Shift from Dis-Ease to Kick-Ass Health: Transmuting Fear

August 8, 2022

This is the third instalment of an 11-part series of articles that will appear in Brainz Magazine online throughout the year!

“There are many motivational factors in life, and all of them are emotional. Inspiration, joy, pain, empathy, love, shame, guilt, hope, and fear. Each of these emotions simultaneously triggers brain and body responses and can be the symphony to which we dance throughout life. Some of those dances are slow, graceful, and luxurious, with every movement felt and experienced, and some of those dances are disjointed, frenzied, thoughtless, and exhausting. Fear is one of the latter.

It is common practice in the medical model and in the fields of psychology and psychiatry to categorize any strife, uncomfortable emotion, or challenging behaviour into “mental health” pathologies or diagnoses. And when diving deep, you will inevitably experience all kinds of emotion, none of them bad, but some certainly less pleasant and even deeply painful.

In the medical model, emotions and states of being such as depression and anxiety are pathologized. Behaviors such as addiction and phobias act as shields from perceived danger. Labels such as narcissism and borderline personality disorder frighten us. Medications are the standard of care, dampening both the difficult emotions but also the potential for growth and discovery.

These states of being, the struggle, the painful emotions, and the unhealthy behaviours, are very real and can be highly destructive, fragmenting relationships and even the self, yet what is missed is the reason for the disharmony, the fact that these difficult and sometimes dark experiences are not a metaphorical dark night of the soul, but very real ones. They are the very paths we need to walk while on our varying Hero’s Journeys until we return home stronger, wiser, forever changed, tattooed with maps of our lives, with “every lesson learned a line upon your beautiful face” (Get Out the Map by the Indigo Girls).”

Give the series a read to find out how to shift into kick-ass health empowerment!

Carla Atherton, MA, FDN-P, is the Director of the Healthy Family Formula and the HFF Practitioner Training Academy, Host and Producer of the Children’s Health Summit, Author of Family Health Revolution, Mountains Rise from Earthquakes Writing Experience Facilitator, Health Empowerment Coach, Holistic Family Health Consultant, Yoga Instructor and Mind/Body Facilitator, and Children’s Health Advocate. Spurred on by the love for her three glorious children, Carla’s mission is to support families to achieve their best health through information, guidance, inspiration, and empowerment.

Shift from Dis-Ease to Kick-Ass Health: Are You the Spider or the Fly?

August 8, 2022

This is the second instalment of an 11-part series of articles that will appear in Brainz Magazine online throughout the year!

“I love listening to podcasts, watching videos and films that inspire me, engaging with content created by people who inform and enlighten just by speaking their truth, exploring their genius, and sharing their wisdom, insights, epiphanies, and revelations.

None of the teachers, gurus, and companions that I choose to invite into my life and who inspire my own personal evolution, push any kind of agenda through fear (you are going to get sick of you don’t do what I say), or coercion (you are wrong, and I am right even if you don’t believe that), or manipulation (I am only going to push my own version of reality), or claiming authority over my life (you are not a doctor or psychiatrist or other “professional” trained by a governing body created by some group of people who claim to have authority, so you can’t make your own decisions about your health). No. And no.

The people I choose to engage with encourage the exploration of our own individual genius, seek to connect rather than divide, and inspire and encourage the creation of our own reality. Because each of us has that power and exercise it at every moment, whether we are aware of it or not.

One of these beautiful souls, Matias De Stefano, said something in a podcast episode that rang as true and clear to me as the peeling of a bell. In relation to the reality, the matrix, in which we live, he asked the question: are you the spider or the fly? Woah! “Two snaps and a rewind!” My first and final response: I am the spider.“

Give the series a read to find out how to shift into kick-ass health empowerment!

What’s the Rush?! Another Important Cause of Stress

March 12, 2021

An excerpt from Family Health Revolution: The Definitive Approach to Elevating Your Family’s Health by Carla Atherton

“The fast pace of our lives is vastly contributing to the decline of our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. We live in a culture where being busy isn’t only the norm but is often glorified. In this culture, there’s no time for rest, taking care of our bodies, or listening to our bodies or each other. Tune in to feel the insanity this is causing society as a whole. Picture a traffic jam with honking horns and rude gestures or a long line-up at the grocery store at 5:00 p.m. Imagine you’re feeling imbalanced, didn’t sleep long enough, are hungry, too busy, late for something, or aren’t feeling well with a cold or flu or worse, a chronic condition. These situations can put the body into full-on fight or flight multiple times a day.

