Ya Healed!

I  know it's the day for posting out Insecurities - but I have some awesome news to share.

I am a chiropractic assistant - but not for a "snap, crackle, pop!" chiropractor. I mean, Dr. Cool does that too - and I lurve getting adjusted - but he does more than that. He practices with a more holistic approach treating structural, bio-chemical (fancy word to indicate nutrition), toxicity and emotional problems. It's the emotional - or stress - component that I want to tell you about today.

Alex J. Cavanaugh's Blog Hop

Now I've been receiving treatment for years. I've done the stress technique a ton. It's called the NeuroEmotional Technique (NET). Stress plays a large - and I would like to exaggerate here by adding, TREMENDOUS! - part in our health. There are people whose unresolved health problems are directly related to unresolved stress. In fact, I'm a good example of this, because if my life hadn't been heading down to hell in a hand basket six years ago I don't think I wouldn't have gotten sick at all. But I did. Slowly but surely, over the course of about 3 years. When I hit rock bottom... things were bad. Really bad. Shortly after that is when God showed me every mercy I could have hoped for if I knew it was possible, and found me a job with my doc. It's been a 3 year climb back to the top - but by golly ladies and gents - I am at the top! I never would have thought it possible in that misery that was 2010.

Anyways - that whole story doesn't need to be told to get to my real point. I am here to talk about NET and writing. You see, I have had plenty of NET done regarding writing. It's helped off and on a little here or there, but the subconscious mind tends to be somewhat intractable and often nothing really big came up that could be cleared.

Then, I hit a point where I felt entirely able and inspired to write, but... man, it was hard. I would sit down and write, but every word was pried out of me. Truly, it had been this way for awhile, but I had cleared so much other crap from my head that this irritation was suddenly very obvious. So I had the Wombat do some NET on me (after watching the treatment and getting treated for years, we picked up on how to do the technique on one another - though being married tends to make us go polar sometimes and we know that not all topics or issues should be approached by each other - sometimes you just need to be in the caring hands of your caring doc - which Dr. Cool is.)

I would explain in detail what I got treated for with Wombat, but... first of all I can't remember what emotion it brought up and if I told you details of when it started you'd probably close your browser or blog feed and write me off as a loony. What was isn't really important though. He cleared me of the emotion and I felt a lot better. Didn't think much of it. After all, like I said, I had already been treated for writing before.

Then I sat down to write.

It poured out like melted chocolate. It didn't gush. I mean... I was writing. It takes effort... duh. However, it wasn't like pulling teeth. It came out comfortably. Easily. Happily. I wrote and wrote. Then the next day... well I felt like writing, so I wrote and wrote. The day after that... well I wrote a little more! It felt great! Better yet - it STILL feels great!

So I guess, rather than sharing my insecurities today, I want to just share a little info. Maybe NET isn't for you and that's fine. No judgement on that. If you find yourself really struggling though - sometimes it's not anything you are doing consciously and a little subconscious care could help you tons. So maybe find a practitioner in your area. Maybe look for a counselor - or if you are ready and wanting to make some big health changes find yourself a good chiropractor. You can search for a practitioner here: www.netmindbody.com

Take care! May your writing be forever in your favor!

Healthy Body = Healthy Brain = Healthy Writing!

Get Healthy Blog Hop!

Thanks to our Stephen, Alex, L.Diane and Michael for hosting this latest motivational blog hop!

I work for a chiropractic doctor whom I dub Dr. Awesome, because he is a miracle worker. He is the kind of genuine individual, who never judges, respects his patients and gives people back their lives on a daily basis. I'm not exaggerating. He evaluates people on every base required to maintain a good health: structure (e.g., nervous, skeletal, muscular), biochemistry (nutrition), toxicity (e.g., metals, infections, food sensitivities/allergies), and emotional stress (it can kill you, friends).

I am not Dr. Awesome, nor a nutritionist, or anything so licensed or prestigious - but I get to sit and be a part of the journeys his patients embark on and I see honest-to-goodness miracles.

As you can imagine, it's a pretty motivating experience, and while I'm not perfect in any sense of the word, since Wombat and I have moved to Austin, we've gotten our lives back in a whole new better way.

First of all, we obviously have been getting treatment from our doctor. We took supplements and cleaned up some infections, and some nutritional deficiencies. He treated us for some neuro-emotional complexing, and got us both congruent with our new lives here.

Then we started to change our diet. We eat lots and lots of fruits and vegetables - and can't wait til we can save up for a mega-blender to make green smoothies in the morning. We've started buying cleaner protein and have used it to replace a lot of our carbs (which I'm sorry to say, though filling and nummy, are extremely nutritionally lacking compared to your fruits, veggies, and protein). 

