What is Sujiivana?

From 2010 I have the vision, download, aha moment that everyone (yes - EVERYBEING) deserves to live a life that is beautiful - in whichever and whatever way that makes sense to the individual.

For me, a beautiful life falls under four key areas - Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and then the ultimate of cosmos - I know that’s woo-woo but we will go there.

A beautiful life provides:

• Tools to heal - physically, mentally, and spiritually,

• Tools to grow - physically, mentally, and spiritually,

• Tools to share and give back - physically, mentally, and spiritually,

• Tools to live in alignment and purpose - physically, mentally, and spiritually

  A beautiful life is not something that is meant for the elite, or establishment, or that requires oodles of money to achieve. It is in fact a god/goddess-given birthright to everyone/everything in the universe.

Sujiivana - beautiful life - Concepts shines light into the darkness and the corners and provide the tools needed for you to step in fully to your Sujiivana.

History

My journey around Sujiivana started back in 2008 when I was having health issues and I went to see a naturopath. I had been in and out of the hospital with incredible abdominal pains (they thought my appendix was popping) and cramps etc. etc. Allopathic medicine couldn’t define or work out what was wrong, why I was in so much pain, and what was going on.

I was dubious about seeing a naturopath - what were they going to do? Make me dance around naked, lick my elbow, eat dirt and send sacrifices to the moon. (ironically now - I have come through my spiritual journey since and have a divine moon practice and are incredibly conscious of what I eat from the dirt!). The naturopath was far from that she was scientifically qualified, both from a naturopath, nutritionist, but also in chemical engineering. In my first session with her I felt so seen, so understood. It was 1.5 hours where we talked about everything - family, connections, health, eating habits, drinking habits (a big problem), hydration, spiritual practices, physical practices the works.

I ended up doing a 6-week detox, it was epic, the first two weeks were full-on (if anyone has ever done a detox you know what I am talking about. The regime was pretty simple, get back to nature, remove caffeine and alcohol, dairy, processed foods - all those white ones (flour, pasta, bread, cakes, etc.)

My diet consisted of heaps of fresh organic fruit and vegetables (heaps - I was squeezing in the veggies to make sure I was hitting my quota - didn’t go hungry). Limited amount of red meat (needed to be organic and grass-fed - I don’t eat red meat at all but I tried to squeeze some in this was hard - it does NOT align with my body type), organic chicken or turkey, and oily fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines), organic and free-range eggs. I was also allowed quinoa (this was before the quinoa craze), organic oats (only if gluten-free), brown rice, and filtered water - 3LTs of it a day.

Movement- yoga (as much vinyasa as I wanted) - my yoga practice then was 2 times a week, I also walked everywhere to walk some more, and utilising my gym membership.

Mental - journaling my experience, how I was feeling, and rating my energy levels. Getting adequate sleep and investing time into myself (this was at a time when we didn’t have apps to track everything - so everything was written down. It is amazing how accountable we are when we are writing out our thoughts, feelings, and habits on a daily.

My results

I looked younger (I was only 24 at the time), my energy was through the roof. I was eating so much I had to squeeze time to be like I need to have more veggies right now. I lost 8kgs. I was bouncing off the walls and friends were like - what are you taking gurl you’re high… I would laugh and be like yeah I’m high on life.

As with all regimes some habits end up sticking (hot water and lemon everrrrry day) eating clean rather than buying a lot of package foods and taking more of a conscious habit to consume food - I live in health food shops, read the ingredients on everything I pick up. Eating an 85-90% gluten-free diet (and man has gluten-free come along the way), choosing goat’s cheese over cow, always having greek yogurt in the fridge.

So, cool story Hannah, but how does this get to Sujiivana - beautiful life?

Well, this is the thing, eating clean, exercising, and treating your body like a million-dollar asset isn’t hard. Everyone should be able to access those tools. Just listen to your body (rather than binge on a Netflix episode) and it will show you or tell you.

I was wondering where society had taken the path. A naturopath fixed my gut issues in less than two weeks - western allopathic medicine two years later still had no idea.

When did we fall so far from nature? Why was everyone sick? When did it become ok to just let chemicals and big pharma make decisions on our bodies? After all the person who knows your body the best is you (damn you live in it every day). When did we stop trusting ourselves and our gut instinct…

These are questions that I have asked and will continue to remind myself of every day. It forms one of the base pillars of my approach to a beautiful life.

In 2010 I was researching chemicals in face wash, and anti-acne cleansers (my partner at the time suffered from bad adult acne, but also had a history of allergies, including lactose, I also think he was sensitive to wheat too - ps. Turns out that was my big gut issue). I ended up down a rabbit hole of information on the chemicals, petrochemicals, parabens, SLSs, etc. From that moment on I threw it all away, from cosmetics to toilet cleaner - binned it all. 

My previous partner was like what the hell, such a waste of money and I said - this is literally killing us and will give us cancer, this is why we are sick, it’s super toxic - read the science (I had all my research papers). I think it’s time to make our own.

So I researched how to make skincare products as there weren’t really any mainstream brands in this space (L’oreal definitely wasn’t showing up here, and the Body Shop wasn’t all that great) - oh how the world has changed- AMEN. I found a boutique in my local area in Newtown, Sydney Australia who were making skincare products locally, with local ingredients that had a naturopathic and herbalist foundation. And the rest is history.

From this idea of making my own - too daunting, expensive, and bulky - I looked at how do I learn the tools and techniques to step into my own naturopathic journey in becoming a naturopath/nutritionist. I knew that I needed to get a qualification, I knew that this area was always going to be a passion and from there was brainstorming business names (yes - not qualified but already planted the seed), and that is how Sujiivana came to be

It has been quite a journey and my incubation period of this “entity” has been over a decade - I have owned ABNs and domain names for various iterations of Sujiivana Concepts - including running marketing consulting under the same banner.

My purpose, I know is to be a guide, and use my experience and history to guide others into building, living, growing, and cultivating a beautiful life container. Whilst currently my naturopathic journey is on hold it is something that feeds into my way of living and it will align itself with me when it’s ready.

My Purpose,

I know is to be a guide, and use my experience and history to guide others into building, living, growing, and cultivating a beautiful life container. Whilst currently my naturopathic journey is on hold it is something that feeds into my way of living and it will align itself with me when it’s ready.