Holiday season mostly brings the joy of celebrations, the closeness of families and the excitement of a new year to come. As wonderful as it may sound or be, the holiday season might also tag along some stress and anxieties, which often tend to be hidden or dismissed, fashionably due to the same reasons above.
We all understand how major the effect of stress on our daily life is and how beneficial it would be if we could eliminate it or at least lower its impact. Yet, we might be engaged in too many activities, maybe too busy to notice that we are actually overwhelmed.
Picture by Amit Shlagman
So… if you stop for a moment to check how are you feeling – would you be able to say YES when asked if you are OK? Most chances that you are fine. But what if you feel that you always need to show that everything is great, even when it’s not?Does it still mean that you are OK??
Picture by Amit Shlagman
What if your need to show that everything is OK takes an energy toll? What if this energy toll is so heavy that it significantly reduces the energy left available to spend on necessary needs? What if functioning with reduced energy causes your nervous system to be in a constant survival state? What if being in a constant survival state forces you to compromise your health? Would you still be able then to assure yourself that you are OK?
Picture by Amit Shlagman
If this works for you, then all is OK indeed! But what if it doesn’t? What if compromising your health is not suiting you anymore? Would there be a way to make a change? Would it be possible to reset your nervous system and switch your perception allowing your health to be more important than people’s opinions?
Of course there is! A reset to your nervous system can be manifested by providing your body with a solid anchor. Once you established this anchor, your body knows that it doesn’t matter what happens throughout the day – there will be an anchor at the end of the day to bring your nervous system back to base.
This anchor can be created by a daily routine of application of castor oil packs on the abdomen. Castor oil, a very thick oil derived from the castor (Ricinus communis) seed, has been praised for many benefits: enhancing relaxation, decreasing inflammation/pain, increasing circulation, lubricating ligaments, easing uterine fibroid/ovarian cysts/endometriosis/migraines/intestinal disorders and more.
A castor pack can be done by simply applying the oil on the belly, covering it with a hand towel, topping it with a hot water bottle and laying down for half an hour to an hour. (You can find my instructions on my website: Castor Pack Instructions).
When applying the castor oil pack on the belly, the oil lubricates and stimulates all the tissues, organs and systems in this region. Along with that, the heat draws the blood vessels up closer to the skin as they vasodilate, and oil is being absorbed into the blood circulation as well, thus distributed through the whole body.
Lubricating and stimulating organs such as the small intestine, bladder, colon, liver, uterus, which are part of systems that are inhibited when body is under stress (when the autonomic nervous system functions at its sympathetic / fight-or-flight state), signals the nervous system to shift to its relaxed / parasympathetic state.
Picture by Amit Shlagman
Once you entered the parasympathetic state of your autonomic nervous system everything changes!! Your body has been given an outlet to escape its survival mode and reach a state of peace. This reaction is created only when the castor pack is applied on your abdomen. Application on any other surface area of the body will provide local lubrication only, as no connection to the nervous system will be made.
This shift is so profound, allowing you to understand how your body should function daily, with occasional peaks of stress to overcome any issue you face. When you do this often, it will become second nature, and your body will crave this once you are out of balance.
Picture by Amit Shlagman
Moreover, when this becomes a routine, your body learns to trust your intentions to seek a deep level of relaxation, and it will be less reactive to the events around you. Your reactions will always reflect the state of our nervous system – the more reactive you feel – the tighter (and stressed) your nervous system is. And once you have no need to react to the events around you, you will find that there is no need for you to always show that everything is great. You will be granted an opportunity to show how you really feel without the need to polish it, slowly progressing to answer an authentic YES or NO to every question you are asked. And then, your YES answer to the question if you are OK will always come from a genuine place reflecting your true state.
May 2025 carry the wind of change, allowing our nervous system to reset so we can express true authenticity of everything we feel!
Anat Shlagman is a Traditional Naturopath and founder of Traditionally Empowered Healing LLC (Trad Em). With a practice established in 2012, Anat developed a unique session to relax the autonomic nervous system, creating the right environment for the body to heal itself. Her work dives deep into the root causes of physical, emotional, and mental conditions.
Her unique session, Trad Em®, is combined of Castor oil packs on abdomen and chest, Reflexology, Lymphatic massage on areas covered with castor oil and embedded in Trance Mediumship Healing Energy and is designed to bring the autonomic nervous system to its parasympathetic state (peace response). Following her belief that, when body reaches this very deep state of relaxation it can start healing itself, this session shows great benefits to those who suffer from digestive issues, depression, anxiety, any type of feet pain/issues, joints issues, autoimmune issues and any other condition that cannot be resolved by the medical establishment.
When realizing that castor oil packs have an amazing impact when applied on the abdomen and complimented with herbal infused oils, Anat has developed a longer session (Special Condition Session), successfully targeting more conditions, as frozen shoulder, arthritis, depression, autoimmune, digestive, soft tissue injuries, pain, sciatic issues, nerve injuries and more. While each case is individual and each person responds to the session differently, improvements have shown with many patients after the first session.
Anat’s sessions delve deep into the root cause of any condition – may it be physical, emotional or mental. A profound change is being manifested through the session and is clearly felt by the person on the table. This change generates the beginning of whole healing.
In 2023, Anat started implementing in her sessions Trance Mediumship Healing, as she is continuously learning from Chris Ratter, Psychic Surgeon. This type of Energy Healing created a very unique combination of Energy guided touch which tremendously enhanced her sessions.
Born in Romania, Anat’s family has moved to Israel when she was 5. In 1990 Anat graduated high school and joined the Israeli mandatory military service for 2 year. She has achieved her BA in Health Services Management in 1997 and her MBA in Business Management in 2002, both from Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva Israel. Moving to Michigan in 2004, Anat quit her 6-year job as a project manager in Ramat-Gan municipality, overseeing the computers’ hardware and software in the municipality public schools, becoming a full-time mom and wife. In 2005, Anat has become a Reiki master and a holistic practitioner, employing energy healing among her family and friends. In 2014 she graduated as a Traditional Naturopath from the Naturopathic School of the Healing Arts in Ann Arbor, completing a 3-year Diploma Program.
Adopting the Traditional Naturopathy approach, Anat and her family went through many lifestyle changes seeking a healthier way of living. This included eating real foods rather than processed, utilizing ways to relax mind and body, introducing herbs as food and medicine and much more. These changes brought Anat’s family to a whole new level of health, including weight loss, increased energy levels and clarity of the mind. Experiencing these amazing shifts, Anat became passionate in helping families and individuals go through changes, which sometimes regarded impossible, to support higher levels of health.
In 2014, Anat conducted a 6-month research, with a group of 7 women, showing that improving digestive issues will improve many other conditions in the body, as skin conditions, depression, aches and more. These women have gone through a major transformation. While stabilizing their eating habits, these women’s digestion system has improved, and many other changes occurred – Inflammation decreased, weight lost, relaxation occurred, cravings lessened, aches disappeared, and many more.
In 2016, Anat took Lindera – Herbalist Jim Mcdonald’s Herbal intensive – enriching her understanding of herbs, and their assistance with healing our body.
In 2017, Anat accomplished 800 hours of massage and advanced medical massage training at Flint School of Therapeutic massage, achieving her license to touch.
Since then, Anat kept developing her sessions, and in 2023 she started learning with Chris Ratter, Psychic Surgeon , deepening her understanding of Spirit Energy healing.
As a mother of three, Anat realized that in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle it is more productive being Relaxed rather than being Perfect. Therefore, she designed her sessions, her workshops and her herbal remedies to fit each person’s individual situation, working to Encourage minor (almost invisible) changes in one’s life, which have been showing an amazing long-lasting healing effect with many.
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Traditionally Empowered Healing LLC 