Today is election day here in the United States, as we all all know.  It has been tremendously divisive in many ways, with family members set against family members in some cases, and a great deal of what the revered Jin Shin Jyutsu teacher, Mary Burmeister, referred to as FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real. 

It made me  think about the importance of the blood for basic health and clear thinking.  The blood carries information and nutrients throughout the body constantly.  The immune system contributes to this flow by adding "memories", if you will, of events against which the body needs to defend itself, or  just simply remember.  A wonderful book about the immune system is FAITH, MADNESS AND SPONTANEOUS HUMAN COMBUSTION: What Immunology Can Teach us About Self Perception, by Gerald N. Callahan, Ph.D.  Greatly oversimplified here,  it means the immune system, among its myriad activities, connects with the blood stream and contributes "memories" of events.  Over time, these "memories" can influence behavior and overall health.  This is easily understood in terms of germs causing disease.  The body "remembers" that flu or cold or germ from the scraped knee and is prepared to deal with it next time round.  The same principle applies to attitudes and thinking which influence potential dis-ease.  Hereditary issues, early training in life, traumatic events, information of all sorts, and things that cause irritation, all enter the system and if not processed out, remain in the body.  One can then be functioning at less than one's best, to say the least.

Herbs can be enormously helpful in maintaining a proper balance in the blood.  Red clover is just one example:  As an herb tea, it helps clean the blood of impurities.  As a flower essence, it promotes calmness and clarity, and lessens hysteria and susceptibility to unwanted outside influences.  The clover flower essences are all excellent sleep helpers,not coincidentally.

Many indigenous healers and shamans use a practice referred to as negotiation, in which the negative elements of a client's condition are communicated with and treated in accordance with that communication.  This may indeed sound way out, however  current modern medical research shows that there is a crucial connection between the mind and the body, and the communication with all elements therein is critical to the patient's well being, no matter what the condition.  In short, one must LISTEN.  Maintaining the stability of one's immune system is not only a matter of washing hands and not touching the face during flu season (both of which are essential of course).  It is also a matter of communicating with one's own body, seeing  and hearing what has come in to it, and what should be invited to leave.  Germs and negativity are things that should not remain in one's system unexamined- the system may be sturdy enough to perform its own negotiations and work, or it may need help.  The plants and energy medicine work are both powerful adjuncts to maintaining proper functioning and well being and are always available to help us, if we but ask.