​While online one day, I noticed a link to an article that caught my attention with this post:  “Don’t Read This! It’s Only the Most Valuable Psychology Hack You Can Learn”.   What do you think I did next after reading that intriguing commandment?   You bet, I found myself clicking the link and reading that article right then and there!  Don’t Touch: Wet Paint, By Daniel DiPiazza
(Daniel DiPiazza is the Founder of Rich20Something and Contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine) 

Using insightful examples, the author highlights the psychological ramifications behind how we generally respond when hearing, saying, or thinking the word:  “DON’T”
 
Don’t think of a blue tree.

Did you think of a blue tree? 

You thought of the tree didn’t you!

Even though I specifically told you not to think of a blue tree…That’s what you did.
 
-Daniel DiPiazza
 
His point:  When you repeatedly preface your thought(s) with the word “don’t” psychologically your unconscious mind can actually interpret this in a manner that you quite unintended.  For example, when you say to yourself “I don’t want to fail” you’re giving your brain infinite possibilities, but because your brain can’t possibly comprehend all of the possibilities, it focuses on the one thing you have given it:  Failing.

So, the moral is…pay attention to how you talk to yourself as your brain is always listening and working to follow instructions.  If you continually say: “I don’t want (fill in the blank)”, what you don’t want (whatever you put in that blank) is what tends to manifest in your life.

It might be difficult at first, but practice taking it easy on YOU by paying attention to what you’re saying to yourself.  With awareness, you can interrupt any undesirable thoughts and refocus them to the specific things you do want.  For example, you can change a thought like “I don’t want to fail” to “I’m going to succeed”. 

Your thoughts and chosen words are powerful!  Get good at this mental tweaking and you will experience the outcome you truly do desire for your health and life.


By Judith Garner, Certified Health Coach
Helping people stay healthy inside & out!

Forgiveness is an act of relinquishing negative emotions that left unfettered can become internalized affecting one’s health and wellness.  -Judith Garner

Circumstances of all kinds cause reactions in people and decisions about how to react to them is what shapes people.  A lot of self-help literature today promotes the emotional and physical benefits of forgiveness.  Most world religions too include teachings and guidance for the practice of forgiveness.  It's the hurtful circumstances we face that cause us to grapple with the notion of forgiveness, perhaps reacting one way at first and then making a decision later to forgive or not to forgive someone, something, or ourselves. 

​Why is it important to understand the bodymind relationship and how does it affect one’s choice to act with forgiveness?  Forgiveness is both a thoughtful choice and a deliberate action based on our emotions and feelings.  It is our thoughts and feelings that drive our actions and outcomes. Forgiveness is a decisive act of relinquishing negative emotions that left unfettered can become internalized affecting one's health and wellness, here's how:  

Understanding The Bodymind Relationship

Being hurt by something or betrayed by someone, whether physically or emotionally, causes feelings to occur in the Bodymind--The term is an approach to understanding the relationship between the human body and the mind.  Research in the field of neuroscience illustrates the interplay between the body's physical and psycho-emotional structures:

Emotions are the body’s physical response to external stimuli. 

• Emotions prompt thoughts and reactions.  It is our emotions that cause physical states--conditions and symptoms in the body.
• Here are examples of seven basic emotions:  Fear (danger lurks);  Sadness (impending loss);  Anger (urgent pleas for justice and action);  Joy (impending gain);  Surprise (unexpected event);  Disgust (contamination, toxic contact);  Contempt (substandard behavior or being).

Feelings are mental experiences due to reactions of the brain.

• Feelings reside in the mind as the brain reacts to interpret emotions, physical conditions (pain), and other symptoms of our body.  Feelings are triggered by our thoughts and memories causing mental states (experiences and symptoms in the mind).  The brain is one of the largest and most complex organs in the human body as It controls and coordinates our emotions, reactions, thoughts and memories--all of which give us our feelings.

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Emotions and Feelings > Feelings and Emotions

When asked what is the difference between the mind and the brain? William B. Salt II., MD gives this response at sharecare.com:  "Brain and mind are not the same. Your brain is part of the visible, tangible world of the body. Your mind is part of the invisible, transcendent world of thought, feeling, attitude, belief and imagination. The brain is the physical organ most associated with mind and consciousness, but the mind is not confined to the brain. The intelligence of your mind permeates every cell of your body, not just brain cells. Your mind has tremendous power over all bodily systems."  

The body and mind work together continually to produce symptoms in our beings which include physical, mental, and spiritual states.   For this reason, we are souls that don't have one without the other--emotions (physical) and feelings (mental).  We feel our emotions--natural instinctive states of mind deriving from one's circumstances.  Feeling is having awareness through sensitivity and touch, but also through perception and discernment of our emotions.  This plays an integral part in our physical and mental states at all times.

Let’s now consider The Principle of Causation.   

Our health and welfare are results of this interplay in the Bodymind which is continually effected by the cause and effect world we live in.  The Principle of Causation states:  Everything that happens has a cause.  Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  And, this principle definitely comes into play within the Bodymind.  Consequences are results of causation. Consequences materialize from our reactions that precede our actions.  Based on this universal principle of causation, it is plausible to recognize that emotions do cause feelings and many of our feelings are reactions to our emotions.  Our actions in turn, along with their effects on our Bodyminds, are continually based on the interplay between these two physical and psycho-emotional structures that influence the overall health. 

Let's now consider The Act of Forgiving.

• ​When you consider that forgiving is an action (action meaning: the fact or process of doing something typically to achieve an aim), then like all other actions we take, the purpose and aim of why we choose to forgive will possess its own consequences.  Every action, has an equal and opposite reaction.
• The equal reaction of forgiving (forgiveness) can cause healing inside our bodily systems.  And, the opposite reaction of not forgiving (unforgiveness) can cause harm inside our bodily systems.  Forgiveness is every bit an action taken solely by choice that can relinquish negative emotions risen within one’s self, that left unfettered will cause harm to the body’s cells and therefore an individual’s physical and mental health.

Relinquishing negative emotions through the personal action of forgiveness serves to retain one's equilibrium (balance) within their own bodymind.  Negative emotions can be described as any feeling which causes a person to be miserable and sad—e.g. anger, frustration, guilt, nervousness, fear, etc.  When we live with our negative emotions and refuse to release them:  "What you live with you learn, what you learn you practice, what you practice you become, what you become has consequences."
-Earnie Larsen

In other words, the action of forgiveness is something we do for our own physical wellness and peace of mind more so than for someone else--although we can do it for someone else's benefit too.  However, giving someone your forgiveness may or may not help them--e.g. It wouldn't help them at all if they're not sorry for hurting you in some way.  So, to me, the act of forgiving is first and foremost a form of self-care and it's healthy!

The graphic below illustrates the integral interplay between the body and mind and how this principle of cause and effect ties our emotions and feelings together—there is not one without the other:Brain and mind are not the same. Your brain is part of the visible, tangible world of the body. Your mind is part of the invisible, transcendent world of thought, feeling, attitude, belief and imagination. The brain is the physical organ most associated with mind and consciousness, but the mind is not confined to the brain. The intelligence of your mind permeates every cell of your body, not just brain cells. Your mind has tremendous power over all bodily systems.

Forgiveness.  Here's what some other people have to say about it:

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.  -Louis B. Smedes

Forgiveness is almost a selfish act because of its immense benefits to the one who forgives. 
-Lawana Blackwell

True forgiveness is not an action after the fact it is an attitude with which you enter each moment. 
-David Ridge

To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.  -Confucius

One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.  -Rita Mae Brown

It's not your circumstances that shape you, it's how you react to your circumstances.  -Ann Ortlund

It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive.  Forgive everybody.  -Maya Angelou


Forgiving doesn't mean you excuse or accept the bad behavior of someone else towards you, or the circumstances behind something that's hurt you--although it's your prerogative if you do choose to excuse it.  Forgiving is a self-care action you can choose in order to relinquish harmful negative emotions that can lead to negative reactions and feelings in your body.  If allowed to persist or become subconscious memories not dealt with, these negative emotions often develop into illness or disease that follows. 

Forgiveness is a natural tool you can use for your own health and wellness whenever you wish, it always lies within your sole power and control.    Nobody can take the right to use this tool away from you.  -Judith Garner


By Judith Garner, Certified Health Coach
Helping people stay healthy inside & out!

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​Raising Awareness of Dying, Death and Bereavement:  Alongside conversations about wellness, I believe it's important to talk about this.  Today, around the anniversaries of my parents’ deaths, I want to share insights I’ve gathered about dying.

It might seem counterintuitive for a health coach to be writing and speaking about dying and death.  Especially, when I’m continually promoting healthy cells and bodymind wellness strategies for living--which I share through my writing and health coaching practice Garner Healthy Living Everyday.  Applying ourselves to take actions that help keep us physically and mentally healthy involve making personal decisions and individual lifestyle choices that can affect the quality of our lives.  Still, there will be no derailing of the inevitable reality-train carrying the fact that we all will die at some point.  It is likely to that most of us will experience the grief of losing loved ones that we survive. 

How prepared people are to cope with the dying process and witness death have stress-filled implications that may affect emotional health during the grieving process and beyond--contributing to physical health concerns such as digestive disorders, sleep disturbances, and general lack of energy that can develop. 

Everyone approaches how they think about life, death, and health in their own unique way, yet there’s no doubt that our families, societies, marketplaces, personal knowledge, beliefs, and spirituality often have an influence on how we take care for ourselves from cradle to grave, sort-of speak.  These influencers may or may not lend to our preparedness to face death at any time, as dying is something we generally don’t wish to contemplate; therefore, we don’t talk much about it with each other. 
 
Naming Death.  In her top-selling book, published 2018:  With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of Denial, by Dr. Kathryn Mannix (who is a physician specializing in palliative care, hospice, and cognitive behavior therapy for thirty years) writes about naming death.  She states:  Notice how often we hear euphemisms like ‘passed’, ‘passed away’, ‘lost’, in our conversations and in the media.  She then asks readers these questions:  How can we talk about dying, plan our care or support those we love during dying, theirs or ours, if we are not prepared to name death?  She makes another point about our avoidance by asking if you or your family avoid the D-words?  Contemplation of one’s own death can be emotionally complex generating fear of dying, anxiety over ceasing to exist, sadness of being separated from loved ones, and even jealousy of those who will survive without them.

“It is simply impossible to guess what another person means when they are considering their mortality.  In palliative care, we have learned to make no assumptions:  we ask.  The interesting thing is that people are able and willing to answer, and when they share that burden, they often discover from within themselves new insights and ideas that help them to cope.”  -Dr. Kathryn Mannix, Author of With The End In Mind

Please watch this video as she talks about her education campaign and why she wrote this book to help people understand dying and not to be so afraid:  Read this book and you'll be better prepared for life as well as death.

How we think and interpret our emotions about dying or witnessing death can affect our health and those of others around us.  Dying is a stealth factor of health—I say this because while we’re alive,  nature and many say their God, has afforded we humans the ability to exert a high degree of personal control over our bodies and minds.  Yet, often we don’t have any control or choice regarding how or when we will die—e.g. it can be of old age or a sudden accident.  From the moment we are born we start using life up until our bodies become deceased.  We not only need to be aware of how our bodies work to keep us alive and be giving our bodies what they need, but we need to be talking about end-of-life issues as we do the living of life issues and not feel uncomfortable or burdening about it.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.  -Aristotle

I so agree with Kathryn Mannix that dying and death should not be a taboo subject.  After all, our thoughts, feelings and beliefs about death are important to our spirituality and wellness, in my opinion. Around us, every second of every day someone or something alive dies in this world.  If we do not witness it ourselves, we frequently hear about it on the nightly news or read about it in the media, or encounter someone—e.g. a friend, coworker, or acquaintance who is grieving a death.  In its wake, death touches the hearts and minds of those living who will be surviving and grieving from this experience.  Death, as is being alive, is a common denominator in all our lives so we can and should help each other cope with it better and be healthier for it. Especially within our own families and circles of friends, by not denying or avoiding talk of the subject and sugar coating our words.  The only way to plan for care or support those we love during dying, theirs or ours, is to prepare by talking about it.
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Perhaps, if we talk about it and tell our stories about dying and death, like we do with our stories about living and life, people will become more passionate about the preciousness of being alive and caring for all life itself.  We can also strive to show more compassion towards each other every day as this lifetime and what we do within-it in comparison to eternity, is important, can be difficult, and is short. 

Our lives are but specks of dust falling through the fingers of time. Like sands of the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.  -Socrates

In this spirit, I’ve been reflecting on memories of my Mother and Father knowing how deeply fortunate I am to have been closely living near both parents—I usually communicated with them daily throughout my entire life.  Late last year, each of them died from two different types of cancer they had been struggling with just four months apart from each other.  I was present at their bedsides when they transitioned from this life—Dad first, then Mom.  An extra difficult thing to accept was that my Dad lived well into his nineties, but Mom was much younger, to the tune of twenty-two years younger and she had previously survived heart bypass.  They had been married for over fifty years.
 
My Mom had been my Dad’s primary caretaker as he aged within our family.  She was grieving over his recent death while struggling with her own developing health issue that morphed into metastatic breast cancer very quickly.  This disease was shocking in its rise and body weakening that brought about a hastened ending of my Mother’s life.  She and my family were rendered helpless in short order as this ruthless cancer rapidly took over her body.  Modern medicine and cancer treatments failed to stop its ravaging assault.  Witnessing the dying process adds to the difficulty of the death experience if we’re not somewhat mentally and spiritually prepared to see it.  Losing a loved one is harsh on our emotions and has an impact on our health afterwards—it’s both mentally and physically taxing as we grieve.

In the aftermath…As a daughter of these two wonderful and beautiful people, what’s helped immensely with the overwhelming grief I’ve felt has been the pre-planning and caring actions that my parents took many years prior to their own deaths.  They made their own instructional plans and burial arrangements according to their wishes while they were still healthy.  They did it lovingly to spare me and my family members from having to make too many difficult decisions while grieving--so that we may focus more on ourselves emotionally through what they knew would be a stressful and painful loss.  It is a true gift they gave their family in order to help ease our hurting, in any way they could, after their dying.  This is the exemplary people my parents were and typical of why they were my greatest teachers and are so precious and loved.

My family and I are truly grateful for the hospice professionals that my parents chose to help them and us during the difficulty of facing their deaths.  Companion Hospice & Palliative Care of Maricopa has some of the most dedicated, loving and caring professionals that helped ease my parents’ transitions with their services, but they also talked with me and my family about the dying process.  We didn’t know what to expect and they held our hands while educating and comforting us through the various stages of death.  I know that helped ease my Mom’s anxiety when she was dying as she had just been through the dying process with my Dad too.  I am nearly 56 years of age and have never witnessed someone dying before, let alone the distress of it being my own parents.   I cannot express enough how grateful I feel for these remarkable, wonderful people who helped me and my family in our personal time of need.  They taught me a lot about the need and value of end-of-life care and support. 

It seems unfair that the world can’t just stop for a bit and take a breather when our loved ones die and we’re mourning, doesn’t it?  ​I feel compelled to write and share more of what I learned in future articles and group discussions.  I also want to hear other people’s stories about their experiences with death in a supportive and educational community that can be helpful to others--those who are preparing and those who are grieving.

I know I’m not alone or unique in this feeling as others have gone through this too with the death of a loved one.  In this universe, life relentlessly moves onward regardless of our bereavement needs and desire for the world to stop turning while we mourn.  On a personal note, it really hurts to be at this segment of life, and I haven’t spoken a lot, or deeply, about the loss of my dearly beloved parents except to my family circle.  In the months leading up to their deaths and together with my family we experienced the process of their dying as I mentioned earlier.  I was present with my parents daily during their hospice care and I was present when each one of them took their last breaths.
 
Things my parents taught me about dying and death:

• In childhood, my parents often sat my sister and I down around our family’s dining table to have what I call “life talks”.  Mom and Dad did not sugar-coat talks about the birds and the bees; God and the devil—as well as other religious beliefs and bible study; discussions about right and wrong; discussions about truth and dishonesty; and much more.  They let us talk too as children and ask them questions about deep stuff, including dying.  They wanted us to be mentally prepared as possible if there was a sudden death.

• Both of my parents were forced to ponder dying and death many times throughout their lives.  We talked about it as a family on many occasions.  One time it came up when I was a teenager while my family was living overseas.  My parents filed legal paperwork for guardianship of my sister and I with some close family friends they trusted to raise us in their absence should they both get killed and we survived.  When my Mother and Father did die recently, our family was in a position to have a  complete understanding of how they thought about their own deaths because they’ve talked about it and prepared for it during many different life-stages my family has gone through—knowing their wishes were met has been comforting.

• My Dad said funerals are for the living, not for the dead.  The time to show your honor, care, and love for someone is while they’re living not after they’re dead. 

• Death often comes with no rhyme or reason as to its “why” or timing.  My Mom once told me she hated the suffering of “death”, not only for the deceased but for the living that survived the deceased.  She didn’t understand why there’s got to be such a thing.  She was a believer in God, yet, struggled with this reality just as many people do.  My Mom could see the dark side of life and bad characters and she protected her family like a BOSS from those threats even when we couldn’t see them.

• Both of my parents joked about death at times.  Mom especially tried to inject lighthearted humor about herself by instructing her family to really make sure she’s dead before burying her advising us to make sure that she’s not just in a coma first, okay!   As laughter can help induce healing, laughter to can help ease pain. Both of my parents had a good sense of humor most of their lives.

