I collect hearts in nature because they help me remember that we are never alone as we walk on this earth, no matter how hard the journey seems.

I need to give that reminder myself, right about now… more than ever before.

I hope you enjoy these photographs I have taken of hearts I’ve noticed in nature, and I hope you’ll find a moment today to look around and find a heart in your own neck of the woods…. xoxoxo, Laura

A leaf my son found for me

A rock while on a hike with my parents last summer

A heart that blew in through my front door

A heart that was waiting for me at a gas station on a long drive

A heart leaf from our front yard this fall

A heart in the knob of a cypress tree knee

Here is to all the hearts that surround us, both noticed and unnoticed, in our world every day. xoxo

Love surrounds us all.

I just said goodbye to my parents.

They drove completely unexpectedly 9 hours straight down to my home to be with me in my time of need.

They stayed a full week, took care of my children and I with love, humor, devotion and loyalty.

I love my parents so much. 

They are a shining example of what a strong, 45+ year marriage can be and a beacon of light in a very troubling time in my own life.

A strong long term marriage is something I’m so appreciative that my parents can model for my own children.

Because, as I have already shared with my newsletter list, a week and a half ago my husband left a handwritten goodbye note to me and to our children and walked out the door.

There was no face-to-face explanation.
There was no reassurance to the kids that he would ever return.

There was nothing but fear in my children’s eyes, and total abandonment in my bruised heart.

Now… the dust has settled a bit and life is starting to reassemble in a different and new way.

So far I don’t know or care any of the details about why we were left.

I’m sure a desire to process these events in order to heal will arise in me at some point, but that point is not right now.

The emotions I feel right now are very very clear:

it’s love.

It’s total and complete love for my children.

It’s total and complete love for the friends who immediately began praying for my family, who welcomed me into their home, who hugged me with tears in their eyes, for those who brought food and those who brought hope.

It’s total and complete love for my parents who came to my side and stayed by my side and reminded me that family is a large and wonderful and forever thing that includes many many layers around me.

It’s total and complete love for the Universe, who holds me so strongly I can feel it.

It’s total and complete love for finally knowing… truly *knowing*... that even when the chips are down I can walk the walk just as well as I can talk the talk.

It’s total and complete love for this new energy that is building between my children and I, my family and I, my friends and I, and yes… my readers and I.  That includes you, as you read these words and bear witness to this journey.

Because I feel myself ripening with new gifts to give you.

I feel myself expanding and breathing more deeply than before.

It sort of feels like I’m holding a basket and collecting treasures along the way down this broken and painful road.

Stopping here and there to pick up something that will be of use to someone else some day.

Stopping to sit down when a sharp shard of glass cuts my foot and brings me to my knees.

Hobbling along when I need to.

Leaning on others when I need to.

But still… that basket is there… and the collection of gems are growing.

I want to start sharing them with you here… the gems that have been gifted to me over the past 10 days.

Here are just some random thoughts and treasures that I’ve collected so far and if these would help comfort a loved one of yours that is going through a difficult transition, please share this list with them.

4 Helpful Things To Share With A Loved One Who Is In Pain:

1.  Quotes and Mantras.

One of the very first things that saved my soul when my husband left was a mantra that a dear friend of mine sent me.

I think the reason it was so perfect is that it was literally all I could handle within the first 24 hours… and it was this:

“I LOVE my children… I LOVE myself.  I LOVE my children…

I LOVE myself.  I LOVE my children… I LOVE myself.”

I took every single breath with this in running through my mind while I decided what my next step would be.

This mantra saved my life.

A few days deeper into the crisis, I was able to handle more complex mantras.

An amazing reader sent me this one, and this is the one I am working with right now.

I love it.  It brings me peace:

“Breathing in, I am aware of sorrow within.

Breathing out, I am NOT the sorrow.  I am the awareness of the sorrow.”

-Thich Nhat Hanh

One of my favorite emails came from another dear reader, who asked me this of my situation.

She simply asked:

“What will you do with the unlocked energy?

I envy you the journey.”

And suddenly, just like that… *poof*… my situation went from being a wound to a gift.

She was right.  Every situation unlocks some hidden energy within and you get to decide what to do with it.

Hope is such a gift.

2.  Emails, Texts, Letters, Phone Calls.

There is nothing like being contacted from all over the world to remind you that you are NEVER ALONE.

I appreciated and cherished every single message of support and love.  Many of them helped me take my next breath.
At one point, it started to make me anxious thinking about returning so many emails personally… but I deeply wanted to because I love every single unique soul that reached out to me.

Then, at some point, my inbox became something I started to fear.

Too overwhelming, when my full focus has been on my innocent children.

What I gave myself permission to do was to create a file of the messages that soothed me most, and held onto them in case I wanted to re-read them… and many I’ve re-read dozens of times!

So never doubt if a person you love who is in turmoil doesn’t reply — you never know how you are holding them up and they are cherishing your words.

