Do you know that nearly 70% of Americans take at least one prescription medication, and more than 50% take two?

Do you know that 20% of Americans take five or more prescription medications?

That within these statistics of prescribed medications, antibiotics, antidepressants and painkilling opioids are the most commonly prescribed.

And these statistics are dated. Newsweek says that the use of prescription medication continues to rise.

Consider this, prescription medications treat symptoms.

Symptoms challenge us. Symptoms disrupt our lives. Symptoms inconvenience, trouble and distress us.

Symptoms wreak havoc on our lives.

Symptoms wreaked havoc on my life and many of my client’s lives.

Consider this, without symptoms there is no longer a motivation to do what it takes to find the root cause of the symptom, to heal the symptom, to live life beyond the symptom.

The pill is that powerful. It removes the need to slow down, to eat healthy, to move your body in ways that promote vitality, but while your not experiencing the distress the symptoms cause, the problem continues to progress = you think you’re OK, you think you’re all better, thanks to the pill… while the root cause continues unabated. 

Consider this, the human body was designed to be healthy, energetic, vibrant, and… heal itself.

TELL ME

Do you think pharmaceutical medications are over-prescribed today?

Do you think you could be doing a better job taking care of your body and your health?

Please do note, I am not saying that there is not a time in life to take a prescription medication. I am saying that statistics show we’re using a lot of prescription medication. I’m also saying that symptoms can be very useful, if we use them to guide us to better understanding what our body needs to be naturally energetic and vibrant again. 

Tell me what you think in the comments section below.

I walked out of the restaurant kitchen lugging a very big and very heavy tray of food on my shoulder.

I looked around the main dining room and the laughter, fun and festivity in the air punched me in the gut.

At 23 years old, I was exhausted. It seemed like all I did was work.

In those moments, it seemed like no one in the room could ever match how hard I worked. I stood there tired and sweating and baffled. They sat there having fun.

I mean, I was always working, and these guests were always coming to the restaurant to have fun and enjoy themselves.

That moment unwittingly spurred a lifetime of inquiry into the inner-tickings of human potential. I wanted to understand why some were successful and having fun with life, and why I wasn’t.

Over the past 25 years I’ve learned much, but three things stand out as key to achieving our best and being our best:

 

WHAT WE EAT MATTERS. It’s irrefutable. In the most basic understanding, our bodies are simply biochemical machines, a system of connecting impulses, chemical reactions, electric currents and shared information that work synergistically together. What we eat drives these actions.

To achieve full potential, all of those processes need to happen.

But during those days at the restaurant, I didn’t eat healthfully. And because of it, I suffered with several chronic health problems, like Leaky Gut Syndrome, chronic urinary tract infections and chronic allergies.

So the notion of achieving my fullest potential was not even in the realm of my life experience. Full potential? What’s that? Find me a doctor who can tell me why I feel so poorly, and then we can talk about anything else you want to talk about.

But when I put nutrition first, the most amazing thing began to happen. As my body got healthier, the horizon of opportunity literally began to rise up for me in ways I didn’t even know existed when I was sick.

 

WHO WE SPEND TIME WITH MATTERS. It’s said that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. So it stands to reason, that if we spend time with people who are committed to their personal growth, we’ll spend our time committed to our personal growth.

But I had quit high school, so I didn’t go on to develop new friendships with people who were talking about things that interested me as I got older, so I had to get resourceful to find them.

I began to find my tribe in the books I read. Authors like Marianne Williamson, Tony Robbins and Jack Canfield inspired me to think far beyond the circumstances of my life… and soon my sphere of influence included motivating and educational audio tracks, YouTube channels and even basic seminars in the basement of a local hospital.

Who we spend time with matters. It can make the difference between reaching for excellence, or accepting ‘good enough.’ It can make the difference between living with chronic symptoms, or finding a tribe who can help you heal your body, so you can achieve your full potential.

 

MORE THAN FOOD MATTERS.

