Recently I have begun sharing how my spring and summer is spent planting, gathering of flowers, leave & roots to make wonderful remedies. The purpose comes from hearing my clients express their concern, guilt, resentment and dependency upon pharma care products a
s my hope is to model a different pattern and experience. I believe that pharma care lacks love of any living thing and is teaching us not to value ourselves. Therefore my hope of intention is to bring back love and care that is the bases for a healing outcome. When I work with nature in such a personal way I love it and would like to say feel the love back. This is the foundation I would like for healing and support. To take something that I feel appreciation for empowered by being a partner in the process of making it equals loving oneself!
Do you live in your own culture of love & respect?
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged #yyj, Creating a Culture of Love, H, Healing, Home Remedies, Nature, Personal Development, Renee Lindstrom, Victoria
Discovering Gumweed along West Coast of Victoria
growing along the rocky banks of Victoria’s beaches during a walk. The first thing you notice is the sticky resin on your hands when picking just one flower head. You know it must have some interesting qualities!
Researching this flower for more information and to confirm its name, Grindelia squarrosa, I had to smile when finding a well-respected international herbalist’s description of gumweed that included he found them along the rocky outcrops of Victoria’s beaches here on Vancouver Island!
I imagine that you have seen them on your walks!
Cough Syrup
Discovering that they are great with honey in a cough syrup mixture and organic, I decided to infuse a batch. Buying a bottle of cough syrup costs $12.00 and up. I decided to buy a large jug of honey on sale for $12.00 and make my own! The mason jar I am using would equal four purchased bottles of cough syrup or more.
Imagine reaching for your cough syrup and knowing exactly where the healing ingredients was picked and processed. That the few fingerprints on them are mostly your own!
Within a short time of adding the flowers to the honey, it became a rich, dark colour and thickened.
Tincture
I also decided to create a tincture using vodka that is great for colds, sore throats, and coughs!
In Plants of the Rocky Mountains by Ryan Drum, gum from the pounded flower heads was applied to poison ivy inflammations and taken internally to relieve coughing and congestion. “Extracts from the dried flower heads and leaves have sedative, antispasmodic and expectorant qualities…[and] are used in modern medications for treating asthma and bronchitis,” the book explains.
Books by Renee Lindstrom
Early Childhood
Available on Amazon – Playing with Cattails
- Hardcover
- Kindle
Follow on:
Awareness through Nature
Visit Renee Lindstrom’s pages @reneelindstrom
Renee Lindstrom, GCFP,
Feldenkrais® Practitioner since 2007, Value-Based Communication & Empathy Coach since 2004, Art of Placement since 2000, Founder of Greater Victoria Peace & Intercultural Celebrations since 2010 & Greater Victoria Labyrinths since 2012, #yyj Peace Week Calendar Founder – 2014 & 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged #yyj, #yyj flowers, antispasmodic, asthma, bronchitis, expectorant, Flowers along West Coast, Greater Victoria Communities, Grindelia Cough Syrup, Grindelia squarrosa, Gum Weed, Home Made Herbal Cough Syrup, Ocean Flowers, poison ivy inflammations, relieve coughing and congestion, sedative, Victoria, Yellow sticky ocean flowers
Feverfew for migraines & skin conditions!
Ah, wonderful feverfew. I have noticed while picking feverfew that my spirits are raised and my tiredness declines naturally. It is like a fog leaves my brain! This spring I have picked leaves and flowers to dry for tea, make a tincture and a soothing salve. 
I haven’t grown feverfew this year. I have found it growing in the oddest places in my local community. Finding it has been a reminder to fill my garden with it next year!
…
- TEA
Tea can be made with fresh or dried feverfew. The drying process only takes a few days. Once dried they will be stored in brown paper bags for a time before being stored in glass jars.
- Tincture
I chose to make my tincture with vodka this year. The flowers are in a small glass jar covered in this spirit. It will will sit for several weeks before the tincture is ready. Each day this wonderful medicinal tincture is given a small shake while being admired.
