JUNE | JULY 2016
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WHAT TO TELL YOUR CLIENTS CAN FOOD MAKE US SPIRITUAL IS YOUR ENERGETIC GLASS OVERFLOWING? THE IGNITING EFFECTS OF A JOY-FILLED LIFE IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH AND SEX LIFE WITH EFT
www.HolisticHouston.com
THE BENEFITS OF DAILY GROUNDING
Letter From the Editor
Table of Contents
Welcome to the second edition of Holistic Houston Magazine! I can’t tell you how happy and honored I feel with your welcome and love to this new magazine. So many of you have contacted me so enthusiastic about the launch, design, articles and advertisers. We have been working diligently with everything we have planned for the magazine. And, I’m so excited at what the future holds for us and for our community. We hope you enjoy this magazine as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
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Table of Contents 3
What To Tell Your Clients
5
Can Food Make Us Spiritual
7
Is Your Energetic Glass Overflowing?
11
The Igniting Effects of a Joy-Filled Life
13
Improve Your Health and Sex Life with EFT
17
The Benefits of Daily Grounding
by Angie Romero
India Call 713.668.2948
for an appointment or visit us at www.HinduGods.net
by Anisha Anand by Kelly Fisher
by Patricia Hartfield by Alina Frank by Linda Hall
Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 2
What to Tell Your Clients
By ANGIE ROMERO
As a practitioner, there are several modalities that I can use during a session when a private client comes to see me. The beauty of having studied various kind of therapies allows me to use what’s best for the client and their situation at that particular moment. For example, if I feel that they would benefit right then and there of one particular therapy then I jump into that modality. If later in the session I feel a guided visualization would concrete the ‘idea’ we’ve been working on then I finish with that. Or, I just go ahead and work energetically through ThetaHealing.
Why am I talking about this? Simple. I’ve had a few of my Holistic Business Coaching clients ask me, “When do I use this modality?” and “I have several techniques, do I have to tell the client every time which one I’m using?” Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 3
First of all, unless your modalities specifically state that you must tell your clients, then my answer would be no.
Please understand that clients go to you for results. You are the expert who is going to help them resolve their particular ‘problem’ or ‘symptom’. Generally speaking your client doesn’t need to know your entire resume, what you’ve studied and under whose guidance.
That’s because clients seek results. All they really care about is that you are going to help them resolve their pain point. Needless to say, if your client does ask you, then of course you explain to them your technique, what you are doing and why. If you are worried that your clients might need to know before hand exactly ‘how you do what you do’ then I recommend that your marketing and previous communications with your potential clients touch on this. In other words, have these communications before your client really walks through the door. This allows you to use the time with them more efficiently, helps them come in more relaxed, and definitely helps you stay focused on doing what you do best — working with your clients!
Angie Romero is a Holistic
Practitioner, Life and Wellness Coach for Women and a Marketing & Business Coach for Healers. She is also the Editor & Publisher of Happier Healthier Women and Holistic Houston Magazines. Recipient of VIP Woman of the Year by The National Association of Women for 2013 for her service to women worldwide to live Happier and Healthier in all areas of their life. You can follow her through her facebook pages Happier Healthier Women, Life and Wellness Coaching and Holistic Houston. Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 4
Food & Spirituality
By ANISHA ANAND
Can Food Make Us More Spiritual?
I truly believe so. One definition of spirituality given by the Oxford dictionary is “Relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things”. When I think of food, I think of eating it and how it nourishes me. It is about nutrients, yes, but I also think about cooking it, growing it, how it was grown, and wonder who grew it? I think of the flavors, aromas and textures. But most of all food brings back memories associated with a particular dish or combination of flavors, the occasion, the moment, the place, the ambiance and the person or people I shared it with.
So really everything about food, the cooking process, the way we consume it, or how it is grown could make us spiritual if it allows us to make a connection to ourselves, or to the person who grew it or cooked it for us and even the earth itself. Food is more than just nutrients for the body, it nourishes the body but it also nourishes the soul. When we actually think about where our food comes from, or grow our own food, plant vegetables in the garden or visit a farm to see how hard a farmer works, it makes us think about the effort it takes to “make” food. It is not the same as going to the store and getting a box of food and eating it. So it becomes important to think about our connection to our real food providers and be thankful for the earth’s bounty. The actual act of eating can be a spiritual process when we take the time to enjoy our food. If only
we would spend the time giving our full attention to what is on our plate, how it looks, smells, how it tastes and cherish each bite. Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 5
I do believe that we eat with our eyes first, then our nose, then our mouth and then our stomach.