One afternoon I discovered that my body was unable to digest the supplements I was taking. Yes, that meant my body was unable to break them down. But what I also got was, if my body couldn’t break down the pills I was taking,

Eating healthy food alone was not enough — If my body couldn’t break down the supplements I was taking, how could it break down the food I ate?

That we are not what we eat, but rather we are what we digest, and that healing the digestive wall is the essential first step for any health protocol, and…

That every choice we make contributes to the quality of our health and wellbeing, so we must include personal practices like meditating and journaling, to strengthen our relationship with our self.

The alternative is, every choice we make will pivot off a self fragmented by the demands of a busy life, rather than a calm, centered self.

Back in those early restaurant days, when I felt overworked and exhausted, sick and disheartened, I never even considered that there could be another way, which is probably why I’ve loved this quote from Copernicus since I first heard it, “To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” For me this quote says that by acknowledging that there are things that I don’t know, I can find comfort, and even excitement in the questions and the challenges new learning asks of me, rather than a test of my intellect or ability. From this perspective, answers appear that I might not have ever known existed, like, what we eat matters, who we spend time with matters, and more than food matters.

 

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR MOMENT

Now that I’ve shared one of my stories on the power of a moment, I’d love to hear from you.

When looking back, what moments inspired big life change for you? Did you act on what you learned? Why? Why not?

How did the a-ha moments shift your health or your life?

Fill me in by leaving a comment below.

The Ugly Truth About Sugar

It was 2:00 am. I was asleep, but woke up and made my way to the kitchen. I poured a big glass of milk and sat at the kitchen table with a sleeve of Chips A’Hoy cookies. It was kind of a ritual. I loved Chips A’Hoy cookies.

But this particular morning, through my sleepy stupor, I noticed this sick kind of insatiability, like I couldn’t eat the cookies fast enough.

Kind of like feeling possessed.

I looked down. The sleeve of cookies was near gone.

At the time, I didn’t know about the work of Dr. William Crook and his book, “The Yeast Connection.” But when my new naturopathic doctor asked me if I’d ever been tested for candida, he explained that though candida lives in our mouth and intestines and helps with digestion and absorption, when imbalanced and overproduced it could be the cause of a seemingly endless of array of problems throughout the body.

I looked at him and said, “However you measure it, I will be off the charts.”

At that time I had many chronic symptoms, with a team of doctors who all had their recommendations for the specific problem I sought their help. Even my gynecologist had his recommendations, “Carol, take an antibiotic every time you have sex,” as ‘the cure’ for the chronic yeast infections I experienced.

Take an antibiotic every time I have sex? I was 26 years old and in a healthy monogamous relationship.

As I suspected, the yeast in my body could not be measured and had become what is described as a polysystemic disease, which means it affected more than one system in my body.

Indeed.

I learned that yeast over-growth, or candida albicans as it is formerly known, loves sugar. That it has an insatiable appetite for sugar. It thrives and grows and flourishes on sugar. It will die without sugar. It screams for sugar.

I was relieved.

Relieved that I found an explanation that made sense for what I was experiencing, for the constant and unstable cravings controlling my health and the whole quality of my life.

I learned that sugar is as addictive as heroin, destroys the balance of friendly bacteria and unhealthy bacteria on the gut wall and acts like an opioid on the brain.

I learned that when candida is imbalanced in our body, it releases toxic by-products and breaks down the digestive wall causing leaky gut, and so much more, like,

• Digestive problems like bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhea and dysbiosis
• Exhaustion. chronic fatigue and poor sleep patterns
• Headaches, dizziness, poor concentration, poor memory, brain fog and inability to focus
• Hormonal imbalance, mood swings, irritability, anxiety, depression and panic attacks
• Autoimmunity such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, lupus, multiple sclerosis and even psoriasis
• Vaginal yeast infections and urinary tract infections
• Chronic allergies, including asthma
• Insatiable cravings for sugar and refined carbohydrate
• Fungal infections, like nail infections and athlete’s foot
• Seems like an amorphous list? It did to me at first, except I could check near everything listed.

