Gerone Pascal: Raw Beauty of the Month

Hey Raw Beauties! And we are back! It hasn't been that long since I've last posted and I'm glad that at this point of time, our Raw Beauty Community Tribe is expanding!

For the past year, I have been receiving messages from you about reading blogs from this space and telling me that by doing so , it has touched a part of you and your life somehow. I must admit, it wasn't as many as you might expect but to be honest, you may only be a few reading this and that means a whole lot already. So if by any chance, you're reading this and you want to say hi, please please feel free to do so! Wouldn't it be nice to have a community of empowered women who share their best practices, most especially on topics that touch on health, wellness, fitness, traveling, yoga, consciousness, healing ,beauty and the like! It is my dream to share a "tribal connection" with women all over the world, uplifting each other and just by being there for each other.

And guess what? It's happening, right at his very moment.

Two years ago, I've dreamt of talking and interviewing inspiring women(mostly from Manila Vegans! ) and featuring them into this space to share a part of them that can,int their own simple ways, inspire YOU. And when a opportunity presented for me to feature Gerone Pascal, a Yoga teacher currently living in Grenoble, France who is passionate about Nutrition, Inner and Outer Ecology and a Zero Waste Lifestyle among many other health and wellness affliated things, believe me fellow Raw Beauties, I grabbed it! Without any hesitation or doubt, I asked Gerone if i could feature her as the FIRST RAW BEAUTY OF THE MONTH of 2019. And to my excitement and despite her full on schedule with her newlyfound life in Grenoble with her equally amazing husband Jeremy,( let me keep you on a little fact: they met in Bahay Kalipay in Palawan and fell in love while working together abroad, so if you're looking for that special someone in your life, you might want to visit BK soon! Not only there's a high chance of meeting the one, but you get to enjoy raw, wholesome vegan food, do lots of Yoga and meet amazing healers and health enthusiasts FROM all over the world!) Gerone said yes!

I refuse to take much of your time and at this point, I would love for Gerone to speak to YOU as you read her answers to my questions. Have fun guys! You'll love her as much as I do! Or even more!

What is your definition of Beauty?

1. Beauty is an inherent quality in everything and everyone. It is nature or essence.

What makes a woman truly beautiful?

2. Nothing can « make » a woman beautiful because every woman already is. There is nothing else that needs to be done or made. For me, the question worth asking is : what can help women see the inherent beauty in them that will allow it to shine through ? As a society, we have been conditioned to accept images and standards of beauty that are far from our nature (as Asians, we should have straight shiny hair, fair skin while Europeans are told beauty is tanned skin and permed hair) and we are taught that no matter what we do, we can never do enough to make ourselves « truly beautiful », we always need to strive hard to achieve a very unrealistic projection of beauty. Once we realize and accept that we are inherently beautiful beings, we can love ourselves more, be happy with how we look like and we can focus on things that matter like strengthening loving relationships around us and taking care of earth.

How does your nutrition look like in a day? ( Cite what you usually eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. )

3. Our kitchen is zero-waste and we don’t eat things that we cannot do ourselves. We also buy mostly local produce and in bulk. To be honest, 9 months here in France and I’ve only been to the supermarket once tand it was to buy parchment paper to use on the steamer to cook siopao (yes, for Chinese new year, we made siopao from scratch.) That said, here is what I would normally eat in a day :

Breakfast : lacto-fermented oat porridge with fruit compote, dried fruits and nuts. I would wash this down with tea or an infusion of flowers, herbs, seeds and leaves.

Lunch : In true French tradition, we eat our lunch in full courses which begins with a salad of chicory or lettuce leaves with grated beetroots, carrots, radish, parsnips and nuts dressed in a vinaigrette with mustard sauce fermented by Jeremy (my husband). The main dish would be a vegetable dish (curried, herbed, sauteed, roasted-it depends on the weather and our mood) which we eat with grains (like bulgur, buckwheat, oats, couscous or rice from Camargue). Instead of cheese, we would have yogurt which Jeremy also makes himself. And for dessert, a piece of chocolate. On special days, we would have pastries or a piece of cake which I baked.

Meryenda : Now that we’re in winter, my meryenda is an orange on most days.

Dinner : A velouté of vegetables or a clear soup with whole wheat sourdough bread ; the sourdough is Jeremy’s baby.

Can you provide us three health and wellness rituals/habits that you cannot live without?

4. Three rituals I always live by :

-Siksik time with Jeremy in the first few minutes of the day and before we go to sleep. This is necessary for the wellbeing of our relationship.

-Me time for an hour in the morning. I use this time to connect with myself, listen to the wisdom of my heart and clear my head through meditation, chanting, yoga, knitting and baking. I don’t do all these things in one hour or everyday, I tune in and feel into what feels right for this first hour. This sets the tone of my day and is necessary for my spiritual, emotional and mental wellbeing.

-An hour of walking around or biking, even in winter ! I already know that I nourish my body well with what I eat and my mind is already very peaceful and at ease so I make sure to always move my body. We’re lucky to live in a city with bike highways so it’s easy to get around anywhere on the bike and the city center is car-free so walking around is pleasurable. There are also many parks around the city and we are surrounded by 3 mountain chains of the French alps so it’s easy to hike and climb. I’ve also just started to learn to ski which is exciting. This is necessary for my physical wellbeing.

