A common story people face when changing eating habits is the feeling of being deprived. With diets our intent is to make rules about certain foods we “can’t” eat. As you become more aware you realize that there are different parts of the mind and they don’t always agree.

One part of the mind makes the rule to follow the diet. Another part of the mind reacts to the rule as if it were being deprived. The characters in our head set up a program of stories and reactions that then try to influence what we eat and how much. Because not all parts of the mind have agreed to the rule about what to eat, a conflict in the mind ensues.

We begin with the authentic desire for our body to be healthy and fit.

However, that desire becomes corrupted by the voices in our head. It turns into a voice that tells us we can’t or shouldn’t eat something. It is a confining rule that takes away our choice and freedom. It doesn’t feel good to be confined by that artificial rule. The mind reacts to the feeling of that rule and desires to change the feeling. The mind’s idea of how to change the feeling is introduced by the rebel. It proposes to break the rule and eat whatever it wants. This is a pretty limited approach to feeling “better” but the only one the rebel character comes up with.  With these types of conflicts in the mind maintaining a diet becomes difficult.

An inventory of the program of voices, stories, beliefs, and emotions that the mind runs about food and diet may look something like this.

Character	Story or Belief	Resulting Emotion
Judge	I can’t eat that	Authoritative rule maker, Feeling Right
Victim	I can’t eat that (same words different meaning)	Feeling deprived of choice
Victim	I don’t have a choice or freedom to eat what I want	Trapped, powerless, controlled by the rule maker voice
Emotional Integrity	Desire to break free of the trapped and controlled feeling	Authentic feeling and desire not to be unhappy
Rebel	I want to break the rules and eat what I want.  I will eat what I want.	Authentic desire is distorted into the voice of the rebel archetype.
Rebel	Action: eat unhealthy or too much (Assumes the way to change the emotion is to defy the rule.)	Temporary feeling of liberation, being free of the “shouldn’t” rule.
Judge	I shouldn’t have eaten that.	Right, authority
Victim	I did something wrong.  I broke the rules.	Guilty, not good enough, failure
Victim	I couldn’t control myself.	Powerlessness and out of control  Loss of self respect, and even hate.

The conflict over trying to do the right thing by the judge’s standard and then continuing to follow the path of the mind with the victim and rebel voices ends up creating emotional chaos.  Because you follow one voice you don’t have to follow all of their decisions.  Learning to trust our self doesn’t mean trusting every voice in our head.  Self awareness provides the clarity to stay out of trouble with certain self destructive voices.

Within it all is an authentic desire from our emotional integrity to be happy, and to have a healthy and fit body. But that desire is corrupted when it gets expressed through the distorting voices in the mind.  This results in a chain of emotional reactions.

To gain power over your choices of how you treat your body entails getting power back from the voices and core beliefs.  The core belief inventory above can help identify some of the patterns that drive a destructive behavior.  It becomes much easier to make changes in habits such as eating when we become aware of all the little habits of our mind that comprise our larger behaviors.

Trying to make changes in our habits about food and our body are challenging enough.  Trying to make changes with a belief system that sabotages our efforts makes it even harder. Trying to make changes when we are unaware of the ways that our mind leads us into sabotage is nearly impossible. It becomes much easier to make changes in our body when our mind and emotions are all lined up working for us instead of against us.

The relationship with our body is one of the most significant ones we will have in our life. How you treat your body can have a big impact on the health and happiness of your life.  We are in a relationship with our body until our last breath so it makes sense to spend the time making it an enjoyable and happy relationship.

Feeling bloated, congested, sluggish, recurrent thought patterns, jittery, spacey, angry, withdrawn, depressed?

Consider what you are eating, drinking, thinking, feeling, and practicing in your life. Spring is arriving-time to simplify and cleanse!

Each organ and physiological system has its own peak cleansing season. Springtime is peak cleansing time for liver & gallbladder. When the liver and gallbladder are clogged, toxic, not functioning in optimal states of wellness or ‘tonified’ (yes, most organs have muscles and can be flabby or toned, like other muscles in the body!) we experience varying, states of internal ‘disharmony’ which then extend into other aspects of our creativity, productiveness, thought patterns, work habits, family, relationships, friendships and more.

In Winter, we often crave extra ‘hibernation’, indoor or internal activities-particularly, food, down time, and sleep. Maybe we’ve watched alot of movies, spent a great deal of time on the computer, or put in long hours at work, cooking, driving. However, as Spring arrives, the body, mind, heart & spirit desire new, refreshing, uplifting, cleaner ways of living.

Try these tips to release toxicity, restore your palate, and rejuvenate your being:

*Cut down on coffee & add in green/white/and herbal teas (hot or cold), fresh squeezed juices, lemonades, limeades, ginger drinks, smoothies, water and other cool, refreshing bevvies.

