By Kurt Perkins

I was asked to write a piece on keeping kids ‘prescription free’ for the summer.  Before we talk about the logistics, I have to make 2 disclaimers.  One, I’m not a parent.  I’ve been married just over 2 years with kids being planned for the future.  I do take care of and consult with a lot of kids in my private practice and coach parents on ways to optimize their health so they don’t have to be put on drugs.

Two, I’m not a medical doctor.  I’m a wellness expert with a background in biochemistry and genetics.  I cannot legally tell, inform, or instruct you to get off prescription drugs.  What I can say is that the body is intelligently designed to live an abundant life without the use of drugs, both legal and illegal. 

In my 6 years of practice, seeing thousands of families, I can honestly say that I have never had a parent enjoy putting a child on medication, no matter the condition, whether it’s ADHD, asthma, allergies, headaches, infection, and even cholesterol.  Parents want to feel like they have done their best and by putting a child on medication, many often times feel like they have failed. 

I want to make it loud and clear that you are NOT a bad parent for putting your kid on drugs.  What I can say is that you may be an uninformed parent.  You are constantly getting bombarded with messages from only one side of the scenarios regarding symptoms and treatment options to create ‘health.’

What I would like to challenge is the notion and belief that there is disease.  To explain this, I need to get a little sciencey and make you pull out your mental library of physiology; how the body works.  If you remember back to biology, in order for a cell to stay healthy, it must stay balanced.  To stay balanced, you have to provide good things and avoid the bad things. 

I will refer to the bad things as those that are toxic or deficient.  For example, if a plant is wilting, you know to give it sunlight, water, and nutrients.  If the plant was missing the appropriate amount of sunlight, it would be deficient, therefore causing it to wilt.  Your job as the plant keeper is to make sure it stays sufficient. 

Your other job as the plant keeper is to make sure your neighbor isn’t dumping diesel fuel on your lawn, poisoning the plants.  You could be doing a perfect job of creating sufficiency but if your neighbor is poisoning the plant, there will be problems.  You must create purity as well. 

The division in paradigm is that medicine calls those problems ‘disease.’  In my world of wellness physiology, I call them ‘intelligent adaptive physiology.’  If you address what is causing the adaptations, the cell (your child) will return to balance (health).  Medicine will label that problem with a diagnosis and most likely prescribe a chemical (a toxin) to treat that diagnosis.  Never in the history of the world has adding toxic chemicals to the human body, produced a being to be well.  In my world, I ask what the person is deficient or toxic in and address those. 

Forget about this summer, if you want to keep your kids drug free, you MUST learn to ask a different set of questions.  Instead of asking, “what does my kid have, how do I treat it?” ask “in what area is my child deficient or toxic?”

People will express that adaptive physiology differently.  In one kid, it could look like behavioral problems.  For another child, it could look like asthma.  And for another, it may be a acne.  The diagnosis or label doesn’t matter, it’s figuring out what you and your child are missing and creating purity and sufficiency. 

To figure out how to create purity and sufficiency, let’s go back to the plant analogy.  If your plant is wilting, you instinctively give it water, nutrients, sunlight, and avoid poisons to nurse it back to health.  But how do you keep a healthy plant healthy?  The exact same way.  You give it water, nutrients, sunlight, and avoid poisons. 

You and your kids are no different.  What we as humans require are the same for all humans.  There’s a physical component, a chemical component, and a mental/emotional component.  When we are not providing these in sufficient and pure levels, the body adapts.

If it’s hard to remember physical, chemical, and emotional, just remember health is based on how we move, eat, and think.  Summer is the perfect time to start these changes but for changes to occur in a child, it begins with the parent.  YOU MUST ROLE MODEL!!!  

To begin the journey of role modeling behavior, start by adding, never taking away.  Think of the fight you have when you take away your child’s favorite toy.  It’s a disaster and nobody is happy.

If you want your kids to eat vegetables, you must eat more than you feed them.  If you want your kid to get off the couch and go play outside, you must play more and more enthusiastically outside.  If you want your kids to say ‘thank you,’ you must thank them for all great actions they perform.  If you don’t want your kids to eat the cake and ice-cream, don’t buy it for yourself. 

How I start each morning is by adding.  I start with a glass of water.  Then I add my exercise.  Following my workout, I do my daily reading and then write in a journal for which I am grateful.  Don’t start your day by depriving yourself.  This type of change is fleeting.

For behavior to change, you must first change your beliefs.  To change your beliefs, you must learn to ask the right questions.  If you need help, contact me.  This summer won’t be your greatest because you accomplished a lot but because it’s the summer you made a decision to change for a lifetime of summers.  Have fun, be safe, and create purity and sufficiency.

Our readers know how I feel about vaccines.  These are not the vaccines that Benjamin Franklin advocated more than two hundred years ago.  These are not the vaccines that were created in the 50s and 60s.  These are chemical cocktails that challenge our children’s health and immune system.  They also challenge the health of adults as well.
The choice is yours, as parents whether to inoculate your children and at what age.  My only request is that you look at all of the data.  And, not blindly agree to vaccines because your pediatrician says it’s okay.  That’s what my pediatrician said when asked about trace amounts of mercury and aluminum in the booster shots.  If it was okay, then why six month later did his practice switch to vaccines with fewer trace  chemicals?
The only way your pediatrican will change is if you first educate yourself and then educate them by refusing to spending your money on poor quality drugs  – not just vaccines.
If you are looking for information, I highly recommend the column below written by Kurt Perkins DC on February 3, 2010.  We are reprinting it in its entirety with Dr Perkins permission.  This is the first non-fear based article on MMR vaccines.  This is his response to an article/attack in the British Medical Journal in January on Dr Andrew Wakefield.
MMR Perspective

By Kurt Perkins
http://drkurtrant.blogspot.com/2010/02/mmr-perspective.html
www.mychirorocks.com
All over the news there have been stories how Lancet, the British medical journal, has discredited and voided out the research done by Dr. Andrew Wakefield.  In the Lancet article, Wakefield made a mere SUGGESTION that there MAY be a connection between autism and the MMR vaccine, BUT further studies had to be performed, this was back in the late ‘90s.  That was it, and this was career suicide for him ever since.  To do further studies, he had to do his OWN research.  This is where the supposed ‘conflict of interest’ has come in the news.  A group paid him to do research.  In case you don’t know, it costs money to do research, so he got paid to work.  Read on as we discuss the conflict of interest perspective from the leading pro-vaccine front man.
I’ve waited a week to comment on this issue because I was waiting to see if Dr. Paul Offit was going to make an appearance and he, in fact, did this morning on CBS’s morning program (2/3/10).  I waited because Dr. Offit is the vaccine industries highest paid unofficial spokes person.  Dr. Profit Offit has earned close to $10 million in royalties from the Rotateq vaccine and stands to earn $13-$35 million over the life of the vaccine patents, the one he invented, as well as voted into the child’s mandatory vaccine schedule.
This is the same man that said a baby could tolerate 100,000 vaccines safely.  He also took home $29 million from the sale of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) as part of a $182 million sale of its worldwide royalty interest in the Merck Rotateq vaccine to Royal Pharma.  The amount could be as high as $42 million, based on an analysis of current CHOP administrative policies.
Perspective on conflict of interest is always necessary, especially from a group such as the vaccine industry that has billions and billions of dollars to bury any contrary thought or notion that challenges their cash cow dogma.  Ask this question.  If everyone stopped getting the MMR vaccine, would Dr. Wakefield make any money from those decisions?  On the contrary, how much money would the vaccine industry lose if everyone stopped getting MMR?  The CDC states there were just over 4 million births in 2009.  That would be a huge loss to the vaccine industry if the MMRs were stopped.  Can you image a guaranteed 4 million new customers every year that would buy your product more than once?  Of course, the vaccine industry is going to nullify any accusation that vaccines cause harm.
Prior to the MMR vaccine being given at 12-15 months of age, a child could receive up to 25 doses of vaccines.  You can find the vaccine schedule on the CDC’s webpage.  What poisonous ingredients do those vaccines contain?  How would you like a healthy dose of mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, MSG, and anti-freeze.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the CDC’s page
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/B/excipient-table-2.pdf
I’m going to propose that even if a child did not receive the MMR vaccine, autism rates would still sky rocket just like they have the past 20-30 years.  I also propose that mercury is not the only culprit.  Do some research and look at the symptoms of heavy metal toxicity, such as aluminum.  A lot of it sounds like autism type disorders to me.  When vaccines are developed, they are not tested if they cause problems, just if they supposedly can prevent a minor illness most often seen in a culture where sanitation, hygiene, and lack of nutrition are problems.  Not the case in the USA.
My final piece of perspective MMR PERSPECTIVE to challenge you is from the wellness paradigm.  In wellness, dis-ease happens from 2 manners, deficiency, or toxicity.  The human body is an eco-system.  We are animated earth.  There is nothing in the human body that is not Earth, unless man puts it in like mercury, formaldehyde, anti-freeze, or monkey kidney tissue.  For humans to thrive, we must eat, move, and think in a manner that is required for proper genetic expression.  Our cells desire to maintain balance and only become imbalanced when overtaken by deficiency or toxicity.  This is the basis of physiology, not a controversial topic at all.  In the case of vaccines, adding chemicals to the body to prevent minor illness has had a massive trade in overall health.  ‘Science’ will hang onto the notion that mercury does not cause autism, yet they are asking the wrong questions.
The correct question should be, ‘by adding chemicals and viruses to the human eco-system in a way that nature would never allow, will the eco-system flourish or get sick?’  If you look around, the answer is we get sick.  Just in kids, cancer, diabetes, auto-immune disorders, asthma, allergies, and AUTISM are at all time highs and getting worse.  But science will look at the fact that fewer kids get chicken pox or fewer cases of diarrhea and call that success.  It’s absurd and idiotic to say that’s a success when you see the trade off end result.  Are vaccines the only culprit?  Absolutely not, but from a human physiology/eco-system paradigm, vaccines will never move a cell towards balance which promotes growth and repair.  If you want more info regarding vaccines, there are many books.  I always recommend ‘The Sanctity of the Human Blood’ by Dr. Tim O’Shea.  Don’t worry, I get ZERO kick backs for recommending his book.  Another book, not so much a vaccine book but diving into the world of toxicity is called ‘Excitotoxins’ by Dr. Russell Blaylock.  A third book that is great is called, ‘The Virus and the Vaccine’ by Bookchin and Schumacher.  Again, I have no financial ties to these books, so it doesn’t matter to me if you read them or not.  What matters to me is that you get informed from sources that are not tied to the vaccine industry but are well referenced.
Remember that health is a choice, a whole choice and nothing but a choice.  BUT, those choices can only be made accurately if you ask the right questions.
Dr Perkin can be reached at 719.598.6955 or www.mychirorocks.com

Coming of Age @ 50

Graduation

By Amy Cook-Porter

Graduation always means saying good–bye.  Good-bye to childhood, goodbye to friends and family; and hello to life.

That’s how I saw graduation 32 years ago.  I had that “I’m out of here” bluster that masked how scared I truly was.  I was leaving home.  Leaving the comfort of food in the refrigerator, clean sheets, and my mom with whom I could snuggle up with when I was scared.

