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Friday, February 26, 2010

Beet Recipe for today...


I went to the Downtown Phoenix Farmer's Market and purchased a beautiful bunch of beets along with some ginger infused honey and came up with the following recipe:

~Take the beets remove the tops and peel the outside tough layer off like peeling a potato...
~Next after washing the beets cut them into bite size pieces and place in about 1 1/2 cups of fresh water...
~Then add a tsp. of Sea Salt, 2 tsp.s of Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 Tablespoons of the ginger infused honey...
~Simmer the beets until tender, I have let the beets cook down until I could mash them and the juice is slightly thickened, about 3-4 hours...

The beets are delicious and can be served hot with butter, or cold as a side dish!
Written by Dawn, Wellness Educator

Integrated Healing


Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
~Albert Einstein~

What is anything for?


A lesson in A Course In Miracles states, “I have given everything I see in this room…all the meaning that it has for me.” Without a frame of reference how would we know what something means, without a past or history how can we understand at all? A chair sitting on the floor can only have the meaning I give to it based on a shared history with the chair, otherwise I would have no way of knowing what it is. Meaning is not limited to the chair, my body or my relationships there is my self worth and my life as other examples of what I give meaning to.

A long moment spent just asking myself what meaning I give to my body all of the sudden has opened up a whole new insight of how I have attached other peoples words and ideas to my own self. The views of the media and comments about woman with similar body shapes for example, have swayed the meaning I gave to my own body, so how many of the thoughts and meanings that I have about my body are actually from my true self, and how many do not belong to me?

Following suit as I apply this perspective to many more aspects of my personal life or how I view a race of people or religious group, I can begin to see where my true knowing is in some ways smothered from the belief I convinced myself to have. Real true self-acknowledgement comes from within and has nothing to do with judgment and interpretation; Knowing is sure and founded on truth!


“If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It's very important to be aware of them every time they come up.” ~Deepak Chopra~


Photos courtesy of photobucket

Resources :

A Course In Miracles

Deepak Chopra

Friday, February 19, 2010

What If...


Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace. ~Buddha~

Like the Butterfly Effect the simple idea of what if can alter or change a person’s direction in life...

Butterfly effect: "the phenomenon whereby a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere"

Philosophyforum.com

“The power of thoughts to change Reality is backed up by the science of physics. Do we say, “Ok, great, very interesting but who cares?” or do we scrutinize our thoughts to create a kinder more abundant existence? What if we made a collective effort to send more loving, kind and compassionate thoughts out into the ether? What if instead of gawking at some tragedy on the news we spent time sending out thoughts of love and compassion? At first it might be something we have to discipline our self to do, but if we stay with it, the habit will become second nature. “

Pete Latona The National Ledger


Sit quietly and think about your naked body, or your occupation, how do you feel, what are you creating for yourself? Does it take everything you have inside to make yourself get up every morning and go to work? Is looking in the mirror just not an option? We all have desires to make life better, we tell ourselves as soon as we get the promotion, lose the weight or win the lottery then everything will be perfect. The thing is how we feel right now this moment shows us what we are creating for ourselves in the long run. What if we made a conscious decision to pay attention to our thoughts, words and reactions throughout the day? It's amazing to really listen and hear what your saying to and about ourselves all day long...

What if we start shifting our perception of feeling good about ourselves in small increments, the gap between unhappiness and joy can appear as large as a canyon unless the shift takes place one little step at a time. As action oriented beings we think in order to achieve a goal we must take some sort of action to get to the finish line, but really a subtle shift in perception with each opportunity begins to train the mind to perceive from a positive level. We do

not start out in this world with a negative outlook on life, we inherit beliefs, and beliefs are altered and changed the longer we live. Beliefs generally are gathered without much conscious choice, it is never to late to purposely streamline our beliefs to suit our desires. Our determination to continue worn out beliefs takes away from the Universe. There is a responsibility of us as individuals to attend to happiness and well being, in order to affect the whole.

Determinism: "the philosophical proposition that every event, including human cognition and behavior, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences"

Philosophyforum.com


A Pebble By James W. Foley

Drop a pebble in the water: just a splash, and it is gone;

But there's half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on and on,

Spreading, spreading from the center, flowing on out to the sea.

And there is no way of telling where the end is going to be.

Drop a pebble in the water: in a minute you forget,

But there's little waves a-flowing, and there's ripples circling yet,

And those little waves a-flowing to a great big wave have grown;

You've disturbed a mighty river just by dropping in a stone.

Drop an unkind word, or careless: in a minute it is gone;

But there's half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on and on.

They keep spreading, spreading, spreading from the center as they go,

And there is no way to stop them, once you've started them to flow.

Drop an unkind word, or careless: in a minute you forget;

But there's little waves a-flowing, and there's ripples circling yet,

And perhaps in some sad heart a mighty wave of tears you've stirred,

And disturbed a life was happy ere you dropped that unkind word.

Drop a word of cheer and kindness: just a flash and it is gone;

But there's half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on and on,

Bearing hope and joy and comfort on each splashing, dashing wave

Till you wouldn't believe the volume of the one kind word you gave.

Drop a word of cheer and kindness: in a minute you forget;

But there's gladness still a-swelling, and there's joy circling yet,

And you've rolled a wave of comfort whose sweet music can be heard

Over miles and miles of water just by dropping one kind word.




Thursday, February 18, 2010


No matter the outcome of the current state of our healthcare system, we as individuals must take control of our own health and wellness. Educating ourselves about nutrition is a great place to begin. What we eat and drink is taken for granted and at the same time is one of the most important decisions we make everyday. Can you imagine the possibilities of sound nutrition a healthy state of mind

and body to cope with life, as we know it? Healthcare is essentially disease care; insurance patiently waits around for us to be ill. In the meantime taking an active educated step in the direction of wellness creates a foundation to grow a healthy garden in.

Health is a complete package we cannot make our bodies well or lose weight without addressing the whole picture. When I think of just losing weight, I can diet, starve myself and live with deprivation long enough to get temporary results, but as soon as I relax and let up the weight comes back. This is a current state of dieting for most of us, we call it yoyo dieting. This is how most people exist trying to keep a figure, it is hard work and a lot of sacrifice. Do you think that this is how it is supposed to be? Do you think that sacrifice and angst should be a part of keeping a healthy thin body? How can having results to make us happy come from

something that makes us so unhappy? Dieting and exercising makes no sense without loving and caring for yourself and your state of being.

When we are desiring to see a different image in the mirror it is because we can't see the beauty inside ourselves, our eyes see the whole being not just the skin and clothing. Our eyes do not lie, if we can't stand ourselves and feel we must change on the outer such as dieting and plastic surgery, then we have an indicator, a red flag from the inner telling us to take an inventory of how we feel about ourselves. Look at the following definition of diet where does it include anything about a Holistic approach to mind body and soul wellness:

di·et 1 (dt)
n.
1. The usual food and drink of a person or animal.
2. A regulated selection of foods, as for medical reasons or cosmetic weight loss.
3. Something used, enjoyed, or provided regularly: subsisted on a diet of detective novels during his vacation.
adj.
1. Of or relating to a food regimen designed to promote weight loss in a person or an animal: the diet industry.
2.
a. Having fewer calories.
b. Sweetened with a noncaloric sugar substitute.
3. Designed to reduce or suppress the appetite: diet pills; diet drugs.

v. di·et·ed, di·et·ing, di·ets
v.intr.
To eat and drink according to a regulated system, especially so as to lose weight or control a medical condition.
v.tr.

To regulate or prescribe food and drink for. (Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary)

A diet does not lead to wellness, a diet is at best a tool in the process of body wellness.

There is a reason we get ourselves to the point that we feel the need to make a change, for some of us a crisis is the push necessary to finally pay attention. Why do we humans make our true wellness the last resort, why do we not understand that in order for us to be any good for ourselves or anyone else we must be happy and healthy. How can a person be of service to another when there is cause to hide the truth, it just doesn't make sense to me. The body has all kinds of signals to show us what is going on in our thoughts and feelings. We have pain, weight gain, sickness and disease to show us what to do to right ourselves on our path. We can wait for the flags to be battered in the wind such as a terminal disease or we can heed the message when a strange ailment or pain crops up. It is truly up to us to listen to and use our body as our barometer on how we feel about ourselves and our lives.

It has taken me 44 years to begin to understand how quieting my mind when I don't feel good or I don't feel I look good, can help me start to make a change. Life is a journey but can also be looked at as a process, during the process is the understanding and awareness of how to live. We are beings who are being human, we have bodies to maintain, and our bodies do not control us, our bodies respond to us. We are not victims, what we suffer from is an accumulation of emotions run riot in some or most cases. Checking your emotions and your triggered memories from the past to address an ailment in the body is a good way to lead yourself through your wellness quest. We all truly want to feel good and be happy, we just have to recognize where the real source is located. Searching outside ourselves will keep us lost and wandering off our path forever. We can Be, Do and Have anything we want we just have to be true and real with ourselves, wouldn't it be nice if that was our school curriculum and what our parents taught us from the cradle?

Celestial Dawn, Wellness Educator~

Juice Plus Wellness

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Me...



THEN WINKS – by HAFIZ


Everything is clapping today,


Light,

Sound,

Motion,

All movement.



A rabbit I pass pulls a cymbal

From a hidden pocket

Then winks.



This causes a few planets and I

To go nuts

And start grabbing each other.



Someone sees this,

Calls a

Shrink,



Tries to get me

Committed

For

Being too

Happy.



Listen: this world is the lunatic’s sphere,

Don’t always agree it’s real,



Even with my feet upon it

And the postman knowing my door


My address is somewhere else.

This Poem says so much; living on this planet can most certainly bewilder me, fitting in is just not the case, so then I am making my own way...


~ Dawn~
Wellness Educator and Spiritual Housekeeper

Send me a note via my website~