After a long break from hosting, I'm honored to host this week's Carnival of Healing #111: Pathway to Conscious Wellness.

In order to create full-spectrum healing, I believe we need to make changes both inside and out. Changing the diet, exercise and life style is important, but eliminating stress and self-defeating beliefs is also critical in promoting healing. It takes self-awareness and conscious choice to make these changes.

In reviewing the posts submitted this week, I found the common theme of conscious wellness. Some posts address the process of transforming limiting beliefs. I've always said that self-awareness is the first step to change. When you can acknowledge and accept what is, you can then make a conscious choice to change it.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, there are a couple posts that remind us to focus on being grateful for what we have in our lives, including the ability to learn & reinvent ourselves.

There are a few posts offering home remedies and I decided to file them under self-empowering options. I call them self-empowering, because when you can take an active role in the decision-making and treatment of your own dis-ease, or better yet, when you have the tools and the power to make yourself better, it's very liberating and empowering. I'm speaking from my personal experience. Last year I was in a lot of pain due to herniated discs in my neck and lower back. I went to physical therapy, neck traction, trigger point injections, chiropractic care for months, and the pain would always come back within days, or even hours after treatments. I was frustrated and depressed. When the MD offered me painkillers, I walked away, knowing long-term use of these medications will damage my kidney (I only have one) and liver. I went to acupuncture instead, and for the first time in months, I felt hope. Later, I was introduced to therapeutic-grade essential oils, and the oils helped me relieve the pain as well as stress & emotional blocks. Having the tools at my disposal made me feel empowered. I'm overjoyed to be able to live pain-free and resume my martial arts training. Anyway, that's a long explanation of why I decided to put home remedies in the self-empowering options category.

Then, there are some entries in the EnJoy category because they made me smile. I firmly believe the power of laughter in promoting health & healing. That's why these posts are an important part of this carnival.

Here are the 29 entries of this week's edition. Enjoy!


Conscious Change

Alex at The Next 45 Years wrote a thought-provoking post 10 Things You Wish You Have Never Learned. Some of my favorites: "I wish I had never learned that I’m not worthy to have what I want", "I wish I had never learned that speaking up for my needs was a waste of time", and "I wish I had never learned that I wasn’t enough."

Lola wrote about how to lose the guilt (part I) posted at Real World Spiritual and Personal Development. Great analysis of why we have guilt. Looking forward to reading more in part 2 of this series.

A second post from Lola teaches us How to Make Personal Spiritual Development Impact Your Career and Business, suggesting "making work an extension of you".

Isabella Mori at Change Therapy brought up some great points to ponder in her post Time to Eat or Time to Feel. It's about being mindful about how you choose to use your time - to eat, to feel, or do anything else.

Daylle Deanna Schwartz at Lessons from a Recovering DoorMat teaches us how to Turn a Negative to Positive with Just a Thought. She wrote, "When you believe that a bad outcome is inevitable, it is. When you refuse to accept it no matter what circumstances suggest, you open yourself to more positive results."

Carole G. McKay at McKay Today presents A Friend in Deed. She wrote, "The Native Americans of Southern Arizona are now embarking upon remembering what was once common knowledge and common practice to their culture. Earth is our ally and benefactor. If we treat her with the respect She deserves, She will in turn sustain us in a healthy and life-supporting manner."

Matthew Spears at Loving Awareness reminds us of That Childlike State, and Love. He lists qualities such as vulnerability, harmony, a sense of perpetual wonder, exploration beyond "right" and "wrong", learning through play, and trust. Don't forget to let your inner child come out and play!

Ian Welsh at The Agonist argues that the government should take a more socially responsible approach in regulating food prices, so that we can all have more affordable, healthy foods. It's in a post titled Why Eating Healthy Foods Costs More Than Eating Junk.

James DeLelys at New Books share a few tips of distinguish between Truth or Lie.

Gal Josefsberg at 60 IN 3 urges us to Break Away from Stress, saying "I think even exercise fans like myself need to know that sometimes, taking a break and appreciating the world around us is the healthiest thing we can do."

Tupelo Kenyon at Tupelo Kenyon.com presents Persistence and Perseverance for Winners – Losers Just Quit, saying "Giving up is easy. Most people make a habit of giving up. In fact, they make a life of it Persistence through a solution-oriented attitude is for visionaries, dreamers and other winners who refuse to take 'no' for a final answer."

Chris at Martial Development emphasizes that Hagakure: The Way of the Warrior is Forgiveness. He gave a historical introduction of Bushido, and concludes that "Even a warrior—especially a warrior—should master the art of repaying cruelty with kindness. Forgiveness of minor insults, attacks and other transgressions is the single most powerful method of de-escalation."

Lucy Baldwin at Moving Help Central shares 5 Things I Learned from Moving 17 Times. I can totally relate and agree with her great advice, since I've moved probably more than 17 times since I moved from Taiwan to US 18 years ago.

TheNourisher at Nourished Magazine presents Cancer: Disease of Civilisation, saying "After more than three decades, the "War on Cancer," declared by President Nixon in 1971, is far from won. A new cancer is diagnosed every 30 seconds. Every three minutes, two people in the US die from cancer. Considered to take over heart disease as the number one killer, it will take one if 5 lives. What are we doing to cause such an epidemic?" Good question! Read this post to find out.

Romeo Vitelli at Providentia argues that "few lessons seemed to have been learned from the World War I experience" about post-traumatic stress disorder. Read about the history in Shell Shocked, Part 2.

Carole Fogarty at The Healthy Living Lounge asks "Are your energy levels being eaten by the sounds around you?" She reminds us to recognize and tune out negative sounds that drain our energy, and consciously choose to include nourishing sounds in your daily life.

Jeni at Savvy Skin reminds us that Secondhand Smoke Sucks! Obviously, secondhand smoke raises your risk of lung cancer. But, do you know it also damages your skin?


Self-empowering Options

For many women, "that special time of the month" presents a host of uncomfortable or even unbearable symptoms. Aparna at Beauty and Personality Grooming shares with us many Home Remedies for PMS, including yoga poses, breathing exercises, meditation, herbs, acupressure/reflexology, etc.

David at Ambitiously Inquisitive presents various Home Remedies for Acne Scars, using many kitchen staples such as lemon, honey and cucumbers. I know it's for your face, but these sound yummy! :)

Anmol Mehta at Mastery of Meditation, Enlightenment & Kundalini Yoga introduces Healthy Ayurvedic Diet To Burn Fat & Lose Weight, saying "Using the wisdom of Ayurveda, the ancient Eastern science of self healing, to determine diet in order to reduce weight naturally and be healthy."

Michelle Moquin asks the question "What's in Your Cosmetics?" posted in A Day in the Life of... You might be pretty shocked to find out how toxic your cosmetics and skin care could be. She has listed the "Dirty Dozen" ingredients, so be sure to check your cosmetics' labels.

Jimmy Atkinson at Medical Tourism Guide offers 100 Little Tips to Help You Live to 100 in areas such as diet, exercise, mental health, preventive care, lifestyle & safety.

Sol Lederman at Wild About Math! presents EFT Clears Math Phobia. EFT is a powerful energy and belief shifting technique, which often requires "peeling an onion" process to uncover layers of emotions at the root cause. Sol gives a detailed introduction of EFT as well as possible emotional layers of math phobia.

Arun at Arun is Bringing You...Your Daily Remedy presents The Power of Self Confidence with "the many ways in which self-confidence can make your life richer, and some exercises to improve your self confidence."


EnJoy

Brendan McPhillips shares a video clip of Seinfeld with the Green Day song Time of Your Life (Good Riddance). By the way, this song is also one of my personal favorite from recent years. Brendan says, "It can inspire us to not let a day slip by without trying to experience some JOY!" You have to see it for yourself at Brendan McPhillips.com.

Madeleine Begun Kane at Mad Kane's Humor Blog shares some Possibly Good, Albeit Annoying Advice in a limerick.


Gratitude

Daniel Brenton at Words to Heal offers "some reflections on being grateful we have the ability to learn, and that we can learn those things that will make the rest of our lives worthwhile." Enjoy the poem and encouraging words in "I Am Grateful I Can Learn".

Judy Lubin at Heart and Style Woman presents Gratitude: The Key to Greater Health and Happiness. She offers these tips to build your gratitude practice: Here are few ways to build your gratitude practice: Say a prayer of thanks each morning, keep a gratitude journal, light a candle, pause and bring your hands to your heart, reflect on three good things that happened at the end of each day, send a thank you note.

Tina Su at Think Simple. Be Decisive presents "Attitude of Gratitude: 5 Tools for Appreciation". The tools she offers are Gratitude Journal, Gratitude Rock, Gratitude Beads, Wheel of Gratitude, and Gratitude Diet.

This concludes this week's Carnival of Healing. A heartfelt Thank You to everyone who participated in this week's Carnival. You can find last week's carnival at REIKISHARE. Next week the Carnival of Healing will be at Tarot Blog. Don't forget to submit your post.

Until next time, please take good care of yourself. You are irreplaceable.

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