Houses of Healing

Insidious Depression

Depression is awful – in whatever form you may experience it. You would think that something that feels so bad would propel you to do anything to get rid of it. You know - like a noxious substance that we accidentally eat and then get violent spasms to vomit.

You’d think that if you are feeling depressed you would be hightailing it to engage in some of the known effective strategies for getting rid of depression. You might visit your doctor for an anti-depressant or your local therapist for cognitive behavioral therapy. You’d start exercising. You’d be getting out in the sunlight more. You’d change your diet. You’d learn to meditate and develop a mindful approach to life. You’d take some nutritional supplements like 5HTP or St. John’s Wort.

But when you are depressed most of the time you find yourself avoiding any and all of those things.

The insidious thing about depression (and for that matter most mood imbalances) is this – depression has inherent in itself a hidden pull to stay depressed. When you are depressed, there is a part of the depression that feels good because it is familiar- as illogical as that may sound. In some subtle way, there is a tendency to keep yourself feeling depressed.

Rationally you’d want to stop being depressed because it feels so bad. But anything that will help you move out of depression also comes with this heavy internal response “It’s just too hard” or some similar variation such as:
• I can’t do that.
• I tried that and it didn’t work.
• I don’t see how that would work.
• I can’t remember to do that.
• I’m too busy, tired, overwhelmed, etc to do that.
• That doesn’t seem like something that would work … something that would be fun or something I want to do, etc.

However you spin it, depression (and other mood imbalances, too) becomes a closed system that locks you within the system. Insidious, crazy, and perverse.

Here is a little bit of the physiology about that:

The thing about mood imbalances is that the biochemistry in your brain always seeks its current baseline - which means that it is designed to stay the way it is. Your brain chemistry always seeks its neurotransmitter baseline and this baseline is kept in place by certain enzymatic processes in the body. It can take 6 months or more of consistent, regular input to change those biochemical enzymatic processes and thus your neurotransmitter profile.

Your brain chemistry drives you to think and do things that will keep your brain chemistry just the way it is. Your current brain chemistry is driving you to avoid thinking or doing things that would shift your biochemistry and provide a physiological opportunity to shift your moods.

In order to find your way out of depression and other mood imbalances you have to reach deeply inside yourself and pull out a life spark of yourself – a piece of your inner spirit or your life essence -and take the first step away from imbalance. And every day you have to reach inside of yourself again and find that life spark again and take the next step toward balance again – and again, and again.

As each step fans that life spark, it also gradually and over time changes your physiology and shifts your
neurotransmitter baseline.

Changing your physiology is important because it loosens the grip of that perverse biochemical tendency to keep things the way they are. Changing your physiology opens up a whole new world of thoughts, emotions, actions, and perceptions that weren’t readily available at the old biochemical baseline.

Hand in hand life spark and physiology work together and nurture each other toward a new level of balance.

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art." -- Leonardo Da Vinci

The Advantage of Positive Emotions and Thoughts

Thinking and emotion go hand in hand. It seems that a negative mood activates negative thinking and a positive mood calls forth positive thinking. Does it matter if you are in a negative mood thinking negative thoughts or in a positive mood thinking positive thoughts? Is one better than the other? Is there value in thinking and feeling positive?

Emotions Have Evolutionary Value

Negative emotions have evolutionary value. Negative emotions such as fear, loss, and aggression signal the activation of our flight or fight response. When we experience negative emotions, we have a feeling of aversion, which sets us on course to identify what is wrong and eliminate it. Negative emotions and thinking are associated with a survival alert that activates a reaction to fight, flight or conserve - each reaction with obvious evolutionary value.

Positive emotions also have evolutionary advantage. They "broaden and build." Experiencing positive emotions increases our survival chances because positive emotions broaden our intellectual, physical, and social resources and build reserves for us to draw upon.

Experiencing positive emotions increases our drive for exploration and discovery and provides the basis for positive social interactions. When we experience positive emotions, we become more tolerant, expansive, and creative. The more positive emotion we experience the more open to new ideas and new experiences we become.

Negative emotions narrow our perspective to focus only on the immediate threat. When negative emotions are experienced, we withdraw, freeze, or protect. When we experience positive emotions, we feel safe and engage in active, playful exploration, and discovery. Negative emotions contract and positive emotions expand.

Positive emotions form the experiential foundation for mentally healthy people. Positive emotions provide a foundation for growth and exploration and build the intellectual, social, and physical capital for further growth and development.

When we experience negative emotions, they tell us to deal with what is wrong and eliminate it. When we experience positive emotions, we start looking for the virtues of what is happening. We become constructive, generous, un-defensive, and open to seeing possibilities.

Experiencing positive emotions gives us an entirely different way of thinking from a negative mood. A negative mood helps us think about and detect threats in our environment and focus our thoughts on protection. A positive mood moves us into thoughts about growth and development, exploration and discovery.

Positive Emotions Build Resources and Capital for the Future

Positive emotions build the resources and capital that will become the basis for growth and development in years to come. When we feel and think positive, we reach outward and broaden our resources through exploration and discovery. We are more creative, think quicker, and do not succumb to premature closure or other forms of superficial intellectual processing.

Depressed people experience what is called a "downward spiral" of negative emotions. Depressed emotions call forth negative memories that feed more negative thoughts, that feed more negative memories, that feed more depressed emotions. Breaking this downward spiral is crucial to stopping the depression.

Psychologists have found what they call an upward spiral of positive emotion. Positive emotions produce a different way of thinking and acting. The thinking becomes creative and broad-minded, and the actions become adventurous and exploratory. This increased creativity and exploration results in greater expansion.

Often negative emotions and thinking are taken more seriously because traditionally they have been believed to be the evolutionary backbone of human motivation. It was believed that people are motivated primarily to avoid experiencing negative emotions and that positive motivation was merely superficial.

But positive emotions are just as real, authentic and important as negative emotions and are equally important for development, growth, and success.

Positive Emotions Lead to More Successful Interactions in the World

Experiencing more positive emotion results in more friendships, stronger love, better physical health, and more successful interactions in the world accompanied by a sense of mastery. Growth, positive development, and creative and successful interactions in the world (i.e. mental health) may have their foundations in the experience of positive emotions and thinking.

Happy people view themselves subjectively as more successful in the world. Happy people remember more good events than actually happened and forget more of the bad events that happened Happy people see success as lasting, personal and pervasive and failure as impersonal, temporary and specific. Happy people may lose a bit of realism but this does not lock them into ineffective functioning. Happy people are more likely to switch tactics when involved in a task that appears to be failing. In the normal course of events, happy people rely on their tried and true positive past experiences while less happy people are more skeptical. However, when events are threatening, happy people, more readily than less happy people, switch tactics and adopt a skeptical and analytical frame of mind. Happy people seem to deal better with adversity.

Happier people are markedly more satisfied with their jobs than less happy people. Happiness inceases productivity and results in higher income. Happiness also makes gainful employment and higher income more likely. Adults and children who are in a good mood select higher goals, perform better, and persist longer on a variety of tasks.

Happy People Are Healthier

Positive emotions result in better physical health. Positive emotions predict health and longevity and protect people from the wear and tear of aging. Positive emotions strongly predict who lives longer, who dies earlier, and who will become disabled. Happy people seek out and make use of more health risk information. Happy people have better health habits, lower blood pressure, and stronger immune systems than less happy people. They endure pain better and take more health and safety precautions when threatened. Positive emotions and thinking prolong life and improve health.

Happy People Are More Connected With Others

Very happy people differ markedly from average people and from unhappy people in one principle way - a rich and fulfilling social life and more secure relationships. Happy people have more close and casual friends, are more likely to be married, and are more involved in group activities than unhappy people. Happy people are also more altruistic. When we are in a good mood we are less focused on ourselves, we like others more and we want to be kinder and share our good fortune with others. However, when we are experiencing negative emotions and thinking we become distrustful, turn inward and become defensive about our own needs.

Focusing on Positive Emotions

Positive emotions undo negative emotions and reduce the negative physical and psychological stresses of negative experiences. Negative emotions tell you that you are facing a win-loss encounter and need to take steps to engage with the obstacles. Positive emotions and thinking tell you that you are in a potential win-win situation.

Positive emotions and thinking guide you to be more expansive, tolerant, and creative and maximize the social, intellectual, and physical benefits of the situation. Positive emotions and thinking are the fuel and the raw material for experiencing more growth and development, more exploration and discovery, more mastery and successful interactions in the world. So, yes, there is a great deal of value in feeling good and positive thinking. Go for it!

Perimenopause and Moods

Menopause is defined as the period in life when you have had no menstrual periods for one year. Perimenopause is the time that leads to menopause when the reproductive hormones begin to fluctuate more widely. During this time the dialogue between your brain and your ovaries slows, develops gaps, and changes it’s conversational pattern. Perimenopause may last 7-10 years or longer or last only a year or two. Women in perimenopause rank insomnia, irritability, and depressed mood among the most common complaints. Mental health is the most prevalent difficulty and not hot flashes.

During perimenopause, there are wide fluctuations in estrogen, testosterone, FSH, LH, and progesterone. Perimenopause is not simply a time when estrogen diminishes. It is a time when you don’t have enough estrogen and then you have too much estrogen. Perimenopause is a time of wide fluctuations in hormone levels. These fluctuations result in the mood disturbances associated with perimenopause.

Blood tests may be used to measure hormone levels during perimenopause. But due to the many fluctuations in the ovary-brain dialogue during this time, blood tests can be unreliable in indicating exactly where you stand with your hormone levels.

The more definitive way to know if you are close to menopause is to know how many months it has been since your last period. If it has been six months or more since your last period it is likely that you are close to the end of the perimenopause process.

Eventually you will have no more eggs but the brain still attempts to make the ovaries respond by stimulating the secretion of FSH and LH. FSH and LH hormone levels increase at menopause and remain high thereafter. When there has been no response from the ovaries and your periods have ceased for one year, perimenopause is over and menopause has arrived.

Your brain, your hormones and your mood

The relationship between your hormones and your brain chemistry is critical because this relationship is very vulnerable to the hormonal fluctuations of perimenopause and menopause.

Estrogen is integral to your health and brain function. It influences the way your serotonin and other neurotransmitter pathways react to normal hormonal shifts. It is easy and common to experience mood variations related to these reproductive hormone fluctuations across your cycle and over the changing years.

Many women will develop mood and sleep difficulties during perimenopause. Women who have had mood disturbances before in the form of anxiety or depression are especially vulnerable to the hormone brain dialogue changes during perimenopause. The loss of estrogen can significantly worsen anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders. Some women are especially sensitive to the loss of estrogen and its effect on the brain.

You do not need to have hot flashes, night sweats, or significant changes in your menstrual periods to be in perimenopause. Your brain may the first and the only manifestation of the changing hormonal levels in the form of mood or cognitive changes.

Hormone fluctuations and mood changes

Estrogen fluctuations can alter neurotransmitter levels in the brain and may result in mood disturbances. The hormonal fluctuations in perimenopause and its effects on the brain result in fatigue, loss of the feeling of subjective well being, difficulty sleeping, mood alterations, anxiety, poor concentration, depression, changes in thinking patterns and abilities, and problems with memory. Hormone replacement therapy will relieve night sweats and the loss of well being associated with perimenopause but often it will not alleviate the symptoms that arise from depression.

It is not unusual for women with a history of mood disturbances to find that their moods become harder to manage as they enter perimenopause. They may find it difficult to find a regime – medication or otherwise - that stabilizes their moods and restores coping abilities. Women who have been taking antidepressants may find that when they enter perimenopause these medications may not work as well and their symptoms may worsen. Those with mood disorders may destabilize despite adequate medication.

A woman’s mild or severe life long or occasional depression may worsen significantly under the influence of peri-menopausal hormonal fluctuations. A history of mood disturbances and depression indicates that a woman’s brain already requires precise management in self-regulation. Due to hormonal fluctuations, perimenopause may further compromise the brain’s ability to self-regulate.

When a woman notices that "this feels hormonal," it is appropriate and advisable to look to management of the reproductive hormones to destabilize mood disturbances. Peri-menopausal hormonal fluctuations can greatly influence the brain and may cause something in the brain to shift thus overwhelming a woman’s normal coping mechanisms.

Women with bipolar disorder are particularly subject to the hormonal fluctuations of perimenopause.

