Mindfulness Matters - Mindfulness Makes Monumental Metamorphoses

Caterpillar: Before Mindfulness,

Chrysalis: Mindfulness Practice,

Butterfly: Mindfulness Metamorphosis

Yoga is my movement and mindfulness love. I have written blog posts* voicing my love of yoga and how it has created peace in my life, ended struggles around food and body, and inspires my daily work as a natural health educator RN.

I want to share the work of 2 wonderful women around mindfulness:

1. Shelby Connelly of Five Elements Living Acupuncture & Healing Arts Retreat Center
2. Jenny Morrill of 3 Marigolds Mindfulness Tutoring & Training Services

I could elaborate on the benefits of a mindfulness practice but I will allow Shelby and Jenny to do the honors. Visit both of their websites to see what Northern NY has to offer in holistic healing for you, your family, our kids and our schools, and our community. Healing one is an energy that works to transform the world at large.

*Yoga blog posts to taste test for your personal exploration, learning, and healing body, mind, & spirit:

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

• Yoga IS Snake Oil!

• 5 Shocking Ways Yoga Causes You To Lose Weight  (Yoga is an awesome healing tool)

• Simply type Yoga into the search bar and find much more healing words and wisdom around mindfulness practices

5 Reasons Chewing IS A Most Important Part Of Eating & Digestion

The story is that engaging those pearly whites in the chew process is the most important initial step you can take for the health of your digestive tract and your bodaciously beautiful body cells. Think how many people chuck food into their faces at break neck speed, chomp on it 5-6 times, and then swallow large chucks of food.

Pay attention the next time you engage in eating a meal. Are you a chewer or a chunk swallower? All these years picking on cows for their endless "cud chewing" and it seems those beautiful cows had it right all along.

Get chewing your cud people and here is why:

1. Chewing begins carbohydrate digestion: which prevents reflux as you are revving up the digestive tract with your chewing. The more you chew your food, the more messages are sent to the gut to get the digestive juices flowing. That means optimal hydrochloric acid for stomach digestion of food. Good digestion in the stomach sets the stage for good digestion throughout the digestive tract.

Little chewing = little time for messaging the GI tract to send out digestive juices = impeded digestion.

Most reflux is NOT an over abundance of stomach acids but in fact a lack of stomach acid (food sits in stomach not digesting and body's wisdom says "hey this stuff is rotting right here... let's get rid of it.” At this point the easiest way to get rid of stomach contents is up and out. Yup, reflux.).

2. Chewing food well feeds your beautiful gut microbes: You waste $$$ taking probiotics if you are not going to offer them kindness and feed them well. Be the gut bug hostess (or host) with the most-ess! Chew your food well. Doing so breaks down the food fibers, the starches, which feed the gut bugs you want surviving and thriving in your gut.

3. Chewing well prevents leaky gut: See above for how chewing feeds the happy, healthy gut bugs. When we are not feeding the "good" gut microbes to maintain a healthy and balanced microbial population, we can create an inflamed and irritated gut lining. This leads to leaky gut syndrome and contributes to many chronic, lifestyle related, health problems.

Belly ache or gut health... you decide!

4. Chewing food slowly and well promotes relaxation: eating fast, swallowing food practically whole, creates a stress response in the body.  Stress causes body tissues (muscles, organs etc) to tense, contributes to poor digestion, and chronic fight or flight response throughout body. This digestive tract and body tensing also contributes to constipation.

Chewing IS yoga for the digestive tract, nervous system, and really your whole body. You know how I love, love, love my yoga. Type Yoga into the search bar, below, and I will inspire you with the many body, mind, and spirit benefits of a daily Yoga practice.

5. Chewing food well means food is then swallowed in a liquid state this means your body, digestive tract, is better able to digest and pull the nutrients out of the food. 

This means your body cells are being better nourished by the whole foods you spend your hard earned money on. This is very important my friends. The more nutrients we can pull out of the food we eat, the healthier we will be. It is all about what nutrients actually got to your body cells. Poorly chewed food cannot be digested well and therefore the actual nutrition does not reach your intended body cells. Yes, your health pays dearly over the years.

Chew all food into liquid consistency. 30-50 chews per bite or gulp of food (Gulp: I am thinking about smoothies, creamed soups, etc. that are gulped down without any conscious thought of actually chewing.)  

If food is already a liquid or mushy consistency (soup, puddings, smoothies) take 20 to 30 conscious chews.  If food is solid, take 50 conscious chews.  