We've also started using better sweeteners. We use raw honey which is ten times tastier than regular honey, but we still try to use it sparingly, because it is still sugar. We also use a combination of liquid stevia and xylitol - which together can be as sweet as sugar without much in the way of after-taste.

Also, because I don't have a car here I have had to walk home from work. I find walking super boring - so instead, I run-walk-waddle! It's been great to not have a choice about exercising, as I am notorious for exercising in short bursts.

I'm soap-boxing a little, I know, and I hope I didn't rustle anyone's jimmies, but my point in mentioning everything above is that - I have noticed distinctly that now that I'm feeling better, I'm writing better. 
I'm busier than I have been in years. I still struggle to fit in writing in between taking care of home chores, and working my tail off - but I have such a strong desire to write, and my head feels clearer, and when I do sit down to write, it comes easier and I feel happier about it.

It's taken me and Wombat over three years to get to this point. Three years of working in a holistic health field everyday. It doesn't happen overnight, and I've done it the wrong way more than once, but each and every step you take brings you closer. Start with something - whatever it is, just start! Pick ONE thing and get going - once that one thing isn't hard, pick ONE more new thing, and just keeping moving forward.

Here are some ideas of things I've done or have seen make big differences in people's lives:

Structure: *start walking every day for 30-60 minutes *find a good chiropractor and get adjusted regularly *stretch out or do some yoga every day to keep good motion in your joints *practice standing or sitting with better posture 

Biochemistry: *get more nutritious foods in: fruit and veggies! *try drinking fruit and veggie rich smoothies in the morning *cut the carbs and sugars - just start saying "no thank you" to the goodies occasionally (that's how I started) *make more meals and snacks at home instead of eating out *eat at healthier restaurants when you do eat out *search foodgawker for paleo recipes, or simply pick the no desserts category

Toxicity: *avoid processed foods *don't eat things that wouldn't rot if you left it out - it's probably not food, it's probably a food product *cut the chemicals: high fructose corn syrup, MSG, aspartame, sorbitol, caffeine, food dyes, etc. *get resin fillings instead of amalgums when you go to the dentist 

Emotional Stress: *learn about meditation and practice it *pray, if you pray * practice smiling at yourself in the mirror *practice affirmations every single day *treat yourself smartly when things are weighing you down- get a massage, read a good book, get good sleep (this can be huge in improving your health)

Take a look around at the other great ideas being shared on this our May 29th Get Healthy Blog Hop!

Good luck on your health journey!

Peak-a-Boo!

December 2012? It really has been a long time. I feel somewhat embarrassed, but I have plenty of excuses gathered up to curry forgiveness with. Chief among them, and perhaps the only one I'll take your time to share is that me and the Wombat moved - over 2100 miles!

Yes, ladies and gents, we left the "Keep Portland Weird" slogan toting land of Oregon for the "Keep Austin Weird" slogan toting land of Texas. Most every aspect of our normal life was put on hold for the past several months, but we're here and we're happy.

We've had the great opportunity to get to know some of Wombat's family that we hadn't gotten the opportunity to party with much. The Wombat is falling in love with the computer tech scene. Happy Wombat = Happy Duckie.

Me? I'm working as a personal assistant to Doctor Awesome who I worked with back in Portland last summer. To be frank: I love my job. I'm crazy busy and rocking it. 

In addition, working with Doctor Awesome has re-motivated Wombat and I to improve our health even further. Nothing like a huge change in your life (ie., move thousands of miles) to help you break bad habits and change for the better. We've drastically decreased the amount of grains we're eating, making our meals out of good clean meats, and fresh fruits and vegetables. We aren't perfect and still tend to splurge on the weekends (can anyone say "Hopdoddies" or "The Salt Lick"?) - but during the week we are pwning face. 

Well it's good to be back, and I had fun revamping my blog, but I have to admit, I haven't written much in the past few months. Stress and creativity didn't prove compatible. Wombat and I have been working on some projects that have been inspiring me though, and as I've begun to feel better, I've noticed an increased desire to write. Better Health = Better Writing? I think so. With that said, I think I will join my first blog hop! Get Healthy Blog Hop here I come!

Go Figure, But with Good Humor (IWSG)

I haven't been around much lately. Busy being sick. Apparently I consumed some contaminated water oh- about two months ago - and suffered the consequences - for... about two months! Luckily, my symptoms stayed clear of the more foul and unfriendly side of things - meaning, the bathroom and I did not become partners. Mostly I just felt feverish and miserable. Dr. Kind (that's not his name, but he's not the same doctor as Dr. Cool, and he really is more kind than he is cool) used is magical non-western powers and has helped me get all better. Hurray! Feeling good!

