I know I get to this time of year and I start to think about all the things that I supposedly have to do, and how I absolutely am not going to be able to do them all.

The roundabout of creating a life that is calm and thoughtful and mindful, combined with not disappointing anybody and ticking all the boxes... it makes me want to scream. 

Our brain and our neurology are wonderful things. They have this beautiful ability to pick up on a feeling, relate it back to something from our past, and we respond in the same way. 

When was the time you were so overwhelmed you had a very big emotional response? 

Do you feel this at times when maybe it doesn't warrant it? When you would otherwise just need a sit down and a chat to yourself, and find an easy solution? 

This is your stress response hijacking your life. No body wants that in their world. 

One of the great ways we can stop this is to recognise and choose the response we want. If you are beginning to feel all those feels for a smal...

I'm not sure if it was just my experience growing up, or if this is more of an Australia or world wide phenomena - but being selfish is seen as one of the biggest sins there is.

I mean, I know that we are supposed to be helpful, and not selfish in a narcissistic kinda way (coz that doesn't bode well for many), but the perception that all selfish behaviour is bad is probably not serving the mother community.

Martyrdom - putting yourself last so you can make sure that everyone around you is A-OK, is the most frequently supported version of who we 'should be' in society. The good mother complex tells us that everyone else is more worthy of our time before we are. 

When we move into matrescence, that glorious shift from womanhood to motherhood, one of the best components of this spiritual journey is the one where we have to learn how to nurture ourselves so we can best nurture others.

So what does a selfish motherhood look like?

Such a great question. What do you think it looks like? ...

Hello you super busy Mama! 

I got you and I see your life. It's hectic AF.

You have a million tabs open and you are trying to do all of the things for all of the people.

And maybe you have forgotten a little bit about doing it for yourself.

As working mum's, I really wanted to jump in here and share some love about busy.

You see, our beautiful brain thrives on things changing.

In fact, it loves it when we infuse different things into our day.

Stillness and Movement

Productiveness and Chill

Busy and Calm

Social time and Work Time

Hard Exercise and Gentle Exercise

Water and Wine (jokes, obvs 😂)

Whats interesting amongst this is that when we continuously exist in one of these frameworks, an imbalance occurs, and it can lead to burnout, overwhelm, fatigue, anger, frustration... you get the picture.

In our super busy worlds, we often see the busy as a superpower. I am so great and can get so much shit done because I am a super mum.

Until you come crashing down, and your bo...

RU Ok day always stirs a shift inside of me? What about you?

I'm not sure if it came from wishing someone had asked me this when I was struggling through the first elements of new motherhood, of the times where I fully masked up and pretended to have all of the shit together.

Today I implore you to ask your neighbour, your friend, your tribe member, in fact even your healthcare provider or your mum... are you ok?

But are you really?

Is lockdown getting to the point where you aren't able to connect with people like you used to? Are you fearful of what this all might look like on the other side?

Are you worried you are stuck in stress mode and can't navigate how to move through this?

If you have any worries, reach out. I'll be the one answering emails and facebook comments, and I am totally here for you!

I really hope you are ok!

Much mama Love!

Dr Ali,

Chiro, Mama and Lover of myself!

This month you are going to see me dropping it like it's hot 😂😂, or at least working hard at getting some great support out there for all of the working mum's.

Here's a caveat, I think all mums work, so don't switch off if you feel you don't fit the MO. You will see some stat's starting to seep out this week about working mum's, particularly that:

1. 53.4% of mum's are actively in the workfoce

2. The Gender Pay Gap has widened in Australia this year to 14.2%

3. 55% of women report a weaker support system when they no longer work full time.

4. 70% of full time working women do all or most of the caregiving at home.

I mean it's no wonder that 39% of working mum's don't or can't prioritise physical activity. This month I'll be working on supporting your tribe, your tools, and your connection so you can feel that you can achieve a bit more balance. 

You are worth it. If you are lucky enough to be in The Motherhood - my membership group that is only $10/month, this month we have a...

