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Wellness Tips for Fall

The Autumnal Equinox came and went on September 22nd this year. After that day of balance, where day and night were equal, we entered the waning part of the year – the time when the nights are longer than the days. In ancient times, the Equinox marked the second harvest. At this time of year, the crops were finished being harvested and the herds were culled for the coming winter. And so began a time to rest after the harvest. Our bodies are in tune with the cycles of the Earth and naturally urge us to slow down, rest, and go within at this time. It is a time to pull back a little from too many external activities and go to bed a little earlier. Here are some simple tips to harmonize yourself to the Fall season:

*NOTE: Always use organic herbs! You do not want to be taking herbs sprayed with pesticides, fungicides, etc. that will stress your body.

1. Echinacea tincture ~ Echinacea is used to boost the immune system by increasing the production of white blood cells, T cells, and all other infection fighting cells that are part of the immune. When you are fighting an infection/bacteria,

or supporting your body to fight a virus, take your body weight in drops 3 times per day for 3 days. Herbs work best when you start them at the first sign of illness. Consult an Herbalist if you are unsure how much to take or need to check on interactions with other medications. Some herbalists give smaller doses (half your body weight in drops) more times per day depending on the issue. Discontinue after day 3 – your immune system will be at its peak and you don’t need to keep stimulating it. Echinacea in capsules will not work, use a tincture. Echinacea augustifolia is the most medicinal, but Echinacea purpurea has beneficial qualities as well. I like Super Echinacea by Herb Pharm because it has a mix of species. Gaia Herbs is a good company as well for tinctures. You can grow your own Echinacea, beautiful pinkish purple coneflowers, but the roots take several years to mature and you need to know how to tincture them. For children, I love Planetary Herbals Well Child, Echinacea-Elderberry Herbal Syrup, Alcohol Free. Another excellent brand for kids is Herbs For Kids. They make a Wellness Kit that is really nice to have around.

If you order from http://www.iherb.com/ use my Reward Code: LQM000 (those are zeros) for up to $10.00 off your first order.

2. Golden Seal Hydrastis canadensis ~ is an antibiotic herb. So it is inappropriate to use this herb on a regular basis. It is only to be used when you are fighting a serious infection that you would use antibiotics for. I do not recommend this herb because it is very strong. As my herb teacher, Susun Weed, says, “Golden seal can do more harm to gut flora and the liver than most antibiotics.” Instead of using Golden Seal, think about taking herbs to support your immune system to do the healing. Your body can heal itself and herbs can boost it’s power.

3. Feverfew Tanacetum parthenium ~ I keep this tincture around for headaches and migraines, and as the name implies, for fevers. Take as directed on bottle.

Another reliable company to buy herbs from is: http://www.healingspiritsherbfarm.com/store/tinctures-extracts. The formulas are by amazing herbalist Rosemary Gladstar. Her book, “Herbal Healing For Women”, is one of my favorites.

4. Siberian Ginseng ~ Again, I’d like to quote Susun Weed, to whom I was an apprentice, “Siberian ginseng (Eleutherococcus) is widely considered the single most effective immune tonic and adaptogen in the herbal realm. Safe and inexpensive, it helps the immune system respond quickly to infection and mitigates the effects of stress.” I suggest you start taking this as a tonic herb daily, especially for Fall and Winter. I use the tincture and I also simmer the root in soups or as a decoction.

5. For severe sinus infections, I use Colloidal Silver nasal spray. I would first use herbs to assist my body in healing itself, but if the infection is advanced and I want to get rid of it, I use colloidal silver. This, like Golden Seal and Oil of Oregano, is an antibiotic and thus not to be used recklessly or often. Keep in mind antibiotics kill off the good bacteria and flora in your gut as well as the bacteria that is making you ill. I have also had good results using essential oils via a neti pot. My favorite is using a drop or two of Niaouli, also known as MQV, for it’s botanical name: Melaleuca quinquinerva viridiflora. This herb has similar qualities to Tea Tree oil, but is about 10X stronger. It does not bother the delicate sinus tissues. To test it out, try putting a few drops on a tissue and stuffing it into your nose, leaving it there to be inhaled for a moment or two.

