Letting Go

One very important lesson that life has taught me is the art of letting go. I am a very sentimental person by nature and I like to hold onto things. Old worn things, old friends and old memories take up a lot of my mental and emotional space. The need to reminisce about days gone before is great within me. However, my unique life situation has forced me to constantly let go of the past and all its accoutrements. As a young girl, I always imagined myself married to one man for life, raising multiple children and living in one big house bulging at the seams with all my extended family and my beloved possessions - spending my days in domestic bliss. To my surprise, my life experience so far has been just the opposite. I travel almost constantly, living in a different state or country every year. I am a widow and single mom of one daughter and we have truly come to know the maxim, “home is where the heart is.” One year we went to Paris to live for several months and I packed every valuable and beloved item that I owned and lost it all at the hands of a French luggage thief. Needless to say, "Loose and Let go," has become my mantra.

In our more recent move, I was blessed with a most wonderful experience, which brought my mantra into full expression. What I believe to be a truly amazing meditation was introduced to me. “Mind” Meditation is a silent practice during which you imagine throwing every past memory, experience, person or idea that is in your mind into a tiny black hole pasted on the wall in front of you. The black hole represents oblivion or nothingness and like a magnetic vortex, it sucks all the content of your mind into it. After practicing this meditation daily for several months, I literally felt as if I were flying, so light and free. The past is definitely a burden we carry around, all the images and thoughts in our minds that circulate continuously and affect our every action, influence our every circumstance. We cannot be in the present, let alone move forward, if we are saturated with the patterns of what has gone before. The time is definitely now, to let go.

Doing this meditation daily is like fasting/detoxing/cleansing the spirit. This is why children are so youthful, bright, cheerful and full of zeal. They let go constantly, releasing and moving on from everything that has come before. It is only as we mature and begin to hold on to old stuff, attaching ourselves to it and creating a sense of self based on it, that we grow dull, pessimistic, old and somber.

Freecycle

Giving things away provides a wonderful opportunity to free your spirit and lighten your load. My daughter and I are embarking on another exciting travel journey and we, like nomads, intend to pair down to only what we can carry on our backs or at least fit into our little PT Cruiser.Thanks to Freecycle.org, an organization that hosts local chapters all over the U.S., we can easily and effortlessly offer the gently used things we no longer need to others who are looking to recycle and not consume. Some of the stuff we've been able to happily give away are a ton of heels left over from my modeling days, toys from Christmas' past that my daughter never plays with anymore, clothes that looked better in the shop than when we tried them on at home and the list goes on. The accumulation of stuff can be like a disease, so burdened we become with all our purchases, that we are limited in mobility and dense in thought. Nothing beats the freedom of giving and this feeling alone is one of the most rewarding and priceless gifts there is. Needless to say, I love freecycle. It's an incredibly old fashioned way to connect with fellow human beings through the internet. Here is something I have and no longer need that you may be able to use, so I offer it to you.  How beautiful this is for our spirit, our human connection and our planet. The more man made stuff I shed, the more God-made stuff I notice. Like these new yellow roses blooming in our back yard. Aren't these glorious.

And we thought about picking them, but sometimes the whole point is to just enjoy them as is and in the moment, with no need to own them.

Miracle Cures

For all of my childhood, I suffered from asthma and allergies, but when I stopped eating dairy products and became a vegetarian in college most of  the symptoms vanished. After eating only raw foods during most of my twenties, I experienced a completely allergy-free existence. Lately, however, I've noticed that the deeper I cleanse, the more those symptoms re-surface. I believe it has to do with my reaching previously untouched layers of toxic residue in my body.

I grew up hardly ever drinking water, couldn't stand fruit and ate lots of fried hamburger with American cheese for lunch, macaroni and cheese with fried steak for dinner and large bowls of ice cream for snack before bed. I also had really bad constipation and remember long periods during which I didn't use the loo! So now, here I am face to face with the last remnants of the stuff that never got released from my body and blessedly, I have come upon some miracle-like cures.

For  relief from hay-fever, itchy eyes and general malaise due to a sensitivity to spring pollen, mold spores and what have you, this Sinu-Care has been incredible. You can get rid of the Claritin, this all herbal supplement reduces the inflammation and histamine response and truly soothes and strengthens from the inside out, erasing allergy symptoms. It's based on an ancient Ayurvedic formula and has none of the nasty side effects of over the counter allergy medication.

Another imbalance that I have been steadily curing is in my thyroid gland. For years I have had swelling in this area, cold hands/feet, sensitivity to chemical smells and rapid heartbeat. Most of the Iodine supplements on the market are not easily assimilated by the body and this mineral is crucial for thyroid health and thus, the general strength and harmony of the body. A lot of people have a deficiency here and suffer from the persistent lack of vitality it causes. I love to use Detoxified Iodine which is readily absorbable by our bodies or Iosol for an alcohol-free version. I can feel the boost that it gives my system immediately and my swelling has gone down considerably. Basically, everything that is off-kilter with me health-wise gets righted by this elixir. I take on average 10 drops per day dissolved in water.  It has a magnificent effect on my eyes, teeth, muscle flexibility and state of mind. There is a self-test for finding out if you are deficient in Iodine. You put a few drops on your wrist or ankles and see how long it takes to absorb. If your skin drinks it up in less than an hour, then your body is craving it.

As always, I love to use nature's most simple cures, the ones that come straight from the earth. Organic watermelon is incredible for its ability to revitalize the body by flushing out old toxins. Just imagine, all that water contained in it is pure and free of any chemicals. I like to eat one whole mini watermelon a day when they are in season. They are best eaten on an empty stomach and given an hour to digest before other meals.

If you'd like to try your hand at making your own herbal cures, this Home Herbal  book is a great resource.

I have been making several different tinctures using this guide and the herbs from my little garden.

The miracle of life itself is personified by Easter and my daughter and I honored this beautiful day with a brunch full of life-giving foods. Good, healthy lovingly prepared food is a cure in itself and for this I give daily thanks.