Posted by Kimberly Rex
Tending to Your Heart
In the midst of heartbreaking situations, it is important to look at how you are tending to your heart. This means that in the loss of a person, pet, income, relationship, or any destabilizing event it is important to nourish yourself. Even the gut-wrenching grief and exhaustion from processing the violence in the news make it important to give compassionate support to your own wellness and well-being .
We know that your heart is affected by emotions. Heart rate, pressure, and even shape and size change with the intensity of grief, heartbreak, sudden change, or loss. Our hearts break.
So what can we do to give tenderness to our hearts in the midst of all of the cacophony? This article will offer some simple and natural modalities related to foods, herbs, essential oils, teas, stones, sound, acupressure, and energetic contacts for tending to your heart. Please use any that call your name. Your heart carries the wisdom, intuition, memory, and compassion needed for this time. For additional support related to anxiety, trauma or overwhelm you can also get more ideas here.
Modalities for Tending to Your Heart
| Modality | Specific Modalities | How to Use |
| Energetic Contacts, Sound, and Color to Treat Your Entire Body-Mind-Spirit System | Harmonizing Contact Medical Qigong Under Healing Blue Skies | https://kimberlyrex.audioacrobat.com/download/kimberlyrex-harmonizingcontact.mp3 Listen to calming music https://www.windowstotheheart.net/medical-qi-gong-under-healing-blue-skies/ |
| Aromatherapy and Essential Oils | Clary Sage for grounding and coming back into center Rose for grief and broken heart | Diffuse in the room, inhale, surround yourself with fragrant roses, or apply to acupressure points with a carrier oil |
| Teas Water | Green tea for serotonin; Lavender or Chamomile tea for calming; Bergamot or Linden tea for anxiety; Chai or Tulsi tea for grief Hawthorn Tea for your heart Rose petal tea | Teas for Stress and Depression: https://senchateabar.com/blogs/blog/best-tea-for-stress-and-depression Solar infuse rose petals in water and drink tea Stay well hydrated. |
| Herbs | Sage, Hawthorn, Rose, Linden, Motherwort, Mimosa, Holy Basil (Tulsi) | https://www.onlymyhealth.com/herbs-for-grief-and-sorrow-1577506013 |
| Foods | Eat dark leafy greens; Omega 3 foods; foods with Tryptophan (a precursor for serotonin). Eat root vegetables for grounding.’ Cook with sage associated with relieving sorrow. | Foods with Omega 3 https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-omega-3-rich-foods Foods with Tryptophan https://www.livestrong.com/article/247974-list-of-foods-high-in-tryptophan/ |
| Acupressure Points | Kidney 2: (brings warmth, joy, and love); Conception Vessel 17 (Ren Vessel): relieves anxiety; Lung 1 (Letting go); Stomach 36 (grounding); Gallbladder 20 (insomnia and clears brain); Governor’s Vessel 24.5 (center of the forehead above eyebrows and below hairline) | Acupressure Point Locations https://www.acupuncture.com/education/points/ |
| Exercise | Take a walk, stretch to relieve anxiety, tone, and sing | Walk next to or near water or in the forest. Spend time in a garden. |
| Stones | Rose quartz for unconditional love; obsidian for absorbing negativity; Amethyst for restoring balance* | Carry the stone with you or wear the stone; use it in your bath water or make solarized water with stone; hold it in your hands (sub chakra of your heart) or near your heart. |
| Meditations | Grief Meditation 3 Meditations for Keeping Calm and Carrying On | https://kimberlyrex.audioacrobat.com/download/kimberlyrex-griefmeditation.mp3 https://www.windowstotheheart.net/three-meditations-to-stay-calm-and-carry-on/ |
Now is the time, more than ever that you take good care of yourself by tending to your heart. Be well, sleep well, and eat well. Think well, and love yourself well. We are at a turning and tipping point as we move forward with the potential for significant change. Let’s use our hearts to create new opportunities for sustaining life, love, and compassion starting with ourselves, and hold this space for tangible and sustainable possibilities!
If you have any questions about how to use these modalities in this article, feel free to contact me at kimberly@windowstotheheart.net. If you are experiencing heartache at this time and would like a personal Resonance Repatterning session, this is also the place to make contact.
From my heart to yours,
Kimberly
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Posted by Kimberly Rex
As the Light Returns
As the light returns in the Northern Hemisphere after the Winter Solstice, the daylight hours are slowly increasing over time toward spring. Even though I consciously know this is true, the expansion of darkness that has grown over time from fall has sometimes made it more difficult to resonate with the light and focus only on the dark.
This natural occurrence that takes place each year is expected, however, it still comes as a surprise to my awareness in that I begin to dwell on the darkness.
My attitude about this natural cycle and the presence of more darkness with the cooling temperatures and movement indoors changes my stress-avoidance actions and words. Instead of resonating with underlying potential benefits of the season of oncoming winter, I find myself complaining more about what has been lost more than what I might gain.
So what changed that? My attitude, responses to the situation, and my relationship with time are what changed. I am beginning to resonate with the return of light over the dark and cold of winter. I am now beginning to orient to the journey through winter to spring as we near the solstice time signaling the start of winter.
Winter is a time of introspection and depth. There are clear benefits of going inward, slowing down to harvest lessons and awareness, putting my energy into my roots the way plants do in the cold months so they can take the nurture of the Earth as she moves around the sun.
On the Winter Solstice, the change began with only a few seconds of the length of time, similar to that of the day before the solstice. Yet, it is likely that my mindset will be especially focused more on the return of light. This is because this 3-month timeframe leads to greater light and warmth in spring. The takeaway is that it is all about perception and that the journeys we take in our lives need to be appreciated as the process unfolds even when a goal might seem to be a distance and time away.
As the Light Returns Quantum Change Happens
This starts with an invitation to celebrate along the pathway towards your goals and positive intentions instead of waiting for a date 3 months away to realize the subtleties in shifts that occur in small increments transforming each and every day.
Those small increments and connections to stillness and presence create wisdom, nurture, and new possibilities. This is where things really happen. Winter is a good time to release fears by connecting to the still-point, to the Universe, and to cultivating unconditional love through your cultivating presence on the physical, emotional, mental, and core essence levels.
At the Still Point by T.S. Eliot
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance
Working with 8 Treasures as the Light Returns
Chinese Medicine acknowledges the aspects of cultivating vital life energy over time. The reminder in winter along the path is to work with what is called the 8 Treasures. A reminder of this ability to thrive even during the cold months is illustrated by the cherry blossoms that bloom during winter even in the snow!
The 8 Treasures for cultivation includes 81 days of getting in sync with nature as it presents itself in the journey toward spring. This time is also used to connect to and cultivate inner peace, happiness, smooth transitions, health, wealth, longevity, luck/fortune, and fulfillment.
To connect with the energetics of the 8 Treasures within, the process begins with eating or drinking an 8 Treasure congee stew or tea.
The idea is to work with the first 9 days starting with the solstice in the journey through winter continuing into spring by drinking a little 8 Treasure congee or tea for the 1st 9 days. The fluid with the combination of glutenous rice, beans, nuts, grains, fruit, and sometimes meat, or the flower and fruit tea brings a deep acknowledgment and nourishment for the process.
Here is an article on ingredients you can find in 8 Treasure Soup: https://omnivorescookbook.com/eight-treasure-congee/
You can order 8 Treasure teas on Amazon.com.
The journey continues with intervals of 9 days with a focus on one of the 8 Treasures.
This beautiful process was taught to me by Master Liu He with a painting or drawing of a branch to hold 9 cherry blossoms, one drawn every 9 days. Each petal represents the completion of each 9-day segment and one aspect of the 8 Treasures. For every nine-day period between the beginning of winter and spring, you work with a new attribute. You then paint or draw one more blossom on the branch until it contains the nine cherry blossoms of your journey. What an acknowledgment and celebration of each part of the path that buds and flowers as you take care of your vital essence through the winter!
Smooth Transitions as the Light Returns
Of course, you can create your own way of processing gradual change as the light returns with a focus on the 8 Treasures through drawing, journaling, or dancing the attribute of each one over the timeframe of 81 days. It could be useful to draw one cherry blossom with one of the attributes in each petal. Then you might work with meditation questions about the particular aspect such as this example. “What do I need to know to cultivate inner peace?” “What resources do I need to create more peace in my life?” “What do I need to let go of to experience peace more fully?” Listen for guidance and trust the wisdom of your heart to tell you what you need at this time in your life or access more guidance to build wisdom from a teacher, book, or course.
