WISH Radio: Straight Talk for Women's Health

So we're tipping over to the second half of our 21-Day New Year, New You Challenge and if you're still here, then hat's off to you! Thank you for your time and attention and persistence in sticking to it. I know this is going to pay off for you. No matter how sloppy and sleepy my messages may have been, the fact that every day for the last eleven days you've been checking in and committing to yourself still makes you more powerful than if you'd allowed yourself to get sucked down another Facebook rabbit hole, or Netflix binge!

Today we're talking about "distractions" and how to ditch them once and for all. We've been talking a lot about the importance of being present and discussed why where you put your attention will determine everything about the results you get in life. So how do we handle the distractions that come up and seem to take so much of our time and attention off the track of the better life we're busily trying to create for ourselves?

With three teenagers and one child with autism in our house, I consider myself almost an expert at figuring out what it takes to eliminate distractions, crank up productivity and feel super-charged about your progress and focus in life. I had to learn things the long and hard way!! Hopefully a few ideas in today's blog article and podcast can help spare you a lot of wasted minutes, days, weeks and even years of unnecessary distraction!

We've hit the halfway mark of our 21-Day New Year, New You Challenge. Today's message is a wake up call to the worriers out there, and a word of caution to the overly cautious. Sometimes the more you stress and avoid and fear something happening, the more likely it is to actually happen. On the other hand, as long as you keep your eyes on the prize, no matter what obstacles and surprises come up for you in life, chances are very good you'll get there. 

Life really does go where attention flows, and today's podcast and blog article prove it. You can access the rest of the short blog article to accompany this podcast here.

While we all know about the power of anti-oxidants and omega fatty acids, few people discuss the fact that you are as alive as you are willing to communicate. What makes some of us more able to communicate and others crawl into our shells? What tricks and tips and solutions can we find to feel more able to confront difficult and uncomfortable situations in our lives. The answers will be found in this series of articles on Communication. Let's start at the beginning with a look at the only two kinds of communication that are possible and three big reasons why it might not be working the way you expect it to.

If you keep on filling a glass of water, without stopping to take a few drinks, eventually it will spill. If you are driving with a full tank of gas and never stop to fill it up, eventually you will be stranded on the side of a road. Communication is a lot like many other kinds of energy in life, it works in flows. There are essentially only two kinds of communication; incoming communication and outgoing communication. There's communication you put out from you to others and the world around you, then there's the communication from others and your environment which is coming in at you.

When the balance gets out of whack, as in there's a significant imbalance of flows, you can start to feel kinda funky. For example:

• If you listen to too many lectures and read too many articles without taking that information and sharing it, applying it, using it, talking about it, doing something with it, you'll feel kind of stuck in your head. Whereas, if you learn information and also get the chance to apply it and put it into action and get results, you'll feel really motivated to learn more.
• If you let someone talk to you too long without putting in a few of your own words, or sharing your thoughts and ideas, you may end up feeling irritable or overwhelmed. (Conventional classrooms are a classic case of too much inflow, not enough out flow. Students are expected to sit at their desk 8 hours a day while they get
• Think of how you feel when you send an important message to someone and you're waiting for them to reply to you. What about when you send a message and don't hear back, or when you call for someone and they don't answer.

Letting the balance of incoming and outgoing flows go too far either way, will not feel good. Most of the situations that have been upsetting to you for one reason or another in your life, were very likely situations when this communication balance got WAY out of whack--so far out of whack you didn't know what to do to handle it--like; accidents & injuries, surgeries, break ups, death, etc.

Welcome to Day 8 of our 21-Day New Year, New You Challenge. We've been covering some helpful ideas about how to set your goals, then bravely persist in making them happen. We've talked about the importance of taking one step at a time and keeping the whole picture in perspective. We talked about obstacles and how important they are to your degree of pleasure and satisfaction in life. And we've talked about why being present to what's actually happening will make you much, much more able to face and handle the problems in front of you.

