This year I’ve been making a real effort to get green and live green in every way.  When my clothes dryer conked out I got a new, super-energy efficient washer and dryer.  The front loading washer uses just 14 gallons of water per load, compared to the top loading washer’s 40 gallons of water per load!  But you don’t have to go to the expense of new appliances to make a difference in the laundry room.  In warm weather, it’s nice to dry clothes the “old fashioned” way right outside on the line.  You can also quit buying fabric softener and dryer sheets!  Did you know that most fabric softeners are full of phthalates, chloroform, camphor and other chemicals that can cause damage to our systems?  These fumes are released through the dryer vent, and the substances from the dryer sheets stick to our clothes!  Yuck!  The solution: dryer balls!  These are terrific.  And they’re a huge money-saver, too, because they last just about forever.  A couple of these spiky rubber balls bounce around the dryer, separating out the clothes so that you don’t get that nasty static cling, and clothes are soft and less wrinkly.  Sometimes the simple solutions are really the best.

Vanilla is a popular fragrance in perfumes and bath products.  It is warm and sweet, sensual and yet innocent.  It has a reputation as an aphrodisiac, since back in the 1700’s vanilla was often prescribed by physicians to ensure male potency.  Thomas Jefferson is said to have brought vanilla to the United States when he returned from France in 1789.  Soon after that, vanilla was used to fragrance perfumes and tobacco.  Vanilla extract hit the market in the late 1800’s and that made it easy to use in the home.  Women often dabbed a bit on their wrists, or behind their ears.  Recently Chicago’s Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation studied the effect of various fragrances and found that mature men were most aroused by the scent of vanilla.  So now science has proven what we’ve all suspected all along , vanilla may be subtle, but it’s powerful when it comes to love and romance!

I’ve always been interested in the power that our dreams seem to have.  I have a “Dream Dictionary” in my nightstand drawer so that I can analyze some of the more interesting, or absurd, dreams that I have at times!  Our dreams often speak to us, helping us to solve problems and give us direction.  Robert Moss has written a new book called: “The Three Only’ Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination.”  Here’s what he has to say about dreaming: “Fundamentally, dreaming is less about sleep than about waking up. In much of waking life we go about like sleepwalkers, propelled by routines and other people’s agendas. In dreams, we wake up to the bigger story. The ancient Egyptians, who knew a lot about dreams, recognized this in their language. In ancient Egyptian, the word for dream is rswt, which means an awakening’.”

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1577315960?tag=brightideaspr-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1577315960&adid=1KN2T3PWDR1RXXSQWB5E&

The word “honey” comes from ancient Hebrew meaning “enchant.”  Honey is used as a sweetener for food and drinks, but it also has many healing properties.  “Apitherapy” is treatment with honey, and it can be used to replenish energy and enhance physical stamina.  Honey is also known to calm the mind and promote deep sleep.  Honey can relieve indigestion, and is often used to treat respiratory illnesses.  Think about how good a cup of hot tea with lemon and honey feels when you have a cough or sore throat.  And honey can also be used topically, a thin coat applied to the skin can help disinfect and heal minor skin wounds and chapped lips.  When buying honey, look for brands that have been produced by beekeepers who do not use pesticides.  There are many kinds of honey available, and the taste depends on the types of flowers from which the bees collect the nectar.  As we move into the cooler months, here’s a “recipe” for a relaxing honey bath: -Mix 2 ounces of honey in a small cup with 5 drops of lavender oil.  Stir well, then drop 2 tablespoons of the mixture under the tap to blend with warm bathwater.  Prepare for a great night’s sleep!

We are very fortunate to live in a time when great minds have the opportunity to express themselves and be heard and understood in a global arena.  This is a time, more than any other, when wisdom and knowledge can be shared. One of these great minds, who has contributed so much wisdom in his 19 published books, is Dr. Paul Pearsall.  I was lucky enough to meet Dr. Pearsall at the Maui Writer’s Conference years ago, and I was taken with his kindness, and gentleness.  I told him I was a “groupie” because I had read and loved all of his books!  One of his books, “The Heart’s Code” I refer to often because it scientifically proves how the heart “thinks.”  Dr. Paul Pearsall passed away on July 13th, 2007, two months prior to the publication of Aw: The Delights and Dangers of Our Eleventh Emotion, a book he called “his life’s work.”   Here are his own words:

If awe is such an important emotion, why is this first book to describe it?
 
Dr. Pearsall:  It’s been neglected because the pace of our modern life causes us to suffer from wide-spread ADD Awe Deficiency Disorder.  Being in awe is often something we might allow ourselves as a kind of “vacation emotion,” a brief emotional buzz when we are away from our usual toxic striving and our overwhelmed mind allows us a moment of profound awareness that there is more much, much more to life than our cluttered consciousness usually has room for.  It happens when we suddenly transition from experiencing (from the Latin meaning “to try”) to awareness (from the Greek meaning to “fully see.”). Awe has also been neglected because its complex, spontaneous, and mystical nature seems to frighten many researchers.  Until recently with the emergence of the field of positive psychology, psychology has busied itself with concerns about our negative emotions like depression and anxiety and what is worst and broken about us more than what’s best and strongest.  Studying any human emotion isn’t easy and there are many ethical considerations.  You can’t manipulate peoples emotions so you have to catch them after the fact in the field and rely on reports. Awe’ the most difficult of all of our emotions to study because you can’ put a rainbow in the laboratory or your child’ first tears of joy in test tube.  

