Creating a Beautiful Life

Creating a beautiful life requires constant refining and re-defining what you want and no longer want in your life. 

From the "Law of Increase" perspective, we focus on what is going well, what we appreciate about our lives right now, in order to receive more good. However, sometimes we do need to let go of certain relationships, situations, or lifestyle habits that are no longer serving our highest good. Sometimes we think that we must tolerate certain things or people in our lives, because we have no choice. But we always have a choice to improve our lives. Sometimes it is limiting time we spend with people who are negative or that drag us down. Maybe we are on a healthy lifestyle journey, or giving up an addiction and being around others that are not on the same path is not working for us any longer.

Here is an exercise you can do as often as you like, I recommend refining and revising this list regularly.

Sit some place quiet with a pen and paper (or a journal) and think about aspects of your life that have a certain heaviness for you, or that have a sense of dread or anxiety attached to them. This can be people, circumstances, routines etc.

Here are some examples to get the thoughts flowing...some of these may fit for you.

Things I will no longer tolerate in my life:

-Negative people that drag me down
-Thinking negative thoughts
- Others crossing my boundaries
-Being around others that affect me in a negative way
-Gossip
- Abuse of any kind
-Rudeness or disrespect from others
-Unfulfilling relationships
-Being "guilt-ed" into doing things I do not want to do
....how many can you come up with?

After you have completed this 'consciousness cleansing' it is nice to end it on a positive note, reaffirming what we do want in our lives to replace these things that are not working for us any more.

To manifest these desires, focus must  on be placed on positive, uplifting thoughts, and always choose to focus on what you WANT more of in your life, not what you DO NOT want in your life...make sense?

Now, write another list titled "I now choose to"...

-See the beauty all around me
- be grateful and appreciate all the good I have in my life
-Speak my truth and not allow my fear of others reaction to keep from doing so.
-Give my best to all of my meaningful relationships
- Eat healthy foods more often
- Treat my body with respect
-Exercise regulary in ways I enjoy
-Love myself unconditionally
- Look for the bright side in any situation
-Think thoughts that make me feel good

How was that? Enlightening? Did you come up with any new awareness's or revelations? This simple exercise, if done regularly will help you get clear on the direction you are choosing to travel. Life is all about choices, and we have to choose based on what is best for us, and our growth process. Liberating isn't it?

~Leanne

Freedom from Emotional Eating

NOTE: This article only touches on disordered and emotional eating and the forms it can enter a person's life, and is not to be taken as medical advice, or to replace a doctors advice.

In my Holistic Counselling practice, I help many women work through their emotional/disordered eating, and unhealthy connections to food. There is a misconception in society that to have an "eating disorder" a person either has to either starve themselves to a dangerously low weight (Anorexia), or force themselves to purge (vomit) after a binge eating episode (Bulimia). For some, this is the case, or they go back and forth between the two extremes. In others, disordered eating can look like binge eating episodes (without vomiting) -to the point of feeling sick -every day after work, or after a stressful event, and they then might deprive themselves of the next meal or snack as a form of self punishment.

Another, less commonly known, eating disorder coined "Orthorexia" manifests itself in an obsession with eating only pure, healthy, clean, organic foods to the extreme a person will not eat unless these foods are available. (There are books written on this subject, so please research further if you think this might be posing a problem in your life.)

This leads to my topic for this article..Emotional Eating. When the root cause of disordered eating is targeted, there is always a deep emotional component that must be addresses for true healing to occur. Working with a professional Counsellor is one way to work through these issues, as is reading books and attending support groups. The key to remember, it is your relationship with food that determines disordered eating. Emotional eating (eating when not hungry for various reasons essentially) is a more commonly known problem that I will offer tips on in this article

Tips to Heal and Curb Emotional Eating:

1) Pay attention to your hunger signals and eat regularly throughout the day: 

Eat only when you are truly hungry (your tummy is growling) but do not wait until you are famished to the point you are lightheaded, as this can lead to overeating. A general guideline I recommend is to eat every 3 hours. Do not go longer than that between snacks/meals as it can lead to low blood sugar, and urges to reach for sugar or unhealthy refines carbs.
Have 3 meals, and 3 small power snacks a day. All containing protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats. For example: A typical day might look like this:
Breakfast at 7a.m
Power snack at 10am,
Lunch 12:00,
Power snack at 3pm
Dinner at 5 or 6 pm.
 To clarify, I am not suggesting to ignore your hunger. Instead, listen to your body, and if you are truly hungry, have something nutritious to sustain you until your next eating time. The idea is to fuel your body regularly throughout the day to keep your blood-sugar steady. But do not fixate too much on a certain schedule. This is only a suggested guideline.

