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Megan Mary: Welcome. Today we have Emma Drady. She is a woman’s health, naturopath, and writer, based in Sydney, Australia. She supports women and their families internationally to work towards achieving their optimal health through the use of natural medicines. Thank you for being here today, Emma.

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Emma Drady: thank you. My pleasure to join and have this wonderful chat with you.

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Megan Mary: Yes, I am so excited to have you here today to talk about a number of things, want to hear all about what led you to do the interesting work that you do, how it helps women, how it’s different, and also how that plays into all of your other interests. So

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Megan Mary: I this will be really interesting.
Emma Drady: Me too, my favorite topics.

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Megan Mary: So my first question that I like to ask everybody, because I think everybody has a different answer, and I feel like it really sets the stage for the conversation is, what does enlightenment mean to you?

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Emma Drady: enlightenment means to me. I think it means a lot of things to me. but the first thing that sort of comes to mind is

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Emma Drady: sort of that freedom from suffering and

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Emma Drady: discontent that many of us experience regularly, and that aiming towards a more peaceful existence. And that would be.

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Emma Drady: you know how, in our health, you know, mind and for our future as well. I think it would be a goal that we’re working towards to

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Emma Drady: alleviate ourselves from some of that suffering. And of course, as humans here on on earth that experience is

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Emma Drady: part of being a human, you know. Suffering is something that we can’t escape. But I guess sitting in that less and allowing it to release and to go back to peace as often as we can. So yeah, I think that to me

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Emma Drady: is what enlightenment means.

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Megan Mary: Yes, I love that. Wouldn’t that be great if we just had more peace and less suffering

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Megan Mary: that would just be, you know, in our in our minds and bodies, and it because it’s all connected. And when we, when our body suffers, our minds offers, and when our mind suffers, our body suffers, and it’s it’s a reciprocal thing. And you talk a lot about gut health on your blog, and I feel that that is crucial to your mind being optimal. Talk a little bit about how you work with that in your practice.

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Emma Drady: Absolutely, so I know that alot of naturopaths, and I think even the modern medicine community, is really understanding how the gut is really the seat of alot of our health woes in this modern world

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Emma Drady: I think because of the way that we have essentially treated our bodies, and that is usually the things that we’re eating, the things we’re ingesting, giving ourselves the time and the space to sit and enjoy our meals.

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Emma Drady: and so that has caused a lot of

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Emma Drady: gut disturbances. And so in my practice, what I do is I really help people come back to balance through the use of really mindful practices around eating, informing them a little bit more about what healthy food really is.

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Emma Drady: Outside of all the restrictive diets. I’m definitely not a big fan of the restrictive diets and following rules and counting calories, measuring things. That kind of thing is just creating more stress. And so I prefer

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Emma Drady: teaching people a little bit more about mindful eating and intuitive eating and the foods that are going to be beneficial for them, and that changes a little bit through out our life and even as women throughout our cycles.

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Emma Drady: so that’s a really big component of gut health. And then also I love diving into the microbiome, which is the bacteria, the parasites, the viruses, the fungi, all of the things that live inside the gut

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Emma Drady: that are essentially another organ for us humans. We all have.

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Emma Drady: I think it’s about 2 or 3 kilos worth of microbes living in our in our bowels. And so they do. So much for us. They process hormones they detoxify for us, they help us break down our food, and then, of course, when it comes to the mind, they are also helping us produce neurotransmitters for things like serotonin, which is our feel good hormone. So if we’re a little deficient in certain microbes

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Emma Drady: we can be deficient in some of those actions as well, so we can’t break our food down as well. We might get hormone inbalance, the build up of toxins, and then our mental health also tends to be the brunt of that, too.

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Emma Drady: So the way that I do that is often through testing to see what’s actually happening in there what the balance is like, and then there’s so many beautiful tools that

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Emma Drady: We as naturopaths, have

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Emma Drady: to help with that food. Certain fibers, certain probiotics, and lots of beautiful herbs as well. So gut health is a big topic. I could talk about it almost all day. but yes, it really is the seat of a lot of

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Emma Drady: our health, and if we have a good gut, we often have good health.

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Megan Mary: Yes, it is our second brain, and that dysbiosis

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Megan Mary: can essentially cause dis-ease. So let’s talk a little bit about how you came to do the work that you’re doing. What was your enlightenment journey like, and was there a pivotal moment where you

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went off your existing path and went down this path?

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Emma Drady: Yeah, so like a lot of

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Emma Drady: kids in a high school. I just had no idea what I wanted to do. I moved around a little bit in my teenage years, so I had been to about 4 different high schools, and by the time I got to my last one I was a little bit sick of it, to be honest and I just couldn’t wait to finish, and I just wanted to get out there and make some money. So I went out there and worked in the corporate field. I did a degree in business.

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Emma Drady: and I thought that was my path, and I was happy to just make money and live this lifestyle of, you know, party hard on the weekend. Work hard during the week, and save a bit of money and travel whenever I could. And that was the path that I was going down for a really long time. And then, in my sort of mid 20 s. Or maybe early twenties. I started to practice yoga.

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And

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Emma Drady: yeah, something really shifted within me when I started to attend those regular classes, and I got a little bit hooked. A bit addicted to the Yoga classes, and I was going almost every single day, and the teacher that I had at the time was an elder, and she was not your typical

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Emma Drady: Yoga teacher that we see these days. Who’s you know, fit and doing head stands and wearing the latest active where she was in her sixties, and really wise, and a lot of the postures she didn’t even do herself. She just talked through them and really delved into the philosophy behind Yoga.

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Emma Drady: So that was my initial introduction, and I got really, really interested in exploring the behind the scenes of just the Yoga postures. So

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Emma Drady: that’s where my sort of spirituality journey began through meditation, through reading the Vedic texts and that side of things. And then and that kind of flowed into the rest of my life, and the trips that I started taking were really different to what I did before. You know, I used to go

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Emma Drady: on a summer holiday to to Europe and party, or to a party island, and just lay in the sun and have cocktails with my friends, and then from from that introduction of Yoga things changeed. I I went to India. I went to Yoga Retreats. I was spent time in Nepal hiking, and

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Emma Drady: it was on one of those trips that I found myself in Sumatra, which is a really beautiful and interesting island in Indonesia.

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and while I was there I had a psilocybin journey.

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Emma Drady: and

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Emma Drady: it was a really powerful and strong journey, and there was this moment where I was sitting

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Emma Drady: watching the sun set over this beautiful lake in a place called an Danau Toba And I just realized that I I wanted to change my trajectory, and I wanted to help people.

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Emma Drady: and I just knew in that moment that everything was going to be different for me.

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Emma Drady: I was almost finished my business degree at that stage, and I think I had one semester left

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Emma Drady: and I came back and was just about to quit and thought, no, this is not what I’m gonna do

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Emma Drady: My mom talked me into finishing that degree, like all parents would. but I knew, you know, as soon as I graduate here I’m doing something different. This is this is not my path. And

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Emma Drady: Then I I stumbled across naturopathy through the beautiful science of medicine called Ayurveda, which is the traditional Indian medicine that often goes hand in hand with Yoga, and that was really where my eyes were opened to

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Emma Drady: a different way of helping people in a one on one setting. and yeah. Then then the journey began from there.

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Megan Mary: Wow! You really had a lot of travel and enlightenment going on in that. I I’d love that story. It’s great.

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Megan Mary: So what are some common misconceptions about what you do and how is what you do different from traditional naturopathy.

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Emma Drady: yeah. So I guess in in Australia, to be a naturopath.

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Emma Drady: we have to do a 4 year health science degree. So lots of study, lots of science, lots of

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Emma Drady: facts and information, and a lot of.

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Emma Drady: you know, really heady sort of topics. And so if you want to practice as a naturopath here you have to graduate with that degree, and you have to have that scientific

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Emma Drady: health background.

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but in terms of what really brought me into naturopathy, wasn’t that it was

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Emma Drady: the traditions and the beautiful long lineages of herbal medicine is, that’s what really drew me in.

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Emma Drady: and so I did the degree like I had to. But the way that I practice is I prefer to use things like herbal medicines and lifestyle medicine and lifestyle medicine can be just helping people live more in alignment with

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Emma Drady: what’s going to help them. And that could be, you know, waking up earlier, but going a bit earlier, it could be exposing your eyes to natural light in the morning. It could be putting a filter on their water If they live in the city. it could be

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Emma Drady: taking your shoes off and getting out in the grass more often, or slowing down, or saying no more to

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Emma Drady: the rush rush, rush, do, do do kind of activities that we’re all doing. So that’s a really big component along with the herbs.

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Emma Drady: And of course I use pathology and testing, and I I use everything that is still backed by science. But I think that’s just a bonus, the science to me is just a happy bonus, because I think

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Emma Drady: you know, herbalists throughout history haven’t

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Emma Drady: have that scientific evidence. And yet the medicine has always worked. So I I prefer to practice in that way. But that’s not to discredit other naturopaths in the way that they practice, because they get beautiful results, and

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Emma Drady: there’s a different practitioner for every person, and you’ve got to find the right person for you.

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Emma Drady: So I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, but I don’t think I should be either.

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Emma Drady: so yeah, that’s a little bit about how I how I practice But yeah, in comparison to other naturopaths that I work within the clinic

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Emma Drady: that I currently work out of is really different. So we’re all really different.

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Emma Drady: Yeah. And we talked a little bit the last time about

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Megan Mary: hindrances when trying to help clients and them looking for a quick fix, thinking that

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Megan Mary: it’s just going. You’re just going to take this herb, and then everything’s gonna go away and talk a little bit about

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Megan Mary: those roadblocks.

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Emma Drady: Yeah, so this is this is the such a hot topic, and I feel really strongly about this, and I try to

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Emma Drady: let all of my patients know from the get go that this is not going to be a one session, one herb.

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Emma Drady: all fixed within a day or 2 experience what the purpose of our sessions really is is

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Emma Drady: trying to work out what actually caused
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Emma Drady: your main concern. You know we don’t just get say, for example, a breakout of acne on our face for no reason. There’s always something that led to that. Whether that was something in the diet, whether it was long term stress, whether there was hormone imbalance.

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Emma Drady: or, you know, a million other reasons why we could get that break out. So we could technically just do topical things to make the skin look more beautiful. But the point is that we’re trying to work out what was the cause.

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Emma Drady: and then to

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Emma Drady: either support that cause with the use of herbal, medicine or diet and lifestyle medicine but also that comes with a lot of behavior change as well. Because if you’re someone that

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Emma Drady: we get to the point where we realize it’s something that you eat really, regularly, or something that you do really, regularly, that’s causing that break out. That’s the thing we need to change. And that’s not usually something you just do once, and it’s fixed it. That’s a that’s a long term behavioral change. And so

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Emma Drady: naturopathy is

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Emma Drady: absolutely something you have to come to when you’re ready, and you have to take that first step of just coming to the appointment. But you’ve also got to be ready to take the next step as well, and I think

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Emma Drady: that can be a longer journey for some people it can be a lifetime’s work. It could be a matter of months. But it’s absolutely going to be more than just taking herbs once, and the problem is fixed.

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Megan Mary: Yes, and I find there is so much overlap there with dreamwork, because you have to be ready to come to the table for that and to do that dreamwork. It’s not just one session isn’t going to tell you everything you need to know. It’s going to start you on that journey. But it’s that’s part of the reason that people

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Megan Mary: look to the quick fixes and look to the dream dictionaries and try to figure out, okay, I’m just gonna figure this out myself. I’m just gonna look up this one symbol or this one thing and see what it means.

