January is a great time to set your goals and intentions for the coming year. A fun and powerful way to manifest your dreams is to create a vision board.
A vision board is a display of images of your dreams that you can hang on your wall. It works by embedding the images into your subconscious mind everytime you see it and you begin to subconsciously attract those things into your life.
Here is my step-by-step guide on how to make a vision board:
Buy an art canvas or you can glue a piece of paper onto cardboard.
Go on the internet and search for images of things you would like to create in your life such as vibrant health, a loving relationship, a new car, a future career, a house, a holiday etc. You can also write out positive affirmations and key words such as success, abundance, relax, joy etc.
Copy and paste the images into a word document.
Print them out.
Cut them out.
Arrange them on the board.
Stick them in place with blue tack.
Hang the board on the wall in room you use regularly. I have mine hanging on my bedroom wall.
Now you can watch you dreams manifest into reality! It won’t happened instantaneously and you may forget about your vision board then look at it one day and realise that one of the images is part of your reality! That is when you can take the picture off your board and replace it with an image of a new goal.
I wish you the best for the coming year and hope all your dreams come true!
Your chakras are seven energy centres which govern certain areas of your body. When they are open and spinning at at the right speed, we have vibrant health and all areas of our life work well. When they are closed or underactive, we get illnesses and problems in areas of our life such as finances, relationships, self-esteem etc.
The root chakra governs survival and security in the world. It relates to basis survival needs such as food, water, shelter, feeling safe and supported in a community and finances. It spins at a slow, steady rate and is located between the legs in the genital area. It is red in colour.
A lot of illnesses stem from an underactive root chakra such as fatigue, anorexia, malnutrition or inability to deal with stress from not giving your body enough energy in the form of calories and protein. Lack of protein can cause skin problems, depleted immune system and anaemia. Also obesity is a root chakra issue from being so out of touch with your body and it’s signals that you overeat. Men with root issues have sex organ problems.
Here are some tips for cooking for your root chakra:
Cook high protein foods – foods such as meat, quinoa, mushrooms, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds will nourish your root chakra.
Get enough calories – I use the dietary analysis software myfitnesspal.com to monitor my calorie intake to ensure I reach my 2000kcal per day and give my body all the resources it needs to function optimally.
Get enough calcium for your bones and muscles from dairy, kale, broccoli and chickpeas and iron from meat and green vegetables for your blood.
Cook root vegetables – anything that grows in the earth will nourish your root chakra such as carrots, sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips, onions, garlic and ginger.
Cook red foods – the colour of the root chakra is red so eating red foods such as strawberries, raspberries, tomato, red onions, red meat will activate it.
Eat when you are hungry – respect your body by listening to its’ signals. Eat when you are hungry, stop when you feel full.
You can do this online chakra test to see which of your chakras are out of balance.
Here is part 3 of Therapies to Heal ME which includes all the therapies that I tried out in 2013 to the present day in an effort to cure my ME, including dates, and my experiences with them:
2013
January
Yoga classes – I started attending a local yoga class on a weekly basis as I felt it was more in line with my spirituality than ballroom and latin dancing! It really helped me to relax, stretch out tension and strengthen my muscles. I took classes for a year, then stopped and now I do a short yoga routine every morning to stretch!
February
Emotional Scale – I discovered the emotional scale in the book ‘Ask and it is Given’ by Esther and Jerry Hicks. It explains that there is a scale of emotions at different vibrational frequencies. For instance the emotions of grief and anger are low vibrational and appreciation, love and joy are high vibrational. It taught me how to work out which emotional level I am currently feeling and step by step move up through the emotions to the highest level.
April
Earthing – Sit in the garden with your bare feet touching the earth and the connection will drain away the positive electrical charge that has build up in your body from being in close contact with computers, mobile phones, TVs etc. After 30 minutes of earthing I feel so much better and more calm.
July
Sprouting – my boyfriend at the time gave me some of his sprouting jars and taught me how to sprouts legumes such as chickpeas. You put the legumes in a sprouting jar and soak them in filtered water overnight to remove the phytates that are hard to digest. Change the water at least once. Then you drain the legumes and leave them to dry. Left on the window sill they will start to sprout and as they do release more nutrients.
September
Juicing – my boyfriend let me borrow his juicer and I learned how to juice vegetables. The juice is highly concentrated in nutrients and it gives you a burst of energy!
December
Ayurvedic Diet – in Ayurvedic medicine there are 3 doshas or body types called vata, pitta and kapha. I am a vata and have weak digestion so need easily digestible cooked and blended foods to nourish my body. Vatas do well on sweet and sour foods. Pittas have very strong digestion and do well on bitter foods. Kaphas gain weigh easily and do well on raw foods. Eating for your type will give you more energy.
2014
January
Inner child healing – involves reconnecting with the child inside of you who wants to play and be loved. When it is ignored and we don’t take time to play, we get depressed. So loving and respecting that little child, we will feel happier and feel more joy in our lives! When I see my inner child she is a baby inside my abdomen who is crying and reaches out to hold my finger for support.
March
Daily meditation – I started to meditate every morning for 15 minutes after being inspired by the Abraham Hicks meditation process. This transformed my life and kept me feeling balanced and calm all day. You can read about how to do my light meditation here.
May
Epsom Salt Baths – during a consultation at the student clinic, the student nutritionist advised that I take regular Epsom salt baths for relaxation as I was prone to anxiety. I used 1 tbsp of high grade Epsom salt in a bath tub of hot filtered water for 10 minutes twice a week. The magnesium in the salts absorbs through the skin and relaxes the muscles leaving you feeling completely relaxed. It is difficult to get out the bath afterwards!
July
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) – also known as tapping, it is a process of gently tapping specific acupressure points on your face to clear your energy meridians. The process starts with you thinking of a traumatic memory and feeling the intense emotional pain. Then you say the affirmation “Even though I have this feeling, I deeply and completely accept myself” as you tap the specific pressure points. It is a very powerful process as it release blockages in your meridians and leaves you feeling calm and relieved. You can watch a video on The Tapping Solution to show you where the tapping points are located.
September
Butekyo Breathing Method – involves using your abdomen to take a small breath in, then a small breath out and holding your breath for a minimum of 5 seconds. This gives your red blood cells time to transport oxygen to all areas of your body. The theory behind this is that we over breath which expels too much carbon dioxide from our body which is the very things that is required to aid oxygen transport around the body. As we build up the amount time between breathes, we experience healing effects such as detoxification as our bodies finally get the oxygen they need to function optimally. I use this technique to calm down my breathing when I get stressed and start to hyperventilate. It is very effective.
October
Plastic purge – I came across an article online that said that storing food and drink in plastic containers is harmful as plastic contains endocrine distrupters that leach into the food and reek havoc with our hormones and cause higher levels of oestrogen in the body. Up until then I had been drinking water out of plastic bottles! I immediately threw away the plastic bottles and started drinking filtered water from the tap which is much safer. Cans are lined with plastic and so canned foods also contain the endocrine disrupters! So now I buy bags of dry beans and legumes, soak them, then boil them. Using glass and steel containers instead of plastic is better for the environment as plastic is made from petroleum oil which is meant to be used for lubricating the Earth’s tectonic plates.
Adrenal Fatigue Diet – avoiding high sugar foods such as sweet fruits, dates, raisins, bananas and sweeteners keeps you blood sugar level stable and prevents dips during the day which put stress on your adrenals. Other lifestyle factors for adrenal fatigue include reducing exposure to stressful situations, meditation, yoga and walking in nature.
I am still learning and trying new techniques to improve my health today! Currently I am fascinated by Buteyko breathing!
If you have ME/CFS, I hope that these therapy reviews give you some ideas of healing methods you can try out. Everybody is different and what works for one person may not work for someone else. Still in my opinion it is worth trying everything that you feel may help until you find the one that works for you.
Today is the 2nd December 2014, exactly 6 years since I had my health collapse. I will never forget that day.
It was a cold winter’s morning and I walked for half an hour to my industrial placement through the snow. When I got to work I sat in the office like a zombie for about 2 hours unable to think or do anything. Eventually they realised I was not well and my work colleague drove me home to the shared house I was living in in High Wycombe. I scrambled out of the car, and when I got through the door I collapsed on the floor. I managed to drag my body up the stairs and my legs were weak and unable to move. I crawled onto my bed. I was so weak, tired and dizzy. The room was spinning and I couldn’t think straight. After a while I managed to stand up but kept bumping into the furniture and bruising myself as I had no coordination. Eventually I called my parents and asked for help. My Dad drove down to pick me up.
When I got home to their house I collapsed on the living room floor and lay there. Not knowing what was going on, why my body couldn’t move.
That was the day my body said enough and I stopped being able to function in everyday life.
