I am reading, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.  I read a few blogs, and one of them is by Buz McGuire. (You can find him on Facebook.) He wrote about this book and when I responded to it, he highly recommended that I read it. He said that it seemed to fit in perfectly for me right where I am.So I ordered the book from Amazon.  It arrived yesterday and I started to read it this afternoon. It is a fictional work, but Buz is right. It fits in perfectly with where I am as I consider living my purpose.You see, I have always believed from my earliest recollection that we all have a purpose. Or mission, if you prefer that word. We all have a “job” to do here on this planet that only we can do. I believe that I have done a pretty good job of living my purpose…as far as I have understood it. In my 20’s and 30’s, I did my best, but never stopped to discover who I was or what I really wanted to do with my life. I pretty much did what was expected of me, what my parents said was a good thing to do, or what my husband wanted.In my 40’s, I questioned the status quo. My husband said I had a mid-life crisis. Perhaps. What I did do was to listen to my body, listen to my dreams, listen to my hopes, and listen to my spirit. And then I made changes in my life to reflect what I heard. Those changes included a divorce. My husband was a good man. He was the same man that I married. I changed and he did not care to come along with me. So he divorced me.And now I am in another time of reflection.  My life has changed once more and I am taking the time to find out who I am, what I want to do and where I will go. I do know that I am actively involved in life. I love my life. And my life is taking a new direction. I am still a nurse. I am still a massage therapist with a private practice. However, I am also writing now. I intend to be published. I hope to inspire others to thrive and to love and to grow.So back to purpose. Do we have just one purpose on the planet? Do we just have one purpose that is continuous throughout our lives? Based on my life, I would say that my purpose has had a continuous thread, but the way that purpose manifests has changed with the stage of my life. What do you think?

I am writing a book called Spring Cleaning for Your Body: A Gentle Guide to Detox While Continuing to Live Your Life. I have a chapter on water and feel strongly that we need to make efforts to eat and drink as purely as possible. For this reason, I have done some research for you so that you can check the water quality for your area. Click here for the EPA site.Iwould like to share the results for the area I live in, Asheville, North Carolina. You can click here if you wish to read their report. You need Adobe reader.  You can go here to download the most recent copy if you don’t already have it. Click here for the report:Happy drinking!

