FOCUS POCUS

This morning, like most mornings, I woke with the sun and made my way to the kitchen to brew a cup of green tea. While waiting for the water to boil, I threw out handfuls of peanuts for the blue jays, as I often do. Sometimes I take care to put them in the hanging feeder, but most mornings - to start the day I just scatter them on the ground, knowing that the squirrels have an equal chance at that breakfast offering. As I sipped my morning tea I sat meditatively gazing out watching the morning rush of jays and squirrels. I am always amazed at how they instantly arrive when I toss out the peanuts and often giggle as I imagine some cartoonish version of them lurking around the corner anxiously awaiting my offering. Too often now I hear the jays screeching if the peanuts don't show up in a timely manner in the morning.

This morning some crows decided to join us for breakfast. I often hear them and see them around the neighborhood but rarely do they actually spend time in my yard. It started with one who landed in the yard and became focused on a particular squirrel. The crow followed this squirrel around the yard for several minutes then flew to a low hanging branch above the squirrel. This crazy behavior, even for a crow, captured my attention as I curiously watched the dance. Then the squirrel buried a peanut and headed back towards the house to gather more. The crow swooped down and dug up the peanut the squirrel had just buried. Then one by one other crows landed in the yard - five in all - and started pecking at grassy spots looking for their own buried treasure. The particular behavior didn't surprise me, crows and ravens are extremely intelligent birds and why 'hunt' for your own food when you can just snatch it from an unwitting squirrels stash. I laughed because just a couple feet from where they were searching for their buried treasures lay a handful of peanuts available for the taking, no hunting or digging necessary.

Observing this behavior got me thinking about how we as humans also become so focused on a goal that it often triggers our own 'automatic response system' in how we approach the tasks at hand. Being focused is actually a good thing because if you were paying attention to every little thing happening around you - you would not be able to function and could quite literally drive yourself crazy.

So what is wrong with being focused? For goal oriented tasks focus is great. At the same time you need to understand something very important, when we become focused it can also be like we are wearing blinders. For example, many of us believe when we are looking out into the world we are seeing all of it, the truth - the whole truth, when in fact what we are seeing is a very small part of reality. It is so important to understand that this is only a good thing as long as we realize that is what we are doing.

If we are not aware of the fact that we are only aware of a small part of reality we are likely to pay a high price in terms of our potential, not only individually but relationally and organizationally as well. Something I will cover in more depth in my next blog post.

Cultivate Curiosity

 I am writing from beautiful Boulder, Colorado where at the end of October we are enjoying temperatures in the mid to high seventies and a weekly forecast that ranges from low 40's to high 60's. Mountain living at its finest. It seems strange to be living in a place where winter actually brings much excitement to an entire community of active outdoor enthusiasts! But then again, I don't believe winter here will be anything like enduring the long deep freeze that is a typical Midwest winter!

As I try to imagine what the change of seasons will be like in this new city I began to contemplate how I got here. I was thinking about all the changes I have personally gone through the last six years since my initial move from Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2012. On this path of observation I discovered there are two very important components that help us make the most of life; Curiosity (reflection); a desire to LEARN more and Openness (action); a desire to DO more. What happens when a curious mind isn't matched by an openness to experience is Reflection Without Action.

Often times we get stuck in one or the other. If we are stuck in Curiosity (reflection) only, we remain trapped by the limitations of our own mind, unable to expand and grow beyond our preexisting belief system. No real development occurs. When we are stuck in Openness (action) only, we find ourself doing more and more, moving fast but we end up experiencing intellectual stagnation and end up not moving in the right direction. When the cognitive and the physical are split - when Curiosity and Openness to experience do not coexist we are unlikely to fulfill our potential for success or happiness. We may somehow navigate through all that life throws at us but we are unlikely to innovate a better life for ourselves. We are able to Survive, but unlikely to Thrive. How we grow is created by the loop between Reflection & Action.

This brings me back to my current situation that brought me to Boulder. An opportunity that was presented to me that is so big (and most definitely life changing) that my initial response was to decline it. Upon evaluation, I found wrapped up in my initial response was fear. Fear of failure, fear of not being good enough/smart enough, fear of the unknown and fear of what I would leave behind in Milwaukee. The fear instantly took over my innate curiosity. Then I heard my Psychology Professors voice in my head...."LEARN TO FAIL OR FAIL TO LEARN". The primary barrier that lies in the path to Openness is the fear of failure.

