Your Health-Creating Living Space

Every culture has at least some blinders, and one of the big ones for us is our inability to sense the huge physical, emotional and spiritual price tag we pay for designing and living in environments that have a negative impact on our health.

Several ancient cultures developed advanced methods for predicting these price tags and for then creating healing spaces to live and work in that would maximize human well-being and your ability to interact harmoniously with the environment around you.  Chinese Feng Shui and Indian Vaastu are two well known examples of these sciences, and ones you can use to improve your personal resilience and that of your loved ones.  


So you can get started today, here are a couple of quick and informative videos about how to get the most out of the two spaces that have perhaps the biggest impact on your quality of life - where you work and where you sleep:

Creating a Healthy Office Environment:

Creating a Healthy Bedroom Environment:

Needless to say, we don't yet know everything about exactly why these ancient sciences work so well.  We do know, however that geometric shapes influence the natural electromagnetic fields all around us, and that these fields interact directly with our nervous systems, energy systems, DNA and even the water in our cells (and, of course, we're 70% water).  All of that is something we'll be exploring in the near future.  

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger 

Stop Second-Guessing Yourself - 5 Tips to Feel at Ease with Decisions

I'm uniquely privileged to offer you this wonderful article by a friend of mine, Sonya Derian.  This particular article concerns the vital capacity to make decisions, something few of us are comfortable with.  

In my work on human resilience, this capacity to make rapid and accurate decisions about significant issues in our lives is a key to moving forward and to managing our emotional lives.  At the heart of it is the ability to take ethical action without hesitation or regret.  A resilient person is not afraid of making decisions and doesn't hesitate.  This is also one of the hallmarks of leadership, of course, since a leader must have the capacity to make decisions based on the available information, sometimes in the full knowledge that information is fragmentary.

You and I are no different in daily life since we're also making most of our decisions in the absence of perfect information.  The key is to develop our capacity to trust our innate decision-making skills, and that's where Sonya has some great advice for you...

 

by Sonya Derian
Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions.  ~Unknown

A reader recently wrote to me:

“I struggle with making decisions and always second guess myself… I recently had to make a decision about something and after giving it a lot of thought, I decided. Now, months later, my decision is eating me up and I can’t stop thinking I made the wrong decision. So I guess my point is once you decide, how do you stop yourself from second guessing?”

I know I’ve been there, having made a decision I not only second guessed, but wish I hadn’t made—and couldn’t take back.

I think there are two parts to each of us: who we are day to day, and who we are in our broader intentions. Second guessing comes when the smaller part—the one that is at the effect of everything—is afraid of the greater part that’s forging a new way.

When we make any decision, for better or for worse, we affect change. And sometimes it’s scary to be responsible for the change we affect. That’s why I love the saying. “Make a decision. And then make the decision right.”


We never know where our decisions will lead us and we can’t know before making them what the aftermath might be. But only after making the decision can we deal with what comes next. Never before.

There is an assumption that a decision that ends up hurting someone’s feelings, causing friction. or rocking the boat is somehow a wrong decision.

But why would that be the case?

It could mean the broader part of you helped you make that decision in order to break something open, learn how to deal with discomfort, learn how to create a boundary or take care of yourself amidst someone else’s disapproval.

It could mean the broader part of you helped you make that decision to learn how to create dialogue, deepen a relationship, or simply say “I’m sorry. I made a mistake”.

There is no such thing as a wrong decision because we are always course correcting. The way a pilot navigates a plane from one place to the next is by setting the course destination before taking flight and then course correcting along the way.

Similarly, that’s how we grow. Taking from what we have learned from the past and building on it for the future.

That being said, how can we allow the process to unfold more smoothly? What can we do to stop ourselves from second guessing? I’ve come up with these five suggestions:

1.  Trust yourself.
Making a decision sometimes forces you to grow in areas where you’re not comfortable. When you second guess yourself it’s usually because of that discomfort. But it’s important to remember that change happens incrementally. Even if you’re not seeing an obvious positive result yet, it might be coming. And your broader intentions led you there for that reason.

