Project Creative Vision

New List of Favorite Books: Holistic Health, Mind-Body Medicine

I've just added a new book list (see on the left).  This one is about energy medicine, mind-body medicine, and holistic health - all subjects I'm deeply involved in now on the daily basis. 

I'm still keeping the original list though - the books on  meaning, purpose, and finding your true calling. It's through working with those books that I have found what I can truly say is the gift that gives me the greatest joy - the gift of working with people to support their healing processes. 

I now see those original books as old friends, ones who were there to support me on this path of discovering my own calling.  To me, they are a marker of progress.  The questions they raised - the ones that seemed so hard, almost impossible to answer - have now largely been answered.  New questions have arisen in their place.  It's a never-ending journey, isn't it?

New Vision of Holistic Health

As regular readers of this blog know, my interest in holistic holistic health and wellness has grown over the past year.  As a student of energy medicine, aromatherapy, Reiki, and general principles of holistic health, I've come to realize that, if we want to change our lives for the better, we can't be looking at just one isolated slice of our life for the answers.  We are whole, complex human beings, and to create positive change in our lives, we need to treat ourselves as such and address the challenges we face on many different levels.

This growing interest led me last week to the Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public, put together by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.  I left the Summit inspired by the discussion and the possibilities for all of us together to build a society that fosters holistic health and honors each and every one of its members as a whole and complete human being.

To continue the discussion that started there, and extend it to those who were unable to join us, I have invited several friends who are leading the effort here in the Washington, DC area to offer their thoughts and perspectives on the Summit here on my blog.  

Below are the guest posts:

Lucrezia Mangione argues that we are part of a sea change in health care and there is room for all at the table in Creating the Culture of Wellness. 

Daphne White reports on groundbreaking Senate testimonies by Mehmet Oz, Dean Ornish, Andrew Weil, and Mark Hyman, and on Sen. Harkin's moving address to the IOM Summit.  Daphne calls upon all CAM practitioners to "put in sweat equity" to make sure that integrative health care is really part of the health care reform.

And Izabella Tabarovsky (yes, that's me) chimed in with some takeaways concerning what we, as CAM practitioners, can do to make the new, emerging paradigm a reality.

I have also just added a post on Dr. Mehmet Oz's remarks at the event and may be adding more as I go through my notes. 

In the meantime, the full webcast of the conference is now available online, so you can watch the entire event or the parts that interest you the most from the comfort of your own home.

What are your thoughts on the subject? Please share your comments under any of the posts that have caught your attention.  Let's all join in the revolution that's taking place in the way we as a society view and create health and wellness! 

Sen. Harkin: Time to End Discrimination against Alternative Health Care Practices

Practitioners Must Lobby Congress to Make it Happen

By Daphne White, CHTP

Note: This is a guest post that is part of the discussion on the Summit on Integrative Medicine

It was not your usual Senate hearing.  Testifying on behalf of integrative medicine before Senators Harkin, Mikulski and Enzi at the Senate HELP Committee were four leading physicians:  Mehmet Oz, Dean Ornish, Andrew Weil and Mark Hyman.  Testifying on behalf of the status quo was … no one!  That’s an unusual set-up on Capitol Hill, where panels are usually set up to represent “both points of view.”  Lobbyists for the medical establishment were present to watch the proceedings and plot their next steps, but they didn’t have a seat at the table.  Not this time, anyway.

By any measure, it was a watershed week:   the Feb. 26 HELP Committee hearing was the second in four days to focus on integrative medicine.  And the very next day, Sen. Harkin traveled across town to the Institute of Medicine, to address the 500-strong Summit on Integrative Medicine.

“Clearly, the time has come to ‘think anew’ and to ‘disenthrall ourselves’ from the dogmas and biases that have made our current health care system – based overwhelmingly on conventional medicine – in so many ways wasteful and dysfunctional,” Harkin told both groups, borrowing some quotes from President Lincoln’s 1862 address to Congress.

“It is time to end the discrimination against alternative health care practices.  It’s time for America’s health care system to emphasize coordination and continuity of care, patient-centeredness, and prevention.  And it’s time to adopt an integrative approach that takes advantage of the very best scientifically based medicines and therapies, whether conventional or alternative.”

Speaking to the IOM Summit on Monday, Harkin said, “I have just four words for you:  Our time has come!”  He added that IOM visitors to Washington might think “it looks like the same old Washington, but it’s not.” 

Creating a Culture of Wellness

Note: This is a guest post that is part of the discussion on the Summit on Integrative Medicine

By Lucrezia Mangione, CHTP/I, CMT 

Have you ever thought about . . .

• What a healthy health care system looks like?

