Dust off a Dream…

What if this year, instead of that list of the “same old resolutions”, you chose to dust off a dream to two? You know, those back-burner dreams that once lit you up and would make your heart sing!

What would you do? Where would your heart lead you?

What if you declared 2012 the year to maybe climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, travel far and wide, delve into your inner artist and create a masterpiece or two, curl up with all those books you love—begging to be read, learn to dance, create a sanctuary for sacred space to be with peace and balance, take up the fiddle, find a new career that feeds you—fires up your passion?

I’ve been fascinated with the idea dusting off a dream ever since I read Mira Kirshenbaum’s book “The Gift of a Year” many years ago. The title alone shouts out all kinds of possibilities! In her book, she invites us—people too caught up in the everyday matters and hungry for something more—to consider an entire year to be in touch with something wondrous that ignites pleasure and joy and truly nourishes us.

Is it radical? Perhaps –but tantalizing, right?

So what if you dusted off that dream and gave yourself the gift of an entire year to dive something that would feed and nourish you at the deepest level?

It could feel uncomfortable and overwhelming—with “just something else” to try to fit into to your already too busy, too stressed and too demanding life. But, I wonder how long can you continue in the turmoil and overwhelm that dictates and consumes your life—AND your health, energy, focus, relationships, work-life and even the foods you choose to eat?

Mary Oliver in her wonderfully provocative quote asks:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

 I love this because whenever I veer off course–and it’s easy to do–I  remember her words and I am set right and clear again.

So now’s a chance to push pause, re-dream your dreams and ignite “your one wild and precious life”. How stunning is that!

From time to time, I’ve gifted myself with a year to pursue something “just for me”. Those years I’ve been my most content and energetic—excited to jump out of bed and get my day started. I felt more “me”, more sure, more centered and more in touch with my soul. It’s that taking care of things that matter.

How would you do it? What would it look like?

It’s different for everyone but this is how I worked it out for me–and you:

Some guidelines:

• No rules, restrictions, preconditions or defined outcomes–this is yours to make your own.
• Declare it—shout it from the rooftops or write it in a journal, whatever suits your fancy. Just declare it so your heart can know it.
• Begin to create and plan. What is your greatest passion, your heart’s longing?
• Dedicate time and space for your dream: minutes in a day, hours in a week. Some weeks will be easier than others–the secret is to stay focused and present.
• Move forward by just keeping at it. Baby steps are key here and maybe it’s even baby-baby steps sometimes. Every step counts.

Journal as you go along; it’s a fun record to keep. And too, there is something about writing that take’s you deeper, let’s you dream more and propel’s you further.

Anything goes. And remember, no rush—you have a whole year and the best thing is that when this year is finished there will be 2013 just waiting for you to dive in again!

Dawna Markova is one of my favorite authors. In her book, “Wide Open”, her wish is:

 “May you find the courage to offer yourself fully to what has heart and meaning for you.”

So, I, too, wish you that courage to create a life that engages all your desires and I invite you to start now, at the start of 2012!

 Imagine a year of pleasure, of nourishing yourself, of embracing those dreams and making them your life!

Need some support?

As a Nourishment Expert, I can help!  To get started, I offer a complementary strategy session to discover how you can create a life that feeds you fully. Contact me at www.AllThatNourishes.com to set up time for us to talk!

Eat better!!

That’s it! It almost seems too simple but it is KEY to shielding you from extra weight and warding off stress.

This time of year means stress, trigger foods and cravings. And you dread the idea of the temptations, being out of balance and the inevitable weight gain. Ugh what a way to start the New Year!

But I have some great ideas and strategies to make it smooth sailing this year.

• First, it takes a mindset change: rather than feeling like a victim to the holidays, decide to be strong, empowered and take charge. You can make this season easy, breezy and fun!
• Second, remember to listen to your body. You might think it’s your body telling you to eat and eat those sweets that are everywhere—but actually it’s your mind shouting out not your body. Your mind tells you what you want; your body tells you what you need. Ask questions: Am I really hungry? Am I thirsty, tired, upset, stressed instead? And it may just be habit: “I always eat _____ every year.”
• Third, know that when your body is fully nourished—you will handle those temptations and you won’t have the cravings that consume you and all your best intentions.

