www.veronikarobinson.com
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From February 2002 to January 2014, I edited The Mother magazine www.themothermagazine.co.uk ~ the international publication of connected, holistic, conscious parenting.
I am still available for mother-to-mother mentoring, by phone to anywhere in the world, or face to face at my home in Cumbria, UK. For the duration of May 2014, if you book a session www.veronikarobinson.com you can have a follow-up session for free. I am available to talk through any concerns or questions you have on any aspect of The Continuum Concept and natural parenting. I look forward to sharing your journey with you. Love, Veronika Robinson
Bluey Miller lives a charmed life in Calico Bay, a small rural town on the east coast of Australia. She built her popular wholefood café from nothing, and it has garnered a well-deserved reputation for world foods. When her mother dies, Bluey discovers that there was far more to her mother’s life than she’d realised. Why so many secrets? As she begins to unravel her mother’s past, she’s left wondering about their relationship. They had been so close over the years, yet now Bluey feels like she didn’t know her at all. Her very identity hangs by a thread. Who am I? she wonders. Who was my mother?
Seemingly insurmountable challenges lie ahead, and Bluey must face them without her mother by her side. She finds strength from her local community and daily nourishment from the welcoming atmosphere of her café, but is this enough? Drawing succour from the Australian bushland around her, friendships, emerging spirituality, a life-changing romance, and the memories of good mother love, Bluey must somehow find enough courage to allow the best of the past to become the foundation for her future.
This is my second novel, and is available on Amazon, from good bookshops, www.starflowerpress.com or www.veronikarobinson.com I do hope you enjoy reading it as much I enjoyed telling Bluey’s story. Love, Veronika x
When I was pregnant with my daughter Bethany, I knew straight away that I wanted a waterbirth. I so strongly resonated with the sea that I swam with dolphins off the coast in the far north of New Zealand.
Seconds after giving birth at home, by candlelight and Mozart, to my daughter Bethany.
I met with a woman who’d had five waterbirths, and she shared a book with me by Elaine Morgan, called The Descent of Woman. I immediately resonated with her theory of evolution which cites recent geological and anthropological evidence that large areas of Africa were flooded and covered by vast seas, with the exception that some upland areas were islands. Her theory is that one group of apes adapted to an aquatic environment, and when the water receded new ecological opportunities opened up. We lost our hair because it was better to keep warm in water by a layer of fat inside the skin than a layer of hair on the outside. It certainly helps to make sense of the reflex babies have which allows them to be born underwater.
We were made to float, it would seem: it’s in our genes.
I’ve always loved water. Warm water. Whether that is because of my connection to my mother’s gorgeous womb, or the ancestral memory of my foremothers, I don’t know. Maybe it’s both. When I float in the water, am I remembering them “bobbing blissfully” and hearing the surf in their ears? Could that shallow salt sea of five million years ago still be so readily heard? I’m certainly open to the possibility.
When I bumped into a friend last week, I had no idea that she’d taken over a local complementary therapy centre. I was really interested to hear about the floatation tank. It sounded peaceful. Paul and I jumped at the chance to have a float.
What I didn’t realise was what a valuable tool it is for health and well-being on so many levels.
I’ve just finished reading The Floating Book: Exploring the Private Seas, by Michael Hutchinson. I can’t recommend it highly enough. I love it when I can match intuition with science.
I wish I’d known about these studies, and had the experience of floating behind me, when I wrote my book Natural Approaches to Healing Adrenal Fatigue. Floating is the perfect antidote (cure) for the rush of hormones which cause stress. An hour in the tank gave me more energy that afternoon than I’d had in ten years. The beautiful thing about floatation therapy is that the effect lasts much longer than your time in the pool. It can last days, and for some people, weeks.
Floating not only alters the set-point to help us lower adrenal activation, but also increases our tolerance for stress. It significantly decreases blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen consumption, blood lactate and muscular tension.
If you suffer adrenal fatigue, it’s worth knowing that floating decreases levels of fight or flight chemicals such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, ACTH, and cortisol. Floating counteracts the fight or flight response. That’s just from one float. And the beauty of it is that is has a maintenance effect, lasting many days after. Studies show that it alters the metabolism (or homeostatic set points). It enhances our relaxation response.
Not only is floating great for easing pain or injuries, and bringing relaxation to our bodies, it has been proven an ideal way to enhance visualisation, due to the effect on the brain waves. Studies show it is an invaluable tool to learning, too. When we float, we are in the ‘zone’, a place of pleasure that allows us to literally go with the flow. Many people have experienced enhanced creativity, inspiration, life-changing insights, and gratitude for life by floating.
I look forward to making floating a regular part of my life, and giving my whole being the nourishment it desperately needs.
If you’re in Cumbria, why not have a floatation session at http://www.calicohealthandwellbeingcentre.co.uk or look up one local to where you live.
I had expected to sleep in this morning, being Sunday and all. That was the delicious plan; the promise I made to my muscles, all weary from four consecutive days using the rowing machine at the gym. But no. The muse had other ideas.
This week my mind has been filled with the final stages of my non-fiction book Cycle to the Moon: celebrating the menstrual trinity ~ menarche, menstruation and menopause. I am so grateful that after all these years I have finally found an artist to illustrate this book/journal. I feel it is such an important topic, and that anything I can add to the body of literature which breaks the taboo around our bleeding time, all the better.
What I didn’t plan or expect was that a second book on this topic would emerge. I awoke at first light…with the seed of an idea for a novel germinating. I know from experience that it can be one of the best times of the day to ‘craft’ a novel. The conscious mind isn’t getting in the way too much, and dreams and whispers bubble up to the surface like spring water rising from Mother Earth. I let this bathe me, the ideas flitting in here and there, nourishing my soul.
I stayed warm under the duvet letting the ideas grow. I’d write them down later. Inner muse wasn’t having any part of that. Those sisters of the sacred Moon don’t have time! Get up and tell our story, they demand, hands on their hips. Okay, okay. They must have conspired with William, our cat, (darn witches!) for he insisted on standing outside my bedroom miaowing non-stop until I let him in. No chance of going back to bed now!
There is something about this novel that is really exciting me. Perhaps it’s the way the ideas are emerging that shows me it will reach and touch the hearts of both mainstream women and those who walk a path rather similar to mine. At least, that’s how the characters are selling it to me! (laughing)
Dawn has broken over this beautiful morning. The birdsong is exquisite, the sunlight is bathing the lush green fields and leafy trees with a promise. I have been given another gift. A book begins to gestate in my heart, and for this I give thanks.
And that’s what it’s like being a writer. You’re nothing more than a puppet on a string being told what to do by your characters. So today, the Moon is in Aries in my fifth house of creativity. On Tuesday morning (7.14 UK time), there is a solar eclipse in Taurus lighting up my sixth house of day-to-day work. I guess I could be writing rather intensively for a good while. See you on the other side!
For this weekend only (April 26th & 27th), if you book an astrology reading with me, you can have a second one for someone in your family for free. You can purchase your reading online: www.veronikarobinson.com Sessions are by phone or in person (at my home in Cumbria). I look forward to sharing the secrets of your birth chart with you. ~ Veronika x