2. Choose a new thought.
Stop entertaining the idea of having made a wrong decision. There is no power in that. Instead, know that things are working out for your good and that you are learning and growing while you find your bearings.

3. Assess what you’re learning.
Because we are always in a state of flux, there may very well be things you will do differently the next time. Ask yourself, if I had to do it over, what would I do differently? And then congratulate yourself because this is how new behavior is born! You can’t learn if you’re not playing the game.

4. Get comfortable with mistakes.
There is such a thing as grace. Time gives us an opportunity to fix all sorts of things we think we may have screwed up. There is power in simply letting things go and deciding to re-evaluate them at a future date.

Ask yourself “What if I did make a wrong decision? Is it okay for me to have made a mistake?” And then let it go. Getting comfortable with making mistakes could have entirely been the lesson! But we are always making the best decisions we have access to at the moment.

5. Finally, go easy on yourself.
Like a friend of mine likes to say, “Life is a hard hat zone. We are always under construction”.
You are not who you were yesterday and you are not who you will be tomorrow. So, make peace with that. Life is full of second chances. We are always in a state of evolution.

In learning how to walk, you had to crawl first, and maybe you wobbled and skinned your knees a few times. But eventually, you found your bearings and trusted your stability. As tiny as you were, you were able to stand straight and put one foot in front of the other as you moved forward.

Not so far off from what it’s like as an adult.

Visit Sonya Derian at  http://omfreely.com !

Healing Power of Light - What You Didn't Know About Your Anatomy...

Following up on last week's post highlighting the 12th Annual Energy Psychology Conference in Toronto, I'm planning to present some interesting facts about your body and how you can heal yourself more effectively.

As you'll remember from that post, many of the world's top scientists agree on one thing - when it comes to the universe "out there" and the universe of our body-mind organism, we know squat!  To be more precise, every time we hit the next "Eureka" moment and discover something new, we suddenly realize just how much of the related information we have no clue about.  It's very humbling and points to the incredible mystery of existence.
 

Your DNA - Not Just Chemicals...

Recent research has proven that your DNA doesn't operate exclusively on the chemical level.  It also operates on the level of light.  In other words, your DNA stores and emits light - biophotons - that interact with the energy fields all around you and transmit information throughout your body.  

It's long been know that sunlight, for instance, is vital to the production of vitamin D, although it's only in the last couple of years that the importance of vitamin D and therefore of sunshine, have been understood.

Well, it turns out that when light enters your eyes or your skin, it gets transmitted to your body's crystalline structure.  Yes, the fascia layer of whitish, thin, tough tissue below your skin, the tissue that wraps your muscles, organs and more, actually has a crystalline structure that allows it to transmit light throughout your body.  Bet you didn't know you had a fiber-optic network inside you?  

This crystalline connective tissue is highly conductive and appears to function in a way similar to the semiconductor chips in your computer.  Not surprisingly, the 12 main energy meridians of Chinese Medicine appear to flow through this tissue and the specific acupuncture points are more electrically conductive than any of the surrounding tissue.  Moreover, when you stimulate an acupuncture point, the body starts to release endorphins, which doesn't happen when other locations are stimulated.  

So it looks increasingly as if you and I are truly "beings of light" in the literal sense.  So what should you do about it?

You Can Use This to Improve Your Health

Here are some basic suggestions for you to improve your health based on what we've discussed:

1. Get more sunlight exposure and don't wear sunglasses to do it!  Your body needs more sunlight in order to boost your production of the vitamin D that's vital to so many of your metabolic processes.  For those of us in temperate climates, that's especially important in winter.
   
   
2. When indoors, do what you can to get full-spectrum lighting and avoid florescent lighting.  In other words, you need to care about the quality of the light you're getting. 
   
   
3. Master "normal abdominal breathing" - that's the method devised by the same people who discovered your body's energy pathways millennia ago.  Abdominal breathing clears blockages out of your energy pathways and builds up your energy supply so that you keep your personal "fiber-optic network" humming along nicely.  If you need help mastering abdominal breathing and other exercises to maximize your energy health, just go to http://www.HaraPower.com.
   
