A Great Resource

I just finished reading the book We Carry Each Other. It described a website where anyone can set up a Care Page for themselves or others. It is for anyone going through life altering experiences, such as serious illness, caregiving for our loved ones, accidents and recent loss. As many of you know, when I lost Alan last month, my husband of 27 years, to Alzheimer's, I had all of you to comfort me. I can't tell you how your love and good wishes carried me! A blessing.
I can't imagine having to go through these stress filled experiences alone, so I wanted to share this resource with you. Pass it on to anyone who needs a virtual hug.

Have a Peace Party

My friend from the Peekskill Rotary invited a group of his friends to his home for a Peace Party. We were asked to share our thoughts, songs, poems and experiences concerning peace and unity. Nearly everyone, including old and young from many nations and cultures, shared their views. We all left feeling empowered and hopeful. In this season of Super Bowel parties, consider a wonderful alternative.
This is the Rumi poem I read:

A Great Wagon

When I see your face, the stones start spinning!
You appear; all studying wanders.
I lose my place.

Water turns pearly.
Fire dies down and doesn't destroy.

In your presence I don't want what I thought
I wanted, those three little hanging lamps.

Inside your face the ancient manuscripts
Seem like rusty mirrors.

You breathe; new shapes appear,
and the music of a desire as widespread
as Spring begins to move
like a great wagon.
Drive slowly.

Some of us walking alongside
are lame!

~
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.

~


The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.


I would love to kiss you.
The price of kissing is your life.

Now my loving is running toward my life shouting,
What a bargain, let's buy it.

Daylight, full of small dancing particles
and the one great turning, our souls
are dancing with you, without feet, they dance.
Can you see them when I whisper in your ear?

They try to say what you are, spiritual or sexual?
They wonder about Solomon and all his wives.

In the body of the world, they say, there is a soul
and you are that.

But we have ways within each other
that will never be said by anyone.

Come to the orchard in Spring.
There is light and wine, and sweethearts
in the pomegranate flowers.


If you do not come, these do not matter.
If you do come, these do not matter.

Our Fears

For those of you who may have missed the movie Coach Carter, my good friend Sheila read this quote to me and I wanted to share it with you.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our dark that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people don't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
We looked up the quote and found its source:
The "Our Deepest fear..." quote is originally from Marianne Williamson's book, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

What may be motivating apathy or action

Here's a small excerpt from this week's Speaking of Faith. I always recommend listening to the Uncut version.
Krista Tippett interviews Ingrid Jordt about her experiences in Burma.

Ms. Jordt: And so I'm feeling that we need to find new strategies. And the ways that the Burmese have undertaken the everyday strategies to everyday life and everyday suffering, I think draw on a number of — a cultivation of the number of key mental states. And one of them is compassion. And compassion is known in Buddhism as one of the four sublime states of mature emotion. And with compassion, a person feels inclined to show special kindness to those who suffer. Compassion permits us to perceive pain and torment and suffering in another living being.

But the thing that's interesting, and this is something that my Burmese monk teacher said to me, is that with a mental state, any mental state that's wholesome, but with a mental state such as compassion, there's always a near enemy to compassion. And the near enemy of compassion is sorrow. What's interesting about sorrow is that you're unable to do anything on behalf of another person's suffering. And compassion, on the other hand, allows you to feel that there is something that can be done. And so I feel that we need to cultivate here in the West — if we talk about apathy — our own mental states; if we feel outrage, that we realize that that response will create anger and only more hatred and violence.

Ms. Tippett: So you're saying we recognize our outrage also as akin to another possible reaction.

Ms. Jordt: What I'm saying, if our response to the crisis in Burma today as outrage, then we're responding with anger. And if we feel disappointment and hopelessness, then the response is sorrow and pity and apathy again. But if we have compassion and if we choose to cultivate mental states of truly the understanding of what it means that another being is suffering the way that they are in Burma, then I think it we'll undertake a kind of renewed activism toward making the case of Burma something that just doesn't disappear off the newswaves because we have also become apathetic.

Mind/body 3 part article on depression's effects

Cinda Hocking has written a marvelous article on how depression effects the body, especially in the area of eating and metabolism. This is part one, so sign up for her blog to get the other two parts or visit again. Her perspectives as a social worker, now Martial Arts instructor, are quite unique.

Yoga and the Silence

I included the unedited version of the Speaking of Faith show from this last weekend. So much of what they are describing has been my experience of the mind/body relationship in my acupuncture, Qi Gong and Tai Qi. In all my years I have never experienced a more articulate description of something that most of us know and feel on some levels but have trouble putting into words.
Enjoy when you have some time to unwind and listen.