So here I am in Boulder, about to start a project that is being filmed for a documentary. I have been inducted to the world of film and production by enduring several delays while the technical aspects of this project get worked out. Two months later than planned and a few production companies later, I am about to begin this new journey with the most incredible Producer, Assistant Producer and Director who met with me personally with a Curiosity and Openness to understand my vision and believe in me and the direction I want this project to unfold. My client is arriving from Chicago on November 10th and she will begin her journey with Curiosity and Openness. An exciting aspect of this project is you will be able to follow along on our journey. The production company will set up a social media page so you can follow along and interact with us if you would like to. As soon as that page is setup I will send you an invite to follow along!

Hope to see you somewhere along the path on this incredible journey!

"The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile". 

                                                                    ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

My Biggest Challenge So Far

On March 14, 2015 I made my return to Milwaukee for what was to be a six-month commitment to get my father off eight prescription medications and improve his health in the hopes of slowing the progression of his dementia. That goal was accomplished within the six months but there became this realization that so much more had been unfolding during that time. While my focus was my father, I also understood how important it was to reduce the stress my mother was enduring from playing the role of caretaker so my six-month commitment was extended to one year. During that second half I was able to find my own balance of seeing some old clients and even meeting some new ones and reconnecting with friends. By fall of 2016 everything was moving along smoothly and I was making plans to leave Milwaukee when I received a phone call that my brother, who has MS and is in a wheelchair, had fallen victim to an individual that was manipulating him financially. I made the decision not to leave in order to deal with this unfortunate situation and it took me over one year to neutralize it.

Fast forward to 2018, I am still in Milwaukee and feeling all the fires have been extinguished. As I reflect on all the moments I have had with clients, pets, friends and family the last three years I feel an overwhelming sense of compassion and love because I know how incredibly blessed I am to have had this time to connect. I have spent the last 6 months pondering what was next for me. When you have an adventurous soul, there is always a ‘where to next’ and when you feel called to continually expand and forever share who you are becoming there is always a ‘what's next’.

In some ways much of my life was on hold these last three years. While I still managed to create a balance with it all, there was a piece of me that was put on the shelf while I tended to more pressing matters. The difficulty is in the dance between taking care of others while taking care of ourselves. We should not lose ourselves for the sake of others. Mother Teresa said it best “Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.” Being on hold has given me pause (a cessation of activity because of doubt or uncertainty). When this happens, I focus on grounding and ask to be guided to what I am called to do at this time and then I observe and listen.

There are always signs pointing us in the direction we should go. Sometimes the signs are so small that without a magnifying glass we may miss them. Sometimes the signs are so big we can barely get out of the way as to not get whacked in the head by them. Sometimes the signs seem to point in more than one direction and we become confused. Reading the signs is something I have become quite efficient at. It happens with practice and then you begin to trust the process as your life ebbs and flows. Flow enhances movement and we become more creative. My own experience of being in the flow as it relates to change always seems to equate to white water rafting. I don’t seem to float gently down the stream of change, instead I ride the white caps down the express lane. And oddly enough when that happens it is exactly how I know I am doing what I am called to do. It just comes together quick and easy, even though on the surface it can appear chaotic.

By this exact process I have fallen into a river of fast moving water that will carry me to my next great destination. A challenge bigger than any I have met so far. An opportunity to push me beyond my own boundaries and face any fears or self-limiting beliefs that may be lurking in my subconscious. On July 1^st I received a phone call with a job offer to work as a transformation coach for a woman seeking to lose weight and learn how to become her most authentic self. She wants to take control of her health and learn how to live a healthy fulfilling life. This project is being filmed for a documentary and because of the scope of it, she will live with me for one year in Boulder, Colorado starting September 1, 2018. This is truly an amazing opportunity and it required me to quickly pull together a group of professionals that will work as my team during this year long project. All of the pieces fell into place in last three weeks. Yes, that is some class V white water rafting.

My parting from one location is always bittersweet, but no matter where I am, it is never really too far. I carry everyone with me because my connections cannot be broken by distance. I am a phone call, an email, a text or a page post away, never really gone.

