Holistic Feathers

The practice of Loving Kindness was first taught by Buddha as an antidote to fear. He sent a group of monks to meditate in a forest that was inhabited by tree spirits. The spirits resented the presence of the monks and tried to drive them away by appearing as horrible visions. The monks were terrified and ran back to Buddha, begging him to send them to a different forest. He said; ‘I am going to send you back to the forest, but I will provide you with the only protection you need.’ He then gave the first teaching on metta, loving-kindness. When the monks returned to the forest and practiced loving-kindness, the tree spirits were so moved by the loving energy that filled the forest that they resolved to care for and serve the monks in whatever way they could.” -Sogyal Rinpoche

All the great spiritual traditions emphasize the need for compassion and unconditional love. Buddhists call this “boddichitta”–the awakened heart–which is the aspiration for others to be happy and free from suffering. It is the essence of enlightenment, the heart of enlightened activity. True compassion is called the “wish-fulfilling jewel” because it has the power to give each person precisely what he or she most needs to release suffering and be happy. But how can you cultivate it? Here are some traditional methods for practicing loving kindness:

Develop an attitude of equanimity. Practice going beyond your fixed ideas of friends and enemies. The idea is to develop a sense of spaciousness, letting go of rigid ideas. Over the years, anyone who has once been an enemy may now have turned into a friend, and vice-versa. Everything is impermanent and constantly changing. Step back and observe the dance of life with detachment. This lays the ground for the practice of loving kindness.

Reflect on the kindness of others. This will help you see the positive side of any situation, regardless of how difficult. Contemplate what other people have done for you in both large and small ways. Focus on a specific friend or family member, and remember all the good they have done. You might want to begin by remembering the love and devotion of your mother or father or grandparents, and then move on to everyone you know. If you are open to the idea of reincarnation, consider that anyone could have been your mother, father, sister or brother in a previous life, so reflect on how they might have nurtured and supported you.

Remember an experience of love that someone gave you. Reflect on how it really moved you. Remember vividly that feeling of love and let it arise again in your heart, filling you with gratitude. Let your heart open and allow your love to flow out to others. See yourself unsealing a spring of love within you that flows out to friends, family, neighbors, all those you like, all those you dislike, to every person around the world, and to all sentient beings. Let your love deepen and become boundless.

Repay the kindness of others. Take the perspective that many, many people (as well as many plants, animals, etc.) have helped you. Everyone you meet may have helped you in some way, directly or indirectly. Every encounter becomes an opportunity to repay someone’s kindness. This attitude can change your life. Traditionally, it’s called “the great activity” because it is so vast that it’s difficult to imagine.

Contemplate the positive qualities of others. If you care for someone, you naturally see their delightful qualities and usually ignore their negative qualities. Extend this perspective to everyone, one person at a time. Generate loving kindness towards each person and the wish for him or her to be happy. This can help transform negative emotions such as anger or jealousy.

Consider others the same as yourself. Reflect on another person, not in their role as a relative or friend, but simply as another “you”, with the same feelings as you–the same desire for happiness, the same fear of suffering. This will give you greater insight into how to truly help someone. It will also aid in opening up your relationships and giving them deeper meaning.

Meditate on compassion. Contemplate on both the essence and expression of compassion. Reflect on the benefits of compassion and the effects of its opposite. See compassion as empathy, based on understanding the universal nature of suffering. Each of us suffers when our ego is self-centered and grasping. Offer a blessing of kindness to all who suffer, helping them transform their pain, and awaken to the boundless love that dwells within their own heart.

Loving-kindness meditation can be brought in to support the practice of ‘bare attention’ to help keep the mind open and sweet. It provides the essential balance to support your insight meditation practice.

It is a fact of life that many people are troubled by difficult emotional states in the pressured societies we live in, but do little in terms of developing skills to deal with them. Yet even when the mind goes sour it is within most people’s capacity to arouse positive feelings to sweeten it. Loving-kindness is a meditation practice taught by the Buddha to develop the mental habit of selfless or altruistic love. In the Dhammapada can be found the saying: “Hatred cannot coexist with loving-kindness, and dissipates if supplanted with thoughts based on loving-kindness.”

