Tag: Medicine

Anti-Aging for Cats

Anti-Aging for Cats

  • Celeste Yarnall, Ph.D

As we baby boomers incorporate anti-aging protocols, such as organic foods, exercise, and nutritional supplements into our own health regimes, we can also examine the best of these principles and adapt them in a way that is safe and appropriate for our companion cats. These are not just theories, they are the very principals and protocols that were the backbone of my 11 generation Championship Tonkinese Cat breeding program, which through to its conclusion in 2009, spanned nearly 20 years. I personally conducted this anti-aging holistic natural rearing program (on a small scale, and always finding wonderful homes for all the kittens and cats through the years) and have seen first hand what this regime produces, generation after generation, as I personally witnessed the difference between my cats and those born and raised on commercial pet foods, the overuse of drugs, and abuse of booster vaccines. How do I know the difference you might ask? Because I raised my first litters that way.

I was so concerned by what I experienced, that I began my own research and challenged what I was being told by many veterinarians and mentors. I broke away from those tired methods and launched my own holistic breeding program. I consulted with experts, including my friend, Jean Hofve, DVM, who joined me as my Complete Guide to Holistic Cat Care co-author. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that the single most important anti-aging modality for cats is feeding a properly balanced, naturally raised, raw meat and raw bone based, species-specific diet. This is the foundation upon which all of our holistic regimes rest. The recipes for these homemade foods are found at CelestialPets.com

The goal of anti-aging is to ensure that one’s later years are enjoyed in optimum health and well being. In human medicine, we talk about ways to lengthen telomeres, we fix and even replace body parts that have degenerated. However, these techniques are not readily available for our cats. Kidney transplantation is available, but impractical and unaffordable for all but a very few cats. Perhaps one day, we will see bio-identical hormone replacement for altered cats, biomedical technologies, such as autologous stem cell therapy (harvested from the cat’s own body), nanotechnology drug delivery, and even development of bio-identical replacement organs. One day, we may even see these techniques as common place in veterinary clinics. But what can we do in the meantime? As our cats mature and become senior citizens, it becomes important to support not only their physical well being (flexibility, eyesight, hearing, energy levels and general body systems) but their emotional equilibrium; nourishing and nurturing their bodies and spirits as they mature and keeping their stress levels as well as our own down to the barest minimum possible.

Modalities in veterinary medicine must often first be firmly entrenched in human medicine before they trickle down to our pets. The use of supplementation has become extremely popular in feline preventative medicine, as have herbal remedies and homeopathic remedies. Since cats are such unique and sensitive beings, we must be very careful with the so-called super supplements and herbal remedies which may work perfectly well for most people and dogs, but can be deadly for cats. For example, Alpha Lipoic acid is great for dogs and people but deadly for cats. Resveratrol is also excellent for people and their anti-aging regimes but is not to be given to either dogs or cats. Make no mistake that the success of all supplements and remedies work hand in hand with the species-specific raw meat and raw bone diet of the cat and are primarily derived from animal sources.

Nature has created a wonderful plan where each gland and organ found in the prey animal nourishes the corresponding system in both our dogs and cats. Our cats natural diet of fresh raw prey which they eat in their wild environment serves as the recycling plant for the cat. In other words, the prey animal processes by eating what the cat, an obligate carnivore needs nutritionally and when the cat consumes the prey, she gets these nutrients second hand. The carnivores therefore naturally, for the most part, eat the vegetarian animals. We look to these animal sources to round out the diet when we make it at home, from scratch in our own kitchens. See my Care2 Celestial Musings blog on this topic for instructions on how to prepare your cat’s food. Simply giving supplements with commercial pet food from bags and cans is no different from eating Big Macs and swallowing vitamins with a Diet Coke! We all know better than that, but if your vet tells you to feed out of this bag or can, most people follow like sheep (even though vets know next to nothing about diet and nutrition other than what pet food companies tell them) rather than do some research, to see how other well informed cat guardians make their cat food themselves – something I have been doing and teaching others to do for over 20 years. I even formulated a line of supplements because there was nothing specifically formulated for homemade food. I call them Celestial Pets Supplements and this I did first of all for my own cats and then to share with others since they did not exist in the marketplace.

 

What causes our cats to age?

In a word, inflammation. Current research points to chronic inflammation as the major cause of many, if not most chronic and degenerative diseases as well as other features of aging, such as liver disease, diabetes, arthritis, and even cancer. However, inflammation is also the body’s primary defensive and healing mechanism. Trauma, toxins, allergens, and infectious organisms all trigger inflammation. On one hand, that’s a good thing. If inflammation didn’t happen, wounds would never heal, and viruses and bacteria would rampage unchecked. Inflammation is a normal part of living. The key is to moderate inflammation—not too little, not too much, and for the appropriate amount of time. The addition of a cold extracted, organic, greenlip mussel oil extract and antioxidant supplement can go along way to relieve the symptoms of inflammation much better than fish, krill, salmon, or cod liver oil and aid greatly in our anti-aging efforts. My choice is Moxxor as it meets this criteria perfectly and is therefore an anti-aging supplement for cats, dogs, horses and children and adults of all ages, too.

Many feline experts have over the years, prior to the advent of the state of the art new Omega-3 supplement, Moxxor, used flax, cod liver, krill or salmon oil for the purpose of including some essential fatty acids and Omega-3s, into their cats’ diets and I did this too, but since I learned how these oils are all made, (they are nearly all molecularly distilled or esterified – heated at high temperatures, laced with alcohol, solvents, salt, and deodorizers to rid them of heavy metals such as mercury), they are far less than desirable to me now because they contain only two Omega-3s (DHA and EPA) whereas Moxxor contains 18 Omega-3s including one called ETA which is not found in anything else to any measurable degree. All oils, with the exception of Moxxor are impossible to keep from going rancid under the best of circumstances, (rancidity is the bane of the oil industry).

Cooked food products (and that includes the heat processing of supplements) do not track with the way felines have hunted and eaten their fresh raw prey for thousands of years. There are no toaster ovens or vats in the wild to cook their meat or distill their oils, so therefore all ingredients for cats and dogs must be raw or as close to raw as possible in order to duplicate the macro-nutrients found in their wild diet and take advantage of some solid evidence-based science now available for the need for clinical nutrition and supplementation. There is even recent information (which you can read about here) clearly demonstrating that raw meat or even lightly cooked meat is more nutritious than kibble and this study was done by a pet food company. The co-author, Dr. Jean Hofve of my book Holistic Cat Care, is interviewed here by Dr. Becker. Dr. Jean, who corroborates this fact, quotes from our book and is interviewed as an expert on the benefits of real food for cats.

