I just came from San Diego where I attended High Performance Academy seminar by Brandon Burchard… A four day intensive training on how to be a high performer in all areas of your life… It was such an amazing experience! I am a firm believer in the importance of investing in our self-development, learning and growth and this was one of my best investment ever!
 
The 2 things that struck me the most were the training slogans that kept repeating over and over again:
 
“Honor the Struggle” & “Bring the Joy”
 
Life is a struggle… no one can deny that… at any point of our life we face some form of challenge… be it physical, emotional or spiritual… It’s always there… it is there to teach us something… to help us grow… If we are not challenged, we stagnate… and if we fall into the victimhood and helplessness mentality, we’ll fail to grab the wisdom, the message sent our way… It will keep repeating over and over again… it will resurface in our life in different shapes and forms until we get it… and when we finally “get it”, it will be time for the next lesson, the next challenge… This is life!
 
This is why we need to “Honor the Struggle”… If we want to grow, spread our wings and make a change in our life and in the life of others, we need to honor that the struggle is an integral part of the package… We have to honor the struggle and even crave it as without it we won’t grow, we won’t learn, we won’t advance…
 
Yet, to be able to tolerate the journey with all its struggles, challenges and sometimes sufferings, we need to “Bring the Joy”… We need to restore this child wonder inside us, we need to play, jump, dance, and enjoy every moment along the way!
 
Don’t wait until you reach the final destination or your end goal in order for you to celebrate… celebrate every tiny win, every baby achievement along the way… add fun to the experience, smile at your challenges, put some music on and dance with excitement…

Celebrate and enjoy, even if your joints still hurt a bit, your back still aches, your bills are still piling up, your toddler still cries or your road still seems foggy…

Look for beauty everywhere around you and you will sure find it… challenge yourself to find it in every corner, in every experience, in every person you meet… Keep smiling all the way… Don’t wait for ‘something’ or ‘someone’ to make you happy, generate happiness from within… As Brandon Burchard teaches: "the power plant doesn't have energy, it generates energy!" 

So, whatever you do, keep smiling and keep on keeping on!
 
You’re so much loved!

It's tough to wake up in the morning while not knowing which day awaits you… what does life have in stores for you? But, isn’t this the norm?

Don’t we get so used to our everyday blessings that we take them for granted…. We wake up expecting our eyes to see, our limbs to move, our heart to regularly beat, our stomach to digest whatever we throw in there, our kids to behave, our fridge to function, our car to start… it is all there for us everyday… so we get used to the luxury… yes, this is luxury… life is not that easy for many or even for most of people…

I am not in anyway suggesting that we swallow our pains and frustrations or burry them under a pile of bitter sweet gratitude… Not at all… instead, may be we should also expect the best out of our challenging situation… expect our boss to give us that raise, our CV to land in the right hands, our spouse to be in a good mood, our bills to wait until the pay check arrives, our teenage boy to study, our pains to ease and those extra pounds to melt… We should expect the best, {!firstname_fix}!

Let’s all try it for the next week! Let's wake up with a smile and an open heart full of enthusiasm, love and peace…

Let's wake up expecting the best out of life... But, most importantly let's detach from any specific way or form in which this ‘best’ should appear in your life.

The moment we get attached to specific outcome or result, we become disempowered... we lose control and face our human limitations... 

Instead, let's train our minds to see the blessing in every crisis, the opportunity in every challenge, the beauty in every alley and the light in every dark tunnel... this is not a pollyanish view to life... this is the law of nature... The Divine order

Let's trust in this Divine order... This Divine perfection... Let's trust that 'the best' will come our way in the exact time, shape and form it is designed to... let's trust the process, enjoy the journey and learn the valuable lessons along the way...

And, as Napolian Hill wrote in his book Think and Grow Rich: "Don't look for opportunities in the far distances of space and time, but embrace them right where you are, because where you are already has the perfection and the balance"

out Have a blessed week!

​A friend asked me a question lately:

​“I used to be a very creative person" she said, "my mind would storm with 100s of ideas, pictures and stories all the time… When I read a book, watch a movie or attend a seminar, I got so inspired and generated so many ideas, things to do, blogs to write, music to compose… Where did all this go? My mind feels so empty now… why don’t I get those inspiring thoughts any longer?”
 
I knew exactly what she was talking about… my mind works exactly the same… a highly creative mind that doesn’t seem to rest… it keeps generating more and more and even more… that is until it just abruptly stops… suddenly, no more ideas, no more stories… totally deserted like a ghost town… empty… lonely… and, scary!
 
If I go back to those ‘ghost town’ moments, I can see that they appear on either one of two cases:

• My life is going so well, I am happy, fulfilled, everything is going just fine;

 
Or,

• I am facing a life-devastating challenge, illness, loss, failure, grief or pain.

 
What is common between those two cases is that in both the emotions are so strong that they overwhelm my whole life and take over my thinking… Positive or negative emotions alike!
 
When I am happy and fulfilled, life is so good I just live and flow with the days… the awareness of little things, of the very moment that we live in gets lost in the process… Sometimes happy moments make us forget our true life mission and meaning… Enjoying our happiness is a must of course… nothing is wrong with that. But letting those moments pass us by without savouring our blessings, without feeling the gratitude, inspiration, lessons and wisdoms within them is not how it was meant to be.
 
