Our Vision To strengthen and support the community of holistic professionals.
Our Mission Statement To create a unified community of compassionate holistic practitioners that will contribute to enhancing our profession and ourselves by providing a supportive space to share, learn, teach, grow, and lead.
A Community of Holistic Professionals
An international holistic and wellness magazine that promotes conscious living.
Our Pledge The Holistic Mentorship Network supports the Holistic Professional, as well as the Community by providing the space to network, build a referral base, mentor and support each other in business development and growth, promote community awareness and education of alternative services and products, and meet potential clients.
MARCI™ was started by Linda Mitchell in 2002 in response to a need for the hyper growth that the holistic wellness industry was experiencing. It was our intention for practitioners to refer to MARCI™ as a resource tool for their daily practice. Much to our joy, MARCI™ has grown by leaps and bounds and now features articles and tips on everything from health and wellness to sustainable living. - Linda Mitchell, Founder of HMN & MARCI™
Inside This Issue: Addictions and Ways We Can Heal By Linda Mitchell
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Publishing Committee
Photography for Cover Image By Dawn J. Benko
Jefferson Harman, Chairperson Janine M. Torsiello, Editor Erin Saxton, Media Strategist Dawn Benko, Photojournalist Linda Mitchell, Exec. Director & Editor
Featured Contributor Conscious Pro-creation Can Be a Pathway to Freedom from Addictions By Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova
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Staff
Hypnotherapy Can Help Kick Bad Habits By Arlene Rich
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“The Secret” Coaching: Acknowledge Your Worthiness By Lisa Nichols
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What Is a Nutritionist? By Dian Freeman
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MARCI TM SPOTLIGHT WRITER There Are Things You Can Do to Overcome Body Toxicity By Gary Null
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Addiction and Balance By Jefferson Harmon
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Additcted to Yes? By Beth Lowell
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Project Planet NetworkTM Addiction andEnvironment With Ana Marie Presti
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The Planet Neptune: Fantasy vs. Reality By Sheri Horn Hasan
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Linda Mitchell Executive Director & Editor-in-Chief Janine M. Torsiello Editor & Layout Designer Dawn J. Benko Photographer
Board Members
Linda Mitchell, Founder & Exec. Director Donna Price, President Vivian Sartoretto, Leadership & Membership & Events Jordan Brown, Integrative Medicine & Education Kathy Lynch, Integrative Medicine & Education Karen Flaherty, Public Relations Eileen Maciejunes, Secretary Tracy Nosal, Treasurer Ana Marie Presti, Project Planet & Fundraising & Events Joan Velardi, Marketing Jefferson Harman, Publishing
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Electromagnetic Fields and the Effects of Radiation Exposure By Ingrid Werner Book Review Product Review
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Letters to
Inside This Issue: Calendar of Events Announcements
We would love to hear from you! Please write to us at:
MARCI@MARCImagazine.com
Contact Information
55 Newton-Sparta Road, Newton, NJ 07860 Phone: (973) 300-1184 Fax: (973) 300-1189 www.HolisticMentorshipNetwork.com MARCI@MARCImagazine.com Disclaimer The views expressed within the various articles are not necessarily the views of the Holistic Mentorship Network, publisher of MARCI™. Copyright for all articles, poems, etc. are owned by the respective authors. Permission to copy or use in any manner is at the sole discretion of the writer.
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Columns Creative Arts With Beth Olney
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Aromatherapy With Christina Santiago
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Natural Health With Sarah Collins
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Working With Spirit With Christina Lynn Whited
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Eat Right...Feel Right With Judith Gisser
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Conscious Parenting: Age 13 & Under With Beth Haessig
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Conscious Parenting: Age 13-19 By Jordan Brown
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Spirituality With Catherine Perry
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Personal Development Coaching With Hueina Su
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The Whole Pet With Dee Broton
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Money Coaching With Tom Selkow
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Night Sailing With Jefferson Harmon
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Legislative Matters With Maureen Drummond and Susannah Pitman
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Addictions and Ways We Can Heal a message by Linda Mitchell, Founder of HMN & MARCI™
Drama. Does it grab your attention? When you think of addictions, do you think of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, food or sex as falling into an addictive pattern? Who isn’t addictive to drama. We see it in the news and thrive on it in our daily lives. Do you like the high of drama? When the publishing committee discussed the themes for the next year of MARCI, my expectation was on all the above addictions plus behaviors for our Spring theme. Hueina Su, who is a regular columnist on “Personal Development” and a Life Coach, brings to light another addiction that resonated loudly for me when I first read Hueina ‘s column on being addicted to “Drama”. Drama, how often do we feed into it? And is drama the culprit of many other addictions. Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova, our featured writer and founder of “Birth into Being,” is a world renowned speaker. Elena has studied the impact coming into this world has “from the conceptions of the fetus, through gestation, birth, and the first few years of life.” What is stored in the
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nervous system as memory is referred to as the “Limbic imprint,” according to Elena. The whole process of conception and birth is amazing. Under the ideal circumstances, this is a time when the birth mom, and natural father should be experiencing an intense bond of love. But what happens when that is not the case, or a medical crisis arises? Back in the day, mothers would be sedated with gas, and guess what, the unborn baby would absorb the “drug” as well. Today we know so much more and are waking up to the fact that addictions start at the core of issues that arose from
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our childhood. Addictions, perhaps in most circumstances, could not exist if we didn’t have drama to feed on. Many years ago I asked someone who was an editor of a local newspaper how we could get the Holistic Mentorship Network on the front page of their paper. Her answer was, that we would have to commit a crime in order to make the news, or at least the front page. Now we know that is not always the case, as I have seen amazing stories that have hit the front page that show individuals and communities doing wonderful things . If the media believes though, that drama will sell their news, then that is indeed what we will be given. In today’s technical world, we can feed on this prey in mega seconds. We see what happens with the availability of “Social Networking” as a source of connecting us to friends, family and as a way to promote our businesses. It’s a wonderful way to stay connected in our busy lives. I have also seen family disputes, harassing and bullying take cont’d on next page
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AIT, Tomatis®, and Bio-Acoustics™ will be common terms once you learn how Dorinne Davis, Master Sound Therapist trained in over 20 Sound-Based Therapies, utilizes them in her sequentially developmental Tree of Sound Enhancement Therapy®. Find out how Ms. Davis’s proprietary initial testing, The Diagnostic Evaluation for Therapy Protocol (DETP®), identifies the sound therapy which is right for each individual. Understand why The Davis Model of Sound Intervention® is the foundational method for the future of sound-based therapy. Presenter: Dorinne Davis Date: 2nd Wednesday each month Time: 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Location: The Davis Center 19 St Rt 10E, Succasunna, NJ Registration: 862-251-4637 or npdunn@thedaviscenter.com Website: www.thedaviscenter.com
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Addictions
continued from page 6 place on these same social networks resulting in blocking, reporting the use of unacceptable behavior and then the well-publicized events that have driven a person to take their own life. Communication is key to relationships. Love, peace, honor are words that if not felt, can lead to self-hatred, disrespect and unworthiness, and will be communicated as such to the very people that are most important to you. If we live in a society that preys on war and disease, then that is what we will get more of. If we do not wake up from the drama that we feed, then we will witness more destruction in our lives, more addictions in order to deal with life. It is no wonder our children are absorbed in playing on the computers, rather than playing outdoors and being in the “light.”. Technology allows us to lose ourselves, rather than connect one on one. What are the coping mechanisms that we are teaching our children today in dealing with life’s crises? I believe that more and more individuals are seeking alternatives to deal with stress, and perhaps even more importantly heal from the core of where their disconnect began. It is time to wake up, and find the tools that are available for us to heal. Where can we find these tools? Certainly in the pages of MARCI is one place,
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and to put into practice MARCI in your own lives. MARCI is an acronym for “Mindful, Aware, Responsible, Compassion and Intuition.” Perhaps today, the most important work is “Responsible”, and perhaps the “A” of MARCI should be “Accountable.” No one else can take responsibility or be accountable for the addictive patterns that are
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in our life, accept you and me. No matter the addiction, or even those that play into the drama of “enabling the addictive behavior.” Sounds like another well-deserved theme for MARCI, “The Enabler”. The drama of it all. May you choose love over hate; and peace over war~ Namaste’, Linda
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MARCI™ Featured Writer
Conscious Pro-Creation Can Be a Pathway to Freedom from Addictions
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by Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova
n the previous issue of MARCITM magazine, in my article ‘Limbic Imprint,’ I’ve described the mechanism of the correlation between the way we were born and the quality of our emotional life as adults. Limbic imprint is an inborn capacity of the nervous system to absorb and memorize noncognitively all of the information from the surrounding environment Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova during the pre-verbal fornot developed yet mative period from the conception of the fetus, through and cannot cognigestation, birth, and the first few tively rationalize. Today, I want to years of life. Photo courtesy of Birth Into Being.com It means that if the fetus was address the corresaturated with stressful expe- lation between the Featured Writer Elena Tonetti-Vladimirov says that riences while in utero, then way we are born many addictions can be traced to trauma during had traumatic birth and baby’s and our addictive the gestation and birthing process. needs were not met afterwards, tendencies. Napoleon, for what he was, developed and neuro-biologists that would automatically mean adopting neglect and pain as the said in 1810: “If France would published huge amount of scinorm by the baby’s limbic brain. have good mothers, it will have entific research on that matter. Against any logic, the nervous good sons.” He understood this Napoleon just used his common system would register it as a dynamic clearly, way before the sense and power of observation. cont’d on next page “comfort zone,” as the cortex is field of pre-natal psychology was
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Pro-Creation
continued from page 9 It is no coincidence that the drug culture of the 1960s exploded after medical drugs were introduced into the delivery rooms during the 1940s. Mothers were numbed and gassed. It was a set-up for the whole generation to depend on chemicals as a way of dealing with life. The experience of drugs on a newborn, rough manipulations right after birth by masked strangers in the hospital and the deep loneliness that follows when the baby is taken away from the drugged mother, has devastating effects. These procedures come as a complete shock to a baby. Then, there’s numbness and a disoriented disconnect from the Source of which the soul of this child has just been so rudely yanked away. The biggest problem is that the nervous system registers this cocktail of sensations as “the life-giving” potion. For an in-depth study, see “Birth And the origins of violence” by Dr. David Chamberlain http:// www.birthpsychology.com/violence/chamberlain1.html, as well as numerous publications by Dr. William Emerson, Dr. Thomas Verny, etc, including the official site of the Association of Pre-natal Psychology www.birthpsychology.com. Violence has the same source as any form of addictive behaviors. In fact, violence is just another side of that coin. An unbearable emotional pain of lost identity and lost “tribe” can become an
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Photo courtesy of Birth Into Being.com
ElenaTonetti-Vladimirov has done much research on how much our experiences of trauma during birth can impact our whole lives.
urgent need to inflict pain onto others or onto oneself, or both. The greatest irony is that it is our inherent desire to feel good, to feel good about ourselves and the world around us, to find that
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“paradise lost,” the sense of belonging to some omnipresent loving Source, is exactly what drives the unskilled search tocont’d on next page
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Pro-Creation
continued from page 10 wards the quick fix. Needless to say that babies who were not traumatized during their formative period are not prone to become violent and addictive adults. Even if later in life they experiment with drugs, they have what it takes to recover and get on with their life. Ramana, one of the legendary yogis of India, once said that when he finally experienced Enlightenment, it lasted for 15 seconds, but it had enough of an impact on him to spend the rest of his life in devotion to this moment.
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For women, this kind of experience of Enlightenment is biologically available every time they go into labor to deliver a baby. The amount of Oxytocin, the “love” hormone, that her brain is capable of releasing into her blood stream would be sufficient for her to enter that “most wanted” state of Enlightenment that millions of people are striving to achieve through yoga and various other spiritual practices. It is the natural ultimate high that is supposed to be our “basic setting.” If it was missing at the moment of “programming” at birth, we are bound to long for it for the rest of our lives, never finding it. When a woman’s body is able to do its work without interfer-
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ence from her own anxieties or medical interference, she is capable of experiencing a total state of bliss during delivery. Then the corresponding hormones in her system “dialogue” with the baby’s hormone production – thus “wiring” the baby’s “settings” onto a deep sense of well-being and fearless attitude towards being alive, present in the body, and melded in deep connection with the mother, who is felt by the baby, in this case, as an enormous protective, nurturing, loving Source of Existence. That is the most basic sensation every one of us has the right to experience, because that is how a cont’d on next page
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It is, in most cases, harder than to learn to walk or speak – being truly kind to ourselves, without continued from page 11 enabling addictions. It is sometimes the biggest tafemale procreational neuro-biolboo in our nervous system, if it ogy and hormonal landscape is was “trained” on suffering from supposed to function. Unfortunately, so far, it is only the very beginning of times. a privilege of so few. Because if This is exactly why the longest a woman was not born well herself, her body doesn’t know how journey one will ever undertake to produce enough oxytocin dur- is the journey from the head to the heart. ing delivery. The only journey that is lonThe good news, it’s possible to re-train our nervous system ger than that, is the one from our to the sufficient production of it, genitalia to our hearts. Because if our nervous system is disconwithout medication. There are many ways of do- nected from our body from the ing it, for more info go to www. start, due to high stress levels during our formative period, we birthintobeing.com. We have to learn to be kind to don’t have a reference point of what it is supposed to feel like to ourselves.