I don't know what goals and objectives you set for yourself, but since we've covered many of the internal things you'll need to have or strengthen to achieve them, let's talk about another big obstacle that you will eventually have to face--other people! Difficult situations with other people may be one of the biggest sources of stress affecting our health and well-being. While you can throw out the cheese puffs, clear out your closet, move homes, change cities and even countries to rebuild your life, people are a different kind of problem to handle.

To be truly successful at making your goals and dreams happen, chances are pretty good you're going to need to learn how to handle other people and improve their situation, or yours. Today's blog post might be the most important thing you ever read when it comes to effectively handling other people!

We're one third of the way through our 21-Day New Year, New You Challenge,  and our goal now is to keep things more practical than theoretical. The most valuable people in life are not necessarily the ones with loud voices, sophisticated vocabularies or thick books credited to their name. There are many people who do a lot of thinking about how to make life work, and many more who who do a lot of talking, this blog post is dedicated to the ones who, in the midst of struggle or strife quietly rolled up their sleeves and got busy doing whatever it took to make life work.

This blog is dedicated to the dirty fingernails of the world--the ones whose blood, sweat and tears spill getting things done, while others spend time talking about it. This is a message for action-takers--the ones who aren't afraid to get a little messy trying to make life go right, and who know that making life go right doesn't just mean "when you feel like it," or "when it's convenient for you," but when the going gets tough and it's rough and wild and a little scary!

We're presented, for the first time in known history, with a whole new culture where an ever-present exposure to media and an onslaught of highly provocative visual imagery can hold (and keep) our attention hostage for hours and hours a day. This attention trap is keeping an increasing number of otherwise capable and productive people distracted, overstimulated and unproductive.

When you add to this attention-sucking trap, lowered levels of literacy, a compromised state of physical health, increased exposure to harmful, environmental toxins, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, fungicides, suicides, ADHD and autism, we are leading ourselves directly into a swamp of stupidity and long-term suffering.

If your life is as pleasurable as the size of your obstacles, then how many obstacles do you really get by swiping and clicking and dropping and dragging stuff on an electronic clipboard?

If we feel alive by reaching out and making things happen, then how much can our confidence and happiness really improve if we're stuck sitting in our chairs or desks zoning in to the computer screen and checking out of life in the real world.

It might seem comfortable to sit there on your electronic device, but the rapidly increasing rates of depression and anxiety in teens indicate it's not that comfortable? There was a day when children were supposed to be "seen, but not heard" and now that that day has come to a large degree, and I gotta say, I hate it.

I like the noisy, rule-breakers and trouble-makers! They make life fun--they make life feel ALIVE!

So here you are. Day 6 of our 21-Day New Year, New You Challenge. In light of your persistence, I hereby certify you as a spiritual freakin' ninja. By this time 90% of people who signed up would have given up.* But here you are, going strong and diving in for the big win. BRAVO!! It takes sharp teeth to show up and take life on, but you're doing it!

Over the next couple days I want to share with you a few tools that will help make standing up to life even easier. They're not common tools, but they work. The reason they aren't common is because they cannot be patented and nobody would make any money for sharing them with you. The only mistake you'll make over the next two days as you read these blogs and podcasts, is fail to apply the information and try it out. If you decide you've "already been there and done that," or "already know that" and so neglect to physically put the information into action, you'll miss out on what you don't know about it.

We talked about presence, the importance of staying in the moment and seeing what's there for what it really is. We've talked about the importance of taking things one step at a time, and being willing to swim with crocodiles instead of being stuck on an embroidered meditation pillow. Today's blog post and podcast is your chance to put wisdom into action. What you're about to read is painfully simple, but 99% of people still won't to it, even it if will change everything about their lives and propel them toward their goals.

So let's see if you're in the 1%, or not, shall we?

You can read the rest of the blog over here.

Welcome to Day 5 of our 21-Day New Year, New You Challenge. Yesterday we discussed why your willingness to observe what's happening in the present moment will significantly improve your ability to overcome obstacles and reach your goals in life. This is especially true when you're trying to accomplish something you've failed at many times in the past.

