How did you first becomE Interested in health and wellbeing?

“From an early age as a teenager playing sport, I learnt that our vehicle, our body, this vessel that carries us through life is incredibly important, ”Kim explains. “When I met my husband, international cricketer, Danny Morrison, I saw first-hand the importance of fitness and health – not just for myself but for Danny’s career too. I studied nutrition, homeopathy, botanical therapy - approaching wellbeing with a different mindset which helped to provide me with a deep understanding of the importance of the body.”

She reflects, “We needed to look after Danny’s body…That's what paid our lives. It's where we earned our money.” The interest was a lot more than a financial perspective though and, far from being idle on the sidelines and solely focusing on Danny’s health and fitness, Kim used her passion and understanding of health, nutrition and fitness, to begin to train and complete ultra marathons. Kim shares, “I worked with Cliff Young who inspired me incredibly…That I really, really got to appreciate the body.” The applied understanding of health and fitness, along with Kim’s grit and tenacity, resulted in her

setting a world record for being the youngest female to run 100 miles in less than 24 hours

It was through this time, that Kim really begun to deeply understand the power of mindset. “During a 24-hour race, I can't begin to tell you how many times I wanted to quit or how many times my mind would say things that would take me down, or I'd allow things to come into my mind that would lift me. This is where I started to really appreciate the combination of mind and body, and of course, the soul - the essence of who we are, our personality, our drivers, our values, our beliefs. That's where I really appreciate now the importance of all three.”

In 2000, having married Danny and started a family, Kim launched Twenty-Eight, a beautiful natural skincare and aromatherapy range free from toxins. “That’s where I really got passionate about supporting women through all phases and stages of their life: whether you're in puberty or the mother of a prepubescent or pubescent child, through the roles of being a single woman, or in a relationship to motherhood, to perimenopause, to menopause, and now having gone through all of those phases and stages. I just am in awe. I'm in total awe of what this body and this mind, this heart and the soul.”

As many people know all too well, life has ups and it has downs, Kim reflects on motherhood and her own journey, along with the thousands of women she has supported. “We know there's good parts to it and there's not so good parts. You can have morning sickness when you're pregnant. It’s beautiful that you’re finally pregnant, but it's horrible being sick! Then you have this beautiful newborn baby. It's beautiful. But then you don't sleep. It's horrible! Then you have a toddler. It's gorgeous, but they tantrum and scream and it's horrible!” She summarises,

"Every phase has it's beauty, but it also has it's opposing force, which is the challenges of life"

As a mum of two grown up children now in their 20s, Kim reflects on the often-shared advice that ‘the days may seem long, but the years go quickly’ with your children growing up. She smiles as she remembers looking at her daughter with complete love, then remembering her husband coming into the room. “She was only ten days old, and I was so in love but Danny walks in and I’m sobbing as I'm feeding her. It’s 4am in the morning, up for the umpteenth time…And I'm just looking at this baby with tears falling on the white blanket and he comes and he goes ‘What's wrong? What's wrong?’ And I sobbed ‘Whoever said this time goes quick needs their freaking head read! This is just too much.’” Kim smiles… “and now she's 25 and I ask where did that go? What happened?”

Often, it’s during these times that we can forget the importance of self-care, of self-love, of reminding ourselves that through the dichotomies of life, the extremes of life, there is always beauty. Kim explains, “I see it as the inevitable roller coaster of life – to be having a down, we've also had to have had an up…If it was always down, we wouldn't know any up….Or if it was always high, we would never appreciate the high because we'd think that that was normal…So life is full of those polarities.”

“The polarity of life is always there. In my humble opinion, the misconception it's not wrong when things are tough...It's just showing us the opposite so that we can appreciate the beauty, the good and the love.”

It’s not just as easy as that when you’re in it though, Kim acknowledges. “If someone turns around to you when you're lying on your bathroom floor and you're throwing up and they say, this is such a special time, you just want to throttle them!”

Kim suggests that the times of struggle, the times when it all seems too much can be seen as invitation to grow through what we go through. “The mind is a powerful thing,” Kim reflects. Applying her understanding of the mind through NLP, hypnotherapy, timeline therapy, hypnosis, and coaching as an athlete, Kim acknowledges that

"It's so important that we honour the feelings"

There's nothing wrong with negative emotions or negative feelings, I guess where it challenges us is if we stay in those places or we don't find tools or reference points or support to get through those challenging times. No one, no matter how rich, poor, successful, whatever is excluded from the good and no one is excluded from the bad. It's just different varying levels and some people go through horrific things at a real high scale.”