Pro-Creation
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be safe, loved, welcomed. Even if our parents loved us, it doesn’t mean that they knew how to express their love in a way that we could actually feel loved, because they, themselves, probably did not have a good role model to feel loved by their own parents. In my estimation, there are about 2-5% of people on our planet, who can say: “I felt loved as a child.” Maybe about 15% who can say: “I felt emotionally safe with my parents.” But feeling loved – not that many. Now, the logical, responsible thing to do in our society is put birth into the context of life, so women don’t feel helpless when it comes down to pushcont’d on next page
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Pro-Creation
continued from page 12 ing the baby out and don’t look for somebody else to give their power away with (whether that be a midwife, a girlfriend, a partner, or some expert in an outfit of authority, who thinks he knows about birth just because he went to school). Any female cat knows how to give birth. Any male, of any species, doesn’t. It’s not a mental activity. A man has too many body parts missing when it comes to understanding birth. It’s as if one is trying to understand a very long and complicated plot of a psychological drama watching it
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on TV with muted sound – one can see it, but can’t relate. There is so much more to giving birth than the eye can see. It’s a deeply mystical, shamanic experience, that’s why it has a rank of rite of passage, initiation into Motherhood in indigenous cultures, in spite of it also being a normal anatomical function. A woman goes through a complete metamorphosis, through the end-of-the-world-as-sheknew-it, through surrender to her own mortality and then emerges on the other end victorious, activated to the power she never knew she possessed or she misses the whole ordeal and gets the drug and the surgery. The main reason for compli-
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cations at birth is the mother’s own birth trauma; her fear – of birth, of life, of her own potential – and of course, her inability to relax in the midst of intensity of her sensations. This is where introducing the consciousness into the approach to people-making comes in. To consciously create a new human being is to be aware of all the complexities and responsibilities of such a huge task and prepare for it properly. Giving birth is an ultimate activation of the Divine Feminine in a woman. Afterwards, her creativity, her grasp of life’s mysteries, is available to her if she chooses to pay attention. It’s such a waste to miss this amazcont’d on next page
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Pro-Creation
continued from page 13 ing opportunity and just opt for an elective C-section. Of course, if there is a real medical indication, we are very grateful that the professional help is available in the hospital. But, still, in the normal society, C-section should not be over 10-12%, speaking very conservatively. It’s a dangerous major abdominal surgery with huge psychological side-effects for the child. And what we have in some countries now, is C-section rates up to 85-95%. I believe that it’s very unprofessional that doctors who are pushing for C-section are not going to the trouble of educating themselves about the consequences of this procedure on the emotional aspect of the new person’s life. The staggering stats are available from the last 15 -20 years and none of it is in the medical text books, none of the research of prenatal psychologists is in the mandatory curriculum. We don’t have a moment to lose to wait for changes in their policies. It’s really in women’s hands to educate themselves and know what they want and what they don’t want. Babies are being born every moment. We can sit and point fingers or we can just wake up and do what’s right. Going back to the Conscious Procreation Model, one of its main aspects is Conscious Connection with the spirit of the unborn child before conception. With it comes in so much emotional support and oxytocin
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floods the body. Afterwards, breastfeeding is a purely shamanic act, too, – a woman’s body produces the most nurturing substance in the world, out of non-existence. She calls it forth on demand. It brings an enormous oxytocin production for both, mom and the babe. A Conscious Pro-Creation movement is marching the world. I see it happening all over the world with my own eyes. I travel a lot with my seminars and can testify – there are very few places on Earth where women are still in deep slumber. Mostly, we are on the rise, ladies. The answer to all problems of our civilization – not only destructive addictions, but all fearbased, violent or simply stupid messes that we’ve created – is to raise a new generation of humans who are not programmed on pain and suffering, who are free from guilt and shame from the start, and are free to live by the law of common sense and simple compassion towards each other, which is the human natural state of being. We can claim the Eden back and bring Heaven to Earth in one generation. In the big game of life, life will never lose. It will gently follow the groove of slow natural process. Life will equally accept any outcome of any event by the power of its own logic, regardless of what people think about it. It is not going to wait for us, unless we learn to communicate with this great Power of the Divine Feminine to create Life. We can ask It to forgive us and give us another chance to create the quality of life worthy of us call-
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ing ourselves Human Beings. With or without us, life will go on. The task of making humans happy was not a part of the great design. It’s our task. And when we are free from being “programmed” on neglect, bliss is our natural state. Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova is the founder of Birth into Being, an international movement for conscious pro-creation since 1982. She produced and directed the documentary Birth As We Know It (now in 56 countries since release in 2006). She travels the world facilitating Birth into Being workshops, Apprenticeship Trainings and speaking at conferences. For more information visit BirthIntoBeing.com.
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Hypnotherapy Can Help Kick Bad Habits
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by Arlene Rich
id you know, hypnother- Clinical Hypnotherapy is to help apy can be utilized for al- you, the client, empower yourself most any problem to change by using treatable by psychothe resources you’ve therapy, and for many physical already got – unconsciously, that is. ailments as well? Hypnotherapy toHypnotherapy has received day is nothing like a lot of press as a very effective the fanciful hypnotool for changing personal issis of the movies. I sues and symptoms. don’t have a watch The National Institute of on a chain that I Health and the American Mediswing in front of cal Association have endorsed you. All your therhypnotherapy as an effective alapy is individualternative therapy. ized for you speProfessionally trained Hypnocifically. therapists can use this specialty The goal of hypto help you resolve the same isnotherapy is to sues you’d take to conventional teach you how to therapy usually in far less time use the trance state and with results that can last to transform proba lifetime. lems into solutions. This is because the funIncluded among damental premise of the areas treatable Hypnothrough hypnothertherapy apy are (but not can help limited to): you stop smoking.
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cont’d on next page
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Hypnotherapy continued from page 15
• • • •
stress grief problem-solving habit alteration /nail biting etc. • low self-esteem • insomnia • performance anxiety • memory loss • Past Life Regression When you change your mind – you change your life. Following are some Frequently Asked Questions about Hypnosis: What is Hypnosis? Hypnosis is a heightened state of awareness. What does hypnosis feel like? There is no specific hypnotized feeling...everyone is different. Most people experience a very relaxed, pleasant state of mind. For some of my clients, it’s the most relaxed they have felt for years. Can I be made to do something against my will? No. You will not do anything that is against your own will. You are always in complete control. Will I be asleep during hypnosis? No. Contrary to popular belief, you will not be asleep; you will be aware of what I am saying and will find it very relaxing. The hypnotized individual is always aware of what is occurring. Can anyone be hypnotized? Yes, although certain people respond better to hypnotic suggestion. Each person is an individual, and each person
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can go to different levels of hypnosis. For hypnotherapy a deep state is not always necessary, a light state is almost always sufficient to proceed. Is hypnosis dangerous? Hypnosis is a very safe and relaxing natural state of mind. What is the process of hypnosis? How will you do it? I will ask you to make yourself comfortable, close your eyes and relax. I will then guide you into, and afterwards, out of a hypnotic state by the tone of my voice using carefully constructed language. How many sessions will I need to schedule? The average client is seen from 1-2 sessions. Hypnosis is not a long process; Results are often achieved in just one
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session. Arlene Rich is a Spiritual Medium and an Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist as well as an Interfaith Minister and Spiritual Counselor. Arlene feels she has been given her psychic gifts to help others achieve a better life for themselves. She is a bridge to the Other Side. Arlene helps give clients a new perspective on the life they are living by getting them in touch with someone in spirit, helping them through past life regression, and with hypnotherapy sessions. The Spiritual Awakening offers workshops and individual readings. Visit on the Web at www. thespiritualawakening.com or call (973) 398-0169.
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“The Secret” Coaching: Acknowledge Your Worthiness
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by Lisa Nichols
oday I want to address a subject close to my heart — worthiness. It’s vital to achieving the deep, personal happiness and success we all desire. Your task today is to acknowledge your worthiness to receive joy, success, and unconditional love. Through your unique journey, you have earned the right to have all of the happiness, all of the bliss that is possible for one person to experience — regardless of any past choices, decisions, or actions. What you believe is possible will absolutely match what becomes possible. That’s why it’s important not to let self-limiting beliefs define who you are and what you are capable of doing. Your current outcomes, your current successes — as great, as grand, or even as limited as
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they are — are in direct proportion to what you believe is possible for you right now at this moment. When you increase your belief in what’s possible for yourself, you actually increase what becomes possible for you. The work you have to do to start attracting what you want in life doesn’t necessarily begin on a vision board or with a goal-setting program. The work begins in your mind and in your heart. It’s about what you believe to be possible. Take a few minutes each day — starting right now — to acknowledge your worthiness to receive. Meditate while focusing on the goodness of your heart, recite positive affirmations that support you, and write down three of your beautiful attributes every morning to remind yourself what a wonder-
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ful human being you truly are. What’s your worth today? That’ll determine what you’ll achieve tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. Lisa Nichols is one of the most enchanting speakers and seminar leaders of our era in the personal growth market. Celebrated for her signature voice and dynamic style, Lisa has inspired millions around the world with her insightful message about how to brave hardships, find your authentic self, and cultivate the best life. She is the founder of Motivating the Masses and CEO of Motivating the Teen Spirit, LLC, is the bestselling coauthor of “Chicken Soup for the African American Soul” and “Chicken Soup for the African American Woman’s Soul,” and best-selling author of her latest book “No Matter What!” Visit her Web site at www.LisaNichols.com.
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What is a Nutritionist? A Drugless Practitioner ... A Holistic Healer
By Dian Freeman, M.A., Certified in Clinical Nutrition and Holistic Health
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any people today are confused by the contradictory approaches of nutritional and holistic practitioners as well as those found in nutritional books. To sift through these differing methodologies, it may help to understand the evolution of these authors and healing practitioners. All healing is an art; like all arts, the practice of nutritional, drugless healing requires creative freedom to be effective. Today, traditional holistic healing mixes with modern nutritional science resulting in new healing modalities being created almost daily. This mixture of old and new is being merged by nutritionists and other drugless practitioners with beneficial and often miraculous results. A major part of this mix is comprised of traditional healing tools like herbs, folk remedies, energy work and essential oils, many of which have only recently been revived from studying ancient cultures and current indigenous
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peoples. Other components are vitamins and minerals whose discovery and regular use as medicine by medical doctors became prevalent in the 1940s. About two thirds of the “drugs” listed in my Physician’s Desk Reference (PDR) of 1948 are natural remedies and pharmaceutically created vitamins and minerals. Today’s PDR lists thousands of synthetic drugs and few vitamins and minerals. Recently, many other nutrients, such as enzymes and amino acids, have been created by nutritional science and added to the mix. Food is also a powerful natural healing tool when grown organically, locally and served fresh. However, most food today is depleted nutritionally due to being produced on mega corporate farms, shipped long distances, genetically altered, processed and pumped full of pesticides and additives. Nutrient depletion has lead to a nation of people trying to function with chronic low-grade illnesses often made worse by
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the pharmaceutical drugs they take looking for relief from these conditions. From the middle of the 1960’s, the pharmaceutical industry has rushed toward patenting synthetic drugs and influencing medical education to the extent that it is common today for a medical doctor to actually “warn” patients not to take supplements in favor of pharmaceutical drugs. Modern drug therapy is a relatively new phenomenon and has made headway in the control of many infectious diseases, but other diseases have resisted medical control. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mental and neurological diseases are among those that have not been cured or even controlled by medical therapies. In response to medical inadequacies and pharmaceutical damage, drugless healing has had a growing following in the U.S. with the advent cont’d on next page
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ists.” They have no clinical nutritional training and are taught to be afraid of recommending drugless remedies beyond those few used in medicine. This adds to the confusion as to what a nutritionist is and does, which may be the intent. Clients often complain that they have visited “nutritionists” who had no answer
and rule becomes law, creativity withers. Creative thought flourishes in an atmosphere continued from page 20 of openness and individual of clinical nutrition, modern freedom. Throughout history herbalism, homeopathy and in restrictive societies, innovaother drug-less therapies. tors are feared, banished and American clinical nutrikilled. Currently, such restriction evolved directly from Dr. tions hide behind the title “liAbraham Hoffer’s discoveries censed.” Licensing, under the of controlling schizophrenia guise of protecting the people, and lowering LDL chodestroys the creative imlesterol with large doses pulse. of the B vitamin, niacin. Currently, in New JerHoffer is the father of sey, such restrictions on Alert! orthomolecular nutriholistic healers and nuNew 2010 Legislation is pending tion, now called clinical tritional practitioners are that would prohibit and criminalize all nutrition in the U.S. His not on the books. Howevpersons but dieticians to practice, discoveries led to the vier, 2010/2011 legislation teach or even or speak about nutritamin-as-treatment parais pending that would tion, diet, food, weight-loss or suppledigm that has been used prohibit any but dietimentation in the state of New Jersey. by nutritionists since the cians to practice, teach or 1960s. Often misnamed even speak about nutriYOUR HEALTH FREEDOM “mega dosing,” orthotion, food, diet, weight IS AT STAKE molecular nutrition is loss or supplements. actually “opti-dosing,” Preventing this law to Please contact your state senator meaning individual nupass will insure that and assembly person to protest the tritional deficiencies are nutritional science can passage of the Dietician/Nutritionist Liunique to an individual’s continue to create new censing Bill – A1987 in the Assembly genetics, diet and lifehealthful supplements, and S809 in the Senate. style and when optimally people can still seek out Go to www.AmericansRightToBeInbalanced, that person’s creative healing and formed.org and sign the new 2010 health will improve. drugless healers can still petition against these Bills. Since Hoffer’s discovput together a creative – Dian Freeman eries, nutritionists have nutritional mix for each been trained to distinunique need. guish an individual’s nutritional deficiencies through as to how to build the immune Dian Freeman has a private their symptoms. Thus, people system, which supplements nutritional consultation practice have come to know that seeing address a certain condition in Morristown, NJ and is cura nutritionist means one will be or the simple basics of holis- rently working on her doctorate evaluated and placed on an in- tic healing. Too late, they find at Drew University. A health dividualized, optimal diet and that they did not see a nutri- freedom advocate, Dian teaches a supplement program. Such is tionist at all, rather a dietician nutritional certification course, still the case with trained nu- instead. practices Ondamed biofeedback, tritional counselors. In healing, as in all art forms, gives classes, lectures widely and Sadly, registered dieticians inflexible tradition stifles and may be reached at abouthealth@ are now referring to them- restricts creativity. When tra- att.net or visit www.Wellnessselves as “medical nutrition- dition becomes subject to rule Simplified.com.
Nutritionist
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MARCI™ Spotlight Writer
There are Things You Can Do to Overcome Body Toxicity by Gary Null, Phd.
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Time magazine called him “The New Mr. Natural.” My Generation magazine dubbed him one of the top health gurus in the United States. For over 35 years, Gary Null has been one of the foremost voices of the health movement. Through his New York Times Bestselling books, documentaries, and daily radio show Gary has continued to be a strong voice for the consumer, standing up against big pharmaceutical corporations. Gary has also exposed the massive drugging of children in our schools, the medicinal abuse of seniors, and the unnecessary and overuse of X-Rays, among other health issues. In short Gary’s entire adult life has been spent fighting for a better way for all of us to live. He has the longest running health radio program in American history. He broadcasts 15 hours live per week.
t is important to look at your nutrient intake when you are overcoming the ravages of any toxic lifestyle, as poor lifestyle not only impairs the mind, but depletes the body of essential nutrients as well. Some of these helpful nutrients are as follows: Essential fatty acids, the amino acids, especially glutamine and l-methionine help in detoxifying the brain. Trace minerals such as
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magnesium, manganese, chromium and zinc are elements that may be depleted. Vitamin C with other antioxidants can be beneficial, and works synergistically with quercetin. Lecithin also helps improve brain and liver. Milk thistle, Valerian Root, and Siberian ginseng can also support liver function. Talk to your
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continued from page 22 natural health practitioner for dosage recommendations. Ginseng Are you purchasing those over the counter energy enhancement or libido enhancement products containing ginseng? Don’t. [i] (Over-the counter versions may or may not contain any Ginseng.)[ii] In addition, although there is an extensive amount of literature dealing with the effects of ginseng on the cardiovascular system, central nervous system, endocrine system, metabolism, and immune system, a review in Sports Medicine in 2000, found that there is “generally a lack of controlled research demonstrating the ability of ginseng to improve or prolong performance in fatigued humans.” If you are going to use natural energy enhancement products such as Ginseng, buy from a reputable vitamin company with standardized extracts, and include as a supplement to a healthy diet and lifestyle regimen, including exercise, plenty of water, and plenty of sleep as well. [iii] [iv] Suggested Dosage: 200 mg per day. [v] Viral Tiredness? — Eat Essential Fats Eat your essential fats if you’ve been sick: a fatty acid preparation containing linoleic, gamma-linolenic,
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Photo by iStock
Ginseng, seen here in raw and capsule forms, is often used as an energy boosting supplement, but be careful to buy any such products from a reputable vitamin company with standardized extracts.
eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids was given as 8 x 500 mg capsules per day and improved the fatigue that often accompanies a viral illness. The study concludes that essential fatty acids provide a rational, safe and effective treatment for patients with the post-viral fatigue syndrome. Use of glutathione may also be important in viral infection as well. For example, in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome glutathione is important for immune cellular function, and depleted glutathione in the muscle needed for contraction, may also cause fatigue and muscle pain. Generally glutathione is given intravenously, but oral “dosage ranges from 50 to 600 milligrams daily. New oral absorption formats may in-
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crease the absorbability, but check the bottle for the proper way to take it.” (Don’t take if you’re pregnant or nursing.) Some doctors use intravenous glutathione for whole body detox, and some combine glutathione with the essential fats for better treatment. High intake of fruits and vegetables may decrease risk of certain cancers from glutathione deficiency. In addition, it is thought by some that regular supplementation with such nutrients as vitamin C, alpha-lipoic acid, glutamine, methionine, SAMe, Vitamin B6, riboflavin and Selenium can help the body produce its own glutathione naturally. Check with your natural healthcare provider for recommendations on dosage cont’d on next page
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Photo by iStock
Green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale, collard greens, lettuce and cabbage, along with broccoli and cauliflower are good sources of folic acid, which can be helpful for pregnant women.
guidelines for each of these have a family history of neunutrients. ral tube defects or who have had a baby with a neural tube Reproducing? defect should take 5mg of foGet Your Greens late daily and other women Be sure you get enough fo- should take 0.5mg of folate late during pregnancy. Lack daily. of this specific nutrient can Folic acid is needed in every cause megaloblastic anemia, dividing cell (why it is used a blood disorder where red heavily in pregnancy) for problood cells enlarge, and can cessing of proteins. also lead to cervical dyspla“Folic acid works along sia (abnormal pap smears), with vitamin B12 and vitamin neural tube defects (the tissue C and is found in dark green in the baby that eventually leafy vegetables (spinach, becomes the spinal cord and kale, mustard greens, turnip the brain), and atherosclerosis greens, escarole, chard, aru(hardening of the arteries). gula, beet greens, bok choy, Dosage recommendations dandelion green, mache, raare as follows: Women who dicchio, rapini or broccoli de
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rabe, Swiss chard), oranges, lentils, pinto beans, garbanzo beans, asparagus, orange juice, broccoli, cauliflower, liver and brewer’s yeast. Good food sources of folic acid include asparagus, beets, broccoli, avocados, Brussels sprouts, beans, dried, chickpeas, soybeans, lentils, oranges, peas, fresh, turkey, cabbage, savoy, bok choy, and spinach. Beans, leafy green vegetables, citrus fruits, beets, wheat germ, and meat are good sources of folic acid. Leafy greens such as spinach and turnip greens, dry beans and peas, fortified cereals and cont’d on next page
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continued from page 24 grain products, and some fruits and vegetables are rich food sources of folate.” Scleroderma? A More Natural Approach “Patients with scleroderma (PSS) are usually treated with antifibrotic, anti-inflammatory and/or vasoactive drugs.” Mild scleroderma is characterized by red scaly patches of skin and surface scarring, but more dangerous scleroderma can affect internal organs and blood vessels. Ask your doctor if this more natural treatment might be right for you: (100 I.U. salmon calcitonin/day for 10 days,
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two or three times a year). Calcitonin is formed in the thyroid in humans, and is involved in calcium metabolism in the body. The author of a 1993 German study states: “Our results strongly suggest that intravenous calcitonin treatment is of therapeutical benefit in the majority of patients suffering from PSS (progressive systemic sclerosis).” Calcium channel blockers can be used for some of the effects of Scleroderma, such as renal involvement and Raynaud’s phenomena, which results in cold hands and feet. Calcium channel blockers in themselves can be dangerous (including increased risk of death and heart attack). Although the use of calcitonin
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can have side effects, they are rare. Obsessive? — Get Some Faith If you are suffering from OCD, your faith may make you well. Apply your religious convictions to your belief that you’ll get better and you have a win-win combination. In one study, a woman who applied her religious faith to her desire to overcome her OCD, was able to stay completely well for five months (the length of the study). In addition the authors say a concurrent behavioral therapy approach can be used with the faith approach. In a more in-depth study, cont’d on next page
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continued from page 25 the authors discuss the ‘efficacy of a 7-week behavioral treatment program administered in a group format’ which addresses the following issues: that individualized behavioral exposure and response prevention therapy is an effective treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Ask your therapist if he would be willing to tailor a faith based behavioral approach to help you overcome your OCD. The daily use of inositol has also been shown to improve symptoms of depression and OCD. The depressed patients took 12 g daily of inositol, and the OCD patients took 18g daily of inositol. Thistle While You Work Occupational toxic hepatopathy (or liver toxicity) caused by various toxic substances mostly solvents, paints and glues. Was helped by silmarin, or milk thistle treatment in people who were exposed for short periods of time. Gary Null’s Encyclopedia of Natural Healing states that, milk thistle is also “the best herbal support for hepatitis, and vitamins to support and replenish the liver during hepatitis... are C, B, E, Selenium, and Glutathione.” Also, “Ozone therapy can sometimes reverse hepatitis in a matter of a few sessions.” Dosage Recommendations
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by Dr. Daniel Cosgrove are as follows: “12 to 15 grams of dried herb (200 to 400 mg silymarin) per day or silymarinphosphatidylcholine complex 100 to 200 mg two times per day. For liver protection, 120 mg silymarin (about 2 capsules) two times per day. For liver damage from alcohol, drugs, or chemicals, the recommended dosage of silymarin-phosphatidylcholine should be increased from two times per day to three times per day. Most herbal dosages for adults are calculated on the basis of a 150 lb (70 kg) adult.” Gulf War Disinformation In a 1997 study, Gulf War veterans who were initially thought to have PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder, were shown in reality to have symptoms of other illnesses which had gone undiagnosed. If you’re one of our patriotic gulf war soldiers, don’t believe the hype by the media that it’s all in your head. Squalene may be another culprit in the etiology, or list of causes for Gulf war illness, because nearly all soldiers, either deployed of undeployed, with symptoms of GWS, have antibodies to squalene. A study of 249 gulf War vets, of the 175 who attributed severe health consequences to the war, the study concludes that “Gulf War veterans represent ...syndromes that appear to reflect a spectrum of neurologic injury involving
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the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems.” Another study says that soldiers have generalized nervous system injury. Vitamin A Anyone?? COPD is chronic emphysema and bronchitis, commonly experienced by heavy smokers. For patients with COPD-or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Vitamin A supplementation improved lung function. The dose was 1000 RE/d. Chronic nutrition depletion is characteristic of people with COPD. Ray Sahelian states that the following nutrients and herbs could be considered: “Creatine may help with muscle strength and endurance. Ginseng in very low dosages [could help] and Omega- 3 fatty acids can be anti-inflammatory agents. Glutamine is an amino acid [that also could be helpful]”. Ask your health care practitioner for advice on dosages. NAC, or n-acetyl cysteine is also cited by another website as a helpful nutrient. Death By Exercise We keep hearing about kids who die suddenly while in gym class. For the gym teachers out there, train your overweight and out of shape kids slowly, and teach them how to exercise for a lifetime by starting slowly and building up tolerance to exercise. cont’d on page 28
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continued from page 26 Don’t force a kid who is overweight and who eats junk food to run several laps. Teach him or her proper walking technique instead, and build up to running. Include lifestyle issues as well in class. For example, encourage healthy eating and help kids to substitute junk food with healthy fruits and vegetables instead. The same goes for overweight adults who are just starting out. Start slowly, and include a healthy diet along with your exercise, and build up gradually. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids, and take your antioxidants before and after the exercise. Worthy of note — there is another subcategory of sudden death among overexerted teenagers, and it includes those who are very well trained athletes who have no idea that they’re unfit. Some are prone to a genetic heart condition called HCM, and they have to refrain from strenuous exercise (presence of HCM can be determined in some cases by medical screening). Symptoms in the case of HCM may include “Lightheadness, fainting (or nearly fainting), fatigue, chest pain/ pressure, palpitations and shortness of breath or have survived a ‘sudden cardiac death.’” Other risk factors include: “If you have a family member
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who has died under the age of 50-55 suddenly of heart related issues. If you have been diagnosed with at heart murmur – some murmurs are of no significance but it is always a good idea to have them investigated. If you have been told you have IHSS or HCM or if you have a relative with HCM.” Although the conclusions are mixed with regards to HCM and the use of CoQ10, one study suggested there were “no important adverse effects have been reported from experiments using daily supplements of up to 200 mg Q10 for 6-12 months and 100 mg daily for up to 6 y”, meaning, supplementation with COQ10 could not hurt with regards to the illness, and in another, “All patients noted improvement in symptoms of fatigue and dyspnea with no side effects noted [with supplementation].” We should not just be concerned about over exertion if we are unfit, be we should be concerned about exercising too much as well. Women, for example may lose their monthly periods if they exercise too much, and although this may seem convenient, it can be very depleting to the body, and the hormonal disruption can increase secondary sex characteristics such as facial hair and increase arm and leg musculature. For men, the hormonal disruptions may not be as obvious, but relentless training can damage musculature and cause difficulty in the body’s
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ability to repair damage, maintain delicate body pH, and sustain normal organ processes such as proper kidney function. Signs of over exertion may be dizziness, fatigue that does not go away after a day or two of rest, headache, nausea, dry mouth, dehydration. If you are training hard for a big event, such as a marathon, rest a day or two between long workouts to aid in the body’s repair and replenishment. Be sure to maintain a healthy diet while you are training, which means a plant based diet, with plenty of fresh juices and antioxidant supplements and herbs. Please take your antioxidants before and after workouts. Gary Null lives in New York City. On weekdays he hosts The Gary Null Show, an on-air health forum where he and other leading experts discuss a wide range of matters from food production and alternative healing, including the politics of our healthcare system. Gary also does original investigative reporting series on a regular basis on such themes as Gulf War Syndrome: Killing Our Own, The Politics of AIDS, Poverty Inc., Autism: Made in the U.S.A. and over 100 original investigative reporting articles. For more than 35 years Gary has had weekly programs on Pacifica radio stations KPFK, WPFW and WBAI. He also had his own very popular weekly program on WABC as well as ABC national radio. Additionally Gary has had more than 25 separate special programs presented on various Public Television Stations.
