Natural Healing Omaha Blog
Are you guilty of being this kind of friend? Sadly, it’s so common that you might not notice the problem at first. You ask someone ‘How’s it going?’ and the conversation goes like this:
Friend: I’m annoyed because I feel like I’m giving my all at work, but no one recognizes the effort.
You: Yeah, I know how that feels. My boss sucks in that department.
Friend: Right. The boss just walks right by without ever asking how I’m doing or to say ‘good job’.
You: I know how you feel. Sometimes I just wanna scream. One time, I worked overtime on this big project for two weeks and nobody even said ‘thanks, good job.’
Friend: Geez, that sucks. I hate my job. I wish I could quit.
This conversation is going nowhere fast, and both of you are bound to end up resentful and bitter. Neither one of you is really hearing the other person. You’re both waiting your turn to tell your own sad tale of woe.
What if you stopped to really listen to your friend? You could change the whole direction of the conversation.
In this next scenario, you’ll see how the dynamic changes when you stop to hear the words. See if you can figure out what’s different about this:
Friend: I’m annoyed because I feel like I’m giving my all at work, but no one recognizes my efforts.
You: It sounds like you don’t feel appreciated.
Friend: Right. The boss just walks right by without ever asking how I’m doing or to say ‘good job’.
You: Hmm. I’m guessing there’s something you’re especially proud of that you’d like your boss to notice.
Friend: Actually, there is. I just finished a project in record time and the client was so happy because she saved quite a few dollars in the process.
You: So, your client took the time to say how great your work was? That’s cool.
Friend: Hey, you know, that is cool. I’m feeling pretty good about that.
You: Way to go. How about we celebrate over coffee?
What’s different about this exchange? The focus is not on you.
Instead of offering an example of how lousy your life is, too, you can turn it around. Demonstrate that you hear what was said by saying it back in a different way.
Let your friend be heard.
You’ll get your turn another time. This is her moment. Make an effort to listen. Don’t expect the favor to be returned. Give without asking for anything back.
It’s the holidays and lots of us start feeling stressed right about now. Stress is a major cause of health problems. Being heard is a simple, powerful, natural remedy for stress.
Like most natural healing, the effects are subtle but profound. Relationships start to heal. Anxiety and depression lessen. Stomach aches and headaches and body pain ease up. I’ve seen it hundreds of times.
When you use a simple tool like this to shift the course of a conversation, you raise the vibe of your relationships. Step by tiny step, resentment, helplessness and that ‘poor me’ attitude dissolve. A problem becomes a celebration.
Can you do it? Can you offer your generous, complete, undistracted, attention to someone?
It’s not necessary to completely understand and share in their feelings. It’s only necessary to listen. Try it.
What better gift can you give this season?
Related Post: A Naturally Healing Tea for This Time of Year
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Something special happens in the first few minutes after I close my office door to talk privately with a patient. Something very personal and comfortable is exchanged in those quiet conversations.
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For centuries, women have been the family healers, applying herbs to aches and pains with only the knowledge passed down from our own mothers and grandmothers.
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Google tells me it was Ben Franklin who coined the phrase ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’. I think it’s time to add ‘a pinch of attention’ to that old saying.
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The common pickle is a naturally healthy probiotic
Have you ever had a food craving for something so strange that you almost can’t admit it?
I have a secret like that.
I love pickled food, and the more sour and vinegar-y, the better. I’m one of those people who puts pickled beets on salad and eats them right from the jar. Sauerkraut? Love it. Especially with a meaty sausage and tangy mustard. Pickled herring was a favorite of my dad’s growing up, so I learned to appreciate that early on.
These days, everyone is talking about yeast and candida and all sorts of bothersome digestion problems. Most of these problems occur because stress, antibiotics or a diet of processed foods upset the balance of healthy bacteria in our bodies.
Eating a small portion of some sort of pickled or fermented food every day helps repopulate the ‘beneficial’ bacteria so normal digestive functions have a fighting chance.
Eating that pickle next to your restaurant hamburger could help you avoid an upset stomach, gas, bloating, diarrhea, reflux or heartburn later tonite.
No joke.
The reason I’m coming out with my secret is I know now there’s no shame in craving pickled food. I have to thank Jennifer Wilford, the self-described ‘real food advocate’, who taught me 8 great reasons to eat fermented foods during a class last weekend.
Jennifer explained that pickling is not only coming back into vogue, it’s also an old-fashioned way to introduce natural probiotics into the diet. A couple generations ago, this was common knowledge.
I won’t share all Jennifer’s secrets, but she did share that the process of pickling, which is pretty darn easy by the way, encourages the growth of a plethora of gut-friendly bacteria – especially lactobacillus. Try saying that three times fast!
And get this: because a huge majority of immune system action happens in the gut, a larger colony of friendly bacteria down there can even improve your protection from illnesses going around this winter. How ’bout that?
Guess what else happens in the gut? Most of your body’s seratonin – a neurotransmitter involved in mood regulation – is made there. Improve your mood just by eating a little condiment-sized serving of sauerkraut. If you’re salt sensitive, try kefir, yogurt, kombucha, sourdough bread, or sour cream. Read more about this in my November 2012 newsletter.
Holistic health doesn’t have to be complicated. It can even save you money when you replace expensive bottled digestive enzymes and probiotics with natural ones made from whole foods like cabbage and beets.
Want to know how to ferment your own foods at home? Jennifer recommended Fermented by Jill Ciciarelli [here’s a link – http://amzn.to/1auQOaF].
As an herbalist, I like to pair probiotics with herbs for patients suffering from chronic yeast and urinary tract infections. Tasty natural probiotic foods can help you avoid the side effects of antibiotic use, such as loose stools and yeast infections.
I told you my secret craving. What’s yours? Leave a comment or email me at info@naturalhealingomaha.com.
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Does the start of a scratchy, sore throat signal a week long misery-fest for you? Then you might be interested in a naturally healthy substance called bee propolis.
Propolis is the sticky goo made from resinous trees that bees use to seal up holes in their hives. Lucky for us, propolis has another quality that makes it excellent for immune challenges in human.
The presence of flavonoids in bee products like propolis and honey stimulate the immune system to spring into action and surround, smother and suffocate unwanted pathogens.
When a foreign bacteria or virus enters our body, your body’s defense system produces an army of white blood cells, which do their valuable immune-protective work in the lymph nodes and then flush the neutralized invaders. This process goes on continuously and without notice 24 hours a day when we’re healthy.
When we’re fatigued from ongoing emotional and physical stress, our immune system can become a little sluggish. Then, what starts as a typical day becomes a scratchy, sore throat followed by a lousy week of cough, fever and fatigue. Protecting yourself at the start with a throat spray containing bee propolis is your first line of defense. When you use an herbal throat spray, you get instant relief from the pain and a sizzle that signals anti-microbial action.
During cold season, have a propolis-containing spray on hand, or even better, enjoy a teaspoon of pure honey every day, which contains all the germ-fighting power of propolis and tastes sweet and smooth on a scratchy throat.
Honey has been used in healing systems around the world for centuries, and its special healing properties are being rediscovered as anti-biotic resistant strains of bacteria become more common. Find a local honey supplier and stock your cupboard with plenty of that golden goo this fall and winter.
Honey products should not be given to children under 2 years of age or to those sensitive to bee products.
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I never used to think money had anything to do with how I feel from day to day. The decisions I made at the grocery store, shopping mall, church, gym, pretty much everywhere, belonged in different folds of my brain – far away from ‘health’.
Attitudes about money can hold our health hostage
Then, I went to see someone who helped me sort out my attitudes about money.
She asked me to write down what money meant to my family when I was growing up. And how I felt about it in my relationships and now as a small business owner.
Talk about a hornet’s nest! I had no idea I carried around such ridiculous stress and self-judgement.
I was going through life with the notion that I didn’t deserve things unless I earned them. Which is not so abnormal until you heap guilt on top of it.
So, the only way to earn a new coat, or a night out with my friends, was to be someone better, someone skinnier, nicer, more productive, a better mom. And since there is no way to quantify those ‘standards’, I rarely thought I deserved what I got. Regardless of where this self-defeating thinking started, it was still dogging me in my middle age.
Every day, I meet someone who uses this same kind of thinking to deny themselves care that could improve not just their wardrobe or social life, but their whole health.
Naturally we apply the same destructive, unhealthy thinking patterns over and over in different areas of our lives. Maybe we develop an attitude of ‘not deserving’ that leaks over into our relationships, our diet and even our connection to a higher power. Imagine the havoc that can play on a person’s life!
Herbs are great, and I’ve seen them do wonders for women’s health. But, physical and emotional health are absolutely connected to every other decision we make every day, including how we think about money.
Ten years ago, I started looking at what needed change in my life. Herbs and yoga and a better diet got me 50% of the way there. But it wasn’t until I understood how my thoughts were holding me back that I made real progress. Talking to a professional whose job it was to understand the ins and outs of money took a load off my shoulders.
A group of women are meeting at Omaha Integrative Care for 5 weeks this Fall – starting October 14 and ending November 11. We’ll take a close look at 5 critical areas of our ‘whole’ health, including attitudes about money, relationships, spirituality and food.
Join us. Email info@naturalhealingomaha.com for details. Or visit www.NaturalHealingOmaha.com. Become a healthier version of you while 2013 is still here!
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The other day, a patient shared with me that after a very long relationship, she decided it was time to get her own apartment, move out and start taking care of herself. The day she told her partner she was leaving, all the digestive symptoms that had been plaguing her for months of visits quickly cleared up. No more constipation, no more tummy problems. Just like that. She could breathe easily again.
Maybe you’re hanging on to an unhealthy relationship, or maybe it’s a bad habit you can’t shake, like gossiping or nighttime snacking. Sometimes, we just get hung up on what someone said to us 20 or 30 years ago and can’t let it go.
Whatever your hangup, it’s time to hang it up.
The weight of your emotional baggage is a giant burden on your physical health, whether you see it or not. Letting it go means a chance at feeling light and playful again. Smiling and joy are guiltless pleasures that we owe ourselves.
Let go of worries and feel playful and healthy again
I swear, letting go is one of the hardest lessons to learn in life.
Traditional Chinese Medicine recognizes a clear connection between the Lungs – which play a role in expressing grief, releasing the past and detaching from unhealthy patterns and behaviors – and the Large Intestine, where another kind of ‘letting go’ happens.
A healthy and balanced Lung/Large Intestine pair helps you withstand the stresses of respiratory threats like colds and flus, and environmental imbalances like dryness or excess humidity and dampness. Did you get that? Letting go of unhealthy people, patterns and even poop 🙂 gives you protection from seasonal illnesses.
My patient discovered on her own that simply making up her mind to let go helped her physically release, making space for something new.
The season of the Lungs and Large Intestine is here right now. This is a great week to start a Fall cleanse.
A seasonal diet and herbs that focus on preparing your lungs, large intestine and lymphatic system for the cold weather can give you a leg up on immune system challenges.
Two weeks of delicious foods like squash, root vegetables and wild game, and herbs like cleavers, burdock root, stillingia root, poke root and cascara sagrada bark provide a lymph, lung, large intestine and deep tissue detox that stimulate and renew your sluggish system.
I tell my patients to get a good massage and indulge themselves in an afternoon nap. This is time to really let go of unhappy thoughts and enjoy the shocking blue skies and comfy sweater weather to the fullest.
I can help you understand how to accomplish cleansing with healthy, nourishing foods, herbs and simple daily practices. Everyone deserves a healthy start to Fall. Email me at info@naturalhealingomaha.com and get started.
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Herbs like vitex can virtually eliminate uncomfortable PMS symptoms
Is breast tenderness or pain an early warning sign that your period is on its way? You know, you don’t have to put up with that every month.
The Latin name for the plant that soothes PMS symptoms is Vitex agnus, but it’s commonly called Chaste tree berry or simply Vitex.
Vitex has this handy talent for balancing hormone levels in a way only plants can. In my herbal practice, I’ve seen this little odd-flavored berry perform it’s herbal magic on women with PMS symptoms like irritability, bloating, breast tenderness, sugar cravings, acne, headaches and other pre-period pains (in tincture or capsule).
Once a period starts, Vitex does a great job of reducing heavy bleeding and even shortening a long period. Many women report changes within one cycle, but I encourage my patients to continue taking the herb for at least 3-6 months for maximum effect. There’s no standard amount to take, but I generally recommend one 500 gm capsule daily in the morning. Vitex works so well for the girls in my family that we make a whole year’s supply of tincture at once from the dried berries.
What if your cycles are irregular or infrequent, or you’ve lost track of when to expect a period?
It’s always helpful to your healthcare provider to know just what you mean by ‘infrequent’. I recommend you download one of those handy period tracker apps to your phone. I like MyCalendar, which lets me keep notes on recurring symptoms like headaches or heavy days.
A phone app or even a little bedside notepad will help you get a handle on the rhythm – or lack of rhythm – of your cycles before you see your healthcare provider or herbalist.
Yes, Vitex is excellent for women with irregular or frequently skipped periods. It’s like a multi-vitamin for your hormones!
Are you ready to say good-bye to PMS and hormone hell? Contact me at info@naturalhealingomaha.com and find out how Vitex fits into your healthcare needs.
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