Pressure cookers: they’re not as scary as you think

July 11, 2012

Pressure cookers aren’t made the same way they used to be.

Seriously, they aren’t. And that’s a good thing! I think we all have horror stories of mom or grandma using one of those original pressure cookers…the lid wasn’t on quite right, or the weight wasn’t placed just so, and the whole thing flew apart in an explosion of boiling hot liquid and partially cooked food.

They’re not like that anymore. Nowadays, they are fitted with a number of safety features – the most important of which is they won’t pressurize until the lid is locked in place, and won’t open until the pressure has been released from within. No more explosions. And they are significantly quieter, so the ever-present fear of an explosion is gone as well.

With that in mind, it’s time to give the pressure cooker another chance and recognize how useful they can be. If you’d rather be anywhere but the kitchen, then the pressure cooker is a wonderful addition to your appliance collection. Most foods will take half the time or less to cook. For example, boiling potatoes conventionally typically requires 20 minutes or so to cook once the water is boiling; in a pressure cooker, the time is reduced to about 9 minutes after the water boils. Most dried beans (after soaking) cook in about 10 minutes, lentils in 6 minutes. A beef pot roast takes a half hour vs 3 to 4 hours conventionally. Or how about soup in 12 minutes instead of 45?

How do they work? They are used on foods that have at least some moisture or liquid in them. Once the lid is locked and the burner is turned on, the liquid begins turning into steam which becomes trapped inside. Since the steam has no place to go, the pressure inside the cooker builds, and as it does so, it increases the maximum temperature that the liquid could otherwise normally reach. Inside the pot, hot steam is infused into the food, so not only does it cook significantly faster due to the higher temperature, but it also retains its moisture.

So, as long as you have enough liquid to start, you end up with delicious, moist foods cooked in a fraction of the time. Also, food that is cooked quickly retains more nutrients, and less time on the stove means less energy being used. So pressure cooking = healthier, tastier food, on the table quicker, and saving money…what’s not to like?

There are lots of references out there on how to use a pressure cooker, and even more for recipes. I myself started with a copy of “Pressure Cooking for Dummies” (yes I did, and I’m not ashamed to admit it!) and I found it invaluable. I highly recommend you give pressure cooking a try. You’ll be glad you did!