With Love and Gratitude,

Marla

Dear Unconscious Consumer

Dear Unconscious Consumer:

It is December 19th and Milwaukee enjoyed an unusual temperature of 48 degrees today. I headed to South Shore to get in a winter #CatchOfTheDayMKE. I decided to hit the beach South of my usual spot knowing there would be an opportunity for a bigger catch in a concentrated area and I only had a couple hours to spare.

My bucket in hand and stocked with several bags I made my way down the path to the shore. As soon as my feet hit the sand the dance began. Now mind you, throughout the summer I have spent a total of 34 days (an average of 2.5 hours each of those days) picking up plastic from this shore line in Bay View. I knew what I was in for, or so I thought.

Today, after bending and squatting for about an hour I started to feel a heaviness inside. I stood there looking over the shore and felt a tear roll down my cheek. I couldn’t get the image of the crying Indian out of my head – the one that was in the Keep America Beautiful PSA that aired in the early 1970’s. Then suddenly I just had to release some obscenities. I was angry and disappointed. Letting off
some steam was not only a relief, it also made me more determined. I spent a total of 2.5 hours picking up plastic today. I could have spent the entire day and not even cleaned half of the small stretch of shoreline I was on.

The photos in this blog are from today. THIS…America….is YOUR backyard. This is what has permeated our landfills, is swimming in our waterways and choking its inhabitants and slowly poisoning us. This is what unconscious consumerism has created.

The majority of plastic I find is single use plastic. Items that were created for convenience…YOUR convenience. Our world is all about supply and demand. If you do not use this, there would be no need to manufacture it.

You may not personally relate to this, you may not see how you contribute to this (i.e. unconscious consumer). Once you know the information I am sharing you can’t un-know it. Once you see what I picked up from the shore in only 2.5 hours you can’t un-see it. So, sit back, get comfortable, grab a cup of your favorite cold or hot beverage because here is where I bore you with some facts. If your beverage of choice is a cold one it most likely came with a plastic straw that you didn’t even have to ask for, how convenient! That plastic straw you just used for a few minutes will now be in the environment for millions of years. The world uses one billion unrecyclable plastic straws a day.

Starbucks uses about 2 billion plastic straws each year. Or maybe your cold beverage came in a nice convenient plastic bottle. 1,000,000 plastic drink bottles are bought every minute. 480 billion plastic beverage bottles were sold in 2016; 110 billion of those were sold by Coca Cola.  Ah ha, you say, but my plastic beverage bottle is recyclable and I always recycle (such a good consumer!) A recent Greenpeace report found six of the largest soft drink
companies, excluding Coca-Cola, use a combined average of just 6.6% of recycled plastic globally (Coca-Cola uses 7%). Rather than being recycled into new bottles, the vast majority of beverage bottles are exported to plastic manufacturers in emerging markets and used to make synthetic fabrics for clothing. Yes America, the clothes you are wearing are now made from plastic bottles. The U.S. exports one third of its recycling and nearly half of it goes to China. Effective January 2018 there will be even less plastic recycled because China (our largest purchaser of recyclable plastic bottles) will no longer accept our plastic.

Think about this..read more here: 

 http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/every-single-piece-of-plastic-ever-made-still-exists/blog/58440/

Well maybe the beverage you are enjoying right now is a hot beverage. Brewing at home with a coffee pod brewer? Almost 10 billion individual coffee pods (k-cups) were sold in the last year and that number continues to rise. Even their inventor, John Sylvan regrets creating them (we should ship all the used ones to his house). Some of the newer generation k-cups are recyclable, but you have to take them apart and separate the plastic, compost the coffee grounds and dispose of the top. So much for your quick convenience. Getting your hot beverage from a coffee shop? Styrofoam cups are not recyclable and many plastic lids are made of polystyrene, a Grade 6 plastic which is the denser form of Styrofoam, also not recyclable. Starbucks goes through 4 billion to-go cups annually but most of them end up in the landfill. Why? Even though these cups are mostly made of paper, these single-use items are almost never recycled or composted because they are lined with plastic.

So maybe you already have an awareness of the problems with plastic and so you look for companies that use disposable ‘green’ items. You see them as compostable or biodegradable cups or straws. This too can be misleading because many of these green products need specific conditions to break down naturally like being heated to over 120 degrees and in landfills there is not enough oxygen for them to break down fully. Disposable green items that we use once and throw away are not the answer – we have to use less plastic.