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Megan Mary: And it it’s not going to mean that same thing for you. And you’re going to miss that introspective piece that’s necessary to actually accomplish the change that your your dream wants you to achieve. And so I think that we’re both

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Megan Mary: working up against those misconceptions. But you know, we need to encourage people to take that first step.

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Megan Mary: because in the long run the benefits are profound. It’s just know upfront that it’s not a quick fix. One thing fixes all type situation because life isn’t that way. It it continues on, other challenges present themselves. In your case, you continue eating. You continue with your lifestyle, you continue with your situation.

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Megan Mary: and that all feeds into the the mind, body, spirit, connection. The

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our emotions have such an effect on our health, and of course your dreams are

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Megan Mary: based in emotion. They’re very emotional.

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Megan Mary: So having that awareness is is the key starting point for healing, which whichever modality you’re using.

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Emma Drady: Hmm, I haven’t. Yeah. And I’ve always found the concept of a dream dictionary really interesting, because I think

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Emma Drady: you know, we’ve all come from different backgrounds and different lifestyles and things mean different things to each of us, and to look in a dictionary. And

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Emma Drady: what does it? What to saying? A fox in a dream name? it’s going to be something different to someone who lives in the city, to someone who lives in

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Emma Drady: in the rural setting setting that sees foxes all the time. so it’s yeah. It’s really interesting. And I guess that’s sort of somewhat similar to naturopathy in the sense of people often want

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Emma Drady: what herb is going to make me feel. X, y and Z.

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Emma Drady: And

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Emma Drady: that’s just it’s not. That’s not the way we can’t we We can’t really prescribe that way. Of course it’s herbs that can.

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Emma Drady: you know, make you feel less bloated or make you, I’ll help you go to sleep. But that’s not that’s not the root cause of what’s happening. so yeah, but I think they are really closely linked

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Megan Mary: and and the root cause, what you said is is so true, I think that you have to get, you have to get under the hood. You know the dreams are buried way deep in the subconscious, and

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Megan Mary: whatever they are trying to tell you about, which could be your health or

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Megan Mary: your career or your relationships, or you know just your path in life is is cryptically masked in the puzzle of your dream language. And so

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Megan Mary: working with that is such a personalized experience. It’s such a customized approach. And I think that that’s probably very similar with what you do. You look at that specific person’s situation, and then take all of the different influences and background that that you have, and address it in your own unique way.

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Emma Drady: Hmm, yeah, yeah, exactly. You have to look at

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Emma Drady: the person sitting in front of you and the whole person as well. Not just their symptoms or that organ that’s currently

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Emma Drady: under stress, it’s the whole person. It’s their journey, it’s their family history, it’s a lot of of information to to come up with the right formula for them.

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Megan Mary: so if you were to recommend something, everyone should stop doing. And what they should start doing

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Emma Drady: what would those things be, why should everyone stop? Doing

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Emma Drady: I think, in terms of stop doing would probably be try to let go of

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Emma Drady: the the fancy

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Emma Drady: diets and let go of the fancy super foods and

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Emma Drady: all, all of that kind of marketed hype around health. let go of it, because while it’s not harmful.

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Emma Drady: and maybe it is a little helpful. It’s probably not necessary for most of us.

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Emma Drady: I think restricting ourselves is you know it. It’s not something we’ve ever done throughout history on purpose.

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Emma Drady: and I think that cutting out whole food groups, for example, or measuring things and being really, really, really particular

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Emma Drady: about

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Emma Drady: our food and the combinations of our food takes a lot of the joy and the love and the pleasure of eating out of our lives. And really, that’s

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Emma Drady: a huge component of of eating. Of course we want to eat healthy, but we also have to enjoy

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Emma Drady: that experience.