Being Fully Nourished–what does that mean?

As a nation, we are undernourished and even malnourished in many instances. Strange, in the land of plenty and over 2/3rds of Americans overweight—but extra weight is contrary to being fully nourished.

My nourishment strategies are:

• Eat real food. This means changing out processed foods and going for the fresh, natural, whole foods that are not only delicious but they’re full of the nutrients your body requires.
• Eat in rhythm. Eat regularly throughout the day beginning with a hearty protein-rich breakfast.
• Fill up.  Don’t skip meals or eat less because you are going out or anticipating a sugar fest. It’s far better to “front load”: eat well and eat normally and then when food/sweets appear you can rely on your body to tell you what and how much it wants.
• Add in SuperFoods.* This is my absolute favorite and most reliable secret!! I love super food nutrition because these foods are powerhouses of the vital nutrients our bodies simply don’t get in the Standard American Diet (SAD).
• Finally—and this is very important—don’t deny yourself something that you really want. This sounds counterintuitive but it is critical. Denying yourself creates all sorts of body, mind and survival reactions and, while you may pass up something you want now, chances are huge that you’ll eat less wisely and more later. If you love it, go for it and the #1 Pleasure Eating Rule is ENJOY IT—down to the very last bit!!

And bottom line: when you eat better, you stress less because a nutrient-rich diet is full of vitamins and nutrients that you need to calm and balance you. Nothing can beat being fully nourished.

* My favorite SuperFoods are: blueberries, coconut (everything), salmon, green leafy veggies, sweet potatoes, quinoa, kefir, green smoothies, flax, hemp and chia seeds and chocolate (the dark, dark, darkest kind). There are lots more but these are my regular go-to foods. 

A New Year’s Gift to Yourself: Get a Jump-Start on Your Food Struggles with a complimentary 45-minute strategy session with me.

If you struggle with food, weight and nourishing yourself, let’s talk. I offer no-strings attached strategy session where you will identify what’s keeping you stuck and you’ll take away new strategies to create the life and body you want!

Go to my Contact page to sign up and we’ll get you started in time for a fresh and bright New Year.

Happy, Healthy Holidays!! Enjoy them in every single way!

You need a lot of savvy to navigate all the food traps around you. They’re everywhere lying in wait for when you’re most vulnerable.

The great thing is it doesn’t have to be that way. You can use empowerment strategies instead to disarm any food trap and walk through your day with ease and confidence.

How often do you will blame yourself for food behaviors gone wrong—when it isn’t you at all; it’s the circumstance? Guess what—there are ways to make this a thing of the past! 

Your 3 Empowerment Strategies Are:

1) Know yourself

2) Know your environment

3) Plan, plan, plan    

Know Yourself!

In Part 1, you had the opportunity to get in touch with your environment and your food behaviors. The exercises gave you a chance to gather some really important information about what you face, how you react and the ways of you typically feed yourself.

So now that you are aware of your vulnerable times, places, people and foods, you can create excellent fool-proof strategies to keep you out of trouble and help you develop your inner strength, your “savvy” muscles.  

What Will Keep You Strong? Body Savvy, Mental Savvy and Emotional Savvy

Your Body Savvy: Fill Up! 

• Start your day with a high protein breakfast. When you eat lean protein insulin is held in check doesn’t have a chance to go off balance.
• Eat regularly throughout the day. When you’re in rhythm with your eating you’ll be less tempted by the sugary, processed stuff.
• Eat foods that nourish your cells. When your cells have what they need you won’t need a sugar fix.
• Add in SuperFoods: foods that are nutrient-packed powerhouses. I drink a green smoothie everyday for this very reason!
• Conquer your cravings. Cravings keep you at their mercy and can hold you hostage day-in and day-out. Find out why you crave what you do and change it.*
• Create a balance of activity, rest and sleep; if these are out of balance it affects your hormones, your cravings for sweets and adds on weight.

* Want to understand your cravings? Sign up for my eCourse “The 6 Top Ways to Conquer Your Cravings” at www.AllThatNourishes.com

Part Three: Next week we’ll talk about the best strategies to bump up your Mental Savvy and your Emotional Savvy.

