HomeNutrition

Jun 05

Calcium Stew

Written by FairyDoula. Posted in Mineral Supplements

This is an alternative to calcium supplements.

Pregnant women need to take up to 1000mg of calcium per day. Here’s a natural, lactose-free, vegan method to ensure you are getting enough calcium.

Ingredients

¼ tsp Slippery elm powder
¼ tsp Borage
¼ tsp Comfrey leaves
¼ tsp Oat straw

Method

Add one cup boiling water and steep for 45 mins, strain

Dose

Drink one cup daily.

Jun 05

Lara’s Placenta Recipe

Written by FairyDoula. Posted in Placenta Recipes

My favourite method of preparing a placenta

Ingredients

1 placenta (membrane & cord removed)
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
Olive oil
Black pepper
Fresh chilli chopped (optional)

Serve with

Green salad, beansprouts, spinach, avocado

NB. Eat raw salad before to help your body absorb the nutrients better!)

Method

Fry onion, garlic & chilli till brown in olive oil
Remove from pan (oil now flavoured) Heat pan hotter>br/> Flash fry placenta for 1 minute each side (leaving raw hormone in the middle)
Turn down heat
Add onions, garlic, chilli
Stir & season, eat ASAP!

Jun 04

EAT YOUR PLACENTA! It’s good for you!

Written by FairyDoula. Posted in Nutrition

Why you should definitely eat your placenta

Basically it’s the thing that your body has made from itself and the food that you have eaten to provide for your baby while it is inside you!

Once your baby is born your whole perspective changes!

NOW the placenta is the natural way to increase the iron & nutrient levels in your body which were depleted by making your baby! It is also the natural way to ensure that you do not suffer unduly with post natal depression!

Ick factor

“Throw it away! It’s disgusting!”

(Don’t be so soft!)

Misguided mush factor

“Let’s bury it under a tree!”

…..

Lara’s rule of thumb:

Bury the membrane & the cord, eat the squishy bits!

It is the best meal a post birthing woman can eat within the first 36 hours of birth! It’s also the only vegan-friendly flesh! No death occurred in its making!

Remember dads could and the extended family could eat some too!

Real-life responses

“I felt rocket powered!” LARA

“Tastes good! Not as bad as I expected!” ISOBEL

“After a beautiful natural birth, seemed like the natural thing to do!” PHIL

“The delicious, nutritious snack you can eat between babies without ruining your appetite!” GEOFF

As part of my doula service I offer to cook your placenta for you in a variety of ways and I’m always open to new ideas!

Placenta Recipes

I can also create medicine for you from your placenta. I can dry and encapsulate it for you, and also create mother essence and homeopathic remedies.

Placenta Medicine

Jun 04

Iron tea

Written by FairyDoula. Posted in Mineral Supplements, Second Trimester

Up your Iron intake naturally

This is an alternative to iron supplements. Drink daily for iron maintenance. Eat extra lemons & spinach (for vitamin c & folic acid) for persistent anaemia.

Ingredients

¼ tsp yellow dock root
¼ tsp Nettles
¼ tsp Raspberry leaves
¼ tsp Comfrey leaf

Method

Add one cup of boiling water and steep for 45 minutes

Dose

Drink one cup daily

Healthy Healing . Holding and hearing!

November 14th, 2018 by FairyDoula

So here I am a week after the beautiful birth of a wild free baby . I’m the capable support and older , calmer , competent cook , driver , cleaner and sorter. I’m there to let the Mum and Dad relax into their Connection and relationship with their Son. I do the little everyday stuff that will be happening the same for the next few years like , washing up, bin emptying, recycling, laundry, tidying up , shopping, driving etc. I’m not here because the family can’t do it themselves, I’m here so they can focus on the beginning of their baby’s life and learn how to communicate and cooperate, with each other surfing and growing the massive rush of Oxytocin that they all felt as the baby was born.

It’s a brilliant invisible and fully seen job. It’s a job for a person who knows their worth but also is humble enough to know that they are just doing what needs to be done and that these jobs could be done by anyone. The best thing to hear is when the family state that they are doing it themselves! The worst is when they say that they couldn’t have done it without you! Amazing, invisible and easily replaceable is how I love to be ! What I do is not rocket science , just practical love-filled everyday magic.

I’m glad to be able to do this part of my birth assistant job just before I start this winters therapy proper. It reminds me of my skills and my Souls purpose. It also reminds me that I am brave and courageous and that I can do many things , so healing myself is definitely a possibility!!!!

