Summer is a season that naturally draws people out-of-doors, and often into a much more active lifestyle. It is also the season when people are most likely to feel some dismay about their body, if they feel the slightest bit overweight or out of shape. Being fit gives one enormous advantages, that far surpass the value of "looking good." Your very health depends on it!

Recommendations for Sound Diet and Fitness

• Include flexibility, aerobic (cardiovascular) and strength training exercise in your regime

• Increase your intake of monounsaturated fatty acids (olive, canola and peanut oils)

• Increase your fiber intake by eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and dried beans to lower LDL cholesterol and for sustained energy and vitamins

• Keep your fat intake to 15-30% of daily calories

• Decrease your intake of high sugar foods

• Increase your intake of Omega-3 fatty acids
  (but do not supplement - eat fish instead)

• Decrease your sodium intake (<2400 mg/day)

• Balance exercise with a moderate food intake to maintain or reduce your body weight. (BMI 19-25)

• Don't go ultra low-fat. Less than 15% fat may decrease HDL cholesterol and increase triglycerides.

• Be flexible. Consider the balance of foods you consume over a week instead of single meals or single days - consistency is what is important.

- Source: American Heart Association

In the summer, when weather and activities warrant lighter clothes, one's image of their body may cause concern or feelings of low self-esteem. This discomfort could stem from a "buying into" common stereotypes of beauty, body size and attractiveness, but it can also signal an inner message from one's own being that it is time to take steps towards health and physical fitness.

There is a growing awareness that within our being is an electro-magnetic template of our bodies that surrounds our actual physical selves. This template is the "perfect" matrix of your body, when your conscious mind and physical self are fully aligned with your Higher Self. This perfect matrix is always with us, but is seldom accessed by most people, as they go about their daily lives.

A simple way to access this matrix is guided visualization. Settle yourself comfortably, breathe deeply and slowly, and allow yourself to sink into a dreamy alpha state. Now feel yourself travel inward, and get in touch with the essence of your Being. See in your mind's eye, your body as perfectly balanced, perfectly healthy, and perfect in function. See your weight perfect for your body frame, all your senses functioning at optimal level, all your organs and systems running smoothly and effortlessly. This image is REAL on the etheric level.

Now, "see" yourself participating in physical activities using this perfect rendition of your body. You could be running through a flower filled meadow, your hair blowing in the breeze, your body moving like a powerful creature, strong yet light and almost flying. You could be playing the perfect game of tennis, or roller blading like a pro. Stretch your imagination, and see yourself doing all the activities you've always wanted to try. Dance like a prima donna; jump like a gazelle; move like a cat; kick that ball like a champion. Or, simply glide across the room, walking like an elegant queen.

By tuning into this image on a regular basis, you begin to align your body, mind and heart with your etheric template. When you do engage in physical activity, try to regain this image, and feel the template manifesting within your body, as you move it. Try to always approach your body with love and tenderness, and the template will, in time, materialize in your physical form.

All of us are emotional creatures. Some are very in tune with their emotions, and allow them to be fully expressed in an open and cathartic way. But most of us have been conditioned to control our emotions, to keep them to ourselves, where they may, for a time remain hidden and tamed. Unfortunately, when this occurs over years, they incubate and cause us to develop emotional "armor" and blocks that can inhibit our ability to feel and to respond in the present.

Emotional clearing and healing is a worthwhile activity that is best used on a regular basis. To do this, take time to mull over your life. Retrace the years, and examine the relationships you have developed. Begin with your parents and immediate family, and move on to your school chums, your lovers, your children, and so on.

It may take you a few sessions to cover all the key personalities in your life, and to fully "feel" the bonds, the blocks, the unexpressed emotions between you and each significant player in your life. If you feel moved to, write the whole process down in a private journal - recording the experiences, the emotions, the things you would like to say to each person - both good and bad. This remembering is the first step in the clearing.

Once you have the experiences and key players identified, once again mull over each relationship,..particularly the ones that seem to still create unresolved issues in your life and heart. As you focus on each bond, try to identify any sensations that arise within your body,..what memories surface, what feelings you notice well up within you once more. These sensations reveal the areas of your body and your makeup that still carry repressed emotions within them, and could be affecting your level of health and well-being.

Now, see yourself in your mind, expressing all those choked-back emotions. Touch the person, bare your soul in your mind, and fully express what you feel. Again, write it all out if you choose. Now, see yourself standing beside each of these people, feeling totally whole and separate as a unique individual. At the same time, see yourself in all your grace and wisdom, able to view this other person as a dignified partner on the road of Life, with their own mission and their own light. See the two of you as separate and yet united. This frees the two of you to interact without emotional debris and patterns. Each is allowed to function as a fully conscious and powerful Being, with no lasting harm or further blocks possible between you.

This year, 1999 is one that is rich in creative energy. It has long been known that creative endeavors often provide the added bonus of spiritual revelation, especially when done as a regular part of daily life. Simply put, creative pasttimes can help you to get more in tune with your Spirit and Soul.

There are several areas of the arts where people have tapped the "Muse" and felt that they were channeling a piece of the Divine into their creative work. Music has been a well-known one for this, going back through the annuals of time.

The ancients used music to tap the Spirit, to worship, to influence their world around them, and to express their uniqueness and selfhood. Famous musicians like Mozart, Handel, Bach, and Beethoven all freely expressed their own awe of how their music was formed. They all recounted how it just seemed to "come" from nowhere,..exquisite pieces that continue to be celebrated even to this day.

Writers too, have felt the Muse as they engaged in all sorts of writing. Some have "channeled" fiction; others have been inspired to write new scientific theories, still others have penned amazing prose and poetry. Both Shelley and Lord Byron both mused on the way their writing came to them, almost effortlessly, at times.

Artists too, have infused their creations and masterpieces with the power of Spirit and otherworldly inspiration. Da Vinci, Waterhouse, Dali and other great Masters, all allowed themselves to channel and tap into the Divine source to create time-honored and moving pieces.

Dance as well, whispers the secrets of the Soul when done from the Heart and Higher Self. Famous danseurs like Baryshnikov and Nijinsky were supreme examples of Muse inspired dance. This inspiration is available to all humans, not only to select artists whose names have gone down in the history books.

Now is the perfect time for you too to engage with the Muse, to create with abandon and channeled inspiration. Choose your favorite mode of creation, enter a relaxed reverie state and create to your heart's content. If it helps, "see" yourself take on the energy of your favorite Master artist, or invent your own in your mind, and infuse yourself with the essence. Suspend judgement or even standards, and allow the Muse to alight,..and enjoy!

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