*Increase raw fruits & veggies, whole grains & beans, live & cultured foods like sprouts, natural pickles, kombucha, or plain yogurt (cow, goat, soy).

*Cut down on (or out) heavy dairy, white flours & sugars, excessively, salty, sweet, packaged, canned and preserved foods.

*Add in sour & pungent foods like radishes, turnips, collard greens, beet greens, grapefruits, high quality vinegars (apple cider, brown rice), paprika, cumin.

*Use honey or maple syrup instead of white sugar & corn syrup.

*Use flax, olive, or grapeseed oil rather than vegetable or corn oil.

*Switch up your exercise routine-head outside, stretch more, try a new sport.

*Examine thought patterns and stored emotions–practice releasing the old and incorporating the new.

*Clean your house thoroughly, open closets, purge the basement, scrub dark & dusty corners.

*Consider adding a new, spiritual element into your life like a calming meditation or zen fountain.

Remember, the healing work we practice in the Spring also, leads to greater energy, strength, fulfillment, joy, and harmony in the Summer.

 excerpt:from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

If you both agree that the relationship will be your spiritual
practice, so much the better. You can then express your thoughts
and feelings to each other as soon as they occur, or as soon as
a reaction comes up, so that you do not create a time gap in
which an unexpressed or unacknowledged emotion or grievance can
fester and grow. Learn to give expression to what you feel
without blaming. Learn to listen to your partner in an open,
nondefensive way. Give your partner space for expressing himself
or herself. Be present. Accusing, defending, attacking ― all
those patterns that are designed to strengthen or protect the
ego or to get its needs met will then become redundant. Giving
space to others ― and to yourself ― is vital. Love cannot
flourish without it. When you have removed the two factors that
are destructive of relationships: When the pain-body has been
transmuted and you are no longer identified with mind and mental
positions, and if your partner has done the same, you will
experience the bliss of the flowering of relationship. Instead
of mirroring to each other your pain and your unconsciousness,
instead of satisfying your mutual addictive ego needs, you will
reflect back to each other the love that you feel deep within,
the love that comes with the realization of your oneness with
all that is. This is the love that has no opposite.

If your partner is still identified with the mind and the pain-body
while you are already free, this will represent a
major challenge ― not to you but to your partner. It is not easy
to live with an enlightened person, or rather it is so easy that
the ego finds it extremely threatening. Remember that the ego
needs problems, conflict, and “enemies” to strengthen the sense
of separateness on which its identity depends. The unenlightened
partner’s mind will be deeply frustrated because its fixed
positions are not resisted, which means they will become shaky
and weak, and there is even the “danger” that they may collapse
altogether, resulting in loss of self. The pain-body is
demanding feedback and not getting it. The need for argument,
drama, and conflict is not being met. But beware: Some people
who are unresponsive, withdrawn, insensitive, or cut off from
their feelings may think and try to convince others that they
are enlightened, or at least that there is “nothing wrong” with
them and everything wrong with their partner. Men tend to do
that more than women. They may see their female partners as
irrational or emotional. But if you can feel your emotions, you
are not far from the radiant inner body just underneath.

If you are mainly in your head, the distance is much greater,
and you need to bring consciousness into the emotional body
before you can reach the inner body. If there isn’t an emanation
of love and joy, complete presence and openness toward all
beings, then it is not enlightenment. Another indicator is how a
person behaves in difficult or challenging situations or when
things “go wrong.” If your “enlightenment” is egoic
self-delusion, then life will soon give you a challenge that
will bring out your unconsciousness in whatever form ― as fear,
anger, defensiveness, judgment, depression, and so on. If you
are in a relationship, many of your challenges will come through
your partner. For example, a woman may be challenged by an
unresponsive male partner who lives almost entirely in his head.
She will be challenged by his inability to hear her, to give her
attention and space to be, which is due to his lack of presence.
The absence of love in the relationship, which is usually more
keenly felt by a woman than a man, will trigger the woman’s
pain-body, and through it she will attack her partner ― blame,
criticize, make wrong, and so on. This in turn now becomes his
challenge. To defend himself against her pain-body’s attack,
which he sees as totally unwarranted, he will become even more
deeply entrenched in his mental positions as he justifies,
defends himself or counterattacks. Eventually, this may activate
his own pain-body. When both partners have thus been taken over,
a level of deep unconsciousness has been reached, of emotional
violence, savage attack and counterattack. It will not subside
until both pain-bodies have replenished themselves and then
enter the dormant stage. Until the next time.

This is only one of an endless number of possible scenarios.

Many volumes have been written, and many more could be written,
about the ways in which unconsciousness is brought out in
male-female relationships. But, as I said earlier, once you
understand the root of the dysfunction, you do not need to
explore its countless manifestations.

