12-Day Countdown to 2012 – Day 5: Set Your Intentions for Clutter and Personal Organization

12-Day Countdown to 2012 – Day 5:
Set Your Intentions for Clutter and Personal Organization

- by Tera Warner

Few things feel more satisfying than a clean kitchen counter and sink. The expression “taking the weight off your shoulders” suddenly becomes very real when you sort out your stacks of paper and piles of clutter.

Chances are “how you do anything is how you do everything”. If you collect clutter, what else are you holding on to? Emotions? Resentment? Excess weight?

When you get rid of clutter, other things seem to just “magically” sort themselves out, too You feel lighter, you have more space, you think more clearly.

Read more »

How To Create a Happy & Healthy Kitchen – Part 2

How To Build a Living Kitchen

- by Jay and Linda Kordich

If kitchen work and meal preparation conjures up negative images in your head and heart, then it’s definitely time to toss those negative thoughts and feelings — you and your family need to feel comfortable and relaxed in your kitchen!

As stated in Part 1 of our Happy & Healthy Kitchen series, A happy and healthy kitchen is a living kitchen — a place where your food, your attitude, and your life comes alive.

Let’s face it: The Kitchen is where you Eat, Pray, and Love.

Read more »

How To Create a Happy & Healthy Kitchen – Part 1

How To Build a Living Kitchen

- by Jay and Linda Kordich

When it comes to kitchen work and meal preparation, you may have negative images in your head and heart about feeling as if you are the one who ‘has’ to buy produce, prepare meals, and clean up after the meals because the rest of the family is too busy with their lives. If that’s the case,  you may end up feeling resentful, and unappreciated.

If the above rings true for you, then it’s definitely time to toss those negative thoughts and feelings — You need to feel comfortable and relaxed in your kitchen, and create it into a sanctuary for you and your family.

A healthy kitchen is a living kitchen, and a living kitchen is a manifestation of truly believing that specific appliances and loving attitudes will actually make your kitchen, your food, your attitude and your life comes alive!

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Raw Mom Cooked Dad Day 8: Vanessa Stewart, Sherri Nickols & Leanne Ely

How cute were the kiddies?!! Sergei and Gabriela were music to all health seeking parent’s ears – and Karen was just Karen – a beacon of light.

Unlimited Access to the RMCD Event

We have received lots of emails asking how you can get access to missed calls or download them all and listen in your own time. You can buy the whole event and have unlimited access to all the calls, bonus e-books from our speakers, a free month’s membership to our new Raw Mom Club and a 30 day raw food challenge with incredible menu planner and support to make it happen! Click here to get your ‘Relax Pack’.

Tracey from South Africa! I loved hearing from you on the blog yesterday – and hope that the Monkey Mike Raw Kitchen Uncook  Book with help bring fun to your kitchen – and get your hubby involved as well as the kids! Would love some pic’s for the blog

Today’s blog comment winner will receive copy of The Simple Gourmet.

Now, on to the menu du jour…

We’ve talked enough about food for the last few days, it’s time to switch gears a bit! While the food we eat has a huge impact on our overall health and well-being, as many of our guests have reinforced already, there’s a lot more to life than what we put on our plates. Today’s guests are going to help you get in the nooks and crannies of your life to handle a few other things that may be interfering with your overall well-being and relationship health.

Check out what’s in store with today’s dynamite divas:

Vanessa Stewart

Firecracker alert! You’re going to LOOOOVE this woman. Vanessa is the “Clutter-Free Diva” and she knows going to get the kitch, clutter and useless junk out of your life so you can make room for something better. Just think of how you feel when your sink is clean, your counters are clear and you open up your underwear draw to see perfectly folded dainties. C’mon… is there anything better than a clean sink and counter at the end of a long day? Maybe, but it remains an undeniable fact that people manage their environment in the same way they manage their thoughts and relationships, so check out this call for some unexpected, but much needed advice on how to turn around your attitude and love life with a few simple tips  from the Clutter-Free Diva herself!

Sherri Nickols

OH MY GOODNESS! Vanessa’s call is the firecracker that started a veritable firework display when Sherri Nickols took our Raw Mom, Cooked Dad stage. If it’s been a few years since you’ve sat down to watch a trashy soap opera in the middle of a weekday afternoon, then you’re going to love this call. It felt like a therapy session and there were certainly no holds barred. When Sherri started talking about some of the patterns women get into that totally create problems in their relationships, I had a forehead slap that could be heard from miles around!!

I’ll confess... this call happened in the middle of a somewhat volcanic week with my beloved. (This Raw Mom, Cooked Dad event isn’t happening by accident, you realize–I’ve been needing to get some answers and help myself!) Anyway, in the middle of this call, I actually wrote on email with tears streaming down my face and TOTALLY realized the problems I’d been creating until now and exactly what to do to make it better and things have been smooth sailing ever since!!

If you have relationship friction, you NEED this call. It will totally turn things around, and all it takes is you knowing a few of Sherri’s tricks and suggestions!

Leanne Ely

Okay, so for our next guest, we thought, “Hey! We need to get outside of our raw food circle and pull in some celebrities.” So, we looked to find out who is the world’s leading expert on meal preparation tips for busy families, and that’s when we found Leanne! He advice is great when it comes to prepping your cooked food meals, but when it come to raw food bulk… we have another surprise guest coming to share some tips in a few days!

Leanne is a New York Times best-selling author with her ‘Saving Dinner’ Series. In her interview she gives some back to basics advice on how to create, organise and execute your shopping list in order to have great meals at hand at any time. Freezer space is certainly the crux of this interview

Okay, You Multi-tasking Marathon Moms! We Have Some Surprises!!

We know you’ve been doing your best to fit in all these calls, and we’ve been getting a lot of requests for more time to listen to them. I’m afraid peace, love and happiness aren’t calorie dense enough for us to feed our families, so we have put  together the Relax Pack so that people who would like to access these calls at any time in the future, may do so.

VERY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! We’re going to have a LIVE Q&A Grande Finale call for our event, and there are a few more speakers yet to be revealed that will KNOCK YOUR COOKED FOOD SOCKS RIGHT OFF!! Just so you know, the fun isn’t going to stop on Day 10. Day 11 is the Grande Finale when we reveal some exciting surprises, special secret guests and more!!!

Love and mystery,

Tera and Fiona

p.s.

Just in case you’re able to reserve it in advance, mark Wednesday 4pm EASTERN in your calendar for our Live Q&A Call. If you’re not available at that time, we’re going to send you a link tomorrow where you can send in your questions ahead of time. There are going to be THREE FABULOUSLY FRISKY hostesses for this call and you can probably guess who two of them will be, but the third I won’t reveal just yet.

Removing Clutter, Helping Others & Shedding a Skin!

By Eliza Ceci

This weekend I went on a bit of a purging expedition! I have really been thinking about the things I own, the things I’ve collected over the years, the things that no longer serve me and really decided to let go. Is it possible that I feel lighter and happier already?

I tend to hold onto everything from receipts and scribbles on post it notes, to shoes that hurt my feet but look pretty, old batteries and even plastic bags (because I feel guilty that they will go into a landfill!). This is just silly. Why would I want to hold onto things that not only cause clutter but also have literally no purpose?

This set me in motion. I decided to not only get rid of the obvious superfluous items that were causing clutter but also decided to minimize my closet by a significant percentage. I decided to go about this in stages – my first stage is complete and I feel uplifted and motivated to do more. I tackled my closet and was able to give away five bags of clothing. These are things that either I never wore, or items that no longer serve me; things that made me feel not so hot or things that didn’t fit me right in the first place.

The beginning was easy but as I got deeper into my closet I would find a scarf given to my by a relative or a sweater I remember my husband buying me for the holidays one year – to purge or not to purge that was the question. To help me in these times of purging struggle I would repeat in my mind questions like: could someone else benefit from this blouse? Would this jacket keep someone warm this winter, would this children’s book ease a baby to sleep, I don’t have a child yet would these toys from my childhood make some little girl smile? Turning this around and knowing I am giving items away that I do not use and that could serve a much better purpose for someone else made me so happy to share and give.

I began researching places I could donate my things to. I donated my five bags of clothing to Planet Aid is a non-profit organization that collects and sells donated clothing and shoes to support sustainable development in impoverished communities around the world.

Are there any organizations in your community that you have given to before?

Read more »

Kids’ Spiritual Cinema: Inspirational Impact!

I simply have to tell you about a beautiful DVD that I recently purchased for my children.

My husband and I subscribe to the Spiritual Cinema Circle, which sends a DVD out every month with inspiring, positive feature-length films, short films, and documentaries. We only ever watch our own library of movie/series DVDs these days, rather than watching mind-numbing/violent/offensive shows that make their way onto TV (and reception for digital TV is not great at our current home, so there’s no point even trying to tune it in!), so we love receiving a fresh new DVD every month. Especially because the content is just so positive and life-affirming. Read more »

5 Steps to get back on track!

by Doll Creelman

I’ve dug myself into a deep hole here.  Not a good thing.

My energy level is zapped and I feel like weeping much of the time.  Again, not good!
I need a plan and I need it NOW!

This is my plan:

• When you are in a hole…stop digging! This is so true.  The more I dwell on what’s pulling me down the further I get sucked into the mire.  I need to stop!
• Time to assess the situation. Is this something I can handle on my own?  Do I need assistance? Life and death? Logically I can rationalize the life out of the problem.
• Take steps to move forward. For me this means not just putting a plan together but following through.  (I’m working on this now)
• Take a break! Time for me to get outside.  Fresh air and light exercise does me the world of good.  The pool awaits!
• Be kind to yourself. The is possibly the most difficult thing for me to do.  I have many wonderful people around to support me but I suck at supporting myself.  I need to find effective ways to comfort myself without food or any other self-destructive behaviors.

To make this work I need to follow all five steps!  So, I’m going to put these on 3 x 5 cards and place them in key areas of my home.

I need to be reminded, constantly!

Do you have ideas that would help me along??

Please add your comments.

I have a long-term goal ahead of me and getting there is going to take some creative planning.

Do you have a plan today??

Doll

How To Create Discipline With The Things We Love

My son’s football passion is contagious. Not contagious in terms of making me want to play the aggressive, high-contact sport, but there’s simply a certain vibe that comes from people who do what they love! Words even start pouring out of their mouths that make you go, “Hmmh!”

As I recently stood in my kitchen cutting a pineapple before heading out to my son’s football practice, he walked by me and said with a soulful voice:

“Football isn’t just about the sport, it’s about discipline, and discipline equals life!”

I dashed to the computer to document these words. They reminded me that as fun and freeing as it can be to be a free spirit, in some areas of life we really can’t escape discipline if we want optimum results. So, yes, Caleb’s right, I’d say! In many ways, discipline really does equal LIFE.

For instance:

~ Consistent raw food eating requires discipline! (The more raw food I eat, the healthier I am, so doesn’t that equal life?)

~ Consistent exercise requires discipline!

~ Consistent Spiritual growth requires discipline!

~ Consistently loving and forgiving requires discipline!

~ Fasting for any period of time requires discipline!

Isn’t mind-body-spirit development nothing short of discipline? And, doesn’t that equal life?

Here’s some simple food for thought to help create discipline with the things we love:

D — Diligently decide to be disciplined in the areas of life in which you want to grow! Speak your decision. Write it down. Share it with family. Share it with a friend. Pray for the strength to stay disciplined.

I — Integrate affirmations into your discipline practices! For instance, “I am healthy on a cellular level, because I eat raw and living foods every day.” Or, “My muscles are toned and flexible, because I stretch them for at least 20 minutes, three or more times a week.” The more you affirm yourself, the more your discipline will plant itself into your psyche and produce the results you want.

S — Share your discipline practices with others! Who says you have to go it alone? For instance, if it’s that day you just do not feel disciplined enough to take a walk alone, well, that’s the day you call up a friend to walk/exercise with you. Or, if it’s that day you do not feel like drinking one more green smoothie, well, invite a friend over to “smoothie” with you….or pack up the Vita-Mix and “smoothie” at your friend’s house. That shift will naturally alter the energy of the I-don’t-feel-like-doing-this moment.

C — Be Creatively Consistent! Find creative ways, such as above, to stay consistent with YOUR discipline. Come up with creativity that will WORK for YOU!

I — Inspire someone else with your discipline practices! This will tend to naturally happen from the love you give to your own areas of discipline. Remember, it’s contagious watching someone going through the motions of what they LOVE. Even if the person you inspire doesn’t do precisely what you’re doing, your love for your discipline will help others meet their own.

P — Plan and Pray to help avoid unnecessary detours from your course! Planning can create an organized state of mind and environment for sticking to goals, and praying builds strength. For instance, you might want to plan your menus for the week or a few days at a time to prevent you from consuming food that you know does not serve you well. Or, you might plan an exercise schedule to keep you moving along. Checking off “planned” discipline activities can provide a warm sense of accomplishment. Yes, I did it!

L — Lovingly link your discipline in one area to another! Life works well for me when I can see the connections…….when I connect the dots. Everything is linked to something else! That’s life! So find the links within your discipline practices and then watch things naturally evolve. Let one area support another. For instance, that green juice and walking, yoga, etc., will work well together.

I — Invest in your passions — treat them as friends! Consider how you’d treat a friend, and then think of treating the things you want to be disciplined with in a similar way — with love, kindness, and understanding — and forgiveness when need be!

N — Nurture your process! Isn’t it easy to repeat something when you feel nurtured by it? Jinjee Talifero recently wrote an article coming out in Pear Magazine on Friday that mentions how cherished she feels wearing her new “organically grown cotton, hemp and bamboo clay-died clothing.” Now, that’ll be a practice she’ll want to apply over and over again, because of how it makes her feel, right? This goes hand-in-hand with making that “investment” in yourself. Be sure the discipline you are picking is one that nurtures YOU. Would you invest in a stock that you know will not serve you well? For example, running does not feed my soul these days the way a brisk walk and yoga does, so why run if I feel walking and yoga serve me better?

E — Employ people to help you stay disciplined! Discipline practices can sometimes be tough without accountability. Have your spouse, child or friend do a friendly check-in with you fairly often. I know if my child’s asking me every day — “Mommy, did you walk today?” — well, after a few consecutive days of telling him I did not will make me want to do something about it. Be the example!

Yes, life is a discipline. Free-spirited or not, life is a discipline! Do you agree?