“The time best spent is the time spent helping others.”
Tag: Alternative Health
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Today’s Shot 41
Bare-Rock Growth
Moss Thoughts…
Sometimes the landscape around us can seem like bare stone. It seems like the type of material where nothing can grow. And yet, it’s the perfect landscape for certain kinds of growth. It offers the kind of growth that is resilient and finds its own way where other plants would perish. It may not be in the preferred garden of fertile soil, but it is it’s own fertile soil of strength and tenacity. This is where the bare rock is not shunned but embraced and the things which have seemed like deficits are grown into beauty.
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I Love You
I never thought of the phrase, “Love You” as a danger phrase. I only knew that it didn’t feel the same as the whole phrase, “I Love You!”
Why does it feel different? The words that we speak to others have a direct biochemical affect on them. When we say “love you”, there’s very little biochemical affect. However, using the whole phrase, even a quick, “I love you!” has a significant biochemical affect upon the person to whom you say it.
We all have the opportunity to use the full phrase and give this gift to our loved ones as often as possible!
Resource: Online Communication Skills Training
Cover photo by Ali Yahya
Article photo by Elly Johnson
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Piece by Piece
by Beth Haley
Puzzles are like Life
Christmas Puzzle 2019
Potential
How do you pick the puzzle? You probably liked something about the picture on the box, and then you open it – and it’s a mess. It’s just a chaos of jumbled pieces. It’s not the pretty picture… not yet. At that moment, it’s potential. You know what it can become.
Organizing Chaos
Have you ever had a strong vision for a project or for your life as a whole? And, what does it look like? You may see the full picture down the line of time. Yet in this moment, it may just be pieces of ideas, thoughts, or hopes. So, where do you start? Do you start with the details in the center, or the foundation and framework around the edges?
Out of the mess, you notice certain colors. Those can be grouped together, like supporting ideas.
With the straight edges, an outline of becoming can be built. Piece by piece, you build the foundation, but the whole picture is not there yet, even though you know the picture well.
The foundation of a home may hold it up, but without building the details of the home on it, it is not yet a home. It is the blueprint, the outline and the forming of order from the pile of pieces or ideas.
The Process
Some say the edge pieces are the easy part of the puzzle. That’s where you begin to make sense of all the mess. From the edge (the foundation and outline), the details of the picture begin to evolve.
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If you can’t see the full picture of your dreams, take some time to really visualize what you want or need:
See it. It looks like sunshine on a glorious day!
Taste it. It tastes like sweetness. It tastes like milk and honey.
Smell it. It smells fresh and clean: like the smell of damp earth after the rain. Is that incense? What kind?
Hear it. It sounds like laughter and communion. It also sounds quiet and peaceful. It sounds like birds singing in the woods and the trickle of the stream.
Experience it in full. It feels like joy. It feels like easy flow. It feels like happiness and fulfillment in the art of creating. It feels abundant. It feels like goodness and kindness. It feels like warmth. It feels like success. It feels like rest of body, mind and spirit – and like action as well – the right action at the right time. It feels like home. If feels like a warm fire on a cold night and the relief of shade on a hot day. If feels like safe travel for the journey. It feels like the life I’ll never want a vacation from!
The full vision is in both the foundational pieces, and in the details we build from it, on it, and around it.
Missing Pieces
Sometimes you can almost have the complete picture and find that there are missing pieces. If you know what you’re looking for, the chances of finding it or re-creating (creating) it, are much higher.
A Helping Hand
Thank you to the brave soul who stuck their arm down the heater vent to fish the fallen piece of the puzzle out. If it had been up to me, this picture would have just remained as is, with one piece missing.
Sometimes, we just need a helping hand on the journey 😊
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A New Year
Sometimes there are so many items on my to-do list that it can be hard to know where to start. Not to mention, I can feel overwhelmed. For the first week in January, I’ve made a list of seven things I have been putting off: one simple task for each day. I wanted to start the first week off with positive accomplishments! The more success we have in reaching simple goals, the more we learn that we really can do anything!
Accomplish the small things and start reaching for the big ones!
Happy New Year! I wish you success with all your dreams and goals.
Cover photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters. Article photo by Social.Cut
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Today’s Shot 37
Carved in Stone
Seeing Time
Time has left its marks.
Water passing and flowing.
Wind carving and shaping.
How much time is in this rugged face?
The old wizard in the stone,
He looks out with a wizened gaze.
He knows how much pressure he can take.
And, taking all he can,
He morphs and changes with the weight of life.
Within the cracks and crevices of wounds,
He shares the stories of standing firm.
And, of the wisdom within those scars,
Are lessons I can learn.
© 2019 Thela 🦊 Foxgood
To seeing beauty within the scars and lessons of life: turn them into art! Happy New Year!
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Foot Baths
(Cover image credit to Dhruv Deshmukh and article image by Rune Enstad)
The feet and hands are very receptive parts of the body. They can absorb healing elements, at times, faster than taking something internally. If a foot bath were a prescription, it could sound something like this:
Take every morning on an empty stomach. Use essential oils or herbs in hot water and soak for 5-8 minutes.
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Senses Blessing
A Blessing for the Senses
“May your body be blessed.
May you realize that your body is a faithful and beautiful friend of your soul.
And may you be peaceful and joyful and recognize that your senses are sacred thresholds.
May you realize that holiness is mindful, gazing, feeling, hearing, and touching.
May your senses gather you and bring you home.
May your senses always enable you to celebrate the universe and the mystery and possibilities in your presence here.
May the Eros of the Earth bless you.”
From Anam Cara by John O’Donohue
Photos by Sharon McCutcheon
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Meditation Medicine
The words “meditation” and “medication” sound almost identical. If you switch out the c for a t they’re the same word. Meditation comes from the Latin root, meditatus, which means to think, pay attention to, or contemplate. It is similar to the Latin root (medicina) for Medicine meaning “art of healing.”
Meditation as Medicine
“Not only does it change the way our brain works, it actually is almost like going to the gym – you’re actually building new connections and we can see on a brain scan structural changes after just eight weeks of meditation, and so you see an increase in density in a part of the brain that actually is associated with happiness, that’s associated with being able to make better decisions in our lives... and it also shrinks the part of our brain responsible for the stress response.”
-Jamie Zimmerman
Starting your Meditation Practice
Some things to keep in mind as you begin your own meditation practice are:
Determine your why
Start with baby steps (5-10 minutes a day is better than an hour, once a week)
Choose what kind of meditation style resonates with you (Guided, silent, focusing on your breath, taking a journey with images and music)
Make the Commitment
Join a group or start your own
“I think when we really quiet our minds we start to hear our hearts.”
-Jamie Zimmerman
“The longest journey you will ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart.”
—Andrew Bennett
“Each moment of our lives is like a grain of sand, part of a finite supply. Each moment is unspeakably precious.” – Jamie Zimmerman
In Memory of:
Jamie Zimmerman, MD 1983-2015
Photo by Simon Rae
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Clearing Space
by Beth Haley
A part of clearing and cleansing our spaces, involves more than just our homes, bodies and minds. In current times, this also involves technology spaces such as digital photos, documents and files, along with emails.
I’ve been slowly working my way through sections of my home and cleaning, sorting and setting aside things to resource to other homes. Along the way, I remembered my 30,000 emails and got to work there as well. For the first time in a decade my inboxes have a zero balance. Now, if I could go the opposite direction with the bank, we’d really be in business!
Next, I’m working on pictures and video files which is ongoing as we read.
Time to kill?
I don’t know many people who actually reply to spam mail, but for those who have an abundance of time and are entertained by the thought of replying to some of these absolutely preposterous messages instead of just deleting them, here are some examples.
Spam Message: I received your email from Diego Garcia who coordinates a low-cost, high end, car parts facility in Peru.
Reply: I seriously doubt that!
Spam message: Great deals! We need your phone number to get you your deal now today!
Reply: Provides Sheriff’s Office number in rural Alaska.
You’re welcome.
Spam message: You’re going to be rich! This load of refined gold is worth millions! Let’s invest it and split the refundments!
Reply: That’s fantastic! What are we going to invest in? Should I quit my job? I’m ready! When can I expect my… “refundments”?
This could be a fun group activity. Read and reply. Really get creative!!
Photos by Samuel Sun and Yura Fresh
Pilgrimage Studio 