THE FOXXY LADY HANDBOOK

This is the introduction to the book JoAnn and I have written about our experiences over last 14 years.  Let me know what you think...

When Jimi Hendrix wrapped our collective souls around FOXY LADY back in the 60’s we didn’t need to dust off Webster’s, we knew exactly who she was, what she was all about, and what made him feel like growlin’ “Foxy Lady”.  So did every woman.  And every man.

Foxy Lady had the indescribable something that didn’t come in a bottle from Chanel or off a rack in Paris, she didn’t have to be draped in ermine or pearls.  She either had it or she didn’t, the sultry secret hidden just behind her eyes, the sense of style that challenged you to look away.  Where the foxy magic comes from is just as hard to define today as it was when Eve offered Adam a bite of apple.  But in the end there is just one indispensable constant, a common denominator that keeps rising to the top like cream on milk: it starts on the inside, glows on the outside, and reflects back to the inside until it creates an endless feedback loop.

I call it The FOXXY LADY.  With two “x’s.”  And I think it’s something that any woman can achieve and so can any man.

Back in 2001, when we started to bounce ideas off one another and our medical spa was just a gleam in a dream, we kept coming back to a phrase: “health and beauty, inside and out.”  We even trademarked it.  We might not have been thinking of Jimi’s Foxy Lady at that exact moment but for us that phrase, health and beauty, inside and out, captured the essence of what was necessary for the total package to work.  The inside and the outside, the yin and yang of beauty, and the essence of what made the lady foxy…it all had to hang together.

I’ll tell you what it’s not: it’s not a perfectly symmetrical face, it’s not skin free of brown spots or fine lines or crow’s feet.  It’s not expensive clothes or designer handbags.  A lot of our patients spend most of their days outside in the heat and the cold and the mud,  in uniform in far away countries, in endless meetings meeting impossible deadlines.    Yet there is not doubt when you see them they exude that certain ageless, timeless something.  Leave it to the French, they even have a name for it: Je ne sais quoi—a quality that cannot be described or named easily.

Ageless is a big word and I use it here very deliberately.  I’ve seen women, men, too, in their 60’s and 70’s who still turn heads when they walk into a room.

Foxxy starts on the inside with a sense of self worth and confidence that you can sometimes even find in children, children who already possess an undeniable spirit that says almost anything is possible.  The little girl that smiles at you over the back of the seat when you’re having breakfast in that diner in Montana?  You just know.  Sometimes it appears in the teens and 20’s, sometimes it doesn’t show itself until maturity.  And sometimes, sadly, not at all.

But the secret, and my conviction, is that we all have the potential for it; all that is necessary for it to emerge is for someone to give us a nudge in the right direction.

Consider this book your own personal nudge, your guidebook, if you will, on the path to health and beauty, inside and out.  My hope is it will become your feather, like the feather the crows gave Dumbo to help him fly.  After a while he could throw it away because he believed in himself.  And so will you.

Having trained in traditional Western medicine, and having always looked at the non-traditional alternative avenues for over four decades, I am confident that the foxy magic is something that can be learned, nurtured, and made to flourish.  You, too, can become a Foxy Lady.  Or in my case, a Foxxy Lady.  The inescapable, indispensable ingredient is desire.

Read that again.  Tell me if you see the word “easy.”  (I know you won’t because I didn’t write it.  And I didn’t even think it.)

All of the steps are intertwined and inseparable.  You literally can’t have one without the other.  But for those of us who are linear thinkers I will pretend it can be broken down into three parts:

First: It starts with confidence, the knowledge that you can handle whatever life throws your way.  One of the big ingredients is the ability to handle stress and make it your friend.  The first element of our journey, then, will be to help you identify and appreciate the tools you already have, tweak them a bit, so you come out the other end secure in the knowledge that if something outrageous happens you can handle it and turn adversity, mistakes and missteps into your power force.

The second ingredient is simply feeling good, having energy, and being able to function at the level you desire.  All of that is based on being in good health and having what is called physical reserve.  (Fifth grade health class alert!)  Being in good health depends upon eating properly and taking the right nutritional supplements.  And a whole lot more we didn’t know back when I went to Madison Junior High School.

The third part empowers your need to be selfish.  To do what is necessary to look your best.  Looking your best does not mean looking flawless but it does man looking your healthy best.  When you are confident in that it is because you know that you have done everything that needs to  be done. 

I don’t promise enlightenment.  All I promise is to show you the steps toward the light.  It is up to you to take one step at a time and follow the path.

A beginning Zen pupil went to the Zen Master and asked: “Master, how do I find enlightenment?”

“Have you eaten your lunch?” the Master asked.

“Yes.”

“Then wash your bowl.”

The lesson?  Do the next thing.  Eat your lunch.  Wash your bowl.  One step at a time.

Intrigued?  Read on.  The Foxxy Lady awaits.