One of Dr. Connie's Favorite Places to Muse is at the Pacific Naturopathic Retreat Center in Hawaii

Transformation at the 

Causal Level 

This past weekend I attended a workshop on transforming personal finances.

In our spiritual teachings, we understand that we live in a world of vibration. Everything is vibration... thoughts, feelings, physical reality... Thought and energy precede physical manifestation. The physical world is but a reflection of these causative realities.

We understand the same when we think of the power of our medicines. Our physical medicines can move things around in physical reality, but do not change the underlying issues. Coronary artery blockages can be removed, but if the underlying inflammation is not addressed, the blockage will reappear. Hormonally related cancers can be excised, poisoned, or radiated, but if errors in hormonal metabolism and hormonal imbalances are not corrected, the cancer will recur at that site or at another. Addressing the inflammation or the hormonal metabolism is critical and good, but is still operating at the level of physical reality.

To transform physical reality at a deeper level, we must address causative energetic realities. Healing modalities which operate on an energetic level, such as spiritual healing, homeopathy, flower essences, sound or color healing, or acupuncture can shift energy in a way that disallows the existence of a prevailing physical condition.

The teaching in the weekend seminar on the transformation of personal finances was the same. Both success and failure begin in the mind, and ride on energy. Dysfunctional attitudes towards money and financial freedom, lackluster willpower, and stuck emotions slow and clog the flow. Revising those attitudes, releasing emotional blockages, and firing up the will transforms our relationship with money and allows a different financial reality to emerge.

In this very dynamic seminar, key transformational concepts were repeated again and again. Of those concepts, the one which stuck with me as a bumper sticker statement leading to transformation in any area of life is this saying: "The way you do anything is the way you do everything." If you tell little lies in your life, chances are you tell big ones too. If you don't know where the pennies go, how would you know where the dollars go? If you don't have the energy or willpower to arrive on time and do what you say you will do, why would you expect rewarding results?

 To learn about this transformational seminar, click here

Why not really look at one small area of your life in which you are dissatisfied with yourself, and resolve to change it? It's ok to start with a little thing. You might resolve to arrive on time to every event. Or start with renouncing negative expression by shifting from negative expression to positive expression with just one person. Or, in the area of dietary reform, start with adding two vegetables a day to your daily diet.

See how your commitment to any of these small actions grows and transforms your life.

Find out more about Dr. Connie's consulting services at  
www.naturopathichealthconsultations.com   

Dietary Transformation

Connie Hernandez, N.D.

Peruse the shelves in the health section of any bookstore these days, and you will find books offering dietary solutions to just about every health challenge, and other books espousing one "ideal" diet or another. Many times the information found in one book contradicts that in the other books. People are left concerned and confused about what they should be eating. It's not surprising that one of the most common requests we get is the request for easy to understand, relatively universal dietary guidelines.

With that request in mind, I offer the following recommendations.

1. Eat less processed food. Additives in processed foods contain everything from trans and hydrogenated fats to artificial sweeteners, food coloring, and unpronounceable chemicals. Processed foods often contain allergens, are generally addictive, and offer calories, but questionable nutritional value,

2. Consume less sugar and no artificial sweeteners. Sugar includes honey, molasses, cane sugar, fructose, agave, maple syrup and more. Stevia and lo huan are natural sweeteners that do not have the problems associated with them that sugar or artificial sweeteners have.

3. Choose organic food whenever possible. Know that some fruits and vegetables have a much higher load of pesticides than others. The dirty dozen are strawberries, cherries, apples, peaches, nectarines, imported grapes, pears, sweet bell peppers, celery, lettuce, spinach, and potatoes. If organic food is not available, choose from these foods with lower pesticide content: banana, kiwi, mango, pineapple, broccoli, eggplant, cabbage, asparagus, frozen sweet peas and corn, avocado, and onion

4. Strive to increase servings of fruits and vegetables to 5 servings a day.

5. Eat more raw and lightly steamed foods, and less fried, deep fried, and charred foods.

6. If you consume animal protein, concentrate on wild fish, cage free eggs, milk from grass fed cows, and range fed meat.

7. Choose healthy fats over unhealthy fats. Essential fatty acids are found in fish, flax, pumpkin seeds, and walnuts. (See last month's newsletter for details.) Avocados and almonds contain heart healthy fats. Extra virgin olive oil is great for salads, coconut oil for cooking. The fat in raw organic butter helps essential fatty acids do their work.

8. Vary your dietary intake, and rotate foods. Variety ensures your intake of nutrients and phytochemicals. Rotation of foods helps prevent the development of food allergies.

9. Drink more water and less sugary drinks. Drink between meals, rather than with meals, as water with meals dilutes your digestive juices.

10. Bless your food. Food is fundamentally changed by the act of blessing it, as are we.

Find out more about Dr. Connie's consulting services at:  

Express Gratitude To Transform Your Life 

Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.

-- Kahlil Gibran

For nutritionists, naturopaths, and other health seekers, the holiday season can be daunting. Alcohol, rich entrees and high calorie sweets present challenges to our immune systems and to our waistlines.   Along the way, the true meanings of the season - joy, thankfulness, and the coming of the light -- are often lost in the orgy of food and drink. What would happen if we all were to focus on thankfulness?

