Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.  ~M. Scott Peck

Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways. ~Sigmund Freud

Walking away from your feelings won’t prevent them from catching up with you.  ~Tina Donovan
 
Like many bloggers, I will check the keywords that people use to find my posts.  Mostly I do it out of curiosity and sometimes amusement, though occasionally a search term can be provocative.  One such recent search was on “eliminating emotions.”  I laughed that Google took someone to my site in search of that answer since my work is very much about dealing with emotions rather than repressing or eliminating them.

In short, it is not possible to eliminate emotions even though that concept might seem incredibly convenient.  We are all born with a mind, body, and spirit connection.  All aspects of us are integrally linked, and there is no way to separate them.    
We store our emotions in our body.  In recent years, organ transplants have become more common and have helped give us a very clear example of stored emotions.  Many of us have heard stories where recipients of organ donations might suddenly find themselves loving baseball when they previously hated sports or craving fried chicken when they were previously a vegan.  This results from the stored emotions of the organ donors.  When the recipients eventually meet the donors’ families, they usually find that their new likes and dislikes are the same as the donors'.

We especially store emotions in times of trauma when we can’t or won’t face them.  I once attended a spiritually oriented Meetup where a man proudly announced that emotions weren’t an issue for him.  He declared that he just stored his emotions in a box and shoved them away.  There was a palpable emotional cringe in the room when he made this pronouncement as so many of the other attendees recognized how unhealthy this man’s solution to emotions actually was.  When we store emotions in a metaphorical box, we are actually shoving them into our body.  There, the emotions fester until eventually they erupt into pain.  In some cases, that pain is actually part of a disease.  As Gabor Maté explains in When the Body Says No: The Hidden Cost of Stress,

We may think that by ignoring our emotions we are solving our problems in a quick and easy way, but in the long run, we will pay the price.

How these emotions manifest as illness varies widely by the person’s genetics, situation, and spiritual resolve.  There are multiple studies on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome demonstrating a much higher proportion of CFS patients have a history of childhood abuse.   Unfortunately, the media and many health practitioners have misinterpreted that this means that sufferers of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome have simply made up their symptoms as part of a mental illness.  However, CFS is definitely not at all “in one’s head.”  CFS is a result of infections and an adrenal system that has been blown out by years of constant intense stress due to that long-lasting abuse.

Some who have studied the impact of emotions upon the body have found patterns in how emotions manifest into pain and illness.  Heal Your Body by Louise Hay provides a list of the patterns she has seen over the years in how pain presents in many individuals.  This website gives a summary of many of the symptoms and illnesses contained in the book.  In my experience, I find that the book’s contents are often true or very close to the truth for most individuals.  Heal Your Body is a great place to start in trying to determine what emotional and spiritual issues might lie behind your physical pain.

So what do we do about these stored emotions in our body that can cause us pain and illness?  It’s important to clear those stored emotions.  In my personal experience, I find pain relief when I process something that I’ve stored in my body.  It frees me and leaves me happier in the long run.  It can also decrease the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and general stress.

There are many ways to do clear stored emotions; the best way for one person may not be the best way for another.  Talk therapy is a great way to start, but I’ve found that one usually needs to do something to actively involve the body with the psychotherapy process in order to clear those stored emotions.  Emotional Freedom Technique, EMDR, massage, acupuncture, yoga, craniosacral therapy, and energy work (like I do for my clients) are all great ways to help relieve the stored and festering emotional pain in our bodies.

Emotions may seem pesky.  In my own life, I’ve seen people around me who want to eliminate emotions.  Whenever my ex-husband and I would have a fight, I would experience fibromyalgia flares that would last at least 24 hours.  My ex-husband asked me to get my chiropractor to help me find a way to detach my emotions from my body so that I wouldn’t have to pay a physical price for our marital conflict.  Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way.  Our bodies, our minds, and our spirits are intimately linked, and in order to fully heal, we must address all parts of ourselves as an integral unit.

© 2015 Green Heart Guidance

(As a reminder, I am not a medical doctor or a licensed psychologist.  The opinions below are just that:  My personal opinions.  They do not and should not be construed as official diagnoses.)

For many years now, I have watched The Bachelor(ette).  It’s a far cry from my usual fair of Masterpiece Theatre, and while it has nothing to do with the reality of most relationships, I am still highly entertained by most seasons of it.  A few years ago, I found out that a high school friend of mine was a closet fan as well, and so we now virtually watch it together, having a great time making fun of its absurdities.

This season (Chris Soules, “Prince Farming”) has been entertaining, to say the least.  However, there have been several things in recent weeks that have left me frustrated in how they were handled on the show.  One such incident occurred in week five after one of the women, Jade, fell into the Rio Grande during a rafting excursion (shown on the YouTube video below).  Jade describes that she has “a condition where my body goes into hypothermia at … normal temperatures it shouldn’t which causes … my hands and my feet to lose circulation.”  It really bothered me that either she didn’t name this disorder or that ABC edited it out.  This health issue is called Raynaud’s Phenomenon, and it’s estimated that millions of Americans deal with it.  By naming this disorder, in just a few seconds, ABC could have given legitimacy to a true health issue that many people suffer from rather than making it seem like Jade was simply seeking attention.  Of course, the latter is clearly their goal since controversy and strife make for better ratings.

I’ve dealt with secondary Raynaud’s personally; it was a side effect of Lyme Disease.  For me, it usually only manifest going between major differences in temperature such as outdoors in winter (35F) to indoors in the heat (70F) or outdoors in summer (100F) to indoors in the AC (75F). The sudden rapid temperature change is what triggered the symptoms in my extremities.   There was no visible change in my skin on my hands and feet as there are for some people as demonstrated in the photo above.  Instead, it “just” hurt like holy heck, sort of like an extreme version of a burn, a cramp, and pins and needles combined.  However, when removing my clothing in my cold bathroom during winter to shower, the temperature change would cause my nipples to sometimes get very painfully hard and very white, not something most people around me would get to see.  The only thing that really helped eliminate the symptoms of Raynaud’s was time as my body slowly acclimated to the change in temperature.  Most of the time my hands and feet were too painful for someone to touch or rub.

As with many invisible illnesses, there are doubters and naysayers when someone is truly suffering.  One of the other women on the show, Kelsey, very uncompassionately saw Jade as strategically using her disorder to get more attention from Chris Soules.  Kelsey announces repeatedly in an exasperated voice “I’m fine!” because she is upset she doesn’t have something to use to get extra attention from the Bachelor.  If Kelsey only knew how painful the experience Jade was going through, she might not have been so jealous of the extra attention, and Kelsey might actually have been saying a prayer of gratitude that she is fine.  Her disgust at someone else’s pain and need for assistance was reprehensible at best.

After Chris finished rubbing Jade’s feet for her, another bachelorette jokingly asked, “Alright, are we forming a line?” Chris jokingly replied as he laughed, “Ok, who’s next?”  That kind of joking around the incident felt healthy and normal.  It acknowledged that many of the other women would love a foot rub (as many of us do!), but at the same time it didn’t demean Jade’s pain in any way.

For me personally as I watched this incident, one of the biggest revelations for me was the realization that I no longer deal with Raynaud’s.  That may sound strange, but I don’t know when in the past few years I stopped having to deal with it.  At some point, my health improved enough that this was no longer one of my body’s many problems.  However, given how many other symptoms and pains I deal with on a daily basis, I didn’t even notice when this major one disappeared.  I am so grateful that I can say that I have healed enough that Raynaud’s is no longer an issue for me, but I still feel a great deal of compassion for those who suffer from it’s annoying and extreme painfulness.

© 2015 Green Heart Guidance

(As always, I am not a medical doctor.  This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment.  Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

Sorry, guys.  I know it’s not a topic you find fascinating for the most part.

Like most women, menstrual cramps have been very bothersome for me at various points of my life.  I do not have endometriosis, so my suggestions may not be of use for those with more severe pain.  However, I have found a few things that help make life a little less painful in this regard.

When I was having problems with cramping in college, I was advised to change my diet:  No chocolate and less sugar.  Those are not recommendations that a woman with PMS wants to hear, and at that point, I didn’t have the willpower or desire to follow them.  I wanted an “easy” magic solution.  However, as I’ve aged and I’ve had to make far more severe changes to my diet, I’ve found that it does affect cramping greatly.  The most important thing for me is eating organic.  It really does reduce the cramping. 

What I’ve discovered overall is that the more I’m detoxing, the worse the cramps can get.  Our bodies have to detox all the chemicals we are exposed to, including pesticides on conventional foods.  Menstruation is one of our bodies’ ways of detoxing:  It is a means of elimination just like mucus, sweat, urine, feces, and vomit. Thus, eating organic is helping reduce my cramps by reducing the amount of toxins I’m exposed to.  However, I also find that the more chemical exposures from being out in public in scented places, the more intense and painful my cramps are in a given month.

At some point along the line I read somewhere that orgasm can help relieve menstrual cramps.  I’ve found that sometimes it helps for a very short while, but sex is not usually on the top of one’s list of things to try when cramps are bad.  (However, this is the part of the article that I’m sure many guys would find interesting!)

Cramp bark is an herbal option to help reduce menstrual cramps.  I learned about it during my last pregnancy at the recommendation of my midwife when it really helped with intense Braxton Hicks contractions.  It also can help reduce the cramping pain during menstruation.  In tincture form, it’s pretty strong tasting, but if you follow it with a chaser of a strong tasting beverage (like orange juice), you can get the taste out of your mouth fairly quickly.

One other correlation that I’ve found is that when Lyme is dying off intensely in my body at the same time as my period, the pain from both gets worse.  I’m not sure what the exact mechanism of this is, but I suspect that it has to do with the total load of pain my body is dealing with creating an exponential rather than linear increase in pain.  I’m not alone in dealing with this phenomenon:  Many women end up with menstrual cycles and Lyme cycles happening at the same time, and it can create a great deal of misery.

© 2015 Green Heart Guidance

In many articles about decluttering and minimizing, one of the popular suggestions is that if you haven’t worn a piece of clothing in over a year, you should purge it.  However, in my life, I have found this to be very bad advice.  While I agree that generally we as modern Americans have way too much crap around our houses, having multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) changes the rules of the game.  Individuals with MCS learn how to selectively hoard things that may be of future use.

