Authenticity!

Authenticity:

A word many people throw around, a word that many people say but do they truly understand what it means?

Authentic, by Oxford’s definition means, of undisputed origin, genuine, reliable, and trustworthy.  What does that mean as far as you being authentic? It means being real. It means being you, and if you have not discovered who you are yet, it means being what you are in your current state.  In marketing a product or service, authenticity becomes very important; we all know we will not buy an organic beauty product from Joan Rivers, she is no longer outwardly her original self—she has been altered.  However, Joan sells comedy so she is doing a fine job of that.

My point here in mingling these two subjects is that you are a product; you are a service, at least, as far as authenticity is concerned.   As human beings, we are constantly selling ourself to the world. On Facebook we post our thoughts, our pictures, and our videos. We sell our looks, our minds, our sense of humor, our taste in music…it is the way everyone gets to know us. The world looks at our new Facebook timeline and says, “Who is this person?”  “Can I trust them?  Did I really want to see that picture of them? Is that a true representation of them?  Would I hire them? Should I fire them? Do I really want to be their friend? Do I want to buy the new product they developed? Do I want to use their new service? And do I want them in my life every day?”  These questions all come up like lightening, they flash through our minds as we surf someone’s social profile.  That is all just online.  What about in person?

What do we have to go on when we watch someone enter a room or speak on stage? What are they wearing, how are they talking, how are they moving, do they have too much going on, or not enough?  Are they speaking clearly, are they staying focused or are they all over the place, are they mellow or high energy, are they doing all the talking, are they listening, or are they just doing without being?  All of those questions also race through our minds, whether we know it, want it, or not.  We have answers and feelings in response to these questions.

Obviously, no one wants to be at the receiving end of a judgmental answer to any one of these questions, but the truth of the matter is the mind is processing and labeling information constantly.  It does it every day all day long about everything.  This is normal.  What then becomes the problem when we are selling a product or ourselves? Authenticity! The mind wants to process and label and store the information that will bring it back to this incoming set of information again—in a positive way.  If the mind attaches anything negative to the incoming set of information when it comes back to it later, the first thing it will do is say, “NO!”

So how do we avoid this “NO!”  Become real in everything you do.  Think through who your audience is, and process whom you will present yourself as.  In true optimal communication, everything about you including the information you give out verbally is going to meet the needs of the most intelligent person in the room, and simultaneously, what you have to offer will not go over anyone’s head.  We have all been there with the doctor that speaks medical jargon and expects you to understand without a medical degree or having to explain something to someone who is doing something for the first time.

This comes full circle to my previous post on manifestation: what you put out you get back.  If you put out unfocused scattered information then that is exactly what the universe will hand back to you.  The power of intention is not just about attracting money or the right job or the right person, it is about everything, every situation, every person, every success, and every failure you draw into and create in your life.  So the first step: What is your message?  What do you authentically want to present to the world?  How are you making it work and how will you make it work better?  How do you want the world to see you? Are you wearing it, living it, exuding it, and behaving it?  Are the people you associate with supportive or not? Are the people in your life part of your past, present, or your future?  Finally, are you communicating it at an optimal level?

The Art of Manifestation

“The law of attraction is a law of nature.
It is as impartial and impersonal as the law of gravity is.
It is precise, and it is exact.”
from The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.

 The first step in the art of manifestation is realizing and becoming aware that every thought, every phrase, and every word we put out there is being heard.  Heard like a miniature prayer, so if we think negative we get negative.  We have heard our entire lives ‘you are what you eat,’ but really, ‘you are what you think.’  You get from the Universe what you think:  If you think nice, you get nice.  If you pray for money, you will get money.  If you think ugly, you get ugly.  If you think illness, you get ill.  If you participate in drama, you get drama.  Every thought you have ever had has brought you everything you have ever gotten or will ever have.  If you become aware of your thoughts, you instantly will change what the Universe brings to you.

“Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out,” even  Alanis Morrisette understood this while writing her song Ironic.  Life is listening, the universe is listening, and higher powers are listening.  The question is; are we listening to what we think, what we say, what we pray, and what we wish?  Do we understand the rules of manifesting?