If you’ve ever been putting on a fresh nappy, or making the never-ending packed lunches, the feeling of monotony can be a familiar one. Kim explains,

"It can feel like the treadmill of life. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can put both feet on the ground to get yourself back up."

Working with women, and having spent years juggling family and career, Kim knows all to well, “These little humans need you. They want you. They demand of you. And then your husband wants, needs, demands of you. Your work needs, wants, demands of you…Your family and your friends…Everything.”

Kim’s goal is to teach women how to get through the lows, the challenges and the hardships with as much effortlessness, grace and ease and courage and strength that they possibly can. So how does that happen?

What are the tools that help you with self-care?

“Using a repertoire of tools, be it herbal therapy, herbal medicines, food and essential oils self-care rituals. So to me have a repertoire of tools in your toolkit to get through those challenges, but then also use them as a reminder to really embrace the beauty of life too.”

“Essential oils are always my starting point,” explains Kim. “They've been there from day dot. I learned all about aromatherapy at the age of 17/18.” They provide a tangible hook to integrate self-care into daily routines Kim shares. “If I said to someone just take care of yourself it might be a question how? What do you? So to me, the essential oils are that pivotal piece that that bit that's missing. When I say take care of yourself and run a bath with lavender, take care of yourself and walk outside and put a drop of bergamot on a tissue and breathe out when you walk in nature, it's putting a drop of marjoram on my pillow to help me sleep at night. It’s the tangible steps to take, rather than tell me to go and relax.”

Kim likens this discipline for self-care to training for a marathon -

"it’s about having tangible steps to take, moving it from the abstract ‘self-care’ or ‘go and relax’ to what are the actions that I’m going to take"

Food and nutrition

Food and nutrition are also imperative, Kim explains. “If you don't feed this vehicle and nourish and nurture this vehicle with the right fuel, then of course, you're not going to think well or feel well…You don't put 91 Unleaded in a Ferrari that’s going into a Grand Prix…Likewise, we need the best fuel so that we can think, feel, act and behave straight as we possibly can.”

SLOW (Seasonal, Local, Organic and Whole) foods are a staple in Kim’s life and for many of the women that she supports. “Every Saturday I go and get my beautiful produce from my local farmers markets.”

Yet it’s the one thing that disappears when people are stressed because it’s easier to grab some Vegemite on toast and eat on the run.

Then there’s actually taking the time to eat properly – family meals and actually taking a deep breath and sharing gratitude before we all eat. “You don't have to be religious to do this. This is about giving thanks to the bountiful of food that we have available to us, giving thanks to the person who cooked it or prepared it, even if it's just an omelette…Giving thanks for the loved ones sitting at this table because, as we know, life can change at the drop of a hat where an accident or a death or sickness…We don't know what's around the corner.”

Time in nature

Getting outside in nature is another staple for Kim. “I love going for runs or walks and I do that at least three or four times a week. I also love going to the gym because the older I get the realise the more important it is for me to really lift weights to ensure that my bone health, my muscle health, my mental health stays strong”.

The seasons of life

She acknowledges the seasons of life and how it changes, “For me these days, the gym isn't about going there and looking like these beautiful young 20-year-olds with the most luscious booties, big ***** and amazing physiques.

"I'm a 56-year-old woman who goes there to build strength and wellness for my body. For me, it's an act of self"

Supplements

Supplements such as Foraged, also play a key part of Kim’s self-care routine. “I also love taking my blackcurrant performance powder. This is something that I really, really believe in the power of because this was there's a lot of research around it for athletes. I've now realised that you can perform better, recover faster, so it's great for maintaining good, healthy weight. It's great for helping the digestive system. It's great for my cardiovascular system. It's great for my skin health. So that's my other little secret weapon is my blackcurrant powder.” She laughs, “In fact we got so into it as a family that we I launched blackcurrantperformance.com!”

“If I'm run down or I'm feeling a little bit low on energy, then of course I'll use things like ArmaForce or I'll get extra Vitamin C into me and I'll use things like that to support me.”

Learn more about Kim's wellness journey, mentorship program and skincare brand Twenty-Eight below.

(@kimmorrison28) | www.kimmorrison.com | www.twenty8.com