Bringing Your Body to its Pefect Form

 



Of the 3 basic components that can bring your body to its perfect health and form, water is the easiest to incorporate. Not everyone is ready to commit to the kind of 10 Day program I completed last week  but increasing your water intake is a small commitment.  Just as water cleans and purifies everything in our environment it will remove impurities stored in cellular tissue and soft joint material. Over50% of the human body is fluid, yet we lose over a liter daily; 300 to 500milliliters through simply breathing not to mention urinating and sweating. Some sources say that soft drinks, juices and caffeine drinks can be considered water replacements…they may be fluids but do they offer the cleansing of water?

My neighbor loves to entertain and would cook copious amounts of steak, seafood and poultry to regularly entertain friends. This way of eating plus social drinking became a normal lifestyle for him. By the time he was 40 years of age he was having chronic sinus congestion with headaches, along with back and knee pain. A very wise doctor told him to reduce his consumption of animal protein and get off of all beverages except water. He was to drink 2 liters of it every day. Within 5 months the headaches were gone, sinus problems cleared, back and knee pain gone and he had dropped 15 pounds.    

 

If you are a baby boomer you may recall Dr. Stillman’s Quick Weight Loss Diet. It is designed around eating six small, low carbohydrate meals, daily along and consuming eight glasses of water a day. One of the things that impressed me about the Purium program I just finished was its direction of consuming something light every 2 hours and drinking water.

 If  healing is a priority over weight loss you may find answers in a book titled Your Body’s Many Cries for Water by Dr. Batmanghelidj.  What you will read is a synopsis of the doctor’s 12 years of clinical and scientific research in using water as the only medicine.  Dr. Batmanghelidj claims “ It is chronic dehydration that is the root cause of many of the diseases we confront in medicine at the present”.

Water is basically free. It has no negative side effects. Why wouldn’t you try drinking 8 glasses (3 L) a day?  Check in a few days and I'll give you another tool for healthy change.

www.MalanaAshlie.com

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The Scents of the Holidays

Three of the things I enjoy most about winter holidays are: the music, lights and the aromas.  The strong aromatics of pine and rosemary, rich camphoraceous scents of frankincense and myrrh, all fill me with a sense of wellbeing. I bring in fresh greens to mix amongst my artificial pieces and burn incense in the afternoons.  The shorten daylight hours and lower temperatures of winter  leave me craving the warming fragrances (and taste) of cinnamon and clove added to the sunny sweet smell of orange. The best way I know to enjoy those is by making tea.



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            . Brewing pots of tea is another way I fill my home with aromas that bring pleasant memories of years gone while strengthening my immune system. Only part of this immune benefit comes from drinking the tea, the other comes from the influence its aroma has on the olfactory bulb of the brain and the psychological energetic plane.   The warm sunny aroma of orange conveys joy and positivity. You may wonder what a recipe for tea has to do with a blog about making changes but, sometimes it’s easier to change viewpoints by making simple changes in the environment.  

The instructions for making the tea are simple.
You’ll need a fresh orange ( I prefer organic) Wash and peel it. Eat the orange, save the peel.

2 clove buds

4 sticks of cinnamon

6 tea bags. I use black tea but the Lipton type blends of orange pekoe , even green tea will work.

 To make enough for a 1 liter pitcher put a quart and a half of water in a 2 qt. sauce pan. Place the orange peel, clove buds and cinnamon into a pot of water. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat, add the tea bags and cover so that the tea steeps for 20 minutes.  Remove the fruit peels, tea bags and spices. Sweeten to taste with your personal preference of sweeteners. I like agave nectar.

This can be drunk hot or cold and left-over can be stored in the refrigerator for about 5 days.  

 

Orange peel, especially dried, is an important part of Chinese medicine. It stimulates digestion and relieves spasms. In the early 18^th century sweet orange was reputed to alleviate nervous disorders, colic,  liver and stomach problems.  It helps in the digestion of fats. It was also used  to treat conditions such as coughing, arthritis and sore throats.

Adding clove and cinnamon to the tea expands the possibilities of health improvement. Modern research finds that cinnamon may lower blood sugar in people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. It helps in cases of depression, the common cold, and can help fight against bacterial and fungal infections. Cloves are anti-fungal, antibacterial, and antiseptic. They’re a good source of some minerals especially manganese.  

If you’d like to know about Frankincense, Myrrh, pine and rosemary subscribe to my regular updates. I’ll share what I know next week.
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SING OUT A HAPPY SONG

It used to surprise me when  clients or guest from my Healing Vacations would complain that they cannot keep a happy positive focus. They start out with the best intentions; making commitments to personal practices, writing in journals and making lists. Then, once they leave the sanctity of their private space and reenter the everyday world, all their poise and peace vaporizes in the din.

It is easy enough to see how this might happen. I once read that the majority of the world lives in quiet desperation. Compound that fact with the stress levels of our culture and being drawn into the current of surrounding negativity probably feels more natural than the effort necessary to keep heads above the water. Those trapped within cycles of anxiety and depression or were raised using anger and resentment  as shields find staying positive especially difficult. 

The magic solution I use and teach is to have a happy song. During a time when you are feeling balanced and lighthearted, think of a song.  Practice singing your song so it becomes a ready tool. Thoughts can follow a downward spiral or an upward one. A day may be filled with events we didn’t choose, but only we decide how  to think  about the event. When something jolts your well-being or when negativity threatens your peace, sing aloud.  It is impossible to think of anything else when you are trying to recall the lyrics of a song. So, Listen to the Carpenters –Sing

Here are a couple more personal favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu7i0fnmW64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIb6AZdTr-A

photo courtesy of yahoo free photos

Food as Medicine

In my Honduran community, there are families of various incomes. Almost half of my neighbors are still washing their laundry by hand and bathing from a hose or 5 gallon bucket. For people of lower incomes medicine is a great expense. So when they come to my gate with health problems I look to food as their medicine. If a health problem is going to separate people from their money, then let their medicine be  an investment in vitality. 

This belief was driven home this morning as I swept my patio floor. My cat eats a mixed diet that will  include canned tuna. This morning I noticed bits and pieces of tuna drying on the concrete where her plate sat the evening before. There were no ants.

The awareness brought back a lesson learned from a local fisher-woman. She offered to sell us a barracuda she had caught. My husband was suspicious because sometimes this fish can be toxic. When I mentioned my concern to the woman her head nodded in agreement. She then cut off a piece of the fish and placed it on some bark at the base of a tree. She said that if the fish was good the ants would find it in just a minute. Her explanation had barely finished when my gaze returned to the to the meat. It was already becoming covered with ants. Animals (including insects) in the wild will always choose the highest and best. 

Although my cat will eat tuna, she will not eat fish from the grocery store. Yet, she always eats fish I buy from local fishermen. Grocery store fish has invariably been treated with some chemical. Often it is formaldehyde; applied while at sea in an effort to keep fish from spoiling when longer days are necessary to fill the boat.

My rabbits are also keen judges of food. They will often turn up their noses at store-bought produce in preference to tasty morsels growing in my gardens. As maddening as this can be as I view my roses, I understand. It is all about the vitality needed for survival. This is something those living in an economic cultures are not taught. We learn about vitamins not vitality. Without vitality, healing cannot take place. Every level of healing requires vitality. It comes from things of the Earth: clean water, fresh air and minimally processed foods.   

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Beads As Seeds of Change

In an earlier post I told a story of trying  to help some single mothers in my pueblo of Honduras. There was a time in my life when I was a single mom. After years of being self-employed  I did not qualify for aid, not even food stamps.Family was not helping. I think this is why I felt the need to try to help these two women who were struggling to survive. Not being able to care financially for their children is the greatest fear of single moms. They often see their only alternative is in finding another man to help them, but another man can bring more problems. 

I had grandiose plans of what I could do to assist these women, but the Universe was much wiser. The results that came in under my design were meager but were enough to confirm that I was headed in the right direction; I  was just taking the wrong mode of travel. As my little project evolved, greater than I could have ever expected, a second more personal project was birthed. This became my bead adventure. I was impressed to ask my friends and family to send me a bead as a birthday gift. I was going to create a necklace of oneness for my 65^th birthday. The process became a beautiful journey of self-awareness.  This bead adventure reconnected me to a time when the kindness of others  was the hand up I needed.

All that has occurred during this year has been  a journey under direction of a Higher Power. The two women I wanted to help have now become a program of help that is strengthening a community. As more women are being brought to my attention, I wondered where the money would come from to supply the help they needed. There are contributions from interested and caring people but it was also about that time that I felt impressed to share this beautiful crafting idea in a book. My birthday idea became a how-to book of crafting relationships with beads  along with a beautiful adventure for the soul. The idea and story of connection is creating a ripple; other women are making their own strands of connection. This heart connection has already extended to many different points around the globe and is connecting with my little beach community of El Porvenir. Here, royalties from the  book are supporting a growing Single Mom’s Project. What a beautiful gift of sharing.  Follow the Mother's Project   
Learn more:  www.wisdompathway.com