What’s the first thing you do when you step outside on a beautiful spring morning?

Why take a deep breath and smile, of course. The soft fragrant air encourages you to blow out the winter blahs and recharge in the spring sunshine.

The lungs are a major detoxification organ. Taking a deep breath benefits your lungs and your whole body.

Every time you exhale, you breathe out CO2 and other metabolic byproducts. When you inhale, you nourish your lungs and all the cells in your body with life-supporting oxygen.

You detox and nourish every time you breathe.

Often, however, we breathe too shallowly to get the full benefit.

For a good spring cleaning, deep yogic breaths are the way to go.

Start by sitting comfortably with your spine straight and your hands on your belly.

As you inhale through your nose, push your tummy out. You will feel your hands move forward as your stomach expands. This expansion contracts the diaphragm which expands the lower portion of your lungs, pulling in more air. Inhale for a slow count of four, letting your shoulders rise to allow in the most possible air.

Next, hold your breath with your stomach still sticking out for a count of two.

Now, start a leisurely exhale. Lower your shoulders gently, contract your abdominal muscles, feel your hands move in toward your spine. Push the air out your nose for a steady count of eight. (You can do a count of six if eight feels too long.)

When you’ve finished the exhale, hold the emptiness for a count of two. Let yourself feel the contraction of your stomach and the empty tension in your chest.

Then slowly start to inhale, starting the cycle again. Start with five breaths. Work your way up to ten.

(If you feel dizzy, change your breathing to normal and rest a few minutes before resuming.)

This gentle cleansing breath is a great way to release the stresses of the day. It might become a welcome part of your daily routine.

With psoriasis the body produces skin cells five times faster than normal. It is characterized by silvery scaly skin or red patches.

As with any health condition, think about what was happening in your life when it started. What was your body trying to tell you? Thank it for its message. Act on it if you can.

Nutrition helps control psoriasis. Consuming lots of anti-oxidants (those free-radical scavengers in fresh fruit and vegetables that get rid of metabolic by-products in our bodies) has been connected with fewer flare-ups.

Omega-3 fatty acids (found in cold-water fish such as salmon, mackeral and herring) reduce the body’s production of prostaglandins and leukotrines — compounds that cause skin inflammation. Just 6oz of fish a day can noticeably improve psoriasis in six weeks.

Other essential fatty acids are found in flaxseed oil and evening primrose oil, also good for the skin. A liquid mineral supplement (or sea vegetables) provides the minerals that are the building blocks of the body.

My clients reduce flare-ups by avoiding red meat. I could always tell when a particular client succumbed to the 39 cent cheeseburger—his psoriasis was redder and more itchy. Avoiding red meat and other inflammatory foods eases the symptoms. (Different foods cause inflammatory responses in different people—it’s good to see a holistic nutritional consultant about which foods are challenging your body.)

I usually recommend cleanses for skin conditions because the skin is one of the organs of elimination. Liver and colon cleanses are available at health food stores, or get a referral to a good colonic therapist.

Externally, many people have found that applying a cream with Ester-C, a form of Vitamin C, helps soothe the itching and inflammation.

Of course, our bodies reflect our emotional states as well. I have found psoriasis to be linked to poor boundaries. The skin thickens and flares up in an effort to ward off outside influences. If you find you are often doing things because others say you should rather than because you want to, it’s time to sit down and figure out your goals, your principles, your beliefs. Then start saying no to things that are not in alignment with you.

I’ve also noticed that flare-ups are linked to the heat of anger. If you’re suppressing your anger, being a “nice” person, then it’s got to come out somewhere—possibly through your skin. Why not choose a better way? Write your anger. Shout your anger. Dance your anger.

Psoriasis flare-ups are also linked with stress. Deep breathing is an excellent stress-buster and it clears those other organs of elimination, the lungs. Just five minutes of rhythmic deep breathing each day will help you feel calmer and more balanced, which in turn will help your skin.