Hormone replacement and mood stabilization

Normal hormonal fluctuations during this time can destabilize moods. Taking progesterone may worsen your depressive symptoms and adding estrogen may make you fluctuate rapidly between mood states.

The addition of estrogen replacement by itself during perimenopause is not capable of resolving the mood symptoms in women with a history of depression and other mood disorders. Once the neuroreceptors and pathways in the brain have sustained the biochemical changes of depression, estrogen alone is ineffective in treating the symptoms of depression. Estrogen can, however, help antidepressants to work more effectively during perimenopause and menopause.

Some women, when placed on hormone replacement therapy, may actually worsen in their depressive symptoms because progesterone tends to affect moods negatively.

Women with a history of mood problems often can not tolerate the use of progesterone during perimenopause. Progesterone acts against estrogen in the brain and acts as a dysphoric hormone causing mood and anxiety changes. Various forms, dosages, and regimes, however, may be better tolerated than others.

Hormone fluctuations and cognitive changes

The hormonal fluctuations of perimenopause may also affect your memory and learning. Estrogen is involved in maintaining specific cells in your hippocampus that are responsible for detailed communication between nerve cells. Estrogen is also related to supporting your acetylcholine levels. When estrogen levels fluctuate or decline, acetylcholine levels fluctuate or decline. Acetycholine is the neurotransmitter that is responsible for memory, creative pursuits, and retrieval of words.

Estrogen is involved in maintaining verbal memory (the recall of spoken material) and enhances the capacity for new learning in women. (Estrogen does not seem to affect what is learned visually.)

Estrogen changes in perimenopause may also affect other cognitive functions such as recognition, interpretation, decision-making, and eye-hand coordination. Compensating for the changes in estrogen is important for maintaining peak cognitive functioning.

You can take steps to move more smoothly through perimenopause and into the new life patterns of menopause by following a program that focuses on:

Proper nutrition for perimenopause
Adequate dietary supplementation
Increasing your understanding of the hormonal changes occurring and how these affect your neurotransmitters, neurons and brain chemistry
Paying attention to your sleep patterns and ensuring adequate rest and recovery during the day
Taking time for yourself
Increasing your self-awareness

Use the following checklist to find out if you might be peri-menopausal and need to take special care to manage your moods and retain your memory and learning skills.

Do you have these symptoms?

Hot flashes, night sweats, perspiration and/ or chilly sensations

Sensations of numbness and/ or tingling of skin

Insomnia, sleeplessness, and/or restless, fragmented sleep

Fatigue, feeling of weariness of mind and body with desire for rest; disinclination to make further effort

Vaginal dryness

Irregular menstrual bleeding

Changes in frequency of menstrual cycle
Irritability, feelings of anxiety or apprehension

Feeling of depression, sadness, unhappiness and / or being miserable without any obvious reason

Pain affecting joints and/or muscles

Headaches of any kind

Dry skin

Urinary problems

Digestive problems

Sexual / desire changes

Quickening or acceleration of heartbeat or a fluttering/pounding heartbeat in a sitting or resting position

Sensation of "crawly skin"

Forgetful, scattered and/or suddenly disorganized

Clumsiness and /or uncoordination

Difficulty remembering past events and/or learning new material

Slow to recall a name or to find the right word

The more symptoms that you have experienced the more likely it is that you are entering perimenopause. It may be time for you to take some steps to shift your health and self-care focus to provide adequately for your new hormonal and well-being needs.

At Evenstar, we are dedicated to helping you make your Perimenopause Passage the best time of your life. we offer Functional Health Tests, Personal Coaching and integral Mood and Energy Wellness Programs that are specific to the Perimenopause passage.

Find out more at www.evenstaronline.com/perimenopause.html
or you can give me a call at 434-263-4996 or email me.

Easy and natural ways to raise low serotonin levels.

Research indicates that in the United States 60-80% of the people, especially women, have low serotonin levels. (Levels of serotonin too high to be optimal don’t usually occur naturally except in rare cases of starvation or regimented mediative practices.) You don’t have to get caught in the low serotonin cycle of hopelessness and despair. You can alter your low serotonin levels by carefully orchestrating your foods, activities and daily routines and habits.

