October 1st
Coming to the airport, I watched the moon in fascination. Full, bright. Full Moon in Aries. Aries symbolizes new beginnings and the innocent impulsiveness of a child. I didn’t choose this day, but it just happened, to go to a new place on Full Moon in Aries.
It’s the second time I’m flying. I didn’t close my eyes at all last night. I’m a little sleepy, but the maze of formalities at the airport woke me up. No device beeped at me, so I fell asleep again, waiting for boarding. Will follow.
October 2nd
Traveling is not useless. In fact, nothing is useless in life. Only the word “useless” is useless😊. A trip means getting out of comfort, and thus you face yourself, your weaknesses and strengths. It means discomfort, and thus you are staring your own demons in the face. You observe yourself, see how adaptable or how rigid you are.
I faced many demons yesterday. In Italy, at first glance, everything means pizza and pasta. So yesterday I ate solo un gelato. In the evening I reorganized myself and secured my gluten-free food for the rest of the stay. I will tell you about it in the coming days.
Until then, read my new article on Monday about the insights I’ve had on my solo travels.
October 3rd
As I said in last week’s article, my purpose in life is my well-being, my happiness. Only after I got closer to happiness was I able to be a blessing in the lives of others. Only in this way, by giving of my happiness, can I make a difference in the world and make my contribution to the good of humanity. I cannot do good from pain and fear, but only from joy.
Why are we afraid? We have no idea, because we don’t know ourselves. The primal fear is the fear of death, but it comes hidden in thousands of layers. It is only when we begin to peel back these layers, one by one, that we reach our true essence. We can reach ourselves. No masks, no illusions, no pain. No fear.
I had thousands of ideas about myself, how I am and what I do. Conflicting ideas, guilt, heartache. And fear. Many fears. I still have. But I am, as one might say, on my way to perfection, to spiritual and physical healing. And I enjoy the road as it is, with its ups and downs. I understand that not everything is rosy. And I accepted.
Read in my new article how I do this, what insights I have on the road to healing.
October 4th
So, you realized that you want more from life. Good for you! Then let life unfold in all its complexity. Don’t run away from the unknown, don’t lock yourself in preconceived ideas. Don’t hide in your shell with fear. Do not demand imperatively, putting conditions. Be open to new experiences and have fun with failures. Relax 😊.
When I purchased the trip in Italy, I did not worry: what will I eat, what will the weather be like, will I withstand the pace set by the organizers? I just said “I want this”. OK.
And the departure approached. You’re not allowed to have food on the plane in your hand luggage, so I took my traveler’s rolls in my checked luggage, worrying that the suitcase will be lost. It happens more and more often that checked luggage is lost, it has become a kind of normality. They was not lost. Good 😊. But on the first day I didn’t have access to the things in the suitcase, and I didn’t have time to look for anything else, so all I ate was an ice cream. I was politely asked to leave the premises as the group ate pizza at a restaurant. I said I want to eat from them, to give me something gluten-free. They did not have. So, I got an ice cream and sat down at the table with the group. Outside food was not allowed. So, I was asked to leave.
I didn’t revolt, what would the point of that have been? While the others ate, I had time to walk through the streets less visited by tourists in Sorrento. Much nicer than the crowded tourist area! I was enjoying the ice cream, I was looking around in amazement, and my mind was still not getting used to the thought: “You are in Italy!”
So, all the bad was for good. I had more time than the rest of the group to breathe the local air.
Later, on the bus, on the way to the hotel, the guide asked if there were people with allergies, so that the hotel would prepare their food according to these allergies. Yes, I know, I should have been interested in this since I purchased the trip, but I am flower power 😊. I always found a solution. With a mind free from fear and worry, there is always a solution.
I was the only one with allergies in the group. From that evening I had a separate menu, carefully prepared by the host, who is the manager and co-owner of the hotel, and who also has fibromyalgia, an autoimmune disease, and eats gluten-free, so she knows exactly what gluten means, there was no need to I’m giving a lecture on gluten. I told you there’s always a solution, right? Will follow.
October 5th
I’ve told you before how much I enjoy writing on this page. This is how I organize my thoughts, express my emotions, and your feedback encourages me to continue. I feel this as a natural flow, a smooth stream, a “this is the way it should be”. Facebook seems to have noticed this too, so I’ve been awarded the rising creator badge several times😊. Thank you for your interest in what I express and share!
Yesterday I had another first: I ate the first ice cream cone after 12 years! I have eaten ice cream before, but only in a glass. There are many places here that have individually wrapped gluten free ice cream cones. What a blast it was!😋
October 6th
When it comes to digestion, we rarely need medication. Most of the time it is about changing the lifestyle. Not only the way of eating, but also the rest of the habits: movement, sleep, fatigue. Many look at me in disbelief when I tell them that if they want to stop being constipated, they should take the stairs when they get home and skip the elevator. If you don’t have time and mood to do other exercise, climbing the stairs to the 3rd floor is also good😊. But do it daily. Movement helps sluggish bowels to perk up and do their job. Not drugs, not fiber supplements or miracle powders. The movement.
When I purchased my trip to Italy, I knew I had breakfast and dinner included. I accepted it. I do not eat in the evening. There are many reasons why I do this, I won’t detail them here. Last night we came tired and broken after visiting Capri, we ate and went to bed immediately. We usually took a little walk after dinner, but like I said, last night we were too tired. And for the first time in my life, I experienced esophageal reflux. It’s bad. That burning throat wakes you up at night, then mucus forms. The body tries to defend itself from aggression through mucus. Like I said, damn bad. If the esophagus is continuously attacked in this way, you can even end up with esophageal cancer. And the lack of quality sleep affects the whole body. Here, too, there is no need for drugs to “cure” esophageal reflux. But to eat at least 3-4 hours before going to bed, to don’t eat too much at one meal, to don’t nibble all day like a glutton, to get rid of your belly and to don’t lie down immediately after a meal. Lifestyle. No medicine.
I leave you in the picture the only thing that impressed me in Capri, this statue, entitled “Walking in beauty”. I circled around her for a long time, like a fly around a candy.
October 7th
I’m sitting in the airport, having completed all the boarding formalities. I ate the package prepared by the hosts, a large gluten-free bun with ham and a mini tart, also gluten-free. It’s very early in the morning and I’m already bloated. Too much bread, pasta, rice these days. Italy😁. I can’t wait to get home and go on a carb detox. AIP. My brain is foggy, my mouth bitter, I’ve slept poorly and I’m sluggish. Yep… too many carbs. I’m going back to my meat and salads😊.
I leave you a picture of some of what I ate here.
October 8th
It’s good and comfortable to stay in your house, warm or cool, safe, with the food you like and it’s good for you. But you don’t learn much. Life is about learning, and real learning comes from your own experience, not from books. Books only pave your way, but they don’t take you to your destination.
Learning comes when you get out of the house and look around without prejudice. When you leave your soft blankie and your fears at home and face life.
Let me explain a little what the picture below means. On the right is me, photogenic, groomed, fed and rested, in the morning when we boarded the boat that toured the Amalfi Coast. On the left, it was the evening of the same day, I was tired after a day’s running, hungry, wrapped in towels, with my elegant scarf wrapped around my head, like a granny (it was cold and draughty in the evening on the ship), but I had just seen the most beautiful sunset and I was in seventh heaven! That discomfort gave birth to an intense emotion of joy. If I had sat there grumbling and moaning about the cold, hunger and fatigue I would have missed that joy. Joy, learning and wisdom come from being open to life and what it has to offer. Because life gives us what we need, not what we ask for.
October 9th
I am wrapped in my thick robe, sipping my morning coffee and thinking nostalgically that 3 days ago I was on the beach and swimming in the Mediterranean. I smile. Life is beautiful, don’t listen to those who say otherwise! It is not beautiful because I bathed in the Mediterranean, but because I learned to enjoy the present moment. Time passes, everything passes, the good and the bad, all we have is the present moment. If NOW I can breathe, have a thick robe to protect me from the cold and a warm coffee in my hand, I’m happy. You can learn a lot from the state of presence and joy.
In today’s article I tell you what I learned from my trip to Italy, why Italians don’t get fat and how I had the best cappuccino in the world😊.
October 10th
Why do I put myself first in my life?
Because I have entered the last third of my life, and at this stage the body’s decline is major.
Why don’t I want to have a belly?
Because I want to enjoy a piece of fruit cake for dessert without my blood sugar skyrocketing and my abdominal organs to function properly.
Why do I want to have strong muscles?
So that I can carry my groceries from the market by myself and open a jar of pickles.
Why do I want to have proper posture without a hump?
So that my organs in the chest cavity are not cramped, my lungs have room to expand when I breathe, and my heart has room to beat.
Why do I do stretching exercises?
So that my joints are mobile, my muscles supple, not tense, so that I can bend over to tie my shoes and wipe my own bottom.
Why do I want to have a normal weight?
So that I don’t put pressure on my joints (knees, ankles, hips), I can climb on a stool to get the bowl from the top shelf in the pantry and I can move without tiring too quickly.
Why am I reading instead of watching variety, news or nonsense shows on TV?
Because I want to keep my cognitive abilities, have no memory loss and be able to organize my life on my own.
Why do I take walks every evening, eat good food, rest?
Because I love myself, I take care of myself, and in old age (which is rapidly approaching) I want to be a joy in the lives of others, not a burden.
Everything I wrote above does not come by itself, it must be cultivated, practiced. It does not require an effort for this, but a reorganization of life, a prioritization of these activities. Let’s put television, gossip, pride and other useless and time-consuming things as far down on our to-do list as possible, and in time they will disappear altogether.
Let’s “make our bed” for a beautiful old age, which we can spend with our loved ones, without being a burden to them. Let’s take care of ourselves!
October 11th
One of the secrets of longevity is to cook your meals with your own hands. Food is information. You “inform” your body not only with its nutrients, but also with its energy. It matters what mood the person who cooked your food was in, if he was sad, if he was overwhelmed by all that daily work of cooking, if he was angry… The food will be “informed” of all those low moods.
That’s why it’s good to enter the kitchen like in a temple. To handle the ingredients like icons, with joy and gratitude that they feed us. Let’s prepare with love the food for ourselves and our family. There is no need to make who knows what elaborate dishes that take us hours, but something simple, like for example this drum-stick with cauliflower puree and raw beet salad. Have you ever eaten raw beets? It’s a goodie!
October 12th
When we think of an addiction, we have an unpleasant sensation: addiction to alcohol, drugs, nicotine… Addiction is defined, in short, by “increases of dopamine in the reward circuit that cause the reinforcement of pleasant but unhealthy behaviors, causing people to repeat the behavior over and over again”.
But what if we make an addiction out of something healthy and useful? Sure, it’s harder to become addicted to daily walking than to alcohol, but it’s not impossible. You need to stimulate other areas of the brain for that. But if you repeat the action enough times, you become addicted. This is currently called “habit”.
I became addicted to the evening walk 😊. Regardless of how tired I am, the weather outside, the chores, just before sunset I put on my sneakers and headphones and go out for a walk. Sometimes I walk more slowly, if I don’t feel too well, sometimes at a brisk pace. Sometimes I feel tired and sit on a bench in the park, other times I walk for an hour and a half without stopping. But I go out and walk. My mind can no longer conceive of a day without at least 8000 steps in outdoor walking.
Do you think you could not implement such a “addiction”? Before replying “Me!? Nooooo!” think about brushing your teeth and showering daily. They are examples of useful addictions.
I leave the article about the usefulness of “addiction” to exercise.
October 13th
No matter how left-handed you are and no matter how “unhealthy” the food you eat is, food cooked at home from natural, whole ingredients will be infinitely better than what you buy at the supermarket. A home-made salad of greens from the market, sprinkled with a drop of olive oil, some apple cider vinegar and a few grains of sea salt will be much healthier than one bought “ready-made” and seasoned with the cheapest sunflower oil, ordinary or balsamic vinegar and iodized salt. Or sauces with sugar and I don’t know what chemicals. A home-made soup, no matter how bad you are at cooking, is still better than a bought one, “dressed” with delikat, starch and other things. Even the mundane fried potatoes, if you’re craving it, make them at home, that way you know what oil you cooked them in, you know you cleaned the potatoes with your own hands, they weren’t frozen in the last decade, and you put honest salt on them, not who knows what chemicals.
If you are convinced that you do not eat much sugar, think that all canned products, sauces, sausages… all ultra-processed products contain sugar. If you cook at home, a teaspoon of sugar in your coffee and a piece of homemade cake for dessert won’t hurt you, but if most of your food consists of ultra-processed products, you are eating too much sugar and salt, too little fiber and too many simple carbohydrates.
In the picture is my yesterday lunch: 4 chicken wings seasoned with salt, pepper and turmeric, a shy sausage, a bowl of red cabbage sauerkraut and a bowl of sorrel, spinach and dill dressing, a sort of liquid salad (because my husband to stop grumbling: again you give me greens!? I “hid” the greens 😊). And the indulgence with chocolate coffee, in which I put half a teaspoon of raw sugar.
October 14th
Thousands of thoughts slide through our minds every day. They appear, intermingle with other thoughts, mix, dilute and then disappear. Thousands of thoughts. It is scientifically proven 😊. Few of them remain. Most are lost, disappearing into the nothingness from which they emerged. That’s why we make shopping lists and to do lists, because sometimes the thought that says to buy toothpaste disappears.
For me, writing in the morning on this page is like a to do list. To not forget to live authentically, according to the thoughts that haunt my mind, thoughts that come from deep within me, from what I read and impressed me, from what I learned and found useful, from joy or from sadness, thoughts to put in practice or to consider for later.
And so that these thoughts to not be lost, I created the “Good morning!” column on the blog, as a kind of diary of Facebook posts. So, if you want to re-read these posts, if you think the vibe of my writing helps, I leave the September journal link.
October 16th
I am 52 years old and have an autoimmune disease. I feel that I am approaching old age, so this topic has begun to interest me more and more. Since the onset of menopause, a kind of female bogeyman, I began to notice changes in this direction.
There are thousands of advices on menopause and old age online. Sometimes it amuses me when I see young women talking about menopause and giving advice. The truth is that for every woman entering menopause is different, so no matter how many “technical” tips you read, you are still taken by surprise. It would help most to get more women to talk about their experience with menopause. But this is considered taboo, shameful, something to be hidden.
News alert! All women enter menopause. This does not mean that their life is over, but that it is just beginning. We care too much for the mouth of the world, so we are ashamed of the naturalness of life. We consider taboo a normal fact of life, and thus increase the torment of that period.
We glorify the woman at the birth of a child, but sweep under the rug the same woman’s menopause a few years later. Both are equally natural. Both mean life.
Read my experience with menopause in the context of approaching old age in the article in the link. Because old age is also a natural fact. It happens to everyone.
October 17th
Yesterday’s post containing the article about menopause and approaching old age went viral on Facebook. Women are interested in the life experience of other women.
As I say in the article, we have a sixth sense, which is called intuition, and which is not lost with menopause, but is doubled by life experience. And we have another quality: it’s called “empathy”. We don’t rush with smart advice to those who have had a less pleasant passage through menopause, but contain their pain, take them in our arms virtually, give them our good energy. Thank you for that! I feel like I’ve attracted beautiful people to my page and I’m happy and grateful for that!
To continue yesterday’s topic, I leave in the comments the article in which I tell how I maintain my optimal weight after losing weight. If in our youth we allow ourselves the luxury of a few, or more, extra pounds, after menopause, and especially if we have autoimmune diseases, these kilos become a burden.
I’ve met many women who tell me that it’s not hard to lose weight, it’s hard to keep it off. They are right, because losing weight is associated with “to be on a diet”. But to achieve lasting results, we should associate it with a new lifestyle, which involves less food restrictions, but more self-knowledge and interventions in all aspects of life: nutrition, work, rest, sleep, exercise, relationships, free time… That’s why simple weight loss is temporary, because we go back to the lifestyle that made us fat. In the article I also talk about little tricks that help, such as keeping a food diary and determining the correct portion.
Once again, thank you!
October 18th
“At her first bleed, a woman meets her power.
In her bleeding years, she practices her power.
At menopause, she becomes the power herself” – Native American proverb.
October 18 is International Menopause Day.
Menopause is a threshold in a woman’s life, just like menarche (first bleed). It’s a threshold, not the end. How we cross that threshold… I’d like to say it’s entirely up to us, but it’s not. Unsuspected are the ways… of hormones 😊.
Every woman has her own personal way of transitioning, that’s why “technical” advice is of little help. Technically, menopause means the 12 months since your last period. You may or may not have all those manifestations from the “technical sheet”, or you may have them only partially, or you may have them with a lower or higher intensity. I’m still waiting for the average of 5 years of hot flashes to end 😉.
I admit that when I wrote the article that went viral “Are you afraid of old age? Me too” (I put it in the comments if you missed it) my intention was to share my view of old age, seen from my perspective now, of the middle-aged woman, just gone through menopause. I didn’t expect the wave of interest in my experience with menopause and how I got through it.
Women want to know what other women feel. They want to know that they are not the only ones crossing this threshold. They want to be contained in this experience, they want to be with other women. I got a lot of comments on that post, every woman has a personal menopause story. Everyone crosses this threshold differently. But from the comments I understood that after passing it, women became the power🤗
Ladies, Happy Menopause Day! May we all become the Power!
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