mindfulness – Traditionally Empowered Healing LLC

A surgery, or any invasive procedure, large or small, places stress on the body. Often, in the days leading up to a scheduled operation, you may be left waiting while your thoughts fill up with worries and “what-ifs,” yet with little you actively do. This mental tension can intensity the overall stress of the experience, which in turn will lock your nervous system into a survival mode.

Assuming that your nervous system was not too relaxed before you scheduled your surgery and now locked in a survival mode, you may perceive any situation that you are facing as a threat or a personal attack, which cannot be beneficial to the upcoming procedure. What if, instead, you choose to settle your nervous system into a deep relaxed state, which will allow your energy to be directed towards healing and preparation rather than towards worries and desperation?

You might be wondering how you can relax your nervous system now, in a time that everything is uncertain in your own body, not to mention in the whole world? Or possibly wondering if it would be even possible to do it?

I am very much certain that you can do it, but before we begin, I want to ask you to take a moment to make a conscious decision that your mission is to work together with your own body to prepare it for this surgery (or any other upcoming event in your life, including living). If you have a partner in your life or someone close who plans to be with you through this upcoming procedure, you may consider inviting them to do this with you, as their nervous system might need some relaxation as well.

There are countless of ways to relax your nervous system. I will share here few ideas that could be productive as you prepare for a surgery. You are welcome to explore them and add your own to this list. With that said, keep in mind that choosing just one idea and following through with it will be far more beneficial than staring at the entire list and telling yourself there’s too much to handle and you can’t possibly get it done…

Nourishment
Nourishment means supplying your cells with the materials they need in order to function in their most efficient way. When you do so, your body learns to trust that there is no need to stress about food supply and thus your nervous system relaxes. Many real foods can nourish your cells, however, if this is not your practice, you may get discouraged to make changes through out such a sensitive time.

But what if you add only one thing to your meals, without changing a thing? What if you begin one of your meals (or 2 or all of your meals) with a cup of chicken soup / bone broth?

There are so many reasons to eat this soup daily, regardless to any circumstances. Beginning with its fats which nourish your nervous system and calming down your fight-or-flight response. Continuing with its gelatin which calms digestive disorders; and its collagen which protects your joints, ligaments, & skin; and its minerals; and its nourishing properties for basically everything you could ever imagine!!

You are welcome to use my recipe or make your own.

Make it a point to do all you can to nourish your body.

Castor Oil Packs
Castor oil, a very thick oil derived from the castor bean (Ricinus communis) seed, has been praised for many benefits. Among them: Decreasing inflammation, Increasing circulation of blood and lymph thus enhancing the immune system, Improving elimination of toxic substances, Promoting tissue healing, Decreasing pain, Lubricating ligaments, Improving digestion, Easing many conditions including uterine fibroid, non-malignant ovarian cysts, endometriosis, headaches, migraines, constipation, intestinal disorders, gallbladder/liver conditions, and probably many more.

All of these are awesome and extremely important for preparation to a surgery. But the most beneficial quality of the castor pack is relaxing your nervous system when applied on your belly. As messy as you may find it, your nervous system will very much thank you!!

You are welcome to use my instructions or do the packs any way that works for you.

Make it a point to create a daily anchor for your nervous system to relax, regardless to any events occurring that day.

Rest
According to Harvard university, sleep enhances memory, immune system, focus, improves mood and provides vitality for us to be productive. But when you prepare for a surgery, your mind might be filled with worries and concerns which may prevent you from getting a good night sleep. Here are few suggestions to help you calm down your racing mind:

* Drinking a cup of Lemon balm tea (Melissa officinalis) can be wonderful before bed. Prepare another cup next to your bed in case you wake up in the middle of the night and cannot fall back to sleep.

* Taking one deep, long breath can change your mind-set for that moment. Be mindful to expand your belly as you inhale and let it soften as you exhale. Taking just a few breaths like this can be truly life changing.

* Listening to a short, guided meditation – easily can be found on YouTube or any meditation app, can help your mind shift. One that I do daily, and shared here before, is Sitting in the power, led by Chris Ratter, Psychic Surgeon:

Make it a point to do everything in your power so you can sleep and restore.

Spend Time Outdoors
Take the time to be outside. If you are able to walk – find a nice trail to walk daily. If walking is hard – sit on your porch or find a nice bench in your area to spend 30 minutes sitting there. Dress for the weather and just breath. This will help you reset your nervous system and will have a great effect on your sleep as well.

Make it a point to enjoy your time outdoors.

Take on fewer commitments
Even when you believe that something you are committing to do will take only a few minutes and will not be a burden on you, consider not to make this engagement. Use the time to do only things that serve you. This might not be an easy task for you to do. If so, fill up your calendar with commitments to your own health and healing journey (hopefully including some of the above suggestions), leaving no room for any other distractions. It will make it much easier to say NO when your calendar is full.

Make a point to preserve your energy to yourself only and not spread it out carelessly.

