Tag Archives: Wellness

‘Awareness through Nature’ This weeks featured web pages to support higher knowledge topic @ Inside Awareness

Posted on December 10, 2025 | Leave a comment

by Renee Lindstrom, founder of Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning

Example of a foraging focus that demonstrates learning about a topic that retrains the lost art of nature wild crafting and connection

Pictures by Renee Lindstrom

These web pages, Awareness through Nature, were created in 2014. The pages were to document a journey into nature’s abundance in the surrounding landscapes of front and back yards, and the city blocks in the neighbourhood. It began with edible weeds, unique garden plants, herbs, trees, bulbs, roots, leaves, etc. It included naturally occurring growth and those purposefully planted.

The intention was to explore their nutritional and medicinal benefits, and create homemade tinctures, teas, infusions, essences, skin and hair products, and natural dyes.

This spring and summer, attention shifted back onto these pages as foraging came back into focus. The owner of some rental units let the landscaping go, and it inspired the wild crafting to emerge. Foraging has continued into winter. This includes mushrooms, lichen and tree needles for carbonizing water.

More new additions – three new affiliates. The intention for these affiliates is for those who are not actively making their own plant remedies. I do make them for my personal use and share ways for others to create them, yet, know not everyone has the time to make them. Here are fun and reliable sources for those interested in natural remedies.

  • Energy Muse
  • Crystal Herbs
  • Wishgarden Herbs

These three affiliates join the original Richters Herbs.

Energy Muse offers a nice range of crystals and accessories. This year, they began offering frequency generators that I am in love with. Crystals Herbs offers flower essences, while Wish Garden Herbs offers plant tinctures. A reminder that Richters offers garden seeds, plants, dried herbs and recently began to offer essential oils. Their logos are along the sidebar at the top of the page. Tap the logos to visit their websites.

Back to the evolution of these web pages. This site is one of many developed. The process was to learn how to interact online for business development and integrate lessons in a way that made sense. The streams of focus needed to have a unified focus. This year it came into alignment and came together.

At the time of developing practice sites, I spent time supporting coaching students in building theirs. This included social media accounts. One of the intentions was to offer them a way through the constraints they stated blocked them from moving forward. It was interesting to work with them to build these online accounts, only to discover that this isn’t what was blocking them from moving forward. It was a lack of confidence. It was a fantastic way for them to begin to let go of the story dialogue and begin focusing on their self-confidence.

The web pages have more than one learning focus at the Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning. The center’s educational programs focus on lifestyles and are broken down into nine life areas. There are webpages for each of these nine life areas. Some of the webpages in each of the nine life areas may crossover into other life areas. Like this webpage. It is located in the higher learning life area, yet I would like to announce that its creation has a perspective that links it to the career life area. The articles featured focus on learning the abundance available in the natural world. However, the development of it provides another learning focus on intention and building sites. This suggests the web pages will have an individual intent for cultivating awareness, and all the sites together will have an intention to encourage the use of intention, placement and the five elements in building business sites. The purpose isn’t to teach building sites specifically. It is about expanding consciousness of alignment with intention and the natural elements, and the social conditioning aspect that is becoming culturally conditioned behaviour in business.

I hope you will like and subscribe to stay updated on the weekly featured sites, or click the link to the feature webpages below to check it out to get a felt sense of the site and offerings.

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Mastery of Fear & Anxiety stimulated by the physical environment of pain, from memories of past pain somatically

Posted on October 1, 2025 | Leave a comment

by Renee Lindstrom, GCFP, Author of Somatic Archetypes

On Podcast – @ReneeLindstromofficial

Since 2007, this author has had the opportunity to work with people who have had long-term chronic physical pain. In these cases, the body has been the environmental stimulus to inner messages and emotional responsive reactions. Usually, in Canada, people in these circumstances will seek out acute care to resolve the pain complaints. In some cases, the results of seeking solutions can backfire. The backfire comes from the interactive seeds of socially conditioned language. In this health wellness area, physical constraints from pain, the evaluative assessments by practitioners are conceptual and focused on fixing strategies. Sometimes this works, and other times it doesn’t. It only works with certain personalities. In some personalities, it increases anxiety. The current socially conditioned language is such that some people take it personally, which essentially means internalizing it. Others brush it off. Both responses have their peculiar consequences.