I teach in my coaching practice a letter-writing method, I have my clients and I do this myself, write a letter to the Universe, God, or the shadow on the wall whatever works for them.   This exercise has two very specific rules:  the first is not is not allowed, and the second rule is to be very specific.  Nots are like a challenge to the Universe; for instance, if you were to say, “I can’t wait for…” then the Universe says, “Oh yes you can wait and wait and wait.”  If you wish for anything with a not attached to it, you will get what you do not want.  It falls in line with the adage that, “worry is praying for what you do not want.”

Here are some examples:

• Non-specific option:  I don’t want to be poor anymore.  I want to make more money.
• The Universe’s scenario:  After the bank calls and tells you are overdrawn, your boss calls you into her office to tell you that you have gotten a 1% raise.
• Powerful and Specific Words of Manifestation: I want to make $150,000 this year.

 

• Non-specific option: I can’t wait to get my new car.
• The Universe’s scenario:  “I am so sorry Mrs. Jones, but your credit score is too low for a new car loan,” the loan officer will say, “You will have to wait until your credit changes.”
• Powerful and Specific Words of Manifestation: This year I want a brand new, silver, Mercedes coupe.

 

• Non-specific option:  I don’t want to live here anymore.
• The Universe’s scenario:  The property owner calls, “We are selling the property and unfortunately you will have to vacate buy the end of next month.”
• Powerful and Specific Words of Manifestation: I want one of those houses over on Sycamore Street, with a blue door and the hydrangeas in the front yard.  2000 square feet, turn-key, and ready for all my things.

• Non-specific option:  I want to travel.
• The Universe’s scenario:  Your boss tells you, you will be traveling more this year to Ohio for conferences every other week.
• Powerful and Specific Words of Manifestation: I want to go to Ireland for two weeks this year, and next year I would like to go to Italy for a ten-day tour.

 

• Non-specific option:  I don’t want a man with a beard and no job.
• The Universe’s scenario:  Every man you meet is unemployed and has a beard.
• Powerful and Specific Words of Manifestation:  I want a clean-shaven man who makes $95,000 per year.

You get the idea, right. Be specific, remove the nots, and ask for what you really want.  Once you have put your dreams out there act as if they have already happened.  Feel yourself in that new house, that new car, at your perfect weight, with your Mr. or Mrs. Right.

Remember that even your little posts on Facebook, Twitter, and passing thoughts when you see that street you want to live on will all influence what you ultimately get.  Stay positive, and when you find yourself thinking I will never get it, stop and say, “NO!” to that stinking-thinking.  If you find this to be difficult, get yourself a Talisman, a touchstone, a piece of jewelry, or a best-friend to remind you to be mindful.  Amida oil can be the oil used during your prayer and your reminder.

The last action in manifestation is GRATITUDE.  Be thankful for everything you have received and everything you are asking for.  Remember to say, “thank you!” to everyone for everything.  If someone took care of those documents for you and sent them over right away, remember to thank them.  If someone holds the door for you, thank him or her.  If you get that raise you were manifesting tell the Universe, “THANK YOU!”  Big or small gratitude propagates abundance.

Think it, pray it, wish it, become it, trust, be grateful, and the world is yours.

 

9/11 Tribute

I have hesitated to write this but so many are sharing…  10 years ago today I had been married one month to a 1st Lieutenant in the Air Force.  I had decided long before never to get involved with a military man, I was never going to get married again, and I was staying on my mountain… I was now married to a military man, and I was in a base town, not a hill, much less a mountain in site.  My how one should never say never…

That morning, I remember sitting on the coffee table, with the phone pressed to my ear, and my jaw to the floor, staring at the television.  At first, we all thought it was some horrible accident, then the second plane hit and we knew…  I suddenly realized that my life was never going to be the same.  Even though, luckily, I knew no one who was killed by the tragic events, my life was going to change.  For the first time in my life the television was on all day, unless I went out or to bed, for three days it was like that. I remember every time I saw 9/11 cross the screen how ironic it was that 9/11 was our nationwide emergency call number…I still wonder if bin Laden did that on purpose.  I remember the flags rising all over the place, on people’s garages, on their cars, and across the nation, we stood up TOGETHER.

I got a crash course in being a military wife; I spent the next months alone in a foreign land on US soil.  My husband was on foreign soil in Saudi Arabia, far from me and close to the fighting.  In those first months of my new marriage, I spent the first set of major holidays talking to my husband via email and telephone when permitted.  I never once forgot how wonderful it was to have the internet, and be able to communicate with him daily, which the majority of my military spousal predecessors had snail mail and it could be weeks from the date written that they read their loved one’s words.

In those days, weeks, and months after 9/11, I learned how to trust.  I learned how to put the worry in the back of my mind. I learned to stay busy. I learned to be there no matter what.  I learned that we as a nation can stand together under the same flag and set aside our differences in the face of tragedy….something I had never in my life seen before.

Today, I see that, that feeling has waned for many people; they have gone on with their lives back to the way it was.   They have forgotten that sense of connectedness that we all experienced as we raised our Red, White and Blue.  They have forgotten with all the trouble over recessions, foreclosures, bankruptcies, healthcare wars, and political rivalries in D.C. that for a brief moment, we all stood up and we all wanted the same thing.  It is too bad, that we cannot solve these little trivial problems, I say they are little because they are nothing compared to all the lives lost.  In Afghanistan, we have lost 2,691 people, and in Iraq we have lost 4,792 people, the vast majority were between the ages of 18 and 35.  (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/index.html)

We are still fighting, we are still dying, and we are still at war, at home and abroad.  We need to band together again as we did ten years ago, and fix our stupid problems, and bring our men and women home to their families.  We need to be ONE NATION UNDER GOD again.

Today, my husband is about to become a Major in the Air Force and I could not be more proud to be his wife and to have walked with him through his journey of service.  Fortunately, for us because of amazing circumstances and job positions he has been by my side through this journey as well.  Remember the next time you shake the hand of a firefighter, a police officer, a medical professional, or a military soldier, that you are shaking the hand of someone who would lay down their life for you so that you have all that you have.  It was not until this last decade that I came to understand why it is so important and so vital that we acknowledge these people.  Now I do and I get to thank him every day.

Let us go into this next decade with gratitude and strength of togetherness again so that we can continue to heal this beautiful nation.

Dirt!

Dirt!

Think on this for a moment:

You drive to the mailbox and you pick up the mail,

You use petroleum, minerals, and dirt to get there.

You bring the mail home, flip through a catalog and let us say you place an order for a t-shirt,

You use more petroleum, some electricity, paper/trees, and some money.

Then you go back to the mailbox when your t-shirt arrives which has used a tree for the box, some petroleum and minerals for the truck, train or plane, and then you drive back home.

You open the box and you have a lovely bit of a cotton t-shirt, then you have another catalog and some paperwork using up some more trees.

You wash your new cotton t-shirt, in some petroleum-based detergent, using some water and some electricity, then you drive to the store using some petroleum and some minerals and some more dirt.

While at the store you buy some cereal and milk, now you have in your possession two of the leading monocrops in the world, cotton and wheat/soy.  In addition, the cereal box is made of paper that is stolen from the trees. And the milk comes from cows who live in pens and stand in their own climate altering waste being fed corn (another monocrop) and antibiotics.

Then, you go back home with your goodies using some more petroleum, minerals, water, and some more dirt.  All these products are made with industrial and agricultural processes that are KILLING the DIRT.  Killing the trees! Killing the farmers! Killing the dirt! Killing the planet! Thus Killing YOU!  At some point those Lucky Charms are not so lucky anymore.

Dirt is where came from, if we take care of the dirt, the dirt will take care of us. We need to move back into the old ways of agriculture, we need to stop tearing down trees for catalogs, that end up in the trash, we need to stop growing mass GMO crops without rotating crops, and we need to do it now, we can modernize ancient farming practices.

Watch and Learn:  Dirt! The Movie

http://www.dirtthemovie.org/

 

A Journey of Eliminations to Illuminations

As a child with a single dad, we ate poorly…junk food, fast food, and convenience store foods.  Basically, I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted with little control over how much whole foods I was eating.  Whatever dad was eating I was eating.  When he went on a diet—I went with him, when he binged on root beer floats—I was right there beside him, when he ate salads and home cooked meals—I did too.  When I began living with my mom (a naturopath), my eating habits started to get a little better.  We still ate out a lot because she was a busy hardworking single mom.   In high school, breakfast was chocolate covered doughnuts and Gatorade, lunch was an egg salad sandwich and Dr. Pepper from the convenience store, and dinner was something I could afford at any given fast food restaurant with the largest Dr. Pepper they could sell me.  When I thought I needed to diet, I drank Slim Fast for a couple of weeks.  You get the idea here right…I was a junk food, fast food, and soda junkie.

As I matured into my 20’s I still ate out all the time, unless my best friend had extra for me, which was often.  So fortunately, I started eating a little more home cooking.  When I got married I started cooking more, eating out a little less, and then our lives got crazy busy and I rarely cooked, we ate out at least half of our meals a day.  Then my thirties came, my hormones took a dive, and my digestive system went with it.  I started cooking my own meals because I could barely eat anything.

My first elimination/cleanse diet was the rice and fruit diet.  It was easy to do living twenty miles from town and alone on the ranch.  I would cook a huge pot of brown rice, and heat up a portion with berries or bananas, butter, and maple syrup.  Alternatively, if I wanted to eat something spicy I would heat it with butter, cubes of cheese, and an all seasoning.  I ate like this for two months, having lunch in town when I went to town at a favorite healthy café.  I do not remember losing weight, which was not my goal, and I took supplements to make up for lost nutrients.

The pros:

1. Easy
2. Cleansing
3. It felt good; I would definitely do it again.

The cons:

1. Boring
2. Not good for long term

My second elimination ‘diet’ was Atkins Diet, in my late twenties I went from working on a ranch and clocking 13,000 steps a day to 500 steps a day (on my pedometer).  I went from eating one very healthy meal a day at one of my favorite cafes in town and snacks on the ranch in the evenings to cooking for a very skinny man who ate a lot—there I was again eating to match his every bite—root beer floats included…sound familiar?  While he was in Saudi Arabia just after 9/11, I took the opportunity to empty out the cabinets and jump on the no-carbs-allowed-band-wagon.  I lost the twenty pounds I had gained from living in a very sedentary and calorie loaded new marriage.  I stayed on Atkins for two years, even though; I never really lost much weight after the first two months.

The pros:

1. Good for my hypoglycemia, which thanks to Atkins I no longer have
2. Lost weight
3. Smaller grocery bill
4. Easy

The Cons:

1. I missed cheesecake, and rice
2. My husband and I both missed eating grains
3. Eliminating an important food group for the long-term was not healthy

My third elimination diet came around my thirtieth birthday.  I had been taking the pill to regulate my cycle when my hormones went haywire.  My mind and my digestive system took the worst of it.  I became agoraphobic and did not leave the house except for ten or fifteen minute trips for almost six months.  My distressed digestive system could handle very little past cheese and crackers. Getting well became my number one priority.  I decided only the best cleanest food would enter my body…no more eating out, period.  I started buying 80% organic foods, and that turned into nearly 100% before long.    For two years, I ate an English muffin and a cheese omelet for breakfast, a protein bar for lunch, and a bowl of cottage cheese, some crackers and an Asian pear for dinner…that was basically it.  I gradually started adding more foods.  A year after all this began I was hit with five parasites at one time, they must of saw me as an easy target.  Then the battle began all over again.  It took me six months to eradicate all the little beasts.

There was one major pro to this elimination diet: I took control of what I put in my body for the first time in my life in a monumental way.

The Cons:

1. No more easy meals out
2. My already skinny husband lost weight
3. I lost my ability to eat anything and everything.
4. My social life has been greatly impacted, no dinners and barbeques anymore.
5. Today I eat no garlic and onions because of allergies,
6. I rarely eat out except for sushi and occasionally for travel,
7. Travel has become difficult  feeding myself on the road is no fun

I just recently went gluten-free for a trial therapy for my thyroid.  I am glad to say I do not have a gluten allergy so at least I can eat bread again.  I feel for those people who are gluten intolerant, there are some very unsatisfactory gluten-free foods out there.

I have always loved food, savory, ethnic, exotic, traditional, comfort, junk, gourmet, etc. I would try anything at least once, and even though I was a picky eater, I loved all kinds of foods.  Where I am today is not ideal but I am working on it.  Right now, I am trying to add foods back into my diet, which is strange coming from where I started.  At least now, I have become an educated illuminated eater, and I want only the best for my system.

(I wrote this paper for school on elimination diets.)