This article was written by Stacy Curnow (www.midwifeforyourlife.com) and is reprinted with permission from the author. It touched by life and I want to share it with you. In the 80’s, I read a book named Resilience. It is a quality that I have. I simply choose to continue living, despite the harsh events of my life. You can too. This topic goes along with the series of workshops that I facilitate: The Art of Extreme Self Care.If you were to gather up the day’s news you would invariably come to the conclusion that the world needs saving, right? Well, I expect it will need saving tomorrow, too. And in the meantime, I am going to reflect on what it means to “do something” in the face of great suffering.Yes, the reports from around the world are dire, but they reflect something else, too: The scale of suffering is balanced by resilience, courage, and hope.I’m reminded of a recent article that described resilient people: they’re distinguished by the fact that after a trauma, they don’t just return to their point of departure. They cope and then get strength in the future from their success in the past.Our resilience as individuals has created an extraordinarily resilient species. Without diminishing the tragedy in Haiti at all, we can predict that some people will come out of this trauma stronger for the experience.And yet, that resilience looks like the sort of thing you’d expect from super heroes. Many of us have not even experienced that sort of trauma, much less overcome it to become stronger.But we look at the headlines, feel our responsibility for making the world a better place, and then begin to think that we should be super heroes, that we have to be, because the suffering we see—whether in Haiti, or in our own home towns, or even in our best friends’ relationships—calls out to us to alleviate it. And many of us serve others in our work: for us, that sense of responsibility can become a chronic, debilitating condition.Of course, feeling this responsibility and acting on it every time is the fastest way to total collapse. So the next question is: Is constant striving necessary to save the world? Is it the best way to achieve our goals? Is it even the best way to do our jobs?I sure hope not. In fact, I don’t believe it. Would it take some serious rewiring for you to think of overwork as a form of violence? It took me a little while to look at it this way—as one of the most prevalent forms of violence in the world—but I think it’s a good point and worthy of more reflection.Thomas Merton was a 20th century American Catholic writer, a Trappist monk, a poet and a social activist. He promoted interfaith understanding and was one of the first Westerners to develop relationships with the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hahn.He was a man who saw the suffering in the world—and had dedicated himself to addressing it—but he wrote “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence.”He proposed that unless rest, wisdom, and delight are embedded in the problem-solving process itself, the solution we patch together is not likely to offer genuine relief. Born of desperation and exhaustion, it almost guarantees that an equally perplexing problem will emerge as soon as it is put into place.Really, what good can come from the nonstop effort? When we are working constantly, eating poorly, sleeping little, stressing and worrying, we are little good to ourselves. In this condition, how can we possibly be of service to others?I often fear that it may be too late; that there is much to do; that there is not enough time, money, or people to do it. But I also realize that this fear itself wears me down. I believe that the overwhelm, the overwork, the over-caring that we feel actually diminishes our ability to care, our willingness to help and our effectiveness in the long run.I can’t speak for others. I can only look at my own life and ask these questions. And so I do: Are my important relationships suffering? Am I frequently mentally fatigued and emotionally fragile? Am I experiencing an illness or pain in my body?The answer to any one of these questions is too often yes. So I go back to Thomas Merton’s proposal for undoing all of this harm: Commit to rest, wisdom and delight. Not as a means of avoiding our work in the world, but as a means of making us stronger for the work in front of us.Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, wrote that we are at risk of losing the talent of appreciating ease. I think she’s right. Italians actually have a name for this talent—dolce far niente (which translates to “the sweetness of doing nothing”). The fact that we don’t even have an English equivalent for this lovely sentiment speaks to a certain malaise in our culture, don’t you think?So here’s my prescription for ridding myself of the malaise and injecting some dolce far niente into my system:Start small. Eat and drink well. Treat others as you wish to be treated. Smile and make eye contact with the people around you. Say you’re sorry simply and without defensiveness. Be a good friend. Take walks and look up often. Laugh a lot. And then, once you’re rested and ready to begin again, focus on the world—on the work—in front of you.I’m always ready to take a dose of that medicine.

It is winter time, and just like I clean up  my home during a long winter, focusing on internal matters instead of outside, I clean out my body.  Actually, I usually cleanse two to four times a year and have, in the past, cleansed up to one day a week, every week! That was at the beginning of my cleansing process and I needed to get a jump on the situation after 40+ years of eating and living crap. If you don’t have time or the energy for a week long cleanse, consider doing one day a week. It is easier for some. Or, you can do a three day weekend once a month. The important thing is to take a break from eating junk. Breaks allow your body to heal so that it can better absorb the nutrients in the food that you eat. 

Here’s the very basic scoop on a cleanse that I started on Monday. You are welcome to join me at any time. I do email support for these cleanses for free. I  started on Monday, January 4th.  I don’t usually start a cleanse on a Monday, but this was just the right time for me.  The 3^rd day can be tough for me, so I like to start on Friday, so that the 3^rd day is a Sunday…a day for me that is usually restful and quiet. It allows me to concentrate on doing things for myself in a gentle fashion instead of trying to work. My work is very physical, so I need all of my strength and I don’t like to feel grumpy when working with clients! I won’t share some of my past unpleasant experiences with you (you may have none of them!) but just know that work was not on my list of things that I wanted to do when I have cleansed in the past. I was into resting! Today is Wednesday, the third day of my cleanse and I feel great!  I have the day off and am focusing on writing and doing some cleaning/organizing in my home. 

Things to eat:

Fresh veggies (lightly cooked or raw)

Fresh fruits

Raw nuts

Make these organic as much as possible, but know that a non-organic choice is better than a processed food.

Rejuvelac (Recipe to follow. It takes a few days to make)

Usual supplements that you always take.

Small amounts of free range meats such as chicken and fish (if you normally eat meat).  Avoid beef and pork as they are harder to digest and one of the goals for a cleanse is to rest the colon.

Protein shakes if you are not eating meat

Do your best to eat verything in its most natural state as supplied by Mother Nature. (You can put raw eggs into a fruit shake for additional protein. Use water or juice as the base for your smoothies. All of the “milks” have sugar added.)

Green tea

Stevia if you really HAVE to sweeten anything. (Just eat some fruit if your sweet tooth acts up!)

Things NOT to eat:

Cheese, milk, ice cream, any dairy products. (I don’t drink coffee without cream, so I don’t drink it during a cleanse. If I want to drink something hot, I drink green tea.) If you are addicted to caffeine (or if you drink it daily and want to quit, you can wean off of it without getting any yucky symptoms, such as a blinding headache! Email me (pam@phoenixmasssageofasheviille.com) and I’ll tell you my secret recipe for detoxing from caffeine gently.

Bread, cereal, crackers, of any kind

The best is to use no rice at all, but if you have to, use brown rice only!

Sugar, other than that naturally occurring in food

Anything processed, which means no food from bags, boxes or jars.

No soy is allowed at any time during this cleanse. Soy is known to suppress the thyroid, and we all need our metabolism to work at its best!)

Beef and pork.

No honey, sucrolose, NutraSweet, Splenda or any other artificial sweeteners. Stevia is all natural and is allowed if you have to.

Alcohol of all kinds.

Rejuvelac Recipe:

Rejuvelac: This has wonderfully healthy drink that is chock full of beneficial bacteria and enzymes to help balance your colon and process/digest food. If you don’t want to make this yourself, let me know (if you are local!) and I’ll make plenty and share.I got a late start and have mine brewing right now.  It’s just as easy to make 2-3 batches as it is to make one!

1 cup hard red winter wheat berries (or spelt berries)

Soak berries overnight, or about 8 hours, in about 3-4 cups of good water in a glass jar (I use a 2 quart mason jar). Cover top with cheesecloth or a similar fabric and you can leave it in place throughout this process.

Pour water off berries and turn jar on its side and slightly upside down for 24 hours. I put mine in the sink drain rack. The berries will sprout.

After 24 hours you will see little tails on the berries. Fill up the 2 quart glass jar with good water and allow it to ferment for 8-12 hours. It should have a slighty yellow color and be just a little cloudy. It may have a small amount of foam on the top. If you ferment too long, you can still drink it, but it will taste like old socks instead of having a pleasant lemony flavor! Pour off the liquid and refrigerate. It’s good to drink as is, but I prefer it chilled.

Again fill up the 2 quart glass jar with good water and allow it to ferment for another 8-12 hours. As before, pour off the liquid and chill.

You can repeat this process up to 4 times, but I usually stop at 3. It just gets too cloudy and strong for my taste on the 4^th try.

Master Cleanse Drink:

Rejuvelac tastes good by itself, but it is absolutely fabulous as a base (instead of water) for the master cleanse drink. I make myself a 12-14 ounce glass of rejuvulac and add 1 tbsp of grade B maple syrup, 1 Tbsp of lemon juice and a dash of cayenne pepper. I’ve learned from experience that if I am making this in order to drink later in the day, do NOT to add the cayenne pepper until ready to drink it or it gets really, really hot!

Sample menu plan:

I start my day with a rejuvulac either straight up or as a master cleanse. Then, after I get dressed, I fix myself a protein shake. I eat salad with oil and vinegar dressing for lunch, and will usually make myself some soup or steamed veggies for dinner. I snack on fruit in between. I also keep a baggie of raw veggies around all of the time. Planning is everything! If you get hungry and you have nothing wonderful to eat, you will hit the snack machine! If I think I may have a 3pm slump, I take another protein shake to drink around 2pm. They tend to thicken with time and I don’t like that, so I take a shaker with me and fix it up fresh. (Gives me some exercise, too!) I just put the protein powder in a snack baggie and add it to cold water or juice and shake.

