Butterfly Balance Wellness Center

Important Parking Information for Clients

It's come to my attention that some of my clients (and clients of my colleagues) are parking in the incorrect alley parking lot. My landlord has informed me that the owner of the alley lot just east of 36th Street (just south of Alaska) is going to start having cars towed if they do not belong to his patients/clients/staff.

If you look at the Google Maps photo below, you'll see a larger lot on the left that is surrounded by a chain fence, and then a smaller one next to it to the right (east) with room for 6 cars. The smaller 6-car lot (which is directly behind my office building at 3515 SW Alaska Street) is the only place that you can legally park, other than any available street parking.

View Larger Map

When you enter the alley from either 36th or 35th Street (just south of Alaska), please be sure to use the smaller lot in the center of the block (not the one nearest 36th). (If you click on "view larger map" below the map, it will show you more detail about the surrounding streets in case you're not clear on where the lot is located.) There is also no client parking allowed in the small lot on Alaska in front of my building.

My office window looks out on our parking lot - look for the butterfly suncatcher in the window to confirm you're in the right place!

I don't want to see any of my clients have their cars towed! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Thanks for your understanding!

 

Note: Due to FTC guidelines, I am now required to disclose that if you click on a link in this post (or any other post or link on my blog) and purchase Young Living Essential Oils, books/products through Amazon.com or nutritional supplements through AIM Companies, that I will receive a small commission as a result of those purchases. Thank you for your support.

The Importance of Sleep and Its Effects on Health

I was recently talking about sleep (or lack thereof) on the Butterfly Balance Facebook page and from the discussion it sounded like I'm definitely not the only one who's dealing with not getting enough sleep.

What is it about sleep that makes it seem almost optional? I know when I'm overwhelmed and have too much to do, it seems easiest to cut sleep out; something else always seems "more important" and I can always "make it up" later. Unfortunately, sleep doesn't really work like that. And when we let ourself get way too tired, we often turn to things like caffeine and/or sugar to "wake us up" which then have other detrimental effects on our health, on top of the sleep deprivation.

I have even heard that people who drive when very tired have a level of impairment not unlike driving after drinking!

During this past week, my schedule was so full that if I got 6 hours of sleep a night, it was a lot. By Friday I was nearly delirious, I was so sleep deprived. So it was interesting and timely to see this link to a Bastyr University natural medicine blog post called "What is so important about sleep?"

In this article they mention that adults should have 7-9 hours of sleep a night. 7 hours is about the maximum that I get, and I'm sure I could use more. Also from the article are these benefits of sleep and risk of not enough sleep:

"Some negative outcomes of inadequate sleep include:

• Increased level of systemic inflammation, which can be a predisposing factor in the development of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.
• Increased overall pain response.
• Decreased immune response to illnesses such as the common cold.
• Decreased circulating melatonin, which has been found to have anti-rheumatic and anti-autoimmune activity and thus may help in conditions such as multiple sclerosis and scleroderma

 Some benefits of adequate sleep quantity and quality include:

• Increased immune function.
• Increased cognitive function.
• Increased wound healing."

Sleep is such a vital component to good health. Would you cut out eating because you needed more time in your day? Or show up at work an hour or two late for work because you needed more time in your day? So why is it okay to take an extra hour or two away from sleep?

For me, the answer is to reevaluate the things I schedule. I just can't say "yes" to everything. I know I've hit a state of overwhelm when even fun things I love to do feel like an obligation. There really are only so many hours in a day!

Did you know that sleep deprivation has actually been used as a form of torture? I found this article about sleep deprivation as torture, that said in part:

"Deprivation of sleep can raise many physical and mental inabilities in a human body. It also considered as a most cruel torture, termed as sleep deprivation torture. This is one of the most effective and brutal way of torture, used on victims, to make them mentally and physically weak. In this way, they easily accept their crime. In sleep deprivation torture, victims are not allowed to sleep for many days, at a time. And, finally when they are permitted to sleep, then disrupt their sleep many times and then interrogate them. Questions are asked to them without having sleep for many hours.

In sleep deprivation torture, the victim who is tortured, feels like going to die. Legs become unsteady and request only for one thing; to sleep. The one, who has experienced the sleep deprivation torture, cannot assume even hunger and thirst, to compare with it. Sleep deprivation is not just a complaint of few people, suffering from it. It is serious problem, which can cause severe health complications and conditions, for human body. Sleep deprivation torture is a traditional way of torture someone, but nowadays, it is used as a treatment for mental sickness and depressions of various types.

This problem is now becoming common in nowadays society. Due to toxics and pollution, the problem of sleep deprivation is increasing rapidly. Sleep deprivation is so stressful condition and it could be deadly if increases with the time. It can make a person disoriented and can mix up the mind so that a person suffering from sleep deprivation, feels like passing through a torture. Due to lack of sleep or sleep deprivation, a person may face irritation, weakness of vision, garbled speech, and lack of memory, confusion, hallucination, nausea and ultimately death."

I can actually do a workup using Health Kinesiology that can determine your body's personalized need for sleep, from how many hours to what time you should be in bed for the most restorative, healing sleep.

Are you getting enough sleep? If not, what steps can you take to fix that? Be kind to yourself by putting yourself first!

 

 

Free Event: Discover Natural Solutions for Optimal Health

 
I am hoping to attend this free event in Federal Way, WA this coming Saturday, 2/26, at 11:00 a.m. and wanted to pass this along to anyone else interested in attending.

Special Speaker is J.R. Celski, Olympic Medalist, who overcame his potentially career-ending injuries using natural products from AIM Nutrition.

I personally use AIM products and highly recommend them. Many Health Kinesiology clients are using these nutritional products with beneficial effects to their health. Come to this no-obligation, free event to learn more about the products, as well as this page on my website and my AIM store.

Note: I am not the one arranging for this event - just passing along the information - so any questions should be directed to the contact listed on the flyer photo above.

How Being Supported Makes Us Stronger

In 5 years, this plant never grew very tall at all. It was hanging over the side of the pot and just existing. One day last month I got the idea to support it with a chopstick, which you can see if you look closely at the stem of the plant, and secured it with a rubberband. I didn't have very high hopes for anything to happen, honestly, but all of a sudden the plant took off growing! Now it's about twice as high as it was a month ago, standing up straight and strong.

This plant is a metaphor for my own personal journey right now. As you can see, dear readers, I have not posted anything in quite some time. I have lots of ideas for posts, but never brought myself to doing anything about it. And that's because I was going through some personal issues that I wasn't able to post about, because they were either way too personal to share publicly, or involved someone else whose privacy I would not violate.

I struggled for a while and felt quite lost. And then I decided I needed some support, and reached out for it. With that support I feel like I'm now on my way, in a totally different incarnation than I left behind in 2010. New and improved, if you will. And, like the plant, I stood strong and grew because I allowed myself to be supported.

Sounds almost counter-intuitive, that if you ask for support that you can now stand strong on your own, doesn't it? Years ago, in a different place in my life, I probably would've taken the support and then held on for dear life in some codependent dysfunction, but the energy healing work I've done has helped me to learn to use support as a stepping stone, not a permanent crutch.

I apologize that I disappeared, but I believe I'm better for the experience, and know that it will make a positive difference in how I do my energy healing work and work with my clients. Thank you for your patience, and I look forward to some new changes in near future to share with all of you.

Being of Service

“There’s no greater purpose
than service to others.”
~ Socrates, the Peaceful Warrior movie

I've been giving the topic of Service a lot of thought lately. At the Unitarian Universalist church that I attend in West Seattle, we have a unison affirmation each week that says in part "And service is [this congregation's] prayer." So what exactly is "service"?  The first definition at Dictionary.com is "an act of helpful activity; help; aid: to do someone a service."

I think we often focus on the fact that being of service to others is simply a benefit to the others, and not to the person performing the service. But I think that if the service is genuinely given/performed from the heart, it can be so incredibly beneficial for the person doing the serving as well.

When I originally gave thought to Service in my own life, I thought about what we often call service industries - jobs where we serve others. One of the reasons that I enjoy my work through the Butterfly Balance Energy Healing Center and Health Kinesiology is that I love working with people to help them to improve their life. The gift of doing that work is reflected in a focus and peace I had never found in another job before.

Just over a year ago I spent some wonderful retreat time working with a dear friend, Daria Boissonnas, who is the director for the Global Institute for Awakening (which I highly recommend). Daria is a gifted healer who told me about the Peaceful Warrior film, which I'd never seen before. The quote that I started this post out with was one that she shared with me, and it has stayed with me ever since.

Daria helped me to reframe the idea of being in service and being a healer. Why could my work in a law firm not be a work of service? There are days when it is difficult because I'll be typing all day long, hand in the work, and the attorney will delete half of it and start over again. It felt like such a waste of time to me, and I pretty much felt rejected and undervalued, as if my time was worthless enough to just delete it. But Daria helped me to reframe it in a different way: that I am being asked to do a certain task as a service to the attorney, and what I have done helps him to the next level of doing his own job - and helps him to think clearer about his intention. So I am serving him and helping him, and to look at it this way made it feel more valuable to me, and less irritating.

Even something as simple as holding a door for someone can be an act of Service. All my life I have held doors open for the person behind me. And I've realized that a great majority of those people don't say thank you, they just take the door, or they sometimes expect me to hold it open for them. Being a native New Yorker, I can have a sarcastic streak at times, and if someone didn't say thank you, I'd no doubt say something snarky like "you're welcome" in an annoyed tone. But why? Did I hold the door open just because I wanted a pat on the back? "Good job, Sue - you should be rewarded for your good deed?" Well, no . . . that wasn't my motivation. Shouldn't service be because you want to serve, not to get something back or having an ulterior motive? Shouldn't the motivation BE the service itself, doing something that you think is the right thing to do?

Today I held the door open for still another person who did not acknowledge it. I smiled anyway and knew that all was right in the world at that moment.

How do YOU incorporate Service into your life? How does it make you feel?

 

 

 

Rules to Live By

Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Listen hard.
Practice wellness.
Play with abandon.
Laugh.
Choose with no regret.
Appreciate your friends.
Continue to learn.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.

Mary Anne Radmacher

 

I saw this inspirational message on a framed wall hanging in a catalog I just got in the mail from Femail Creations. It really jumped out at me, not as something to necessarily buy, but because of how each line touched me. It's almost like a blueprint to life - rules to live by - if one wants to live a life of joy and integrity and wellness.

I recommend meditating on each line and thinking about one step you can take to bring each one into your life, more so than you may already be doing. It may sound cliched, but I think the world would be a happier place. At least you would be.  :)

 

 

Stenciling Storm Drains & Protecting Waterways and Wildlife

I never gave much thought to the sewer storm drains growing up. It was implied that it was not really different than a garbage can. If you can't find a garbage can, then throw it into the sewer - that's what I did growing up and into adulthood. I always figured it was better than the alternative of just throwing it on the ground. (Of course, the real alternative would have been to hold onto it until you find a proper garbage can, but that never occurred to me.) If someone had only told me sooner that I was potentially harming (or killing) fish and wildlife, and contaminating our waterways with all the trash I'd thrown into the sewer in my lifetime, I never would've done it - or at least stopped sooner than I did.

Following up on yesterday's post about medicine disposal and why not to put it into the drains/sewer/trash, I learned today about something that the City of Seattle is doing to help raise awareness.

Apparently, you can become a volunteer to stencil a storm drain with:

Dump No Waste
Drains to Stream, Lake or Bay

I've actually seen similar stencils around town, now that I think of it:

 If every drain had a stencil like that, no one could claim ignorance as to where the waste is going. I think it's a brilliant idea!

From the Seattle Public Utilities Website:

"Some people believe that storms drain carry the waste to a sewage treatment for cleanup. Not true! Some drains go directly into the nearest stream or lake or Puget Sound, and so do the hazardous chemicals, pesticides, paints, antifreeze and used motor oil people pour down storm drains every year.

The Seattle Aquarium estimates that more than 2 million gallons of used motor oil ends up in Puget Sound each year. That’s enough to fill a medium-sized tanker! But even small amount of oil can smother fish eggs and developing shellfish in our lakes and streams. Just 1 pint of oil causes a slick the size of 2 football fields."

Isn't that disturbing?  I'm going to call to become a volunteer to stencil drains in my neighborhood, and hope that those of you in Seattle will do so as well.

And if you're not in Seattle, I urge you to consider calling your local municipality and see if they have a similar program, or if you can start one. Or at the very least, think of the environment, consider this information and do NOT use storm drains for trash disposal.

 

 

Virtual Office Tour

Welcome to a virtual tour of the Butterfly Balance Healing Center!  It may be small in size, but there's a wealth of possibility hidden behind this door.

This is the entrance to my office which is located in the West Seattle ActivSpace building at 3400 Harbor Avenue SW in West Seattle.

This is where I store all of my tools for HK sessions - test kits, samples, oils, stones, crystals, essences, books, magnets and all sorts of fun samples of things that I use in energy corrections: color, light, sound, smell, taste, touch. Something for everybody!

I love the art card with the butterfly on it (above) - it's from The Blessing Project and says "May you say yes to what is whispering in your soul and walk with confidence toward a new doorway."  I spent 4 years deciding what I wanted to do to make a difference, and on the same weekend that I finally decided that it was Health Kinesiology and arranged to take my first class, I found this card at an art show.

Various essential oils from Young Living, Daria's Spiritual Cleanse Oil, and Chakra Balancing Oils.

 

Hope you can stop by for my Open House on Thursday, June 24, from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. for a few minutes to see the space in person, enter a door prize drawing for free Young Living products and free Health Kinesiology sessions, have a snack, free samples, and get your questions answered as to what this Health Kinesiology stuff is all about!

Newsflash: My Cat Eats Better Than Me!

I was reading one of my favorite magazines, Body and Soul, and saw an ad for Wellness pet food, which is the only brand that I feed my kitty, Olias. This ad said, in part:

True Wellness
comes from an ideal nutritional balance – never ‘empty calories’

True Wellness
is about being more than natural – Every ingredient has a purpose.

True Wellness
means real quality control – only trustworthy sources.

True Wellness
comes from carefully chosen, authentic ingredients.

These are the reasons I feed this food to my cat. I want him to eat wholesome, human-quality food. Look at that sweet face over there; doesn't he deserve that? But when I read this ad, I realized that there's a bit of a problem when my cat is eating better than me!

There's no reason I can't eat like this; don't I deserve that too? I know the convenience food that I eat is not always good for me, even the stuff I buy at the health food store. But, like many people, I'll make the excuse that I'm busy or tired, or I want to go out for a junk food "treat."  I go long periods of time where I eat so well, and then life seems to get in the way and I revert to old habits. It's frustrating.

Reading this ad was a huge newsflash to me. Don't I deserve to treat myself as well as I treat my cat? Seriously? Don't we all?

My health kinesiology practitioner recently did a personalized nutrition work-up for me using muscle testing, and let me know what my body wanted to eat (and not eat) to help me function at my best. Real food - nutritious fruit, vegetables, proteins, grains. My body didn't ask for a bag of potato chips and a chai latte (imagine that!). This is why I started making changes like not eating dairy anymore, and no red meat - because my body asked for it. So sometimes I feel like I'm taking one step forward and two steps back. But it's a work in progress, and I haven't given up, so that's a good thing.

My baby step today was to skip my morning latte and instead eat a piece of fruit. What's one step you can take today towards treating yourself the way you deserve to be treated?