Heroines With Heart: Alice Nicholls of The Whole Daily
I love writing these introductions to the interviews I share here; welcoming incredible peeps into the sphere of my blog and introducing them - in all their awesomeness, creativity and vibrancy - to YOU, my passionate and loyal reader. I feel honoured to be the vessel (every second Friday), that holds the potential for YOU to find a new somebody to Light. You. Up.
It's a magical moment when you connect with a soul (online or in "real life") that has you grinning wildly, a held breath, a YES! She gets me. Know what I'm saying?
And so it is in that vein, that energy that I am welcoming Alice Nicholls onto the This is Lifeblood stage today. Alice is a Holistic Health Legend and Director of Authentic Health Advice business The Whole Daily. She's also hilarious, driven, genuine, silly, loving, intuitive, wise and F U N.
Alice stands the heck out online. She's a do-er, a creator, a walk-my-talk kinda gal and I dig that. Her presence in the wellness world is a gift; a refreshing, big ol' dose of no fluff, straight-up, loving and actionable advice and content, bundled together by her mission to #screwbeige.
I'm so into it. And so are the hundreds of women around the world who have immersed themselves in her online global eCourse, read her eBooks and had their world changed with a taste of her luscious recipes.
Alice, welcome! Dear reader, enjoy! So thrilled you've had the chance to meet here today.
+ Let’s dive straight in. Tell us, what makes up your lifeblood?
Awareness. The recognition that life is growth and that every creative idea, decision or path I take brings me joy, love or lessons. Passion for living a life open to receiving and the desire to share this with my family and those around me at a wider scale. My lifeblood is a desire to see us all at peace right now in this moment.
+ Eleanor Roosevelt said, ‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams’. What’s your beautiful dream?
That women, collectively, don’t depart the earth always waiting for happiness in a tomorrow that never comes. That we look back inside ourselves and love what we see, give ourselves permission to feel what we need to and then let go, and make decisions based from love and not fear in our lives so that we can be the vibrant, alive, healthy, sensual, radiant and happy beings that we deserve to be.
+ What benefits has prioritising a healthy lifestyle had on your life?
Love is my number one priority. This means that I love myself enough to have quit drinking alcohol, which was a really toxic substance to me. This allowed me to regain a clarity in my life I had never experienced as an adult. Prioritising love opened me up to being creative again. Prioritising love means I don’t binge on food until I’m sick anymore as I did in my teenage years after starving myself for far too long. It means I no longer exercise for three hours a day to get the body of ‘that girl’ in a magazine or even begin to compare myself to her.
Prioritising love means that I released an image I had created of myself as a corporate career mum driven at all costs to the potential future detriment of my marriage and family and replaced her with a more centred, present and whole person. A totally happy babe. I’m not just ‘blissed out’, I’m‘blessed out’. Financial gain and clarity comes from all of these things.
+ Exploring, breaking the routine, bending the rules… How do you ensure you maintain an element of playfulness and adventure in your everyday happenings?
I go to the best advisors when it comes to all things ‘rule bending and routine breaking’. I simply look at my kids. What are they doing? What do they want to do? Kids are born with nothing but love. No consciousness of time, ‘shoulds' or ‘shouldn’t’s', of ‘hurry up’ and ‘C’mon’. Kids have this unique ability to actually exist within the ‘now’, something that we as adults pay thousands to understand, study courses, read books and go to seminars to gain a little bit of in our lives. This ability for kids to be in the ‘now’ is something that we seem to thrash out of them with our ‘busyness’.
In the end though, who made the rules that we always need to strive for more externally? If a child was to create the rules? Wake up, nourish with food our body needs. Play, sleep, repeat. Yes please! I LOVE those rules.
+ What’s the best advice you’ve been given - and who gave it to you?
Oooh, good question. There’s a few and I will share one that is simple and to the point by a pretty famous dude called Mark Zuckerberg. It resonates with me because I don’t let fear hold me back from things. Everything that occurs in my life is a lesson, there is no failure. And so I like to be agile and screw the status quo of ‘keeping myself in my box’. So it’s got to be:
“Move Fast, break things.”
+ What’s your favourite…
1. Travel destination: Anywhere we have a built in babysitter right now. I used to be too afraid to say that and then I realised it’s ok to admit that I feel a holiday with young kids is an oxymoron.