What Does Food Have To Do With The Flu?

Everything! With our Standard American Diet, we don’t eat to support our immune system—in fact, many of the foods we eat actually destroy our immune power. Sugar and processed foods are the culprits and they prime you to get sick.

Sugar compromises your immune system for more than 4 hours after you eat it. It’s no coincidence that we get sick this time of year: the “sugar season” and flu season go hand-in-hand—eat all that sweet stuff, lower your immunity and voila! you are the perfect set up for those flu bugs!

5 Sure-Fire Ways You Can Bump Up Your Immune System  

1.   Avoid sweets as much as possible and processed foods. You want real food cram-packed full of vitamins and minerals—which are immune boosting. Give sugar the boot (I bet you knew I’d say that!).

2.   Include powerful immune boosting, antioxidant-rich foods in your diet
I’m a big fan of green smoothies! Put a handful of fresh greens (spinach, kale, collards, romaine lettuce, or Swiss chard) and some fresh or frozen fruit in your blender. Add some filtered water and blend. Specific immunity boosters are Vitamin C found in citrus fruits, pomegranates and cranberries.  Beta-carotene is found in winter squash, green leafy veggies, sweet potatoes and carrots. Cook your carrots with lots of garlic, ginger, and onions to add even more immune-boosting power. Remember the more color, the more anti-oxidants.

3.   Try to limit your consumption of milk, yogurt, and other dairy products
Dairy is a mucous-forming, congesting food. You probably don’t need any more mucous around your house! Excessive production of mucous compromises the immune system’s ability to fight against airborne bacteria or viruses. It also provides a breeding ground for disease-causing bacteria to proliferate. Drink lots of water and consume lots of water-rich fruits and vegetables. Start your lunch and dinner with a big salad or some raw veggies with dip.

4.   Include fermented foods in your diet
The health of your gut is key to your overall health. Probiotics or live active cultures are healthy bacteria that keep the gut and intestinal tract free of disease-causing germs. I eat sauerkraut or fermented veggies several times a week to strengthen my intestinal flora. You can also take high quality probiotic capsules to strengthen your gut and you’ll get sick less often.

5.   Get your Omega-3s
Omega-3s are critical for immunity. Most of the fats we consume are Omega-6 and saturated fats. For optimal health, we need a balanced intake of Omega-6s and Omega-3s. Most people consume too many omega-6 fat and too little Omega-3. You can increase your Omega 3s by eating wild caught salmon, avocados, flax seed, and walnuts. Omega 3 supplements are highly recommended. Krill oil is superior to fish oil because of its antioxidant properties but whatever brand you choose go for the highest quality source available!

 You can have a flu-free season—how great  will that be?!

Coincidentally, everyone of these tips are critiacal for weight release–funny how that works!

My guess is “Yes!” 

 Your external environment surrounds you with powerful saboteurs which keep you from your slim, fit, sexy, sassy self and it’s likely you fall victim to them daily.

Do any of these conspiracies have a familiar ring?

• Being a slave to your work and/or family schedule which won’t allow for breaks and dedicated relaxed eating times. You’re at the whim of everyone and everything else.
• Your friend, neighbor or family member tells you “I love you” with Krispy Kreme donuts, your favorite candy bars or couple of quarts of Ben & Jerry’s.
• Your supervisor who “appreciates” everyone with her Friday afternoon “Ice Cream Sundae Cart” to help wind down from the week.
• Your co-worker keeps M&M’s “handy” in a big filled-to-the-top jar, just for your vulnerable times.
• Your luscious leftovers that peek at you when you open the fridge or call you from the counter top—there, exposed, begging to be eaten.
• AND the crazy, over-the-top goodie tables that are everywhere from Halloween to New Year’s—63 sugar-laden days and ++ weight gain.

It goes on and you face your own traps at every turn. When you’re a visual person like me, you see that stuff, your knees go weak and you’re compelled to eat it. 

In the past, I was doomed to sporadic, uncontrolled “I’ve got to have that sugar” attacks. It is a helpless–and hopeless feeling. I was convinced I didn’t have a minim of willpower. And I always, always managed to beat myself up, set my inner critic into high gear and stay stuck.

