DOWN TO EARTH: How to make cold processed soap

This is one of the best articles on soap making, I loved the way things are explained here. I am planning to give soap making a try,, even thought it has been ridiculously impossible to find lye anywhere,, so I'll be making my own lye very carefully today.

Wish me luck :)

DOWN TO EARTH: How to make cold processed soap: "I'm sure many of you are wondering: 'Why make soap when I can buy it cheaply at the supermarket?' My cold processed soap is made with veget..."

Thought for today - Oprah.com

“You can find energizing moments in each aspect of your life, but to do so you must learn how to catch them, hold on to them, to feel the pull of their weight and allow yourself to follow where they lead.”

— Marcus Buckingham

How To Make Apple Crumble Recipe (Dessert Pies)

How To Make Apple Crumble Recipe (Dessert Pies)

My favorite Apple Crumble, when I prepared this for the first time, I was surprised how the crumble felt so heavenly between my fingers, and it tasted like clouds my son says..

How to lead a well-balanced life?

Martha Beck - Insights on how to lead a well-balanced life.

Secret Causes of Summer Stress

Summertime…and the living is easy—right? Well, not always.

While we tend to expect a more relaxed lifestyle during summer, and the season definitely has its perks, summer can bring its share of unexpected stress. The following are areas of hidden stress that affect many of us during the summer season:
•Ever-Present Kids
For virtually all parents, the advent of the summer season is inexorably linked with three months off of school for their kids. While it’s nice to have kids around more often, and a relief to have a break from all the class projects, school fundraisers, and other events that go along with the school year, summer presents its own list of demands. Keeping the house clean, taking kids to various summer activities, preventing excessive bickering between bored siblings and, for working parents, finding alternate child care are just a few of the main issues that arise, each demanding its own set of solutions. Because there’s no standard answer that most parents choose, coming up with the right answer for your individual family’s needs can provide added stress.

•Vacation Expectations
While vacations are important—in fact, necessary—for your health and happiness, they often bring additional unanticipated stress. The planning and execution, the possible financial strain, and task of shifting around your workload at your job are just a few of the logistical stressors (along with stopping the mail, getting a pet-sitter, finding someone to water the plants, and the list goes on). Today’s vacationing worker is much more likely to get a call from the office or from other people than in the days before computer access and cell phones, making it much more difficult to leave daily life behind—which is usually the whole point of going on a vacation! And if you’re taking small children on this vacation, well, you get the idea.

•Covering Co-Workers
If you skip the vacation (as many people do), you may still experience stress from vacations that your co-workers take. With a significant number of people in a given workplace taking time off, the regular operations of the office can be disrupted. Even when vacations aren’t taken, when people become distracted by the fun times of summer, often work slows down.

•Too Much Fun?
Much like the holiday season, summer can bring lots of excitement, social opportunities, and high expectations that can bring both excitement and stress. With the extra hours of daylight, people tend to cram more fun activities into their week. While this can make for a great time, it can also create a much busier schedule, which can lead to more stress. While we tend to think of traumatic, frustrating or otherwise negative experiences as the primarily stressful ones, even positive experiences that require effort or change can count as a type of stress, which can add up and take a toll.

•Bathing Suits, Heat and Mosquitos—Oh, My!
Aside from these higher-impact sources of summer stress, there are several smaller sources of stress that simply come with the change of season: the stress of discomfort in a hotter climate (or financial stress from cooling expenses); the flies, mosquitos and other pests that come with the weather; even the stress of finding skin-baring clothing that’s both comfortable and flattering (how many people truly enjoy swimsuit shopping?), and other minor hassles can all create stress in their own way.
Because many of these summer stressors are experienced by many people, and because many people experience several of these at once, it’s important to take specific steps to safeguard your sanity from summer stress. The following summer stress tips can help.

http://stress.about.com/od/situationalstress/a/summer_stress.htm?nl=1

Rose Quartz

Rose Quartz
http://www.crystalsandjewelry.com/


Alternate Names & Name Spellings: "Love Stone"

Metaphysical and Healing Properties Lore
Keywords: Love

Rose quartz is pink quartz that is often called the "Love Stone." It is a stone of unconditional love that opens the heart chakra to all forms of love: self-love, family love, platonic love, and romantic love. The high energy of quartz gives rose quartz the property of enhancing love in virtually any situation. In turn, this lowers stress. All in all it is a very soothing and happy stone.

