lauragordonlifecoach – www.LGLifecoach.com

Learn to Create Your Best Life Through the Art of Managing Energy

Quantum physics tells us that everything in the universe is made up of energy. What differentiates a boulder from a flower is the different vibrational frequencies of their energies. Intangibles such as thoughts, words and feelings also have their own unique energies and vibrational frequencies. This fundamental universal law is the key to building your best life.

We have all experienced this. Have you ever seen a movie that had a very heavy, tragic theme and then you notice that the heavy energy of that film sticks with you for hours or even days? Do you have a certain friend that you always pick up the phone and call when you are having a bad day because you know you can count on them to make you laugh and help lift you into a better mental space? That is the kind of energy we are talking about here. It is real, and you can feel it affect your mood, thoughts and emotions.

One of my favorite illustrations of this concept is the work of Masaru Emoto. His well-known experiments with water crystals are a fantastic visual example of these intangible energies. For a quick introduction to his work, I like to refer my clients to his children’s book, which provides a beautiful overview in just 20 illustrated pages. You can access that book at this URL (which is much better viewed on a big screen): https://www.slideshare.net/lindsaylovebottle/the-childrens-book-pdf-presentation.

In his book: The Message From Water, he states that, “spoken words have vibration”. Then he goes on to demonstrate how both the spoken and the written word can alter the crystalline structures in the water. This connection between human consciousness and the ability to affect matter was also covered extensively in the documentaries: The Secret, What the Bleep Do We Know!?, and I Am. I highly recommend all three of those films.

These works clearly demonstrate the power of thoughts and words. When someone is going through a hard time, we often say, “My thoughts and prayers are with you”. Even if you are an atheist, you can send positive words and thoughts to a person who is dealing with a traumatic event and it does help; it does make a difference. The references that I have listed clearly demonstrate that fact.

When we become aware of how powerful words are and the impact they have on those around us, it raises the bar on our responsibility to choose our words with care and consciousness. We need to pay better attention to what we say, and make sure it is in alignment with what we want to create. Do we put others or ourselves down with labels such as: fat, lazy, scatterbrained, etc.? Watch out for trap phrases like these examples: “That kills me when he does that”, “I’ll buy that today and worry about where the money is coming from later”, or “That will kill two birds with one stone”. Take a closer look at the words in those phrases. We think we are just illustrating a point, but what energy do the words “kill” and “worry” carry? Think about cussing. We have become a society where curse words filter into our ordinary conversations with great regularity. It’s interesting to consider that they were long ago labeled “curse” words. It seems that when that description originated, people were aware of the potency those words carry. Yet now they are used with a frequent disregard for the energy and negative power they wield.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the dampening effects of watching a heavy movie can linger for hours or even days afterwards. Keep this in mind when you make choices about your leisure time activities. Think about your choices for television viewing. If you choose violent action shows, courtroom dramas, boxing matches and medical emergency shows, you are bringing a lot of tension energy into your space. If you finish out each evening with the nightly news, you are taking in a lot of upsetting information just before you plan to get a restful night’s sleep. That is not a good combination. Also consider what messages are expressed in the music you listen to.

We often float through our days on autopilot. We have developed certain habits that we repeat over and over again without question. We speak certain phrases or words without thinking twice about them. If you are ready to create your best life, it is time to step out of the autopilot mode and into conscious living. Watch your words, and know that they have great power. Choose words that generate positivity. Spend your time with people who are uplifting and fun. And choose leisure time activities that raise your vibrational frequency. As you create a better energy space for your own life, know that it also benefits everyone you come into contact with throughout the day. Energy is real, and it is contagious!

Bring the Healing Qualities of Nature Indoors

Plant

How many living houseplants do you have in your home or office? If your answer is zero, you are missing out on an important opportunity to improve your health and raise the vibrational frequency of your space.

According to an EPA study, “Americans, on average, spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors, where the concentrations of some pollutants are often 2 to 5 times higher than typical outdoor concentrations.”

