Fasting in one of the top strategies I recommend to all my clients for healing chronic illness, promoting healthy weight loss, improving mental and emotional mastery, nipping persistent cravings (once and for all), promoting detoxification processes… and so much more.

Fasting is simply a deliberate choice to refrain from eating for a period of time, but with a healing power that is noteworthy.

Fasting will activate your body’s sympathetic nervous system, build and repair muscle tissue and promote the production of human hormone growth, increase cellular repair, support digestive health and reduce insulin, slow aging, protect against disease and improve your health in every way.

There are many kinds of fasting, and each offer something different.

For example, you can try, 

1. Intermittent Fasting, also known as Time-Restricted Eating — Daily fasting, when a person restricts eating to a set number of hours per day
2. Prolonged Fast — Fasting for an extended period; usually anywhere from 4 to 7 consecutive days
3. Water Fast — Fasting by consuming only water and abstaining from consuming food
4. Juice Fast — Fasting by consuming only fresh-pressed juices and abstaining from consuming food
5. Religious Fast — Fasting as a way to regain or refocus spiritually is common in many religions

But you say, I can not NOT eat breakfast, yes?

Actually, you can. You can do anything you want to do, if you put your mind to it.

Ask yourself, “Do I eat at certain times of the day because I feel I need to eat at these times? Is this just a habit, or do I really need to eat now? Do I really need 3 meals a day, or do I just believe this to be true, because everyone I know believes this?” Like me, you were likely raised to believe we need to eat three meals a day, so the idea of not eating one of them could feel off, difficult, even unhealthy.

Consider this: 

Tomorrow morning, before you prepare to eat breakfast, stop, pause, and ask yourself, “Am I really hungry?” It’s crazy how often you’ll sense you are not hungry, but just responding to a habituated lifestyle habit.

Here’s the thing, before you wake up, around 4am, your body begins to pump growth hormone and adrenaline, which basically activates you for the day. You do NOT need to eat for energy for the day, your body has already prepared you in all the ways you need.

Experiment with fasting 

Start by fasting for 16 hours, and eating for  8 hours, and see how you feel. This is how I started, but after a while I felt so good, and fasting felt so easy, I extended the challenge to 20 hours of fasting and 4 hours of eating daily. And ya know what? I am not hungry at all, and I’m holding a healthy weight for someone my size. 

I know, you say, impossible. I could never do it! Ha! Try it, and you’ll see how easy it really becomes… and that’s when you’ll start to take on longer fasts. And the gold will be, you experiencing in a very lived and visceral way, all the benefits fasting offers.

I often juice fast, but today I raise my water glass to you! Cheers! 

Have you tried to “get healthy,” with only hit and miss results?

Do you feel something “off” with your health, on an intuitive level, but can’t figure out why? 

Were you diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, or suffer with chronic symptoms?

Over the past few years, my inquiry into digestive health and detoxification has expanded exponentially, with deeper and more complex reasons emerging as to why getting healthy seems to elude so many of us.

Looking Back

I remember a window of time early on in my get-healthy efforts, when I began eating only the most healthy foods available.

But in spite of my Herculean efforts, my body wasn’t absorbing the nutrients I took in — I remember my devoted mother and I regularly working side-by-side in my kitchen making only very healing food preps, yet one day I eliminated whole, intact supplement-capsules (yes, I saw them floating in the toilet completely intact). 

So in a scientific method approach (I say this very loosely. I’m far too open to alternative approaches to healing, to be bound by hard science), albeit from a desperate-for-healing-answers personal context, I voraciously read everything and anything about healing, to then implement and assess it’s curative viability over time. Did this approach, or that technique, provide “accurate, reliable and consistent” results and proof that “it” worked consistently over time?

My mother, like a devoted lab-assistant, couldn’t keep up with every new hypotheses I was putting under an ‘in-real-time’ lens, so she just continued volunteering her love and support for me with her devoted efforts, as I continued searching for “the” answer I needed to finally look and feel better. 

In spite of our combined efforts, however, I remained sick for many years. 

Answers Came

Over time, I discovered that my body was not a healthy vibrational receptor for the healthy food choices I was making. No sick body, at any level, is… 

I learned that beyond diet, I needed to focus on root cause of health problems. 

I learned that the endeavor to be healthy is far and away beyond just dietary changes. 

I learned that though every effort matters, that though progress is perfection, every effort is kinda’ like icing on a mud-pie, if we don’t remove the mud-pie — That is, if we don’t remove that which doesn’t belong in the human body…

I learned that yeast, mold, fungus, rogue-bacteria, parasites and toxic-environmental elements, like heavy metals, chemicals and radiation, carry a very low-vibrational frequency. And if these invaders thrive in greater numbers within your body, more than life-sustaining friendly flora, they’ll rapidly multiply, while making you, and the cells and tissues of your toxic body, their host for sustenance and survival. (Yes, pathogen thrive in toxic bodies.)

Question to Consider

Do you know what’s happening inside your body?

Sick people invariably suffer from both parasite infestation and heavy metal toxicity.