Whether it's losing weight, building a business, or making a loving relationship work, the sting of past failures can cloud how we perceive what's happening in the present moment and compromise our ability to get back up, or trust ourselves enough to try again. If you're struggling with that kicked down feeling, yesterday's blog and podcast will help. Today I want to talk about pleasure, and where it really comes from, so you can tap into it and turn up the volume on it even more.

Pleasure is your spiritual pay check and the "grand prize" for playing at the game of life. The more you get, the more fun living is.  Chances are good when I say "pleasure," you may think of things like sex or chocolate, or hot summer sun on your skin. But let's stop for a moment and consider the bigger picture--what is it you're really looking for in these things you associate with pleasure?

There's one thing sex, chocolate and sunsets have in common. There's one thing about them that brings you pleasure, and as soon as you identify what it is, you'll start to experience in the simplest experiences in your life, and it will start to show up everywhere you turn.

This is Day 4 of our 21-Day New Year, New You Challenge, and we've been covering quite a few hot topics like how to tackle big goals in little steps, and how to get out of the cycle of self-sabotage by seeing the facts. Today I want to take on a subject that sometimes gets a little esoteric--or too "mystical" and "spiritual" to understand and put into practice.

When it comes to most people's ideas of "being present" modern self-development parlance has a tendency to make things a little complicated. I don't want you to have to spin your chakras three times clockwise, then strap a crystal to your third eye for you to figure things out. In fact, I think most people have a better chance of finding "enlightenment" while they are sitting stuck in a mosquito-infested jungle, in a broken canoe surrounded by crocodiles!!

You don't need to escape life and sit on an embroidered pillow case in a silent cave on the top of a mountain to figure life out. I think the best way is to throw yourself into it with as much courage and guts and grit as you can!

 The blog accompanying this podcast can be found here and is called" Why I Choose Crocodiles Not Puffy Cushions.

We're back for another dose of what you need most--encouragement and straight talk on what it takes to make it to the other side of overwhelm and frustration when you're setting out to make your goals and objective stick for the new year. Today is Day 3 of our New Year, New You Challenge and I'm so excited and thankful to be receiving feedback and comments from many of you already! Thank you for taking the time to share yourself and your experiences with me. I LOOOOVE it when you put comments in the blog, or send me an email! Thank you!!

Yesterday we talked about the importance of facing big obstacles with small steps, and being able to acknowledge the journey. Today we're going to take that conversation just a little bit further and discuss a common idea in the area of self-help, and certainly food, diet and nutrition, and that is this idea of falling off the "bandwagon" or "slipping backward." There are some really important ideas to understand about why it sometimes feels like you're moving backward, and some great tips and suggestions for keeping things in perspective and making your results happen even faster. The podcast for today's lesson has some awesome tips, but I want to start by sharing with you what I believe is probably THE most unproductive, time-wasting and energy-sucking thing you do.

And you probably don't even realize you're doing it! You probably think it's "normal." (Read the rest here; 

Why Big Changes Take Small Steps

While it's fine and dandy to have things upbeat and bubbly, because sometimes that's how life is, sometimes things suck and you feel stuck and the hard work you're trying to do and good things you were making progress with suddenly feel like they're falling apart! When that happens, it's easy to lose hope, get discouraged, frustrated with ourselves or just lost and confused along the way to making life better.

I wanted to take a few minutes to address some of the tools we can use to help us get through tough moments of life. It's fair to acknowledge that fact that not everyone feels like "Little Miss Sparkle Puff of Positivity" all the time!!

I thought I'd share a longer email I received from someone who was reaching out with a plea for help as one of our participants on the FREE 90-day detox I did way the heck back in 2009!! In this letter, this participant shares how she's feeling regarding her ongoing struggles in her relationship to food. This letter is completely unedited and epitomizes some of the self-sabotaging struggles many of us have dealt with over the years. Maybe it's not always about "raw food," but most of us have had a crisis or two beating ourselves up for failures about pretty minor things, in the scheme of life.

To access the rest of the article related to this podcast, c'mon over over here and visit me on the blog where you'll find a great story, clever tips and the support you need to take your next little step toward big, beautiful goals, too!