the perfect red

When examining my life I gravitate towards metaphors. Somehow these tangible comparison allows me to understand the intangible reality of my life better.

Take the following example. I've been searching for the perfect red lipstick for ages. This might seem like a non-brainer to some, trust me that it's not a cut and dry endeavour.

Rocking red lips is a bold makeup move. Lips become front & centre, so they'd better tell a good story. Red is so powerful it can throw your whole face (& beyond) off if you're mis-rouged.

Getting the perfect shade of red is just half the story. The next part is getting a shade of red that I'd actually want to touch my lips. Most lipsticks are made with the grossest toxic ingredients. I don't want that stuff in my auric field, let alone touching me.

And then there's that nasty statistic that the average woman eats 4-7 lbs of lipstick over a lifetime. EW. That statistic, strangely, isn't enough for me to stop using lip goo, but it will make me WAY more careful about what lipstick I'm going to eat.

Finding a non-toxic, organic version of the perfect red? I've been searching and experimenting for years. And today I found it. Actually, it found me.

A friend of mine (Taylor) gifted me some makeup of her friend Fiona's up and coming organic makeup line Super Natural Lips. It arrived in the mail some months ago, and I finally received it upon returning home for some down time. I tried one of her ravishing shades and knew. The search was over.

And this simple act of applying lipstick made me wonder about all the other things I've been searching for, hoping it would be just right - perfect, I reflected on how those things or people or experiences might just come to me when I'm not even thinking about it. One relaxing day I'll just open myself to the experience and there it will be. Exactly what I wanted. No compromise.

The perfect shade of red is what happens when I'm busy trying to be my best and not focusing on getting or having.

Here's to realizing (& recognizing) all my perfect shade of red moments.

details, details.

I sit here on the eve of the last day of my 33rd year here on this planet and reflect. What were my most profound learnings of my latest spin with the sun?

First, I've learned to accept my own beauty more. I've been fortunate enough to be around people who let me know what they like about me, which is nice. And it's never what I expect them to say. The things about myself that I might dislike or discount are then very things that draw people to me. Who'd a thought? And so, all of me is likeable, even the parts of me that aren't. This revelation makes it so much easier for me to get along with myself & others.

On the beauty tangent I've come to recognize my sensual nature, and how it's allowed me to become a master appreciator. I can relish in every moment, even the ones that cause me pain. This amazes me all the time. And the beauty around keeps becoming MORE obvious and the moments in my life keep becoming MORE beautiful. I can derive so much pleasure from observing miracles of nature & humankind.

How is this? How is it that life's beauty abounds in the midst of what could be described as "shitty". How is it that we can look for the gift in every moment? Death, tragedy, embarrassment, laziness, ineptitude, dissatisfaction, etc., all have their rainbow factor.

Second, it's come to my attention that paying attention to the small details in my life will invite bigger things. If I can get the minutia of my life in order, where the simplest things are completed proficiently & efficiently, then I open my self to greater experiences. If I can show others, for example, that I can complete basic tasks with a sense of urgency & to a high calibre result, they are more likely to ask me to get involved with more important or high impact activities. Why get involved with someone who can't deliver on the basic stuff?

This seems like an appropriate variable to factor into my decision making. How I do anything is how I do everything. Same goes for others.....

And thirdly, getting clear is the key to activating passion. If I know what I want, (& don't want), it's easy to get up in the morning to work towards it. Fuzziness breeds laziness. A crystal clear vision breeds passionate action.

None of this is rocket science. Geez, this would have been great information to have had 33 years ago. But hey, everything's perfect, right?

Say hello to radiance

I believe beauty can be invited in. One can cultivate their beauty. In my opinion, I can become more beautiful with time. Using the food I eat, the friends I keep, the thoughts I think, the love I feel, the habits I nurture, and the compound effect of all these I can alter my appearance from the inside out – for the better.

As per my previous post, diet is a big part of improving our beauty. But here are some other thoughts:

Wash with better water.

Showering with a filter is a must. Use a filter or become a filter. Remember, just because the water doesn’t look dirty doesn’t mean its clean. It’s important to protect yourself from the damaging halogens & other toxins found in tab water.

On that note, if a tap water shower is THE option, then take shorter, colder showers; avoid showering in shitty water if you can. Remember it’s the compound effect of these dirty showers that age us prematurely.

Use a potent iodine regularly: Apply a few drops to your skin (the inner side of your forearms). This saturates your receptor sites on your thyroid gland making it less susceptible to the nasty ass halogens (typically found in tap water) that could potentially set up shop there and wreak havoc..

I wash my face with Spring Water. I keep a little cup by the sink and use that for my evening and morning ritual. It seems like a sacred ceremony – using this special water to cleanse my face. And why wouldn’t I? I thank my friend Laura for teaching me this. She’s gorgeous and full of so many insights!

What to do when I travel?

