As women, we’re expected to be natural multitaskers. Just ask any mother about her average evening – helping the kids with their homework while she cooks dinner, exchanging news of the day with her partner, caring for an aging parent, feeding the pets, refusing telephone solicitations, opening the mail, and getting notes ready for her presentation at the next day’s meeting.

I should know…this is what my average evening looks like! I always feel like Dr. Seuss’ Cat In the Hat, swapping off one hat for another at a nanosecond’s notice. Teacher – swap! Mother – swap!  Spouse – swap! Caregiver – swap! – and all the rest…

Sound familiar? It’s all in a day’s work; we do it without even thinking about it. Oh, occasionally we get overloaded and forget to turn on the oven when we put the chicken in, so at dinnertime we’re faced with raw bird and the need for an emergency Plan B.  By and large, though, we manage to swap one hat for another without even breaking stride.

So you’d think, when it comes to multitasking as solopreneurs, women would be primed for success…right?  Truth is, most of us go in with that expectation, and quickly find the reality is very different.

For me, the realization didn’t come until I’d taken a step beyond my private shiatsu practice and my teaching schedule at the Baltimore School of Massage to create the Howard County Holistic Center. Then, finally, I understood that I had just added a towering pile of hats on top of those that were already teetering on my head. I could feel them threatening to topple over at any moment.

Not only was I the chief cook and bottle washer for two businesses – keeping the books, scheduling appointments, running the office, buying supplies, doing the marketing and networking on top of my teaching and the shiatsu services I was providing to my clients – but I was doing all of this on top of my family responsibilities!

What to do? The Holistic Center was a small startup; I couldn’t afford to hire an office manager, accountant, marketer, administrative assistant, and all the other support staff I needed! So I gritted my teeth and decided: somehow or other, I would make this work.

If you’ve ever been in that position – or if you’re facing that challenge now – you know the feelings.  They cover the spectrum from anxiety and obsessive list-checking (Did I scrub the toilets? Order new needles? Pay the bills? Check the next day’s appointments? Practice my talk ready for tomorrow’s workshop?), all the way to sheer overwhelm (Where am I going today? What am I doing in this room? What day is this?).

In a healing practice that required me to be grounded and centered, I was a one-woman vortex!

When I spoke of this challenge at On Purpose networking meetings, other women would tell me, “It’s cheaper to pay an expert than to have an amateur do it for free.”

It was all based on the old axiom: Time is Money, they said. For example, if you and an office manager each charged, say, $75 per hour, and you each spent the same amount of time to organize your office, you would have exactly equivalent values being spent and received.

Now, let’s say you had no aptitude for accounting, and it took you 16 stress-filled hours to run your quarterly tax report, when it would take a CPA two hours at $125 per hour. In this case, you would lose nearly $1000 (not counting the cost of Tension Tamer tea, massages, and other anxiety-reducers) by attempting to do it yourself!

But what about low-paying “service” tasks such as cleaning? The same principle applied! If you spent four hours at $75 per hour to clean your business property when a cleaning service would charge $35 per hour for the same length of time, you would lose $160 for that half-day. Actually, when you consider that you could not see clients during the time when you were cleaning, you would lose $460. Either way, my fellow solopreneurs told me, I lost money by trying to do all of the jobs involved in my business.

In theory, I could understand their point. But the simple fact remained: given the amount of income the business was earning, my budget could handle those losses better than it could handle the up-front expense of professional support. So I continued my whirl of frantic activity.

Finally, I whirled myself into such a frenzy that – as the Recovery folks would say – I hit bottom. I realized that not only was my frantic activity costing me time, sleep, peace of mind, and money – it was also costing my clients. I was missing appointments because I was double-booked, and even when I was physically present, I wasn’t giving the client my full attention …or the best treatment I was capable of giving.

That was the breaking point. Personally, I was willing to pay the price of my macho “I can do it” compulsion – but when it started hurting my clients, something had to change! Indeed, it was cheaper to pay an expert than to do it myself.

