DweezelJazz Art Blog » Topics For Thought

The Value of Mind Mapping and the Benefits of Using Mind Mapping Software

DweezelJazz — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:44:27 +0000

I’ve found a number of software applications recently that have increased my productivity enormously. I was checking out some of the Apps available for the iPhone when I came across a mind mapping App. It reminded me of mind mapping which I hadn’t thought about for ages, and I wondered if mind mapping software for the computer would be useful. At first it seemed a silly idea, why not just mind map on a piece of paper. But I’m incredibly messy – my handwriting can be almost illegible, even to me, if I don’t take care in writing and I can never find the kit in one place – paper, colored pens or pencils – and so I never get round to it.

After a quick search I discovered several contenders and narrowed the selection to a program called NovaMind. I downloaded the 30-day fully-enabled trial version and used it every day, pretty much all day long, all 30 days. It’s a fantastic way to take notes, to think through things, brainstorm ideas, and to plan for projects. It’s a visual presentation and involves using color and symbols, along with phrases or key words. The NovaMind program is intuitive to use, is very versatile and works smoothly.

Example 1 of Mind Map Created Using NovaMind Software

A search for mind mapping on the Internet quickly gives the main ideas about how it’s done. The map begins in the center with the heading of the topic being considered, and from that point everything else branches out. It’s a visual representation of ideas and facts and it illustrates their relationships and relative importance. It’s phenomenal just how quickly it’s possible to review something in depth with a mind map.

Mind mapping experts suggest that key words are used rather than phrases, because the brain responds quickly to a key word and it makes it easier to remember. It might be more effective, but I very much like having full phrases. Not sentences, but enough words that I don’t have to guess my original meaning when I wrote the map.

Another liberating thing about a mind map is that you can go back later and add to it very easily, without disturbing anything already there. The magic of having mind mapping software is that it always stays neat and legible, and it isn’t necessary to redraw it if it gets out of proportion or is too big for the paper you started it on, because the software handles all of that for you. It’s also possible to link to web pages and other files and to specific branches in other mind map files. I use it for everything now, both work-related and personal.

Example 2 of Mind Map Created Using NovaMind Software

A mind map is also visually easy to remember, and makes for a great tool for memorizing information. The key to memorization is to review the topic frequently, especially for a short period right after studying it for the first time, and then periodically afterward until it’s successfully stored in long-term memory. It doesn’t take long, but the periodic reminder is key in moving the information from short-term to long-term memory. Once this has been done, the memories are securely stored in our long-term memory and no further review of the material is necessary, regardless of how much time passes.

Example 3 of Mind Map Created Using NovaMind Software

Mind maps make the review a quick and simple matter. The visual layout and color helps because apparently the fastest way to put something in long-term memory is by mentally photographing it. If we can successfully take a mental snapshot in all its detail, then that’s it, we’ll remember it long-term. If not, then we need to create associations within our mind to help integrate the new information into our memories. Color, symbols, pictures, drawings, spatial arrangement, links – all present in mind maps – help to create these associations.

Some years back I read a book about mind mapping and made a few small maps on paper. I found them intriguing and potentially helpful, but I didn’t use them often. Now I create new mind maps just about every day, and go back and refer to them almost as often. Without the software I simply wouldn’t do it nearly as much or as effectively.

Example of Summary Mind Map Created Using NovaMind

I’ve even created mind maps of mind maps, linking the branches of the summary mind map directly to the more detailed mind map file. This allows me to keep track of what subtopics I have on a given topic, otherwise I wouldn’t even remember what information I have in the computer. Organization isn’t my strong point, even in the computer, and if it were all done on pieces of paper, or in a book, I’d be totally buried. To my surprise and relief, having the software has enabled me to tackle all sorts of projects efficiently and effectively.

Mind mapping is a tool that seems so basic as to be, well, for the simple-minded. It’s a deceptively simple concept and, at first, might seem like overkill, but any help we can get with problem-solving, organization, and having a great place for just thinking up creative ideas, is a boost up.

If you haven’t toyed with mind mapping, you might just want to give it a try and see if you like it. If you have, do you use it regularly? what about it do you find it useful? what’s your favorite way to mind map? do you use mind mapping software? do you have any special tips you could share? I’d love to hear from you, if you’d like to leave comments about mind mapping or whatever means that you’ve found beneficial for making sense of ideas and facts.

