Posts Tagged ‘work balance’

Nutritional Boosters to Help You Weather the Flu Season

Whether or not you decide to get the flu shot this year, it makes sense to protect your self and your family with a fine-tuned nutrition plan.  This is not the time for extra sugars and fast foods.

The immune system is a complex collection of tissues and cells that protect the body from allergens, bacteria, viruses, and other potentially harmful organisms.  Skin and the membranes that line entrances to the body — nasal passages, eyes, and respiratory and digestive tracts — are the first line of defense, providing a physical barrier against invaders.    You can keep your skin healthy with a balanced diet and extra essential fatty acids.  Make sure you work up a sweat daily (from exercise and/or saunas) as it is a great detoxifier.  Shower with a natural soap and loofah brush to keep skin and circulation healthy.

Internally, specialized white blood cells fight antigens that make it past the skin: T-lymphocytes continuously patrol the body in search of antigens; B-lymphocytes manufacture antibodies, special blood proteins that neutralize or destroy germs; and neutrophils and macrophages scavenge antigens from the blood for delivery to the lymphatic system, which disposes of them.  To work smoothly, these cells depend on you keeping your body in top shape. Nutrients critical for the production and maintenance of key germ-fighting cells in the immune system.  A balanced diet has a strong effect on vascular function.  The immune system is dependent on blood flow.  The bloodstream is the route along which infection-fighting cells travel throughout the body to where they’re needed.

Vitamins and phytochemicals in colored fruits and vegetables are great at promoting immune function. These nutrients help ensure that lymphocytes can divide and reproduce properly in response to a virus and that the neutrophils and macrophages that engulf and kill invading bacteria can do their job. Eat five to nine servings of different colored organic, locally grown seasonal fruits and vegetables per day..

Amino acids found in protein are the building blocks of all the body’s cells — including the cells that power your immune system. If your diet is low in protein, you won’t manufacture enough white blood cells to combat antigens.  Consume about a gram of protein per kilogram (kg) of your body weight.  Eat plant protein like lentils, peas and beans every day for at least one meal.  Keep animal protein choices to 100 gm portions of lean protein.  Add a protein shake for breakfast or before workouts if you are often on the run.

By Guest Blogger:

Victoria Pawlowski, R.D., R.C.C., M.Ed.

Counselling & Nutrition Therapy
info@victoriapawlowski.com
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1.888.556.3663

Vancouver: 1000-355 Burrard Street
Nanaimo:  170 Wallace Street, 2nd floor
tele-counselling. skype. email counselling

In my personal & professional life, working and raising three daughters I have benefitted, as have many of my clients from these three simple, yet powerful, work life balance tips.

1. Delegate domestic duties!

This might mean hiring someone to do your cleaning; engaging kids to shop, cook, clean; having important discussions with life partners ie husbands about roles and responsibilities.

2. Start and or finish your day with ‘you time’ and remember to ‘breathe’!

Some women start their day with meditation, others with exercise, others with quiet spiritual reading, still others with organization activities. Even 10 minutes at the end of the day mindfully reflecting and re-engaging with your body can do wonders for both your mind and your body! You deserve time and self-care and you will be a better leader for it!

3. Work with a certified professional coach.

And no, this is not shameless self-promotion. The research overwhelming indicates that the best thing executives and women leaders can do for themselves and their organizations is to work with a coach. Let’s face it, it can be ‘lonely at the top’ and women leaders often feel they have no one to talk to! I have been there! Professional coaches, who act as ‘partners and champions of you’ can help with topics like: work life balance, time management, leadership development, leadership skills development, personal life balance and decision making. If working with a coach interests you, check out the International Coach Federation for more information or contact me.

peace & namaste,

Zoey

coaching for your heart & soul

Zoey Ryan BSc., PCC

Professional Certified Coach

Life ~ Leadership ~ Executive Coaching for Women Leaders

inspiration | innovation | wisdom

When I am coaching women, a question I often ask is, “what is the one thing, that if you did it consistently, would have the greatest positive impact on your life”? I hear answers like exercise more, drink less coffee, lose weight. While all of these activities no doubt will be positive, I’m reminded, as women how we are so busy, “doing”, feeling like we need to change ourselves and seldom stop to just be more of who we are.

