Author Carolyn A. Brent, M.B.A. is a former clinical educational manager in the pharmaceutical industry. She is an avid activist and advocate working with the U.S. Congress for the purpose of creating change to protect seniors and veterans from financial and medical abuse. She has appeared on many local and national TV and radio shows, and is a sought-after keynote speaker.

Today, I’d like to share with you a recent interview I had with Carolyn on my BlogTalkRadio show, when I got to ask her some questions on her work. It was a very rich interview that I know will help many, many families and care givers through difficult times. It’s one of the most practical and useful interviews I think you’ll ever hear on the topic. I hope you enjoy it and get a lot of great information from it:

If you cannot see the flash player, click this link
to hear the interview on the BlogTalkRadio site.

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Carolyn A. Brent and that you’ll check out her book Why Wait? The Baby Boomers’ Guide to Preparing Emotionally, Financially and Legally for a Parent’s Death at http://www.babyboomersguide.org/book-launch/pre-launch.html

Here Are Two Reasons Why:

FREE 3-DAY PASS

When you visit the page at the link above and request a “launch reminder”, you will automatically receive a FREE pass to Carolyn’s 3-day “Why Wait? Telesummit”, with a panel leading experts preparing emotionally, financially and legally for the death of a parent. You can listen to the telesummit online in the comfort of your own home, and even ask questions during the broadcast

This telesummit is a completely free
“no purchase necessary” gift from Carolyn

To register, go to

http://www.babyboomersguide.org/book-launch/telesummit.html

FREE GIFTS

When you buy Carolyn’s book on Tuesday November 15, 2011, you can ALSO receive a complete library of beautiful personal development gifts from authors, speakers, coaches and other enlightened professionals from around the globe including one from me: TWO free audios on personal transformation.

To claim your 3-Day Pass and read about the free gifts, go to:
http://www.babyboomersguide.org/book-launch/pre-launch.html

Thanks for reading! As usual, please feel free to share your comments and thoughts below. I love reading your feedback.

AND… be sure to follow Carolyn tomorrow when the next stop on the Virtual Blog Tour is on the Writers in the Sky Blog at http://bit.ly/stdkG4 .

Transformation coach Lynn Serafinn shares life experiences with fear and its impact upon her health, and tells us about Luis Diaz’s new course on releasing fear.

PLEASE share this article with others.

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A few months ago, I wrote an article for my volunteer Transition Town group in which I shared my thoughts upon the link between oil dependency, disconnection, fear and suffering:

Our dependency upon oil has made us disconnected from the Earth and the ultimate Source of Creation in just so many ways. Most of us in “developed” nations (an irony) don’t grow our own food and have become dependent upon big businesses and mass transport (i.e., supermarkets, trucking, air freight) for the very basics that keep us alive. In the past, all we were dependent upon was the weather for our “daily bread”. But nowadays, we are dependent not only upon the ever-changing weather patterns, but also upon oil, global economies, foreign policy and corporations. What a vulnerable place in which to be! And to me, as someone who works with people and their emotions on a daily basis in my work as a life coach and teacher, I know the emotional and physical impact of long-term vulnerability. People begin to feel helpless. Helplessness leads to fear. Fear leads to depression and even disease. It can also lead to violence and crime.

While these words were originally written to support my observations about the connection between oil dependency and our wellbeing at a societal level, on a very personal level I have witnessed over and over again how feelings of helplessness lead to fear, and how fear ultimately leads to depression, disease and overall unhappiness.

I grew up in a fear-riddled household in which it felt like the roof was going to explode at any given minute. I was educated in a fear-driven parochial school where beating children (and in front of their peers) was still the norm. Later, I went on to enter a violent marriage and stayed there for 22 years, continually walking on eggshells, fearful of the next outbreak of rage. My lifelong relationship with fear had caused me to become so disconnected I didn’t even realise I had suffered multiple cases of whiplash as a result of abuse (I was diagnosed years later), which still case health issues today. It is small wonder that by the age of 40, I was diagnosed with a case of fibromyalgia so severe I felt like I was 80 years old. When my rheumatologist told me there was no cure or treatment, I broke down into a flood of uncontrollable tears at the thought of living for the rest of my life in such extreme, constant pain.

Fear is arguably the most primordial emotion of all living beings, and for human beings, I believe it is at the root of many other emotions such as anger, shame, sadness, uncertainty of self and chronic anxiety. Without a doubt, it has profound effects upon both our physical and spiritual wellbeing.

For me, I discovered the link between fear and health after I left my marriage, and started to notice that my fibromyalgia, by which I had been seriously impaired for 7 or 8 years, was vanishing day by day, until it was completely gone. I also noticed that I no longer suffered from heart palpitations, night-time panic attacks, severe digestive disorders and relentless back problems.

To give a complete comparison, these days my back problems still flare up from time to time, which is understandable after more than 20 decades of physical violence. But while, in the past, these problems were my constant companion every day of the year, nowadays I have a minor flare up once every year or two, and my body is able to heal after a single osteopathic treatment. In the past, when my life was overwhelmed with fear and anger, my body was so resistant to healing I would typically have to go to the chiropractor two or three days every week for years and the spasms and pain never totally stopped.

Looking back upon my experiences, I am 100% convinced that fear, and all the chemical and neurological by-products of it, had been deeply lodged in the very cells of my body for many decades. And I cannot tell you how lucky I feel that I finally woke up one day back in 2002 and started my long process of healing. I fumbled my way through it and discovered these things as I went along. It took me about 6 years to heal from fear fully, and believe me I really WORKED at it very hard, with personal development training (including my coaching training) coming out of my ears.

In other words, I did it the “hard way”: on my own, not sure of where I was headed, and taking years to get there.

That’s why, when I met my client (and now good friend) Luis Angel Diaz, and he told me about the work that he does, I was extremely enthusiastic.

Luis is arguably one of the world’s foremost authorities on emotional healing, and has been a holistic health practitioner since his early 20s with qualifications in dozens of traditional and holistic therapies. Those of you who have followed my work will also recognise him as the author of the international #1 best-seller Memory in the Cells: how to change behavioral patterns and release the pain body. He is also the founder of a technique called “Cellular Memory Release” (CMR). Over the years he has worked with thousands of clients at his three successful practices in Argentina and California, helping them transform their long-term pain and illness into aliveness and joy.

The goal of Luis’s work is basically to take people from where I was back in 1995 to where I am today—without going it on their own, or taking years to get there, like I did. The CMR process is a teachable process where people learn how to identify their emotions, experience them fully and release them, so they can make room for the self-healing their bodies already know how to do naturally.

I’ve done several online events with Luis over the past few months, and I am delighted to be able to invite him back to my radio show this week on Blog Talk Radio:

Transforming Fear with Luis Angel Diaz

On Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul

@BlogTalkRadio
Wednesday December 1st
6pm UK / 1pm EST / 10am Pacific
Listen LIVE or catch the replay at:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn/2010/12/01/ep88-transforming-fear-with-luis-angel-diaz

I hope you’ll tune in. You can even ask Luis questions live on the air via the chat room, Skype or by calling in on the phone at 646-727-3449 (US Number).

And then, for those of you who want take this process further, I do encourage you to check out Luis’s 2-session course that starts next week:

Releasing Toxic Emotions from Our Bodies

How to Transform FEAR into Inner Peace, Joy and Wellbeing

Tuesday Dec 7 and Tuesday Dec 14
PLUS full forum support

http://tinyurl.com/fear-dec2010
This course normally costs $197
But this December ONLY
Luis is offering it at the discount price of only $157

AND if you tune into the show today (or listen to the audio replay before Friday), you’ll find out how you can apply for one of 20 $100 scholarships he will be giving away to attend this course for only $97. Tune into the show for full details, or check out the registration page above for more info.

Hope you’ll be joining us on the show!

Wishing you a lifetime connection, wellbeing and joy,
Lynn

About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors

Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced several top-10 book campaigns, including FOUR #1-sellers, in 2010 alone. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. Contact Lynn about YOUR book project at at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.

Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).

Sign up for Lynn’s bi-monthly newsletter Creative Spirit (fill in form below) packed with inspirational articles, online networking tips, broadcast guide to her radio show, and news about upcoming spiritual author book releases.

Throughout the year, Lynn also hosts large-scale telesummits with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Your subscription to Creative Spirit will ensure you’ll be the first to know how to attend these free events.

Lynn

Author’s note: I originally wrote this article on 13 October 2008, but in light of the recent outbreak of “swine flu”, I thought it might be especially relevant. I also feel it can help us reflect upon what true “strength,” “wealth” and “wellness” are, as well as what we consider to be “lucky” and “unlucky” in life.

I am a workaholic. I don’t seem to stop. Ever. It isn’t funny. I even have made up a name for my workaholic “gremlin”. His name is Bonzo. Bonzo has a very loud voice. My intuition speaks more softly. When Bonzo shouts so loudly that I cannot hear the voice of my intuition (or I hear it but choose not to listen), the inevitable outcome is that I make myself ill.

A week ago Friday I was co-leading a very large event in London… a community day for about 70 life coaches from various parts of Europe. I had been working on it for 6 months with a team of 3 other great coaches. That day, the weather turned really cold and I knew that I was catching a chill but I kept going. The day was a great success, but it was an enormous amount of work, both over the past months and on the day itself. In the back of my mind, I could hear my body saying, Slow down. Create some space for yourself.

On Saturday, the day AFTER the event, I presented at a wellness fair here in Bedford. It was a freezing cold day and they had the doors open all day during the event. I shivered all afternoon. I kept hearing my body screaming, “Slow down, woman!”

On Sunday, the day AFTER that, I walked half an hour in the pouring rain to meet up with a new business contact, and then later I had my daughter over my house for the night because she needed to talk and get some loving care. We were chatting until well after midnight.