6. Last, but not least, I always use Osha Root tincture for sore throats. For more on that, see my post entitled ‘5 Natural Remedies That Really Work’: http://wellnessthroughwisdom.com/5-natural-remedies-that-really-work

I hope these tips inspire you to stay well as best you can. Remember to get your sleep (every hour before midnight counts double!) and keep your feet warm and stay out of the cold wind. Keep your home warm (no, a cold house does not ward off sickness – colds and flus thrive in cold weather), but not completely closed up. Allow some fresh air in each day. Let a little sun touch your skin (sunscreen free) for vitamin D to keep you healthy and feeling good. Most of all, find ways to embrace the seasons and make it your intention to do whatever makes you feel good.

Fall Blessings,

No One Can Heal You

As a healer, I have studied and worked in the holistic health field for 15 years now. Through this time, I have had the privilege of being a student and client of many gifted practitioners and I have been able to work in various organizations. Along the way, I have noticed patterns and found that there are certain truths that I keep returning to. Today I want to share one of these truths that I feel is very important. It not only applies to healers, but to those seeking any form of healing as well. And here it is: no one can heal you.

The good news is: you are a self-healing organism. You have the ability to heal yourself. It begins with the decision to heal and this decision has to come from within. You make this decision and you begin to hold a vision of yourself healed, whole, healthy, and happy. You decide to take responsibility for your health, on all levels. Instead of simply going to a doctor and saying “fix me”, you take responsibility for what you are putting into your body, what thoughts you are thinking, your lifestyle, your environment. You dig deeper, you educate yourself, and you look within. You may go to healers and doctors to assist you with that process or guide you with their knowledge and expertise, but ultimately they cannot heal you unless the desire to heal comes from within.

Because no one can heal you unless you truly wish to heal, healing will not take place if someone is being pushed into something they do not want to do. This is why addicts do not usually respond to court-ordered treatment and why I don’t accept clients for hypnosis who want to quit smoking or eat healthier because their partner wants them to. It does not work that way.

The other side of this coin is that healers are people that assist and guide with healing, but they cannot take credit for healing (just as they cannot be blamed for lack of healing). Be wary of anyone saying they are “saving peoples’ lives” or taking full credit for your healing or transformation. The individual is co-creating their health (or lack of) with their higher power. A healer may know techniques to help you through a shift, to move stuck energy, or to ease and comfort you. Ultimately, they do not have a power greater than Source (ie God/Goddess/the Universe/etc.).

Does that mean that helping people or preventing them from a death is negative in some way? No. What can become an issue is the way we think about ourselves. If we give our Ego credit for something that really our higher power was responsible for, it can snowball into a messianic complex, meaning believing ourselves to be a savior of sorts. I have seen this happen to healers. All the good feedback feeds that Ego and if not checked, can get out of hand. So, affirm to yourself and your clients that they are the ones healing themselves. Even a doctor or surgeon who performs a life-saving operation cannot take full credit. There are other factors at work, which is why the same operation or treatment does not work each time. The outcome is part of a divine plan, not a game of chance and not the Ego. There are agreements we’ve made on a soul level that affect outcomes, your life plan, the greatest good of all concerned, as well as our feelings and beliefs about life and healing.

The beauty in understanding this is that now you have the power to play a part in co-creating your own health. There is an inner voice that can guide you and when you listen, you will be supported. That inner voice is connected to the collective unconscious and all of your guides and angels. Although there may be some things you cannot change, there are also areas in your life that you can change. Begin there. Focus on what feels good and let that be your guide. Let your affirmation be: I am self-healing; I am co-creating my own wellness.

Whether conscious of not, in each moment you are creating, but what you create is all up to you. You are the artist sculpting yourself… and no matter what you are given, no matter what you are starting out with, you can make it beautiful.

SELF-HEAL

This is the flower of the plant called Self-Heal, Prunella vulgaris. It has many healing uses and you might even find it growing in your lawn.

Patricia Kaminski of the Flower Essence Society says this about Self-Heal: “Self-Heal flower essence is especially indicated for those who have lost belief in their own capacity to be well, or who have abdicated this inherent responsibility to healers or others. It is a very beneficial remedy for those who face great healing challenges, whether physical, mental, or spiritual.