So let’s say that you forgot your veggies and fruit. It’s 3pm and you are starving! So you go to the snack machine in lieu of death (or so it seems!). You eat peanut butter and crackers, figuring that was the best choice in there…you skipped over the candy and the honey buns and the chips. Well, OK then. It was not on the cleanse, but neither was it the worst thing you could have done, nor is it the end of the world. So now you just get right back on that horse, eat a good dinner and remember your snacks tomorrow! A better choice would have been to bub a bag of nuts. They offer protein and fat for satiety and have no empty calories in the form of white flour or sugar. The salt is not on the cleanse, but…oh well!

Other good things to do are: drinking veggie juice drinks (like that Goddess drink from GreenLife), wheat grass juice and eating raw veggies. Since I want to stay away from milk products I don’t eat ranch dressing with the veggies, but often want something very tasty. In that case, I make some raw hummus to dip the veggies in and life is good!

Raw Hummus Recipe:

Soak garbanzo beans in good water overnight, or about 8 hours. Cover with cheese cloth.

Drain off water and rinse beans. Slant jar upside down (I put it in the drain rack) and allow the beans to sprout for 2 days. Rinse beans twice a day while sprouting. You will see a tail emerge from each bean. When they are about ¼ inch long, the beans are ready to make hummus.

Place beans in blender or food processor with spices of your choice. I use olive oil, sesame tahini, lots of garlic, and a dash of salt. Other ingredients are things like roasted red peppers, olives, small amounts of hot peppers, etc.

You can use canned garbanzo beans, but the raw ones are so incredibly better that I rarely make it that way any more.

That should be a good start. Please let me know if you have any questions!  If your question is something that would benefit everyone, please comment here.  Or, if you wish, you can email me at pam@phoenixmassageofasheville.com and I’ll respond to your question personally and confidentially. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about choice these days. I have even decided that my new motto is this: “I am The Voice for Choice”. I like it. It is not a new concept for me or the world, but rather one that I am currently pondering and well, choosing!

Some times things happen in our lives that we have little choice about. In October of 1994, my husband and son were in an automobile accident. I received a phone call from an anonymous person who told me that my son (6 years old) was on his way to the hospital where I was working in the ICU. I chose to turn my patients over to the other nurses and go to the emergency room to be with my son when he arrived. (His father had stayed with the car and sent my son alone in the ambulance. Don’t get me started on that subject! I still have some forgiving to do there!) Although it was hard for me to do, I also chose to go home with him, leaving my co-workers in the lurch that night. His father would have been with him at home, but I needed Doug and he needed me. I made a good choice. Yes, this was a hard decision for me because I felt responsibility to both my son and my job.

Last week I was told to stay home from my nursing job. I was to go to a new patient’s home and orient so that I could be of greater service to my employer. This is something that I am OK with. This way, if one of his nurses is out sick or on vacation, I can fill in. (I work part time as a registered nurse doing private duty home care so that I can keep my RN license. The state will not let me keep my license unless I work a certain number of hours in nursing during the licensure period. Go figure! For some reason, having a massage therapy practice and utilizing my nursing abilities every day at my office just isn’t good enough!) I like being flexible and helpful so this works for me. Once I got that email this morning telling me to stay home I had a choice—actually many choices. I could grump about the loss of money or I could complain about the staff member who knew this days ago and only told me as I was preparing to go (I had sent her an email asking for directions to the home, and I knew that if I already had the directions, I would have driven there for no reason!) OR, I could take my coffee and laptop back to bed, snuggle in with my cats on a very very cold day and spend the time reading and writing before I going to my office in the afternoon. I chose to be content right where I was and that I will have at least as much income from massage as I would have had from orientation. And in the meantime, I have written 2 blogs, an article, and worked on editing one of my books. That sounds pretty productive to me! AND I’ve managed to sit in my sauna for an hour and sweat.

What are you choosing today?