Remember that your body is your ally. As you listen to it and nurture it, it will respond with greater health and well-being.

On these beautiful summer evenings, a gentle stroll is a wonderful way to end the day.

When we were travelling in early June, we walked for miles through Paris and London, ending our days with strolls down Boulevard Saint Michel or through the streets of Bloomsbury as the last thing we did before bed. And it felt great.

The human body loves to walk. It’s been doing it for millenia, and if our minds get out of the way, it does a great job of it.

I always feel bad when I see people limping or shuffling or walking with their feet turned funny. I want to stop them and show them that if they just relax their body and let it move naturally, they will walk more easily.

Of course, most shoes don’t help.

Why not take some time this summer to practice walking the way your body likes to.

Start with your feet. First of all, do your shoes have adequate padding for the surface you’re walking on? The most important job of a shoe is to protect the spine from the jarring of the foot against concrete.

Stand with your feet hip distance apart, toes facing forward, feet and knees relaxed.

Move your foot forward, toes still facing forward, not to the side. Put your heel down, then the ball of your foot, then gently push off with your toes as your other foot supports you. Pause in mid stride—the forward foot flat on the ground and the back one partially raised, with just the ball of the foot on the ground. Notice what your toes and feet are doing. Notice the tiny muscular movements in your feet and legs that are keeping you balanced. What is the rest of your body doing? Any clenched muscles you can relax? Any constricted spaces you can lengthen?

Next take a few steps, making sure your toes are pointing forward. Does it feel funny? Most people turn their feet out or in a little, causing problems with the knees in the long run. So start now to practice walking with your toes pointing in the direction you are walking.

Next, focus on the upper part of your body. Look forward and balance your head evenly on your shoulders. Let your neck be long and loose. Relax your shoulders and let your arms swing naturally with your steps. Relax your fingers.

Allow your back muscles to relax. See if you can let your spine elongate with the upper part stretching up and the lower part releasing downwards to your lower back and hips. Allow your thigh bone to move in the hip joint, swinging forward easily.

There’s no need to move quickly. Instead, let your face relax into a little smile, let your shoulders and hips move with your steps, and allow your body to enjoy the walk.

Dandelions are is a great spring tonic. They are known for getting the lymph and bowels moving, stimulating the liver, releasing excess fluid, and lowering cholesterol.

They are traditionally eaten in the spring to clean out the sludge of winter.

Unfortunately, dandelions are very bitter—too bitter for me to enjoy as a steamed vegetable. So instead I turn them into a tonic.

It’s a simple project. I steep fresh dandelion leaves in vinegar for six weeks to create a tonic with all the goodness and none of the bitterness.

Dandelion leaves are high in calcium and other minerals, and the vinegar pulls these bone-healthy nutrients out of the leaves so it is easy for our bodies to absorb.

I use apple cider vinegar for the tonic because when it is taken with a meal, it has been found to balance blood sugar levels.

Wash organic dandelion greens, dry off the excess water, and push as many as possible into a 1-quart canning jar. Then add Braggs organic apple cider vinegar until all the leaves are submerged. I put a piece of plastic wrap over the jar (so the vinegar does not erode the metal lid), screw on the lid, and store the jar in my cool dark pantry for six weeks. Then I strain out the leaves (which go on the compost) and the zesty mineral-rich vinegar is ready to use.

You can put a spoonful of the dandelion tonic in water and drink it with a meal as a digestive aid, or add it to salad dressing. I sprinkle a spoonful on the bean salads I eat at lunch time. This way I get digestive enzymes, blood sugar support and bone-building minerals all in one simple tonic.

If there’s one piece of advice I could give everyone, it is don’t worry.

Worry causes so much pain and distress to the physical and energetic bodies. I had a client today who was not sleeping well, and it was due to the worry she was holding in her abdomen.

But there’s so much to worry about, you say.

Okay, then schedule your worrying for thirty minutes a day or a week. And the rest of the time train your brain in other directions.

Worrying is different to brainstorming. Taking a problem out and looking at it and seeing what can be done is a useful and satisfying project. Until you realize there is nothing you can do about it. Then you need the wisdom to let it go. Your worrying will not help it get better.

Worry is often held in the third chakra, in the area of the adrenals (stress glands) and pancreas (blood sugar regulator).

It’s also where we hold our addiction to drama. Notice what you do when you worry. You create imaginary scenarios in your head. If this, then that. This terrible person might do that. This awful thing might happen.

It’s great to be creative, but worrying is not the best way to use your creative energy.

If you find yourself hooked on the drama of your worry, channel the energy into your creative center instead and paint or write or draw or work with clay. Dance, sing, play. Do something creative with all that drama. Don’t waste it on worry.

If your mind runs amok with worry, give it something else to think about. Some people are able to soothe themselves with affirmations: All is well. I trust that all will turn out for the highest good of all concerned.

However some minds find those too boring and repetitive. They need something they can get their teeth into, like worry. For a mind like this, you need to find something else to distract it. Multiplication tables, learning a new language so you can conjugate verbs in your head, planning how to redecorate your living room, even the complex plot of your favorite movie or book can give your mind something to pull at and work on without giving you worry and stress.

Remember, you control your mind. You choose whether to worry.

Your body would appreciate it if you chose something else.

I was asked at the grocery store today if I wanted to donate to breast cancer.

Not breast cancer research. Breast cancer. Who the heck would want to donate to that?

I’ve spent this breast cancer-awareness month (October 2010) frustrated and bemused at the way our society approaches cancer. (NFL players have been wearing pink shoes to draw attention to breast cancer. How does that accomplish anything?)

As you know, I preach self-responsibility. Care for your body (healthy food, exercise, relaxation), your mind (stress management, positive thinking), your emotions (have fun!), and your spirit (enjoy the interconnectedness of all life).

Along with self-responsibility comes responsibility to the planet and those around us. I do a lot of voting with my dollars—I give money to local organic farmers, not large pesticide-using multi-nationals like Archer-Daniels-Midlands and Monsanto. I drive a 1996 car that gets 32 mpg because I want to put less petrochemicals into our environment and use fewer of the precious resources that can do so much damage to our planet in their extraction.

And I know you do these things too.

So when I sit across from a dear client recently diagnosed with cancer, I know she is doing all the right things, and yet she has embarked on a battle for her life. (One that is lucrative to the U.S. economy—each cancer diagnosis puts a quarter million dollars into the U.S. economy. That weirds me out. Why are we making money off illness? Could we erase the deficit if we all got cancer? Something is really wrong here.)

I grieve with my clients who have cancer. And there is no way in hell I am telling them that the diagnosis is their fault.

Cancer, like all major illnesses, is an opportunity to step back from our lives and take stock. To look at our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels of existence and see what we can improve and change.

But I refuse to buy into the new age conceit that people create their cancers. I think it is far more complicated than that.

Sure, our thoughts and emotions affect our bodies. As does the food we eat and the air we breathe. Our basic approach to the world—passive or antagonistic, pro-active or defeatist—affects our chemical make-up.

But that’s not what gives us cancer.

Scientists are looking for drugs to fight cancer, and doctors are pushing procedures like mammograms for early diagnoses.

But who is looking at the foundation chemical cause for cells in our bodies to mutate and for our immune systems not to be able to stop them?

The World Wildlife Fund. That’s who. And they’ve been doing it since the 1980s. (Click here to see their latest push on hormone disruptors—chemicals that are affecting sex hormones in animals and humans.) I was teaching about hormone disruptors in the 1990s. None of this is new. But the chemicals are still being dumped into the environment.

And we live in the environment we have created. Thanks to big business, it is a toxic environment. Name an industry: farming, mining, oil exploration, electronics—all pollute our environment.

