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Read the latest blog from The Vital Life. I am posting what I hope is relevant, and sometimes just not, to what is out there and happening in the world. Enjoy, and do comment. I do ask that all comments be relevant to the blog-post.

Thank you.
Many blessings and joy!
Michele Madhavi Eby
The Vital Life.

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10 Ways to Increase Low Energy

There are a million positive ways to increase your energy. Unfortunately for most of us when energy levels lag not many “productive” ways, if any, sound very good. Usually it is one of our more negative habits and tendencies that grabs us when we are faced with the blues. So what can you do?

Most athletic types would go out and do their thing: run 20 miles, swim 10 miles, lift a set with a massive weight increase, or even bike to some unknown destination (that’s 60 miles away minimum!). And these are all really awesome ways to beat downward energy...and so NOT me! One can dream though.

So what would I do? Oh probably go into the kitchen and create something that has more calories than good. This type of creation is a good-bad thing. Creating...good, high-calories...bad. It seems in these cases of low energy that caffeine and sugar are what wins out for a lot of people, thus potentially driving low energy even lower.

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Cancer Is Everywhere

Cancer.
This is an ugly and scary word. You do not want anyone to breathe it in your direction, much less have someone like a doctor say it in conjunction with your name.

My father died from it, he was 66-years-old. It started with bladder cancer, which he had major surgery to remove the entire bladder then reconstruct a “bladder” out of his intestine. One year later he had lung and bone cancer. It was hopeless. I was there both times, pregnant the during the second occurrence, while he went through chemotherapy and radiation. It was hard and sad.

When he finally passed, I realized that I was so happy for him. The pain was over and he was done. No more suffering.

My story is not unique really. So many people I know have had someone they know and love die from cancer.... Hmm, many people...

It is time for a MAJOR change, in my opinion. We cannot keep going this way. It is time to realize that every choice you make of what you eat and drink, how you work, live, watch will result in something happening in or on your body. There are consequences to everything you do.

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Sometimes You Just Gotta Laugh!

This morning I was walking with my two friends. We have a morning walking club, and I am able to join for the M/W/F sessions. We take a long loop around the Village that we live in. It's nice. We pass by the wooded areas, small ponds and reservoirs, and the goats and ducks. When we feel like an adventure we visit the cows too.

The walk on Monday takes us by the local Market where we stop for a milk pick up. This milk is packed on the back of one of the ladies, as she picks it up on Mondays and Fridays weekly and preferably in the morning. We ended up walking this morning in the rain, blessed rain. None of us believed that it would rain. We're in Northern California, and yes, surely the entire stated has burned to the ground by now, but this morning RAIN! A nice steady Northwestern style rain at that.

So getting to my point, as we walked, there was a herd of goats on the road, basically following us. It was funny. They were the boys goats, the mowers, that belong to our local herder. It seems that they were having a walk-about. Okay, so all the stories that you have heard about goats, especially male goats, are mostly true. They will eat just about anything, and lots of it.

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In the Kitchen

It’s Wednesday and it was supposed to snow. In a way I am happy that it didn’t, because my 2-year old Japanese Plum is in full bloom and would not have liked that one bit!

I spent a lot of yesterday afternoon preparing for that snow. That's surely why it did not! I covered our outdoor raised beds with a double layering system that I gleaned from Elliot Coleman, and harvested a bundle of wonderful greens to have on hand: a huge bunch of Rainbow chard, a basket of Arugula, a bunch of Bok choy and Red Russian kale, and a large bunch of daffodils.

I have to say that I don’t usually cut the daffodils, because I love looking outside at those very sunny-faced flowers, especially when it is overcast and raining. It is such a contrast in colours with the diffuse lighting that I love to see. But they were calling to me.

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Airport Food

Airports have some of the most horrible “food,” if you can even call it that. It seems all the restaurants, and I hesitatingly use that word, are fast food or just plain junk food. It is rare to find anything that you can eat that won't make you feel terrible as you are packed into seat on the airplane for your flight.
After arriving to the Arizona Airport, at the prerequisite 2 hours prior to lift-off, I was hoping and planning to have dinner. I was skeptical, as I have a very hard time finding anything that I can eat much less enjoy, at any airport.
My friend and I walked around the stores and "restaurants" looking for anything that resembled actual food. After buying an awesomely cute Hello Kitty watch for my daughter, we spied someone eating a beautiful looking vibrant green salad and thought that this restaurant just might be promising.
After perusing the menu, we decided on a collection of "sides." (I highly recommend ordering from sides menus, as they are generally fresh and usually have all that you need without a large and overly filling meal.)