I recently had occasion to ponder “the question” and my “year in review”. I sank into the stillness of my home and began listing what I was thankful for. What I realized was that it is the very small, simple things in life that bring me the greatest joy and sense of fulfillment, not tasks and certainly not “self-improvement projects. I get a sense of fulfillment from things like hearing my children laughing, the mist over the water, the depth and comfort of a longstanding friendship.

As I sat that early morning, I was reminded that the positive impact was a result, not of ‘doing’ but of ‘being’, of allowing myself reflective time to sink into the “beingness” of me and open to the power of thanksgiving, gratitude and blessings. For me, using gratitude and blessing brings a feeling of putting on the “rose coloured glasses”, a feeling of objectivity, a sense of expansiveness.

I was challenged recently in my commitment to this belief when faced with an unexpected and painful loss in my personal life. I found myself slipping into a place of hurt, blame and criticism. The word “blessing” popped into my mind and I quickly said a blessing for the situation. It went something like this; “blessings on this situation as I know that it is all for the best and that through the pain and sadness, a greater good will come.” By saying those words I was able to set aside the “righteous victim voice” of “poor me” and had the sense of an easing and softening of my emotions.

So, ask yourself, the earlier question, “what is the one thing if integrated into your life regularly, would have the greatest positive impact”? Experiment with using blessings, gratitude and thanksgiving and feel yourself open into a deeper sense of your “beingness”. Start by making a list of at least 20 things that you are thankful for. Every day, give yourself time to sink into your “beingness” and feel gratitude. Send out blessings to your friends, family, all people and situations and imagine the world taking on a rosy glow!

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

- Melody Beattie, Author

peace & namaste,

Zoey

coaching for your heart & soul

Zoey Ryan BSc., PCC

Professional Certified Coach

Life ~ Leadership ~ Executive Coaching for Women

inspiration | innovation | wisdom

Even though I have been a certified coach and member of the International Coach Federation for many years, I have never attended the annual North American conference!  This year will be different!

I am very excited to be travelling to Las Vegas for the uncoming ICF Conference, Sept 24 – 27th.  The theme is “Playing to the Edge”.

Lynn Meinke, Chair of the conference steering committee says “What does Playing to the Edge mean to you? We know it’s different for each person and yet, isn’t that what coaching is about? Don’t you want your clients to think big and go for what they really want? So, how do you, as a person and coach, play to your edge in your personal life and professional life? How would you like to stretch yourself so that you can be a model that supports your clients to play to their edge?

In planning the educational programming for this year’s conference, the Committee looked for keynote presenters and breakout sessions that would stretch us, get us to think in different ways, offer alternative perspectives, get our “creative juices” flowing, and perhaps bring a sense of playfulness and fun. We also identified four guiding principles or “pillars” that supported and anchored our work as we selected presenters. These pillars are: Inspiration, Innovation, Community, and Diversity with Balance.”

I’m excited about meeting new coaches and exploring my edge.  I also hear that there is a wonderful spa at Mandalay Bay, where attendees will be staying, so I plan to soak and soothe with luscious spa treatments.

Let me know if you plan to attend or would like to hear more about the conference.

Information is available on the International Coach Federation website: http://coachfederation.org

peace & namaste,

Zoey

coaching for your heart & soul

Zoey Ryan BSc., PCC

Professional Certified Coach

Life ~ Leadership ~ Executive Coaching for Women

inspiration | innovation | wisdom

My personal ‘green baby’, Hippy Grandma, the online eco-boutique that I launched to showcase and support some amazing women entrepreneur friends is again hosting ‘The 13 Days of Green & Groovy Holiday Shopping’!

This year we have added eco-fashion with upcycled ‘ECOPower Bracelet/Cuffs’ and a new line of organic baby clothes as well as a luscious new Ayurvedic Aromatherapy product from The Mystic Masala, EDEN (Every Day Essential Nourishment) Kit!

We are also adding ‘Hippy Grandma Green & Inspired Living Services’!

As with all sales, a percentage of the profits go to support ‘vulnerable women & children’.

Have a look through the newly designed site and let me know what you think!

peace, namaste & hippy grandma love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy and life, business & leadership coach for women

Find out what kind of hippie you are with our fun quiz!

Check out Hippy Grandma’s Closet for gently used new mom and hippie baby clothes!

Are you a heart-centered and “soul-filled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving or are you looking for hippie baby clothes? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing to your family, friends & Mother Earth with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. You make the purchases & we send the ‘hippy love’ for free! Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures Ltd).

What is your greatest struggle?

Ahhhh, I love this question.

I seem to have a different struggle every day.  What I know is that I used to push my struggles away and now I embrace them as part of my daily spiritual practice.

I used to engage in thinking that went like “once I do such and such, then my life will be good or complete or then I will “get there” and “be done”.

What I have come to realize is that this isn’t actually the way life unfolds.  I think it was Gilda Radner who said “there is always something”.  So, yes, there is always something, there is always a struggle and isn’t that wonderful!  I never have to go looking for more personal growth projects, they just show up   For me it is also about acknowledging what I call “the mucky mess of life”, the full catastrophe living as Jon Kabat Zinn calls it.  My experience is that it is through this lovely “slime” that wonderful things emerge.

It feels very one dimensional to live a life that pushes away chaos.  I love the word “chaordic”.  For me it brings chaos into harmony!

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy Hippy Grandma Eco-tique and life coach for women

Hippy Grandma Eco-tique offers unique green & groovy treasures and your soul-filled purchases help support our suppliers who are grandmas on pensions, women entrepreneurs and fair trade co-ops.  Share hippy love for generations!

Into The Future: Religion, Transformation and Partnership

What is the future of ‘religion’? To answer this, I need to superimpose the notion of organizational design onto current linear models of religion.  From what I understand, the world’s religions today are mostly still using a dominator model (reference Riane Eisler) ie one person (usually male) in charge with a cascade of other folks in lessening positions of power.  The Pope is the best example of this in the Catholic religion.

I believe the word religion connotes subscribing to agreed upon beliefs and doctrines.  Given that, I don’t know that I would use the word religion.

I would design a world community, grounded in a “partnership model” where the primary organizational design is of concentric circles and the model of decision making is by consensus; all organized around a common intention of good for all, recognizing the immanence and transcendence of the Divine.  This community would honour, respect and encompass a variety of beliefs systems and traditions, while agreeing to abide by a co-created set of guiding principles.  Within a partnership model, both the mother and father (inner masculine and feminine, male, female, earth and sky) are recognized and honoured.

Children would be adored, cared for lovingly, guided and mentored and elders respected.  A wisdom council of grandmother’s (like the council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers) would be available to the whole community for mentorship and to be used as a community “filter” until a full “partnership way” is in place.  Once this happens, the wisdom council would shift to include elders of all genders.

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-Boutique and life coach for women

Okay, we’ve almost got plastic grocery bags eliminated – I’ve seen everyone from moms to tattooed biker guys with their canvas bags at the grocery store. Fantastic! We even have canvas bags for sale at my other web site: Hippy Grandma.

But I found myself reaching for plastic produce bags the other day in the produce isle at my local grocery store and wondering what the heck I was doing. You know those little clear plastic bags we put potatoes and beans and carrots in? I had reduced using those bags by a long shot – preferring to not use them at all for bananas or oranges and other stuff that gets peeled or doesn’t drip. But when I bought swiss chard or walnuts in bulk I was stuck using a small, plastic bag.

Then the other day in the checkout line I saw a shopper with all her produce in mesh bags that were clearly reusable. I asked her where she got them and she mentioned The Market Kitchen, a kitchen supply store on Granville Island.

So then I started doing a little research and found a number of great ideas for replacing plastic produce bags. My favorite so far is Lioli, for a few reasons:

1. It comes as a large tote for groceries with six little bags for produce.
2. The smaller bags come in mesh style (for produce) or cotton canvas for things like nuts or grains. (Produce Or Grain – POG. Get it?)
3. The large canvas tote has an outside pocket to hold the little POG sacks.
4. The coloured bags are made with azo free low impact dyes and all lioli bags are made fair wage/fair labour.
5. A portion of the proceeds from all bags goes to the David Suzuki foundation.

