Soaking up the Gratitude~

Again, I am soon to further my education of health and wellness.  I have an associates degree in healthcare administration; an area that I was warmly interested in for several years.  What interested me most about the potential of the career were the people.  After experiencing the world with grown-up eyes and tastebuds I have realized I am not so much interested in the institution of health as I am the embodiment of it.  So, because people are still what interest me most, I intend to become a fully certified, accredited and employable Health and Wellness Coach.

When we first married, my husband and I negotiated our relationship responsibilities and expectations of each other.  I was eager to be the home-maker, navy spouse and he was proud to be the provider.  Raising the children has been very rewarding for the past 13 years, but now, with our youngest reaching 3rd grade and a babysitter, ehr, I mean 12 year old in the house, my job is far less consuming than it used to be.  The chores are theirs, the responsibilities are divided, and a renegotiation of terms is taking place.  I am a mother.  I am a wife.  I lovingly and admirably enjoy my family and the life that surrounds my home.  But here, in these five paragraphs, I feel most passionate about my abilities and what I have to offer to the world.  I have found my purpose!

Looking at my history, my resume, I have always offered advice, care or guidance.  At one time I was a waitress, a job both of my daughters are eager to perform.  Soon after I hung up my apron I donned scrubs at a nursing home to either enhance activities of daily living or deliver seemingly necessary medication.  I have been a really good mother, I feel, nurturing strengths and recognizing weaknesses.  My responsibilities as a Navy spouse have been and continue to be accomplished with consideration and grace, if I do say so myself.  I have accepted my mistakes along the way and have learned from them (i.e, do not spank with wooden spoons, check the oven before turning it on every time, and make sure you know who is awake before embarking on an adult conversation).  It is in my nature to care for others, to offer help, to encourage, to assist, to solve the problems of the universe, to love.  I intend to utilize my past experience, my current abilities and my future education to help others claim their own health and be well~

Looking to my future, I feel I will be a more balanced portion of my focus, as I probably should have been all along.  To quote a metaphor from The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck, M.D., "If one wants to climb mountains one must have a good base camp, a place where there are shelters and provisions, where one may receive nurture and rest before one ventures fourth again to seek another summit."  I have spent much time tending to my base camp while others have departed for summits, conquered them and returned.  I need to trust that it is stocked, ready and stable once more, for it is now time for my own venture, my own mountain!

You, dear readers, have empowered me.  You have asked my advice and read my work with acceptance and with interest.  Thank you for trusting my education and suggestions and returning to devour more food for thought each and every time I offer it.  While you soak up my gratitude, find a real, delicious food, pair it with plenty of water, and, if need be, give your vitamins their vitamins.  But before you do, remember to wash your hands!  I will see you here Monday~

Anna~

In the words of Elizabeth Gilbert, "I am a better person when I have less on my plate."

We are now half way through September.  Pumpkins and apples are filling supermarket shelves, leaves are beginning to turn on us in the north, busses are clogging the streets and evenings are coming closer to the dawn of the day.  Sweater weather is just around the corner for fall is ten days away.

I don't know about you, but fall is my favorite season; not only because of warm socks, cool air and beautiful sunsets, but because of the food~  Apple pie, pumpkin bread, roast squash and sweet potatoes, onion soup, garlic and sausage pasta, corn chowder, lasagna, sage roast chicken, rosemary roast pork, beef wellington, baked fish over wild rice, turkey with all the fixin's... warm, aromatic, sweet and savory foods that nourish the body and the soul.  Can a food be better received by the body if we feel love for the food we eat?

Let's go back to stress for a minute.  Stress, as you recall, is a reaction that happens within the brain; a reaction do danger or threat; a total body response committed to 'fight or flight'.  The brain tells the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline which spikes heart rate, increases blood pressure, and spikes blood sugar.  The hypothalamus tells the pituitary gland to signal the adrenal cortex to produce the stress hormone cortisol which maintains high blood sugar and blood pressure until the brain signals the danger has past or the threat is no longer.   Anyone can become unknowingly addicted to stress because of the rush, the surge of blood sugar and the high from adrenaline.  Ultimately, after the blood sugar surge, blood sugar plummets signaling a ravenous craving for food.

What does that have to do with the nourishment of soul food?  Food that we feel nostalgic about offers the opposite of stress.  Within the pie is a memory of mom rolling out the dough or your younger self splashing sugar on the apples;  a fond connection to the food occurs which produces a plethora of happy hormones; serotonin, phenylethamine and ghrelin to mane a few.  Happy hormones signal hunger, slow the heart rate, reduce pain, clear the mind, and allow us to perceive our surroundings as safe.  The feelings 'safety' and 'content' cause the body to relax, requiring less energy, less fuel, less food.  The memory is nourishing.  Happiness is nourishing.  Safety is nourishing.  If we are nourished by our surroundings and our perception of the world and our connection to it, food becomes less the main course and more the condiment to the meal.  

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.” (Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast).  I am sure he remembered to wash his hands.

Anna~

Intent

September brings children back to school, color to the leaves, cool to the water, depth to the sunset and soup to the table.  It is a month covered in crafts because of an empty house.  A month captured in photographs of fresh starts and late evenings.  A month filled with ambition evident on every campus and courtyard and in every cafe and coffee shop.  September is the beginning of fall.  The end of summer.  A physical and transformative month of change.  Reader, let's follow September's example!


Recently I read a book full of suggestions on how to take responsibility for my own situation.  I was taken a back a bit by the notion that I was/am/will be to blame for my own circumstances (good or bad).  My problems are my problems.  I am responsible for where I am-   if I am unwilling to take responsibility than I am essentially giving away all of the power I would otherwise put toward finding a solution to my problems.  After all of this smoldered a bit, I started to hear all of the moments where I have given away my power:  "I'll wait until Monday."  "When I'm feeling stronger."  "After I know what 'they' think."  "It's my fault."  "I should have, would have, could have if..."  I realize, just as I find beauty in the changing season and welcome a different sense of surroundings, so can I find comfort in intentionally changing my own actions, moments of decision and efforts of consideration.  

A few weeks ago I lamented my thoughts on getting back into 'section x' of the closet.  In that post I stated, "The best way to define 'the thing' you would love to do is to sit down and think of a time in your past when you felt productive, happy, challenged, healthy, and empowered.  If you have already felt those feelings about an activity or lifestyle in the past, you can and are able to rediscover those same achievements in your future."  As we grow, we change and adapt to each situation that affects our own lives.  We adopt a new behavior here, shed a piece of ourselves there.  Waffle on a decision here, share a responsibility there.  We become a different version of the selves we know as our fundamental self.  I find in times of reflection and identification I am generally happy with the version of self that I have become.  At the same time I find I need to be more effective at owning my definition and identity with intention.  Doesn't that sound healthy?  Being intent? 

The seasons change not because of intention but because they are cyclical.  Automatic.  Expected.  Anticipated, even.  Enjoying the ever-changing yet steady world around us is comfortable, but living and loving in health should be intentional.  Purposeful.  A direct result of the decisions that we have made based on an education derived from past decisions whether they were successful or not.  Waiting for the same old decisions to feel different because of a seasonal or cyclical environmental change isn't intention, it's inaction.  Making a choice based on the fact that "I have always ......" is the exact opposite of making a decision.  Intention is defined as both 'a thing intended; an aim or a plan', and 'the healing process of a wound'.  Yes, that sounds healthy.  Intent.


Eat real food.  Drink plenty of water.  Give your vitamins their vitamins and remember to wash your hands.  And, for a change, be intent.  


Anna~