It too me 6 months of being bedbound at home to accept that I was ill and was not going back to work. It wasn’t until a year later in December 2009 that I got a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and my healing journey began…
This delicious chocolate smoothie is rich in vitamin B2 (riboflavin) which is used to treat angular cheilitis and seborrheic dermatitis! I developed this smoothie after discovering that I had angular cheilitis which is dry, cracked, crusting skin on the corner of the mouth.
Vitamin B2 deficiency is a major cause of angular cheilitis along with deficiency of vitamin B3, B5, B6, B12 and stress. I also have seborrheic dermatitis on my cheeks and nose which is why I knew it must be vitamin B2 deficiency, as the symptoms of seborrheic dermatitis and angular cheilitis are strong indicators of B2 deficiency.
So I looked in my my nutrition textbook for food sources of vitamin B2. According to Liska et al. (2004) the richest sources of vitamin B2 are animal products such as organ meats, fish and eggs. As I am vegan I looked down the list and saw that almonds are a rich source, as well as mushrooms. These are foods that I am not eating much of. I needed a way to get these foods into my everyday diet and had the idea to create a smoothie!
Food
Amount
Vitamin B2 (mg)
Almonds
50g
0.46
Kale
100g
0.26
Cashews
50g
0.125
Sunflower seeds
50g
0.115
Prunes
50g
0.11
1.07
The UK reference nutrient intake (RNI) for women between the age of 15-50 years is 1.1mg. So I worked out how much of each ingredient I would need to get near to my RNI.
I am going to drink this smoothie everyday for a month and see if my angular cheilitis and seborrheic dermatits disappear! If there is no improvement it is either because it is caused by something else such as stress, or I am not absorbing nutrients well and need to work on my digestion!
I had some cacao powder to hand so added some into the smoothie mix to give a delicious, chocolatey flavour!
Chocolate Smoothie
Makes 1 litre
Ingredients
50g Almonds
100g Kale
50g Cashew nuts
50g Sunflower seeds
50g Prunes
3tbsp Cacao powder
200ml Almond milk
500ml Filtered water
Method
If you have time, soak the almonds and sunflower seeds in filtered water overnight. The next morning drain and leave to dry.
Add all the ingredients in the blender. Blend well for 1 minute.
Pour into a glass and enjoy your smoothie!
Store in the fridge. Avoid exposure to sunlight which destroys riboflavin.
References
Liska, D., Quinn, S., Lukaczer, D. et al. (2004). Clinical Nutrition A Functional Approach. 2nd edn. Washington: The Institute for Functional Medicine. p111
This post just flowed out of me from nowhere today. Hope it helps you in some way. These lifestyle changes made a huge difference in my life. I now have so much energy and get tired normally at the end of the day. I cured my ME/CFS with these methods among others.
Environment – what you surround yourself with in your home is a reflection of what is going on inside your mind and body. If you surround yourself with items from the past which serve no present purpose, you are living in the past. If your house is messy and cluttered, it reflects a cluttered and confused mind. Clear out your clutter and you will find clarity in your life.
Diet – the food you eat and its quality are transformed into the cells in your body. If you eat lifeless, processed food devoid of nutrients, your body will become lifeless. If you eat genetically modified food, you will produce modified DNA. If you eat meat filled with the energy of fear and suffering at slaughter, them you will create fear and suffering in your mind. People need to understand that everything has a vibration, some things have high vibrational energies of love, joy, appreciation, freedom and other things contain low vibrational energies of violence, fear, death, suffering and pain. And what we come in contact with has a direct effect on our vibration. And low vibration creates chronic illness.
Relationships – are you living in an environment with people who criticise you and put you down? Do people in your life take advantage of you and drain your energy? If so you need to address your relationships with the people in your life, be it family, friends or coworkers. If you are in a negative environment at work where you are bullied leave the job. People do not change however much you try to help them. You can be tolerant, loving and accepting of that person, but if they continue to harm you and affect your health, leave the situation. And when you do work on yourself and learn the lesson so that you do not attract people like that into your life again. Learn assertiveness skills and boundaries.
Creativity – finding a creative outlet is vital in any chronic illness as a way to deal with the traumatic emotions you are going through. You may want to write your feelings down, start a blog to express yourself and connect with others in a similar situation to yourself. Create jewellery – you could even start an Etsy shop online to earn a bit of money while you are ill! Draw pictures, paint, sing, play an instrument, anything that lights up your heart. You will feel so much better.