There is another communication perspective that is grounded in somatic awareness. In this form of communication, it starts where you are in the moment. It is not conceptual. This means the first focus is not on labelling and diagnosing, it is on the behaviour. Yes, physical function has a behaviour! It’s called one’s posture and postural transitions.

Here is an example I have created to demonstrate what a somatic response might be. It’s not based upon anyone in particular. In this example, someone is seeking understanding, support and reassurance after the disillusionment of conceptual assessments and labelling………

Here is my written response:

  • Nerve pain assessment:

With regards to the nerves in these circumstances, they were the last to be ignited from the environmental stimulus contributing to their flare-up.  Stands to reason, if the environment calms down, they will as well.

  • Somatic perspective of integration between mental, emotional and physical:

I am going to respond from a meditative mindfulness perspective.

You’re triggered. Something has happened that has stimulated past reactions to old injuries and events in your life that have come forward into the present.  Perhaps not with conscious awareness in a way to catch yourself, however, somatically.  It’s a somatic response directing your focus of attention through reactive conditioning.  A reaction that is familiar and shaped by past events (muscle, mental and emotional memory).  Does it present in the way that has been suggested?  Perhaps to someone who has learned to diagnose and label living experiences as conditions.  

So, let’s look at the past.  Yes, you have acute situations that have created a familiar pattern of response that has reared its ugly head due to the many factors all playing out at the same time.   Unfortunately, this means your physical body constraints in your movement patterns are similar to ones that have given you grief in the past.  Your responsive reaction is conditioned by those old experiences.  

How to engage your focus of attention differently? 

  • By shifting your focus of attention. 

Easy for me to write as I am not feeling the pain you’re having.  However, the hyper focus on it can increase the levels of discomfort more than 10-fold. 

How to shift your focus of attention? 

  • By changing the thought sentence structure in your inner mental pattern of thinking.  

Shift what if, or ……(whatever you’re saying to yourself), to, I have been here before and moved forward out of it. 

Your new mantra, “I have been here before and moved forward out of it.  I have been……..”

Micro Movements to shift focus of attention for calming the nervous system

The hyper focus is an aspect of your brain that is an alarm.  It is a warning system of the brain, and right now, yours is in a glitch as all sorts of events have hit all at once.  In meditation, we would focus on our breath.  This is the absolute hardest when experiencing this glitch.  

2.  So, move your body in the breathing patterns I have shown you.  This is where the body’s micro movement abilities can come in differently and play a big part in calming this glitch down.  Right now, the glitch is telling you an elusive story that your body is letting you down, and it’s not your safe haven in the moment.  So let’s change it.  The body can be fluid or it can be rigid through the constraints conditioning it.  Your body has gone into constraint due to circumstances.  That’s all. 

  • What do we know from past interactions? 

The physical function is not isolated from the emotional reactions and thought stories in our mental process.  It’s all one process,  all stimulated together and interplaying off one another.  Your glitch is your emotions reacting to the stories you are telling yourself.  What you’re telling yourself is stimulated by the real felt patterns you are somatically aware of.  The mantra above is what you tell yourself immediately upon catching yourself having these thought patterns that are not based upon the felt senses in the moment. 

  • Why?

You can take care of yourself.  You’ve done it before and have a historical pattern of it.  You are identifying the past and what didn’t work, now identify what did.  Balance it out. See number 3.

3.  In meditation, we learn to create gaps between our thoughts to calm our thoughts that run together and create havoc in our emotional responses.  We learn that thoughts in our mind run through in patterns that are not logical.

So we focus on our breath in sitting and watch these damn thoughts while attempting to become present in the moment.  Soon, we notice that the thoughts slow down.  I mean they, ….slooooowwwwwww down to the point of having significant spaces between them.  That’s when the magic happens.  That’s when somatically, the connection to what is really happening can be experienced.  This is when you learn, the thoughts are the illusion.  They have you spinning in circles, trying to catch your tail.  In these gaps you see, hear, touch, smell and taste batter.  All of a sudden, you can begin observing and taking in so much more information that is restricted by the thinking patterns you have learned.  That all thinking is – learned patterns of thought.  They are not real!  They are your perspective based on old information and learning. 

