As the years went by, he was always one of my go-to guys who would share his real experience in working with the beast of distribution that any product must tame to succeed. I have long been a consumer and fan of his products, not only because I love to buy products that have a friendly face behind the brand, but because when you know the people in charge are as serious as you are about only making things that they themselves would take, you know you are buying the best.  So it was easy for me to switch my multivitamin to Alive when Mike told me about how they made it.

Always at the top of the science game, it isn’t surprising that Mike’s company is one of the first focused on whole foods nutritional supplements, because they are easier to digest and assimilate. Alive is concentrated food. All the best and most nutritious parts of 26 fruits and vegetables, which is better than I can do in my new juicer. Alive vitamins actually make you feel more alive in places like your eyes, heart and immune system, but most especially for me as am now riding my 50s wave with my energy.

And I am not the only one. Another way to know if people love what you do is easy these days, just read reviews on amazon where you will see hundreds of stories from people who don’t even know Mike, but who report over and over how they can really feel the difference when they are taking vitamins that are Alive or just more processed chemicals.  So if you are feeling low, or just want to protect your health or the health of your family, don’t hesitate, take Alive and see how quickly and deeply you will really feel it.

“The antidote to exhaustion isn’t rest. It’s wholeheartedness.”   –David Whyte, poet

I haven’t loved a movie as much as I did Hope Springs in quite a while.  It was the sometimes painfully realistic portrayal of what happens in a marriage or any relationship when the people involved stop saying the hard things that need to be said.  More painful still are the myriad of ways that people stop touching each other, both in the early stages of discomfort with their own sexuality and in the latter stages of anger and resentment for not being wanted sexually.  Meryl Streep plays the beautiful, wounded wife to the angry and unreachable Tommy Lee Jones.

Good Clean Love was requested to provide samples for the opening night of this film and I am grateful that our message was shared for this story of tapping into the healing power of intimacy. Unlike many Hollywood versions that reduce sex to the lowest common denominator of passionate animal lust, Hope Springs depicts the painful locks we put on our need to touch and be held: the trembling hand as we move forward, in fear of what our sexual needs and desires say about us.

Like this couple,  too many of us give into the exhaustion that this high level work of becoming an adult in your significant intimate relationships demands. We give up on our sexuality or on the sexual potential of our partnership because it takes so much courage and wholeheartedness to claim it. The distancing that comes from holding someone so far from your heart is what evolves into the myriad of resentment connections that take over silently in what was once our most vulnerable heart.

Telling a true story about the sexual life you want starts as we see in Hope Springs with the courage to reveal your sexual self to yourself and to your partner.  It demands authentic conversations and a willingness to explore both pleasure and our discomfort with moving towards pleasure.  If your sex life needs more juice, start with searching for your own inner juices and then be willing to share them with the person you love.

Having a great sex life that matures and grows in passion is a direct result of building intimacy into all the everyday aspects of life.

I was so touched by the story that I wanted a bracelet myself. At the end of the show, both of the hosts took off their own bracelets and gave them to me in honor of all the love I generate in the world. I was transformed by the gift. These incredible guys, taking their love emblems that they had been wearing off of their own wrists was one of the most meaningful expressions of gratitude that I have ever received. Each time I looked down at my wrist, I felt the warmth of that love again.

A few weeks later, the Let Love Out emblem became even more important to me as I had the opportunity to gift it myself. My son was going through a painful break with his girlfriend of several years and was totally lost to himself. In his grief, he allowed me to lead him on a guided meditation. I was blessed in that moment to witness him discover the place in his heart that needed to let the love in.Tears rolled down his cheeks as he recognized his ability to let the love in, to not abandon himself.

At that moment, the bracelets also became the symbol for letting the love in. We started selling them on our website not long after and I still wear one everyday. But this is not one that was given to me at the radio show, those were gifted long ago.Who do you know that needs to let their love out?  Or more likely still to let it in? These aren’t just gifts; they are daily reminders of the love that buoys us and keeps us safe.

In addition, every bracelet purchase donates part of the purchase price to some great projects that make the world more loving every day. Now you know what to give to the person you love who has everything….