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Alright, so it’s not really cold outside. Spring is basically here in Texas. Elm and redbud trees are budding, the ground is covered with filaree, dandelion, henbit and periwinkle flowers, and our peach, pear, apricot trees and blueberry bushes are blossoming!! We have been doing a massive amount of seed planting lately, preparing for our paradise garden. Hence the absence of a post last week. Although this winter has been mild, we still had a few cold days and below freezing nights. We used this unique opportunity to rewild ourselves and rewild our child.

Many of you may remember from this post that we keep our son naked most of the time. Even in the winter he is happily running around in his birthday suit. Although we do put more clothing on him when it is cold outside, and especially when he expresses a desire to be warm, I would estimate he has been naked about 80% of the time this winter. Because we didn’t over dress him and because we allowed him to experience the elements uncensored, he is now completely comfortable playing outside naked in 40 to 50 degree weather! I think this is amazing because he didn’t start out this way. The first time a cold front came through David ran inside as fast as he could! I know there are babies who can withstand much colder temperatures though, even playing naked in the snow! Who knows, maybe David (and I) will get there some day too.

David playing outside naked in 50 degree weather

Don’t get me wrong! I am in no way a subscriber to the eagle dad method, where you force your child to run in the snow for his “own good.” I feel children (and adults) should only do what they are ready and willing to do. This is the only way true learning takes place. For example, in The Continuum Concept, Jean Liedloff explains how the Yequana people, from birth, train their babies and toddlers to navigate dangerous waters, all the while respecting their children’s will and comfort. “The yequana take advantage of the babies predisposition to this sort of performance and, keeping his rules and respecting his go ahead signals, dip him into more and more challenging waters. A daily bath is routine from birth, but every infant is also dipped into fast rivers; first only his feet, then his legs, then his entire body. The water goes from swift to swifter and on to plunging rapids and falls, and the time of exposure lengthens too, as the baby’s response reveals growing confidence. Before he can walk or even think, a Yequana baby is well on his way toward expertise on judging the force, direction, and depth of water by sight. His people are among the finest white-water canoeists in the world.” I also read somewhere a while back that in South America, mothers will prepare their babies for consuming their normal spicy cuisine by adding just a tiny amount of spice to their baby food, increasing it little by little until the child is ready for the kind of intense spiciness the adults can handle.

How we “trained” David to handle cold weather was first to keep him naked inside where we kept our home warm. Then we would leave our front door open when we went outside, allowing David to stay inside or follow us at will. At first he would choose to stay inside and watch us through the window as we played or hung laundry up on our clothes line. Little by little, because of his desire to be with us, he would step one foot out the door, then another. Soon he was hanging out on our front porch. And eventually playing barefoot and bare bottomed in our yard. In the beginning we witnessed him squeezing his muscles and grunting a lot. We realized he was learning how to warm himself up from the inside. Sometimes we would carry him outside for short bursts of time, like when we would take our compost out or check our mail. He was naked, but also snuggled next to us in our arms or in a sling and never seemed to mind. Last year, during his first winter, it was colder, and that is when we began to prepare him to handle cold weather. I would keep him naked or only lightly clothed next to me in the moby wrap. My body temperature would warm him up and keep his temperature regulated without over heating.

Me and David outside during his first winter. Here he is wearing a hat and light shirt and no pants

So why in the world do I do this? What is so special about being cold hardy? You may be wondering. Well, first of all, there is a reason nature provides us with cold weather. She is an intelligent one you know. Exposure to the cold, if done right, has the ability to strengthen our immune system, keep our skin and hair young and healthy, improve circulation, relieve depression, and increase fertility (come to think of it, David was conceived in the winter ). As mammals, our bodies have the ability to regulate their own temperatures, but only if we allow them to. In 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive, Cody Lundin explains that “repeated exposure to cold increases the amount of mitochondria within your cell!… The more mitochondria you have, the more heat can be produced.” In essence, activating our self regulating potential is important if you desire to be self sufficient and sovereign. Plus, it is excellent for our health! And you know I am all for that!

Since last year was my first year being a mom, I wasn’t able to plant the massive award winning garden I desired. However, we did do some planting and now we are enjoying the fruits of our labor. We have an adorable little winter garden which is supplying us with arugula, radish, mustard, and kale. I love being able to go outside with my blender in the morning and pick the greens for my breakfast green smoothie.

