Beautiful Things!

This was such a beautiful video that I just had to share on my blog.  Please watch.  I hope this video blesses you as much at it has blessed me. ♥ ✝

How to make a lamp from a clay pot

I found this beautiful clay pot in the back room on the clearance table.  This sparked an idea for a lamp. We have just purchased a small home near the beach and will be moving in about a month. In the meantime I am trying to get decorating ideas that will carry the beach theme into our little home.  I am looking for unique items that will make our home... 'our home'.  This is the first piece that I have been inspired by.  Hope this inspires you to create something new and unique.
Here are the supplies you will need :
Lamp kit from Lowes or Home Depot - cost - $10.00
Clay pot - I found mine regularly priced at $100 marked down to $25 - you can use any unusual container such as glass bottles etc.
Plug for hole opening.  This was the hardest part to find. I wondered around Hobby Lobby looking forever on what would cover the hole. I chose a 31/2 inch wooden disc for 85 cents that worked perfectly and I painted it a neutral gray to match the pot. You can use cork, sculpy clay in which you mold it to fit and bake it to harden.
Epoxy glue 
Drill and Masonary bit to drill hole in pot and piece you chose for plugging hole.
Masking tape
Lamp shade - I did not get this on sale. I thought it was overly priced at $25 at Lowe's. But I was excited to do my project so I bought it. In the future I plan on making my own lamp shade.
So there is the list of supplies.  Watch the video on how to complete and enjoy!!
Namaste'ૐ

The Blessings in The Hole

This beautiful, foggy Sunday morning I spent, as I often do every week, watching Oprah's Super Soul Sunday. Her guests usually fill me with hope, insight and inspiration. This morning she had Sarah Ban Breathnach as her guest. Sarah wrote the book 'Simple Abundance'.  I have read many inspirational self help books but have to admit that 'Simple Abundance' was not one of them.  'Simple Abundance' is one of the best selling books of all time. 
On the show, Sarah reveals that after her phenomenal success of 'Simple Abundance',  in her belief that the money would never end, chose yet another bad spouse, divorced for the 3rd time, spent her money recklessly and lost her massive fortune and was humbly forced to move in with her sister while she wrote her next book. In a nutshell, Sarah found herself in  what I call 'the hole'.
I am fascinated by the rags to riches to rags stories. Although to a much, much smaller degree, I understand this story for I too have lost everything.  Over ten years ago I found myself with my identity totally wrapped up in materialism and in turn lost who I was supposed to become in striving for financial attainment. I say that I lost who I was supposed to become because I never knew who I was in the first place. Like Sarah, I too lost all material things that I had acquired through the choices I had made (bad financial decisions,  spousal choice and the belief that the money would never end).  It forced me to a place that shook me to my bones.  This place was a horrible, deep dark hole.  This dark hole forced me to take a hard look at myself, my belief system and most importantly at the choices that I had made that so perfectly paved the path for me to arrive smack dab in  the middle of darkness.  It was then that I realized the shallow, materialistic person I had become.  It also forced me to take a look at myself and why I attracted abusive people into my life. For people treat you the way that you allow them to. Unfortunately some of those people were my family (namely my mother and step father) and to this day they will not speak or acknowledge my existence because of the shame and embarrassment that I brought to them in their community (their words).  My youngest son Noah humorously tells me that I got a burn notice from my mom.  He is so funny.  My children will never know this kind of pain. Please note that there is more to this story than I am writing, I just don't have the time or space allowed to bore you with the years of details that led up to my being blacklisted from my family.  They are not fully to blame here. I take total responsibility and own up to the behaviors and choices that I made for my part in this occurrence. 
So back to the Sarah Ban Breathnach interview; I found it interesting that a person who wrote that peace and fulfillment is found in simple abundance could so easily get wrapped up in materialism and finding her self worth in bad relationships.  Yet I found this eerily ringing true.  How many of us seek the truth, know the truth, then allow ourselves to be led astray and before we know it find ourselves back in the dark hole? How many times do we have to end up in the dark hole before we say 'enough is enough'.  For many months, years and sometimes a lifetime, people find themselves in the hole, deflect their bad behaviors and terrible situation onto the blame of others and never take full responsibility for ending up in the hole, or even staying in the hole.  Some people spend their lifetime in the hole and keep themselves there numbed by self medicating, therefore never allowing themselves to acknowledge, recognize or own up to how they truly ended up there in the first place. For others, it is a blessing, an awakening, a call to action. A time for drastic and radical change to get back to authenticity and their true nature. 
Throughout my entire life I have made job decisions based on money.  All the while, I was miserable in my jobs, never feeling authentic and always feeling trapped. I can't tell you how many years I have spent driving to work feeling like just another rat in a wheel. Invisible. Unfulfilled. Guilt for leaving my children when they needed a mommy.  But I did it because I had to support my family. This is what I told myself.  Yet all the while, not saving money and making bad choices and ending right back up in the hole.  I could pull myself out for a while only to end back up in that all too familiar dark place.  There are different degrees in the depth of the hole. The biggest degree is rock bottom, the deepest part of the hole.   Surprisingly rock bottom is the one that can be the biggest blessing if allowed.  The one that awakens you, makes you change everything. It is the constant cycling through the upper layers of the hole that is the most dangerous.  For if you are like me, you can pull yourself up for awhile but before you know it you have made the same familiar choices and find yourself back in the same place and lots of wasted years.  If not recognized it becomes a never ending lifetime cycle.
For several years now I have had a stirring.  Interestingly enough, so has my husband.  I think it is important for one to pay close attention to this stirring, which also feels like a discomfort or edginess.  If you pay close heed to this stirring it can be an anti-hole prevention insurance policy. I believe God placed this feeling of discomfort within us to get us to look inward.  A time for introspection and reflection.  This gives you another chance to move forward, to break old habits, to rise above mundane and a pause for deep search for your true calling. A time to give permission to just be. If recognized, then your hole becomes a gift.  It enables you to ponder on how it is that you truly want to live your life day in and day out.
For years now I have been drawn towards getting back to nature, simplifying, meditating, praying, slowing down, allowing my creativity to flow in whatever form it wants to take,  becoming increasingly self sufficient by living more off the grid and spending more time with family and most importantly with God. I am never more at peace than when I am doing those things. 
Ah....now to just remember this on a daily basis and not to slowly slide back into the all to familiar hole.
My prayer for you, the reader :  When you find yourself in the hole may you fully receive the blessings and gifts that your hole offers you.  After all, one cannot know peace and happiness if one has not experienced its opposite.
Namaste'ૐ

Crazy Good Detox Drink Recipe

Namaste'
This is a vlog I put together to show you how to make a 'crazy good' detox drink.  I have used this drink for several months now and I love it. I drink it every morning and when I do a full juice detox I incorporate this into my detox program three times a day. I can see a vast difference in how I feel when I drink this recipe.
I am in the process of putting up a website for sharing what I believe is the best detox system ever!  Because we are a tripart being (body, mind and Spirit) I believe in addressing our entire being for a total cleansing that will change you into 'crazy good' health! 
I will be sharing recipes for detox using this apple cider vinegar drink as well as incorporating juicing and healthy 'real' food (no crazy fad diets).  I will also be sharing herbal tea remedy's, yoga postures, skin care and meditation for a complete and total detox of mind, body and spirit. 
So stay tuned. I will share my vlog recipes as I complete the total 'Crazy Good Life Now Detox System'. 
Please feel free to visit my website http://www.crazygoodlifenow.com- it is still a work in progress. In the meantime, try my apple cider vinegar detox drink and let me know what you think. 
Do the Crazy Thing!
Namaste'
Annette

DO THE CRAZY THING!

I have a bucket list. A list of what I want to do before I die.  I call it my 'doing the crazy thing' list. It is a list that I keep with me and review frequently.  I get great pleasure when I can mark off one of my to do's on my crazy thing lists.

For the beginning of 2013 I thought it would be great to be able to mark off of my list one of my 'crazy things'.  So my husband and I completed a 70.3 IronMan Triathlon.  That entails a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run all in one race.  We completed it Jan 13, 2013 in Naples Florida. It was AWESOME!  Wohoo! CHECK!

But ever since my 70.3 Ironman Triathlon I just haven't been the same. I have been tired and sluggish and struggled with upper respiratory issues from swimming in the red tide. When you push your body to it's edge, what can you expect? It's all part of doing the crazy thing!  Heck, if we were to sit indoors all day afraid of getting sick then what is the point of living? Besides, sickness is actually good for us. Yes, you read it right. Our bodies were actually designed to get sick.  We have this wonderful little thermostat in our bodies that increases our temperature when it detects foreign intruders. That is why I always recommend to my patients that they do not reach for the tylenol or ibuprophen but simply let your body's natural defense mechanism kick in. That is what it is designed for. Too often when we start to run a fever we automatically try to stop it by taking a Tylenol or ibuprophen. This actually stops our natural immune system and makes us sicker and worse yet, even weaker. If you have a simple cold try letting your body run its course and detox naturally. Your body in turns becomes stronger and this also increases the immune system.

In helping my body kick the funk that I had created by stressing it, I did my simple detox system.  I now feel back to 100% with lots of energy and ready to start doing another crazy thing.  I will share my detox system with you in the coming days.

In the meantime, don't forget to do the crazy thing!

Namaste'ૐ

Annette Broy, RN,CCM,RYT

Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food...Hippocrates.