Deep Breaths and Shallow Thoughts

In other words: Meditation 101

I used to be horrible at meditation. If I couldn’t stop my mind from running down 45,000 different tracks when I was tired and going to bed how on earth was I supposed to calm my mind enough to focus (or not, depending on  how you look at it) during the day when I’m running at double that?

The answer? Start slow!

Simple and Quick

I participated in one of Kimberly Wilson’s teleclasses a while back and she began the call with a simple meditation. Oh, great, I’m thinking, I am so out of my element. Then she led us through it and I was amazed: even I, Miss Type-A high-speed brain could manage this.

And here’s how it worked. Sit with your legs crossed, hands on knees, and with each deep inhale think the work “let.” At each exhale, long and slow, breathe out the word “go.” Let. Go. Rinse and repeat for a couple of minutes.

That’s all there was to it and it really did relax me, and allowed me to focus on the teleclass instead of all the other things I could have been doing for that hour.

Something else I learned–though weather it was on the call,  from a yoga podcast or if I read it somewhere I cannot remember–was the theory of hand placement when meditating. You’ve probably seen images of yogis meditating with palms up, thumbs and middle fingers touching? Right. Supposedly palms up denotes being open to enlightenment, information or whatever whereas palms down is a go-away gesture. And go-away isn’t a bad thing, by the way, it can be very helpful if what you’re after is decompression or internal balance.

There are all sorts of reasons to meditate, after all.

The 3-Part Breath

Another technique that can be done quickly, anywhere or anytime, is the 3-part or yogic breath.  It’s an instant centering mechanism and can quickly diffuse internal emotion to help with tense situations or decision making moments. It’s like instant clarity.

First let’s do a teensy bit of anatomy. You need to be able to identify 3 parts of your torso: you chest (ribcage area) is pretty simple, your belly (another easy one) and your diaphragm. The diaphragm is a muscle that sits just under your ribcage and above your belly. If you’ve ever had singing lessons or played a wind instrument you probably know good and well where the diaphragm is.

The 3-part breath is accomplished by breathing into these areas in turn over a slow count of 4, holding and then releasing them in reverse order. So you begin your breath in the belly, letting it expand, moving into the middle of your torso as it fills and, finally, letting the chest fill as it raises and your shoulders open up. When you exhale, release the air from  your chest, first, then your diaphragm, followed by your stomach. Repeating this 2 or 3 times is a great stress reliever in traffic or any other charged situation.

While doing this the other day I realized it has a lot in common with isolations used in belly dancing (undulations and rolls, specifically) so you can consider it a mini workout, too!

Finding a Guide

When you want to go deeper into meditation but still feel uncertain about your ability to shut out all the distractions, guided meditations are the way to go. Usually combined with some soft background music, the guide will gently walk you through relaxing and quieting your mind. This frequently involves visualizations (staircases, green glades, waterfalls and other imagery). Don’t worry, though, a good guide will give you all the info you need to get the right picture in you mind.

I’ve had some incredible experience with this sort of mediation including some very emotional moments (doing this in private is highly recommended).

Since you have someone else’s voice to concentrate on, these sessions can be longer–anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour–with the likelihood of you being distracted greatly diminished. These are also the meditations that like to focus on a specific goal: detoxing, inner peace, releasing negative energies–even weight loss or smoking cessation ( the usual cautions apply as with any drastic lifestyle changes: take it slow, give yourself time and stick with it through any wobbles).

While you can find a lot of free mediation resources online (there are several podcasts available through iTunes, for instance) I had the synchronistic joy of meeting someone last week who deals with binaural meditation–a combination of specific rhythms and tones along with Andy’s voice leading you to absolute relaxation. I hadn’t heard of this sort of meditation before, but after trying out the 20 minute sample meditation he offers (through Binaural Journeys) I’m definitely keen to know more. I was so relaxed–it’s like getting a massage but without having a stranger feel you up!

Meditation offers a lot of benefits: relaxation, clarity of thought, an aid in lifestyle changes, spiritual enlightenment. You can do a quick meditation to set an intention for your day or use it to wind down at the end of a busy one. It can also be useful in healing, which we’ll talk more about in the next post.

Have you ever tried to meditate? What was your experience with it?

the Medicine Cabinet in Your Kitchen

And I’m not talking about cold and headache pills kept in the cabinet above the toaster–I’m not the only one who grew up that way, right?

No, today I want to share with you some simple home remedies that you can find in your kitchen. Of course, the standard caveats apply:

• If you’re allergic to something, don’t use it. Corollary: If you experience any allergy-like symptoms, discontinue use, pop a Benadryl for mild symptoms and call the doctor asap for anything breathing-related or otherwise severe!
• If you’re on prescription medications, check with your prescribing doctor or pharmacist before adding a natural remedy to the mix (natural remedies can often interact with or invalidate prescription meds).
• If symptoms persist see a doctor.
• I am not a doctor, just a girl who (due to a laundry-list of personal health idiosyncrasies) wants to decrease the amount of non-essential pharmaceuticals in her system.

Have I covered my ass enough, now?

Good for More Than Just Studding a Ham

I’d often read that clove was a natural topical analgesic (pain reliever) but it never really clicked until one Sunday dinner with a friend’s family. Mrs. P had made a gorgeous glazed ham and you know the the crust is the best part. Well, after one piece my tongue started to go numb. Viola! A little too much clove on a ham yields numbing sensations. This is why clove oil (available in some pharmacies) or even the ground cloves in your spice cabinet can be applied to your gums to help alleviate your next toothache. Just make a little paste with cloves and water and place it around the achy area.

I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have a faint pie-spice taste in my mouth than that nasty orajel flavor I grew up with!

When the Motion of the Ocean is too Much to Bear

Thankfully, I don’t suffer from motion sickness on a regular basis, nor do I get sea sick. Growing up in Louisiana, both families had river camps and I always thought it was great fun to go out on a boat.The first two cruise ships I was on? No problems. But by my third cruise I’d developed more persistent tummy troubles in general and our ship was experiencing some propulsion issues that created a little more rocking. I came prepared with my trust ginger pills and, after the first day, all was right with the world.

We’ve probably all been given ginger ale when we were kids with an upset stomach, right? There’s a reason for that. Ginger has a wonderfully calming effect on roiling tummies and can help with digestion in general. For the cruise I bought ginger pills at the local health food store (powdered ginger in capsules) but I’ve also had good results eating bit of Australian chewy ginger licorice and even candied ginger slices. You do want to watch out on the sugary options, though: too much sugar can make a bad situation worse (it draws extra water into your gi tract to deal with the sugar and can throw things out of balance).

The Go With the Flow Trio

In my 20s I suffered through numerous bladder infections for which we were never quite sure of the cause(s). On top of that, I was also getting bronchitis a couple times a year, and the antibiotic load frequently took it’s toll on the good bacteria in my body causing yeast infections. It was a vicious cycle. And really uncomfortable.

Since then I’ve discovered my own little cocktail of all-natural products to help keep the girlie bits happy and healthy. It’s not exactly a secret, chances are you’ve heard of this before, but I’m going to tell you anyway because I’ve learned to no longer assume folks know what I consider to be common information: cranberry juice, yogurt and baking soda mixed with water are your new best friends.

Not all together, of course!

The cranberry juice needs to be as close to natural as possible. If you don’t like the taste you can use the blends but it’s best if you use the brands available in the organic or natural section of the grocery as they won’t have as many sugars (sugars are bad news for these kinds of issues–they feed the bad bacteria!) or artificial ingredients. Drinking cranberry juice regularly keeps your urinary tract happy.

Oh, and about those blends? My girlfriend’s doctor told her any blend was find EXCEPT Cran-Grape–one half makes you go, the other makes you stop and you’re body won’t know what to do. Just something to keep in mind!

Yogurt is teeming with those active cultures that make yogurt, yogurt and they do wonderful things like build up the good bacteria in our bodies that antibiotics can strip away. Again, the idea is to go as natural as possible and avoid overly sugary versions or ones with excess chemical enhancement. My favorite, these days, is naturally fat-free Greek yogurt with fruit and honey.

Back when I’d get those infections often the doctor would give me a pain killer along with the antibiotic. I wasn’t really fond of the technicolor side-effects these things brought on and hated yet another pill to swallow for the duration. Instead, I read that mixing baking soda in water will act as a natural pain reliever to get you over the hump if you feel a little uncomfortable in the nether regions. Thankfully I’ve only had to use this once in the last 6 years but it does work!

But Wait–There’s More!

Nagging cough? Dissolve 1 tablespoon of honey into 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar and drink to quiet that tickle. Yes, it’s strong-tasting, but it’s still better than the artificial stuff on the drugstore shelf!

Nutmeg is a natural anti-inflammatory and can be taken in pill form just like the ginger–look in your local health foods store for this one.

An infusion of basil in hot water (you can even used dried basil for this! 1/4 cup water per 2 teaspoons basil and steeped for 10 minutes) helps reduce gas and bloating. 1 cup, twice a day for no more than 8 days in a row followed by a 2 week break. Just don’t lay on the basil if you’re pregnant.

What’s stocked in your kitchen medicine cabinet?

Scents and Sensibility

Have you ever walked into a room and remembered someone or someplace else because of the way your environment smells?

My grandfather’s house had a certain smell. A mix of cigarette smoke, frying oil, the fields outside and pork roast studded with garlic and green onions. Sometimes I’ll catch a whiff of that mixture elsewhere and I’m transported 300 miles back home.

The smell of damp, fresh-cut grass on a Fall evening reminds me of the four years spent in marching band, waiting on the sidelines to take the field for our halftime show. Memories flood in of old friends, the surety that we knew everything, the hindsight that proves we knew nothing.

Old perfumes remind me of the people I wore them for and the person I used to be.

Smell is one of the strongest memory triggers. Those memories can alter our moods based on the emotions our brains associated with them over time. Mood–emotion–has a lot to do with our sense of well-being, our health and our productivity (sniff a fresh-cut grapefruit or lemon–or a bit of their zest–and see if you don’t feel a little more alert).

So, if scents can take us back to our past and affect our present, what effect could they have on our future?

Aromatherapy is, technically, the use of natural plant oils to improve ones mood or physical well-being. A lot of products have aromatherapy claims attached to them, but (among the purists) direct use of essential oils in all natural products is the only way to go.

Now, how you use these oils depends a lot on the purpose of the oil and the oil itself–some are more effective when applied to the skin (but only when mixed with a carrier oil!) and others work better dispersed in the air via a diffuser,  incense or even added to your bathwater.

There are a few cardinal rules to using essential oils:

1. Never apply them directly to the skin without diluting them–essential oils are concentrated to a point that they could do real damage to your skin on their own. Sweet almond oil is probably the most common carrier oil but grape-seed and even certain types of olive oil also get the job done.
2. Fragrance oils are (generally) cheap imitations created in labs and don’t give the same benefits from a holistic healing point of view.
3. Check any warnings of an oil before using. Some essential oils are irritating to the skin even when diluted so are better diffused in the air, instead. Certain essential oils can be problematic to pregnant women and should be avoided. Others are out-and-out toxic. Do your homework and check with your doctor if you know you have allergies or health issues that might be affected by any holistic or homeopathic techniques. In other words: Be Safe!

Which oils or scents to choose is a subject best left to the books and websites dedicated to aromatherapy. In the mean time, here are some common scents and what they are purported to mean or influence whether in essential oil, their natural state or even a candle–who am I to say that if the scent of roses makes you happy and relaxed that a scented candle isn’t going to do the trick?

• Vanilla: sexual arousal (there was a study that showed more men got frisky around vanilla-scented candles than any other!)
• Pine: purification (no wonder we smell it in so many cleaning products!), money (almost anything green is linked with cash) and energy (one of those ‘up’ scents)
• Coffee: stimulates the mind (morning cup as aromatherapy, nice!), heals you make decisions
• Rose: love (it’s associated with both the planet and the goddess Venus), peace and beauty
• Orange: purification (citrus is the other biggie in cleaning scents), joy and energy
• Chamomile: sleep, meditation and peace (how often has someone suggested chamomile tea when you’re nerves are frayed? exactly!)
• Melon: promotes healing and health (take a deep breath before your next slice of cantaloupe or honeydew to get the full effect)
• Lavender: love, peace and the conscious mind (it’s a thinking scent, relaxing you into new thoughts and ideas)

What do you think: how important is scent to our well-being, our productivity or our ability to shape our future? Have you ever dabbled in aromatherapy or do you regularly light incense or spritz an atomizer before you begin a yoga practice or get down to work?

Charms for the Easy Life

(no, not the movie, though it is delightful…)

Can we get one thing straight? There isn’t one. A charm that will ensure easy life, I  mean.

If life were always easy, we’d never appreciate it. At least not enough.

No, what I’m thinking of are those things that make us feel better, that put our minds at ease, that give us a focal point for our tension so we do not direct it at others.

3 Cars, 3 Crystals

I got my first car the month I turned 22. It was out of necessity–my husband at the time had asked for a divorce on Easter Sunday and I was going to need a car to get around in as we’d been sharing his. It was a gently used 97 Geo Prism, dark blue, and it was my freedom.

Over the next 7 years she and I would be involved in just as many accidents (only one of which, for the record, was my fault–the rest was just unfortunate luck, a fact my insurance company will back up). My friends dubbed her Cher from the amount of body work she’d had done. The last incident, after I’d duly paid off the note and had survived my second failed marriage, was what did her in. A 17-year-old ran a stop sign coming up a slight hill and spun Cher and I around in the intersection. She was totaled.

Next came Phoebe, a 3-year old Saturn Ion that had been a lease before me. Not one month after signing the papers a college student decided to make a left out of an apartment complex, ignoring the 2 lanes of oncoming traffic he’d have to cross before reaching the safety of the median, and I was unable to avoid him. I joked that they were only supposed to transfer the tag, not the hit me sign, too!

All jokes aside, I decided it was to be a bit creative. Defensive driving can only get you so far.

Phoebe only lasted a year before her computer systems started acting up. After 4 repairs in as many weeks, Electra entered my life (so named because she had a nasty habit of shocking me every time I’d get out of the car for several months). Electra was a brand new, 16-miles-on-her-including-my-test-drive, Saturn Ion 2, and the first thing I transferred to her was the amulet I’d made after Phoebe’s first (and last!) accident.

After 4 1/2 years with no accidents, I’d say the jade, quartz and amethyst crystals are doing their job!

Animism, Energy or Something Else?

Natural stones and crystals derive, some believe, a certain amount of power and influence as they are formed from and within the earth.

To me, it brings into play the Thermodynamic Laws (named the first one which says energy is neither created nor destroyed, it merely changes form). Stones, in this way, are merely potential [metaphysical] energy waiting to be utilized. The hows and whys are more mental or emotional as opposed to chemical. (Though, it should be noted, light-workers probably consider stones as having kinetic energy.)

Whether this counts for animism is up for debate–animism considers everything has a soul… but you believe souls *are* energy, well, then, let’s call it that, too!

At any rate, if you choose to use crystals for anything besides their shiny, pretty properties, you’ll want to know a few things about them.

My Travel Buddies

My travel amulet consists of a piece each of jade, quartz and amethyst.

• Quartz is a universal stone–it’s good at everything! Kinda like salt in cooking, it amplifies and enhances whatever you want it to. It’s incredibly versatile as a facilitator.
• Jade is, among other things, great for protection. In the case of travel it prevents accidents. As a side note, the little elephant figure happened to be what I had around at the time but it was even more fortuitous–Ganesha* is the Hindu god known as the Remover of Obstacles–how’s that for defensive driving!
• Amethyst is a calming stone. In this case it’s a defense against road rage.

Now, I know a lot of folks consider this a whole lot of woo-woo New Age hooey. And that’s fine. It’s not for them. But after being rear-ended twice, having this little bag to concentrate on helps relax me when I’m stopped in traffic and the person coming up fast behind me makes me think back to that trapped feeling just before impact. I take it with me when I fly as something to hold and concentrate on during take-offs and landings and it gives me something to do instead of worry. And I haven’t been in an accident since I started keeping it in the car. It’s enough for me.

To find out more about a particular stone you’re drawn to or interested in, check out the lists over at Crystal Energy Works or Emily Gems, they seem fairly complete. And if you want to learn how to make a little gauzy pouch for your own crystals or other uses, check out my new tutorial, Drawstring Pouch with French Seams, through the Projects tab.

*Ganesha is generally depicted as a man with an elephant’s head, sometimes riding a mouse. I didn’t know this until after I picked my little jade elephant dude, but I still the the synchronicity is nice.

the 13th Art: Charms, Drugs & Magic Words

As used in anger, they will be explained together with occult practices, but do not include black magic.

Let’s begin this art with a little dispelling of certain notions that might make this topic difficult for some folks, starting with the definition of occult. Some folks get really uncomfortable around that word or the ideas and images it brings up. So let’s think about that for a moment.

(from the Free Dictionary) Occult adj.

1. Of, relating to, or dealing with supernatural influences, agencies, or phenomena.

2. Beyond the realm of human comprehension; inscrutable.

3. Available only to the initiate; secret: occult lore. See Synonyms at mysterious.

4. Hidden from view; concealed.

5.a. Medicine Detectable only by microscopic examination or chemical analysis, as a minute blood sample; b. Not accompanied by readily detectable signs or symptoms: occult carcinoma.

First off, I’m not going to go into supernatural stuff, so no worries there. Five doesn’t even have the slightest thing to do with our purposes here, today. Rolling definitions 2-through-4 all together: why do things have to be so difficult to understand or hidden?

You know the phrase TMI, right? Too Much Information. And, while, yes, there are some things, some details, that I might not want to know about private lives or health weirdnesses, in general? That’s more of an appropriateness issue. I’d even go so far to say that there’s no such thing as too much information from a research and learning position.

I love to research. I get an idea and the first things I’ll do are head to the ‘net and the bookstore.

Growing up I was afraid to ask certain questions, check out certain books from the library, that sort of thing. I hated that feeling the not being able to know. But more than that, looking back, I hated the small minds that thought facts were bad, the ideas were evil and the part of me that cared so much.

If there’s anything that defines my life it would have to be I want to know more and I want to know why. If I have that information I’m a happy girl.

If there’s a point I’m trying to make, here, it’s that we shouldn’t be afraid of information. All I ask–patiently, kindly, hopefully–that you will keep an open mind. That you will think about the things that come up. That you will ask the questions that arise in your mind. That you will not censor curiosity.

Here’s some of what I plan to cover in the pursuit of this art over the next couple of weeks:

• Crystals
• Aromatherapy
• Home Remedies
• Meditations
• Affirmations

Feel free to ask any questions you might have, I’ll bet I at least have a book with the answer in it.

See, I don’t worry what other people think about what I read or know anymore.