I healed 15 years of digestive challenges and related symptoms in 3 months with an Ayurvedic approach. During that 15 years I worked in sustainability, some of my work involved looking at sustainable business models. After healing I had the idea to train to help others, and to set up a business rooted in both the mainstream and gift economies. Seven years later, with various twists and turns, I launched ‘Your Peaceful  belly’ on April 5th 2021.

As those 15 years passed by I visited my doctor’s surgery a few times but IBS, SIBO and Leaky Gut (the terms given to my growing collection of symptoms) were not recognised in the mainstream back then. All the different symptoms were viewed as separate problems and the patient was viewed as psychologically troubled, perhaps even imagining the symptoms!  Western medicine is now discovering the state of your digestion affects how you feel and think and that it underpins many of today’s lifestyle diseases.

I tried all sorts of things to sort myself out. I juiced, smoothied, gave up gluten, sugar, alcohol and caffeine. I tried to be a vegan, a vegetarian and a meat eater. For short periods of time I thought I’d found the answer, but in the longer run the conditions just kept getting worse.

I started to learn about Ayurveda, then for a number of years I began a 5 day cleanse, but only ever managed one day! This all changed while I was away on a gap year that turned into three ( I returned to see family and friends during this time!)

After a decade of working in sustainability, after my children had moved out into the world, I decided to go for a gap year. I’d never been out of the U.K. and had been working since I was 14, so, moving through my midlife years this seemed like a great thing to do – I left the security I’d created with £200, a rucksack and a bag on wheels.

My journey took me to 2 Eco-projects – Embercombe in Devon, Ecodharma in the Catalonion Pyrenees; and the Schumacher College. I had a great time meeting lots of people who were trying to change the way we do things, to create a fairer, more sustainable world

While I was volunteering at the Schumacher College I began an Ayurvedic healing diet which lasted about 3 months, completing this at  Ecodharma – the off-grid project in the Catalonian Pyrenees where I  skill shared around food and community through an EU funded project.

Before returning to the UK I decided to walk the Camino de Santiago which runs across the north of Spain. I had to eat whatever came my way and discovered I was completely healed.

When I left Ecodharma I caught a train that rambled slowly through green hills and valleys. It was so peaceful to look out at the lakes and tiny ancient villages scattered along the way. The train I was on rambled slowly to Logrono where I began a new journey. 

After four weeks and 670 km of dirt track and old roads where the earth changed from red to dark brown, with tiny villages and ancient albergues constantly appearing on the horizon, I arrived in Santiago as the sun was rising.  It felt amazing to have been able to walk all this distance having just recovered from 15 years of IBS, SIBO and Leaky Gut which had led to a continued state of malabsorption, dehydration, exhaustion, losing 5 teeth, and a vast number of changing allergies.

Midday found me attending the Pilgrim Mass at the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. This Cathedral is huge with lots of different rooms inside its great frame. The stone work has ornate painted decorations; cherubs the size of real people in many colours and gold, gold, gold. I’d never seen anything like it, nothing like this exists in the UK.

Towards the end of the service four men lowered a huge incense container –  Botafumeiro (smoke expeller). Fiery coals were solemnly carried and placed inside the Botafumeiro and frankincense added to these. The four men in their red robes – tiraboleiros (incense carriers) started to work with long thick ropes attached to the Botafumeiro, pulling at them until this great cauldron of burning incense started to swing back and forth on a huge chain across the width of the Cathedral I was sitting in.

The heady frankensense smoke billowed out spectacular and beautiful as had been my journey. Well in fact all three of them; the three years exploring sustainable approaches to community, the journey to feel well again, and walking the Camino.

A new journey began; training as an Ayurvedic consultant with the American Institute of Vedic Studies and setting up my Peaceful Belly business selling freshly made kitchari – the Ayurvedic healing food that was central to healing my condition. It was at this time that I had the idea for the “Your Peaceful Belly” book which was to be a practical resource for my case studies.

Once I began writing the initial idea, which centered around the Ayurvedic cleanse and how I adapted this to heal my condition, the book quickly turned into something bigger. As I learned a compromised digestion weakens our immune system and underpins many of today’s lifestyle diseases, I decided to write a book that would support people to create their own Ayurvedic preventative healthcare plan.

During this time I also started to develop a better understanding of how the health of the microbiome in the soil we grow our food in, the water we drink and the air we breath, is so important for the health of our microbiome, that a healthy microbiome in the soil, water and air is the foundation for our own good health – Western science is beginning to recognise and explore this, and it is something that Ayurveda has always understood.

During this time I also started to develop a better understanding of how the health of the microbiome in the soil we grow our food in, the water we drink and the air we breath, is so important for the health of our microbiome, that a healthy microbiome in the soil, water and air is the foundation for our own good health.

Research shows that farming with chemicals kills off the microbiome in the soil, and that the use of the herbicide glyphosate since the 1990’s has led to the steep increase in allergies, cancers and chronic health conditions since the 1990’s  (Zach Bush MD carries out research in this area).

The good news is regenerative agriculture (no till and no chemicals) puts the microbiome back into the soil in just one season, while drawing down carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil.