Wednesday, March 23, 2011

BRAIN WASHING

Good morning, dear people,

Hope you are all doing well on this dreary grey day.

My feet are cold!

It was warm for a few day on the Eastcoast, but now it seems to be cold again!

The cold is actually nice when I am at work at ARnold's Way Raw Vegetarian Cafe' and Education Center in Lansdale, PA. With the 4 extra large dehydrators running at 105F all day in the kitchen, when it's cool out, we feel toasty and comfortable.

LIFE AT ARNOLD'S WAY FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS
Dorinda and I are running the store almost everyday for the next two weeks, while Arnold is in Costa Rica at a banana mango farm. Since he's away, us girls have to do the manly jobs he usually takes care of. Last night, I spent an hour breaking down emptied produce boxes to fit into the trash dumpster! Yes, bagging, putting produce away, and then what to do with the boxes...? It's a big job.

Ripe bananas are an issue today at the store. We don't have many. And we NEED ripe frozen ones to make cool smoothies and custard-like whips. Dorinda and I will likely be running around shopping for ripe bananas before we open up today.

[At home, it's also an issue. For people who use alot of bananas, keeping ripe ones around takes some coordination. Cliff makes us fruity smoothies with banana every morning. We were well stocked for 2 weeks, and let the ball...oops...let the banana drop, and now we're all out of ripe or ripe frozen ones at the moment, so had to run to the store yesterday seeking out spotty bananas to freeze. No luck, but the ripest were the organic, so at least they'll taste better slightly green than conventional do at that stage of ripeness. Sometimes at the supermarket, I'll find them really spotty and the store will sell them at a discount which is a great find when it happens.

The real best way to solve the problem is to always have a case ripening. When our case was ripening and turning spotty, we should have immediately ran out and bought another case to start ripening, so that case would be ripe for us this week.]

Yesterday at the store I made the most awesome raw Nacho Cheeze Sauce. We'll feature that today drizzled on something. It would be killer drizzed on the Jacked Up Nachos, or kind of different drizzed on some massaged kale or collards. We'll see. Come on in and try it!

I also took dehydrated potatoes, rehydrated them, added a luscious raw cheezey cream sauce and added some fresh chopped dillweed and sliced spring onion. Scalloped Potatoes...oila'! Should be delish today after marinating in the cheeze and herbs and sucking up more of that deliciousness.

I think i'll marinate some mushrooms today, too!

Since Arn's away, we'll be featuring fun specials daily. So come on by if you're local!

_ _ _ _

BRAIN WASHING
Washing my brain clean had been going well with the Course in WeightLoss Meditation CD and book, but I kinda fell off of my routine. I guess it's like anything, you just have to keep it up daily, daily, daily. I really notice the difference when i just let myself be and think normally (normal for me is severely disordered), compared to when i am blessed to be in the zone, working a positive thought life, working in connection with my Higher Power.

A good friend and email buddy, Karen, reminds me often how much work it takes to turn things around in her thought and food life, and consequently in her life in general. She writes,


I still recommend hearing The Power. I also bought and have been using Rhonda Byrne's Gratitude book. I have to CONSTANTLY "feed" myself positive thoughts and thoughts of gratitude, so that's what is running through my head when the old negative thoughts want to take over. Gratitude for what I have now and gratitude for what I want, stated as if I have it already. The old thoughts are such a well worn groove (rut), so automatic, and the new thoughts are slowly replacing them, and I am working at it constantly. It's what gets me through the day and what gets me through eating episodes. Saving my life, really. When progress seems slow or invisible, I have to remind myself that I had been thinking mostly negatively since the age of 9, so it will take some time before the positive thoughts are always dominant. And I remember she says the tipping point is 51% positive/ love/ gratitude thoughts is enough to make a the difference, so it doesn't even have to be all the time.

Something else that has been helping me that Rhonda Byrne impresses upon readers/ listeners to the Power is "I am the master of my thoughts." I write this down at the top of my "windows of peace" log that I keep each day and often say it during the day. That reminds me I don't have to listen to the old thoughts that pop up and I can choose new ones at any time. I used to think I was a puppet on a string being jerked around by what I was thinking and feeling, and now I know I am in control if I choose to be. You have written about choice before, and I know that it is true for me, that I choose how I am experiencing my day.

She also says "gratitude is the great multiplier." Saying thank you a lot helps me too, for specific things, bigger and little, really any little thing, like the zipper on my jacket zipping and unzipping easily. Often I will take a deep breath and say "thank" on the in breath and "you" on the out breath (maybe I told you all this before,
sorry if I am repeating myself). This is usually not for anything specific, and it helps me calm down. Saying to myself "I live and eat in a place of love, gratitude, peace and reverence" helps me too.

Thank you, Karen, for the extraordinary examples of your transformative work. It does take a lot of effort, but as I, too, found, it is worth it!

Look, at the raw retreat, EVERYONE was working on thinking differently and turning their lives over to God, going to classes focusing on that, praying collectively before meals, etc..., so it was all AROUND us.

Out in the real world, we're bombarded by negativity, bombarded by fast food, etc..., all day! We have to work that much harder to manifest positivity in our lives. When we manifest a positive thought and spiritual life, suddenly, our eating comes into line.

Thanks, again, Karen, for your lessons and recommendations.

_ _ _

At Arnold's Way, we have a lovely little happy community there. I felt happy and good at work yesterday.

Consequently, I didn't do too bad with my food yesterday. And as I look back, I realize that i did nurture a positive happy attitude yesterday with lots of gratitude to my coworkers, gratitude for the customers, gratitude for the way we got the store running well. And, the food didn't seem to be an issue yesterday.

That's probably the best focus for me, just to focus on my attitude of gratitude, because i fall so often with the food. If i only feel good about me in connection with how well or how raw I eat, it's a set up for total failure. Today, I feel I need to be more relaxed about food, focus on my attitude, thought life, spiritual life, and just trust that God is holding me in His hands.

I wish you a blessed day. Come on over to Arnold's Way today!

xoxo michelle joy

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