Inspiration

Five Ways to Balance Hormones

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I believe that big changes start with small steps practiced consistently!

If you are ready to jumpstart your hormone balancing journey, here are 5 Simple Ways to Balance your Hormones Naturally.

Eat enough protein-protein provides essential amino acids that your body needs for cell turnover and repair

Get physical–-movement that is. Exercise has been known to increase levels of hormones that decrease with age

Take care of your gut health–your gut biome regulates ghrelin (the hunger hormone) and has been known to moderate insulin resistance

Reduce your stress levels–lower to fight or flight response and give those adrenals a much-needed break

Get quality sleep each night–lowers your cortisol levels and increases your HGH

Along with reducing sugar intake, adding fiber, and eating a good amount of healthy fats you are on your way to a better, healthier, balanced body.

What are you tackling first?

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When I Am Among the Trees

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This morning’s schedule change allowed me to have a long walk along a tree lined creek. I am certainly most grateful on these unexpected days where I have time to connect and be with myself and nature. Days like today are just one of the many benefits of being self employed. There certainly are some downsides to being your own boss, but time to get outside is a huge bonus! As I spent time watching hawks fly and bunnies hop, I found myself reciting this favorite poem of mine. Trees and time to commune with them often is something that is a must for me. I feel more connected, more energized and way more alive.

When I Am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine.”

~Mary Oliver

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Confinement

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“The confinement that I feel is only what I ALLOW myself to feel.”

I often say that I am putting all of the amazing nuggets of wisdom that come from my students with brain injuries into my future book. Who knows, maybe someday a future Ted Talk. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Year after year I am humbled at the insights that come from people living with brain injuries. I feel so strongly that they can teach the world so many things about truly living. Over the years I have kept a little notebook with some of the teachings that they bring to my life. It is common that I often pull inspiration from that notebook and share with others.

This one is a keeper.

I have been teaching from the theme of freedom this month. According to Webster’s dictionary, freedom is defined as having the ability to think, speak and act without hindrance or restraint. As we broke down each of those areas and shared the hinderances in our lives it is easy to see that everyone has certain hinderances or restraints that keep them from living fully free. For some, it is living without the ability to move their legs, or for others it is not being able to drive or work. Although I can drive and work, I have certain physical limitations and responsibilities that keep me from being fully free in my actions.

We then moved onto our ability to speak without hinderance or restraint and it was evident that while the idea of free speech exists, there is a limitation to what we can all say and not get into a little hot water, whether that it within our own home or in the community.

We finished our discussion with the realization that the only true place we have freedom is in our thoughts. It was decided that we are all free to think what we think. No matter what our challenges or our struggles are, it is ultimately what do with it through our mindset.

Here is the moment of ah-ha that has stayed in my heart for weeks. As we were closing up our discussion on living freedom, this was spoken:

“The confinement that I feel is only what I ALLOW myself to feel.”

Read that again.

The woman who said this is a student who lives in assisted living and occasionally comes down for yoga. Her body is riddled with pain so her practice is breathing and sharing. She is brave and wise.

She also lost her independence, her family, her ability to work and drive, and do things that feed her soul. And yet, she has the insight to see that despite all of her lack of freedoms, she can escape the cage with her thoughts.  She is one of the most insightful and grateful people I have ever met.

To think that I am called the teacher. I disagree.

The truth is, I am a conduit for their wisdom. I get to be the messenger. 

Freedom Is

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Freedom is defined as the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.

We have all heard of the metaphors of feeling stuck in a cage and not able to be free to fly, or the imprisoning walls that have been built around us. Sadly, it seems that the brick and mortar is often what we place around ourselves that create our own version of prison.  This can include negativity, questions of worthiness, regrets of the past and worries of the future. Similarly the key to the cage that we so often feel trapped in resides in our own hands. It is our choice to stay in the cage or take the key and unlock it.  No matter what circumstance we are in, we ultimately have choice in what we do with it.

