With his bestselling spiritual guide The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle inspired millions of readers to discover the freedom and joy of a life lived “in the now.” In A New Earth, Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.
Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, A New Earth is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life—and for building a better world.
What I Thought:
I first listened to Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations with Eckhart on her podcast. They even put the 10 episodes together for a specific podcast HERE. I had downloaded this book on my Kobo a while ago after reading The Power of Now and thought it was the perfect time to read it while on vacation over Christmas last year.
Along with The Power of Now, I just want to re-read this book and re-listen to the podcast episodes to truly let the messaging sink in more.
The concepts I’ve loved learning about the most are about the pain body and the ego.
Eckhart describes the pain body as such:
“It is an accumulation of painful life experience that was not fully faced and accepted in the moment it arose. It leaves behind an energy form of emotional pain. It comes together with other energy forms from other instances, and so after some years you have a “painbody,” an energy entity consisting of old emotion.” – Excerpt from Huffpost
I highly recommend reading both these books by Tolle, find time to read a chapter and truly let it sink in. I find him hard to read in one go but in small dose so I can truly digest the concepts has been amazing for me.
Here is my book review of Open Wide by Melissa Ambrosini. I had discovered her in social media as she’s also a dōTERRA Wellness advocate, author and podcaster. I had reached out to her to have her on the Alpha Female Podcast but after sending over my download numbers I’m assuming they weren’t high enough to warrant her time. Definitely hoping to connect with her in person one day as she has this delicious vibe about her.
The hip gal’s 21st century relationship guide to love and relationships, from bestselling author, Melissa Ambrosini.
Open Wide, from Melissa Ambrosini, the bestselling author of Mastering Your Mean Girl, is a radically real, upfront and no BS guide for women on finding and cultivating mind-blowing, heart-expanding, deep authentic love, real relationships and soulful sex – and when we talk about sex, this book isn’t about the best positions, it’s about how to show up as your best self, about how to be truly confident in the skin and body you’re in, how to be vulnerable with your partner (or future partners), plus so much more.
It’s a book that gives women the real tools they can implement into their life immediately for real results, to help them navigate their relationships, learn more about themselves on a deep and intimate level, and learn how to step into their full feminine essence.
What I Thought:
I think this is an amazing book for someone just diving into the world of self-development and yearning to understand themselves better. The first 2 parts of the book really resonate with me, in terms of things I’ve already learned, or heard and helped reinforce ways of thinking. Part 3 was a refreshing, new topic for me which is her soulful sex part. I enjoyed listening on Audible to her book as she read it herself and it felt like she was right there with me giving me her tips and tricks.
Here is my book review of Do Cool Sh*t by Miki Agrawal. I put this book on my holiday wishlist after interviewing Miki on my podcast in 2018. I received this book for Christmas and I brought it with me on our cabin weekend last weekend. I devoured the book in one evening and one day and loved the easy takeaways that I got from the author.
In Do Cool Sh*t, serial social entrepreneur, angel investor, and all-around cool sh*t**–**doer Miki Agrawal shows how to start a successful company—from brainstorming to raising money to getting press without any connections—all while having a meaningful life!
With zero experience and no capital, Miki Agrawal opened WILD, a farm-to-table pizzeria in New York City and Las Vegas, partnered up in a children’s multimedia company called Super Sprowtz, and launched a patented high-tech underwear business called THINX.
Miki has seen significant growth in her businesses. She pulls back the curtain of how you can live out loud, honor your hunches, and leave nothing on the table.
Whether you’re a student with big aspirations or an experienced professional looking for new opportunities, Do Cool Sh*t will open your eyes, make you laugh, and give you the confidence to quit your day job, start your own business, and live happily ever after.
Do Cool Sh*t features a foreword by Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos.
My Thoughts:
My favourite chapters following her story is how she goes about meeting friends, approaching people from a business perspective, how to test a business idea, promoting a new business and looking for problems to fix so that you can provide solutions people need.
My favourite story that I suggested my husband actually use to promote his new gym is the pizza box idea you’ll read about in the book. I love Miki’s grassroots, on the ground mindset she used to create success in her business. It’s a great lesson to remind us to step away from behind the computer and connect with people as we build businesses in this world.
Your Body Is Your Home, Build It With Functional Medicine
How well are you aging? Were you told your labs are normal but you don’t feel normal? Has conventional medicine been nothing but a Band-Aid? Are you ready to try something different? Many health care providers want to help their patients but don’t know how, and many patients wait until their symptoms are causing problems before they see a provider. Both patients and providers can benefit from a guide to aging well.
In Dr. Stephanie Gray’s Your Longevity Blueprint, you’ll learn how you can use functional medicine to: *RESTORE YOUR GUT HEALTH *KEEP YOUR SPINE IN LINE *INFLUENCE YOUR GENETICS *REPLETE NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES *DETOXIFY YOUR BODY *OPTIMIZE YOUR HORMONES *REDUCE CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE *STRENGTHEN YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM Your body is your home, and your functional medicine provider will act as your body’s contractor and builder–giving your body the foundation, framework, and electricity it’s always needed. Where conventional medicine treats symptoms, functional medicine discovers the root cause. This is determined by your test results, what Dr. Stephanie Gray calls your fingerprint. Learn how functional medicine assesses the interaction of nutrition, genetics, hormones, toxins, and infections to improve your health and overall longevity.
Imagine what life would be like with true health. Let’s live long together! Wellness is Waiting™!
What I Thought:
I wish I had read this book sooner. I wish I had this book at the time of my MS diagnosis. I was so impressed with this book that I’ve added it to my 5 steps to thriving with MS guide that I created to help those diagnosed with MS navigate the holistic world of healing.
This is an amazing book for proactive and reactive health. I love that it breaks down different systems and functionality of the body and provides tips and tricks as well as testing practices you can discuss in person with your own functional medicine practitioner or naturopath.
Within a few weeks, I had ordered her book the Idiot’s Guide to Ayurveda and dove in. I started reading it about the same time as I was half way through The Inner Tradition of Yoga and it was the perfect compliment. There is a quote on Page 8 that reads “Ayurveda’s purpose is to achieve health, while yoga’s is to achieve spiritual enlightenment.” which got highlighted immediately!
I first heard about Ayurveda from a few Acupuncturists I’ve seen, then from 2 of my podcast guests. First, Andrea Claassen and then Colette Kent. I have never really looked into it too much but it’s always fascinated me. Since I’m in love with learning I think it was the perfect time to start studying it while I embark on my Yoga Teacher Training in Bali.
So what is Ayurveda?
One of the next terms you’ll hear in the Ayurveda world is about dosha’s or your mind-body type or constitution. They express unique physical, emotional and mental characteristics. What’s interesting is that Ayurveda talks about balance. If you know me or have listened to my podcast, you’ll know I can’t stand the term work/life balance as I believe balancing work and life doesn’t exist, instead there needs to be harmony. I think it’s the same for Ayurveda so whenever I read balance I’ll simply flip out for harmony 🙂
Ok the next term you’ll hear a lot is Dosha. Which includes Pitta, Vata and Kapha.
So why understand what your Dosha is? In Ayurveda, a belief is that we are all unique and when we study our uniqueness we are able to figure out how to optimize our life vs. treating blanket health problems in our life. If Ayurveda believes in a well-balanced (harmonized) mind & body there are aspects of living in the world that will cause us to become imbalanced. To bring our body back to harmony involves understanding when we’re imbalanced.
If you’re curious to find out your Dosha here are 2 resources I’ve used.
Based on the Banyan quiz, I’m primarily Pitta with some Vata imbalances.
When I took Sahara’s quiz it gave me even more perspective that I actually have a Pitta mind but a Vata body.
What was really cool about the Banyan site is they explain what your primary imbalance is and provide suggestions for balancing it out. So while the site will obviously try and sell their products they provide you with lifestyle practices, routine suggestions and dietary choices that you can try out first as baby steps before purchasing supplements. I really appreciated their approach and as a marketer applaud them as well!
Since I purchased Sahara’s book I’ll be looking at the lifestyle suggestions and nutritional suggestions in there for my Pitta mind and Vata body to see how they map out compared to Banyan. I like that I have 2 easy tools at my finger tips. So why am I using resources to understand this vs. just going to see a practitioner? I prefer educating myself first and then meeting with a trained practitioner to understand if I’ve understood things properly. I find it empowering to be my best healthcare advocate and since I’m my very own health CEO I prefer to use accredited resources to start the learning process and then ensure I’ve understood the basics properly.Ok so back to the title of this blog post. Why am I fascinated with Ayurveda? If you’ve been following along with my health journey, you’ll know that I’ve really become interested in Eastern medicine since it started solving health problems for me a few years ago. My very first blatant solution that is Ayurveda based was to stop drinking green smoothies in the morning that would immediately cause diarrhea. I had gone to see a Toronto acupuncturist, Amrit Singh after my MS diagnosis in 2014 and during her thorough intake, I had mentioned that I was trying to heal my gut. I had adopted the Wahl’s Protocol into my meal planning and it was really hard to get a lot of green vegetables into my system in a day so I thought a green smoothie would help. I was also eating a lot of raw green vegetables to save time during meal prep on Sunday evenings. I told her that after drinking my morning green smoothie I’d have loose bowel movements after consuming. She deduced that I had a Vata constitution and that I need warming spices and warm foods to warm up my digestive system. I stopped drinking the green smoothies and opted for almond milk smoothies with ginger and/or turmeric, nut butter and protein powder instead as a morning snack and started steaming all my green vegetables during Sunday meal prep. My digestive system started to heal much faster than I thought.
That’s when I realized that certain healing modalities that may work really well for auto-immune patients need another lense as you adopt them. That’s why I’m truly diving into Ayurveda practices now as I believe I’ve reached a plateau in my healing but can optimize further for more vitality in my life through Ayurveda.
Are you curious to find out what your Dosha is?
Wanna study with me? Here’s a link to purchase the Idiot’s Guide to Ayurveda below!!
