I’m not going to name names here, but I was using a very large well known national mineral makeup brand. I loved the coverage of their mineral makeup and it was the most natural, easy to wear, easy to put on no-brainer makeup I ever found!

I was generously applying to my problem acne areas and so pleased with the results I was ignoring how itchy and uncomfortable it actually was on my sensitive neck and chin area. I couldn’t help but wonder if the company was with holding some of their ingredients.

I decided I’d try a smaller unknown homegrown mineral makeup brand since I had been browsing Etsy, a site for all things homemade, and noticing a lot of mineral makeup products. I decided I’d try “Ella Rose” because she had attractively priced starter packages and developed a product specifically for acne (a day and night forumula). Before taking the plunge I asked her what makes her mineral makeup so pure and special. And this is what she had to say:

I cannot speak for the other companies but my products are very different than traditional mineral makeup. The ingredients and ratios that I blend together are very precise. There is a specific reason why each ingredient is in my formulas and at the percentage levels they are at. Ella Rose Minerals ingredients register as 0 on the Comedogenicity scale. (Comedogenicity is rated on a scale between 0-5, the lower the number the less likely that the ingredient used will clog your pores.)

So since you asked…the national makeup brand you mentioned has ingredients in their makeup that contribute to acne. Bismuth oxychloride which is one of their foundations main ingredients is very irritating to sensitive skin and can actually make tiny microscopic tears in your skin, and those wounds can lead to cystic acne if they get infected. They also have carmine (ground up beetles carcass) in some of their blushes and eye shadows that can be irritating to skin. Carmine might be a pretty red color but sooo not worth it! And their finishing powder contains corn starch; because of the nature of the sugary and starchy aspect of corn starch it tends to feed the bacteria that causes acne.

As you can tell I am very interested…ok call it obsessive about the ingredients that go into my products, I always list every single ingredient so you know what you are getting and not getting in my products.

Okay! Sold!

I ordered the said products I had my eye on and I can say it feels wonderful! No itchiness whatsoever! Ella Rose Mineral Makeup effectively heals my acne! It doesn’t make it completely disappear as the cause of that is an unsolved mystery (maybe it’s hormonal, diet-related, etc… Years of detective work and miserable diets– case still not solved), but I can say it effectively manages my acne and heals each blemish up faster and before it progresses to the worst case. I know it would look much worse if I was still irritating it with un-pure mineral makeup. Did I mention the coverage is just as good too?!

Here is what I bought:

7 piece starter kit – foundation, finishing powder, blush, eye shadow. FREE gift box.

Zit Zapper minerals kit- Acne Healing Minerals, Midnight Magic, Blackhead Bomber.

Please head over to the Ella Rose Minerals Etsy Store to check out her other products.

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.

The Endive/Quinoa Recipe

Today, I decided to do something a little different with the endives. I lined my dish with them in a pretty circular pattern (they are so beautifully shaped too! And fun to peel away!) making my dish look like an open flower. I think decorating (with) your food is very important. It makes it taste 10 times better, let’s you work up an appetite, and those who think they don’t like eating vegetarian will love the taste after they’ve slaved a bit…and hello, kids! So I always serve my vegetarian dishes with some sort of decorative element. Like lining beets or red pepper slices around the edge of the plate. Does wonders!

Anyway, after my little endive flower art I simmered up some quinoa. As it was cooking, I tossed in some rice seasoning I bought in the market. I can’t tell you what’s in there, but it’s a bunch of spices and meant to be added to rice. I buy all sorts of flavors of these and they bring life and taste to all my grain dishes!

I also stir-fried some orange squash just in olive oil, however, I’ve been meaning to switch to coconut oil, as I heard how healthy it is!

Here’s how I put it all together:

• I drizzled the endives with agave cectar and balsamic vinaigrette
• I scooped the quinoa into the center of the dish
• I chopped up some roquette greens and mixed them in
• I chopped up some walnuts and sprinkled them on top
• Then I added the Squash!

If I may say so myself….It was amazing! I used the endives as spoons and scooped up the quinoa with it. Wonderful taste sensation of the bitter endive and roquette with the sweetness of agave and the slight acidity of the balsamic and the soft sweet squash!

It felt really healthy and balanced and filling!

And… it goes great with quinoa.

Photo by Pensiero

Don’t you hate getting sick from long flights? Feeling completely helpless and unprotected as those around you cough and sneeze knowing you are breathing that? Next holiday season, be prepared!

I’ve developed a system that kept me healthy from a grueling trip spanning over 20 hrs flying and 3 climate zones while all those around me were sick and I thought I’d share my secret.

What you need to buy

Go to the health food store or Amazon and buy a box of either chewable tablets or a gel capsule of some herbal concoction with Echinacea.

from wikipedia:

Echinacea is popularly believed to be an immunostimulator, stimulating the body’s non-specific immune system and warding off infections. A study commonly used to support that belief is a 2007 meta-analysis in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.[13] The studies pooled in the meta-analysis used different types of echinacea, different parts of the plant, and various dosages. This review cannot inform recommendations on the efficacy of any particular type of echinacea, dosage, or treatment regimen. The safety of echinacea under long-term use is also unknown.

I found a box of gel capsules that was a blend of Echinacea, Goldenseal and Cat’s Claw but I can’t find a picture of it online to share. A widely available such supplement (that I also used this when I ran out of the first) is “Enzymatic Therapy Esberitox Chewables”– Start taking these as prescribed on box a few days before you travel.

Note: Echinacea is something that works better if you haven’t taken it in awhile. If you’ve been taking a lot of it already consider these other options.

Other items to buy at the same time are:

• Vitamin C- I pick a time released 1,000 mg type that is “buffered” so it doesn’t make me nauseous. Here is what the bottle says: “Vitamin C provides antioxidant activity and is intended to proved nutritive support for normal, healthy collagen synthesis, cartilage and bone development, immune function, capillary and blood vessel integrity and nerve impulse transmission. “
• Vitamin D- The Sunshine Vitamin!
• Vitamin E

3 days before you travel

Start taking all of the vitamins and echinacea as written on packages regularly.

The day you travel

Take a double dose of all of your vitamins and echinacea the day of your flight. Bring along your vitamins to continue your regular dosage / schedule on the airplane (if your flight is long). Don’t drag all the bottles in your carry on, separate your doses to a ziploc bag or small container.

When you arrive

When you arrive to your destination, take a shower as soon as you can!
The next day take a double dose of all your vitamins again!

More Tips

• drink a lot of water- ask stewardess for a large bottle to yourself and buy it if you have to (sit in aisle seat to make multiple bathroom trips easier).
• wash your hands and use anti-bacterial gel at least three times during your flight if it’s longer than 6 hours
• keep your nasal passages moist- either wet your nostrils with CLEAN hands or bring a natural nasal / saline spray

I hope this advice helps someone be prepared for their next long flight and changing climate zones. I felt I was about to catch a cold about three times in my grueling travel through different climates but just doubled my vitamin doses on those days and bounced right back to health. I know it was the vitamins that pulled me through and kept me protected while flying on the plane with a bunch of sick people!

When summer is upon us one thing is certain, we need water. I don’t know about you, but water alone just doesn’t quench that thirst. When I’m feeling dehydrated, groggy and tired I need something more! Expensive enhanced waters seem to do the trick but the cost adds up and so do the calories due to the higher amounts of sugar! Watermelon offers a replenishing feeling, but not always the most convenient.

This summer a packet of hydrating vitamin infused powder fizzed into my summer glass of water and quenched the unquenchable thirst. I’m talking about Ola Loa “Sport” a economically priced box of convenient packets you can take on the go, stash in your gym bag or purse and add to your bottled water or glass at home. You can get creative and mix with different juices at hand. Though they come in lemon lime, mango tangerine and mixed berries flavors. Yum.

I was also stunned that such a economically priced product that does not skimp on packing the punch in the vitamins and minerals department. Including up to 100 mg of that all important magnesium and over 70 electrolytes and minerals! Looks like this company traded out crowd pleasing sugar for something that still tastes good and is actually truly good for you (only 2 grams)!

click on the chart to view the PDF

I found Dr. Kunin’s articles on their company site very well researched and proves to me this is a company that genuinely cares about making a healthy product, not a healthy profit.

Want to try some out on me? Enter my comment contest:

While there are a number of conventional treatments for asbestos-related diseases like asbestosis and malignant pleural mesothelioma that have been proven to be effective, some of these treatments can cause unwanted side effects like pain and nausea. But there are a number of complementary therapies that can help ease these side effects, as well as mesothelioma symptoms themselves.

One of these treatments is a type of exercise that most people are familiar with: yoga. The origins of yoga lie in India, where this ancient art is practiced more for spiritual reasons than for health-related reasons. Outside of India, yoga has become a popular form of exercise that is physically and psychologically calming and strengthening. Learning simple yoga techniques can help improve general health by toning and strengthening muscles, improving flexibility, and improving one’s state of mind. Promotion of general health is important when fighting a major disease like malignant pleural mesothelioma, as the stronger your immune system is, the better your body can fight.

Meditation has long been known as an excellent way of reducing feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression. Currently, meditation is also believed to help manage pain and other disease symptoms. Many people with cancer who add meditation to their treatment program find the practice helps relieve pain, stress, and anxiety. Some studies have even indicated that meditation may be able to slow tumor growth and improve patient prognosis.

Acupuncture is the most widely accepted form of alternative/complementary treatment. In fact, this type of treatment is so widely accepted that many health insurance companies even cover it. Acupuncture involves the insertion of extremely fine needles into pressure points at clearly defined locations on the skin to improve the balance and flow of factors referred to as Yin, Yang, Qi, and Blood in traditional Chinese medicine. This type of treatment can provide relief from chronic pain, inflammation, anxiety, and stress, and is one of the most common alternative treatments used by those with asbestosis.

These are just a few of the complementary treatments used to treat asbestos related diseases. But while these treatments can be effective, always consult your doctor before proceeding with any new type of treatment.

The breaking news about the Swine Flu Virus at first glance instilled much fear into me. It feels close to me as I recently had the flu and was home sick for 4 days eating the BRAT diet. I fell sick just two days after attending a Bar-B-Q where I couldn’t finish eating a chicken leg because I felt it wasn’t cooked properly. I re-thought my omnivore diet, felt disgusted with how poorly we treat our animals in factory farms and figured I’d go meat free this summer. Upon healing from the flu, I went and picked up a herbal tincture of boldo and curcum which is a known folk remedy for infections and parasites of the stomach and the intestines (a three week treatment). Now as this treatment comes to a close, Swine Flu is making headlines.

My first reaction was that this is something very real and threatening to mankind. Our society tends to think the world is getting closer to destruction every day, so it doesn’t seem surprising that a new virus would wipe a good chunk of us out. Plus if you believe in karma, it certainly seems in order that this would be our re-payment for factory farming.

Upon my first google search on the topic I came across an animal activist site, “SuperWeed” that states:

The bird flu and new swine flu viruses are so dangerous because they are mutations that bring together DNA from avian, swine, and human influenza viruses. Factory farming, in which thousands of animals of the same species are crowded together in unsanitary circumstances, allows viruses to mutate madly. But it is animal agriculture itself — including those small-scale organic farms and dairies so beloved by ostensibly ethical omnivores — that creates the conditions in which pig, chicken, and human viruses come into the sustained contact required for gene swapping to occur. As long as we continue to keep and kill animals for food, we will be at risk for pandemics of virulent mutant flus and other zoonoses.

Ok, this sure makes sense! FYI: if you are wondering what a zoonose is, it is also called zoonotic disease and refers to diseases that can be passed from animals, whether wild or domesticated, to humans.

Then I received an email newsletter from Dr.Mercola’s newsletter with the featured article, Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic – Fact or Fiction? (AA), that eased my worries a bit. He mentions how The Swine Flu Outbreak in 1976 was chalked up to be more of a conspiracy than a real threat (his comforting message below):

Folks, you can expect to see a lot of panic over this in the near future. But I wouldn’t be too hasty — this isn’t the first time the public has been warned about swine flu. The last time was in 1976, right before I entered medical school and I remember it very clearly. It resulted in the massive swine flu vaccine campaign.

Do you happen to recall the result of this massive campaign?

Within a few months, claims totaling $1.3 billion had been filed by victims who had suffered paralysis from the vaccine. The vaccine was also blamed for 25 deaths.

However, several hundred people developed crippling Guillain-Barré Syndrome after they were injected with the swine flu vaccine. Even healthy 20-year-olds ended up as paraplegics.

And the swine flu pandemic itself? It never materialized.

More People Died From the Swine Flu Vaccine than Swine Flu!

You can receive his wonderful newsletters as well by subscribing from this link.

On the other hand the fact is there is very real evidence on Google maps of outbreaks which you can monitor: click here for the map and outbreak reports

Furthering the case of writing this whole Swine Flu off as a conspiracy is an article by Mike Adams:

He mentions what all global media coverage certainly is not mentioning:

H1N1 influenza is not a hoax. But the way it’s being reported by health authorities and the mainstream media certainly is. The scam in all this is what they leave out of the stories — the fact that human beings live among a huge natural medicine chest of anti-viral drugs found in every city park, every forest, every swamp and every open field.

He goes on to mention how the precious vaccine Tamiflu that the media often mentions as being in low supply, thus propelling the desire of wanting Tamiflu stock piled in case of an emergency, is really extracted from a Traditional Chinese medicine herb, Star Anise.

Full article here.

So my dear readers, what are your thoughts on the Swine Flu Outbreak?