You alter your brain chemistry, manipulate your neurochemical profile and affect your body’s physiology every day by what you do and don’t eat, what you think about, and how and where you spend your time. Through your daily behaviors and the environments in which you spend your time, you create your biochemical profile and this is reflected in the emotions, energy, thoughts, actions, and psychological states that either bring you into peak performance or that block your best functioning.

You have an enormous power to shape your inner world – your experience of life. What you do every day, what you eat, when you eat it, what activities you engage in and when you engage in them, what kind of environment in which you live and work – everything you do and do not do – shapes how you feel, think and how you experience your life.

You can create the range of emotions, energy levels and intellectual and creative functioning that you want. You can learn how to use what you do and do not do everyday and how you do it to create inner strength, hope, joy, mental alertness, and enthusiasm. By designing a life that keeps your biochemistry in balance you can maintain a state of optimal wellness, vitality and performance. When you understand the optimal physiological requirements of your body operating at its best, you can design your lifestyle to provide the diet, exercise, behaviors, thoughts, scheduling, and environment to support and nourish this optimal state of functioning in your body.

Serotonin levels are increased by a carbohydrate rich diet.

When you eat carbohydrates it results in a rise in insulin levels that acts to usher the amino acid trytophan into the brain. Trytophan is the precursor to serotonin. One and a half ounces of carbohydrate food (1/4 cup of oatmeal or a piece of sourdough bread) will significantly boost brain levels of serotonin. The healthiest carbohydrates to use are whole grain, low glycemic index carbohydrates such as barley, oats, buckwheat and carbohydrate rich vegetables such as yams, sweet potatoes and squashes. Fruits and most other vegetables have a neutral effect on brain chemistry.

Eat the kinds of protein that favor serotonin production.

These proteins are high in the amino acid trytophan: chicken, white flakey fish, lean cuts of pork, veal, cottage cheese, lamb, low fat cheeses, low fat milk and dairy products, soy and legumes.

Spend time in a natural place such as a forest, park, mountains, or seashore.

All meditative activities raise serotonin levels.

Prayer, meditation, positive visualization boost serotonin levels and your feelings of well being, relaxed concentration and peace.

Engage in relaxing activities such as hobbies or crafts.

Engage in exercise that increases your heart rate somewhat but not significantly.

Strolling, yoga, non-aerobic swimming, bike riding when done at least 4 days in a row a week will over a period of 60 days increase your baseline serotonin levels.

Take a low activity, high relaxation vacation with your family or by yourself with plenty of time to slow down.

Listen to classical music, light rock, folk or easy listening music.

Visit a museum, go to the theater, the symphony, or watch TV or films about love stories, comedies and other feel good movies.

Engage in long, deep conversations with one or two other people.

Engage in low arousal, highly meditative and internal spiritual practices that relax you.

Clean and organize your environment.

Read

Self help books are especially complimentary.

Have a regular wake sleep cycle.

The production of serotonin for the next day requries at least 7 continuous hours of sound high quality sleep the night before.

Get out in the sun at least 30 minutes in the morning and for 2 hours throughout the day.

Sunlight burns off melatonin produced the night before. The presence of high levels of melatonin consumes serotonin. Sunlight suppressed the production of melatonin and allows your serotonin levels to raise during the day. Without the exposure to adequate natural light your melatonin levels will be higher and your serotonin levels will be lower.

Eat a meal with high level of proteins that contain trytophan and follow that by a carbohydrate snack two hours later.

This will act to drive the lingering trhytophan into the brain and set up the production of greater amounts of serotonin the next day.

NeuroSelect Profile

This is the most comprehensive neurotransmitter panel available. This profile reports on the levels of creatine, eight neurotransmitters and one amino acid: serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, GABA, PEA, histamine, taurine, glycine, glutamate, and glutamine.

Call 434-263-4996 to find out if this is for you or e-mail for more information.

Order online and find more Functional Health Tests at www.evenstaronline.com/FunctionalTests

Special!

Order together with the Brain Chemistry Optimization Profile and save $56. You must call in your order to 434-263-4996 before September 10, 2007 to claim this discount.

Top 10 signs your dopamine levels are too low

A while back I covered the Top 10 signs your serotonin levels are too low.
And the Top 10 signs your dopamine levels are too high.
It's rare that your serotonin levels would be too high.
So that leaves one more bothersome neurotransmitter imbalance to address.

