I just finished testing a new cleanse product (for product details go to www.jamiedurner.com/thecleanse.htm). I’m very excited about it because it combines everything I love in a product…high quality, thorough support, and long term strategies. This is my third time I’ve done a cleanse, each time with a different system and set of products. By far, this is the most thorough, both in terms of the internal result as well as how it is put together, cleanse I’ve done. Now as I come out on the other side of this beautiful process, I’m looking for what I want to take away from the experience…what aspects or tools I want to incorporate more regularly into my life. This idea of integrating a new habit or knowledge into my daily life is part of what I call “sustainability”.
Sustainability answers the question of, “What of this do I want to do for the rest of my life?” I don’t necessarily have to do it for the rest of my life but by thinking in such long terms it allows me to see what is realistic to add in. While a cleansing diet feels wonderful for a 10 day period, there’s no way I could nor would want to hold it for the rest of my life! However, this particular cleanse, which is aimed at cleansing body, mind and spirit, has a secondary goal of using the cleanse to springboard into some healthier habits.
Here’s what I’ve decided to take away from my 10 day process and roll into new daily habits…or at least try it on and see how they feel:
- Juicing – part of the cleanse is to juice 32 ounces each day. I eat a lot of vegetables regularly but sometimes I have trouble getting my full 6 servings per day in. Juicing allows me to really pack in the nutrients of all those good vegetables into my day. It won’t replace the eating of other vegetables but it is a safeguard…my natural vitamin pill.
- Good Green Powder and Acidophilus pill- on the cleanse you take lots of supplements to keep the body balanced. I’ve never liked taking pills but I have to say that I felt incredible. So I’m adding the green powder into my juice and taking Acidophilus in the AM and PM.
- Living with the 70/30 rule – aiming to eat 70% of foods that are whole, fresh, and healthy; 30% of other less than ideal foods in moderation. And applying this “rule” to how I live in general…70% really good, 30% acknowledging the real of wherever I need to be.
- Eating more Consciously – for me this means really chewing and tasting my food, listening to my body to eat the right amount, and putting foods on a plate rather than grazing mindlessly.
- Yoga- I long ago committed to some form of daily yoga. Sometimes it’s physical poses, sometimes it’s meditation, sometimes it’s conscious cooking. I’d like to expand this to making sure I do some physical yoga daily…whether it be a full set, one of the short warm-up series I know, or several sun salutations.
- Experimenting – lastly the cleanse came with a cookbook on eating live raw foods. I want to play with trying sprouting, test out new recipes, and especially make more of my own yummy salad dressings!
This list may seem big but knowing I’m following the 70/30 rule makes it feel doable.
Wise messages and mysticism comes in all forms, even in children’s cartoon movies. “Kung Fu Panda” brought me this latest reminder. Despite the glossy coated violence and archetypal good versus evil energy, the message that my kids and I took away was cute but powerful – “there is no secret ingredient, just you”.
How many of us go looking for the magic cure-all pill or the ancient “secret to life” or the spiritual teacher to give us all the answers? While I have found outside structures and teachings to be helpful along my own journey, they have provided more of a learning environment for me rather than “the answer”. The learning has allowed me to know that my answers are inside of me, my wisdom is inside of me, my path is inside of me…through my connection with what I call my Infinite Self. This is my belief and it is certainly echoed by much of the Eastern philosophy, such as yoga and martial arts. This may or may not be your belief today but you may be interested to try it on and see how it feels.
When I “discovered” this truth for myself, it didn’t necessarily mean that I had all that wisdom immediately or the answers to life. What it did give me was a sense of empowerment, greater self-confidence, and a deep level of trust. Each day I open to the answers that show up and try my best to make time to listen so I can hear my inner wisdom. When I do this and follow the flow of my natural energy, I feel better and I dance with life in a lovely, easy rhythm.
For my kids, although they hear me talk about these concepts from a yogic aspect and see me live it in life, they got the message better from the movie than from me. Such is the course of parenting! We can talk, share, and model but kids often need to let the parent message find its root in the outer realm in a way that they can connect with. So be it…I’m open to any form of widsom, for me or my kids!
A fellow coach of mine shared 4 Louise Hay affirmations with me yesterday that she uses to anchor herself into the spirit of her day. I often use affirmations or belief statements I create to keep me connected to the energy I’m cultivating in my day. Sometimes I use ones that are personally created; other times I enjoy the timeless wisdom of yogic mantras or other inspirational guides, such as Louise Hay.
Here are the 4 Louise Hay affirmations that can be used daily, if they appeal to your needs:
All is well.
From this only good things will come.
Everything is working out for my highest good.
I am safe.