Many things contribute to indoor air pollution: mold, flame retardants and other chemicals added to furniture and mattresses, paints, stains, formaldehyde used in pressed wood products, household cleaners, personal care products (such as hair sprays, nail polishes, etc.), carpets are treated with stain resisting chemicals, and so much more.

Household plants are a natural air filter for your indoor environments. They help to reduce the harmful irritants in your air. While they are not a total solution, they are definitely a helpful tool to utilize when you are actively working to improve your air quality. Plants also increase the amount of oxygen in the room. This can help to increase mental alertness during the day and improve your sleep quality at night.

Feng Shui is the Chinese art of placement, which focuses on improving the Chi (life force) in an environment. Living plants are great enhancers of a room’s Chi. It is important to note that keeping plants in your home after they have died has the opposite effect and can significantly reduce the life force of your space. So it is important to give plants attention and care to keep them thriving, and to swiftly remove plants that have died.

Many people feel that they do not have a green thumb and that it is pointless to try growing anything. It doesn’t need to be such a daunting task. First, you have to choose your plants wisely (with the help of an informed nursery employee). Make sure you buy a plant that is compatible to the amount of light your space provides. There are plenty of plants that grow in all categories of light (low, medium and bright). Second, look for plants that require watering once a week. High maintenance plants that require frequent watering are not a good choice for those who are not interested in gardening. Finally, consider purchasing self-watering pots for your plants. It is more expensive in the upfront costs, but it may save you money and stress in the long run.

For weekly watering, it is best to pick a specific time each week when you know you are usually at home (or at the office). Set a calendar reminder to go off each week to prompt you. If you have problems with either over or under watering even when you do remember the task, then the self-watering pots are your best choice. The brand that I like to use is Tournesol. They don’t sell directly to consumers, but you can look up on their website “Where to buy”. Typically, you only need to fill the reservoir in the pot every two weeks. The technology allows the plant to draw the water as needed which completely avoids the over/under watering problem. I have had plants live as long as 10 years in these pots.

And besides all of that…plants add beauty to your space!

Laura Gordon is a certified life and wellness coach and a member of the Medical Medium Practitioner Support Service.  She is not a physician and is not trained in any way to provide medical diagnosis, medical treatment, psychotherapy, or any other type of medical advice.  Product links are provided for your convenience. Laura Gordon is not affiliated with these companies, nor does she receive any commissions for providing these links.

Water – The Elixir of Life

lemon water take 2

When it comes to glowing health, proper hydration is an absolute key! If our bodies are not properly hydrated, it can cause or aggravate so many issues. Common symptoms of dehydration include: fatigue, pain, poor digestion, brain fog, constipation, gallstones, kidney stones, depression, anxiety, high blood pressure and much more. The vast majority of the population is severely dehydrated. Consider this…when you check into a hospital with any serious condition, what is one of the first things they do for you? They hook you up to an IV in order to hydrate your body. Just being on the IV alone, usually begins to alleviate whatever symptoms the patient is experiencing.

In some ways, it’s a shame that food and drink have such a pleasure aspect to them. The sights, smells and tastes are very alluring. When you think about it, food and drink are necessary to provide proper fuel and nutrients for the body. The enjoyment factor is secondary. Yet for most people, the flavor is the primary motivator when making choices for what to consume. If our automobiles don’t have the proper fluids, the engine will seize up and fail to run. When our bodies don’t have the proper fluids, they develop all kinds of stress symptoms as mentioned above.

The challenge these days is to find truly pure water. Tap water is treated with chlorine or similar chemicals in order to destroy the harmful bacteria that could make people sick. The problem is that the chemicals used to treat the water are left behind as well as many other toxins that the chemicals do not destroy. The Environmental Working Group recently completed a massive study of the tap water across the United States and has published the results on its website. You can access that report here to look up the results for your area. Many water companies are also adding fluoride to the water supply. The misguided theory is that this helps to prevent tooth decay. The truth is that the fluoride added is a poison, a hazardous waste byproduct. I encourage you to do your own research on this matter if you are not familiar with the facts. The EWG.org website lists fluoride as a contaminant that can harm teeth, bones, and can raise the risk of bone cancer.