Neurotransmitters – the powerful group of chemicals inside the brain - create and reflect your feelings moods, thoughts and behaviors. These powerful chemicals in the brain result in physiological and psychological changes in how you experience life. All behavior has a corresponding chemical pattern in the brain.

There are more than a dozen neurotransmitters - but two of them (serotonin and dopamine) play a leading role in orchestrating our behaviors, thoughts, emotions and experiences.

Dopamine is your excitatory neurotransmitter. When your dopamine levels are too low you lack a strong vital inner force.

Here are my Top 10 signs that your dopamine levels are too low:

1. You will lack energy and stamina.

2. You will have no drive or motivation.

3. You will not be able to concentrate.

4. You will lack focus.

5. You will not be able to move memories into long term storage

6. You will become depressed and not have any future orientation. It will be all you can do to get through the day.

7. You will have trouble thinking and keeping your thoughts organized.

8. You will not be able to be creative.

9. You will not be able to pay attention.

10. You will have no adventuresome spirit. You will want to avoid making any changes in your life.

NeuroSelect Profile

This is the most comprehensive neurotransmitter panel available. This profile reports on the levels of creatine, eight neurotransmitters and one amino acid: serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, GABA, PEA, histamine, taurine, glycine, glutamate, and glutamine.

Call 434-263-4996 to find out if this is for you or e-mail for more information.

Order online and find more Functional Health Tests at www.evenstaronline.com/FunctionalTests

Special!

Order together with the Brain Chemistry Optimization Profile and save $56. You must call in your order to 434-263-4996 before September 10, 2007 to claim this discount.

No room at the inn

When new clients come into a Mood and Energy Management Program, they are uplifted and excited.

Their energy has been in the dumper, their moods are not in the “happy, happy” realm, and they feel like crap - and their doctors are still telling them that nothing is wrong with them.

They are uplifted and excited because they have come into a paradigm where the source of these imbalances can be found and re-balanced. Who wouldn’t feel uplifted?

I spend a lot of time letting prospective clients know that it will take a big investment of resources for them to work through my most advanced programs – but mostly they are hearing that here is a solution to turn around how they feel – finally!

Things go fine for a month, two, or even three and then suddenly their ability to cram this new life that they are diligently setting up into their old life bursts apart at the seams. I take it as sure sign that things are at the busting point when I start talking about the need to change their lives and they start perspiring.

So here is the thing (to paraphrase Ben Franklin or Albert Einstein – depending on your source) – you cannot keep doing what you are doing and expect to get different results. Somehow we have a hard time applying this basic idea.

If you keep doing (and being) what you are now – alas, you will keep getting what you have now.

And when you try to do more of what you are doing now, you just get more of what you have now.

You can try moving faster in order to take all those new supplements, fit in your new regime, and hurry to get to bed and wake up “on time”. But moving faster is part of what got you where you are – the place that you don’t want to be.

The bottom line is this – you have to change your worldview about life, health, wellness, well-being, and success. You can keep trying to cram all the new health and wellness recommendations into the old worldview - but your life is already full – there is no room at that inn any more. You are going to have to find an upgrade.

What’s the upgrade? A paradigm shift. A new conceptual view of the way things work and your place in the world. Luckily, a paradigm shift isn’t all that hard to achieve - but it does take attention. It is sort of like consciously directed self brain-washing in the direction that you want to go.

When clients in these integral programs are not doing well, part of the reason is that their worldview isn’t working for them anymore. They are out of synch in some way with the growth, development, or evolutionary process they are going through and the resistance or drag in their systems shows up in feeling bad.

When you are feeling bad it is time for an upgrade to your new current worldview.

I have some specific tricks of the trade to engineering a paradigm shift but a simplistic and very workable approach is to selectively choose the kind of data and experiences you expose yourself to.

I once read that if you read an hour a day on a subject for two years you would be an expert on the subject. If you did it for 3 years (maybe it was 4) you would be a world expert. Same principle.

I recommend to my clients that they use the wonderful “Golden Hour” - right after they wake up in the morning - when their mind is easily shifting between the conscious and unconscious state, to read. Best done outside in a natural place.

Read something that is attractive to you that is just beyond how you currently view the world and your place in it. Choose something that is pleasing, attractive, and uplifting to you. Don’t make it the same stuff you already know - instead reach just a little outside your comfort zone to a place that is intriguing and exciting.

Instead of reinforcing what is making you feel bad why not reach for a conceptual shift that is going to support what you want in life? Go find another inn – maybe one where they serve you breakfast in bed.

Are your dopamine levels are alive and well?

Neurotransmitters – the powerful group of chemicals inside the brain - create and reflect your feelings moods, thoughts and behaviors. These powerful chemicals in the brain result in physiological and psychological changes in how you experience life. All behavior has a corresponding chemical pattern in the brain.

There are more than a dozen neurotransmitters - but two of them (serotonin and dopamine) play a leading role in orchestrating our behaviors, thoughts, emotions and experiences.

Dopamine is your excitatory neurotransmitter. When your dopamine levels are balanced you experience appropriately heightened states of alertness and awareness.

Here are my Top Ten signs that tell you your dopamine levels are alive and well.

1. You have enduring, vivid memories of emotional events.

2. You have high self-esteem, the ability to have “the edge” and increased drive and motivation.

3. You are alert and awake, able to do several things at one time. You can move quickly and keep up with fast paced stimulation.

4. You are success driven, busy, active and deeply involved in the hustle and bustle of life. You love to work, party and play.

5. You are highly energetic, enjoy learning new things and being exposed to new situations. You are acutely aware of the latest trends and developments.

6. You are goal and result oriented, highly competitive, like stimulation and conflict. You enjoy taking risks and setting out on new adventures.

7. You burn fat easily, have enhanced immunity and tend to live a long time.

8. You like physically demanding activities, emotional discussions full of passion and conflict and like to push your limits.

9. You have many acquaintances and enjoy group dynamics. You make a charismatic leader.

10. You have great vitality and a healthy perception of reality.

NeuroSelect Profile

This is the most comprehensive neurotransmitter panel available. This profile reports on the levels of creatine, eight neurotransmitters and one amino acid: serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, GABA, PEA, histamine, taurine, glycine, glutamate, and glutamine.

Call 434-263-4996 to find out if this is for you or e-mail for more information.

Order online and find more Functional Health Tests at www.evenstaronline.com/FunctionalTests

Special!

Order together with the Brain Chemistry Optimization Profile and save $56. You must call in your order to 434-263-4996 before September 10, 2007 to claim this discount.

Are your serotonin levels are alive and well?

Neurotransmitters – the powerful group of chemicals inside the brain - create and reflect your feelings moods, thoughts and behaviors. These powerful chemicals in the brain result in physiological and psychological changes in how you experience life. All behavior has a corresponding chemical pattern in the brain.

There are more than a dozen neurotransmitters - but two of them (serotonin and dopamine) play a leading role in orchestrating our behaviors, thoughts, emotions and experiences.

Serotonin is considered the feel good, inner peace, well-being neurotransmitter. Optimal serotonin levels are required for all positive affective states and all balanced emotional conditions. When your serotonin levels are optimal for you – you will experience a grounded sense of well-being.

Here are my Top Ten signs that tell you your serotonin levels are alive and well.

1. You are able to focus for long periods of time on one thing.

2. You are relationship oriented and family centered. You love to spend time with your family, close friends and also be by yourself.

3. You are nurturing, peaceful, cooperative and have a great feeling of well being.

4. You are intuitive, creative, have improved mental clarity and are able to think things through and solve difficult problems.

5. You are responsive, and a good team player but due to your self –assurance and balance you usually emerge as a leader in the group.

6. You have feelings of security and normalcy, and love the daily routine.

7. You are self-confident, emotionally stable and mature and are able to look forward to things without an emotional charge.

8. You are a connoisseur of fine food and wine. You love to cook and prepare foods in festive settings.

9. You are hopeful, optimistic, reflective and thoughtful. You enjoy engaging in lengthy, intimate and intellectual conversations.

10. You are focused on the "inner game" and hold your truths close to your hearts. You are geared toward deep and satisfying experiences.

NeuroSelect Profile

This is the most comprehensive neurotransmitter panel available. This profile reports on the levels of creatine, eight neurotransmitters and one amino acid: serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, GABA, PEA, histamine, taurine, glycine, glutamate, and glutamine.

