Time to say THANK YOUUUUUU

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Austyn

Savannah PR

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Singing Bowls and their powerful connection

When did Singing Bowl first come in to your life

When Anup and I were visiting family in Nepal we were walking up a mountain and came across a man playing singing bowls on the side of the road.  The sound surrounded and it felt like it came from far away.  We were mesmerised and knew we had to start bringing them back to Australia so share with more people.

Anup then had the idea of creating a global meditation for peace & harmony, with everyone raising their vibrational frequency by playing singing bowls.  This led to the need to share them with people and provide a better understanding and experience: so we started exhibiting at markets and festivals so more people could have this chance.

Each bowl has certain properties and purposes: why is that

Our bodies are affected by sounds and vibrations in different ways.  Some bowls have a high pitched sound: this is good for clearing energy in a room because the sound will cut through any dense energy trapped in the space.

The medium sounds have a soothing clear tone and are good for meditation or promoting good sleep as the sound is clear & focussed allowing your mind to be still and present.  The sound is usually deeper so it has a calming effect on the body as well as giving you a chance to become centered and relaxed.

The deeper vibrational bowls (which are usually beaten by hand) have a healing effect on the body: when we experience a lot of vibration, the properties of this particular bowl raises our own body's vibrational frequency and in turn allows us to heal better. In addition to this, the deep vibration is a wonderful form of massage (relaxing the muscle and joints) and can be used in Reiki and other energy therapies, as the vibration shifts blocked energies through the chakras.

What has been the reaction from folk who may have the "oh yeah...I've seen these things somewhere but never knew what they were about" vs those who are already in-tune with the bowls properties and purposes

I think ultimately everyone gets the same experience.  By "same" I mean that individual totally unique experiences you from tuning into your own self and centre. Whether you know much about them or only a little, the ultimate gain about singing bowls is the "in the moment" experience you have when you are playing them.

Some experience deep relaxation; some feel elated or enlightened...like they had a moment to forget their worries and stressors; others feel confronted because the sound is bringing up past wounds that need healing (which is a good thing if you are ready to heal) ;and for some, they feel like they are coming home: like they are being understood, especially when they find the tone that really connects to them. 

We all have our onset of frequencies that resonate with our body more than others. It really is a great feeling when you find that one which is "yours".

You are now a well entrenched and much loved stallie at Frenchs Forest Market.  How has market life impacted on you both personally and professionally

We love the markets because it's a way to bring ourselves and our business to people. Singing Bowls is a product that needs to be experienced in the holistic sense (as opposed to viewing in a photo) and  most specially in an environment where people are looking for new things to encounter. 

Frenchs Forest Market has such a lovely community atmosphere and people are interested in better health and wellbeing.  Personally, I love the wonderful friends I have made over the years and the comradery amongst the stallholders.

I also love the food: it would have to be the best food market that I know!  It is also a market where we have met many of our long term and much loved customers, and get to hear their lovely singing bowl stories!

If you could sum up the beauty that is known as Singing Bowls in 5 words, what would they be

Connection

Peacefulness

Sharing Experiences

Healing

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Could not have summed it up better ourselves.  We thank Anup & Brinley for sharing just a little of their story with us but more so for showing us how to connect with ourselves with the simple tone of a beautiful singing bowl which can bring peace & harmony to our ever increasingly frantic external world.

What exactly IS an activate nut? Well fortunately we have someone who can explain...

Can you give a little bit of an overview of how and when Edge Wellness came in to being

Edge Wellness is actually a medical clinic I created in 2006. I wasn’t satisfied with the model of general practice in Australia – ‘in and out in 5 minutes’! I learned that doctors are forced to do this because of the inflexible nature of our healthcare system whereby they are punished for spending any length of time with a patient, and discouraged from doing much more than write a script and treat the symptom. My medical clinic allows for much more comprehensive hour long consultations, and employs expert doctors who have the space to practise general, natural, environmental and nutritional medicine.

Working with such amazing practitioners exposed my wife (Astrid) and me to all sorts of things like Paleo, Organic and our famous ‘Activated Nuts’!

