Announcing My New Name: Toni Astara Love!

In October, I very joyfully changed my name from Toni Ann Crotty to Toni Astara Love. 

I had no idea how empowering it would be to choose my own name. I feel so much more aligned, and so motivated to express the fullness of who I am as a unique individual. 

If you are curious why I chose these names. My new name is a return to my birth initials. (My brother married a woman named Toni, so my sister-in-law has had my maiden name for decades.) Twenty some years after my divorce, I finally found a name that feels right for me. I have always liked Toni, so I am happy to keep that. Astara means powerful and complete. She is the Goddess of Springtime, and the Angel of Reaching for the Stars. My spiritual practice is to stay in the state of unconditional love as often as possible, so Love feels appropriate for me. 

After having a name for decades, there are innumerable things of varying importance that carry your name. I set out to change the most important things first. And of course I have to change less important things as they come up, day by day. It is like having another job.Though I do it joyfully, affirming myself, and the joy of having a choice, each time. 

What I hadn't anticipated was that I would change my idea of how I want to be in the world, and how I want to be of service. For example, I am still dancing. Though instead of dancing primarily Ballroom with the seniors, and a little Swing/Lindy Hop with the younger set, I am dancing primarily Folk Dancing, with some Kizomba, and a little Ballroom. 

I am expanding my idea of how I can be of service. I am particularly interested in teaching strategies for Peaceful Living in Anxious Times. I have taken training to learn how to offer online courses, so I can reach beyond my local audience, to help meet this pressing need. 

My website will likely be changing over time, and eventually, I will have time for blogging again. Though at this point in the transition, you are up to date. Since computers seem to have the memory of an elephant, I may appear online as either Toni Ann Crotty or Toni Astara Love forever. Know that it is all me.  

Love and Blessings,
Toni 

You Are What You Eat! 

Free Online Food Revolution Summit 

April 28th-May 6th

I just learned on the Food Revolution Summit that now that the dangers of smoking are known, making smoking less prevalent, diseases arising from the standard American diet are causing the greatest amount of death and disease. Wow.

That is both scary and empowering. Scary because it says that our food is making us sick. Yet empowering knowing that we can choose what we eat moment, by moment, to improve our health. 

So what to eat? That's the million dollar question. My experience is that the American food supply is constantly changing, sometimes without us even noticing. Each year I look forward to the Food Revolution Summit to get the latest research and cutting edge information and insights about the food we eat to help heal ourselves and those we love. 

The Food Revolution Summit is a free event, where 300,000 people worldwide gather for a fantastic online event with 24 of the top food and health experts on the planet. Each day, three 45 minute interviews are free live and for 21 hours after airing. Or you can choose to buy all of the interviews to own forever. 

I listened to all three today. They were so packed with valuable information, I am very excited about this year's Summit. You can still join. Use this link below. 

JOIN HERE NOW: https://www.foodrevolutionsummit.org/

Fresh or Frozen Organic Blueberries as Antioxidants?

Most of us have heard that blueberries are great antioxidants, and a very healthy food. In the Summer in California, I can easily buy fresh organic blueberries. Though when Fall hits, fresh organic blueberries get very expensive, if they can be found at all. 

So I wonder if I should switch to fresh non-organic, or buy organic frozen blueberries. Fortunately, I recently heard on a Food Revolution Summit broadcast that a study was done with fresh, frozen, and dried blueberries. The results were that the antioxidants are still present after freezing, though not so much after drying. Dried fruit has high concentrations of sugar, so I rarely eat dried fruit anyway. 

The more I read about the toxins allowed on our food, the more convinced I am that Organic food is what I want to put in my body. So I will be buying frozen organic blueberries until the fresh organic blueberries arrive again. Check out foodrevolution.org for more tips on healthy eating. 

Start Reading Labels on Your Personal Care Products

The bad news is that many common products are full of chemicals you don't want absorbed into your skin, because the skin is the body's biggest respiratory organ.

The good news, from a UC Berkeley study, is that after only three days of using less harmful products, the chemicals in the body dropped significantly. 

"A new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, demonstrates how even a short break from certain kinds of makeup, shampoos and lotions can lead to a significant drop in levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals in the body.

Researchers provided teen study participants with personal care products labeled free of chemicals such as phthalates, parabens, triclosan and oxybenzone. 

Such chemicals are widely used in personal care products, including cosmetics, fragrance, hair products, soaps and sunscreens, and have been shown in animal studies to interfere with the body’s endocrine system.

Analysis of urine samples before and after a three-day trial in which the participants used the lower- chemical products found significant drops in levels of these chemicals in the body. 