In our modern culture, there’s little time for patience, and people want things now. We’ve become accustomed to instant gratification and often don’t notice the beauty of our earth, the people around us, or ourselves. If we don’t take notice, it’s harder to be grateful for what we have. If we don’t pay attention, we don’t care, and if we don’t pay attention to ourselves, we miss signs and symptoms of brewing disease and ill health. The speed at which modern families live gives rise to the quick fix and medicalization of health, without addressing what’s driving the decline in mental and physical wellness.

Again, human beings aren’t supposed to live under chronic stress. When the body gets tired and can’t cope with the stress any longer, imbalance occurs, then disease, then symptoms, and if it’s bad enough, death. In order to reduce stress and thereby give the body an opportunity to heal and ultimately become dis-ease-free, significant shifts can be made. We can address external stressors through making changes to jobs and relationships that are toxic to us and employ stress-relieving activities, such as meditation and exercise. We can also address internal stressors by first identifying them then taking action to heal using functional/lifestyle/radical medicine and a holistic approach. The first step in reducing stress is to identify how we view our lives: what we do every day, how we handle situations, and if we respect and listen to the body and act upon those discoveries.

It’s impossible and not necessary to eradicate all stressors in life. Stress can actually be a positive force in that it can increase our chance of survival when we need to take quick action in a dangerous situation. It’s when stress becomes chronic that it starts to harm us; therefore, it is important to understand how to manage the stress that is not an imminent threat to our survival. We won’t die if we don’t get to that appointment on time, but our bodies will react as if we will. Add all of those stressful moments of every day together, and you have a body wired, tired, worn out, and chronically ill.

Some stressors can be dealt with by modifying lifestyle, such as exposure to toxins, nutrition, and exercise. You can control the amount and quality of sleep you get, eat healthy foods, reduce your exposure to toxins, eliminate food from your diet you’re sensitive or allergic to, exit bad relationships, and even change how you think and act by employing mental exercises and exploring spiritual philosophies and practices. (Refer to Part III of the book).

For the issues we can’t always control, such as accidents, physical injury, and infection, by nurturing ourselves and bodies in every way, keeping our immune, detoxification, and digestive systems functioning well, by maintaining a healthy brain, and by freeing our bodies from the burdens of unhealthy lifestyle choices so they can focus on healing, we can recover much more quickly and fully when disaster strikes or when we’re challenged with a problem we couldn’t prevent.”

Take control of your family’s health! Order the full book here!

And if you order now, you will receive the Companion Guide FREE with your purchase!

Carla Atherton, MA, FDN-P, Family Health Consultant, is the director of The Healthy Family Formula, host of The Children’s and Teen Health Summit, author of Family Health Revolution, editor, book junkie, research geek, insatiably curious mother of three grown (son age 22), almost grown (daughter age 20), and growing (daughter age 18) children, one of whom has Type 1 Diabetes. Carla lives on an acreage in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, where she works from a home office with families from all over the world on the reversal of conditions such as, Autoimmunity: Type 1 Diabetes, PANDAS/PANS/Autoimmune Encephalitis, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Celiac Disease and Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity; Asthma, Allergies, Eczema, and Reactivity; ADHD, Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, Learning Disabilities; Depression, Anxiety, Mental Health Disorders, Eating Disorders, ODD; Other Neurological Conditions; Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and Metabolic Disorders; Untangling Mystery Symptoms, Complex Cases, and Co-Morbidities (having more than one condition); Mold Illness; Multiple Chemical Sensitivity; Lyme; Other Infection; and Addictions. Carla is on a revolutionary mission to empower families to transcend our new normal of ill health and chronic disease.

Family Health Revolution, the Book! Ready to Order, Ready to Read NOW!

December 21, 2020

Family Health Revolution: The Definitive Approach to Elevating Family Health is finally here!

I just don’t have it in me this morning to pour my heart out about what has transpired to get this book into your hands over the last 4 years (when I started putting the writing into a book), or is it over the last 6 years (when I started writing about health for the public), or has it really been over the last 9.5 years (since my daughter was diagnosed and my path veered wildly from the manicured course into the rough). I am actually done with hearing myself talk about this. I am done with hearing myself introduce the ideas. It’s time to deliver the goods. Plus, the book says it all, and I don’t want to repeat myself.

But I will say this: This book is important. Really important. Because health is everything, because health is not what many of us think it is, and because maintaining or reclaiming health will take both small steps that families can take now as well as a complete and powerful revolution. It is the small steps together that make up this revolution I speak of.

With this book, my goal is to empower families to use lifestyle medicine to overcome disease, illness, and discomfort, demedicalize family health, slow down fast-paced modern family life, reduce stress, and return whole families to the ease of wellness, naturally.

The book serves as a reference guide and as a reorientation of how to attain health. It is a resource full of guidance and actionable steps. It will also help shift the consciousness of everyone reading it to a functional, holistic understanding of health—it opens the door to what health actually means and goes into great detail about how to attain it.

Order NOW (during the rest of the month of December) and receive some excellent bonuses that I am calling the “Goodie Package” consisting of the following bonuses FREE:

ALL of the Children’s Health Summit 1, 2, 3, and 4 interviews (that’s over 160 interviews containing expert, empowering content)

AND the FHR Companion Guide (guidance on how to put the information in the main book into action).

Download your digital version IMMEDIATELY whether you order the digital version only or if you order the print copy, as well. The digital comes free with the print version so you can read from your computer and also hold the book in your hands.

The print copy will arrive in your physical mailbox and the Companion Guide in your inbox in January!

Order NOW so we can put your order in for the first print run and so you can start reading NOW!

If you’ve already purchased the book, log into the membership site to access your digital copy and access the Goodie Package. Your login details will have been emailed to you when you purchased the book.

Order here:

http://healthyfamilyformula.com/family-health-revolution-the-book/

May you and your family be well.

Revolutionary Mama,

Carla.

Carla Atherton, MA, FDN-P, Family Health Consultant, is the director of The Healthy Family Formula, host of The Children’s and Teen Health Summit, author of the book Family Health Revolution, editor, book junkie, research geek, insatiably curious mother of three grown and almost grown children, one of whom has Type 1 Diabetes. Carla lives on an acreage in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, where she works from a home office with families from all over the world on the healing from conditions such as, Autoimmunity: Type 1 Diabetes, PANDAS/PANS/Autoimmune Encephalitis, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Celiac Disease and Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity; Asthma, Allergies, Eczema, and Reactivity; ADHD, Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, Learning Disabilities; Depression, Anxiety, Mental Health Disorders, Eating Disorders, ODD; Other Neurological Conditions; Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and Metabolic Disorders; Untangling Mystery Symptoms, Complex Cases, and Co-Morbidities (having more than one condition); Mold Illness; Multiple Chemical Sensitivity; Lyme; Other Infection; and Addictions. Carla is on a revolutionary mission to empower families to transcend our new normal of ill health and chronic disease.

My Appearance on the Living with Lyme Podcast Is Live!

March 13, 2020

I’m excited to announce that my interview on Living with Lyme was released today! Cindy’s a hoot, and we had a very lively conversation! Overcoming Lyme disease or any chronic illness or longstanding infection is difficult for families but can certainly be done! Learn more! Listen now!

Carla Atherton, MA, FDN-P, Family Health Coach, is the director of The Healthy Family Formula, host of The Children’s and Teen Health Summit, author of the forthcoming book Family Health Revolution (release date: January, 2020), editor, book junkie, research geek, insatiably curious mother of three grown (son age 21), almost grown (daughter age 19), and growing (daughter age 16) children, one of whom has Type 1 Diabetes. Carla lives on an acreage in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, where she works from a home office with families from all over the world on the reversal of conditions such as, Autoimmunity: Type 1 Diabetes, PANDAS/PANS/Autoimmune Encephalitis, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Celiac Disease and Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity; Asthma, Allergies, Eczema, and Reactivity; ADHD, Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, Learning Disabilities; Depression, Anxiety, Mental Health Disorders, Eating Disorders, ODD; Other Neurological Conditions; Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and Metabolic Disorders; Untangling Mystery Symptoms, Complex Cases, and Co-Morbidities (having more than one condition); Mold Illness; Multiple Chemical Sensitivity; Lyme; Other Infection; and Addictions. Carla is on a revolutionary mission to empower families to transcend our new normal of ill health and chronic disease.

