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Happy Saint Nicholas Day!

I grew up celebrating St. Nicholas day every December 6th. It felt very special to me, because we were the only family that I knew, in the small Montana town I grew up in, that celebrated this day. We always waited with excitement for dinner, when St. Nick was bound to leave a package of goodies outside our door. We four kids checked the doors until they almost fell off their hinges! I have no idea how the package arrived every year, but it did. It was never fancy – not full of nintendos and bikes, but simple – a brown paper bag full of oranges and nuts and candy canes.

As I became and “adult”, I realized that really very few people I knew in United States celebrate this day. Of course, I took this as my own little mission to become Saint Nicholas for my friends. Leaving them packages of treats on their doorstep and running away! Kind of an adrenaline rush J

Since my daughter, Sabina, was born 4 years ago all holidays have become more delightful for me, but especially Saint Nicholas day. It’s fun to have St. Nick come to our house – but even more fun to include her in “Saint Nicking” others! She gets really into it, and loves the idea that because St. Nick doesn’t know them – we get to BE St. Nick. It has been a fun way to teach giving without receiving, without even receiving a thank you (though most of my friends have caught on at this point and we get lots of thank yous – it is not the point).

In the spirit of Saint Nicholas, also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker because of the miracles associated with him, if you feel so inclined – go out and “Saint Nick” someone! A cup of coffee on their desk, a flower for your partner, a sweet orange for your kid – nothing big, just a little something that brings a smile to their face and joy into their heart. It will most certainly bring joy in to your heart as well.

Happy Saint Nicholas Day,

Briana Borten, Founder

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When I’m teaching about how we’re affected by the stuff we put into our bodies, I like to go over what I call the Foods-Herbs-Drugs Spectrum (or the Foods-Supplements-Drugs Spectrum). My own understanding of foods and drugs has been greatly informed by my background as an herbalist. I feel that traditional systems of herbal medicine offer a valuable perspective on the continuum between foods and medicines. Sophisticated systems of herbal medicine (Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine in particular) define herbs not just by the medicinal actions they possess – such as diuretic or sedative – but on their nature or energetics. Herbs can be understood based on where they fall on multiple spectrums, such as temperature, moisture, and trajectory. It’s what makes herbs much more than just weak natural substitutes for drugs. For instance, on the temperature spectrum, an herb can be warming, meaning it literally raises body temperature or otherwise tends to do things like speed up function or metabolism, enhance circulation, or induce sweating. Ginger, chili peppers, wasabi and many other plants have this quality, and people usually have an easy time perceiving it. Then there are cooling herbs, which may do things like reduce fever, clear infections, calm irritation, and suppress inflammation. An herb’s “energetic temperature” can range anywhere from very cold to neutral to very hot. On the moisture spectrum, there are drying herbs which can be useful for things like eliminating phlegm or reducing edema from the legs. Then there are moistening herbs which are employed for lubricating and soothing dry and irritated membranes, or for hydrating the skin, muscles, hair, and other tissues. There are numerous other characteristics to consider – clearing versus fortifying, calming versus stimulating, and so on – all of which make each herb a complex medicine. When herbs don’t work or cause negative effects, it’s usually because consumers don’t really understand them. Most laypeople choose herbs based on common symptoms they’re known to treat, but without comprehending the energetics of the herbs or the state of their own body/mind – which may not be compatible. A person with “hot” disorders (acne or other red rashes, irritability, high blood pressure, etc.) probably will not do well with hot herbs. An anxious person probably should avoid stimulating herbs. Otherwise, negative effects, or “side effects” are likely to result. Foods and drugs can be understood as possessing all of these same properties and risks, except that foods are all relatively close to neutral on any given spectrum, and drugs range much farther to the extremes. Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other dietary supplements fall mostly within the same range as herbs.