  • Let’s look at what’s real. 

Your skeleton is real.  It’s the strongest part in your body and lasts centuries after everything else is gone.  Begin to adjust through the skeleton.  However, if the pain and fear are too great, begin by focusing on your out breath. 

  • As you breathe out, count, starting at one. 

Each exhale will be different.  Redirect your mental function by giving it this job.  Count your breath. 

  • Get a straw and exhale through the straw.  Get your mental function to set a time for one minute and count the number of out breaths in that one minute. 
  • Then continue to exhale through the straw without counting for another 2 minutes. 
  • Come back and exhale while counting again, and notice if the number has changed from the first time.  Notice if the breath out is slower, longer and if there are spaces in between.

Come back to it many, many times to train your brain with this pattern.  Integrate it.  Do it in times of non-fear to have it as a tool in your kit for when you are. 

When you are in fear, focus on the exhalation, not the in breath. 

Recap

We have a mantra, a perspective and a pattern of breathing.  This will calm your nervous system and the glitch to create a new starting point.  In this new starting point, your constraints,  physically, mentally, and emotionally, can begin to limber up, increasing your windows of tolerance.  

We have been through these cycles together before.  You have this somatic experience, yet right now you are in a moment of old thinking that there is an acute care that will resolve this outside of you. It is an old pattern seeking relief and reassurance.   That’s just one focus of attention that is decreasing the window of tolerance.  Start by building the window of tolerance from inside.  You’ve got this.  I have witnessed it. 

You’ve got a few people to sit in this with you to begin to build up your levels of tolerance.  Recently, you’re strategies in bringing new people on board while in the acute stages didn’t support you rather added to deconstructing it.  

Follow Renee’s podcast and stay up to date on somatic learning, from the inside out.

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Feldenkrais® Practitioner since 2007, Communication & Empathy Coach since 2004, Art of Placement since 2001

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The Somatic Archetypes – The Fantastic Five

Posted on September 10, 2025 | Leave a comment

by Author Renee Lindstrom of The Somatic Archetypes

Audio above at link to listen or follow along while reading

The Archetypes

This introduction to defining these five senses includes both the noun and verb uses of these identifiers. It begins with a noun to describe sight, sound, smell, hearing and touch using a pattern that refers to conscious awareness for the intention or purpose to perceive and regain their felt sense.

As a Feldenkrais Practitioner, teacher and mentor, I have experienced these fantastic five somatic triggers as the core receptors of environmental influences that stimulate inner functional responses. These receptors are the beginning of any and every response that travels through the body, back and middle brain, and finally to the prefrontal cortex last. It happens quicker than one can track and control. The only thing that can be controlled is mental function and the information going in. Even thoughts of memories can influence and activate these five senses, suggesting there are internal and external sources of environmental influences. These five Archetype patterns for functional integration of the environmental stimulus that triggers receptors are introduced below. An important point to consider is that these Archetypes stimulate each other’s sensory awareness prethought. They have their own expressive language.

The Artist

The Visionary


Most babies are born with the gift of sight. Sight is through the beautiful body design of vision that includes the lens that takes in the world. Artists take in the world and interpret it through their unique abilities. An example, developing the quality of one’s eyes that was present at birth, would be the experiences of meditation. Mediators have spent time and energy softening their eye habits from which to take in the world, to retrain their brains that have developed a harsh and critical focus looking at the world. A subtle yet profound shift in quality of life.

The eyes are located in the head in direct contact with the brain.

The Musician

The Vocalist

A musician has developed their sense of hearing in an advanced way to differentiate musical sounds and notes. The universe is filled with musical tones that formed early music perspectives. There is a belief that primordial creation began with sound in some Eastern philosophies, such as Hinduism. This sense is as important as sight, touch, taste and smell. A sense that may be taken for granted until it is dimmed. It inspires and motivates action. For example, music. If a piece is playing, it will either heighten moods or it will create agitation. It can even inspire movement through dance spontaneously or provoke immediate frustration and annoyance. This is a hidden influence of behavioural responses. Hidden suggests unconscious awareness or taking this sense for granted. If sound is a dominant sense, the tone of voice or sounds a person will make will be another hidden environmental influence in controlled or spontaneous responses.

