Tapping Into Possibilities

Whittle Your Wattle

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Wattle: a fleshy, wrinkled, often brightly colored, fold of skin or growth hanging from the head or neck of certain animals.

You’re probably giving some thought this week to ordering your turkey and making that wonderful gravy with the giblets and turkey neck.

But what about that other “turkey neck”? Do you give it any thought at all?

The neck may be one of the least favorite body parts of women of a certain age but it got that way because it’s one of the most neglected body parts in the skin care regimen of all women, regardless of age. This is the area where those fragile, crepey (is this even a word) lines and liver spots appear first (now you know why turtlenecks have never gone out of style!).

Skin on the neck and chest is thin with little connective tissue and the area has fewer stem cells (which promote skin renewal). The neck and chest area lose elasticity more easily (earlier) and are dryer because of changing hormones, sun exposure and less attention.

Building neck muscles not only reduces tension, reduces pain and reduces stress but also makes wrinkles less apparent.

Here are things I do to reduce tension and pain in the neck area and reduce wrinkles; what you might call “killing two turkeys with one stone”!

Posture: pay attention to it and keep your chin up. Don’t tilt your head to one side or the other while on the phone.

Line of vision: change it. Don’t look down while reading or looking at that phone or tablet.

Pillows: sleep with less. Too many pillows force your neck down.

Water: Just make sure you’re adequately hydrated and water is your drink of choice. Water carries nutrients to all cells and removes toxins from all cells.

Silica: consider a bioavailable silica supplement which helps strengthen the skin as it plays a part in the synthesis of elastin and collagen. Silca is a trace mineral which decreases as we age. Consider, BioSil, JarroSil or Cellfood Essential  Silica from www.iherb.com (couponcode BOT164 for discount on first order).

Excercise: 1) Tilt head towards ceiling and pretend to chew for 2-3 minutes 2) Cat & Cow pose. Click above on the Articles tab for exercise How To’s. 

Sunscreen: need I say more.

Tightening Skin Masks:  My favorite is 1 egg white, 1 teaspoon each of honey, lemon juice and olive oil. Whisk egg white and other ingredients. Pat on skin of face, neck and chest and leave on for 15 minutes. It will still be liquid but it will dry and tighten.  Wash gently off with cool water then gently rub on coconut oil. Google for other ideas using ingredients you already have in your house.

Coconut Oil: There are many neck specific skin care products out there but a jar of virgin coconut oil from your health food store is my favorite and has multiple uses. Before bed gently massage the neck and face and anywhere else in small circles. Coconut oil will relax the skin, minimize wrinkles and moisturize the skin. There are many health benefits of coconut oil both topically and internally including increasing blood circulation which helps generate new cells. Try Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil from www.iherb.com

Disclaimer: The information provided here is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Tapping Into Possibilities does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

 

Sweat Equity….Literally

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“July has rewritten climate history”, though you probably don’t need the World Meteorological Organization to tell you that July 2019 was the hottest month on record.

I spent most of the month of July, dripping sweat as I worked in our gardens here in the Berkshires.

Sweat Equity per Merriam Webster and dictionary.com  is the “time and effort that people contribute to a project, the unreimbursed labor that results in the increased value of property or that is invested to establish or expand an enterprise.”

 

While I’ve contributed countless hours of Sweat Equity (and I admit most of them have been pulling weeds, it hasn’t been about the increased value of the property, it has been about the transformation, about creating something, about change, about  gratitude for the opportunity to make a difference, even if it’s small.

Think of yourself as the property or the enterprise. What weeds do you want to pull? What do you want to plant? 

 

June 2019

 

 

 

 

Sweat Equity is something we can do for ourselves everyday and reap the fruits of our labor.

 

 

 

 

 

July 2019

Where do you want to create change or beauty or just a WOW?

 

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, July 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

Firework

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This song still gives me goose bumps. Not the Katy Perry version (2010) so much, which now has 1.1 billion views on YouTube, but the PS22 version (2011) which back then had 300,000 views and now has 1.1 million.

PS22 is a public elementary school in Staten Island with a music teacher with a vision, with a faith in these kids that should be a lesson for all of us.

