Walking The Red Road

22 years ago I was teaching School Health Education in the Syracuse City School District. The district graciously sent me "home" to a week long health conference at St. Lawrence University, Canton. I attended an amazing workshop presented by Ed McGaa, Eagle Man, Sioux Tribal Leader and purchased both of his books.

Now this was not my 1st experience with Native American culture; growing up 20 minutes from the Mohawk Nation and involved with the local lacrosse team, I was exposed to and aware of Native culture and philosophy. But honestly, traditional Native American spirituality is not something that was shared openly.

Over the past 22 years I have read many books by great Native American writers, healers, and visionaries. My latest book by Ehanamani, Dr. A.C. Ross, member of the Dakota Nation - Sioux Native Americans is titled "Mitakuye Oyasin." In this book, Ehanamani introduces me to the Native American principle of the Red Road.

The Red Road is a mind set, a way of thinking that carries one through their day's decisions. It is a way to make the best decision for you and the greater good, right now in this moment, without having that decision be the only choice you have for the rest of your life.

Let me give you an example:

• Someone offers me a large chunk of gooey dessert. My Red Road decision looks like this: "Not now, not today, this is not best for my health." Now this does not mean I can't decide tomorrow to have a gooey hunk of dessert. It just means that right now I am going to make the best decision for my health, for my higher self, for the greater good.

Taking the Red Road path in life gives you the emotional / spiritual comfort of not crossing out the possibility forever.

We have all done this sort of lifestyle planning... "I am not going to" 

• eat desserts ever again
• drink alcohol ever again
• eat pasta and bread ever again...

Then maybe 2 days or 2 weeks into our "not going to" lifestyle plan we have gooey desserts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Taking the Red Road path in life spares the feeling of deprivation. It is a choice to do the best right now, in this moment.

I find that all paths of spiritual growth and transformation work on this same principle of mindfulness and choosing to do what is best for our personal growth or higher self. I have practiced yoga daily for 16 years and yoga teachings us, through practice, to make healing choices without our feeling deprived. A post I wrote in 2013 delves deeper into this Red Road perk of yoga: Why I Love Yoga And Other Thoughts On Whole Food, Whole Health Healing

We can also compare Red Road and yoga to other spiritual teachings:  Tae Kwon Do, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Reiki... any deep and true spiritual teachings.

Open the door to new possibilities, take the first step on your personal Red Road Path... a lifestyle that supports health and healing.

If I can be a helpful part of your health repair plan, give me a shout! Happy Spring.

Time to Move with Spring Energy!

I love Spring. The renewal of life, energy, and all it brings is breath taking to me every year.

Today is March 5th. As I walked in the woods with my dog, I can feel the pull of the sun. It is getting warmer, brighter, stronger... another winter survived! I can smell scents that were not there even 2 days ago; scents of the coming Spring.

I even found a Great White Pine whose south side's snow was already melted away. I sat my butt, right in the pine needles, and pressed my spine up along this mighty pine's trunk. The sun was in my face and the pine needles under me were fragrant in the sun's warmth.

The earth I sat on.

The Great White Pine, looking up her trunk, as I sat in the sun.

Spring motivates movement: sap rising, buds opening, shoots sprouting, doors and window being moved up and open, people getting out of their homes, and on & on.

I want to encourage you to move this Spring. Get outside and reap the benefits of moving your body, being exposed to natural light, and breathing in the fresh air.

Movement of the body is a natural, sacred, and healing thing. People moved constantly to complete the tasks of daily living and food gathering (as I sit here click click clicking!) before modern technology and labor saving devices.

• digging
• gathering
• hoeing
• walking
• chopping
• on & on the movement went!

We have traded daily, steady and slow going movement for either next to no movement or run-run-run and get high intensity exercise into an hour movement. It is like we have to fit the whole day's movement, pre-tech, into 1 hour. From a functional medicine perspective, slow and steady is better. Slow and steady does not create the free radicals and inflammation of high intensity, high metabolism exercise. Slow and steady: walks, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, canoe, kayak, hike, bike, mt. climb, moderate weight lifting, push ups... movement for low impact and longevity.

