HEART Summit notes
A weekend spent learning and re-learning about human health and ecosystem health
I received an email the other day from Allegra Chapman (she/her) With the following quote:
…………………..so many creatives end up trapped in the same horrible cycle:
Inspiration → intense burst of creating → exhaustion → avoidance → guilt → “I need to start again” → overwhelm → avoidance again.
Over time, your unfinished projects start to feel emotionally loaded.
This is me! So I decided to enroll in the course she’s offering and I’m hoping it will get me back on track with my writing process. Life seems to have taken a busy turn of late and while it’s been doing stuff I love, it’s just been too busy to fit much else in.
Last weekend we attended the local “HEART Summit” and it was really good - our third year attending and it just gets better and better. I decided to share with you some take home messages from the two days. If I’ve written about it, it’s a given that I share the views expressed and that I thought were worth reminding myself of or sharing with others. I hope you enjoy my summary and get something out of it.
First day was about Human Health and the second day more or less focussed on Ecosystem Health with regards to farming. The two are inexplicably interconnected - You can’t have one without the other.
Jake Chandler is a consultant specialising in Personal health and quality of life, and Agreocology. I don’t think there was much that he said that didn’t resonate with me - an amazing young man! He believes that you need people in your life that ground you.
A quote he shared from Confucius (not exact words) - Everyone has 2 lives and the 2nd starts when they realise they only have one. I liked that. There were a few people in the room wearing Trademutt shirts which have YNWA on them - he asked what that meant - You Never Walk Alone - so pick up the phone and ring someone, stop and spend time with people, especially if you think they or even if you are having mental health struggles.
You are the captain of your team - you choose whose on it - I think this is a good one too, because if you mix with negative people, you will become negative - surround yourself with people that you respect and share similar values.
Addition by Subtraction (to better life outcomes)
stop eating junk
stop burning out
stop the victim mindset
stop a negative generational cycle
stop carrying trauma in the body
stop blaming others
stop judging yourself
Health is not easy, if we don’t choose the discomfort of wellness, we get illness. The pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Smile when you look at yourself in the mirror!
Gary McDouall - vibrational medicine, Quantum Energy and the Dawson Program - talked about energy - the energy around us and within us - this is energy beyond the range of human 5 sense perception - vibrations of consciousness.
We can engage with this energy by using our hears and our minds. It’s important to get into a “state of grace” before beginning - this is basically getting into a meditation type zone - we are then in coherence and present in our world. If you begin in this way, it will bring flow, synergy and coherence. We want to get to the opposite of fear and anger, which is unconditional love. Just because we can’t see this energy, doesn’t mean that it’s not there.
Our life force is a measure of the efficiency of the energetic system in our body. Quantum Energy uses the 6th sense - intuition. Dowsing is used to bridge the gap between knowledge and intuition. More about Quantum Energy Here
Dr Sandeep Gupta is a doctor on the Sunshine Coast who spoke about some of the secrets to longevity. Longevity is not just about age but your health prior to your death - your Healthspan rather than lifespan - Biological health/age Vs Chronological age. He believes that there is no separation between agriculture and health and that Food can be thy Medicine - nourishing food. In the past, there were periods of plentifulness and periods of scarcity - Feasting and Fasting. Fasting is an opportunity for your body to cleanse and detoxify. Our modern world does not give much opportunity to fast, so we need to do it ourselves. At least 2-3 times a week, extend the fasting period (overnight) to 16 hours.
The following 4 pillars are the foundation:
Eat real food. If you can’t pronounce it, toss it. Limit packaged food. Colour and Diversity in food is great. Food that comes from close to its source - grow your own, local markets, direct from farm. Eliminate white sugar and white flour. He suggests leaving out all gluten products - my view is that organic gluten products are okay in moderation. Organic dairy okay if your body can handle it (lucky mine can!)
Move your body! Small movement during the day, as well as some dedicated time exercising - walking is great. Make movement normal!
Sleep - deep restorative sleep restores organs and produces hormones. 7-9 hours and as much as possible before midnight. If waking during the night (1-3am) liver herbs may help - dandelion, St Mary’s thistle, globe artichoke, schisandra. These help to detoxify. Avoid screens and blue light at night. Get the early morning sun as this activates cortisol and mitochondria. Circadian Living - living with the natural sun and light cycle.
Power of Community - social connection and especially face to face. Mindset is key!
Dr Pran Yoganathan, a gastroenterologist, spoke about nutrition and agriculture for gut health. Our modern monetary system focuses on Growth over Stewardship and Consumption over Creation. He believes trust in doctors has gone, which I can fully agree with! Trouble is, for me, finding even a good functional doctor is very hard!
Glyphosate - the theory was that humans don’t possess the shitamake pathway, so glyphosate, which uses this pathway to kill plants, should be safe for humans. Unfortunately they didn’t consider that the gut bacteria does use this pathway. There has been a 300% increase in bowel cancer. Alcohol has one of the highest levels of glyphosate - I would add that conventionally grown grains and legumes also have very high levels. If you eat these, you are micro-dosing yourself in a bad way!
Graeme Sait from Nutri-Tech Solutions is always a wealth of information and didn’t disappoint. The Moron principle to farming - putting more and more on (chemicals) for a reduced yield is the modern method. The medical system is no different - just take more and more drugs/supplements instead of changing your lifestyle!
Two of the biggest issues for Health (mental stress) are Guilt and Bitterness.
Suggested ways to improve health:
fermented foods
take probiotic supplements
eat prebiotic foods - bacon, onion, garlic etc
dirt - garden - boosts serotonin, contains Bacillus Subtilis.
fresh air - get outside
wash your dishes by hand - microbes survive and support immune system - This is an interesting idea and one that I’m not prepared to follow completely - I love my dish washer. I do however do some hand washing so I reckon that’ll do me.
Avoid - antibiotics, chlorinated and fluoridated water, processed food, antibacterial soaps and wipes, the pill and proton pump inhibitors, c-section, stress and anxiety, glyphosate and feedlot meat - I agree!!
Graeme is also a supporter of fasting in some way. He had so much to share and I’ll leave some of it out, but I really liked this message from a book he read by Bronnie Ware:
5 Regrets of Dying People
Be true to self
Less work obsessed
Express feelings
Friends/community - keep in contact
Be happier - let yourself be happy.
You are the only one that can make these choices!
The second day we learnt more about the ecosystem - starting with Bryant Ussher (our host and owner of the farm were the summit was) he shared a bit about Eastwell Farms, where they work with an eco mindset - working with nature, they monitor and manage:
Food for animals and soil - grass, microbes etc
Water - through landscape and water points
Recovery and rest
Ground cover - trees, shrubs and pasture
Movement and Energy
Learning - they are lifelong learners.
Dr Max Gulhane has worked with the Eastwell Farms team for the last three years Heart Summits. He too mentioned the moron principle with regard to medicine. He’s also a proponent of the therapeutic use of a carb restricted diet and considers the carnivore diet to be very effective diet for initial healing of the gut.
Dr Max is a fan of the Nguni breed of cattle - these are a very colourful African breed. We had some for a while and I really liked them. He found some figures where they compared Nguni to a European breed of cattle. Nguni’s are smaller and have smaller calves, but they are far more fertile and robust that the return per acre on Nguni’s was better than the Euro’s. This is chiefly due to reproduction rate and the number you can run per acre compared to the European cattle.
Randal Breem, along with his wife, run Echo Valley Farm, based in SEQ, where they run cattle and chickens (for eggs). They utilise a community supported agriculture (CSA) model, where customers pay in advance for their products and take what product is available. The customer shares the risk alongside the farmer - they may get less product in a drought year and more in a good year. Echo Valley are based on the Four Goods - good for animal, good for land, good for the farmer and good for you. In other words, they are developing an Holistic Context of ecology, economy, community and self. Farming is a community and not a commodity.
Graeme Sait spoke again on farming this time - he has two farms - one near Stanthorpe and one near Yandina. He has done well by value adding products that he produces. He discussed the Carbon Cycle - we don’t create more carbon, it’s just cycling, but does need to go back to the soil where it’s safe and where it came from originally. Soil - microbes make the minerals available to plants. Oxygen is one of the most important elements in soil - it helps to create the crumb structure of soil.
Although Nutri-Tech sell prepared foliar fertilisers, he encourages people to make their own and has many video’s available sharing how-to’s - Check them out here. I actually bought some BAM today, which I’ll use in the garden and I’ll also trial some in the cattle trough where my milkers are. It’ll help them as well as help spread microbes in the paddocks. (I also bought some of his apples from his Stanthorpe farm)
David Maclean from RCS spoke about keeping regereative agriculture holistic. He considers that it’s not lack of knowledge holding us back, but lack of discipline or action. I can agree with that - so often we learn what to do or how to do it, but unless we actually take the action to change, then we aren’t moving forward. Regen Ag is about achieving outcomes - we’ve got the tools, we need to learn how to use the tool for the best outcome.
Improving soil health will improve plant health, which improves animal health, which improves business health, which improves human health, which improves Community health (and resilience). Farmers have the ability to have the biggest impact on the world.
It’s important to profitably leave our country in better condition. As farmers, we need enough money to support the lifestyle we want AND to achieve our goals.
The day ended with a discussion between two amazing people. Terry McCosker from RCS is someone I admire greatly and I give him full credit for starting our journey to health and wellness. He busted any paradigms we had, made us look out side the box and taught us to critically look at all parts of our life, from our finances to our farming method. He started us on our search for how to live healthy fulfilling lives. We went on to learn a lot from others, but he instigated the learning. His daughter Stacey interviewed him, and it was just beautiful to hear them have such a warm and loving discussion. Stacey is an amazing Naturapath and has also had a huge impact in my life and how I eat. Her business is Cultivating Wellness.
One of the other people we learnt from early on in our journey, was Graeme Sait. We did his 5 day course and that’s were I first heard of the book Nourishing Traditions, fermented food and sourdough bread!
It was a great two days and I’m already looking forward to the next one next year. Please do come along if you live in Queensland or close enough to make the trip.
We’re currently away helping out with the grand daughters and will be home tomorrow and then I don’t want to leave again for a little while. I will get back to regular programming very soon - I promise! And I start on my creative writing course next week - well it’s not creative writing……hopefully it will creatively get me back to writing and setting up a better schedule…..
Thank you for sharing this Lucy. I must say that chap suggesting washing up by hand has lost his marbles. I think I’ll find the extra microbes in other sources.