Example: blueberries and skins of berries require 50 chews. The soft inner part of berry will chew up quickly and naturally move down throat... keep chewing that blueberry skin 50 times. Yes, the cud will get smaller and smaller and the habit of swallowing before adequate chewing has taken place will be right there in your face (literally). Resist and keep chewing as the skins of blueberries are loaded with micro-nutrients and complex carbohydrates (fibers) that feed those gut bugs IF you chew it up well for your gut bugs to be able to use them. Trust me; the gut bugs (microbes) do not have teeth to do the chew job if you leave it unfinished. For goodness sake, show those gut bugs (who do so much for you) some genuine hospitality and chew, chew, chew!

Get Chewing & Get Healthy.

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/

The Rabbit Hole Of Personal Hygiene

My initial thought was to do a post on Smart Shampooing.  My immediate response to myself was that the chemical issue runs so much deeper than just shampoo. I also held back as a part of me thinks this is all common knowledge. The more years I work with clients and students with cancers, auto-immune diseases, skin and respiratory ailments... disease after disease, I speak with them about the products they use. So many people really never thought that their personal care items were an issue: "I don't eat them."

Every day Americans and people all over the world slather lotions, potions, elixirs, cleansers, shampoos, deodorants, anti-perspirants, toothpastes, and on and on all over the outside and inside of their bodies. Few people scrutinize the labels; really scrutinize the labels for what exactly is in these products. They march up and down the grocery, drug, and department store aisles grabbing products off the shelf and tossing carelessly into the shopping cart or basket.

All of these products are loaded with synthetic ingredient that tax the work of your liver's detoxification pathways.  Ultimately, these chemicals do not all get detoxed from the body. Over time these chemical ingredients contribute to all manner of ill health symptoms. Toxins in the body are not a positive thing. Think about an over taxed liver, immune system, lymph system, circulatory system, excretory systems... seriously, every cell of your body is affected and burdened with the toxic load. We expect our bodies to function at top notch health but we do not provide top notch food or body care.  It is an equation that is not balanced. Eventual breakdown of health is the result.

Think about all of the products you perhaps buy and use:

• hair care: shampoos, conditioners, and various products to hold hair stiffly into place
• facial makeup of every variety for face, eyes, lips, etc.
• toothpaste, mouth wash, teeth whitening products
• menstrual care products: pads, tampons, etc.
• deodorants for feet, armpits, and genital areas
• various over the counter (OTC) medications to slather on fungal, bacterial, or some other microbial issue
• anti-perspirants
• lotions meant to moisturize skin for the long haul
• facial wrinkle erasers, wrinkle prevention
• household cleaners you use on your clothes (fabric softeners and toxic bleaches), dishes, floors, tubs-sinks-toilets, etc. These all come in contact with your skin and respiratory passages and they are then a part of your whole being
• then there is chlorine and flouride in drinking water, bromine is flour products, toxins in OTC and prescription medications altering cellular function.
• hair coloring, hair bleaching, perming & straightening   *****(Get ready for Five Elements Living's Organic Beauty Spa. Shelby Connelly, Licensed Acupuncturist, is opening Five Elements Living Retreat and Healing Arts Center in Colton, NY. There will be organic hair and beauty care treatments, coloring, perming, nail care, and products for purchase. Woo-Hoo!)

What IS in these products?

Just as I encourage clients, students, family and friends to not eat anything that is not 100% natural, well, the same goes for personal hygiene. If you are putting a product on or in your body (toothpaste, tampon, hemorrhoid cream, etc.) you are essentially eating it. The product's ingredients end up in your blood and lymph circulation and eventually a part of every body cell. 

Read labels on everything you buy, every time you buy the same product. Small companies, with the right attitude about offering whole & natural products, start up companies. The company and its products become very successful (making tons of $$$). This entices major corporations to want this small company for their own bottom lines. The natural minded company gets sold out to a big corporation and the products are changed. Ingredients are swapped out for cheaper versions. The big corporations function in a "cheapest ingredients into the product for the largest profit margin for our wallets" mentality. So this product you have grown to trust suddenly is not the same high quality ingredients.

ADVICE: Read labels on everything you buy, every time you buy it. Accept nothing but high quality whole ingredients in both your food and your personal care products. Nature intended it this way... human corporate greed is the only thing that has changed it. Take care of you. Nature wants you to... you are nature.

Great resource is the Environmental Working Group: http://www.ewg.org/consumer-guides

Even better resource: Your own common sense

Company's Products I trust, like, and use (yes, I read labels every time):

• Aubrey Organics  If you live in St. Lawrence County, NY, these products are available through Nature's Storehouse, Canton, NY.
• Just Natural Skin Care
• Morrocco Method Hair Care
• Weleda   Also available at Nature's Storehouse, Canton

This is just a few companies I have used and continue to use their products. No, I do not receive kick backs for suggesting these products.

