Breathing Peace and Healing…

I just watched a video ​here, called The Moses Code.

To clarify:  NO, we’re not gods. No, we’re not God.
YES, we DO have a Breath of Life from the Almighty.
YES, the Breath is powerful.
YES, focusing on our breathing is healing– I “breathed through” labor contractions, and a LOT worse when I was sick.

YES, we do have the capacity to “be the healing” for others. My husband carried me, and “saw” me healed until I became well. His Breath of Life has led me out of slavery.
YES, YHWH is in everything– even Pharaoh. In the original language, YHWH doesn’t say, “Go to Pharaoh.” He says, “Come to Pharaoh.”
YHWH is already there.
YES, we are designed to be a vehicle for YHWH’s healing. Yes, the Breath of Life is for healing. How powerful is it? May YHWH be merciful to show us.

YES, the idea of separation between “good and evil” (“function and dysfunction” is a better translation of the original language) was what originally moved us away from perfect harmony with YHWH and “the garden,” or Nature. Finding the unity of function in whatever our personal “Pharaoh” may be is crucial to restoration.
The Name isn’t really best-translated as, “I am that, I am.” A better translation would be, “He exists”, with the potential use of “exists” in the sense of having a direct object: “He exists it” or “He exists all that is.”
We need to be careful not to put ourselves in a position of idolizing ourselves, but YES, we do have a responsibility to learn to use the healing power YHWH has designed into our Breath of Life, and to recognize His hand in everything– even in Pharaoh.
My personal “Pharaohs” right now are Monsanto and the Petrochem gods / corporations, and the financial and educational oppression these have on our health care and shelter, food & water systems.

“Be the change you want to see.”

OK… breathing Freedom, Sufficiency, and Healing. In a word, ​Shalom.

(click here for details on that ancient word for peace)

We All Want Peace*

Everybody’s running around with two fingers up– if they aren’t busy lifting just one finger at the driver that just cut ’em off. Even so, that driver really just wants peace. We want to know that we’re going to get to work on time, that rent will be paid, that our electricity won’t be shut off, and that we’ll be able to put gas in that car so we can do it again tomorrow. (I use “we” loosely, here– different folks have different struggles) At the core of our beings, we want to feel “secure,” knowing that we’re protected from hunger, cold, and loneliness.  We want peace.
What’s funny is that our language doesn’t tell us what peace is just by looking at the word. It’s kind of a nebulous “good thing” out there somewhere that nobody seems to have (unless they happen to smell like weed, and even then, it’s only for as long as the high lasts).

Shabbat Shalom!

A few thousand years ago, and still today in some places, the word for peace was a real, concrete picture of that nebulous thing we all want. Originally, the Scriptural, Hebrew word was “Shalom,” spelled “Shin-Lamed-Vav-Mem.” (second word in the pic)

The Shin is the picture of the two front Teeth. Lamed is a picture of the Shepherd’s Staff. Vav is the Tent Peg, and Mem is Water. The Teeth is an image of protection and defense. The Shepherd’s Staff provides guidance and direction, pointing the way out for the sheep to find everything they need. The Tent Peg is the picture of securing or “nailing down.” Water is our source of life. Shalom is defined in Jeff Benner’s Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible , word #2845, “Complete: Made whole or complete by adding or subtracting. ‘To be in a state of wholeness. Also to restore or make right through payment or restitution. ‘A state of being whole, complete, or full. Also an offering of restitution or payment. ‘A greeting as a desire for completeness to another.”
Shalom is “The protection of the Shepherd, nailing down the water.” We are at peace when we are protected and provided for by our Creator, and when we are made “complete.” In order to be “complete,” we need air, water, food, and shelter. Without land to grow food on, we are incomplete, and the land is incomplete without the humble people who care for it, watching over it with sensitivity to see that seeds sprout in it. Finding those humble people gives the rest of that picture of completeness– we’re no longer lonely 🙂

*Originally posted January 28, 2010 on my old blogsite

Ain’t Life Traumatic?!

Life hurts. Whether you’ve been in a car wreck, in an abusive relationship, through emotional trauma, took a few too many hits in sporting events, poisoned yourself with city air pollution, toxic houses, pharmaceutical medications, or what-have-you, it hurts like the dickens.
There are a lot of traumatic events I’ve been spared, and I’m SO thankful for that!
I have experienced all of the above, and, due to the amount of toxins I’ve been exposed to, I can’t use pharmaceutical medications AT ALL anymore– they only make me feel worse now.
SO– there’s a bright side to all of that 😀
I don’t have to live in incessant pain!
I have a list of natural tools that I keep in my medicine cabinet that keep my body nice and happy and healing– without drugs.
Top of that list is Arnica. It’s a beautiful little flower Designed to work great as a homeopathic remedy for trauma of all kinds.
I use potencies as follows:
For minor boo-boo’s, 30X or 6C… or let the kid shake it off– no biggie.
For something that’s ‘gonna leave a mark, 30C
For something that’s ‘gonna leave a mark for a week or more, 200C
For something that’s likely to send us to the ER if it doesn’t look better fast (or if we just got out of the ER), 1M. So far, we’ve been well-blessed, and the Arnica 1M has worked beautifully on every major injury we’ve had, and, with 4 kids, we haven’t been there in about 8 years. The 1M is also good if  having flash-backs or insomnia or other psychological repercussions from trauma, or if the trauma is very old– great for that broken bone or torn ligament that never felt right again after it “healed.”
It’s a homeopathic medicine, which means it doesn’t operate on a substance basis, but rather on patterns left over in the water into which it was dissolved. That means two things:
A. It doesn’t interact with any kind of medication, which is great for people who are dependent on pharmaceutical medications.
B. We can’t use coffee or strong mint or tea tree oil or camphor or other strong smells when you use it, we can’t touch the medicine itself before you put it in our mouth, and we can’t store it at high temperatures or near electrical equipment or magnets. Any of these things can render the medicine ineffective– it messes up those patterns.
Arnica also comes in topical, gel form to put on bruises & help them to heal faster– a friend says it’s great for if you’re headed to Jamaica for your honeymoon and just banged your leg on the car door. I haven’t used it for that  specifically, but I have watched bruises disappear much more quickly than I’d expected using it… or sometimes not appear at all, if I got it on there fast enough 🙂
The key with this remedy is to take AS NEEDED. We use the LOWEST effective potency, and only take it when the symptoms come up. If the pain is getting better, we don’t take any more. If it starts to get worse or hits a stand-still at healing, we take another dose.
It’s the perfect “shell-shocked soldier” remedy. If I had my way, 1M Arnica would be standard-issue at the VA… But who am I?

Arnica isn’t the only tool in my basket, but it has been a vital one. For more on things that have been helpful for me personally, see my other posts. Arnica also doesn’t fit everyone’s trauma picture. Some people are better served by Aconitum or another remedy. Finding the remedy picture that fits the symptoms set is crucial. There are thousands of different homeopathic remedies made from natural substances, each of which has a unique “personality” for helping “fine tune” different aspects of health that can be “knocked off-course.” I’ve loved “fine tuning” in my own home to find the beautiful people inside those “rough spots” in life.

As with all of my “non-medical, non-advice”, I’m no doctor or pharmacist, which means that I’m not licensed to treat, cure, prevent, heal, or otherwise mitigate any disease. It also means that nobody paid off the FDA to approve the stuff I use. So do your own research, and find what works for you 🙂

For folks interested in more info on the history of homeopathic medicine, here’s a link to more info:
http://www.homeopathic.com/Articles/History

Forgiveness and Healing

Pretty much any holistic-minded health practitioner will acknowledge that there’s something foundational to physical health in mental health, and that the two influence each other intimately. My body proves this out over and over again. From the toxicity I feel in my joints pouring out into my incapacity to think positively when I’ve had a bad exposure, to the mental toxicity of difficult relationships “draining” me physically, and requiring healing and recuperation time afterward, my body knows this basic, Natural Law.

TaNaK is full of references to this phenomenon–

Proverbs 17:22

A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 15:13

A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.

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Proverbs 16:24

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

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Proverbs 18:14 A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?

So… if interpersonal conflict affects us physically, then what do we do about it? Surely we weren’t designed to suffer endlessly without remedy…

The people I need to forgive most often are the very people who are continually hurting me. How do you forgive when you know they’re going to hurt you again? So I went to the original word.  A lot of times we lose the original concept in translation. What I found there makes a world of sense, but it’s not an easy road to implement. Forgiveness isn’t turning a blind eye to danger, bracing yourself for the next injury, and trying not to be angry about what they’ve done and will do.
It’s building a safe place.
The Original, Ancient Hebrew Pictograph:

Samech-Lamed-Chet
Samech: the Ring of Thorns that the Shepherd used to build on top of a low wall out in the wilderness to protect his flock, while he slept  with them, keeping them safe from predators.
Lamed: The Shepherd’s Staff: Teaching / Instructing, Leading, Pointing the Way
Chet: The Tent Wall: Protection, Separation from the elements
Forgiveness acknowledges the danger of being hurt, and constructs a protective wall to keep out the savage animals. Forgiveness finds the Teaching and Instruction in the Natural Laws, and uses them to build safety within the home, giving the safety of the Natural Laws to anyone who will learn them. It separates the safe place (home) from the wild beasts outside. When we’ve built a safe place inside, we eliminate the source of animosity toward any wild beast –they can’t hurt us anymore.
May we one day know a world where the whole Earth is safely invited home.

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you
For more info on the pictographs, see
www.youtube.com/user/ancienthebreworg
or
ancient-hebrew.org/

Sweat

When I was in the toxic house, I was miserably cold all winter because we had to keep the windows open so that I could breathe. Anytime we shut the windows, I’d asphyxiate. That was problematic because the cold would freeze my joints up even worse, and the lumps would get bigger– especially overnight. As excruciatingly painful as it was to move (I had to use my best labor coping skills to do it), it was absolutely necessary, because I’d only get worse if I didn’t. I found myself afraid to go to bed at night, because I knew how miserable the morning would be, and didn’t want to have to face being so crippled that Hubby would have to carry me to the bathroom in the morning… again.

I learned to sleep with a heated rice bag (other grain works, too) on my stomach and other heated bags on the worst of my joints, with those joints elevated, to keep my lymph fluid moving during the night. This usually made for better mornings– not good, but better.

After we finally figured out that it was the house (see “Camping out with God”), and moved out, I spent a few months just recouping  as much as I could, while helping to decontaminate those things that could be saved.

At some point… maybe it was that summer… we figured out that the more I sweated, the more the lumps shrank, and a few of them disappeared entirely that first year. A few years later, after using a sauna once a month (budget is tight, so we do what we can) I’ve seen a few lumps that I’ve had since I was a teenager disappear as well. I still have two small ones left over, but they get smaller when I use a sauna. Sweating is great medicine for me in this imperfect world of toxic houses, toxic fumes from asphalt plants, toxic neighbors who have no clue what they’re doing to their own bodies, let alone the air around them… One word of caution: I found that I had to bring Real Salt Water with me to the sauna to stay well-hydrated and keep my electrolytes balanced, especially at first.
Point is, I don’t live in the Garden of Eden. None of us do. And yet… we’re given some bit of a direction to point in looking for a solution for this imperfect existence… Hmmm… Thorns, Thistles, Sweat, and Dust…

Genesis 3:

17Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.

18“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;

19By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”

Thorns and Thistles here:

https://leavesheal.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/pathways-to-answers-thorns-thistles-and-blessings/

… and Dust… I’ll save that bit for another post.. but it’s good stuff, too 😉

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you