The whole process of stimulating and pleasing all of our senses is another spiritual experience. By sitting down with family and friends (or even alone) to enjoy a meal mindfully not only allows us to relish every bite, it may also help our body absorb nutrients and digest the food better. Cooking can be an activity we do as a family which allows us to not only share a bond but create new bonds.
Do you remember cooking with your
mom, or dad or sister or brother or grandma or friends? When you think of those moments, do you get transported back to that time and place, can you smell the aromas from the pot that you stirred together, do you remember that spill on the counter or how it felt to knead the dough?
Do you remember tasting the dish you
created together and wondering if it needed more salt? Cooking simply connects us more than just with our food but also in time and with people. Food and food aromas create new memories and also bring back old memories. When we cook food for someone we love, it allows us to think about them in a caring and nourishing way. We make it a point to understand what makes them happy, what flavors and food please them. In a way we are creating a gift for them. The food maybe physical thing but the process of cooking sort of transforms it into a nonmaterialistic gift. We are taking time out of our busy day and making an effort to create something. The act of creation with someone in mind is what I think makes cooking food for some spiritual. It is similar to creating art or painting for someone.
As a Personal Wellness Chef, sometimes the best part of my day is if I get to see a child enjoy his plate of food and vegetables that I got to cook for him or her. Somedays when I get home after teaching a cooking workshop or cooking meals for a family I think back to the day and I know what I did made a difference in someone’s day, life and wellness journey, to me that is a spiritual moment. So, in my mind I have this expansive definition of spirituality and how food makes us more spiritual than we already are. What do you think? I would like to leave you with one of my favorite quotes by Thich Nhat Hanh…
“If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our food in that way we become grateful and when you are grateful, you are happy.”
Anisha Anand
is a Personal Wellness Chef at Heartful Earth Cuisine, striving to inspire and empower people to promote their health and wellness with food. She is a member of the United States Personal Chef Association, and her writing/ recipe creations have been featured in The Bay Area Health and Wellness magazine of Houston, as well various health coaches on their websites and blogs. She recently also was interviewed by Cleverly Stone on her radio show on CBS Houston. Connect with her to learn more about Heartful Earth Cuisine Personal Wellness Chef services at www.facebook.com/ HeARTfulEarthCuisine
Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 6
Is Your
Energetic Glass Overflowing?
By KELLY FISHER
In the glass, there’s the worry that you just got laid off. Gotta find a new job - Preferably one that you actually LIKE, and not one that sucks the life outta you. The eldest’s birthday is in two days. She wants a new iPhone, but dammit, you just got laid off! Your mom is going to call on Saturday. There’s no WAY you want to tell her that you can’t pay her car payment for her, because they’re totally broke. Then, it’s bedtime and your son trundles out and announces he has no clean clothes for school tomorrow. He couldn’t have thought of this before dinner?!? You’re either going to have to stay up for two hours to wash his clothes, or send him to school stinky. Your energetic glass overflowed, your last nerve has been trod upon, and here come the fireworks. Frustration, yelling, gnashing of teeth, you know the drill… but let’s back up for a second....
What is this ‘energetic glass’ I’m referring to? Think of the glass as you, and the water level as representing your total energetic load. It gets filled with all the energy and emotions that are stirred up within you, plus all the energetic ‘stuff’ you’re exposed to when you’re going about your day. With each bit of energy added, the glass gets closer to overflowing. And let’s be clear, we’re mostly talking about negative energy here, after all, being exposed to calm, happy people usually doesn’t stress us out. When you’re energetically sensitive, you tend to pick up on others’ emotions, and can start running them within your own energy system. So if you’re in an environment you’re exposed to a wide variety of negative emotions, which is pretty much anyplace there’s a bunch of people, you can start to feel your emotions yanked all over the place. If you’re energetically sensitive and don’t know how to dissipate energetic buildup, you may be walking around with the water level in your glass almost at the top, and it may only need the tiniest bump to make it overflow. Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 7
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What So, how do you achieve that? You start by getting rid of the energetic buildup - the crud you’re carrying around on a daily basis: From the traffic jam two days ago, that visit to the mall last week, that argument with your spouse, to the always-present heapload of judgment from your <insert appropriate relative here>. Carrying all that around keeps the glass filled to a higher level. A daily grounding exercise reduces that buildup. It lets you walk around with your ‘water level’ much lower, so that you’re starting from a calmer place, and can maintain that calm more easily. A basic grounding exercise starts with sitting down in a quiet place. Preferably it’s outside, in a place of beauty and inspiration. If that’s not feasible, you can imagine the beautiful, inspiring scene instead. Take a few deep breaths and relax. Let your shoulders drop. From any part of your body that’s in contact with the ground or floor (your feet, your sit bones, etc), imagine roots sprouting and sinking down into the Earth.