2) Make a list of Healthful foods you enjoy eating and that make you feel good.

Post this list on your fridge to refer to when you are stressed and off balance, and are unsure of what to eat.

3) Be mindful and tune in
Before you reach for something to eat, tune in and ask yourself first "Am I truly hungry, or just bored, stressed, lonely, sad, anxious? "What am I feeling right now?" If you are truly hungry reach for something from your list, if it is one of the above have a drink of water, make tea, go for a walk, work out, call a friend, read a book, write in a journal, or anything self nurturing that moves you into a healthier direction.

4) Let go of the need to control
Decide today, to let go of the struggle with food. Underlying disordered eating of any kind, is the underlying need for control. There is much more to life than what we eat; however we need food to sustain and fuel our bodies efficiently. Make the best, healthful food choices you can in each moment. If you fall away from this and have treats and less that nutritious food sometimes- IT'S OK! Yes, that's right..it is OK to allow for indulgences. It's what you do most of the time that counts.
Try this formula:

80% of the time eat "Real food" closest to how nature makes it: Fruits, veggies, whole grains, legumes, eggs, nuts, seeds, lean meats.
10% I know it's not the best but it won't kill me (processed foods for example)
10% Indulgences (a glass of wine with dinner, a small dessert, a few squares of dark chocolate)

If you fall off your goal plan for a day or two, and have too many "indulgences" don't beat yourself up! Tomorrow is a new day, you can begin again. Remember change is a process. Learning new ways to make yourself feel better without food is not easy if you have an emotional connection to eating, but it is doable. You have the power within you to make these changes. Never give up! Surround yourself with supportive people who share similar goals and want to live a healthy lifestyle.

This is one of my favorite quotes on this topic:
"Eat to Live, Don't Live to Eat"

 Here is an interview with Dr. Roger Gould, author of "Shrink Yourself" discussing emotional eating.

 http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2766217n

Until next time, live life fully and choose happiness!

~Leanne Oaten
http://soulworkcounselling.com/

Living Gluten-free

There is a growing movement toward a gluten-free diet, and the reasons for that are either due to a lifestyle choice, or an intolerance or full blown allergy to wheat. A more serious condition is called Celiac disease, where eating gluten causes severe negative health consequences. Here is a link explaining symptoms of this intolerance or allergy:  http://www.wheatintolerance.org/

For me, I have a mostly gluten free diet and have learned to live without bread products for many years, and do not miss it at all. For the rest of my family, I buy the sprouted grain organic breads, or Ezekiel breads that are available in most stores, as the sprouted grain variety is less refined, and more nutritious- if you do not have issues with eating gluten/wheat, this is a better choice than the breads made with refined, overly processed flour and added preservatives.

 Going gluten-free can be a challenging transition for some who are used to eating bread/wheat products everyday, but those who change their diets to exclude it, will tell you it changed their life, and cured many different health afflictions and gastrointestinal problems. Here is a fabulous book on the subject, called : "The Wheat Belly", I highly recommend this book to anyone suspecting wheat and gluten may be causing them health problems :http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11505008-wheat-belly

Here is one of my favorite muffin recipes I have perfected over time- seriously- D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! My kids LOVE them..they are gone in the same day I bake them. And they are healthy!

                                                            Chocolate Banana Muffins

1 Cup Almond flour *
1Cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten free Flour mix (available in most grocery and health food stores) *
1/2 Cup Cocoa powder
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3 ripe bananas
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup coconut oil


Sift the cocoa powder and gluten free flour mix and baking soda into a large bowl (the flour tends to clump so it's good to get it all smoothed out before adding the wet ingredients) then add the rest of the dry ingredients and stir well to combine.

In a Vitamix or other blender throw in the last 4 ingredients, and blend on LOW so it forms a puree, and is well combined. Add this to the dry bowl and mix well. Divide evenly in a 12 muffin tin pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Makes 12 muffins..enjoy!

*If there is a nut allergy in the family, you can replace the almond flour with the gluten free mix. I like almond flour because it adds a bit of protein and reduces the carbohydrate content. Alternatively, you can use all almond flour, however it produces a heavier more dense muffin..but is still really good!