You also cannot assume that bottled water is pure. Many bottled water companies filter water that has had fluoride added, but they do not filter it out. You will find a list of bottled water that contains fluoride here. In addition, bottled water that is packaged in the very thin plastic is prone to leaching a lot of toxins from the bottle itself. Never drink from a plastic bottle that has been heated up (in a hot car or from sitting out in the sun), as the heat will also draw toxins from the plastic into the water.

The best option is to obtain a high quality water filter for your home and carry your water in reusable glass containers. For the bottles, find a brand that has a protective sleeve on it to prevent breakage such as those made by Lifefactory. And for the best water filter, I trust the brand recommended by Anthony William, Medical Medium which is the Berkey water filter. If you live in an area that has fluoridated water, look under: “Specialty Filters” on the Berkey site for an add on filter you can purchase with the regular system.

Proper hydration involves more than simply drinking more water. Because all of our drinking water has to be processed and filtered, it loses some of its natural life force in the process. Hundreds of years ago, the water from a pure mountain spring was the perfect source of hydration. Today, we need to add prana back into the water. As Anthony William explains in his book: Medical Medium – Secrets Behind Chronic and Mystery Illness and How to Finally Heal, the best way to bring your drinking water back to life is to add a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime to your drinking water. This simple trick enables all of the cells in your body to absorb the water. If you have ever had the experience of feeling very dehydrated, but no matter how much water you drink, you don’t feel satisfied. That is because water without the squeeze of fresh citrus, is not being absorbed properly by the body.

Unfiltered tap water (with its chlorine content), sodas, coffee, caffeinated teas and alcohol all dehydrate the body. How much of your day is spent consuming these items? Every time you consume a beverage from this list, you need to consume a lot of living water just to offset that, and then you still haven’t made progress towards hydrating your body for that day.

If you want to make one simple change to improve your health, try to focus on improving your hydration. You will likely notice an improvement in how you feel!

Laura Gordon is a certified life and wellness coach and a member of the Medical Medium Practitioner Support Service.  She is not a physician and is not trained in any way to provide medical diagnosis, medical treatment, psychotherapy, or any other type of medical advice.  Product links are provided for your convenience. Laura Gordon is not affiliated with these companies, nor does she receive any commissions for providing these links.

Nutritional Health – What Should We Believe?

MM books

If you do much reading in the world of nutritional health, you are well aware of how confusing it is to decipher what is the truth and what is a misguided notion. Fads come and go. Scientific studies seem to hold the greatest authority on the subject in the minds of the public. One day we are told the key is to eat low fat and high carb diets. The next day we hear that all of that theory is incorrect and we should eat high fat and low carb diets. We are told all fruits and vegetables are good for us. Next we hear that fruit has too much sugar and that nightshades and cruciferous vegetables can be detrimental to your health. Who has time to read all of these conflicting studies and theories and figure out the truth about how to stay healthy in our modern day world?

Here are a few of the problems with the information that is sold as facts in the nutrition world: Scientific studies cost a lot of money and need to be funded by someone. Most studies are funded by an entity that has a strong financial gain at stake and the results are often biased by a hidden agenda that has nothing to do with people’s best interests. People are very susceptible to common public opinion. They feel a lot of pressure to conform to the standard accepted philosophy of the day. This pressure is also felt by the medical field professionals and the so called health experts who provide lots of health advice online while also selling you a lot of their own products. Everyone has a right to make a living. But sometimes the lines get blurred between profits and watching out for the best solutions for public health.

In November of 2015, a new book was released on the market that changed everything! I discovered this book in May of 2016, and it has been a total game-changer for me. The book is called: Medical Medium – Secrets Behind Chronic and Mystery Illness and How to Finally Heal by Anthony William. The information that is presented in this book is decades ahead of its time. There are not scientific studies to verify the information (but we already discussed why those studies are often suspect). When I read this book, it resonated deeply within me, and I knew that it was the truth. However, because I wanted to be entirely sure before presenting the information to my clients, I created my own little test group of friends and family who were interested in trying out the protocols for their various health issues. I share a few of their health stories and successes here.

Since reading that first book, Anthony has published two more books that are equally amazing in their content: Life-Changing Foods and Thyroid Healing. I also became a member of the Medical Medium Practitioner Support Service. We are a group of a little less than 300 health practitioners from around the world who support each other by sharing our experiences and questions for our individual clients. In our group we have doctors, nurses, naturopaths, chiropractors, nutritionists, health coaches, etc. We all apply the Medical Medium protocols in our work and we have witnessed miraculous results along the way. Our clients have been successfully reversing conditions that were deemed incurable by the western medicine doctors.

If you are looking for answers to your health questions and are confused by all of the differing studies out there, I highly encourage you to visit Anthony William’s website and purchase one or all of his books: www.medicalmedium.com. Besides his books, Anthony has written a huge volume of blog posts, he does a weekly radio show, and he offers other bits of information through The Healing Path (on his website), all for free. He is all about sharing the truth so that people can finally heal.

I wish you health and happiness on your journey!

Laura Gordon is a certified life and wellness coach and a member of the Medical Medium Practitioner Support Service.  She is not a physician and is not trained in any way to provide medical diagnosis, medical treatment, psychotherapy, or any other type of medical advice.

Lend a Helping Hand

Helping hand

One of the most gratifying things we can do with our time is volunteering to help another. There are so many benefits you will derive when you become a volunteer: It feels great to make someone else’s life a little brighter. It’s food for the soul. It is an opportunity to use your own gifts and talents in ways that you may not be able to express in your regular job. Being appreciated for all that you do is very uplifting. When you see other people’s challenges, it really helps to put your own life and problems into perspective. And, it fulfills the basic human need to know that you have made a difference in the world, that you will be remembered for doing something that truly mattered.

The first thing you need to do is decide what you have a passion for or what special talents you have that you could utilize in helping others. There are lots of volunteer opportunities through non-profit organizations such as working with hospice, a women’s shelter, a homeless shelter or food bank, animal rescue centers, etc. Figure out what cause calls to you the most. Do you like working with children, animals, the elderly, out in nature? It doesn’t matter whether you can donate your time weekly, monthly, or only a few times a year. It all counts.

Volunteering to help others doesn’t have to be through an organized agency. Maybe you have someone in your own neighborhood who is in need. You could visit a homebound neighbor and just sit and have a conversation with them. You could offer to cook a meal for someone who is going through a hard time. You could offer free babysitting help to a frazzled single parent on your street. The possibilities are endless.

Even if you are at a point in your life where you don’t have a moment to spare, you can still get into the spirit of giving in ways that don’t take any time at all. Never underestimate the gift of treating people with kindness, or the power of a smile. You can make someone’s day with the smallest of gestures. In some cases, it might be the only kind-heartedness they experience that day.

One of my passions is helping children. For a few years I volunteered at a local children’s shelter one morning a week. One day, a new little boy who was about 4 years old arrived at the shelter. The shelter kept clothes in various sizes for all of the children who were housed there, but they didn’t supply shoes. The children would just have whatever pair they had on when they arrived. This particular little boy, I will call Timmy, had tennis shoes with laces that had been broken in many places and then they were knotted back together. They had become so short from all of the knots that they no longer could lace through all of the holes. As a result, whenever he tried to run and play with the other children, he kept stepping right out of his shoes and had to stop and slide them back on. I made a mental note to pick up a new pair of shoelaces at the store that week.

Sure enough, when I returned a week later for my shift, Timmy’s shoes were still in that dilapidated state. I called him over to me and had him sit down and take off his shoes so that I could string his new shoelaces for him. His eyes just kept getting wider and wider as I worked on his shoes. He asked me where I got the laces, and I told him I picked them up at the store for him. Once I had the shoes laced up and back on his feet, I told him that now he could run and play with the kids and not worry about losing his shoes. He looked up at me with a huge smile and said, “I love you!”, and ran off to play. The shoelaces only cost a dollar or two. But the impact they had on that little boy’s day was priceless! It truly is better to give than to receive!