Loving-kindness is a meditation practice, which brings about positive attitudinal changes as it systematically develops the quality of ‘loving-acceptance’. It acts, as it were, as a form of self-psychotherapy, a way of healing the troubled mind to free it from its pain and confusion. Of all Buddhist meditations, loving-kindness has the immediate benefit of sweetening and changing old habituated negative patterns of mind.

To put it into its context, Loving-kindness is the first of a series of meditations that produce four qualities of love: Friendliness (metta), Compassion (karuna), Appreciative Joy (mudita) and Equanimity (upekkha). The quality of ‘friendliness’ is expressed as warmth that reaches out and embraces others. When loving-kindness practice matures it naturally overflows into compassion, as one empathises with other people’s difficulties; on the other hand one needs to be wary of pity, as its near enemy, as it merely mimics the quality of concern without empathy. The positive expression of empathy is an appreciation of other people’s good qualities or good fortune, or appreciative joy, rather than feelings of jealousy towards them. This series of meditations comes to maturity as ‘on-looking equanimity’. This ‘engaged equanimity’ must be cultivated within the context of this series of meditations, or there is a risk of it manifesting as its near enemy, indifference or aloofness. So, ultimat ely you remain kindly disposed and caring toward everybody with an equal spread of loving feelings and acceptance in all situations and relationships.

How to do it . . .

The practice always begins with developing a loving acceptance of yourself. If resistance is experienced then it indicates that feelings of unworthiness are present. No matter, this means there is work to be done, as the practice itself is designed to overcome any feelings of self-doubt or negativity. Then you are ready to systematically develop loving-kindness towards others.

Four Types of Persons to develop loving-kindness towards:
* a respected, beloved person – such as a spiritual teacher;
* a dearly beloved – which could be a close family member or friend;
* a neutral person – somebody you know, but have no special feelings towards, e.g.: a person who serves you in a shop;
* a hostile person – someone you are currently having difficulty with.

Starting with yourself, then systematically sending loving-kindness from person to person in the above order will have the effect of breaking down the barriers between the four types of people and yourself. This will have the effect of breaking down the divisions within your own mind, the source of much of the conflict we experience. If you are practicing intensively, just a word of caution, it is best if you choose a member of the same sex or, if you have a sexual bias to your own sex, a person of the opposite sex. This is because of the risk that the near enemy of loving-kindness, lust, can be aroused. Try different people to practice on, as some people do not easily fit into the above categories, but do try to keep to the prescribed order.

Ways of arousing feelings of loving-kindness:

1. Visualization – Bring up a mental picture. See yourself or the person the feeling is directed at smiling back at you or just being joyous.

2. By reflection – Reflect on the positive qualities of a person and the acts of kindness they have done. And to yourself, making an affirmation, a positive statement about yourself, using your own words.

3. Auditory – This is the simplest way but probably the most effective. Repeat an internalized mantra or phrase such as ‘loving-kindness’.

The visualizations, reflections and the repetition of loving-kindness are devices to help you arouse positive feelings of loving-kindness. You can use all of them or one that works best for you. When the positive feeling arise, switch from the devices to the feeling, as it is the feeling that is the primary focus. Keep the mind fixed on the feeling, if it strays bring it back to the device, or if the feelings weaken or are lost then return to the device, i.e. use the visualisation to bring back or strengthen the feeling.

The second stage is Directional Pervasion where you systematically project the aroused feeling of loving-kindness to all points of the compass: north, south, east and west, up and down, and all around. This directional pervasion will be enhanced by bringing to mind loving friends and like-minded communities you know in the cities, towns and countries around the world.

Non-specific Pervasion tends to spontaneously happen as the practice matures. It is not discriminating. It has no specific object and involves just naturally radiating feelings of universal love. When it arises the practice has then come to maturity in that it has changed particular, preferential love, which is an attached love, to an all-embracing unconditional love!

Loving-kindness is a heart meditation and should not to be seen as just a formal sitting practice removed from everyday life. So take your good vibes outside into the streets, at home, at work and into your relationships. Applying the practice to daily life is a matter of directing a friendly attitude and having openness toward everybody you relate to, without discrimination.