So I changed my ways. I set up a crackerjack team of gifted experts with plenty of experience in their fields: Amber Lee Scott of TrueUVoice.com for social media marketing and project coordination; Karen Brand of WingsOfTheSun.com for website design and development; Phila Hoopes for copywriting; Josie Thompson of JosieDesigns.com for design of print collateral, and Debbie Barry of Design4TheSoul.com for administrative assistance and Feng Shui.  (anybody else? –Accountant? Cleaners? Others?)

We sat down together, planned our strategies, and suddenly I felt my bowed shoulders straightening. I could lift my head; the weight of (how many?) hats was being gently lifted and redistributed around the conference table. I didn’t need to worry about mustering up the energy to do everything in addition to treating my clients and holding the larger vision for the business.

Finally, by trusting others to do their jobs for me, I was free to do my job!

Once upon a time, life was very uncomplicated. Humans were hunter-gatherers in a primal, natural environment, and depending on what sort of animal we encountered, we could be either predator or prey. Stress served a simple purpose then: to help us find food, or to help us avoid becoming food ourselves.

Our bodies evolved to survive in this environment…and in several million years of evolution, this hasn’t changed much. When we feel stressed, scared, or threatened, our cerebral cortex still sends a stress signal to the hypothalamus (a switch in the midbrain controlling the stress response). In response, the hypothalamus signals the sympathetic nervous system to release adrenaline-like hormones and prepare the body to fight or run away:

• Heartbeat, blood volume and blood pressure increase
• The heart sends blood to the large muscles to get ready for action
• Sweat glands release perspiration
• Pupils dilate to sharpen vision
• Hearing becomes more acute

Once the danger or worry passes, the hypothalamus gives the “all clear” to the sympathetic nervous system, and the body returns to a normal resting condition.

But today, you’re not facing woolly mammoths or saber-toothed tigers! Instead, you have wages to earn, deadlines to meet, bills to pay, and all the stresses of modern life. You can’t get rid of them in a single community hunt; instead, all of these stressors persist over time, and your brain continually signals for stress hormones to be released. Your body never seems to get the “all clear” to calm down the stress signal and relax.

• Stress disrupts your sleep cycle, resulting in fatigue, foggy thinking, and irritability.
• Your thyroid goes into overdrive, then becomes exhausted and slows down your metabolism, resulting in weight gain, depression and brain fog.
• Your adrenal glands secrete cortisol, which, over time, can keep you awake and hyper alert, distort your thinking, and make you irritable and agitated.

So what can you do about it?

Even if you can’t ditch your boss and your bills, you can still let go of some of the stressors in your life…

• Try reducing the sugar and caffeine in your diet, and eating more complex carbohydrates and proteins. This relieves high/low energy cycling and reduces wear and tear on your adrenals.
• If you’re truly feeling depleted by stress, talk to your holistic health care practitioner about bodywork and nutritional supplements that can support your thyroid and adrenals.
• Instead of eating lunch at your desk, go for a walk in a neighborhood green space and picnic on a park bench. Walking helps to release endorphins – the feel-good hormones – and natural environments help to relieve anxiety.
• Laughter defuses stress! Instead of ramping up your adrenaline levels with a thrilling crime drama on prime-time TV, consider a comedy.
• First thing in the morning and last thing at night, spend some quiet time in meditation. This will help you to begin the day with a quiet mind and go to sleep more peacefully.
• Hug your friends and family at least once a day, bond with a pet, or get a weekly massage– touch is a great stress reliever!
• Finally, instead of bottling up your stress, talk with a therapist or join a support group. You don’t need to suffer alone.

As the days grow chillier, you may be feeling the call to spruce up your living space before the long winter months. However – especially if you or someone in your family has respiratory problems such as asthma, COPD or emphysema – it’s a good idea to know about the products you’ll be using to clean or redecorate your home.