MCS is a condition that is technically known as Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance; that translates roughly into, “We don’t know why your body can’t handle the synthetic chemicals that most people can handle.”  For me, a combination of genetics and Lyme disease have made it so that my liver has a great deal of difficulty detoxing the multitude of synthetic chemicals in the modern world. 

For those with MCS, new products provide health challenges because of the chemical off-gassing they do.  Off-gassing is the releasing of volatile compounds into the air (and thereby into our lungs and bodies).  A common example most people are familiar with is paint:  Everyone knows what new paint often smells like. Those are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that you smell being released from the paint.  There is now no-VOC paint which is almost odorless, and it doesn’t have as many synthetic chemicals to release thereby making it more tolerable (sometimes) to those who are sensitive to typical paint.  It's not the smell that is the actual problem but the chemicals that are released:  Low odor paint can still be a huge problem for those with MCS because the low odor paint has masking chemicals added to cover up the more toxic smelling components of the other chemicals.

Many products that we buy release chemicals in the off-gassing process.  Vinyl or PVC is one of the nastier ones.  New cars are loaded with toxic synthetic chemicals (aka the new car smell).  Many finishes on furniture are created through synthetic chemicals.  So when a chemically sensitive person purchases most things, they must first off-gas the products in order to release as many of the synthetic chemicals as possible before trying to use the product near them.  If one doesn’t off-gas many new products, someone with MCS will likely get very ill from them.  It can take between days and years to off-gas products, and some things never truly off-gas completely.

Clothes are no exception to this:  The preservative “sizing” that manufacturers use in fabric is actually formaldehyde or similar chemicals which are extremely difficult for most with MCS to handle.  Likewise, there are chemicals used in dying the clothing, and there are chemicals used in processing the raw materials.  Some elastics have fragrances added to unsuccessfully cover the cheap rubber smell of them.  New clothing, unless it is incredibly well processed organic clothing, is toxic by default.  Washing the clothing eventually pulls out some of the chemicals, but how many washes it takes can vary widely by the clothing itself.  There are various tricks one can use to help accelerate the detoxification process for clothing such as using enzymes, vinegar, baking soda, hot water, and for non-red clothing, buttermilk soaks, but repeated washing in water and drying on hot in the dryer really is the best way to make new clothing safer for use.  I have to wash new clothing between eight and 20 times to make it possible for me to wear, and I have had some clothing that I’ve given up after 20 washes and passed it on to others who aren’t as chemically sensitive as me.

Buying used clothing is often not much of a help:  It can be even harder to get out fragrances and chemicals from petrochemical based detergents, fabric softeners and dryer sheets than it is to get the chemicals out of new clothing.  It makes me very sick to even try as those fragrances and chemicals release into the air of my home during washing, and so I gave up buying used clothing long ago even though secondhand clothing previously was my preferred way of shopping for both environmental and financial reasons.  I still will buy used clothing if it comes from another chemically sensitive person, but it's hard to find clothes that fit those standards!

One of the additional issues I’ve deal with in battling Lyme is massive weight fluctuation.  When I am doing well, I drop weight quickly and without effort.  However, when I am facing new health challenges, I gain weight equally easily and with no negative dietary changes.  Thus, I have clothes in my closet that range from size 8 to size 24.  I was settled comfortably into a size 16 for over a year until last March when suddenly I started dealing with pancreatic issues; my weight shot back up to a size 22 within a few months even with me eating less carbohydrates, no sugars, and no fruits.  It was (and is) utterly frustrating.  As we kill bartonella and eliminate parasites from my pancreas, my weight has worked its way back down to a size 18 and continues to slowly drop back off.

I had been just about ready to let go of my largest clothes in sizes 22 and 24 last spring when the sudden weight gain happened, and mercifully, I still had all my larger clothes waiting in storage buckets in my closet.  Had I not, I would have had to invest in all new clothing, plus I would have had to go through the hassle and expense of detoxing the new clothing.  Thus, for someone like me who deals with chemical sensitivities and fluctuating weight, holding onto clothing for more than a year makes a great deal of sense.

While I am working to minimize the amount of “stuff” in my house, my clothing collection is not something I am willing to purge.  For my life and for others like me, the advice of getting rid of clothing I haven’t worn in a year is well-intentioned but impractical.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

This holiday season, please think twice before you give scented products as holiday gifts.  Many studies over the years have concluded that between 11% and 30% of the population is sensitive to fragrances at some level; there are probably more who don’t recognize that their health issues are due to fragrance sensitivity.  Those people include Cindy McCain, wife of former presidential candidate Senator John McCain, who though she suffers from disabling migraines, still carried perfume in her luggage and made herself very sick when the bottle broke. 

Periodically, new studies confirm that scented products contain dozens of toxic chemicals that can have dangerous short term and long term effects (including being carcinogens).  These products include but are not limited to synthetic scented candles, air fresheners, perfumes, colognes, aftershaves, lotions, and more.  Those most at risk for short term problems are those with allergies, asthma, eczema, and migraines.  All of us are at risk for the long term problems.

I am one of those who is sensitive to fragrances, and I have been all my life.  I’ve always been at risk of breaking out into a rash if I touched a scented product.  Many years ago when I was a newlywed and not yet sick with MCS and Lyme, one of my new in-laws gave me perfume as a Christmas present.  I politely thanked her, set it aside, and mentally noted that I would send it to Goodwill as soon as possible.  The giver, however, kept pressing my then-husband to tell her how much I liked the gift.  He finally had to tell her, “Look, she’s sensitive to perfume.  She can’t wear it.”  While the gift was given from a place of generosity, it was one that had the potential to cause a reaction for me.

Since Lyme disrupted my health, however, I’ve become one of the estimated 1-2% who are severely reactive to synthetic chemicals.  I have a diagnosis of multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS).  My sensitivities are so severe that I can’t be in a room with a plug-in air freshener or a lit scented candle.  If someone gets near me wearing perfume, I have to get up and move or leave the room depending on its size or ventilation.  If I don’t, I end up with fibromyalgia flares, asthma attacks and migraines.  At one point, the chemical sensitivities were so severe that I became homebound because minor exposures would incapacitate me for days.

So this holiday season, as you think about giving scented products as gifts to others, consider whether or not those items really are the best choice for the recipient or those around them.  Scented products can cause short term pain and long term health issues.   As alternatives, consider attending a local farmers’ market, visiting a craft festival, or shopping at a holistic store.  Investigate options in those places for safer products including natural perfumes, candles, and lotions crafted from essential oils; better yet, consider fragrance free items that are far less likely to cause issues for the person receiving the gift.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

My dreams are generally not prophetic, though for some with metaphysical gifts, dreams can provide amazing insight about the future.  Visions during sleep can also be an incredibly powerful way of connecting with the other side.  I have had one sleeping contact with the other side that I know of in which two deceased relatives came to visit me, but that was an exception to my norm.  Generally my dreams are very clearly my unconscious trying to work out emotional issues and stresses from my past and present.  However, when I am fighting Lyme, Bartonella or have parasites dying, I tend to have awful nightmares.  In a recent round of die off, I was dealing with dreams about death.  Intuitive empath that I am, it doesn’t surprise me that when critters in me are dying, I would be dreaming about death, too.

In the first dream I had, I was dying of butt cheek cancer while in high school.  No, I doubt that’s a real cancer term, but it has to do with the fact that I was having a great deal of Lyme-induced IT band pain which was creating real life butt cheek pain.  My unconscious was dealing with that pain, too.  Despite the fact I had terminal cancer, I was headed to the mall with a high school friend to do research for our math homework by finding the prices we needed to complete word problems.  As disturbing as it was that I was doing my math homework while faced with imminent death, I can even understand where it came from:  My high school geometry teacher had commented on one of my Facebook blog posts earlier that day.

In the second death-related dream, a divorced friend of mine died from a sudden but expected death (such as a rapid onset/decline cancer).  In the dream, much of what I was observing was her ex-husband moving into the house she got in the divorce with his new girlfriend and how their two children were coping with it all.  In reality, this was my unconscious dealing with issues around my own ex-husband as much as her issues with her ex-husband.

In the third death-related dream in less than 24 hours, I was dreaming of Ebola.  We can all probably figure out how that was in my unconscious given the media bombardment about Ebola even if one is trying to avoid it for the most part.  In this dream, I was dying of Ebola which I had caught at my childhood elementary school where I was working as a nurse.  Even though I was happy about being a nurse, I was very emphatic to anyone who asked that I had been a teacher previously.  Here again my unconscious is still working through my change in life paths to become a healer rather than a teacher.  While I believe that much of what I do combines the two vocations, I do not ever see myself in a traditional classroom grading papers again.  I’m on a different journey now.

Dreams can be very revealing of your fears, your desires, and the areas you need to work on healing.  Keeping a dream journal where you record your dreams when you wake up can be quite illuminating. If you’ve never done it, you might want to put some kind of recording device (paper, pen, iPhone, laptop) on your nightstand and try it for a few weeks to see what you can learn about yourself.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

Each year around this time, many of my friends begin a “30 Days with a Grateful Heart” project that was started by one of the women in the group we all met through.  Through this exercise, these women post on Facebook or on their blogs almost every day in December about something they are grateful for.  In theory, I can see how this is a beautiful way to bring a positive spirit to a season that has been overly commercialized.  In reality, I used to spend the first week of December fighting anger, depression and frustration related to this project.  I was really bothered.  I couldn’t read most of the posts on the topic.  It took me a while to formulate my thoughts on the subject, and I eventually decided that it was something that others need to hear because my outlook is different.  I formulated this post which I originally posted on Facebook for friends several years ago; I've edited and updated it for this blog.  This post definitely isn’t meant as an attack on those who do the project.  Instead, it’s mean to give the perspective of someone who fights major health issues.

For me, living with chronic illness has changed gratitude from something that can be a project that is confined to one month a year.  Gratitude is something that I have to find every single day.  It is a survival skill.  It is what helps me endure the pain and suffering.  In order to keep myself motivated to keep fighting a seemingly uphill battle, I have to count my blessings daily.  I’m not fortunate enough to only focus on these things for a short time each year.  If I lose sight of the things I am grateful for, I will lose the will to keep going.