And then I gave myself permission to go through, one by one, and send love and pure gratitude from my heart to the sender of that email… and then let it go.

Knowing the energy exchange was received, that it was cherished… and that it was enough.

Please give your words generously to your loved ones in crisis — but give them permission to receive then and then release them without reply.

Reading emails, joining in spirit with the sender, and then releasing them has been a god-send to me.

3.  Food (and lodging, if needed!)

I’ve never really *loved* eating.

It’s just not something that ever brought me too much joy, unless maybe it was chocolate.

But cooking, I loved. 

Nurturing my family with home cooked meals, often from our own backyard garden, made with love… it’s something I really cherished doing for my children.

Not so during this crisis.

I would vomit trying to prepare food for my little ones.

So… one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten in my entire life was the gift of a nightly dinner from each of my dear, amazing, local friends, and one out-of-town friend who hosted my children and I for the night when I could barely even think straight.

It’s not just the gift of not having to think about what food to prepare.

It’s the gift of looking into your child’s face as they eat food and knowing that even though you can’t feed them yourself, someone you love is.

There is nothing better in the world to a mama then seeing her child eat.

At least for me — I think it starts from how meaningful and soulful it was for me to nurse my babies.

This is about as close as it could ever get to knowing that the Universe is working through your friends hands to keep your children fed. 

My friends (and then my parents once they came to town) literally nursed my children and I back to health.

I will forever be grateful.

4.   Books

Several people emailed me book suggestions… and just reading the titles brought me so much joy.

Because somehow, when you are in the middle of a crisis, it feels like no one on earth could have ever gone through what you are going through.

And in a way, you are right.

You are special.

You are unique.

You are a warrior surviving.

But you are also sharing a common experience with other warriors, who have survived and thrived.

Just knowing that someone else has not only made it through similar and worse things than you are going through, but has had the time to write and publish a book on it… wow.

Suddenly life seems so much more doable, with a certain perspective about it.

Knowing there were books out there written by others who face huge transitions… ordering them online… and waiting for them to arrive… that feels like hope to me.

I will list you the books I decided to order… but I have not read any of them yet.

This is literally all so new and fresh they haven’t even arrived in the mail yet… but perhaps this is a list that could help someone else:

• This Is Not the Story You Think It Is…: A Season of Unlikely Happiness   by Munson, Laura

• Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life’s Ordeals  by Moore, Thomas

• Spiritual Divorce: Divorce as a Catalyst for an Extraordinary Life  by Ford, Debbie

• Archangel Michael Oracle Cards: A 44-Card Deck and Guidebook  by Virtue, Doreen — this is a card deck for those that may enjoy intuitive work

Maybe this blog post will help someone you love who is in the very first week of an overwhelming, maybe even (like myself) unwanted change.

Please forward if you feel it would be a blessing to them.

If you have a recommendation, quote, link to a video, music, book, mantra, ANYTHING AT ALL to add to this list, please leave it in the comments below.

I know the readers who read my blog would greatly appreciate the suggestions — and so would I, as I still have a loooong road ahead on this painful journey. 

Together, we can create a really great list of resources that might just save someone else’s life the way mine has been saved.

I’ll be certain to have many many many more gifts to share with you as we go along this journey together.

I promise to be open-hearted and vulnerable and honest and real with *you*, as I’ve found that by doing so, I feel more *me*.

xoxox, Laura

The beautiful setting sun at dusk…

For ages and ages, human beings followed the rhythm of the sun… going to sleep when the sun went down and rising with the sun in the morning.

Our circadian rhythm was in concert with the earth and ensured that we got deep, restorative sleep in order to face the next day.

These days, artificial lighting and long work days mean that most people (myself included!) have some sort of sleep abnormality and/or circadian rhythm disruption.

Although we know that lack of sleep causes everything from memory problems, fatigue, decreased concentration, stress, and increased food cravings, a recent study set out to see if chronic lack of sleep was associated with Alzheimers dementia.

The answer is yes.

Turns out, it’s not actually the length of time spent in bed that mattered as much as how deep and restorative the sleep was.

In other words, it’s the QUALITY of your sleep that seems related to dementia.

Poor quality sleep = increased risk of Alzheimer dementia progression.

Participants of the study who had worse sleep quality had the highest percentage of amyloid deposition in the brain (the classic hallmark lesion of Alzheimers disease.)

Participants with the worst sleep quality also had a 5 TIMES greater chance of developing Alzheimers Disease then those who slept soundly.

These results were just published on March 11, 2013 in JAMA Neurology.

The bottom line is that the it’s not how long you lay in bed… it’s how deep the sleep is. 

In fact, participants who spent longer in bed and/or napped 3 or more times a week were the ones typically with poorer sleep quality and greater amyloid deposition in the brain.

Researcher theorize that longer time spent trying to sleep and the need to take naps is a manifestation of sleep–wake disturbance.