What Does An Artist Need To Know In Today’s Technological World?

DweezelJazz — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:46:29 +0000

This seems to be the time when ebook readers and very small portable computers are starting to really catch on, not to mention all the ways it’s possible to read content on smart phones.

I recently read an article, The End of Book Publishing As We Know It, on Michael Hyatt’s blog. In the article there’s a video showing a slim, portable, color-format reading device Time Inc has developed for magazine content. It allows for audio, video and normal text print content to be accessed very easily all in one place at the touch of a finger.

Time (no pun intended) will tell just how much these new devices and combinations of media will affect the conventional publishing industry, but it is already true that the publishing industry is experiencing tremendous changes.

There are many new opportunities available for the individual in this evolving technical environment. Software applications at relatively low prices have made it possible for individuals to learn how to accomplish things that used to only be possible for experts with very costly equipment. One such area is the ability to print a book using, for example, Adobe InDesign or even one of the applications made freely available by online book printers such as Blurb.

The tricky part that comes with having direct access to performing these highly specialised tasks is that in order to create quality products there’s a great deal for an individual to learn. It’s crucial to assess which facets will be important to forwarding one’s own work. There are a variety of reasons for limiting just how much you intend trying to learn to do:

learning a little of everything results in doing most things in a mediocre manner because there just isn’t enough time to truly develop more than two or three things fully and deeply
time spent on one thing means less time spent on another which could be more important in achieving your goal
you might end up spending much more time than you intended doing something you really don’t enjoy very much

So it’s really important to pick and choose what to learn, finding the balance that allows you to move forward with your goals, but doesn’t drain too much from your primary ambition and passion.

My primary passion is stories. I think I could do without many things, but not stories, and stories with pictures, well, I just think that’s the ultimate. I love movies, but have no interest in being directly involved in the film industry. So I’ve been concentrating on understanding what it is about the visual elements that go into art that make it successfully communicative, and what elements are important to a story to make it really interesting and exciting.

I’m still experimenting with just how my passion will express itself in my art. To try to get closer to this, I’ve been delving more deeply into color theory, composition, technique, and all types of art from fine art to illustration, cartoons, animation — everything I can set eyes on. I’ve experimented with digital painting, and more watercolor and egg tempera painting techniques.

I have also been studying writing, visual storytelling and story-boarding, and am writing a couple of fiction stories to see where they go. For the more practical side of how to communicate the art, and possibly stories, during the last year I have completed courses in all of the Adobe Creative Suite applications. My year’s subscription with Total Training will end on January 1st and so this spurred me to complete the InDesign and Illustrator courses during these last few weeks. I have also studied web design, print design, composition, layout, and a little about typography.

So that’s it for the heavy-duty studying for me, thank goodness! Now I need to develop my artwork so that it expresses my passion – and I’m not quite sure what that is yet in terms of style or subject. I think it might be bound up in expectation, and if I can let that loose, my style should just be there. When I write I have no expectation and my writing style seems to be there just simple and unsophisticated, for better or worse. I haven’t yet reached that with the art.

So here’s to the New Year, bringing new discoveries and challenges. If you have any comments on what you think it’s important to learn in today’s environment, and/or if you have any advice on reaching your own style, I’d love to hear them.

Summertime Activities

DweezelJazz — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:43:20 +0000

Wheat almost ready to harvest

It has been a long time since the last post here on DweezelJazz Art blog. There have been a combination of things that made this so. What started it was that we lost our Internet connection for six weeks. Our Internet Service Provider, who will remain nameless here, upgraded their service, but unfortunately they lost our connection altogether and never found it again! So we switched providers. In France it takes a long time for a new provider to set up the line. But we’ve been back online for a few weeks now and everything is working very nicely.

Green Summer Countryside

We’ve had a very unusual summer here – it has rained so much that everything has stayed green and it looks like the high Alps in summertime. It’s absolutely beautiful. The air has been cleaned every few days by another downpour and lots of wind, but we’ve also had a lot of bright, shiny sunshine. It has been idyllic.

Corn Field

We’ve watched and heard the sparrows nesting in the eaves of our house. The swallows and house martins, also living around here, are cleaning up all of the mosquitoes in the area – we haven’t been bitten once at home! The swallows are fantastic to watch as they swoop gracefully back and forth, nearly colliding with the walls when they get close to the house. The roosters and chickens in the large open field next to us have been announcing themselves loudly and are a real joy to watch as they bound and run across the tall grass, always busy.

Jet D'Eau Geneva Switzerland

It has also been an eventful summer, as a result of something that happened way back in February. I went to the dentist to have a fixed orthodontic retainer glued back on. (Visits to the dentist have taken me frequently into Geneva and so I’ve witnessed summer in town too, as you can see in the photos.) This simple goal turned out to be far more involved than I at first thought. The dentist took one look at me, asked me all about any symptoms I experienced and then he announced that he thought he might be able to largely remove those symptoms: migraines, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, extreme fatigue, difficulty breathing, lung discomfort, neck and back muscle cramps, lack of sleep, and so on.

And, to my utmost amazement, in addition to the removal of these symptoms, I found that I no longer had reactions to being around perfumes, cleaning products and other toxic chemicals I have hitherto found increasingly difficult to endure. I didn’t rush out to put these things in my environment, but it was fabulous not to feel like someone had laid out kryptonite around me every time I went out somewhere.

Place du Bourg de Four, Old Town Geneva, Switzerland

I’ve lived with these difficulties all my life and had come to accept them as part of life, at least my life. So it has been with amazement that I’ve discovered that these myriad symptoms are indeed entirely due to jaw misalignment. I’ve learned a tremendous amount about this in the last months; it hasn’t been easy and has taken a huge amount of thinking and observing on my part, all the while trying to learn fast enough so as not to fall back into the abyss of pain-ridden exhaustion. Life rarely offers a magic bullet. My situation isn’t totally resolved and I’m still trying to find out if there’s a long-term solution to correct the jaw alignment.

Parc des Bastions, Geneva, Switzerland

The great thing is that along the way, there have been times during the last months that I’ve been the most pain-free I’ve ever been – in fact, I didn’t know what it was like to be that pain-free – didn’t know what it was like to have energy, and long, deep nights of sleep. Fantastic! So I took advantage of it!

Looking up at back of Old Town Geneva from opposite the Parc des Bastions

In June I finished the Total Training Online Course on Adobe Dreamweaver, and within a couple of weeks I designed a completely new look for DweezelJazz Art site, with new galleries and descriptive content for the paintings.

Then I worked on a number of drawings for paintings in egg tempera, inked them…

Inked drawings ready to glue onto the tempered glass.

and then glued them onto tempered glass.

Drawings ready to be underpainted, and then prepped for painting with egg tempera.

As I was doing this, and also preparing some drawings for painting in watercolor, Tony came up with a brilliant idea: what about creating a book of paintings? Well, I have wanted to do something of that kind for a long time, dreaming about it. I decided to bite the bullet. I chose the subject, in fact, if I survive the first book, I plan to do a series of them: each book dedicated to a town and area in the Pays de Gex, France / Geneva, Switzerland area.

I started with a plan to fill a 60-page book, large format. So I created a storyboard for the entire book, including image sizes and placement.

Storyboard for the first book.

Then I started drawing and drawing and drawing.

A drawing for the book.

I’m including scenes in towns and in the countryside around them, so that the book will give the feel of the place as a whole.

This is what I call a "cow bus".

Quite often at the beginning of summer, you can see tractors hauling a trailer full of cows out to the fields, and again in fall taking them back to the warmth of the barns. It almost seems like the cows are being transported to school or something, so I call it a ‘cow bus’.

I’ve completed 64 drawings and have 18 left to do. Then, all I have to do is paint them! I’ll paint them probably using a combination of ink and watercolor. And of course add text to accompany the paintings.

Sunflower

So, if you’ve managed to read this entire post and have reached this far: thank you! Thank you for reading this blog, and if you’ve been a reader for some time, thank you for continuing to read DweezelJazz Art blog. I don’t post as often as I used to because I’ve had to prioritize the precious commodity of time, but I do plan to continue posting and have some photos of pretty places and countryside ready for future posts. I’m very happy if you find it interesting and fun. Life is full of beautiful things, to cherish and enjoy, and I try to share a little of that here.

This sunflower, for example, just wouldn’t pose correctly for the photo – I reckon it was a bit drunk out there in the fresh air – couldn’t focus on having it’s photo taken! But it is beautiful, nonetheless.

Volunteer Work at the Kampala Music School, Uganda

DweezelJazz — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:55:54 +0000

My niece, Elspeth Addicott, is going to Uganda this summer to spend six months teaching saxophone, flute, clarinet, and

Elspeth and her sister busking

oboe at a music school. She is just finishing her degree at the Royal Welsh College of Music and will be able to share the knowledge she gained during her four years there. She’s exceptionally talented at communicating and getting along well with all types of people, of all ages. I’m always very impressed by her skills.

British Airways has set up a competition in which they’ll give away free tickets to outstanding applicants. They include comments and ratings left by the general public in their assessment of the applicant.

I’m writing this post to ask if you could take just a few moments before the application end date, March 29th, to go to Elspeth’s page on the British Airways site to rate and leave a comment on her application. In her own words: “BA are offering free flights to winners of their competition, which seeing as mine would be £500-£600, would be really really useful!”

Thank you,
cheers,
Nat

No related posts.

The Way In Which We’re Changing Our World

DweezelJazz — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:00:00 +0000

I spend a lot of time thinking about how our world is changing and what we, as the human race and dominant animal on our planet, are doing to our environment and ourselves. My mind goes round and round wondering how it is that we can continue in behavior that clearly does us harm. There are all sorts of examples of this, both obvious ones and not so obvious ones. We can become addicted to all sorts of behavior, substances and even emotional circumstances. The question is why?Most people are well-meaning, considerate and wouldn’t intentionally hurt others. But it seems the truth is, we’re not being alerted to certain conditions quickly enough to trigger a healthy response to ensure ourselves a better future. Today someone sent me a video entitled: “Why havenâ€™t we rallied our collective power to solve global warming?”, and it happens to cover this very question and seems to provide an answer to this query.I don’t usually link to videos because they can often take more time than a person might want to give. Here is the choice of listening to the well-prepared talk by Dan Gilbert in video format, or a shorter summary in print. (The print version includes a reference in the title which I would not personally use as an example in today’s world as something offensive to the general public’s morality and I don’t wish to offend anyone by linking to this. But if taken as simply an illustration that can be replaced by something that is offensive to the reader, then the point being made remains apparent.) I do recommend watching the video talk if you can spare the time – it’s about 14 minutes long.If I understood it correctly, Dan Gilbert, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, is saying that because our brains aren’t wired to pick up gradual, impersonal changes we don’t vividly compute such changes as an immediate threat even though they may be tremendously dangerous to us in the future.I’ve always thought that if every breath I take didn’t hurt (it doesn’t hurt when I’m in pristine country air) I too would completely forget about global warming, pollution, the overuse of chemicals, cleaning products, laundry products, fabric softeners and perfumes. But each breath racks the lungs with burning pain and the brain with the continual question: why?I remember how vibrantly blue the sky looked against a beautifully crisp green tree when I looked up as a teenager. I remember specifically telling myself to always remember that snapshot view because it was so fantastic. And today these truly brilliant colors of nature around us can still be seen, but only rarely and on especially clear days. And I wonder how we can forget what our world was not so very long ago and how we can tolerate it…and I’m not that old!And then when I watch a beautiful bird, an African Grey, scratch and fleece herself of her feathers in very specific spots and become lethargic and dull, as a result of being poisoned in that same chemically poisonous atmosphere, my cry of anguish and the question “why?” becomes even more excruciating. Previous post “Jasmine and Her Continuing Tousle With Air Quality” gives the background to this, if you’re not familiar with Jasmine.Somehow I feel better with the understanding that Dan Gilbert’s talk gives. I knew it wasn’t malice on our part as human beings, but it seemed so inexplicable and has been perplexing me for some time. Hopefully soon we can show our intelligence on a large scale, to save the beauty of our planet, ourselves and the other living beings we share it with, both microscopically tiny and large. I hope it answers something for you too. Cheers.