This is why changes in diet alone are not remotely enough, and don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise (Which is why the rise of arbitrary health recommendations from pseudo health practitioners could be holding you back!)

Healing is a matter of removing all that’s causing decay, corruption and internal degradation within, so that the body can return to the highest-frequency possible.

More Questions to Consider

Has the impact of the modern lifestyle, that is, has Fast-Food Nation, processed, nutrient-devoid foods, immediate gratification, gerbil-wheel mentality, chronic stress, toxic pollutants, rogue pathogen and parasites overtaken the inner-terrain of your body, or that of a loved one?

Can you trust that you’re achieving all you’re capable of achieving, can you trust you’re being all you were Divinely created to be, if the question lays bare, “Is your body laden with toxic waste matter, pathogen, parasites and toxic pollutants?”

Can you feel confident that you’re mind is a clear, sharp, highly-functioning tool, that your emotions are free, unfettered, and fully and uniquely you, without attending to conclusive research suggesting these low-vibrational invaders are overtaking your body? 

Cutting Edge Research

According to Dr. Todd Watts, a leader in parasitology, “If you have a pulse, you have parasites.”

Many of the breakthrough results my clients and I have achieved are a direct result of my expanded study into these deeper healing and detoxification modalities, like the impact of parasites, viruses and retroviruses, heavy metals, radiation and chemicals on the human body and it’s ability, or not, to thrive.

We’ve been able to:

• Rebuild immunity and regain health
• Increase real internal fire and energy
• Slow, stop and reverse chronic symptoms and chronic illness
• Claim radiance and energy in every way

And these results come from the healing detox lifestyle I personally practice, and recommend to all my clients. My methodology is squarely a game of removing — Removing that which does not belong inside the human body.

With the vibrational resonance this New Year carries, we’re all in line for high-level healing. So if feeling vibrant and healthy has eluded you up until now, if losing weight and conquering chronic cravings are goals you can never completely achieve, point your efforts towards deep-tissue cleansing, parasite cleansing, and the removal of heavy metals, viruses, chemicals and radiation, and… trust that I’ll be talking more about all of these themes going forward. 

Your Questions

Does what I say make sense? Does what I say not make sense, but on an intuitive level, something resonates for you?

If you have questions, comments, or thoughts you’d like to talk about, schedule a pitch-free call with me here.

2019 brought me my most challenging year yet, and perhaps the best year of my life thus far. 2019 asked me to stop, to utterly stop all outward movement, and to go deeply within in profound, meaningful and very active interior ways.

Many questions rose up.

Who are you? What do you perceive, when you look at yourself? When you look in the mirror, do you see someone worthy of love, compassion and acceptance? Do you recognize yourself as a friend?

With two most profound:

Do you believe you can turn to your own inner wisdom? Can you be your own apprentice?

An apprentice is one who is learning from another who is skilled, from one who possesses mastery. 

As I say to my clients in near every call we have, there comes a time when we must turn within, to find and get to know our Inner Guide, our Inner Teacher. There comes a time when we must apprentice ourselves. What does she want to teach us? What does he want us to know?

Consider this:

HOW can we ever hope to BE our best Selves, if we’re continuously responding to the onslaught of noise from the outside world? From others who are also trying to find their way, albeit imperfectly too? HOW can we ever hope to do our greatest work, if we’re disconnected from ourselves on a heart and Soul level?

My time away

I’ve learned so much from “The Summer of 2019,” which I’ll share about in big and little ways from this day forward. But for this post, I want to share with you a poem I’ve read many times over from my bed these past many months, from David Whyte, with the hopes that it inspires in you, as it has me.

Read it once. Read it twice. Read it many times, for it’s gifts are many-layered. Yes, can you apprentice yourself?

May it offer you all the gifts you need to hear from You, the eternal You within, now, and always.

Coleman’s Bed

Make a nesting now, a place to which
the birds can come, think of Kevin’s
prayerful palm holding the blackbird’s egg
and be the one, looking out from this place
who warms interior forms into light.
Feel the way the cliff at your back
gives shelter to your outward view
and then bring in from those horizons
all discordant elements that seek a home.

Be taught now, among the trees and rocks,
how the discarded is woven into shelter,
learn the way things hidden and unspoken
slowly proclaim their voice in the world.
Find that far inward symmetry
to all outward appearances, apprentice
yourself to yourself, begin to welcome back
all you sent away, be a new annunciation,
make yourself a door through which
to be hospitable, even to the stranger in you.

See with every turning day,
how each season makes a child
of you again, wants you to become
a seeker after rainfall and birdsong,
watch now, how it weathers you
to a testing in the tried and true,
admonishes you with each falling leaf,
to be courageous, to be something
that has come through, to be the last thing
you want to see before you leave the world.

Above all, be alone with it all,
a hiving off, a corner of silence
amidst the noise, refuse to talk,
even to yourself, and stay in this place
until the current of the story
is strong enough to float you out.

Ghost then, to where others
in this place have come before,
under the hazel, by the ruined chapel,
below the cave where Coleman slept,
become the source that makes
the river flow, and then the sea
beyond. Live in this place
as you were meant to and then,
surprised by your abilities,
become the ancestor of it all,
the quiet, robust and blessed Saint
that your future happiness
will always remember.

I wanted to share a story. I share in the Spirit of all that becomes possible for each of us, when we share our stories from our heart. This is a “Dark Night of the Soul” story.

This was Me

Since I can remember, I’ve always given 1000% to all that I do.

As a friend. As a mother. As an employee. As a student. As an entrepreneur, I always dive in FULL-tilt boogie. Like a dog with a bone it’s mouth, when I set my sight on something, I go after it 1000%!

Baby, I was born this way — A hard-working, steady, never-quit climber, who’s fiercely tenacious are my signature attributes.

And while these natural attributes have served me very well, a smart question to ask is, WHERE were you within this equation Carol? For example, if we use the analogy of me carrying a bunch of balloons, I was not one of them — Not one of the balloons I carried said “Carol” on it.

Sure, I was taking care of my son and every responsibility at home, at work and at school. Yes, I was cooking all our meals and paying all the bills, but… I was not taking care of me. I mean, yes, I would get manicures and pedicures, buy beautiful clothes and get fun hairstyles. I would go out with my friends to dance, sing and have fun. I would even get on my knees to pray to a God “out there,” outside of me, to help me be my best Self. But I was not taking care of me in all the ways my heart and Soul needed.

Though I’ve had “dry days” of feeling uncertain of my Faith like most spiritual seekers, I’ve always felt spiritually connected.

The Questions

But I never asked myself questions like, “Who are you, Carol?” What matters most to you, beyond what the world expects and wants of you? What would make your heart soar, Carol, beyond the approval of what others think is best? What would fulfill your heart and Soul, Carol? Why are you here, and HOW does your Highest Self want to express Itself?”

And there were signs across my life that I needed to get to these questions, but… the busyness of life and the excitement of every new endeavor distracted me from getting to them.

I can remember one night when walking my beloved Shana, our beagle of 17 years, in Boston, after moving there to earn my M.Ed at Boston College, and looking up at the radiant, sparking stars in the oh-so dark night sky, when tears began to stream down my face. I remember literally saying out loud, “I can’t do it anymore,” and feeling “I can’t do what ‘they’ want me to do anymore,” as my salty tears ran into my mouth.

But carry on I did. Back to work. Back to school. Back to everyday responsibilities. 

What else could I do, right?

The Dark Night of the Soul

Have you ever heard of “The Dark Night of the Soul,” that St. John of the Cross talked and wrote about? In his book, “The Dark Night of the Soul,” he wrote, “This Dark Night is the inflowing of God into the soul which purges it of its ignorances and imperfections, natural and spiritual, and which is called by contemplatives infused contemplation. Herein God secretly teaches the soul and instructs it in perfection of love without its doing anything or understanding of what manner is this infused contemplation.”

When in Ireland last year, I had significant spiritual moment, among 3-months of spiritual moments. I was out riding my bike in the rain, when I was confronted with the impact of not answering these questions earlier in life. Tears fell as the questions rose up, “Who are you, Carol?” What matters most to you, beyond what the world expects and wants of you? What would make your heart soar, Carol, beyond the approval of what others think is best for you? What would fulfill your heart and Soul, Carol? Why are you here, Carol?”

It was a Sacred moment no doubt, but… carry on I did, again, when I came back to Connecticut from Ireland. In fact, I returned home early and did not go to southern Italy because I wanted to get back to my work.

It was time, I thought. I felt clear and good about my decision.

But resistance kept showing up in my work since returning. 

I couldn’t find my groove. I was struggling with getting back to all that I love about all that I do, like I had before I left.

The Dark Night of My Soul

And then a month ago, in early June, I attended a live business event in Corvallis, Oregon.

While there, in one moment, like a key in a lock, the door of “The Dark Night of MY Soul,” opened.

No, I did not have words for what was happening. No, I did not understand why I couldn’t stop crying and why I felt so lost, so unsteady. But, yes, oh yes, I was unequivocally sure that now was the time to get the answers to the questions, though the free-fall of the moment makes it near impossible to do.

The Dark Night, a Cake Walk and Faith

I’m amidst a Spiritual crisis, a Dark Night of the Soul. And while there have been moments that have felt unbearable, moments that have taken me to my knees these past few months, because I am literally being asked to question WHERE and HOW and WHY I’ve acquiesced my power in important ways across my life (which is shaking me at the root level of who I know myself to be), because I KNOW if I don’t, HOW could I EVER hope to confidently share ALL that I KNOW makes a difference about living a full and vibrant life, if I am NOT speaking from the empowered Voice I was charged to use?

NO doubt, I AM walking in Faith. 

But by opening to the experience, I literally feel like I climbed on a rocket ship driven by The Universe, with Spirit leading the way.