Let’s briefly look again at the scenario I have just described.
Every challenge that it contains is actually a disguised
opportunity for salvation. At every stage of the unfolding
dysfunctional process, freedom from unconsciousness is possible.
For example, the woman’s hostility could become a signal for the
man to come out of his mind-identified state, awaken into the
Now, become present ― instead of becoming even more identified
with his mind, even more unconscious. Instead of “being” the
pain-body, the woman could be the knowing that watches the
emotional pain in herself, thus accessing the power of the Now
and initiating the transmutation of the pain. This would remove
the compulsive and automatic outward projection of it. She could
then express her feelings to her partner. There is no guarantee,
of course, that he will listen, but it gives him a good chance
to become present and certainly breaks the insane cycle of the
involuntary acting out of old mind patterns. If the woman misses
that opportunity, the man could watch his own mental-emotional
reaction to her pain, his own defensiveness, rather than being
the reaction. He could then watch his own pain-body being
triggered and thus bring consciousness into his emotions. In
this way, a clear and still space of pure awareness would come
into being ― the knowing, the silent witness, the watcher. This
awareness does not deny the pain and yet is beyond it. It allows
the pain to be and yet transmutes it at the same time. It
accepts everything and transforms everything. A door would have
opened up for her through which she could easily join him in
that space. If you are consistently or at least predominantly
present in your relationship, this will be the greatest
challenge for your partner. They will not be able to tolerate
your presence for very long and stay unconscious. If they are
ready, they will walk through the door that you opened for them
and join you in that state. If they are not, you will separate
like oil and water. The light is too painful for someone who
wants to remain in darkness.

http://serreal.ning.com/profiles/blogs/enlightened-relationships

 excerpt:from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

As the egoic mode of consciousness and all the social,
political, and economic structures that it created enter the
final stage of collapse, the relationships between men and women
reflect the deep state of crisis in which humanity now finds
itself. As humans have become increasingly identified with their
mind, most relationships are not rooted in Being and so turn
into a source of pain and become dominated by problems and
conflict. Millions are now living alone or as single parents,
unable to establish an intimate relationship or unwilling to
repeat the insane drama of past relationships. Others go from
one relationship to another, from one pleasure-and-pain cycle to
another, in search of the elusive goal of fulfillment through
union with the opposite energy polarity. Still others compromise
and continue to be together in a dysfunctional relationship in
which negativity prevails, for the sake of the children or
security, through force of habit, fear of being alone, or some
other mutually “beneficial” arrangement, or even through the
unconscious addiction to the excitement of emotional drama and
pain.

However, every crisis represents not only danger but also
opportunity. If relationships energize and magnify egoic mind
patterns and activate the pain-body, as they do at this time,
why not accept this fact rather than try to escape from it? Why
not cooperate with it instead of avoiding relationships or
continuing to pursue the phantom of an ideal partner as an
answer to your problems or a means of feeling fulfilled? The
opportunity that is concealed within every crisis does not
manifest until all the facts of any given situation are
acknowledged and fully accepted. As long as you deny them, as
long as you try to escape from them or wish that things were
different, the window of opportunity does not open up, and you
remain trapped inside that situation, which will remain the same
or deteriorate further.

With the acknowledgment and acceptance of the facts also comes a
degree of freedom from them. For example, when you know there is
disharmony and you hold that “knowing,” through your knowing a
new factor has come in, and the disharmony cannot remain
unchanged. When you know you are not at peace, your knowing
creates a still space that surrounds your nonpeace in a loving
and tender embrace and then transmutes your nonpeace into peace.
As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing
you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself, and you
certainly cannot transform your partner or anybody else. All you
can do is create a space for transformation to happen, for grace
and love to enter.

So whenever your relationship is not working, whenever it brings
out the “madness” in you and in your partner, be glad. What was
unconscious is being brought up to the light. It is an
opportunity for salvation. Every moment, hold the knowing of
that moment, particularly of your inner state. If there is
anger, know that there is anger. If there is jealousy,
defensiveness, the urge to argue, the need to be right, an inner
child demanding love and attention, or emotional pain of any
kind ― whatever it is, know the reality of that moment and hold
the knowing. The relationship then becomes your sadhana, your
spiritual practice. If you observe unconscious behavior in your
partner, hold it in the loving embrace of your knowing so that
you won’t react. Unconsciousness and knowing cannot coexist for
long ― even if the knowing is only in the other person and not
in the one who is acting out the unconsciousness. The energy
form that lies behind hostility and attack finds the presence of
love absolutely intolerable. If you react at all to your
partner’s unconsciousness, you become unconscious yourself. But
if you then remember to know your reaction, nothing is lost.