What is the most challenging experience you’ve ever had? How did you handle it?

5. I don’t think I’m comfortable sharing about the most challenging experience I’ve ever had. There are plenty, haha ! But I handle them by shifting my perspective. I think to myself that nothing is ever really random and that every opportunity is an opportunity for growth. When and where it is painful is usually a moment of breaking through and growing. I also try my best not to take things personally by accepting that no one is actually doing things just to hurt me. This way, I can keep my energy in check and not get too emotional when there really is no need to be. A reminder I always give myself is that everything takes time and everything passes, even difficult moments.

What’s your favourite smoothie combination?

6. Anything with banana ! But because banana is not local, I haven’t had a banana smoothie in a long time.

What is your favourite memory that you would like to reminisce over and over again?

7. My favorite memories are those from childhood. I’m lucky to have had a beautiful and happy childhood ! I grew up in Davao city where fruits are abundant and the beach is just a few minutes away. My grandparents on my mom’s side raised me and they live in a magical home up on the hills away from the city center. With them, I learned how to read, sing, dance, play and be my most colorful self. 99 Molave Street will always be happy place-whether I’m actually physically there or not.

What are you passionate about? What kind of work do you do?

8. I am passionate about nourishing and nurturing our inner and outer ecology. Inner ecology being all the layers of our Self, and outer ecology being the environment around us. And this passion translates not just in my job, or what I do « for a living », but also my lifestyle. I believe that having balance in the inner ecology translates to a balance in the outer ecology and a healthy outer ecology allows the inner ecology to thrive. For me, there’s a direct connection to the health of the planet to our personal health. Look : junk food is always packaged in plastic and goes 2 ways—accumulating as toxins inside our body and then gets piled in dumps that are either burned and pollutes the air or ends up in the oceans. When we start nourishing our body with food that comes from nature, we contribute to a healthful natural cycle too because fruit and vegetable waste can be composted and used to grow more plants for food.

I am a yoga and meditation teacher, I play with kids in a primary school as a way for them to learn English and I volunteer with the Global Ecovillage Network in Oceania and Asia (GENOA) as the facilitator for Communications and Regional Liaison.

With my husband, we are part of several organizations : one is with Gefelepots that recovers unsold produce from organic shops and resell them for a token amount of 50 cents per kilo, and Alter Café, an organization that focuses on helping people to have zero-waste homes and live zero-waste lifestyles. We also share our time and gardening skills with a community garden called Le Jardin des Cairns. We compost our kitchen waste and share them in a community garden a few meters from our home and we have a worm compost too. We save water by not flushing down our pee too much and instead use a solution with lactobacillus bacteria that feeds on the odor-causing bacteria in our pee.

Lines are blurred between work and life ; there’s no difference really. And I feel really grateful to have this opportunity to live the way we do.

Share to us your ultimate vacation destination for all time.

9. I slow-travelled around southeast asia and Sri Lanka with Jeremy for 2 years.

We lived in an ecovillage in Thailand for 8 months, travelled from Malaysia to Singapore and back on bicycles, we hitchhiked around Laos, and we travelled all around Sri Lanka, staying with families and volunteering in a yoga ashram. I don’t believe in vacations anymore because everyday feels like a vacation for me. But if I could give a travel advice it would be : stop being a tourist because that doesn’t really help the culture or the environment of where you are visiting, and start being a low-impact traveller. You can do this by volunteering and living with locals and travelling slowly.

For this you can use the websites like HelpEx, WorkAway, WWOF and the Global Ecovillage Network for volunteer opportunities, and stay with locals for free with Couchsurfing and Trustroots. For all the travelling we did, we barely spent money and most of our expenses were only for visas.

I’ve been around the world but Philippines will always hold a special place in my heart not just because this is where my roots are but because it is truly a beautiful country. And if you ever do feel like travelling, start local ! There are so many mountains to hike in the Philippines, so many beaches, waterfalls, rivers, islands. And honestly, our fruits are amazing !

What completes your health routine?

10. An affirmation that I am perfect the way I am and I trust the processes that my body is going through.

Well that was a pretty worthwhile and interesting read, eh? You might even have gotten some useful ideas on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle through what she eats in a day, or even got inspired by her husband who makes bread and yogurt from scratch! Whatever it is that you take from this read, I hope it stays in your heart and share the Light and Love to every person you meet.

For any comments that you would like to say or if you know someone whom we can fetaure as March's RAW BEAUTY OF THE MONTH, please feel free to email me at adao.princess@gmail.com or even message me on Instagram( itsme_rawbeauty). Thank you so much! Love love!

My heartfelt gratitude also to Gerone for taking the time to answer all the questions and being a vessel of Light to All.

Gerone Ba-Ang, from the Philippines, is the Communications facilitator as well as the Regional Liaison for the Global Ecovillage Network in Oceania and Asia. She has brought the ecovillage spirit to communities in Manila, in Gaia Ashram, and throughout Southeast Asia. She is a slow and conscious travelling yogi who is passionate about raw food nutrition, inner and outer ecology, and natural farming.