How to Mine for Gold - Pace Yourself

 

I had an amazing day yesterday.  I stuck to my plan and conducted “business” until noon. Then I talked to my brother who is recovering from a recent health crisis. I had a nap. I finished my necklace. I went grocery shopping. I made a beautiful dinner for myself. I talked to friends. I watched some TV. I ate TWO pomegranate and dark chocolate Hagen Daas ice cream bars. I danced in the rain; gorgeous, overdue, welcome, cooling, fragrant drops of water!

 

How was your day?



Courtesy Flickr.com Charlie Day

Yesterday I felt I had found a gold mine.  I am so excited about finding a professional certification program, but feel I found it so quickly I need to think a bit about it…temper my excitement.  My mother always said, “If you still want it after two or more weeks, then it is worth putting more energy into it.” I think that is the real reason I love window shopping.

 

 



Courtesy Flickr.com Tormod Ulsberg

In my new focus on career and building my own business, I feel a need to really know myself. What my strengths, skills, weaknesses, and road-blocks are.  That thinking alone is a big step for me; it requires a pacing that is slower and more controlled than my usual “go for it” behavior. I’m really planning; even my horoscope said that today is the day for a plan!

 



Alliance of Professional Health Advocates

So, instead of diving into the school, I decided to look at the organization that revealed it to me.  The Alliance of Professional Health Advocates helps people in different stages of advocacy. They provide advocates with business support to start and grow their practices. They have 4 levels of membership based on the status/size of your practice.

The Pace membership describes me to a “T”:  “

 

"Maybe you have assisted a friend or loved one, but do not have paid advocacy experience.  You’re looking for a way to boost your advocacy resumé or gain more inside information about this type of career. Or perhaps you’ve been helping others for many years and now you want to figure out how to get paid for the help you provide in the future."

 

The total cost of the first year is $49.00. That is less than my GwynnieBee subscription!

 

Courtesy Flickr.com Ognian Mladenov

For now, I’ll research other organizations and sign up for the APHA non-member newsletter. After all, if I want to be a professional, I need to be my own patient. I would always advise my clients to thoroughly investigate before making a commitment to anyone who is involved in the well-being of their loves and lives.

 

ANSWER THIS:

In the meantime, I need to think about whether I should have a separate blog for advocacy at this point, or should I wait until I have a more professional focus? Do you think it would hurt my long term goal to have others watch me grow into my business?
I feel like it is a more honest approach that will gain interest, loyalty, and readership.

In Organic We Trust

I just watched this documentary, In Organic We Trust; I'm all about making informed (from both sides of an issue) decisions. Based on the title and description, I expected the film to be the con side of the food issue; I know that "organic" does not mean "certified organic", just like "whole wheat" does not mean "100% whole wheat."

This film is inspiring! It was a well balanced documentary that touched on all my buttons, was incredibly informative and educational, and the whole point was about making informed decisions about food by being connected to how it grows, how it is industrialized, and how you can have the best food. Healthy should not be, and does not have to be, only for the wealthy!

This spring/summer is my third gardening year. Every year I learn something new. Gardening has all the emotional benefits of raising a child. My plants are my babies, and they will grow up to change the world. This movie inspires me to share, learn, and teach about my "children"; I think I'll start a new blog. Stay tuned for MonaRAEgrows (or something like that!)

What are you Hungry for?

I want to create a curriculum for youth and teens through Hungry For Change Mastery Program. I want to use crowd sourcing to fund the curriculum. I want to go to schools, I want to train teachers, I want to create a research study for the effectiveness, I want to see and address obstacles to changing habits and mindset for these age groups.

Awakened at 4:30 a.m., for the 3rd or 4th time tonight, I decided to stay up. I tuned into Netflix and among the choices recommended specifically for me was yet another "food" movie; "Oh well." I decided to numb myself with yet another documentary. So glad I did!

I could worry that all these documentaries I watch continue to inspire me, but in a precarious direction toward too many interests and not enough focus and even less action. Wow, did I just say that? I just defined, literally, what keeps me from feeling satisfied in life: the sense of too much, while craving abundance, and feeling overwhelmed to the point where NOTHING happens. But there is a difference these days; I'm focused on recognizing my feelings...I'm finally looking at myself with the same ease of sight that I have with other people.

AJ Matharu

With others I am empathic; it's almost funny how that thought comes up A LOT in the last few days. With the last paragraph, I now realize that I can be empathic with myself! And THAT is the point of the very end of Hungry for Change: You have to love yourself. So cliche, right? As a matter of fact, so much of this movie is seemingly cliche, but as with all truths in life, they are cliche until they are finally seen as truthful and real. My immediate thought after that realization is, "How much of this did I already know, for how long did I know it, and how different my life could have been if I'd accepted it back then!?!" Then of course, I think of my son and need him to see it now, to avoid the "not knowing" of it, and the lessons that lead us to acceptance of the cliche.

So, my blocks to taking the lessons of Hungry for Change into life's reality, revolve around abundance. I don't have enough money to buy whole foods and vegetables, I don't have a juicer, I don't have enough knowledge to make it work, I don't want to give up carbs like bread, pasta, and cookies, I don't have the discipline, I don't really have the mind set I need if I'm thinking that it takes discipline.

RobotRoom.com

One of the biggest aha moments of the movie, with the deepest meaning, is that the body's response to life is inflammation and protection through the creation of mucus and fat. Another aha moment was the discussion that when we change our mindset of adding to our diet instead of taking away, things occur naturally. Another aha...visualization is the way we communicate with our brain, not with words of language. To sum it up, this movie tells you what you already know, in a way that helps you accept it and desire to implement it because it motivates you to stop doing the damage to yourself, your psyche and ego, that results in more self loathing and more symptoms of it. You ARE your worst critic and enemy, but it doesn't have to be difficult or painful to flip that switch to "forward".

Abundant Goddess Event

So moving forward, I want to feel safe, I want to love myself, I want to feel like there is enough, I want to feel "Plentiful", I want to feel "Abundant", I want to feel "Activated". I think I'll talk to my friend from Real Raw and Rowdy, Amy Elias, about foods and how to keep the carbohydrate foods in a healthy way. I'm also going onto Free Cycle to request a juicer. I'm also going to start a wish list for this spring's garden. I'm also going to do a mind map for my curriculum idea. And, finally, I'm going to see if an idea I have for my website will work.

Today is Sunday, people! Love yourself, as you love your God...you ARE God! Oh, so you want proof? Here it is....

Eskimo Nebula, Universe Today

Yesterday I thought randomly of my friend Jo; I've never met Jo in person but there is a spiritual connection between us that has continued online for about 3 or 4 years. This morning I watched Hungry for Change to immense effect. As soon as I'm done writing about it in this blog, Jo PMs me (it's only 6:30 and the Sun still isn't up). Jo and I talk about her grand daughter, I talked about Hungry for Change as a suggestion for some relief for her grand daughter, and she introduces me to a friend of her's, Linda the HealthAngel weight coach, and would I be interested in checking out a free seminar/program online that her friend is starting today that is all around health and disease resistance/correction through nutrition. How GODLIKE is that?!

So Hum (I am)

Starting from Seed...

Hi there, it has been a while!! I've been away with a job that I loved, but now I've lost. Rather than looking at something as "lost", I've decided to see what I've gained...

Thank you Terry O'Dell

2 be creative, play with beads, make jewelry, analyze my blog and etsy website, watch important documentaries, be inspired by other art and artists, and grow, GROW, GROW......Hence, the name of this blog entry.




I've already started exploring my newly found time, and already I'm seeing the answer to the "why" that I ask in response to the sudden changes in my life. I think it came to me when I saw Food Inc., King Corn, and The Future of Food. (Click the links to watch, online, now!)

Hungry For Change? official Food Inc Website

I started to go into detail about where I've been, and what got me to where I am today, but I thought it might be easier to illustrate my train of thought.


I started two months before her arrival, to clean house and plant pretty flowers for the deck. We were ready for Grandma Uta!

 

My mom arrived safely, loved what she saw, and cooked a lot of great food. She hosted a lovely party to catch up with new friends she made on her last visit. I hosted a bunco party and got the worst case of flu ever (lasted more than 8 days!). Mom took a trip to visit friends down south, and I had the house to myself. I caught up on the documentaries I'd saved in my NetFlix cue....



I'm eating WHAT?!














Okay, for me it is not about the poor animals; for me it is about my poor body! I can't believe, as educated as I am, that I never thought about "grain fed" as an unnatural way for animals to eat. Cows don't eat corn! Corn kills them as a matter of fact. Chickens don't live in the dark. In order for Americans to afford to eat, we buy cheaper goods. Cheaper goods are made cheaper at the expense of something...always!

But I had a job at the time of this epiphany, so I decided to pay more to eat better. No more corn syrup, no more feed lot beef and chicken. I'm gonna find a friend to split a steer and pig with me, from a local farmer who grass and range feeds his animals. In the mean time I'll pay twice as much for milk just to get it from a dairy cow that is fed properly. I'm going to grow veggies and herbs that I can can and eat year round; but how will I find REAL seed, or plants grown from non genetically engineered seed?!

It all starts with the seed. I read all the labels, I asked the butcher where the pig came from (he didn't know), and I will ask where the veggies and fruits come from (did you know that Genetic Engineering is forbidden in Mexico?)

But, now I've lost my job. Woe is me, but not alas nor alac. I'm still going to grow veggies and herbs, and I'm still going to read labels and find resources for REAL food. In the mean time, I recommend you all inform yourself about what we eat now, what we can do about it, and what farmers should do (I say, let Monsanto sue everyone...who says you have to actually pay them? What would they do if farmers stopped farming? I actually think that is a good solution; we should put a fund together to support farmers who farm in wholesome, diversified, non corporate ways).

It is very scary to think our world is going to end, the downfall of our civilization, will be because one corporation stole our ability to grow healthy food. It isn't going to literally hail brimstone and fire; we are all going to starve in the end.

In the other mean time, I will be pumping up the volume on my creativity, making jewelry, loving art and fashion, maybe knitting and sewing, diversifying my medium types, and putting to use what I learned at my job to pump up the volume of my brand through social media monitoring.

Stay tuned for more random ramblings and sharing of visions, artistic, holistic, and lots of other "ic"s!