Raindrops do what?

I am sure that most of you out there enjoy having a massage. The feeling of tense muscles and stress just melting away with each stroke. I love the feeling of relaxation that washes over me while getting a massage. I never thought there could be anything better than that, but I was wrong. There is something that feels better physically, emotionally, and mentally. It is the Raindrop Technique. Gary Young owner and developer of Young Living Essential Oils adapted this amazing technique and use of his essential oils.

So what is the Raindrop Technique? According to Gary Young, it encompasses a method of using Vita Flex, reflexology, and massage techniques and blends these with aromatherapy. These methods are done while essential oils chosen for your needs are applied to different areas on your body like your neck, shoulders, feet, back. This technique is designed to bring balance to your spine, muscles and energy and promote healing from within. It can help with boosting your immune system, GI issues, respiratory issues, stress relief and more. The application of the essential oils combined with the massage, reflexology and Vita Flex techniques create an amazing experience that is unique for everyone.

So how does it work? Raindrop Technique affects you at a cellular level. The pure, essential oils work at this cellular level to help support your organs and body’s structure. Overall, it helps to detoxify and balance the body. Here is a link to help better explain what Raindrop Technique is:
http://www.youngliving.us/pdfs/PIP_RaindropTechnique.pdf

This is powerful stuff, so be prepared for emotional, physical and mental release. Also, if you have high blood pressure, asthma, or are pregnant or nursing, you will want to skip this because it is so powerful.

I got to experience this amazing technique, and I am hooked. I invite you to get a glimpse into my experience as I share this with you next week in my blog. Until then, let yourself be free to heal.

Anuloma Viloma

Some of you are probably wondering what anuloma viloma is. This is part of my meditation and breathing story. This technique is alternate nostril breathing. Doesn't sound quite as exciting as anuloma viloma does it? I wanted to share this with you because this is the simple breathing technique that I learned and is helping to change my anger and irritability into calm and understanding.

Take a few minutes with me and find your path to inner calm. Find a comfortable place to sit. Take your time to be comfortable and to breathe through this. As you close your eyes, listen. Be aware of the sounds around you. Acknowledge them and move on to the next one until you feel aware.

With your eyes closed, place your index and middle fingers in between your eye brows.

Take a deep breath in. Before you let your breathe out, place your thumb over your right nostril to block the air from coming out. Breathe out slowly through your left nostril. Keep your thumb there.

Then, when ready, breathe in through your left nostril slowly. After this breath in, use your ring finger to close your left nostril and remove your thumb from your right nostril.

Breathe out slowly through your right nostril. When ready, breathe in slowly through your right nostril.

When ready, switch back to the left being open and the right nostril closed.

Continue this for 12-30 complete rounds. This is about 5-10 minutes of slow breathing.

That's it! Simple right? By doing this once or even twice a day, you are balancing your left and right hemispheres of your brain. This means that you are bringing calm and clarity to your mind which in turn will provide you with better mental clarity, concentration and perception.  You will also find that your emotions are more positive and understanding.

Be calm and enjoy your day!

meditation

Meditation is an easy and effective way to transform yourself and your life into something positive. Some of you may be questioning the importance of this, but trust me, you will want to read on and learn more about it. Especially if you feel anything like I have been feeling.

I have been struggling with feeling irritable and quick to anger. I was looking for something natural and in addition to food that is quick but powerful and will help me through my day. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a meet up group that was focusing on meditation, yoga and breathing. I learned so much about breathing and meditation in so little time.

Why is breathing good? I ask that in addition to what we already know. Breathing is vital for us to live. We breathe in the air that fills our lungs and feeds our cells. We breathe out the carbon dioxide and the impurities of our body. But breath is so much more.

Breathing is part of meditation and there are many benefits to practicing this. It doesn't mean that you have to sit quietly for hours on end to achieve inner peace. It can fit quite easily into your day.