What do you use to anchor in your day?
The question of whether I need an excuse to completely relax showed up for me this week. Logically I don’t need an excuse…like being sick, being on a cleanse, having a child sick, being away on vacation…to take a break. Yet when I looked at my actions, the reality is that I often don’t take a deep break unless there is something big going on.
Sure, I take little breaks all the time. I do regular yoga and meditation for relaxation and renewal, I read regularly as my night time form of letting go, I take hot baths, I watch movies about once a week. But take a whole day or even half a day to really set it all aside and let go? Not very often. Why? The answer, I’m sure to all of you as well, is obvious. As a working mother, there always just seems like too much to do. House work, yard work, business development, errands, cooking, kid activities. Yet, like my continually rotating “to-do list”, these things will never fully be done. I might finish the task of the moment, but it is a repetitive cycle. Which means, if I wait for the cycle to end before taking a break, it sure isn’t going to happen!
So this weekend I did as little as possible. Yes, I’m on a cleanse and was feeling tired so had a good point of motivation (notice the change in words for “excuse”) and yes, it was a bit of a tug-of-war to ignore the yard, sticky wood floors, business issues…but I did it! I read an entire book, watched a movie, laid in the hammock, watched a record 4 episodes of the “Gilmore Girls” which my daughter got me hooked on, slept in and really relaxed. And…I feel fabulous. Not only am I ready to open the new gifts of today but I’m doing it with a sense of calm rather than pent up frenetic energy.
And, I’m going to do my best to do this more often…even without any external point of motivation. How about you?
My monthly mother-daughter yoga class, which has been oriented around a theme which represents one of the eight limbs of yoga to help achieve the connection with the higher self, yesterday had the theme of focus. In exploring focus and concentration around using the breath to hold challenging positions, we discovered an interesting side note – that focus on one thing to the exclusion of the bigger picture can create problems.
One of the ways we were practicing focus was to keep the mind centered on the breath to help hold the postures, many of which were challenging as the yoga set was around abdominal strengthening. In holding a pose, paying attention to the breath can help one rise above the distractions in the external environment, in the mind, and in the distractions coming from the body in the form of discomfort. In fact,the power of the mind is equally as important as the strength in the body to hold the yoga pose or succeed in life – it is the mental focus that helps us stretch enough to sometimes get the job done.
Yet I also believe and tell students that they need to pay attention to the cues from the body in order to stay within the space of doing their best and not more than their best. Which means that there is a balance point to how far you can stretch yourself without negative results which arise from going beyond your capabilities. And it is around this point that the interesting realizations showed up for people…how to blend the two concepts of focus to stretch and grow and the balance of listening to the big picture.
One mom was so focused on holding her breath that while she was able to hold the pose and get through it, she also became a little light headed because she was breathing so strongly. It was an easy correction. She simply took a break and then started the next exercise but it brought up a valuable talking point at the end. Likewise, my daughter, in trying to focus on holding one pose longer in order to keep up with her friend, went beyond her limit in one pose and her back felt sore at the end. Both cases represented, at least to me, a subconscious focus on an external expectation at the expense of being fully present and listening to one’s needs.
At the end of class we had time to share and reflect. In talking about focus, it became clear to us all that single minded focus could be helpful but also had some serious side effects. The general consensus was that focus is important but needs to be held within the balance of the big picture. And one needs to clarify where to put the focus and the role that expectations play in setting the focus. There are times when that absolute focus is needed for survival but there can be a cost to the short term.
What’s your view on focus and your experience with the blend of concentration and balance?
Following the words you regularly use or the beliefs you hold can be great markers to see if what you are creating is really in alignment with your core truth. If what is showing up in your life is not what you are wanting or in alignment with who you are, I invite you to explore the words and beliefs you’re holding to see what message you are giving your bodymind to create.
I do this on a regular basis as a way to stay conscious of the patterns I’m creating and make changes so that what I bring into my life serves me. On my most recent check-in, these words and beliefs showed up for me:
- Last year I made the self-commitment to work full-time to allow me to expand my business. What happened? I worked full-time all right; in fact it felt like I was working all the time. While I made huge strides in furthering the development of my business, the output of energy didn’t feel in alignment with my core truth of balance. I realized that there was an unconscious belief nested in my actions that I had to work “full-time” to get the job done. That may or may not have been true, but my goal is to have a abundantly successful business while working part-time so I needed to change my energy and line up my actions accordingly. My current plan is to actually begin working part-time again which will include client time as well as development time…and hire an assistant for some of the tasks that are draining my time and not making use of my talents.
- I also realized that I had gotten stuck in the idea that my business expansion had to be achieved through a lot of doing tasks such as marketing materials, networking, website, product development, getting a new shopping cart, doing social media, building my list, etc. Some of this is certainly important but my truth is that an abundant business is part of my natural manifestation when I am in the place of health and alignment with my Self. Doing is a piece of my expansion but I realized that I had not been putting enough energy into my being in alignment which I think is actually more critical. Just having that awareness has created a shift, but to further that flow of energy, I am committing to have more “being” time and letting go of the need to “do” so much.
- I kept hearing myself say that “I have a love/hate relationship with my computer.” I love the outlets that my computer gives me but was frustrated by the glitches in technology that seem to crop up with annoying regularity. Duh…if I keep saying it, I’m going to create it…so I need a new statement around technology, which I’m working on. What’s popping up as a starting point is the simple statement, “Technology serves me well.”
- I used to have a statement/belief about my daughter saying that “she is a sensitive, high need child” that I realized was serving neither her nor I and simply released it, allowing her to develop into the capable, self-directed, still growing teen she is today.
- I have heard myself regularly saying, “It will all work out” and this I’m holding onto!
What do you hear yourself say or find yourself believing? And more importantly, are these statements and beliefs serving you and bringing what you want in your life or do you need to make adjustments?
As a self-described “compulsive doer”, I reach a point of enoughin my activities or current action that I need to listen to in order to stay in my space of health and harmony. How do I know what that point of “enough” is? My bodymind kindly tells me, of course, and here are some of the ways it shows up.
Enough is when…
- I feel grumpy
- My kids become whiny and restless
- I dip into a martyr attitude
- Complications and problems keep popping up
- My eyes burn
- It doesn’t feel fun and joyful
- I’m having to work at it
- I feel annoyed with my husband
- I notice that I’m yelling at my children
- Some part of my body hurts
- I feel out of balance or off-center
- My ears tingle and buzz
- My forearms are screaming for a break
- I want to eat just to eat and what I eat doesn’t satisfy me
What are your cues that something needs to stop or shift?
Have you ever felt that some critical aspect of your truth was right on the edge of your vision, just outside your view? Or had a sense of knowing that you just couldn’t quite define? Then the world rotates and suddenly the view shifts and all is clear…or at least another piece is clear? This is what I experienced – the percolation of awareness that had been rumbling inside the past several weeks bubbled to the surface today and I am thrilled to receive a new level of clarity!
I have been exploring the energies around my yoga in relation to sleep and ideals of yogic practice for a far amount of time, which I have shared in other posts. The upshot is that the daily ideal expectation of rising in the early hours of the morning and doing a particular set of reading, yoga and meditations which lasts about 2-2 1/2 hours has not appealed to me. Fine, I let the ideal go but was still searching for how to hold my daily yoga – did it have to look a specific way with a specific amount of time at a certain hour of the day? I felt inside that it didn’t need a specific structure yet was still internally conflicted. And why, if I truly know that yoga serves me so well, am do I have such resistance to holding not only the morning ideal and adding more lifestyle pieces?
Suddenly, in a flash of clarity that seems so obvious I can’t believe I didn’t see it before, I got it today. One of the pieces that first attracted me to Kundalini Yoga in the first place was that it is designed for the householder to integrate into their already busy lives and so can work in small snippets. I love the idea and reality that a three minute meditation completely shifted a deep rooted pattern for me and expanded my life powerfully. I love this not only for myself but for my equally busy clients. In my work as a BodyMind Coach, I am known for helping people discover tools and techniques that add value and create powerful shifts without adding further burdens of time or drains of energy. I meet individuals whereever they are at and simply start with small, consistent steps forward. The theme of my work and this energy is that it doesn’t have to be hard, time consuming, radically different or daunting but rather filled with ease, simple integration, effective yet time managable tools. And this is why I have “resisted” the larger expectations of the yoga lifestyle…it doesn’t fit with who I am, the core truth of myself. This core truth is that expansion doesn’t have to be life consuming to be effective. That many paths lead to enlightenment. That small, steady commitment is powerful.
At least this is my awareness and acceptance today. Now that I’ve embraced this new awareness, it might open to the door to further expansion in a way that allows me to bring more pieces into my life with ease. And if I look at what I already do daily, I have already integrated many lifestyle yogic pieces into my life, just not in the exact laid out look of the Kundalini tradition. And that’s ok because it honors another critical part of my truth…I don’t feel the need to walk an exact path of religion, philosophy or culture…instead I revel in exploring the many faces of truth of different traditions.
And as I become aware today of these aspects of my truth and how I am honoring them, not only do I have clarity but I also have a deep peace. Aaah.