2. TED talk: Oh yeah! Brene Brown “The Power of Vulnerability.” This rocked my world because I am 108% for transparency on all the stuff that we try to make look ‘perfect’.
I post a lot on Facebook and Instagram and include pics of my kids when it feels right. I have a lot of women reaching out to me to ask me “how do I do it all?”. And you know, I cried this morning as I lay my head on my toddlers bed just desperate for 10 minutes of uninterrupted sleep. Then I put on my pancake mix splattered exercise pants, that had been worn for nothing other than washing the dishes and drove as fast as I could to buy my one coffee of the day to feel some semblance of ‘alive’ before I realised I’d left the garage and front door wide open at home (Of course I got my coffee before heading back to save the Palace).
We don’t share our vulnerable sides enough I think.
3. Blog: I am always going back to Such Different Skies by Tara Bliss. She writes from deep within herself and shares herself transparently with seemingly no hesitation. It’s powerful to see women exposing their rawness. She also uses the word Fu*k a lot. How trivial of me that I dig that… ;) [ Claire says: Me too! One of my all time favourite blogs - and people ]
4. Breakfast: Buckwheat pancakes with coconut yoghurt, banana, raw honey and berries. Drool.
5. Quote: It’s a long one, but I will share it every time I get asked. It has changed my life. By Marrianne Williamson.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
I have found that when I work with women who aren’t quite ready to add ‘God’ to this quote, we change it to ‘the Universe’, and it is completely and utterly relevant.
+ What role does creativity play in your life and how do you honour it?
The things I am most passionate about doing with my time are all creative. I cook and create in the kitchen every single day, which I believe to be a true art. I create by gardening daily and introducing my daughters to both of these also. I create online now with my eBook ‘Sweet’ and eCourse ‘Life Transformation Project’.
+ How has having a blog changed things for you?
How hasn’t it is probably a better question…
I have a whole new group of friends that truly truly get me and understand me and share with me some habits that may seem totally bonkers to the average Joe. Kombucha brewing, feet up a wall, dry brushing my boobs and greasing myself up with coconut oil….hahaha, that’s just a few surface ones. Then it’s the knowledge that they’re there to support my being so open about my struggles with alcohol in the past and not judging.
I have the ability to reach people where it matters, where my message can actually make a difference to someone’s like and help them become happier, healthier and more centred. That is truly humbling. The power of technology, and having a blog means that i can reach thousands of people at the touch of a button. This is unheard of at any other time in history.
It grants me freedom of expression and it empowers me to seek growth on a personal level, whether it’s business coaching or healing or meditation courses. I am expanding in ways I never ever did prior to ‘blogging’.
+ What message does your one-year-from-now-self have for you?
All things will come if you are patient, so don’t try to force things and your ability to spell check your own work has improved phenomenally.
+ Can you share with us your secret indulgence?
Firstly, I eat raw chocolate every single day. Without fail. I also use Ayurvedic spices to make my own super valuable tea at a fraction of the cost of store bought detox tea.
This blend can help to create clarity, detox the lymphatic system and create stillness within ourselves. The act of brewing and steeping tea and then sitting with it quietly is also a meditation in itself I believe. *The aniseed in this makes it a no-go for pregnant women.
Ingredients (makes about 6 pots of tea)
6 whole star anise
3 cinnamon quills
2 tsp aniseed
6 cardamom pods
8 whole cloves
Place 1 star anise, half a cinnamon quill and 2 tsp of mix in a tea pot and allow to steep for 5-10 minutes. Pour and cover again with boiling water for a second brew if you like.
Alice Nicholls is a Holistic Health Legend, Life Transformation Coach, speaker, writer and creative and you'll find her over at The Whole Daily. She's behind the global eCourse Life Transformation Project - A Four-week eCourse on Living, Healing, Eating and Self-Loving Better and the author of Sweet - A Collection of Clean and Classy Sweet Recipes for The Health Conscious Cook. Her fancy for living a life that most people only dream about is a sparkling success and she wants to take you along for the ride (of your life). Feel giddy with pure peaceful, contentment. Sink into the joy simply waiting to be found in your life today, and laugh - just because it feels so darn good.
Connect with Alice on her website, via email, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter @thewholedaily.
Gorgeous, right? Such an authentic way with words and style. Share with Alice and I in the comments below, what was your favourite part our chat together? We're hanging out to know! :)