Come and join us June 28 & 29, 2013 for our event Touch The Sky!
A multi-day conference featuring New York Times best-selling authors, national and local experts, and highly-acclaimed musicians, designed to equip Rochester and beyond with tools of self-empowerment, self-awareness and self-care. Check out our line-up at LightHeart.com/touchthesky.
Author Brené Brown writes, “Our culture teaches us about shame – it dictates what is acceptable and what it not. We weren’t born afraid to tell our stories. We weren’t born with a fear of getting too old to feel valuable. We weren’t born with a Pottery Barn catalog in one hand and heartbreaking debt in the other.
Shame comes from outside us – from the messages and expectations of our cultures. What comes from the inside of us is a very human need to belong, to relate.”
Last night, we had a powerful Royal Flush – Food as Medicine session. Lisa began by guiding us through 15 minutes of guided meditation. The session was full of raw emotion and honesty. Group members opened up regarding issues of perfectionism, feelings of inadequacy, anger, fear, shame and food.
Throughout the session, we discussed the ability to observe ourselves through binges and make connections between our binges and feelings. We noted and appreciated the openness of other participants. For example, one woman shared how angry she was with the current state of the world and the affairs in her life. She mentioned that she felt overwhelmed and out of control. That led another group member to share her feelings about a recent sugar binge. And from there, group participants experienced a positive upward spiral where they felt safe to be present and vulnerable. Ultimately, we all had something in common. Every single member of the group could relate to feeling inadequate, insufficient and/or small at times, – that we weren’t enough. Our facilitator reminded us that we were enough – that by being and taking action to improve our lives, we are not only changing ourselves, but positively impacting the world around us. From this experience, we left the group with an increased sense of self-confidence and self-awareness – the bedrocks of personal growth. We also left with a meaningful affirmation, “I am enough!”
Mother Teresa once said, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today. Let us begin.” We often lead our daily lives from task to task to task – It’s a constant movement and we often forget to stop and breathe. Our facilitator, Lisa, reminded all of us group participants of the importance of engaging in mind-body skills. After a quick discussion about Peter McDonald’s farm, and clean and organic farming, Lisa led the group in a 15 minute mindful-meditation. Engaging in mind-body techniques, allows us to stay present to the moment and release our stress loads.
In addition to engaging in mind-body techniques, the support group emphasizes the importance of accountability. As group members we are asked to keep a food log to learn about our food habits and our body’s response to foods. We then share that information with group members.
In his best-selling book,The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven R. Covey shares his knowledge on experiencing optimal health in mind, body and spirit. His fifth habit reads “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Our food logs serve as a great tool for self-awareness and self-understanding in which we get to visually see our food habits and how they have affected our overall health. This sharing of our food intake and habits leads to the sixth habit in the book: “Synergize”. A synergistic energy leads to new knowledge and discoveries what we would have not discovered by ourselves. For example, an individual may be struggling, and by sharing their food habits, cravings and desires according to the designed food plan, it may become apparent that that individual is protein deficient. Our Food as Medicine Support group brings many minds together and at the end of each session each one of us goes home with new found self-knowledge.
Eat. Heal. Thrive.
Good Morning!
Come and join us for a our FREE presentation on our Food as Medicine Support group this evening from 5:15 – 6:30 pm.
21 Prince Street
Rochester, New York 14607
Pre-Registration is required.
To pre-register, email: Wanda@LightHeart.com or call 585.288.6160
We hope to see you then!
One of the most common yet hidden sources of chronic illness is right under your finger tips… food!
When Hippocrates, the well known Father of Medicine said, “Let food by thy medicine and medicine be thy food…”, he knew what he was talking about.
But food today is far different from the food of our ancestor’s time, or even our grandmother’s kitchen. Do you remember, for example, when iceberg lettuce used to be green? Today it is mostly white. Romaine lettuce used to be green. Today grocery stores sell romaine hearts that are mostly white. Both of these items lack chlorophyll, which under normal circumstances converts to magnesium, a necessary mineral responsible for hundreds of bodily functions.
Food is our best medicine. But we need to know what to eat and how to eat in order to achieve optimal health.