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So important right now.

Healing Inguinal hernia with Alternatives to Western Allopathic Surgical Procedures

I received my results from the CT scan. My doctor wants me to go to surgeon, who will probably start by prescribing a Colonoscopy. I like my doc, he's a sweet guy and he probably knows me well enough by now to understand that while I do want his opinion, in the final analysis I'll do what I think is best. 

Now, my research has begun. I'm finding great but limited, information available, on those have healed this issue with Reiki, Yoga, EFT, nutrition, meditation, exercise. I'll be documenting my process on my blog. Hope y'all find it as interesting as I do. I know all the fear-factor tricks that western-medical-science believes in will be used against me. However, many of the believers have the same problem return or come back in a different form because they haven't solved the underlying problem. This is my journey. Wish me well~

Here is a link I found this morning - I'll continue to post links to blogs of those who have documented their process.
http://falconblanco.com/health/hernia.htm

Soap Making in the Planning Stage

I found the bucket with the Coconut Oil – I had purchased a twenty pounder awhile back. I recently ordered 4 gallons of Olive Oil from ebay and got it for about $12 a gallon, but I had to pay for shipping as well. The third oil which is basic to my recipe, vegetable oil, is easily obtained at a mainstream grocery in the form of ~crisco~ or something like that. Various other oils could be used such as shea butter, cocoa butter or many others – research into their skin beneficial qualities would provide many other choices but the three basics – coconut (for sudsing action), olive and vegetable are the ones I always use as a base. 

The lye was purchased in a larger quantity from a wholesaler in Dallas. I would have liked to purchase a larger quantity – like a 20 gallon drum, but storage of this very dangerous chemical would have been an insurmountable challenge before I had a safe, secure, dry location to store it. In the meantime I have 5 pre-measured bags of lye, enough for 5 batches of soap.

I don’t use water to mix my lye, rather an herbal tea, refrigerated overnight. My personal favorite is Comfrey, an herb known for its skin-healing properties. I think that making the tea must also establish the correct PH since I never have problems when I make it with tea rather than plain water. I’ve heard of mixing the lye with goat’s milk but someone had a problem with her end product stinging when she used milk for the mixture. I couldn’t say what caused this but I was getting my goat’s milk direct from the farm and never had that problem.

Cosmetic grade fragrance oils were purchased by the quart and I have 3 remaining – sugar cookie, patchouli and the label is worn off the third.

So, those are my ingredients although I could add oatmeal, fresh dried herbs and many other ingredients for varieties in selection and use.

Mixing the ingredients is a key step in the process. Both the hot and the cold have to meet in the middle at temperatures between 120-125 f in order for the chemical process to occur. To facilitate their merge, I use an electric mixer on a stand. The small bowls on these mixers won’t be large enough for the measurements I use so a purchase of a large aluminum bowl (glass too dangerous – I wouldn’t want to take a chance on that breakage) to fit a stand mixer that holds ‘other’ bowls. 

I recently purchased a Sunbeam FPSBHS030 250-Watt 5-Speed Hand and Stand Mixer Combo cookware kitchen that I will NOT be using for soap making – too flimsy. I bought on ebay but amazon sells cheaper. Doesn’t matter what you pay for it, I wouldn’t take a chance on making soap in it. 


In the past I’ve used a SUNBEAM MIXMASTER 12 SPEED STAND MIXER which worked very well. Unfortunately it was lost during a storage move. I’d like to find another and there are several on Craigslist for Kalamazoo. Guess I might have to make a drive over there. KitchenAid makes an expensive one that might be more power than I need for this project.

This is the Sunbeam mixer I’m looking for. Happy Shopping~

All the Help you need

Mind Over Medicine, Scientific Proof that you can Heal Yourself by Lissa Rankin, M.D. will convince you of the truth of her findings, if scientific proof is what you need. However, many of us can skip all the proofs that she provides and simply believe in the validity of what Dr. Rankin proposes, that our emotional health is important if we are concerned about our physical health. Findings have been brought forth proving that a happy state of mind, a supportive environment and major stress reduction will enable our bodies to not only heal faster but can act as a preventive methodology when disease threatens.

I was totally supportive of this book before I read it. I truly believe that our minds are more powerful than any disease which it may encounter. The author provides scientific proof based on verifiable studies for those who would doubt the accuracy of this theory. Her experience with western medicine, as a practicing Doctor of Medicine, should convince those who limit their belief in information about health by only believing people with white coats.

Presenting her findings and agreeing with her theories will only take us so far. When we are unhappy in our lives, marriages, work and home environments, how can we implement the necessary changes so that we can be happy and therefore succeed in having a healthy life, free of disease? Fortunately, Dr. Rankin did not stop at just finding the formula for health but continued to inform us of methods for bringing more happiness into our lives.

Meditation is the key that she suggests we can use to unlock the door to our ‘Inner Pilot Light’ which she describes as the base of our inner guidance. She has created a wonderful visual map showing the contributing factors which affect our health and the bubble which acts as a glue to the balance by contributing gratitude, service, love and pleasure. Connecting to this inner knowing and healing wisdom to guide us, each in our own unique way, will inform us of the obstacles standing in our way.

She finishes the book with clear directions for taking the 6 steps to heal ourselves; believing in our ability to heal our self, finding our support team, listening to our body and intuition, diagnosing the root causes of our illness by determining what our body needs in order to heal, how balanced is our total health package (including spirituality, sexuality, physical body, relationships and work), write our own prescription, write and finally, take action on the prescription we write for ourselves. She provides suggested instruction on meditation to use and also provides assistance on her website with downloadable guides.

Dr. Rankin believes we hold the key to our own health and well-being and I agree. Her suggestions and questions are simply ways to get at the truth although she does heartily recommend having a support system in place before embarking on the journey because some of the truths we may encounter could be challenging to deal with alone. I agree with Dr. Rankin on much of the information in her book.

The only problem that I have with this book is her comments regarding alternative healing practices such as Reiki. In the discussion of placebos and no-cebos, she proposes that these same principals hold true. As a practicing Reiki Master for many years I really don’t know how you could pretend to give reiki and not give it. If you have belief in reiki, you know that all that is required to ‘turn it on’ is your intention to do so. I suppose if you hadn’t received an attunement and pretended that you did, it could affect the volume of healing energy flowing through your hands. However, my belief is that everyone has healing energy which may pass through their hands, only reiki practitioners have the volume turned up. This equates to a small note for a large book with many truths and excellent suggestions.

I received this book as a gift from Hay House in exchange for writing my review. I was in no way coerced to write a positive or negative review, simply to state my opinion.

This book is Phenomenal !

I love this book and will continue to use it as a resource for a long time to come. It wasn’t totally new material for me as I had taken an Emotional Freedom Techniques class (EFT) about 15 years ago after having a session with a woman in Colorado. I could see the sense of the techniques in the verbal description but didn’t find the process as beneficial as I had expected. My feelings about EFT and Tapping changed dramatically after reading this book.

Why does one person explain a process and have it make logical sense but little result and have another explain the process and experience tremendous results from putting the instructions into practice? Perhaps it has to do with timing and that I am just more ready to find relief at this point in my life than I was in the past. Whatever the reason, the book was the key for me.

The only criticism I might have of this book is that a word of caution may be in order before proceeding to work through every issue that pops in your mind over one day and clearing all the muck too quickly. You can probably guess that was my modus operandi.

I started Nick Ortner’s book with hope that I could revive and put to better use my previous training. I was ready to go to work on every issue that I could think of. With every tapping experience during this first day, I seemed to find a deeper issue to work on next. The fact that this will occur is mentioned in the book and it is possible that Mr. Ortner mentioned a word of warning about going too fast and I possibly sped through that mention.

Not that this did any harm other than I slept around the clock pretty much for the next several days, waking only to use the restroom facilities and have a bite to eat, then back to bed.

Yes, my free-floating anxiety was gone, yes; the pain in my neck was gone. True, several issues that had plagued me for a while were gone. Would I do it again, all in one day? I think I might have learned to slow down a little and spread this book over a week or two rather than eating it up in one sitting.

Enjoy~ the writing is clear and the instructions are very easy to follow.

I did receive a free copy of this book from Hay House Publishing in order to write this review. I received no monetary compensation and was not obligated to make it a positive review. I was simply asked to give my honest opinion and this is it.

Final Move

I'm moving next week, about 2 miles down the road, still in Michigan. I think I'm gonna love it - its a old farmhouse (a Sears house which brings up all kinds of research for me to follow up on) on a 100 acre operational Fruit & Horse farm. I've been packing for awhile and I'll get the keys a week from Wednesday with the furniture being moved on Saturday, the 18th. 

Turns out Sears sold about 70 thousand of the 'kits' from 1908 to 1940 and this one looks to be one of the 350 designs, a Sheridan, and was built in the late 1920's. The house was sold in 1951 (the year I was born) to a family that owned it up until recently. The Missus died in 1998 at the age of 88 and her husband in 2003 at the age of 96 - he'd already planted his spring garden that year. Their son  lives about 1/4 mile down the road and he was in his late teens when his parents bought the house. He and his wife walk everyday and are very helpful in the history they remember. 

It's a huge house - 3 bedrooms and bath up and 1 bedroom, bath, dining room, kitchen and living room downstairs plus a basement. One of the out buildings can be used for my soap-making since it has a sink, bathroom and heater. It's amazing. 

The current owners live about 1/2 mile away in his historic family home but the land was sold and the owner is a big business guy accumulating land in the area. This is why the current owners farm the land but live elsewhere so its a great opportunity for me. There are 100 acres with apple, sweet cherry and peach orchards. About 5 horses and he'd like to do more horse rescue - I've already got a good relationship with one of the horses. You can see pics if you scroll down. 

There are fine with me adding goats and chickens and I'm seriously considering bee-keeping. The owner has already tilled up a 20x20 patch for my garden this year and I can start planting right away. The garden is where the family had an organic composted garden for many years so the soil should be excellent. Corn & Tomatoes are on their way.

Spring Garden

 On my patio, the Sage and Chives are coming back to life. Lettuce and Beets are sprouting.

In a little while I'll go over to Church and see how the Community Garden is coming along and then plan to attend the Monthly Soup Supper where the local churches and organizations join forces to raise money for the North Berrien Food Pantry, located at the Coloma United Methodist Church. I have a 4x8 plot there for my growing where Cilantro, Comfrey, Beets, Carrots, Radishes and Lettuce were planted about ten days ago. Finally, the big one... 20x20 is being plowed up for me now, at the Farm. I'll plant corn, sweet potatoes (hope they grow up here), lots of tomatoes & peppers so I'll be canning salsa, spaghetti sauce and plain ole tomatoes. Green, Wax and Italian Beens are likely additions. Should keep me busy for awhile~


I've updated the Events Page for Paw Paw River Campground and Canoes. Also created an Event for the Spring Grand Opening at the Watervliet Fruit Exchange