It is estimated that 8.3 billion tons of virgin plastic has been produced to date. With current production 12 billion tons will be in landfills/environment by 2050. Plastic is in our life and it is here to stay. The majority of plastic waste is throwaway or single use items.

With all that liquid you’ve been drinking to get to this point, you probably need to take a break and run to the bathroom. While you are in there…check to see how much single use plastic you have. Look at those cotton swabs with the plastic stick – they were originally designed with paper sticks…why not switch back to those? How about that toothbrush that the ADA (American Dental Association) recommends you change every 3 months? Tampons with plastic applicators? (the original applicator was also paper) How about your dental floss? Did some smart advertising agency convince you that dental floss was just not efficient enough so you switched to the individual plastic dental floss picks that you now have to purchase more often and spend more money on? How about all those beauty products in plastic tubes, jars and bottles you have been programmed to believe you need?

Okay, by now I am sure you have to go check on the kids…it got a little quiet in their room didn’t it? Never a good sign. While you are checking in on them take a look at all the plastic toys they have. Where will they all end up in 6 months when they lose interest in them?


With everything we have covered so far, it can be draining and by now I am sure you are getting a little hungry so go ahead and grab a snack to hold you over while I finish this up. It sure is convenient having all those individually wrapped snacks for a quick grab and go!

Dear Conscious Consumer:

Well hello….so glad you crossed over from the dark side of plastic. Welcome to the new enlightened side of living. And now that I have your awareness, let me share some simple changes you can make so I can return to lovely walks along the lake taking pictures of nature instead of this:

With all your new-found awareness you can start to save the planet by making some of these simple changes right in your own neighborhood:

• Refuse plastic bags when shopping. It is so easy to take your own shopping bags and you can get them in all kinds of fun sizes, styles and colors (or just plain ones too, if that’s your thing).

• Stop putting produce in plastic bags, its nature for heaven’s sake, you don’t have to cover them up. But if you are embarrassed by their nakedness, then get reusable produce bags.

• Buy boxes instead of bottles. Often, products like laundry detergent come in cardboard which is more easily recycled than plastic.

• Shop the bulk section, where else can you spill stuff all over the floor and not have to clean it up yourself. I bring my mason jars and fill them up!

• Use a reusable bottle or mug for your beverages, even when ordering from a to-go shop. Keep a travel mug (or two) in your car.

• Bring your own container for take-out or for your restaurant doggy-bag since many restaurants use Styrofoam. 

• Don't use plasticware at home and be sure to request restaurants do not pack them in your take-out box.

• Ask your local grocer to take your plastic containers (for berries, tomatoes, etc.) back. If you shop at a farmer’s market they can refill it for you.

• Make fresh squeezed juice or eat fruit instead of buying juice in plastic bottles. It's healthier and better for the environment.

• Pack your lunch in reusable containers and bags. Also, opt for fresh fruits and veggies and bulk items instead of products that come in single serving cups.

Still feel it is too overwhelming to change your personal convenience habits? I invite you to save the photos I have shared with you and revisit them often. Blow them up, hang them around the house, (you know you have been wanting to redecorate anyway), share them with family and friends. Examine the items in these photos and remember that in 2.5 hours this is how much of your convenience I gathered.

Well, now it must be awfully close to meal time which means you are probably losing your focus. I have one more very big favor to ask of you.

Yep, that’s right, you suck and you know it. If you change only one thing, make it this and stop sucking. Stop using plastic straws, even in restaurants. If a straw is a must, purchase a reusable stainless steel or glass straw. You have to be proactive on this one. When at a restaurant be sure to tell them no straw. Now that you have this awareness, you will be shocked at how many places automatically give you a straw. Sometimes even I am caught off guard and forget to mention it. If I am at a restaurant that gives me a straw automatically I talk to them about it or I leave one of these handy little cards with my payment:

Seattle had a very successful campaign to remove single use plastic straws and it is my intention to do the same for Milwaukee. Watch this PSA…its hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q91-23B8yCg

The following Milwaukee restaurants have already made the pledge to #stopsucking in 2018 so please support them!

207 W. Freshwater Way  ~  Milwaukee (3rd Ward)





5133 S. Lake Drive  ~  Cudahy








2473 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue  ~  Bay View






To follow my #stopsucking campaign follow me on Facebook at catchofthedayMKE


If you are a restaurant that wants to take part in the #stopsucking campaign 2018 please email me at marla_schmidt@yahoo.com

Fear/Phobia – Riding the Wave Between Them

Fear – we feel it in our lives, witness it in the lives of people we care about and hear it in the world around us. There are times fear is appropriate. It is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn't feel it we couldn't protect ourselves from legitimate threats. Fear is an emotion that comes up most frequently in sessions with clients and a topic I have written about many times. It is the emotion that keeps people stuck and/or complacent in their lives and an emotion that spawns hatred.

fear
noun - an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

pho·bi·a
noun - an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something.

My own personal practice includes pushing myself beyond fear when it arises and in most cases I have had great success in conquering it rather quickly. But there is one fear that has been lingering with me as far back as I can remember. One that I now recognize as a phobia in that it is an irrational fear and it is one that is taking some time to conquer. The fear of deep water. I have always been aware of it but it wasn’t until December of 2012 that I became fully aware of how much control it had over me. I remember the day, the moment actually, as if it were yesterday. I was in Costa Rica with a friend on an epic jungle hike to the most magnificent waterfall. We hired a local guy to take us in, it was rainy but tropically warm, just as you would expect in the jungle. The treacherous trail required great focus as we wound through some sharp turns and narrow edges while mud slid beneath our feet. When we finally reached the waterfall our guide and my friend became breathless with excitement as they came closer to the turbulent waters. I came to a halt as I became breathless with fear. Before I even had time to properly assess the situation a squeaky shrill came out of my mouth “You go ahead, I will wait here”. I understood the look on their faces. After all, who

fearlessly treks into the jungle under treacherous conditions solely for the purpose of swimming beneath the waterfall to suddenly just stop short of obtaining the goal? It would be like following the rainbow to the end and walking away without the pot of gold. I stood and watched them play under the tumultuous falls and wished I could experience such joy and freedom. It was in that moment of disappointment and frustration that I said to myself “I will no longer allow this fear to control me”. I yelled to the guys that I was coming over and slow and steady like a sloth I slithered towards the waterfall, my feet grasping the rocks like suction cups. I felt the force of the falling water hit the surface with a thunderclap creating a volatile whirlpool that sucked the air from my lungs. I pushed through the turbulence and when I could no longer touch the bottom I felt her begin to swallow me. I started to hyperventilate but I was determined to make the crossing. There was nothing enjoyable about losing my dignity while haphazardly attempting to doggy paddle my way through it but there was something that happened once I reached the other side. I survived.

The trip continued to provide me with opportunities to push the limits of the phobia I have with deep water. From repelling down waterfalls (yes more than one!) to white water rafting on the Pacuare river in class V conditions (class VI is expert

rapids/waterfalls). Over the next couple years there would be a trip to Mexico where I went snorkeling in a cenote, paddle boarding in the Florida Keys, and my most recent experience of snorkeling in the ocean and spending 3 days on a catamaran sailing from Key West to Ft. Lauderdale in 6-8 foot waves.

One might think it is crazy to intentionally put yourself in situations that cause fear and panic, after all where is the joy in that? I have discovered that by allowing myself to go into a fearful state, expressing the raw emotion and listening to the ‘story’ I am telling myself about the situation I can become an observer of the fear rather than a victim of the fear. What I discover in this observer state is that my body is tense, my breathing is short and rapid and my thoughts are creating worse-case-scenarios for the situation, which means I am not in the present moment.

I am determined to release my soul from this irrational fear. Each time I put myself in an uncomfortable situation and ‘survive’ it I am rewriting the program about the experience. Like everything we learn, practice and persistence is important. Because there has been so much time between these events, each time I felt like I was starting over, each time it was just as terrifying as the last. With this most recent experience I noticed I was able to recover from the fear more quickly. A welcome sign that the rewrite is working.

Understanding what is happening in your body when you feel paralyzed by fear is helpful. Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-flight-or freeze response. The sympathetic nervous system sends out impulses to glands and smooth muscles and tells the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) into the bloodstream. These "stress hormones" cause several changes in the body, including an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. The quickest and most efficient way I know to slow my heart rate and calm my nervous system is by controlling my breathing. As an added bonus this brings my thought process into the present moment, a place where I am actually NOT in any danger, and out of a future or past thought that has created a potential threat that does not really exist.

In the end, I may not develop a love or passion for swimming or water activity but my goal is to not have a fear of it. My goal is to freely explore any and all new experiences in my life with an open mind, open heart and open eyes that are not controlled by fear.

You Can Do That In Three Days?

Recently I had a client follow a three day detox diet. Since I was doing the juicing for her I decided to do it with her.

There is always an interesting response when people hear I am doing a detox or cleanse. I am always asked why I would need to do a detox if I eat healthy. I realize this question comes because of what most people believe the words cleanse, detox and diet mean. When you hear cleanse or detox there are usually two main beliefs associated with it - I will starve and I will be on the toilet all day. When you hear ‘diet’ you usually think food restriction, calorie reduction, low or no fat and certainly nothing sweet.

So let me share my thoughts about what a detox/cleansing diet is and isn’t. Diet is simply the food I eat. My philosophy on diet is to eat seasonally, eat organic/non-GMO and eat fresh. Fresh means the least processed. A carrot is fresh, a twinkie is not. I avoid gluten, grains, dairy (although I may make an exception if eating out). My diet is 95% vegetarian; I never eat red meat (or any 4-legged animals).

By following this philosophy I am eating food with the highest vibrational frequency (a measurement of the electrical energy that is present in all natural living things). Food can help or hinder our health, depending on its vibrational frequency. A healthy human body operates at 62 to 72 MHz; the brain operates at 72-90 MHz (genius brain frequency 80-82 MHz); disease starts at 58MHz; colds and flu start at 57-60 MHz; candida overgrowth starts at 55 MHz; receptive to cancer at; 42 MHz and death begins at 25 MHz. fresh foods 20-27 Hz; fresh herbs 20-27 Hz; (fresh foods and herbs can be higher if grown organically and eaten freshly picked); dried foods 15-22 Hz; dried herbs 15-22 Hz; processed/canned food 0 Hz...(the majority of food we eat). To learn more about vibrational frequencies check out the work done by Bruce Tainio.

By raising the vibration of the body disease, virus and fungi cannot live. If we are eating low vibrational foods we are indirectly polluting our body by lowering our frequency.

There are plenty of foods I don’t eat, but I never deny myself anything. I consider myself a conscious and intuitive eater. Because I eat a balanced, high vibrational diet I have a clean palate (sense of taste) and I trust what foods will resonate with me on any given day. If I have a craving for a particular food I trust it is a vibrational match to my body at that time. This is why I say I am only 95% vegetarian and why you will never hear me promote or follow any of the hundreds of diets out there. I can look at items on a menu and make the best choice based on resonance. I believe that is how we are intended to eat.

I pay attention to what I have cravings for and how often I have them because it can be an indication of imbalances in the body. Here are a few common ones:

1. Chocolate > Magnesium

2. White Bread/Pasta > Chromium

3. Soda/Carbonated Drinks > Calcium

4. Coffee/Tea > Sulfur, Iron, Salt, or Phosphorus

5. Cheese > Omega-3s

Even more important to note are sugar cravings. There are several different conditions associated with sugar cravings but the four common are:

• Candida over growth

• Adrenal Fatigue

• Hypoglycemia

• Insulin Resistance

Sugar cravings are more complex than other food cravings and should be taken very serious. Scientific data shows sugar is more addictive than cocaine and for millions of people this addiction is the leading cause of their health issues.

So back to my reason for doing a 3 day detox. I love food, really good high vibrational local organic food. There are not many restaurants that fit my criteria for that so I prefer not to eat out but since I don’t drink, my social gatherings tend to be over meals. For my birthday last month I had many invitations from friends to get together, which means I ate out several times a week during the month of October (yes, I actually celebrated my birthday for an entire month). I started to notice my energy level dropping, I was sleeping more but waking up tired and overall I just felt sluggish and withdrawn.

At first I attributed it to the change of season. Fall is full of movement; referred to as wind in Chinese medicine. From September to November there is rapid change; one day it is hot, the next day it is cold. It is a time when the body must continually adapt to change. This same pattern happens in spring. It is no wonder these two seasons have the highest incident of colds and flu.

Once I started craving sugary foods I realized that I had an imbalance in my gut flora, most likely a candida (yeast) overgrowth. This is why it is so important to be in tune with your body – you can adjust the minor imbalance before it becomes a major health crisis.

I use juicing as a way to ‘reset’ my system, something I always do in the spring and in the fall. This assists my body with the changes happening in my energy level as well as my food selection because both change seasonally.

In this case, the reset followed a month of a non-typical diet, something I don’t normally do. It is important not to fall into the psychological trap of binge eating because you have convinced yourself you can just reset with a cleanse after. For many people poor dietary habits are due to emotional eating, a very real imbalance that is too complex to address here.

For two years I lived and worked at a detox center in Sedona, Arizona where clients came for seven days to do a digestive cleanse. I witnessed miraculous transformations in their health. In the last ten months I have seen how changing my father’s diet got him off eight medications, a 40 pound weight loss and shifted his system out of constant inflammation to a state of repair. In that same ten months I have seen how my mother came off her medications, lost at least 35 pounds and shifted from survival to thriving. And yes, in three days I reset my own system. 

It is important to understand that many of the food choices I made in the month were still healthier options, it's just that it is unusual for me to eat out so often. That is also why in three days I was able to feel better. So one has to wonder, if I still made healthy choices why, in such a short period of time, could I actually see and feel changes while many people spend much of their life eating processed foods and 'seem' fine? It's like the frog in water analogy.  Put a frog in hot water and it will jump out. But put a frog in water and gradually raise the temperature and it will just eventually die. Become aware of your body's vibrational frequency and you know when you are in or out of resonance. When you are not aware you are slowly adjusting to the water temperature. You gradually feel more fatigue, get sick more often, get headaches, joint stiffness, allergies, depression or anxiety and you buy into the belief that it is all part of an aging process. 

Pre-detox

Post-detox

My general rule is if I eat something that isn't necessarily the best choice nutritionally, then I make sure the next day I eat 'clean' so my body can process what I put in. The body will process anything we put in as long as it has what it needs to clean and remove the toxins. Unfortunately most people continue to eat foods that cause inflammation and the body never comes out of that lower vibration state. If you don't feel vibrant and healthy take a look at your diet and your thoughts. Yes, thoughts have an equal role in your health and can lower or raise your frequency, but that would be an entire blog of its own.

Nutrition is the most fundamental part of health,

it should be our first priority

~Marla Schmidt, Moon Fox Massage & Wellness www.moonfoxmassage.com

Change Through Awareness

Change is happening at so many levels right now and it doesn’t matter what side of the issues you are on, it is rippling through our country like a firestorm. It is as if we are waking up from a long slumber to find a world barely recognizable and it is shaking us at our core. We are finding our voice after being silent and suppressed for decades. For me, it is a beautiful thing, I rejoice in the fact that systems are crashing and old ways of ‘being’ are no longer sustaining. We have a long way to go, but it is happening.

I stayed up late last night reading the flurry of posts on Facebook regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage. I watched as people’s profile pictures became covered in rainbow colors. I listened to the Eulogy our president gave in Charleston, I watched as confederate flags came down and rainbow flags went up. I shared my own posts of gratitude for the changes happening. I also realized what a diverse set of ‘friends’ I am connected to through social media. I love the diversity it exposes us to, the connections, agreements, disagreements and debates this platform has brought forth (of course realizing its many restrictions and short comings). Most of all, I love that social media has helped us become more aware and more likely to question those we have trusted for too long. Institutions like McDonald’s, Monsanto and Sea World are crashing because of our awareness. We have better knowledge of how bad factory farming is for our food supply, our health as well as our planet. This global awakening is very exciting to me. Change happens through awareness.