The central teaching of Self-Heal is to enable the Self to affirm and to draw from the deep wellspring of life, toward true recovery and restoration. The name “Self-Heal” is perhaps its own best affirmation, since all healing depends on an inner commitment to be well. No variety of outer measures and techniques can bring about healing (physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual), if there is not a quickening from within the individual, a motivation to seek and affirm the wholeness of life.”

Aromatherapy Blend For Coughs And Colds

I put together a blend of essential oils today to help with my son’s minor cough and runny nose. A welcomed side effect was that it made our house smell great and purified the air.

Most of us tend to reach for Eucalyptus for colds, which is great, but sometimes a combination of other oils works better and is an uplifting change. Niaouli, Melaleuca quinquenervia, is also wonderful. If you are unfamiliar with this oil, it is also known as MQV, and has similar qualities to Tea Tree Oil, but is at least ten times more potent. Try inhaling it by putting a few drops on a tissue then breathing in deeply from both the nose and mouth.

I made this blend today and dropped it into the vaporizer with the water. It is diffusing nicely and is less medicinal in scent than the usual Eucalyptus route. I order all of my oils from Original Swiss Aromatics because they are the highest quality oils in my opinion.

Add 5 drops each (or play around to create your own recipe):

DILL WEED, Anethum graveolens: Dill essential oil is great for bronchial infections and is considered mucolytic, which means it breaks up mucus.

CYPRESS, Cupressus sempervirens: It is important to buy real Cypress oil because a lot of what is available is not authentic and therefore will not have the qualities you are looking for. This oil is excellent for respiratory conditions and I find it helpful for runny noses.

ROSEMARY, Rosmarinus officinalis: Wonderful oil for upper respiratory conditions and even the flu. Again, making sure you have true Rosemary oil is key.

MARJORAM, Origanum majorana: This oil is another good herb for the respiratory system and is considered “antiinfectious with spamolytic qualities.” The Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy recommends it for treating Whooping Cough.

I hope you enjoy this blend as much as we are! I am a Certified Aromatherapist and available to make custom blends for people as well as all natural perfumes tailored to your emotional, spiritual, and physical needs.

Be well ~

Jessica

The Unconscious Mind & Core Beliefs

We know that 95% of our behavior is ruled by the unconscious mind. Are you ready to learn how to master this part of your brain?

Your unconscious mind (also called the subconscious mind) is like a recording device. All the images, words, stories, voices, and music you expose your senses to each day are going in, without a filter, to your unconscious mind. It does not have the ability to say “oh I don’t want THAT stored in here”. It takes in everything. When we are in a different brain wave state, such as hypnosis, we are able to bypass the conscious/thinking part of the brain, and we are more susceptible to suggestions.

Children are in a different brain wave state during their first 5 years of life that is, basically, hypnosis. That is a time when core beliefs are being formed. During these formative years, we are taking in all the data that we see, hear, sense, and feel. The messages that come in become the programs that run – just like the programs on your computer. If you are running an old program that says, for example, ‘I am not good enough’, then when things happen, the mind will use it to prove this theory.

Now let’s take a closer look at how a core belief operates by using this very common example of a negative core belief: ‘I am not good enough’. Let’s say you are a person that was yelled at for making mistakes as a child, or told you were “bad”, or compared to siblings in a negative way. From these experiences, you formed the belief that you were not good enough and, perhaps, the belief that you couldn’t do anything right. You continue to live your life and one day you apply for a job and don’t get it. Logically you may know that: it is commonplace to not get every job you apply for and it is nothing personal towards you and that there was probably just someone better qualified for that job. Spiritually you may even know that it probably happened for a reason and there is a different job out there that is better suited for you. But somehow you start feeling bad about yourself. You find yourself depressed and hopeless. The unconscious mind is running it’s old program, saying. “You can’t do anything right. This happened because you are not good enough.” It will use new experiences and twist them to fulfill this prophecy (ie make the core belief true). It will even cause you to do things that help this core belief of “not good enough” be proven. For example, if things are going great for you, you might find yourself suddenly sabotaging some of your own successes in order to match this unconscious core belief.

So, what old programs are you running? If you are ready to upgrade the programs in your unconscious mind, good news! It is as easy as relaxing deeply and letting hypnosis put in positive new programs that will create different thinking and different behavior. Hypnosis can change core beliefs, traumatic patterns, emotional patterns, and so much more. Energy Psychology is also another exciting field that pairs nicely with Hypnotherapy to clear beliefs and traumas that are stored in our energetic bodies. Anything can be healed and when we make changes in the unconscious mind, it is easy to have all the joy that is your birthright. Because you are good enough and truly deserve to have all of your heart’s desires.