Firsts: For My First Daughter

January 1, 2018

I hope that you are having (or have had) a wonderfully restful, fun, joyful, memorable holiday! I am not sure how much rest we’ve gotten, but we sure have had some fun! Big family gatherings, performances and concerts, and successes such as my own grandmother becoming as close to pain-free as she can be for the first time in decades (I will write about how we accomplished that very soon!).

I have spent the last few months (including the holidays) deep within a creative space while finishing my book, Family Health Revolution. This process has taken me places I really needed to go and has allowed me to communicate what I have learned about family health to other parents like me. It has been cathartic, exhausting, daunting, but mostly empowering, and I can’t wait to share it with you within the coming weeks.

We tend to reflect and create when we have some space to do so, or when we turn our focus to relationships, start to question why we do what we do, ask ourselves what we want and desire and if we are living the lives we want to live, and the holidays, in particular, are a special time full of possibility for the future. The new year brings with it evolved versions of ourselves. We can try to make sense of what we do and why. We can ask ourselves these questions so we can also guide our families. We can reflect and have a good look in the mirror. With the new year comes the potential for change, for newness, for progress, and for creation. Reflection allows us insight, gives us a map toward the goals we set for our futures.

The holidays can be a time of pivotal moments, and one of mine was creating a literary piece I was inspired to write while teaching a creative writing/philosophy class to my small group of lively, inspired and inspirational teens. I wrote a spoken word poem for one of my daughters that is the culmination of everything that has been thrashing, no, rolling, no, splashing around in my head and heart for the last 6 years, or maybe even since her birth 17.5 years ago, about our experiences together. And I feel like this piece is, like her, everything I had hoped for.

Many of you are parents and would be able to relate to what I had to sort out, not necessarily because you have a child with a chronic or life-threatening illness, or because your child has grown out of childhood and into teenhood, or because you have had boughts of burnout or pain or because you have come out the other side ready to allow your child to have wings. But you have had unique challenges and triumphs that have led you to your own conclusions about life and love and what this whole parenthood thing means. For me, it is protecting while allowing them to be independent, it is about guidance in order to empower. For example, I don’t want to tell my children what to think, but that they can and should think. I want them to understand that they can always make a situation better and that those solutions are for them to uncover.

I am sharing this poem with you, fellow parents and caregivers, fellow sons and daughters, in case you find connection within, in case it sparks some reflection of your own, the reasons for my writing Family Health Revolution folded within the stanzas.

Family Health Revolution is not a book of poetry, but a book that expresses, outlines, and demystifies the practicalities and solutions to so many questions I asked and had to answer throughout this on-going journey of parenthood – “how do I raise healthy children so they can have the best life possible when faced with the realities of our often physically, emotionally, and socially toxic environment?”

In my own journey, the “why” was easy to figure out.

The “how,” not so much.

I have spent the last 6 years expanding my own understanding of health. I have spent a great deal of time figuring out how I was going to present the information I wanted to share in this book. And I hope I have done the research of many brilliant family health advocates, researchers, and scientists, my teachers and mentors, my own experience, and the experiences of my family justice.

Although Family Health Revolution is not a book of poetry, I cannot introduce the motivation behind it in any other way than in that poem that poured out from me the other day, a poem I called: “Firsts: With My First Daughter.”

So, in celebration of newness, of possibility, of a healthy, fresh new year full of health and vitality, I wish you all so many more firsts with your own families; some of them joyful, some of them hard, but all of them beautiful.

“Firsts: With My First Daughter.”

Listen to the first take of the audio: (contains mistakes, but you get the idea:)

Read the Text.

Preorder a copy of Family Health Revolution.

Happy New year to you and yours.

May you and your family be well,

Revolutionary Mama,

Carla.