Lately I have been taking on a lot more than is normal for me. Consequently, I am pooped! What my body is telling me is “get more sleep…please!” And unfortunately, I haven’t really had time to catch up. Have you ever felt overwhelmed and can’t get off the treadmill of your life? At these moments, it’s time to take care and listen to your body.

During this time of overload, I’ve been able to take little cat naps; even though it’s not getting me caught up per se, these little moments of rest are helpful. If I’m home between working and meeting friends out for happy hour, I’ll lay down on my bed - even for just 5 minutes - and relax. Any amount of relaxation during a stressfilled or otherwise busy time will help to recharge your batteries, even if just a little bit.

Without listening to your body and it’s needs, sometimes your body will just do what it needs to do anyway. Many times this will appear as some sort of illness - anything to get you to slow down! Our bodies are truly brilliant (and efficient) in this way.

Rest well and take care of yourself! I’m saying this to myself as well as you!!

:+) Carolyn.

I am off to the mountains to help support a friend riding in the Courage Classic at Copper Mountain, CO. This is a 3 day, 155 mile bike ride up and down mountain passes, all for charity (The Denver Children’s Hospital)…and for fun. I will be computerless all day, so Happy Sunday! If you want to read more about this event, go to http://www.thechildrenshospital.org/news/inthenews/2009-News/2009-courage-classic.aspx

My calf, BTW, is healing well from my motorcycle burn. The injured area is half the size it was a few weeks ago and it is getting smaller by the day.

:+)

How many times have you heard the ‘little voice’ in your head, only to disregard it and perhaps regret that decision later on? I can say for sure this computer glitch definitely has me wishing I’d listened.

My mom is probably reading these posts and I know she will be shaking her finger at me in another sentence or two. She sent me this great little backup device for my PC that was totally easy - even I could do it!! I moved it from my kitchen to my office to right next to my computer in order to trigger the memory to USE IT!!! Still, I didn’t. Now my PC is [was] at the shop, and hopefully the technicians will be able to retrieve all on my hard drive, all I haven’t yet backed up. [All was retrieved and rescued in the end.]

My point is: Listen to that voice! It usually if not always knows the right path to take. And if you hear a warning over and over: HEED IT! It might be that all-knowing part of yourself trying to alert you to something that may be blocking your path up ahead.

I wish I had listened, but lesson learned - AGAIN!

OK. I made a promise to write a new blog post every day this month. Life is what happens while you’ve made plans to blog every day.

Computer viruses or crazy mixed up coincidence? Friday, July 10th, late in the day, both my PC and Mac computers shut down without probable cause. I’m completely computer illiterate so I was a bit helpless until I could take my PC into the shop Monday morning. I didn’t know they’d be keeping it until yesterday! Thus….no daily blogs (Did you think I was slacking off and not fulfilling my July commitment?!), which has been a real disappointment for me.

I felt this happening was an important reminder for me. Take life as it comes and then RELAX! Eckhart Tolle talks about ‘accepting what is.’ And if you don’t, it causes pain. At the very time my computers pooped out on me, I had tons of work to do on my website and I had my daily posts to write. Also, I do a lot of communication with clients (as well as family and friends) online, so it was incredibly inhibiting to not have access to my own, personalized computer.

I got through it and I just let go and let life do what it decided to do in the process. I could have gotten all upset and cried out “why  me?” - stressing out about the work I wasn’t able to complete. Instead, I decided to just relax into what was at the time and do other things in the meantime.

It’s not the easiest thing to “just relax” when life takes unexpected twists and turns. But truly, what other choice is there - really? Computer problems don’t stand up to real trauma like the loss of a loved one or other news that really changes  your life. But staying in the moment and not going into the future or reaching back into the past can really help you from getting too stressed out at any given moment. It is not effortless to do - or actually that is exactly what it is! Practice staying in the moment and accepting what is in as many moments during your day as possible. Once you get it down, it will come more naturally and it will serve you, I believe, when the winds of change come crashing through your life.

Happiness is having my PC back!

:+) Carolyn.

For reasons I will explain later, I have not had access to my blog site since my last post. I am running off to work but have lots to say about the past 2 weeks!

I’m so happy to back here!!!!!

Continuing from my last post….my calf is burned!

What happens when tissue is damaged either through a cut or bruise or…burn, that tissue doesn’t pigment regularly. In other words you are prone to hyperpigmentation.

To define the term post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation - it means after-infection dark spots. So with my calf injury (burned skin), I am totally prone to this condition.

To avoid getting a dark mark all around the perimeter of the burned place, I will keep a Band-Aid on the injury (and I’ll keep applying lavender essential oil) any time I am going hiking or will be out in the sun for any length of time until the actual burn heals.

After the tissue heals completely (which may be several weeks), I will probably be OK if I just put some sunscreen on the area when I’ll be out and about.

The point is: Don’t leave injured tissue exposed to the sun. You run the risk of getting post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, which can take a long time to go away (most likely in the winter months). Injured tissue could be a blemish, burn, scrape (especially road rash), cut or any other injury that alters the tissue in any way. Many clients get post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation when they have blemishes on their faces and then get excessive (or sometimes even minimal) sun exposure.

Be careful, pay attention around hot metal objects (!), and wear your sunscreen and possibly a bandage (Band-Aid) on any injured skin if possible.

:+)

Today I made a mistake and leaned into a friend’s motorcycle muffler. I know to be careful but today I wasn’t. So now I am sporting a half-dollar sized burn mark on my calf. Initially I put ice on it because I was out and not able to get to my personal arsenal of medicines. Once I got home, I immediately put Lavender Essential Oil on the spot and it took the burning pain away instantly.

Lavender EO is a contact healer and, as with all essential oils, help to keep bacteria away as well as sooth the burn on contact. I now have a large Band-Aid on the area and I can’t even feel it. I will continue to put the lavender on and eventually it should be OK.

Lesson 1: don’t burn your skin!

Lesson 2: use Lavender essential oil. I sell it, it can be found in most health food stores (that sell essential oils) and some massage therapist may carry it. Lavender is in my personal medicine box as one of the EOs I reach for often.

The next thing is keeping this spot away from sun exposure…..to be continued…

I went on a 3 1/2 hour hike today to Green Mountain in beautiful Boulder Colorado. I ran into a few hikers who were feeling the effects of ‘the night before.’ It got me thinking about my daily post here and I wanted to offer a few words of advice.

If you’ve had a night of drinking (too much) or even if you’ve just had one or two, the next day is a good time to treat your liver to a little pick-me-up. It’s simple and you can get it anywhere: Hot water and lemon. The lemon is a good liver tonic and can help it recover from alcohol consumed the night before. This drink really tastes good too…if you like lemons!

Happy Sunday, and remember to be in the moment wherever you are.

:+) Carolyn.

Wishing everyone a happy 4th of July weekend. Be safe, don’t drink and drive, and wear sunscreen if you’re out at a pool party, the ocean or wherever you may be exposed to the sun!

:+)