I can choose with my dollars all I want, but I alone cannot get big business to change its anti-environment tactics. (Can you believe the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was still denying global warming in 2009? It has finally buckled to public pressure, on the surface, but it is still resisting. Read more here.)

So who is supposed to balance the avaricious tendanacies of business with the basic needs of the people? Government. That’s who. By the people, for the people.

So our other responsibility, beyond taking care of ourselves, is to take care of the air, water and earth—the commons. And we do this by voting.

I know, at election time it’s all anger and hatred out there in attack-ad land. I mute the t.v. and radio too. But you can be an informed voter without subjecting yourself to all that stupidity.

Go to the website for the candidate or proposition you’re voting on, and see who endorses them. You know which organizations you trust, be it the League of Women Voters or the Sierra Club or whoever. See who the people you trust are endorsing. They have done the research and looked beyond the lies and are willing to stand behind their endorsement. Look at your options, make your choices, and vote.

Remember, although corporations are buying millions of dollars worth of ads, they cannot buy your vote. Your vote, which suffragettes and civil rights activists fought to get for you, is yours to use, and yours alone.

I’m not going to tell you who to vote for. That’s your decision. But make sure to get to the polls at election time.

Voting is one way you do your part to make the world a better place. Your vote is more effective than a football player wearing pink shoes.

This article has taken me months to write because the topic makes me angry. And anger is not useful except as a way to blow off steam, shift the energy, and notice that change is needed. So I’ve done my best to shift the energy. It’s up to all of us to make the changes that will lead to fewer diagnoses of osteopenia and osteoporosis.

The first thing that upsets me is that osteopenia is a disease created by drug companies. If you don’t have osteoporosis, but might be heading in that direction, then they label it osteopenia and prescribe a “preventative” drug. Any preventative that requires regular blood tests to check for liver damage comes at a pretty high cost in my book. Especially since the best ways to stop bone thinning do not require the use of drugs.

The one consistency I’ve found with osteopenia and osteoporosis is that women diagnosed with it freak out.

And who can blame them? We live in a fear-based society and practice fear-based medicine. And I don’t think it’s healthy.

I understand why women worry about their bones. Thinner bones break more easily in falls. We’ve all heard of elderly women falling, breaking a hip, ending up in a nursing home, and rapidly deteriorating. It’s not a scenario I would wish on anyone.

However, drugs are not the solution. The drugs I’ve seen prescribed for bone density (including Fosamax) stop your body from breaking down old bone cells. Bones are made of cells that are continually broken down and replaced with newer healthier cells (as are all organs in your body). Drugs like Fosamax interfere with that process, so your bones become full of dead cells. On a bone scan this looks like more density. For your body, however, it’s a serious disturbance. And let’s not go into the side effects of these drugs. No, instead let us look at ways to keep our bones strong and healthy our whole life, without drugs.

It is normal as the body starts to make less estrogen after menopause for the bones to become less dense. How much less dense depends on a number of factors including nutrition, exercise and stress.

First, weight-bearing exercise pushes calcium into your bones. It can be weights, yoga, gardening, pilates, stair climbing. Even walking is weight bearing. Do half an hour a day, every day.

There was an article in the LA Times recently about grannies in Africa taking up the game of soccer as exercise. This is no small feat in a country where grannies are supposed to stay quietly at home, not rush about kicking a ball. The women interviewed said their health was improving, they had fewer aches and pains, and they were having fun. What are you doing for fun and exercise? If soccer’s not your thing, how about dancing, swimming, tai chi, or just walking around your neighborhood with a friend? Whatever you do, keep moving!

Second, eat foods naturally high in calcium like dried beans and leafy greens. Calcium-fortified foods do not necessarily contain forms of calcium your body can absorb. Greens are the most readily absorbed form of calcium you can eat, and also contain other vitamins and minerals to help your body use the calcium. See my blog, Joy’s Organic Kitchen, for recipes and nutritional information on greens and beans. Eat beans daily—chickpeas, black beans, hummus. Use Beano if you need help digesting them. Nuts and seeds are also good absorbable sources of calcium if you chew them well.

Third, avoid sodas. Soft drinks (whether diet or regular) are high in phosphorous which pulls calcium out of your bones. (Catch a soda company telling you that!)

Finally (and you’re going to laugh at this one), avoid stress.

We focus so much on calcium being necessary for bone strength, but your body’s first use for calcium is the nervous system. A close second is the heart. At the bottom of the list are your bones. They are where the extra calcium is stored.

So to get calcium into your bones, you need to first take care of your nervous system.

All that worrying you’re doing about osteopenia is taking calcium out of your bones.

The way to strong bones is to relax.

The cruel irony is that at the time that women need to stop worrying in order to protect their bones is the time when society starts to ignore them and it can get harder for them to make ends meet.

I wish I could change society so it honored older women. I wish we cared enough to create a social safety net so older women could live comfortably in their homes until they die. I wish female elders were regarded with respect and compassion, and given a role in society and family as they have been in cultures older than ours. I think we can all work to change the current social stereotypes around the aging female.

But that’s long-term change. In the meantime, I encourage you to support and honor yourself.

Reclaim your power from the drug companies, who are only out to drain your wallet.

Instead, use your power to create health within you. Take the physical steps listed above, and most importantly take control of your mind—your most potent ally against stress.

Start by committing not to worry. About your bones. About yourself. About your family. Worry does not serve anyone, but it does pull calcium from your bones into your nervous system.

Instead of worrying, focus on the positive. Think of what you can do to help you, to make you happy, to make you feel good. If you find yourself worrying about the future, guide your mind to thinking about ways the future can be positive. If you’re worrying about a family member, think instead about that person’s strengths

Practice feeling supported. Chances are you’ve spent your whole life taking care of others and neglecting yourself. You might have forgotten what it feels like to allow yourself to feel fully supported. Here is an exercise to help you with that: Lie down on your bed. Feel your body touching the bed. Allow yourself to sink into it. Feel how the bed fully supports your body. You can completely let go, knowing that the bed will support you. Let all your muscles, bones, joints and ligaments relax into that support. Tell yourself “I am completely supported, and it feels good.” Not only does this exercise feel good, but it calms your nervous system, and lets all the cells of your body embrace the energy of support and feeling good.

Meditation is a great practice for gaining control of the mind. Look around for books or classes that appeal to you.

The Radiance Technique® is an excellent stress buster. Come in for a session with me, or learn to do it yourself (of course, then you actually have to do it—all techniques only work if you use them).

You could also practice creative visualization. See the good in your life right now, and visualize how it can get better. The book Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain is my favorite.

Two great books on menopause and postmenopause (the times to be most concerned with bone loss) are The Wisdom of Menopause by Christiane Northrup, M.D. and Menopausal Years by herbalist and wise woman Susun Weed. Energy Medicine for Women by Donna Eden contains many simple exercises for women of all ages to help balance their hormones—something which helps with bone retention.

Laugh often. Enjoy good friends. (Want more good friends? Use the daily affirmation “I am wanting to attract into my life friends with whom I can laugh and feel connected in a healthy mutually-supporting way.” Notice the good things in people around you and focus on attracting more of that into your experience.)

Finally, remember and recover your inner strength. Draw on it. Live it. You are woman, you are strong. I look forward to hearing you roar.

Last night for dinner I had a delicious mediterranean-inspired meal that filled my tummy and lifted my spirits. It was a simple dish of roast eggplant and tomato with cannelini beans. I stirred a little saffron into the pan juices, which I mopped up with garlic oregano biscuits. While I munched, I thought of where the food came from.