The same goes for challenging and stressful moments… sometimes our suffering, pain or loss are so tough that we find ourselves immersed up to our ears and we let them suck away our joys… yes, there must be joys… there sure are… in everyday life… in every moment… it could be as little as a growing dandelion in the sidewalk crack or the smile of a child or the chippering of a bird… the Divine mercy is there all around us at all time and He sends us messages of relief and blessings everyday… We just need to be aware not to miss them…
 
This is the reminder of the timeless verse again: “So that you do not fall into despair over what has escaped you, nor over exult over what you have been given” (57:23)

We are not asked to supress our joy or avoid pleasures, nor are we expected to never experience sadness, frustration, anger or pain.
A balanced life lays in the middle ground between heedless indulgence and meaningless suffering… Neither is meant to stay forever… Both are lessons and trials… both are here to teach us something… both are here to help us grow.
 
Enjoy your blessings, experience pleasures, excitement and happiness and express your emotions of sadness, fear or grief. We are human after all… All we need to remember here is AWARENESS! This is the key to a creative mind… Live fully, savor everyday and every moment, keep your Big Picture, your ‘Why?’ always in sight…
 
But, how? How do we restore those moments of awareness, those moments of mindfulness and inspiration?
The answer is inside you…
Slow down
Press the pause button
Breathe
& Listen…
 
Your heart knows the answer… it will tell you if you only LISTEN!

Herbs are magic healers… but they do not work like pharmaceutical medications… for them to do their magic they need time, they need patience, they need consistency… They need to be part of your everyday life… they need to be integrated into your everyday cooking…
 
Most people I meet underestimate the power of their kitchen herbs… this is because they basically expect the herbs to work like pharmaceuticals… they expect their symptoms to vanish with 1 or 2 ‘doses’… Unfortunately herbs do not work this way… herbs heal your body from inside out…
 
I can’t say that taking an herbal tea or an infusion can deal with a fever or joints aches for instance as quick as an NSAID or cortisol tablet. No they don’t. Herbal remedies and natural healing in general do not tackle the symptoms as much as they deal with the root cause to achieve total body healing and this takes some time to restore your health, your energy, strengthen your power to fight disease, heal your wound or turn off the inflammation furnace…
 
Many people find it easier to swallow a pill or pop up a capsule than rest and take some hot broth or tea. It’s your choice certainly. Sometimes we need it to be fast to control our symptoms or ease our pains, but we still need to work on the healing power of the body… And, here comes the magic of our kitchen herbs…
 
By adding herbs to your daily life, I certainly don’t mean the sprinkle of oregano hidden under the pile mozzarella  on your pizza or the spring of parsley that decorate your dinner steak… For them to work you need way more than that… Here are my 5 most essential ways to add herbs to your daily diet:

• Herbal teas like Peppermint, caraway, and anise are great for your digestion. They help with gas and bloating, abdominal spasms and irritable bowel.
• Cinnamon tea is great anti-microbial, warming, anti-spasmodic and blood-sugar regulating.
• Lemon balm tea is calming and mood lifting.
• Passionflower, lavender and chamomile help you sleep smoothly.
• Sage is great for your memory and helps reduce night sweat and hot flashes in menopause
• Fennel is great for both your digestion and respiration. It also helps balancing female hormones
• Thyme and linden are great for the lung and respiratory problems.

You can also have cold herbal teas:

• Liquorice soothes the digestive tract, raises low blood pressure, and reduces inflammation in the body.
• Sumac is great for inflammation and for urinary tract disorders.
• Hibiscus lowers high blood pressure.

To prepare herbal vinegar
Add 1 to 4 ounce of herb (30-120 g) to 8 ounce (240 ml) apple cider vinegar. Steep for 2-6 weeks, then filter and store in dark container at room temp.
 
Some great herb vinegars to experiment with are:
 

• Sage vinegar. Sage is a good anti-microbial and has regulating effect on the sweat glands so it is very effective for night sweats and excessive perspiration.
• Thyme, oregano, marjoram are digestive aid and appetite stimulant.  They are also great anti-microbial especially for respiratory tract issues.
• Nettles vinegar is very rich in minerals like iron, which is good for your blood. It is also rich in calcium, which is good for your bones and teeth.
• Garlic is a known anti-microbial, immune booster and cardiovascular support.

​

• Cumin, kumbo seaweed, garlic and onions can be added to the boiling water when preparing beans, legume and lentils.
• Cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg make good addition to rice especially wild and brown basmati rice.
• Basil, thyme, oregano, and peppermint can be added to pasta sauces
• Lemon grass, rosemary, and tarragon go well with stir fried vegetables.

 

​
These are just few ways you can integrate herbs in your everyday life… start experimenting, be creative, try new recipes… the sky is the limit… the more you add them the better your food will taste and the more healthful it gets.
 
Bon Appetite

Life doesn’t always run smoothly. Sometimes you feel like it’s tough to even get out of bed in the morning. But, hibernating or escaping do not make our troubles disappear. They do not mend our broken hearts, pay our bills, restore our self-esteem, or fix our severed relationships... 
The answer is not in hiding… the answer is in keeping the momentum…

​Let' learn to say 'No' to all the temptations of empty foods and colorful toxins... Let's give our body the honor it deserves...