   
4. Be sure to take your fascia layer through its complete range of motion on a regular basis, so that it doesn't fill with fat cells or otherwise atrophy.  This is not only vital to your posture, but also to your energy circulation system, as we've just seen.  If you'd like more details on how to do exactly this, just go to: http://www.RockSolidVitality.com/dvd.

So, as you go about your day today, take some time to think about the light coursing through your body and what a great mystery all of us really are. 



~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

A Revolution in Exercise Science

Here's something I feel absolutely compelled to share with you about your exercise program.  It's the very latest in exercise research and comes from highly reputable sources.  Moreover, it coincides with what many of us have felt to be the case for a very long time - distance running is NOT the answer to your exercise needs, and here's what IS the answer...

Courtesy of Dr. Joseph Mercola, that tireless researcher of sane solutions for your health, here is a series of videos (4 in all) he recorded with exercise coach Phil Campbell regarding an entirely "new" approach to exercise AND the science behind it:








Campbell's basic thesis, based on extensive studies, can be reduced to this:

• Ordinary cardio, typified by long-distance running, does not in fact work all the muscles and energy systems of your heart.  It gives you aerobic exercise but not the vital anaerobic component.
• This type of exercise (which also includes much of standard weight training) also fails to work your fast and super-fast muscle fibers, leaving them underdeveloped and atrophying
• When you work the fast and super-fast muscle fibers and the aerobic and anaerobic components together, your body produces large amounts of Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which improves cellular regeneration, improves your physical performance and retards the aging process. 

In these videos, you'll learn a whole new way of exercising that can unleash these benefits for you.  Even better, this type of exercise takes very little time.

I mentioned above that many of us had intuitively felt for years that distance running and similar endurance training methods were unnatural, unnecessary and responsible for a depressingly high body count (it seems every time I hear about a marathon somewhere, it's because one of the competitors dropped dead).  


As Dr. Mercola mentions in his own article on this, kids and animals in the wild do short, intense exercise, not long distance.  I'd add that from my studies of ancient Warrior cultures, they focused largely on short, intense exercise.  

And as a side note, to all of you who are using Matt Furey's famous Combat Conditioning system - don't stop!  The reason I began recommending Furey's program a few years ago was because he was promoting short, intense exercise and not a 2- hour jog.  His system is superb for building core strength and endurance using high intensity in a minimum time frame.  

So, if you're concerned about your fitness and your health, do take the time to digest this information from Phil Campbell.  Even though I've been doing short, intensive training for years, I'll be making some adjustments in the coming week based on this new information and I'll let you know what I discover.  Please feel free to share your results too!

Just remember - you should not begin any new program of physical exercise without first consulting your medical doctor.  

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger :-) 

Energy Psychology and the Shape of Things to Come

Just blew in the door from presenting at the 12th Annual Energy Psychology Conference (EPC) in Toronto.  And it was a phenomenal experience!  (For me it started out as dinner with friend and EFT expert Carol Look, so it definitely got off on the right foot ;-)

Although I certainly enjoyed giving a 2-hour workshop on Hara to about 40 enthusiastic people, the real "ice cream" for me was being able to spend three days with a group of highly intelligent, friendly and open-minded people whose primary focus is healing others.  Their collective dedication to truth, to scientific rigor and their insistence on respecting the scientific method were very inspiring.

As you know all too well, respect for the scientific method is the first casualty of the "ideological orthodoxy" running most any academic field.  You see this in fields as diverse as medicine, history, theology, archeology, and psychology.  In fact, there's probably no field where this hasn't happened.  

I'd like to share with you some of the cutting edge information on energy healing presented by Dr. Larry Dossey, a best-selling author who left his very prestigious medical career to write "heretical books" on the effects of spirituality on the healing process and whose keynote address kicked off the conference.  The information he and others shared has enormous implications not only for the future of health care, but for each one of us as we pursue our goal of personal Resilience.