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Emma Drady: and same with all the super foods and things like that. You know. We don’t need to eat quinoa and Goji berries and all that kind of thing to be healthy. We can it simple

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Emma Drady: foods that we can grow in our garden, or we can get from a farmers market that are local to our area, that aren’t flown in from

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Emma Drady: far off lands that they’re just our local foods, and they are just as potent and powerful and nutritious as

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Emma Drady: all of those fancy foods. So that was one thing that I would say people can stop doing. And then something that people should be doing

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Emma Drady: is

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Emma Drady: getting outside more and spending more time in nature.

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Emma Drady: and that could look like so many different things. It doesn’t mean you have to go hiking or camping or going anywhere specific. It could be

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Emma Drady: taking your shoes off and putting your feet in the grass, or smelling a flower when you walk past one. It could be growing herbs on your window sill

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Emma Drady: it could be simply opening the window in the blinds and letting the sunlight in.

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Emma Drady: When you wake up in the morning interacting with nature More is, I truly believe the key to

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Emma Drady: our our success. our healthy success on this planet as humans.

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Emma Drady: so that would be the thing that I would recommend. People

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Emma Drady: do more of is to get outside and get into nature and commune with nature.

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Megan Mary: That’s a great segue to your new book, Women and Nature. So tell listeners about your new book.

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Emma Drady: Yeah. So my book is coming out in

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Emma Drady: Australia at the end of August. it will be coming out in the Us. And the Uk. Next year. but it can be purchased in Australia as of August. it is a.

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Emma Drady: It is a few things. This book. It is a collection of stories about women from around the world who do really beautiful and interesting things in nature.

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Emma Drady: So.

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Emma Drady: for example, some of the women I have are farmers. Some of them are free divers. Some of them are artists and designers and photographers. Some are flower growers.

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Emma Drady: they’re all doing something really unique and

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Emma Drady: powerful in nature. And

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Emma Drady: while they’re all from different places around around the world, really and they’re all doing slightly different things, they really all share a similar message, and that is the message that I wanted to share

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Emma Drady: with the readers is that doesn’t matter what you do

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Emma Drady: in terms of connecting with nature. You’re going to have a really similar experience. And that experience is slowing down. It’s finding a community whether that’s with other humans for the community of nature or your local environment as your community.

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Emma Drady: it’s patience. It’s

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Emma Drady: it’s a lot of beautiful learning that we get only from spending time in nature.

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So I have these beautiful stories and lots of

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Emma Drady: absolutely stunning photography in the book, if for no other reason, just by it to to look at. It’s something that you can keep out and flick through whenever you feel like you need a little. Nature fixes absolutely beautiful, beautiful photos in there.

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Emma Drady: and then, throughout the stories, I’ve also put some

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Emma Drady: activities for the reader to do. And these are all nature based activities. And they’re all really easy to do, really accessible. And a nice place to start if you’re

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Emma Drady: really feeling that itch to spend more time in nature. But you’re not really sure where to start or what to do.

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Emma Drady: And then at the back I also got a little nature first aid kit so some things that you can do with nature to support your health.

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Emma Drady: So it’s a collection of different things. It’s a really active fun, but also really beautiful and inspiring book. that I’m so excited to come to come out.

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Megan Mary: Oh, I’m excited to read it. That sounds really fascinating. I love that you integrated the photography because I love photography, and I feel like imagery is so

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Megan Mary: subconsciously healing, so integrating that with the stories, and then with the other aspects it. It sounds really fascinating. And I love what you said about being in nature. Being a person that sits on my computer all day, I definitely should spend more time in nature, and when I do get out there and the sun is shining on my face, I’m like, Wow! This feels so different from sitting at my desk.

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Megan Mary: And so it really does. It really does make a difference. And that connection is so easy to

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Megan Mary: demote nd not prioritize. But it really really does make a difference.

