Author: Monique

Quick Health Tip | 5 Breaths

Health Quick Tip By Leslie Kemp
MSI Instructor

One of the simplest things you can do that will have a dramatic effect on your dietary experience is to take 5 deep breaths before eating a meal or snack. This simple technique can be applied anywhere, anytime.

Benefits of taking 5 deep breaths before eating a meal or snack…

•  It will allow you to connect with your food, bringing focus and added enjoyment to your meal. With this connection you are more likely to taste what you are eating and because you are more aware and centered in your body, you will better be able to gauge when you are full or still hungry so as not to over or under eat. As a nice side effect, being connected with your core, helps you to naturally make wiser choices while feeding your self. Remember anywhere you add breath, you add awareness.
• Centering and calming your self before eating, will also aid indigestion. A
• Relaxed system, with increased oxygen flow, is more receptive to nutrient absorption and less likely to experience indigestion.

So relax, breath, and bon appetite!

Eating for Beauty with Leslie Kemp April 12th Sunday 10am – 11:30am

Beauty is found in health. The by product of healthy diet is bright eyes, glowing skin, healthy hair,  and a normalized body weight whether that means a size 0 or size 12. Learn about the top “beauty foods” and the techniques to maximize the beauty of health.

Topics Covered …

*List of “Beautifying” foods, nutritional information as to why they have this affect.
*Recipes to utilize these ingredients
*Body image and its impact on diet
*Emphases on Health being Beauty

About Leslie Kemp:
Leslie Kemp, CHHC. I have been actively involved in the health and wellness industry for over 15 years. I graduated from The Desert Institute of the Healing Arts in 2000 as a massage therapist.  This journey led me to also study aromatherapy, Thai bodywork, and Reiki. In my quest for studying and sharing healing modalities the missing component in my tool belt seemed obvious.  Hippocrates said it best, “Let food be they medicine and medicine be thy food.” So I attended the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. During my training, I studied over 100 different dietary theories, practical lifestyle management techniques, and innovative coaching methods with some of the world’s top health and wellness experts.

I am a member of The International Association for Health Coaches. In my practice, I work with women who have lost their spark to help them get their sass back by empowering them to make lifestyle choices that will allow them to thrive.

Easy Steps To Start Meditating

Here are ways to make meditation simple.

Everyone says how beneficial meditation is, but either finding a place to start or even the time to start is often the first road block.  We wanted to share with you some simple, realistic ways to make meditation a part of your life and, in turn, experience the wonderful benefits.

• Instead of thinking about your next event or facebook update, start to mind map your meditation, such as: the time of the day, place, and type of meditation.
• Pick a place where you know you won’t be interrupted by someone, your phone, or general technology. As much as sitting outside at the beach or the park sounds inviting, at the beginning, possibly pick a place in your home where you can maybe close the door.  Save the outside for when you can focus completely on your meditation.
• When you pick a time, tell yourself you don’t have to stick with that time forever.  The optimal time of the day is what is best for your schedule.  It’s recommended to start your day with meditation so that you can continuously go back to that place with which you started your day. Just breathe
• A perfect meditation with which to start is a guided meditation.  What is a guided meditation?  A guided meditation is one that you listen to and follow along.  The narrator will guide you with their words to help you breathe, visualize, and meditate.  Click here for a free meditation – Loving Kindness Meditation.  This is a 27 minute meditation designed for stress relief.  If the length of this meditation is too long, start with the Timelessness Meditation.  This is a perfect 10-minute guided meditation for connecting with your expansive breathe.

So now you know a little bit of the history, the reasons why to meditate, and some simple steps to making meditation a part of your life.  Also, you don’t need to sit up, fancy yoga clothes, or a meditation altar.  Start with just your time, place, and meditation.  Once you start and create that connection with having an expansive breathe and calmness, you will want to stick with it.  Don’t worry if a couple of days pass and you haven’t had time. Always know that it is there for you and all you have to do is pick a place and a time, and meditate.

Namaste!

We offer a free open to the public meditation every Friday at 6:30pm.  The Loving Kindness Meditation has been offered for over 14 years on the North Shore in Evanston, Illinois.  You are always welcome to walk in, no reservations required, and you don’t need to bring anything nor wear special attire.  It’s a wonderful day to end the week and start your weekend.  We would love to see you.  MSI Wellness Center 2153 Ashland Ave Suite 3 Evanston IL 60201.  Call for details 847-866-0505.

What is Summer Solstice?

The first day of Summer

The summer solstice has been celebrated for centuries, with all sorts of traditions growing up around it. In the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice is usually celebrated on the 21st of June, while in the southern hemisphere, it’s usually celebrated on the 21st of December.

The summer solstice occurs during a hemisphere’s summer. This is northern solstice in the northern hemisphere and the southern solstice in the southern hemisphere.  When on a geographic pole, the sun reaches its greatest height, the moment of solstice.

Ways to personally celebrate the Summer Solstice…

Seek fulfillment from your life. The summer solstice heralds the beginning of summer. This also represents the time of fulfillment. This is an excellent time to take stock of your life and assess how your goals and aims are going. From the year’s earlier New Year’s resolutions to the big goals in your life, ask yourself how you’re doing in achieving these things for yourself and others you care about.

• Are you still aligned with your goals or have you strayed from them? Take this opportunity to reinvigorate them and to make any necessary changes to achieve your aims in life.

Consolidate your energies. The stability of summer and the promise of balmy, warmer days ahead is considered to be a time to develop yourself, to set yourself free and to nurture yourself. As the crops begin ripening, this is a time for self-maturation and for consolidating your energies. Take the easier nature of summer as a reason to make greater efforts to lose weight, to refresh your home (perhaps a new layout, maybe even a new home), to readjust your nutrition intake and to find an exercise that you really click with rather than doing one everyone else is doing.

• Start a new diet today using the fresh fruits and vegetables of summer as your base. Don’t just see it as a “diet” though; use this opportunity to align your thinking about food to one that involves eating more greens, more locally grown foods, more organic foods and less processed foods.

Honor the sun. If you enjoy doing yoga, there is a set of exercises known as the Sun Salutation or Salute to the Sun which you can perform. These exercises are intended to exercise both your body and your soul, balancing both in harmony through both meditation and physical movement in one. Begin this exercise on the morning of the summer solstice and aim to make it a daily habit from this time on.

Free Video Blog Inviting You To Celebrate Summer Solstice

Holiday Festival of Lights

We are Celebrating the Holidays with Friendship and Laughter.

Wonderful mystical readings and pampering experiences awaits you at our annual Holiday open house. Bring a friend and have some fun !!!  Enjoy the Holidays with Us on December 7th Saturday 11am – 3pm.  Enjoy a Delicious Cup of Hot Chocolate with Us and …

* 2 Free Card Readings – Angel cards, Totem Animal Cards, Oracle Cards

* Chair Massage and Reflexology

* Earth Friendly Gift Items

* Crystals and Healing Stones

* Handmade gifts from local artisans

* Janet Berres Tarot Card Reader and Author

* Rivian Wolf Aura Photos

* Dawn Silver Astrologer and Crystal Healer

 Gifts from the Spirit Not from the Factory

First 50 people will receive a MSI gift card for MSI product

purchases on the first floor.  On the day of the event only.

Special Closing Ceremony facilitated by

Billie Topa Tate to set your intention for the New Year at 3:00pm

A Wonderful Newly Designed Training for Reiki Practitioners

Akashic Reiki Training at Home Packages Now Available

You can choose cd or dvd both come with the student manual.  This technique allows one to discover, understand and heal situations or events from our past life that are brought into our present life.

Some topics covered

• To tune into the akashic records using the place of light and provide insight to the past karmas and proclivities which are present in this lifetime for our clients and loved ones
• Use specialized techniques to provide healing virtuous energy to blocks & obstacles from past lives
• Wonderful integration of Reiki symbols and divinely virtuous techniques to facilitate healing energy to these past proclivities and past lives