What is your Wellness Handicap?

Someone asked me the other day when I had started in the wellness industry.  I thought about that and I laughed.  Well, I guess it started in the 60’s and 70’s growing up in a home with no pop, potato chips, or processed foods.   My mother cooked the old fashion way with foods that she bought from the perimeter of the grocery store ( processed foods are in the middle, you know) and she also cooked dinner every day.  We ate at 5:30pm sharp which is when my Dad came home from work and we all ate together!  We visited our grandparents every weekend, we had sitters so my parents could go out dancing, we had chores to do, and we were dragged to Mass every Sunday.    

My parents valued family, friendships, recreation, and spiritual growth.  Of course, these values have helped to shape who I am and helped me to strive for balance in my life but I now realize that the greatest gift that my parents may have given me were ways to manage and nourish my mental and emotional health which may have further implications on my physical health than the lack of junk food in our house.     

Wellness used to be defined as the absence of disease.  We now know that is not true since many diseases can be incubating for years in the body before actual symptoms appear.  Many times when we hear the term “wellness,” we tend to think of it in terms of what we can do for our physical bodies.  We are focused on our weight, exercise, healthy eating habits, etc.  All of these are certainly important but “total wellness” is really how well our life force is flowing through ALL of our subtle energy bodies as well as our physical body.  We can’t be physically healthy if our energy fields are clogged with anger, fear, resentment, guilt, and grief.  I think we can all relate to each of these emotions and provide vivid personal examples.  I know I can!  A book that I recently read and highly recommend is Radical Forgiveness by Colin Tipping.   It helps to explain the powerful connection between our emotions and our physical health and there are suggestions and methods for addressing and dealing with these emotions that affect our health.  In his book, Tipping asserts that up to 80% of cancers are the result of repressed emotions and that depression always precedes cancer.  According to Caroline Myss’s tapes, Why People Don’t Heal, she discusses how the majority of our life force energy is focused on hurts and experiences of the past or worry and planning for the future.  This leaves very little life force energy left to focus on the present which is where all healing occurs.  Sometimes, it takes a major crisis to force us to focus on the “now,” doesn’t it?  Eckert Tolle’s The Power of Now is another wonderful book to stay focused on the present which helps us to stay healthy and balanced. 

My parents took life one day at a time and taught us to value each day and to accept life as it is since there was a purpose to everything even if we did not understand it.  We grew up with a strong sense of family and appreciation for what we had.  Both my parents are gone now but I value them and what they taught me more now than I ever have.  I feel their presence all the time and know that they are still providing guidance.  Heck, they probably helped me write this article!

Use Your Sacred Gift!

Albert Einstein once said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.  We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”  I couldn’t agree more!  But, I also feel a shift taking place where we are honoring our intuition more and even admitting it! 

The rational mind or left brain helps us to function as humans in society – to get up each day and be productive.  But as Einstein’s quote suggests, we have strayed too far in honoring our rational mind over the intuitive mind and have created an imbalance in our society.  I think he is right on!  Our rational mind is also our ego at work trying to convince us that we are all separate from each other and everything and that we must fight to maintain our independence to survive as individuals, countries, religions, political parties, etc.  I think most of the issues in our world have been created by too much left brain, ego-centric thinking, and we won’t correct them with the same type of thinking that created them in the first place.    

We are striving for balance, however, and not forsaking the left brain.  We need them both to maximize our potential as humans and as a society.  There are huge benefits to developing your right brain.  Have you ever read Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s book called, My Stroke of Insight?  Jill was a brain scientist who had a stroke in her early 30’s, knew what was happening to her as she went through the different stages of the stroke, and, luckily, lived to write about.  She describes what occurred as she began to lose the functions of her left brain (rational, analytical, task driven, logical) and was eventually left with only the right brain function (creative, imaginative, wholeness, daydreaming).  She went into a euphoric state – hey, isn’t that what we all want - and couldn’t sense where her body ended and someone else’s started.  From a scientific perspective, everything is energy, including all of us, and that means that we are all connected and not separate at all! 

The other benefit to developing your right brain is that you start to develop your intuition or intuitive mind which allows steers you correctly.  Your intuitive mind knows what is best for you and the more you develop it, the better you will get and the more you will listen to it.  You will start to let it win arguments over your rational mind or “brain chatter”  You know what I mean - the part inside of you that won’t shut up and makes you keep thinking when you would rather not!

Ways To Develop Your Right Brain:
 
Meditatation
Yoga
Listening to or playing music
Dancing
Painting
Doing anything you love where you lose track of time (Not sure my HGTV addiction counts here though)

So, if you were a child that was accused of daydreaming or having too much of an imagination, remember that you were just way ahead of the curve in balancing the two hemispheres of your brain and  were placed on this earth to help balance it.  If you have children that exhibit a lot of right brain activities, encourage them and foster their development.  They might be the Einstein of tomorrow that we will be quoting! 

Intuition – Tuning in for guidance
 
I have had some amazing experiences lately and wanted to share them with you. It is said that we all have the ability to tap into our intuition but it is like anything else - it takes awareness and practice. I am a firm believer in synchronicity and the fact that there are no such things as coincidences or coinkydinks, as my kids used to say!

