Uncategorized – Page 2 – We Only Get One Chance

SUMMER IS HERE

What a beautiful long weekend!!! It really feels like summer now. For some reason Mother Nature feels that the people from Michigan can handle going from 50s right to 80s and 90s. For those of us that live in this amazing state…if it means we get to see th

e sun, WE WILL TAKE IT!!! There is a certain feeling that comes along with summer. I think it may have to do with the shedding of all the layers we have to wear during the winter in order to keep warm. Once summer comes, even something as simple as being able to wear flip flops is so freeing.

We are incredibly blessed with all the water and lakes that surround us. In this great little town alone, we probably have 8 or 9. Life on the lake is really nice. I am fortunate that my parents live on the lake just south of town and on the weekends, my brothers and their families gather and we hang out and play all day. We usually gather with food and music and spend the entire day chatting, catching some rays and watching my niece, Charlei, learn about the water, sand and navigating the deck. It is a lot of fun and has become my most favorite thing to do. Yesterday was wonderfully hot, the lake was incredibly busy, and the water was amazingly refreshing. Everything wrapped up around 7 or so and everyone headed home to get some final rest before the week begins again. I headed down a couple doors to a small gathering that was happening, chatted for a few minutes and helped them clean up… And that is when it happened…I had my first bite of watermelon. I don’t know anything that says “welcome to summer” more than biting into fresh watermelon. It’s summertime. Get out there and enjoy yourself!

A NEW PERSPECTIVE

I taught my very first yoga class this past Saturday and I have a new perspective. It was called a “feedback session” which means all the teacher trainees were invited as well as anyone else I wanted to invite. The concept is I teach an hour long slow flow class and the teacher trainees stay after and give me feedback. It was a wonderful process in spite of all the nervous energy that takes over the body when one undertakes something like that and I learned a couple interesting lessons from it.

First, I have been practicing yoga in the room I taught in for over 4 years now. To me, this room is sacred and when you are in it, the rules are you need to obey “noble silence” which means shut your mouth and stay out of other people’s business. There is rarely even whispers going on in that room except for if someone is trying to make room for someone else’s mat. My routine when I go to take classes is to go in, set up my mat, go to the back, change my clothes (I am almost always coming from work), do some talking in the tea room and when I am done and ready to be quiet, I go in and find my place on my mat and prepare to be present. So in the beginning of the class that I taught, none of my regular routine was happening and it kind of threw me off. There were 8 or 9 people in the class and getting them to lay down on their mat by a simple verbal cue was pretty easy. After working with breath for a few minutes it was time to start the class. I was almost paralyzed by the idea that I had to talk for the next 60 minutes in a room where everyone else was quiet and I had always been silent in for the past 4 years of my life. My lesson…I am a “rule-follower” almost to a fault. It was so funny to see the panic inside of me as I faced this 60 minutes of talking. But I did it and as the minutes slipped past, it became more and more comfortable.

Second, I am a vinyasa student and I was having to teach a slow flow class. The vinyasa classes that I am used to are a little, and sometimes a lot, faster pace than slow flow and some of the moves take a little, and sometimes a lot, more effort to transition in to and hold. I thought I was making a flow that would be great for the level of students I was working with. Apparently it was a little, or a lot, too hard!

For 9 years of my life, I was an aerobics instructor and I taught so many types of classes, and even yoga, in a gym setting. During these classes, I was able to gage the participants by their body language and energy. One of the goals of yoga is to build up the capability of peacefully handling incredibly intense moments, both on the mat and out in real life. As my yoga class is progressing, all the participants were peacefully moving through the postures in what appeared grace and ease and to me, didn’t seem like they were working very hard….I had forgotten that is part of the whole point of yoga.

So after class, some of the attendees were like “Were you trying to kill us?!?!?!” When I look back, it is a really obvious thing and I chuckle at my naivety. The lesson here is in yoga, or even as we walk down the street or around the grocery store, we have no idea what is going on inside of each person that we pass. One of the biggest lessons of yoga is to have compassion for others and extend loving kindness to all people in our lives. Since we have no idea what is going on inside other people, what better way to look at the world than from a place of loving kindness and a new perspective…we only get one chance.

EARTH DAY CLEANUP SUCCESS!!!

The clouds parted for us on Saturday and the day warmed up to around 65 degrees…it was the most perfect day for our Earth Day Cleanup! A bunch of people gathered right at 10am for a wonderful lecture about composting done by our favorite composting experts, Amy Freeman-Rosa and Brian Rosa from North Carolina talked about worm composting. Airbrush tattoos were a hot item that day. Everyone was sent out into the streets at 10:30 to start collecting garbage. All in all we had around 70 people join us at one point or another during the 4 hours we were out. Everyone who showed up to help was given an aloe plant and a re-usable grocery bag to take home to show our appreciation for their hard work. There is still a lot of work to do, however with as many people as we had, we were really able to make a significant difference in the city this year. As the years go by, we hope more and more people will join us. We will leave the trailer of garbage sitting out by the road for a few days so that people driving by can take a hint to STOP LITTERING!!! Hey Fenton, LET’S CLEAN UP OUR ACT!!!!!!