 

So just turn up your speakers and I'll tell you some of Dr. Dossey's key points:

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

What Every Woman and Parent Needs to Know About Women's Self-Defense

Let's face it, you could be the target of physical violence...  It happens all the time in our society.  It could happen while you're commuting, walking down the street, at your place of work, or even in your own home.  

And yes, statistically speaking, you'll probably never have to defend yourself or your loved ones over the course of your life time.  But you don't ever want to be put in that position and realize you don't know what to do.  That's why self-defense is an integral part of mastering personal resilience.

Not surprisingly, self-defense is of even more concern for women than for the guys.  So if you're a woman trying to figure out the best way to learn self-defense or if you're a parent wondering where you can send your daughter, what should you do?  The array of options out there is bewildering. 

To help you out, I've rated most of the readily available alternatives for you here.  Keep in mind that there's no way I could cover every possible style or system, and that one of the most important variables is the one you'll have to rate for yourself - the quality of the instructor(s).  

The Rating System:

The most desirable rating under each category is 5.  Just think of it as a "5 star" rating ;-)


Availability: this refers to your chances of finding competent instruction in this style/system in an average major city.


Speed: 5 stars here means the style will make you genuinely effective at defending yourself in the shortest possible time.


Sophistication: The less sophisticated systems may give you a baseline self-defense capability, even quickly, but may keep you from progressing beyond that level.  The most sophisticated styles, on the other hand, have incredible potential.  Unfortunately, there's sometimes a trade-off between speed and sophistication, and a less sophisticated system may serve your immediate purposes.


Grappling / Striking: This refers to the style's preference, since almost all of them prefer one or the other.  While ideally you want a mix of both, striking (e.g., punching, kicking, elbowing, etc.) is certainly the more important, especially in the early stages.  


Applicability (to women's self-defense): Does the style / system leverage a woman's natural abilities and take into account her physical characteristics?  


Martial Art: Karate
Country of origin: Okinawa, Japan
Availability: 5
Speed: 3
Sophistication: 2
Grappling/Striking: S
Applicability: 2
Overall Rating: 3
Karate is often taught as a sport, rather than for self-defense.  If taught specifically as self-defense, it could bring you to a reasonable level of competence in a short time.  However, it has stylistic elements that can inhibit further progress.


Martial Art: Taekwondo
Country of origin: Korea
Availability: 5
Speed: 3
Sophistication: 2
Grappling/Striking: S
Applicability: 2
Overall Rating: 3
Same comments as for Karate.

Martial Art: Jiu-Jitsu
Country of origin: Japan
Availability: 5
Speed: 3
Sophistication: 3
Grappling/Striking: G
Applicability: 3
Overall Rating: 3+
Although primarily a grappling system, jiu-jitsu verges on a "mixed system".  It may lack the sophistication of more "internal" arts, but it can be learned to a basic level quite quickly.  Particularly worthy of a look-see is modern "Brazilian Jiu-jitsu", which has made a name for itself in the martial arts world. 

Martial Art: Judo
Country of origin: Japan
Availability: 5
Speed: 1
Sophistication: 1
Grappling/Striking: G
Applicability: 1
Overall Rating: 1
Judo is solely a sport.  Anyone telling you they teach "combat Judo" is out to lunch - the combat version is jiu-jitsu, from which Judo was explicitly constructed as a sport.  You'll never learn to defend yourself competently through Judo.  

Martial Art: Aikido
Country of origin: Japan
Availability: 4
Speed: 2
Sophistication: 5
Grappling/Striking: G
Applicability: 4
Overall Rating: 3+
Aikido is one of the world's top martial arts, no doubt.  However, it takes quite a while to reach competence.  Note that some Aikido styles are combat oriented, while others are not much more than an elaborate form of exercise.

Martial Art: Ninjutsu (Tai-jutsu)
Country of origin: Japan
Availability: 2
Speed: 4
Sophistication: 4+
Grappling/Striking: Mixed
Applicability: 4
Overall Rating: 4
This is the martial art of the Ninja.  It's far more sophisticated than all later Japanese martial arts, with the exception, perhaps, of Aikido.  Competence in a short period of time is easily possible with good instruction. 

