I still call him Bruce!?! Excuse me? The ignorance of some people …

Warning! May contain a bit of a Rant!!

The arrogance of some people to say that they will continue to call Caitlyn Jenner “Bruce”. To me this shows all sorts of disrespect to others and to yourself. It shows me that you not only have low self-esteem but a serious lacking in self-worth. Your statement clearly reflects that you live in a world where you are too scared to be true to yourself and so you seek to keep others down or to pull them down when they stick there head up and try to shine. Your words show that the people around you would not respect any choices that you made, and so because you want to stay being a sheep you mimic those words. Who are you that you feel so threatened by the courage of Caitlyn? Who are you that cannot smile happily and with joy at seeing a person take steps to be the person that they truly are? Why are you so unable to let go of your bitter and twisted views and be the best person that you can be?

I think Caitlyn is a role model for everyone. Not just those of us living with transgender feelings. What a path Caitlyn has wandered? So many decades living within false constraints. I show Caitlyn’s steps to my daughters to say that no matter what the odds are in life you must always be true to yourself. Yes you will be scared, yes you will be frightened, and yes you may lose some people that you thought loved you. All those feelings will be worth it. Once you realise who you are and live true to yourself, good people surround you, you feel empowered, your life has meaning and you discover joy. Living true to yourself brings balance.

A big cheer for Vanity Fair for publishing Caitlyn’s debut on their front cover.

And Caitlyn, I am honoured that I lived at a time that allowed you to find yourself inside and out.

**LoveAndLight**

Just because he’s an A$%hole!

Now I’m not in favour of labelling people, and I think that we should always try to extend loving kindness wherever possible, but on Monday I met an a$%hole. He was employed by a tradie and sent to my house to do some preparatory manual labour. Long story short, his behaviour was appalling and I refused to have him on my property. In my defence the man has actually been fired because of a history of similar appalling behaviour, so my assessment of him as an a$%hole is warranted. The story for the blog though is when I went to relay the story as a bit of a debrief …

Do you ever start talking about an upsetting incident and the very first thing the person you are speaking to asks, “what nationality?” As though certain cultures have cornered the market in a$%holedom. And if you ask the person why that has anything to do with it they immediately get defensive; or attack you (which I think is the behaviour of an a$%hole). Now that attitude is a blog (a big one!) for another day, but the conversation did get me thinking.

Is there any culture that is so perfect that never in its history has there ever been a single person that could be called an a$%hole? I mean nearly every country in the world has prisons  and a certain group of activities that it considers crimes, so it is easy to assume that there must be, in every culture, a certain group of activities, consistently performed, to get oneself labelled “a$%hole“. Well perhaps not that specific word. Of course I didn’t really want to ask my friends this question so I relied on Google.

Now, being an Aussie girl at heart I was not surprised to find that someone has spent time to amass a list that allows you to call someone an a$%hole in any language. I read quite a few. German is such a great language to swear in, and the Kashmiri “you have an insect in your a$%hole” made me laugh out loud. I think I might try that one next time I need to lighten a tense situation. So on what has been a trying Tuesday in a trying week I leave you with some humour. Because sometimes we are human!

Please enjoy

A$%HOLE in any language …

http://www.youswear.com/index.asp?word=Asshole#.VWRPGk-eDRZ

Sweeden to close prisons …

http://freethoughtblogs.com/taslima/2013/12/04/sweden-is-closing-its-prisons-what-about-a-prisonless-world/

Sitting in judgement

Listening to some new and newish mums talking today I am feeling frustrated. Why are women so ready to sit in judgement of other women? So willing to participate in their own subjugation and of others? All three women are committed to bringing up their children with love and respect. Instead of loving kindness and support they are awash in a sea of judgement.

The judgements that fell harshly on them? One co-sleeps, one had such a difficult time and lack of support breast feeding that she changed to bottle and the other likes to still work part time.

What do I see? Three amazingly strong women juggling children; managing parents, in-laws, friends and “well”-meaning bystanders telling them how they “should” be doing things; coping with sleepless nights; meeting partners needs and wants; all while trying to keep just a little bit of sanity.

What do I think? It’ll take 25 years to know who raised their kids the “right” way. And who are we to judge or wish for a definitive. Think about it. In wanting to be right that means a child is going to grow up unable to function in society. In wanting “your” way to be the “right” way (the only correct way) you are wishing an unhappy life full of suffering on a child.

I co slept, bottle fed, and worked. I was the original party girl too. Dragged my kids from pillar to post pursuing my career. Everyone tut tutted me. My kids have turned out fine. So if you are struggling with people passing judgement on you, ask them to come back in 30 years. Inside yourself lock away the knowledge that you are being the best parent you can be. This is your journey, your path. So long as you make conscious choices, STEPUP when required and own all consequences then you will live a life with meaning and you will pass this attitude and skill on to your children. And that is the greatest gift you can give.

Menopausal Madness & the Working Woman

I always wondered why women would take Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) especially when all the news linking it to the development of cancers started arising (see link below). That is until changing my bed linen became a daily occurrence and the slightly strange moods morphed into feelings of being overwhelmed or disengaged and unmotivated, we won’t even discuss the bizarre feelings of anxiety! I have always prided myself on being a strong woman that will always step up to the plate when needed. I am the person who makes the hard decisions. I’m the person the family calls on for answering questions like “should we turn off the life support”. Serious. That’s me. I’m the Aunty people call when there is a problem that needs a person who can act sensibly and responsibly under pressure. Not to mention being the super-organised one at work who just rolls up her sleeves and gets on with it. Now I find myself with eye leakage at cute puppy and kitten memes. As I dragged my jumper off for the nth time yesterday, I wondered how professional me would be coping.

Currently I have the luxury of working from home and videoing in for meetings. During my last face to face meeting I was only having slightly warm flushes of an evening. Now the most recent ones are noticeable. So, how does the professional woman manage, in a room full of clients, peers and subordinates to not rip off her shirt and madly fan herself with the most recent financial report? How do you deal with brain fog? What are the alternatives to HRT? Because, I have to say that a couple of days ago if I was working in a corporate environment I would have considered it.

When I went to the TCM Dr she commented that “I’ve caught it early”. This means in terms of treatment my menopausal symptoms will respond better. I now have 15 little black ball shaped pills to take twice a day and acupuncture once a week till I get some balance back. Given I am a holistic health coach myself, I understand that unlike harsh Western medicine, I will not see immediate results. I am also a firm believer in not trying multiple therapies at once, so I am not trying any essential oil or homeopathic treatments; as yet. But I can assure you that at 3am, with zero sleep and another flaming hot wave sweeping through my body I could easily set aside my do no harm principals and eat the heart of a frog, or drink the urine of the endangered long-eared bat! And, and this is an important AND, I am NOT having severe symptoms, not only am I in the early stages, my  plant-based (mostly organic) eating habits mean that I am less exposed to hormones and chemicals in the food chain.

I have been doing a bit of research. By this I mean I activated the female friendship tree and got some tips. I have heard that I should wear waterproof makeup that allows you to sweat, no ladylike glow here, or where no makeup at all, or get your eyebrows and eyelashes tinted (something I already did until my recent accidental conversion to plant-based eating). Put a bundle of tissues in each armpit and leave your jacket on during meetings. Keep a diary to see if you can time the flushes and only schedule meetings when you think you won’t have one (can you imagine what that notation would like it in your diary? 9am Meeting with CFO, 9.45am Hot flush …). Drink as much water as possible. Avoid eating foods that cause your body to smell when it is sweating. In fact, try and avoid altogether because apparently you can just get smelly. Oh, and one last one, always wear at least a panty liner, because minor incontinence is also on the cards. Menopause Australia list 34 symptoms of menopause and peri-menopause. If you weren’t depressed at the thought of menopause, read the list, I promise you will be at least sad and apprehensive. On the upside, you will be informed and better able to manage and make tough decisions.

On a professional note, I recommend being open, whilst you don’t have to discuss each and every symptom, which would also be tactless, you can do what I do, drag out my trusty fan and fan myself. I say nothing unless someone looks at me questioningly, at which point I simply say “that time of life” and move on. You will also be surprised at how accommodating men of your age group and older are. It appears that as we get older there are less and less social taboos. I had a man at the airport the other night regaling me with stories about his wife’s flushes and how he often ended up on the couch!

On a further professional note, it is worth your while to be familiar with these symptoms as we all manage or work with a diversely aged population. To date I have worked with: women going through IVF and men whose partners were; colleagues with children and with children facing difficulties; women going through “the change”; and people my age and older dealing with becoming grandparents (sometimes very unexpectedly) and often at the same time becoming the carer for an elderly parent. All these outside engagements can affect performance. To keep employees productive we need to be understanding and able to provide a flexible and harmonious workplace. Who knows, it might be you who needs a special consideration one day!

After my meditation retreat I will be recommencing my martial arts training. I am hoping that meditation and the discipline of martial arts will assist me in regaining and retaining my focus and sharp thinking.

Some further reading on menopause…

Menopause Centre Australia: http://menopausecentre.com.au/menopause-symptoms-index

Cancer Research UK http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/hormones-and-cancer/hrt-and-cancer

A little happy note from me…

I wish that all of you whose meanderings in the Red Dust have brought you to the menopausal stage of your journey are able to embrace it as the next big adventure. I personally am looking forward to seeing how the way I view and respond to the world changes. And while I probably can’t dance like I used to (in fact, after my nieces 21st recently, I know I can’t), there is always a dance to be found! So I will continue wandering my Red Dust Way and hope I can bring you some wisdom from my menopausal journey.

Menopause? Now!? Really!?!

Yes, Really! At the ripe young age of 48 I am heading into menopause. Don’t ask if it is peri-menopause or menopause. I have been too paralysed with fear to do any intelligible research. I didn’t even know there was more than one stage. I did try to do research. Really. I googled “symptoms of menopause” and in the search results was an article on “38 symptoms…” At that point I truly wished I drank alcohol so I could drown my fears, sorrows and anything else. I refused to read further. The symptoms I have include random memory loss, fuzzy thinking and a huge, almost crippling inability to focus. And, as if that isn’t enough, I am spending the entire night on a rolling wave of hot AND cold flushes. My mother has some serious explaining to do. This part of my life was left out of the “Talk” we had when I had meno-start.

Now I must say I was relieved to discover that the brain fugue is part of menopause. Even if it was delivered via the oh-so-not hilarious taunts of a friend on Facebook. Well, okay, they were funny taunts but that is not the point. I had been starting to think I might have an early onset of Alzheimer’s so I was glad to know that I would stop forgetting important stuff, of course I can also continue to remember dancing on pianos when I was younger. Perhaps I can organise a selective forgetfulness? I was also pretty okay with the flushes. Although my sleep was disturbed, I was waking feeling rested. The flushes started of as mildly warm and stayed that way until about a week ago. Now it is total strip off time. This is all fine and good until you are a guest on a bed in the lounge room and wake to find yourself with blankets kicked off and no t-shirt! My son assures me he doesn’t have to burn his eyes out!!

And again, all that I could have coped with, until I started getting more than one or two mild flushes through the day. Now I get several through the day and they require me to strip off my outer layers. And I have many layers as just before hand I would have had teeth-chattering cold and bundled up. Fortunately, being a born and bred Melbourne girl I am used to dressing for 26 seasons in one day, but I have to tell you on my recent flight back from Sydney on a tiny plane there wasn’t much room for on again off again clothes. Well, not unless I wanted to elbow my fellow passengers, which I confess is something I have thought about on previous flights but these fellow travelers were nice people.

Anyway, after the son nearly burning his eyes out incident, I had decided I needed a Plan. I find things work better when you have a Plan. Even if you can’t stick to it, you still have an idea of where you are meant to be heading and what you are meant to be doing. My plan – always wear a t-shirt and jacket instead of sweaters. Simple! I thought I was so clever. Well the weather was not conducive to the t-shirt and jacket so I had to wear a sweater. On one occasion, Sydney got a lovely eyeful of my middle-aged pale midriff as I ripped my sweater off. My daughter-in-law at least had a vague idea of what I was going through so did not die of embarrassment at the feral stripping off on the busiest thoroughfare in the city.

Time to change tactics. This was when I decided that a fan would be a lovely complement to my plan. Do you have any idea how stupid you look fanning yourself in freezing cold weather? I do. Especially when all the trendy young hipsters surrounding you have no clue as to why you would be fanning yourself. I suddenly felt awkward and gauche. Not something that is foreign to me, but it has certainly not been something that has caused me concern for decades. I rarely give a toss what strangers in crowded restaurants think about me. I dress for me and behave for me and choose to have the friends I have. And quite frankly I can’t be bothered with people making vapid judgements. So why the insecurity? Or rather, anxiety? Ah, yet another symptom. Something I also know nothing about. I actually had some anxiety two weeks ago and had to phone a friend to ask what was wrong with me. When she told me I laughed and told her I didn’t get anxiety. Guess I was wrong on that count.

So, where does that leave me? Well, I wasn’t planning on going through menopause until I was 55. Guess that schedule needs reviewing. So I thought, oh well, no biggy, I’ll just suck it up and get through it. I mentioned to a friend how uncomfortable the symptoms were. She told me she has a friend who has been having the symptoms for 10 years. 10 years!!! Another woman I spoke to mentioned that her Aunty has been having symptoms for over 15 years. So NOT A HAPPY CAMPER people. What next? I have decided I need to do some research and I went to see the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Dr. I have had a treatment of acupuncture and started taking a herbal remedy. I’ll let you know how it works out. And any interesting tidbits from my research. Hopefully I’ll have my happy dancing feet back on in no time at all.

**LoveAndLight**

Happy Mother’s Day … Or grin and bear it day?

I came across this post this morning. It really challenged me and I felt disloyal to my mother even reading it. My mother and I have a great relationship that is touched with moments of awkwardness. Mostly because she doesn’t understand me and lacks the skills to understand me. Sometimes in a darker, less charitable moment, I think she doesn’t want to understand me. But I know that is only because her life would be easier for her if I fitted the mould of what a daughter should be. What I do know is that she is incredibly proud of me, and even though she can’t understand how I am “happy”, she is pleased that I feel I live a life with meaning and fulfillment.

For me, I confess that in my early 20s I really didn’t like or respect my mum very much. The whole, I should stay home and bake, 1950s housewife model never ever appealed to me. I wanted to be a trailblazing career women in a black suit. It was a very intense time of my life. I am incredibly honest and have always sought to live my life with honesty and (later) integrity. I agonised over cutting my mother out of my life and the lives of my children. I realised then that I had two choices … a life without a mother or a life with occasional (and not-so-occasional) moments of biting my tongue. Fortunately for me I chose life with the tongue biting. I decided to accept my mother for who she is. Warts and all, you could say. And how glad am I that I did. Once I stopped measuring her against my ideal, I discovered a wonderfully generous (if somewhat sexist) woman, who has turned out to be an amazing grandmother and great-grandmother.

So for all of you out there struggling with horrible and not-so-horrible mothers, perhaps see her against the backdrop of her upbringing and her own relationship with her mother. Think about how that might have impacted her and your relationship. And remember always that we aim to meet all challenging people with loving kindness and the challenges they throw at us with equanimity. Only by owning our part in the relationship can we know peace. The choice to be present in that relationship allows the little taunts and digs, and the odd public humiliation, and the sometimes complete and utter lack of their ability to understand and accept you to no longer matter.

Of course, some people are truly toxic and there may come a time in your respective meanderings where you need to wander without each other. If this is the path you feel compelled to take, try to do it without acrimony on your behalf. Own the decision and explain why you are making it. And only do it once, and be absolutely resolute about the changes you require before repairing and rebuilding the relationship. And be fair, there will be changes that your mother may request, and you need to hear those requests and consider them. Lastly, if you are a mother yourself, remember, your children will model their relationship with you on your relationship with your mother.

For those of you that have fabulous mothers, I am so happy for you. And for those of you that are missing their mothers, who are either far far away or have moved on to the next cycle, hold that love in your heart and let it be a beacon of light in your life and the lives of those around you.

**LoveAndLight**

#choices #stepup #ownit #mothers #relationships #family #meanderings #wanderings

The mind-stomach connection

This article expresses so much of what I have believed for a long long time. It is interesting to note that, in some cultures, the stomach also used to be the love muscle, not the heart. I have been sticking to a very good health protocol and ignoring my bodies signals. I.e., demands for a certain combination of foods. So engrossed was I in completing this protocol to the letter, especially as I had received and enjoyed so many benefits, like being candida balanced, that I didn’t listen until I came down with a head cold. Now I am looking at my fridge, garden and pantry and listening to what my gut is telling me to eat. I mean really listening! And the result, I am functioning, yes, I am sleeping longer than normal, but I am managing the heavy workload at this end of the academic trimester.

