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Maria Praeg • The Healing Root • Chef/Yoga Teacher

@thehealingroot_

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• Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher
• Holistic Private Chef
• Ayurvedic Lifestyle Coach
• Tantra Meditation Teacher
• ChiNei Tsang
• Model @bossmodelsa

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The Bump Diaries continue! 🤰

Not gonna lie, it’s been a challenging two weeks. The transition into 3rd trimester has been like going back through a time capsule to 1st trimester trenches but with a LOT more discomfort and heaviness alongside the fatigue, nausea, brain fog (!) & headaches.

Trying to chef and do all the daily errands of living has become SO fecking difficult. At times, I can’t believe this is the same body that has run half marathons & done cycling races. At the moment, taking out the trash or walking Riley or walking up 5 steps feels like I’ve accomplished a HUGE physical achievement 😅.

On the plus side, I’m feeling more & more connected to this miraculous journey that is leading me to the biggest initiation of my life. I am also feeling more & more connected to the spirit of this little bean in ma belleh which is a really beautiful & life-altering feeling🤰.

I have officially hung up my chef apron after recently finishing my last two Ayurvedic Postpartum Nourishment bundles and it feels good to be able to focus what energy I do have on nourishing myself & preparing my mind for this last stretch 🫶.

Behind the scenes, I am finishing up my Integrative Somatic Trauma Certification & starting my Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula Training with @soma.shakti school of ancient wisdom 🥹💛.
Feeling very blessed and excited to be able to continue growing and learning in the fields I am so passionate about and for it to translate in meaningful ways into my life and work.

🥰

#pregnancydiary #3rdtrimester #pregnancywellness #pregnancywellbeing #pregnantwoman taken in Cape Town, South Africa by @thehealingroot_

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23

9 days ago

I must say, I LOVE BEING ROTUND 🥹.

Pregnancy comes with OH so many challenges.
But, to be FULL OF LIFE, is just extraordinary.

To feel this little spirit with me wherever I go.

To feel my heart stretch + become even more sensitive is daunting + leaves me in awe as I let more of life reach me.

To feel the outdated parts of myself dissolve as I step into motherhood + feel into all that is now asked of me to be prioritised.

To feel the activation + presence of maternal lines in my family.

To feel the aches + pains of a body creating life from scratch (🤯).

The fact that every human on this planet was born through this intricate process boggles my mind. Women truly are portals to the Divine, and more + more I understand this in the deepest, most embodied sense of it. There is really nothing quite like it, in my humble opinion.

Some of my current favorite things:

1) sunning the bump + I
2) playing the shruti + singing to baba
3) NESTING (it’s such a real thing).
4) softening into my feminine + experiencing even more heightened sensitivity (which is also hard)
5) slow, present nature walks + being with my sisters.

💛

#pregnantbellybump #preggybelly #pregnantlife #secondtrimester #pregnancydiary taken in Kommetjie, Western Cape, South Africa by @thehealingroot_

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27

a month ago

This body based approach to releasing trauma and stress from the body differs greatly from the more common top-down appraoch which relies heavily on mental recall, talk therapy and mental processing to arrive at understanding, and eventual healing.

Both bottom up and top down processes are so important and necessary. My opinion is that the body should be the first point of entry OR even better is if the two methods (top down and bottom up) are approached in tandem to support an enduring and thorough healing response that works/takes effect within each domain of the soma (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual etc.).

Traditional TRE uses specific exercises to fatigue muscles with the aim of eliciting shaking. I simply add it to the end of my yoga practise (as the muscles have been activated during the yoga). This shaking then dislodges stored stress energy from the nervous system helping to sequence this energy out of the body safely ✨. This then gently invites you back into a state of regulation.

Shaking is one of the most primal and ancient ways of discharging stress from the body and sequenecing it out of the soma. It is seen in the animal kingdom and is now being commonly used and practised by humans as a relatively low-input way of supporting an appropriate response to stress.

🍯 In summary, TRE helps to 🍯

• Reduce stress and anxiety (which supports gut health, too).

