Stepping into Self Love

Self-love is the foundation for personal happiness and spiritual growth. You are the only one who can take care of yourself and yet you tend to put everyone else first. You deserve love as much as anyone. Love comes from within and radiates out. If you are seeking love from outside sources you will always feel unfulfilled and unloved. Self-love allows you to receive love and nurturing on a deeper level than you ever thought possible.

When you fall in love with yourself you realize how truly magnificent you are. This extends outward in an appreciation for all the people around you. When you love yourself you make healthy choices in all areas of your life. You choose and happiness and kindness.

Marianne Williamson so beautifully wrote. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.” You are the artist, writer, editor, director, actor and producer of your life. The question is what do you want your story to be?

Take time for yourself everyday. Schedule it in as a priority. Do something that makes you happy, that you enjoy doing. It might include a loved one or it could be sacred time by yourself. It could be taking a walk, meditating, reading a book, a bath, visiting with a friend - anything that makes you feel good. Consciously filling yourself up with something you love daily will change your life. We are often so harried we miss our body’s cries for attention. Take the time to check in with your body throughout the day. How is it feeling? Have I had enough water today? Do I need to take a few minutes to relax? Love your body and honor the many ways it communicates with you. Once you acknowledge that your needs are important and deserve your attention, you will have much more to give others.

Meditation is a highly effective way to connect to your higher self. It is a means of self-love on a profoundly deep level. Meditation is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. Sadly, in our culture there are too few people who do it regularly. Simply by taking the time to relax and center you are able to connect with your higher self. This connection provides tremendous clarity, wisdom and peace.

Gift yourself with the same TLC you offer everyone else in your life. You deserve it.

Namaste,
Alisa Sylling

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THE ART OF MANIFESTATION

We can have, be and do anything in our lives! It is our thoughts and words that create our reality. You can review your life now to discover what you have thought in the past. You can look at your current thoughts to discover your future. The fact is that most of us go through our day with thousands of unconscious thoughts going in and out of our awareness. The mind is constantly running, jumping from thought to thought. Unfortunately for most of us, the majority of our thoughts are negative. Instead of consciously creating the life we want, we are creating more of what we don’t want, such as anxiety, stress, worry and fear. We are holding ourselves back by our self-sabotaging and self-limiting thoughts.

The good news is you DO have the power to shift your thoughts. You may not have developed the skill yet but you do have the ability. We are all capable, we’ve just forgotten along the way while we were getting caught up in this crazy game called life.

The first step is awareness. Become aware of your thoughts. When you finally start paying attention to what you are saying to yourself you will be shocked. A friend of mine was walking behind a crazy woman who was yelling at herself with hatred and anger in her voice. As my friend walked away he had the realization that the only difference between the two of them was that she abuses herself publicly for the entire world to hear while he does it in his head! Once you develop a new awareness of your thoughts, many of them will be released. Most of your limiting belief systems were formed in childhood and are simply not true today. Unless, you break the cycle of your addictive thought patterns you will repeatedly think the same thoughts over and over, for the rest of your life.

‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit’. -Aristotle

It is only your self-limiting beliefs that hold you back in life. There are many tools that support a shift in the thought process. The act of blowing up negative thoughts as they come in releases negative energy from your system. Daydreaming is a magical way to visualize and put positive energy toward what you desire. Visualizing what you want, writing it down and then focusing on it with emotion and gratitude is a powerful manifestation tool.

In my Meditation classes and Coaching sessions I will guide you through a step-by-step process which will give you the skills and tools to gently shift your awareness. You will walk away empowered to consciously create your best life. Levity, freedom and joy will be yours.

Namaste,
Alisa Sylling

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Nutritional Wisdom

By Shonagh Home

Remember the sage advice, ‘you are what you eat’? Looking around today, it appears that darn near everyone has taken leave of such wisdom. Our body is a temple, not an amusement park. Food directly affects our physical and emotional well being, as well as our mental health. What we put into our body fuels everything – the brain, the heart, muscles, bones, nerves, you get the picture.

We need to pay as much attention to how we run our bodies as we do to running our cars. You can’t drive your car very long with fuels that lack the proper ingredients to keep it going. Gas and oil keep your car running. No one is trying to make artificial gas and oil and pass them off as good for your car. And yet with our food, big companies have convinced us that traditional foods we used to consume - unprocessed, fresh and nutrient dense - are unnecessary. Why eat that when we can start our day with a denatured, highly processed, sugar-filled cereal with processed milk from suffering cows? Of course, vitamins and minerals have been ‘added’ for a wholesome, healthy start to your day!

I’ll pass, thank-you.

Well what are the best foods to eat when we hear so much conflicting advice from our so called health ‘experts’? How about ‘Real Food’ which consists of fresh, organically grown fruits and vegetables, meat and organs from grass-fed cows, free-range chicken, fish, soaked whole grains, (makes them easier to digest), eggs, and also unpasteurized dairy from grass-fed cows or goats that have been properly raised.

This is the stuff we have been eating for thousands of years. The body recognizes these foods and knows exactly what to do with them. It is only in the last 70 or so years that our food has changed more than in the last 20,000 years. We now have so many chemicals in our food it’s a wonder we’re still standing. Sugar consumption has gone from an average of 10 pounds per person per year in 1821 to a staggering 141 pounds per person per year in 2004!

There is a better way and there is fantastic information out there to get you started. The Weston A. Price Foundation, www.westonaprice.org was begun by Sally Fallon in an effort to educate the public on the importance of consuming nutrient-dense foods. The website is packed with information on a variety of topics including advice on where to get grass-fed meat, unpasteurized dairy, etc. Sally Fallon wrote a fabulous cookbook called, ‘Nourishing Traditions’ which is filled with easy to prepare recipes that will bring health and joy to you and your family.

A great book to read on the subject is Nina Planck’s, ‘Real Food: What to Eat and Why’. She also has a wonderful website called, www.ninaplanck.com

Farmer’s markets are a great place to get truly healthy produce, meats, dairy and often fish. These foods have been grown locally using sustainable methods working in harmony with the land. In the colder months, shop at the local organic market if you have one nearby. You can also join a farm co-op to get produce and other foods from a local source. Check out the website www.localharvest.org for more information.

Take your food seriously! Nutritious food brings health and happiness to us and our families. Nourishing our bodies with the best foods we can find is a precious gift we give ourselves. We deserve the best food ever for a long, healthy, wonderful life.

Shonagh Home, NTP is a Nutritional Therapist living in Redmond, WA. She educates and supports her clients, steering them in the direction of true health and healing. She can be reached at 206-409-1536. Her website is: www.rawgorgeous.com