When you’re energetically sensitive, you tend to pick up on others’ emotions, and can start running them within your own energy system.
Next, imagine all the excess tension, built-up energy, and collected crud flowing down through those roots, and into the Earth. Just sit and let the stuff drain away for a few minutes. Once you’re done, thank the Earth for receiving your energy, and ask her to use it for the good of all. Then you can come back to ‘present’ and go on about your day. I recommend doing this exercise at least once per day. I find that after I get home from work is a good time. I can do a quick grounding and then feel clear and relaxed for dinner.
You can do this as often as you need to them as if they were mine. If I was around angry people, I felt afraid. If I was around ‘downer’ dissipate unwanted energy. If the kids are people, it brought me down, too.
driving you batty. If you have a stressful meeting at work. If you know you have to call <insert appropriate relative here>, wouldn’t it be better to do so AFTER you’ve lowered your stress level so they can’t push your buttons as easily? And perhaps, again, after the call so you can de-hiss?
I hadn’t really thought about what people do with their energy, and how it affects others. We’re all basically swimming around in other people’s energy, and it’s kinda like the Hudson River – you just don’t know what’s in there. So by the time you I learned I was energetically sensitive about ten years ago. get back to the sanctity of your home, who knows Prior to that, I didn’t understand why I felt the way I did. what you’ve encountered? It’s really important to I knew I could sense the moods and energy of others, but I have a way to get rid of that. didn’t understand that I was picking up those energies and taking them on and running them myself, or reacting to That’s where grounding helps. Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 9
Before I learned to do grounding, I walked around with tons of pent-up energy. I had a hair-trigger temper. I screamed at other drivers if they cut me off, and would still be mad two hours later. I avoided crowded places if I could. For a few years, I even avoided the mall between Thanksgiving and mid-January! It was just too overwhelming. If the story at the top had happened to me then, instead of three days ago (yes, what I described happened to me three days ago), I would have been a sobbing, freaked out basket case.
Starting and maintaining a consistent grounding practice can vastly improve your mood and quality of life. You can walk into potentially crappy situations knowing that they don’t have to stick with you. You can have clearer, calmer relationships with others because you’re approaching them as YOU, not you plus whatever that was you picked up at lunch. Please, give it a try, and see what a difference it can make in your life. I know it’s made a big difference in mine.
Now, if I go to the mall, it really doesn’t bother me. I look at it as a fun exercise in people-watching and energy reading. I can identify the types of energy I’ve encountered, but I don’t internalize it anymore. I view driving as time to myself where I can listen to my music in peace, instead of a stressful encounter with pissed-off people in two ton chariots. I still get cut off, I still occasionally mutter at them, but then I release it. I knew there was a high probability that I’d get laid off at work. Instead of freaking out, I’m viewing it as an opportunity for the Universe to bring in some new goodies.
Kelly Fisher
is the founder of Bright Energetics, and she is dedicated to improvement of energy, intuition, and consciousness through individual and group coaching, seminars, and monthly energetic tune-up calls. Kelly has trained in Shamanism, Matrix Energetics, Yuen Method, and Consciousness, among others, during her own ten-year journey to understand her energetic sensitivity and put it to good use. She is very down to earth and no-BS, giving you energetic tools without the “woowoo.” Visit her at http://brightenergetics.com
the purpose
of our lives is to be
happy The Dalai Lama
Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 10
The Igniting Effects of a
Joy-Filled Life By PATRICIA HARTFIELD
Have you ever noticed that when you smile at a stranger, they often look surprised, and then smile themselves? We live in a culture where a lot of communication occurs via technology. In this time, it is more important than ever to acknowledge the value of acknowledging each person’s human presence. Just as a simple smile is contagious, so are the effects of a joy-filled life. People who are content and full of happiness are not those who necessarily have an easier life than other people. More likely, they are the people who are aware of the good in their lives. Often times, your perspective is more to do with your lens, or slant, than it is about actual circumstances. As an experiment, start recording happy thoughts and events in your life. Knowing that you will be recording them just might make you more aware of them as they happen. It could be as minor as getting a good parking spot, or observing an act of kindness at the grocery store. It could also be a big event, such as finding out that you are pregnant. Next, start sharing these recordings. If you are sending a note to someone, include a thanks that you recorded about them. You could also invite a friend to share in your joy recording practice, and share a few of your recordings each week. Hearing what fills your friends and family with joy can make you even more joy filled as you become increasingly aware of all of the good in the world. Often media bombards us with bad news and gloom, but just remember that when a light is turned on in a dark room, it is visible, and when others see that light, they just might turn on one of their own. Now that you’ve taken some time and have a new perspective on things, let’s let it sink in from the inside out!
Patricia Hartfield is a Social Wellness and Empowerment Expert, and
Founder of Be Social…Be Healthy, LLC., an organization that supports, encourages and gives women from every walk of life an opportunity to step forward to reach their dreams and goals. As an Honored Member of Convington Who’s Who for Executives and Professionals, Patricia comes to us from a background of administration, medical office management and the fitness industry. Visit www.besocialbehealthy.com to learn more.
Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 11
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Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 12
Improve Your
Health & Sex Life with EFT
By ALINA FRANK
Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been estimated that over 40% of women have some sort of sexual dysfunction. This is a problem of epidemic proportions. Unrealistic images of womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ideal body types are featured constantly in all media formats. Are the two be connected? I believe that they are.
Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 13
The link between what a woman feels about her body, and her sexual expression, is becoming clearer with each research study. If you are constantly focused on what your body looks like, as well as what you think others are seeing and judging, then you can’t really let go and surrender into unbridled, lost-in-the-moment kind of sex.
Great sex
is created from a recipe that includes not just passion, but also feeling safe, connected, and present in the moment. When it’s off, it can be both disappointing and orgasm-less. Worse than that, it can be painful or nearly impossible. One common causative thread in all these scenarios is the lack of feeling true appreciation for your body. It is nearly impossible to avoid the images from the media’s pre-occupation with female body perfection. Even if you do not subscribe to cable TV and avoid titillating popular movies, you still are nearly forced to see photo-shopped images of perfect bodies on magazine covers at the grocery checkout line and online commercials.
Even when we consciously reject the promotion of these body perfection templates, parts of our brain become hardwired with the repetitive projection of these images as being the way we are supposed to look. Besides the visual images of skinny-beauty, if you happen to have been raised in a family that was judgmental about your appearance, this is also gets hard-wired into your subconscious at a deep emotional-limbic system part of the brain. A mother that would only pack you half-asandwich, or told you that perhaps it would be better if you wore only one piece bathing suits. These critical voices in your head from your past and the voices of a distorted view of what a woman’s body should look like, make it challenging for acceptance of what your body is in real life. Many of us long for those moments of uninhibited physical play, absent the notso-quiet inner voices of judgment and selfcritique. That wild, carefree joy of one’s body, is still intact for small children. How freeing it is to see them happy and comfortable walking around in the nude any chance they get. If only we could restore that feeling and live our lives with a lack of concern for how others see us. The loss of that freedom is painful. There is one tool that I have found that works magically to change the focus from selfreproach and scorn to profound self-love. That tool is the Emotional Freedom Techniques, (aka EFT or Tapping). EFT was founded in the 1990’s by Gary Craig as a way to discharge and release negative emotions. EFT, also referred to as Tapping, is based upon the concept that all negative emotions involve a simultaneous disruption Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 14
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in the subtle energy system of the body. Feelings like anger, sadness, fear, grief, and guilt are able to be reduced and even removed by tapping with one’s fingertips on various acupoints on the face and upper body. This is the same energy system used in acupuncture – the meridian system. Powerfully charged memories create a blockage in the flow of this subtle energy and the end result is that we feel bad. When the system is cleared, it allows the mind to reframe the events, resulting in feelings of greater calm, peace and self-resourcefulness. The most fundamental statement that is utilized in the process of EFT is the “Even though” phrase. For example, “Even though I feel ashamed about the size of my thighs, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.” Imagine how profound it would be if you really made that shift to loving and accepting your body just the way it is? One EFT practitioner I know actually works in a plastic surgeon’s office. This doctor is insightful enough to realize that his repeat patients were, as he described “fundamentally flawed” in how they saw themselves. He understood that their personal reality of their bodies was often blatantly different from the perspective of how the external world viewed them. He felt that doing yet one more surgery on another body part in those patients was merely placing a band-aid on a festering wound.
