Bridget's Apothecary

I suppose we'll call this the unveiling...Bridget's Apothecary. I had been thinking about names that avoided using my (hard to spell/remember) name. I was researching patron saints of healing...which doesn't entirely work because all the saints are patron saints of healing in some sense, but there was a random website that listed St. Brigid as patron saint of healing. There are many delightful, varying, and sometimes contradictory stories about St. Brigid, one of them saying she prayed to have her beauty taken away, so that she would stop getting marriage proposals and be allowed to become a nun. Perfect for a business that sells body care/beauty products right? Ha. Don't worry, her beauty was restored after she became a nun, and she went on to be the patroness of Ireland. Bridget is my middle name, so I am using my name's spelling, rather than the more traditional Irish spelling. I also love that the name itself, while it means Strong, immediately brings to mind bridges, strong connective pathways between two very separate things.

An Apothecary, historically, was the person who prepared and dispensed herbal medicines. They would often mix up a certain kind of compound for each person's individual ailment. My hope is that through the make-and-learn sessions, we start to educate ourselves and become our own apothecaries. I would like to put simple healing tools within reach and encourage experimenting and tinkering with the recipes to find what works the best for each person.

Put them together and you've got Bridget's Apothecary!

I have started a new blog for the business, and a facebook page as well. I'll put links along the side of this page, feel free to "like" Bridget's Apothecary if you are on Facebook. I will be putting event listings on the blog and the facebook page, and recipes on the blog. Once again, thanks for the support!

www.bridgetsapothecary.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bridgets-Apothecary/211718748854488
(once I have 25 fans on facebook, there will be a shorter link ;) )

Also, you can follow this blog (Avocado Eater) by email now, by putting your email in the box to the right and clicking subscribe!

Make and Learn

It's so funny how life works sometimes. I think I am learning a lot about myself, and how sometimes, even though I feel like I'm so slow to act, it's actually the right pace, the right timing. It's a good lesson in forgiving yourself for not being the person you think you're supposed to be right at this moment.

I had this idea to do small, friendly, fun classes at my house for probably six months now, maybe more. I kept thinking about all the little details that hadn't come together, or all of the supplies that I hadn't ordered yet. I also kept thinking (throughout last fall) that I should just send out the email, and the rest would fall into place. There's always that balance between pushing myself to just act, and slowly plotting everything out so that I can truly do something well. Now that I've had the second class--that I'm calling a "Make and Learn", I feel like my slow pace is actually just the right timing.

I have received such enthusiasm and support from the people who have come so far, (and also from those who couldn't come) that I've been energized and excited by it. I never thought that this could become something more than a random gathering, but my mind is definitely shifting in a new direction about it. How amazing would it be if I could turn something I truly enjoy doing, believe in, and want to share, into part of how I make a living? It's kind of a revelation to me.

So, slowly but surely, I have picked a name for the business, I'm having my friend design a label for my products, and I'm getting lots of great ideas and directions I could go and services I could offer. I'm still taking it a bit slow as I am in the middle of transition to some new jobs. And this spring in particular it occurs to me, do we all crave some kind of new direction in the springtime? Winter is coming to an end and the few warm days we've had, the tiny budding plants, everything is pointing to new growth and changing directions. Even that thought, that hope is a refresher.

Yes, here's to more blog posts, more ideas put into action, and lots of fresh growing plants in all of our lives! Next post will be on the homemade deodorant we made at the class this weekend. I've been using it since the fall, and it's the only deodorant I've EVER used that's worked for me :) Now that's saying something! More news of this side-business fun forthcoming as well!

I am so grateful for the support of friends and family in all of these new endeavors. Blessings to all of you.

Lotion and Lip Balm

Here are the photos and the recipes...okay there are no photos of the lip balm...see the post below. The one thing I would add is that if I didn't have distilled water on hand, I just boiled some tap water to get some of the bacteria out. And one thing to watch for is when you remove the melted oils from the double boiler, there will be beads of water and condensation on the bottom of your pan. Be sure to wipe it off before pouring into the blender or you will get water into your oil before you really meant to. Enjoy!

Rosemary’s Perfect Cream

From Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health copyright 2001

Waters

2/3 cup distilled water (or rose water)

1/3 cup aloe vera gel

1 or 2 essential oil of choice

vitamins A and E as desired

Oils

3/4 cup apricot, almond, or grapeseed oil

1/3 cup coconut oil or cocoa butter

1/4 teaspoon lanolin

1/2 to 1 ounce grated beeswax

1. Combine the waters in a glass measuring cup. (Tap water can be used instead of distilled water, but it will sometimes introduce bacteria and encourage the growth of mold.) Set Aside.
2. In a double boiler over low heat, combine the oils. Heat them just enough to melt.
3. Pour the oils into a blender and let them cool to room temperature. The mixture should become thick, creamy, semisolid, and cream colored. This cooling process can be hastened in the refrigerator, but keep an eye on it so it doesn’t become too hard.
4. When the mixture has cooked, turn on the blender at its highest speed. In a slow, thin drizzle, pour the water mixture into the center vortex of the whirling oil mixture.
5. When most of the water mixture has been added to the oils, listen to the blender and watch the cream. When the blender coughs and chokes and the cream looks thick and white, like buttercream frosting, turn off the blender. You can slowly add more water, beating it in by hand with a spoon, but don’t overbeat! The cream will thicken as it sets.
6. Pour into cream or lotion jars. Store in a cool location.

Moirin’s Lip Balm

(Larger Batch- to make smaller batch, turn tablespoons to teaspoons!)

