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Blog                                  

What can I learn from slugs?

10/30/2021

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WNT founder and veg grower Jennie Duck considers her relationship with slugs and how learning to live with them could be a fertile ground (pun intended) for letting the 'bad' feelings coexist with the good.
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It’s wet in Scotland today. Very wet. The river outside our house is flowing with force after a relentless 36 hours of rain. Not the best day to be working in the veg patch but first chance in a while and there is plenty of old vegetation to remove, relentless weeds to pull and gazillions of slugs abounding. They seem to thrive in the wet and this morning I found tens of them, ranging in size from a couple of millimetres up to a couple of inches.
None quite as monstrous as this badass from earlier in the year:

My relationship with slugs varies with my mood. They have suffered at my hands and heels when I’ve been wound up and I have abused their bodies as sacrificial targets in darker days. They certainly suffered as I went through a bleak tunnel of grief a couple of years ago. That year my veg was relatively hole-free and my ‘dawn patrol’ slug squishing was an effective way to keep them from rampaging.
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Relatively hole-free veg the year I was particularly aggressive in my 'dawn patrol' slug killing missions
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Humongous slug called Robert who I befriended in July this year
Then I began to explore yoga principles, to reflect and shift toward living more aligned with considered values. The yogic concept of ‘ahimsa’ - the idea of living in a non-harming way - presented a challenge and I began to wonder how that could work in a veg patch. We are an almost-vegetarian household and conscious about where and how we source any meat or dairy products we use and yet I was crushing slugs willy-nilly in the name of nicer looking kale.
This year my attitude has been somewhat more laissez faire. I have transported slugs to the compost heap rather than drowning them with the weeds or squishing them. I have been less diligent with weeding, giving them more places to hide and more leverage to get up to the nice juicy leaves. They have gone rampant, the compost heap is obviously a brilliant place for them to breed and a brilliant place for them to work their way back to the veg patch or over to the greenhouse…
Now I’m wondering what I can get out of this. I am accepting the holey veg and treating them kindly and I can see now an opportunity that perhaps I can treat them as training ground for my emotional landscape. Those squidgy, unpleasant, annoying feelings that come up, that chomp away at me – rather than crush them under my heel or find a way to silence them, can I let them be? Can I let them chomp a bit, give them a bit of space and then help them move on?

This morning I was feeling quite premenstrual and a bit grumpy so a couple of slugs got it. But then I softened and spoke kindly to myself, forgave myself for being grumpy and for the killings and extended myself a little kindness.  I saw my frustrations as slugs and decided it was ok for them to be there, they didn’t need to rule the roost but they did need to be acknowledged and let go.
The grumpiness lifted and I put the rest of the (many) slugs in the compost pile.
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Slug damage on this year's brussel sprouts
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Perhaps the slugs and their damage to leaves can coexist with nice fresh leaves like with this kale plant.
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Acupuncture and self-support during the Two Week Wait

10/21/2021

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Acupuncturist Philippa Summers looks at the 'two week wait' in menstrual and ivf cycles and how she adapts treatment during this time when supporting clients in their journey to conceive and offers some helpful self care tips for this time.
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Trying to have babies when it doesn’t just happen easily can be a heart wrenchingly difficult time.  There can be months even years of trying, balancing hope with uncertainty, even at times despair.   Another cycle starts.  Is this going to be your lucky month?
 
When supporting women with fertility I tend to focus treatment on the follicular phase leading up to ovulation, or in the case of IVF through the stimulation phase until egg collection and at embryo transfer.  These are the times that research has shown acupuncture can have a significant influence on live birth rates (Zheng, 2012). Treatments around embryo transfer, when they can be scheduled in without adding extra stress, are also shown to have a beneficial effect on outcomes (Smith, 2019).
 
Ideally, men and women would also have received some preconceptual lifestyle advice during the preceding months, not least of all to support egg and sperm quality as they develop and mature.  Treatment can be aimed at regulating the menstrual cycle, supporting endometrial development and addressing other issues impacting on fertility.  Treatment during the follicular phase will be aimed at supporting the processes that take place throughout the menstrual cycle including the luteal phase but what about treatment during the actual luteal phase or the two-week wait as it is commonly known, which follows ovulation or embryo transfer?
 
How can Acupuncture help?
As I have said, I tend to focus most treatment during the follicular phase but that does not exclude treatment during the luteal phase. It is a time to be cautious with any treatments that could disturb the delicate interplay between the embryo and uterine lining around the time of implantation, but treatments aimed at relaxation and good sleep can be positively beneficial.   It is often an anxious time when every little twinge seems to take on some significance.  An acupuncture treatment can offer a gentle wind down from the intensity of IVF or the pressures of trying naturally, at a time when sound sleep and a feeling of calm may be quite elusive.
 
How can you support yourself during the two week wait?
The preparations you have taken in the preceding months, weeks and days will help to lay the foundations but here are 10 tips to support implantation and help through these two weeks:
 
  1. Get plenty of rest and sleep. Try one of these Yoga Nidra exercises for sleep.
  2. Eat nourishing anti-inflammatory food. Lots of fresh fruit and veg, good quality protein, nuts and seeds, healthy fats and wholegrains.  
  3. Avoid sugar, processed and junk food as much as possible.
  4. Include some live fermented foods – yoghurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, kefir etc - or take a probiotic.
  5. Ease up on strenuous workouts, moderate exercise is fine even beneficial.
  6. Avoid excess heat on the abdomen (no hot baths, saunas or hot water bottles on the belly).
  7. Avoid googling and trying to second guess the meaning of everything you feel.
  8. Take time to sit quietly, and just notice how you feel. Take a few breaths into your belly to help your thoughts settle – longer on the out breath. Notice any sensations you feel in your body, without attaching any significance.  Just notice and let them go.
  9. Distract yourself with a few things to look forward to. A catch up with friends, a film, a creative project, a good book.
  10. Don’t be tempted to test too early. Wait until the first day of your missed period or until advised by your fertility clinic.
 
Good luck. Remember that even under perfect conditions there is only a 1 in 4 chance of conceiving each month, so it can take a while. Please contact me if you think I may be able to help you.
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  • Home
  • Therapies
    • Gift Vouchers >
      • Gift vouchers
    • Massage
    • Acupuncture
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    • Reflexology - feet & face
    • Reiki
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    • Videos
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  • Practitioners
    • Erika Zettervall
    • Laura Devonshire
    • Miha Rosta
    • Philippa Summers
    • Veronica Massa
    • Tessa Glover
    • (Jennie Duck)
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