I could go on and on about my parents, but the point I feel that’s important to reiterate here is that the difficulty and stress we experience when a loved one dies can be softened a degree by how we’re able to reflect on that person’s life, the quality of the relationship we shared, and how well we really understood that person’s thoughts and beliefs.  By being able to focus ourselves on having had more positive memories versus negative memories to discuss with the dying in final days, brings a measure of peace to the dying process as well.  That only comes when you truly know a person well while they were living life through talking, sharing, communicating, visiting, taking an interest in their thoughts and feelings about the heavier life-matters such as death and dying.

Here are some other thoughts I wish to express on this subject of dying and death:

• Some people come to know more about their family members after they are deceased then they ever knew about them while they were living.  Take the time as a family to share each other’s lives often, not just every now and then—Grandparents, parents, children, siblings, etc. that move away or grow apart.  It takes effort, but it’s the kind of effort that really matters in the end to people in this life and to their survivors.  Families need to talk and take care of each other through health and sickness—for lifelong.

• Parents need to help their children learn and grow to grasp the more difficult aspects of living so that if they are faced with a sudden death experience it doesn’t devastate them and mess them up for life.   Like I said earlier in this article, my parents gave me the gift of their time, teaching, and love which has always made a huge impact on my life and the way I turned out, sort-of-speak.  I also gave them that same dedication from myself because I wanted too—I love them, these are the people that raised me up.  I didn’t dump my parents as soon as I was old enough to leave home and rarely see or speak with them except on holidays.  No, we remained close and they were a priority in my life as I was in theirs because we truly loved each other.  Now that they’ve died, I take comfort from knowing them so well and those thoughts and reminders of their feelings about life and death do bring me relief as I continue to grieve their absence in my life.

• Ease the burden for your family by talking about your wishes surrounding your own death.  It’s difficult to think about it and it’s not pleasant to contemplate but it’s a loving thing to do and don’t put it off.  No matter our age, a sudden accident causing death can leave spouses, children, parents and other loved ones traumatized with grief and devastated.  The shock can feel unbearable to them but understanding what your thoughts about such a thing happening and your own death helps your surviving family tremendously as they grasp at dealing with your loss.

• Seek support for your loved ones and yourself when they are dying from terminal illness such as palliative care, hospice care.  Many people have never witnessed the dying process or seen another human being die.  These professionals help your dying loved one with care and compassion and will help prepare and comfort your entire family through the various stages of death.  I wish the rest of the medical world could adopt and deliver the same level of care.  Unfortunately, in our healthcare system today, where profits and pharmaceutical peddling have become a central focus, many healthcare professionals are losing their compassion and care within a system that doesn’t allow much for it.   I don’t believe that’s why many doctors and nurses get into the medical field, they get into the medical field because they do care and have compassion for the sick and dying.  Also, too many elderly people are placed in nursing care facilities or assisted living facilities and neglected by their families.  For those neglectful people out there all I can say to you is this:  Have you heard of Karma?

• Continue to tell stories and share memories of the lives of your loved ones after they’ve died.  You think about them and miss them every day for the rest of your life and that’s a good thing, because of your love they will still dwell here in many hearts.

​RESOURCES.  Here are some recommended resource links for anyone who is going through the grieving process after the death of a loved one: 
 
Finding Meaning:  The Sixth Stage of Grief by David Kessler

Types of Grief:  Yes, There’s More Than One by What’s Your Grief?

Dying Matters-Let’s Talk About It Podcast

With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of Denial, by Kathryn Mannix
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​I See Dead People:  Dreams and Visions of the Dying | Dr. Christopher Kerr | TEDxBuffalo

Closing Thoughts...Life and death are two binding aspects of nature and the environment that ALL living things do have in common—from plants and insects to animals and humans.  As in the large scheme of the universe, all life here has a beginning and an end.  I have come to view striving to stay healthy as a “quality of life issue” more so than a “longevity of life issue” during these two points in time--being able to move our bodies freely, maintaining physical and mental energy, to enjoy our lives with as little illness and pain as possible until we die and reach eternity.   Alongside conversations about wellness, I believe it’s important to talk about dying and not feel uncomfortable or burdening to others by doing so.  By facing the subject early with our loved ones and planning for our end-of-life care and support, we can help each other cope better with dying and death—preparedness helps us emotionally to possess more peacefulness and calm when this time comes. Meanwhile, we can live healthier joyful and fearless lives this way.

Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it. -Haruki Murakami

It is not length of life, but depth of life. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
 

By Judith Garner, Certified Health Coach
Helping people stay healthy inside & out!
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Today, it is easier than you might imagine developing essential nutrient deficiencies.  There are two major paths of harm to your body's cells:

1. Malnutrition-  A lack of proper nutrition, caused by not having enough to eat, not eating enough of the right things, or being unable to use the food that one does eat.
2. Toxicity-  The degree to which a substance (a toxin or poison) causes damage or harm.  Acute toxicity involves harmful effects in an organism through a single or short-term exposure.

There are six essential types of nutrients you need daily and can't live without:  Water; Protein's building blocks-Amino Acids; Carbohydrates; Fats; Minerals; and Vitamins.  Nutrition science may seem overwhelming but it's really not, especially when you consider nature itself provides a tremendous variety of perfectly balanced nutritious foods for us.  Simply knowing the basics is enough to guide you towards eating a daily supply of life fortifying nutrients contained primarily in plant foods for maintaining your body's cells.

Analogy:  You don't have to know how to build your automobile’s engine in order to drive it, but you do have to properly fuel and maintain it, or it's going to eventually stall and give out on you.  Most people don't want to drive a wreck so they trade-in their worn-out automobile occasionally for a new one.  Here's where this comparing analogy ends because you can't just trade your body in like that, although some people may want too!  Who knows what the future may hold?   For now, preventative care and body maintenance is where healthy lives. 

Overeating refined processed ingredients prevalent in the food supply can lead to nutrient deficiencies stemming from both harmful pathways--malnutrition and toxicity--simultaneously.   Many prescribed and over-the-counter medications can also rob your body of some vitamins and minerals. 

Even though we live in an agriculturally rich country (U.S.A.) where whole foods are grown and are abundant, too much of the food in marketplaces has been denatured (natural qualities have been altered) through the industrialized refining processes that are stripping whole plant foods of their natural amino acids, vitamins, minerals and fiber.  After refinement, the altered nutrients that remain are then used as ingredients in packaged foods which often must be fortified or enriched with synthetic vitamins in order to add back in some, but not all, of the nutritional value lost.

Stop consuming denatured foods and loosely regulated food supplements and help put an end to unhealthy mindless eating in America!

Our time-stressed society has become hooked on "fast-food" and loosely regulated powdered and pill-form dietary supplements.  These cheap foods and supposed nutritional boosters (vitamins, superfood powders and protein powders and drinks) are mass produced and of poor nutrient quality, but quick and easy to prepare and take-in.  Formulated to have longer shelf lives and storage capabilities, packaged food products are enhanced with artificial taste addicting flavors.  This type of food is loaded-up with refined sugars, salt, synthetic flavorings, chemical additives and stabilizers to help preserve their structure.  Generally, the more convenient ultra-processed food is to prepare (e.g. packaged-microwave meals ready to eat in minutes), the less desirable CELL FOOD it becomes for one's body because it has literally been denatured to get into this market state.

Denatured food goes from living plant foods full of nutrients, to lifeless manipulated substances that must be vitamin enriched with synthetic fortification.  Our body cells--which are living organisms-- were not born to absorb this for long term sustenance; however, cells do have a remarkable ability to adapt to what is forced upon them as all living organisms possess a natural "will-to-live".  Unfortunately, they'll not be thriving for the long run when a depleting health toll surmounts the cells' abilities to keep up with their life's work in our bodies.  These anti-nutrient foods wreak havoc when cells must rob nutrient resources from each other and the healthiest tissues and organs in the body that is available to them for digestion and energy.  The habitual heist will lead to a depletion of resources and it's just not sustainable.   On a steady diet of denatured (highly refined, ultra-processed) foods, cells will manifest unhealthy symptoms as they deteriorate with a shortened lifespan that leads to illness or disease.

The rise of more mindful and focused eating habits gives you, me and everyone better health!

The number one way to improve daily diets with a healthy cells mindset is to replace as much of this denatured food that you and your loved ones may be consuming with healthier natural food versions.  In my health coaching practice, we go one-by-one through all six essential nutrient categories that make up body cells and find these healthier food options for each of these nutrients and begin to implement them into daily food preparation and eating habits. 

Many Americans are not being skeptical enough and taking charge of the food ingredients they are consuming. Sadly, they are headed towards a future of health woes from the life-robbing, slow-creeping malnutrition that comes from eating too much denatured food and drinks, even though they go to bed with full stomachs nightly!  