• What a patient or person-centered approach to health and healing is?
• A place for certified, credentialed and/or licensed health care practitioners co-existing within a system that engenders cross-disciplinary connection, discussion and collaboration? 
• What happens when all credentialed and/or licensed health practitioners collaborate together, in support of the suffering person/patient with an individualized well-care program? 
• What an honest, authentic discussion of the inherent problems with our health care industry and its' sick care model sounds like? 
• The behavioral challenges to better health?
• The class/social  issues that prevent access to health care?

Six hundred health professionals joined together for a lively discussion on these topics and more on Feb. 25-27, 2009.  It was a thought provoking and collaborative experience where I was sincerely surprised to be among peers.  We, the people who genuinely wish to alleviate suffering, engaged in dialog on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public at the Institute of Medicine and Bravewell Collaborative's Summit in Washington D.C.

It was powerful. I was positively impacted.  There were more questions than answers and there is so much to share.  In the spirit of brevity, however, I'll speak to a few points that stood out for me.

This Is What I Learned:

"Person-Centered Care" Is the New Model for Health

Because of the efforts of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) practitioners and their holistic work over the years, the new model emerging for health care is a shift to "patient centered cared" or "person-centered care".    The individual is returned to the center of the health care wheel and s/he is the hub around which all else happens.  This shift will take time but there are models that are working already like the eight integrative centers of Bravewell Clinical Network. 

In the meantime, business is the force driving the shift.  Employee wellness centersare arising within large companies.  Why?  Because the return on investing in an employee's wellness is significant:  employees perform better. There are studies that prove meditation, fitness and health coaching are helping in "presenteeism: be here now" as Dr. Kenneth Pelletier puts it.  Businesses are bringing about the person/patient centered care and self-care empowerment.  See this article on Medtronic:

This Is What I Realized:

Integrative Practitioners Are on the Same Page

Richard Leider: Meaning Trumps Money in Living the Good Life

I've been a long-term fan of Richard Leider's, the well-known coach extraordinaire and "Purpose Guru," who has long postulated that meaning is one of our fundamental human needs.  (See my book recommendations on the left.)

In Richard's view, living the Good Life is about "living in the place you belong, with the people you love, while doing the right work on purpose."

Now the MetLife Mature Market Institute (MMI) has conducted a study, based on Richard's work, which concluded that meaning does, after all, trump money when it comes to living the Good Life. 

The study, titled Discovering What Matters:  Balancing Money, Medicine, and Meaning, was released last month, and you can download it from MMI's website with a companion workbook, which is based on Richard's bestselling book Repacking Your Bags:  Lighten Your Load for the Rest of Your Life.

Key conclusions of the study:

• Respondents tended to describe the Good Life in terms of being healthy, having financial freedom, and having the time to do what is important to them

• Regardless of age, gender, financial status, or life stage, the majority of people assign the most importance to Meaning-related activities and, above all else, spending time with friends and family.

• People with a sense of purpose in their lives were more likely to report being happy and describe themselves as living the Good Life

• Having a sense of purpose relates to possessing both "focus" on essential things and "vision" of the future they want to enjoy.

According to Richard, "purpose is the glue that holds the Good Life together": "It is the reason we get up in the morning.  Knowing one's purpose helps to create and maintain a sense of balance in life."

The study was groundbreaking in that, for the first time, it proposed a model of purpose and an analytical approach for testing and measuring that model.

What made this even more significant was that MMI partnered with Chadwick Martin Bailey, a global custom market research and consulting firm, lending the results significant credibility. 

So go ahead and read the study (it's only 28 pages) and then do the workbook to figure out whether you're living the Good Life - and, if not, what you could do to change that.  And please come back and share your thoughts here.

Breaking Through the Fear

I've been thinking a lot in recent months about the fears that hold us back in life and how I can help those I'm honored to work with to break through those fears.  Fear is a natural part of who we are, and our great task in life is to face that fear down in order to grow stronger - mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  This task, which isn't easy even in the best of times, has become even tougher since the beginning of the current economic crisis. 

So I wanted to share this email that a former client sent me a few weeks ago.  (I'm publishing it, of course, with his express permission.) It shows that sometimes all that's needed to break through the fear is the realization that, no matter the external circumstances, we all get just this one life to live.  In the end, that life will be judged not by how tightly we held on to what we had but by how bravely we faced our fears down and followed our guts into the lives we were meant to live. Thanks for the inspiration, my friend!

Hi Izabella!  I have some great news! Last week I was finally offered a great sales job with a [well-known company]. Work from home, great salary, and wonderful benefits.

So you may be shocked to hear that in the middle of the worst recession in 75 years, I turned down the job the day I was supposed to start, and have decided to move to [another state], enroll in a certificate program in theology at the Seminary there, take a few entrepreneurship classes, and in the next 6-months start my own business and probably one for my wife as well! 