According to the EPA, indoor air can be two to five times more toxic than outside, even in industrial areas! Why? Roughly 80,000 chemicals and compounds make up our everyday household products, with about 1,800 added yearly. Only 200 have ever been tested for toxicity, and only five have ever been banned.

For example…

Volatile Organic Compounds (a.k.a. VOCs) show up in building materials, caulks and paint strippers, paints and lacquers, furnishings, cleaning supplies, pesticides, permanent markers, glues, copier and printer toner, and much more. The fumes that off-gas from these products have health effects including eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches, nausea, and damage to the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system.

Phthalates are a family of chemicals used as softeners and solvents in products including vinyl (synthetic linoleum, PVC, Plastic #3), air fresheners, detergents, cleaning supplies, and just about anything containing “fragrance” as an ingredient. They can damage the liver, kidneys, lungs and reproductive system, particularly the developing genitals of young boys.

Formaldehyde is a toxic adhesive, bonding agent and solvent that acts as a preservative in some paints and coating products. Most often it’s used as an adhesive resin in pressed wood, plywood, and medium-density fiberboard products such sub-flooring, decorative wall covering, shelving, cabinetry and furniture. Formaldehyde is also used to add permanent-press qualities to clothing and draperies. Health effects may include eye, nose, and throat irritation; wheezing and coughing; asthma attacks; fatigue; skin rash, and severe allergic reactions.

You probably noticed that cleaning supplies showed up in two of these three rogues’ lists…and for good reason. In 1989, the EPA disclosed that toxins included in common household cleaners (often inhaled as fumes during cleaning) are three times more likely to cause cancer than are other air pollutants. According to a 15-year study by the National Cancer Association, women who work in the home are at a 54% higher risk of developing cancer than women who work outside the home. The American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) warns that household cleaning products are a leading cause of long and short term poisoning in adults as well as in children.

What can you do to protect yourself and your loved ones?

First of all – educate yourself! Before you buy a product, check it out in the U.S. Health and Human Services Household Products Database. For a listing of products that have been screened and certified as safe, see GreenSeal.org.

Second – locate sources of healthy products. Look in the National Green Pages for eco-friendly hardware and houseware stores, or, if you’re feeling proactive, ask at your local stores for products without these toxins. They may already have them in stock – and if they don’t, you are providing an important educational service for your community.

Finally – with any product you use, always follow the instructions on the label, and don’t hesitate to call the manufacturer with questions if the instructions aren’t clear.

Just as you learn to be proactive about improving your health, you can empower yourself to create a healthy, safe environment for yourself and your loved ones!

If you’ve been wrestling with heart or blood pressure problems, and feeling guilty about needing your morning java, here’s some good news: it seems some new studies are flip-flopping the verdict yet again! From being an adrenal-exhausting, blood-pressure-skyjacking, cholesterol-boosting, diuretic and dessicant (dehydrator), coffee is now getting its image refurbished…

Women who drank one or more cups daily during a 10-year study had a 25 percent lower risk of stroke than women who drank less than one cup a day.

Other long-term studies indicate that coffee may not increase the risk of high blood pressure over time.

While coffee can raise cholesterol levels, filtered brewing can reduce this risk.

So how should you interpret this new information, when study results seem to change depending on who’s performing and funding the research? Embrace one set of data and ignore the rest? Try frantically to keep up with the latest news and change your diet with every new development? Throw up your hands and say, “I’m going to die of something one day; might as well enjoy myself”?

We don’t think so.

Sure, studies can give basic information, and there are some common-sense truths that stand firm (no, that 1600-calorie burger is not a heart-healthy meal choice, no matter how temptingly it’s presented). But unless you dive into the study’s parameters – how the experiments were set up, who was doing the research, etc. – you’re seeing incomplete data. So how do you find the truth?

In the end, your body will give you the answers you need.

When you begin to listen to your body, you learn that it has its own wisdom. Once you start paying attention to its signals, you can easily determine what’s good for you and what isn’t. Here are just a few tips to get you started:

Ask your holistic health care practitioner to teach you kinesiology (muscle-testing) to identify your body’s response to a food or drink before you ingest it.