They are the best nuts we’ve ever tasted; we love baking with them and snacking on them all day. 

Patients started buying them in clinic, and before you knew it Astrid had quit her job as an interior decorator to run our market stall. It carries our clinic name ‘Edge Wellness’ because it stands for more than a clinic. It’s about better health through the latest research and the best products and services. Our mantra is ‘live a better life’.

Our first exposure to the OFM was finding Marrickville Organic Markets in 2013. We were market virgins but it quickly became our weekly Sunday shop for meat, salad, vegies and smoked salmon. The cos lettuce lasts at least 3 times as long as supermarket stuff. Scary. The organic veg is actually CHEAPER than the supermarket. The meat is much fresher.

Marrickville is still our favourite. We’ve never had a stall there, and we do love the other markets, but you never forget your first!

Amongst some of your products is your "activated" nut range. What exactly are activated nuts and what role (in your view) do they play in our daily wellbeing

Well the chef Pete Evans made them famous, and copped a lot of uneducated flack in the process. I guess that’s always the way with trendsetters. Activated nuts used to be called ‘sprouted’ nuts. Sprouting grains, nuts and seeds is a centuries-old process proven in the archaeological and anthropological record. Nearly every food we eat requires some processing, either: cooking, sprouting or just washing. We don’t roam around like triceratops eating plants willy nilly!

Nuts and seeds cause digestive problems in quite a few people because they are full of phytates which keep them in a state of stasis. Sprouting enhances the nutritional component of nuts and seeds and often removes the intolerance. It’s the same as germinating a seed. We made a short video last year explaining it

On a more visceral level, it’s hard to enjoy the recommended intake of nuts when they are bitter (raw walnuts), soggy (raw almonds), tasteless (raw pecans) and metallic (raw brazil nuts). Cue our activated nuts: our almonds are super-duper crunchy, our walnuts are buttery smooth and our pecans taste sweet like they are coated in caramel (they’re not). Try them – nothing compares!

Always with a smile, always with friendly advice, and now a firm favourite at our markets. Do you find that each area has its own specific demographic as far as which is the best-selling product or is it more of once an Edge Wellness devotee always an Edge Wellness devotee

We’ve been introducing and removing products, always on the lookout to provide something unique and premium. Along with our regular paleo cookies, carrot/ginger cakes and pumpkin muffins we added ice- cold drinking coconuts. It was the healthiest drink we could find and we noticed that other stalls were selling them warm. Ours are better by being fresh from the importer every Wednesday, and always smothered in ice for maximum refreshment.

We’re excited to be replacing them with ginger kombucha in the coming weeks. This particular kombucha has a massive probiotic count and negligible sugar because it’s properly fermented (where the probiotics metabolise all of the sugar). It’s made by our good friends at Amphore who have the best kombucha we’ve ever seen. We’ll be serving it ice-cold in summer and warm in winter (when warm, it’s like a healthy mulled wine). This will be another unique product that we are proud to bring to the markets.

What is it about markets like ours that form an important of the local community

The post-modern rejection of metanarratives is evidenced in Sydney’s embracing of local, ethical and sustainable produce. Sydney is no longer buying the large narrative the big brands are spinning with their highly processed and mass produced products. Sydney is increasingly looking for the small narrative - the story of the local farmer, the local business, the authentic work of husband and wife teams like Edge Wellness. Our stories are personal, real, transparent, and usually include better products. I for one will no longer buy lamb in a tray at one of the large supermarket chains. I’ll get it from Ben the Free Range Butcher who can tell me what his lambs eat, where their paddocks are, and how they were raised.

Astrid sharing the joy of free range meat

How would you sum up the world of Edge Wellness in 5 words

Live a better life!

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So!  nothing left for it other than to say a massive muchos gracias to Matt & Astrid for sharing a bit of their world with us, demystifying nuts that are Activated and bringing a whole lotta sunshine every Sunday at our infamous and enormously popular Frenchs Forest Market!