If you have candida, I suspect you recognize yourself in there too.

To combat the effects of candida, I recommend my clients include supplements like garlic capsules, caprylic acid, oregano and/or clove oil and colloidal silver to kill the over-growth of yeast.

You should also include high dose probiotics of 50-100 billion units, and fermented vegetables to repopulate the friendly flora, counter the overgrowth of unfriendly bacteria, support healthy digestion and absorption and support healthy immune function.

And most importantly, include a diet high in leafy greens in juices, smoothies and salads, and exclude the 5 top inflammatory foods, gluten, sugar, caffeine, dairy and alcohol for a healing interim.

Milk and cookies might be a sweet memory from days gone by for some, but I discovered that there is an ugly truth about sugar and we can no longer look the other way.

If you suspect you have candida, or know someone who may be suffering from it’s effects, please contact me at carol@carol-egan.com

No matter how accomplished my clients are, they all come to our work together saying they’ve yet to master the area of health and wellbeing.

Think about it, do you feel like you’re at your ideal weight, physically strong and consistently energized throughout the day? Clear and focused, without wrestling with food cravings and/or chronic symptoms?

Are you happy with your overall health, unencumbered by nagging chronic symptoms or reoccurring health problems?

If you’re like most people, likely not. If you’re like most of my clients, this flat-out does not work.

All say things like,  though they’ve managed to get every promotion they’ve wanted, achieved every goal they’ve aspired to, earned the nod of the Board Chair and now travel the world, they don’t know what to do to get healthy and stay healthy.

I so get it. I tried every healing modality I ever heard of before ‘it’ clicked, for me.

And I learned a kind of ironic thing along the way, to achieve results in any get-healthy game, actually to achieve results in any area of life, you’ve got to know what’s working, and what’s not, IF you want to create healthy lifestyle habits that last.

Exactly. Healthy lifestyle habits are not simply about eating healthy food and getting to the gym. Healthy lifestyle habits are a holistic endeavor.

Which is why I recommend stepping back from your get-healthy, weight-loss and fitness goals for a minute, to check out The Wheel of Life.

The Wheel of Life is a seemingly benign exercise, but it offers usable insights about areas of life that could be helping you, or hindering you, areas that are working for you, and the areas that are not.

Why is this important?

Consider this: Imagine each area of life like a spoke on a wheel: If one of the spokes is shorter than the others, it throws your whole balance off. And this is how it shows up; if your social life is lacking, you could look to food to fill that void. If your primary relationships are less than loving, you could look to food to satisfy your emotional needs. If you’re unhappy in any area of life, it could impact your health and your larger life goals.

The Wheel of Life is a great exercise and tool to help you achieve the results you most want, by helping you create the balance you most need.

But better? The Wheel of Life shows you what areas of life could be holding you back from losing that last 10 pounds, developing a consistent fitness routine, and even developing a regular mediation practice.

 

TO DO THIS EXERCISE:

1. Place a dot on the line in each category to rate your level of happiness in each area, with the periphery being a 10-Level of happiness, and the center being a 0 or 1. As you fill this graphic out, remember that ‘if we’re not growing, we’re dying,’ so consider leaving the opportunity to develop all areas, if even just a little!
2. Now connect the dots to see your Wheel of Life, with all it’s strengths and weaknesses. The perimeter you create by connecting the dots represents the wheel of your life. If this were a real wheel, how smooth of a ride is your life?
3. Identify what areas fall low on your rating scale.
4. Reflect on how and why each area rates as it does for you. Consider how and why each area ‘fuels’ you. Consider how and why the areas that you most fulfilled sustain you. Consider how and why the low-rated areas could be holding you back, impacting your health, and even thwarting your commitment to your health.

