If you’re being true to yourself, at least a few people will judge, question, or dislike you. No one can please the whole world all at once while honoring their own needs and truths.

Today if you feel the need to people-please, ask yourself, what’s more important: knowing you’ve done your best to make everyone like you, or knowing you’re strong enough to stay true to who you are?….

 SOURCE:  Live Laugh Love

The only way I’ve learned to overcome the things I am afraid of is to first admit that I am afraid and then decide that I am going to do something to get through that feeling. We are all afraid, but we must still try. We must still take chances and put ourselves out there. There is so much beauty and joy beyond what we fear. I aim to reach the other side. I am afraid, and yet I am determined to not let my fears control me….

 SOURCE:  Live Laugh Love

Free Your Mind and Think

You call me beautiful, but thats not what I see?
A trapped soul in this unwanted body
I look at others, why cant I be like them?
With joy in my heart so I can smile freely
I’m never grateful of my health, or well being
but when I get sick than all of sudden I’m worried?
Why cant I just step on these unnecessary needs?
Why cant I take out of my brain medias seeds?
A negative self image of myself I see everyday
Due to media calling things beautiful in a certain way
I shouldn’t blame others, because its a sickness within
How can I cherrish myself and get rid of this sin.

By: Tahmina Nazary

Just want to let some females out there know you are beautiful never change yourself or be something your not to fit in or for a guy to like you. Because its not always about the looks as I have said it before and I’ll say it again looks fade away but inner beauty always glows. Stay strong, respect and love yourself. ~Tahmina Nazary

SOURCE : Free Your Mind and Think

On the other hand, when you feel undeserving and run around like a chicken with its head cut off…Always putting others’ needs ahead of your own, (i.e., are SELFISH to YOURSELF),the universe reflects that back to you…often in the form of rude, obnoxious people…who treat you like crap.

So, remember the adage, “What you put out, is what you get back”? Well, your are a microcosm of the universe. How you treat yourself is what is reflected back FIRST.  So remember, you deserve. Your needs count. You MUST take care of yourself first.

Otherwise, you have nothing to give and the universe reflects ‘nothing’ coming back to you… And that’s not only not fun, it’s a waste of your precious light and love.

It’s like they say when the airplane takes off…”Place the oxygen mask on yourself first, and then take care of those who depend on you…”

Here’s to you taking flight! You deserve to soar!

To your Delight,

Your Inner Light
Delivered to you by Mikaela Jones

Read Mikaela’s Column in the Fall Issue of A Distinctive Style Magazine

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FREE GIFT: I’ll give you a free Little Book of Light:111 Ways to Bring Light Into Your Life when you purchase three copies. That works out to 4 books for $33, or just over $8/copy. And with FREE shipping on orders of 3 or more, you would be hard pressed to find a more affordable and transformational gift for friends and loved ones. What better way to give delight than free! While copies last. Click here to learn more. Click here to go straight to the Store of Delight!

www.duoartanddesign.com

At the last therapy session, after describing my life as comparable to the book and movie “Running with Scissors” my therapist asked me how I coped through it all. I have always had an answer for everything but for once I was stumped.

I told her, “I’ll have to think about that and get back to you…I’m really not sure.” So I thought, and thought and thought and analysed, researched for the magic ingredient that made all the chaos of my life (childhood trauma, rape, forced marriage, forced abortion, spousal abuse, losing a home to foreclosure, financial devastation, a spouse who checked out mentally from our life) palatable.

The question came again in this form: What do I possess within that helped me cope with so many devastatingly stressful situations… situations which would make “average people” curl up into a ball and never emerge into life again.

I discovered I have a strength, a solidness about my being that allows me to seek the lesson in the “chaos” with a goal: Learning and Growing…all for the purpose of making another life better through my lessons. I found that my focus had been fixed on that alone and it did one major thing for me…it didn’t allow me to delve into self pity or depression. Opening those two doors (pity and depression) would only allow the door to widen. I won’t (can’t) let that happen. I have too much to do…too many people to help.

My therapist described me as an “over functioner” — I thought some more about what she meant by that. I questioned whether it was a negative… and arrived at the conclusion that this “over functioner” has managed to stay positive by being that way – moved through the issues of life and come out of them unscathed and with a new relentless determination to rise in spite of the punches life has thrown my way.

So here I stand today: Daughter, Friend, Rape Survivor, Abuse Survivor, Mother, Grandmother, Philanthropist… and new mother (in my late years) and a student of Kick Boxing!

There’s absolutely nothing I can’t handle.

~SM

_________

If you or someone you know needs help visit this website for links.
www.aswaterspassingby.org/sexualabuse.html

So yesterday was such an emotionally taxing day for me, I just couldn’t get myself into that pure state of being to allow the message from my Higher Self to come through… At first I thought, I can recycle an ‘old’ one, but that didn’t feel right either. I realized then, that, I was doing you all a disservice in not sharing authentically what was going on with me. By sticking to this single format of ‘Message from my Higher Self,’ that I always sign, ‘Your Inner Light’ as I know all of our Higher Selves are connected, and from all the great replies I receive every week, I KNOW that the message that comes resonates for the Many… still, it didn’t feel right to do yesterday. Rather than writing the ‘Beam’ last night, I took it easy. Spent a lot of time working out my own emotional ‘stuff’, did some inner child work, listened to uplifting music, and meditated. I woke up this morning and it hit me like a ton of bricks, ‘Share your authentic self… your process. Your challenges of living your True Self and what you do to live your True Self most of the time.’

So I’m seriously considering of mixing this Weekly Beam of Light up a bit. What will this look like? Here’s what I’m thinking: Every Sunday or Monday, you will receive a message that will sometimes be on my authentic process, will sometimes be the traditional message received from my Higher Self (as I know many of you have been used to getting these uplifting nuggets for a couple years now), and sometimes may be a short 3-5 min. video I’ll do. You’ll receive an email from me once/week as I’m finding the 2x/ week thing a bit too much, lol!  But before I jump in and do that, I’d love to get your feedback on this idea. After all, I’m here to serve you. So hit reply if you like and share your thoughts if you feel strongly about it and I’ll take your feedback into definite consideration.

For now, I want to share a quick message about ‘magical thinking..  An acquaintance said to me the other day, that what I teach is ‘magical thinking’. I said Yes, it is. Then I said, How’s your magical thinking working for you? He said, I don’t engage in that kind of stuff. I said, Would you agree that what you tend to focus on, happens? The more you think of yourself as capable, the more you get done? The more you think of  yourself as unable to learn, the more projects you stop as soon as it gets challenging? He said, yes. But that’s not magical thinking. I said, magical thinking — choosing to look at ourselves in a way that we may not already see in its full fruition — empowers us, gives us the juice to move forward in becoming who we want to become, the expression of our True Selves… fulfilling our potential. While we may be only 50% capable, let’s say in the full potential of our expression of capability in an area we want to accomplish… focusing on that growing potential and expression opens us up to new ideas on how to be/do that. That is all Magical Thinking is.. Magical Thinking opens us up to new ideas, perceptions, and ways of being… The Truth is we all engage in Magical Thinking by our focus… the question is “How’s your Magical Thinking working for YOU?”

The beauty is that you can always change your focus if it’s not working for you. Yesterday I found myself saying to myself, “I thought I’d healed this! Why the heck is this coming up again… today? I can’t even write my Little Beam of Light!!” That Magical Thinking was making me feel bad and unempowered. So, I changed my Magical Thinking to “Okay God, I know this is happening for a reason, and I know there is a blessing to receive from this.”  One of the messages i received was to change this all up! Be 100% Authentic, that there would be value for this for people. So, that’s what I’m doing… and I’m excited about it.

Cheers to Magical Thinking!!

To your Delight,

Your Inner Light
Delivered to you by Mikaela Jones

See Mikaela’s column in the current edition of A Distinctive Style magazine

Here’s what I want you to remember: it’s all between you and YOU (aka your Higher Self)…or you and God. It doesn’t actually matter how anyone responds to you…EVER.

