Hormones in Harmony

Living abundant joy through bio-psycho-spiritual balancing

Name:
Location: Ojai, California, United States

Welcome to Hormones in Harmony where I shall share pearls of wisdom gathered over two decades of consulting with the hormonally challenged. As a holistic nurse practitioner specializing in neuro-immune-endocrinology, I have merged my western education with eastern philosophies, but the key to being a successful healer is to embody physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. At 54, married for 32 years with two grown children, I strive to keep my Hormones in Harmony with a positive attitude, a loving environment, and faithful consumption of Genesis Gold.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

From the Ashes We Rise


The sooty gray sky frames a rose sun. Ash from a distant fire dusts the oak leaves. A midnight call from my daughter at San Diego State University, “I’m scared, Mom. We have to prepare to evacuate.” I reassure her and for my own peace of mind imagine a protective white light cocooning her precious form. Many of the professors can’t make it to the campus, so the college cancels classes. My daughter packs her art work, her kitten, her roommate, and her boyfriend and drives 200 miles home. She gets out just in time. The interstate 5 closes a few hours after she leaves San Diego.

Smelling of smoke, she arrives safe in my arms. “Mom, a lot of old people can’t breathe down there.” She worries, voice hoarse from breathing sooty air for four days. “What can we do?”

Calls coming in from across the country. “Is everyone alright?” Safe here in Ojai, but my mother trapped in Canyon Country. Mom asks if I remember holding the ladder while she watered our roof 39 years ago as fire engulfed Camp Plenty. I remember it like it was yesterday. Flying embers singeing our lawn. The thick smoke making my eyes water, choking me. My mother’s fear inflamed us all, yet she vowed to protect us and our home.

My stressed patients call for advice. Their loved ones trapped in the fire zone, their husbands—firemen and police—summoned to protect our neighbors. I prescribe natural remedies to help them sleep, relax their stress, soothe their inflamed lungs. My assistant wonders how this advice can be disseminated to those people in the evacuation centers.

So along with my prayers for your safe delivery from this crisis, here are some tips to handle the stress.

• Fend off illness by getting deep sleep.
Watching the news before bed can disturb sleep. Experiencing the crisis even virtually through the television can raise stress hormones gearing your body for fight or flight NOT a restful night’s sleep. Television and computer screens mimic daylight and suppress production of the sleep hormone—melatonin. If you must watch TV then wear pink sunglasses. Like the dusk, pink lenses induce melatonin production. A cup of chamomile tea can help you fall to sleep naturally.

• Relieve stress with natural remedies.
Massage can relieve muscle tension. You don’t need to be professional masseuse to help your loved ones. Firmly but gently massage the neck, shoulders and back with lavender oil for the ultimate in relaxation. Chelated calcium and magnesium has a calming effect on the nervous system. Bach flower essences like Rescue Remedy can soothe the system

• Eat a colorful diet
Consuming fruits and vegetables in a rainbow of colors helps you get the antioxidants necessary to cleanup the effect of stress in your system. If fresh produce is difficult to come by, try a fortified super green food powder mixed in antioxidant rich juice like pomegranate to detoxify your system. Avoid drowning your woes in sugary drinks or stuffing them with sweet starchy foods and you will help prevent depression of the brain chemistry.

• Breathe easier
Hot steamy showers assist in clearing the lungs of smoke. Place your hand on your stomach and take a deep breath using your abdominal muscles to draw the cleansing moist air deeply into your lungs. A few drops of eucalyptus oil in the bath or in a humidifier can help open blocked airways.

• Practice gratitude
While it’s difficult in the midst of a crisis to count your blessings, focusing on the positive induces a cascade of healing neuro-hormones. Your body responds to negative thoughts, angry words, and bad news with stress hormones that literally eat away at you. Gratitude can repair the damage. Be thankful for the blessings in your life.

Last year, fires ravaged the national forests surrounding Ojai. Our town was saved by the diligence of many brave firefighters and the positive uplifting meditations and prayers of friends and neighbors. Since then many of us have experienced losses. After the fall fires, we suffered a winter freeze. Many of my patients and friends have lost loved ones. I’ve spent the past year counseling them through crisis after crisis.

This has been a death year, beginning and ending in flame. Every seven years, the earth renews itself. Even humans seem to go through change in seven year cycles. The death year will end and we will experience a rebirth. Southern California will rise from the ashes and renew itself…stronger, wiser, and grateful for our very existence.

May we each receive the gift of this encounter and become better for it.

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