Born to Love

“Love is what we are born with. 

Fear is what we learn. 

The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. 

Meaning does not lie in things. 

Meaning lies in us.”

Excess Baggage

Removing Emotional Baggage

Before we begin to remove emotional baggage we must first define what emotional baggage is. Emotional baggage can be defined as ‘Painful memories, mistrust and hurt carried around from past sexual or emotional rejection’.

It is an image of ‘a big sack or suitcase that you carry around with you at all times… with every disappointment, trauma, and wrong that you’ve ever experienced….This image, the metaphor of emotional baggage, has penetrated our culture’.

What emotional baggage are you carrying? Well it is now time to unpack and only keep the things in you bag that will serve you and help you become a better person personally and professionally.

It is time go to throw that suitcase away and release the emotional baggage that may be holding you back. We all have had pain for some it is physical, some mental, and for some both. The events of our life that we couldn’t control can no longer be allowed to control us. What ever the painful memory is it is time to find a way to let it go for when you let it go and release your emotional baggage you can move forward. Many times we hold onto to things emotionally and we find ourselves in a rut because we have associated all these negative emotions with the situation. It is time to become an action taker and do something to remove the emotional baggage. It can be as easy as adopting a new song to help you get over the situation and remove the emotional baggage. 

Strategies for Removing Emotional Baggage

There are many ways to remove emotional baggage and it takes work, howeve ronce you peel away the emotional baggage and difuse the emotional charges you will begin to feel better and you will start to attract those that you seek to attract.

1: Make yourself the most important person and affirrm that you deserve the best. This can be done by affirmations.

2: Let go of the people that no longer serve you. This is very difficult as many of us feel an obligation to so called friends. By removing this emotional baggage and no longer seeking that person’s approval you will become stronger and confident.

3: Write down all the negative events and thoughts you associate with them and then crumple up the papper and place it in a bowl and burn it so as to remove the emotional baggage. 

4: Write Letters of Forgiveness to those that you believed wronged you. 

5: Begin a gratitude journal. 

6: Look for things that bring you joy and begin to write about them. 

7: Invest in yourself through workshops and training or on things that will bring happiness to you.

8: Surround yourself with people who are encouraging and supportive

9: Turn to spiritual teachings.

10: Commit to yourself to treat yourself with love.

Get Naked!!

I am one of the Roughly 10% of individuals sleep in the nude..... and here are some reasons to do the same.

Many benefits can be found when one sleeps with no clothes on.

1. Those who sleep in the buff tend to have better relationships. Skin to skin contact will release oxytocin, which is known as the bonding hormone. This will not only elevate happiness, but will also lower stress and reduces blood pressure.

2. Sleeping with no clothes on will reduce the likelihood of yeast infections. Wearing no clothes will allow the vaginal area to air out. Without any clothes on, the area will remain cool and dry, where with clothes on, the yeast could grow in the warm, moist conditions.

3. Wearing clothing to bed will allow the body to stay warmer, which will prevent the growth hormone from being released. The growth hormone will promote bone density, lowers the risk of heart disease, lowers the risk of diabetes, repairs tissues, builds muscles, stimulates the growth of internal organs, and stimulates the immune system. It will also help to promote a healthy weight.

4. You can have better sex since you will be ready to go and the level of oxytocin will be high.

5. Cortisol levels are decreased at night when our bodies cool. So with less clothes our bodies are cooler. If we are too hot often we will get less sleep and will wake up with high levels of cortisol. This can make a person hungrier and an individual may not only gain weight, but also have a lower libido.

6. Sleeping in the buff keeps us young. The anti-aging hormones, growth hormones, and melatonin will function properly when they are kept at a temperature of 68-70 degrees. Keeping cool will allow the body to cool down during sleep.

7. An individual can become more comfortable with their body if they sleep naked. This will allow them to be happier. You do not have to worry about bras, underwear, or anything else.

8. Your skin will get to breathe! During the day, all the skin is covered up. Sleeping naked will allow such parts to air out, and will mean a lowered risk for certain skin diseases, such as athlete’s foot.

9. You will have fewer clothes to wash. No searching for something that is comfortable to wear at night. Simply strip down and climb between the two cool sheets.

Ditch the pyjamas and crawl into bed naked tonight. Start looking and feeling better and having a better relationship with not only yourself, but your significant other as well.

Keeping things smooth

Sometimes it is quite hard to eat enough fruit and vegetables... I was eating as much fruit as I could for breakfast, cutting, slicing and dicing... make a veritable fruit cocktail for each morning meal. It takes some time to prepare and the massive bowl of fruity chunks seemed insurmountable to my stomach.

But there is a solution... SMOOTHIES... take a fraction of time to make, and I ended up eating 3 times the amount of fruit in their pureed form.

Fruits smoothies can be an easy way to nourish your body with essential nutrients. The best way to know the exact ingredients in your smoothie is to make them yourself. All you need is a blender, fruit and a base, such as water, milk or yogurt. Making your own smoothies can help prevent fruit from going to waste, while providing benefits that will keep you on the right track towards good health.

Vitamins and Minerals

There are six categories of fruits that contain a variety of vitamins and minerals--citrus, berries, tropical, drupes, pomes and melons. Citrus fruits, such as grapefruit, oranges, tangerines and lemons, contain good amounts of vitamin C, potassium and folate. Vitamin C helps your immune system and synthesizes collagen that aids in the framework of your body. Potassium supports your heart function and helps maintain a normal blood pressure, while folate promotes healthy cells. The berry category includes blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, cranberries and grapes. They contain particular antioxidants that decrease inflammation and phytonutrients that help fight disease. Tropical fruits include papaya, kiwi fruit, pineapple, avocado, coconut, pomegranates, bananas and mangoes. Typically, these fruits are sources of vitamin C, potassium, folate and manganese, which keeps your bones, blood sugar, thyroid gland and nerves healthy. Common drupes fruits are cherries, apricots, peaches and plums. They provide beta carotene, potassium and vitamin C. Beta carotene helps your vision and immune system function properly. Pomes fruits include apples and pears, which contain vitamin C and potassium. The melon category includes watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew and casaba, which all contain adequate amounts of vitamin C.