Here are some indications that your sleep quality may be poor:

• lack of physical activity during the day — here again we have evidence that being up and mobile throughout the day makes a HUGE impact on our well-being.  Click here to read my recent blog post about how simply walking may be the best chemotheraputic agent around… and here to read my blog post about how being active is WAY MORE IMPORTANT then strenuous exercise from a cardiometabolic stance (read: healthier for your heart, metabolism, and diabetes risk.)  Now we have a third reason to stand up and move about as often as possible:  physical activity deepens sleep.

• depression — often a sign of early dementia, depression often manifests as insomnia

• napping — needing to nap during the day to catch up for poor quality sleep at night

• spending long amounts of time in bed awake — either struggling to fall asleep or during nighttime waking

But you KNOW I only post helpful, positive health news, and here is why this recent study definitely made it onto my blog:

Because here is a fantastic, wonderful thing we can PROACTIVELY DO to decrease our risk of developing Alzheimers:  focus on sleep quality!

This is such great news for all of us who, like me, have a family history of Alzheimers and/or senile dementia.

There are lots and lots of things we can do to heal our fractured sleep and restore sleep quality to support our brains.

Here are my top 9 recommendations:

•   Earthing™ — connecting to the earth has been shown in sleep studies to increase the amount of time we spend in deep sleep, as well as treat jet lag and other circadian rhythm disturbances.  Find out more about earthing here.

•  Melatonin — Melatonin is my constant friend.  Taken 1 hour before bedtime, Melatonin allows my sleep to be deeper, less interrupted, and more restorative.  I actually spend less time in bed and awake refreshed with Melatonin on board than without.

•  Daily activity — simply getting up every single hour of the waking day and walking for a bit (instead of spending several hours in a row inactive) just might be the best gift you could ever give your body.  Get a puppy if you need the motivation to get walking.

•  Develop A Nightly Routine — turn off all the lights, make sure there are no computer screens or clock faces or nightlights lighting up the room while you sleep, and drink a soothing cup of warm milk, sleepytime tea, or take a hot bath to relax your body and transition into bed.

•  Reduce Stress – high nighttime cortisol levels and constant stress (leading to adrenal fatigue) will sabotage anyone’s best sleep attempts.  Seek help if you are in adrenal fatigue and make sure you are supporting your natural hormonal repair by including healthy fats (like whole fat yogurt, organic butter, organic eggs, coconut oil, fish oil) and consider a supplement like Ashwagandha at bedtime to decrease nighttime cortisol levels.
  

  This Female Health Guide will help explain the menopausal transition and help you manage symptoms…

•  Address Perimenopause — hormonal fluctuations and hot flashes can definitely interrupt your restorative sleep.  Seek help if perimenopausalsymptoms are ruining your sleep, consider Maca Root supplementation to support hormone levels, or Black Cohosh to balance them out.  Honor the energetic transition of menopause by understanding what this transition represents and make sure you give your body the space and down time itneeds to navigate the journey.

•  Eat To Support Brain Function — Eating these fabbo brain boosting foods will make a difference to your brain’s health.  In this blog post I review the very best brain boosting foods and what they can do for you.

•  Counter Alzheimers Before It Develops — In this blog post I share the top three steps you can take right now to decrease your chance of developing Alzheimers…

•  Support Your Brain’s Energy Flow — Understand the energetic dynamic of your brain and how to support long-term brain health through open-ended thinking.  I’ve spent years as an intuitive physician developing a deeper appreciation for how to support our brain energetically — and explain it all to you in Part 1 right here and give you some solutions in Part 2 right here.

To your brain’s health and to a dementia free future…

xoxox, Laura

I’m still on my mission to decrease health anxiety around the world in as many people as I possibly can.

Today I’m going to do this by giving you a deeper understanding of headache and migraine and reduce your stress over getting your next one…

…as well as 4 AWESOME things you can do to make a huge impact on the number of headaches/migraines you get.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this and answer any lingering questions you might have in the comments below…

xoxoxox, Laura

Related posts:

1. 8 Ways To Support Intuition (and Heal the Third Eye Chakra) One of my patients came to me complaining of constant migraines. Frustrated after being given an “alls clear” by her...
2. 10 Ways to Nurture Yourself, Today. Quick fixes for you today to feel reconnected and happier. It’s part of my chakra series of blog posts… today...
3. 8 Ways to (Almost) Instant Throat Chakra Healing Getting back to my Chakra Series (to catch up on the first four chakras, click here!) today we are addressing...

This Earth Day, I wanted to give you a sneak peek — into my children’s book on Earthing™ — and give you a chance to win your very own autographed copy, for FREE!

From The Ground Up  shows children exactly how Mother Earth supports our well-being in vibrant, full color!   And gives parents tons of great ideas on how support their child’s connection to the earth and set them up for a lifetime of health and Well Being.