If the question of "what to eat?" is your thing....

Announcing my new blog, Metabolic Matters. I'll be posting information to help you better understand Metabolic nutrition and Metabolic Testing/Typing. There will be easy tips to help you eat for your type with specific recipes and lots more. There will even be an active discussion on my two related Yahoo groups for lifestyle tips to put that bounce back in your step. Check back for the launch of some in depth discussions and debates. All comments are welcome in our Metabolic Family.
Speaking of families, I will be having discussions related to my Healthy Parents/Healthy Kids programs. Being a healthy role model is the best thing you can do for your child. For more information also check out the Children's International Obesity blog, which is being expanded daily.

Let the Music Take You Deeper, Thoughts on 9/11

Check out September Concerts all over the world. Music for healing the planet and bring peace to our world. I'll be at the Creole Restaurant from 4 p.m. until about 9 p.m. if you are local and can get there.
Also, thought you might like to read a little about music and humanity by Branford Marsalis

In such a short period of time!

In addition to sharing this story with you, Crete's Health Care Crisis, I want to make a short comment. The Mediterranean diet originated as a way of eating in warmer climates. It is actually only healthy for the descendants of those ancestors who came from such warmer climates as Crete. Descendants of those whose journey took them over the colder, more northerly routes across Russia, Asia and beyond need the opposite foods. Now, enjoy the article and prepare to be amazed.

It's about living and sometimes it's about dying

Reading about this remarkable woman threw all my preconceptions to the wind. What she accomplished in the last 7 years of her life, dealing with a life threatening disease, is a real eye opener. Worth a few minutes of your time, I promise.
The Jane Tomlinson story

Making the Effort

I have just been a part of three events in the last week where I witnessed amazing efforts on the part of the organizers. The first was last week's triathlon. The volunteers and organizers were there from before dawn to well into the afternoon, setting up, holding a well organized event, and breaking down all the equipment. No couch potatoes here.
The next event was my friend Sheilah's sculpture exhibit. Collaborative Concepts had 50 acres on a farm with 30 to 40 major installations. All the work to create the pieces and then getting them to the farm must have been exhausting. As you can read in their blog, the collaborative organized everyone for months ahead of time and pulled it off without a hitch.
Lastly, at my Mohegan Colony, Lyle Puente of My Brothers Banned, single handedly organized a movie night at the lake for our entire community. He schlepped the gear, chose the movie and sent out dozens of emails. It was a perfect night and a real treat.
Thank you all for enriching my life!

Some People Climb Mountains and Some People Have Heart Surgery

She's done it again. Krista Tippet has a wonderful interview this week on healing and alternative medicine. She is speaking with Dr. Oz of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. They discuss how including Alternative Medicine, with modalities drawn from various locales in the treatment plan, is the globalization of medicine. Have a listen.
Speaking of Faith

Rainbows, Black Bears and a Friend

After finding out that I came in 2nd in Sunday's triathlon, already a dream come true, I realized that actually the best part of the day was all the poetry I witnessed along the way.
It started with a lovely morning rainbow spilling into the far end of the lake.
Just as we were about to start the swim, I connected with a great friend, who had came to cheer me on. It made the biking hills feel much easier this week.
And then there was the bear!!! .....holy Smokey decided to run across the road directly in front of my path and then ran with me along side of the road. I could hear him/her just behind some bushes. Well, there was the motivation I needed and off I went, nearly breaking the sound barrier!
A great day on all levels - physically mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

What’s Missing From Your Training?

Since I'm doing a triathlon this week, I've been researching inspirational articles to motivate my training. Last Sunday, a week before the race, I encountered the 1.5 mile hill that I will be biking during the triathlon. I rode up it to get the feel for the race. There I was, crying in vain for my mommy, my head filled with all sorts of negativity. I imagined all the other bikers being in much better shape and what their dust would taste like as they passed me. I thought my lungs were going to explode.
Before reading the attached article, I was in the process of developing anxiety about going back to that hill. Who would choose to be in that much pain again?
After reading the article my attitude shifted. These concepts can be applied to any challenge, focus on the positive, have some helpful quick phrases handy for inspiration and do the mental preparation along with the physical to get ready. Now I'm psyched to get out there and ride! Enjoy! What’s Missing From Your Training?

The CHILDREN'S INTERNATIONAL OBESITY FOUNDATION (CIOF): GREAT READING (AND SOME HOMEWORK)

We are in the early stages of creating this very much needed Foundation. Come and visit the blog. Come back often and read some great research and solutions that people are creating to effectively deal with Childhood Obesity. This is a place for a truly multi-leveled approach to the issues. We intend to speak to the uniqueness of each individual that comes through our doors.
The CHILDREN'S INTERNATIONAL OBESITY FOUNDATION (CIOF): GREAT READING (AND SOME HOMEWORK)

The Ethics of Eating Radio Show

This weekend's Ethics of Eating on the Speaking of Faith show had one of my favorite authors, Barbara Kingsolver. While living in wonderful circumstances, she was able to spend a year with her family eating what they grew. If they couldn't grow it they would try to find it in local farmer's markets or grown by neighbors.
The feeling I got from the show is that their experiment indirectly would get a broader audience thinking about our own lives. It is time to notice some of these decisions that we make on almost a daily basis, what to eat, where to purchase it, how best to support the earth through our decisions.
No one wants the farm worker and his family in Chile to be breathing in clouds of pesticides, so we can have strawberries in January. We can wait for strawberry season at home, no?

The language of emotions and disease

This week's show Speaking of Faith explores the role of emotions in disease and how science is finally conceding what we have all experienced, there is a connection. This exerpt is taken from the transcript of the show. Stress, Finding the Balance Within


In The Balance Within, Esther Sternberg reflects on the differences and interconnections between "emotions" and "disease":

Emotions are always with us, but constantly shifting. They change the way we see the world and the way we see ourselves. Diseases come and go but on a different time scale. And if they change the way we see the world, they do it through emotions. Could something as vague and fleeting as an emotion actually affect something as tangible as a disease? Can depression cause arthritis? Can laughing and a positive attitude ameliorate, even help to cure, disease? We all suspect that the answers to these questions are yes, yet we can't say why and certainly not how. Indeed, entire self-cure industries have been built on this underlying assumption. But physicians and scientists until recently dismissed such ideas as nonsense, because there did not appear to be a plausible biological mechanism to explain the link.

Is there something about the biology of emotions and disease that gives them their different characteristics? Is it something in this that gives them their different characteristics? Is it something in this biology that allows one to affect the other? These questions arise at the intersection of popular belief and everyone's own personal observations that emotions have something to do with disease. The disconnect that then occurs between these questions, which grow from the essence of our human experience, and the lack of concrete explanations that satisfy rigorous standards of proof has led to a mistrust between the questioners and the scientists who are expected to answer them. Part of the reason for this is that scientists and lay people speak different languages — but so do emotions and disease. Poetry and song are the language of emotions; scientific precision, logic, and deductive reasoning are the language of disease.

12 Steps to Liberating Your Pizzazz! Introduction and Step #1 of 12

by Christine Sotmary M.S. L.Ac. CPC

Overview of the entire LYP project
This is the first in a series of 12 articles. Each article will be
accompanied by an audio version that you can download with additional bonus audio material. You’ll find interviews with experts in the specific area we are covering and related discussions, offering you a more in-depth exploration of each topic. Go to my audio blog and scroll down to audio to listen.
Generally speaking, I’ll be exploring what is getting in the way of your work. When I speak of work, I am not limiting the word to the accepted definition of paid employment. What I mean is your life’s work, accompanied by your passion, personal meaning, values and strengths. Lucky you if you also get paid for all that!
We’ll be exploring different ways that you can overcome obstacles, excuses, energy drains and finally get your work out into the world.
I’ll be covering the concept of reclaiming your personal power, what I’m calling “Liberating Your Pizzazz”.
By the end of these articles, I fully expect to receive hundreds of emails from all of you, telling me about your work, how your are experiencing your power and how proud you are of yourself for finally getting on track.
Let’s begin at the beginning. Why does it seem harder and harder to initiate new ideas, and then actually follow through on your projects? What excuses are getting in the way? I bet you sometimes feel overwhelmed and exhausted. Where do you start?
You might have been given the idea that you are a procrastinator. Is that what your family thinks about you? You carry around many beliefs, like this one, that are like old friends. “I’m too old for that, too set in my ways, too busy, I could never afford that, I don't have the strength for something like that.” Sound familiar? Maybe you feel disorganized. Is clutter your problem? Are you finding the support you need to move forward? You always read about these software inventors, working in their garage together, coming up with all sorts of innovative ideas. Garages have also been the home to many a musical exploration for all those bands we remember as teens. When a partnership works, both of you are carried along by your excitement and ideas. Is it time for you to start building your team?
I can guarantee that sometimes you feel stuck. I’ll be sharing lots of techniques to get you through the rough spots and help you change some of the beliefs you are presently struggling with.
By the way, how’s your health? Are you taking care of yourself? I’m certain there are times when you barely getting through the day and can’t even think about those tap dancing lessons you had planned to take. How would you ever have the energy to start that community children’s theater you always dreamed about? In this series of articles I’ll talk about how building a good foundation of health will help you reclaim that missing energy and how to easily incorporate healthy choices into your busy life.
In this first article I’m going to ask questions about one of the important areas we should be noticing in our lives. I’ll be asking whether technology is taking over, when it was meant to make things easier for us, give us more leisure time, more time to create. What happened along the way? I don’t have all the answers for you but you can ask these same questions of yourself and together we’ll explore how you can find a healthy lifestyle that’s right for you.

Step #1

Dateline Modern Life: Previously Intelligent Human Beings Transformed into “Entertainment Seeking Devices”First, I’d like to ask you whether you think passive entertainment is one major piece of the puzzle that might be robbing you of your creativity and pizzazz? You may agree or disagree. I’m just throwing it out there. The companion audio to this article has a fascinating interview with Robert Kesten of Screen-Time Awareness. He talks about the Scientific Research that’s been done on many of the topics we’ll be covering here. Go to www.sotmary.libsyn.com to hear the audio version of this article and further down the page is the bonus audio interview with Robert. You can download it and listen later.
It is easy to be part of the audience for TV shows, music events, movies and DVDs There is nothing wrong with taking a night off to unwind in front of the TV. It’s great to hear your favorite band’s new CD. It is just a question of balance.
When we sit in front of the tube night after night for hour after hour, what happens to our brains? What happens to our lifestyle, our relationships, our ability to think and converse? The scientists have found answers that you can read at Robert Kesten organization’s website www.screentime.org.
Everyone has experienced the fact that TV scheduling is set up to trap you with lead in’s to the next show, bursts of adrenaline and “feel good” entertainment. You might innocently tune in for the 6 o’clock news and find yourself glued to the couch until 11 p.m., except for the snack breaks during the commercials. That’s if you can find the remote control and get to the off button before Jon Stewart, Jay Leno, Steven Colbert and all the other late night celebrities come on. Then there are the Seinfeld reruns………….Where did the evening go?
What happens when you actually try to push back from the TV watching. Are you at a loss for what to replace it with? Do you pick up your neglected flute or your paint brush. With all the cooking shows on the air, I’m sure some of you are making soup from scratch. Right?
Sometimes the early stages of your project are the most difficult, the most embarrassing. No one wants to be a beginner, make mistakes, play bad notes, burn the entre.
Another difficulty with all this is that you are hard wired to be a creature of habit and it is always an adjustment to take on something new or put a new routine into your life. It takes some attention before the ideas start to flow. What happens when you can’t get past the title of the book you wanted to write, or the first couple of notes to a tune you are working on. Is this like writer’s block?
It might just be a case of use it or loose it. I’m reminded of a trip I once took to Norway. It was a solo expedition, mostly camping in my little pup tent. Maybe I was testing my self sufficiency, after a childhood of being taken care of in a large family and then straight to college with comfy dorms, cafeterias and student unions. I hadn’t had much time to be alone or to test my survival skills. Norway was not exactly the back country. I was staying in campsites with water and showers. The place was quiet and lead by my desire for isolation and reflection, I ended up not speaking to anyone for about 2 weeks.
As I headed out for the airport, at the end of my trip, someone asked me,
in English, “Where is the Youth Hostel?” I stared back blankly. My mind could not find the words to respond, I could barely understand what was being asked of me. The language that I had taken for granted would always be available to me was gone.
That disoriented feeling made a very deep impression, all those years ago.
You’ve probably walked into a room full of folks staring blankly at a TV screen, eyes unblinking, mouth hanging open. When you make a comment or ask a question it appears to be the same reaction I had in Norway. Your friends or family members have to first take a minute to understand that they are being spoken to and then register what was asked and finally decide to connect and answer you. It’s a question of attention and focus.
I just saw this same process the other day as a husband
came in for a crash landing from cyberspace when his wife asked him a
question. He had been checking his emails on his blackberry. You could
tell his thought process was far away and it was hard for him to focus
on what she wanted to know. Parents are often guilty of being
distracted in this same way around their kids due to the fact that more and more folks are bringing work home.
Recently, here in the USA, there was a national program to turn off all your personal electronic media for a week. The audio interview that follows this article describes the project called “Turnoff Week”. It was remarkable how once the participants unplugged from their TV’s, iPods, computers with internet and emails, cell phones and blackberries, they found more leisure time, less stress and lots of alternative activities. Find out more at www.screentime.org.
One of the inspirations for the project was a scientific study that had
researched what would happen if people stopped watching TV. It reported that reading went way up for both the kids and adults in the study. More frequent and longer conversations was next for the adults and fantasy play increased for the kids. I’m reminded of that famous Mickey Rooney line “Let’s put on a show!”.
For more details check out screentime.org
Doesn’t entertainment bring us closer together, a shared culture? People
have been convinced that watching TV is a social activity because of
the “standing around the water cooler” image. That type of socializing
technically happens the day after the show and now happens less and
less with cable TV, YouTube and the variety of media available to you.
Rarely can you come in all excited about something you’ve
seen the night before, even sports events, and expect that others will
know what you are talking about. Very few people are watching the same things. Modern entertainment is, in reality, a very isolating activity.

The same can be said of music. The diversity in the market place makes it an iPod world of one. Listening to music is rarely a shared experience anymore.
Just look at the number of satellite radio stations that are springing
up every day that cater to smaller and smaller niche audiences.
Even if I wanted to go out with my friends to hear live music, I doubt we could all agree on our musical taste.
So where does this leave you? In future articles in this series, I’ll be
talking about how all this effects your own creativity and what can be
done to get your creative juices flowing.
During the next 11 articles I’ll be discussing how to reclaim your vitality and get past your excuses and your limiting beliefs. We’ll cover how to get ready for your life's work with the changes you are making based on your strengths, values and where to find lots of support. I’ll cover how self-care is so important for your confidence and creativity. There will be several techniques we’ll go over, like Law of Attraction and Emotional Freedom Techniques to clear out the old patterns. Bring an open mind and even you skeptics will appreciate the discussion.
Finally, my belief is that the energy you strive to have for your life's work is better served when you are connected to a strong community. It’s the best way I know to avoid isolation, depression and burn out from the modern “go it alone” approach. George Ellis, a South African cosmologist believes it is one of the laws of nature to share in your community, as powerful as gravity! Robert Kesten believes that it still requires your efforts to connect and I would agree 100%. Sometimes the community experience can get messy and inefficient but by working together we can accomplish so much more.
All this will help you “Liberate Your Pizzazz”. Stay tuned for the next article about how your excuses are blocking your energy and power. Find out how to rethink what you want for your life and have this help you to show those excuses who's boss!

Let me know your comments about this article and future topics you would like to see included in this discussion.
Christine Sotmary
Email sotmary@gmail.com
Health & Wellness site www.gotbetterhealth.com
Lifestyle Coaching site www.gotcoaching.com
Metabolic Nutrition Coaching www.manhattanmetabolic.ocm
My blog www.sotmary.com
My audio blog www.sotmary.libsyn.com

Listen carefully for these statements

This is one coach's experience with what her clients said and how often they were successful. Very interesting.....
I won't. 0%
I can't. 10%
I don't know how. 20%
I wish I could. 30%
I want to. 40%
I think I might. 50%
I will try. 60%
I think I can. 70%
I can. 80%
I will. 90%
I did. 100%

Now that you've read it, it will be difficult to ignore it!

Can Rationality and Emotion Co-exist?

In this week's Speaking of Faith radio show on NPR, Krista Tippett
interviews George Ellis, a South African cosmologist. This is a short
excerpt of the interview that I thought you might like to see. You can
read much more here. Science and Hope


"Much our of life can be thought of as a struggle between emotion and rationality — the calm analyst deciding on a logical basis what we should do, versus the emotional hot-head who
rushes into action and just does things. A common view is that
evidence-based science represents that calm rationality which
exemplifies us how we ought to behave, and we should try to avoid
basing our lives on faith and hope rather than rationality and reason.
However this is also a bad misunderstanding. In facing our individual
and communal lives, we always need faith and hope as well as
rationality, and indeed the real issue is how we can best balance them
against each other. Take the case of my own country: there were very
many times in the past when it was rational to give up all hope for the
future — to assume that the nation would decay into a racial holocaust
that never happened. It did not occur because of the transformative
actions of those marvellous leaders Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela,
confounding the calculus of rationality. This is a really important
practical issue that I have only recently begun to consider. It is in a
sense the theme of the book The Far-Future Universe that I edited.

However as well as being a highly practical issue, this also relates to the
issue of reductionism and the way the mind functions. The reading and
writing I have been doing on that topic have led to a very interesting
appreciation: the fact that the rational mind is in a profound
developmental sense based in the emotional mind. This is true both
functionally and in evolutionary terms. So one of my latest projects is
looking at this fascinating theme, and even writing about it in
association with JudithToronchuk of Trinity Western University. So I am
now happy that though I am a cosmologist by trade, I have just had a
paper on this theme accepted for publication by the journal
Consciousness and Evolution. This paper shows that the tension between
emotion and reason has a deep grounding in the neurological mechanisms
underlying brain function."