Sivertsdotter goes Authentic Avenue

We've taken the next step, are you coming with us? Stick with us while we finish the last pieces of our new website. Win a free Celebrate session, join our Experience Event and sign up for our 30 Day Discipline Courses. All in April, all for you and all on our new site www.authentic-avenue.com. Get inspired, get footprint, get happening and most important - get in touch. We can't wait to hear from you!

Stepping Up & Stepping Out

Is there anything better than the feeling of stepping up, knowing that we are doing what our hearts tell us to do? Is there anything better that stepping out and living the life we have been aiming for? Is there anything better than telling and living the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Honesty is the key to everything in life. Before we are honest with ourselves, no steps will be meaningful in the long run. When we have the honesty though, we can continue walking courageously with hope and faith that as long as we are honest we will be carried by life along our road.

Just for this day, let us all be honest, let us all be loving towards ourselves and others and let us all take one step towards more freedom, a deeper serenity and a more sustainable future. Let us all know that there will be peace as long as we continue to wish and work for it.

Simple Basics of Gratitude

• Mantra: Do good. And have a great time doing it.
  
  
• Focus: Start today. Go anywhere you want. See a sun where others see clouds.
  
  
• Mission: Yes, we can. Whatever we want, if we want it. Bring a lot of love, work hard and focus on progress rather than perfection.
  
  Today is the Day.

The Countdown Has Begun...

We haven't forgotten about you, we are working hard to deliver our news for the spring shortly. Please be patient and stay fabulous.

Question of the day:

• Who did you help last week and how did it feel?

Gone Fishing

Some of you may have noticed that www.sivertsdotter.com has been closed down. This is due to complete redesign and restructuring of the company. The blog will still be maintained during this brief period and when the work is complete information for the relaunch will be available here.

In the meantime keep up to date with our writings and stay healthy.

Footprint March 2008 Out Now

Topic of March: Being A Message

Go to www.sivertsdotterfootprint.blogspot.com to read.

Footprint is a monthly letter with a mission to inspire you to act for inner and global peace and to make healthy footprints on earth.

When We Believe

When we believe in something we believe in doing it right. To believe in something we have to know ourselves, where we are coming from and where we are heading. When we believe in the good, the good will believe in us and when we believe in freedom we will become the freedom we want to feel.

What does it mean to believe in something? To me believing is as personal as it can be. Two people can never believe in the exact same things and the footprints we make will never look the same. We are very different as the same time as we have almost everything in common.

I do believe in that we need something to believe in though, whatever that something might be. Believing is caring and walking the extra mile to make a difference. Believing is being honest and giving up things that doesn't 'talk to us' anymore. Believing is accepting change and change for what we believe in. When we believe in something we take a stand.

The Lift Game

The Lift Game is a game that we can play wherever we are and whatever we do. All that is needed are other people. The game is all about making people happy and the more depressed or angry the person we meet is the higher scores we get when we find a way to lift his or her day and make happiness out of those negative feelings.

Yesterday I had a really hard target in a supermarket, but I finally succeeded when we both – the woman behind the counter and I – realized that it is much nicer to be friends than to be enemies. I asked if she had a tough day and she told me about her morning that didn’t start very well, and we started sharing all things that can go wrong every morning if we let them to. When I left I felt like I had won the lottery. Not because I was the one making her smile but because it is so easy to feel happy and fully alive. All we need is a little courage and a willingness to prove that this world is a wonderful place to live in.

To be hostile and ‘closed’ is to make enemies and to open up and take every opportunity to really see and meet someone is to make friends. We can have friends in every corner of the world if we want to. It is all up to us to define the word friends and to walk that extra mile to make it something that is ours to keep

Footprint February 2008 Out Now

Sivertsdotter Footprint is a monthly letter with a mission to inspire you to act for inner and global peace and to make healthy footprints on earth. To read: click the green link above, to subscribe: go to www.sivertsdotter.com.

Thinking Before Speaking

3 questions to ask ourselves before we open our mouths:

• Is it true?
  
  
• Is it meaningful?
  
  
• Is it necessary?

With Faith All Things Are Possible

I believe that each of us has the potential to create personal miracles, and to spread these miracles throughout the world to help others. When we recognize our own unique personal power, we then can become a source of inspiration for those around us. But we have to be a living example before we can 'give anything away' to others. As a drop of water in the sea spreads outward, that’s precisely how we spread our message by living our lives the way we were meant to live them.

I think we were meant to be radiant, healthy, creative, active, happy and full of love and energy. And I believe that that is the 'natural state', not feeling a bit depressed, tired and lifeless. Everything that is less than our own definition of 'perfect' is the head telling the heart a lie and ourselves believing it. We don't have to struggle in life. We don't have to worry. We don't have to stay at a job that doesn't bring out our full potential.

The 'thing' is to understand that this day is all we have and that this day also is a miracle. As long as we think that we have forever, we avoid figuring out our priorities. As long as we think that 'tomorrow' will be the day, we won't appreciate the day ahead of us fully. When we turn our minds from daily life we see how fleeting it is, what a gift it is to have lungs to breathe with, arms to use and a creative mind to accomplish all dreams with.

We need a leap of faith to be able to enjoy every day. Knowing that it might be the last can help us to live as if it was our first. Knowing that life will carry us along the way as long as we continue to take the steps can help us to actually take those steps needed. With faith all things are possible.

When we believe in the good, we will recieve more of the great. When we see all the happy faces on the streets instead of the suffering, that is what will stay with us through-out the day. When we make an effort to help others, smile at them and see them for who they are, life will smile back threefold at us. And all starts with faith. Faith in life, faith in ourselves, faith in our capacity and the willingness to carry it out to the world.

Book of the Week

Our bodies can not be healthy without a balanced diet, and we can not have a balanced diet without colorful vegetables and fruit - 'living food' - uncooked, non-pasteurized, and minimally processed.

Have you tried wheatgrass, chlorella, spirulina, barley grass and kumut? Have you tried to increase the amount of 'green foods' in your diet for a long period of time? Have your tried to cut out all sugar and refined carbohyrates, all alcohol and all processed food? How did you feel?

Changing our diets will result in changes in our health. When we reduce the chemical burden on our bodies, we'll feel more vibrant, energetic, and light, and this will translate to better attitudes, less conflict, more cooperation and in the long run - peace. We can transform not only our own health but the whole well-being of the world - starting simply with the food we put into our mouth.

If you want to know more about how green foods heal, how an alkaline diet can improve your health and what food is abundant with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and chlorophyll that our bodies need - be inspired by The Green Foods Bible by David Sandoval (Freedom Press 2007).

When We Give We Heal

I will always have an unshakable faith in all human beings. We all have the capacity to not only care for ourselves but also to contribute to the world as a whole. I believe in a world where people find meaning in their lives by doing their part to make the world a better place. A world where each individual is using their limitless capabilities where it is most needed and where it unleashes most creativity and joy.

I believe in a world without homeless people. My goal is 'ZERO' - a world with not a single person sleeping on the streets. What is your goal? We can all wave a flag. We can be the person starting to talk about an issue that is not talked about. We can show compassionate care. We can help people to transition into a better life.

Peace starts with a smile and with small actions. When we are contributing to the healing of the world we automatically feel good and when we feel good we have no reason to harm anybody. It all starts with us and that is both a blessing, a responsibility and an opportunity. We all have what it takes and all we have to to is start. What does 'getting active' mean to you today?

Question of the Day

How am I going to change this world?

Teaching By Being

"I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being" Maya Angelou

I couldn't agree more.

Martin Luther King Day - the Day of Hope

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

Martin Luther King, Jr

The Best Food On the Planet

No single thing effects our lives or the world we live in as mmuch as eating. Our bodies are our temples and once our temples are clean and pure, there is space for divinity, insight and virtue to reside. It is said that cleanliness is next to godliness, and we can all choose clean and fresh food that help our bodies to glow and sparkle.

When we invest in our health, the returns will filter into all aspects of our lives. Health is about looking at the food we eat and determining whether or not it is the best food on the planet. That is what we all should have and that is what is available to us if we choose it and if we are lucky enough to live in a part of the world where we have that luxury to think about health.

Refined sugar is a drug, and there is no way to get around that. It causes artificial highs, depression, mood swings and energy crashes. It was used as a recreational drug back in the sixteenth century in the royal courts of Europe. We are what we eat. We can choose fresh and colorful food and to be light, vibrant, fresh and alive, or we can choose highly processed food and be dull, gray, heavy and lifeless.

Raw foods are organic, uncooked and unprocessed vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, sprouts, sea vagetables, nuts and seeds that haven't been exposed to high temperatures, thus maintaining their enzymatic and nutritional properties. Cooking causes major chemical changes to the food and then the food contains new and unrecognisable chemicals. Most raw foodists are vegetarian or vegan, but some eat raw fish and meat.

For more information about Raw Food, try one of these books:

• Natalia Rose, Raw Food, life force energy (Collins 2008)
  
  
• Wendy Rudell, The Raw transformation (North Atlantic Books 2006)
  
  
• Mathew Kenney & Sarma Melngailis, Raw Food, Real World (Harper Collins 2005)
  
  
• Kate Wood, Eat Smart, Eat Raw (Square One 2006)
  
  
• Rose Lee Calabro, Living in the Raw (Book Publishing Company 1998)
  
  
• Matt Amsden, Rawvolution (Harper Collins 2006)
  
  
• Stephen Arlin, Nature's first law, the raw food (Maul Brothers 1997)
  
  
• Suzanne Alex Ferrara, The Raw food primer (Council Oak Books 2003)
  
  
• Victoria Boutenko, 12 Steps to Raw foods (North Atlantic Books 2007)
  
  
• Charlie Trotter & Roxanne Klein, Raw (Ten Speed Press 2007)

One Person Can Bring Peace to the World

Peace is up to us. We can't wait for someone more powerful to deliver peace. We are the powerful ones who choose peace in every thought and action. Global peace is a personal choice, day by day. Are we going to add to the fighting in the world or offer up something greater?

Others may want to waste their precious time focusing on the ugliness in the world. Be the one who focuses on the positive, watch magic happen. Our thoughts are powerful. What we pay attention to expands. Notice peaceful people and places, tune out violence. And remember that more people are at peace than at war all across the earth. The world is evolving and becoming a brighter place.

Next time conflicts surfaces in our lives, we can keep breathing, stay calm, thoughtfully speak our truth and listen to others. We can realize that our frustration may be about the situation, not the person. We can set the intention to find a resolution, try to find the humor and agree to disagree.

We can get to know the genuine in others. Meet people of other cultures, religions, and backgrounds and find shared experiences, hopes, and beliefs. Connect on that holy ground, and peace will flow out from those moments. Wars break out over our evening meals - or in the world - when we try to control someone else. We can accept that we're only responsible for our own values, beliefs, and choices and do everything to bring peace to the world.

Martin Luther King Day

Each year on the third Monday of January (January 21st 2008), schools, federal offices, post office and banks across America close to celebrate the birth, the life and the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is a time for the nation to remember the injustices that Martin Luther King fought. A time to remember his fight for the freedom, equality, and dignity of all races and peoples. A time to remember the message of change through nonviolence.

Remember, celebrate, act - a day on, not a day off. Although many people see this day as a day without work or a day to hang out with friends, it is much more than that; it is the celebration of equality, the celebration of freedom, and the celebration of a wonderful man who made a difference in this world by believing in peace and justice.

Gandhi's Prayer for Peace

I offer you peace.
I offer you love.
I offer you friendship.
I see your beauty.
I hear your need.
I feel your feelings.
My wisdom flows from the highest source.
I salute that source in you.
Let us work together.
For unity and peace.

Mahatma Gandhi