You can see what I mean right now — let me open this book for you and show you what is inside:

Want to snag your own signed book? 

Leave me a comment below and I’ll enter you to win a free, autographed copy of the book.

For more information on this Earth Day book, click here!

(Yes, I’ll ship it free anywhere in the world!) 

Happy happy lovely shining Earth Day to you, my friend!

xoxo, Laura

Related posts:

1. The World’s First Children’s Book about Earthing™! I am so passionate about Earthing™ that I recommend it every single day to my patients — young and old...
2. Sneak a peek into the world’s first Earthing children’s book! Whew! This is a corner of my crazy office right now… between patient care and painting my children’s book illustrations...
3. The one health constant you can trust… and bonus: are you are getting enough barefoot time? Every single day you hear conflicting health information and conflicting health advice. One moment one food is safe to eat,...

Walking might be the very best thing you can do to promote your cancer recovery…

Today I’ll be reviewing a recently published study that examines the link between exercise and health…

specifically, cancer recovery.

Just like last week’s article, the article today shows that being up on your feet – simply walking — is the best predictor of positive outcome in cancer recovery we have.

No stressful or intense exercise needed.

Just being up and about daily is a better predictor of cancer recovery and reduces mortality rates better than any chemotheraputic agent we have, reports Dr. John Marshall, MD.

Published on Jan 13, 2013 in the Journal Of Clinical Oncology, researchers followed 2,300 colorectal cancer patients and measured their activity level before and after cancer diagnosis.

The results?

• The more active they were, the better their long-term outcome.

• Even patients that were doing no physical activity prior to diagnosis… if they began increasing their activity level after diagnosis and during recovery, their outcomes were improved as well.

How much?

• Active colorectal cancer patients had a 0.58 risk reduction — this is a decrease in mortality rates by almost HALF! — which, as Dr. Marshall points out, is better than any chemotherapy we have available to date!

• And those who were not active had an increased rate of mortality…. a 1.36 risk increase.

These results suggest that:

• Being active has a greater impact on cancer prognosis the chemotherapy!

My precious firstborn, walking up a hillside in VA

How active do you need to be to show the protective and healing benefits?

• Not very active.  Just like in last weeks medical literature review, it is way more important to just be up and walking around, to decrease sedentary time, then it is to exercise strenuously.

• The amount of activity that triggered this protective benefit was only the equivalent of 20 minutes of WALKING a day.

No jogging, no weight lifting, no exercise class, no machines.

Just the equivalent of walking for 20 minutes each day, or about 150 minutes of walking a week.

There was another threshold that they looked at,

which was sedentary time vs. active time.

• Patients risk went up if they spent more than 6 hours of the day sitting.

• Patients risk went down if the spent less than 3 hours of the day sitting.

Taken together…

it’s not about finding a block of time to exercise each day.

It’s about getting up as often as you can throughout the day and walking around your home or office… checking the mail… walking to a park… taking the stairs… going on an after dinner stroll. 

Getting up during times of prolonged sitting and doing a little movement. 

Decreasing the amount of time spent sitting.

Last weeks’ article stated just about the same thing with regards to preventing diabetes.

So you could say… better then any chemo out there or diabetes prevention plan?

Reducing the amount of time you sit still.

Getting up and feeling movement and appreciation for the skin you are in and the body that holds you.

Using your body… stretching it and bending in and caring for it… not sitting in one position for hours on end.

So… do you need a gym membership to be healthy?

Nah.

Do you need to set aside structured time each day to pound out a work out?

Not unless that’s what you love to do!

Do you need to force yourself to stick to a painful or intense exercise program?

Never.

All it takes, to improve cancer outcome better than any medication (and decrease your cardiovascular risk too) is simply to decrease the amount of time you spend sitting and increase the amount of time you spend walking.

WALKING.

That’s it.

My husband and children walking our three dogs

Turns out adopting a dog and taking it on a few short walks a day is a better cancer treatment plan then anything else we have to offer right now.

Enjoy this empowering information and instead of fighting your body… walk it.

Spread this to any of your loved ones that are concerned about their heart health, diabetes risk, cancer risk, or cancer recovery by clicking the Facebook, Pinterest or email icons below.

Here for you, as always… xoxox, Laura

Related posts:

1. Studies Prove: Long Term Health Is NOT About Exercising Hard   For years physicians have been recommending an exercise program for cardiometabolic health. Well… turns out it’s not really about...
2. Prevent dementia AND reduce skin cancer? Yep. Here’s how… There is one thing you can drink every single day (multiple times a day) that has now been proven to...
3. National Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Balloons for Audrey Recently a sweet mother one of my local groups sent out an email that changed me. Audrey was asking for...

My son moving his body because it feels GOOD, not as a part of an exercise plan!!!

For years physicians have been recommending an exercise program for cardiometabolic health.

Well… turns out it’s not really about the intensity of the exercise.

