WHY Holistic Health

14/09/2026

Time is my love language, so I spent some creating this appreciation post for the people and places that definitely don’t know the extent of the part they play in our daily lives. Thank you for having me JoburgStyle Coffee & Co and ticking all my boxes 🫶🏼 I appreciate you!

05/09/2026

Hear me loud and clear — I am not a doctor.

But I am no stranger to low ferritin.
Im fully aware of the standard checklist: Heavy periods? Pregnancy? Poor diet?Intense exercise?— the list is long (and don’t tick those boxes)
The one nobody talks about is chronic stress driving down stomach acid so your body can’t absorb iron in the first place.
This is my story:
I diligently took my prescribed supplement, WITH Vitamin C for absorption. WITHOUT Calcium at the same time, because it inhibits absorption… (SO many rules!) I did all the expensive tests- everything came back negative. Still, I knew the feeling in my body when my iron was low. Then as standard practice, I’d do the expensive blood test again. The results came back under 10. Sometimes way more alarming than that… And the only solution is a million rand (not really - but feels like it- iron infusion…. So NO! - I had to just get on with it.

So through living the experience followed by the rabbit hole I take myself down to figure things out- I have found success (😂 story of my life)

There is direct correlation between whats going on in my life and my ferritin dropping.
So now, I slow myself down,
I adjust my exercise to lessen any extra stress on my body, I release stored tension through my TRE practice, and I work on rewiring my nervous system so that I don’t stay in the loop that’s keeping my body braced and unable to prioritise my digestion.

AND at the same time…

I support my stomach acid — apple cider vinegar before meals, ginger shots, Betaine HCl.

And within days, I feel my body begin to shift, my energy lifts, which, let’s face it-makes everything easier. (I haven’t even gotten into the part about iron also being good for our serotonin levels…)

Anyway, this works for me.

If this resonates with you, if your ferritin levels are always low and your expensive iron supplements do nothing but make you constipated… there is enough information out there for you to do your own research on how stress affects iron absorption and ferratin levels.

But please.

Stop underestimating your stress state.
It is costing you more than you think.

02/09/2026

I’ve always loved writing.
Not just because I love imagining myself sitting at my antique wooden desk, in my beach house — looking past my Mac Mini, through the floor-to-ceiling window, out at the ocean — drinking tea from my favourite mug, the one I made at pottery class… (this is all still part of the manifestation- *disclaimer: none of it is real YET… I could go on with the details, but there are many… 🤣)

But actually, I love writing because it’s the only place my brain slows down enough to be understood.

ADHD brain … MY brain…moves fast!

Faster than my mouth can keep up with.

That’s also why I sometimes say things in the moment that land wrong, or sound bossy. (And why recording and editing videos can take more hours than I have)
I really don’t mean to be blunt or overly opinionated, but my nervous system fires before my filter catches up. So if I get excited that I might have the answer in my head- boom- there goes my mouth! And if I try to slow my words down, so that they can catch up to the visuals in my head, I either feel like I’m blithering or backpedaling, or just freezing all together. *siiighhhh*

So I’ve walked around most of my life knowing a lot about a lot of things, while keeping quiet — because I’ve felt unqualified without the clear expression of what I’m trying to say.

Writing is where that changes.
It slows things down enough that my nervous system settles. I can actually say what I mean. And feel fully understood.

If the first draft needs a rewrite, it’s available to me. So- safety before I’ve even begun 🕊️

Anyway… the universe has a magical way of aligning things… and now I write… and there is a lot of gold in my articles… so go on… make some tea, have a read! Zero sales pitch! Just conversation.

https://www.brainzmagazine.com/executive-contributor/robyn-gie

Let me know what you think (and I’ll write you a long response 🤣🤣)

31/08/2026

This is the one that breaks my heart a little every time. - Hence the reason I repeat this message SO often!

Because I see her everywhere.

She has read the books. Done the programmes. Tried the protocols.
She is genuinely doing everything right.

And her body is still not responding.

But she doesn't want to hear this:

When your nervous system is stuck in a threat state, your prefrontal cortex — the part of your brain responsible for clear thinking, decision-making, and recovery — goes offline.

Your body is not prioritising digestion or metabolism or restful sleep.

It is prioritising survival.

And no supplement, no diet, no sleep hygiene protocol can override that signal.

The body will not release what it's holding until it feels safe.

