Interest in a totally animal-free diet is at an all-time high, with celebrities like Bill Clinton, Alicia Silverstone, Jay-Z, and Beyoncé leading the charge. There are so many amazing ways that veganism can improve our lives – fantastic health benefits, less stress on our environment, more efficient ways to use our resources, and many more! Vegan diets tend to be higher in vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fibre. Healthy vegan diets are abundant in vitamins B1, C, and E; folic acid; magnesium; and iron, while also being low in cholesterol and saturated fats. And saving animals is an added bonus!
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Eating for the Season
According to traditional Chinese medicine, all living beings are viewed in relation to the surrounding environment. The Chinese widely believe that we are what we eat, and most dietary guidelines follow nature. According to traditional Chinese medicine philosophies, if we eat seasonal foods that are similar in nature to the external environment, we remain in harmony with the environment, adapt better to changes in the season, and stay healthy. In autumn, the dry, colder weather usually causes an itchy throat, and dry skin, so we need to eat to promote the production of body fluids, such as pumpkin, honey, and soups.
Should We Get a Second Dog?
Adding a second dog to your home could be a wonderful thing! But there are also some reasons to reconsider: more vet bills, food to buy, and poop to scoop, and less individual attention for your current pup. Before you jump into multiple dog ownership, you need to be aware of what is best for your current dog. Be honest about your energy levels, your budget, and your existing dog’s temperament. If all is good, a second dog will double the love and devotion that you presently have with your first dog! Happy Paws Pet Food, HappyPaws.ca
Trust your Gut
Your immune system works hard to protect you from injury, illness, and disease. This process usually involves inflammation, a natural response to stress, tissue damage, and harmful stimuli like viruses, bacteria, and toxins. Inflammation functions similarly to an engine warning light, alerting you to the presence of a problem through symptoms such as heat, pain, redness, swelling, and/or loss of function. 85% of the immune system is located in our gut. An anti-inflammatory diet rich in vitamins A, C, and E and the mineral selenium provides your gut with the ingredients it needs to bolster immunity and achieve optimal mental and physical health. Canadian Mental Health Association British Columbia, cmha.bc.ca
Thai Curry Carrot and Pumpkin Soup
• 2 cups carrots, peeled and diced • 1-1/2 cups cubed pumpkin • 1 can coconut milk • 4 cups chicken stock • 1 Tbsp. green Thai curry paste • 2 cloves garlic • 1 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger • 1/2 tsp. each, salt and pepper • 1/4 tsp. cumin • 1/4 cup shredded coconut • madras curry powder. 1. Cook carrots and pumpkin without browning over medium heat for 10 mins. 2. Add spices, curry, and ginger. Stir and cook for 2 minutes. Add chicken stock, coconut milk, and coconut. 3. Cook on medium heat for 35 minutes. Blend with blender. Enjoy!
Why Implant Supported Dentures?
With tissue-only supported dentures, the roots of teeth are removed. And over time, the bone heals and starts to shrink. This process is called resorption and is primarily why dentures get loose and why they periodically require rebasing or refitting.
Reasons to consider implant-retained dentures:
• Quality of life improves because the extra support from the implants stabilize movement on the gum tissue
• Loss of jaw bone close to the implants is greatly reduced
• Your appearance or integrity of facial bones is supported, thereby preserving your full facial features
• Choice of more food groups and the ability to chew and digest is enhanced
• Renewed confidence in your smile is empowering and contagious! J. Lane Janke DD, FCAD James Bay Denturists, JBSdenturists.com
Set The Stage For Your Children’s Future
Struggling with a child who is acting out? Frustrated with school? Overly anxious? Or even completely shut down? Begin to bring some ease into your life together by finding a safe outlet for your child’s inner world through creative play and the arts. Acquire practical, hands-on parenting tools that will make a difference and strengthen your relationship with your child. Replace old patterns of interaction with healthier ones that will lovingly support and strengthen your child developmentally and create a sense of peace and centeredness in your world at home. Rearranging your child’s stage will deeply impact their coming years. Sophie von Herrmann, B.Ed. M.A. BCATA ExpressiveTherapiesVictoria.ca
Stop Tearing Yourself Down!
Many of us have a negative inner critic that can be deeply upsetting and discouraging. Compassion-focused therapy can help people find kindness and compassion toward themselves and others. It is possible to work through feelings of shame and self-criticism, tolerate distress better, balance difficult emotions – and handle the inner critic. Counselling is a great place to start finding ways to support yourself, to forgive yourself and others, and to find a path forward. MaryMunro.ca
Dysregulation, Disorders, and Music Therapy
Music has nonverbal, creative, structural, and emotional qualities. These are used in the therapeutic relationship between client and music therapist to facilitate contact, self-expression, communication, and other clinical goals. Our bodies pulsing with internal rhythms of the heart, the digestive system, and the lungs synchronize to music with its intrinsically rhythmical structure. For people living with autism, ADHD, mood disorders, effects of TBI, stroke, or trauma, the skillful use of music and its elements such as melody, rhythm, and dynamics promotes positive change. Most significantly, it influences the important and necessary shift in physiological and emotional responses away from dysregulation towards regulation and balance.
Serrapeptase, the Little Miracle Enzyme!
Serrapeptase is a proteolytic enzyme, which means it breaks down long protein chains into amino acids that the body needs. These enzymes bind to the alpha 2 macroglobulin in our plasma, where they are shielded from the immune system while retaining their enzymatic activity. They are then free to roam through the bloodstream, seeking to break down hard protein (non-living tissue), fibrin surfaces, scar tissue, and granuloma, and even thin out mucous to ease conditions such as chronic sinusitis. It’s been proven to be a safe and effective alternative to NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen), and should be taken on an empty stomach. The capsule must be a special DRcap (delayed release capsule) or enteric-coated capsule that allows the serrapeptase to pass through the stomach to the small intestine, where the enzyme is then released. Enerex Botanicals Ltd., Enerex.ca
Live a Clutter-Free Life!
What is clutter? The accumulation of things you bought at some point which no longer serve their original purpose and have now become a burden that fills up space in your home that you could find a better use for.
Clutter is the superfluous, the surplus, the non useful. At best it can turn into the disposable, the garbage, at worst it can turn into a nightmare you cannot sort out.
How does that translate into more general terms in your reality? What could you define as ‘clutter’ in your emotional, social, personal or work life? What burdens you that you could do without? What weighs you down? What keeps you from moving forward? What gets in your way? What causes you confusion?
How could you simplify your life at every level? From wardrobe, to home items, to belongings, to relationships, way of thinking and philosophy of life?
How could you reach the very core of what is meaningful for you to be happy and content?
One strategy I find useful is to strip down things to their basic core, by asking ‘why’ for everything you think you need in your life. Be that a pair of shoes, or a relationship, the main concept is the same: to dig down deep enough until you are left with the very essence. Quite often we may discover that the reason for which we thought we wanted or needed something is quite different or even irrelevant to the actual thing. Usually it is related to deeper needs of feeling happy, connected, feeling loved, secure, content, at peace.
Another strategy is to ask yourself: ‘Can I do without this?’ Whatever that ‘this’ may be and see what you are left with. An exercise in minimalism if you like or simply seeing how much you can ‘lighten’ your space and/or life.
It is amazing how delightful of a feeling of freedom one may experience after ‘decluttering’ one’s life and space. Realizing how little we really need to feel content and how connecting to our deeper and more essential needs may render all the ‘clutter’ superfluous.
It is mind blowing how much ‘clutter’ we carry with us in the form of negative emotions, our past experiences, unresolved inner conflicts, lack of self-esteem and self-acceptance. How many of our beliefs and values may be actually obsolete or outdated and no longer serve us.
Yet we carry all that weight all that ‘clutter’ with us into our present, every day, without realizing how it is weighing us down, making us feel exhausted, tired, fed up. How this ‘clutter’ keeps us from having access to the energy of the present moment, from moving forward, feeling inspired and being creative.
Clutter of any form keeps us stuck. Stuck in our space, stuck in our lives. Burdened by superfluous, unnecessary weight, unnecessary struggle. Yet for some strange reason we get attached to it. Attached to our ‘stuff’, attached to our pain or anger, attached to our fears. We are basically attached to the security of the ‘known’ of our comfort zone and have difficulty moving past it into the uncertainty and discomfort of the unknown and its possible risks or gifts.
So why do you need what you think you need? What can you do without? What is it your soul really needs to be happy and content?
Narrowing it down to the basic core needs and wants, will set you free to enjoy the present moment lighter than ever, more present than you ever thought possible and full of energy to embrace the new.
