Flip the Script: Turn Fear into Love!

What is your greatest fear in life? Have you had to face it? Were you prepared?

How we do anything, is how we do everything. If we are paralyzed by our fear, in a land of scarcity and doubt then we will be trapped until the cycle is finally broken.

Stepping into a space of vulnerability allows doubt, worries, shame, fear, unworthiness to wash over us like waves pounding the beach… but it is temporary and each emotion is different.  I encourage you to feel what you are feeling and to notice, what you are noticing. Being in a mindful practice is critical to living the life that we have imagined. Removing shame around crying, expressing emotion, and that women are inferior because of the propensity toward emotion must be released from the confines of our society and cultural fabric.

That being said, I do not believe that fear is always bad. Sometimes fear can be motivational; harvesting this power in fear and allowing it to propel you into a place of love is a potent use of this emotion. Throughout time our Nervous System learned to hold onto negative thoughts, memories, and situations in order to protect us from them in the future. Happy or positive memories were let go of, and this served us well for many thousands of years. With all of the technology we have around us now reminding us of our memories, both positive and negative perhaps it is time that we shift the balance and hold on to more positive memories. Finding balance is always the key and will help to better serve us while we are on our life path.

I will always argue for balance over extremism. I have to go in deep and pull myself out of extreme “black or white” thoughts in order to find greater and deep ease within my own body. My brain wants to pull me into fear V love; right V wrong; positive V negative but my heart seeks understanding, forgiveness, and most importantly balance.  This is when practices or daily rituals come in handy! Activities such as prayer, meditation, journaling, exercising, yoga, drinking tea, or whatever feels best in your body come into play.  These are not only outlets for your emotions but inlets for your heart space to expand and grow. When you are upset, flip the script on yourself! Do not ask, “why me?” ask “what can I learn from this experience?” This is when true and meaningful transformation can and will occur. This shift must happen on the cellular level so that your entire body both physical and energetic experiences the transformation. You may have the best of intentions but the transformation happens when you put it into action. Be an active participant in your own life so that you fully experience each moment, breath, and emotion. You may e sad, but this is temporary. You may be joyful but this can also be temporary.  Whatever it may be, breathe into and feel it in that moment. What are you supposed to be learning? Going back in your memory bank, what have you already learned? It is these lessons that brought you to this moment today, show some gratitude!

Choice is always, always your next option or move. You can choose to be angry or perhaps you choose to learn from this experience. Maybe this time is a combination of both, just feel it before you fully react. This is not about being perfect, about nailing your daily routine every single day. THz sis about practicing, everything in life worthwhile is a practice and is seeking balance.

As you step into your practice notice that you find deep inner peace even in the middle of stress. You never want to remove stress, stress is good. Instead of thinking that you want to get rid of stress, practice adapting to stress. This will allow you to move in and out of sympathetic and parasympathetic responses with greater ease and will decrease the pressure on your body.  Remember that fight or flight is a good response when you are in danger or facing an intense situation in general. Your body has an innate powerful response to these situations, this response is amazing! Honor your sympathetic response and know that it is temporary.  As you come back down into parasympathetic state (rest and digest) honor that you have this ability and that your body this automatically.  Once back in parasympathetic state, enjoy it! Take time for gratitude, breathe deeply, and feel the ease in every cell of your body.

Fear does not need to paralyze you!  Open your heart, open your mind, give thanks to God and find that balance. It will shift each moment or perhaps each day but be on this journey toward balance. Your thoughts and emotions are powerful and do control the bio chemistry of your body.

Join me for ‘Yoga Rehab with Dr. E’ each Tuesday evening, 6:30pm, 123B El Paseo next door to my practice Genuine Chiropractic.  I am committed to publishing a blog on the week’s theme, before the class, and creating a magical corresponding play list each week. My style of yoga is equally heart centered as it is derived from anatomy. I pull on my innate wisdom to create the flow as it feels right and am able to work with injuries well, as a chiropractor. This unique blend will leave you feeling relaxed, inspired, informed, and better adapted to the stresses in your surrounding environment.

