If you’ve ever been a new parent, you know how terrified you feel when your child is sick and you don’t know how to fix it.  This feels much like sheer terror to me.  But I realized that this is just a more acute reaction to a previous problem. It’s how I feel when something is wrong with me or anyone in my family too.  It’s a bit of panic mixed with dread mixed with exhaustion.  Panic at the thought of having to experience the pain/malaise of that particular ailment, yet again. Dread at the thought of having to go to a hospital or to a doctor’s office. Exhaustion at the thought of having to deal with this problem while I try to handle the myriad of other things on my schedule, all while not feeling well.

I think a lot of us have this experience.  But here’s what I’ve realized lately:

IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS! 

You know those things you kick butt at? Those things you’ve been doing for years and are so good at that when someone asks for your help in this area, you feel like a rockstar?  You actually get excited to deal with a “problem” in your field of expertise, because you know exactly what to do?  THAT is what dealing with your health can feel like! Feel that hope? It’s TRUE!  You can feel confident, prepared, in control and FREE!

Why Most Of Us Don’t Feel In Control Of Our Health

Why do most of us not feel in control when it comes to our health?  And why do we often feel anxious, helpless and hopeless? Because we’ve been taught for many years that we are not smart enough to tackle this. We’ve also been told that there’s very little to be done anyway, “chronic” illnesses are rampant – and most of the time, we should not even expect anything to really get better.  So to summarize – we’ve been taught hopelessness and helplessness.

I recently heard someone say:

“In this day and age, when sooo much information is available to you for FREE, your ignorance is a choice!”

I think that’s a little harsh but it made me think. In this area of health, I strongly believe that our ignorance is taught and encouraged.

I know what you’re thinking.

“If you’re about to add one more difficult thing to my already-long list of stuff to do, I’m gonna lose it!”

Ok – I totally get that!  So let;s look at what you’re currently doing. Why do most of us dread doctors and hospitals? Because they are inconvenient, complicated, expensive and usually don’t yield any clear answers. We usually get a prescription for something that may or may not work. We then have to schedule to go see the doctor again for a follow up to see if the treatment worked or if we have to try something else. Most often, these medications do not provide cures, but only manage symptoms and you’ll have to do all this over again soon. So you’re already spending time, energy and money dealing with your health issues in a way that leaves you pretty unsatisfied.  What if there’s a better, more efficient, more successful way?

What if we didn’t have to do this? Imagine if we could know what’s wrong, judge the severity of it and treat it all in the comfort of our own homes? What if we could get all that power back? Don’t get me wrong, I’m so very grateful for the doctors, emergency rooms and research facilities available to us today! There are endless situations in which we need them desperately: accidents, weird diseases we’ve never experienced before, emergency crises, sudden onset of anything unexpected, etc. But remedying the ailments of our daily lives should not be one of them.

I’m not saying you’re going to do so much research and learn so much that you’ll be qualified to diagnose and treat people. I’m saying you can and should research and learn enough about YOU and your kids that you feel prepared and at peace. We are already way ahead of any expert because we each know our bodies better than anyone else. You know what your weaknesses are (when and how you tend to get sick most of the time). You understand in great detail what has and has not worked for you in the past. Most of the time, we can feel when something is “off” way before any symptoms or tests could tell a doctor. What if we could learn how to handle our own bodies better? What if we didn’t have to fear the next time we get sick because we won’t have to figure out one more major problem or make another visit to the doctor. And what if we developed a protocol that works for us and prepares us for when those times come?

another post you may like:

Health Made Simple – What Keeps Us Healthy?

How Can You Take Control Of Your Health?

Here are some simple examples. I used to get a severe sore throat which eventually became very painful. It led to high fevers, being in bed for days and losing my voice. I, of course, went to the doctor and they prescribed antibiotics. I took them, got better and we did the whole thing over again a few months later. It was a cycle I could not break. My nephew gets sinus infections very often. He goes to the doctor, gets antibiotics, gets better and does it all over again the next time. My friend tends to get UTI’s – they are very painful. She understandably dreads them. She goes to the doctor, gets antibiotics, gets better and repeats the whole process again a few weeks later. Sound familiar? Ear infections, fungus, strep-throat, the flu, etc. Of course there are some bigger ones, but the patterns are similar. Heart health issues, diabetes, auto immune diseases and so forth. Most people take some sort of medication which works at times, but the disease ‘flares up” pretty regularly, at which point they will go to the doctor and start the whole process over.

