Your Charmed Life

The following came from a lovely woman named Allison who reads this blog:

In my life, the things that are working include:

I am not orderly by nature, so for me maintaining any sense of environmental calm takes continued effort, some chipping away at the piles of papers (that's where my clutter tends to erupt) every day. It's okay for this process never to be "done," as long as you realize that it will always take a bit of doing.

This helps me:

There are a lot of opinions and philosophies on food and nutrition, but here's a basic foundation:

1. Eat greens. Eat greens like crazy, the darker the better. Romaine, leaf lettuce, broccoli, chard, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, arugula, parsley, cillantro, spinach, Mesclun greens. If it's green, it'll help you. Eat tons of greens in salads, green smoothies (just toss some romaine, kale, or spinach in -- it won't affect the flavor), green juices (use a base of apple or carrot to take the edge off and some lemon for zip), marinated greens, steamed greens, sauteed greens, green soups. Remember the guy in Forrest Gump who knew a million things to do with shrimp? Be like that with greens.

2. Eat plants, different plants with different colors for different phytochemicals. Eat leaves, stems, roots, flowers, fruits, and seeds. Have salad. Crudites with a nice dip. Steamed, baked, stir-fried and sauteed veggies. Grab an apple, a carrot, an orange, a pear. 

3. Eat whole food. If you like bread, get the grainiest, grittiest, heaviest, chewiest bread you can find: it's full of fiber, B vitamins, and honest nutrients that the white stuff we used to play "communion" with, and with the sun-tanned varieties that are white bread masquerading as whole-grain, just won't give you. Eat brown rice. Eat potatoes with their skins on. Get more of your fats from whole foods -- olives, sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds, nuts, soybeans -- and less from extracted oils. And leave refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, and the soft drinks that are full of them alone: they're really hurting you. Drink water, seltzer water, soft drinks that are half seltzer and half fruit juice, coconut water, and fresh vegetable juice. Your body will thank you kindly.

There's plenty more you could do, refining and experimenting and reading and learning, but this alone will transform the way you feel and the way you see your life. 

It's easier to spend money and energy on other people than on ourselves. It's easier to spend money and energy on maintaining life and work (groceries, computer repair) than on enhancing life and work (i.e., organic groceries, or that new light-weight laptop that would change everything).

Today, take the leap: what can do you in the enhancement category? Looks at the categories of your life: spiritual, health, family, home, professional life, creativity and recreation, dreams and visions. Write down what you've done lately to enhance one or more of these. In my life, I can point to the home area and say that I'm looking for a painter for the living room and an electrician to get rid of the creepy fluorescents in the bathroom and kitchen; and in the professional area, I've hired a business consultant to help me launch my holistic health coaching practice, and I'm having my website remastered to make it interactive and far more viable than it is now. 

After you've written what you've done already (and don't worry if you don't have a lot to say), write down what you can realistically do in the next 90 days to enhance each of the 7 categories. Your list might look like:

Spiritual - get an intro session with a spiritual-life coach

Health - get a buddy to go to the gym with

Family --make one night a week family night

Home - read feng shui book (try Collins' The Western Guide to Feng Shui)

Professional life - take a free tech class at the Mac store

Creativity & recreation - do something fun every single week between now and Christmas

Dreams & visions -- make a treasure map or vision board

It's your life, so you'll know what to do with it. Just be willing to make the investment. It'll pay ya back handsomely.