The culminating episode, the integrating finale to this series. We touch upon healing as an integrated approach. That our wholeness does not require perfection. We take it day by day and trust the process as much as we are able. 

Healing happens in a spiral. There is no single story around healing after a kidney transplant. Medical rupture can carry great intensity, sorrow, confrontation and upset - in our own lives, and in the lives of others. The holistic path asks us to feel what needs to be felt, express it in ways that promote and encourage healing, that is nuanced and unique and contextual to your own circumstances. 

You're stronger than you know. Step across a new threshold and let me know what you find.

With love and appreciation.

Ciara

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Do reach out as you wish via the Wholly Aligned website. Remember too, you can avail of the free intro course to coherent breathing there. The simple things are the incredible things

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Find your Voice Intro and outro; 
Written and performed by Ciara Roberts - songs and strings

The Heart - the Hrid (sanskrit), the Kokoro (Japanese). What's the word for Heart in your native tongue?

Yes we need to tend to our cardiovascular health when living with a kidney transplant. To keep circulatory capacity flowing. To nourish the rich vascular capillary beds by good breathing. We also need to tend to the spirit, the inner world of our heart's longing. This deeper feeling of living more truly from the spiritual heart. 

In this episode we talk a little of coherence and coherent breathing as a simple yet profound way to nourish the heart - what are we breathing life into?

With shared story and tales woven in, to keep your heart open and engaged.

Any questions or anything you wish to share from your experience with this series, feel free to do so via the Wholly Aligned website:

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Find your Voice Intro and outro; 
Written and performed by Ciara Roberts - songs and strings

From skin and bones, we travel into the active tissues - the muscles. Muscles are all about motility. Movement. To build muscle tone, we need to create some stress to these tissues. Stronger muscles wraps more tightly to the bones, in turn making the bones stronger - what a gesture of symbiosis. Just as we climb trees, the tree becomes stronger. 

Kidney function is closely tied to electrolyte balance. The key minerals such as magnesium, support healthy muscle and nerves. Muscle is also surrounded and perfused by fascia - the connective tissues. They move together. When we become too stagnated or inert, the muscles and fascia can atrophy. This then can impact mood. Everything is connected. An epsom salts bath to restore magnesium, or a swim in the sea, or a good stew, can all be ways to keep healthy levels of magnesium. We talk also more symbolically and metaphorically to conjure up our own inspiration to move in ways that feel good. Introducing various somato-sensory terms such as interoception and proprioception - learning to feel from the inside. It's a wild ride! Enjoy the exploration into your muscles.

Feel free to share musing or ask questions via the Wholly Aligned website:

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Find your Voice Intro and outro; 
Written and performed by Ciara Roberts - songs and strings

We continue in our series, to bones. What weight bearing movements do we invite to keep the bones healthy. Do we understand that certain dietary intake of sugary sodas strip bones of calcium as the body excretes more calcium via the urine in an effort to deal with the sugars, weakening the bones.  This series seeks to ask you to tap into your own inner healer. So it's not intended as a list of instructions. It's a lighthouse or fireside to gather around and remember what tends your unique bodymind system towards greater feelings of harmony and feeling centred. Our bones are the inner foundation and living tissues. Much of our immune health and general robustness and vitality comes from the bones - given our blood cells are made in the bone marrow. Everything is interdependent and inter-related. 

In kidney transplantation we look to protecting and preserving bone health. Learn more in this episode. Who are we at our very bony marrow...

Feel free to reach our with questions/thoughts via the Wholly Aligned website:

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Find your Voice Intro and outro; 
Written and performed by Ciara Roberts - songs and strings

In this second episode of the 6 part series, we explore the skin - this semi-permeable interface between inner and outer worlds. Skin is nourished from the inside. Often dysbiosis (imbalance in the gut microbiota) can present on the skin. There is also usually an emotional root to skin issues, given the skin forms with the nervous system in embryology. 