2 1/2 Tablespoons of Jojoba oil

2 Tablespoons of coconut oil

1/2 Tablespoon of lanolin

2 Tablespoons of beeswax

Melt the oils in a double boiler and pour into containers while still hot. If reusing old containers, be sure to clean and sterilize them first. As an added bonus, boiling them to sterilize removes any excess wax left in the container.

How I spent my winter vacation

Okay, not really. I had to finish these before my vacation so I could give them as presents! Strange to me that I have starting making body care products, because those are always the booths that I walk right by at craft fairs, really, I barely glance at them. I think what got me thinking about making my own, was Rosemary Gladstar's book "Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health". I got it towards the end of the summer. The book itself is great, and also encouraged me to place a very large order with Mountain Rose herbs this fall. Maybe what drew me in was the use of herbs, and the blending and experimenting with what works for you, either for specific ailments, or for general health and happiness. These things always take me such a long time. It was probably a month after I decided that I wanted to try to make lotion using her recipe that I had finally gathered all the ingredients and set out to try it. Previously, I had been using straight coconut oil as a moisturizer, but after I made this stuff I was hooked! It is thick and luscious and creamy and smells like honey because of the beeswax in it. You could literally eat it...there's nothing artificial, or chemical in this one!

I also made my own lip balm recipe...loosely based on the ingredients of the Dr. Bronner's lip balm that I had and liked, and with ideas from Janice Cox's book "Natural Beauty at Home". This is another great book if you just want to try some fun beauty treatments from things you may have in your kitchen. I don't love all of her ingredients though. She doesn't mind throwing petroleum jelly into things, which I prefer to steer clear of, but she's got tons of recipes and is very thorough with the range of products she lists. Everything from scrubs, cleansers, hair, nail, lip treatments, men's products, soap-making, hair styling products, the list goes on...I don't think I've read them all, it's amazing what she fit in one book.

The third product I made was a healing salve from a recipe in Rosemary's book. It says it's for any type of bumps, bruises, rash, scars, etc. can even be used for diaper rash. I hadn't really tried it until a week or two ago when I went sledding. I kept trying to run and jump on the sled and I kept missing and slamming my knee right into the edge of the sled. I'm sure it was comical to see, but I blame my giant moon boots tripping me up. I was sure I was going to wake up with a swollen and bruised knee, but right before bed I remembered the salve, so I massaged it into and around the area that was hurt. It wasn't a miracle, I still got a bruise, but it wasn't really swollen and the bruise has healed fast and was not as painful as I had expected given the repeated beating. The three herbs in the salve, are comfrey, calendula, and st. john's wort. Calendula has been known to promote cell repair, comfrey can encourage healing of tissues, and St. John's wort is known for its treatment of damaged nerve endings (hypericum, its latin name is also the homeopathic remedy made from the plant).

So yes, perhaps I'm hooked on all three. Despite not wanting to really market and sell the stuff, (though I'm happy to sell it to people who want it) I do want to spread the word about how great and easy this is to do. To that end, I recently had a make-and-learn session at my house for the lotion and the lip balm. It was a great turnout, 9 lovely ladies and everyone got to take some of our concoctions home. I'm hoping to have at least a monthly event like this, and possibly travel with it, as my sister in Ohio promises me she could get her crunchy friends to come if we planned a date. Fun!

I'll post the recipes in a separate post so I can add the rest of the photos. And I think I'll do the salve separately, as it was probably the most time consuming...although it doesn't have to be if you plan ahead. Enjoy!

Cashew Burgers!

I recently borrowed a copy of Thrive (thanks Mom and Adelie!), and I'm loving it so far. It's interesting to me that it's marketed as a vegan guide to Optimal Performance in sports and life...because it really is about so much more than that. The author has an excellent grasp of the things that tax our health, not just physical stressors, but emotional and nutritional stressors, and has developed some exciting recipes that are packed full of nutrition and taste surprisingly good too!

The recipe originally calls for almonds on this one, but I had cashews. It also calls for balsamic vinegar, but I had apple-cider vinegar. I'm not sure how much I would like these raw, but I was truly surprised at how delicious they were. I made a sesame ginger sauce for them from Dr. Ben Kim's website which you can find HERE or at the bottom of this page. I brought these to a friend's house the night I made them, and they were so tasty that I had to make them again later that week. (I'm used to leftovers and getting to eat everything twice I guess :)) Many of his recipes call for a food processor, which I don't have, so I make everything a bit more chunky than it calls for. I have a coffee grinder that I don't use for coffee, so I actually used it to get the cashew into a more usable form. I usually don't trust already ground flax seeds (because the oils can turn rancid quite quickly once you break the shell of the seed), so the coffee grinder does a great job of grinding just enough to use for each recipe.

The sesame ginger sauce is totally addictive to me. You could probably switch the honey to agave nectar if you are worried about a blood sugar reaction, or cut down the amount. The first time I made it I was just looking for excuses to use it, when really I just wanted to eat it by the spoonful. You can make it thick for a dip (it's great for veggies), or a little more runny for a dressing. The sesame makes it high calcium and the fresh ginger and garlic give it a nice kick and are excellent for the immune system and blood circulation. Here are the two original recipes, enjoy!!

Almond Flaxseed Burger

2 cloves garlic

1 cup almonds

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp coconut oil, hemp oil, or blend of healthy oils

Sea salt to taste

Put all ingredients into a food processor, blend to desired consistency. Form into patties. Serve raw or bake at 300degrees for 35 min. or lightly fry over medium heat until golden brown, flipping once.

From Thrive, Brendan Brazier

Sesame Ginger Sauce from Dr. Ben Kim’s website:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup raw, organic tahini

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

1.5 tablespoon organic honey

1 clove of garlic, crushed

Directions:

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor or a strong blender. For a thin, salad dressing-like consistency, add one tablespoon of water at a time as you blend until desired consistency is reached.

If you use just a tablespoon or two of water in total, the result will be a thicker sauce that can be used as a dip for a vegetable platter or a plate of steamed vegetables.

Why does Pizza make me so hungry??

So tonight was yet another night that I came home (from a grocery store, mind you) yet I hadn't thought of what I should eat for dinner. I started flipping through one of my cookbooks, and saw a recipe for a butternut squash pizza...yum. Then I realized I didn't have any yeast, or even any flour. But what I did have was an easy pizza dough mix that my mom had just sent me from her Wild Tree business (there's your plug mom). It was basically a mix of the flour yeast and sugar that you just have to add water to. Perfect! You didn't even really have to let it rise, it was super quick and easy, and kind of made me want to start making bread on a regular basis. I always forget how soothing the kneading part is. I think that's why I first loved making paper, there was such a lovely rhythm to it, that I could easily get lost in, alone, for hours.

I worked off of a couple of recipes, and put the butternut squash in some butter and oil with garlic and onion in the oven for 15 min while I prepared the pizza dough. I had thrown some quinoa in my rice cooker before I had decided what I was going to make, and it occurred to me at this point that a pizza is really just like a giant open faced sandwich. As long as you like the flavors together, anything goes. So I rolled out the dough, and layered quinoa first, then butternut squash mixture second, then bleu cheese last. Cooked it for about 12 min and it was great! Most of the flavor really came from the bleu cheese, but it felt like there was lots of nourishing goodness going on too.

Then comes the after attack. Part of the reason I usually avoid pizza as a dinner meal is that I get these intense sort of empty hunger pangs about an hour or so after eating it. This time, maybe an hour and a half later, I started having a sneezing fit. I sometimes get this when my blood sugar drops and I need to eat again, and I was starting to feel hungry. But it was a little more than that too, because I almost felt congestion forming in my throat too, like I was having an allergic irritation. (I don't want to say allergic reaction so much, because it wasn't as if my throat was closing up, it was more like mucous was forming...yum!) Then after the sneezing had calmed down, but I felt stuffed up, those kind of sharp hunger pangs came again. The kind that feel much more violent than just "hey you, I'm kind of getting hungry again down here"...more like "Why!!! Are we not EATing??? I will jab you til you fix this!!"

So I'm seeking advice on this one. Recently someone mentioned to me that wheat/gluten allergy can keep you from gaining weight, make you feel fatigued always, etc. I don't think I have celiac's, but it's one of those things I feel I should look into a little more. A sensitivity, or intolerance to some wheat perhaps? Kara, you are my expert on this one :)

Em, I'm calling on you as the expert on blood sugar here. Is there way that I could make this meal less empty feeling? Some better balance of protein to carb to fat? I'm wondering if I could just try out some gluten free pizza dough, which would take away the wheat and the empty carbiness of the flour and solve both problems.

The funny part is, I don't even like pizza that much, but this was so fun to make it would be a shame to have to avoid it always :)

Sesame Goodness

This recipe was given to me by a good friend, after she fed me some the last time I visited her in NYC...It's from Brendan Brazier's book "Thrive"...(he's a triathlete, and the book is on vegan nutrition)...It's great, it's sweet, it's crunchy and it is nutrient dense. Sesame seeds have lots of Calcium, Iron and Magnesium in them, just to name a few things. It's also an easy snack to have a few scoops of if you need a little pick me up.

I don't have a food processor, so I just mixed everything up in a bowl and it still tasted pretty good to me. Also I'm not actually sure that the seaweed I used was dulse. It's been awhile since I've seen it, and the Asian store I went to had no idea what I was asking for...but rest assured there is some kind of seaweed in there and it's not nori, or hijiki, or wakame :)

I made a batch and just ate it raw the first time, and then I doubled the batch and tried to cook some the second time. With mixed results. I really like the taste of the slightly toasted sesame seeds, but I had a heck of a time getting it off of the foil, as you can see. Any cooks out there know if it would work better if I used parchment paper? Actually I bought a cookie tray since then, so that might help.

Here's the recipe:
Lemon Crisps (Brendan Brazier, Thrive)
2/3 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup lemon zest (yes go for organic)
2 Tablespoons dulse flakes
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
2Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Mix it all together in a food processor (or just stir it :))

If you'd like to cook it, you can spread it out on a lightly greased (with coconut oil) tray, and cook 20 min. at 300 degrees F.

Yummy both ways.

On a personal note, I've been reading about herbal recipes for hormone balance, and one of the books recommended mixing your own herbal infusions to make a high calcium tea. That, combined with this recipe and one other sesame/high calcium recipe really seemed to make a difference in my hormone balance/imbalance symptoms, which is pretty exciting. I'll post the two others soon. A big part of what I love about healing with food/ herbs is that there are so many plant nutrients in each ingredient or herb. You actually nourish your body in a whole way...I'm sure it's not JUST the calcium in any of this that helped, but the calcium PLUS each and every nutrient working together. Again comes that feeling of everything being connected, keeping you aliving and thriving.

Cooking, and tears.

