Table of contents for Issue 9 in WellBeing Wild

One of my earliest memories is the crunching sound of plastic wrapping between the sheets and the mattress of my grandmother’s guest bedroom. It made every toss and turn unbearable. I didn’t dare speak a word of it to my grandmother, of course, reserving my complaints only for my parents. My father chuckled as I aired my grievances about the plastic that wrapped almost every soft furnishing in my grandmother’s home. “That’s just how she is,” he explained, “She wants to keep her things pristine.” It wasn’t just her. My late grandfather had a collection of encyclopaedias that never left the confines of a locked glass cabinet. I became convinced he lost the keys to the cabinet long before I was born. While it seems odd, I came to accept…

Tell us what inspired the launch of Synergy Natural? Synergy Natural was created to provide natural wholefood supplements to the consumer at an affordable price with no quality compromise. What makes the Synergy Natural range of products different? All Synergy Natural’s products, whether in powder or tablet form, are 100 per cent pure without binders, additives or excipients, and are sealed to keep out the most damaging substance to dried, natural plant ingredients, which is oxygen. The second most damaging is light, so Synergy Natural packs all products in opaque HDPE recyclable plastic, which acts as an effective barrier to light. What are some values you incorporate into Synergy Natural? We are an ethical and philosophical company passionate about bringing quality products and good health to everyone. We are about…

It’s a rite of passage as a twentysomething single: You’re sitting at a bar waiting for your coupled-up friends, or standing patiently for a take-away coffee on a lonesome Sunday morning. In your moment of solitary weakness, you receive a message from a friend: “Hey! How are you? We haven’t spoken in a while,” it reads. “I have some exciting news!” Here we go, you think. “We’re getting married.” And there we have it. Beyond the initial stages of glee for your friend and the positive reinforcement you offer (yes, of course they are doing the right thing by marrying the love of their life in their 20s), you are met by a second, more thudding groundswell of emotions. Like a Long Island iced tea, it is a fierce and…

I was never the little girl who daydreamed about her wedding day. I never wrapped myself in a white sheet to create a makeshift dress or lined up my stuffed toys for a ceremony. When I reached adulthood, marriage still wasn’t on my agenda and it stayed that way for a long time. Throughout my 20s, boyfriends would ask if I saw myself getting married someday and the answer was always “no”. A comment about feminist values or trying to shirk the narrative of the “good woman” who settles down would inevitably follow. The truth is, it was never about feminism and I’m certainly not anti-marriage, wedlock just wasn’t something I imagined for myself. That was until I met my current partner, who has changed many narratives in my life,…

Los Angeles-based Australian photographer George Byrne is redefining the genre with his urban dreamscapes that elevate photo manipulation to an art form of its own. His latest exhibition, Innervisions, which showcased at Sydney’s Olsen Gallery at the end of last year, is a celebration of photography as a malleable medium. Here, the artist talks falling in love with the southern Californian landscape, unruly inspiration and his favourite spots to hang out in LA. Visit his work at georgebyrne.com, olsengallery.com and @george_byrne on Instagram. “For the Innervisions series, I started with raw photography, which served as source material. From there, I take a photo and, like you would with a piece of clay, I bash it into shape and start to add and subtract. That process of creating the images is…

Sophie, talk us through the moment you decided to create Seed & Sprout? It’s been a very organic journey and the brand has grown alongside my personal journey to reduce single-use plastic. A little over five years ago now, my son, Archie, was starting school and one of the requirements was to pack plastic-free lunches. I was really struggling to find a plastic-free lunchbox that ticked all the boxes. There was always something that wasn’t quite right, so I decided to create a new lunchbox that was. Our first product was The Stacker and from there our range has grown from lunchware to bags, bars, pantry products and more. What are you hoping to achieve with Seed & Sprout? For me, Seed & Sprout is more than the products we…

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I am thankful for my wellbeing,the energy I have for life.For all the wonderful things I have done,and all the wonderful things that await me.May I honour and follow you so that myenergy for life stays vital and strong.May I delight and nurture you,give and receive love,so that you may always feel refreshedand very well looked after.May I see that nourishing younurtures my body and mindand that when you feel joy,my spirit is ignited.Help me to choose peaceful and joyous pathwaysin loving support of my wellbeing.Help me to see, know and care for myselfas the worthy and loveable person that I am.May I treasure my uniqueness.May I savour the beauty and mystery of my life.May I live each day with passion,and welcome you to guide me on.Thank you, Heart.Speak soon.…

The wonderful world of skincare is constantly abuzz with new products, beauty hacks and “skinfluencers”, but this can easily lead to information overload when it comes to decoding the essentials and curating your own skincare routine. Victoria Fu and Gloria Wu are the founders of the educational platform Chemist Confessions and authors of Skincare Decoded: The Practical Guide to Beautiful Skin. As cosmetic chemists with experience working for global brands including L’Oreal, Victoria and Gloria are no strangers to ingredients, formulations and targeting skin concerns. But before we dive into products and ingredients, it’s important to learn about how skin actually works. Your skin is the body’s largest organ and is made up of multiple layers: the epidermis is the outer layer and the body’s first line of defence against…