Fibre

Drinking fruit smoothies can help you reach the recommended intake of fibre, which is 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men. One serving of fruit typically contains two to four grams of fiber with blackberries, pears and apples having the highest concentration of five to seven grams per serving. The soluble fibre found in fruit helps slow digestion and may help control blood sugar and lower cholesterol. I have been boosting the fibre content of my smoothies by blending the whole fruit... skins and all. You really don't notice much of a difference in taste and texture... so chuck in the whole banana, kiwi or mango.... 

Smoothie Base

Creating your own smoothie means you get to choose a base of your liking. You can add water, cow's milk, soy milk or yogurt to the fruit in order to add bulk. The healthier options would include water, low-fat milk or low-fat yogurt, which will add flavor and nutrients without a huge number of calories. The water will provide your body with fluid that is necessary for metabolism of food and transportation of nutrients. The low-fat dairy contains calcium and vitamin D, which help your bones stay strong. I use a mix of 50% Soya Milk and 50 % Water.

Smoothie Tips

When trying to lose or maintain a healthy weight, smoothies could be used as a meal replacement, not an addition. For instance, drink a smoothie for breakfast or drink a water-based smoothie as a snack. Fruit smoothies can be a healthy additional any meal plan as long as you maintain portion control. 

Something Good

Spiritual Nurturing

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” ~Teilhard de Chardin

We human beings tend to think of ourselves as being either healthy or sick. We act as if there are only these two options. In fact, spiritual wellness is not limited to these two opposite extremes.

Wellness is more of a spectrum. There is optimum health on the one side and poor health on the other. But most of us live, moving back and forth, somewhere along the spectrum, feeling healthier at times, and not so well at other times.

What is the definition of Spiritual Health?

A Healthy Spirit means so many different things to different people. For me, spirituality is a sense of wholeness, a sense of knowingness, and a sense of something far greater and more wonderful than what I see in front of me. When we get sick we have two paths we can take; we can shrivel up and succumb or we can open ourselves up to a new journey, a new rebirth.

Making the choice to be Spiritually Healthy

In life you make millions of choices. Each day you make thousands of little choices. Each choice leads you either toward wellness or toward poor health. You make choices about where you live, where you work, who you live with, what you eat, whether or not you exercise, how much you sleep, etc. All these choices affect whether you are moving toward or away from wellness.

You also make many choices about whether or not you invest in yourself spiritually. Nurturing your spirituality involves knowing who you really are and living a balanced life that is meaningful to you. On an energy level, spiritual wellness involves being present in your body and creating balance and flow through your personal energy system (aura, energy channels and chakras). Doing things like learning to meditate, receiving spiritual healing and spiritual counseling are spiritual investments in yourself. These practices support you in knowing who you are and what you need to do in order to create balance and flow in your life.

Here are some simple ways to nurture your spirit and ensure optimum spiritual wellness:

Prayer

Prayer is an inside route into tapping the Divine Power that surrounds us at all times. The conversations you have with God in prayer, in themselves help your spirit cleanse itself. Immense clarity of thought and positive directions become apparent if you pray and ask for guidance. Especially when we are most uneasy, prayer offers ease and comfort to the soul.

Meditation

Meditation is the ultimate way to know yourself. By learning how to meditate you can pull back from the world and focus on what’s going on inside. With self awareness you can clearly identify where you need to restore balance. With the self awareness developed in meditation, you can also go back into the world and make choices that are healing for you and your life. On an energy level, meditation supports you in being present in your body, releasing unwanted energies and creating flow in your spiritual energy system. To receive the long term benefits of meditation, it is best to practice regularly.

Spiritual Healing/Aura Healing

Spiritual healings support you being grounded in your body, releasing unwanted energies, and getting your own energy flowing so you can heal yourself. Healings can be miraculous, but rather than expecting a ‘one shot miracle’, healings are best approached as part of a regular routine. You would not meditate once and expect to be at peace forever. In a similar way, regular spiritual healings support you in moving toward, and maintaining, spiritual wellness.

Spiritual Counseling

A Spiritual Counselling literally means “a reading of the soul”. Through spiritual counseling you can gain tremendous insight into who you are and what you want to do. The best spiritual counseling sessions offer useful reflections about your life while still giving you room to have your own truth and make your own choices. Receiving regular readings also supports you moving toward, and maintaining, spiritual wellness.

With spiritual wellness, like many things in life, you get out what you put in. If you spend all your time making money and put no energy into spirituality, you might get rich, but you will probably end up spiritually unhealthy. If you spend all your time making your family happy and put no energy into your personal well-being, you might meet your family’s needs, but at the expense of your own spiritual health. It is necessary to make a commitment to healing yourself in order to create spiritual wellness…

Our spirit is our essence. And it also tends to be the one thing we neglect the most. We have to make time everyday tofeed our spirit. When we take care of our spirit we find the path to our authentic self and ultimately to living the life we were intended to live. Find your own definition of Spiritual Health.

True spiritual wellness is not about denying the body or ignoring other parts of your life. Spiritual wellness involves nurturing yourself on all levels of being. That includes taking care of your physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual needs. Paying your bills on time, having a healthy life, and giving back to the world are also part of living a balanced, meaningful life and part of nurturing your spirit.