By Renu Arora May 22, 2025
Even if you don't know it
By Renu Arora April 11, 2025
More important than exercise or nutrition in managing weight is the emotional connection. This is just one example of the myriad causes for excess weight.
By Renu Arora March 23, 2025
This is a story that recently took place in a class with one of my students. We had been discussing one of the most important things to take care of at the start of a session: reducing interference. When we start a healing session, we always connect with our guidance team (i.e. Spirit Guides) to make sure that they are "on board" with what we want to work on. There are a few reasons they may try to stop us. Sometimes they are merely reflecting back to us a belief system, of where we were unaware, that needed addressing. And at other times, they could literally have their own trauma being triggered, and that needs to be healed before we can move forward. Either way, without the cooperation of our guidance team, trying to solve issues can take far longer than it should because we are so vulnerable to their potential sabotage. More recently, I have added to the Accelerated Release Technique a requirement to check on the client's Inner Child as well for the very same reasons. I was demonstrating "how to start a session" using this one student as a volunteer and, not surprisingly, as this always seems to happen when I am hoping to demonstrate a new concept, we immediately got to see interference in action: my student's Inner Child decided to be a hindrance. We began the session with a particular problem in mind, but her Inner Child was having none of it! When asking if we would be allowed to receive "concise and timely answers" during the session, we received a definitive "no." Put another way, her inner child was literally telling us that she was going to put forward answers that would take us on a meandering route to our solution. Assuming that this Inner Child just needed some healing so that she would then acquiesce and step aside so we could continue to address our intended issue, I continued along that vein, finding out what the Inner Child needed. It was only a matter of a few minutes when the word "allergies" popped up and I was led to start shifting that energy type. And then it hit me. My student has mentioned in the past that she has a gluten sensitivity and that that was something she was keen to work on eventually eliminating with ART. OMG! Her Inner Child basically wanted to be able to eat a cookie! (And bread, and pie, and cake...and all the yummy foods she had felt she was missing out on.) She literally hijacked the session because that was what she wanted us to work on - and because she had the power to do so. That revelation came as class was ending, so apparently my student's homework is to work on her gluten sensitivity, or else her Inner Child will never give her any peace... And as her teacher, I can't wait to hear how it goes! Do you feel like your Inner Child might be running the show in your life? If you'd like to take back your own power, book a Discovery Call with me and I can help get you back on track. Or consider learning the Accelerated Release Technique and you can do it yourself. Click here for more details on the process.
By Renu Arora March 7, 2025
Wondering if you're crazy? You're not. You don't have a medical problem, you've got a spiritual one. And the answer to heal lies in your mind itself.
By Renu Arora January 23, 2025
So she could finally get a good night's sleep
By Renu Arora August 30, 2024
The voices in your head aren't you. I was in the middle of doing prep work for completely overhauling my ART training over the next month and I realized that the above was something that I understood from the thousand(s?) of sessions I have done, but have never put into words. The voices in your head are not you. There is only one YOU in your head. That's the one THINKING. Asking questions. Making decisions. The one who knows what you want and don't want. So, who is calling you names? Making nasty comments? Saying things that you know aren't true? Or aren't how you really feel? I refer to these chatterboxes in your head collectively as "the peanut gallery." They fall into one of 3 categories. Something that was a part of you, but split off and is no longer "attached". Something that was never part of your energy. Or it's your inner child. If it's your inner child, that is the childlike part in every one of us that keeps us young, and they need some soothing. We all live with a younger version of ourselves inside. But this younger version has it's own needs and wants, and you have to learn to work together to live harmoniously! If it was never a part of you, it's some kind of energetic interference. Someone else - whether living or dead - is invading your space. It could even be your spirit guides themselves, believing that they are protecting you with that belief, or they themselves need healing and they are imposing their beliefs upon you. Most of the time, we just take the few moments we need to heal them so they no longer feel it necessary to interfere. And then there are the ones that were once a part of you. These are typically referred to as Alters. These were formed out of trauma. As a result of a traumatic experience, the body coped by splitting off the trauma into a separate segment in an attempt to "contain" it. These segments have their own consciousness and belief system...therefore they no longer truly represent YOU. People with dissociative identity disorder (DID. Formerly called multiple personality disorder) have Alters that are so imbued with trauma energy that they can occasionally "take the drivers seat" and during those times, "You" are relegated to the background. As such, people with DID will often have large gaps in their memory when an Alter had taken over. The wild thing is, everyone has Alters. It's only in DID that the trauma is so overwhelming for an Alter to be able to take control. You can speak to Alters. Find out what they need in order to heal. Once they are healed, they can integrate back into the whole. (ie. become part of you once again) And once you address all of the "personalities" that have appeared, the peanut gallery finally becomes quiet. For this week's story, while I was working with a client she suddenly shared that she felt like people want what she has, and wanted her to suffer...while all she wanted was peace. Her subconscious told me that that feeling wasn't the one we were supposed to work on, though. That that was actually symbolic of something else in her life...somewhere else that there was suffering and she wanted peace. She then told me "there's a part of me that wants to die." She clearly hears it say "I want to die." We both know that's not what she really wants. It's a voice in her head. In moments, I discover it's an Alter. This Alter was suffering and wanted peace. This is what we were being directed to heal. Once they are discovered, healing an Alter is actually rather straightforward and simple. So within a few minutes, the peanut gallery was quiet. She no longer needs to hear those words in her head again. What a relief! If you find this as fascinating as I do, then consider learning ART! There is a 5-week, live training course with me (conducted over zoom) and a couple of smaller prerequisite courses. You can find all the information about when the various courses are offered and their pricings by clicking here . You will be amazed by what you learn!