Several landmark studies have come out in the past few months revealing that it’s not how strenuously you exercise that matters.

In fact, it doesn’t matter if you “exercise” at all.

What matters, both in cardiovascular health and in cancer prognosis, among other parameters… is how often you just get up and move around.

Answer this… what do you think is healthier?

Do you think it is better to:

• Hit the gym and spend an hour working up an intense sweat in a step class (or spin class or zumba or {insert your fav cardio workout here}) and then, with a great workout under your belt, head to the office to sit for the rest of the day…

— OR –

• Do no formal exercise at all, but get up frequently from your desk/sofa/seat to walk outside and grab the mail, do a few yoga poses during your lunch hour, walk the stairs in the parking garage, walking your dog for a few minutes when you get home, dance in your kitchen as you bop around making dinner, then do a few stretches before bed?

Turns out that the second option is the one that lowers your mortality.

The second one matters most.

This is important to understand.

It goes against our societal *training.*

It goes against the messages you hear to “work out 3 times a week and feel guilty if you don’t.”

It goes against the structure of our school system, which trains children to sit at a desk for hours and hours each day and then run hard during PE class for an hour.

It goes against the message of “work hard, play hard…” putting hours in front of the computer (even doing overtime at work) and then sweating your butt off in a co-ed soccer league on the weekends.

This is NOT healthiest in the long run.

It’s awesome if you love working out hard and playing sports.  Being active is always going to be awesome.

But it’s NOT awesome to sit for more than a few hours at a time.

We are simply not meant to sit in one place for hours.

Sitting for more than 6 hours of your waking day is more predictive of poor outcome in serious disease than any amount of exercise that you can do.

Today’s review of the medical literature should do one thing for you: 

decrease your health anxiety.

Decrease your stress.

Decrease how hard you are on yourself when you don’t reach your exercise goals.

Decrease your self recrimination if you don’t exercise at all.

This article, published on February 27 in Diabetologia, backs up my intuitive understanding of what it means to be healthy.

Researchers looked at whether sedentary time, breaks in sedentary time, and/or total physical activity was associated with cardiometabolic risk factors in 878 participants.

The results showed length of time spent sedentary actually had the biggest impact on blood glucose levels.

Revealing that time spent in sedentary behavior (sitting or lying down) actually impacts your diabetes risk more than moderate to vigorous physical activity does.

The bottom line?

Time spent sedentary may be the biggest risk factor of cardiometabolic health we know of.

So folks who are at high risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular events or metabolic syndrome should have a goal of being up and about more throughout the day… instead of sitting all day long in a chair and then exercising one time that day.

See the shift?

Folks who knock out an exercise routine and then spend time sedentary in between trips to the gym are at higher risk for cardiometabolic disease then folks who are simply more active throughout the day.

Simply having fun in your body and moving it in a way that brings you joy is MORE IMPORTANT then any exercise program out there!

That makes things like walking… gardening… washing dishes… taking the stairs… stretching to start and end the day… and other activities that you may not *count* as important as exercise… actually more important than exercise!

So it’s not about the exercise plan.

It’s not about pushing your body to the limit and being perfect with an exercise routine each week.

In fact, it’s better to just get up and stretch throughout the day, take a walk at lunch, take the steps instead of the elevator, throw the frisbee with your kids after dinner and do a few yoga poses before bedtime then it is to hit the gym hard for an hour that day and then feel “off the hook” and sit sedentary for the rest of the day.

• Health is about moving your body.

• Health is about flow.

• Health is about feeling the joy of using your body to complete the activities you’d like to do each day.

• Health is about zoning out less (in front of the TV, the computer, the gaming system) and about appreciating the skin you are in MORE.

This study shows that it’s not about being super thin and getting super fit… it’s about gratitude for the body we have, making peace with the natural set point our body enjoys, and using our body as a tool for enjoying life.

Back to back with the important article recently published in JAMA (which proves that being overweight is actually healthy for you — I blog about that here) and the study I’m going to talk about next week that shows getting up and walking is more effective at recovering from cancer then any chemotheraputic agent available today… we need to shift away from strict rules about diet and exercise to enjoying the freedom of moving our bodies and the pleasure of eating joyfully.

So why don’t haven’t you heard about this study yet?

Because this study goes against the corporate world, which would have you sit at your computer working around the clock.

And it goes against the factory model, which would have you performing the same task over and over again, uninterrupted, without breaks, all shift long.

And it goes against the school system, which would have your child remain quietly seated from roughly 8 AM to 3 PM on a daily basis.

And truly… it goes against the design of our body.

It goes against our natural birthright of health.

This model of health — to sit for 90% of your day and then push yourself to get in that cardio for 10% of the day — is not supportive of your heart health.

It is not supportive of your metabolism.

It is not supportive of your weight goals or your longevity.

And as I’ll show you next Monday, it is not supportive of your cancer recover either.

