Sweeter than Chocolate?

It’s Easter and for many it means a love of eating a ton of Chocolate! It’s also got me thinking: why do we give/eat Chocolate at Easter? I think for many people, chocolate brings them back mentally and emotionally to their childhood. It brings them to a calmer time when they weren’t stressed out, they had no responsibilities and they were just plain happy. Personally, I find ice cream (specifically an ice cream cone) can bring me back to that “happy place”.

Those summers…

On some Sundays in the summer when I was a kid, my family of 8 would hop in the green station wagon and head over to the Stoney Creek Dairy for ice cream cones after church. This was such a treat! We could look at all the flavours and choose the one we wanted – any kind we wanted!! I have no idea how often we would go (I’m guessing not too often due to the cost for all of us!) but it has stuck in my memory as absolutely heavenly! Whenever I have thought about this or when I talk to my siblings about it, we always smile and remember how awesome the ice cream was! When I look back at it more deeply today, I see things a little differently…

What I’ve learned…

I realize now that our joy didn’t have that much to do with the ice cream- it was about so much more! That sweetness that I experienced at that Stoney Creek Dairy was actually a sweet overflow from being in church and being surrounded by the love of God. I experienced calm, peacefulness, joy, happiness and most importantly unconditional love. Subconsciously and deeply I knew that I was loved no matter what and it felt great! When I was feeling that way, obviously everything I experienced after that was going to be awesome too! Now pile on top of that sweet love the fact that I was travelling with the people that I loved the most in the entire world and that I knew they loved me! Continue to pile on top of that the freedom I experienced when I could make a choice for myself of what flavour to have. All this together made this an amazing experience filled with wonderful emotions and memories- and oh ya – the ice cream tasted good … I think.

Still deeper…

Still deeper…See when I really try to go into detail to remember the ice cream, I don’t even know what kind I would choose and I can’t remember the taste. That’s crazy because when I have an ice cream cone to this day, I feel joy and freedom! How can it be that I don’t remember the taste when it is the ice cream that I have always associated this great experience with? The reality is, the ice cream wasn’t the point at all, it was the experience of love surrounding me on a deeper level and I just associated it with the physical world! How many other mental and spiritual experiences (positive or negative) have I associated with the physical thing I was doing when I experienced it? How has that formed me into who I believe I am today? Life’s lessons are rarely learned immediately because they need time to mature just as we do. It’s funny because just now as I am writing this, I now also realize why there’s something special about a bacon and eggs breakfast that brings me joy. Guess when I would have bacon and eggs? You guessed it – after church and with my family surrounded by love! Think about your favourite place or a favourite possession and you will quickly find that it is your favourite because it reminds you of some sort of love.

Back to the Chocolate…

Back to the question of why we give chocolate and chocolate eggs at Easter… I have no idea! Maybe it’s to symbolize that inside an egg is new life and new hope. Maybe its because it physically makes us feel good, maybe it’s to remind us of our childhood memories of innocence and happiness, maybe it’s to remind us that pure love is so sweet, maybe its a family tradition, or maybe it’s just because society does it and has marketed it to us. I know it’s not because milk chocolate is good for us! (Yes I know dark chocolate is good for you in many ways!). Regardless of why others do it, if you give gifts or chocolate, why do you do it (or not do it)? It’s important to ask yourself that question because you may be surprised what the answer will reveal! You will hopefully realize that it has nothing to do with the chocolate!

For our family…

This Easter weekend, I hope you have an amazing time no matter how you celebrate it! For our family, it is definitely not about the chocolate. This is a weekend to remember what pure sacrificial love looks like, and how there is always hope and new life thanks to Jesus. Nothing can replace and no chocolate is sweeter than knowing and feeling this type of unconditional love that only He can provide. You don’t have to work for it or earn His love – it is freely given to each of us to experience and we have the amazing choice to choose to accept His gift! Feel it and choose it (just like I did all those years ago when I felt the love and the freedom to choose my ice cream) and you will experience peace, joy and freedom every day!

The sweetest gift…

If you’re thought that the gifts you give are about the physical thing that you give, I hope from this blog you see the folly in that. It’s not about the thing, it’s about what you are giving and representing with the gift! I hope and pray that when you eat your chocolate this Easter, you think about how SWEET pure LOVE is and if you give any gift (including a gift of chocolate), please don’t forget to give the SWEETEST gift of all – LOVE!! Blessings, Dr. Lynne

Healthy Investing…

INVESTING

Lets define investing first – my definition goes something like this:

The act of committing time, energy and resources with the expectation that there will be a greater return on that investment in the future. ie it will have a perceived higher value later on and the value at the end is worth the initial commitment and sacrifice.

Most people think of investing in financial terms. They come up with a plan and work hard at their jobs in the hope that through investing their earned money, all of the time and energy spent working will pay off and earn them enough money for their retirement. You commit a specific amount of resources (money) to buy stocks, or bonds, or real estate etc and hope that it is worth more later on down the road.  The great thing about investing your money is that you can tangibly see and measure the return – it either goes up or down in value.  The problem is, there is no guarantee that the investment will be worth more in the future – you could lose it all!  For some, this is the only kind of investing that they are focussed on and if it goes bad then they feel that they have lost EVERYTHING.  I want to talk about investing in a different way…

A HEALTHY STARTING POINT

What if I told you that there is a healthy way to invest so that you always see growth from your investment?  I would like to help you see the concept of investing in a different light, one that is more far reaching!

Now, take a moment right now and think about what your life would look like in 10 years, 20 years, and your vision of your life at retirement and beyond.

I would expect that a financial goal you previously set would help you to achieve many of your goals however I would also expect that in your vision there would be other people and loved ones that you are sharing your life and retirement with. I would also expect that you would see yourself being active and smiling and laughing and healthy. It’s fun to imagine isn’t it!

Have we intentionally invested in the people and relationships in our lives?

Have we invested in our health and the health of our loved ones?

A spouse that is unhappy in retirement will not help you realize your vision of an amazing relationship together later.  A spouse that is unhealthy will also make retirement dreams more difficult.

How much of your time and resources are you spending on your spouses health and happiness? Have you encouraged them to take care of themselves lately, have you gone for a walk or run together?

How much time, energy and resources have you spent on your own health?

It takes sacrifice and it take figuring out what is most important to you in order to decide what and how you want to invest your time, energy and resources. There’s no easy road, but the road is worth taking!

NO TIME TO BE SELFISH

You don’t have to do everything all at once. Just commit to one small area to invest in and work on it.  Over the years I’ve had different areas or people that I placed a greater focus on and invested in at different times.  Maybe there is a specific relationship that you want to pour into over this year – go for it!

If it feels a little overwhelming to create your plan, we want to help.  Our next series of workshops are going to dive into these aspects and help you to create a plan for your life and your health. We’ll start with uncovering the vision and the dreams you have for your life, then set goals and a detailed plan of how to step it out. We will follow up with workshops on different aspects of a healthy lifestyle : nutrition, exercise, minimizing stress, maximizing quality sleep, decreasing toxins in your environment and more.  Stay tuned for our next blog for upcoming workshop details, and look in the office and on our website under events as well

Are these 5 things killing you?

1- Your Attitude
This can be the most devastating thing that is robbing you of health and joy. Research shows that those negative thoughts that you have create a neurological and physical change in your body chemistry and cause a breakdown cascade of events. Remember – YOU CHOOSE your attitude, your circumstances do not!
Action: Write down 3 things you are grateful for every day for 3 weeks and see how your attitude changes!

2- Your Kitchen Cupboards
Since everyone knows that clean, fresh, wholesome food is essential to health and life, why are most people eating foods that are killing them? Simply put, they have got into the habit of it and they are afraid or feel unequipped to make changes.
Action: If you want to be equipped for change, come to our next workshop: “Advanced Nutrition made Easy” We guarantee that you will come away with things you can start immediately that will transform your health and life! Register here.

3- Your Couch
New research is showing how sitting has detrimental effects on your health and life. Sitting is now considered the new smoking. The more you sit, the worse it is. Being physically active is a way of life, not just an exercise routine you do 3 times a week.
Action: If you watch tv, do sittups, pushups, jumping jacks, lunges etc during commercials. Also, put yourself in environments that support movement and fun. Find out when our next walk/run group starts by joining our email list (max is 2 emails per month).

4- Your Posture
Yes, your mom was right when she told you to sit up straight! Research shows that curled shoulders and head forward posture is correlated with earlier death. Most people think posture is something they consciously do and can therefore correct it by thinking about it more. For most people this isn’t the case. It is actually caused by a previous asymptomatic injury that has healed in wrong and therefore must be corrected in order to correct the posture.
Action: If you want to fix your posture, see a local chiropractor who specializes in postural and spinal correction (like us☺). Click here to book an appointment.

5- Your Perceived Stress
Yes, I said perceived. Stress to you is joy to someone else. When you perceive something as stressful, it creates a cascade of events that eventually leads to an increase in cortisol in the body. This is linked to most chronic diseases that we see today.
Action: Either lower your chances of having stressful circumstances (tough to do most times), or change your perception of the stressor. Look at it in the context of “In my eulogy, with this be a major part of it”. If no, then relax a little, trust a little, and have a little faith!

Finally, action is required to move to where you want to go in your health and life. Which one of the action steps above are you going to take – after all, remember that your life depends on it!