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When I am out on the road, people who have not read my book entitled “Better Being”, often ask me: “What exactly is a Better Being?”.  When I embarked upon writing my book, I mainly focused on the process of making better food choices to become nutritionally healthier. I did this consciously as without good health and life itself, the rest is hard to accomplish – so it seemed like an excellent place to start. But Better Being is really much more than that.

For me, it really boils down to acknowledging that we can all improve upon ourselves in all aspects of our life with small but consistent steps.  With such improvement the benefits are numerous: both individually and for those around us. Better being is a conscious state of trying to improve upon your life, health and living environment through personal and factual knowledge. With such knowledge comes understanding and with this understanding you instantly become more empowered.  Knowledgeable power enables true change to take place that is sustainable rather than a quick-fix approach or a state of the-ever-so-comfortable no-action delusion.

As discussed in my book, regarding food choices, if you truly appreciate the amount of work that your body has to do every minute of every day, then you will choose healthier food options to get a little better. This requires you to understand in simple terms how your body works and what it is saying to you – just start to listen! Additionally, choosing health for yourself has a ripple effect, as those around you will opt for healthier choices over time as well. Your choices will help support businesses and farms that are trying to make a difference and provide them with the resources to make an even greater difference. So the benefits are expedential.

One of the core aspects of Better Being is to remain grateful for the knowledge and experiences that you have already learned or had.  Being grateful for all that you have done, allows you to forgive yourself for any self-perceived poor choices and move on. This allows you to start a new-you-path rather than being ‘locked in your life’.  By accepting yourself for all that you are, it will also give you the sense of power to implement changes that you desire and move forward in a positive way.  It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Conscious thinking is a core issue in my book Better Being as it provides us with the ability to change our perception and think differently about a problem or issue as a positive choice. For example, after giving birth to our second child, my husband traveled constantly and I became severely sleep deprived coupled with the stress of trying to cope with a toddler who did not welcome the newbie with open arms. When I heard those tempermental screams of my toddler, or the constant cries of our newborn to be fed, I often felt that I was losing my mind. Feeling hard-done-by, the once horrifying stories of new mother’s hoping in the car and driving away never to return, suddenly seemed like a wonderful fantasy. But realistically, I knew that my current situation was damaging to both my kids and me: I wasn’t happy.

After acknowledging that I was unhappy and that it was affecting my ability to properly parent, I consciously tried to find the benefits in my situation. I changed my perception of the “problem” so I could learn to appreciate what I was experiencing. So, I began to focus on appreciating that I had a healthy child, regardless of behavioral issues. I learned to appreciate that I could HEAR my child screaming and was so lucky as neither I nor they had the challenges of being hearing impaired. I learned to appreciate the fact that my children had the ability to speak, regardless of the volume, and were actively trying to communicate with me. After time and talking to myself constantly, I went from victim to champion. I no longer felt like the screams were nails on a chalkboard but instead could laugh at the size of their exposed tonsils during the wailing.

Gratitude and conscious thinking can initiate positive change that can be applied to any scenario: whether it be food, children, partners, or even greening the environment. For example, if you sit back and stop to appreciate the fact that you are so blessed to be able to drink clean water, breath non-toxic air, and have so many luxuries for daily life (like a washing machine to do the job rather than scrubbing all of your dirty laundry by hand) then you quickly realize that your actions have effects, and choices that others make daily can effect you (like pollution). So, what was once a solitary piece-of-YOU, quickly becomes part of the massive 3-D jigsaw puzzle called our planet. I like the analogy as a jigsaw can never be complete if one piece is missing and entire scenes unfold as the pieces merge. The point is that we are all connected and one person’s positive change,  can have a ripple effect on so many levels.

A friend recently told me of a co-worker who commented that he did not enjoy seeing other people happy. The reason?  He thought that this meant that there was less happiness in the world for him. At first I laughed when I heard this then I realized how unfortunate this perspective is – as if happiness had a ‘cap’ and that all the happiness hogs had emptied the happiness trough! Instead, I believe the opposite to be true as the more that is out there, the more it grows.  Like the child who is treated with love, healthy parameters and respect, they will share your parenting lessons with their childhood friends, and eventually with their own children. By default, this nurtured love is allowed to grow and be passed on.

So be aware of the family and friends around you, be conscious of the choices that you make and grateful for the lessons learned. Plant your Better Being gardens-of-you, keep watering them and watch it grow!!!

I hope that you find my book, blog, site and newsletters healthful and helpful.

All the best,

Ann