Wise Women Red Tent is moving to my Wise Woman Nurse® website in 14 days: February 7th, 2019.
Join me over there by clicking here and signing up on my PaulaYoumellRN/WiseWomenRedTent.com page.
All content will be exported by February 7th, 2019.
Thanks & Blessings of Vibrant Health, Paula
This is a blog post I wrote on my Functional Medicine RN website:
Click on the link, head over to my Professional website, and learn a little Vaginal TLC.
Going along nicely with this Vaginal TLC is a blog post written by Rachael, over at Hello Cervix, titled Cervical Care. I recommend you read both and indulge in vaginal & cervical self care & love!
Love the web page’s image:
I make 3 natural skin care products to enhance the natural health, vitality, and beauty of women:
Voluptuous V is a feminine vaginal ointment for moistening & soothing post menopausal tissue as well as providing a sensual glide for all ages.
40+ FaceFix is a facial skin product that is anti-aging (healthy aging) and repairing for Sun Loving Women. Comes in a luxurious night cream and a silky smooth day lotion.
SkinFlammation SOOTHE is just what it says: a skin soothing ointment for rashes, bug bites & stings, eczema, psoriasis, etc!
Click the product links to learn more.
Click here to purchase: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/new-products/
When we realize that every thing on Earth is Sacred, we will walk in grace with the web of life. The Earth will heal.
My love of Plant Medicine is a gift to me, to others, and to the Earth. When one sees the deep energy in plants, we naturally have a reverence for the plants and the home of these amazing healing plants. Keeping the Earth whole, clean, and safe for healing plant growth keeps the Earth whole for all of us. When we honor plant-based medicine, we live differently on this planet.
I use the Earth Pathways Diary to keep track of my year, appointments, etc. It is a beautiful calendar diary with Earth based art work, poetry, readings, etc. Every week there is something new art, creativity, poetry, etc.
I decided to submit a poem for the 2020 Edition and this is what came out of my head:
I wish I knew who created this beautiful art work. I would credit them.
Walk with Grace upon this Beautiful Planet.
Nature opens us to the possibilities of healing. Gratitude shifts that magic into action.
I am reminding you that You are Nature. Just as that tree, rooted deeply into the Earth, is a dynamic part of the flow of Nature, natural energy, so are you.
When we connect to this energy, deeply like the roots of the trees, deep self-healing begins. With this Earth connection comes a profound sense of gratitude that changes the way you function, right down to the way your individual cells function.
Take a Mighty Tree for example. Go outside, barefoot, and hug a Tree closely. Let go of all other thoughts, yup, Tree Meditation begins now. Allow yourself to experience how the roots run deeply into the Earth, how the branches reach high into the Sky, and how every leaf on the Tree is engaged in photosynthesis and breath to benefit every being on this planet.
The Gratitude We Can Express to the Trees:
When we walk the Earth, literally, with gratitude for every gift She gives us daily (food, medicine, shelter, water, air, light…) we begin to interact differently with ourselves, others, and the Earth as a whole.
This very energy is a gift of Self Healing.
Homework: Hug a Tree, barefoot. Now turn around and hug a tree backwards, spine to spine with the tree. Every day, find at least one being in your natural environment to thank for being there. Deeply think about that beings purpose in the web of life as you are thinking of reasons to thank it. Payoff of this homework: your life will be ripe with the Magic of Gratitude.
“If you ask me what is the most important thing that I have learned about being a Haudenosaunee, it’s the idea that we are connected to a community, but a community that transcends time.
We’re connected to the first Indians (people)* who walked on this earth, the very first ones, however long ago that was. But we’re also connected to those Indians (people)* who aren’t even born yet, who are going to walk this earth. And our job in the middle is to bridge that gap. You take the inheritance from the past, you add to it, your ideas and your thinking, and you bundle it up and shoot it to the future. And there is a different kind of responsibility. That is not just about me, my pride and my ego, it’s about all that other stuff. We inherit a duty, we inherit a responsibility. And that’s pretty well drummed into our heads. Don’t just come here expecting to benefit. You come here to work hard so that the future can enjoy that benefit.”
Rick Hill Sr. (Tuscarora)
Chair, Haudenosaunee Stabding Committee on NAGPRA
*(people) The word people is my addition because we are all one with all other beings on this Earth.
We are spirits having a human experience.
We are part of the Collective Soul… the Spirit of the Earth, the Spirit of the Universe.
As humans, we tend to see ourselves as separate; separate from other humans, separate from all other forms of life, including separate from the life of the Earth as a whole.
We see ourselves in the container of our bodies. The edges of our bodies are where we end and the rest of the world begins.
When we realize we are a pulsating light, a spirit without a container, and that the whole Earth (whole Universe…) is our container, we begin to sense – see – feel our oneness with everything. We are everything.