My health issues also led me to shift the things that I am grateful for.  To those who do gratitude projects at this time of year, please consider adding “health” towards the top of your list of blessings.  If you can go to the grocery store by yourself; if you can go for a walk in the park almost any day of the year; if you can go to your children’s school pageants; if you can attend weddings and funerals; if you can go out with friends to a happy hour; if you can travel near and far; and if your lack of health does not limit the way you live your life, then you are truly blessed in a way that you don’t realize until you lose all of those things.

In the spirit of gratitude, I am going to share my list of things that I am grateful for.  I don’t give thanks for all of them every day, but I do have to find gratitude for some of them 365 days a year.

• I am grateful for my three living children.  During the worst times of this illness when there was little hope for diagnosis or cure, they were the motivation that kept me alive.  They are amazing humans, and I feel so blessed that the universe has sent them into my life.
• I am grateful to have only endured the death of one of my children when so many women in the world lose far more of theirs due to natural disasters or preventable problems such as starvation and illnesses borne by poor sanitation.  I hope that my remaining three children are blessed with long, healthy and happy lives.
• I am grateful for my metaphysical gifts which have greatly advanced my healing at deeper levels than I ever fathomed possible.  Opening to them has changed my lie in ways I never dreamed of in my younger years.  I am so grateful to be able to use them to help others, too.
  
• I am grateful for my health care providers who work to improve my overall quality of life.  Through years of working intensely with some of them, they have also become close friends.
• I am grateful for both drugs and herbs which help me heal.  I am grateful for the current progress we are making with my healing, painful though it may be.
• I am grateful that I have decent health insurance.  Even though I pay for a large percentage of my health expenses out of pocket, health insurance does cover part of it.  Everyone in the country should be so privileged to have the same or better.
  
• I am grateful that I am able to buy organic food.  Eating organic is not a lifestyle choice for me.  It’s a medical necessity.  Food free of synthetic pesticides prevents me from having reactions that include extreme fatigue (even worse than what I normally endure), breathing problems, and fibromyalgia pain among others.
• I am grateful to have a home where I am safe and able to live healthily.  For many with multiple chemical sensitivities, housing is a huge challenge.  They can’t afford to buy a safe place and finding an affordable safe home to rent is almost impossible.  I am also extremely grateful that the house is still standing and relatively undamaged after a lightning strike in 2009.
• I am grateful for an ex-husband who is such a loving dad to our kids.  I am grateful for our amicable divorce that was completed this year.  I am grateful for all of the positive changes and growth in my life that came through the divorce.
• I am grateful for the beautiful new name that I chose during the divorce.  It makes me smile each time I sign it.
• I am grateful for my intelligence and education.  The disease I am facing requires a large amount of research and action on the part of the patient, and I am able to find and absorb that knowledge.  Without the skills I have, my healing process would not have advanced as far as it has.
• I am grateful for the good (relatively speaking) health days I have.  Any time I get to go for a walk, go to a park,  go to a farmers’ market, or go to a social event, I feel blessed.
• I am grateful for all that photography has brought to my life in terms of stress relief and in giving me a new way to look at the world.  I see new things around me that I never noticed before (especially with my beloved macro lens involved!).
• I am grateful to live in Austin.  Even though I may complain about the heat and allergens and lack of snow, I appreciate the liberal eco-friendly culture that abounds here.  
• And last but not least, I am grateful for the friends, near and far, who have helped me keep some semblance of sanity throughout all of this.    

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

 (As always, I am not a medical doctor.  This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment.  Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

My introduction to yoga came when I was pregnant with my first baby.  My midwife asserted that the women who took yoga classes did the best during labor; that was enough to motivate me to sign up for really wonderful hatha prenatal yoga classes with a fabulous instructor.  I loved yoga and did it through my twin pregnancy as well as some postpartum yoga.   And my midwife was right:  The techniques I learned in prenatal yoga were fare more useful for me during labor than those I learned in my Bradley childbirth class.

More recently in my life as I was trying to raise myself up out of my chronic illness, my chiropractor started encouraging me to meditate daily.  I was open to the idea, so one day I laid down in shavasana and tried.  I couldn’t do it.  The only thing I could think was, “I need to do yoga first before I can do this.”  So I found the video reviewed here on Netflix streaming (no longer available), and I began.  I was quite pleased with what I had found in this video that was at exactly the right level for me and my physical restrictions.  My chiropractor was thrilled that I had not only begun meditating but had gone back to yoga as well.  He didn’t mean to accomplish quite so much in one try!

The video I discovered was Healing Yoga for Aches and Pains by Lisa Bennet Matkin and Charles Matkin.  In addition to currently being available for short term rental on Amazon Instant Video, the cheapest place I found it for purchase on the web is Target.  There are also more expensive copies on Amazon and Ebay. 

The video is designed for individuals with mobility impairment.  It presents some very common yoga asanas (positions) that have been adapted to make them easier for someone who is physically weak or in pain.  One does need to be able to stand, sit, and lay on the floor, or you could skip that particular section if you can't get into those positions.  A yoga mat is recommended but not required; one also needs a chair to work with, though I’ve used the footboard on my bed for parts of it.   Many times the instructors in the video refer to people with arthritis, but I think the video is great for fibromyalgia or Lyme, both of which I have.   The video is really low key and isn’t suitable for someone who is in prime physical condition, but for those of us with limitations, it can be perfect.

If you have never done yoga before, I’d recommend starting with a private tutor or classes before using a video; then you can use the video instead of or to supplement classes.  I recommend starting with an instructor so that you can learn how the positions are supposed to work so that you don’t hurt yourself.  Yoga may look easy, but it’s actually quite strenuous at times, and it is possible to hurt yourself.  Case in point:  The first time I watched this video, I went into a lunge, something I could easily do when I was healthy.  A split second after I started the asana, I had the thought, “My knees can’t handle this,” and I collapsed to the floor as one of my knees gave out.  Fortunately, it wasn’t anything my chiropractor couldn’t fix easily, but it illustrates my point.  If you’ve got a particular weakness in your body, learning the dangers first is really important to preventing injury.

My only complaint about the video is that the shavasana (or relaxation) at the end is way too short.  I’d like to have at least 15-20 minutes of instrumental music available at the end to extend my meditation period.  I’ve worked around this by hitting pause on the DVD and hitting play on a music machine (iPod, CD player, etc.) of some sort that I have sitting nearby.

One of the advantages to doing a yoga video at home is the that the hotter I get, the more I can just take off clothes.  While there is an all-male naked yoga studio in Austin, that’s not really my thing for many reasons!  If I’m stripping, I want to be in the privacy of my own home.  The video also allows me to pause it if I need a break or if I need to go to the bathroom.  I can start whenever I feel up to it, and I can stop when my body says it’s done.  While it doesn’t have the benefit of socialization with others and the added instructor guidance, for someone who is homebound and disabled, this video offers a way to partake in yoga.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it. ~Rabindranath Tagore

I grew up in a conservative, college-educated, Catholic, military family.  This upbringing was one that had an emphasis on logic and rationality.  Using one’s intuition was not a priority, especially if it countered logic.   As a result, I spent the majority of my childhood and early adulthood ignoring my intuition even when it was overwhelming.  I almost always regretted not following my gut feelings even though I was doing exactly what I had been taught to do.

My chronic illness has taught me otherwise.  Through my health struggles, I began to develop my intuition as it assisted me greatly in my healing.  The first time I really used intuition to assist in my treatment was my decision to go on Valtrex, an anti-viral that is sometimes used to treat those with high HHV-6 levels which can lead to extreme fatigue.   While my HHV-6 levels were out of range, they were not as high as those who showed remarkable progress on Valtrex.  Still, my doctor was open to trying it because I was so certain I wanted to.  While my HHV-6 levels never dropped, the Valtrex did something else amazing:  My energy levels went up.  It was not enough to make me functional again, but this was the first step in getting me to be less bedbound than I was at that time.  Clearly some virus in my system was part of the larger problem, and the Valtrex addressed that issue.

Throughout my illness, I have continued to hone my intuition.  I am very good at picking the supplement that is best for my own body now, in part due to intuition and in part due to my higher power connections.  Just exercising this intuition was the starting point in what led to the opening up of my other metaphysical gifts.  My intuition is still not perfect: I would estimate that it is 95% right when it comes to matters about me, and when it is wrong the other 5% of the time, it is due to my high emotional involvement.  However, knowing that has taught me that when I’m highly emotionally involved, I need to draw on other outside resources to make sure I provide myself with the best care.

We all have intuition, and we are all able to listen to “that gut feeling.”  I believe that everyone should usually follow their gut even when authorities, rational thinking or logic tell you otherwise.  This doesn’t just have to apply to health issues.  When you are considering dating someone and your gut tells you not to, then don’t do it.  Something in your intuition is trying to protect you.  When everything about a business deal feels bad to you, if it’s in your power to change it or stop it, then do so.  You can use your intuition even just getting in the car and going somewhere:  If your gut tells you not to take the route you normally do, there’s probably a good reason for that such as an accident or a traffic jam.

Following your intuition doesn’t mean you have to give up rational thought.  I describe myself as “an interesting paradox of an intellectual from academia combined with a grounded but metaphysically gifted person.”  It is possible to do both, though I have found it hard to find my place in society as I integrate two positions that are erroneously believed to be in opposition to each other.  Yet this is who I am:  An extremely logical and rational woman who uses her intuition and metaphysical gifts to guide her.  I love whom I am, and I have no desire to change that!

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

(As always, I am not a medical doctor.  This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment.  Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

Recently on a Lyme related list that I read, one of the new members asked what detoxing was.  For me, that’s detoxification is something that is such a part of my vocabulary and life that it’s almost like asking me what breathing is.  I actually had to stop and think about it.

Detoxification is a natural process we do all the time.  It’s our bodies’ way of getting rid of anything we take in that is toxic.  In our modern world, we absorb a lot of synthetic chemicals that our bodies don’t need or want through the food we eat (pesticides, synthetic ingredients, artificial colors and flavoring, and more), the air we breathe (air “fresheners,” paints, cleaners, gas fumes, and more), and the products we wear (shampoos, deodorants, detergents, makeup, and more). 