Emotionally rose quartz brings gentleness, forgiveness, compassion, kindness and tolerance. It raises one's self-esteem and sense of self-worth. It helps balance emotions and heal emotional wounds and traumas, even grief, bringing peace and calm. Rose quartz removes fears, resentments and anger. It can also heal and release childhood traumas, neglect, and lack of love, in part by enhancing inner awareness. It can help with reconciliation with family and others. Overwhelming or unreasonable guilt is eased by rose quartz.

In the psychic and spiritual realms, rose quartz is often used to attract love, and for love spells. It is also used to ease the process of transition in dying. Rose quartz can be helpful for dream recall and dream work.

Physically rose quartz is used in crystal healing to benefit the heart, the circulatory system, fertility, headaches, kidney disease, migraines, sexual dysfunction, sinus problems, throat problems, depression, addictions, ear aches, slowing signs of aging, reducing wrinkles, spleen problems, fibromyalgia, and reaching one's ideal weight / weight loss. Rose quartz is also helpful and protective during pregnancy and with childbirth. It is also sometimes said that rose quartz is helpful for supporting brain functions and increasing intellect.

Rose quartz is associated with the heart chakra.

Julie Lomas - Understanding ‘loving yourself’ and affirmations to help

Topic of the Month – Understanding ‘Loving yourself’
I have arrived. I am home. in the here. in the now, I am solid, I am free, In the ultimate I dwell. Thich Nhat Hahn

Loving ourselves is very necessary in life yet is so often misunderstood. If we can’t love ourselves how can we love others? So often people say to me, I don’t know how to love myself, I don’t understand what loving myself means. I don’t want to be one of those awful egotistic people who just love themselves and no one else.

One of the great lessons we have to learn in life is to love ourselves. On the surface, this sounds like a simple thing. How hard can it be to love yourself, to feel confident about your abilities and comfortable in your own skin, and to act in a way that is self-loving, rather than self-destructive? Most of us know it's much harder than it seems. We often beat ourselves up and are hard on ourselves without even realising we are being so. It seems to be easier to beat our self up than to love our self.

Many of us put our own needs and wants and aspirations aside. Often, we are afraid to shine and be our unique self as if we didn't have the right! We don’t want to bring attention to ourselves in anyway. Or in some cases we don’t want to appear to outshine someone else. We so often don’t think we are as good as anyone else for no apparent reason at all, or it stems from childhood when we may have been compared to our siblings or classmates and therefore made to feel inadequate.

We are all here with a unique life path and reason, everyone has some sort of unique gift and we should not at any time compare yourself to others or be compared, we can’t all be brilliant scientists, or top models, brilliant sportsman, life would be so boring if we were all the same. You are perfect just as you are, you are your own unique creation.

We all carry experiences and messages from the past that have ingrained into us feelings of unworthiness, messages from our parents, peers and upbringing. Many of us have false beliefs about ourselves and think we are totally inadequate or not as good as anyone else. We have so often taken on behaviours’ that reinforce those feelings.

Many of us will compare ourselves to others, always thinking that someone else is more beautiful, thinner, cleverer and funnier. Many women will look at themselves in the mirror and really dislike what they see as they don’t look like the paint shopped models in the magazines, with no blemishes and perfect figures with not an inch of fat or a wrinkle insight.

What they are actually comparing themselves with does not actually exist and yet they will carry on doing it and will grow more uncomfortable and on constant diets never really enjoying who they are and constantly putting themselves down, beating themselves up and making themselves miserable.

We all have the desire to love and to be loved. The love-impulse lives within us, and urges us to shine.

In the words of ‘Marianne Williamson’ in this passage from A Return to Love best describes our need for affirmations and to recognize yourself as whole: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? ‘ I personally love this passage and I read it often to remind myself
The development of self-love comes faster and more easily to some than to others, but it is something we all have to work toward and maintain. Even for those who have begun to grow into themselves, self-esteem can seem illusive - one moment you feel good about yourself, and the next, something inside of you shifts, and those old feelings of inadequacy come bubbling to the surface. One tool that can help neutralize negative thoughts when they arise, and get you back on track, are positive affirmations, powerful statements that support self-love.

There are many who argue that simply saying "I am worthy" is not enough. In a 2008 study entitled "Positive Self-Statements: Power for Some, Peril for Others," it was revealed that while affirmations such as "I am a lovable person" were beneficial to people with high self-esteem, it made people with low self-esteem feel even worse about themselves. Among individuals with low self-esteem, telling themselves something they didn't believe only served to highlight their perceived flaws, their own false beliefs about themselves ingrained by years of continually looking and finding proof they were right in their belief.

It makes sense that an affirmation you don't believe in will have very little power or resonance with you, so of course will probably actually heighten negative thoughts. The most powerful affirmations are the ones you do believe in! We always believe in the negative statements we say about ourselves so we really do have to say something positive and realistic and powerful in its simplicity for a person to really believe it. Affirmations that work are usually the short ones.

What I find in many ways that can work better than affirmations and are just as powerful are the statements that inspire you to reach out for your greatest potential. For an affirmation to manifest in your life, it must resonate with you so strongly that the vibration from it can be carried forward into the way you behave in the world. These types of affirmations can have very beneficial effects because they are important reminders when wrong thinking begins to cloud your vision and makes you doubt everything.

In times of need, they can help shift your focus from the negative to the positive. They can help to ground you and bring you back to your centre. They give you the courage needed to go forward into difficult or frightening territory.

Affirmations can be found just about anywhere, in books, movies, speeches, poems, conversations or websites. The first step is to write down affirmations that you like and that resonate with you when you find them.

Keeping a record gives them a place in your life. You can try some of these other popular techniques to help weave the power of affirmations into your daily life:

Post them in places where you will find them fridge, bath room or bedroom mirror, cupboard, wardrobe, daily diary, wallet, notebook, by your bed on the car dashboard etc. You can even put them on your Ipad , computer or phone as a daily inspirational wake up message. Whether it's a good self-esteem day or a low self-esteem day, remind yourself of the affirmations that are important to you. Let them be part of your consciousness on a regular basis. Remember to call on the affirmations in times of need. You can say the affirmations to yourself silently, or out loud, and really do not worry what other people think, that’s their problem not yours. Many people find that reciting an affirmation while looking at them self in a mirror helps to reinforce its power – I find this very powerful and very useful and it is the one I use all the time!

Tell you self daily, That you love you, you are worth loving, that you are beautiful and that you are perfect as you are. Say it to yourself looking in the mirror until it really starts to sit inside you and you really believe it.

Stop being hard on yourself, become aware of what you tell yourself daily, and as soon as you find yourself being hard on yourself, ‘Stop’ and give yourself a hug and start afresh again from this moment on and instead of searching for evidence that you are not worth loving, no good at anything, etc start looking for and seeing the evidence that you are worthy etc, and create the life you really want to live.

After all as I said in the opening of this newsletter, the now is all we have some of the most powerful affirmations will be the ones you write for yourself. These come straight from your own self-knowledge and self-love. Here are some that may help.

"Om Namah Shivaya" (I honor the God within me). - Siddha Yoga
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"What you think of me is none of my business." - Wayne Dyer
"What I am looking for is already in me.- Julie Lomas
Action Challenge:
• Re read the above section, and mark where is really appropriate for you, then write it down.
• Find and also write affirmations that work for you! They have to resonate with your very core so
• Become more aware of what you are saying to yourself…every time you say something negative, write it down, so that you will start to see a pattern of why you do it,
• Immediately you say something negative about yourself, or beat yourself up, stop and then say something loving to yourself, about yourself.
• Look in the mirror everyday and have a truly loving conversation with yourself.
• Know that you are perfect just as you are, unique in every way, no 2 people can ever be the same.
• Everyday do something just for ‘you’ even if it means sitting in the car listening to some favourite music track on the radio, everyone can find 5 minutes spare to do something or say something nice to themselves.
• Attend one of my workshops on positive thinking or loving the self.

Love yourself, you are worth it! Good Luck

Tel Bahrain: +973 39606712 Tel Spain: +34 661928937
Info@conscious-connections.com http://www.conscious-connections.com/ http://www.julielomas.com/
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© Conscious Connections, 2006 - 2011 This document may freely distributed in its entirety but may not be reused in whole or part without full recognition of the authors

Out Of The Shadows - An Incredibly Engaging Story

Friends Reunited, teenage crushes, tabloid fame, evil predators - none of it was on the agenda the day Susannah Cates came home from work to the unwelcome shock of finding a for sale board outside her house. All she knew then was how desperately she wanted her world to change. Since her husband had been carted off to prison, three years before, life had become a constant struggle to provide for herself and their teenage daughter. Nothing ever seemed to go right, the most she hopes for now is that no more will go wrong.

Worried by her mother’s unhappiness thirteen year old Neve decides to take matters into her own hands. She is sure she knows what will bring the light back to Susannah’s eyes and the warmth to her smile, and when Susannah’s closest friend Patsy discovers what Neve is up to, she immediately lends her support.

As their plans start to unfold they have no way of knowing what kind of fates they are stirring, all they can see is Susannah’s excitement when they reveal their plan, because at last a way seems to be opening up for her to escape her bad luck. Then other forces start swooping in and very soon the future begins to look even brighter than Susannah ever dared hope.

The journey from a humble terraced house to a grand Elizabethan manor turns out to be as thrilling and unpredictable as it is full of love, laughter and friendship. However, the spectre of horror is all the time pacing behind the scenes, working itself up for an entrance that must go unseen, or even suspected, if it is to achieve its aim. When the time finally comes for it to step out of the wings only one person knows it is there, threading its monstrous intent through their lives, breaking apart the very fabric of innocence. By the time the others realise what’s happening it is already too late, the worst is done and there is no turning back...

Never, in all Susannah’s wildest dreams, could she have imagined her happiness causing so much pain to someone she loves. There is nothing she wouldn’t sacrifice now to make things right, but the forward march of time has no interest in sacrifices, it only moves on leaving heartbreak and devastation in its wake, and its victims to try and pick up the pieces.

to read more about the authors books visit:- http://www.susanlewis.com/pages/books/out-of-the-shadows.htm

5 Minutes Stress Relief Strategies

By Elizabeth Scott, M.S. , About.com Guide
http://stress.about.com/od/lowstresslifestyle/a/stress_relief.htm


Stress comes from many areas of life, and stress relief comes in many forms. While some people like using one favorite tool for stress relief, many experts feel that the most efficient approach to stress relief is one that attacks stress from several different directions, utilizing an overall 'plan of attack' for stress relief.
An important first step in this stress relief plan is to have one or two quick stress relief strategies that can help you relax your physiology or de-stress your mind, to reverse your body's stress response so that you can think clearly and avoid the negative effects of chronic stress.

The following are some quick and effective stress relief strategies that can help you do just that: these stress relief activities, once mastered, should enable you to de-stress in under 5 minutes so that you can move on to the next steps in your stress relief strategy or immediately face the stressors at hand.

Here are several strategies to try:-

Breathing Exercises
Stress relief breathing is one of the most popular ways of calming down quickly for good reason: breathing exercises can be done by anyone, at any time, with little training, and at no expense! Breathing exercises can also be combined with other stress relief techniques (such as guided imagery or meditation) for added benefits and ease of use. Learn more about breathing exercises and learn a quick stress relief breathing technique.

PMR
Progressive Muscle Relaxation, or PMR, is a technique you can learn that, with practice, enables you to completely relax all of the muscles in your body quickly, thereby releasing tension from stress. Like each of the techniques that are mentioned in this article, PMR helps you to reverse your body's stress response quickly. It can also be done at virtually any time or place, once you've learned the technique and practiced it. (It's especially useful for when you're trying to get to sleep.) Learn more about how to practice PMR.

Mini-Meditation
Meditation is gaining status as a stress management mainstay because it brings so many wonderful benefits, including (after consistent practice) resilience against future stressors! Many people shy away from learning meditation because they think they don't have the ability to learn the technique or the time to practice regularly. Actually, meditation can be very simple to learn, and even 5 minutes of meditation can make a difference. Learn more about the benefits of meditation, and how to practice 5-minute meditation.

Aromatherapy
As far as ease of use goes, aromatherapy is about as easy as they come! Studies show that certain types of aromatherapy can be effective for stress relief, and once you have the aromatherapy going, it's passive stress relief--you don't have to do anything except go about your regular activities as you normally would! (Combining techniques can provided added stress relief, but isn't necessary.) Learn more about the research on aromatherapy and find ways to use aromatherapy for stress relief.

Quick Burst of Exercise
Exercise is an excellent stress relief technique because it's great for your whole body and brings physical benefits other than those experienced because of a reversed stress response. Exercise can provide distraction, endorphins and an outlet for frustration. Unfortunately, it's not always practical as a 'quick' stress reliever, as the full benefits of exercise are often not achieved until sustained exercise has occurred, and that can leave you sweaty; therefore, you may not use it in a class or at the office, or when you're meeting with clients and under stress. However, in situations where it can work, even a quick burst of exercise (like a quick run up several flights of stairs, or several sets of push-ups) can be useful for stress relief. (Always check with your doctor before starting any exercise program, of course.) Learn more about the benefits of exercise and how to use exercise for stress relief.

Have a Good Laugh
Maintaining a sense of humor can relieve stress in several ways. First, there are specific benefits that you get from laughter that can help you relieve stress and even stay healthier in your life. Also, laughter connects people, and social support is good for stress relief. More, it's hard to stay stressed when you're laughing. And maintaining a sense of humor reminds us that our stressors may not be as menacing as they seem, and probably have solutions, too. For these reasons, laughing in the face of stress can help you feel better in a matter of minutes. Learn more about the benefits of laughter and how to maintain a sense of humor in the face of stress.

Smoky Quartz Properties

Smoky Quartz is a strong healing stone, alleviating a variety of physical, mental and emotional health problems. It is excellent for removing negativity, and helps protect the user from both physical and psychic negativity. It engenders cooperation in group and assists people who are working together, and makes goals more easily attainable. It also has a grounding faculty that enhances basic instincts and abilities (such as creativity). This gemstone brings abundance, prosperity and good fortune.

The physical healing properties of Smoky Quartz focus on the lower torso region and improve resistance to general infections. It treats many areas of the lower body, including the reproductive organs, pancreas and abdomen, and also helps menstrual cramps and fertility problems. It benefits the functioning of the kidneys which regulate bodily fluids and fluid retention, aiding in the removal of toxins from the body.

In addition, it strengthens the adrenal glands and alleviates hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder. Smoky Quartz is excellent for maintaining a well-balanced condition and healing infections and maladies. Smoky Quartz is also used as a mental aid during meditation. It allows the grounding of the physical self in order to achieve higher states of consciousness, and allowing access to subconscious wisdom. The stone links the base chakra to the crown chakra, allowing increased relaxation. Also, by transforming negative energies into positive ones, this gemstone can be used for psychic shielding.

The emotional effects of Smoky Quartz include mood elevation and overcoming negative emotions. This is an excellent stone for relieving depression and controlling negative moods. Its ability to turn negative energy into positive energy works to help the individual overcome hazardous negative emotions such as fear, jealousy and anger into more positive emotions. Positive emotions help the individual reach personal and business goals. Thus, Smoky Quartz is associated with serenity and peace of mind.

Stimulating Creativity
Smoky Quartz can enhance the creativity of those who wear it, diminishing mental blocks and enabling fresh ideas to proliferate. This is a valuable aid for many different artistic endeavors, but also helps ordinary creative functions used in daily life. Creative solutions to basic problems can be found, even ones as small as finding the quickest way to get to work. The needs and wants of the individual are met with wisdom that fosters the productive creative forces.

Base Chakra
For most of its healing properties, Smoky Quartz is associated with the Base (Root) Chakra. It is also believed that Smokey Quartz channels the light from the Crown Chakra to the Base Chakra, unifying the subconscious intellect with the physical senses, providing grounding in meditation and the revelation of subconscious wisdom, as well as progression to a higher consciousness