For a long time now, I’ve been wanting to do something to show how much I appreciate YOU as part of this WellGrounded Life community … It’s hard to put into words how much it means to me to have this haven of women, each of us striving to live into our most healthy and vibrant selves while supporting each other along the way.  It is such a gift.

So this month, I wanted to Share the Love and bless you with some fabulous giveaways that will support you on your way to healthy, vibrant living!  Each Wednesday during February, I’ll be giving away a product(s) from one of my trusted colleagues or from a trusted company.  The details for how to enter are below … {Be sure to sign up for The Ripple, my weekly newsletter, so you can get all the info on the coming giveaways as well.  Sign up in the box to the right!}

Wednesday, Feb 1 Giveaway

Gnosis Chocolate

Vanessa Barg, a fellow alumni of The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, founded this phenomenal company that produces handmade, raw, fairly-traded, sustainable, organic vegan chocolate.  Gnosis Chocolate will be giving one lucky lady the Aphrodisia Collection (valued at $74.48).  Watch the video below to see why I LOVE this chocolate and why it’s actually GOOD for you!

The Aphrodisia Collection from Gnosis Chocolate 

• 1 Aphrodisia Bar

• 1 Vanilla Hazelnut Bar

• 8oz How Now Brown Cacao Body Butter

• 3 Passion Truffles

• .5lb Aphrodisia Hot Chocolate Mix

• All Lovingly Gift Wrapped

2 WAYS TO ENTER

To enter, leave a comment below about which Gnosis Chocolate product you would love for Valentine’s Day!  {Don’t be shy about also sharing this with the loved ones in your life with a little, “hint, hint!”}  :)  

For an additional entry, like WellGrounded Life and Gnosis Chocolate on Facebook and then leave me a comment saying you’ve done so.

We will choose the winner at Noon (EST) Tuesday, February 7, 2012.

And please feel free to Share the Love — let the women in your life know about this great giveaway and about the community we’re creating at WellGrounded Life. 

The stronger our collective grows, the stronger each of us grows.  {You know I’m all about conspiracy groups!}

With a heart that overflows,
Lisa

One of the things that became clear through the M.A.P.P. interviews, was the 3 core connections necessary in order to live a fully expressed, whole and healthy life.

The ways in which we nourish these connections may look differently for each of us- but they are critical to every person’s core needs for well being and vitality.

1.  Connection to Self

I firmly believe that to live out your full potential on any level, you must have a thriving and intentional practice of connecting to and caring for yourself. 

This encompasses the way you care for your physical body, your emotional health, your mental well being, and your spirit.

I often get asked by women interested in my courses, whether or not I am a Christian. I am, and though my work through the WellGrounded Life is not explicitly faith-based, there is no doubt that my faith plays a key role in the message I share and the way I guide and support women to health and wellness.

One of the main areas is how I understand our inner life and spirit.  When I seek to understand my own spirit more fully, I am also seeking to understand God’s Spirit more fully.  I do not see my need for deep connection to my inner self as distinct from my connection to God. 

If God dwells within me… the journey of looking inward is the way in which we can also look toward the Creator and Source of our life.

Caring for your body with true and real nourishment, fresh air, movement and respect is an extension of caring for your emotional, mental and spiritual well being – it is all connected.  You are not a compartmentalized being and the more you integrate your life, the more all the parts of who you are rise and expand.

2.  Connection to Others

The second connection is our connection to others.  Our relational health and well being. 

This is the care and feeding of those essential relationships of trust, understanding, love, camaraderie and honor that we were designed to experience.  While no one really needs a research study to prove this point, reams of data confirm that human beings were specifically made to be in relationship with others.

While this plays out differently in each woman’s life- her relationship with her spouse, children, friends, mother, sister, family and community- all play key roles in either supporting her to thrive and grow or limit her full expression.  Painful, disrespectful and shaming relationships are not nuetral.

Another common theme that surfaced from the MAPP Gathering interviews was the essential need for an inner tribe, a maternal network.  I spoke of this before when I talked about a conspiracy group.  Often these special and binding relationships are the main elements of a resilient and thriving personal life. 

3.  Connection to Purpose

Finally, is our outward connection to a greater purpose and meaning. 

Within each of us there is a growing, evolving expansive spirit.  Our desire to express ourselves, to be heard and known and to create meaning from our lives, is a universal experience. 

Expressing our creativity, following our passions, pursuing our dreams, connecting to meaning and purpose in our lives is the third critical connection we make and must nourish.

As a mother, there are seasons when this inner fire is well satisfied with the tending and raising and loving of our families.  For others the need to extend beyond our role as mothers and contribute and engage in the world in other ways as well, begins to surface and requires our attention.  And the way we navigate that path will be ours uniquely– though the exploration of what that roadmap looks like is almost always richer when we can explore it in the context of a loving, supportive network. 

These three core needs are always overlapping upon each other. 

The only way to distill the calling of your inner creative urges, your passions and purpose is to have a strong and clear connection and relationship with yourself.  And one of the best ways to nourish that connection and clarify your direction is within a circle of relationships that are based on honor, respect, and genuine care so that can safely be who you truly are.

This is the reason I created the MAPP Gathering interview series…and then conceived of the MAPP Toolkit: A Guided Workshop. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on these 3 core connections.  Which of these areas are in most need of care and nourishment in your life right now?

I am so excited about sharing this with you today.

For months I’ve been working on a project that is finally ready to unveil.

In the process of working with so many mothers all around the world, I’ve come to see that our generation is carving out a new way of mothering.  As modern women, we are navigating the path of motherhood while honoring our ambitions, passions and great purpose and in the process … creating a whole new path for ourselves and our daughters who will be coming after us.

From this realization, a vision has grown to host a small group of inspirational moms that are doing heart-centered work in the world to tell their story, share their lessons and inspire/engage other moms along the path as well.

That is exactly how The M.A.P.P. (Motherhood, Ambition, Passion and Purpose) Gathering was conceived and born.

I’ve gathered an extraordinary group of 9 mothers who are also nationally recognized authors, speakers, artists and experts together in an intimate interview series. 

So we can open the dialogue about exactly how we want to embrace being a mother and woman in the world.

So now, will you join me?  This is a completely no-cost gift of love from me to you.  All you have to do is click here to sign up to receive the 9 interviews. 

I will be releasing them one each day beginning February 14 (a Valentine’s gift of the most meaningful kind!)  Until then, all I ask is that you share this gathering with all the women and mothers you know so we can reach as many women worldwide as possible.

Click here to sign up!  I can not wait to share these amazing conversations with you…and to begin a dialogue between us all on these heart-centered issues. 

Much love to you,

Lisa

Did you know that you may be eating certain foods that are stripping your body from essential minerals?

In order to flesh this out, I’m going to talk about the pH balance in your body and what that has to do with your body’s health.

Here are the nuts and bolts:  your body was designed to optimally function within a narrow pH range.  That means that if your blood becomes too acidic or too alkaline, your body has mechanisms to return itself to the correct and healthy range.  If your body goes too far to either end of the pH spectrum, it can cause major problems and ultimately death. 

Most of the time, in our modern culture, our issue is with the acidic side of the spectrum.  And that is because so many of the commonly processed, highly refined and sugar loaded foods we consume cause our body to shift more acidic than is healthy.  

Here’s the rub–your body is always going to work to regain health.  And the way your body works to counter too much acidity is to leach out the minerals in your bones.

Minerals help keep your body alkaline.  Many of us have a double whammy happening.  Our diets are not mineral rich to begin with, and our acid-forming diets are causing our bodies to leach minerals out of our bones in order to regulate our pH levels.

So what’s the solution?  It’s a 1-2 punch.  Reduce your acid promoting foods and replenish your stores with mineral dense foods.

I’ve listed the 3 biggest “acid forming” culprits and 3 brightest “mineral replenishing” rockstars. 

Acid Forming Culprits

1.  Caffeine and soft drinks

2.  Sugar

3.  White flour

4.  Meat and Meat products (*from factory farmed “conventional” animals– the meat and animal products (eggs, cheese) from organically, pastured, grass fed, ethically raised animals has a completely different nutrient profile)

Mineral Replenishing Rockstars

1.  Dark leafy greens:  Spinach, kale, collards, swiss chard.

2.  Cruciferous vegetables:  Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower.

3.  Sea Vegetables (aka seaweed)

Even small shifts of decreasing the culprits and increasing the rockstars will make a marked difference in your health– start slow and keep the momentum going!

Could you use a little help in realigning your diet to one that supports your highest level of wellness?  Would it make a difference to have a focused, step by step process that would lead you to greater well being and vitality in all the core areas of your whole-person health?

Today is the perfect day to start in a new direction.  And TODAY is the first day of the 2012 group run of Designed for Wellness.

I’m beyond excited about the amazing group of women who have signed up for the course this time around.  We have over 80 women in class and the momentum and energy is already buzzing!  I know this is going to be an incredible 3 months together.

And this is my last invitation to join us.  I’ve put together an incredible bonus package only available to this current group (valued at $185), there are 5 live coaching calls with me for personal support, we have 12 weeks of progressive steps that will take you to a whole new level of your well being and vibrancy…and we have a community of women that are ready to rally around each other and keep the momentum building and growing.

Will this be your time to step forward and do something vitally important for yourself?  I hope so.  Here is the course page, if you’d like more information. If it is a good fit, I hope you’ll say yes and join us.  I’d love to get to know you better and support you on living the life you most deeply want to live.

Now, tell me…which of the culprits will be hardest for you to cut back on…and which of the rockstars will you upping in the coming weeks?  And, as always– please do share this with those you know who may benefit from it as well!

Today I get to “unveil” my gorgeously redesigned website!

For me, this upgrade of my online “look” is a representation of so many areas of growth and expansion happening behind the scenes.  And the thing is, when you begin to step forward in life, to shine your light brighter and to touch more people’s lives…there can often surface a lot of fear.

Or, well, I was calling it fear until I dug a little deeper and saw what it really was instead.

About a week ago, a woman emailed me inquiring about my upcoming course. 

In the middle of her message, she wrote “I hope I’ll have the courage to go forward and join you for your course.” 

At first I was caught by the wording she used.  But I quickly understood exactly what she meant.  She was right.  It did require courage to step more boldly into a bigger version of who you are.  I’m deeply understanding that in my own life right now as well.
 

Please share this video with your community…there may be other moms and women who could benefit from it! Thank you!