A BIT OF GRACE

What’s your level of commitment in life? Do you jump in when you commit to something and are ready to go, ready to see it through? No doubts, no resistance, just let’s get it done or let’s meet, let’s do this. Or are you a reluctant one? Are you more on the side of caution and you hold back and you say “I’ll try and be there. I’ll try and get this project done. I’ll see if I can find the time for it” by putting off the commitment. When we say the word try, it just takes the power out because it’s really setting us up for failure. When we can just stand up and say “Yes, I will get this done. Yes, I’m committed, I’m going to see this through” you feel better and so do the people you’re dealing with, because it’s an honest answer. It’s not an in-between default position, trying to keep yourself safe by not committing. So then if you fail, you never said you were going to be there. Doesn’t that feel like a merry go round just going around and around in your head about things like that? Wouldn’t it be easier to just push yourself forward and make that commitment? When you follow something through or you’re there for your friends or your family, the events that you need to be there for, you feel good. It feels good inside because you committed and you followed it through and you were there! You got to enjoy that event or the satisfaction of completing a project. You took action. Maybe that’s what we’re getting at here. That commitment is connected with taking action and saying you’ll try to do something isn’t committing to anything. It’s not taking an action. It’s a sort of, maybe, push it aside, push it down the road, deal with it later, kind of an action. Which one feels healthier for you? Which one feels lighter and more satisfactory. Is it saying you’re going to try? Or is it saying you’re going to commit? Is it just being committed to something. Really, you don’t have to say it. Most people can just commit. You don’t have to say “I’m committed”. You can just say “Yes, I will be there. Yes, I will get this project done. Yes, I’m here for you. You can count on me”. Which feels better to you and which behaviors are yours? I know in the past I’ve pulled that lame excuse of “I’ll try and be there, I’ll check and maybe I can make it” instead of fully coming out and saying, you know what “I’d really rather not attend this or I don’t think I can do this”. Hear me? There’s one “I don’t think”. Why don’t we just say “I can’t commit to this. Sorry, I won’t be able to make it”. Maybe not a sorry, there’s another one. “I can’t make it to this event, maybe something in the future”. If you want to meet with them. Don’t say it if you don’t want to. There’s all sorts of choices, right? We have choices in how we deal with people. When you look back at your own history, that’s where it can get really interesting of what you experienced. Were you let down a lot? Did people not commit to, whether it’s coming to your events or showing up for you or being reliable in any way in your life? It shouldn’t be a matter of measuring and equal and all of that. It really should be what feels right for you. If someone has taken from you again and again and again, again and again and always wants more, and there’s no sort of reciprocal relationship, that’s not fair. That’s not good. That’s not healthy. That can build frustration, anger and resentment in people. No one wants to be taken advantage of, but we can improve. We can choose to change. We can choose to commit.  We can choose to step up and follow through and be there for our friends, for our co-workers, for our family. In getting to certain events, there’s just so many ways that commitment to yourself as well as those you are working with, playing with, being with. It can feel so much smoother for you. That lack of commitment and trying attitude leaves you frustrated because then you’re in between. It’s not a settled feeling. You’re always on the edge of oh, the guilt and all that nonsense because you didn’t answer honestly. Your own true spirit knows the truth inside of what you desire. Be honest with yourself and be honest with your friends, your family, your co-workers. Commit or don’t commit. The choice is yours, but be truthful about it, for yourself and for others and you’ll feel better.  For more updates – Join my list!  Shop Services  The information provided on A BIT OF GRACE podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Always consult with a professional for medical advice. Subscribe to A BIT OF GRACE on Soundwise

Over the years I have had the pain and pleasure of working with all sorts of teachers. In my area, there are two universities, one college and plenty of elementary to high schools. Some of my aunts were teachers, plus my husband and son are teachers. So, all varieties of teachers have crossed my path, needing to improve their situations and symptoms. Most teachers’ response to anything new is to grade it. It’s happened in hundreds of sessions with university and college professors, high school teachers and elementary school teachers. Let’s face it, they are trained for judging in their jobs. Rating and grading the performance of their students makes for a strong habit to rate everything. We All Rate Our ExperiencesProblems are created by a lack of intuitive connection in a world full of information and statistics. When a person’s first response is to be critical and negative, there’s no chance for change or growth in their life. It is entirely possible to shut down any chance for improvement when all judgment sees is what’s not good enough. How can we know and trust what “feels” right when our analytical mind is in control?Control Issues Block People’s ProgressAnother level of resistance many teachers present, is wanting control of every step along the way. After all, they’re trained to keep control of students in their class. Teachers aren’t the only ones struggling with this problem. Giving up control can be scary, for some, it’s all they have left. When illness has taken control, it can be brutal for individuals who are used to orchestrating every detail in life. Letting go, allowing another to guide and assist may not be an easy choice.Fear and Doubt Hide Behind ControlThe ocean of doubt produces question after question. Sometimes questioning is competitive, trying to show they know more. Why would anyone want fear and doubt to control them? Fear and doubt can keep us frozen and stuck with nowhere to go. Change can be uncomfortable as we rise and transform. Some people prefer staying stuck, living with depression and pain. It’s a comfortable misery, a familiar story they are used to.Eventually, most people let the reins go, and we make real progress together! We all benefit when we allow wiggle room for new and different experiences.Shop Services For more updates - Join my list! The information provided on A BIT OF GRACE podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Always consult with a professional for medical advice. Subscribe to A BIT OF GRACE on Soundwise

In recent years, I’ve been exploring the world of fermentation to improve my gut health, digestion, and lower inflammation. I’ve tried lots of different recipes with various foods to help heal my gut. Fermented drinks and fermented foods have definitely improved my digestion and overall tummy comfort. I’m going to share a favourite fermented soda recipe I’ve had fun creating. It’s such a lively summer flavour, I thought you might enjoy it.Website post - Fizzy & Fresh – Fermented Strawberry Rhubarb SodaIt’s a Strawberry Rhubarb fermented soda that’s lacto-fermented. For my lacto-fermentation soda recipes, you will need to start with a ginger bug. You’ll find lots of recipes for a ginger bug on YouTube and in other places. It’s a combination of sugar, ginger, and water that you add at various times to build up and get it fermenting. It becomes the activator for all of your fermented soda drinks.Today’s flavour is Strawberry Rhubarb. The colour is just beautiful and the flavour is really refreshing! Let’s get into the ingredients. I figured the ratio that’s best for me is double the amount of strawberries to rhubarb. What I’ve used lately has been 2 1/2 cups of cut up fresh strawberries and 1 1/4 cups of sliced rhubarb from my garden.Then I add 1 cup of organic sugar and put all of that in a pot with about 4 or 5 cups of filtered water. You do not want any chlorine in any of this. Always remember to use filtered water. I let that simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes to keep all the flavour in. Then I take the whole pot and put it in an ice bath in my kitchen sink to cool down to about room temperature. You need to get it cooler because you don’t want to kill off your ginger bug when you add it later.Next, you strain off the juice into a larger, pourable container and pour that juice into a 2 quart glass Mason jar. To that, you will add 1/2 cup of the strained ginger bug and then top it up to the top of the bottle with more filtered water. Give it a stir with a non metal utensil, then we put on a lid. I use the silicone fermentation lids that go on the top and you can put a metal ring or plastic ring on top of that. Once you have it all together, it’s time to allow this colourful mix to become a lacto-fermented soda.You’re going to let it sit out of the sunlight for about 3 to 5 days, as it gets going with lots of bubbles and activation. Place it in another room away from other fermentation projects like bread, so it doesn’t get cross contaminated. Every day, I shake it once or twice to keep it moving and prevent mould. After a few days, you will find it starts to get nice and bubbly. If you use regular canning lids, watch out for pressure building in the jar and burp as needed. As it gets more bubbly and very active, it’ll be time to give it a taste.Just lift off the lid and stir it up. Don’t use metal utensils. If tasting too early, it may taste too sweet. If you let it go too long, it’s going to get boozy. Somewhere in between, give it a little taste and see if it suits you. If you like it, it’s and it’s at the right point, it’s time to bottle it. I use swing top glass beer bottles. For this amount, you can fill four of them. I actually use only 3 at a time, along with 1 plastic bottle. I reuse a plastic drink bottle about the same size as my tester. It’s handy for testing when the strawberry rhubarb soda is ready.After bottling and putting all the caps on, you leave it on the counter somewhere out of sunlight. The plastic bottle is handy because you can squeeze it to feel how much pressure is building. At first, it will give a lot, and then as time goes on, it will become firmer over about 12 to 18, 24 hours. I don’t have an exact time. I check it every few hours. It depends on your environment and temperature. You’ll feel the difference as it gets firm. Once that tester bottle is hard to squeeze, your fruity fermented soda is ready for tasting.I pour a little into a small glass over a couple of ice Cubes to see if it’s fizzy enough and tastes delicious. When you are happy with this fermented soda flavour, it’s time to put all your bottles in the fridge. This slows fermentation and prevents too much pressure. You don’t want blow ups. Keep them in the fridge and enjoy drinking within about 2-3 weeks. This is about the longest I’ve had them last because I really like the flavour. For longer storage, be sure to occasionally burp them.Keep your hand on top of the bottle when burping. Lift the cap a little to let some pressure off. That’s why I put a hand over the top. One time, my son quickly opened a bottle, and it sprayed a ton of fizzy goodness all over the place. That’s your warning about the bubbliness. This lacto-fermented strawberry rhubarb soda is a lively, refreshing probiotic drink that’s good for gut health. Using the ginger bug is my favourite way to make these fermented sodas. They have a really nice flavour and a little zip. I’m sharing it to help and encourage those who suffer with indigestion. Plus, it’s fun to try new things, and I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen. I hope you like it. If you want to know more, I’ll share more recipes along the way. For more updates - Join my list! The information provided on A BIT OF GRACE podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Always consult with a professional for medical advice. Subscribe to A BIT OF GRACE on Soundwise

Have you ever had the opportunity to go berry picking?I’m not talking about the little packages of berries you’d pick up at the store.I used to do a lot of berry picking when I was young, and it was a favourite activity. It usually also involved a chance to go out for a picnic with my mom and grandfather, Cappy Guy. My mom would prepare the meal and pack it up for the three of us. We would take off in Cappy’s little car, which he never did seem to get, to handle and how to shift it properly! So I remember bouncing around while riding in the back seat, but I loved every second of the trip.After dinner, they would sit and have coffee together and Cappy would light up his pipe. I still like the smell of pipe tobacco when I get a whiff. It always reminds me of Cappy Guy and picnics. Then we would start berry picking. Mom taught me to dress in clothing that would keep me covered up to prevent vicious scratches from the berry bushes. I did get a few scratches each time. It was unavoidable, I was young and those prickly Blackberry bushes were nasty to reach into.I remember the delight of getting down into the woodsy area where the berries grew. The three of us would quietly be picking berries. Of course, we would be eating a few berries along the way. A lot went in my mouth first. Then when I was full of berries, they would started piling up in my little container. No one was talking. We were all quiet, enjoying picking the berries. When a container was full, I would hear them talking to each other. I was rarely the first one with a full bucket since many berries went into my stomach.It was such a calm, peaceful place. Being in nature, safely tucked away in the forest with my mom nearby. Everything was green, lush and warm, and it was a beautiful time of the year. There were birds and breezes I would pause and listen to. It was a joy to be in nature. Do you feel that way when you get out in nature, whether it’s in a park or provincial park or in the woods somewhere?Nature Brings Us To A Calm PlaceIt settles us down to a more grounded, peaceful space. Unfortunately, we don’t get to that space often enough.To this day, I am grateful for every opportunity I get to pick fresh berries. My husband laughs at me when I full stop to pick a few wild berries when I spot them.These days he’s gets a chuckle seeing me at the front of our house. When we moved here, we discovered a special tree at the front of our house. Just beyond my office window there is a beautiful little mulberry tree. This year it is a very happy tree loaded with nutritious, yummy mulberries. I have been out there daily picking some of our prolific crop of sweet little purple mulberries. I certainly eat more than I keep, that is half the fun of this tree. Plus they fall off the tree so easily, many go on the ground and the birds steal those ones. It is a pleasure having my own mulberry tree for berry picking. Every time I go for more berries I think of my mom, knowing she would be right beside me if she were here today.It is important to remember and enjoy and be grateful for our fond life memories as they arrive. Enjoy those little pleasures in life, even if there isn’t a fond memory attached. I suggest that you enjoy your little pleasures. Take a moment to pick those berries. Take a moment to breathe in fresh air. Notice your surroundings and be grateful. We must recognize the lovely little treats in our life that come along. Be grateful for them and for those who taught us how to recognize a good opportunity.I will always be grateful to my mom for teaching me the pleasure of picking berries and tending to a vegetable garden, for watching things grow in nature and being grateful for its gifts.Shop Services For more updates - Join my list! The information provided on A BIT OF GRACE podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Always consult with a professional for medical advice. Subscribe to A BIT OF GRACE on Soundwise

The foods we eat, do they fill a void or feed our body? How do we analyze what is good or bad for us? Simply put, how do you feel after eating or drinking certain foods? We all have some foods that upset our stomach and our gut. Were you in a hurry and chomped down the food without even noticing its taste or aroma? Hurry, hurry, hurry. We do that a lot, don't we? Were you calm and able to enjoy the meal? Or were you upset and agitated in the middle of an argument? Our stomach and intestines and more all want a peaceful environment. It's like riding over a bumpy road at high speed. Things get jostled around and sometimes they break. Do you want to be stuck at the side of the road in need of repair? Paying attention to what we eat is important for good health in our body. One easy step is to start noticing how you are feeling both during and after a meal. This small change alone in focus will help you be more aware of yourself on the inside and less distracted by what's going on around you. For over 35 years, I lived with IBS and its symptoms. That's Irritable Bowel Syndrome, in case you don't know. It would always flare up in stressful times. I suffered over and over with horrible, painful cramps and other stuff that we won't go into right now. The way I described it at the time, I would say it feels like I'm being cut in half with a knife. It was just awful. It went on for years and years.  In my 20's, I went through the whole thing of upper and lower GI series that the doctor ordered. Not fun. Swallow a bunch of barium and get X rayed way, way, way too much. Then in my 40's, I was given a prescription to stop the cramps, a muscle relaxant that made me feel like a zombie. I was so zoned out. I tried it twice and said, No thanks. I had two young children, a business I was managing, so much stress in my life. It was crazy! There was no way I could be that totally numbed out and out of touch. It just didn't make sense. This led me to dig deeper over the years and recognize how much healing I really needed. I researched a lot and became involved with lots and lots of training and many different healing modalities, or tools I would call them, of what you might call energy healing and transformation. Let's just call it change, creating change in the physical body, mind, spirit, all areas. In the process of clearing out my own emotional traumas, I was going through all these changes. I was learning many ways in which the body can heal itself. Along that journey, I realized my job was to share my skills at finding solutions for all sorts of situations. Fast forward to recent years, I've been digging into research papers and articles about our gut microbiome. There’s all sorts of information connecting the food we eat or don't eat, with overall health and even some specific illnesses. I'll be sharing more about specific foods and recipes I've played with along this journey. Yes, played with, because I enjoy new learning and the adventure of the whole thing along the way! That's all we're going to talk about today, and I'll talk with you again soon! For more updates - Join my list! The information provided on A BIT OF GRACE podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Always consult with a professional for medical advice. Subscribe to A BIT OF GRACE on Soundwise