I have started turning my mornings into miracles, thanks to The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod – a book I first heard about a couple of years ago and wish I had read before now. The general idea is to get up an hour (or less) earlier than usual and use that time to work on yourself before you start reacting to life, processing kids etc. His acronym for the 6 activities to undertake during this newfound free time is:
S – silence (meditation, prayer, breath work etc)
A – affirmations – set affirmations that are directly linked to your goals and to how you need to execute them 
V – visualisations. I always incorporate my visualisations into the end of my meditation so I do affirmations 3rd
E – exercise. It can be HIIT, yoga, fast, slow, you name it. Just move your body
R – reading – whether dipping into old favourite texts or reading a new personal growth book – anything that inspires
S – scribing, ie journaling. I have a lot to say about journaling and am working on a lengthy post about it at the moment, but it’s an incredible tool for many reasons!

To get the life you want, you have to first become the person you need to be to achieve this life. That’s why procrastination can be so dangerous. They’re 2 of the a-ha moments from Hal Elrod’s book above. His point – we all want a spectacular career / relationship / body / bank balance … but if we wake up and react to the same things every day, where do we think that life is going to magically appear from? Every time we procrastinate or skip a workout etc, it’s not an isolated incident: “Every time you choose to do the easy thing, instead of the right thing, you are shaping your identity, becoming the type of person who does what’s easy, rather than what’s right.”… “When you see the big picture you start to take the alarm clock more seriously.” Anyway – read the book!

I learnt the term NUTRIVORE this week – a great new word for my vocabulary as it sums up my approach to eating. It came up on Dr Mark Hyman’s podcastinterview with Chris Kresser. More on that podcast episode in a sec. A health website came up with a good definition of “nutrivore” when I googled it: “a nutrivore is a person who prioritizes eating nutrient-dense, high-quality, and in-season foods.” They suggest asking yourself: “Am I eating a diet that first, provides the nutrients I need to be healthy and prevent future disease, and second, supports deeper healing or helps me meet my wellness goals?”

I also learnt a lot about meat on the podcast episode. There is so much confusion – and propaganda – around meat in the media. I have had a lot of conflict myself, as I truly believe that grass-fed meat is a cornerstone of a healthy diet for me personally, but I do worry about the environmental effects of my actions. I’ve done a lot of reading around this , but this conversation did help clarify some issues for me. We as a family only buy grass-fed, extremely high welfare meat and animals reared in this way are significantly less environmentally harmful than feed-lot animals, for many reasons. The meat itself and its effects are vastly different depending on whether you buy grass-fed or feed-lot, with the former having much higher levels of Omega 3 and nutrients. If you can’t afford much good meat, organ meat is the most nutrient-dense you can consume. As for the environment – Kresser claims that you’d need to be vegan for 5 years to compensate for the emissions of flying LA – London. I have no idea if this is accurate but it was an impactful statement!

Did you know? Childen operate in different brainwave frequencies from us:
This info comes from Dr Joe Dispenza’s extraordinary book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, which I am re-reading. 
From 0-2yrs children’s brains are mainly in Delta waves (which adults experience in deep sleep)
From 2-5/6yrs they move up to Theta – for adults this is our state when half awake / asleep. Theta is also where a hypnotist can access our subconscious mind because there is no veil between the conscious / subconscious minds
From 5-8 children’s brains change to an Alpha frequency – where light meditation takes adults. Dispenza: “the inner world of imagination tends to be as real as the outer world of reality … That’s why they pretend so well.” I love this explanation of why our children immerse themselves in imaginary play so beautifully. In case you’re wondering, adults spend almost all their waking time in Beta waves, representing analytical thinking, where the door to the subconscious mind closes.