Tapping Into Possibilities

How to survive 25 Years of Marriage……..

By Leave a Comment

The crazy thunderstorms last night that came and went as though nothing had happened were a great metaphor for my marriage which I gratefully honor today.

What I’ve learned, what we’ve learned (and not without great resistance) is

            Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff                                         

              (great little gem of a book, by the way, by Richard Carlson)

And

“I choose to respond (not react)”

(the most important lesson learned from The Presence Process  by Michael Brown)

 

Or Most Importantly

“Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow, come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a great tree in the midst of them all.”

Buddha’s Little Instruction Book

 The ups and downs of any relationship are like storms that come and go.

As Mark Nepo wrote in The Book of Awakening, “ the storm by it’s nature wants to move on, and the tree’s grace is that it has no hands”

How to survive 25 Years of Marriage…..Be a Tree

Falling…..in Gratitude

By Leave a Comment

Today I am so grateful for being able to hold a pen in my right hand and to write.

Last Monday I was doing my typical multi tasking and rushing. I still had to walk my dog before rushing to the gym and I was late, as usual. We’d had another of Washington DC’s weird snow, ice, freezing rain storms on Sunday. The side walks were sheets of ice but the streets were clear, or so they appeared.

Sidebar: “Things aren’t always as they seem; the first appearance deceives many.” Phaedrus, 4th c Roman poet

Well, you guessed it….I fell on the ice and broke my right arm leading to a day in the emergency room, a night in the hospital and a visit to the operating room the next day.

And yet I’m grateful. Grateful for the kind neighbors who stopped in their rush to get to work who lifted my big, old, deaf wet dog into their car and drove me home, the neighbor and friend who drove me to the emergency room, the professional, efficient and kind staff at Suburban Hospital who didn’t treat me like a number or just another careless person. I am so grateful for my husband, Frank, who’s Honey Do List grew exponentially, for thoughtful and attentive kids and for friends who drove me, who cut up my food and washed my hair in the sink and just kept me company.

Be grateful for the little things even when things aren’t  going along with your plan.

Florence Scovel Shinn (New Thought spiritual teacher and metaphysician) wrote almost a 100 years ago in The Game of Life and How to Play It

Today is a day of completion. I give thanks for this perfect day. Miracle shall follow miracle and wonders shall never cease.

And I couldn’t agree more.

I Love REM

By Leave a Comment

I Love REM…. no, not the 90’s band (though I like R.E.M. as well)….. that wonderful anti-aging sleep cycle.

The reason we need 7-8 hours of Ambien free sleep no matter what our age is that we need to go through the natural/normal/why our ancestors went to bed when the sun went down sleep cycles that include REM and N(non)REM (stages 1-4) sleep.

Ambien may seem like your best friend if you’ve had sleep issues but studies have found that it increase NREM cycles and decreases REM cycles.

Why should you care whether you have enough REM cycles or not? REM sleep is when you repair and regenerate.

Think: When I’m awake I degenerate; when I’m asleep I regenerate.

Healing happens during REM. Lack of REM impairs our ability to complete and learn tasks. It is also where we have memorable dreaming. REM is when the information you gathered during the day is put in to context and stored for future use.

And it just isn’t what lack of sleep does on the inside but what it does on the outside. Participants in a 2013 study from University Case Medical Center in Cleveland showed visible signs of aging including reduced skin elasticity, fine lines and uneven pigmentation, slept fewer hours and spent less time in REM sleep

“Take a rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” Ovid

Free Alzheimers Prevention Rx!!!

By Leave a Comment

Free Alzheimers Prevention Rx:  GET MORE SLEEP!

Nothing scares me more than Alzheimers. I’ve had too many of my friends having to cope with this devastating disease with their aging parents.

Sleep deprivation causes all sorts of things we don’t want: hair loss, impaired vision and hearing, sexual dysfunction, weight gain.

Why? Sleep and your immune system are intricately entwined.

Not enough sleep leads to increased inflammation. Inflammation can turn on genetic switches…meaning the aging process speeds up. If your mother has/had Alzheimers you may be genetically programmed for Alzheimers at age 70 but if you are sleep deprived that gene could turn on earlier.

Studies indicate that the less you sleep and the worse your sleep patterns are, the more amyloid plaque your brain has. Amyloid plague is a marker for Alzheimers. There is no causal link (yet) between lack of sleep and Alzheimers but we do know lack of sleep causes so many other of the down sides of aging, why not make Sleep a Priority.

Lights, Camera, Action….2015 is the International Year of Light!

By Leave a Comment

Did you know that 2015 is the International Year of Light & Light Based Technologies?

UNESCO delegates from Ghana and Mexico introduced the idea for an International Year of Light in 2012 to raise awareness of the achievements of Light Science and it’s applications.