Can you talk us through the moment you decided to create Inner Atlas? It was a journey of 10 years in the making. Growing up, I was surrounded by Western herbs and natural remedies, but in my 20s I started seeing an acupuncturist regularly, which opened the door to medicinal mushrooms. During the years using medicinal mushrooms, I discovered there were various factors involved with modern medicinal mushroom farming that can affect their efficacy. We were seeking extracts of a certain quality: wood-grown in natural environmental conditions (versus indoors on grain or rice), organic, di tao (the Taoist practice of something being sourced from its spiritual homeland) and, as a result, naturally grown with a high level of active compounds, which at Inner Atlas we validate with testing. The idea…

Try out this new and eco-friendly product today! Our business was established in 1983 at the foothills of the Blue Mountains by Elizabeth Valek. She’s now ;oined by her daughter Geneva {both pictured here}. We've teamed up to develop Shampoo With A Purpose. Our brand aims to reduce plastic-use around the home, starting first and foremost with your hair care products. It’s true - one of these bars saves up to SIX bottles of shampoo/conditioner. To this date, we have saved over 2,000,000 plastic bottles from being made, used or thrown away/If you're still not convinced, our bars are eco-friendly, kid-friendly and suitable for ageing/greying hair. They are vegan, cruelty-free, eco-sustainable, palm-oil free, sulphate-free, paraben-free and free from harsh chemicals. To boot, you can use them as an overall facial cleanser, body-wash…

What makes you feel wild and alive? The outdoors. I’m a big fan of escaping the grind and putting on the hiking boots and disappearing for the day in our amazing bushland. Being immersed in nature really makes me feel wild and alive! You were the first brand to introduce stainless-steel bottles to the Aussie market in 2009. What inspired you to launch Cheeki? Yes. It was a bold decision back in 2009, but I thought to make a real difference I needed to make a bold move. In a nutshell, I was getting sick of seeing all the pieces of useless plastic washing up on my local beaches in Sydney. Things like plastic straws, plastic food containers, cups and so much more just sitting in our environment waiting to…

Zines, with their political and personal history, thrive on and are bolstered by change and upheaval. When I was a kid, I would lovingly fold paper or napkins into little booklets. They contained words, pictures and scribbles and were just big enough for my hands (or the paws of my soft toys) to hold. At the time, I was simply playing and crafting. I looked at books on my shelf and realised I could make something like that myself, though perhaps a little more scrappy, a little more homespun. Little did I know I was technically making zines. Zines (pronounced “zeens” and short for magazines or fanzines) are small photocopied booklets by people or groups who want to self-publish. In the article “The Felt Value of Reading Zines”, Ash Watson…

Across 5 Hand-crafted, like cheese or bread, perhaps (7) 7 Zones, ranges (5) 9 Lounge, couch (4) 10 Be swept off your feet (4,2,4) 11 Australian capital (8) 13 Sign of the bull (6) 15 Just, right (4) 17 Lends a hand to (5) 18 Periods after night (4) 19 Deep valley (6) 20 Safety (8) 23 Moroccan city, or classic romance film (10) 26 Utensil (4) 27 13 Across’ month (5) 28 Party decoration (7) Down 1 ---Swing, Coldplay song covered by Frank Ocean (10) 2 Request (3,3) 3 Mocha masters (8) 4 Sense, touch (4) 5 Hi in 17 Down (5) 6 Zero score (3) 8 Sweet’s opposite (7) 12 Book of maps (5) 14 Got the meaning of (10) 16 US state north of Florida (7) 17…

Sometimes, the most effective skincare is the simplest. That’s certainly the mantra of Tanya Georgie, founder of eco-friendly skincare brand Georgie Skin. For Tanya, skincare should be simple, effective and kind to the planet, which is why she launched the brand’s 100 per cent Raw Silk Exfoliator to replace the mountain of plastic bottles hiding in your bathroom cupboard. Raw silk is an effective way to exfoliate the skin without the need for any nasties. It’s lazy-girl perfection, because it’s as simple as adding water to the silk washcloth and buffing into the skin to instantly polish away roughness, smooth uneven texture and reveal a healthy-looking, glowing complexion. “Age and environmental damage slow the skin’s natural ability to shed dead cells, leaving it dull, rough and prone to clogged pores,”…

