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Dear Anne,
 "Taking
Control of your Holidays"
By Ameena Grier (Guest Writer)
For most of
us, the beginning of November marks a doorway into Holiday
Season. Businesses and organizations prepare well in advance
for Holidays. Friends and families have plans, too. All of
their plans are all designed to capture your attention and
deplete your energy.
What if you
made a plan for yourself? What if you gave yourself permission
to add more of what you really want in your Holidays?
The quality and pleasure of your Holiday
Season depends on your energy and what you do with it.
Knowing how much energy you have, how much you want to
spend, how much time you want to spend with family is part
of your plan. Learning about yourself is the
key to the wonderful memories you want.
1. Get to know what you want for your Holiday celebrations
and memories:
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How much is enough together-ness?
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How much is enough activity?
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How much is enough drinking?
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How much is enough spending?
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How much is enough eating?
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How much is enough time alone?
You may want to underestimate what is enough so that you limit
the risk of overload and have more time and space to treasure
your memories.
2. Discover
your favorite part of each Holiday. Is it Music, Food, People,
Lights, Services? Choose one or two that are most important
to the memories you want this Holiday season. Focusing on
these will most likely give you joy as well as a bonus of
preserving and refueling your energy.
3. Experiment with your senses. What sounds,
colors, sights, smells, tastes, and touching help you feel "at
home" and comfortable? Serve yourself some of these each day.
Feeling overwhelmed and low in energy? Try softer
volume, less bright color hues, diffused visuals, milder
tastes, and smoother touches. Feeling more
relaxed and higher energy level? Then try adding higher
levels of each sensation.
As you add more awareness,
assessment, and adjustment to your self-care, you and those
around you will benefit:
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You get to know your needs and wants.
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You help others know more about you and what you need.
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You demonstrate how they can care for themselves.
Finally, let a bathroom be
your friend. Bathrooms can be a quiet, safe refuge from
everyone and everything. If anyone mentions the
time, you just smile and say, "Hmm, I didn't notice."
Meanwhile, you have had a
respite from energy depletion and a chance to check in with
yourself. This can mean a slow luxurious bath
or shower, a splash of water on your face and wrists, and a
moment to exhale which help you maintain your personal Holiday
Plans.
Noticing yourself and your
wants is about giving yourself permission to put yourself in a
place of honor. You have choices this Holiday Season. Rather
than look at the season as a manageable stress, you can make a
plan so that Holidays actually give you and others more of
what you really want. Best Wishes for your Season. |
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 Featured
IngredientOrganic Geranium
elegantly slides into our line up, right behind horsetail.
Having been used for
centuries in topical skin care applications this elegant
flower packs a beautiful punch. Its forte lies in
its incessant
regeneration of skin tissue. Improves WRINKLES! |
Hidden
Hazards
Lead in our lipsticks from
the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
 Toys made in China aren't the
only products laced with dangerous heavy metals:
lipsticks manufactured
in the United States and used daily by millions of American
women also contain surprisingly high levels of lead, according
to new product tests just released by the Campaign for Safe
Cosmetics.
The
lead tests were conducted by an independent laboratory in
September on lipsticks bought in Boston,
Hartford, Conn., San
Francisco and Minneapolis. More than half of the 33 brand-namelipsticks
tested contained detectable levels of lead, with levels
ranging from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).
One-third of the tested lipsticks exceeded the FDA guideline
for lead in candy, 0.1 ppm, established to reduce lead
exposure among children. Even though lipstick products, like
candy, are directly ingested and absorbed into the body, the
FDA has not set a limit for lead in lipstick. It's part of a
safety standards in the $50 billion personal care products
industry disturbing pattern of lax controls.
Among the leading brands found to contain lead were:
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L'Oreal Colour Riche "True
Red" - 0.65 ppm
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L'Oreal Colour Riche
"Classic Wine" - 0.58 ppm
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Cover Girl Incredifull
Lipcolor "Maximum Red" - 0.56 ppm
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Christian Dior Addict
"Positive Red" - 0.21 ppm
Lead is a proven neurotoxin
that can cause learning, language and behavioral problems such
as lowered IQ, reduced school performance and increased
aggression. It has also been linked to infertility and
miscarriage. Pregnant
women and young children are particularly vulnerable to lead
exposure because lead easily crosses the placenta and can
interfere with fetal brain development.
One-third of the lipsticks
tested had no detectable amount of lead, so lead-free lipstick
is possible. And, the amounts of lead in the lipsticks tested
didn't correlate with
the price of the product, so we know that manufacturing
lipstick without lead doesn't break the bank.