College was a wonderful time for exploring and growing up.  I learned to be on my own.  Then, I became a mom and my world changed. With the love of my husband, I was able to have the career of my dreams, a stay-at-home mom.  As our daughters have grown, I’ve been able to work from home.  Now, that our middle one is about to graduates, I’ve had time to reflect on what her graduation means to me.

The hardest reality:  there is no job security in being a stay-at-home mom.  Our children grow up and leave home.  As each one leaves, I have to look at myself and wonder.  There is no way for a mother to measure if she was successful as a mom.  If they come back – that’s a good sign.  If they call or IM, that another affirmation.  But, we always wonder.  Did we do it good enough?  Were we there enough?  What else could we have done?

So we worry.  As do the dads.  I’ve noticed lately, my husband has gone from being Dad to being Daddy.  Those simple gestures that disappeared as they became teenagers, now return.  The  “Daddyyyy!!!”  she says as she looks at him.  He’s no longer old fashion; he’s comfort and a safe harbor.

We all know that these last weeks are going to be precious.  Which is why I am writing this.  So our daughter knows what a gift she is.

These are my thoughts on the eve of our daughter’s graduation:

Now it is time for our daughter to graduate and for me learn how to let her go.  With our eldest, it was easier, I hadn’t stayed home full time with her.  This daughter, I was home for every or almost every first in her life.  When the summer is over, she will have many firsts that I won’t be apart of.  She’ll have many adventures that her dad and I won’t know about until after they pass.  It’s all about growing up – for both her and me.

Every mom of a graduating senior who I’ve talked to these past few weeks feels that same sense of dread.  We all stop to talk and support one another.  For some of us, we started supporting one another in August, knowing how hard this senior year would be.  When our eldest graduated, I don’t remember the moms openly expressing how empty they were feeling; how they wished summer would not end.

We moms all acknowledge that our work is done.  We will be visibly reminded as our cap and gowned teen walks across the podium, shaking hands with their principal, accepting their diploma and hugging their favorite teachers good-bye.

Their teachers all say, “A job well done!”  Each mom and many dads shed a tear.  We remember those late night papers and science fairs and history days.  We were there through it all.  And, now we wonder, “Who will remind them that they have papers and projects due?  Who will shop for their backboards and paints and everything else? Or will they remember just fine?”

“Will our babies be okay apart from friends as well?” we wonder.  Will their friendships survive the distances?  Will the moms stay friends?  We always came together because of our kids.  Some of the kids have been together since in utero.  Three of us moms did our last pregnancy together, delivering younger siblings one right after another.  Then there were the moms we knew from preschool; and elementary school.  There are the moms we sat with at sports events, music concerts, art shows, forensics (debate), parent nights, and other school events.

Now it’s graduation.  How old all of you have gotten.  How tall you have grown.  Was that girl crossing the stage the one you shared an award with?  And that boy – he used to make you smile?  And those girls walking one right after another across the stage, they spent many a night at our house and you at theirs, giggling and whispering and watching sappy movies – or at least that’s what you said.

Now you are walking off  the stage.  You’ve become quite the young woman.  You stand so tall; and with such composure.  You make Daddy and I so proud; even though we are about to lose our baby girl.  It won’t be long before, your college professors will be the ones you will be quoting.  They will show you a new world.

And your mom, and your friends’ moms and all the other moms, well we will wipe away the tears we shed at your graduation.  We will toast you at your parties and take a deep breath.  We know you will be okay.  We will too for we have our memories; we have our friendships and we have our families.

By Amy Cook-Porter

Sometimes I wonder about my life.  I commit so much time to being online reading queries and responding to posts.  Sometimes it’s to find new ideas or get more information on a current topic. Every once in a while, I see a query that just surprises me and I forward it to our writers.  This is one of them.

Query: I’m looking for an endocrinologist or other expert who can explain why we rub pregnant women’s bellies and why they rub their own bellies.  Is it oxytocin?  And could the excitement/danger of pregnancy elevate someone’s dopamine?

I emailed this to Jo Roberts, Solutions in Health in Manitou Springs, CO. This is her initial email.

I don’t know about the belly rubbing….. nor the dopamine…. I do know that if a pregnant woman is stressed before and during her pregnancy, then during the third trimester, she will ‘rob’ adrenal function from her fetus and when the baby is born, due to the loss of adrenal function, the baby will be an unhappy, crying newborn.   (This is the opposite of what you might think)  There are homeopathics that can be given to the baby…. but…ouch -  new mom’s don’t need screamming babies.

 I will try to get some info about the dopamine – not sure where to go for the tummy rubbing…

If anyone else has information on belly rubbing, please let us know.

By Bonnie May, DC

It would never occur to me as a chiropractor for over 30 years that even today Medical doctors still hand parents medicines and neglect to explain potential side effects. The biggest reason is that drug companies have never done studies on kids. Of course not you would say, that is way too dangerous. Who’s kids would they use to try out drugs, watching for side effects? No one would be so silly to allow their own children to try out a new drug in the name of will this be a good drug or a bad drug? Is there really such a thing as a good drug? That is a pretty big question. Do drugs really save lives when it comes to children, and if so how? Is there a time that it is a good thing to give your child a drug, or as in modern time called a prescription? And how do you feel about the mere wording of drugs vs. chemicals. Would you say, my child is sick and I went to the doctor and got some chemicals to help?

First, let’s get one thing straight right now. There is no such thing as a drug without a side effect, period. So is it a question as to whether this condition your child may be suffering from is going to damage your child in the long run, or whether or not your child needs chemical intervention to save their life? When do chemicals save lives is a darn good question. But the top question of all is why is the child sick and what is causing the malady so we can look at the best way to help the child immediately and long term.

