Your Heart Chakra – the Core of your Self
Your heart chakra is mystical and magical.
Your heart chakra is over your physical heart. It regulates energy flow the same way your physical heart regulates blood flow. Your heart chakra is all about love, healing, and connecting with others.
This is where you heal – yourself, your family and friends, those around you, the planet, the entire universe even.
When you heal from your heart, energy ripples out, sending healing to everything in its path.
The center of your lymphatic system is also located here. This allows you to use your heart chakra to clean your energetic body, environment, earth, solar system, universe.
Energetically, this is where your body regulates blood flow, lymph, and energy flow.
Think of your heart as an organ pumping blood throughout your body. It is also an endocrine gland releasing hormones to regulate blood pressure and help keep your cardiovascular system healthy.
Another endocrine gland, the thymus, is located behind your sternum. Your thymus is an immune gland that helps you connect with others and heal.
Wake up this connection gland and chakra by tapping your thymus gland daily.
You store affection, heartache, healing, compassion, self-love, and empathy in your heart chakra..
Do you want to get to know your heart chakra better? Practice random acts of kindness.
SPIRITUAL GUIDES
I cannot write about the heart chakra without including goddesses of love. There are many, as many as there are ways to describe the many facets of love.
We don’t always refer to them as gods and goddesses. Sometimes we think of them as saints, angels, or spiritual guides. Whatever word you prefer, these special beings help us all. Each one puts a unique face on this complex subject.
I’m focusing on two: Quan Yin and Mother Mary.
The best way I know to describe these two spiritual beings is to use words that apply to each one, for they are different.
Quan Yin – Quan Yin is a Buddhist Goddess of mercy. She is a symbol of motherhood, virtue, and peace and focuses on universal compassion.
People the world over have been following Quan Yin for many, many years.
She is traditionally attracted to places where it is appropriate to cherish a situation. Quan Yin activates healing power.
She is a symbol of sacred knowledge, wisdom, self-development, purity, enlightenment, and empowerment.
Followers believe Quan Yin bestows support, protection, and blessings when you ask.
MOTHER MARY – This mother of Jesus is relentless and constant as a healing force of love. As modern as tomorrow, she is a friend, companion, sister, spiritual mother and teacher.
When appropriate, Mary liberates us and heals us. She is a steady rock carrying the sorrow of every person on every part of the globe.
Mary is the ultimate New Age Woman, showing us how feminine principles work for all of us. She carries her message of enlightenment to children and adults alike.
Mary’s way is attracted to subdued situations. She lifts up and lets things be. She is gentle or forceful – depending on the situation. Mary is happy to rejoice and be loved as well as loving others. She offers trust. She is joyful. Mary knows about patience.
WORKING WITH YOUR HEART CHAKRA
There are different ways to heal your heart chakra. Use visualizations, meditations, and change some old habits. Practice yoga, use crystals and essential oils. Adjust your diet. Embrace reflexology and Reiki therapy.
Use what resonates with you.
If you experience physical problems, consult with appropriate professionals.
You have many options.
Go for gods, goddesses, angels, saints and guides. There are many, available to you. I chose Quan Yin and Mother Mary because I am comfortable with them.
A TWO-PART SOLUTION TO YOUR PROBLEMS
If you seek a solution to a problem which seems too challenging, this information may help you. I’ve used the following method many times and I’m always happy to share it with anyone seeking a good answer to a thorny problem.
Begin with 2 clean sheets of paper and a pen or pencil. Write the word “yes” at the head of one paper. On the head of the other paper, write “no”.
Now, carefully define your situation while you explore all the solutions “for” (Yes) and all the solutions “against” (No).
List all the “yeses” and all the “nos” on the appropriate papers as they make themselves available to you.
Take your time with this. Think your options through.
When this exercise is over, which side of the argument has the most entries?
I feel confident that one side will have more items listed than the other.
Now is the time to connect with a higher power.
Sit down someplace where you feel safe and comfortable. Breathe deeply and calmly. Breathe in, allowing healing light to flow inward. As you breathe out, allow tired and negative thoughts to leave your body.
This breathing is preparing you to get rid of old ideas and invite in fresh, new insights and solutions.
Allow this healing breath to touch every part of your body. Feel your body embrace the newness of the healing breath and the coming solution.
Invite your goddess, guardian angel, or spiritual guide to join you in this space. Sit calmly and expectantly.
Take a few moments to focus on your situation and how you want to find an appropriate answer. Absorb this situation and the coming solution physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
After a few moments, take this time to share your inner thoughts about your situation with the wise being you may find sitting beside you.
