Our reactions to colors are often deeply rooted and can be significant when we are intuitively connected to how colors makes us ‘feel’.
A certain color has the ability to ease your frazzled nerves, motivate and empower you to take action, and also to bring healing and soothing energy when you need it.
Pink is my favorite color. Well at least it was for most of my life. Now I am enJOYing purple a lot more. Many years ago I tapped into the power of color and how it made me feel. I am quite in sync with using colors in my life to lift my spirits and to shift my frequency and to also heal areas that need healing.
Today is about pink though. They say pink is the color of JOY and universal mother love and I believe this to be true. When you need more JOY in your life or you are trying to transform a negative situation to one that is more loving, try adding pink into your life. I recently went to a friend’s birthday party and they had pink cups, plates, decorations, etc. and my heart lifted and smiled as soon as I arrived and saw them.
Pink is a gentle and JOYous color. Pink is also a transformational color. It can transmute dark and heavy vibrations and feelings,and provide a motherly, soothing, energy to a situation.
I have many ways that I use color in my life and work. Here is one example. As I write this blog post, here are today’s tools ….my pens. Today there are pink and purple pens. Some days there are silver, turquoise or lavender or all of the above. 🙂 My pens and their colors help me to create. They are a part of the artist in me and I see them as magical enhancements to my life’s work. 🙂
I hope you look at colors in a whole new light and that you use them to bring you JOY, to transform, to heal, and to create beauty in your life.
Today I will share some more in-depth information about fevers that you may find interesting and hopefully useful.
A fever (pyrexia) can be a response to:
. endogenous pyrogens which are fever causing chemicals produced in the body
. infection
. bacteria
. exercise (a fever is a normal reaction)
. dehydration (a fever indicates this is a serious problem)
Basically it is an immune response.
Yesterday I wrote about the miracle of fevers and for good reason. The fever helps to heal you. However, the inability to strike a fever in response to an infection is a sign of weakness and debility. People with serious illnesses like AIDS or Cancer often do not have enough bodily strength to strike a fever. This is also common with the elderly and makes diagnosing serious illnesses in the elderly more difficult.
As for children and fevers according to a report published in the journal Pediatrics:
“Fever retards the growth and reproduction of bacteria and viruses, enhances neutrophil production and T-lymphocyte proliferation, and aids in the body’s acute-phase reaction… Most fevers are of short duration, are benign, and may actually protect the host. Data show beneficial effects on certain components of the immune system in fever, and limited data have revealed that fever actually helps the body recover more quickly from viral infections…”
A very interesting thing about the body when it comes to fevers is that digestion slows dramatically when the body spikes a fever. Food tends to ferment and putrefy so the best protocol is to fast, rest and drink plenty of fluids.And of course, monitor, monitor, monitor. You want the fever to run its course and do its job but if it starts to spike too high, it needs to be addressed immediately.
The optimal range for a fever to do its job is between 99 and 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Always seek proper medical attention if a fever starts to spike higher than this. For more guidelines around this here is a good and informative link:
In closing I cannot stress enough the power of rest. Whether you are fighting a cold, fever, or the flu, rest, rest, rest! Support your body in supporting you. 🙂
Maggie Holbik.com is a Board Certified Nutritionist, Registered Nutritional Practitioner, Natural Nutrition Clinical Practitioner and Certifed Life Coach who loves sharing information about wellness of body, mind and spirit.
“Fever, for instance, is an inflammatory response to an overgrowth of a bacteria or virus. The body, in its wisdom, knows that bacteria and viruses can survive only in a very narrow temperature range. Elevating the core body temperature by as little as one or two degrees can make the body completely inhospitable to the invading organisms. “
Judith Boice, N.D.
Although high fevers can be dangerous and need to be monitored and perhaps one may even need to seek medical attention, I am forever amazed at how people try to suppress fevers. They are doing their job! They are trying to burn off infection and heal you! The fever is not the enemy. The underlying pathogen is the enemy and cause of the fever.
As the quote states even one or two degrees variation in body temperature can do the job! Fevers are amazing!!!
