Author: Kathleen

Treating Methods for Psoriasis

Aetiology

• Some lesions are closely associated with linoleic acid deficiency.
• Incomplete protein digestion or poor intestinal absorption of protein breakdown products.
• A number of gut-derived toxins are implicated in the development of psoriasis. A diet low in dietary fibre is associated with increased levels of gut derived toxins.
• Attacks can be triggered by nervous tension and stress, illness, cuts, several viral and bacterial infections, sunburn, or drugs such as lithium, chloroquine, and beta blockers

Other Treatments

Attention should focus on diet and particularly:

• All pork meat and pork fat (commonly used on the manufacture of pastry, biscuits, chocolate, and ice cream) should be eliminated from the diet.
• Benefit has been derived from eating a low-acid diet.
• Fruit and vegetables are clearly beneficial to the condition.
• Avoid saturated fats (milk, cream, butter, eggs) sugar, processed foods, white flour and citrus fruits. Avoid red meat and dairy products.
• Increase the intake of fish oils, particularly those rich in EPA (e.g., cod, sardines, tuna, or mackerel).

Several double blind clinical trials have demonstrated that supplementing the diet with 10 to 12 grams of EPA results in significant improvement. The improvement is largely due to the inhibition of the production of inflammatory compounds known as leukotrienes.

• Take 1-2 tablespoons of linseed oil per day.
• Herbs such as St. Mary’s Thistle, sarsaparilla, red clover and burdock have all been reported to be of value in the treatment of psoriasis.
• Avoid stressful situations, fatigue, environmental changes (such as exposure to cold) and trauma to the skin as these can initiate new skin lesions.
• For symptomatic relief use chickweed as a lotion or a cream.
• Attention to nervous/emotional problems is also important.
• Sunlight is very beneficial in most cases. A standard medical treatment of psoriasis typically involves the use of a drug psoriasis and exposure to UV light.

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.

 

Treating Methods for Migraine Headaches

Clinical Features

Migraine is a particular type of headache which occurs paroxysmally. Constriction of certain cerebral arteries takes place at the onset of the attack, but later these vessels dilate and cause characteristic headache.

There are three characteristic groups of symptoms:

• Visual disturbances may occur at the beginning of the attack. Usually they take the form of flashes of light, spots or patterns before the eyes, but sometimes partial loss of vision.
• A severe throbbing headache which usually commences on one side of the head and may last for several hours.
• Nausea and vomiting are frequently associated with the headache

Aetiology

The cause is unknown. However a number of triggers have been identified:

• injury to the head associated with contact sports such as football or boxing
• sudden changes in weather, particularly thunderstorms or hot dry wind
• hypolglycemia and missing meals
• emotional stress may precipitate an attack
• fluctuations in hormonal levels – drops in estrogen levels, particularly premenstrually
• food allergies have been identified as a precipitating factor in 80 to 90% of case

Treatment

Aromatherapy is better used as a preventative measure than as an attempted treatment for migraine. Once a migraine attack has begun, many sufferers find the smell of most essential oils overbearing or can’t bear being touched.

A cold compress made with equal parts of peppermint and lavender should be placed across the forehead and temples and frequently changed as soon as it starts to warm up. Extremely light massage of the temples with lavender oil might be useful if touching the head does not make the pain worse. Many migraines seem to be due of restricted blood supply to the brain, and hot or warm compresses with sweet marjoram on the back fo the neck will increase the flow of blood to the head. Sweet marjoram is a vasodilator and warmth itself also helps.

Other Treatments

• Feverfew, ginkgo biloba extract, peppermint and rosemary are very effective here in the treatment of migraines.
• Foods such as chocolate, cheese and alcohol have been reported to trigger migraine attacks. They contain the amino acids phenylalanine and tyramine which are considered vasoactive amines.
• Avoid stimulants such as coffee, tea, coke, nicotine and alcohol.
• Avoid nitrates (preservatives found in hot dogs and salami, aspirin, and monosodium glutamate (MSG), a common seasoning.
• Increase consumption of cold water fish or fish oils.
• The use of acupuncture in the treatment of migraine headache has received considerable research attention. Acupuncture appears to have some success in reducing the frequency of migraine attacks.