Blessings, Jessica

Opening Into The Unknown

This short article was first printed in the November 2010 issue of the Motivational Institute of Hypnotherapy newsletter. Enjoy!

Take a moment to think about something you REALLY want to have or a goal you want to reach. Really let yourself experience how it would feel to have that situation in your life. The next step is to consider actually creating it.

Now, if a reason why you can’t popped up in your mind first thing, just acknowledge it. We can let go of judging that thought and understand it is just the Ego’s way of trying to protect us from change. Perhaps your Ego chimed in with something like this: “I can’t do that! I don’t have the money! I don’t know how! Yeah right, how will that ever happen?” Or something along those lines.

We get blocked from creating our desires when we get stuck on wanting to know HOW and all the details. We don’t have to know HOW it can happen or the steps that will lead to that goal manifesting in our lives. I like the way Wayne Dyer explains this, he says, “The answer to HOW is YES”. What this means is we don’t have to know how or all the details, we just have to be open and say YES to our dreams coming true.

This is what I call ‘opening into the unknown’. We just send out what we want to create in our lives and allow the Divine energy to fill in the blanks. Louise Hay also addresses this issue, explaining that we don’t need to know how we are going to create something, we just need to be willing. Her affirmation for this is: “I am willing to shift the patterns in my unconscious mind that are creating this condition.” ‘How?’ is a challenge question. Stop challenging yourself and making blocks between you and your goals. Instead just open into the unknown, say ‘YES’, be willing, and be ready to receive.

BURN AND BLANKET

You were dead, asleep, or praying.
The old and the young held each other

in the arms of coming and going. They bore
the seams of their lives in the shadow

of a mutual solitude. I was the witness
and the hot middle ripening over –

and after that climax, my descent.
Blood moving backward in the desert –

it will remind me of your creases,
your cheetahs – all of the times

you could have been running.
All of the times

we closed our eyes
in order to be touched.

5 Easy Natural Tips for Healthy Toddlers

There are so many little things you can do to add a touch of holistic health into your toddler’s life. Here are some easy ideas to bring them some comfort and love:

1. Before nap time or bed time, I like to add a chamomile tea bag to my son’s water bottle or milk (organic is always best). It is not necessary to heat the water or milk, but you can slightly if you like. Even in cool water, the energy and some medicinal properties of chamomile are infused, which help soothe and calm nerves and ease him to sleep.

2. An easy way to get your sick toddler to drink more fluids when they are sick is to add a splash of 100% juice (again organic is best) to their water (I like the brand: First Juice). Coconut water is another great way to get electrolytes into your sick child. Mix it with juice if they don’t like it plain.

3. For a child who is nervous, stressed, or anxious, try adding 2 drops of Rescue Remedy to their water. This is a wonderful flower essence that I always keep on hand for everyone in my household – it even works on animals (just a drop on their nose)! Rescue Remedy is a vibrational medicine, so it works on the energetic level to calm anxiety and stress to make things feel more manageable. It is also a great thing to use after something upsetting has happened when people need to be calmed and re-oriented.

4. Worried that your child is not getting their daily requirements of vitamins and minerals? Try Juice Plus + gummies. These are natural fruit and vegetable supplements. They are made from the juice of fruits, vegetables, and berries – juiced on the farm where they are picked and triple checked to be pesticide, herbicide, and fungicide free. Children 4 yrs and older can receive them free when an adult in the family orders the adult capsules. Otherwise they start at $23 per month. Contact me to order or place your order here: JuicePlus+

5. Did you know that 1 – 2 year olds need to be getting 1000 – 1300 calories per day with 40% of those calories from fat? Something my son loves to eat is Greek Yogurt, the whole milk version. It is high in calories and has twice the protein of regular yogurt. Plus foods with probiotics, like yogurt, help keep digestion regular and strengthen the immune system. I buy plain greek yogurt or brands that don’t have added sugars – a little fruit is fine.

The Journey – poem by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.

– by Mary Oliver from her book ‘Dream Work’.