Humanity is under great pressure to evolve because it is our
only chance of survival as a race. This will affect every aspect
of your life and close relationships in particular. Never before
have relationships been as problematic and conflict ridden as
they are now. As you may have noticed, they are not here to make
you happy or fulfilled. If you continue to pursue the goal of
salvation through a relationship, you will be disillusioned
again and again. But if you accept that the relationship is here
to make you conscious instead of happy, then the relationship
will offer you salvation, and you will be aligning yourself with
the higher consciousness that wants to be born into this world.
For those who hold on to the old patterns, there will be
increasing pain, violence, confusion, and madness.

I suppose that it takes two to make a relationship into a
spiritual practice, as you suggest. For example, my partner is
still acting out his old patterns of jealousy and control. I
have pointed this out many times, but he is unable to see it.

How many people does it take to make your life into a spiritual
practice? Never mind if your partner will not cooperate. Sanity
― consciousness ― can only come into this world through you. You
do not need to wait for the world to become sane, or for
somebody else to become conscious, before you can be
enlightened. You may wait forever. Do not accuse each other of
being unconscious. The moment you start to argue, you have
identified with a mental position and are now defending not only
that position but also your sense of self. The ego is in charge.
You have become unconscious. At times, it may be appropriate to
point out certain aspects of your partner’s behavior. If you are
very alert, very present, you can do so without ego involvement
― without blaming, accusing, or making the other wrong.

When your partner behaves unconsciously, relinquish all
judgment. Judgment is either to confuse someone’s unconscious
behavior with who they are or to project your own
unconsciousness onto another person and mistake that for who
they are. To relinquish judgment does not mean that you do not
recognize dysfunction and unconsciousness when you see it. It
means “being the knowing” rather than “being the reaction” and
the judge. You will then either be totally free of reaction or
you may react and still be the knowing, the space in which the
reaction is watched and allowed to be. Instead of fighting the
darkness, you bring in the light. Instead of reacting to
delusion, you see the delusion yet at the same time look through
it. Being the knowing creates a clear space of loving presence
that allows all things and all people to be as they are. No
greater catalyst for transformation exists. If you practice
this, your partner cannot stay with you and remain unconscious.

http://serreal.ning.com/profiles/blogs/enlightened-relationships

 ~ excerpt: from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle


Why should we become addicted to another person?

The reason why the romantic love relationship is such an intense
and universally sought-after experience is that it seems to
offer liberation from a deep-seated state of fear, need, lack,
and incompleteness that is part of the human condition in its
unredeemed and unenlightened state. There is a physical as well
as a psychological dimension to this state. On the physical
level, you are obviously not whole, nor will you ever be: You
are either a man or a woman, which is to say, one-half of the
whole. On this level, the longing for wholeness ― the return to
oneness ― manifests as male-female attraction, man’s need for a
woman, woman’s need for a man. It is an almost irresistible urge
for union with the opposite energy polarity. The root of this
physical urge is a spiritual one: the longing for an end to
duality, a return to the state of wholeness. Sexual union is the
closest you can get to this state on the physical level. This is
why it is the most deeply satisfying experience the physical
realm can offer. But sexual union is no more than a fleeting
glimpse of wholeness, an instant of bliss. As long as it is
unconsciously sought as a means of salvation, you are seeking
the end of duality on the level of form, where it cannot be
found. You are given a tantalizing glimpse of heaven, but you
are not allowed to dwell there, and find yourself again in a
separate body.

On the psychological level, the sense of lack and incompleteness
is, if anything, even greater than on the physical level. As
long as you are identified with the mind, you have an externally
derived sense of self. That is to say, you get your sense of who
you are from things that ultimately have nothing to do with who
you are: your social role, possessions, external appearance,
successes and failures, belief systems, and so on. This false,
mind-made self, the ego, feels vulnerable, insecure, and is
always seeking new things to identify with to give it a feeling
that it exists. But nothing is ever enough to give it lasting
fulfillment. Its fear remains; its sense of lack and neediness
remains.

But then that special relationship comes along. It seems to be
the answer to all the ego’s problems and to meet all its needs.
At least this is how it appears at first. All the other things
that you derived your sense of self from before, now become
relatively insignificant. You now have a single focal point that
replaces them all, gives meaning to your life, and through which
you define your identity: the person you are “in love” with.

You are no longer a disconnected fragment in an uncaring
universe, or so it seems. Your world now has a center: the loved
one. The fact that the center is outside you and that,
therefore, you still have an externally derived sense of self
does not seem to matter at first. What matters is that the
underlying feelings of incompleteness, of fear, lack and
unfulfillment so characteristic of the egoic state are no longer
there ― or are they? Have they dissolved, or do they continue to
exist underneath the happy surface reality?

If in your relationships you experience both “love” and the
opposite of love ― attack, emotional violence, and so on ― then
it is likely that you are confusing ego attachment and addictive
clinging with love. You cannot love your partner one moment and
attack him or her the next. True love has no opposite. If your
“love” has an opposite, then it is not love but a strong
ego-need for a more complete and deeper sense of self, a need
that the other person temporarily meets. It is the ego’s
substitute for salvation, and for a short time it almost does
feel like salvation.

But there comes a point when your partner behaves in ways that
fail to meet your needs, or rather those of your ego. The
feelings of fear, pain, and lack that are an intrinsic part of
egoic consciousness but had been covered up by the “love
relationship” now resurface. Just as with every other addiction,
you are on a high when the drug is available, but invariably
there comes a time when the drug no longer works for you. When
those painful feelings reappear, you feel them even more
strongly than before, and what is more, you now perceive your
partner as the cause of those feelings. This means that you
project them outward and attack the other with all the savage
violence that is part of your pain. This attack may awaken the
partner’s own pain, and he or she may counter your attack. At
this point, the ego is still unconsciously hoping that its
attack or its attempts at manipulation will be sufficient
punishment to induce your partner to change their behavior, so
that it can use them again as a cover-up for your pain. Every
addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move
through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends
with pain. Whatever the substance you are addicted to ― alcohol,
food, legal or illegal drugs, or a person ― you are using
something or somebody to cover up your pain. That is why, after
the initial euphoria has passed, there is so much unhappiness,
so much pain in intimate relationships. They do not cause pain
and unhappiness. They bring out the pain and unhappiness that is
already in you. Every addiction does that. Every addiction
reaches a point where it does not work for you anymore, and then
you feel the pain more intensely than ever.

This is one reason why most people are always trying to escape
from the present moment and are seeking some kind of salvation
in the future. The first thing that they might encounter if they
focused their attention on the Now is their own pain, and this
is what they fear. If they only knew how easy it is to access in
the Now the power of presence that dissolves the past and its
pain, the reality that dissolves the illusion. If they only knew
how close they are to their own reality, how close to God.

Avoidance of relationships in an attempt to avoid pain is not
the answer either. The pain is there anyway. Three failed
relationships in as many years are more likely to force you into
awakening than three years on a desert island or shut away in
your room. But if you could bring intense presence into your
aloneness, that would work for you too.

http://serreal.ning.com/profiles/blogs/enlightened-relationships

Chow down on eats that tame hunger and reduce anxiety

By Sara Reistad-Long

Eat It to Beat It

We all know that tension can wreak havoc on our eating patterns. But the right (healthy!) foods can often help tame mindless munching and cravings and, better yet, actually lower overall anxiety and its symptoms. Eight of our favorites:

Dark Chocolate

High in flavonoids, which are lauded for their relaxing properties (chamomile tea is another great source), chocolate also contains phenethylamine, a chemical that enhances your mood. The darker the chocolate, the more healthy substances you’re getting in your diet, so look for bars that are 70 percent cacao or higher.

Skim Milk

Turns out that a glass of warm milk really is calming. One study found that women who drank four or more servings of lowfat or skim milk every day were about half as likely to experience stress-related PMS symptoms than those who drank less than one serving a week.

Oatmeal

Carbs help you produce serotonin, a calming hormone that helps fight anxiety’s negative effects-which is probably why many of us crave them when we’re stressed. Go with the craving and choose healthy sources. Oatmeal is high in fiber, which means that your body will absorb it slowly. In one fell swoop, you’ll prolong the serotonin boost, keeping yourself feeling full for longer (and on less) and making sure your blood sugar’s in check.

Salmon

Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids-abundant in fish like salmon-can help reverse stress symptoms by boosting serotonin levels, and that an omega-3-rich diet can also help suppress the production of the anxiety hormones cortisol and adrenaline.

Walnuts

They’ve been shown to help lower blood pressure, which is critical for those whose hearts are already working overtime thanks to high adrenaline levels. In fact, research so strongly backs their health benefits that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration goes so far as to recommend 1 1/2 oz per day.

Sunflower Seeds

A good source of folate, which helps your body produce a pleasure-inducing brain chemical called dopamine.

Spinach

Studies show that magnesium, which you’ll find in leafy greens like spinach, improves your body’s response to stress.

Blueberries

Their antioxidants counteract the effects of stress hormones like cortisol on your body.

Excerpt from: “Eat Taste Heal”

Consider two apples sitting side by side: The first is picture-perfect, almost plastic looking, while the other has a few minor blemishes and looks like it was just picked from a tree. Biting into the first apple, you experience a bland flavor and chalky texture. Biting into the second apple, sweet juice literally trickles from the corners of your mouth.

The first apple is a creation of modern industrial farming. Sprayed with pesticides from infancy and then polished and waxed with more chemicals after picking, it harbors a toxic secret. It’s looks flawless but contains residues from these harmful chemicals. The second apple is organic. It didn’t require any chemicals, pesticides, or artificial beauty treatments- just sunlight, rain, and the nurturing forces of Mother Nature.

