This week’s guest, Nell Stephenson, is author of “Paleoista: Gain Energy, Get Lean and Feel Fabulous with the Diet You Were Born to Eat”. As a nutritionist, Nell is committed to teaching people how to eat real foods for good health and weight loss. The Paleo diet is increasing in popularity as a healthy way to eat, more than just a diet. The Paleo diet recommends that we eat the food the ‘cavemen’ ate, including fresh vegetables, wild fish, grass-fed beef and healthy fats. Nell discusses how fruits and vegetables have more fiber than wheat products, which are not recommended on this diet. This is a sustainable food plan that is how are “genetically meant to be eating.” Eating this way leads to optimal health, being fit, and healthy skin.

A “paleoista” eats no refined foods, plans her meals in advance, and only consumes “real food,” which is healthier than supplements. In addition, she recommends taking a fish oil supplement. Protein, vegetables and fruit are recommended at every meal. She ends the interview with sharing tips for keeping kitchens healthy and clean. For more information please visit http://paleoista.com/

Listen: Paleoista

Dr. Michael Broder’s new book, Stage Climbing: The Shortest Path to Your Highest Potential, identifies seven distinct stages from which we view our lives. Once you recognize the stage at which you are currently operating in an aspect of life, you can then choose a target stage consistent with the goal you are aspiring to. Dr. Broder discusses his system for getting people to their highest potential in their professional, personal, spiritual and all other aspects of life. In any given moment, we are living in one of seven stages. The seven stages are: Stage One: Infancy and when people are profoundly dependent upon others, Stage Two: Toddlers and living without internalized limits, resulting in undisciplined behaviors. Stage Three: Usual stage for late childhood and adults who are rigid rule abiders. Stage Four is adolescence and when someone has many neurotic and approval-seeking behaviors. Stage Five is the typical for adults, where you are a role juggler and function fairly well. Stages Six and Seven are the target stages that most people aspire to by enabling them to live at their highest potential. Stage Six is the mature adult who operates according to his or her unique internally generated values and passions. Stage Seven is the highest stage attainable when we find fulfillment as the result of our benevolence and unique contribution to others.

Dr.Broder describes how to identify and get rid of the various ‘hooks’ that can cause people to get stuck in the lower stages. Once we get rid of the blocks that prevent us from achieving our highest potential, we can better discover our passions, which often helps us discover our purpose in life. Our passion, fueled by gratitude, helps us attain fulfillment when we reach out in altruistic compassion and love for others. For more information, including how to obtain free gifts (including from host Mary Treacy O’Keefe) when you order Stage Climbing, please visit www.stageclimbing.com or www.drmichaelbroder.com

Listen: Stage Climbing with Michael Broder, PhD

In her book, The Reluctant Donor, author Suzanne Ruff shares the story of growing up under the shadow of a PKD, Polycystic Kidney Disease, which claimed numerous members of her immediate and extended family. PKD continues to affects 19 members of their family. In this show, Suzanne and her sister Joanne discuss how their family dealt with the threat of a terminal illness that could affect any of them. PKD is the most common life-threatening disease in the country. The disease causes kidneys to fail quickly and there are only two options for treatment: dialysis and kidney transplant. When Joanne collapsed from PKD herself, she was put on dialysis until a donor could be found. Suzanne was the best match for her sister’s kidney transplant, yet she was very resistant to donating her kidney to Joanne. The journey towards eventually agreeing to donate her kidney was filled with life-altering lessons and a deeper realization about the love she has for her sister.

Suzanne and Joanne share a few of the many “God-wink” incidents that seemed meant to be. Suzanne interpreted some of them as being ‘thin place’ signs from her mother and a beloved aunt who both have died. These events were very faith-affirming and helped Suzanne and Joanne cope with the fear and anxiety of living with a life-threatening illness. Suzanne now says “count every day is a blessing and cherish the ones you love.” Both women discuss the impact of their faith as the greatest gift their mother gave them and how their faith was strengthened after what both women went through during the transplant process. Suzanne helps us understand the miracle of organ donation, both from living and deceased organ donors. She tells how she prepared for the surgery by getting into excellent physical shape and this also helped her heal more quickly. She also prayed and elicited the support of friends around the country. Be inspired by this conversation between two loving sisters who shared a transformation experience of kidney donation. For more information, please visit www.thereluctantdonor.com

Listen: Hope, Healing and WellBeing – The Reluctant Donor with Suzanne Ruff

Paul Batz is seasoned coach, facilitator, business consultant and author of What Really Works: Blending the Seven F’s for a Life That Matters. The 7 Fs for a meaningful life are Family, Family, Friends and Fun Finances, Fitness and Future. Along with his co-author, Tim Schmidt, Paul doesn’t believe in concept of “work-life balance” which so many people struggle with. Rather, the team advocates ‘blending’ various important aspects of our lives, creating an interplay of the 7 Fs. After surveying thousands of individuals about their lives, Paul concludes that “our lives that are most satisfying are when we blend together many of the 7 Fs” in specific activities. He recommends having ‘articulate goals’ for doing this. His research shows that eople are most satisfied with family life and least satisfied with their fitness and finances. A sense of wellbeing is enhanced by gratefulness and when you are grateful for a good financial situation, satisfaction is highest. He shares some of the stories of people who have high satisfaction in the area of the 7 Fs to demonstrate techniques that help people One important tip is “What get scheduled, gets done.” He discusses the role of faith and grace on people’s ability to cope with life’s challenges. Paul also gives advice for fostering meaningful friendships and discusses the difference between male and female friendships. For more information, please visit www.paulbatz.com and www.whatreallyworks.com.

Listen: Paul Batz

This week’s guest is Edith Namm, a inspiring 86 year-old counselor, handwriting analyst, author and survivor of thyroid, breast, colon and liver cancer. We discuss the latest of her eight books, Change to a Positive Mindset and Extend Your Lifeline: A Journey to Miles of Smiles, Positive Energy Power, Hope, Health and Happiness. An increasing body of evidence supports the concept that we think affects what we believe, what we believe affects our attitudes, our attitudes affect how we act and how we act influences our relationships with others. Our words have the power to generate both positive and negative energy concerning our beliefs, attitudes, and actions. Edith discusses some of the 11 ways to increase our “Positive Energy Power” (PEP) by focusing on positive thoughts and actions.

Host Mary Treacy O’Keefe was inspired and motivated by Edith’s amazing attitude towards life, which enabled her to discover many positive aspects of surviving her various cancer diagnoses. Despite healthy living, Edith overcame the genetics within her family, many of whom died from cancer. Using her expertise in handwriting analysis, Edith discovered how our handwriting can reveal many things about ourselves. Handwriting is ‘brain-writing’ whereby our brain retrieves information and express our emotions through every message we write in longhand. Thus, it can become a way to get in touch with inner feelings like anger, sadness, depression. By expressing both positive and negative feeling through handwriting, people can improve how they feel when they write about happy, healthy thoughts. For example, when you eliminate ‘No, Not, and Never” from messages and replace them with “yes, yes, yes!” you switch from negative to positive energy. It’s helpful to write a letter expressing why you are upset, to get those feelings “out of your system” then tear it up. It’s also important to express our appreciation for others and ourselves in written notes.

She also discusses the power of the foods we eat and to become aware of when negative emotions manifest themselves in poor food choices. Edith’s mission to help people become aware of the impact of their choices and the consequences of emotional stress.

At the end of the interview, Edith shares a ‘meant to be’ story about how her initial cancer diagnosis resulted in her retirement from counseling and propelled her interest in graphology. She is grateful for what’s she has learned about how writing positive messages can enable us to live longer and more fully. For more information, please visit www.share-a-smile-ambassadors.com and www.enamm.com.

Listen: Edith Namm

Dr. Esther Sternberg, author of Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and WellBeing explains how she was drawn to the field of mind/body medicine by the interactions with a single patient, whose recovery motivated her to discover the connection between the brain and immune system. She describes how the body responds to stressful events. Fortunately, our bodies have many stress-reducing mechanisms, including the ‘relaxation response’ which is a way to ‘reset’ the stress response and bring balance back into our lives.

She shares some of the anecdotes from her book, Healing Spaces, including how views of nature enhance the healing process, especially for people who are hospitalized. Art and music therapy are also potent forces for healing. When someone looks at certain scenes, it can evoke pleasant memories that can help replace stressful feelings. There are sacred locations that also offer healing, even when there is no physical cure. At places like Lourdes, France, sometimes miraculous cures do occur. She also discusses other many health benefits that result from prayer, meditation, and creating a healing space between two people who care about each other. For more information, please visit www.esthersternberg.com

NOTE: Dr. Sternberg will be speaking at 4:00pm on Monday, April 30 at the University of Minnesota, with the Center for Spirituality and Healing ( www.csh.umn.edu) and May 1, at 7pm at The Marsh in Minnetonka, MN ( www.themarsh.com)

