A Delicious Life

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been using the Now Habit’s Unschedule to take more control over my time at work and at home. Still, sometimes I find myself getting distracted over things like e-mail. Who doesn’t, right? Well I really want to get more of my time back, so I needed something else to keep me focused.

Enter Flylady. Her focus is more on the home and family, but her method of using a timer to get things done in 15-minute increments works well for…well, just about anything. I started using a timer for my writing at work and at home, and I’m getting twice as much done as I did before I used one. Of course, this is a new habit I’m trying out, so I’ll let you know how it goes. But so far, so good.

And…my 15 minutes are up, so see you later.

There is a great piece about the history of spices on NPR - how they were brought around the world and contributed to the discovery of the Americas. Columbus was really looking for spices, not the new world. Most of what he took back were not actually spices, but he did manage to bring one — the chili pepper.

I love to use spices in my cooking, and I frequently experiment with different flavors. I don’t really like using recipes when I cook - I prefer to imagine what flavors would go with whatever it is that I’m making. Most of the time, my dishes come out pretty good.

Many spices have amazing healing properties. If you cook with a variety of them regularly, you can greatly improve your health. I will start posting short articles about health benefits of different herbs and spices, and maybe you, too, will be inspired to spice up your dishes.

Very interesting post here. Coaching and counseling are definitely different animals, but I think that these rules can apply to both types of help.

With counseling, or therapy, many people see it as just a way to air out the issues in a safe environment. But this is only part of the process. Sometimes it can be painful as you process old hurts. Sometimes you need to take action to resolve the conflicts that brought you to counseling in the first place.

As a holistic health coaching, we start from a place where taking action is assumed - clients seek my help in making a specific change. My job is to help you take action, while also helping you find places where you may be blocked. I work with people who are highly motivated to change - if they are not, then the coaching process won’t really work the way it is intended. I can guide clients, but I can’t make it happen for them - they need to do the work for themselves.

On the night of the lunar eclipse a couple of months ago, I was reading a chapter in Deepak Chopra’s Book of Secrets. Secret #2 is that you are not in the world, but the world is in you.

He explains that our notion of separateness from everything else in the world keeps us from finding our true nature. But when we start to connect with this idea that we are co-creators of our reality and interconnected with everything else in the world, the way that the cells of our bodies are all connected and working in harmony with each other, we can start to understand some other truths:

“Everything I am experiencing reflects myself: Therefore, I don’t have to try and escape. There is nowhere to escape to, and as long as I see myself as the creator of my reality, I wouldn’t want to escape even if I could.

“My life is part of every other life: My connection to all living things makes it impossible that I have enemies. I feel no need to oppose, resist, conquer, or destroy.

“I have no need to control anyone or anything: I can affect change by transforming the only thing that I ever had control of in the first place, which is myself.”

I drafted this post a while ago. It took me a while to process what it was about for me to be able to comment on it, but here’s what I think of it now.

All of the struggle that we experience is a reflection of our own inner state, and how that state attracts certain energies to us. When we are at peace, when we are full of love, we experience peace and love in every aspect of our lives. When we are at war, we experience war everywhere.

There is no need to escape, because there is nothing from which to escape. There is no reason to seek, because everything we seek is right where we need it - inside of us.

Everything, every experience that you have, every relationship that you have, is happening perfectly and exactly as it should be happening for who you are at this moment.

This can be hard to face for some people if they are feeling like they are not having such a good time in life.

BUT - that is because they don’t realize is that this struggle is actually a gift. It can be an opportunity to learn something. It can be a wake up call. It can be a chane to release from old patterns, to bid farewell to old energies, and allow for new opportunities to come in.

I’m tempted to try this 100-mile diet - eating locally. But it will probably have to wait until next spring or summer before I experiment with it. The selection in winter is just a little too limited, and I don’t want to be only chewing on roots all winter long.

Who says sweet potatoes need to be slathered in marshmallows. I made these the other night much to the delight of my dining companion. Try them out for yourself - they’re super-easy to prepare. Sweet potatoes are loaded with beta carotene, vitamin B6 which can help lower your levels of homocysteine, and they can stabilize your blood sugar and lower insulin resistance. So try some today if you want to get healthier

Spiced Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:
2 -4  organic sweet potatoes, washed and cut into quarters
1-2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) or olive oil
Cinnamon powder
Cardamom powder (optional)
Cayenne pepper (optional)
Sea salt

Method: Place cut sweet potatoes into a steamer over a pot of boiling water. Steam until soft (about 10 - 15 minutes depending on size - check by poking with a fork). Sprinkle quarters with spices as desired and drizzle with oil or ghee. Serve and enjoy.