26 Days of Silence

In honor of the innocent victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, I will be observing 26 days of silence here at Adventures of a Muse.  

Feel Like You Are Getting Sick? Just Add Water!

Last year I became mildly interested in Chinese medicine. My chiropractor is a practicioner and I wanted to gain some more insight into some things he had told me.  What really captured my interest is how your body goes through changes with the seasons and how the foods we eat can help or hinder us depending on the season.

The food I want to discuss now is WATER!

In doing my research I learned that when the colder weather comes in fall, it begins to dry us out.  Okay, we all know this.  When fall hits here in the Northeast we all start pulling out the lip balm and body lotion.  Well, I learned that a dry body is one that is open to all sorts of germs. Hence, why we all start getting sick in the fall and through the winter.  We are too dry.  Chinese medicine suggests moisturizing foods in the colder months to combat this dryness.  I guess this is why soup is so popular in these months!

A few weeks after I read this I began to feel sick.  Just that slightly stuffy and tired feeling you get at the very beginning of a cold.  I also noticed that I was thirsty and my lips were dry.  So I started drinking water.  Tons of it. Until I was not feeling chronically thirsty.  And by then I was no longer feeling like I was coming down with anything.

A few weeks after that I missed the warning signs and actually got a cold.  Again I noticed the thirst and I drank so much water I thought I would float away and after two days I was no longer thirsty and I was no longer sick.  I took nothing else.  Just water.

This past week my more than half of the children in my daughter's first grade class I have been home with the flu.  She has seemed a little run down herself but she is on board with this water thing and is drinking like a fish and she is fighting this thing off.  And this is a kid who in past years has caught a cold at least every other week.

I have also mentioned this to a few friends and they have observed the same thing and have stayed free of the usual run of fall colds.

I guess this is why your parents and doctors have always recommended fluids when you are sick!  But how cool that you can take the fluids before you get sick and never get there!?

YOUR TURN
Stay in tune with your body this year.  When you start to feel sick or thirsty, hit the fluids.  See if you can't keep those nasty colds away this year.

Your Own Personal Christmas Carol ...Who Will You Be In 10 Years?

Every year I do an exercise.  I look and see who I will be in 10 years.

I take an hour or so with my journal and I sit quietly and I picture myself in 10 years.  I picture myself with my kids, with my husband, going to work, etc.  I observe how I look and what feelings I get and how others are relating to me.

Sometimes I just observe.  Sometimes I write in my journal.  Sometimes I just scribble down a few notes.  Sometimes it is a struggle and everything looks fuzzy.  And sometimes it is like watching a movie from the front row.

Do I like where I am headed or not?  Are these things I want to embrace ans strive towards or are there things I want to change?  I guess it is sort of my own personal Christmas Carol.

I take what I have learned and I set some goals for the year.

I have to share that I did this exercise this morning and was sort of surprised with what I saw.  You see, last year what I saw was absolutely amazing!  My visions of myself in my career really encouraged me to do some great things over this past year that I might have otherwise thought were not important.  But this year,  I didn't like where I was headed with my kids.  I can see that some of the choices I am making with them now is sending me on a path that lacks a real connection to them.  This is my opportunity to make some changes.

YOUR TURN
Schedule some time for yourself now and again each year to practice this exercise.  (Doing the exercise is actually a repeating event in my Google calendar so I don't forget!)

Find a quite place where you won't be disturbed and bring along a journal or notepad.

Close your eyes and thing about one of your current relationships or roles and ask yourself what it looks like in 10 years.  Then just go from there.  You might be able to just follow along or you might need to guide yourself to other relationships and roles.  You might just get a quick flash of something or you might see a whole scene playing out.

Record things as you wish and when you are done, take note of what you seem to have learned and act on that information as it feels right.

Good luck!