Summertime and the Living Is Easy
Summer is an amazing time to revitalize mind, body, and soul.
How can we not feel amazing with the:
- sun shining brightly,
- warm rains on occasion,
- birds singing,
- frogs and crickets chirping,
- fire flies blinking at night,
- local produce pouring off the farm stands,
- green grass and wild flowers coloring our world happy,
- sultry, warm nights swimming in the moon light...
May your summer be filled with warmth, good smells, and happy memories! Hugs, Paula
Stocking Up the Natural Medicine Cabinet
Making Herbal Medicine 101 Class, June 30th, '14
Learning natural healing, the time honored methods of supporting the body's innate ability to heal itself, is a sure fire method of invoking true healing in your body.
Think of this: every time you cut yourself the cut heals. That is how your whole body will function, will heal, if you give it what it needs and remove those things that "get in the way" of healing.
Your immune system is your system that works to repair and heal your body. It works synergistically, in symphony, with every system in your body. That is the beauty of the whole: holistic healing.
Healing comes from inside you.
A "healer" is a guide who steers you back to your own path, your space of healing. A healer knows the natural ways to invoke the immune system's ability to repair and heal mind, body, and spirit.
You are your own best healer.
What to do to create health and healing:
- *Remove the lifestyle habits that created the “ill” health symptoms.
- Learn what whole foods are and eat a whole food diet, your cellular health will thank you! If we have not had this whole food conversation…it is time to say, “Hey Paula, what the heck, tell me the cellular health secrets!” Move in the direction of more food from plants, balancing out with a comfortable amount of animal based food to keep your body healthy. Listen to your body's needs, not someone else's food rules.
- Add in herbs and/or other whole food supplements to re-fortify your cellular health, get your nutritional savings account over flowing with life enhancing nutrition!
- Move your body: sedentary living kills, movement heals.
- Fresh air and sunshine…"love" two birds with one action, get outside AND move! (This sounds better than the kill two birds line...)
- Sleep.
- Stress: get rid of it or change your attitude about that which you can’t get rid of. (Might I suggest yoga and meditation?) Which leads me to…
- Healthy attitude toward yourself, all others on this planet and life in general. Practice a kindness attitude towards all, starting with you. Self-care, and its ripple effects for your health and how you perceive and interact with the world, cannot be emphasized enough.
- Ask me for my “lifestyle” suggestions handout. It contains more thoughts on healthy lifestyle choices for you to contemplate and add to your own bag of healthy living and healing tricks!
*Remove the lifestyle habits that created the “ill” health symptoms, some examples:
- Can't sleep? Remove caffeine and stress for starters. This may mean finding new ways of perceiving stress and learning to let go of stress. (see yoga and meditation suggestion above!)
- Breathing problems? Smoker? Quitting is one obvious solution in your healing quest.
- Allergies? 100% whole foods, raw honey from local bees, remove allergens from your life and living space...
- Constipation? Stress clamps down the colon; see can't sleep above. Refined foods clog up the body, your colon... see whole foods above.
- Headaches? Stress, refined foods, sugar, artificial sweeteners, prescription medications, birth control pills, chemical household cleaners, chemical body care products.... all, and many more synthetics, can contribute to your body imbalance that triggers headaches.
Here's a peek inside my herbal healing cabinets: the formulas I have used over the years (and trust) and the dried herbs I keep on hand to make my own healing blends.
The Healing Medicine cabinet in my downstairs bathroom.
Dried herbs and raw, local honey...ready to make tinctures and infusions (medicinal strength teas).
The upstairs bathroom healing cabinet.
Peeking down into my herbal first aid kit.
Teaching the art of using herbs, as part of a whole health lifestyle, is a passion for me!
On Monday, June 30th I taught a fun class at my home: Making Herbal Medicines 101.
Interested in learning, give me a yell! This Fall will be a great time for another Herbal Medicine Class!
Blessings and HUGS, Paula
My "New" Favorite Song
So, you may be asking: What does a song have to do with health and healing?
Everything I say, everything!
Musicians weave soul magic with their words and the musical notes. Human healing begins at the soul's level. Remember me writing about how healing the physical body begins with healing the emotional and spiritual body? What better catalyst than music!
An earlier post, about another favorite song, urges using forgiveness as a self-healing tool.
My new favorite song and how it fits into this whole story...