The choice is starkly uncomplicated, either eat denatured processed foods that have  become deadened and fortified, or eat whole plant foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, beans, seeds, etc.) that still contain a life force of their natural nutrients.  Please note that meat is not included here, not because it is lacking in nutritional value, but because it doesn't contain:  Dietary Fiber.  Fiber is dietary material found in plants, containing substances such as cellulose, lignin, and pectin which are resistant to the action of digestive enzymes.  Also known as roughage, fiber is a type of carbohydrate that the body can't digest.   Fiber acts like a broom, helping sweep our digestive tracts clean and regulates the body's use of sugars, helping to keep hunger and blood sugar in check.  Plant foods contain fiber, animal flesh (meat) does not.

The most effective way to permanently break addictive cravings for refined sugars, enriched flours and other harmful ingredients is to adopt a mindset of eating for your cells first.  You'll find that getting the six essential types of nutrients  (Water; Protein's building blocks-Amino Acids; Carbohydrates; Fats; Minerals; and Vitamins.) balanced into your eating pattern satiates your cells and begins to fuel you with feel-good energy that builds and builds each day. ​

I'm proud to say that keeping this principle in mind, I lost 20-pounds of weight creep--all gone within less than sixty-days and I have kept it off by balancing what I eat and self-regulating it this way.  I use simple tools to plan meals that contain whole natural foods and have adopted a clean eating lifestyle wherein I eat for my cells first.  I love helping people find their own ways of implementing this principle into their lifestyles as well.  

If you learn methods, you’ll be tied to your methods, but if you learn principles you can devise your own methods.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson ​  LEARN PRINCIPLES AND YOU CAN DEVISE YOUR OWN METHODS--IT'S HEALTHY!
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HEALTHIER INSIDE & OUT BY DESIGN USING YOUR PLATE

​5-COLORS OF PHYTONUTRIENTS IN FRUITS & VEGETABLES THAT YOUR BODY CELLS CRAVE!

​​ELIMINATE FOODS THAT LEAD TO POOR HEALTH AND WEIGHT GAIN
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By Judith Garner, Certified Health Coach
Helping people stay healthy inside & out!

"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?  Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?  ~T.S. Eliot

Today I am reminded of a young banker I met recently while setting up an account.  As he went about the task of helping me with my banking, he could see that I’m in the wellness consulting business—health coaching and body/mind fitness.   My profession piqued his interest and an engaging conversation followed when he asked me several pointed questions about it.

If I had to guess his age, (I didn’t ask) I’d say he is of the millennial generation.  Since I am of the lateral years of the baby boomer generation, he was pleased to ask and hear my viewpoint as an experienced health and wellness professional.  He began to share his health journey with me as we sat across from each other at his desk.

He told me that he had lost 40-pounds of body weight in 2-months and that his success was directly attributable to eliminating highly processed-refined foods from his diet.   In its place, he explained eating a variety of whole-natural foods instead—he called it “going processed-free”.

I congratulated him for taking control of his health!  Of course, I was so excited and happy to hear of his experience as weight loss, habits of health, healthy eating and processed-free lifestyle are all areas that I health coach people with.   I next asked him what was happening in his life, at the point he decided to act, what fueled his thoughts and feelings?

The catalyst for these changes that he and his wife made to their diets was that they each watched their parents die of preventable diseases, he said.  He talked of his study of cellular health and biology, mental health and nature.  I was very impressed with the knowledge he had gained and the principles he so thoroughly understands through his own personal health journey.  And, I was saddened to hear of the loss of their parents to preventable "lifestyle" diseases.  That created a powerful "why" for he and his wife to take action and change habits for their own futures and those of their children.

Having spent years gaining this knowledge myself and completing nutrition school at IIN-Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I reflect on what this young banker spoke of that day and how he gained his own knowledge.  What each of us knows innately, is not something he or I for example, got from health gurus or the experts—doctors, dieticians, health coaches, etc.  We can learn from these people, but it is from our own study of ourselves that we begin to truly know ourselves!  Sifting through the immense amounts of information and research that exist in the world today and figuring out what are the real principles behind what works for our own individual health.

Tuning into our own bodies and minds, taking some personal time to learn about what makes them and ultimately us tick, sort-of-speak.  Asking ourselves questions, what do I need to give my body to help it work efficiently and do its job of keeping me healthy?  A healthy body frees the mind and soul to explore and enjoy life.  In confirmation of this line of thought, this young man whole-heartedly agreed with me.  He said, “people are hungry for information”.  Yet, we agreed that it's largely a matter of being proactive with our own health.
​
I then asked him how he became interested in cellular health, as this understanding was a huge aha moment for me in my personal journey and has become a key strategy for maintaining my own health.  He said he had a wonderful instructor at his college.  He took a cellular biology course while studying engineering.  I said, that's fantastic, everyone should take a cellular biology course, in my opinion, because cellular health is our health!

He told me that he once weighed over 270 pounds which was obese for his height and body frame.  Looking at this young man today, he is trim, fit, energetic and healthy.  You cannot even imagine the ill-conditions he explains he used to live with.

I encouraged him, especially being so young with wisdom, to help spread this knowledge to others.  He has a great passion for it.  He and his wife would like to start a podcast to share their story and what they’ve learned.  I left that bank with my new account opened and feeling happy for this young couple and what they're doing for their health.  I felt inspired to do more myself.

Some other people’s thoughts too:

“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.”
~Oprah Winfrey
  
"The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have known since long."
~Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations

"Knowledge is of two kinds.  We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.:
~Samuel Johnson

“It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it and make it the life you want to live.”  ~Mae Jemison
 

By Judith Garner, Certified Health Coach
Helping people stay healthy inside & out!

A fit body, a calm mind, a house full of love.  These things cannot be bought—they must be earned.  ~Naval Ravikant, AngelList CEO
 
Health care is wildly expensive and that presents challenges if not down-right extreme-problems for many people when they must have medical care.  In the United States, health care has become one of the country's largest industries with escalating costs created by government policies and an epidemic of preventable diseases.  Consequences of the rising costs see people working harder and longer to keep up with health insurance premiums and pay medical expenses for themselves and their families.  Sadly, medical bankruptcies are declared by those that are unable to keep up with this type of debt and that brings new financial struggles into their lives.
 
For many years, before I studied and began my career as a health coach and wellness consultant, I sold homes and land.  At one point I was self-employed as a licensed selling broker with a local Keller Williams Realty company in the city I live in.  Here, I had a great opportunity to learn the teachings of Gary Keller, an entrepreneur and best-selling author.  He is the founder of Keller Williams, which is one of the largest real estate companies in the world.  His books include The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, The Real Estate Investor, and The ONE Thing.
 
What I learned from Gary Keller is an approach to dealing with challenges.  It works for business challenges or any type of challenges, including our own personal health and preventative care challenges in my opinion.  Here it is:
 
Ask yourself this question: 
“When presented with a challenge, do you first think of the ways you could succeed or the ways you could fail?”  This is a test.
 
To get your highest level possible, you will always have to be answering the question:
“If I want it, what must happen for me to get it?”
And then believe that through your efforts, even trial and error if need be, your goals are possible.
 
Every one of us will need to seek medical care at some point in life, most likely, no matter how healthy we are overall.  But responsibly staying as healthy as possible can also help each one of us avoid costly medical expenses for as long as possible.  It can also help alleviate having to experience a current broken healthcare system that all too often is driven more by profits than for the people’s well-being that the system serves.  If I want it (health), what must happen for me to get it?
 
Poor health, illness, disease, pain, aging before your time, etc.  All those kinds of signals and messages from your body prevail when cells are malfunctioning.  Cells generally malfunction due to deficiency of nutrients or toxicity internally or from environment.  Malfunctioning cells are a wake up call!  Developing a personal strategy to keep your cells healthier longer, then building it into your daily habits, is helping your body’s life force be able to do its work for YOU in synergy.  You’re already in partnership by nature, but this is like getting into full partnership intentionally and mindfully by your design! 

Focusing on the components of N.E.L.I. (that I created as a guide to use personally with my own health and now share with others) is about affecting your own quality of life and personal care towards improved wellness.  It doesn't matter what condition you're in when you start because improvement is the goal and improving simply means make or become better. 

Let’s take a brief look at each of the components in N.E.L.I.

​  N = NUTRIENTS:
 
​Think of nutrients as CELL FOOD!  Breathing air is not an option as we are all aware!  And, neither are these nutrients that your cells must have.  You can meet the needs of obtaining all of these nutrients if you are regularly eating a well-balanced assortment and proportions of whole foods:  vegetables, fruits, legumes, seeds, nuts, whole grains (plant-based) adding to these lean meats and dairy moderately if you prefer those types of foods.  The Plate Method is a simple way to guide and manage getting proper nutrients for your body's cellular health with built-in portion control too.
 
The phrase, “you are what you eat” is literally true.  Nutrients from the foods you eat provide the foundation of the structure, function, and integrity of trillions of cells in your body—the engines that keep you alive.  The composition of a living cell points to how nutrients reach the cell and are converted to the energy for your body-that is a bit deeper subject—but listed below are the ingredients of a cell’s structure.
 
Ingredients of a Cell’s Structure:  (percentages listed are approximate)
 
Water is a universal solvent-needed to dissolve substances. Water makes up approximately 90-percent of a cell’s weight.
 
Protein molecules are made up of chemicals called Amino Acids--they make up about 5-percent of cell’s structure.
 
Carbohydrates are starches and sugars which are converted to blood sugar called Glucose and are burned for quick energy--they make up roughly 2.5-percent of a cell.
 
Nucleic Acids include DNA (hereditary material) and RNA (molecule with various biological roles).  These control the cells by supplying the codes for making necessary chemicals that help cells replicate and build proteins—they make up about 1.5 percent of a cell.
 
Fats, also called Lipids, are fats, oils, and waxes that make up approximately 1-percent of a cell.
 
Cellular functions also require essential Minerals and Vitamins.  Cells depend upon the action of minerals to activate the enzymes which perform bodily functions.  Vitamins protect cells from damage, guide mineral utilization, regulate cell and tissue growth and help perform specific activities like produce energy.
 
E = ENVIRONMENT:
 
Stress Level.  Though not all stress is bad and quite normal, we do need to take breaks from life’s stressors to relax and unwind.  Otherwise, our health can begin to deteriorate manifesting ailments such as: headaches, upset stomach, back pains, trouble sleeping, and a weakened immune system.  We live in such a rushed society, filled with ever-increasing demands and often an expectation of immediate results for our efforts. These increased demands on our time can lead to a lack of attention to our body’s restorative needs which in turn weakens our cells. Lack of recovery time is closely tied to not getting enough sleep and the ill health affects this can create. 
​Tips for Diffusing Stress.
 
Toxic Exposure.  One of the most direct sources of toxic exposure is in the foods we eat. Over the last 100 years we have introduced thousands of man-made toxins into our environment thus changing it dramatically.  In fact, man-made toxins are so prevalent today that they are impossible to avoid.  Researchers and health practitioners are increasingly understanding the long-term effects of toxic chemicals present in the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, the products we use, and those that are present within the buildings we occupy: our homes and workplaces.  In addition to external environmental toxins, there are powerful internal toxins that place a strain on our health that may ultimately cause cellular malfunction that can lead to disease.

Internal Toxins generated by our own bodies, are becoming more prevalent as a result of lifestyles, modern diets, medical treatments, and side effects of prescription drugs. Our bodies are not genetically designed to deal with the unprecedented levels and types of poisons that are accumulating in our tissue faster than our body can process and get rid of them.  Generally, people aren’t aware that their own body can be a source of dangerous toxins — mainly in the digestive system, but also from stress, allergic reactions, and other sources.
 
Food Additives and their effects on human health are disturbing as we learn more and more about them. Despite mounting evidence, the U.S. Government still loosely regulates food additives on the FDA’s Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) ​list. This ineffective system cannot guarantee safety as the GRAS designation is a voluntary process — instead of being required to register food additives, companies may notify the FDA about their product if they so choose. There are no testing requirements for proven safety for a food additive to make the FDA’s GRAS list currently.
 
With the proliferation of processed foods in the second half of the 20th century, thousands of synthetic additives have been introduced into our foods. The FDA maintains a list of more than three thousand ingredients in its database titled “Substances Added to Food in the United States.” Many of the ingredients listed we are familiar with such as sugar, baking soda, spices, but most of them are chemicals synthetically made in laboratories.
 
There is a whole industry devoted solely to food chemistry. A food chemist’s main job is to formulate new chemicals for the purpose of preserving, developing, or improving foods and beverages shelf life and taste. Sadly, neither the health of people eating these foods, nor the overall nutritional value of the foods, is the central consideration or top priority for many food companies.
Our Bodies Are Under Attack Every Day!

L = LIFESTYLE:
 
It’s not just the food we eat that affects the health of our cells, but all the factors present in our daily lives that contribute to our sense of nourishment and fulfillment.  Healthy relationships, a fulfilling career, regular physical activity, and a spiritual awareness are essential forms of emotional nourishment that prompt our physical states.
 
I love to teach a unique nutrition theory developed by Joshua Rosenthal, founder and director of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where I studied to become an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach—he calls it "Primary Food".  These are key areas of lifestyle nutrition that go beyond the food we eat.  We talk about seeking to bring balance to important elements of life such as love and relationships as well as career and money.  When these primary foods are balanced, what you eat becomes secondary beyond getting the very basic nutrients out of food that body cells require.
​
I = INTENTION:

Mindfulness is the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.  It is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.  Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose.
 
There is a Body Mind Relationship wherein:

Our emotions cause our body’s response to external stimuli, this prompts thoughts and memories that create our physical states.

Our feelings are the brain’s interpretation of our emotions/physical body states, which triggers thoughts and memories causing our mental experiences.

​A person’s thoughts and reactions to events experienced are influenced by their beliefs, attitudes, intuitions, and dreams.  They can be the driving force behind intentional goal(s) setting.   Since our personal thoughts and feelings cause our behaviors, they are truly what drive us to take intentional actions that in turn produce tangible results.

Where Do You Stand For Your Own Health?  

What’s the most important single action you should take in order to improve your health?  Narrow it down to the ONE thing, the first thing you must do.
 
Now think about how you feel about this ​action you already know that you need to take.  What emotion do you associate with (believe about) doing it—PAIN or PLEASURE?  Your answer to this question is a great indicator of whether you’ll succeed or not at moving forward to take this action consistently and improve your health for the long-term. Tony Robbins Quote: “People will do more to avoid pain than they will do to gain pleasure.”  Don't think it's true?  Experiment with it.

For me, with my own personal health for example, I have learned to associate pleasure with taking care of the needs of my body's cells.  I catch my own thoughts by reminding myself what happens to my body when cells malfunction--that's a great big PAIN association!   I remain mindful that I'm in control of what I consume, think, and feel which can either help or harm these cells that keep me alive and well. Then I make a decision, good or bad, using this principle of pain/pleasure association.  I consciously seek balance with my thoughts, feelings and actions using the N.E.L.I. chart (Nutrients, Environment, Lifestyle, Intention) as a guide and daily reminder of consumption and surroundings that can impact the health of my body's cellular life.

The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life. If you don't, life controls you. ~Anthony Robbins, author "Awaken The Giant Within"
​
Isn’t it exciting to know that you have the power to condition your mind for the benefit of your health goals?  With this one technique of associating either pain or pleasure with your habits, you can choose to change any of your habits that do not serve you.  Getting in the habit of asking yourself some good questions when that internal voice (we all have one) starts chatting, is another powerful positive focusing technique, e.g. “If I want it, what must happen for me to get it?

Take a look at the scale below showing a spectrum from 1 to 10.  On this scale, 1 represents Illness/Injury and 10 represents Health/Wellness.  Circle the number that best reflects where you believe the state of your health lies between these two points:
 
  Illness/Injury                                                                                                                      Health/Wellness
           1             2               3               4              5               6            7            8            9             10
 

Considering the number you rated yourself at, what’s the most important single action you should take in order to move that number up the scale and therefore improve your health? (Narrow it down to the ONE thing, the first thing you must do): _____________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
 
Now think about how you feel about this action you need to take.  What emotion do you associate with doing it—PAIN or PLEASURE?  ____________________________________________________________________
 
My singular action I need to take to improve my health is:___________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
 
What is the pain I associate with this action?  (describe) ___________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
 
How can I associate pleasure that will override the pain in my mind towards taking this action?
(describe)  _______________________________________________________________________________


I'm so offended when my body decides to get sick.  Like I gave you a vegetable last week.  How dare you? ~Unknown

It costs money to stay healthy, but it's even more expensive to get sick. ~Ashleigh Brilliant

In the future, it's going to become more and more impossible for the economy to support how expensive medical care is and the number of sick people we have.  Why don't we just get our population healthier so we don't need medical care? ~Joel Fuhrman
 
Health is not valued until sickness comes.  ~Thomas Fuller
 
​
By Judith Garner, Certified Health Coach
Helping people stay healthy inside & out!

Humans adhere to a circadian rhythm — our biological clock — a sleep-wake pattern governed by the day-night cycle.   Artificial light at night can disrupt that cycle.  Light pollution at night exists both outside and inside our homes whittling away at this dark period that serves a sustaining natural purpose for our health and the wellness of all of life.

I recently read an article online about the Tonto National Monument in Arizona.  This is a desert park northeast of Phoenix that’s been newly designated an International Dark Sky Park by the National Park Service and International Dark-Sky Association.  The designation is bestowed on areas nationally and worldwide that take steps to make it easier for people to enjoy the night sky without the distractions of light pollution.  