Keep a diary of what you eat and drink, and note your body’s responses. Does one cup of java open your eyes, while the second starts your heart pounding wildly? Write it down.

As you become more attuned to your body, take time to check in about everything you put on your plate. Is there an inward “Yes!” or an inward shudder?

As you note your body’s responses, ask your health care practitioner “why?” Further testing can give a broader picture of your overall health.

Be flexible – your body has different needs at different times. Adapt your choices to match.

Bottom line? While the latest studies can help, only you and your holistic health practitioners can determine the diet and lifestyle that will support your cardiovascular health and total wellness. Talk to us!

Ah, fall…the children are off to school and grown-up schedules ramp up to match. With the first cool breezes of September, business schedules snap awake from their vacation torpor and meetings cluster on every available evening and weekend.

Whether you’re a solo professional, a student, or a parent safeguarding your children’s needs as well as your own, you’re carrying a lot on your back…often literally, all day long! And as the summer styles slip into fall, this is a good time to make sure that you’re carrying it in a healthy way.

Handbags, diaper bags, schoolbags, briefcases, laptop cases…any chiropractor will tell you that a well-designed bag can make the difference between daily comfort and daily pain. To keep your back strong and healthy, keep these points in mind when you’re choosing and using your everyday bag:

Keep it light – Buy the lightest, smallest bag that will hold your daily necessities. If you’re carrying more than 6.5 pounds in your shoulder bag (whether it’s ergonomically designed or not!), look to redistribute the load in a backpack. If you or your child is consistently carrying around a bulging backpack, consider buying one with a metal frame, wheels, and a handle for pulling.

Choose your bag realistically: if you’re going to be carrying your laptop in it, make sure you have space for all the peripherals, and include them in your weight estimation.

Be sure your bag has wide, padded straps to protect your shoulders.

Choose a bag with lots of compartments to distribute weight more evenly.

Wear a backpack high up, between your shoulder blades, not down on your lumbar region. If you’re using a shoulder bag, switch it from one shoulder to the other.

If you’re buying a bag for your child, use this Fitting Guide for A Child’s Backpack.

Test your bag when it’s loaded up. If you’re slumping over or leaning to one side with the weight, it’s either too heavy, unevenly distributed, poorly fitted…or the wrong design for your build.

Don’t let stuff accumulate in your bag. Go through your bag frequently and clear out whatever you aren’t using. Keep the things you’ll need later on (or someday) in the glove box of your car, a locker, or a convenient desk drawer.

Finally, even with the lightest, most ergonomically-designed bag, it’s important to take care of your spine and back muscles. Do stretching exercises to keep your back limber, and consider seeing a chiropractor and massage therapist regularly to release tension and adjust misalignments before they become serious.

At first it was nothing much. A cramp or two, a passing queasiness, and “Frank” passed it off as gas. But it kept coming back, getting steadily worse, until putting any pressure on his midsection was nearly unbearable. That was when he started going to the doctors…

Eleven specialists, 4 CT and PT scans, and a small home pharmacy later, Frank was still in pain. He’d gotten 11 terrifying diagnoses ranging from lung cancer to spinal stenosis, with drugs for each one, and none of the prescriptions had any effect. “If I’d been a junkie, I’d have been in heaven,” he says now.

Finally, he came to the realization: I could just keep believing these horrific diagnoses, go home, and write my will – or I could throw away these useless meds, research my problems myself, seek my inner wisdom, and make my own decisions.

His  GI specialist did a colonoscopy and said he found “some Helicobacter pylori.”  H. Pylori lives in most people’s guts, where it does no harm unless it multiplies past a manageable level. “When that happens,” Frank said, “the standard treatment is threefold: two heavy-duty antibiotics and an acid reducer, two times a day for seven days. I said, ‘This will kill anything inside me,’ and chose a gentler way.”