A pastor of mine said a profound thing last year, “Nobody gets tomorrow.” Meaning - do it today because you might not be here tomorrow.  I decided that I cannot go another day pretending during interviews and not being honest with myself. I have never been more excited, and more filled with feelings of moving in the direction of my gifts, abilities and passions.

Building Sisterhood Conference & Retreat

Next month I will be speaking at an event that I'm really excited about:  Building Sisterhood Conference & Retreat.  The event is hosted by Danette Boone, Founder and CEO of D. Boone & Associates.  I will be speaking on a subject that's become near and dear to my heart: how we can manage our energy - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual - to take our lives to a whole new level. 

I'm thrilled to be collaborating with Danette, because she and I share a vision of educating, inspiring, and empowering people to live their best, most purposeful lives.  And I'm thrilled about speaking on this particular topic, because it combines my two passions:  holistic health and purposeful living.  

I had a chance to interview Danette recently and encourage you to listen to our conversation.  Danette herself has chosen to follow her passion into the life of entrepreneurship and women's empowerment, rather than following a more stable and predictable career path.  Her story fits perfectly with the theme of this blog.  You can listen to the interview here:

In the interview, Danette talks about how she came to start her company, why she believes it's so important to live on purpose, and how the most lasting change comes from within. 

So take a listen, and do spread the word about the event.  It promises to be truly exciting.  Here are the details:

Building Sisterhood Conference & Retreat

Feburary 20-21, 2009

Sheraton Columbia Town Center Hotel, Columbia MD

Theme:  "Beautiful Sister": Focusing on the Total Woman

My topic:  "Managing Your Energy to Turbo Charge Your Life"

Laid Off from Lehman? Now Is Your Chance

"Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to."- Alan Keightley

With Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch and AIG barely squeaking by, I thought I'd drop a line to the employees of those companies who are now on the outs or are awaiting their fate. 

Believe me, I know what it's like to be part of a collapsing organization.  When you lose your job because the company you've worked for so hard collapses, it may seem as if your world is crashing all around you.  It's worse when it happens because of the dishonesty, greed, and incompetence of the management, whose sole preoccupation in these last moments is saving their own hide.

But here's a small bit of a silver lining:  Even though your job is over, your life isn't.

And here's an even bigger truth:  You are now completely free to do whatever you want with your life.

Natalie Coughlin: "Define Success for You"

Olympians have a lot to teach us in helping us reach for and achieve our dreams.  Their stories are a source not just of inspiration but also of invaluable strategies that are applicable to both our personal and professional lives, no matter what we do in life and what we are trying to achieve.

These strategies are as much about the mind as they are about the body.  The things you say to yourself, your mindset, your ability to focus on that which will give you energy and strength are all key components of your personal success - whatever "success" means to you.   

JoAnn Dahlkoetter, a sports psychologist, has a great book on the subject called "Your Performing Edge," which I expect to be reviewing in the coming weeks.  Meanwhile, as an introduction to the topic, I wanted to pass along a few inspirational quotes from women athletes that landed in my mailbox this morning courtesy Oprah's Spirit Newsletter.

Read them and be inspired - but don't stop there.  Set the intention to read the advice of these athletes and actually take it to heart.  In other words, don't just be inspired.  Be transformed.  This week, choose to pick one thing you could do to bring you closer to your dream.  Do the same next week and the week after, and let momentum develop.

And here's a tip for making this a success.  Imagine that you are on an Olympian's schedule.  Imagine that you only have four years to achieve your goal and that in your entire life, you'll only have 2-3 opportunities (your personal equivalents of the Olympic games) to make your dream come true.  Let that fill you with the sense of urgency needed to finally give your dream a priority. 

With that, here's your Monday morning dose of inspiration.

Finding Clues to What You're Passionate About in Your "Righteous Indignation"

I've been thinking a lot about passion again lately, perhaps because it's a question that's coming up for a lot of my clients, and also because I myself am in the process of incorporating some new things I'm passionate about into my life and work.  At the moment, I have a front-row seat to passion in career, so it's time I shared.

(It's a long post, but that's what happens when you get into a subject you really care about...  Feel free to skip to the end of the post, where I'm offering some questions that may help you figure out how the things that are causing you some "righteous indignation" may provide clues to what you're passionate about.)

I became a career coach because I couldn't believe how many of us wasted our precious lives dying slow deaths at jobs that numbed and drained their spirit.  Once I knew the difference between barely living and being fully alive and inspired by my work, I couldn't believe that everybody else didn't live that way.  Suddenly I was struck by the thought of how different the world could be if everyone channeled their energy into something truly meaningful and purposeful.

Result: My personal frustration with multiple careers that paid the bills and fit conventional notions of success and prestige but did nothing to nourish me and help me fulfill my life's potential transformed into something bigger:  it became a career in itself.

Today, I am still driven by this vision.  And I am also discovering a new source of frustration (read: passion) within me.