Consider ~ Unconditioning

I don't know about you, but I've been conditioned by society to buy products that I now believe might be making me sick. I'm so conditioned that I recently spent about $50 on 'health care and beauty' products that just don't work.

When I got my hair cut last month I bought the shampoo they used. I'm not exactly sure why I bought it, other than I thought it smelled good. But what I found was that after two weeks of using it my hair felt like it was coated with wax. I stopped using it and went back to my cheap shampoo, but even it couldn't get that waxy residue out of my hair.

A few days after I bought the shampoo I, ashamedly, was watching some daytime show where they said that Oil of Olay Regenerous was the best thing they had ever used. I tried it, and for a couple of days it really did work, at least I thought. There were two problems with it, though. The first is that if I missed a day my wrinkles returned. The second was that it turned my face bright red.

Since then I've tried a couple of new things. I decided since washing my hair wasn't making it clean, I was going to stop washing it. You heard me right! I stopped washing my hair.

Instead I now do the following, referred to as No-poo in this article.

• I get into the shower and get my hair soaked, dripping wet.
• I take about 1-2 Tbs. of baking soda and dissolve it into 1-2 cups of warm water.
• I then lean over upside down and pour half of the solution into the underside of my hair, and work it in really good, then stand up and pour the rest on my scalp.
• I work this solution into my hair very, very good, then lightly rinse it with warm water.
• Then I take about 1/2 c of APPLE CIDER (very important) vingar and add it to 1 cup of warm water.
• I pour the vinegar water on my hair and let it set for a few, using my fingers to work through it very well. If it doesn't get all the way to the underside of my hair, I mix up another cup and bend over and rinse it from the back of my neck to my scalp.
• Finally I rinse first with a bit of warm (never hot) water, and finish it with cold rinse.

This has made my hair so healthy I can't even tell you how much it has helped my attitude, and my hair dries quickly without drying out and my flat iron has gotten cleaner rather than coated with oils.  

If I want to add fragrance, I can use one drop of essential oil, rubbed between my palms and then use my hands to finger comb my dry hair.  It smells GOOD!

I've gone back to using baking soda to washing my face with baking soda and occasionally adding either grapefruit seed extract or a citrus essential oil to help deep clean.  I'm going to try using coconut oil as a moisturizer.  I'll let you know how that goes.

It's funny, the more little changes I make the less I feel conformed to the patterns of this earth.  I feel free!  

I will continue my unconditioning.  I want to start making my own laundry detergent, try cleaning with my essential oils and just see how fresh my house can be!  I also want to move more and more away from watching TV, especially the daytime talk shows that are quickly turning into infomercials.   

The Bible says we can't serve to masters.  This means we can't try to live like the world and still be the full person God created us to be.  The less time I spend "in the world" and the more time I spend "in the Word" the easier I find change to be.

Consider ~ Transformation

The last couple of weeks have been a wild ride. In all honesty somewhere along the way I sort of fell off the wagon. I went to Wyoming for the first time in six years to visit with family and mostly to celebrate my Granny's 106th birthday. In some ways this was an extremely good trip. I seemed to be able to stay in the car without my ankles swelling and made the whole round trip with no serious pain issues, so I do think the Diatomaceous Earth (DE) has helped with the inflammation. Emotionally I did pretty well, with the exception of the occasional tearing up and realizing this in all likelihood will be the last time I ever see my Granny, and the fact she no longer knows who I am. I was mentally prepared for that possibility, but not really expecting the wide range of emotions that came with the whole visit. One thing I did realized is exactly how much I have changed over the last six years. I think back to my Granny's 100th birthday party where I was constantly on the verge of tears for no apparent reason, as she was still healthy as a horse and I figured I'd see her dozens of times before she passed. The tears came from a lifetime of suppressed emotions that were just starting to surface with the recovery process. I remember for the first time in my life allowing myself to feel a broad set of emotions like anger, frustration, joy, fear, etc. But it was so overwhelming and I still had the guilt for feeling the way I was feeling and the shame that seemed to come along with it. This visit was different. I had such a peace and quiet confidence. I could look at my family like an outsider, but still felt connected. I could see their pain, fears, anger, frustration and confusion. I could understand it and have empathy, but I didn't take it on. And yet there was a part of me that pained, because I know most of their suffering, whether they realize it or not, is self inflicted. They have been trained to pain. I have been transformed to peace. I still have so far to go in my recovery. Although I've worked through many of the ACA issues, there are still a couple that still haunt me. One is the tendency to self-sabotage, which for some reason I did the week I came back, or at least I thought that is what I was doing. I started eating white breads again and craving candy and soda. I thought at first it really had something to do with the stress, but then I realized it has more to do with addiction. You see, I had to drive 17 straight hours there, stayed two days and then drove 17 straight hours home. I had less that 12 hours total sleep for the three nights I was there (although the quality of the sleep was very good). To keep we away I turned to my old friend, Dr. Pepper. Although I didn't drink any pop while there, I did drink a few glasses on the trip both ways. And that kicked in my extreme sugar and caffeine cravings again. So I realized something about transformation. It has to be complete. You can't have the occasional indulgence of some things and expect to continue to move forward. It's not really about denying yourself in the sense of saying you can never indulge. Rather it's the considering before you indulge of how it will effect your short term progress. I didn't really consider that just a few glasses of pop would make me crave sugar so badly. It's like a drug to me. Which makes me go back to why it was so hard for me to transform my life when I lived close to my family. I tried a few times, but then I would get around my family and go right back into the same co-dependent patterns. For me to transform I needed to move away and even isolate completely from my family for a short period of time so I could transform my mind into a new way of thinking. I truly am not who I was in 2006. And I hope in 2018 I will be even closer to who God created me to be! I'm praying today that God will transform my mind, my body and my spirit to conform to His will. I know my family saw change in me as far as attitude. I still messed up a bit, but I'm so much better than I used to be. The next time I visit my family I want my body and spirit to be so transformed that they will want the change, too. Dear God, please show me what to do now. please open up my heart, mind and soul to absorb your Word. I pray this in Jesus name, amen.