This week my session was mostly about dropping energetic charges from the abusive relationship I was in in my twenties and thirties. We used kinesiology muscle testing to pinpoint the emotions that needed release and then utilised Anne Jensens HeartSpeak to actually move them on. The feeling of needing to fight was felt ,released and then balanced by knowing . Then my feeling of sadness we searched for felt and balanced with peace . It’s such an amazing thing to feel the feelings and not connect them to any one story . To allow the feelings to actually be felt and to then let the balancing feeling grow until all is well and balanced.

Once we had done this process I felt I needed to make my emotional boundary with my old partner strong so I visualised my amazing golden sparkling bubble and I tapped the side of my hand until it was very strong. I felt very calm and empowered and I knew what I needed to do next . I needed to clear the residue of all of this from my chakras, I told Sandra this and she agreed gently supporting me as I gave birth to my own mental and physical healing process. I’m not gonna detail my process here but what I do offer is an exerpt from my new novel ‘The Story‘ which is a book set in 2118bc with a girl called Sha-la and in 2118ad with a girl called Sophie , the book follows Sha-la in the past as she readies herself for her First Imbolc Full Moon egg ritual, and Sophie in the future as she heals herself from the terrors of the ‘ one true god industry’ . The book is written in the style of Dion Fourtune, where the reader becomes the characters so Experiences the healings and evolutions as and alongside the characters at the same time.

Sophie lay awake knowing that sunrise was still a while away. She rose from her sleeping place in the Red Tent and walked to the opening in the scarves that lead to the outside world. She gently parted the scarves and allowed herself to walk naked outside into the nearly full moon starlit night. The warm night Air kissed her skin, mixed with the twinkling of the stars so Sophies whole body reaction was one of physical excitement and stimulation. She observed herself, feeling her feelings and feeling her body‘s reaction to the warmth and wetness of the rolling mists rising around her . Sophie smiled at herself , ‘feeling’ ,she was no longer shocked and astonished that she had feelings, however she was now in a place of gentle amusement that it ever been possible for her to have to have existed without feeling. As she let her hands stroke her skin she marvelled at the gentle electric shocks of skin touching skin and let this new gentle form of contact open her Heart and Mind. For a second all was bliss and beauty , then she was there, hands holding her down, the bright lights, the pain…..
It was different now, she saw the situation, and knew it for past memory, not present experience and breathed her Mind once more into the present. Sophie felt her body and realised that her new ‘feelings’ held the key to her being able to clear this past memory ‘present invader’ She moved her hands once more over her pelvis filling her hands and mind with as much soft and gentleness as she could , her body jerked and her mind began to jerk too , but, she stayed in this Here and Now with her Mind and now only her body was in the physically held past. Sophie placed one of her hands on her pelvis and the other one above her head, where the Angel said her crown energy wheel sits . She formulated the statement in her mind.
“All the ways that I have been invaded, used and abused.”
She said it out loud and then breathed in and out through her Roots then her Branches , then her Heart. Three times seemed good and felt right, so Sophie continued down the Rainbow Energy Wheels of her body, Crown, Brow, Chin , Throat, Heart left and right, Solar Plexus, Centre Pelvis , Left and Right Pelvis , Root front and back. At each energy centre she paused and felt the old held terror energy begin to move. At her throat she felt to yawn loads and was reminded that the Sacred Breaths Are The Yawn , the Burp the Laugh , the fart and the Sigh. At her heart she felt strong pains like broken bones and felt sick as they ached . As her hands came close to her Pelvis Centre she felt a deep terror come over her. Silently calling for help to her Angel , Sophie continued.
“All the ways I have been invaded used and abused.”
The blackball of terror , lodged so long in her Pelvis bloped and burped and began to move somewhere else. She breathed deep and allowed ‘that which does not serve ‘ to leave. Immediately her body convulsed in spasms of heaving. Sophie spewed everything out, leaving a black tarry mess on the grass. She stood up and gathered herself in once more, her attention now on the Left and Right sides of her Pelvis. She said her statement, breathed and then observed what came up. The unfathomable darkness and endless nothingness, emptied and filled her pelvis. In one breath in, she felt all that had ever been felt and held there. In the next breath out all was released, leaving a clear empty space. Sophie fought to keep her mind on her healing mission, breathing in the light from Her Crown and Roots and breathing out all that doesn’t serve. She called herself inwards to stay close and gradually filled the empty space with Light and Breath. Sophie realised that she was now sitting down and that the pile of shiny slime had now soaked into the dew covered Earth. She sat marvelling in her newly learned skills and then from behind her she heard the Angels voice, soaring and peeking like the beautiful Birds in subtle sunrise light. This is Heaven. Sophie thought to herself .This is Now where I only feel the emotions and feelings of Now. This body whose only memory is this Sunrise, is Mine !
The Angel’s voice toned and intoned until Sophie could almost see the Golden Bubble all around, her .As she finished singing Jo-anne chimed her finger symbols and gently Sophie once again felt her own body in the Here and Now.
“Well done lovely one!” Joanne nodded towards Sophie. “ I see you have been practising the Chakra Energy Release Technique I showed you. Your colours look much clearer than they did yesterday. “Yes.” replied Sophie.
“I’m beginning to recognise what is Me and what is stored memory. It is very interesting and confusing.”

