About Me

So I was reviewing this website, and noticed a couple of things I wanted to change. And then I came across this, my bio:

Teresa Griffith grew up on a farm in central Alberta. After graduating high school, she became a starving student at the University of Alberta, studying physics. She enjoyed it very much, although she didn’t always know it at the time. Upon finishing, she got the excellent and challenging job of Staff Scientist at Science North, an interactive science centre in Sudbury, Ontario. Seven years and one marriage later, for something completely different, she undertook the intensive training to become a Flight Service Specialist at Nav Canada. When given the opportunity to leave her job and do something she loves even more, she took it, and started her own canoe and kayak outfitting company, Flow North Paddling Company. She loves to canoe and kayak, as well as knit, paint, sing, blog, and do all kinds of outdoor activities. She has done several hours of helicopter flight training, purely for the challenge and the thrill of flying. She has recently joined the volunteer fire department in her home town.

Wow, is that me? I sound like a superwoman, but believe me, I am NOT! Although nothing in that is untrue, I don’t feel it is a very good description of me. So, let me try to write a better bio, one that tells you more about the real me.

Teresa grew up on a farm and throughout all her years, she never lost her love of the land. She grew in her abilities to do math and learn science, to write and to paddle, but she still thinks of herself as a teenager. She often doesn’t realize she’s stretching other people’s ideas of what a woman, a blonde, or a thirty-something married person should be doing. She never thought she’d be around this long, and it’s really hard for her to imagine being old.

What is the best description for the “About the Author” page? What do you really want or need to know? Perhaps I should just say

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything. – Voltaire

Like everyone, I am complex. To try and summarize who I am on paper, in a few words, is impossible. I am not my accomplishments nor defined by jobs I’ve had or hobbies I enjoy (the focus of the first bio). I am more than my beliefs and ideas (the second bio). I, like you, am an interesting tapestry of many diverse aspects woven together into a balanced, intricate human being. My thoughts change the way my cells behave. My health changes the way I think. What I eat changes how I feel. How I feel is affected by how I think, and my thought pattern relates to how I was raised. Everything comes together cooperatively to make me who I am, as it does for you.

We are incredibly beautiful, complicated, and unique! 🙂

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The Power of Food

I was mildly depressed for a while this morning. This isn’t like me; I am usually pretty happy, so I was a bit confused about why I was in such a low mood. Here are some things I was thinking/feeling:

  • I wanted to have coffee. I have been “off coffee” for quite a while, because I don’t like how jittery it makes me feel. Now, of all mornings, I was wanting some…
  • I wanted to watch a “comfort show” on TV. I have a show — okay, I’ll admit, it’s Star Trek: The Next Generation — that I like to watch, just to kill time and “to keep me company.” What was odd today is that I never want to watch anything so early in the day. Usually, the Star Trek bug hits in mid-afternoon.
  • I kept thinking about events of yesterday. Yesterday was a good day overall, but there were a few things that I would have liked to go differently. I was rehashing those things and starting to feel really cruddy.
  • In general, I was dissatisfied and discontent. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t feel like knitting or reading anything, which are often things I do in the morning when I’m not too busy. On the whole, I felt like “self-medicating” in some way — I wanted to distract myself with TV, get zipped up with coffee and forget yesterday. I might have even been tempted by booze if there was some around!

Suddenly, I realized what was going on: I was hungry. I hadn’t eaten much for breakfast (unusual for me) and my blood sugar was low. All I’d had was a half a grapefruit and a cup of green tea, which is an okay start to breakfast, but not breakfast, at least not for me. That’s all it was — I wasn’t suffering from depression, there wasn’t anything “wrong with my life,” and I didn’t need anything to “cope.” All I needed was some healthy food and my mood improved greatly.

I share this story in case you ever feel the same! Please, take care of yourself and eat good, healthy food — whatever that means for you, I’m not going to give specifics and say you should never eat this and always eat that. I find I feel the best when I stick to less-processed food, but you eat whatever makes you feel good.

Why Food is so Important

Why does food make such a big difference in our moods? It’s because of how our bodies work. We need energy, in the form of sugar, to think and for our muscles to work. When we don’t have enough sugar in our blood stream, our body releases chemicals, such as the hormone adrenaline, that help to free up stored sugar, but those chemicals don’t make us feel very good. In a way, they are a warning sign for us to go and eat. Adrenaline is meant to give us a boost of superhuman strength for stressful situations, and when we aren’t active, such as when we’re just sitting at a desk, all that energy doesn’t have an outlet. Being active by getting more exercise or playing sports helps (in so many ways), but the root cause is what we are feeding our bodies.

I have a naturopath friend who uses the 100-year rule. She simply asks herself “did they eat this 100 years ago?” If not, then she doesn’t eat it. Fruit roll-ups? Nope. Granola bars? Nope. Oatmeal? Yes. Eggs? Yes. This helps her eliminate a lot of processed foods (granola bars are some of the worst). Another tip is to glance at the ingredients. If most of them are chemicals too long to pronounce, don’t buy it — if you don’t buy it, you won’t eat it!

Our bodies are incredible — we can eat almost nothing and go all day. In an emergency, we can survive for days on just water. Be kind to yourself and eat healthy foods, starting with a good breakfast — and as your day unfolds, don’t let yourself to get too hungry/grumpy. If you don’t feel like being kind to yourself, then take a little time to look inside yourself and see if you know why. Are you punishing yourself for something you did? Are you judging yourself harshly? Are you mad about something? Harboring unforgiveness? You may want to re-read chapters 13 – 20 (in Love Your Skeletons) and refocus on gratitude, self-acceptance, and positive things.

The Value of Being Self-Centred

Did the title of this blog post throw you off? Well, I am not trying to deceive you, but it is important to be self-centred — centred in yourself — and I wanted to expand on that a little.

What does it mean to be centred in yourself?
It means that you know who you are. You know what you enjoy doing, and what you don’t particularly enjoy. You know what you are good at and what is best to leave for someone else to do. It doesn’t mean being conceited.

It means you know when you are acting in your best interest, and when you are acting toward your best goal/higher purpose. It means you are aware of your thoughts and how those thoughts make you feel. You can hear from your intuition any time you like. It means you don’t have to look outside yourself to make decisions.

It means you know what you want. A commercial you see on TV isn’t going to compel you immediately to start buying products or questioning your lifestyle. You know what physical things you want and what emotional things or life situations you want.

Most importantly, it means you are aware that your actions and thoughts (your physio-spiritual vibration) create your reality and you don’t blame anyone else for your situation.

Somehow along the way, many of us have lost track of the principle of cause and effect. When you do something, there is an effect. When you say something, there is an effect. When you think something, there is an effect. When you do, say or think something repeatedly, there is a greater effect. This shows up in many, many ways:

– actual, significant events in your life, such as getting/losing jobs
– how the people in your life treat you
– seemingly random events, like flat tires or hail storms
– painful events, like skeletons in your closet

Being self-centred is another way of saying you are self-aware. You are tuned in to what is going on in your life — you aren’t half-awake — and you are tuned in to what is coming your way. You can predict the future, somewhat, when you are truly self-centred. But only YOUR future. Why would you want to be messing around in someone else’s future anyway?

Ever watch Star Trek? Well, here’s one way I sometimes think of it: there are countless alternate realities within my reach at any given moment in time. How I chose to conduct this moment in time — the attitude I take and thoughts I think — determines which of the infinite realities I will live in for the next few moments. Only this moment matters. Only what I do matters. Only those things I am immediately interacting with in this moment are real (seeing, listening to, speaking about, touching, moving, etc.).

So how can you get in touch with your self more? Here are a few ideas:
– Spend some time alone, just breathing and being aware of your thoughts.
– Spend some time in nature.
– Spend some time alone in nature. 🙂
– Appreciate each day. Look for and/or journal about things that you find lovely, precious, enjoyable or otherwise good.
– Live in the moment more.
– Remind yourself there is a source of higher wisdom within you.