Experience #1 - I was recently in Greensboro for the Market America convention and was listening to one trainer encourage us to do something different than we had done in the past to get to the next level in our businesses. I bought that and was thinking about a couple of different routes to take. One route was to become an agent to market a tool that helps people become debt free much faster than normal. I believe in being debt free and thought this was a good fit with my background as a CPA . BUT THEN I BREAK 3 PAIRS OF READING GLASSES IN 2 DAYS!!!!! I have several of these cheap readers and I have had them for a while so to break 3 in 2 days left me wondering. In the past, I might have thought, "Oh that is funny," but now I'm thinking, "What am I not SEEING correctly?" I had coffee with my friend, Lupita, and I tell her the story and she says the same thing - "What aren't you seeing correctly?" She tells me to ask for guidance so I do. I go home to take a little cat nap and I ask to be shown guidance on what I am not seeing correctly. Guess what? I wake up and I have my answer - "Trust and stick with your passion, girlfriend, and things will work out beautifully!" So here I am blogging away on my passion - energy and spiritual stuff!!!!!!!!!!!

Experience #2 - I was recently invited to attend a networking group that is being started here in Pittsburgh. I was putting on my makeup (a 5 minute process) and was thinking of something that I was considering bringing up at this meeting. Just as I'm thinking about it, my flat iron falls off the sink??? No one is in this bathroom besides me - at least that I can see! I think, "hmmm, maybe I'm not supposed to mention that at the meeting. I drive to the meeting and just as I'm about to get out of the car, a weird brake light goes on that has never been on before. Again, I think, "hmmm, maybe I am to put the brakes on mentioning this idea?" I decide to not say anything to the group as a whole but I do approach one of the organizers after the meeting and mention to her my idea. She did not warm to it so I now know this is not something that I will pursue with this group. And guess what?  The brake light has not come on since.

I know these kinds of things are happening all the time so would love to hear your stories!!

Peace and Light to all!

Step one in Feng Shui - Decluttering!

Feng Shui is also known as "acupuncture for the home." In acupuncture, the practitioner attempts to clear imbalances and release blockages in your energy meridians (lines of energy within your body) to help your body to heal. This analogy is great because that cluttered hallway is also blocking the flow of energy (chi/life force) through your home as well.

Before we get to any specific Feng Shui recommendations or cures, it is important to deal with the numero uno good Feng Shui inhibitor - clutter! Ugh, we all have it to some degree or another. The important thing is to find a solution that works for you in dealing with it. I'm not trying to address the deep psychological issues that are prevalent on "Buried Alive - Hoarding" shows. This advice is for all of you that just need some useful tips in dealing with it. Below is what has been effective for me.

1. Designate a small amount of time per day or week

Do you often feel that you need to take an entire summer off to deal with it? I have often felt like this. I've discovered that the most effective thing is to designate a small period of time - 10 minutes a day or 30 minutes a week to focus on it. Even just telling yourself that you will only spend 10 minutes - set the timer - will be so effective. Take 2 large bags with you and give 2 to everyone in the household. Use all family members to really make it happen faster. One is for donating and the other is for garbage. Or if you are really ambitious, another for selling. I favor the donating over selling but that is just me. I figure the tax benefit is about equal to what I could sell it for and so much easier than the hassle of Craigslist or Ebay. Unless you have valuable stuff - most of mine isn't! Think about how many bags that you will have at the end of the month for either donating or trashing. Ah, I feel better just visualizing it! Look at each item and decide if you will use it or not and decide quickly. Some people get hung up with clothing. If I haven't worn it in a year, out it goes. I figure someone else could be using it and it opens up space for more things that I like, and of course, more shoes!!!

2. Take pictures of things and save digitally

I saw this idea in a magazine and loved it. Take a picture of that which you don't want to keep in physical form but want to preserve the memory. When my Mom died a few years ago, my two sisters and I had the whole house to go through which was not all that bad since my mother was a great housekeeper and was well organized. She was practicing good feng shui without realizing it. My sister took a picture of the coffeepot onto which my Dad had welded a screwdriver when the handle broke, the large pot lid onto which he had welded a golf ball as a handle and the cake pan that had been used for so many years for our birthday cakes. It was a great gift that now hangs in my kitchen and reminds me of my parents. Another idea is to take a small piece of that childhood blanket and frame it along with the footprints from the hospital. You get the idea.

3. Hire a professional organizer and/or cleaning help

This may sound like a luxury but if you are having trouble with organizing and letting go of things, it is sucking your energy which could be better spent on something else. I have found this to be true in most areas of my life where I can hire professionals. Corporations outsource because they want to focus their energy on specific things so they hire experts for all the other stuff. Why not you for your home or office? It will be money well spent. I have several people that I can refer if you need someone. The national association is NAPO - National Association of Professional Organizers. I have had cleaning help since I first became a working mom 25 years ago. This keeps you on your toes since you have to have the place ready for cleaning which requires a concerted effort at least a few times a month.

4. Store it and decide later

If you are going through an entire house for example, at least put items in those plastic containers and store them somewhere out of sight so that you can decide later. Here is one technique that I love and have used especially for all those electronic cords and chargers that seem to multiply overnight. I gathered them all up and put them in a box and labeled what was in it. If we don't go into the box in the next year, I get to trash or donate the whole box.

Hopefully, these have helped you get started. Your intention is everything so set the intention that you will have a clutter free home or office and you will!  The techniques, time, and motivation will come to you. So get started so we can get on to the fun stuff!