Category Archives: Complementary Therapies

Nutrition, Body Care, Emotional, Mental, Social, Spiritual, Guides

With the Loving Support of Friends

Events, It Takes a Village, , , , ,

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.

Dalai Lama

Thanks to generous support of my friends, Thriver Soup recently made its way to North Carolina and Florida. My heart is filled with gratitude.

Cincinnati Friends Meeting sent me off with their prayers. Brecka Burton and Amy Elliott Elberfeld provided me with presentation clothing for my talks “Thriving Beyond a Dark Night of the Soul” and “Power Up Your Spiritual Vibration with Energized Food” at the Kent Cook Nook in Davidson, NC.

Marnie Poirier, one of my Sacred Sisters of the Healing Hearts, provided a bed for the first three nights. Marnie’s place truly is her home, with her favorite quotes painted on the front of her house, a life-sized mermaid swimming in front of her porch, and a femail box next to her front door. She sent me off with bloodroot for my son’s memorial garden and stinging nettle for its nutritional properties.

Then I stayed with Madeline and John Wood, board members for the National Leiomyosarcoma Foundation, in their lovely condo. They had invited me to come when we met at the NLMSF National Conference where I spoke during 2015. Madeline did a lot of legwork publicizing my talk on “The ABCs of Creating Conditions for Healing” at Main Street Books in Davidson—I so appreciate her efforts, which produced some participants. We enjoyed delicious meals, a walk in a local park, and even a concert that evening at the local college.

Then I drove to West Palm Beach, Fla., to present on “Creating Conditions for Thriving” at the Annie Appleseed Conference. A generous gift from Women’s Way Ohio-Kentucky helped make this part of my journey possible.

On my way home I enjoyed a Spanish galleon treasure museum on a coastal island. I also set aside time to walk barefoot in the wet white sand along an empty beach washed by the powerful Atlantic surf.

To honor the happiest day of my life with my deceased son—21 years ago—I went to Disney Spring’s Rainforest Café in Orlando for lunch. The restaurant still features large, colorful aquariums, trumpeting life-sized animatronic elephants, and an overhead painting of a sky complete with large planet and meteoric lights. Every so often came the sounds of thunder and flashes of light, sans rain.

With focused attention, I could relive my son’s joyful two-year-old presence at the table… I am so grateful for the fulfillment he gave me as his mother and for the happy memories I carry inside. And I am so heartbroken about my terrible loss. Love never dies. It simply shifts.

The loving support of friends fulfilled their prime purpose. It also filled my trip with gratifying new memories and the fulfillment of my purpose sharing healing solutions and genuine hope with others.

I am grateful.

Nutritious Food is focus of Annie Appleseed Conf.

Complementary Therapies, Events, Let Food be Your Medicine, ,

 

 

 

Did you know the seaweed nori, used to make sushi, is a source of Vitamin B12? This is one of the things I learned during the Annie Appleseed Complementary and Alternative Medicine cancer conference March 1-3.

I had spoken on Thursday to a crowd of nearly 200 about creating conditions for thriving, including how to determine your nutritional status. The annual national gathering, in West Palm Beach, Fla., explores both integrative and alternative cancer treatments.

On Friday, an oncologist and a gynecologist searched out my book-signing table. They bought a copy of Thriver Soup.

The next day they came back to my table and purchased a second copy.

Another woman came to my table during Friday’s events and purchased a copy of Thriver Soup. The next day she also came back, telling me she had a large number of cancer books at home, yet Thriver Soup topped them.

The food was incredible—only organic, and mostly fresh, raw and local; no gluten, no dairy, no meat. I have never eaten such healthy food in a hotel or at a conference.

To hear a quick, free version of my talk, come to the Art of Healing: Spring into Wellness Fair  on Saturday, March 17, at 250 East Main St., Batavia, Ohio, 45103. I will speak at 1:45 p.m. I also will be presenting the full talk at 2 p.m.  April 7 during the Victory of Light Festival at the Sharonville Convention Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“’Thriver Soup’ saved my life!”

Complementary Therapies, Conventional Methods, Events, , , , , , ,

Jacqui Roell, a Registered Nurse, says, “Thriver Soup saved my life!”

Jacqui was diagnosed with Stage 2b lobular breast cancer and a friend urged her to read Thriver Soup. The first thing Jacqui read in the book was, “I thought I had been sentenced to die. Instead, I had been invited to live joyfully so my soul could prosper” (p. 19).

