Don't hide your head inside a dream

Travelling herb peddlers used to tell their alpine customers, The day ends and the day begins with a pinch of valerian. I would not recommend it for daily use, however. It is rather a plant for times of crisis and can also be used as a little relaxation treatment. Be careful not to use it over long periods of time. In the case of continuous tension, you will simply have to change something about your life. No plant can keep absorbing that. Valerian works against anxiety and sleep troubles. It is one of the most powerful nerve herbs and is ideal for trying situations. It can also lend support in cases of headaches, menstrual pain, and migraines. Due to its relaxing effect, valerian was also valued as an aphrodisiac (only those who are truly relaxed can have a clear head for love). Once this view of the mind as expandable is established in principle, the next demand of the learning curriculum is that it should offer the opportunity to practise the whole gamut of ways of knowing and learning. On the foundation of resilience can be built greater resourcefulness. D-mode must be developed and refined, but so must the powers of intuition and imagination, of careful, non-verbal observation, of listening to the body, of detecting (without harvesting them too quickly) small seeds of insight, of basking in the mythic world of dream and reverie, of being moved without knowing why. If they were more aware of both the possibility and the value of doing so, teachers would be able to find a host of opportunities to vary more widely the learning modes which their lessons encouraged or demanded, and this is especially true of teachers in secondary, further and higher education. Many of the ways of knowing which we have been exploring are familiar to the primary school child and her teacher. But conventional content curricula tend to make the mistake of seeing them as `childish', to be supplanted, as quickly as possible, by more explicit, more articulate forms of cognition. This attitude is profoundly misguided. The slower ways of knowing do not need to be replaced. They need to be cultivated and nurtured, right on into adulthood; Intuition, for example, can readily be honed by including it explicitly within the learning context.

Love Your Mental Pictures Your mental patterns and images are made manifest by your love nature, that is by your emotional attachment. Whatever idea or desire you emotionalize and feel as true is subjectified and made manifest in your world. Make a blueprint for yourself today as you read this article, give your attention and devotion to it, adhere to it regularly and systematically, and finally your blueprint will be emotionalized and brought forth into your experience. What you love you become. At frequent intervals during the day, mentally picture what you want to be, to do, and to have. Do this lovingly, feelingly, but persistently. Do not force or coerce, but with feeling and confidence turn your mental picture over to your subconscious mind, knowing and believing that your subconscious responds to your mental impression. How a Woman Drew Lasting Love into Her Life Recently a young woman asked me, What is wrong with me? Valerian can serve as a soft brake that reduces the pressure of the daily routine and returns us again to our relaxed normal state. In magic valerian is considered a plant against evil. Its strong aroma dispels anything that is less than good-natured. Migraine Combo When it comes to migraines, valerian and lavender work extremely well together. Take valerian tablets in accordance with the package directions or make a cup of valerian tea, meaning one teaspoon valerian root per cup; After taking the tea or pills, drip lavender oil on a handkerchief and find a quiet, dark place. Breathe in the lavender smell as long as it is agreeable. Should you be nauseous from the migraine, you can add a drop of mint oil. This combination will not magically make the migraine disappear, but it will certainly shorten it and reduce the severity of the attack

Recent research on the learning of science shows that children develop a much richer understanding of how to do science, a much firmer, more flexible grasp of scientific thinking, if they are encouraged to bring their intuitions about how the world works into the laboratory with them: to share them, explore them and test them out. As we saw in article 4, intuition is a vital way of knowing in scientific research. By working with their intuitions rather than ignoring them, children are learning not just science as a body of knowledge, but to think like scientists. Cultivating a relaxed attitude of mind, in which one can `let things come', is also something that education could address. Some young people have picked up the knack for themselves; Archbishop William Temple was clearly one of the former. When I was a boy at school I used to be set the task of composing poetry in Latin, which was, as you know, rather difficult. However, I was working by candle-light, and whenever I got `stuck' and couldn't find the right phrase, I would pull off a stick of wax from the side of the candle and push it back, gently, into the flame. And then the phrase would simply come to me. Likewise there is good evidence for the value of imagination as a learning tool throughout the lifespan. I know I am well educated, I am a business executive, I am a good conversationalist, and many say that I am attractive; Why she was rejecting herself Her case is typical of a great number of women who are charming, vivacious, lovely, and of excellent character, but they are down on themselves. She had a cruel, despotic, tyrannical father, who never gave her any love or attention. He was the puritanical type, who would not permit her to play games on Sunday, and also forced her to go to church three times every Sunday. Moreover, he quarreled violently with her mother. She felt rejected by her father, who never showed any interest in her school work or general welfare. She hated him subconsciously and felt guilty about this, which set up a fear in her mind that she should be punished. Constantly arising from the crevasses of her subconscious mind was the feeling that she would be rejected, that she was unworthy of love, and that she was not very attractive. The mysterious law of attraction

