Visit http://www.turquoiseray.com/network/nutandseedmilk.asp for a fail-proof recipe.

To find out what doctors mean by hypertension and strategies you can implement today (for free) to reduce your blood pressure, visit http://www.turquoiseray.com/network/hypertension.asp

What does this mean in practice?

• Section 12(2) of the Act allows a herbal medicine practitioner to sell-ready-made products (“unlicensed manufactured herbal remedies”).
• Section 12(2) has also in effect provided a legal basis for a herbal medicine practitioner to draw up a prescription and commission a third-party supplier to prepare that remedy for a particular patient.
• From 30 April 2011, third parties will no longer be able to fulfil prescriptions or sell any products that are deemed to be “industrially produced”. 
• This means that herbs which are now available as tablets, capsules and other pharmaceutical finished forms will be classified as “industrially produced” and will therefore be illegal.
• Although Section 12(1) does allow a herbal medicine practitioner to blend unprocessed herbal ingredients into a product tailored to the needs of individual patients, herbal products that have been blended for herbalists to use in their practice will no longer be available.
• In order for these products to remain available to herbalists, the government needs to introduce statutory regulation of herbal medicine practitioners.

Please support us in becoming statutory regulated by supporting the campaigns being run by the following organisations:

• European Herbal & Traditional Medicines Association – http://www.ehtpa.eu/index.html
• National Institute of Medical Herbalists – http://www.nimh.org.uk/
• Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine – http://www.rchm.co.uk/

I’ve included a link to Tony and Sage Robbins ‘Special Holiday Message’.  The second half of the clip is a short video featuring Jim Rohn who passed away recently.  I’ve personally found this video very inspiring as I start to take stock of this year and dream of what is to become.

wishing you a peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Special Holiday Message from Tony and Sage Robbins

You can read the document by visiting this website ( http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_103566.pdf ).  But, be warned, it’s a big old document!

The majority of medical herbalists support statutory regulation.  The National Institute of Medical Herbalists ( http://www.nimh.org.uk/ ) provides information on the need for statutory regulation. 

Right now, we need your help! 

If you believe complementary therapies such as herbal medicine, acupuncture and traditional chinese medicine should be subject to statutory regulation, please write to your MP and let him or her know.   If you are unsure about who your MP is, you can find out from this website http://www.writetothem.com/

Other useful sites that have posted information in relation to this issue include:

 The National Institute of Medical Herbalists

http://www.nimh.org.uk/news-and-events/news-and-press/regulation-action-plan

European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association

http://www.ehpa.eu/

The Herb Society

http://www.herbsociety.org.uk/guidelines.htm

Please act now to save herbal medicine!

They defined work-related stress as somewhere where psychological demands were placed on the individual and there was a limited opportunity to make decisions.  The study found people who had a limited ability to make decisions at work were predisposed to developing rheumatoid arthritis. 

This finding was similar to the relationship that has been defined between high levels of stress and cardiovascular disease.

Here’s where it’s a good idea to focus:

1. Relaxation is the key.  Have you arrived at that place where you are doing something relaxing every day?  It doesn’t have to be a big thing.  For me, I make lip balms.  I absolutely love it and I feel relaxed whenever I put them on. 
2. Give your mind a mini break.  You don’t need to carry around an endless list of problems.  Put them in the suitcase so you can deal with them when you feel ready.  Carrying them around with you won’t solve your problems, it will just wear you out!
3. Where are you keeping your tension?  Check in with your body every day to strengthen that mind and body connection.
4. When you find a tense area, get that tension out.  You can use creative visualisation exercises, like the ones in my programme, Reduce Your Stress – Your 7-Day Turnaround Programme.  Or try out some body therapies or ayurvedic therapies such as shirodhara (tension melts from your mind as soothing warm oil is poured over your forehead).
5. Notice your triggers.  How does your body feel before you get stressed?
6. Catch those trigger thoughts by noticing how you are feeling.  Change those thoughts and you stop stress at its source.
7. Build in helpful rituals.  Check out your relationships.  Who can you talk to?  How do you problem solve or share issues?  Monitor your food and fluid intake.  Check out my special report on stress busting foods for more information on this one.

We are not here to have no stress.  We are here to learn and to grow.  Learning and growing involves short bursts of stress and challenge, followed by down-time where we relax, regenerate and integrate.  Not learning is a stress in itself.  Leaping from one stress to another stress is chronic stress and really is not helpful. 

The trick is to make sure that you are not chronically stressed - that’s when you wear yourself out and create or exacerbate health issues. 

By building in these tools and strategies, you can enjoy stress-free living.

Anxiety is another example.  Some forms of anxiety are triggered by your thoughts.  It’s as if the fire alarm in your body has gone off but there’s no fire.  Although the result of the anxiety can feel very real and have a very real effect, the trigger is just like that false alarm.  Here’s an exercise you can use that helps alleviate panic attacks and anxiety.  It’s called the Emergency Exercise.

Imagine that you are breathing in a white mist.

Breathe in through your nose and as you breathe in, see that mist circling in and around the inside of your head.

On the out breath, breathe out the white mist allowing all the tension to leave your body with this out breath.

Let your shoulders droop and feel your body go limp.

Now repeat this three more times in your own time.

Stress really is a mind and body game.  What we think, effects how we feel and we act or react based on how we feel (whether we are trying to avoid pain or move towards something pleasurable).  By changing what you are thinking about, you change how you feel and as a result change how you behave.  This works the opposite way too. 

You don’t have to monitor your every thought to catch what is triggering your stress.  You can track back by noticing how you are feeling or what you are doing.  If you catch yourself worrying try the Heavy Load exercise and put all your thoughts in one of the suitcases to be dealt with at a more appropriate time. 

If you catch yourself stressing over something, hold the image of a beautiful pink rose or a gorgeous friendly butterfly in your mind.  Now that you have that image in your mind, change your thoughts to something more helpful.  You might like to change the image of the rose or butterfly to something that always makes you feel good when you think about it.

Change the meaning you give to a situation or event and you have the power to change the whole chain reaction; stopping stress at its source!

The key to understanding when something is triggering your stress is by noticing how you feel in your body.  Remember, stress starts when you perceive a situation to be threatening.  That decision launches a cascade of reactions in your body that culminate in something helpful (for example, when things are going well) and something less helpful (for example when you’re tense but not in a life threatening situation). 

Take some time to write down how you feel when you are stressed.  It may help if you think of a stressful situation. 

Now work backwards.  Before that something happened, how did you feel in your body. 

Keep working back and record that trail of feelings.  Now you know what to look out for. 

When you notice these feelings, check in with what you are thinking.  If you can, change what you are thinking about.  Also build in some of the tools that we have already talked about.  Schedule in some extra relaxation time, map and release the tension in your body.

Did you notice any patterns in your tension storage areas?

There are 4 common stress patterns that your body uses to get your attention:

1. starting at the base of your neck and going up over your head (I had this one after my exam the other day);
2. starting at the base of your neck and moving across your shoulders, down your arms to your elbows;
3. starting at the base of your neck and travelling down your back to your lower back;
4. in your gut, right near the duodenum

You can follow these patterns to monitor your stress levels or to work with your body to get the tension out.  I have included an exercise that allows you to move tension out of your body using your breath in my book, Reduce Your Stress – Your 7-Day Turnaround Programme.  Alternatively, body therapies such as shiatsu, stretching or therapeutic massage are also a great way of getting the tension out.

If you are not able to complete the Tension Dispursing Exercise on page 48, consider booking yourself a massage or body treatment.  Personally, I love Indian Head Massage for when I’m dealing with mental stress and my mind is full.