Martial Art: Shaolin
Availability: China
Speed: 3
Sophistication: 4-4+
Grappling/Striking: S
Applicability: 4
Overall Rating: 4
The catch here is that the Shaolin systems (northern and southern) and their off-shoots are sometimes taught more as aesthetic practices than as martial arts.  Authentic Shaolin instruction from real Shaolin-temple trained instructors has become easier to find in recent years. 

Martial Art: Wing Chun
Country of origin: China
Availability: 4
Speed: 5
Sophistication: 5
Grappling/Striking: S
Applicability: 4+ to 5
Overall Rating: 4+ 
Wing Chun is a superbly designed system and was invented by a woman, Yim Wing Chun, explicitly to defeat the greatest martial art of the time, the Shaolin system.  This was also Bruce Lee's primary style.  A competent Wing Chun practitioner will defeat most comers quite easily. 

Martial Art: Jeet Kune Do
Country of origin: Hong-Kong / USA
Availability: 3
Speed: 5
Sophistication: 4+
Grappling/Striking: S / Mixed
Applicability:  5
Overall Rating: 4+ to 5
Bruce Lee and his senior student, Dan Inosanto, developed this from Wing Chun, Kali/Escrima and other martial arts.  It's extremely effective, easily learned and takes the best of everything.  Highly recommended.

Martial Art: Tai Chi Chuan
Availability: 4
Speed: 1
Sophistication: 5
Grappling/Striking: Mixed
Applicability: 2
Overall Rating: 3
Tai Chi is one of the most sophisticated martial arts in the world.  In China of old, to challenge a Tai Chi master to combat was regarded as a one-way ticket to the after-life.  Now, however, Tai Chi is usually taught for its health benefits and few instructors can teach the combat aspect.

Martial Art: Bagua Zhang (Pa Kua)
Country of origin: China
Availability: 2
Speed: 2
Sophistication: 5+
Grappling/Striking: Mixed
Applicability: 3
Overall Rating: 3+
Bagua is at least as sophisticated as Tai Chi and high level practitioners are nearly unbeatable.  It just takes a while to become competent.  It's also hard to find good instructors. 

Martial Art: Xing Yi (Hsing I)
Country of origin: China
Availability: 2
Speed: 3+
Sophistication: 4 to 4+
Grappling/Striking: S
Applicability: 4
Overall Rating: 4
Xing Yi is the third major "internal" style from China (after Tai Chi and Bagua), and is extremely direct and effective.  In 19th century China, many body guards were trained in this style.  Finding good instruction would be the key here. 

Martial Art: Krav Maga
Country of origin: Israel
Availability: 3-4
Speed: 5
Sophistication: 2-3
Grappling/Striking: S / Mixed
Applicability: 4+
Overall Rating: 4
Krav Maga was developed to train people quickly.  So if you want to become dangerous in a short time frame, this is for you.  For women's self-defense, it's hard to argue with the idea that becoming effective quickly is the primary criterion. 

Martial Art: Haganah
Availability: Israel
Speed: 5
Sophistication: 3
Grappling/Striking: S / Mixed
Applicability: 4+
Overall Rating: 4
Haganah is based on Krav Maga and two other Israeli systems.  Its virtue?  An extremely well-designed curriculum where you, the defender, terminate all encounters in one of three ways.  Whereas some martial arts bombard you with hundreds of possible techniques, Haganah simply shows you the best response to the most common attacks.  From there, it's all downhill for your opponent - you either take him down, break his ankle or send him to the afterlife - your choice!

Martial Art: Thai Kick-Boxing
Country of origin: Thailand
Availability: 2-3
Speed: 3-4
Sophistication: 3-4+ (depending on the style)
Grappling/Striking: S / Mixed
Applicability: 3-4
Overall Rating: 3+
Thai kick boxing (not to be confused with generic "kick-boxing") is a very effective and practical system and is usually taught for real combat, although there are sport variants too. 

