Prebiotics and Probiotics Can Help Your Kids De-stress and Excel
It’s no surprise that kids are facing more stress than ever before. Global online learning platform Brainly did a national survey in December 2019 where they learned that 59 percent of students have constantly high-stress levels and 53 percent of students reported needing better sleep. Not surprisingly, 53 percent of students also reported needing better time-management skills. What can be done about this, and how can we as parents (covertly, if necessary) lend a helping hand?
Read the full article here on The Epoch Times.
The Mind Body Benefits of Drinking Tea
I’m a very vocal proponent of drinking tea daily. People ask me all the time why tea is my go-to and not coffee: well, let’s be clear. I drink coffee, too, but tea has so many mind-body wellness benefits to it that there’s no debating its advantages for well-being. Let’s take a look.
Read the full article here on The Epoch Times.
Why New Year's Resolutions Fail and How to Make Them Work
Many people see the new year as a great time to set goals. It’s a “new year, new you” mentality, but research from U.S. News and World Report shows that only 20 percent of us succeed with our goals. In other words, 80 percent of us are likely to fail. Yikes, why is this?
Continue reading this article here on The Epoch Times. Enjoy!
Can Sugar Be The Cause of Your Holiday Blues?
Sugar is a very misunderstood food. It tastes good, makes you feel good, and gives you the energy and motivation to do good, so what’s not to love, right? We’re exposed to sugary treats almost everywhere—especially during the holidays. Sugar isn’t your enemy, but before you jump on the holiday dessert train, here are a few things you should know about how sugar impacts your mind, body, and emotions.
Read the whole article on The Epoch Times.
The Mood and Medicinal Benefits of Holiday Spices
The holidays are a magical time of year, but they can be pretty hectic too. What if you could get into the holiday spirit by doing something that cut stress and improved your health? You’re in luck! Improving health and well-being this holiday season may be as simple as adding some common holiday spices into your routine. Many spices have powerful mood and medicinal benefits that improve mental health, lift emotional well-being, and boost physical health.
Read the full article here on The Epoch Times.
Pumpkin Versus Sweet Potato: The Great Thanksgiving Debate
When it comes to Thanksgiving, there’s one great debate: whether to serve pumpkin or sweet potato. Both can be made in healthy side dishes or tasty desserts, so which should you choose? Surprisingly, your choice may come down to mind–body well-being and what you or your Thanksgiving family most need this holiday season.
Read the full article here on The Epoch Times.
3 Thanksgiving Foods That Boost Mood and Reduce Stress
Thanksgiving is a time of year where we get together with loved ones and reflect on what we are grateful for, but let’s face it: Thanksgiving can be a stressful time for everyone. Visiting with family whose opinions you may not agree with, dealing with travel hassles, conversing with opinionated in-laws, and even just cooking all that food! What if there were a magic pill you could take to deal with all that stress so you could get back to being grateful?
Read the full article here on The Epoch Times.
Impossible or I'm Possible
The biggest hurdle we face is being uniquely ourselves. It seems that everything in our society, including religions, upbringing and educational systems teach us a way to be and to think, putting a label of right and wrong on ideas from an early age. People learn to believe what they’ve been told and not to cultivate their own experiential understanding (which by the way is wisdom: wisdom is knowledge that has been directly experienced and integrated into one’s understanding).
Read the full article on Thrive Global here: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/impossible-or-im-possible/.
The Two Extremes to Being Uniquely You
You can read the full article here on Thrive Global: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/the-two-extremes-to-being-uniquely-you/.
It's All Relative
A concept that people latch onto when pursuing a spiritual path is the notion of an absolute reality; that God, spirituality, consciousness or whatever you want to call it supersedes everything else. This can lead to seeing things as black and white, true or untrue (or worse yet, relevant and irrelevant), which in and of itself causes duality in one’s thought process. And remember, the idea behind spirituality is to unite consciousness so that we no longer see anything as separate from God.
Read the whole post here on Thrive Global: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/its-all-relative/.
