My three "P's": Path, Practice and Promise

My life is now centered around what I call my three P's but it wasn't always so. It has taken decades of praying and seeking and thinking and reflecting to arrive here with three P's as opposed to one or two.

When I was much younger and only had one P- the Promise of being saved- it allowed me too much latitude. I was saved but I still engaged in behaviors that were far less than saintly!  My life had lots of drama. I had trouble controlling my temper. I slammed doors, ran away from home (I was a mother with small children the last time I left home) and I suffered from depression. The depression was so bad that at one time I checked myself into a hospital for three weeks.

It was after being released from the psychiatric ward with anti-depressants that I realized that I needed more than a Promise. I needed a second P, a practice. I had a friend, at the time named Mattie, who was dealing with an abusive husband. She didn't want to be abused anymore and I didn't want to take drugs for the rest of my life so we decided to fast together. At the end of the 21 days, she had the clarity and courage to leave her abusive situation and I had the faith to flush my meds. I have not suffered from clinical depression since. During that first extended fast, I prayed in the spirit and meditated on empowering Bible verses for long hours. I didn't realize at the time that this was a contemplative practice like meditation.

Which leads me to my last P which is my Path. I follow the Teachings of Jesus Christ. Christ's teachings have one objective--to become Christ-like. For me this means -to love everyone at all times no matter what- to see the God in all.   Now, at the time I decided to take on this objective as my spiritual goal, I was having trouble liking my own husband, despite the fact that I was saved and prayed A LOT!   I needed to have a Path, a simple set of instructions to guide me. I turned to the Bible and planned to begin my search in the book of Matthew. Twenty-five years later, I'm still there, in Matthew, with the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Sermon on the Mount in the language that Jesus spoke. (Read more about that here.)

In my Path, loving myself is a spiritual activity, which means taking care of my body and mind are a part of the Path.  I eat healthy as a part of my Practice. Loving is easier when I'm at peace, which is the Promise. Do I stray off of my path? YES. Do I forget the Promise? SOMETIMES. Do I get out of my Practice? MUCH MORE OFTEN THAN I SHOULD. But, I always come back.

In the last blog I talked about Visioning, which is always the first step. However, the three P's represent the "works" that always accompany Faith.  Now that you have envisioned what your best YOU looks like, consider what kind of P's will be needed to make you the person of the Vision..and if you are willing to share, leave some comments below. Your P's or Q's or T's whatever- might just help someone else.

Fall: The season for planting a vision

For many people, the end of summer represents the coming of the school year. No matter how glorious the summer, there is something exciting about anticipating a new school or a new grade or a new level.  Did you know that Nature follows a similar cycle? The Fall Equinox (the time when the daylight and the nighttime hours are the same in length) marks the beginning, not the end of a nature cycle. The spring time is not considered the beginning of a new nature cycle because of how much preparation is needed before anything gets planted. So the beginning of a garden starts in the fall, once the harvest is over and the flower stalks cut back. This is the time to plant ideas for next year's glorious bounty.

Everything in life  begins with an idea, a desire or an intention, including your goals for your own health and happiness. The planting of the desire is the first step. That is why the Sacred and Fit program utilizes Vision Boards to plant the seed idea of health and vitality deeply in all levels of mind. The vision becomes the object of faith or the "substance of things not seen." And as in any faith act, the belief comes before the manifestation.

The healthy you starts as the belief in the healthy you. The successful you; the prosperous you; the fulfilled you....all start with belief.  Yet, habits of mind often thwart our efforts. We want to believe BUT.....  That is where a contemplative practice comes in. Training of the mind and disciplining of desires is in essence a faith walk. That is why the Teachings of Jesus, stress the cultivation of a peaceful and tranquil mind, a mind in which faith can dwell unobstructed by doubt, worry and fear.

So, as the New Year starts, spend some time with yourself. What do you want to manifest in the glorious garden of your own life? Now is the season to plant the vision. 

Why stay on a Mostly Raw Diet?

