Resolution #1

January will be gone in a few short hours...wow...it sure went fast!

So, how are you doing with your New Year's Resolutions?

According to the experts the #1 Resolution made each year is to "Lose Weight" and it's the one that most people can't seem to keep. In fact by February 1st most people have thrown in the towel. Are you ever going to be fit again as long as you live? The answer is unless you make a resolution to get fit-you're never going to be fit-ever. The choice is yours.

I'd love to say that I'm off to a great start with my Resolutions for 2010...not so...but NOT giving up!

Even though I've managed to keep my weight level, I have not managed to work out consistently so the FIT part of the equation is missing...which I am choosing to deal with starting tomorrow! I realized over the weekend that it boils down to; how important of a goal is it? Am I going to keep making excuses about how busy I am or am I going to schedule time to do it and make it a priority.

I'm blessed to be part of a group who will meet monthly starting tomorrow, 2/1, called "Fit Happens." Our goal is to keep each other accountable, encouraged, and take the steps necessary to eat right, stay healthy, and fit for life. The more the merrier so feel free to contact me if you know of someone who would like to join us!

Need some motivation? Check this out...it's a 3 minute video clip showing the results of the Burn product that we use to jump start our metabolism and start our fat burning furnace!
http://www.waifit.com/

Cheers to an awesome 2010!

Let Thy Food Be Thy Medicine

I found this link online today and thought I would pass it along. Probably my shortest blog entry to date!

Off to listen to a webinar titled:
Dynamic Eating Psychology and Mind Body Nutrition, with Marc David

Why did Hippocrates, the founding father of modern medicine say "Let thy Food be thy Medicine and thy Medicine be thy Food." ?

Check out this short video clip - http://ow.ly/ZNDo

Wishing you a great night!

Why Genes Aren't Your Destiny

Ahh, it's finally Saturday…the one day of the week to sleep a little longer, linger over my coffee, and spend a little extra time reading the stacks of things on my to read list.

Sure wish I knew the fine art of condensing information down into bite size pieces...I'm working on it...guess its a process just like everything else!

I’ve had the January 18, 2010 issue of Time Magazine sitting near the top of my pile for over a week and finally got to it this morning. I highly recommend finding a copy if you are at all interested in more information on how the choices we make today will have an impact on future generations. I’m continually amazed at how complex our mind, body & spirits are…fascinating information.

The article Titled “Why Genes Aren’t Destiny” by John Cloud, tells how the new field of epigenetics is showing how your environment and your choices can influence your genetic code-and that of your kids.

In the late 1980’s Dr. Lars Olov Bygren, a preventive-health specialist who is now at the prestigious Karolinska Insttitute in Stockholm, began to wonder what long term effects that feast and famine years might have had on children growing up in Norrbotten in the 19th century…they lived in a environment of literal feast or famine.

Around the time he started collecting the data, Bygren had become fascinated with research showing that conditions in the womb could affect your health not only when you are a fetus but well into adulthood. In 1986, for example, the Lancet published the first of two groundbreaking papers showing that if a pregnant woman ate poorly, her child would be at significantly higher than average risk for cardiovascular disease as an adult. Bygren wondered whether that effect could start even before pregnancy: Could parents’ experiences early in their lives somehow change the traits they passed to their offspring?

It was a heretical idea. After all, we have had a long standing deal with biology: whatever choices we make during our lives might ruin our short-term memory or make us fat or hasten death, but they won’t change our genes-our actual DNA.

What’s more, any such effects of nurture (environment) on a species’ nature (genes) were not supposed to happen so quickly...according to Charles Darwin. But Bygren and other scientists have now amassed historical evidence suggesting that powerful environmental conditions (near death from starvation, for instance) can somehow leave an imprint on the genetic material in eggs and sperm. These genetic imprints can short-circuit evolution and pass along new traits in a single generation.

For instance, Bygren’s research showed that in Overkalix, boys who enjoyed those rare overabundant winters-kids who went from normal eating to gluttony in a single season-produced sons and grandsons who lived shorter lives. To put it simply, the data suggested that a single winter of overeating as a youngster could initiate a biological chain of events that would lead one’s grandchildren to die decades earlier than their peers did. How could this be possible?

Meet the Epigenome
At its most basic, epigenetics is the study of changes in gene activity that do not involve alterations to the genetic code but still get passed down to at least one successive generation. These patterns of gene expression are governed by the cellular material-the epigenome-that sits on top of the genome, just outside it. It is these epigenetic “marks” that tell your genes to switch on or off, to speak loudly or whisper. It is through epigenetic marks that environmental factors like diet, stress, and prenatal nutrition can make an imprint on genes that are passed from one generation to the next.

There is evidence that lifestyle choices like smoking and eating too much can change the epigenetic marks atop your DNA in ways that cause the genes for obesity to express themselves too strongly and the genes for longevity to express themselves too weakly. We all know that you can shorten your own life if you smoke or overeat, but it’s becoming clear that those same bad behaviors can also predispose your kids-before they are even conceived-to disease and early death. WOW!

Pembrey, Bygren, and Golding-now all working together-used data to produce a more groundbreaking paper, the most compelling epigenetic study yet written. Published in 2006 in the European Journal of Human Genetics, it noted that of the 14,024 fathers in the study, 166 said they had started smoking before age 11-just as their bodies were preparing to enter puberty. Boys are genetically isolated before puberty because they cannot form sperm. (Girls by contrast, have their eggs from birth) That makes the period around puberty fertile ground for epigenetic changes: If the environment is going to imprint epigenetic marks on the genes in the Y chromosome, what better time to do it than when sperm is first starting for form?

When Pembry, Bygren and Golding looked at the sons of those 166 early smokers, it turned out that the boys had significantly higher body mass indexes than other boys by age 9. That means the sons of men who smoke in prepuberty will be at higher risk for obesity and other health problems well into adulthood. In other words, you can change your epigenetics even when you make a dumb decision at 10 years old. If you start smoking then, you may have made not only a medical mistake but a catastrophic genetic mistake.

All this explains why the scientific community is so nervously excited about epigenetics. In his forthcoming book isThe Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About Genetics, Talent and IQ is Wrong, science writer David Shenk says epigenetics is helping user in a “new paradigm” that “reveals how bankrupt the phrase ‘nature versus nurture really is.” He calls epigenetics “perhaps the most important discovery in the science of heredity since the gene.”
Looking forward to reading his book!

90% or 10% - Which are you?

American's don’t have vitamin deficiencies – they have a whole food deficiencies.

It’s estimated that only 10% of adults and 5% of children consume the recommended 7 -13 daily servings of fruits and vegetables. I must confess, I was one of the 90% who didn’t even come close to that amount until I learned how important it is in the big scheme of preventing disease and aging well…both issues are very important to me.:)

Why not just take a multiple vitamin?
The research is complete and compelling that isolated vitamins and multiple vitamins have NOT been shown to prevent disease and in many situations have been shown to increase disease and cause harm.

Whole foods are really the answer to disease prevention. Why is that?
Because the nutrients in fruits and vegetables work synergistically together in perfect combination. Foods in their natural source are packed with 1000’s of vitamins and nutrients, not that 10 or 20 vitamins in a mega dose – its about small amounts of 1000’s of nutrients working together synergistically.

Take an apple for example; there are some 400 ingredients that are phyto-nutrients. There is a mere 5.7 milligrams of vitamin C in an apple…guess what…that 5.7 milligrams in synergy with all the other nutrients in that apple are as effective at fighting free radical damage as 1500 milligrams of vitamin C. That’s the POWER of synergy!

