Yes, in the midst of the Grand Cross, Grand Square, prophesied bedlam and potential world turmoil, women everywhere are having wild mood swings. Fluctuations, deficiencies, and excesses in hormones cause changes in the mind, body, and emotions. When our hormones are in balance we feel good, sleep well, think clearly, are emotionally steady, and our chances of being healthy are greatly increased. When they are not in balance any number of symptoms can arise: low energy, rage, depression, fibroids, weight gain, loss of sex drive, hair loss, even cancer.

We often hear that hormones are difficult to keep in balance, but by taking a holistic approach and healing from the inside, hormones can work together as nature intended. One reason for the general belief that hormones are difficult to balance is because many different factors affect them. Sometimes it is hard to pinpoint what exactly is affecting your hormones. It is often a combination of things.

Exposure to sunlight and moonlight, food, emotions, stress, and environmental pollutants affect hormone levels. The amount of time spent indoors under artificial lighting in relation to being outdoors in nature and fresh air can affect hormones. And nature herself causes fluctuation, such as pregnancy. (photo)

Simple tests are available to you to have your hormone levels tested. For example, hormones in your saliva can give an overview of your levels of estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, cortisol, and DHEA. Saliva tests can help evaluate how your body metabolizes estrogen, an important issue for both men and women, and particularly for women with problems associated with the reproductive system. Saliva tests are easy and noninvasive, performed at home by putting your saliva into small vials that are labeled and shipped for testing.

Common sense tells us it is better to heal the root cause of an imbalance, in ways that support the body. However, many people take estrogen-blocking drugs, synthetic hormones, or the popular bioidentical hormones without any idea of what the drugs are doing to their bodies. It’s best to be informed and know your alternatives. If you want to see how your body metabolizes estrogen and other hormones, request the tests from your doctor. Do-it-yourself test kits are available online, but it is wise to work with a natural health practitioner to translate your results. You can then be guided to your unique personal plan to harmonize your hormone levels.

There are many ways to bring hormones into balance. One supplement your practitioner might recommend is diindolylmethane (DIM) known to stimulate natural detoxification enzymes and hormone metabolism. Derived from indole-3-carbinole and cruciferous vegetables, DIM has been shown to assist with estrogen metabolism and promote hormonal balance.

Your diet and food choices will help balance your hormones. Avoid foods and products that increase xenoestrogens (fake estrogens). These lead to estrogen dominance, a modern malady due in part to chemicals and pollutants in our environment that create an estrogenic effect in the body. Minimize and/or eliminate your exposure to synthetic products and harmful chemicals, including plastics that touch your water or food.

We are rarely advised to strengthen our endocrine system when we have symptoms of hormonal imbalance. But the adrenals, thyroid, and pituitary glands play important roles. A competent holistic doctor or naturopath can advise you on how to best proceed with supporting your endocrine system based on your hormone test results.

While there are many things you can do to bring your body into balance, having some knowledge of where to begin and why is helpful. It’s certainly time to stop accepting the prevailing viewpoint that some of life’s natural processes, such as menopause, are diseases that need to be treated with drugs. All of our life transitions and accompanying moods are gifts for greater personal power, inner awareness, and deeper wisdom.

you might have heard that alcohol effects hormones in the human body? so, it seem only fitting that this post be non-alcoholic!

SHIRLEY TEMPLE COCKTAIL
8 oz Club soda
1 oz Grenadine (made with REAL as in NOT FAKE pomegranate!)
1 slice Orange
1 maraschino cherry (go the health food store and buy maraschinos dyed NATURALLY, not with toxic cadmium #40)

Mix soda and grenadine. Serve in tall glass with straw, garnished with orange and maraschino.

Dr. Christina Grant is a holistic healer and spiritual counselor who uses astrology in her work to help people better understand their purpose and life circumstances. She works in person and by phone. She has helped hundreds of people attain physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being through personal transformation. Her writing is published nationwide. To learn more, see WWW.CHRISTINAGRANT.COM

My friend John asked me to write about the universe. I mentioned this to another friend, a fellow writer, and she said, “Oh my God. That is such a huge topic.” She thought my friend meant to talk about the whole universe. Actually, he meant for me to discuss what I think about the usage of the term in daily conversation.

This word “universe” is now in ordinary speech in a way it wasn’t just a few years ago. It turns up in this way: “The universe didn’t want me to have that house.” Or, “Apparently the universe wants me to go to Arizona instead of Maui.” It is used in relationship talk as in, “The universe will send you the right partner when you’re ready.” It’s used in job conversations, too: “Dan was fired because the universe didn’t want him in that position. It wasn’t right for him.”

We now talk about The Universe as if it is an all-powerful being, capable of running our lives. We have elevated it to more than mere matter, energy, planetary configurations, black holes, the Milky Way, and vast space. It is now… get ready… God. (photo)

Perhaps many people have become more comfortable in this day of church-and-state correctness to use a term that doesn’t exclude, turn off, or aggravate anyone. I believe “the universe” is this term. Who can be offended by it?

To answer my own question, someone like my mother. Raised by a Southern woman who in her older years was proud to have a PTL Club bumper sticker on her Pontiac, she would be offended or at least annoyed if I said, “Mom, the universe must not want you to have perfect vision anymore.” Or, “The universe obviously doesn’t want you to run on the treadmill, otherwise your foot wouldn’t hurt when you do it.” She would be certain I’d gone off the deep end.

Just the same, in this bubble we call California, I hear phrases such as these as a matter of course. Wondering whether it was primarily “new thought” communities using the term, I got my answer just yesterday when reading about retirement in an ordinary New York Times bestseller. I saw “The Universe” has its hands in that field too, right there in the practical, no-nonsense advice pages of what to do with your money.

So has God become The Universe? Or did The Universe become God, which now is reverting back to itself? I don’t have this answer, but I do have a sense of what the term implies.

You’d probably better mix yourself a drink at this point, how about a UNIVERSE COCKTAIL?

½ oz Midori melon liqueur
½ oz Vodka
½ oz Lime juice
½ oz Pineapple juice

Shake for 30 seconds in an ice-filled shaker and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Relax and read on.

If The Universe is an active participant in our lives, our worldview includes the idea that conscious and unconscious forces play a role in ultimate order. One assumes circumstances play out for a reason. From this perspective, giving some responsibility to the all-powerful Universe for the way things turn out is a relief. It’s not entirely our fault when plans go awry and we make messes. Even catastrophes might have a higher purpose.

Last week an environmental group spokesperson said perhaps the oil devastation in the Gulf of Mexico is yet another sign from The Universe that we must develop alternative energy. Many people agree. However, to see it conveyed on national news indicates people believe things happen for a reason. The notion has slipped into the national psyche without the “God” terminology that seems to separate people.

People want to believe that the worst of circumstances are not just random and their suffering isn’t for nothing. We look for signs showing whether some good might result from the terrible situations we humans can find ourselves in. This is one of the roles belief in God plays in the lives of humans. But to discuss God in mixed company is awkward. Unless you are in a fairly homogenous community, religion is best not broached if one wants to keep the peace. Perhaps this is why “The Universe” was birthed.

Beyond explaining the unknowable, The Universe might have further practical use. If we adopt the idea that all things happen for the best and highest good of all, we foster faith that The Universe does not conspire against us, but actually causes and prohibits things from happening in order to keep us on our right path.

For example, I remember stories just after the attacks on September 11th. People said they were meant to be on one of the airplanes or in their office but something odd prevented them from actually getting there. “The Universe stopped me from being on time because it wasn’t my time to go.” It is given the same meaning as, “God wasn’t ready for me yet.”

Maybe when we use “The Universe” to talk about our lives, we get to have a little faith in a Higher Power without the added discomfort around revealing religious beliefs. I don’t have the answers to this, but I do find humanity’s dance with religion and faith an interesting one to consider, especially in this place we call a melting pot.

Dr. Christina Grant is a holistic healer and spiritual counselor who uses astrology in her work to help people better understand their purpose and life circumstances. She works in person and by phone. She has helped hundreds of people attain physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being through personal transformation. Her writing is published nationwide. To learn more, see WWW.CHRISTINAGRANT.COM