It could be that you use movement including Qigong, Tai Chi, ice skating, skiing, or even snowshoeing to feel physically feel smooth transitions. You can tap into our own creative expression to explore each attribute. This is a time to get more in sync with nature by creating light within through illumination for your life. It is also worth your time to be in natural light by being out noticing what is happening in nature, enjoying yourself by looking at streams, rivers, mountains, watching the birds, or noticing activity in trees and plants as we move closer to spring. This keeps the focus on being present at the still point while moving forward at the same time (the dance).
So I invite you to consider taking this time to nourish and root yourself so that you can meet each day throughout the winter in ways that you know will benefit your attitudes, responses, and beliefs about your life. It is a great way to nourish your roots, collect seeds of vital energy within and honor your part in the wisdom of the Earth’s process. The light is returning. In fact, it is always there feeding your roots, establishing nourishment for growth towards budding, and flowering into new possibilities.
Kimberly Rex, MS is an Advanced Resonance Repatterning® practitioner, Person-Centered Expressive Therapist, and Wellness and Well-being Life Coach. She works with people all over the world via Skype, phone, and proxy.
Find out how Resonance Repatterning benefits your life. Set up a personal session or sign up for a free monthly newsletter with articles, natural healing modalities, and exclusive group sessions here.
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Posted by Kimberly Rex
10 Natural Ways to Strengthen Your Immune System
Your immune system is your body’s defense against infectious organisms and other invaders. Through a series of steps called the immune response, It defends against organisms and substances that invade body systems and cause disease.
The human body has a series of defenses to protect it from foreign objects, dangerous cells, and other substances that can invade and cause the body harm. Sometimes, food particles and pollen can also be harmful to the human body causing an immune response.
There are a number of natural ways to take proactive measures to support the overall functioning of your immune system while boosting overall health and wellness in the face of getting ill during cold and flu season.
1. Food As Medicine
Eating wholesome foods that support energy, digestion and elimination is essential to strengthening your immune system. One of the ways to explore what foods create harmony and balance is to explore foods from the Eat Right for Your Type Diet based on Dr. Peter D’Adamo‘s extensive work. Based on research that confirms specific energizing choices related to food, beverages, supplements, exercise, and health needs that are based on Blood Types A, O, AB, and B you can benefit from specific choices specific to your needs.
Here is a link to an article on Healthy Blood Type Food Choice on Health: https://www.dadamo.com/media/energy.htm
Healing in Your Kitchen
a) Eat berries as they contain bioflavonoids that support immune health
b) Pumpkins and pumpkin seeds
c) Grapefruit, apples, papayas, cranberries, bananas are all vitamin and antioxidant powerhouses that boost your immune system.
d) Black beans are a good source of Zinc
e) Black Strap Molasses is a good source of iron with immune-boosting properties. Take a tablespoon in the morning with breakfast.
f) Fermented foods like Kombucha contains probiotics that helps support your body’s immune system. Add kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, probiotics, or miso to your diet this fall and winter as needed.
g) Broccoli is a good source of Vitamin A, C, and E.
h) Eat immune-boosting soups: https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/better-chicken-soup
i) Minimize intake of sugar, caffeine, dietary allergens and acidic foods including dairy, meat, and wheat.
2. Herbs to Strengthen Your Immune System
a) Echinacea is an immune stimulant used best within the first two days of cold or when you feel a cold coming on. It fights colds, flu, infections, and allergies. Use throughout the episode.
b) Oregon Grape Root is an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory that can be used in place of Echinacea. These are excellent for respiratory issues.
c) Tulsi (Holy Basil) enhances the immune system and is anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral. This can be used as a tea.
d) Hyssop is an anti-viral, expectorant, decongestant, and calms both your nerves and digestion.
e) Lemon Balm is anti-viral, reduces fevers, aids in digestion, and calms and lifts your mood.
f) Licorice soothes your throat and coughs, is anti-viral and supports adrenal function.
g) Red Root stimulates lymphatic cleansing and is helpful for sore throats, tonsillitis, and strep throat.
h) Thyme is antibacterial, anti-fungal, bronchial dilator and expectorant.
3. Use Anti-bacterial Essential Oils
a) Oregano, Eucalyptus, Thyme, Grapefruit, and Ravensara
b) Use Be Well Essential Oil Immune Blend: http://www.windowstotheheart.net/be-well-essential-oil-blend/
c) Use eucalyptus or tea tree oil to help clear your sinuses. Place some eucalyptus oil on a cotton swab. Put the cotton in an old pill bottle. Open the bottle and inhale the scent when you feel congested.
4.Vitamin Support: Take Zinc Lozenges, Vitamin C, and D 3.
5. Sleep: Maximize routine in your sleep as well as meal times even if you are traveling. Increase alkaline foods that include more plant-based choices.
6. Stay Warm: The following suggestions will help protect your body from excessive heat loss:
a) Wear several layers of lightweight clothing rather than one or two layers of heavy garments. The air between layers of clothing acts as insulation to keep you warmer.
b) Cover your head. You lose as much as 50 percent of your body heat through your head.
c) Wear mittens rather than gloves. The contact of your fingers keeps your hands warmer.
d) Keep dry: Wet clothing is 20 times less warm than dry clothing.
e) Wear waterproof boots or sturdy shoes that give you maximum traction.
f) Cover your ears, nose, chin, and forehead, which are most susceptible to frostbite.
g) Cover your mouth with a scarf to protect your lungs from directly inhaling extremely cold air.
h) Keep your house temperature at least 65 degrees F in the winter.
7. Stay Hydrated.
a) Use Emergen C Immune drink.
b) Eat Chicken or miso soup, drink water and herbal tea. Drink lemon balm, thyme, or Tulsi Tea.
c) Drink Black and Green Tea support the balance of T cells and support the Immune System by stopping bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungus.
d) Drink Honey, Lemon and Ginger Tea. Cook with ginger.
f) Make a Fire Cider: This is an easy, effective, and inexpensive way to stay healthy during the cold and flu season. Internal dosage can vary from 3ml up to a “shot” (one ounce) per day depending on your affliction and heat tolerance. You can also rub this on sore muscles, or soak a cloth in fire cider and apply to your chest to ease congestion. Fire Cider is a great replacement for regular vinegar in your vinaigrette or other recipes.
8. Stretch and Move to Strengthen Your Immune System
a) 10-Minute Movement to Boost Your Immune System:
b) Practice Qi Gong for Detoxifying and Strengthening Your Lungs and Immune System: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROCyfHthxlI
c) Use a rebounder or mini-trampoline: http://www.how-to-boost-your-immune-system.com/rebounder.html
9. Use Acupressure Points
a) For coughing, start by crossing your arms. Then push your thumbs into the inside of your elbows while holding the opposite arms.
b) Do the same at your shoulders, pressing under and into your armpits
c) For sinus and congestion, give two-finger support to the area between your thumb and forefinger. Press firmly, first on one hand, and then the other. Do this for a few moments each. e) Press your fingers into the skin on each side of your nostrils to bring relief from sneezing and sniffles. d) For Immune System support, tap on your sternum, about 2 inches down from where your left and right collar bone connect. This activates the thymus which is closely associated with the immune system.
10. Make time and space for yourself while minimizing stress in your life. Unplug and relax daily. Take inventory of what energizes, grounds and brings you joy.
The immune system’s function is to determine what is self and what is not-self. By making space and time for you, you are enhancing your body-mind system’s ability to center, restore, and ground yourself so that you are better able to discern what is essential to your life, and what you need to let go of that might not be yours.
When you take time to orient yourself to what is life-energizing, you create new possibilities for prioritizing your needs and actions to strengthen your wellness. In this way, you can return to everyday living with more coherent energy for your health, relationships, business, and sense of overall well-being.
Here is an opportunity to continue on the path with monthly healing modalities and repatterning events from Windows to the Heart Repatterning.
Sign up for monthly newsletter here: Newsletter and Exclusive Re-pattern Your Life Events
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Posted by Kimberly Rex
Medical Qi Gong under Healing Blue Skies
A few summers ago I traveled to Hollyhock Educational Center in Canada to a Medical Qi Gong class taught by Dr. Steven Aung, as part of continued training as a holistic practitioner working with the Chinese Medicine and Five Element System. The class worked indoors, on the beach, in the woods, and under the beautiful blue skies of British Columbia with focused breathing, movement, and healing exercises.
Qigong (Chi Kung) means cultivating energy, it is a system practiced for health maintenance, healing, and increasing vitality. Medical Qigong accesses wisdom from the body-mind system through the Meridian System and includes working with color, sound, breathing exercises, movement, nutrition, massage, acupuncture/acupressure, and exercises that benefit your body and mind.
There are 12 interdependent meridians within the system that when in balance create greater harmony in your life. It is important to know that each of these elements is associated with color, sound, organ system, emotion, harmonizing nutrition, scent, and movements.
Not only did we practice each of these aspects in specific sequences to cleanse, balance, and harmonize our body-mind system in detailed protocols, we also had the instruction to take nurture directly from nature as a practice for wellness and well-being. In the same way that the systems of your body are interdependent, you and nature are interdependent for health and well-being. 
Water Element Color
Blue is related to your kidneys and bladder and treats issues related to fear, feeling like a victim, or places in your life when you feel frozen, victimized, or overwhelmed.
Metal Element Color
White is related to your lungs and large intestines and supports you in feeling more inspired in your life, as well as supports you in letting go of that which no longer serves you.
Wood Element Color
Green is related to your liver and gallbladder and treats indecision and focus. When working with this color, it also supports nourishing the places in your life where you feel you have unfinished business that keeps you from feeling more optimistic.
Fire Element Color
Red is related to the heart, small intestines, Triple Heater, and Purple with Pericardium. Fire Element is associated with the aspects of love, joy, safety, trust, discernment, and belonging.
Earth Element Color
Earth Element is related to your stomach and spleen and is related to nourishment, gratitude, and support in your life. When you worry or feel a lack of nurture in your life, this is a place to work with this color.
With this in mind, I would like to share two simple activities that create grounding and nurture within to create functional balancing for health in the process.
Look Up at the Blue Sky
Notice that if you lie down on the green grass and look up, you have the opportunity to see blue and white. If you are surrounded by trees, you see green. If the sun is out, you get the spectral colors of yellow and red through your physical eyes. Look around your environment to find the all of the colors for the organ systems for greatest benefit. Spend a little time with each color. With intention, direct energy to the organ system you are viewing each time. Do this for 15 minutes watching the clouds and sending nourishment to all of your body-mind system.
Laugh to Heal Your Body-Mind System
This summer we walked in a continuous line that involved healing the person in front of us by directing chi towards their bladder points in their lower back while laughing. The specific walking pattern creates balance in the upper and lower body, as well as the left and right side while clearing residue within your body-mind system. It was literally a chain link to a link of people healing themselves and others through the healing vibraion of laughter. Imagine what this looked and sounded like!
The sounds for each meridian are as follows:
a) Your Heart: Haaaaaa
b) Triple Heater: hEEEE (primary temperatures of your body: brain, digestion, reproductive system)
c) Small Intestine: hAWWWW ( discerns what food will be used by the body for energy)
d) Stomach: wHOOO (digestion)
The sequence sounded like this: “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha; He, he, he, he, he; Haw, haw, haw, haw, haw; Who, who, who, who, who.”
Now it’s not necessary to get this complex. Finding ways to laugh can be as easy as telling a joke, hearing a joke, watching a funny movie, laughing with others, and in Resonance Repatterning® doing a modality with one other person to get a belly laugh. This modality builds bonding, heart connection as well as serving as great stress relief. My Aunt Marie used to say, “Laughing massages your liver.” She was right! A family practitioner at New Jersey’s School of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Marvin E. Herring, said, “The diaphragm, thorax, abdomen, heart, lungs and even the liver are given a massage during a hearty laugh.”
Other Benefits from Laughter
- The decrease in stress hormone levels
- Strengthening of the immune system
- Muscle relaxation
- Pain reduction
- Lowers blood pressure
- Creates Cardiovascular conditioning and better flow
- Natural anti-depressant
- Increases the release of endorphins
- Creates relaxation
Here’s How
Face another person. Start by slapping your knees and bending over slightly facing the other person. Say out loud: “Ha, Ha, Ha.” You may start slowly, and this will build the momentum of laughter. Use the other sounds above to get the full benefit of treating your body-mind system. You may need tissues at the end from laughing so hard!
Here is an opportunity to continue on the path with monthly healing modalities and repatterning events from Windows to the Heart Repatterning.
Sign up for monthly newsletter here: Newsletter and Exclusive Re-pattern Your Life Events
