Healthy Lifestyles


Here is a repost from the blog of one of my favorite companies Healing Anthropology. Their baby care, facial care and body care products are delicious, nuturing and “clean”.   We love them so much that we carry most of the line at ilumina and the ilumina team is already addicted.

Body Burden: Why Natural is Best and Recipes for Homemade Belly Balm & Oil

Nobody should be putting chemicals on their skin (and therefore in their bodies), but pregnant women need to be especially careful about avoiding chemicals. The sad truth is that newborns come into this world with an average of 300 chemicals already in there little systems. Scientists call this a body burden and they also now know that prenatal exposure to many chemicals leads to fertility problems later on in life for these babies. If we live in a modern society, unfortunately some of these chemicals are impossible to avoid, however, we do have a choice about what we bring into our home, and what we put on and into our bodies. It is our responsibility to do our best at giving our children a healthy and happy life. The good news is that there are so many options for chemical free products and food that this responsibility is getting easier and easier. (more…)

A Mind Like Sky

Meditation comes alive through a growing capacity to release our habitual entanglement in the stories and plans, conflicts and worries that make up the small sense of self, and to rest in awareness. In meditation we do this simply by acknowledging the moment-to-moment changing conditions—the pleasure and pain, the praise and blame, the litany of ideas and expectations that arise. Without identifying with them, we can rest in the awareness itself, beyond conditions, and experience what my teacher Ajahn Chah called jai pongsai, our natural lightness of heart. Developing this capacity to rest in awareness nourishes samadhi (concentration), which stabilizes and clarifies the mind, and prajna (wisdom), that sees things as they are.

We can employ this awareness or wise attention from the very start. When we first sit down to meditate, the best strategy is to simply notice whatever state of our body and mind is present. To establish the foundation of mindfulness, the Buddha instructs his followers “to observe whether the body and mind are distracted or steady, angry or peaceful, excited or worried, contracted or released, bound or free.” Observing what is so, we can take a few deep breaths and relax, making space for whatever situation we find. (more…)

ilumina Healing Sanctuary is honored to offer these amazing free events that you do not want to miss.  To register please call ilumina Healing Sanctuary at (602) 957-2602.

(more…)

Now Featuring

HEALING ANTHROPOLOGY: NATURAL SKIN CARE LINE

We are proud to announce the newest addition to our retail line here at ilumina.  Healing Anthropology is now exclusively available at our location.  This all natural skin care line offers wonderfully rich, effective products completely free of any toxins or chemical preservative. (more…)

Fall is the season when we begin to see patients with sore throats, coughs, runny nose, body aches, fever or chills. Often patients will call to cancel an appointment because they do not realize that we can treat these ailments with acupuncture and herbs. Before those symptoms hit, the most practical approach is to arm yourself (and your medicine cabinet) with Chinese herbs that will ward off colds and the flu.  Listed below are three Chinese herbs we have packaged together to provide you with a first defense against Cold & Flu season: (more…)

Tune in to your body, connect with community, and embrace the birth you’re given with prenatal yoga.

By Catherine Guthrie (as appeared in Yoga Journal)

After the birth of her first child, Colleen Millen, 35, knew that she would approach childbirth differently if given another chance. Then a Forrest Yoga teacher in Chicago, Millen stuck to her typical yoga routine throughout her pregnancy. She modified her practice as her belly blossomed, but she shrugged off the prenatal classes at her studio, assuming her years of practicing yoga had bestowed on her the tools for a trouble-free childbirth. (more…)

Scientists have been learning more about environmental hazards and chemicals that can affect fertility, and now they’ve added another potential threat to the list: polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), used as a flame retardant. (more…)

I have lived my life in the sun. When I was young we used to survive the summer heat by spending days at the pool or beach.  Baby oil was the tan enhancer of choice to get our skin tan as fast as possible. As I got older I realized that maybe I should start using sunscreen. I remember my sunscreen enlightenment so clearly, I was a student working on my undergraduate degree at the University of Arizona and heard: if you live in Arizona long enough you will develop skin cancer.  Yikes! (more…)

Ghandi wrote, “Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first sign of self-giving love.” True healing occurs when we have the courage to be present with all aspects of ourselves and move through the processes required to return to wholeness. In working with a diverse array of clients, I have found that often the most difficult step of the healing process is forgiveness. As difficult as it may be, forgiveness is necessary to free oneself from the painful emotions that have bound our lives and stifled our Spirit. Of course, once we let go and forgive, we become fully responsible for our own feelings and behaviors and can no longer make excuses or stay stuck in our patterns or stagnation. That can be daunting, so it is understandable that some people resist forgiveness and choose to remain comfortably stuck, but in doing so we limit ourselves, and our lives do not open fully to their potential.

Many people hang onto anger and blame out of a misplaced sense of justice. A common misperception is that forgiving someone means accepting their behavior, or letting them off the hook. This is simply not so. We can forgive and also choose not to allow people into our lives who hurt or betray us. We can, if we wish, offer the kind of forgiveness that might free the person we are angry at, but the greatest impact is within. Forgiveness frees us from the low vibrational energies of anger, blame and resentment and allows our heart to open to a more joyful and expansive life.

Carrying anger, hate or resentment in your heart will weigh heavily on your life, preventing you from truly healing and moving forward. When you have been hurt or betrayed, there is a process you can turn to in order to release the experience and find alignment with yourself again. The key steps are firstly, AWARENESS of what needs healing or what is holding you back. The second step is to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for the feelings that were triggered by the experience without blaming yourself or others. Next, it is essential to find TRUST in a deeper part of yourself, and know that you are more than your pain. Acknowledge the perfection of every experience and what it has brought to your life. It may be hard to imagine a painful experience as a ‘perfect’ experience, but this simply means that the experience ‘is what it is’ in the fabric of your life, and every experience is full of potential. It becomes ‘what you make it’ and that will shape the tapestry of your future. Seeing the greater picture of your being and your life will allow you to FORGIVE AND LET GO. The final step is to experience a RENEWAL or REMEMBERING of who you really are. In this state, all the energy you have bound up in anger, resentment and pain becomes available to you again in a pure and positive way, resulting in increased joy, vitality and enthusiasm. You find yourself more present in your life and trusting that your inner self can not only handle the experiences of life, but can appreciate them –all of them, for the great gifts they are. This is not an intellectual exercise, but an opening of your heart. It is a gift you give to yourself and your world.

Love and Light,
Marion

www.marionlight.com
www.womeninbloom.org

ilumina Healing Sanctuary, located in Scottsdale, is a unique clinic that combines acupuncture, Traditional Chinese medicine, emotional wellness, general and fertility massage, and whole food nutrition. We are the only clinic in Arizona with board certified practitioners of Oriental Reproductive Medicine. Our highly trained and experiences specialists provide therapies that support the body, mind and spirit through all phases of a women’s life.

ilumina Healing Sanctuary
7520 E. Camelback Road
Scottsdale, Arizona 85251
(602)957-2602

As the bee collects nectar
without injuring the flower,
so should you move through life.

Watch your actions,
learn about yourself,
and don’t compare your ways with others.

The words of those who are unaware
are like wilted flowers.
They are faded and have no scent.

-The Buddha

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