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Nourishing Your Mind

In this video, I describe making a dream board and creating your affirmations. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the blog to pause the music.

My Story

Welcome to my Live Well Coaching Blog! I’m so glad you stopped by for a visit J. Is it okay with you if I tell you a little about myself?............ Thanks! Just before Christmas in 2005, my world came crashing down on me with the unexpected passing of our little 5 year old daughter. I was not prepared to lose our spunky, little angel.

We were blessed with so much love and comfort, and I hung on and tried to be as strong as possible for as long as I could. Yet, after a couple of years my body, mind and spirit just broke down. I became clinically depressed, and the reasons for my illness were very complicated.Suffice it to say that I was in a black hole and didn't know how to get out. Luckily, I got the help that I needed to make a full recovery, but it has been quite the healing journey. With every difficult challenge, there is always a silver lining. My silver lining is that we now have two beautiful daughters added to our family – Isabella Rose and Gabriella Grace. I gave birth to Isabella in 2007, and we adopted Gabriella from an orphanage in China in the spring of 2011.

The other bright spot in my story is that I've become passionate about healing, health, wholeness, living with purpose, and creating the life that we were meant to live. I was given another chance and feel so incredibly grateful for that. What I’ve learned over the past few years is invaluable to me, and I knew that I couldn’t just keep it to myself! So I have put together a 6 week Breakthrough Mentoring Program that will just scratch the surface of what I’ve spent thousands of hours learning, studying and putting into practice. I’m going to share this with as many people as possible. Would you like to join me? Just click on "Mentoring Details" tab!

Nourishing the Body

I'd like to share a few steps that I've taken this week. There is no way that I would ask you to do anything that I am not already implementing myself. My goal is to really transform the way I eat and feed my family. Over the years, I haven't been the best example of healthy eating, and I know that I always want to be healthy and vibrant and share that message with my family and others. I have revamped my menus using all low-glycemic meals. I have 4 weeks of menus planned and then make a grocery list for each week (I'll be sharing these ideas with you next week during our systems and structure week), to really simplify my life.

I use one day per week to prepare my meals in advance so they take just minutes putting them together (this system is explained in the Low-Glycemic Meals in Minutes book). Mondays are my days for cleaning, laundry and meal preparation. I cut up (actually use my salad shooter) my veggies and cook my meats and put items in baggies. I can then put together healthy and delicious meals together in minutes for dinner time.

I am a coach with Trinity Health and use Dr. Ray Strand's book Healthy for Life to implement a 12 week Healthy for Life - Gourmet Cooking Club. I'm going to be doing this in my home weekly as well as an on-line group. I am practicing on my own family right now. We watched the first DVD on Monday night that outlines the health crisis in our country today with so many people becoming pre-diabetic. If you didn't order Dr. Strand's book, Healthy For Life, I highly recommend it. It is a tremendous resource to make healthy choices for yourself and for your family. My kids actually are very receptive and even enthusiastic about what we are doing. They are making healthier choices as they prepare their lunches and are also drinking nutritious and yummy smoothies. I made a low-glycemic dessert that everyone really liked - Ricotta Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce.

I've included a link with 30 delicious smoothie recipes. I tried the strawberry lemonade smoothie for breakfast this morning and it was very tasty. My 3 year old, Bella, loved it. You can just print off the recipes and keep them for reference.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/net-at-hand/sites/5876/files/1605/smoothie_instructions_and_recipes.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=1J0F6EHGH8MG0EDN1KG2&Expires=1300944901&Signature=JtInJju%2Bac0DaaAumG%2Fcj8ibjt4%3D

Nourishing the Heart - Continued

I just wanted to share a few thoughts with you on Nourishing the Heart. One of my favorite books on this subject is Love for No Reason - 7 Steps to Creating a Life of Unconditional Love by Marci Shimoff. I'd like to share a few thoughts from this book.

Compassion or unconditional love is an inner state of love. When we love and accept ourselves completely, old patterns of beating ourselves up, criticizing or condemning ourselves actually dissolve. When we have that inner state of love, we no longer need to look outside ourselves to get love. Marci describes this as going from a love beggar to a love philanthropist - dispensing love, kindness, and goodwill wherever you go.

In the field of energy, love is one of the highest vibrations. If we master love, we've got happiness by the tail, and the power to transform our inner world as well as outer world. There's strong scientific evidence that when we raise our own level of love, we radiate that to positively affect our families, communities and ultimately, the planet.

When love flows in our lives, it opens our hearts, our arms and eyes. We blossom like a flower in the sun. When love is missing, we wither and close, protecting ourselves from the harshness of life.

Love isn't just something we feel for others, it's who we are.

Our ultimate purpose is to grow in our ability to give and receive love. Everything that happens to us can actually help us expand our ability to love. It's easy to love things that are easy to love or charming and attractive. The real challenge is to experience love in difficult situations with people we may not even like. To maintain that open heart requires a commitment to love as the number one priority in our lives.

We may be used to figuratively wrapping our hearts with bandages to protect our hearts because we have been hurt. When we do this, we actually are closing our heart to love. It takes courage to take off those bandages to be open and vulnerable. The more open we keep our hearts, the healthier, happier and more loving we are.

Good luck this week to opening your hearts, becoming vulnerable, forgiving ourselves and others and sharing that love. When we share love, it comes back to us multiplied!

Nourishing the Heart

Focus on compassion and unconditional love! Be sure to pause the playlist below before you begin the video.