Author: Sheila O'Connor

“Good for you” Pancakes

Are you getting excited about Pancake Day? I didn’t even grow up with Pancake Tuesday, but my husband did and we carried on the tradition with out kids. I especially appreciate it because it’s something to look forward to in February, and we could all use that.

Not everyone needs gluten-free and dairy-free meals, but if you are dealing with inflammation, it’s a good idea to eliminate things in your diet that are known to be inflammatory like sugar, gluten, grains, processed foods, and dairy.

As with most recipes that eliminate grains, it takes trying out a few versions to figure what works best for you in your kitchen.

This version tastes like regular crêpes (or pancakes) with ordinary flour. The first time I made them no one even noticed they were gluten and grain-free.

You can choose make them dairy-free with coconut milk, or opt for regular milk, depending on how you and your family tolerates dairy. Have fun with the fillings. We usually make a nice spread with tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, nitrate-free ham, and cheese and everyone can make their own to their preferences. Be sure to make enough for dessert and fill them with fruit, honey, nuts, and chocolate too!

Gluten-Free Crêpes (Pancakes) Recipe
(Double or triple the recipe as needed. This is the basic recipe and the yield will depend on the size of the pan you are using.)
2 T. coconut flour
2 T. tapioca flour
1/4 t. sea salt
3/4 c. full fat coconut milk OR regular full-fat milk
4 eggs
butter, coconut oil or ghee for preparing

Directions:
1. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl to combine.
2. Mix eggs and milk until they are combined.
3. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until well blended and smooth.
4. Melt fat into pre-heated pan and ladle the batter into the pan and tilt the pan around until the surface is covered.
5. Cook for 1-3 min and then flip. When you notice the edges started to be cooked you’ll know it’s about ready to flip.
6. When it’s finished, place it on a place.
7. Continue to make the crêpes until you have used all the batter.
8. Make with favorite fillings and enjoy.

***I like to make these ahead of time when possible. I have a couple of skillets on the stove to warm them up with the fillings. ***

How did it go? I love to see photos of your creations!

What is the origin of feasting and other traditions in December?

The days are getting shorter and darker and the trees now stand bare. The streets and neighborhoods are filled with lights and decorations. Everyone is in a flurry of feasts and festivities the entire month of December. It’s fun to indulge in all of the traditions and it’s special because it only comes once per year. While I greatly enjoy all of the fun and merriment, I’ve become interested in where these customs come from and why do we hold onto them so dearly. For many people, it seems that we are drawn to these rituals at a deeper level beyond annual traditions. We anticipate them and they comfort us each year. I’m just skimming the surface of investigating some of the origins of my own holiday traditions, and knowing where they came from makes them even more meaningful as I progress through the month of December. It all starts with the sun and the seasons.

Winter Solstice celebrations traceback to ancient times. Great monuments, structures, and pyramids were built with openings to mark the sun at its lowest point in the cycle. They can be found at Stonehenge in England, Newgrange in Ireland, Tulum in Mexico, and Cerro de Gentil in Peru, just to name a few. These special portals served as a type of calendar to inform the people that the days would be now be getting longer and the sun would return. This was important for survival and managing the deep winter weeks to follow. Solstice festivities included feasts and celebrations that the dark period was complete and that life would be made new again. The deep winter months were known for scarcity of food, so it would be important to take advantage of the feast because there wouldn’t be much to live on in coming months. In preparation for a period of relative hibernation and scarcity, the cattle were slaughtered at this time because there would be no food for them during the cold months. Beer and wine that had been fermenting since spring was finally ready to enjoy. Add in the root vegetables and the remaining harvest of late fall, and this was a time of plenty and it was a matter of survival to partake in the abundance. It’s also important to note that the food supply would have already been limited in the late fall and early winter. The people were most likely hungry and anticipating the slaughter and the feast.

In western cultures with such a central focus on Christmas, the Christian celebration of Jesus’ birth, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that many traditions that we follow are much older than Christianity and Christmas. These customs have evolved from country to country and family to family, and they are filled of the spirit of our ancestors. It turns out that the Christians chose late December for their celebration because coincided with already existing pagan solstice festivals. As Christianity spread wide and far, it intermingled with local rituals and many were adopted into Christianity. Even the Christmas tree and gift giving came from Pagan traditions that were later reframed in a Christian context.  There’s symbolism about just about everything related to Christmas.

The Yule Log holds such lore that there is a Yule log channel on the television or live stream via the internet on your screen to get the effect. The Yule log was at the center of the solstice festival. It dates to pre-Christian times and appears to have its roots in Germany and Scandinavia. It represents the light and warmth of the sun and and burned continuously throughout the days of the solstice period to bridge the old cycle with the new cycle. The use of candles and lights during the days leading up to solstice were also a custom to represent to light returning after the darkest day of the solstice. Later, the Yule Log and candles became part of Christian Christmas traditions.

Indoor Christmas trees and tree decorating them is said to have begun in Germany in the 16thcentury. Prior to that, it was a pagan tradition to bring fir and evergreen branches into the home around the solstice period. Evergreen boughs and holly were hung above doors to ward away evil spirits, ghosts, and illnesses. Evergreen was a symbol of everlasting life and was used by the druids, the Vikings, and the Romans. Households of German immigrants to the United States were most likely to have Christmas trees inside the house in the early 19thcentury. In the UK, very few had Christmas trees until Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, himself a German who insisted on having a tree in their residence, posed for a family portrait around their Christmas tree. This increased its popularity greatly and spread to the United Stated in later decades. Another plant, mistletoe, was a symbol of love and friendship in Norse mythology and traditions of hanging it go back to the ancient druids to bring good luck. At one point it was considered such a pagan tradition that it was banned as a decoration in churches.

The tradition of gift giving dates back to Roman Solstice festivals and giving to those less fortunate. This evolved into Wassailing and even Boxing Day today. Gifts giving became directed toward children in the 19th century. The period of advent was created to mark a fasting period leading up to the celebration of Christmas. Later Advent Calendars were created later with little gifts each day to countdown the days until December 25. Now they are often filled with chocolate or other sweets and especially popular with children.

Mulled wine travelled with Christianity from the Mediterranean to the northern countries and remains a popular seasonal drink called Glögg in Scandinavia in which spices and fruit simmered with warm red wine.  Christmas cookies became popular once trade routes opened up bringing spices and sugar to Europe. These items were expensive at the time and Christmas was a time to indulge in these exotic treats in the form of cookies and other bakes goods. We are enjoying the same holiday flavors of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom as were enjoyed during medieval times.

The original meanings of our traditions don’t hold the same weight as they once did. We have electricity which lights our rooms beyond the hours the sun provides light. Many of us are not hungry when the Christmas feast is served and will not be on the brink of starvation during the cold months of winter. We are not cold when we are sipping mulled wine at holiday parties. Yet, we are comforted by these traditions the sense that there is something special about them, something connected to our collective history gives us peace.

As many things, the Christmas and holiday season have become more and more commercial and more and more related to food and feasting. We’ve come a long way from the fasting during advent to eating a treat each day. There’s also a theme of Christmas over the years being more and more geared toward children. I remember Christmas being magical as a child and I enjoyed sharing that magic with my own children when they were small. Now that my own children have grown and myths have been demystified, I want to reconnect with that magic of the season. And it’s so simple, a celebration that the darkest day has arrived and a beginning of a new cycle of increasing light has begun. I will light my candles and hang my wreath as one season bridges into another to create the chapters and cycles of my own life.

(Originally published in December 2018)

Stress has a lot to do with it

I would guess that whatever physical or emotional challenges you may be dealing with, stress has a lot to do with it. We hear a lot about stress and that it’s “bad”. But just being told to reduce stress isn’t always very meaningful unless we understand why it’s important. It kind of tends to be this thing happening in isolation when in fact it’s integrated into every part of our cell tissues and system functions.

To continue with the example from last week and daily vitamins and thinking of the body as a car or vehicle, when driven on a smooth open road, all is well and the vehicle can easily accelerate on its way. When there is heavy traffic, when the paved road ends and it becomes a dirt road, or when we go way to fast, conditions are suddenly very different and adjustments must be made. There is stress, the road is no longer open and smooth. If no adjustments are made, the vehicle is at great risk and the vehicle may not survive long. One of the big problems with stress is that we resist or deny it in a futile attempt to carry on without making adjustments. Since this is not sustainable, it becomes inevitable that it would result in some sort of physical or emotional crisis which will vary greatly from person to person and may include weight gain, depression, anxiety, fatigue, poor sleep, uncomfortable digestion, joint & muscle pain, irritability, lack of focus and concentration, just to name a few.

Let’s have a look at what’s happening when we are under stress. Ultimately we have a built in stress response that is meant to protect us, most animals have this. When you are in real danger to your life, you must flee and find safety, that is the only thing that matters. Once the threat has passed, life is meant to carry on peacefully. You may have experienced this in an urgent emergency situation when you seem to have super human strength and are able to manage an extraordinary amount of disruption, you are able to continue with little sleep and little food, those don’t matter, only resolving the crisis matters. In this case, stress is helpful. Stress is also helpful to urge us along with deadlines because failure to meet deadlines has consequences.

When the body enters the stressful state, the digestion process stops! Yes, pretty much the whole thing from saliva release in anticipation of eating to excretion once nutrition has been absorbed. Think about it, if you are running from a predator, it’s not very handy to have to make a bathroom break along the way. ALL of the energy in the body is directed to getting to safety.  The amygdala in the brain is enlarged to maintain the state of fight, flight, or fright. This is why many people don’t have an appetite in a crisis and when they do eat they may not feel well because the body isn’t able to process and digest the food, so it just sits in the gut.

Sleep is disrupted for the same reason. When there is a threat, one must remain on high alert to survive. Eventually sleep will be necessary, but the body and its intelligence comes equipped with reserves for such situation, like an extra can of fuel in the trunk of the car, or a generator available during a power outage. The adrenal response also includes increased heart rate and blood flow to muscles accelerates to enable fast movement and response.

The problem is that many of us remain in a state of stress far too long and far too often. Many animals will often take a nap, graze, or even play upon being out of danger. Some animals shake and ruffle themselves after a stressful incident. This is releasing any leftover tension to be able to return into a state of calm. There is a period of transition back to an unstressed state signaling digestion to get turned on again and all other systems to down-regulate and recover. Often instead of honoring this need to ease back up to speed, we go for a coffee and attempt to carry on. But now the machine has been on a bumpy road and the wheels are out of alignment and low in air. If we carry on without appropriate care and maintenance, further damage will likely occur and we may end up on a detour because it’s hard to move forward in a straight path with the alignment off.

Can you see how this all works? When you don’t take action to manage the stress in your life, your body remains in a biological survival mode. Your brain is “tired and wired”, and you can’t stop thinking about your problems. You may eat meals, but with the digestive system even partially offline, you will likely experience heartburn, constipation, and weight gain. This is all because the stress center of your brain is still activated and as long as it’s activated, everything else is shut down.

It’s not so much about avoiding stress, but managing it. Acknowledge when you experience a stressful situation and allow yourself the space to recover and realign with your purpose and path. It will be different for each of us. Consider what works for you which may be a walk in nature, a bath, prayer or meditation, a shower, dancing to loud music, journaling, or talking with a trusted friend for family member. Try practicing regularly so that when life gets intense you will have something already in place to support you.

(Originally published February 2021)

Daily multi-vitamins for mental health

This was originally published in February 2021 and the topic remains relevant as we enter another winter season with the virus still swirling around in our communities and travel increasing back to 65% of pre-pandemic levels in recent reports. Our lives have changed and it’s more important than ever to pay attention to immunity.

Throughout the year, our habits and routines have shifted drastically and we are likely settling into our own new normals. As we consider what no longer serves us in our lives, we ought to also consider what we are doing to improve our level of health and wellness. Vitamins C and D have been very popular topics of conversation this year and have been shown to support our immune system when exposed to the novel coronavirus. But what about a daily multi-vitamin? The answer is yes, you should be taking one and I’m here to tell you more about it.

Daily vitamins are a concentration of micro-nutrients. We tend to hear a lot about the macro-nutrients: fat, protein, and carbohydrates; but what about the essential vitamins and minerals? Our bodies are continually using these nutrients to function and need to be restored. There was a time when we could get much nutrition from the locally available food, but over-farming has depleted minerals in the soil and for the past 150 years, fruits and vegetables have been modified and bred to increase the size and sugar content so as to increase profit to sellers at the expense of the nutritional content.

It is well known that stress depletes important resources in the body including iron, magnesium, and vitamin C. When under excess stress, we often feel drained because we are using up more nutritional reserves than usual and not replacing them. The body is a complex machine like a car and runs most efficiently with a full tank of fuel and and the oil and fluids topped up and replaced as needed. When reserves are running low, it will continue to run, but much less optimally and with more effort.

Micro-nutrients are especially important for mental health. Studies have shown that in communities that have experienced a traumatic event such as a destructive earthquake or flood, those who supplemented with daily vitamins – or micronutrients – suffered less depression, anxiety, and other mental, behavioral and and emotional related challenges. It is fair to say that we have all experienced stress and traumatic events in the last year and the continued uncertainty remains stressful,

Keep it simple. Find a good bio-available multi-vitamin and commit to taking it every day. Consider adding in an omega-3 or fish oil supplement as well. The local health foods shop is a great place to start. I always suggest getting to know the resources in your own community as they tend to be a wealth of information. Bio-available simply means that the vitamins are coming from real sources and are not synthetically made. We will ALWAYS get better results from being fueled from natural sources that processed sources. Synthetic vitamins are kind of like using the wrong octane fuel in your car.

Finally, it takes some time for the benefits of taking a daily vitamin to integrate into your system, and some of the changes may be very subtle. Try adding it to your daily routine and stick with it for a while assessing the results.

 

 

 

Memories of the Summer

In June came the summer sun
We enjoyed the freedom and fun
We went for a swim
Drank wine with our friends
And basked in the days never done

Then in July it got really hot
It felt like we stewed in a pot
It torched the spring flowers
And taking cold showers
Was the only relief that we got

In August we started to wilt
When would the days again tilt?
Everyday in tank tops
Under a shade tree to plop
And the best time to have after dark

September is here with a bang
Thunderstorms, lightning, and rain
Sweaters and brollies
The after school lollies
And now just the memories remain.

Elevate your Plate with Fresh Herbs

Fresh herbs are the simplest way to enhance any dish in look, flavor, and nutrition and impress your friends too. For as little as a few cents, you can sprinkle some fresh herbal goodness on just about anything. Some dishes like salsa or tabbouleh have herbs as a main ingredient. Fresh herbs are the best:

  1. The plate looks more appetizing – All our senses come into play when we eat and when we think something looks good, it’s more likely to taste good too! Chefs know this and garnish any dish with something as small as a single leaf.
  2. The taste bursts with freshness – Garnishes are often listed as optional in many recipes. Whenever possible, don’t skip these important ingredients. Adding fresh herbs to soups, salads, appetizers, main dishes, and even desserts elevates the flavor complexity and freshness. Experiment with the herbs you like best and how they mix together.
  3. They add to the enticing aroma that kicks off the digestion process – Imagine an Italian Ragu without the oregano, salsa without the cilantro, or a borscht without the dill? Aromatic compounds in the herbs also support emotional wellness in a variety of ways.
  4. Fresh herbs are packed with nutrition – This is almost something we sense at a cellular level. Fresh herbs are more than decoration and flavor, they are nutritionally dense as well. The intense flavors come from important plant compounds that provide nourishment and medicinal properties too.

See the list below for nutritional highlights of common herbs and add some to your next shop:

  • Basil is packed with vitamins C and K, zinc, calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Benefits of eating fresh basil include antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties alongside the beneficial vitamins and nutrients. In addition, basil essential oil can be used topically to heal minor skin afflictions. Basil is most commonly used in Italian and Thai dishes.
  • Cilantro (fresh coriander) also contains high amounts of vitamins A, C, and K and helps with lowering blood sugar, is antimicrobial, and has been shown to provide protection from foodborne illness. Essential ingredient in Mexican and Indian dishes.
  • Dill is full of calcium and vitamin A. It is often used in Russian, Scandinavian, German, and Mediterranean cuisines. Vitamin A is good for immunity and vision. Calcium is essential for healthy bones.
  • Marjoram supports hormonal health and anxiety relief. It contains folate, vitamins A and K, and is high in magnesium and potassium. Potassium is an electrolyte which hydrates and balances the body. Marjoram goes very well with egg, cheese, or tomato dishes and can be sprinkled on soups and salads.
  • Mint supports digestion and has antibacterial properties. Mint is often used in mediterranean salads and lamb dishes. You can also make a fresh mint tea or add to fruity desserts.
  • Oregano has antioxidants, fiber, vitamin K, manganese, iron, vitamin E, tryptophan, calcium and has antibacterial properties. Used in a variety of dishes, it is also found in medicinal herbal tea blends.
  • Parsley contains plenty of vitamins A, C, and K. It also has a good amount of folate, an important vitamin for heart health. Vitamins A and C provide antioxidant properties while vitamin K supports bone health. Parsley can be sprinkled on pretty much anything, especially egg and poultry dishes. It contains some of the highest nutrition density of common herbs.
  • Rosemary is high in manganese which provides anti-inflammatory benefits and supports metabolism amongst others. The aroma is also known to support memory. Rosemary works well with root vegetables and roasted meat dishes. A simple tea may provide headache relief and boost memory. Ancient scholars are said to have studied with a stem of rosemary tucked behind the ear.
  • Sage contains vitamins A, C and K like most other fresh herbs. It is also high in antioxidants, has antimicrobial effects, and supports hormone balance.
  • Tarragon has manganese, iron, and potassium. It can help to regulate insulin sensitivity. It also has vitamin B6 and folate. It is most often used in fish and poultry dishes.
  • Thyme contains vitamins C and A, copper, fiber, iron, and manganese. Fresh thyme can be used in cooking meat, poultry, and white fish, and works wonders in a soup or stew.

 

 

 

Drink your water and energize your cells!

“Drinking water is like washing out your insides. The water will cleanse the system, fill you up, decrease your caloric load and improve the function of all your tissues.” -Kevin R. Stone

The human body is made of 70% water. For the cells and systems to function optimally and have sufficient energy throughout the day, it’s important to be well hydrated. The water actually acts as a conductor for the messages sent through the central nervous system – i.e. important brain activity, muscle coordination, hormone receptors and important stuff like that. Water is also responsible for lubricating connective tissue and fascia which gets sticks together and forms something called adhesions which are like knots that cause pain and discomfort.Imagine a strong flowing river and when water levels falls, it becomes less robust and the surrounding areas no longer flourish. The same thing is true in the body and keeping track of water intake is one of the best things you can do for your body, mind, and spirit.

Signs that you may benefit from better hydration include:

  • fatigue and sluggishness
  • headache
  • lightheaded or dizziness
  • brain fog
  • sugar cravings
  • accumulation of cellulite,
  • dark, strong smelling urine
  • needing to urinate very little throughout the day
  • muscle cramps*
  • heart palpitations *

*May also indicate electrolyte imbalance.

It is generally recommended that you drink half of your body weight (in pounds) in ounces of water. Here is a simple breakdown of what that looks like in both pounds and kg and ounces and liters:

125 pounds/57 kg –>63 oz./1.85 liters
140 pounds/63.6 kg –>70 oz./2.1 liters
180 pounds/81.9 kg –>90 oz./2.7 liters

This is just a framework to get started. Let’s not focus too much on specifics. For most people around 2-2.5 liters per day will get you towards that sweet spot.

Interestingly, more isn’t always better and hydration isn’t simply about more liquid or water in the system. The blood and circulatory system work to maintain a balance of water and salt. Higher concentration of sodium in the bloodstream will trigger thirst to bring the ratio back into balance. Conversely, if you noticing that you are peeing a lot as you aim for optimal hydration, your water intake may be diluting the balance too much and actually flushing away important nutrients. Salt in itself is worthy of its own article, and despite the bad press it gets, its super important to understand that it’s also essential to life and an important part of maintaining adequate hydration. It’s true that too much salt will leave you feeling bloating, but it’s actually helpful to retain some water so that the cells stay nice and hydrated. Try adding a pinch of sea salt or pink salt to a glass of water from time to time throughout the day, especially on a hot day or after a draining workout. I have found that the salt improves my energy level and focus at any time of day. Read Eating a Banana Helps: Electrolytes are Essential to understand more about electrolytes in tandem with hydration.

Not all water is equal. Environmental considerations aside for the moment, let’s look a little closer at water. Mineral water, spring water, and filtered water are the best choices. And of course, a water cooler or a good reverse osmosis filter are solid options to reduce the use of bottles. Mineral and spring water contain varying amounts of beneficial minerals. In many places in Europe it’s common for people to drink mineral water (sparkling or still) and a lot of people even have a favourite. Some sparkling waters contain plenty of sodium like Vichy in Catalonia, Spain and Topo Chico in Mexico. Evian is high in calcium, hence the milky taste that it’s known for and San Pellegrino is packed with magnesium. Fiji is highest in silica making a good option for detox. Mountain Valley and Acqua Panna are also popular options.

Most countries have their own local varieties of spring or mineral water, so do a little research to learn about the best options in your area and be sure to recycle the bottles. The hotter the climate, the more sodium will need to be replenished because of what is lost sweating. And an extra bonus, high sodium content in the water also supports digestion. The water that you prefer may also vary during different times of the year depending on the climate and your health and fitness goals at the time.

Take some time this week to assess your water consumption habits and make some adjustments as needed. Do some experimenting and try adding a pinch of salt to your water or try out a new sparkling water on your night out. At first you may be running to the toilet often, but as your body regulates and gets used to better hydration, I promise that is temporary.

The Gift of Jetlag

Every cloud has a silver lining. That’s also true for most situations in life, even the dreaded jetlag has hidden treasures within the blur of it all.

Jetlag used to be my least favorite part of travel, a nuisance and an interruption to getting into the local action. In the last few years, I’ve learned to embrace it and its fleeting nuances.

Traveling east is the worst, even Matthew Walker shares this in his book Why We Sleep and explains that it has to do with it being easier on our circadian rhythms to simply extend a day (travel west) than to totally disrupt it (travel east). Depending on the distance of travel and location on the globe, it’s typical to arrive at an arbitrary time on a different day having had a very truncated and uncomfortable “night’s” sleep on the flight. Furthermore, time in the pressurized cabin tends to confuse the digestive system. I often arrive home exhausted and unable to make a decision or have a coherent conversation about most things. I don’t even know if I’m hungry or not or want to sleep or unpack or… And then if I want to sleep, should I sleep or should I try to stay awake a little longer? There’s no right answer here, I’ve tried it all and like most things, “it depends.”

Despite this fairly reliable forecast for what to expect with jetlag, the silver lining is actually pretty special. Whether traveling east or west, you can expect a high probability waking up very early in the morning or even in the middle of the night as I often do. Lying awake in bed and hoping to go back to sleep is likely to be pointless, especially if your body was quite adjusted to the previous time zone because the melatonin hormone receptors need time to adjust to the new rhythms of day and night. This is a temporary state and once we have been in the new location for some time, an estimated one day per hour of time zone traveled, we will be adjusted to the local time. That’s to say, enjoy it while it lasts.

We go through security before the flight itself and are in a secure protected space and separated from so-called threats and the usual connections of daily life during the trip. I like to consider the adjustment days or jetlag period as an extension of that transit and a time when I’m not required to follow the rules and routines of ordinary life. As much as this is possible, it takes the pressure of and allows what may be annoyances to transform into something special.

The gifts of jetlag that I have experience include:

  • Wide awake in the dark night – as I mentioned, there’s nothing that can be done about this. It’s kind of a mystical and mysterious time that we aren’t usually awake and alert to experience. It’s incredibly quiet and peaceful whether inside or outside.
  • A cup (or several) of tea – this probably started from our regular trips to Ireland (traveling east) when we could count on a kettle and a tea set up in the hotel rooms.
  • Strange mix of clarity, confusion, and curiosity – this partially depends on if I’m leaving home or coming back home, but since I’m out of my usual routine, there seems to be space for new and interesting ideas come up or I gain perspective on something that hasn’t been quite clear.
  • Eat a meal at an unusual hour – I don’t usually eat late at night or very early in the morning, but during the period of jetlag when the rules don’t apply, it’s ok to enjoy something to eat when the need arises.
  • Dawn – We are usually awake at dusk but how many of us experience dawn regularly? It’s an incredibly sacred time of the day. It is known that birds wake up and sing around 42 minutes prior to sunrise. As recounted in Kelly Turner’s book Radical Remission, this time of morning has a higher concentration of oxygen in the air than anytime of day due to the first light triggering photosynthesis. When I am awake at this hour due to jetlag, I make it a point to get outside. I’m sure the extra boost of oxygen is super beneficial after being enclosed in the airplane cabin for several hours. It’s a multi-sensory experience listening to the birdsongs and watching the shifting colors in the sky and the surroundings as nighttime becomes day.
  • Sunrise – This is the best gift of jetlag. Whether it’s a cityscape, a beach, a desert, a forest, or just the local neighborhood, the sunrise is an experience to behold that we most often don’t experience simply because we are more focused on getting on with the work of the day. I promise you won’t regret a couple of days to be in the present moment of the early morning and enjoy the splendor and beauty of the sunrise.

The image for this post was taken on a dawn/sunrise walk I took on my first morning in the Arizona desert last month having arrived from London the previous day.

 

On the Other Side

“Sometimes you can’t see what you’re learning until you come out on the other side.”
-Wonder Woman (from Wonder Woman 1984 movie)
I’m going to celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of the Restorative Life Blog with a special personal update. If you are unfamiliar with the background of where we started, refer to Welcome to Restorative Life from May 2018. At that point, we were about ten years into our journey of mental and behavior health challenges that evolved into physical health problems as a result of psychiatric medications. We had been through a lot and there were a myriad of times that we turned that proverbial corner and thought we were there.
If we had listened to others, we may not have made it to the other side. At one point, we ended up on a path that was leading to a totally different destination. It was very much a choice that we didn’t accept that script or story that was being laid out for our son’s future. I knew deep down that there had to be another solution, another way to heal and calm his very active brain. There were a lot of dark moments and dark seasons. The dim glow that our faith and belief provided was enough light to persevere and keep moving forward, I called it a nugget of hope and kept it with me always. Sometimes the climbs were very steep and seemed impossible, but as long as I remained faithful, that nugget of hope was there for me. Eventually the light became brighter and steered us in the right direction.
Like any parents, my personal story became woven in with my children’s lives and their presence has gifted me me with a multitude of lessons and experiences. The Restorative Life Blog posts are inspired by those lessons and things that I have learned along the way that I often wished I had known sooner. But that’s the point, we all have our lessons to learn and we can share them with the hope to ease someone else’s journey and fill their pockets with that nugget of hope.
Of course, that nugget of hope grew into a toolbox of resources fortified by words of encouragement. One of the saying that got me through time and time again was:
“It’s going to be ok in the end, if it’s not ok, it’s not the end.”
It’s all ok now and incredibly, miraculously, we have reached “the other side”. Without getting into unnecessary detail and with respect for his privacy, my son is now 17 years old. He’s been completely off medication since 2019 and he’s thriving at a local school in North London with a bright future ahead of him. This could not have happened without changing his diet to reduce inflammation and allow the body to perform its extraordinary adaptations. Now that he is completely healed, he no longer needs to follow a special diet, but he does understand the relationship between sugar and the brain and how what he eats directly relates to how he feels.
It’s interesting to be on the other side. Our life was intimately tethered to some very difficult struggles for a long time. During some periods, those struggles attached to our identity in uncomfortable ways, and as we moved through and reached new milestones, we had to take some time to get steady and grounded in the new territory each step of the way. Even the best laid plans did not prevent obstacles from appearing along the way. We had to regroup often and acquire new tools to continue moving forward. And here we stand on the other side liberated from the heaviness and burden of struggles with a nugget of hope and lessons ready to move on to the next journey ahead.

New Moon Bath Recipe

The new moon is time of renewal. With the dark moon, the landscape is un-illuminated creating a blank canvas for the coming two weeks. You can still celebrate a new moon bath with this recipe that I discovered many years ago and still use it each month.
This New Moon Bath enhances the release of that which no longer serves you and prepares you to be filled with new blessings to come:
  • Fill the bathtub with very warm water.
  • Add 1-2 cups of Epsom salts
  • Add 5 drops each of the following essential oils: Lavender, Clary Sage, Lemongrass, and Grapefruit
  • While soaking, close your eyes and imagine the salts and the oils supporting the release of toxins, clearing the debris and restoring your energy.
  • Take several deep breaths with complete exhalations.
  • Soak 20-30 minutes
  • Once you have finished your bath, pat yourself dry instead of rubbing with the towel so that some of the salt and oils remain. Then, take a few minutes to write in a journal and set an intention for what you want to create and invite into your life the next two weeks. ***Don’t skip this step, having cleared your energy, you want to be sure that it is being filled up with the energy that you want in your life.***
  • Can’t do a bath on the exact date? No problem, you can still get all the benefits of the new moon energy up to two days before or two days after the new moon each month.
  • Don’t have a bathtub? Add a few drops of essential oil to a hot shower, take several deep breaths inhaling the aromas and making complete exhalations to support the release.
  • Smile and give gratitude for taking the time for self-care and for the feeling of renewal.