NOTE: A great anti-aging tip for cats as well as dogs, is the feeding of cut up, raw, free-range/organic chicken necks for dessert, as this is the way nature intended for cats to clean their teeth. Keeping cats’ teeth clean and gums healthy this way prevents kidney and heart disease as diseased gums (cervical neck lesions), which erode under the gum line, trap bacteria and infections driving the bacteria down to the heart and kidneys. Cats, because of this condition, start to have kidney disease and can be deemed geriatric at age 7 or 8 years old today! Watch how we recommend that cats clean their teeth. No dental appointments at the vet’s office with dangerous anesthesia are necessary when we use the techniques mother nature intended. See CelesteCats Matrix clean his teeth the natural way. Having had two of my beloved cats die as a result of the anesthesia from a routine dental cleaning, you can bet that I will avoid this procedure whenever possible! This is the best cleaning your cats teeth can ever have.

Besides the benefits of living indoors and being loved and treated as a member of a family, you can take steps to help your cat live to her full life expectancy. We can thereby help guard against turning on potentially dangerous genes that might have been passed down the line to our cats, through our species-specific diet, state of the art supplementation, herbs and homeopathy, and even some new age modalities such as veterinary energy medicine and high tech bio-resonance machines, and much more. We can now create an anti-aging lifestyle for ourselves and our companion cats. See Holistic Cat Care for more details on anti-aging modalities for our beloved cat companions and as always I am available for one on one phone consultations.

Is Your Body at Peace?

Is Your Body at Peace?

  • Deepak Chopra

Put fear in perspective. Realize that positive outcomes are possible. Discuss how you feel with others; work together to change the stress. Be in control where you can. Don’t let chaos dominate. Stay centered, and whenever you are thrown off center, take time to return there. Find an outlet for your anger and anxiety.

These are common-sense suggestions, but I wonder how many people use them. For every lunch meeting where two friends fret over living in a time of war and terror, there should be one where they speculate about the best way to find peace. In a time of crisis, putting your body at peace can seem like a full-time job.

Spiritual life is all about finding a center and holding on to it. Negativity can feel like your center. You must confront the fact that not just your body, but the body politic is affected by violence. When you find yourself fixated on war and violence you are empathically drawing in what others feel. This osmosis isn’t healthy per se. Collective consciousness is part of you. But it isn’t your real self, and if you mistake what others feel for what you feel, you are putting your body at war for a bad reason; because everyone else is doing it.

You have to put your own body at peace, and then, in the absence of turmoil, you can find out what you want to hold on to. Spirituality without a core of peace is very limited.

Adapted from: Peace is the Way, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2005).

 

Do We Have the Power To Heal Ourselves?

Do We Have the Power To Heal Ourselves?

  • Celeste Yarnall, Ph.D

The Art of Medicine Consists of Amusing the Patient While Nature Cures the Disease. –Voltaire

Just for a moment, forget all we have been taught about evidenced based medicine and the hallowed halls of science today and just ponder for a few moments the possiblity of a world where we might not ever need a physician or healthcare provider or not ever need a doctor to write a prescription for a drug again. Could the ability to heal ourselves be locked in our DNA, like the lizards that lose their tail and grow a new one? Could this ability be lurking somewhere maybe even in what they refer to as ‘junk’ DNA? What about a world where we wouldn’t need to go to the local health food store to purchase an herbal preparation or a homeopathic remedy or have to endure the slings and arrows of all those negative nay-sayer types whom we all know so well who shoot down anything and everything that is deemed unscientific in the world of energy healing. Isn’t it amazing that it usually takes less than 100 years for todays absolute science to become tomorrows nonsense? A hundred years ago blood letting was the state of the art. If we only we had a crystal ball how many could be helped from suffering through treatments offered today that one day will be deemed harmful and even deadly. What if all healing could be done right inside of our own minds but we just don’t have the tools as of yet to know how to do it? Is it possible that it is there right inside of us and we just need to find the keys to unlock its secret door? What could this kind of magical self healing system open up? What would happen to Big Pharma and our current medical system if it was possible for us to heal ourselves? Would it ever even be allowed to exist, as most likely we would be able to access it for free?

Let’s explore something that is very much part of the 800-million dollar cost to bring a drug to market today; that little sugar pill known as the ‘placebo.’

Newtonian scientists who come from the world of “only matter matters,” find that natural remedies (unless they can stick natural ingredients like fish oil into a patented delivery system or process and make a drug with it) are for the most part described as having a ‘placebo effect.’ The same holds true when scientists look at Homeopathy, and other systems of healing based on an energy meridian system, such as Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). It never fails that we will quickly hear the term ‘placebo effect’ thrown right back at us when these modalities are offered. We can just visualize the ‘usual suspects’ with their hands over their ears muttering ‘la la la’ if we were bold enough to suggest that somebody spend some of their millions on a really big study that could explore our inate ability to heal ourselves, could it ever happen? Probably not, as there has to be something financiallly beneficial for the folks who pay for the study and the doctors who get those lucrative grants to do it! If we could heal ourselves who would make a profit in corporate controlled America where that now famous 1% hold the wealth and power?

There is something going on right now that does seem to be shaking up the scientific troops a bit and that is the fact that Big Pharma has done an amazing job of keeping from ‘us,’ just how potent placebos actually are in the world of drug testing! Also just bear in mind that the third leading cause of death in the Western medical model is from allopathic medicine, this is referred to as ‘iatrogenic,’ meaning induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon, or by a medical treatment or diagnostic procedure. Dr. Leape of the Harvard Medical School of Public health has stated brilliantly, “Medicine is a high risk industry, like aviation. But the chance of dying in an aviation accident is one in 2 million, while the risk of dying from a medical accident is one in 200!” Wow, I know of orthopaedic surgeons who tell their hip or knee replacement patients to take a permanent marker and mark which knee or hip is to be replaced in big block letters, so they don’t operate on the wrong leg!
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While doing a bit of my Celestial Musings, (I have been nick-named Celestial, ‘long not short’ for Celeste), all my life, I found it quite compelling to learn that for years these folks in the hallowed halls of Western Medicine have been protecting a dirty little secret weapon called the ‘placebo’ which causes what has been known for many years as the ‘placebo effect.’

 

In Wired Magazine, writer Steve Silberman, wrote an article in August of 2009 entitled, “Placebos Are Getting More Effective, Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.” This is quite an eye-opening article. I find it amazing to think that Big Pharma has actually been worried about the lowly little placebo for a very long time and I thought it might be interesting to share a bit of it what is happening in order to take a serious look at it.

Many people do not even know where the term ‘placebo effect’ comes from. But in truth it can be traced to a little white lie, according to Silberman, who tells the story of an Army nurse during World War II in Italy who was assisting an anesthetist named Henry Beecher, who was caring for our US troops under German bombardment. When their morphine supply had trickled down to nothing, this nurse assured a wounded soldier, that he was getting a shot of a potent painkiller, though her syringe was loaded only with, saline solution (salt water). Amazingly, the bogus injection relieved the soldier’s excruciating pain and kept him from going into shock!

