Caregiver Flower Essence

 

Alpine Mint Bush is a flower essence created by Ian White, founder of the Australian Bush Flower Essences and fifth generation herbalist. I have had the great fortune to study with him and to hear first hand the stories behind all of the flowers, their doctrine of signatures and their healing properties. Ian's videos on YouTube are wonderful to watch as he takes you to the location where he will make the Mother Tincture (see photo below) and describes the many aspects of the flower.

This flower grows in exposed rocky sites in the alpine and sub-alpine areas of south eastern Australia. This Essence works on the mental and emotional levels. It is for people who work in healing, health administration and caring situations where there is a great deal of responsibility for other people. They give much of themselves both physically and emotionally, often listening to people in pain and need. These care givers can be in danger of burning out or becoming disillusioned. They can reach a point of tiredness feeling their life has lost its joy. Alpine Mint Bush can revitalize and bring about in these people a renewed enthusiasm and joy in their life for what they do.

I suggest this flower essence for mothers, teachers, adults caring for aging parents and anyone who needs support to continue doing what they want or need to do.

Challenge

• Mental & emotional exhaustion
• lack of joy and weight of responsibility of care givers

Positive Outcome

• Revitalization
• Joy
• Renewal

 If you feel that this is a flower essence for you, contact me: optionstohealth@comcast.net or order a bottle at: www.southernherb.com

Ian White making a Mother Tincture

Calm Your Brain

Have you tried to quiet your racing brain on a day when you need to make a decision or stay focused on many things or simply write in your journal. It happens to everyone. Life is a little crazy these days and time seems to be speeding by.

 I believe it is important to have simple tools for any kind of healing because you are more apt to want to do it. In 2 to 5 minutes, the following mudras (hand gestures) can improve concentration, memory and sharpen your mind.

• Touch the tip of your thumb to the tip of your index finger and stretch out the other three fingers. Place your hands on your lap if you need to for comfort. Do this using both hands for 2 - 5 minutes, several times a day. You may want to incorporate an affirmation or intention.

 

• You have probably done this mudra without knowing why. It is called Hakini mudra. Touch all of your fingers together and create a triangle. Place your hands on your chest or on your abdomen for comfort. It is thought that this hand gesture integrates the brain hemispheres and allows you to tap into your intuition.

 

Reducing Stress with Triple Warmer Meridian Exercise

 In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) a meridian is described as an energy pathway that runs throughout the body. They are highways for Qi or life force energy. An acupuncturist helps to keep the meridians and associated organs in balance.

There are 12 meridians:

• Heart
• Lungs
• Stomach
• Kidneys
• Large intestine
• Small intestine
• Liver
• Bladder
• Gallbladder
• Spleen
• Pericardium
• Triple-Burner/ Triple Warmer

Triple Warmer is the meridian in charge of survival: fight, flight, freeze response. Donna Eden, author of the book Energy Medicine, suggests that Triple Warmer impacts the immune system and your ability to manage stress.

Smoothing Triple Warmer is an exercise to quickly reduce stress and overwhelm and renew your energy.

• Start with your fingertips at your temples;

• Take a deep breath and release;

• On your next inhale, drag your fingers up and around your ears;

• On your exhale, bring your fingers down your neck to your shoulders;

• Press your fingers into your shoulders and then, when ready, drag your fingers down to the middle of your chest over the heart area.

• Repeat several times.
  

Your Strength IS Your Weakness

 Your strength IS your weakness. You have probably heard that before. For me, showing weakness was always something that  I avoided. It could stem back to childhood and hearing, "what will the neighbors think?" And, Dad would say, "I don't care whose job it is, just do it and get it done." Boy, has that gotten me in trouble over the years. A boss of mine, thought I was trying to get her job. Instead, I was following instructions that I got from Dad and trying to make her job easier.

There is nothing like a physical challenge to force introspection. As I deal with Lyme and various co-infections, I am choosing to listen to my body and do what it tells me. It is a challenge and I realize how much I have been expected to be tough, strong, handle many things at once, put out "fires", help people cope...and the list goes on. Many days I am lucky to get up and shower. Those microbes mean business and the remedies I'm taking leave me exhausted. However, I am learning many lesson that I intend to carry forward even after I have recovered.

So, here are a few of my strengths. Many of them WILL be going away. 

