July 17, 2023

Detox Deep Dive: Liver Cleanse

The Liver’s Vital Functions

By Elizabeth Rulffes

Help your liver detoxify, replenish and rebuild; restoring health and vitality.

Your liver is the body‘s most complex and amazing organ, a powerful chemical plant that converts everything we eat, breathe and absorb into life-sustaining substances. The liver performs over 500 vital functions. Your health is dependent on your liver’s health.

Here is a list of just a few of the vital functions your liver is doing every day:

• Removes waste products & foreign substances from bloodstream
• Regulates blood sugar levels, and creates essential nutrients
• Albumin production: a protein that keeps fluids in the bloodstream from leaking into surrounding tissue. It also carries hormones, vitamins, and enzymes through the body
• Produces bile
• Filters blood
• Regulates amino acids
• Regulates blood clotting
• Resists infections: removes bacteria from the bloodstream.
• 1500+ functions that directly maintain your immune system
• Stores vitamins and minerals
• Processes glucose: the liver removes excess glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream and stores it as glycogen. As needed, it can convert glycogen back into glucose.
• Filters out toxins at a rate of more than a quart of blood per minute
• Produces interferon- the body‘s natural germ killer
• Metabolizes hormone excesses

Liver Support Foods : Water, water, water, tea, beetroot juice, grapefruit, cruciferous veggies, walnuts, wild caught salmon, garlic, olive.

Signs of a Congested Liver Needing Detox:

Tiredness
Bouts of General Depression
Anger or Irritation
Unexplained weight gain
Poor Digestion
Food and Chemical Sensitivities
PMS
Constipation & Congestion
Itchy Skin
Jaundiced Skin
Liver Spots
Indigestion or Mild Nausea after Meals
Nausea & Shakes
Distended Stomach or Liver
Unexplained Head & Body Aches
Sluggishness
Reduced energy
Body Fluid Retention & Swelling ( bags under the eyes)
Eczema, Psoriasis, Acne, Rosacea, Several Age Spots
Candida Yeast Infections
Chronic Constipation
Frequent Cold & Flu Infections
Sinus Infections
Liver Cirrhosis (may also lead to anemia and large bruise patches)

Good News: The Liver has Amazing Regenerative Powers

December 7, 2022

Christmas Wonder

I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people!

Within every human being there is an innate desire for more.  A hopeful yearning for authentic joy lies behind every celebration. Nothing cultivates joy quite like believing in and experiencing miracles. For a child, the anticipation and excitement of Christmas is magical, full of surprise, and delight.   Faith comes easy to a child; hope, dreams and expectation of greater things is what makes up the very essence of a child. As young children we are sure of good things coming; we believe and therefore we are filled with joy and expectation. Unfortunately as we grow older unfulfilled wishes taint our once hopeful faith.  Setting the bar low often ends in anti-climatic rewards.  It is safe to put a reign on faith and keep hopes wrapped up in tidy boxes that we can explain, but is this really living?  Isn’t that inner child tugging inside daring us to shoot for the stars?  Christmas is an invitation to  believe again in things beyond what we can see or explain.  It is an invitation to wonder.

Wonder keeps drawing us into discovery.  Science has gained perpetual momentum unveiling the unseen world.  Something deep inside seems to pull on each of us to reach beyond our own limitation to prove things that transcend the boundaries of this physical world.  Hope set on temporary things never fully satisfies the longing of the human spirit. Joy is miraculous; it is otherworldly; it is not found in the things of this world. We were created for more; eternity is set in our hearts, therefore something within us is always crying out for more.

Christmas is built around miracles that bring great joy. Whether you celebrate the birth of Jesus or you celebrate the fun of Santa Clause, it is about dreams coming true and hopes fulfilled.  There is a conflict within us, a tension between our heart and our logical mind.  Pride; fear of looking like a fool, has robbed us of a whole lot of joy. There is something beautiful in the heart of a child to believe in wonderful things that are not seen with human eyes.  The battle over Christmas wonder is a battle over joy and the miraculous.