If you have been watching along on my socials, I've been working hard at increasing my movement. In my practice in Gladstone, we've been focusing on Active August, as we all know how much movement makes your health and internal dialogue shift and change.

Whilst researching for this and my book (still writing, writing, writing), I stumbled across a neuroscientist who outlined five ways that exercise actually changes your brain.

I think they provide an extraordinary insight into the role that our choices around movement can alter our brain function to make it more open to change, joy, courage and bravery. You can read the article here. 

I'm not going to rehash the full 5 reasons in great detail, but let me spell it out simply for you!

1. The exercise high primes you to connect with others

2. Exercise can make your brain more sensitive to joy

3. Exercise makes you brave

4. Moving with others builds trust and belonging

5. Trying a new activity can transform your self image.

As a m...

It's pretty amazing how our body holds onto memories and transplants them as neurological and emotional reactions at times when we wouldn't think it would be appropriate.

Our body has this amazing ability to have a blueprint of wired responses that we get when we have a strong enough emotional reaction to something.

I could ramble on about it here, but if you have the time, do yourself a favour and go and watch this 30 minute video with Joe Dispenza, where he dives into the how and why of our emotional selves and how we get stuck in the same pattern 95% of the time. 

Even though I've known this for a long time, his explanation of it really makes it super simple to understand. 

As a mum, there are so many triggers that go on in our day to day that can create a stress response, that if it is big enough, becomes our go to response if we have stress occurring all the time.

And it's up to us to choose to change it. 

To recognise it.

To stop.

To change the response.

To neurologicall...

I’m going to give you a little back story here. Unsurprisingly, as a busy rushing woman and mother, the power of my breath was lost on me. I would rush here, rush there, fit it all in and get my To Do List done, and then I would crash into bed, have a restless sleep and start all over again.

I bet this is familiar to a few of you too!

When I went through my health concerns in 2020, I really felt I needed to find a way to hack my Vagus nerve and re-establish some calm into my world through utilising my parasympathetic's.

Now I am super blessed to have an amazing friend who does breath and yoga for calm work for a living. In fact I work with her. The calmly patient Courtney Morrison. So she began to teach me some simple ways to really get into this. You can find out more about her by going here!

These tools are life changing. For everyone I show them too.

So here they are for you!

Today I'm going to write about the box breath. The slow and mindful in and out breathing that really s...

So I'm sure if you've been watching along at home on my insta stories, you've probably noticed that on the weekend I went away for a quiet writing weekend, and whilst I was staring at the sunrise, I stood on a SEA SNAKE.

Even now, as I write about it, I can feel the squishiness under my foot.

At the time I was a bit shocked, but I didn't think much of it.

Interestingly, I noticed that as my day progressed I started feeling

• distracted
• overtired
• on edge
• cranky
• sore muscles (like I'd run 5km +)

And I realised, that whilst I hadn't felt stressed in the event, it had obviously stressed me out internally.

And it's this kinda thing (well, hopefully not standing on a snake), that can really get our stress quotient up.

Have any of you felt these things creep into your day?

So... Stressland. That conversation that a lot of us don't want to have, but it really really drives a lot of our days.

Just like you, I have those days where I wake up stressed, and I feel like before I even set foot on the ground, there is an internal groundswell of angst and frustration that I just can't put my finger on.

Sometimes I can relate it to my cycle (but call me lucky, this is a rarity for me). Sometimes I can relate it to a shitty nights sleep, where my kids have got me out of bed to walk them to the toilet (or in the good ol' days, to feed them and change their bum).

Sometimes I can relate it to too much caffeine the day before, which really impacts on my sleep quality. Or a glass or two of wine with dinner the night before - jeepers that sugar and alcohol wake up at 3am can be brutal can't it.

But sometimes I just can't seem to place my finger on the why of it. Why I'm feeling it. 

Yet here I am, stressing out and getting frustrated for no reason at all.

So the qu...