The skill to hear vibrations is a gift that translates into the health and well-being of individuals and relationships.

Sound is received through the ears that are directly connected to the brain.

Sound is expressed through the mouth, yet originates from below the head in the voice box at the base of the neck in the front.

The Somatic

The Toucher

A baby will be sensitive to the somatic touch of all the textures and levels of denseness of articles and items they come in contact with. Their skin is receptive and a source of information. The hands are known to make a larger map inside the brain of neuro-pathways as the baby gathers this intel through touch. The skin is an organ that covers the body. As a receiver, the skin responds to what the other senses are hearing, seeing, smelling and tasting. When these senses send signals to the brain, it sends signals to the skin that responds immediately. It happens faster than any identifying label or word in our common vocabulary to describe it. This somatic sense is at the core of function and integrates all the senses. The other senses influence one another similarly, yet the somatic sense of touch encompasses them all and is a source of awareness that can be conscious or unconscious. This is the Milky Way of our universal responsive experience to explore and investigate.

Touch encompasses the whole body through skin contact with solid surfaces, and elusive and unsolid influences like the wind, heat, cold, water, and emotional waves emanating from people and animals

The Perfumeur

Scent Enthusiast

Dual Activation of Scent Responses

Digestion

The sense of smell is a powerful activator. It is how a baby senses their mom and begins to locate their food source. The connection continues through life as smell is what activates the taste buds to create the ability to taste flavours. Smell will activate taste buds to taste flavours and begin the function of processing and digesting foods even before it is put in one’s mouth. It activates the stomach to receive the food with the right digestive enzymes and stimulates the organs to prepare for processing it through the gut. Digestion begins before putting food in one’s mouth and chewing.

Attraction

Scents create attraction that is confirmed through generations of creating special perfume scents for both males and females. Scent is a silent expression of attraction and a powerful expression for mating. The sense of smell will be one of the first unconscious expressions that will attract a person to another. This personal scent will only attract a few matches. It will not attract the general population. It is like a mother who has a connection to the scent of their child. You will often see them smell their child’s head. It is a form of expression and affection.

Scent is through the nose, located between the eyes and mouth on the head and direct link in the brain

The Taster

The Supertasters

The mouth function is the first dominant sense used at birth. Immediately, a baby begins to feed long before being able to focus their eyes on objects. The ability to suckle at birth is an inherent functional action of survival. When a baby begins to receive new foods to explore from three months on, their taste buds stimulate conscious awareness of different tastes. Some of these babies will have a stronger taste sense and be able to differentiate flavours. Many of those with this ability become tasters of fine wine and foods to classify them in the industry, or become critics of them for the benefit of others. However, it is the sense of smell that activates the taster buds.

The taste buds are in the mouth, on the surface of the tongue located in the head close to the brain

Early Somatic Development

Most babies are born with the gift of training their mental patterns to process information to fit within their social structures. This suggests that they learned the conditioning of those in their surroundings. I call this an environmental influence. It is a lifelong influence that is passed down to future generations. It’s taken for granted. When this thinking behaviour is taken for granted, it doesn’t include insight, especially if the educational system guidance is using the same patterning. The person sitting in meditation is retraining themselves not to attach to the random pre-conditioned thoughts and reactions that are arising. This begins to create a gap between the thoughts that leaves space for silence. It is in the silence that recognition unfolds, and one begins to recognize who they are outside the social conditioning of their family, friends, peers, etc. It is a profound experience to tap into the real person inside the layers of trying to belong and be what others want you to be.

Through the practical development and experience of Feldenkrais, I have discovered that there is a similar experience, as described in meditation. The difference for me as a student, practitioner, teacher and mentor is that it takes this meditative experience to the next level. It is in living action while in the engagement with day-to-day interactions and actions.

It is through the:

  • freedom of eye movement patterns that are spontaneous
  • sounds in the environment and inside your functioning body and thinking brain
  • touch of solid objects for feedback, and the elusive waves in the environment
  • smell stimulates attraction or warning, and stimulates digestion
  • taste, a somatic receptor, like touch and starts digestive functions, like smell

Patterns that have been lost through reactions of a lifetime of social interactions and conditioning. It adds the component of awareness and spaciousness, which increases windows of tolerance in ongoing daily activities.

The Thinker

The Intellect

Thinking is not a sense. Often, it is confused with the ability to hear, using the term auditory. However, thinking is a separate inner function for processing information that has been learned through social conditioning. Anyone using auditory to describe thinking is minimizing the ability to hear sounds separately from the ability to think and obtain memories from which to understand and process information.

Thinking is also a separate function from seeing, smelling, touching and tasting. However, thinking puts thought forms into statements that often reflect belief systems, opinions, and perspectives. These beliefs, opinions and perspectives are taken from long and short-term memories of past experiences and learned conditioning of our individual and unique social and cultural conditioning.

Mindfulness through thought patterns

coming out of the shadows of projections into the lighter qualities of present moment clarity

Memories are the past that shapes thinking patterns in the present and future.

Thinking in the present through the experience of the fantastic five senses and expressed somatically, not thought projections, can be conscious awareness in the moment that redirects and retrains thought focus.

The fantastic five senses can be a focus of attention for determining the value needs for creating the future using intention to create motivation.

These fantastic five somatic archetypes are at the core of Inside Awareness Center’s Integrative Learning programs. These programs are somatic dialogues, somatic movement and function, somatic spaces with support programs that are environmental influences in relationships, behaviours and function.

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Copyright 2014 – 2025  Renee Lindstrom, GCFP,
Feldenkrais® Practitioner since 2007, Communication & Empathy Coach since 2004, Art of Placement since 2001

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Life Hack: Pantry Remedy using Caster Oil

Posted on September 19, 2024 | Leave a comment

Maintaining wellness naturally

Castor Oil is an old remedy for a variety of alternative self care uses. It has been used for:

  • Arthritis
  • Headaches
  • Menstrual cramps
  • Labor induction
  • Joint Pain
  • Skin Care for Hydration and Elasticity
  • Skin Care to improve Collagen Production
  • Skin Care to remove lumps and bumps
  • Skin Care to remove dark spots
  • Skin Care to remove lines
  • Wound Healing
  • Antibacterial 
  • Anti-fungal 
  • Anti-inflammatory
  • Hair and Nails Health
  • Laxative Constipation Remedy
  • Caster Oil Compresses
  • Liver Cleansing

Caster Oil is a thick sticky oil that comes from the Ricinus communis plant. When applied topical it is absorbed into the skin. Castor Oil has the deepest absorption depth into the soft tissue making it a popular skin care remedy.

It contains ricinoleic acid which supports its laxative influences. This element stimulates the soft contractions to push out bowel movements.

In the article on combining Caster Oil with Baking Soda I mentioned how it softens the soft tissue around joints and bones to increase the range of motion through micro-movements. This inspired my interest I was motivated further when it began to dissolve skin tags when used as a skin oil for reverse aging effects. The exploration continues however it is reducing fine lines and plumping out larger and deeper ones. .

More on Combining Caster Oil with Baking Soda or order Caster Oil on Amazon with these quick links:

Caster Oil
Baking Soda

This information is for educational purposes only. I only give suggestions that I have tried myself and have noticed change through exploration.

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Posted in Aging well, Caster Oil, LIfe Hacks, Pantry Remedies, Wellness

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Life Hack: Pantry Remedies using Caster Oil & Baking Soda

Posted on September 18, 2024 | Leave a comment

Maintaining wellness naturally

I was introduced to Caster Oil the day I gave birth to my youngest child. It was a midwife’s strategy to induce labour. It worked. I don’t recommend it based on my experience.

However, Caster Oil is in my wellness pantry and a staple with so many uses. Recently I began to use Caster Oil and Baking Soda together as a skin exfoliant on my hands, lower arms, neck and face. During the time I combined these two ingredients and rubbed them into my skin, I noticed that they had more benefits than exfoliation. It supported reducing inflammation in the soft tissue. As a Feldenkrais Practitioner, I use my hands daily and this is an important tool to reduce any inflammation in my hands to increase the felt sense when using empathy touch with students.

Each of these ingredients alone has wellness benefits however in combination they enhance the healing properties of both of them.

Castor Oil – has a wide range of nature benefits

  • Joint Pain
  • Skin Care 
  • Hair and Nails

Baking Soda – has health and beauty care

  • Balance Stomach Acids
  • Skin Care
  • Oral Health

15 uses for this pantry remedy that combines both Caster Oil and Baking Soda

  1. Reduces itching of allergic relations by calming cooling and soothing inflamed skin

2.    Reduce swelling and itch from bites

3. Removes warts, bumps, cysts and pigmentation spots

4.    Anti-bacterial

5.    Anti-fungal

7.    Reduce infections

​8.    Clears up infections like athletes’ foot, ringworm and acne 

9.    Quickens healing

10.  Speeds up the growth of skin for wound healing 

11.  Reduces inflammation

12    Relieves joint and muscle pain

13.  Hydrates skin – soften the skin – youthful and vibrant appearance

14.  Revitalizes the skin – plumps it out and creates elasticity 

15.  Reduces eye bags

Measurements of each ingredient for different uses:

  • Warts, infection, pigmentation and bumps: 1 part to 1 part (equal measures)
  • Skin hydration and calming, wound healing: 1 part Oil to 1/4 – 1/2 part soda

Read more benefits for these ingredients or order them on Amazon with these quick links:

Caster Oil
Baking Soda

More on Caster Oil

More on Baking Soda

This information is for educational purposes only. I only give suggestions that I have tried myself and have noticed change through exploration.

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Life Hack: Pantry Remedies using Baking Soda

Posted on September 18, 2024 | Leave a comment

Maintaining wellness naturally

@insideawareness

Life Hack – Baking Soda, Pantry Remedy, growing up with a whiskey drinker this was the morning after drink! Now it is being used to sleep better, balance stomach ph, & more…… pantryremedies, lifehackforstomachacid @insideawareness

♬ original sound – The Macarons Project – The Macarons Project

This video demonstrates a strategy that my father used daily to calm the acid in his stomach. At least once a day I would hear the spoon clinking in the glass and know exactly what he was doing. His only other wellness habit was tiny liver pills. I have no idea what those were and I no longer see anything resembling them. However, I was amused to notice that baking soda is in my wellness pantry. I use it for various natural pantry remedies and cleaners in my household. Some of the new ways I have begun to use Baking Soda is in my skincare. I would like to share its benefits in the post.

As a Feldenkrais Practitioner, I discovered that Baking Soda will soften the connective tissue that hardens with repetitive use and effort. Sometimes there is pain and restriction to the joint and bone movement. Baking Soda is a water softener and when bathing with Baking Soda in the water it also seems to soften the skin, facia, tissue and connective parts, like muscles and tendons, etc. This softening increases the range of motion in the joints and micro-movements of the bones. Here is more information on Baking Soda and its potential uses.

Baking Soda for health and beauty care

  • Balance Stomach Acids
  • Skin Care
  • Oral Health

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate or bicarbonate of soda. It is a versatile all-purpose powder that has many uses from baking to calming heartburn, and for personal hygiene, balancing ph in mouth and stomach, skin and oral care, urinary tract infections, household cleaning agent and now it is being studied for cancer therapy. Baking Soda has antibacterial and antimicrobial properties.

Cancer Therapy

It is an adjunct to cancer treatment and is being studied for its effects on tumour acidosis.

Oral Care

It is common to find Baking Soda listed as an ingredient in toothpaste however it can also be used as a mouthwash. It reduces acid in the mouth and fights bacteria growth and gingivitis. In toothpaste it is used as a whitener and element to remove plague. However, it is abrasive and if used at home from the box straight without other ingredients like in toothpaste it can wear down the enamel with repeated use. It is also used for canker sores in the mouth and on the lips.

Measurements for mouthwash: 1/2 teaspoon to one glass of water

Deodorant

Sweat only smells when it meets bacteria. Mix baking soda with coconut oil or shea butter to make your deodorant. This would be a nice option as it would support the lymph node health in the armpits.

Measurements for Deodorant: 1/4 teaspoon to one teaspoon of coconut oil or shea butter. Coconut Oil also has antibacterial qualities.

Skin Care

Baking Soda is soothing for bug bites and sunburns. It reduces skin itch and with it’s antibacterial and antimicrobial properties it would support skin rashes, infections and wound healing. The best way to experience the qualities of baking soda on the skin is bathing for 20 minutes or more. It softens the skin and supports ph balance. It is enhanced with the addition of Dead Sea Salt Minerals and would make for a wonderful rejuvenating experience. Especially if some essential oils were added like Lavender for relaxation.

