NATURE’S BEST ELECTROLYTE DRINK

2 Medium Oranges Peeled

4 Lemons Peeled

12 Limes Peeled

2 Tablespoons of Honey or Agave

Pinch Sea Salt

2 Quarts of Pure Water

Juice all fruits adding salt, sweetener and water to the fruit juice. You may also blend all fruits and strain then press the juice into a container with the 2 quarts of water, sweeten and add the salt. Drink 4 oz. after your workout or every 20 minutes during a long sports event.

In Health Now and Forever,

Chef Grace

Chef Grace has a Master's in Holistic Nutrition, Culinary Training and a passion for implementing the synergy of food, health and healing.

When you focus on your authentic potential you adopt the belief that your lens with which you view the world is the primary shaper of your reality.

• Your external world predicts 10% of your well-being and potential.

• Your internal world determines 90% of your well-being and potential.

When you learn how to effectively choose your lens, your perception of your circumstances, you change your ability to reach your potential.  Given that you have far more control over your internal world than your external world, this is the best place to raise your potential. We are specifically referring to your response to situations via your thoughts, emotions and actions.

Perceptions Are Your Interpretations

It has been said that we are meaning make machines overlaying our subjective interpretation onto everything we experience. We have the ‘know it all syndrome’ where we attempt to figure it all out before allowing ourselves to experience it, resulting in holding ourselves and others to the past. You have never been where you are in this moment now, yet your mind will find a way to make it familiar so that you think it’s the same. Even scientists would agree, true objectivity is virtually impossible. Great freedom comes when we acknowledge that our perception and interpretations have more to do with how we feel than the actual situations and circumstances in our life. Stress occurs when we place our interpretation on a situation, make up (assume) that it is the ‘truth or fact’ and then resist it!

For example:

Your boss emails you to request an important one on one meeting. Before the meeting happens you make up the following interpretations;

• He is unhappy with your performance on your latest project.
• The company is going through changes and you are going to get a demotion or cut in pay.
• He has been watching your work ethic and believes you are not putting in enough effort.

You feel very certain that one of these interpretations must be correct. Nothing else makes logical sense to you. You make up that this is the truth or the fact regarding what he wants to talk with you about. You resist this interpretation in astonishment or feel upset that he would perceive you and your work in this way or that something negative is happening in the company. You make matters worse by talking with other co-workers to commiserate. You are sure to tell them what your boss is doing to you. They then search for evidence to validate this and commiserate with you.

Facts vs. Interpretations

What are the actual facts in this situation outside of your interpretations about it?

Your boss sent you an email requesting a one on one meeting. That’s it. This is all that occurred. Everything else is your interpretation.

Exploring your interpretations is powerful work. This brings you to the empowered place of self-responsibility. The key is to realize you are the common denominator in your life. Your perception drives your behavior. Start with owning your interpretations and navigating your way through other possibilities. In doing so you increase your control over your internal world and raise your potential. You can have fun with this by playing a game with yourself to see how many different interpretations you can come up with for different scenarios.

Play the Interpretation Game

• Think about an issue in your life that you feel stressed or anxious about. With conviction come up with five different and compelling interpretations regarding this issue.

Coaching and Counseling

Kim Ward Ph.D. and Hilary Stokes Ph.D., founders of Authenticity Associates Coaching and Counseling, have worked as a team for over 15 years. Their mission is to empower people to achieve their authentic potential. They specialize in bringing the synergistic power of mind, body and spirit to individuals and couples. They are passionate about combining the best of holistic and traditional approaches to realize whole body wellness. If you are looking for a holistic approach to improving your life please contact Hilary Stokes Ph.D. & Kimberly Ward Ph.D. at Authenticity Associates.

Authentic Potential

Averages however do not reflect your authentic potential or optimal levels of well-being!

Perhaps you can relate to this scenario;

• You wake up in the morning with your mind filled with all of the things you need to or have to do that day. Consequently you go through the day meeting one obligation to the next. When lying in bed that night you fall asleep thinking about the next day and all of items on your list of to do’s. You can’t wait until Friday so that you can really relax, have fun and enjoy your life.  

For many people this scenario represents their norm, however as you can see this does not reflect optimal well-being and life potential. It simply reflects reaching average. It is compelling to reach for your potential vs. merely settle for average when you consider the other side of the equation such as the fact that rates of stress, depression and anxiety are going up every year.

