I’m very proud to share Lauren’s wisdom here! Lauren is healing her Crohn’s disease naturally and doesn’t have to take over half the medication she used to be on due to her healing vegan diet and supplements. I found Lauren’s story over at the Crazy Sexy Life blog. (go ahead and read a little background on her, I’ll wait)

You mention you stressed and worried a lot. About being diagnosed with crohns or in general about other aspects of your life?

The worrying started before crohn’s. I originally thought it was what brought on crohn’s disease. I still feel it probably played a big part in the disease showing up. I’ve always been a worrier, worrying about things that didn’t even matter, like what I was going to do tomorrow instead of living in the present moment and really being there. Crohn’s opened my eyes to this and has made me a more relaxed person. I don’t stress of things I can’t change, nor do I worry about the future. I live in the now and that’s the best I can do.

What essential practices keep you from worrying too much and how does that affect your health?

My essential practices are definitely yoga and meditation and like I mentioned, staying present. I find that quieting my mind even for 5 minutes a day makes a world of difference. Everything that matters before I do that seems to not matter anymore. I also read a page from an affirmation book and try to apply it to my day or pull an Angel Card from some oracle cards I have. I always seem to open to a page or pick a card that can relate to the situation I am in.

What are your primary supplements you can’t go without?

For Crohn’s I find supplements are important. We have absorption issues so a little extra goes a long way. I take a few things, right now I am pregnant so I take a raw vegan prenatal, I also always take vegan vitamin D, iron, B12, calcium, DHA oil, probiotics. I am always adding goodies like hemp seeds, maca powder, spirulina, chia seeds and goji berries to my smoothies.. When I am not pregnant I also take aloe vera juice (a shot every day as soon as I wake up) and digestive enzymes.

What is your exercise regime?

When I am not pregnant I exercise a lot! I really enjoy it as a hobby! I have treadmill so in the morning I will walk about 2 miles 6 days a week and also do either an aerobic type of video, weight lift or yoga. I also make sure I get some form of exercise after dinner, either walking with my dog, riding my bike, going on a hike. Usually something outside, as long as the weather permits. Right now, since I am pregnant, I walk 2 miles 5 days a week and I also do prenatal yoga once or twice a week.

What advice do you have to those diagnosed with Crohns disease, who are afraid NOT to take all the western medicine approaches?

My advice to anyone with Crohn’s is to go with your gut, no pun intended! I knew that at times my doctor (my old doctor) would try to have me on as much as possible without just trying out one thing at a time. I usually paid attention to how I felt on the lowest dose, or least amount of medication and then would add or take away if needed. Of course, I told my doctor I was doing this and wouldn’t suggest anyone doing it on their own. My doctor now is very understanding and knows I want to me on the least amount of medication possible. Our goal is to one day be off of all medication, where my old doctor had once told me that I would be on medication for life. My crohn’s isn’t healed enough to be completely off of everything, but I hope to get there in the future.

Where do you think you would be at if you didn’t go vegan and took all the medications they wanted you to take?

If I didn’t go vegan and took all the medications the doctors wanted me to take, I would probably not be pregnant! I would be very sick, not knowing that food had any part of healing. I was lucky to always be a health food and natural health advocate so I was aware of a lot of things that I don’t think many with crohn’s know. Diet plays a huge part, and cutting out meat and dairy is essential, in my opinion. Meat is extremely hard to digest and dairy.. well, who doesn’t have problems with dairy? IBD or not, most Americans can not digest dairy. So if you are eating it and have something like Crohn’s you are not going to heal your gut, and I definitely wouldn’t be where I am now.

I’m assuming high acidic drinks like coffee and alcohol are off limits for you, how do you substitute them?

I haven’t had coffee since a few months after being diagnosed. I was still drinking it for a short period and I did once try to have it again and it was only 2 days before I got sick. Alcohol was different, I was still drinking here and there up until about 2 years ago (I’ve had crohn’s for 5 years). I got really sick and ended up in the hospital after a few weekends of drinking a little red wine and that was the end of it for me. Now I drink a lot of herbal tea. I also love Teeccino! It is an herbal coffee made from herbs, grains, fruits and nuts. Definitely a great substitute. For alcohol I like to drink Kombucha which is a fermented drink that has lots of probiotics (helpful for the gut). For some reason it reminds me of alcohol, almost like a wine cooler. I pour it in a wine glass when we have friends over and it gives you an amazing feeling from all the benefits it provides. GTS brand is my favorite!

Lauren Nastasi is a health enthusiast who has always had a passion for wellness. She chronicles her journey towards healing through a vegan diet on her blog Ginger is The New Pink. Numerous people living with and without diseases have contacted her in response to her candid account of life with her disease. Lauren enjoys creating healing meals, exercising, yoga, hiking, bike riding, reading and spending time with her husband and pug.

When Ani Kaspar was diagnosed with breast cancer, she put her foot down on the unethical conventional cancer treatments and made a bold step to trust in her body’s natural ability to heal with alternative methods like eating organic, raw, living foods (for example).

She is a four-year thriver of intra-ductal carcinoma-the most prevalent breast cancer in the world. She champions for the ethical treatment of cancer. Ani makes the connection that her cancer was related to her high stress life– fifteen years of working as a financial adviser on Wall Street, fighting to be respected in this “man’s world” industry.

Here are some excerpts from her book, Pelicans, Coconuts & Butterflies: Conquering Cancer with a Life of Soul:

“That any woman should have such inhumane and limited options as chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery, and have to pay such outrageous amounts of money to survive leaves the reader sympathetic, angry, and even fearful for his or her own medical future. Ani explains, “My medical insurance is dismal. After working since I was sixteen, succeeding in my personal and professional endeavors, after contributing to my country, to its people, to its economic stability, health insurance for me, an American woman, is wretched.”

“I know natural cures exist. I know our current health care system cannot profit from them because they cannot be patented, and that’s why every sector of the system pursues the invasive protocols that bring in so much money. And I also know that even our own conventional world medical community has the heart, the brilliance, and the astounding financial resources to deliver a humane cure to all cancers. Because I know these truths, I will not allow one moment of profit from my body. I refuse to allow you, the conventional medical community, to treat my body until you do it humanely.” -Ani Kaspar

She could not agree to chemotherapy or the other violent means to cure her body by using poison to fight poison. Instead, she sought natural healing, energy healing, and alternative therapies because, “The disease doesn’t frighten me—it’s the treatment, the horrifying, barbaric, perverse treatment that frightens me the way it does most cancer patients. And rightfully so.” Ani provides a great deal of support for her decision by noting that less than 4% of women treated for breast-cancer do not see a recurrence of cancer within five years, and chemotherapy is only effective in three-percent of treatments. – Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., author of the award-winning Narrow Lives

The book takes us through her journey on learning to live stress free and in balance. She visits Lake Atitlán in Guatemala to escape the criminality of her country and a life sick with breast cancer, to heal and be at one with her soul.

Ani Kaspar did so much more than write a book tho! She has many healing miracle testimonials from those who partake in her health programs are posted on her site from her 2 programs:
Body by Bliss- a 3 week intensive program and and IS® Intuitive Sovereignty- Ani’s coaching program which is accompanied by a series of 33 exercises that expand physical, mental and spiritual awareness.

For more information about Ani Kaspar and “Pelicans, Coconuts & Butterflies” visit www.PelicansCoconutsandButterflies.com

It had been a very satisfying day. I worked for the first time in five weeks; a sprained wrist had been preventing me. Still the wrist had not fully healed, there was pain. I was very careful of the way I used that hand when I gave my two clients their massages that day. I do mostly deep tissue therapeutic work, which is taxing enough on a healthy therapist’s body. So I had to find a way to work without re-injuring my wrist. Mostly I was successful, but giving the massages did make my wrist hurt worse, just a little. I knew I would easily recover. At least I had money…$120 for two hours of work, not bad!

Yesterday I was so financially broke that I could barely feed myself. I am an American who was living in Australia without a job, without any savings, without any social services available. I had borrowed all that I could from everyone I could ask, and I was again at the end of my ropes. I had to decide to go back to work doing the only thing I knew I could do to make money on such short notice. I had to decide to work through the pain.

Yesterday I spent my last thirty dollars on some food and an advertisement for only one day for my massage services. The ad had to pay off. I did not want to face the prospect of borrowing money just to advertise again, nor did I want to face starvation. Sometimes I would advertise and get no clients. Thank God it worked out today. The risk I took yesterday paid off. Now I had enough money to advertise for the next week and eat for the next three or four days. Which is what I did, I went shopping and booked my ads for the next week.

I was in the midst of one of the most difficult times of my life. Just fourteen months earlier I had lost my job at Compaq Corporation which was the source of my working visa. I was unable to find another employer in the computer software industry in Australia. Writing software was the reason the Government of Australia permitted me to remain for the nearly five years I had been there. I had also tried establishing my own business over the internet, but lack of proper funding and inexperience was killing me. Financially I was facing a pretty dreary picture.

Emotionally it had been no bed of roses either. At the same time I lost my job, I also lost my fiancé; an Australian Shelia. I was still very much in love and attached to her. Even at this time I held out hope that she would change her mind and invite me back into her life. There were other things too, too much to go into in this short story. Needless to say, it was a time in my life where I was stressed to the max, and then some.

Fortunately for me I had my spiritual experience and awareness. I had been studying intently for sixteen years with many different enlightened masters. Abraham, channeled through Esther Hicks was my current teacher. I had been applying the principals of all I had learned in my life on a regular basis and I was getting profound results. It was these experiences, coincidences, and miracles that gave me the strength and faith to get me through this difficult time of my life.

So I was feeling very happy to receive $120 that day and know that I was once again healthy enough to work. Finally I could at least feed myself and pay the current bills. That was a step in the right direction.

I lived on the Isle of Capri just outside of Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast of Australia. It was millionaire’s row. I lived in one of the worst houses in the area, but it was still a nice enough house, and right on the waterfront too! I attribute my luxury in the midst of poverty to the Law of Attraction.

One of the things I loved to do was to go out rollerblading with my dog Sasha. All of the streets were smooth and flat. We would skate over our half of the island, stopping at the various waterfront parks and vacant lots to enjoy the beauty and for Sasha to have a swim…I would swim too on certain occasions when the weather was really hot. There was a wide open parking lot, right next to a soccer field where I would skate around like a figure skater. I loved the feeling of such fluid motion.

Want to guess how I sprained my wrist? Yep, I sprained it figure skating in that parking lot just five weeks earlier. I had a wrist guard which I stopped wearing because my wrists and hands would get hot, sweaty and itchy. Besides I hardly ever fell and when I did I was usually able to recover without damage. But after I sprained my wrist I was pretty careful to wear the wrist guards every time I went skating…except on that particular day when I just forgot to put them on.

So once again I went down, pretty near that same spot as the last time too. I fell on the same side of my body, while skating backwards, and automatically caught my fall with the same hand. I sprained the same wrist all over again, but this time it was much worse. It swelled up immediately and turned black and blue in a surprisingly short amount of time.

I got right up and skated away in total embarrassment. I felt like someone was watching me and I had just done something very stupid. Soon I realized no one was around and I just stopped in the middle of the street. I became lost in my thoughts, It’s your first day back at work and you injure yourself worse than the last time. What kind of idiot are you? No one is going to have any sympathy for you at all. Your father will tell you to come home to the USA. Your friends will have some excuse, but they will never talk to you again if you ask for more money.

Then I caught myself in my destructive thinking and realized I needed to stop. But even in the midst of that realization my mind was flooded with fear. How will I eat in a few days? I only bought enough food for three or four days. I just paid most of my money for massage ads. No. Stop thinking like that! I have got to get a grip on my mind. Okay, I have had healing miracles in the past…that is what I need right now. A healing miracle. I won’t focus on my wrist at all. I won’t tell anyone what I did. I will just take the most care possible and continue on with my life as if this never happened.

That is exactly what I did. I went home and made my dinner, sat down in front of the TV with a glass of wine, ate my meal and enjoyed my evening. And I did not tell a soul. At one point while I was cooking I instinctively grabbed the pan with my injured wrist and twisted slightly. The pain nearly sent me through the roof. For a moment I started to worry, How am I going to give a massage tomorrow with my wrist like this? I felt like I wanted to cry. But I quickly gained my composure and reminded myself that I have experienced healing miracles before, I have seen them occur for others, and there was no room for any other possibility in this situation. I went on with the rest of my evening and enjoyed it thoroughly.

I awoke abruptly with pain a few times in the night. Then the worry would kick in which I quickly caught. Every time I would worry I would consciously spend a little time recalling and reliving past experiences of healing miracles. This would calm my mind. The next day my wrist was still swollen and still black and blue in spots. I had lots of phone calls for massage. I figured if I could get through two of them I would be doing well.

My first client showed up at 11:00 am. I was very good about protecting my wrist; my focus was strong. I was not going to forget and accidently use my hand or wrist incorrectly. Afterwards I felt a little bit of extra soreness and iced my wrist for about thirty minutes as soon as the client was out the door.

It was during my second massage which began at 2:00 in the afternoon that I let my focus drift. I was doing well, feeling confident and getting lost in the music. I get very artistic and dance with my hands, arms, and elbows on the body of my client when I give a massage; this time was no different. Then it happened, at one point while I was totally lost in what I was doing I realized I was using the hand of my sprained wrist as if it were not injured. I mean I caught myself doing really strong petrissage on my client’s leg. Petrissage is a Swedish kneading technique which entails griping and twisting and flexing of the wrist. That is what I was doing when I realized…What Am I Doing?!?

I stopped immediately in a state of shock. At first I was just waiting for the pain to come shooting through, but there was no pain. I stood there and stared in amazement at my wrist which appeared to be completely normal; no swelling and no black and blue color. There was no pain, none at all. Not even the little left over pain from the sprain of five weeks ago. My hand and wrist felt absolutely fine. Then I realized the client might notice an abrupt absence of touch and I continued giving him his massage. My mind was stunned in realization of what had just happened and like a mantra I just kept repeating, Thank you God. Thank you God. Thank you God. Tears of joy were streaming down my face which I had to keep wiping away so they wouldn’t drip on my client.

When my client left he thanked me and said, “Without a doubt, that was the best massage I have ever had in my entire life.” I had other clients try to book appointments that day, but I turned them down. I was happy to have another $120 in my pocket and I could wait until the next day to work again. I celebrated this magical miracle by going out rollerblading with my dog Sasha. This time I wore my wrist guards.

I cannot emphasize enough the power we hold in our mind. When we learn to use our mind correctly, nothing is impossible. We start by first trying out new ideas and being open to experiencing the results. We advance with practice and diligence. Slowly our inner programming changes; our new ways of thinking replace the old and become automatic. Life responds by delivering different experiences to us. Our successes give us strength and vision to stretch our minds further and create even grander life experiences.

Michael Skowronski is the author of the book, Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story, which clearly shows the Law of Attraction at work through equally amazing true life experiences.

Copyright reserved 2007 by Michael Skowronski – Permission given for non-exclusive use to Robin Hoch for her book “Living the Law of Attraction” under a proper legal contract is expected prior to publication.

Dr. Simm is an Acupuncture Physician and my first health guru! You can learn a lot from her Q+A article on On Weight Maintenance and Aging.

The following is a personal story of hers when treating an eye infection. Even those like Dr. Simm slip up and reach for the antibiotics once in awhile. She learned a lesson in patience and offers some advice on sticking to the natural path when it comes to infections, antibiotics and healing naturally!

What was the latest health problem that you treated naturally?

A:

I had an eye infection and I started off with cleaning/rinsing my eye with saltwater and giving myself acupuncture treatments. It wasn’t working as fast as i wanted it to, so I panicked and listened to the wrong people. As a result, I got a little scared and took antibiotics that made it worse! .

So I realized this and stopped! I forgot that all i really needed to do was just be patient! Sometimes that is the biggest secret, we have to be patient and ask ourselves “why is my body breaking down?” What is it that I have to “see” here? In my case, I asked “Who do I have to go see”? When you have a problem, look at it as an unpresendented opportunity for growth and change, and it may just be that this health problem is there at this time to give yourself a break. So slow down and re-evaluate what you have been doing in your life- take inventory. Call your mom, sister or a dear friend and start by saying you love them (it just may be that they are in a space – where they just really need to know that…) Maybe that person that you call may have had the same problem you got, or one similar to yours and they found a solution.

Most importantly, Don’t be so quick to go for the antibiotics! It has been proven that the antibiotics can screw up your body’s ability to digest and can actually break down your body’s immune system. They don’t know how to differentiate between the good bacteria we need and the bad that we don’t. Instead, they destroy all of our bacteria and gone are the cold or the flu or the infection- but after things – CAN GET PRETTY UGLY, when you wind up with a yeast infection for example!

Raw Juice Fast, Vegetarinism, Yoga and what it all means!

The following post is from a girlfriend of mine, whom decided to do a Raw Juice Fast. She is also regularly practicing yoga. The following is a personal journal about what she experienced while fasting.

Trying to fall asleep the last few hours my mind just keeps flashing images of art that I have a deep desire to put out. Paintings or sculptures of my unconscious thoughts and feelings of recent events
and experiences that have not yet been expressed or made sense of.

I have been experiencing so much change and evolution, and much experimentation primarily with my diet. Aside from the idea of sparing a few more animal lives my vegetarian/vegan diet was about feeling whether there was a shift in me. In my energy or my body’s energy if I seized eating meat. Truthfully there wasn’t. Sure my mind raced back to images of innocent animals being slaughtered for the pleasures of humans, and felt good about not contributing to the meat industry; but it still wasn’t hitting home.

Last week I suffered a severe allergic attack and was not able to breath. I became overwhelmed with a feeling that my body was full of poisons and the allergy a reaction of my body trying to fight it out
the infestation. I decided to detox on pure fruit and veggie juice for a few days and see if it made a difference, and it did.

My mind resisted it because of the pleasure and psychological habit of chewing food. However, I felt alive when drinking the juices and I felt a surge of energy and life entering my body. I also had two
physical reactions to the new diet.

• On the one hand my allergy was gone and I was able to breath again within the day.
• My skin on the other hand developed an infection on my chin and upper lip area, Which I find the placement of the infection interesting, considering it is around my mouth. I can assume two things. one that the infection is a result of toxins exiting the body or that my body is rejecting the dietary changes.

Either way the infection is impossible to hide and left me feeling exposed and self conscious, which set off another train of thoughts dealing with perception and desire for acceptance, and wanting to feel attractive on the outside, realizing if there is inner balance it radiates out but that i have to keep sifting through the shit to allow the good to gain more confidence.

I am beginning to come to an agreement between my body and mind’s emotional reactions. Understanding that it is not whether or not I eat animal products that make the difference, but rather giving my body what it needs while harming my environment and surroundings as less as possible. In other words, what are my intentions? Am I killing in order to survive or for selfish reasons of enjoyment?

I do feel more firmly about the energy of food and its powerful effects on the body, and feel strongly that through nutrition I can cure many of the imbalances both physical and mental. such as my skin sensitivity, chronic knee pain caused by jointal/artheritic causes and release of tension and energy from food/and surrounding experiences that the body retains.

A few more powerful things also came to me tonight. An image of a dark red core surrounded by a bright light. Perhaps a core surrounded by truth and allowing it to enter. Maybe symbolizing my spiritual growth or release of pain and emergence from a darkness. Perhaps its the work I’ve been putting in to shine more light so I can follow my path. I was also visualizing figures of nude women which according to Feng Shui images of solitary women symbolize being alone- perhaps expressing to me that I need to remain alone right now while I’m on my spiritual journey, and that although my mind may desire a partner my heart is not ready yet. I once again saw images of roots digging deep into the ground and a headless figure with a chest wide open and an exposed heart. Perhaps symbolizing that I follow my heart and not my mind, or a vision of how I want to see the world. Rooting deep into the earth as I grow on my personal spiritual journey and wanting to share more love.

As I continue to heal and find balance physically, it is opening up more room for the spiritual inner growth I’ve been seeking. I feel my mind is becoming less occupied with finding solutions to physical imbalances and shifting inward to find more inner peace a higher intellectual development which will allow the physical to work its self out in time. Whatever shift is occurring it is allowing me to find more peace and balance and lead a happier life. It truly amazes me how much tuning in to the body and the surroundings reveals. The more I am able to quiet the mind the more i am able to learn and grow intellectually. Gaining insight of my self and my surroundings and the cause and effect.

I think the Hatha yoga I’m doing is tuning me in with the gift Jnâna yoga offers the soul.

I thank my friend, whom also works at The Yoga Shelter based out of Detroit for sharing her experiences and soulful discoveries invoked by her raw juice fast. From her personal journal entry one can gain insight on some experiences the juice fast can bring.