You have probably seen the picture of the small iceberg that appears to be harmless. Yet, underneath is a much larger picture of the iceberg’s true size. This picture is used a lot in self help arenas.
I have another picture for you. I was walking along and kicked a small rock. It did not move. I decided to reach down and pull it up to move it. It did not budge.
I kicked and pushed and pulled for many minutes. Finally I took hold of it, pulled in several directions, and managed to get it out. It was a large rock, not a small rock as it appeared from the surface. And, to top that off, it had an L shape in in.
The hole was deep. I stepped back and just marveled at this for a few moments, thinking about how we kick and tear at issues, people or situations in our life; most often than not, they are rooted bigger than we expect them to be. If we stay at it and finally get the entire thing worked out, the hole is usually deep.
The relief is revealing, calming, closing, refreshing, anguishing, exasperating, penetrating, unyielding, struggling, and trying. We then work on mending the hole. I will leave this with you to ponder. I am pondering it, reading scriptures to understand it, and keeping it as a reminder of our human intricacies.
I am here to help you through these times of kicking, tearing and figuring things out.
I want you all to be thinking of this. I have taught the following class, with the following outline many times. Please make sure you read after the outline for a supply list that I highly recommend you put together; I have had one my entire life, and it is well worth the effort. Each year, I make sure all things are still in good condition and have not expired. Each year my kids were schooling, they were required to read a new survival or first aid book to keep it all current in their heads. It is vital that we all know how to help ourselves and others at any given time.
How to Make Herbal Liniment by Jethro Kloss July 1, 2010/
Click here the image above to learn more
in Remedies & Recipes /by Kimberly Gallagher
Rosemary Gladstar’s book the Family Herbal: A Guide to Living Life with Energy, Health, and Vitality
this recipe is one of our family favorites and we are very excited to have this opportunity to talk with her and share her herbal wisdom with all of you. She describes this remedy, Jethro Kloss’s Liniment, as “a very old, very strong recipe & useful for reducing inflammation of the muscles, cleansing wounds, and soothing insect bites.” This liniment was first concocted by a famous old herbalist named Dr. Jethro Kloss, hence its name. The herbs in this liniment by Jethro Kloss have antiseptic, warming, stimulating, and anti-inflammatory properties. They will also help increase circulation in areas where muscles are sore. We haven’t made a liniment in a while, and wanted to update our supply, since we definitely find that it is a great addition to our herbal family medicine chest. I used our liniment a lot for sore back muscles during my first pregnancy and found this one by Jethro Kloss to be very effective, and it is very simple to make. Herbal Liniment by Jethro Kloss What you’ll need… 1 ounce echinacea powder 1 ounce organically grown goldenseal powder (I do want to emphasize the organically grown part of this description. This plant is endangered in the wild from over-harvesting, so be sure and get it from a healthy, cultivated source. If you can ‘t find that, Rosemary suggests substituting chaparral or Oregon grape root) 1 ounce myrrh powder 1/4 ounce cayenne powder 1 pint rubbing alcohol Need organic herbs or supplies? Get them here! Ok, start by weighing out the powders and putting them in a pint jar. Pour the rubbing alcohol over the powders, leaving a good 2-inch margin above the herbs. Stir and put a lid on the jar. Place the mixture in a warm location and let it sit for 4 weeks. (2 weeks is also fine). Strain and rebottle.
Label the bottle clearly FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY (rubbing alcohol should not be taken internally). We’ve found that bottling our liniments in a spray bottle is very handy. It’s easy to spray it onto areas with sore muscles or onto wounds that need cleaning.
Enjoy this wonderful addition to your family medicine chest from Jethro Kloss. About the Author – Kimberly Gallagher Kimberly Gallagher, M.Ed., CCH is author of the Herb Fairies book series and creator of the Wildcraft! board game. She is also co-founder of LearningHerbs. Kimberly is passionate about sustainable living, cultural transformation, healthy cooking, parenting, and storytelling. Read more about Kimberly »
You have support from my fellow COMMUNITY OF HEALTH EXPERTS
I want you to have all you can have to get through this time of uncertainty, gain strength, and become empowered. The following article is from my fellow experts. YES, we are all experts when we share what we know and serve a need.
March 19, 2020
During times of crisis, it’s more important than ever to understand how to take care of ourselves on every level: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. These aspects of primary food – all that nourishes you off your plate – become crucial elements of day to day life when navigating the unknown.
There’s so much we don’t know right now, and that’s enough to keep us living in fear. But we do know some things, such as how important it is to be feeding our bodies well; getting adequate sleep; practicing breathwork; and keeping our social connections (even if they’re virtual). All of these things keep us grounded in the present, give us opportunities to think on our greater purpose and learn from what it means to take a step back from normal life.
Knowing and practicing what will keep us feel safe, contained, and as anxiety-free as possible, is bio-individual. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to coping through times of extreme stress, so we’ve gathered free resources from some incredible experts in the IIN community, including Visiting Teachers, conference speakers, and more, to help you in whatever way you need right now.
How to support yourself physically Food
Eating nourishing, immune-supporting foods is important no matter what you may be going through. The obesity epidemic and lifestyle-related diseases are still contributing to hundreds of thousands of deaths every year.
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, board-certified specialist in preventive medicine and public health, speaks on The Upgrade podcast with Mark Bittman, New York Times bestselling author, about food science and the diets that can actually contribute to greater health. Dr. David Katz is also a guest on the Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg podcast, discussing why being healthy isn’t a fad, especially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frank Lipman, MD, integrative and functional medicine pioneer, founder of the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in New York City and Chief Medical Officer of The Well, has always approached food as medicine and considers the refrigerator your “edible medicine cabinet.” Check out his article on 30 ways to boost immunity right now, which includes way more than just food to support your health and immune system.
Exercise Moving in a way that’s right for you and your body is key, especially during times of stress. When your body is in a constant state of stress, your cortisol levels are going to be higher. High intensity exercise can certainly have a cathartic and endorphin-producing effect, but sometimes it can have a compounding effect on stress, keeping your cortisol high. Ultimately, it’s up to you to determine what movement feels right and how it makes you feel, which should be calmer and more focused.
Patricia Moreno, the trailblazing founder of spiritual fitness and a speaker at our most recent IIN Live, is hosting free virtual workouts in addition to free conversations to connect with people all over the world.
Melissa Wood, founder of Melissa Wood Health and recent IINConversation guest, is hosting daily live workouts and partnering with others in the wellness space for free live meditations on Instagram.
Sleep Sleep is crucial for your immune system to function properly. It’s when your body can properly assimilate and detox what you’ve consumed during the day and re-charge for the next. Lack of sleep impacts your hormones, your gut, your brain – there’s literally no system in the body that goes unharmed. If you could call this a silver lining, being forced to slow down and stay inside can do wonders for your sleep and your health. Frank Lipman, MD, offers lots of content around sleep, as does Mark Hyman, MD.
How to support yourself emotionally
As humans, we crave physical contact and a sense of closeness. “Social distancing,” while very important to implement for the health and safety of the greater public, is already proving detrimental to our emotional health. It’s imperative that we find ways to satisfy these cravings for connection while also adhering to guidelines that keep us physically healthy.
The Well, the New York City-based wellness club founded by IIN grad Sarrah Hollock, wrote this powerful piece about normalizing our feelings of loneliness, nervousness, and fear, and how to maximize feelings of connectedness during this difficult time.
Lissa Rankin, MD, physician, speaker, and founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute, has been sharing her thoughts on her blog and on her Facebook about how she’s working through these difficult times.
How to support yourself mentally Learning how to manage stress will be a challenge for us all right now, but it’s doable if we take each day as it comes.
Andrew Weil, MD, integrative medicine pioneer, focuses on a holistic body, mind, and spirit approach to health and wellbeing. Breathwork has been proven to relieve stress and anxiety, and Dr. Weil shares these three breathing exercises that you can return to every day, night, or whenever you need.
Deepak Chopra, MD, the world leader in mind-body medicine, shares his take on what is happening around the globe and offers a glimpse into how we can find ways to be happy. He also has many video resources on his site such as tips for managing stress, the health benefits of meditation, and 7 days to peaceful sleep.
Speaking of meditation, this practice can greatly support your mental health during trying times, relieving stress and anxiety, and even helping manage depression and pain. Robyn Youkilis, Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, speaker, and gut health expert, shares meditations with her audience on Instagram, oftentimes with her young daughter, showing you that yes, it can be done with children!
How to support yourself spiritually
Spirituality can mean anything you want it to; it doesn’t have to be religious. Spirituality is the celebration of being connected to one another and everything around us. The practice of spirituality can be grounding and help provide a sense of meaning and belonging. It’s exactly what we need right now.
IIN is always here to support you We’re dedicated to helping our community thrive, no matter the circumstance. Everyone’s priorities look different right now and that’s OK. You may be caring for an older relative or loved one; you have children at home to look after and keep busy; you have clients who need your guidance; you’re navigating unchartered territory to keep your small business running. Maybe you’re doing all of these things, while also trying to maintain calm and healthy yourself. It’s not easy, so don’t be too hard on yourself as you take each day as it comes.
Our content on the blog has always been free because we believe knowledge is power. Knowledge is also health, wisdom, strength, and support. Here are some further resources to look to, and know that we will continue to provide meaningful content to continue coming back to:
NOTE: If you choose to use this time that you have to sign on to take courses with IIN, please shine that love back to me as your referral, and use this link to sign up so that they know what alumni sent you, and so that I know I have a fellow coach to add to my team of connections.
Who am I? What do I do? How can I help you? What is health to you? How do you visualize your health? How much would you like to reduce your pain and stress? Please share my new premiere video. Like it on my Facebook page. See it on Instagram and Linked-in. Watch for my blogs and Facebook posts throughout each week.
This is not your typical encouragement write-up on being the person you were meant to be. I will give you some food for thought that is not main stream, and is very out of the box, but should be the normal thinking.
We were created, man was created, out of the dust of the Earth and given life and breath from the very mouth of the Creator. It was good. Did you get that? When the tree of knowledge of good and evil entered the picture, so did the lies that we are no longer good. Fear entered first and foremost. Fear and shame are the foundation to all that is not good, all that is not of the creation in the beginning. We were given a choice. That is all. It was a choice. Man did not become evil. The flesh did not become evil. The mind did not become evil. The man allowed the fear and shame to take over his very own body, mind and soul. Yahweh constantly showed that there is a way to stay within what we are create to be. The stuff that was breathed into us at creation was not taken out of us when the other tree was eaten. This is a key point.
We are made in HIS very image. WE are sons and daughters of the Most High. We are good. Sin can take over but it is not who we are.
We are meant for so much more. We have been given the promise of Eternal Life. We must live that kingdom here on Earth. We have the breathe of the Father in us and through us. We can get the fear and shame out. All sin and all evil can be overcome. All of our impurities, all of our transgressions, all of our health issues, all of our Earth’s pollution, is from fear and shame. We are not evil first. Evil takes over us when we allow it in. Evil is the result of not being what we are meant to be.
Be what you are meant to be. Be who you are. Live the life you have been given to live in Messiah. Use the breath of the Almighty that was breathed into you and never taken out.
I could make this longer, but I want you to digest the truth you have just read. Let’s have a conversation.
…and who is “they” anyway. We are constantly making up a they, them, everyone, group in our heads, and making “them” as if “they” are “everyone”, when in fact they are just a few, sometimes even just one or two! Let’s stop that right now.
“They” do not know you are a no one (well known all over the world), and “they” are in the same category no matter who they are. By the way, you are a someone and a good one at that. What is your definition of a “someone”? We all have this message that we are a “no one” because we think we are just moving through life in a common way. But what is common anyway? Common to one person is different to another. Someone in a movie is just as common and can walk the streets without being noticed, or go into a store and buy shoes without even being recognized (yes, this has happened to most movie stars). Not everyone knows everyone, and everyone can be “no one” or someone; both are the same person! THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN. There is custom and tradition and other such things. In reality, everyone is common and uncommon at the same time, depending upon where “they” are and who they are hanging out with.
Do it anyway! That is in a popular country song, and in many poems, and in books and in sports ads, and so the list goes. It is something we all have to keep at the front of our minds at all times. It is biblical! Do it, whatever it is you are led to do (good, that is). Life is often about trying to, and wanting to, and dreaming of. Life is also about trying things and realizing what you do not want to do, or say, or be. Do it all anyway!
It is OK if you do not have it all together, all figured out. I have never had it figured out, and it has all worked out somehow. Yahweh our God has it all figured out. KEEP doing it all anyway.
Life has comforts and discomforts, times of certainty and uncertainty. In the uncomfortable, uncertain times, tackle it like you are wearing a hero suit; turn it upside down and inside out. The work will pay off, and surprise you at times, better than you could ever have planned it to be. Just do it anyway. On the note of tackling, Quit procrastinating! Pursue with every minute you have the whatever it is you are continually researching about and painting a picture of. Procrastination is a big thing, especially nowadays with all our technology and social media. I am going to post an article of great resources I found at the bottom of this blog post. There will be some repeats of information, but that is just because one person does not have all the answers and there are many who have figured this out and want to help others do the same.
Now put that phone or computer down (unless it is doing what you NEED to do, to pursue what you NEED to, to get where you NEED to be).
AFTER you watch the five-minute video, begin to read the healing scriptures. There are a lot of them! If you find more, please share them with me, so that I may add them to the list 🙂
I love teaching. Teaching runs in my blood. I love to empower people. I love teaching most because I learn.
Would you like to make sense of the food allergies and sensitivities, and find holistic options within your budget? Food allergies rock your world! They rocked mine. In this class I will help you take an active and empowering role in your daily struggle with this “sensitive” topic (pun intended).
Would you like to turn around a picky eater, know where to save money for healthy snacks, how to minimize junk and create whole food eaters, be prepared on the go without stress, learn how to travel with food, and create habits to last? This is not just for the now, but for the future. ALL HEALTH now will reap good or disaster in the future. I have a class for that! Learn why making even simple menu adjustments can lead to kids who feel calmer, sleep better, wake up easier, weigh less, have tantrums less, and study more.
Do you have a love/hate relationship with cooking and finding creative ways to make a meal? Do you want to have meals ready for on the go? Do you want to learn how to pack and cook on a trip? The crock pot can become your best pal in the kitchen. I will also show some things for travel with a crock or an insta-pot or aroma steamer (the fast crock pot) —traveling with these is the best thing I have done for saving time and money on a trip and eating healthier.
Do you want to learn about desserts without sugar, honey, molasses, or artificial sweeteners…YES! they can still be sweet and delicious. (Tasting some goodies will be part of the class) Cure your sugar craving and need. Create new habits. Learn the empowerment you have inside you.
Would you like to learn massage techniques for calming, healing, bonding, making stronger and smarter babies. Gather some friends and set a plan to take a 4 week course.
DO YOU ALL GET THE IDEA? I have a class for many things. These are just a few of what I can do. If you have an idea for a class you would like me to put together, please contact me to ask. I CAN BRING THESE classes to your group, in your location (in my local area). I can do many of these classes, even the baby massage classes, online for those long distance.
Jeana Anderson, C.N.H.P., C.H.N.P., LMT, CEIM, CBS
Certified with IAIM, International Association for Infant Massage, as an Infant Massage Instructor. I set up classes to train parents/caregivers infant/baby/child massage. Classes are for babies from birth to 10 months of age. Pregnant moms can be a part of the classes to learn before baby arrives. Dads are encouraged to take the courses also. Classes are built around the baby. The baby has priority in the class. Environment is relaxed, with breaks when needed for changing, feeding, and taking care of baby’s needs. This is a class where baby and parent can just be themselves. Massaging babies provides an important source of tactile stimulation. Benefits of massage for the baby include: emotional nourishment, loving communication between a parent or caregiver and the baby, regulation of the baby’s primary systems (i.e. respiratory, circulatory, nervous musculature and gastrointestinal reduction of gas and colic allowing the baby to sleep better and help the baby relax and release the tensions of daily stimuli.
Please Contact Me if you have any questions about the classes. IF you would like to set up a presentation with your group, please contact me so I can sign up at your next meeting. I CAN bring these classes to you! please contact me if you would like me to bring these classes to your area (within 90 miles of Morrilton, AR because they would be once a week for 4 weeks).
The Infant Massage teaching program is a place where parents can share the experience of nurturing touch with their babies, learning to massage them with the International Association of Infant Massage (IAIM)
Touch stimulates brain activity, leading to increased attentiveness and stimulating intelligence. It also increases oxygen and nutrient flow to cells, increasing your baby’s ability to learn.