Rather than settling for the first apple, consumers are beginning to demand the organic variety in record numbers. Organic foods are now the fastest growing sector of the food industry in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Despite being a now-familiar term, many still wonder what “organic” actually means? Organic foods are those produced in rich, fertile soils without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. Organic farming also shuns genetic modification, irradiation, and the use of sewer sludge as fertilizer. In addition to organic fruits and vegetables, you can now also buy organically grown grains, legumes, nuts, oils, sugars, teas, wines, and a variety of other foods and beverages.

3 Reasons to Buy Organically

1.) Organic Foods are Better for You Organic foods are grown in bio-diverse soil that is rich in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients. Recent studies suggest that the nutrient levels in conventionally grown foods, by contrast, have declined over the past twenty-five years as fertile topsoil has eroded. Currently, little long-term research has been conducted comparing the nutritional contents of organic versus conventionally grown foods. A study in the Journal of Applied Nutrition, however, suggests that organic foods are higher in several essential nutrients. In comparing conventionally grown apples, potatoes, pears, wheat, and sweet corn over a two-year period, the study found that organically grown foods averaged 63 percent higher in calcium, 73 percent higher in iron, 118 percent higher in magnesium, 60 percent higher in zinc and 29 percent lower in mercury than the conventionally raised foods. According to Ayurveda, organic foods also contain a higher concentration of energy or prana, thus nourishing both mind and body on deeper levels. In eating organic food, you can also feel safe knowing you’re eating clean, vibrant food.

2.) You Support a Healthier Environment Organic farming is a reciprocal process: We take care of the land and the land takes care of us. This arrangement is in harmony with an understanding of the interconnectedness of all life. Conventional farming treats land as a commodity. Vegetables are likened to money springing up from the soil. Thousands of consecutive acres are typically planted with the same crop, without giving the soil a chance to regenerate between harvests. This type of mono-crop farming has resulted in depleted topsoil and a consequential deficiency of vital nutrients in our food supply. When we choose to eat organic foods, on the other hand, we celebrate a natural cycle of life that has taken place for millennia. We also support a sustainable farming method that will allow this cycle to continue for millennia to come.

3.) You Support the Small Farmer Farming has traditionally been a great art form—women and men living in accordance with nature, getting to know the ins and outs of every plant and season. Over the last three decades, however, multinational corporations have virtually wiped out this ancient tradition.

Today, for example, five companies account for 90 percent of the food consumed in the United States. Organic farming has given rise to a new era of small farmers. A common misconception about these farmers is that the higher retail prices of organic foods bring them great wealth. In reality, most organic farmers work at much smaller, less cost-effective scales and therefore don’t enjoy the same profit margins as larger companies. Another common misconception holds that organic foods cost significantly more than conventionally grown foods. Some people claim they’d love to buy organic foods, but they can’t afford to double their grocery bills. In reality, prices for organics are closer to 15 to 25 percent higher on average than their conventionally produced counterparts. Fresh produce and dairy products, however, may be higher, depending on the store and season. One way you can verify this for yourself is to price five regular items in your supermarket against comparable items in the health food aisle of the store (or in your local health food store). You may find that you can only afford select organic items. This is fine. Even buying one organic staple each week represents a conscious decision to improve the quality of the food you eat. One way to cut prices dramatically is to buy directly from your local farmers. Often, you will end up paying less than you would for conventionally grown items.

As organic farming becomes more widespread, the prices of these foods should also drop, making them available to a broader spectrum of society. Through buying organic foods, you directly support the small farmer. Even if you buy items from a larger organic food company, you still support organic farming as a movement. This, in turn, helps small organic farmers, since larger companies frequently will also buy their raw materials from a number of smaller producers. As organic foods have grown in popularity, however, huge conglomerates have begun to create subsidiaries dedicated to tapping into this profitable market. If you prefer not to support such conglomerates, do a little research to determine what companies are behind the products you’re buying.

The Ayurveda is a part of Vedic culture. It is based on the philosophical system Sankhya, and describes a structure of a material world. Another part of Ayurveda is Jyotisashastra, which includes biocosmorhythmology and astrology, and is a part of Vedic natural methods of preventive treatment of diseases. Vedic naturopathy describes various properties/features of food, herbs and minerals, with reference to an age, sex, and type of the constitution, the place of residing and predisposition to different illnesses or daily and seasonal rhythms. “Everything that is around us, can be a medicine for us. All we need to understand is to use all medicine correctly,” says the Ashtanga Hridayam Samhita doctrine.