Colour me happy!

namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan
life & business coach for women
inspiration * clarity * wisdom * enchantment
www.shaktisage.com
604-323-3700

“Coaching for your heart & soul & the heart and soul of your business.”

We are pleased to share this article by one of our Shakti Sage Life Coaches, Shannon Rosnau, seen here with a kidlet!

Mystic Mama’s Infusion of Inspiration and delight for Conscious Parents….

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
-Melody Beattie

‘Tis the season to give thanks; however, as we all know, a special day is really unnecessary. Every hour of every day is the perfect time to express gratitude.

This month, I would like to reflect upon “thankfulness” and explore ways we, as parents, can foster “attitudes of gratitude” within our families.

So much more than a social nicety, thankfulness is an incredibly powerful

Each word spoken is recorded in our saliva – a vibratory
reflection of the essence of the message. Being nearly
99% water, saliva holds a “memory” of all that passes
through our body/mind/spirit. A healthy human
produces nearly 600 milliliters of saliva each day –
enough to fill a 12 oz. bottle.

Talk about swallowing our own words!

As conscious parents, I know we all recognize the genuine power of gratitude. Many of us keep personal gratitude journals and count our blessings on a daily basis. However, it can be a challenge to incorporate thankfulness into our busy, everyday family lives. Gratitude is admittedly hard to muster when our toddler is having a meltdown in the grocery line or our At times like this it is easy to sink into self pity and ask, “why me?”

When we are thankful

This week, practice making gratitude a natural part of your family life. Write thank you notes to one another. Create a family gratitude jar or journal. Hug your child and tell them, “I am soo thankful for you.” Start a thankfulness ritual that feels perfect for your family. Model thankfulness and talk about all the things you are grateful for. I would love to hear your ideas

Yours in gratitude.

Namaste,
Shannon Rosnau
Mystic mama, Shakti Sage Life Coach, Advocate of love

I hope you enjoyed this article by Shannon. It is a great reminder of the power of families and how important it is to keep the love & gratitude flowing!

peace & namaste,

Zoey – founding hippy at hippy grandma

Zoey Ryan
life, business & leadership coach for women
inspiration * clarity * wisdom * enchantment
www.shaktisage.com
604-323-3700

“Coaching for your heart & soul and the heart & soul of your business”

Are you a heart-centered and “soulful shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing for generations with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share Hippy Grandma widely and wildly with your soul sisters. www.hippygrandma.com

Choices Market is a locally owned and operated grocery store here in the Vancouver area (they just recently added a new store in the BC Interior town of Kelowna, as well). As Western Canada’s largest retailer of natural and organic foods, Choices has always been a leader in the local business community and have always placed a focus on supporting local growers and producers. They have also led the way in making choices (pun intended) and taking action to ensure that their stores operate in the most sustainable way possible.

And they listen to their customers! (How often do you encounter that in a large retailer these days?) Choices customers have voiced their opinion that less packaging is better, and as usual, Choices is listening. They’ve created the Sustainability Program.

From their web site (choicesmarket.com): The Choices Sustainability Program will allow proactive Brand Owners the opportunity to fully close the recycling loop.

The program is simple.

* Select Brand Owners will approve the return of all their packaging to Choices Recycling Centre
* Shelf signs with the Choices Recycling Centre logo will be placed in front of products that may be returned to Choices Recycling Centre
* Consumers return authorized packaging to the Choices Recycling Centre
* Packaging is collected by the Choices Recycling Centre and sent off to the appropriate recycling depot
* Any revenues for collected materials will be donated to local charities.

Choices Markets strives to take responsibility for the full life cycle of the products we sell. We are proud to incorporate this program into our store and we are excited to be an integral part of the solution.

From everyone here at Shakti Sage, congratulations once again to a community leader, Choices Market, for a great idea and for taking one more step toward a fully sustainable future.

namaste,
Zoey

Zoey Ryan
life & business coach for women
inspiration * clarity * wisdom * enchantment
www.shaktisage.com
604-323-3700

“Coaching for your heart & soul & the heart and soul of your business.”