The minerals in fruit and vegetables are colloidal; i.e. they are in a state of such extremely fine suspension that they can be assimilated by the human system.

Good nutrition is a matter of pay now or pay later! I'm paying now because you don't have to look very far to see that prevention in the long run is more ecconomical than a cure...and a lot less painful.

Here are some things that you can do to educate yourself:

www.wendy-dejong-juiceplus.com - there is a video on the home page and 2 more under the button Related Info at the top of the home page. The research on whole food in the prevention of disease is quite amazing.

http:/healthenlightenment.com/document264.shtml - amazing information regarding the mineral deficiency of our soil and how its impacting our health...starving us in general. The sadest part is it appears to be an easy, inexpensive fix.

Rent - Food Inc. - this was a real eye opener for me and has changed my outlook on food...I now look at my purchases as casting a vote for good food or bad!

In closing the notes from the end of document 264 {We choose chemotherapy, amputations, pacemakers, surgery, and wheelchairs. One fourth of our Gross National Product(1.4 trillion dollars) is now spent on medical care, affectionately referred to (by doctors and drug reps) as "health care"}

The public can help; it can hasten change. How? By demanding quality food. You vote with your dollars every time you go to the store and purchase junk!

Do Calcium Deficiencies = Nasty Disposition - Low Intelligence - Poor Health?

Ok…let’s see just what’s involved in “mineral deficiencies,” what it may mean to our health, and how it may affect the growth and development, both mental and physical, of our children. We know that rats, guinea pigs and other animals can be fed into a diseased condition and out again by controlling only the minerals in their food.

A 10-year test with rats proved that by withholding calcium they can be bred down to a third the size of those fed with an adequate amount of that mineral. Their intelligence, too, can be controlled by mineral feeding as readily as can their size, their bony structure, and their general health. (hmmm, perhaps we know some calcium deficient people!)

Place a number of these little animals inside a maze after starving some of them in a certain mineral element. The starved ones will be unable to find their way out. Their dispositions can be altered by mineral feeding. They can be made quarrelsome and belligerent; they can even be turned into cannibals and be made to devour each other.

A cage full of normal rats will live in amity. Restrict their calcium and they will become irritable and draw apart from one another. Then they will begin to fight. Restore their calcium balance and they will grow more friendly; and in time they will begin to sleep in a pile as before. Many children are “slow to learn” merely because they are deficient in magnesia. (Magnesium) We punish them for our failures to feed them properly.

Calcium is the most dominant nerve controller; it powerfully affects the cell formation of all living things and regulates nerve action. It governs contractility of the muscles and the rhythmic beat of the heart. It also coordinates the other mineral elements and corrects disturbances made by them. Vitamin D is its buddy.

What does a deficiency mean? How would it affect your health or mine? So many morbid conditions and actual diseases may result that it is almost hopeless to catalog them. Included in the list are bad teeth, nervous disorders, reduced resistance to other diseases, fatigue, behavior disturbances, cancer, heart disease, and more.

Wow, I'm off to take my calcium, magnesium & vitamin D

Get some sunlight on the inside and see what positive changes happen in your life!

Is a Carrot a Carrot?

You'd think, wouldn't you, that a carrot is a carrot-that one is about as good as another as far as nourishment is concerned? But it isn't; one carrot may look and taste like another and yet be lacking in the particular mineral element which our system requires and which carrots are supposed to contain.

Laboratory tests prove that the fruits, the vegetables, the grains, the eggs, and even the milk and the meats of today are not what they were a few generations ago (which doubtless explains why our forefathers thrived on a selection of foods that would starve us!)

The alarming fact is that foods, fruits, vegetables and grains, now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contain enough of certain needed minerals, are starving us - no matter how much of them we eat!

No longer does a balanced and fully nourishing diet consist merely of so many calories or certain vitamins or a fixed proportion of starches, proteins and carbohydrates. We know that our diets must contain in addition a score of mineral salts.

It is bad news to learn from our leading authorities that 99% of the American people are deficient in these minerals, and that a marked deficiency in any one of the more important minerals actually results in disease. Any upset of the balance, and considerable lack of one or another element, however microscopic the body requirement may be, and we sicken, suffer, and shorten our lives.

Disorder and disease result from any vitamin deficiency. It is not commonly realized, however that vitamins control the body's appropriation of minerals, and in the absence of mineral's they have no function to perform. Lacking vitamins, the system can make some use of minerals, but lacking minerals, vitamins are useless. Vitamins & minerals from whole foods is what our body requires.

Information taken from United States Senate Document #264 "Modern Miracle Men" Presented by Rex Beach, June 1936

Senate Document 264 was written in 1936, and submitted as part of a Congressional investigation into U.S. farming practices. The leading authorities of the day had been sounding the alarm that depleted soils were causing a significant decline in the nation's health, evidenced by a steady increase in degenerative diseases. But when Congress saw the price tag on repairing the nation's farm and range soils, they swept their own investigation under the carpet.

Dr. Charles Northen a pioneer and genius in the field of nutrition demonstrated that countless human ills stem from the fact that impoverished soil of America no longer provides plant foods with the mineral elements essential to human nourishment and health.

The subject so interested Dr. Northen that he retired from active medical practice and devoted himself to proving that by putting back into foods the stuff that foods are made of, would open up the shortest and most rational route to better health.

He showed first that it should be done, and then that it could be done. He doubled and redoubled the natural mineral content of fruits and vegetables. He improved the quality of milk by increasing the iron and the iodine in it. He caused hens to lay eggs richer in the vital elements. By scientific soil feeding, he raised better seed poatoes in Maine, better grapes in California, better oranges in Florida and better field crops in other states. (By "better" is meant not only improvement in food value but also in increase in quality and quantity.)

He stated "We must rebuild our soils: Put back the minerals we have taken out. That sounds difficult but it isn't. Neither is it expensive. Therein lies the short cut to better health and longer life."

Why did Congress think it too expensive?

The information that will follow in the next few days will cover what "mineral deficiencies" are costing us and our children in terms of our health...both mental and physical.

Why Is Wellness So Late To The Party?

When I decided to blog daily, and share some of the information that I’ve been collecting over the past couple of years I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be! As you can see from my previous entries I haven’t figured out how to condense it down…suggestions would be appreciated!

Before digging into possible reasons & solutions for many of the health issues people face today, I feel that its necessary to look at where the wellness industry has been and “why” the wellness industry has come so late to our food and medical industries. Why is it taking so long for people to catch on?

Our wellness industry today exists in large part thanks to a historic battle won in the 1970’s by the one of the greatest wellness revolutionaries of our time: the late J.I. Rodale, founder of Prevention Magazine and Rodale Press (Men’s Health, Runners World).

How Rodale Paved the Way for the Wellness Revolution

In 1954, entrepreneur and author J.I. Rodale had a lot to lose. His company, Rodale Press, was just getting his fledgling Prevention Magazine off the ground. Prevention was dedicated to teaching readers how to prevent disease versus just treating the symptoms of disease.

Rodale had concluded that eating large quantities of red meat and dairy products dramatically increased the risk of heart disease and that physical activity actually decreased the risk of having a heart attack. This was at a time when the U.S. government was spending millions encouraging Americans to eat more red meat and dairy products at every meal, three times a day. Doctors were telling patients with heart disease to reduce or eliminate physical activity entirely.

Rodale wrote about his new findings in two books: How to Eat For a Healthy Heart and This Pace is Not Killing Us. He was convinced that this information could save millions of lives. But, like many writers in the 1950’ he was not on an approved list drawn up by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee, so his publisher refused to publish his new books.

Long story short, he published his own books, was ordered by the FTC to cease and desist from claiming, directly or indirectly, that readers of any of his publications would improve their health. His legal battles with the federal government raged for almost two decades, at times putting his entire personal net worth at risk. In later years some of the same leading medical experts that the government had originally used at the initial FTC hearings almost 20 years earlier, one by one refuted their original testimony, claiming they “didn’t know back then,” and admitted that many of Rodale’s original claims had since become established medical facts.

Despite the hardship, Rodale refused to back down unless the FTC agreed to acknowledge that the First Amendment prohibited them from regulating books and printed material. Soon after Rodale passed away, the U.S. government reversed its position, stating that the FTC would no longer require advertisers of information-based products to establish the efficacy of their claims.

One of the greatest challenges facing Rodale, and facing many wellness advocates today, is human rejection of the new or unknown, especially when the new ideas and technology forces people to rethink established beliefs.

**FTC commissioner Elman wrote in his dissenting opinion: “It is the glory of a free society that a man can write a book contending that the earth is flat, or that the moon is made of green cheese, or that God is dead, without having to ‘substantiate’ or ‘prove’ his claims to the satisfaction of some public official or agency. It is arrogance to presume that in any field of knowledge, whether dealing with health or otherwise, all the answers are now in.”

Bravo, Mr. Elman!

Information taken from the New Wellness Revolution by Paul Zane Pilzer

I too, believe that information available today, not only could, but would, save the lives of millions of people, if they would simply look at statistics and see that doing what you have always done, will give you the current results...2/3 or more of the population dying of a disease that could have been prevented.

How Wellness Became My Cause

There are many reasons…here are a few.

When I was growing up my grandmother was an amazing part of my life…she was my best friend and cheerleader. She was so full of spunk & humor…my friends called her “hot rod granny” – because she had a sporty Cougar and would squeal the tires when we asked her to lay a patch! Later in life, she developed Parkinson’s Disease, which took its toll on her quality of life…her hands shook so bad that she couldn't’ feed herself so it became necessary for one of us to go the nursing home each night to feed her and get her ready for bed.

Spending several days a week at the nursing home was a very sobering experience…even though its one of the nicest facilities in town, I am determined never to end up in one. The majority of the people on the nursing floor sit in their chairs or beds, day after day, waiting for someone to bring them food, dress them, take them to the bathroom…which often doesn't happen in time, say a kind word to them, many don’t seem to be aware of what’s going on and are being kept alive with drugs and Ensure. Not my idea of quality of life. In fact if you need incentive for making it a priority to age as well as possible go spend some time volunteering in one…its heartbreaking at times.

In the past year alone several people in my circle of family and friends have passed away due to Cancer…people of all ages and backgrounds. Others have Diabetes, Heart Disease, ALS, Parkinson’s Disease, Trigemina Neuralgia. All of them take numerous prescription drugs that help deal with the symptoms and discomfort of the disease but do nothing to eliminate them.

Add to that the children who have horrible eating habits, and based on what I now know about nutrition, if left to their own devices will end up in the above category…very,very, sad.

Perhaps, I’m being too much of an optimist by thinking that if all of our cells are being replaced yearly, that it’s possible to reverse much of the damage we have done to ourselves, largely due to poor nutrition. The other contributing factor to illness/disease is toxicity. It seems, again, based on research, that it would be in our best interest to make sure that the cells that are being replaced are the healthiest possible cells. Why isn't this common knowledge?

I’m so convinced that prevention of disease IS possible, based on countless studies and research, that I have become passionate about sharing this information, in hopes that some will take it seriously, and live healthier, more vibrant lives, and that it will be catching, people will eventually desire what we have! Especially, when they see that its true and it works.

Here is a link with access to audio information & research on how basic whole food nutrition can make a huge difference in your life and that of your family.
www.wendy-dejong-juiceplus.com

This link tells the story of environmental toxicity and it’s impact on all living creatures, whether it be human or animal.
www.sharethecause.com/startnow

65% Of The Population?

It is estimated that 65% of the population is overweight with 30% being clinically obese.

Equally significant, the resultant medical (sickness) industry costs reached $1 trillion by 2000 and by 2006 doubled to $2 trillion, and now occupies almost one sixth of our economy-and medical expenses are the leading cause of bankruptcy among U.S. families.

It's depressing to think of these numbers in terms of human suffering-90 million Americans clinically obese and 195 million overweight and unhealthy because they lacked the resources, information, and motivation to safeguard their most precious asset: their health

Fully 65% of Americans are trapped within their own prison of being malnourished and overweight to a point where they feel hopeless with no idea of where to turn for help.

These Americans are malnourished to the point that they live with constant headaches, body pain, stomach distress, heartburn, fatigue, arthritis, and hundreds of other ailments.

This is a subject that's so personal, and affects every aspect of our life, from self-esteem, self-confidence, relationships, jobs, social & economic opportunities, or the energy to stay on top of everyday demands of even a simple life.

Western medical school training, to this day virtually ignore, the importance of nutrition and the effect or vitamins, minerals, and natural supplements. During the twentieth century, while Western medicine was ignoring the importance of diet and exercise in preventing disease and aging, the amount of exercise preformed by individuals declined due to labor-saving devices in the home and to machines in the workplace. The quantity and variety of vitamins and minerals in our diets declined as food became more processed and less varied. And the percentage of fat in our diets increased by 75%-from about 20% of our calories in 1910 to 35% of our calories today. These and other factors contributed to the epidemic in obesity and ill health we have today in the United States.

Take a look at the waistlines and diets of most politicians and many of the medical personnel if you want to know what they think of food and health! Our politicians have been effectively controlled by the food and drug companies for so long that our government is now a large part of the problem, rather than being poised to be a part of the solution.

Heaven help us if the government gets control of our health care system!

Here are some quotes that I look at daily:

Knowledge + Action = Change

For things to change in your life you have to make a commitment to change yourself first.

If you keep doing what you've always done you will get what you always got!

I've spent quite a bit of time studying how the balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fat in our meals and snacks will not only keep the weight off, it will literally melt fat off your body at the rate of 2lbs of fat a week...that's just fat alone! Not to mention all of the other health benefits of doing so, such as, regulating your insulin levels, feeling great, having more energy...etc. It's so worth the effort to learn the simple steps necessary to live well & healthy! I'm happy to share information with anyone interested in knowing more.

Challenging you to take control of YOUR life and wishing you much success in doing so!


The statistics quoted are from The New Wellness Revolution - Paul Zane Pilzer

How Economics Perpetuates Sickness

Do you ever ask yourself "why am I doing this...what difference will it make?" I ask myself that daily! Will it make a difference to provide people with information that they may not know about and encourage them to check things out for themselves before they just swallow the band aid solutions that are provided on a regular basis...perhaps looking at all of the choices/options before just blindly going along with what is presented.

Here's some more food for thought from Mr. Pilzer - followed by some of the transripts from Headline News - Joy Behar's interview with Suzanne Somers 1/12/10 ( I highly recommend reading the entire transcript and watching the video clip):

As my research (Paul Zane Pilzer)led me to the medical industry, I encountered large multinational companies whose nefarious practices made those of the food companies pale by comparison. It quickly became apparent to me why an economist needed to write a book about obtaining good medical care along with how to obtain food for a healthy lifestyle.

