I am continuing my work on feeling joyful this week. Recently, I’ve been presented with a number of patients who have symptoms but no diagnosis. I see it so often. They are people who have chronic pain, chronic headaches or chronic skin problems and they have been to numerous Dr.’s but the Dr.’s continue to say, we can’t find anything, there’s nothing wrong. The minute that a patient reveals to me that their “disease” has no diagnosis, no name….I know that it is a physical manifestation of an internal struggle of the spirit. When we are carrying around deep sadness, raging anger, intense fear or any other damaging emotion that we cannot find healing for, our bodies will begin to show signs of this internal, emotional struggle in or on our physical body. Chronic hives and chronic headaches are two of the most common that I see.
Caroline Myss wrote a beautiful book about this called The Anatomy of the Spirit, I may have mentioned it before. It addresses the disease of the spirit that can cause physical illness. It was one of the books that started my life transformation, nearly 20 years ago and it has taken me many years to get through it all and get to where I am, health wise, today.
One of the best things that you can do for your spirit is to be GRATEFUL. Some people might even wonder why I constantly blog about my grateful lists, why do I put them on a blog about healing and being accountable for your own health? The reason is that I think being grateful and harping on being grateful everyday is one of the top three ways to keep your physical body healthy, by way of a healthy spirit.
I missed my gratituesday post this week, I’m crazed with holiday business, but I can feel that I need it, so it’s a Thursday gratitude list! Here are the 10 things that I’m grateful for today and this week. Make some time in this holiday rush to make your gratitude list, daily if you can, but at the least weekly! Here’s mine, enjoy!!
1. New Books, new ideas….I love it when new ideas, often found in a new book, come my way! I just ordered a new book and it’s like Christmas Morning waiting for it! Yes, I do still buy paper books and I love them, I’m not a downloader….I love the smell and feel of books….here’s what I ordered and what I will be reading over the holidays.
The Power of Awareness – I was listening to a Wayne Dyer interview on Monday night and I heard him talking about Neville Goddard, I really love to know where my teachers learned their expertise. Neville Goddard was one of the first Doctors of Metaphysics, he is one of the guru’s of the power of the mind and I am so excited to read his book!
2. Organic Raw Chocolate – I am staying very motivated on my vegan diet! Since I did the cleanse last week, I’m still going, with a few exceptions….I have had some wine and some cheese and I also ate fish two nights in a row, but the cleanse did get me on a low, almost no, sugar kick AND I’m eating a lot more veggies than normal. I LOVE chocolate and I don’t feel guilty when I eat raw chocolate, it’s not sugar loaded and it has no animal product added ( most chocolate bars have butter and milk added). So, this is my guilty pleasure and it keeps me going on my healthy path!
3.The Virgin Diet – A patient of mine brought this book in for me to look at. I am impressed! It’s all about the 7 foods that will most often cause a reaction in our bodies and how to cut them out and then slowly add them back in to check for reactions. It’s a great resource for healthy eating and I’m looking forward to trying the 21 days of eliminating those 7 foods! There are 3 foods on the list that I know I eat too much of….corn, sugar and peanuts, so hopefully this will motivate me to cut those out.
4.My new night time routine! I have been in a rut with night time for about 3 years now. After my husband moved out, I felt so lonely and I dreaded the night time. So, I began to cope with drinking wine, eating junk, talking on the phone. The truth is that as a single Mom, my days are CRAZY and the nights are even crazier. It’s total chaos for me. I’m running here and there and I’m working and we’re getting homework done and working on laundry and making dinner and giving baths – TOTAL CHAOS. So, when they go to bed, it’s like party time! I haven’t had a moment to myself ALL DAY and suddenly, I’m alone, uncomfortable in my own skin, a little lonely and sad but also restless and anxious to do the things that I’ve wanted to do FOR ME , all day. I’ve developed some bad habits and I decided to develop a night time routine of good habits instead, it starts when the girls go to bed. It doesn’t include chips or ice cream or wine or the kardashians on TV. It does include reading, meditation, writing, taking a bath, listening to relaxing music and it’s awesome. If you don’t have a healthy night time routine, start one today! I think that very soon, I might even start sleeping better!
5. doTerra!!!! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS! Check out Calm’s newest venture. As I’ve mentioned before, I am obsessed with Essential Oils and I use them for everything, cleaning my house, perfume, you name it. I believe that what you put ON your body is as important as what you put IN it. I have fallen in love with this company over the course of the past year and I am now going to have a retail set up in my clinic so that my patients can buy and enjoy the oils but also so that I can use them during treatments and utilize the healing powers of the scents…I attached the link to my doterra website, you can check it out! Great Christmas gift ideas by the way and you still have time to order. Let me know what you think!
6.My ability to be ALONE. I am so grateful for my ability to be ALONE. I’m not afraid of it, in fact, I actually enjoy it. I’m learning to embrace it as I think it’s a theme in my life’s journey and I’m being presented with it as a challenge and a lesson to learn.
7.Stephan Sondheim, oh my gosh, I am so grateful for this amazing talent! This past week, I decided that I was in need of some serious singing and I thought I’d get out some of my favorite Musical Theater stuff from the old days and sing….and that I did….but I found myself gravitating towards Company, A Little Night Music, Sweeny Todd and Into the Woods and I was reminded of just how fantastically amazing Stephan Sondheim IS…..he is truly one of a kind.
8.Having Tuesday nights off – my Tuesdays nights have a point of contention in my life now for over 2 years. It’s one of the busiest nights at my clinic and one of the nights when I make a good percentage of my revenue for the week. However, my kids are home on Tuesday nights and they need me, I have had my Mom watching them on Tuesdays for over two years and when she can’t be there, I’ve had the occasional babysitter. The thing is, the girls are needing me at night time more and more as they get older. I thought that would be the opposite, but with homework and projects and a need to be consistent and organized, they NEED me. I recently went to an amazing workshop with other acupunks and everyone agreed that I should just do it, let someone else work my Tuesday night, open up the clinic on Tuesday mornings for me to work and it will not only work out but it will be better than ever because it’s what I need. So, I did it, 3 weeks ago. My amazing colleague, Nona, is now working my Tuesday nights, and I am home with my girls! There has already been intense shifting in my life, Skyler’s grades and accountability in school are already changing and improving, and my life is already better for it. GRATEFUL!!
9.Podcasts, you tube videos and guided meditations! I started to get into podcasts when I had to make the commute to Tampa a couple days a week and now I am so grateful for them! No matter where I am or what I need, I can find a podcast to keep me motivated and in the moment. Sometimes I listen to different nutritionists who are encouraging me to stay vegan, I listen to podcasts about sobriety because I am forever and always will be the ex wife of an alcoholic, and I have 3 children who have a profound family history of alcoholism, and I need to stay up on my knowledge , I listen to guided meditations when I need another voice to help me focus during a stressful moment and the list goes on and on. It’s awesome, I have an app on my phone called podbay and it’s wonderful. I now feel like I couldn’t live without this!!
10. Santa and the TRUTH about Santa OMG, read that letter! Just click on it and read it. Sometimes, at this stage of parenting, I feel like I’m lying about Santa and our Elf on the shelf, and then, I tell my kids not to lie. Then I read this letter and I know that by creating Christmas magic in my home every year, I am creating something much bigger than me.
Try to keep your stress levels low this holiday season, come in for acupuncture anytime to help slow your heart rate and keep you relaxed. Then, before bed, sit down and make your grateful list and remember that we are all blessed just to have the chance to experience this life and all the joys it can bring!