What does your morning routine look like? My husband and I like to call it “the morning shit show” because it’s usually pretty chaotic: quick showers with my two young kids wandering in and out, and trying to get them dressed and ready for the day. What does your work space look like? It’s chaotic … lots of drying canvases leaning on walls, my trolley with paints and brushes, my easel and a stool. And piles of packaging shoved in the corner. I have a nice big window, so I get beautiful light and can see the garden outside. Where did your love for art first begin? I have always loved art and the act of making and creating, whether that be painting, cooking, sewing or photography. I used to…

David, what inspired the launch of HERO Condoms? When we learnt about the prevalence of HIV in Botswana, where approximately one in five people are living with HIV, we were inspired to see how we could support the grassroots organisations that were implementing community-led solutions. Condoms are expensive, relative to the cost of living, and clinics often lack supply, meaning many communities in Botswana do not have access to free-issue condoms, a critical component of effective HIV/AIDS prevention. HERO is passionate about ensuring we operate from a rights-based perspective, so we really wanted to stand up for sexual and reproductive health rights for all, including the right to safe access to health services, full, inclusive sex education and health equality as a lever for reducing inequality overall — especially within…

What inspired you to launch Ottway? Ottway The Label was born at our cabin house in Melbourne. Spending time in Melbourne’s creative community and meeting so many inspiring entrepreneurs encouraged us to tap into our own creativity, producing unique designs and vintage-inspired styles that Ottway has become known for. What are the influences behind your designs? Manu: The Otway Ranges, largely untouched and with a fascinating history, is the inspiration for our label. It’s a beautiful area on the Great Ocean Road that we have been exploring for years. We’ve recently cemented our love for the region by acquiring a property to build our own cabin house (Gloria) to be shared with the Ottway community. Neri: We knew we wanted to create our own like-minded community that appreciates clothes made…

In the spring of 2019 — as bushfires began to rage across New South Wales — I received a text message from my friend Lisa Mitchell, the indie-folk singer-songwriter. Akin to a love note, it held the recording of an impromptu song birthed at the keyboard in the corner of her kitchen. Somewhere between a poem and a chant, it was an impassioned audio hug shared intimately with friends, with the words: summoning the army of my heart. It was everything I needed in that moment, an acknowledgement of our collective despair. With the rhythmic, cascading trill of her piano and those words in repetition, I felt truly summonsed. It finished with a gentle appeal, her ethereal voice calling to “stay soft, staaaay softtt”. Music has a power to call…

It’s no secret that the pandemic knocked us out of our normal routines, with many Australians frequently adjusting their home, work and leisure to accommodate changing restrictions and laws. Living through an era of disruption has taken its toll. New research from SFI Health — Home of Flordis found 30 per cent of millennials are feeling less calm and focussed at work and are uncertain about the future ahead of them. Restrictions may have eased, but a sense of unease still plagues a generation of disenfranchised workers. If there was ever a perfect time to make a big life change, this is it. Times of uncertainty and transition offer new opportunities for growth and transformation. It’s no wonder then that many of us are rethinking how we manage our careers…

If you’re like most Aussies who studied beyond school, you would have taken out a government student loan to fund your university degree or vocational training. There are 2.7 million Aussies with debts from their higher education study and more than 200,000 of them have a debt balance of over $50,000. As big as this amount might seem, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Having student debt means you have invested in yourself and how you can contribute to the world through your work. It’s important to consider what this debt has given you and what it means to your long-term financial position. Research shows that millennials who have a university degree will earn somewhere in the region of $800,000 more over their lifetime than those without a degree, while…

LBDO It’s official — I’ve found my new favourite wellness line and I’m never going back. In case you missed the feature in our last issue, LBDO is a new sexual wellness brand working to destigmatise sex and self-pleasure for everybody. The launch range includes a vibrator that fits perfectly into the palm of your hand, a natural and water-based lube and a seriously luxe massage and body oil, all three of which look as good on your nightstand as they feel on your body. I love the Essensual Oil for whole-body use after a shower when I feel like indulging a little. It smells so good and leaves my skin with that post-spa-treatment feeling, making it the perfect massage oil to use with a partner, too. The Essensuals Vibe…

Ayusa Tea A clean, delicious, smooth and slightly sweet caffeinated herbal drink that won’t leave you with the dreaded coffee crash, the organic Guayusa (why-you-sa) leaf is naturally energising and rich in antioxidants, amino acids and vitamins. Native to the Ecuadorian Amazon, ancient Kichwa tribes have revered Guayusa for thousands of years for its powerful health benefits. ayusa.com.au Edible Beauty Australia The Edible Beauty Native Plant-Based Collagen Powder contains a synergy of 100 per cent vegan ingredients, including Australian natives and antioxidant-rich fruits designed to support healthy collagen production and help to protect the skin against youth-depleting free-radical damage. The vegan collagen supplement is caffeine free, and suitable during pregnancy and breastfeeding. ediblebeautyaustralia.com Ottway The Label Each Ottway piece has borrowed from a style inspiration of the past bringing with…