That is not a metaphor.
That is how the autonomic nervous system works.

So if this is you — if you are doing everything right and your body still isn't responding — please hear this:

You are not the problem.
You have just been missing one piece.

And that piece is understanding regulation.

Send this to the woman who is exhausted from trying.

27/08/2026

We book the appointments, run the assessments, and ask what's wrong with our children. We pour everything we have into finding answers for them. Very rarely, almost never, do we stop to turn the same...

19/08/2026

19/08/2026

I used to think I could only paint when I was sad.

But now I know what was actually going on.

My instinct was only partially right — but my body is way more intelligent than I give it credit for. (And so is yours😉).

Painting activates the parasympathetic nervous system — the branch responsible for safety and calm. The repetitive rhythm of the brush drops cortisol, quiets the mind, and gives the body permission to soften what it’s been gripping.

This isn’t somatic release in the way movement or TRE is.

It’s somatic safety.

It’s the body feeling settled enough to let go of what it’s been holding — not through force, but through gentle presence.

This brain of mine - which I’m loving to get to know after all these years- has what’s called a “persistently active” default mode network.😂😂 (...Um-Ja, you don’t say!?!) In most brains, the default mode network — the part responsible for daydreaming, self-referential thinking, and mind wandering — switches off when you focus on a task. In the ADHD brain, it often doesn’t. It keeps running in the background, sometimes in the foreground, competing with whatever you’re trying to concentrate on.

Our inner world is so loud even when our outer world is still. (Which explains the urgent naps I’ve needed my whole life after being around too many people).

It’s also why ADHD brains are rarely bored internally — there’s always something running. A thought, a feeling, a memory, a half-formed idea.

And it’s why external stimulation — music, movement, doodling, painting — can actually help focus rather than hinder it. It gives the restless background noise somewhere to go, freeing up the foreground for presence

So - now I understand WHY the processing always happens here.😍

I am so grateful for these gifts: the brain, the painting, the lessons, and life with all its magic!!🌈- it just blows me away❤️❤️❤️

17/08/2026

I've just published something that I think a lot of parents need to read — and honestly, it's something I needed to write.

We pour so much into our children. The appointments, the assessments, the research, the showing up. And most of us are doing all of that while carrying things we haven't yet tended to in ourselves.

What I've come to understand — through my own journey as a mother, and through my work with the nervous system — is that our children don't just respond to what we say or do. They absorb what we carry. The grief. The stress. The patterns we inherited and never questioned.

And that changes where the real work begins.

If any of this is landing, the full article is here: https://www.brainzmagazine.com/post/why-the-adults-in-the-room-need-tending-to-first

I'd love to know what comes up for you when you read it. 🖤

14/08/2026

Why did it take me 46 (or 47, I'm not sure; I feel justified in losing count between 45 and 50) years to get here?

To the place where learning actually lands.
Where I read a page and not only does it stick, it stays - and I WANT to know what comes next.
Where going down the rabbit hole of the topic is MY favourite thing to do 😂
(If you knew me at school, you would know this is not the "me" we knew)

Okay...Three reasons.

One — I discovered I have ADHD. (hence taking so long to get to the actual point)

Late diagnosis. Which means a lifetime of thinking I was lazy - struggling to finish things - needing to re-read the same paragraph forty-seven times, and then just drawing a picture next to it instead- feeling everything more intensely than everyone else and masking well enough that nobody noticed.

And finally understanding WHY..

Two — I learned how to regulate my nervous system. (hands down number 1 lifetime gamechanger!!- I just can't put it first because it wasn't in that order)

When your body is in survival mode —
cortisol is elevated and your threat response is active —
your prefrontal cortex goes OFFLINE.

That's the part responsible for focus, memory, and learning.

You cannot absorb information properly when part of your nervous system is still watching for the threat.

Parasympathetic state changes everything.
Safe. Open. Present.

Information lands differently when you're in that place. (More reason to make sure your kids understand regulation if you expect them to do well at school -read my Brainz Mag article, link in bio😂)

Three — I have never been more in awe of the content of the work I do.

The science of the nervous system, fascia, trauma, neuroplasticity — people... it pulls me in every single time, because it just makes SO much sense!

I am so in love with this curious life of mine! - And also, I really recommend taking your hands off the wheel sometime and going with the flow.

46/7 years to get here.
Worth every one.