The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,900 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.
With thanks to linda from http://litebeing.com who began this inspiring challenge… inspiring us all to look back on our experiences in 2014… Linda asked us to consider four questions…
Which lessons did you learn?
How did you serve others?
What blessings did you receive?
Was there something you lost that turned out to be a blessing in disguise?
Did you receive any “gifts” in terms of powers or skills?
At the beginning of the year, Tom and I were back in our favourite place, Cancun, Mexico celebrating our 25 years together… enjoying a warm, relaxing and peaceful ‘wintertime’ together on sparkling white sands, in turquoise waters, under blue skies and heart shaped fluffy clouds. It is our special place, filled with magic… that cleanses and energises our being… as we prepare to take on the rest of the year. IAM always thankful that we can return here time and time again as it feels like coming home. It makes me truly happy. Tom and I are planning our return for early next year, at this very moment.
Another place I love is our new home we found this year, along the seashore of Benalmadena, it too is a magical place that feels comfortable, safe and tranquil and I know that we will be here most of the time as it makes me truly happy.
I count both these magical places as my blessings that have given me wonderful gifts too, all year through… inspiration to express and create my writings and paintings and a constant feeling of joy moving within my Body Consciousness that shows me that IAM in the most perfect place. My happiness radiates out into the environment for others to see, feel and take on as their own. This is the service, through myself, that I give to others. In this way my only requirement is to keep focused on myself and BE the Creator IAM.
It was an important truth I taught myself this year… even though my Human self is taking her time putting it all into perspective. They do say when things go wrong or when you lose something it can be a blessing in disguise or some good can come out of it. Deep within I know this to be true… and sore… and is taking some deep reflection and a little more time for all of me to truly expand into the wisdom of it all.
It all began last year when I felt a grand dream start to fall apart and at the end of this summer it was quite definitely ripped completely away. Ripped away in a manner I could never have imagined and has left me with feelings of anger, hatred, disappointment, sadness and abandonment. I know now and maybe I always knew that it wasn’t the right dream for me, but gave myself this experience for the blessing and wisdom.
It wasn’t the right dream for me because it didn’t have myself as the main focus, but instead, the lives of others. Helping others is a service, but not if it is to our own detriment, putting others first and/or takes away their space and/or experience.
IAM now clear about how and when I can help others and if it resonates with them, they can ask me for my help or my presence. Otherwise IAM taking good care of myself with compassionate psychology… consciously breathing and accepting it all, being in my own presence, loving myself unconditionally and serving myself first. I know that I always did my very best in my helping others and planted many seeds of love which maybe one day will be discovered. I enjoy living and creating in each moment and observe from afar the experience of others, without judgement.
What a wonderful chestful of treasure I have discovered this year…I feel my consciousness expanding with new wisdom and truths of who I truly AM… I walk confidently with an abundance of potential into the new year 2015.
Thankyou Linda for this opportunity to share my experiences this year with you all… whether happy or sad, I remember they are all experiences and beautiful gifts I continue to give to myself.
Tomorrow is Julianne’s account of her 2014.
May I wish you all a Merry Christmas time with loved ones and that means yourself… and a peaceful and abundant 2015. Until the new year when I’ll be reporting about Tom and my great new ‘eating’ life style and much more, no doubt.
Barbara Franken… Inspiring New Energy Consciousness.
Now and again I read medical/scientific reports that literally open my eyes wide in disbelief, even in shock as the truth resonates with my heart and my own truth. One such report I read about a year ago (concerned more and more people being put on statins for high cholesterol) and has stayed with me, but obviously didn’t impress me enough to act… until I read a similar report about a month ago about the same subject that rang bells. I tore the page out of the magazine and gave it to my husband Tom to read and I began to think about writing a blog post about it…
But life went on and I didn’t feel I knew what exactly to write… until 2 weeks ago Tom went into the doctors surgery to check his blood/urine etc. as he felt something was out of balance. A week later the results were available… his blood sugar was dangerously high and his kidney function had decreased… the doctors sent us to the emergency hospital for control.
A lovely young Spanish lady doctor took care of him, ordered another set of tests, gave him ½ a bag of saline solution with insulin and waited to see his body’s reaction. It brought his blood sugar right down and as everything else was ok, she sent us home (after 8 hours) telling him to continue taking his new diabetic medication and return to his doctor after 10 days to see how it was going.
Tom and I were both in a bit of a shock wondering how we had let it come this far. As usual I went on the internet and read everything I could on diabetes. I came across a lot of ‘old truths’, from doctors and institutions who continue to work in the old way of treating the symptoms instead of using their natural sense of healing and looking for the root cause. I also came across many reports from scientists and doctors based on new research into the many chronic sicknesses that most of the population are now falling into, in young and older age… diabetes, cancer, alzhiemers, ms, arthritis, parkinsons + many more that have been put into the auto-immune disease category… (here is a shocking list of 150 diseases Autoimmune and Autoimmune…). They all have inflammation as the root cause.
Now going back to the interesting report I read on high cholesterol, as I had become concerned that statins were being handed out to everyone like lollipops… and I wanted Tom to ask his doctor to begin decreasing his medication of them together with all the other pills he had been prescribed to prevent another heart attack.
The report is here for you to enjoy reading… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/the-cholesterol-myth-that_b_676817.html It basically tells the story of a group of people connected to the pharmaceutical industry, that a few years ago, decided together to reduce the ‘risk level’ of cholesterol in the body that was good for you. Yet, actual new research was coming out that explained that when a part of our body becomes inflamed, cholesterol was the one coming into the area to bandage and heal the inflammation. The more inflamed our body becomes, the more cholesterol can be found in that area, making cholesterol not the bad guy, but the underlying inflammation. Reducing our cholesterol only lessens our ability to heal ourself… and ultimately… we need to realise and heal the root cause of inflammation of our body.
I’ve listed here below some of the links I found interesting to read from doctors, scientists and the public that resonated with MY TRUTH…
Dr Hyman’s Blog Post
Dr Rosdale’s website
Dr Rosdale’s Blog
Physician Scientists Jeff and Steve
Video about Nutritional Ketosis
Chronic Inflammation
Dr Andrew Weil’s Anti-inflammatory Diet
Low Carb experience by Steve Gilson
Low carb/high fat changed my life
Low Carb experience by Awesome Ashild
Ketogenic Diet Plan by Ellen
Cutting a long story short…
During the last 10 – 15 years, (having personal experience with Tom having 2 heart attacks) we have all been told to eat a high carb and low fat diet. Like so many others I ditched the butter, cut out all the fat on meat and stocked up on margarine, grains, beans, rice, pasta and potatoes, low fat cheese, milk, yogurt etc…. and of course portions of fruit and veg. The food industry has gone overboard in providing low /0- fat products, juices, soda’s, cereals, breads, crackers, crisps, biscuits and cakes that all contain, high salt, high sugar/or substitute sugar which is actually worse and ‘bad oils’ (high frutose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils). The fast food chains, processed foods in supermarkets and chain restaurants also use highly processed hydrogenated oils. So where does that leave us now… with a slow burning, inflamed population being diagnosed with all sort of diseases.
My initial shock is over and I changed our diet in a matter of hours… butter and lard is back in the fridge (to use minimally) lots of good oil sources, mushrooms, salad and fresh veg or stir fry’s are the daily food with just enough protein in the form of ‘small farm’ eggs, chicken, steak, bacon, cheese, fish to be of use in the body before it turns into glucose. Gone are the carbs and the sugar. So low carb/high good fat and do you know what… we are both no longer hungry in-between 4 small meals a day, we feel more active and IAM losing my love handles and toms stomach is shrinking well. Because our carbs are low, the body is changing back to its natural way of burning… burning fat (ketones) instead of glucose (which relies on insulin)… Just like how we used to burn food before agriculture and processing foods were introduced because of our need to feed quantity to the thousands.
I’ve heard people argue that this diet is too expensive, but I have to respond by saying I don’t need to eat quantity anymore. My body is much more satisfied with small potions of good natural food and drink (a glass of good red). So my small quality actually balances the expense.
Humankind is again going through a big shift… of consciousness… and with our new level of awareness we are (our body, mind and spirit) vibrating on a higher and lighter level. Our bodies are becoming more and more ‘energy self-sufficient’ (beginning with our breath) and we find we don’t need to eat as much anymore and can choose to eat to enjoy and thrive, rather than survive.
I have summarised some interesting information here below in the hope that it resonates with your own truth and instigates you to find out your own answers as to what is good for your own body and mind. We must remember that we are each unique and have different needs depending upon our interests and activities and only we can know how to remain healthy, feel well and thrive in our older years, simply by listening to our own body’s wisdom instead of that of society.
Carbohydrates are complex sugars and together with the single sugars that are readily available in abundance all around us, are actually causing our body to get an overload of glucose. Excess glucose is stored as fat in the body, normally around the belly/hips. As most carbohydrates and sugars leave us constantly hungry we regularly indulge in snacking which causes us to become fatter and our blood sugar (glucose) level to yo-yo until… the pancreas that produces insulin and normally sends it to transfer the glucose to appropriate cells that need energy, loses the signal or connection that says ‘how much/less insulin to produce. It is called insulin resistance (the links above explain it well). The bottom line is… insulin doesn’t do its work anymore of lowing the blood sugar level, healthy cells get deprived of energy and all other organs begin to fail. Blood sugar level higher than 110 is put into a category of Diabetes II, where Tom now is and most of the population are on the way to getting there.
If we are not paying enough attention to our body, listening to it’s wisdom as to what is good and not so good for it, we are probably on the way to being diagnosed with diabetes or most certainly preparing ourself for another ‘dis-ease of the body’… The new research is telling us that our bodies are becoming more and more inflamed. (See link above for Autoimmune and Autoimmune showing 150 diseases of the body that are now connected to root cause inflammation). Not with the normal inflammation when we have a physical trauma or infection and our immune system responds to the area healing it. (we can look at sore throats, hives, rashes, sprained ankle), but inflammation ‘overload’, because our immune system has began attacking itself through its confusion and unreliable connection and response to our internal signals. This has come about through our poor diet that is high in sugar, carbohydrate, trans, saturated fat, lack of exercise, constant stress, hidden viruses/bacteria/parasites/yeasts, allegens from food and the environment and last but not least from being too thin or too fat.
When we are under constant stress, worrying about everything, fearing about the future, not feeling safe and spiralling towards depression, our immune system receives constant signals ‘of being in distress’ and sends armies and armies of white blood cells from the bone marrow to the ‘danger’ areas. Cortisol, the hormone produced in the adrenals from cholesterol, join the area under distress as it’s main function is to balance (depending on fight or flight mode) our stress, inflammation and metabolism levels in order to regulate energy production and tell the liver to produce more/less glucose for energy in times of ‘preparing to fight the good fight’.
So you can imagine now we have an excess of glucose being produced… coming from our diet and from our stress level which eventually confuses our internal signals with the constant pressure and overload of hormones like cortisol (that inhibit enzymes like insulin from storing the glucose as fat) and instead, we force the glucose to remain in the area and cause inflammation overload. A perfect recipe for malfunction of the blood and one by one our organs begin to fail and eventually shut down.
A blood test can test for C-reactive Protein which measures the amount of inflammation you have in the body.
It was the inflammation that came in response to Toms high glucose (from his sugar craving which he ate to ease his ongoing distress with certain personal matters, making his belly bigger) and eventually caused his healthy cells to become resistant to insulin, raising his blood sugar and affecting the function of his kidneys.
Both my and Tom’s awareness has expanded with this recent new experience and we are now choosing to listen more to our body and enjoy a new life style that we see immediately improving our body and mind. No more sugar or stress but living with ease and grace and reversing the dis-function to well-functioning of the body.
IAM looking at inviting my WordPress friends and friends outside,to create together another ‘Free E Book’ that contains true stories of the awaking physical body and mind and the changes it now calls for… The title could be… The awakening physical body and mind and its needs now. We could each write something about our body/mind experience and important new research that is coming out that resonates with us. To begin In January, giving us time to research and look at our story.
What do you think? I’ll begin the month off on Monday 5th January 2015 with my own experience… please let me know here in the comments and I’ll start a date schedule… and thanks for joining me in creating more and more awareness in the world…
Barbara Franken… Inspiring New Energy Consciousness…
Me, My Magnificent Self 