There are a million examples of how we can feel stuck, trapped, locked in, or caged.  Whether it is a relationship, a job, a location or a belief you have about yourself, freedom truly means that WE have the power to act, speak and think without restraint and hindrance. 

We are in control of what we do with our circumstances. Certainly opening the cage door or tearing down the walls that give us a false sense of safety takes incredible courage and sometimes can be the scariest thing we ever do, but the payoff is much better than feeling closed in and stuck.

I hope through a practice of mindfulness and yoga, I can help others to see the freedom that is available through the spaciousness of our hearts and minds. This month we are going to chisel away the beliefs and fear that build a wall around ourselves.  We are going to slip the key into the lock and learn to fly. We are going to feel free. Just as the little finch sits on a branch that perhaps has no insects or is not protective enough, she has the freedom to find a branch that is and we too can jump from a negative thought to a positive thought.

Consider what it would be to take a look at some hard questions and then prepare to take flight.

Do you feel imprisoned?  Are you the one laying the bricks down and filling them with mortar?  Do you hold the key in your hand and refuse to unlock the door?

What would freedom feel like for you?

The Benefits of Cleanliness

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According to researchers, multiple environmental factors determine how you feel. These include physical factors around you as well as the community spirit. Your housing environment, for instance, can have an effect. People tend to have higher levels of well-being when they live in attractive, warm, and cozy properties. Their homes recharge their batteries, so to speak, enabling them to take on the challenges of the world with more confidence. Well-being tends to decline when properties are dilapidated, dirty, or affected by dampness.

In the Yoga world, we call the practice of purity and cleanliness Suacha. It is the practice of cleaning up our thoughts and our space and eliminating clutter in both areas of our lives.

The level of tidiness can also make a substantial difference in how you feel. When your rooms are tidy, it has an influence on your unconscious. The less cluttered your environment — the less you have to think about — and the more you can ease into life.

The lighting, smells, and color of an environment can also profoundly affect your mood. Shutter companies know this very well. They understand that the level of light that gets into a room determines how the occupants feel. When light levels are high — as they should be in the daytime — it helps to calibrate the your natural sleep-wake cycle.

The people you spend time with also have a profound impact on how you feel. If you are around elevating people who support you, you’ll feel like you can do just about anything you want with your life. Likewise, if you are around negative individuals who bring you down — life will feel like a constant series of battles.

Surrounding ourselves with people, calm colors and a clean and serene space can play a big part in our overall wellbeing.

How do you control your environment to better your mind, body and spirit?

Thistle

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Did you know that thistle is actually part of the sunflower family!?

I saw this thistle today and was amazed by its beauty. It is one plant I enjoy in other peoples garden or in nature that is for sure.

I did a little digging about this plant that is stubborn and plentiful.

Here is what I found:

Considered one of nature’s toughest flowers, it’s one of the most debated plants by most gardeners. Some call it a weed while others view it as an excellent source of medicine and food, as well as a beautiful ornamental plant. Certain varieties are considered beneficial to wildlife because they produce a substantial amount of food for insects and birds and their foliage is also used by butterflies.

The thistle represents overcoming adversity and difficult situations. It’s a symbol of resilience. In Celtic regions, the thistle represents devotion, bravery, determination, and strength. In the Basque region of France, the thistle is considered a symbol of protection. It is also called the “flower of the sun“ and the “herb of witches”. It’s used as protection against evildoers because people believe that witches cannot look directly at the sun. The thistle is often seen on the front doors of the homes of this region. The flower’s pink and purple colors represent nobility and royalty.

Milk thistle, another variety, contains a chemical known as silymarin. Research suggests that it has bolstering effects on the liver and it is widely sold in various cleansing and detox products. Full of nutrients, the thistle has been found to contain higher vitamins and minerals compared to other more common vegetables. Various parts of the plant can make excellent additions to stews and salads, albeit with careful preparation.

I appreciate taking milk thistle for my health and observing her beauty, but I try to avoid them in my yard.

Losing and Lessons

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It is fair to say that every human on the planet has lost something or someone. We have all had events or people in our lives that invited us to feel loss. For some it has been the actual loss of a person, or perhaps the loss of an opportunity, or even the loss of a dream.

For this past month or so I have circled back as I do so often every year around my daughter’s birthday.

In my own process of evolving and working to be the best version of myself that I can be. I have given myself permission to feel anything and everything when it comes to her birthday. For years I stuffed the emotions that I thought some might see as an ungrateful and resentful mom. I have since learned that nobody’s opinion really matters when it comes to how I feel. My feelings are valid and real whatever they are.

I am able to now openly share with myself and others that there is indeed a loss when it comes to her.

She was born this little perfect sweet little baby girl but within a few years was identified with multiple developmental disabilities and the reality that my relationship with my only daughter was not going to be that of my friends you had a “typical” daughter. We were not going to have typical conversations and mother daughter outings. Instead, I would forever be her mode of transportation and decision maker. There would not be the moments to plan her dream wedding, but instead I would be arranging where she will live when I am too old to care for her. I wouldn’t be celebrating her college degree and career path. Instead I will be finding appropriate day programs for her to feel some resemblance of purpose and meaning in her life.

That is a huge loss.

Through the process of my wakeup years ago, I realized that within the loss is a great lesson.

I am now able to see all that I have gained. Learning to take the loss and create something amazing and powerful through the lesson of acceptance and grace has been amazing. You can hear my whole story here on this awesome podcast. I chose to accept and do something with this amazing gift I was given, through her and as her.

The point is the lesson I have learned was that life doesn’t always give us what we may see as the ideal, but if we open our hearts to seeing the lesson, it may just rock your world.

When my children’s father died in 2014 I experienced another huge life changing lesson through the process of loss. I had already lost him in many ways as we divorced when things got too much for him related to our daughter and the vastness of what our life had become. To be completely honest, he wasn’t the greatest dad and he definitely was not able to show up for himself, or the kids, however I was willing to see the lesson in his unfortunate death. One of the greatest days in my life as a mom was witnessing my boys show up for him, regardless of his inability to show up for them. You can read about that pivotal day in my life here.

When he died, he was alone. He had made decisions in the last year of his life that prompted his last few days to be that where he was not surrounded by anyone as he transitioned. The painful reality of his last few years was just too much for my kids once they had said their beautiful goodbye days before, and he was estranged from his friends and family.

That was a big loss. Not just for him, but for my children, and in a way myself.

The lesson I learned from that loss has become a huge part of my life and service work. Within a few months of his death, I had a mystical and powerful yearning to volunteer in hospice. Knowing that I had to serve those dying and that nobody should die alone became my mission.

This week, one of my yoga students whom I have been spending time with every two weeks fell gravely ill and when I arrived at his group home I was told he was intubated and in the ICU. Due to his previous injures our yoga sessions are essential me rubbing his feet and moving his paralyzed limbs. When I heard about his his current condition, it didn’t not occur to me to NOT go. I jumped in my car and off I went with my magic hands and open heart.

The smells of an ICU and the sensory overload within the space can easily overtake you, if you allow it. Tubes. Alarms. Machines. So much to be distracted by.

I walked in and he was awake but obviously unable to speak. Grabbing his hand I watched as his eyes twinkled with recognition. When I went to say goodbye a single tear fell from his eye.

All alone.

The lesson of acceptance and regardless-of-what-someone-did-or-didn’t-do-you-show-up came from those two losses in my life. I know with every fiber of my being that had my girl been born not as she was and had their father not been who he was and not died the way that he did, I would not have been there for my student, and the countless other strangers who I have had the honor to rub their feet.

I know that.

Loss? Yes, for sure.

Lesson? Absolutely.

Always Enough

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I have come to realize again that our culture wants us to believe that there are not enough resources, not enough time, not enough love, not enough money, not enough opportunities, or whatever else we desire. Our minds want to keep telling the same old story that there isn’t enough which in turn causes us to act as if we live in a mindset of scarcity and lack. Spend an afternoon at Costco and you will agree with me! The overconsumption that happens within those four walls is startling. Also, think about the storage units on every corner, jumbo size everything, jammed packed big box stores where people get more, more, more, more.

Sickening isn’t it?

The truth is the human spirit and inner heart KNOWS that there is always, always, ALWAYS enough. When we sink into faith and trust that truth we can start to make more mindful choices. Aligning with the greater good of universal love we can actually feel that there IS indeed enough.

Always.

How many times have you been going through a really hard time and felt you’d never make it through? Or when you felt you didn’t have enough and suddenly random blessings show up.

Open your heart, open your mind and get ready to receive all that there is.

Trust that there is ALWAYS enough.

An Old Friend

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It has been awhile since a certain old friend of mine made a strong appearance in my life. Honestly, I can say that I have felt her presence for months. A decade ago she had stuck around for many years and then disappeared. Or maybe she just stepped into the shadows for a while. I always knew though that in a moment of vulnerability she could easily step back into my life.

This friend of mine is smart, as well as sneaky, in how she can slip into my life and easily take over. Her presence is big even though she has a tendency to come incognito and honestly, I didn’t really recognize her this time until the middle of the night whispers invited me to take off the blinders and see the truth.

My old friend has name and it is control with a middle name of addiction.

Last fall as I was starting to experience more physical pain than I liked. I also started walking far more than I normally do. My old friend convinced me that this was to manage pain. She told me that the more I walked the better I would feel. She was right. For months and months I walked further and further each day. Indeed the pain felt less. My mind felt clearer and I was more content. Being outside for a couple hours a day walking was balm to my pain.

At first my old friend cheered me on and celebrated with me the miles and miles I would walk. She was step by step with me and the conversations we had were about overcoming the physical pain and building confidence in my body while not letting the pain be the focus.

She told me instead to see and celebrate what my body could do.

In her incredibly manipulative way, soon the walks weren’t enough. She convinced me that I had to have more. My friend persuaded me to attach an outcome to a number of steps and if I wasn’t there, then I was shamed and begrudged for letting pain win. Years ago she had convinced me that if I could just walk a certain amount of steps a day I would be amazing and that anything less than that number was weakness. It took a real friend at a beautiful restaurant in Sedona to shed light on the fact that a silly number was stealing joy from my life. That day, I let my friend control go and she stayed away until last fall.

I have been teaching the yoga principles called yamas and niyamas this month. I realized in the quiet moments of the night that I was allowing this so called friend to blind me from ahimsa (non-harming) and asteya (non-stealing). In demanding my body to perform at a certain level each and every day, I was stealing joy from myself. My walks have become no longer about nature, quiet meditation, health or connection. Instead they became about speed, distance and numbers.

Control + Addiction = Stealing joy.

In doing this for months, I have also turned an eye to non-harming. Yes, walking is the best thing I can do for myself. It DOES reduce my pain greatly. It does clear my head and help my mood. But many of my recent walking has also become a space for shame, anxiety and unworthiness. The addiction to performance and outcomes has begun to overshadow the benefits. The panic that takes over when I am not close to the target increases my agitation and negative thoughts.

One the best feelings in the world is my ability to trust in my inner wisdom to acknowledge it, listen to it, share it and own it. This awareness is the antidote to control and addiction. It also helps to have the real and honest friends who rather than join the negativity and shame, just listen and give advice that is from the heart and from that space of truly seeing me.

This morning as I walked that old friend called control and addiction was thanked because I know that she shows up every once in a while to reel me back into living the authentic life I want to live.

She comes around occasionally to help me peel away another layer of self-worth and doubt to reveal an even clearer and brighter version of myself.

I will keep walking everyday to manage my pain and to bring me joy. I will no longer allow the numbers to steal my joy and harm my heart. Instead I will notice the birds, the changes of the season, the aliveness that is in and around me.