Your body is pretty predictable, especially to you. So for my sore throat issue, I got desperate after endless rounds of antibiotics and I started researching and “trying” different things. Clearly the infection kept returning after taking antibiotics so the root of the problem was not fixed. So I did what the doctors do: “Let’s try this and come back for a follow up.”  So I “tried” improving my immunity in a number of ways, over and over until I found what actually worked for me. I did this proactively and intentionally, not waiting for the next time I got really sick. I pretty quickly developed a protocol of foods (garlic, lemon, ginger, homemade soup), supplements (probiotics, vitamin C, echinacea, goldenseal) and essential oils (oregano, On Guard). This protocol not only greatly improved my healing process when I got sick. But it also significantly increased my immunity. My sore throat episodes got more and more rare. I now barely ever get a sore throat and I know exactly what to do to get rid of it immediately. No inconvenience, no days in bed, no going to see a doctor.

My friend who had to deal with frequent UTI’s similarly got fed up with the repeating pattern. She researched and tried things until she figured out her protocol. She did a couple of cleanses (Crisis Intervention Formula by Vibrant Health & a Candida cleanse). And she started drinking a lot more water (2-3 liters a day at least). Her immunity greatly improved.  She got some supplements (probiotics, Cran naturelle, vitamin C) and essential oils (Oregano, Frankincense, On Guard). Again, this protocol not only greatly helped her when she got a UTI but it also improved her immunity to the point where she got them less and less often. Now she barely ever worries about them. And when she feels a little “off,” she knows exactly what to do before it even gets painful. No inconvenience, no pain, no going to see a doctor.

Never Feel Helpless Again

These are simple examples, and I am aware that there are much harder ones to tackle. But here’s the wonderful thing about taking control. YOU CAN FIGURE IT OUT! Just like you have with every other difficult situation in your life until now, you are fully capable of figuring this out. You absolutely CAN be a rockstar at this and NEVER feel helpless again! You are spending time, effort and money now anyway – why not refocus all of that into a long-term understanding and protocol that puts you back in the driver’s seat where you can breath confidently and be at peace?

We are not made to be helpless creatures. With the endless amount of information available to us today, it is impossible not to be able to learn and find solutions. You have the power and the resources to understand your body and find the best solutions for your long-term health. Don’t worry about becoming an expert or learning everything about everything – that’s going to drive you nuts! Learn that ONE thing about YOU! Learn how to heal that ONE thing in your body or in your kid’s body. You CAN do it and you will find empowerment and peace in accomplishing this.

Here’s the wonderful, unexpected result of doing this. You actually begin a process of gaining knowledge and understanding that will serve you far beyond this current problem. It’s like buying a new car. Before owning a Mazda SUV, I never noticed them. Now that I own one, I see them everywhere. By researching and tackling that one thing in your body, you will inadvertently start learning and noticing more and more truth about your body, your environment and what affects your health. Like anything else you practice, you will become more and more confident in this and you will have to depend less and less on others.

Quality Is Paramount In This Process

I cannot stress this enough:

QUALITY! 

Like everything else in life – you get what you pay for. So if you are trying to find foods, products, supplements and oils that make a difference – they must be high-quality & pure!

• An actual organic lemon will give you great benefits (vitamin C, cold & flu fighting power, etc). However,”lemon flavored” liquid in a bottle will give you NO benefits and may make you sicker (especially if it contains other chemicals or sugars).
• A whole-food, high-quality supplement will provide vitamins, minerals, probiotics, etc. that your body can absorb and desperately needs to heal. However, your body may not absorb a cheap, untested, wannabe supplement. It may even do more harm than good.
• A pure, therapeutic-grade essential oil will provide incredible support to your immune system, detoxification and healing process. However, a cheap adulterated oil will put germs, heavy metals or adulterants into your body, which can provoke adverse effects.

This is not a new concept – we all know that quality is important. But unlike a cheap shirt that shrinks in the wash the first time you use it, putting something inferior into your body is not just ineffective, it can also be dangerous.  And since you are trying to develop a protocol to help heal your body – not just this time but in the long run – quality is essential.

Leave me a note if you’d like some recommendations.  I’ll be glad to share what I’ve learned so far

The post You Can Be In Control Of Your Health appeared first on Aniela's Place.

(See some of my references at the bottom of this article, but there are many more studies that concur.)

What Makes Us Sick?

I just said “let’s make health simple” and here I am about to sound complicated.  But I promise, it’s really not.

Bear with me for a moment.

