Last Sunday, Jan Sullivan was kind enough to organize a workshop at her place in Woodend. She had Rose Oil diffusing in her UltraSonic diffuser so we were all blasted into outer vibrational space as we walked in the door.

I was nervous about finding my way to Woodend but I arrived in one piece. We did a little bit of everything. Lots of information — things I pick up on the fly during my treatments, Valor Balances, getting people familiar with checking oil safety data for pregnancy (one of the group was…) and other conditions, a mini-Raindrop demo, a sound meditation, and of course–the running of the meridians using a variety of oils, and finishing with a sound/affirmation meditation.

Quite a few givers of a Valor Balance were astounded at the difference they felt when I used 3 Wise Men on the crown chakra while they were working away.

The next round of Workshops will be in Melbourne — next week Wednesday, 30th Sept, at the BoxHill Tafe 7 to 9 pm and at my place on Wed 7th Oct (pre-requisite is the BoxHill Health Arts session). More later.

An aside: Karen Krouse, my wonderful Pilates teacher, passed this link on to me about water bottles and yuccky plastic containing BPA, an estrogen-mimicking chemical used to make hard plastics and epoxy resins, found in numerous products that you probably use every day. Check the article out here.

Another aside: Can you believe it hailed today? I had to put some Idaho Balsam Fir on my adrenals to pick me up and do a little yoga to remain upstanding for the day.

WEDNESDAY, 2^ND,  in Croydon  — Ring 0425 798 428 OR 97231508 to book your place

Why pure essential oils have such a profound effect on improving overall health.

How essential oils impact in an “intelligent” way on the body.

Practical ways essential oils can be used daily for many everyday health issues

AND

 Have the opportunity to discuss and learn how essential oils can benefit YOUR particular needs 

THURSDAY, 3^RD, in Croydon again, for those who have already had an experience with these oils

Hands-on learning about various techniques that may help with

hormonal imbalance, enhancing sleep, emotional equilibrium, and pain

management.

Exactly what the title says.

Get yourself a packet of Organic Rosehips. Put a tablespoon into a saucepan of water with a knob of ginger and simmer for about 1/2 hour. Turn it off and add a teaspoon of Equisetium leaf (for silica—good for hair and skin), Dandelion (for liver), and/or nettle (blood cleanser). You can add a slice of lime/lemon if you want.

For the uninitiated — No sweetener or milk please.

An ‘Oily’ friend of mine sent me a recipe for an all-dosha balancing Mung Bean soup and I made it and it was okay taste wise but I didn’t feel it was quite ‘right’, for me at least. I need to satisfy my Vata-type constitution or I can end up too nervy so I decided to experiment. So this is what I came up with:

2 cups of Moong dhall  soaked for a few days (for digestibility) with changes of water in between.

Rinse off dhall. Cook with about an inch or so of water to cover together with some leaves of seaweed, or sprinkles of dulse, and 3 chopped celery sticks, 1 bunch of parsley, a bunch of small turnips chopped, a beetroot chopped, a can of tomatoes or equivalent fresh, a small knob of ginger, 1/4 tsp of fenugreek seed and fennel seed. Goes without saying to use organic or bio-dynamic ingredients. I choose not to use garlic or onion.

I cooked it for a few hours till soft/mushy.

Then I fried up the following spices in a spoon of organic coconut oil, over low heat. Watch out that you do not overfry the spices.

1 tsp of black mustard seeds till they pop. Add 1/2 tsp of cummin powder and turmeric powder. Add 1 and half tablespoon of organic tomato paste. Stir a few times and then add to the mung bean mixture.

Some may want to omit the tomato or to add garlic. I found this SITE on the internet that was a fount of useful basic info that I already knew. So to avoid stating the same thing over again use the link provided. I found that his suggestion of doing the mung bean soup routine only every other day or as needed was something that I’d found out for myself from experience.

My partner rang me this morning and directed me to a passage in a book he reads on the toilet. A copy of Ramana Maharshi’s - the Path to Self Knowledge. As far as I know, the book is out of print.

Briefly:

A congress worker came to the ashram and asked if the desire for political independence was ‘right’?

I take this question to be applicable to other strivings and ambitions such as working towards material survival/animal rights/minority rights etc

The response: Prolonged practical work for the goal widens the outlook so that the individual becomes gradually merged with the country. Such merging is desirable…

The congress worker was elated and said: If political independence is achieved after terrible sacrifice is not the person justified in feeling pleased with the result.

Response: No, in the course of the struggle, he should have surrendered himself to a Higher Power whose Might must be kept in mind and not lost sight of. He should not even care for the result of his actions.

In fact, disinterested activity may be said to be the true bank account.

There is a question and answer session:

Q: Will Maharishi gives his opinion of the future of the World given as we live in such critical times?

A: Why should you worry about the future? You don’t even know the present properly. Take care of the present and the future will take care of itself.

There was so much to learn from Gary Young at the recent Queensland conference. Being highly auditory, I find it difficult to write and listen at the same time without sacrificing quality of participation. I must get some detailed notes from those who are good at writing down word for word.

Most valuable for me was the explanation of why the constituents of new varieties of the standard oils grown in Ecuador were proving to be so effective — they don’t have ’spikes’ in one or two constituents - the increased number of constituents created a range of different actions anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-bacterial etc . This, in his opinion, created a balance. We were offered the test results if we wanted to look at them… which should be a good reference for me when I use an oil using ‘intuition’ and get a spectacular result… when the oil would not normally be the recommended one for the particular complaint. I began wondering if this was why a layering of oils worked well — because there were no spikes in one particular constituent.

It was great to watch Gary oversee Raindrop treatments on stage and the way he was able to tell someone’s history of problems just by looking at their feet (confirmed by the prone participants!) Some of his recommendations that might help in following problems:

Spruce or Pine or Balsam Fir (or all three) for bone deterioration.

Balsam and RC for bone spur

Basil to break down scar tissue

He also showed us how to apply Tarragon and Spearmint mixed together to the centre of the heel and also to the lower back, together with firm pressure for sciatica. I used this combo last Thurs quite effectively.

He also showed us good sleep positions — on the back with arms splayed up, like an infant. I am finding my sleep is a lot more refreshing. My sleep has been pretty magnificent in the last few months. Perhaps the whole year of working with relevant oils and also the regular diffusing of Palo Santo at night. Apparently, the new diffusers have a switch at the bottom to turn the lights off to make night use much easier.

Soak a cup of Red Quinoa overnight (as you would other grains). Other kinds of Quinoa can be also used. Soak a handful of walnuts as well.

Roast a bunch of baby beetroot (cover and bake in a slow-medium oven for about 45mins), skin and chop. Cook quinoa in water to cover by about one centimetre — till translucent. Slam dunk some green beans in boiling water for a minute or so (longer depending on quality). Chop parsley, spring onion and cooked beans and put in with cooked quinoa together with beetroot and chopped walnuts. Other additions are: grated carrot, grated celeriac.

Dress with lemon juice/balsamic vinegar/salt/YLEO Black Pepper Oil, Mountain Savory/Orange

You can add goat or sheep feta if that’s on your dietary regime.

Also, if you are more raw food than cooked, you could finely chop the green beans instead of cooking.

Eat!

A HANDS-ON DEMO of the healing qualities of pure therapeutic grade essential oils and how to use them for the relief of headaches, pain, insomnia, digestive imbalances, skin issues, emotional situations and more…

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Anyone with an interest in improving their health and that of family and friends. And Health Care Practitioners who want to add this powerful modality to their practise. Learn how to use these Essential Oils with your current modality and get great results.

Venue: HEALTH ARTS COLLEGE, 18 Ellingworth Parade, BOXHILL

When: Wednesday 6th March 2009

Time: 7 pm through to 9 pm

My brother is schizophrenic. I’ve gone down the path of alternative healing and really got places. But it came to a point that he said to me — I don’t want to be well if it means I have to take vitamins and eat properly. So I withdrew. However, I do help look after his ‘needs’ — and yesterday he rang, saying that his tooth had an abcess, the side of his face was inflamed, and HELP! He was going to knock the tooth out himself, he threatened (himself). I happened to be at my sister’s place, and she gave me about an 1/8th of a bottle of Theives Essential Oil, plus some Inner Defence (Enteric-coated oils with Thieves in it — not available in Aust yet… I got it sent from the UK by my other sister).

I told my brother to keep it out of his eyes. And got him to take 1 capsule every 2 hrs (there were 5 caps). I was worried that he did not have anything to eat in the house but I was stressed by the number of things I needed to do for a spOil Me Day (Essential Oils Event for Users Only) and I was picking up Dr Carolyn De Marco from the airport (I did proceed to get throughly lost in the process by taking the exit to Sunbury — requiring the Grounding Oils). So I asked my sister to take something down, soft. She remembered my request only late in the evening so she rang to find out what he might need — and he said — I’m totally fine now… I went out and did some fencing with a friend and I’ve only just got in.

I was amazed and appreciative!

I don’t know how to report on the exact effects of diffusing Palo Santo during the evening. It’s become a bit of a routine after I started doing this in early March during a weekend my husband was away running a food stall at the World Music Festival in Adelaide. I was preparing for the Equinox, eating well and preparing for a detox, lots of leafy green for liver/gall bladder, receiving a couple of Raindrop treatments as well as giving them. So I had the idea with diffusing Palo Santo in the evening using the YLEO cold diffuser.

Not only did I sleep well, the quality of my sleep was different. I recall hearing Gary Young say something about using it as part of a treatment of a client with a serious lung ailment, and at that time thinking that I’d inhale the oil directly a few times a day if I got a flu or cold. I did feel my lungs kept a lot clearer and I would bring up mucus in the morning.

Every now and then, I do use the Sleep Patches and occasionally these don’t work… I think I need to have more Magnesium/Calcium in the body, something I’m at work on–remember this could well be part of a hormonal balance issue. An Epsom Salt footbath helps. Sometimes I get up and have a footbath and read a bit in the kitchen while that’s happening and forty minutes later I’ve put some lavender or whatever else I muscle-test for, or intuit, and I’m having the most fabulous sleep ever.

Anyway, I was checking up online on Magnesium sources and absorption and came across a page and another. You do have to wade through conflicting info. Also, I try to avoid pages that are put up by govt bodies, drug companies, or similar.

YLEO has a good supplement, Cal/Mag but that’s not available in Australia yet.

An except from another online site:

Best Dietary Sources
Many foods are rich in magnesium. Good sources include fish and seafood, including bluefish, carp, cod, flounder, halibut, herring, mackerel, ocean perch, shrimp, and swordfish; fruits and fruit juice; leafy green vegetables; dairy products; nuts, including almonds; molasses; soybeans; sunflower seeds; wheat germ; and snails.

One-half cup of dry soybeans contains 278 milligrams of magnesium; 1/2 pound of spinach provides 200 milligrams. One-half of a medium avocado contains 51 milligrams; 1 cup of bottled grape juice has 30 milligrams, a cup of skim milk or buttermilk 34 milligrams, a cup of ice cream 19 milligrams.