You are currently browsing the daily archive for July 30th, 2007.
One of the things I’ve been reflecting on is developing the quality of self-control. I realized a few weeks ago that self-control is the key quality that I need my children to develop at this time, to decrease the amount of hitting and pushing going on.
But the fact that my kids are not learning self-control easily made me take a deeper look at myself and wonder where in my life do I need more self-control? I realized that for myself, when I watch TV, I usually want to eat junk food and usually have very little self-control to stop myself. This in turn contributes to my yeast infections.
But when I am in a creative space, I have a lot of self-control. I don’t crave junk food. I am focused, relaxed and have a lot of concentration. For me, this usually means doing art.
So bringing this back to my kids, I have noticed that they are exactly the same. When they are in a creative mental space, they have a lot of self-control. So I have been attempting to help them into this space when they have lost self-control, and have had quite a lot of success. For example, my (almost) 4 year old daughter usually loses it shortly after dinner and before bedtime. But the nights I remember to help her into a creative space, like pulling out the playdough for her, then she zones right in and can focus and has a lot of concentration. Then self-control becomes a non-issue.
There are still bits of the yeast infection that are lingering around for me, and that’s why I’ve really come to realize that the physical healing will only be complete when it is combined with the spiritual and emotional healing. So I still have a lot of emotional work to clear, in order to rebalance my body’s yeast.
From You Can Heal Your Life, the probable emotional cause for a yeast infection is denying your own needs, not supporting yourself, feeling very scattered, lots of frustration and anger, demanding and untrusting in relationships, great takers, stagnating beliefs, refusal to release the past or letting the past rule today.
The new thought pattern (affirmation) is: I now choose to support myself in loving, joyous ways. I give myself permission to be all that I can be, and I deserve the very best in life. I love and appreciate myself and others. I live in the present moment, joyous and free.
This is known by many names: thrush, yeast, candida, fungus and can take over in various parts of the body. Usually in infants it’s in the mouth (then transferred to the mother’s nipples from breastfeeding – ouch!) or as a fungal diaper rash. It can be manifested in females as vaginal itchness or take over the intestines and create a lot of indigestion. It can to go the bladder and create bladder infections, or move to the toes and create athlete’s foot. It can also move up to the milk ducts and create plugged ducts or mastitis.
This is such a tough thing to deal with, but actually extremely common. I’ve had an overgrowth of yeast in my body since I was pregnant with Diego and it’s been a slow road to recovery. In the process I’ve learned a lot from reading every book I could find about it. I found the Yeast Connection books especially helpful and easy to read. Also the book Power Healing (previously called The Four Pillars of Healing) introduced me to a lot of new ideas about nutrition and healing. I went onto a strict Candida diet for about 8 months and now primarily try to limit cheese, bread and sugar. I also make sure to take omega oils everyday (which most North Americans are hugely deficient in). I usually use essential balance 3-6-9 because they’re the cheapest of the good quality ones that I’ve found, but of course if you want the best (and can afford it), you need Udo’s Choice. Check out his website here about why you need them.
Nystatin and Dyflucan are the usual treatments from doctors, but without some lifestyle or dietary changes, these antifungal drugs usually do not have a lasting effect. There are a lot of other herbs and homeopathic rememdies that I’ve tried. Grapefruit seed extract has helped me the most as well as Acidophilus and Bifidophilus. These two “friendly bacteria” strains are two of several other strains that reside in the small and large intestines and help to maintain a positive yeast balance in the body. These friendly bacteria are destroyed when you take antibiotics, so you have to replace them in some way. Yogurt sometimes carries one strain of acidophilus. There are so many other herbal remedies, but the thing that’s helped me the most is a couple of visits to a Chinese doctor who helped clear most of the infection for me.