Metabolites of diethyl phthalate, commonly used in fragrances, decreased 27 percent by the end of the trial period. 

Methyl and propyl parabens, used as preservatives in cosmetics, dropped 44 and 45 percent respectively. 

Both triclosan, found in antibacterial soaps and some brands of toothpaste, and benzophenone-3 (BP-3), found in some sunscreens under the name oxybenzone, fell 36 percent." Read the full article at: http://news.berkeley.edu/2016/03/07/cosmetics-chemicals/?utm_source=100%25+Pure+US&utm_campaign=7132cced39-2017-01-06+Trunk+Sale+Final+-+US&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_52f12ed1e0-7132cced39-296581181&mc_cid=7132cced39&mc_eid=d6fd154b2d

Because I am a sensitive person, I was ahead of my time on this one. I have been replacing my personal care and home cleaning products with less toxic versions for decades. Watch this blog for upcoming articles on chemicals to avoid, my search for alternatives, pitfalls to avoid, and my favorites. 

A Great Opportunity For You to Hear The Food Revolution Summit for FREE

After listening to many, though not all, of the informative and inspirational interviews on The Food Revolution Summit, I was delighted to receive this email from Ocean Robbins. All of the interviews will be replayed, all weekend, on demand. I am delighted to take advantage of this opportunity, and hope you will, too.

Here is the link: http://summit2016.foodrevolution.org/broadcasts/

The response to the Food Revolution Summit was extraordinary. More than 220,000 people joined, and letters of appreciation have been pouring in from all over the world.

So many people have been asking us to make the presentations from the Food Revolution Summit more widely available, that we’ve decided to do just that.

We’re replaying the entire Food Revolution Summit, all 25 presentations, starting right now, for a special Encore Weekend!

It’s all available now, complimentary, on demand – 3 days of unlimited listening.
You can stream the ENTIRE Food Revolution Summit on demand, for no charge, all day Friday May 13th, Saturday May 14th, and Sunday May 15th. For the next 3 days, you can get free access to game changing must-have insights from an all-star team of food movement luminaries, all interviewed by my dad and colleague, John Robbins.

Now you can catch up on any presentations you missed, and share it all with friends and loved ones. You can get breakthrough insights from Christiane Northrup, MD; Joel Fuhrman, MD; Jane Goodall, Ph.D; Michael Greger, MD; David Perlmutter, MD; Mark Hyman, MD; and Vani Hari plus 17 more amazing food leaders.

Yours for a food revolution,

Ocean Robbins

P.S. Now through the end of Encore Weekend, you can get the Food Revolution Summit Empowerment Package for the summit special $100 discount. http://Summit2016.foodrevolution.org/empowerment

2016 Food Revolution Summit Found Me Eating Better

Where Did the Time Go?

I am surprised to see that it has been since 2014 that I blogged. Though I understand as I remember that my life got blurry when my Mom went on Hospice care at the end of 2014. My Mom, and two close friends passed in 2015. I have processed much grief since then. My focus is now back on the present.

The 2016 Food Revolution Summit Inspired Me

It gave me a chance to see how far I have come in eating a healthy selection of real food. I now eat a wide variety of colorful vegetables, that sometimes look as pretty as a picture. 

Since the 2014 Summit, I have purchased almost all of my produce at Farmer's Markets. I am delighted with the quality and the freshness. I can feel the difference in the energy of the fresh carrots at the Farmer's Market and the bagged little carrots at the grocery store.

When I get busy, and the fresh veggies sit in the refrigerator for a week or two, I can see that they are beginning to look like the quality of the veggies at the grocery store. So I guess it must take a week or two for the supply chain to get the produce to the store. When the Farmers bring it to Market, it was picked just yesterday. I love that just picked freshness.

So a friend and I have planted an organic garden. I will be posting photos and blogging about the joy of growing our own food. Stay tuned...

How I Learned to Be More Grounded Using Astrology & Crystals, And How You Can Feel More Balanced, Too.

My Big Aha!

In midlife, I became aware that I had experienced my whole life from either outside my body, or only in my head. Fortunately, at the same time, I learned that living life in my whole body was an option. In fact, it was a much richer and more fulfilling option.

So I began exploring how I might attain this unfamiliar state of occupying my entire body. One of the first techniques that worked was using outstretched arms to gather up all my energy that was dispersed around me, and then using my hands to push it down into my body.

2014 Food Revolution Summit Impact: The Changes Begin

Thanks to the Food Revolution Summit, I am looking at what I eat with new eyes. I realized that my food choices and eating patterns had become a habit. So I decided to take a conscious look and then decide if my eating habits still fit. 

This is what I saw. I could only find four "processed" foods, regularly in my diet. By that, I mean products that are packaged, and more than just a single ingredient. Here they are, and my conscious decisions about them.

Food Revolution Summit Take-Aways

Take-Aways Are What Stick With Me

As I was eating dinner tonight, I remembered something from the Food Revolution Summit that struck me as profound. When we eat unprocessed, organic food, we get much more nutritional value out of it, so we can be nourished, and feel satisfied, while eating much less. 

That is certainly something to remember when price comparing regular and organic food. If I need less organic, than regular food, the price difference is less. 

FREE Encore of the Food Revolution Summit - On Demand, All Weekend Until Sunday May 11th !

Free Encore On Demand All Weekend Until Sunday May 11!

Many us of are fed up with not knowing what's in our food. Others are ready to make changes in what they eat as a path to better health. 

The Food Summit Revolution interviews arm us with the information we need for moving forward. The demand for this life changing information has been so great this year, that all of the interviews will be streaming on demand all through Sunday, May 11th.

Highlights of How to Be Heart-Attack Proof

2014 Food Revolution Summit Highlights: Helping You To Heal Your Body & The World With Food

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a surgeon and author of the bestselling book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, explains, with irrefutable scientific evidence, how you can become “bullet-proof” to heart disease by changing what you eat. 

2014 Food Revolution Summit Highlights: Helping You To Heal Your Body & The World With Food

As an Energy Healer, I know that the food and liquids we consume, and the air we breathe, are major sources of the ch'i, or life energy, that sustains us. So I believe that ingesting healthy food and liquids, (water for me) and living in a non-toxic environment, are matters of life and death.

Valentine's Day - Boosting Love Energy

On the day of Love, in the month of Love, I am sending out a strong beam of Love to all of you. I am feeling your love enfold me in return. I am deeply grateful for your presence in my life and for the light you shine on my path. I am inviting you to look carefully enough to see everything through the eyes of Love. 

Living Life With Gusto, I Discovered the Healing Power of Dancing!

I remember the look on my dance partner’s face when the foxtrot music gave way to a lively cha-cha. He watched keenly as I bent my knees and moved my hips to the beat. I didn’t know him well, though he appeared to be a rather reserved fellow, so I asked, “Is it OK with you that I dance with attitude?” 

Jin Shin Jyustu® Safety Lock 1 - How to Heal Your Body With Improving Energy Flow

I appreciate SEL 1 because it gets my energy moving when I feel sluggish. And when I have been thinking too much, or staring at the computer too long, it moves the energy down out of my head, so my mind can relax.  

Jin Shin Jyutsu® Self-Help Reveals the Key to Health

Your body is talking. Are you listening? Are you understanding what it's saying?

If you heard your body sounding an alarm, would you respond? Of course you would. You live in there. Sadly for me, I couldn’t hear the alarms because I didn’t understand the body's language. So, my body talked. And I ignored it. It screamed with symptoms. And I powered through it. Until disease knocked me down.

Retreat at Home: Pausing Between the Seasons

My body loves sunlight. Maybe it is because I grew up in Southern California. Maybe it is because my normal body temp is lower than “normal.” I don’t know why. I just know that when the Summer turns to Fall and the days are shorter, I miss the light. When the temperatures drop, I miss the warmth. 

Pondering the Essential Questions fo Life

What if when all is said and done the essential questions of life are: 

• How well did you know yourself ? 
• How much capacity did you have for loving yourself ? 
• And were you true to yourself ? 

Clients drag themselves into my office, exhausted and frustrated. They are imprisoned by stressful jobs and unending obligations. They hear their bodies complain with symptoms and disease, though they feel trapped and helpless wishing desperately for more time in the day so they could rest.

Joyfully Baking Sweet Potato Pecan Biscuits

I first realized that baking comforted me in the Fall of 1989, when I noticed the urge to bake daily after the upset of the Loma Prieta earthquake. While puttering around in familiarity of my warm kitchen, with flour in my hands and cinnamon in the air, all felt right in my world. I was a homemaker in those days, raising two sons with big appetites. So the bounty of my baking was shared and appreciated. 

Easy and Effective Immune Boosts

I am excited to report that I have successfully boosted my immune system this Winter, enough to stay healthy when others around me aren’t. I have been taking Elderberry Extract every day as a quick herbal immune boost. Science has demonstrated that Elderberry coats cells, so viruses cannot latch on. My wonderful colleague Atava Garcia Sweicicki, is a Clinical Herbalist who makes her own Elderberry Cordial. Atava says that "Daily consumption of Elderberry Cordial can help prevent both flus and the common cold."  Visit her website at ancestralapothecary.com to purchase online. Hers tastes much better than what you will buy at your favorite health food store.