Flowers, Fruit, Herb Health Benefits and Spiritual Meanings

Flowers and their health + spiritual meanings

🌺Siraitia grosvenorii (Monk fruit)

Health: fruits extracts (SGFE) possess a wide range of pharmacologic and health-promoting properties including immune enhancement, anti-oxidation, anti-diabetes, anti-tumor and anti-inflammation

Spiritual: Good Health.

🌺Jasmine

Health: treat liver disease (hepatitis), pain due to liver scarring (cirrhosis), and abdominal pain due to severe diarrhea (dysentery). It is also used to prevent stroke, to cause relaxation (as a sedative), to heighten sexual desire (as an aphrodisiac), and in cancer treatment

Spiritual: Uses include snakebite and divination; good for charging quartz crystals. Use in sachets and spells to draw spiritual love and attract a soul mate. Carry or burn the flowers to draw wealth and money. Use in dream pillows to induce sleep or burn in the bedroom to bring prophetic dreams. Helps to promote new, innovative ideas.

🌺Sophora Japonica

Health: promotes healthy blood vessels, it also promotes overall cardiovascular system health. It supports normal heartbeat and helps create an environment that’s less susceptible to blood clot formation. Ease menopause symptoms. Stop bleeding. Anti-hemorragic and anti-hemostatic.

Spiritual: keep away ghosts and evil, protect against the evil eye, and to keep unwanted visitors from your home.

🌺Lemon

Health: aid weight loss and reduce your risk of heart disease, anemia, kidney stones, digestive issues, and cancer.

Spiritual:In bible terms lemons are associated with hope, fertility, perfection, and abundance in the upcoming agriculture year.

Light, love, heart, and soul. They also attract good fortune and help people embrace changes.

Purpose, action and clarity

Longevity, purification, refreshment, unity, clarity, friendship, happiness, aura cleansing, rejuvenation, improved consciousness, love, and fidelity.

🌺Calendula officinalis (Marigold)

Health: antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor and antioxidant properties.

Spiritual: positivity and happiness. This flower is associated with fire energy. Sacred affection, joy, remembrance, grief

🌺Mallow flower

Health:anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties, mallow flower extract is especially helpful for treating acne and skin irritation. Research has shown that it can even help with eczema flare ups, psoriasis, and wound healing. Mallow extract also contains high doses of flavonoids, as well as vitamins C and E.

People use the flower and leaf to make medicine. Mallow is used for irritation of the mouth and throat, dry cough, and bronchitis

Speed wound healing, protect against infection, reduce inflammation, reduce signs of aging, improve respiratory health, optimize digestive functions, improve sleep, and treat headaches.

Spiritual: Used to soften up inflexible mental attitudes, and for those who are hard hearted and unable to feel their own emotions. Ruled by the planet Venus, this flower is also associated with love

🌺(colorful) Chrysanthemum

Health: used to treat chest pain (angina), high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, fever, cold, headache, dizziness, and swelling. In combination with other herbs, chrysanthemum is also used to treat prostate cancer.

Spiritual: Happiness, Love, Longevity and Joy

🌺Don’t forget me (Forget-Me-Not)

Health: can be used to stop the bleeding (use it externally), as a remedy for eye conditions. The whole plant is used to make medicine. Despite safety concerns, people take forget-me-not for lung problems and nosebleeds.

Spiritual: remembrance ―not only associated with love, but for those we've lost. Forget-me-nots also symbolize protection and luck, it's believed that they have the power to protect humans against witches.

🌺 Lemongrass

Health: prevent the growth of some bacteria and yeast. Lemongrass also contains substances that are thought to relieve pain and swelling, reduce fever, improve levels of sugar and cholesterol in the blood, stimulate the uterus and menstrual flow, and have antioxidant properties.

Antioxidant properties · antimicrobial properties · anti-inflammatory properties · may reduce your cancer risk.

The leaves and the oil are used to make medicine.

Lemongrass is used for treating digestive tract spasms, stomachache, high blood pressure, convulsions, pain, vomiting, cough, achy joints (rheumatism), fever, the common cold, and exhaustion. It is also used to kill germs and as a mild astringent.

Some people apply lemongrass and its essential oil directly to the skin for headache, stomachache, abdominal pain, and muscle pain.

Spiritual: Psychic cleansing and opening, lust potions.