Get out in nature – reconnecting to nature is so important as being among trees and plants calms us down and the energies heal and nurture you. Humans have lived with nature for thousands of year until recently we have separated ourselves, living isolated lives indoors in the house or working in an office. We are part of nature and we need nature to survive! The summer is a good time to sit in the garden in the sunlight getting some much needed vitamin D to boost the immune system. If you can, go for a short walk. Seeing the beauty of the flowers, trees and the blue sky will fill you with a sense of appreciation to be alive.
The Mind – the mind is a powerful tool that we can use to manifest our dreams or we can create our worries depending on what we focus upon. If you find that your mind is racing with negative thoughts, try focusing on your breath. Count the number of breaths as you inhale and exhale. By concentrating on counting, your mind will stop chattering. This is a form of meditation and the break in your thoughts or lack of resistance to your good will allow good things to flow into your life. Mindfulness is another way to silence the mind. By watching your mind, also known as your EGO, you are aware that you are separate from your mind and it cannot control you. This is explained in the book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Alternatively you can try positive affirmations to replace the negative thoughts. If you keep repeating a positive statement out loud or in your mind, eventually it becomes a belief. You can say ‘I have perfect health’ ‘I am abundant’ ‘My cells are vibrating in perfect synchronisation’ ‘I can heal myself’.
These lifestyle changes can help to make a positive difference in the quality of your life. They take time to learn and put into practice like any new skill, but once mastered they can be useful tools for life.
There are many reasons why I’m vegan which are listed below. Some of these reasons may shock you. The methods used in the animal industries are disturbing and people should be make aware of how animals are treated.
Meat – meat is produced by murdering another living being. Animals have a right to live and enjoy the freedom of their lives.
Meat is difficult to digest and contains the vibration of fear, suffering and death. The animals queue up and watch their friends, brothers and sisters being slaughtered in front of their eyes! They hear the screams and wait in fear for their turn. Their bodies are flooded with the stress hormone cortisol. And upon slaughter these hormones are still present in the meat. So when you eat meat you are consuming cortisol, adding to the excess cortisol that floods most of our bodies due to the stressful lives we lead and puts a strain on the adrenal glands.
Seafood especially tuna contains mercury and if consumed regularly can cause mercury poisoning.
What is meat? – Meat includes beef, lamb, veal, pork, chicken, turkey, duck, liver, other organ meats, all fish (yes fish is meat so if you eat fish you are not a vegetarian, you are a pescetarian!) and all seafood such as prawns, muscles, crab etc.
This video broke my heart when I saw it. How can a dog be more compassionate that a human being? We will sit by a watch a fish suffocate while the dog tries to save its’ life. The dog understands how precious life is. And we are supposed to be more intelligent?
Eggs – eggs have the potential to form into a chick if they are fertilised with sperm from a rooster. However the egg industry is one of the most cruel industries and the males chicks are ground alive on a machine with metal blades. The hens are used to produce eggs for our consumption. Many are confined to cramped, unhygienic cages and not allowed to roam free outside in the sunlight. I had tears in my eyes when I saw a picture of a male chick about to be cut up on a blade.
Dairy – Cows are abused. They are pumped full of growth hormones to build them up for slaughter as well as antibiotics which remain in the milk we drink. Dairy is acidic and mucus forming. There are some farms that treat their animals well. If you are going to buy milk and cheese it is better to buy organic and buy goat’s or sheep’s dairy as they are less intensively farmed that cows.
Leather – leather is cow’s skin! Would you wear human skin?
Merino wool – I discovered the horrors on the merino wool industry in the following video. The sheep are transported across the ocean on board freight ships in cramped conditions. When they reach land, they queue up to be slaughtered alive. Their throats are cut and their legs cut off in front of the other sheep just for the sake of getting their wool. I will never buy merino wool. 50% of merino wool is from Australia and it is hard to tell the source and the treatment of the merino sheep.
This video presented by Pink is very distressing. I was very shocked and upset when I watched it. If you are sensitive to gore then please don’t watch it.
Honey – I have been informed that honey is used to feed the baby bees and when we take it for our consumption, they have nothing to eat. So I avoid eating honey.
High vibration – to eat a plant-based diet you are consuming nutrient dense foods with a higher life-force energy and it will nourish your body and give you more vitality.
Alkaline diet – A plant-based, vegan diet is alkaline, anti-inflammatory and full of antioxidants. Therefore it protects your body from damage and inflammation.
Thank you for reading my reasons for why I’m vegan. The methods used in some of these industries are shocking. I hope you understand more about the animal industries and the morals of eating animal produce.
Here is part 2 of Therapies to Heal ME which includes all the therapies that I tried out in 2011 and 2012 in an effort to cure my ME, including dates, and my experiences with them:
2011
February
Massage – I started having massage at a beauty clinic using essential oils which warmed and relaxed my tense and aching muscles and left me feeling so peaceful and calm. It is a shame the effects wear off after a day!
October – Started volunteering to get back into society
December – Started working in a full-time job
2012
April
Reiki – I went to an MBS Fayre and had a taster reiki session. I lay on a table and she placed her hands above each of my chakras. Over my throat chakra I started swallowing uncontrollable and she said I had a blockage in this chakra and there was something I needed to say. Overall it was very relaxing and I’m sure it had a healing effect.
May
Chakra cleansing – During a reading at the MBS fayre, the psychic recommended that I use crystals to cleanse my chakras and rebalance my system. I bought a set of seven crystals, one for each chakra, and lay down, placing each crystal on the chakra and relaxing for 10 minutes before removing them. Afterwards I feel deeply relaxed, centered and peaceful. I try to do this regularly.
June
Lifestyle changes – I found working full-time to demanding on my body. I would come home, cook dinner, eat and go to bed and repeat this cycle everyday. At the weekend I was too exhausted to do anything but rest. So I asked to change my hours to part-time. They let me reduce my hours to working 3 full days a week which gave me two days off to rest in the week. This gave me more time for self-development and spending time in nature which raised my spirit. I was much happier, had more energy and felt less anxious.
August
Mindfulness – After reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, I learned the powerful effect of watching the mind for silencing it. Listening to the chattering mind also known as the ego will not bring you peace and when you observe it, it stops and you can hear the quiet voice of your higher self in the peaceful silence giving you inspiration and guidance.
Blood type diet – I bought a blood testing kit and tested my blood which is blood type A-. According to this diet people with my blood type do well on a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. I feel that my body likes grains and everyone’s body is different and may have different food intolerances. I did not stay on this diet for long.
September
Detox the Pineal Gland – After watching videos by Free Spirit on YouTube I learnt that the toxins fluorine, chlorine and mercury sit in the pineal gland preventing it from functioning properly. The pineal gland secretes melatonin which regulates the circadian rhythm and sleep, and is also the physical manifestation of the third eye allowing one to see clairvoyantly. Mercury is present in all fish which is another reason to go vegetarian!
Fluoride-free toothpaste – Fluorine is in toothpaste and actually decays the teeth instead of the opposite it is advertised to do. Kingfisher do an excellent range of fluoride-free toothpastes.
Shower filter – Chlorine and fluorine are present in tap water which is why getting a water filter as well as a shower filter fitted is important. Chlorine gas is easily absorbed through the skin in the shower.
Vegetarian Diet – Free Spirit explained that foods have different vibrations. Meat has a vibration of fear and death and dairy has a vibration of suffering. If it is true that You Are What You Eat then these are not things you want to put into your body! Honour your body. And honour animals who should be cared for, not tortured and murdered!
November
Zeolite Powder – Zeolite binds to toxins in the colon and excretes them from the body. The colon detox helped to remove some toxins from my body.
Smoothies – After reading Free Spirit’s book, I contained a recipe for a green smoothie to detox the body. So I started making green smoothies on a daily basis. I felt much more alert and energised after drinking the smoothie. I still continue to drink smoothies regularly today to rehydrate my body and give it a boost of nutrients from fresh fruit and vegetables.
Raw Vegan diet – I tried out the raw vegan diet to detox my body as I had a lot of toxins in my body from all the junk food, pharmaceutical drugs, pesticides and hormones from dairy that I had ingested in the past. Winter is not the ideal time to go raw vegan and I found it difficult to get enough calories. I did not know about the importance of protein then. I felt good not eating and animal produce and it raised my vibration and detox my body.
Organic food – I started eating only organic food when I discovered how much toxic pesticides they spray on non-organic food. It may be slightly more expensive, but it tastes a lot better and often has a higher amount of nutrients that non-organic food.
If you have ME/CFS, I hope that these therapy reviews give you some ideas of healing methods you can try out. Everybody is different and what works for one person may not work for someone else. Still in my opinion it is worth trying everything that you feel may help until you find the one that works for you.
earth and the connection will drain away the positive electrical charge that has build up in your body from being in close contact with computers, mobile phones, TVs etc. After 30 minutes of earthing I feel so much better and more calm.