Whether or not you see the spiritiual being beside you is a detail. Your situation is an opportunity to grow.
Let your guest advise you about how to manage your situation. Accept the advice you receive while you seek a solution.
Embrace the suggestions which can help your situation, your solution, and your self.
See yourself on a journey from a challenging situation to a good outcome and a positive path. See yourself embracing the new solution and the changes which will bring it about.
You feel it is time to go. Give thanks for the shared wisdom and generosity you just received. Offer gratitude for the journey you’ve been on.
Make plans for you two to meet again if you need more guidance.
Return to your present time now. Give yourself time to absorb the wisdom you received.
Shift your awareness to your physical surroundings where you began this experience. Be here now and in this environment. You are wide awake and alert. You feel wonderful and are at peace.
Are you closer to a solution? Can you accept it?
SAINT THERESE – THE LITTLE FLOWER
Several years ago, I managed a food pantry that fed many people. It seemed to me that I confronted problems without solutions.
One evening I read a story about Saint Therest, the Little Flower. I read about people finding roses when they studied the works of St. Therese.
The following morning, when I unlocked the door to the pantry, I found a rose on the floor.
Seeing this rose opened my eyes.
I didn’t expect to see a rose or anything else on the floor. For sure, I didn’t sleep walk over to the pantry in the night and put a rose on the floor.
I wasn’t asking for favors. I merely read about her life.
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Thanks for reading this article. You can find more information about chakras in previous blog posts and in “Healer’s Handbook” by Thurman Greco.
Purchase it at www.thurmangreco.com.
Please forward this article to your preferred social media network and share it with friends and family.
Contact me at thurmangreco@gmail.com.
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Is it a Cold, the Flu, or Coronavirus?
For months we’ve all been reading and hearing about a resurgence of the coronavirus combined with the flu. So…what does this mean?
Every year I hear the same question at the beginning of flu season: HOW DO YOU KNOW WHETHER IT’S A COLD OR THE FLU? This season, the question is a little different: HOW DO YOU KNOW WHETHER IT’S A COLD OR THE FLU OR CORONAVIRUS?
There are some real differences.
Fever is rare with a cold. Fever is common with the flu. It’s usually high and lasts three or four days.
Headaches are rare with a cold but common with the flu.
Cold sufferers may have slight aches and pains. Flu sufferers have definite aches and pains which may be severe.
Extreme fatigue and/or weakness is just not a factor with a cold. Exhaustion is common with the flu – especially at the onset of the illness.
Sore throat, stuffy nose, and sneezing are common with a cold. A person suffering with a cold may have mild symptoms to include a hacking cough. With the flu, these symptoms can become severe.
With colds, treatment includes antihistamines, decongestants. With the flu, the patient needs to consult with a physician about any needed medication.
Coronavirus complicates things.
Many people experience fever as the first symptom of Coronavirus.
The second symptom is often a combination of a cough and muscle pain.
Nausea and vomiting make up the third tier.
These symptoms are usually followed by diarrhea.
And, that’s not all. Some people experience a loss of taste or smell.
And, some people experience deeply reddish-blue toes (chillblains).
Others have headache and dizziness.
The bottom line here is that coronavirus has many symptoms while colds and flu
are much less complicated.
If you suspect coronavirus, go get tested. Waiting around while you try to decide you are sick and contagious or not is not good for you and it’s not good for those around you.
There are several tools at your disposal which can help you early on.
A thermometer is essential. Take your temperature daily.
When I’m out in the community, my temperature is the key to getting into the office where I have an appointment.
The no-touch forehead fever thermometer gun has become ubiquitous on receptionists’ desks wherever I go.
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t take your temperature every morning. Your temperature can accompany your blood pressure reading. You can keep your thermometer gun beside your blood pressure cuff.
Then, you only need one other item: a pulse oximeter. A pulse oximeter estimates the amount of oxygen in your blood.
If you have coronavirus, your pulse oximeter will register a lower oxygen level in your body. This is because with coronavirus, your lungs are inflamed. (Actually, with coronavirus, inflammation is all over your body).
So, if you are concerned about your health because you may become exposed to coronavirus, you can help yourself with your temperature, your blood pressure, and your oxygen level.
If you feel ill, you will help your healthcare professional with these three scores.
For those who aren’t really familiar with an oximeter, it is the little plastic clip placed on your finger when you get your blood pressure measured.
These devices are not that expensive, are easy to use, and you can find an explanatory chart which will explain the meaning of the score.
Whatever you decide, prevention is important. Wash your hands often, wear a mask always when you leave your home, use hand sanitizer and don’t go anywhere around other people if you can help it.
Thanks for reading this blog post. If you liked this article, please forward it to your favorite social media networks.
Thanks again,
Thurman Greco
Practical Wellness: 10 Tips You Can Use
With this article , you and I move into part two of practical wellness tips in the longevity series. The focus shifts to information less disease focused. My hope is that you’ll adopt a few, or maybe more than a few, healthy habits and avoid or discard the habits in your life which lead to illness.
The best way to have a long and healthy life is to prevent disease and promote homeostasis while you adopt practical wellness tips which resonate with you.
As you adopt new wellness habits, you empower yourself and take control of your body and your health. You’ll be in charge of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual self. Practical wellness tips offered in these articles are often easy to adapt to your daily life.
Seeking a long and healthy life is an everyday proposition made easier when you adapt practical wellness tips which may change through time. You can always make improvements as new theories and practices become the norm.
As you adopt new habits, I hope you’ll consider the long term effects of the new directions you’re taking in your life.
Your body constantly moves and shifts which means you are different every single day from your cellular level on up. These new tips you adopt can change your life in small or large ways as your body self regulates toward wellness.
Adapt these practical wellness tips and changes to your age.
As a reflexologist and Reiki practitioner, this ability to change, move, develop means much to me. That is the heart of healing with the modalities I’ve been studying my whole adult life.
All of this points toward homeostasis – the balance of all body systems.
CHOOSE YOUR FATS WISELY – One of the most challenging things I’ve done with this wellness blog is tackle oils. If you go to the early blog posts, you’ll find articles reflecting how complicated life can get as you stand in front of the grocery shelf and choose a cooking oil.
The bottom line in cooking : Go with organic oils. Stay away from saturated fats whenever possible.
That means I buy organic olive oil.
I avoid saturated fats . Whipping cream is not a staple in my diet and I don’t eat much red meat.
Beyond that, things get a bit dicey. I don’t eat margarine because of the chemicals. I do eat butter.
Omega 3 Fatty Acids can be consumed by pills or by the spoonful. Choose your Omega 3 Fatty Acids carefully because they can be contaminated. I buy mine at the Village Apothecary here in Woodstock at 79 Tinker Street. I rely on my pharmacist, Neal Smoller, to educate me about which and how many supplements I should take.
How you deal with fats and oils in your diet is up to you, your health, and how comfortable you are with manufactured foods.
Personally, I’m not comfortable with manufactured foods so there’s not a lot of oil variety in my kitchen pantry.
WHAT ABOUT MINERALS? – The body uses many minerals and they don’t get near the attention that vitamins receive. Four minerals to concentrate on right now include Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, and Selenium.
Calcium is found in broccoli, dairy products, pinto beans, and spinach. If you’re concerned about osteoporosis, this mineral is for you. Eating foods high in calcium is important.
Magnesium is not found in our diets often. Unless you eat apples, bananas, beans, brown rice, leafy green vegetables, and nuts, you should take a supplement.
Magnesium holds off heart problems, strokes, and lack of energy.
Selenium boosts the immune system. Any mineral boosting the immune system is a friend of mine.
Potassium is extremely important and is found in bananas. I eat a banana twice a week. Potassium combats hypertension, depression, muscle weakness, and fatigue.
BEWARE OF THE HOSPITAL! – We are all probably going to be in a hospital once or twice (or even more) before it’s all over. Lots of things can go wrong in a hospital. It’s your job as the patient to know as much as you can about the hospital you are going to be in, the doctor who is going to treat you there, and the condition you are trying to get treated.
I have reflexology clients who visit my table regularly because they feel it’s important for their overall wellness. They don’t ever plan to be in a hospital.
Regular reflexology sessions definitely promote homeostasis which is good for disease prevention. But, for a person to categorically plan to never be a hospital patient can be an unwise move. You never know when an accident can put you in an emergency room.
It’s important to know about hospitals and to be insured . It’s important to have a health care professional that you visit at least annually so you don’t get caught in a situation where you don’t know who can help you or how to communicate with the professionals there.
Hospital is its own language. If you don’t do these things to know the language, you may not have the vocabulary or understanding to make the best decision for your own health’s sake.
A healthcare advocate is important if you have a major encounter in a hospital setting. When you are injured in an accident, or are ill, you may not be alert enough to protect yourself. And, if you haven’t kept up with modern medicine, you may not be strong enough to protect your self.
INJURIES, FALLS, AND CAR ACCIDENTS – For every person who dies in an accident, fifty or so are injured and live. These fifty or so people may sustain minor injuries or multiple injuries or major injuries. A few of them will be disabled and/or have their lives shortened by the injuries received during the accident.
