So maybe I shouldn’t blog when the thermometer reads 100.0 and beeps like a crazy droid when I finish taking my temperature. But I am, because really, if you put aside the fever and chills, the sinus headache/pain, and the dry cough, I don’t feel that bad. No, I’m not making a trek too far outside my house. And playing with the kitties might be lying on the couch with the flippy toy instead of making them chase me up and down the hall, but really, I don’t feel “sick” per se, just off. Which got me to thinking about the nature of fevers.

Thinking from a purely physical standpoint, a fever’s job is to raise the temperature of the body so the virus or bacteria can’t reproduce. It, in effect, burns out the illness. In the physical realm fire burns; it consumes. Generally this consumption is the spiritual meaning of fire as well. So, if we look at our body as a multi-layered creation with our physical, our spiritual, and our emotional bodies, wouldn’t it make sense that the same fire which is keeping a virus or bacteria from growing has an effect on other parts of our being?

I don’t see why not. After all, if our thoughts can shape reality, and everything we do reflects back upon us, it makes sense that this action of our body does the same.

Now, I do think we need to follow all common sense physical health guidelines. See your doctor if the fever goes on for more than a few days. Don’t mess with trying to “heat yourself” up such as in a sweat lodge unless you really know what you’re doing. Drink lots of fluids. Rest. But if you are taking care of your physical health, then there may be a time to think about what the fever might be doing to help take care of your spiritual or emotional health.

Personally, I can think of a few things that need to be “burned up” and gotten rid of for good as I’ve learned lessons and moved past them. We are, after all, ever changing creatures. So if by taking care of my health on the physical realm, I’m working on the spiritual, well that’s all the better.

The next time you get sick, take care of yourself, but also think about what your physical body might be doing to aid your emotional and spiritual ones, too.

Much has been written about the power of pets. From the claim substantiated by studies that older individuals who have a pet live longer, healthier lives, to the studies touting their stress relief, there’s no denying the claim that sharing our lives with animals helps us…and it helps them! With the re-release of my previously published books on small parrot care, I wanted to focus on the little creatures among us. Having a cat or a dog as a pet seems to “make sense” because they’re large enough (usually) to live with us and not need special housing. (Dogs outdoors need shelter, and sometimes we crate our pets, but for the most part dogs and cats can live in the house amongst us.) Smaller critters who live in their own world, such as the smaller parrots, may seem to be more decorative than interactive. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

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In Reality Shift 2: Filtration System, Jonah and Shanna help Julie MacKenzie, a girl with autism, filter out the entities that are bombarding her. I’ve been asked a few times why I chose to use a character with an autism spectrum disorder. The answer is simple: My 12-year-old daughter has Asperger’s Syndrome. So that’s what I’m blogging about today.

It’s hard to be general about Asperger’s, because all kids are different and Asperger’s encompasses a pretty wide range. But most kids with Asperger’s have a lot of trouble with social situations. They’re not able to recognize body language and may have difficulty recognizing facial expressions. They tend to ramble on about a particular subject, and don’t realize that they’re boring their listeners. Usually, they don’t understand social cues (we’re STILL trying to get my daughter to remember to say “Nice to meet you” when she’s introduced to someone, and she flat out refuses to shake hands). There may be some behavior issues; for example, people with Asperger’s tend to have a short temper. They also may have trouble recognizing their own tone of voice as well as other people’s; my daughter never realizes when she sounds rude, and argues with me when I tell her she does.

OCD and Asperger’s often go hand in hand, as do Asperger’s and anxiety disorder. People with Asperger’s obsess easily and they’re very resistant to change, so they have to have things set up just so, they have to have a very structured routine, and if anything varies they may have a melt-down. (Even adults.) My opinion of the anxiety, as I phrased it to my therapist, is that people with Asperger’s are living in a world that doesn’t make any sense to them, and they have to navigate it anyway. That’s enough to make anyone anxious. And sometimes anxiety manifests as anger or even a tantrum. There’s also often a lot of social anxiety; people with Asperger’s recognize that they aren’t good in social situations and that they don’t understand how to interact socially, but they don’t know what to do about it.

They also usually have a really, really hard time in crowds or large gatherings, even family gatherings. Too much noise, too little structure. People with Asperger’s (and other autism spectrum disorders) often have sensory issues, and noise seems to be a big one. My daughter can’t tolerate a lot of noise, and if she’s in a place where more than one person is talking, she can’t filter out all the voices to listen to the one she wants. She also doesn’t like to be touched, because touch is too much sensory overload for her. We have to ask before we touch her, and for hugs and that kind of thing it’s better when she initiates it.

The biggest characteristic that distinguishes Asperger’s from other autism spectrum disorders is an obsession with a particular topic. That topic may change from time to time, but while the person is focused on it, it might be ALL they’re focused on, and they’ll talk about it incessantly. For my daughter, it’s dolphins and cats; she could tell you everything you never wanted to know about either animal. Her entire room is decorated in dolphins, including her bedding.

In the book, Tethys tells Jonah that the only way to help Julie is to put energetic filters in her energy field. Most people already have these filters in place, but people with autism spectrum disorders don’t, for one reason or another, according to Tethys. Whether that’s true or not, when my daughter was younger I did something similar with her, using energy healing techniques to install those filters. It made a huge difference in her behavior and her ability to interact with people around her, so I would say there might be something to it.

Either way, my point in using Julie in Filtration System wasn’t so much to say “Here’s an autistic character”, but to say, “Here’s a character who’s dealing with all these demons and stuff–and oh, by the way, she has autism.”

Nearly eleven and a half years ago, my mother was on the telemetry (heart) ward of a hospital and the doctor’s didn’t think she’d make it out. Five years seemed like a pipedream, and as I visited her, I knew things were in motion that would change my life forever. Five years ago, my mother had necrotizing fasciitis and spent nearly a year in recovery after being told that if they’d waited just a day longer to do surgery, she probably would have had major complications. Everyone in the medical profession we tell this gasps, shocked that she survived. My mother is a diabetic, and now faces the loss of sight in one eye. And she is alive.

It’s the last part on which I focus. I know mom thinks my “Thank God it isn’t anything bad, now we can get through this” attitude is a startling turn around from the wailing and the tears and the fear with which I met her previous challenges. But I tell her she’s alive. She’s had YEARS the doctor never thought she had, and she’ll have years more. Yes, it is a frightening prospect to deal with the loss of sight, and it’s caused a major upheaval in both of our lives. Mine, because I’m now the chauffeur that I’d been warned (jokingly, of course) that I’d become. I don’t mind. I don’t mind at all.

Meeting life’s challenges with gratitude can be tough when tough things happen. “Why us?” “What now?” These questions fill our mind with doubt and worry, two things that erode at our well-being and at our mental health. I’m not saying don’t be a realist. After all, whether it’s medical, financial, or career difficulties, they did happen. They won’t go away by a broad brush of “it’s going to be all right.” But having an attitude of being thankful for what’s going right will help encourage that to happen.

I am thankful my mother is still with us. I am thankful for the opportunity to drive her to medical appointments. Even in other areas of my life, I am thankful, and it’s dealing with that mentality that helps me cope.

I would encourage everyone to find one thing about which they are thankful every day. To go forward in that spirit, and to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Because while worry and wailing and fear might make you feel productive, you are more productive when instead you move forward in gratitude, awareness, and thankfulness.

I’m sitting in the waiting room while a family member has some tests run. We’ve been dealing with a health issue for about a week, where a routine appointment turned out to be not so everyday. There’s a lot of unknowns, but the tests are being done, and I have faith that everything will turn out all right.

One of the tools I use to bolster my faith is affirmations. They’re tricky things to craft. You don’t want to invite the opportunity for the universe to give you anything other than what you want. And when you’re dealing with family health issues, well it’s even more important to make sure the affirmation is creating exactly the reality you want.
The doctor gives good news. The tests complete quickly and smoothly.

One of the things about creating affirmations is that it’s important to speak as if what you want has already been created. We don’t want to say “I hope the doctor gives good news.” Because yes, while you do hope for good news (I don’t think anyone hopes for bad news), it’s also pretty much a given that you are hoping for good news. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to happen.

So I use my “as if it happened” affirmations to keep myself calm and to put those “positive vibes” into the universe. It’s a way to keep calm, to know that you’re doing everything that’s for the best.

Affirmations can be crafted for any occasion, and as long as you stay positive, speak as if what you wish for has already come to pass, and they will happen.

I’ve suffered from allergies and sinus problems for as long as I remember. As a child, I was frequently prescribed the big brown bottles of cough syrup from the doctor. Yellow was Actifed; purple was Sudifed. I preferred the Actifed, and back then pseudoephedrine needed to come from a prescription. The fact that I have vivid memories of these big brown glass bottles with their fruit-flavored contents is a testament to how much I took. The older I got, the more my allergies bothered me. In a nutshell, Mother Nature hates me. I don’t know why. But she does, and this time of year, when the corn is pollinating and the ragweed is blooming is my worst. Add to that the fact that I like to be outdoors, that I have a horse, which means all the dust and hay that a barn can bring, and well, I’ll take anything that I can use to help my sinuses.

The problem is, since I’ve had such large amounts of “sinus medicine” poured down me from a young age, my body is like “hah!” when I take Sudifed or anything over the counter. When the formulas were changed to remove pseudoephedrine from them, my sinuses just laughed even more.

I’d been getting “chemical cautery” of my sinuses, but since I’m in my “deductible period” for my health insurance, this every-six-month procedure would cost me $700. Add to that the fact that I still need sinus meds, well…I’m searching for alternatives.

I’ve found them in peppermint tea and peppermint oil. But I’ve also found an alternative in an $11 neti pot.

What is a neti pot? It’s a small pot that looks like a cross between a teapot and a magic lamp. Made from plastic (recycled) or ceramic, they’re filled with water and salt, then used to irrigate, or rinse, the sinuses. By washing away allergens, they help the cilia of the nose move more freely and help encourage draining.

I’ve found it especially helpful when I get back from the barn to do a complete wash. I shower, change clothes, and then do a sinus wash to remove the allergens that usually linger. On a daily, or every-other day basis, I also try to sinus wash, and if I do something such as mowing that will aggravate my allergies, I also redo the wash.

Simply fill the neti pot to a predetermined line with lukewarm, body-temperature water. Mix in the recommended method of salt, then put the end of the spigot in your nose, tilt your head to 45 degrees, then wash one side. When you’re done, repeat on the other.

I’ve found this to be a simple, non-medical, non-pharmaceutical, way to help my sinuses. It keeps the sinus headaches, pain and pressure, at bay, and it’s something I can do pretty inexpensively. While your mileage may vary, if you’re looking for a natural way to fight allergies, sinus washing may be something to help you.

Further Reading:

WebMD, Do Neti Pots Really Work? http://www.webmd.com/allergies/sinus-pain-pressure-9/neti-pots

Himalayan Institute: http://www.himalayaninstitute.org/netipot/netipotgateway.aspx

A NPR Article on Sinus Irrigation: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7108546