Call 434-263-4996 to find out if this is for you or e-mail for more information.

Order online and find more Functional Health Tests at www.evenstaronline.com/FunctionalTests

Special!

Order together with the Brain Chemistry Optimization Profile and save $56. You must call in your order to 434-263-4996 before September 10, 2007 to claim this discount.

Let Nature Restore You

Did you ever notice that when you fly in a plane that as the flight attendants give the emergency instructions they always tell you to put your oxygen mask on first and then attend to your children. Makes sense.

Women who have too much to do for everyone else sincerely wish to be of service to others. But they often neglect to tke care of themselves first. They wish to see those they love and care for thrive and be whole and be the best they can be. They forget that in order to help others thrive and be whole and be the best they can be that they must first be thriving, whole and the best they can be. To be of the greatest service they must first put on their own oxygen mask and then attend to others.

How can you restore and replenish yourself for your own sake and for the sake of others?

The very first thing to do is to stop. Allow your body to be still. Take yourself outside and find an attractive place in which to be still. Ask permission to visit. Feel the consent, get comfortable, and just be still. Even if your mind is demanding and restless and urging you to "get things done" allow yourself to be still.

Give yourself 20 minutes of stillness at least once a day. And if you are feeling a bit on the wild side go for 20 minutes of stillness twice a day.

When you are outside in a natural place and are still, you are being resychronized as you entrust yourself to the supportive and loving embrace of nature. Nature is the repository of the common ground of wholeness that you both share. She will replenish and rejuvenate you if you simply place yourself in her presence and allow yourself to be still letting her reconnect you with the wholeness that is inherent in both of you.

You don’t neccessairly have to do much else. Be there. Be still. And you will recognize again this common place of wholeness.

So many things are trying to turn you outward. It is important for you to find a way to turn inward. This inward turn is needed to reconnect with your intuitive, mysterious, magical, soft and brilliant side. It is the light of those qualities that will enable you to love, tend and care for those you wish to nurture into wholeness. This inward turn is what affords patience. It is what internalizes your focus. As you allow your energy to move inward and downward, you concentrate your power and become orderly and efficient as you hold your direction. Allowing your pace and rhythm to match that of the natural place surrounding you lets you experience your peace and wholeness.

Be still. Be patient. Be at peace. Be powerful.

"We have forgotten what we can count on. The natural world provides refuge…Each of us harbors a homeland, a landscape we naturally comprehend. By understanding the dependability of place, we can anchor ourselves as trees." --Terry Tempest Williams

Signs That Your Dopamine Levels Are Too High

Neurotransmitters create and reflect our feelings moods, thoughts and behaviors. This powerful group of chemicals in the brain is responsible for physiological and psychological changes in how we experience our lives. All behavior has a corresponding chemical pattern in the brain.

There are more than a dozen neurotransmitters. Two of them (serotonin and dopamine) play a leading role in orchestrating our behaviors, thoughts, emotions, and experiences. Dopamine is your excitatory neurotransmitter. When your dopamine levels are balanced, you experience heightened states of alertness and awareness.

When your dopamine levels are too high, you may be caught in distorted perceptions of reality, dangerous risk taking, and increased aggression. Here are ten signs that your dopamine levels are too high.

1. You have an excessively demanding sex drive.

2. You are an information and news junky.

3. You feel trapped when you do not have something risky and exciting to do. You may engage in dangerous risk taking.

4. You fear being alone and having nothing to do. You cannot tolerate relaxation or calm. Peace and quite bore you.

5. You are prone to violence and aggression. You may deliberately create conflict to get a thrill.

6. You feel a lack intimacy and you do not want to make deep connections with others.

7. You are a junk food junkie.

8. You feel insecure, paranoid and try to control your environment in overt and destructive ways.

9. You are chronically stressed, frustrated, and anxious. You are a workaholic, driven by success, and burned out.

10. You are overly competitive and determined to win at all costs. You are demanding and lack the trust of those around you.

Get a wealth of information about how your brain chemistry affects your mood and energy - and what to do about it. Specific and personal recommendations for dietary, behavioral, exercise, spiritual, and nutritional changes - based on your answers to a simple online questionnaire, the Brain Chemistry Optimization Profile.