Early this morning while walking on the Oak Leaf trail, my head was swirling with thoughts from everything I read last night. I began to further examine my own thoughts on racism and prejudice. Reading through friends posts last night and the comments those posts created, made me even more aware of how much we really do classify people and how outdated so many of our belief systems are. Statements like I have many gay friends, I have many black friends really bothered me, especially when being used as a way of claiming you are not a prejudice person. Why are they not just friends? Why would we classify even our own friends? I have always believed that if you truly want equality, stop categorizing people. Are we not all just sentient beings, created from the same source? When we record world records, we do so by race; first black man to hit this many home runs, first white man to run this fast. Why are we separating the white and black people, or any other ethnicity in recording those records? Why isn’t it just the fastest person? Why do we continue to have affirmative action? I understand the intent when it started, but doesn’t it just keep us segregated? Why did I as a child get called out of my 4^th and 5^th grade classrooms to go to the office where they offered me free school supplies because my parents happened to list that part of my nationality was Native American? We were a middle class family (when they still existed) and we could afford school supplies. If you want to provide free supplies, why not supply them to students of families that had financial hardship. Doesn’t that make more sense? Why single me out because of a checked box signifying a specific ethnicity? My parents refused to accept the supplies and eventually stopped listing me as anything other than Caucasian.

As I walked further on the trail this morning, I was rounding a curve through a heavily wooded area of the trail and suddenly I became fully aware of my own programmed responses. A runner came from behind, passing me. He happened to be black and there it was. I instantly felt it in my body before it even came to my awareness and for a split second I had a flash of feeling unsafe. But then something really interesting happened. I looked at his legs, his body type and how he was dressed. It was very clear that he was a runner; probably a marathon runner and I cleared him as a possible threat. I do not consider myself prejudice in any way, so I couldn’t believe I had that initial response, I was horrified actually, and it left me searching for an explanation. Five minutes before this incident, I was walking under an overpass, a darker secluded part of the trail. A white older man was walking towards me. I analyzed the situation – he seemed out of place. He wasn’t dressed in what would seem typical clothes for walking. He seemed over dressed, too many layers, heavier jacket. But he did have a bottle of water in his hand, I rationalized. I was very alert as we passed on the trail and I ‘neutralized’ him as a threat and continued on my way. This entire process happened in seconds. I then tried to convince myself that this was no different than how I acted toward the black man therefore I was indeed not acting from prejudice - right? Wrong. This man I saw coming and I was able to assess the situation with my conscious mind, based on something I was seeing in the present moment that seemed out of place. I convinced myself that I had ‘acted’ the same way towards a white man who seemed out of place and a black man. But what about that initial feeling when the young black man jogged past me? I didn’t see him coming therefore I didn’t have the opportunity to consciously assess the situation, as was the case with the white man.

This is a perfect example of subconscious programming. Because of my age, my race and the city I grew up in, I had a core programming, a belief that was placed there by society. We are a product of our environment and as young children we are programmed by it more than any other time in our life. Becoming aware of subconscious programming also happens to be the work I do with clients; creating an awareness of those programs and understanding how they create our current beliefs, fears and realities. Clearly I still have some programming that I am now aware of. Once you have the awareness you can make a change, you can rewrite the program. By being fully present in the moment I was able to assess if this person was indeed an actual threat, and that shifted me out of a programmed response to one based in the present moment reality.

Fear is a valuable emotion, and this is a perfect example of how it is most helpful to us – it creates awareness by heightening our senses, thereby keeping us safe by keeping us alert. I spend an unusual amount of time in nature, most often alone. Fear is a valuable tool for survival, yet I rarely feel it and I certainly don’t live in it. My awareness of it today was only heightened by the previous evening’s topics. Every day I practice being present in the moment, and I feel that has helped me be in tune with my surroundings and decipher dangerous situations by reading/feeling the energy of a situation. None of which is usually taking place on a real conscious level. I don’t walk around my life analyzing everything, but I am very in tune when something doesn’t ‘feel right’ and I always want that awareness to be free of irrational fear or someone else's beliefs.

Who you are is expressed more in your actions than your words but your words are a window to your subconscious beliefs. People may claim they are not prejudice, but their choice of words may say otherwise. If we are not aware of our subconscious programming that creates our beliefs which is then reflected in our personal realty (personality), we react more out of fear. We as a nation have a long way to go in shifting out of fear, but it starts with the awareness of it. That is what I see happening – people are becoming more aware – and that excites me.

I will leave you with words that I recently shared with a client who is struggling with his marriage. I said to him “love your wife, not because she is your wife, not because you have spent so many years together, not because it is expected of you. Love her because she is a soul who is no less worthy of love than you are. Love her unconditionally for who she is. If the marriage ends or the marriage lasts makes no difference, love her no less”.