Mind Body Spirit Festival & Mobility Scooters on a train

"The MindBodySpirit Festival is Australia’s largest, most popular health, wellbeing and natural therapies event. See more than 200 exhibitors, attend one of the many free inspirational seminars, book yourself in for a psychic reading, try some body pampering and take a break at the free performance stage. There’s something for everyone. From meditation, yoga, herbal supplements, organic health, women’s health, body therapies, psychic readings, crystals, life coaching and spiritual healing – it’s all at the MindBodySpirit Festival!"

I had wanted to visit the Mind Body Spirit Festival since it first started. I decided that this year I would attend the Brisbane Mind Body Spirit Festival held at RNA Showgrounds in Bowen Hills / Fortitude Valley. 

My husband and I have mobility scooters and I thought this would be a good test for how easy it is to travel on the train into Brisbane. It would also be the first time we took our Monarch and Walkabout scooters on the train and we were rather nervous about it 

 

It was rather a cold, drizzling morning but we pushed on regardless 

 I looked up the Translink Trip Planner and found that if we wanted to arrive in time for the first stage performance, Tibetan Tantric Healing then we had to leave Cleveland Station at 8.21am and then scoot just over one kilometre to the RNA Showgrounds. 

 We arrived at Fortitude Valley and followed all the people with Yoga mats to the RNA Showgrounds.

I was very glad we had taken the mobility scooter because my feet were very sore from long days preparing clean meals and my ankles were weak. I have Congenital Talipes Equinovarus (severe club feet) and until recently have kept off my feet as much as possible. I am trying very hard to lose weight and stay active and as such I have daily pain much akin to a 'twisted ankle'. A good diagram from ADAM below.

I had several operations when a toddler to shorten and lengthen tendons to straighten my feet, which failed. Then at age nine (9) my Mother took me to a convention of Orthopaedic Surgeons where it was decided there was another operation I could have. My bones were broken, chiselled and Calcanae surgically stapled. I was then in plasters from my toes to my hips and spent time in hospital, including my tenth (10th) birthday. The difference was remarkable and with the daily use of Colorado Military boots with steel heel support I am able to walk for three kilometres or stand on my feet much longer than ever before. I still have week ankles, bad circulation and pain but I am very grateful for their efforts.  I need an operation on my heels, hence the wanting to lose weight and get healthy in preparation.

Taking the mobility scooters on the Cleveland Train into Fortitude Valley was nerve-wracking but much easier than I thought The Station guard was so nice and alerted an assistant on the Train who put down the ramp and even helped me park the white Walkabout Mobility Scooter in the rectangle marked with a disability sign exactly for mobility scooter and wheelchair usage.

The hardest part of taking the mobility scooters was parking the scooters on the train and then turning them around inside the train to get off. The white Walkabout scooter is very easy to turn around. It is rather compact and has a neat turning circle. 

The red Monarch scooter was a bit more difficult as it is wider and taller but Philip managed beautifully.
We got off at Fortitude Valley Station where there was a small lift big enough for one mobility scooter at a time. A station guard pointed to the exit and gave us instructions on how to get to RNA Showgrounds and we scooted the one Kilometre with ease.

When we arrived at RNA Showgrounds I bought our tickets for the Mind Body Spirit Festival and talked to the amazing man on security at the door. He directed us to a place to park the mobility scooter near the ramp and kept a close watch on it during the day. We stored the heavy pamphlets in the large basket at the back of the red scooter and in the backpacks on the white one.

We arrived at the end of the Tibetan Tantric Healing presentation on stage.

After chanting, the Tibetan Lama talked about the Singing Bowls he had for sale to help fundraise his philanthropic efforts in Tibet, helping children and the disabled. I went over and told him that he was one of the main reasons for our visit to the Mind Body Spirit and our early start from Cleveland. I told him that I respected his efforts and asked if I could give him a hug, which he allowed. I then asked if I could take his photo in front of the Tibetan Tantric Healing stand, along with my husband Philip.

 He happily agreed and I purchased one of his Tibetan Singing Bowls which he then blessed as I held it. What an amazing experience.

Tibetan Singing Bowl with cushion
( wooden mallet not photographed)

Another highlight of the Mind Body Spirit Festival was the Don Chisholm display 'Have you got the GUTS to be REALLY healthy?" where I talked with Don for quite a while. He told me that he was a Multi Millionaire who had become sick and travelled the world looking for answers on how to heal himself, and then others. He wrote a book  'Have you got the GUTS to be REALLY healthy?"

Don had noticed me moving about the Expo and observed that I might have a hip problem. I have one hip higher than the other which is one of the reasons why my videos always appear shaky. We had a talk about my Pan Hypopituitarism (under-developed pituitary gland and absent pituitary stalk), Addisons Disease (adrenal insufficiency), Hypothyroidism, Cushings Disease (long term Corticosteroid use), Congenital Talipes Equinovarus, Irritable Bowl Disease, Gluten sensitivity and low immunity.

On the walls of his Expo booth there was information about the testing he performs to help you get a clear idea of what is really going on with your body and what areas need to be addressed.

From his website: 

 We all want to be healthy but very few of us are actually healthy, let alone really healthy.

 Don's approach is working for thousands of people who come from all over the world and with a wide variety of conditions.

 An easy read with proven results.

 With disease on an ever increasing scale it is now apparent that almost all inhabitants of the western world are heading towards one disease or another. It seems that everyone has something that needs attention or conditions that are not showing signs of improvement.

 The message is this, “We are not what we eat, we are what we absorb and this is the very issue Don has concentrated on for the last 10 years. It is with these concept conditions even decades old have gone in a few months.

Sugar cravings curved, energy increased, short term memory improvement, 47 years of diarrhoea gone in 60 days, autistic children going to normal school, operations cancelled, all by learning the simplicity of being healthy and it is all done by simply improving the gut.

 For to long we have used products that simple mask the problem, pain killers for pain with no attention to why the pain, antibiotics with little attention to enhancing the immune system or antidepressants without considering the view that the body is not healthy, and depression is a representation of that feeling.

 Have you got the guts points out the many myths that we have been led to believe are good for us, when in truth they are detrimental to our very existence. Don spent over 10 years traveling the world and worked in many clinics all over the world in his quest for his own health. The end result is a belief that there are no conditions that cannot be improved; many that supposedly have no cure are just a matter of dehydration combined with malnutrition.

 So do you feel you have the guts to be really healthy? Read Dons approach to health and see how easy it would be to be one or two rungs higher on your health 

Don is running a health retreat in October that I hope to attend.

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There were SO many stalls at the Mind Body Spirit festival and I will be adding entries to An Instant On the Lips over the coming weeks with some of my favourite products and services. It was an amazing event and I can't wait for the next one!