It’s concerning to learn the vast negative effects that artificial lighting is having in our world today.  Perusing the article led me to visit the IDA-International Dark Sky Association’s website for more information--this site educates about the extensive reasons and urgent need for conservation of earth’s dark skies.  As I read on, I realized that this is an important human health story!  

It’s also another example of the concept I base managing personal health and wellness with:  If you learn principles you can devise your own methods.  The principle of causation is the relation of a cause and its effect.  Research suggests that artificial light at night can negatively affect human health, increasing risks for obesity, depression, sleep disorders, diabetes, breast cancer and more.  Through this research, we can see the effect on human health that too much artificial light is causing.  Awareness of cause and its effects helps us to balance the necessary day-night cycle, devising our own methods to conserve adequate amounts of darkness and reduce the exposure of ourselves to so much of this harmful light.

             “Many species (including humans) need darkness to survive and thrive.”
                  -American Medical Association Council on Science and Public Health (2012)


What is Light Pollution?

Most of us are familiar with air, water, and land pollution, but now we know that light can also be a pollutant.  For three billion years, life on Earth existed in a rhythm of light and dark that was created solely by the illumination of the Sun, Moon and stars.  Now, artificial lights overpower the darkness and our cities glow at night, disrupting the natural day-night pattern and shifting the delicate balance of our environment:

Nothing has captured the march of wealth and progress like any society’s ability to light up the night—first with campfires and torches, then with gas lamps, finally with incandescent lights. Franklin Roosevelt’s 1936 Rural Electrification Act was an effort both to bring modernity to the 90% of American farms that lacked electricity and to help jolt the American economy, which was still deep in the Depression.  The modern nighttime image of the Korean peninsula as seen from space, with darkness north of the 38th parallel and brilliant light in the vibrant south, powerfully captures the connection between civilization and illumination. ~Jeffrey Kluger, Time Magazine
“Light Pollution Is Getting Worse Every Year. That's Bad For Your Health”

The above excerpt from a 2017 article published in Time Magazine, summarizes the history of artificial light developed by humans over billions of years.  Although this has brought great advancements in our human lifestyles, it has also had side effects—saturation of lights at night are escorting repercussions we humans had no foresight to predict but are now realizing.  Scientific evidence suggests that artificial light at night has negative and deadly effects on many creatures including amphibians, birds, mammals, insects and plants.  

Earth’s predictable rhythm of day and night governs life-sustaining behaviors such as reproduction, nourishment, sleep and protection from predators.  It’s encoded in the DNA of all humans, plants, and animals.  Humans have radically disrupted this cycle by lighting up the night and light pollution is getting worse every year across the globe.  (Source:  IDA-International Dark Sky Association)  

Components of light pollution include:
• Glare – excessive brightness that causes visual discomfort
• Skyglow – brightening of the night sky over inhabited areas
• Light trespass – light falling where it is not intended or needed
• Clutter – bright, confusing and excessive groupings of light sources

Effects of Light Pollution.  A growing body of evidence links the brightening night sky directly to measurable negative impacts including:
• Increasing energy consumption
• Disrupting the ecosystem and wildlife
• Harming human health
• Effecting crime and safety

“When we add light to the environment, that has the potential to disrupt habitat, just like     running a bulldozer over the landscape can.” -Chad Moore, formerly of the National Park Service


SLEEPING WELL?  HOW ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS CAN DISRUPT A GOOD NIGHT’S REST

Sleep is critical for your body’s ability to rejuvenate, as well as regenerate new healthy cells. Too little sleep — defined as less than seven hours a night in a 2006 Institute of Medicine report, affects the body in a number of negative ways. Research studies have linked poor sleep habits to anxiety, moodiness, depression, increased inflammation, higher risk of cardiovascular incidence, disrupted appetite regulation, and higher risk of obesity.

Circadian Rhythm.  Humans adhere to a circadian rhythm — our biological clock — a sleep-wake pattern governed by the day-night cycle. Artificial light at night can disrupt that cycle.

Melatonin.  Our bodies produce the hormone melatonin in response to circadian rhythm.  Melatonin has antioxidant properties, induces sleep, boosts the immune system, lowers cholesterol, and helps the functioning of the thyroid, pancreas, ovaries, testes and adrenal glands. Nighttime exposure to artificial light suppresses melatonin production.

The American Medical Association warns that nighttime lighting, especially the blue-white LED variety, “is associated with reduced sleep times, dissatisfaction with sleep quality, excessive sleepiness, impaired daytime functioning and obesity.”  Unfortunately, most LEDs used for outdoor lighting, as well as computer screens, TVs, and other electronic displays, create abundant blue light.   A revealing Harvard Study showed that artificial lighting may be linked to increased breast cancer rates, probably as a result of decreased levels of the hormone melatonin, which influences circadian rhythms.  The connection, thus far, has been found only in premenopausal women who are current or former smokers.

Cut Light Exposure in Your Bedroom TIP:  
Look around your bedroom at any electronics, or devices such as alarm clocks, television or computer screens, charging outlets for cellular phones, etc.  Anything that has a light on it that will illuminate the room in the dark either remove to another location, cover the light with electrical tape, or at least point the light away from the direction of your bed if possible.

Reminder.  Sleep is Nature’s nurse! A restorative time for our bodies. Sleep is involved in healing and repair of the heart, blood vessels, and just about every part of the body.  It plays an important role in our overall physical well-being; with a lack of adequate sleep, we develop inflammation that leads to degrading health.   Therefore, artificial light disruptors in the bedroom can harm circadian rhythms and production in the body of the hormone melatonin. It is also helpful to avoid bright light in the evening and expose yourself to sunlight in the morning.  This will keep your circadian rhythms in check.

RESOURCES

Losing The Dark Film:  A short planetarium show and video on light pollution (highlights problems and offers some solutions too)
https://www.darksky.org/our-work/grassroots-advocacy/resources/losing-the-dark/

Artificial Light at Night and Human Health PDF:
https://www.darksky.org/wp-content/uploads/bsk-pdf-manager/36_IDA_SIGNS_HEALTH.PDF

Light, both natural and artificial, is a powerful cue for the circadian clock, the internal timing device that tells us when to wake up and go to sleep, when to eat, and when we are most mentally alert.  
Camping Syncs Internal Clock with Nature video:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=37&v=BKQH6T1DZvI

Better Sleep, Better Health.  The Healing Power of Sleep:
https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/discomfort-15/better-sleep/healing-power-sleep


By Judith Garner, Certified Health Coach
Helping people stay healthy inside & out!

"I rarely say this to people who aren’t me…but you have got to calm down.”

This is what the nervous character Emily advises to the flustered character Andy, in an emotionally charged, yet humorous scene, in the 2006 motion picture “The Devil Wears Prada”.  (A fictional story about Runway, a New York-based fashion magazine.  The movie reflects the competitive environment and integrity-bending pressure on those working for the magazines sharp-tongued editor, Miranda Priestly who is a successful dream-crushing tyrant.)  Have you ever worked with such a tyrannical boss in your career?   

This highly successful film strikes a relatable-nerve with its viewing public, as many of us have indeed encountered over-the-top people like the Miranda Priestly character in our work environments.   Although the movie is a comedy, it does reflect some genuine coping strategies that people sometimes employ in order to adapt to, or deal with, stressful work situations.  Scene-after-scene shows how the energy of stress can spread wildly among a group of people too, especially when it is caused by a leader, or boss, inflicting absurd demands, threats, and control over all others around them.

The fictional movie is humorous, yet, similar real-life scenarios are usually anything but funny for the people involved.  Stressed-out employees, in a scenario such as this, must typically develop coping mechanisms or literally be forced to quit their jobs for their own sanity!   Our ability to cope with the demands upon us is key to our experience of stress.    

Difficult life events, such as divorce, miscarriage, the death of a loved one, or the loss of a job, can cause distressful feelings such as grief or despair.   Life-threatening events causing bodily injury, such as accidents or harmful diseases, can cause severe feelings such as anxiety or depression.   Negative events, such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, or emotional trauma, can cause mental disturbances or physical anguish.   Even events that are considered positive by many—getting married, having a child, moving, buying a home, or starting a new job—can lead to significant amounts of pressure and stress.

Coping occurs in response to physical or psychological stress, often triggered by significant life events or changes.   Depending on the stressful kind of situation people may find themselves in, coping skills are required in order to deal with an abundance of stressors life deals out.  This means utilizing some combination of behavior, thought, and emotion.

Defining Cope; Coping; Coping Mechanisms; and Coping Strategies:

• Cope- means deal effectively with something difficult.  
• Coping-  is a combination of cognitive and behavioral response efforts, which continually change, aiming to manage demands that are viewed as taxing.  Coping aims to maintain mental health and emotional well-being.
• Coping Mechanisms- are ways to which external or internal stresses are managed, adapted to, or acted upon by an individual.  Coping mechanisms can manifest as behaviors, thoughts, or emotions that you use to adjust to triggers or changes in your life.
• Coping Strategies- are consciously brought about in a person’s mind and produce either positive coping or maladaptive coping--also referred to as non-coping.

COPING MECHANISMS, DEFENSE MECHANISMS, AND MENTAL HEALTH

Many mental health issues begin with a physical or emotional stressor that triggers chemical changes in the brain.  This is where the good-the bad-and the ugliest of coping mechanisms can come-in to-play with one’s health and well-being.   Another concept, called Defense Mechanisms, is intertwined here.  But, these two concepts are in fact different.  Defense mechanisms are coping strategies that become rooted in a person’s subconscious mind--employed within and are outside of conscious awareness. One’s use of Coping Mechanisms, however, is typically conscious and purposeful.

Defense mechanisms are thought to safeguard the mind against feelings and thoughts that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope with.  They are subconscious psychological responses that protect people from threats and things that they don't want to think about or deal with.  Defense mechanisms are a mental process (e.g., repression or projection) initiated, typically unconsciously aware, to avoid conscious conflict or anxiety.  An ego defense mechanism becomes pathological only when its persistent use leads to maladaptive behavior such that the physical or mental health of the individual is adversely affected. 

Coping mechanisms are used to manage an external situation that is creating problems for an individual. They can manifest as behaviors, thoughts, or emotions that are used to adjust to triggers or changes in life.   People who employ adaptive coping mechanisms may be less likely to experience anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns as a result of painful or challenging events. 

People who have difficulty utilizing effective coping strategies can default to maladaptive coping mechanisms.  Those who don’t know how to cope with anxiety, stress, or anger can struggle to the point of falling into the habit of relying on a maladaptive coping mechanism—including a defense mechanism.  They may eventually see a negative impact on mental and emotional well-being.

• Maladaptive behavior is a type of behavior that is often used to reduce one's anxiety, but the result is dysfunctional and non-productive.
• Adaptive behavior reflects an individual's social and practical competence to meet the demands of everyday living.

Here is a link to an informative article that sheds more light on this part of the subject:  
Coping Strategies And Defense Mechanisms: Basic And Intermediate Defenses, By MARK DOMBECK, PH.D.
https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/coping-strategies-and-defense-mechanisms-basic-and-intermediate-defenses/

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Problems are not the problem; coping is the problem.  -Virginia Satir
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(Virginia Satir (1916 – 1988) was an American author and therapist, known especially for her approach to family therapy and her pioneering work in the field of family reconstruction therapy.)


COPING STRATEGIES & MECHANISMS:  CATEGORIES AND CLASSIFICATIONS

Categories of Coping Strategies:

• Appraisal Focused:  Involve revision of thoughts, change of mindset, or denial.
• Problem Focused:  Involve modifying behavior.
• Emotion Focused:  Involve altering emotions to tolerate or eliminate the stress by using distraction, meditation and relaxation.

​Classifications of Coping Mechanisms:

• Adaptive:  Tolerates the stress.
• Attack:  Diverting consciousness away from stressor or stressful situation to a person, or group of people.
• Avoidance:  Denial, dissociation, keeping self away from stress.
• Behavioral:  Modifying actions in order to minimize or eliminate the stress.
• Cognitive:  Altering way of thinking in order to reduce or remove stress.
• Conversion:  Convert-changes thought, emotions, or behavior into another.
• Defense:  Unconscious ways of coping with stress, e.g. denial; regression; acting out; dissociation; compartmentalization; projection; reaction formation.
• Self-harm:  Harms self in response to stress.

LEARNING TO COPE:  ADAPTIVE & HEALTHY--VERSUS--MALADAPTIVE & UNHEALTHY

Healthy-Adaptive Coping Strategies:

The following activities develop positive coping skills that provide mental support, strength, and courage when dealing with stress and overwhelming situations:

• Meditation- alone time.
• Relaxation- recuperative time.
• Eating healthy- supplying adequate nutrients to the body.
• Exercise- regularly staying fit. 
• Sleeping- adequate hours nightly.
• Relationships- loving and supporting.
• Problem solving- identifying the stressor and coming up with an actionable solution.
• Humor- making light of a stressful situation.
• Spirituality, Faith-  uncovers and clarifies what's most meaningful and purposeful in your life.  Helps place focus less on the unimportant things.

Unhealthy-Maladaptive Coping Strategies:

The following activities develop negative coping skills that block or stunt mental focus, weakening support and abilities to overcome stress and overwhelming situations:

• Drugs.
• Excessive alcohol drinking.
• Ignoring or bottling up strong feelings.
• Excessive working.
• Avoiding problems and denial.
• Escape-withdrawing socially into isolation and solitary activities.
• Reckless risk taking-compulsions, adrenaline rushes such as unsafe sex, multiple sexual partners addiction, theft such as shoplifting, reckless driving.
• Self-blame or blaming others.
• Self-mutilation-harms self.
• Self-soothing-other destructive or addictive behaviors-e.g. shopping or gambling addictions, excessive use of internet or video games, overeating and binge eating.

JUDITH’S TOP 3-HEALTHY COPING STRATEGIES:

These are the top-three coping strategies I highly recommend employing when working to combat stress:

1. Attitude.  Nurture a relaxed and positive attitude using awareness (mindfulness) to calm your mind--as challenging as that may be at times.  It can really help ease struggles that must be faced within difficult situations. It helps to keep your mind open.  Remember:  Attitude is everything!  
2. Accepting Realty. There will always be some situations and other people’s actions that you cannot control!  When these circumstances arise, first be discerning about the reality of the situation.  How can you respond?  What choices do you have?  Can you change it or positively affect it? What are you willing to do? How much of your attention and energy will you give to this?  Evaluate your place and value--accurately recognizing the level of power that you possess in any event goes a long way towards alleviating stress.
3. Self-Care.  Self-care is never a selfish-act!  It’s quite necessary, especially during difficult times, that you maintain your health.  Eat, Move, Sleep, Relax.  It’s essential that your mind and body be in a quality of condition that when stressors come--and they will--you are able to handle it, deal with it, and bounce back from it without wrecking your psyche or well-being.

SOME OTHER PEOPLE’S THOUGHTS ABOUT COPING:

It is what it is. Isn't that how these things always go? They are what they are. We just get to cope.  
-Mira Grant

Two words will help you cope when you run low on hope: accept and trust.  
-Charles R. Swindoll

We have two strategies for coping; the way of avoidance or the way of attention.     
-Marilyn Ferguson

Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.
-Nelson DeMille

Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.     
-Joseph Conrad

You do learn how to cope from those who are coping.
-Matthew Desmond

When life's problems seem overwhelming, look around and see what other people are coping with. You may consider yourself fortunate. 
-Ann Landers

Focusing on developing (adaptive) positive and healthy—versus--negative and unhealthy (maladaptive) coping skills is important to our personal health; it affects other people around us too.  We use our coping skills daily to help deal with stress, work through it, and process our emotions.  We all have emotions, but we don’t all have great coping skills. In the words of Virginia Satir:  Problems are not the problem; coping is the problem!  Life is not what it's supposed to be. It's what it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.

By Judith Garner, Certified Health Coach
Helping people stay healthy inside & out!

Law of Motion Applied to The Human Body:  A body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force.

Newton's First Law of Motion is an indisputable law in Physics. This principle can thoughtfully be applied to human body anatomy because factually, our living bodies never stop moving!  Even when we are externally at rest or sleeping, internally our organs, blood, tissues--all made up of cells--are rapidly moving, hard at work with the tasks of digesting, detoxing, cleansing, growing, regenerating and renewing! Isn't that incredible when you really think about it?  I marvel at this fascinating non-stop motion that takes place in the body. 

The second part of the law of motion principle, indicates that the motion of the body can be stopped by outside force.  Now, we can envision many kinds of uncontrollable-outside forces, can't we?  Our concern here is with the controllable-outside forces, recognizing that we ourselves are an outside force on our bodies with the actions we take towards our bodies.

There's no doubt that the natural environment of the body is scientifically complex.  The human body is a multi-dimensional living organism comprised of living cells and microscopic bacterium, viruses, and fungi that are all present. Most people, however, are not scientists, chemists, doctors, or nutritionists. Yet, as humans, we live instinctively and are able to reside over our own individual bodies, day-in and day-out, because it is the trillions of living cells within us that carry the work load! We just need to be the intelligent supplier of proper and safe raw materials that these powerful cells need to carry-out their work or they'll give out on us.

