Short-term solution: green clay

I’ve found green clay to be the best cure for heartburn. Green clay is totally awesome anyway, it’s a natural yet very powerful remedy for many ailments. You can use it externally to wash yourself or as a beauty mask to clear the skin. Ingesting it helps with all kinds of digestive worries.

I don’t know why or how it works. I often read that green clay binds and neutralizes toxins. I’ve heard it’s rich in minerals. I’ve also heard it has a high pH level, which would explain why it’s so efficient against heartburn. What I know for sure is that it helps!

You can find green clay in wholefood shops and certainly also online. Mix 1-2 spoonful with a glass of cold water and drink it. If it’s not enough, repeat. Your heartburn will disappear, I promise.

But of course that’s only a short-term solution, once you’ve managed to mess with your stomach enough to cause heartburn. How to avoid that?

Long-term solution: a diet change

Heartburn is not something you get by accident or coincidence. Swallowing drugs to suppress it might eliminate your discomfort but doesn’t address the real issue. If you get heartburn, then your diet sucks, it’s as simple as that.

You could experiment a bit with food to identify what causes the heartburn, and then all you need to do is to cut this out of your diet. Be honest with yourself, even if you don’t like what you find out.

What I personally found to cause heartburn is:

• coffee
• soda and fruit juices
• sugar-fat mixes, like fatty cakes
• refined sugar, corn syrup and chemical sweeteners
• meat
• grains, even unrefined
• dairy
• alcohol
• cigarettes

I’m not surprised, as all this is very unhealthy stuff anyway.

My advice: reduce your consumption of these items - if possible to zero - and eat more raw, organic, whole, fresh fruit and veggies instead. You’ll soon forget about heartburn :-)

©2008 Magical Chest. All Rights Reserved.

Looks like November is the month of creativity. I’m a bit late with this, but I thought I’d let you know. If you’d like to do something creative this month, here are a few nice opportunities. It’s not too late to join!

Join NaNoWriMo

November is the National Novel Writing Month. It should be called InNoWriMo, International Novel Writing Month, though. Every year in November, thousands of people all around the world write a novel.

Everybody can do it, the goal is not to write high-quality prose, it’s just to frantically write down whatever pops into your mind as fast as possible, without editing, without trying to be good. You can edit it in December!

If you succeed in producing a 50,000 words first draft by November 30th, midnight, you win.

Of course I signed up :-) I have no clue what I’m going to write about, but I’m sure it’s going to be awesome.

If you’re interested, have a look at the NaNoWriMo homepage.

Join NaBloPoMo

Similarly, you can go for a 30 days blogging challenge: one blog post a day till November 30th, together with many others. See the NaBloPoMo homepage.

Join AEDM

AEDM is the Art Every Day Month, and it’s November, too. If you’re neither a writer nor a blogger, but would like to get more creative and to share your creations with others, have a look at the AEDM site.

I really like the idea. It’s about all kinds of creative activities, be it painting or music or cooking or crafting christmas tree decorations with toilet paper. Sounds like a lot of fun!

Are you blocked?

In case you

• think you can’t be creative
• have some creative dreams that you don’t realize for some reason
• just want to get more creative in your daily life
• or want to improve your ability to solve problems creatively

I highly recommend The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It’s an amazing book I’m working through at the moment.

The Artist’s Way is a twelve weeks course in discovering or recovering your creativity. It’s for blocked artists as well as for all those who just want to be creative. I’ll post a review when I’m done with the journey.

So… It’s November! Be happy, get creative! :-)

©2008 Magical Chest. All Rights Reserved.