I told control and addiction thanks for the insights and until next time…

Practicing Gratitude

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I think we get so caught up in life events needing to be extraordinary in order to be happy. Learning to pay attention and practicing gratitude is key for a fulfilling life.

I am with Brené Brown on this one.

Happiness is right in front of me when I am paying attention and practicing gratitude. ~Brene Brown

When I look back at my week I can say with certainty that it was a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences. It was also a week of ordinary moments in everyday life that can either be celebrated or denied. I had beautiful work, a profound experience with a dying woman, a pretty disappointing doctor’s appointment, amazing workouts, playing in my garden, driving over 750 miles for work, celebrating my sweet granddaughter’s birthday, and quiet moments on the patio.

Ordinary moments of life experiences.

Yet so amazing in many ways. I am grateful for my life in all of its craziness–the observing of joy and sorrow, celebrating small successes, experiencing humanness, giving and receiving love, and being the witness to the cycles of life. All of it deeply embedded in my heart.

Hope you find a moment to pause. To breathe. And to notice all that is good in your life.

Try paying attention and feeling gratitude.

It just may surprise you how ordinarily awesome your life is.

True Yoga

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One of my most treasured aspects of Yoga is how we go about with showing up for ourselves and others. True Yoga is often overlooked in our very physical posture based lens of Yoga. In the Western world it seems that Yoga is mostly asana and very little true Yoga.

What is true yoga?

True Yoga consists of the principles and attitudes known as the Sutras. The Sutras are a collection of text that guides us to live. Ahimsa (non-violence), the first and foremost of the five yamas(restraints) described in the Yoga Sutra, entreats us to live in such a way that we cause no harm in thought, speech, or action to any living being, including ourselves.

This is the essence of Pantajali’s non-harming Sutra known as Ahimsa.

Pausing to consider kindness (ahimsa) influences the choices you make and how you truly show up for yourself and for others. Ahimsa (pronounced “ah-heem-sah”) literally means “non-harming” or “non-violence” in Sanskrit. In it most basic level, it’s refraining from causing harm.

As we practice ahimsa in today’s modern life, there is more to this idea of non-harming than simply refraining from acts of physical violence.

We understand now that pain can be more than just physical – it can also be emotional and mental. The deepest pain we feel is often very emotional. It most often sprouts from our relationships with other human beings. It can be grief that we experience when we lose someone. Grief can also from a part of our life that meant so much to our identity. The loss of a relationship or a painful life change can bring about deep and soul-shattering pain.

When we practice ahimsa, we are thinking about how our actions could hurt others. Doing so invites us to take into consideration the potential physical, emotional, and relational consequences of our actions.

We pause to consider kindness.

Are you frustrated with the non-kind world that exists where division and opinions flood our everyday lives? The world feels sad at the lack of humanity and desperate need to be heard in what seems to be a constant “what about ME” mentality. There is exhaustion with the lack of kindness for fellow human beings.

Realizing that all we can do is change our own thoughts and actions, I am opting for kindness despite my own struggling emotions. Ahimsa is offered for the exhausted world. Together we must learn to pause, listen, see, feel and to give.

Kindness truly matters and it is the truest form of Yoga.

The Frequencies of Emotions

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Yogi’s have known for thousands of years that there is something magical and mystical inside of each of that is influenced by our thoughts, surroundings, foods, and even our emotions. These frequencies that we emit are measurable emotions. The mystics have known this a long time and now scientists are catching on. People are realizing that our emotional well-being and our energy, can be not just measured, but it can also be influenced with a few adjustments to our everyday habits and attitudes.

Good and not so good vibes

I learned about this frequency of emotions mindset many years ago, but I didn’t have the language to make sense of it or share it.. We all have met someone who seems to have really “good vibes”. And we we have all had people in our life that seem to bring us down. That is their energy and how our own energy interacts and received it.

The great wake up

Prior to my great wake-up, I was living in constantly very low vibrating emotions; fear, anger, disappointment, blame, and shame. The outward manifestation of this chronic mindset was that I was physically heavy. Depression snuck in and I had trouble sleeping. There was very little motivation and even less joy in my life. I had yet to discover a purpose and a passion.

Since my transformation in my mid-thirties, I live in a nearly constant state of happiness and abundance. Experiences that I have wanted to happen, seem to happen. I find the right people at the perfect time. I am inviting into my life amazing opportunities on a seemingly weekly, if not daily, basis. There seems to be little to my life that I wish was different, except perhaps having less physical pain. However, despite having a chronic pain disease I am able to compartmentalize that experience into a place of better understanding and usefulness for my life.

What do we do with what life is

Not that my life is unique to anyone’s because we all have situations in our life that are less than ideal, but it is what we do with it that changes the game. Here is what I have in my world that could send me down the spiral of blame and shame, if I chose to allow it; raising a disabled daughter day in and day out, multiple chronic pain diseases that cause pain and fatigue, the grueling self-employment lifestyle of being 100% dependent on myself to make money and survive, having raised three children alone and with one of them is disabled who still lives with me (which means I have technically been a 24/7 caregiver for 31 years with no break), I have never received a financial windfall, my father chose to completely opt out of my life, my children’s father died from self-neglect at a super young age leaving them without any chance of a turn around, I have had multiple orthopedic surgeries in the last 5 years that have taken a toll on my body, and my joints continue to deteriorate despite my greatest effort to be healthy. Pretty heavy, right?

With all that heavy emotion how do we manage our emotional frequencies (vibes) and how can we work to raise our vibration?

Let’s imagine for a moment the image of a ladder. The middle rung of the ladder represents contentment. Contentment is often thought of as a Zen like experience where all is well. It is something that most of strive for at certain times in our life and when we arrive there, we sigh heavily feel as though we have arrived. Hold on. One step under contentment is complacency. Yea, complacency. That emotion where we feel like, ehhh I don’t need to put that much effort into this, or try that hard. Complacency is that who gives a shit mindset where half effort becomes routine. One more step down the ladder we are living in boredom. Then creeps in loneliness, sadness, blame, shame, defensiveness, anger, and then fear.

Feel that heaviness?

Go back up the ladder to contentment. Imagine again what that feels like. Now, one step UP from contentment is hope. One of my favorite definitions of hope is to expect with confidence. To me hope is walking towards something positive and good with a knowing that it will become. Feels amazing, yes? Well, above hope is curiosity. Above that is joy. Then above that is happiness. Just above that is bliss. Keep going and you will reach the complete wholeness of feeling grateful.

A grateful being is a person who lives in a constant (or near constant) state of high vibes. When we live in that plane, we attract all great things into our life–people, experiences, opportunities, purpose, and love.

Here is where it gets even better.

Simply by shifting our attention up, lifting our chin, looking up, elevating our heart we immediately move up from contentment to hope. I mean literally look up. So much of our life is hunched over, head down either worrying or working. Carrying SO much emotion that can feel heavy it makes our physical body shift downward. Constant downward looking, we begin to sink into the spiral of low and often heavy vibration frequencies.

Interesting ideas

The frequency of abundance measures the same as the frequency of a wild orange. The higher up on the tree, the higher we feel. This is why certain essential oils have the ability to shift our emotional state simply by smelling them. You can learn more about the brain and aroma here.

A simple and powerful tool to keep yourself on the upside of the ladder is to literally look up and notice the tree tops, the clouds, the sky, how your heart lifts with the simple tilt of your chin, take mindful and complete breaths and fill your heart with gratitude. Smelling pure wild orange essential oil is just an added aspect to this magic that can powerfully shift your mood.

Are you ready to work on your emotional frequencies and start attracting experiences and people into your life that resonate with you and your highest vision?

I currently have some personal mentoring session times available if you’d like to learn more about how to shift your emotional frequencies, including the use of crystals and gemstones. Reach out to me, I would love to hear from you! Also, enjoy this upward spiral and downward spiral image to see and feel how good it is to live above contentment.