In kidney transplantation, there may be various medications such as steroids (prednisolone mostly) and the calcineurin inhibitors (tacrolimus and cyclosporin) that require someone living with a kidney transplant to take care of skin health. This includes what we put on topically as well as the nutrients we put inside. 

We dive into this and more in episode 2. 

Any questions, feel free to contact me via the Wholly Aligned website:

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Find your Voice Intro and outro; 
Written and performed by Ciara Roberts - songs and strings

This is the introductory episode to A Truly Holistic Approach to living with a kidney tranplant. This 6 part series is niche in that it speaks to an audience that has the experience of kidney transplantation.

In this opener, Ciara shares her personal and professional experience as both patient and health practitioner. With her kidneys failing at a very young age of 14, with a diagnosis at 4 years old. 

Be kind to yourself in listening. Notice anything that feels difficult, is the body's way of communicating an inner need.

The arc of the series is touched upon, given the body needs to rebalance and recalibrate with a kidney transplant, given too the kidneys do so much in our bodies, from regulating haemoglobin, to healthy bone mineralisation and understanding certain medications can impact skin health.

Feel free to reach out via the Wholly Aligned website: 

https://www.whollyaligned.com/

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Find your Voice Intro and outro; 
Written and performed by Ciara Roberts - songs and strings

In this episode, Ciara shares her interest in the Sabian Symbols. Coming through via astrologist Marc Edmund Jones and psychic medium, Elsie Wheeler, in 1925, in San Diego in a parked car, all in one day. The two of them collaborated to bring through from Ancient Mesopotamia, these symbols, each corresponding to the degrees on the zodiacal wheel. 360 in total, with 30 degrees being assigned to each of the 12 signs. These bring insight and inspiration and depth into understanding ourselves and how the deeper realms can open us up to new and curious pearls. 

Ciara Jean Roberts

https://www.whollyaligned.com/

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Find your Voice Intro and outro; 
Written and performed by Ciara Roberts - songs and strings

Embodied movement over the years has infused into the world of yoga. In this episode, Ciara introduces terms such as interoception and proprioception, with useful anecdotes and invitations for the listener to reflect on the stories held in their bodies and how we can continue to remember our agency, sovereignty and autonomy. Bit by bit, remembering too, to be gentle in the process.

Ciara Jean Roberts

https://www.whollyaligned.com/

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Find your Voice Intro and outro; 
Written and performed by Ciara Roberts - songs and strings

An introduction or indeed, a river of meandering into the slow lane of yin. Weaving in stories and contemplation on how yin, as a balancing energy, can help you in the currents and mysteries of your life. discover more about yin as a spirt and energy, an equipoise to the excess of yang we tend towards in modern life.

With some reference to yoga and yin yoga, mainly though, an invitation to sip at the slower cup of replenishment and let this almost be a meditative journey.

Ideas for listening:

Listen when in the bath

Listen when on a walk in the fresh air and able to amble slowly, without rush

Listen when laying down after a long day at work, to switch into a softer and calmer mode.

With love,

Ciara

Ciara Jean Roberts

https://www.whollyaligned.com/

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Find your Voice Intro and outro; 
Written and performed by Ciara Roberts - songs and strings

How to support your bone health:

The new series for 2024 zooms in on a particular part of the body. Bones are many parts of the body! And a wonderful living tissue to appreciate how to take care of, in your unique context.  In this episode, Ciara shares some ideas to encourage better bone health, from nutrition, to the importance of movement and an overview of key bone cells and their function.

For more ideas, event and musings around yoga, nutrition and sacred living, hop into the Wholly Aligned Newsletter here: https://bit.ly/energiseyourself and receive 5 tips to energise yourself. 

Love,
Ciara

Ciara Jean Roberts

Writer, Yoga Teacher, Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist, Creative Spark

Wholistic Health Lighthouse

WhollyAligned - Ciara Jean Roberts

Twitter:@WhollyAligned

TedxSpeaker: 
https://www.ted.com/talks/ciara_jean_roberts_unlocking_you_inner_physician

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