Friday, January 29, 2016

Listen to Your Heart

I am still very sleepy from caffeine withdrawal.  I slept about twelve hours, waking up at 8:00 this morning!  I usually wake up about 5:00.  Thankfully, no severe headache so far.  Maybe I am out of the woods on that.  It makes sense to sleep more after giving up caffeine, because the body recuperates energy while sleeping.  Since the withdrawal from energy stores is no longer happening, it seems logical to me that the body would sleep to begin to restore them.

***
None of us enjoy perfect relationships or friendships.  That problem is common to all of us.  We don't always support each other.  I can remember times when I have failed to be supportive of someone close to me because I was afraid.  We are afraid of having our boundaries challenged and afraid of not feeling safe and accepted.  We always mightily resist anything that challenges the ego.

What would we be like if we had no fear? We can become better at that when we see ourselves as connected to our brothers and sisters and not separate.  I believe this feeling of separateness is magnified because of our separation from nature.  We no longer feel alive from the forces of nature, so we are afraid to trust the invisible.  We are living from the ego rather than the heart.  When we spend time in nature we have more connection to each other and to our own heart.

The ego keeps us busy trying to live up to an impossible ideal.  Trying to be something...anything...is a futile task.  If you want to be happy, stop trying and just be.  When we try to save our lives, we lose them, but when we are ready to lose our lives, we will find them.

Natural Hygiene is about losing yourself.  I remember Dr. Fielder telling someone one time that in order to heal from severe chronic illness one must be willing to die.  That to me is a beautiful expression of surrendering to the laws of nature.  When you give it all up and submit to natural law, you will find out what is possible.  Health and happiness are not for sale.  When you are alone in the egoic mind you will never find true happiness, but when you can surrender to God you are found to be most precious.

Listen to your gut and  your heart for direction.  I remember several years ago when I had the feeling of a claw gripping its talons into my gut.  I don't feel that much anymore, but my gut  was telling me that I was not following my heart - my authentic self.  I was being held in check by my egoic mind.  I knew what I "should" be doing, and I was trying to live up to that "ideal", but the claw was there to give me warning.

The more we can openly express ourselves as we are - not as we "should" be - the happier and freer and healthier we will be.


***

Yesterday:  
Walked 2 miles.

Lunch:  1/2 papaya, 1/2 grapefruit, 1/2 avocado, apple, almond butter, coconut.

Preparing the fruit for lunch.

Dinner:  Chopped Salad made with bagged romaine salad, cucumber, and tomato; Dressing made with lemon juice, flaxseed oil, and Suddenly Organic seasoning; seaweed tamari rice crackers, sauerkraut, 1/2 avocado, pinto beans, baked fries, Ginko Clarity tea.


To health and happiness.



Thursday, January 28, 2016

Coffee Withdrawal. Love and Light.

First day without coffee.  Enjoying a Yogi tea, Ginko Clarity.
The tea bag message - By honoring your words, you are honored.
I am having some coffee withdrawal symptoms, although not as severe as I was expecting.  The worst symptoms are a mild headache, can't hold my eyes open sleepy, and maybe a little depression.  I am a little teary and feeling sorry for myself.  Caffeine withdrawal should only last a few days, and then onward and upward.
***
Fear comes from the mind.  I want to follow my heart.  When you feel like no one loves you, try to remember that everyone else wants the same thing you want.  They want to feel loved and worthy and valued.  You can help others feel love once you open your own heart to let the love and light shine in.   This means you stop the criticism and brow-beating of yourself first, and then the others.  The answer is always more love.

Natural Hygiene teaches that our best potential  for health and happiness comes from living the simple natural life free of remedies, cures, potions, and pills.  In the same way, our best potential for loving relationships comes when we stop trying and just be authentic.  Live in harmony with Nature and Nature's God.  Let the good energy flow.

Eliminate everything and every situation that does not speak to your heart while at the same time checking to see if fear is persuading you to NOT follow your heart.

Sometimes we have to give up the ideal picture of what we think SHOULD be and accept what is available.  This is the place where we learn and grow and love and experience life.  We make the best of what we have.  Whatever you have, make the best of it.  Things will never be perfect, so don't miss out on what is here for you.  If you look for the good, you will find a way to be happy and joyful.

Accept yourself the way you are.  It's sometimes easier to stop finding fault in others than it is to stop finding fault in yourself.  Look for things that make you happy.  Happiness is an attitude.