We are all related. We are all connected. We are all one. *Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ
How you walk through your day, the world, does not impact just your life. It impacts everyone and everything, the Earth as a Whole.
Your ripple in the world impacts us all.
Your attitude, the energy you give off, either lifts up the Collective Soul or drags it down.
Are you a Lifter or a Dragger?
*Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ (All Are Related) is a phrase from the Lakota language. It reflects the world view of interconnectedness held by the Lakota people of North America.
Life Can Be Fragile. Life Can be Fleeting. Embrace every moment for its Sacred & Magical (are they not the same?) Energy.
On June 12th, 2018 I filmed this very young Fawn, still slightly wobbly on its legs, as it walked along the opposite side of my swim quarry.
Yesterday, July 3rd, I lifted this same beautiful being’s body from the side of the road. I carried her into the woods to lay her to rest under a Great White Pine, a Tree of Life. As I walked; fawn in my arms, tears running down my face, and my heart broken, Momma Deer was right close by in the woods. My heart broke open even bigger knowing there she still was, close by her baby’s body.
I share this with much positivity as bizarre as that sounds. I am listening to the messages of the Universe. The past month has held much wisdom in lessons for me as I have been immersed in some Earth shattering wake up calls.
Last night, as I sat next to the campfire with my two sons and their rowdy teen friends – time was closing in on midnight and I wanted to be in bed 2 hours ago so I could be up to witness the beauty of the Sunrise – I took several deep breaths {in pink, out blue, surround myself in yellow 
}. I am ecstatically grateful my boys, 16 & 19, want to hang with their Mom, Dad, and Nancy by the campfire AND so do their friends. We tell stories, ask questions of the newcomers to get to know them, and laugh until we go to bed exhausted and reeking of campfire. Did I mention the S’mores and endless roasted marshmallows? I will catch the Sunrise another day… maybe on those mornings when I am wishing my kids were still here to sit around the campfire with me/us.
Embrace life. Live fully in every moment. Sit by the campfire until the embers and playful communications cease.
Snow Plowing just got FUN.
Well, that is until I finished plowing, moved my car out of the tractor’s side of the garage (with the 2×4 propped overhead door), and got back on my tractor to put it away… yup, the damned snow plow goes by and plugs the end of my driveway again.
From the time I was old enough to know what hormonal birth control was (in my younger days only the “pill” was available. Now hormonal birth control is invading females’ bodies in many forms.) I always had this gut feeling: “there is just something wrong with hormones being used to tamper with female’s bodies. This is not normal, natural, and cannot be good for the body in any way, shape, or form.”
For years I worked in OB/GYN nursing watching hormonal birth control pills getting shoved down the throats of teens, sometimes as soon as they started their periods. BC pills were prescribed to young teen girls for various reasons:
I phased into teaching junior & senior high health ed classes in public school, private schools, colleges, and community based non-profits. Over 20+ years, the percentage of young girls I saw who were on the pill* rose steadily. The beginning age that many girls are put on hormonal birth control kept dropping.
Hormonal birth control is an area where much education is needed. Moms, in desperation to help their daughters, listen to the medical explanation about how helpful hormonal birth control is for their daughter’s “menstrual” issues. Mothers and daughters are told how it is actually healthier for the daughters to be on the pill than not on the pill.
I can see how this early prescription for hormonal BC happens. Mothers just wants what is seemingly best for her daughter. The doctor does know best… correct?
When I was a teen, there was a deep space of common sense inside me that made me realize there was nothing good or natural about hormonal birth control. Three plus decades later, we know the horrible side and long-term effects that women have experienced with menopausal hormone replacement therapies. We are now starting to learn the horrors of hormonal birth control.
As a Natural & Functional Medicine Health Educator, I work with clients one on one. I have seen the ravages of hormonal birth control on womens’ lives.
I have worked with women to wean off the pill, repair the damage and deficiencies, heal the gut, end the depressive cycles, and get their lives back after sometimes years on hormonal birth control.
Educate yourself. Educate your daughters and granddaughters. Educate your husbands and your sons so they are advocates for their daughters & partners to not be using any form of hormonal birth control.
Learn more.
A medical doctors thoughts on hormonal birth control:
5 Reasons To Rethink Your Birth Control Method
published in mindbodygreen
A very insightful book to raise questions about the wisdom in avoiding all hormonal methods of birth control.
When it comes to caring for your body… nature knows best.
*on the pill can now be many forms of hormonal BC: on the oral BC pill, hormonal shots of birth control, implants, cervical rings, IUDs with hormones… and the list grows of ways we can alter a womans menstrual cycle with synthetic hormones.
It has been a bit of time since I posted here! Take a seat dear female friends… I have much to tell you and good Menopausal Magic to share with your feminine spirits.
My Natural Health Education / Functional Medicine Consultation practice is a busy space for me to be in! And… I have been up to other stuff as well: new book released co-authored with a dearly loved, local healer friend, Jenny Morrill.
And…Keep reading for a peak into the new Vaginal Love herbal product I am releasing, soon, with another local healer and dear soul sister: Acupuncturist Shelby Connelly of Five Elements Living Retreat Center in Colton, NY.
Our New Book To Inspire Your Self Healing
I am here today to share a bit of Menopausal Magical Wisdom. I confess, I do not have many symptoms of menopause. Once in a while a skipped period… but that is to be expected at 52.
Keeping the body healthy and avoiding symptoms of any dis – ease is an easy path to walk when you commit to self-care, self healing:
If interested in healing self… the resources on my Natural Health Education website can get you there for Free if you are committed to you!
So, what if I do have some symptoms of menopause, Paula?
Hot flashes, gushing periods leaking all over the place, moodiness, heart palpitations, etc., etc., etc?
Following the above whole food & whole health choices will self heal these menopausal change challenges.
Using herbs to nourish the body back to health is another great choice to assist the above whole health living habits. Herbs are plants. Plants are food. Food nourishes body cells.
Red Raspberry Leaves tone the uterus. Who doesn’t want a fit, muscular, sexy uterus at any age? This helps to prevent all the “medical reasons” we get advised to cut it out of our bodies. Keep your beautiful uterus… it was meant to be in your pelvis: the bowl of your feminine wisdom!
Red Clover Flowers balance hormones and help to clean the blood.
Stinging Nettle Leaves are an awesome, amazing, whole body cell nourisher. If you took the time to read the Whole Food link back there… you now know that nourishing your body cells is key to vibrant health!
Motherwort: Hot flashes, heart palpitations, and moodiness anyone? Feel like you are about to snap? Let your Mother love you up.
Sarsaparilla Root: a healthy liver breaks down hormones to be excreted through the colon. Sarsaparilla root helps to keep the liver healthy and doing its job of detoxing and breaking down hormones. Dandelion root, burdock root, and milk thistle seeds are other liver nourishing herbs to assist in healthy liver menopausal magic. (Shhhh, I did not make this tincture!)
Flooding periods leaving a mess in your life (and clothes? Not to mention car seat, bed…) Wild Yam to the rescue! Years ago I used wild yam for birth control but that is another topic. ; ) I came home to wild yam after I had my first, and only I might add, flooding period. I take 3 of these capsules every AM & every PM. No floods ever again for me. I suspect Wild Yam also nourishes my body cells to create a peaceful & magical menopausal transition for me (along with my whole food & living habits.) So many women suffer from flooding and are told to get ablation (I would never, ever, recommend this procedure to anyone… find the root cause of your struggles and heal them!) and/or a hysterectomy (another procedure I would not recommend save for the very extreme reasons). Wild Yam also helps to keep our bones strong well into our Medicine Woman / Crone Wisdom Years! (This Link will take you to several post I have written on the magical nourishing effects of Wild Yam.)
Stay with me here good Women… I have a lot to say after so long a hiatus!
OK, another HUGE issue with the menopausal years in what the medical field calls vaginal atrophy. Let me just say, creating such negative terms around the female body is just wrong. It keeps us in the mentality that there is something wrong with our bodies, that our feminine organs are innately weak and malfunctioning. This my friends is pure and unadulterated bullshit. We are strong; we have powerful and wise feminine organs!
If we follow Wise Woman Nourishing Healing Ways… see all my whole food / whole health suggestions above… our vaginas can remain strong even as we age.
Will they not age?
No, we can’t be silly, aging happens.
But, we can age with grace, strength, and divine dignity!
Eat well, play well, whole food – whole health yourself up, use herbs to nourish that which needs nourishing, have sex, do kegels… AND… here’s the biggy I have been waiting to share:
A while back in my Wise Woman blogging career, I wrote a post on Voluptuous Vagina™’s. At that point, I had been making a vaginal cream / ointment for a couple of years. I had friends and clients who complained of the vaginal dryness and issues that accompany aging in our amazing female bodies. I, of course, recommended all of the whole health lifestyle changes but I also whipped up this above Luxe Feminine Emollient pictured as I had a 60 year old gal friend who wanted relief and comfortable sex with her new man. It is now several years later and I have shared the formula with a handful (or two) of friends and clients who just love it!
I was telling my acupunturist friend & soul sister, Shelby Connelly, of this magic elixir I make for friends and she said…
And so the story goes… we have started our self care, self healing business together.
Sending healing, feminine love, Paula
WiseWomenRedTent 