Happy New Year from Artemis in the City!

But change of any kind is generally never an easy one. In order to make way for the new, the old must be released. Change forces us to step out of our developed routines and lifestyle patterns to learn new things, have new experiences, meet new people, gain wisdom, grow spiritually and release what is holding us back. Change is the catalyst that forces us to transform even when we do not want to change. Like a caterpillar's metamorphosis into a beautiful butterfly so must we experience different life stages and changes in order to become something more.

The new year is a time of reflection upon our lives and a new beginning. A time to survey what is going right, what is successful, what is fulfilling, what is not so good, what is missing as well as a time to face hard truths about what needs to be changed. The choices that we make create the quality of our lives, the lives of our family and friends, our communities and our world. When we make choices that maybe are not so good we do not have to wait for a new year to start over as within each day, each hour or even within each minute we have the opportunity to start new.

So what are your new year's resolutions? I would love to hear from you what you plan to consciously change, accomplish or bring into your life this year. Some of my resolutions are to release long held sadness from loss, to be more understanding of my family, to open my heart to finding new love, to bring my holistic health and nutrition services to more people, and to partner with others who are also working to help unify and heal our world. There are so many atrocities and inhumane acts that need our love and attention. I recently came across this video that I would like to share with you.

"Troubles of the World."

There is so much work that we must all do together. How can we live healthy and happy lives when others are not? The health of our world reflects our own health.

As the founder of Artemis in the City, LLC the health of people is one of my greatest concerns. One of the major changes that we must push for during 2009 is reform of our health care system because it is failing Americans and is SINKING like a wounded ship! The current mainstream medical approach is focused on the treatment of symptoms and disease, and money making, not on the prevention of disease. Iatrogenic deaths (deaths induced inadvertently by physicians, surgeons and medical procedures) are a leading cause of deaths in the United States. In this article, "Leave The Sinking Ship" which ran in The Huffington Post on Wednesday, December 31, 2008, Deepak Chopra, MD and contributors Andrew Weil, MD and Rustum Roy, PhD point out that our health care providers need to embrace an integrative health care system because integrative health care has been very effective in saving and improving millions of lives.

But as previously mentioned...CHANGE means the death of the old way. There will be a lot of resistance from many great forces against a holistic health system that is more focused on healing and less on profits. That is why if we want a better health care system in America then we must all work together to make it happen.

I would like to also point out that an integrative or holistic health care approach is a system that also educates and empowers people to take responsibility for their own health and wellness. It is not only a difficult change for the medical community to embrace but is also a very difficult change for people to make who are not proactive in their own self care.

As a holistic health counselor I often meet people that do not want to face truths about the causes of their illness and disease. Even when seriously ill, they will refuse to make lifestyle changes that can potentially cure their illness or save their life. The effort to change seems too overwhelming and hard for them, and they just do not want to change. The next phase or change for them is serious chronic disease or even death. But for people who are ready to embrace change, most cannot find the support they need from their medical provider and they do not know what to do or how to begin. This is why I created Artemis in the City, to help educate and support people who want to transition to a healthier lifestyle more quickly and easily.

It is my hope that during 2009 we all create and embrace many positive changes. Change is GOOD! I want to share with you one of my favorite Chinese proverbs -