In January I started the year on a 21 day church-wide fast. The church promoted a Daniel Fast which is refraining from eating meat and sweets. Because I already followed a relatively vegetarian  diet, I thought I'd step it up a notch and try a mostly raw or living food vegan diet for 21 days. That meant no meat or eggs or cheese and no cooked vegetables for 21 days. By the second week I noticed that stiffness and pain in my joints had gone away and that I had more energy and needed less sleep. By the third week I decided to extend the fast for another 19 days. And so for 40 days, I ate only living food.

Now it is six months later and I want to tell you what is happening now.  The truth is- I find it too challenging to eat only living food all of the time. So I listened to my raw food teacher NwennaKai.com and committed to eating a MOSTLY raw food diet. According to Nwenna, there are great benefits to be obtained by eating mostly or even 50/50 living food diet. So I aimed for 80%. That was in March. Now in August, I feel that I am slipping.

I still enjoy eating live foods but I'm more concerned about what I've started eating in addition. It started with salsa and chips. There is a raw food cracker recipe made with flax seed that I really like but it involves sprouting grain for 3 days and dehydrating for 24 hours. Much easier, I find to open up a bag of Tortilla chips. When I travel, I bring my own food but the last road trip emptied my stores of morning muffins- made with crushed, cashews and sunflower seeds (AlissaCohen.com) and Kale chips, so while at the health food store, I picked up a small bag of Kale chips from off the shelf. They cost nearly $7.00 for a 42g bag! I can make my own using a pound of Kale (300g) and cashew "cheeze" for about $5.00.

The one thing that can't be ignored about eating Living Food is that it takes times and planning. Raw food is not Convenient Food unless you have spent the time making it before hand.  Buying food closest to the source as you can and buying in bulk lowers the price substantially. Which is why the Farmer's Market or Food Coop is a better alternative to Whole Foods or Trader Jack's...but then your weekend is spent doing something with all of those vegetables.

Why go through all of this trouble? It has got to be worth it you. I have always been a yo-yo dieter and since making this life style change, I have dropped two dress sizes but more importantly, I feel better. I love eating as much as I want of foods that are good for me and I'm getting to know what my body needs to feel good.

So, now that I've given myself this little pep-talk, I will be going on another little fast this week, perhaps 1 or 2  days of  raw juices or green smoothies (1/2 greens to 1/2 fruit-) to get myself back on the wagon. After a couple of days of liquids, a crunchy green kale chip tastes wonderful!

Making Good Mistakes

It has been a while since I last posted on the Sacred and Fit Blog. During the last six months, the Sacred and Fit program has been completely revamped, thanks to the insight and input of the first class of participants. They taught me so much and their suggestions will benefit the new class that will begin in early 2012. One of the most important thing I learned from them is the benefit of good mistakes.

My minister recently described a mistake as "the action one makes based on the known truth at the time." Certainly, life provides many opportunities to grow in an understanding of what is "true." What is true at one age or stage may not be true at another. So acting on the known truth at the time provides valuable information as we gain experience and maturity. We learn what does work by first learning what is not working.

In the vastness of learning to love and honor ourselves there is also room to make mistakes. It is possible to take less care of ourselves because we lack the knowledge of what we need, or we don't consider ourselves an important enough priority or we get stuck in certain types of habits that we can't seem to break. I believe that it is possible to view even "bad" behavior as a "good" mistake as long as we are conscious and aware.

Not everyone wants to be a raw-food vegan but what being a raw-food vegan requires is being conscious of what one eats. Not everyone likes to work-out but what marathon runners understand is that in choosing a daily practice some other things won't get done. Both the vegan and the runner choose consciously and are aware of the consequences of their choices.

So, if one chooses to eat hamburgers and watch tv for hours, do so as a choice and choose consciously out of the truth that is known. But beware! A lot is required to face the truth that is known, to honestly confront your own barriers and to move on from one truth to another. The good news is that when ever that happens, no matter how long it takes, it will be the right time for you. And whatever choices have led to that point have all been good.