Peterburg - Lenningrad - Saint Petersburg Or Speliotherapy - Halotherapy - Dry Saline Aerosol

My Grandma talked to me of Peterburg a great city that she had only seen pictures of, but some of her friends had visited.  When I searched the map I couldn't find it.  A few years later someone sensed my confusion and showed it to me on the map and explained that its name was Leningrad.  This spring finally I visited the city my Grandma told me about, however its residents called it by yet a new name Saint Petersburg.

Going back a few steps... as a young child I listened to my Grandma tell me about life when she was a little girl.  This topic fascinated me because I so loved my babushka and I couldn't fathom her being a little girl so I placed her stories into the beautiful settings of my beloved folktale/fairytale books.  I loved her stories in my mental theater of wonderful "Long, long ago in a faraway land ..." 3D fairy tales, and begged her incessantly for more details and stories.  My grandma understood me, yet she didn't like to go to the past, and always tried to distract me to the present and some little interesting thing we could do right then.  Only when I became an adult did I begin to realize that it was painful for her to recite her childhood stories, as they were about her family she dearly loved and that had been snatched away from her almost as soon as she became an adult.

Of course in Saint Petersburg I visited the Hermitage Museum.  My favorite part was the palace rooms and their decor'.  To my great surprise I found my living room color scheme the same as one of the palace living rooms and my personal bedding color scheme almost identical to the queen's bedroom color scheme.   My daughter was quite surprised and delighted, whereas my husband just nodded (probably rolled his eyes when I wasn't looking).  Maybe I did inherit the love for Imperial Russian interior decor of my great grandmothers' time period...    

My time was short and the list of amazing touristy things to do in Saint Petersburg was long.  I decided to postpone a visit to the institutions that were the birthplace of “Halotherapy” and the current center of research on Dry Saline Aerosol/Dry Sodium Chloride Aerosol therapies.

Here is a list of the places I would like to visit on a subsequent trip to Saint Petersburg:

• Scientific Research Institute of Pulmonology,
• I. Pavlov St. Petersburg State Medical University,
• Institute of Childhood Infections FMBA of Russia,
• L. Sokolov FMBA Russian Clinical Hospital №122,
• S. Kirov Military Medical Academy,
• St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation

Another place I want to visit is the Wieliczka salt mine not far from Krakow, Poland the birthplace of Speleotherapy and the predecessor to Halotherapy and DSA/DSCA.   Wellness is of utmost importance, and it is in itself fascinating to experience a simple natural remedy that has potential to help so many people.

Signing off for the Saltroom of Spokane - in Support of Healthy therapies even if their names change

-Laura :)

Opportunities Happen - Land Ocean Ice caps Steam

It seems to me that some people manage to do so many interesting and varied activities, yet other people only have a few interesting life experiences.  How is that?
What are the variables that are different for you or me to experience certain activities we consider interesting and not humdrum routine?   Does it boil down to the ability to do an interesting activity that triggers me to do it?   I think yes, it is my Ability to do the activity.

What constitutes ability?   Finances !  of course, wait, what about  Physical Body Condition!  my travel agent friend the other day, told me about something I never knew existed gotta add  Knowlege!  some activities require you have 3 other people  Friends (you can make new friends) so Like Minded People!   

I'm sensing a trend here, the more factors I think about - the more complicated this having the "Ability" to do something interesting becomes.  Pretty quick Priorities pop up followed by Questioning the Reasoning behind the priorities and Considerations of RE-arranging priorities then encountering longstanding Habits and the Belief  or Entire Belief Systems underlying that......  Oh my, oh my, there might be Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

This winter, with rather short notice, I decided to say YES and go on a trip to Iceland.  I threw a few of those Ability equations into un-equalibrium, and I Experienced a number of Interesting Activities!   I really enjoyed the days spent in Iceland, and continue to enjoy the Icelandic wool sweater, I purchased there, when temperatures drop here.

High on my list of must go back to Iceland and do again:   Swim in natural hot water pools, Take mud bath treatment in tubs of hot volcanic mud, & Drive the country side.  The visual beauty of perfectly set together elements, that in my previous life experience I had not seen in juxtaposition, was breathtaking and exhilarating!  Another interesting part was that I actually liked the food I ate in Iceland.

Signing off for the Saltroom of Spokane - in support of healthy activities
-Laura

Lecturing versus Experiencing Halotherapy

In the past week I presented a workshop on Halotherapy to a natural health discussion group in Oregon. Every month they bring in a speaker to teach them more about a therapy or method that they might be interested in incorporating into their lifestyles.

It was great to be able to present a (new to most) respiratory wellness alternative and answer questions.  My power point presentation was good, but from the questions attendees asked, I realized it needs to be expanded a bit.   I'd brought along our Polar Health personal salt breathing devices so attendees could also experience a halotherapy session.   Several of the people attending the workshop tried a short session(20 min) and found it quite pleasant.

Two days later the workshop organizer contacted me to report that a couple people who taken a short halotherapy session had called her and explained how they still were feeling significantly better the day following the halotherapy workshop.  One gentleman even contacted the Saltroom of Spokane asking where he could find a place in Oregon to regularly take halotherapy sessions, as the short halotherapy session at the workshop had made a huge positive difference to his night time regime.  Unfortunately I had no good news for him because the salt room in Portland had just gone out of business.  I know of a private salt room in the Portland area but I could only refer him to our Saltroom or one in Bellevue WA, (5 hours drive for him).

Well and good that I can tell you about the benefits of Halotherapy, but do you have the chance to experience it for yourself and make your own observations?  Basically if you live in Montana(wishful thinking someone in Montana is reading this blog post) and you want to take a couple Halotherapy sessions, where will you go to find a salt room with a halogenerator?
I am thinking of creating a salt room referral network...so if you know of a salt room of any type in your immediate area please send me their information.  I will work on this project this year.  "This year!" you say, well... lets put that into perspective... I've had a Saltroom for 7 years and this year finally we have full time scheduling available.  So when I say this is a project I will do this year, that is better already  ;)

Signing off for the Saltroom of Spokane - in Support of healthy options available for everyone
-Laura

Snow and Change in Perspective

2012  is past and now the snows have begun coming on a regular basis.

Its winter 2013, and the lessons to be learned have begun to arrive.  The latest - how to deal with my truck's rear tire embedded in a snow pile(luckily not a snow bank).  I've decided to do a few chores around the house and blog as I figure out what to do about the truck stuck at the bottom of my driveway.

Sometime in the past 3 months or so I have started to see things a bit differently, I think I have experienced an unconscious change in perspective.  These past few months have brought a number of changes in my life, the most significant being my first child leaving home for university, and my starting a new business.  Suddenly, or so it seems, I view the activities I have participated in for 4 to 10 years as a great opportunities for developing new relationships.  Also a few of my former high priority activities no longer seem quite so pressing as my long standing top priorities are being replaced by new, and certain previously less "important" activities.

For example, I have often thought it would be great to meditate. A couple people I really like and admire meditate on a daily basis.  I also have daily access to the Saltroom, and have been told by people that the Saltroom is an ideal place to meditate, indeed one of the best places they have experienced.  Strangely, I have never really meditated there, and that's mainly because I didn't really know how.   Learning to meditate has been lower in priority so it just has never gotten done.  I almost surprised myself by taking action, when I found myself sitting in the first workshop of Meditation Bootcamp!   We were assigned homework and it is proving a bit challenging for me, we'll see how this goes.

Possibly, this shift in my perspective is tied to my practicing to become a certified The Emotion Code practitioner.  Maybe its the planetary shift in consciousness that we heard so much about in relation to December 2012?  I think there could be a great number of reasons why, but I'm choosing not to care about the WHY, I am just moving on and enjoying the experience of my life a bit differently.

I am daily deciding to welcome the shifts as they come because opportunities emerge alongside them.   Now to think about the practicalities of snow work and tires, no not yet, I'm going to have a cup of tea first.

Signing off for the Saltroom of Spokane - in Support of  Embracing New Perspectives.
-Laura