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Source Control Feels Good
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My Easy Button
Hello again,
After a several month hiatus I’ve been inspired to add to this blog again. I will start by introducing my easy button. I’m including a picture of it below for those in other countries who aren’t familiar with Staples or their USA based advertising themes. I mentioned it to a client of mine in the U.K. and although they have staples there he hadn’t heard of it.
When you push the button there is a recording that says “That was easy!” – I have it on my desk and push it whenever I figure out a solution to something or get done with a task I set for myself. It helps me to feel confident that I can do anything, because everything is easy once I figure it out:)
Candice has one in the kitchen, and I tell Kayin (our 6 yr old) to take mine with him whenever he complains that he can’t do something – like when he says he can’t get to the next level in a video game.
If you go to staples.com and search for easy button you can get one yourself if you want – they even have one in spanish now.
Cooked Apples for Diarrhea
Our family just went through a wave of diarrhea/stomach flu, and a few days ago Candice had it bad so I wanted to help her feel better quickly (with 5 kids ages 6 months to 6 years we both need to be well as much as possible). So I found this recommendation for Diarrhea in my Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies:
Cook one or two apples until they are mushy, then add 1 teaspoon ghee, a pinch of cardamom, and a pinch of nutmeg. Eat slowly. This mixture is not only delicious, it will also help stop diarrhea right away.
So after a quick trip to the nearest grocery store for apples, I cut one up, cored it, peeled off the skin, and sauteed it in a pan with a little water so it wouldn’t burn. When I could squish all the pieces with a fork, I added a little bit of ghee, cardamom, and nutmeg, mixed it up and put it into a bowl for Candice. She doesn’t normally like fruit so I only started with one, but she said it felt good to her. However, Nickalus ate most of the first apple so I cooked 2 more. By the end of the day Candice and the kids went through almost 6 apples. Fortunately I had some leftover that I put in the fridge because I needed it a couple days later:)
Feeling good despite circumstances
Have you ever been enjoying a beautiful day and all of a sudden you observe something that elicits strong negative emotions from you? How do you keep feeling good? Yesterday I was in that situation, watching the kids playing outside when an argument broke out between neighbors. It didn’t feel good to observe so I made a point not to get involved in the verbal argument. However I was still focused on it and some strong negative emotions were brought up.
One thing I did to help me feel better was to consider how it was a demonstration of the law of attraction (“what goes around, comes around” or “you reap what you sow”) – one person was angry and yelled at some kids, then the parents of those kids all came out and yelled at that person – so the angry one attracted more anger into his life (very quickly, I might add).
This morning while discussing it with Candice, she helped me to forgive the people I observed arguing and set them free as I forgave myself and set myself free from their influence. I have learned that it takes some effort to get out of a “victim” mindset and take control of my own feelings. We learned this process from the Life Visioning audio program (see link to the right).
Warm salt water really does reduce swelling!
This afternoon the kids were playing in the backyard and I had just opened the sliding glass door to plead with them to not take apart the travel cage for our rabbit that Candice bought this week. Eden (our 2 yr old daughter was near the door so I told her to watch out before I closed it. She stuck her fingers in just before it closed and they got smashed.
She started a constant panic crying at that point, so I brought her inside and gave her a couple homeopathic arnica pills (we call them “hurt pills”) but as soon as she had closed her mouth over them she continued her panic crying.
Her fingers were already swelling up, so I tried making a paste of turmeric and salt (recommended for swelling in the home remedies book – see link to the right) and she let me put a little bit on her fingers, but that didn’t seem to help (not right away, at least). Then I got a teacup, put a bunch of salt in the bottom, and filled it with almost hot water and told Eden to put her fingers in it. She did so willingly, and I could see a visible relief as she relaxed her shoulders and switched into normal crying mode.
After a few minutes, she began getting distracted and only cried when her awareness was brought back to her fingers since she had to stand in one place while soaking them (I would recommend using a mug rather than a teacup in this situation because the teacup kept falling over). After about 15 minutes she was playing in the water and it seemed like she forgot which hand got hurt. The swelling had already been reduced almost back to normal. So I told her to go wash her hands and get them dried off, and within an hour she was climbing and playing like nothing had happened!