Techniques for Using Herbs As promised, here are general tips for the preparation and use of plants. Measure a heaping teaspoonful of the herb per cup of boiling water and let the tea steep for seven to ten minutes. If you are working with an aromatic plant whose essential oils are central to its effect (lavender, rosemary, thyme, and linden blossoms, for example), you should cover the cup while steeping. You don't have to cover the tea if you are working with non-aromatic plants--horsetail, oak bark, or calendula, for example. Salve and Oil with Dried Herbs Add one ounce of dried herbs to about one cup of salve base (Vaseline, Shea butter, clarified butter, or lard, for example) or one cup of oil (almond oil, coconut oil, or similar). Carefully heat them in a bain-marie and strain them out and fill containers afterward. As soon as the salve cools down, you can add a little essential oil if you wish to mildly scent it. Store in a cool, dark place. Whether it be in learning physical skills such as sports, in preparing oneself for difficult encounters, or in sorting out one's own values and beliefs, active imagination and visualisation can often prove much more effective than rational self-talk. Conversely, if their imaginative birthright is allowed to atrophy through progressive neglect, learning power will be narrowed and reduced. What about mindfulness? If we want young people to become successful on the content curriculum, we can afford to teach them as if knowledge were certain. In this kind of teaching, it may well be more efficient to adopt the `textarticle' approach: to act as if knowledge, and the appropriate methods for dealing with it, were (for the most part) agreed and secure. But on the learning curriculum students must be helped to develop a greater sense of ownership of knowledge and the knowledge-making process, and this means presenting knowledge as more equivocal; If we want to start children out on a journey that heads, however remote the destination, in the direction of wisdom, then we may need to run the risk of creating some epistemological insecurity. In fact it turns out that the risk is not so great. Ellen Langer at Harvard has conducted a series of studies with both high school and college students in which different groups were presented with the same information in different ways. For example, in one study undergraduates were given a paper to read which described a theory about the evolution of urban neighbourhoods.

Like attracts like and birds of a feather flock together. Since her sense of rejection and fear of punishment were a mental state, this automatically attracted to her frustrated, neurotic, inhibited men. The law of mind works and responds negatively or positively according to the thought patterns or directions given it. How she cleansed her subconscious mind At my suggestion she wrote down the following affirmation and decided to fill her subconscious mind with the following truths for five or ten minutes in the morning, afternoon, and at night: I know Divine love dissolves everything unlike itself. I know and believe that what I consciously meditate on is impressed on my subconscious mind and will be expressed in my experience. The Self of me is God. I honor, exalt, and love the God-Self in me. Whenever I am prone to criticize or find fault with myself, I immediately affirm, I exalt God in the midst of me. Oil Infused with Fresh Herbs Add fresh herbs to sufficient oil (about two ounces of herbs to one cup oil, or eyeball it) in a vessel with a wide neck. Do not cover it with a lid, but with a clean cloth or a sieve; The herbs should remain in the oil for about two weeks, during which time the vessel must remain warm. If whitish streaks appear, it must be heated briefly (heater, hairdryer) until the oil is clear once more. These infused oils are very aromatic and can easily be used in the kitchen, made from basil and similar herbs. Essential Oils As mentioned before, essential oils should be carefully chosen; Most oils are not dangerous when used with a scent lamp, but as a rule you should read about them, preferably from multiple sources, before you utilize your essence of choice. Those who do not want to use a scent lamp or essential oil burner because of the open flame or for other reasons often use a diffuser instead, with varying results.