There are as many different ways of doing it as there are levels of intensity in the practice. This introduction is intended to help you familiarize yourself with the basic technique, so that you can become established in the practice before going on, if you wish, to the deeper, systematic practice – to the level of meditative absorption.

May you be happy hearted!

(c) Enlightenment Chapel, Inc.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EnlightenmentChapel/

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Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.

We ask ourselves …
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.

It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

~ From ‘A return to love’ by Marianne Williamson

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May I know peace
in the sacred space of my body.

May I find awe
in its tapestry of cells,
towers of bones,
and rivers of fluids.

May I behold treasure
in each tessellated organ-
and cradle my heart and liver
as nurslings.

May I walk, stretch,
and choose food that has been
nourished by light and earth
to imbue each limb
with power.

May I treat this body as a guest-
here to visit briefly
considering its needs first …
taking it where it wants to go
even if I’d rather watch Oprah.

May I see aging as a perfect progression
of journey
and float on its current,
exalting its wrinkles
bowing down
before its eyes that don’t focus
like they used to.

May I gather up false notions of aging
and blow them from my palm,
as chaff,
into the wind
knowing …
all is well.

May I trust my body’s Creator
and know that he who mixed the elixirs
from which it was formed
created it
with a lifetime guarantee.

May I fall to my knees in honor of this sacred home of Spirit
never perceiving one cubic centimeter
as anything
but perfect …

This temple
of God
come to Earth.

(c) Tammy Burns

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Ginger is a calming and soothing flavour with a touch of a bite to it that helps to keep you alert and calm. Ginger is commonly used to help an upset stomach, motion or travel sickness or general low-grade fevers. It is also excellent for nausea and for warming you up when you feel cold. Ginger is reputed to help ward off colds or improve your recovery time.

Ginger is a popular addition to energy drinks with good reason. But you can get the energy and health benefits of ginger tea without purchasing these expensive and sugar laden drinks.

One of the main benefits of the herbal ginger remedy is its ability to stimulate the circulatory system. The herb also helps in bringing an increased flow of blood to the surface of the skin; this singular property makes the ginger a very important herbal remedy for the treatment of conditions such as chilblains and to treat impaired circulation along the hands and feet of patients. The herb also effectively helps in controlling elevated or high blood pressure as it directly affects the circulation of blood.

Following is a brief review of ginger’s health benefits and uses as understood today:

Nausea – it is often used to ease nausea during traveling or early pregnancy as well as that due to other causes. The anti-nausea and anti-vomiting qualities of ginger appear to surpass that of drug therapies (e.g., Dramamine) used for the same purpose.

Digestion – it has the ability to calm the stomach, promote the flow of bile, and improve the appetite.

Abdominal Cramps – it can relieve this symptom, often quicker than any other herbal medicine.

Motion-Sickness – the travel industry is using ginger more and more to combat nausea caused by motion-sickness. Drink a cup of ginger tea (see below) or injest 1/4 teaspoon of powdered or 1/2 teaspoon of fresh ginger before a car or boat trip, ideally every 15 minutes for an hour before you travel. Repeat during your travels at the first sign of motion-sickness.

Some studies have shown ginger to perform better than a placebo but not quite as effective as some prescribed medicications. However, ginger does not cause the common side effects of these medications: dry mouth and drowsiness.

Ginger has also been used in aromatherapy. An oil present in Ginger has a spicy, woody scent that aids in relaxation and stress release. When you make Ginger tea this oil infuses the tea with the aroma which in turn helps you relax and relieve stress as you sit back and enjoy your cup of tea.

Ginger tea has been used as a remedy against flu and colds for centuries, both in India and China, as well as other countries in the east. According to Chinese culture, its powerful yang energy is what warms the lungs and stomach. Ginger tea has been used in China for 2,500 years to treat sore throat, nasal congestion, and sinus pain.

Double-blind studies have found ginger to be effective in decreasing symptoms of motion sickness, particularly seasickness. More specifically, intake of ginger has been shown to decrease feelings of dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and the production of cold sweats. One study even found ginger to be more effective than Dramamine, a drug that is often used to treat symptoms of motion sickness.

(c) Peter Hutch
www.ayushveda.com

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If you are having trouble letting go, then this video is simply perfect for you … enjoy!

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(NaturalNews) Beware, readers, when you see articles in the mainstream media claiming that a retrovirus causes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). The stories quote new research published in the journal Science which claims that this virus — known as XMRV — was found in 67% of CFS sufferers but only 4% of the general population. From there, the media leaps to the wild conclusion that CFS is caused by this virus.

What you need to know is that this disinformation is laying the groundwork for a future CFS vaccine that will be pushed on the population in much the same way as HPV vaccines are now. The first step in getting the public to accept yet another vaccine is to brainwash people into thinking that yet another disease is caused by a virus. From there, it’s only a matter of time before drug companies start talking about offering “treatment” in the form of a vaccine.

This is a play-by-play mirror image of the fraudulent push behind HPV vaccines. First, drug companies funded studies to “prove” that cervical cancer was caused by a virus (it actually isn’t). From there, they pushed their vaccine, claiming it “saves lives” by preventing cervical cancer. Of course, we now know the cervical cancer vaccine is a pharmaceutical hoax. Even one of its own top researchers recently declared that HPV vaccines are “ineffective.” (http://www.naturalnews.com/027196_c…)

So why is the XMRV virus found in more CFS sufferers than the general population? It’s simple: People with CFS have compromised immune systems, and in this state of weakened immunity, they are unable to rid their bodies of not just XMRV, but many other viruses as well. The presence of this virus is a symptom of the disease, not the cause.

Every viral announcement is a covert push for a future vaccine
For their own protection, it’s important that health consumers learn to recognize these hidden vaccine agendas when they see them. Every announcement about a virus causing some particular disease is actually a covert push for a future vaccine. That’s why drug companies are busily funding all kinds of research that hopes to find (or fabricate) a viral cause for almost every major disease.

You’ll see, on a regular basis, increasingly frequent news stories claiming researchers have “discovered” the virus that causes cancer, or diabetes, or Alzheimer’s disease or even strokes. And then, months or years later you’ll see the FDA approving some new vaccine designed to “prevent” that disease or disorder. Before long, that vaccine will be added to an ever-growing list of other vaccines already being forced onto the population, and the whole thing will be framed in the language of “public health.”

This is Big Pharma’s disease mongering engine hard at work. This is how they game the system and fool the masses. First, they blame a virus for a disease, then they push a vaccine as “treatment.” But it’s all based on junk science. There is no virus that causes CFS or even cervical cancer. In fact, it’s scientifically and medically inaccurate to say there’s even a virus that causes the common cold. People are exposed to these viruses all the time and they don’t catch the cold. Only a person with a compromised immune system (lacking vitamin D, usually, and suffering from chronic stress) winds up showing symptoms of the cold.

The fall of the Germ Theory
The Germ Theory of disease is outmoded. Today, we know that the terrain matters more than the germ. In other words, it’s what’s happening with your own health that really determines whether you get the disease or not. The viruses are present all the time, just waiting for an opportunity for a weakened immune system to give them an opening. That’s why halting such infections has more to do with boosting and protecting immune system health than eradicating the virus.

Read more about this in an amazing book called Good-Bye Germ Theory by Dr. William Trebing. You’ll find it at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Bye-Germ…).

Vaccines, of course, are based entirely on the mythology of the germ theory, a framework of belief usually credited to Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895), from whom the term “pasteurization” is derived. But Pasteur missed the bigger picture. His friend and colleague Claude Bernard (1813 – 1878) was actually more correct when he explained that it was the internal condition of the body that determined whether disease appeared rather than the mere presence of germs. An imbalance in the body’s natural state creates a vulnerability that gets exploited by an opportunistic microbe. But without the imbalance in the body, the microbes may still be present but incapable of causing problems.