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.

I hope you have enjoyed this 20 year journey. I certainly didn’t go into full detail of it all. I didn’t want to bore anyone. I just wanted you to know that I am not a new company. I have been around for a long time and I am the tortoise in the tortoise and hare story. Slowly and methodically, I will reach the finish line. I have taken in the lessons, grown and am a better person for it. I am grateful that I survived me life and I am now starting to thrive. Life truly is grand.

I am not sure who has seen the movie Burlesque. I love that movie and the main reason is when Cher sang You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me. I was in the pits of hell and she sang that song from deep within her being and I identified all the way that I was built tough and that I would come back stronger and I am. Who knows what else I will do before I move onto the next life, but I certainly didn’t waste this life. I want to know who I am and what I am capable of doing. I have surprised myself more than I can say. I chose to keep fear in the back seat. Its not say that I haven’t been afraid but I went through it. I have survived and thrived from facing my fears. Fear is a phantom. The ego fears. Now don’t get me wrong, a gun pointed at your head or jumping out of a perfectly good airplane certainly deserves to feel fear at its fullest. I am talking about the self-made phobias that we have. Hence the name Awakening Spirit. We are all in a state of waking up. The discovery and this world could and will be awesome when we are fully embracing the true essence of ourselves.

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.

I also found out people like me! I used to work for lawyers millions of years ago and my impression was they paid you well to treat you like crap. It really was a nasty environment but I didn’t know how bad until I left. I left when it was no longer fun and there was no longer a mutual respect with opposing counsel. It became who is the better lawyer. It had nothing to do with helping people. It was about taking their money. My opinion is once they got what they wanted from you is when they went to work to win your case. I actually experienced it and realized on a personal basis that my initial thoughts were right out it being about the money.

It feels so good to rid myself of my demons and discover I really am a remarkable person. I believe we all are once we dump the drama and baggage of what adults us as children. I am nothing what my family said I was. I guess that is why I no longer have a family. I am finally free!!! The world is my oyster. Strange how all those cliches that I have heard my whole life really are right on the money.

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.

All my life, I always thought I would be the one to fail and everyone around me would be more successful or accomplish great things. What I have observed over time is those that I thought would “make it” either died or gave up. I was still moving forward. I can’t tell you exactly what drives me – other than what I learned in Dancing Souls – but my spirit is so much stronger than my ego. I believe adversity defines you. You either make the best of it or you die (and not always literally). I must have believed in myself so much on a level beyond my pea brain thought processes because I am a success. I may not be Bill Gates but I am a success. The fact that I love myself and stand up for myself and refuse to put up with anyone’s crap is absolutely amazing! I wondered if I would ever find my back bone and I did. It took my mother’s death to find it and moving to IL in 2008. Again, in Dancing Souls. I worked on that backbone thing my entire life and finding my voice as well. I won’t say I am a slow learner, I just wanted to be thorough in the lesson. I don’t ever want to come back and redo this!!!!

Working in the environmental business while I was trying to decide what to do with Awakening Spirit, opened a whole new world. I seemed to be instantly respected because I just don’t take crap off of anyone. I am not on the take and I believe we should be paid fairly for what we do. I have repeatedly been told that I am tough but fair. I follow the regulations and no one can say otherwise. I don’t abuse my power, I stand in it. I treat the workers fairly. If they are doing a good job for me, I buy lunch occasionally. The workers are surprised because no one has ever treated them that way. They decide I am not so bad after all. I believe in treating people good if they are doing good work for you. Maybe someday the world will just do that because it is the right thing to do.

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.

What is so odd about this and being older to reflect back on my life of Awakening Spirit, is I had to learn a lot of things about myself, I had to trust that I did have something good to bring to the world that really does work. I had to believe in myself and know that I was not behind the eight ball but really in front of the eight ball. Again, I have no idea if any of this will work, but I believe with my whole heart that something is coming of all the hard work. Creating a company is not easy. It certainly hasn’t fallen in my lap, but persistence and determination has kept it alive.

Now, someday, my book may get published. That is a whole other story! Nothing seems to come easy in my life and yet people think it does who meet me. Most haven’t been around for the journey. But I believe that anything worth having is worth working for. I want it all – money, love, happiness, joy, prosperity, abundance, friends, you name it, I want it. It is my divine right to have it. I have faced demons that most will never go through – its in my book Dancing Souls.

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.

I also decided to put money into Awakening Spirit by doing advertising and attending shows. So far I only attended one show in Dallas. It was a bust in my opinion but not really also. I did get a couple of orders from the show. I also met a distributor who has access to 7,000 pharmacies and I signed with him. That should start moving in July. I also started advertising in Souvenirs, Gifts and Novelties. The sales rep had to twist my arm! I told her I am not gift and they don’t even look at me. I also told the distributor for the pharmacies the same thing. He informed me otherwise.

I decided to trust the sale rep for SGN and to my utter amazement, I have been getting requests for more information and being told they are very interested in carrying my product. Most of the stores are scanning the market for the holiday season and start buying in September. I could, again, be very busy in September. I can’t tell you how surprised I am. I have tried since 1995 to get people interested in what I do and now – again – 20 years ahead of the world – it may just happen. The world has finally caught up to me.

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.

I know I have something here because the people I have met along the way wanted to be a part of the company. Everyone could see how big this could be. I think that is why I have had the problems I have had over the years. I finally shut the doors to the old company and reopened under different tax numbers. I had to give the company a fresh start and rid myself of it and all the old baggage and whatever else was hanging on. I still didn’t do much for a couple of years because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do or how I wanted to proceed. I did finally create the website that I wanted. It only took 10 years for technology to catch up to me! I love saying that. I think at that moment I realized how much of a visionary I am. Once the website was set up the way I wanted, I noticed that the internet has changed so much with this social media thing. Ugh!

I am getting more and more into social media. I may not necessarily like it but I am finding what parts of it I like and am willing to work those aspects. Blogging is something I like. Its finding the time to write.

My life is getting busier and all the prep work I have done to make it happen is starting to show up. For instance, for the past year, I didn’t work a lot in my environmental business but I started envisioning what I wanted to do. I set up the company as woman owned, disadvantaged, rising enterprise with the City and County of Denver. Work is coming in and I have not even signed up on all the government contracting sites!

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.

Anyways that is a different topic but yet it all ties together in a unique way. Life is really an incredible journey. Who really knows why we are here or what we wish to accomplish and yet we somehow manage to do it. I truly believe we have angels guiding us along to ensure we are heading in the direction we wanted. Awakening Spirit is so much more than an aromatherapy company. It really is a journey of an Awakening Spirit. The things I have learned about myself from this trip is amazing. I am not done yet but I seem to be so much more relaxed in the process. I have no idea if this company will ever take off the way I envision but I keep envisioning it to do so. I keep moving her in that direction so why wouldn’t it? It’s not easy doing this but I do love it. I do have a great product and I am very pleased with this journey. I can’t say it was always that way.

At one point, I threw everything away because I was so sick of Awakening Spirit and do you know what the bitch did? She started bringing in sales. I knew then this company wanted to live. Every time I wanted to close the doors, sales would come in or I would receive beautiful letters from people that the products helped them. I couldn’t close the doors since I knew I was doing something good for people. I just had to learn how to be a marketer. So hate that! But I keep pushing myself into it.

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.

