-photo by Myles Tan on Unsplash

I'm a big fan of the author Brené Brown. She talks a lot about how to communicate with anyone and how toxic shame is to our society. She opens herself up, making herself vulnerable, in all of her books and talks, and I love what she teaches about bravery.

In my book, as well as my articles, I talk a lot about how to talk to oneself, and the importance of being a positive self-coach. I hear a lot of judgment from all parts of society these days. It's the human condition. People are saying openly hostile things to each other, sometimes questioning each other's sanity, and the truth is, most of us are also saying incredibly hostile and judgmental things to ourselves as well. Think about how you talk to yourself when you're upset at the end result of your efforts. Would you put up with a friend who treated you that way? Think of the stories you tell yourself when you're afraid. Are you always positive and encouraging, or do you dwell on the negative? Would you treat a small child that way? We carry parts of our childhood selves with us for our entire lives in our unconscious. We have to learn to be careful of how we talk to ourselves.

I think one of the purposes of life is to figure out how to rise above our programming. It helps to realize that everyone's got programming that prevents them from seeing things any differently than how they're currently seeing things. Especially in times of stress, all of us tend to react with our emotional and primitive brain. The trick is to learn to stay aware and present as this is happening so we can avoid it. Tools like meditation, mindfulness, yoga, Focusing, and therapy offer us a chance to stay present so that we can be in the executive level thinking offered by our prefrontal cortex. If we feel our anger rising, if we feel our indignation mount, if we sense self-righteousness, if we are aware of fear, jealousy, insecurity, I guarantee that our thought process is being hijacked by the emotional and primitive brain. When we're triggered, it feels so normal, so safe, to indulge in emotional or primitive brain thinking. That's how I spent the first forty years of my life. Learning how to develop and practice tools to stay present is an ongoing challenge, but one I'm so grateful for. I'm happier and calmer than I've ever been. 

I talk about how shame helps drive the opioid epidemic in my two part article on Thrive Global. Here's the link to part I. Here's the link to part II. Let me know what you think. And check out  Brené Brown. She's awesome.

Warmly,
Elizabeth

                                                                 -Photo by Daniel Burka on Unsplash

H. Pylori, which was vilified in the '90s as the bacteria that causes ulcers, has a positive role: it gives us important feedback on fullness by regulating ghrelin according to this study. Ghrelin is a hormone that stimulates hunger. One side effect of ulcer treatment was that the ulcer patients became obese after eradicating H. Pylori. Ghrelin is produced in the stomach and acts as a neurotransmitter. If ghrelin levels are unregulated, you never feel full. Because of antibiotic use over generations, increasing numbers of children today have no H. Pylori, which may be contributing to the rise of childhood obesity. Additionally, people with H. Pylori have been shown to be at reduced risk for celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), and esophageal adenocarcinoma.

The NCBI, which is part of the National Institute of Health, talks about management of H. Pylori levels by use of diet if gastric ulcers are detected. Things like drinking sauerkraut juice and eating other Brassica vegetables like cauliflower or broccoli sprouts can help. Adding manuka or oak honey, or high bush blueberry juice have all shown benefits. As always, follow the advice of your doctor. Given the downside of H. Pylori eradication, a peaceful coexistence seems to be the best bet.

                                                     --Photo by Arthur Aldyrkhanov on Unsplash


Dr Katherine Reed, biochemist and mother of five, knew something was wrong with her youngest daughter, Brooke. Once Brooke was diagnosed with autism, her mother was determined to help her. Through research and trial and error, she learned how to help Brooke: by switching what she ate to entirely unprocessed food.

If you are wondering if your child's autism symptoms could be helped by changing his or her diet, and wondering if the effort is worth it when life is hard enough already, here is one woman's journey.

She is passionate about helping others understand the differences that it's made for her daughter, and what it might mean for your child. Her daughter had been on track for being unable to be cared for at home, yet now is functioning normally.

In this video, you'll also learn how removing MSG can help reduce symptoms of a wide range of diseases and disorders of the body including anxiety, depression, bipolar, Alzheimer's, diabetes (type 1&2), obesity, Parkinson's, OCD, Tourette's, sensory integration disorder and beyond. Specifics of these are mentioned at the 7:30 minute mark.

Watch the video here:

Here's a helpful MSG chart here:

Warmly,
​Elizabeth

Here's a video clip of me and my dog Casey demonstrating Pigeon pose. In panic attacks, I've found that the psoas gets overactive. I've found relief from doing yoga. Poses like Pigeon pose help stretch the psoas so we can get on with our day.

Walking meditation is also helpful during a panic attack. I know it's hard to get out of the house, but fresh air is good for us, and it's also good to use our peripheral vision --most of us overuse our focal (reading) vision with all the electronic devices we own.

Be sure to use soft focus while walking and looking at your feet. Soft focus helps activate peripheral vision, as does noticing what is happening in your peripheral vision.

Another big help is to fit in some high intensity aerobic exercise regularly (during non-panic attack times is best I find.) Think of being calm as like having money in the bank, and being stressed as like withdrawing money.

High intensity aerobic exercise (provided your doctor okays it) puts money in the bank so that you don't overdraw your account and go into panic attack mode. Dr. John Ratey discusses how effective this is to reduce anxiety in his book Spark.

Other things that add to your bank account of calm are yoga and meditation.

Warmly,
​Elizabeth