Embrace the Spring the renewed energy of the sun, and more movement this season.

Things I do during my day of client support and education, business work, and blog / newsletter writing:

• get up and do a yoga pose or two or three every half hour holding the pose for 7 long, deep belly breaths
• stop to do the dishes while dancing at the kitchen sink
• walk around my house, up & down the stairs and toss in some push ups for good measure
• throw in a load of wash, I hang all of my wash so the bending to get clothes out of the basket and lifting arms to hang is a good motion to break up the sitting habit 
• go out for a walk around my home and maybe do a hand stand or two up against the red pine or the stone wall 
• resist the call of the Great White Pines in my back woods... or not and wander off to commune with the White Pines, sit with my back to her trunks, and gather some life force energy while enjoying the peace - solitude - and earthy scents of the woods (then it is back to work for me)

My requests of you:

1. Comment below and share what you do to move more as the Winter breaks into Spring.

Also, I have a request for you natural remedy peoples out there. The sacred, great white pine spot in the pictures above is a favorite spot of mine. Sitting with my back to the trunk, my face is towards the southerly sky and the sun. I am looking over a sweet little body of water. The problem is: when spring rolls on the poison ivy grows there.

2. Does anyone have a natural way of getting rid of poison ivy? Please comment below. 

My idea is to use my hand clippers and start clipping it back when the shoots are just popping up out of Mother Earth. If I keep doing this every few days, my logic is this clipping will starve the roots of nourishment (no sun on the new shoots means no photosynthesis keeping the roots nourished) and eventually kill off the roots and plants. 

I have never had poison ivy and walk through it frequently. Yes, I now avoid touching the plants as I have become older and wiser. As a kid, I did not care and never got more that 1 - 2 tiny blisters on my bare feed from trodding through poison ivy patches for the reward of a swim in the St. Regis River.

Happy Spring Equinox! Happy Spring Moving! Cheers.

PS  I know the season's names are not proper nouns, require no capitalization, but I cannot help but believe they deserve to be honored with capitol letters. The seasons are sacred; nature is sacred, you are sacred (you are nature).

Gluten Free Bread Recipe:   

http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/gluten-free-bread/

How Does Your Soul Shine?

Recently my oldest son was watching a show on Netflix when he popped into my room with a "Mom, just heard a quote that was so you."  He then spewed out the above John Steinbeck quote to me. I giggled as he's correct, he knows his Mom. I thanked him for the inspiration for my next blog post. And... here we are. The energy is perfect after my last blog post: Which End of the Battery Are You?

We all know on a deep level how we walk in this world: happy or sad. Happiness is a powerful healing force. Happiness works with the flow of life, the flow of nature, and you are nature.

Our thoughts and feelings are powerfully healing or destructive forces; for or against life. 

As an RN, working from a space of natural health education with my clients, I always stress that healing is not just a physical event. My home page words: Come Back Into Harmony With Yourself: Body, Mind, & Spirit

I am sharing this you tube video of Gregg Braden as it speaks clearly on the power of thought, feeling, emotions, happiness, compassion... all things good and healing.

This is a 29 minute video.

If you would prefer the 9 minute "What are the effects of positive living and feeling" condensed version of how thoughts, happy souls, can heal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZpRP1FV0lE   This is an excerpt from the above 29 minute video.

Enjoy. Be happy. Heal.

Gratitude Is A Form of Self-Love

Life is what happens when we are busy planning our lives. 

A comment made to me yesterday inspired this post.

Comment: Nothing in life ever turns out the way we plan it to, want it to.

I do not believe this to be true and I think when we put our focus on not getting what we planned or wanted, this is all we are going to see.

If we face life with gratitude for all we do have and all that does turn out as planned, our vision of the day and life is so different.

I remember a girlfriend's x-husband said this to her when she was pregnant: "Expect nothing from me and everything you get will be a gift."  I confess, at the time I thought "what an asshole he is!"  Many years later I can see the wisdom of his words (not that it was so wise to say to your pregnant wife!)

