SDH 015: Create a Life that Lights You Up with Cassandra Bodzak
Cassandra Bodzak is a #lightmaker! As a health and meditation expert, her main gig involves coaching women, one-on-one, to help guide them to creating a life that lights them up through CassandraBodzak.com. She also does speaking and conducts guided meditations for businesses of all sorts. Check out her guided meditations on her YouTube channel!
Currently, Cassandra is producing and launching a cooking series: “Eat with Intention” and finishing up her first memoir to be released in Fall 2015!
“If you’re not obsessed with your life, then change it” – Anonymous
Divine Guidance to Cassandra’s Life That Lights Her Up
“When I was in college, I didn’t even know that the kind of career I have was an option.”
Started with a blog to explore new foods as a result of food allergy diagnosis
“I never looked at the food allergy that happened to me as a handicap, it was just a challenge to explore a different palate of things.”
The blog expanded past food into meditation
“It really forced me to completely surrender my life in a way I hadn’t before”
“Once you open the gateway and say ‘I’m ready to learn’, then all of a sudden books fall off the shelf.”
Enrolled in IIN (Institute for Integrative Nutrition) to learn how to be a holistic health coach
“I got here by following what felt good to me and following what I was drawn to, and just honoring those inclinations.”
Food and its Impact
“Food is our fuel – What we put into our body is so important”
Cassandra talks about her past relationship with food and how the meaning of “healthy” has evolved for her.
Elimination Diet: Eliminates the top 8 allergens (Milk, Eggs, Fish, Shellfish, Tree Nuts, Peanuts, Wheat, Soybeans)
“It felt like I was functioning on cleaner fuel.”
Signs of an Unhealthy Relationship with Food
Feeling any shame or guilt around what you’re eating
Feeling like you have to hide what you’re eating
Feeling like you don’t have enough willpower
You don’t have to have an eating disorder to have an unhealthy relationship with food – it’s more about the way you feel in regards to food
Steps to Reversing Unhealthy Feelings towards Food
Admitting that you have them
Being willing to see things differently
Surrendering it to a higher power
Get help for it
“Realize that if you’re having this relationship (with food) it’s not your fault. It’s out of your control so you need to give it over to something greater than yourself and ask for that guidance”
What people don’t see with the food conversation is how their self-worth is tied in.
“We know, on a core level, for a human being to really rise to their full potential, we have to love them unconditionally.”
Ask yourself when on a diet plan or routine: Am I loving myself right now and doing this because I love my body or am I doing this because I’m hoping that at a later date I’m going to love it.
Meditation
Lowers Stress Level:
Stress causes inflammation in your body: Inflammation leads to a lower immune system and your body basically being in a weakened state
When you meditate you’re setting the space for you to be your best self that day, for you to take things in stride
Focus & Clarity:
Creates space and lets the brain get to a different place that it doesn’t usually get to in a day
Centers focus and allows for creativity
“Through meditation you access this inner well of creativity”
Establish a Conversation with Your Higher Self:
We all have this inner guidance system that lets us know what is expansive for us and what isn’t
We’ve had this contact with it throughout our lives but it’s muffled by the foods we eat and our lifestyles
Clear the channel to be more in tune with what your inner voice is guiding you to
Getting Started:
Consistency Is Key
Just remember that you’re building a muscle, and when you’re starting off you’re not expected to have this muscle
If all you can do is 5 minutes a day – that’s great
There is value in doing it longer and more – especially when learning
Tune in to what feels expansive to you and what feels constrictive on a daily basis
Feeling like it doesn’t work? You need to take the recommended dose for the pain you’re experiencing
“You have to think of your meditation as medication”
Demand something of your meditation – Have an intention – Know what you want to get out of it
“When you ask anything to a higher power, that’s great, but when you sit in meditation, that’s when you open yourself up to hear the answer.”
FREE GIVEAWAY: Cassanda has been so kind to give our listeners a free download of her Beginners Guide to Bliss Audio. Click here to download
Inspired: Meditation, Painting, and A Course in Miracles workbook
Book Recommendation: The Untethered Soul – Michael Singer, Spirit Junkie – Gabrielle Bernstein &
#GirlBoss – Sophia Amoruso ← A repeat favorite! :: And Cassandra’s book Releasing Fall, 2015!!
Connect with Cassandra: @cassandrabodzak (Instagram, Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, and CassandraBodzak.com
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