For those who say “be mindful”, “stay awake at your plate”, “practice conscious eating”, I ask—“Have you been there?” In the throw of things these mantras don’t compute.  Don’t get me wrong, you absolutely need awareness practices when in your life but you need the strategies to get there—it’s a process and it’s also fun! You get to experiment, be curious and adventuresome and you get to stop being stuck 

Make Your Environment Work for you!

The First Steps to Powerfully Take Your Environment Back:

Begin this very day getting wise about your surroundings and food. Just observe for the coming week all the ways food interfaces with your world and how it manages to do that.

• Where are the food traps: what can you count on to offer that sugar fix, what do you have tucked away and waiting, what places call sweet comfort to you, who loves you up with your favorite goodies?
• When do your craving hit full force, what habits have you formed that trap you every time—being with certain people, at certain places, letting stress rule you, allowing  your blood sugar to drop, “over-CARBing”?
• When do you feed yourself, how and what: is there forethought and planning, scheduled times to eat, is relaxation present?
• How much joy and pleasure comes into your life each day—the real “sugar” of life?

As you begin to gather data, you’ll see it’s a war zone out there. And we haven’t even touched on how the food industry, media and advertising are enticing you with gimmicks and convenient processed non-foods .

Journal what you observed throughout your week. Observation and journaling are key to arousing your awareness (mindfulness, conscious eating) and you are set begin your strategy-making journey to balanced and nourished eating, un-stuckness and successful weight release.

Part Two: Next week we’ll start the strategies—strategies that are clever, easy and reliable. Stay tuned!

Check out my new eCourse on “The Top 6 Ways to Conquer Your Cravings”—you’ll get great tips on getting those craving out of your life.  You can sign up here in the upper right corner.

Think LOVE, not WEIGHT

When you think about your body what comes to mind?

How many ways do you think about your weight?

How many times do you think about your weight?

Try counting your weight thoughts sometime—just as an observer, a third- party looking on. I bet you’ll be surprised about how much energy you are leaking moment to moment, day after day.

Chances are your “Inner Critic” has you in a real dither about your body and continuously faults you about: you’ve got extra this—excess that, you’re not losing weight, your thighs are too fat, where’s your willpower, you’re not trying hard enough, you deserve to feel guilty, what do you mean you’d like to enjoy food and eating and on and on it goes. Sound familiar?

Did you know every one of these thoughts create extra weight??

Every weight thought, every negative thought creates STRESS, stress creates CORTISOL and cortisol stores FAT–guaranteed. Plus negative thinking zaps your energy—you know all that energy you could spend elsewhere—like on your LIFE, the life you dream of diving into. And you are left to travel the slippery slope of dashed hopes, more weight and trying yet another diet.

Stop, Stop, Stop!  This is what I say aloud to myself when I fall victim to that nagging critic—I command it to stop invading my space, my head, my being.

 Love, Love, Love!Then for every weight thought, I create a love thought. I’ve crafted a litany of ALL the amazing qualities and blessings my body and my life hold for me—and that’s what I put in my head. Weight thoughts don’t live there anymore. The difference is incredible: the stress is gone and I am fully in relaxation mode (the place where weight release is possible!).

Changing this Around

Begin by creating 2 lists:

• 1). What I hate about my body: start with your toes and move slowing up over your entire body and write down everything you hate—however small, however large, it all matters. Put it aside.
• 2). What I love about my body: create this second list; again from your toes to your head—list everything.
• Journal around these questions:
  • What did you notice about doing this exercise (upset, resistant, stuck)?
  • How did you feel writing list #1?
  • How did you feel writing list #2?
  • Which list is longer?
  • Reflect on the love qualities your body has: How can you bring them into your everyday awareness?
• Make a mantra, an affirmation for each part of your body on list #2—your love list!
• Set your intention to affirm your love for your body throughout the day!

The Bottom Line

You cannot afford the consequences of a negative thought. All that negative stuff will weigh you down—literally!!

You’ve got to bring in the positive, the good, the light and the joy. Be powerful around this.

We naturally crave foods according to the season – comforting soups in the winter, sprouts and salads as spring starts to bloom, and – who are we kidding – ice cream in the summer! Your body is always seeking equilibrium, so it makes sense that you’d crave foods to balance the effect of the weather. 