Imagine having remedies that are appreciated for their beauty as they creatively make themselves.
- Oil for Soothing Salve
Feverfew flowers immersed and steeping in olive oil! A test run with a small mason jar first now followed by a pint size jar. The test jar was steamed in a double boiler for close to six hours and then cooled. Once cooled it was combined with beeswax, plantain oil and calendula oil to make a soothing salve. It is currently being tested on these gardener hands that need to be in good shape for my somatic movement practice!
Costs for my adding this to this years healing arsenal:
Flowers, Leaves, Solar Energy, Effort & Time – free
Olive Oil, Vodka, Jars – current market prices or on sale
Electricity – going rate
The cost of picking feverfew is small in comparisons to the cost of pharmaceutical drugs. The savings could be enormous.
The pleasure experienced while picking these flowers out in our stunning natural beauty around Greater Victoria communities is priceless. This is followed by feelings of pleasure whilst drying and preparing these leaves and flowers to steep and share their essences in forms for my benefit. Each time these remedies will be used this year these memories will be included in the healing process!
Feverfew is widely recommended for:
-
Relief for migraines and a preventative for them when taken on a daily basis. Recommended by experts such as Dr. Andrew Weil as an effective alternative to pharma products.
-
Relief for arthritis, fevers, muscle tension and pain.
-
Used to lower blood pressure, lessen stomach irritation, stimulate the appetite, improve digestion and kidney function.
-
A beneficial treatment for colitis, dizziness, tinnitus and menstrual problems.
When using feverfew one has a renewed sense of well-being!
Feverfew is a herbal remedy for humans, cats and dogs. However with cats and dogs only tiny amounts (half a leave) are recommended a day. Special care when preparing and drying feverfew is needed if one has pets.
Renee Lindstrom, GCFP,
Feldenkrais® Practitioner since 2007, Value-Based Communication & Empathy Coach since 2004, Art of Placement since 2000, Founder of Greater Victoria Peace & Intercultural Celebrations since 2010 & Greater Victoria Labyrinths since 2012, #yyj Peace Week Calendar Founder – 2014 & 2015
16 Reasons why to explore Body, Mind & Heart Connection @ Inside Awareness?
INTEGRATION, LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
- Experience a deeper connection to self .
- Increase self-value and trust in yourself, knowing you are doing what’s right for you.
- Connect to your boundaries and learn how to voice them in a safe way without conflict!
- Stop compromising.
- Learn how to have choice.
- Improve your posture! Walk, sit, stand, sleep, breathe, think and feel better.
- Increase your understanding of your self image and how it is holding your back from success!
- Stop feeling alone & lonely?
- Turn abusive relationships into empowering experiences!
- Stop doubting yourself when it comes to decision making.
- Learn how to transition from taking things personally by developing skills to translate difficult messages.
- Move through fear to build relationships and find love.
- Understand how to resolve differences.
- Improve your odds of finding partnerships where you are valued.
- Ending your relationships with more ease, respect and moving forward with less attachment!
- Becoming aware of the culture created by your parenting style (or your parents and their’s before them).
Read more about Inside Awareness
Renee Lindstrom, GCFP,
Feldenkrais® Practitioner since 2007, Value-Based Communication & Empathy Coach since 2004, Art of Placement since 2000, Founder of Greater Victoria Peace & Intercultural Celebrations since 2010 & Greater Victoria Labyrinths since 2012, #yyj Peace Week Calendar Founder – 2014 & 2015
Nonverbal communication – Happy Expressions
View these facial expressions and notice what happens inside you!
Imagine telling a child (or anyone) you are happy without any of these facial clues.