When patients go to see a physician, they believe they are receiving a prescription for the best drug or treatment available for their specific ailment. Not likely.

Just as obese consumers are the target market of the food companies, physicians are the target market of the medical and pharmaceutical companies. In the United States, doctors typically prescribe completely different treatments for the same ailment, depending on which drug company has the dominant market share in their region.

Although the ethical (prescription) pharmaceutical companies around the world justify the very high prices of their drugs by citing the high cost of research and development, drug companies actually spend much more money marketing drugs than they do on research and development. Moreover, a considerable amount of the research and development that leads to the creation of new drugs is funded by the federal government through grants to nonprofit entities such as research labs at universities, medical schools, and the National Institutes of Health.

In recent years the pharmaceutical companies have hired the same advertising firms as the food companies and have begun direct image-based advertising to consumers. In these advertisements for prescription-only items that may be legally dispensed only on the written recommendation of a doctor, the patient is directly urged to demand the product and told to "ask your doctor" for a DAW (dispense as written) prescription-with the knowledge that if the doctor refuses to write the prescription the presold patient will simply find another doctor who will.

Sadly, most physicians have become technology dispensers for the products and services of the large multinational medical companies-companies that always seem to tip the scale between profits and patients in favor of profits.

These practices have pushed the price for U.S. drugs so high that patients cannot afford to fill approximately 22 percent of the prescriptions written each year. Prescription drugs now represent the single largest monthly expense for most over 65 U.S. citizens - approximately $300.00/month - millions of people are forced to make the terrible choice of purchasing food or medicine. Medicare pays for doctor visits but generally does not pay for prescriptions.

It is more profitable for medical suppliers to produce products that consumers use for the rest of their lives than to make products that a consumer might use only once. Invariably, this means spending research and development funds on products that treat the symptoms of disease rather than the causes or the cures.

Clips of the interview on Headline News with Joy Behar:

SOMERS: But with all due respect, with the dismal results of chemotherapy, and you know so many people have died, and it`s a horrible death, and particularly with pancreatic cancer, which I have three different doctors who say we all know in the oncology world that chemotherapy does absolutely nothing whatsoever.

BEHAR: So why do they give it?

SOMERS: They said it`s palliative. I said what is palliative. It means it makes the patient feel better, it makes the family feel like something is being done, and when the patient dies, a horrible and very -- it costs about $500,000 to die of chemotherapy, they all feel they did the best they could.

BEHAR: I`m back with Suzanne Somers and Drs. Julian Whittaker and Steven Lamm. OK, this Dr. Burzynski you say has found a cure for cancer?

SOMERS: Dr. Burzynski has completed phase two clinical trials in compliance with the FDA, having a 60 percent success rate with the worst kind of brain tumors. And like Dr. Whitaker was saying, if you can control cell multiplication, you`ve found a cure to cancer.

BEHAR: And how did he do that?

SOMERS: He has found that all people with cancer are missing a specific peptide and amino acid in their liver that controls cell multiplication. He`s dedicated his life to replicating that peptide, puts it back in, and in 60 percent of his brain tumor patients he`s having success. He`s just completed and approved for phase three clinical trials.

BEHAR: Approved by whom?

SOMERS: FDA. My whole point in writing "Knockout" having been diagnosed twice now with cancer, the last time being told I would die, all I want when someone says you have cancer, we can do standard care, which is surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and harsh drugs, or if that doesn`t appeal to you, you can try x.
These are all the options and Dr. Burzynski -- if I had a brain tumor, I would be on in Houston, I`d be on the train last night.

BEHAR: Dr. Lamm, would she survive if she went to Dr. Burzynski with a brain tumor?

LAMM: Let`s put it this way -- I would hope that`s the case, but I`m a little skeptical, and I think some of this fine doctor`s work has been reviewed, and, you know, the medical community has not at this point been able to validate that it truly makes a clinically significant difference.

WHITAKER: That`s non-sense! Listen, I have visited Burzynski`s clinic four or five times. I have been in a room where they were celebrating 30 years where children who had cancer 15 years ago were standing up there vibrant, prosperous, and holding a child on their hip.
BEHAR: Why doesn`t the FDA and the medical establishment say this is a good thing and we`re going to approve this?

WHITAKER: I can tell you why. There`s so much money tied up into conventional medicine that to actually allow him free reign --

BEHAR: This sounds conspiracy-theory like.

SOMERS: If some little guy in Houston has the cure to cancer, it wipes out a $200 billion a year business.

WHITAKER: Trillion.

SOMERS: Trillion.

LAMM: The medical profession is not rooting for disease. I think it`s being very -- as you say, conspiratorial to actually believe or delude yourself that doctors would rather their child die of cancer if a cure were available. There are no secrets in medicine.

WHITAKER: Wait a minute, no, no, look. It`s not individual doctors scheming to let children die. It`s the system. Never has medicine at any time in human history ever been so tied up into business. And when you have a business where you`re training physicians to do it this way, they think this way, and all of a sudden a guy says, wait a minute, the body has a parallel system to control cell division, and I have discovered how it works. Well, then that challenges all of the purging the body -- let`s do this chemo, let`s do that chemo. And now all of a sudden the cancer just disappears.

BEHAR: I remember years and years ago people used to say that the cancer business was so big that they would never find a cure. And here it is 50 years later, or whatever it is, and they still haven`t found a cure for cancer.

SOMERS: The FDA tried to put Dr. Burzynski in jail for 300 years for unlawful dispensation of unapproved drugs across state lines. Hundreds and hundreds of his patients marched in front of the Houston courthouse, and the lawyer who was representing them was not able to ask if they were cured, but he was able to say you had stage four liver cancer how many years ago? 12 years ago. Thank you, sir. He would bring them on one after another, and it spoke volumes.The jury acquitted Dr. Burzynski and he was allowed to continue his work. I really think that they are jealous of Dr. Burzynski because it`s a little guy in Houston who figured it out.

BEHAR: I believe -- one of my doctors, I said to him, does acupuncture help you to lose weight? And he said, if it, worked, there would be an acupuncturists on every corner. And I say unto you the same thing. If this worked, if this guy can cure brain cancer in children, I`m sure that the medical establishment would be right there.-

SOMERS: But he is curing children.

WHITAKER: But he is doing it.

SOMERS: He is doing it.

BEHAR: But no one from the AMA is going there to find out?

SOMERS: You have to understand that our medical schools are pharmaceutically funded, our government bureaucrats are pharmaceutically funded. You`ve got to connect the dots. I know if I had cancer, I`d try alternative first.
There`s pockets of doctors who have decided they can`t do it anymore. They have stepped out of the standard of care box, and they get persecuted by the medical establishment for doing so.It`s very hard in a hospital setting to go against standard of care. So those of us who want to go alternative, we`ve got to find it on our own. And that`s all I`m trying to do.

BEHAR: I know, I hear you. Dr. Lamm, do you think these doctors, this Burzynski, they lack credibility because the AMA and the FDA are not behind them?

LAMM: I think people lack credibility because there`s no evidence for their work.

BEHAR: He`s telling you to go there.

LAMM: I understand. I`m happy to. But you have to remember, this has been going on for many, many years. This is not a new thing. This has been going on since 1992 1993, 1995.

WHITAKER: Let me make a statement here. Dr. Burzynski patented all of his therapies beginning in the early `80s. The National Cancer Institute visited him in the early `90s and saw that it worked. They then put it consultant in there and they actually patented all of Burzynski`s work under a different name and assigned it to HHS. I have those patents. It is unbelievable.

SOMERS: And the FDA is in Burzynski`s office all the time.

LAMM: I would root for him to work, but I`m skeptical. (CROSSTALK)BEHAR: You`ve heard this conversation out there, so you decide for yourself. Thanks to Suzanne and my panel for joining me tonight and thank you for watching. Goodnight, everybody. END

How Economics Perpetuates Obesity & Malnutrition

Packaged food companies, such as General Foods and Procter & Gamble, employ some of the best and brightest minds to study consumer psychology and demographics. In trying to decide what sorts of foods to sell us, they invariably apply one of the great unwritten laws of marketing: it is easier to sell more product to an existing customer than to sell that same product to a new customer. In other words, it is easier to influence a regular customer to ear four additional bags of potato chips per month than it is to persuade a new customer, who may never have tasted potato chips, to buy even one bag of this exotic new substance.

Most processed food sales, such as Hostess Twinkies, Orea Cookies, and McDonald's Happy Meals, are governed by what those in the business call the "potato chip marketing equation." According to this law, more than 90% or product sales are made to less than 10 percent of their customers. In the case of processed foods, that coveted 10 percent consists largely of people weighing more than 200 pounds and earning less than $35,000 per year. The targeting of overweight customers is especially lucrative since these unfortunate individuals typically consume twice the amount per serving as a person of normal weight.

Each company studies its 10 percent, known as the target market, like rats in a laboratory. Customer surveys reveal their likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, hero's, and desires. High-consumption customers are recruited to take part in focus groups, where they are asked to sample new products, view advertising, and offer opinions.

No expense is spared to hit every psychological button that matters to the target market. If people in that market like a particular actor or singer, that very celebrity will soon appear on radio or television, praising the product. If a certain look, feel, or lifestyle appeals to people in that market, legions of stylists and designers will descend on the studio to simulate it. Like a deer in the scope of a hunter at close range, the target never has a chance.

These companies do something even worse than targeting lower-income, unhealthy, overweight consumers for their products. Once the target actually tries the product and becomes a customer, company chemists ensure that they will never be satisfied with eating just a healthy amount of it.

Say, for example, I give you an apple, a banana, a stalk of asparagus, or almost any food in its natural state. After eating two or three apples or bananas, your body begins craving a different kind of food, as the pleasure you feel in your taste buds lessens with each bite. But if I give you a chocolate bar, a McDonald's french fry, a can of cola, or almost any other item of processed food, you almost always crave more and more of the same item, because the chemical flavorings have been altered to ensure that "nobody can eat just one" of them. This chemical alteration causes great over consumption, promoting obesity and destroying the natural tendency of our taste buds to seek variety in what we eat.

The human body requires a daily intake of 13 essential vitamins, most of which the body cannot manufacture on its own. These vitamins, along with certain minerals, are necessary to sustain the millions of chemical reactions our bodies perform each day. Eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the day gives us all of what we need. But the majority of Americans are not getting the minimum amount of these vitamins and minerals that their bodies require because of the chemical alteration of the processed and fast foods that they consume.

Over the short term, these vitamin and mineral deficiencies manifest themselves as mood swings, lack of energy, joint pain, failing eyesight, hearing loss, and thousands of other ailments that medical science tells us to accept with advancing age. Over the long term, these deficiencies cause major illness like cancer and heart disease.

The above information was taken from The New Wellness Revolution - Paul Zane Pilzer

In my opinion its not just the over overweight, economically challenged consumer who is the only target. Everyone who has a busy lifestyle is a target!

The mother who works full time, comes home tired, has to feed the family, clean up the mess, perhaps help with homework, do laundry...etc. The last thing she feels like doing is spending an hour in the kitchen preparing dinner...so what's quick? Something from a package or take out!

The business person who doesn't have time to go out to lunch...grabs whatever they can on the fly.

Have you seen what's in the school lunch programs and vending machines?

I often wonder how I managed to make meals almost every night while working full time back when my kids were growing up. The one key thing that sticks in my memory is pre-planning as much as possible...on Sunday afternoon I would make myself a cup of coffee and go thru cookbooks and plan my menu's for the week...that also helped to keep the grocery bill down. My husband would love to have those days back...minus teenagers...I now find myself in the same trap as the majority of the population too much to do and too little time to do it! However, the same principals apply...if you desire to live a healthy lifestyle, and keep the weight off, you have to take the time to plan ahead...if that means chopping veggies and having fresh fruit ready to grab and go... or buying protein shakes so that you can have one at work when you don't have time for a break...it boils down to how bad do you desire to be healthy and fit.

Being over weight once was enough incentive for me to make the effort not to let that happen again!

Why We Need A Wellness Revolution

First, lets check out the definition:

rev-o-lu-tion

a: a sudden, radical, or complete change

b: a fundamental change in political organization

c: activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation

d: a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something: a change of paradigm

The seventeenth- century English writer John Milton saw revolution as the right of society to defend against abusive tyrants-creating a new order that reflected the needs of the people. To Milton, revolution was the means of accomplishing freedom.

The eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant believed in revolution as a force for the advancement of humankind-a natural step in the realization of a higher ethical foundation for society.

The nineteenth-century German philosopher G.W.F. Hegal saw revolutions as the fulfillment of human destiny, and he saw revolutionary leaders as necessary to instigate and implement reforms.

These insights aptly apply to the wellness revolution.

Entrepreneurs and revolutionaries are really the same kinds of people born into different circumstances. Both see the status quo in need of change, and both are willing to take risks, and reap the rewards, of changing it.

The revolutionary leaders in wellness are the entrepreneurs who grow and procreate wellness, the inventors who instigate wellness services and products, and the practitioners and distributors who carry the wellness message throughout society.

The above content taken from The New Wellness Revolution by Zane Pilzer

FACT: The U.S. Government has spent billions trying to find a cure for heart disease, cancer and other diseases and yet...

41% of all deaths are cardiovascular related - 1 out of 3 women will be affected by heart disease - 1/2 of the people that develop a heart attack will not survive.

70% of children have the beginnings of hardening of the arteries by the time they reach 12 years of age.

23% of all deaths are due to cancer - 1500 people die of cancer everyday

Add to these figures diabetes which is now said to be the third biggest killer

Still think that things are OK in the health care system?

Yes, there is a cost for wellness, but there is a MUCH bigger cost for sickness...are you willing to pay it?

The Wellness Revolution

A decade ago if you would have seen me on the street, you would have thought that I was healthy and fit, which just goes to show that you can't judge a book by it's cover! Most of my life I've been able to maintain a fairly slender build...and the times I haven't...well, at those times I learned to be a master of disguise. :)

There comes a point in life where eventually you ask yourself "if I don't do anything different where will I end up?" I reached that point just prior to my 5oth birthday, I felt like I had one foot in the grave and couldn't envision the aging process going very well for me considering how lousy I felt...between the monthly migraines that lasted for days at a time, extreme joint & tissue pain, insomnia, and depression...probably brought on by all of the other issues. I felt like a ticking time bomb.