My winter garden

This year we are gearing up to plant THE BEST GARDEN EVER!! We just purchased all our seeds, soil blocker, and mycogrow today! After a few of our friends named their Space Of Love (Garden of Eden, New Earth Center and Hackberry Farm), we decided to call our domain PARADISE GARDENS. This year our place is definitely going to live up to its name! We have already planted blueberry bushes, fig trees, raspberries, boysenberries, strawberries, mint, akebia, kiwi, emerald carpet raspberry, goji berry bushes, goumi, paw paw, aronia, elderberry and a kousa dogwood tree. If being surrounded by beauty, delicious smells, and healthy food is not enough to motivate you to start planning your garden, I have a list of ten reasons you absolutely must plant a garden this year. Seriously, you have no choice. It’s mandatory!

10 Reasons You Absolutely MUST Plant A Garden This Year:

1. Your garden produce will have more nutrition than anything you can buy in any store. Even processed food from your own garden will have more nutrition than fresh produce from the grocery store. I betcha didn’t know that!

2. You will get produce that is fresher, riper, and tastier than anything in the store. Eating will become an orgasmic experience again!

3. If you do it right, you will save money. Produce from the store can be very expensive. Think of all the trips to Hawaii you could take if you didn’t have to pay for groceries!

4. All your food will be unsprayed and have nothing toxic on it. Even certified organic foods often have (natural but still toxic) pesticides on them. For example, my son David got a rash from eating unwashed organic tomatoes from the store, but has no reaction to unsprayed tomatoes from our friend’s farm.

5. It gives you a reason to spend more time outside, getting exercise, breathing fresh air, and enjoying the beauty of the earth and plants.

6. You’ll have a greater variety of produce. You can grow varieties that can’t be found in any store. Eating will become more interesting and fun!

7. You’ll reduce your impact on our planet. Fewer fossil fuels will be used, less wild land will need to be cleared for farms, fewer toxic chemicals will be sprayed into the environment and so on. Then Mother Earth will thank you by creating more magic and manifestation in your life! For example, cute little birds will land on your head when you reach out to them (happened to me twice ) They know who they can trust!

8. Money, Money, Money! If you sell your surplus, it can become a source of extra income. For example, this guy doesn’t even need a job. All he does is garden and sell his extra produce to neighbors and restaurants. And he only has 1/5 of an acre!

9. Gardening teaches children where food comes from. It also teaches them (and us) the law of the harvest (you reap what you sow). Plus, if you learn to forage wild foods you can learn the higher law – reaping where you didn’t sow.

10. You can help your friends and family become healthier. If you give them fresh home grown vegetables, they’ll feel obligated to eat them. (That’s right! I’ll be giving you vegetables from my garden this year. You know who you are.)

Bonus Reason (from my husband): It gives you extra incentive to keep bees. As if you needed another reason to keep bees.

The best type of gardening, in my opinion, is Forest Gardening, which is basically creating a forest type eco-system with useful and edible trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables. By creating a forest garden you create a self-sustaining paradise. In a forest garden you don’t have to till the soil, plant year after year, or even water after a while. If you desire to look into this awesome style of gardening check out my fav books on the subject…

• Gaia’s Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture
• Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops
• Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles
• Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
• Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre
• The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times
• Edible Forest Gardens (2 volume set)

In any case, make sure you leave room for wild food in your garden because…

Shepherd’s purse makes an awesome snack

David picking shepherds purse

David eating shepherds purse

Curly dock

Plus filaree flowers

Equal yumminess!
(curly dock wraps with raw macadamia nut “cheese,” decorated with filaree flowers)

Enjoy your life!

I am a big proponent of taking care of my teeth naturally and holistically. As the saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The last time I went to a dentist was about 4 years ago when I removed my amalgam filling. After being disillusioned by at least three incompetent dentists, I realized I required to take responsibility for the health and longevity of my own teeth. One dentist, in realizing I had a slight jaw misalignment, actually suggested he break my jaw and put a metal post in it to fix it. What?! Are you serious?! He was. He had this insane procedure done on himself. Poor man! As for me, I will stick with my slight overbite thank you very much!

What are the main reasons people go to the dentist? One, to check for cavities. Two, to fix misalignments. And three, to get a semi-annual cleaning. Proper nutrition can prevent and even reverse cavities and teeth misalignment (especially in children). In his well researched book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Weston Price, a dentist, found nutrition had a direct impact on dental health and jaw bone structure. In an effort to find out why so many “civilized” people had dental problems, he studied several tribes of indigenous people. When these tribes consumed their natural diet they NEVER had any issues with their teeth or need for dental care! Once fed a western diet, the dental health of these same indigenous people, and especially their offspring, rapidly deteriorated. The hundreds of photos in this book are worth a thousand words!