Another Post on Love (Valentines Day Edition)
As you may know, Valentine’s Day is one of my favorites times of year. I love the idea that there is a whole day devoted to the concept of love, and I’ve felt this way since I was a small child. The idea of love is heightened when we feel romance or are in a relationship, but it goes so far beyond this. I’ve been single on Valentine’s Day for the last 6 years, but each year it just seems to get better and better anyways. I believe this is because love starts with how you relate to yourself and to your purpose for living. How you honor the God that lives inside of you. The closer and stronger that connection is, the better we as individuals can express love and feel love no matter what the circumstances of life bring.
Read the whole article here on Thrive Global: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/another-post-on-love-valentines-day-edition/
Thrive Global Feature - Mental Health & Wellbeing with Jaya Jaya Myra
I had the pleasure to interview Jaya Jaya Myra, an internationally acclaimed author, motivational speaker, and creator of The WELL Method. Read the full feature article here: http://bit.ly/2GoHbUO
Authority Magazine Feature - You'll Find Your Unique Purpose Through Your Life Experience
Check out my feature article in Authority Magazine here: http://bit.ly/2CEdcVN.
4 Ways To Improve Your Willpower This Holiday Season and Beyond
To read the full article, click here: http://bit.ly/2QAb6yX
I'm Giving a TEDx Talk!
I really hope you can join me. This is so amazing: I am so honored to be able to speak at the 3rd Annual TEDx Wilmington Women Conference!
My talk is called “Is Living Your Purpose the Key to Better Health and Wellbeing?”
You can get your tickets and more information here: http://www.tedxwilmington.com/.
Motivation for my TEDx Talk
So, as some of you know, I’ve been preparing to give a TEDx talk. I’ll announce more about that soon. It’s really got me thinking and taking stock of what’s important to me in life. When I look deep inside my heart as to what I hope to get out of doing this talk, the single resounding answer I get is to motivate and inspire people to be fully themselves, and not to listen to whatever societal norms or expectations are holding you back from your purpose and true happiness.
I hope this talk inspires many people, but even if it only causes 1 person to make a fundamental shift in their perspective and life, it’ll be completely worth it. I can’t focus on anything else right now! Now even “work” or making money, lol. You know, that thing most people are driven by. I love money, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not a motivating factor for me and never has been. When you do what you’re supposed to do, abundance will be in your life.
If this talk were a wake-up call to a single person and it caused them to fundamentally shift their trajectory for the better, I’d be 100% satisfied and the many hours I’m putting into this will be worth it. So that is my prayer and the clear intention I’m speaking to the universe: let this talk inspire many people, and let it fundamentally change the life of at least 1 person, for the better. Tathaastu!
A Dream or a Fantasy?
Have you ever taken time to consider what fantasies are made from? They are different than dreams. Dreams are things we thing are possibly attainable in life. Fantasies are the things we think we want that are beyond attainable. And interestingly, they are mental projections of what we deem to be perfection, and this notion of perfection is based on things we lack. Think about it: if it’s comfortable and familiar to you, you won’t fantasize about it. You’ll dream about it, and that’s entirely different.
It’s so unfortunate the human mind likes to equate the concept of perfection with things unattainable, and even worse, false projections of what we think will make us happy. It’s not the lack of a particular tangible thing in life that makes people unhappy; it’s the feeling one has of not being accepted. Or not being loved, or not being good enough. But even those feelings of not being good enough are just projections of the mind (because you definitely are good enough), and since they are not based in reality, the things we fantasize about to “fix” our lives are equally as false.
There is one good thing about fantasies though. If you pick them apart through a lens of inner discernment, you can start to learn what your insecurities are and uncover the lies your mind tells you about what is making you unhappy. Maybe your fantasy is to be a super model, because you think you’re not beautiful enough: it’s a lie. You’re not happy because you feel being drop dead gorgeous is a requirement for people to love or respect you, and that is completely untrue. Maybe your spouse cheated on you and you think that’s why you’re unhappy. Wrong again: you’re unhappy because someone you wanted has rejected you, making you feel unloved and unaccepted, even by yourself. It doesn’t matter what the particular catalyst is, everything comes back to lacking a feeling of acceptance that you don’t feel you can cultivate on your own. If you could cultivate it on your own, it wouldn’t matter to you when other people criticize you. When you are secure in yourself, other peoples opinions no longer matter.
