Authentically Joycelynn

Living Whole in the Kingdom of God

wellness solutions

by

Declutter Your Life

I’ve lived in a world of overwhelm so long, I didn’t realize I was drowning. Deciding to de-clutter my life is actually looking at ALL areas of my life. This includes my physical surroundings, my financial budget, emails, Facebook, and even work.

I read two e-books several months ago by a new Facebook friend, Shirley Harvey. The first was “The Happy Hoarder’s Guide to Getting Rid of that Crap”, and “The Spiritual Guide for the Clutter Buster”.  Both books started a journey for me which I really knew inside, needed to happen. I want you to know; I am NO WHERE NEAR having all my “crap” in order! But I’ve started the process.

I’m a little ADHD, so I can’t start a project and see it through right away. I start something, get bored, and move onto the next project.  At some point, I come back around and finish up what I’ve started. I work on my emails and social media off and on. Sometimes I will have pockets of time and will spend 15 or 20 minutes unsubscribing from email lists. I may take 20 or 30 minutes to look at all those pages I follow on Facebook and “unlike” those not relevant to me anymore. This frees up space and time for me later.

I decided to take a look at our “money drains” and let go of things we really don’t need. Take for instance the Home phone/cable/internet bill that companies neatly “bundle” for us. Ah, isn’t that sweet. They help us with a nice tidy package so we don’t have a separate bill for each one…Well; I decided I didn’t need that package anymore. So, my husband and I received a little gadget from our son in law and daughter at Christmas called Apple TV… It’s a one-time gadget to hook up to the TV, and you can play things like Netflix and Hulu, and other cool things through it.  So, a few weeks ago, I got rid of the home phone, and cable. We ordered a little digital thing from Clear TV. I purchased 2 of them for 19.95 plus shipping and handling. We received them today! We get 26 channels. We have tons of movies to watch through Netflix. I pay for internet only now.  My bill went from $204.00/month to $55.00/month and I increased the speed of the internet! (You have to have internet for the Apple TV to run) I also use internet for my blogging and other business stuff!

simple is beautiful

Today, I was talking about my iPhone on Facebook. Found out I could get unlimited talk and text from Cricket for $50.00/month for the usage of 2 phones. When my ATT contract ran out, I was going to switch. We have unlimited plans for 2 phones, and its $165.00/month. Well, I called ATT today and asked if they had an unlimited talk/text plan, and I found out I couldn’t do it since we had “smart phones”… What I did find out was that we could get rid of most of the data and as long as we use our data sparingly, we could change our plan to $65.00/month… How cool is that? So I did that! We will be saving another $95.00/month.  Wow! That feels SO freeing.

I went through a really crazy DE clutter on Facebook and Pinterest the other day.  I unfollowed about 400 pages I liked on Facebook. I had never cleaned through those, and I couldn’t believe how many I had “liked” over the years I’ve been on Facebook. So, that feels better. I also unclogged my Pinterest account, and only “follow” those pages who really “Pin” things I’m interested in.  Whew!

My next two projects are my office and my kitchen. I’m starting with my kitchen tonight. Would you believe I’ve got about 30 sharp or serrated knives? WHY do I have so many? WHY do I need to keep so many? I don’t!!! So, I’ve got a box, and the “extras” are going there, and going to Goodwill!  Also, why do I have 3 different ½ cup measurers? I don’t need but 1. OK. Out the other 2 go. I don’t need duplicates. I don’t need things I never use. Out they go. My goal is clear countertops, and a peaceful view. (or if any of you locally know where I can donate this kitchen stuff for people to get it free, PLEASE let me know)

backtobasics

I LOVED Shirley’s books because what I realized is that I am hindering my peace and flow by all this clutter. So, I’m back at it again. I’m setting small goals (Kaizen Steps), working toward my goal to work at home by de-cluttering my finances and creating an atmosphere of peace in my surroundings.

What goals do you have? Do you need to de-clutter? Don’t know where to start? Does it feel TOO overwhelming? Let me help you begin your process. Realizing WHERE to start is the first step. I was able to help a coaching client a few years ago after she took the Wellness Inventory. We developed a strategy. She utilized Kaizen Steps, and it wasn’t long until she had her home in order! That wasn’t MY priority for my life then, but now it is.  Isn’t it awesome how we are individuals, and we are all at different places in our lives? I’m organizing my space and my place for a new chapter in my life! What are you ready to change?

by

Daybreak Journey

It’s early morning, and instead of sleeping late after working 12 hours shifts, I’m up and my mind is racing. I’m on this journey. Some call it a spiritual journey, an awakening, or just restlessness to get to the meaning of it all. I’m deeply passionate in my relationship with God…but there is more that I’m struggling with. I’m moved by the weight of breaking through my purpose. It feels like I’m giving birth to a new beginning and I’m bursting with this new life inside that HAS to be born.

This restlessness has been relentless for 8 years now. I don’t suppose there is a fast start button to push that instantly gives us the answers. The answer is in the process. The struggle. The questioning. The searching. Yet my own insecurity of not being enough, not having enough education…somewhere in the midst of it I’ve felt like I should be a doctor to have an impact, not a nurse. But here I am…a nurse searching for the deeper way to reach humanity. There has to be more than passing pills and following a doctor’s orders. Those are tasks, yet that is what we’ve been reduced to. Time for human touch it seems, has been set aside in order to meet budget, break even.

Finding no meaning in the “American Dream”… the idea that we need to own, and have and get…what is that about? I’m realizing that I want more and to create more, income and otherwise, but not so I can “have” but so that I can “give more”. Realizing that yes we do need flow of income to create our dreams, but my dreams have become about making an impact and providing tools to set people free from their min dprisons, and from their cycles of self sabotage and fear…Being whole and being well is a foreign concept in America.

3 John 1:2 has become a powerful passage to me. “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as they soul prospereth”. There is that connection and need for all of us to eb whole. Our mind, body, spirit and finances. There is also the issue of healing. People want to be healed, but don’t understand that being WHOLE is a better way. people long to take a pill to be healed of their infirmities, while not realize it ALL fits together. How can a real physical healing take place while there is emptiness in the mind or spirit or soul.

There isn’t always a peer reviewed study for the way an herb is used, or the way prayer manifests healing or how human touch and empathy can touch another and miracles occur. I always step back a bit when I hear a nurse being critical about natural health/healing because there isn’t a “study” to back it up. It actually makes me sad for them…so analytical they can’t believe anything unless a study shows it to be true.

I recently found a book by Lissa Rankin, MD, in which she is a physician who went through a journey, similar to what I’m experiencing now. I’m deeply entrenched in learning of her journey and now the difference she is making in the arena of healing. The more I move forward in the arena of wellness, the more I’m connecting with others who are also on this journey. What has begun in individuals is now becoming a movement.

I’m taking my life back.

by

Essential Oils for the Caregiver’s Soul

I love the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. The uplifting stories are so inspiring and encouraging. Words can create an environment of peace and healing. Essential oils can have this same affect. At this very moment, I am diffusing an calming and uplifting blend of wild orange and a proprietary blend called Elevation. There is a vibrational energy associated with oils. To explain what I mean by vibrational energy, this is a scientific principle which defines all matter with a frequency level. By using essential oils with a calming or uplifting frequency, we can actually create this environment in our own bodies. Currently I am reading Valerie Wormwood’s book Aromatherapy for the Soul. She does a wonderful job exploring essential oils and sharing how properties of the oils are so much more than the smell.I am enjoying exploring the different vibrational energies of the oils. My favorites right now are the grounding, meditative oils.

 QUIET TIME

  During prayer and meditation for me, it is often easy to get distracted and allow sporatic thoughts to overtake my mind. This is a great use of essential oils because when you use oils that are more grounding and meditative, you usually aren’t sidetracked with other memories associated with some smells like cookies baking or grandmother’s perfume. I use meditative oils like Frankincense and Myrrh, and grounding oils like Sandalwood and Patchouli. Healing Oils of the Bible by David Stewart is another favorite of mine. There are over 188 references to essential oils in the Bible. Essential oils have been around the world from the beginning of time, and only in the past few years have these precious oils been explored in North America for their holistic healing properties.

HOLISTIC HEALING

  As a holistic nurse, I believe our health is more than our physical bodies. It is my belief that only when we approach health from a physicial, emotional, and spiritual framework can true healing begin. Healing doesn’t always mean curing. Healing can be an emotional letting go, even in times of transition from this life through the doors of leaving this world. Another favorite book of mine is Emotional Healing with Essential Oils.

SET UP YOUR SPACE

  Create a space for healing, prayer, meditation, and worship. This area needs to be clean, cleared, and de-cluttered. Set up your diffuser with a nice meditative or grounding blend. You can contact me directly at joyce@theessentialnurse.com  to discuss the oils I use and what is suggested for your particular need. Create a peaceful environment by placing a comfortable chair and soft lighting system. I am adding a waterfall fountain table top piece to my room where I write, pray, have my Bible study.

 HEALING PROPERTIES

 Properties of essential oils can can include relaxation, emotional release, stress reduction, energy, spiritual healing, balance, meditative, focus, grounding, centering, releasing, any many more. Don’t you feel overwhelmed many days by the hustle and bustle of responsibilities and duties? Taking time to step back, breathe, and become still for even a few minutes can often times bring balance to your energy that will enable you to continue without all the stress and disruption in your spirit.

 

by

The Frog Didn’t Know that he Didn’t Know

There is a story about a frog  placed in a pot of cold water on the stove. Slowly the heat was turned up under the pan, until the water boiled the frog to death. The frog stayed there, oblivious to the doom sealing his fate. Had the frog been thrown into a pot of very hot water, he would have realized the horrible situation he was in, and jumping to safety would have been instantaneous. The water temperature had been turned up so slowly, the frog didn’t even notice he was cooking to death.

So it is in our lives. The changes are so subtle, and over so many years, they go un-noticed; until a severe health crisis hits. For most, in our youth, we ate whatever was served, we played, and ran, and didn’t even think about those events being exercise. As children, we had energy, and felt invincible. We entered high school, and then college. In college we stayed up late, drank coffee to stay awake, ate pizza and whatever cheap snack food we could find. During this time we may have gained a few pounds, but nothing to really think about. Then comes the new job, relationship ups and downs, marriage, children, holidays, stress, and a few more pounds. We start feeling tired, and blame it on stress, bills, lifestyle: everything except how we are treating our bodies. Yet, there is no correlation made.

New symptoms arise. Re flux, excessive belching, bloating, or other gastric symptoms become common place. We pop tums, or get prescriptions for medication to alleviate the stomach symptoms. Our blood pressure starts creeping up and we blame this on stress. The correlation between blood pressure and the growing belly is not made. Medication is available for stress, weight loss, high blood pressure, diabetes, stomach ailments, and any other physical problem we can think of.

Slowly through the lifespan, the stress and negative symptoms on our bodies make it’s toll, and yet we sit. Unaware. We don’t know that we don’t know. Or, we don’t want to know, because once we know, we are accountable, and we might have to change. And, we don’t like change. Not rapid change. But we feel sick and tired. We don’t know how we got there. Just like the second frog, if one day we went from feeling great and the next day we woke up with pain from arthritis, and 50 pounds heavier than the day before, and we open up the cabinet with the 10 medications we now will need to take everyday just to exist – I think there would be an immediate jump to find out how to get back to the previous day.

How do we bring attention to these subtle changes in our lives? Begin to take inventory of what it is you really desire in your life. Do your goals and desires line up with what you are actually doing? Are you doing what you are passionate about or are you just living day to day, hoping things will improve on their own? What small steps can you make to pull yourself out of that pan which is beginning to heat up in your life?

“Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do. With such passion and such intensity that is becomes spiritual in calling ~ Vincent Van Gogh. ” The frog didn’t know that he didn’t know. He didn’t realize he was in trouble before it was too late. My contribution to myself is to take care of my physical, mental, and spiritual well being.   Being an entrepreneur, networking with others that share a similar passion for health and life, spending time with my family, and at one with God. It doesn’t get any better than this…

Authentically Joycelynn