Get clear, be inspired, Cultivate Vitalism

In love & light,

Dr. Elizabeth M. Wisniewski

Author, speaker, yoga teacher, chiropractor

www.GenuineChiro.com

Stop being triggered!

Stop Being Triggered!

Tap into your innate, be activated, breathe, and find the truth

I feel triggered by the overuse of the word, “trigger”! It feels harsh, violates my innate, and has an overly masculine tone which taps into universal fear.

It is something I hear a lot in society,from patients, and even my community of grounded friends. It is important to feel what we are feeling, notice what we are noticing, and then be okay with releasing everything. Being mindful is not always peaceful Walden Pond serenity. Being mindful and communicating from your open heart can be scary, painful; an open heart breeds anxiety until vulnerability is viewed as a powerful, high-frequency emotion. As the adage goes, “you must feel in order to heal” So be okay with that temporary feeling. Breathe in your nose pulling the air into your lungs activating the parasympathetic (rest and digest) part of your Nervous System. Mouth breathing creates a vicious cycle of sympathetic (fight or flight) dominance that will never allow you to adapt to your environment or heal. Being in a more balanced state is when you are able to heal on the level of the cell and adapt to your environmental stresses. You do NOT need to live in fight tor flight! Our society seems to be stuck here and honor those who are always stressed out, over worked, and have no time in their schedule for themselves.  We are giving all our power to this universal fear that is perpetuated by 24/7 negative news and automatic, triggered responses that are often inappropriate and out of alignment with our authentic selves. We lose our identity when we only recognize an automatic, negative pattern. This must be acknowledged first and then the healing will occur. You are not yourtriggered patterns, yor next option is always CHOICE.

I will remind you again: breathe in through your nose, hold your breath for a moment and then exhale with a sound. You have an innate gift to change your mindset and therefore all 70 trillion cells of your body through the power of biochemistry!  

I encourage you to stop using the phrase, “I feel triggered by….” And to shift your paradigm into the word “activation”. Yesterday, I was listening to my friend Dr. Jessica Higgins ‘The Empowered Relationship’ podcast and she kept using the word “activation” or “activated”. On this very subconscious level I noticed that this word resonated with me on a higher frequency than the word trigger. It gave me permission to be mindful, breathe, and then adapt to that stress in a more profound and empowered way. “Trigger” is giving me permission to react immediately, it is a shotgun reaction that further disconnects my mind, body, and spirit.  It is pulling me down into my lower chakras of simply reacting via instinct and in a lower vibrational pattern.

 In order to step into your authentic truth, communicate from an open heart you must take time to be guided by innate intelligence. This means removing all interferences caused by traumas, toxins, and negative thoughts (auto suggestions) that systemically block inherent wisdom.

My Authentic Guidance and Truth

When I am”activated” instead of triggered I give myself permission to be upset, but I set a time limit. I know that this is not a permanent emotion and perhaps if I set a 30 second time limit on this emotion, that I will be alright. I tell myself, “You are so strong, you can do anything for 30 seconds!” Sometimes it is an hour, or half the day… just set a time limit and be present during that space. Know what makes you feel safe, joyful, and grounded. I know that water always makes me feel better so I need to drink some water, take a shower or bath, and if there is time… I should go to the beach.  When I am “activated” I am in my truth, I am breathing into discomfort, and letting my Nervous System know that this too is temporary.

In each moment we have the choice whether we are going to be trigger or activated. We must work on ourselves in order to bring the best version of ourselves forward so that we can be in relationship or community and vibrating on a high frequency. It is not enough to ask God and the universe for what we want... We must be in a high frequency of love / gratitude and be constantly evolving ourselves.  This truth activates me, makes me want to dig deeper and love more. Breathing into the discomfort can be enjoyable as long as we are rooted in our authentic truth. My mother always said, “You always have a right to be mad or upset, but you never have the right to be mean”.  For me on this difficult day, Mother’s Day, as a motherless daughter I honored my mother in small ways. I cleaned out and organized my closets / drawers and have a big bag to donate. My mother was very neat, clean, and organized and I figured spring cleaning with a service twist would be perfect. It allowed me to do a “chop wood, carry water” form of meditation and step out of my selfish emotions.

In a moment of being mindful of my feelings over missing my mother, I was able to find more compassion for those around me and reflect back to them loving kindness. Whenever I am stressed or upset, I start asking myself “how can I give more? How can I love more? How can I serve more?”

This deep desire to serve my purpose in this world, to teach, and to love from an open heart space activates me to higher frequencies, emotions, and allows the universe to reflect back to me exactly what I desire. I believe firmly in manifesting and know that I am good at this…. But only because I take massive action when I set an intention. It takes prayer, meditation, yoga, breath work, writing, and even more prayer to set intentions. Through this self-activation I then create a plan for massive action and allow for the most beautiful manifestations to occur around me.

As we find greater balance in our minds, bodies, and spirits we must move away from the word “trigger”. Allow yourself to be activated, lit-up, empowered, and inspired. Notice it, feel it, and then let it go. You have full power to activate and manifest whatever you desire. Use words, which contribute to your biochemistry, and impact each cell for your highest good! Through the cultivation of balance you will create and live the life you have imagined!

Want to tap deeper into this topic? Join me Tuesday evening 123B El Paseo , Santa Barbara 93101 for Yoga Rehab with dr. E! Call 805-285-2712 for more information.

Get clear, Be inspired, Cultivate vitalism

Dr. Elizabeth Wisniewski

www.genuinechiro.com

DrElizabeth@GenuineChiro.com

21 Day Standard Process Purification Cleanse

21 Day Purification Cleanse by Standard Process Inc.

Toward the tail end of October I embarked on the 21 day purification cleanse from Standard Process Inc. Standard Process (SP) is an absolutely fabulous company founded in 1929 in central Wisconsin. After visiting the farm and processing facility in early October was inspirational! It motivated me to take my self-healing to the next level and go through the purification cleanse. Especially since it had been four years since I last cleansed.

As a doctor, I am skeptical of most detox / cleanses on the market because they often are restrictive and / or have the person drinking powder all day instead of eating real food. SP is different, they are a whole food based company and during the purification cleanse you are drinking smoothies and eating plenty of vegetables and fruits each day.

For the entirety of the cleanse you remove all dairy, grains, caffeine, alcohol, and legumes from your diet however on day 11 you may add in fish or organic pastured meat in small portions. Each day you drink 2-3 smoothies with SP Complete (protein with greens in it – either dairy or dairy-free), whole food fiber, and then whatever else you want to add to the smoothie. During the day you can also eat raw fruits, raw veggies, and gently cooked veggies. They do allow for small portions of lentils, brown or wild rice but I highly encourage you to eat as few of these things as possible during the cleanse.

I enjoyed making my smoothies after work each evening so that they were cold and ready to drink in the morning. (This is recommended if you are not a morning person or have super busy morning routines already. Place smoothie in a glass container with tightly sealed lid in order to reduce the amount of oxidation)  Typically I would make 3 pints for the day (48oz) and that was enough plus some raw veggies or a salad to get me through the day without feeling hungry.

 Normally I begin with a green bay’s such as purified water and kale, spinach, lettuce or whatever greens I have that week. In my vitamix blender I blend the greens and water until it is a green juice like consistency. Then, I will add in the SP protein, SP fiber, frozen organic fruit like mango, berries, sometimes fresh fruit like a banana, an avocado or coconut oil and then blend again. It is so simple and having a high-powered blender makes the entire process quick and easy.  (Side note: I do have a juicer and like to make fresh green juice once or twice per week. There are different nutritional benefits to juicing verses smoothies however juicing takes a lot more time especially with the clean up and you go through a lot more produce in order to make a couple pints of healthy goodness!)

Did I cheat?

No! I started the cleanse on a Wednesday so that I would have a couple days before the weekend when I felt like I may be more tempted to cheat. I cut out bread the Saturday before, coffee the Sunday before, and dairy two days prior to beginning. Every time I felt hungry I would first drink water and see if that helped and if not I would drink smoothie or eat some raw vegetables. Even though I did this program alone, I was very committed to the process. Keeping my other daily routines like journaling, yoga,  and meditation allowed me to stay focused even on days where I felt more emotional or was craving chocolate or coffee. I actually kept a separate journal for the cleanse, it was similar to my “morning pages” but focused more on writing about how I was feeling, what I was eating, what worked and what did not work. It was a great tool of accountability since I did not have an actual accountability partner! If you slip up one day during the cleanse, that is okay! Like anything in life this cleanse is a practice. Ultimately it is your health and you are only responsible for yourself.  If you have the will power to go it alone, awesome! If you need an accountability partner or a group setting, even better. This is your practice and your time to go in deep and do the work.

Can you take other vitamins during the cleanse?

Yes, I still took my regular daily Standard Process vitamins as well as their cleanse tablets for the first 7 days and then the green capsules for the remainder of the cleanse. This is another reason why I love the purification cleanse, you are getting everything that your body needs and never depriving it of nutrients. Schedule a nutritional consult with one of our doctors to determine which SP supplements are right for you and your personal health goals. Confer with your medical doctor regarding any medications you may be on and let them know you are going through a whole food based cleanse.

Is it safe to exercise during the purification cleanse?

Absolutely. SP recommends walking however since I am in a routine of kick boxing twice per week and a daily yoga practice I continued with my regular schedule.  Boxing and kickboxing was a bit more difficult the first week I was on the cleanse as I felt a slight dip in my energy as my body was heavily detoxifying however once I was able to add in some organic pastured meat, I felt stronger than ever. If you are in a healthy exercise routine you should be able to do 80% of it or so on this cleanse. Remember to listen to your innate intelligence (intuition) and give your body what it needs.

Will I lose weight on the purification cleanse?

You most likely will lose weight. SP states that people on average lose 12 – 15 lbs. during the 21 day process. If you continue with drinking 1 green smoothie per day and eating healthy you will most likely lose 1-2 lbs. per week which is considered normal and safe. Of course eat organic and exercise regularly. I do not believe in the old adage of “calories in, calories out” however I do believe in eating real, whole foods that are mostly organic and getting regular exercise. This will decrease inflammation, increase muscle, and improve overall health. During your nutritional consultation we can discuss specific vitamins from SP to help you through this process and most importantly provide you with tools to decrease systemic inflammation.

What other cleansing techniques can I use?

Self-care and nurturing during your cleanse will allow the process to happen with greater ease and comfort. Getting massage, Chinese abdominal massage, colon hydro therapy, acupuncture, and taking a magnesium salt bath can help the process.  During your appointment we can refer to these type of health care providers in Santa Barbara and you can check out our community partner page www.genuinechiro.com

Of course, drinking half of your body weight in ounces in water each day is critical to allowing the natural detoxing process of your body to occur.

Additional Information

You are not going on a diet! You are creating lifetime healthy habits.  After the cleanse you will slowly add back in whole grains, dairy, and caffeine if you choose. I have been off the cleanse for five days now and I am still drinking several green smoothies per day because my body is craving them.  You will feel less inflamed, your skin will glow, and your gut will be healthier! The purification cleanse from standard Process is a terrific jump start to the healthiest version of yourself in 2016 and will allow for the cultivation of lifetime habits.

To schedule an appointment with the doctors of Genuine Chiropractic visit www.GenuineChiro.com or call 805-285-2712. We look forward to serving you and wish you success on you purification journey!

In health,

Dr. Elizabeth Wisniewski

DrElizabeth@GenuineChiro.com