I'm a huge skeptic, so when a client of mine told me that I should go see a lady that she and her husband had gone to for years and that she would whip me up a tincture, (her words!) I had visions of some far out, hippy type person, mixing up herbal remedies! Much to my surprise, she was a very professional lady in a suit...imagine that. That's where my journey started and I've been on a mission ever since to make sure that I don't end up like the majority of the population who work their whole life, save their money, plan for their retirement, and then end up with some illness or disease that either takes away their quality of life or wipes out everything that they have worked for. The sad truth is that it's not just the older population...according to statistics over 1 million middle and upper middle class Americans are forced into bankruptcy every year due to medical related issues. What's even sad er is that most of it could have been prevented.

The book The New Wellness Revolution, by author Paul Zane Pilzer, called "economist turned wellness guru" by the New York Times, has many examples of "why" a Wellness Revolution is necessary. Paul received an honorary doctorate for the role the book played in helping Congress pass Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and other health care reforms-reforms that now allow wellness-oriented consumers to save money on their health insurance and finance their wellness.

Although millions of new consumers every day embrace wellness, millions more remain outside the reach of the current wellness industry and become more overweight, malnourished, exercise less and or continue to smoke.

The New Wellness Revolution explains how the population of every developed nation continues to divide itself into two opposing socio-economic groups - those who are fit and healthy and take care of their wellness, and those who don't.

We are only at the beginning of the public consciousness of this growing need - because most people still are not aware of how simple choices affect their health and well being.

Approximately one-sixth of the US economy, about $2.0 trillion, is devoted to what is erroneously called the "health care" business. Health care is a misnomer, as this one-sixth of the economy is really devoted to the sickness business - defined in the dictionary as "ill health, illness, a disordered, weakened, or unsound condition, or a specific disease."

The sickness business is reactive. Despite its enormous size, people become customers only when they are stricken by and react to a specific condition or ailment. No one really wants to become a customer.

Most of the one-sixth of the U.S. adult working population that work in the health care industry today focus on treating the symptoms of disease rather than on preventing disease. This is because it is more profitable for medical companies to research and develop products that create customers for life.

The wellness business is proactive. People voluntarily become customers - to feel healthier, to reduce the effects of aging, and to avoid becoming customers of the sickness business.

Wellness is defined as "the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal (emphasis added)"

The above statements are taken from the book The new Wellness Revolution...so don't get upset with the messenger!

I've been told by a few in the medical profession that if government health care does in fact happen, we won't even be able to get vitamins without a prescription! Wake up people...we CAN NOT afford to lose anymore of our rights.

So Many Books So Little Time

I've spent most of the day reading and wishing that I could just run my hands over the books and absorb all of the great information and inspiration that they contain!

A friend of mine, who has been such an inspiration, recently sent a link to an ebook of Joe Vitale (The Secret) called Attract Money Now. I've only made it to page 63 so far but its full of insights into what keeps most people from attracting wealth, success, or happiness into their life. Here is a little clip from pg 43:
What you put out into the world comes back to you several times over. If what you put out into the world is positive you receive positive returns. If what you put out is negative, then you receive negative returns. Its that simple. When you were young, you were probably taught the ideas of 'give unto others' or 'its better to give than receive' along with other similar truths. These ideas are simple statements of the Law of Attraction. If you give freely, without expectation of return, you will receive back in kind many times over - not to mention the sheer joy that giving brings into your life.

As you've probably guessed...I've become a book junky! Another book that I found during a trip to Starbucks...my favorite coffee shop...has a large 1 on the front and the question "How many people does it take to make a difference?
I'll end the week with two pages of this book to give you something to ponder!

One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself or anyone else is inspiration. Inspiration to get in touch with your dreams. Inspiration to seek out your deepest passions. Inspiration to make a difference in the world, a difference that only you can make. This is not a book about making a living; it's a book about making a life. It's not a book about fame or acclaim; it's about making a contribution and service. Instead of asking "What can I get from life?",watch what happens when you ask "What can I give?"

What does a GREAT LIFE look like?
Ask a hundred people what a great life looks like and you'll probably get a hundred different answers-but certain answers will make virtually every one's list.

Most people would agree, for example, that a great life includes something worth living for, maybe even worth dying for. A portion of a great life would be devoted to something bigger, greater, grander, than yourself. Something that inspires you, energizes you, pulls you forward. Something that responds to your unique talent or touch and, ultimately, makes a difference in the world around you.

A great life you naturally bring more meaning, purpose, love, laughter, wonder and adventure to your days. And, at the end of your journey you would look back on a life of significance, rather than regret-knowing in your heart that you left the world a better than you found it. Knowing that you made a difference in the lives of others. Knowing that you got something wonderful out of it, and you gave something wonderful back.

A great life, of course, is not something we experience, it's something we create. That's what this book is all about.

I love it...can't wait to work thru it!

Are the Days of Networking and Niches Over?

What a blessing finding this article in my inbox was this morning!

I got involved in the "Health/Wellness" business 2 1/2 years ago because of my own personal life changing events. I was so excited about the changes that I experienced with my health & well being and that of several other people that I've shared the information with that I set out to share it with whoever would listen. If you knew that there was a product that had changed the lives of hundreds of people wouldn't you desire to share it with people?

Unfortunately, at this time, my excitement, passion, and belief has had an impact on a select few...in the big scheme of things...which has been very disappointing to say the least! Especially when the people closest to me, who know for a fact that my life has been truly changed as the result of the products that I've been introduced to...and having issues themselves, but still won't listen...ugh...its enough to make you throw in the towel and say "If I can't even get these people to listen to me who will?" I know I'm ranting but hey it makes me crazy some days...I'd like to knock on peoples heads and say "Is there anyone home up there?" I'm sure I've been that blatant at times to the ones I'm closest to so if you're one of those people reading this I do sincerely apologize.

Ahh...and then comes an article like the one below to fill you with certainty that you are on the right path for the right reasons...to keep plugging along and touch the lives of those who will hear with their hearts...who do desire to live a healthy, vibrant life...those are the people that I will attract into my life...one person at a time!


Are the Days of Networking and Niches Over?

by Karen Frank, Networking Expert

Boy, you can tell that the gurus - and everyone else - is scrambling desperately to figure out this new economy thing. It's pretty interesting actually because one thing I have noticed is that almost no one has a clue what to do - and so they are beginning to bash the experts - and each other.

Of course the two that have caught my attention are the Niche bashers and the Networking haters. Lots and LOTS of people are out there screaming that the emperors (experts) on these two subjects have no clothes.

What's most interesting is that these people with all of the thwaking and whacking of these two "n's" have utterly failed to realize that they are 'undeniably and reliably dead' - wrong. (to borrow a phrase I particularly like from the Munchkins). And there's blame to share because most of the experts also have it wrong - hence the internet airtime battle.

Here's the truth that EVERYONE is failing to see:

Your business is supposed to be an expression of who you are - your highest and best self.

If you don't believe me realize this:

During the industrial age it was important to our economy to have large numbers of people trained to obey and do "big box" corporate jobs - both blue and white collar. Even our school system was created to provide industry with an unlimited supply of ready workers. We, as a society forgot how to be entrepreneurs. As children we were taught that money doesn't grow on trees so we had to give up our deepest desires, be responsible and go get a job. Our jobs became separate from our "regular lives" and our dreams were forgotten.

That was all well and good in 1950 (sort of). Now it's 2010 and schools, business schools, big business and society in general tells us that the 1950's way is "safe and sensible." Don't believe me? Just watch the news tonight. BUT the new economy is all about changing those paradigms. True, many of the experts and gurus haven't caught up, but neither have the naysayers because they too are still coming from this mentality.

