Your Well Being Tip of the Day

Play, play, play! You’ll simplify your life and feel inspired if you learn or re-learn to play your way through life. Spontaneity, laughter, fun, frivolity are inside of each of us – you will feel so much lighter letting that part of you “come out to play”.
 

Inspiration & Idea

Find the Gifts of Your Shadow
Our shadow, or dark side, contains all the parts of ourselves that we resist, dislike and try to hide. Convinced that these aspects are unacceptable, many of us expend huge amounts of energy trying to get rid of our “bad” qualities. But what if, instead of trying to hide or fix these so-called flaws, we looked for the gifts inherent in them? For example, the gift of weakness might be that we allow others to support us. Anger may give us the gift of being able to set healthy boundaries or ask for what we need. Perfectionism may lead to high success in achieving our goals. When we receive the gifts of our dark side, our self-love is restored as the parts of us we once believed to be our deepest flaws are revealed as valuable assets. Your Self- Love Assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to make a list of two of your shortcomings, faults or flaws (ie: lazy, critical of yourself or others, etc). Next to each of those shadow aspects, write down two gifts you’ve received from this quality, or two ways this quality has served you. Look at your list and acknowledge all the benefits of this shadow aspect – all the ways you’ve been blessed by these qualities. Notice how your perspective is more balanced, and your energy and spirit are renewed!

… adapted from “The Dark Side of the Light Chasers” by Debbie Ford.



"I Love"... by Lee

I recently found these scribbled notes in a scrapbook – something I’d written many years ago likely. How fun and inspiring to read it now. I’ll share it with you here and invite you to write your own little “I love …”. It’s so good to honor and remember what fuels us most …

I love laying in the sun on beautiful day.
I love walking in the pouring rain, face up to the sky, arms out-stretched and twirling.
I love laughing with my best friends.
I get high breathing in fresh air.

And I love smiling, don’t you?

I like the feeling of freedom –
To speak, to dance, to run,
To love, to live large.

I love knowing that somewhere
Someone is feeling good because
I’m here. Probably more than one, right? Yes!

PS: This reminds me of a fabulous note I received from “The Universe” recently (you can discover “Notes from the Universe at www.tut.com). Here it is: You've made a lot of friends throughout your life, (put your name in here), and you'll be making a lot more. You can be very proud of this.
But you can safely multiply that number by seven to reveal the minimum number of secret admirers who've loved you from afar; by 100 to approximate the minimum number of people you've inspired; and by 10,000 to uncover the least number of lives yours has improved. And this... I'm very proud of.

We've only just begun,
The Universe

 

Back to School Healthy Lunches –
Mini Pizzas!

Make the pizza dough in the bread baker or knead it by hand.

3/4 cup (190 ml) plus 1 Tbsp (15 ml) lukewarm water
2 Tbsp (30 ml) extra virgin olive oil or sunflower oil
2 cups (500 ml) whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp (2 ml) Sucanat, Rapadura sugar or honey
1/2 tsp (2 ml) sea salt
2 tsp (10 ml) active dry yeast or
1 1/2 tsp (7.5 ml) fast rising yeast

Topping: Roll the prepared dough into several small circles, one for each child. Spread equal parts of a 270 ml jar of sun dried tomato pesto (available in your health food store) onto each circle. Have a variety of healthy toppings available for the children to use. Try green, red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, onions, olives, fresh pineapple, and spinach. Top with an organic or soy-based mozzarella cheese, and bake the pizzas at 375°C for about 20 minutes, until cheese is bubbling and the crust is golden brown.

Source: Alive Magazine
 

Lee's Morning Vega Smoothie

I have two or three favorite breakfasts and this is definitely one of them – it’s especially great for those days when I feel a little more pressed for time yet want to ensure that I enjoy a healthy breakfast.

It’s a “made in Canada” product called Vega (you can find this in the supplement section of most health stores). It’s a whole food meal replacement powder made exclusively from plan-based ingredients. Per serving, it features 25 grams of complete protein (hemp and rice), 24 vitamins and minerals, essential fats, antioxidants and fibre plus other goodies like digestive enzymes and probiotics. And it’s YUMMY. It is quite pricey, but I usually wait till it’s on sale and then it’s very reasonable given that it’s a whole meal replacement, and it also replaces my other supplements/vitamins for that day.

You can simply add 1-2 scoops of Vega to water, shake and off you go. OR, for a bigger taste treat, here’s my little morning smoothie recipe:

In the blender (or use a hand mixer):
1 heaping scoop of Vega (berry flavour), some frozen fruit (I go back and forth with blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries), rice milk or soy milk. Now blend this up to the desired consistency. It’s so healthy, so tasty and so quick!


 

Books I Highly Recommend! The first two of these books are by Elizabeth Lesser. Some of you may recognize her name - she joined Oprah Winfrey & Echkart Tolle last spring – to discuss “A New Earth”, Tolle’s latest book. She is also a co-founder of The Omega Institute for Holistic Living.
I was fascinated by many of her comments and insights during the discussions with Tolle and felt led to seek out her own books. They’ve turned out to be what I call “keepers” as I’ve received so much from them, and I’ll go back to them again and again I’m sure.

As usual, I recommend that you take a look at them if you feel led – trusting your intuition to guide you perfectly.

Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow
Elizabeth Lesser bravely and beautifully explores one of the most compelling questions of life: how do we emerge from suffering and challenge with real, encompassing wisdom and love. Broken Open is personal, pragmatic and enlightening.

The Seeker’s Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure
Lesser has stretched this book into a useful tool for all seekers. She offers numerous suggestions, such as how to listen to your body, increase your spiritual bank account, "live the questions" rather than "seek the answers," and create a supportive community. This is a moving workbook for anyone who's hoping to find, claim, or simply maintain their spiritual truths.
 

Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness
As a wellness coach I was thrilled to discover this third book. Kathy Freston presents cutting edge information about health and wellness in a conversational and “real” way that engages the reader from the get-go. There are two key themes throughout the book. The first is that wellness is a multi-dimensional experience of body, mind, and spirit and that changes you make in any one area affect each of the other dimensions. The second theme centers around what she calls “leaning into wellness”, comfortably, adding things here and there, taking baby steps and noticing the momentum – the momentum we generate through our actions leads, eventually, to a tipping point, and then there is a breakthrough, a quantum leap. Sound good? Take a look!