He was wise enough to realize that what needed real repair was their emotional inner state, not their external flesh. To be able to marvel at your body and all that it does for you in spite of some perceived imperfections, is liberating at the very least.
That wonder of self and inner happiness is a key ingredient to being able to expose your nude body in front of your partner, or even yourself. If you have trepidations about “leaving the lights on” when having sexual contact, you are restricting your ability to delight in your partner’s body as well as your own. One of the ways that I determine where someone has issues with their body is to ask them to view themselves naked in front of a mirror. Listening to the negative thoughts that arise, helps to identify where your blocks are, what specifically you hate most, and possibly where they came from. If you hate your booty, you might remember being teased about it’s size in elementary school. If you have a problem with your breasts, it could be that the boy you had a crush on in high school made a remark to his friends that you overheard and felt overwhelmingly self-conscious and embarrassed where you never had before. All these associations and connections could be affecting you on a conscious or subconscious level. The result of these emotional body assaults in the distant past may just be the cause of inhibiting your full sexual expression now. By applying EFT to your specific memories, as well as the way you feel about your body, you are more likely to be able to reach those transcendent states you’ve always craved, which will include a new found love and appreciation for yourself and your body, exactly the way you are.
Alina Frank, is an author and
internationally certified trainer of EFT. Her specialty is working with women who are deprived of full acceptance of their bodies and resulting sexual dissatisfaction and sexual dysfunction. More information about Alina’s work can be found at www.tapyourpower.net and class/workshop information can be found at www.EFTtappingTraining.com
Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 16
The Benefits of Daily Grounding By LINDA HALL
Just as a house needs solid foundations to withstand the ravages of weather and time,
there’s a lot to be said for keeping both feet firmly on the ground in this fast moving 21st Century.
We’ve developed a virtual world on the internet that’s changing the way we live. It’s a seductive world that’s a far cry from the simple, more wholesome connection our primitive ancestors would have had with their natural surroundings: in rhythm with Earth’s cycles and in tune with its seasons. In fact, our physiology has not yet evolved to cope with the pressure and pace of contemporary living. Our nervous system still interprets everyday stress as a sabre tooth tiger jumping in for the kill, which means that many of us are caught in the ‘Fight, Flight or Freeze’ stress response for most of the time. Stress is now recognised as a major contributor to ill-health, but what is perhaps less well known is the nervous system doesn’t recognise the difference between different types of stress. So, when we are glued to that computer game, or chat room in the early hours
of the morning on our third cup of coffee; when we are pushing ourselves to go that extra mile on a project that excites us; when we have our mp3 turned to maximum volume; or when we are gasping at the thrills of 3D cinema we are bringing levels of stress to our nervous system which may end up affecting our emotional balance; cognitive levels; digestive system; sleep, and immune function. In these unsettled times, where stimulation and information overload is the norm, it seems to me we need more than ever to reconnect to the ground beneath our feet to help us a catch our breath and come back to ourselves. The practice of grounding, literally, brings us down to earth in a kind of homecoming that takes us out of the trance states of our mind and into the more solid resources of the here and now. A great deal of ill-health stems from mind/body imbalances - a disconnection from our fundamental physical and emotional needs through living mostly in our head. In many ways, when we lose connection with our body we lose connection with an integral part of ourselves. Our body is a complex biofeedback organism with an innate intelligence whose prime directive is for us to thrive and survive. Emotions, feelings, sensations and intuitions Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 17
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Intuitive Art Healing with Valentina Castro are expressions of our needs, which we ignore to the detriment of our health and well-being. Grounding is the first step to getting in touch with those needs and with ourselves as a whole. The benefits of grounding have been recognised for thousands of years in meditation, yoga, taichi, chi-gung and different forms of energy medicine and healing. In simple terms, this means using the ground to earth and re-align the body and mind so they can move back towards a state of balance. In most meditative practices this involves taking awareness down into the body and to its connection with the ground beneath it, engaging with that connection and letting the rest happen naturally. A good way to start putting this into practise is to pause every now and then in your day, and do the following: feel the ground beneath your feet, drop down with your senses into your body, breathe out down towards the ground and bring your awareness to your surroundings. Notice what happens when you do this. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like coming in to land after a long dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flight, drawing in your wings and finding your balance again.
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*Article provided by Linda Hall of www.the-guided-meditation-site.com Holistic Houston | July 2016 | 18