or http://www.heartmath.org/destresskit
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Are you looking for:
- reduction in anxiety
- reduction in exhaustion
- improvement in home/work balance
- increased health and vitality
- increased ability to focus and make better decisions?
Inspire Wellness LLC uses proven tools and techniques, based on HeartMath® and The Wellness Inventory, to help you achieve this and more.
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A Healthy Woman
From the June 2009 Issue of Todays' Women Magazine
BY CHERYL STUCK
PHOTOS BY EWA WOJTKOWSKA
JUNE 2009
Kimberly May
AGE: 45
Owner of Inspire Wellness, LLC
Kimberly May says she teaches what she most needs to learn. As part of a team that includes a psychiatrist and a nurse practitioner, Kimberly owns a company that uses HeartMath, a stress management system based on science that uses biofeedback focusing on the heart. The math part is looking at the heart rate variability “so when you’re in that balanced state called the zone, you can see that heart rate variability and can teach your body how to get in the zone quickly,” Kimberly said.
After suffering with broken bones and other injuries in a car accident in 1991, Kimberly wasn’t satisfied with the prognosis, so she began studying “mind-body medicine.” Her doctors were pleased with how quickly she was healing and told her “whatever you’re doing, keep doing it, because it’s working.” At the time, Kimberly was in a corporate job.
Later, she experienced adrenal fatigue, which Kimberly said is common in women, “because they’re burning the candle at both ends. I wasn’t sleeping well, wasn’t managing stress well, wasn’t taking care of myself at all. I knew what to do, and I wasn’t doing any of it, so I again started looking at health and wellness and what I could do to restore myself. A doctor introduced me to HeartMath…and I started to think I wanted to get out of corporate work and into health and wellness.” So Kimberly took classes in natural medicine and “any kind of health and wellness I could find to learn how we get out of balance.”
In 2005, Kimberly became a trained practitioner in HeartMath and now helps others learn to balance their lives.
WHAT SHE DOES TO STAY HEALTHY: These days, Kimberly practices what she preaches. “I start every morning with stretching and HeartMath meditation. It focuses your breathing to the heart area. The next step is going into gratitude. In gratitude the body is naturally balanced and it sets the tone for the day if you’re focusing on what you’re grateful for and stretching.” She also walks about three miles a couple of days a week and works out at the gym at least three days a week.
Kimberly also believes in “managing your thoughts and choosing your emotion — choosing joy, choosing appreciation, choosing laughter, looking for how to lighten things up and being in the moment. And not going too far in the past or the present. Finding what I can appreciate about it. I have a huge group of friends and family that I love to spend time with. Having that connection with people that love and support you is important — especially right now with what’s going on in the world.”
WHAT SHE EATS: “Today I’m eating whole grain toast with avocado on it for healthy fats.” She also likes lots of fruit, and gluten-free toast with almond butter. “Fruits and vegetables all are really simple things and can be a lot less expensive than meat. I make a lot of soups with vegetables that are healthy for you and easy to make.”
ADVICE: “Spend time in gratitude. Any moment you start to feel fear, focus on what you have to be grateful for and choose that gratitude and that joy over fear. I think wellness is a choice. Take the time to make those simple choices.”
Her BIG three
1. emWave
Personal Stress Reliever,
biofeedback system
“I use it throughout the day to get quiet and listen to my body and my inner voice. It shows when you’re stressed and when you’re in the balanced state.”
2. Books
“I like to read a lot of health and wellness inspirational books.”
3. Green tea
“I drink it several times a day — chamomile tea at night and medicinal teas. When my husband had a cold, I drank Cold-Care tea with Echinacea to try to build up my immune system.”