Back to July 2007
Natural Healing - July 2007
A Modern Day Alchemist
by Sydney L. Murray
Alchemy is the art of manipulating life, and consciousness in matter, to help it evolve, or to solve problems of inner disharmonies. Jean Dubuis
After visiting with Regina Di Silvestro, the owner and creator of RD Alchemy Natural Products, I realized I had met a modern day alchemist; albeit one that was devoted to health, well being and beauty. You cannot believe how amazing her lotions and potions smell. They are heavenly. I was drawn right away to the unique names that Di Silvestro has given her different lines. Di Silvestro has a bachelors degree in zoology and a minor in anthropology. Then she went to graduate school and studied pharmacology and toxicology. She has worked as a natural product and peptide chemist for over 10 years and has been a practicing certified Herbalist since she was eighteen years old. It seems that Di Silvestro is a Renaissance in the true sense of the word.
Here's more about what this modern day goddess had to say about her unique line of herbal products.
VM: What does RD Alchemy stand for?
RD: RD are my initials. Initially the name of the business was RD Natural Products but I wanted to add something with more of a holistic twist to it. I was at the Getty museum in LA and I saw a painting called the Alchemist. I thought 'that is exactly me and what I like to do in my lab.' Plus it ties right into my chemistry background.
VM: Some of the products have such incredible names. Is that from your schooling?
RD: Yes. It is from chemistry and pharmacology along with my holistic training. I have done a lot of natural product chemistry, working at a lab. Usually you find an herbalist or a natural products chemist but you don't usually find the two together. That was always to my advantageto have the herbal background. I was able to combine that with my natural products chemistry. On the other end, I was able to pull from my chemistry field to give people more of a scientific understanding of what herbal medicine was and how it works.
VM: What are the Emotion Potions?
RD: Those are my aromatherapy creations that have crystals in them. I've studied crystals since I was twelve years old and I still do a lot of crystal healing and believe in the vibrational quality of it. I wanted to combine that with the aromatherapy, blended together for specific emotional therapies and add the crystal therapies to enhance this process. All of the Emotion Potions I have are blended already for a specific emotion and the crystal goes along with that. For instance my Amor de Fuego has the essential oil of rosewood that helps increase love, passion and creativity, plus I've added carnelian crystals which also have these properties.
VM: I am so fascinated with the Body Ceutics skin products given that potentially up to 60% of the active ingredients are absorbed.
RD: The premise is that if you're going to put something on the skin and it gets absorbed into the bloodstream it might as well be beneficial. In this case the beneficial ingredients are therapy-specific blends of herbal extracts. They were developed to be an alternative to oral dietary supplements as well as beautifying. I tried to take the transdermal technology, like what they have on a transdermal patch and apply it without the patch. And the big thing in skin technology is trying to get deeper into the skinŠI've used penetration enhancers that are as natural as possible. Certain types of oils will help. Essentials oils help to penetrate [the skin] with their chemical structure. And it's not just a therapeutic product. You receive the beautifying effect also. Say you wanted to work on detoxifying your system. If you had lymphatic edema or just [are] completing a cancer treatment and you want to detoxify from all of the drugs, you can rub on the scrub, rub on the mask or rub on the lotion and get beautiful skin while helping to detoxify your system.
VM: If someone came to you with migraines, what would be a product you would recommend?
RD: The Kranion product line, which acts as a dual product. [It] also helps the hair and scalp as a beautifying treatment; first as a clarifying treatment, which you would wash off, and then a lotion that you could leave in or wash out. The temple tonic you can rub on the temples to temporarily relieve pain. The herbal extracts in the products help relieve the effects from a migraine while also leaving your hair healthy and beautiful.
VM: Our theme this month is gods and goddesses. How do you think your products relate to this theme?
RD: Have the best health that you can and take care of yourself the best that you can. And with the work that I do it really focuses on the internal beauty. If you can take care of yourself internally, you're going to radiate health. You're not only going to look beautiful, you're going to feel beautiful. You're going to feel like a god or a goddess. And that's more of the trendpeople want to feel good, as well as look great, and to have their health at their fingertips. People want better control of their health. And at RD Alchemy you have a great start. Not only with great products but quality information on health and well being that will ultimately lead to bringing out the inner goddess or god in you.
For more information visit www.rdalchemy.com or call 619/825-6078.
The New Sexual Revolution
Finding the connection between body and spirit
by Jessica Mayo
Organic, holistic, natural - they're the cornerstones of a sustainable lifestyle. We conform our eating styles, living choices, transportation, and buying habits to this ideal. But the taboo subjects of the bedroom rarely receive adequate discussion. Birth control, in particular, tends to be regarded as too touchy a topic for public discourse.
That's unfortunate, because sexuality is an integral part of who we are as humans. It's deeply connected to spirituality, combining the physical and the emotional in a very intimate way. It has even been compared to an encounter with the divine in several religious traditions. But most of the products we use to control the effects of our sexual practiceshormones, condoms, or a host of other methodsinterrupt this connection between body and spirit.
The list of potential side effects accompanying different types of oral contraception is daunting even for the most accustomed pill popper. Short-term problems, like irregular bleeding, headaches, and nausea, are overshadowed by more serious issues like depression, heart problems, and decreased sexual desire. Barrier methods pose a problem evident in their very nameplacing a barrier in the midst of such an intimate act is surely less than the ideal way to achieve a full physical and spiritual connection.
Those who shy away from artificial birth control do not have to be faced with the unsavory alternatives of total abstinence or unlimited family size. Rather, a growing contingent is discovering a modern version of an ancient technique: fertility awareness. Also called natural family planning (NFP), this method allows for the full expression of sexuality without inserting a barrier or disrupting the natural integrity of the body. It is achieved by monitoring the natural rhythms of a woman's cycle in order to determine the date of ovulation and surrounding days of fertility.
