Mountains to Climb
When I talk about healthcare, I think of individual care and holistic care, where God is the Great Physician and Chief of Staff. But where can one find this level of care?
Individual care and holistic care are at the heart of family, friendships and community. Individual care and holistic care are what I experienced from the staff at Living Springs Retreat, AL.
I rocked on the verandah in the FRESH AIR. I sipped on WATER through my stainless steel water bottle. I sat in the SUN 15 minutes each day on the back patio. I RESTed 8 hours each night under open windows.
EXERCISE has never been more exciting, guided by the dynamic twins, Lauren and Erin. Fifteen minutes a day on the rebounder is doable.
The cooking classes, the menus, the recipes, the shopping list, the juice fasts and the twice a day vegan meals, part of a wholesome, delicious DIET, have called me to a higher work in the kitchen.
It was nice to break bread together. Barbara O’Neill loaded my plate with generous amounts of seeds, nuts, grains, legumes and vegetables and sat beside me at every meal. It warmed my heart.
The physiology lectures given by Barbara for two hours each day motivated and equipped me with opportunities to choose and improve my level of well-being.
Each afternoon, I sat in the steam sauna @ 100°F for 30 minutes, followed by a cold shower for 10 minutes and complete bedrest for 30 minutes. I disliked the steam sauna because my heat intolerance incapacitates me until my internal temperature returns to 98.6. I decided that it would be childish to refuse this treatment, especially in the hands of qualified therapists.
With Monday and Wednesday came a one hour body rub followed by the sodium bicarb body wrap treatments (Cancer is a Fungus, by Dr. T. Simoncini and The Germ that Causes Cancer by Doug Kaufman.) The massage table was prepared with a wool blanket, a plastic tarp and a second wool blanket. Barbara wrapped my chest in a hot towel soaked in sodium bicarbonate and boiling water, and repeated the process to each leg and arm. She covered each wrapped body part in black plastic bags and then my entire body in a wool blanket. I was immobile. For an hour. I was buried in hot, quicksand and I had fears to deal with, STAT.
To calm myself, I imagined I was, The Little Fruit Seller, by John Singer Sargent. I forged a new brain pathway called, in his arms I safely rest. Barbara recited Psalm 91 to me, among many other scriptures throughout the week. She said she had been memorizing scripture for 30 years.
All through the week I repeated the words, “O, taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that TRUST in him” Psalms 34:8. Memorizing scripture stimulates neurogenesis, so I’ve been told.
I tasted the 8 health laws from the Bible and they have been easy to practice. God is good.
I’m taking the knowledge I gained and the book, Self Heal by Design, by Barbara O’Neill, back home with me to my family, my friends and my community, because it’s not mine to keep.
My time here has been healing and rewarding.
§tacy §weeney, RN
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