A big thank you to everyone who sent feedback about the revised news-letter design. Your comments are greatly appreciated! We start this edition with…

An Inspirational Quote

“You are here to love, play and have fun! We are all born with the right to be happy and enjoy life. We are not here to suffer.” Don Miguel Ruiz, The Mastery of Love,

Love Makes You Slim

By James Williams, Nutrition & Lifestyle Coach & CranioSacral Therapist, London

To be slim you have to make love to someone unexpected - yourself. 

We are talking about the kind of love that motivates you to not buy garbage food when you’re in the grocery, to exercise in a healthy way and to listen to your body’s intelligence, stopping eating before you are full and going to bed when you first feel tired.

Just drinking enough water and leaving work on time helps you manifest this love in your life too. It is really very simple to make love to yourself. You just do the things that will make you deeply happy. Usually these are the same things that make you slim and healthy. Each time you eat processed food, stay up late, work too long, don’t exercise or forget to drink enough water you are telling your body, “I do not value or respect you. I do not want to listen to the intelligence that magically heals my cuts and bruises and keeps me alive each day.” 

That continual lack of respect causes your body to feel rejected and unloved, which then triggers specific emotional and chemical response. When we experience an emotion, hormones and neurotransmitters are released. In less than a second, the bloodstream carries these chemicals to every one of your 100 trillion cells, flooding your body with an emotional cocktail. 

When you experience a negative thought about yourself or decide not to act in a healthy way, the chemicals produced send a newsflash to every cell – and the headline is that you do not love them. This lowers immunity, rapidly increases physical ageing and breaks down muscle tissue, slowing your metabolism. Ultimately this causes you to gain fat, look older than you need to and get sick - quickly. Quite the opposite of what you want!

In a nutshell, every positive thought has the power to make you slimmer. Most of us experience between 57,000 – 100,000 thoughts a day. How many of yours are positive? 

If you want to reduce the size of your fat cells you will need to feed them positive loving thoughts, in addition to organic food and clean water. Shifting your focus back to your inner guidance will also help you find your weight loss solution. You can begin loving yourself by: 

Accepting the truth that your decisions and actions have got you the body fat levels you have today. Accept that these actions happened in your past. It all happened for a reason - to teach you a valuable lesson. What is important is what you do from this day forward. Take one day at a time if you need to.

You can start accepting the truth by looking at your body in the mirror and saying aloud: “I accept you just as you are,” and then smile. You could also say or write down, “I accept how my legs look. I accept how my arms look. I accept that I have made my body what it is today.” Keep talking or writing until you feel comfortable with what you see in the mirror. 

Forgive yourself now that you have accepted what has happened. Decide that your past has no power over you. Today is a new day where you can make new decisions about how you will live you life. Sometimes it takes time for the results of those decisions to manifest in our lives – sometimes the results are immediate! 

Forgiveness can be done verbally to yourself in the mirror. For example you could say, “I forgive myself for the comments I have made about how I look. I forgive myself for not having taken proper care of myself in the past." Say whatever it takes using positive sentences until you feel like you have forgiven yourself. You can also do this by writing and sending yourself a letter.

Be grateful for the positive people, circumstances and objects in your life today. Every night write a list of 10 things for which you feel gratitude. This could be decisions you made that day to be healthy and happy. Pay special attention to the parts of your body that you would like to change. Find something you like about that part – be creative and loving.

Love how you look. So what if you have wrinkles, cellulite or anything else you used to find unsightly? None of these things are a reflection of the good, loving soul that lives within you. Your soul is what your partner, friends and family really live and interact with — not your physical body. As Dr. Wayne Dyer says, you are not your body —you are the noticer of your body. Look in the mirror, gently touch a part of your body you want to change and reassuringly tell it aloud that you love it.

Realize that loving yourself is the most generous thing you can do for others. As you learn to love all parts of yourself more deeply, including your body, you will be able to love and accept others more unconditionally. You will also empower others release their shame about their own bodies and come to peace within themselves. As yogi Erich Schiffman says, "Be the place that love flows through. It is good for others and good for you!"

Up and Coming Seminars

There are a few places left for you to join Total Fitness for a Seminar in London, UK, March 12-13: Mental Fitness for Athletes, which is also for people who want to heal their brain. Hurry, you won’t want to miss this insightful seminar which will help you understand yourself AND your clients at a much deeper level.

For more information or to join the class: contact James@TotalFitness.net or call James Williams in the United Kingdom at 011-44-(0)208-653-2329.

Natural Vision Improvement

A Seminar to Improve Your Creativity as You Learn How To See!

When: Saturday and Sunday, April 2-3, 2005 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Where: ATEC Inc. – 4730 Marine Ave – South Bay Los Angeles California (90260)

Cost: $375, or $350 with a $50 nonrefundable deposit by March 25.

What you will learn:

• Exercises for the eyes that improve the way you see
• How the eyes are an extension of your brain
• How you can heal your eyesight naturally
• How to see the world differently and improve your creativity
• How your nutrition affects your eyesight

Who will benefit:

• All those who want to let go of tension in their eyes
• Athletes who want to improve their balance
• All those who want to read better
• Anyone who wants to improve their eyesight without glasses
• Artists who want to improve their creativity

Your Teacher: Catherine Carrigan is a long-time lecturer, instructor and student of natural healing methods. She has helped many clients and students improve their eyesight without glasses. Her mentor, Sue Maes of the Achievement and Learning Center in London, Ontario, Canada, is an expert on the eyes and has produced a video on natural vision improvement.

How Well Do You Really See?

Vision is a complex activity. Experts have counted over 30 different visual skills. These are some of the visual skills we will improve in our class:

Tracking: This is a basic skill required for reading. When your eyes don’t track well together, you also have trouble following a moving object smoothly and accurately with both eyes across the midline of the body—a skill required for example when watching vehicles change lanes in traffic.

Depth Perception: This is your ability to judge relative distances, such as required by a golfer on a golf course. Depth perception s also important for swinging at a ball, as in baseball, or parking your car.

Peripheral Vision: Under stress, many people go into tunnel vision and lose their peripheral vision. This is the ability to monitor and interpret what is happening at the sides of the body while simultaneously attending to a task in front of you. If you lose your peripheral vision while driving, for example, you may have trouble changing lanes safely.

Binocularity: This is the general ability to use both eyes together, smoothly, easily, equally, simultaneously and accurately without switching off both sides of the brain. Many people are actually monocular, meaning they use primarily one eye instead of both eyes.

Visualization: The ability to picture in your mind’s eye. 

Here is what a few of the students had to say two weeks after Catherine’s last class:

"I can't believe the difference," said Lee Townsend, 61, who has worn glasses since age 5. "Everything is much clearer, especially at a distance. I also have better balance since I worked on my eyes."

Curt Bush was dismayed to find himself needing glasses in his 40s. He works in front of computers all day. "My eyes are definitely more relaxed and I can see smaller objects or words for longer periods of time without having to resort to my glasses. This also seems to be helping me sleep better."

Margaret Price, 62, had far vision before the class but still needed glasses to read. "Since I've done the class, my far vision is crisp and I've been using my reading glasses much less," she said. "If I am in good sunlight, I can read without my glasses. I also have more energy since taking the class."

A personal comment from Catherine:

“Few people realize that your eyes are an extension of your brain; you can improve your eyesight by improving your brain function. You have six muscles around each eye. These muscles can be exercised—just like any other muscle group in the body! When we engage in excessive two-dimensional activities, such as spending hours and hours in front of computers and television and even reading books, which are also two-dimensional, these activities strain the eyes. We were meant to see in three dimensions—just as we do when we are outdoors. Lastly, few people realize they can improve their balance by improving their eyesight. Twenty percent of your vision is devoted to proprioception—keeping your place in space.”

What Strains Your Eyes?

Many clients are unaware of the countless ways they strain their eyes.

Do you engage in unvaried near-point activities? These include reading, writing, drawing, sewing, typing, watching TV or looking at a computer for hours without a break. Solution: Take 30-second vision breaks. Look into the distance. Blink and breathe. Do Vision Circles eye exercises. 

Are you exposed to artificial or flickering light? This happens when we sit in front of the TV or computer monitor, or when we have fluorescent lights in our schools or office. Sunglasses also change the quality of light. Solution: Use natural light. Walk outside in the sunlight daily to help your brain and eyes and adrenal glands. Put up full-spectrum lights in your home and office. Avoid sunglasses or use full-spectrum sunglasses.

Is your nutrition affecting your eyesight? Are you dehydrated? All your neurotransmitters work in water. Caffeine and artificial chemicals in your diet may be affecting your vision. Solution: Drink more filtered pure water. Eat organic food. Your brain and eyes use about 25 percent of the body’s nutrition.

Protect Your Eyes in Front of the Computer

If your job requires you to work at a computer, there are many things you can do to preserve your eyesight:

Drink water. The electrical output of your computer may affect your EEG brain waves and your vision.

Place the keyboard close to your visual midline. Are you too far or too close?

Avoid eating in front of your computer. The moving horizontal lines interfere with the acupuncture meridian flow lines for digestion.

Practice eye exercises for 30 seconds every 15 minutes.

These points and many others will be taught in this class.

Defy Your Own Expectations — Improve Your Eyesight Naturally!

Regular Classes

Yoga Classes in Atlanta: Every Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30-9 p.m., 4465 Northside Drive inside the Holy Spirit Catholic Church.

Qi Gong Classes in Atlanta: Every Wednesday, 5:30 p.m., 1951 Northside Drive.

Appointments and Bookings

To make an appointment with Total Fitness, please contact:

In California Patty Bonafede, email patty@totalfitness.net or call 805-461-5459

In Atlanta Catherine Carrigan, email daylilly@aol.com or call 404-350-8581

In London James Williams, email james@totalfitness.net or call 011-44-208-653-2329

Or visit our website at www.totalfitness.net for more information