Louise Chang, MD, asks just that question, "What would happen if we extended the tradition of giving thanks, typically celebrated just once a year during the holiday season, throughout the entire year?" University of California Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons finds the answer in a therapeutic approach called "positive psychology" This approach is profoundly beneficial to our health. Dr. Emmons reports that people with grateful attitudes take better care of themselves, experience less stress in coping with life's challenges, and are more optimistic. Researchers say that our optimism boosts our immune systems. In fact, recent studies show that developing an "attitude of gratitude" helps people to sleep better, to reduce anxiety and depression, to express kinder responses when provoked and to enjoy greater satisfaction with the process of life in general.

But what if you don't feel grateful? For most of us, developing an attitude of gratitude comes with practice and repetition. Here are some ways to start practicing gratitude:

* Start a "gratitude journal" with a list of five things for which you feel grateful. Pick a weekly time, like Sunday morning, to enter five new things for which you feel grateful. You may find it helpful to carry a small pad on which you can write things you are grateful for on a daily basis. Count your blessings.

* Express gratitude and appreciation frequently, even for very small events that happen in your daily life. Begin with your family and friends, even if you don't have a close family relationship, perhaps especially if you don't. You may be surprised at the transformations that occur as a result of one small kindness or thoughtful action.

* Martin Seligman, at the University of Pennsylvania, suggests you make a "gratitude visit" by writing a 300-word letter to someone who has had a positive influence in your life. Clearly express how the person influenced you and deliver the letter in person. Better still, read it to the person slowly and out loud.

* In our family we have an appreciation ceremony to elevate the energy at birthdays and special events.   We go around the room and allow each person the opportunity to express why they appreciate the celebrant. The appreciation ceremony enhances any event where people are gathered in joy and celebration. Take every opportunity to tell your loved ones what they mean to you.

* Start each morning with an affirmation of gratitude. In our house, we put positive affirmations on our bathroom mirror so when we look at our faces in the morning the affirmation is one of the first things we see.

Right now, try this. Identify three good things in your life. Write them down. Then think of three people you feel close to and write down one thing you appreciate about each of them. Even this short focusing on the love you feel will lift your spirits.

The expression of gratitude is available to us at any moment and under any circumstance. Even a moment's reflection on appreciation when we are not feeling particularly thankful can open the door that leads to personal transformation. On an energetic level, when we transform ourselves, the world transforms. When we are grateful for one another, we find there is no separation between people. We begin to recognize that we are profoundly bound to each other and to the Divine.

Visit www.Gratefulness.org to learn more about gratefulness practice, to send a gratefulness ecard, to light a gratefulness ecandle and to subscribe to the Gratefulness word of the day.

Find out more about Dr. Marcel's work with men at:

Elijah Free, MH, CMI, CMT  

Elijah Free's approach to helping his patients deal with physical pain has been described as bordering on miraculous.  Elijah is also a Master Herbalist who designs and produces all of his own herbal products for his healing practice. He is an herbal product designer for Ridgecrest Herb Co. Elijah also holds a patent for his herbal fibromyalgia formula.   

To contact Elijah, please either call the clinic at 650-917-1121 or e-mail at [email protected].

Looking for a conscious, meaningful, caring gift for a birthday or special occasion? A gift certificate to a Pacific Naturopathic practitioner lets a special person know you really care about their well-being. 

Gift certificates for all practitioners and modalities offered at Pacific Naturopathic are available by phoning our front desk at 650-917-1121, or just stopping by.

Normal Thermographic Pattern

I was surprised to receive a call tonight from Blue Shield, my insurance provider, urging me to sign up now for a mammogram. I'm intrigued that they are professing interest in my care, and fascinated that mammograms are considered to be preventive medicine. 

Mammograms don't prevent anything. They are a screening tool, as is breast thermography.

Mammograms find breast cancer after breast cancer has developed. Breast thermography looks at physiologic changes in the breast tissue, notes the direction of the changes, and monitors the efficacy of therapies that address unfavorable changes. In this way, breast thermography has a preventive role. I'm looking to the day that Blue Shield calls me and tells me they would like to fund a screening exam that discovers changes in breast tissue before the changes are set in stone, and thus allows me to do something about it. If you're interested in this type of approach, call our office and book a breast thermography exam.

The cost to you of breast thermography is $225.

Thermography at Pacific Naturopathic

 

Amazing Sunsets at 

Pacific Naturopathic Hawaii

 

 

Openings From January and Into the New Year    

Sunset from the lanai, November 8, 2011

 

There are some moments in life that are absolutely precious and transport consciousness to a level where all personal concerns seem irrelevant and small.  One of these moments happened on November 8, when yet another fairyland-like rainbow infused sunset over the Pacific carried us into transcendence.  Earth magic events happen almost every day here in Hawaii, and the effect is deeply soothing and restorative.  

 

Many readers have told us that they are waiting for the right time to reserve.  The truth is that the right time will never arrive unless you grasp the moment and make it happen.  Come, treat yourself as well as you deserve. You could be here soon.    

 

 

 

See our websites for more details. Phone 808-775-1505 for reservations, or email    

[email protected]

www.hawaiipeacegardenvacationhouses.com   

www.naturopathicretreatcenter.com

Click HERE to Visit Our Hawaii Retreat on  

Because we would like to make this newsletter responsive to you and your needs, you are invited to send health questions you would like to see addressed to us at

[email protected]     

We would also like to invite you to share with other readers your experiences of health remedies that have worked surprisingly well for you.