If you are interested in a long and healthy life, you do not want to be a part of those statistics. Because most injuries are preventable, accident awareness can be important to you.
Are you interested in avoiding accidents? If so, think back on the things your family and teachers cautioned you about when you were young.
Never drive buzzed.
Always wear your seat belt.
Never swim alone.
Keep stairways free of clutter.
Put non-skid strips in your bathtub.
I think you get the drift here.
DON’T BLAME YOUR GENES! – They count but the choices you make in your daily life count more. You are in charge of you. Your longevity is all about knowing that the things you do today affect your future.
If you read about something which everyone says is good for you and you disagree, follow up on your feelings. Ask questions. Get to the heart of the matter.
GET TO KNOW YOURSELF. – Spend a couple of months getting to know yourself and your body better. Ask yourself some questions and pay attention to the answers you share. Take some notes. The goal is to get a close look at your body. It is unique, the only one like it in the world.
How do you feel in general?
How well are you sleeping?
Do you have any aches and pains? If so, where are they?
Do you feel healthy?
Is it hard for you to get out of bed in the morning?
How bad is your stress level?
Are you happy?
What do you want to change in your life?
Ask your own questions. based on your individual age, physiology, values, beliefs, and your own personal circumstances.
TAKE SOME MEASUREMENTS! – This should be fun if you are into apps. Or, if you’re into a fitness watch. Mine keeps me active throughout the day as it reminds me when I’ve been sitting too long.
With a Fitbit or a Garmin, you can track everything you do throughout the day. This may not be such a bad thing. The point is that you become more aware of your physical, mental, emotional, spiritual self.
Once you track your body’s clocks, you can control your homeostasis patterns. Your can track your waking/sleeping cycles, eating times, physical activity patterns, and medication schedules.
When you do this, your body will function much more efficiently. It will have the opportunity to become finely tuned.
EAT REAL FOOD – If you can’t understand the words on the ingredients list, the product you are holding in your hand is probably not food. Most likely, it is a selection of chemicals that have been manufactured and blended for human consumption.
Stay away from these manufactured products if you are interested in health and longevity.
Ideally, the food you eat will be just that: food. Select foods that are fresh or flash frozen.This means you will shop mostly from the produce aisle or frozen food aisle.
MAKE THE PRODUCE MANAGER, THE BUTCHER, AND THE WOMAN BEHIND THE FISH COUNTER YOUR BEST FRIENDS – They will tell you where the food came from, which selections are the best buys. They know the farmers and ranchers who supply the supermarket with the food you are buying.
When you go to the farmer’s market, get to know the people selling the food in the stalls. These are the people who are supplying you with the best available, locally grown foods.
You just can’t get better than this.
EAT THE FOOD THAT WORKS FOR YOU – Every time I go into my local book store, I see a new selection of cookbooks promoting another new diet/eating lifestyle. Their practical wellness tips may or may not be included in these cook books. It all depends on the ingredients that the author suggests in the recipes. The truth is that I support the diets that depend on fresh, locally grown food.
Important for any diet you adopt: You must enjoy what you eat. Traditional diets will outrank any diet that relies on manufactured ingredients. Processed food is not good for anyone.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it. And, I hope you’ll share it with your preferred social media network.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, New York
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Living Healthy
One path to better health is to practice preventive medicine. But what exactly, does that mean? Well, it means different things for every person because every person’s body is different.
And, to digress here, that’s a wonderful quality that I love about reflexology. Our bodies are different every single day and reflexology recognizes and respects that quality. Why?
Because, reflexology encourages homeostasis which is the balance of all the body systems. And, because our body systems are different every single day, reflexology sessions note the differences and encourage the body to balance itself.
The result? Better health! Reflexology sessions promote better health because of the homeostasis.
And, health promotion is often the small things that we do each day to prevent disease and to balance our bodies.
Disease prevention is best practiced daily, as we develop healthy habits which encourage homeostasis.
Many of the things we do regularly are easy, inexpensive, positive. Healthy living is something to be enjoyed by us all.
Join me on this journey to better health.
So, read this blog and the series of posts I’ll be writing to help you take steps which will result in a healthy body and healthier lifestyle.
These blog posts will be somewhat spiritual because health is a spiritual condition. I hope you enjoy reading these upcoming posts as much as I am enjoying writing them.
Thank you!
Thurman Greco
Thanks for reading this blog post!
Please share this article with your favorite social media network.
And, buy a copy of the book “A Healer’s Handbook”. It has many suggestions and much information about the spirituality of both disease and good health.