Listen: Esther Sternberg

Childhood obesity has become an epidemic. So we invited Melanie Nelson, Founder and CEO of Learning ZoneXpress, to discuss how we can make nutrition fun for kids so they don’t become obese. Using her background as a family and consumer science teacher, Melanie is committed to creating helpful products that encourage children to eat healthy foods. In this interview, Melanie discusses the My Plate concept that has replaced the Food Pyramid as a guideline for healthy eating. She then shares various tips for parents. For example, If a child consistently eats fruits and vegetables first during meals, they will not develop a weight problem. Melanie discusses low cost ways for getting the best foods into a child’s diet. Fortunately, school systems are being responsive to the concern about children’s eating habits. Learn how several positive changes have occurred regarding children and nutrition. However there is still more to be done as far as educating children in a creative way. Melanie’s company, Learning ZoneXpress, has developed a video that encourages children to consume enough water, to laugh, limit themselves to 2 hours of screen time or less, and engage in 1 hour of activity. For more information, please visit www.learningzonexpress.com.

Listen: Melanie Nelson

Our guest, Julie Silver is a doctor at Harvard, mom, cancer survivor and author of You Can Heal Yourself: A Guide to Physical and Emotional Recovery After Injury or Illness. Dr. Silver shares her own experience of “knowing something was wrong,” despite 2 physicians reassuring her that “everything was fine.” Eventually she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Based on her own and her patients’ experiences, she discusses the pros and cons of accepting a ‘new normal’ before a person’s post-treatment quality of life is actually experienced. Dr. Silver shares her observations regarding the effect of stress and the impact of positive and negative emotions.Then, she discusses some of her own self-care practices including movement and exercise. Exercise can speed up the healing process. It improves memory and concentration and is the most powerful medicine we can take, affecting every cell in our body in a positive way.

Regarding pain,mood and sleeplessness, these often are cluster symptoms that worsen when all are present together. Specific strategies can help reduce stress, sleeplessness and pain, after we first check to see what the cause of these symptoms might be. For example, one suggestion for sleeplessness is to first reflect up why it’s so hard to fall or stay asleep. Then develop a ‘sleep hygiene” strategy, including avoiding heavy meals, caffeine, and exercising before bedtime. Tune in for more great suggestions from Dr. Silver. For more information, please visit www.juliesilvermd.com

Listen: Julie Silver

Mary Hayes Grieco’s new book is Unconditional Forgiveness: A Simple and Proven Method to Forgive Everyone and Everything, which is based on her work as founder and director of Midwest Institute for Forgiveness Training. Mary begins our conversation with a description of a recent forgiveness training she did for women in Kuwait. Her model for forgiveness includes eight “stages to freedom” which are spiritually based but very appropriate for people of all faith backgrounds and traditions. To Mary, forgiveness is a process for releasing an expectation that is causing us to suffer. it’s a private act that one does for oneself to release stuck energy. The benefits of forgiveness are for the forgiver but also ripple into the person’s relationships with others. She shares stories that demonstrate the effect of a person’s ability to forgive another. The eight steps are 1) Being willing to move forward, 2) Express and release emotional pain 3) Release expectations from your mind, 4) Restore your personal boundaries, 5) Open up to get your needs met in a different way. 6) Receive healing energy from the Universe; 7) Send unconditional love to the other person or situation and release them; See the good in another person and discern what was learned from the experience. Mary discusses some of the steps and shares powerful stories about people who’ve forgiven others that have done them tremendous harm. Mary provides hope and inspiration for anyone who also may have experienced trauma in their own lives. For more information please visit www.maryhayesgrieco.com.

Listen: Mary Hayes Grieco

Dr. Alex Lanning and Margaret Lulic discuss how our homes have a tremendous influence on our health and wellbeing. Dr. Lanning is a holistic chiropractor and Margaret is a consulting philosopher and author of Home Inspired by Love and Beauty. They share ideas about what we can do in our homes to make them healthier. Margaret suggests people ‘listen to the sounds of their home” and decide if they are healing and calming or have a negative effect upon us. Sounds affect the beauty of your home. Alex discusses the importance of using natural cleaning products and reducing clutter. “Taking the temperature of our home” is like noticing the ambient temperature of our bodies so our homes should be too warm or cold. We can take the temperature of our home by noticing how we feel when we enter our homes: is our heart racing or do we feel relaxed? Margaret stresses the need for creating a workplace environment that also fosters wellbeing, including incorporating plants.

Host Mary Treacy O’Keefe describes how the Well Within office was created to be a healing and welcoming space for all who visit it. The colors were determined by a Feng Shui expert, who, together with the staff, cleared then blessed the space before anyone moved in.

Alex and Margaret will be speaking at an event, From House to Home on March 24 in the Twin Cities, where they will discuss more about having a relationship with your home that enhances your health and wellbeing. For more information please visit our guests’ websites: www.kinetichealing.com and www.mlulic.com

Listen: Alex Lanning