I’d love to hear your opinions and experiences with the book and the healing processes. Please contact me and together we will all heal from our collective and individual pasts and then on clear sturdy foundations we will begin to create a new future for the next 7 generations ! Xxxlovelaraxxx

Posted in Lara's blog

Feeling the fear… Love, anger and joy

November 7th, 2018 by FairyDoula

Feeling the fear… love, anger and joy!

I’ve lived a very exciting life so far! I’ve taken responsibility and walked my walk far and wide speaking my truth, standing firm and activating Peace and Love wherever I can. It’s definitely not always been easy and some of my experiences I would not wish on anyone! I have said more than once that I am glad that my life is happening to me because I know I can cope and I won’t have to deal with it happening to someone else!

For a long time, from at least my early twenties, that’s 26 years! I have always not ‘done’ fear. I decided that I would face everything with Love, and fear could just jog on! I have awesome disassociation skills and have always put the fear at the back of the line when dealing with life and its myriad of mentalnesses!

Yep, I have always had a volatile temper and I have been the one to shout and throw stuff! Yes, I have bullies in my head telling me I’m shit when I make mistakes or I can’t cope with normal everyday stuff like reading numbers, knowing the date/time knowing my left from my right. Fortunately, I live in the West and it’s 2018! So this means I have enough privilege to find my skills and balance out my disabilities, I’m lucky enough that someone decided that numerexia, dyspraxia and ADHD, are all just different ways to process information and I am lucky enough to be able to read and gradually process the fact that I’m not stupid and useless – I’m actually just a person whose brain works in its own special way, just like everyone else!

So some of my skills that help me to be a brilliant Birth, Life and Death assistant are my abilities to feel my feelings but also put them aside so I can support whoever needs support for Birth, Life and Death.

This is the thing that I could not do for 2 years after the death and birth of my son Angel-Benjammin Love. I could not put down my grief , I felt broken and lost , could no longer serve and could not feel anything except grief and confusion.

People phoned me to ask me to support births but I couldn’t. After two years two close friends called me to support them and I tentatively said yes. Both births happened naturally and healthily before I arrived and I was actually glad to not have been in the birth-space, still not sure of how I would react! I did aftercare, cooking, cleaning and childcare and felt a bit more like my real self .

The next two years I supported women over the phone who had had stillbirths and also women who were about to have stillbirths. This was sad and challenging. however, the women all seemed empowered and healed by the fact that I was alive and that even though I had been through a mother’s nightmare I was still able to function and be with them. It gave them hope and I was glad to serve them in their dark times.

I was then asked to support 2 births of women who I did not know very well. I did support them and each Birth ended with a live child and mother, however both births were instrumental and surgical and were very traumatic for all involved, me included! I had to call in help from my tribe who reminded me that I cannot make anyone do anything I can only provide access to information and support the birth story as it unfolds. The babies are two years old now and the families are happy and growing strong. As am I, as I walk this path of self-healing!

In my last blog, I let people know that I am beginning a course of therapy for Complex Post Traumatic Stress. Even though I’m not starting the deep stuff until January when I will be safely housed on my new boat, which is being built at the moment. I am still going to weekly sessions and learning some first aid to help with the feelings that I have not ever really felt before.