"I am not my job, I am a human being." said the Elephant Man and many of the networking naysayers. Well sure you are, but in the new economy your job, your business is not just about making money any more. It's about helping and healing people on a global scale - and that is where the disconnect lies. Your business IS who you are and it is important to be able to articulate that.

Your uniqueness aligns you perfectly to do something that will change people's lives, even if just on a small scale. It's no longer about you making money, it's about you helping people - even if you are "just a financial planner."

And don't get me started on how spirituality and integrity are incompatible with having money. Just how many people can a homeless person help? How many lives will be changed by someone whose business is failing?

The fact is that by successfully communicating who you help, what you help them with and who your perfect client is, you will make the money you need to stay in business and make a difference in this world however you choose to do it.

I can teach networking and why niches are important all day long BUT if the student is "just in if for the money" and they'd rather be off doing something else in their spare time, it's a total waste of time and money because it won't work.

This is also why the network marketing people really struggle. They go money to money. They see their job as changing people's lives by giving them an "opportunity" - which is about making money and recruiting more than it is about helping people with their problems which (oh my god) sometimes have nothing to do with money (imagine that).

So my first request of you in 2010 is to think about what your ideal life would be like. Not just the things you want, but your life, your experiences. What would you like your perfect day to be like? Where would you go? What would you do? With whom would you do it?

Take out a sheet of paper and write it down - seriously.

When you answer these questions, you'll be able to see clearly whether your business is really an expression of you or if you are "just in it for the money." If your job is a mismatch for your ideal life, then you need to make some adjustments. I am not saying close your doors necessarily, just notice and adjust.

Finally, as you think about how to talk about what you do and for whom you do it (your networking statement and your niche) remember your passion. The deep "why" buried beneath the surface of why you do what you do. When you speak with that passion to someone about what you do, the words come easily and don't matter so much, because they will hear you with more than their ears. They will also hear you with their hearts.

And that is what Networking is all about.

Want to use this article in your newsletter or on your website? You can! Just be sure to include the entire article and include this complete "blurb" with it:

Networking Expert, Karen Frank publishes Networking News, a semi-monthly newsletter devoted to helping you avoid marketing disasters and networking faux pas. Get the home study course "The Seven Deadly Sins of Networking and How to Avoid them" Free when you sign up for Networking News at www.3ecommunications.net.

The Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction is as scrupulously fair as a mirror.
Man tends to attract to himself that which he loves, fears, or steadily expects; that is, those things that he keeps at his central (focal) consciousness.

Man fears certain negative experiences, and quite logically, he attracts them. There will come times when the negative will edge toward the center, but the instant he notices this, he will immediately say "I resist that suggestion" and he will again bring back into focus that good that he wishes. Gradually, he will notice that the good, more and more, tends to stay at the center, while the negative tends to fade away.

The above is taken from The Science of Mind by Frederick Bailes

Thoughts attract that upon which it is directed. Recall that it was Job who said: "For the thing which I have feared has come upon me." Our fear thoughts are just as magnetic in attracting troubles to us as are the constructive and positive thoughts in attracting positive results. So no matter what the character of the thought, it does create after its kind. When this sinks into man's consciousness, he gets some inkling of the awe-inspiring power which is his.

We hear and read much about various stages of thought, degrees of consciousness, thought concentration, the strength of our faith, all of which deals with the intensity or degree of power we send forth. Creative force comes only when there is a fully developed mental picture, or when the imagination can visualize the fulfillment of our ambition and see in our mind a picture of the object we desire....just as if we already possessed them.

As a result of my studies of the so-called mystic teachings, the various mental sciences and the regular orthodox church teachings, I am convinced that they all work in varying degrees, but only to the extent that their followers believe. So it is with prayer, whether it be a part of a church service or the purely spontaneous and personal supplication of the individual.

However, I am forced to the conclusion that many people go through the lip-service act of saying their prayers without the slightest belief that those prayers will be answered.

Taken from the Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol

It is written; "it is done unto you as you believe"

When I first started reading these materials it was just too out there for me...a lot of it went against my personal spiritual beliefs and some of it still does...however, the more I dig into it the more I realize that a lot of the principles presented are found throughout the scriptures of all religions. What I've learned thru this process is; even though we may not agree in full with what is being presented, when we close our minds to things we may miss out on some pearls of wisdom that can be gathered along this path of life.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge...knowledge is limited."
Einstein

Life Pays Us What We Ask

Life is never unfair to us. We are unfair to ourselves. Ours is the choice: we may offer ourselves in the bargain basement or in the exclusive section, and Life is not only willing to pay; it has no alternative but to pay the exact price we set upon ourselves. It can pay no more or less, because it is impartial as the mirror, which must reflect exactly what is placed before it. It is as impersonal as the loom, which must weave into cloth the threads that are given it, be they cheap white cotton or costly threads of silk.

"My Wage," by Jessie B Rittenhouse, says this very well:

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;

For Life is a just employer;
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial's hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life
Life would have paid.

When we come to see this, Life no longer seems harsh and cruel to us. Our world will change as our ideas concerning ourselves change. So never be afraid to think highly of your value.

This implies making ourselves valuable. The shirker, constantly watching the clock or giving inadequate service, should not expect to lie on his back, filling his thought with the picture of his worth, and imagining that Infinite Mind will bring this later picture into form.

Never say a thing about yourself that you don't desire to see realized in your life. Act out the part of the person you desire to be...we can decide what sort of person we would like to be and begin at once to act the part.

Today is the finished product of yesterday's or last year's thought. Today's thought is even now passing through the loom of mind, will become the pattern of tomorrow's or next year's experience. That which we now are thinking will take form, sometime, somewhere.

If we hope to get free from those negative, unwanted conditions we have been voicing, we must change our thought. And if we have not yet advanced to the point where we have thorough control over our thoughts, we can, at least to a large degree, control our speech; therefore, today we refuse to give utterance to that which we now know will only perpetuate our unwanted past experiences.

Turn away from past failures...and focus instead on past successes no matter how small.

Taken from the book The Science of Mind by Frederick Bailes

Let's practice putting a guard over our mind and our mouth!

The Power of Choice

My focus for this week is on the mind because it impacts every aspect of our life...our health both mental & physical... relationships...success...wealth.

That said I'm going to share with you some of the things that I've learned over the past year on my journey of taking control of my thoughts, attitudes, and what I speak. Its a lot harder than I thought it would be! In fact I challenge you to pay attention to the random thoughts that go thru your mind on a continuous basis...become conscious of what you think about and say, then change any negative thoughts to positive ones as soon as they show up. I picture a big red X for delete on the computer of my mind whenever they happen...sometimes I even say delete that out loud!

Our conscious mind can be called "directing" mind. It is characterized by the words "I choose." With it, we weigh values; we weigh reasons for and against; we judge; we decide; we deliberately choose what we desire to do, what we desire to be, what we desire to have. And we deliberately choose the thoughts we wish to think.

All of our choices are made in conscious mind.

Our subconscious mind is the creating, the manufacturing, phase of mind that takes what conscious mind gives it and turns thoughts into things. Beneath the surface, it works ceaselessly to turn those thoughts - both good and bad - into the outward conditions of our lives.

It has no power of choice, it never reasons. It cannot refuse to take what conscious mind gives it. It must always work from a pattern, and it has no choice but to work from the pattern of thought that comes to it from conscious mind. Like the soil that must accept the seed, it must accept that thought.

