Energy Fields, Energy Leaks & the Human Body

I get asked lots of questions on my market stall and through emails, texts and messages…..many of those are about my understanding and extensive work with the human energy field.

The energy field is one of the areas I have been looking into for most of my life in an effort to make sense of exactly what is taking place in and around us (especially those who are walking a spiritual path) and of course to learn how to work with it more effectively.

You probably know about my book Closing the Energy Leaks© or ‘Windows’ as we like to call it, and how in this book I explore the ways and means our energy fields are functioning or not at this point in time.

I wrote this book to help myself and others with their own work on their own energy fields - as it is an often mis-understood aspect and function of our lives here.

My biggest discovery so many years ago when I was first studying human energy fields was how we are all oozing energy from pretty much every part, organ, system and function of our body. We have arrived at this crossroad on our journey on this planet in fairly poor energetic condition – for the most part!

To explain this a little more here is an excerpt from my book; Closing the Energy Leaks©;

‘Therefore, leaking energy from the energy field is possible once the energy field has been damaged in some way. Anything that harms the body (poor food & water, medication) mind (trauma) and spirit (bullying) will equally impair function of the energy field.

An energy leak allows for an energy loss, parts of you actually go out through the open ‘window’ (rip, hole or tear) and become lost, stolen, hurt, and broken. When we start closing these holes, energy leaks or as I call them windows (because this is easy to visualize), the things taken on from others start to dislodge and can be lifted off, and then the parts of ourselves that have been given away, lost or stolen, can be reclaimed.

What also, starts to happen, is that you begin to re-form your own higher consciousness, as an individual within the larger framework of the universe and disengage from the control of the over-mind.’ 

Do not discount the part your energy field plays in your overall health and well-being – it is a vital part of the whole.

April

*****Closing the Energy Leaks is available on Kindle or directly from April Danann & on the market stall each week

100 Days - What is Life?

What is life exactly?

I’ve come to realize that LIFE is not only what is taking place outside of us, around us, with us and to us – it should be equally (perhaps more so?) inside of us. And for me, for a very long time, if ever at all – there was little life to be lived on the inside.

My gut had ‘dead-spots’, it was leaky, and generally non functioning in the appropriate ways to sustain life. By that I mean – there were not enough beneficial organisms helping me digest food, extract nutrients and make vitamins. 

Over the years I have seen more and more people with these dead areas in their guts mostly as a result of antibiotic medication but another big culprit are birth control pills, chlorinated water, the too numerous to count chemicals in our food and the fact that our guts are not set up from birth in the first place anymore.

Our mothers cannot pass on organisms to us as babies they no longer have, not that many of us were breast fed in the past few generations but these organisms when they are available, find ways to get to and inside of us even without the breast feeding. When they are present, they will be in our environment as well.

It appears as if entire species of gut flora have simply died off inside of our guts and are no longer to be found in the modern human.

For quite some time people have been aware of these facts (antibiotic use is deadly in so many ways) and they have been taking steps to get their probiotic flora back on track and literally regrow  damaged gut biofilm….however I am not convinced we are doing enough nor are these always the right kind of organisms that are needed to colonise our bodies. 

We have been convinced by those who manufacture these bugs that there are a narrow group of 3 or 4 types of bacterial strains and this will do the entire job of keeping us healthy, setting up our immune response, digesting food, healing and sealing the gut and to generally carry out some of the numerous other vital functions of gut flora.

I think this is entirely wrong thinking. 

We are off tract in the gut microbes department and we are paying the price with poorer health, more chronic dis-ease and a complete inability to protect ourselves from ordinary (read necessary) viruses and bugs that have co-evolved alongside humanity for millennium. 

So what to do about all of this?

One place to start is to grow a garden. Get your hands dirty, then eat some real raw foods that you’ve had a hand in producing. Next, take some of those raw foods and create kitchen magic by making sauerkrauts, kimchee, kombucha types of drinks, natural and wild yeasted foods and some of the many other alchemical processes we know can increase the presence of beneficial bacteria in and around us. 

If you want your health, body and soul back – it’s time to take back your life and that begins on the inside.

Vegetables growing in the garden......

Check out my upcoming classes on Wild Fermentation & Food Alchemy 

Juice Fast - Healing your body & Changing Your Life

I am still fasting….today is day 23 of my plan for doing 30 days this time around. It feels so good to be back to fasting – I’ve done so many shorter fasts of 2 or 4 days over this past year or so, however, my body feels like it is working at creating greater change whenever I undertake these longer fasts.