I know!  What the heck is biome depletion?  The Biome is comprised of many other organisms that live on/in us. Current medical research agrees that our body is an “ecosystem” hosting many different lifeforms. Sounds scary, I know, but we need all these lifeforms in order for our body to function effectively.  These lifeforms cannot live and thrive on processed foods, antibiotics or medicines. This is why probiotics and prebiotics have become so popular even in conventional medicine. It’s an attempt to add lifeforms to our ecosystem because too many of them have died.

Dr. Parker (Duke University School of Medicine), Dr. Staci Bilbo (Duke Neuroscience, previously Harvard Medical School) among many others in their field have done extensive research and publications about the “biome.”  The human biome is now believed to be a major factor destabilizing our immune systems.

So other than the “biome,” doctors and researchers agree that American “inflammatory diets”, sedentary lifestyle, stress and Vitamin D deficiency are the main other causes of disease and/or a malfunctioning immune system.

Health Simplified

So lets simplify. All that fancy language translate into VERY simple needs:

• Food  – we need REAL food that grows or lives outside. This feeds not only our bodies but also the other organisms that live with us. Processed foods actually promote bad bacteria and kill off beneficial bacteria.
• Movement In The Sun – we need to move, preferably outside in the sun among plants, dirt and animals. Not only is movement necessary but being outside and interacting with sun/nature/animals sustains and adds to our “biome” and gives us Vitamin D.
• Lower Stress – we need to find what gives us hope and stability and eliminate what makes us anxious. All three of these allow us to sleep better, which is also essential.

Not so complicated, is it?  Scientific research is now showing what we’ve known for centuries – we need food, sun, movement and hope. All other supplements, probiotics, medications, exercise options, yoga, meditations, etc are just trying to fulfill these three basic needs so that our bodies can function properly – so we can be healthy.

Eat Real Food

What is real food? The official answer is that real foods are “whole foods (low in processed sugars) and simple carbohydrates. Again sounds fancy, but real food is simply food that grows and lives outside. That’s it! The less humans have “messed with it,” the better. Ask a simple question: can I go somewhere outside and pick or find this food? If the answer is no, it’s probably not real food. Since antibiotics and pesticides kill all organisms, especially the beneficial ones needed in our “ecosystem”, we want to avoid these chemicals as much as possible.

Don’t aim for perfection, it’s never going to happen.  There will always be days when we need that seven layer chocolate cake or those deep fried mozzarella sticks. But since you’re never going to find a breaded and fried cheese stick growing on a tree, it’s not real food. The same goes for our meats. If you eat meat, eat real parts of real animals that grow and live outside. A slice of pastrami from the local grocery store deli, for example, is not a real part of a real animal. It’s been “messed with” so much that most of us could not name the part or the animal it came from.

Is this real food?

So quite simply look at your plate every time you sit down for a meal and ask:

What on my plate is real food?  What has grown or lived outside and has not been “messed with”?

If you have to pick between the pre-made guacamole spread (with stuff you can’t pronounce in it) and a real avocado, pick the avocado.  When given the choice of fries (mostly from frozen bags with many more ingredients than just potatoes) or an actual baked potato, pick the real thing.  Eat a real orange instead of drinking pre-made orange juice.  Get the real piece of chicken, preferably not breaded, fried and covered with ingredients you can’t pronounce.  Bread that consists of 20 unpronounceable ingredients is not real food.  Simple flour, water, salt – those are real. Cut up fruit, nuts, and oats with real milk instead of a bowl of processed cereal.

Next time you go grocery shopping, buy more real food than boxed stuff. Nothing changes perfectly overnight so don’t stress.  Just teach yourself and your family the question:  Is this real food? What stuff in my cart can I replace with something real? Make it a game – you each have to pick one thing in the cart to replace with something real.

Go Outside

Oddly enough, we were not created to live exclusively in doors.  We NEED the outside.  We need the sun and we need to move, run and stretch while breathing fresh air. We actually need nature – plants, dirt, trees, water, animals, bugs, organisms we can’t see. All of this is essential for our “ecosystem” to function properly.  No one is suggesting you start running marathons.  But we can all certainly find something to do outside.

Everyone is always looking for quality family time – do it outside. Go to a nature park and actually play or race each other.  Climb trees or at least try – make it a competition.  Find a local farm and go pick some fruit together – it’s cheaper that going to the movies. Line up your cars and wash them all at once – maybe even barefoot if it’s summer and you’re on grass.  Find something fun outside and make it a habit, a tradition.

Choose To De-stress

Here are some of the known stressors in our current lifestyles.  We can choose to purposely cut some out of our lives.  You actually don’t need to check the news, Facebook, or Twitter every hour. It turns out that our brains were not made to take a never ending barrage of information without stressing out.  So pause the barrage on purpose and do something that relaxes and uplifts you instead.  Read an actual book, pray, take a nap, sit and play a board game – whatever helps you breathe and chill.

As for family and work stressors, those are much harder to control.  I wrote about some of that in my post The More We Have, The More We Can Lose. It’s important to find what sustains you, that which you cannot lose.  Other people cannot be controlled or predicted.  Sometimes they bring us joy and sometimes they cause us sorrow.  We cannot base our peace on them.

Maybe the solutions to de-stressing are not obvious or immediate.  However, knowing that it is such an essential factor in our immune system, it’s certainly a worthy question to ponder:

What helps me be at peace?

Breathe in and let this question just bounce around in your mind for a minute.  Remember the last time when you didn’t feel like the world was pressing down on you. Can you incorporate one thing in your week that helps you feel at peace? For me this is spending time with God. He is what sustains me.  He is where I belong.

I can let go of the wrongs I cannot right in the world, for He will. With Him. I can have hope for my failures and shortcomings to be redeemed and for my character to be constantly changed for the better.  He is my home, my friend, and my hope – He is that which I cannot lose. Where do you feel at home and at peace?

Thriving Instead of Surviving

It really is simple.  Health is allowing our ecosystem to function properly by fulfilling it’s simple needs.  The problem we all face is that there is no magic pill for this. No medicine or supplement can give us the health benefits of real food, sun, nature, movement and hope.

There are supplements & medicines that can help fill in some of the gaps.  Here are a few of my favorite ones because they are WHOLE FOOD based – meaning they are made from real food:

Multi Vitamins: Live Long Vitality Pack   or Vitamin Code Women’s and Vitamin Code Men’s

Vitamin C: Garden of Life Vitamin C Whole Food Supplement

When you’re getting a cold or flu: OnGuard+ Softgels and Gaia Herbs Echinacea Goldenseal

However, no supplement can compare to the real thing. Feeling the sun on your face, tasting some freshly picked grapes, chasing your kids around in the dirt, finding and treasuring a moment of peace – these are not just needed by your immune system, but also by your soul.

So yes, I know that you have a long list of things to do today and many more tomorrow, but think about this  – you are living your life.  You are fortunate enough to get a today, a tomorrow, another chance, a new beginning. Why not thrive instead of surviving?  What if making that one change makes your life easier and better not harder?  Pick one simple thing to do for your health and try it.  The results may pleasantly surprise you.

Here are some of the scientific articles and publications:

The “hygiene hypothesis” for allergic disease is a misnomer

Reconstitution of the human biome as the most reasonable solution for epidemics of allergic and autoimmune diseases

Evolutionary Mismatch and Chronic Psychological Stress

Foods That Fight Inflammation 

Inflammation and Diet

The post Health Made Simple – What Keeps Us Healthy? appeared first on Aniela's Place.

Remember that road trip – the one where you and your friends decided you’re finally going to see and experience the great things you’ve only heard or read about.  I took mine through Europe.  We started in Hungary, passed through Austria, northern Italy, and on to Germany and Paris.  We awed over the Swiss alps and were stunned organized and clean everything in Austria really is.  Italian ice cream really does hold its own above all others, and being able to marvel at structures that predated the term BC left us speechless.  We sped on the Autobahn and tried our best at a pitiful mixture of all the languages we could remember.

Being an avid writer I am always surprised to look back over my journals from that time and find very few entries. As I think back, I immediately remember why.  It was simply too much.  Regardless of how much time I would spend writing, I just couldn’t do justice to all the experiences.  How many words would it take to truly describe the smell of all the pastries, the breathless childlike awe at all the beauty, the unbelievable conversations with strangers in foreign languages, the constant fidgeting in front of the perfect blue-eyed guy who carried my luggage on the train?  Almost every moment was a bittersweet mixture of leaving a now endeared place or person and looking forward to the next unforeseen adventure. Whether at the stunning effect of what had just happened or the anticipation of another incredulous escapade, I vividly remember the constant feeling of excitement and wonder.

Why Would You Want To Stop?

But imagine if I would have gone on this trip grudgingly and scared of each mile marker we passed.  What if I would have been petrified of reaching the next city so I was constantly arguing that we should just stop.  Preposterous you think?  Nonsensical? Self-defeating? I think so too. Yet that is exactly how we treat our lives. Time is our Autobahn, and passing years, much like mile markers, tell us that we are on the right journey, going in the right direction, giving us hope of reaching the next great adventure and eventually getting home.  Yet, somehow, in our society, the word “aging” is banished.  We have anti-aging creams, youth serums, and age-defying make-up.  We glorify youth and equate getting older to physical, professional, and social failures. We have convinced ourselves to fear he next mile-marker, not even whisper the name of the next city we will be visiting, and go through life insisting that we are proud to be stagnant on the side of the road. Preposterous you think?  Nonsensical? Self-defeating? I think so too.

The sense of excitement and wonder that is so prevalent in my memories of my road trip would have never existed if I feared every mile marker, wishing they would slow or stop all together.  We would have not seen anything, not met anyone, not headed toward the next place where we can eat or sleep or learn. We would have just stubbornly stayed on the side of the road wishing for accomplishments and experiences we refuse to reach.  That would not be a trip, nor would it be a life – it would be constant stagnation in fear.  We would have never seen the wonders of Paris if we hadn’t left Austria and kept driving.

Getting Older Has  A Bad Reputation

Many of my friends and I are turning 40 this year and we have grown very tired of reading things like “40 and still fabulous”, as if the simple fact that we finally reached this mile-marker has made us “not fabulous”.  I googled “aging” and pulled up countless articles about the concerns, preventions, and  anti-aging techniques.  REALLY? Just because being a teenager might have been easier than getting my masters degree while caring for my children, there is some inherent greater good in just being a teenager? Just because my grandmother’s hands are significantly more wrinkled than mine, hers are less beautiful? Going back to my road trip, just because walking the sidewalks of Hungary was so much easier that hiking the Swiss Alps, is better to stay on the sidewalks and go no further?

Ok so maybe I cannot stay up two nights in a row and be just fine anymore, but I can write that paper in half the time so I don’t have to stay up both nights.  Perhaps I now have more wrinkles around my eyes, which for some unfounded reason has been deemed to be less beautiful, but I also have more hours of laugher and sun-filled days to remember than the less wrinkled me.  And perhaps climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower isn’t as easy as eating ice cream in Italy, but I got to the top of the Eiffel Tower!

Getting Older Is Wonderful

The self-defeating obsession with youth that has so imbrued our society is not only a well-propagated lie but also a thief of life.  Life is defined by movement, growth, and adaptation to new experiences.  This is what distinguishes living organisms from inanimate objects.  Celebrating another birthday, developing another wrinkle, making a new friend, loosing an old one, finding my first white hair, or being called mom for the first time – these are the infinite wonders of life actively unveiling. Getting older is literally wonderful – it is filled with wonder.  Why would anyone trade that for stagnation?

There is another side to fearing new mile markers: the feeling that you have not accomplished enough between them.  For example, you do not fear midterms because you endlessly wish more time to pass in the same class or in the same chapter.  No, you fear midterms because you have not done all you needed to do until their arrival.  So when mile markers also represent midterms, like turning 40, they are necessary to motivate you to become the person you want to be at graduation.  They are there to push you to accomplish the things you deem important.  These are checkpoints which allow us to evaluate who we are and who we want to be, and to begin again with a renewed purpose and hope.

Aging With Wonder & Excitement

I’m excited to be here today and to turn 40 this year.  I feel a sense of wonder creeping up on me.  The thought that I will get to experience things I’ve never done, go to places I’ve never seen, and uncover parts of me and others I’ve never discovered.

“For age is opportunity no less than youth itself, tho’ in another dress.  And as the evening twilight fades away, the sky is filled with stars…invisible by day.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

So, my dear fellow travelers, do not fear mile markers.  Rejoice that you are not stagnating on the road but purposefully driving to your next amazing adventure.  Be grateful and attentive when faced with the question:

“This is your life, are you who you want to be?”

Allow this question to ensure that you show up at the next city prepared and that you finish the trip proud of whom you’ve become.

There is endless wonder, honor, and power in life that you can only experience by living.  So do not stagnate.  Drive eagerly towards the next city.  Smile at the mile markers with a nod of satisfaction for the sweet memories of the past and the exiting possibilities of the future. It is a life worth living, so do it well!

another post you may like:

That’s Enough for Today

The post Aging Joyfully – Getting Older Is Wonderful appeared first on Aniela's Place.

Most of us struggle with the limited amount of time and energy we have. We try to divide ourselves between work, those we love, and the giant pile of responsibilities that always seems to be growing. So it’s totally understandable when the thought of taking on one more task is exhausting.  My sister and I felt this way about making our own food, bread, drinks etc.  It was one more thing we just could not fit in our lives. But here’s the thing we all forget – the more you do something, the easier it gets.  So here’s a silly example about almond milk just to remind us that what may seem intimidating at first, can become almost effortless.  We can actually learn to rock that next thing we’ve been avoiding, and it may just make our life easier, not harder.

The very first time you make almond milk is going to be annoying. You have to pick a recipe out of the many out there. Then you have to make sure you have all the ingredients, which can translate into going to several stores and/or doing some research online, all of which takes time.  You then have to make sure you have all the items/tools you’ll need, like a powerful blender, a nut bag, a big bowl, etc.  So after all this, you’re bound to stumble over a detail such as “you should soak the almonds overnight” and this is when you give up all together. “I don’t have time for this!” your brain automatically shouts. This is how I felt too.

Making Almond Milk Is Easier Than Making A Smoothie.

It turns out that making almond milk is easier than making a smoothie, but you don’t feel that way at first.

I’ve just weaned my toddler from breastmilk so I had to replace it with another milk. Our whole family doesn’t do very well with dairy. We can drink it but it upsets our sinuses, causes mucus and just plain doesn’t make us feel great. So, I didn’t want to start my little one on dairy, in case his body has some of the same reactions. I scoured the stores for organic nut milk that I felt good about – but unfortunately almost all of them have several ingredients I can’t pronounce. Most of those are stabilizers but I am not thrilled about replacing breastmilk for my baby with chemicals I can’t even say.

So I decided to finally do it, to make my own almond milk. In my head this would be one more annoyingly difficult task to add to my already long list. And it was – the first time. But soon after, it’s become one of the easiest things I do. I timed myself yesterday and it took me exactly 10 minutes from start to finish. And everyone in my house LOVES it so much that I have to hide it from my husband.

The key  to make almond milk easily: quick, efficient straining

Here’s the key to making almond milk quickly and easily: proper straining.  Most people will tell you to use a nut bag.  That’s perfectly fine but for me it took way too long and required too much clean-up.  I don’t have time for that.  So I prefer these Medline Disposable Dry Wipes because I just throw them out after I’m done and I don’t have to wash anything. I actually keep these around the house at all times for soo many different uses but once I started straining my milk with them, I never looked back.

After putting a regular strainer over a large bowl, I place the Medline wipe on top of the strainer.  I only pour a small enough amount of the mixture so that, after it drains for a few seconds, I can bunch up the wipe and still keep everything safely inside, while squeezing out the rest of the milk.  I then throw that wipe away and do it again with another.  It usually takes 2-3 wipes about 6 minutes to drain the whole mixture.

The Simple Almond Milk Recipe

Once you find the best/quickest way to strain the milk – everything else is really easy.

So here it is:

One cup of soaked almonds (I use Wild Soil Almonds)
Three and a half cups of filtered water
A pinch of salt
Put in Vitamix/blender on the highest setting for 2 minutes
Strain

That’s it!

Here are some optional add-ons for sweetness and flavor:

• a dash of cinnamon and three dates (this is my favorite)
• a teaspoon of vanilla extract and 2 figs
• a few cashews or other nuts
• You can even add some coco powder and make it chocolate almond milk

It’s exactly like a smoothie.  Almonds and water make the milk, the rest is just the flavoring you like. You throw everything in the blender for two minutes and then strain.  It’ll last in the fridge for a few days and your family will drink it up before then.  The “pulp” left over when you strain the milk is almond meal and you can make great cookies out of it.  But if you’re in a hurry and you just want to toss it and move on, no judgement here.  Yes, you should soak the almonds overnight if you can.  I put mine in a little container in the fridge with enough water to cover them and I make the milk whenever I can the next day.  But it’s become a habit so I’ll routinely throw some water covered almonds in my fridge whenever I come upon them in my day.  If you don’t have time for that, just pour some boiling water over them and let them sit for about an hour, until you deal with whatever other emergencies are happening.

It’s Easier Than You Think

Maybe almond milk isn’t your thing.  That’s ok.  I just want us to remember this: we CAN do a lot of things that are intimidating at first! Most of them can be learned quickly and can become easy. Looking at these as burdens is a choice and it doesn’t have to be so. I actually enjoy making the almond milk now especially when my whole family is clamoring around trying to steal some. It’s fun, it takes 10 minutes, it can contain whatever we like, and it makes me happy to give it to my kid. The almonds arrive to my door so I never have to go anywhere to get it. This previously deemed “burden” has become a fun activity my whole family enjoys. So perhaps, if we give ourselves a chance, we can become really good at dealing with that next dreaded burden.  Maybe it can even make our life easier not harder.

another post you may like:

That’s Enough for Today

The post How To Make Almond Milk – It’s Easy! appeared first on Aniela's Place.

It’s been creeping up on me, this fear of loss. Not just with this new year but in general – the idea that the more we have, the more vulnerable we are to losing it. Sometimes it’s obvious. If you’re investing money; the more you put in, the more you could potentially lose. With last year’s devastating hurricanes in Houston (where my in-laws live) and also here in Florida, the losses were considerable. Those who had more – bigger houses, more cars, more property – their losses were that much steeper. But what about life “stuff”?. I’m talking about that which cannot be replaced.

When I was single, I often thought about marriage and wondered;

“how can any rational person trust their whole life to another human being, someone who they may or may not know very well, someone who they certainly cannot predict?”

The risk of getting hurt in any number of ways is so high! He could disappoint me or slowly become someone I don’t like. He could deceive me or simply not care enough. He could get hurt or die by no fault of his own. And then what?? Not only would I have to do life on my own again, but I’d also have the immense pain of losing someone and something that’s irreplaceable.

The More We Have, the More We Can Lose

But then I realized this not only applies to marriage, but also to every other joyful and fulfilling thing in life. The more of these joys we have, the more vulnerable we are to losing them. I think about my parents who are now getting older and frailer. One day I won’t have them anymore. I ended up marrying a wonderful guy who adores me. But now I often find myself wondering if he’s ok on a rainy night in bad traffic or during any number of other dangerous possibilities. I have amazing friends who do life with me, but a while ago one of them got cancer and within a couple of months he was gone.  And then, the crown of it all; I got pregnant and had an absolutely beautiful baby boy! He didn’t even exist one year ago, but now my whole life revolves around him.

Friends, parents, sisters, husbands, wives, sons, daughters – they all make life worth living. They fill it with joy and purpose and laughter and truth. But I think we all harbor this sneaking fear of loss – that all can be lost just as suddenly as it was given. So the more your heart expands and loves beyond measure – the more it can lose those loves. So what then?

Most of us develop some defensive mechanisms to protect us from these possible losses – some walls to keep us safer. The trouble with such defenses is that they don’t really keep us safe, but rather, just lonely and afraid.

For there is no safety from loss in this temporary life, on this small little planet.  Loss is unavoidable, if for no other reason than the fact that no one will live forever.

The movie “Autumn in New York” had this awesome. bitter sweet quote:

“There are only two kinds of love stories in this world — boy loses girl, or girl loses boy”

The Temporary and the Eternal

So there must be a difference between rejoicing over and depending on something. The things that bring me joy and fulfillment are not meant to be the same things that sustain me.  What holds me in existence?  What keeps me safe? That would have to be something permanent and eternal – something I cannot lose.  I can’t think of anything like that in this world so it has to be God and His eternity. Those cannot be lost. I cannot lose His love or the home for which I was made – heaven. This is what holds me in existence – what sustains me and gives me my peace and my strength. This is what I depend on.

Everyone and everything else here on earth – they are just pieces of a whole.

Perfect love, perfect relationships, perfect beauty  – these things we long for and wish they had no end – they cannot fit in this little temporary world.

So, they had to be broken down into pieces: my little boy’s smile, raindrops on the window, my sister’s voice, my mother’s face, the way the sun rays streak through the darkest clouds, my husbands embrace, the laughter of a group of friends.  These are all just pieces of a complete and perfect love and beauty.

The Home We Long For

But home – in Heaven – the real thing is waiting. Joys not to ever be interrupted by sorrows, relationships with no bitter disappointments, beauty with no messy mistakes, eternal safety without any “what ifs”. It is the WHOLE and REAL of the pieces we taste and often wish for here. So yes, the more we have here on earth, the more we can lose, it’s true. But it’s also temporary. We can lose the pieces here only to be given the whole of it all in Heaven; only to finally be where nothing can ever be lost again and all stories are complete. So though our joys may be temporary, unpredictable and vulnerable here on earth – they are no less worthy of experiencing – for they are beautiful fragments of what is waiting for us in the eternal.

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Women – we’re multitaskers. We’ve always been multitaskers. Everything is one giant mixture in our heads, all at once, and there’s no turning anything off. We dictate lists while we drive. We do the math for our bills while we clean. We think of all the personal stuff we need to do while we’re at work and we think of all the work stuff we need to do when we’re at home. While on vacation, we think of the endless tasks that need to be done when the vacation is over. As we celebrate an accomplishment that took a lot of time and hard work, we’re simultaneously lamenting the countless other projects which still need to be done.

And we are also usually annoyed at the other people in our lives who don’t see the mountain of tasks that we see. Doing 100 things at once is how we are. This is how we process the world. It’s not a choice. It’s a default. We can’t stop it even if we tried, and we do try – but to no avail.

Learning to Become a Single-Tasker

However, some days require us to give up our multi-tasking genius and just be there. Being with a distraught friend, dealing with a family emergency or just breathing through something hard, just being there is enough for that day. And it is a worthy accomplishment. Today my newborn son had multiple issues that left him in discomfort and pain. Nothing I tried seemed to help. So ALL I could do ALL day is hold him, feed him, change him, help him sleep, sing to him and then start all over. He literally took ALL of me all day.

This is unprecedented! Why? Because like I said…women multitask NO MATTER WHAT! We’re kind of “badass” amazing in that way. There isn’t enough stress or delight in the world to turn off our multitasking default.

But today with my son, I could make no lists in the back of my mind. I couldn’t find any solutions to the many problems facing me right now – not even to the immediate problem at hand. I couldn’t do any research on remedies for newborns, though I certainly wanted to. I couldn’t answer any texts, pay bills, take a shower or even make myself something to eat. I could do NOTHING else but comfort him.

Full Concentration and Both Hands

THIS is what makes moms cry and lose it. It’s not that caring for a child is too hard. It’s that the attention required is constant and unyielding. It takes all of your focus, all of your thoughts, and all of your hands. And at the end of a really hard day, you feel defeated and beaten instead of accomplished and satisfied.

Just last year, while managing a construction project, I also planned a PR event, while I dealt with my nephew who had accidentally cut his hand, and I simultaneously fielded phone calls from my team on a mission trip. That was a hard day, but totally doable. At the end of that day, I felt like Wonder Woman. But today I handled no projects, no events, not even a phone call!

With the VERY few spare minutes I had while my boy was sleeping, I wrote this post so that someone could hypothetically hear me. I mean let’s be serious, what I am I gonna do? Call one of my multitasking friends who really is juggling work and kids and life and complain that I can’t think today, that I can’t breathe?

On one hand, I feel beaten and defeated. But that’s just not true. Nor is it fair. I just to have to realize that holding my son IS my accomplishment for today. I have to remember that there are some days – not just for moms but for all of us – when that one thing is ALL you can do. Crying with your best friend when she’s hurt, holding your sister’s hand while her kid is in the hospital, or just surviving through something hard…that one thing is enough for that day. Is IS our great accomplishment for the day and we could not have done it while doing a million other things.

That’s Enough for Today

So I made myself repeat “it’s enough for today” over and over. It’s enough that I just held my son today. It’s enough that I just comforted him nonstop. It’s enough! I don’t need to figure this or any other problem out today. I don’t need to find solutions. I don’t need to make up for all the things I missed. It’s enough to just be with him today – that’s all – just be with him.

There will be other days…days when I can think, when I can take a break, when he’s feeling good and sleeping well. I will have those days and I will once again multitask with the best of them. I will solve all the things creeping up on me, and God will help. There will be many days when I return to the multitasking “badass” I know myself to be. But as for today, it’s a worthy accomplishment to just hold my son. It is enough.

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My husband, on the other hand, is constantly looking for any chance to get away and write something on his own website. He would write all day long if he could (he can’t). He’s often tried to convince me to do the same but with little success.  The other day, I mentioned to him an interesting concept I was pondering and his reply was,

“That’s really cool, Aniela. It’s too bad you and I are the only ones who are going to hear it. In a day or two, we won’t remember the details of it. And in a week or two, we won’t even remember having the conversation.”

He was, of course, guilting me into finally starting my own website, but I hate to admit it; he has a point. Preserving the thoughts and impressions of our lives is becoming increasingly important to both of us. We forget so much! Especially now as new parents – I swear my attention span and memory parallel those of my baby boy.  The lessons we learn, the discoveries we make, the few moments of clarity and peace, they are all so easily overshadowed by the next emergency.  And then, with time, they are lost.

New Website

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Kardashian. I have no desire to be an open book where every moment of my life is public.  However, leaving behind some of my experiences, thoughts, and lessons definitely has a ethereal charm to it. It is perhaps a small legacy to remind me and maybe others of the things that made this life remarkable.

Please write to me and say hello if you found this post. I’d love to hear from you.

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