Oil Pulling

Today my task of the day is trying oil pulling.  It's a little less self-explanatory than some of my other tasks (see previous post), so I've decided it's worth a post.

I bought coconut oil at Natural Grocers in town a few weeks ago after hearing from a coworker that it might whiten teeth.  It has been sitting on my refrigerator for close to a month now, and I had yet to figure out a way to use it.  I tried swishing it through my teeth once for a minute but wasn't sure what to think of it.  I occasionally stick a finger in and use it as lip balm.

Until today.

Today I learned about and tried oil pulling.  Oil pulling has its origin in oil gargling, which is a part of Ayurvedic medicine dating back thousands of years.  In 1992, Dr. F. Karach, MD published a book explaining his experience with oil pulling in medicine, and it seems to have been gaining popularity in certain circles since then .  The practice involves swishing oil around in your mouth for up to 20 minutes at a time and then spitting it out as a form of detox.  Supposedly the practice pulls toxins out of the mucus membranes in your mouth and can not only improve oral health and whiten teeth but may help to cure everything from asthma and sinus problems to joint pain and eczema.

Here are two links for more info:
http://healthylivingwithmelissa.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-love-coconut-oillet-me-count-ways.html
http://thebrandwellnesscenter.webs.com/apps/blog/show/5919989-oil-pulling

I'm not completely convinced that I need to incorporate it into my life on a daily basis to be a whole and healthy person, but now that I know the concept of oil pulling,  I'm more likely to regularly involve coconut oil in my life.

And, to be honest, who couldn't use a little more coconut in their life?

One week of doing "a thing"

Paradigm shift.  It's been a little over one week since I started my goal-oriented 30 day plan.  20 pages of a book, 5 minutes of silence, and one "thing" every day.

Focusing on those 3 things every day has given me a new, focused, creative, and more goal-oriented way of looking forward to my time outside of work.   I finished Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw and am nearly half way through Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point after several months of struggling to be consistent in my reading.  I'm finally making some progress on my "to read next" stack of books here at the ranch.

As my work day nears its end, I include my coworkers and hear about their goals looking for an idea of what new task I will complete that evening.  Sitting quietly for 5 minutes feels remarkably different from day to day and has become a way of checking in with my body and mind to get a feel for the state-of-affairs of my being that day.  Sometimes it works better than others, but I think it's always better than not having stopped to notice.

In focusing on choosing, beginning, and completing "a thing" every day, I've noticed that my follow-through on other tasks that I notice in my personal life has started getting better (washing my dishes, making a phone call to family that I'd been thinking about, picking up my house.)  I still procrastinate on plenty things, but I'm more likely to act to complete them rather than dwelling on how much I would like to be getting done.  In conversation, I have at least one fresh thing to talk about every day at a time in the season where some social interactions tend to stagnate or always end up on the same subjects -- usually our opinions of coworkers.  (Not the most life-giving subject.)

And the flexibility of choosing any "thing" to complete that day has led to some interesting conversations and time spent with other people on staff here.  Here are a few of my favorite "things" from the past week:

• Cut, buff, and paint my nails.  (Housekeeping supplies are death for nails.  So is a cold, dry climate.  Making a bed with splitting fingernails is awful.  Buffing helped the problem monumentally.  Plus now my hands are significantly more "guestable" for meals and activities with guests.)

• Teach someone how to skate ski.  (Goals involving other people are tricky since if they change their plans, you can't accomplish your task.  I've found in my committing and better follow-through, people have been more likely to commit and follow through with plans with me.  This day I ended up having a lesson for two gals on my crew.  They both love it now!)

• Remove 5 bags of stuff from my house. (Donate or throw away.  I got on a roll end ended up closer to 6 or 7 bags.)

• Empty my e-mail inbox. (It is now, naturally, filling up again...but responding to 3 messages is much less daunting than sorting through the hundreds that were there before!)

• Memorize the first half of 1 Corinthians 13. (This was at the suggestion of one of my coworkers, it's a chapter from the Bible about love and is rather love-ly.  I didn't realize how long it had been since I memorized something!)

• Teach someone how to knit. (We're going to town together tomorrow to buy knitting supplies.  Not only was it fun to teach something- now that the "training" phase of the season is pretty much done for housekeeping, but I got excited about knitting again.  We talked about art and learning, and she agreed to think of something to teach me something of her choosing sometime soon.)

• Invest in a mid-cap mutual fund. (I'd been thinking about this for a month or two and had done some research, but this day I did some last minute googling, decided on a fund (VGHCX), and went for it.  Along the way I ended up using Morningstar's Instant X-ray to analyze how balanced my investments are and came across some blogs on frugal living and how to save money.  I've noticed in a lot of these "things," I end up looking up related information or socializing with people while doing the task or branching from that task into other related tasks. Choosing "a thing" each day helps give me a way of focusing my energy into a more specific place, and then expanding into other interests or tasks or subjects from that starting point.)

Doing something for 30 days

Yesterday, prompted by my mom and sister, I watched this:



Coming out of the holiday-season-hospitality-funk has left me with more unstructured time but less direction on how to use it, so the timing for sending me this video couldn't have been better!

The idea is to create and delete habits from your life, to choose specific goals and work toward them, to work on one or just a few so that they're attainable.

So naturally I've come up with more than one.  I'd thought about blogging about it daily, but I'm hesitant to add too many things to the "30 day list" at once.


That said, every day for the next 30 days I plan to:
- Sit in silence for 5 minutes
- Read 20 pages of a book
- Do something

"Do something" seems like a little bit of a cop out, since the idea is to accomplish a specific thing.  But here's my thought:  deciding to complete a task or activity and following through (without being compelled by anything but my own will to do so) daily is a habit in and of itself.  Two days ago I went out dancing at a dubstep night and had a great time.  Yesterday I decided to get around to folding a mountain of laundry that I had sitting around and fully make my bed (after sleeping on top of blankets and flat sheets for 4 days.)

Today I'm going to cut, buff, and repaint my nails.  They're splitting from a dry climate and cleaning supplies and the paint is chipped and looks awful.  I've been meaning to do it for over a week.

As a person who naturally imagines, brainstorms, lists, and creates projects, it's easy to get bogged down in the thinking without ever getting around to completing, or sometimes even starting, any of them.  So while folding my laundry might not seem like it needs to be set as a goal, it is "something."  The silence and reading will start today.

Maybe this new goal-completion orientation will lead to more frequent blogging....then again, you never know.  :)

Good night and good luck from snowy CO