The concept is simple: a woman typically ovulates once each month. The egg lives for about 24 hours, and a sperm can only live within a woman for two to three days. When a woman tracks the proper signs and is in tune with her body, she can pinpoint her day of ovulation with a relatively high degree of accuracy. Pregnancy can be successfully avoided by abstaining from sex during the days leading up to ovulation and for a few days afterwards. Alternatively, barrier methods can be used during this timeframe, though their failure rate is often much higher than the pill and they still pose the same obstacle to full unity.
The benefit for a woman of understanding her body's cycle is vastly under appreciated in today's society. Few girls understand their own reproductive system before they begin using some form of hormonal birth control, which can significantly alter the body's natural rhythm. To sacrifice the knowledge of our bodies is to lose an integral component of true holistic living. We cannot be one with our environment if we are not first one with ourselves.
Fertility awareness requires a basic comprehension of natural hormonal fluctuations and the way those correspond to fertility at various times of the month. Women who chart specific signs, like mucus and basal body temperature, can prevent pregnancy with a 98% success rate, according to the Planned Parenthood website. The pill boasts a failure rate of less than 1%. But fertility awareness has other important advantages. Women who chart their body's cycles more easily spot hormonal disturbances and other more serious ailments. The pill, on the other hand, is often prescribed to mask symptoms. Fertility awareness allows a woman to pinpoint exactly when she began experiencing symptoms, making it easier to find the root of the issue and restore the body to health.
It makes sense that a healthy diet requires more planning and time in the kitchen than heating up a prepackaged box of frozen, processed junk food. In the same vein, fertility awareness undoubtedly requires more time, attention, and commitment than taking a pill every day. In both cases, the extra attention results in the ingestion of fewer chemicals and a more natural connection to our bodies and the world. Fertility awareness is a path to a new spiritual awakening.
Jessica Mayo is a freelance writer and community organizer currently living in Ames, Iowa. She and her husband are planning their family the natural way. Important note: Fertility awareness does not prevent Sexually Transmitted Infections.
From Stressed to Smiling
The Ekobé Wellness Center
by Nicole Pugh
I walk down a short outdoor corridor lined with potted plants and flowers and into the Ekobé Wellness Center off Coast Highway in Encinitas. The entry is simply decorated with textile wall hangings in subtle yet rich colors and the main room is spacious and light. I am instantly wrapped in a soft blanket of peace and calm. It had been a stressful day so far. Appointments, deadlines, and battling that ever-present Southern California traffic left me feeling more like a lump of mud than a goddess. Boy, was I looking forward to a massage. I was soon to learn, however, that Ekobé is about a lot more than just massage.
The Ekobé Wellness Center is the creation of licensed massage therapist and healer Neusa Maria Silva. She is a practitioner of many energy work techniques as well as those she designed herself‹Ekobé Bodywork Therapy, Ekobé Energy Healing and the CRIAR Life Guidance System. Every practitioner who works at the center is trained in Ekobé techniques.
"We give the opportunity for the person to express themselves," Neusa explains. "ŠAnd we honor that. It is a partnership. [Our work] is the compliment of body and mind."
Silva, who is originally from Brazil, became interested in the healing arts after experiencing her own health problems as a child.
"Sinus infections and headaches brought me severe pain and nasal congestion," she says. "The more prescriptions I took, the stronger the medicine that I needed."
As a teenager, these ailments continued to plague her. Her saving grace came in the form of one of the Sisters at the Carmelite Order Convent where she was interning.
"Sister Carimeli treated me with a technique similar to acupressure," she explains. "After a few months of receiving regular massage, the symptoms disappeared entirely."
Amazed and intrigued by what the Sister had done, Neusa decided to devote herself to helping others through the healing arts. Her first teacher was the very Sister that helped return her to balance. She gave Neusa words of wisdom that have stayed with her throughout her life:
"She said, 'Never think it is you doing the work. Do everything you can. But leave the results in the hands of God.' "
One of Neusa's unique healing modalities is the CRIAR Life Guidance System (CRIAR means 'to create" in Portuguese). Using a combination of breath work, acupressure and kinesiology, CRIAR allows energy to flow freely so that a person can learn the skills necessary to return to a place of balance in any situation.
"With CRIAR there are specific acupressure points you can activate in your body," explains Neusa.
"You learn how to use them to change how you feel at the momentŠIt doesn't mean that you are going to jump for joy in five minutes. But it means that you're going to be able to come to a point of center, where you can feel calm and can connect with peace again. Then you will be able to take the next step."
On my visit, Neusa treated me to a CRIAR mini-session. After answering a few questions about the particular areas in my life I wanted to concentrate on, she showed me specific points to access at home. Then we went into the back area of the center, where she continued the process on an energetic level using Ekobé Energy Healing Therapy.
'If you want to know the true nature of a thing, look at the result' a wise friend of mine is fond of saying and I tend to agree. The result of my CRIAR and Ekobé Healing Therapy session was that I was quite a different person when I walked out of the Center than I was when I walked in. For the first time in a while, I felt at peace, balanced, and full of creative energy. And the feeling stayed with me for the rest of the day‹even in the middle of rush hour traffic. What's more, now I had another tool to access for returning to my true goddess essence whenever I need to.
Ekobé Wellness Center will be holding workshops in the CRIAR Life Guidance System on Saturday, July 14th and Saturday, July 28th at 9:30 a.m. This is a 4-hour workshop with an extra hour for questions for those who wish to stay longer. Free lectures on Ekobé Energy Healing and the CRIAR Life Guidance System will be held every Monday in July. Reservations are required for both events. To sign up or for more information, please email light@massageyoga.com or call 760/815-3400.