Besides all of the mental, spiritual and emotional benefits, there is no end to the physical benefits a body experiences as you fast your way to better well-being. The sheer physical changes that a person goes through each day as we detox are astounding.

Not only is my body detoxing, it is also rapidly changing out old cells, building up bacterial colonies, letting go of debris and revamping vitamin, mineral and nutrient stores. I can feel my stomach and intestines regenerating.

Because this is a juice fast, I am taking in ‘food’, but it is liquid and full of flavour. I think a true juice fast is a bit like an IV infusion….your stomach and intestines are completely empty and cleaned out. You take in liquid juice which absorbs directly into your system through that empty, unclogged stomach….

All of those vitamins and nutrients are being directed into the healing, detoxing and cleansing work that needs to be done each day of the fast. What an awesome thing to experience! I am making my own concoction of a combined fresh juice with fermented juices....truly life changing. 

Yesterday I realized I was craving meat. Of course I thought this was very strange as I have done many fasts and never, ever craved meat before. I always crave apples, grapes, onions, garlic or some other fruit and vegetables, besides, I eat very little meat and never crave it. Then I realized I was getting all of those things into me with the juice, so my mind was craving other types of foods and perhaps protein will be first on my agenda when I am done with my fast….

I am also far more aware of my skin this time around, which is exactly what I wanted….our skin contains the roots of our Energy Field, an often overlooked but extremely vital and important part of our overall health. When we nourish all of these elements of our beings we can truly enter a state of optimum health.

Looking forward to enjoying these last few days on my fast  to see what this next detox cycle brings and then on to much more,

April

Life is a bowl of fruit salad......

Juice Fast - Day 10

Today I am fasting. Actually I have been doing a juice fast of the past 10 days or so. I must say this is the easiest fast we have ever done! LOL

Each day we are making a juice – both fruits and vegetables – often with some juiced garlic, drinking about 8 ounces or so of that in the morning, then spending the rest of the day drinking herbal teas and my own fermented drinks (Rebel Juice available on my market stall). Of course we taking medicinal mushrooms, herbal teas and water as well.

How I feel is; better. Much better that I was feeling before and certainly feeling as if I am moving forward in the right direction. My goal at the outset was to not make any promises to myself, but to just start fasting, not let anything get in the way (ride the waves as they roll in) and keep going no matter what.

So far, so good.

Physically, this is easy our bodies are designed to fast and can shift into fasting mode quite easily. I love how I feel when I am fasting and fasted…clear, light, in-touch. Mentally this is a challenge, but I knew it would be. 

I’ll keep you posted on this…..should be an interesting ride….

April

Full Moon 

Fasting with a Goal - Spiritual Quest

It is now 10 June and I am just finishing up 3 x 3 days of fasting on more of the same types of drinks….this time it has been mostly on my own as the others took longer food breaks. I kind of wanted to see how I would do on my own as well, and it was better then fine.

So, today is day 8 of my planned 9 days. I refer to it as 3 x 3 because I broke this fast down into 3 day or 72 hour increments with a goal to be achieved by the end of each section of 3 days each.

Actually I started out my fast with 3 questions that I wanted answers to and treated my time as an intense spiritual quest. And you know what? It worked far better, it has been easier and I have really found some deeper insights into the issues I was searching for. 

This is what fasting is all about – set a goal (it could be health, breaking bad habits, changing something, making or creating something or any number of questions you want answers to) then follow through with the fasting all the while focusing on your task.

There really aren’t any rules when it comes to fasting. Except, you don’t eat! LOL.

One of the things I have changed this time around is I am taking in more Apple Cider Vinegar. Of course that’s easy to do when mine tastes so good (can’t beat Rebel Foods ACV!) and I am adding it in to everything I drink.

I realized I was taking the usual amount of about 2 tablespoons each day – however, during a fast/healing situation, my body was constantly craving more. So I upped it to about ½ cup to nearly 1 cup throughout the day. 

And I immediately felt the difference. My energy went up – things started to ‘move’ at a faster pace, less detox symptoms and generally brighter all round. My body simply feels even cleaner, if that is possible.

The most wonderful thing about all of this is I do feel I have turned a corner – you remember from my initial goal of wanting to completely change out my gut bacteria into healthy colonies throughout, well that is happening. 

Only over these last 10 days or so can I say I do sense a significant shift in my internal gut flora and indeed in my overall body flora. Thankfully being tuned in really helps – but you can’t help being well informed when you are fasting.

There is only you and your body - in constant contact.

Right now I am finishing this post and I have reached my 9 days goal – just a few more hours to go and see how I will feel. I plan to take a couple of eating days to feed all of these good bacteria now living in my body and then go right back to fasting for the next phase of bringing back my life….