Jacqui was not expecting to read something like that. She set Thriver Soup aside.

She had already decided not to do chemotherapy or radiation. Eventually she wanted to see what I suggested in the way of alternative treatments.

She opened up Thriver Soup again, and read, “At the start of my cancer journey, I had a long talk with Vince and Connie Lasorso at Whatever Works Wellness Center. For decades they have offered complementary treatment methods and emotional support to cancer patients. They told me the story of a woman who worked in the local holistic community and got cancer. She rejected all conventional treatments and focused on a variety of alternative healing practices. She ended up dying of cancer, acknowledging at the end that if she had received conventional medical care in the beginning, she probably would have survived. That story struck a note with me and I decided to follow what my doctors recommended.” (p. 25)

Jacqui says, “That was huge for me. It made me take a step back and reconsider my options. It gave me permission to do what my doctor wanted me to do, while also taking care of what I needed to do spiritually and mentally.”

Using the practical tips in Thriver Soup for managing chemo and radiation, Jacqui did conventional treatment. “Thriver Soup is my bible,” she said. “It is amazing and made a huge difference for me.”

Jacqui finished treatment January 12, 2018, and is free of evidence of disease. Yet she continues to read and refer to Thriver Soup, because the ideas can apply to any and every area of life.

“Everyone should read Thriver Soup, including caregivers of people diagnosed with cancer,” she says. “It can help caregivers support their loved ones by learning about complementary treatments that assist the patient. This can reduce the patients’ experience of stress.”

Jacqui spoke at the Feb. 17 HIME Wellness event at Crossroads Mason in Ohio.

I will be speaking at 10:30 am and 1 pm on Saturday at Kent Cook Institute, and at noon on Tuesday at Main Street Books, both in Davidson, NC.

On Thursday, March 1, I am the headline speaker at 2 pm at the Annie Appleseed Conference in West Palm Beach, FL.

Sprouting beans during winter

Let Food be Your Medicine, , , ,

The life-giving potential continues increasing, and the earth is always covered with yellow sprouts, the world blooms with Golden Flowers.

Liu Yiming, The Taoist I Ching, Hexagram 16 Joy

The life-giving potential of spring lives all winter in my kitchen. Glass bowls provide nests for tender bean and lentil shoots. My lentil volume increases dramatically when the seeds are sprouted.

See in the photos a bag of beans like the one I started with and the initial eight quarts of sprouted lentils it created; I cooked one of those quarts of lentils, and let the other quart continue growing until I had an additional quart of fresh sprouts.

Sprouting is a key element of my diet. While summer months bring massive piles of local, organic, living greens onto my countertops, winter generally means veggies shipped in from far lands. What could be more nutritious during hibernation season than baby beans? They offer their vibrant riches to whomever accesses them.

Sprouting is easy to do, if you plan ahead and can find organic beans still capable of sprouting. Local health food stores usually have a supply. Just soak one part beans in four parts filtered water for about 12 hours. Rinse, drain, and repeat the rinsing and draining two or three times each day. After a couple of days, depending on the temperature in your home, you will see little white legs growing on these babies. Your nutritional powerhouses are ready for preparation and consumption.

Cook the sprouts as you would any dried bean. My preferred method to reduce intestinal gas formation is to bring the beans to a boil, rinse and drain, then bring to a boil again with a fresh pot of water and cook until tender.

Mung bean sprouts can be eaten raw and are extremely nutritious. I put them in my high-speed blender along with a liquid tonic, such as green tea and homemade kombucha tea. I usually add blanched kale and various other nutritious foods. It’s not exactly a gourmet-tasting slushy, yet I sure like the end results. I’d say the sprouts and greens have something to do with my hair looking so healthy. I’m 56 now and sidestepped the grey hair typical of chemo veterans.

I thank my sprouts and green smoothies.

While the world outside slows down, ices over, and darkens, my digestive system gets a sunny delight every day to keep my cells humming happily.

Thriver Soup Ingredient:

Here are links for sprouting beans and other ideas:

http://www.sproutingsprouts.com/how-to-sprout-beans/how-to-sprout-beans-including-adzuki-garbanzo-lentil-peas-and-mung-beans (how to sprout beans)

http://www.choosy-beggars.com/index.php/2009/10/16/spinach-and-white-bean-dip/ (bean dip recipe)

http://www.livestrong.com/article/473284-how-to-blanch-kale/ (how to blanch kale)

 

“Subduing the Cancer Dragon” opens Annie Appleseed March 1-3

Complementary Therapies, Events

“Subduing the Cancer Dragon: The ABCs of Creating Conditions for Healing” with Heidi Bright is the opening session for the March 1-3 Annie Appleseed Complementary & Alternative Cancer Therapies conference.
The conference begins at 2 p.m. at the Embassy Suites Hotel in West Palm Beach, Fla.  Hope to see you there!
https://annieappleseedproject.org/cancer-therapies-conference/

FREE presentations Feb. 24 in Davidson, NC

Events, Let Food be Your Medicine, Night of Mourning, , , , ,

FREE presentations

Thriving Beyond a Dark Night of the Soul
and
Power up Your Spiritual Vibration with Energized Food

Saturday, Feb. 24
The Nook, 400 North Harbor Place, Suite C
Davidson, NC 28036; 704.896.3111

Join me at 10:30-11:30 am for

Thriving Beyond a Dark Night of the Soul
Your Take-aways
+ Understand what a “dark night of the soul” is
+ Learn how to use it to transform your life
+ Gain 14 healing solutions you can begin using immediately

and from 1-2 pm for

Power up Your Spiritual Vibration with Energized Food
Your Take-aways
+ Discover the spiritual qualities of certain foods.
+ Learn how to find out your nutritional status
+ Consider simple ways to reduce inflammation

Healthy, Decadent Hot Chocolate

Let Food be Your Medicine, , , , , ,

Motecuhzoma’s servants “brought him in cups of pure gold a drink made from the cocoa-plant, which they said he took before visiting his wives… I saw them bring in a good fifty large jugs…, all frothed up, of which he would drink a little. They always served it with great reverence.”

Bernal Díaz, Spanish soldier invading the Aztecs

 

The Aztecs gave us cacao, and I am so grateful. There’s nothing quite like a frothy cup of chocolate. Especially as we enter the longest nights of the year in the northern hemisphere. A cup of pure gold made from cocoa can bring light into the depressing darkness.

After I cleaned up my diet in 2005, I tried some commercial hot chocolate once when I could not access my usual chocolate stash. (Confession: Hi, my name is Heidi and I am a chocoholic). To me, it tasted very little of chocolate and mostly of corn syrup.

I never drank it again.

Over the years I have tried various ways of creating a healthy hot chocolate drink. I thought using almond or hazelnut milk would be the cat’s meow. Unfortunately, those “milks” tasted almost nothing like the nuts. I later learned that one company only used four to six almonds for a carton of “almond” milk. The drink largely was made up of fillers. No wonder there was almost no nut flavor to the milk.

I switched to coconut milk until my sister helped me discover that one of the ingredients was titanium dioxide. Who needs that? It’s also an ingredient in sunscreen.

I think I have finally found something that is both healthy and tastes fabulous. A guilt-free chocolate drink. Now that really is the cat’s meow.

My concoction is influenced by my childhood experiences in Germany, when the hazelnut-cocoa spread called Nutella was a special treat. I can now make a raw, vegan warm chocolate drink that is reminiscent of it. I usually have a cup every day and drink it slowly, with reverence.

It makes a nice holiday treat.

Thank you, Motecuhzoma.

Thriver Soup Ingredient:

Raw, vegan “hot” chocolate

You can modify the recipe, depending on your preferences. Here’s what I do.

Warm up some water. The water temperature needs to be warm enough to dissolve your ingredients yet not so hot that it cooks them. That means a temperature under about 110°.

Pour the water into a mug of raw organic cacao powder, raw organic coconut butter, raw honey, nut flavoring, and a tiny pinch of salt. Mix and enjoy.

Here are the general proportions I use:

  • 2 tablespoons coconut butter
  • 1 tablespoon cacao powder
  • 1 tablespoon raw honey
  • 2 or 3 drops hazelnut or almond flavoring
  • Tiny pinch of salt

Adjust to match your preferences. I use coconut butter because it retains the fiber from the fruit. If you do not want to keep everything raw, skip the honey because all its good qualities disappear when it is heated. Substitute something else like xylitol or stevia. If you do not have access to coconut butter, try coconut milk—after reading the label. Or make your own nut milk.

Drink up!

Source:

Descriptions of cacao being served in the palace of the Aztec emperor, http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/chocolate/early-history-of-chocolate