In the diagram above, the left end of the spectrum pertains to substances that are neutral in all characteristics. They have almost no potential for harm, but also almost no potential to fix an imbalance, because they don’t cause much change, and/or the change the cause happens slowly. Rice would be pretty close to the left end of the spectrum. At the right end of the spectrum are substances that have one or more extreme characteristics. They quickly and drastically change the human body, so they have a high potential to correct an imbalance, but they are so intense in their action that they are inevitably destructive at the same time. A good example would be chemotherapy drugs, many of which work by destroying all cells that are in the process of dividing. This means any tissues that grow or reproduce quickly – from tumors to hair to the lining of the digestive tract – will be affected. As we move away from the blue (left) end of the spectrum, there is greater potential for both disruption and the correction of imbalance. An important deciding factor is the terrain the substance is introduced to – i.e., your body/mind. As the expression goes, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” The green bar indicates that foods range from completely benign to potentially mildly disruptive or medicinal. (Of course, this doesn’t count food allergies, which could make any food severely “poisonous.”) The yellow bar indicates that herbs and supplements have a very broad range. They can be almost completely neutral or intensely disruptive/medicinal, in some cases approaching the most powerful drugs. Most are somewhere in the middle. The red bar indicates the range of drugs, which go from the fairly benign (TUMS, for instance – which are almost safe enough to hand out on Halloween) to the blatantly poisonous. Although substances to the left are limited when there is a need to produce a quick and significant change (such as breaking up a clot that has caused a stroke), they are ideal when the goal is to improve or maintain general health or when a problem doesn’t need to be corrected within minutes. If we utilize foods, herbs, and supplements wisely, they can help us avoid getting to a place of such severe imbalance that drugs are our only option (at which point, they may not be able to adequately correct the situation anyway). Next time I’ll explain more about how foods, herbs, and drugs work, and how to build an understanding of when to best utilize each. Meanwhile, there’s no time like the present to begin paying more attention to how the various things you consume affect you. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten [post_title] => The Foods - Herbs - Drugs Spectrum, Part One [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => foods-herbs-drugs-spectrum-part-one [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-08-03 19:40:52 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-08-03 19:40:52 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.thedragontree.com/?p=3280 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 2727 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2013-05-20 18:41:10 [post_date_gmt] => 2013-05-20 18:41:10 [post_content] => Oh, Imbue. How I love thee. Let me count the ways. Last September I started playing ice hockey again. It had been about 12 years since I’d played and I wasn’t sure if I remembered how to skate or how well my body was going to take it. I play in a lower level, no checking league, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be some accidental hits or falls on occasion. Such was the case last night. I’m a defensive player, so I don’t get the glory of scoring the goals, but I get to battle behind the scenes to prevent the other team from scoring. Last night, I was having a little battle for the puck behind the net with a man who was quite a bit bigger than me. We both went down and I jammed my wrist and thumb in the process. Enter our very own Imbue Pain Relief Patch! I had a couple in my bag and immediately wrapped my wrist up. I figured that it would be pretty stiff today, butImbue does its job and it does it well! I have a little bit of soreness in an area not covered by the patch, but my wrist feels like nothing happened! Considering I’ve had random issues with this wrist in the past, I am continually impressed with the amazing positive effects I get from Imbue. I’ve used it on my back, neck, shoulders, and wrists and it is always such a relief. But you don’t have to take my word for it; you can try it for yourself. http://imbuebody.com/

Meredith

Assistant Spa Director, Dragontree PDX

[post_title] => Oh Imbue, how I love thee! [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => oh-imbue-how-i-love-thee [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2013-05-20 18:41:10 [post_modified_gmt] => 2013-05-20 18:41:10 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.thedragontree.com/?p=2727 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [2] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 9282 [post_author] => 489 [post_date] => 2024-03-18 14:46:21 [post_date_gmt] => 2024-03-18 14:46:21 [post_content] => Happy (almost) spring equinox! At the halfway point between the solstices, the equinox is a time of balance between day and night, hot and cold, and yin and yang. It’s a good time to tune in to your current state of balance (or lack thereof). Take stock. Balance doesn’t imply that everything is equal, just that there is a state of relative harmony between opposing forces. If you have a couple minutes I encourage you to read the following questions as an assessment of personal balance. Take a pause after reading each question to let it sink in.

