North Star Holistic

Just packing up for our move tomorrow 🤞

I’ve been thinking about my parents a lot today, as packing up our house here, means I’m coming across a lot of their things I have boxed away, and that I’m not ready to go through yet.

Funny how moving can bring so much other ‘stuff’ into your awareness. It’s a time when you might like to be sharing your excitement and plans with family, and so the most unexpected things have really sneaked in there and hit me unexpectedly hard today.

So, as I thought about my mam, I asked her (if she was with me today) to show me a butterfly, as butterflies are her thing.

Half an hour later, look what was on my windowsill 🦋💕

Coincidence maybe 🤔 Or maybe not 🙏 Either way, it felt like a lovely bit of comfort when it was needed.

For anyone who is interested in joining me, I’m going to do the following L5 Clinical Reflexology qualification (if there are enough of us for it to run 🙏).

It is over a year and takes you from no experience all the way to be a registered clinical reflexologist.

Here is the info if anyone else is interested in joining me. I have the equivalent of a L3 qualification, but this course allows you to be insured to work in so many additional areas - like cancer care, fertility etc. Just make direct contact with Karen if you are interested.

Love Em ❤️

Our Newcastle-upon-Tyne Reflexology diploma training course in Newcastle serves Durham, Middlesborough, Sunderland, Carlisle and Edinburgh Learn to be a Reflexologist - Level 5 Diploma Reflexology training course in Newcastle, Durham, Middlesborough, Sunderland, Carlisle

Happy Fathers Day!

I’ve just been up to my parent’s graves at Belsay. It’s a woodland burial site and it is really beautiful and is so peaceful ☀️

It was lovely to see a single Poppy on my mam’s grave this morning 🌺. We chose this particular area of the woodland site for them both as it was down from a cluster of poppies (and tbh we also followed a hare 🐰 running in this direction!).

My dad had his stroke on Remembrance Sunday and so it was the last thing he did that day. I kept the Poppy from his jumper too - so poppies feel like a ‘thing’ for us with him.

Extra love to those who find today hard. I hope you find a moment of peace too ❤️

☀️ SOLSTICE BLESSINGS ☀️

This morning I sat outside with a coffee and listened to the birds.

It’s something I’ve done countless times over the years and, as we’re getting ready to move, I found myself thinking how much I’m going to miss them. Funny how it’s often the little things we take for granted until we realise they won’t always be there.

The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year. A moment when nature is at its fullest expression. For me it’s always felt less about doing more and more about noticing.

🌸Noticing what’s already here.

🌸Noticing what’s already good.

🌸Noticing what’s already blooming.

I think many of us spend so much of our lives focused on the next thing. The next goal. The next challenge. The next thing that needs fixing. We can often forget to look back and see the growth we have made over time.

🌼Nature doesn’t rush.

🌼The roses don’t compete with the foxgloves.

🌼Everything unfolds in its own season.

So today I’m taking a moment to appreciate the birdsong, the morning coffee, the people I love, the roof over my head (and the new one to come!), and all the things that have quietly grown in my life without me even noticing.

I’ve created a gentle track called What Is Already Blooming as a little Summer Solstice gift.

A chance to lie down, rest for a few minutes and reflect on what is already flourishing in your own life.

☀️Not what’s missing.

☀️Not what’s next.

☀️Just what is already here.

If you listen, I hope it leaves you feeling a little lighter, a little more grateful and a little more aware of the beauty that already exists around you and within you.

Happy Solstice 🌻☀️

Love Em ❤️

The Summer Within - Savasana 🌸 Listen and make your own on Suno.

Nayyirah Waheed’s book of poetry SALT, is grittily insightful, confronting and healing all at once.

🥰 𝗔 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘆 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 🥰

There was a nuance in what I was trying to communicate yesterday, which I don’t feel I addressed very clearly, so I wanted to add this post in today for some additional clarification ☺️. Thanks for bearing with me 🙏❤️

I am not trying to say that any weight loss medications replace the foundations of a healthy lifestyle. They don’t replace movement, nourishing food, sleep, stress management, and they most definitely don’t replace community and human connection.
They don’t replace all these things which we know can help us feel well. These foundations still matter enormously.

So what I’ve been reflecting on today (which I didn’t capture so well yesterday), is that if someone has lived in a chronic state of stress, overwhelm or freeze, that these foundations can become incredibly difficult to access.

When I am in freeze and doomscrolling in bed, I know movement would help, I know meal prep would help, I know getting outside would help.

But in a freeze or shut down state, knowing and doing can feel like two very different things; and often far too far apart for me to access.

When my nervous system is exhausted, inflamed, overwhelmed or constantly in survival mode, even simple self-care can feel like climbing a mountain. Even a daily shower can be too much.

So (for me personally), the biggest changes haven’t been on the scales.
It’s been feeling more able to engage with life in all the ways I detailed in my post yesterday. And because of the meditation unexpectedly helping to lift me out of freeze/ shutdown, then all the good stuff that I know supports my wellbeing is suddenly easier to access.

The medication hasn’t done those good activities for me. But it has created enough space/ capacity inside of me, for me to do them myself.

I sometimes think we can easily frame weightloss medication as an either/or conversation when perhaps it should be a both/and conversation.

Medication and lifestyle.
Science and self-care.
Support and personal responsibility.

As someone who has spent years exploring nervous system regulation through yoga, breathwork, meditation, attending counselling, reflection and holistic therapies, this has been an extremely valuable lesson.

Sometimes healing isn’t about trying harder. Sometimes it’s just about reducing enough of the internal noise that we can finally access the things that help us become more well and eventually thrive.

Everyone’s path will be different. This is simply one part of mine, and I’m happy and grateful to be able to share it here ❤️

Thanks for reading.
Love Em ❤️