When we expect nothing out of the day or a given situation and open our arms with gratitude to all that does happen, our world is colored in a completely different way. Brilliant technicolor of joy. Gratitude is the attitude of joy - it colors everything in a new light.

Let the doors of life be open to synchronicity. Let your heart be open to synchronicity. As cliche' as it sounds most things do work out for the best. We may not see this in a given moment but hind sight usually tells a different story. Find the magic in life unfolding in every moment.

Gratitude brings peace. Gratitude is self-love. Listen to your heart, it knows.

My Bathroom Wall Quote

PS  After writing and posting this last evening, one of my morning inspirational emails came through with this:  (Serendipity rocks!)

Wanting The Work

I confess. I am an observer of people. I think it is part of the path I walk on this earth. I observe to try and find solutions for people as they struggle with life's challenges. In my previous blog post I spoke of Working With What We Already Have. On this note, I want to remind you that each and every one of us, has inside of ourselves, ALL that we need to heal; to reach every goal we have for our physical, emotional, and spiritual health.  We just need to work with what we have, call up our strengths (and we have far more than we think or give ourselves credit for having), and put into action the steps we personally need to create a healthier lifestyle.

OK, so first... my floor, back to working with what I had and my promised update. Here are finished pictures of the floor. Not bad for 100+ year old floors that the pro floor guy told me my best option was to bag them and start over!

Perfect? No.

Shabby chic? Yes.

I am happy!

Working in health care (true health care and not just disease symptom management) for 30 years and most recently for 20+ years in personal health education,  I have made discoveries. We often have amazing goals for ourselves. We know where we want to be with our health, our body weight, and our physical wellness (emotional & spiritual wellness as well). Our end goals are very clear to us and we do truly want to attain these goals. Most of us have pretty good ideas about what we need to do to get to our goals.

Here's where things get sticky: wanting the work that leads us to these goals of health, weight loss, healing, physical fitness, emotional and spiritual happiness, etc.

In order to be successful at reaching our goals, we have to want to do the work to get there. This means changing the way we eat, what we eat, and our lifestyle habits little by little, step by step (or making sweeping changes if that is how you best function) and sticking with our changes to reach our goals and beyond. Maintaining health means living these newly incorporated eating and lifestyle habits for life, changing them up a bit as the seasons of the years and our lives evolve and need something different. (An example would be slowing down to embrace aging gracefully: giving you body more recovery time between fitness routines and allowing for more sleep at night than when you were 20!)

Reaching and maintaining our goals, for life, is a true "on top of the world" feeling!

The work comes in when we have to suffer a little to meet the challenge of change. I will give an example here in weight loss. In order to lose weight we have to change the way we eat, get rid of the garbage factory made food, and learn to eat less. With this comes the struggle to get through the feeling hungry challenges. If you are used to eating large meals, the challenge will be to leave the table feeling less than full and relaxing, breathing, and moving through this feeling knowing you will be ok, you will survive without feeling stuffed and full all of the time. Going hungry is the work of losing weight for some people. Wanting this work makes reaching the goal of weight loss easier and more acceptable for you to accept the challenges that lay before you.

This is true of many forms of lifestyle change to improve (yes, even heal) lifestyle diseases. To reach the goal of saying goodbye to diabetic, cholesterol, or hypertension medication and ill health symptoms, we must want the work that lies between the present dis - ease in the body and achieving the goal: major eating and lifestyle changes, living completely without sweeteners, and being OK with this and the impacting consequences of our changes.

My job as a natural health educator RN is to give you tools to support you through the WORK of making change and achieving goals.  I have raved about the power of yoga to heal on numerous occasions. I am throwing it out to you again because that is just the kind of gal I am... repeat, repeat, repeat until someone actually listens to me!  (I keep thinking this will someday work with my kids!)

Yoga IS Snake Oil

Why I Love Yoga And Other Thoughts On Whole Food, Whole Health Healing

5 Shocking Ways Yoga Causes You To Lose Weight

The above three blog posts are inspiring posts on the benefits of yoga. I encourage you to explore what makes your mind, heart, and soul sing so that the path of the work comes more easily to and for you every day. Maybe for you it is meditation, prayer, martial arts, Qi gong, walks in the woods, etc. Find your personal soul medicine and practice it daily. Wanting the work will become second nature.

Much love, Paula

PS Upcoming Fall Online Class: 

Herbs For Enhancing Your Natural Health

PPS Beloved Beet Recipe!

Substance part of the beet dish:

6 small to medium local & organic beets, gently steamed (save and drink the steam water)
2/3 can organic chickpeas
1 handful each of organic walnuts and pecans
1/2 handful organic pine nuts

Dressing:

2/3 to 3/4 cup full fat yogurt, from pasture raised cows / goats / sheep, etc.
2 tsp. local maple syrup
Fresh herbs of your liking: Basil, Oregano, Mint, Spearmint, Thyme, Tarragon, Chives , Garlic chives, Rosemary (I used all of these from my herb/weed garden out in front of my home)

Serve on a bed of local, organic, baby greens & sprinkle or slather with chunks of soft goat cheese

Working With What We Already Have

Above you see two pictures of my living room floor. The first is the before and the 2nd is after sanding, lots of TLC, and begging my "floor man" to just work with me on this one.

You are probably thinking great Paula, pictures of your floor, but what does that have to do with health. I am going to be quick about this explanation... the Reader's Digest version is what I am aiming for.

In a frenzy one day I made my boys help me rip up the carpet in this room. I hate carpet. I knew underneath there was 100 year old wood floors (my home is 175 years and there are wide plank boards under the boards you see. Hmmm, crowbar? Nah, work with what is right there!) that I would prefer to sweep than use a noisy vacuum cleaner on carpet.

Long story short: hard wood floor refinishing company took one look and said: "No way to make this floor look good. You need to put in a whole new hardwood floor." My reply: "Seriously? Why not use what is there and prevent the use of new trees to make new floor boards and the possibility of creating garbage in this world by ripping up the 100 year old boards. There is history here, lives lived on these boards, stories that I will never hear (the people are no longer alive!)... why waste what is already here? Why not work with what we have?"

I got my renegade, work for himself floor guy (who initially said the same thing about the floor and why I then asked the "pros") and begged him to just work with me on this one. I will share pictures of the final floor when I am finished sanding, fixing up, and poly-urethane covering the boards I am thrilled to have under my feet.

Your health and my floor connection? Work with what you have!

Years ago, close to 20 I bet,  I was doing a workshop locally on whole foods for weight loss. After the workshop a woman came up to me and said... I want to look like you. This woman was easily 5 inches taller than me and blessed with the big bone structure of Slavic peoples. I am 5 foot 5 1/2 inches and have the bone structure of a bird. (Trust me, I have had my longings for a more curvaceous and voluptuous body and bones that would better anchor me to this earth in a strong wind but what I have is what I have!) I hugged this woman, told her that her body was strong and beautiful, and suggested she work with what she already has (what she was gifted by her genetics)! Sure, a 25 pound weight loss would increase her health and vitality but her height and bones are her height and bones. 

My point(s): 

• embrace what nature, genetics, God, Goddess gave you (whatever beliefs you live and love by),
• eat whole foods to re-balance your weight right where it is supposed to be for you
• move your body to keep it frisky and healthy; do not rely on movement... exercise for weight loss, real food 100% of the time is what matters in the metabolism of healthy biology and body weight
• chew your food well to take good care of your gut
• LOVE exactly what you were given (what you have) and care for it in whole health ways to make the very best out of YOU!

There is only one of you. Celebrate you and make you the very best you that you can be!

That is how I am dealing with my 100 year old floors... making those boards the very best they can be and being at peace with their imperfections; walking with the history that came before me!

My Floor & I wish you Peace in discovering that what you have is just what you need.