 

WHAT IS IT YOU REALLY WANT? YOUR NEXT STEPS

To create what you really want in life, may it be vibrant health, increased energy, clearer thinking or less chronic symptoms, you must identify where you are at right now. Start by completing The Wheel of Life then take these three action steps:

1. Get clear about your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Identify what areas of your life rank low, and what you can do to create greater happiness in that area.
3. Identify what areas of your life are strong, and why and how they got strong — Mirror your own strengths from one area of life to the other, to create a smooth ride on your Wheel of Life.

And if you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I’m here to help!

“It’s only a word, Dad.”

“Its punctuates perfectly.”

“It’s effective.”

“It’s powerful.”

“It’s harmless, really.”

But no matter how confident I felt when walking away from debating my Dad on the harmlessness of using the f-bomb, I still wrestle the points he made to this day, though he passed over five years ago.

“The word is loaded with violence, Carol. Language like that diminishes you.”

He’d plead, even beg, “Please don’t use that word my daughter.”

Why does it matter?

I mean, near everyone I know drops the f-bomb.

It’s actually quite en vogue.

No big deal.

Lighten up, right?

Ah, but everything we take in, whether it be food or words, air or thought, all have the power to heal or poison.

And the f-bomb definitely does not feel healing when I say it. It might feel good, but it doesn’t feel healing, and healthy really matters to me.

Nor does it feel Sacred when I say it, and Sacred really matters to me too.

So with white-flag in hand, I reckon there’s been a hole in my reasoning.

Quantum physics shows that our thoughts are literal vibrations of energy that have an enormous influence on our lives.

Put simply, the frequency and the vibration of the words we choose can transform the frequency of every cell, tissue and organ in our body. That is, the language we choose can heal and rejuvenate, or constrict and block. 

Add to that, every spiritual community from every corner of the planet agrees on the importance of right speech to promote peace and happiness within ourselves and the world.

As I write this I shake my head. Connecting to self is the cornerstone of my healthy lifestyle practice and my 1:1 coaching programs… and I didn’t see how the f-bomb could be sabotaging my thoughts, energy and my relationship to me.

I was stuck in the mindset that the f-bomb is a power word. The perfect word to punctuate my passion.

I know from my own experience, and from working with 100s of clients, that to create a healthy lifestyle with results that last, the cornerstone is always connecting to Self.

To do this, my clients and I eat nutrient dense, healing foods and meditate, journal, create gratefulness and take walks in nature everyday to connect to our Highest and best Selves.

We say no to unhealthy foods every day, to create a healthy lifestyle.

We carve out time to connect to self every single day, so we can once and for all get to all the goals that matter most to us, beyond the distractions poor health causes!

And now I raise the question, could the f-bomb get in the way of true healing?

I don’t have a definitive answer on the f-bomb for you or anyone, beyond what I offer here. Nor would I want to. The language you choose to use is like every other choice, personal.

We all have different experiences that shape our choices and you may feel very differently than me on this matter. I expect it, actually.

But for me, with what I’m out to create and achieve, the f-bomb does not energetically line-up any longer. Perhaps never did, but judging by my initial days of trying to omit it, it’s going to take a few more to filter it out!

I guess my carrot-eating, healthy-minded, daily-running-devotee, Dad knew I’d figure it out eventually.

So, tell me…

What are your thoughts on the f-bomb?

Do you use the word?

Do you think it could be impacting your thoughts or connection to self negatively?

Leave a comment below! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this controversial word!

Did you make a New Year’s resolution for 2017?

Still holding steady, or did you throw in the towel and give up?

It’s kind of crazy, but statistics say that only 8% of resolution-makers achieve their goal.

When I heard that, I was like, “are you freaking kidding me?”

This factoid alone put my resolutions into overdrive because I’m out to win in 2017!

Or make me never want to start again…

Like those who already abandoned their resolution, I felt challenged to quit one of the resolutions I made this past week — to run one mile everyday for the month of January.

Reasons like “I’m way too busy,” “I don’t have enough time,” and “I’m too tired,” were doing their damnedest to stop me from going on my run… and oh yes, and more than once!

It’s like what the heck? A resolution can’t get much easier than running one short mile a day, except…. that it’s the month of January… with rain… and snow… and near zero temperatures = very valid reasons to stop me. Right?

(Hint: Reasons are in no short supply!)

So what can you do to energize your goals for 2017?

Read on to discover four practical steps and two crucial questions to energize your 2017 goals.

1. Prepare ahead of time. If you want to lose weight, increase your energy or improve your overall health, prepare your meals or meal ingredients ahead of time. If you want to workout more, pack your gym bag the night before.
2. Make your goal specific. By making your goal specific, you tell your brain what you are doing, it knows your commitment, like eating no sugar for 30 days, or running one mile everyday. Clear-cut goals are easier to achieve than the ambiguous “I want to lose weight,” or “I want to work out more.” With clear-cut goals you’re telling your brain exactly what you are doing, how you are doing it, and why you want to achieve it.
3. Create partnership. Join a group or enlist a friend to support you. With partnership, you feel accountable because you’re committing to someone beyond just yourself. Think about it, if you struggle with cravings or fatigue, without someone to help you create momentum, it’ll be a whole lot harder to resist that cookie or get to the gym because you had no one to help you move past the habituation of the bad habits.
4. Commit. Dig your heals in and commit. But you might be saying, “big deal, I was committed, but I still end up sitting in front of an empty sleeve of cookies and sunk into my couch, rather than going for my run! Commitment is a funny thing, it’s a whole lot like a muscle, the more you flex it, the stronger it gets. So you’ve got to work it, to grow it. That is, every time you say yes to your goal, and no to temptation, your commitment muscle will grow.
5. When all else fails there are two crucial questions to ask yourself, “Why do I want to achieve this goal?” and “Who am I?”

It is said that people will accomplish any “what” if they believe in the “why.”

Identify why you want to lose weight. Identify why you want to go to the gym? Identify why you want to develop a running routine?

Use vanity as your leverage. Use social status as your leverage. Use your competitive nature as your leverage. Heck, even use your anger as your leverage.

Use whatever it takes, because it is who you become in the process of saying no to the unhealthy and saying yes to the healthy that will loom far more meaningful at the finish line.

Now to ask the ultimate question, “who am I,’ I refer back to something I first heard author Byron Katie say, “you are not breathing, you are being breathed.

What?

Like the moon hanging in the sky, like the tide flowing in and out, like the weather changing with each season, without any effort on your part, your breath happens naturally, because a Life Force beyond you gives it to you.

Let me say it like this, what could you not do, IF you knew you carried the Force of the Universe within you?

What goal could you not achieve, what unhealthy habit could you not break, what pitiful, little reason could stop you, IF you knew you carried the Force of the Universe within you?

And the turn around? What goals could you achieve IF you knew you carried the Force of the Universe within you?

Now what?

Now that you know you carry the gifts of the Universe within you, or remember newly, it’s time to turn your resolutions back on.

Here are your action steps:

1. Prepare ahead of time. Choose two days a week to prepare to win. As Zig Ziglar says, “Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.”
2. Make your goals specific.
3. Create partnership.
4. Commit.
5. Identify WHY you want to achieve your goal.
6. Center on WHO you are.

Have any questions? Leave a comment below. Or give me a call. I’m here to help!

Lemon Love is one of my favorite juices, because I make it with cleansing and rejuvenating ingredients like lemon, celery and cilantro. I love lemon, and this blend makes a great juice for keeping your whole body clean, healthy, and happy down to every itty-bitty cell! Drink Lemon Love to break your fast in the morning, or anytime you want to add cleansing and rejuvenating nutrition into your diet!

Ingredients:

• 4 lemons
• 1 head celery
• 1 cucumber
• ¼-inch piece of ginger
• 2 pears
• 1 bunch of cilantro

Juice all ingredients and enjoy!

Ready to uplevel your get-healthy game in 2017? Sign up here, to get on the list when I release the deets of my upcoming More Than A Detox: Winter Program!

I get high from working with clients who come ready to play full out, clients who take on the coaching, clients who ask how they can turn on the intensity of our work together, because they want to blow the lid off the original health goals.

Really, I find nothing near as fulfilling as creating a health plan with my clients, adding in structures that support and grow that plan, and then watch them exceed the results they came to achieve.

But even some of these very committed clients have called me this past week and said, “What can I do to clean up my diet after the holidays? I ate foods I never eat and now feel bloated, inflamed, exhausted and cravings are out of control!”

I totally get it. I slipped off track too. My family was in town, and rather than being an example of eating super clean and healthy,

I too ate foods I never eat.

But the best thing about falling off the clean eating track is getting back on.

This is my sweet spot.

Getting back on track is something I’ve mastered.

Here’s what I do, and what I recommend my clients do. It’s called,

Your Holiday Hangover Cure: Your One (or more) Day Detox

Remove. Fast. Add-in. Eliminate. Restore.

1. Remove the top 5 common toxic trigger foods. All of them. For one day, three days, a week, or a month. The top 5 are, gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine and alcohol. The goal is not deprivation. The mindset is not deprivation. The goal is to literally stop feeding imbalance in the body, which manifests as bloating, constipation, cravings, excess weight, allergies and more. The mindset is you get to choose. Super simple.
   

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2. Fast. Intermittent Fasting, that is. Do not eat any food for 12 – 16 hours. Sound hard? Think again. Simply do not eat after dinner, and then wait until noon the next day = you’ll be sleeping during most of these hours. During this time, drink only water. Research shows that intermittent fasting offers many health benefits like, weight loss, increased energy, disease prevention, improved metabolic health and even longevity, so it’s a super great practice to experiment with. For the short term goal here, intermittent fasting will help you increase your detoxification and rejuvenation processes.
   

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3. Add-in. Green juice, green smoothies and a green salad everyday. If you have a juicer, green juice is my first recommendation because juice is literally like an IV infusion of vitamins and minerals. If you don’t have a juicer, make green smoothies. (Note this.)Drink 16 – 32 ounces of low-fruit, high vegetable green juice (or smoothies) everyday. Eat a meal-sized green salad everyday.Why green? Chlorophyll, the green pigment in all green plants, is the closest in chemical structure to human hemoglobin, with the only difference the center atom. Chlorophyll has magnesium as it’s center atom. Hemoglobin has iron. Green supports overall health, reduces inflammation, helps detoxification, balances hormones and promotes digestive health. Here’s a new juice recipe, and another. Get several smoothies here, and here is one of my favorite salads! Need something more substantial? Try this soup recipe, but keep in mind, the lighter you keep your meals, the quicker you will create inner balance again.
   

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4. Eliminate. Get a colonic or do a home enema. This recommendation transforms a clean eating protocol into a bonafide detox and is the most overlooked recommendation in the detoxification world. To detoxify means to literally remove toxic substances, but no one talks about healthy elimination? Why?Think about it, if you have a bag of trash sitting around for days, what do you think begins to happen inside that bag if you don’t empty it? The refuse begins to rot. When refuse begins to rot, yeast, mold, fungus and pathogen begin to grow. This IS what is happening inside the body as well if you are not eliminating healthfully.Schedule a colonic with a qualified hydro-colonic therapist in your area, and/or do a home enema yourself. Simply get an enema kit at your local drugstore and follow these directions:
   • Fill the bag with warm water (run water to the tip of the enema hose, to remove any air pockets).
   • Hang the bag roughly 3 feet above your head.
   • Lie down on a clean towel, for comfort. (option: prop your bottom up on a rolled up towel to support a healthy fill of water into your colon).
   • Play some music, light a candle, turn off the phone off and relax.
5. Restore. Stress during the holiday season (all the time really) is a leading cause of digestive imbalance. An ideal healing protocol must include daily practices that reduce stress and overwhelm. My research shows over and over, that we maintain healthy lifestyle habits when we maintain healthy lifestyle practices everyday. Here are a few suggestions:
   • Meditaiton
   • Deep breathing
   • Yoga
   • Walking and Hiking outdoors
   • Sit down to eat and chew mindfully without any distractions
   • Journal
   • Be present
   • Be grateful for all you have

Here’s your outline:

1. Upon waking, drink a Morning Elxir
2. Get a colonic or do a home enema
3. Drink water until noon (64 ounces)
4. Drink 16-32 ounces of green juice to break your fast.

Now your outline options:

1. Eat a meal-sized green salad for lunch, or
2. Continue with liquids, like green juice or green smoothies throughout the day, and
3. Eat a salad for dinner.
4. Include, berries, grapefruits or green apples for snacks if needed.
5. If you feel you need animal protein, eat raw goat-cheese or a light piece of fish.

Now turn on your commitment.

I know, you might say “I can’t remove these favorite foods. I can’t fast… ” But this one day detox, or anything else you might want to do only needs you to commit, to one day, or… one day at a time. Nothing more, nothing less.

So how do you commit in the face of thoughts that stop you?

Change your thoughts from I can’t, to I can. It really is that simple. 

Now tell me:

What is one thing you can do today to cure your holiday hangover?

What is one thing you can add in to challenge yourself beyond what you think is possible?

I can’t wait to hear about all the healthy success you create from these recommendations!

And… if you know you’d like more support for 2017, check out my new 1:1 program offering, More Energy Now here.

I love Christmas time.

It fills my heart.

I don’t know how to write about the love I have for this season though, because it asks so much of us, and all not necessarily ‘good or easy!’

Perhaps you know what I mean…

The getting through holiday meals when someone is mad at someone else. Or the times when someone won’t come for holiday dinner, because someone else is coming.

Or, even fearing saying “I love Christmas,” because I would never, ever want to offend you. I would never, ever want you to think that Christmas is an exclusionary thing for me, ’cause it’s not.

In many ways, this is the magic of the season for me.

That in spite of all the highs and lows of life, my family and I ritualistically, like faithful clockwork, come together to share a meal, to celebrate the day, to laugh, and love, catch up with each other and honor our differences.

That no matter what the fleeting trivialities or momentary real life concerns in our personal lives or the world, it all gives way to our love for each other and all people in our world.

For me, Christmas is not simply a time when Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, though that was a big deal in my home.

Christmas is the time for “Peace on earth, good will to all” in a real rubber-on-the-road kind of way.

Like living my childhood Christian lessons, especially “seeing the eyes of Christ in everyone I meet.”

Rather than exclusionary, that my way is right and your’s is wrong, if you don’t celebrate Christmas, my lessons of Christmas were to appreciate difference, rather than judge another. To choose forgiveness, rather than hold a grudge. To find understanding in my heart, rather than disagreement.

This is what Christmas means to me.

Beyond searching for the perfect gift, beyond the frustrations of untangling strands of lights, getting to holiday parties after a long day at work… and even the “I don’t believe’s,” Christmas really is a time when everything and anything becomes possible…

If you believe it is possible.

Norman Vincent Peale says it best for me, “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”

What does Christmas mean to you?

Someone recently said to me, “Carol, you’re a self-actualizing machine,” with admiration for my commitment to my health goals.

But I heard a powerlessness in her comment, like she couldn’t consistently eat healthy or commit to her goals like I do, even though she might want to.

I said to her, “Bottom line, my effectiveness in life directly lines up with my commitment to me and the actions I take everyday, or not. I, like you, falter in my healthy commitments, IF I don’t stick with my daily personal care practices.”

Have you ever prepared your green juice or smoothie for the day, but you ate the croissant instead?

Or have you ever packed your gym bag ready-to-go for your morning class, but found yourself pressing the snooze button so many times that it was too late to go?

Or have you ever sat looking at the green apple you packed for your snack, as you licked the sugar off your finger tips from the donut you bought instead.

I’ve done it all and more. I know how it goes. Even still.

If I do not take care of me first.

So I began to study winners, like Olympic athletes, famous sports-figures and successful entrepreneurs.

I wanted to learn how to apply the very strategies they apply to achieving results, to my goal to restoring my health.

And one thing they all seem to share in common is a consistent morning routine, with journaling a cornerstone.

Journaling.

I resisted journaling for years. I couldn’t wrap my head around it’s benefits.

I couldn’t slow myself down long enough to do it.

But once I began to develop momentum in writing every day, I discovered why so many endorse it.

Over time, I’ve learned several ways to journal. Each way offers awesome, but different benefit. Each way serves different goals.

Here are 3 ways to journal that I know can help in your get healthy game, and in life, the one simple tool to get help you get the health results you most want. 

Morning Pages.

Julia Cameron, author of the book The Artist’s Way, recommends Morning Pages. This is hands-down my first and favorite journaling recommendation.

Morning Pages is the writing practice that feels like what I call prayer or psychotherapy on a page, because from the instruction to never stop writing until 3 pages of free-writing are filled, the most unexpected stuff comes up.

For example, some mornings my writing starts off with a Dear God letter where I pour my heart out about whatever I am feeling in that moment. Then my writing might turn to an ex-boyfriend, a current problem I’m experiencing in life, an idea I have for my business or just “talking” to my deceased Dad.

And that’s how the creative genius from journaling 3 free-writing pages happens. According to Cameron, releasing pent up thoughts, feelings and emotions makes way for the gold buried underneath the gunk.

But more than creative genius, Morning pages brings me back to me, to what’s important to me, to what I most want to accomplish. By journaling out all of the many thoughts that fill my mind that could impede me from staying focused on what really matters, I come home to me.

AKA creating myself as my client said, “a self-actualizing machine.”

Three Positive Things.

Journaling three positive things every night before bed is a perfect antidote to the burdens of the day. You will notice a marked improvement in your mood and overall attitude about life, even if you feel under pressure, by focusing on the good things that happened during the day.

Rather than a simple Polly-Anna, feel-good exercise, writing down three positive things that happened during your day has the power to transmute chronic negativity, because you’re focusing on the good.

Beyond that, you’ll begin to look for the good throughout your day, because you know you’ll want to record it later. It really heightens you mindful present to the goodness in every moment, yet another cut at the feel-good rewards of this journaling practice!

Ten Ideas a Day.

This is my new journaling practice recommended by best-selling author, podcaster and entrepreneur James Altucher. Altucher says it’s important to exercise our idea muscle everyday, so that we can come up with ideas when we need them. If we don’t flex the idea muscle, it will atrophy.

This journaling practice is hard work, at first. If like me, you’ll feel stuck and challenged, unimaginative and stagnant, at first.

Altucher recommends going to a local cafe, or reading an inspirational book for ten to twenty minutes to jar your idea bank. Then start writing down every idea that you can think of.

• Some ideas to spin off of:
• 10 things you can do to get healthy
• 10 things you can do to get fit and strong
• 10 adventures you want to plan
• 10 things you would invent
• 10 books you can write
• 10 business ideas for Google / Amazon / Twitter / you10 people you can send ideas to
• 10 podcast ideas, or 10 videos ideas

So, tell me…

Which journaling practice are you ready to try?

Which one resonates most with you, and why?

Leave a comment below!

Then get my guide to learn how to increase your energy, to add to your journaling practice, so you can feel vibrant and healthy every day. It’s going to change everything. Really.