What Do You Believe In?

Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look to new worlds…to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.— Ellison Onizuka

With my two daughters sitting on either side of me in route to a recent vacation in Mexico- my thoughts turned to the invitation to blog for Barbie® Mattel’sWe Believe in Girls campaign.

What do I believe in?
I believe in a hopeful future for our children. As our future leaders, our children are the ambassadors to a new, brighter and more beautiful world. I believe in providing an environment and opportunities for them to live to the best of their abilities. I believe they are an intelligent generation and that they can create a better place for all of us. So how do we go about passing on what we believe to our children?

Leading by Example
Children are like thirsty sponges. They absorb feelings and actions subconsciously. So whether a parent knows it or not, their actions speak louder than any of their words. When a parent expressed a belief that comes from a centered place of confidence, they effortlessly teach a vital lesson to their child who is observing and imitating their manner. There is no better way to teach than to fully live the principles of what we believe. What do you believe?

Paying Attention and Making Good Choices
Our current world is a sensually over stimulated society. Outside influences are numerous and available. Don’t support an advertisement or visual message that carries the wrong meaning. Don’t feed it and eventually, it will fade away. For example, my teenage girls watch little TV, and I watch none except the occasional film. However, they do have one favorite TV show about other teenagers who live out a fantasy lifestyle. We talk about this TV drama where characters play out a fictional way of living. They understand it is made for TV and it is not real. When it’s time to choose what to watch, suggest a movie that explores the values of integrity, love and hope that everyone can watch together as a family. Our children are exposed to influences more plentiful than TV. It is essential to pay attention to what our children notice in the media and in advertising and to talk about what it means. When we notice what they are noticing, then we can better guide them in making choices and striking a balance.

Walk the Talk
“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Gandhi
Where can we start? Parents can begin with small steps by acknowledging current healthy behaviors and actions. Think about what you believe in and continue to act in a positive manner and to be mindful of your own behavior. The repercussions of our actions become part of our child’s way of being in the world. With practice, this way of being turns into an automatic and effortless path that will guide our children, brightening the future for generations to come.

Please join me in your support of Barbie® Mattel’s campaign We Believe in Girls by sharing this blog and passing on the website to others.
www.truewellbeing.net

Who’s That Girl part 2

The following is an excerpt from my new book Healthy Mother Healthy Child: Creating Balance in Everyday Life (Whole Health Publishing April 2007)

I reach past my reflection in the mirror of my medicine cabinet to what lies behind the door. On those glass shelves I find alchemy of herbs, medicinal products and conventional elixirs. I use a combination of these things in caring for my body, all the while remaining true to the most basic doctrine of medical law- first do no harm.

As a health care professional, as a mother, as a teacher, I feel that I serve as a translator, interpreting from one language, one health system to another. I speak and respect the language of complementary and conventional medicine. My educational background as a registered nurse is in conventional medicine while the past ten years of my life have been dedicated to understanding the intuitive wisdom of the body.

In 1995 I was living in the suburbs of London with my three small children and my husband whose career in finance had brought us to England. I was working as a nurse teaching classes in Lamaze (a technique of breathing awareness used in childbirth) and taking care of our three- year-old twin girls and our newborn little boy.We lived in a fourteenth-century cottage with a thatched roof and walls three feet thick. We had a tiered garden leading onto a forest behind the house where the trees created a canopy for the children, a fairy-like playground.

Our first clue that something was wrong with Sam, my little boy, was his sudden outbreak of an angry rash that grew to cover his entire body. I immediately scheduled an appointment with the head of a prestigious pediatric dermatology clinic in London. Sam’s case was so severe that the doctor asked if a photo could be taken for his dermatology textbook. When I heard the diagnosis, ‘a classic case of atopic dermatitis’ I felt completely gutted. Sam’s skin condition was inherited from me and I was terrified that he would struggle with eczema, as I had, his entire life. The plan was for Sam to be hospitalized. However, because I was a qualified nurse and experienced with this type of treatment we were allowed to treat him at home. We began the standard protocol of cortisone ointment and heavy emulsion followed by wrapping his entire body in bandages. Over the next two years, Sam underwent morning and evening soaks in oatmeal baths and layers of bandages applied to the skin. He looked like a mummy. For me it was truly hard to believe there was a sliver lining to be found anywhere. I realize now that it took something this big and scary to give me the courage to step outside of everything I had been trained to do to help others. I had to find a new way to help my son.

Over the next ten years, Sam and I learned about natural food, yoga, meditation, and a myriad of other ways for the body to heal itself. I learned to walk that grey line to accept both conventional medicine and complementary medicine as modalities to help. We both now live free of eczema. It was a skin problem I had lived with for thirty-five years. I learned how to let my body heal itself and perhaps more importantly, taught my son how to do the same in the process. It is really very simple, if my body gets out of balance, my eczema comes back.

This book is an offering. It reflects my passion for healing the body and feeding the soul in the same way the wide mouth of a river feeds the belly of the sea. I believe there are many ways to create a disease-free healthy life. As a mother, I had to leave no stone unturned.

My enthusiasm is to encourage you to create wellness- to prevent illness before it occurs. By maintaining a higher standard of health and wellness we not only raise the quality of our day-to-day lives, we also take the pressure off our current health care system. I want this book to do for you what my son’s illness did for me, namely to empower you to reach beyond the boundaries of conventional medicine and reclaim the wisdom that has been lying dormant in your body all along. The wisdom that I have gained about the true nature of wellness is reflected both in the objects on the glass shelves of my medicine cabinet and in the face I see in the mirror.