Feeling and looking good doesn’t have to be complicated. By empowering yourself with self-care and grounding yourself in natural beauty you’ll have powerful tools to create the life, and look, you want.
Tag: stress
I have had the great pleasure of speaking with the owner of Do Kham, Phelgye Kelden, for over 15 years. I would stop in to shop, or just stop in and he and I would begin speaking about energy, meditation and perceiving reality and it was always so interesting and his energy is transcendent.
The days before my trip to Guatemala in January Bowie had just passed and Phyelgyes shop is around the corner from the memorial so I stopped in. He looked at me and said what’s happening. Clearly I was not looking my best but he was seeing my energy that was stressed, sad, and fearful and so the conversation began…
He spoke of this reincarnate Buddhist named Migyur Rinpoche who spoke of being plagued by stress, at 12 – his story is worth reading! This boy said once realized he could not stop it he decided to embrace it, to take it in and when he did this it disappeared and he was no longer stressed out. I paraphrase obviously but the idea is clear – we usually need to embrace what is making us uncomfortable in order to let it go – to walk through it to get through it.
He knows I am a healer and asked if that was draining me? Nope I said that’s when I’m feeling my best, during and after – it’s when I’m doing nothing I feel unhappy and drained so he spoke of creating a bridge from the everyday me to the healer me. Interesting way to look at it and it resonated with me. Still working on that.
He gave me a basic meditation technique – that was actually taught to me differently in Costa Rica – and said it would help both stress (or anything negative) and me feeling happy. It’s called:
Om Ah Hum Breathing
1. You inhale purity by breathing in the color white as you say the word OM in your head.
2. Holding your breath you see the color red over your navel as you say the word AH in your head and this clears all negativity from your body.
3. You then see the color blue over your heart and say the word HUM in your head as you connect with compassion for yourself and the world and you deeply exhale with the intention of spreading that compassion around the world.
He actually demonstrated this and it seemed like he was holding his breathe forever, my breaths are shorter and that’s ok. He said he does it all the time, even when he’s working, “Nobody knows what’s going on in my head” and he said smiling.
I have been doing this since he showed me and I find it very comforting. Soothing and strengthening too but mostly comforting because I believe it is empowering my energy and that feels great! I also find it unbelievably interesting that I received a tutorial from him, in part about happiness, which was the thread for me during my Guatemala trip. There are no coincidences and I see it as a sign from the universe that I was ready to shift my heart into happiness and I am happy.
Hope this is helpful!
Learn more about Meditation.
All seasons have there own unique skin hazards but in the summer the very first concern is sun protection. The simple answer is to wear sunscreen and stay in the shade. Personally I do not like all the harmful chemicals in sunscreen and only use it when I will be out all day in the sun. If I’m just running around town I choose natural sunscreens such as the 100% Pure Everywhere Sunstick – but learn about more great sunscreens because there are other alternative brands out there as well. The EWG website is one of my go-to guides for many things and they have very helpful tips about sun protection.
Protect your eyes too! Wear sunglasses with UV protection.
Your diet and the health of your skin are intrinsically linked. You want to approach your summer skincare internally as well as externally:
Great internal antioxidants are:
• Vitamin C (found in plants and fruits).
• Vitamin E, specifically high-potency tocotrienols (HPE; good sources are rice bran oil and palm fruit oil).
• Coenzymes Q-10 (found naturally in our cells but decreasing after age 20) so take the supplement.
• Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA; found in plant and animal sources – but know the source of your meat, see below!).
• Dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE; found in fish but wild only, no farm raised!).
• Carotenoids (phytonutrients found in the red, yellow and orange flesh of plant leaves, flowers and fruit).
• Flavonoid’s (found in green tea, soy isoflavones (but only soybeans, tofu and tempeh – no fake processed meat) Red wine in moderation.
• Try eating only organic, washed fruits (especially berries!) and vegetables.
• Drink lots of filtered water – I have found Zero Water to be a miraculous product!!!! It has the test stick that tells you the % of pollutants in your water and when I first got it I tested my tap water and practically every water sold on the market – the results were shocking! Basically almost all bottled water contains more pollutants than you want – some are better than others but I encourage you to invest in this as it really is investing in your health!
Avoid inflammatory foods!
Alcohol, caffeine, sugar, artificial sweeteners, food additives, trans fats, MSG, gluten and simple carbohydrates (anything white) can exasperate acne, rosacea and inflammation. Avoid factory-farmed meats and dairy at all costs (besides the ethical reasons, the health and environmental reasons are numerous) – choose organic, free-range and grass fed meats and dairy. Consider a vegan, vegetarian or pescetarian lifestyle but if that is too difficult for you be very mindful of where your food comes from – know the source of your food!
These foods above are highly inflammatory to many people. What can you eat? I found Dr. Weil’s anti-inflammatory food pyramid interesting.
Stress damages your skin!
Take a look at any emotions you may be hiding and at your emotional tendencies in general. If you think you may be harboring some unexpressed emotions, find a safe place to free them such as using some Eden Energy Medicine techniques like the Blow Out or try sitting up against a tree and affirm that you are releasing all excess and negative emotions and the tree happily absorbs what you release. Journaling is also a great way to pour out your emotions. Negativity has a way of manifesting in the skin. Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a wonderful method of releasing pent-up feelings of anger, anxiety, and fear. Meditation, deep breathing and mindfulness exercises are also healthy stress-relieving practices such as yoga.
Summer is also the perfect time to slow down! Take a vacation or just soak up the relaxed energy that naturally comes with summer and allow yourself to sleep more.
Skincare
Staying moisturized is the name of the game!!!!
We do not use any SPF in our products as they are 100% natural and organic but feel free to mix them in with your SPF products. But at the end of the day after showering slather on our Rosehip Seed oil and any of our therapeutic oil blends. You will be feeding your skin healthy skin food and the aromatherapy will soothe and relax you – and you will smell great!
Don’t forget about your hair! It is helpful in any season to do a deep moisturizing hair mask once a week. You can use straight olive oil and douse your hair with it and let it soak in for as long as you can – this is inexpensive and effective! Our Coconut Bliss is fantastic for damaged and frizzy hair. For a deep condition use it liberally and leave it in all day or night. For simple daily uses use less of it – a little goes a long way!
Healthy Aura Body Spray in rose is a great way to enhance and protect your auric field – our two-way filter to the world. But, it also has great skincare benefits such as acting as an antibacterial so it helps acne-prone skin. It’s an anti-inflammatory and naturally can help reduce redness on your skin as well as helping conditions such as rosacea and eczema. It has high amounts of vitamin C, which is a great antioxidant, and this vitamin also helps protect skin cells from being damaged from the sun. It’s moisturizing and tones your skin at the same time – spray directly onto your face, anytime, anywhere.
If you burn
Immediately put on pure aloe and/or our Rosehip Seed Oil. You may also want to put a cold compress on the burnt areas to calm and soothe the inflammation and discomfort.
If you use self tanners
First beware of looking like an orange☺ and make sure you apply it evenly – getting this done professionally is probably the best idea. But again lots of mainstream products have harmful chemicals you don’t want so try organic tanners Or make it yourself
If you stay out of the sun completely
You will still want that summer glow! This is where diet comes in again – eat lots of leafy greens, sweet potatoes and get lots of vitamin A and C.
Exercise!
There is no excuse to not exercise outdoors in the beauty of summer – and you have so many more options. It’s great to get involved in outdoor activities so it doesn’t really feel like you are exercising because you are having so much fun! If you live in an area going through a heat wave get out early or plan B is always the gym.
Last but not least – HAVE FUN!!!!!
Get out and play with your friends and loved ones. Laugh as much as you can and smile at strangers. Kiss everyone you love, hold a friends hand as you walk together and be that person who hugs everyone hello and goodbye. Get out of your comfort zone and be silly, sing and dance like nobody is watching ☺
Joy creates a natural healthy radiant glow in our skin – a happy you is a glowing you!
In todays world our primal survival energy system has many triggers, which if an “alert” state for too long can cause havoc to your well-being. Our energies have not evolved as fast as our culture so we have to help it adapt, which greatly enhances our well-being, health and happiness. Sometimes being able to step back, take a breadth and calm down is the answer to most disagreements. Calming triple warmer will help you accomplish this. Important Side Note: Strengthening spleen will greatly help you adept to your world and to everything you feel and ingest. These are fantastic Eden Energy Medicine techniques.
Triple Warmer Soothers
Benefits: This is our fight or flight response system. Sedating it will reduce stress and anxiety. It perceives anything foreign as an invader it must fight against, for which it uses energy from other “non-essential” energy systems. It’s important to reprogram our Triple Warmer to not respond to certain things like chemicals, fear and even watching a violent TV show. It’s deeply related to the strength of your spleen. Triple Warmer can become overactive if you are under too much pressure so sedating it is very important. The benefits to keeping it balanced are far beyond what I have here…as always my posts are evolutions.
The TW Smoothie
Place the palms of your hands on your temples and take a deep breath. Then, move both hands, palms down, around the ears, down the sides of your neck, onto your shoulders and hold. Take another deep breath, dig your fingers into your shoulders, drag across your shoulders and shake it off. Repeat three times. Do this whenever you feel stress or fear.
Trace TW meridian backwards
With your right palm, trace from your left temple, around your ear, down your neck, a slight dip below the shoulder and follow top of your arm towards and off your ring finger. Repeat with left hand on right side.
You can try my relaxation Self-care Moment which uses Neurovasculars and Breadth to calm our stress.
You may also like 3 Breaths to Changing Behaviors
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Breadth Is Life
Breath is life. It creates space inside our body, and energy needs space to flow. It keeps us alive on the physical level and it’s amazing how many illnesses, especially disorders associated with stress and anxiety, are affected by our lack of breathing. Think about it… when you’re tense or very focused, you actually hold your breadth, you hold the tension as if that will somehow help the task at hand. Truth is, irregular breathing creates more tension on physical and emotional levels. If you breathe fully you will begin to live harmoniously inside yourself and in the world. Be aware of your breath throughout the day and relax into your life.
The breath increases our connection to the present and it is in the present we find joy and healing. Most of us live in a combination of the past and the future, both of which are easy for us to conceptualize. But the present cannot be conceptualized. It can only be experienced, one breath at a time.
1. Breathe in positive energy and breathe out negativity and tension. You deeply and slowly breathe in your nose and out your mouth. When you do this you create an atmosphere within your energy system that is more receptive to a healthier flow of energy throughout your body on every level. Every cell in your body will thank you for it. You will be opening yourself to radiance.
You can recover from depression, anxiety and pain more readily because your energy will be flowing freely, you will not be holding onto feelings that hold you down or block you. Even if you only have a very short time to it will make a difference. You’ll enter a state of a higher frequency that allows you to rise above your own “stories” that you really do not serve you. Specifics are great but we don’t need them. We just need to release the energy. Release, release, release and keep it flowing. You will feel much better for it, truly.
2. Meditation is fantastic but if it’s daunting to you or just not enough time you can practice self care no matter where you are – walking around, driving, sitting in a meeting etc. just keep reminding yourself to breathe. I find that by literally saying the word helps. I can be very focused on something, and now it’s automatic, I say “breathe” very authoritatively in my mind and instantly my breadths become deeper and slower.
Try these easy meditations
More breath audio guides from CEC
Holding Neurovasculars Benefits:
- Relieves stress and anxiety
- Balances your meridians and organs
- Balances your hormones
- Very relaxing and increases your sense of happiness
- Reprograms your response to stressors
In Eden Energy Medicine these are the reflex points between the meridian and nervous system and can be used to reprogram our emotional responses to stress and trauma. The longer you hold the points the more the stress will fade. You want to hold your hands gently on your head – you need very little pressure to achieve powerful results. Keep your hands on all these areas until you feel better.
Hand Placements:
- Place the palms of your hands gently on your forehead so that the tips of your fingers are touching and the base of your palm lies over your temples. By recounting a stressor while holding these points on your forehead you can change your emotional habits or responses – you can re-train the mind not to react stressfully in any given situation.
- Place one hand on your forehead and the other on the back of your head.
- Place hands on your temple and your fingers rest just above your ears.
- Rest hands on your cheek and ears.
You can do this for your-self anywhere but it’s nice to lie down and use pillows to hold up your elbows. It’s also very nice to do this for someone else. Trust your instincts and let your hands gently hold wherever they feel drawn to.
It is so easy to get caught up in thought stress loops, which just block us in everyway possible. Tony’s latest post got me thinking about the sacred space of silence which led me to think about what it is to be in silence and in that present moment.
It’s pure beauty and love, I don’t know if there is anything beyond that sometimes. Even when bad things may be happening if you really step back you can see LIFE and life does not favor good or bad, it just is. John Perkins once told me a story of a loved one passing and he described it as ecstasy and I did not understand. I will try to do his answer justice…. He explained that in life you have great joy and great pain and both are a part of the greater source that connects us all and it is pure love. It’s beautiful and is the true definition of ecstasy.
I hope I have expressed the point:
- That beauty can be found in everything.
- Observe Yourself. When in a bad situation step back into that place of silence and observe. See the larger view, the lesson and the motivation to change, if you want. Being in that space does not actually require any kind of thought let alone detailed ones.
- Finding the Emotions. I believe when you see the larger picture of anything we are capable of seeing things with a compassionate eye. When we tap into that compassion our heart opens and we feel love.
- Be Grateful. If you can feel love, starting with self-love, that love will translate into how you feel about your life and the people in it.
- If you agree with all of the above then love really is enough. I think that is fantastic to know and tapping into it can change your life.
What I have been writing about is larger idea of what love is but in a day to day, moment by moment point of view – if we can really love ourselves and you have to really sit back and dig deep to see if you actually believe on a fundamental level that you love yourself – once you can say, “Yes I do” you can then begin to extend that love to others in a deeper way. You can deepen every relationship you have through love. It doesn’t have to be put on a loudspeaker; you can just feel it and that energy will radiate from you and others will feel it. Then you get to create a new thought loop, one of love not stress.
Some ways I think you can get to that sacred space:
- Sit in silence and focus on something you find beautiful and let your mind slowly drain of thought as you become present in that moment of appreciating the beauty.
- If you find your mind looping too much try a Triple Warmer Calming Exercise or a 30 Second Slow Down.
- Meditate, if even for 5 minutes a day.