Martial Art: Silat

Country of origin: Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia

Availability: 2
Speed: 4
Sophistication: 4+
Grappling/Striking: Mixed
Applicability: 4
Overall Rating: 4
Some of the Silat systems are among the world's most sophisticated martial arts.  Yet, unlike the Chinese internal systems, these translate into real-world effectiveness quite a bit faster.  They also teach a very sophisticated defensive method against knife attack. 

Martial Art: Kali / Escrima

Country of origin: Philippines

Availability: 3
Speed: 4
Sophistication: 4+
Grappling/Striking: Mixed
Applicability: 4
Overall Rating: 4 
Kali / Escrima is a grouping of systems that, like Silat, strike an ideal balance between grappling and striking, and between weapons and empty-hand applications. 

Martial Art: Systema (pronounced siss-TYEH-mah)

Country of origin: Russia

Availability: 2
Speed: 5
Sophistication: 4+
Grappling/Striking: Mixed
Applicability: 4
Overall Rating: 4 to 4+
An extremely sophisticated use of body mechanics, coupled with internal power generation and economy of movement, this continually updated method has been routinely taught to Soviet and now Russian special forces. 

Martial Art: "Women's Self-Defense" courses

Country of origin: N/A

Availability: 4
Speed: 3
Sophistication: 2-3
Grappling/Striking: Mixed
Applicability: 2-3
Overall Rating: 3
Okay, a rating of 3 is generous, but here's why I've given it: these courses are often a good first exposure to basic martial arts techniques, they tend to cover the legal issues surrounding self-defense, and they teach women how to make use of items readily at hand for self-defense.  These courses, frequently offered to the public through recreation centers or colleges and usually with accredited martial arts instructors, are however usually too short in duration to bring you to the desired level of effectiveness.  You'd have to continue with something else. 

There you have it - a basic once-over of what's out there today and how likely each of these styles / systems is to get you where you want to go.  

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger 

What Do You See in the Mirror?

One of the greatest health and wellness obstacles for women is, without a doubt, the media-induced epidemic of poor body-image.  This naturally impacts a woman's self-esteem, how she carries herself in public and even her subconscious ability to enter into or sustain a romantic relationship.

Something we're quick to forget is how culturally-conditioned our perceptions of beauty are.  For example, we think a nice tan makes you more attractive, yet in many cultures that was simply a sign of low social standing.  The media says you have to be skinny to be beautiful, using a definition of ideal weight and build that would automatically disqualify all the beauty contestants of even the 1960s - you know, the ones who look "fat" to us now, precisely because they had a normal and healthy body weight.

In hopes of helping at least a few women out there who are struggling with these issues, I'm reprinting with permission a great article by my friend and colleague Roberta Mittman.  Here it is:


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Three More Questions to
Stop Body Bashing

In the last newsletter, I asked two questions that reveal ways we can be less than kind, if not downright cruel to ourselves through negative self-talk about body image. Hanging on to those damaging thoughts can limit our possibility of success in weight loss as well as health, and life in general. Here are three more questions that can help you blast past old, worn-out, self-sabotaging ideas about your body.

Question #1: Are you over-enrolled in celebrity diets?
I admit it. I’ve bought those magazines that show “How They Did It,” what plan models, actresses, and other famous people have followed to achieve substantial weight loss and what seems to be a total body make-over. Well, my friends, it’s true that most of these stars did work very hard to obtain those results. However, please keep in mind that many celebrities have personal chefs, staff, and trainers and have worked on their bodies project sthat must be “fixed” in order for them to retain favor in the public eye. So what do these plans mean for the rest of us personally? I say, nothing. Most of us don’t have such advantages. Besides, comparing ourselves to others usually comes from a sense of lack, and competing with the rich and famous will only contribute to a greater sense of failure and feeling “less-than.”

I’ve seen celebrity diets fail for patients, in fact. Hannah, for example, came in excited about trying a diet that was featured in People magazine. She was sure that following a plan which kept stars looking fabulous would yield similar results for her. After a few weeks, though, it became clear that Hannah was, in actuality, gaining weight.