• I am RESPONSIBLE (since birth)

• I am a hard worker

• I can do many things well - at the same time
  

• I am optimistic and trusting

• 
  I am the Nike ad - "Just do it" (Wood elemental personality)

• I can motivate the sluggest of slugs

• I am strong and can single-handily take my JawSaw and clear the woods, making paths for snowshoeing and filling the basement with kindling 

• I can shovel the entire driveway when the plow can't make it. (think football field and my husband was also snow blowing) 

 

Take some time to list your strengths. Many, I'm sure, are still serving you. Others, you may want to consider changing, eliminating or redefining. 

 

For example, I will always be responsible but right now I am only responsible for myself, and my healing. I am finding a greater sense of balance and redefining priorities. My lesson is to let other's learn their lessons on their own. Life is challenging and when we stumble, we get to pick ourselves up and learn. 

 

 

 

 

A Simple Polarity Exercise

The following is a daily energy exercise to help keep you clear, focused and integrated.

• Start with your feet together;

• Place the thumb of each hand on the baby fingernail of each hand (looks like the Boy Scout/Girl Scout salute);

• Place the 3 fingers of each hand on your forehead;

• Bring you feet apart and keep them apart;

• Take your hands off of your forehead and massage below your clavicle (collar) bone, close to the mid-line of the body. This is a Kidney Meridian point that will also energize your eyes.
  
  
  
  

When you take a deep cleansing breath or feel that you are done, bring your feet together.

Doing this exercise will integrate the right and left side of the brain and body, allow for a cross-patterning energy flow, thus making you electrical. This exercise also re-balances the polarity (+ and - ions) in your body. It is like putting in fresh batteries! 

Figure 8 Energy Flow Exercise

 Figure Eight (8) Energy Flow 

Energy travels in, around and from your body. It functions very much like the historic Energizer Bunny ... when you are in a balanced state.

Your energy constantly moves, crossing and recrossing the middle of your body in a figure 8 pattern. The energy flows not only across your shoulders, hips and legs, but also within every joint, including the joints of the fingers and toes. When this energy is blocked or interrupted, you become aware that you don’t feel quite right. You might experience headaches, dizziness, pain in the joints or even a feeling of vulnerability.

The Figure 8 Energy Flow Exercise increases energy circulation throughout the body as well as increasing your protective force field around the body. This is especially helpful for those who are highly sensitive to people and environment. This exercise gives you a protective bubble and support so that negative energy bounces off or goes around you, instead of through you. 

EXERCISE ( 1 - 3 minutes)

• Place two fingers of one hand on your navel and the palm of the other hand on your forehead. Hold this connection for about a minute or until you feel pulsing under your fingertips or hand.

• Focus on taking deep breaths.
  

• Once you feel pulsing or you take a deep cleansing breath, change hands and repeat the exercise.

You will notice that the position you are holding looks very much like a figure 8.  8's are recognized in healing because 8 energy flows throughout your body, around your body and throughout all body systems and circuits. To learn more, read any of Donna Eden's books, watch her video's on YouTube and also explore Prune Harris's YouTube videos. The graphic below is credited to Prune Harris, a wonderful healer and teacher.

 

 

Are You Willing to be Adequate?

 When I traveled to California in 1989 to study kinesiology/muscle testing at Three In One Concepts, I was still in the perfection stage of my life. I had to get everything right, do everything extremely well and meet or exceed my expectations. Yup. Exhausting.

When studying the Behavioral Barometer, a unique and extraordinary tool for understanding emotions and behavior, I was challenged with a word in the left hand column (the desired state of mind) of the chart. The word - Adequate: Willing to be Adequate. At that point in my life I did not see that as a positive behavior to aspire to.

30+ years later I understand the wonderful significance of being willing to be adequate: equal to the challenge, sufficient, doing the best you can at any given time. Some days, adequate is just keeping it together. Other days, adequate is being able to accomplish your "to do" list. 

When my daughter was a competitive gymnast, she was mostly successful at meets, she was on the podium gaining a medal, she won a state championship and was a consistent competitor. She knew how to win and I also wanted her to have an experience of an off day and "losing". The meet came when her scores didn't get her on the podium. Nothing worked for her that day. I asked her, "did you do your best?" She said yes. I told her that was okay and she just needed to congratulate her friends and there would be other meets. I wanted her to understand the concept of being adequate and doing the best she could on that day and move on without beating herself up. Her next meet she was on the podium again.

