Mary Goyer Fertility Tips

Are you finding that in your struggle to get pregnant that you feel solid in your sense of hope, or do you feel more drained and hopeless with each passing month? Do you find yourself having to fight off the fear that you may never get to become a mom?

I want you to know about my friend, Mary, who’s an amazing resource for couples that are really feeling the strain and stress of infertility. Mary is a trained therapist and body-mind healing expert, and her specialty is in alleviating your stress so that you body responds better to the fertility treatments you’re either doing now or are considering as a next step.There's no one who wouldn’t want to increase their chances of conceiving and having a healthy, full-term, vital & PEACE-filled pregnancy.

I know Mary personally, and I can tell you that her work and her holistic approach complements TCM beautifully. If you want to learn how, Mary is offering a FREE call on Tuesday March 5^th to tell you more about eliminating infertility stress emotionally and physically… why you need to do it (aside from the obvious) and more importantly, HOW to do it.

Sign up here to register and get your call in details => “The Truth About ‘Infertility’ ~ 3 Secrets to Get Rid of Stress and Get Pregnant”

Even if you can’t make it live, you’ll want to catch the recording. So please, don’t put this off. The truth is there are lots of things you can do to dramatically increase your success rates… you just have to know where to get support.

What is True for You?

The other day, I was having lunch with a close friend, and i was telling him that I would like to make a quantum leap in my practice to reach way more people but didn't know how to find the energy/time/resources.  My friend knows that I already have a full practice, and he is an experienced entrepreneur who knows what it takes to grow a business, so he asked, "What is your motivation?" He is a wise dude and knows just thing to say to help me answer my own questions.  I answered tentatively that I wanted to more fully actualize my potential in life.  This answer was met with a disinterested "hmmmmm,"  and we moved on to another subject.

The conversation moved to several topics over the course of our lunch, before touching upon the topic of why I do the work I do.  I found myself explaining that what really motivates me in work and in life is helping the world to be a more peaceful place.  I said that peace only comes through increased self knowledge and self love.  With self knowing and self love, we act from the wisdom of the heart.  What I am passionate about is helping people to connect with their own heart wisdom (I am paraphrasing here... there were alot more "ums" and "ya knows" in the spoken version).

Upon hearing me say this, my friend said, "Do you remember what I asked you at the beginning of conversation?  THAT is the answer I was looking for.  An answer like that will almost ensure your success." 

The reason I share this story is to emphasize the importance of acting from our own truth, speaking in our own voice and finding our passion. Whether I take a big leap in my business this year is not that important.  What is important is that I feel fully alive and engaged in what I do, because that is what serves the highest good of my patients and myself.

Do you feel like you are moving from your heart?  If not, whose beliefs are in the driver's seat? We can often get stuck doing what we think we are "supposed to do".  We act on the borrowed wisdom of our parents or our culture that rattles around in our heads.  And it is not to say that our parents' or society's perspectives are wrong... they are just not OURs.  

I have a perfect example.  This newsletter is actually version three (see how much I love you that I would actually take the time to draft three letters to you!?)  The first two just did not feel authentic. I actually made my first attempt in January, writing about new year's resolutions because that is what you are "supposed to" write about at the beginning of the year (I decided to spare you the agony of reading that one!) Then, earlier today I started writing about upcoming Chinese new year, and the year of the snake, because that is what acupuncturists are "supposed to" write about. Although that is an interesting topic, I don't really feel connected with that right now.

Back to my conversation with my friend.  I walked into the conversation feeling down and stuck.  And I left it feeling energized and empowered.  Why?  Because, I was tapped in to my own truth, passion and heart wisdom.   You have already shown that you are committed to your own truth by reading this far in the article.  So now I ask you, what lights you up?  Go do it.  Even if it is a little thing. You deserve nothing less, and you never know what door it will open.

Yours in health, 
Joe Curcio, L. Ac.

Meditation Helps Prevent Colds and Flu

According to a UW-Madison study, meditation can reduce the incidence, duration and severity of colds and the flu by about 30 percent to 60 percent.

It seems strange that our society spends so much time and energy to prove what seems intuitively obvious.  They could have spent that time meditating!  I am grateful for this work nonetheless, as studies like these can be a point of entry for skeptics (Especially given that I am a recovering skeptic myself.) Click to read the details here. 

Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger

Here is a delicious fall recipe for Butternut squash and ginger soup.  We Chinese medicine practitioners say that this soup helps "Tonify the Spleen Qi", which translates into stronger digestion, greater energy levels, and increased ability to process information.  The ingredients that specifically help with the spleen qi are squash, ginger and cinnamon.

Ingredients

• 2 each butternut squash (about 4 3/4 pounds total), halved lengthwise, seeded

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 cups thinly sliced onion
• 1 tablespoon golden brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 5 cups (or more) water or chicken broth, according to preference

• Chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°F. Oil baking sheet. Place squash, cut side down, on baking sheet. Bake until squash is very soft, about 50 minutes. Using paring knife, remove peel from squash; discard peel. Cut squash into 2-inch pieces. Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-low heat. Mix in onion, brown sugar, ginger, garlic and cinnamon. Cover pot and cook until onion is tender, about 15 minutes. Add squash and 5 cups chicken broth. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Discard cinnamon.

Working in batches, purée soup in blender, or just mash it with a spoon and eat it a little lumpy. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cool slightly. Cover and refrigerate.) Return soup to pot. Season soup with salt. Bring to simmer, thinning soup with more broth if necessary. Ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Metta Meditation

Metta is a meditation on loving kindness.  Below is a guided Metta meditation that I learned from the book World as Lover, World as Self, by Joanna Macy.  I have used it on many occasions when leading group meditations and also in my own meditations.  I hope you find it as powerful as I have:

Close your eyes and begin to relax, exhaling to expel tension.  Now center in on the normal flow of the breath, letting go of all extraneous thoughts as you passively watch the breathing-in and breathing-out…

Now call to mind someone whom you love dearly…in your mind’s eye see the face of that beloved one…silently speak his or her name…Feel your love for this being, like a current of energy coming through you… Now let your self experience how much you want this person to be free from fear, how intensely you desire that this person be released from greed and ill-will, from confusion and sorrow and the causes of suffering…That desire, in all its sincerity and strength, is metta, the great loving kindness…

Continuing to feel that warm energy flow coming through the heart, see in your mind’s eye those with whom you share your daily life, family members, close friends and colleagues, the people you live and work with…Let them appear now as in a circle around you.  Behold them one by one, silently speaking their names…and direct to each in turn that same current of loving kindness…Among these beings may be some with whom you are uncomfortable, in conflict, or tension.  With those especially, experience your desire that each be free from fear, from hatred, free from greed and ignorance and the causes of suffering…

Now allow to appear, in wider concentric circles your relations, and your acquaintances….Let the beam of loving kindness play on them as well, pausing on the faces that appear randomly in your mind’s eye.  With them as well, experience how much you want their freedom from greed, fear, hatred and confusion, how much you want all beings to be happy…

Beyond them, in concentric circles that are wider yet, appear now all beings with whom you share this planet time.  Though you have not met, your lives are interconnected in ways beyond knowing.  To these beings as well, direct the same powerful current of loving kindness.  Experience your desire and your intention that each awaken from fear and hatred, from greed and confusion…that all beings be released from suffering…

As in the ancient Buddhist meditation, we direct the loving kindness now to all the “hungry ghosts,” the restless spirits that roam in suffering, still prey to fear and confusion.  May they find rest…may they rest in great loving kindness and in the deep peace it brings…

By the power of our imagination, let us move out now beyond our planet, out into the universe, into other solar systems, other galaxies, other Buddha fields.  The current of loving kindness is not affected by physical distances, and we direct it now, as if aiming a beam of light, to all centers of conscious life…And to all sentient beings everywhere we direct out heartfelt wish that they, too, be free of fear and greed, of hatred and confusion and the causes of suffering…May all beings be happy…

Now, as if from out there in the interstellar distances, we turn and behold our own planet, our home…We see it suspended there in the blackness of space, a blue and white jewel planet turning in the light of its sun…Slowly we approach it, drawing nearer, nearer, returning to this part of it, this region, this place…And as you approach this place, let yourself see the being you know best of all…the person it has been given you to be in this lifetime…You know this person better than anyone else does, know its pain and its hopes, know its need for love, know how hard it tries…Let the face of this being, your own face, appear before you…Speak the name you are called in love…And experience, with the same strong energy current of loving kindness, how deeply you desire that this being be free from fear, released from greed and hatred, liberated from ignorance and confusion and the causes of suffering…The great loving kindness linking you to all beings is now directed to your own self…know now the fullness of it.

From World as Lover World as Self, by Joanna Macy