Self Acknowledgement is an important piece in celebrating each day’s successes, which I spoke about a couple of posts ago with the idea of “to-do” lists. So today I want to take a moment and do just that.
In expanding my business alongside seeing my current clientele and taking care of needs at home, I often feel like I have more to do than I have time for. And this happens day after day after day. Sometimes pushing hard to get a specific project done is needed and worthwhile; however, because my tasks are more constant than isolated, living in the space of all work and no pause doesn’t serve me. Yet, I find that I can often get stuck in that “doing all the time” mode.
Yesterday was a similar day. I had two meetings and a class which took up a large chunk of my day leaving me feeling like I hadn’t had time to work on some other items that needed addressing. Yet I also acknowledged that I hadn’t exercised the day before nor had I done the amount of yoga I was looking for. So for today, I want to acknowledge that I was able to set aside my compulsion to keep going and instead made a different choice…a choice to nourish me inside and out. After getting the kids moving towards bed and their reading space, I took the time to ride my exercise bike, do a set of yoga, enjoy two meditations and then deeply renewed with a long corpse pose while listening to yogic music. Then, instead of acting on the inspiration I received in my meditation, I simply wrote down the threads of key thoughts and went to bed! Which allowed me to rise this morning earlier and ground in with some morning rituals, office organization, and computer tasks before starting my day. How refreshing.
I acknowledge myself for taking care of myself with nourishing activities that recharge not only my body but my spirit and allow me to move through life with greater balance and ease.
In today’s busy world, we often feel like we have more tasks to do then we have time to get them done…and distractions which pull us away from our tasks can be seen as roadblocks to our success. Today I’m going to offer another possibility, that these distractions are vital to balance and can actually help produce better results.
A common pattern with a high task list is to put your blinders on and plow through the best you can…at the expense of everything else in your life. While this might work if you had a specific project that had to be done and was time limited; however, often when we finish one pressurized task list there is simply another to take its place so the pattern is never ending. And this leads to a dangerous pattern which can create imbalance in your life and your health.
Being in the space of task only focused can create many imbalances:
- The constant expectations leave you feeling continuously stressed and over long periods of time can even lead to conditions such as Adrenal Fatigue. The adrenals produce the hormone adrenalin which gives you that boost of extra energy is high stress times. While this is great in short moments, if you constantly live in this space and the adrenals are always needing to be ramped up, they will eventually fatigue and become depleted.
- Staying on task for an intense period often means being in the same position for long periods doing repetitive motions and this creates tightness and sometimes overload in the muscles. This could apply to finishing a project on the computer, wanting to get the whole yard weeded in one sitting, or even painting a room. Especially if the end is in sight, you might be more drawn to working beyond to capacity to finish the job and then end up with a physical crisis like a pulled muscle or muscle spasm.
- Being singly focused, even for seemingly short periods of time, can create imbalance in your personal life, leaving your family and friends feeling unhappy and neglected in the process. This is turn can lead to guilt, a sense of failure to hold your multiple roles well, and disconnect within yourself.
By shifting the way you look at those distractions, you can create a new pattern which will give you less stress and physical tension, greater peace in the family, a sense of balance in yourself, and even better results in your projects. Instead of viewing distractions as…well annoying distractions which pull you off task, I invite you to consider them as tools for balance. Yes, welcome in these distractions such as needing to the bathroom, take your child to piano, cook dinner, go to a meeting…whatever pulls you off task because they are creating a valuable pause for your body and your mind.
These are some of the benefits of having a pause that leads you into balance:
- From a physical perspective, the distraction serves as an opportunity to stretch the body, give your posture a break, and take a breath. When you get out of the repetitive position, your body has a chance to remember it can move in other ways and can find a better posture pattern. Add a couple quick stretches to facilitate the shift, and your body will thank you. Over time this can also avoid not only crisis injuries but even reduce the decline in spinal wear and tear.
- Mentally, the pause will allow you to come back to your project with new energy and perspective. Many times when on a set task, you may be forced into creating when you don’t really have the inspiration or spark. By taking a break, you allow your mind time to percolate on the task. When you return, often the ideas flow more freely and you are more effective in creating quality piece of work.
- Socially, you honor your connection to others when you make time stop work and be with friends and family. There is a reason we have the saying, “All work and no play makes Jamie dull…or unhappy.” Being enmeshed in one task is not balanced for you or your family.
So the next time you are working in the midst of your latest and greatest project and you get interrupted, instead of grousing in frustration, I invite you to welcome in the opportunity to pause and be grateful for the reminder to find your moment of re-balance.
BodyMind Coaching | admin | 
June 30, 2009 5:31 am | 
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