Breathing One Breath At A Time

DweezelJazz — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:00:00 +0000

I’m aware of almost every breath I take – and that’s because most of the time it hurts to breathe. This discomfort increases or lessens with variations in the air quality in my environment. There are some positive aspects to this: I’m great to have around as an air quality monitor. Unfortunately there are rather too many inconveniences that arise from this situation to balance out the positive, and no one has yet offered me a job as an air quality meter!Our town is expanding in size at a phenomenal rate, perhaps doubling or tripling in the number of apartment buildings in just the last year alone. In a two-block radius from where we live the number of cranes that can be seen actively involved in constructing new apartments is astonishing. Rapid expansion is the norm almost everywhere today, bringing with it increased activity of all types.Traffic locally has increased dramatically as the number of households increases. And there are more cars per household because more people need to go to work to sustain the family unit in the face of increased cost of living. Our apartment block car-park is now filled to overflowing, whereas a year ago spaces were easily found at all times.We live a block away from a large school which is at the end of a dead end road. Four times a day school buses and long lines of cars wait in line to drop children off at the school and then turn around and wait in line to exit the cul-de-sac. Diesel fumes in our neighborhood continue to rise.Many people still choose to burn their garden refuse outside in small or large bonfires, rather than take it to the dump where it can often be disposed of in a more environmentally friendly manner. The result is that most days, usually for an hour or so, the strong acrid smell of smoke and particles of ash drifts by our apartment building.The sky blue becomes remote and is filled instead with a brown-orange haze. Trees become less distinct, blurred by haze of pollution. Reflections no longer show bright and dazzling, instead they glow dull yellow.When the rain and wind comes it clears the air and the sparkling brilliance and wonder of our earth is clear to see again. But with each passing year, the length of time this lasts after a rainfall is becoming less before it builds up and becomes murky from our activities again.With every breath I take I’m aware of this progression, acutely aware because I’m forced to notice it. As a kid I traveled with my family to many places, experienced many different environmental conditions and inadvertently was exposed to a good number of toxic substances – things that are now coming to be recognized as problematic to the health.The prolific number of articles being published these days about all kinds of substances used in products that are now being discovered to be harmful to our health is hard to miss. Here’s a few about pollution:1. “Pneumonia ‘linked’ to Pollution” BBC News, April 14, 2008. Professor George Knox, of the University of Birmingham, wrote in a research report that there were high mortality rates observed in areas with elevated ambient pollution levels. The strongest single effect was an increase in pneumonia deaths, but there were also higher rates of some cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and rheumatic heart disease. Richard Hubbard of the British Lung Foundation said: “What this paper does show, is that there is clear geographical variation in deaths from pneumonia, lung cancer and COPD.”2. “Pollution ‘alters brain function’” BBC News, March 11, 2008. A team at Zuyd University in the Netherlands studied the effects of diesel exhaust on humans. They found that after about 30 minutes exposure to diesel fumes the brain displayed (via EEG readings, electrical signals of the brain) a stress response that indicates a change in the way information is being processed in the brain cortex. This effect continued after the people were removed from exposure to the diesel fumes.The lead researcher, Paul Borm, said “We can only speculate what these effects may mean for the chronic exposure to air pollution encountered in busy cities where the levels of such soot particles can be very high.”The article ends with this startling statement: “But a study of dogs in Mexico found those who lived in highly-polluted Mexico City had brain lesions similar to those seen in Alzheimer’s patients, while those who lived in much less-polluted rural areas showed a much lower rate of damage to the brain.”3. “Smog Can Make People Sick, Even Indoors” Scientific American, January 29, 2008. Environmental health scientist Michael Apte of Lawrance Berkeley National Laboratory in California said: “We found that outdoor air pollution, ozone, is associated with symptoms of lower-respiratory and upper-respiratory stress that occur in buildings to workers.” Ozone is an air-polluting oxygen molecule O3 which is formed when sunlight interacts with car exhaust.The article explains: “Sick building syndrome is a term used to describe a broad range of ailments, including dry eye, congestion, difficulty breathing, fatigue and headaches that strike workers inside office buildings but disappear when they leave the premises.”The results from a study of indoor air quality data from 1994-1998 and a survey of office workers in 100 buildings in 37 cities (ranging from the most smog to the cleanest) showed that of the workers surveyed on average, even in buildings with no special history of sickness:nearly 19% complained of dry eye21% felt congested on the job4% complained of difficulty breathingmore than 19% felt fatiguedmore than 15% reported having headaches while at work.These figures are astounding and illustrate the damage occurring to many people in our society. In this article Michael Apte speculates that the symptoms experienced by people are due to unstable ozone molecules chemically interacting with the wide range of materials found in buildings. Ozone reacts with all types of materials from polyester, plastics, carpet fibres, the skin’s natural oil, and many more, to produce toxic chemicals like formaldehyde and other irritants that are far worse than the ozone itself.The article continues: “In other words, ozone seeping into buildings combines with other chemicals to produce more noxious air.”In addition to the outside air becoming more polluted with traffic, smoke, pesticides and many other substances, the general population is using more and more household chemicals in increasingly higher concentrations.As it’s getting warmer with summer approaching it’s becoming tremendously difficult to effectively keep higher concentrations of household chemicals out of our apartment. If our neighbors have their laundry drying on their balconies (and this is a daily common occurrence) then I cannot open our balcony windows without experiencing great difficulty and discomfort breathing due to the laundry detergent and fabric softener chemicals exuding from the clothes.If our neighbors have their windows open, the strong chemical fumes of laundry detergent with fabric softeners, household cleaning agents and personal grooming products such as perfume are so strong that it’s necessary to close the windows to prevent the strong mixture from swamping our apartment.The following article about the “Health Risks of Fabric Softeners” on the Allergy and Environmental Health Association web site has some disturbing information. They state that fabric softener is the most toxic product sold for daily household use and give the following information about it:”…a user becomes ‘chronically maladapted’ to it. The exposure is so constant that it can be difficult to connect the product with the signs of reactivity it causes. Neurostimulant / irritants and central nervous system toxins used in these products are known to produce an addictive-type response that may cause the user to experience a feeling of pleasure when the product is directly inhaled. Regular users of fabric softeners (and perfumes) also often claim they ‘can hardly smell it’. This too is an effect of chemical ingredients on neural receptors.”"The product is designed to impregnate fibers and slowly re-release for an extended period of time. That re-releasing affects the health not only of users, but those around them.”On the subject of “Risks of Perfumes and Scented Products” it continues: “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) collected samples of every perfume sold in North America in 1993. Every sample contained toluene…”. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health lists toluene in their Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards, and the link can be followed to see this in more detail.There is a list of some of the chemical ingredients found in fabric softeners and of the disorders each of these substances is known to cause. The list is worth reading.When we first moved into this apartment building just over a year ago the stairwell was cleaned once a week with a relatively mild-scented cleaning detergent. The cleaning detergent has been changed to a more highly scented product which smells very much like the antibacterial strongly scented products that are routinely used in toilets. The stairwell is now cleaned 3 or 4 times a week with an increasingly more concentrated solution of this product.It’s becoming impossible to prevent large amounts of household cleaning chemicals from entering our apartment airflow. Even with large air filters working 24 hours a day the adverse effects are becoming worse and I’m becoming increasingly unable to function in this environment. When driving or walking in the vicinity of our apartments it’s possible to smell that the area is encompassed by a cloud of chemicals.As soon as I leave the area and enter the clean air of the foothills 20 minutes’ walk behind where we live my breathing returns to normal and after a while I no longer feel lung pain. When I return to places where there are houses or apartment buildings, the fumes emanating from them cause a return of the burning pain in the lungs. Our apartment building is no exception to the norm, even passing cars leave a trail of scent from perfumes and scented products of their owners behind them.As the intensity of the chemicals increases with the oncoming summer heat, I’m becoming more and more unwell at home. I’ll have to spend much of my day outside in the cleaner air in the hills away from my home in order to reduce my exposures to these chemicals, to avoid becoming ill all the time and to try to prevent becoming even more sensitive to them.If I’m not at home I can’t paint egg tempera paintings as a full-time occupation. I had been hoping to create enough paintings to set up for an exhibition, and in time, earn enough money to be able to afford to live in a small house where I wouldn’t be at the mercy of others’ choices in cleaning habits.It’s frustrating beyond expression to be perfectly well in clean fresh air, but to essentially find myself poisoned in my home environment. I was hoping to get ahead with the artwork before our environment became prohibitive to my ability to function. I haven’t given up, but it’s becoming more and more difficult.I wish, by sharing this information, that maybe more people can perhaps benefit from my experience and avoid having to reach this point. Even eliminating a few of these products from our daily lives can make a huge difference in how energetic and good we feel.The cumulative impact of our choices can have a very high price in the future quality of our lives and those of our children. I wonder what it will take for us as a society to really understand the extent of the damage we’re inflicting on ourselves and the wildlife around us. If you’d like to see more on chemical sensitivity, pollution, cleaning agents and the effects they’re having, click here to see previous DweezelJazz posts on these topics.