How is your balance of movement and stillness? (Sitting vs moving; thinking vs quiet mind; sleep time vs awake time, etc.)

How is your balance of work and leisure?

How is your balance of community and solitude?

How is your balance of communicating versus listening?

How is your balance of doing versus being?

How is your balance of holding on and letting go?

How is your balance of connecting with your inner world versus the outer world?

How is your balance of creating versus receiving?

How is your balance of filling yourself up versus emptying yourself out?

How is your balance of engagement with technology versus engagement with nature?

How is your balance of preparing for the future versus being in the present?

How is your balance of consumption of resources versus giving back?

How is your balance of being mind-centered versus heart-centered?

While this isn’t a totally comprehensive list, I hope it provoked some insight. If you’re human, I’m sure you noticed certain areas where you’re out of balance. I encourage you to think of balance as a dynamic thing – just like the balance between night and day and all the natural forces. Don’t strive for perfection. Consider taking a card and writing down a few of the activities / orientations from above that are lacking in your life. Then try to remember, throughout your day, to bring your attention to something on your list. At the end of the day or week, reflect on how adding in small doses of balancing qualities is affecting your overall sense of well-being. By the way, if you like this sort of thing – exploring and growing – have you ever thought about being a life coach? Click here to check out our life coach training program. It’s based on deep, meaningful principles like what I shared here! Be well, Dr. Peter Borten P.S. If you’d like to take a deeper dive into your inner balance, “clean house” internally, shed patterns that aren’t working for you, and open into your highest self, check out our upcoming program Sacred Expansion. Click here for more info. [post_title] => Bring yourself into balance now [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => bring-yourself-into-balance-now [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2024-03-18 14:46:21 [post_modified_gmt] => 2024-03-18 14:46:21 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://thedragontree.com/?p=9282 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) ) [post_count] => 3 [current_post] => -1 [before_loop] => 1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 3280 [post_author] => 2 [post_date] => 2013-11-05 06:00:36 [post_date_gmt] => 2013-11-05 06:00:36 [post_content] => One of the goals of my work is to find ways to educate people about health in really basic, intuitive ways that they’ll never forget. When I’m teaching about how we’re affected by the stuff we put into our bodies, I like to go over what I call the Foods-Herbs-Drugs Spectrum (or the Foods-Supplements-Drugs Spectrum). My own understanding of foods and drugs has been greatly informed by my background as an herbalist. I feel that traditional systems of herbal medicine offer a valuable perspective on the continuum between foods and medicines. Sophisticated systems of herbal medicine (Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine in particular) define herbs not just by the medicinal actions they possess – such as diuretic or sedative – but on their nature or energetics. Herbs can be understood based on where they fall on multiple spectrums, such as temperature, moisture, and trajectory. It’s what makes herbs much more than just weak natural substitutes for drugs. For instance, on the temperature spectrum, an herb can be warming, meaning it literally raises body temperature or otherwise tends to do things like speed up function or metabolism, enhance circulation, or induce sweating. Ginger, chili peppers, wasabi and many other plants have this quality, and people usually have an easy time perceiving it. Then there are cooling herbs, which may do things like reduce fever, clear infections, calm irritation, and suppress inflammation. An herb’s “energetic temperature” can range anywhere from very cold to neutral to very hot. On the moisture spectrum, there are drying herbs which can be useful for things like eliminating phlegm or reducing edema from the legs. Then there are moistening herbs which are employed for lubricating and soothing dry and irritated membranes, or for hydrating the skin, muscles, hair, and other tissues. There are numerous other characteristics to consider – clearing versus fortifying, calming versus stimulating, and so on – all of which make each herb a complex medicine. When herbs don’t work or cause negative effects, it’s usually because consumers don’t really understand them. Most laypeople choose herbs based on common symptoms they’re known to treat, but without comprehending the energetics of the herbs or the state of their own body/mind – which may not be compatible. A person with “hot” disorders (acne or other red rashes, irritability, high blood pressure, etc.) probably will not do well with hot herbs. An anxious person probably should avoid stimulating herbs. Otherwise, negative effects, or “side effects” are likely to result. Foods and drugs can be understood as possessing all of these same properties and risks, except that foods are all relatively close to neutral on any given spectrum, and drugs range much farther to the extremes. Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other dietary supplements fall mostly within the same range as herbs.

In the diagram above, the left end of the spectrum pertains to substances that are neutral in all characteristics. They have almost no potential for harm, but also almost no potential to fix an imbalance, because they don’t cause much change, and/or the change the cause happens slowly. Rice would be pretty close to the left end of the spectrum. At the right end of the spectrum are substances that have one or more extreme characteristics. They quickly and drastically change the human body, so they have a high potential to correct an imbalance, but they are so intense in their action that they are inevitably destructive at the same time. A good example would be chemotherapy drugs, many of which work by destroying all cells that are in the process of dividing. This means any tissues that grow or reproduce quickly – from tumors to hair to the lining of the digestive tract – will be affected. As we move away from the blue (left) end of the spectrum, there is greater potential for both disruption and the correction of imbalance. An important deciding factor is the terrain the substance is introduced to – i.e., your body/mind. As the expression goes, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” The green bar indicates that foods range from completely benign to potentially mildly disruptive or medicinal. (Of course, this doesn’t count food allergies, which could make any food severely “poisonous.”) The yellow bar indicates that herbs and supplements have a very broad range. They can be almost completely neutral or intensely disruptive/medicinal, in some cases approaching the most powerful drugs. Most are somewhere in the middle. The red bar indicates the range of drugs, which go from the fairly benign (TUMS, for instance – which are almost safe enough to hand out on Halloween) to the blatantly poisonous. Although substances to the left are limited when there is a need to produce a quick and significant change (such as breaking up a clot that has caused a stroke), they are ideal when the goal is to improve or maintain general health or when a problem doesn’t need to be corrected within minutes. If we utilize foods, herbs, and supplements wisely, they can help us avoid getting to a place of such severe imbalance that drugs are our only option (at which point, they may not be able to adequately correct the situation anyway). Next time I’ll explain more about how foods, herbs, and drugs work, and how to build an understanding of when to best utilize each. Meanwhile, there’s no time like the present to begin paying more attention to how the various things you consume affect you. Be well, Dr. Peter Borten [post_title] => The Foods - Herbs - Drugs Spectrum, Part One [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => foods-herbs-drugs-spectrum-part-one [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-08-03 19:40:52 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-08-03 19:40:52 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://www.thedragontree.com/?p=3280 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw [webinar_id] => 0 ) [comment_count] => 0 [current_comment] => -1 [found_posts] => 233 [max_num_pages] => 5 [max_num_comment_pages] => 0 [is_single] => [is_preview] => [is_page] => [is_archive] => 1 [is_date] => [is_year] => [is_month] => [is_day] => [is_time] => [is_author] => [is_category] => 1 [is_tag] => [is_tax] => [is_search] => [is_feed] => [is_comment_feed] => [is_trackback] => [is_home] => [is_privacy_policy] => [is_404] => [is_embed] => [is_paged] => [is_admin] => [is_attachment] => [is_singular] => [is_robots] => [is_favicon] => [is_posts_page] => [is_post_type_archive] => [query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => 7404ffccb7cd52eb18ea2e974418630f [query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] => [thumbnails_cached] => [allow_query_attachment_by_filename:protected] => [stopwords:WP_Query:private] => [compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => query_vars_hash [1] => query_vars_changed ) [compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => init_query_flags [1] => parse_tax_query ) )

You may also be interested in:

The Foods – Herbs – Drugs Spectrum, Part One

Oh Imbue, how I love thee!

Bring yourself into balance now

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