• Creates more holding capacity for big emotions.

• Reduces physical tension and pain from the body.

• Massively supports the nervous system in its constant search for recalibration and regulation.

• Restores a felt sense of safety in the body without any mental involvement which is great when you are an over-thinker or quick to overwhelm. This is particularly helpful for people who don’t always want to “talk about their feelings”.

#somatictherapy #tre #embodimentpractice #somaticexperiencing #traumarelease taken in Cape Town, South Africa by @thehealingroot_

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9 months ago

Some joyous snippets from the last month and a half.

For those who have asked, l have been baby sitting and cooking for a dear friend of mine who I met 8 years ago at Uni.

It was so incredible to reunite after such a long time. Re-meeting each other as the new women we’ve become after many moons of change, growth, healing, expansion and newness.

It is definitely safe to say that baby sitting this precious bean ramped up my own broodiness ten fold.

Seeing such a unique side to Ibiza (not just the party place you think it might be) was just glorious. We lived on her boat for most of the time and while there were MANY challenges of living on the boat while taking care of a toddler, a kitten and a dog (divine chaos!) there was so much beauty in it.

We rescued a little kitty, who we named Winnie. I went full mama bear mode on her, trying to coax her from the edge of death back into life. And seeing her spring forth into sassy feistiness was a potent reminder of what love, a nurturing environment & care have the power to do.

Now, I am heading to Greece to do another stint as a chef on the yacht that I worked on last year before heading home to my place and my people who I miss so dearly and who I hold in my heart with immense love & gratitude. Knowing that I get to go home to such a wholesome experience of life fills me with a joy like no other.

#ibiza #europesummer #healingwithfood #healing #ayurveda #ayurvedicchef #chef #consciouslifestyle taken in Ibiza, Spain by @thehealingroot_

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a year ago

PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT 🥹💛👶

20 weeks is such a milestone. I am so grateful to be here right now 🥹.

At first, the weeks feel so slow as you just want to get past that 13 week mark into more predictable terrain. And now, time seems to just be FLYING! 🚀

First trimester absolutely floored me. It absolutely shattered any preconceived ideas I had about pregnancy and challenged me in more ways than I can count.

Second trimester has been so much better. Even though belly is growing so much each week and I’m learning the ways of a new body I’ve had a bit more energy and less nausea which has been a life (and sanity) saver! 😮‍💨.

We’re expecting this little bean sometime around the 25th of December, knowing full well that baba will choose the perfect time to land with us BUT talk about receiving the best Christmas present ever! 🎁

So grateful to @seb.simons who has simply been THE best. Supporting me, loving me, holding me, making me laugh on days when it felt impossible to laugh & feeding me when the thought of cooking was completely out of the question because I was either gagging at every ingredient or too tired to get out of the bed. Watching Seb change and grow into fatherhood has been one of the biggest gifts and privileges of my life 💛🥹✨

I’ve been so excited to finally share our news in this little corner of the internet. I’m looking forward to sharing more of the journey here because it really is one of the most potent initiations a woman can go through 💛✨

#pregnancyannouncment #pregnancy #20weekspregnant #20weeks #pregnantbelly taken in Kommetjie, Western Cape, South Africa by @thehealingroot_

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2 months ago

The sweetest, softest moments as I move into 3rd trimester 🤰.

Lots of last minute dot com chef work keeping me mostly busy + on the go BUT I am so grateful that cheffing for postpartum mamas is what I get to call WORK 👩‍🍳.

I am making dang sure to also find many small moments of soft yielding: lying in the sun, slow walks on the beach, cuddles with our newest fur baby addition to the fam (Tommy Thai Thai) and eating nourishing meals + snacks. And naps are officially non-negotiable if I want to make it to 8pm. Slow, attuned yoga session with my absolute favorite @asoka.yoga mat 🧘‍♀️.

I am feeling so fatigued again as third trimester rolls in. Pregnancy is WILD, I tell you. But I am so grateful for all the work that I’ve done that makes listening to my body’s cues to slow down that much easier + more accessible. I am 100% not here for the “push through” culture.

