Resources

Vegucated

Wowza! This was the first movie we watched that really made me realize and understand we need to make some serious changes for our future and our children. We tried a vegan/vegetarian meal plan for 2 weeks and loved it. We had reservations like the individuals in this movie had. I’m not sure at the time we were fully committed to going vegan but our eyes were opened to the idea. This movie really helps you dive into the idea of veganism and how it can help change our planet and protect its natural resources.

Going vegan is really a mind set. Again, we are conditioned by society to believe we need animal meat daily in order to survive. Cavemen did not eat animal meat daily. It was a special treat if you caught something meaty and brought it home to your family or village. If you truly want to become vegan for whatever reason, this is a really good gateway into a new healthy lifestyle. There have been too many studies showing that maintaining a plant based diet helps right the wrongs in the body and allows you to be the best version of you. It is also lighter on the planet and the carbon footprint.

Fed Up

What a good movie. It’s truly amazing how our government chooses to lie to us and keep us sick by literally “sugarcoating” everything. We are so addicted to sugar and other terrible additives and are not aware of real food anymore. We have an obesity epidemic and it’s now starting to intrude upon our children’s lives. They are the ones who are suffering because we as adults are allowing them to start off with the sugar laden foods and comfort foods. We are not looking at the cost to their lives when we allow them to be exposed to media and packaged foods, and we are not educating ourselves on what a healthy lifestyle (diet) looks like for long term sustainability. 

We as a family vote with our dollar and are proud to. We buy as local as we can and from smaller markets. We support/frequent Farmer’s Markets. We understand it costs more, however it has a smaller carbon footprint since it doesn’t have to travel so far. It’s definitely harder on the bank account, but this is how we take our stance.

Food Inc.

Found this beauty after we went vegetarian. I now understand why my staunch vegan friends would post (what I felt at the time were) offensive videos. I can’t believe we as a society have dissociated ourselves from all sentient beings, as supreme. The atrocities that happen to live animals daily is abhorrent. All in the name of food. We are not supposed to have so much animal meat in our diets. Yet we are brainwashed to believe we are deficient in vitamins and minerals that only come from animal proteins. We now worship pigs, cows, goats, chickens and ducks and we destroy vital land to accommodate these animals for FOOD! We negate the lives of other creatures simply because they are not edible. We need to learn how to look at food from a different perspective. 

I absolutely believe that when we eat animals that have been through a massive slaughterhouse, they are mistreated and abused, forced antibiotics, live and sleep in their own feces, are crammed together and are ripped away from mothers after birth; we are consuming their fears, their abuses, their traumas, their energy which is weak and the cortisol that is constantly being pumped naturally throughout their nervous systems due to over stress from their treatment prior to their slaughter. Do you ever stop and think that this might be a massive contributor to the depression, fear, sadness and disconnection most humans feel today? Chew on that for a spell.

A Knight’s Tale

I like this movie because it is a fun look at how you can change yourself if you are not satisfied or fulfilled by your current circumstances, your personality, your body, your career, your life in general, you can create the life you want. You don’t have to be what your parents or society has raised you to be. You can create a new version of you and it doesn’t matter. You have sovereignty over your life and the outcome. You just need to believe it.

Braiding Sweetgrass

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

What a beautiful book. I am having a hard time with where to start. This book is chock full of beautiful stories and some sad ones. It’s devastating what we did as a society by taking away their ceremonies and heritage and make them become something they were not. The author weaves in her life stories as well as her heritage. It’s beautiful that there are some elders who still carry tradition and are trying to instill it in others in order to maintain their culture and lineage. I have cried so many times during this book. I hope you enjoy this as much as I have. I cannot seem to stop talking about this book and recommending it to everyone, including men!

I’m personally enjoying the audible version, which is narrated by the author herself.

Women Who Run with Wolves

by Clarissa Pinkol Estes

This book is full of beautiful mythical stories. It is geared to help women re-member who they are. They are strong, powerful, smart, caring, nurturing and whole souls who need freedom to be the best versions of themselves. We have allowed societal conditioning to negate the integral part of ourselves and that we are wild and full of life and we need to support each other instead of creating competition. My favorite stories are “The Tiger and The Eyelash” and “Red Shoes”.

Please read this yourself and have your daughters read this as well!

The Four Agreements

by don Miguel Ruiz

At one point I counted how many copies of this we had in or house and it was 5. Haha, I guess we like this book. What a great way to live life by. His teachings are so concise and full of wisdom. What I gained from this book is, I have no control over life and what happens. I have to live it my way and be a good person at the same time. 

Be impeccable with your word, what we say to ourselves can and does directly affect our journey in this lifetime. Be nice to yourself always.

Don’t take things personally, how easy would life be if we just understood that each human beings perspective is different and based on their conditioning and or seen through a different lens? It has nothing to do with you! We would have so much freedom to be authentic and we would have more compassion for one another. 

Don’t make assumptions, always ask without fear for clarification. Assumptions create way too much drama in our lives. 

Always do your best, if we truly believed we are always doing our best with what we have, then we can forgive ourselves and our lineage for what they passed down. They did the best they could and so on. You can make changes in your life to ensure you are always doing your best. The first thing is to be aware….

Past Life Regression

by Brian Weiss

Fuck It and Let That Shit Go

by Pura Rasa

Ho’oponopono

by Sandra Rolus

Nahko and Medicine for the People

I was introduced to this amazing soulful group through a friend who I was working with for spiritual growth. He sent me the video of “Aloha Ke Akua”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsgP8LkEopM  Hooked immediately and am so grateful to my friend everyday and every time I listen to their music. It resonates with my soul and has such strong and loving messages. I can’t help but rock out and play their music as loud as I can without busting my speakers…which has already happened….

Xavier Rudd

Listening to a mixture of music relevant to Nahko and this guy pops up. First song was “Spirit Bird”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEomVfNBgp4

Who the heck is this guy and how have I missed you? His music is so transcendent.  He can play a didgeridoo like its an extension of his body. We had the pleasure of seeing him perform here in Bend and it was one of the best concerts for us that summer. He was one of the artists I had wished to see this year and bam his concert came across my path and we jumped on the opportunity to see him. My favorite song so far is “Walk Away”. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GQvdgT6Eh0

I listen to this regularly as a beautiful reminder that change is amazing and is part of our growth process. Be okay with your path and have self compassion.

Stick Figure

These guys are so real and I love all their albums. They have evolved so much and we have seen them in concert over a dozen times and, can’t wait to see them again. I love Reggae music and these guys (So Cal white boys) are so much fun. Again, another group that I blast and rock out to. “Smiles on Faces”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxEpGJQxG40

WookieFoot

These guys crack me up. I mean come on…WookieFoot? Really? What is a Wookiefoot? I went to their website and I can’t find anything regarding the name and where it came from. I am super curious. They are such a strangely diverse group. You think you know what genre they are and then they throw a curveball and your left scratching your head with insane intrigue. They are wickedly awesome and I love the lyrics so much. “Earthling” is great! Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHkyuvjjM_g

Another song not to be missed is “Just Visiting”, a beautiful reminder of how all this fortune and glory that we so desparately seek is not going with us when we die.  My favorite line: “you will never see a hearse with a trailer hitch.”

hitch.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE1VgH_gD5Q