Very few things have the power to suck the joy right out of a person like sickness? Now, why would I want to talk about suffering in a blog about Christmas? Well, the Grinch is not the only one trying to squelch the Christmas Spirit. Suffering and pain whether physical or emotional is a huge culprit that has put a damper on faith.  If you ever bought the story that God allows sickness in your body or your loved ones to bring about something good, that is a recipe to steal hope in miracles.  I am well acquainted with the pain of contending for a child in adverse pain and suffering.  In the early stages of  believing for my granddaughter’s healing I had to guard who I surrounded myself with. Because her situation was so desperate I needed people who would believe with me for the “impossible”.  I had a few who believed in a God who allows sickness to teach lessons around me and I had to create a protective barrier. I was not going to believe for one minute that it was God’s will for my newborn granddaughter to endure this kind of suffering. To believe that God causes sickness to make you stronger, more apathetic or to somehow use you as a witness of long suffering to the hospital staff is a lying joy thief!!!  What child or person would anticipate joyfully a relationship with someone who causes sickness as an ingredient to produce “good”? Likely this theology came out of well meaning humans trying to understand suffering or why prayers were not answered, but it is not truth.  I think we’ve created a better picture of Old Saint Nick than we have of God.

Jesus is the gift of Christmas.  He was sent to settle once and for all the character of God the Father.  He came to reveal the heart Father.  During His life on earth He also revealed to us that there is a real enemy that is at war with us. The book of Acts says, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” This is a definition of good- healing the sick and destroying the works of the devil.  People don’t prefer to mention a devil, especially at Christmas?  Call him the Grinch spirit if you will! Every good story has a villain and we all want good to overcome evil.  It seems many have become more comfortable believing that all the evil in the world is because of bad people?  Natural disasters we refer to as “acts of God”giving the connotation that God is not only angry, but even, what we would otherwise classify as evil. Many try to blame man for these things too, maybe because we don’t want to believe in the unseen world.  God is not trying to steal our joy.  He sent Jesus that we might have joy and have it to the full!

I am not saying that we can escape all suffering.  Suffering is not all bad.  The quote, “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”, has some validity.  The scriptures tell us that, “God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.” This does not say that He causes evil, it does say He causes good.  ‘Our momentary light afflictions are producing an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  God makes a way where there seems to be no way. He is the most generous giver of all, just waiting for us to ask and believe.  James, the brother of Jesus, tells us that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He is not good and happy one day and mad the next. God is Good. God is Love.  He sent Jesus to save us and to empower us from on high!  He uses you and I as partners of His miracle working power; if only we will believe.

My granddaughter still believes in Santa Clause and she still believes in miracles! She is now eight years old, she knows that she is going to be healed, she has no doubt.  Never once has she thought to blame God or succumbed to a victim attitude.  I am challenged by her, she has been the fire that has caused me to seek more, believe more and contend fervently for her miracle as well as others. We now are seeing the evidence that she is being profoundly healed.  Her healing is coming in stages and through a varied partnership.  Miracles are always in partnership. Nurses and doctors at Children’s Hospital of course and a vigilant mother who is a prayer warrior and believes wholeheartedly in natural medicine have been part of the mix.  Some miracles take time.  Suddenly now,  there has been an alignment of supernatural connections, wisdom and mother instincts to try some herbs, supplements and alkaline water all of which we know have made a huge difference. Above all these things, we have never stopped believing and contending for the miracle for which God alone will get the glory, she has come into the healing rooms multiple times. Unless you have faith as a little child you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Is this referring to more than a heaven far off? Is it that there is something we must continue to contend for that we have not fully grasped for this earth?  Within the gift of Christ is hidden the treasures of heaven; the mysteries. These mysteries are for us to discover.  There is so much more!