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Addiction and Balance by Jefferson Harman
M
ark Twain once said, “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.” I’ve always liked that quote. It’s a great way of showing how attached to our addictions we really can be. We like to think we can stop at any time, that we have power over our addictions. And we do, but most of us are either choosing to ignore that, or we simply do not know how to go about shedding the very thing that often drives us. Addictions are seductive. They are the balm that soothes the pain of the sometimes savage world in which we live. But they can come at an enormous price. They interfere with the flow of our lives. They hold us back from doing our best work, affect our health, drain our bank account, challenge and shape our relationships, even affect how we flow with
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time. They keep us sedated, complacent, indebted and hypnotized. Or conversely they propel us through our day so intensely that we barely notice life as it flies alongside us, instead of allowing us to flow with life. Then again, addictions are also companions. We can’t go anywhere without them. They help us choose our friends, who we get along with, who we recognize in the world as comrades or enemies. If it weren’t for addictions, many of us would not recognize our path in life. Our addictions teach us our lessons one way or another. How we enter that classroom and learn from that teacher is what creates the quality of our lives. More than anything, addictions show us our awareness – where we are paying attention, and where we are not. I know I reference the work of Caroline Myss a lot, but I could not possibly write about
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addiction without doing so here. Dr. Myss teaches one of the most compelling ways of looking at addiction that I have ever heard1. I’m paraphrasing here, but it goes something like this – In the Hindu system of the Chakras, there are seven energy centers in the body. Myss likens the Chakras to data banks that store our energetic information. Each governs a particular aspect of our physical and spiritual or energetic anatomy. The fifth chakra is located in the throat area, between the heart and head. This is the center of the will in the body. It is where we speak our choices to the world. But the will rests between the head and heart, and when these two are not congruent, there is nothing left to manage our will. It is as if the heart and mind are the parents and the will, without their oversight, is a child without direction. When this happens, cont’d on next page
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continued from page 30 there is nothing within us to manage our choices, and we turn to addictions to compensate for our sense of powerlessness. Essentially, we medicate ourselves because we do not want to face what we feel we cannot control. That medication can take a variety of forms. The dictionary definition of addiction is the “compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal.”2 This is known as substance addiction. But in modern times it is common to consider behaviors such as gambling, compulsive eating or starving, spending, even sex as addictions as well. These are called process addictions3. What I believe connects these two categories are our thoughts and feelings. In the Winter 2010 issue of MARCI™ Magazine, I wrote an article about the power of affirmation.4 I describe how thoughts are physical entities, comprised of electromagnetics and a combination of chemicals. Each thought has its own design, as well as its own destination in the body. The transport for this is partly the nervous system, and partly the blood running in our veins. You can see the connection here. If we begin with Myss’ premise, we can go a step further to identify that the chemistry
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Photoshop Composite of Public Domain images from the Web by Jefferson Harman.
sent throughout the body by thought moves through the heart on its way to the rest of the body. So if the heart and mind are not in sync, the software is essentially compromised. Therefore, I would suggest that if we truly want to balance our lives, we must see addiction as something more than a habitual need for a substance or behavior. Many of us may find our addictions have a constant pushpull effect throughout our lives. Not being able to quit smoking is a perfect example, as the physical addiction to smoking is out of the body in a matter of days. That’s the part that flows through the bloodstream. But it’s the psychological addiction that tends to keep one smoking. The habits like a cigarette with coffee or after eating are the things that keep the addiction alive. We can’t stop eating or drinking, and we’ve connected our addiction
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to our everyday behaviors that we cannot live without. Once we see that the underlying problem is that our heart and mind are not in agreement, the work becomes working to balance these energies. As we do this, I believe the need for the external substance or habitual behavior can diminish. It’s a way of saying goodbye to what we have considered for so long a companion along the way. We can realize that the addiction was a boat across the river to our new awareness and we can leave it behind on the river’s shore. 1 http://www.myss.com, reference Energy Anatomy CD Seminar 2 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addiction 3 http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/addiction 4”Feed Your Head” by Jefferson Harman, MARCI Magazine, Winter Edition, December 2010
Copyright © 2011 by Jefferson Harman. All rights reserved. Printed by permission of the author. Visit Jefferson’s Web site at www.everydaysymbology.com.
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Addicted to Yes?
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by Beth Lowell
here’s a simple reason that airplane emergency procedures instruct passengers traveling with children to put on their own oxygen masks first before helping others. Although our instinct to help others first might kick in, it’s not a good strategy, in an emergency or in every day life. What’s in it for you? Saying “Yes” is great - if you say it to yourself first. But in work and family situations and often even in social situations, people find themselves agreeing to do things that don’t really make them happy. For instance: Stepping up for that extra project at work; Accepting that extra business appointment despite an already too full schedule; Agreeing to chaperone the class trip; Joining your crowd for a week-long vacation. We say yes for a lot of reasons. For instance: We fear getting fired from jobs if we don’t step up. We want to help others and we need the money. We want to be helpful and do good. We want people to like us. Sometimes we offer to do
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things for other people even if they haven’t asked us to, and even if we’re already busier than we want to be. Then we feel stressed when we can’t deliver on our offer, or resentful when we put someone else’s priority ahead of our own. Sometimes we’re so used to saycats are hampered by the fact ing “yes” that we don’t stop to think if it’s really a good de- that it’s just really hard to find cision for our own well being. people committed enough to attend to established cat colonies on a long term basis . Addicted to animals? People who own pets face People caring for animals face unique stresses. Take for stress during times of pet illinstance, those who are in- ness or end of life when job or volved with shelter animals, family pressures interfere with many of whom are put down their ability to spend the time for no other reason than there they’d like with their animal are too many surrenders and companions. It’s not like you can never not enough money or space say yes to others, but mainfor their care. Shelter workers can burn taining balance is important. out after watching perfectly Saying yes to too many things good dogs and cats go to their that you can’t manage even if you want to do them, simply deaths daily. Rescue volunteers who put, doesn’t make sense. The trickle down effect of foster animals in an attempt to find them their “forever Yes and Stress Saying yes to too many homes” may take on pets despite the fact that they are things leads to stress, which already over-extended time- if not addressed, according to non-profit group HelpGuide, wise and financially. Feral cat caregivers are in can lead to long term stress. an even more unique position Long term stress “can lead since their activities are often to serious health problems. discouraged by the public and Chronic stress disrupts nearly their efforts to care for cast off cont’d on next page
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Yes?
continued from page 32 every system in your body. It can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, contribute to infertility, and speed up the aging process. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to anxiety and depression.” Feeling tired? Depressed? Overwhelmed? Experiencing skin problems? Weight gain? All of these can be caused by stress. But sometimes the onset is so gradual that before we know it, stress has insinuated itself in our every day lives, so much so that it becomes our new “normal” and we accept it as such. But aside from health issues for which people may seek medical help that most often comes in the form of prescription drugs, which are not without their own negative effects on health, stress that people experience affects the animals who live with them. Animals are deeply attuned to our rhythms and feelings. While they may not be able understand what’s going on, they feel human stress and in turn experience it themselves. Stress manifests itself in pets the same way it does in humans and affects all of the body’s systems. Symptoms can range from physical issues to behavioral changes and damage to the spirit. Stress is a double edged
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sword - and neither side is good. It renders people unable to function at their best, affecting decision making processes, ability to enjoy life, and ultimately health, and it negatively affects the animals that caregivers so desperately want to help, not to mention others around them. What’s the Solution? Saying “no” to stress isn’t as simple as it sounds. Since established behavior patterns (like always saying “yes”) can effect stressful situations, they have to be identified and changed. For caregivers in particular, saying “no” when you’ve said “yes” all your life isn’t easy. Take ten ... or twenty and meditate. The first step to finding balance is getting yourself to a place where you can start making good decisions. You can’t think straight if you’re too busy to take the time to stop what you’re doing and analyze the situation. This requires you to take time for yourself. For those burning the candles at both ends, this is the biggest challenge, but also it’s the most important thing to do. For some, exercise, like running, or an activity like knitting becomes a meditative pursuit. Yoga is another excellent option. Others may want to sit in meditation, but aren’t quite sure what it is or how to do it. An excellent place to start is with Pamela Miles’ and Steve
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Gorn’s CD, “Meditate,” which leads the listener through he meditation process and is an excellent tool for newcomers and experienced meditators alike. Trickle down effect of meditation Further, taking 10 minutes each day and committing to it over a period of time starts to create a new habit, a positive one that will result in decreased stress, increased relaxation, and a stronger ability to deal with stress on all levels, including the decision making process. In a recently released survey called “The Reiki Report,” Elaine Grundy, author of Reiki, Pure and Simple, found that respondents who practiced Reiki, a spiritual practice with meditative qualities, experienced a cumulative effect over time. This means, the more practice over time, the better the result, including benefits in health and wellness on all levels. People who live with animals often report that their animals love to join them while they meditate and respond to both soothing music and the calmer “vibes” that their human caretakers are putting out. According to HelpGuide five goals to overcome stress are: learning to manage stress; learning to relax; investing in emotional health; finding joy; strengthening relationships. cont’d on next page
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continued from page 33 Meditation can help you achieve all of these goals directly, or indirectly. It helps you manage stress, relax and make an investment in your emotional health. It brings you to a place of equilibrium. This in turn can put you in a place to recognize what brings you joy and to make decisions that support that. In cases where you can’t say “no”, for instance, quitting your job, it can help you deal with work-related stress
and give you the breathing room to realize that other alternatives exist and give you the impetus to move toward them. Remember the oxygen mask story? Taking time for yourself in order to realize when it’s appropriate for you to say “yes” isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity, and speaking of strengthening relationships, just think how much more effective you can be in caring for your animal companions when you’re functioning optimally. Think how much more your animals will gain by being around a joyful,
peaceful leader. It’s a winwin for all when you become addicted to saying “Yes” to yourself first. Inspired by dogs, Beth Lowell established her pet sitting company, Good Girl, in 2002. Her services have grown to include Reiki for animals, flower essence consultations and canine massage. She is a regular contributor to the Reiki Digest and an accomplished artist whose paintings grace the homes of dog lovers across the United States.The petsitter with the holistic touch, visit on the Web at www.bethlowell. com or call (973) 960-6464.
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Accepting deposits now for Spring 2011
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A
Addiction and Environment
ddiction and Environment. On many levels it makes so much sense that addiction is, on many facets, a product of our environment. Now, I am not an expert on this topic. But having the human spirit to act as my guide, I look into faces of the young and ask them their thoughts on addiction. In my quest for the interview, not many teenagers wanted to speak to me about the topic. Or worse, the thought of being portrayed as somehow “snitching.” So I approached people I knew to be comfortable in their shoes, so to speak. Miles, is age 18. He lives in New Jersey, is a full-time college student, and works part-time (overnight shift) at his local hospital. To me he seems responsible and has character, good manners, and a smart individual. A perfect candidate for the interview. Ryan, is age 19, also a full-time
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student and lives in New Jersey. He lost five friends last year to drug overdose on heroin. To me, Ryan is global mind, introvert when he chooses. He was hesitant in answering my questions, but chose to. Thank you Ryan. PPN: In your environment (school, friends, acquaintances, neighborhood…), have you witnessed much addiction and substance abuse? Miles: Yes, mostly prescription pills. Percocet, Oxycontin, roxies (Roxicodone) and morphine patches. Users are anywhere from 10th grade to age 27. PPN: What do you think causes addiction? Miles: I think family problems, stress and curiosity. I see a lot of of injury. They exaggerate to doctors for prescription then it escalates. PPN: How are you affected by addiction? Miles: Seeing friends in addictive behaviors. Sometimes, can’t function without them. I have had close cont’d on next page
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friends I lost about two years ago. Ryan: It affected me negatively and positively. Negative, in that aspect of l lost people I care about. Positively, because I know now what to separate myself from — meaning drugs. PPN: How would you offer your difference to shift the situation? Miles: I would help them. People, who care about you always say, stay clear of bad influence. Taking drugs is bad influence, hooked on pills is bad influence, but they are my friends. I would be there for them 24/7. Constantly be there for them, even if they lie. Pretty much like being with someone who is going through withdrawals. Close friends can help if parents don’t have a clue. Ryan: There are more addictions obviously other than just drugs, but I would talk to the person, maybe be his/ her mentor if I could. Guiding them will give them a chance to succeed.
PPN: Do you think environment is a factor in addictive behavior? Environment, meaning social influence? Miles: I think it is a big factor. School doesn’t do quite as much as they should to address the epidemic. Ryan: Yes, especially home life. The dynamic of parent/child relationship. How we learn how to cope with the stress or problems. A lot of young people learn from behavior witnessed, whether at home or TV, music, advertisement. ••• Though I am no expert in this topic as I have set out before, not enough attention is being raised to support these young people in teaching them survival skills, or to empower them not to have this road as a choice. Thank you Miles and Ryan for sharing a bit of your light.
Visit us on the Web at www.projectplanet.us. Project Planet Network™- Together we can heal the planet. Our decisions today are tomorrow’s reality. Let’s create a world that heals our bodies, our oceans, our animals, and our Earth. Ana Marie Presti is a Reiki Master /Teacher, and a member of HMN Northwest Sussex County chapter. She works as a phlebotomist in Sussex County and is an independent consultant for Rutgers’ University Continuing Education. She is Chair of Project Planet Network™, an environmental group that focuses on mentoring and supporting schools in achieving sustainability by developing an environmental board.
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Creative Arts with Elizabeth Olney
Create, Create, Create Springtime is in the air and this is the ideal time of year to renew life and be rejuvenated. This is the time that we welcome nature to empower us with the profound changes that are taking place. Our sensory perception gives us the awareness of all the splendors of life, as nature recreates. We are freely given the natural inspiration to revive ourselves; change and be creative. To fully take advantage of this, we can take this opportunity to replace our habits with creative acts. Though creativity is never repetitive, the time allotted for creativity can be, by replacing time spent on tiring habits. Furthermore, creativeness fuels our ability to change, enlivens our attributes, stimulates change and growth thus, enlightens our goals. Many of you may have made New Year’s resolutions and found it frustrating to be true to yourself. There is good reason for this. A resolution suggests the resulting state of something. So, the word “resolution” doesn’t really make much sense as a prelude to a goal. Rather than make promises to one self, it makes more sense to strive for self-growth throughout the
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year. Besides, January 1st is in wintertime, which is a time of introspection and rediscovery. Actually, wintertime gave us the time to look within and contemplate our state of being and place in the world. With respect to our attunement with nature and time of year, wintertime readied us for change; that is the glory of spring. Spring is the ideal time to thrive with change. We are inherently creatures of habit. We exist as used to some things yet, as we grow and change, some habits become uncomfortable. In spring, the intuitive voice that emerged in winter amplifies. Listen. Meanwhile, uncomfortable habits become more bothersome, and block further change. The time spent on such habits, hinders precious time; minutes, even hours each day. Let’s deliberate our time with productive replacements. Since we know that a habit comes from a repetitive action, it only makes sense that when an alternate activity is chosen enough times; this is what we become used to. With willingness, anyone can make a new choice to re-direct a behavior to an amusing mode. Here are a few examples of beneficial habits: Ignite imaginative thought, such as drawing with a mix of materials. Begin a journal for affirming your attributes, desires and hopes. Create a photo-montage of your favorite images. Re-engage in an activity, such as strolling or dancing, to revitalize your spirit. Form a collage of your dream-road. If an old habit teases you, re-direct to your new activity. There are so many ways we can spend our time as creatively advantageous. Elizabeth Olney contribues articles about creativity and art for MARCITM magazine. You can see her mini bio, in the HMN directory: http://www.holisticmentorshipnetwork.com/ Directory.htm, under Creative Arts- Arts Therapy or Integrative Medicine.
