by Kelley Black, Founder of Balancing the Executive Life

"Women start careers in business and other professions with the same level of intelligence, education and commitment as men. Yet comparatively few reach the top echelons." ~ McKinsey Leadership Project



Does the statement above make you cringe? When I first read it I felt my stomach turn and I realized I was holding my breath. Why? The biggest challenges in modern work, life and organizations need and respond to what are traditionally thought to be "female" strengths and styles. Here are some examples...

Managing and developing global teams - requires more sensitivity than traditional localized structures

Approaching cultural diversity as a strength - requires enhanced intuitional, projective and protective intelligences for greater perception, awareness and openness to possibilities

Creating inclusive, responsible plans and making ethical decisions - requires compassion, humanity and a spiritual connection

Again, these strengths and styles are all traditionally female.

Centered Leadership is a new approach to leadership that helps women gain confidence, optimal health. It is a model for thriving in business and life. 

Centered Leadership is about expanding your spiritual, mental, emotional and physical capacity so you can achieve peak performance without burning out in the process. Centered Leadership makes you a better strategic thinker, inspires others and positively impacts the bottom line at home & work.

Naam Coaching gives you the support you need to be a Centered Leader. Naam Coaching expands your capacity, connects you to your feminine spirit and the strength therein. It is a game changer for business and life.

Here are some best practices that we encourage you to integrate into each day to achieve Centered Leadership:

Establish a Collaborative Mindset - View your colleagues as potential allies rather than threats. The same with your spouses, partners and anyone else you may be having a conflict with. Ask for their opinions and listen to what they have to say. Work on inclusion and resist exclusion. Use collaboration and cooperation to remove tension.

Reach out to others - Find ways to connect on a personal level. Proactively look for opportunities to help others. Focus on what you can do to benefit the other person NOT vice versa.

Raise the bar on your health/wellbeing – Your health is more than an annual checkup. Commit to optimal health by taking care of your mental, emotional, spiritual and physical bodies. Do daily practices to alleviate stress. Build a true partnership with your healthcare providers and consider them to be “trusted advisors.” Understand your energetic imprint, karmic influences and ways of bringing self-healing and a permanent cure to symptoms that manifest in the physical body.

Develop and use your intuition - Trusting your intuition is a great way to enhance your decision-making skills. Listen to your instincts and debrief with a trusted advisor, colleague or mentor. Note the outcomes of your intuitive decision-making and capture them in writing. Doing so will help you develop your intuitive ability.

Meditate daily - Meditation is essentially a deeper state of thought and relaxation then we normally achieve. It is good for health, healing, de-stressing and will heighten your connection to your intuition. Naam Meditation will open your heart, awaken and enhance your feminine strengths. It makes you grounded, authentic and attuned to who you really are and your vision.

Build your confidence - Get comfortable in your own skin by valuing your inner worth. This helps you get rid of jealousy, pettiness and the tendency to gossip. You will be able to assess situations and people neutrally and objectively for mutually beneficial outcomes.

Put yourself out there - When it comes to connecting with others take a risk. Go out of your way to greet a colleague. Be the first to say hello. Don't wait to initiate contact and never ignore another person. Everyone longs for connection and it can simply be a big friendly smile.

And remember what Katherine Graham, the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 enterprise (the Washington Post Company) famously said, "To love what you do and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?"

Are you interested in being a Centered Leader? We have support and proven strategies for you raise your personal bar on Centered Leadership through our monthly Naam Coaching Group for Women @ Oriens beginning September 20th, 2011.

Visit www.balancingexec.com.

  by Elizabeth Carpenter, MS, L.Ac.

“There is absolutely a fundamental idea when it comes to weight & obesity - that the way you get fat is by taking in more calories than you expend. It is the gluttony & sloth hypothesis: We eat too much & exercise too little. It sounds undeniable, but this doesn’t tell us anything meaningful about why we get fat.” 

             -Stanford & Harvard University scientist-journalist, Gary Tobbs

As a health professional I first found this news shocking. And then, I looked at the research.

The good news / bad news is two-fold:
1. You absolutely can take charge of your weight, by addressing the right issue.
2. Obesity & Weight Loss Resistance and The New Millennium Diseases – cancers, autoimmune issues, Alzheimers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, the list goes on – share a root problem. Address it and you reduce your risks for all of them.

In 1990 the CDC informed us that 14% of Americans were obese, and warned us that if we didn’t change what we were doing, we would face an epidemic. 14% might not sound like a lot, until we think about 300 million people.

What did we do with that information as a nation? We did what we do best—we started selling. Suddenly lots of doctors and experts on TV appeared, telling us how to lose weight and be healthy. New books came out every month. New articles in magazines appeared weekly. New pills. Even Subway and Taco Bell came out with diets.

After millions and millions of dollars spent, 9 years later—by 1999 – the CDC told us that now 20% of Americans were obese. More diets, more pills, more experts, more books and articles. In 2008 the percentage of obese Americans leapt to 24-30%. The current projection is that by 2020, 75% of us will be obese.
75% is not a big number or even a huge number, it’s a ridiculous number. It points to a very sick nation.

So the question is, “Is our nutrition working?” Clearly, the answer is “No.”

So what is our real problem with our weight? (hint: it’s the same as with our health)

Our problem is we have bought into 3 Myths that make us fatter, not leaner, sicker, not healthier.

Myth #1: It’s About Calories IN vs. Calories OUT
It’s partially true, if you reduce your calories and exercise more, on average a woman will lose 15-20 pounds, a man 20-25. But most diet/exercise warriors will gain it back as the body adjusts to its new set point. It will require greater and greater restriction and increase in exercise to continue losing weight. It is also likely you will yo-yo the same pounds back on when uncontrollable urges hit in response to the next stressful event.

But worse, for most, the pound loss will be muscle rather than fat, because we have not taught the body to burn fat! So it burns muscle instead!

Myth #2: More exercise = More Weight Loss
But a review of research on exercise shows us there is no compelling evidence that exercise affects weight in a permanent way. Exercise is extremely important for our health—for many reasons! But it is not the crux of sustainable weight loss. To lose weight, exercise is the cherry on the top.

Myth #3: Fat Makes You Fat
Fat does not make you fat. It is the inability to burn fat that makes you fat! In fact, good fats HELP you burn fat! Fat has gotten a bad rap. We have grossly oversimplified the cholesterol issue, and thrown the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. Learning to use good fats effectively can turn us into fat-burning, lean muscle-building machines and balance our cholesterol and hormone picture for optimal health.

The unfortunate truth is, we have trained ourselves to be sugar-burners, not fat-burners. And as long as this remains true, we will not sustain our weight loss. And, we will lose our health.

Your body can only use 2 things for energy:
1. Sugar
2. Fat

Why Your Weight Issue Is Not Your “Fault”
Healthy people can burn both sugar and fat for energy. But most Americans can only burn sugar. The inability to burn fat for energy leads to uncontrollable cravings. And this undesirable situation pivots on a hormone called Leptin.

The hormone Leptin controls food cravings and fat burning instructions for your body.   The hormone Insulin controls sugar in and out of the cell.

Truth: To understand weight loss in the 21st century, you have to understand hormones. And to fix the hormone issue, you have to go deeper than hormones. To fix our weight and health problems, we must work at the cellular level.

“ Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them. “—Albert Einstein

We are throwing pills, diets, hormones, effort, information and a whole lot of money at symptoms, when the real problem lies at a deeper level – at the level of the cell. We need to understand and address the root cause, not the symptom that we see.

Obesity is a symptom. Weight Loss Resistance is a symptom. Diseases are symptoms. The pandemic / epidemic we really face is cellular inflammation.

And the cost of cellular inflammation is far greater than our appearance. Cellular inflammation drives cardiovascular disease and diabetes, cancers and other autoimmune issues, brain fog and attention issues, fatigue and sleep problems, depression, anxiety, thyroid and hormone imbalances of all kinds. In fact cellular inflammation is now understood to be the root of almost every health issue we face, as well as premature aging. It is the great plague of the 21st century. It is the heart and foundation of what we now call The New Millennium Diseases. And you can address it.

But what about people who are eating healthily and still can’t lose weight, still get sick?
Most of us who are health conscious are eating well and taking supplements. You can take the best supplements in the world. You can eat organic, vegan, raw and paleo. You can eat the Blood Type diet or take any other proven approach. But if you cannot get your nutrition into your cells, it doesn’t matter.

If your diet is good and your supplementation is good and you are still sick or overweight, you can be confident your problem is not your nutrition, it is your bionutrition. It’s about your nutrition getting into your cells. That is the purpose of food, it’s why we eat. And its how we command ourselves toward wellness or illness.

Would you like to overcome your problem with weight and reverse weight loss resistance? 

Are you ready to regain your health and solve chronic issues? 

Are you excited to stack the odds in your favor against serious illness? 

Or to slow down the aging clock?

To do so you need to: Understand, Plan, Execute.
1. Understand Your Issue – let’s test, not guess. Through important fact finding questions, and testing we’ll determine what’s wrong and what we need to address.

2. Plan – Once we know what’s going on, we’ll create a realistic plan you can follow to achieve your weight loss or health goal.

3. Execute & Empower– a combination of at-home steps, in-office care, and a support system will step you through to success.

How to Get Started:

Contact Oriens to set up an Evaluation or Re-Evaluation: 212-213-5785 or info@oriensliving.com

You are also invited to attend:

A Special Oriens Lecture: Why You Can’t Lose Weight and How You Can
Speaker: Elizabeth Carpenter, MS, L.Ac.

Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Time: 6:30-7:45pm
Where: Oriens Living Lounge

Cost:  Free

RSVP REQUIRED