Harmonizing with Spring

It's grim, rainy and cold out as I write, but the trees are covered in buds.  Some buds are tightly shut, while others have opened into leaves or flowers.  Some flowers are already spilling petals through the air and onto the ground.  In some places, the air is scented with cherry blossoms.  It's grey, wet and chilly, but it is Spring.

Spring is a time of bursting forth.  It takes a surge of upwards-moving energy to produce those buds, and to burst them open into the leaves and flowers they are to become.  This energy comes up from a plant's roots, from deep in the earth.

Just as the plants are in this process, so are we humans.  Now is the time to implement those ideas hatched in the dark of winter.  Now is the time, while the days are lengthening, when there is all spring, all summer and well into the autumn, to move these ideas through action into existence.

What if, however, you are having a hard time getting going?  What if you're feeling sluggish or stuck?  What if you just can't get organized or inspired to make your dreams come true?

You could seek support.  You could call upon friends or family, or you could ask for a little help from the experts on bursting forth: plants, and in particular, their flowers.

Flowers can be applied as essential oils, or ingested as teas, in tinctures or capsules, or in flower essences.  Flower essences are particular useful for emotional and energetic illnesses.  Here are a few you can use to get yourself up and running with Springtime energy:

Bird of Paradise by 3 Flowers Healing, from Hood River, Oregon:  This essence is excellent for bringing in the new, and for creating an openness in yourself for welcoming and adapting to that which is new.

Barrett's Penstemon by 3 Flowers Healing:  This essence gives a feeling of lightness and the ability to rise above.  Obstacles can be viewed from a vaster perspective with this essence so that you can see the ways around them, and also move about them with agility.

Walnut by Flower Essence Services in Nevada City, California:  This essence is excellent for letting go of past influences that keep you from moving forward, and for proceeding onwards with new certainty.

Blackberry by Flower Essence Services (FES):  This essence is good for those with good ideas, but who have trouble applying the elbow grease necessary to turn those ideas into reality.

Cayenne by FES:  This essence is good for overcoming inertia and stuckness.  It gets the blood and the energy flowing.

Olive by FES:  If you are too fatigued to get going, this is the essence for you.

Borage by FES:  This essence is for harnessing the courage necessary to make a bold leap, and to meet the challenges that lie ahead.  Often, this is all that's really needed to get something started.

Wishing you a springtime full of boundless energy and positive new beginnings.

Detoxify but don’t deplete

Even though we may be distracted by the trappings of digital and mechanized society, our bodies are part of nature.  It’s officially Spring as of 4:19 PDT today, March 20^th, 2011.  That means you can experience buds on the trees, crocuses popping out of the ground, birds and squirrels more actively flitting and scurrying about, and ever increasingly long days.  But it’s not just Spring outside.

It’s Spring inside too, in our bodies.  Just as nature awakens and bursts forth new life, so do we.  Some of the effects of this, we call “spring fever.”  You may want to be more active, spend more time outside, wake up earlier and/or stay up later.  You may want to drift about freely, without aim, and shirk the duties you’ve been burying your nose in all winter.  Go ahead!  Be alive, and enjoy life.  That’s what is happening in nature too, and the more we are in tune with nature, the greater our capacity for health.

Something else that happens in the body during spring is a natural cleansing process.  The body wants to clear out the excesses of winter to make room for the more active seasons of spring and summer.  You can help this process along in many ways, ranging from more extreme fasts and cleanses to gentler detoxification processes.  If you are already feeling tired and depleted, if you are a generally sensitive type, or if you are completely new to detoxification methods, I recommend starting with a more gentle and nourishing approach.

Begin any detoxification regimen with a few simple life and dietary changes.  Even without fasting, your body can cleanse well, especially if you stop eating by 7pm at night, and eat only a light breakfast, such as a smoothie or fresh fruit and herbal tea.  Increase the amount of fresh and cooked fruit and vegetables you eat.  Decrease or ideally cut out refined sugars, white flour and hydrogenated oils.  Night is when your body does most of its cleaning out, so you can also help move things along by getting to bed by 11pm.  In this way, your body can do its cleaning without having to process any new stimulus of any kind, including television, conversation or reading

A few herbal teas that aid in the detoxification process:  For gentle but effective liver support try milk thistle seed, burdock root, dandelion root and blue violet.  For kidney cleansing try nettles and dandelion leaf.  For cleaning the blood try sarsaparilla, red clover and yellow dock.  For cleansing the lymph, try red root, blue violet, burdock and yellow dock.

Microgreens are an excellent addition to the diet at any time, due to their high vitamin, mineral and protein content, which are all completely bioavailable.  They are also excellent detoxifiers because of their high chlorophyll content.  For a more depleted constitution, try spirulina over any other microgreen as it is the most nutritive.  For a stronger constitution, try chlorella, the highest in cleansing chlorophyll.  For an energizing mineral blast and very strong detoxification for those with very robust constitutions, go for the blue-green algae.  Cereal grasses, such as wheat or barley grass and alfalfa leaf powder are also high in chlorophyll, and are very alkalizing.  There are also many blends of various

Always support the natural elimination processes through your skin and colon during a cleanse.  For gentle colon support, try aloe very gel.  Very a more intensive colon scrub, I recommend the “Intestinal Drawing Formula” by Health Force.  Skin is the main eliminative organ of the body.  “Dry brushing,” or scrubbing the entire surface of the body with a natural bristle brush before a shower is an ancient and effective technique for removing dead skin cells.  For best results and to improve your circulation, always brush towards the heart.  Another approach is a weekly sweat.  To do this at home, drink diaphoretic herbs such as peppermint, sage or elder flower, and then take a hot bath.  Scrub your self well, rinse off, and then continue to sweat by wrapping yourself in blankets.  Rinse off again once you’re done sweating.

Maintain your chosen regimen for a few weeks, or as you are able.  A more sustained, gentler detoxification is ultimately more effective than a quick one week fast.  Such methods tend to shock the body twice – when you begin it and when you end it.  Making more sustainable changes are ultimately better for your body, heart, mind & spirit.  And ultimately, isn’t that what you’re after?

Wishing you a happy, healthy & abundant springtime!

Beauty amidst the chaos

Rainbow Natural Remedies's purpose is to provide a healing environment where you can find a wide array of natural remedies and staff who are knowledgeable and care about your health. It has been a very busy week for us as many people have expressed concern and anxiety about the disaster in Japan. Below is a message I received from a friend who lives near Sendai in Japan. It points to what really matters for us and how a crises can provide an opportunity to appreciate and be grateful life and the comfort of having community.

  Hello My Lovely Friends,
  First I want to thank you so very much for your concern for me. I am very touched. I also wish to apologize for a generic message to you all. But it seems the best way at the moment to get my message to you.
 
Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.
 
 During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home, they put out sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.
 
Utterly amazingly where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."
 
Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes. Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often.
 
We got water for a few hours in our homes last night, and now it is for half a day. Electricity came on this afternoon. Gas has not yet come on. But all of this is by area. Some people have these things, others do not. No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of me, but of the entire group.
 
 There are strange parallel universes happening. Houses a mess in some places, yet then a house with futons or laundry out drying in the sun. People lining up for water and food, and yet a few people out walking their dogs. All happening at the same time.
 
Other unexpected touches of beauty are first, the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled. The mountains are Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.
 
 And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or panic, no.
 
They tell us we can expect aftershocks, and even other major quakes, for another month or more. And we are getting constant tremors, rolls, shaking, rumbling. I am blessed in that I live in a part of Sendai that is a bit elevated, a bit more solid than other parts. So, so far this area is better off than others.  Last night my friend's husband came in from the country, bringing food and water. Blessed again.
 
Somehow at this time I realize from direct experience that there is indeed an enormous Cosmic evolutionary step that is occurring all over the world right at this moment. And somehow as I experience the events happening now in Japan, I can feel my heart opening very wide. My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don't. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that much larger than myself. This wave of birthing (worldwide) is hard, and yet magnificent.
 
 Thank you again for your care and Love of me,
 
With Love in return, to you all,
Anne.

Radiation Detoxification

There is a lot of fear going around about the radiation leaks from the nuclear reactors in Japan.  The radiation is reputedly heading towards   our area in the Pacific Northwest, so it is wise to take some precautionary measures in terms of radiation detoxification.The most common request we are currently receiving at Rainbow is for Potassium Iodide as a radiation detoxifier.  We do carry this item, but we are sold out until Thursday, March 17^th.  For those of you interested in taking this remedy, please note that there are some extreme side effects, ranging from rashes to fever, nausea and vomiting to general weakness, diarrhea and black tarry stools to swelling in the neck and throat.  The main cautionary word here is moderation.  Introduce this remedy slowly, and watch to see how it affects you. If you develop any adverse reactions, stop taking the remedy, and try something else. There are many other remedies for radiation exposure that lack these unpleasant side effects.  Here are a few suggestions:

Seaweed and seaweed extracts are extremely high in iodine, particularly the digitata kelp, harvested in Iceland, Maine or Northeastern Canada.  In addition to being rich in iodine, seaweeds are good detoxifiers in general, and help to keep things flowing through and out of the body.

Both Panax Ginseng, also known as red or Korean ginseng, and Eleuthro, also known as Siberian Ginseng have been effectively used to treat radiation poisoning.  They have the added benefits of revitalizing & energizing the system.

All microgreens, including chlorella, blue-green algae, spirulina, wheat grass, barley grass and alfalfa are high in chlorophyll, which helps to eliminate both radiation & heavy metals from the body.  In addition, they are excellent sources of vitamins, protein & minerals.  These are available both singly and in blends.  They can be mixed into water, juice or smoothies.  Some are also available in capsule or tablet form.

For those interested in more alternative remedies, Flower Essence Services designed a remedy specifically for survivors of Chernobyl.  This remedy, called Yarrow Environmental Solution, is designed to protect and cleanse the body’s energetic field of radiation as well as noxious environmental & geopathic stress.  As per the adage, “as above, so below,” if the etheric body is clean, the physical body will follow suit.

Other helpful radiation detoxifiers are bentonite and other clays, which can be taken internally to help draw out even severely lodged toxins from the digestive tract.  Pectin and lecithin are also helpful.

All of these supplements are available at Rainbow.  You can also pick up some high quality, non-pasteurized miso from your local co-op to help in the detoxification process.  Add some seaweed to your miso soup for a detoxifying yet nourishing meal.

In terms of health, it is also important to look at the emotional and mental state of a person.  Acknowledge but do not give into your fear.  It may be helpful to have the perspective that although this is scary, people in Japan are at far more risk than us.  Take a moment to quiet your fears, and send some good thoughts their way, that we may all experience ease, safety, peace and good health.