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.”  Arthur C. Clarke

We need a paradigm shift. We are warriors destined to press through the boundaries of this age to grab hold of the ageless mysteries. When we receive Jesus Christ we receive access to the “otherworld”  where wonder working power abounds. Heaven’s good tidings of great joy wait eagerly for us to dream again and believe for the impossible.  If we don’t try, we will never know.  Let’s stir ourselves to, like a child, believe in miracles and celebrate the wonder of Christmas!

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today in the City of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord! Luke 2:10&11

These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15:11

February 5, 2019

Breathe and Be

“It’s as easy as breathing.” Have you lost your breath?  Are you running so fast that you’re out of breath; jumping from one project or thought to the next until the whole day has been eaten up?  How about slicing off a piece for peace? It can be easy to get so caught up doing that we forget to breathe and enjoy life. Would you jump out of the race for a moment to catch your breath with me?

There is an art to creating space to be still and breathe deep. I’d like to challenge you to quiet the inner chatter and be mindful of you.  Settle into yourself a moment and ask; “Who am I right here right now?”, “Who do I want to be?”, “How do I feel?” How are you? Outside of all the “stuff”, all the responsibilities and impending projects; how are you? What is taking your breath away?

Be mindful of you. Feel your body; your muscles, your heart beat, the flow of energy moving through your body. Listen to your thoughts, your feelings and emotions and take a moment to assess which ones are really yours, which ones are not? Which ones do you want to keep or let go? You get to choose to hold onto what really matters and blow off the rest; release it, forgive and make space for breath. Holding in unprocessed emotions will wreak havoc on your health.  Is it worth sacrificing your health? Maybe you are finding it difficult to answer some of these questions because in the process you have not only lost your breath but you are having a hard time finding you as well. If you need help getting unstuck Emotional Healing Sessions can make a significant difference in just one or two sessions. Taking care of you is taking care of the ones you love. I invite you to be still a moment let go of the doing to just breathe and be.

“Take a breath”. This is a common way to say it but a simple rephrasing, “Receive your breath” shifts perspective to gratitude, recognizing that the breath of life is a gift; it is life.  Receive, draw it in with appreciation and joy for everything good around you, in you and accessible to you. Deep breathing, gratitude and positive thoughts are good medicine.  Together they cause a ripple effect of good vibrations that stimulate healing.  Studies have revealed that positive thoughts, gratitude, meditation and deep breathing do more than shift perspective they all have immune system strengthening benefits.

The breath of life is doing more than just keep you alive. Deep breathing increases energy; reduces inflammation and improves digestion. Breathing is a built in detoxification system; 70% of toxins are breathed out. Carbon dioxide and other toxins evacuate as you exhale.  Deep breathing assists the lymphatic system as well by helping move pathogens and toxins out of the body.

Be mindful of your breath. More than 50% of Americans are shallow breathers.  Shallow breathing triggers the “fight or flight” response that causes the adrenals to excrete cortisol.  When the adrenals are overactive fighting stress they overload the body with cortisol which begins to wreak havoc on the whole body. Deep breathing is an antidote to stress and anxiety.  Signaling a relaxed response from the parasympathetic nervous system and assisting in the balance of cortisol.

30 min. Sauna Sessions only $25 Or add a 20 min session to a service for only $15! Large enough for a couple or 2 friends.

Carve out time to meditate and breath it will literally transform your life. Our infrared sauna is a great place to start. Here are some tips to try in the sauna, at home, or even while commuting. Take a deep cleansing breath; inhale deep and exhale pushing your stomach out till you have emptied it all out of air. Count as you breathe in for a count of 6 then breathe out for 10 to 12 counts; try to always exhale for a longer count than what you inhale.  Try “Chedvah Breathing”: receive a deep breath to the count of 8, hold for 4 and exhale for a count of 6 and continue to let go and resonate for an additional 5.  Even just a few minutes of deep breathing a day can start making a difference. Try it for 1 minute, then 5 minutes until you get to 15 to 20 minutes a day. Think about one beautiful thing you want to transform; list the things you are thankful for or choose just one word like “love”, “joy”, “open”… “Receive” is one that I love to use and “Paniym” a Hebrew word meaning the face of God.  Breathe in, look up, let go, release, dream and most of all reconnect with you to just be!

Personally meditation with deep breathing has been one of the most transforming habits in my life.
Be Well,
Richelle

Learn more about herbs and new habits that help support the body & soul while we take Tea Talks to a personal level, living room style. Make your own herbal soaking salts.

December 11, 2018

Immune Support for the Seasons

“Immune Support for the Seasons” by Dr. Morlan

Recently at Joy Centers, we hosted a free Immune Support class for friends, family and members of the community. Attendees were informed with some excellent tips about ways to boost the immune system. I had some delicious tea with a splash of elderberry during our class. During my preparation for the class, I realized that simple methods that people employ to help stay healthy and boost their immune system, during the cold weather seasons, are often overlooked or completely forgotten. Some of the points that were worth mentioning, during the class, I review below.

1. Hand Washing is paramount to the prevention and transmission of bacteria/viruses. Washing hands after coming into contact with someone who might be infected or after touching doorknobs, handles, shopping carts etc. can be extremely helpful for flu prevention. It helps to make a practice of hand washing hygiene during an infection as well.
2. Decreasing or eliminating processed sugar (cane sugar, coconut sugar, baked goods, cakes/pies, etc.) intake will allow your immune system to function better. Processed sugar, in nearly all forms, weakens the body’s immune system by promoting inflammation, leaving you susceptible to opportunistic infections. Berries are a great source of vitamin C.
3. Exercise is a great way to boost the immune system. For those that are able to exercise, movement of the body assists the immune cells by increasing the circulation of the blood and lymphatic system. The circulation of blood and lymph may help to increase immune cell surveillance while increasing the amount of oxygen and nutrients delivered to tissues around the body.
4. Stay hydrated and drink pure water. Our bodies are made up mostly of water. Dehydration does not allow the cells in our body to function at their best to run our metabolism and prevents the immune system from functioning at its best. Distilled or water filtered via reverse osmosis is the most effective filtration for removing impurities/contaminants.
5. Organic Fruits and Vegetables are a great way to provide the body with macro and micronutrients that may be used to fight off infection. Increased fruits and vegetables in the diet, combined with a decrease in consumption of processed sugar, can speed up the recovery of illness and help to prevent “getting sick.”
6. Decreasing Stress and Increasing Quality Sleep are imperative to helping the body fight off potential infectious agents, in combination with all of the above. I encourage my patients to eliminate exposure to any/all electronic screens at least 2 hours before bed, and preferably, when the sun sets. LED and compact fluorescent bulbs should be traded out for “good ol’ incandescent” light bulbs. This will help the body’s melatonin secretion, a hormone/antioxidant to assist with sleep.

Join us on Wednesday, November 14, 2018 for our monthly Tea Talk where we will discuss methods of stress reduction. (joycenters.com)

April 26, 2018

Stories Within Stories

Stories within Stories

Richelle Walker

This has been the most amazing journey!  There are so many stories within stories that lay the foundation of the Joy Centers.  Let me start by saying that all the glory for this beautiful story goes to the greatest adventure writer Himself; God.  One of the things I love most about my discovery of God is that He is the Great Mysterion who loves to add mystery and surprises to our story. Some of you have heard many of the stories, witnessed miracles and celebrated so many fun confirmations along the way.   Just breaking into this dream has brought much joy to so many. To tell all the interwoven mysteries we would have to write a book.

Where do I begin?  Even to tell you when the dream started wouldn’t be accurate.  When did the story start really?  I have so many times of spiraling backwards and forward as my life intersects with this dream that I myself don’t even know where it started.  Maybe I have tapped into something so compatible with my destiny that it IS a golden thread that’s been running through the book of my life for longer than I ever had a clue?

August 2014 is the marker for a download that spilled out of heaven into my heart and mind leading me to embark on research and discoveries that lay at the core of this vision.  I had gone to Redding, CA to seek direction for my life.  I was certainly not expecting what I came home with.  As I soaked in gratitude and stillness after receiving another layer of emotional healing from the “Sozo” team at Bethel Church, words and ideas began to spill out of heaven.  They were coming so fast that I literally said out loud, “Hold on, I need to get a pen and paper!”  I knew that I was being given keys that I needed to pay attention to.  You see I am a research addict (never to recover!) and a veracious truth seeker that has grown highly suspect of my own ideas as I have led myself down some pretty hard paths; if anything comes to me that sounds like my own idea I am unlikely to follow it.  Often the way that God talks to me is by throwing out words or concepts that I do not know or normally use knowing that it will set me in motion to research and unfold mysteries.  Well that is what happened to me that afternoon.  Some of the words that I heard like infrared, quantum physics, hyperbaric chamber and frequency, to name a few, I had no clue about, in fact I thought that quantum physics was just a term in physics that you might learn in high school.  This day set me on an inquisitive journey to question everything and that questioning has led to some of the most fun and powerful science driven answers.  Joy Centers is going to keep on telling those stories as you and others come in and experience the powerful healing properties of these and so much more.

But like I said this story started long before so let me take you back to February of 2013.  Again I was in Redding at a conference.  Sometimes just getting around other dreamers and a faith filled atmosphere provides the seed bed for your own dreams to crack open.  At this conference I had a quick “vision” of a little yellow house and some packing boxes and I felt drop into my mind or heart wherever it is that these things we hear or know, but not audibly, land; “Start packing and prepare to move.”  I got home and I started a little purging and packed a couple boxes as an act of faith that I really had heard God and I started to look for my little yellow house.  Fast forward a year later.  One day I suddenly realize that every time I talk about these healing centers I have been subconsciously envisioning a yellow house.   Ah ha? Was the “yellow house” actually the Joy Center and not a personal residence at all?  Well, my house is full of boxes right now as I write this on April 26^th, 2018.  I am preparing to move into the little yellow house that sits next to the Joy Center on the same property and yes I will live there!

I lived in Snohomish with my dad when I was in ninth grade.  We lived in Vista La Grand and I attended Snohomish Junior High which is now the beautiful salt water aquatic center.  That year my dad purchased a Christian bookstore at 310 Pine Ave in Snohomish named the Open Door Bookstore.  At the age of 14, the Open Door bookstore became my first real job. Shortly after a little yellow house on Second Street needed to be moved or torn down for new construction to go in.  My dad bought the house and moved it onto the bookstore property.   After a couple of years he sold the property and its name changed to Christian Armory.  Well, long story short, over 30 years later my dad bought back the property for the Joy Centers to lease to own.  The very property where I had my first job is now the launching pad for my last job and career of my life. Often prophetic people come up with names for a new year that seems to line up with seasons and prophesy.  Do you know what this year is being called?  The year of the Open Door!  In the year of the “Open Door” we will open the doors for the Joy Centers at what was once the Open Door bookstore.  How is that for a story; right?

These are only a few of the stories that have been woven into the layers of this beautiful dream.  Too many stories to tell right now, but you will be able to come to 310 Pine Avenue in Snohomish this summer and I would love to tell you more over a cup of “Awaken” tea or maybe you would rather have an iced “Stress-less” or a great local organic Kombucha?  Join us on this amazing, fun journey.  Let’s add you to our stories.

August 9, 2017

Joy- Energy that Heals

Joy gives good vibrations! When we experience moments of celebration and delight a burst of energy is released throughout our whole being; stirring the body, mind, spirit and emotions to wake up and live life. Joy is like helium; it cannot be weighed down, when we are filled with it we are lifted up above whatever might be trying to keep us down! Fear and doubt; huge contributors to illness, cannot co-exist with joy. Joy is an emotion powerfully infused to help ward off sickness and toxic thinking. King Solomon, known as the wisest king; reigning from 970-931 BC, is the one who said, “A joyful heart is good medicine”. This phrase literally means that joy causes good healing. Like sunshine, joy is resonating with healing vibrations.
Read More