We really don't know very much about anything.  We don't understand much about love or time or human emotions.  Our knowledge is limited.  We are our own worst enemies, because usually we let the mind, with its limited knowledge, be in control of our decisions. Society builds up your egoic mind so you can be easily influenced.  We are hoping to change that and be guided by the heart and be compassionate and feel our connection to others.  That is what it means to be holy....whole....healthy.

Fresh coconut and avocado for lunch

I was out of almost everything so this is what I had for lunch:
Green Smoothie, 1/2 grapefruit, apple, almond butter, coconut

Green Smoothie Recipe for Two
2 bananas
Water from the coconut I cracked
2 kiwi
2 cups frozen blueberries
2 Tbsp chia seeds
2 cups frozen tropical fruit
A little more water

For dinner I went to a potluck with some healthy minded friends.  I made a salad and cooked a pot of pinto beans.  The salad was a bagged romaine salad with tomato and cucumber.
Dinner:  Salad, Lemon Juice and Flaxseed oil dressing, sauerkraut, rice crackers, pinto beans, a little vegetarian soup, a little trail mix, and a few pistachios.
At the potluck, we watched a movie:  Mr. Peabody and Sherman.  It was fun.

To health and happiness.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Popcorn is Not a Food. Coffee is a Stimulant.

Popcorn is not a food.  Coffee is a stimulant.  Giving up coffee and popcorn will cut you loose from two addicting foods.  They are not needed to live a happy, healthy, abundant life.  The promises they hold out are false, and they are not needed.  The goal is "everything you need, and nothing you don't".

Popcorn is not a food.  Addiction to non-food items, such as clay, ice, and POPCORN, could indicate the need for more minerals from leafy greens.  When the craving for a non-food item hits, ask yourself how you can give the body more minerals.

Coffee is a stimulant - pulling from the reserves of energy.  There is no energy in the coffee.  The energy surge is coming from the body's stored energy, leaving you poorer in the end.  Stopping the energy leaks will allow the body to begin to build up vitality.Stimulants take a heavy toll.  

Do you use stimulants to drown out that inner voice that is saying, "You are not good enough"?  That is the ego talking.  The ego is not the truth teller, though.  The ego always speaks first - and loudest.  Realize it for what it is.  The truth will speak in a stiller, smaller voice.

The choice is Head vs Heart.  Giving up addictive foods...such as coffee and popcorn...will make it easier to hear the still, small voice.

Stimulants and addictive substances have a negative impact on the pineal gland...the seat of the soul...the sixth sense.  Descartes said it is the location of the mind.  The pineal gland produces melatonin in the dark, while we sleep.  Melatonin regulates our body rhythms.  As we age the pineal gland calcifies and melatonin production decreases, which triggers the aging process.

Dopamine connects to spiritual experiences and the pineal gland.  It can become narcotic because it puts your mind ahead of your body.  When dopamine is increased, you can have insomnia.  You overwork the adrenals, and mess with your pineal gland and intuition.  It puts you out of balance.
You are resistant to giving up coffee because it is connected to the feel good hormone dopamine which influences the pineal gland.

As I get back on track with my biogenic lifestyle, I will be required - led by the heart - to let go of caffeine.  It is not needed.

Walked 3.10 miles yesterday.

Yesterdays Food:
I had coffee and popcorn both.  That is why the morning pages spoke to me about eliminating those two foods.

Lunch:  1/2 papaya, kiwi, coconut, apple, almond butter, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 grapefruit, 2 small slices of raw milk cheese, trail mix.

Lunch - I didn't eat the banana.

Dinner:  chopped salad with dressing, seaweed tamari crackers, sauerkraut, 1/2 avocado, cooked cabbage.

Dinner salad with crackers. Reading material is a lesson from my Natural Hygiene course.
Salad:  bagged salad, tomato, onion, pickle, cucumber, carrot, celery, Topped with chopped avocado.



Lucy looks pretty with her new haircut.

To health and happiness.



Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Eat Walk Blog

You have heard of the book, Eat, Pray, Love.  Well, my plan of action to get back on track is Eat, Walk, Blog.

A few years ago I did a self-conducted course of  The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.  One of the main practices of The Artist's Way is do your morning pages.  The morning pages are three pages of stream of consciousness writing.  The morning pages are a tool for unblocking your creativity and addressing the things that are on your mind.  As I was praying for answers and guidance on how to get back on track I began writing my morning pages again.  I sometimes write mine in first person, but sometimes I write them as if God is talking to me.  There is no wrong way to do the morning pages.