I am also only needing the lightest of interventions in terms of controlling the sneezing. I believe the body sneezes for a reason so I am using my Himalyan Rock Salt inhaler to support my sinuses, gargling in salt water three times a day for my throat, and having lots n lots of healthy veggies. If I do have to venture out near other people I am using a natural “old-fashioned” rememdy, some eucalyptus oil in a steam inhaler, and a dab of eucalyptus oil on my shirt collars to stop the sneezing, or HAR-PA-CHOOOOING!! I also have an old school stainless steel inhaler that carries a cloth soaked in camphor and eucalyptus oils. I also add a dab of lavendar oil onto each side of my throat. I find it lifts my mood and helps me to be pleasant. (Please note, I am not an aromatherapist and am only learning about essential oils in a broader scheme, there may be much better solutions available, I am just using the die hards I learnt from my granddad).

The overall combination is that I am quite comfortably shaking off a mild cold as opposed to a year ago when I would have been bedridden and suffering for days and using all sorts of nasty over the counter remedies to get myself back to work before I was physically fit to do so. Not to mention the damage of suppressing coughs and sneezes and leaving all the dead pathogens in my body for my already toxic body to clean out. Yuk!

PS, my normally healthy as a horse partner has come down like a bag of bricks. He is insisting on eating crap, like a frozen, microwave reheated meat pie, and strangely enough … He Is Not Getting Better! As the only nutrition coach in the house I am pulling rank and making a beautiful vegan organic stock and using that as a base for a warming minestrone until he gets better. Maybe, just maybe, he will listen to his body more and learn to ignore his cravings. 🙂

For those of you heading into winter, stay warm, stay healthy, and eat well. For my Northern Hemisphere followers, embrace Spring! Walk barefoot on the grass, dance in the sun, breathe breathe breathe fresh air, and eat a high raw organic plant based diet to see you sailing through Spring, Summer and Autumn (Fall) and have you prepared, and strong, for a healthy Winter.

**LoveAndLight**

http://psychologyofeating.com/the-brain-in-the-belly/

Optimism, realism and pessism

We all know the glass half full story, or rather stories … half full is the Optimist, half empty is the Realist. I would like to introduce the Pessimist who knows the glass is half empty and full of germs. And don’t forget the Opportunist who drank it while we were working out if it was half full or half empty.

As a metaphor for life it works pretty well. There is also the Pragmatist who doesn’t care whether it’s half full or half empty but will take what is available, roll up her/his sleeves and use it to get on with the task at hand. Occasionally,  someone asks, how do I get my glass to be half full instead of half empty? And this is the person you want to be.

To be a half full person you don’t need to overdose on positivity and I’m not going to drown you in cheerleader type exhortations. I am not going to teach you to be an Optimist. We are going to embrace the Pragmatist that takes what is available to build the next step. In our case, the next step is to be a person who lives life on equal terms, meets challenges with equanimity and, through that, finds a balance between life’s demands and life’s joys. Finding contentment rather than the hypomanic happy that is euphoria.

We cannot go through life attached to a feeling as powerful as having won Tattslotto or climbing Mt Everest. This is not a natural state. Neither is sadness or depression so we shouldn’t spend too much time there either. 

What you are going to do is become your own censor. You are going to filter the messages that your brain receives from your eyes and your ears. You are going to look and listen for negative and self defeatist messages and think about how you can reframe that message. And then reframe it. This doesn’t mean sugarcoating.

Some events are disastrous. Acknowledge that something bad happened but reframe, ie, that job interview or that presentation or meeting could have gone better; or, I could have managed my staff members lateness better. Never say I blew that interview/presentation/meeting and then beat up on yourself. Don’t berate yourself for overreacting to a staff members poor performance or for letting a staff member walk all over you. .. acknowledge that it was not your best performance and …. This is not where I tell you to walk on … This is where I suggest,  most strongly, that you sit with a pen and paper and do some really thorough analysis.

What were your expectations before the event? What role did each actor play in the event? What could you control? What couldn’t you control? Then step up and own the actions that you could control. Consider whether right in that moment if you could have chosen a different path and what that path might have been. Decide that you will behave that way in the future. Then chalk up this incidence to experience. Acknowledge that you are building resilience, take your learnings and continue to wander your path with a little more knowledge and a better understanding of yourself. The next time you are in a similar situation you will view it differently because you have taken those lessons on board and you know that the outcomes will be better … glass half full … and who knows .. One day it might be a full glass!

Happy wandering!