“The guidance was clear that the way for me was herbal,” he said. After a great deal of research, he learned that a number of herbs were especially suited to calming symptoms like his. He put them together and began using them – and within a week, the symptoms subsided. They remained minor for the next 18 months.

It was just after his sister was diagnosed with lung cancer that Frank’s symptoms returned, full-blown. “I looked at my life and saw the cause of the problem,” he said. “I resumed the herbs, and found that they didn’t work at the level they previously did.”

He did more research and found a recent in-vitro and in-vivo trial showed that curcumin, extracted from turmeric, arrests H. pylori growth. The trial showed effectiveness against at least 65 different strains of the gastric microbe, irrespective of the genetic make-up of the strain. In-vivo effects shown in H. pylori infected mice suggest “immense” therapeutic potential as curcumin is highly effective in eradication, as well as being restorative to H. pylori-induced gastric damage ( De R e al. Antimicrobial activity of curcumin against Helicobacter pylori isolates from India and during infections in mice. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 2009; 53(4): 1592-7).

He also learned that cranberries help– but that you can’t eat enough of them in a day to make a difference. “So I went to the health food store and bought turmeric and cranberry capsules,” he recalls, “and began double and triple-dosing myself: where 500 mg of turmeric was the recommended dose, I took 1500, and so forth. And now, the pain is almost completely gone.”

Today, Frank is working with an internist (M.D.) who also practices Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture and herbalism, and has been inspired to study herbalism  himself.

This is just about the best success story of “going with your gut” – in several senses! – that we’ve ever heard. After hearing the dire diagnoses, Frank opted to do his own research, seek his inner wisdom, and choose the practitioners who could genuinely help him.

We’re not recommending that you fire your mainstream M.D. – far from it! Mainstream medicine does have its benefits and uses, especially in high-risk emergency situations.

However, especially with long-term illnesses, when the diagnosis is unclear or the treatment is dire, we suggest that you use the precautionary principle and explore the gentler alternative paths first. Even if they appear to be ineffective, they often offer therapeutic value over and above reducing the immediate symptoms, while their side effects are far less drastic (and may be nothing at all!).  And at best, they may resolve the root cause of the problem entirely, as Frank’s treatment did.

We’ll discuss mainstream pharmaceuticals in another post…for now, however, we encourage you not to hesitate in questioning your doctor and seeking out your own solutions. This is your body and your life; you have a right to correct answers and appropriate treatment!

These days, it’s tempting to say you’re financially stable if you are free from debt and can pay your bills every month. But no financial advisor would ever tell you to settle for simple subsistence on a knife-edge, where any crisis can throw you into a shortfall! Instead, they’ll tell you to build your savings and invest in money-making strategies to ensure your financial comfort long into the future.

Translate that financial perspective to health care, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of how we see wellness here at Howard County Holistic Center.

It’s not just a matter of being free from disease or pain.  Instead, it’s…

Knowing that you can trust your body to do whatever you want it to do…

Having the stamina not only to do the necessities, but also to do the fun things…

Feeling fully awake and energized from the time you wake up until you go to bed…

Being clear-headed, having all of your brain-power online…

Being able to balance your own emotions, not being swept away by hormonal high tides…

You get the idea! There is a tremendous difference between bare basic survival, putting up with aches, pains, brain-fog, energy-crashes, and mood swings, versus total wellness, with every system of your body functioning optimally.

Just as a responsible financial advisor is dedicated to your long-term wealth, total wellness is our goal for you!

Just as you probably have an insurance agent, a bookkeeper, a tax advisor, and an investment advisor to support you in building and maintaining your financial health, you need to have a wellness team:  an integrative physician or naturopath to keep the big picture in focus, along with other professionals whom you can question, talk to, and trust: perhaps an acupuncturist, a psychotherapist,  a nutritional counselor, etc. Each member of your wellness team supplies his or her own unique expertise in bringing you to full mind/body/spirit health.

And just as no financial advisor cannot give you wealth without your participation in the process, no healer can simply hand you total wellness in a pill or a supplement!

We see your journey as an active, long-term partnership, in which your team helps you to recognize and respond to your body’s signals, and to make appropriate decisions regarding your treatment. Meanwhile, it’s our job to provide you with support, information, treatment and – most important of all – empowerment as you take ownership of your total wellness!

For years, those words – It’s all in your head – used to be a stock response to any symptoms medicine could not explain. And patients would go away feeling shamed, blamed, dismissed and abandoned by their health care provider.

So why are we saying it?

Believe us, our goal is not to shame or dismiss anyone! Instead, we aim to empower you to take ownership of your body/mind/spirit capabilities…by discovering your capacity to affect your physical processes of disease and wellness.

You’ve probably heard many times that the physical world – including our bodies – is composed of energy, and that the body, mind, and spirit cannot be separated. The days of seeing the body as a machine are long over, fortunately! Instead, research indicates that our thought processes can set up the conditions for physical disease …and the degree to which we heal our minds and spirits can also contribute to our physical wellness.

Notable physicians such as Bernie Siegel, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D., have written a great deal about this phenomenon. Their books, such as Love, Medicine and Miracles and Healing from the Heart, document cases of men and women who tapped into an inner wisdom to achieve healing, even in the midst of major illnesses such as cancer and heart disease.

You may be thinking, “If only I could do that!” We can’t offer any promises, but we can offer some tips that may help to boost your healing process…

Create an energetic environment that supports healing. Sounds easy, right? But how many times in this culture do we put ourselves in energy fields that do not affirm health and life – horror movies, violent video games and TV shows, angry music, etc.? What are the thoughts and emotions that such media inspire? Think about the energetic environment you’re creating around yourself, and choose to create one that nurtures your mind, body and spirit.

Affirm your worth. Do you have a lurking belief, in some part of your being, that you don’t deserve to have a happy, healthy, abundant life? Shame – the core sense that we’re unworthy or undeserving – is virtually an epidemic in this culture, and is often hidden under distractions such as work, TV, and so forth. Take some time to look at the unexamined assumptions beneath your words and actions. If you see that this is part of your inner conversation, please, talk to us, and we will offer resources for healing.

Choose joy and laughter. When Norman Cousins was diagnosed with an incurable illness, he watched one classic comedy movie after another…and his practice of laughter, along with other therapies, resulted in his healing. Medical science has proven now that laughter reduces pain and stress hormones, strengthens the immune system, releases endorphins, and has a positive effect on every system of the body.

Meditate. There are so many health benefits to meditation: It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate, lowers blood pressure, enhances the immune system,  decreases muscle tension, increases serotonin production (thus reducing depression, insomnia and headaches), reduces anxiety attacks, reduces pre- menstrual syndrome; and helps in post-operative healing. Beyond this, meditation helps you to tap into your own deep inner knowing, body wisdom, and Spirit connection.

Embrace community. Many people, when they receive a frightening diagnosis, choose to isolate and keep their journey a secret from all but a few. “Nobody wants to hear about my health issues,” they say. We’re not suggesting that you share every last symptom with everyone you meet…but we do urge you to tell your family, friends, and spiritual community that you are facing challenges..and allow yourself to receive their concern and support. In a culture where self-sufficiency is expected, showing vulnerability and receive love can go against our conditioning…and it’s good for the soul!

Most of all – talk to us here at HCHC. With our integrated approach, we can devote the energy and expertise of a full team of healers to your situation. Healing isn’t limited to one organ or system; it’s a whole-person journey. Let us walk it with you.

When was the last time you promised yourself – One day I’m going to make the time for a mental-health day. Go to a spa, get a massage, really treat myself to some serious stress relief. Yes – one day. When I’ve got the time…the money…

That’s a wonderful idea – and we fully support you in taking that day! But in the meantime, Howard County Holistic Center would like to treat you to a calming session of acupressure for relaxation and wellness every month.

Every first Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Member Practitioner Carol Wetherill offers SEVA stress release and acupressure treatments for minor discomforts such as aches, pains, headaches, and so forth in a free monthly “Spirit of SEVA” clinic at the Center.

What Is SEVA? SEVA (the Sanskrit word for compassionate service) is an acupressure protocol, designed as a compassionate response to support efforts in the 9/11 tragedy in New York City to relieve shock and stress. It has since been adopted as a means of self-care, designed specifically to ease the human stress response and support overall well-being.

SEVA sessions are offered in the spirit of compassionate service.  We will ask you to sign a consent form, acknowledging that this session is not a treatment for any specific illnesses and does not replace medical attention, but purely for relaxation and self-awareness.

A typical SEVA session is done on a client, fully clothed, lying on a table, or sitting in a chair if needed. The practitioner begins with a gentle leg release (stretch) and then uses gentle finger pressure applied to points on the body to access energy pathways. The session concludes with a gentle leg release (stretch), inviting balance, centering, and stress release.

This gentle practice of acupressure uses the same therapeutic principles as acupuncture. Specific points on the surface of the skin release energy that flows in predictable pathways throughout the human body. The specific acupoints used in the SEVA Stress Release were chosen carefully for their multi-functional properties. Each point is accessed with a special style of touch, and in a particular order to facilitate an optimal deep, relaxing experience.

The Chinese healing traditions make no distinction between the body, mind, and spirit. When one system is addressed, all the others are affected as well. This is why we say that the SEVA Stress Release is a “whole-being” approach.  It is based on the Process Acupressure® work of Aminah Raheem, PhD., author of Soul Return and Soul Lightening.

While monthly clinic services are provided free of charge, financial donations are welcomed, and are used for a local or global service project. Or you may choose to offer an act of kindness to another to pay forward the benefits you receive.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, or to get additional information on full acupressure sessions, workshops to learn the SEVA protocol, volunteering to participate in an upcoming research study, or subscribing to a newsletter on SEVA and related services, please contact Carol L. Wetherill LMT, MTP at 301-980-6725 or cwetherill1@verizon.net.

We hear it again and again…how people who stay intellectually active stand less chance of falling victim to Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. “Do the crossword puzzle,” we’re told. “Play Scrabble or Sudoku! Try the strategy games on your computer or WII!”

Well, if you’re anything like us, that’s all great…up to a point. But sooner or later, newspaper games and virtual reality start to pall, and you want a taste of the real thing. What then?

It’s rather sad, really – in this culture we’ve been so conditioned to become passive receivers of entertainment that we feel lost when we don’t have a ready-made pastime available. We wind up watching the television, surfing the Internet, playing online games…just killing time, wondering what to do with the boredom we’re feeling. Maybe we should get a hobby…scrapbooking, maybe…

Surely, we think, there must be more to life than this!

So I want to invite you to consider a possibility: what if there is more? And what if that “More” is waiting for you to take the initiative to come and find it?

Our mothers used to tell us – If you become a perpetual learner, you’ll never be bored. They used to point out the way children are endlessly learning (that is, before they get the message that learning is boring and uncool). Look – there’s a bug poking its head into a flower! Why? What is it doing there? What kind of a bug is it? Oh wow – you mean that it makes honey out of that yellow stuff it’s got all over its body? How? – and on, and on….

You get the idea…

• What if you started exploring ways of increasing your garden’s yield – and you discovered information about companion planting and permaculture guilds that can triple (or more) your output?
• What if your migraines led you to look for ways of reducing toxins in your house – and you discovered nonchemical solutions like essential oils and diatomaceous earth?
• What if you decided you wanted to learn to speak a new language – and you discovered you could be paid to take international vacations as a house-sitter?

There’s no telling what you may discover once you start asking questions and actively pursuing answers. Trust us, you’ll not only protect your brain function; you may find a whole new direction for your life!