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Which Zone Do You Live In: Comfort or Challenge

I was giving a one-day workshop in Portland, OR, this past Saturday, on eating healthy and staying off the diet treadmill. It was great. I had a great group of people that attended our talk and demonstration of making simple and yummy foods that we then ate as a sit-down meal. O boy, and I challenged them!

One of the first things I asked them to do was to stand and repeat after me, “I am a nutritionalist, NOT a dieter. I will take responsibility for my health. I will do things for my better health.” It was awesome. They believed it heart and soul. They knew that they no longer had to meet a dieter’s code. They could live a life deprivation-free. Okay except for the peanut butter.

While I was talking with a client later that weekend, I remembered the three zones: comfort, challenge, and panic. These zones are part of our everyday lives. Most of us live in that first zone...comfort...all day everyday. We rarely step out of it. We rarely move beyond it. It's okay. It doesn't require too much thinking or too much responding. Comfort.

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Do You Accept or Detach from a Health Issue?

I was debating the terms of acceptance versus detachment in regards to health and the upkeep or maintenance of it. What are the implications of one or the other? What is my role in either of these cases? In my mind acceptance seems like one would resign themselves to the fate of their health. Detachment, on the other hand, feels more like one would know the state of their health but are not giving up or in to that health issue.

Okay so I checked the dictionary just in case, these are from good old Merriam-Webster.

acceptance—an agreeing either expressly or by conduct to the act or offer of another so that a contract is concluded and the parties become legally bound; or the quality or state of being generally approved or used : approval.

detachment—the action or process of detaching, separation; or indifference to worldly concerns; or freedom from bias or prejudice.

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New Year's Resolutions

New Year's! It's that time of year when you get out that piece of paper, or open that document on your laptop, and start thinking about all of those things that you want to change about yourself this year. The question is, will you?

Many of us think that we have "all the time in the world" to make the changes that we need to make, so we wait, and wait. And then it never happens. Or something always comes up to prevent it! And then it becomes one more failure to add to our mental list.

It has been shown time and time again, that the standard New Year's resolutions do not really work. They might actually hinder your progress. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that one should not introspect. It is an important part of any spiritually guided life. Introspection is a key component to helping us start the process of change. We use it to look more deeply into our own thoughts and feelings.

What is it about resolutions that don't work for the standard person?

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Holiday Spirit

My family had an interesting experience this month, we were part of a live Crèche. Doing the live Crèche is a yearly event that my village does once a week during the Victorian Christmas street-fair held in Nevada City, California, during the weeks prior to Christmas Day.

We stage an actual live Crèche with enough people to represent Mary and Joseph, the three Kings, two shepherds, and an angel or two. We are decked out in costumes from our local costume shop, and we stand in a stage-set stable, if you will, with a few twinkle-lights to brighten things up a bit.

What I find so amazing about this is that there is always a huge crowd waiting for the magical time of 7:00pm-7:30pm, when we are walk out to the set. The people wait quietly for us to sit, kneel or stand in our places, and then the photo session begins.

During this event that lasts for thirty minutes, there is a group called The Victorian Singers that sings the most beautiful songs of the season helping to create the feeling of peace and good-will. It really does set a beautiful energy or presence for the Crèche.

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Memorial to Shady Hook Elementary

I want to dedicate my blog this week to the victims and families of the victims of Shady Hook Elementary school. This is an act of darkness that no parent, that no person, would want to experience. My heart is heavy with grief for each and every one of those that have suffered from this loss. I can only think that the entire school and community are in shock and pain.

I would also like to add that in these times, it is best to remember the living and their grief. Sending our love and prayers, or support, to these people is what is so important. I see that community surrounded in light that is warm and healing.

President Obama said it, there is not a parent in this country that is not sitting with a heavy or broken heart at this tragedy.

Morgan Freeman had an interesting post in Facebook. Basically he stated that we remember the name of those that are doing the atrocity, but the victims we barely remember.

I am choosing to remember a young woman, Victoria Soto, who gave her life for her students. She was a hero. I think upon the amazing amount a bravery, that she must have had in that moment to hide her class of first graders in closets and cabinets while the shooting was happening. I think about if I were one of those parents how utterly and unashamedly grateful I would be to her spirit for that act of complete selfless service she did for my child.

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