Victoria Anisman-Reiner's Blog

Posted by Victoria Anisman-Reiner

There are dozens of marketable, natural remedies that remove odors from your home. Cat or dog smells, paint fumes, cooking smells can all be cleared up with aromatherapy or the new scent-absorbing crystals that can be found in many health food stores.

Undoubtedly, most of these recipes work (and I have personal experience with how much fun the aromatherapy side of it can be!) but there is a simpler approach that works - if you can stand the smell of onions. For paint fumes and other chemical odors, in fact, it seems to work better as a first line of defense than most commercial scent-fighters.

Ingredients: One or more onions.

Directions: Slice or chop the onions - the more surface area, the faster it can absorb bad smells. Now lay the onions out on a dish for as long as necessary. As the onion pieces shrivel and dry out, they will absorb aromas from the air.

Finally, to get the onion smell out of your home or office, I recommend diffusing essential oils or using your favourite incense, which might not have been powerful enough to remove a chemical smell on its own.

It sounds pretty odd... but it really works!

Posted by Victoria Anisman-Reiner

It's been a busy couple of months for me, and I'm still going almost non-stop. I've got a number of exciting creative projects in front of me - all at the same time! - and a lot on my mind.

It's wonderful to be so involved, but it does mean that when I finally fall into bed, it's sometimes a little more difficult for me to fall asleep.

As usual, my first recourse is to turn to my therapeutic-grade essential oils.

Essential oils that help me sleep:

• Lavender-hyssop blend
• Valor blend (Spruce, blue tansy, rosewood, and more)
• Sandalwood or myrrh
• Patchouli (or "patchouly")
• Pine
• Balsam fir

For more information on dealing with sleep disturbances (including insomnia, snoring, aches and pains, nightmares and night terrors) using essential oils, read Essential Oils for Restful Sleep.

Posted by Victoria Anisman-Reiner

I want to share with you an excerpt from a recent e-newsletter sent to me by Dr. Deborah "Taj" Anapol, author of The Seven Natural Laws of Love. I hope this excerpt is as helpful and apropos to you this holiday season as it was to me:

"One of the main things I’ve learned in the last year is: It is always better to volunteer! What I mean by this is that if there are certain experiences coming your way, you can embrace them or resist them. As many of you have no doubt discovered, resistance is painful, but embracing may be a bigger stretch than you can say “yes” to at that moment. Sometimes you can sidestep the whole ball of wax by taking some action which moves you beyond the crossroads you find yourself at, which moves you out of harms way and off in an entirely different direction. It’s as if you have entered another dimension, a parallel universe where that cross roads has become a rotary with new roads branching off in many directions. This is what I am calling volunteering – discovering a previously unseen road and high tailing it down that road without hesitation. "

- Deborah Taj Anapol, November 27, 2007

More of Dr. Anapol's writings can be found at Love Without Limits.

Posted by Victoria Anisman-Reiner

My first encounter with energy psychology began with skepticism and ended with reluctant amazement.

I was in the middle of high school, with everything that image recalls - drama over my classes, drama with friends, and the requisite drama about romance. Sometime in my final year before graduating, I had finally hit the point where I was tired of all the drama, and wanted to find a way to clear my head and start feeling better about what seemed like an insurmountable mess.

Which is when my mother suggested I try energy pschology.

What teenager wants advice from their mother, much less advice from Mom about things that she doesn't want her mother to know anything about? But she offered to teach me one of the techniques without asking me to say anything about what was upsetting me. I reluctantly and skeptically agreed.

I think I was surprised enough for both of us - my mother certainly wasn't - when it worked. Immediately after using some of the tapping, I felt the conflicts in my head lift for the first time in months. Every so often, when I feel really stuck in some emotional mess I can't see my way out of, I experience a measure of the same delighted surprise when I tap the right points and my tension and stress dissolves, almost magically.

I knew plenty about meridians and energy work when I first experienced energy psych, and I was still skeptical. I tend to say to people today, I know it sounds crazy, but just take a few minutes and try it - it works.

• Energy Psychology with my mother, Arlene Anisman
• Energy Tapping for Trauma

Posted by Victoria Anisman-Reiner

I've recently learned of a new website with information on herbs. The focus seems to be fairly comprehensive, with information on the history and medicinal properties of herbs, as well as their uses in the kitchen and how to grow, plant, pick, and preserve fresh and dried herbs.

HerbExpert is being compiled by a number of authors and contributors, and seems to be growing daily.

You'll have to check out the site to learn more.