As it turns colder this fall, I have turned to cooking. It's strange this year, maybe it's just that I'm getting older, but I never used to even want to cook like I do now. I get these ideas and I just want to cook all day while people come over and eat all my food, and be warm and full and happy. I think part of it is having a kitchen that I can just take over. And part of it is trying to save money by making food and having yummy leftovers for lunch. And this week, a lot of it was to turn the oven on, because the house is getting so cold! Truthfully though, most of the time it's just been me, cooking and thinking and packaging up leftovers for lunch. Which still makes me feel good because it means money saved, for future school, or future house, or future business, etc :)

I've heard that the way you know you have a fresh onion, is if your eyes water quite a bit as you slice it up. Today, while I was making dal, I was thinking about how my eyes didn't even water as I cut it, and I started to wonder if the onion was perhaps a little old. I'm thinking this as I put the oil in the bottom of the pot, and throw in the onion, then some spices, then the chopped up ginger, and then, realizing I hadn't cut up the garlic yet, my eyes aren't just welling up, they are dripping and streaming with salty goodness, and the cold and congestion that I've been fighting fills up my whole head, and I'm struggling to even see the garlic and finish chopping it and throw it in so that I can run for the hills and blow my nose. How strange to only feel the potent mixture reacting in me without actually smelling it.

It occurs to me after all of this, that I have that tightness on my upper cheeks that you get after a good cry, as the salty tears dry on you, and you have calmed down and released everything. Just this feeling on my cheeks makes me feel as though I've had some kind of satisfying release of emotion, though I haven't really cried at all. This got me to wondering...I've read that crying releases toxins, so presumably, letting out these tears even without crying, would also release toxins...So perhaps it wasn't just the physical feeling of my cheeks that made me feel some how lighter, but maybe somewhere in there there was an emotional release...all brought about by an onion.

Makes me think of how, an infusion of an herb in a tea is a potent way of ingesting herbal medicine, but so also is the act of sitting down and drinking a warm cup of tea. Heating the water, pouring it over the herbs, cupping your hands around a warm cup is also a calming, some might even say healing, ritual, of great use in addition to the medicinal action of the herbal constituents that you then drink.

It's a gentle reminder then, that each thing we do is so connected to the next. We may never really know which thing at which time brought about which healing reaction. It's part of why if we try to extract a single ingredient from a plant, and then test everyone with it, it doesn't always work. It's part of why the not knowing, or not always being able to explain everything, is becoming more and more okay with me. Today I can be satisfied with the beauty of the small connections. And the tears I cried (or didn't cry) for an onion.

Vanilla Extract update

Well, more than two weeks later, it's nice and dark, but man, the alcohol smell almost knocked me out when I took a whiff! I guess I should still try and take a taste.

If it still seems mostly alcohol, I think I'm going to strain, and add at least another four chopped up beans, and I might need to water it down a bit more. Another two weeks of shaking, and perhaps it will be ready for fall baking season! The funny part is I don't actually like vanilla flavoring in much, but I'd be willing to gift it to the right cause. Fun experimenting!

Vanilla Extract

I finally started my vanilla extract today...it is pretty simple, just like a tincture. After reading up on several recipes the consensus was 6 vanilla beans, to 1 cup of 70 proof alcohol. I had 4 vanilla beans, and 100 proof alcohol so I roughly adjusted accordingly and we'll see what happens.

Step one: Slice the beans lengthwise and scrape out the goo with the back of the knife.

Step two: Chop up the rest of the bean/s.

Step three: Put goo, and chopped bean/s in jar and add alcohol to extract those delicious flavors.

Step four: Set on a windowsill and shake vigorously at least once a day for two weeks.

Step five: Strain and bottle extract, discard (compost) vanilla bits. Use!

My Paper on the healing benefits of fats and oils!

So, as some of you know, I had to write a final paper for my correspondences courses and I chose to write it on the Healing Benefits of Fat. My disclaimer here is that I had never written a paper this long, so I chose a pretty broad topic...also, I was under a bit of mental duress during the week I finished it, so be gentle if you would like to read and critique it. I think my style is conversational enough to be readable by anyone, but I hope I touched on some ideas and research that would be new to some readers too. In many ways, I think the topic was much too broad, and I only scratched the surface in most sections, but I also hope it's a good introduction to the ways that fats can be healing in the diet. The link below will get you to a viewer that you can read from if you'd like, or you can download the entire thing. Be forewarned, it is 59 pages total (including footnotes and bibliography). I'm actually thinking of making it into a podcast because I think that a lot of my run-on sentences make more sense when said out loud. Ha. So if interested just click here. I'll be holding my breath as those book deals pour in :)

Shampoo, or not

In an effort to cut out some of the chemicals in my life, I decided to try going shampoo-less. Other ulterior motives include: wanting the natural oils in my hair to stay put, and being sick of paying people to strip my hair down to nothing and then add back in "moisturizers"(And by this I mean, buying shampoo and conditioner). This reminds me of how it was such a good idea to start processing whole wheat to get white flour by taking out all the good stuff, and then putting back a few vitamins and minerals to make up for it. But we don't have to take it!

Some background info on my hair specifically...when it's shorter, as it is now, I don't usually wash it everyday. This is part laziness, and partly because it's easier to style when it's not squeaky clean (or squeaky shampoo clean anyway). From what I've read, once you get off the shampoo routine (and you do replace it with a "wash and rinse" which I'll get to in a moment), then your natural oils come back and are there all the time. Reports include volume/texture/shine you never knew you had, without greasiness or feeling gross.

So basically you just use baking soda, as the wash, and vinegar as the rinse. I know, you're thinking, "Hey, that's how I made a miniature volcano in elementary school" ...or perhaps if your family was like mine, you used those two substances to clear a clogged drain...Don't worry as long as you use them separately there should be no bubbly volcano head that happens.

I looked at this blog a bunch to make sure I understood what to do (click here ) and then I was off! It's pretty simple, you just add 1Tbl of baking soda to a cup of warm water for the wash. And 1 Tbls of Apple Cider Vinegar to a cup of warm water for the rinse. I also added a few drops of essential oils to the vinegar mix because I was slightly concerned about the smell, which I definitely couldn't smell after I rinsed it off with water, and the added benefit of the essential oils was that any time my hair got wet, I could smell them again (it rained that day).

First day: I went swimming in a chlorinated pool, so my hair was feeling pretty icky, kind of dry and stringy. So I had my doubts about this actually working well the first day, but I was pleasantly surprised. I probably did less than a tablespoon of baking soda and vinegar in each of my jars, so they looked like water, but I could tell when I was pouring them on my hair that they each felt a little more slippery than water. As my hair dried it felt light and clean and had a bit of volume to it too.

Second day: I went to Kennywood, and went on the raging rapids, and got soaked. Again chlorinated water, but this stuff felt much dirtier than pool water. As it dried from the raging rapid water, my hair felt like a thick tangly mess. It mentioned on that blog that you probably don't have to use the vinegar rinse every time, so this time I just did the baking soda. This was NOT a good idea. Maybe it's just my hair, or maybe it's because I have leftover shampoo head, or maybe the raging rapid water was too gross, but my hair felt relatively clean, but not silky or soft at all. I went to bed with it wet and I woke up looking like I stuck my finger in a socket. I should have taken a picture, it was ridiculous. I was forced to hairpin it down and wrap some ribbons around its unrulyness so I could go to work without scaring little children. Another thing I noticed was that normally hair pins fall right out of my hair unless I put a ton in. Not this day, I could just twist a whole bunch of hair and stick one pin in, with no danger of it even moving, that's how texturous my hair had become...in a bad way.

Day three: After the no rinse debacle, I did both the "wash' and the "rinse" and my hair felt good again. Clean and kind of silky/soft feeling. I went to bed with it wet again, but woke up with it much more "ruly" (opposite of unruly?) and manageable.

So, I think I'm hooked. Price-wise it's a steal. Baking soda is cheap and even though I'm using the Eden Organic ACV (Apple cider vinegar) it's still much less than even a bottle of just shampoo. Chemical free is good for me, and I'm even happy with the actual hair results. I encourage everyone to try it out, I'd be interested in hearing what works for whom!

Thoughts on mornings

As I re-read that last post below, it surprises me now that I would just find some source somewhere that says I could be genetically predispositioned to hate mornings. It's very antithetical to what I think about how much genetics have to rule our lives, and in this instance for sure, it's a total cop out. The more I read and think about everything that effects our entire beings, the less I believe we are just the sum of our parts, and slaves to our genetics. Certainly there can be times when genes override other things, but we have the power to change so much and give our bodies what they really need, that our first thought should never be, "oh I was just born this way"...victim mentality never helps. Especially when you consider that you are what you believe you are. The mental component is so strong that if I keep telling myself that I'm not a morning person, no matter what I do, I will sub-consciously (or even consciously) make sure that I never am.

So while I'm not ready to embrace the term "morning person", I have experienced waking up more rested and less groggy because of feeling more balanced energy-wise(through some techniques and things I will hopefully discuss later), eating better, and going to bed earlier...and when I can keep that up(which is not always and sometimes not often) I just feel better all around, and can also maintain a more positive outlook.

Words of Wisdom

Oh Garfield. So wise. Sorry to bring on the cheese, but I really do think of toasters when I think of "morning people" and popping out of bed.

I read this on wikipedia today, and it does site the Encyclopedia Britannica as its source:

The ability of a person to wake up effectively in the morning may be influenced by a gene called "Period 3". This gene comes in two forms, a "short" and a "long" variant. It seems to affect the person's preference for mornings or evenings. People who carry the long variant were over-represented as morning people, while the ones carrying the short variant were evening preference people.

Day 5 Got up at 7:20...but I did have to work, and wanted to go to church beforehand, so there was some incentive. I felt okay most of the day, but pretty worn out by evening. Went to bed the earliest so far, must have been around 10:45.

Day 6 Got up at...9. But I didn't feel like this was a fail. I had the day off today, and a lot of studying to get done, and I could tell that if I actually got up at 7 I was going to be a zombie all day, and be frustrated that I got nothing done. So it was a semi-conscious choice. And I got a lot of studying done, once I finally made it out of the house. I'll have to update the bedtime on this tomorrow...not sure if i'll be as tired going to bed tonight, which is a big piece of the puzzle I'd say.

Days 3 and 4

Well, yesterday morn, Day 3, was the first day our heat was on when I woke up. Contrary to my original thought, this did not make it easier to get out of bed. I think I dozed between 7 and 7:45 when I finally got up. I may have actually felt a little less tired most of yesterday though. I don't remember wanting to curl up in a ball on the floor. :)
Going to bed last night was a complete fail. But in my defense, it was Friday night. Also, it should be made clear that alcohol isn't going to help with this experience, and I did have 2 drinks. So I went to bed at 1am.

This morning, also a fail. Snoozed and even reset the alarm. Managed to become upright at 10am. So if it takes 21 days to form a habit, does that mean tomorrow is day 1 again? Oy.

I will say this: I think another part of my reluctance to all of this is that I do think you should pay attention to what your body is telling you. And I've felt like mine was telling me to keep sleeping in the morning. But there's a difference between giving yourself what it needs(extra rest, some time to yourself, time for reflection), and imposing some discipline through routines. It can be hard to tell what's what. I have lived through a time in my life where I just pushed and pushed and never gave myself the time or the rest that I needed, and I'm protective of that now, because I don't want to get to that point again. But I think there's some room for balance. And I'm still calling tomorrow day 5.

a morning person

As wrong as it may seem to some, I just have always felt that there are "morning" people and "night" people, and since I was a little girl, still awake while Johnny Carson was on in the background, I have been entirely a "night" person. So when I had a visit with my naturopath earlier this week, and she told me I need to be going to bed earlier (between 9-11pm) and getting up earlier (at 7am), I felt confused, befuddled, perhaps a little disbelief. But how, I asked, will I be able to get out of bed, if I don't have somewhere to be? She seemed confused, "Can't you just be in your house?" she asked... "No, I mean physically, how will I be able to get out of bed, if I'm not expected anywhere?"... Just do it, you'll get used to it, she tells me. She wasn't that harsh, I could just tell, she must be a morning person. Also she has kids, and when you have kids, you kind of have to get up when they do...

Now I'm not saying I'm a lazy layabout. I don't sleep til all hours of the afternoon. But I do work different shifts on different days so I don't always have to be somewhere in the mornings, and I certainly have trouble being in bed before midnight. But I didn't think I was doing all that badly. So I decided to just listen to her. And see what happens. It takes twenty-one days to form a habit, so maybe it's about having the habit of early waking. Although I have to say the only time I've woken up naturally early in the morn is either when I'm having a lot of anxiety, or when I'm in pain. And don't get me wrong, I've had plenty of jobs that required an early waking time, but honestly that just made me feel like neither a morning or night person, a nothing person. Tired all the time.

So today is day two. And I have twelve minutes before I have to be in bed, asleep. I think today I felt even worse than yesterday. It's actually still kind of dark at 7am, and it's been so cold. Cold fall, turning in the winter might be the worse time to start such a regimen, but here I am. Granted some of this "feeling glued to the bed in the morning feeling" might be symptomatic of my larger health picture/problems, so maybe someday I will figure all of that out. Or maybe it will always be a struggle. I will say that I'm surprised I've been able to do it two days in a row. I haven't jumped out of bed, I have pressed the snooze, but I haven't fallen back to sleep either.

Day 1 (yesterday) I woke up at 7, physically got out of bed at about 7:30. Went for a walk to the mailbox, and felt ok for some of the day, but really wanted to go to bed at 7pm, sadly realizing that I had only been up for 12hours. Went to bed for real just a little after 11pm.

Day 2 (today) woke up at 7, stayed awake but did not actually rise out of bed until 7:45. Did my pilates for posture dvd and even managed to shower, though it was freezing out. And I suppose I'll be in bed a little after 11 again this eve. But I was really tired today, especially after lunch it just hits and I want to curl up in a little ball.

So yes, I want to hear your thoughts, morning person or night? Has it changed over the years? What are the contributing factors if it has changed. Do you feel changed for the better? More productive, more energy, etc??

I'm still skeptical about this sticking, but I figure I need to swallow my pride, because if I can't take my health care practitioner's advice, how can I expect anyone to take mine?

Tinctures.

I'll start by saying, I never quite saw the use for making my own tinctures, they are certainly easy to find in health food stores, and I probably would trust the consistency and potency of a store bought one, more than I'd trust my own...but all that aside, not only is it very easy to do, it is kind of satisfying to know that in a pinch, you would know how to use the plants around you to help heal yourself. With everything up in the air with the healthcare debates, and the idea always being thrown around to more strictly regulate vitamins and herbs and supplements in general, it's nice to know that you could provide for yourself and your family if things started getting crazy...and the things you were used to depending on, became scarce.

Certain plants lend themselves to just making simple infusions (think "tea": putting the fresh or dried plant in boiled water), or decoctions (boiling the plant in the water for varying amounts of time, depending on the plant)...but if it's a plant you can ingest, you may want to tincture it to have a highly concentrated and stable form of it on hand for when the fresh plant isn't readily available (think winter, or when you're traveling).

So basically, all you need are some sterilized jars, some 100 proof alcohol (which means it's a 50/50 mix of alcohol and water--keep that one out of reach otherwise, it could do some damage to 'ya), and the plant material you would like to tincture (it can be fresh or dried).

I used the leaves of some first year Mullein plants (helpful for respiratory ailments, among other things), and some Lemon Balm (calming for anxiety, depression, insomnia), to make two separate tinctures.

I collected the plants, using only healthy looking plant parts, (in this case the leaves of the plants), cleaned them, finely chopped them, put them in the previously sterilized jar, and added twice the amount of alcohol, as plant solids. Then, I have been shaking them twice a day, while leaving them in the sunlight (a windowsill) and will continue to do so, for two weeks. Some say they will be more potent if you start them on the new moon (which I did) and end them on the full moon (which I plan to). It's also not a bad idea to think about the ways they can help heal as you shake them...I know, it sounds wacky, but it can't hurt. At the end of the two weeks, I will strain them through some clean muslin, and transfer them to dark bottles, filling them as full as possible to avoid oxygen breaking them down, and store them in a cool dark place.

Plants!