Pray
Whether from your heart or from your prayer book, a prayer will give you the confidence that you are never alone, and that you are always protected. Make it a point to trust that everything you experience is happening for your highest good and will turn out better than you can ever imagine.

Your body deserves your full attention and attendance, regardless to any scheduled procedures or surgeries. Make it a point that, when you prepare for something that is beyond your usual routine, you will give your body the best possible opportunity to provide you with the best possible outcome. Keeping in mind that doing just one thing will always be more than doing nothing or just sitting and worrying! Your body will thank you! And you will feel it!! May everything turn out better than you ever expected!

If you ever need my help, don’t hesitate to reach out—we can work together to fine-tune the best path forward for your unique situation.

Blog, Castor oil, Commitment to self, healing, Nervous systen, Parasympathetic, Self Heal, Self Love

Is Your Liver the Best Place to Apply a Castor Oil Pack?

July 23, 2025July 23, 2025 Anat Shlagman Traditional Naturopath

Many of you ask me where exactly the castor oil pack should be applied. The confusion comes from online suggestions to apply it on your liver (meaning on your right side, just below your ribcage).

Convincing as these suggestions may be, you are not always sure if you should listen to the net or choose a different area of your body for the castor application to maximize the benefits…

Before sharing my opinion, I would like to take a moment to review what all the fuss about castor oil is. Castor oil, a very thick oil derived from the castor (Ricinus communis) seed, has been praised for decades for its numerous benefits. Among them:

Easing various conditions as uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, headaches, migraines, constipation, intestinal disorders, gallbladder/liver conditions…
Improving digestion and elimination of toxic substances
Increasing circulation of blood and lymph and Decreasing inflammation
Enhancing fertility along with liver and immune function
Lubricating ligaments and Decreasing pain
Promoting tissue healing

Even though it’s long and includes many benefits, this list might be leaving out the most beneficial act of the castor oil: Whole-Body Activation by relaxing your nervous system.

The term castor oil pack is a fancy label to application of the oil on the skin, covering with a cotton towel or a flannel cloth and topping with a hot water bottle or a heating pad.

And yes! You can apply your pack on your liver, on your chest, on any sore joint and basically anywhere on your body including your belly button, with one caveat – the understanding that this will provide local lubrication of the treated tissue and nothing beyond! This lubrication will stimulate the applied tissue and encourage it to become engaged in its own healing, which is truly wonderful, and I do it all the time.

BUT…

What if castor oil packs can do more than local engagement? What if they can benefit you more than the described above?

What if Castor oil packs can provide a Whole-Body Activation by relaxing your nervous system, allowing your whole body to heal itself?

What is a Whole-Body Activation by relaxing your nervous system? This is a mechanism where your whole body becomes involved in its own healing, starting from shifting your autonomic nervous system into its parasympathetic deep relaxed state, and following through with a systemic transformation in every cell of your body.

How can you get this benefit?

Simple!!!

This activation will take place when you apply the castor oil pack on your entire belly – in the area from the edge of your ribcage to the pubic hair.

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 as the small intestine, bladder, colon, liver, uterus, which are part of systems that are inhibited when your body is under stress (when your autonomic nervous system functions at its sympathetic / fight-or-flight state), signals the nervous system to shift to the deep relaxed state – parasympathetic state.

Surprisingly enough, internal processes are very similar to the external world. You can think of the autonomic nervous system as expressing itself in one of two possible responses: War or Peace.

War response relates to the sympathetic state of your autonomic nervous system or the fight-or-flight state. When in war, your body is concerned with only one thing – survival. Every action it takes is meant to keep you standing on your own two feet. Nothing else, regardless to how much your body needs to compromise to accommodate it!! Your body may not even know that something is wrong, simply because it doesn’t have the energetic budget to check what is happening.

Peace response relates to the parasympathetic state of your autonomic nervous system or the rest-and-digest state. When in peace, the energetic budget opens, providing the means to detect and correct what needs your attention.

Bringing your nervous system to the parasympathetic state provides a Whole-Body Activation, which will create the environment for your body to start healing itself, no matter what conditions you are suffering from.

In my personal opinion, a Whole-Body Activation is the most important benefit of the castor oil packs. I have witnessed and experienced so many miraculous healings just from applying the castor packs on the entire belly.

Now sit back and imagine how wonderful it would be to combine it all – apply a castor pack on your belly for a Whole-Body Activation and add as many other castor packs as you wish on any area that needs your attention, for local engagement of the tissue to heal.

If you’d like, you can always follow my instructions or come in for a session to learn and experience how easy and amazing castor oil is….

Blog, Castor oil, Commitment to self, healing, Nervous systen, Nourishment, Parasympathetic, Reset, Self Heal, Self Love

Spring Cleaning – New Perceptions

April 8, 2025 Anat Shlagman Traditional Naturopath

Spring is here. We can feel the shift in the air even though some days are still too cold. This is the time when many of us actively rid ourselves of what is not serving any longer. Some do so by an internal cleanse to clear body’s elimination channels, others by a physical cleaning of their homes and surroundings. All in order to create more space for something new to come.

This act of elimination is truly a productive action, but what if there are things that would benefit us more if we made an adjustment to the way we perceive them rather than getting rid of them?

Let’s take our fears for example. How many of us would love to get rid of any fear that paralyzes them? Fears that eventually forcing us to make important decisions while in an impaired state of mind, ending up with an outcome that we never wished for? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a way to clear these fears out, allowing you to make a new start without any hesitations? Of course it would! But would it be the most beneficial act for you?

What if changing your perception about your fears – viewing them as mirrors to your situation or as guides implying that a change is needed – would bring a more meaningful aspect into your life? What if turning your fears into your allies would carry more value than clearing them out?

Evolutionally, fear had an important roll – to warn you of a certain danger which requires the need to save yourself from. Back in the days when these dangers were actual threats to life (a bear, a fire…), you would be open to take the advice and make adjustments in order to survive. Evolving into modern life while daily tasks becoming significantly less dangerous, one would expect that the level of fear would subside.

In reality, even though your life mostly is not threatened, your fears never subsided. With that, because your life mostly is not threatened, your willingness to take the advice to make adjustments dissolved in the air.

It doesn’t make much sense, does it?

Succumbing to your fears comes from a deep ingrained thought that bad things will happen if you do not follow the popular/accepted solution. This solution might be great for some but not necessarily for you, and maybe without succumbing to your fears, you might be able to make a decision from a more neutral perspective. Yet, would you be able to trust that an original decision will be beneficial even when it is different than the popular thought?

Before you detach yourself from your fears to enable this trust, we need to establish a basic understanding that your fears have the power to affect you only when you are living in a survival mode. With that said, you might not always be aware that you are in this mode, simply because everyone around you operates the same – a behavior that has been rooted in our society as a normal state. Let me assure you that even though many of us live like that, it is not beneficial to any of us at all! Therefore, if you want to liberate yourself from this survival state you will need to create an environment where your body meets all its survival needs. I wrote long about it in my article The Art of Healing Yourself, with many suggestions.

In short, when this environment is created, your body will shift from a survival mode into a deep relaxed state where your perception completely transforms. It is important to understand that the situation you are dealing with will never change, and you will be facing the same challenges as before, whether your nervous system is relaxed or not. But the way you perceive the situation will be different, allowing you to take a fresh look and productive actions to resolve it.

Whenever you are ready so create this environment, you can start with these three simple steps (feel free to add as many more as you need!!!):

Breathe

First and foremost, stop in our tracks and take a deep breath!!! A shallow breath is not supportive to a relaxed state. A deep breath will convince your brain that “war is over” since there is time now to breath.

There are so many breathing techniques, which you can find all over the internet, and choose what works for you. I personally like the diaphragmatic breathing technique, in which you take long inhales and exhales while activating your diaphragm. I also advise everyone to put notes on mirrors, in cars, in kitchens, with the word “Breathe” so they can take one deep diaphragmatic breath whenever they see a note. It would be awesome if you can take few minutes to take few breaths but always remember that one is more than zero! No need to stress if you can fit only one breath in! Begin with what you can and embrace it!

Wim Hof’s method is also one of my favorites. He has an 11-minute video with his technique which is very meditative and calming.

You can also take a breathing class or a yoga class or singing class or scream your lungs out in the woods. Whatever makes you breathe!!! It doesn’t matter what you do – just breathe!!

Nourish

Nourishing your body will reduce its survival stress worrying for the next meal. When you routinely nourish your body with foods that it can use, your body will learn to trust that this need is fulfilled, and no stress is required for that any longer.

My go-to for nourishment is chicken soup / bone broth or root vegetables soup if you prefer a vegetarian version. This soup should be consumed daily, even few times a day.

Create a slowdown routine

Establishing a routine of slowing down your activities as you get closer to bed time will help prepare your body for a deeper rest. A repetitive routine will help your body to trust that you are serious in your intentions to relax and that regardless to what happened through the day – you will provide your nervous system an anchor to reset later in the evening. Here are few suggestions. Please do not limit yourself to these only:

Drinking a comforting tea in the evening such as Lemon balm, calendula, oat straw, chamomile, a combination of these or any other herb that you like and calms your nervous system down.
Epsom salts baths to relax your muscles.
Self-reflexology especially on your nervous system reflexes.
Reading real books to allow your imagination and creativity to thrive.
Set your cell phone to rest and recharge in a different room or floor if possible.
Castor oil packs to reset your nervous system.

First mission of every spring cleaning is to shine and polish who we are. When you create the environment for your body to deeply relax, you will be able to make the most effective use of the communication your body provides. And while understanding that the situation you are dealing with will never change, you will be able to manifest a new way to perceive your situation, allowing you to take a fresh look and productive actions to resolve it.

Would that be fast and easy? of course not! But you have the whole spring to work on it:)

And guess what – when spring is over, summer will always be moving in!!!!!!