As you know, from a previous post on blasting belly fat, I recently ventured down into the Havasupai Indian Reservation in the Grand Canyon. After I posted this adventure story, a dear friend sent me the link to a song I had not heard in years: In the House of Stone and Light by Martin Page.
Listening to the hauntingly beautiful music and soulfully insightful words of this song returns me to the same peace, deep inside my heart and soul, that I felt down in the Havasupai's canyon world.
(See pictures below.)
The House of Stone and Light as we walked into the Havasupai village.
Meandering through this House of Stone and Light!
Little Navajo Falls In The House of Stone and Light. Yes, we swam there! In fact, I am on that beach!
The sunrises and sunsets on the canyon walls were completely mesmerizing. The light, on the sandstone walls, absolutely glows. (I live in a sandstone home, I recognize my stone home's beauty and, yet, this canyon home is an intense sandstone home space!) American Indians speak of sacred places where there are high levels of spiritual energy. It was obvious to me that this oasis, in the Grand Canyon, is one of these sacred places, a vortex of energy.
The sunrise, hiking out of The House Of Stone and Light.
I would love to take my healing energy back to Havasupai. Maybe I could offer my nutrition and whole health healing to the Havasupia people. I could support their health around the high incidence of diabetes and diabetes related health problems. I could be giving back to the people who opened their canyon home to me and my family!
For now, I listen to my new favorite song, over and over again. My kids tell me I am obsessed with this song about the canyon home. I tell them the hike down into this beautiful home of the Havasupai was a deeply moving and soul cleansing experience.
If they hand me my backpack and tattered Teva hiking sandals, I will know they are sending me packing back into the canyon! I will go, willingly!
My dirty feet and tattered Teva sandals after a day of canyon hiking!
Your Take Away Health Information: Find music that soothes and excites your soul.
Sing, dance, let the music flow through you like the healing energy it is. Much Love, Paula
PS The lyrics of the song are deep, meaningful, soul searching! Tell me this is not a healing experience...
O Mount Kailas uncover me
Come my restoration
Wash my body clean
I've been walking
Along a crooked path
Where the walls have fallen
Broken me in half
I'm telling you
I will not rest till I lay down my head
I'm gonna go
In the house of stone and light
I shall not cry
For the blind man I leave behind
When I go
In the house of stone and light, yeah
In the house of stone and light
Holy lady
Show me my soul
Tell me of the place
Where I must surely go
Old man waiting
At the gates for me
Give me the wisdom
Give me the key
I'm telling you
I will not rest till I lay down my head
In the house of stone and light
I make my way
Oh, gonna be such a beautiful day
In the house of stone and light
In the house of stone and light
Let me in beneath my skin
In the house of stone and light
It's been too long
My spirit's been at war
Havasupai Shaman
Let me be reborn
And I will embrace
The sun upon my face
Come the day
I awake the child inside
In the house of stone and light
And when I go
I will op', op', open my eyes
In the house of stone and light
I will see you
In the house of stone and light
Looking in beneath my skin
In the house of stone and light
Going inside
In the house of stone and light
(Stone and light)
Looking for the child
In the house of stone and light
(See myself got such a good shelter)
In the house of stone and light
In the house of stone and light
(I'm gonna let this child come washing of water)
In the house of stone and light
(He's speakin' softly to me)
(I must go there, to find my soul, yeah)
In the house of stone and light
(I can see so clearly now)
(I will go there, to find my soul, yeah)
In the house of stone and light
(Well keep on knocking on my door)
(I must go there, to find my soul, yeah)
In the house of stone and light
(I will go there, to find my soul, yeah)
In the house of stone and light
(I must go there, to find my soul, yeah)
Songwriter:
His albums are awesome. Check them out for some soul soothing, healing music!
Like Almond Butter? A Nut Butter from Heaven!
So I buy the above Vanilla Espresso Almond Butter. Who could resist the melding of such flavors?
Taste Test: It is VERY yummy, in fact incredibly yummy!
So, I took a huge spoonful, as I always do with nut butters. It was probably 2 tablespoons or so... I tend to err, about my estimates, on the conservative side!
This stuff is loaded with espresso! Eating it made me feel like I think I would feel had I been smoking crack. I have never smoked crack, but I am certain I would not feel good. It's that extreme jittery and agitated feeling. I do not do well in this mode.