As for the semi-annual cleaning. I have the perfect alternative solution for you! This tooth powder recipe, which I found on herbmentor.com, is the best way to clean teeth I know of. As most of you may already be aware of, conventional toothpaste is chock full of harmful ingredients. Sodium fluoride (used in rat poison), blue dye, sodium lauryl sulfate, triclosan, and hydrated silica just to name a few. Even organic healthier toothpaste versions have ingredients which can be too harsh and abrasive or can coat our enamel, therefore never allowing our teeth to be fully clean. So obviously a professional cleaning would be useful for those who use toothpaste. This tooth powder, on the other hand, leaves my teeth feeling as clean and fresh as a visit to the dentist. I like it even better than tooth soap, which is also a great alternative to toothpaste. In addition, the kaolin clay in this recipe is reported (by a dentist) to feel and look exactly the same as the expensive tooth polishing agent in her office. Hmmmmmm….

Tooth Powder:
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup sea salt
1/4 cup kaolin clay
30 drops spearmint oil
1 tbsp. ground dried sage (helps whiten teeth)

Mix ingredients well and store in airtight container. To use, dab a small amount of tooth powder on wet toothbrush and brush as usual.

Oh, and remember to floss!

I am really enjoying all the wild greens growing on my land right now. Filaree, dandelion, chickweed, curly dock, and hedge parsley are in season here in Texas. Can you believe wild food has on average 10 times more nutrition than conventional food?! And it’s free! And it’s tasty! And it gets us out of the house, giving us fresh air and a meditative mind! I really have no excuse not to have at least one wild salad a day. I usually do

Freshly picked wild greens ready to make into a salad or green smoothie

If I wanted to go the extra mile I could even add some wild pecans and black walnuts to my salad. Now that would be WILD!

What do you like to put in your wild salad?

Two weeks ago something very strange happened to me… I developed a sore throat. This is strange because it has been extremely rare for me to have any sign or symptom of “sickness” in the last several years since beginning my raw food journey and doing a lot of detoxing and cleanses (lemonade fast, liver/gallbladder flush, colon cleanse, etc.). So imagine how surprised I was one afternoon to feel pain in my throat area which only increased as the day unfolded. That evening, my pain was so intense, I had a difficult time going to sleep. To top it off, my sweet son was teething, which means his sinuses were affected and he was waking up every few minutes crying. I was experiencing what it feels to be a mother who needs rest and babying but instead has to take care of her own needy baby. Not fun. As I was wondering how I could make the most of my situation, I remembered the amazing power of essential oils. Essential oils are a concentrated form of herbal medicine. Just a few drops can be equivalent to several pounds of plant material.

I asked Bryan to make me a sore throat gargle. He warmed up 4 ounces of spring water and added 2 drops Eucalyptus, 5 drops lemon, and 2 drops wintergreen essential oil. I gargled all of it and immediately my throat felt better! Then, I added a couple drops of tea tree oil to organic coconut oil and rubbed it on the bottom of David’s feet and on on his back. That did the trick!! We both enjoyed a good night’s sleep! The next day, I did a neti pot with essential oils. We mix 8 Tbsp. of high quality sea salt with 10 drops of rosemary oil and 6 drops of tea tree oil. Then we add 1 to 1 1/2 tsp. of this mixture into 2 cups warm water for our neti pot. During the day I also ate light and had lots of juices and herbal infusions, which I offered to David too. That night, we both felt great! My sore throat was gone and David slept like a baby! awwwwww!

P.S. To purchase high quality essential oils click here.

Below is a video of my weekend with Daniel Vitalis and friends. On Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009, we attended Daniel’s 6 hour Elixir Craft Mastery course which was awesome! Then we went to a fun halloween party that evening and a nature walk and lecture with Daniel the next day…

I love how often the most powerful and life transforming advice is the easiest thing to implement. All it takes is a little action on our part. Today I have a fun and simple technique that you can use which will restore and maintain memory, alertness, and increase the supply of blood flow into your brain. Yogis regard the head stand (Sirshasana) as the major posture to increase capacity and power in the brain. Well, this takes it to a whole new level…

Inversions can align and decompress your spine, increase blood flow, circulation and flexibility in your body, help regulate and heal your thyroid gland, reverse the aging effects of gravity, bring you a sense of relaxation and peace, increase oxygenation in your brain, and eliminate pain.

