Flu season is gearing up here in the northern hemisphere. Here are Nurse Rue's* simple rules to staying healthy:

1)Wash your hands.
2)Shopping carts: never touch your face when pushing a shopping cart. Wash your hands as soon as you get home.
3)Wipe down your work station at the start of your day/shift.
4)Wipe down your steering wheel daily. You drove home from the store after using the shopping cart, remember?
5)Double up on vitamin C and remember to take your multi-vitamin tablet daily.
6)Eat garlic (raw if you can digest it) daily.
7)Ingest acidophilus capsules or products daily. Make sure to keep them refrigerated.
8)Flavour your foods with cinnamon, cayenne, oregano.
9)Drink green tea daily.
10)Take oregano oil. (I rather eat oregano than take the oil.)
11)Get enough rest.
12)Get enough exercise.
13)Avoid sick people. If you can't avoid them, see numbers 1-12.

This list isn't exhaustive, but it's pretty close.

Good luck and stay healthy!
~R

*The author of this blog is both a registered nurse and natural health practitioner as well as a member of the AHNA.

I'm a Usui Reiki Master, of some pretty impressive lineage it is 7 years now. My biggest criticism of the whole Reiki thing is the cost. There is an association out there that claims a Reiki attunement costs $10 000USD. That's right, ten grand can buy you healing powers.

Enter Steve Murray.

He has been called a rogue, a maverick, a disgrace to Reiki Masters everywhere. Why? I'll tell you why. When I became a Reiki Master the whole deal was shrouded in mystery and the theory to be frank was filled with a lot of history, anecdotal accounts and just plain, nothing. The coveted symbols were to be kept secret. That is, only initiates were granted knowledge of these secret healing symbols. Affluent initiates. Only the rich were worthy.

Steve Murray changed all that forever. He's out there sharing it all. In his books he explains the symbols and shares all so-called secrets while at the same time dispelling the myths and untruths. I haven't checked out his DVD's yet, but other Reiki Masters have and you can read their reviews on Amazon.com.

I think he's a hero.

Although on Rue's Kitchen I rag on the the internet attunements and the hodge-podge healing modalities people claim to practice, I am not referring to Steve Murray. My informed and experienced opinion is that although his books and DVD's will never replace the hands-on experience and relationship between a Master and their apprentice, the information he is propagating is solid. So much so that I have ditched all my previous teaching materials and will be rewriting them the way I want to teach them and I will be using Murray's writings as references.

I paid to be attuned to the Master Level. I paid $1000. Although it is a fraction of the recommended/enforced by assorted Reiki associations, it was still too steep. I have never charged anything remotely resembling that and frankly I refuse to.

When it comes to practicing a natural/spiritual/energy healing modality, choose one modality and specialize in it. I can't tell you how many times I've recoiled in both disgust and ridicule at those self-proclaimed healers/practitioners who take out a half-page ad in those free new age rags commonly found at health food stores where the list of modalities they claim to specialize in is the length of my forearm. Puh-lease. Reading a book or attending a workshop does not make you an expert in any subject (no matter what the piece of coloured paper they handed you on the way out says). Formal, orthodox training of some kind, discipline and years of practice, research, hands-on experience, and above all the willingness to grow and change, THAT is what makes a true healer.

In closing I would like to say that divine healing is free to all who ask it regardless of 'training' or otherwise. Anyone who has ever prayed will tell you the same thing.

So, now that I've gone on my litte diatribe, tell me... what do you think?