It’s not that I don’t like Katy Perry or her version. But somehow her voice doesn’t  give me goose bumps (maybe because it is a performance, maybe because she tried to outshine these kids on Oprah back in 2011). 

Click on the link below and just listen to little Denise belt out

Just own the night like the 4th of July. Cause baby you’re a firework.  Come on show them what you’re worth.

and I hope you’ll know what I’m talking about. 

Watch the faces on these 5th graders and you can’t help but believe in them (and maybe even yourself) and feel something. 

Talk about possibilities…………

Do you ever feel so paper thin, like a house of cards one blow from caving in? Do you know there’s still a chance for you  cause there’s a spark in you….Come on let your colors burst.

And if you have any doubt about your own gifts and talents, your own worth, your own possibilities doubt no more.

I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside. Whitney Houston

P.S. I’m still figuring out how to embed videos so bear with me if you can’t open the video. Go to youtube.com and search PS22 Chorus Firework if any problems. Thank you.

Lipstick on a Pig or Transformation?

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Lipstick on a Pig– is a rhetorical expression used to covey the message that making superficial or cosmetic changes is a futile attempt to disguise the true nature of a product or person. (Wikipedia)

Lipstick on a Pig is a relatively new phrase/colloquialism (think Sarah Palin) evolved from a 300 year old phrase, “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”.

Transformation– a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance, metamorphosis, renewal, radical change, shift. (Merriam-Webster)

Our ramshackle, eyesore of a chicken coop was, just that, an eyesore – something that is ugly or unpleasant to look at (MacMillian Dictionary).

First comes thought, then organization of that thought into ideas and plans then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is your imagination. Napoleon Hill

It is amazing what an afternoon and a little elbow grease can accomplish

Transformation isn’t a future event. It is a present day activity. Jillian Michaels

Many may think Lipstick on a Pig but I choose Transformation!

Possibilities………..

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Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.  Gloria Steinem

In April, it was hard to imagine that this……

Could become this in May

Could become this in June

Just imagine what’s next………?

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.  George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah

Your Tapping Season

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You know Spring is here, or at least right around the corner, in the Berkshires when the galvanized buckets hanging on the sugar maples (Acer Sacchurum) are gone.

The “sap run” is determined by the freeze/thaw cycle when it’s above 40 in the day and below freezing at night. The maple sugaring season is typically mid- February to early April. 

When the temperature remains above freezing or buds start to form on the trees, it is time to stop collecting sap.

It takes 40 years for a maple tree to grow big enough to tap but if healthy and treated well, the tree can be tapped for decades, even a century!

A single tap on a healthy maple usually produces 10-12 gallons of sap but sap becomes syrup when the water evaporates through boiling and the sugars become concentrated. That 10 gallons of sap becomes only 1 quart of syrup, but it is liquid gold

While the season to tap into the sugar maples is just that, a very short season, the time for you to tap in to your possibilities is anytime, your season is limitless. What are you waiting for? It’s time to move on down the road.

Why Look for Gratitude?

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Can you see the holiness in these things you take for granted – a paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding whats good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.                                Rabbi Harold Kushne

Even on my worst days, I find at least five things I’m grateful for and I write them down. On my worst days, I often have to look very, very hard to find those 5 things but I do it and I know my life is better for it.

Today I am grateful for 3 eggs from 8 chickens on a cold day when we are approaching the shortest day of the year – only 9 hours and 13 minutes of light today and yes, chickens do need light to lay!

It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s the first thing you do in the morning or the last thing at night or somewhere in between, just do it, Look for Gratitude.

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.                              Marcus Tillius Cicero, Roman orator and statesman

Let me know what you find.

Thanksgiving Day Every Day

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There have been numerous posts, blogs and articles in recent weeks about Thanksgiving Day and gratitude and even more about food, food, food but I’m thinking bigger, much bigger.

Every day is Thanksgiving or at least it should be.

Thanks: to express gratitude, appreciation or acknowledgement, a grateful feeling.

Giving: to give a gift, to present voluntarily without expecting something in return.

Gratitude: the quality or feeling of being thankful or of appreciation

When someone does or says something nice for you or to you, how does that make you feel?

So if you are still feeling full as I am from the feast last Thursday, consider the following:

Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life Rumi

Nothing to be grateful for? Consider what the great American jazz trumpeter and singer Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong (1901-1971) had to say in his 1967 classic What a Wonderful World.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3yCcXgbKrE

Happy thanks giving days to you and to all whom you love.

 

Why Meditate?

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Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you. Nathaniel Hawthorne (19thc novelist)

In my last post, Angeles Arrien spoke about “the sweet territory of stillness” as the place where we explore the mystery, the unknown.

Whether you believe it’s where you “hear” God, are in touch with your Divine Source, your intuition, or just your “gut”, this is the place some old stuff may come up, some brilliant idea may bubble to the surface or even some crazy/weird stuff. For example, last week while sitting in stillness I knew I needed to apologize to a cousin for a mistake I made 40 years ago!

This is one reason I practice mindfulness meditation every day for 5-20 minutes. While I’m not the mountain climbing explorer like my sister-in –law, I, too, am an explorer. Sometimes it’s more difficult, both literally and figuratively, when less than joyful memories and emotions rise to the surface but even then the clarity, the pearl of wisdom, the “ah ha” are all welcome.

Rumi, 13thc (1207-1273) Persian (now Tajikistan) poet, theologian and Sufi mysticobviously said it far better than I have in The Guest House

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and attend them all: even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of all its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whatever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

But if you need the science stuff to motivate you to give silence and stillness a try……

A recent 2018 study at Michigan Technological University in Houghton showed reduced anxiety in 11 of 14 participants in just one hour. Dr. John Duroucher, PhD., one of the co-authors said the participants also showed cardiac/heart rate benefits which should decrease stress on both the brain and kidneys.

Whether you call it sitting in stillness or mindfulness meditation, remember it’s a “practice” that takes practice and patience but that butterfly will alight if you give it a chance.

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. InLightened Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

 

Anxious? Depressed? Four Questions

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Dispirited or Disheartened?

Last week in a yoga dance class at Kripalu, the teacher read us the following as an introduction to what we would experience in the class.

“In many shamanic societies, if you visited medicine women or men, complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of the following questions:

When did you stop dancing?

When did you stop singing?

When did you stop being enchanted by stories and poetry?

When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?

Could this actually be the cure, the resolution, for anxiety and depression?

Talk about a huge “ah ha”.

I wanted to know more; I needed to know more.

So as usual, it’s down the rabbit hole for me searching for answers.

She said this was written by Gabrielle Roth quoting Angeles Arrien. That’s it. Well, I knew that Gabrielle Roth was a writer, dancer, urban shaman but I had no idea who Angeles Arrien was. But knowing what I know now, I certainly wish I had.

Angeles Arrien was a cultural anthropologist, educator and author. She wrote The Four Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary (1993).

Her research focused on the values and beliefs shared by humanity cross-culturally and on the “integration and application of multicultural wisdoms in contemporary settings”.

Meaning, her work revealed how indigenous wisdoms are relevant to our 24/7 hour 21stcentury world.

She was a gifted teacher, known for her wisdom, authenticity and compassion, who moved on from this world in 2014.

Her friends say she embodied each of the four archetypes she taught about: the Leader, the Healer, the Visionary, and the Teacher.

Her workshops bridged cultural anthropology, psychology and comparative religions to those seeking to live a purposeful, ethical and service oriented life.

Her workshops embraced 4 principles:

Show Up, Choose to Be Present

Follow what has Heart & Meaning

Tell the Truth Without Blame or Judgement

Be Open to Outcome, NOT Attached to Outcome

 

But I digress, back to the quote…..

In an interview several years before she died, she explains that in traditional cultures if you were disheartened or dispirited, the shaman, the medicine man, the holy man would ask

When did you stop dancing?

When did you stop singing?

When did you stop being enchanted by stories and poetry?

When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?

And whenever/wherever that happened, is when you began to experience “soul loss” or “loss of spirit”.

And that’s when you “stopped bringing your voice forward”, “lost your connection to your body’s wisdom”, “lost your connection to your Fire, your Heart” and “when you began to mistrust the mystery, the unknown”.

Take to heart the video attached and start singing, start dancing, listen to the stories, tell your story and embrace the stillness.

https://youtu.be/HUJQlVeGZzY

 

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. InLightened Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.