Send us a text This is the introductory episode to A Truly Holistic Approach to living with a kidney tranplant. This 6 part series is niche in that it speaks to an audience that has the experience of kidney transplantation. In this opener, Ciara shares her personal and professional experience as both patient and health practitioner. With her kidneys failing at a very young age of 14, with a diagnosis at 4 years old. Be kind to yourself in listening. Notice anything that feels difficult,...

Send us a text The culminating episode, the integrating finale to this series. We touch upon healing as an integrated approach. That our wholeness does not require perfection. We take it day by day and trust the process as much as we are able. Healing happens in a spiral. There is no single story around healing after a kidney transplant. Medical rupture can carry great intensity, sorrow, confrontation and upset - in our own lives, and in the lives of others. The holistic path asks us to...

Send us a text From skin and bones, we travel into the active tissues - the muscles. Muscles are all about motility. Movement. To build muscle tone, we need to create some stress to these tissues. Stronger muscles wraps more tightly to the bones, in turn making the bones stronger - what a gesture of symbiosis. Just as we climb trees, the tree becomes stronger. Kidney function is closely tied to electrolyte balance. The key minerals such as magnesium, support healthy muscle and nerves. M...

Send us a text We continue in our series, to bones. What weight bearing movements do we invite to keep the bones healthy. Do we understand that certain dietary intake of sugary sodas strip bones of calcium as the body excretes more calcium via the urine in an effort to deal with the sugars, weakening the bones. This series seeks to ask you to tap into your own inner healer. So it's not intended as a list of instructions. It's a lighthouse or fireside to gather around and remember what t...

Send us a text The Heart - the Hrid (sanskrit), the Kokoro (Japanese). What's the word for Heart in your native tongue? Yes we need to tend to our cardiovascular health when living with a kidney transplant. To keep circulatory capacity flowing. To nourish the rich vascular capillary beds by good breathing. We also need to tend to the spirit, the inner world of our heart's longing. This deeper feeling of living more truly from the spiritual heart. In this episode we talk a little of cohe...

Send us a text In this second episode of the 6 part series, we explore the skin - this semi-permeable interface between inner and outer worlds. Skin is nourished from the inside. Often dysbiosis (imbalance in the gut microbiota) can present on the skin. There is also usually an emotional root to skin issues, given the skin forms with the nervous system in embryology. In kidney transplantation, there may be various medications such as steroids (prednisolone mostly) and the calcineurin in...

Send us a text In this episode, Ciara shares her interest in the Sabian Symbols. Coming through via astrologist Marc Edmund Jones and psychic medium, Elsie Wheeler, in 1925, in San Diego in a parked car, all in one day. The two of them collaborated to bring through from Ancient Mesopotamia, these symbols, each corresponding to the degrees on the zodiacal wheel. 360 in total, with 30 degrees being assigned to each of the 12 signs. These bring insight and inspiration and depth into understandin...

Send us a text Embodied movement over the years has infused into the world of yoga. In this episode, Ciara introduces terms such as interoception and proprioception, with useful anecdotes and invitations for the listener to reflect on the stories held in their bodies and how we can continue to remember our agency, sovereignty and autonomy. Bit by bit, remembering too, to be gentle in the process. Ciara Jean Roberts https://www.whollyaligned.com/ Find your Voice Intro and outro; Written a...

Send us a text An introduction or indeed, a river of meandering into the slow lane of yin. Weaving in stories and contemplation on how yin, as a balancing energy, can help you in the currents and mysteries of your life. discover more about yin as a spirt and energy, an equipoise to the excess of yang we tend towards in modern life. With some reference to yoga and yin yoga, mainly though, an invitation to sip at the slower cup of replenishment and let this almost be a meditative journey. Ideas...

Send us a text How to support your bone health: The new series for 2024 zooms in on a particular part of the body. Bones are many parts of the body! And a wonderful living tissue to appreciate how to take care of, in your unique context. In this episode, Ciara shares some ideas to encourage better bone health, from nutrition, to the importance of movement and an overview of key bone cells and their function. For more ideas, event and musings around yoga, nutrition and sacred living, ho...

Send us a text A lovely soothing shorter journey into your own wise heart. Great for when you need a gentle reset in times of emotional turmoil. Also a useful soother to listen to before falling asleep. Ciara Jean Roberts Yoga Teacher. Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist, Author, Creative Spark https://www.whollyaligned.com Twitter @WhollyAligned Check out my Tedx Talk: Unlocking your Inner Physician: https://youtu.be/y0lmkEkNIuk

Send us a text Ciara Roberts brings you a series of guided meditations. You can listen seated, laying down, on a train, in a plane, under a tree...make it work for you. Beginning with Arriving and Centring. The energies of Arrive. The energies of Centre. Arriving and centring into the contours of our physical form. Centring into the essence of the deepest inner truths we hold. Arriving and Centring is a practise Ciara experienced with long time yin yoga teacher, Sarah Lo. A usef...

Send us a text In this episode, Ciara shares 3 key learning outcomes for coherent breathing, expanding more on the intricacies of the nervous system and reflective invitations to allow you to explore your current inner state: 1. Breathing through the nose 2. Breathing into the belly 3. An even rate and rhythm It's all about balance. With a guided 15 minutes at the end to help regulate, sense and feel. For the 20 minutes guided coherent breath episode, listen here: https://www.buzzsprout....

Send us a text In the ongoing season of the Recalibrate/Recalibrating your nervous system, season of the Wholly Aligned podcast, Ciara welcomes Dr Ela Manga. Ela is an integrated medical doctor, practising in South Africa. Trained originally as a GP in conventional medicine, a few years into her GP work, she swiftly discovered that patients kept coming back with the same issues. Her work then broadened out into energy management and conscious living. Very much including the...

Send us a text In the second episode of 'Recalibrating the nervous system' series, Ciara expands a bit more on the Autonomic Nervous Systems and its 3 key branches of sympathetic nervous system, para-sympathetic nervous system and the enteric nervous system. Making it relatable to your daily life. So not laden with jargon - infused with real life story and reminders to be kind and compassionate in your explorations! It's deep work... Touching upon the activating and pacifying componen...

Send us a text In episode 4 of Integrating a holistic approach to kidneys, Ciara speaks with Mike Stephens. Kidney transplant and vascular access surgeon. Part of the leadership team in Cardiff, Wales. I first spoke with Mike, about 3 years ago, when a burgeoning interest in the wellbeing of medics working in a dysfunctional system became a passion I wanted to understand more about. Mike was open in the challenges he felt. Which was very refreshing for me to hear. Now here we a...

Send us a text Episode 3 in the series 'Integrating a holistic approach to kidneys'. Ciara talks to one of her closest friends Vivien, who has a working transplant for over 25 years now. Ciara and Vivien met in the St Helier dialysis unit when they were both young students at different universities. And over 25 years later, they remain firm friends. Through the rollercoasters of their own unique journey with their kidney transplants, their friendship has been a solid through line ...

Send us a text Episode 2 of Integrating a Holistic Approach to Kidneys features another brilliant human. Dr Sharlene Greenwood is a Consultant Physiotherapist at King’s College Hospital, an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at King’s College London, and a NIHR post-doctoral research fellow. She co-chairs the UK Kidney Research Consortium, and Kidney Quality Improvement Partnership (KQuIP), and is the President of the UK Kidney Association. Sharlene is an advanced clinical practitioner with 1...

Send us a text In the bright start of a brand new series,' Integrating a holistic approach to kidneys', Ciara chats to her good friend Anoushica. Including the very turbulent rollercoaster with her kidney transplant following a serious fungal infection that left her in hospital for over 3 months this year. Including days in intensive care. We cover the ache of her brother wanting to give her a kidney, her feelings of responsibility as the older sibling to him. Her eventual recognition that ...

Send us a text In our fourth episode, Marley and Ciara talk about memories of Zambia. The change in dynamic, as now the memories include her daughters. The previous 3 episodes, were before children, or when both daughters were still very young. Zambia is a beautiful country in southern Africa. Hear more in this episode of a family moving abroad. Very fortunate to live an expatriate life, with a big house, yet also with the deeper experiences of growing together as a family. The sendin...