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Emma Drady: aYeah, it makes such a difference. I agree with the photography. And you know there was while I was writing the book I came across this really amazing study being done in the Uk. On how, looking at images of nature affects us positively in our mental health in there’s.

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Emma Drady: I think, the research concluded, that if you

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Emma Drady: simply look at 10 to 15 images, I think was what they found, you can change a lot of your stress markers in the body simply by looking at images. And so

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Emma Drady: that’s another part of the book. Is that just flicking through that can be medicine in itself, which is

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Emma Drady: yeah, really exciting. And I I’m so happy that research like that is being done.

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Megan Mary: Oh, yes, yes, I love reading about that type of thing. And I try to integrate a lot of imagery on my website for that reason, because I feel like I’m a very visual person, and I think that’s fascinating that it can affect your your stress level just looking at it. I guess it

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Megan Mary: it. Take it, transports you there. In a way, it it allows a little bit of that experience to come through, even if it’s a still photo which is so interesting. And then, of course, of a video would be even more beneficial. But I love that you integrated a picture book

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Megan Mary: because any any book about women in nature definitely should So I think that’s I can’t wait to read it.

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Emma Drady: Thank you. Yeah. I’m super excited to have it out there and share it with with everyone.

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Megan Mary: So what’s next for you on this journey? Obviously your your book is a huge accomplishment. And what do you? Where do you see yourself going after that?

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Emma Drady: I really love the experience of writing and having that creative outlet

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Emma Drady: in my work. As much as I say that I love the traditional aspects of naturopathy. It is still very

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Emma Drady: heady work, you know. It’s really thinking, using the mind. I’m often sitting on my computer a lot. I do still have to do research and

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Emma Drady: to have that experience of just flowing and creating. And beauty is something that I want to incorporate more into

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Emma Drady: my future going forward. So I think there will be more

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Emma Drady: hopefully, more books and more writing on the horizon. However that looks and just more

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Emma Drady: yeah, more regular creating. That’s really what I would like to incorporate into my work. And then, personally.

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Emma Drady: I think

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Emma Drady: I think for me, I want to find somewhere to ground and to build my own garden. That would probably be my next goal, and my next step in life

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Emma Drady: don’t know how long that’s going to take But that is what I’m working towards personally. To grow my own food, to grow my own medicine

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Emma Drady: and have a space where.

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Emma Drady: yeah, I can connect more with the outdoors on a really regular basis that feels safe and

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Emma Drady: yeah, somewhere that I feel really connected to

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Megan Mary: Wonderful, where can people find you if they want to take advantage of your gifts.

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Emma Drady: If you would like to follow my work. My handle on Instagram is just Emma Drady.

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And I pop up

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Emma Drady: not too much info about herbs and nutrients, but I do put up a lot of

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Emma Drady: sort of herbal medicine traditional wisdom quotes that I find from really inspirational speakers, and then sometimes I’ll put up a little bit of info on tips around health that are really universal.

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Emma Drady: and then, if you did want to dive in and have an actual consultation, or you wanted to help with something specific. you can visit my website, which is just www.emmadrady.com. And you can book in for a session on there.

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Emma Drady: I offer video so essentially anywhere around the world. If you can work out the time zones. you can have a session with me and if you’re in the Sydney Australia area, then we can have a in-person consultation as well.

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Emma Drady: and then in terms of the book that will be available in

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Emma Drady: all kinds of bookstores and online. So just keep an eye out that I will be posting about it on my social media. So that’s probably the best way to keep up to date with those things.

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Megan Mary: Okay, very good. Well, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate hearing your stories and hearing about what you do, and I know that our listeners will, too, and I think it will be very beneficial. And I know we’re all looking forward to your book.

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Megan Mary: So thank you for being here today.

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Emma Drady: Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. It’s been lovely chatting with you.

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Megan Mary: Yes, thank you.

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Emma Drady: Thanks.