Merry Christmas & motivation to take care of our oral hygiene & motivation for me to clean and declutter.
A Substack was shared in the comments about the cancer/oral health link, thanks!
Merry Christmas!
Oral hygiene and breast cancer risk - news to know about lymphatic drainage and gum or tooth disease.
Oral hygiene is important because lymphatic drainage from the mouth largely flows through the breasts and tight clothing, underwire bras, etc. can decrease flow. Add in infected teeth or prior history of root canal work instead of a tooth extraction and the slow moving lymphatic drainage will contain infectious pathogens which have been identified in breast cancer tissue. Other chronic conditions have also been associated with tooth or gum infections or chronic inflammation.
“Income generating work” vs “expensive hobby” - what does IRS think?
*Regarding my thinking I work too much . . . mentioned in the last post, when you like what you are doing then it doesn’t seem like work. But when your time has limits, then prioritizing what you can fit in becomes critical. That leads to the question of what is a priority to me? and why? Blogging for free is not “income generating work” if you aren’t charging anything, have no advertising or other products to pitch, making it an “expensive hobby” according to business course I listened to. If your small business consistently loses a lot of money for multiple years in a row rather than just in a start up year or two, and isn’t generating much income to cover the expenses, then the IRS may call it an “expensive hobby”.
I resemble that remark. And I have thought of what I do as not for profit, and/or, an expensive hobby. Writing is a release for me, an outlet, and a place for me to try to organize my notes and thoughts so I can find them again (maybe, somewhere I have a picture of the frilly stage of Witch Hazel flowers but I couldn’t find it yesterday and gave up trying.).
Finding your purpose - your ikigai.
A great Substack based around the Japanese concept of ikigai - finding your purpose in life - helps clarify that finding joy in your daily work, finding purpose in life ‘ikigai’ is not as much about it being income generating as much as being useful and something you reach a flow state in easily - simply enjoy doing it so much you lose track of time. How much time do I spend on a blog post? Sometimes an hour, but sometimes 8 hours and sometimes many hours three days in a row. Longer projects are harder for me to stay motivated about and stick with to see a finished goal.
David Marlow has a nice substack - very peaceful and motivating:
How to provide public health education without a national agency budget (and oversite and censorship of content).
Starting a real non-profit and fund raising for it has been a thought but it requires at least two people on the paperwork to apply for tax deduction donation status. You have to show that you are helping the community somehow to qualify for non-profit tax status.
Other business models that support not charging for services includes charging some people in order to help support the worker who is reaching a wider audience than only those able and willing to pay.
There is always the question of “What do people want - bad enough to pay for it? or bad enough to seek it out for free?”
My information heavy sites do get some random search engine traffic. I don’t spend time on SEO analyzing - I just write keyword heavy material and include lots of links. It is fun for me to find Transcendingsquare.com among first page search results on random odd topics. Of course, there is bias in that experimental set - I think like I think and therefore I would tend to find my own work when trying to find research citations supporting a new idea or when trying to refind studies I remembered reading.
Cleaning is more fun with essential oil products that you enjoy smelling - they may be health promoting too, or at least not toxic products.
This is probably not surprising, but I prefer to read and write blogs than do dishes or dust surfaces - however using favorite essential oil cleaning products has made cleaning more fun and has increased my motivation to clear out old clutter along with the dust. More on that topic soon.
Here is an update of my presentation document: Essential Oils for Cold & Flu Season. (Dropbox). The current version has several page about anti-viral and mycoplasma self-care and a page with my Basic Stack nutrient recommendations. This version is heavy on doTerra products but other essential oils can be good quality too. Read labels for 100% purity, no solvents, or no dilution with other ingredient oils - so you are comparing apples to apples at least when looing at price differences. I like the guide but want to add a few more pages with more information about what to look for in quality products as “essential oil” is an unregulated term. It can be used on any product label.
I also want to add some basic how-to-use recipes or methods for self-care products or cleaning and household uses. Figuring out how to fit more into the standard 24 hours that we get each day is what I need to do.
<Thinking cap is on>
Disclaimer: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use. It is not intended to provide individual health care guidance.
JD - re: ikigai - I don't know where I am going, but I am on my way.
Hoof oil with wintergreen makes hoof care self-reinforcing. I'm going to try to use your hint to motivate some house cleaning!