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0757305857?tag=brightideaspr-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0757305857&adid=0EBJQXR3ZYEA20CTS4EK&

Microfinancing.  This is a relatively new term that means lending a small amount of money for someone to get a business going so that they can support themselves.  This is an amazing concept, and it really works.  But how do we find people to help?  Now there is a wonderful website, Kiva.org, that introduces us to entrepreneurs all over the world who are looking for loans.  You’ll read stories of start-up businesses in Mexico, Nigeria, Cambodia, Paraguay, and more.  The total loan amount may be for as little as $200, and yet it makes all the difference in the world to these people, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.  And, we may lend as little as $25, because all of those loans add up when more people get involved.  This is how it works:  First you scroll through the list of businesses in need, and see which one you would like to help out.  Then you make a loan using your credit card and the PayPal system.  You will hear back periodically from the business you sponsor with a progress report.  When your loan is repaid, you can either withdraw your funds or re-loan to a new business.  99% of the loans are repaid in full! This is a great way for us to help out, and make a little money go a long way. Kiva.org

We each are very visual creatures.  It shows up when we talk, with phrases like “I see what you mean,” and “what would that look like.My friend Michele found this great website which gives us some insight into our personalities based on our visual preferences.  It’s called your “Visual DNA and it’s really fun!  You just pick your favorites from a series of photos, and then the computer “analyzes” your choices and comes up with a profile.  You can also see how many other people selected the images that you did.  It’s very interesting, and it’s free!

Our bodies are made up mostly of water.  Our earth is made up mostly of water.  Water is good, and necessary, and we’ve been drinking a lot of it.  We see people carrying around the bottles like they’re a fashion accessory.  We’re healthy and hydrated.  Unfortunately, we’ve created another problem for ourselves with all of these disposable plastic water bottles.  Turns out we use more than 70 million of these bottles each day in the U.S.  To recycle the bottles requires a lot of oil, which is bad for the environment.  22 billion bottles are not recycled each year, and end up in landfills or incinerators.  It takes 1000 years for one plastic bottle to decompose.  When burned, the melting plastic releases toxic fumes that attack the ozone layer.  What’s the solution?  Drink tap water.  If you don’t like the taste of your tap water, then add a water filter.  Get a sports water bottle that can be refilled and use it when you’re driving around.  Just like with the canvas grocery bags, it’s just a matter of us getting into a new, good habit.

www.mysigg.com

When I was little I entered a poster contest.  The theme was “pollution” and we could choose any kind of pollution we wanted to protest.  I chose Noise Pollution.  It was bad back then, but it’s really bad now.  The Center for Disease Control estimates that 5.2 million children ages 6 to 19 have some degree of hearing loss in at least one ear, caused by noise.  50 million adults (like me!) suffer from tinnitus, a ringing in the ears that is often caused by loud or excessive noise.  Noise also ups our anxiety levels, raises our blood pressure, and disturbs our sleep.  Here are some things we can do about reducing the noise in our lives:

Listen at 50% volume.  Don’t turn it all the way up!  Especially when you have ear buds or ear phone that are directing the sound right into your ear you just don’t need to hear it that loud.

2.  Keep noisy toys away from baby’s sensitive ears.

3.  At the movies, or even in the gym, position yourself near the back-middle of the room, away from the speakers.  At a concert, wear ear protection.  Foam ear buds can cut out a lot of the volume and you can still hear the music.

4.  When using power tools, or a lawn mower, protect your ears with foam ear plugs or ear muffs.  Don’t listen to music while using the vacuum, that only doubles your exposure to noise.

5.  When flying, use noise-canceling headphones.  I bring mine on every flight, it makes a huge difference!

In a relationship, you have a chance to see each other’s quirks and idiosyncrasies.  And as you spend more time together, those same quirks that you thought were so charming in the beginning may start to get on your nerves.  When you say something about it, or try to change something about your partner, it only makes things worse.  Or if you don’t say something, and just stew about it, resentment builds up.  So what do you do?  Here are some ideas:

Remember that whatever you pay attention to increases.  Instead of focusing on the things you don’t like, or have a problem with, focus on all the things you love, those good qualities.

2.  Practice acceptance.  When you switch off judgment and instead accept your partner “as is,” then you grow closer, and more intimate.

3.  De-stress.  Take a deep breath.  Usually you’ll find that what’s really bothering you is not your partner but the stress you’ve built up throughout the day.  Meditate together, stretch, take a walk.  To remind myself of this I made a T-shirt that says: “Less Moaning, More Om-ing.”

4.  Mind your manners.  Remember that you love this person.  Be kind.  Say “please,” and “thank you.”  Give hugs and say “I love you,” often!