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Cold and Flu Season

Cold and Flu Season or Cold and Flu Year?

These days it seems like there is always something going on with our sinuses. Allergies, colds and flues, germs and mold, every time we turn the corner it’s to grab a tissue. In our house it is a constant battle of dusting and cleaning to help our full house breathe easy. (Speaking of breathing, I talk a lot about that right over here.)

While we all have our reasons, a lot of us don’t want to make a trip to the doctor for an irritating virus. There are a few simple tricks you can do to recover in record time, and even help improve your immune system so that you stop fighting these symptoms.

There are millions of home remedies, but this assortment of methods is just my family’s way of dealing with infections and viruses.

Let’s start with my favorite!

Peroxide!

We clean everything with peroxide. I cannot tell you how much I love the little spray bottle they make now. I probably buy enough peroxide to own stock somewhere. So let’s run over the things that you need to be using this on and talk about the benefits you will see immediately.

Places to use peroxide

Pillows and bedding in every room. If you use pillow cases make sure you strip the case. Spray your bare mattress, and use on sheets and pillow cases every morning before making the bed. If the dog sleeps in the bed mist the bed after it’s made, too.

Furniture, all your furniture can be cleaned with peroxide. With wood be careful of course, and use some wood oil after to prevent drying. In my experience this has not caused any discolorations between various types of fabrics.

Carpets, now this has an even better benefit, especially if you have pets. Peroxide is a fantastic deodorizer. I use peroxide daily on my carpets and we have four dogs and two boys. I promise if you walk in my house and all the animals are outside, you won’t even know we have pets! The house smells so good now that I use this to clean. It doesn’t smell like the perfume isle at Macy’s. It smells like home; home for us smells like cooking and burning wood usually. If you are wondering why you need to go so far as to disinfect your carpets, it’s simple. They’re dirty.

Last but not least, peroxide is used for Oxygen Therapy!

(Which I also talk about over here.)

This is easiest done with an eye dropper. Two single drops in every one of your drinks, hot or cold. You will never taste it. Viruses, infections, bad bugs in general cannot survive easily in heavily oxygenated environments. This acts very similarly to Oxygen therapy. It’s just the cheapest version out there, and quite a sufficient one at that. This can help you with a world of ailments, but I won’t go into all of that for this article.   

PEROXIDE:

  1. per·ox·ide

pəˈräkˌsīd/

noun

Chemistry

noun: peroxide; plural noun: peroxides

    1. 1.

a compound containing two oxygen atoms bonded together in its molecule or as the anion O22−.

 

Peroxide is completely safe, though I certainly insist only taking it in small doses at a time, simply for the fact that it is so heavily oxygenated it can cause an upset stomach if you take too much. What happens if you take too much? Well, I threw up. Didn’t make me out right sick, just nauseated. I was young, overzealous, and downed a shot glass full trying to get rid of my bug. I felt fine within just a few minutes after.

Next…

We all take Sodium Bicarbonate pills when we’re not feeling our best, though I have to take them daily for ongoing care.

What is Sodium Bicarbonate? Baking soda! It helps regulate pH—keeping a substance neither too acidic nor too alkaline.

I cannot tell you how vital it is to have a proper pH balance, but this plays a crucial role in our bodies overall health. Without proper balance our body’s cells could cease to function. Our natural ability to heal and regenerate is greatly diminished. Our ability to absorb essential nutrients or detoxify and eliminate negative substances stops functioning like it’s supposed to. Even if your body is slightly alkaline, your body may not be able to heal itself. So basically, proper pH balance means a stronger total self and will keep us at our healthiest.

“Paying attention to acid-alkaline balance (or pH Balance) is one of the most crucial ways you can affect your health status.  It impacts immunity, digestion, bone strength, symptoms of joint disease, hormones, and the function of essential internal organs.”

Susan Lark, M.D., co-author of The Chemistry of Success: Six Secrets of Peak Performance.  Source: “pH power: maintain a proper acid-alkaline balance to curtail colds and keep inflammation in check” by Molly Spile, November 2005.

If you would like to understand more about the benefits of a proper pH balance, check this page out

Here is some information about Sodium Bicarbonate, and how it’s been one if the greatest keys to health I know.

Soothing throats

Soothe throats with this easy sweet blend. Since my children were old enough to have honey they have loved it. Since they were old enough to have cough medicine they’ve hated it. My fix? Each year I make a jar of my own syrup by mixing three simple ingredients.  

Honey – We only use locally grown, raw honey. This is why.

Cinnamon – 1 heaping tablespoon. Here is why.

Lemon juice – I use organic pre-strained juice to avoid pulp seeds and get as much juice as I need. I used a 1/4th cup of lemon juice for a full 16 ounce jar of honey.

In addition to soothing throats, this combination when made with local raw honey has incredible health benefits. It is packed full of nutrients and minerals, which will strengthen your immune system.

This mixture is also pretty awesome when used for your herbal tea!

 

Please practice common sense, talk to your doctor and see this disclaimer for all the legal junk.

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Medicinal Breathing

Medicinal Breathing is one of many long sense forgotten healing practices from millennia past.

Other terms for medicinal breathwork that you may or may not have heard of are Qigong, Holotropic, Breathing Meditation, there are several variations of this and it has been used in meditation since meditation became a practice.

What’s drawn my interest into breathwork did start at the amount of information I had gradually seen more of through the years. Interest for me started with my mother’s research with animals and peroxide, which is literally oxygenated water. More on that another day. All though I am not certain what triggered me to actually start this practice, I have known about it longer than I have practiced. As of today, I have been practicing breathwork for about a month now.

So far, my experiences have been positive.

To help you see the type of improvements, we will have to talk more about a few of the struggles I have had with my health. Overall, my experience has been extreme fatigue, muscle weakness and muscle pain. Doctors call this an auto-immune disorder that is causing bouts of inflammation throughout my whole body.

This has caused crohns, gallbladder problems, appendix problems, rheumatoid arthritis, erythema nodosum and a list of other things that have been an ongoing battle for most of my life. Now doctors have no idea on the why for any of this. However, I have been able to identify a pattern to all of it.

The instinct for most nutritionists, doctors, and holistic practitioners would typically jump to diet. While diet is a huge part of our Health and Wellness overall, I identified my biggest trigger to be stress. It was hard to ignore when stressful periods would also see me in the hospital. While I was born with health problems, they were under control for many years. Many years until I found myself as a young and unhappily married individual. Our relationship was incredibly unhealthy for the both of us. The results for myself from this marriage were six surgeries, the loss of years worth of time with my very young babies due to repeated hospital stays, and years of crippling pain.

How did I identify the trigger?

It wasn’t too difficult, really. Patterns arose. They were easier to identify than food triggers which I had been trying to identify for most of my life. The best we had ever done with identifying my food triggers was an organic food cleanse when I was very young. The best that identified was diet soda is the devil, and food coloring and preservatives suck.

Let us step back though. Medicinal breathing, healing breathing, is the act of properly oxygenating the body or more importantly your cells. You need to think beyond your lungs, beyond your muscles, and even past your blood. Oxygen is absorbed by every cell and optimized by every cell in the body. Science has proven that most all disease, viral or bacterial diseases as well when stopped early enough, cannot survive in an environment with a proper pH balance, which means a properly oxygenated environment. There are a handful of methods for oxygen therapy, the greatest of tools we were born with and we were even given two, our lungs! So this is what I set out to start studying.

 

Several books have dove into this practice.

A few I might recommend to you would be Just Breathe by Dan Brule. I relate to this one because I have found breathwork to impact every aspect of my life, not just my health. Flood Your Body With Oxygen by Ed McCabe dives into a lot of great points. The list is pretty long. Here are a few resources to get your research started.

Books that discuss Oxygen Therapy and the Health Connection

Books that discuss and teach Breathing Techniques to heal and balance your life 

While there are a lot of breathing methods, there are three breathing meditations I use regularly. By regularly I mean at least 4 times per week, more when I can. I encourage everyone to seek out new methods, find what feels right for you. For me YouTube has been great for this. What isn’t on YouTube?

Here is some breath medicine via few YouTube options for your healing breath today.

Breathe strong and journey on.

Please see this Legal Junk about all the legal junk, and know that nothing here is affiliate sponsored. 

 

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Health and Wellness

Health and Wellness are the keys to a happy life.

Overall health and wellness are within our top three priorities in life.

While our heart or head may argue for the first place winner, without health and wellness then we are bound to lose all else.

This is an area I have firsthand experience in, because I almost lost everything. Good health was a shaky platform for me since before the beginning, it has been a shaky platform for thirty-two years and eight months. It has become a mission for me to chase good health and wellness for not just me, but my children, family, and friends also. Now, I have a rather broad idea of the word friend. So here I am, friend. We’re gonna talk about health and wellness.

So let’s start with the legal stuff.

Click here for full disclosures terms & conditions.

I am not a doctor, I do not play one on tv, I did not even play doctor growing up. I am not telling you to do anything I say, suggest, write about, post, or do. You are your own person and make your own choice. My mission here is to share what I can that may help however I believe it that may be best delivered. When resources are available, I will share them. Every single body has a different chemical makeup than the next. While we all bleed red, the things we ingest or even put on our beautiful skin may react different from one person to the next. I will be honest with what works for me and my clan and what does not. Hopefully what you find here is useful and helps you and your loved ones heal.
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Where are we going today

Where are we going today?

These were the first words out of my mouth every morning probably until I was old enough to take myself places. I remember this because my mother thought it was hilarious and has told most people I know, too.

It must still be true, that I am always on the go, though I certainly enjoy a day at home when the opportunity presents itself. Perhaps that’s why my life has been full of so many journeys. A life of curiosity has lead me down many paths. I can wear a Chef’s hat, a Photographer’s bag, a Baker’s apron, a Business Analyst’s pocket protector, an Author’s glasses, an Artist’s paint smudge, a Sales Professional’s Suit, and the list goes on. These are things I studied and excelled in, not as an amateur but a serious, confident, professional.  It’s funny, in a rather bitter way, that this diverse background that has fed my passion for discovering life has crippled me professionally speaking, not drastically but significantly.

This combination of skills spills over into each other. Business is such a passion of mine. I love business and I feel that I must, like you love a spouse or child. It is as much a part of our life as they are, so how can we tolerate a career we despise without growing to despise other critical parts of our lives. It’s a sad fact that most people spend more time at work than with their families, and a sadder fact that most of these people, at the very mildest of descriptions, dislike their jobs.

That’s the norm.

That is the majority rule in our society…. It is a statistic because it is fact. That is so damn sad.

Now, it may be unavoidable for most of us to spend more time working than not, especially to provide a good life for ourselves and families. We’re rather spoiled after all, aren’t we? We need so many things to be comfortable. Cars, spacious houses, houses at all, lots of things, lot of good food, it all costs, and these days it costs a lot. Commercial materialism is a topic for another day though; a topic I will probably not be the author of. It is reasonable though, that because of these truths which we may as well just accept about ourselves, that we work more than not. This is why the statistic says we work jobs we hate, to have more things we love. What if one day we loved less things more, I wonder?

Not me, though. While it can certainly be a source for trouble, I have developed an intolerance for putting up with an employer’s abuse or generally poor ethics. I could explain, go through boring stories of my work history that has brought me here. Don’t worry, I won’t. In the grand scheme of things none of it really matters. It’s just what it took to get me here. Today. Right now.

Where am I, though? Where am I going today, tomorrow, and the next?

To be completely transparent, because I owe myself that honesty, I don’t know. Some days I don’t know where I belong. Each time I think I’ve got a grasp on which direction to go, life tends to have other plans. What does that mean for me today? Well, it means here in a couple of hours I will join a phone call that returns me to contracting. Working independently for individuals and companies seems to be my way for now. It certainly gives me the time freedoms I need with my children, which is critical for us. If for no other reason that is such a blessing.

The idea here and why I started this blog, this site, was really a place I could store my work, an online portfolio while journaling my way through 417 working with 417. Perhaps the idea of that was too small though. So, time to grow then.

If you’re reading this, maybe you’re not sure where you’re going today. That’s okay. We shall journey on together.
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The Bookshelf

The Bookshelf

AuthorJacquelynn Faye

Welcome to my bookshelf. These are the stories I’ve written. Each book has a unique cover I’ve designed and created just for that story. I hope you enjoy

Blood Rose (The Blood Saga Book 1)

Nightmares, acting as messages from a lost time, have plagued Lianna Loraine Von all her life. Magical and horrific dreams have drawn her in so close to the other world that each night as they worsen they bring her closer to the dead and the damned. She wakes cut, burned, and bleeding as they steal her sanity in a time when clarity means the difference in survival or demise. Lianna must stand strong, and fight for not only her life, but her destiny

New Blood (The Blood Saga Book 2)

Lianna has crossed the bridge from mortality to immortality, having left her entire existence behind. It felt good to be free of the dark cloud that had lingered over her human life. She could start over, she could be stronger, she could be better. But with the sweets comes the sours. The dreams have found ways to haunt her still. Shayla wasn’t done yet. Her ghost had been right about one thing, the key was in the blood. Blood has haunted Lianna from the very moment she entered this eternal existence. A silent vow to herself; she has to conquer the blood before it conquers her

Blood and Cash (Blood Saga)

A Blood Saga Companion; Blood & Cash finds Lianna on her own in a dark and painful world. Two years into her new life as a Vampire, she’s on her own. Having left the compound in New York, her eternal family, and her heart she finds solace in solitude. Hunting for answers as adamantly as she hunts her next meal, Lianna finds herself in Brazil with an unlikely partner

Reaping Grim (Grim Saga Book 1)

In this world, Reapers carry the loss of the living as a great mournful burden. It is their torch to keep them morally bound as they carry out their duties. Unfortunately, not all Reapers agree, let alone respect the power they carry. Leila Beliveau’s bloodline has burdened her with seeing the deaths of nearly all those she meets. It’s difficult to carry on a normal relationship with anyone when you know how and when they will die. You can never look at them the same way again. There has only ever been one person exempt from Leila’s sight

Dark Wood: Legends of the Guardians

 

Once upon a time, in a world the humans now think is their own, two sisters were born. The last of this bloodline would see the destruction of the world’s greatest warriors, the Guardians. One girl, a quite broken soul, will become the essence of strength and salvation for all the creatures of the world if it doesn’t destroy her first. Aryaunna Luvea, daughter of a witch, sister of a seer. Escape the stone-walled hell alive. Survive the Dark Wood. Climb the great Mount Dia. Find the last Dragon. Go to war. Bleed. Break. Die… Get up. Fight harder

Blood Shores (Legends of the Guardians Book 2)

For those under the hand of tyranny, freedom is paid for in lives lost, and blood spilled. This is the fate of the warrior. There is no going home for Aryaunna Luvea when the battle of Darkwood finally lays its last soul to rest. Home is not found by that of a warm hearth, but by the hilt of a strong blade on a never-ending trail of blood and pain.
A Persian Witch has taken hold of the great city of Athens, poisoning her waters, and killing her people. The Persian army lies in wait for Athens to grow weak and helpless. War is coming to the shores of Athens. To fight against this powerful sorceress means treason. Athens is running out of hope, and out of time

Nothing & Everything: (Semper Fidelis Book 1)

Kierra Ashe has lost nearly everything and everyone that’s ever mattered in her life. In Kierra’s eyes, it was always safer to have nothing when everything was always at risk of being taken. One night would change it all though, including the life of a complete stranger. A stranger who will never hear the music she dances to

Shut Up Your Inner Nag  – COMING SOON

A Mindset Shift Workbook

Why, How, and What it takes to SHUT UP your inner Nag, and ultimately (and finally) reprogram your life.

A solution-focused Self Empowerment system developed to actually and successfully change your mindset, and shut up your inner Nag!

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Growing up 417

Growing up 417 Springfield MO

Growing up 417 didn’t start for me until I was already 7. Before Springfield, I never called a city home.

It wasn’t real spring yet, just that early on wet frozen slush that turned the ground into soup. We were moving. Even at seven years old I didn’t mind the idea of a fresh new start at life. Mom, Cookie our mutt, Tag my cat, and I were leaving our farm house in Clarksville Tennessee. We were moving to Springfield. The sorriest part of it all was, we couldn’t bring Princess, our horse.

Springfield Missouri

Springfield had no room for horses. It was a bigger city than what I had known. Lot’s of changes swirled by as changes tend to do. Before I was done with grade school, I ended up being home schooled. Let me tell you what no one talks about when it comes to homeschooling. Home schooled children have the greatest opportunity to get to know and be a part of their city. They experience more hands on learning in real places doing all sorts of things. It’s an awesome way of learning. It was the best way to turn just another town into Home.

One facet of my education became going to work with my mother, who worked with friends at a locally owned bakery part time. Thanks to The Bake House I met Springfield. That journey has been full of all the things that make life rich, and has taught me one valuable lesson; I love Springfield and our 417.

City of Springfield

Breaking down, 2018 was about rebuilding. A discovery of what I’m made of and who I am. Business is one of my biggest passions. It’s taken some trial and error to find what I want, discover where I might fit best. That journey will be ever evolving. It’s occurred to me, I have a rare opportunity with a fortunate combination of gifts to record my journeys through 417.

It’s my hope to give a different view of our corner of the state as I work on the road, taking my camera and pen along for the adventure.