The following is my interview with Portlands own Dr. Meletis. If you haven't heard of Dr. Meletis, or would like to know more about him, please read on. At 44 years of age his list of accomplishments left me feeling inspired. We met in his Beaverton office about a month ago. It was during this meeting that I learned he has written 18 books, was named as the 2003 AANP Physician of the Year, has opened 16 community clinics in Portland to serve the poor and under-privileged, and is a nationally sought after speaker. His willingness to teach classes through MindGlo speaks to his giving spirit and love for his community. Please read on I promise you will find it thought provoking. Also visit www.drmeletis.com to learn more.

When did you discover that Naturopathic Medicine is your passion?

I was finishing my 2nd year of conventional MD medical school and I was taking biochemistry and the single class offered in nutrition that semester.  All of a sudden the light went on and I realized that without the proper nutrition, the biochemistry in the body would be off, and a person's cells, all 75 trillion of them would be under fueled. Bottom-line:  If our cells are under fueled, and we are a composite of our cells, we are under fueled, thus leading to disease, premature death and a less than optimal existence.

The following article is written by Mindie Kniss, MFA PhDc. I met Mindie early this summer as I was building the team of instructors for MindGlo. She is full of ideas and inspiration. Our meeting was a blessing for me and MindGlo. Mindie is all about helping people live a life of passion. Check out her MindGlo classes: Conscious Creative Writing; Set Your Mind for Success!! To find out more about Mindie and the great work she does please visit her site Portland life coach. Enjoy!

Can’t Decide on a Class? Allow Yourself the Luxury to Learn
Does this sound familiar?  You’re looking through the current MindGlo catalog or browsing the website, and you come up with a number of classes that sound intriguing.  You consider signing up for one or two, but are stalled in deciding which class to take.  More often than not, you put the decision on the backburner and return to the “important” stuff in your life.  Time passes and the classes go on, and you are still attending to that important stuff.  We are all busy with families, work or the search for work, social commitments, sports and activities ad infinitum.  Is learning and personal growth a priority for you?

Building MindGlo has been an amazing journey for me. It is less than 7 months ago that MindGlo was just a dream. In fact it wasn’t even MindGlo at that time.  It was the Portland Learning Connection. Fast forward to today and MindGlo has 42 incredible instructors who are delivering over 70 classes. What a ride it has been.

People seem to be amazed when I tell them how quickly the instructors and classes came together. The thing that amazes me is the quality of the instructors that are on the team. What I realized at the Grand Opening on Monday was that for the first time other people would see the same thing that I have known for awhile now. MindGlo is special because of the quality of the instructors and their great classes!

Where do I look for instructors? Hmmm… Here is where my mom comes in. My mom is actually motivated to retire so she can watch this program on FOX12 called Better (http://www.better.tv/). How is that for your unusual retirement motivators? So she says their target market is you target market. Turns out she was absolutely right.

Can I take an aside here?  While I am on the subject of my mother I just wanted to thank her publicly. She has been very supportive of the MindGlo dream from the very start. Thanks mom!!

So I started by contacting some of the local experts that appear on Better. My first two meetings were with Sara Dahlquist (http://dahlstyle.com/) and Ruth Carey (http://www.ruthcarey.com/) both from Better.  Ruth Carey, The Portland Trailblazers nutritionist, was the first to come on board and Sara soon followed. Sara was my first meeting (from which I learned like 20 things) and Ruth was my first instructor I am very grateful for both of them! From there it was off to the races.