🌺Rose petals

Health: Reducing Anxiety.

A cup of rose tea can help to soothe anxiety and reduce stress. ...Improving Digestion. ...Soothing Menstrual Cramps. ...High in Antioxidants. ...Contains Antimicrobial Properties. ...Reducing Inflammation. ...High in Antioxidants. ...High in Vitamin C.

Rose petals contain polyphenols, antioxidants that work to protect your body from cell damage.

Spiritual: Romance, love, gratitude, grace, joy, sex, desire and admiration.

🌺Lavender

Health: Insomnia. Lavender was recommended for people suffering from insomnia or other sleep disorders. ...Anxiety. Lavender may also provide support for people with anxiety. ...Hair loss. ...Headaches and migraine. ...Chemotherapy side effects. Depression. ...Acne. ...Burns.

Spiritual: love, protection, healing, sleep, purification, and peace. Promotes healing from depression. Great in sleep pillows and bath spells. Believed to preserve chastity when mixed with rosemary. Burn the flowers to induce sleep and rest, then scatter the ashes around the home to bring peace and harmony

🌺Foetus Chrysanthemum

Health: In traditional Chinese medicine, chrysanthemum tea is known for its cooling and calming properties. It’s used to reduce a fever and improve cold or respiratory symptoms. It’s also reported to possess anti-inflammatory, sedative, anti-hypertensive and anti-arthritis effects.

• Eye health

Spiritual: Happiness, fidelity, honesty and friendship

🌺Red plum

Health: The Chinese people have been using these flowers for centuries, in order to treat numerous health issues, especially digestive problems, ulcers, and parasites. Also, they have a particular role in blood purification and detoxification.

Spiritual: Celebrated as a protective charm against evil

🌺Rose

Health: Antibacterial. Anti-inflammatory. Antioxidants. Moisturizing. Naturally fragrant. Relaxing. Toning.

Spiritual: Rose buds help soften our energy and open us up to the energy of love

🌺Lily

Health: remedies for nasal congestion and nausea.

• The bulb is diuretic (for increasing urine), anti-inflammatory (for relieving pain), emollient (for moisturizing), emmenagogue (for stimulating menstrual flow), and expectorant (for releasing mucus by coughing). For lungs, they have a sedative effect and are used to treat cough and tuberculosis.

• In Korea, these are used in traditional medicine for sore throats, boils, palpitations, bronchitis, and pneumonia, to name a few.

• used to treat heart diseases, angina pectoris (chest pain due to coronary heart disease), and to relieve pain in the cardiac region.

• The tiger lily flowers, with stamen removed, has a carminative property, meaning it relieves flatulence.

• The flowers also help in treating myopic astigmatism and bring back the strength of eyelid muscles.

• The tincture gathered in the flowers are used in the therapy of uterine neuralgia (damage or irritation of a main nerve in the pelvis). It also helps in congestion, irritation, and pregnancy-induced nausea. Tincture also aids in reducing the inflammation of the pelvis and vagina, as well as relief from fibroids, menstrual and menopausal pains.

• Tiger lily is also important in relieving pain from uterine prolapse, and ovarian neuralgia.

• The flower essence is naturopathic as it aids in suppressing or calming aggressive tendencies in individuals. It also helps in relieving anxiety, stress, and depression, when incorporated in a soup, used as a tea, or packed as perfumes.

Spiritual: Pride, Confidence and Wealth

🌺Albizia flower

Health: relieve stress and anxiety, improve symptoms of depression, stimulate the circulatory system, reduce signs of aging, prevent certain chronic illnesses, help digestive issues, lower cholesterol, prevent respiratory distress, and eliminate inflammation in various parts of the body.

Spiritual: Calms the Spirit

🌺Fig

Health: 1. Promote digestive health

2. May improve vascular and heart health

3. Potential anticancer properties

4. May promote healthy skin

5. May help manage blood sugar levels

Spiritual: strength, faith and enlightenment

🌺Peony

Health: Peony is used for gout, osteoarthritis, fever, respiratory tract illnesses, and cough. Women use peony for menstrual cramps, polycystic ovary syndrome, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and for starting menstruation or causing an abortion. Promoting liver health. Reduce pain and inflammation. Peonies are recommended in cases of irritability and restlessness.

Spiritual: Protection from hexes and jinxes. Good luck, good fortune, prosperity, and business success. Hang in the home or car for protection. Used to attract fairies. Use in rituals to cure or reduce lunacy. Also:Peony Root (Paeonia suffruticosa)

🌺Lotus seed heart

Health: Lotus seeds bring an extremely good intake of protein to help the development of brain and nervous system of fetuses. Therefore, Lotus seed is highly recommended for pregnant women. effectively promote blood coagulation and maintain muscle flexibility. helps in maintaining the nerve’s cognitive function.

Spiritual: purity, enlightenment, self-regeneration and rebirth.

🌺Gomphrena

Health: Anti Bacterial Properties. Anti Fungal Properties. Antioxidant Properties. Detoxifying & Purifying Properties. For Treating High Blood Pressure & Diabetes

Spiritual: sacred to Huitzilopochtli, an Aztec Sun God and is a suitable offering to Artemis and Demeter. used to call forth the dead.

Immortality and endless love.

🌺Orchid

Health: Increases Immunity · Beneficial for Skin Health · Cures Ulcers · Enhances Eyesight · Aids digestion · Relieves Stress.

Spiritual: beauty, elegance, love, sexuality and fertility, luxury and wealth, and uniqueness.

Economic Inequality

                    Economic Inequality

                          Year : 2021                             

On a first-hand experience scaling from one income class to another, barely making it, to being right above the poverty level or right below the median 60% of the population I can definitely say that I have learned a lot in a short amount of time about the U.S. Government and American economic system. I am currently studying investing and financial literacy.

From my experience I have come to take note of some things in the U.S. economy:

- the poor and below poverty level individuals/families are systematically supported to stay at the income level they currently are at.

.... Why do I say this? 

1) someone having a real job working full-time and even many times overtime hours, neglecting their mental, emotional, and physical health during this process,  receiving somewhere between 24k and 30k per year to pay for rent and utilities will be considered to have "too much income" to qualify for state food or medical benefits which are the most important and expensive costs especially amidst inflation.

2) Therefore ... someone working twice as hard to pay the bills will not qualify for government benefits despite needing them to grow financially and stay healthy.... and someone forced to not work at all or barely work at all, live on public housing and be at the complete mercy of the government assistance systems, such as food stamps and Medicaid, will be limited to their options for financial freedom.

3) Individuals/Families who are solely  dependent on government benefits are stuck with the "rules" the benefit programs imply upon them. They cannot have more than 2k in their bank accounts. They are not supported to work, or else their benefits are taken away immediately upon verification of payment from work and not to mention if they are dependent on Medicaid to pay for their medications or doctor visits, they will most likely have those benefits taken away as well. 

They are not able to be investors in the economy such as owning stocks, bonds, index funds, or real estate... or else their benefits are revoked. Even degrees and certificates from years of schooling free or paid for is not a guarantee of securing a good paying job these days, so even school is not a sure investment for those in poverty level of society.

Do you see the point I am getting to?

U.S. government systems are aimed at keeping the poor, poor. Supporting them to stay where they are at, any growth beyond poverty is case for revocation of benefits,  whether the individual or family is prepared or not.

The stage I am at right now: 

working class...  

in between poverty and middle-class

Notes: How am I supposed to get health care?

How am I supposed to go to school and secure a well paying job where my skills will be valued?

How to achieve a work-life balance for mental, emotional, and physical health?

How to fight inflation of the economy?

How to maximize investments?

How to not live "paycheck to paycheck"?

How to maximize savings?

How to budget effectively?

How to save up for and buy a car?

Thank you for reading my blog, 

I hope this discussion has been useful to expand our consciousness of the current reality

Until next time!

My Spiritual Journey

I have also been on my own spiritual journey for a while and about 13 years ago I had my biggest shift. 

From my 10 years of age and younger I had been hyper aware of the spiritual world, entities, spirit guide(s), and instinctively connected to my intuition. 

 I had been so hyper aware of the spiritual world that I had almost lost touch with this reality and suffered from a disconnection with my identity, my spiritual sensitivity escalated to the point of paranoia, day and night, afraid to be alone because the spirits/entitites would visit me, that I was afraid to sleep because of the intensely vivid and horrifying dreams I would have, afraid to be the last one awake in the house because I would feel and many times see spirits, dark entities, lost souls, or people that have recently died, 

one time I looked at myself in the mirror and honestly asked apart from this flesh suit I wear, 

what truly makes me – me? What makes me decide to be who I am being? The choices I make? All of this at about only 10 YEARS of age!!

I suffered then from a feeling of a deep black hole inside of me of sadness, fear, paranoia that never seemed to be quenched. 

I remember I would receive gifts, hugs, support and encouragement at times from friends and family members and I would barely react, I would just feel the same black never ending hole inside me… 

It was rare that I really smiled or was happy - most of the time I showed myself happy on the exterior for other’s benefit so they wouldn’t be concerned about me even though on the inside I felt the opposite. 

I remember explaining once that I felt as if I was mourning the death of someone at a funeral and as if I didn’t know how long it would take me to get out of this mode of mourning.

During this spiritual journey all of this reached a point that I couldn’t handle anymore I really thought I was on the brink of insanity and didn’t like the way I couldn’t take in the blessings around me, I had chosen to take a really deep and detailed look into myself to understand where is all of this originating. 

 I had realized that a majority of my horrifying experience was fruit of my deep seated fears, sense of lack of control of my life, lack of trust in the universe, deep seated insecurities, not listening to my intuition, and surprisingly general laziness to do the internal and external work I knew I needed to do. 

It was a lot of work and a lot of releasing and letting go, I made a lot of conscious and solid decisions to radically change my life in a positive way no matter what lay ahead of me, accepting my destiny, power, all facets of life, and death. 

No matter what others thought, I knew I needed to follow my truth. One day I pleaded to God to release me from being so sensitive to the spiritual world because it was driving me to insanity and I was afraid what I could become once this spins out of control. 

I was afraid I would completely disconnect from myself. I realized those fears were unfounded and many fruit of my imagination and subconscious programming, also a huge spiritual warning that I had been ignoring my spiritual growth for too long. 

Finally by the time I turned 12 years old and moved to Texas everything changed completely for the better. 

I suddenly and instantly felt like a normal common person, I have a clear sense of who I am, I rarely see spirits anymore and definitely don’t hear them, I normally don’t get nightmares, I just have many regular dreams. 

I began trusting my intuition, especially the small things like smiling to someone, talking, or honestly complimenting them on something I see.

I realized how much even the small things count, how influential I can be and how much power each of us have as a person, a soul. 

When faced with trials I would trust and lean on what I learned from past testimonies with no regrets. 

 Another thing I learned back then that I’m surprised to know is a fundamental basis of manifestation is that like energy attracts like energy. 

In our universe things tend to repeat until stopped by an external force. 

An analogy I like to give is if you threw a stone in a pond the water would continue rippling in the direction the stone moved the water until the ripples reach the edge of the pond. 

The edge of our soul is like that but is far more expansive and energies are infinite and can literally ripple through time.

Or you can take the scientific approach the Law of Inertia- Newton’s first law, what is in motion stays in motion, what is at rest will stay at rest unless it is acted upon by a force. 

 Something I am very interested in understanding is that so far in my life I can say with 100% certainty that I’ve been manifesting things intentionally many times. 

One way I have manifested was declaring what I wanted to God, The Creator, the Universe, verbally - out loud. 

 Another was writing what I wanted on paper, which sometimes took longer but looking back to what I wrote almost all still happened even if it wasn’t in exactly the way I first imagined it would happen.

Roses

So blessed to bring home these beautiful roses today, full of life

Happy Boss List

I remember I made this list more than half a decade ago and it still rings true. Very interesting. I remember it was fun writing down.

Financial Mindset

- Financial Mindset -

Here are some basic concepts I have gathered together about a financial mindset:

- Your Net worth (wealth) is how much money you own. 

Net Worth: How much you have minus how much you spend/owe (or spend as an investment).

- How those subscriptions suck out your wealth - ↓↓↓

The snowball effect, ----> or expense over time, can be an insidious exponential expense over time that can build significantly

(Think, would you rather forget having Netflix $10/mo. for 10 months for $100 total or put that money in bulk towards paying off a necessity, i.e. new pair of glasses, car maintenance, clothes, etc..?)

+Imagine you and your family's money rolling up 💸 until it rolls down a hill into the trash! 🗑️ That is the snowball effect+

* The snowball effect falls into the same category as Interest fees on all types of loans *

- Pay more now, spend less later technique -

Equivalent to "Quality over Quantity" 

The idea that spending more now, such as wholesale bulk - buying method, and investing more now will result in having more value over time and therefore less expense and more wealth! 

Example: pay more now for an electrician to fix the A/C instead of continually overpaying because of a broken A/C system, which will end up costing a lot more over time.

-" wait a little get a lot vs. immediate gratification and receive less"-

So as the the saying goes "Easy come, easy go"... Many times our investments don't show immediate results, many times we have to wait, sort of the same way you would wait to see a plant grow, continuously caring for the plant until you see the "fruit of your efforts"

Another concept - exponential growth/decline, very similar to the snowball effect, every action you take even the smallest ones will and eventually build up to the point that they begin to affect a person's finances if not maintained properly.

So, there you have it - I know there are a lot more financial concepts out there, but these are just a few to ponder on. I hope you liked reading my article!

Have a wonderful day/night!

Research on Morgue work

Lately I have taken a unique interest in wanting to know what it would be like to work in a morgue, mortuary, or funeral home....

Although this is a topic mostly seen by society as taboo, it is the epitome of the vision of death, a culmination in fact - "the end stage(s)" to be precise, a ceremony in a way... to certify "the end".

Similar to the fact that we use the toilet several times a day with not so much thought as to what is going on under those sewer pipes under the ground... the whole process, the people who make the toilet system a possibility every day, and the careers associated with that.

I did research on YouTube, across the web, and local research about career possibilities in the field with my local county coroner office, and the requirements seem to be varied? 

I have seen some morgues accept medical examiner workers with not so much as a high school diploma and interest in working alongside dead bodies on a 24/7 hourly shift basis, 

my local county coroner office as I have read has high standard requirements that an applicant be currently enrolled in Medical or Arts major in Post secondary school and that internships are "fierce competition" for forensic sciences, medical examiner, lab technician work... I have also learned of another occupation, a mortician, which embalms a dead body to prepare for a family viewing at a funeral. 

One lady I saw her interview on YouTube, she started off first in medical school, then began work in a funeral home and later received an embalming license to begin work as a mortician at a funeral home.

All of these studies have opened my eyes in a very very intense way, the pure and raw truth. To completely confront the end of life as we know it, and to still take care of these bodies and resolve mysteries?... it takes a lot of guts. 

For me personally, an enhanced connection with God, and with every single breath - an appreciation and grateful attitude for life. ...to get to the nitty-gritty and understand "What Really Matters?!?" 

To be completely serious and literally stare death in the face and understand, this life is so precious... What will I do with it? What will I focus my mind on, my emotions, my soul, my time, my heart, my actions?

I will ask myself with every decision - Is it really worth it? Along the journey? In the end?

~ so breathe, meditate, & 

be sooo thankful for yet another day!!! ~

Another day to do better than yesterday, another day to live, to breathe, to smile, to see the sun, snow, or rain, another day to pray, to talk to a loved one, to do that thing you know you need to do but have been putting off for whatever reason, to make another effort in the right direction... 

A present 💝, hope, 

to all life every moment & every day!!! ✨🌱 ✨ Life ❤️

Do your very best!!! Don't waste it!!!!!

So many souls I love

So many souls I love. But how to be united in harmony & show my love in this life? And not to mention how life many times can turn out to seem unfair or unexpected... what more can I say? Do I have 100% control over how my life evolves, or anyone else for that matter? So much illusion, everyday is a pure gift and I know the Creator is watching over me. When it is my time to go, I will go. However, it's not yet time.

Plan to live forever, but live each day as your last.

Assumptions : a lesson to learn

It is amazing how in the smallest most mundane encounters so much can be learned.

About this same time last year, I was at work that day as a cashier in the morning. We were holding an annual fundraiser for a charitable organization for kids with cancer, with options to donate $1 or $5 towards the children's treatments. 

I would ask the customer if they are interested in donating which felt so strange because it felt like begging or the same feeling I've had doing door-to-door sales. 

It felt to me like I was going to get 95% no and only about 5% yes... however surprisingly beginning at 7am shortly after the first customer, I had began receiving a lot of customers interested in donating. 

So much so, I sort of got tired of even bothering asking some customers. 

I got away with taking some rest until I served a hispanic lady buying her groceries asked her and she donated, then the next customers were middle aged men buying beer. 

I had not asked them during the entire transaction if they would've liked to donate, so one of them spoke up to me and said "Hey, aren't you going to ask us if we would like to donate? We would like to donate too."

That was a moment of breakthrough for me right there. I realized how narrow minded I had been to think they would care less just because they were buying beer. 

I had realized the essence of the saying "don't judge a book by it's cover." 

Now when given the opportunity to share an opportunity with others, I keep this teaching in mind not to limit who may also wish to benefit or give, or who I share beneficial information with. 

Of course be reasonable, but not on terms set by pure assumptions.

Out of my Shell

Out of my Shell: 

A personal journey to developing interpersonal skills 

No one is born skilled in a certain practice or way of life, we grow into it. 

Now I want to share my journey to how I developed my interpersonal skills. 

I wasn't always so outgoing, clear, and direct in my interactions with others. I was the kind of toddler who would have a mental breakdown and go into a fit of tears begging my mom not to leave me with strangers at school or daycare.

 I remember when at about 5 years old I would beg my mom, crying, to take me with her to school and then receive a candy from the college staff and sit right next to her for a day while she worked on her schoolwork.

 I absolutely feared what I considered others to be just all "strangers". The thought of the unknown caused me great anxiety. 

As the years went by finishing elementary, going on to middle school and finally high school - not much had changed.

 I still had anxiety in most social situations and looking back now I really overthought pretty much everything. 

I was a pure perfectionist, especially in high school and took many things personally that I see now didn't have much to do with anything really important.

 I didn't cry and throw fits anymore at that point obviously, but this time especially around middle and high school years the anxiety became inverted, I displayed a somewhat happy and content outside yet simmering with self-damaging anxiety and over-exaggerated worry on the inside. 

This little monster of anxiety and worry became something a little bigger during the pressures of high school. 

I rarely stayed in the cafeteria and always found a way to sneak out into the school library. There I would work on schoolwork, listen to music in my earphones, and then with any free time I would study astrology intensively. 

Interesting enough, and sort of surprising actually - the study of astrology at that point in high school really helped me reach out and relate to others in a way I haven't been able to before. 

Studying the patterns I found in common with certain groups of individuals in regards to the date that they were born, I was able to sort of predict what to expect from others and therefore have much higher levels of tolerance, understanding, and patience; not only for others but also for myself as well. 

After studying astrology I was able to see the strong points and less perfected points in others and myself, including the little habits that contribute to an individual's most likely behavior and where that could possibly be coming from. 

However, in no way am I saying that others should also study astrology, for me at the time astrology served as a necessary crutch to facilitate a more open mind and positively tolerant perspective of life. 

Shortly after this time of studying astrology and graduating high school ahead of my class I had begun breaking out of my chrysalis, shortly one year after as a catalyst I began work in the customer service area, from then has just been another level of experience over the other, sort of like the layers of bark on a tree stump. 

Immediately after begininning my work with the public I had sort of began to feel as a co-city mayor or something of the sort, not in authority but in my every day interactions with so many individuals and lending every single one of them an ear and free space for self-expression. 

In this way being exposed to so many cultures, families of endless backgrounds I have adopted a general tolerance and gratefulness for the inherent individuality of the citizens of this earth. 

I don't see us anymore as an end to ourselves, but more as part of the grand scheme of a very powerful life-giving Creator. 

Now after about 3 years of working in the customer service industry, I confidently say that I could approach just about anyone and know in which way would be best.

Thank you for reading my blog ❣️ I hope the information and topics I've covered have helped you in some way, if you have any ideas you would like me to cover here, questions, or comments you may email me at luciannanicole10@gmail.com

Tips: How to be your own best company

A few tips on how to be your own best company and best friend... 

* take yourself to dine alone at a fancy restaurant as a special treat (best to take order to-go during covid-19 situation we find ourselves in and dine at home if possible, also an option to order from the restaurant on a third party app like Uber Eats)

 * buy flowers or a plant you like for yourself (or as a gift for someone else) 

 * learn a new language or brush up on one (especially second generation individual (like me (:+)/ ) /if you are traveling to a new foreign country soon) 

 * Take sometime outside the house in the morning, sit down, stand, or walk around a bit - to breathe in the fresh morning air and just think - 

 * Take a walk in the daytime, morning, afternoon, around the neighborhood or at a park (breathe in deeply, take in the surrounding nature, and helps to think more clearly about other issues you are facing in day-to-day life and/or decisions) 

 * Brush up on skin care, hair care, self-care routine 

 * Pray, reflect in journal writing and/or blog writing 

 * Write down plans and goals that you've had and hadn't really gotten around to, and brainstorm on ways to materialize and incorporate those goals in your life 

 * Discover talents or interests you may not have known you had - learn something new or brush up new skills of what you already know, listen to new music, visit somewhere new that interests you 

 * Take a warm bubble bath break for about an hour with candles, epsom salt, relaxing music and just forget the world for a moment 

 * Write a list of things you have accomplished and another list of everything you are grateful for until you get tired of writing/typing, look over everything and smile, also a pat on the back (optional) 

* Write down and think about something you have learned today or recently 

 * Do a random act of kindness, even if you need to force yourself and get out of your comfort zone

Essence of Life

 Amidst all of the anxiety and excitement at this time in the world and in our local communities, 

for every individual and every family, the would if's and the ever more present pressures that we are all facing at the time of this pandemic,

What comes to mind during these times is that as we are each given the gift of life, we are also forced to accept the other side of the coin of death and failure, fears and anxiety. 

The would if's and could be's, like the monster hiding under our bed when we were toddlers.

 

Like the existential crisis I went through growing up at about 5 years old, 

not being able to fully comprehend that I am a living breathing human being with a heart pumping about 5 liters of blood per minute, veins and arteries all over, lungs that can't stop inhaling and exhaling, a heart that can't stop it's unique rhythm of beating, or else the other side of the coin greets me, the other side that is universally known as death. I struggled to understand how fragile each and every part of my body is, not to mention the time when I completely forgot how to chew food and how I used to hope to get sick to stay home from school, be served hot soup in bed, and not have to do any chores around the house.

 Later regretting that being sick meant limited use of my body, of course a lot of discomfort and every so often accompanied by pain.

Pain and discomfort that I wished so much at that moment that I could be healthy again, and only then grateful for the healthy body I had had before wishing to stay home sick.

The interesting thing though, is at that moment that I was sick, at the weakest moment of my body, I had also felt closest to God. I felt like all I could do is surrender to life even if that meant leaving, I felt free of blame, free of obligations, free of life's pressures and just accepting the process, like I've done my best and whatever happens happens. Of course, don't get me wrong, we should fight with all of our strength and might to preserve life, what I went through while being sick I wish upon no one else and we should never in no way cause any harm to ourselves. 

However, this world is an illusion and God creates miracles every moment, however small or big we may judge it to be from our perspective - everything counts. 

See, what we call death is not actually death, it is the detachment of our soul from the body, where the body goes back to the earth in the form of decomposition and the soul goes back to its purely eternal life state because there is no longer any intermediary to contain it in the body (i.e. blood).

This world is an illusion because our body is a "vehicle" for our soul, a vehicle without a soul cannot be driven and a soul without a "vehicle" is not in a body. So, the body is basically useless without the soul. 

A person can seem different from the outside but feel very much different in themselves, in their own soul. 

A person looking only from the outside may judge them as they should be sad, stressed, giving up, etc... but the soul in that individual's body may see and feel things from a very different perspective.

A mother who seems to be falling apart from the outside may give birth to a very healthy baby, 

individuals involved in an ugly car crash could come out with little to no injuries, 

A person fired from a job may actually be grateful later on and find other opportunities that before wouldn't had been possible had they stayed in that same job, 

Someone that had happened to have gone through a misfortune may be able to connect to others in a more genuine way than before and help in ways that they would had never thought of before the "misfortune", 

there are sicknesses that we may have caught early on in life which could have strengthened our immune system later on in life for handling more serious illnesses more efficiently,  

there are individuals that go to school and even graduate but then later have a student loan that completely outweighs the annual income gained from their profession, 

there are individuals that are grown up with all of the basic necessities and luxuries this life can offer and still find themselves in depression, a feeling of lack inside of themselves, and insecurities, 

there are couples that look "perfect" on the outside but their relationship is truly anemic, and they only come to realize this most of the time when they finally really spend some genuine one on one time with each other

and vice-versa there are couples that look like their life is crazy but are the happiest and most grateful to be together. 

So this is the essence of the life, 

the ever present miracle of life, 

acceptance of the process 

and blessing of every moment.