Women with Purpose and Passion
On March 8th I was invited to a breakfast celebration for International Women’s Day. The event was held at the Kooyong Tennis Club. I walked through dark Melbourne streets to the railway station to catch a train to Kooyong. I had no idea that I was going to such a prestigious location where the driveway was lined with carefully tended rose bushes and the conference room overlooked the famous tennis courts where many of Australia’s elite first made their mark.
The event was hosted by the Victorian branch of Women in Chiropractic. The theme was Empowered Choices and the panel, moderated professionally by Dr Bettina Tornatora was comprised of 3 fascinating women with an abundance of interesting and relevant information to share.
Nicole Biljsma is a woman with a passion in environmental medicine. Her personal journey with infertility was a driving catalyst which ignited her interest in what she refers to as “building biology. I could have listened to Nicole all day. Her enthusiasm and fearless willingness to share what few of us know about the effect the environment we live in (including our own homes) can have on our health was astounding. The key messages I took away was that there is so much to consider in our immediate environment that maybe affecting our health and that of our families. So much so that as soon as I have read her book “Healthy Home Healthy Family” I will write a blog article highlighting the aspects of our home environment that we need to be more conscious of.
In addition to her work researching and educating about environmental medicine Nicole established a college to educate people about health hazards in the built environment, she resolved her infertility issues and is raising a dynamic family, she is a PhD candidate and her and her husband manufacture the Abode cleaning product range which was developed for people with skin and chemical sensitivities. I have been using these products for several years and love them.
Emma Park is a Functional Medicine Nutritionist who believes wholeheartedly in the power of Food as Medicine. The take home message she shared was the benefit of aiming for 40 serves of plant-based food a week. 40 sounds like a lot however Emma said that any plant-based food can be counted, fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts, legumes and grains are all plants. I encourage you to take her challenge and count how many plant based foods you are consuming in a week – perhaps not over the Easter weekend though.
Leandra Brady-Walker calls herself a “cosmopolitan hippy”. She acknowledges that this title is a contradiction. Leandra describes herself as a woman who wants it all, a fast-paced fashionable lifestyle, good food, a social life, a happy family and above all, good health. She has an interesting background having lived and worked in Darwin and Ballarat. Leandra is a Chiropractor who has written a book on food and hosts her own podcast. Her philosophy on success is do what you are good at and delegate the rest.
Bettina’s closing message was inspiring as she encouraged all of us to serve within our capacity and bring our own gifts to our relationships and life’s purpose.