Click the link below for the story

http://fenton.patch.com/articles/earth-day-cleanup-event-a-success

I LOVE EARTH DAY!!!!

21 DAYS PLUS

Yesterday marked my 21st day on the cleanse that followed the book “Clean”. I have had a really great experience doing it and am glad that it is over…however I am not sure how much I am going to change. The cleanse outline is as follows:

Smoothie for breakfast

Vegan lunch – gluten free, sugar free, no animal products and some restrictions with fruits and vegetables

Smoothie for dinner – making sure to have a true 12 hour break before consuming breakfast again.

The premise of the book is to allow the body some time off from having to do some heavy digesting and giving the digestive system time away from inflammatory products (gluten, sugar and animal products) while at the same time taking probiotics to re-build the gut flora which effects the overall health of the body and is a large factor in the immune system. I also take a multi-vitamin, cod liver oil, scentless garlic (good to clean the blood and regulate blood sugar levels), milk thistle (for liver support). The great thing about the cleanse is you still get to eat. In 21 days I have come a long way…worked through some chemical toxicity headaches, some emotional food cravings and have gotten to the bare bones of nutrition and I really feel amazing. My energy is really high, my stress level is low, I feel like I have more time in the day and things are getting done. There is a peace within my body and a real “clean” feeling. I have made it a point to continue my exercise habits with intense, hot sweaty yoga 4-6 times per week and walking. I have had more energy in those yoga classes than I can remember in a long time. I just feel really, really good. Quite frequently I have been asked “what is going to be your first meal off the cleanse?” and I have been pondering that. Even now that it is Day 22, I am still pondering. I am wondering if I feel this good and have this much energy and my body is this peaceful, what will it be?…and when will it be? I am not sure I want to change anything actually. I realize after doing something for 21 days, it becomes a habit. Now let me ask you…if you made something that is really healthy a habit due to a commitment, and benefited tremendously from it, and that external commitment concluded, and you really loved how you looked and felt from making that commitment, would you change it? So maybe this weekend, I will begin to let go of the gluten restriction and maybe add some more variety to the vegetables and fruits that I have been consuming. However, overall not much is going to change. It works well with my schedule and my lack of culinary creativity as well as with my beliefs about health and being someone who helps others re-gain their health. It fits me…and since ultimately we only get one chance to live in this body, I choose to treat it well so that I can be healthy and live a full, vibrant and wonderful life in it.

TIPS

Last night I had the privilege of being 1 of around 2,000 people listening to Deepak Chopra right up in Flint! The CRIM Foundation brought him in, we had to register early but we got in free and they paid for all the parking downtown so that was free too. AMAZING!!! I need to review my notes and I will write a little more at a later time about the actual lecture, however on each seat there was a brochure with some “Things you can do to become a healthier you” that I wanted to share with you. I think the brochure originated from CRIM and Deepak Chopra and this is word for word right from it.

“Things you can do to become a healthier you:

1. Work out regularly! Do something for your cardiovascular health, your flexibility and your strength at least 4 times per week. Walk, run, swim, bicycle, skate, play tennis…Do Whatever Moves You! You’ll feel better, look better and have more physical and mental stamina.

2. Eat to live, don’t live to eat.

3. Have an empowering social network. Invest your time with those who are inspired by life and have a greater purpose to fulfill – you’ll find that you are more inspired as well.

4. Control the chaos; make your home a sanctuary. Be selective about what you bring into your home – not just in terms of physical things but also the computers, music, television, and other forms of electronic entertainment that compete for attention.

5. Start a daily meditation/prayer/quiet-time practice. This can be as little as 10-20 minutes but research has proven the stress-relieving and health benefits. Not to mention, it’s been proven to extend your life.

Personal Commitment Statement:

Starting today, I commit to working toward a healthier me and to helping my family be healthier. I know that by doing so, I am also contributing to a healthier community – physically, socially, and economically.”

Good stuff, huh? Simple too! Health is a choice that we have to make every single morning when we wake up. We may as well choose to be healthy since we only get one chance…

ICE ICE BABY!!!

My brothers are pretty neat (neat is such an under-used word). I didn’t always feel that way and as were were growing up, I actually “dis-owned” them. We never made it

official however it was true in my mind. Its hard being a girl with 3 brothers and no sisters. Take a guess at how many times I found myself on the slim side of 3 against 1? Exactly, it was pretty much daily.

