Look Younger. Feel Energetic.

Archive for February, 2012

I am often asked how many treatments it will take to heal a given problem.

There are actually three different responses you can have to any treatment.  Responses can vary due to the type of symptom or the duration of the symptom.  Also, your usual way of responding may vary slightly within that type of response.

The first response is no response.  You can have no response to treatment if you do not believe in the curative nature of the treatment given.  I, personally, will not treat anyone who is being coerced to come to me.  For example, in the past, I have had appointments with two different people who did not want to see me, a husband and a young daughter.  I stopped the consultation when it was clear that they did not want my help.   My recommendation is simple:  Do only what you believe in.  If you do not buy into the type of treatment, whether it is Western Medicine or Oriental Medicine, laying on of hands or crystal therapy, do not proceed with the treatment.  It is a waste of your money and the practitioner’s time.

If you believe in the treatment but still have no results, it could be that you have told your body at some time, for some reason and in some fashion that if you are not dead, everything is fine.  This message to the body, tells the body not to complain about anything.  If this guideline for the body persists, the little workers in your body go on vacation.  Damages and disease are allowed to continue without being checked and resolved.  To break this cycle, start with this simple act:  Look at yourself in the mirror and say something like this:  “Body, if I am not perfectly well give me a sign.” This wakes up your body.  This gets your body thinking about house cleaning.  Then when you introduce acupuncture or herbs or a lifestyle change of some sort, your body is ready and eager to use these materials to rebuild itself.  David Hawkins, MD, Healing and Recovery, wrote an excellent book filled with tools to redirect your body and start the healing process.

The second response is the miracle response.  One treatment makes a world of difference:  your pain drops to a slight ache or your cough calms down to almost nothing within the first couple treatments.  You will only need 3-6 treatments or 1-3 months of herbs/homeopathic remedies to resolve the symptoms and restore you back to the land of the living. This response happens often with recent symptoms like a whiplash from a car accident in the last 24 hours or a headache that just started this morning.  The response will be noticeable and immediate, however, sometimes a follow up appointment is needed 2-4 months later.

The third response is the methodical response.  After the first treatment, you feel different but you cannot say you feel better.  You may even experience a reduction in symptoms for an hour after the treatment that could continue for a couple of days.  But after that short period of time, the symptoms return.  In this case, you need treatments on a regular basis for weeks if not months.  Depending on the symptom, you may need 6 to 20 treatments to show some significant improvement.

The reason for this is that with each treatment you receive, your body is rebuilding its reserves.

Somewhere along the line your body got depleted.  It could have been because you overworked or overplayed or overate all the wrong foods, or maybe even all the right foods.  The stress of managing the operations of your body began to deplete your reserves.  You notice your mental clarity has suffered; your desire to do things is gone.  You find yourself doing the least possible because that is the most you can do.

In order to start healing, your body will use the healing energy it gets to first rebuild its reserve energy.  As your reserves are filled, you will notice improvement of your health happening more rapidly than when you first started treatment.  It is a momentum that builds over the course of treatments.  Once the body gets the energy, all the workers of your body start making changes, and these changes stay.  Little by little you lose the pain and heaviness of your illness and regain your health.

To succeed with this response to healing you need to be patient.  Each treatment makes a difference even though it can be too subtle for you to notice.  If you find your patience growing thin, ask someone who you associate with often if they notice any change in you.  The change can be something so simple as you do not complain about the symptoms as often.  Understand that that means you are making progress.  Keep your eye on the little changes to keep you excited about your progress.

Now that you know the 3 responses to healing, you can be a more active participant in your healing.

Today I will show you a simple way to bake winter squash.

First of all let’s start with what a winter squash looks like.  It has many shapes and colors but the best way to determine if you have a winter squash is the hardness of the outside.  The soft texture of a zucchini makes it a summer squash.

Summer squashes, like the zucchini and yellow crook neck squash, are planted in early March and are ready to eat in June/ July time frame.  Winter squash are also planted in March and are ready to eat around September

Because of the long growing cycle, the winter squash absorbs many nutrients from the soil.  It also has lots of fiber that cleanse the digestive track as it moves through the system.

I recommend using winter squash as a dense vegetable in your meal.  Its density helps you to feel full during a meal.

Though winter squash is a vegetable, it is sweet.  It can be used to substitute the usual breakfast foods.  You can eat it with butter, oil and salt, or even cinnamon, depending on the flavor you desire.

The simple approach to baking winter squash is:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Wash squash and cut in half.
3. Remove seeds.
4. Place squash cut sides down on a pan.
5. Place in oven
6. Bake until tender, 45-90 minutes.
7. Scoop pulp from the skins.
8. Flavor as desired.

Winter squash can be cooking in the oven in the morning while you are getting ready to go to work.  Or you can cook it on your off day and have it ready to eat for the next four days.

By adding winter squash to your diet, you will have a more balanced sense of well-being throughout the day.