Natural care products, much like real / whole / and organic food, are more expensive. When we feed our bodies real food, we eat less. Our bodies do not cry out for just calories, hunger is about nutrition. When we feed our cells with whole foods, our bodies require less. Real food may cost more but we eat less than when we stuff ourselves over and over with nutritionally depleted factory made foods and our cells continue to cry for nutrition.

When we care for our bodies with natural ingredients, we are not loading our cells with toxic chemicals. The pay-offs are huge and worth the extra expense. Many body care products are easily made, at home by you, with natural ingredients.

How I save money:

• I always order when the company has a promotion: % off or free shipping (or both!)

For example, I use and love Morrocco Method 5 shampoos. The 5 bottle package is $129, which seems pricey as an all at once purchase. The 5 bottles last at least 7 months which would be $18.42 a month BUT I buy when there is a 20% discount and free shipping over $100. My last purchase, under these special terms, was a total of $103.20 costing about $14.74 a month. I can live with this cost. The shampoos are very gentle on my hair requiring absolutely no conditioner. Figure your cost for commercial shampoo and conditioner (and whatever other products get slathered and sprayed onto your hair) every month and I bet the $14.74 is less $$$ out of your pocket. 

http://shop.morroccomethod.com/5-Elements-Shampoo-Package?sc=43&category=6454

Read labels. Know what you are putting in and on your beautiful body and into your body cells. Cellular health is the foundation for whole body health. 

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.

Which End of the Battery Are You?

Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, Dis - Ease of the body... How do they all fit together in some sort of sensible way?  And, what does the battery have to do with it all?

Reasonable questions, hang with me on this one and I will explain.

I work with people, daily, on their health & well being through my online classes and 1 on 1 consultations. These people, my clients and students, are motivated to change their lives, relief ill health symptoms, and live in a dis - ease free body.

The steps to getting to this space of ease in the body (lack of dis - ease) are similar for all problems:

• tease out the root causes of the problems
• remove the causes of the problem
• heal the digestive tract of inflammation of the gut lining, lack of balance in the gut microbes, remove food sensitivities...
• calm the immune system
• nourish the liver
• balance nutritional intake, balance blood sugar , & balance body weight
• add in healthy lifestyle habits (daily movement, botanicals-herbs, etc.), including whole food eating, that will nourish the body cells and whole body back to a state of ease
• understand this is a lifestyle and commit to living these changes... well, for life.

Each of these steps are personalized for each individual's specific needs based on their body's bio-chemistry and their own personality needs.

Let's get to that battery!

I have two teen boys. Teens can be snarly, negative word spouting fountains from time to time. We were having a dinner time discussion on the role of mind set in creating disease and healing the body. 

Spread Love Where Ever You Go.      Let No One Ever Come To You               Without Leaving Happier.                                    Mother Teresa.

Basically, which end of the battery are you? Positive or negative? What do you surround yourself with:

• negative or positive people?
• negative or positive words, thoughts, and actions?
• negative or positive media, screen time?

When we work to change our lives for healing, we must remember the power of the ends of our personal batteries.

Negative words, conversations, thoughts, actions, people, news, social media crap, etc. are just as toxic to our body cells as:

• heavy metals toxins
• agricultural chemicals, pesticides and the like,
• synthetic ingredients in factory made food
• factory made food itself
• chlorine
• etc. etc. etc.

Every negative experience, no matter how brief, creates negative vibrational frequencies in our miraculous & beautiful body cells. Just like other toxic impacts, these negative frequencies cause inflammation that lead to ill health, dis - ease in the body. Negativity contributes to a weaker immune system and the impacts of a weakened immune system: ill health in all areas (acute issues such as colds and flu to chronic inflammatory issues of lifestyle diseases, auto-immune responses, and cancer.

Your Everyday Positivity Prescription:

1. Every AM think of 1 kind thing you can do for someone else. Even tiny little acts of kindness have a huge positive ripple in your world and the world at large.
2. A positive act of kindness for self (10 minutes of yoga anyone?).
3. Be aware of negative thoughts creeping into your mind & stop them dead in their tracks. Replace them immediately with positive thoughts. Generating positive thoughts will become a habit quickly.
4. Negative people... move away. Surround yourself with positive people.
5. Negative conversations? Find a way to subvert to positive or excuse yourself from the conversation to go do a random act of kindness.
6. Everyday remind yourself of 1 thing you are grateful for.
7. Every night as you lie down to sleep: remind yourself of that thing you are grateful for and something good that happened that day. 
8. Remind yourself of the grateful thing every AM.

Gratitude is the attitude of happy folk!

The power of thought is the magic of the mind!  Lord Byron

Much love and gratitude for you being here & reading this! Paula

The sign on my front door: