Everyday Bliss

BadEconomy > fix > gosub=WordOfMouth.  (geeks in the audience can laugh at will) There’s nothing like a personal recommendation. After all, you’d take your BFF’s recommendation over an impersonal ad, wouldn’t you?

If your business is running a tight marketing ship this year and your team is scrambling for marketshare, you’ll want to pay attention to “The Buzz Canuck” – a canny word of mouth supporter, I met on SWOM – Society for Word Of Mouth. Especially if you, like many of my clients, are a solo entrepreneur, or your larger company is downsizing its marketing budget (as many are) – you can still leverage the Law of Attraction by Word Of Mouth to build your outreach, visibility an market share. What do you want others to be saying about you? As Buzz explains below, know WHY moreover, WOM is important as a marketing, relationship and just plain good business strategy:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt seen at right and commonly referred to as FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States. That’s for the folks who seem to have missed being taught about New Deals I and II, and the Great Depression. I’m finding suprisingly  many who seemed to have skipped this bit of history in school. And while I was not personally alive during the Depression, my parents were. Their generation’s experience formed how I viewed money for most of my life, as it did for many who are alive right now.

And now the same thing is happening again. Many people are finding themselves tweaked by moments of sheer panic, ongoing worry and sudden terror at what’s happening.

FDR’s inauguration on March 4, 1933 occurred in the middle of a bank panic, such as we are experiencing today. Banks closing right and left and no idea if or when they’d be opening again. Folks losing their houses, mass weirdness ensuing.

Upon this backdrop, FDR uttered these ten famous words:

"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself".

The full quote, from the first paragraph of his inaugural address is this:

"..This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance…"

Unjustified terror. Unjustified.

Do you hear that part of the speech? Roosevelt is absolutely right. Fear never grew a crop or fattened a wallet. Fear on this level just consumes your available energy and ties up the rest in paralysis.

I’ve heard this clip played countless times and prefer to believe that FDR believed what he was saying, and spoke from his deep knowing that the world always turns around again and new opportunities present themselves. FDF had a distinctive voice, and it roused rich and poor to rally ’round their communities, and make the present better than all perceived it was.

We are not in a Depression, though many have labelled it that. In the 1920’s, there was a real economic downturn, marked by its term "The Great Depression". Great sections of the prairieland midwest turned into dusty deserts as agricultural conditions too deteriorated, and crops could not be grown – the economic vying with the geological and climatic to provide an experience of total disaster. People starved to death. Entire families in this society perished, or were forced to debase themselves for food at any price.

Read Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men for a candy-coated version. "Candy-coated" was what my mother said (snorted) when I brought the book home from high school English to find Mom making Snickerdoodles. "Steinbeck my foot!" Mom fumed "That wasn’t the half of it honey, not the half of it. That’s the candy-coated version." She continued to pat cookies into measured rounds, but this time with a vengeance that flatted them to cinnamon-sugar shingles. And refused to say more of what she had witnessed.

We are at most in 2008, in a "mini-Depression". People are making some difficult choices, but the average family is not on the brink of imminent starvation, though many have lost their homes.

And many of us are succumbing to fear about it. But fear never helped grow a tomato, furnish a house, baked a cookie or put money in the bank.

How long do you want to hold onto your fears? How is holding on to that energy working for you?

Are you willing to let go of fear – now?

If so, I’ve created a technique to help you do that: The ETHOS Method. Click this link to go there, pick up your copy of the entire method – free. And if you already know and practice ETHOS, bring up that fear that current events bring up in you, and pulse your triple cue.

Uncreate, dissolve and release.

When you download the pdf and hang out in our community and listen to the free audios (and soon videos!) we have, you’ll get all the updates automatically, by mail.

One of the things coming up is a teleclass to get past your fear of financial weirdness, or anything else. I’ll be posting more about that soon. Until then, enjoy the deep peace that ETHOS brings.

And take a cookie. Wholewheat or gluten-free.

By the time you’ve finished eating it, you’ll remember that being afraid of things that haven’t even happened yet is kind of silly.

And you’ll remember that you feel pretty good, after all.

…were scattered all over the place until just today. Still a cadre of boxes awaits in the garage. Wowser, has the unpacking ever been intense! Getting back to blog soon but the cool things where we are right now:

• a massive and research-friendly library nearby that doesn’t mind you setting up a laptop and staying awhile…
• a WholeFoods Market & Trader Joe’s just down the street – no hiking far afield for organics…
• Huddart County Park (acres of REDWOODS – woo!), up high in the hills near where we live…
• the joy of seeing tall ships (for which read "clipper" – yes, real ones!) sailing by the hubby’s office window…
• air that is much, MUCH cleaner than in the valley (San Jose, Silicon Valley) and much cooler…
• the pool Kraken. The hubby, a mythology buff, has dubbed the little robot that floats around the pool on a tether and vacuums up fallen leaves and other tree debris, "the Kraken". Presumptuous thing – it snuck up and suckered my leg once, nearly scaring me out of a few year’s growth.

Blissful Moments: In the San Francisco peninsula piedmont , it is far too cold to actually use the pool until late May. (oddly enough said pool is shaped like a gigantic piece of candy corn…) But the sun shines bright, the winds blow cool and pleasant and herbs are beginning to poke up tiny shoots in the kitchen window greenhouse – parsley, miniature basil, lemon basil, chervil, chives, cilantro, tarragon, savory, variegated sage, oregano and lavender. The summer will be rife with tasty morsels and fragrant moments….  

This just in from one of my readers: "How do we get to the tipping point where we live our new perspective without regressing to our old  viewpoints and strategies?" – Peter H.

It’s a great question Peter, thanks for asking. And I don’t think there has been a one of us who have not at some point in our path (or many points) wondered "when the heck is all this work I’ve been doing on myself gonna kick in without a whole lot of work to keep it from backsliding?"

The quick answer is: by having a daily practice and sticking to it even when we don’t stick to it. Fall off the Path and climb back on again as soon as we remember the Path is there. Don’t beat ourselves up for falling off, just take that as a golden opportunity to become even more Conscious and Aware.

We all need to get that there is no one-shot magic pill that you take once and BOOM! New life assured for all time. Nope, doesn’t work that way. According to standard psychological measures, anything we wish to make a habit takes a minimum of thirty days continuous practice to put into longterm memory. And as far as I’ve found, that’s just the beginning – what you have to do to get it into your consciousness again and again on a daily basis. Doesn’t mean you’re "home free" by a long shot though.

If you really want to make a new change hold every day, then DO IT every day. If that means having a new viewpoint, then use your favorite energy therapy method to install that viewpoint, again and again, every day. Meditate on what you want as a sacred practice.

Ghandi said: "Be the change you wish to see in the world". And as you live that change, keep checking to see what the strength of the new viewpoint is (or whatever your new perspective might have you do, be or have) before you practice. If not 100% – even 110%, then you still need to practice. If you find yourself slipping, you still need to practice.

Will the need to practice ever stop? Probably. In time you’ll find these things you want are engrained, like creases in old leather into the fabric of your life. Remember when you first learned a skill like driving a car? In the beginning, for the first year or so, it was a tricky operation coordinating many parts at once. You may have broken a sweat just thinking about all there was to coordinate. A few years later, you’re an old pro, with no need to run through that mental checklist you probably had when you first started out.

When you can smile about the thing you practiced over and it is no longer a stressor but a part of you, then it is time to let that thing go and replace it with another….or not, as you choose. 

But do get used to the idea that practice is a daily thing. Just like brushing your teeth. In fact, that’s a great time to do this kind of practice. When you get up in the morning and head into the bathroom – rejoice! You’ve got five or ten minutes, brushing, shaving and so on, that you can also engage in practice and meditation on the kind of person you want to be this day.

Even the Dalai Lama, experienced monk and meditator that he is, says that he deeply values his daily practice. Not because he fears backsliding, but because it reminds him of who he wants to be and indeed…who he *is*.  Over and over, daily practice. His state of being as ours, is reinforced by daily practice.

And when I speak of practice, this is not a religious thing, but the act of recreating anew each day the world you want to live in, beginning with the only thing in it that you can change: yourself.

We all want the magic pill, the "one shining moment that changes everything forever". And we do have those moments, but to use the zen saying, "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightement, chop wood, carry water." It’s the same with installing, living and being from a new perspective.

Have a stellar day Peter, thanks for this question!

I was on penicillin for this whole week after my gum surgery, and could feel the toxins from that and the drugs they gave me during surgery building into yuck, so I decided to take a bath. I mostly shower, but when I take a bath I often indulge in my own patented process "Auntie M’s Daily Detox" bath. Gentle enough you can do it every day if you like, and helps rid the body of the toxins that can build up in even a clean-living body, just from the stress of modern living. Here’s how:

Pre-Preparation: First, use a vegetable fiber brush (nylon is too abrasive to the skin) to vigorously dry brush your entire body inwards toward your heart – up from the feet and down from the neck (leave the face for a rough washcloth in the bath). This will exfoliate the top layer of skin that often clogs our pores and prevents us from detoxing effectively. This will get your heart going, so wait until you’ve calmed down and cooled off a little before you hop in the bath.

The Bath Itself: Into a very warm (not boiling but as hot as you can take) bath put a pound of sea salt, a pound of epsom salts and a pound of baking soda in the bath, and swirl to mix. I add a few drops lavender oil for its harmonizing and generically curative effects. You might see the water turn a funny shade as the toxins are pulled out of your pores. If it looks muddy , gray or even pink, that’s fine, that just tells you the salts and soda are doing their work.

Soak as long as you can, rubbing your skin at least once all over with a rough washcloth (don’t use a nylon glove or cloth as this is too rough – stick to natural fabrics) to get even more dead skin and toxins off. This is a salt-rich bath and you don’t want to end up with a fine coating of salt crystals on your skin after you dry off, so drain your bath, then stand and rinse off thoroughly under a slightly cool shower. This will also wash off any remaining toxins and seal your pores. You should feel smooth as a newborn baby and feel wonderfully warm and glowing with health.

Afterglow: If you use any moisturisers after your bath, PLEASE make sure they don’t contain propyl glycol (antifreeze), anything ending in -paraben (methyl paraben, ethyl paraben), lauryl or laureth sulfate or any other toxic and carcinogenic cosmetic additives. Even some healthfood products can contain these. Don’t put back in what you’ve just taken out! Check labels for healthiest outcomes.

A great way to safely moisturize yourself is while still wet from your bath: take a spoonful of sesame oil (very light), grapeseed oil or coconut oil and rub it between both palms, smoothing over your entire body. This doesn’t feel greasy and if you like a bit of scent, you can add a scant drop of lavender, ylang-ylang or sandalwood, all of which are warming and harmonizing.

Keep yourself warm after such a bath – it’s good to take such a bath close to bedtime and to bundle up and go to bed right after. Your sleep will be deep and sweet when you do this.

For more info on non-toxic cosmetic substitutions for the health of your body, see AvianWeb’s Non-Toxic Personal Care page

GOT DENTAL OR OTHER MINOR SURGERY COMING UP?   If you are interested in reducing or eliminating PRE-OP MINOR SURGERY ANXIETY and POST-OP DENTAL OR OTHER MINOR SURGERY PAIN,
do consider enrolling in my private Pain Relief study. We’ll be using my patented Energy
Coaching Pain Relief Process to experience NO pre-surgery anxiety and
elimination or great reduction of post-operative pain. These techniques work, that’s all I can say.
I’m proof positive. Won’t you join me in being pain-free?

Interested? Call the Minor Surgery Pain Relief Study line at: 641-985-5700  x 467157, then press Extension 7

Maryam’s Fantastic DENTAL ADVENTURE PART III:

Continuing the saga of my gingival graft, I’ve gotten dozens of emails from people asking how I survived and even thrived through such an allegedly painful procedure, PAIN FREE. There’s a clue in the word "allegedly", meaning, what people tell you.

Ever hear of a thought virus? A thought virus is a negative or positive thought (though most identified as viruses are usually negative) that a person believes so strongly that they try to inject this thought into someone else by telling them in a highly emotional manner, "for their own good". Everyone knows someone who had something similar and boy, did it hurt! (it took forever to heal, something went wrong during surgery, etc.)

People were telling me the surgical procedure would be terribly painful "for your own good, to prepare you". What they were preparing me for, is to catch the virus that they have – the belief that a situation HAS TO BE a specific way, the way they may once have experienced it, or had a friend or relative who experienced it, and injected the person with THEIR thought virus.

A great way to innoculate yourself against thought viruses is to say, at the very point you realize you’re being "infected" with a negative thought: "Cancel that! Cancel, Cancel, Cancel!". Say it loudly and forcefully.  Stop the other person from speaking if necessary, then kindly tell them why you just said what you did. After all, they were only trying to do you a favor and don’t have any idea they’re actually harming you. Then tell yourself the belief you would RATHER have, and feel free to share that with your friend.

Here’s an extra tip about sharing positive beliefs: When correcting a friend who has just tried to give you a thought virus, ask them if they wouldn’t join you in repeating your positive belief with you. If they don’t want to, that’s fine. But the fact that you asked will begin creating a rising new consciousness of what can be within them.

Be nice about it. But do ask them to stop speaking negatively about or in speculating on YOUR (upcoming) EXPERIENCE in your presence. This is akin to telling someone you will not tolerate their racial slurs on yourself or your friends. They may be ignorant to the fact that a certain name is inherently offensive and simply need education. Just so, the Thought Virus Injector feels he or she is being a pal to warn you. But these are other people’s experiences – not the way yours can or will be. Y

You have choices in the matter, and the first choice you need to make is that you do not have to repeat the history of others, even of a thousand others who had a particular kind of experience.

So step one in the process to Blissful Thriving after a Medical Procedure is to look for the thought viruses that you might already have been injected with and note them down, while actively telling people – even medical personnel – that they don’t have your permission to give you further information along the line. A thorough briefing including "there might be some pain" is great, but going over it again and again is not useful to the doctor or helpful for you.

Step two would be to deal with the thought viruses and the limiting beliefs they form as they come up for you, but that is the subject of another post….

Now for fans of my Darling Kitty Anoushka, a wee story.

Earlier this week, the day after my surgery, I was trying to eat a jar of Gerber’s 3rd Stage
Turkey and Vegetables baby food. Let me tell you, there’s nothing quite so horrid as cold, gelatinously smooth baby food, though I can now
vouch that the Green Beans and Rice was quite possibly the worst of
all. It had to be cold because I was icing my mouth – no heated foods.
Also as far as Gerber was concerned, no salt, no spices, no seasonings
of any kind for baby’s wee tum. It’s great food to eat when you’ve
stitches in the roof of your mouth and even soft rice or bread would
scratch, but interesting and fulfilling for the gourmand, it was not.

Crappy as it was, Anoushka wanted it for her very own. She sniffed
and pawed at the jar while I was taking a break from the vast blandness
of it, her eyes went all wide and she knocked the partially eaten jar
off of the table. The kitchen door into the garage had been left open
so kitties could play and before I knew it, she had rolled my turkey
dinner all the way to the opposite side of the garage.

When found, she was busy trying to stuff an errant beetle into the
jar. (extra protein and flavor, I’m sure) The beetle, just as
industriously, attempted to flee every time the furry paw was
extracted. Anoushka was using the beetle as a spoon. The beetle ran out
covered with turkey and veg, which kitty licked off before stuffing the
poor beetle back into the jar. I watched incredulously as this
procedure was repeated several times.

In my drooling and not terribly coherent state I yelled “Anoofka!
Annnooffffka! Get you fuwwy buh’ in hya NOW, yun wady!”. They were the
first words I’d uttered since the operation. I’d been a bit reticent to
open my mouth and speak but found that it didn’t hurt, and felt
actually somewhat pleasant after a day of not opening my mouth but to
rinse. Cat dropped jar and beetle escaped utterly under the garage
door, bedraggled, and smelling of dinner. Anoushka looked at me
reproachfully, turned her back and washed a forepaw defiantly.

Had she not made off with what passed for dinner, I might not have
spoken for another few days, by which time it would have been more
difficult. It was a small favor, but one I appreciated. Small blessings are sometimes the best. Anoushka is the kind of kitty who will take up a social cause at the drop of a kibble, and excels at making people and animals believe in themselves again. Bless her…

Moral of the story: Help will come from friends in out of the way places. Be grateful for ALL blessings, however small!

GOT DENTAL OR OTHER MINOR SURGERY COMING UP?  

I am running a PRIVATE STUDY on the methods I use to consistently eliminate pain, described below. If you are interested in reducing or eliminating PRE-OP MINOR SURGERY ANXIETY and POST-OP DENTAL OR OTHER MINOR SURGERY PAIN, do consider enrolling in the study. We’ll be using my patented Energy Coaching Pain Relief Process to experience NO pre-surgery anxiety and elimination or great reduction of post-operative pain.

You’ll get three sessions of energy coaching, customized energy exercises, follow up and a healing audio made just for you, for the price of a single session with me. These techniques work, that’s all I can say. I’m proof positive. Won’t you join me in being pain-free?

Interested? Call the Minor Surgery Pain Relief Study line at: 641-985-5700  x 467157, then press Extension 7

Ahem. Hem. Yes. Hear Ye, Hear Ye, this: "HEALTH ALERT & BRIEF COMMERCIAL FOR DENTAL HEALTH"

So if you’re reading this and have a potential interest in your own gum health, you might be wondering what causes gumline or gingival recession. Though my dentist said it was genetically caused, I know drinking acidic substances are bad (goodbye coffee, my occasional diet soda and the heavier teas…) and vigorous tooth brushing is directly detrimental. (thanks Dad, for insisting I "attack" teeth with brush as a kid!) Gum-line defects occur when erosion of the gums exposes the sensitive upper root portion of a tooth, below the enamel line.

Gumline erosion is common, especially as people age. If you’re over forty, you might want to have an intimately close peek at your gums on both sides of the tooth. Gingivitis, inflammation of the gums and gumline recession has been implicated in heart disease, so it’s best to get it fixed ASAP. Brush gently, in tiny circles. Floss. Every. Single. Day. I hear you saying "but my gums bleed when I floss!" Of course they do. You have gingivitis! Flossing actually toughens the gum up and they stop bleeding within a week of flossing AND become more impervious to bacterial damage.  And if you want to know how to NOT HAVE PAIN DURING DENTAL PROCEDURES….keep reading.

<END BRIEF COMMERCIAL FOR DENTAL HEALTH>

And back to my story, for those who are still reading…

All the "thought viruses" I was given by all those who said it would be "worse pain than childbirth" went into the void. I used a mixture of NLP and hypnotic processes, Tapas Acupressure Technique and kinesiology exercises and had NO pre-op anxiety, NO pain whatsoever during or after the operation almost 48 hours later and no loss of function in my daily life.

Last time, with the emdogain, I had significant discomfort with the same anaesthesia used. I took one pain pill then and still have the rest of that bottle three years later. This time, I haven’t had any discomfort, and don’t intend or anticipate any. I programmed myself for swift healing and that’s happening too. How cool is that?

I told the doc’s secretary I was in no pain when she called today to inquire about how many painkillers I’d downed. Full bottle of oxycodone just sitting there. Haven’t touched it and won’t. When I have stitches out, will tell doc the same thing. I’ll offer him slots for referrals to other patients who would like to have the same intra and post-surgical benefits. Such an opportunity!

Many have asked "what DOES it feel like then"?  It’s akin to when you burn your mouth on a hot drink and the roof of the mouth sloughs off. The burning sensation I never had, but the feeling of sloughing is there. It’s not pain by any dimension, just a slightly odd or interesting feeling. I programmed myself for "slightly interesting feelings" so that’s no suprise.

The roof is where the graft skin was taken, and I was suprised to find it such a delicately thin slice of skin – I’d expected it to be far thicker. There is a line of blue nylon sutures along either side of the roof of my mouth, just above the upper molar gumline. The part where the roof skin was grafted onto the six lower molars has no feeling whatsoever, unless I touch or pull my chin or lower lip. And then it’s only what might be called a "tentative" or "slightly fragile" feeling. Much like the new skin grown under a peeling sunburn. And I’m too smart to touch it much!

I hope this has been informational and fun…or at least interesting for you to read, and if you do have receding gumlines, that you’re prompted to start taking care of them and yourself!

And again, if you’re interested in joining the MINOR SURGERY PAIN RELIEF STUDY, just call the hotline here:  641-985-5700  Input Access Code: 467157 then press extension 7.

Looking forward to speaking with you and getting you going on PAIN FREE minor surgical interventions. And I promise you, I WILL NOT dwell too long on the 3rd Stage Turkey and Vegetables baby food. Not tooooo much at least, though it was quite important in the overall scheme of things.

Want to know what I’m talking about and how the cat saved the day?  ("Anoofka! Annnooffffka! Get you fuwwy bo’ in hya no yun wady!")

Stay tuned for Part III: "How To Survive A Gingival Graft So Successfully You could just Scream For Joy".

Warm Holiday Wishes, Maryam Webster, M.Ed. M.NLP Wellness and Pain Relief Coaching

Here’s something my buddy Andy would describe as "toad-ally FOOOO-GLY" …..but ver-r-r-r-y interesting. Ladies and gentlemen, the horrifying pre-gumline graft recession:  Bleah!! Blouwoeooeoeoeoeoeoh! Geeyakkata-ick!

It’s a terrible thing, truly awful to have happen. The phrase "becoming long in the tooth" suddenly takes on a new and awful meaning. A meaning to the tune of nearly $4,000 that insurance pays only a quarter of. Yeee-ikes!

How do I know so much about this subject?  Yesterday I had a gumline restoration to six lower molar teeth. After several years of watching my lower gumline go south, I bit the bullet, sucked it up and scheduled myself for a gumline graft with the best periodontal surgeon in Silicon Valley. 

Dr. R. tried Emdogain on the upper molars a few years ago and it was only partially effective. Emdogain causes tissue to grow, but unfortunately it didn’t grow enough and has partially recessed again. Now you may think I might look like a snaggled toothed country cousin, but these defects largely didn’t show when I smiled. Yep, my smile pretty much looks like the picture over on the left of my blog here.

GOT DENTAL OR OTHER MINOR SURGERY COMING UP?   

I am running a PRIVATE STUDY on the methods I use to consistently eliminate pain and anxiety. If you are interested in reducing or eliminating PRE-OP MINOR SURGERY ANXIETY and POST-OP DENTAL OR OTHER MINOR SURGERY PAIN, do consider enrolling in the study. We’ll be using my patented Energy Coaching Pain Relief Process to experience NO pre-surgery anxiety and elimination or great reduction of post-operative pain.

You’ll get: Three sessions of energy coaching, customized energy exercises, a healing audio made just for you, and followup, for the price of a single session with me.

These techniques work, that’s all I can say. I’m proof positive! Won’t you join me in being pain-free?

Interested? Call the Minor Surgery Pain Relief Study line at:  641-985-5700  x 467157, then press Extension 7

Here’s the glam shot, of the after-work. No, these pics aren’t mine, I borrowed them from the good doctor at the website here. But do you see how nicely the fooo-gly exposed root got covered up? Mind you, this must be six months to a year after surgery, it takes awhile for the graft and the surrounding area to match up color wise. But all in all, not bad, eh?

Now, let’s talk about how I remained cool, calm and had no pain during or after the procedure…

STAY TUNED FOR PART II In The "Dental Adventures" Saga…