Mix together in a bowl the following until well blended:

3 cups unsweetened coconut flakes (dried)
1.5 cups cacao powder (I like using Cacao Power by Navitas naturals)
1/3 cup coconut butter or coconut oil or if you are a carnivore 1/3 cup butter
1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract (I use Simply Organic)
1 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon sea salt or Himalayan salt

Using hands or a spoon, shape dough into bite sized rounds & either dehydrate 115 degrees F for 12-24 hours. Alternately, if you do not have a dehydrater, use oven at lowest setting (usually around 135 degrees F) and place on parchment paper over a cookie sheet. I like them chewy on the inside and dried on the outside. They will actually freeze fairly well too. Makes about 30-36 cookies.

To change this up: i) exchange the vanilla extract with Simply Organic almond extract or ii) replace cacao with the same amount of finely ground almond flour.

Place a generous cup of almonds in water for a couple of hours (ask me why?). Rinse & drain. Put almonds in a blender with a couple of cups spring water & blend for 3-5 minutes on high. Strain mixture. The best way is to use cheese-cloth but I find it too much work so I use two strainers back to back to catch the nut pulp while the liquid drains into a bowl. Sometimes I help it along with a wooden spoon. Place nut milk back into blender & add another cup of water, add in a cap full (1/4 teaspoon) of almond extract & a tablespoon of honey then blend for a minute. You are done. Store in a glass container in the fridge & it will be good for a week.

Special notes: For infants replace honey with agave as infants <2 should not have honey. (ask me why?) You can also use pulp on oatmeal, in cereal, soup or to coat meats like fish, chicken – still lots of goodness there too.

What lessons have been learned as individuals, as families, sons or daughters, as communities, as citizens or as a country? Maybe it’s time to take a moment to write them down…

Are better choices being made in how you think, live, eat and play?
If not why not?  Are you waiting for the right time, right place, right moment, right job, or the right relationship? Is there a right “anything” or do we just need to begin it now?  Which comes first – the choice to be different or do we just become different by something happening differently to us?  Is it our mindset that dictates our feelings and thus behaviours direction and how we see the world or is it the world around us that dictates our mindset? Might it be both?

At the end of the day, what path can you control?  Your mind and its internal conversation or the external world? Or do you wait for things to just change around you and only then change your mind.  How can life be expected to change from where it is when we arise each day with the same thoughts and feelings and behaviors as the day before?

Did you arise this morning and follow the same routines, the same way, with the same thoughts, doing the same things you did the day before that and likely will do tomorrow? How often do we go through the day on auto-pilot?

Being creatures of habit we do our bathroom routines, brush our teeth with the same hand, toothbrush and toothpaste, hair style as per yesterday.   Make-up yes usually  - the same thing.   We wash and dress in a similar way, with minor differences to then have a mostly similarly prepared breakfast with our coffee.  We walk the dog along the same street – to the point the dog can walk literally out of habit walk himself.  We get our belongings, pick up our keys with our usual hand, purse/briefcase is similar.

We put on our coat the same way we put on all our coats. We get into the car or transit at roughly the same time and drive along the usual route taken all the previous days.  The music we listen to is often from the same station and we may tune in or out along the route to the office.  We can continue with the rest of the day which consists of similar routines practiced day-in and day-out until we eventually do the reversal of the morning routine to get back into bed.

There is nothing we think or feel about the day that is any different to any other day. Yet we expect change.  Herein lies the quandry. If we do not change anything, how can life change next year? Will you not be doing the same things only yet be another year older?

For 2012 what do YOU want?  What can you do NOW that will be different? Taking stock of your answers to these questions will help you take the first step to a real “New” year.

Recognize your inner abilities, motivations and attitude

Your “Best Version of You”TM has to do with the way your ability, motivation and attitude combine to generate the outcomes you see reflected in your daily personal and professional life.

How we go about our day and the level of focus we give each task will be ranked moment to moment in how we feel about it, our talent in that particular area and our talent to perform the task/job. I may find myself absolutely focused in delivering an adjustment of a patient but perhaps not so much in cleaning the sink at the end of dinner.

The former is of significant importance to me while the latter although is important, and this difference in my level of focus could allow for some error or less than my full attention.

Do you beat yourself up if something is not just absolutely right? Do you wait and delay until every perspective is considered and worked out to launch a new plan because it is not yet perfect? Will it ever be? Do you avoid situations because you have not practiced enough?  Why is this of any importance?

The pursuit of perfection can be paralyzing for some

Excellence can be achieved when we bring our best self to the moment

Being our best in the moment

Download these free resources to begin your own life changing journey.