Onwards & Upwards

April

Rebel Foods Market Stall - Apple Cider Vinegar 

Gut Bacteria Profile Change....Days 13 to 16

Day 13 to 16

We are back fasting again after a days break – back on the liquids – this week I am taking in my fermented juices (kiwi, strawberry, orange, lemon & ginger) as well as apple cider vinegar, beetroot juice and raspberry apple vinegar plus 1 - 2 tablespoons of homemade goat’s yogurt a day in the drinks. 

Well, this time the transition from eating to fasting was a little bit more difficult. But, not because I wanted to eat or anything – my mind is clearly made up on that matter and I have no desire for food at the moment. It was something else, less tangible at first.

It actually took me a couple of days to ‘readjust’ (slip back into detox mode) into fasting again after taking a little break. Which was strange – I could feel such a resistance coming from somewhere deep in my gut and it was all to familiar.

I have some interesting thoughts on all of this – and I feel we are making significant progress. 

One of the things I noticed right away was that the difficulty was coming from gut bacteria. Of course, I would probably put these bacteria in the camp of non-beneficial ones as they have been giving me grief all along (deep inflammation).

That’s the reason I need to do a bacteria change out in the first place – my gut was never set up properly from the beginning of my life. Too many antibiotics, too many infections, reactions to vaccines, drugs, solid food way too early, and toxic exposure to endocrine disruptors. 

Whew! Anything else to add to that list....sadly all to common these days.

And that’s just what I know about! All of these same bacteria (remember they are present from the first years of our lives) or their descendants are still lurking around the place. These are the exact same ones that brought me IBS symptoms, digestive issues, arthritic pain, poor skin, non-functional hormones and cancer.

Is it any wonder I want them gone? LOL

This week, what flared up for me was an old inflammation (read hospital infection MRSA) that I had many years ago. Right now I can see how these infections (there have been 4) over the years have been the source of a lot of deep rooted inflammation leading to aches, pains and general ill health. 

Hospitals are filthy places for anyone, sick or otherwise! 

Actually I am quite pleased this has come up – this has shown me how much the probiotics are doing and hopefully (finally) taking root deep within my gut. I know they have to battle the other ones first and I am giving them space to do just that, through the fasting. 

That’s what this fast is all about.

Quite a few other things have surfaced for me as well. Mostly about how much our gut flora (and skin organisms too - one and the same?) must affect our thinking, behaviour, habits, moods, cravings, energy levels, nutrient absorption, digestion, immune system and all else. 

When our guts are down – so is everything else. Including our moods, thoughts and thinking, that's the first thing we learn as Nutritionists.

There really is a link between what inhabits our guts and how we go about our days – feelings, thoughts, and perhaps all else. I have long ‘known’ this was a fact, but only now am I getting a chance to watch it and feel it shift and change as my gut does the same. 

And of course, I have been talking about ‘obesity bacteria’ for years – they are generated and sustained from all of these medications, chlorinated water, rubbish foods and chemicals we are subjected to….not the least of which are these deadly antibiotics.

Our bodies are extraordinary places, and our gut flora is a living matrix capable of amazing healing – it’s not to be tampered with, only supported! Out with the trash....LOL

April

Dandelion Coffee is fabulous for your gut health! And it tastes great too....available on my Market Stall or by mail order! 

Building A Gut Profile......Days 10 to 12 of Our Probiotic Fast

Day 10 to 12

We are now on day 13 of our fast and feeling pretty good. To be honest, most of the time I feel as if I could carry on indefinitely – I think this is what it feels like to make progress!

Now, to catch you up on what I have been doing….

Days 10 and 11, we just fasted on our fermented drinks, apple cider vinegar and beet root fermented juices. Oh, and I have increased my intake of herbal teas – now I am including a liver tonic along with the hormone balance herbs.

During my fasts is the only time I have experienced unprecedented healing/balancing/regulating of body systems. Therefore, it always makes sense to me to take in lots of herbal teas anytime I fast because you get results far more quickly. Even if only doing a day here and there, herbal tea is the way to go!

To be honest, I just find that all healing takes place at an unprecedented rate whenever I am fasting….healing a body ‘system’ such as immune, endocrine and especially the digestive tract, is much more straight forward when unimpeded by food, debris and by products of metabolism. 

Of course, our bodies heal from the top down, inside out, however, the largest fires will be put out first. So, healing takes time and continued effort on our parts. Deeper inflammation takes the longest. But, you will see improvements no matter how long the fast!