As the years have passed, I have grown to have a deep love and appreciation for them, their individual quirks, and all the wonderful ways they add to my life. Fortunately all 4 of us currently live in the Fenton area. It is wonderful to be able to spend so much time together and even better now that they come along with sister-in-laws for me:-) I am number 2 in the birth order and the brother next in line after me is named Garrett. If you have met Garrett, you know that he has a very low sense of self-preservation (that is a nice way of saying he is a bit of an adrenaline junkie). One of his passions is climbing, rock climbing and ice climbing. In the state of Michigan and particularly in this region, there is not a lot of either of those and traveling over long distances is necessary to feed that passion of his…until just a few years ago. We grew up on an apple orchard and some of the old equipment that was used around the farm is still there…including a drag line, which for the sake of simplicity, is kind of like a crane. In the summer, they can get their “climbing-fix” at one of the rock gyms that are close by. In the winter…that doesn’t work so well. So he and a friend

decided they would start farming ice to be able to have a winter version of a rock gym…and I am in awe everyday over what they came up with. My other two brothers are were able to come together and offer their gifts of construction knowledge and entrepreneur-lism and came up with this brilliant invention. There is nothing like it anywhere close to here. Friends of theirs drive in from all over to spend a weekend doing what they love to do and training on this ice. I just thought I would share a few pictures because I think the ice tower is pretty neat, and my brothers are pretty neat. I am glad to share this lifetime with them…and have learned so much from our relationships that I am grateful for. If I had this life to do all over again, I would pick these same 3 guys. They have help shape me into the person that I am today, and for that I have so much gratitude. Love your family…we only get this one chance.

MY FAVORITE EXCERPT

My favorite excerpt…

“A Return To Love” by Marianne Williamson…

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

I just wanted to share my favorite excerpt. Enjoy your day!!!

30 MINUTES TO HEALTH

Last night marks the beginning of our monthly workshops called “30 Minutes to Health”. There has been a huge demand for our services here at the Cafe of LIFE lately, to the point that we have quite a waiting list in order to get in for an initial visit. To me, the message in the fact that we are so busy is people are looking to get more out of life, looking to thrive in their life rather than just survive. When we are in survive-mode, we are just making it THROUGH THE DAYS…when we are in thrive-mode, we are actually GIVING TO THE DAYS. There is a very big difference between the two and I am here to help move people towards the latter. Last night our workshop focused around the things that make up health…diet, exercise, rest, positive attitude and properly functioning nerve system. With the 30 minutes, we were able to dig into a few of these topics in more depth. The audience was challenged in getting to the Cafe due to snow and ice on the roads last night though we still had a good turn-out and a very attentive audience. My most favorite part of doing workshops like this is the light bulbs that go off for people as they have an “ah-ha” moment.

If you missed us last night, we will be holding monthly workshops on the second Tuesday of each month from 6:30-7:00pm, our next will be February 8th. Join us! Bring a friend or two! I am here to help you get the most out of this life…since we only get one chance. See you soon! 30 minutes to health.

SOME THINGS TO NEVER POST ON FACEBOOK…

I was just browsing through this very interesting website and I found some rules about facebook. #4 in the list was “If it came out of your body in a projective fashion, never post it on facebook.” I thought that was interesting and instead of posting it on facebook, I would actually blog about it on here. So last week on Tuesday (some of you may know this already), I came down with that flu that is going around. Maybe some of you reading this have experienced this one, if not, it is fast and furious….literally there are people puking in their cars because they do not have enough warning to do much of anything about it. For me, I was hit with it right around 6am and I had enough warning to run 15 feet from my bed to the toilet…thank goodness. It went on for about 3 hours and then it was over and I was happy and feeling good. Some people are calling it a 24 hour bug, however (this may be because of all the adjustments I had while I was in Colorado) my body was over and rid of it all in 3 hours. When you condense that bug down that much, naturally the intensity raises and that is exactly what happened.

So you are probably thinking to yourself, “is she really writing an entire blog about puking????”…one key to the whole story is the part where I said “and then it was over and I was happy and feeling good”. You see, there was something going on with my energy level and aura for about 3 months, I would say since the beginning to middle of October. I felt good, but not really good like I am used to. I had enough energy, but I am used to an abundance of energy. When I looked in the mirror I looked presentable, but I am used to seeing a glow behind my skin. I would get a large quantity of rest and I would wake up in the morning feeling like I could sleep all day, and I am used to getting up and facing the day easily. After that morning of puking and the entire day of rest, I FELT AND STILL FEEL AMAZING!!! I feel like I got my mojo back or something. I feel like I was able to finally process something. I feel like I got a little oxygen to my flame that burns on the inside. I really truly feel like I have a new body and I am really diggin’ it. Now mind you, I have not puked in a really long time…that is not something that my body does easily. The fast and furious-ness to the 3 hour flu thing is that I also got rid of everything inside of me and my body kept trying to do more…yes this is known as dry heaves. Horrible, long-lasting dry heaves where the entire body is convulsing. Excuse me for being really “out there” with my thinking processes, but to me, I am wondering how awesome that entire body contraction is for stimulating the nerve system and changing a pattern. It was pretty intense and often a major pattern interrupt is exactly what is needed. It did it for me. It changed things up for me on the inside and now I feel WAY BETTER than just “back to normal”.

So to sum this up, no it is not fun to be sick, I do not enjoy vomiting, and I am glad it is over. Could that flu been prevented by taking a flu shot (which for the record I would NEVER do), I really do not think there is any reason to ever get a flu shot…and the benefit I got out of the ability to purge whatever that was, PRICELESS. Do you think it is possible that the flu was created by nature or universal forces for us to take a “time out” and get a chance to learn something about ourselves? stimulate something? clear something out? change a pattern? Just some food for thought…