The Story Behind Essential Organic Living

The idea behind Essential Organic Living began many years ago. As a young adult I had a great interest and love of all things natural and organic, nutrition, yoga and natural medicine.

Perhaps this extreme interest stemmed from a childhood of great simplicity. As a young girl I grew up in a big family with four older sisters to play with and keep me occupied. I remember having very little toys, or being inside or watching television. Instead my toys as such were playing with things outside that nature had so kindly provided for me. I would climb trees, collect ladybugs, have snail races, ride the billy cart Dad built and swing on the big tyre swing and make up songs about the sky and the trees singing quietly to myself. Collecting eggs from our pet chickens and eating strawberries out of the strawberry patch were another two of my favorite things to do as a young child of five years of age.

For just over five years my family and I lived on a small hobby farm of five acres and for me that was the favorite time of my childhood. It is packed full of great memories and adventure. Some activities I remember included the following: (mind you I am sure my sisters can remember a lot more!)

• Going wild mushroom and asparagus picking in the fields surrounding our property.
• Building a wooden cubby house in a big old tree out the back.
• Going for tractor rides with my cousins and friends with Dad being the driver and pulling 10 children screaming with laughter in the back of the trailer.
• Going for a donkey ride that was extremely stubborn and unpredictable-sometimes hard to even get going but other times would bolt off like lightning across the farm.
• Going fishing in Dad’s old dinghy with all five girls and a rod in each hand.
• Dressing our poor cat in dolls clothes and chasing it around the house.
• Selling our home grown potatoes to locals from our big shed out the back.
• Catching yabby’s from our dam and giving them to Mum to create dinner with.
• Going squid fishing at midnight in our pajamas with Dad. We would sit and patiently wait on the pier as the fisherman would yell out as they pulled in a squid. There was always a deep purple ink sprayed from the squid all across the pier just as it was caught.
• Collecting pippies from the beach at low tide with Mum so that Dad could use them for bait to go fishing. Swimming in the ocean with my whole family on many occasions and on most holidays with Mum teaching me how to float on my back.
• Getting a ride home from school in the back of my best friend’s Dads ute. (No seat belts back then!)
• Raking the lawn Dad had freshly mowed into big piles all around the property.
• Watching baby birds hatch from their nest.
• Trying to catch frogs we found underneath the damp logs in the fernery of our garden.
• Cooking yummy home-made cakes and lining up to lick the spoon from Mum.
• Chasing our goat Lambert around the house to stop him from chewing on the clothes hung out to dry.
• Walking a few miles down a dirt road with one of my older sisters to our friendly neighbor’s house. Here we would have a 4 litre empty container to collect fresh warm milk straight from the cow complete with a thick layer of fresh cream on top. Milk has never tasted so good since those days!

How different are our children’s lives today?

I want more than anything to take a step back in time and ensure my children enjoy some of the more simple pleasures in life in this fast paced society of ours. I want them to develop a love and respect for nature and organics which they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Just like I have.

It took me many years before I wanted to make any significant changes to my life and act on my desire to learn more about nutrition and alternative health. However, by my mid 20’s and many years of studying a Biological Science Degree, soul searching, traveling and working in unfulfilling, unsatisfying jobs I took my first big step towards making a positive change in my life.

I quit my full-time industrial laboratory position, took all my savings and moved from my relatively small home town to Melbourne (the big smoke). This was the true beginning of my “organic and natural health” journey.

I decided I wanted to study part-time to become a Nutritionist at a large Natural Medicine College. I also found myself working in what is now one of Australia’s top Spa Retreats as a front desk retreat coordinator. This allowed me to meet an amazing bunch of people with similar interests to myself and gain even more insight into natural therapies. It was a wonderful and challenging experience in it self.

The next two years studying provided me with an amazing insight into nutrition, why consuming organics is essential and the medicinal healing properties of food. My favorite subject was naturally "Food as Medicine".

Life was a whirlwind of experiences back then, the most significant being that within 2 years of moving to Melbourne and studying Nutrition I had also met my soul mate, given birth to a beautiful baby girl, moved interstate and got married.

Moving to a new part of Australia, away form my College with a newborn babe in my arms my study came to a halt. Luckily I had gained a significant amount of knowledge that I could and never would lose. I incorporated this knowledge into my daily living and ensured my family consumed an organic diet. My passion and interest in organics and natural healing continued. I actively sought out organic food markets and stores wherever possible and was always referring to the internet and my nutrition books (my bible) whenever I could to learn more.