That’s right… the same thing that was found for diabetes and cardiometabolic health was found for risk reduction in cancer patients.

So today, I don’t you to worry about exercising.

Today, I hope you’ll move your body because it feels good to stretch,

because it increases your energy level to walk around and get fresh air,

and because it helps you sleep better at night to have gotten a bit of sunshine during the day.

Enjoy living in your body, my friend.

Treat it right.  All you’ve got to do is stand up and walk around a bit every hour or two.  If you do that, you’ve done more to protect your long term health then you could ever do trying to reverse 6 hours of sitting by hitting the gym.

Our bodies don’t work like that… and now that you know it… you don’t have work like that either.

Will Bally’s or Curves for Women or Nike like this news?  Maybe not.

But if you know loved ones who need this information to release exercise struggles and make a *real* difference to their long-term health… share this post with them.

And I’ll see you here next week.

xoxo, Laura

P.S.  — Want to be automatically notified about future blog posts? 

Enter your email in the top of the right sidebar right now and you’ll never miss another positive health update again!

Related posts:

1. Thoughts on Health…. Chocolate for heart and brain health (yes, you heard me… chocolate!)   Wow, it is my complete pleasure and honor to bring you this tidbit of good news today, published recently...
2. Thoughts On Health… Excercise (dang!)     Oh how I have fallen.  I am completely out of my exercise routine… I manage to work in...
3. Thoughts on Health… the Heart, Part 2 “I know in this moment, we are connected, we are one. In our hearts, we are non-physical. I see through...

Anxiety over health is one of the biggest obstacles in healing.

I see it in my patients time and time again — and whenever we can work together to reduce their health anxiety… even just by 1 degree… healing begins.

Even in chronic conditions patients have had their entire lives…

if they can decrease their health anxiety by one small bit

it’s like breathing new life into old conditions

and things begin to shift and release.

So I’m going to be doing a series of health videos to address this pervasive problem and I hope you’ll enjoy this first one and pass it along to any of your loved ones who are anxious about their health.

I’d treasure any feedback or comments you’d like to share with me below!

What are areas of health that bring you the most anxiety? 

Tell me about it in the comments below and I will personally answer each and every question!  Or I may even create the next video around your topic!

So let me know what triggers your health anxiety and let’s get you feeling better ASAP!

xoxox, Laura

Related posts:

1. Got Anxiety? Meet Gina Rafkind, CPC. Gina is the Holistic Anxiety Coach + Chief Anxiety Buster at VedaSun. She helps women bust through...
2. Thoughts on Health… Disease as Evidence of Health Yes.  I wrote that right.  Disease equals evidence of health.  Or at least the possibility of health.  Think I’m crazy? ...
3. Thoughts On Health… seasonal allergies and the link to stress. Part 4 of my “Seriousness is a Disease” series, today I discuss how prolonged stress physically changes your mucosal membranes...

Female Health at it’s best: girls rule, plain and simple! Let’s support each other!

 1.  A new study just published in the January 2013 issue of Maturitas revealed that urinary incontinence (UI) does not go hand in hand with menopause.

Although conventional medical wisdom has often stated that urinary incontinence has an onset at (or worsening of symptoms at) menopause, a recently published metanalysis of the medical literature doesn’t support this now out-dated thinking.

Researchers looked at over 450 studies in the medical literature and found that there was no link between menopause and onset or severity of urinary incontinence.

This is so important for us to understand as women, because:

• there is no reason to anticipate or project that urinary incontinence will worsen as you go through menopause…
• and even MORE importantly, there is no reason to consider going on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to help treat it.

This affects millions of women, and is important to be aware of, as HRT is a health risk and not to be taken without weighing the risks against the benefits.

I want to empower you to make your own best personal health decisions… so if your physician suggests HRT to help treat urinary incontinence…  reconsider.

Although UI does tend appear in adult women over age 45 and worsen with age, it is not specifically related to menopause and seems to have no link to the hormonal shifts that menopause brings… so treating UI with exogenous hormones makes no sense.

Never put any medications into your body that are unnecessary… and HRT for urinary incontinence is one of those medications that just isn’t warranted.

There are lots of alternative, natural and enjoyable things you can do to support your body as you make the powerful transition through menopause.

134 pages of medical, intuitive and powerfully transformative female health information!

Menopause is an amazing time that actually increases your power, increases your ability to access divine wisdom, and give you a whole new lease on life if you let it.

For more specific advice on hormone replacement, tons of holistic ideas on how to support your body physically and harness the power of this amazing transition energetically… download my fun and empowering female health ebook here.

Over active bladder (one of the most common forms of urinary incontinence) affects over 33 MILLION adults in the US alone!

So far, effective treatments include:

• kegel exercises
• biofeedback
• scheduling urination
• anticholenergic medications
• and now… botox?

Yep!

2.  Botox was just approved to help treat overactive bladder — injecting botox into the bladder muscle causes it to relax, increasing the organ’s storage capacity.