So, the invitation to start slowing down + surrender some more is most welcome. Previous me would have struggled + deeply resisted heeding this call to slow my life down this much. It really makes me trust in the divine timing of it all + is such a valuable reminder and affirmation of the journey that has been walked.

Grateful to be home, nesting + slowly preparing.

💛✨

#pregnantbelly #3rdtrimester #pregnancydiary #pregnancyisbeautiful taken in Kommetjie, Western Cape, South Africa by @thehealingroot_

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19 days ago

INTEGRATION & ENERGETIC DIGESTION
(PART 1)

Integration: to make whole.

Integration is one of the most underrated aspects of wellbeing - of being a healthy, whole, balanced individual.

Ayurveda believes that we need to create the time & space to do the psychic digesting of our life experiences. The byproduct of this mental digestion is integration. When we do not create intentional space for integration we experience an energetic “bottleneck”; a backlog of experiences that we need to sieve through, make sense of & find a rightful place for in our somas.

Signs & symptoms of this bottleneck are: overwhelm, anxiety, lack of receptivity to life & new experiential input, emotional & nervous system dysregulation, over-sensitivity to stimulus & fatigue. Over time, if this emotional constipation is not attended to, eventual sickness or injury occur as the body SCREAMS, “PLEASE STOP & DIGEST YOUR LIFE.”

🍯 Conscious digestion/integration is where we make time to actively contemplate & reflect. By doing things like walking with no distractions, being in nature, creating an internal space of no urgency (because it’s hard to process anything when in survival mode), writing, talking, expressing, yoga (or anything that helps you have space to actively engage with the content of your life).

🍯 Unconscious digestion/integration happens in the background with no active or intentional participation. This happens through our dreams or through doing physical things that we are so familiar with (or in flow with) that the body can be in “automation” mode which gives the mind the space to unconsciously process in the background. Create time of no distraction, do “flow state” things (yoga, dancing, gardening), create pockets of stillness, meditate, spend time alone. This background digestion occurs thanks to the incredible infrastructure of consciousness - if it wasn’t for this background digestion we would move through life with little to no capacity for novel experience, adversity or stress.

A simple way to support both forms of digestion is to create pockets of STRESS-FREE time. Stress is an immediate opponent to digestion (physically as well as mentally).

TBC. 🫶 taken in Cape Town, South Africa by @thehealingroot_

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7 months ago

What a glorious few weeks it has been. Watching and feeling this little bean grow each DAY is an absolute mind trip of note.

I have earned myself a new name: ‘Madame Bumpsalot’ (nickname courtesy á la Seb) 😂.

Grateful to be able to have the time and spaciousness to really feel into pregnancy. To really be fully with this experience of creating life from scratch. To feel the changes and to have the space to adapt and evolve with them as they emerge. To be present with this transition from maiden to mother is a gift.

What a deep, humble, honour.

I hold this reverence with the awareness of JUST HOW HECTIC IT IS of an experience. It is life altering. Magnificent. Strange. Other-worldly. Challenging. Sensitising. Magical.

I have spent a lot of time this pregnancy thinking of all the women who fall pregnant under much less spacious, forgiving and nourishing circumstances. I now look at all women differently; with a compassion and awe that has moved me to tears more times than I care to admit.

To all other mamas out there, I see you.
You are amazing. You’re doing so well.
Be gentle with yourself and the process.

❤️

#pregnancylife #firsttrimester #secondtrimester #pregnantmama #pregnantphoto taken in Hamburg, Germany by @thehealingroot_

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2 months ago

Here with my next Ayurvedic Health Tip 💛🫶.

I’m excited to be picking up this little series again. Ayurveda offers us so many daily routines and rituals to help augment & nourish our relationship to ourselves 🙌.

This practice, known as Abhyanga, is not only about the physical health results it offers us but is also very much about the felt, internal sense of wellbeing and self-intimacy.

It is the practice of WARM-OIL SELF MASSAGE 💆‍♀️.

How to do it?