Beecher returned ultimately to Harvard and became one of the USA’s leading medical reformers. He was so inspired by the nurse’s clever ruse, that he launched a crusade to promote a method of testing new medicines to find out whether they were truly effective. At the time, the process for testing the efficacy of drugs was not very good. Pharmaceutical companies would simply give volunteers some experimental agent of some sort until the side effects would overcome the presumed benefits. Beecher proposed that if test subjects could be compared to a group that received a placebo (a sugar pill), health officials would finally have an impartial way to determine whether a medicine was actually responsible for making a patient better.

The placebo plot thickened; in a 1955 paper entitled “The Powerful Placebo,” which was published in “The Journal of the American Medical Association,” Beecher described how the ‘placebo effect’ had undermined the results of more than a dozen trials by causing improvement that was mistakenly attributed to the drugs being tested. He demonstrated that trial volunteers who got real medication were also subject to placebo effects; the act of taking a pill was itself somehow therapeutic, boosting the curative power of the medicine. Only by subtracting the improvement in a placebo control group could the actual value of the drug be calculated.

The article caused a sensation. By 1962, the news of birth defects caused by the drug, Thalidomide, and its tragic consequences were of such monumental proportions, they hit every front page of America’s Newspapers. The only silver lining of this horror story was that it caused Congress to amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, requiring trials to include enhanced safety testing and placebo control groups. Volunteers would be assigned randomly to receive either medicine or a sugar pill, and neither doctor nor patient would know the difference until the trial was over.

Beecher’s double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial—or RCT—was enshrined as the gold standard of the emerging pharmaceutical industry. Today, to win FDA approval, a new medication must beat placebo in at least two authenticated trials. The question now can be carefully posed…are they worth the paper they are printed on? Why you might ask? Because, even the color of the pills in these studies is at play; yellow is the best for antidepressants as it is like a little dose of sunshine, red pills provide a stimulating effect and give you a kick in the behind, green and perhaps even blue, add a bit of chill to the pill, and white are more soothing to the gut, particularly as an antacid even if they only contain lactose (milk sugar).

It also seems that more pills are better so that if you take your placebo several times a day you get better results and if your pills are embossed with a name brand like Tylenol, the name branding on them seems to make them work better than generic, even if the person offering the tablet to the user, says they are the same! Now how about that? Can we see the power that we each hold in our own belief systems!

It is true, that Beecher in fact did help to cure the medical establishment of its own brand of quackery, but it had a really big side effect – it cast the lowly little placebo as the villain in RCTs, and Beecher ended up stigmatizing one of his most important discoveries. The fact that even dummy capsules can kick-start the body’s recovery engine have now become a problem for drug developers to overcome, rather than a phenomenon that could guide doctors toward a better understanding of the healing process of our miraculous bodies and how to drive it most effectively into perhaps healing itself. Where would the ‘big bucks’ be in that?

 

Beecher just didn’t see the handwriting on the wall nor foresee, the explosive growth of the pharmaceutical industry. The blockbuster success of mood enhancing drugs in the ’80s and ’90s beefed up Big Pharma’s resolve to promote pharmaceutical drugs for a growing cache of mental disorders. One might also ask, which comes first the drug or the new disease or the condition to match it? Even Dr. Oz asked this question on National TV. The question however was not answered to anyones satisfaction when his show aired even though he pitted the Big Pharma ‘rep’ against his expert adversary. One can only ask, “whom shall guard the guardians” especially if they have the power to create the disease first and then the drug or vaccine to market as a treatment for it?

By attempting to dominate the central nervous system, Big Pharma gambled its future on treating ailments that have turned out to be particularly susceptible to the placebo effect. I’m so worried about their financial future, aren’t you? Pardon my sarcasm but when I see the millions of dollars spent on television commercials of epic proportion designed to make us ask our own doctors to give us the drugs we see advertised as if they are the latest ‘must have’ designer footwear, I get a little upset! But just let us dare to walk into our doctors with a new supplement and see how fast they will shoot that idea down in favor of the drug tested against a placebo. I really have to commend their creativity with the creation and marketing of Lovaza which is really just plain old fish oil with a twist and a huge price tag which medicare covers even for the greedy doctors who seem to be too cheap to buy their own supplements and instead take advantage of the system to get it for free!

What about all those clinical trials they wave around, you ask? Remember they don’t have to use the studies that don’t support their drugs, they can use just the ones that do and throw out all the others. It has been said that $100,000 can buy you any outcome ‘they’ want to get from a clinical trial because ‘they’ control whom the drug is tested on and who the placebo is tested on. Since when are any of us the same in a control study group? My cold or flu virus may be a lot different from yours. I might cough and you might have sinus congestion but yet we’d both get the same drug during the test period! And then we might ask, do drugs ever really cure anything or just palliate the symptoms? Remember the days of having a bladder infection and taking the drugs only to have the yeast infection two weeks later and then require another drug for that? We end up chasing symptoms around our body with multiple drugs, which interfere with each other causing more symptoms and so the cycle begins. We just keep palliating these symptoms until something much more catastrophic rears its ugly head..and then we wonder “why me?”

Why on Earth could it be that the Big Pharma boys are now so worried about placebo’s? Why is it that these inert sugar pills are suddenly overwhelming what they refer to as promising new drugs (promising only if you don’t listen to or read the side effects) and already established drugs alike? The reasons are only just beginning to be understood. A group of independent research experts have been for some time actually delving into this phenomena and uncovering the inner workings—and potential therapeutic applications—of the placebo effect. Can they patent a sugar pill with a special delivery system? I wonder!

You can bet on the fact that some drug makers are realizing they need to fully understand the mechanisms behind it so they can design specific trials that differentiate between any positive effects of their products (if indeed there are any) and our body’s precious ability to heal itself. A special task force was even initiated by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, by the time Silberman had written his article, which began seeking to stem this placebo vs. drug crisis by quietly undertaking one of the most ambitious data-sharing efforts in the history of the drug industry. After decades in the jungles of fringe science, the placebo effect has become, as Silberman states, “the elephant in the boardroom.”

Now a new term has been coined and that is known as ‘the placebo response,’ instead of ‘placebo effect.’ By definition, inert sugar pills have no effect, but under the right conditions they can act as a catalyst for the body’s ‘endogenous health care system.’ Like any other internal network, the ‘placebo response’ has limits. It can ease the discomfort of say chemotherapy, but can it stop the growth of a tumor? It also works in reverse to produce the placebo’s evil twin, the ‘nocebo effect.’ What on Earth is a ‘nocebo?” A nocebo works like this; men taking a commonly prescribed prostate drug who were informed that the medication may cause sexual dysfunction were twice as likely to become impotent.

There’s more to this tale; everything also depends on the messenger! If a particular doctor was optimistic that something would work it had a better chance of working. No wonder the phrase ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ was coined. Could the diagnosis/prognosis actually be the killer instead of the disease as the body processes its own death sentence?

These very same Newtonian (materialistic) scientists we’ve surrendered so much control to, are seeking ways to suppress and keep this information regarding the ‘placebo response’ quiet and unknown to the ‘pill popping’ public who are constantly told that anything outside the mainstream, such as alternative or natural medicine, is bogus. Please do note that they do seem always to be the first to use the argument of the ‘placebo effect’ to take down homeopathy, or even acupuncture and every other form of energy medicine or natural healing that calls upon the body to heal itself or even to nourish it…well of course they would, it’s so simple…homeopathic and/or acupuncture and other natural remedies, even whole food supplements cannot be patented and only that which can be patented makes Big Pharma their fortunes.

Western medical doctors and pharmaceutical makers take the approach that the living thing is the victim of its circumstances because it is just a collection of body parts and organ systems which are subject to mechanical breakdowns, like a car, due to circumstances outside the individuals control, maybe with the exception of obesity. Obese patients are always given a load of guilt even though ‘they pushed the so-called ‘pyramid’ diet for far too many years, which in turn pushed empty cereals and grains to the bottom and quality protein and healthy fat to the top! Remember how to fatten cattle? Just feed them lot’s of low fat grain! Turn the food pyramid upside down and actually lose weight in a healthy way because if you don’t they will try to sell you the lap band surgery!

Wouldn’t it be amazing to be consciously empowered with the knowledge that if we can get ourselves into a particular state of health we also can have the power to get ourselves out of it? If a sugar pill can work just because the Big Pharma folks in white coats tell people to take it and they will feel better and or get well, AND THEY DO, just think, what we could do for ourselves armed with access to just the right technique or belief system or even the perfect placebo or sugar pill, might we be able in the foreseeable future to heal ourselves? Now that is a healthy thought to ponder!

Today’s Affirmation for December 29th

Gypsy Comments & Graphics
In pain and sorrow lies truth. I honor the anguish the heart may feel
to understand myself and those around me. Sadness begets joy, joy begets sadness. I push forward, through the dark towards the light. I celebrate the richness of the human exprience.
                                        ~from RowanTurningLeaf

 

~Magickal Graphics~

CLOUD EYE RITE

CLOUD EYE RITE


This rite is loosely based upon a belief found in Hawaiian legends. In these legends, it was
said that the gods and sorcerers (kupua) possessed not one, but many bodies, and could
transfer their essence between these bodies as circumstances warranted. Thus, there were
tree bodies, human bodies, rainbow bodies, animal bodies and cloud bodies. One body could
sometimes be shared by several kupua, and a single kupua might have several bodies of each type.
Purpose
The aim of this working is to transfer perception to another body – in this case, the cloud body.
It can be thought of as an “out of one body and into another” experience.
Materials Needed: An open space, dry ice, passivity
The Rite
Open by whatever means feels appropriate.
Set the dry ice in the center of the working area.
Participants circle deosil around the ice, chanting
“Ka-ao-opua-loa” (the sharp-pointed living cloud). In the Hawaiian legends, this was
the name of the kupua of the cloud people.
Circling and chanting continue for 10-15 minutes, at the end of
which all sit down in a circle as close to the ice as possible.
All stare into the fog rising from the ice until tunnel vision
sets in (the field of vision goes black except for the object focused upon).
At the moment that tunnel vision occurs, say:
BER WOCEP WHEBONG
As below, so above
NEKOZY ONGO TENFEMET SOCAGI
The cloud is in my eye
KA-AO-OPUA LOA HATUNN DOUCK
Ka-ao-opua-loa carry my sight
Participants begin spinning at increasing speed with eyes closed, all the while repeating
TENFEMET DOUCK
When spinning is no longer possible, participants lie on their
backs and open the eyes completely (no squinting) and focus on the first cloud they see.
All repeat:
BER WHEBONG WOCEP
as above, so below
NEKOZY ONGO TENFEMET TRESLIX
my eye is in the cloud
XIQUAL TENFEMET-NEKOZY
phenomenize the cloud-eye
Visualize a fog exactly like that rising from the dry ice leaving the eyes and rushing up
to join with the clouds. Observe it entirely passively, and with the inner voice repeat
“This self is Tenfemet-Douck, the cloud that sees.”
When tunnel vision again sets in, close the eyes and open them again quickly.
Look down over the terrain that passes below your cloud-eye. Note details if desired,
but do not attempt to influence direction or speed of motion.
All control of these should be left to the wind.
When you have achieved your desired results, switch out of the passive mode
and attempt to influence direction or speed.
Find yourself back in your human body looking up at the clouds.
Banish by laughter, and with other means if desired.

RELEASE OF PAIN INCANTATION/RITUAL

RELEASE OF PAIN INCANTATION/RITUAL


This is to be done on a rainy night outdoors.
Stand in the rain and let it touch you – do not wear heavy clothing to protect yourself from it.
Call the rain and draw it down harder. Cast no circle, lest the pain stay trapped within it.
When the downpour becomes heavy, begin. Say the incantation charged full of emotion
and let it come from the heart.
“Rain, take the pain.
Rain, take the pain.
Rain, take the pain.
Rain, take the pain.
Rain, take the pain.
Rain, take the pain.
Rain, wash away my pain.
Cry for me and take away my tears.
Rain, wash away my pain.
Cry for me and take away my fears.”
Hold palms open to the sky and let the rain fill them. Wash your face and eyes with it.
Repeat this three times.
“Let the tears fall, with the water,
into the earth, into the rock.”
Let the pain go, release the energy.
Let it wash away. Imagine it leaving you and entering the earth bound by rock.

Support Your Spirit

Support Your Spirit

  • Deepak Chopra

Make this today’s promise to yourself, to look inside for guidance. Everyone needs support, and generally we look outside ourselves–to family, friends, coworkers, and like-minded people–for validation. This kind of support makes you feel that you are right. The ego gets assurance that you are not alone.

But spirit wants to develop uniquely. It sends support to the inner person. Instead of making you feel that you are right, spiritual support adds to your sense of being free, at peace, loving, and aware. Be open to those feelings, because openness is the first step to transformation.

When you feel moments of being uncertain and alone, tell yourself that you have the same worth as your soul. In situations where you feel the urge to assert, disagree, or resist, don’t follow that impulse. Find your own peace; accept the situation, and then watch.

Do you see signs that what you want out of the situation can happen without resistance or assertiveness? When you value the support spirit is giving, the grip of ego is loosened immediately. You are capable of seeing any situation as spirit sees it, not just as ego does. If you value that capacity, it will grow.

Go about your routine, keeping faith with what you honor. By honoring stillness, you are touching one piece of the soul’s treasure.

Adapted from The Deeper Wound: Recovering the Soul from Fear and Suffering, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2001).

Crone’s Corner – WILDCRAFTING

Crone’s Corner – WILDCRAFTING

November brings on thoughts of mushroom hunting, gathering walnuts and digging medicinal roots. In my wandering

along the creek and surrounding areas, I have located two walnut trees. The nuts are easy to gather but it
will take some time to clean off the black outer casing. I soak the nuts for a short time and then begin scrubbing with a stiff
brush. You don’t want to soak walnuts for a long time as water will absorb through the shells and possibly spoil the meat inside.
I dry them thoroughly in a mesh bag (such as onions come in) by the woodstove. Walnuts are a good source of protein and
shelling them can be a great family pastime.

Digging up medicinal roots such as Echinacea and Oregon Grape is best done in the fall after the plants are dormant. Echinacea
is grown in the garden. The root systems are somewhat fine though they can be rather large in older plants. It’s best to
harvest plants that are 3 years old as they have reached their maximum potency. Clean the dirt off thoroughly then layer loosely
on paper in an open box to dry or you can chop them into small pieces, put in a jar, and cover with 100 proof Vodka to make your
own tincture. Keep covered and shake daily for 2-3 weeks. Then strain and save for use.

Oregon Grape is an evergreen shrub that grows very prolifically and is quite common. It’s coarse red and green leaves are very
similar to Holly and I have used them in Christmas greenery displays. Oregon Grape’s medicinal qualities are much the same
as Goldenseal and can be substituted as such. Wild Goldenseal is becoming increasingly hard to find and becoming an endangered species so using Oregon Grape instead can help to let the species repopulate.

Oregon Grape’s roots are very woody. I suggest you use it right away. Long ago I harvested some, dried it and stored it away.
They became rock hard pieces of wood. Use Oregon Grape the same as you would Goldenseal, for infections, as a blood purifier,
liver conditions, and skin diseases.

Both Echinacea and Oregon Grape can be grown and harvested as cash crops.

By Tony Frohnauer www.nfbotanicals.com (c)2002

Daily Motivator for August 12 – Meaningful doing

Friday, August 12, 2011

Meaningful doing

Do you ever find that you are merely trying and not really doing? If so, you’re not being who you truly are.

You don’t have to try to authentically be yourself. And in being yourself is where you’ll be most effective.

There is no power, only conflict, in trying to be someone or something you’re not. Instead of fighting against yourself, use your energy to more fully be and express yourself.

What you experience as trying, is not really you. What you step forward and do, without hesitation, without excuses and with great enthusiasm, is where you’ll create the most meaningful value.

Trying wastes precious time that could be much more gainfully invested in doing. Trying means that the direction you’re headed is not the direction in which you’re committed to going.

Yes, by all means make the difficult, challenging, complicated and effective efforts. Go beyond the meaningless trying and fill your life with meaningful doing.

— Ralph Marston

The Daily Motivator By Ralph Marston

Happy Wednesday my sweets!

Good Morning my sweets! I hope everyone is having a good day. I got up at 6:30 a.m., thanks to my husband. He wanted to know if I wanted to make the coffee or him (is that a hint or what?) He is still griping about me sleeping all day yesterday. He can’t understand what is wrong with me no matter how much I tell him or the doctor tells him. But anyway I got up and actually felt good for an hour or two. I cleaned the kitchen, even drug out the Swiffer, feed all the cats, feed the fish, clean the living room and then cleaned me up. I came in here to sit down and take my medicine and drink a cup of coffee. That’s when it hit me. I had one of those things the Doctor has been calling “shingles” just pop out pretty as you please. If you bend your hand, that is about the size of it. And this one is hurting like an SOB. I took my back medicine which includes a lot of pain killers. So I figure if the pain isn’t gone by my 2:00 dose, I am going to the hospital. I think the doctor doesn’t know what is the matter with me and she is going to kill me.

I didn’t know if I had been acting goofy with my postings or anything, if so I apologize and you know what is wrong. I am sick and I can’t seem to kick this. If you have an extra minute or two today, please remember me again in your prayers. I have said it a thousand times and I will say it again, when this group sets their mind to something………..GREAT THINGS HAPPEN!  If I should disappear before my posting is done, it is because the pain has got so great, I have had to go to the hospital. I found a gem that eased the pain but I can’t figure out how to get it to the spot it needs to be. I am going to start the postings. Please remember me in your prayers today.

Goddess Bless,

L. A.

Daily OM for 3/31 – Healing Your Sole

Healing Your Sole
Self-Reflexology

 

Our feet contain thousands of nerve endings and almost seventy acupuncture points which can support all over health.

Our feet are home to literally thousands of nerve endings and almost seventy acupuncture points, which is why foot reflexology is so effective. By massaging and stimulating specific areas on the soles of our feet, we can provide general support for our entire body, improve sleep patterns, increase physical and mental wellbeing and also alleviate chronic conditions such as sinusitis and digestive upset. Although it is wonderful to work with an experienced foot reflexologist whenever possible, we can also develop a practice of treating ourselves to a self-reflexology treatment if we take some time for this purpose before we begin our day or in the evening to relax before going to bed.

There are a number of different ways to work the soles of your feet, including walking barefoot on river stones, rolling each foot over a golf or tennis ball, or just using your fingers and hands to massage your feet. When starting a reflexology session, it’s a good idea to begin with loosening up your ankles – rotate each foot clockwise then counterclockwise about ten times. You might also want to pinch the end of your toes, which can increase circulation and drainage in your sinuses and stimulate your pituitary and pineal glands. Then you can begin massaging the ball of your foot, the arch, and the heel. If you find that an area is tender, it may indicate some distress or dysfunction occurring in the corresponding area of the body. You may want to explore what is going on with that organ or system.

Whether we are able to spend just a few minutes a day on this kind of self-care or a full half hour, our efforts are never wasted. By taking responsibility for our own health and taking time every day to connect with our body, we can not only assist our body in letting go of stress and dysfunction, but we can also continue to support an ongoing sense of wellness and vitality.

Gemstone of the Day for 3/29 is Tiger’s Eye

Tiger eye – offers courage, energy, and luck.

Stone’s names: Tiger eye, also spelled tiger’s-eye and tigereye.
Tiger eye is also called crocidolite cat’s-eye or African cat’s-eye. Color: Tiger eye has a rich yellow and golden brown stripes, with a fine golden lustre when polished.

Description: Tiger eye is quartz that contains oriented fibres of crocidolite that have been replaced by silica.
Tiger eye is displaying chatoyancy (a vertical luminescent band like that of a cat’s eye) . Tiger eye typically has lustrous alternating yellow or brown bands.

The name’s origin: Tiger eye with its bands resembles an eye of tiger, so it is received its name due to this similarity.
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Birthstone:
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Wedding anniversary: Tiger Eye is the anniversary gemstone for the 9th year of marriage.

Varieties: Hawk’s-eye is similar to tiger eye, except that the crocidolite was replaced by quartz before altering to iron oxide. It therefore retains the gray-blue or green of the asbestos.

Care and treatment: As with all gems, protect tiger eye from scratches and sharp blows. Also avoid large temperature changes.

From the stone history: Roman soldiers wore tiger’s-eye for protection in battle. Tiger Eye was thought to be all seeing due to its appearance.

Shopping guide: Tiger Eye is widely used in pendant and beads where it’s lovely tiger-like peculiarity displays out best.

Healing ability: Tiger eye relieves high blood pressure. Tiger eye wear is very helpful in the presence of following diseases: bronchial asthmakidney, rheumatic heart disease, otitis and psoriasis.

Mystical power: Tiger Eye is used for focusing the mind. It is said that Tiger Eye offers protection during travel, strengthens convictions and confidence. This very warm stone is beneficial for the weak and sick.

Healthy Bodies Make Better Magick

Healthy Bodies Make Better Magick

by NightOwl

article

Are you in pain? Do you wake up tired? Take a couple of minutes right now and examine your body, your heart and your spirit. Then answer this question: Are you in pain right now?

You may forget to pay attention to yourself, even if you know it’s important. Stretch, flex, roll your head around, rub your neck and shoulders – how are you doing? Look for tension in your jaw, around your eyes, in your neck and shoulders and in your lower back. Are your hands sometimes clenched when you are not conscious of being stressed?

Continue your assessment to determine which areas need attention. Try taking a few minutes and assess your body several times a day. If you want to make changes in your life, remember it’s impossible to get somewhere without knowing your starting place, and your body is your starting place.

We live at a time when we use our minds more and more, and our bodies less and less. Most of us think of our “selves” as being located in our heads somewhere. Yet if we stop for a moment to consider the reality of our lives, our bodies are our very best friends. They carry us around like faithful and patient mules; they bring us exquisite pleasure; they enable us to interact with other people and with the world of nature. They give us honest and reliable information about our actions and our thoughts. As practitioners of the Craft, we use our bodies to focus energy and do magick. They are our chief magickal tools. If you purge pain and ill health from your body, your magick has that much more chance of working.

Working with pain isn’t simple. We human beings tend to learn our deepest lessons via pain. If you train yourself to think of pain, whether physical, emotional or spiritual, as a valued teacher – one who grades pretty tough – then you can more easily accept any source of pain or unhappiness in your life as an opportunity to learn. Pain is one of the ways in which our bodies “speak” to us.

I am not suggesting that this is the “true” explanation for pain, or that this is the “best” way to approach it, but this is a way to view the puzzle of pain that empowers you to put it to use in your life.

The keys to the pain puzzle are your body, your feelings, your thoughts and your beliefs. Your body responds to physical reality and follows the orders of your thoughts and beliefs. As you learn to pay attention to the pain in your life, you will increase your ability to see your own belief structures, both positive and negative, to take good care of your body and to decrease the suffering in your life if you choose to. This article covers some ways to unlock the pain puzzle.

None are a replacement for seeing a doctor or other health care professional when you are sick or injured. If it seems warranted, discuss with your M.D., naturopath or other health care professional possible causes and treatments for your pain, tiredness or stress. If a professional does give you medication or make suggestions, at least try them for a period of time. What is the point of paying someone to advise you and then ignoring the advice? By all means, insist your health care providers explain the reasoning, and the mechanism, for any treatments they give you. But if you don’t trust their suggestions, find a health care practitioner you do trust enough to follow.

If you try some techniques following – actually doing them and not just thinking about them – and you still feel really sad much of the time, or if you cannot find the energy to even try them, you may have clinical depression and you should see an appropriate health care practitioner right away. Depression is a real physical illness that has emotional components. Trying to think your way out of most illnesses is risky business.

You are the one in charge of whatever you do for yourself, and you have to do the work to change anything in your life. Every act of life is a creation ritual. The suggestions in this article are just ideas to enable you to become more aware of your state of well-being and help you fine-tune your wonderful mind, body and spirit.

Begin with breathing

Breathing is the only body system that is both voluntary and involuntary, and so it is the easiest place to begin. Practice breathing all the way down into your belly. Fear and tension cause us to tighten our bellies and breathe in the upper lungs. You can relax very quickly by breathing deep into your belly and counting as you breathe to balance the in-breaths and out-breaths. For example, breathe in to a count of six, slow and easy. Hold your breath for a count of three, and then exhale to a count of six. Hold again for three, and inhale for six. Do this cycle several times, striving to breathe very evenly all the way in and all the way out, ending with your lungs completely full, and then completely empty.

Be gentle with yourself while doing this. It is not a contest to see how much or how little air your lungs can contain but a way to become conscious of what you do with your body and to nourish it. Many people “underbreathe” all the time as a result of stress and find they are tired because the body is oxygen-deprived.

Particularly if you are quitting smoking, or some other addictive, numbing behavior, practice breathing deeply and slowly every time you get the urge to return to your addictive practice. You may find this reduces the craving.

Easing your pain

Try lying on your back with your knees bent and slowly twist your legs first to the right, then the left, as far as is comfortable. This exercise will make you aware of and help release any tension in your lower back. Next, sit cross-legged and roll your head around on your neck, slowly and carefully, then shrug your shoulders, roll them in big circles, and flex your spine forward and back. Are you finding any areas of tightness, any pain?

If so, first examine your environment to see if it holds the source. Is there pain in your neck and shoulders? Are you on the phone a lot? If you are, do you have a headset or at least a shoulder brace? Are you in the habit of holding the phone by scrunching up your neck and shoulder while you write stuff down? If you do that, and your neck hurts, stop doing that and invest in a shoulder brace (around $5) or a headset phone ($30 to $100, and you get what you pay for). Don’t wait until your boss offers to pay for it; his or her neck doesn’t hurt.

Do you carry a purse or a backpack on one shoulder? If you have pain right at the top of your back and at the base of your neck, stop hanging that heavy sack on one shoulder. If necessary, get one that cannot be carried that way. A fanny pack around your hips can carry as much and won’t create the pain in your neck and shoulders. A regular two-strap backpack is better for your spine than a one-strap bag, if you will use both straps.

Examine your posture, the chair you sit in at work, your mattress and pillow, your easy chair. Are any of those the possible source of your pain? If so, determine what changes will assist your body and make those changes. Sleeping on a fairly firm mattress, and if you have neck pain getting a cervical support pillow, can reduce or eliminate back and neck pain. The pillows are sold on television or at places like Zenith Supplies, a fabulous store near 65th and Roosevelt in Seattle, for $20 to $30. Pillows and mattresses wear out and should be replaced every few years.

Walking, swimming, biking and all other forms of regular exercise will do more for your well-being and long-term health than any other single thing, except for stopping smoking. Smoking is the No. 1 killer in the United States; 1000 people a day are dying from the long-term effects of smoking just in this country alone. Regular exercise is also the best way to improve your mood and energy.

Yoga is the very best exercise for reducing pain, even that from arthritis and other chronic problems. If you are in the habit of regularly taking pain medication, either prescription or over-the-counter, discuss your chronic pain with your doctor, exercise teacher or coach and see if there are not specific exercises that will help you. Many yoga teachers and other exercise experts are extremely skilled in working with chronic problems or people with specific needs. Movement therapy, dance classes or hiking in the park could change your entire experience of living.

Don’t be afraid to try acupuncture for chronic pain. The needles are much less painful than most people imagine they will be, and acupuncture can be very helpful for a wide variety of chronic illnesses, injuries and stress-related pains.

Another way to improve your well-being is to drink more water. You may not be drinking enough water to allow your body to balance itself. Drink at least a quart a day, plus other liquids. When you are under stress, adrenal steroids and other stress chemicals build up in your body. When you exercise, drink water and breathe deeply, you assist your body in getting rid of the stress chemicals. Just exercising to the point where you are breathing more rapidly and beginning to perspire changes your body chemistry dramatically, and therefore changes your mood.

Better sleep

Get enough sleep. Modern humans are only sleeping six to seven hours per night. It has been estimated that humans slept eight to nine hours per night before the invention of electric lights. Our bodies have not been able to adequately adapt to the sleep reduction in the short amount of time lights have been available, so most of us are tired most of the time and don’t really realize it.

If you have trouble sleeping, or wake up tired, try the following practices:

  • Reduce the amount of caffeine you use. Do not drink any coffee, tea, or soft drink containing caffeine within six hours of when you want to go to sleep. If this change doesn’t solve your problems, switch to decaf, herb teas, fruit juice or water.
  • During the day, turn up those lights, and be sure to spend some time outside every day in the fresh air, walking around and appreciating the wonderful planet we live on.
  • Go to bed at the same time each night. Use earplugs if your bedroom is near a noisy street and eye shades if you cannot make the room dark enough. Make your bed clean, comfortable and adequately supportive.
  • Don’t read or watch television in bed. Train yourself that when you go to bed and turn out the light, you will simply go to sleep. Tell yourself, “I can go to sleep easily and sleep all night.”
  • If your dentist tells you that you grind your teeth in your sleep, get a bite guard. They are a bit expensive (in the $200-300 range) but can go a long way toward soothing neck, shoulder and facial pain, plus enabling you to get more restful sleep.
  • Try melatonin supplements. If you are older, you may not be producing enough melatonin from your pineal gland. Production begins to fall around age 30, and by age 40 a fair percentage of people are not producing enough to stay asleep all night. Do some reading before you begin any self-experiments, however. Melatonin will only work one time each 24 hours as it “resets” your biological clock. Only take it once each night at most, about an hour before you want to go to sleep. It does not help everyone but appears to have a very low incidence of side effects. Discuss taking it with your health practitioner.
  • If you become aware of pain in your body you ignored during the day, do some light stretches and flexes, tighten and release different muscle groups and turn your head from side to side while lying flat on your back with your knees flexed. Listen to slow, dreamy, relaxing music while you stretch.
  • Examine the label of any herbal preparation you are using. Ma huang, or ephedra, should only be taken in the morning as it will interfere with your ability to fall and stay asleep. Ma huang is a pretty intense herb and should be used with caution anyhow, as it may raise your blood pressure, make you dizzy or wind you up just too tight. It is often the main ingredient in the so-called “thermogenic” formulas sold for weight loss.
  • Before going to your doctor for prescription sleep medication, consider trying the herbal teas such as Sleep Easy, or preparations with folk remedies like hops, skullcap, valerian, passionflower and others. Look remedies up in herb books and, if you like, experiment gently with yourself, beginning with small amounts and increasing them gradually.

Herbs are not harmless, so learn what you are doing before you use them, or go to a herbalist or other health care professional. Be cautious and stop using anything the moment you have an adverse reaction, including prescription medication, which often interferes with rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep. Herbal sleeping formulas may leave you feeling groggy when you first wake up, but they do not seem to interfere with REM sleep the way prescription sleeping medications do.

Additionally, if you suspect that you are suffering from seasonal affective disorder or mild depression, try using herbs and other folk medicine if it is not too serious. St. John’s wort is used widely in Germany to help mild depression.

The food you consume

If sleep is not a problem for you, but you still suffer from tiredness, nervousness, muscle tension and pain, consider trying the following.

Go to your health care professional for a complete physical. You may have some condition that requires treatment. For example, you may be anemic and need to take iron. Without adequate iron, your red blood cells cannot carry enough oxygen to meet bodily needs.

A quick home check for anemia can be done by very gently pulling your lower eyelid away from the eyeball while you look at it carefully in the mirror. The blood vessels are very close to the surface there, and the area should be a nice rosy pink. If your lower lids are noticeably paler than other people’s, ask your doctor to check you for iron deficiency.

Avoid taking iron unnecessarily, however, as it can build up in the blood, particularly in males, and can become toxic. Females who menstruate are less likely to have too much iron, and more likely to have too little, as they lose some each month during their periods. After their periods cease, women need to be more cautious about taking too much iron.

Eating a healthy diet with little or no caffeine, small amounts of sugar and fat, adequate protein and lots and lots of grains, fruit and vegetables will go a long way toward improving your health and your well-being. You should eat at least some complex carbohydrates as soon as you get up in the morning, to begin bringing your blood sugar up to operating level. Just having some coffee in the morning and eating no food until lunch is a poor health practice, as is skipping lunch. Several small balanced meals per day are much better for your health than one giant one at night.

Following is a recipe for “Go Juice,” adapted from Adele Davis’s and very good for building your tolerance for stress and reducing those winter blues. All items mentioned are available in health-food stores or in the nutritional departments at co-op groceries, Fred Meyer’s, Larry’s Market and other stores. Prices are approximate.

To a 12-ounce can or equivalent frozen juice (your choice, grapefruit, raspberry, peach, lime) add the following in a blender:

  • 1/2 to 1 cup nutritional yeast. Using a full cup makes the mix thicker than you may like; you can always drink more if you like the effects. A 1-pound can of nutritional yeast costs around $7; yeast is even cheaper in bulk from the bins.
  • 12 to 24 calcium-magnesium-zinc tablets. Generally, 250 tablets are $10 to $12. Try Costco for cheaper.
  • 1/2 to 1 cup lecithin granules or powder. A one-pound can runs about $7.
  • 4 to 8 tablespoons blended oils. If you make Go Juice often, try mixing one pint Hain All-Blend oil mixture (safflower, walnut, soy, peanut) with one pint of olive oil. Keep the blended oils in the fridge to keep them fresh. You can also use this blend for cooking and in salad dressing. Cost is $4 up, depending on the oils you use.

Mix the juice and put some of it in a blender. Turn on the blender and first grind up the mineral tablets, then slowly add the yeast, lecithin and oil. Allow them to blend thoroughly, then add the remainder of the juice to make a couple of quarts, and store your Go Juice in the fridge. Shake it well each time before you pour some in a glass to drink, as the minerals settle out and you need to take all the ingredients together.

If you find the mixture causes intestinal gas, try taking three to six Super-Enzymall tablets (Schiff, 90 tablets for $13), or another enzyme formula, and three to six Betaine Hydrochloride with Pepsin tablets (Thompson, 180 tablets for $9) with each 6- to 8-ounce glass of Go Juice you drink. Experiment to discover what works for you.