Ayurvedic practitioners, the masters of seasonal eating, have these recommendations for eating cooling, summer food:

 1. Favor foods that are cool and liquid. Minimize foods that are hot.
2. Favor foods that are sweet, bitter or astringent. Minimize foods that create heat (spicy, salty or sour).
3. Light proteins are best – fish and white meats.
4. Coriander, mint, cardamom, and fennel are nice summer spices.
5. Stick with unrefined, natural sweeteners vs. the processed sugars; Stevia and xylitol add sweetness without calories.

Raw foods are the foods of summer: fresh, crunchy and cooling. The raw food movement is big in America. David Wolfe, http://www.davidwolfe.com, is the raw food guru and  if you were to meet him you’d see: this man radiates vibrant  health–even his handshake is electric. Amazingly the “raw foodists” I know do radiate a pure vitality you can see across the room; this comes from the natural energy of the raw food itself. The key here is cooking destroys this energy so it never joins our bodies to feed our cells. So raw means energy, vitality plus I’ve yet to meet a raw food devotee who struggles with a weight issue.

 The concept of a raw food diet fascinates me. I tried it—I’d never eaten so much fruit, vegetables and seaweed in my life.  I stayed with it for 12 days but I found my bio-chemistry didn’t respond well on all raw foods. As the days passed I just didn’t have my usual energy, clarity and focus. My body made it perfectly clear: pass this one up! 

Want to try all raw food?  Go for it!

My recommendation is listen to your body: what are your energy levels, mood, brain functioning, cravings, digestive system and skin telling you? You well may be one of those folks that will flourish on a raw food diet–yeah!!

 But if not, create a raw food-cooked food balance. Begin by adding more raw foods to your diet–ones you truly enjoy. You might have an all raw food breakfast or lunch and healthy cooked foods for dinner or you can just increase raw over-all.                                                                                                                       Bottom line: Do eat more raw but balance is best!  

 You can take a closer look at the uber-cooling Raw Food Diet: check out Raw Food Chef & Teacher Jenny Cornbleet at www.learnrawfood.com.

Marc David, my favorite teacher-mentor who guided my understanding of weight, women and inner wisdom, recently wrote an article on A New Way To Lose Weight: Listen To It. This man is a nutritional visionary who is on the forefront of helping us transform our views of weight and nourishment and our relationship with food. He is the Founder and Director of The Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

 If you’re trying to lose weight simply because you want to lose a bunch of weight, then it’s going to be extremely difficult to lose weight.

 
Here’s what I mean: most people who have extra pounds attack their body fat as if it was some foreign and hostile invader. We honestly believe that this excess weight is “not me.” So, we do our best get rid of this unwanted yuk that seems to be ruining our ability to have a good time. And it all makes sense. But here’s the rub – weight loss strategies don’t work. This isn’t headline news. Any study that has any scientific morals and scruples bears this out in the long term. If there was a weight loss diet or pill or program or gizmo that truly worked, we’d all know about it and guys like me would’ve been thankfully out of a job long ago.

What I’m saying is that if there was one single reason why we don’t lose weight – it’s because our reason for wanting to do so is all off, which leads us to invent or undertake weight loss methods that fail us. Again, most people want to lose weight simply to get the weight off.  

                                                                                                                                          
The problem is, the weight is there for a reason and it has a message. It has a deeper purpose. It’s talking to us. The wisdom of life, of the cosmos, of the grand design of all that is – speaks through the human body in the form of symptoms. We are fashioned with a brilliant operating system that has our biology taking direct orders from divine intelligence. Excess weight is a messenger from a higher source. If you kill the messenger – that is, if you actually do lose the weight but don’t get the wisdom it’s trying to impart – the messenger returns. 99% of people who lose weight on a weight loss diet gain it back. There’s no moral failure here. It’s not about eating less calories or switching to skim instead of half and half. We just didn’t listen deeply enough.
                                                                                                                                                                                                    Trying to get rid of weight by “losing it” is like trying to get rid of paying a bill by ripping it up and throwing it out. It seems like such a great idea. Just get rid of the bill. The problem is though, when you throw out the bill, another one comes in the mail, and this time with a late fee. Throw that one away and the consequences grow steeper.
The bills and the extra weight have something very simple and profound in common – neither has any real value in and of itself. Yet they both point to something. The bill points to the fact that you purchased your house with a loan from the bank, and you owe the bank gobs of money. Ripping it up then, is a silly and nonsensical act. Likewise, excess weight points to something else. To simply get rid of it for the sake of getting rid of it goes against universal law.
                                                                                                                                                                                                     The billion-dollar question then, is “What does excess weight point to?” The answer, in my experience, is that there are an infinite variety of possibilities. Here are just a few common and compelling ones. Excess weight can point to:

• Our poor food choices
• Emotional hunger
• Unmet needs
• Repressed feelings
• Confusion around self identity
• A call for love and help
• Self hatred
• Our disconnection from the body
• Past history of sexual abuse
• Being wounded by love
• Financial worries
• Repressed creativity
• Being someone we are not
• The need to forgive and move on
• The need to learn how to truly nourish and care for oneself
• Loneliness
• Fear of sensuality
• Too much stress
• Separation from one’s spiritual source
• Too many foreign chemicals and toxins in our world that directly or indirectly lead to weight gain – fluoride, mercury, bovine growth hormones, xeno-estrogens, and many more
• The sickness in our manufacturing world that would have us invent and sell junk foods in the first place
• A nation that values excess and over-consumption
• A culture that values speed, disembodiment, and lack of awareness
• A world that is filled with fear, anxiety, and mistrust

Each one of these is literally like a bill to pay. We can’t just avoid these life lessons, rip them up, or exercise and diet them off. We’ve got to question, self examine, look, listen, feel, get real, be truthful, and grow into a more mature way of listening to the body and honoring it’s wisdom, even when the body isn’t conforming to our humble demands that it be beautiful and hot and skinny. Of course, this isn’t easy. The process of self-examination is predictably a b****. For this reason, far too many of us look for the quick fix. We don’t want to be uncomfortable as we face the tougher questions, so we’re easily seduced by the next diet gimmick that never works. 

Just as it’s time to pay the bills, it’s time to pay homage to weight. It’s time to own that our challenges with weight require a whole new approach. No more quick fix. It’s time for the slow fix. Can we be brave enough to listen? Can we be courageous enough to be patient?

Warmest regards,     

Marc David
Founder & Director
Institute for the Psychology of Eating

   I’m back with my BIG announcement: My re-invention, re-focus and the start of a unique weight loss program for women. Yes! And I am so excited to tell you that I am  a Certified Inner Wisdom Weight Loss Coach.

 My mission is to stop the disempowering dieting madness that defeats and constricts the lives and spirits of women who struggle with weight. I help women discover what stops them from having the body and life they want and deserve. I teach them how to be done with the weight thing—for real and for good—so they can claim their wholeness, ignite their dreams and be the contented, strong, passionate women the world needs.

 This has been a cause of mine forever, it seems; I am over the moon to be here, with this, right now!

So what this means is:

• New! My blog: “Women, Weight and Inner Wisdom” with weekly considerations of the latest and best information and research on the mind-body-spirit approach to ideal weight, nutrition, nourishment and wellbeing. And you are here at http://www.allthatnourishes.com/Blog/
• New! My F*R*EE eCourse! “Consumed By Cravings? The 6 Top Ways to Take Your Power Back!“  Information packed with practical strategies to squelch those cravings for good! Go to my website to get your copy: http://www.allthatnourishes.com/ Enjoy!
• New! Musings and reflections on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Linked in—yes, I took the plunge and I love it!!
• Continuing! Weekly newsletters with inspiring thoughts, weighty topics, recipes and recommends.
• New! “Wednesday Weight Loss Wisdoms” in your email box each week: the best and the latest information to help you shed those pounds.
• New! The opportunity for private 1: coaching with me. Check out my new programs: 
  •       6-Week Kick-Start Weight Loss “Back to Sassy, Sexy, Slim & Fit” 
  •       12-Week Core Weight Loss “Super Slim, Super Fit, Weight BeGone”.

See http://www.allthatnourishes.com/weight-loss.php for details. I offer a complimentary, no strings attached, 45 minute “Inner Wisdom Weight Release Session” to help you explore new possibilities and paths to releasing your weight—for real and forever and creating the body you want. 

And there is more to come—stay tuned. My greatest aspiration is to add value, hope and inspiration for your journey to your ideal weight.

Your breath will calm and quiet you—everyday and, especially in the toughest of times, your breath can change everything.

We hardly get enough deep breathing; check how you are breathing right now: is it shallow and just in your upper chest? Are you like me and rarely think to breathe?
For most of us, we simply forget to breathe deeply and, instead, we contract all the muscles around our upper chest, back and neck hardly allowing oxygen and relaxation to enter our body–little rabbit breaths, I call them. Some days I’ll be working along when I suddenly realize that I’m barely breathing at all. I’m amazed that I’ve spent hours tense and overwrought, never remembering to really breathe!

Did you know deep breathing is the single most effective stress-releasing tool available?

Deep-belly relaxation breath is free, easy, and totally socially acceptable with no extra equipment needed! You can do it anywhere–your car, in the elevator, at a meeting, when you wake up or go to sleep. You can use your breath in sticky situations: with encounters with people who disquiet you, when experiencing a crazy, wildly busy morning or stuck in a long line, going nowhere. Whatever the upset, just after 3 deep-belly breaths, you have created the tranquility needed and you are poised in serenity–honestly. In difficult times, this simple tool has saved me time and time again–in traffic, before a presentation, when my day just isn’t going well and especially when I cannot fall asleep.

Breath is the force that aligns our body, mind and spirit: when you engage your breath, you are drawn into the present moment. It is here you will find and feel total calm. Your body’s life force is oxygen and is absolutely a requirement for our trillions of cells so when you breathe and breathe deeply you feed and nourish your cells.
Breath means health. Breathing lowers your blood pressure, slows your racing heart, aids your digestive system, restores your metabolic equilibrium and helps you fall asleep at night. It creates calm, calm, calm and stress dissolves. It is no secret that stress is a major perpetrator of physical and emotional illness and chronic disease. So put breath into your Wise Woman Tool Kit and you have a strategy that will change your life!

Breathing Lessons

Why deep breathing?

Your stress receptors are in your upper lungs and your calming receptors are in your lower lungs. If you encounter a lion, you want shallow mouth breathing to stimulate the stress response. You want to breathe deeply to activate the clam receptors so you can de-stress and relax.

Why nasal breathing?

When you breathe through your nose, your diaphragm has time to suck oxygen into the lower chest and activate the calming receptors (the parasympathetic nervous system) and relax your body. Mouth breathing is a faster breath with a greater intake of air. This breath usually only fills the upper chest and activates the stress response (sympathetic nervous system)—which is the opposite of what you want for relaxation.

To learn how to belly breathe lie down, if possible. It’s easier to do this way. Relax and place one hand on your belly to detect belly movement as you breathe.

• Take a gentle deep breath through your nose. Push your breath down past your diaphragm toward your belly—it should raise up before your chest.
• Think of blowing up a balloon with a tube from your belly button—take a breath in and push your lungs down and your abdomen out.
• Hold your breath for a few seconds, and then exhale slowly and fully through your nose.
• This might take practice. Once you get the technique, you can sit or stand when you breathe.

I use 2 types of breathing consistently:

~~My emergency for Instant Calm: Breathe in a square: Imagine a square and breathe around the square: 4-4-4-4: breathe in through your nose for the count of 4, hold for the count of 4, breathe out through your nose for the count of 4 and then hold for the count of 4. Try to do this 3-4 times or more.

~~As a ritual to start and end your day: while lying in bed, breathe in through your nose for the count of 5, hold for 6 counts and breathe out through your nose for 8 counts. Work up to 10 times morning and night and use it in between when you need a centering moment. This exercise may be difficult if you’re beginning but keep trying because it’ll sure pay off. Make this an everyday practice.

Deep-belly breathing is the key to mind-body wellness and you will marvel over the feeling of power and quiet it brings into your life. It can change the moment, your day–your health!

     “The single most effective relaxation technique I know is                                        the conscious regulation of breath.”
                                            ~~Andrew Weil, MD, Integrative Physician