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Aromatherapy
with Christina Santiago
Spring Cleaning for Your Soul Spring has sprung and the flowers are blooming. For many of us, the warmth of the sun has never felt better. As Mother Nature begins her time of renewal and people begin to switch out their winter wardrobe for the bright colors of spring, it’s also a great time to do some internal spring cleaning. Am I speaking about colon cleansing or detoxing programs? Yes and no. While some ofyou may be preparing for physical cleansing protocols, how many of us take this springtime to do an emotional detox? Clearing the energy of stagnant emotions is something that can be facilitated via the use of essential oils and aromatherapy. Think of it as spring cleaning for your soul. So, what are some of the elements of doing a soul spring cleaning? For starters, intention is important. Decide how you would like to live your life, focus on the positive, joy-filled experiences which make you feel lighter inside. Laugh more. Trust more. Believe in the power of focused intention. A great essential oil to support you in this process is Transformation™ from Young Living. This blend contains Sandalwood, Frankincense, and Idaho Balsam Fir to name a few. It is used to empower you to make sustainable changes in your belief system. By replacing negative beliefs with new thought patterns, you
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can begin to experience change in behaviors, attitudes, and emotions. Magnify Your Purpose™, can help stimulate creativity, focus and motivation. Call it the carpe diem oil which can propel you past procrastination to move you into a space of renewal. Another important part of soul spring cleaning is letting go of what no longer serves you. Enter Release™, a blend that helps your body be in a harmonious state of balance. It elicits a sense of emotional well-being to help let go of frustration, anger, and/or resentment. Such repressed negative emotions lie at the root of many health concerns. How can aromatherapy help you transform emotions? The amygdala, in the limbic region of the brain, is in charge of the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events. Certain memories can trigger fear responses in the body where the cells remember how our bodies felt in the moment of trauma. Through complex aromatic molecules, aromatherapy can help repair some of that damage. The smell of an oil blend like Peace and Calming™ can trigger a wave of tranquility in your body. Think of it as your central nervous system receiving a signal from your brain that says, “relax, all is fine here.” Speaking of relaxation...clearing your emotional state can have a profound impact on the peace you feel within your soul. It’s Springtime. Are you ready to bloom? Christina M. Santiago, CHBC, CCA is a holistic health educator, Certified Clinical Aromatherapist from the Institute of Spiritual Healing and Aromatherapy professional program, and keynote speaker with Sky Diva Oils, a division of Rising Above, LLC. Christina has been featured on CNBC On the Money and Cablevision For the Health of It, and is a contributing expert in Latina magazine and Garden State Woman magazine. For more information on Christina, please call 888.811.8883 or visit her Web sites: www. SkyDivaOils.com and www.RisingAboveLLC.com.
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Natural Health with Sarah Collins
How Beliefs Can Impact Your Health The mind-body connection is an important but commonly overlooked tenet of holism. Often, the role the mind plays is relegated to second place, after the body. And yet, the mind actually plays an integral part in the health of an individual. What we believe, consciously or unconsciously, impacts every aspect of our lives but particularly our health. What we hold in our mind – our beliefs – is expressed by the body. As Edgar Cayce (considered the father of holistic medicine) said innumerable times, “Spirit is the life, Mind is the builder, Physical is the result.” This means that what you hold in your mind will eventually manifest in the physical. Years ago, I read an article online about the fact that aspirin is not used universally in the treatment and prevention of heart attacks. In the US, aspirin is a staple; it is often the first course of action for heart attack victims. But
Look s for u
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in the UK, it is not given out in hospitals as routine care for heart attack patients. In the UK, the collective belief is that aspirin does little, if anything to remedy the effects of a heart attack. Quite a striking contrast to the US accepted belief regarding aspirin and heart attacks. This goes to show just how powerful a belief system can be. The placebo response in which patients improve because they believe the therapy is beneficial is widely known; beliefs are closely tied to our expectations. And yet, the tremendous power of the mind – of beliefs – in shaping one’s overall health is not deemed as important as the body. Perhaps the day will come when the focus is on the mind and belief structures of the patient, where the mind will be seen as a potential cause of physical problems and the body as an effect of the mind. But for now, it appears that collectively the medical establishment is still blinded by their beliefs. In order to change, the belief has to change. The holistic health tips presented are intended to raise one’s awareness of the many dimensions of healing. Sarah M. Collins specializes in energetic & vibrational therapy. Look for big changes and a new direction to her Web site www.WellnessCareToday. com coming this Spring. Her book, “The Little Guide to Big Changes” is available online at www. TheLittleGuideToBigChanges.com. It is the award winner (self-help) of the 2010 International Book Awards.
on
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Working with Spirit: Subtle Energy with Christina Lynn Whited
Practicing the Art of Receiving The art of receiving is a delicate art that can be rather elusive among those of us who dedicate our lives to assisting others on their journey. As energy workers, Light workers, and therapists, giving is part and parcel of who we are – our reason for being. As a result, the art of receiving is sometimes less well developed among us than it could be. We are the ones who are willing to step forward and lend a hand, and it is often hard to clasp a hand that is extended to us — and harder still to ask for assistance. Many of us go through times of need, occasions such as the passing of a loved one, the need to provide constant care for an ailing family member, or the loss of a home or business through fire or flood. Any number of challenging situations can crop up in the midst of our own journey. We may not realize that we have a need during one of those times, because we are so busy simply putting one foot in front of another, being in charge and managing all the details. Yet when someone comes to the door with a casserole, we realize that we are so grateful for one less meal to plan. At the same time we often feel guilty in accepting this act of kindness. It’s outside of our norm. We may be able to graciously accept a
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casserole, but what if this friend wanted to drop off $50? Would our feelings be the same or would we refuse the gift? Would we begin to think of all they were giving up by passing that sum along to us? Or would we recognize that the $50 simply represents an exchange of energy, a blessing, from one friend to another? Would you not do the same if the tables were turned, or more? We put people off so casually that we don’t even know that we are doing it. We’re not even aware of our words. Receiving in joy and gratitude honors the giver. A true gift has no strings attached, so give it away again if you wish, but honor the giver by accepting the gift without hesitancy, without guilt. Allow those who care about you to grace you with an exchange of energy – with a gift. Practice the art of receiving whenever the opportunity arrives. And every now and then ask for something you truly need. Just say “Yes” to the flow of good into your life. Practice the art of receiving in joy. Rev. Christina Lynn Whited has developed Soul Path Clearance and created Unconscious Scripts Release as a means of empowerment for her clients. She is head of the Circle of Intention School of Intuitive Sciences in High Bridge, New Jersey, and is available for private consultations. Over the course of the last twenty years Whited has been featured in People magazine, on CNN and Geraldo, and in the New York Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and many other papers. She has spoken on radio programs across the country, talked to many groups both regionally and nationally, and has been featured in spiritual books. Her work has also been lauded by such notables as Dr. Wayne Dyer and Dr. Joe Vitale. She can be found at www. CircleOfIntention.com.
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Eat Right… Feel Right with Judith Gisser
Is Possible for Food to be Addicting? Can you be addicted to food? Think “Addict” and an alcoholic, drug abuser or chain smoker may come to mind. Specific foods (coffee, chocolate, ice cream) or class of foods (e.g. refined carbs, sugars, gluten) – even if healthy, can provoke as strong a physical or psychological compulsion . Breaking addictive patterns in eating can be just as difficult as getting off drugs. The positive change in your life can be just as dramatic when you do. Are you a Food Addict? Are there foods or beverages you “must” consume every day to be happy? Are you constantly thinking about food? Will you move heaven and earth to get your caffeine, ice cream or bread with cheese? Does fasting or even sleeping late result in a splitting headache? Do you have a very short fuse when you haven’t had your daily food /beverage fix? How do you tell if food addictions could be the source of weight issues, headaches, digestive complaints, fatigue, muscle pain, irritability, depression or brain fog? 1. Keep a food diary for 3-4 days and see what foods show up every day. A food such as wheat can be in bagels, baked goods, pasta, sauces, meatloaf, breaded foods, MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, candy and even vitamins. 2. Identify which foods you eat everyday that you would absolutely “can’t” live without.
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3. Pick 1-2 foods and commit to not having them for 2 weeks. This is not easy, You may experience “withdrawal” symptoms not dissimilar to an addict going through detox. After the 4th-7th day you get your reward. 4. Notice what changes. If you get a whopping headache and it disappears on the fifth day (common with caffeine containing foods) or your family comments that they like that you’re not yelling all the time, or any other long term “symptom” suddenly disappears, you likely have pinpointed a “food reactivity” which compels you to keep eating it to not feel the intensity of symptoms. Get Help Enlist family and friends to keep your addictive foods out of sight. In the beginning, getting these out of your environment is critical. Identify sources of stress and what worked in the past to lessen its effects. Stress reduction practices may include exercise, slow and deep breathing, meditation, reading, a bubble bath in Epsom salts with Lavender oil, self or professional massage or your absolute stress buster. Any of these can reduce the biochemical chain reaction that increases your need for the food(s) to which you are addicted. Nutritional supplements and herbs are often helpful in correcting brain chemical imbalances that drive addiction. Get help from a professional who will objectively assess your needs. Judith Gisser, MS, CNS. CWC, is a Board Certified Nutrition Specialist and Certified Wellness Coach. Judith’s clients with food addiction get the results they seek by tackling addictions head on. Judith identifies your unique constitution and metabolism and teaches you to eat right, feel right and use simple tools to achieve sustained energy, resilience and peace. Appropriate supplementation is recommended. A member of the American College of Nutrition, Judith is also an herbalist, author, corporate wellness trainer, key-note speaker and developer of a 30 day Detox with a Difference program available in person, via teleconference and on CDs. www.judithgisser.com.
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Conscious Parenting
Age 13 & Under with Beth Haessig
Addiction-Proofing Your Child The best way to prevent addictive tendencies in our children is to clear away our own addictions so that we develop the skills that those addictions are keeping us from practicing. As we live these skills, we teach our children the way to live addiction-free. (I’m defining addiction very loosely, rather than clinically — any attachment to a particular activity which serves to keep us from our present-moment feelings.) Addictive behaviors are reactive, compulsive, habitual actions whose goal is to help us block out that which is uncomfortable. As we hold the difficult feelings and spaces in our lives, we are addictionproofing our children. When we meet our frustrations with compassion rather than self-hatred, we are addiction-proofing our children. Often it’s the barely tolerable, often unconscious self-hatred we feel, that drives us toward self-soothing practices. We then become accustomed to these practices or reactive actions, and with some behaviors, physiologically addicted to the anesthesia they provide. Step One: Begin by bringing more
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consciousness to behaviors and routines which allow you to avoid feeling emotions. What if you stopped those routines just for today, in order to see what begins to bubble up? Step Two: Stop the behavior the next time the urge comes up today. Notice what begins to happen inside you. Fear? Obsessive thinking? Panic? If the feelings get too big for you to handle—will you get help around it? Can you explore the feelings with a friend rather than make the feelings go away? Just by engaging in steps one and two, you will gain information about what you need to practice. Can you be honest and decide—“no, I’m not going to give up this particular behavior because I don’t want to live without it.” Just know that’s how big the feelings feel, behind the behavior which keeps you from knowing them. Are we able to feel all the emotions that come up in our bodies—without numbing out, acting out, or spacing out? We can addiction-proof our children to the extent that we are able to live addictionfree ourselves. Give it a try. Beth L. Haessig, PsyD, is a licensed psychologist and a Core Energetics practitioner (body-centered psychotherapy). As a holistic psychologist, she works experientially through movement, breath, and mindfulness, to help children and families cope with the 21st century challenges we face in our mind/body/behavior. For more information, see www.BethHaessig. com or sign up for her newsletter at BethLH@ optonline.net.
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Conscious Parenting Age 13 - 19
Jordan Brown
Our Greatest Fears are Growing Up Too Once upon a time our greatest fear as parents was whether our children would fail a class or get into a fist-fight at school. We worried about them using inappropriate language and representing themselves so we as parents, didn’t look bad. Those are no longer our greatest fears. Now, we fear our children will be a statistic: the average age for a teen experimenting with drugs is 14 years old Adolescence is a time for trying new things. Teenagers use drugs for many reasons, including curiosity, because it feels good, it may reduce stress, to feel grown up or more commonly, to fit in. It is difficult to know which teens will experiment and stop and which will develop serious problems. Statistically, we know teenagers at risk for developing serious alcohol and drug problems include those: • with a family history of substance abuse; • who are depressed; • who have low self-esteem; • who feel like they don’t fit in or are out of the mainstream. As parents, the key is closer supervision. Know where your child is and what they are doing. Talk about the impact of violating boundaries since this life lesson will serve your child throughout their lives. Talk to your child. Studies confirm involved parents, those who ask questions, actually help their children make better choices. If you fear asking
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the tough questions, you will have tough consequences. Communicate and maintain a relationship with your child, even when you are frustrated and ready to quit. They need YOU more than you can imagine. With therapy, teens look at issues of motivation, build skills to resist drug use, replace drug-using activities with constructive and rewarding behaviors sand improve problem-solving skills. Behavioral therapy also helps interpersonal relationships and the teen’s ability to function in the home and in life. Don’t give up. They are so worth it. Jordan Brown is a Psychotherapist, Empowerment Coach and owner of Full Circle Counseling in Lincoln Park, NJ. Jordan runs an In-Home Intensive Therapy Program for families in crisis throughout Passaic and Essex counties. Jordan is the founder/ facilitator of a Women’s Empowerment group on meetup.com and has also started www.JordanBrownInspires.com and www.TheSuccessCircles.com. Jordan can be reached at Jordan@fullcirclecounseling.net
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Spirituality
with Catherine Perry
Energy and Vibration: Forging New Frontiers in Healing Addictions Can perceiving addictions as energy be key to achieving healing and lasting change? You bet. Addiction, be it to drugs, sex, alcohol, chaos, food, abuse, or co-dependency, is no different than any other problem when we view it from the perspective of energy. There is more to destructive attachments than meets the eye—much more than western medicine recognizes. Rooting out the cause of addiction is nothing more than understanding the energetic cause of the emotions, thoughts, and neurological dynamics that perpetuate the addictive patterns. Comprehending the whole human as energy, or quantum vibrational material, elucidates essential components that affect people in a multidimensional way. Problematic energy (i.e. stress, fear, addiction, etc.) is transmuted and released when one raises the vibrational frequency of that energy. I find it nothing short of miraculous to witness the transformations in people after applying energy healing to shift, and hence, remove the source of the problems. I am confident that the energy paradigm in healing addictions is weaving its way into modern recovery. This perception of addictions as energy is not yet accepted by the mainstream medical community; however, my experience shows me that
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more and more people are empowering themselves, owning their choices to use complementary and alternative modalities for healing. Despite the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) reports of dramatic increases in usage of energy medicine and other alternative forms of healthcare, conventional medicine lags behind the general public. Perhaps the public—you and I—are the ones who are truly forging new frontiers in how healthcare and healing play out in the very near future. Are we on the leading edge of change? Are we insisting that the mainstream medical system incorporate energy healing paradigms into its formal curricula? Will we wait for a healthcare-boss to give us permission to choose other-than-mainstream paths to healing? It is time for greater global acceptance of the vibrational healing paradigm for the creation of harmony in mind/body/spirit, and, yes, freedom from addictions. At the quantum level, our attachments, addictions, and our wellness are based in those beautiful subatomic waves of pure potential. On this level, all possibilities exist, and all healing is readily available. It is time for mainstream medicine to, quite literally, take the quantum leap and boldly go where they are meant to be. In the meantime, humanity will continue to press forward into the new dimension of self-empowerment. Remember: Both problem and solution are created on the level of energy. This is the new frontier in healing addictions. Dr. Catherine P. Perry, M.Ed, DD is a psychotherapist-turned-spiritual healer, intuitive, and author of Courageous Wake. She is an expert in energy medicine, intuition, human capacities, and self-healing. She owns a healing practice in Paramus, NJ and provides individual sessions. For more information, visit www.catherinepperry. net or call 888-330-7248.
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Personal Development Coaching with Hueina Su
Is Drama What You are Addicted to? Have you noticed that some people’s lives seem full of dramas? These people seem to have one thing after another happening to them, and they always seem to be in crisis mode. They are prone to illnesses, accidents or other setbacks, which often prevent them from being able to achieve their goals. They often say “Why does this always happen to me?” or “Just my luck” or “Story of my life.” Sounds familiar? These people are addicted to drama. I bet you know someone like this. Maybe you even live with someone like this, or recognize this in yourself. Just like addictions to alcohol, drugs, cigarettes or other things, an addiction to drama is a compulsion that you feel like you cannot control. Compared to other addictions, this one is often harder to detect without someone else’s objective feedback. You might feel that all the negative experiences happen to you, and you have no control or choice in those situations. That’s very common for people addicted to drama. Sometimes we are blind to our own pattern, but a professional life coach or therapist can spot it easily. One of my clients used to have one drama after another. She is one of the kindest persons I know, but,
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she kept having problems at work, abusive relationships, money got stolen, new car caught on fire while driving, etc. The truth finally came out during coaching session when she said that every time something good happens to her, she’d immediately imagine how painful it is to lose it. I told her how our reality is a reflection of our thoughts and beliefs. Since she firmly believes that every time something good happens to her, she will soon lose it, her reality matches that belief. So, how do you overcome a drama addiction? First step is to recognize your pattern of drama and the “payoff” you are getting from it. Yes, there is always a payoff. The most common one is that you get to blame your problems on someone or something, so you don’t need to be responsible. The pitfall is that you will remain a victim who has no power to change your own life. Once you figure out your pattern and payoff, you can then work on releasing the underlying beliefs and change your behavior. If you can’t figure it out, a professional life coach or therapist can help. Hueina Su, MS, BSN, CEC, best-selling author of “Intensive Care for the Nurturer’s Soul: 7 Keys to Nurture Yourself While Caring for Others,” is an internationally recognized expert helping people find the missing peace and balance in their stressful lives. She is on a mission to bring the message of Intensive Self-Care to one million women nurturers worldwide. This article is adapted from her book. Visit www.IntensiveSelfCareBook.com for FREE sample book chapters, bonus gifts, stress relief video e-course, and many resources.
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Bernese Mountain Dogs are most likely to develop kidney disease, all dogs are susceptible. I have personally seen a dog that developed encephalitis (swelling of the brain) from with Dee Broton Lyme disease. The dog never did recover. Some dogs’ personalities and behaviors may change as a result of joint inflammation causing pain and the rare case of neurological damage. If you notice your dog acting unusually aggressive or out of character you should consider having a blood test done by your vet, but keep in mind that a blood test is not always accurate. The spirochetes have an amazing ability to change their physical Lyme disease has reached pandemic proporform and travel more easily through collagen tions. It is one of the most common tick-transtissue, therefore not always detectable in a mitted diseases in the world. I hear the same blood test. complaints here Our Golden in Northwest Retriever, New Jersey Brandan, was that people are diagnosed continuously with Lyme picking ticks disease many off of their dogs years ago. nearly year We had made round. While the conscious the disease is decision not to thought to only vaccinate him be spread by as the vaccine ticks, research is by no means has found live 100% effective. spirochetes in At the same mosquitoes, time I didn’t mites, fleas, want to use and biting flies Frontline since and transmisit is a toxic pession through ticide, so like these other Photo courtesy of Dee Broton many of you I insects has been was left with Brandan, the Golden Retriever, was diagnosed with Lyme disease but documented. essential oils have helped to keep him safe from any new bugs and ticks. few options Symptoms to protect my typically indogs from this growing disease. clude lameness due to joint inflammation, I was introduced to Young Living Essential fatigue, lack of appetite, and depression. Oils and discovered Purification Essential Unlike humans, dogs do not develop the red Oil blend which includes Citronella, Lem“bull’s-eye” as a sign of a tick bite. In severe ongrass, Rosemary, Melaleuca, and Myrtle. cases, damage to the kidneys, heart, and nervous system have been documented. While cont’d on next page Golden retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, and
The Whole Pet
Lyme Disease – Protect Your Pooch
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Photo courtesy of Dee Broton
Using essential oils keep bugs and ticks off Brandan, above, and other family members too, when hiking in the woods. There’s also an added bonus that the oils make a dog smell great too.
No more wet dog smell.
Whole pet
continued from page 48 Just like commercial citronella candles, this blend works to deter bugs and also purifies an open wound, tick bite, and the air that we breathe. I now rely on my own personal essential oil blend which includes Purification to keep my dogs and my family tick-free. We like to hike and go deep into the forest through tall grass and under thick coverings of trees. We always return without any ticks attached. We also scare away mosquitoes, fleas, gnats, flies, and other pesky insects. There is a bonus too, the dogs smell great.
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Dee Broton trains dogs using positive reinforcement training to modify unwanted behaviors. Shes says: “I step outside the traditional training box and use Young Living Essential Oils, flower essences, diet and exercise to assist in my behavior modification. My philosophy is to heal the dog’s mind, body and spirit, not just to rid the dog of unacceptable behaviors and to strengthen the bond with their families creating harmony in the pack.” She is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT); a mentor trainer for Animal Behavior College, Inc.; Pet CPR and First Aid Certified and a Certified Raindrop Practitioner.
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Money Coaching with Tom Selkow
Hope Spring Brings Bounce to Economy Most will agree in the Mid Atlantic States and for that matter elsewhere in the US and world, the onset of spring is a welcome thought. It has been a full winter with many storms and challenges. Let us hope that the coming spring is equally as vibrant in springiness as the waning winter has been in winteriness. Spring, ah yes, that time of budding plants, blooming trees, warming weather and nurturing rain showers. The sense of change and newness abounds as nature springs back to life and yang energy ascends past center advancing toward its zenith. I propose that this energy of vitality be harnessed in our financial thinking. Steeping in this splendor of spring, consider the vocabulary and grammar that surrounds finances, money and work. Is it present tense and optimistic? Are phrases such as “I have”, “I am”, and “this is” contained in speech and thought habitually, or do “need to”, “should have”, “want to” and similar phrases show up more frequently. Pausing to consider what is really happening when thinking about past issues or future events that have yet to materialize is worth the effort.
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Imagine talking on the phone, watching TV and having the radio playing simultaneously while trying to listen to a detailed explanation. The likelihood of missing vital pieces of the explanation’s content is very high. Think of present moment awareness as that explanation, and view past and future thinking as the TV, radio and phone distractions. How much of the intuition and guidance available in this present moment awareness is missed because the balance of one’s attention is elsewhere? Try spending the next quarter being keenly aware of the verb tenses and grammar used when talking or thinking about financial, work or personal matters. Most will find that a surprising amount of the internal and external dialog times each day live in these two places of distraction and futility. When future or past tense is noticed, gently redirect and rephrase into present tense phraseology. If you are moved to do so write in about your experiences and challenges related to this exercise. For more information about transforming yourself using sound, tuning forks and personal awareness tools surprisingly fast and in a safe and comfortable way contact me, Tom Selkow by email at tselkow@zeropointtrans.com or phone at 862-268-4443. Tom Selkow, Consciousness Technology Practitioner, is the owner of Zero Point Transformation, LLC, in Sparta, NJ. He is certified as a Matrix Energetics Master Practitioner, Money Coach and has a wide range of tools available to help his clients transform their relationship to abundance, life, career, relationships and more.
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Dear Jefferson, In my dream I’m reading a brown, hardcover book by Nathaniel Hawthorne. (I should tell you the only book of his that I have read is The Scarlet Letter and I don’t think that it applies to this dream at all.) As I read, I see the story come alive in the pages. I see sculptures of grayish-white stone lions on top of a building in Europe. Their manes were very pronounced and the lions moved. I have a big smile as I’m reading; I’m loving it. But I think that the book is too long and takes too long to read. Then I thought, “who cares how long it takes? I’m enjoying it” and decide to read the whole thing. A real lamb appears among the lions, needing healing. I know that two of the lions have longed to evolve into humans. They decide to do so to find a healer for the lamb. I look up from my reading and I’m so touched by the story I want to tell it to my friends. I call them all together in a room. It seems we’re together to learn about travel. I think we might be in Italy at this point. I’m searching the book for the story, but the book is now a travel book with maps, maybe two feet high. Finally I stopped searching and said, “Sorry, I can’t find the page I need.” I’m very confident, not anxious. Someone in the room says, “It’s OK.” I told them I’d find the page, make it and bring everyone back.
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That’s the dream. I should tell you I’m of Italian descent and I travel to Italy often. I’ve never contacted my family there, though. CC, Sacramento, CA Dear CC, Your dream is very impressive. Simply put, your dream is about your desire to learn about history through travel, healing your soul through the experience, with the assistance of your ancestors along the way. Your awareness shows that your personal history is tied to both early America and to Europe, as you said in your letter, to Italy. Dreams can include elements that are scripted in cellular memory, and therefore they can bring in symbols such as books that you have not personally read. For instance, if someone in your lineage, let’s say a grandparent, has read a book, its words are subconsciously scripted in your amorphous DNA, where scientists and metaphysicists now believe our evolution is written. I believe it’s where our ancestry is scripted in our cell tissue. In 1840, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a collection of short stories entitled “The Whole History of Grandfather’s Chair.” The book, written for children and young adults, is an easy reading history of the early days in America, tracing all the way back to the Puritans. The story is told through the memories of a grandfather seated in an old oaken chair,
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teaching his grandchildren about the chair’s travels over two centuries. From the nation’s beginnings as a colony, the chair moves through events like the Boston Tea Party, the Salem Witch Trials and the French and Indian War. This passage describes the chair referred to in the title, [“Now, the chair in which Grandfather sat was made of oak, which had grown dark with age, but had been rubbed and polished till it shone as bright as mahogany... On the very tip-top of the chair, over the head of Grandfather himself, was a likeness of a lion’s head, which had such a savage grin that you would almost expect to hear it growl and snarl.”] The book is divided into three sections, and Part 3, Chapter 11 is titled “Grandfather’s Dream.” The dream is really a fable the grandfather tells, but within that fable, the lion speaks. In the ensuing conversation, the lion tells the man the parts of the last 200 years he has omitted. It is a wonderfully imaginative tale. The way you describe the book in your dream correlates with Hawthorne’s chair, brown and hard. The lions you describe are more like the ones you would see in front of a library. This is a correlation between the chair and the library, or books. The history is scripted within each. The chair is made of wood, the book is made of paper, which comes from wood. You could even say the history of the paper is that it comes from wood.
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Also, note that the lion on the chair and the lions in your dream are all “on top.” This is a position of authority, lending authentication to the metaphor of a history book. The pronounced manes are also an indication of this. Additionally, the lions are on top of a building in Europe – they are your Italian ancestors watching over you. The lions in both the story and your dream are the witnesses to history, reporting it as if these objects have come to life. I suspect the lamb is you. The lions who wish to become human are your grandparents wanting to come back to the physical world to assist you on your journey. This is an indication that whatever trials you have had up till now, your family supports you from the beyond. I believe that whatever your wounds are in this lifetime, there are similar instances throughout your family history. Your journey to Italy most likely includes some soul searching, and you are not alone along the way. You have the full support of your Italian ancestors. A trip through your family’s past holds healing information for you. You are enjoying the book but it takes too long to read, showing how far back this story reaches. Your willingness to keep reading despite the length of the book, along with your enjoyment, show you are willing to work on yourself through the exploration of your lineage. My intuition is that you are someone who would benefit greatly from researching your ancestry.
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Night Sailing
ents’ homeland will connect you with your ancestry in a way that will heal not only you, but will extend that healing to others.
Wanting to tell your friends is a continuation of the same energy as the grandfather teaching the children in Hawthorne’s story. It shows your willingness to continue the tradition of recounting history. The book becomes a travel book with maps because the next phase of this story has yet to be written, it is your journey in this lifetime. It is two feet high because your travels will take you far and wide, so the book becomes larger to accommodate the breadth of the maps.
Jefferson Harman reads the symbols present in your dreams & everyday life. By interpreting this invisible language, he identifies your blocks & challenges & ways to overcome them. He offers workshops & private readings in Lucid Dreaming & Overcoming Your Phobias. Jefferson is a recurring guest on “Life Unedited” with John Aberle, on WCHE Radio 1520 AM, in the Philadelphia area (listen live at wche1520.com). He is developing a podcast, “Everyday Symbology”, with psychic medium & certified hypno-therapist Patti Lehman discussing all things metaphysical. Jefferson is a Board Member of HMN & a practitioner at Peaceful Paths in Butler, NJ and Full Circle Counseling in Lincoln Park, NJ. www.everydaysymbology. com, (973)839-9317.
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You and your friends being together to learn about travel is a metaphor for your journey through this lifetime. You cannot find the page because this portion of the story belongs to you and has yet to be fully written. So you say you will “make it and bring everyone back.” This last piece is the best; it shows your travels to your grandpar-
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Copyright © 2011 by Jefferson Harman. All rights reserved. Printed by permission of the author. Image Credit – “Night Sailing” Copyright © 2011 by Jefferson Harman. Used by permission.
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scientious exemption in New Jersey, there are “powers that be” who staunchly oppose this bill (A2450) and who have successfully stoneWeighing in on walled and obstructed the democratic process Vaccination Choice to prohibit its passage. For any other bill the with Maureen Drummond legislature entertains, 34 bi-partisan legislative sponsors and 12,000 signatures in support of the bill would almost guarantee its success. Not in the case of A2450. These are rough waters to be swimming in Adding insult to injury, an Assembly Conas the controversy over compulsory vaccinacurrent Resolution ACR157 calls for tighter tion continues to swell. For the third time in restrictions on the current religious exemption. over a decade, the media has muddied the While the religious exemption remains the waters with muck about British Gastroenteronly viable opt-out of vaccination in the state ologist, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, claiming fraud. of NJ, the passage of this resolution would There is a concerted effort to hype small dismean compromised access to this exemption ease outbreaks and point blame at unvaccinat- with no other option but to accept the state’s ed children even though the outbreaks occur vaccination schedule regardless of the number in vaccinated populations. Pediatric Infectious of vaccines it mandates. Currently, children Disease specialist and vaccine developer, Dr. between 0-5 years are required to receive 44 Paul Offit, asserts in his latest book that “anti- doses of 13 vaccines as a condition for entry to vaccine” proponents will be the opus of new daycare, pre-school and elementary school. epidemics. Just released, Vaccine Epidemic, The New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination (Habakus and Holland) aptly addresses the Choice is engaged in campaigns to swarm in human right to bodily preservation in all medi- on key government officials in NJ to oppose cal interventions, over and above public policy. ACR157 and demand that A2450 be given the Those of us wanting to tackle the really attention it deserves without a direct attempt tough questions behind mandating medical to obstruct its passage. Please join the efforts. procedures that carry inherent risks of harm cannot get a platform in which to challenge Maureen Drummond, Co-founder/Co-director, or engage the mainstream mentality. Unfor- New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice is a longtunately, an entire groundswell of parents is time activist for vaccination choice. She considers the emerging with confusion over the he-said/ full disclosure of vaccine ingredients and side affects to she-said sound bites, still unable to alleviate be tantamount to informed consent and has provided their concerns of which poses a greater risk of free educational lectures and materials to thousands harm—vaccinating or not vaccinating? of people over the last two decades. She is a founding Add to the pot, state vaccination mandates member of the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination that do not allow individuals to opt out for Choice and currently co-directs the organization’s non-acceptance of risk. This underscores the initiatives throughout the state. Check out NJCVC’s need for legislation to preserve the individWeb site at www.njvaccinationchoice.org and Vaccine ual’s right to self. Despite the valiant efforts Epidemic at www.vaccineepidemic.com. E-mail quesof volunteer parents to forward a bill for contions and comments to md1stnoharm@aol.com.
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How Healthcare Reform Will Work Best with Susannah Pitman Over a year ago, I began writing this column about health care reform and how it may impact complementary and alternative medicine as well as health care. Since then, major things have happened in health care, including a significant health care bill being signed by President Obama and the inclusion of covering the services of all licensed practitioners. The latter is most significant to people who practice or receive CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) therapies, since currently many insurance companies have very limited coverage of these services. These changes will not go into effect until 2013. Between now and then, very little new information will become available to write about. Because of this, I have decided to put this column to rest until then. However, I will take this opportunity to speak a little about my experience writing this column. I have read sections of the health care reform bill, read several hundred articles, listened and read the transcripts of many speeches, and listened to many political analysts on television and radio. It is my sincere belief that the best information one can get on health care reform comes from the following Web sites, all of which I have cited in the past: 1. Politifact.org – This is a Pulitzer Prize wining, non-partisan Web site dedicated to analyzing what is said or written about regarding politics. The people behind this Web
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site go to great lengths to find the truth and they present their findings in a clear, entertaining way. 2. Govtrack.us – This Web site helps the public research and track what is happening in Congress in the most transparent way possible. 3. Opencongress.org – This Web site is practically the same as Govtrack.us. The reason I use both cites is to double check my research. In speaking about health care reform, the feedback I often hear from people is that they are confused about what is happening. I have also had discussions with people about misinformation they believed to be true (Sarah Palin’s famous “death panels” and 3.8% sales tax on real estate transactions to name a few untruths), and after discussing the facts, their opinions on health care reform shift. It is my belief that many, if not the majority, of people make decisions on who they vote for based on misinformation from biased news sources, which in turn may lead to a group of representatives running our country that do not truly reflect the feelings and beliefs of people. Rather than cluttering the mind with misinformation, I believe it is best to get your information from the sources I have listed above. See you in 2013. Susannah Pitman, MS, LAc is an acupuncturist with a private practice in Boonton, NJ. She completed her Masters degree in New York City and has traveled to China and Japan to further her studies. She is a co-founder and Secretary of Changing Health, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to facilitating and maintaining affordable acupuncture clinics for people in need. To learn more about Susannah’s practice, visit www.balanceacupuncturecenter.com or call (973) 257-8924.
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The Planet Neptune: Fantasy vs. Reality by Sheri Horn Hasan, Karmic Evolution Astrology
“Astrology is a language. If you outside world, and experience understand this language, the sky what’s known as a “cathartic” speaks to you.” —Dane Rudhyar moment. This is Neptune at its grande takes her face est. The planet of imagination, gently in his hands, fantasy, intuition, spirituallooks deeply into ity, empathy, sensitivity and her eyes, draws her escapism. Neptune is illusocloser to him, and kisses her ry, ephemeral, incorporeal, it with deep and passionate de- shows us a side of “life” that is termination. And in that kiss, not earthbound, not based on they become one—the lov- empirical evidence, not “provers—in a space and time and able”—about as far away as dimension that transcends re- you can get from a scientific ality, obscures obstacles, and or mathematical hypothesis or suspends all doubt. equation. The audience watches and And yet, Einstein was a Pimelts into the couple, becom- sces. Renowned as a “space ing one with them, transcend- cadet” or “absent-minded ing the physical barriers be- professor,” it’s said that Eintween the movie theater, its stein was “slow” in his early seats and the screen. These years. But clearly his brain physical impediments no lon- worked in a different fashger exist; in essence, those ion from most. His ability to in the audience unite with “transcend” the boundaries that couple, forget their “real of time and space and intuit world” troubles, suspend their his now famous theory of reldisbelief that there even is an ativity exemplifies an exalted
H
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use of his Neptune. The Neptunian Archetype The planet Neptune is the ruler of the sign Pisces, which spans from February 18 to March 19. Anyone born with strong Neptunian influences in his or her natal chart — including a Pisces Sun, Moon, Ascendant (also known as the Rising Sign), or a Neptune placed in prominent aspect to planets or other important points in the chart, carries within them the Neptunian archetype and the potential to intuit on a nonverbal level. Neptune is an outer planet and more of a generational influence than planets such as Venus or Mars, which are known as “personal” planets. Neptune takes 144 years to complete a 360 degree revolution around the zodiacal chart. cont’d on next page
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Neptune
continued from page 58 Since the average life span is not yet that long, people born within the fourteen years of Neptune’s transit through a particular sign carry within them the “signature” of a Neptune in Aries, a Neptune in Taurus, and so forth. The personal planets — Mercury, Venus and Mars — move faster than the outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, and reveal more about an individual’s personal traits than about his or her generational characteristics. Exactly how these characteristics manifest depends on Neptune’s house location, and its aspects to other planets and important points in one’s individual chart. Neptune and Addiction How does Neptune factor into addictions? Neptune is a tricky planet at best, mostly because its “mission” is to break down barriers, and allow watery, intuitive, spiritual emotions to flow effortlessly. When a Neptunian person feels something he or she often does not realize that another person may not feel the same. In short, he or she simply does not see any difference between themselves and another on an emotional level. “The essence of Neptune is the desire to go beyond the sense of being a separate self and to merge with something
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greater,” explains Howard Sasportas in his wonderful book “The Gods of Change.” “Neptune undermines boundaries, whether those between ourselves and others, or those between our ego and unconscious…” Grasping the concept of the essential unity of all life is not easy. Neptune symbolizes the urge to dissolve a rigid sense of individuality and separateness in order to rediscover and reconnect to the underlying unity of all life,” according to Sasportas. Imagine you are an as-yet unborn fetus floating in your mother’s womb: it’s peaceful, and quiet, and you possess the intuitive, innate knowledge that all of your needs will be unconditionally and automatically met. You need take no responsibility to care for yourself. Aaaaah, this is Neptune, the planet of imagination, fantasy, intuition, spirituality, empathy, sensitivity, and escapism. But danger exists if we try to recreate this womb-like existence out in the concrete, tangible, empirical, hard cold reality of the world. “Neptune’s yearning to return to a state of primal bliss can also lead to escapism, suicidal urges, and the temptation to lose the self in drugs, alcohol, or anything or anyone that comes along,” Sasportas writes.
underlings. — William Shakespeare
Healthy ways to replicate a return to the “source”— or the uroboric, peaceful calm of the womb— involve soothing one’s soul through music, art, dance, meditation, communing with nature, practicing faith-based rituals/traditions, and just about anything that allows one to “connect” to a greater “whole,” and to experience a sense of unity or “oneness” with everyone and everything. When one cannot find such outlets, one may turn to the more self-destructive pastimes of alcohol, drugs, food, sex, and—yes —even sleep. Those who retreat from the rigors and hardship of life seek to return to the “source” as a means of escape. And for some, any means will do. It’s only when one realizes that “salvation” and “redemption” lie not in the attempted return to that blissful, idealized womb-like state of “source”— be it drug, alcohol or sleep induced— that one may begin to face the world’s harsher realities and step up to the plate to responsibly take care of themselves. Neptune in our charts can play the “victim” or the “savior.” Neptune possesses a great propensity to create either individuals who perceive and portray themselves as victims, or those who seek out the Neptune, Idealization “woe is me” victim in order & Self-Love to play the martyr or savior in “It is not in the stars to hold our their lives. destiny but in ourselves; we are cont’d on next page
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Neptune
continued from page 59 The key lies in the integration of the two extremes. It lies with self-love. Only when we begin to feel “whole,” and to understand that the true purpose of connecting to the “source” is to share our inherent “goodness” with the world, can we begin to comprehend that our true path can only be claimed through loving ourselves first. “If you bring forth what is
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within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” — Jesus Christ; taken from the Gnostic Gospels uncovered at Nag Hammadi. Sheri Horn Hasan of Karmic Evolution Astrology is a professional astrologer who practices archetypal, intuitive, psychological & spiritual astrology. Sheri combines her knowledge of archetypes and psychology with
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her intuitive ability to interpret natal charts in order to fulfill her mission “to inspire, transform & empower through astrologic insight.” Use of one’s natal chart as a blueprint for forward momentum—particularly in times of crisis or confusion—often presents key information that benefit her clients as they make their own choices and consciously live their lives to the highest potential possible. You may contact Sheri @ www.KarmicEvolution.com, info@KarmicEvolution.com, or (732) 547-0852.
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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT MARCITM... “Well worth the read! Powerful and inspiring HMNetwork of Holistic Practitioners share their years of Health and Wellness wisdom in MARCITM Magazine... and they are waiting to help you too.”
Erin Saxton
Former Television Producer for Barbara Walters, “The View” CEO and President, The Idea Network Representing Jack Canfield, Lisa Nichols, and many more fantastic people and companies
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Electromagnetic Fields and the Effects of Radiation Exposure
A
by Ingrid Werner
re you aware of the electromagnetic pollution. damage electromag- Our cells do not resonate netic fields and the with this technology. radiation we are Yet it is necessary in our exposed to does to our brains modern world to comand bodies? municate with each other in We are all “energy” business and stay and our body is surin touch with rounded by a bio friends and famfield which is ily members. our first line of Claims that cell defense. When phones pose no our bio field is health hazstrong and unard are supdamaged our ported solely immune sysby Specific tem is healthy. Absorption The radio Rate (SAR) waves that limits safety are released standards writfrom our ten by the teleelectronics are communications a threat to our industry decades bio field. These Photo courtesy of Ingrid Werner ago based on studman-made freies they funded. We quencies are not To protect against radiation are constantly being coherent to our exposure from electronic de- bathed in an increascells. Every cell vices get a Cell Guard for your ing sea of radiation cell phones, PDAs or Bluein our body is on tooth, and a Universal Guard from cell phones, high alert when for your computer, TV and computers, electrical confronted with other electronic equipment. devices, Wi-Fi instal-
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lations, over 2000 communications satellites in outer space that shower us with signals to GPS receivers. New Wi-Max transmitters on cell phone towers with range of two square miles will soon turn North America into a huge electromagnetic hot spot. No one will be able to escape it. Do you use a cell phone, cordless phone, computer or do your children use Game Boy/Play Stations, or do you use a microwave oven? Then this is what you need to know: 1. A 2-minute call can alter the brain function in a child for an hour because their brains are developing and their skulls are thinner. Some countries ban the sale of cell phones or discourage their use under the age of 18. In contrast, this is the segment of the population now cont’d on next page
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Radiation
continued from page 62 being targeted here in a $2 billion US advertising campaign that views “tweens” (children between 8 and 12 years old) as the next big cell phone market. Firefly and Barbie cell phones are also being promoted for 6 to 8-year-olds. 2. Talking 500 minutes per month on a cell phone increases the probability of brain cancer by 140%. 3. There are 30,000 to 50,000 new cases of brain and eye cancer each year worldwide attributed to Cell Phone usage. 4. Teenagers talk on cell phones an average of 2,600 minutes per month. 5. Men who regularly carry their mobile phone on a belt or in a pocket could potentially have their sperm count reduced by as much as 30%. Unfortunately the govern-
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ment is not protecting us from this radiation or even informing us about it because it is “big business” with tens of billion dollars in sales for the cell phone companies. Therefore, we have to protect ourselves or face the consequences of ill health. I have spent years educating and helping the public in understanding the hazards of electromagnetic pollution. Also Dr. Andrew Weil said: “Electromagnetic pollution may be the most significant form of pollution human activity has produced in this century, all the more dangerous because it is invisible and insensible.” If there is a tool to override this radiation wouldn’t you want to know about it? If you have ever felt a burn when you talked on your cell phone and had a slight head ache afterwards or if you feel drained day in and day out after working on a computer you need to know about Gia Well-
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ness. What you need to protect yourself is a Cell Guard for your cell phones, PDAs or Bluetooth, and a Universal Guard for your computer, TV and other electronic equipment. Their stateof-the-art products are powered with two highly innovative and scientifically substantiated technologies: a patented noise field technology called Molecular Resonance Effect Technology (MRET) and a proprietary subtle energy technology called Energy Resonance Technology (ERT). Gia Wellness believes that the stress caused to our bodies from electromagnetic pollution has the potential to impact all aspects of life at the molecular, cellular, biochemical, and physiological levels and we need to reduce our exposure to these toxins. If you want more information about this danger please contact me: Ingrid Werner at i.werner@ att.net or call (201) 871-3811.
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Book Review
THE DAO OF DONUTS By Maile Andrus-Price, RN
Finding one’s voice or feeling self-worth is an epidemic among the population of women. Although there are many books on the bookshelf, and workshops you can participate in, Maile has found a wonderful way to simplify the process in her book “THE DAO OF DONUTS”. Finding your path, may take many twists and turns, and lots of patterns to let go of. “The Dao” refers to finding your path, your way and finding your “true” purpose for being. Often times it takes coming “full circle”; just as it did for Maile Andrus-Price
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in the form of a donut. Although I have known the author of “ THE DAO OF DONUTS” for only a brief period of time, I feel like I have known her forever. It is hard to fathom that she was ever that woman she speaks about in her book. Her personal experiences are rich, as she shares herself with the reader, and what it takes to find courage and strength to break free from the emotional turmoil that goes on within your own head and heart. This is a soul book for all of our sisters, and brothers, who have fought the good fight of “not being good enough”, or a wakeup call for men to take a look at the way they look at and treat women. Changing your thoughts takes waking up, and being aware of the “ingredients” that goes into the “recipe” of creating the life you want. I highly recommend the “THE DAO OF DONUTS”, and hope you will find “The Dao” in your life today. Just as a box of donuts has many flavors and coatings, so do we human folk. Accepting ourselves, and working through forgiveness starts where? With you and me. Take the steps to transform your life and experience a whole new world of unlimited possibilities when you pick up your copy of the” THE DAO OF DONUTS” today. I hope this book, “ THE DAO OF DONUTS”, finds its way into your hands, and be prepared to turn the pages of the “ THE DAO OF DONUTS” in your life for a transformational experience. Available on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Dao-DonutsDefining-Worth-Women/dp/0982239467 Review by Linda Mitchell Founder & Executive Director of the Holistic Mentorship Network & MARCI™
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Book Review
at the American Personal Rights Rally held that day in Chicago was offered a chapter in the book. From doctors to professors, from attorneys to officers, from parents to victims, the pages of VACCINE EPIDEMIC are filled with the real life experiences of the common man. Regardless of where one stands on public vaccination policy, this is a must read for anyone who considers their right to bodily integrity and safety, the foundation of every human right.
VACCINE EPIDEMIC: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights, Our Health and Our Children By Louise Kuo Habakus, Director, Center for Personal Rights and Mary Holland, J.D., Research Scholar, NYU School of Law
On a bright, sunny afternoon in Chicago last May, hundreds of people gathered in Grant Park to rally for vaccination choice. The Center for Personal Rights, directed by Louise Habakus and Mary Holland, fostered the event, creating a platform for those voices, victims of vaccine injury, so long or so fast silenced, to be echoed among the great city’s skyline. VACCINE EPIDEMIC is the reverberation of those voices going beyond where the “el” tracks take you. Each individual who spoke
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Gone is the time when the public received vaccination without concern or question as the panacea of medicine. What Habakus and Holland make clearly relevant are the persistent and glaring questions over vaccine safety, the neverending number of vaccines targeted for our children, the epidemic of chronic childhood illness, the products that inflict unavoidable injury and death while the government conspires with industry for the sake of profits. VACCINE EPIDEMIC is sure to take the reader on an emotional roller coaster passing through stages similar to the first stages of grief; anger, denial, guilt, depression. However, the information may just be shocking enough that the reader will never get to the last stage— acceptance. And nor should they. These policies and actions severely threaten our individual right to self and VACCINE EPIDEMIC is that perennial alarm sounding the wake-up call. Available on Amazon. At local bookstores and libraries upon request. www.vaccineepidemic.com Review by Maureen Drummond New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice
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Product Review Yin Chiao (or Yin Qiao Jie Du Wan) By Donna Reynolds Even though this is a classic Chinese patent herbal formula that I customarily recommend to my patients for use throughout the winter cold/flu season, Yin Qiao can be used any time of year since it is most effective at the first onset of symptoms of wind heat: in Traditional Chinese Medicine these would be sore throat, fever, headache and flu symptoms. Fortunately, this popular medicine also provides relief for full-blown flu as well as pneumonia, bronchitis, tonsillitis, measles, mumps, and inner ear infections. I have also used it successfully for patients suffering from poison ivy – it lessens the severity and shortens the duration of the outbreak. Known, too, by its Western name, “Honeysuckle and Forsythia Detox”, it can often be found in most health food stores. Classical formulas often have their chief ingredients as part of their name. The word yin, meaning silver, comes from the Chinese name for honeysuckle (jin yin hua, or gold and silver flower). The word Qiao comes from the Chinese name for forsythia (lian qiao). I like this patent formula because it is a straight-forward, no-nonsense formula
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that works. Honeysuckle and forsythia are often used together due to their synergistic antimicrobial effect. Clinical research shows that honeysuckle flowers and forsythia fruit inhibit the bacteria that cause pneumonia, strep throat, staphylococcal infections, salmonella, and tuberculosis. They have both been used traditionally for thousands of years to clear fire toxins, which include a hot, painful, swollen throat; boils; fevers; and urinary tract infections. Another ingredient in Yin Qiao is Schizonepeta flowers (jing jie). The profuse purple flower spikes are highly aromatic, giving the herb a dispersing quality. When the body is first attacked by a pathogen, the most effective way to repel the invader is through the use of aromatic herbs that disperse their energy to the exterior of the body. The highly volatile essential oils open up the pores in the skin and act as a diaphoretic (induces sweating). If the pathogen has not penetrated to the interior of the body, this dispersing effect drives the pathogen out before it can get a foothold and progress. When considering any herbal formula as a remedy, always be mindful to consider the source of the herbs. Whether manufactured here or in China, ALWAYS check that organic herbs are used and that the manufacturer complies with US approved GMPs (General Manufacturing Principles) so that pollutants,
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Product Review continued from page 66
heavy metals, over-the-counter drugs, caffeine, paraetamolum, chlorpheniraminum or other less-than-desirable ingredients are not present. You want to be sure that you are using a product of high quality. Some of the reliable brands are Tianjin, Bio Essence, Plum Flower and Planetary Herbals. Follow the dosage on the label and do not take it for more than a few days. •••
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Note: Any remedies or information listed are from historical references and used for teaching/ educational purposes only. The contents are not meant to diagnose, treat, prescribe, cure or substitute consultation with a licensed healthcare professional. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Donna Reynolds of Willow Moon Herbals is an experienced herbal practitioner, an herbal educator, a voice for her native green plant allies as well as a quiet tree-whisperer.
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Calendar of Events
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Tuesday, March 24 Matrix Energetics with Dr. Richard Bartlett, Practitioner’s Certification Class; Seattle, Washington; Doubletree Hotel Seattle Airport; www.Matrixenergetics.com. Saturday, March 26 Interpreting Medical Tests Naturally; Part Two of Three; At Dian’s Wellness Simplified in Morristown, NJ, noon to 4 p.m.; price $35; Deposit and RSVP Required. Call (973) 267-4816, Approved for AANC CUE credits. Sunday, March 27, 2-4 p.m. Embracing your Shadow to Reclaim your Light Shadow Work® is a personal growth process which brings your hidden powers out of the shadow and into the light. We have all been hurt & we have learned to hide parts of ourselves so we don’t get hurt again. By facing the hurt, fear & anger we learn how to live more fully for the journeys we have chosen. Cost $35. Essence of Self, 52 Skyline Drive, Ringwood, NJ 07456, Nancy Smith, LMT & Director, (973)962-7688, www.essenceofself.com Friday - Monday, April 1-4 Matrix Energetics Seminar with Dr. Richard Bartlett, Level 1 & 2; Newark/New York; Hyatt Regency Jersey City; www.Matrixenergetics.com. Saturday, April 23, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Introduction to Shadow Work Day Shadow Work® is a personal growth process which brings your hidden powers out of the shadow & into the light. Come learn about this healing model and discover the powerful archetypal energies that guide you in your life. The Magician archetype helps you see and make good choices, the Sovereign for blessing and manifesting your dreams, the Lover that lives in your body and opens you to connection and the Warrior that creates healthy boundaries and takes good action. Cost $60 early registration, $75 after April 1st. Avalon Healing Center, 54 Notch Road, Oak Ridge, NJ, (973) 874-0427 Friday - Monday, May 20-23 Matrix Energetics Seminar with Dr. Richard Bartlett, Level 1 & 2; Seattle, Washington; Doubletree Hotel Seattle Airport; www.Matrixenergetics.com. Tuesday, May 24 Matrix Energetics with Dr. Richard Bartlett, Practitioner’s Certification Class; Seattle, Washington; Doubletree Hotel Seattle Airport; www.Matrixenergetics.com.
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Calendar of Events
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Holistic Mentorship Network Chapter Meetings New Jersey
Bergen County: 3rd Thursday of the month 7-9pm Advanced Healing Center, 41 Locus Street, Emerson, NJ, Barbara Finlayson, 201-641-9008|shiatsulady@aol.com
Central Western NJ: 4th Thursday of the month 9:30-11:30am The Circle of Intention School of Intuitive Sciences, 76 Main Street, High Bridge, NJ Eileen Maciejunes: 908-362-6353 or eileenmaciejunes@yahoo.com Montclair: 2nd Thursday of the month, 7:00 - 9:00pm Goddess in Eden, Montclair, NJ Robin Mansfield: 973.919.3600 | goddessineden@comcast.net
Morris County: 3rd Tuesday of the month, 7:00 - 9:00pm New location: Presbyterian Church, 65 South Street, Morristown, NJ Lisa MacGray 973-879-1106 | macgral@optonline.net
Northwest NJ (Sussex County): 4th Friday of the month 9:30 - 11:30am Unity Church of Sussex County, 25 Mudcut Road, Lafayette, NJ Tracy Nosal: 973.978.4230 | tnosal1234@aol.com
Pennsylvania
The Poconos HMN: 2nd Tuesday of the month, 6:00 - 8:00pm The Organic Warehouse, 50 Route 611, Bartonsville, PA Ellen Suazo: 877.875.9634 | esuazo@mindshiftingintl.com
Milford, PA: 1st Thursday of the month, 7:00 - 9:00pm All Better Central, 201 Water Street, Stroudsburg, PA Dee Broton: 973.713.0175 | holisticbehaviorsolutions@gmail.com
Interested in starting a new chapter in your area? Learn more here: www.holisticmentorshipnetwork.com/New_Chapters.htm
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Spring 2011
69
Announcements
This month’s column will be the last column for our Natural Health writer, Sarah M. Collins. Since 2007 Sarah has contributed numerous articles and poems to MARCI in addition to being the Natural Health columnist. And for the past year she has been MARCI’s Publishing Chairperson. Her unique voice and contribution will be sorely missed. She can be contacted through her Web site www.WellnessCareToday.com or at sarah@ wellnesscaretoday.com. The Holistic Mentorship Network (HMN) is delighted to announce it has officially been designated as a trade organization for the holistic profession, with a designation of 501(c)(6). As a trade organization for the holistic profession, HMN will represent and lobby for the entire array of health professionals who practice holistically or with a holistic philosophy in their practice. This status gives HMN both a more powerful base of practitioners to lobby on behalf of and a stronger organizational basis from which to support integration of alternative practices into the medical arena. The Holistic Mentorship Network was established in 2004 by Linda Mitchell and serves the holistic and wellness practitioner through education, business development, mentoring practice and networking with other practitioners.
MARCI™
Spring 2011
70
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