I have been thinking a lot about the experience of life and how grateful I am for it. I was reading a book by Osho on Saturday and I resonated so much with the message and it got me thinking about things. We each have an opportunity in every moment to open ourselves up to the richness of life. It is available to us in each and every moment of our lives. We interact with our environment on a continual basis…yes, our environment changes but our relationship to our environment can remain the same. We can maintain an air of anticipation no matter where we go…an anticipation of the richness that life will offer us because life is a blank canvas waiting to be written…Life meets us exactly where we are and asks us to willingly participate and offer ourselves up to it. If we offer ourselves up to it, up to life…if we empty our cup, open up to life and say yes I am available to life then our cup is soon overflowing with life’s offering…we then experience the richness of life and are left with a feeling of gratitude…all that is required is a shift in your attitude towards life.

I was riding the bus home today from work and two people were sitting not far from me complaining about the weather and all the snow. I empathize and even identify with their lament somewhat but you really need to embrace what is at the same time. Life is rich in the offering no matter what the weather is like and every moment counts…you need to seize the day! 

It was a somewhat inclement day yesterday but I chose to embrace it and had the best time because of my attitude and approach to the day. I went with my partner up to Nose Hill…we strapped on our snowshoes and embraced the experience of the day…we opened ourselves up to the richness of life. It was quite mild up there which was unusual (the wind is typically fierce but wasn’t too bad either), the hill was enshrouded with fog, the trails were non existent blanketed out by the previous night’s snowfall, there were no tracks to follow so we made our own tracks and trekked across the seemingly bleak landscape.. it was so beautiful…the starkness, the silence, there was nobody for miles, our hearts pumping, feeling how good it felt to move our bodies…

I saw a woman on the horizon jogging into thick fog and seeing her profile contrasted against the ghostly downtown skyscrapers remotely visible behind her was magical to say the least. We were only on our snowshoes just over an hour but what an hour it was. It left us feeling so grateful for the mystical experience of Nose Hill on a Sunday. We will never have the same experience again…we were so in the now and the richness of it. 

The point is these moments are available to all of us on any given day. It is making yourself available to them, truly being present with what is, and reveling in the mesmerizing beauty of what life is and what it offers to you…if you open up to the richness of life…Contemplate this and bring this sentiment into your day and see if it your day does not become more magical to you and then leave me a comment! Even your trip to the grocery store takes on a different hue if you view it through new eyes…

I was honored to teach a one day workshop this past weekend for the MS society. Each participant had MS and some participants were visibly affected (in wheelchairs)…what struck me though was the courage they had in accepting their affliction while being open to new ideas and beliefs that would assist them in creating positive change and the courage with which they shared their own experiences. All the people in the workshop were incredibly open. I was sharing innovative information that required them to have flexible belief systems and an open mind. They all were awake and conscious, in their own process of evaluating their life and wanting to make it better.

One lovely woman in the workshop was lamenting that she wished she had known all this information when she was younger. What I say is you get the information you need at the right time in the right way. Everything in its own time. She was wondering if it was too late to make changes within herself and see the positive benefits. I said it is absolutely not too late to make changes, be empowered and see the positive benefits.

Many people doubt their ability to create positive change in their life…but it is the unwavering belief in your ability to improve your health that tips the balance in your favor. It is never too late to be what you might have been…there is only the present moment and you can make the most of this present moment and then watch it carry forward to influence future events. Don’t lose your momentum! I watched each participant find more of themselves as the day went on…their light started to shine brighter with new growing awareness of possibilities for transformative change.

Have courage to see new possibilities in your life and see unlimited potential in yourself. Know that this is true by your divine birthright! Always believe in your ability to heal – there is no timeline on that. Just because you are getting the information when you are 65 and not in your 20’s does not mean your potential for healing is cut short, rather it means gratitude for receiving the information when you are more open to hearing it and have opened your mind and shattered false paradigms to believe in new possibilities. I say hallelujah to that!

Always see your own beauty, the beauty of your own life path,  the perfect timing of events for you, divine intervention giving you the right information at the right time… always remember, it is never too late to be what you might have been… always be open to dreaming in even more possibilities than you would have ever imagined…thank you to all the lovely participants that came to my workshop…you are loved…

It is a well known fact that we are living in a toxic world. What can we do about it? I talked about reducing exposure to pollutants but what can assist in pulling out toxins from the body? One can’t be ignorant of the dangers lurking in our environment but one also has to be proactive yet not dwell on the negative side of what has gone on before. Each of us is waking up to our own personal responsibility and what we can do as individuals and what we can do as a group. I am going to tell you what food factors support your ability to detoxify and which ones are particularly powerful to ingest.
Green tea can help with the excretion of fat stored toxins; it assists the liver in its mission to clear toxins from the blood helping to lower rates of many different types of cancers along the way. The polyphenols in green tea can pass through the blood-brain barrier and serve as antioxidants to neurons, protecting them from oxidative stress. Other teas assisting with detoxification including rooibos tea which increases glutathione levels in the liver and nettle tea which is high in minerals and alkalinizing at the same time. Matcha tea is very high in antioxidants; just look at how bright and vibrant the color is; it can help great rid of PCB’s. I grew up drinking tea and rarely will you catch me on day where I am not drinking tea. Consuming herbal teas increases your intake of water which helps flush toxins out of your body.

As far as foods that assist with detoxification, the brassica family leads the way. I recommend eating a serving of brassica family daily in the form of broccoli, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, arugula, horseradish, kai-lan (chinese broccoli), turnips, or rutabaga daily if possible. These foods have potent detoxification ability, helping usher pesticides and solvents out of your body. Broccoli sprouts are even more potent so include some in your diet. I advocate making green smoothies to boost your antioxidant levels. You can put broccoli sprouts in your green smoothie to up the antioxidant punch. Many other foods help your body detoxify including brown rice (PCB’s), seaweeds (radiation), miso soup(radiation), onions, garlic, cilantro(metals), turmeric, berries and apples just to name a few.

Our diets give us all the substances we need in order to live in balance with so many pollutants. The trick is to eat a wide variety of colors and indulge frequently. Nine servings of vegetables and fruit (more heavy on the veggies than fruit) is recommended. When you start to feed your body’s cells with the nutrients it requires you will feel energized, you will think more clearly and will be more centered emotionally speaking. Change your diet and you will change your life!