Monday Motivation

Check out @WomenSpeakAssoc's Tweet: https://twitter.com/WomenSpeakAssoc/status/790418426514866176?s=09

Tuesday Tools

Good morning, 
Along with breast cancer, October is domestic violence awareness.  So the tool that I share with you is to help be more enlightened about the signs and symptoms of domestic violence.

www.thehotline.org

And as always remember to... live Blessed

Monday Motivation

Good Morning,
I was away at Young Life camp with no real service, so I was not able to share with you last week. 
Today,  in our Monday Motivation I want to just share this, under 2 min prayer, to get your day started.
https://youtu.be/7vyuQvwsQV8

And remember to live Blessed

Wednesday Word

Good morning friends,
I want to just encourage you, this morning, from words from Isaiah.
Isaiah 40:29-31Amplified Bible (AMP)

29 He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who has no might He increases power.
30 Even youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
31 But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him]
Will gain new strength and renew their power;They will lift up their wings [and rise up close to God] like eagles [rising toward the sun];They will run and not become weary,They will walk and not grow tired.

Many of us are doing great work in our communities, our churches and the marketplace but we are getting tired. I encourage you to take a step back. Take a good cleansing breath and wait. Not too long, but long enough to regroup. We are so quick to move to our next task that we don't enjoy the success and or learning lesson (because we never fail we just learn) from experience.
STOP and intentionally wait, so that you can be renewed. It's Ok to say no, I need time before I move forward.
Best regards today. Rest, renew and then pursue.

And as always...live Blessed

Friday Findings

Good Friday morning,
Today,  I wanted to share some information about lupus. I have several friends that suffer from this disease and I wanted make you aware of it.

May is Lupus Awareness Month! Get to KNOW LUPUS and help create a future with NO LUPUS by visiting lupus.org/awareness. There you’ll learn more about this cruel and mysterious disease and learn how you can take action this month in the fight against lupus.

Did you know that 90 percent of people diagnosed with lupus are women? Learn more about the signs and symptoms this Lupus Awareness Month by visiting lupus.org and test your knowledge by taking the KNOW LUPUS challenge at lupus.org/know.

Did you know chemotherapy drugs are sometimes used to treat lupus? Test your knowledge by playing the KNOW LUPUS game at lupus.org/know and challenge your friends to do the same. By spreading awareness, you can help us get one step closer to a future with no lupus.

http://www.lupusawarenessmonth.org/

And as always...remember to live Blessed

Thursday Thoughts

Good morning,
Before you know it all of the insects of the summer will be out with force. Let's me show you how you can keep them away with essential oils.
www.billandmichelle.weebly.com
Check out my doterra tab. Give me a buzz and I can help you get set up for the summer.

Monday Motivation

Good morning,
I hope that you are safe this morning,  it appears to be storming in some for across America.

I ran across this picture this morning and it seemed to share where I'm at.
Life is like a camera, capture the good times, develop from the negatives and if things don't work out take another picture.
What pictures are you taking along the journey? Don't wait until you or a loved one has been diagnosed with something.  LIVE and capture every moment.  Take time to talk, to laugh and to be in the moment.  The thing about a picture is, it never lies. It either is what you would like to see or not but it doesn't lie.

Don't let your faulty memory be the thing you hold on to. Capture the moment. 
I have a friend who is being ravished by cancer.  At these moments you think of all of the times that you could have, but didn't. Ladies seize every moment with your family. Just as she seemed on the outside to be just find we never know what is cookin' on the inside.

Take your pictures and then take some more. Capture every moment.
As always ...live Blessed

Tuesday Tools

Good Morning Ladies,
Today in our Tuesday Tools I want to share with you one of the presenters at our upcoming Sistahs Can We Talk Saturday Series. Jondalyn Crosby is the CEO of Road to Hautness. She is shaping up the booties of many of Wichita's finest. Below is a link to her business facebook page. Please go on and like it. It is up to us to support our own.
And as always remember to ...live Blessed

 https://www.facebook.com/Roadtohauteness/?pnref=lhc

Friday Findings

We made it. It's Friday. 
Today on Friday Findings I want to talk about depression. I know it is a word we don't talk about, but it won't disappear because we ignore it. Below you will find the stats for American women and depression. The more I speak with youth, the more I realize that depression is one of the things the enemy is using to take people, especially gifted and talented, out.
Ladies, let's help each other fight through the cloud that can and is depression.
I have attached a webmd site that is full of great tips for fighting through depression as well.
As always...live Blessed

http://www.webmd.com/depression/default.htm

Prevalence

• Approximately 12 million women in the United States experience clinical depression each year.
• About one in every eight women can expect to develop clinical depression during their lifetime.
• Depression occurs most frequently in women aged 25 to 44.

Contributing Factors

• Many factors in women may contribute to depression, such as developmental, reproductive, hormonal, genetic and other biological differences (e.g. premenstrual syndrome, childbirth, infertility and menopause).
• Social factors may also lead to higher rates of clinical depression among women, including stress from work, family responsibilities, the roles and expectations of women and increased rates of sexual abuse and poverty.

Gender Differences

• Women experience depression at roughly twice the rate of men.[3]
• Girls 14-18 years of age have consistently higher rates of depression than boys in this age group.

PMS/PMDD

• Twenty to forty percent of women may experience premenstrual syndrome and an estimated 3 to 5 percent have symptoms severe enough to be classified as Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). 

Marriage/Childbirth

• Married people have a lower rate of depression than those living alone.  However, unhappily married people have the highest rates of depression; happily married men have the lowest rates.
• Approximately 10%-15% of all new mothers get postpartum depression, which most frequently occurs within the first year after the birth of a child.

Co-occurring Illnesses

• Research shows a strong relationship between eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia nervosa) and depression in women.  About 90-95% of cases of anorexia occur in young females.
• Reported rates of bulimia nervosa vary from one to three out of 100 people.
• Research shows that one out of three depressed people also suffers from some form of substance abuse or dependence.

Suicide

• Although men are more likely than women to die by suicide, women report attempting suicide approximately twice as often as men.
• An estimated 15 percent of people hospitalized for depression eventually take their own lives.

Friday Findings

TGIF
This month is women's history month so I want to something about a women's issue, endometriosis. Below you will find some stats that should make think twice before getting to young ladies for not having kids. Some young ladies, can't.
And as always...live Blessed

Symptoms
There are many symptoms of endometriosis, but not everyone will experience all, most or even any of the symptoms. Most commonly endometriosis patients experience pelvic pain.  Pain usually coincides with menstruation, but some women may have symptoms throughout their entire cycle.

The other symptoms will vary depending on where the endometriosis lesions are growing, but may include:

*“Killer cramps” – cramps that do not go away with NSAIDS and/or impede the activities of daily living

*Long periods – periods that last longer than 7 days long

Heavy menstrual flow – having to change your pad or tampon every hour to two hours throughout most of your period

*Bowel and urinary disorders – including but not limited to painful urination or bowel movements, frequent urge to urinate, or diarrhea
*Nausea or vomiting
*Pain during sexual activities
*Infertility

Over time, cyclic inflammation causes the scar tissue and adhesions to build up around the lesion, giving the impression of the lesion increasing in size. 

These may cause their own issues, such as organs which are bound together or anatomy that is moved out of place.
Some women do not realize they have endometriosis until they try to become pregnant.

Approximately 30-40% of women who have endometriosis experience issues with their fertility. However, studies have shown that fertility may improve after undergoing excision surgery to treat endometriosis.
Epidemiology and Disease Patterns

Endometriosis affects 176 million women worldwide, and 1 in 10 girls and women in the US.

Endometriosis usually causes symptoms during reproductive years (~12-60 years old), however many women and girls are undiagnosed.

Endometriosis affects women equally across all racial/ethnic and socioeconomic lines.

As of now, researchers have not identified one specific cause for endometriosis. Multiple theories exist but none can adequately explain every aspect of endometriosis.

Endometriosis is not contagious and cannot be passed from person to person through contact.

We do know that there may be a genetic component to endometriosis. Girls who have a close female relative are 5-7x more likely to have it themselves, but more research  is necessary to fully understand the genetic characteristics of endometriosis.

For many years, doctors believed that retrograde menstruation was the main cause of endometriosis. However, it is now understood that 90% of women have retrograde menstruation and only 1 in 10 have endometriosis.

More research is required to determine why retrograde menstruation affects women differently.

Research has also shown endometriosis can be present during fetal development and may simply be activated at puberty when estrogen levels increase in the body.

Autopsies performed on infants have shown evidence of endometriosis.
The immune system and the body’s inflammatory response also contribute to endometriosis, although the mechanisms are poorly understood

Tuesday Tools

Good morning
Often we don't eat well because it is too expensive.  Aldi is going to help make a difference. 

ALDI, the discount grocery store, recently announced that they will soon be supplying mostly organic products and will be banning many pesticides and toxic chemicals.

The chemicals recently banned from their products includes Thiamethoxam, Chlorpyrifos, Clothianidin, Cypermethrin, Deltamethrin, Fipronil, Imidacloprid, Sulfoxaflor and other pesticides.

ALDI also announced that they will soon be stocking fresh meat and fish and will be closely analyzing the distributors that they purchase from.

Jason Hart CEO of ALDI said in a recent statement that, At ALDI, we are dedicated to the well-being of our customers by providing high quality groceries at the lowest possible prices and offering foods shoppers can feel good about serving their families. Our decision to remove these ingredients from all of our exclusive brand foods delivers on our ongoing commitment to meet the evolving preferences of our customers. Since more than 90 percent of the products we sell are under our exclusive brands, eliminating these ingredients will have a real impact on the over 30 million people who shop in our stores. Phil Lempert, editor of SupermarketGuru.com wrote that this is a sign of a changing industry.

Today’s shoppers are more involved with food than ever before. They want to know everything about their food and the companies that supply them – especially as it relates to ingredients and the impact on their families. ALDI is leading the supermarket industry in rightly responding to the science that shows the implications of these ingredients, and meeting the needs of the increasingly savvy consumers who don’t want artificial or potentially harmful ingredients in the products they buy. ALDI is best known for its low prices, in a recent price survey, it was shown that ALDI’s prices are 30% lower than Wal-Mart. ALDI is able to keep such low prices by ordering food through specific sellers, instead of buying a wide variety of brands. They also cut costs by limiting store displays and advertising.

They have announced that their new policy regarding pesticides and GMO foods will be effective as soon as possible.

ALDI currently only has select stores open in the US, but roughly 500 more stores will be built in the US over the next two years as part of a $3 billion expansion.

This article (Affordable Grocery Store Goes Organic And Bans Toxic Chemicals From Their Products) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TrueActivist.com.

John Vibes is an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. He also has a publishing company where he offers a censorship free platform for both fiction and non-fiction writers. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can purchase his books, or get your own book published at his website www.JohnVibes.com.

As always remember to...live Blessed

Monday Motivation

Good Monday morning
I am so happy to be sharing with you this morning. I know for many of you this has been a hard weekend because Valentines Day focuses on the love of those in relationships,  but today I want to challenge you to love yourself. Love yourself enough that you do something today thst will empathy your future in a positive way.

What have been putting off for tomorrow?  Well tomorrow is today. Let's get after those dreams and goals. Put yourself to get signed up just one class, because it only takes one to get started. You might be ready to commit to a gym but take the stairs instead of the elevator.  Drink one less cup of coffee and one more glass of water. Love your self enough to change.

I know change is not easy, but you can't continue in the same fashion that your going. Continuing to endure the same hard aches is hard too. Take a chance. If you need an accountability partner, hit me up. Today is the day for you to win. Failure must come out of your vocabulary.  We all get discouraged, but shake it off, pack it under your feet and let it take you a little higher. The more you shake off,  the better view you have to the finish line. You already have the power inside you to win. Go gettum. 

And remember as always...live Blessed

Tuesday Tools

Good morning
Today I want to share a little something from Happy Black Woman...
As women, we take of everyine except ourselves. Listen to Gail talk about self care.

http://happyblackwoman.com/gail-keyes-allen-helping-women-heal-their-lives-by-practicing-self-care-podcast-020/?inf_contact_key=fe51db9c06d915b37daa3e041677181e80171e653d99960e2f1a569a3fbf6dd0

As always...live Blessed