Ditch the drama queens & protect those boobies!

October, aside from being my birthday and Halloween month, is also breast cancer awareness month. As I just pointed out on Facebook, let's do further than just buying pink stuff. Let's be healthy role models and make choices that are in line with our desire to avoid the nastiness of disease. Genes do not determine our fate, they simply predispose us and our kids to certain conditions (or not). Environmental conditions are increasingly seen in the medical community as contributing (tipping the balance, actually) to disease and death, so let's tip the balance in our favor by committing to a few, or all of these:

• Get 7-9 hours of sleep per night

• Exercise every day (read this to find the right workout for you)

• Eat clean! Stay away from the stuff in the middle of the supermarket as much as possible, especially gluten, sweeteners, anything that didn't exist 50 years ago. Try this program - a few of my friends just finished it with fantastic reports of feeling of wellness, weight loss, no more intestinal discomfort etc.  It changed the way I eat/drink. It may very well change your life.

• Stop smoking (read this for help with breaking unhealthy habits and starting new healthy ones)

• Quit soda (read this again)

• Take deep breaths, like we do in Poga, every day. Every time you think of it.

• QUIT DRAMA. Notice how certain people make you feel. If you feel drained or negative after talking to them, or from their Facebook statuses, unfriend them. At least hide them. Hide from them. Emotional vampires do not want to change, so it's up to us to make the healthier choice. (Note: sometimes people's words rub us wrong because, if we're honest with ourselves, they are hitting us in that deep place where we harbor insecurities, fears, self-loathing. If after some introspection we realize that this person is actually a really good friend telling us an uncomfortable truth that we need to hear, we may decide to be completely honest with them - and then proceed according to what our gut tells us to do).

• Stop comparing. There is always someone prettier, smarter, richer, skinnier, more talented, more popular, happier, boobier, etc than us. But we don't know what demons are tormenting them (and trust me, we all have demons!!!). As I say to my daughter, while I sometimes (OK often) envy others, I then try to focus on feeling joyful for their success, and feeling gratitude that the pressure isn't on ME to uphold that status or spotlight.

• Practice daily gratitude. It's impossible to feel crappy when we're thankful.

• Don't be afraid to simplify your family's schedule. Most kids will not get a sports scholarship, or dance at the Met, or play at Carnegie Hall, or play in the NHL. However most kids will, according to studies, end up with diabetes type 2 and heart disease and believing they deserve to have everything they want. It's ok to deny kids what they want, and to give them unstructured, unplugged time. And if it means less driving for us and more time gardening or walking with the kids and dog than sitting on sidelines, it's a good thing (and our boobies will be happy too).

• Stress isn't a killer, it's how we deal with it that is. If we aren't stressed, we're probably high on something or not reaching high enough. But if we allow stress to govern our dietary choices, the way we interact (or don't) with others, how we treat our body or ignore it - that's what kills. Studies have shown that people who are under a lot of stress but who don't believe it will kill them, actually live longer. The key is to take measures such as regular exercise, deep breaths, reaching out to our loved ones for help and socializing often, paying attention to the clues our body is giving us because it's a heck of a lot smarter than we are.

• Live purposefully. We crave significance. If we are stuck doing the same old crap, and it's not something that we are passionate about, and we don't feel appreciated or noticed; if we are doing work that isn't living in line with our values; if we feel helpless and as if nothing we do really counts or makes a difference - it's time to reset the GPS and recalculate. We are all here for a reason and once we start to figure that out, everything starts to fall into place. (If you'd like some help with that I'm happy to help).

Have a great day! Oh, and please forward this link to your friends, thank you!

Susanne