By Renu Arora June 30, 2024
Your subconscious knows exactly how long it will take you to heal.
By Renu Arora January 24, 2024
This is a short one... A client came in for her first session with me, and as I typically do for an intro session, we planned to find and heal a life event for her. This generally starts off with us needing to find out a belief that the client is hanging onto as a result of the experience. I got my clues, but none of it meant anything to my client. I checked into see if we were being blocked, and I didn't see any issues, but still no spark of insight came to her. Worse yet, nothing was coming to me either. I usually get an intuitive hit to guide the conversation but this time, nada. Then it occurred to me to ask if she and I were still connected. I got a "no." No?? I tried again to connect and found, in a nutshell, that her spirit guides had booted me out! It sometimes happens that I can't connect initially, but I don't generally get kicked out mid-session like that. So I asked what her guides needed to allow us to move forward and it turns out that they needed an apology from me! I can only guess that I ticked them off in a past life. 😕 I apologized. Thankfully they accepted. And I quickly found that the information that I had received earlier had been completely false and we had to start from scratch. Happily, they didn't interfere again and my client and I went on to have a great session. 😃 Today's tip: if you are doing your own healing work and you find your intuition shut down, verify that you are actually connected! And don't be surprised if somebody's grudge from a past life comes up to be resolved. :) If you are interested in learning more about whether ART is right for you, either to learn for yourself, or to experience as a client, book a discovery call with me and let's chat!
By Renu Arora December 31, 2023
Before the year ends, I've got one last story to share for 2023. Today's client reached out to do a session with me because she felt that something was amiss and her intuition told her that I could help. She was finding herself unusually angry with her husband. She's not by nature an angry person so this unnatural rage bubbling up whenever she would see or even think about him was especially disconcerting. Connected to her anger, she also had this strange feeling that he himself was feeling distant and resentful towards her. To be honest, it was a confusing session. I didn't really know where we were going with it, but I always maintain trust in the subconscious and that it knows more than I do - and that everything would make sense by the end. I was not disappointed! My client and I reasoned that since she was feeling his resentment, it made sense that he was the one needing the healing. So, I tapped into his energy and immediately found a huge cluster of trapped emotions and beliefs - disgust, a lack of control, a belief that he couldn't be happy, that his happiness was dependent on others, not being good enough, and more. We cleared all of that after which she sensed an improvement in the resentment, but not yet to the feeling of him being distant. Add to that, she was also now feeling a lack of love, and not being wanted. Even more new, unusual emotions for her. So we kept going. With a little more digging, all of the pieces started falling into place. It turns out that she and her husband have a beautiful daughter whom they adore, but needed medical intervention to conceive. My client knew she was destined to have another child - she had heard this child communicate with her before, during previous sessions with me and at other times, too. Recently she had broached the subject with her husband about starting the process again for this second child and he had not shown any interest. That's when it all clicked. NONE of the emotions my client had been experiencing were her own. The anger, resentment, disconnect, lack of love or anything else...those all belonged to not-yet-even-conceived Baby #2! All the emotions and beliefs we had healed...those belonged to the baby as well! It made so much sense! This baby was aching to join the family, but dad's lack of interest led to feelings of rejection, anger, and sadness. Wow! No wonder my client was so confused as to what to do. The emotions were so foreign to her, not at all how she usually responds to disappointment, and now we understood why! Shortly after that, a wave of sleepiness hit my client, always signal of a message from someone trying to come through: very clearly, she heard the words "Bring me home now" in her head. Baby #2 was no longer angry or hurt, just insistent that it was their time to make an appearance. And with that, my client felt totally better - back to her old self once again. We could both see a visible change in her face - she was smiling from ear to ear. And ready to pass along the message to her husband. 😀 Do you feel like you are behaving out of character? Sometimes your emotions are not your own! Whether they are yours or not, they can be healed so you can feel back to normal once again. Book a session with me and I can help! Happy New Year! See you in 2024!
By Renu Arora December 22, 2023
One of my clients came to me to address, amongst other things, migraine headaches. She would get them regularly, requiring daily medication which, when working properly, would mean she would have fewer episodes and (hopefully!) less severe ones. Until working with me, she never felt like her head was ever fully pain free. If you have never had a migraine, or known anyone who has suffered from them, then to put it simply, a migraine is an extremely intense headache, which for most sufferers, can be debilitating. In addition to throbbing pain, they may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound that can last from hours to days. Many migraine sufferers are forced to sequester themselves alone in a dark, quiet room until the symptoms subside. After a bit of work, her subconscious lead us to one key experience in her childhood. It was in grade 5, when she was newly designated as "enhanced" at school. That change meant that she was suddenly required to be taken out of her regular classes to participate in extra programming with the other enhanced kids. And she hated it! She was being pulled away from her friends and being given extra work to do, to boot! Yuck! Are you ready to play detective...what do you think the connection is? That kid was angry. The injustice of it all! Teachers, parents...the whole system seemed to be forcing her to do something she had absolutely no interest in. Deep inside her, there was an inner child screaming to the world "will everyone just leave me alone?!?" What happens when someone gets a migraine? The whole world has to leave them alone! It took giving her a lot of pain to get it, but that inner child eventually got what she was asking for. Crazy, eh? It's actually more common than you think. Once that was understood, our next task was to heal that child so it could stop being so angry and upset. And shortly after that, my client's head stopped hurting. That little bit of pain that she always felt, was gone . Her subconscious no longer had a purpose for her migraines, so it was time to let them go. If you suffer from migraines or know anyone who does, book a session with me so we can make them a thing of the past. 
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