To "let go"

To “let go” does not mean to stop caring, it means I can’t do it for someone else.

To “let go” is not to cut myself off, it’s the realization I can’t control another.

To “let go” is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.
...
To “let go” is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.

To “let go” is not to try to change or blame another, it is to make the most of myself.

To “let go” is not to care for, but to care about.

To “let go” is not to fix, but to be supportive.

To “let go” is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.

To “let go” is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their own destinies.

To “let go” is not to be protective, it is to permit another to face reality.

To “let go” is not to deny, but to accept.

To “let go” is not to nag, scold or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.

To “let go” is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.

To “let go” is not to regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.

To “let go” is to fear less and love more....

 

(Taken by a post by the facebook page- Live Laugh Love.)


I think that a lot of us know all of these things, but putting them into practice is the challenging part.  When you are attached to something, or someone, "letting go" isn't always easy.  Our minds can easily become fixated on a situation or an outcome.  We become emotionally attached and even when we know the attachments we have aren't rational- our emotions sometimes overcome that reality. 

We only have so much control of our decisions and our life.  We make the choices we want and live the life that we want to live; but let's face it, there are so many independant variables outside of ourselves.  Other people, outside circumstances sometimes "get in the way" of what we wished or wanted to happen.  We only get so much choice of our destiny.  Trying to have the control that is outside of you makes your life miserable.  Like beating your head against a wall.  We all do it, but it sure doesn't make things easy.  Once we can accept that the universe does some of our work for us- whether it's what we "wanted" or not, the more we can let life flow.  The universe will provide signs for you and if you are receptive enough, you will see them.  Usually, there is a larger picture than the one you are seeing.  Trust that and more good will come to you than you had originally imagined for yourself. 

Feeling your feelings and CHANGE

I think that one of the most important things is to feel how we're feeling in a certain moment and time.  So often when we are dealing with a situation or a relationship we brush off how we're feeling.  The body holds onto emotions.  If you suppress those emotions or feelings, overtime they will manifest and make their way out of the body in the form of physical ailments.  It is okay to feel an emotion such as anger or sadness that may be uncomfortable to you.  Sadness and anger are just feelings like happiness and excitement.  We have a lot to learn from our feelings of discomfort.  Sometimes when you are feeling upset about a certain person or situation you are in, wonder why it is happening FOR.... rather than TO you.  Take yourself out of the victim role.  Every feeling and thought that comes into your body or mind is your choice.  You always have the power in the moment to change.  I'm not saying that it is easy because I know that it isn't.  It takes sitting with your emotions and working through them.  Meditating, yoga- especially backbends and sweating, journaling, listening to music, getting outdoors, talking and sharing these feelings with friends or family are some great ways to be with and work the emotions out of your body.  Accepting your feelings is the FIRST step.  My friend Mary and I took a trip to the spring yesterday and she was telling me about a yoga and life coaching event she went to in Maine this past weekend.  Her friend leading the workshop talks about ways to get started with CHANGE.  She had been trying to lose a certain amount of weight for a filming of a video.  She told herself she would run every day for an hour M-F.   Of course she started to lessen the time that she would run and then the days that she would run and eventually she wasn't even really running.  Mary made a good point.  Why- when we want to change something in our lives- do we create such a big challenge for ourselves?  Change starts with ONE step.  Putting on the running shoes.  Even if she didn't go running, her friend would at least have had her shoes on.  The next thought that comes to mind?  "Well, if I have my shoes on..... I might as well go."  Next step.... I am going to run to the end of the street and back.  Next step after that..... if I am already running to the end of the street, I might as well run through the block, so on and so forth. 

Getting back to emotions.  It can seem so daunting if you are feeling sad or upset or angry about something to think, "I am a bad person for feeling this way, I better stop."  That will never work because you're not allowing yourself to feel that way or understand why you're feeling that way.  FIRST step is accepting your emotions.  WHY are you feeling the way you're feeling?  Next, validate that feeling.  Tell yourself it is okay to feel that way.  When we grow up we are taught that we shouldn't be angry or sad- that it is a sign of weakness.  If we are judging ourselves based on how we feel our body can never change, heal, grow or evolve.  We would always be stuck in the same place and never go anywhere.  The body only moves from a place of love and acceptance.  Once you can love yourself and accept your feelings then, only, can you start to work through them and move beyond them. 

We feel things for a reason- sometimes we know the reason and sometimes we don't.  Sometimes it isn't necessary to figure out why we're feeling a certain way because we will figure it out at the time we're supposed to.  Just keep breathing.  Feel your feelings.  Feel your feelings rather than suppressing them, filling them with food or a stimulant or a depressant.  Talk about them, yell, scream, go for a run, meditate, hike, be with nature, be with yourself and people you love.  Root your mind and body together.  Happiness always starts within.  Take the first steps today to actually feeling how you FEEL.  If you want to change those feelings, you will slowly do it over time.   YOU can do it and YOU always have the power. 

HOLY ca-CAO!

Today I'm highlighting the health benefits of one of MOTHER NATURE's most beautiful, delicious, and medicinal gifts to us: the CACAO BEAN.

REAL chocolate from the cacao bean is BITTER but the health benefits are SWEET!  If you can get used to eating cacao beans or cacao powder with something naturally sweet like honey, dates or stevia you will get all of the benefits that it has to offer:

The cacao bean has the HIGHEST concentration of antioxidants of any food in the world.  David Wolfe says more than red wine, blueberries, acai, pomegranates and goji berries combined!  Antioxidants protect us from age related illnesses and protect our DNA from free radicals (free radicals are in the foods we eat, air we breathe, products we use and have been shown to cause cancer). 

Cacao beans are on the top of the list for the magnesium content.  Magnesium alkalines, supports the heart, increases brainpower,  relaxes muscles, helps build bone, increase flexibility and creates a healthy digestive system.  It is the most deficient major mineral in the Standard American Diet that appoximately 80% of North Americans are currently eating (and are therefore magnesium deficient). 

One 28 gram serving of cacao contains 314 percent of RDA of iron!  Iron is a crucial mineral that is part of the oxygen carrying protein, hemoglobin, that fights anemia and keeps blood healthy.

Cacao is high in the trace minerals manganese, zinc and chromium.  Nearly 80% of Americans are deficient in the trace mineral chromium.  Cacao contains enough chromium to reverse deficiencies in the mineral!

Cacao fights depression and mood!  It is rich in serotonin.  Serotonin is the primary neurotransmitterin human body and nearly all living things.  It builds our "stress defense shield" and keeps us feeling good.  It is also high in tryptophan, an essential amino acid that is a powerful mood enhancer.

Many people think that it has high levels of caffeine, but cacao only has about 1/20th the amount present in conentional coffee per serving.   Cacao contains 1% of the chemical relative of caffeine, theobromine.  It is not a nerous system stimulant like caffeine; rather it dialates the cardiovascular system and makes the hearts job easier.  This is why you may have heard that "chocolate is heart-healthy".

Enjoy cacao in the form of either cacao beans, cacao nibs, cacao powder or cacao butter but always make sure it is RAW and organic!   Most all health food stores will have one form of raw cacao for you to enjoy.  Raw bars such as Rawvolution are also sold that contain raw chocolate.  My friend Cara Theos, sells Aphrodites love chocolates that are raw and organic and made only with honey as a sweetener.  Check out her website at http://www.aphroditeslovechocolate.com/.  Also, be aware of the source you are buying from.  Fair trade is extremely important whenever possible, as there is a lot of cacao slave harvesting happening in Africa and other nations.  http://www.globalexchange.org/is a good place to educate yourself further.

How to enjoy cacao?

Swap out raw cacao powder with any commerical cocoa powder and cacao nibs for commerical chocolate chips (cacao nibs are mother nature's chocolate chips :)nothing added or removed)

Cacao shake:

Frozen banana (or if you don't have frozen use room temp and add ice)

A few dates soaked in water for a few hours (remove pits) or another natural sweetner like honey or stevia if you don't have dates around

Small handful of soaked almonds (soaking makes for a creamier shake do not add soaking water) - you can use a spoonful of almond butter or even peanut  butter if you'd like instead!

A small amount of coconut butter or coconut oil

cacao powder (as much/ little you want depending on how chocolate-y you want your shake)

Coconut water (as much/ little as you want depending on how thick you like your shake)

You can also add cacao nibs if you want a chocolate chip shake (you can omit the powder, add vanilla extract instead and add the nibs)  You can also make a mint chocolate chip shake or a mint chocolate shake by adding a small amount of peppermint extract :) Yummmmm AND, best of all you are doing AMAZING things for your body!  Taste buds and body say "thank you!"

The most AMAZING raw chocolate brownie taken from Gone Raw (http://www.goneraw.com/):

CARAMEL DREAM  BAR BROWNIES
This is a truly delicious, fun, easy dessert that looks like you’ve been in the kitchen for hours! I’ve been trying to replicate the Dream Bars I grew up on as a kid and this takes the cake, or “brownie” I should say! I’ve made this recipe like 10 times now it’s my hubbys favorite. Enjoy!

Ingredients: 

CRUST
2 cup Almonds, soaked overnight
1 cup Dates
¼ cup Cocoa Powder
dash Salt
CARAMEL LAYER
½ cup Almond Butter
½ cup Coconut Oil
¼ cup Coconut Butter
½ cup Agave
1 tablespoon Vanilla
dash Salt
GARNISH
Cacoa Nibs
Coconut Flakes

Preparation: 

To form crust, process almonds, dates, cocoa powder, and salt in food processor. Press into glass pan.
To form caramel layer, process almond butter, agave, and coconut butter in food processor until smoothe. Spread on top of crust layer. Top immediately with dried shredded coconut and cacoa nibs, pressing them into the caramel layer so they stick. I pressed mine into a square 8×8 glass dish so I would get uniform square bite size brownies. Freeze until ready for serving.

Get in the kitchen with your own ideas and HAVE FUN with it!  There are thousands of ways to use raw chocolate and now you know that nutritionally, you can't go wrong :) ENJOY!

Turning up the heat

Hi!  I am really excited to start this blog.  As a health coach, I work with people on reaching their goals, fullest potentials and feeling their best!  I will be posting ALL different things that I think are important and valuable for a healthy and happy life.  There are so many things that I want to share with you but I am going to begin with my greatest health secret.... BIKRAM YOGA!

Bikram yoga is amazing.  Whenever I tell people I teach and practice Bikram I usually get "Is that the really hot one?" Yes, it is.  Bikram yoga is done in 105 degree room with typically 40% humidity.  For this reason alone, it can be extremely intimidating.  I am going to be posting many blogs about Bikram but today I want to focus on why the room conditions are the way they are.  Here are 7 reasons for the heat:

Bikram and his wife, Rajashree when Bikram
yoga was newly founded.

1.  Burns fat more easily.  Warmed muscles burn fat more easily than cold ones. Fat is released during stress. The stress of intense exercise causes a deluge of fatty acids into the blood stream. If you exercise with cold muscles, they can't use the fatty acids and they end up in places where they aren't wanted, such as in the lining of your arteries.

2.  Speeds up the breakdown of glucose on fatty acids.

3.  Makes muscles more elastic, less susceptible to injury.

4.  Improves coordination.

5.  Allows oxygen in the blood to detach from the hemoglobin more easily.  When blood passes through warm muscles, oxygen releases more easily from the hemoglobin. Blood passing through cold muscles release less oxygen.

6.  Reduces heart irregularities associated with sudden exercise.

7.  Vasolidation - The increase in the internal diameter of a blood vessel that results from relaxation of smooth muscle within the wall of the vessel. This causes an increase in blood flow.


It doesn't say it in the list, but I would like to add that the heat also adds to the mental aspect of the yoga.  Yoga means union between mind and body.  When you are on your mat you are working to calm your mind down in order to slow your body (heart rate).  The heat will mentally challenge you, therefor making you work harder to remain calm.  Sitting in traffic, stress from your boss, not getting enough sleep are all things that we mentally hem and haw over and detriment us physically.  Remaining calm in the hot room with the heat will help you find and keep your cool on and off the mat.

Namaste!

Mother Nature's Health
http://www.followmothernature.com/