Prayer For Tranquility

Slow me down Mother,
Let my spirit be reserved again,
Rooted and still as the ancient sacred trees.
Help me to stop chasing my life
And instead pour my life like a waterfall
Collecting here like a fresh pond of water
In the center of this moment.
Let me observe; be calm;
Let me know peacefulness
So that your natural messages
Are clear to me.
I ask to remember
My own true rhythm,
My own true pace,
My inner quiet as tranquil
As the green shade in the lightest breeze.
I call my own rivers back to me
Bringing in silence,
My essence on a silver wave.
Let me touch now
The serenity of the Goddess.
And may the oceans that flow
Through my soul flow calm and free.

So mote it be.

Opening Your Mind To Hypnotherapy

OPENING YOUR MIND TO HYPNOTHERAPY

Usually when I tell people that I am a Clinical Hypnotherapist, I get a kind of jokingly scared response from them, like, “Really, so you can put me in a trance and make me bark like a dog?” I can only conclude from this that there is a lot of ignorance in our society about what hypnotherapy really is and what its benefits are. Let me attempt to correct some of the misunderstanding and dissuade you from having fears about this powerful tool that may be useful in your life.

The first thing to understand is that clinical hypnotherapy is very different from stage hypnosis. Stage hypnosis is what you see at fairs, carnivals, and shows where a hypnotist takes people from the audience and puts them in a trance as a form of entertainment. Clinical hypnotherapy is not a form of entertainment and has a very different intention than stage hypnosis. The intention is to help the client overcome any issue they have going on and improve their life in a confidential setting where they feel safe, comfortable, and aware of the process.

Hypnotherapy works because it is an easy and safe way to bypass the conscious mind and access the unconscious mind. In some schools of psychology, the unconscious mind is called the subconscious. Many hypnotherapists, including myself, prefer the term ‘unconscious’ to ‘subconscious’ because it does not connotate that this part of our mind is ‘less than’ or or ‘inferior to’ the conscious mind.

The conscious mind is the part of the mind we can control – our thinking. It is the thoughts we are aware of and the ideas and decisions we make. The unconscious mind is more mysterious. It is operating all the time, but in a less tangible way. Hypnotherapists use the analogy of the unconscious mind being like a computer because it is easily programmed by whatever information is put into it. Like a computer, it processes the data that it is given and runs on the programs that it has been taught. The data going into your unconscious mind on a daily basis includes the things people say to you, the television you watch, what you see in the world, what you hear on the radio – in other words, everything coming in through the senses. The unconscious mind does not have the ability to discern what information or ‘programs’ would be harmful to us. It does not censor what is coming in. The conscious mind is different in this way because we can choose to be aware of our thinking and therefore make judgments about how we think, feel, and see the world.

Many people are unaware of what their core beliefs are. These are the programs running in the unconscious mind that are like filters that change the interpretation of your experiences to validate the core beliefs that you have. For example, a person may have the negative core belief of “I am unlovable”. It is likely that an early childhood trauma or situation or pattern has shaped this belief. At some point, the unconscious mind has adopted this belief. Again, because the unconscious does not know whether the information it is receiving is good for us or not, it takes in everything as ‘true’; there is no ‘false’. The person who believes on the unconscious level that they are unlovable then creates their life experiences to validate this belief. They get into relationships and sabotage them because deep down they do not feel they are lovable. Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool for shifting beliefs like this that exist on the unconscious plane.

Knowing about the unconscious mind is important because it will help you make positive choices for yourself concerning who you surround yourself with and what information you expose yourself to. It can also help you better understand how to talk to yourself and more effectively structure your thoughts. For instance, when you learn that the unconscious mind does not register negatives, such as the word ‘not’, you can learn to change your thoughts into positive affirmations. When we tell ourselves something like, “I am not going to smoke cigarettes”, the unconscious mind only hears “I am going to smoke cigarettes.” We could rephrase this to: “I am letting go of smoking permanently now.”

Hypnotherapy is a way to journey into the unconscious and look at what ‘programs’ are running and what beliefs or traumas may be influencing our daily thinking and routine. Through hypnosis, we are able to reprogram the unconscious mind. Much of this takes place in restructuring how we think and what stories about the world we are telling ourselves.

(A special thank you to my most respected teacher, Dr. Marla Brucker. More information about hypnosis can also be found on her website: www.sandiegohypnosis.com)