• Meditation helps your mind balance and stop the business inside your head. It gives you the opportunity to become calm, focus on yourself and your surroundings and ultimately transform your mind and emotions. It makes you aware of you. The true you, which can be scary for some. If you take the time to look inside, the scariness goes away and it is replaced with calm, understanding, and comfort.
• In addition to helping to calm the mind, meditation can help you focus. Your mind becomes clearer and you can concentrate. Who couldn't use better ability to focus on what we are doing in a day. Our lives are so fast-paced that we miss so much. This helps us slow it down and actually see and enjoy our environments.
• The other benefit of meditation and breathing is that is is excellent for our bodies. The benefits include the ability to better cope with stress, lower our blood pressure, decrease our negative thoughts and emotions even tough ones like anger and fear, and may even help decrease our vulnerablility to heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure. Research is going on in these areas.

I found that simple breathing/meditation techniques can transform how I feel. I discovered a way to make me feeling calmer and more understanding towards others. That is only in a week's time. I can't wait to see what happens as I continue this. I will share my meditation techniques with you as we go on and as I learn more. 

Be well!

finding the answers

So what do you do with all this stuff that you wrote down in your food journal? Here is the fun part - getting to your aha moment!

The first step is to read and reflect on what you have written down. If you see a trend over the days and weeks that when you eat dairy, your tummy feels queasy, you have major gas, or whatever - think to yourself - maybe I should crowd dairy out of my diet. 

Next, it is important to trial different things - take one food out of your diet for a couple of weeks and then try it again. Do you get the same results as you did before? If so, you may be intolerant to it. If not, yeah! Keep eating it and try a different food and see what happens. 

Take note - if you have taken a food or foods out of your diet, be sure to add one food back in at a time AND be sure to only try adding in a food every 3-4 days. You need to let your body have time to respond. That response won't necessarily happen overnight. In my case, it happened in 6-8 hours. I knew by then that my body does not like dairy or gluten. Talk about a long night of not so fun stuff. Ugh!

This is not the fastest way to determine how food effects you, but it is the truest test you can do. Be patient and the answers will come.  It is a step towards creating a healthier, happier you.

If you want to take a test and have a sense of what may be ailing you and perhaps find a starting point of what foods to try removing form your diet, I would recommend you get an allergy test done. Beware though, there are a lot of false positives that come up. Skin tests can just be an irritation to your skin - not that you are really allergic to it. 

You could also have a serum test done. This type of test can give you a sense of how severe the intolerance or allergy is. These are helpful guides too especially if you do the IgG and IgE testing. Not everyone agrees that these tests are accurate. 

Allergy tests can be done through an allergist or a naturopathic doctor (ND), both who will help you decipher the results. Just be careful on who you talk to and remember to listen to you. Don't make the mistake I did and believe that the allergist has all of the answers. The ND will probably not be covered by insurance. The MD may be. If you prefer to do it on your own, there are also kits that you can purchase. The test on your own, is on your own. Both through the ND and on your own, the test can be around $300 a test.

The most accurate way is to listen to your body and write it down. Hell, I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday let alone how I felt 30 min, an hour or 6 hours after. I need to write things down. Take your time and trust your gut - literally. Listening to your body is the best start to a new you.

This is just information and in no way intended to be medical advice. Any testing or decisions a person makes to improve his or her health is a decision made by that person and not by me. This information is just to help educate people and not intended as medical opinion or prescription.

Let's Grow!

Today I took my son to a PBS event in Madison. It was a lot of fun to see the Cat in the Hat and Super Why! They even had Mr. Steve performing. My son's favorite part, besides having his picture taken with the Cat in the Hat, was pretending to plant, grow and eat vegetables! The Madison Children's Museum brought out a garden plot with vegetables for the kids to grow - keep in mind this is a large event so this is not real dirt and veggies :) My son donned his vegetable apron and grabbed a shovel. He dug in the dirt and planted beets, eggplants, pumpkin, lettuce, and carrots. He had fun making the grasshopper jump on his shoulder and the bee buzzing by as he harvested his food. I love that they give kids a chance to learn about food and growing it in such a fun way! It is the perfect opportunity to talk about the different veggies, how they grow, and how we should eat them. My son was having so much fun! When the event ended, we decided to continue the fun at the Children's Museum where he proceeded to pretend he lived in a hut, invited friends in to cook and harvest the the garden together. Seeing the world of healthy food and gardening through his eyes helps foster my enthusiasm for healthy, fresh food! Yum!