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The above picture was at a lovely scarecrow festival I had the pleasure of attending recently.  It was a day I felt like I was flourishing by having fun with friends, eating well, getting exercise, fresh air, taking vitamins or supplements to support my health and filling my wellness tank up.

This “full tank” definitely helped with handling stress, when later that day we had to be  resourceful, to get our towed car back from the neighbouring town!  We made a new friend along the way, and continued on a merry holiday.

The reason I encourage you to ask yourself “is your health tank full?” is that as we head into the cooler season it is a vital resource for our immunity. The more care we take of ourselves, the more natural immunity and resilience we will have for seasonal ailments – big or small.
In light of that I will be offering some courses to support you with the tools of  Reflexology, and  Guilt Free Winter/ Christmas snacks.

The Guilt Free Christmas Snacks held on Nov 29 6:30 -8:30 pm, will be in conjunction with  Groundswell,  cost $50/$55, including about $30 worth of take home snacks, to enjoy with your family or friends. Sign up for this session,  by signing up at:   https://groundswellnetwork.ca/events/

The second workshop of Reflexology  will be held on Nov 30th,  is a cozy shared health support, of a specific style of foot and hand massage.  This is best signed up for with a partner or friends willing to touch your feet!  It is an introductory level being taught, yet with practice can be most supportive to your health.  I frequently use it to lessen the discomfort of a cold or stuffy sinuses.  Cost of $50 per person will include a foot & hand chart for reference,  with aromatherapy  massage lotion provided.  Please bring a towel and wear loose fitting  pants that can be raised to the knees.   Sign up from my website at flourishinghealth.ca 

Back to those health goals… if you have unused insurance benefits including Acupuncture I invite you to support your health by using them before they expire at the end of ’22!  Book from the website  https://flourishinghealth.ca/

Thanks for reading, and hope to see many of you this fall and early winter.  

Heather Fischbuch
RAc RMT ( AB) RA, RP 

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What do I want to be “KNOWN FOR”? 

This question was asked of me by a marketer recently. Pondering it lead me down a few paths, until I had the summer joy of sharing my love of plants and the history of where that came from, with a dear friend seen in the above picture. This delightful way to spend a summer morning made me want to answer the above question with the title of “Rose petal picker EXTRAORDINAIRE”, along with teacher of nature, medicine maker, lover of life,  and of course supporter of Health that Flourishes.   

  All four seasons have their magic and beauty however my dreams and day dreams are usually set in fair weather, with spring flowers and warm breezes.  Perhaps this is a simple craving after a really cool spring, or some peculiarity of mental health, or that I ate watermelon before bed…
Which ever of these it may be I am  and living this new title I bestow upon myself  by sharing a favourite rose patch with a friend who was curious about what to do with them and how they could be medicinal. It is that season of my dreams  and I celebrate it by making anything and everything I can think of with rose petals. Rose petal tea, rose infused honey, rose tincture or cordial , or even rose salad dressings will be made and available in the coming months at Flourishing Health clinic. Another favourite way to enjoy rose is through aromatherapy.  
Aromatically Roses are the highest vibration of essential oils and they are chemically very complex and treat a myriad of disharmonies in the body and dare I say the world.  We give roses as gifts. The smell of them may remind you of a time or event or even special person in your life. Such is the case for me. They literally are heart warming and stress reducing. 
 
 My petite French grandma grew roses and made rosehip syrup and tea which was loaded with vitamin C and other antioxidants. One year she gathered as many of her grand children as possible for a special rose event.  She gave each of us a pair of garden gloves and a bucket or bag and we set off on my parent’s farm for a blissful morning of gathering Wild Rose petals. This special event was filled with much frolicking, wild flowers in our hair, picking and eating contests and eventually about 5 gallons of the delicate pink petals were gathered. 
 
From these fragile pink gems she coaxed the best wine I have in my life tasted. It transported me back to that early June day of sunshine, family and roses, with a taste that entered through taste buds and curled to every cell in a domino wave of delight. As this event happened when I was only 10 years of age one could ask – What did I know about wine yet again the complex aromatherapy chemistry of wild rose?  
The wine was doled in small portion at weddings, funerals, and family gatherings for a few years following the grand day and my original assumption of its magnificence grew with each sip through those years’ special events. 
 
A few years ago, I inherited my grandmother’s wine recipe  books, and will someday make rose petal wine. Until then I invite you to pick a few and sprinkle them on your granola, your salad, your dessert, your life, and cherish the joy with the grand energy of springing into summer they carry. 
I also have rose essential oil and can custom blend a perfume including it if you desire. An aromatherapy consultation complete with blend in lotion or perfume format is available at Flourishing Health in Invermere. I am a  Registered Aromatherapist, and rose petal picker extraordinaire, which some days is more special to me than all the other letters behind my name.  

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Along with the very talented speaker, and teachers, yogi, and drummer: Suze Casey, Elizabeth Shopland, Crisanna MacLeod, Laura Mac and Patrick Carrick, I am pleased to host a spring renewal weekend. Check it out, sign up with a friend or two and find out what flourishing looks and feels like for you!

Reserve your spot here: https://flourishinghealth.janeapp.com/

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I am having an unusual opportunity this week.  The opportunity is to use what I have been preaching for the past 25 months on myself.  
Yes I have contracted the mild omicron version of the corona virus. 

Many in my community preceded me with this variant and I dolled out diet therapy advice, sent videos of which acupoints to apply essential oils to, suggested what doses of which vitamins or supplements to support recovery , and even delivered herbs to door steps when needed.  
For the past 30 or so years, I have used the insurance policy approach of taking a variety of supplements for my genetic dispositions needs, the bugs circulating each season, and my varying stress or exertion levels taken into account.  I even had a health food store for about 4 years and did a 10 year science project with the Alberta Government on essential oils and Aromatherapy,  to develop this repertoire further. 

My essential oil stash is collected from 5 continents, and includes over 150 oils I know and love, and teach about.  From proactively using these insurance policy tools I had sincerely hoped that my immune system would take a pass to the widely publicized corona virus.  I also choose to receive 2 doses of the MRNA serum as a calculated reduction in transmissibility to my elderly parents or clients. For now I am taking an unplanned seasonal break for this week, to isolate &  will return to my beloved work when the much appreciated rapid tests, now available, show that I’m no longer contagious, and my energy has returned.  
Despite all these factors,  I am now nursing a sore throat and achy body on day 3 of the  journey through it.  I am using daily doses of home made soup, acupuncture points and essential oil blends, as well as  large doses of Vitamin d, c, and zinc (and a handful of those other genetic disposition herbs and supplements mentioned above). 

I want someone to pet my hair and tell me stories, yet Netflix and weird fevered dreams in my frequent naps are doing their part to keep my spirits up. My increased empathy to all the clients, friends or family that reached out with these or other symptoms of this wacky virus.  
I will dredge up the needed energy to finish this little blog post with gratitude that I live in this time of so much knowledge of the human body and medicine with advances or  new findings being made constantly.  Gratitude also to the increasing acceptance of  Traditional Chinese Medicine and the herbal medicines of my French and German Grandmothers that I learned from. Plant medicines that can support and relieve in gentle yet profound ways.   

Gratitude to this little resilient body of mine, that she is getting through this virus,  and that I can laugh at the weird fever dreams, knowing I will survive to continue to support my own, as well as others’ health, in the best ways I know how! Using nutrition first, quality sleep, positive state of mind, depth of relationships, fresh air and exercise, herbal allies to lean on and of course acupuncture combined with  massage to smooth out the rough patches:  health will prevail. 

Healthy regards, Heather

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For the remainder of March we are available to serve your health care needs with massage and acupuncture 4 days and evenings per week.  Beginning in April, Mondays  from 4-7pm will be Acupuncture only appointments. Initial Assessments,  Combo or massage appointment will continue to be available all the other shifts in the week, yet  in these Monday acu only time slots, I’d like to encourage families or friends to experience the community acupuncture model for a budget conscious price. 

This is a great option if multiple family members all want to support their health with acu and simplify their schedule by all getting treated simultaneously.  This time is also open to friends or individuals who will all be in the shared quiet room that will have 3 treatment spaces being used, with a simple room divider giving you enough privacy to relax , yet the group energy of  a shared healing intention.  Patients are encouraged to come wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts to access the many powerful  acupuncture points on the arms and legs, and head.  It looks like the picture below of a comfy clinic one of my classmates operates in Ontario. 
Laura MacKinnon, a familiar Invermere yoga teacher, herbalist, with a  warm and welcoming  presence will be helping me out on these Monday evenings.   

We hope  that this will be a nice addition to our communities health supporting options and invite you to give it a try.  
We will also begin offering direct billing to insurance plans such as Pacific Blue cross and encourage all who have these benefits  for acupuncture to use them to benefit your health with these supportive treatments.  More insurance plans will be added to this list in the coming months.  

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As the temperatures rise we breathe deeper and have our tastebuds tingling for green spring tonic foods.  Bring on the sprouts of broccoli, alfalfa, peas or sunflowers, piled high on a spinach & strawberry salad with some fresh squeezed lemon juice to add the important pungent sour flavour that will act like a tonic to tone up you liver.  In TCM spring is associated with the wood element, with the organs of  liver and gall bladder needing the pungent and sour flavour of these green foods and lemon juice to revitalize them after a winter of eating heavier foods. We have also brought in the all important liver cleansing  herbs of dandelion and milk thistle for those that need more support. This  diet and herbal allies will have you feeling energized to get out and enjoy the warming weather in what ever  activities appeals to your age and health.  

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In TCM we are taught how emotions affect various body parts. This may come as news to you, yet our language has many references to it such as: “they were so afraid they peed their pants” which translates to fear weakening the kidneys so much that urine could not be held.  

Anger weakens your liver

Grief weakens your lungs

Worry weakens your stomach 

Stress weakens your heart and brain

Fear weakens your kidney

Several times in the past week I have coached patients to stop watching the news as it triggers some of these emotions which in turn weaken their health and ability to heal. 
Check in with your emotions and know that you have choice how and what to allow into your space and another choice to choose or not to be triggered by it.  
I am not advocating being positive at all costs, yet healthy detachment, or choice of  what and volume of stimulus is within your control.  

Send us an email or book an appointment if you’d like to discuss this further.  

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