Vedic naturopathy assumes an individual approach to every person. It has very difficult structures and compositions of medicines. Each plant takes the place depending on desire to achieve certain effect. There is a complex approach to the person in Ayurvedic medicine. It considers that chronic illnesses are the result of the spread of abnormalities of internal organs. It’s some kind of body reaction to system illness. The Vedic doctor should know all sections of medicine and be able to help any patient. It doesn’t matter how old the patient is, how long he is ill, and what is the matter of illness; the mission of the doctor is to help find useful treatment for him. Each person should attend one physician, who knows his problems and observes it during their life. Besides, an Ayurvedic doctor puts the patient in active position. He shows the way to healing and helps to make the first steps. The basic way the patient should pass alone, strictly following the doctor’s instructions.

Ayurveda is a very flexible system. According to the principle of knowledge ‘deshya-kali-pathra’ (eng. place-time-circumstances) it gives algorithms which can be applied in any place and at any time. It means that the knowledge should not be transferred mechanically. Knowledge should be adapted for certain geographical, climatic, cultural and social conditions.
“Water sharpens a stone” – it’s the action mechanism of many Ayurvedic medicines. It operates softly, and doesn’t cause side-effects, unlike modern pharmacological preparations. Ayurvedic medicines don’t suppress the illness; they activate mechanisms of self-control of the body. They possess clearing and rejuvenating effect and don’t exhaust illness inside, but pull it outside, providing treatment of internal organs.

The Ayurveda doesn’t consider illness as a negative phenomenon only. Illness is our teacher. It’s indicator of our evolutionary development. The Ayurveda describes the deep principles of our illnesses which are connected with our mentality, ethics and behavior. It specifies our special friends – little illnesses, which come to relieve us of heavier chronic diseases. The Ayurveda considers that illness comes to stop some situation, to stop terrible consequences, which can occur. We think that we can do everything, but it isn’t so easy. We are a part of the Universe. Each thought is like a seed of sunflower which we throw in space. This seed will grow and sometimes confirm it’s growing with actions. If we threw the good thought it will bring good actions and circumstances, and if not we will get harm and destroy. Sometimes this harm goes through the illness, which teaches us positive thinking. The Ayurveda teaches us that if a person breaks evolution laws he gets illness and suffers. Defects, operating at level of our mentality, at mind level, inevitably sprout roots in our physical body, grasping negative influence of certain stereotypes to various organs.

Before playing, every musician should tune the instrument. The same tuning is needed for our body. This tuning can help us to relieve many illnesses. This is bio information, which regulates our body’s proper work and good condition. If you have negative energy in your body, the system works poorly. Your body will not provide the proper quantity of enzymes. If the body is not capable to work normally, it collects cellular toxins. Toxins will fill all the spaces destroying communication between good cells.

For example, fear is widespread. We think: the prices tomorrow will rise; we lose concetration; something will happen to my baby; every day we are afraid of something.
This will lead to an imbalance of certain centers of the bio field. Our body becomes very vulnerable, the infection becomes aggravated. In many cases inflammation develops with the urological illness. You have pains. Why? Because there is a program of fear constantly projected. You start to take pills, but nothing helps. It’s because the main reason is not eliminated.
Western medicine has reached great levels in surgery and in the field of computer diagnostics. The result of our poor habits is deleted, but the reason still isn’t eliminated. So, why do we begin to address Ayurveda now? Why has the entire world addressed this knowledge?

When the body suddenly shows weakness, we start to accept medicines which suppress symptoms. And then we get more serious diseases. Why? Because the reason still remains. The Ayurveda looks deeper and specifies the reason. That’s why it’s so important to understand that circumstances lead to this situation, but forces can stop and change the wrong body rhythm. o

Article is based on materials from http://www.avnc.ru/index.htm

Relationships are a mirror. We always attract to us what we are not willing to look at within oursleves in a partner. We keep believing that repetition of the past will resolve the issue. Our wounds can only become gateways to our healing when we become willing to be with them in a new way. When we take full responsibility for our feelings it gives us the ability to shed tears and do the grief work that is necessary to feel joy again. As long as we choose to stay unconscious to our resonances we remain in a fearful place standing on the edge of the cliff knowing we need to jump into the abyss below, but remaining paralyzed to do so because of the fear of the unknown. The fear of what is beyond the murky abyss.

Freud wrote, “Every conflict has to be fought out in the sphere of the transference… for when all is said and done it is impossible to destroy anyone in absentia or effigy.” We may not be able to cause pains to the one’s that hurt us in the past, but we can cause pain those we love now. Here is how a transference may look in a conflict.

A female partners yells at her male lover. The event triggers a cellular memory and brings forth images or the voice of his dad. He seethed because he still feels intense anger towards his father for being told what to do and who he should be. The triggered anger is aimed at both a partner and a father, and perhaps another as well. Our feelings can become so dramatic and entangled. They seldom emerge from a pure state of consciousness just between two people. Since no relationship is between just two people there are always at least 4 players involved in the cellular memory that is being triggered in the moment for healing. Our resonances are rich with feelings, stories, concepts, projections, and beliefs.