Then, for day 12 - we broke our fast again with lots of garlic with a plan to have some milky foods the next day. I keep craving milk (perhaps because we have so much of it right now!). Over these past couple of days I have been wondering about the best way to get it into my system – fermented milk products are awesome for gut bacteria especially homemade from raw milk.

So, I decided to include some dandelion coffee with our own raw goat’s milk in it, a couple times a week to also help build beneficial bacterial colonies. It tastes great (we gave up drugged coffee years ago) and dandelion has the added benefit of supporting our livers. 

BUT….did you know that dandelion root is also a prebiotic? This means it has components that feed and benefit gut bacteria in their struggle to survive. And roasted dandelion root or dandelion coffee tastes quite nice. It’s a bitter herb needed to keep things in a healthy balance. 

What I know about beneficial bacteria in our guts is that they need all sorts of different foods (raw, living, wild, cooked, sweet, bitter, sour, fibre) to nourish them. Because this is a probiotic fast, I can see and feel already how it is working.

Over these next few hours I plan on getting a little bit of milk into my system – raw and fermented in smoothies and with dandelion coffee as well as perhaps a little meat or fish. 

Meat sounds like a weird thing to include on a mini break from our liquid fast days, however, we also have gut microbes who are complete carnivores (just like my cat) and I want to feed them as well. 

Let’s keep everyone happy in there! 

Up to this point I am feeling very well. I always feel great when I am fasting and my energy levels are quite good – even for all of the detox, changeover and perhaps a bit of an immune boost that is taking place in our guts. There’s a lot of shifting and changing going on…..

April

Getting there!

A Spring Cleanse!! Day 2

Today I am fasting….it’s actually now day 2 of a spring detox I want (need) to do. I haven’t been writing very much over these past few months….well, actually I have but it’s of a different sort – mostly for the market and stuff.

But, that doesn’t mean I don’t have this need to write things down. It’s more of a record actually….I have written down so much of what has been taking place in and around me as well as my dreams over the years that I could fill many books. 

And of course, I have done exactly that!

So, getting back to my fasting. The last time we did a big fast was before Christmas and it felt so good! In the meantime, since Christmas, I have done several small and different types of fasts – things I would never have thought of before.

For instance, one week I was feeling quite off – so I did a garlic fast. Basically we just ate guacamole with large amounts of garlic (8 to 12 cloves) on very thin crackers/toast for 3 days and drank lots of water. 

It felt so good that I did it for the next 3 weeks as well. And now continue to do this for a day here and there whenever I feel I need a boost. There is something special about garlic, it uplifts and heals like nothing else. I always feel as if my thinking and my head is clearer when I take enough of it in…

Then we have had a few fasts on just my Butterfly Juice (in case you have not yet experienced Rebel Foods Market Stall Butterfly Juice – you have to make a special trip to west Cork! LOL). This is nettle, dandelions, Irish apples & ginger and it is pure heaven…..

We refer to it as ‘spring in a jar’. Including this in our fasts has been very effective for boosting energy levels, clearing skin and getting sluggish digestive systems moving properly again. And, it tastes greats too! Somedays it's all I take in and I feel it really helps with general well-being, especially suited for this time of the year. 

So….for this fast – I might incorporate nearly everything or just some of these things. I plan to take it day by day and see how we get on. At this stage we are still working on our goal – or the purpose of doing the fast in the first place. 

Also, I am learning so much more about gut bacteria this time around as well. And perhaps that is one of my aims here. I have a few questions I need answered and my body is taking me on this fabulous trip to find those answers….

I’ll keep you posted…..

April

Rebel Foods Market Stall - Butterfly Juice and Rebel Juice (fermented health tonics) 

What if everything you have been told about your body is WRONG?

What if……we were able to take a few things we ‘think’ we know about our bodies, our health and living on this planet in general and look at them a little differently?

For, instance, are we really meant to age? What if we are, but not in an accelerated falling apart, memory losing, decline that we currently face…. With most of humanity sliding into home base barely holding it all together after 70 or 80 short years? 

To age might mean something altogether different if we were living in a healthy chemical free, non-gmo body.

Maybe, our bodies are perfectly designed to seal, heal and repair quickly and efficiently. So why don’t they? Just where does this leaky gut, allergy syndrome, inflammation, chronic pain, wear and tear damage come from and why doesn’t it ‘heal’?

What is the hold up inside of our bodies and why does life take us from energetic youth into breakdown mode so quickly…..what if it’s just not supposed to be this way? 