When the internal movement in a body's systems stall--with developing functional issues or failure in any area-- illness or disease manifests itself and can potentially cause a complete shutdown of the body.  When living things cease movement they begin to die.  The body can only operate and perform its incredible life-sustaining mechanics with all of the healthy molecules and cells it needs to live and produce these functions.  The condition of body cells is critical to one's health because each one of these cells is a complex mini-universe that produces billions of chemical reactions that sustain body movement every second we're alive.

A human body is a conversation going on both within the cells and between the cells, and they're telling each other to grow and to die; when you're sick, something's gone wrong with that conversation.  ~W. Daniel Hill

Your choices are more critical than you may have ever realized when it comes to what you put in and on your body because there's a world of living cells that you are responsible for--actually you are in partnership with them by nature's design! Personally, once I started thinking about my health from a cellular viewpoint, it changed how I approach taking care of my body and overall health care. I can tell you, from experience, that it actually simplifies everything you do. You are able to completely ignore a lot of misguided health information and choose what's right for you and your body's cells.  Today, at my health coaching practice, I mentor and help people who want to learn more deeply about the specifics of this lifestyle approach.

If you want to have better control over this life-force you possess in your own body, ask yourself tough questions and don't be afraid of your answers--they will show the steps you can start to take.  You can formulate, or reformulate, a new game plan and tighten up your team:  Team Body--You and Your Cells, as soon as you make a decision to do so!

Let's take a brief look at the fundamentals of caring for your cells.  The result of the choices you routinely make in each of these areas does have a great affect on them:  Nutrients, Environment, Lifestyle, and Intention. 

I developed the acronym N.E.L.I. (above) as a reminder of the lifestyle elements that affect how anyone can work with their own body's chemistry to improve their health and wellness. It doesn't matter what condition you're in when you start because improvement is the goal and improving simply means make, or become better.  Learning to work with your body's chemistry in each of these areas will certainly help your body's cells when improvement is your aim.

The most basic weapons in the fight against disease are the most ignored by modern medicine:  the numerous nutrients the cells of our bodies need.  If our body cells are ailing--as they must be in disease--the chances are excellent that it is because they are inadequately provisioned.  ~Roger J. Williams, Ph.D. Nutrition Against Disease

The health of body cells is largely a result of the choices routinely being made--affected by nutrients (or lack thereof) in the food you eat and beverages you drink. But, there are many other combined factors such as exercise, sleep, emotions, stress, and environment that contribute to the body's cellular condition.  Essentially, these pieces all fit together.  Just like a puzzle that has a missing piece cannot make up a complete picture, neither is your body going to be a picture of health with one or more essential pieces missing.

Many have found themselves needing to break down resistance in certain areas of N.E.L.I.  For example, as a health coaching mentor, I've heard people say they don't like to drink water, or they don't care to eat vegetables, or they don't have time to exercise, or they never have any time to relax, or go on vacation, etc.  What they're actually communicating with such comments is that they have a resistance to focusing on some of the basically known principles that keep people well and cells healthy.  This is when another natural fact comes in-to-play:  What you resist will persist!

Resisting bad-things is good, of course!  And, resisting good-things, is bad, of course! Clever as this may sound, what persists when people resist doing what's right for their body cells is a downward spiral of heading towards illness and potential disease.  Your body's cells are going to strive to live no matter what they get from you.  Yet, if you don't give them what they need, they'll let you know it by manifesting symptoms as they are breaking down and taking you out with them.  Poor health, illness, disease, pain, aging before your time, etc.  All those kinds of signals and messages from your body prevail when cells are malfunctioning.

Focusing on the components of N.E.L.I. listed below, can help you be the force that keeps your body in motion! Use these key areas to guide your care towards improved wellness.

​By Judith Garner, Certified Health Coach
Helping people stay healthy inside & out!

We May Want What We Want, But In Turn, Our Body’s Cells Want What They Need!   When it comes to a battle of the wills between wants and needs, your body cells will fight to death for what they need (require), in order to live—guaranteed!  What do I really mean by this little analogy?  If you do not provide proper nourishment that supports the lives of your body’s cells, then I’m talking “kaput”!  To coin a German term, the word kaput means:  finished, worn out, dead.

        It is the cells which create and maintain in us, during the span of our lives, our will to live
                     and survive, to search and experiment, and to struggle.  ~Albert Claude

Albert Claude was a Belgian-American medical doctor and cell biologist who laid the groundwork for modern cell biology, with his 1945 publication of the first diagram of cell structure.  Claude stated: “Man like other organisms, is so perfectly coordinated that he may easily forget, whether awake or asleep, that he is a colony of cells in action, and that it is the cells which achieve, through him what he has the illusion of accomplishing himself.”  (Note:  Despite Claude’s lack of addressing women, by just saying man in this quote, I believe the underlying intention of his conveyance to mean humans--including both men and women.  We do know that talk was historically more sexist in the 1940s; we also know that progress has changed this in today’s modern society.)


Let’s Talk about the “Life-Creep!”

The life-creep appears in people through a myriad of pesky ailments, or the onset of illnesses and serious diseases that start to develop after years of mental wear and physical tear on the body.  What happens?  Why does this life-creep show up?

Often when people are young and in a healthy state, there’s a lack of mental focus towards maintaining their bodies internally—they’re just not particularly concerned with cellular aging or needing to worry about how they’re eating, drinking, moving, sleeping, and managing stress, because overall their bodies are still fit and feel good!  The feelings of degeneration, which can come over time in the body, are nowhere in sight YET—out of sight, out of mind!  That is until aches, pains, illnesses, or diseases begin to rear their ugly heads manifesting in the body after years of compounded damaging lifestyle habits or neglect.

It’s during these early years in a person’s lifespan that their primary lifestyle habits are formed.  These habits not only affect how fast, but to what degree, their body’s degeneration will occur—affecting overall longevity and vitality long-term.  These habits become second nature and are acted out unconsciously hour-after-hour; day-after-day; week-after-week; year-after-year; and decade-after-decade.  The life-creep happens!  When and how it shows up depends on the quality of one’s regular habits and personal care for their body’s cellular life.

What I’d like for everyone to deeply understand about health is this:  The interconnected biology of the human body and mind (bodymind) depends on its healthy cells.  And, regardless of which ill-conditions or diseases may be manifesting in the bodymind, the bottom-line culprits of this will be MALFUNCTIONING CELLS.

We must understand cell basics if we want to understand how our bodies work.  The molecular and cellular level is how everything in the body is ultimately able to function, from reproduction to infections, to repairing a broken bone.  The condition of your body’s cells is critical to your health because each one of them are the carriers of genetic information.  Cells are living organisms—complex mini-universes that work in synergy to produce billions of required chemical reactions every minute you are alive.

      The body is a community made up of its innumerable cells or inhabitants. ~Thomas A. Edison 


Quality of Life for Life!

At a microscopic level, the body is made up of cells—trillions of them.  You are born with a tremendous quantity of cells that form the structure of your body--all its organs and parts--and keeps you alive, but after birth, you don’t get any more of these little engines!  Although your body’s cells will regenerate through a type of facsimile of themselves (a process that continually rebirths and replaces worn out cells), this process does not go on indefinitely.  All cells have a lifespan.  Let’s face it, ultimately there is no escape from death as it is a natural universal phenomenon of all living things.  Our motivation and attempts to keep ourselves healthy during our lifetimes are really a quality of life issue for each one of us.
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Considering cells have a natural lifespan that can be grossly upset by not providing the right nutrients, or care, can anyone really afford to be harming and shortening the lifespan of one’s cells?  Many people do it unknowingly, because they just don’t think about their body health from this perspective.  Most people want to feel well for as long as they can in order to enjoy life.  So, doesn’t it make a huge amount of logical sense to know a little about cells’ needs and eliminate, or at least severely curtail, those habits that are known to cause harm and an early demise to the lifespan of your body’s cells?

Learning to nurture the condition of your body cells is a long-term wellness strategy that is key to feeling your healthiest best for your entire life.  The first step towards gaining knowledge is to have this strategy in your awareness and on your mind.    Heard the expression “out-of-sight, out-of-mind”?  Well, it works the same way with your thoughts too.  You can’t have something on your mind if you’re not thinking about it.   Begin to approach your daily actions with mindfulness and the consideration of how your behaviors affect your body’s cells and you will start the process of developing a different mindset about how to take care of yourself.

You will soon think differently and act more responsibly for your own health because you are no longer singular in want but fully aware of how your actions truly affect trillions of living cells in your body.  Cells, that rely on you for their healthy life too.  In turn, these incredible cells that you are in partnership with and possess a major control over, they are your life-force.

The greatest partnership and most intimate relationship you’ll ever have in your life is between you and your own body!  Perhaps you’ve never recognized, or thought about it this way, but your mental connection with your body’s life-force—Healthy CELLS, is constant and ever-present.  The synergy of the two working in harmony and not against each other will help you manage your personal health clearly, perhaps differently.

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By Judith Garner, Certified Health Coach
Helping people stay healthy inside & out!