Stand up and shout: Lipstick shouldn't contain lead! Get
started by sending a letter to L'Oreal, whose Colour Riche
"True Red" and "Classic Wine"
lipsticks were found to have the highest levels of lead in our
sample.
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Spa Cuisine
Apple
Crumb Cake
A great
recipe for one of your dinner parties this Holiday Season.
This recipe serves 18 people.
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room
temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt
2 large baking apples, peeled,
cored and diced small (about 2 cups diced apples)
Topping
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon unsalted butter,
melted
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour an 8 x 8 inch cake pan. In large bowl, cream
butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, on at a time, blending well. Stir in vanilla. In
another bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda
and salt. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture in batches
alternating with the yogurt; mix until well blended. Stir in
apples and pour into cake pan.
In small
bowl, stir together brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon and butter.
Sprinkle evenly over the cake. Bake until top is golden brown,
and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean about
50- 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes, turn the
cake onto a wire rack and then invert onto serving platter.
Enjoy!
Credit to Green Mountain Run
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November Drawing
Win our Escape Package!!
Win
our exclusive package to create the spa experience at home.
Our Escape package contains our Escape Vol I CD, a Lavender
Soy candle votive to create the atmosphere, our organic
sugar, soy & tea bubble bath, and organic body moisturizer
both scented with pure lavender essential oils and a
lavender sachet for your drawer.
This package comes completely gift packaged in our
signature green leaf box. Perfect for holiday giving too!
This package is valued at $69.99
Just
make a purchase in November and we will enter you in our
drawing. You will be entered more than once for multiple
purchases.
Drawing
will be held on November 30th.
Congratulations to
Diana Goad....Dublin,
CA who won our Wildflower soap and soap dish package.
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Spa Review
Spa Solage, Calistoga, CA
 A beautiful drive from the San
Francisco Bay Area winding your way past vineyards along
the Silverado Trail takes you to the new
Solage Calistoga resort and spa located in the Napa
Valley. Whether you're spending the night or going for a
day of pampering, the Spa Solage is not to be missed. This
environmentally friendly resort sports a geo-thermal pool
and 14 luxurious treatment rooms in a 20,000 square foot
facility that's both artfully decorated and
environmentally conscious.Michael and I booked a 24-hour
get-away, taking advantage of a special savings promotion
from the Solage resort. Prior to our trip I booked the
Mudslide for Two. We were greeted graciously upon
entering the spa, which is adjacent to the resort, and
shown to our respective changing areas and lockers. After
changing into plush spa robes we were escorted to the mud
bar where we were greeted by the mud-tender and asked to
choose a mud "cocktail." Michael chose the Sam Brennan mix
of essential oils designed to relieve muscle aches and I
decided on the Mojito elixir that is designed to relieve
stress and anxiety. Our mud-tender mixed up the mud
cocktails in little buckets and we were whisked away to
our private mud suite where we got to paint each other
with the nutrient rich volcanic mud. The "mud lounge" was
toasty warm and had a surface we could lay on to relax.
After 20 minutes we were instructed to rinse off
and join our attendant outside. We were then shown to
another room with 2 pedestal bathtubs filled with natural
geothermal spring waters for us to soak in. It was 20
minutes of bliss for sure. Afterwards, we
snuggled into sound chairs with blankets and down
comforters. The unique ergonomic design and enveloping
sound system in these state-of-the-art chairs is designed
to float you into "zero-gravity." A truly relaxing
experience.
The only disappointment was that we
were booked for the wrong treatments. After the mudslide
experience we should have had a massage rather than
enjoying the sound room. I think perhaps the "newness" of
the spa/staff resulted in this unfortunate mistake.
Everything else we experienced exceeded out expectations,
including our room and the restaurant Solbar. We would
definitely book another trip.
Solage Calistoga is having a Fall
Special that you should take advantage of if you are
coming out for a visit. Or for folks in the Bay Area,
it's an easy jaunt up the Silverado Trail to this scenic
area that's full of wineries, restaurants and of course
the Solage.
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We have added many new gift
packages in all
price
ranges for the Holidays.
If you don't see a package that completely suits your
needs please call or email me and I can do a custom package
for you -- at no extra cost!
Office: 925-743-4198 or
admin@eclipse-spa.com.
Sincerely,
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Anne Keefe
EclipseSpa
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Just
wanted to let you know I received and tried the