Perhaps, we are here for a long time as well as a ‘feel’ good time. Shouldn’t we feel good, maybe great, enjoy wellness – bordering on fabulous, at least some of the time….ahhh, yes, but we must be healthy first. 

Then, just like nature outside of us, it is also in us. Therefore, our bodies are self cleaning, self regulating and perfect ecosystems of balanced life – always striving to maintain and find that inner homeostasis.

We should crave balance….

What if only water, real food (as opposed to rubbish…), herbs, fresh air and nature – is the cure for all that ails us? Using anything else just shunts the symptoms around, buries us in toxins and interferes with the healing process.

Just saying….

April

Getting On With Living….

Today I am fasting again….however, it was nice to eat loads (read way too much!) over the Christmas holidays and equally nice to be experimenting, cooking and tasting the rich seasonal foods on offer. Life really does revolve around food and eating in this house!

But, that's all behind us now, so, getting back to today. I felt is was time to get this month started for me on yet another footing (self care is paramount) and I am doing a bit of a fast. At the moment, I am not sure how long I will fast this time around. Perhaps a week or two – or maybe longer, I like to take these things one day at a time whenever I can.

Already today I had my first little detox challenge…..I started feeling achy and sinusy as if I was coming down with a cold (like the one the kids had 2 weeks ago!). And my first thought was to just go back to bed….but alas, that isn’t really an option.

I just followed my instincts (or a very strong intuition in my case) and mixed up some of my Apple Cider Vinegar into my fermented Rebel Juice and sipped on that for the rest of the morning. By the time I realized I was feeling back to myself, the juice was gone and I had been busy with all my chores around the place.

It works so quickly!

And now here I am with quite a few things done including 2 mini workouts and still marveling that I am feeling much better – and glad I never went back to bed. The moral of the story here seems to be – to never underestimate the healing power of your body when given the right ingredients.

In this case it was my own apple cider vinegar and fermented beetroot juice – it packs a powerful anti-oxidant punch as well as provides nourishing probiotics for the gut. Because our immune system is gut mediated (if your tummy isn’t working, your immune system is compromised) all we need to do is boost ourselves from the inside with beneficial organisms….

Then they do the work for us. 

When I think back to how I used to treat myself when I felt low, poorly or even completely under the weather – well, needless to say, it was a world apart from where I am today. I would often just ignore symptoms or worse, just push them down with a pain reliever and carry on.

If I have learned anything about health, healing and detox over these many years living this close to nature and in tune with my body, it’s this; when you are gentle with your body and provide natural, equally gentle means of healing, you only have to walk down this road once. 

Pushing something down or aside, simply means it will pop back up to be dealt with on another day and perhaps be far worse then what you started with.  Best to face up to whateveritis that’s around us on the day and provide our body with what it needs (nutrients, herbs, probiotics, exercise, quiet time, laughter, detox) to move forward – then we can get on with living our lives. 

And that’s what we are doing here, right?

April

Spiritual Blocks.....It's All in the Energy Field

Most of us are fairly astute when it comes to how we are feeling….even if we think we are detached and our lives are out of our control – there is always some piece that remains fully intact.

This part of us strives to maintain contact no matter what the situation or circumstances we find ourselves in. This communication is critical and extremely important….it’s the open line that saves our lives – time and again.

Here I am back to thinking about this whole concept of internal communication, it is such a vital component of our lives here on this planet. Yet so many of us find this one of our biggest challenges.

And just what is so important that we need to say it very clearly and what exactly are we saying and to whom? (Now you know what goes on in my head! LOL)

I guess for the most part, there is so much ‘not said’ that sits in the air around us, sort of free floating in our energy field. I should know….as a Medical Intuitive it’s what I do – read these words like a book.

Yet, it isn’t necessary that these messages from inside our bodies, need to be reabsorbed back into the tissues either, they can and do just hang around…however, they do need to be ‘received’ – and this appears to be the communication break down that so many of us have.

Of course when there is a disruption in communication within the internal mechanisms, this can interfere with nearly every function within the body. Not to mention our main spiritual focus right here and now – higher levels of consciousness.

In order to access this sleeping giant of greater awareness and wake it up….we need to be able to at least listen, hear and understand – very clear instructions from our bodies many internal comm ports.

In other words….our nervous system needs to be on speaking terms with our endocrine system which needs to be monitored by our immune and digestive functions….it all works together, feeding back into the whole.

The ultimate goal of our existence here on this planet is to get back to ourselves….to what we once were. To remember why we came, pick up the shattered pieces of our souls and to use this like a key to turn on our conscious selves.

The good news is; you already know how to listen – perhaps the lines just need to be cleaned….Detox anyone?

April