Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Ready to Rise?

This Thursday is the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new unique concept, Rise Wellbeing Center in Reston, Virginia. The space is beautiful, relaxing, rejuvenating and welcoming.

I will be teaching Carpe Diem Dance this Saturday morning at 9am and Wednesday mornings @ 7:30am.  Carpe Diem Dance is a movement to music class that is fun, and is good for the heart, the brain and the soul. I will also teach yoga and breathwork this Friday evening and Wednesday mornings too.

You don't want to miss Saturday night's Sound Healing event with Woven Green 

Click Here for the Grand Opening Events.

nature. balance. peace.


Dedicated to cultivating wholeness through nature, mindful movement, and stillness


Come join us!

About Lisa Jackson, RN, CHC, RYT-500, AFMC

Lisa is an author, functional nutrition and function medicine trained health coach, yoga teacher, and retired Registered Nurse with the mission to "Inspire, Educate and Empower" individuals to heal from within.

Lisa's book, Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think & Thrive is a self health book offering her Seven Steps to Optimal Health.

When she is not coaching, speaking or advocating reform, you can find Lisa joyfully sharing Carpe Diem Dance or playing with her two grandchildren. She is the mother of four adult children and believes, "Optimal health should not be a secret."

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Olympic Thoughts.

Fundamentally what do you believe? Watching the 2018 Winter Olympic athlete makes me believe that anything is possible. They are passionate, they believe in themselves, their common message is don't ever give up. The USA silver medalist Chris Mazdzer exclaimed he was in a good place mentally, physically and emotionally. He had been through tough times and felt confident to do his best. He had the love and support of family and friends, no matter the outcome. He believed in his own abilities.


To make great jumps and leaps, one must have confidence in one's abilities.


So, as the author of the Healing From Within Blogpost, I must ask:
"Do you believe in your own innate ability to heal from within? If you cut your finger, will it eventually heal on its own?" 
What are your beliefs? Do you believe the multi-million-dollar advertising campaigns that dis-ease is the absence of a synthetic chemical that your body is lacking? Do you believe the television and radio ads that you will be happier and healthier drinking coca cola and eating artificially manufactured chips, and if you get heartburn, no worries, just take the latest pharmaceutical drug for the latest ICD 10 diagnosis code GERD for gastrointestinal esophageal reflux disorder?! Do you believe in your man-made diagnosis?

OR do you believe the message from the latest Functional Forum/Evolution of Medicine Conference in the UK where the message from the Medical Doctors was,

"The Doctor of the Future, is the Patient."

What do you believe? Do you believe that your symptoms are a sign that you are flawed and that you need a pill for every ill? 

OR are you ready to begin to believe in yourself? Are you ready to take personal responsibility for where you are today? I'm not saying that it's your fault that you've received a cancer or other chronic disease diagnosis. Perhaps you were unaware of the toxins in your food, water, air, or thoughts that may have contributed to the dis-ease. Perhaps you are unaware that most of what you are eating is void of necessary vitamins, minerals, enzymes and cofactors for healthy mitochondria (cellular) function. Perhaps you are unaware of the toll that chronic hidden stressors have, and the role it plays in dis-ease. Maybe you never thought of creating a different medical mantra; focusing on love and self-care rather than the "war on cancer".

What I am saying is that we all have a choice now, and every day, how we react to these challenges. No matter the current course or the defeat, you can choose to feel beaten, trodden, depressed, and discouraged...Or

You can believe in your innate ability to heal from within. 

You can stay paralyzed in fear and believe the naysayers, or you can rise to discover newfound inner strength and wisdom. 

To discover Olympic Thoughts.

Do you have the courage to take an honest personal assessment to explore what might be at the root cause of dis-ease?  Do you have the confidence in yourself to seek a health coach to co-create a personalized plan for yourself? Will you make this commitment to self?

Marketing myths attempt to convince us of the quick fix, of instant gratification.

Instead, these athletes inspire us. They demonstrate the power of consistent, holistic, dedication to their goal; touching all areas of their lives.  Consistency, commitment, perseverance, even when the first US Gold Medalist 17-year-old Gerard admits that he didn't feel like getting out of bed this morning.  Food for Olympic Thoughts...

With Love & Gratitude,

Lisa

About Lisa Jackson, RN, CHC, RYT-500, AFMC

Lisa is an author, functional nutrition and function medicine trained health coach, yoga teacher, and retired Registered Nurse with the mission to "Inspire, Educate and Empower" individuals to heal from within.

Lisa's book, Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think & Thrive is a self health book offering her Seven Steps to Optimal Health.

