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December 21, 2015 Hi {!firstname_fix} 
Well, here we are at Solstice...with a shift towards the light happening this very day. David and his friend, our neighbor, put up the sleigh and reindeer in the front yard. The golden retriever is in the sleigh so, as I look out my office window,I see them and then see my neighbor’s adobe across the street with his lights coming on at dusk. There is a lighted wreath and the 3 bushes have white lights. It is all very simple and lovely. It has been cold in the morning (22F, -5C) and very clear and VERY dark, so I am greeted with the beauty of the lights in the darkness. I love this time of year.
I went to our local pet store today to get dog toys for Christmas. I had to squeeze every real-life-sounding push toy. The clerk came over in alarm to check out the barnyard, LOL. Each dog will get a different toy. I couldn’t get the lobster because it made the sound it makes when you put it in the pot. Somehow the scream of death didn’t seem quite right. But I have 3 branches that are entwined with little LED lights sitting on a small table in the living room. I brought the Christmas cactus in. Last summer, I repotted it with llama mane (from our local llamas for those of you who have visited them here) and the growth took off dramatically. I didn’t know what would happen with the blossoms. They shifted from my birthday in November to peak this week. They are the most brilliant red I have ever seen on a plant. The combination of the flowers and the lights is really sweet. Across the room is a special edition Christmas tree with GOLDENS on it.I hope you all have a lovely week and I wish you a Merry Christmas if you celebrate it. This class will begin Wednesday, December 23, 2015. Please Signup and it will take you to the registration page:
These classes will begin Wednesday, December 30, 2015. Please Signup and it will take you to the registration page:
A number of you have asked me how the classes work. Check the class list page for more information on this. And please go read the questions and answers before you write to me. If you have trouble getting through the process, write the tech forum. Be sure to visit our Radiant Recovery website and Community Forum regularly. Warmly, Kathleen **********************************************************************
**Quote From Kathleen**The more you journal, the more intrigued you will become to hear the story your body wants to share. Listen deeply for the miracle. **********************************************************************
**Testimonial of the Week**I got to reflecting on radiance and joy after last night's YLD chat. Radiance: a quality of brightness and happiness that can be seen on a person’s face (Merriam-Webster) Joy: a feeling of great happiness (Merriam-Webster) So this is what happens when we “do the food”. We get joy. What if it’s all JOY? I wrote a thing once on the idea that doing the food (or life) doesn’t have to be hard. What if I flip that perspective and ask myself, “What if it’s all JOY?” The opportunity for making joy is always there. Like joy proteins at chat. And sharing with each other adding joy on joy. Then adding in sparks of creativity – joy on joy on joy. By the end of chat everyone was smiling and invigorated and ready to be that in each of their worlds. Joy on joy on joy on joy. I just moved into a new home. My stove doesn’t work. I couldn’t find the small crockpots and rice cooker. I did find the big crockpot/soup pot/fryer. But the cord wasn’t with it. Where’s the joy in that??? The steamer was with it and happily its cord is attached (*joy*, yes?) I got several boxes unpacked looking for the cord. The kitchen is starting, in a limited way, to feel like my kitchen. (*joy*) So I was able to have hard-cooked eggs, chili and giant sweet potato with just those 2 tools. (*joy*) I have a blender and microwave, too, but I really wanted to cook some lentils and rice! And bless his heart, darling man opened a cupboard in another room and there were the other small appliances (*joy*) right where I’d completely forgotten I put them. We laughed so hard. (*joy on joy*) Today there will be green lentils in the small crockpot, wild blend rice in the rice cooker and broccoli, carrot, cauliflower mix in the steamer. Add chopped eggs and top with cashew gravy made in the blender and I’ve got some JOY FOOD! But wait, says my inner curmudgeon. This is trivial stuff. *Joy* is supposed to be big, that full happy feeling inside that only comes around once in a while. If there’s all this trivial joy all the time doesn’t that take away from “real” joy??? If *joy* is so commonplace it’s not special enough to be called JOY. This is how I used to think of joy. That, in a nutshell, is the whole seduction behind having everything be hard, isn’t it? I remember how resistant I was to looking for “joydots”. I didn’t feel what I thought joy should feel like when I looked at a flower or stood in the sun at the bus stop. And, yes, I got a charge out of being cynical and obstinate and the drama of how hard it is for me to “feel my feelings”. You, Kathleen, and the Radiant community encouraged me to look for joydots anyway. That connection? (*joy*) The connection and encouragement I got from doing it anyway? (*joy on joy*) Letting go of the need to feel seems to make it possible to begin to feel my joy feelings. They don’t have to feel big to feel good. (*joy*) And more and more often I smile or laugh out loud or experience a sense of peace and recognize that it’s all *JOY*. And what of times when it is hard? When I was so depressed and loathing of myself and hating my life? Where was the joy then? Looking back, I think the search for answers was the joy spark deep inside that kept me going, kept me alive. I think that joy spark is there in everyone no matter how deeply buried. It’s what makes us wake up and breathe in and out and stumble through the days, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, until finally we find whatever light will eventually guide us out of the dark. Even when we think we’ve given up, if we try just one more thing or look for one more answer or read one more book or do one more internet search, it means that the joy spark is still alive and can be grown into the brightness shining on our faces that is radiance. janice **********************************************************************
**Notes from the Forum **Decluttering others' messes I am so glad to read this thread. And Kathleen’s approach is so calming! Allison I do the carrier bag trick as well! I am a clutter-pile princess (mostly books, but there IS the clothes heap, and the fruit bowl which is full of rubbish and no fruit), and I have unfortunately taught my children all I know. Poor tidy DH just despairs of us.  But steady food helps me make an effort, and I do the famous RR easiest thing first method. Mostly I keep up with myself and I am not as cluttered as I used to be.  I fling others' clutter heaps in the carrier bag and dump them happily and don't worry about it. So that's awfully reassuring to hear.We have decided we have a maternal untidy gene, which helps us laugh and not get annoyed... but steady food does mean I don't get irate about things, which is probably the most helpful bit. Mosaic **********************************************************************
**Radiant Recovery® Store**Our George’s® Restore is arriving Monday after all our great adventures with it. Kathleen told me she is going to write a little adventure essay about the challenges of being a small producer. We renamed Restore from being *whey nutritional shake* to *artisanal nutritional shake* to better capture what it is we are really producing. This is a small batch made from whey products from cows here in New Mexico. They eat NM grass, have no hormones and no GMO grains. This is part what makes the flavor so unique. Happy, healthy cows. With no sugars or additives, just fabulous flavor! Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better. **********************************************************************
**Radiant Kitchen**I grabbed this recipe out of the Radiant Recipe Cookbook because it is something so yummy and festive and perfect for cold winter days. Just the thought of this one warms me up! Enjoy! Spiced Butternut Soup
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**Radiant Your Last Diet**We are having a wonderful time in the orientation class with more than 90 people learning the ins and outs of the program! It is just a joyful rejuvenation for us to be talking about the reframe of *diets* into claiming the body that most suits us. If you would like to join us in YLD, come find us here **********************************************************************
**Radiant Living**I think we will be having a holiday celebration to talk about the kind of things Janice is speaking of in her post. Don’t forget that Radiant Living gives us a place to talk about *life* things through the filter of our healing. If you would like to join us in Radiant Living, come find us here **********************************************************************
**Another Look at Commitment**Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
Every week, I get many letters from people who feel inadequate, overwhelmed, fat, out of control and unable to do the program. Or I get letters from people who feel buffeted by the stress in their lives. People have died, work is demanding, no time, no space, no capacity to “do” anything but get by. And each time I say, “These feelings are caused by being out of balance. The stress does not create the feelings, your biochemistry does.” When you are balanced, you respond to stress differently, it becomes functional rather than overwhelming. You stand in the center of the swirl with a sense of calm and clarity about priorities and demands. And when you are not balanced, that idea seems totally off the wall. When you are in the middle of what I call sugar feelings, you will be reactive and feel done to. You will feel like a victim. You will feel like you can do nothing right. And of course it seems like these feelings are REAL because it is what you feel. And when you feel that way, you need something to help you hold them, so you get ice cream and soda. And you feel better for a little while. Life is manageable for a few minutes and you are seduced into thinking that this is comfort. But what you think is comforting you is the cause of what you are feeling. It is a deadly, seductive dance. When you are in that place, the idea of the “program” seems totally overwhelming. No, you cannot give up sugar. No, you cannot manage to plan anything. I just don’t get it! You feel it is just too big and too unattainable. It is too much so you need to just give up and feel that nothing will work. So, here is the bottom line. This program can not only save your life, it can transform it. It can make you clear and steady. It can give you a platform for losing weight. But it cannot work its magic unless you do it. And you do not have to do it all at once. You do not have to be perfect or rigorous or disciplined. You can come, you can whine, you can stumble. But if you show up, you ask for help and you listen, and then you follow instructions, things will change. Sugar sensitive people are notorious for not listening. We think we know it better. We think that we are unique, a special case and the plain ole boring do the steps slowly and in order does not really fit our situation. That way of thinking has to go. If you want what we have, do what we do. We do the steps. We have breakfast every morning, on time. We journal. We eat meals on time. We have enough protein for our body. We take the vitamins and eat the potato. We eat whole grains and we do not have sugar. We are funny, focused and purposeful. And we are NOT different from you. We were there in that dark, horrible place. Every single one of us, including me, has been there. And it is a place we do not want to go back to. The way out was not magic. It was showing up and “doing”. Doing breakfast, doing journal. Doing potato. One choice at a time. One day at a time. As I have said, “Nodding will not heal you.” Agreement will not make change. Commitment makes change. You do not have to live that way any more. Come on over and let’s do this together. **********************************************************************
Thanks for reading! If you know someone who could benefit from this, feel free to forward it to them. Not a subscriber yet? Like what you have read? Sign up to get future issues delivered straight to you: http://www.radiantrecovery.com Until next time!
Here are the folks who are helping put the newsletter together:
Gretel, our webmaster, puts it all together. David runs the Radiant Recovery® Store. Mosaic contributes to the Notes from the Forum column. ©2015 Kathleen DesMaisons. All rights reserved. You are free to use or transmit this article to your ezine or website as long as you leave the content unaltered, use this attribution: "By Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. of Radiant Recovery®", and notify kathleen@radiantrecovery.com of the location. Please visit the Radiant Recovery® website at http://www.radiantrecovery.com for additional resources on sugar sensitivity and healing addiction. You are getting the weekly newsletter from Radiant Recovery® in response to your signup. A copy of this newsletter may also be found posted on the web at http://radiantrecovery.com/learn/newsletter/ |