Being willing to be adequate is a form of self-care. Life is a challenge and your energy resources are often drained. Listen to your little voice that can help you stay balanced and attuned to what you have to give.

Sacred Space

 "You must have a room or a certain hour of the day or so where you do not know what was in the morning paper . . . a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are, and what you might be . . . At first you may find nothing's happening . . . But if you have a sacred place and use it, take advantage of it, something will happen."

                                                    - Joseph Campbell

Do you have a space or a place to go that is just for you? It doesn't have to be big or spectacularly decorated or even a spot in your house. Many of my clients call me from their cars where they can be completely alone without anyone hearing what they are saying. It's their sacred space for the hour. Other clients call from a local cemetery where they have ancestors buried. It is quiet, they feel calm and for many there is a presence of people who they have loved and lost.

A sacred space allows you to just BE or to journal or listen to music or dance or do what you need to do to reflect, release energy or emotions or be silent. It may be that once the children are tucked in bed and asleep and the house is quiet that you get to have time for yourself that is reflective of the day. Decide what you need or want and allow yourself to take advantage of it, as Joseph Campbell says in his quote.

 

"Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again."

                                                  - Joseph Campbell

The Crown Pull

 The Crown Pull Exercise is a wonderful technique to release congestion in the head (which could lead to a headache), to refresh your thinking ability and open your Crown Chakra to increase clarity and inspiration.

This exercise not only clears your mind but also calms your nervous system and may take away a stress-induced stomach ache.

Keep your breathing in mind as you do this exercise. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.

 

Heal From Within

 I recently started following Katie Beecher, an internationally recognized Medical Intuitive, on Instagram. I am always looking for new holistic healing information that might help me, my family and clients. Katie's book, Heal From Within, A Guidebook to Intuitive Wellness is aligned with my 35 years as a holistic nurse. She uses a step-by-step approach for understanding the body, mind, spirit connection and offers incredible insight and inspiration for healing acute and chronic conditions in the body.

I have not read the entire book yet but I have scanned all of the chapters and I'm impressed. Her "Call to Action" as she takes you through the chakras and physical, emotional and spiritual concerns is precise, simple yet powerful and encouraging.

I will give a better review after I have read the entire book, understood why I feel drawn to Katie's insight and gotten feedback from clients. I encourage you to consider buying the book and learning more about your amazing body wisdom.

Woodpeckers

My favorite ritual for staying grounded is to walk in our woods along the many paths that I have made. There are lots of trees. Although, Mother Nature has been dumping so much water with all of the rain storms that we have been having in the past year that trees are getting water logged, splitting and falling. Luckily, another hobby of mine is cutting up trees with the many tools that I've acquired.

But, despite the weather, my favorite woodpeckers are busy every day. Right now I have a large woodpecker that makes sounds that can be heard even when I am inside and another little one that makes the cutest pecking sounds. I also had never heard these birds "talk" to each and the sound they make is fascinating. And... the holes in the trees get bigger every day! I am hoping to see little faces peeking out this spring.

A fact I learned about woodpeckers is that their tongue wraps around their brain as protection for the impact produced with their ability to peck at around 15 miles per hour and sometimes 20 blows per second! Nature is amazing and I get to observe it in every season. Life in New England can't be easy for any species and I marvel at the endurance and tenacity the animals and birds have.

Take a Leap

"If you have the guts to keep making mistakes, your wisdom and
intelligence leap forward with huge momentum."

Holy Near - Singer-Songwriter

A few days ago I was searching Prime Video for something new to watch. I found myself on Project Runway Juniors, season 1. Having grown up making my own clothes, I thought it would be fun to watch these young kids and their creative process. The ages of these designers was 13 to 17 and (spoiler alert!) the youngest of the group won!

Their creativity, ability to take criticism, to make mistakes and challenge themselves was so impressive. I saw a maturity in these young people that was beyond their years. What was most inspiring was their willingness to stay true to themselves even with the judge's unfavorable critique. 

How often do you hold back, afraid of being wrong or looking silly or challenging yourself?

2024 is Leap Year. Dare you take a LEAP for yourself?