After two years interstate and another new born baby girl we moved again for my husbands work. This time it was an international move to Wellington New Zealand.

It took us a while to settle in and when my newborn was 8 weeks old she had her first immunization. I don’t know whether it was coincidence or not but from that day onwards she began to develop eczema which was initially only on the cheeks of her face.

This was my first experience of eczema and was also the true beginning of a spiral downward loss of faith with the medical profession.

As her eczema spread and became more distressing for her and myself we went through a rollercoaster ride of receiving prescriptions for many different types and strengths of steroids, even dangerously high oral steroids, creams, lotions…you name it we were recommended to use it all! We received numerous and varied opinions from medical professionals as her eczema flared up after another immunization. We were given antibiotics for a chest infection she had developed and also for her eczema as it became infected on more than one occasion. We also had to take her along to the local hospital due to having an extreme reaction to a strong oral steroid cream incorrectly given to us by a doctor. All this occurred and she was only a few months old. As you can imagine, I felt very helpless and was getting angry and upset on a daily basis.

So, after many sleepless nights, tears that just don’t stop flowing and a baby with skin that was constantly dry, red, itchy and sometimes infected…I took a stand and vowed to take control and refused to expose her (or any of the family) to any more of to the plethora of drugs she had already received at such a tender young age. I said to my husband, “that is it, no more steroid creams and visits to the doctors.” I decided that I would do everything in my power to heal my little girl with the help of alternative medicine and an organic diet with sufficient supplements to assist her immune system to fight eczema the natural way.

Homeopathy came into the spotlight for me almost immediately. I took her along to a Homoeopath and was very impressed with the result. This made me think strongly about how I could help her even more by studying Homeopathy myself and ensuring my family were always going to assisted naturally with their health concerns. Thus, I am still studying today, I love it and it is at my own slow pace. I am absolutely fascinated by Homeopathy and have already achieved some wonderful results with my family’s sniffles, coughs and colds, ear infections, eye irritations, nausea, vomiting, high temperatures, teething and more.

I also consulted a local Naturopath in regards to my little one’s eczema. I was advised to exclude diary and wheat out of her diet and to supplement her diet with flaxseed oil, high doses of Vitamin C and a good probiotic. I am proud to say she is now 99% eczema free and a beautiful happy 2 year old little child. Her diet is 90% organic as well.

In my opinion all my little girl needed was preventative natural medicine, an organic diet high in essential fatty acids, avoidance of wheat and diary and any other allergens she may have had to assist and strengthen her immune system. She did not need to be prescribed a lot of different drugs, steroid creams and lotions that only suppressed her immune system and took away the symptoms but not the cause of the problem.

Seems simple but it took a lot of courage to turn away from the advice of many medical professionals and try and do things the natural way. I am so thrilled I did though.

My family has since grown with a new addition: a beautiful boy Kailen Isaac born in November 2006. We are all very happy and healthy, consume an organic diet, take a certified organic probiotic and spirulina supplement daily and we rarely seem to get sick. If we do get a cold, cough or sore throat Homoeopathy comes to the rescue. We have moved back to Australia to my home town Geelong surrounded by my family and friends. Life is busy, rewarding, challenging, surprising and magical.

Thus as you can see I am no expert in any particular field, nor am I a qualified doctor or health professional. What I am though, is a mother who is deeply devoted to ensuring her family lives a long and healthy life. I am educating myself as much as I can about the organic industry, natural healing and the medical properties of foods. I am passionate about what I do and to be able to share my knowledge with others gives me great joy. This is what I simply love to do and hence this site is all about my desire to help you.

The organic journey has only just begun for me and I hope for you too.

On a final note:

This website is firstly dedicated to my devoted husband who believes in me 100%.

Secondly to my two beautiful daughters Ishara and India and our third addition, Kailen, a son, who is now a big 6 year old boy. My children continue to inspire me on a daily basis and have taught me what is most important in life: to love and be loved.

Thirdly and just as importantly, this website is for all of you who are actively seeking healthy organic alternatives to live an optimal healthy life. I trust you will find the advice, tips, suggestions and recommendations of mine helpful and insightful.

Thank you for being committed to improving and nurturing your health, the health of your loved ones and for supporting the organic industry and caring enough to protect this amazing planet of ours.

"To me, your health is everything you will ever truly need in life to be happy and live the life you were meant to be living." Miranda

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