According to the CDC, 1 in 10 Americans are depressed. It is the common cold of mental illness and is believed to be outranked only by cardiovascular disease in the coming decades. It costs 83 billion per year due to loss of work and medical expenses and women are two to three more likely to have depression than men. These are the statistics just for depression, if we look at stress these numbers are much higher. It is now estimated that 80-90% of all disease is stress-related and costs 150 billion to 300 billion annually.

When you apply the strategies that work for the above average group you have the potential to raise the average for everyone. This can easily be seen in professional athletes. What was once viewed as nearly impossible is now the average. No one thought the 1 mile race would ever break the 4 minute threshold. We have found this to be repeatedly true in our work. When we speak to people at the level of their potential they rise to the standard of what is possible vs. what is common.

Coaching and Counseling

Kim Ward Ph.D. and Hilary Stokes Ph.D., founders of Authenticity Associates Coaching and Counseling, have worked as a team for over 15 years. Their mission is to empower people to achieve their authentic potential. They specialize in bringing the synergistic power of mind, body and spirit to individuals and couples. They are passionate about combining the best of holistic and traditional approaches to realize whole body wellness. If you are looking for a holistic approach to improving your life please contact Hilary Stokes Ph.D. & Kimberly Ward Ph.D. at Authenticity Associates.

The standard strategy for success includes working hard to achieve a particular goal. Once you attain this goal then you will feel successful. Once you are successful then you are happy.

Work Hard Model:

Work Hard = Achieve Goals = Success = Happiness

This model does not account for how the brain actually works. The nature of the brain is such that once you reach a goal you instinctively identify a new goal. For instance, a sculptor or painter does not complete their first piece of art work and then stand next to it proclaiming; ‘This is it. I am done. I have created my one and only piece of art.’ Just the same a professional athlete does not win their first race, match or game and declare victory forever. The brain does not work that way. In fact it works in the opposite way. The attainment of a goal is just the beginning of the journey not the destination.

Consider for yourself the last time you accomplished a goal and how long the sweet taste of satisfaction lasted before you identified another goal. If you persist in the belief that success is based on completion you will never be successful or happy for long. There will always be another goal you are eager to accomplish because your brain is driven to expand, improve and move in the direction of your potential. As long as you are alive you will have goals and dreams enabling you to experience your potential. 

Work Smart Model:

Increase happiness = Increase productivity and goal achievement = Increase success

Coaching and Counseling

Kim Ward Ph.D. and Hilary Stokes Ph.D., founders of Authenticity Associates Coaching and Counseling, have worked as a team for over 15 years. Their mission is to empower people to achieve their authentic potential. They specialize in bringing the synergistic power of mind, body and spirit to individuals and couples. They are passionate about combining the best of holistic and traditional approaches to realize whole body wellness. If you are looking for a holistic approach to improving your life please contact Hilary Stokes Ph.D. & Kimberly Ward Ph.D. at Authenticity Associates.

By: Chef Grace                                                                                                                

Spring means getting in, cleaning up and clearing out. It can also mean cleaning out your emotional system; stress, anger and old griefs. According to the powerful mind-body connection, every cell has a memory. This includes storing the good memories as well as the not so good ones. When you cleanse on a physical and emotional level you create an internal state of well-being and a new dimension of health.  

Your liver is one of five detoxifying organs in the body and plays a vital role in the balance of your brain chemistry. As such it is an important organ to target when cleansing.  If your liver is toxic it cannot convert nutrients into healthy brain chemicals which is important for two reasons.

1. A toxic liver suppresses the release of tissue memories of emotional past experiences from the cells causing you to feel stuck in your past.
2. Healthy brain chemistry leads to feeling good

The solution can be found in strengthening your digestion with enzymes, minerals and cleansing foods to detox the liver. Let’s get clean, get calm and get clear with this cleansing recipe.

SPRING CLEANSE SALAD OR TONIC

                                                           Have It Your Way

1 Golden Delicious Organic Apple Grated

½ Small Beet Grated

½ Inch Ginger Grated

Juice of 1 lemon

5-6 Beet Greens Torn

4-5 Dandelion Leaves Torn

½ Teaspoon Spirulina or Chlorella

Assemble the greens on a plate with the grated apple, ginger and beet in the center. Squeeze lemon juice over salad and sprinkle with spirulina . Or Blend all in a blender decreasing some greens and increasing apple to your taste.  The enzyme Lypozyme is great for digesting fats and enjoy a cup of green tea.

Chef Grace has a Master's in Holistic Nutrition, Culinary Training and a passion for implementing the synergy of food, health and healing.

Positive thinking is only one part of the solution. Many people have found short term results and long term frustration with repeating positive affirmations. They may be diligent students practicing daily but still find they come up short. There are key pieces missing from the positive thinking equation. Scientific discoveries from neuropsychology demonstrate that changing your thoughts is just not enough.  Emotional alignment, presence and a sense of control are precursors to making positive thinking effective.  What happens for most people is they repeat their affirmations yet at the deeper level of their subconscious they don’t believe it. As well, on a day to day basis they are stressed out. These two factors will not allow any real success with positive thinking.

Body-Mind Solution

How do you effectively access emotional alignment? What we think of as emotion is actually the experience of energy moving throughout your body. The latin derivative ‘emotere’ literally means energy in motion. It serves as the carrier waves for the entire spectrum of feelings. In itself, emotional energy is neutral. It is the feeling sensation and physiological reaction that make a specific emotion positive or negative and it is our thought about it that give it meaning. Feeling is what we label as anger, sadness, joy etc. Emotions are frequencies you tune into.

Your body-mind contains a system for happiness that can be found in the biological processes that sense, store and recall external and internal stimuli. For many people, looking to their body for releasing and transforming emotional experiences is the missing link. This is especially true when you understand that sensory and emotional information are processed and recorded into memory first while cognitive associations are second. This distinction provides clues into happiness as it reveals the necessity of healing through the body. It further points out the obvious limitations of purely thought-based approaches. When you get out of your neocortex’s reasons, rationalizations and detailed story of what happened that you believed caused your upset, you now have some access to finding relief from your emotional world.  The process of releasing stress involves unwinding this energy through body sensations that represent these emotions. This has a dramatic impact on reclaiming your life force.  Once you have disengaged the stress response and reclaimed your life force you are ready to realize the power of positive thinking to create lasting happiness.  In our practice we help our clients with powerful strategies for releasing stress and emotions through the body-mind connection.

The Happiness Advantage  

Happiness not only feels good, it also has countless benefits that directly impact your health, productivity, performance and relationships. Here are few advantages of happiness.

• Health: Boost your immunity, sleep and fertility. Decrease the risk of every major degenerative disease.
• Mental and Emotional Well-being: Decrease depression, anxiety, ADD and stress. Increase clarity, focus, vitality and life satisfaction.
• Relationships: Decrease conflicts and separation. Increase longevity and intimacy.
• Performance: Decrease distraction, procrastination and absenteeism. Increase concentration, sales, efficiency and teamwork.

When you focus on the solution and apply long term strategies for optimal well-being you gain access to the happiness advantage. This is a moment to moment journey of building new neural networks that lead to long term happiness and resiliency.

Coaching and Counseling

Kim Ward Ph.D. and Hilary Stokes Ph.D., founders of Authenticity Associates Coaching and Counseling, have worked as a team for over 15 years. Their mission is to empower people to achieve their authentic potential. They specialize in bringing the synergistic power of mind, body and spirit to individuals and couples. They are passionate about combining the best of holistic and traditional approaches to realize whole body wellness. If you are looking for a holistic approach to improving your life please contact Hilary Stokes Ph.D. & Kimberly Ward Ph.D. at Authenticity Associates.

When asked what most people want in life, they will tell you it is to be happy. Typically, if they answer with some other external factor such as financial freedom, material gain, love relationship or degree of success this is most often because they believe acquiring this will lead to happiness.  Even though happiness is experienced as a fundamental goal it is often just out of reach on any consistent basis.  It is there one minute and gone the next. Stress, busyness, impatience, frustration and overwhelm compete for this space in your mind and body.

Perhaps you have been a seeker of happiness, applying yourself diligently with hopes of experiencing greater joy. You have read books, attended workshops, been in therapy and repeated positive affirmations. However you find your results are dismal compared to the amount of effort you have applied. We are here to tell you, it is not your fault. You and countless others have been misinformed about how to actually experience long term happiness.

What if we told you that the primary methods for achieving happiness only lead to short term results and long term dissatisfaction? 

Happiness & Unhappiness

Here’s an important clue as to why this statement is true. Happiness is not the absence of unhappiness just as health is not the absence of disease.  This probably sounds like common sense to you. However, most strategies designed to increase happiness focus primarily on decreasing unhappiness.

• How often have you told yourself to think differently, more positively or rationally about a situation yet seconds later the same thoughts come crashing through your mind?
• Have you realized your emotional response to a situation is disproportionate to the actual situation yet can’t seem to tell yourself to let it go and change your viewpoint?
• Have you read self-help books on the topic having gained new insights without lasting results?
• Perhaps you’ve even sat down journaling page after page on the issue still to no avail for relieving your feelings.

As much as you might wish it were different, you just can’t get there from here. These tactics are inherently flawed for several reasons. We too are familiar with these strategies as we have applied them personally and professionally. We know the time and effort this takes and the typical lack of results it brings.  Read on as we reveal the missing links to creating lasting happiness.

Coaching and Counseling

Kim Ward Ph.D. and Hilary Stokes Ph.D., founders of Authenticity Associates Coaching and Counseling, have worked as a team for over 15 years. Their mission is to empower people to achieve their authentic potential. They specialize in bringing the synergistic power of mind, body and spirit to individuals and couples. They are passionate about combining the best of holistic and traditional approaches to realize whole body wellness. If you are looking for a holistic approach to improving your life please contact Hilary Stokes Ph.D. & Kimberly Ward Ph.D. at Authenticity Associates.

We are going to share key factors to assist you in building a new framework in your mind for what it takes to be happy.  This is likely going to require a dynamic paradigm shift in your consciousness. It will contradict much of what is believed to be true about the path to happiness. But trust us when we say this paradigm shift breathes a breath of fresh air into your journey. This is the best of what research (so far) is discovering about the road to lasting happiness.  As you point yourself in the right direction you gain momentum towards feeling better every day.

Three Paradigm Shifts

1. Focus on The Solution
   1. You can’t truly resolve an issue at the level of the problem.  As you focus on the problem to solve the problem you engage neural pathways associated with more of the same problem vs. the solution.  

2. Apply Long Term Strategies
   1. The current methods for decreasing stress or unhappiness tend to lead to short relief, immediate gratification seeking and long term disappointment. They actually perpetuate vs. relieve the cycle of stress.

3. Go for Achieving Optimal vs. Average
   1. Achieving average is not true happiness. Current strategies are based on the study of averages not true potential.

Why talking about it is not enough

Talk is Cheap…and simply not effective.  This is such an important topic that we would like to expand on this further. The #1 approach to increasing happiness is to decrease unhappiness by talking about how unhappy you are. It is neuro-biologically illogical to talk your way through your feelings. You can’t talk your way out of stress, unhealthy patterns or anxiety as much as you can’t talk your way through a broken bone or burst appendix. You have to take specific steps to get through this discomfort. You may momentarily feel some relief with a positive thought however the residue from the stress response lingers.  If talking about it were enough then rates of depression, anxiety and stress would not be increasing every year. Fortunately awareness of the mind-body relationship is also increasing. It is now well understood that daily stress impacts physical, emotional and mental well-being as validated by the fact that it is a primary cause of the six major degenerative diseases. In the years to come, the importance of the mind-body relationship will have a significant impact on strategies for happiness and well-being. 

There is another way

With a small amount of effort however you can disengage the stress response and guide your body and emotions back to feeling secure and grounded. Now you are ready to realize the power of your positive thinking. The long term health and well-being benefits to this approach are enormous when you consider how detrimental a pervasive undercurrent of stress is on physical and emotional body.

Coaching and Counseling

Kim Ward Ph.D. and Hilary Stokes Ph.D., founders of Authenticity Associates Coaching and Counseling, have worked as a team for over 15 years. Their mission is to empower people to achieve their authentic potential. They specialize in bringing the synergistic power of mind, body and spirit to individuals and couples. They are passionate about combining the best of holistic and traditional approaches to realize whole body wellness. If you are looking for a holistic approach to improving your life please contact Hilary Stokes Ph.D. & Kimberly Ward Ph.D. at Authenticity Associates.

By Chef Grace

Kale is being touted as a new ‘Super Food’. Kale is now recognized as providing support for the body’s detoxification system helping regulate cleansing at a genetic level. Its anti-inflammatory benefits play a leading dietary role respective to oxidative stress. This green scores 1,000 on the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index. Nutritionally it has vitamins K, A and C; more iron than beef with calcium more readily absorbed by the body than dairy.  

In addition to the multiple physical health benefits each of these nutrients provide, Kale offers a unique source of mood boosting power.  It’s high in fiber containing 121 mg. of Omega-3 and 92.4 mg. of Omega 6 fatty acids. Studies have shown Omega-3 fatty acids are as powerful as antidepressants in treating symptoms of depression and anxiety. Given your brain is comprised of two thirds fat, it is easy to see how increasing your intake of Omega fatty acids can increase concentration, clarity, memory and mood. 

In the color spectrum, green is at the center of the rainbow representing balance, healing emotionally, stability and rejuvenation.

Keep kale in your diet in various ways by sauté’s, chopped fine in salads or this cooling smoothie recipe below:

KALE SMOOTHIE

½ Cup Water or Coconut Milk or Almond Milk

1 Pear quartered

1/3 Cup Frozen Mixed Berries

½ Juiced lemon

2 Cups Kale – Chopped/Stems Removed

Stevia or Honey to Taste

1 Teaspoon Tahini Optional

Blend ingredients adding more liquid or ice cubes if needed.

Chef Grace has a Master’s in Holistic Nutrition, Culinary Training and a passion for implementing the synergy of foods health and healing.

De-Clutter Working memory

Everyone can agree that achieving your goals takes focus. How do you make something top of mind? The first and most important step to increase focus is to de-clutter your working memory. You have to make room in your mind in order to have the capacity to focus. The most effective strategy we have found to increase the space in your working memory is meditation . Meditation can be likened to defragmenting your computer. It clears away the inessentials of your mind, the details that aren’t necessary and brings your focus into the present. Numerous research studies have concluded that meditation  decreases stress by quieting the mind and calming the body. Studies have further shown in four short sessions of meditation  you increase focus and concentration. Specifically the prefrontal cortex of meditators demonstrates stronger response to new stimuli than that of non-meditators. This translates to mean that meditation  increases your ability to focus on new things such as your desired goal.

Presence

In addition to decreasing stress and de-cluttering your working memory another reason meditation  is the best strategy to increase focus is due to the fact that it brings your attention into the present moment. Presence is a key element to creating your goals. In order to willfully focus your attention on your desired goal you have to be in the present moment. Most people feel from the past and live from the future especially when it comes to changing a habit. In other words, the guilt and remorse of what hasn’t happened yet due to multiple failed attempts at making change leads to a perpetual cycle of letting the past color the present. As well, worry, what if’s and self-doubt of repeating the past in the future impacts the degree of focus and presence in the now.  This is because current neural pathways around this habit are emotionally stronger and easily override being calm, clear and focused in the present. Are you recycling your past or borrowing on the future to determine your experiences in the present? Being present takes practice. Yet the practice is well worth every second because the present moment is the only place your focus has power. You can’t create anything from the past because it is no longer here. The future hasn’t happened yet so you have no power to create from there either. Your only power is in the now.

Meditation

You are the master architect of your habits. You have the power to construct or deconstruct your neural architecture that constitutes your habits. You do this by being aware of where your attention is in any given moment. Then the next step is to choose to willfully focus your attention on thoughts, perceptions, images and actions that promote your desired change.

Solution: Spend time daily de-cluttering your mind and exercising your ability to focus on the present moment. Meditation  is a powerful practice to decrease stress while strengthening neural circuitry for being present.

The Practice

1.      Find a comfortable position where you can be still for 5 – 10 minutes.

2.      Breathe into your lower lungs by feeling your abdomen rise and fall as you inhale and exhale.

3.      Bring your awareness to a centering word, a meaningful phrase or the sensation of your breath and focus intently on what you have chosen.

4.      If outside thoughts arise consciously detach from distractions, past regrets and future worries by noticing the thought and bringing your attention immediately back to your chosen focus.

5.      Notice remarkable results.

What is happening now?

From this more centered and present state of mind observe your thoughts and emotions regarding your goal. Explore the content and quality of your thoughts and emotions. Are they based in the present moment? Or are they based in the past or future? This might look like thinking about something that happened yesterday such as regretting a mistake or feeling worried about what if’s in the future. Consciously choose to bring your attention to the present and explore what is actually happening right now. Do this simple exercise multiple times per day to bring your awareness into the present and make choices from this place of power.