The Power of Color

I love color and being surrounded by it. The walls in my house are painted beautiful earth tones. I live in the woods and wanted to bring the outside colors in to all of the rooms. My office, though, is my favorite space. It is painted a saturated turquoise color. I feel surrounded with warmth and creative energy and go to my office when I need to feel grounded.

One of my favorite deck of cards that I refer to is The Secret Language of Color Cards by Inna Segal, a healer, author and international speaker. The cards are beautifully done and the guidebook offers insight into color as a healing tool. Inna not only offers understanding of a particular color, but also includes an affirmation or meditation or healing activity for each card.

Examples:

 Ask a question and pick a card;

 Place the card on your body for releasing discomfort;

 Clear your chakras;

 Choose a card for meditation;

 Find a color for your wardrobe

 Use the cards in any way that feels right for you.

 Visit Inna's website: www.innasegal.com

 

 

Mindmapping

Mindmapping is a guide for problem solving. It may not be for everyone but I like working with it and getting a visual understanding of a problem or challenge.

My daughter, a bio-medic1al engineer who loves a spread sheet and a list, was shocked when she saw the chart. "Mom, is that how your mind works?" I had quite a chuckle.

Below are some elements of mind mapping from Mindmapping, Your Personal Guide to Exploring Creativity and Problem-Solving by Joyce Wycoff:

1. Central focus of an image or graphic representation of the problem or information being mapped is place in the center of the page;
2. Ideas flow without judgment;
3. Key words are used to represent ideas;
4. One key word is printed per line;
5. Key word ideas are connected to the central focus with lines;
6. Color is used to highlight and emphasize ideas;
7. Images and symbols are used to highlight ideas and stimulate the mind to make other connections.
   

 For more information on mindmapping, look for books by Tony Buzan, who developed this technique in the 1970's as a tool to help people take notes more effectively.

The Mind Map Book by Tony Buzan and Barry Buzan 

Use Both Sides of Your Brain by Tony Buzan 

 

Reduce Stress with the Gamut Point Procedure

The Gamut Point Procedure is a self-healing process that is part of the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), a practice that incorporates tapping acupressure points for pain and emotional relief. 

This technique is simple and powerful at the same time. When stressed, you want something easy and doable.

To reduce stress, anxiety and/or fear, do the following while tapping, massaging or
holding the Gamut point:

• Close your eyes for a few seconds;

• Open your eyes;

• 
  Keeping your head still, look hard down to the right;

• Continuing to keeping your head still, look hard down to the left;

• Slowly roll your eyes in a full circle in a clockwise direction, imagining that you can see each number on the face of a clock;

• Then slowly roll your eyes back in a full circle in a counter-clockwise direction;

• Hum about 5 seconds of any song that comes to mind;

• Count to 5 out loud;

• Lastly, hum about 5 seconds of any song again.
  

 

More Foot Care

 "The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art."

Leonardo DaVinci

It's easy to take your feet for granted until you can't. Toes get squished into tight shoes, heels, athletic shoes and more. And, going barefoot is difficult, especially if you live someplace that has more winter than any other season. Look at the muscles that take the brunt of daily movement and exercise.

Luckily, more and more athletic and everyday shoes are being made with wide toe boxes, support for arches and aid for various foot concerns.

I recently purchased the Neuro Ball from Naboso, a company founded by Dr. Emily Splichal, a functional podiatrist and human movement specialist. www.naboso.com

For most of my life I have crammed my feet into many different dance shoes, ice skates, ski boots, heels, tight "normal" shoes and more. So, I have some foot problems going on. Following various "how to" Naboso videos on YouTube, I have found the Neuro Ball to be quite effective. It feels good even when focusing on areas of my foot that are tender and tight. I have added these exercises to the foot routine I already do every day. I will let you know about my progress with this product.

Your Heart's Desire

                YOUR HEART'S DESIRE

Questions to consider:

WHEN in my life do I need to slow down and become quiet in order to listen to my heart's desire?

WHERE in my life do I need to slow down and become quiet in order to listen to my heart's desire?

WHY do I need to slow down and become quiet in order to listen to my heart's desire? 

HOW do I slow down and become quiet in order to listen to my heart's desire?

WHAT do I need to slow down in my life in order to listen to my heart's desire?

 

"One's action ought to come out of an achieved stillness, not to be a mere rushing on." 

                                                       D. H. Lawrence