Let me tell you of some true stories that I personally have seen in my chiropractic practice of over 30 years.

Coughs are one of my favorites to work with, because they always respond favorably and quickly if the child gets adjusted(nerve flow improvement to lungs), uses nutritional

Right now at this very moment there are thousands of parents giving their children some form of medicine be it over the counter or prescribed by their medical physician in the hopes of helping their child “feel better” or improve the illness and sick condition that their child is experiencing. Most parents are following the Doctor’s advice with total confidence that they are doing the best possible thing that they can do right now to help their child get well as quickly as possible and hopefully as safe as possible. I would like to offer you some new ideas and and some sound advice and information that could very well change the way you, the parent, may be looking at this situation. I am a mother with a combined number of years treating my own 3 kids and now one new grandchild of over 75 years. I have been treating many thousands of kids in my Chiropractic practice of over 31 years. I am a Doctor of Chiropractic. I have studied children’s health and worked hands on with results that would blow your socks off, I promise you. Nutrition, body-mind connection, energy healing, stress, just to name a few of my studies. I wrote a book called, “First, Heal the Children” (www.drbonniemay.com). The book is more of what I am sharing with you here. What I want to do for you is to show you and really prove to you that your child is so innately able to heal themselves naturally, and that with new information at this new time of changing attitudes you can relax and feel confident about helping your child in a better way.

Don’t let fear rule you when your child is sick and don’t let the not knowing what is happening in your child’s body scare you into just following what the Medical professionals may suggest.

Let’s look at how health is just the natural state of being and how the kids may get sick and what you can do about it.

Causes of sickness: trauma, toxins, thoughts. Trauma to the body, via falls and bumps and jolts to name just a few, causes many times the spine to misalign, thus the term in Chiropractic, subluxation, happens, which interrupts the normal nerve flow. If the nervous system is unable to do what it is designed to do, that is to send every cell in the body a message on how to work, the system begins to break down so to speak and dys-function begins at the cellular level and works up to the organ function level. If the organs cannot do what they are designed to do, then the body can’t stay healthy. Many conditions begin this way. It could be digestive problems, pains in the body, immune problems to allow colds and flu to manifest, not sleeping well, irritability, and so many other forms of unnatural behavior.

Trauma from sports injuries, heavy back packs, kids pulling the chair out from under their friends in fun, running into the locker, falling on play ground, falling off the bike, slipping on snow, lifting too heavy objects, and on and on. Even birth trauma is a cause of spinal stress.

As a chiropractor, my job is to evaluate the kid’s spine to locate any subluxations and make corrections( the adjustment) to allow the nervous system to again work correctly and the body will heal itself automatically. It is like turning the water on to the garden again that is dying from dryness. It is like turning on the energy to the light in the room by flicking on a switch.

So that is my first point of recommendation, have your child checked chiropractically on a monthly basis to make sure nerve interference is not present. Subluxation left at bay for a long period of time can cause very severe health issues and medical doctors, esp. pediatricians are not trained to evaluate your child for this. You can find out more about this condition through the ICPA, International Chiropractic Pediatric Association by going to www.ICPA4kids .com.

Second, let’s look at toxins: very simply put, any thing that is not healthy for the children. Junk food, bad air, perfumes, nail polish, chemicals put in food to enhance flavor, chemicals put in their body like medications or unlawful drugs. Chemicals in soft drinks, coffee, and a really big toxin is the vaccines. But that is another topic to be discussed at another time. Many children are currently suffering because of long term negative effects of the immunizations that they have received. Such conditions as asthma, allergies, behavior problems, digestive conditions, nervous problems and more.

On the previous website that I mentioned you can find books and a great deal of information on this topic.

So to address my patients, I suggest that they use healthy natural organic food, cut out sugar, white flour, dairy, caffeine, and begin to help heal their child with nature’s best food, which directly helps build healthy cells immediately. Many kids with coughs get off dairy, get on some nutritional supplements that rebuild the lung tissue and never resort to the drugs that they have currently been using to no avail.

To be diligent when buying food for the family and stay away from prepackaged, chemically altered food is necessary. Just eat natural raw foods, and watch the health spring back quickly. Green raw vegetables flush out the toxins in the body and rebuild health. Drink the best clean water and get lots of rest.

Many need to keep the kids home for longer periods of time and not send them back to school too soon. This brings me to the topic of stress. Stress comes in many ways. Peer problems, teachers and kids not getting along, overloading home work and projects, maybe, even bad cafeteria food is to be considered.

Third and lastly look at thoughts. Kids need so much love and nurturing and support to help them emotionally. Emotions affect us in every way when it comes to health. Just think about how you feel when you have fear, anger, resentment or disgust about things as they happen in your life. It’s even a bigger problem for the kids. They haven’t learned the coping skills that adults have. And they have great stress that can totally alter their immune systems and the way the human body functions. The body-mind connection has to be considered when kids are ill. Talk about what is happening in their lives and see how you can best support them. Give them massages and hot baths and use essential oils that help relax them. Be sure they get the nutritional support through vitamins, minerals, omegas, digestive enzymes and more. Call on the natural professionals that will help you pick the right products to help build the immune system, fight fevers, help rebuild tissues to help rebuild a normal strong body.

The human body is meant to be healthy. When it is not, you just have to back up a bit and look at where you haven’t followed what the system needs. Putting artificial chemicals into the body through prescriptions suppresses the normal expression of the body. It pushes the causative factor deeper. Using natural ways to heal will be your best bet and create long term good health.

I have seen all kinds of kids with many kinds of problems heal this natural way. Stomach aches, leg pains, asthma, allergies, headaches, bedwetting, skin conditions and so much more. There are natural ways to heal just about anything. Recently I went to the big book store and asked to be guided to the section on natural healing for children. The lady looked at me with dismay and said there isn’t one. There are no books for parents to turn to, to heal their kids naturally? There is not one book to be bought to help educate parents on ways to help keep their kids healthy naturally? Can that be possible? Millions of parents want to learn more, what are they to do? Do parents of young babies have to resort to Rx when the child has an ear infection? And are parents being told about the side effects of prescriptions and or vaccines? What a feeling of helplessness.

The side effects of natural methods are good health. The possible side effects of Rx can be life threatening. Start asking today, “Can I help my child in a safer way get back to health?”

Call me anytime, any day. I am here to help parents learn how to heal naturally. I will show you this nation will be stronger and our kids will be happier when we stop drugging our kids.

Please help me get this life altering information to everyone you know. Drugs are dangerous whether pushed or prescribed.

Dr. Bonnie May was voted 2007 Woman Chiropractor of the Year from the World Congress of Woman Chiropractors.

Secrets from Soulmates Arielle & Brian

Arielle Ford, author of The Soulmate Secret:  Manifest The Love of Your Life With The Law of Attraction and her husband Brian Hilliard, a business consultant, answer your questions about life, love and relationships. They believe that whether you are eighteen or eighty years old finding Big Love is always possible. Email your questions to:  soulmatesecret@yahoo.com

Dear Arielle & Brian,

Since I read the Soulmate Secret and did the exercises to heal my past relationships and cut the energetic cords to past lovers, four of my old boyfriends and my former husband have called wanting to reconnect with me.  What’s up with that?

Thanks for your help,

Cindy

Dear Cindy,

Congratulations!  The inner healing you are doing is working and the energetic dynamic is shifting.  The art and majesty of your rituals and powerful intentions are literally transmuting the energetic density that was weighing down the possibility of unconditional sacred love and abundance in your previous relationships.  These men are now actually feeling different about themselves as well as feeling something new and different about their earlier experience with you.  This doesn’t mean that you are totally free to re-engage in these relationships (unless you carefully come to the realization that one of them is your soulmate) but it does mean that you are freed up to lovingly and seriously discern, from your deepest heart, so as to gain greater clarity on the issues that previously impacted these relationships.  As you continue to do the inner and outer work for manifesting a soulmate the opportunities for more and more healing will spontaneously arise. Enjoy the process!

♥♥♥

Dear Arielle & Brian,

I have been married for ten years.  Three years ago I began a serious spiritual path to discovering the awesome abundance of possibilities in the spiritual world.  I have asked my husband to join me on this journey.  I have told him that I love him and I long for more romance and spontaneity.  His response was very negative and he says I am forcing him into something he is not comfortable with.  He surfs, windsurfs and plays guitar and he says that this is way of connecting to Spirit.  Do you think a marriage can survive if one partner embraces the spiritual journey and the other does not?

With love,

Ursula

–more–

Dear Ursula,

We can feel your pain. So many couples face similar challenges.  First we want to ask you to do your best to honor your husband’s spiritual path of surfing, windsurfing and playing guitar.  Connecting to Mother Nature and all its beauty is a powerful and direct path to God (or whatever you wish to call it). Remember, we are all riding different vehicles but hopefully arriving at the same destination.  If you honor his path with devotion and respect then it will be easier for him to come around to your request for abundant intimacy and playful spontaneity (remember to make it fun and creative as well).  As you know, we come into a marriage with different histories, wounds and tools to navigate this wonderful thing we call sacred union.  The path is a daily opportunity to practice love, compassion, gratitude and fierce grace.  Our sense is that the deeper issue for you is not so much one of shared spiritual path (because as mentioned above you both seem open to spirit in your own ways), but it may be some other deeper personal blocks that you may want to explore, as a couple, with a therapist or counselor.

Sending you prayers for deep healing,

Arielle & Brian

Arielle Ford has spent the past 25 years living and promoting consciousness through all forms of media. She is one of the founding partners of the Spiritual Cinema Circle, a DVD club dedicated to providing movies about love and compassion.  She is the author of seven books including the HOT CHOCOLATE FOR THE MYSTICAL SOUL series and her newest book THE SOULMATE SECRET: Manifest The Love of Your Life With The Law of Attraction. Her husband and soulmate Brian Hilliard is a business consultant with a life-long interest in spirituality and the practice of compassion.  They live in La Jolla, CA   www.soulmatesecret.com

Disclaimer: Arielle Ford, Brian Hilliard, the Big Love column and its publishers assume no responsibility for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction you take based on the information, services or other material related to this column.

(Word count 738)

Contacts: Jill Mangino (908) 637-6022 / Arielle Ford (858) 454-3314 af@fordsisters.com

By Bonnie May, DC

Right now at this very moment there are thousands of parents giving their children some form of medicine be it over the counter or prescribed by their medical physician in the hopes of helping their child “feel better” or improve the illness and sick condition that their child is experiencing. Most parents are following the Doctor’s advice with total confidence that they are doing the best possible thing that they can do right now to help their child get well as quickly as possible and hopefully as safe as possible. I would like to offer you some new ideas and and some sound advice and information that could very well change the way you, the parent, may be looking at this situation. I am a mother with a combined number of years treating my own 3 kids and now one new grandchild of over 75 years. I have been treating many thousands of kids in my Chiropractic practice of over 31 years. I am a Doctor of Chiropractic. I have studied children’s health and worked hands on with results that would blow your socks off, I promise you. Nutrition, body-mind connection, energy healing, stress, just to name a few of my studies. I wrote a book called, “First, Heal the Children” that you can order off my website: www.drbonniemay.com. The book is more of what I am sharing with you here. What I want to do for you is to show you and really prove to you that your child is so innately able to heal themselves naturally, and that with new information at this new time of changing attitudes you can relax and feel confident about helping your child in a better way.

Don’t let fear rule you when your child is sick and don’t let the not knowing what is happening in your child’s body scare you into just following what the Medical professionals may suggest.

Let’s look at how health is just the natural state of being and how the kids may get sick and what you can do about it.

Causes of sickness: trauma, toxins, thoughts. Trauma to the body, via falls and bumps and jolts to name just a few, causes many times the spine to misalign, thus the term in Chiropractic, subluxation, happens, which interrupts the normal nerve flow. If the nervous system is unable to do what it is designed to do, that is to send every cell in the body a message on how to work, the system begins to break down so to speak and dys-function begins at the cellular level and works up to the organ function level. If the organs cannot do what they are designed to do, then the body can’t stay healthy. Many conditions begin this way. It could be digestive problems, pains in the body, immune problems to allow colds and flu to manifest, not sleeping well, irritability, and so many other forms of unnatural behavior.

Trauma from sports injuries, heavy back packs, kids pulling the chair out from under their friends in fun, running into the locker, falling on play ground, falling off the bike, slipping on snow, lifting too heavy objects, and on and on. Even birth trauma is a cause of spinal stress.

As a chiropractor, my job is to evaluate the kid’s spine to locate any subluxations and make corrections( the adjustment) to allow the nervous system to again work correctly and the body will heal itself automatically. It is like turning the water on to the garden again that is dying from dryness. It is like turning on the energy to the light in the room by flicking on a switch.

So that is my first point of recommendation, have your child checked chiropractically on a monthly basis to make sure nerve interference is not present. Subluxation left at bay for a long period of time can cause very severe health issues and medical doctors, esp. pediatricians are not trained to evaluate your child for this. You can find out more about this condition through the ICPA, International Chiropractic Pediatric Association by going to www.ICPA4kids .com.

Second, let’s look at toxins: very simply put, any thing that is not healthy for the children. Junk food, bad air, perfumes, nail polish, chemicals put in food to enhance flavor, chemicals put in their body like medications or unlawful drugs. Chemicals in soft drinks, coffee, and a really big toxin is the vaccines. But that is another topic to be discussed at another time. Many children are currently suffering because of long term negative effects of the immunizations that they have received. Such conditions as asthma, allergies, behavior problems, digestive conditions, nervous problems and more.

So to address my patients, I suggest that they use healthy natural organic food, cut out sugar, white flour, dairy, caffeine, and begin to help heal their child with natures best food, which directly helps build healthy cells immediately. Many kids with coughs get off dairy, get on some nutritional supplements that rebuild the lung tissue and never resort to the drugs that they have currently been using to no avail.

To be diligent when buying food for the family and stay away from prepackaged, chemically altered food is necessary. Just eat natural raw foods, and watch the health spring back quickly. Green raw vegetables flush out the toxins in the body and rebuild health. Drink the best clean water and get lots of rest.

Many need to keep the kids home for longer periods of time and not send them back to school too soon. Which brings me to the topic of stress. Stress comes in many ways. Peer problems, teachers and kids not getting along, overloading home work and projects, maybe even bad cafeteria food is to be considered.

Third and lastly look at thoughts. Kids need so much love and nurturing and support to help them emotionally. Emotions effect us in every way when it comes to health. Just think about how you feel when you have fear, anger, resentment or disgust about things as they happen in your life. It’s even a bigger problem for the kids. They haven’t learned the coping skills that adults have. And they have great stress that can totally alter their immune systems and the way the human body functions. The body-mind connection has to be considered when kids are ill. Talk about what is happening in their lives and see how you can best support them. Give them massages and hot baths and use essential oils that help relax them. Be sure they get the nutritional support through vitamins, minerals, omegas, digestive enzymes and more. Call on the natural professionals that will help you pick the right products to help build the immune system, fight fevers, help rebuild tissues to help rebuild a normal strong body.

The human body is meant to be healthy. When it is not, you just have to back up a bit and look at where you haven’t followed what the system needs. Putting artificial chemicals into the body through prescriptions suppresses the normal expression of the body. It pushes the causative factor deeper. Using natural ways to heal will be your best bet and create long term good health.

I have seen all kinds of kids with many kinds of problems heal this natural way. Stomach aches, leg pains, asthma, allergies, headaches, bedwetting, skin conditions and so much more. There are natural ways to heal just about anything. Recently I went to the big book store and asked to be guided to the section on natural healing for children. The lady looked at me with dismay and said there isn’t one. There are no books for parents to turn to, to heal their kids naturally? There is not one book to be bought to help educate parents on ways to help keep their kids healthy naturally? Can that be possible? Millions of parents want to learn more, what are they to do? Do parents of young babies have to resort to Rx when the child has an ear infection? And are parents being told about the side effects of prescriptions and or vaccines? What a feeling of helplessness.

The side effects of natural methods are good health. The possible side effects of Rx can be life threatening. Start asking today,” Can I help my child in a safer way get back to health?”

Call me anytime, any day. I am here to help parents learn how to heal naturally. I will show you this nation will be stronger and our kids will be happier when we stop drugging our kids.

Please help me get this life altering information to everyone you know. Drugs are dangerous whether pushed or prescribed.

Dr. Bonnie May is the 2007 Woman Chiropractor of the Year, from the World Congress of Woman Chiropractors. She can be reached through her website, www.drbonniemay.com

For once I agree with the FDA. This is a warning that I received today about Keepsake Imaging which I had not read about before today.

It seems that expectant parents are adding the fetal video to their “baby”pictures. This video exposes the baby in utero to unnecessary radiation, unless the ob/gyn prescribes it. Pregnancy is one of those times that less (radiation) is better.

For more information, please click on the links at the bottom.

While ultrasonic fetal scanning is generally considered a safe medical procedure, the use of it for unapproved and unintended purposes raises concerns.

The use of ultrasound imaging devices for producing fetal keepsake videos is viewed as an unapproved use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Doppler ultrasound heartbeat monitors are not intended for over-the-counter (OTC) use. Both products are approved for use only with a prescription.

“Although there are no known risks of ultrasound imaging and heartbeat monitors, the radiation associated with them can produce effects on the body,” says Robert Phillips, Ph.D., a physicist with FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). “When ultrasound enters the body, it heats the tissues slightly. In some cases, it can also produce small pockets of gas in body fluids or tissues.”

Phillips says the long-term effects of tissue heating and of the formation of partial vacuums in a liquid by high-intensity sound waves (cavitation) are not known.

Using ultrasound equipment only through a prescription ensures that pregnant women will receive professional care that contributes to their health and to the health of their babies, and that ultrasound will be used when medically indicated.

Fetal Keepsake Videos: “Performing prenatal ultrasounds without medical oversight may put a mother and her unborn baby at risk,” says Phillips. “The bottom line is: Why take a chance with your baby’s health for the sake of a video?”

Fetal keepsake videos are viewed as a problem because there is no medical benefit derived from the exposure. Further, there is no control on how long a single imaging session will take or how many sessions will occur.

FDA is aware of entrepreneurs that are commercializing ultrasonic imaging of fetuses by making keepsake videos. In some cases, the ultrasound machine may be used for as long as an hour to get a video of the fetus.

Doppler Ultrasound Heartbeat Monitors: Similar concerns surround the OTC sale of Doppler ultrasound heartbeat monitors. These devices, which people use to listen to the heartbeat of a fetus, are currently marketed legally as “prescription devices” that should only be used by or under the supervision of a health care professional.

“When the product is purchased over the counter and used without prior consultation with a health care professional, there is no oversight of how the device is used and little or no medical benefit derived from the exposure,” Phillips says. “The number of sessions or the length of a session to which a fetus is exposed is uncontrolled, thus raising the potential for harm to the fetus.”

For More Information

Taking a Close Look at Ultrasound
www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/ultrasound032408.html

Fetal Keepsake Videos (FDA-CDRH)
www.fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/fetalvideos.html

FDA Cautions Against Ultrasound “Keepsake” Images
www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2004/104_images.html

By Melinda Ribner

www.kabbalahoftheheart.com

Chodesh Tov. This Thursday night, Friday and Saturday we celebrate Rosh Chodesh Adar Sheni. We are blessed this year with a second month of Adar.The questions to keep in mind this month is ” Am I having fun?” “Am I experiencing joy?” “What brings me a true lasting joy, not a few moments of fleeting happiness?”

The deepest teachings of our Jewish sages is to know that the divine purpose for the creation of this world is to bestow love and goodness and to be known. The Holy One wants to bestow goodness upon all of creation. The greatest goodness that God gives us is that we can experience and know God. Because of this intrinsic desire on the part of God, God implanted within the human being the desire to receive. It seems like the perfect shidduch. God wants to give and human beings want to receive. The problem is that such a relationship is not a balanced one. There can be no transmission of giving and receiving from entities that are polar opposites to each other. To be able to receive what God wants to give us, we have to become like God. As God is a giver, so we must be givers. To receive the goodness of life, we must give and give, and our giving can not be a ruse for receiving as it too often is. Sometimes, people think that I will give and then the other person will give back to me. That is business, not giving. Rather, we must give to become like God. We must give like God gives so as to experience ourselves as an expression of Godliness in this world. By giving in this way we conquer or transcend our ego and selfish desire to receive solely for ourselves. This ego desire to receive for ourselves creates separation from God and others, and brings with it suffering, rather than joy.

We look for happiness in so many ways, but the true joy that we seek is that which comes from being who we really are, and being intimately and truly connected to the Holy One. When we give in a holy way, we release the hold of the limited ego and feel connected to the person we are giving to. We are so happy when we feel one with another person. By becoming holy givers, we experiencing our oneness with God and this makes us feel connected with everything, everyone in creation. That is the greatest joy.This month is the month to open to joy, that is deeper than anything this world can offer us.

In Adar Sheni, we celebrate the rising of the feminine. The feminine must rise so as to restore the balance between the masculine and feminine, between men and women. For too long the masculine energy of doing, accomplishing, achieving, and striving has dominated the feminine energy of receiving, allowing and being. The gifts of the feminine have been devalued and unappreciated in the past and in our modern time as well. Women have entered into the marketplace which is wonderful, but too often women have had to heigthen the masculine part within themselves to be successful. We, both men and women, have all become more confused about what is feminine and masculine energy and have lost the art and dance of the polarity. And we as individuals and collectively have suffered because of this confusion and imbalance within ourselves, in our relationships and in the world.

In Adar Sheni, the balance between the masculine and feminine energies within each person and in the universe are brought into greater balance and harmony. The heroine of the Purim story celebrated this month is Queen Esther. Not only does Queen Esther use the feminine energies to accomplish the goal of saving the Jewish people, the word Esther means hidden. The feminine represents that which is hidden, but in this month of Adar Sheni, what is hidden will be revealed. The feminine will rise.

The Torah portions read during the months of Adar are concerned with the building, the structure and appearance of the Mishkon, the dwelling place for the Shechinah, the divine presence. The teachings imparted in this knowledge are all about the feminine for the feminine is the vessel, the container. It is the feminine that dresses to reveal and also to conceal. The deepest secrets of the universe are contained within the Feminine, too deep to be openly revealed.

Furthermore, according to the Torah, Adar Sheni is the last month of the year and as such corresponds to the sephira of malkut, and refers to the revelation and the embodiment of Shechinah in this world. This is what the energy of this month is all about. It is the recognition and revelation of the Shechinah, feminine presence of God, that has been hidden in our midst.

The holiday that epitomizes the energies of the month is Purim. The Gemara says that Purim will be the only holiday remaining when Messiach comes. It is been said that Purim is even higher than Yom Kippur. When I first heard this, I did not understand. Purim is a rabbinical holiday, a children’s holiday, a holiday when we eat, drink, dress up in costumes, we give gifts to each other, and there are not the restrictions of the other holidays. How can we say it is higher than Yom Kippur?

Over time, I have come to understand why only the holiday of Purim remains and why it is higher than any other holiday. Purim is the revelation of the Shechinah, the feminine presence of God in the physical world. This is the highest and the deepest, as my rebbe would constantly say. The energy of Purim represents the fulfillment of the original divine intention, the consciousness that perceives and experiences the underlying intrinsic Godliness at the core of everyone and everything through the veils and garments of physicality. This is why we dress up in costumes and masks on Purim to share this joke, this play with God and why Adar Sheni is a time of joy.

When we are living in the messianic age with Godliness revealed, we will be in the consciousness of Purim continually. We will have no need to celebrate Passover for there is be no mitzraim ( a place of bondage and restriction), we will be free. We will have no need to celebrate Shavuos, for every day we will be receiving the Torah anew. We will not need to celebrate Yom Kippur, for there will be no sins, God’s light will be so clear. And on and on.

In this month, let’s see the intrinsic Godliness in every person and in ourselves. Let’s dress up in garments that reflect who were really are, rather than hide or limit our expression of self. Let’s be a little hidden and give to each other like God does. Think of at least one thing that you can do for God or another person, that is new, never done before and keep it a secret. Don’t tell anyone about what you did. Let it be just between you and God and see what happens within you.

Please refer to Kabbalah Month by Month for additional teachings. Please share these teachings with others and invite them to join this list. Love and blessings, Miriam Shulamit

By Debra Frick

In the soul of every woman there is the desire for her man to do something wonderful and unexpected for Valentine’s Day. Every woman wants romance and something magical for this special day. So here are some quick tips on how to make this the best Valentine’s Day ever.

First, if you don’t know what she likes, ask her mother! Moms always know the best ways to please their daughters. Ask her best friends. Now if that gets you nowhere, refer to this article.

She would love:  2 hours to herself to do whatever she would like to do with you but without the kids.

She would love:  if you helped the kids bake a cake or cupcakes and treated her like the queen she is. Decorate with chocolate hearts.

She would love:  to have you draw her bath with candles and bubble bath and a cd of romantic music and let her soak while you take the kids somewhere else.

She would love:  a back rub and some loving.

She would love:   a single rose and a foot rub.

She would love:  to have you make dinner Ask your mother for help with recipes and cooking instructions.

She would love:  a love letter.

She would love:   for you to dedicate a special song just to her; and if you can sing; sing it to her.

She would love:  for you to snuggle up with her and watch Chick Flicks and not complain.

She would love:  for you to buy her favorite movie or book.

She would love:  poetry and read it to her or write her something special it does not have to rhyme and it is something she will always treasure.

She would love:   a night alone with you. Hire a babysitter. Plan a picnic in front of a fire or just sit on the floor with romantic music playing. Place a tablecloth on the floor (don’t use the one she just bought for Christmas). Set it with the good dishes, order out her favorite food and serve her dinner. Be sure to handle the clean up afterwards.

Be romantic:  change the wall paper on her computer and put on something romantic or use a screensaver that lets you write a message and tell her how much you adore her.

Be romantic:  take a walk with her, reminding her of when you first where together.

Be romantic:  leave love notes in her car, in the bedroom, on the dresser, in the refrigerator, on the coffee pot, in her lunch box, in her briefcase, on the bathroom mirror that say “I love you!” or the corny sayings off a box of Valentine hearts from the local grocery.

Be romantic:  she would love a vase full of chocolates with one rose stuck in the center. The rose doesn’t have to be fresh. You can give her a silk flower that she can keep forever.

Be romantic:  run a ribbon from her bed to a gift that you have bought he, so that she has to follow the ribbon to find her gift.

Be romantic:  serve her favorite breakfast in bed.

Be romantic:   IM or text message her at work telling her how grateful you are that she is yours; and then have lunch delivered to her office.

Be romantic:  dress up and meet her for dessert at her favorite spot.

Be romantic:  slow dance with her after dinner, even if, you have two left feet she will love you even more for the effort.

Be romantic:  88 cents at Walmart buys you silk roses. Cut them apart for the petals and spread them all over her bed; spray her sheets with her favorite perfume; and light some candles. Set the mood for love with love songs playing and show her how much she means to you!

Be romantic:   make a big sign for your SUV and attach it to the front of the grill like you would do with a wreath that says I love you Honey or you are my best girl.

I hope this inspires you to do something extra special and maybe spark some ideas of your own. Flowers are mandatory since you know if you buy her chocolates you will be eating them too.

Happy Valentine’s Day!