Root & Rise with Lucy Lucy Victoria Jackson

Toral Shah is deeply passionate about the health and wellness of people and of the planet. Professionally she is a Nutritional Scientist (MSc Nutr Med), Functional Medicine Practitioner, Food and Health writer and Consultant, as well as the Founder of The Urban Kitchen.

She is a unique and refreshing voice in the world of wellness as her knowledge is underpinned with a strong foundation in medicine and science. She originally went to medical school with a view to becoming an oncologist but when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she realised that this was not the career for her. After completing her BSc in Cell Biology, specialising in cancer, she worked in research, winning a prestigious Royal Society internship where she worked on SRC oncogenes. Toral then went on to do an MSc in Nutritional Medicine at University of Surrey and became a functional medicine practitioner working with nutrigenomics.

This combination of an informed scientific background and a big heart for helping others is truly inspiring. She uses her knowledge and her passion to help a whole host of people, but a strong focus for her is cancer patients & survivors (not only is her Mum a cancer survivor, but Toral herself is a 2 times breast cancer survivor), and combating the lack of diversity in healthcare (currently, BAME people have poorer health outcomes, even when you take into account socioeconomic factors, and are often diagnosed with cancer at later stages). She is working with several charities and organisations to ensure that they are creating more inclusive health promotion campaigns with more diversity and inclusivity so that all communities know that cancer can affect them.

In this podcast episode we cover a whole host of topics! From explaining what functional health actually is, to exploring white privilege & unconscious bias (particularly in the wellness space), to her top tips on eating as well as possible on a budget, to the loneliness pandemic, and to sharing her wellness toolkit.

You can find out more about Toral on Instagram @theurbankitchen on Twitter @urbankitchen & via her website www.theurbankitchen.co.uk

On Sunday 29th November 2020 she is running a workshop through her events company What the Health Events (co-created with Amy Abrahams) called “Your 2021 Health Manifesto” - it’s an online workshop all about helping you to prepare to maximise your health in 2021 (goodness do we need it after 2020!!). If you want to explore more / sign up head to https://www.whatthehealthevents.co.uk/events Their Instagram is @whatthehealthevents

If you want to connect with your host Lucy she can be found on Instagram @lucyvictoriajacksonyoga or via her website www.lucyvictoriajackson.com - here you will find all the info you should need on her Online Membership Root & Rise: the Practice.

Resources from the conversation this week:

Breath work app https://eddiestern.com/the-breathing-app/

Sway by Dr Pragya Agarwal https://uk.bookshop.org/books/sway-unravelling-unconscious-bias/9781472971357

Extra resources recommended by Toral:

Invisible Women by Caroline Perez https://uk.bookshop.org/books/invisible-women-exposing-data-bias-in-a-world-designed-for-men/9781784706289

Superior by Angela Saini https://uk.bookshop.org/books/superior-the-return-of-race-science/9780008293864 - (she also has another book called Inferior)

Aisha Nash is a breath of fresh air in the yoga industry. Her message is clear, sensible & full of humour. This message is essentially: yoga is not about how you look, but about how you FEEL.

After studying Biology at university, and training to be a chef, she was disheartened to see how fearful people are of food. Combine this with her yoga teacher training and early teaching days that showed her a dark reality of the yoga world (that so often yoga glorifies and idolises white, skinny women), she created Anti Diet Yoga.

Due to her keen interest in history, especially that of food, she decided to study the history of dieting, and wants to inform everybody of it’s racist pedagogy, and the ways we can dump Diet culture from our lives.

This is a truly timely and insightful conversation (grab your notebook & pen!), and we can all learn a lot from Aisha’s wisdom and sharings.

You can connect with her on Instagram @theaishanash & her website is www.aishanash.com She’s also hosting a Womxn's circle “An Unravelling of Body Image” - it is accessible with the below link: https://www.aishanash.com/events

You can connect with your host Lucy on Instagram @lucyvictoriajacksonyoga & her website is www.lucyvictoriajackson.com - here you can find out more about her online membership Root & Rise: the Practice

This week’s episode is a solocast with your host Lucy. One positive of lockdown life this year is the extra time many of us have had to consider important topics in our lives & in our wider society.

The topics in this episode are diverse - but each one very important and relevant to many of us. Lucy covers: lockdown mental health challenges & how she’s been navigating them; the relationship between yoga & colonialism & cultural appropriation within the yoga community; and finally women supporting women & female friendships.

Lucy hopes that this episode offers you a moment to pause & consider the topics she shares; to inspire you to continue your own exploration of the topics that resonate with you.

You can connect with Lucy on Instagram @lucyvictoriajacksonyoga or via her website www.lucyvictoriajackson.com - here you will find all about her online membership Root & Rise: the Practice

The Racial Equity & Cultural Appropriation in Yoga course is ran by Kallie Schut - more information can be found via her website www.rebelyogatribe.co.uk - her instagram is @kallie_yoga_rebeltribe

The Red Tent book by Anita Diamant can be bought here https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-red-tent/anita-diamant/9780330487962 (this is one of Lucy’s top reads ever!)