In my head, all I could hear was, Lynn, you keep saying you want to slow down. So, why are not stopping?

SO…

The day after THAT, which was last Monday, I woke up (surprise, surprise!) to find that I had come down with the flu. High fever, chills, aches, sore throat and really swollen glands. I felt like death warmed over. I couldn’t even get out of bed. At first I contemplated whether or not I had the energy to coach my clients (I had a full roster every day this week). Then, I realised that this was absolute insanity. I started calling my clients to cancel. All I had the energy to do was sleep. Because I live alone, and work for myself, my mind kept resisting the “down time” because I am used to taking care of myself and couldn’t see how I was going to pay the bills, do the shopping, etc.

But then, the most amazing thing happened. My clients, family and friends starting calling me, asking how they could help.

On Monday, one client (who sells Aloe Vera products) posted me a tube of Aloe Vera jelly for my throat and some bee propollus and Echinacea for my immune system.

On Tuesday, after receiving the parcel of Aloe Vera, another client (a homeopath) brought me some homeopathic medicine and took a deposit to the bank for me so my bills would get paid on time.

Later that day, another client (a Reiki practitioner) went shopping for me and brought me back loads of soup and juices which I spent several days guzzling down with great delight.

On Wednesday, my son-in-law went and got me some medicine for a massive headache I had had since Monday.

On Thursday, still another friend/client (a cranio-sacral therapist) came over to my house armed with apples, juices, macaroons (yummy) and toothpaste (I was completely out).

And as each person came with supplies, they also stayed for a chat and I felt better and better just for their presence. When I went to bed on Thursday night, I was astonished that in less than 4 days I felt about 80% recovered, whereas the previous flu I had had about a year before developed into lingering chest infection and cough that lasted 6 weeks.

I slept soundly, and when I woke up on Friday morning my flu was 95% gone (personally, I really do credit the Aloe Vera with curing my swollen glands).

I felt so good when I woke up Friday that I went into London to attend a course called “Awakened Wisdom” with one of my favourite mentors, Patrick Ryan. The course uplifted me that final 5% I needed to feel completely well again, and by Saturday morning I was 100% recovered. On Sunday, the last day of the course, I stood up in front of the class and made some very powerful commitments about becoming “visible” as a spiritual teacher through my writing and my work. Today, as I write this, I have to tell you that some of these commitments have already started to unfold. But beyond that, I not only feel completely restored in body, but the experiences of the past week have also healed my mind and heart as well.

A year ago, none of this would have happened. Why?

Two reasons:

The first reason is because a year ago, I didn’t know any of these people who came to help me (apart from my son-in-law of course). All of the local people who came to help me are people I met over the past 6 months through the Global Wellness Circle (GWC), which is an educationally focussed community project group dedicated to promoting a natural and holistic approach to health and well-being at all levels of mind, body and spirit. Sounds like a great organisation, yes? Well the best thing about GWC (for me) is that I myself started it in April (2008). I started GWC in response to the isolation I kept hearing so many other holistic therapists expressing, and which I also shared. I wanted to create a supportive community that would not only help us just grow our businesses, but also help us thrive as human beings with a common value base. It is extremely gratifying to find that this “Wellness Circle” provided me with a circle of people who helped me feel well when I was ill and overworked. I can only assume that this kind of behaviour is going on amongst other members of the Circle. It makes me more and more convinced that “Communities create wellness” (which is the motto of GWC).

But the other reason why none of this would have happened a year ago is because I myself am a very different person from who I was back then. A year ago I was in a state of mind where I felt I needed to support everyone else, but I would rarely (if ever) allow others to help me. I used to think this was because I didn’t want to “burden” others, but I now know this was simply a rationalisation. In truth, I believe the real reason why many of us do not ask for help is that it makes us feel vulnerable. We want people to see us as “strong” people, so we tend to hide what we judge as our own weaknesses. But actually, it is only we who judge ourselves to be weak. The truth is, it takes more strength and courage to show our vulnerability in public than to be stoic and alone. Quite opposite to how I used to think, I have learned that being vulnerable and asking for help is actually the bravest and most empowered thing we can do.

And here’s the surprise bonus—when we ask others for help, we actually empower them too. We allow them to give us their love, strength and wisdom. Just imagine if we lived in a world where nobody needed anyone else. We might falsely imagine such a place would be a world full of powerful people, but actually it would be a world full of lonely people who had no purpose to fulfil.

Allowing my vulnerability to guide me when I had the flu was a fantastic voyage of discovery, surprise and gratitude. So now, I am continuing to allow all the nurturing that exists around me to enter into my life… and I am really enjoying the ride.

This time of year, a lot of people get the flu. If you are one of the “lucky” ones, use the time to slow down and surrender to the process your body is craving. Then, dive deeply into the resources you have around you and ask for help from those around you. Always remember that we are actually giving a great gift when we allow others to show their love for us.

Anyway, that’s why getting the flu was the highlight of my week, and how much it made me aware of what real “health” (and wealth) in life is.

Lynn Serafinn
13 Oct 2008