1. Shower or bath to wash off the energetic & physical residue of the day.
2. Warm up the oil of your choice and place a towel down on the floor or bed.
3. Apply oil and moving from top down, massage along the bones and muscles & AROUND the joints 🦴.

This practice is simple but POTENT!

Physically it supports digestion, elimination, lymphatic system, circulation and nervous system health.

Emotionally it supports decompression, recalibration of the nervous system, integration time, reduces anxiety & helps to support a trusting & nurturing relationship to Self.

You also don’t need to do the whole body for it to be effective you can also simply apply warm oil to your feet and massage the feet before sleeping for the BEST SLEEP OF YOUR LIFE 🥹✊✨.

#wellbeingjourney #healthyliving #healthymindhealthybody #selfcaretip #selfcarepractice taken in Hamburg, Germany by @thehealingroot_

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2 months ago

I have recently been reflecting on just how many versions of self it took for me to be present with the one I am embodying today.

Part of my work is not exiling any of them. But recognising and thanking each of them for their lessons, their challenges, their idiosyncratic insights.

I have SO much to still learn and grow into, but that should not detract from these moments of mindful observation, being with & honouring. Honouring of the road that has already been walked, and the various selves that walked the road. The versions that now collide into the person I am today: a self that is wider than the individual versions yet stripped of the individual identification patterns of each.

Mind you, these transitions into new and deeper selves are rarely - if ever - discrete states of arrival or being but continuous processes of unfolding, releasing, shedding and becoming familiar with the unfamiliar.

Is there anything more truly curious and fascinating than the internal experience of being human?

In these honest moments of self-reflection I look at what I would like to consciously take forward into the next expression of selfhood & also what I would like to leave behind. Or perhaps, what I need to leave behind in order to fully embody what this new version of self is and means.

I thank my lucky stars for having the internal resources and practices that ground me into something larger than myself to juxtapose these reflections against. They help to guide me and keep me aligned to a Truth that is more real and enduring than anything else I know.

Blessed are we for the capacity for conscious, awake relating to the life we live & the subjective experiences of reality that make us who we are.

📷: Katinka Bester

#somatictherapy #mindfullifestyle #addictionrecovery #healthymindhealthybody #healingfromwithin taken in Scarborough, Western Cape by @thehealingroot_

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8

2 months ago

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a month ago

INTEGRATION & DIGESTION PART 2/3

Emotional/psychic digestion of life helps to facilitate and lead us towards integration. It is also a prerequisite of integration, because how are we supposed to integrate what hasn’t yet been digested?

This digestion I speak of also allows us to be spacious enough to receive more of life. Because we can’t fully receive more of life when we haven’t done the work of appropriately “placing” past experience.

Digestion & integration also allows the lessons that life presents us with to take root - informing who we become in a more enduring and meaningful way.

Digestion & integration are both on going, continual processes. Processes that cannot & should not be rushed, at least not if they are to be true.

No matter how much integration work one does, there is no singular arrival point, more a continuous relationship of directionality towards integration.

There is also no arrival point of digestion because life is persistent & keeps giving us more to digest & assimilate. This is good as it stretches our (hopefully) ever-expanding capacity to hold more of life. But to expand our capacity for life we need to consciously keep up with the demands of digestion as more life comes in to avoid that bottleneck (refer to previous post).

If we are wise, we let life change us as we live it. This is authentic & balanced dynamism. And because of this aliveness to life, even that which we have integrated needs to sometimes find new places of belonging as life rearranges us and redirects our life force.

Part of the integration equation is also simply, TIME. Integration needs time. But because life CONTINUES (even when we are still trying to integrate things) we need to establish a familiarity with this rhythm created by the artful practise of responsiveness to life: taking in life, digesting it, taking in life, digesting it, taking in life, digesting it etc.

Social media actually robs us of the necessary experience of spaciousness and boredom; two of the places from which reflection & placement of experiences (integration) occurs.

I would love to know, what are some of your integration rituals?
✨ taken in Cape Town, South Africa by @thehealingroot_

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6 months ago