A French-American microbiologist named Rene Dubos (1901-1982) agreed with the “terrain theory” of disease, stating: “Most microbial diseases are caused by organisms present in the body of a normal individual. They become the cause of disease when a disturbance arises which upsets the equilibrium of the body.”

To stay in business, the pharmaceutical industry must oppose the “terrain theory” of disease and push the germ theory at all costs: The entire vaccine industry depends on it. The idea is also quite seductive to many patients because it allows them to cast off any responsibility for their own health condition and blame a virus instead of their own dietary and exercise habits, for example. It’s also an explanation favored by many conventional doctors because it allows them to simply prescribe a vaccine or an antibiotic instead of engaging in the far more detailed task of teaching patients how to make healthier lifestyle choices.

To this day, by the way, the pharmaceutical industry continues to try to find a microbiological cause for cancer. The whole point of this is to develop an “anti-cancer vaccine” and promote it as a cancer cure.

But the germ theory doesn’t explain cancer… or CFS or any other degenerative disease. And those who promote the germ theory for such conditions are unwittingly playing right into the hands of the pharmaceutical industry.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.reuters.com/article/late…

(c) Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor – published Thursday, October 15, 2009

(Full story and links available at Natural News)

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With all of the press abuzz with news that Vitamin D may help us to combat swine flu this winter, here is an interesting (short) article I recently discovered on Vitamin D assisting with breast health …

* * * *

Experts already believe Vitamin D protects against breast cancer and in some forms may even be used to shrink existing tumors. According to recent research from Stanford University, optimal amounts of sunlight exposure may reduce your risk of advanced breast cancer by as much as 50 percent. Sunlight may not be enough to make all the Vitamin D you need (you have to be in the noonday sun without sunscreen, with 40% of the body exposed, and not wash with soap for 48 hours). Most people don’t do this.

Best bet is to spend some time in the sun and to take Vitamin D too. The vitamin alone is not a substitute for sun exposure, but few modern people get enough Vitamin D from either source to supply all of our needs.

Vitamin D blood levels above 52 ng/ml are associated with 83% reductions in breast cancer. A study that raised blood levels of Hydroxy D from 20 to 40 is associated with 35% lower relapse rates of all cancers combined. The recommended 200-400 iu of Vitamin D in a multi-vitamin is based on preventing rickets only. Cancers, Diabetes, MS, fractures and heart attacks require much higher levels of Vitamin D for prevention. To get your blood levels above 50 ng/ml you probably need 5000 to 10,000 iu/day. You can go much higher but it is a good idea to get tested if you go above 25,000 iu.

For more on the subject of Breast health and alternative care go to …. www.acupuncturebrooklyn.com/articles-by-karen-vaughan/breast-health
(c) Karen Vaughan

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“It’s almost totally unintuitive to say the best approach to the things causing you to suffer is not to try to change them.” Jay Valusek is sitting crossed legged on a pillow in a corner of the Rocky Mountain Mindfulness Center’s conference room. The room is empty except for a semi-circle of pillows arranged across the floor. Valusek is soft spoken with a friendly manner and his voice rises only slightly as he explains the paradox central to the center’s message – our efforts to avoid pain often make the pain worse.

“Mindfulness brings a microscopic inspection to the mind’s reaction to pain,” he continues. “We trigger stress in our bodies by perceiving our own pain as a threat. That perception causes a stress response and then more pain.”

Valusek founded the Center, nestled in the Boulder foothills, last year. The method it uses is based on the work of best-selling author Jon Kabat-Zinn, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts and a Buddhist meditator. In the late 1970s, Kabat-Zinn began using his meditation techniques, stripped of religious connotation, as a stress and pain management tool for patients at the university’s medical school. Kabat-Zinn later wrote Full Catastrophe Living, an outgrowth of his work at the university’s renowned Stress Reduction Clinic and a kind of primer on mindfulness-based stress reduction.

“Kabat-Zinn’s innovation was to say the Buddhist training was intrinsically psychological. It’s a mental training,” Valusek notes. “People with chronic pain suffer mentally from the same things Buddhist meditators suffer from, but they don’t have the tools for dealing with it.”

Valusek is among some 400 teachers worldwide listed on the University of Massachusetts’ medical school website who offer programs modeled after Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. Valusek’s Rocky Mountain Center is one of growing number nationwide offering courses that combine meditative techniques, visualization and relaxation for stress reduction and relief of chronic pain.

Mindfulness can be described as a technique of purposeful attention to what is being experienced, without reacting to or judging that experience. The specific method often involves paying attention to the sensation of the flow of the breath in and out of the body. This is seen as helping the meditator learn to experience sensations, thoughts and emotions in normal daily life with greater balance and acceptance.

“Mindfulness is not about sitting on a pillow meditating; it’s about learning to be fully present to whatever is happening. It’s like coming down to earth,” Valusek explains. Although it’s not exactly clear why, studies show that the very act of awareness created through mindfulness training can be healing. He also points to his own experience of dealing with chronic back pain. “There are two components to the suffering of chronic pain. One is the actual unpleasant sensations. The second is that you don’t want those feelings so you try to push them away. In many ways it’s the resistance to pain that makes the pain so bad.”

Research on using mindfulness in dealing with chronic pain is promising and it’s gaining acceptance as a proven technique. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine – part of the National Institutes of Health – has sponsored several research projects on mindfulness meditation and major teaching hospitals are studying it too. One such study conducted by Jefferson University Hospital and reported in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry noted patients reduced their chronic pain, anxiety and depression, in addition to increasing their overall sense of vitality, using mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques.

Unfortunately, it is often a sense of desperation rather than promising research that finally leads people to mindfulness training.

Ariella Hartshorn took Valusek’s eight-week course after 12 surgeries to correct problems caused by osteoarthritis. Before the course, she was unable to work and was almost homebound. “I felt my life was probably gone,” Hartshorn explains.

Her pain came in spasms that radiated from her lower back down into her legs. “I never got out of the trauma of my last back surgery four years ago,” Hartshorn says. That surgery also led to anxiety attacks. “When I’d walk and have a great deal of pain, I’d see the scalpel hanging above me being lowered.”

Hartshorn, who says she’s an infrequent meditator, believes the first thing the course taught her was that she has a choice in how she reacts to pain. “My pain, even though it’s structural, a great part of it’s emotional too,” she says. “I decided to change my attitude and now I’m in a very different place. I’m not afraid anymore. I used to ask, ‘What will happen if the pain comes?’ but now I don’t go into panic mode. I’ve learned to deal with the pain from a different perspective.”

The mindfulness practice seems to have brought more than just a change of attitude for Hartshorn. “Before when someone would ask me to rate my pain on a scale of one to 10, I’d say ‘15.’ Now I say three to five.”

“I hope I’m done with surgery,” Hartshorn concludes. “Just a few weeks ago I hopped on a plane and went air ballooning with my daughter in New Mexico. When I do things with a lot of joy, I don’t notice the pain.”

Valusek is quick to point out that mindfulness techniques are not a substitute for traditional medicine. He characterizes mindfulness as a complementary rather than an alternative form of pain management.

Nowhere is that approach to mindfulness more evident than at Jefferson University Hospitals’ Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine in Philadelphia. The Myrna Brind Center offers an array of classes on mindfulness-based stress reduction for students, health care professionals, and people seeking pain relief. The center also does extensive community outreach including scholarships and classes at homeless shelters.

“Twelve years ago mindfulness was the frontier,” explains Dr. Diane Reibel, the director of the Myrna Brind’s stress reduction program. “But now I have so many people who are referred by doctors or self-referred. I believe the integration of conventional and complementary medicine is the medicine of the future.”

Dr. Reibel says that the center tends to attract people who have been through many medical situations and are still searching for relief. “Mindfulness allows people to directly experience that they are more than their pain, their thoughts, or their emotions,” she explains.

What is the growing attraction of a method based on a simple – yet difficult to achieve – act of awareness? Why has the interest in such a technique matured to the point that major medical institutions now offer mindfulness training?

Dr. Reibel pauses a moment before answering. “There’s an ingredient that is often missing in our medical system. Physicians, in general, can’t give the kind of care they’d like to give. Medical professionals are under tremendous stress right now. Mindfulness training can empower both the medical professionals and patients. This approach can offer people real and true care of the whole human being.”