Personally, I have gratitude for my body when it develops into a fevered state, when necessary. I thank it for doing its job to protect me and to burn off what it needs too… just like boiling water will burn off pathogenic microbes. So I therefore don’t try to ‘stop’ the fever, I let it run its course, do its job, all while I monitor to make sure it does not get ‘too high’.
I hope you found this helpful. I found it interesting that fever is a form of inflammation. 🙂
Maggie Holbik.com is a Board Certified Nutritionist, Natural Nutrition Clinical Practitioner and a Registered Nutritional Therapist. Maggie is also a Certified Life Coach and Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer & Coach who loves to share helpful information and to inspire others.
In many parts of the world it’s back to school time and that means more colds, flues and other nasty bugs.
Sniffles, sneezes, and gastrointestinal bugs creep into our kid’s lives and affect all of us. Many parents assume that colds, flu, and other common illnesses are simply part of the curriculum when they send their children off to school or daycare. That’s not surprising since some kids can “catch” 5 to 10 colds per year but yet there are others we get through with a lot less. Prevention is the key here.
What are some things you can do to help lessen the threat of these intruders?
There are many, but a few that are my top favorites are:
1) Sleep! Not getting enough sleep can suppress the immune system and increase the odds of catching a cold or the flu. People who are sleep deprived develop fewer antibodies and are more prone to chronic inflammation.
Set up a regular bedtime and stick to it! Routine is very helpful for children and sleep allows time for the body to clean up intercellular waste, rest, rejuvenate, heal, and restore resources. Sleep is absolutely vital for children’s health and ours!
2)Washing Hands Frequently!
Lathering up is one of the simplest ways to prevent sharing pathogens. Most upper respiratory viruses are spread by direct contact and something as simple as sneezing into your hand and then touching a doorknob, desk,computer keyboard, or phone could spread the bugs. In turn touching all of those things means kids need to wash their hands often to remove these pathogens. Supporting Article
What’s the best way to wash up? Just lathering up with good old-fashioned soap and water will do the trick and most importantly doing it often. Teach your kids to wash their hands and to make it a habit. For example my daughter is now in the habit of not only washing her hands before meals but also when we come home from shopping or other events. As soon as we arrive home, we wash our hands.
3. Nutrition
See food as medicine. We all know it is often tough to get kids to stay on course with health eating so if we see it like a game of trying to get more nutrition in than the negative nutrition we can work at tipping the scales in favor of our children’s health.
It it is also a good idea to teach our children to listen to their bodies and monitor how they feel after eating certain foods. In this way they can tap into what the body intuitively knows is beneficial for it or what foods burden it and make it sluggish.
Here is a former blog post I wrote on kids and dehydration but it applies to nutrition as well. There are lots of useful tips in here and I encourage you to enJOY this post as well. Link to Dehydration Post
4. Stress
Lower your child’s stress load. Stress comes in many forms. For example video games can cause stress. Too much screen time and stimulation can cause stress. Arguing in front of your children causes them extreme stress!
Help your child to lower their stress levels by spending time in nature with them, unplugging, reading books, reassuring them that the world is a friendly place and that they are loved.
Another thing that helps lower your children’s stress load is by making sure YOU are happy in your life and that you are doing things to support yourself. In life we all want to see our loved ones content and children are no different. If they see their parents as resentful or burdened they feel it. Be sure to teach them that happiness is important and that it is a choice. Choose Happy always! 🙂
5. Supplementing
With all of the toxins we are exposed to, the lack of nutrients in our soils, the presence of heavy metals in our environment and in the world, and the inability to eat adequate amounts of plant based foods on a daily basis, it is mandatory in my opinion, that children supplement with a good multi vitamin as well as a good source of Vitamin C to keep them on top of their immune game. Other supplements that are important as well are Zinc, Selenium, Omega III’s and Probiotics.
As a Board Certified Nutritionist I work will many sources of supplements and I would be happy to make individual recommendations to anyone who reaches out to me. I will though share here for everyone, my favorite kid and adult friendly source of Vitamin C that is delivered in an Isotonic form.
I hope you have found this helpful and useful. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
Maggie Holbik.com is a Board Certified Nutritionist and Certified Life Coach who also runs a Facebook Page to support Parents. If you would like to follow along there, here is the Moms For Kids FB
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