It’s as simple as this: Be KIND and COMPASSIONATE because that is your true essence. Be LOVING and FORGIVING because that is who you truly are. Be unashamed, tolerant, PROUD, and BRIGHT because this is indeed your nature. Be STRONG, COURAGEOUS, and CREATIVE in the expression of your light because you, yourSelf would not want anything less.

When in doubt, ask yourself, “Who AM I?” and BE that. Live that Light in your world. And if you feel shy, ask yourself, “Who do I want to BE?” and then ask for help from all the light in the world, and there can be only success and celebration.

There is GREAT POWER in this simple way of being and acting. If a mere 1% of the planet were to take on this practice, we would create a peaceful, sustainable planet with happy people living in harmony… instantaneously. Do you believe? Begin now… and let’s watch the MAGIC and BEAUTY of this new world begin.

Cheers to Magical Thinking!!

To your Delight,

Your Inner Light
Delivered to you by Mikaela Jones

See Mikaela’s column in the current edition of A Distinctive Style magazine

A holistic approach to healing is becoming better known as people increasingly take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. Some folks are disappointed by the limitations of surgery and medication or just weary of living in pain, either emotional, physical, or spiritual. I wouldn’t knock surgery and medication, as they can save lives, help us through intense pain or the surgeries themselves, and bring us out of acute trauma. But they are overused and abused when they are bandages for deeper issues. Then they become part of the problem.

Last week an acquaintance had knee surgery. I asked if she had seen any holistic practitioners before deciding on surgery. Yes, she had seen four doctors. I replied, “I mean holistic practitioners, an acupuncturist, any type of natural healer…” Her brow furrowed and she looked puzzled. I decided to write about it.

A couple of days later I was asked to write articles on holistic healing but not include “spiritualism” and instead stick with scientific studies. I declined the request, indicating that holistic healing includes an integrative approach to the wellness. That means the body, mind, emotions, spirit, subtle energies. It also means the heart is involved, something incongruent with modern science unless we are talking about the individual, fist-sized human heart. There are excellent scientific studies on the effectiveness of acupuncture, homeopathy, meditation and other holistic modalities, all of which deal with subtle energies and help you heal from the inside out, but it is important for people connect to their whole essence, which is not the focus of most scientific research.

Holistic healing means taking responsibility for your own wellbeing. It means you are aware that you are a wholly integrated being, not just a physical body with unrelated parts. One part of you cannot be separated from another. You are also a matrix of subtle energies that are not simple to prove through the scientific method, but are empirically validated through thousands of years of practice, testimonials, and first-hand reports.

Fortunately the mind-body connection is widely researched so we are aware that our physical symptoms cannot be separated from our thoughts and emotions. We already know that over 30% of us, on average, will feel better when we are told we are being given something that will make us feel better. Enter the power of the mind to affect change in the body.

In my own empirical studies, pain in the body, growths, discomforts of all kinds are associated with a combination of lifestyle issues, emotions, belief systems, and unconscious elements. I have also seen soul pain linked to disease. In other words, the truth, passion, and purpose of the soul has been neglected, avoided, or buried. This condition often emerges as a physical malady that begins subtly and grows until we can no longer avoid it. We often hear of people who change their lives entirely after a troubling illness. The illness itself becomes the wake up call to get back onto one’s unique, fulfilling life path.

So if we are holistic beings, meaning no part of us exists in isolation, then why do we treat our bodies, our painful knee for instance, as if it exists on its own, in isolation? Partly because doctors study the body in this fashion and treat us in the same model. Insurance companies pay for treatments that agree with this model. But also, on a personal level, as years pass by many of us begin to feel disconnected in some way. This comes from ignoring emotional signals, not maintaining the integrity of our minds, and shutting off the whispers of the soul. In many ways, I think our societal structures encourage these separation behaviors. But your physical self cannot be separated from your thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. This is why adopting a holistic perspective toward your own well-being is important. It helps us to view ourselves as whole, helps us get to the root cause of our ailments, and makes us aware of when we are being treated just as a “knee” or a “heart.”

We are integrated human beings keeping the balance within what we might consider to be our own unique orchestra. When all the instruments are in harmony, there is a symphony. When one element is off, the entire orchestra knows it and the experience is one of dissonance. Similarly, your body also knows when one element is off and it will send you clues to warn you. As soon as you hear the first clue, bring yourself back into balance. Ask what aspect of yourself is needing attention. The pain might be in your knee, but the cause might be in your shoulder, your mind, your emotional reactions, a lack of flow of subtle energies, or all of the above. This knowledge is where true healing is found.

Dr. Christina Grant is a holistic healer and spiritual counselor who works in person and by phone. She has helped hundreds of people attain well-being, greater insight, and peace in their lives. Her writing is published nationwide. She is co-author of Eight Minute Muse and is completing a book with a fresh perspective on women’s health. To learn more, see www.christinagrant.com.

The gas-drop arrived in a perfectly legal, professional-looking package: a white truck belonging to a pest extermination company accompanied by two men in uniform. The mission: rid recently purchased home of termites. The outcome: termites and their eggs dead, ground soil poisoned and no longer suitable for organic gardening, one dead cat. Trees, bushes, birds, butterflies, and helpful insects of all kinds were undependable, plus any person within the vicinity of the home was exposed. But exposed to what?

The gas is sulfuryl fluoride, otherwise known as Vikane. Introduced in 1957 as a neurotoxin guaranteed to leave anything dead, it has been touted as the only viable solution to saving one’s home from termite destruction. Around the mid-1950’s there were other chemicals introduced to Americans, too. They were designed to make life more convenient, and chemical companies richer. This all coincided with a major blight of our day – the rise in cancer rates, and of particular concern because of its correlation, breast cancer.

We are in a state of toxic overload, not only in our bodies, but our water, air, soil – the earth itself. It is a poisonous stew. As I watched the bizarre world of pest control from my kitchen window last week, I wondered why Vikane gas hasn’t been outlawed. We don’t hear much about the ailments it can cause ranging from mild respiratory problems to death. But its routine use continues for two reasons: our ignorance and corporate greed.

For many, and I suspect this is the case with people who agree to have a poisonous gas infiltrate their homes, ease and expense are factors. If you skim the surface and trust the sellers of the chemicals, you will learn that these poisons won’t hurt you as long as you use them properly. We are advised not to breathe Vikane gas or go near it. But how does one do this when it is in the air and penetrates surfaces we might touch? And what are the long-term cumulative effects, especially when combined with other toxins in our environment?

One man cannot fill his home with poison gases and ignore the impact on himself, his neighbors, and the planet on which he lives without eventually feeling the repercussions of his actions. The day after the pesticide extermination company returned to remove the tarpaulins from my neighbor’s home, he and his wife began moving in. Children’s toys appeared on the Vikane-treated deck. Since no one has told them, they are unclear whether the gas can become trapped in insulation, plastics, rubber, carpets, and other such surfaces and whether these residual amounts of gas can be hazardous to small children. As for the earth’s ozone layer, its depletion is probably far from the young family’s thoughts.

As always, there are alternatives that are easier on you and the environment. For termite problems, orange oil is an ecologically safe treatment. It might need to be used periodically, which can cause people concern about the price. But a much greater price to pay is the depletion of this earth that sustains us and the damage we’ve done to our health as a result of modern chemical conveniences.

Environmental groups in California are working to get Vikane banned, but they are up against the power elite. Often, laws have to be in place to save us from ourselves. Until we are legally restrained from harming our environment, and ourselves we can educate ourselves as to alternatives to termite control and other forms of pest control. There are eco-friendly, effective alternatives for your yard and garden, for you and your pets, the inside of your home and its structure. All it takes is educating yourself. Call around, ask around, do a little research. The time is now to take personal action and do our part to bring our planet and ourselves back into balance.

Dr. Christina Grant is a holistic healer and spiritual counselor who works in person and by phone. She has helped hundreds of people attain physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being through personal transformation. Her writing is published nationwide. She is co-author of Eight Minute Muse and is completing a book with a fresh perspective on women’s health. To learn more, see www.christinagrant.com.

]]> http://www.womansnetwork.net/toxic-overload/feed/ 0 http://www.womansnetwork.net/12-natural-solutions-alleviate-stress/ http://www.womansnetwork.net/12-natural-solutions-alleviate-stress/#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2011 02:11:37 +0000 admin http://www.womansnetwork.net/?p=256 Stress is the intensity of how you believe you can cope with an identified threat. It isn’t your actual ability to cope, but your perception of your ability to cope. Stress becomes a problem when you think you can’t cope well with a perceived threat.

Mild stress can be used to inspire you, build motivation, and encourage you to press forward in spite of obstacles. Some stress is needed for energy, courage, and triumph; to win, such as in sports events and games. It can help a mother lift a car off her child or assist an emergency room nurse to do her job speedily and accurately. Another kind of stress is the big malady of our day. It builds up over time due to worry and fear and leads to physical and emotional disease.

In the last issue, my article How to Relieve Stress for Life reviewed things you can do to protect yourself from the harmful side effects of stress. The goal is to manage your response to the bombardment of stressors in daily life. You cannot avoid the stressors, but you can cope with them differently by altering your perception of them. One way to begin is to heal your nervous system so it isn’t on high alert. Instead, it can be in a state of balance and calm that is easily returned to after surprising news or a particularly stressful time.

• Your body and mind want a rhythm. To create one, go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. You will feel more peaceful, serene, and competent during the day.
• Give yourself additional time to do things. Allow extra time for getting to a meeting, going to the store, driving through traffic, completing a project, even eating. Move more slowly. Give yourself the gift of free time and a few unscheduled moments. There is enough time in the day for this.
• After particularly stress-filled days, take a 20-minute bath to which you add 2-4 cups Epsom salts and 8-10 drops pure lavender oil. The salts pull toxins out of you and leave your muscles relaxed. The lavender will ease your mind. Drink extra water afterward to rehydrate.
• Do you have a crazy schedule filled to the brim? This is a form of self-abuse with all sorts of underlying causes. Write down all the things you “need” to do so they are not swirling in your head. Then, don’t do some of them. You will find the world keeps on turning, all by itself.
• Know what you can and cannot do to maintain a balanced life. Say no to requests that eat up your time. Liberate yourself from the madness by utilizing one of your first spoken words: “No.”
• Drink chamomile tea instead of coffee. Yes! Switch to herb tea. Coffee adds stress by giving you the illusion of more energy while you become more depleted. Eventually your body will present its bill for the abuse and the price will be high. If you are tired, rest more and have a naturopath help you heal your adrenals. A balanced person doesn’t need a stimulant to get started.
• Try Rescue Remedy, a Bach Flower remedy that can be found at any natural food store. Place a few drops in a glass of water, directly under your tongue, or get the spray version. Its blend of five healing flower essences are well-known for reducing stress and alleviating shock and trauma.
• Hyland’s Calms Forte is a homeopathic remedy for relaxation found at any natural food store. Homeopathy has been widely researched for effectiveness. This particular blend relieves anxiety, stress, and insomnia.
• Pay attention to the needs of your body. Eat a variety of nutrient-dense whole food. Inquire about “adaptogens” which help the nervous system adapt to stress. My favorite is Ashwaganda. Studies have been conducted on the efficacy of this herb for the past 50 years, but it has been in use for many centuries.
• Train your mind toward an uplifting world view. Refuse to get on board with the negative thinkers. Smile more. When a lemon is thrown your way, you know what to do with it.
• Connect with nature by walking in a park, sitting amongst trees, or getting your hands in the earth through gardening. Our disconnection from nature is part of the reason we find ourselves in such a high-stress culture.
•  Stress and slow breathing cannot exist at the same time. Whatever shocks or troubles life brings, breathe calmly through it.

Dr. Christina Grant is a holistic healer and spiritual counselor who works in person and by phone. She has helped hundreds of people attain well-being, greater insight, and peace in their lives. Her writing is published nationwide. She is co-author of Eight Minute Muse and is completing a book with a fresh perspective on women’s health. To learn more, see www.christinagrant.com.