An Invitation to BEGIN:

Friday, I shared with you my daughters good news in Celebrate today, Just Breathe, blog and introduced my seven steps to optimal health and wellness with this invitation on the first step (which is to begin with an honest personal assessment.)

Won’t you BEGIN by joining me  for a Kickstart to Wellness? Starting Thursday, October 16^th at 7pm.  If you cannot make the call, don’t worry, you can listen to the replay, but only if you register. 

Today I would like to share more on the first of seven steps to optimal health.  I began last week’s blog with this picture:

STEP ONE - BEGIN: Make a commitment and invest in yourself. Take an honest personal assessment and inventory.

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 and inventory. Understand your WHY. I begin my discovery calls with my clients with the following questions:

What would it mean to you to be the best that you can be? What is your biggest obstacle or challenge? What have you tried—what has been successful and what has failed? How do you want to feel and see yourself in three months, six months, and one year from now as a result of working together?

We then look at your entire health history. Many falsely believe that because chronic illness runs in families that it must be genetic and that we are doomed. I used to believe this too as a practicing nurse when I took health histories. Fortunately, the study of epigenetics, or the study of the expression of genes has proven that genes can be turned on and off through diet and lifestyle changes. Do you know of any identical twins where one looks older and has more chronic disease than the other? This is an example of identical genes yielding different outcomes. This exemplifies the power to heal from within.  Again, don’t beat yourself up; instead get inspired to explore new options.

Give to yourself so you can give to others. Give yourself the same investment that you have put into your family, friends, and career so that you can continue to give to others.

Commit to small obtainable steps, one to three small “digestible bites” every two weeks and then celebrate your success.

Set SMART Goals:

•         Specific & Simple

•         Measureable & Motivational

•         Actionable & Accountable

•         Relevant & Realistic

•         Time Bound

Savvy Secret: A first SMART goal might be to simply keep track of what you are eating in a diary. If you did that and nothing else, you are likely to lose weight. Simply being conscious of what you are eating and more importantly how you are feeling before and after eating can have a transformational affect.

One reason I believe that it was hard for my daughter to initially stay on the diet regimen was that we really did not fully understand why the diets and supplements were recommended, nor did we know how to keep it up. For most of us, food preparation is a new skill. When Dana told me the diet was unsustainable, I said, “Then we have to make it sustainable!” We needed to really understand why the diet was important and find simple ways to integrate this into an active, social thirty-year-old’s schedule. Her life depends on it. This was my motivation for starting the cooking classes and for reading and studying so much about the thyroid, gluten, and hormones, and the lymphatic system and cancer, causes and cures.

This is where personal responsibility and a mind shift in thinking must occur. You have to understand the powerful connection between food and your mood and health. What nutrients are missing from the standard American diet (SAD) and how and why to heal the gut in order to heal your immune system.

Savvy Secret: Knowing your why is imperative to keeping you motivated towards positive change.

What is your WHY? Please take time to think and to share.

Carpe Diem, Lisa

25 Lessons Learned

I wrote this on the plane home from Arizona after 9 weeks with my Daughters Cancer treatment and is the accumulation of what I've learned, not only from this experience but my recent studies and 50 plus years of living.  This list was re affirmed after this weekend's retreat which focused on Healing Vibrational Energies (including sound, food, art and movement). http://carpediemwellness.org/events 

As Always, I welcome any feedback or comments

1. We can heal ourselves from within....truly
2. Trust your gut, heart and inner voice
3. We are in our infancy when it comes to our knowledge of Nutrition
4. We are in our infancy when it comes to our knowledge of mind body medicine
5. Much wisdom can be learned from our ancient spiritual texts as well as modern day texts
6. Love heals, 
7. Self love is imperative for good health
8. Self love, nutrition and herbs are the most powerful healing medicines
9. We can change the structure of water with our thoughts and emotions, our bodies are 70% water, our brain is 85% water; therefore we can change our internal landscape with our thoughts and emotions
10. The rest is energy
11. We must dare to dream and use our imagination for that is the beginning of our reality and the future
12. We MUST take control, accountability and responsibility for our health.  NO one has all the answers if they say they do, be skeptical!
13. We are surrounded by serendipity and miracles everyday and by practicing gratitude and optimism we can learn to see them.
14. We are spiritual beings in a material world.  We become what we sow, we are what we eat, drink, read and think.  
15. It is in giving that we receive, when we find meaning in life and a purpose greater than ourselves we grow spiritually.
16. We MUST raise political and social awareness or we will lose all of our freedoms including what we can plant, eat and freedom of medical choice.
17. We are not the labels that are placed upon us by our schools, psychologists and physicians.  These labels create self limiting thoughts and behaviors and self fulfilling prophecies.
18. We do not need a pill for every ill and we are not imprisoned by our genes.
19. We can reverse the expression of our DNA
20. Science does not have all the answers.  Just because we can’t or won’t see something does not mean that it does not exist or is not possible
21. We must still the conscious mind and practice accessing our inner subconscious mind to find our inner wisdom, strength and creativity. 
22. We must be open to questioning the limits the conscious mind places upon us and practice the art of learning to listen, breathe, laugh and dance!  Then, we can find and follow our passions
23. Our physical symptoms are signs that our gut, heart and  inner self is out of alignment with our conscious mind. (See #2)
24. When our chakras or energy centers are in alignment we have an abundance of energy to find and follow our passions.  
25. When the mind body and spirit are aligned the world becomes abundant with infinite possibilities.

Please share your thoughts!

Carpe Diem & Namaste

Lisa