Have you ever been called “absent minded”?  Do you lose your keys? Have you ever gotten in the car and started driving and suddenly realized you didn’t know where you were? Have you been so lost in thought that you weren’t conscious of the road, or the time between getting in the car and where you found yourself?

Women, particularly working mothers, pride ourselves on the illusion of being able to “multitask.”  Do you eat on the run? Do you gobble up a meal without really tasting it? Or are you fully present to smell, taste, then thoroughly chew, your meal?

Becoming fully present, conscious of eating slowly, is a way to tell your body it is safe to “rest and digest.” This puts your body in the parasympathetic mode that is required to properly digest your food and allows your body to receive the nutrients necessary to heal and repair itself. Personally, I’ve found this habit the hardest to break. The mantra that has kept my blood pressure so high for years has been, “I don’t have enough time” The reality is the body listens; this is a clear message to a shortened lifespan.

Everything that we’ve labeled as a “disease” is merely a message that our loving body is relaying to us. For me, my dis-ease is a message to slow down, give gratitude for what I have, for who I am, and for daily miracles.

For I am truly one of the fortunate ones. I get to be a witness to this every day. I get to witness beautiful people coming to me with a challenge they thought they could not overcome and witness their transformation. Like “my stomach has hurt all my life” or “I’ve never been able to sleep” or “I’ve been in pain, had migraines, been constipated, had allergies, been depressed….(you fill in the blank), all of my life”  Just because these things are common and persistent does not mean they are normal.

Most of us learn to live with these symptoms. We learn to ignore them. We become less sensitive to pain. Soon we become unconscious to our physical bodies.

I’ve had the honor of witnessing one woman’s tumor shrink through meditation at the Mindfulness Center in Bethesda. I’ve witnessed migraines melt away. I’ve witnessed panic and anxiety attacks, lessen and relax.

I’m not a meditation guru. I really struggled with this as a young working mother. My early experience and reaction was, “Seriously, you’ve got to be kidding, I don’t have time for this.” Patience was NOT my virtue. Peace seemed to elude me.

One of my mentors told me, “Lisa, change takes only as long as you decide.” How profound and how true.  How committed are you towards positive change?

This is why the first of my seven steps is to take an honest personal assessment and then to make a commitment and an investment in yourself.

Here’s an excerpt from my book:

How to become the leader of your life? Take action. To be the most effective leader, you have to have control of your health! Make the same investment in you that you have made in your family, friends, and career. Give yourself the gift of self-care; find new ways to energize and empower yourself.

First, take an honest personal assessment.  Where are you now and where do you want to go? 

I  begin my discovery calls with new clients with the following questions:

1. What would it mean to you to be the best you can be? 
2. What is your biggest obstacle or challenge?
3. What have you tried–what has been successful and what has failed?
4. How do you want to feel and see yourself in 3 months, six months, and one year from now as a result of working together?
5. How committed are you to overcoming this challenge?

We then look at your entire health history, labs and medical records. Many falsely believe that because chronic illness runs in families that it must be genetic; that they are doomed. I used to believe this too. Fortunately, the study of epigenetics, the study of the expression of genes, has proven that genes can be turned on and off through diet and lifestyle changes.  Here’s a picture of identical 60 year old twins:

One looks older and has more chronic disease than the other. This is an example of identical genes yielding different outcomes. Diet and lifestyle change the expression of genes.