Time Flies!

enoch-hsiao-91425

Where does the time go each day!? You probably start each day with the best of intentions and plans of what you will accomplish before the time you call it a night. It seems reasonable and achievable. Then why is it that we often fall short of our daily goals and end the day on the frustrated note of unaccomplished tasks and a longer to do list for tomorrow?

To answer that question, we need to take a few steps back. To begin with, make a list of all of the categories that are important to you to include in your life: earning a living, exercise, time with family, social activities with friends, travel, volunteer time, and so on. When you have completed your list, rank them in order of priority.

The next step is a bit tedious, but is essential to the issue at hand. For the next 3 days, carry a small notebook with you wherever you go (or this could be an electronic notepad on your phone). Write down everything you do, and how long you spend doing it. Even tasks that only last a few minutes should be recorded. At the end of the 3 days, you can then figure out an average of how much time you spend each day on any given event. For example, add up all of the minutes spent watching television over the 3 days and then divide that number by 3. That will give you your average daily time spent watching TV. Once you have computed all of your daily averages, compare that list to your list of priorities that you made for the first part of this exercise. You may be quite surprised at how much your actions do not align with your personal intentions.

Now you have the information you need to make adjustments. Where is time being wasted each day on activities that don’t rank high on your priority list? How can you expand your time spent on preferred activities? It is usually quite surprising to people to see the reality of their time allocations versus what they would estimate as true.

This is a crucial first step to effective time management. Knowledge is power. Knowing where your time actually goes is essential in order to make good decisions and changes. Use this information to begin to structure your days according to your own plan rather than just reacting to life’s distractions and falling into routines and habits that are actually draining your energy. When our daily activities align with our objectives, we will feel like we are in the flow, energized and engaged.

Give it a try! In doing so, you will give yourself the gift of more time!

Photo by Enoch Hsiao on Unsplash

Walking Meditation

This is one of my favorite ways to reduce stress and reconnect with my own inner compass. It is an especially helpful tool for people who can’t do the traditional types of meditating that involve closing the eyes and trying to clear the mind. In our modern day, fast paced world we are living in, slowing down the mind is a near impossibility for most people. I recommend trying this method out a minimum of two days per week to help balance out the craziness of life.

Find a spot in nature where you can walk for 45-90 minutes (if your health allows). The farther removed from traffic, buildings, and such, the better. Walking on a beach, on hiking trails in the mountains, in a beautiful park, whatever is available to you where you live is the goal. Ideally, if it is safe, you would walk completely alone. Walking with a dog or companion is fine. But if a friend accompanies you, it is important that you both be on the same page, and you agree that there will be no talking on the walk. Set your phone to airplane mode. Even if you vow not to look at your phone during the walk, when you feel or hear messages coming in, it will distract your mind to wondering who it is from and whether it was important.

As you begin your walk, you will likely be in distracted mode. You will be partially aware of your surroundings, and your mind will be spinning with a million thoughts, to-do lists, problems, frustrations, etc. For the first 10 minutes or so, just let that be. Allow your mind to do its ping-ponging back and forth between all of the concerns in your life. Think of your mind like a small child that is demanding your attention. It needs to feel heard and acknowledged. Also notice that these thoughts you are having aren’t new thoughts. They are the same thoughts you’ve been rolling around in your mind for days, weeks, or even months. When you really think about it, having these repetitive thoughts hasn’t resolved your stress. It is just perpetuating it.

After about 10 minutes, tell your mind thank you for keeping track of all of those items for you. Let it know that you are going to disconnect from that endless loop and focus on your surroundings. At this point, you aren’t trying to stop your mind from thinking. You are taking control and creating a new subject matter. Begin to focus on your surroundings. Notice the grasses, plants and trees. Notice any wildlife in the area. How many different colors are in your environment? Are there any clouds in the sky, and what are their shapes? Contemplate the mysteries of nature. As you look at a large tree, you might wonder how many insects, birds and squirrels call that tree their home. As you pass by a spider web woven in the grasses that has the morning dew drops clinging to its threads, you notice the beauty of that creation. Watch a bird soaring overhead and imagine what it would feel like if you could fly like that. Imagine that sense of freedom and what your perspective of the world would be from that vantage point. You get the idea…use your imagination and keep your mind busy with a childlike wonderment of your surroundings.

The combination of the exercise, fresh air, and a sustained break from your normal mental loops create an opportunity for you to release some of the stress you’ve been carrying with you. After practicing this walking meditation for a while, something magical began to happen for me. Towards the last 5-10 minutes of my walk, when my thoughts were starting to return to my normal mental chatter, I would suddenly get a brilliant insight. From out of the blue, I would see one of my problems from a whole new perspective. I would come up with a solution and an action item to finally get that issue off of my list. If you’ve ever had the experience where you’ve wrestled with a problem on your mind all day to no avail. Then, after a good night’s sleep, your first thought upon waking in the morning is the perfect answer you were looking for. This walking meditation has the same effect. Our best insights don’t come from a place of tightness and spinning, they come following a time of release.

Try to include this healthy practice into your weekly routines.

Let’s Begin With the End in Mind

Welcome to my readers of the health blog!

I know there are many different reasons you are here and seeking information in the holistic world of wellness. Whether it is to find answers to health questions for yourself, a friend or a loved one, you are likely not finding all of your solutions in the world of western medicine.

I have spent the better part of the last 3 decades in search of truths in order to manage my health in the best way possible. My journey had an unusual source of inspiration. My dad had his first heart attack at the age of 36, and died from his second heart attack at the age of 37. Both of my husband’s parents died at young ages from cancer. When our daughter was born, we were both concerned about what our families’ health histories would mean for our daughter’s future. It was during these early years of her life that I began dedicating a large portion of my time and energy to study every aspect of holistic health I could devour. It is my deepest passion to discover the truths about how to stay healthy in our modern day world and to share what I have learned with others.

The title to this blog post may strike you as a strange concept. Here’s what I invite you to imagine: What do you envision as the end to your story on this planet? We will all have a conclusion to our life someday. If you were writing the script of your life, how would it end? Take a moment to imagine this scenario. Would you slip away quietly and peacefully in your sleep? Would you be surrounded by loved ones? It’s not a topic we like to spend time thinking about much. But I am challenging you to step out of your comfort zone for a moment and consider the possibilities.

Here is the interesting dichotomy – When we are bringing a new life into this world, there is much planning and preparation that ensues. We take new parenting classes, read lots of books about pregnancies, child birth and care of a newborn. We may hire a doula to support us on this journey. We quiz other parents to gather their best points of wisdom on this topic. We discuss with our partner what our key philosophies and moral beliefs are about raising children. In short, we devote a tremendous amount of time and energy in planning for this momentous occasion.

On the flip side, because it is uncomfortable to think about, most people spend very little time and energy planning for the end of their life. Most believe that it is something that is out of their control, and therefore it is not to be dwelled upon. While it is true that there are some freak accidents that can occur regardless of your health, I would contend that the majority of deaths could be scripted another way.

I have sat by the bedsides of people who have lost their touch of reality with the world due to dementia or Alzheimer’s, and those who have been losing their long and painful battle with cancer. I have witnessed their decline and the loss of independence and dignity that usually accompanies these passages. I would like to write a different ending for myself. I believe that is possible.

Just like we plan and prepare for our children’s births, I believe we can plan and prepare our mental and physical health to carry us through life in a positive and supportive way. It takes education, lifestyle changes, and a rearranging of priorities. You are worth it! In the blog posts to come, we will delve deeper into the concepts of what you can do to write a better ending to your story than those you may have witnessed within your own circle of relationships. It is the best gift you can give to yourself and to your loved ones. I invite you to join me on this journey to mindful living!

Laura Gordon is a certified life and wellness coach and a member of the Medical Medium Practitioner Support Service.  She is not a physician and is not trained in any way to provide medical diagnosis, medical treatment, psychotherapy, or any other type of medical advice.