Garden
In the last post I wrote that we built vegie beds at the end of summer in our proposed kitchen garden space. It was a last minute rush, as I'd pretty much ruled out having the energy to get it done and maintain it over winter. Then all of a sudden we had a burst of enthusiasm, and decided to get something in so we could learn what works. So one day in early Autumn, we decided to throw it together. There was no time (or budget) to build raised beds and we didn't have much in the way of Continue Reading
Designing our Permaculture Garden
It's six months since we settled here on Gunung Willam Balluk country just outside Macedon, and many hours have been passed blissfully imagining the garden paradise we'll co-create here with Mama Nature. My explorations have taken me on a fascinating journey of discovery about the nature of this land before white colonists wrested it out from under the people who had cared for it for countless millennia. How might I find the right balance between allowing the land to return to it's natural state Continue Reading
My Neural Retraining Adventure – Update 1
About a month ago I shared that I was about to start a neural retraining programme, based on the theory that some chronic health problems can be traced back to a neural impairment - basically a brain injury. I’ve now completed a 4 day training programme, and am into my 2nd week of implementing the strategies. I’ve decided to share regular updates on my progress, as I think this is something that a lot of people would be intrigued about. Now that I’m immersed in the programme, I should state Continue Reading
The Last Time I Tell This Story
We all have a story. It’s the story we tell ourselves when we wake up in the morning and step into the details of our day. The story tells us who we are and how to operate in the world. We use our story to make decisions, engage with people and makes sense of things in our life. Our story evolves with us. Every period of our life adds a chapter, and some chapters change the flow of the narrative so fundamentally that we find ourselves in a totally different story to the one we expected to be Continue Reading
On Writing, Finding your Place and Hibernation
I’ve been writing a lot lately. Nearly every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I write in the shower. I write while I drive. I write as I chop vegetables, put away shoes and fold blankets. I know it’s time to really write, on paper, when my thoughts are no longer rambling and a bit wild the way thoughts are, but rather more like essay drafts complete with fully formed sentences and paragraphs. I always have such grand intentions about writing. I will do it often and consistently. I will get Continue Reading
The BIG change we always wanted to make
I called this blog Slow Change because it was going to be the story of how my family and I made small, slow changes to our life. It was all about slowing down and living as though we had bought a little house in the country and were living the simple life. Even though we hadn’t, actually. Even though circumstances made it impossible for us to buy that little house and create that idyllic life of country simplicity. My dreams of kitchen gardens, orchards, home made jams, freshly baked bread, lush Continue Reading
The Magdalene Line
I recently finished reading the Kathleen McGowan trilogy about the Magdalene line. It's a fictional interpretation of many of the theories supporting the idea that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were a couple, and had children whose bloodlines still exist today. For poorly written books they were strangely compelling. I am pretty fussy about books, and I was not impressed with McGowan as an author. BUT I find the bloodline theory fascinating, and found Robert Langdon's The Da Vinci Code equally Continue Reading
Womens Circle Training with Sora Surya No
In May this year I joined 26 other women for an amazing week of training with Bad-Ass Warrior Priestess Sora Surya No. I was there to learn about Womens Circles, and like many of the women in the room, I was expecting a kind of how-to guide and maybe a manual at the end of the week. This did not happen. In the morning of Day 1 we were informed that the internet was full of useful advice on running womens circles, but the only way we could really understand the power of circle was to experience Continue Reading
That Time I Decided To Run a Womens Circle
Many years ago a very intuitive woman suggested I join a Womens Circle. I didn't know what that was, but I was pretty sure it wasn't for me. It sounded kind of hippy and a bit scary. I felt that it would probably involve chanting, and maybe hugging. I stayed the hell away. Cut to 2017 and I was spending a lot of time alone on my couch. I'm not a classic extrovert, but I am lifted by connection with others, even though I need plenty of down time to replenish myself afterwards. I used to Continue Reading