When she is not coaching, speaking or advocating reform, you can find Lisa joyfully sharing Carpe Diem Dance or playing with her two grandchildren. She is the mother of four adult children and believes, "Optimal health should not be a secret."




Saturday, February 3, 2018

Becoming Conscious in an Unconscious World

Have you ever been called "absent minded"?  Do you lose your keys? Have you ever gotten in the car and started driving and suddenly realized you didn't know where you were? Have you been so lost in thought that you weren't conscious of the road, or the time between getting in the car and where you found yourself?

Women, particularly working mothers, pride ourselves on the illusion of being able to "multitask."  Do you eat on the run? Do you gobble up a meal without really tasting it? Or are you fully present to smell, taste, then thoroughly chew, your meal?

Becoming fully present, conscious of eating slowly, is a way to tell your body it is safe to "rest and digest." This puts your body in the parasympathetic mode that is required to properly digest your food and allows your body to receive the nutrients necessary to heal and repair itself. Personally, I've found this habit the hardest to break. The mantra that has kept my blood pressure so high for years has been, "I don't have enough time" The reality is the body listens; this is a clear message to a shortened lifespan.

Everything that we've labeled as a "disease" is merely a message that our loving body is relaying to us. For me, my dis-ease is a message to slow down, give gratitude for what I have, for who I am, and for daily miracles.

For I am truly one of the fortunate ones. I get to be a witness to this every day. I get to witness beautiful people coming to me with a challenge they thought they could not overcome and witness their transformation. Like "my stomach has hurt all my life" or "I've never been able to sleep" or "I've been in pain, had migraines, been constipated, had allergies, been depressed....(you fill in the blank), all of my life"  Just because these things are common and persistent does not mean they are normal.

Most of us learn to live with these symptoms. We learn to ignore them. We become less sensitive to pain. Soon we become unconscious to our physical bodies.

I've had the honor of witnessing one woman's tumor shrink through meditation at the Mindfulness Center in Bethesda. I've witnessed migraines melt away. I've witnessed panic and anxiety attacks, lessen and relax.

I'm not a meditation guru. I really struggled with this as a young working mother. My early experience and reaction was, "Seriously, you've got to be kidding, I don't have time for this." Patience was NOT my virtue. Peace seemed to elude me.

One of my mentors told me, "Lisa, change takes only as long as you decide." How profound and how true.  How committed are you towards positive change?

This is why the first of my seven steps is to take an honest personal assessment and then to make a commitment and an investment in yourself.

Here's an excerpt from my book:
How to become the leader of your life? Take action. To be the most effective leader, you have to have control of your health! Make the same investment in you that you have made in your family, friends, and career. Give yourself the gift of self-care; find new ways to energize and empower yourself.
First, take an honest personal assessment.  Where are you now and where do you want to go? 
I  begin my discovery calls with new clients with the following questions:
  1. What would it mean to you to be the best you can be? 
  2. What is your biggest obstacle or challenge?
  3. What have you tried--what has been successful and what has failed?
  4. How do you want to feel and see yourself in 3 months, six months, and one year from now as a result of working together?
  5. How committed are you to overcoming this challenge?
We then look at your entire health history, labs and medical records. Many falsely believe that because chronic illness runs in families that it must be genetic; that they are doomed. I used to believe this too. Fortunately, the study of epigenetics, the study of the expression of genes, has proven that genes can be turned on and off through diet and lifestyle changes.  Here's a picture of identical 60 year old twins:


One looks older and has more chronic disease than the other. This is an example of identical genes yielding different outcomes. Diet and lifestyle change the expression of genes. 

If you are not where you want to be, don't beat yourself up. Be inspired to explore new options to rebuild health. The body's natural state is to rest, digest and repair itself (if we can get out of our own way). 

Commit to small obtainable steps, one to three small "digestible bites" every two weeks and then celebrate your success. Consider a health coach to keep you on track. Contact me for a discovery call to see if we are a good fit for each other.

Carpe Diem,

Lisa

About Lisa Jackson, RN, CHC, RYT-500, FDN-P, AFMC
Lisa is an author, inspirational speaker and functional medicine and nutrition trained health coach. Lisa's mission is to inspire, educate and empower others to feel and look their best at any age.

Lisa's book, Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think and Thrive outlines her seven step process towards optimal health that is fun and transformational.

Lisa is the founder of Carpe Diem Wellness and The Wellness Inspired Network. When she is not coaching, speaking or writing, you can find her practicing yoga and joyfully sharing Carpe Diem Dance.