On the other hand our raw healthy feelings simply flow without prejudice or censorship. Anger attached to a perceived injustice by a partner usually has elements of blame, judgment, and unrealistic expectations familiar from the anger of a parent towards us in childhood. When we contact our feelings through such a murky layer of Ego we can naturally assume more is happening than just the current situation. These sensitive overlays of emotion are clues as to how we felt in childhood.

We may stay too long in what does not work, that is to become codependent. We may keep trying to fix a loved one. We may keep being patient with their trespasses against our boundaries or those of our children. The struggle is to adjust to a relationship that is dysfunctional or hurtful is not as useful as the struggle to decide what to do. The decision is the same as working with the resonance itself, to address the issue so it can be worked through so change can be the result.

A partner or sibling who refuses to participate is no longer a partner, but a threat to our well-being. This is where fear can become a trap that paralyzes us further or a signal that it is time to set ourselves free. Codependency is coined originally from referring to a partner of an alcoholic; it was intended to show alcoholism is a family/relationship disease. The nondrinker enables the other to continue in their addiction by making excuses for them or staying with them despite the emotional or physical abuse.  In times were consciousness was at a different level this was considered a sign of love or personal strength; to leave a person when their down would be selfish and not an act of love or support. Using this term codependency we can denote a problem in us to bridge a new healthier way to see what love is really about. To stay in painful situations with no prospect of change or hoping one will change is loyal, but it is not love. It is harmful to both parties. To see it this way we have to believe we have a right to happiness a cause and result of self-esteem!

Love is a two-way street a cause and result of healthy intimacy. We have to believe that unconditional love does not mean being unconditionally committed to staying stuck in a hopeless situation. This more mature balanced look at love is a result of balanced living when body/mind/spirit are in alignment. We can be set free from a life of endurance and have a life of receiving and giving. It is about love that includes being happy. The only way though for this to manifest is dealing with the resonances that continue to cause you pain in relationships.

We all know the ‘story’ about white processes sugar. I love the sweet taste. I love baking. To give up sugar would be like asking me to, well, give up sugar. Its unfathomable. Diabetes runs in family especially on my dads side and my dad has been a diabetic since his mid-twenties. I became interested in alternative healing because I never bought into the concept its ‘genetic.’ We learn to eat from our family and if we continue to eat and live a lifestyle such as they did then yes we will have the same health conditions they had. However, your health is your choice! You are responsible for it and if you adapt new eating habits and lifestyle changes then you can live long and prosper. I eat sweets regularly, but I make them and I know what is in them. I am in my Forties and my sugars are normal. I also eat a healthy diet with lots of leafy greens which help cleanse the blood stream, but that a whole other post.Today, in stead of focusing on the negative I thought I would share with you some healthier options when it comes to sugar. There are many alternatives today that actually have some heart and health benefits also.

Fruit (dried and fresh) are naturally one of the best ways to get your sweet tooth fix. Natural sugars from fruit are very easy for the body to process. What is needed to help balance blood sugars is ‘fiber’ I would rather see a diabetic eat a apple than eat a piece of chocolate cake. Natural organic fruit juices are okay to in small quantities and they work well as a ‘sugar’ substitution in baking, so does masihng bananas or apples.  One of my favorites is ‘Date sugar’ it has the consistency of sugar, but is not processed or refined. Dates contain fiber and many minerals the body lacks due to our diets today.

Sucanat is another good alternative as well as maple sugar neither of these are refined. You can also use 100%maple syrup in small amounts it to has trace minerals. Agave syrup comes from the fruit of the cactus plant it is low in the glycemic index and is sweeter than sugar.

Honey is one of the oldest sweeteners known to man. Honey in its day was very valuable and only the rich and people in power used it. It was a hot commodity. Honey has many health benefits; although it is sweeter than white sugar and does spike blood sugars the system recovers quickly because the body knows how to process it.

Finally, there are some other alternatives that are gaining notarity Stevia is one. Stevia is a sweet herb grown in south america and has no side effects. It has recently been approved by the F.D.A. as a safe food ingredient and isa great alternative  for those who want a safe, natural, and noncaloric sweetener. It is sweet though one teaspoon of Stevia has the same sweetening power as 2 cups of white sugar; which makes calulating for baking more difficult. Xylitol is another up and coming alcohol sweetener. It is made from Birch wood. It actually reduces bacteria and fights tooth decay. This sugar alcohol contains 40% less calories than white sugar. Xylitol is quite effective for diabetics.

Look, cooking is not rocket science people! Go out buy some new and alternative sweeteners and have FUN testing and experiencing them. It takes time to adjust and learn, but slowly with practice you will get comfortable using them in replacement of whie sugar and you will feel so much better about yourself because you did.