CFDS 023 Nikki Harman: From Homelessness To Mindfulness

How Nikki Harman went on a journey from being homeless to practicing mindfulness. Plus the best food for mental clarity.
Hi everybody, I'm Barbara Fernandez, the Rocking Raw Chef, here with my Clean Food, Dirty Stories: one to entertain, the other to inspire.
I help people stamp out stress, depression and fatigue over at RockingRawChef.com, and today's title is:
From Homelessness To Mindfulness
In addition to this story, at the end of this episode I'll share with you the best food for mental clarity and focus. This food literally raises our brain function to its maximum and it's really easy to find.
OK enough hints from me, let's get on with the story.
I am super excited to be joined here today for our story by Nikki Harman, who has an amazing story to tell. Not only has she been through quite a lot in her life, but what she does now is super exciting as well. So I really can't wait to dive into it, and so let's do it!
Nikki welcome to the Clean Food, Dirty Stories podcast!
Nikki: Hello! Thank you for having me.
Me: You're very welcome!
Nikki's story
So you've got quite an incredible story and I'm actually quite honored that you're happy to share it with us and everything. I know that your story, I believe your story begins when your parents split up, is that right? And you were about eleven, is that right?
Nikki: Yes, so when I was eleven my parents split up. And at the time just before they split up I was living in a really lovely six-bedroom Victorian house in a nice seaside town. My parents had good jobs and all was going fairly well, but they split up. And because the house we were living in came with the job that my dad had, we lost the house.
Me: Oh!
Losing everything
Nikki: So we lost everything basically. My dad moved to London to go and find work, and my brother, myself and my mom moved into this temporary accommodation, a bed and breakfast.
Me: How old was your brother?
Nikki: My brother was eight.
Me: Sorry?
Nikki: I was eleven and he was seven. So it was from the age of eleven to twelve that we were in this temporary accommodation. For a year before we were rehomed into a council flat, so my brother was seven and eight.
Me: Wow yeah. What did your father do during this time? Did he just like go to London and not look back, or...?
Nikki: He came down when he could. Although he was working most of that time. And I remember only really seeing him every few weeks. Probably every four to six weeks, an occasional day trip down, a Saturday. Most of the time it was just me and my mom and my brother.
Me: And so your mom, she wasn't at the time of the split...She was looking after you? Did she have any other work or a job?
Nikki: No, she didn't work. It kind of broke her, this whole situation. She wound up having quite a significant mental breakdown over it. She became quite distant and disengaged with us. It was just really quite difficult because I remember what it was like just before we moved out saying goodbye.
Packing your life away
We had two beautiful cats and a couple of cockatiels and we had to rehome them. Just packing all of our belongings, packing everything away. Everything in my room, all my toys, my books, my stereo, my tapes, cassette tapes. All my music, all that kind of stuff, it all had to be put away. And I felt like I was packing away a part of me, really.
That was my room, that was just me. So what it must have been like for my mom to pack everything in the house away and not know when next we might see it all.
We were told initially that the law is that temporary accommodation means four to six weeks before you are rehomed. Clearly that doesn't happen now and it didn't happen then. And so we didn't really know how long it would be. It was kind of assumed at the time that it would be a short-term thing. But it became clear very quickly