Free radicals and radiation are a bitch for keeping your sacred suppleness. And with travel, there’s usually a surplus of this going on. Flying at night will help minimize radiation.

Using a product like MegaHydrate will help shield you from radiation, free radicals & helps with hydration. I take 2-5 caps daily if I can – I will for sure take 5-9 on travel days.

Skin Care. Literally.

In my opinion, the best skin care is super simple and made from natural products that nourish your skin. There are many options. Personally, I’m into Living Libations. There is something so luxurious cleansing & caring with these oils.

Other tips:

-When available rub fresh aloe all over your face & body. It feels incredible, especially when it’s hot out. And the skin LOVES it. Aloe really is beauty’s best friend. The Pharaohs were well aware of this, and that says A LOT.

-Exfoliate. I use a moistened, gentle, natural-fibre cloth with the living libations best skin ever skin oil.

-Use Ormus Gold on your face. Anecdotally, ormus gold has anti-aging characteristics and increases metabolic rate and cell rejuvenation. It’s not for the meek. I use it and love it.

-Wear the best available, natural sunscreen when necessary to minimize overexposure to the sun. Jane Iredale makes a great one – although this isn’t a great option for most guys.

Exercise: highly recommended

Rebounding & inversions like handstands and headstands are a great way to tone the face and stimulate circulation in this area. Do daily if possible. Rebounding (aka jumping on a mini trampoline) is an easy time-effective way to get a workout in. Plus, that fun jumping applies weight and movement to every cell causing body parts and functions to become stronger, more flexible and healthier. YAY!!

Breathe. Anything you can do to honor your breath will do wonders for your beautification process. Walking or hiking through pretty places is great for this. As is yoga.

Think sexy, loving thoughts about yourself.

Sure, that sounds like hippie talk at it’s finest, and it is, but ugly self-talk does nothing for your beauty quotient. As the saying goes: Treat yourself as you’d treat others (assuming you’re not a flakey douchebag). Practice positivity. And truly cultivate your beauty. Shallow Hal is one of those classic movies that exemplifies how beauty shines from the inside, especially if we allow ourselves to see it.

Surround yourself with people, places & things that make you happy. Ingest truly nutritious foods and minimize exposure to toxins. Turn yourself into a work of art.

Pictured above: in flight on my rebounder.

looking good, baby

My big thing is looking younger than I am. Besides wanting to continue looking attractive, keeping my youthfulness is important simply because it’s an output of information. Compound effects are largely what cause aging. An accumulation of xyz toxins in the body can cause things to look less vibrant. Maintaining a fresh radiance is simply a way of gauging how well I’m attending to my body-mind-spirit.

In that vain, I thought I would share my beauty protocol.

Here are some of the things that I do, want to do, aim to do as often as possible. At the very least, I know that doing them benefits me – and this is helpful in creating new habits. Having an objective accompanied with knowledge makes it easier to accomplish because when the opportunity arises to do one of the below protocols, all I have to do is act.

Diet:

-Eat sulphur (olives, cabbage, celery, cucumber, garlic, onion, broccoli, cauliflower) & silica rich foods (celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, nettle & horsetail (those last two are very rich in silica - you can find them dried and can take them as tea)). In this book Eating for Beauty, David Wolfe shares TREMENDOUS information on what foods to eat to transform yourself from the inside out.

-Use olive oil. The best you can get: ICE PRESSED. This is serious business. A quality Olive Oil in your life, ingested and smeared on you regularly can up your youth & happiness quotient tremendously. The olive oil I love most is Rallis Olive Oil.

-Drink this morning lemonade: freshly squeezed lemon, 1 tsp msm crystals, pinch sea salt, drop of honey. Blend in some fresh aloe if it's available. It’s a great way to start off the morning.

-Add fresh aloe to your (taste appropriate) smoothies as often as you can.

-Avoid cooked fats & oils, baked goods, processed foods. Eating something like caramel – which is basically sugars & fats cooked at high heat - is a recipe for premature aging. EW. Don’t do it. The technical term is Advanced Glycation End Products. There is NOTHING sexy about it.

Now geez, that kinda takes the fun out of life. But at the end of the day, we have to remember that it’s the cumulative effects that will really take us out, and also remember that there are SO MANY delicious options out there that won’t fast track the very opposite of what we’re going for that we may as well make the best choices always.

-Use schizandra berry crystals or drops (add these to your teas, smoothies) daily & add pearl products to your supplement regime. These have been used in China for thousands of years for their skin youthening properties.

-Do a cleanse. Even a short cleanse will help clean out the hatch. When your body is cleaner it runs more efficiently, and actually doesn’t want to ingest shitty foods. It’s true that when your body is cleaner it can’t tolerate junk food as well anymore. Suddenly crappy foods are easily relegated to the “sometimes foods” category….perhaps even the never category. This makes it easy to eat, feel and LOOK better. Be smart about it. Choose a time when you can lay low for a couple weeks. Shop around, get informed and even consult with a health care practitioner. It’s way easier to do a cleanse when you have professional support.

-Commit to drinking better water (spring water in glass or self harvested if possible) most of the time (95+%). This makes such a profound difference; you can only experience it to really understand what the fuss is about.

Besides ingesting a bunch of health foods, & designer supplements & superherbs and avoiding crappy foods, etc, there are other practices you can incorporate into your ‘beauty regime’, including skin care, exercises & attitude... Remember, it's all about the compound effect of our habits & practices. Stay tuned for part two.

Pictured above: A raw, unairbrushed self portrait of a 33 yr old aspiring beauty queen.

act out your life

Here's a thought: I'm going to write out a script for myself, for my life - the most fantastical, beautiful, fun script I could possibly conceive, and then act it out.

Sitting next to the world's cheesiest bar in the centre of Winnipeg, a friend was talking about writing a script for his big project, his vision: "Nothing's going to happen unless I script it out".

And the gong of my mind went off. Of course. The script takes getting clear to the next level. It facilitates the action steps that activate the manifestation process.

I feel like writing out a script can take the pressure off too: Suddenly I know what to do! I just act out my part in the script and see what happens.

Granted my life script will have to be revisited periodically for rewriting because I can't predict exactly how my life play will be acted out. That's the exciting part.

As Napoleon Hill said: "Reduce your plan to writing...The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire". Sounds like fun to me.

So my next piece of writing after I finish with this post shall be titled: 2012. The Year of Krystyna. It's a working title. I'll jazz it up at some point.

And in that writing I share share the fantastic blossoming that will take place. Just watch the transformation; be a part if it. Write your own script and join the fun.

Look at how much fun Hollywood is having with all those scripts and stories being turned into fully expressed productions. I want to be a part of that magic, and I'm going to start with my own personal 'movie'.

And the Golden Globe goes to.....

pictured above: some principles I'll work into my script. I know. I'm so deep.

she said, he heard.

George Bernard Shaw non-chalantly quoted some time ago, that the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

I recently experienced a full on communication breakdown with my laptop taking a "break" from being usable. This little shake up made me much more sensitive to communication processes, since I had to change up the way I worked and communicated with people in a big way...

That, and a friend of mine quoted GBS when I was teaching him how to use his zapper and he still didn't get it. Why? I had assumed he had some idea of how to use it....but he didn't know at all. This would certainly change my instruction.

Assumption can KILL a seemingly well thought out articulation.

Am I truly, CLEARLY communicating what I think I'm saying? Can I find the "illusions" and efficiently fill in the gaps where information is missing?

Yesterday, a group of friends got together to attend a discussion/performance/book signing for our friend Justin Bua's latest book The Legends of Hip Hop.

Part of our posse arrived early to save some primo seats. In my communique's with the outside parties yet to arrive, I mentioned that we were in the 5th row on the right side. The others showed up, but didn't take their seats. Later it was revealed that when they saw the jackets on the empty seats in the 5th row they assumed they were taken.

The information missing from my texts was: we've saved seats for you -they'll have jackets on them. Again with the assumption. Geez.

It's amazing how such a seemingly small detail could totally alter an evening. Instead of having our the rest of our posse right next to us, they were somewhere in the back. Sure everyone had a great time....but they evening was altered.

Another miscommunique. Again, I thought I had said what I needed to...but alas, critical details were omitted. And frankly, both times the details were very simple. I guess when I assume I really do make an ASS out of U & ME. Oh god. I actually just wrote that down and didn't delete it.

It makes we wonder what other things aren't being properly communicated - simple things that could make all the difference.

Breakin' it down: simple & straight forward, no assuming. It's the best way to let people know what the fuck is going on.

pictured above: Darrel (RUN DMC) and Justin Bua rap about hip hop at the LACMA

damn you, mercury

When mercury is in retrograde, the suck factor can rise pretty quickly. One minute I'm trucking along having the best day ever, the next minute I get cold cocked in the face unexpectedly by some trivial misunderstanding.

The thing about Mercury that people who don't give shit about astrology might not understand, is that the transit of this planet has a long felt historical pattern of behavior when it's in its "retrograde" position.

This pattern is basically expressed through VERY POOR COMMUNICATION. Emails might not get sent, texts not received, whispers not heard, etc.

While this seems quite simple....poor communication is the root of so many problems that really mercury in retrograde can really fuck things up if I'm not extra diligent with my interchanges...and I'm just one part of the dialogue.  Whether they're aware of it or not the other parties are affected too.

And even when I'm extra attentive I notice that things can get hairy anyway. This is when a "good attitude" comes to play.

I suppose the best attitude is to consider the three times of year when mercury IS in retrograde as superhero training. I'll work extra diligently to keep all discourses on the up & up...so that when it's finally over I'll have sharper communication skills when things flow through the channels more easily.

Yes, that sounds nice.