Holistic Feathers runs Art of Being Still deep guided relaxation workshops (and corporate workshops) which are based upon the mindfulness techniques.

Resources
To find a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course: http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/mbsr
University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness: http://www.umassmed.edu/content.aspx?id=41252
Site for ordering stress reduction CDs and tapes of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn: http://www.mindfulnesstapes.com
Rocky Mountain Center for Mindfulness: http://www.rmcfm.org/about.html
Jefferson University Hospitals–Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine (Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Program): http://www.jeffersonhospital.org/cim/article5030.html
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (search meditation, mind-body medicine): http://nccam.nih.gov/

(c) Jim Mascolo

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[Natural News] Magnesium is an underrated, virtually ignored mineral for our diets, yet it is the most crucial, and essential to over 300 bodily biochemical and cellular metabolic processes. It has been called the “Master Mineral” because of its central importance to so many cellular functions and proper body glucose balance. Because of poor topsoil conditions and poor eating habits, almost everyone is magnesium deficient to some extent.

The mineral that gets the most attention for supplementation is calcium. Yet without magnesium, calcium synthesis into bones and teeth is drastically impaired. Cardiovascular and neurological issues are also prone to surface. It’s estimated that most people have a ratio of calcium to magnesium at 3 to 1 or higher, but the ideal ratio is close to 2 to 1, actually 10 to 4. In other words, your body should have about half as much magnesium as calcium.

So How Do You Know If You Are Low?
All the symptoms related to magnesium deficiency can overlap with other health issues. So it is confusing to determine magnesium deficiency by symptoms alone.

Weakness, inappropriate fatigue, irritability, muscle spasms or twitches, muscle aches, light or sound sensitivity, chronic constipation, and “restless leg syndrome”, where either the legs or arms have weird sensations that can only be relieved by often changing their position, are usually directly related to magnesium deficiency.

Indirectly, fibromyalgia, arrhythmia and other heart conditions, asthma, and hypertension along with high blood pressure can also be at least partly due to insufficient magnesium in our cells. And within the cells is where the action is, with magnesium as a catalyst and synthesis agent for approximately 80% of our biochemical processes.

That’s why Dr. Otis Woodward, MD, a holistic physician, recommends a red blood cell (RBC) test over a simple blood test to determine magnesium levels. It can look good in your blood, but if it is not in your cells you won’t get the benefits. RBC testing is not as good as white blood cell testing, but it is easier to obtain, less expensive, and sufficient.

Applied kinesiology or muscle testing by a skilled holistic healer can also help determine your need for magnesium. But let’s face it, if your health can be better and your diet is not so great, considering that almost everyone is magnesium deficient should motivate you to look into how to increase your magnesium level.

Increasing Your Magnesium Intake With Foods
Lots of sugar, processed table salt and processed foods, especially those made with bleached flour will deplete your magnesium by a sort of leeching process. So avoiding or minimizing that part of your diet will be a good start. You can replace processed table salt with real organic sea salt or Himalayan salt to eliminate the poisons inherent in table salt and add magnesium to your diet.

Stress is another magnesium burner. Indulging in some humor and handling stress by being more upbeat in general will help conserve your body’s stored magnesium.

Vegetables with leafy greens, whole grains, many legumes including peanuts, and raw nuts are good sources of magnesium. But all is not so good with commercially grown agribusiness crops. It has been determined that organic crops contain up to 10 times the magnesium of regular supermarket foods.

However, it’s the depleted topsoil that is the problem. So organic should include that the crops are rotated and the topsoil is regenerated for optimum mineral and magnesium content. Simply not spraying with pesticides does little to improve the topsoil.

Sugar cane roots go much deeper than topsoil and those roots have access to minerals not available in the topsoil. Ironically, the “waste” from processing table sugar produces a super food for minerals known as black strap molasses. The unsulphured variety is the best. Mostly known for its high iron content, unsulphured black strap molasses is also high in magnesium.

