The American Woman: Telling Our Story

Ginger in the UK
at the beginning of her own "Eat, Pray, Love" journey in 2004

A few weeks ago, a BITL reader wrote to tell me know how much this blog had helped her get her life back.  After suffering from long standing depression and struggling with her weight and the stresses that attach themselves to it - she found my blog and in it the tools she needed to arm herself for self-healing.

After reading her story, I knew that Cindy (not her real name) was a courageous young woman with a mission - and that she could be a powerful help to other women struggling under the pressures of daily living.  I asked if I could share her story with BITL readers, and she quickly obliged.  "If my story can help another woman and empower her to take charge of her body and her health," Cindy wrote, "please share it."

Cindy shares her story below, and I want to encourage you to keep sending your stories of struggle and success.  Please send us your story - to help build a community of women who help each other thrive.

Hi Ginger....I just spent the entire morning looking at your web page and blog. I love it! I printed out a lot of material that I found useful, helpful, inspiring, motivating, and educating!

I love the Vitamin D article. I have been struggling with some health issues lately from weight gain to depression. After looking at blood test results, the doctors found that I was Vitamin D and B12 deficient. Right now I take a prescription dosage of Vitamin D. I also need to get a B12 injection each week. I have felt the results. I am so much more energetic and able to accomplish much more. I also found that each of these vitamins can help with weight loss and depression...directly and indirectly.

The blog posts that I absolutely love are the Happiness Inventory parts 1-3. I have gained about twenty five pounds in the past year and a half. I printed out all the info. Plus, I am going to order a few books as well as your yoga DVD. I was on medications for depression and migraines. I felt like a walking medicine cabinet. After much debate, I decide to quit my meds (I didn't quit cold turkey, but had to keep lowering the dosage). I am currently through my second week of not taking anti-depressants and my migraine meds. I just take my Vitamin D and get my B12 injection.

I can cry at the drop of a hat...but I keep telling myself to give it time. I am going to try and make life changes that are positive: diet, exercise, extra curricular activities:) We will see how it goes.

I have probably flooded your ears way too much! But a lot of your blog posts seemed to click and I found connections. I had even researched the adrenal gland and stress.....I printed that article too.  

Thank you again for your blog.
Love,
Cindy 


Resources Cindy Uses

• Happiness Inventory
• Vitamin D Deficiency - Do you have one?
• Burned Out? How to tell and what to do

Other Helpful Resources

• How well are you managing your energy? Take the The Energy Audit quiz here 
• Easy Self Massage for Boosting Energy
• Redefining Yoga Practice for the 21st Century Mother
• Your Independence Day: Going from Passive to Active

I encourage you to comment below and keep sending your stories so we can continue to build a community of women who help each other thrive. 

Living Wide Awake in 2011

Introspection
(Our Family Christmas Vacation 2010)

Reflection. You see your own in the mirror day in, day out.

But who do see?  The person you were, the person you are, or the person you want to become?

Self-reflection is recognized as a universal requirement for learning.  Maxine Greene PhD, who entered the field of education in 1938 and established herself early on at Columbia University as the "lone female voice" in a male dominated philosophy of education, has this to say about reflection:

"...you can be submerged in the crowd, and if you're submerged in the crowd and have no opportunity to think for yourself, to look through your own eyes, life is dull and flat and boring," she says. "The only way to really awaken to life, awaken to the possibilities, is to be self-aware."

Greene likens reflection to "wide-awakeness." "Without the ability to think about yourself, to reflect on your life, there's really no awareness, no consciousness. Consciousness doesn't come automatically; it comes through being alive, awake, curious, and often furious."

Living "Wide-Awake"

My self reflection practice has revealed to me, through the years, these two truths. Though simple, they have had a profound effect on ordering my life for greatest growth and success.

1. Write in pencil.  As I order my days and set goals for myself, I now only write in pencil. Whether on my family or google calendar I can swiftly erase or delete whatever no longer serves me or my family's best interests.  Putting away the ink pen has freed me to invite new experiences into my life.  I am more flexible as a parent and professional and realize I can flow with life's changes gracefully. Wielding a pencil instead of a pen has allowed me to let go so I can grow.
   
   Time has a way of showing us all - that we are not in control.  Sooner or later, we have to learn that flexibility, not rigidity, serves us best. My wake up call was my 2 year old son's emergency heart surgery. With his diagnosis and the surgeon's curt announcement, "your son will need cardiothoracic surgery within the month..."  suddenly my packed work schedule and all the responsibilities that I had tied to it - paled and fell away.  I found myself waiting outside the pediatric neo-natal intensive care unit - pacing and praying for my son's life. 
   
   That experience demanded that I write in pencil. Now I don't wait for the proverbial shoe to drop before self-reflecting. I do it every time I plan an event in my calendar.
   
   
2. Omit possessive vocabulary.  I began this practice more than a decade ago, during a humanitarian trip to Alaska to help a community of Native Americans. That trip showed my that nothing I have is mine. It is only gifted to me while I am here on earth. Being Native American myself, I was reminded by this beautiful family of Alaskan Indians that the "my" we use so often - doesn't really exist.
   
   That year I stopped using the word "my."  "My" belongings or "my business" or  "my skills" were no longer mine. They belonged to a greater good that had nothing to do with me but everything to do with how I used what was entrusted to me and what lasting effect is has in this world.  This small practice also helped me more earnestly apply the yogic principle of non-attachment.  Situations in life were no longer mine, and as a result, I was able to look at them through a more objective, level-headed, and less emotionally possessive lens.
   
   As a result, relationships I had with others also improved.  Annoying habits or hurtful behaviors from others were just that - only habits or behaviors - but they did not own the person.  As a result, I was able to detach the bad experience from the person, which left me free to forgive and open myself up to healing and growth in the relationship.

Resources
Here are a few blogs from BITL and other bloggers which can help you on the path toward growth and wisdom in 2011.

Self-Reflection: How To Do It Right
Freedom To Live Your Life: But Are You?
Midwife For Your Life
Is Your Life in Perspective?
The Person Next To You Is
Self Reflection for Entrepreneurs
Self Reflect Instead of Self Neglect

Part Five: Get It! Instant Energy and Mood Lift

Click here to download Part 5 in the 5 part series on how to improve energy and lift your mood in less than 3 minutes a day!

Don't forget to download the rest of the week's routine!

Part Four: Get It! Instant Energy & Mood Lift

Click here to download Part 4 in a 5 part series on how to improve energy and lift your mood in less than 3 minutes a day!

Don't forget to download the rest of the week's routine!

Part Three: Get It! Instant Energy & Mood Lift

Click here to download Part 3 in a 5 part series
on how to improve energy and lift your mood
in less than 3 minutes a day!



Don't forgot to download part 1 & 2 from this week

Part Two: Get It! Instant Energy & Improved Mood, Part 2 of 5

Here it is ladies! Part 2 in a 5 part series on how to improve your mood and increase your energy in less than 3 minutes a day.


Don't forget to download yesterday's program as well. A quick and easy one page "how to"!

click here to download your free copy

Get It! Instant Energy & Improved Mood, Part 1 of 5

Mothers and women - if you polled us a group, how many of you would raise your hand and say you have been overly tired or in a poor state of mind in the past week? in the past month? in the past year?

Perhaps the whole lot of us would raise our hands in the affirmative. It is no secret that women suffer from fatigue and depressive* disorders more frequently than men.
In fact, many of the diagnoses connected to these symptoms were not even "believed" to exist until very recent history.

But as women, we know our bodies. As a health care practitioner, I have long supported many women with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, & longstanding depressive symptoms in my clinical practice. Even as late as the 1970's, grief was not even supported as an actual state of being. So it is no surprise that women have been unable to figure out what was "wrong" with them through the years. Unable to fit into a neat medical chart, their symptoms piled up- exacerbated by their mounting responsibilities as women, mothers, and human beings.

Through the years though, medicine has come to recognize that there is a psycho-emotional body, an energetic body - and it greatly affects the physical body. Women in my practice continue to improve in health when they receive compassionate physical therapy blended with a multi-cultural approach to healing. This approach I call "elemental renewal", the ability to see the person, not just the diagnosis. The ability to see all facets of the person and create a therapy program just for them.

The most common life experiences which can contribute to the "super fatigue" and mood shifts are, you guessed it, pregnancy, post-partum, life changes, job related stress, and the constant state of stress that is associated with child rearing and otherwise existing on this planet as a woman and/or mother.

In my practice, my first line of defense in helping women is teaching them how to breathe. So this week, I am going to dedicate the entire week to teaching you how to breathe - one day at a time, one breath at a time.

Each day this week, you will learn a different breath type so that you can have your own personal energy and mood lifting practice. In fact, sometimes I only need 2-3 minutes of concentrated breathing to turn my day around!

Read on to learn how you are only 2-3 minutes away from an instant energy and mood lift...

*If you are concerned about depression, please click here to learn more.

Giving Tree Found

The wisdom gleaned from motherhood, and parenthood, truly permeates the soul and holds eternal value.

Now as Friday's go, people are usually relieved to reach a week's end. Last Friday was no different, as the week had been particularly stressful as week's go.

So last Friday my 3.5 year old son was sharing a moment with me while I was doing a quick "hat" change (going from work day to evening play). I was mentally reviewing the week's stress and previewing the upcoming week's tasks when, in an attempt to gain my attention, he pointed to a painting of a tree, one I've had for ages that hangs in our bathroom.

He said, "look mom, it's the giffing twee! (no typo - this is what he said, but what he actually meant was "look mom, it's the Giving Tree")." I had checked out "The Giving Tree" at our local library a week earlier, and it has since become my son's favorite book. Clearly, he has been affected by Shel's book.

More wisdom from the mouth of babes. I knew that I was failing to see priorities clearly in that moment, and was too caught up in the remains of the day (and those of future days) to consider what (who) was in front of me, and what was passing me by as a result of my own self-centered interests.

I was convicted in my tracks. I stopped all my thoughts, everything I was doing, knelt down beside him and put my arm around him so we could look up at the big tree painting together.

"Yes," I said, "that IS the giving tree. How amazing! Thank you Michael for reminding me. I never want to forget this moment. Ever." He glowed with contentment.

I knew who my giving tree was that day.

Who is your giving tree today?


*The Giving Tree, written by Shel Silverstein in 1964, is a book about a tree who loves a little boy, so much that she does a very surprising thing for the little boy.