I know this from experience. On Christmas day I woke up with the worst “crick in my neck” imaginable. My pain lasted several days and none of my natural remedies or treatments helped. I decided to try out our new OM gym even with the pain in my neck and after only 2 minutes of inversion my neck felt significantly better! After 3 more OM gym sessions my pain was completely GONE!!

In conclusion I feel Richard Hittleman said it best…. “The heart is always pumping against gravity to circulate the blood into the vital organs and glands situated above it. With the body in the inverted positions those organs and glands are now below the heart. The effect of this simple maneuver on the entire organism is truly remarkable.”

p.s. If you liked this video please re-tweet it for me or share it on your favorite social media site:)

Last week was my birthday week; so, I took time off from blogging, but have no fear, I am back in action with the final installment of my Personal Alchemy Series. If you have yet to watch my other videos in this series Click Here for part 1, Click Here for part 2, and Click Here for part 3. And now, I present to you…. The Fire Element!

The amount of melanin in our skin, or color in our skin, clues us in to how much sun we really require. Melanin acts as a sunscreen and protects your skin. The darker you are, the more sun you will need to penetrate into your skin and create the vitamin D that is so VITAL to our health. As I pointed out in my video, vitamin D deficiency is linked to over 70 types of cancer and is called the “silent epidemic.” Ironically, the time in which it is most benefitial to go outside is the exact time that we have been told to stay inside, around noon. Dr. Michael Holick, who wrote the UV Advantage, tells us that about half of the year in the northern hemisphere, late fall to early spring, there is not enough UV present to create vitamin D. This is why it is very important to develop strategies which will help us to be tan, happy, and full of sunshine…

HOW TO MAXIMIZE VITAMIN D ABSORPTION

1. Get as much sun in the summertime as possible. Luckily, vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin, meaning it can be stored in your body for quite some time. If you get plenty of sun during the summer, meaning you are outside several hours a day, then you will be able to have enough vitamin D stores for the cold winter months. If you are not used to sun exposure, make sure to build up your tolerance first. Invest just 10 minutes outside a day then slowly increase the time you are out in the sun to at least 1 hour a day.

2. Expose as much of your body to the sun as possible. There may be parts of your skin that have never seen the light of day! The more you expose the more sun nutrition you receive. Naked sun-bathing is very good for overall health and beauty. Seek out places and times where you can do this… or just expose as much as you are comfortable with.

3. Consume vitamin D rich foods such as cod liver oil or krill oil. Vitamin D is stored in the liver. By eating the liver of fish the Inuits were able to live healthily lives in their massively cold climate. If you live in a cold or cloudy place and are not apposed to eating animal products, this is a great vitamin D supplement. Some mushrooms and other vegan foods such as kelp have a little vitamin D in them too, along with vegetarian foods such as raw dairy and eggs, but only from free range, grass fed animals. Plant sources usually contain vitamin D2 and animal sources contain vitamin D3. I suggest doing some research on foods containing this valuable nutrient. Vitamin D is extremely important to Longevity and Health!

The more we immerse ourselves in nature, the more we will gather into our bodies the quintessence, life-force, and prana which is the 5th Element. Let us all make it our intention to leave behind more of the artificial world we were born into and become more wild and FREE! Instead of watching a movie or gathering around the TV, let us gather around the fire, go out into nature, breathe fresh forest air, soak in hotsprings, drink fresh spring water, sungaze, and eat mineral dense wild food. The 5 elements are the true LIVING forces. By becoming the master of the elements, we become the master of LIFE!!

Hello my fellow Alchemists!! Today I bring you part 3 of my Personal Alchemy series. If you haven’t seen my other videos in this series Click Here for part 1 and Click Here for part 2. This week I am focusing on the Air Element which to me represents our Etheric body. When I was a baby I had challenges with my lungs and my breathing and as a result I have put a lot of my attention on the air element in my life and have extensively studied “the perfect breath” and breathwork. Watch my video below to learn about this most vital element…

First, I must say, more important than any special way of breathing is to become aware of our own breath and follow our own body’s rhythm. It’s best to let every part of your body breath. Allow your body to move and undulate when you breathe. Babies breathe with their whole bodies, even their fingers and toes. Practice trusting your breath and allowing “spirit to breathe you.” That being said, it is also helpful to practice certain breathing techniques and explore the inspiration, insight, healing and relaxation which come with it. Here are my favorites…

1. Breath of Love: This is a particular rebirth breathing pattern I have studied and have become certified in. It is supposedly the “ideal breath” that humans and animals are meant to use. It represents our relationship to the universe. On the inhale you take in as much air as possible, filling both the lower abdomen and upper part of your lungs. This represents how much you are willing to take in from the universe around you, how much you are open to, how effortlessly you are open to it, and how satisfied you are when you get what you want. The exhale is then quickly dropped with no effort or force. You just relax your abdomen and lungs. This represents what you think the universe does: does it accept your old, stale, used substance? Does it reject you? Do you have to fight to get rid of something? The in and out breath is connected and flowing like the waves of the ocean crashing onto the sand and pulling back into the ocean. This represents your willingness to be present and live in the moment, Right NOW.

2. Rhythmic Holy Breath: This is a common Yoga breath. The pattern is inhale-hold-exhale-hold for equal amounts of time. I like to add visualization to my breathing such as…
*On the inbreath, breathe the love/light of God into your body
*As you hold your breath, visualize assimilating the love/light of God
*On the outbreath, expand the love/light of God into every cell, organ and electron of your physical, etheric, mental and emotional bodies
*As you hold the breath out, deliberately project the assimilated love/light of God into the heart of every man, woman and child
Repeat this pattern for several minutes until you feel light, calm, and relaxed:)

How To Cleanse Your Respiratory System:

1. Nauli: It’s best to do this exercise first thing in the morning before you have had any food or drink. Stand outside or near a window to receive fresh Prana filled air. Bend over at the waist and fully exhale. When you feel you have exhaled fully exhale even more. Then stand up and pull your belly in. Your abdomen will be concave. Hold for a little bit and then push your belly out and slowly allow air to come back in to your lungs. The bottom of our lungs can hold in stagnant air for a LONG time and this yoga technique will clean it all out!

2. Neti Pot: This will clean out your sinus passages. I haven’t quite mastered this one yet (it took me a while to even get the guts up to try it;), but it really does work and there are many things you can do with your neti pot. I suggest you research how to best use it. Adding a little sea salt and essential oils to your water is very refreshing and healing too.

Ok, it’s now time to watch part 4! Click Here to get started:)

P.S. Click Here to check out my Young Living essential oils:)

Welcome to part 2 of my personal Alchemy series! If you have yet to see part 1 Click Here first:)

I just got back from a wonderful vacation in Miami with my girlfriends! I walked on the beach, swam in the ocean, drank coconut water, partied in the evening, and even got to do a “dolphin encounter” at Miami Seaquarium (I have been desiring to play with dolphins for a while!). While in Miami I recorded this video on the Water Element…

Spring water is by far the best water you can drink. Better than filtered, ozonated, purified, vitalized, alkalized or any other man made technique we have invented to improve the quality of our toxic tap water and make it as close to spring water as possible. Many people, when they consider drinking their water straight from the ground feel fear about consuming harmful bacteria and pathogens. This may be true if you were to drink water from a lake or river, but while drinking water straight from the source you will not find anything more pure. Spring water is created by water seeping down into the earth, way down, until it reaches what is called an aquifer or an underground lake. This water may stay there for thousands of years, restructuring itself and absorbing the advanced information earth provides, until it is ready to come back to the surface. On its way up it is completely purified and structured. The earth is the most advanced water filter in existence! In fact, many water filters learn their technology from how the earth purifies water. Water that is coming to the surface from these aquifers are sometimes several thousand years old, meaning it has not been around on the surface to be polluted by modern day technology (chemicals, explosives, poisonous sprays, etc.) This is another reason why spring water is the best drinking water available!

How To Test Your Spring Water:

Look for the following characteristics…
1. Temperature. 4 degrees Celsius is the purest temperature for water. Cold water is quality water. Harmful organisms can’t really grow in cold water. This is why we refrigerate our food to preserve our food.

2. Total Dissolved Solids. You can purchase a TDS meter to test the mineral content in your water. Anywhere between 9 and 50 TDS is really good water. The more minerals your water has the more hard the water is and the less hydrating it becomes.

3. PH. Water that is between 6.8-7.2 ph is the best. You want to have a very neutral ph water because our bloodstream is also close to neutral.

4. Pressure. The more pressure the water has the more vitality it possesses. Strong flow insures your spring water is coming from a full aquifer.

5. Chemical Content. Most of the time spring water is free of chemicals but you may desire to chemically test your water to insure quality.

6. History. Talk to the people who are already using this spring. Does your spring have any history or lore? If people have been using it for a long time you can be sure it is safe!

To find a spring close to where you live please check out FindaSpring.com and if you know of one that is not on there please add it. This is a community site which allows us to share with each other the best drinking water available!

(To Be Continued… Click Here For Part 3)

I love you!