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This pandemic has all of us thinking about our mortality.
Whether we are considering the possibility of our own death, the death of our loved ones, or just horrified about the number of deaths in general, it’s horrible and terrifying.
And yet because death, in general, typically guides me to sit with the energy of the element of Metal, I can also feel something of the beauty and preciousness of it.
Eastern Philosophy teaches that Metal not only relates to death, but also the lungs, which this virus so viciously attacks. Metal is ultimately about letting go of what no longer serves us so that we can live (or die) in a way that recognizes the innate value and preciousness of our life.
Inhaling and exhaling.
While all of this death feels like too much, it also feels like a natural part of a cycle, one we’ve been avoiding in our culture for decades.
We’ve been living in one big inhalation. Consumption, greed, taking in more than we need, serving the needs of a few but not all. We’ve stopped respecting the natural order of things. We have forgotten the exhale. The out-breath. The release. The letting go.
The pendulum is swinging.
We’ve all known for years, if not decades, that we can’t sustain this. The Earth cannot sustain our excessive consumption. But we wouldn’t slow down. Maybe we couldn’t slow down. Didn’t know how to slow down.
We let ourselves believe we were doing “our part.” Maybe we brought the cloth bag to the store. Carried the reusable water bottle. Scheduled a yoga class into our daily routine of running-around. Maybe we turned off our cell phone during dinner.
Now we get a mandatory time-out. To be with ourselves. To be with our people, our thoughts. And Her. The Earth.
My hope is that this does something. Wakes us up. Makes us realize that while this virus is destroying our lungs, we are the virus that has been destroying the lungs of the Earth for decades. The Amazon, the Ocean. She’s been breathing fire, and still we keep going. An entire continent has been on fire for months. California’s annual fires are now expected.
We must think globally. This is not a “Chinese Virus.” There is no “Other” to blame this time. There never was. This is our virus. A virus of humanity. Our lungs are literally bleeding. We have to grieve. Not only this virus, all of the death, but who we have become as a people. Maybe who we've always been, for as long as most of us have been alive. Disconnected from the Earth. Productive at the expense of any sort of receptivity. Consumptive.
There is no glossing over this. This is on all of us.
It’s on me.
It’s on you.
We are accountable. For ourselves. For our planet. For each other. Responsible for our next breath that has the potential to kill.
The Metal element can be cold and hard and unrelenting, unyielding. But ultimately it’s needed for us to become the most beautiful version of ourselves. To live into our preciousness. With death, with loss, with letting go comes a time for gestation and hope. And ultimately, hopefully, rebirth.
I hope that we can be reborn as a people who can live on this planet in a way that doesn’t simultaneously destroy both her and us.
So I am sitting with each breath. Letting myself exhale. And hoping that maybe there’s some possibility, now, that couldn't have existed before this. That maybe, all of this death and fear of death brings with it a possibility for life that we couldn’t have even imagined before.
For now, I put my hands on the Earth. And I breathe. And I grieve. And I hope.
But mostly, I surrender.
To all of it.
Miscarriage can be such an emotionally, physically and spiritually taxing event, and I feel aware of wanting to be sure to approach it with the compassion and recognition of complexity that it deserves.
While there are, of course, many physical actions you can take to support your body, which I will share, it feels important to focus on the emotional and spiritual first. Continue Reading
Here are some reviews from just some of the many women who have received support from the Wisdom of the Womb Fertility Products:
“One month after drinking Ferile Mama tea I got pregnant (After trying for 8 months) The first day I drank it I described to my husband “My ovaries are screaming!” Lol but honestly both of my ovaries were pulsating and I think this tea was to blame. ONE month later! Positive pregnancy test and I’m currently 8 weeks ❤️ so grateful!” Continue Reading
Women with endometriosis already know just how painful it can be. Uterine-like (endometrial) tissue has developed outside the uterine wall, and just as uterine tissue grows and then sheds during menstruation, this extraneous tissue does the same. Some of the symptoms of endometriosis are heavy bleeding during the period, excruciating cramps, pain during intercourse and even digestive upset around the time of your period. Continue Reading
I’d like to share both the types of imbalances that ultimately can lead to a diagnosis of PCOS as well as tips and tools to unravel these imbalances so that you can be proactive in improving your fertility and your overall reproductive health. Continue Reading
Tracking your Basal Body Temperature is one of the most effective ways to track your fertility. Unlike your Ovulation Predictor Tests, your BBT not only shows you when your fertile window is, but can also indicate if there’s an issue during one of your phases that might be preventing you from conceiving.
Many women express surprise when they learn that acupuncture can support reproductive health and improve fertility. Often, they believe that acupuncture just relieves pain or muscular tension and maybe reduces stress. In reality, “Fertility Acupuncture” can significantly support a woman’s efforts to conceive, increase the likelihood of her carrying to full-term, benefit and ease labor, and help post-partum healing, including improved lactation, hormone rebalancing and emotional wellness. Continue Reading
For almost twenty years, I’ve been working with women to help them become pregnant. While I’m grateful for the busy practice, I can’t help but notice that the number of young women (under age 35) with fertility issues is increasing. Often, these women seem relatively healthy; they tell me that their inability to become pregnant is the only thing “wrong” with them. My background in Chinese Medicine encourages me to always look at the body as a whole, so I recognize that infertility is just a symptom of a larger, more holistic imbalance.
I’ve written a lot of articles discussing the Chinese Medicine perspective of fertility problems, but I realize that I have failed to relate one of the most basic and obvious contributors to infertility in our country: we are living in what the World Health Organization describes as a “toxic soup.” I see women who exercise daily, practice yoga, try to eat cleanly and think they are relatively healthy. While I never want to turn my patients into fearful and neurotic health-nuts, it would be negligent for me not to inform them about the reality of our day to day lives: we are absorbing and inhaling a ridiculously exorbitant amount of toxins every day, and our bodies are simply unable to detoxify them.
The toxins to which I’m referring are environmental toxins, which include herbicides, insecticides, pesticides, plastics, detergents, preservatives, cosmetics, gasoline additives, solvents, glues, and heavy metals. Antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, radiation and electromagnetic stress are also treated by your body as toxic, and place a heavy burden on your liver as well. Over 80,000 chemicals have been developed, distributed and discarded into the environment over the past 50 years. The EPA Inventory Update Reports that 27 Trillion Pounds of chemicals are produced or imported into the US per year. That’s 250 pounds of toxins per person! Scarier still is that this report does not even include fuels, pesticides, pharmaceuticals or food products.
While I won’t go into detail about the physiology of how toxins affect your body, I will say that they do affect almost every organ and system in your body, from your liver, kidney and skin to your nervous and endocrine systems and gut lining. The Toxicant and Disease Database links chemical contaminants with 180 human diseases or conditions and WHO reports that 50% of chronic disease is due to environmental pollutants and toxins.
Not only do environmental toxins disrupt endocrine health and mitochondrial efficiency, which can lead to infertility, but many of these toxins can pass through the placenta. So even if a woman does become pregnant, she is unwittingly passing dangerous toxins to her baby. The Environmental Working Group reported that the cord blood of the average baby at birth contains over 200 chemicals (chemicals that should not be in baby’s cord blood!) While toxins affect everybody, children are especially affected because they have an inhibited and underdeveloped detoxification pathway. Because they’re not supposed to carry any toxic load, it’s harder for them to process the toxins, and they accumulate much more easily.
It is my personal belief that it is this accumulation of toxins in our children which is contributing to our country’s rapid increase in developmental delays and neurological disorders.
A patient recently told me that she would rather not be informed about the magnitude with which environmental toxins are wreaking havoc on our systems; that ignorance is bliss. I completely understand that sentiment. But ignorance, unfortunately, is not bliss. It’s chronic illness, chemical sensitivity, digestive disturbance, skin disorders, chronic allergies, endocrine disorders, emotional disorders, neurological disorders and, in her case, infertility. If there was nothing that we could do about it, then yes, I would agree that I would much rather remain uninformed and just enjoy my life.
But there is a LOT we can do.
And it’s really not that hard. While I recommend making these changes at least a month prior to becoming pregnant, three to six months prior is ideal. It is important NOT to detoxify while you are already pregnant or nursing. You can still be conscious to reduce toxin exposure, but actual detoxification will release toxins from your cells right into your bloodstream or breast-milk, and right into your baby.
*** The use of Roundup in many GMO foods, including soy and corn, has increased 6,500% between 1991 and 2010. It is absorbed through the plant, and does not wash off. Glyphosate has serious effects on human health. It deprives living organisms of vital nutrients, vitamins and minerals. In humans, it is a chelator of magnesium, iodine, zinc, iron and cobalt. It lowers B12, glutathione and biotin, which are important to the liver’s ability to detoxify. It blocks manganese uptake, inhibiting the enzymes necessary to make neurotransmitters, which ultimately can lead to brain disorders having to do with communication. It can also block phenylalanine production, which can lead to leaky gut.
As if that’s not enough, it acts as a potent antibiotic, which can lead to an imbalance of microflora. So even if the chicken or meat you eat does not contain added antibiotics, if their feed contains “Roundup Ready” soy and corn, your beneficial bacteria may still be depleted, which can lead to build-up of other pathogenic species such as Group-B Strep and Clostridia.
Glyphosate also binds with aluminum and mercury, and they work synergistically to create deficiency in sulfate supplies to the brain, which may contribute to autism, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
http://www.healthandenvironment.org/tddb/disease/773
“Environmental Toxins Associated with Diabetes and Obesity” Medscape Medical News, June 2014
“Childhood Cancer and Environmental Toxins are Both Increasing” Medscape Medical News, February 2011
“BPA and Obesity: Is this Connection Real?” Medscape Family Medicine, January 2013
“Infant Lead Poisoning Associated with Use of Tiro, an Eye Cosmetic From Nigeria” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, September 2012
“Fracking Chemicals May Disrupt Hormonal Activity” Medscape Medical News December 2013