Subconscious mind is habitual mind. Whatever we entertain often enough and vividly enough in our conscious mind - whether by conscious , deliberate choice or by choice made so rapidly that we are not aware we have made it - eventually passes into subconscious mind, where it continues to act automatically. This is the process by which we learn everything that we learn.

A negative disposition, for instance, is the result of repeated negative thoughts that have sunk into subconscious mind and have become habitual. But a cheerful, happy disposition can become just as automatic by conscious choice of positive thoughts. Thus it is not true that some people are blessed with positive natures, and others cursed with the opposite. People are not born optimistic or pessimistic: they learn to be what they are.

What anyone earnestly desires to be, he may become, not, however, by waving a magic wand but by the same procedure he uses to play the piano or to swim.

It is the level of the thought of subconscious mind - of our inward mental states - that makes us and our outer circumstances what they are and will become.

The loom that weaves thought into thing.
We all know enough about the principals of rug weaving to know that there are a loom, threads, and a weaver (or overseer) - and a rug.
The loom has only one task; that is, to keep weaving. It does not decide whether it will weave a beautiful or an ugly rug. Hour after hour, it moves back and forth, while yard after yard of rug comes slowly forth at the end of the loom.
The weaver watching it may be displeased and outraged by what he sees coming out, but he does not berate the loom and say, "Why have you done this to me?" He does not sit at the other end crying over the ugly pattern wishing it would somehow change into a thing of beauty. He knows that the only place where beauty can be made to replace ugliness is on the rack of spools at his end before the obedient weaving apparatus gets it, and so he changes the threads. He takes off a dark spool, replacing it with a brighter color; he exchanges a gaudy yellow for a mellow gold. Then he starts the machine once more, and as he watches what now comes out at the other end, he is pleased.

Daily, man's loom of mind weaves the pattern of his life. If he does not like the pattern, he is foolish to sit crying about it or wishing it would change. He is wrong to complain about "luck" or to berate "Providence." He, and he alone is the weaver.

The great law of cause and effect gives us back what we have put in.

The above is taken from the book The Science of Mind by Dr. Frederick Bailes

These were initially hard concepts for me to swallow...to think that our thoughts have brought circumstances that we honestly don't believe to be our fault into our life is a hard lump to swallow! I argued profusely with the friend who shared these concepts with me...giving him all the reasons "why" I was NOT responsible for this or that. The sad reality is that now that I've taken the time to study these principals and pay attention to what I'm thinking and saying my mind has been happy to send me instant replay messages of all the things that I previously thought to create the circumstances that I didn't feel responsible for. Your subconscious mind never forgets anything! The bright spot is that you can start immediately to reverse the negative and shift to the positive...this has truly changed my life.

The Power of Thought

I've always look forward to January...minus the snow and cold! The reason it's my favorite month is that I see it as a clean slate...a chance to do better...to be better than the previous year...I'm filled with hope and anticipation. This is especially true this year because I've spent the past 12 months doing much reading on the topic to follow.

"There was a time when I would have laughed at people who talked about the magnetic force of thought, how thought correlates with its object, how it can affect people and inanimate things, even at great distances. But I no longer laugh, nor do others who know something of its power, for anyone who has any intelligence sooner or later comes to the realization that thought can change the surface of the entire globe." Claude Bristol

I too, was once a skeptic, and even after spending considerable time reading and studying these concepts and findings, certainly wouldn't have risked being ridiculed by my peers by admitting that I now believe them to be true! Not only do I now believe them to be true, I believe that in our current economic environment, along with the gloom and doom mindset of the media, that it is more important than ever to determine whether or not you will choose to focus on all that is good with your life or will you buy into the concept that the best days of our lives are behind us. I personally choose to believe that the best days are in front of us and that we can overcome the obstacles and be stronger as a result!

Perhaps the following story and insights taken from the book I'm reading, The Magic of Believing by Claude Britol, from which most of the content for today is coming will be an encouragement to you as it has been for me.

"It came to me in a flash that the reason my firm was going on the rocks was not because of the threatening outside happenings and events, but because of the mental attitude of its members and employees. We were all succumbing to mass fear thoughts; we feared that the depression was weakening our spirit and sweeping everything downhill to financial disaster, and with our own thoughts of ruin we were attracting the disaster to ourselves. It occurred to me that all I needed to do to save the firm and to begin fighting the depression itself was to reverse the thinking of every person connected with our organization. I set about doing that very thing; and as Frank W. Camp who wrote the introduction to my brochure declared, "it was followed by the most remarkable transformation of individuals and organization as well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson declared that the ancestor of every action is thought; when we understand that, we begin to comprehend that our world is governed by thought and that everything without had its counterpart originally within the mind. It is just as Buddha said many centuries ago: "All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

Your very life is your thinking and the result of your thinking processes. Your flesh, bones, and muscles can be reduced to 70 per cent water and a few chemicals of small value, but it is your mind and what you think that makes you what you are. The secret of success lies not without, but within, the thoughts of man. You are the product of your own thought. What you believe yourself to be, you are." Claude Bristol

"As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." Jesus

"Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement. Without it there would be no great empires, no great fortunes, no great transcontinental rail lines, no modern conveniences; in fact, there would be no advance over life in the most primitive ages.

Your thoughts, those that predominate, determine your character, your career, indeed your everyday life. Thus it becomes easy to understand what is meant by the statement that a man's thoughts make or break him. And when you realize that there can be no action or reaction, either good or bad, without the generating force of thought initiating it, the Biblical saying, "For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap," and Shakespeare's words "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking that makes it so," becomes more intelligible. We become what we contemplate, what we envisage.

I would like to point out that hard work alone will not bring success. The world is full of people who work hard but have little to show for it. Something more than hard work is necessary: it is creative thinking and firm belief in your ability to execute your ideas. The successful people in history have succeeded through their thinking. Their hands were merely helpers to their brains.

Another important point is that one essential to success is that your desire be an all-obsessing one, your thoughts and aims be co-ordinated, and your energy be concentrated and applied without letup. It may be riches or fame or position or knowledge that you want, for each person has his own idea of what success means to him. But whatever you consider it to be, you can have it provided you are willing to make the objective the burning desire of your life. A big order, you say. Not at all; by using the dynamic force of believing,you can set all your inner forces in motion, and they will in turn help you to reach your goal." Claude Bristol

"It is done unto you as you believe." Jesus

"Now that you have a clearer idea of the part that thought and desire play in our daily lives, the first thing to determine is precisely what you want. Starting in with the general idea that you merely want to be a success, as most people do is to indefinite. You must have a mental pattern clearly drawn in your mind. Ask yourself, Where am I headed? What is my goal? Have I visualized just what I really want? If success is to be measured in terms of wealth, can you fix the amount in figures? If in terms of achievement, can you specify it definitely?" "I ask these questions, for in their answers are factors which will determine your whole life. Strange as it may appear, not one out of a hundred people can answer these questions. Most people have a general idea of what they would like to be a success, but beyond that everything is vague. They merely go along from day to day figuring that if they have a job today they will have it tomorrow and that somehow they will be looked after in their old age. They are like the cork on the water floating aimlessly, drawn this way and that by various currents, and either being washed up on the shore, or becoming waterlogged and eventually sinking." Claude Bristol

Thought - Desire - Belief...are you paying attention to yours?

Make it a great year...the choice IS yours
Wendy