The truth is, no person or thing can ever do enough or be enough or love you enough to change those false projections you have about yourself. They can mask over them, like a bandaid, but only you can tear down those false narratives of your life so that you’re fully in control of your life and your responses to what life brings you. If you don’t fully accept yourself regardless of what other people think or say, you’ll spend a lifetime catering to other peoples desires and opinions of how you should live your life. And this brings us right back to where we started, about fantasies. You’ll create those false projections of what you think will make you happy, only to find out when you get what you thought you wanted that nothing has changed and you’re not a step closer to real joy.
This is what I call real world spirituality. it’s not about mantra, or meditation or religious worship of God - those things might be tools to help you connect to yourself, but if not, it’s definitely not spirituality. Spirituality is about connecting with yourself and the God within so completely that you learn to be the master of your life: happy, healthy and completely fulfilled.
It's All About You
It's up to you what and who you become in life. The necessary factor for your success is something that no person can teach you and no person can give you. No one can even cultivate it in you, only the process of life itself can do that. The grit, determination and tenacity to succeed is solely about you, and your relationship with yourself and God.
The ancient scriptures tell us that with a pure heart and true devotion, even a stone or a blade of grass can be your conduit to full realization of yourself and God, and to manifesting your full potential. This is because it's not ever about the teacher or guru: it's about you and you alone. No one teacher or guru is any better than another teacher or guru: you are taken to where you need to be in order to master your particular life lessons and challenges. That's how beautiful and mysterious the universe is!
I see far too often people who glorify their teachers or traditions constantly, and parrot everything they say and do. They get a lot of praise from others for doing this, and are often respected in their communities (because they follow someone people perceive to be great). These are not the people who are going to reach their goals or become great themselves. You can't piggyback on someone else's greatness and be something spectacular yourself. You have to walk your own path, and learn to speak for yourself.
Here's the point: no one can give you the grit, tenacity or determination to succeed or overcome your obstacles but you. And no one is going to remove your obstacles, because God is the one who put them there for you to learn from. No one. If you waste your time jumping from one thing to another, or one teacher to another (unless your own guru or guide had told you to, as mine guided me to), or waste your time quoting and reciting scripture or other people, or glorifying a static image of God or Goddess instead of working on your own character, you're wasting your time by not exploring your own profound connection with the universe and yourself. No teacher or guru can give you what it takes to master life. No teacher can fix you. No guru can enlighten you. No one can make you into something you are not. You'll become what you already are and what you work for....nothing less and nothing more.
If you're determined to learn, the right teacher will be brought. If you're determined to succeed in life, you will. And not because you prayed to a guru or God....because you believed enough in the God inside yourself to go out and get the things you want in life. You are either your biggest asset or your own worst enemy: the choice is yours. Once you really believe in yourself, understand yourself and let God bring the things you want and need, it happens. That's all spirituality is, is a way of getting to this place, and if it's used for anything else, you're missing the mark.
Are You Capable of Recognizing Love?
Love defies logic. It makes no sense and has no rhyme or reason to it. It’s never a choice: you don’t get to choose who you love, no matter how much you may want to. Love elevates you to heights you never thought possible. Which is exactly what makes it so real and unforgettable. If you’ve ever truly loved someone, you know when something is not love. But what about when you’re in love with someone but you have no idea that what you’re feeling is love?
That may seem like a strange thing to say, but it’s actually quite common. Especially for men. And extra especially for men who grow up in situations where they feel they are not in control. This maybe because they’re bullied, or perhaps because of some other form of trauma or loss in their family lives: whatever the cause, the normal reaction is to try and control as many things as possible in life. And this tendency especially carries over into relationships, because it’s a place where you find yourself vulnerable and open. . .and that’s the last place you want to be when you’ve felt pain or suffering in life. So much so that you’ll create a narrative in your mind about what you want in life and who you want to love; basically, a list of what’s acceptable and what’s not. And, you’ll shape the story of how a relationship is supposed to progress. And if it happens in a way that goes against your prefabricated narrative, you’ll believe it’s not love or not right, merely because it challenges your preconceived beliefs.
The feeling of being in love is the most amazing feeling in the world, but only to a person who knows that beauty, magic, wonder and mystery can only be experienced when they are completely open, vulnerable and not in control of anything. The greatest of all feelings happen to you and through you, not because of your actions. And this can be downright terrifying to someone who feels their lives are totally due to their own actions and scripted list of desires. So terrifying in fact, that you may not even recognize love when it’s right in front of you.
If we could choose who we were attracted to or who we loved, life would be a lot easier and more straight forward. But the fact that we don’t have even the slightest control over either shows how wonderous and mysterious the universe is. And thank goodness, lest we be locked in a pathetic trap of our minds! Who do you think of when you’ve accomplished something great? Where does your mind go when you’re sad and alone, and want to know things will be ok? Probably not where you think it would.
Does beauty, magic and mystery terrify you when you see it face to face, or is it enough to make your ego surrender to something much more spectacular than itself? Do you run away from things you don’t understand, or do you step closer? Do you try to rationalize it away into something lesser, or worse yet unacceptable for your life, or do you dive in and let it wash over you and make you a better version of yourself? These simple questions will show you exactly if you can recognize love or not, and how much work spiritual and ego clearing work you have left to do. And for the telltale question: what is your idea of love? Hint: if you have an idea of what love should look like, then you’ll likely not be able to recognize it when it shows up in your life.
Remember, love is the one thing that has the power to destroy your egoism and false notions about life. It’s the one and only thing that can unwind all your karma and make you whole. It will challenge you every step of the way to destroy everything that is not serving your highest calling. It cares not for race or religion, caste or creed, or what other people want or expect for your life. It cares only about pure, utter authenticity, connection and purpose. Things beyond what the mind can comprehend. If you understand it, it’s not love. If you can control it, it’s not love. If it doesn’t get under your skin and drive you crazy, it’s not love. If it’s maddening and beyond all comprehension, maybe then, you’ve found love.
Where There's a Will, There's a Way
Seeds of success don't come from thoughts. They come from your heart's true desires. It's universal law that whatever it is you seek for in life is also seeking you. Whatever your truly want from the depth of your heart is already destined to be yours, if you're willing to unlock the secrets of getting it. Keep in mind here my definition of destiny vs fate here (you can see that in my previous posts).
Here's the thing. Something being destined for you doesn't mean the universe will bring it to you with no effort or work on your part. It merely means that what you want is definitely within your grasp, if you're willing to walk the heroes journey to get it. There is no way to not get your hearts desire if you have an open mind and heart, and are willing to work for it. Basically, it means you're either all in, or you're not in the game at all. The universe and God don't play games with what you want, unless you play games with God and waste your time and energy on things that your heart doesn't really want. Which for some strange reason is most people. Wasting your time is another way of looking at the rationalization and justification.
Simply put, you get out of life what you put into it. No more, no less. And anything you really want is already waiting for you to find it and claim it as your own. How awesomely beautiful or tragically karmic is that? I prefer to see it as awesomely beautiful, but it comes down to perspective and vantage point. It doesn't matter if all the cards are stacked against you, for all is fair in love and war. Love *is* the wildcard: it can do all things and will do exactly as you will it to, when you fully align thought, word and deed as one.
The challenge in life is not to become materially successful or spiritually enlightened. Both are mere reflections of what's possible when you overcome your inner demons that stand between your mind and your heart's desires (and I say *your* demons, because you created them in your own mind). It's only when you follow your hearts desires that thought, word and deed can ever truly become one, and only then is karma obliterated. Where there is a will, there is most definitely a way. And where there is love, all things are possible.