So, today I tried a much smaller spoonful. I am thinking perhaps 2 teaspoons. Still, not so good in my system. (Keep in mind, I can not drink a normal cup of regular, caffeinated coffee and not feel this jittery agitated energy.)
One thing I know about me: I do not tolerate caffeine.
Who would of thought a nut butter could be like a drug! Well, to my body and mind it is.
Seriously, try it, it is extremely delicious.
Caution: If you are caffeine sensitive, like me, it is probably not for you!
Butter is Back & Better Than Ever
Now that butter is on the cover of Time Magazine... it must be true! Butter is a superfood!
Not that my butter eating habits are much of a secret anymore. I used to hide my butter habit to avoid the "you are going to clog your heart" advice and lectures. Not that I didn't pass out a few of the very same lectures in my days*, see below!
A couple of years ago I wrote an article: "Unwrapping Butter's Bad Rap" for the Potsdam Food Co-op's newsletter, it became a blog post on Whole Food Healer, and was later revised and included in my first book. Butter is a head liner!
I confess, I have always loved butter. I only refrained from butter when I was *eating a vegan diet (for a few years, back then, sometime in my past life!). That is over and butter was put back in my diet quite quickly. Mashed potatoes without butter? What is the point? I ate them, for years, at the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner table. Not anymore, mashed potatoes with butter for me, please!
Butter is awesome, yummy, the best! Now a butter - nettle pesto, hmmm... I might be on to something here! Two of my favorite things fused together with love. Heading to the kitchen now...
30 minutes later after picking some nettle tops:
Ok, it did work! Butter, nettles, and garlic scapes. Chives would be fine as well. Have patience with the food processor as olive oil blends with the herbs more easily. Try making the pesto with a 1/2 butter and 1/2 olive oil mix for easy blending!
So back to butter. My favorite way to eat it is off a spoon, fork, or knife. Mom taught me this was not ok. I do it anyhow. Sorry Mom! : )
Local to me, NY State butter!
This is my new favorite butter, thanks to Jessica Prosper of Prosper's Farmstead Creamery. She turned me on to this butter because the cows graze on grass and the butter is made just about 3 1/2 hours from my home. Now, if I had a farmer close by making butter with grazing cows cream, that would be even better!
I buy in 2 pound tubs, a few tubs at a time. I do not like running out of butter. Makes me feel like an addict without my drug! Seriously, I am not that bad. But, humor is always good!
Butter recently has had a big popularity boost with the Bullet Proof Coffee craze. I tried it, why not? I will try anything once!
What I learned, butter is best eaten from the spoon, knife, or fork! Why ruin good butter or good coffee? Want fat in your coffee? Find a source of pasture-raised, whole cream or 1/2 and 1/2 and dose up your coffee in style. Coffe tastes better this way AND saves the mess in the kitchen making the bullet proof stuff. If you try bullet proof coffee and like it, go for it.
I prefer my coffee with butter like this:
on a piece of buckwheat toast. Organic buckwheat grown close to me, just over the border in Canada, and baked at Little Stream Bakery.
Now the amount of butter on this 2 inch by 3 1/2 inch piece of toast was triple, what you see above, by the time I finished eating it. Maybe 2 1/2 to 3 Tbsp. of butter. Butter is definitely better on toast than in my coffee!
Eat butter, it won't kill you! Paula
PS Maybe Gardenshare has an more local source of NY State butter from grass fed cows? Aviva, any thoughts?
I know Birdsfoot Farm has some very, deep-yellow cream from their grazing cow!
I want local butter that is that deep yellow!
Cheers!
Ode to My Farmers
Ode to My Farmers
Farmers are my (everybody's) lifeline
worth more than silver or gold
the food they feed me now
will keep me young as I grow old
I write of real farmers
true stewards of the land
farmers who love their animals
sustainability is their stand
Food IS our best medicine
to prevent and heal disease
farmers are the keepers of our health
hug your farmer(s) today, please
Rob & Winny Sachno
PS Compensate your farmers well for the food they grow you.
(It IS hard work!)
Good food IS your preventative medicine,
Your farmer is your best Doc!
Even the wee ones make awesome farmers!
Gramma's Grass Acres, the Lynch's, processing chickens!
PPS This is a mere sampling of the amazing farmers in my life. To find your own farmers use your local farmer finding resources: farm markets, Co-ops, Health & Natural Food Stores, etc.
In St. Lawrence County, NY, we have Gardenshare!