The reality of the situation is that a diet plan that works for one person may not translate into benefits for another. A successful eating plan must take into account your nutritional requirements, your food sensitivities, your daily schedule, the responsibilities that you alone face, and the goals that you have set for yourself. The diet must provide enough food to satisfy your body’s hunger—not to mention, it must be pleasing to your personal tastes and preferences. After all, eating is both a physical and an emotional experience. Forcing yourself to stick with food you don’t like or can’t feel good about is sure to result in diet failure.

The plan designed for some other person, however beautiful, was clearly deficient for my patient, Hannah. This plan would fail for many others as well. Don’t be star-struck and fixate on what worked for someone in Hollywood or Bollywood. Instead, keep focused on what your own requirements are. Only then will you be able to stay on track.

QUESTION #2: Do you yearn to return to your high school weight?
You might be surprised to learn how many people come into my office wanting to weigh what the scale said 20, 30, or 40 years ago. Realistic? I don’t think so. An arbitrary figure from the distant past may be an unattainable goal for many reasons, and it surely can serve as an undesirable one as well.

The aging process brings many variables that can affect one’s weight. Hormones, nutrition, and lifestyle can change the body’s ideal weight (usually raising it a bit higher). Placing your goal at a number from another time will set you up for failure and ultimately can be a damaging choice.

Here’s a much better option: Stop in for a complimentary consultation to see what plan will work for you. I’ll give you a comprehensive evaluation including possible sensitivities (to foods, molds, etc.); explore some emotional components that have kept you from being successful in the past; and help define a personalized, workable plan for you. Don’t start with the wrong objective; get a realistic picture of where you should be today to enjoy a healthful, rewarding life. You probably look better than you did when you went to high school, anyway. 


QUESTION #3: Do you think you can make all the changes yourself?
Please think again. If you’ve been struggling with the same issues and results for a while, then chances are you are missing the boat in determining which strategies can work for you now and will work in the future. It’s amazing how many people have lost weight only to gain it back because they don’t have proper support and care.

When David began coaching with me, he was eager to try a new detox plan he had discovered. He hoped the plan would rid his body of toxins and let him lose weight while he followed his vegetarian preferences.
What he didn’t know was that he had a sensitivity to soy, a primary ingredient in many of the proteins on vegetarian eating plans. David’s digestion was often upset, and he wasn’t getting the burst of energy that can accompany a good food-based detox program. He was following all the dietary instructions, but because his body didn’t feel good during the detox, he began to sense a deeper problem than he had before he started. He was already seeing himself fighting a losing battle, and he’d only just begun.

Fortunately, David’s symptoms came up early on. On our next coaching call, he shared his disappointment, and we worked together to make adjustments. Once we realized the source of his discomfort—too much soy—we were able to craft a new, healthful, personalized nutritional program that took into account this and other sensitivities. We also collaborated to come up with a workable approach to exercise and other lifestyle considerations. The result: David has had smooth sailing since.

Now, when people ask David what steps he took to get into a healthful pattern, he tells them to begin their own coaching sessions. He knows full well that what works for him may not be the answer for the next person. It took a personalized plan and the support of a caring expert to find the strategies that worked for him.

Don’t forget, a healthy body is intimately connected to a healthy mindset. If you’re not at your best physically, it may be because you are laboring under false assumptions. Believing that a plan designed for someone else will work for you, or being unwilling to make changes or ask for help, will only further hamper your efforts. Change those attitudes, and change your results.

The common factor in most success stories is identifying the problem, so get started by asking yourself all the above questions. Visit my blog next week for additional details about these questions. Then take action to change, beginning with finding a caring partner to support you on your journey toward the positive. With the right help, you can move past these stumbling blocks and embrace instead an attitude of possibility and improved self-esteem—which will lead to better health.

Roberta Mittman, L.Ac. writes about her experiences in her monthly newsletter to both real and virtual patients. If you are ready to jump-start your transition to natural health care, feeling better, and gaining a new outlook on life, get free advice now at www.RobertaMittman.com.

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And if you know any woman who is struggling with body-image issues, please feel free to pass this along!


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger