Dr. Denise Douglass, Medical Qigong Institute, LLC

This is a good reminder about the benefits of early morning sunlight.

So THAT'S Why It's So Important To Get Sunlight Every Morning — HuffPost Experts say it should be a routine, not a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence.

Free COVID tests are once again available, as COVID hospitalization numbers are creeping up.

Free at-home COVID tests by mail are available to order again — Axios Starting today, Americans can order four free COVID-19 tests from the government with the reopening of the Biden administration's at-home testing program.

You cannot steal the light from one who carries a galaxy of stars in their heart.

Anonymous

There is a recall on some at-home COVID tests. Risk is higher for inaccurate COVID results, than risk of bacterial disease

More Than 500,000 At-Home COVID Tests Recalled Over Bacteria Risk—How to Check Yours — Health The FDA is warning consumers not to use certain lots of recalled SD Biosensor, Inc., Pilot COVID-19 At-Home Tests. SD Biosensor, Inc., initiated a recall of more than 500,000 at-home COVID tests due to a bacterial risk. Contact with the contaminated liquid may pose safety concerns, and the contamina...

Malachy McHugh: How stretching actually changes your muscles

How stretching actually changes your muscles An athlete is preparing for a game. They've put on their gear and done their warmup, and now it's time for one more routine — stretching. Typically, athletes stretch before physical activity to avoid injuries like strains and tears. But does stretching actually prevent these issues? And if so, how...

Four free at-Home COVID tests are available to order again from the federal government.

COVID.gov/tests - Free at-home COVID-19 tests Every U.S. household is eligible to order 4 free at-home COVID-⁠19 tests.

Written by a dear friend, Kathleen Melin, about the experience of having a brain bleed.

Rebirth Marks The author's scars remind her of how surviving a brain bleed enriched her life.

I am working on a healing project for my patients.
I seek photos with subjects entirely from nature, in 5 separate categories of specific colors: 1) all green, 2) all rose, 3) all gold/ brown, 4) all white & 5) all midnight blue.
Would you be willing to share a photo(s) you’ve taken that exemplifies one of these colors, especially if the photo is vibrant and makes you feel good, peaceful, happy, serene or relaxed when you see it. Your photos would be shared with others, in a healing slideshow for this project.
If you can help out, you can post the photos here or send them by FB Messenger or email to me at [email protected], if you prefer.
Thanks so much for your help!

I never knew Hosta shoots were edible (like a cross between asparagus & scallions.) I’m going to give them a try this spring!

How to Cook Hostas You don't often think of grandma's hosta patch as the best place to harvest lunch, but perhaps it's time to open your eyes to all the wonderful edibles lurking in your very own yard. Foraging

COVID-19 early treatment: real-time analysis of 1,640 studies COVID-19 early treatment: real-time analysis of 1,640 studies

Quote by Pádraig Ó Tuama - audio, poetry and writing

Graphic by The Mind Geek

Free Covid antigen tests are available to order again at COVIDtests.gov (4 this time)

COVIDtests.gov - Free at-home COVID-19 tests Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order 2 sets of 4 free at-⁠home tests. If you already ordered your first set, order a second today.

What are 5 (or more) things that bring you positive energy? Perhaps something that renews you from each of your 5 senses?

✨Expected Death ~ When someone dies, the first thing to do is nothing. Don't run out and call the nurse. Don't pick up the phone. Take a deep breath and be present to the magnitude of the moment.

There's a grace to being at the bedside of someone you love as they make their transition out of this world. At the moment they take their last breath, there's an incredible sacredness in the space. The veil between the worlds opens.

We're so unprepared and untrained in how to deal with death that sometimes a kind of panic response kicks in. "They're dead!"

We knew they were going to die, so their being dead is not a surprise. It's not a problem to be solved. It's very sad, but it's not cause to panic.

If anything, their death is cause to take a deep breath, to stop, and be really present to what's happening. If you're at home, maybe put on the kettle and make a cup of tea.

Sit at the bedside and just be present to the experience in the room. What's happening for you? What might be happening for them? What other presences are here that might be supporting them on their way? Tune into all the beauty and magic.

Pausing gives your soul a chance to adjust, because no matter how prepared we are, a death is still a shock. If we kick right into "do" mode, and call 911, or call the hospice, we never get a chance to absorb the enormity of the event.

Give yourself five minutes or 10 minutes, or 15 minutes just to be. You'll never get that time back again if you don't take it now.

After that, do the smallest thing you can. Call the one person who needs to be called. Engage whatever systems need to be engaged, but engage them at the very most minimal level. Move really, really, really, slowly, because this is a period where it's easy for body and soul to get separated.

Our bodies can gallop forwards, but sometimes our souls haven't caught up. If you have an opportunity to be quiet and be present, take it. Accept and acclimatize and adjust to what's happening. Then, as the train starts rolling, and all the things that happen after a death kick in, you'll be better prepared.

You won't get a chance to catch your breath later on. You need to do it now.

Being present in the moments after death is an incredible gift to yourself, it's a gift to the people you're with, and it's a gift to the person who's just died. They're just a hair's breath away. They're just starting their new journey in the world without a body. If you keep a calm space around their body, and in the room, they're launched in a more beautiful way. It's a service to both sides of the veil.

Credit for the beautiful words ~ Sarah Kerr, Ritual Healing Practitioner and Death Doula , Death doula
Beautiful art by Columbus Community Deathcare

Ready for an N95? Here's how to find a high-quality one that fits you well The CDC says high-filtration masks like N95s provide the best protection. Here's how to find a good one — and avoid the fakes. Plus tips on how to fit them and how long to wear them.

Hello, my dear friends,

Pain is the body’s way of communicating to us that we need to pay attention to something.

It’s easy to look at pain as a “punishment” to give it a moral dimension, but really, pain is just our body’s way of letting us know we are out of balance.

Maybe we are doing too much of something, maybe we are doing too little of another thing, or maybe we are doing the wrong thing for us at that moment.

As healers, as people who wish to bring more love to the world, pain serves to teach us, directly through our own lived experiences, compassion, patience, and sympathy for the pain of others.

It guides us to our own healing and prepares us to help others.

The more pain we have felt, the more suffering we have endured, the more we have lost and been lost, the more broadly our compassion can reach and the more deeply it can touch others.

Many Blessings,
Chunyi Lin

Lot of good information about masks, including masks for kids.

With omicron, you need a mask that means business To block a variant this transmissible, scientists say you need an N95 or other high-filtration mask. Here's how to find a good one and when to wear it.

I hadn’t read this Osterholm interview. He’s been a reliable resource.
Since we’ve learned that Covid is an aerosol disease, what he says about thinking of it like smoke from a cigarette makes sense. If a person had a cigarette & you could smell it at that distance, then you’re getting exposure if they had Covid. The closer you are, the higher the smoke (Covid particle) concentration, but If someone’s been smoking in a closed room with you for hours; without proper air exchange, neither 3’ or 6’ away from them will help you. The air must be cleaned. Never heard of a Corsi box- seems like a good idea.

Delta variant demands changes to school-reopening plans, Minnesota expert says Minnesota kids are returning to school with COVID-19 in a dangerous stage. Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, thinks we should stop arguing about masks, start paying attention to air filtration (HEPA filters, please)—and prepare ourselves for outbre...

I’m so very glad to hear seasoned medical professionals having open discussion, from the vantage point of their expertise, about how to improve our treatment of Covid, as science gives us more information & data.

8 prominent doctors & scientists engage in a remarkable exchange A great discussion by these doctors and scientists

I had heard that mothers with large families tend to live long lives. It always surprised me. I would have thought all those pregnancies would have been hard on a woman’s body and the opposite would be true- it would shorten their lives.
I figured maybe the longevity was God’s comp time for the sacrifice of pregnancy.
Here’s the scientific theory behind it. A mother’s body protects her fetus and a fetus’s cells protect the mother, not only during the pregnancy but benefiting her for years to come.

“When pregnant, the cells of the baby migrate into the mothers bloodstream and then circle back into the baby, it’s called “fetal-maternal microchimerism”.⁠

For 41 weeks, the cells circulate and merge backwards and forwards, and after the baby is born, many of these cells stay in the mother’s body, leaving a permanent imprint in the mothers tissues, bones, brain, and skin, and often stay there for decades. Every single child a mother has afterwards will leave a similar imprint on her body, too.

Even if a pregnancy doesn't go to full term or if you have an abortion, these cells still migrate into your bloodstream.

Research has shown that if a mother's heart is injured, fetal cells will rush to the site of the injury and change into different types of cells that specialize in mending the heart.

The baby helps repair the mother, while the mother builds the baby.

How cool is that?

This is often why certain illnesses vanish while pregnant.

It’s incredible how mothers bodies protect the baby at all costs, and the baby protects & rebuilds the mother back - so that the baby can develop safely and survive.

Think about crazy cravings for a moment. What was the mother deficient in that the baby made them crave?

Studies have also shown cells from a fetus in a mothers brain 18 years after she gave birth. How amazing is that?”

If you’re a mom you know how you can intuitively feel your child even when they are not there….Well, now there is scientific proof that moms carry them for years and years even after they have given birth to them.

I find this to be so very beautiful.

Great Basin National Park is one of the darkest spots in the United States. What better time to appreciate this park's clear night sky, then on International Day of Clean Air?

Good air quality coupled with a lack of light pollution give visitors majestic starry views of Wheeler Peak. On clear, moonless nights at Great Basin, thousands of stars, numerous planets, star clusters, meteors, man-made satellites, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Milky Way can be seen with the naked eye.

The area boasts some of the darkest night skies left in the country. Low humidity, good air quality, and minimal light pollution, combined with high elevation, create a unique window to the universe.

Photo by John Vermette (sharetheexperience.org)

“What does a mask do? Blocks respiratory droplets coming from your mouth and throat. Two simple demos: First, I sneezed, sang, talked & coughed toward an agar culture plate with or without a mask. Bacteria colonies show where droplets landed. A mask blocks virtually all of them.” -Dr. Richard Davis, Clinical Microbiology Lab Director, from sister organization, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington.