Category Archives: Creating Health from the Inside Out

How Magnesium Will Ignite your Motivation to Eat Better this Summer

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“Summertime, and the living is easy…”

Who wants to be thinking about all the improvements you should be making to your eating habits, when all you want to do is lie on the hammock with a good book and a glass of wine?

You want life to be easy at this time of year. To relax at the cottage. You’re determined to finish up that project so you can pack for your road trip out West. Maybe you’re working from home, but it’s hard to focus with the kids needing study snacks every 20 minutes.

In my quest to help you nourish and nurture the woman you are, I’ve worked to make it easy for you. I’ve been doling out one little step at a time on Instagram. These are the seeds to help you create the garden of health you want to grow.

Today, I’m elaborating about one particular topic, because this might just be THE one that will unlock the motivation to find your happily ever after in all the others. It’s a simple shift that can support you on so many levels. (Yes, that’s right, we’re gonna get into the soul of the thing along with the practical bits.)

The conversations that spurred this idea

A while back, I sat down with a selection of women to find out where they most needed help taking better care of themselves.

After dozens of conversations around the various and usual challenges we face, a clear thread emerged through each and every one: we all have a hard time getting motivated.  It’s hard to change habits.

Even if you know what to do, it’s so hard to go ahead and do it.

Even when you have a very specific goal in mind –

  • losing weight, better sleep, more energy
  • nourishing your thyroid, detoxifying your liver, stronger bones, better menstrual health
  • preventing diseases that run in the family

– all the things that women struggle with are not enough to get you making those all-important changes.

These are the very issues that inspired me to run the Eat More Veggies! Challenge over several Junes: looking for the simplest way to replace the junk and improve all of it.

The fact remains that you do too much in a day, so trying to make all the changes you know you need to make is just daunting. You need something even simpler still, but something that would be vastly helpful.

Here it is: Eat more greens.

Here’s why:

Like all vegetables, greens are delicious packages of fibre and vitamins and minerals. Yes, you need a variety of colours, but greens have their very own superpower.

They contain magnesium.

Magnesium is the mineral at the heart of a plant’s chlorophyll, in the same way that iron is the core of hemoglobin. These minerals capture the elements that allow metabolism (life!) to happen.

Magnesium is an integral part of a plant’s seeds – grains, legumes, nuts – but gets lost in refining. Women (well, everybody) are low in it these days, as North Americans generally eat a fair amount of refined foods.

It’s depleted further still with too much salt, sugar, alcohol and caffeine; basically, anything that makes you pee more, means you’re losing magnesium more.

As one of the key minerals inside your cells, magnesium works with over 300 enzymes to keep you functioning smoothly. Here’s a short list of what it can do.

You need magnesium for:

Energy Production: Your liver uses magnesium to perform many of its own vast array of functions. First and foremost, the release and use of energy from the macronutrients you eat.

Think of it this way: pure magnesium, in the presence of oxygen, will ignite instantly. Ever see a magician use flash paper to make a fancy green spark as part of his trick? That’s magnesium. Magnesium helps create that spark inside your cells to give you energy!

Hormone Production: The liver also needs magnesium to convert the various hormones and precursors from one form to the other. Magnesium is key to steady periods, better fertility, and to help ease the transition through menopause as levels decline.

Stinky armpits? That’s a sign that the liver isn’t keeping up its end of the detox work which, you got it, requires magnesium.

Magnesium allows your liver to be a vessel of life force in action! 🌱

Relaxation 2 Ways:

Muscle relaxation: your muscles work through a continual series of contract/relax actions that are activated by calcium and magnesium respectively. Any kind of cramps or spasms – leg, menstrual, some forms of constipation –  is an indication that you’re low on the Mg necessary for the relaxation part.

The nervous system needs the same 2 minerals for the excitatory and relaxation impulses in the nerves. Adequate magnesium means calmer nerves, better sleep.

As you can imagine, in this sense, magnesium is essential getting you through times of stress. That said, times of stress is another factor that depletes this mineral, which can become a vicious cycle.

Integrity of Bones & Teeth: We always think of calcium for these two storehouses of minerals. And yet, magnesium and calcium are needed in relative proportion. Too much emphasis on one, and you become relatively deficient in the other.

Bone spurs, arthritic joints, cysts in breasts, kidney stones can be an indication that you’ve gone too far in the one direction. As my teacher used to say, magnesium in blood helps to keep calcium in solution, so it can find its way to the proper place to deposit.

☀️ Speaking of bones, magnesium is the magic ingredient that allows the dance between sunlight, vitamin D and calcium to happen. It’s what gives a plant the impetus to grow up, reaching for the sun. It allows you to stand on your own feet, shining that same light from the inside, as you move towards that which you desire.

Looking at the big picture of all these functions, magnesium is the flow that moves you in the right direction. ✨

Heart Health: This has to do with the muscle picture, in that your heart is a muscle that dances to that beautiful rhythm created by Ca and Mg. (High blood pressure can be another indicator of not enough Mg.)

In Chinese medicine, your heart is an organ of the fire element, which you express in the form of enthusiasm. There’s that spark image again! ✨

✨ It then stands to reason that apathy, or your lack of motivation to make healthy changes, is yet one more sign that you are, in fact, lacking magnesium. ✨

So, do you see why this step may be the one to get you feeling more present to all the other needs of your body? These reason are why I make essential to the spell in the Magic Looking Glass for Eating Right!

Here’s how to get more magnesium into your day:

Now that you know how magnesium could ignite your enthusiasm for even more shifts, are you ready to give this step a try? Summer, with all the fresh produce at every market stall and grocery store, is the perfect time to go for it.

🌸 Throughout the rest of June (or maybe the rest of this week, if that’s too much to consider today), I invite you,… strongly suggest, …no, I challenge you to eat something green with every meal and snack.

Does that sound easy? Impossible? Too much like your mother?

Some ideas to get you started:

🌱 Pumpkin seeds in your oatmeal, in your yogourt or on your toast & jam

🌱 Kale, arugula or fresh herbs in your smoothie, or go for a scoop of super greens (spirulina, chlorella, wheat grass, etc)

🌱 Steamed greens with your eggs tastes better than it sounds.

🌱 Avocado goes with everything: in a smoothie, on wrap instead of mayo, as a boat for hummus or shrimp (egg, chicken, tuna) salad

🌱 Blend some avocado and/or green peas into your hummus

🌱 BBQ: roast asparagus, broccoli, Brussels’ sprouts; grill zucchini steaks or Romaine wedges

🌱 Throw fresh herbs in/on anything and everything! Parsley, cilantro, mint, basil, dill, tarragon, thyme, watercress,…

🌱 Drink nettle tea, or eat nettle soup

🌱 Need a crunchy snack? Go for celery, cucumber, pepper, fennel along with chips… or instead of the chips when you’re watching Netflix

Enjoy going green!

🌸 Add your own ideas in the comments. When you share your thoughts, you open the possibility for others.
Let me know how what improved in your body, moods, sleep, digestion,..

This blog post first came to life as one of my first Live Facebook videos about 2 years ago. Rather watch the original (9 minutes of the practical info, with a view of my backyard)? It’s right here.

Get Outside this Winter: 3 Ways it Improves your Energy and your Eating Habits

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It’s the first week of February and you’ve had enough of winter, yet the forecast calls for more “weather events” in the coming week. You’re run-down and feeling like the next cold to come along could knock you flat. Though we’re 2 weeks past “Blue Monday”, you wonder if those blues might last forever.

Your gung-ho dreams of a plant-based diet have morphed into a pasta-and-chips-based diet.

The end of winter is in sight, but how can you find some of that springtime feeling now?

Get outside!

  • Kick-start your energy.
  • Boost the waning drive in your resolution to eat better.
  • Bring hope to your midwinter slump.

Yes, even when it’s -25C (-13F for those of you south of the border).
Yes, every day, Even when you don’t fee like it.

Here’s why.

1. Get outside for a bit of oxygen therapy.

Think of it as a mini-detox and an energizer.

I know, if you live in the city, the concept of fresh air is somewhat relative. That said, it has a higher oxygen count than the recycled air in your office building, the shopping mall, your car and your house when all the windows are closed.

Out with the bad, in with the good, and all that.

Not only does oxygen improve your heart and lungs, every cell in your body will benefit, allowing them to work at their best. That means better digestion, better immunity, a sharper mind and better moods. More oxygen means that YOU will be at your best.

Oxygen bonus: Spend your outdoor time somewhere with trees.

At the very least, stop to take 3 long, deep breaths as you go from house to car, car to office,…


2. Daylight improves your sleep and resilience.

The bounce of that sunlight off the snow will make its way to your pineal gland, just inside the middle of your brow. This little nugget regulates circadian rhythms, that is, it’s in charge of your sleep and waking cycles.

Get outside in the morning, and you will sleep better at night.

The pineal gland is also at the apex of your endocrine system. By setting your internal pace, it speaks to your hypothalamus and pituitary, who in turn send a cascade of signals to the rest of your hormone system. Your thyroid, adrenals, thymus, pancreas and ovaries/testes take their instructions from those 3 masters.

To put it more plainly, regular exposure to natural daylight improves your metabolism and your ability to withstand stress. Your immune system will also be better prepared to deal with those nasty bugs.

Turn your face to the sun

Daylight bonus: Pull your scarf down, push your shades up and turn your face to the sky. Feel it on your cheeks. Drink in the pleasure of that heat as your skin drinks in the rays it needs to make vitamin D.

At the very least, look up. That particular blue boosts attention, energy levels, memory, reaction time and mood. Think of the blue sky as Nature’s way of telling you it’s time to be up and about.


3. Get outside and move your body.

Honestly, in this kind of cold, there’s no choice but to move. What better way to counter that sluggishness of the indoor lifestyle!

Granted, moving isn’t something that’s limited to the outdoors. Stepping away from your laptop for a good dance break will work wonders for your mood and productivity. Hit your 10,000 steps inside a shopping mall or on a machine at the gym. Any movement will help, obviously.

Outdoor movement bonus: Your muscles, joints and heart will be so much happier if the movement happens in the fresh air & sunshine. (see above)

get outside in winter

Besides, anything you do out in Nature is good for you at a deeper level. It’s grounding, it’s calming. If you pay very close attention, you’ll feel the pulse of the Earth below the frozen soil, the stirring of the trees in the lengthening days.

At the very least, take the dog for a short walk rather than letting him out the back door. Park your car on the far side of the lot or walk to the next bus stop before you get on.


How does time outside help your eating habits?

Get outside regularly in winter,  and you’ll find that your appetite’s improved. I know, you’re already hungry all the time. That’s your body looking for energy to get through the day when what you really need is to hibernate.

I’m talking about a fresh-air-and-exercise-induced appetite. The kind that inspires you to make healthier choices. That’s because your body will crave the nutrients it needs to support the movement. Your body will be hungry for the vitamins and minerals to replace the detritus moving out of your cells and your tissue.

As you eat better, you’ll be filled with a more vibrant, sustainable energy than when you relied on pasta and chips. Which then gives you the energy to get through your day with more spring in your step…and enough leftover to get outside some more!

What’s your favourite way to spend time outside in winter? When you share your thoughts in the comments, you open the possibilities for others.

Let all your friends who are “done with winter” in on this secret by using any (or all!) of the pretty green buttons on this page.

The Perfectionist’s Guide to Good Eating

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There was a little girl,
And she had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good, she was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

That old Mother Goose nursery rhyme comes to mind often in my work. Women sitting there telling me of all the beautiful meals they make for themselves “when I’m being good.” There’s a self-righteousness to these parts of their food day, a certain pride in the fact that they’ve learned the rules and show a sense of discipline.

These same women go on to tell me about later in the day – during that afternoon dip or once supper’s over and they’ve settled in front of the TV. That’s “when I’m being bad” and their poor food habits show up. When the office candy bowl and cookies and ice cream and the repeat visits to the fridge take over all sense of reason or strength of will.

One client recently referred to such bad habits as “sins” – insinuating that there is a moral transgression being committed, one punishable by God. Ouch.

Is that tendency a part of the perfectionist’s personality? That when you’re being good, you’re very, very good, and when you’re bad you do so with equal zeal? Which certainly translates to those sins being well worth the self-flagellation and berating you offer yourself in return. Double ouch.

 

That’s the kind of black and white thinking your inner perfectionist no-doubt craves. There ends up being no room for grey zones.

Unfortunately, nutritional advice has evolved into nothing less than one huge grey zone.

The lines get very blurry from one style of eating to the next, and even blurrier between experts on a given style.

Even so, when you decide on a specific set of rules, you will accept nothing less of yourself than following those rules to the letter as outlined by one of said experts. Sometimes to the sacrifice of your likes and dislikes. Or in ignorance of your emotional state or how active you’ve been or the fluctuations through your cycle. Sometimes cutting out any sense of celebration.

Yet, when it comes to “good” and “bad” food choices, there can be no absolutes.

I do the air-quote thing on purpose when using those words with students or clients. I want to emphasize the fact that the goodness or badness of a food or an eating habit is relative.

good and bad food choices

Here’s what I mean:

We all know sugar is “bad” for us, more so for those dealing with such conditions as Type II diabetes or cancer. Even when calming inflammation of any kind (including those 15 lbs that have set up camp on your middle), sugar will feed the issue.

In that sense, sugars from any source need to be taken into consideration, whether it’s from a candy bar or a PB&J or a carrot or a glass of wine. At the end of the day, they all contribute to how much sugar you’ve taken in. That is, the carrot has potentially become one of the “bad” guys.

That said, sugar is our cleanest energy source and getting a certain amount (up to 10% of your daily calories) makes life a heck of a lot more pleasant and your body function more efficiently. When you focus on whole foods and eliminate the added sugars, you can easily stay within those limits. At which point a carrot, full of fibre and antioxidants along with the sugar, is a “good” source.

Make sense?

In In Defense of Foods, Michael Pollan shares another great example from psychologist Paul Rozin.

From a list of foods, study participants were asked to consider which food item from a given list they would choose to have on a desert island (along with water). Participants chose bananas, spinach, corn, alfalfa sprouts or peaches over hot dogs or milk chocolate.

However, on that desert island, that hot dog might be your only source of protein for a few days, the chocolate will keep your blood sugar happy and your mind alert. Of all of the above, they would increase your chance of survival.

 

And then we get into the actual enjoyment of good food.

How well will your body take in and use the nutrients of a healthy bowl of steel-cut oats and ground flax if the texture grosses you out and you can barely swallow, let alone chew it? If you pinch your nose to get through the steamed kale, is it possible your cells will be pinched on the inside?

In Chinese tradition, when the shen (your spirit) tastes the food or herbs in your mouth, that is the first stage of your organism’s ability to take it in.

If you prefer physiological facts, think about your parasympathetic nervous system. You know the relaxation response, that is, the part of you in charge of “rest and digest.”

Call to mind the most delicious thing you’ve eaten this week. (Seriously, do it!)

Remember taking that first bite – how buttery or complex or pungent it was – what happens in your body? As you imagine the flavours expanding in your mouth, don’t your shoulders drop? Do you maybe let out a big sigh and fall back in your chair ever so slightly? You’ve relaxed –  engaged the PNS – improved your digestion by simply savouring your meal.

Now repeat the exercise with the last thing you ate out of righteousness. I’ll bet you feel a little more tense from that one.

Which brings up the question, is food “good” because of its nutrient profile or because it tastes good?

Engaging your taste buds also attunes you to the fact that tasting “bad” may mean that a food has gone bad; mouldy or rancid or rotten. It may be telling you that the food in question is actually bad for you in some other way. Try eating a fast-food burger slowly, savouring every bite. How does it actually taste?

Feeling bad – physically, mentally or emotionally – after eating a particular food is another way your body tells you to steer clear. This is your individual decision, regardless of how nutritious the actual food.

 

Do I have a solution to offer you for maintaining good eating habits?

I prefer to think that you have the solution by listening to your body through practices such as

* Mindful eating – slow, deliberate and seasoned with gratitude. This extends to mindful planning, grocery shopping and cooking. As they say, most of healthy eating is in the prep.

* Engage the relaxation response throughout your day, with breathing exercises, meditation or generally loosening the strictures on your image of what the “perfect” (yes, that one’s relative too) meal, or the “perfect” life, need be.

* Forgive yourself when you’ve been “bad”, knowing you can start again at the next meal. Beating yourself up for your less than “perfect” choices does you more harm in the long run that the junk food.

* Take responsibility for your choices. Stay away from stuff you know is “bad” for you (see above). If, however, you choose to go ahead, know that it may involve consequences on one level or another. YOU have the power of choice over the food you put in your mouth, not the other way around!

* Step back and explore your emotional state before you go back for that second helping of [insert “bad” choice].

Rather than a grey zone, I prefer to think of healthy eating habits as a full-spectrum. Not black & white, but exploding with colour. Just like all the best food.

The word “healthy” comes from the same root as “whole”. By letting your whole self be a part of the action – the “good” bits and the “bad” bits of you – you are feeding yourself from a place of fulfillment. You fill yourself with more than parcels of nutrients (or junk) and will be more satisfied and healthier for it.

 

Which part of your eating habits do you consider “bad” and what do you do to make it better? When you offer your thoughts in the comments, you open the possibilities for others.

Share this post with any friends struggling with getting control of their eating habits by using any (or all!) of the pretty green buttons.

The Magic Wand for Eating Right

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“I want to eat right, but I want it to happen like magic.”

OK, maybe the request isn’t spelled in such blatant terms, but the message is there. Clients arrive in my office with the apparent hope that I will have the magic wand to turn their belly fat, their fatigue, their achy joints and all their troubles into happy endings.

In a sense I do, though, like Cinderella’s fairy godmother, I’ll make her work for it. Have her gather all the necessary pieces so that I can help her turn them into what she wants.

Being the diverse mosaic of humans that we are, there’s obviously no one-size-fits-all solution to the quandary of eating right. The map for your healing journey will be different from anyone else’s.

And yet, there is a common ground to that human-ness, to the nourishment it takes to feed a vibrant woman. So, that the answer to that question of “How do I eat better?” really is as simple as the wave of a magic wand. It’s a guideline that goes like this:

Reduce any food that causes you trouble and increase those that nourish you.

Bibbity-bobbity-boo!

Very general, yes. Think of it as a forest path with several possible routes to get you to that garden of health you long for.

 

Explore the possible paths by listening to your body.

Eat less of anything you know you are, or to which you even suspect you are, sensitive. This could mean a full-on allergy (walnuts give you hives), an intolerance (lactose gives you cramps), or just some random item that makes you feel “wrong” (raw cabbage makes your eyes itch, grapes make you sleepy, oats turn you into a screaming banshee).

Logical or not, common or not, if you react to it in an adverse way, your body is saying “No” …at least for now.

Periodically avoid the items that are generally hard to digest or make your body work harder in other ways. These include such items as dairy, gluten, red meat, sugar, alcohol, poor quality fats, chemical additives. You don’t necessarily need to give these up permanently (ok maybe the additives and the poor fats), but give yourself a periodic break.

Whether you notice that they cause distress or not, they do add to your stress load.

Holistic nutritionist Jessica Sherman sees our capacity to deal with stress like a glass: the more you add to it, the more likely things will spill over into an inability to function or disease or irritability or weight gain or any of the myriad reactions we experience when our energy is drained under stress.

Staying away from foods that cause you stress, physical or otherwise, will allow you to keep enough room in that glass for the stuff you can’t avoid (the jerk at the office) or for when the rug gets pulled out from under you (your husband says it’s over) and you need the reserve.

Eat more nutrient dense food. Food that gives you more nutritious bang for your caloric buck.

Whole food. (Not sure what that means, or think you do? Read more here.)

Here’s a fairy godmother trick for you to ensure nutrient density.  Think of it as the Magic Looking Glass through which you can consider everything you eat.

magic of eating right

Make sure every meal and every snack contains some amount of protein, fat and fibre. Bonus points if you include something green.

Here’s why:

Protein: Needed to make all the functional molecules in your body and to maintain all of your structure. It’s easier to access when consumed in small amounts with other foods through the day. Get details on how much protein you need daily and food sources here. Get the deep story on why we need protein here.

Fat: Slows your digestion to help level out blood sugar; needed for your hormone balance, efficient metabolism and to help you absorb minerals and fat-soluble vitamins. Get the skinny on fat here.

Fibre: Will help you feel satisfied (and stay that way longer); feeds the friendly flora in your gut; gives your digestive tract a good workout and grabs all the garbage for removal. Here’s the real reason you need fibre AND this one outlines the benefits of whole carbohydrates (where you find fibre).

Green (plant) food contains magnesium. Of the 500+ jobs that magnesium does in your body, it is key to your hormone balance (in men that magic mineral is zinc); it helps your body release energy from food; it gets depleted under stress and yet it helps your body recover from the effects of stress.

Ex. Apple with nut butter (pumpkin seed butter)
Eggs with sweet potato and leafy greens
Chicken & vegetables (at least one green)
Rice cakes (or other whole grain/seed cracker) & black bean dip, drizzle with olive oil (add a pinch of arugula or cilantro)
Red beans & brown rice with avocado (really yummy with steamed broccoli)

What about all the other vitamins and minerals?

I’m glad you asked.

When you choose nutrient dense food, whole food that is naturally nutrient dense, you are choosing food that already contains the vitamins and minerals needed to digest, assimilate and metabolise that food.

And here’s my little secret: when you feed your body such nourishing food on a regular basis, then, having felt the difference, your body will start to crave those very things!

Like in the fairy tales, this magic mirror reflects something more than the beauty of your meals. It is showing you a way that you can up your self-care. It shows you one of the ways that you express self-love.

How’s that for a magic wand?

 

Think about the last 3 meals you ate through that filter, and let us know how they fared. Any improvements may be one small step away and sharing these tweaks opens the possibilities for others.

 

Let all your friends know about this simple trick by clicking any (or all!) of the pretty green buttons.

Where Are You on your Healing Journey?

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In an email she wrote me last week, a client referred to her health as “an ongoing project”.

I could easily have read a defeatist attitude in that descriptive, and certainly, there have been times with that client when the relentless energy it sometimes takes to manage her health has gotten the best of her. However, considering the beauty she shared in the rest of this particular email, I read those words as coming from someone who understands and accepts that what she’s going through is as much a part of her life as the family and friends who surround her, as the work she does, as the food she cooks & eats.

Which isn’t to say that she’s given up on getting better. I have also seen that same person, experiencing the same symptoms, embody the hope of growth and self-discovery as she strives to overcomes the very issues and realities of a chronic condition that threatens to drag her down.

As much as you want to find that miracle solution to cure all that ails you… ever… for the rest of your life, there’s no getting around the ups & downs of healing.

Healing is a journey. There’s no doubt about that. The concept of a healing journey isn’t some new-agey, airy-fairy or lofty notion. It’s a fact.

Like any journey, there are easy steps and rough patches, there are days when you want to call it quits and others when you feel ready to take on the world.

Where you find yourself on that journey speaks about where you’ve been, but more importantly, it offers the map of how to uncover your next steps.

 

Health & the Healing Journey Demystified

In the linear, Newtonian thinking of our conventional world – the mindset and belief-systems we’ve been steeped in for generations – our ideas of health get caught in the realm of those straight lines, of cause and effect. When you have condition B, take steps 1, 2 and 3 to get you back to healthy state A, by the removal of B altogether.

Some things work like that, with the ease of a light-switch.

Break your leg, set the bone, and it knits back together.

Get a cold, rest and drink clear fluids, and the cold goes. (I want to argue here that a generally healthy body will get through the cold regardless of what you do or don’t do.)

Get a headache, take a Tylenol, and it’s gone. Gain 10 pounds, eat fewer calories, and you’re back to normal.

Which gets into the question of what constitutes the illness. Is the pain in your head a condition? Is your coughing and sneezing the cold? Is your bulging belly the problem?

No.

Those are the signs & symptoms of your condition, illness or problem. They are the outward proof and inner experience that let you know something is wrong. Their progress and decline might even inform you about how much better or worse you’re getting. They are not the disease.

Health itself is a balance. The word stems from the same root as the word whole. It insinuates a completeness – which might be where we get the idea that there’s a final Point A to which we can return.

The fact is it’s a continuum.

Maybe continuum is not the best choice of word to use in relation to healing. It again insinuates a linear journey, a sliding back & forth along one track.

What most people forget is that health runs along several tracks at once. You’ve got the 4 major lines of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, with a few intersections for ease of movement, and occasional expansion outward – kind of like the map of the Montreal Metro system.

The healing journey map however, is more like the map of London’s Underground. Besides the routes that allow you to go east/west and north/south across the expanse of the sprawling city and its suburbs, there are also circular lines that bring you around to the same spot an hour later. There are those that cut diagonally, getting you where you need to go more efficiently. Some have several tangents so that, depending which train you’re on, you’ll end up at a different destination altogether. The number of intersections create countless possibilities – some more direct, some busier at rush hour, some not running on weekends – for getting you where you want to go.

Far from a straight line, the state of your health swings you around the loops of the lemniscate – sideways 8 –  the infinity symbol that reminds you that it’s endless.

Your health is a dance that sways to the tune of your life.

Your health can sit steadily like when you and your best friend found the sweet spot between your weights on the see-saw, or it can tip over and crash-land you on your butt.

I can keep going with these metaphors, but I think you get the picture.

 

To add to that more expansive picture of health, understand that the narrow range of movement which you call “healthy” can shift. The point you aim to regain won’t necessarily be the same place you started.

Your definition of health will change – it should change. If it’s not, you might want to start with examining and exploring your personal definition of health. As you age, as chronic conditions crop up, as the bumps and scrapes of life leave their scars on your body, point A looses its clarity, is no longer one fixed point.

From this perspective, Quantum thinking, the concept of whether energy is a particle or a wave (spoiler: it’s both) takes concrete form in your body. Your ideal health wriggles and dances its way through your life.

Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t to say that your vision of ideal health can only decline over time. On the contrary! It’s quite possible to seek a state of health that’s an improvement on where you started, or where you’ve always considered “normal” to lie.

 

All that to say that your healing can be about being on the one little trip that will get you from being congested or overweight or in pain, back to the point of departure. Yet it’s so much more.

Your healing journey is an adventure that takes you around the world and back, only to have you decide to pack up and try again.

Your healing journey offers routes to ease the pains that crop up over and over again, until you find one you walk comfortably,…then until you discover yet another option.

Your healing journey derails your plans, leading you down dark alleyways of terror, or turning you around a corner into the most beautiful meadow you’ve ever seen.

Your healing journey takes you to the mountaintop you always dreamt of reaching, and from that vantage point, you see the possibility of how many more places you could go.

Your healing journey happens on the outside with lifestyle choices and professional help and new modalities and a changing body.

Your healing journey happens of the inside with deeper self-knowledge and growing courage and emotional roller coasters and shifting energy.

Your life is a healing journey. What an absolutely exhilarating thought to ponder!

The 3 Stages of the Healing Journey

How exciting, and yet how daunting to imagine so many possibilities for yourself and your health!

Even trying to decide how to eat these days gets overly complicated and overwhelming, with endless experts trying to convert you to their magic formula. Search for one thing, like how to cook Brussels sprouts, and you get thousands of recipes. (1,420,000 actually, I just checked.)

Now that we’ve created a complex image in your mind that resembles a spider’s web, all sticky with places to get snagged, it might be helpful to think about which stage of the journey you’re on.

Are you dealing with an acute condition that needs immediate and focused attention? Have you come out of those woods and are working to stay well away from them? Or have you turned your gaze to new horizons?

While the map for each of those areas of healing might look just as complex as the other, remind yourself that a map is something you observe from above. Imagine instead that the complexity comes from the fact that you’ve got 3 different levels of journeys laid on top of each other. Have you ever seen the transparent layers that make up the details of an animated movie still or a cartoon strip? The big picture emerges when different elements come into play.

Same with your health. Let’s rotate that map of your healing journey so you’re looking from the side, at 3 layers, like a cake. Much easier to swallow!

 

The first layer, or the first stage of your healing journey, gets back to the basics of that conventional approach to medicine. It’s damage control, the place where you’re trying to overcome or survive an acute issue.

Symptoms → find the cause → take the remedy/undergo the procedure → return to normal

My own healing of different conditions and states have gone through these stages. I can turn any one of my experiences on their side to see how they’ve played out.  To make these concepts easier for you to understand, we’ll look at the cross-section of how I’ve been dealing with gallbladder attacks in recent years.

My digestion has often been a weak point in my physical health. About 4 years ago, things were getting worse. One night, what felt like indigestion progressed through the night until I was awake with cramping pain so bad, I half hoped there would be a baby at the end of it. The second time it happened, I realised it must be a gallbladder attack. The 3rd time, in as many months, I cut out certain foods, and started to see a practitioner for acupressure and Chinese herbs. When it happened again, after a perfectly “healthy” vegan meal, the pain settled in for the long haul – dull, thank goodness, but very present – and I knew I had to get more help in case of any complications.

After 24 hours of being poked and scanned and observed and soaked in fear-mongering in the ER, I was sent home with prescriptions for 2 heavy-duty antibiotics and a referral for a surgeon to remove the offending gallbladder as soon as the inflammation subsided. I understood the potential gravity of the state I was in, however, I also knew that removing my gallbladder would open me to a whole gamut of other long-term issues down the road.

Which is when I made the leap to the next level.

 

The second stage of the healing journey focuses on prevention, in which the impetus for your care becomes about thriving and getting past the issue.

Through psychology, we’ve come to learn that people are motivated by the need to move away from, or towards, something they don’t want, or desire. Preventative medicine and preventative self-care stem from avoiding certain risks. This approach can be as superficial as not eating fried foods to not get a zit, or as extreme as having a full mastectomy to avoid breast cancer.

Up until the time I found myself in the hospital, I was simply using bandaids: staying away from food that clearly triggered the issue, while taking Chinese herbs and going for acupressure when things got out of hand.

The fear-driven intensity of the ER doctor and his conviction that surgery was the only option, as well as antibiotics that did not agree with me at all, galvanized my resolve to never get back to that place again.

While in the first stage of dealing with this, I was merely trying to get past the pain when it hit; now I had become prepared to do whatever it took to avoid having to go to the ER and to keep my gallbladder without putting myself at risk of dangerous complications.

Under the guidance of my acupressurist, I systematically removed any foods that might put my liver into undue stress – for me, that meant all dairy, gluten, sugar, alcohol, red meat, fatty foods, and chocolate. Without the context, it would have been pretty dire and depressing to drop all those at once. Newly motivated by the deep need to avoid a repeat performance made the decision easier. It was a simple question of, did I prefer to have the piece of cake and glass of wine, or to put myself in danger again?

My self-care routine expanded to include regular appointments for acupressure and emotional/spiritual sessions, to maintain the better flow of energy through my digestive tract and in my life.

These steps worked wonders. Not only did my symptoms subside, I started feeling more energized than I had in a while. I was sleeping better. My usual nasal congestion had all but disappeared. My digestion flowed, so I was able to enjoy food more freely again, even while sticking to some restrictions. I had everything under control.

When things slackened so much that the subtle symptoms cropped up again, I recognised that it was time to refocus that resolve.

Recently, my habits slipped further still and I felt things block up like they hadn’t done in a couple of years. Problem was, I couldn’t muster what it took to get fully back on the wagon of those good habits anymore.

This approach worked until it stopped working.

Slowly, gradually, I found my way into the 3rd stage of this process.

The last level of the healing journey looks at the same problem from the other side of the motivational coin. The difference can be subtle, but extremely powerful.

 

The 3rd stage of the journey – the icing on the cake – is when you start creating the health that you want, and blossom into your full healing potential, by moving in the direction of what you desire.

Looking after yourself from this angle means that you’re making decisions from the point of view of the person you want to become, how you want to eventually feel.

How would “Ideal Me” eat? What would She do for exercise? How does Ideal Me want me to deal with that relationship issue? How does She pray?

Where the act of preventing illness has a huge element of control, creating what you want requires a large dose of surrender, as you open yourself up to the possibilities that come your way. It requires you to trust the answers that arise to the questions you pose, because there’s no concrete proof that your intuition – yes, this is your intuition working in its full glory – is steering you right.

I wish I could say there was some defining moment that sparked the shift in mindset for me. With so many huge transitions in my life over the last 2 years, it’s difficult to pinpoint, but the fact is that this has been a gradual shift – more a whimper than a bang.

Sometimes the knowing is crystal clear and I make choices with absolute ease. Other times, there’s a struggle as fear and doubt creep in again.

Ironically, many of the decisions I make now, especially when it comes to food, are exactly what I had done under the guise of prevention. The difference is that where I had been making those choices to avoid a gallbladder attack, now I am trying solutions that might possibly dissolve the stones altogether.

As the paradigm flipped from one side to the other, the conscious feeling and movement of my emotions started to become a regular habit – or maybe it was that emotional play and release which allowed the tide to turn.

The more deeply I settled into the vision of where/how/who I wanted to end up, the more I noticed the breadcrumbs of synchronicity showing up to lead my way. Unless, it was the light I shone on those breadcrumbs that guided me to this new awareness.

In this part of the world, it doesn’t matter which is the cause and which the effect. The upshot is that I am letting the possibility of yes take me where it might, when before I was guided by the limitations of a no.

The most remarkable thing about being in this place is the strong sense that I am healing, regardless of whether those gallstones go away or not. Perhaps one day I will need surgery to remove the physical residue and eliminate dangerous risks, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t healed in the meantime.

I am constantly healing. This is a journey, after all – one that constitutes many trips and adventures. Some longer than others, some that end and some that never will.

 

Healing is as unpredictable as life itself. How you approach it depends on who you are in a given moment as much as the severity of what you need.

The healing journey, that convoluted map, has as many intersections connecting the layers, as it does along each plane. You will find yourself travelling it up & down as well as back & forth and all around.

Though I’ve laid this out in a linear story for ease of telling, the journey itself isn’t linear. In this particular experience, I move up & down through the stages as time goes on. Though I spend a lot less time in damage control than before, it doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally find myself back on that station platform.

Like life, healing is not a 1-2-3 experience. You might start with prevention and move into creation with a certain issue without ever having to do any damage control. Chronic issues might have you swimming from one to the other and back again in a seemingly endless cycle of flare-ups and remission.

And remember, you can go through these phases with your mental, your emotional, your spiritual health as much as your physical.

How daunting, how terrifying and how exciting. Yes, it’s a process. Are you up for the ride?

The client I mentioned earlier is someone who has poured a good dose of creativity on this project that is her healing journey. She has grown to explore it in a way that allows her to shine fully as one of the most warm, generous and beautiful souls I know.

She has proven what I believe at my core: Your healing journey is self-love in action, and the straightest path to a better life.

The divine Amanda Marshall sums it all up so beautifully in her song “The Gypsy”:

“The finest tapestry takes patience and the ability to wait
For each thread to support the bigger picture and the larger purpose
And in the fearless, reckless pursuit of intimate love
It is not the destination it’s the journey.”

Where are you on your healing journey? Where do you get snagged in that complicated web? When you share your thoughts and questions in the comments, you open the possibilities for others.