For a quick summary - here are the top 5 things I'm doing for myself, my home and our family. (In addition to frequent hand-washing, social distancing, and hand-sanitizing.)
1) Thunder Pearls - 3 caps 2x/day. This is a specific anti-viral Chinese herbal formula that has been recommended by my teacher Heiner Fruehauf. I have a limited supply for current patients only. You can still order it here.
2) Eucalyptus essential oil. I'm slathering this on myself, and anyone who shows up at our door. It's also running continuously in our vaporizer. This essential oil (as well as Frankincense and Ravintsara) I'm finding to be most effective for the prevention and treatment of upper respiratory infections this year. Lung support!
3) Vitamin C - 6,000 mg daily. This is my go-to when I'm feeling run-down. Given that we are also at the peak of flu season here in NY I'm doing this daily right now and will keep it up through this spring season.
4) Vitamin D 5,000 IU daily. My all winter long friend. Great for seasonal affective disorder and a potent anti-viral/anti-flu remedy.
5) Eating a whole foods diet with lots of fresh vegetables, focusing on bitters and leafy green vegetables as I do every spring (burdock root, dandelion greens, red cabbage, kimchi, and other fermented foods, beets, mushrooms). Avoiding sugar, fried foods, alcohol, and significantly decreasing meat consumption.
~ Ideas for Our Collective Mandated Pause ~
(because we wouldn't have taken it ourselves)
+ spring cleaning; with my husband's travel schedule canceled and community gatherings on pause we now have the opportunity to do the spring cleanse we've been meaning to do. For the house, yes, and also for the body. Click here for some spring cleanse motivation. I'll be hosting a free spring cleanse class online this Friday 3/20/20 at 12 PM EST and also next Tuesday, 3/24/20, at 12 PM EST.
Sign up here for the free online video call - Friday, March 20th at noon
This one hour class will cover spring cleanse basics, why and how to cleanse, and what you'll need to begin with a Q&A to follow. There'll be an opportunity to join my annual Spring Renewal Cleanse Program, which will begin on a rolling enrollment March 26th through April 2nd. This is the first year we'll be taking it online!
+ checking in and taking care of your neighbors; I know a woman who's leaving fliers with her phone number in her neighbors' mailboxes, offering help and runs to the store if needed. I'm on local community listserves that are gathering folks to make food runs for single parents, elderly and low-income families. What a beautiful tribute to the community! This is how we do service in separation. Who do you know who could use this support? Is there someone you might call? Perhaps this is an opportunity to "meet the neighbors"?
+ facing yourself; my passion and greatest work is in gathering circles and community for healing, medicine work, music, connection, and prayer. I now have the opportunity to anchor and further root the practices I teach within my self and with my family. Is there a busy-ness in your life that could use a downshifting? Is this opportunity to retreat something you can welcome?
+ taking it virtual; what events and work of yours can you take online? I'm re-envisioning some of the parts of my work that could use this upgrade, as a way to make gatherings even more accessible. Beginning with the spring cleanse online upgrade (see above) and the consideration of virtual collective healing sessions. How about your favorite yoga class, now Live and in your living room?
+ remembering how connected we truly are. Did we need a pandemic to experience how connected we are in this global age? I've been struck by the satellite images of air pollution decrease over Wuhan. You can see those images by clicking here. There's a similar effect happening in Northern Italy. See this here. Nothing like a global crisis to create significant motivation to change behavior, in a way that not even the threat of global warming has been able to do.
+ meditating, reading great poetry, and writing. Here's a recent discovery.
Pandemic
What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times? Cease from travel. Cease from buying and selling. Give up, just for now, on trying to make the world different than it is. Sing. Pray. Touch only those to whom you commit your life. Center down. And when your body has become still, reach out with your heart. Know that we are connected in ways that are terrifying and beautiful. (You could hardly deny it now.) Know that our lives are in one another’s hands. (Surely, that has come clear.) Do not reach out your hands. Reach out your heart. Reach out your words. Reach out all the tendrils of compassion that move, invisibly, where we cannot touch. Promise this world your love-- for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, so long as we all shall live. --Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