In a healthy human, detoxification happens naturally through any excreted bodily fluid:  Urine, feces, sweat, tears, mucus, breastmilk, even semen.  Anything that our body puts out has the ability to contain the toxins we have absorbed.  Most commonly our liver and kidneys do this filtering and send the waste products out through our urine and bowel movements.  However, with the high synthetic chemical load in our bodies, we dump unnecessary chemicals through our other fluids as well.  This is how you end up with studies showing high levels of toxic chemicals in breastmilk.

For some of us with impaired detoxification systems due to various issues, detoxing is rough. My Lyme has combined with genetic issues to make my liver my weakest organ in my body, and so I struggle to get toxic chemicals out.  This in turn is part of what creates my multiple chemical sensitivities. I am not alone in this:  Many with autoimmune issues struggle with impaired detoxification.

So then how does one intentionally detox to force more of the chemicals we are exposed to out of our bodies rather than storing them in our body fat?  There are many natural ways to do it.  One of the easiest is sweating.  Exercising, saunas, or anything that makes you sweat will help reduce your toxic chemical load.

Another way is through diet.  Eating an organic whole foods diet of any type assists the body in detoxifying.  First, the less garbage you put in, the less garbage you have to get out.  Second, natural food has many healing properties.  Eating well can help undo previous damage to your body and can assist in detoxing any harsh chemicals your body is storing.

Many people like to try popular cleanses that they find on the internet including the Master Cleanse.  The Master Cleanse involves fasting for a designated amount of time (3-10+ days depending on which plan you follow) and during that time only drinking a mixture of lemon juice, water, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup.  There is some truth to this helping with detoxification:  Lemon juice does assist in liver cleansing.  However, cleanses like this can also be dangerous.  Because you stop eating solids, the body no longer has the means to have abundant bowel movements.  That means many of the toxins you are releasing are getting stuck in your body rather than being sent out through the stools.  Cleanses like this can be made safer by adding in organic low carbohydrate vegetables to assist with the detoxification.  However, all cleanses really should be done under the guidance of an appropriate practitioner.  (See below.)

Cleanses are NOT healthy when one uses them in order to regularly binge.  I know individuals who will fast during weekdays in order to consumer large amounts of sugar, gluten, and alcohol on the weekends.  This is really not good for one’s body.  Many of us will cheat on our healthy diets occasionally to have a piece of wedding cake or such, but treating one’s body with flagrant disrespect by binge eating and fasting is really not a good idea.  A slow but steady diet of healthy organic foods is the far better approach to healthy eating.

There are also many supplements that can cause or support detoxification.  Because of the detoxification impairment I battle, I am constantly on supplements that can support my body’s natural means, though I rarely take supplements to encourage additional detoxification.  These supplements that I take help my liver process the chemicals which it struggles with otherwise.  I can tell when I am taking them and when I stop.

If you are considering doing a cleanse or using supplements to assist with detoxification, I very strongly recommend you use a reputable local practitioner to help you.  In particular, chiropractors and naturopaths have training in this area; some integrative doctors do as well.  If you use an experienced practitioner who uses muscle testing, they can help you in finding what your body actually needs to detox from and what will best assist in this process rather than randomly trying things to see what works.  This increases efficiency and saves time and money in the long run.  These practitioners can also help you when unexpected issues surface.  Detoxification is not always straightforward or easy:  It can sometimes cause miserable flu-like symptoms.  It may also bring up serious emotional reactions as the body purges all that it does not need to store.  Thus, having a practitioner to assist you can ease your misery in the process and keep you from going into a serious state of crisis.  You want your net result to be a healthier body, not just a miserable experience with no lasting positive health benefits.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

(As always, I am not a medical doctor.  This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment.  Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

You shouldn't be ashamed of your pain. You have the right to have your pain treated. ~Naomi Judd

In the fall of 2013, the media started bringing attention to how the DEA was going to make hydrocodone a Schedule II drug (which finally happened in October 2014) in order to cut down on prescription drug abuse.  Since hydrocodone is one of the few painkillers that works well for me and that I don’t react to, I needed to find a pain specialist who had a triplicate prescription pad since none of my other practitioners have one.  I didn’t want to wait until the change actually happened because I knew pain specialists would be having an influx of new patients which would make it difficult to get in for a new patient appointment.

I solicited recommendations from those on my healthcare team, and I selected the one doctor most frequently named.  I then had to be accepted by him as his client:  He has a 16 page application.  In part, this serves to scare off drug-seekers without true health problems who just want an easy fix.  For me, filling out that application caused a much bigger reaction than I realized was going to happen.  As I filled it out, I became very depressed.  I already knew that I lived with chronic pain, even with drugs and additional natural healing support to take the edge off of the pain.  However, the application made it very clear to me how much pain was limiting my life.  Suddenly, I realized that it wasn’t just because of the need to have access to hydrocodone that I needed a pain specialist.  It was because I was living with chronic pain.  I have a pain problem.

When I initially saw that first pain specialist, he asked me what brought me to his office.  I told him that I had late disseminated Lyme disease.  His response was, “Well, that’s why you have pain.”  I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  I had been all worked up that I was going to have to convince this doctor of the reality of my pain, and he was immediately offering me more drugs than I was willing to accept due to his familiarity with the difficulty of my condition.

After almost a year with this doctor, it became very obvious to me that he was not the right doctor for me.  The medication he had me on was causing life-threatening side effects yet he didn’t seem to care.  However, I was concerned about switching doctors.  If a patient sees too many pain specialists without settling on one, they are quickly labeled as a drug seeker and get a reputation in the medical community.  It is very hard to find a good practitioner even without all the complicated issues my case provides.  I had one pain specialist’s office refuse to accept my case due to my chemical sensitivities.  Mercifully, the next doctor I tried was willing to take me on:  He views me as a challenge, and he likes challenges.

It is very difficult in some cases such as mine to find appropriate and adequate medication for pain.  The overall trend is that patients in severe pain are not properly medicated and the medical community at large underestimates their pain.  Last February, I read an article in the local newspaper that made me blow steam out of my ears.  Speaking of the about-to-be-released Zohydro LR, a long acting form of hydrocodone, the article stated, “… the Fed Up! Coalition wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg saying, ‘In the midst of a severe drug epidemic fueled by overprescribing of opioids, the very last thing the country needs is a new, dangerous, high-dose opioid.’”  This quote could not be more wrong.  There are actually a dearth of good drug options for those who suffer from chronic pain.  This new form of an already proven relatively safe drug was a great advance, but it really wasn’t that much of a change from what was out there.  It’s not really a new drug but a different form of an already (overly) popular drug.  It's also not more powerful than the slow acting form of hydrocodone:  If anything, in my non-medical opinion, it's probably less likely to cause addiction because Zohydro LR doesn't provide a "high" because of it's extended release mechanism which provides slow but steady pain relief without a rapid onset.  However, the prejudice of this advocacy group and its protests only hamper the needs of those with true health issues who are lacking in good options for pain relief.

I regret that I went so many years without seeing a pain specialist based on my misguided belief that I didn’t need one.  I also didn’t want the stigma of seeing a pain specialist because I move in circles where many frown upon Western drugs.  However, pain specialists really do have far better knowledge of how to manage pain than a general practitioner or even a Lyme doctor.  Even though two years later we’re still struggling to get my pain under control, we've still made some improvements in my quality of life.  I really wish I had taken this step sooner.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

(This is a special encore presentation from my archives.)

One of the hidden blessings of chronic fatigue is that the illness forces you to prioritize and recognize what is truly essential to life.  You no longer have the energy to participate in the seasonal chaos that occurs at this time of the year.  It just isn’t a physical option.  And so, with great regrets at first, you learn to cut back on what you can do for Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate. While I certainly don’t advocate getting sick just so you can learn that lesson, I can see the benefits it has brought to my life.  I’m sharing a few tips from my experience that may or may not be of use to you in helping reduce some pressure from your life.

Christmas is a season, not a day.  If you believe the retailers, the season begins in October when they start putting out the Christmas items.  While I think it should be shorter than that, I do think it lasts more than one or two days.  Don’t feel pressured to do everything in a short period of time.  Spread out your celebrations.  I’ve held Christmas gatherings on December 8th because it was the only mutually agreeable date.  I’ve been to Christmas gatherings in early January when weather foiled December plans.  Regardless of when you do it, spread the season out a bit so that you don’t overexert yourself.

Decorate as a group or party activity.  Decorating for Christmas takes a great deal of energy.  My family no longer goes all out for decorating, and I do miss parts of that.  However, I accept that I do what I can.
 
One way to still make this happen is to have parties to decorate and undecorated the house.  Most people like to do a certain part of the decorating but not another (the tree, the lights, the ornaments, the accessories).  Throw a minimalistic party in December and invite a few friends to come help decorate and celebrate the season.  Make it potluck so that you are not providing the food as that takes more energy.  If you have special items you are concerned about breaking, set them aside before the party starts.  That way you can make sure they are safe.

In Catholic culture, the season of Christmas lasts from December 25th to January 6th in many countries.  Celebrate the arrival of the three wise men with another un-decorating party the weekend after New Year’s.  Have friends come over again, bringing leftover fruitcake to munch on, and reverse the decorating process.  Use the time to decompress from all the foibles and stresses of the season that you are now packing away until the end of the next year.

Holiday Baking.  I used to love to make many flavors of cookies just like my grandmother did. However, now I am lucky to just get one made.  Dietary restrictions make this even harder.  Truth be told, I don’t need or want the sugar from the baking, but I recognize many others do consider it a part of the holidays.

Consider hosting a cookie exchange.  Everyone brings several dozen cookies bagged or boxed in dozens.  For every dozen you bring, you take home another dozen.  Everyone brings one extra dozen for the hostess so that you don’t have to bake, but you’ll provide coffee, tea, and milk.  Put out some of the cookies in these hostess dozens so that everyone can sample and munch.  This way you can still have a variety of cookies around the house without doing the baking!

Online shopping.  It is a lot less stressful than facing malls full of perfumed people and products.  True, it doesn’t allow you to have the fun of seeing all the objects you are buying first and experiencing the Christmas decorations, but it does cut down on time and stress.  I really recommend it.  No one knows if that name brand item came from a big box store or online.