A month ago, a friend who I have known since she was 7 asked me to be with her as she birthed. She was estranged from her mother and had moved to a new town so had minimal support. I went and visited her and her partner and they seemed young, healthy, strong and capable. They planned to birth in hospital and I would come to offer support during early labour and after when they returned from hospital. All was clear and I felt confident I could support these young members of my heart family tribe.

I came to visit delivering extra food blankets and towels , making sure all was in place for the birth . They were given a due date of 5th Nov and so by 1st Nov all was ready. We planned to meet up on the 3rd Nov at 9 am to go to a car boot sale and get some wishes like a rocking chair and some nice plants! At 6.30 am I got a call saying Lea was in labour and could I come over. I was given a lift by my Syzygy Jim.

Sitting in the van, I felt something. I realised that it was fear! I’m still not used to feeling fear so for a bit I was confused. I then worked out what was going on and I tapped myself and gave myself rescue remedy until the fear subsided. I know that it’s my job to emote love and create oxytocin’ in the birth-space so I was now concentrated on the ability to put my fear aside so I could whomp up enough oxytocin to support the family before they went to hospital.

When I got there, I took a moment at the door to breathe deep and place all that was my stuff at the door. I also asked the Goddess/God to be with me and work through me to support this family however they needed me too. I opened the door to the baby being born into its father’s hands!!!! I heard the baby cry and saw the placenta be born into a big cuddle of love. I made hot choc and gave out rescue remedy and contacted the local midwives to come and check the awesome new family.

It was a beautiful amazing experience and I learned that even though now I’m actually feeling my fear I can still put it aside to support and serve birthing families.which is my calling and choice!

I was questioned angrily and deeply by one of my friends who is healing from deep trauma and was told how lucky we all were that everything had gone well. I sat with the thoughts and feelings for a long time and then cleared a statement through my chakras which was “All the times and all the ways that I have been persecuted for supporting self-responsibility “.

I know first hand that some births do not end with a live baby or mother. I still stand firm that each family deserves their right to be supported in love not directed by fear, so I will always stand and support self-responsibility and praise it. Regardless of the outcome.

This week with my therapist she showed me a new emotion technique, which balances emotions.

I decide which emotion to feel and check with muscle testing what is relevant. I chose anger which is balanced by joy and fear which is balanced by Love. I began by sitting in a pose that symbolised my anger. Fists up, shoulders tense, jaw set, eyes flaming. I sat and felt the anger within me with no trigger point, no Story to connect it to, I searched in me for all the anger and I felt it’s burning flame in me able to do anything! When I could find no more I put my hands in my lap and let them rest palm upwards. Then Sandra directed me to feel joy, the feeling of the new family welled up inside me and I felt the golden joy flow from me and surround me. It was a brilliant thing to just feel.

Next, we did fear! I put up my knees and wrapped my arms around them and squeezed my eyes shut and went for it ….urghhhh! A massive cold terror gripped me, my heart almost stopped and I felt numb and freezing at the same time! Tears poured down my face and I was useless spineless and broken. A black tightness in my base gradually rose up through my chakras gripping each one with cold mean harsh tension right up to my head which felt like it was being crushed! I kept searching and finally I could feel no more so Sandra directed me to put my hands on my lap and to now open out to Love. I tentatively opened my heart and suddenly all cold was gone and a red-gold glow was shining in my heart space warming my whole body, my cheeks felt flushed and I could feel the warmth of love in my Base gradually rising up through my chakras ending at my head which now was filled with warmth and a radiance that felt calm and comfortable.

I was totally surprised at how horrible fear actually feels and I was interested to see that I felt I was going to die if I even tried to fight! I was also interested at how easy it was to move into love and joy after feeling anger and fear. I’m going to practice this weekly because I feel that I need some more practice at actually feeling feelings with no reactionary story behind them. I’m fully up for feeling fear until I know it as intimately as Love because then I will be very able to spot myself when I am panicking and I will be able to make it clear to others what is going on for me.

I reckon panic attacks and triggers are the first steps on a monumental healing journey that we are all on.

Each experience gives us more information and insight into our own physical mental stories and needs. We are learning new skills and our pasts have led us to this point where we can begin to actually heal! This is a challenge and it will not be easy but I reckon Now is the time and it’s way more fun than being bored!!!! Big love to all you Warrior clan of Love! Let’s make a new world!!!!! Let’s heal!!!!! Xxxlovelaraxxx

Posted in Lara's blog

Anacronym Anarchy! CPTSD EFT & AIT

October 31st, 2018 by FairyDoula

I’ve decided to start writing about my healing journey and the tools I have been using to help me finally be mentally and physically free from lifelong trauma – in the hope that others will see it and know that there is always hope and that we are amazing and we can do anything!!!! CW: bereavement; PTSD triggers

My perception of the world 4 years after giving birth to my stillborn son Angel Benjammin Love at 38 weeks, the subsequent loss of 8 pints of blood and the dying for 3-5 seconds while the angels in the hospital scraped out my womb so I could stop bleeding to death, has changed quite a lot!

Some people might observe that I now have emotional depth. Some others might note that now I actually ask for help from others and accept that sometimes I have to be vulnerable and allow others to help and assist me.

I have been a reputed ‘Superhero Mum’ for the previous 16 years travelling the planet entertaining, loving and wellfairying on the frontline of freedom, standing tall as a warrior in the war against drugs and drug takers that marginalises and scapegoats the most damaged and vulnerable in our society. It’s been big, it’s been fun and I wouldn’t change a moment!

However, during that whole time I carried traumas in my body and mind which made my daily existence a terrifying place to be. A few close friends knew, but mostly I wouldn’t let anyone close to ‘my stuff’. I gained a rep for being the mad crazy woman who would send men mad and or the occasionally raging violent woman who needed to be removed from places.

Fast forward to now and the traumas of the past are beginning to have space to open out, release, be heard and be felt.

It took a dead baby, a dead me and 2 years later too many thoughts that I should be dead to get me to realise that I couldn’t do this on my own.

Enter MEET ! A group of Quakers, supplying energetic therapies to people on low wages, in Oxford. My awesome Angel at the Luther Street Surgery in Oxford put me in contact and even though it terrified me, I went to the preliminary interview.

I told my story to the kind lady , starting with the birth of Angel Benjammin, then tracking back through to my birth. When I’d finished she smiled warmly at me and said ”Well just one of these events would be traumatic, however, the three other events and the subsequent other situations that your traumatised self accepted, because of what you saw as normal, have compounded into a Complex version of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We will put you on the list for therapy straight away!”

My therapist, is a lovely Woman. She listens , doesn’t judge , and offers me tools to help move on the energetic charge of traumas that my body mind and soul still carry.

As we move into the winter I feel we all could do with some help moving our old stuff on and making some space to rest and create once again! So today I offer a very simple version of EFT Emotional Freedom Technique.

This is not intended to fix everything forever, but is offered as a first aid tactic when panicking is happening and also as a tool in your personal mindfulness kit to add to any mental practice you use.

Method

Hold up hand and tap the small finger side of your hand or just tap the front of your chest between your collarbones.

Then, say out loud or in your head “Even though I…… ( here is where you add whatever you need to , eg am still experiencing panic, still too angry , am full of fear etc) I still truly and deeply Love, Honour, Cherish and Respect myself. All parts of myself. Including my totally relevant ( panic, fear, anger, confusion etc) and I ask for help in healing this and I give thanks that healing is happening!

Then breathe deeply and see how you feel now . If you still feel really raw , tap again and focus on breathing and tapping again and see how you feel.

For me this works to calm mini-panics, in the moment, but for big ones, I have to sit with someone else to help me focus.

I’ve found that it’s hard for me to access this healing when I’m a full panic because the nasty team in my head spend too much time telling me anything I know is useless and that I’m too stupid to be able to heal!

Panic attacks are exactly that! Panic on all levels, especially the brain!!!! My first new skill is to notice when one is happening and step back from whatever has triggered the panic and tap my chest and focus on breathing in and out until the panic subsides. If I’m not quick to notice I could be right in one and not able to do it for myself!

Always ask for help – you never know, you might just get it. That’s my new mantra!

I tell people where I’m at and I ask for help! I refuse to be embarrassed about the broken bits of my brain cos I never see someone being embarrassed about their broken arm or leg. I just see them resting and healing and asking for help when getting up the stairs!

So here it is, my first anarchistic (meaning, to take responsibility) mental health tool! I hope you like it and it brings you peace!!!!

Posted in Lara's blog

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Ingredients

Method

Dose

Ingredients

Serve with

Method

Why you should definitely eat your placenta

Ick factor

Misguided mush factor

Lara’s rule of thumb:

Real-life responses

Up your Iron intake naturally

Ingredients

Method

Dose

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