Advisor or teacher, Counsel or preacher; Choose help for your needs, From energy and deeds.

by admin on May 24, 2012

 Yesterday someone asked me – what is the difference between a Life Coach different and a Health Counselor?

The answer did not come to me easily, in fact, that is why I sometimes call myself a coach and others time a counselor. But my certifications make it so that I am both.

I began to think about what the words actually mean – the accepted definitions of each word to find my own answer.  That is a holistic approach to life and I am a holistic health counselor and self healing practices and creativity coach. Everyone is different and everyone finds the answers that work for them.

Generally Accepted definitions from the internet, specifically google and yahoo, were plentiful. I chose the ones that resonated with me.

Health is generally defined as a person’s physical or mental condition.

Counselor refers to a person who gives advice on a specified subject. This is a counselor’s job: to listen and offer suggestions that could possibly resolve issues and problems in a specialized area. A health counselor then advises a client about mental or physical conditions.

And a coach is someone who trains or instructs. A life coach then is someone who instructs on life or living – to improve the quality of life in a specified area of concern.

A counselor advises; a coach instructs. When you advise someone you offer suggestions, you generally let the client decide on the path they want to take and explore.

So given these parameters, a life coach is a teacher of life. Now defining life is no easy task – many have been challenged with this task since the beginning of ….life?

The answer is as complicated as what is the best food to eat because today, many counselors are calling themselves coaches and many coaches are calling themselves counselors. Traditionally, a health coach would focus on all aspects of health – body, mind and spirit. A coach with a health counselor’s training and certifications may also include these aspects with life coaching skills. But not all coaches, especially, life coaches are trained in nutrition.

Let’s just say for the sake of answering these questions: a coach teaches a specified subject; a counselor can teach specified subjects but also offers an ear to listen to problems; makes educated suggestions and then guides the client along on a path they choose – often their own making and finding.

If you are looking for someone to help you improve your life in any way here are a few points to consider when deciding on a health counselor or a coach:

Education:

Nutrition holds the key to healing many emotional issues and is the cornerstone of healing the body and mind. It is essential to know what education and certifications a counselor or coach holds in order to select a ‘partner’ that will provide the guidance and direction you need to manifest the changes needed in your life to heal. This is an essential step in selecting the right person to help you because it tells you the scope of their capabilities – this is how you know what the provider has to offer in terms of the guidance and direction they can provide you with to move you into the life you want to live.

Chemistry:

Training, degrees and certifications is important but not the only element in your choice – interview and interact with different coaches and counselors to see if you have ‘chemistry’ that works together. . Chemistry is something you will feel right away and it is also a funny word to define – I will say simply it is a matter of your energy interacting or responding to anothers. This is something that changes all the time so one day it can be positive and another negative. But in general – you will know if someone’ energy connects positively with yours.

Location:

Many people are getting their coaching or counseling on line or by phone these days. It is simple and efficient but then there are others that like to be in the same room or the same time zone. Know what works for you by trying it out. You might consider a combination of the two. I have coaching sessions by phone in the same town sometimes.  Busy people like that – they can shut the door for an hour and talk. But if you need hands on instructions to meditate or express yourself creatively – chances are you will want to be in the same room with me.

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Twist Toxins Away Each Day with aYoga Practice

by admin on May 7, 2012

Control Your Life and Weight with Yoga

Control your Life and Weight with Yoga

Twistin the toxins a way each day!

Detox yoga classes are classes that include breathwork and specific yoga poses that target the organs in the torso to eliminate stored toxins in the body. The poses that are included to detoxify the body can have an effect much like a strict dietary regimen with drinking oils or ghee and herbs to stimulate the digestion process. Yoga can also focus on moving the toxins out of the digestive organs by stimulating through a massaging action to these organs. By focusing the poses on gentle or vigorous abdominal twists combined with conscious breathing, a yoga detox class or routine can feel refreshing and invigorating; it also stimulates the metabolism while eliminating the toxins being stored in fat cells. This lays the foundation for weight loss and cellulite reduction.

A gentle yoga practice that includes the toxin releasing twists with breathing exercises also clears the mind and allows for a deep connection to the heart – to spirit. When there is a clear mind and body connected to spirit – life and body experience balance – you can control both your responses to life and your weight when you consistently clear the organs of toxins. This is not a one time or annual event as toxins find there way into our organs each and every day in this world we live in. Yoga is a gentle and rewarding way to stay clean and healthy of toxins so life can be enjoyed fully.

After a practice of detox yoga, 2 to 3 glasses of room temperature pure water is recommended to flush the toxins immediately from the body. Without the water to help this action, the benefits are greatly reduced as the body will reabsorb the toxins that are ready to go back into the fat cells.  Following are the names of some of the yoga detox twists. Remember to lengthen the spine with a deep inhale and then on the exhale twist.

Some of the poses for detoxification are:

  • Sukhasana (Easy Pose)
  • Nadi Shodna Pranayama (Alternate Nostril Breath), 5-10 minutes
  • Face stretches. Make lots of funny faces and deep Simhasana (Lion’s Breath)
  • Matsyendrasana (Seated Twist). Be gentle and repeat in the other direction.
  • Taking one arm to floor by your bottom and the other arm up and over to side stretch. Repeat other side.
  • Ananda Balasana ( Happy Baby)
  • Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
  • Pavana Muktasana (Standing Wind Relieving Pose)
  • Vrksasana (Tree Pose)
  • Utthita Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) and Parvritta Trikonasana (reverse triangle pose)
  • Uthitta Parsvakonasana (Extended Angle pose)  and Parvritta Parsvakonasana (reverse angle pose)
  • Prasarita Padottonasana (Wide Legged Forward Bend) with twist, bringing torso towards one leg and then the other
  • Parsvottonasana tuck in the lower belly to make space for the forward bend. Repeat on other side.
  • Garbasana (Child’s Pose). Hold for a few minutes and if it is very uncomfortable, experiment, try a pillow for your head for comfort or if you want to have your head higher than your heart. Then walk your hands over to one side and hold for a side stretch, to deepen it extend the hand further or place them on a block.  Do both sides.
  • Supta Pavana Muktasana (Reclined Wind Relieving Pose). Repeat other side
  • Supta Balasana (Reclined Child’s Pose, bringing both knees into chest)
  • Supta Matsyendrasana (Reclined Twists). Repeat other side
  • Savasana

You can find instructions on all of these poses on line or in books – or preferably at a yoga studio with a certified instructor. Keep your practice steady and support it with plenty of pure water and air. To increase your clarity of purpose and joy in life – add more fresh organic vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts. Thess also help you to maintain optimum health, control weight and move with ease.

  Namaste’

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Use Taurus Energy To Create Beatuy and Bounty

by admin on April 24, 2012

May Day - Celebrate the Garden

Taurus Sun Time to Plant Your Garden

The sun is now in Taurus now and we started this yearly cycle with the added energy of the new moon. Taurus is grounded in earthly pleasure – so if you have felt lack in any area of your life, use this energy to focus on changing that – with Taurus you can add more beauty and abundance to your life.  This is the time to plant the seeds that will grow in your garden and in your life. Taurus is also mindful of the pleasure principals that make a wonderful life experience for humans of all sizes, shapes and cultures. So when you are planning your gardens include and balance your sensual nature with your other needs and desires.

Use this energy to nurture your desires by tending to them as if they were seeds in the garden. In fact, this is a perfect time to get into the garden. Your mind seems to shut off in the garden as you connect and co-create with the earth a beautiful vignette to gaze and reflect upon and bounty to enjoy. You’ll find joy in nurturing the plants and watching them grow while benefiting from the fresh air, exercise and meditative state of mind gardening offers.  Taurus loves beauty so this energy supports your efforts to make your spaces beautiful by planting seeds that will flourish and offer natural beauty, seductive fragrances and nourishing foods in the months to come. If you are impatient and want it now – you are not alone.

Patience is a virtue and certainly worth cultivating, but, this Taurus time, might challenge your efforts. So get a get a good start with building your garden at the nursery with some already healthy flowering plants or herbs. This will add to your adventure with Venus during this time in Taurus. Yesterday I planted beautiful flowers and herbs that already scent the air and brighten my home and office inside and out. The energy I found from Taurus with my started plants, was finding the right spot to place each one so they would get the light that they needed and space to grow while complimenting the plants around them. Anything for beauty could be a Taurus affirmation. I know my gardens inside and outside will grow to become as full, beautiful and productive as they can this season.

Now, we can take these same principles into our own life gardens. Take this gardening experience into your life by looking at your life as your creation and homage to Venus – to beauty. Take a few minutes to sit with your eyes closed and breathe deeply in through your nose and out through your nose. Do this a few times, as deeply and for as long as you can, comfortably, without forcing the breath. Then create in your mind’s eye a vision of what you want to create in your life. Look and see, now in this moment, what is missing. Ask yourself:

  • What is it you want to have in your life? 
  • Are your goals and desires balanced with your plans?
  • Is there anything missing in your plans (or thinking) that could prevent building your dreams?
  • Is there beauty and pleasure in your life?
  • What seeds do you need to plant to make your life beautiful and bountiful?

When you know what is needed to add to your plan, you can make your vision a reality. Using the same care you would in your garden, learn the needs for each detail, each seed in your vision garden to grow strong, beautiful and bountiful. Learn how to make your visions and dreams fit together in perfect beauty and unison.

A Taurus sun can be fun;

Now that winter is undone.

Look now at your life;

Is it from love full of strife?

Plant your seeds; pull the weeds.

Fill your days with beautiful deeds.

With sun in Taurus, take the lead;

Create the path to all that you need.

Make the changes; do it now;

Add some beauty that is how.

Your life’s garden can grow big and tall;

Full with your dreams and bounty galore.

The Taurus sun is calling you; use the inspiration, focus and promise to fill your life with the gifts this earth sign offers.

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Rhyme and Create a Ripple Effect of Healing – Begin Today and Give it Feeling.

by admin on April 19, 2012

 

When we reflect on our personal truth and passionately express them about issues that question ethics, society or politics, as well as personal human emotions and pain,by creating words that have rhythm, like a song or a rhyme, we can inspire a ripple effect of healing in society.  Creative work that deals with deeply emotional issues helps both the creator to process and heal pain while the finished work is able to help others heal; this is the ripple effect of healing. When a creative expression is exposed in a specific culture or in the world, an artist has the ability to participate in changing and healing the culture or the world community.

 

Everyone is an artist and each person can affect their own healing as well as the world communities healing. It’s a natural ability born in each of us and the only thing preventing creative expression is fear. The joy and healing that creativity is easy to see when you watch children making up their own songs and rhymes. It’s funny that we often think of fear as ‘childish’ but in fact, children are naturally fearless about their expression – and much more courageous than adults to just let go of our basic predictable 3 dimensional world.

 

Fear has been conditioned into many people around expressing their individuality from an early age as adults teach and train them to fit in and be quiet, to protect them. But in the end, it has, instead limited lives and stunted spiritual growth. The healing power of creativity comes from the spiritual connection the process initiates. You can enjoy the benefits of creativity and the healing this process delivers without changing your job, schedule or getting a musical instrument. You can begin this today by rhyming.

Rhyming is fun to do and heals you too.

Go into your heart and let the fun start.

Deep thoughts are deep inside of you

Some are joy and others are blue.

Find words that come from your heart.

Let them rhyme so healing can start.

 

Rhyming is as natural to us as feeling and breathing. It is a way we create something ‘real’ from our biological and emotional rhythms. It is the same language we use to describe our dreams or sing in our songs. Rhymes lighten the weight of painful emotions because it involves personal reflection of pain or an event that leads to pain. Acknowledging it is the first step, adding a rhyme to it can make these feelings lighter and then lead to healing. Children process all kinds of fears in the rhymes we teach them as well as the ones they create themselves.

Can you create a rhyme today about something that inspires an emotion – the news, your job, the new moon, your new shoes, or the spring season?

My dog likes to play; he does it all day…When I go away; he begs me to stay…

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Health and Trust, Love and Beauty are Gifts from a Live Oak Tree

by admin on April 13, 2012

The first sight of a live oak tree captured my heart,  the feelings still linger from the moment I saw the giant angel oak draping Spanish moss, I was drawn in by its long sprawling limbs and reaching roots. I was captive to the sight of their long branches as they formed arches along the roads, the moss dangling in soft hues of sage woven with sun and stardust. So much so that I moved from my bustling world in the northeast to the slow and gracious south – just to be near them.

Then one day a personal situation demanded drastic solutions. I could no longer trust the people or place I came to know under the live oak trees.  Once again, I set out to find the truth and a way to live with love, trust, passion and beauty.

Still now, the first live oak sighting is fresh in my heart after more than 20 years. I live near live oaks of a different sort here in southern California. Though they are without lacey moss I feel the same energy – healing, safe and knowing. The haunting has been transformed into a calling with whispers that p

Safety and trust, love and beauty - Are gifts from the healing tree

Safety and trust, love and Beauty - these are mine from the oak tree.

roved to be healing. In the end, the live oak trees have proven to be my Bodhi tree, my tree of life.

 

Beneath the arms of an oak tree,

Standing still my heart and soul free,

I look up to the lacey sage moss.

My hands to heart- glad to be boss!

It took many trees through the years

For me to learn to let go of my fears.

Trees are healing for all here and now;

Find one to live by and you’ll know how.

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