Clinical studies have shown that botox treatment in the bladder significantly reduced episodes of urinary incontinence – patients treated with botox had up to 2 less incontinent episodes per day.

Is this right for you?

If you fail all other forms of UI treatment, it might be worth looking into.

Although there are risks and side effects to any treatment, I definitely would recommend the local treatment of a botox injection over the systemic risks of HRT exposure.

3.  One last thing you’ll be hearing about as it hits the store shelves this fall:  the first over-the-counter treatment for overactive bladder is a transdermal patch called Oxytrol. 

Tested in 5,000 women before earning FDA approval, you should know that this is actually a prescription medication that is now being put into a skin patch and sold over the counter.  While some folks are thrilled that women can now privately treat their own overactive bladder without going in for professional evaluation, others (like myself) are not so sure.  With so many wonderful things you can do to support your bladder naturally (working on toning pelvic floor muscles, scheduling elimination and biofeedback) I’m not fully on board with the jump-to-using-a-Rx-med approach.

Even though this is a skin patch, the drug is delivered to your entire body and you do see systemic side effects such as constipation and dry mouth.  So it’s important to know all of your options and something I wanted to include in this female health update — I love informing my readers of upcoming health news!

You’ll see the Oxytrol skin patch hitting your local drug store in the fall of this year.  You read it here first!!!

4.  And while I’m on the topic of female health, might as well talk about uterine prolapse too!

With all of the commercials out there asking you to sue your doctor if you’ve had a mesh implant… and all of the complications that can arise from the surgery, I wanted to share with you a surgical alternative for mild prolapse.

Enter the sea sponge!

Jade and Pearl offer reusable all natural sea sponges in different sizes… sized anywhere from teeny tiny  to large.  This is a great natural and eco-friendly alternative to traditional pessaries sold at medical offices.

The sponges can be trimmed to size for the ultimate in adjustability and comfort, and you can use and reuse the same sponge for up to six months!

The larger sea pearls for prolapse will support your uterus, relieving pressure on your bladder and preventing those pesky bladder infections that become an endless cycle of antibiotics and resistance.

The sea sponge is a great alternative to mild to moderate prolapse.  I would not consider a surgical option unless the prolapse was severe and you’ve run through all your other options first.

Sea sponges are also great for all women to treat a yeast infections… you can use all natural plain yogurt or your favorite anti-yeast remedy and simply apply it all over the sponge before insertion.  This will hold your treatment in place much longer then just depositing a cream or suppository alone.

I hope that reaches some folks out there who are just beginning to notice signs of early uterine prolapse (pelvic pressure, yeast infections, bladder infections, etc…) and hope that the sea sponges can help support your uterus against the effects of gravity.

5.  Want more female health ideas?

I’ve got a pinterest board full of them waiting for you!

xoxoxox, Laura

Related posts:

1. Thoughts On Health… natural support to banish a UTI I’ve had three different peeps, both patients and friends, ask me about getting rid of UTIs in the past week...
2. The Most IMPORTANT Thing You Will EVER Read About Your Weight.   Here it is.    This is not something you are going to hear from your regular doc.  But it...
3. Thoughts on Health FAQ: Uterine Prolapse… or “Thanks a lot, gravity!” I’ve been asked about uterine prolapse multiple times over the past month or two, so I thought it would be...

What can you do energetically to release fibromyalgia flares?  Read on:

When you follow your bliss, doors open where you would not have thought
there would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door
for anyone else. – Joseph Campbell

I carry all of my tension in my neck and shoulders.

Painful trigger points, tension headaches, tenderness in my upper back and neck so strong that at times I can’t even wear a bathing suit or a sports bra or a ponytail, or anything pulling on my neck at all… even a necklace is too much, has me on my knees begging for mercy.

I fit the definition for fibromyalgia, but one thing I don’t want is a label.

I prefer just to think of it as where I carry my tension.

As my own personal barometer of stress.  An alarm that signals when I need to slow-it-dowwwwnnnnn.

I really feel that people with fibromyalgia, as with many other diseases including peripheral neuropathies, restless leg syndrome and RSD (reflex sympathetic dystrophy), are able to feel sensory input more acutely.  That’s why nerve stabilizing drugs help, by desensitizing and diminishing the nerve’s sensory capability.

But I don’t think it means that folks with fibromyalgia necessarily have more stress… just that they are more sensitive to perceiving it.

I think of it like this:  My husband can eat super spicy salsa and say it is “flavorful” and tastes good, while one tiny dab of it on my tongue has my lips burning off, my eyes tearing up, and my throat burning.

It ruins my whole meal.

But who is right — is the salsa spicy, or is it not spicy?

The salsa just is.

It is our perception that makes it spicy or not spicy.

To my husband, it’s not spicy at all.  To me, it is unbearable.

So when my back starts flaring… do I have more tension in my shoulders then someone who doesn’t feel any back pain?

Who cares.

What matters is, that I can *perceive* my shoulder tension acutely and it is telling me something.

Seen in this light, isn’t this sensitivity a gift?  A blessing?

That I can sense, earlier then others, when my body is stressing out?

Yes, I believe it is.

Because I know *right away* when I need to take care of myself… I don’t bottle it up and ignore it and wait for it to manifest in a more serious disease before I will take notice.

I know moment by moment, just by assessing the tenderness in the muscles of the back of my neck, how I am doing with my attitude.

“We make life a burden by our attitude.” – Louise Hay

This is so true with me and a lot of folks with hypersensitivity issues, like fibromyalgia.

My shoulders are my own personal indicator of how much strain I am feeling.

And the strain I am feeling is created by my attitude.

Thoughts start to creep in, when my trigger points start to flare… thoughts like “I’m the one who does all the chores, all the cooking, all the cleaning, I don’t get enough time to myself, I haven’t even brushed my teeth today, all I’ve done is care for everyone else, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

My shoulders are screaming out “WHAT ABOUT ME?!?!?” and it’s like a slap across the face.

Wake up!  What am I doing?!?

What attitude am I approaching my life with?

Chores are my privilege for sharing my home with the three most amazing souls I have ever met.

And if I don’t want to do something, then I shouldn’t.

You don’t have to do things… you don’t even *have* to breathe.

Breathing, living, being… they are all a gift.

The moment you realize you don’t *have* to do anything is the moment you will start genuinely wanting to do all the things you were resisting.

The fact is, I am lucky to be alive… we all are.  And the very moment that I stop feeling that way, my shoulders remind me.

The path out from under fibromyalgia pain is simple:

1.   First, re-align with what you *know* to be true:  We are blessed beyond belief.

2.  Stop doing whatever feels like a struggle and wait.  I wait until I *want* to do something before I do it, instead of doing things I don’t want to do and blaming everyone else.

3.   Re-focus on your bliss… on what makes you happy.

When I have trigger points, what makes me happy is usually:

• massage

• extra fish oil

• tryptophan or melatonin so I’m sure to get an excellent night’s sleep

• yoga, neck stretches

And sure enough, as I focus on my bliss, my relief, my joy… I find 101 other things to be thankful for.

Life is neither a burden nor a blessing… it’s our attitude that makes it so.

Or… salsa is neither spicy nor mild… it’s our perception of it that makes it so.

I created this original healing artwork to remind myself that I have a choice. Do I want to join the dance of life or wait this song out?

When you are in pain, especially chronic pain, sometimes it feels like you are standing just outside of the party.

Life carries on around you and you are standing by the door, not sure if you should enter or not.

The music and light and joy and laughter of life is just beyond, just like in the picture of this healing collage I created.

Sometimes, it feels like the door to the party is locked and I can’t get in.

It’s all I can do to sort of lean against the wall and catch my breath.

In those moments, I stop the struggle.

I stand there for a moment in time, an eternity, a blink, it doesn’t matter… I close my eyes and I listen to the music through the door.

It is okay if listening to the music is the only thing you can access… even if your muscle fatigue and pain locks you into a dark room.

Closing my eyes… I can still hear the music.

Neither resisting the muscle pain nor focusing on it, I am okay.  I am content.

I am thankful for my messenger… my pain.  Telling me to stop for now.

I am okay, I’ve done enough.  It’s saying thank you to me… it’s telling me I’ve done enough and I can pause now.

I have the ability to allow *all* my experiences to be joyful and satisfying, even if all I can do is survive the moment.

Even if all you can do is lay there and listen.  You don’t have to fight it.  It is enough to just BE.

And soon enough, my mind has wandered.

Off of my shoulder discomfort and on to other things.

The curious and the optimistic in me has re-awoken.

The music of life has my toes tapping.

I don’t *have* to stand back up and face the music, the chores, the life that is waiting for me… I *want* to.

I’ve reached for the doorknob and opened the door and I am stepping back into the party.

And I remember… this is why I’ve come! 

This is the ride I’m on, the life I’m in… and I’m committed to it.

I’m not holding back, judging it, wishing for something else… I’m allowing the experience of it to be okay just the way it is.

So is fibromyalgia a blessing or a disease?  Ultimately it’s up to each of us to decide.

If used as an early indicator to release struggle and re-center, I believe fibromyalgia can be one of the biggest blessings you can have.

xoxo,  Laura

Related posts:

1. Thoughts on Health… Fibromyalgia When you follow your bliss, doors open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there...
2. Thoughts On Health… Relief From Seasonal Allergies, Naturally   It turns spring this week, baby!!! And for many folks the first thing that comes to their mind during...
3. 12 Ideas For Instant Solar Plexus Chakra Relief… TODAY! Okay my friends, as I blogged about on Monday… I’m a solar plexus type of gal.   This is a...