I believe that “my calling” my charge by the Higher realms of Life is to share all that I’ve learned about healing a body, for all the gold it offers, BUT… I’ve consciously chosen to put every idea of my own down, to open to the guidance sent my way.

Is it scary? Heck ya! BUT, after living a life of acquiescing to every external impulse that came my way, I FULLY and HEARTILY open to EVERY internal impulse I hear. Within the context of what poet Mary Oliver calls, living my “One wild and precious life,” for everyone else but me, this Dark Night will be a cake-walk, versus selling my Soul to every Tom, Dick and Harry.

Have you Ever Experienced a Dark Night of the Soul?

Does what I share feel familiar?

Does what I share feel insulting to the experience (please say yes! There’s so much I didn’t say, right? Ha!)

What was your experience like?

I, and my readers would love to hear your insights!

You try so darn hard to implement healthy eating and healthy lifestyle habits.

But no matter what you do, you feel like you’ve still “not arrived.”

And you feel frustrated, confused and flat-out baffled on what to do, with no lasting results, though you’ve tried so many of the oh-so many expert dietary theories in the airwaves today!

I was invited to a Facebook Live interview this week, and since I covered a lot of healthy ground in this conversation, I wanted to share it with you.

Among the topics I talk about are, “The Diet Myth,” “Why Detoxification Matters,” “The Garbage Bag Theory,” “Parasites,” “Heavy Metals,” and so much more! Yes, it’s a content-rich conversation that I know you’ll appreciate.

If you are, or have been in the get-healthy game for some time, but feel on an intuitive level that you’re not yet seeing the results you feel you should by now, listen in on this conversation. JoAnne asks important questions, that helps me get to many important topics and responses.

Questions?

As always, feel free to post your questions below, or email me here. 

Do you know that there are 168 hours in one week?

So if you sleep 8 hours every night, you get 112 waking hours every week to do what is most important to you — 16 hours every day to prioritize what you most value. 

Perspective

I met with someone recently, and asked him, “What was missing early on in life, that could have made a difference for you?

He didn’t hesitate. It’s like he knew I would ask him this question, but he didn’t, which is why his response still rings in me.

“Perspective. That I get to be 65, I’ve learned something that other 65 year olds told me early on in life. If I listened back then, it would have made all the difference. And that is, the only accomplishment that matters in life is love and health. But 20 years ago, work was what mattered most. IF I listened back then, everything would be different today.” 

He shared his wisdom on the heals of burying his wife of 38 years, who died in her early 60s from cancer. 

Two guiding questions

We get 16 hours every day to prioritize what we most value, what’s most important to us. 

There’s two questions that guide me back to what I most value, what’s most important to me about anything at all, and they never fail to set me straight.

“Will this help me be my Highest expression of Self?”

“Is this Life-generating, for me, and for others?” 

What’s most important to you?

What do you most value?

What guides you?

What sets you straight? 

Have you noticed that everyone’s an “expert” these days? With the explosion of social media and it’s free platform to spotlight individual opinion, and the gorilla marketing strategies that even your 12-year old neighbor can study on YouTube, many insist they know exactly what you need to do to be your best self. But to my point, there are many health “experts” who claim they know exactly what you should eat to look and feel healthy and vibrant.

In response, you may feel completely confused and have no idea what to do, or what is best for you and your body. I can’t blame you. I didn’t know what to do either, when I first set out to find answers on how to reclaim my health and vitality.

The Impact of the Modern Lifestyle

But with the impact of the modern lifestyle, Fast-food Nation, the immediate gratification fishbowl we’ve all been raised within, with it’s endless ripple effect on the state of our health and quality of life, especially with the growing statistics of chronic disease… Which is all now further complicated by technology and social media, I recommend you consider what you think is best. I recommend you spend some time questioning the insanity of the escalating statistics of chronic disease today, on you, or someone you love dearly, and even drill deeper to find answers to sub-questions beyond, “what diet is best?”

But to ask different questions, you’ve got to step back from all the external noise of social media, technology, TV and opinions of others, so you’re not simply responding to what they think is best for you. By shutting down all the external noise and turning inward, you’ll  better hear your own wisdom, your own inner knowing and… your own basic commonsense. This is why meditation and mindfulness have grown by leaps and bounds. These teachers and practitioners know that by turning inward, you can gain access to your most primal, innate personal wisdom and power. 

Many years back, long before social media took over my life (It’s addictive and destructive in nature, it’s been designed to be addictive, so consequently can be destructive), I identified three questions before the flood of “experts” could cloud my reasoning — Three questions I call lowest-common-denominator, and generative questions that helped me reclaim my health. I continue to use these questions, as I navigate the red waters of “expertise.” I share these three questions with you, to inspire you to step back and go within, to see if they resonate as smart, as basic commonsense, as useful.

My Three Guiding Questions:

1. What does the human body most need to thrive? Hint: Energy I know, you’re goal is to simply look and feel your best — You might not give a flying hoot about things like quantum physics. BUT… If you dial back to elementary level science, you’ll remember learning that solid matter does not exist in the universe. That at our most basic structural level, at an atomic and subatomic level, you and I are a whirling buzz of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons are packed together in the center of the atom, the nucleus, and the electrons buzz around them at crazy high speed! So… if we’re more energy than matter, doesn’t it make sense to stalk that which gives us more? (Hence, why I talk about eating more raw foods with electricity = Life Force Energy!)
2. What foods will give maximum energy and (MOST important) leave the body efficiently? Though there’s an endless stream of dietary theories and recommendations today, it’s smart to consider what each actually propose — If the recommendation includes processed, denatured, devitalized, dead and/or heavy, dense foods that are hard for the body to breakdown, eliminate or cause excess inflammation and mucous production, you want to ask a few sub-questions, like,
   1. Does the food you’re eating give the body energy, or does it take more energy than it gives (To break down, digest and eliminate)?
   2. Does it give energy, and leave efficiently, so not to add to, and/or promote the growth of yeast, mold, fungus, rogue bacteria and pathogen in the body? (Alas, the preponderance of digestive and autoimmune problems today — Stagnancy is the root of illness.)
   3. Does the diet include foods that feed the overgrowth of yeast, mold, fungus, rogue bacteria and pathogen?
3. WHAT foods help the body release the backlog and accumulation of toxic waste matter? Some foods energize, leave efficiently, and magnetize toxic waste out of the body. These are the foods Mother Nature provides in abundance, and are best in their live, raw, alkaline state, especially leafy greens. Think of these foods like magnetic “Scrubbing Bubbles” that, with their Life Force Energy, literally pull accumulated toxic waste matter out of the cells and tissues in your body. That most of us have lived on the Standard American Diet most of our lives, if not all of us, this question is worth putting under your careful, probing lens. You don’t want to choose a diet that cause stagnancy. A stagnant colon is like a backed up septic system — What good can possibly come from a backed up septic system… in the middle of your bod, which is a critical backlash from living on processed foods for generations now.

From this context, choosing paleo, keto, vegan, vegetarian, raw, WFPB or any of the many other new and fan-dangled diets that have spawned in response to the myriad of chronic symptoms we’re experiencing today, is not the quintessential question. 

You must first ask different questions, so that you can get the answers you need as to why you’re still experiencing chronic or acute symptoms, though you eat healthy. This effort alone can yield enormous benefit.

If you step back, commonsense will tell you that many of these diets, on second take, make no sense scientifically. You’ll begin to understand how, though you’ll initially feel better from most any diet, if you stopped eating processed Franken-Foods, over the long haul, they’re simply not sustainable.  You’ll begin to realize that, as with everything, like Tony Robbins said, “The quality of your life is a direct reflection of the quality of the questions you are asking yourself.”

Your Turn

Do you struggle with what diet makes best sense?

Do you still experience acute or chronic symptoms, though you eat healthy?

Has the fast pace of life caused you to feel disconnected from your deeper inner-knowing, your basic commonsense?

Perhaps you’ve got questions. Please post them, or your thoughts, ideas or comments below. I’d love to help. Or email me here.

Do you struggle with one step forward, two steps back in your get-healthy efforts? Do you hate to say no, when you want to say yes, even though saying no will help you get what you most want?

Do you more often than not choose anything and everything that will make “it” easier, rather than deal with the confrontation change requires?

I remember a few years back when reading Sharon Salzberg’s highly acclaimed book, “Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation.” I paused when she guided me and her other readers to take “mental note” of the emotions that show up when we set out to meditate. She said,

“You may notice yourself resisting these difficult emotions and the bodily sensations that accompany them—pushing them away and feeling ashamed of them. Or perhaps you find yourself getting pulled into them—replaying an argument, or reliving feelings of rage, helplessness, or humiliation.”

Salzberg, with my Dad and others, taught me about the “fleetingness” of emotions — That they come, and they go, like clouds floating by in the sky… But it’s how we respond that’s meaningful, for our health and wellbeing, and for every other goal we hope to achieve in life.

I spoke to a former client recently, a client that totally dominated his 6-month coaching program with me. He scheduled a call to “reboot” his commitment to the many results he gained. Because, though he achieved every health and life goal he wanted in our work together, he said, “Carol, no one I know eats healthy; This makes it really hard for me to stick with all that I learned!”

Three Questions and One Quote:

I asked my former client to consider three questions,

1. Did you stick with taking consistent action every day, after your program ended?
2. Did you stick with your morning ritual, to help you stay focused on what you most want?
3. What did falling off the plan teach you? Help you see?

And I reminded him of a favorite quote,

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” —Aristotle

Beyond Struggle, Beyond Fleeting Emotions

Did you see the 1996 Olympics, or ever hear of Olympic gold-winner Kerri Strug and how she unwittingly became a national hero at that event?

Kerri Strug was a member of “The Magnificent Seven,” the victorious all-around women’s gymnastics team that represented the United States at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. When performing her first Vault, Strug under-rotated her landing and badly damaged her ankle. But despite her injury, Strug completed her final Vault, landed on both feet, if even for just a moment, to help the USA Women’s gymnastic team win all-round gold!

It was a breathtaking site to behold, to watch 19-year young Strug run down the mat for her second Vault, in spite of her injury. It was an emotional site to behold, to watch her lift her arms in victory, while she raised her injured foot in pain. It was a fierceness of mental mastery and conviction to witness, because of the struggle of the moments.

Trust Your Struggle

When my former client paused to consider my questions, my heart reached out to assure him that I SO understood, and… That “one step forward and two steps back” is the way. That “inch by inch, results are a cinch.” That, I too remember the many times I felt like “odd girl out,” and ended up caving to the spoken, and often unspoken pressure to “stick with the tribe,” and “just shut up and eat the pizza already!” Those times that were equally mixed with relief to just “go with the flow” and the freedom to just let go of my own struggle with, “Why does healthy have to be so hard?”

But when we pause, for even just a few minutes, on the mental mastery 19-year young Kerri Strug beamed for all the world to see at the 1996 Olympics, every opportunity that comes to us, including the times that feel challenging and utterly impossible, becomes an opportunity to choose what we most want again.

And when we pause, for even just a few more minutes, on the wise insight Sharon Salzberg offers in her book, “Real Happiness,” that thoughts are just thoughts, and emotions are just emotions, that they both come, and they both go, and both are only laden with the meaning we give them, we learn how every moment becomes our teacher. We can choose struggle as a lesson on “it’s hard,” and we can choose struggle as a lesson on, ‘we know what we want, by what we know we don’t want.’

Every so-called struggle, becomes our best teacher. Every so-called adversity, becomes our best friend. Every so-called struggle becomes an opportunity to open to the lessons of the experience and choose again.

From this perspective, struggle doesn’t feel like struggle. Rather, it feels like a learning opportunity to stalk.

Trust your struggle. Be thankful for your struggle. Without it, I’ve learned, we would would never discover our strengths.

What Could Be Possible?

What could be possible if you could let go of “it’s hard?’ What would would be different for you, if you trusted your struggle? More results? More fun? More ease, more joy, more energy?

Learn how to “Eliminate Excuses: Prioritize Your Health Now,” in 7 short days HERE? It’s FREE

Do you have beliefs and thoughts that seem to stop you in one area of life, though you’re successful in other areas? Beliefs and thoughts that limit you from looking and feeling as amazing as you deserve, for example? Beliefs and thoughts that hold you back and leave you feeling like a victim of circumstance, rather than empowered and fired-up about all that you’re capable of achieving?  

Do these beliefs and thoughts leave you overweight, over-tired, prematurely aging or with chronic symptoms that leave you feeling heartbroken, or worse, angry? 

And like the proverbial gerbil wheel, because you’re so tired, so heartbroken or so flat-out disenchanted, do you feel caught in the never-ending cycle of wanting, but never getting, because stories like “being healthy is too hard” holds you back? 

Trust this, there are millions from all walks of life, if not you, and from all socio-economic brackets, cultures and ages, who suffer from poor health and dashed dreams because they can’t get off the gerbil-wheel of disappointment. And because they don’t know what to do, in spite of the success they’ve made in other areas of life, they acquiesce to unhealthy lifestyle habits, and turn to quick fixes that don’t work. 

You’re Not Done Wanting

But… though you’re upset, you’re not done wanting to figure it out… to look and feel your best. Though you feel trapped by the perpetual gerbil wheel, inside the limiting stories that have held you back from losing the excess weight, feeling vibrant and energized and looking radiant and healthy, you’ve NOT thrown in the towel yet. You still want to look, feel and BE your very BEST Self!   

What could be possible for you, if I told you I had a little secret that could help you drop the limiting stories that “healthy lifestyle habits are too hard, too time-consuming and no fun,” so you could create the results you most want, and most deserve?

The Pre-Secret: The Pre-Cursor to my Little Secret

Eleven years back I trained extensively with a training and development group in personal development, leadership and coaching. One of my favorite things about this training was something called “clearing calls.” We were required to schedule a clearing call with a coach trained in generating the space of possibility, before we went to a coaching session. But the best part was, before we went to this call, we were required to clean up any messes we made with people, or ourselves, so those messes couldn’t get in our way of creating results, for our clients and ourselves.

Clearing calls were required to happen before we met with clients, to make sure we were clear of anything that could get in our way of generating real results.

The coolest thing I LOVED about these calls was how I got to see how beliefs and thoughts operate in the background, and could get in my way of achieving results, if I didn’t clear them. 

Clearing calls offered me a powerful window into the ways our very own thoughts can thwart the results we achieve.

The Secret: Emotional Freedom Technique

Fast-forward 7 years, I met (through his work) world-renowned Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) expert, Brad Yates. 

EFT, also known as Tapping, is an alternative approach to healing that draws from Chinese acupuncture, neurolinguistic programming and energy medicine, and is known to clear thought patterns that can limit us from achieving the results we most want to achieve.

Before I proceed, bear in mind I am a hard-core pragmatist. Even though I am Spiritually driven and get high on the avant garde, I am way more practical than “woo woo.” I get high on smart and scientifically proven solutions in my work, so EFT only initially felt a little “out there” for me.

But because EFT felt so reminiscent to the clearing calls I was trained earlier on, it quickly gained the stature of a very smart, practical tool to integrate into my life and my work.

Brad Yates unknowingly pulled me to EFT. He first captivated me with the level of heart he brings to his work — He’s made and offers for FREE over 800 EFT videos on every thought pattern and emotional block you can imagine on his highly tracked YouTube Channel… So I started to play with EFT, and even began introducing it to my clients. 

An Overview of the Endless Possibilities of Emotional Freedom Technique and Brad’s You Tube Channel and Coaching 

Tapping:

1. Begin by picking a specific block, or limiting story that seems to get in your way of achieving the results you most want. For example, do thoughts like, “I can’t lose weight,” “Healthy is too hard,” “I can’t stop procrastinating,” “I don’t have enough time,” “It’s all his/her fault,” seem to hold you back?
2. Type your thought or block into the search tool on the far right of Brad’s YouTube Channel. or you could simply peruse his playlists or video offerings. To begin with, find one video that resonates with you and your individual experiences for the best results.
3. In the video, Brad will guide you through “a tapping session,” with his classic light-hearted, but very generous and genuine way. But make no mistake, you’ll feel his heart, and his commitment to helping you move beyond the thoughts that seem to get in your way.

Tapping is cool. Brad will show you how to tap on specific meridian points, while saying specific phrases designed to presence you to your best Self and clear the roots of your limiting thought patterns. 

But the coolest things about tapping is, you’ll be able to clear limiting thoughts for yourself, and by yourself with the endless tapping sessions Brad Yates guides you through on YouTube. 

BUT… with that said, I’d be sorely remiss if I didn’t share about the power of Brad’s 1:1 coaching work — I scheduled private 1:1 time with him, to address a specific matter. And like the master practitioner that he is, he excavated exactly what I needed to ‘get to,” though I thought we’d address it very differently, to clear my limiting thoughts. It was an extraordinary experience. Second to none. Like Jack Canfield says best, “Brad Yates is a master teacher. He is a warm, loving, powerful, effective, transformative force for good. I totally endorse his work.”

AND… he’s got the most amazing mini-programs that I personally LOVE too! I can’t say enough about the enormous value these programs offer, and the price point can’t be matched! You can check them all out here, but please put special attention on his upcoming program, Tap Into Your Unstoppable Self! This is a donation-based program, with 100% of the proceeds going to directly to the Unstoppable Foundation, an organization that seeks to end poverty through education (Brad is the BEST!). But rather than simply building schools, it also creates the infrastructure to help communities thrive, so the children can actually attend school. With access to education, they have the ability to overcome so many obstacles… and to become Unstoppable too!

Join Brad… and me, and the Unstoppable Foundation for perhaps the most amazing tapping program yet… because it’s such a win-win! But listen in to Brad here. He says it best:

Get Off the Gerbil Wheel 

Everything I share with you is yet another cut at creating freedom physically, mentally, emotionally, Spiritually and energetically. Everything I research, study, experiment with and personally practice emanate from my goal of me being my BEST Self, and you being your BEST Self. Everything I recommend is a tool, of sorts, to help you get off the gerbil wheel that leaves you wanting, rather than getting… what you most want!

As Brad recently said to me, “I’m not woo-woo at all. Tapping is a very practical tool that offers very tangible results.” So though you may have never tapped before, the world is taking this practice on by storm. With me, author and success coach, Jack Canfield, endorses Tapping and Brad Yates. Olympic athletes Bralon Taplin and Devon Allen tap before their events. Celebrities Lily Allen and Madonna, with author and alternative health teacher Deepak Chopra all practice and endorse tapping. 

In the Spirit of you achieving every goal you want to achieve. In the Spirit of breaking through old-patterned ways of thinking that hold you back. In the Spirit of “nothing ventured, nothing gained,” try tapping, though you may have never tried it before. Experiment with it, as millions of others are today. IF it can help you get off the gerbil-wheel of no results and clear all that holds you back, why the heck not, right?

Questions?

If you’ve got any questions, any previous experiences you want to share, any personal insights that you know could be helpful, please post them below. I’d love to help in any way. I’d love to hear what you’ve learned, or would like to learn from EFT…

You lost weight. You mastered the diet. You resumed a fitness routine. You reduced chronic symptoms. You even developed a greater understanding of the ways your thoughts predicate what you eat, what you believe about healthy versus unhealthy, and even what you need to do to create consistent and healthy results.

You were in the flow and feeling solid in your get-healthy game and the results you were achieving.

And then something happened that sent you reeling. Your significant other deeply upset you. Your co-worker wrongly snapped at you. The company you were working with on a deal-of-a-lifetime offered it to someone else.

And you found yourself feeling defeated, angry and hurt… while sitting in front of an empty bottle of wine and extra-large-sized box of pizza.

And you couldn’t understand what happened.

Rather, intellectually you understood that you were just flat-out upset and reacting. But you also knew, because you felt it, that your unhealthy reactions not only left you feeling physically awful and mentally unfocused, you felt a sense of guilt. Guilt not because you were eating and drinking foods you swore off, but because you KNEW with every glass of wine you drank and every bite of pizza you ate, you were sabotaging your goal to reclaim your health and put your diagnosis in remission.

Breakdowns for Breakthroughs

My client announced his falling off “the program,” as soon as he got to our call.

This client is a player, in the highest sense of the definition. He gets that his success happens with every effort he extends, even if he falters. And he’s human too, in vulnerable and straight-shooting kinds of ways. He gets that his success happens, especially when he falters, because he knows a breakdown offers him the opportunity to poke at why it happened, which often gives way to a whole new understanding of what happened.

In my coaching practice, I work out of three “buckets.” The first bucket is a bucket loaded with nutrition and fitness strategies, tools and actions to use to help the body rebalance and heal on a physical level. The second bucket is the same; strategies, tools and actions to use, to help train and condition they mind to support winning, just like building muscles! The third bucket is the same, but with these strategies, tools and actions, we set to build connection to Self. No bucket is more important than the other. Each bucket is equally important, but in different ways for different clients. Each bucket, and the unique tools and strategies it provides, serves every client in a different way, because every client arrives with their own unique and distinctive needs.

This client dominates the nutrition game. This client dominates the mindset game. But something’s been missing. 

Beyond Why

Many talk about the power of why these days: your why is your purpose, the cause or belief that drives you. For example, why do you go to the gym? Why do you want to eat healthy? Why do you get out of bed every morning? Why do you want to lose weight? What is your why and why does it matter?

But the thing is, this client is crystal clear on WHY he hired me: He wants to defy a serious diagnosis, for himself, for his family, and for every moment of laughter, love and joy a healthy future promises him with his young daughter. This why, this compelling reason IS what’s helped him create such great success in his program thus far.

The Most Missing Thing in the Be-Healthy Game

As my client and I poked around his breakdown to see if we could find “what’s missing that could make a difference,” he said, “Just yesterday I was feeling like something’s missing.”

I’ve discovered in my work that there’s something most often missing in the be-healthy game, something deeper to tap into beyond the obvious actions of eating clean, working out, rebalancing gut health, shifting our mindset, and even our very compelling reason why we want what we want. This thing is a deeper and more meaningful connection to our BEST and Highest Selves; the person we KNOW ourselves to be, beyond the self-sabotage. It’s like we find ourselves doing things that don’t match who we know ourselves to be, and what we most want in life.

This client’s mastered the healing diet. He’s upleveled his fitness game. His mindset is clear and strong. He’s shifting his white blood cell count, which IS the big goal we’re after! But something’s been missing on a heart-level, and it’s sabotaging his crystal clear and very compelling why he wants to defy the health problem his doctors diagnosed.

I asked him, “What could be possible, if every thing you did, if every choice you made, emanated from your BEST Self, from your desire to BE an expression of your Highest Self? Rather than simply adding another check to the list of actions I recommend you take, that give you the feeling of success, but still leave you disempowered in front of an empty pizza box. What could be different, if the actions you took solely emanated from your desire to be your BEST and Highest Self for no reason other than that? 

My questions landed. The landing was palpable, so I recommended he now take time everyday to connect to his BEST, and Highest sense of Self. This IS the single missing thing that most often shows up in the be-healthy game! And of course it would, right, since life asks so much of us every day?

To help him connect to his Highest sense of Self, beyond all the impressive get-healthy success he’s created thus far, I recommended he get outside and reconnect with Nature, that he meditate and slow down, to reconnect with breath, his heart, and what really matters most to him, and that he enjoy the silence of the morning with prayerful verses, quiet time and grounding exercises.

The End-Game Requirement

As Werner Erhard said,

“Life is a game. In order to have a game, something has to be more important than something else. If what already is, is more important than what isn’t, the game is over. So, life is a game in which what isn’t, is more important than what is.”

When we face a serious medical diagnosis, or a lifetime of failed efforts in creating vibrant health in spite of the many efforts we’ve extended, “what isn’t,” vibrant health, grows in importance, and even urgency, depending on the state of your health and the end-game you most want to, and even need to achieve. I help my clients discover within themselves the almighty missing link, the most missing thing in their be-healthy game, so that they win their end-goal.

How could making every choice you make from the center of your BEST and Highest Self impact you, your life and your Be-healthy game? Excuses would give way. Reasons would disappear. Other’s opinions would no longer matter. Healthy habits and high-performing actions would be the only options that would rise up on your radar!

My client wants to enjoy every year he can with his daughter. That very much matters, to him, and to me… and he needs to reverse an acute diagnosis to realize this goal. And so he plays like a player. Every action he takes bespeaks that of high performer committed to winning, even when he experiences a breakdown! He blows me away.

What do you have at stake, for you, your life and your health? Do you know what is most missing in your be-healthy game? Tell me in the comments below. I’d love to help!