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PITTSBURGH, PA EDITION PUBLISHER Michelle Dalnoky EDITOR Martin Miron CALENDAR EDITOR Sara Peterson AD DESIGNER Zina Cochran DESIGN & PRODUCTION C. Michele Rose SALES & MARKETING Michelle Dalnoky Lisa Doyle
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letter from publisher
I
want to thank everyone who has been loving Natural Awakenings magazine’s Pittsburgh edition. Everywhere I go, people share their enthusiasm about having the magazine here. I cannot express to you how grateful I am that you feel that way and that you share it with me. It fills my heart with joy and happiness and relief and motivation. All of those excited feelings lead me to continue to work to find balance, and a big part of that is sleep, which is one of our topics this month. We all know how challenged many people are to find that sometimes-elusive state we all need to regenerate our body, mind, spirit and energy. As a hospital nurse, I worked the night shift, because as a single mom, I felt it took away the least amount of time from my daughter. (When she was little, she used to think I went to the hospital to sleep!) Of course, working the night shift, my own sleep patterns were completely disrupted and I tried many things to bring balance. I avoided caffeine after a certain hour. I blackened my windows so it was completely dark in my bedroom. I put on ocean sounds and tried melatonin and teas. But I never seemed to get enough sleep. It took me years to get that straightened out. I also witnessed people trying to sleep in the hospital. Many of them were on prescription sleeping pills, which never seemed to work and put people at an increased risk of falling. Unfortunately, falls happened too frequently, and there are few things worse for a night shift nurse than hearing that thump. Even now, the memory gives me shivers. I have never been a fan of prescription sleeping pills. There will always be situations make sleep elusive temporarily, but also many natural ways to find and enhance it. Now I have an Alexa smart speaker to play ocean sounds or meditation music for me upon request. I drink a nice herbal tea like chamomile or valerian. My German grandmother used to give her children valerian tea. I’m sure they needed it, because they were born during WW II and their house was bombed twice. They lost their father, so their mother and five children under the age of 8 had to figure out how to survive. Natural remedies were a part of that survival, along with her garden, her chickens and her industrious nature and ability to barter for other necessities. CBD, a non-psychoactive component of the cannabis plant, is also a nice sleep aid and great for times of stress or dealing with mild pain. Even a low dose of THC can be really helpful if needed. I would definitely recommend consulting with a professional about it, but I am an advocate of cannabis and have been a member of the American Cannabis Nurses Association since 2015 after attending a three-day conference on Marijuana for Medical Professionals. That’s another topic that I look forward to exploring. As with so many things, we all need to find what works for us to bring our own balance, and also to switch things up when life changes or throws a big stressful or exciting curve our way. Just try to find what works for you. I wish you all healthy sleep!
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Pittsburgh, PA
Michelle Dalnoky, Publisher
NaturalAwakeningsSWPA.com