Uterine environment affects generational obstacles

There is a modern revival in gestational uterine health. No one should be surprised by this current interest but take some time to really notice what is going on around us. Have you noticed that often obese women will give birth to 5 lb. babies and 120 lb. women will give birth to 8 lb. babies?! We know for sure, it is not how much you eat but what you eat and how well it is digested. Birth weight is an indication of the mother’s gestational nutrition. If an obese women stays away from caffeine and alcohol during pregnancy but eats horribly processed foods so far removed from the soil it will never even decompose, what is the point of abstinence?

It just comes from ignorance. Each of us is working with our own limitations and varying degrees of ignorance. Nicholas Kristof impressively elucidates our current state of uterine affairs in his NY Times Opinion column from Oct. 3, 2010, “At Risk From the Womb”. He reveals to us that “our uterine environment before we’re even born” is just as important as genetics and environment. He goes on to say that a “stressful uterine environment may be a mechanism that allows poverty to replicate itself generation after generation.....kids facing stresses before birth appear to have lower educational attainment, lower incomes and worse health throughout their lives”. (www.nytimes.com)

The book that every couple trying to conceive must read is “Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives”. What it boils down to is that chemicals in our environment (everything from our hair and body products, to lawn sprays to toxic releases from factories, etc.), emotional stress and junk food have an impact on the future of your child. So please be aware of every movie you watch, every novel you read and everything you listen to, in addition to everything you eat, pray and love!

Thank you and may we honor our future generations of which we are responsible for!

PMS=Pretty Much Sane

Have you ever noticed how everything that surfaces during your PMS time of the month is actually buried truths you have not had the courage, or energy, to express??? I know it's shocking to the men out that receiving that truth, or anyone else who is on the receiving end of this lovely hormonal shift. Ladies, pay attention to every feeling you have during this time of PMS and one way or the other, express it! You can paint it, you can shout it or you can write it! How you get it out is not as important as getting it out! Based on my experience, it seems that breast cancer is linked to repressed anger. Anger is not actually that different from any other emotion. The concern is when it is chronically repressed and either expresses itself as rage or as disease. So please, please, please, improve your health by releasing all your feelings!

Treatment for IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)???

After I founded Happy Uterus Consulting, I began to focus mainly on abdominal, reproductive and digestive health! This specialization really allowed me to go more deeply into these areas of concern and attract people who needed help with these symptoms. What I found is that IBS is a very common diagnosis and there is not a lot of help out there.

First, the most comprehensive resource I have found is www.helpforibs.com. The founder of the company was diagnosed with IBS and as a result, created a wonderful product line to help eliminate the symptoms of IBS. I was introduced to them by a client who used just one product, the Acacia Fiber powder, and with that eliminated her symptoms 100%!

Second, learning the power of deep relaxation I think is very important. Since our gut is ruled by your enteric nervous system, which obviously is part of our nervous system, learning to eliminate anxiety is very important. I realize that this is not as easy as it sounds but it is well wort the effort. I recently was given the book, Yoga: the way to long life and happiness by Desmond Dunne which was printed in 1953. It is a little gem of ancient wisdom and he has entire chapter dedicated to Deep Relaxation. Desmond encourages us all to study these rules: 1. You must first want to relax, 2. You must realize that it is not a newfangled craze but an age-old and sensible practice, 3. You must practice it in regular intervals and lastly 4. you must understand that Deep relaxation can not be forced! Definitely worth finding this book and reading if only, this one chapter.

Thirdly, master knowing the difference between soluble and insoluble fiber and what you can eat when. From what I have gathered, it's not what you are eating that is the most essential, but what you are eating WHEN!! You have to prepare you gut for certain kinds of fiber.

Between the resources of Help for IBS, which includes fennel tea, peppermint oil capsules and the Acaia Fiber powder, anyone with this diagnosis of IBS, or even anyone who lives with these symptoms of IBS, will greatly benefit from these simple tools!

How to reduce sugar and flour cravings???

HU Consulting gets a lot of questions from women on the path to improving their health. IN my clinic, Life Source Acupuncture, I also get a lot of very good questions so I've decided to answer them in my blog so everyone can benefit. As an interviewer, I absolutely love questions and always pay attention to the good ones that come along! So thank you to everyone for asking.

This question about reducing sugar and flour cravings comes from a 48 year- old scorpio woman who takes medication for high blood pressure. Here is my response:

IN Chinese medicine, every organ/meridian is associated with a flavor. The flavor of sweet is the spleen. Our spleen is closely involved with our thinking, our exercise, everything that we eat and the production of blood. One can assume that if your blood pressure is high, chances are your mental energy is also high. In Chinese language, the character for heart and mind are the same: xin. Who is to say exactly which came first? A racing heart or a racing mind but chances are, it was the racing mind. So, in mind, body and energy medicine we have to begin strengthening our spleen, which will reduce our sugar cravings, by taming the mind. The best way to tame your mind is to begin a practice of meditation. Meditation is all about creating the awareness and space to watch your thoughts without really getting involved with them.

Secondly, what you eat will have a direct impact on your spleen. For a quick antedote to sugar cravings, try sour. Instead of eating a cookie, try squeezing lemon into water and watch your cravings for sugar dissolve. And let's remember, not all sugars are created equal. There is a huge difference between eating a naturally sweetened raw cacao (chocolate) bar and a hershey's kiss. The main difference being that it is very difficult to eat 5 raw chocolate bars in a row and very easy to eat any 5 hershey's bars in a row. When you eat processed sugar, it amps up your spleen and sets you up for the craving of more!

Thirdly, let yourself indulge in the good sweets and carbs instead of taking the complete deprivation approach! Living a deprived life will only set you up for failure. The world of raw desserts is endless and completely fulfilling.

Lastly, if you think you may be craving sweets and flour due to a systemic fungal or yeast infection, then your cravings are based on feeding the yeast. It is imperative to treat yourself for this and the best way that I know is the Body Ecology Diet. When you are on this diet, your cravings will naturally subside and your energy will return so quickly you will be amazed. www.bodyecologydiet.com

Thigh Master for the Vagina???

While developing the Happy Uterus product line, I came across this ingenious devise called the "Magic Banana". Developed by a Canadian woman, JP Rayne, she has gifted us with something that can be part of our daily, weekly or monthly internal HU practice. She she says in the brochure that comes with this, "practice with the MB strengthens muscles that are at the very core of our experience as women".

Developing a vaginal strengthening practice can:
• Reduce cramping during menstruation by helping to ease tension knots and move energy throughout your pelvis
• Enhance muscle control which not only enhances sexual enjoyment but helps prevent incontinence. Working out with the MB can help bring tone to the inner vaginal muscles and can help isolate the correct muscles to bring back the vitality you need for good control in this area. The MB can facilitate traditional kegel exercises which primarily work the PC (pubococcygeus muscle).
• Increase your sexual vitality which cures all ailments. Ever notice how when you fall in love and start making love, all your symptoms disappear and your immune system is powerful?
Regular practice with the MB increases blood flow to the lower chakras which benefits your uterine health and improves sexual desire, the source of creativity!
• The MB can also be used as a wand, or tool, for applying remedies to your cervix. If you are having an inflammatory response in your cervical area, you may want to apply aloe vera gel, plain yogurt, or honey right within yourself. The MB can facilitate this for you! (see CERVICAL blog post for more on the cervix, or visit the wise woman www.susunweed.com)

So invest in yourself today ladies and purchase something that will benefit your health for the rest of your life! For more information, and to purchase a MB, visit www.happyuterus.com and visit www.magicbanana.com for information about the inventress of this thigh master for the vagina!

Awakening: How can a goddess help us?

I have to admit, I have a goddess practice. In this time of new-age-ness, the goddess is everywhere. And that's great. Unfortunately for me, it pushes my buttons of "this is really superficial". It seems to be wonderful for everyone else involved so that is great.

One of my personal favorites is Tara. And, for anyone living in CNY, I will be teaching a course on Tara for children enrolled in the Dharma Kids program at the Zen Center of Syracuse (www.zencenterofsyracuse.org). Tara is considered the "mother of all Buddhas" and became a Buddha in female form. All of her friends at that time in Tibet, tried to convince her she would be a better Buddha if she were a man, and she refused! She committed herself to complete enlightenment in female form. She functions as a savioress and supreme protectress. In Celestial Gallery by Romio Shrestha, he says, "The qualities of White Tara are ultimately inseparable from our own. Awakening is not a solipsistic retreat from unwanted realities, but a reaching outward to embrace the world with infinite compassion. If we see through to Tara's essence, she frees us from self-serving thoughts and encourages us to act selflessly, and wisely, for the benefit of all beings: the surest prescription for a long and fulfilling life".

I have to say based on personal experience that the practice of relying on Tara is amazing. Take yesterday, for example. I was having a very difficult time managing the schedule of running a small, growing business but is often jilted due to time constraints and parenting. School is over, wait-listed for camp, and the list goes on and on. I react to emails coming my way, not in a complete gripping manner but enough so that I actually later regret words coming out on the page. In light of this, I arrive at my daily sadhana (practice) and find myself in front of of Tara: great protectress, guide and just happens to be utterly sensuous and ravishing! (wouldn't it be great if someone called YOU that?! it must be our goal ladies: wise and ravishing). Within moments, my edges of frustration are melted, I step into the deep expanse of limitless love and compassion and I'm changed! Wheew! It's a total compassion battery re-charge.

So I encourage myself daily to "open seven eyes, like Tara, and be sure that everything you do, every step you take, every thought you think, is fueled by compassion. You will then be inseparable from White Tara, the embodiment of pure love". Thank you Romio Shreshtha for that quote and compiling this wonderful book!

For more information regarding Tara, and to find Gelek Rimpoches book, "The Tara Book", please visit www.jewelheart.org.

"LIG" it baby!

Has anyone ever told you to "LIG" something??? As in, "Let it GO?". If not, they probably should have. "Let it go" is something we hear all the time and can apply to everything. It can be felt as a quick way to sweep something away, get it off the agenda and most likely, create time for something that avoids any sort of conflict.

The mere act of "holding on" is what the whole conflict is about anyhow! If we were to have one goal in life, it should be to "LIG". LIG EVERYTHING!! is there anything worth holding on to? Of course not. If you want to engage yourself in complete emotional freedom, let go of every thought, every idea, every feeling, every memory and especially, the concept of letting go.

So, what do you do when the issue that you've just "LIGGED" comes up again? Do you feel guilty because it's there? Do you feel like a failure because your mental exorcism didn't actually include the emotional realm and now it's manifesting as a feeling? How about if you start dreaming about this wonderfully LIGGED issue, have you somehow let yourself down?

Here are some questions that may be helpful in your path to LIG freedom:
1. How do you hold on to something?
2. Where do you actually hold it?
3. Where do your thoughts come from??
4. Once you recognize that you are holding on to something, can you describe the real feeling that surrounds that holding?
5. Byron Katies askes, "Who would you be without holding on to that"?
6. Before that, she would as, "Is it true"?, "is it REALLY true"? whatever you've decided to hold on to (i.e, she doesn't love me....is that TRUE?).

Mostly, everything we tell ourselves is NOT true and we perpetuate because we're used to living a somewhat tortured life! I've been encouraging my 5 year old to try and describe more clearly her feelings. We often explain feelings with feelings but thanks to the work of Rosemary Thompson (www.weavingenergy.com), I have begun getting my daughter to dig deeper and describe the actual feeling. She told me her fear was grey. Just grey, grey, grey. Okay, so replace it with gold. Gold, gold, gold. She immediately began chanting, "Gold will win, gold will win!". Not bad for a 5 year old.

Most of us however need something a little more complicated to dispel grey and replace it with gold. Here some techniques that have helped me to LIG:
1. EFT (emotional freedom technique). Once you learn the art of tapping the points, setting your intention and uniting with ultimately what you want, I find that you can tap ANYWHERE in the body and it will help move your energy to gold.
2. In Rinzai Zen, many practitioners have a practice of "MU". It's based on a famous koan. Bascially, whatever arises in your mind, you MUUUU it. MU. It's simple and extremely powerful way to emotional freedom. You just cut thru any story line you may have subscribed to that keeps you stuck.
3. Knowledgeable goal setting. Once you convince yourself of the knowing that whatever you are holding on to is not real, not serving the benefit of all beings, make the goal to eliminate it. This may be a drastic cutting away until it's gone or it may be a softening around whatever it is until it's melted down and lightly because part of the big wide world called your Mind.

Whatever path you chose, may it be thorough in your emotional exorcism so you can spread love with all beings.

Promoting Fertility

This happens to be National Fertility Awareness week (4/24-5/1). For those of you faced with infertility, every week is fertility awareness week. For those who have never thought about fertility, one week of ‘awareness’ certainly will not begin to even touch upon the deep struggle that one goes thru trying to remedy this situation which embodies every aspect of one’s life. Nevertheless, let us appreciate that there is national awareness of this dis-ease which so many couples are faced with.

I will share with you some of the things that I believe are important in promoting fertility. We certainly know that fertility is not logical nor linear and that we ultimately do not know who is going to achieve a take home baby and who is not. Whatever the case may be, let us focus on increasing your creativity, health and vitality and fearless approach to life.

• Creativity to free pelvic energy. As Dr. Northrup says, “We as women must use our inherent creativity-our womb power-to regenerate our planet as well as to produce the next generation.” Although creativity is more closely connected to the energy of one’s ovaries, it certainly is an entire second chakra concern (see “what is my second chakra entry for more info. In what this is). If you are feeling blocked creatively, then the energy of your pelvis will feel, hold and store that block. Often it is how we define creativity that can keep us blocked. We need to open our definition so that we can be free to incorporate this important part of our daily lives, and not think of it as separate. Lavinia Spalding, in her book “Writing Away: a creative guide to awakening the journal-writing traveler” says that “you might face a seemingly insurmountable obstacle: the conviction that you’re not creative or artistic. The problem is that we’ve hijacked a word so multilayered that it’s difficult to define, and we’ve quarantined it to the exclusive realm of “fine arts.” Actually, creativity has a much wider scope. You can be creative in how you cook, throw a party, landscape your yard, play with kids, troubleshoot at work, dress, make love, travel. You can be creative in philosophy, religion, relationships, politics, or personality.” Thank you Lavinia for freeing our minds and ultimately our pelvis to allow this energy to travel with no hindrance.

•Making time, becoming fearless. Creating time in our lives-to just be, to feel and to be receptive takes a considerable amount of courage. I know that I historically have filled up every moment of my schedule to stay busy, keep on the move. God forbid that we have open blocks of time during the week with ‘nothing to do. ‘ As we settle down, settle our minds and learn to be still, we can receive the messages that we need to grow and nurture ourselves. I highly recommend reading Mika Brzezinski’s memoir “All Things at Once” where she chronicles what happened to her when she was just completely spent from overdoing. Becoming fearless is also learning to embrace not only what we don’t like but that which we want the most. Let’s face it, if you want a red sports car, most likely you will go looking at red sports cars, sitting in them and test-driving them. I think the same is true with babies. You know that when you want a baby, all you see are babies and pregnant women. (just like with red sports cars, suddenly everyone else has one)! I encourage you to love babies. Whenever you see one, go touch their little feet, send them love and see if you can hold them. This is particularly easy in restaurants where distraught and exhausted parents are trying to shove food in their mouths, pretend to be normal adults and wish their parents where there to hold their baby! Whenever I have risked asking to hold a baby in a restaurant, the parents beamed with joy!

•The inside job of fertility: plenty of good blood (uterine lining), balanced hormones and a good location for your condo to be (as in location of your uterus). If your period is scanty, your PMS is off the charts and you have a fair amount of brown discharge at anytime during your period, then we know you have work to do. Thank gosh we have our periods to let us know how things are going internally. Best ways to build blood: food, nettles and red clover (Susan weed says the only way to conceive after 40 is red clover...the #1 fertility promoter) www.blessedherbs.com to buy these amazing plants. The way I think is the best way to balance hormones is ‘doing nothing everyday for at least 10 minutes [as in meditation) and drink female tonic tea for 1-3 months or longer (www.arvigomassage.com). The only way to help your uterus get back into proper position is hands on therapy. There are excellent PT women who specialize in this moreover MAT practitioners (Maya Abdominal Therapies, see Arvigo massage to find someone near you).

Advice to Preventing Miscarriage

Although there is no guarantee to bringing a baby full-term, there are many things that one can do before conception and in the early stages of pregnancy, to prevent miscarriage and ensure a 'take home baby'.
• First step you will want to take is to check your hormone balance via saliva test with a DC or Naturopath. Saliva panels are an excellent way to determine what is
Pgoing on with you hormonally. Depending on what you find out, you will need to treat yourself for your internal balance before conception. Follow the advice of the Naturopath or DC you are working with. Ideally, you will want to use foods and plant material to create the hormone balance you are looking for.

• Second, find a Maya Abdominal Therapies (MAT) practitioner(www.arvigomassage.com) to feel for location of your uterus and determine if you have any symptoms of a mis-aligned uterus. This MAT practitioner may also suggest using the Female Tonic tea to benefit your hormonally and to do a 'uterine detox'. Female Tonic tea is a uterine lavage and will clear out old endometrium that may affect the strength and health of your uterine lining.

• Third, consult with an acupuncturist who also uses Chinese Medicinals. Do not be afraid to use high quality Chinese Medicinals before, during and after pregnancy. Women have been doing this for thousands of years and they are very powerful in chaning your underlying, internal pattern. I would plan on receiving frequent, regular acupuncture treatments post conception to prevent miscarriage throughout your first trimester. Ideally, this acupuncturist will specializes in fertility and can fearlessly support you during this precarious time.

• Additionally, Red Raspberry Leaf Infusion (www.blessedherbs.com) is a wonderful uterine tonic and i would plan on using this after your uterine lavage/cleansing. Once any signs of a displaced uterus are eliminated (see www.happyuterus.blogspot.com entry: Signs of Misplaced Uterus), you can begin to tonify her and make her very strong.
This combination of remedies is very powerful and works. It should all be quite affordable and mostly done right in your kitchen with your own two hands. Many acupuncturists are open to package deals for any pregnant woman trying to prevent miscarriage. Ideally, you begin this journey to strengthing your uterus months before you actually conceive.
All the best and think orange!