This meant, however, that my writing life was stuffed into a box at the back of my sock drawer, and I spent hours upon hours (*cough* meaning about 90) watching Lost. I did other things too - like dishes and laundry and web surfing and online Christmas shopping - but yes, mostly I let myself be sick, ate lots of homemade chicken noodle soup, and watched T.V. I liked the series. It helped that I knew from the start the big "surprise" at the end. I think too, that I'm pretty forgiving of unexplained things - think it has to do with my love of fantasy. That's not to say that they didn't botch some things pretty bad, but the actual end "surprise" was pretty precious, I thought.

Anyways - as I haven't posted in a month, I suppose the only other big news would be these three things. First, that I had a sort of mishap with my hair. Wombat is awesome and trims my hair for me. He's getting better and better at it! But this time, being the loving and giving Wombat that he is, he sort of tried something new and messed up. He finished, and practically with tears in his eyes, professed that I looked like a recovering cancer patient (absolutely no offence intended). I'm pretty chill about my hair, and assured him that its fine- I'll just be looking like my little brother for awhile. Second, I had my birthday. Hurray! Third, I got a day cut at work, and Wombat gave up a day of work for religious and personal reasons. We'll be fine, but it puts a serious hamper in our goal to save a bunch of money. Oh well, we'll figure it out.

With all of this behind me - the good and the bad - I've finally felt re-inspired to write. Which, of course, means that I've been very busy with other things and haven't had a chance to do very much. My daddy bought me a license for Scrivener for my birthday though, and I'm determined to get back to work. I don't know if the rest of you ever feel like this, but lately, when I've felt like my life has been shaken and I don't know which direction to go - I hang on to the fact that I completely believe that I'm meant to be a writer. Do I feel insecure as a writer? Well, yeah. I feel like a farce much of the time. After all, you can't really be a writer if you don't, ya know, write. It's too important to me to let my struggle with being a "real" writer get in the way of trudging through the blizzard of self-doubt towards real success. It's only a matter of time, practice, and persistence. So here's to all y'all that know you're meant to make it! Keep believing! Let it be a driving force! Renew your efforts! Kick trash! Write! Booya!

Sayonara, Second Time-Sucker!

Ladies and gentleman,

I have the immense pleasure to announce that I have officially sent in my resignation letter for my stressful one day a week cafeteria job. Huzza!

Me and the Duckling Huzzah!-ing it Up

I know, I know - it doesn't sound like much of anything, but I'll tell my short happy story. I used to work at this cafeteria five days a week part-time, until about a year ago, when I picked up my massage job at the chiropractic office. This bumped down my work to only two days a week - Tuesdays (because the office is closed that day) and Thursdays (because I volunteer teach teens dance these nights, and couldn't be available as late as the office would need me). We fast forward to this summer, when I was trained as an assistant for one of the DC's, and picked up work on Thursdays after all, with the understanding that I might cut my hours just a little when dance season started up. 

So, for the past few months I've been working at the cafeteria for a five hour shot early Tuesday mornings. While I don't hate this job... it's immensely stressful. Lots to do, with only me as an actual staff member, and a small gaggle of volunteers to teach, keep busy, and keep from messing up in between getting the stuff done that only I could do. In addition my supervisor - though I love her - could occasionally be a struggle for me to work with. If nothing else, I can attest that I learned both to multi-task very well, and to bite my tongue. 

Actually, I have to admit - in comparison to my other job - which I LOVE - I did hate this cafeteria position - but only when comparing. It was a HUGE blessing to have gotten the position, and I will be somewhat sad to leave it. But lets get to the POINT of this post already!

The real question is why. Why did I leave? Part of it was the stress. My husband was sick of my coming home irritable, unhappy, and in need of a nap (which he usually put me down for like I was a five year old. Seriously, he did.). The second reason was that we didn't really need the extra money. Picking up my assistant position more than covered what my second job was providing. But, lastly, and most importantly - and I might just shed a tear of cherish-ment for my Husby's insistence in this matter - I wanted a day that I could commit to writing. I have spare time already - but, as many of you can attest - writing at the end of a long day at work is hard- and weekends, at least for me, are the time that I run all the errands and pick up all the pieces that fell apart between then and the last weekend. So my Husby decided that I needed to take the only spare day I had to do what I have a passion for. A day that I could blog, brainstorm, and bully words onto the page. A day that would be set aside to do the research, the practice, the everything. While I'm sure I'll periodically hate this new job- ya know, because I'm human like that - I truly couldn't ask for a greater present.

So there you have it folks! I'm a part-time writer! Not a spare-time writer! I'm now an as-many-hours-as-I-can-stay-on-task-on-Tuesday writer! I am ready for the challenge :D