I worked in various spas starting in 2006. I ended up working with a nail tech at her spa. We hit it off fabulously. She said I ‘wooed her’ with all my ideas to build my business. She had a large clientele and she referred my services out to them which was a big help. She planned on moving her shop to where we were more visible but the space needed work. There was a lot of drama around that situation but we finally did get moved. I was incorporating sound therapy in my treatments and people were actually coming and having them done.

I was feeling so much better about myself as 2007 rolled out. There were a lot of twists and turns that year. My friend lost her shop in the summer. The landlord decided he didn’t want her there any more I guess and she just signed the lease! We found another shop that was opening so we went there. It was in a good location and everyone seemed nice enough. It seemed to take a bit to get things rolling again for money to come in. It was making me crazy. I kept plugging along. I continued working with the tuning forks and things were happening. I don’t think at the time I contributed so much of it to the use of the forks but today, I think they played a huge roll in what was about to happen. I actually wrote a book about it. Dancing Souls Merging Heaven and Earth – The Journey of an Awakening Spirit. It should be coming out within the next two to three months, I hope. Keeping my fingers crossed. It is at least in final edit and the first part is in interior layout. It’s looking great!

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.

The Awakening Spirit Story

Then the 911 happened. The world came to a screeching halt. I barely survived. The internet was starting to ramp up so I spent a year learning everything that was out there so I could compete. After one year, the internet was changing again and I could not keep up with the fast pace turnover. I did come up on the first page under aromatherapy and essential oils without buying the key words. I was impressed with myself! I did everything I read and it actually worked. Sales just sucked! I came to the conclusion that you could not sell aromatherapy on the internet until a woman found me and wanted to sell my stuff as a drop shipper. I was shocked at what she was doing. She was a marketer and did everything – including spending a fortune on buying ads.

I plodded along for years. I became a sound therapist using tuning forks in 2002. I also became an esthetician in 2006. I wanted to start a wellness center incorporating everything I was doing. I worked in spas for a few years to get a handle on how everything worked. Again, the economy tanked.

My life was in the pits. I could not find a way out of what I had done to myself. I remember wondering how I moved out of my parents house at 17 and here I am now 49 unable to move at all! I just started putting one foot forward and created goals for myself. I wanted to leave the man I was with and start all over again. It was not easy and thank God Spirit told him to keep his mouth shut (I found that out years later). I kept seeing 555 everywhere. That means ‘hang onto your hat big changes are on the way.’ I kept looking and wondering.

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.

Back in the beginning when I did shows, my ex-husband used to help. He was such a green eyed monster that if a man came into the booth, he would go crazy. At least he waited until the guy left before he started fighting. I had to get rid of the hostility to keep people coming in. I finally told him he was not welcomed to come along. I noticed that my sales were less when he was around. I think he had an oompa loopa vibe that kept people away. I did notice the booths that were doing good depended on the owner and their attitude. So, I emulated that behavior. I wanted to be successful and have people feel better through aromatherapy.

In 2001, we went from this look to what it is now. I hired a graphic designer to assist in creating the look I envisioned. I told him what I wanted and didn’t feel like I was conveying it very clearly. However, I was stunned when he showed me what I asked for. I swear he got inside my head! I loved my new look for the product line. I wanted to bring in the male market, and he was male, and it just seemed to work that the product was more gender neutral but still conveyed the concept.

We introduced the new look at the Extracts show in New York in April 2011. We were well received. I hired a publicist who turned out to be a thief. She was way over priced for what little she had done and then when I fired her, she kept my product and refused to return it. Over $5,000 worth of product that she claimed she needed to send to the magazine editors. I did get some press but no sales. 🙁   …  I cut my losses.

I loved my girl so much we decided to keep her for the corporate logo and the other logo you see is the product logo. As you can see, we just cleaned her up a bit.

Kathleen Flanagan, CEO and Founder of Awakening Spirit, Aromatherapist, Sound Therapist, Esthetician and Author.