Buying ahead.  I try to pick up presents for my kids (especially stocking stuffers) as I see items on sale during the months ahead.  I keep a list on my computer so I don’t forget what I’ve bought.  Where I have hidden the gifts is a separate problem:  I need to add that to the list, too!  

Green gift wrapping.  We use pillowcases and ribbons to wrap presents that aren’t going to others outside of the house.  It is far more green than paper that is going to be thrown away after one use.  It also avoids using tape which was a huge chemical sensitivity for me for many years.  If I can, I use reusable gift bags for others who don’t live here.  Regardless, the pillowcase approach makes gift wrapping much quicker and easier!

Give non-tangible gifts.  The best gifts are the ones from the heart.  While many don’t share that belief, you can use this approach for those who do.  Rather than give gifts that the receiver may not like or that may not fit, consider making a donation to a charity like Heifer International, Kiva, your local food bank, or a charity of the receiver’s choice.

Other non-tangible gifts might include tickets to a community play, a local museum membership, or a donation of your time to take a loved one on an excursion you might not do otherwise, like taking them out to dinner.  For someone with chronic illness or physical limitations, some of the best gifts you can give are spending time with them or helping them with tasks they cannot handle themselves.  For those who are living on tight budgets, you can sometimes make an anonymous payment to one of their utilities by contacting the utility company and using their address to access the account.

Remember the reason for the season.  While I am no longer Christian, I do believe in focusing on the values of this time of year rather than the commercialism of the mainstream culture.  It is a time to remember family, to remember our blessings, and to be grateful for all we have.  Consider attending a worship service at the religious group of your choice or go for an extra hike in nature just to appreciate the natural beauty of the amazing world around us.

How ever you chose to celebrate this season, may it be a blessed, safe and peaceful one for you and your loved ones.

©2014 Green Heart Guidance.com

So much of our society is prejudiced against obesity.  There are many false assumptions about those who are obese:  They are lazy, they are couch potatoes, they have poor diets, they are emotional eaters, they have no interest in health, and more.  Sometimes a mercy judgment of poor genetics also gets thrown in.  The repeating day-to-day encounters I have with this judgment throughout our society amaze me.  As a woman who has been both proportionately slender and fat as an adult, I really can notice a difference in how people treat those who are obese.

This post was partially inspired by an inspirational meme from Facebook. It quotes a Dr. Gould as saying, “Emotional eating triggers are usually based on a need to soothe emotional pain.  Perhaps, then, the next time we see someone overweight, or don’t like what we see in the mirror, instead of saying, ‘There’s a person who eats too much,’ we might say, ‘There’s a person who’s hurting too much.’”  When I first read that, I became livid.  I counted to a lot more than ten before posting a response similar to this:  “Obesity can be caused by a variety of issues, not just emotional pain.  Judging others in any way is not a healthy attitude.  Perhaps instead of focusing on an individual’s weight, we could focus on the beautiful person they are inside and out.”

Even as an obese woman who has herself pretty together emotionally, I’ve still faced many health practitioners who automatically assume that I binge eat or eat for emotional reasons.  For some of them, this is because they have emotional eating issues that they are projecting onto me.  For others, it’s just plain prejudice based on bad assumptions.  Once they discuss diet with me, they realize I eat amazingly well; my weight issues are due to Lyme, not food-based emotional outlets.

Likewise, this attitude against obesity is the pervasive one on dating sites.  One direct quote from a man on a dating site states, “If you are obese, chances are you are unhealthy. I want to be with someone who chooses to be healthy.”  While this statement does leave a little wiggle room, it’s still based in false ideology.  Just because someone is obese doesn’t mean they are mentally or physically unhealthy or that they choose their current body weight.  I have several clients who are obese but can run five miles or bike twenty.  They eat diets that range from moderately good to excellent.  They are healthy, physically or mentally.  But for some reason, their body won’t let go of that extra fat.

Another man on a dating site falsely presumes, “I'm cool with a little extra here and there, but for the most part I'm looking for someone that takes care of themselves--especially if it took them awhile to get into shape like I did.”  Being obese doesn’t mean that one doesn’t take care of one’s self.  It means one has extra body fat that may be there for any number of reasons.  Yet another dating site quote, which I regret not copying directly, generally stated, “If you are obese, we are poorly matched because of `life style differences.’”  This man is right, but for the wrong reasons.  He and I are not well-matched, but it’s because he is prejudiced, not because we have lifestyle differences.

Too few people in our culture are willing to look beyond a person’s physical attributes.  I firmly believe that we are souls with bodies, not bodies with souls.  What is within a person is far more important than what is without, and I’m not talking about gut flora, either!  When discussing good-looking men with female friends, I’m almost always baffled by some of their selections.  Because I am able to read a person’s energy as well as look at their appearance, I find myself far more influenced by their energy.  Men like Mel Gibson, Robert Downey, Jr. or Charlie Sheen who are considered good-looking by some are very unattractive to me.  Their energy is just not healthy.

Western medicine does not help with this judgment.  So many doctors presume that obesity is due to any of the causes listed at the beginning of this post.  However, this TEDex talk by Dr. Peter Attia is right on the money.  He’s realized though his own personal battle with health problems and incredibly rapid weight gain that obesity is often the symptom of the health problems, not the cause.  It would be great if more doctors and the media at large could realize this so that our society’s views on obesity can start to change.  Even though this TEDex talk isn’t short, I highly recommend watching it.  You may end up crying at the end as I and many others in the audience did!

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people. ~Carl Jung 

Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough. ~Charles Dudley Warner

If at first you don't succeed, you'll get a lot of free advice from other folks who didn't succeed either.  ~Author Unknown

By the time one is an adult, 99.9% of us have emotional baggage.  Some have more than others, and some are more aware of what their baggage is.  The further we progress in life, the more baggage we can pick up.  It’s possible for that baggage to merely become a part of our emotional past, but it takes active work in order to make that transformation happen.  “Just forgetting about it” doesn’t really work.  Our bodies store traumas and emotional pain even when we emotionally repress our issues.  All of that crud that we pack away will eventually come to the surface in one way or another.

Healers are people, too.  They have their own baggage and problems that they face outside of work hours.  Many therapists, life coaches, and physical healers enter their fields because of the struggles they’ve faced previously.  In my opinion, one of the differences between great practitioners and not-so-great practitioners is that the great practitioners acknowledge their personal issues.  They realize they are human.  And most importantly, they spend their entire lives working on continuing to improve themselves.

Continuing education is required in many healing professions in order to keep one’s licensing or certification up-to-date, so whether they want to or not, practitioners complete courses to meet those requirements.  Beyond that, though, great healers read on their own, exploring books in their fields and others.  They go to classes and conferences not because they have to but because they want to.  Education and healing is part of their personal journey, and their work on themselves benefits their clients and patients, too.

Healing practitioners who present themselves as knowing everything should be trusted very warily.  They are human.  They don’t know everything.  They may know a great deal about a sub-speciality of their field, but they won’t know everything.  If they claim to have a perfect life, be concerned as well.  None of us are without difficulties; our burdens just vary from person to person.  Seek out practitioners who see education and healing as a life-long journey, one that they include in their own personal lives, too.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

Reading is the journey of those who cannot take the train. ~Francis de Croisset

When my health was at its worse, I had no energy.  I mean none.  I spent 22+ hours a day in bed.  Just getting a shower and getting food in my body was a struggle.  The pain I was suffering and the brain fog I was enduring meant that reading was not a good option for me because I couldn’t concentrate very well.  Add to that the fact that I was reacting to inks and formaldehyde in paper, and books weren’t accessible to me.

So what did I do for entertainment?  I watched a LOT of videos.  Previously I was not a big tv or movie fan.  I’d see some things on occasion, but I didn’t keep up with many series and I only went to the movies a few times a year, if that.  Being so sick changed that.  I caught up on many wonderful series that I had missed when they were broadcast originally such as The Wire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Six Feet Under, Queer as Folk, and many more.  At that time, video streaming was not available, so I had a 10 disc plan with Netflix, and even that couldn’t keep up with my viewing demands.  I’d also have my then husband check videos out from the local public library.  I’d occasionally borrow from friends' video collections, too, to have another back up option to make sure I had entertainment.  Aside from Netflix, there are now quite a few other options for video streaming that I wish had been available then such as videos on various networks’ websites such as pbs.org, Hulu, and Amazon Instant Video.

I’m not a fan of audiobooks; I think this has to do with the fact that I started reading at age two, and I really have no memories of anyone reading to me as a result.  My speed of reading was far faster than anyone’s verbal reading, so I think I just grew intolerant of listening to others read.  However, this is another option for people with illness using books from resources such as Audible and the public library.

Once I had recovered quite a bit, I eventually broke down and bought a Kindle even though they were still really expensive then; of course, the price dropped dramatically right after I bought one because that is how Murphy’s Law of Technology works.  It took me several months to get the screen of the Kindle off-gassed enough for me to tolerate it, but then I was good to go.  It was amazing for me to finally be able to read again after so many years of not reading.  I still dearly love my Kindle and couldn’t imagine life without this disability accommodation device.  It’s not at all the same as reading a paper book, but it’s far better than nothing.  I check out e-books from Amazon and the public library.  There are also many blogs online that post about free Kindle books when they are available, and that also helps with cheaper reading material.  I buy books, too, but as any ardent reader can tell you, a book addiction can add up fast!

I had issues tolerating sewing materials, but for many, knitting, crocheting, and other handicrafts can be ways to pass the time while in bed.  Jewelry making could also fall into this category of crafty entertainment.  I read an article about one woman with a chronic illness who makes dolls as an outlet for her creativity during her illness and as a way to bring in some extra funds.

Meditation and prayer are also forms of beneficial entertainment when bedbound.  They have been scientifically shown to help with healing.  For those with more energy and the ability to be slightly mobile, yoga can also be very healing on physical, spiritual and emotional levels.

The internet is a wonderful way to spend time, too, though I didn’t have a laptop when I was at my sickest, and that limited how much time I could spend on the computer because sitting up was too exhausting for me.  However, one needs to be selective about what one does on the internet.  News sites contain so much bad news that they can pull one’s spirits down.  Likewise, I found that many illness support forums and discussion groups are very negative in content which wasn't helpful to my recovery.  As a result, I’ve learned how to skim them for research information but to avoid the negative complaining and thought that can be there as well.

Skype and the disappearance of long distance charges now make communication via phone and computer also a great option.  These activities can provide companionship and benefit to many people.  One online friend who has chronic fatigue syndrome found the best way for her to get socialization in was to have friends over to her house for potlucks every odd Friday.  Her friends brought the food, and they came to have fun with her.  While the severity of my fatigue and my chemical sensitivities prevented such an activity for me, I always thought it was a wonderful idea.

As my health improved, I started to get more energy, though I ave yet to cross the threshold of having even 50% of the energy of a healthy adult.  Still, with that extra energy I gained back, I threw myself into cooking which I find both relaxing and delicious.  I taught myself digital photography, a hobby that kept me busy for a long time, helped me meet new people online through Flickr, and also led to starting my first business.  Photography also gave me a new perspective on life, helping me see beauty in places I’d never noticed it before.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

 (As always, I am not a medical doctor.  This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment.  Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

Food is our common ground, a universal experience. ~James Beard

I follow George Takei’s highly amusing Facebook page which is actually staffed by others besides just him.  I enjoy its humorous take as well as its vocal support of those less privileged in our nation.  However, recently someone on the staff felt it was ok to poke fun of those with food allergies and sensitivities.  They shared a post that was far from funny.  Most open-minded people wouldn’t consider putting up a post that made fun of braille signs or wheelchair ramp signs, but our society is unfortunately still at a point where food intolerances of any kind are seen as a joke, not a potentially life-threatening problem. As the poster on the left states, food allergies are not a punchline.

My children and I have all dealt with food sensitivities; they are fall out from “leaky gut syndrome” and Lyme Disease.  While not true IgE allergies, food sensitivities still have the potential to make someone feel horrendous.  They can cause migraines, reflux, digestive woes, fibromyalgia flares, eczema, rashes, and more; for some people it’s so serious that even skin contact will cause a major reaction (as indicated by the gluten free soap sign).  Yet as my kids and I dealt with these issues, many people including family members chose not to believe that our food sensitivities are real. 

My kids and I observed (and one child and I still observe) strict diets so that none of us would be miserable from the side effects of foods that bothered us, but we would occasionally find people who wanted us to have “just one bite” of whatever was being served.  They were trying to force food on others for reasons that didn’t make sense.  We were not starving.  We were politely opting not to eat what was served, and in many cases we brought our own food so that the host/ess did not have to worry about accommodating our eating needs.  However, many took it personally that we wouldn’t eat their food even if it would have made us sick.  Why?  I think Cesar Chavez had it one of our culture’s notions around food correct when he stated, “If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him... the people who give you their food give you their heart.”  By refusing other people's food, they were taking it personally that we were also refusing them.  Unfortunately, that’s a maligned perspective.  Those who love you unconditionally wouldn’t ask you to cause yourself bodily harm just to feed their egos. 

So why is there so much animosity about food sensitivities?  There are many possible reasons.  Quite a few people believe that IgG food sensitivities don’t exist.  Part of this comes from the fact that Western medicine doesn’t have an approved and statistically reliable test to diagnose them nor are there any treatments for food sensitivities that can be billed to insurance.  Until there is a drug or insurance covered treatment to help with the food sensitivities, most mainstream allergists will see no reason to deal with them.  Money unfortunately drives our health care system more than patient welfare.

Others see food sensitivities as part of the current gluten-free fad diet.  They think people are making a choice not to eat gluten, when for many, it’s not a choice.  For those with celiac disease who can’t even have trace exposures to gluten or for those with anaphylaxis to other allergens, abstaining from certain food items is a hassle and a frequent struggle, but it’s what they must do to live safely.

Some people object to food sensitivities from a very narrow-minded and selfish point of view because they feel the dietary needs of others inconvenience them.  When sensitive friends won’t go to the restaurants they prefer because there are no food options that those with allergies can safely eat, those without allergies can feel put upon.  When sensitive friends don’t eat the food that is provided at social events, the same people may see it as an insult.  Rarely have I heard of those with food sensitivities or allergies who ask their hosts to cater to their needs:  It’s too much work to ask of someone, plus it’s too easy for someone who isn’t familiar with cross-contamination and hidden ingredients to accidentally put something into food that will cause a reaction.  It’s easiest and safest for those with food issues to just bring their own food.  Likewise, many parents bitterly lament nut-free policies in schools or classrooms because they see it as an inconvenience when packing their picky-eating children’s lunch.  However, it’s much more inconvenient for the kids with anaphylaxis to nuts to stop breathing.

Some naysayers see it as attention seeking behavior.  I had some very mean things said to me while my kids were little, and I was accused of Münchausen syndrome by proxy by one family member.  Really, if someone wants attention, food sensitivities and food allergies are not a great way to get it.  They make one’s life much more complicated, and they create a situation in which you are excluded things which you might normally enjoy, such as having a slice of delicious looking birthday cake at a party.

This brings up another major reason for some of the resistance:  Our culture is definitely built on food.  Until you face food sensitivities or food allergies, you don’t truly realize how obsessed our society is with certain foods being served at certain events or how most holidays are centered on food.  Once you have to change how you participate in those events, your view changes as well.  Elsa Schiaparelli has noted that, “Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale.”  Suddenly, you aren’t participating in that pleasure in the same way others are.

There’s also the possibility that people who are resisting against the concept of food sensitivities and allergies and how they impact others is merely hiding behind their own fear.  To quote William Shakespeare, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."  These people are afraid of the truth and the reality that foods they love can truly be dangerous for others.  However, their own fear is not a good enough reason to degrade or humiliate others who are limited in their food choices by their sensitivities and allergies.  Perhaps some are also fearing that their own health issues might be caused by food, and they are terrified by the possibility of losing some of their favorite things to eat.

Some people will rudely and dangerously “test” a friend’s food sensitivities or allergies by putting the offending item in the person’s food to see if they notice or if this is all just a psychological problem.  This is not ok.  It can result in violent vomiting, migraines, or even death.  Even if the person doing the “testing” doesn’t see the results, that doesn’t mean that the person with the sensitivities didn’t go home and spend the next two days in agonizing abdominal pain with horrible diarrhea but was too polite or embarrassed to mention it to the host.  Please don’t “test” the allergies and sensitivities of those who have them.  Just trust that they know what is best for their bodies.

Regardless of naysayers' opinions, food allergies, food sensitivities, and other conditions such as celiac disease are true health problems.  They can cause a great deal of misery and even death for those who must deal with them.  These issues are not a lifestyle choice.  They’re not a desire to make everyone’s life a little more confusing or difficult.  They’re not an attempt to be rude. They’re a harsh reality that the sufferers and those they live with must cope with every day whether it’s convenient or not.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

Two of my grandparents were alcoholics.  One recovered; the other died young due to cirrhosis from drinking too much.  Amongst their children, there were several heavy smokers and several very heavy social drinkers; at least one was an alcoholic.  And playing into traditional stereotypes, yes, they were of good Irish stock.

In the Catholic Church, if one accepts the communion cup, one is able to start drinking at age 8 or 9 in most cases.  It’s only a small sip of wine each Sunday, but it is exposure to alcohol.  By the time I was in high school at age 14, I started craving the alcohol in an insane way.  I knew my family history, and I realized that what was happening was not healthy.  I also knew that whenever I was stressed out, I turned to soda.  I felt like I was very clearly getting signs that my genetic predisposition to alcoholism was going to manifest if I didn’t make careful choices.  As a result, I began abstaining at that point.  Twenty-six years later, I still get cravings for wine based only off of communion cup exposure.  I also only tasted beer once in my life when a friend’s mom gave me a sip at the ballgame when I was 11.  I hated the taste of the beer yet I will still get cravings for it, too.

For me, it was the mature and responsible decision not to ever start drinking socially.  In retrospect with the knowledge of my health problems which have greatly impacted my liver, it was the best thing I could have done for myself.  I’m also grateful I didn’t have to give alcohol up when I started battling health problems; that is a struggle for many individuals.  Even if I wanted to drink now, my body wouldn’t let me without severe repercussions.

I do partake of supplements that are alcohol based tinctures, and most of them are filled with herbs that are so potent and unappetizing that there’s not much attraction to them.  I have to work consciously to fight the cravings from flower essences that are preserved in alcohol (usually brandy).  This is one of the many reasons I love Green Hope Farm flower essences:  They are alcohol free.

As an adult, it’s been interesting being a non-drinker.  It’s definitely influenced my social life.  I’ve never seen the point of going down to Sixth Street: The smell of urine, sweat, and vomit is just not my thing.  I also found it hard to socialize with many of my fellow grad students because they went out to (then smoky) pubs after classes late at night when I just wanted to go to bed. 

Several years ago, I went to a mini-golf party with my kids with some of their classmates and their parents.  The park allows BYOB as long as it’s not in glass containers.  While I was sitting there drinking my water and everyone else over 21 was drinking boxed wine, the parental group began complaining about people who don’t drink and how boring they are.  I was amazed.  As I relayed this to a friend (who does drink) the next day, he looked at me with a funny face and said, “Are we still in high school?”  That was definitely how it felt to me.

Even on dating websites, I am amazed at how many men “red flag” women who don’t drink at all.  It’s seen as a problem, even if it’s a decision made by choice for health reasons.  Quite a few men argue that life is not worth living if you can’t have a glass of wine or champagne with your partner frequently or even each night.  Everyone gets to make their own decisions around alcohol, though I wish others didn’t see the decision not to drink alcohol as a major problem.  It just means that I find other ways to unwind and to enjoy life while being sober. 

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

I say to people who care for people who are dying, if you really love that person and want to help them, be with them when their end comes close. Sit with them - you don't even have to talk. You don't have to do anything but really be there with them.  ~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ advice is sound and applies to far more people than the dying.  It definitely works well for those with chronic illness.  One of the things that can be the biggest help for someone who is fighting any kind of battle or facing any kind of major change is to just be there for them so that they don’t feel so alone on their journey.

Brené Brown expands on this idea in her video (above) on empathy versus sympathy.  Empathy is a beautiful gift you can give to someone.  Empathy is support without judgment or blame.  For me, one of the most comforting things in the world is the empathetic response of an individual who truly understands or cares.  It can make my whole day seem a little less challenging.

When someone is around you is sick, let them know you hate that they are feeling bad.  Offer to bring them chicken soup or to run errands for them.  If you’re feeling really brave and honest, then offer to just spend your time with them.  Oftentimes your presence and support is the greatest gift of all.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

(This is an edited cross-post from the archives of my much neglected food blog.)

With my health challenges, it can be really hard to make dinner some days, if not impossible.  Life with a chronic illness is akin to life with small kids, except on steroids.  I won’t even try to describe what life with a chronic illness was like combined with three small children who are less than three years apart in age.  Because of all of these challenges, I’ve developed many strategies to help keep healthy homemade food on our table.

One of the most important things we own is a full size freezer.  It lives in our garage, and it is an amazing help to us.  When its predecessor died a few years ago, there was no question about replacing it.  It was just a matter of seeing which store in town could get us a replacement as quickly as possible.   We keep a good supply of meat, potato products, tortillas, breads, fruits, and vegetables in there so that if getting to the store becomes a problem, we have more than enough frozen goods to keep us going for a while.  We also use it to stock up on sale items to save a little money when possible.

Equally important, we use the garage freezer to store meals that I have prepared and frozen.  When I cook meals like casseroles, soups or stews, I often make a double batch so I can freeze it.  I will freeze things both in family sized containers for full meals and in individual portions so that I have easy lunches for myself.  At times when I’m having a run of good health, our garage freezer gets rather full, but inevitably a bad spell will happen, and we will deplete the frozen food supply temporarily until I start cooking again.

In addition, the crockpot is my friend.  My energy level is at its highest early in the mornings; as the day goes by, I get more exhausted and my body becomes more painful.  Hence, if I can get a dinner started in the morning hours on days when I know I’m going to be fairly useless by dinner time, we still have a healthy meal.  During the summer, the crockpot is also a great way to make a hearty meal without standing over a hot stove or turning on the oven in the Texas heat.

There are still some nights when I just can’t make what I had planned earlier in the day.  I almost always have a Plan B going in the back of my mind so that if my health gives out during the day and I have to hand over meal preparation to someone else, there’s something simple and easy they can make rather than the more elaborate concoction I might have originally had in mind. 

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

There's a difference between solitude and loneliness. ~Maggie Smith

The documentary Maidentrip details the travels of a young woman, Laura Dekker, as she sets out to break the world record for the youngest person sailing around the world alone.  She was ages 13-16 during the time of the film and ages 14-16 during the actual journey.  In what I consider a wise move, Dekker chose to not try to do the trip as fast as possible as she wanted to stop and enjoy some of the locations she harbored in.  The documentary is not incredibly long, and the only critique I had was that the footage can be a bit queasy at times for those of us who don’t do well with sea sickness/motion.  The film is family friendly overall as long as you don’t mind Dekker swearing in English like a sailor on quite a few occasions.  There are subtitles in quite a few places, too.

As I watched the film, I was amazed at my revulsion to the idea of such a trip.  I didn't have an issue with Dekker making the trip though I’m not sure I would let my similarly aged children do the same thing.  However, I knew immediately I would never enjoy such a voyage.  Some of that is due to my above-mentioned seasickness, but something else struck a deeper chord that I had to explore to see why I had such a strong aversion to the concept.

It turns out this documentary tapped into the loneliness I felt during so many years of being homebound and isolated due to my chronic illness.  There was no one around the vast majority of the time.  Aside from my ex-husband, I rarely saw other adults.  I am a highly sensitive person and an introvert, so I do desperately need alone time.  However, I am also a social creature who enjoys going out with friends and attending various events.  After those events, I need to crawl back into my cave and decompress, but the socialization fuels me and feeds my soul.  Total solitude for days on end equates loneliness to me.

Choosing to be alone and having solitude is definitely one thing.  Loneliness due to health issues and isolation is another.  My experience with the latter has biased me against the first even though I enjoy solitude at times.  You just won’t be finding me taking any two year solitary cruises around the world in this life!

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

I am disabled.  It took a long time for me to accept that and to be able to say it without a second thought.  Now it’s as easy for me to say as, “I am 40,” or “I have three living children.”  However, I am one of many who have invisible disabilities.  That means that people look at me and say, “But you look healthy.”  Looks can be very deceiving.  You can’t usually see the pain that is wracking someone’s body unless it’s acute rather than chronic.

When people ask me how I am doing, I will sometimes answer honestly and say, “I’m not doing well at all,” and for most people, that’s not the answer they want to hear.  They want to hear that everything is hunky-dory.  So their response is often, “Well, you look great.”  That’s not very helpful, and sometimes it’s hurtful because it feels like they are trying to negate what I just said about feeling terrible.  It also feels disingenuous to me on a very basic level:  I’ve also gained almost 100 pounds due to my illness, and that doesn’t ever look or feel good to me.  The “you look great” response feels like a platitude.

The better answer when someone says they aren’t feeling well is to acknowledge their pain.  It’s best to reply to them, “I’m sorry you’re not feeling well.  Is there anything I can do to help you out?  I’m happy to listen (or run errands or whatever you can do).”  If you’re not prepared to respond in a compassionate way, then it’s really best you not even ask the question of how someone is doing.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

One of the things that I’ve found to be very important in dealing with a difficult health challenge is finding practitioners who work well with others.  When I speak of my healthcare providers, I speak of them as a team though only two of them share an office space.  Each, however, plays a vital role that cannot be replaced by one of the others.

Finding providers who are willing to work as part of a team is not always easy.  Medical doctors are often known for their egos and their inability to work with others; they are not alone in that stereotype in the healing world or even in life as a whole.  Many of us have control issues, and it’s important that those control issues don’t bleed over into our work and negatively impact our patients’ and clients’ lives.

When I look at a prospective healthcare practitioner’s website, one of the things I am evaluating is how much of a team player they are.  Recently I checked out the website of a naturopath whom someone had recommended to me.  The website made me shudder with horror.  It was very clear that this man was someone who needs to control every aspect of his patient’s healing.  He had an all-or-nothing program established.  That is not something I’m willing to accept.  I want someone who will work well with my other practitioners and who will understand the need to cater a program to my body’s specific needs.

It’s also important that each team member respects their niche and won’t try to take over other’s roles.  My practitioners will offer help in other areas outside their immediate role in my healing plan if I am in need, but they also accept that it is my decision as to which practitioner handles which part of my health.  One of the reasons I stopped seeing one of my practitioners was because she was trying to get me to stop seeing another one of my primary caregivers because she wasn’t fond of him personally.  She’s entitled to her opinion, but when he is someone I work well with and who has helped my health improve immensely, then she out of line to repeatedly try to convince me to stop seeing him.

I also greatly appreciate practitioners who are willing to communicate with each other in regards to managing my health.  When my chiropractor picks up on an issue that my Lyme doctor or pain specialist needs to handle, it is very useful to me to have them be in contact with each other.  I sign HIPAA releases and allow them to work together in my best interest.

Just as I appreciate my healthcare providers working as a team, I also work in the best interest of my clients.  I am well aware that I cannot solve all of someone’s problems by myself.  However, I am happy to work alongside psychotherapists, chiropractors, doctors, acupuncturists, massage therapists, and other healers to improve our clients’ lives.  The more we work together to support the clients, the better their lives become, and the more we can improve the world as a whole.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

(This is another really long post.  Apologies in advance!  As always, I am not a medical doctor.  This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment.  Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

I have had lifetime IgE mediated allergies to pretty much any non-food item that I get tested for.  I was first skin prick tested at age four, and then again at age 21.  Trees, grasses, weeds, dander, dust, molds… all of it makes me miserable.  Lyme has increased the severity of my allergies as well due to the impact on my immune system.  Once again, this is one of those areas where my situation is severe enough that natural medicine can help, but it alone is not enough.

The best way to think about allergies is using a glass of water.  Pretend that glass is your immune system.  If you are someone who is genetically prone to allergies as I am, our glass is always half-full.  If you live with pets whom you are allergic to and/or aren’t diligent about dusting, add some more water to the glass.  Then add in a dose of seasonal pollen, and your cup will begin overflowing, as will your sinuses.  Austin is a particularly miserable place for allergens as we don’t have  a single month all year where something isn’t high in the counts.

So what can be done aside from OTC and prescription allergy medicines and nasal sprays?  There are quite a few other things to try that fall under the categories of Western medicine, natural options, lifestyle changes and adaptions, and dietary changes.

Western Medicine

I've found that most over the counter allergy medicines don't have enough oomph in them for me.  Claritin worked for a while, but then stopped.  Benedryl works well for me and doesn't make me drowsy, but it's not very long lasting. I have switched to long acting prescription medications.  I'm on an older prescription medicine that has a generic and which seems to work quite well for my body.

Many years ago I did allergy shots; they too were incredibly helpful until my immune system went completely wonky.  Then they made things much worse, probably because of preservatives.  It is possible to get preservative free allergy shots if you work with an allergist who is aware of chemical sensitivities (which unfortunately, is not most of them).  Allergy shots take a while to kick in so they don't provide immediate relief.

Natural Options

There are various herbal compounds that can help.  Many of them contain nettles which, ironically, I am allergic to.  Most of my practitioners recommend D-Hist.  This supplement requires that one does a higher loading dose for several weeks and then drops down to a regular daily dosage which may then need to be increased again during times of seasonal attack.  

Another herbal remedy I have successfully used is Bi Yan Pian which is for the lung meridian and helps with allergies and asthma.  They are very tiny, easy to swallow pills, and they helped my oak induced asthma quite a bit until I started reacting to them. Check with your acupuncturist or Chinese medical practitioner before taking them, though. 

Body work can help many with allergies, especially acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments.  Unfortunately, they don’t give me much relief. 

The Allergena homeopathic drops that are available locally at People's and Whole Foods are amazing.  They work in the same mechanism as allergy shots.  They helped me greatly for a while, but my immune system also freaked out about those eventually.  These would be easy to give a young child with a health care provider’s supervision and approval.  Because of how they work with the immune system, it is recommended you begin these before seasonal allergies get bad.  That means if you have trouble with cedar fever, now is the time to start the drops before the pollen begins in about six weeks.

One group of local chiropractors will make an energetic homeopathic for allergens. They muscle test using local allergens to figure out what you are allergic to and then create the homeopathic.  Then, you take several drops of the homeopathic daily.  This helped so much when it was working. Then it just flat out stopped working as my immune system figured out how to defeat it, but for the year of relief I got, it was really helpful.  

if your allergies suddenly become much worse, you may want to talk to your alternative health care provider about adrenal fatigue.  Extreme amounts of emotional or physical stress put a great deal of pressure on the adrenal glands which in turn can make allergies worse.  Lyme has done this to my body as well.

I know many who swear by lavender essential oil for allergy, but this is not something I have experienced success with. 

Neti pots are popular with many people who have allergies.  They allow one to use salt water to rinse out the sinuses.  Getting the right angle is crucial to making sure you don't choke on the solution, but once you figure it out, the process is really easy and can be quite soothing.  Keeping eye contact with yourself in the mirror is part of what helps get the angle correct.  I recommend NOT using tap water not because of the very rare risk of bacteria that can kill you but because the chlorine in the water can be very irritating to the nasal passages in someone who is sensitive.  Unfortunately, I'm one of the people who finds that using a neti pot makes things worse for me in the long run:  I hypothesize that the water in my sinuses actually promotes fungal growth which creates additional pain and misery.  As a result, I've given up on using one.  Neti pots are available at Whole Foods and People's Pharmacy locally as well as at many other health stores and online.

Lifestyle Adaptions and Changes

For some people, including me, spontaneous nosebleeds are a side effect of allergies.  It’s not a lot of fun to wake up in the middle of the night with blood dripping out of your nose.  Mine are always caused by mold, but for others, different allergens can be the culprit. Some people find that using a humidifier helps reduce their nosebleeds.  If you take this approach, be sure that you are cleaning the humidifier frequently and well so that it doesn't contribute to the mold and allergy problems.

When it comes to dust, it’s a neverending battle.  Dust allergies are pretty common amongst those with allergies and asthma.  Vacuuming well with a high powered vacuum should happen weekly in any area with carpeting in order to minimize dust.  Getting rid of the carpet is best in the long run if you own your home.  

Line drying laundry is actually not good for those with allergies because it means all your linens and clothes are picking up more pollen. Use a dryer with heat to kill the dust mites.  Bed linens need to be washed weekly if you have dust allergies.  If I don't wash my linens weekly, I pay for it. At my worst of my illness, I had to wash the linens every 3-4 days.  Any stuffed animals that a child with allergies sleeps with also need to be washed on a regular basis.  The dust covers that you can get for pillowcases and mattresses really do help, too.  I avoid the vinyl ones because they off-gas some nasty chemicals which is not good for the immune system or the body in general.

I also find it necessary to wash my hair any time I’ve been outside to minimize pollen on my body and allergic reactions.  Opening the windows, even on gorgeous days, is unfortunately not an option for me as it just makes my allergies much worse.

I am allergic to pet dander.  I love cats, but I cannot be around them without being miserable within 30 minutes even on antihistimines.  I’d love to have a cat as a pet, but as I’ve told my kids, if we get a cat, we’d have to get rid of me.  I am also allergic to dogs, but I can tolerate some breeds better than others.  I had beagles and beagle mixes all my life as they are one breed I do better with; long-haired dogs like golden retrievers are miserable for me.  If you have pets and someone in the household is allergic to them, the pets should stay out of the bedroom of the allergic person.  This can be accomplished in several ways.  We put a baby gate up in our bedroom door to keep the dogs out but to allow us to keep the door open at night; we had to get a taller baby gate after our one beagle rapidly demonstrated his hurdling ability.  If you have cats, a screen door on the bedroom door can help keep them out.

Higher end HEPA filters such as those made by Austin Air and AllerAir can help with dust and pollen.  Some of the lower end brands have formaldehyde in the filters which doesn't help with allergies especially in the chemically sensitive. However, at my worst, I was still reacting to even the high end brand filters. 

Going completely fragrance free can reduce the stress on the immune system and help decrease the impact of allergies, asthma and eczema.  Synthetic fragrances can really mess with the lungs, skin and sinuses.  Be aware that "unscented" actually doesn't mean fragrance free:  It can mean that masking fragrances are added to cover up any odor.  (This is also true with "low odor" paints which are not low VOC paints by definition: They just have something in them to make them stink less.)  For me, I have to use all natural products in addition to using fragrance free products as my body can’t tolerate petroleum based products.  All major brands of conventional detergents, for example, are petroleum based.

Dietary Changes

In order to reduce the overall stress on your immune system, eating organic can help greatly.  When I began eating organic, I was able to drastically reduce the amount of antihistimines I was taking for several years.  The change in diet also stopped the frequent sinus infections I used to battle. 

Removing foods which you are sensitive or allergic to can also help reduce the stress on the immune system and minimize the impact of airborne allergens on your body.  Dairy and gluten are common allergy and asthma triggers for many people.  

There are also foods that can "cross-react."  This essentially means that the immune system sees these foods as close to the pollens that you react to, and thus, eating those foods increases one's reaction to that pollen.  There are many lists of these foods around the internet such as this one and  this one.  You may find that eliminating certain foods while related seasonal allergies are peaking may help your overall health.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

See how nature- trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.  ~Mother Teresa

Anyone who suffers from migraines or similar head pain will immediately understand this post from their perspective of suffering.  When your head feels as though it’s being smashed apart by a hammer, silence is absolutely necessary.  Most who suffer from migraines prefer a dark solitary room as they try to sleep off their misery.

When recovering from an acute or chronic illness, silence can play a similar healing role.  When I was at my sickest, I could not tolerate noise.  When I worked on my computer, I needed silence. When I drove in the car, I needed silence.  My body was so wracked with pain and my brain so overwhelmed with the constant internal stimulation that it simply could not handle the external noise as well.  As my health improved, I slowly saw a return of music into my life.  I started by being able to tolerate calm classical music.  Slowly but surely, I returned to calm pop music as well.  Even now, though, on days when I’m feeling overwhelmed, I return to silence, meditation music or classical music in the car, while working on my computer, or while in my sauna.   My body needs that silence or low key energy to heal.

Silence can play a similar role in emotional healing.  Many of us don’t like to be alone with our thoughts:  Being alone with them means we have to actually pay attention to them and confront them.  It’s easier to ignore that nagging voice in the back of your head that wants you to work through your spiritual and emotional issues if one has loud music and other surrounding noises helping block it all.  Silence can force us to face what we need to work on in order to heal.

Spending time alone in silence can be vital to healing on all levels.  This is one of the many reasons that some spiritual practices include silent retreats for days, weeks, even months.  Others take on commitments of silence that last for years.  In that silence, it becomes easier to hear the higher powers that surround us.  We can use their assistance to heal those emotional and physical pains that are dragging us down.

If you are struggling with an issue, be it emotional, physical or spiritual, try spending some time each day in silence even if it is only for a few minutes.  That silence can be spent sitting next to a lake or outdoors listening to the wind blow in the trees.  You might be laying in shavasana in your room on your yoga mat.  You might be simply staring at a lit candle while curled up on the couch.  But take yourself away from your smart phone, your computer, your iPod, your television, and any of the rest of the chaos that is a part of our lives.  You may find the silence more healing than you ever expected.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

(As always, I am not a medical doctor.  This information is based on my personal experiences and should not be substituted for medical diagnosis or treatment.  Please speak to your health care providers about your personal situation.)

As a follow up to my post about parasites, I want to talk about intestinal parasite pain.  In short, it’s awful.  To give a basis of comparison, it can be as bad as natural childbirth, and in some ways, I think it’s actually worse.  The uterus is a muscle that is meant to contract and push out a baby, though that’s still quite painful. The intestines are not really designed to endure violent cramping, and thus, the pain feels even more unnatural.

When I am dealing with intestinal parasites, it’s miserable.  I usually end up having ten plus extra soft and caustic bowel movements a day which to put it politely, irritates one’s anus.  The parasites interrupt sleep.  They cause nightmares when they are dying off.  There’s not a huge amount to do to help with it all.  I take L-Ornithine to bind with the ammonia that some parasites release as a byproduct.  Both chlorella and chlorophyll also can be helpful to eliminate toxins from the parasites.  But in general, even prescription painkillers like hydrocodone don’t even begin to touch the pain from the parasites dying off.

When parasites die off, they cause episodes of major pain for me that would last for anywhere from one to four hours, and then my abdomen would be incredibly sore for many hours after that.  With each round of intestinal parasites that I’ve battled, I have found that different things brought me minor relief.  There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for what would work.  Each time the next round started, I’d have to figure out what would work for me that day.  Most of the time, I would pray to any higher power that might be listening for sleep, and when I could sleep through it, even if it was only for 30 minutes at a time before a major cramp would wake me up, I considered myself blessed because that was 30 less minutes of conscious pain.

With one set of intestinal parasites, the homeopathic blend Diarrhea made by Heel BHI gave me some cramp relief, but it didn’t help in future episodes.  Neither heat nor cold on my abdomen seemed to help much, and at times it made the pain worse.  Baths and showers sometimes helped and sometimes made me more miserable.  At times I found that walking in straight lines helped relieve some of the pain; other times it was walking in large circles that helped.  Sometimes I needed to be lying in bed as straight as could be, but other times I needed to be curled up in a ball.  Yet other times I was most comfortable sitting inclined in a recliner.    Frequently, listening to music was helpful in keeping me relaxed through the pain:  I listened to CDs by Joshua Radin, Josh Groban, Matt Nathanson, and Celtic Christmas more times than I can count on perpetual repeat all night long.

In one of the oddest solutions, I started craving chewable vitamin C tablets like crazy during one of the intestinal parasite episodes.  I decided that the worst it could do was create more diarrhea, so I started sucking on the vitamin C like breath mints.  Whether it was the sucking motion, the release of saliva, or the C itself, I don’t know, but they seemed to help a bit that particular evening.

Parasite pain almost always struck me in the evening.  This meant I spent a great deal of the time fighting them alone.  On one hand, that was a good thing as my kids could be with their dad and I didn’t have to try to handle them while I was in excruciating pain.  On the other hand, that meant I was fighting the pain on my own.  While I had done all of my active labor with my youngest child on my own, that was in no way as painful as what I went through with the parasites.  I can’t tell you how many times I prayed for a parasite doula to come help me through the pain. 

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance