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Breathe to reduce stress!
LightHearts UK is offering a free online course that is a wonderful resource for relaxation of body, mind and spirit. If you want to reduce stress, I highly recommend it.
Week 6 features breathing as a relaxation technique and talks about Bear Heart, which is why I’m sharing it with you. Bear Heart was a big believer in the benefits of daily breathing exercises for stress reduction.
You can check out their FREE course here: https://www.lighthearts-uk.com/mental-wellbeing-course/
Enjoy!
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Try Vegan Bone Broth to stave off hunger and even lose weight
This is a guest post by Niketha Thomas on vegan bone broth
There are many diets out there that are tailored to multiple ways of eating: low carb, low fat, high fat, high protein, no protein, high carb…the list goes on and on. However, articles are just now starting to come out of the woodwork and inform people on the advantages of a no-animal cruelty whatsoever diet called a vegan diet. And a vegan bone broth diet has many, many positive impacts on the body.
Read on for the health benefits and a recipe
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Need a holiday gift idea?
In a world where many have too much “stuff”, what to gift at the holidays is often a perplexing problem.
I love to gift experiences, often in the form of books, and you might consider doing the same.
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The Sacred Art of Smudging: Sacred Smoke, Sacred Life
Many people have heard of “smudging,” and may even practice it, but there’s great value in knowing its history, and understanding the true sacredness of it.
There are three primary herbs used in the Native American tradition for smudging: sage, cedar and sweetgrass.
Sage is used to dispel negative energy.
Cedar is used for an overall blessing or to cleanse where there has been illness.
Sweetgrass draws in positive energy.
I have been taught the importance of burning only one herb at a time for smudging, otherwise you are giving mixed messages.
Sage is the most commonly used for cleansing the energy field of a person, place or thing, so I will focus on it for this post.
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Water is Sacred. Why are we poisoning it?
It is the first thing we use every morning, and the last thing we use every night.
It allows us to thrive, and plants, trees and our food to grow. It is essential to all life.
And yet we poison it at every turn:
It’s reported that at the Rio Olympics, swimmers need to ingest only three teaspoons of water to contract a virus. Rio de Janeiro waterways are contaminated with raw human sewage teeming with dangerous viruses and bacteria.
14 billion pounds of garbage, mostly plastic, is dumped into the ocean each year, killing sea life. In January, 2016, thirteen sperm whales washed up dead in Germany, their stomachs full of plastic and auto parts.
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Shamanism and personal healing
Quite a few years ago, during a routine medical exam, my doctor found some abnormal cells – pre-cancerous, or what today would be called Stage Zero cancer.
She recommended laser surgery to remove them. Even back then, I was very holistic and didn’t want surgery of any kind, even laser surgery, so I considered my alternatives.
As part of my Native American studies, I had heard of prayer fetishes: objects that are created, personalized, and prayed over, to bring about a particular outcome. Taking a leap of faith, I decided I would make a health fetish as my path to curing my condition.
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Why we should approach sleep as ceremony
There’s a lot of talk about sleep in the news lately:
• why we need it,
• how to get it,
• how much do we need?
• to nap or not to nap?
The advice even fills books, but there’s one important point I think has been overlooked:
We should be approaching sleep with the same respect and solemnity as we do ceremony!
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The Truth About Cancer can save your life!
I’ve recently watched a documentary series that is brilliant – and can save your life. It’s called The Truth About Cancer.
In it, medical doctors and scientists present well-researched studies about the numerous holistic therapies that have successfully treated cancer – with or without chemotherapy.
We all have friends or family members who have succumbed to this disease. In fact, 21,000 people around the world die from cancer each day.
Why not get educated on the many alternative therapies that work and do not destroy the immune system the way chemotherapy does?
Or that can support the immune system while undergoing chemotherapy?
Did you know that cancer cells feed on sugar? Yet many cancer centers have bowls of candy available for their patients to eat. And oncologists rarely tell their patients to avoid sugar. How is that taking care of our health?
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How to survive the loss of a loved one
We all have to face it at some time in our lives.
Learning how to survive the loss of a loved one can dramatically impact our quality life.
Learn what Native Americans teach.
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The magic of a home altar
Would you like to jump-start your meditation practice? Or have an instant dose of serenity? A home altar might be just the thing to help you.
Many people may think of altars as something only found in a church, but they don’t have to be limited to that.
WHAT IS AN ALTAR?
Altars are built to hold focused energy, and help you to feel calm and centered when you approach them. It represents your intention to create more serenity, peace and love in your space and your life.
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Are you willing to do the work to change?
In 2003 and 2013, I went to Brazil to see the medium Joao de Deus [John of God] at the Casa de Dom Ignacio de Loyola.
The Casa is a place where miraculous cures regularly occur. It’s also a place of kindness and acceptance of people from all over the world.
So I was surprised to read an interview with John of God in which, when asked what determines if a person gets cured, his answer was “merit.”
I had to think long and hard about that. Surely possible cures would not be intentionally withheld.
So my interpretation of “merit” was that the patients do the work they need to do to achieve and maintain health:
Happy Holidays!
Molly LarkinMolly Larkin is the co-author of the international best-seller “The Wind Is My Mother; The Life and Teachings of a Native American Shaman” and other books on health. She is passionate about helping people live life to their fullest potential through her classes, healing practice and blog at www.MollyLarkin.com
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A gift for you: The Fountain of Youth ebook is free now
I’m delighted to announce I have a new book out and the e-book is FREE on Amazon today and tomorrow.
The Fountain of Youth Is Just a Breath Away; Breathing Exercises for Relaxation, Health and Vitality.
It’s also available as a paperback, but unfortunately that’s not free! 🙂 But the paperback would make a great holiday gift for your loved ones.
You do NOT need a Kindle to read the e-book. You can read it on any computer or tablet by downloading the FREE Kindle App software .
Don’t like to read ebooks? Get the paperback here.
Why sedentary workaholics need a healthy diet
This guest post by Vaileria Dennis discusses what a healthy diet could be for a sedentary workaholic.
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Moon time teachings: why they’re not for women only
In traditional Native societies, the moon time, or menstrual cycle, is seen as something sacred. Yet my mother called it “the curse.”
What do the Natives know that our mother’s didn’t?
I used to share moon time teachings with women’s groups only, but I’ve decided that men need this information, too.
For my women readers, this is information that has been lost in our society, but it can help us in achieving the life balance we all seek.
To my male readers, please read this in the spirit of gaining a better understanding of female mysteries! Learn to appreciate the women in your life as energetic beings in tune with the cycles of nature.
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The Japanese Tea Ceremony – the sacred in every day life
I love to look for the sacred in every day life. And there may be no better example than the opportunity offered by mindfully drinking a simple cup of tea, as in the Japanese Tea Ceremony.
Whether gazing out the window, or going through the formality of a Japanese tea ceremony, there is tranquility and grace to be found there.
The Japanese are reputed to have the lowest rate of heart disease in the world. Diet is a big part of that, but also, 50% of Japanese drink three cups of green tea day!
Perhaps there’s something to learn from that and, in particular, how>/b> they drink tea.
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Mindfulness and the “Pink Floyd Moment”
This is a guest post by David Nelson, PhD
A few months ago, Molly and I were having supper together in a real nice little vegan café in Madison, Wisconsin. We were exchanging stories of our ways of helping people cope, and I relayed to her one of the experiences I had in teaching people how to relax.
I also explained how many counselors today are just very boring in their professions, and need to spice it up a bit.
You see, about 10 years ago, a gentleman came into my office stating that he had chronic pain in his lower back. He explained he was a carpenter and that the only thing that seemed to help him manage his pain was smoking marijuana.
He turned to me and said, “I heard you do hypnosis, and I was wondering if you could hypnotize me to be stoned all the time? I don’t want to lose my job with a dirty urine analysis. I figured if I could hypnotize myself to be stoned, it would manage my pain and I could keep my job.”
My first thought was, “Is he kidding?”
Then it dawned on me, “Why not?”
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Why you should throw away your sunscreen now
If you’re like me, you’ve spent your life slathering on sunscreen every time you were out in the sun.
Everyone said to do it. It was a no brainer, right?
Well, guess what? As with many pieces of health advice, “everyone” turns out to be wrong!
The latest research shows that if you apply sunscreen every time you’re in the sun, you’re blocking the body’s ability to produce Vitamin D. Adequate vitamin D may reduce your risk of up to 16 different types of cancer, including: pancreatic, lung, ovarian, breast, prostate and skin.
Vitamin D contributes to healthy bones, lowering blood pressure and protecting against a host of other diseases. Yes, you can take a supplement, but it will never be as good as the direct source of the sun.
In the USA, vitamin D deficiency is at epidemic levels. Ironically, vitamin D deficiency can lead to aggressive forms of skin cancer. A ground-breaking 2011 study published in Cancer Prevention Research suggests that optimal blood levels of vitamin D offers protection against sunburn and skin cancer.
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Why God rested on the 7th day
As we begin a new year, many bloggers are writing about goal setting for 2015.
I have done that before and you can read my previous post.
But aside from setting goals and intentions, if we want to bring about something new in our lives, we have to change what we are doing, or how we are doing it.
If you keep doing the same old thing, you will get the same old results.
Today I’m going to propose one change to your life that may make a surprising difference: more rest.
WHY GOD RESTED ON THE 7TH DAY
We’ve all heard the phrase from the Bible, “And God rested on the 7th Day.” But what does it mean, really?
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8 Lessons learned failing the “no sugar challenge”
Well, I’m embarrassed to report that, after posting three weeks ago about my great start, I now get to report on lessons learned failing the “30-day no sugar challenge.”
Technically, I wrote about a 10-day no sugar challenge proposed by the documentary Fed Up, but I was undertaking 30 days of no sugar.
But whether 10 days, or 30, I failed.
However, I did learn a lot [about myself and sugar] which I felt was worth sharing.
The goal, set by my friend Gary, was to avoid anything with sugar in it for 30 days.
HERE’S WHY I FAILED