The cannelini beans were from Sun Coast Farms in Lompoc. The tomatoes were from Finley Farms in Ventura. The eggplants were from my garden, along with the chile and the fresh oregano in the biscuits. The garlic is from a family farm out toward the windmills, where chickens peck in the orchards and the farmer’s sons bring the produce to market. The staples such as flour and olive oil came from Granny’s Pantry, a local independently owned health food store near my office. The buttermilk in the biscuits I made by adding a squirt of lemon juice from the tree by my back door to some organic milk from Trader Joe’s.

I love being able to trace the food I eat back to its origins. For me that’s part of the experience of cooking and eating. It’s why I prefer eating at home to eating in restaurants or eating take-out.

My husband tells me that not everyone eats this way. And judging from the number of fast-food franchises and mega supermarkets, I guess he’s right.

I started eating this way in Montreal in the 1990s when I was part of a Community Supported Agriculture Project. I paid a yearly fee to Jamie Quinn, an organic farmer in Elgin, Quebec, and he delivered me a box of food each week containing a selection of whatever his farm, La Terre Bleu, was producing. In the winter, the boxes were less frequent and contained what he was able to store—mainly apples, potatoes and carrots. I was forced to learn to cook seasonally, in part because my meager student budget didn’t allow me to buy costly organic produce shipped in from California. And yet my body thrived on a simple diet of beans, grains and vegetables.

I think most people have a yearning to be more connected to their planet and to their food. There are more people at the Hollywood farmers’ market at 8 a.m. on Sunday than there used to be, and they’re not just buying flowers. I can feel a growing movement of people wanting to eat real food, and to be connected to where their food comes from.

Eating a meal like the one I had last night nourishes body, mind and spirit. It’s simple to make and relatively inexpensive. Especially here in southern California with its year-round farmers’ markets and freshly harvested produce, cooking and eating locally-grown seasonal food is a breeze.

After much prompting from people asking me to share more about healthy eating and maintaining a healthy kitchen, I’ve decided to share some of what I’ve learned over my 20 years of buying, cooking and eating whole foods.

I’m doing it as a blog called Joy’s Organic Kitchen. Please check it out, and I hope you enjoy what I have to share. You can post comments and suggestions as you read.

Happy eating!

I think daydreaming is highly under-rated. Letting the mind wander while the eye watches the clouds passing or the trees waving in the breeze is a calming way to let go, to release the cares and worries of daily life, and return to center.

Have you noticed that sometimes when your mind wanders it goes down channels that make you uncomfortable—remembering a bad job interview, or a fight with a friend, or an embarrassing childhood incident? Sometimes our minds get into ruts that do not serve us, and it is up to us to create new pathways for the mind to follow.

How do you know your mind is going somewhere unhelpful? You feel it in your stomach, right? That uncomfortable feeling, guilt, sadness, shame, anger, stress. Any of the negative emotions that can be summed up with the expression “feeling bad.” This is not to say that the emotions are bad, but that they generate a bad feeling within you.

That bad feeling is a sign that it’s time to pull your mind back from that particular channel and send it down another one, one that generates positive emotions that make you feel good. After all, while you’re daydreaming, shouldn’t you be feeling good? This is about letting go of the worries of the world, not ruminating on them, not digging up the past to feel uncomfortable about.

Actually, I think our minds spend a lot of time focused on things that make us feel bad.

Watch your mind today. Notice how often it follows familiar ruts that generate negative emotion within you. It’s easier to notice how you feel inside than it is to follow your mind. When you “feel bad,” check what you are thinking about. And change it. Find another path for your mind to follow. Regain control of your mind and your experience.

(This is not denying that there are stressors in your life—past, present and future. Think of the stressors in the moment when you are actively engaged with them, otherwise leave them alone. For example, if there’s a problem at work, think about it at work in a constructive manner—do your problem-solving, or get help, or accept that it’s insoluble and find a way to live with it. Give it to your unconscious, intuitive mind to work on and leave it there. Don’t let it be the theme of your day. Still enjoy interactions with others, a walk outside at lunchtime, other parts of your workday. At the end of the day, let it go completely and go home thinking of things that make you feel good.)

I offer a 30-day challenge to start the process of retraining your mind.

For one month, start each day with the intention that you will see only things that you want to be, do or have. In other words, you will only see things that generate a positive emotion within you.

Keep reminding yourself of this throughout the day, and you will notice that where previously you might have seen a traffic jam, instead you will see an opportunity to look at your surroundings for things that you would like to be, do or have. You might see the person in the car next to you singing to the radio, and you can feel their happiness. Or you might see that the car is one that you want and you can take the time to enjoy the idea of having it. Or you might see a pretty planter with flowers you would like to add to your garden. You get the idea. Instead of focusing on being stuck in traffic and generating negative emotion, you focus on the things that you want to see, do or have, thus generating positive emotion. The traffic is still stuck, but you feel good.

After 30 days of daily practice, not only will this become a habit, but your life will be transformed.

Many people complain of pain in their knees. It’s often diagnosed as arthritis, but what is of more interest to me is what caused the pain to develop.

There are many possible reasons for knee problems, whether they manifest as arthritis, tendon problems or something else. The joints in the legs are connected with moving forward, changing directions, following your path. Are you doing what you love? Are you wavering over a big decision? Do you have fear of your future? What was going on in your life when your knees first started hurting?

Knees are also connected with the base chakra, and represent support and stability. Do you feel solid in your foundation? Do you feel safe? Do you feel confident of your place in the world?

While you’re considering these questions, ease the pain with a ginger compress. (Slice fresh ginger into a pot of water and simmer—not boil—10 minutes. Soak a towel in the hot water and wrap your painful joints. Replace when the towel cools.)

On a physical level, joint pain often originates from either arthritis or tendon trauma. There are two kinds of arthritis: osteo-arthritis where the joint is damaged and worn down, and rheumatoid arthritis where the joint is inflamed.

With rheumatoid arthritis (characterized by swelling and heat), I recommend checking for food sensitivities (especially wheat, dairy and citrus) and tired adrenal glands, both of which aggravate inflammation. For low-functioning adrenal glands I often recommend miso soup, found at Japanese restaurants and in packets in grocery stores. (Watch the sodium count if you are on a low-sodium diet.) Miso nourishes the adrenals. With rheumatoid arthritis, there can also be a viral component, so work to boost your immune system.

For osteoarthritis, I recommend taking supplements to increase the cartilage in the joint. For some people, glucosamine and chondroitin work really well. Others do better on SAM-e. Remember to drink lots of water.

Modern medicine is doing wonders with knee replacement and other techniques. Explore these options as necessary, just make sure you do the metaphysical work as well or your body will have to find other ways to get your attention. Also, don’t take surgery lightly. Any time the body is cut open, it requires time and help to recover. Please call me to discuss ways of helping your body get through surgery as easily as possible.

Pulled or tight tendons are often responsible for joint pain. Tendons are the muscle extensions that attach to the joints. With chronically tight muscles the joints can be pulled microscopically out of alignment, enough to cause wear and tear on the joint, possibly leading to arthritis. I had a client recently who said she didn’t feel tense. Yet when I led her through a visualization for her thigh muscles, her whole leg noticeably softened and her knee joint was able to relax into its normal position for the first time in ages. Chronic pain often leads to tight muscles as the body stiffens against the pain. At least once a day, lie down and do a progressive relaxation through your whole body.

Also, see a good bodyworker who can release this tightness from your tendons and ligaments.

If you get a new pain in a joint, consider first that it might be the tendons. Remember rest, ice, compression and elevation. Pull out an ACE bandage and a pack of frozen peas and loll on the couch.

Use this pain as guidance and make the necessary adjustments to your life. When in doubt, find a health pracititioner who can help you on your healing journey.