Measurements: 1/4 to 3/4’s of a cup of Baking Soda per full tub of warm to hot water. It combines Dead Sea Salt Minerals and use 3/4’s to 1 cup.

Combining other pantry items mentioned in this post to create your remedies could include:

  • Caster Oil – Read more
  • Coconut Oil
  • Dead Sea Mineral Salt
  • Lavender Essential Oil

Read more benefits for these ingredients or order them on Amazon with these quick links:

Caster Oil
Baking Soda

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Acupressure Mat

Posted on January 3, 2024 | Leave a comment

I began lying on an acupressure mat and 1/2 bolster in late Dec ’23, for 20 minutes a day. Not for the faint hearted! When first laying down the sharp points are surprising and can be temporarily painful. However within minutes my back softened and the points no longer caused discomfort. The only time the points caused any temporary uncomfortable moments when lying on them was when shifting my weight. For example, bending my knees and standing my feet to put more pressure into the small of my back. I also raised my lower back and began putting bolster under neath for more pressure into shoulder blades and lower back. This mat is long enough to target the length of my spine beginning at the top of my shoulder blades and down to the bottom of my sacrum. With the 1/2 bolster I can apply the points to my neck. 

I began to use this acupressure mat to test it for softening the muscles along my vertebrae from my neck down through my sacrum. As a Feldenkrais® Practitioner (since 2007) I am all too well aware of the common restrictions causing limited mobility through contraction of the muscles and soft tissue along the spine, ribs and into the pelvis. This restricts flexibility and limberness. that ultimately can cause injury and pain. What I wasn’t expecting was the increase in blood circulation when lying down on these points. It was immediate and the whole area warmed up. I quickly recognized the value in warming the organs up as well in these areas. Read more below on the benefits I have noticed in just a few days.

Here is an affiliate link to the same acupressure mat on Amazon:

Acupressure Mat

Noticeable benefits of lying on acupressure mat in a few short days

  • Release of TMJ joints inn lower jaw with angling the 1/2 roller. This was unexpected and increased the benefits for me. I hold tension in my TMJ joints naturally and I could feel them let go and my jaw drop. Due to TMJ stress myself I have taught a workshop since 2007 on how to shift habitual patterns through the facial muscles, neck and shoulder muscles to lengthen and tonify them to increase the flexibility of the jaw. Feeling this deeper release was tremendously rewarding to experience. If for only this benefit I would recommend lying on an acupressure mat! Upcoming TMJ workshop in March ’24
  • Increase in vitality the first day after lying on the mat for 20 minutes. There was an inner vitality that emerged motivating more activity throughout the day. Luckily I have chosen the morning to test it out.
  • I have noticed a deeper quality in my sleep even through I have chosen to lay on the mat in the morning. The articles I have read mention an increase in sleep when lying on it at night. I am too active right to bed time to lay on it at this time, yet still seem to have the same benefits. 
  • Each additional day I lay on the mat for twenty minutes I am noticing more benefits not immediately experienced. After a few days I began to notice a softening in my arm and leg muscles even though they are not on the mat. It seems to be coming from the ribs and vertebrae release. My fingers are more flexible and soft. The tightness around the bone has dissolved even through I haven’t actively focused upon functional movement patterns with them during this time. 
  • Today I experienced increased points of energy release along my lower back, beginning in my sacrum. At the base of my sacram I sensed a release, a pulsation and warmth that immediately increased sensation in my lower extremities. I likened it to a release of a tight muscles or constriction blocking the energy in this region of the spine. 
  • Generally overall I am experiencing a softening of tension through my whole body with increased sense of relaxation and wellbeing. 

For all these benefits I am experiencing I would recommend trying an accupressure mat. Yes it may be uncomfortable for the first few days, however, that quickly disappears and the benefits outweigh the initial discomfort. 

Here is an affiliate link to the same acupressure mat on Amazon:

Acupressure Mat

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by Renee Lindstrom, GCFP @ Inside Awareness,  
Copyright 2014 – 2024 Renee Lindstrom, GCFP

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