Some people hate the taste of Go Juice, and others love it. You should notice an improvement in energy and mood within a week if you drink a glass each morning and each evening.

Many people take vitamins and other supplements as insurance. Unless you really pay attention, and eat food that is grown organically, you do not have any way to know whether you are getting all the nutrients you need. A good (usually fairly expensive) multiple vitamin, additional Vitamin E and C and, for women particularly, additional calcium can improve your well-being. If you have pain in your legs at night, commonly called “growing pains” in children, or menstrual cramps, you may be low in calcium or may not be absorbing what you take in. A naturopath can help you evaluate your diet if you cannot do so by yourself.

More tune-up tips

Learn some massage so you can have massage breaks with your co-workers and friends. When you get together to watch a movie at home, give each other back and shoulder rubs. Get some massage tools and carry them with you so you can use them on the bus or if you get stuck in rush-hour traffic. Use them for little breaks at work. If you have a desk job, remember to stop, stretch, bend, breathe, get up and walk around and change your position every hour or so.

Light-sound machines or “brain-tuning” tapes are useful for learning how to relax and to help you fall asleep. Brain-tuning tapes play a slightly different pulsed rhythm in each ear. The pulses are masked with music and ambient sounds such as rainfall, cricket chirps and owl and whale calls, so the pulsing is not very noticeable. The brain balances out the difference between the two rhythms and lowers your brain waves to match. The Brainwave Suite tape set is excellent, as are many others. The light-sound machines can put you into a meditative state, or to sleep, in a few minutes and are a lot of fun.

These tapes and machines are amazing to use and really work for many people. Do not confuse them with the “subliminal learning” tapes that are widely offered for sale. I have not been able to find any studies showing that “subliminal” tapes are any better than just listening to the relaxing music used to mask their spoken words. You could probably do just as well buying relaxing music you like.

Light-sound machines can be dangerous for those who have seizure disorders, so do not use these if you do, and never use them while operating machinery or during any other dangerous activity.

Grounding and earth energy

Learning to ground and doing so daily, even if just for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, can really help you relax and learn about yourself. There are many ways to ground, and in the absence of a class or teacher, all the possibilities can be confusing. Following is one description. You can use your imagination to focus your own energy, and you can then practice moving energy from the earth and sky into and out of different areas of your body.

Stand or sit in a relaxed posture with your spine straight and, if standing, your knees slightly bent. Take a deep breath and relax your belly. Imagine that there is a long cord attached to the base of your spinal column that extends down into the ground, going down deep, even to the center of the earth. Visualize this cord and imagine it getting bigger and stronger, see it pulsing, and then visualize or feel sending energy down it. Imagine the energy as light, sound, vibration or however you wish to picture and feel it.

Then visualize and feel any tension, or excess energy in your body, draining down the cord into the earth. You will be able to feel the change right away, although you will have your own experience of it and may describe it very differently from anyone else. It may be helpful to ask a friend who is more familiar with the skill to ground with you the first few times, to help increase the sensation and the experience.

You may wish to use your hands to increase the sensation of the experience. Place one hand on the center of your chest, and the other on the center of your back opposite it, as near the top of your spine as you can comfortably reach both front and back. Slowly move your hands down the center line of your body to the base of your spine, using your imagination to feel the energy moving down your spine with your hands and continuing on down your grounding cord into the earth.

Play around with this for a few minutes, and then imagine you are growing roots from the bottoms of your feet, down into the earth. Feel your roots sliding down, deep into the darkness and inner warmth of the earth. Use these roots to draw earth energy up into your body to balance and heal it. This energy may have a color, a temperature, a vibration or some other sensory or visual aspect. Imagine and feel the earth energy filling and nourishing your whole body and spirit.

Sky energy

You can also draw energy from the sky. Once again using your imagination to create a picture of this in your mind’s eye, see an opening beginning as a point and growing to about the size of a quarter in the very top of your head. With your imagination, draw in energy from the sky. Imagine this sky energy filling and energizing your body, flushing out tension and tiredness. Sky energy will probably appear and feel very different from earth energy to you. Imagine sky energy and earth energy swirling and mixing together in your belly and pelvic area, and then spreading out to heal and nourish your entire body, mind and spirit.

Move this energy from point to point in your body. For example, rub your palms together and feel the sky-earth energy mixture flowing into and building up in your hands. Feel it moving into your hands more and more as you rub them together. Then, when you have built up a charge, separate your palms an inch or two apart, and play with the ball of energy that you can feel between them. Build this energy ball even more, moving your hands closer and further apart, feeling it get larger and stronger. Then take this energy ball and press it into any area of your body that is tired or tense, and visualize the energy ball flowing from your hands into the area. Feel that area soaking up the energy and being nourished by it.

These exercises can be done anywhere, at any time, to assist in balancing your energy and improving your mood. Your ability to use them will increase with practice, just as your muscle tone increases with physical exercise. In time, you will do them automatically whenever you are under stress. If you’re interested in learning more about them, look through the many books available, or take a class.

Remember that thinking about doing a technique is not the same as actually doing it with your body. It is very easy to kid yourself that you know a technique just from reading an explanation. To actually learn it, you must actually do it.

Listening to your inner voice

Can you usually hear what your “inner voice” is saying? Do negative or scary thoughts flit through your mind fairly often? You can greatly reduce the stress in your life by paying attention to the content of the automatic thoughts that go through your mind. You may have to make an effort to become conscious of the exact words, but if you do, you will probably find the source of much of your unhappiness in life. To learn to hear your own automatic thinking, also called “self-talk,” take a few minutes every once in a while and write down every thought that pops into your mind. You may be surprised at how negative your self-talk really is.

If you do find it’s mostly negative, don’t worry about it. The little thought-voice in the mind is negative for most people. It’s like a scared little watchdog who always tries to keep track of the “worst possible scenario” to keep you safe, so it usually looks on the dark side of things.

It’s useful because it’s on the lookout for danger, but it can become a major source of stress and tension because it is only semi-conscious. You can begin to greatly reduce the tension in your life by becoming aware of your self-talk, assessing the accuracy of the statements and changing the inaccurate negative or scary ones to positive and relaxing affirmations. Once you do a little work to become aware of your self-talk, you can use it to change your point of view in life and have a lot more fun. As you learn to hear what a paranoid pip-squeak lives inside your head, you will laugh at how silly it sounds out loud.

Get a kitty or some easy-care plants to make your home a restful refuge. Cultivate a positive frame of mind, and take a self-mastery class. Encourage your friends to support you in being positive, and put cards around your house with affirmations like “Today I will be happy and calm, and I will accomplish everything I need to do” or “Goddess grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” Get involved and make a useful contribution to the well-being of the world through volunteer work or other social action. Develop a regular spiritual practice. Mourn your losses, and give yourself credit for all you accomplish.

These are difficult times we are living through; the future looks uncertain, and everything is changing faster than before. Try thinking of what you are doing as surfing, or dancing, with the energy of life.

This is indeed a time of great opportunity.