Shortly after that, as synchronicity would have it, we were in Abilities Unlimited where I was checking out the books.  There on the shelf was a book called The Writing Diet by Julia Cameron.  It is about writing yourself thin.  The premise of the book is that overeating blocks our creativity, but we can use creativity to block our overeating (or wrong-eating).  I only want to take a few things from this book, because the diet suggestions are atrocious.

The first tool is the morning pages.  Every morning write three full pages.

The second tool is the journal.  Your journal goes with you everywhere you go and throughout the day you write.  You write every time you eat and every time you want to eat.  Get it down on the page.  Talk to it like your best friend.

The third tool is walking.  You get out every day without excuse and walk for at least twenty minutes.  If for some reason you don't think you are able to walk twenty minutes at first, then walk as much as you can.  It is a vital part of the writing diet.

****

Struggling with conflicting desires is not balance, that is trying to have it both ways.  In my case, I wanted to continue with the pristine lifestyle practiced at The Clohesy River Health Farm, but I also wanted to enjoy my cultural foods, my comfort foods, and to socialize with my friends and family.  But balance is not having green smoothies in the morning and tacos and margaritas in the evening.  Balance is achieved by choosing freely and wisely, not from craving and addictions and programming.  When we know the way, then balance involves taking the narrow path instead of the broad path.

****
I am told we only use 50% of our pulmonary cells. We are in a state of physiological and biological degeneration.  If we hope to leave the world a better place, and give our offspring better biological materials to work with, then we must live a natural and harmonious life surrounded by fresh air, by sunshine, and by forests.  We must eat the foods best suited for human beings in their natural state.


Yesterday I walked about 3.5 miles.  The only cooked food I had yesterday was coffee and Tamari Rice Crackers.

Lunch:  1/2 papaya, freshly grated coconut, 1/2 avocado, apple with raw almond butter, 3/4 grapefruit, 1 kiwi

Dinner:  salad with homemade salad dressing (see recipe below), tamari rice crackers, trail mix

Snack:  1 cup of frozen blueberries

Headed out to walk 3 miles on a cold winter morning.  I knitted this cap myself using the one and only knitting stitch I know...the garter stitch.
Fruit lunch is all the fruit you care to eat.  I put freshly grated coconut on the papaya and the avocado.
Lunch time reading - Connecting to Love by my friend Denise M. Wilbanks.  I met Denise at one of Dr. Fielder's events in Houston.
Salad Dinner:  This is what the salad looks like when you are out of lettuce.  I chopped the onion and tomato.  Everything else was grated using my Salad Shooter.  I use the Salad Shooter almost every day.  Love it.
Salad for two:  1 zucchini, 2 carrots, 2 radishes, 1 cucumber, 1 tomato, 1/4 onion.
Salad dressing:  lemon juice, flaxseed oil, organic seasoning mix
Also, for dinner....homemade trail mix.
After dinner I had 1 cup of frozen blueberries.




Notes:
There is no need to have coffee out of habit.  Pay attention to your true desires.  Stay awake.  Choose wisely from a state of awareness.

Sometimes it is easier to see false beliefs in others than in yourself.  You can look at another culture and be amazed that they could hold to the beliefs that limit them.  These beliefs keep them lulled into conformity.  It is much more difficult to look objectively at your own beliefs, your own culture.  Awake, awake, put on your beautiful garments.  When the blinders come off, you will be able to see clearly from a broader perspective.

Look for the good and gravitate toward that.  Remove yourself from places and people that make you feel unwanted or threatened.  You love other people by loving your true self.  We are not talking about the ego here.  We are talking about your heart.  This is the only gift you have to bring before the king, little drummer boy.

A merry heart does good like a medicine.  Laughter heals.  The neurons in the heart and gut are capable of leading you in the right way when you hear them...feel them.  This is the way of the heart.  Laughter moves stagnate energy.  

The things written in the book of Nature are not up for debate.  This book can be read in every country, no matter the type of government.  It doesn't require a missionary or a society to make sure the book gets distributed. The book of Nature will tell you much about the Heavenly Father and the Earthly Mother if you are receptive to it.

Your are a child of Nature and a child of God.  Heaven and Earth have kissed one another.

To health and happiness.





Monday, January 25, 2016

Being On Track is Liberating

What do we do when you get off track?  The best thing is to get back on as quickly as possible.  Remember the axiom, Nature does not make mistakes, only we make mistakes.  If you can own that, then you can take responsibility for correcting your errors.

I have tried to identify the things that pull me off the course I have set for myself.  Here are the main ones for me.  Maybe they are the same for you.

Mistake #1.  I tend to be a people pleaser.  I knock myself out trying to make sure everyone has what they want.  I do this because I want them to like me.  This is actually a selfish action, because I am trying to control how other people think and feel about me. It's also dishonest because the me I am showing them is not the real me at all.   Instead of preparing the food I like and sharing it with others, I will try to fix "healthy" versions of the food I think they will eat...or, even worse,.. I will just buy the food they normally eat...trying my best to get them to like the food I serve them.  It doesn't work.  They still don't like it.  Sacrificing ourselves to please someone else does not work.  Ricky Nelson told us the truth in his song, Garden Party.  "It's all right now; I've learned my lesson well; See you can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself".

Mistake #2 is listening to other voices.  The philosophy of health I have been taught is called Natural Hygiene, also known as Nature Cure or Biogenic Living.  I saw amazing results when I was interning at the Clohesy River Health Farm in Australia, and I honestly believe it saved my life.  It's easy to get off track as almost every person we associate with follows an opposite philosophy.  I began to listen to other voices simply because of their prevalence.  Even though I know that cures and remedies are not the way back to health, I began to experiment with an oil here, an herb there, here a little and there a little.  I am not saying those things are terrible if you are of that mindset, but they are in opposition to Natural Hygiene so were confusing to me.

Nature Cure is a philosophy that teaches how to give your body every advantage by eliminating toxins and inherited encumbrances through rest, lifestyle, and diet.  It admits no cures because an acute symptom is only a healing effort put forth by the body. The body knows how to heal itself.  Even when we are making mistakes, the body is trying to make corrections.

Other philosophies do allow for remedies and cures.  That is the medical model and it is followed by most people, both allopathic and alternative.

The problem for me came from trying to combine the two opposing philosophies of health.  Gasoline and water don't mix.  If you do, you won't be able to drink it or run your car.

Mistake #3 was trying to mix philosophies around diet.  The raw food diet saved my life, but advice was pouring in from a multitude of health care professionals and others holding forth other healthy ways of eating.  Reading the other plans - Grain Brain, Starch Solution, Raw Till Four, etc.-  lead to tinkering with my own diet.  The result was weight gain, an indication that I am retaining toxins.

My plan of action for getting back on track is Eat, Walk, Blog!

The diet:
Lunch is all the fruit you want to eat:  papaya, coconut, banana, apple, citrus, other fruit, nut butter, avocado, a little raw milk cheese if desired.



Dinner is all the salad you want to eat:  chopped salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, celery, carrot, onion, Bubbies dill pickle, sesame seed), dressing (lemon juice, flax seed oil, Simply Organic seasoning mix); sauerkraut, avocado, rice crackers, homemade trail mix (almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins, currents, other dried fruit), a cooked vegetable such as steamed potato, baked sweet potato, steamed cruciferous vegetable, beans)

It is not good to snack, but the snacks and treats I am allowing myself are a little coffee, tea, fruit, frozen blueberries, and frozen banana nice cream.

This diet is 80% raw.  We will see how it goes.  If I don't get the results I want on that, then I will make adjustments.

The walking:
Walking around the block a few times will tick off several boxes on your daily requirements for a healthy lifestyle - exercise, fresh air, sunshine, and meditation!  Fantastic!  Enjoy this walk no matter what.

Your diet and lifestyle are an important part of being awake.  Heavy, processed foods keep folks drugged down into a "comfortable" sleep.  They can be easily influenced.  But you - you can be awake and happy and alert.  You can live with joy in this world when you see it for what it is.

Don't you feel joy when you think about standing firm in harmony with the laws of Nature.  It is not a restrictive lifestyle.  Never think of it that way.  Being on track is liberating.  Ask any train.  There is not much liberation in being off track.


Lucy and me going for a walk.

The collage I made at the Creative Flow Workshop conducted by Susan Julie Gonzalez at the Emergent Arts studio.

I made a beet salad for our raw foods potluck which is held at my house every third Wednesday.
Recipe:  Grate 1 beet and 1 apple.  Shred 1/4 of a head of cabbage.  Finely chop a few sprigs of parsley and 3 celery sticks.  Toss all ingredients together with about 1/2 cup of grated raw milk cheese.

I took this picture of the wonderful friends that attended our raw foods potluck in January.  Some had already left before I remembered to take the photo.  Travis, Bruce, Bonnie, Erika, Daisy, Ana, and Cindy were still available.  We had wonderful food and conversation.

To health and happiness.