Vayia’s energy is incredibly warm & loving: even just hearing her voice you’ll feel like you’ve been given the biggest Mama bear hug. She is deeply spiritual & beautifully human all in one go - this makes for the most nurturing & reassuring combination all bundled up in one gorgeous human being.

In this episode Vayia shares with us the whys & hows of Insight Meditation (from the Vipassanā line of meditation) - we chat all about the benefits, the obstacles, & how to actually do it. We also chat about the concept of Yin & Yang energy, Reiki, & so much more.

This conversation comes at a time when many of us need that reassuring calm in our lives - if you’re struggling with lockdown, stress, anxiety, then the tips that are shared by Vayia will very likely be of use to you.

If you want to follow Vayia’s Yoga Nidra meditation on YouTube please head here: https://youtu.be/O_y1svpFcSM

The books mentioned in the episode are:

The Untethered Soul https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-untethered-soul/michael-a-singer/9781572245372
Journey to the Heart https://www.waterstones.com/book/journey-to-the-heart/melody-beattie/9780062511218
A Journey to Your Soul Purpose (Vayia’s book!) https://www.beyourspirit.co.uk/product-page
The Celestine Prophecy https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-celestine-prophecy/james-redfield/9780553409024
Many Lives Many Masters https://www.waterstones.com/book/many-lives-many-masters/dr-brian-weiss/9780749913786
You Can Heal Your Life https://www.waterstones.com/book/you-can-heal-your-life/louise-hay/9780937611012

You can connect with Vayia via her website (here you’ll find information on her Meditation 100hr Training starting Jan 2021) https://www.beyourspirit.co.uk or via Instagram @beyourspirit

You can connect with your host Lucy via her website www.lucyvictoriajackson.com or via Instagram @lucyvictoriajacksonyoga

Kat’s personal mantra is: “I am wonderful. I am beautiful. I am blessed.” Her journey to truly believing these words has been a challenging & long one, & in this episode we dive into this journey in a very open & honest way... Professionally Kat is an Occupational Therapist for the NHS & a Contemporary Disabled Dance Artist. At birth she was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, & for her childhood & early adulthood she prided herself on her ability to appear non-disabled in most circumstances; but after an injury & some deep soul-searching over many years she realised that this was learned ableism conditioned into her by society. In this conversation Kat & Lucy begin to dive into ableism & how it is ingrained into our society as a whole as well as the wellbeing community. Access to wellness should be a right for everyone, but so often it is inaccessible & unwelcoming to the disabled community. They also chat about knowing your own body, empathy, spirituality & more. It is a deeply enriching & honest conversation between two old friends that really do want to bring more love & empathy into the world. You can connect with Kat on Instagram @kulkat2 the image credit is @chris.parkes.photo The references she gives are: Matthew Sanford - paraplegic Yoga Teacher & pioneer in adapting yoga for disabled people http://www.matthewsanford.com Crip Camp on Netflix - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8923484/ The Shack by William Paul Young - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-shack/wm-paul-young/9780340979495 You can connect with Lucy on Instagram @lucyvictoriajacksonyoga or via her website www.lucyvictoriajackson.com - here you’ll find all the info you need on Root & Rise: the Practice.

Lis Roscoe is the most beautiful alchemy of compassion, humility, & humour. She is the definition of soft heart & strong back. She is a yoga teacher who also offers Ayurvedic massage, but her number one role is Mummy to her nearly 7-year-old daughter Amaryllis.

In this episode Lis shares all about her wonderful retreats with her company &Sister (co-Founded with her sister Nats), her experiences & lessons from India & her Ayurvedic teacher there, but the real heart of this conversation comes towards the second half where Lis bravely opens up about her divorce from Amaryllis’s Father. Sharing her journey of heartbreak, betrayal & how she reached forgiveness. Her story, shared so honestly & courageously, will resonate with so many others, & if you are on a similar journey this is an episode you do not want to miss.

It is also an episode full of giggles!! If you want to find out who Brenda is, & what the juggle struggle is then do listen on!

To connect with Lis further please find her Instagram @lisroscoe & for her retreat company @andsister_yoga & for her retreat venue @poundonhouse

Websites to explore: www.andsister.co.uk www.poundonhouse.com

To connect further with your host Lucy her Instagram is @lucyvictoriajacksonyoga & her website is www.lucyvictoriajackson.com (you can head here to explore Root & Rise: the Practice!)

The books mentioned in the podcast are Untamed by Glennon Doyle https://www.waterstones.com/book/untamed/glennon-doyle/9781785043352

Sattva by Emily & Paul Rushton https://www.waterstones.com/book/sattva/emine-rushton/paul-rushton/9781788172240

Prajñā by Mira Manek
https://www.waterstones.com/book/prajna/mira-manek/9781472267702