My recent trip to Nan Tien Temple

https://plus.google.com/102986174249799667957/stories/2d56b1a0-00a2-3a46-bb84-8c01abd572bd14b8d7106de?authkey

Over 40, unfit, and fat …

That was me, over 40, unfit and fat. And so far from the Red Dust Warrior of my inner me as could be possible. I ignored every signal my body sent me until the night I walked into the emergency department at Queanbeyan Hospital and said, “I think I only have indigestion, but I’d hate to wake up dead because I ignored something.” They never really did find out what caused it. My blood pressure was 165/90. Later they were keeping me in because my blood pressure went so low I set all the alarms off. Now, I have to say that I didn’t listen to that message straight away but it did bubble at the back of my brain. I put it down to stress and went back to my workaholic ways. I continued in my stress filled job for another year before I begged my boss to release me. I thought I’d get a transfer and get some work life balance. Unfortunately you can’t just walk into the supermarket and buy a box of work/life balance off the shelf.

Three years later I was still unhealthy and generally unwell and really unhappy in my job. I had had another couple of “mysterious” heart incidents and seemed to have an immune system that attracted every bug and virus within a 20 kilometre radius. I missed so much work and then my back collapsed on me completely while on long service leave. I spent 9 weeks almost constantly in bed barely able to move or walk and definitely unable to sit. I still didn’t listen. I kept eating bad food and, and as soon as I could manage a reasonable distance (100metres) I went back to work even though I hated my job with every fibre of my being.

Mid last year  I started vomitting everything I ate. First meat, then dairy, then fish and finally eggs. I was getting terrified to eat. I was making smoothies out of silverbeet from my backyard and organic apples and almond or soy milk. I did this for 2 months and lost barely any weight. I had developed trigeminal neuralgia and was in constant pain and weighed in at 95 kilos. After this massive change in diet and dramatic decrease in caloric intake I had only lost 1.5 kilos. I had two lumps on my thyroid but my tests showed everything was okay. I was not okay! My doctor was concerned because she felt the weight should be falling off me if I was eating so clean. But I wasn’t really. I was still loading on some gluten free junk food, and gluten free pizza, some fairly highly processed foods and tonnes of coffee daily. Although by this time I had given up Coca Cola and alcohol so I still should have been losing weight.

I reached out to a friend who practices a vegan lifestyle. I wanted to make sure that if I was going to adopt this lifestyle that my body was forcing on me, I would do it properly. I had watched Joe Cross’ movie, Fat, Sick and nearly Dead, and absolutely knew that juicing was the way to go. The movie was really powerful. My friend also put me onto Liana Shanti, the RawganicVegan, see link below. I went on her 66 Day reset (8 week reset), which is started with a 10 Day juice fast and daily coffee enemas. Yes! Enemas. I know, I was shocked too. Although not half as shocked as when I did my first one.

I cannot tell you how different the reset made me feel. I have always been about stepping up and owning your life, owning your decisions but I had let myself become a giant couch potato. I justified the disgusting diet of potato chips and chocolate and 2 litres of Coca Cola a day. I was drowning in self loathing, far far far from my usual “happy dancing feet” persona. And although nobody in my personal life knew it, I was becoming seriously disaffected with life. Really struggling to find pleasure in the small things. I had always been able to pick myself up and dust myself off no matter what happened. Always able to just suck it up and get on with it. Now I just seemed to wallowing in a giant cess pool of angst.

I now welcome that vomitting. It changed my attitude and my life. I have taken all my business acumen and organisation skills and totally reframed my life. I am comfortably below 80 kilos, and it has been a gentle steady loss, which at times I put a hold on to explore the wonderful world of vegan, high raw foods (especially the desserts) and I am now undertaking a Candida Protocol. Along the way I have been “releasing” emotions and deeply exploring what I want from life. The answers have been truly suprising on some levels.  I have quit my extremely well-paid unhappy job as a Business Analyst and commenced on a new life as a Health and Wellness Coach.  And, I am finally studying something just because I want to, Applied Buddhist Studies. Although I intend incorporating many of my Taoist and Buddhist beliefs into my coaching. My marriage, which was always good is now great, and we are contemplating a tree change. I am reconnecting with my children on a whole new level and have so much energy for my grandkids. And for the first time in many years I am now able to meditate. I am so much more mindful of the world around me and my place within it. I am truly manifesting my inner Red Dust Warrior.

If you have ever though of undertaking a juice fast I highly recommend it. Who knows, like me it could be just what you need.

http://rawganicvegan.com/

PS. I receive no income from promoting these links. I do it only to share what I believe in. Paying it forward …

PPS. If you would like to become a Red Dust Wanderer and join me on my journey I will be taking on new clients after May (2015).