I took an herbology course at the end of June, and at the time, I was a little disappointed with it. Now, a few months later, I have to admit that it really helped stir my interest in medicinal plants that we just know as "weeds" that grow all around us. I've been pretty lucky this summer to have gone on some plant walks both guided and with friends, and feel like I'm finally starting to recognize many of the little things growing all around me.

The first self-guided walk, that a friend and I went on, reminded me of walking through a large museum, or trying to get through all the galleries in Chelsea. You really had to choose what to look at, because there was so much. You could either stop and look and try to identify each plant you saw, or you could take stock, and keep moving and until something catches your eye. We were armed with plant identification books, and it helped that my friend had been through that patch of woods many times, and had seen many of the plants earlier stages (like flowering) which really help with identification.

Jewelweed was the first plant that I feel like I really made friends with. It was nice that it was such an exact match with all of our guidebooks as well. Much like when you learn a new word, you start to hear it everywhere you go, once we saw and identified the Jewelweed, we couldn't stop seeing it at every turn. It is definitely an invasive species, and you can see why once it gets to its seedpod stage, they literally POP! and spray the seeds all over the ground.

Its use is mainly for skin irritations, and the leaves and stems are especially helpful for the poison ivy rash. You can just mash them up and put them directly on the skin. They start to become a bit mucilaginous when you break and squish them, making it easier to apply to your skin. I also took some home and heated the chopped leaves and stems in oil (on a very low heat), for several hours, then strained out the solids to make a topical Jewelweed solution to have on hand.

The other photo is of Virginia Creeper, which was the first one I identified all by myself! Fun stuff. I started some herbal tinctures on Friday, so I'll post those photos soon!

Healthcare

The more I hear people speaking of the current healthcare debate, the more I think that asking whether or not a universal healthcare bill is a good idea is fundamentally the wrong question. There is nothing in any of these bills that will overhaul the way people are treated medically, that will stop medical establishments from drugging people to death, that will encourage personal responsibility for our own health, that will cover less invasive, traditional medicines and alternative modalities. I’m not saying that we don’t need hospitals or doctors, but I am saying that we need to change the pill popping mentality, and doctor as ultimate health authority before anything else can really change in a positive way.

If more people have access to the same not-so-great healthcare, or possibly worse watered down healthcare, then, in the long run, more people might end up sicker than before, but with less debt. And is that the goal, just to bring costs down? What about quality, truly integrated, consumer focused healthcare? Shouldn't that be the goal? It just seems like right now everything being discussed is dollars and cents.

And if we are worried at all about the kind of legislation that could come through that takes away certain rights, or mandates this or that(which we probably should be), one thing we can always do is arm ourselves with knowledge, and learn how to use the natural remedies that exist in our backyards.

I took a semi-disappointing herbology workshop a few weeks ago, but one thing that I got out of it, was that herbs that heal really are all around us. They are inexpensive, can be self-sufficient, and they work. If you learn how to prepare and use them properly, you are already ahead of the game, no matter what happens. And that goes back to the personal responsibility argument…this is not a question of placing blame on a person who develops an illness, it is a question of informing yourself and making your healthcare decisions based on a well rounded perspective of the situation, instead of accepting the standard protocol for each disease as counseled to you by a single human person, trained in one philosophy of medicine.

My main concern is that it’s not just the system that is such a mess, but that the quality and choice of services is so limited that making it cheaper will only compound the problem and further distract everyone from the very real issue of people getting sicker and sicker both because of the choices they make on their own, and with the help of their healthcare providers offering one sided solutions to multi-faceted problems.

Yikes, sorry for being so ranty.

Reiki

Okay, I should preface this with the fact that I've been researching Reiki a bit. I've been considering getting trained in it because it is such a non-invasive way to help someone feel more centered, less stressed, more calm. And if you believe all the things that are said about it, it has the power to yield dramatic results: detoxing, healing, better sleep, etc...

No matter how you describe it, it's hard for it not to sound really New Agey. It is basically laying on of hands in specific positions and sequence, to open up a flow of energy, or rather to connect you with the universal energy. The only way I am reconciling that right now, is that I believe in God who would be the source of all energy in and around us, and I believe in the power of human touch, and if nothing else, it is a soothing, relaxing restful period where two people are connected with something larger, through platonic touch. Mostly through clothing and even a blanket except for the the head. There was a woman nearby offering free mini-treatments, so I went to check it out. Of course I was the only one that showed up, which is what I was afraid of before I went. I had decided in advance to really trust my gut, if I was feeling like it was too wierd or uncomfortable, I was just going to leave. Despite the somewhat strange stories she ended up telling me, I never felt uncomfortable, or manipulated, she never tried to sell me anything, and I actually really enjoyed the treatment. Here is what I wrote after I got back that night. (I tried to be as detailed as possible because I knew I would forget things later, so this does get a little long...)

When I got there, we chatted a bit about how she got into healing…she told me some stories about taking people on a trip to Tibet. How three times on the trip she was made aware the someone might die, and stopped her meditating to go work them through to save them. How three of them moved a truck with their minds that was stuck in the sand. You know, things I wouldn’t have told me if I knew how skeptical I was.

She said she been doing this for 22, or 24 years, she wasn’t good with numbers. I think I mentioned how when I first heard about Reiki I thought it was too ‘out there”. She seemed surprised, given that I was studying natural healing. I said I’ve come around to different energy modalities, but I do tend to want to be able to explain things scientifically, or at least show that something can be replicated even though clinical trials don't always lend themselves to proving certain modalities.

She gave me copies of a couple of articles about studies that had been done, and asked if I knew that many hospitals are including Reiki in their treatments now. I said I did notice that at least one hospital in our area offers it at their cancer center. She said she’s trained nurses, and doctors, over 50 nuns(but then, she’s not so good with numbers), and a priest…Not in a defensive way, just eager to share how widespread it has become.

Before we started she did some balance checking on me. She stayed seated across the room from me, and first had me hold out a piece of my hair above my head. Then she had me hold my hand (I chose to use the right hand) above my head with the palm facing down. Then hold my hand above my head with the palm facing up. Then she had me touch just below my collarbone on the left side with the same hand, and then just below the collarbone on the right. Then she had me put my thumb inside my fist and do the two collarbone placements again.

From this she said that I was dehydrated (the hair), that I had two or later she said three brain areas out of balance and my polarities were reversed. When I asked her whether she was seeing that or feeling it, she replied that she was dousing. To reorganize all of that, she had me cross my left ankle over my right, then cross my right hand over my left and clasp my hands and bring them up around to my heart. Then she had me breath in while putting my tongue behind my top teeth, and breathe out with my tongue touching my bottom teeth. We did that for about a minute, and then she retested (oh and she gave me some water) and I seemed more in balance. I did feel a little calmer, but the power of suggestion is strong…

She asked me if I had any physical or emotional issues she should know about before we started. I told her that I didn’t get as much physical exercise since I moved, and I think that has affected my body. And that emotionally the transition has been pretty hard. Living with the parents again etc…

For the Reiki, she had a massage table set up with a pillow and a sheet on it. I took my shoes and glasses off. I lay on my back and she put a pillow under my knees and a light blanket up over my shoulders. She told me she would touch my sternum at one point if it was okay, but she wouldn’t touch any sexual organs. She asked if any smells bothered me, and I told her usually just chemical ones. She asked me if I grew up with, or had any religious or spiritual belief, and I told her I was Catholic. She said that was wonderful and mentioned the nuns again. She asked me if I believed in Angels then, and I said that I suppose I do. She used two aromatherapy oils, I can’t remember the name of the first one, but the second one was frankincense. She also mentioned that they use it in church sometimes. Now I’m wondering if she was trying to connect to me on that level.

She started on my head, as she did the top, and side I started to feel a little achiness where I usually have it in my neck on the left side. It was almost as if the other parts of my head and neck felt good and warm and soothed, so it made that part stand out. I only mentioned it to her afterwards, but she said if I had told her she would have stayed longer on the back part.

I half opened my eyes when she was doing part of my face/throat area. One of her hands was hovering above my body and was drawing something away from my throat in the air. Every once in awhile she would breathe in and out loudly, almost as if she was expelling something out for me. I just focused on breathing.

When I had first come into the office, my hands and feet were both cold. As she went on, maybe after she worked near my heart, I realized my hands were warm. There were some hand placements she did on my stomach, and then my knees, and she ran her hands down from my knees to my feet, but the warmth never reached there.

She had me lay on my front towards the end because she was feeling like she needed to work the adrenals.

I definitely felt warmth from her hands, but sometimes she moved them and I almost wondered if she was trying to simulate the pulsating that people sometimes say they feel. On the other hand, I at times it felt like I could feel my heartbeat in the part of my body where her hands were, or maybe it was her heartbeat? Maybe that is what is meant by pulsating.

Oh there was a point when she was working on my head that I felt some tension or something welling up. Not to the point where I thought I might cry, but the point a couple of steps before that.

When she finished she went out to wash her hands, then came back and I sat up a bit, and she asked me to tell her what I felt, and then she told me her observations. I told her the thing about my head and neck, and the warming of my hands, but not quite my feet.

She said she felt like I was receiving solid energy very well. Actually I think the first thing she said was that my eyes looked brighter (or clearer?). She said she should have had me look in the mirror before we started. Even though I felt very relaxed during the treatment, once I flipped over to my front and she worked on my adrenals I felt very alert, much more so than when I got there, so I could imagine my eyes looking different. She also asked if I had ever had any energy treatments before. I said no. When she said the thing about the solid energy, I asked if that’s why she asked if I had received treatments before, like is there a foundation that has to be laid in order to receive it well? But she said no, that you take as much as you need, and that it stays with you, so that each time you go to a better place or level or something…you don’t start from scratch.

She said she felt something blocked in my throat, and I think she said she wasn't able to remove it just then. I asked if it was related to the cold I had last week, because I still have some congestion, but she said no, that it was emotional, and it had been there a long time. That’s when I remembered about the tension welling up in my throat like I might cry.

Then she said she felt my liver flushing, and to make sure I drank some water, and didn’t do anything to overly tax the liver in the next 24 hours. She didn’t think there would be any major detox issue, but just to be aware of it. And then she said she had been told to work on the adrenals (this may have been the point where she mentioned angels again, in such a way that I got the point that it was angels guiding her…like when she said she was "told" to work on a certain place) but when she when she went to the adrenals they weren’t as bad as she thought.

So I asked about her classes, and got on her mailing list, and thanked her and went on my way. I felt pretty good after, but I did start crying a little when I first got into the car. And then a bit more and harder, but not for very long on the drive home. I had the urge to be outside and breathe, and the moon was almost full and pretty amazing looking, so I stopped for a minute before I got to my house. But the moon was covered by clouds at that point. Still it felt good to just breathe the fresh air. And stop thinking for a moment and just be.

My feet are still cold, but I think I feel kind of good. No proof, but I think I would do it again. And I’m still thinking about taking the classes…