Now consider how you use the word happy. Are you honestly expressing happiness because you have happy sensations in the moment or are you incorrectly using it to get your way by saying – I am happy that you, she, he, they……
Renee Lindstrom, GCFP,
Feldenkrais® Practitioner since 2007, Value-Based Communication & Empathy Coach since 2004, Art of Placement since 2000, Founder of Greater Victoria Peace & Intercultural Celebrations since 2010 & Greater Victoria Labyrinths since 2012, #yyj Peace Week Calendar Founder – 2014 & 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged expressions, facial expressions, Feelings, happy, Language, non-verbal communication
Did you know that it is easier to smile than it is to frown?
Try it!
- Check out the muscles in your face as you smile and as you frown.
- Notice the different experience of the two. One is uplifting and one is draining.
- Which posture is familiar to you?
- Look in a mirror to see if you are smiling because if your little self only frowned growing up, you will think you are smiling but others will see a frown!
Now from a somatic perspective smile and frown again, however, notice your inner sensations.
- Which one creates and expands breathe and which one makes it difficult to breathe?
- Which one lifts your spirits up and brings you into a more upright posture and which one drops your spirit with your body sinking or collapsing?
- Now imagine facing this smile and this frown in conversation and how you would interpret it and react to it.
Now practice smiling and frowning at others and notice their reactions.
Emotions in self:
Exercise and develop face muscles and behavior!
Emotions in communication:
Develop connection or disconnection!
Emotions in environment:
Create a cultural experience!
At Inside our focus is on self-awareness and empowerment through somatic learning to nurture deeper intelligence of when one is in a state of connected (being presence) or disconnected (fight, flight or fight) by understanding cause of ones own reactions. Pivotal point of re-balancing. This includes perception, movement posture, sensations (sometimes called emotions) and environmental causes.
Connect to learn how you can book privately to discuss your needs or learn about workshops you can take!
Renee Lindstrom, GCFP,
Feldenkrais® Practitioner since 2007, Value-Based Communication & Empathy Coach since 2004, Art of Placement since 2000, Founder of Greater Victoria Peace & Intercultural Celebrations since 2010 & Greater Victoria Labyrinths since 2012, #yyj Peace Week Calendar Founder – 2014 & 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Basic Feelings Face Images, Communication, Emotions, emotions & responses Environment - stimulus for generating responses, Fight, flight, Fright, happy, happy muscles, Right Brain Hemisphere Reactions fight, sad, sad muscles, Self Awareness, somatic education, Somatic Learning, Where do emotions come from?
Mouth Guards, Splints, Migraines, Off Work. Jaw stories, what’s yours
At the beginning of each workshop the participants share their story, if they choose. This gives me some idea of what is going on for them and hearing each others experience seems to lets them relax.
Are you like this angry fish with your jaw pain?
What is the story of your jaw?
I hear about the strategies the participants are given such as; surgery, splints and braces with no guarantees, or that they are going to physical therapy, having chiropractic adjustments and massages without lasting change.
In our restorative jaw workshop participants learn how to use their own movement increasing their abilities to change their own experience of a tight and tense jaw to that of a relaxed jaw. They end the workshop knowing how to:
- expand their physical movement to use their jaw differently
- re-focus their mind from thinking of solutions to integrating body intelligence.
The mind is included in our movement lessons so there is a deeper integration of learning how the mouth, tongue, lower jaw, neck, shoulders, arms, ribs, pelvis and more, are apart of the jaw function! Our jaw is more that our teeth! Get back to being body inclusive!
Our jaw is more than out teeth!
Lets change a culture that shifted our jaw health to a focus on our teeth’!
Feed back
“My mouth feels more vital somehow!”
Benefits of this workshops?’
- saving money on dental bills
- reducing the tension in ones jaw
- reducing pain and migraines
- being able to cope better and enjoy life more
Book a private session & learn how to change your experience through your own abilities!
Renee Lindstrom, GCFP,
Feldenkrais® Practitioner since 2007, Value-Based Communication & Empathy Coach since 2004, Art of Placement since 2000, Founder of Greater Victoria Peace & Intercultural Celebrations since 2010 & Greater Victoria Labyrinths since 2012, #yyj Peace Week Calendar Founder – 2014 & 2015
Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning 