Summer Pace my Challenge

Summer can be such a transition month.  I am learning to relax into transitions, a skill I have not always desired or believed I would enjoy.  My current read is titled "Search Inside Yourself" by Chade-Meng Tan of Google fame.  He is sharing simple and quick ways to practice mindfulness with the end result being emotional intelligence, and for me relaxing into transitions.  I will not go into detail here but want to share why I am enjoying it.  I continue to get resistance to cooking instruction because people believe they don't have time for home preparation and I am always fascinated with how other helpful habits are presented and how they make taking action so easy with quick and simple steps.  I can practice these easy meditation exercises in 2 minutes every day, exercising that new muscle and creating a habit.  Creating a cooking habit in 2 minutes might be a challenge, but educating people about the benefits of 2 minute meditations or 30 minute food prep times might be an answer to breaking the cycle of bad habits and creating new ones. Mr. Tan presented excellent reasons why creating his proposed new habit would benefit the person.  I will create the same compelling reasons why spending time in the kitchen getting ready for a week of meals would benefit someone.   Summer transitions are creating stress for me because I am selfish.  I don't want my friends to be busy with visiting grandchildren.  I don't want my friends to be away from our shared activities for 10 days while they travel.  I am inconvenienced by business owners who are absent or slower in response times because of summer activities.  I can hear you now saying, what a twit.  I am not a twit but I am often in fast forward so am challenged by the slower pace summer brings to many.  I plan to learn some 2 minute meditation practices that will allow me to relax into the transitions summer brings  to my world.                  

I am continuing my personal education by reading July/August 2012  issue of Well Being Journal (wellbeingjournal.com) which I found at Barnes and Nobles.  There is an informative article about gallbladder issues addressing the removal, recovery and maintaining health in the weeks and months after one is removed.  I never knew the true function of the gallbladder so didn't understand the steps necessary to stay healthy after its removal, which is an issue for many I talk to and my mother can use this helpful information.  There are healthy fats and they are vital to digestion and absorption of fat soluble vitamins .  Healthy fats are named and do not include any vegetable oils which have been promoted to consumers as healthy.  The healthy fats include saturated fats from pasture-fed animals, tropical oils, monounsaturated fats from extra virgin olive oil and avocados and polyunsaturated fats from nuts, seeds and fish.  Supplementation with bile salts is recommended for every meal since the liver will still produce bile but cannot store it for later use.  Vitamin A and D are common deficiencies for those who do not have a gallbladder and are not using bile salts.  More later.

We are Enough

A late night conversation with a friend, speaking self critical words from that place in her brain that was wounded during formative years, grieved me.  I felt grief for the years she has spent saying and hearing the limiting beliefs her young mind absorbed.  I felt grief and shame knowing I too had wounded my own children in my moments of anger, self doubt and frustration.  I felt grief because I believe everyone is wounded and not everyone knows how or why or what to do about it.  I also felt hope.  Hope for the chance to share my belief with my friend and others like her who want to know and believe what I believe... that we are all enough.  We are perfect in our individuality.  We are enough when we allow ourselves to stretch and search for that lost innocent child that existed before the world put its expectations on us.  We are enough and deserve everything good that our hearts and souls desire because when we are there, the world will be safe.  When we are safe, we can afford to be generous, kind, respectful and so many other things that serve us and humanity.  Is it possible to be part of a generation that is never wounded?  Is it possible for a generation of new life to exist that doesn't hear negative, limiting, hurtful or demeaning words that shape their belief in themselves in a way that years are wasted believing the lies?
If this is not possible, how long will we wait to teach these wounded souls the truth that they are enough?