Another super food very high in magnesium is fulvic (not folic) acid. A good fulvic acid liquid is said to contain all the minerals and elements a body needs. Fulvic acid minerals in solution are purported to be highly bioavailable.

Remember the leafy greens suggestion? At the core of chlorophyll is magnesium. So any of the super foods that are green, such as spirulina and especially chlorella, are high in magnesium as well as other nutrients. Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, recommends 10 grams of spirulina or 5 grams of chlorella daily. It’s easier, more absorbable, and more economical if you use the powdered form mixed in a suitable liquid of your choice.

Since most of us who grew up on processed and agribusiness non-organic foods have impaired digestive systems, it is suggested by most health experts that you include some sort of digestive aid to increase the bioavailibility of the magnesium in those foods and super foods.

Investigate probiotic sources or high intestinal flora kefirs and kombuchas to see what suits your fancy and budget. You can even make your own kefir or kombucha, or use sauerkraut that is home made with organic foods. There is a tasty Korean dish known as Kimchi for a daily diet to enhance probiotic production in your intestinal tract.

Supplements, an Adjunct, and Extreme Measures
Of course there are supplements as well. The better ones are in powdered form to be dissolved in water or juice. Often they are in conjunction with calcium. So make sure the ratio is around 2 to 1 calcium to magnesium. If your diet is high in calcium sources, using just magnesium as a supplement or a cal/mag with a lower ratio is recommended. Magnesium oxide is not as endorsed by doctors and holistic healers as much as magnesium citrate or magnesium citrate malate. Read your labels.

Holistic physicians often use magnesium injections or intravenous feeds for patients with severe deficiency problems. They will then prescribe oral magnesium supplementation along with vitamin B6 as an adjunct when that intense therapeutic event is completed. If you add B6 to your oral supplementation of magnesium, it is recommended that you include a full B complex supplement to prevent a B vitamin imbalance.

NOTE: Important Caveats!
People with kidney and heart problems are advised against magnesium supplementation unless they consult a physician. Also, magnesium supplements tend to be alkaline, so too much of the magnesium supplements can impair digestion unless tempered with organic apple cider vinegar in water. Otherwise, too much alkaline can lead to poor absorption and disrupt your pH balance. Dr. Len Horowitz recommends fresh lime or lemon squeezed into your water to cheaply maintain pH balance. Even too much of the transdermal applications listed below can alter your skin’s pH balance. This caveat does not apply to food and super food sources.

Transdermal Applications You Can Do Yourself
Transdermal simply means applied to unbroken skin, as creams and lotions are. This implies that you may ensure bioavailability of the magnesium regardless of any digestive impediments. Lately, magnesium oils have sprouted onto the health supplement market that can simply be applied to your skin. The body then absorbs the magnesium through the skin where it is applied. (Holistic Feathers stocks Magnesium Oil)

If you prefer sitting and soaking over standing and showering, you are in luck for increasing your magnesium intake. Magnesium salts are available for your bath.

A more available and economical transdermal source of magnesium is Epsom salt. Yes, you can soak in Epsom salts to ease your aches and pains while absorbing magnesium through your skin. Epsom salt is essentially magnesium sulfate. Two cups of Epsom salt in a standard sized bathtub, soaking for 12 minutes three times a week should be sufficient.

Again, it is advised to stay within that protocol and not exceed it.

Magnesium Needs To Be Nurtured
Awareness of your magnesium level and what you’re doing for it are more essential to good health than is commonly realized. It is also essential to the synthesis of glutathione, which is considered the master antioxidant that controls all other antioxidants!

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/026768_magnesium_food_salt.html

(c) Paul Fassa

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This alert is for all of those who are concerned about vaccinations …
——————————–
Hi,

I would like to inform you of a petition underway at 10 Downing Street (link below) to initiate an independent scientific study of the immediate, short-term and long-term effects of these vaccine injections into the human body.

It is the duty and responsibility of every citizen in the United Kingdom to see that this study is carried out, and should have been before we began to administer these injections into the men, women and children of this nation.

Yours faithfully

Robert Mcandrew Binnie

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/VaccineEducation/

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