UNESCO and a number of scientific organizations, educational institutions, non profits, technology platforms and the private sector are sponsoring the IYL 2015 which will include exhibits, workshops, conferences.

Today is the opening ceremony in Paris at UNESCO’s headquarters kicking off a year of coordinated activities throughout the world.

100 partners from 85 countries all working together.

The purpose of IYL 2015 is to raise awareness of the achievements of Light Science and it’s applications. The IYL goal is to ensure that international policymakers are made aware of the problem solving potential of light technology.

What does this mean to you? Perhaps you think not much since light whether natural (the sun) or artificial (light bulbs) is something we take for granted and we’ve forgotten most of our high school science.

Light based technologies can provide solutions to an array of global challenges – in energy, in education, in agriculture and, of course, health.

We are human photocells. Light is the ultimate biological nutrient.  Gabriel Cousins, MD

 

http://www.light2015.org/Home.html

 

 

NOURISH

By Leave a Comment

2015 is the year of the Goat, the Sheep, the number 8, the Putin Dictatorship, an alien UFO invasion, modification of the human DNA for immortality or the International Year of Light (more on that later) depending on what you read or believe.

For me, 2015 is the year of Nourishment.

Nourish: provide with the food or other substances necessary for growth, health and good condition or to cause (something) to develop or grow stronger.

 If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.Hippocrates

Am I nourishing my body, my mind, my emotions, my family, my work with this choice, this action, this word?

  To nourish someone is to feed them deeply something that’s very good for them. Alice Waters, American author & chef

Forget the resolutions, if I can only choose nourishment in all my decisions, it is all I need for a joyous, productive and happy new year.

 

Welcome to Inlightened Wellness

By Leave a Comment

To my old friends thank you for sharing my four year journey with Intentional Health News. I am excited to launch this new site. The path has shifted but not the journey. 

Intention – a course of action that one intends to follow, an aim that guides action, an objective.

One of my very first posts four years ago read as follows:

We are all limited by our own personal experience so as I write here I’m looking at things from my perspective, maybe yours too, maybe not. I once had business cards that said Watch Me Now as my work as it was evolving at that time was focusing on new things and not staying in a rut but then I found out it was a porn site (do not go there!). Then I thought Changing Health Perspectives was a good description of where I was going but the name was a mouthful and too many didn’t have a clue what it meant. So after setting lots of intentions over the years about what I wanted, especially a great one for getting a good night sleep (email me if you want to know what it is), I realized that good health and wellness are as much about intention, your intention to be well, as it is about what pill you take or what exotic fruit you drink. So Intentional Health it is.

Enlightened – to have or show a rational, modern and well informed outlook, to not be narrow in thinking, to be spiritually aware.

Lots of fun, growth, experience and 114 posts later, a book called Light: The Future of Medicine (Liberman, 1991) and products from In Light Wellness Systems™ shifted my path this past year. Shall we say they “inlightened” me?

   A journey of a thousand steps begins with a single step. Lao Tzu (c 604bc – 531bc)

To All: Lights On! The journey begins.

 

Pro ProBiotics

By Leave a Comment

Why? The evidence is strong that Probiotics benefit the digestive and immune systems and there are many other reasons to consider taking a probiotic.

Green Med Info  www.greenmedinfo.com  has over 240 studies relating to 170 health issues that have benefited from a probiotic supplement

The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported  a study of adults with high cholesterol. Those that took a probiotic twice a day for nine weeks reported total cholesterol levels dropping 9% and LDL by 12%. (Men’s Health News, 11/26/12)

And for those of you who endured a bad and lengthy cold this winter…… A double blind study at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in NJ monitored college students for 12 weeks. Those taking the probiotics had cold symptoms for a shorter time, less severe symptoms and missed fewer days of school. (News-medical.net, 10/24/12)

What are Probiotics? Non pathogenic bacteria that naturally live in your gut or more simply put Good Bugs. Your body has give or take a 100 trillion friendly bacterial cells. Some of their functions include digestion, battling viral, bacterial and yeast infections, protecting us against disease i.e. stimulating the immune system and producing vitamins K & B.

Why Supplement? The sad American diet filled with sugar, flour, fast food not to mention stress and antibiotics all contribute to the growth of the bad bugs and don’t provide the food the good bugs need to flourish.

Good vs Bad

Good bugs release an acid that keeps bad bugs in check. Good bugs need high fiber foods, plant based foods, healthy fats and fermented foods. Probiotic rich foods include kefir, kombucha, yogurt, fermented vegetables such as kimchi and sauerkraut. The Nourishing Traditions cookbook has a easy recipe for fermented ketchup which is delicious.

Bad Bugs release toxins into your system. Bad bugs love sugars, fats from processed food, stress.

What we do: We eat plain yogurt & kefir because added sugars cancel out much of the good. We eat some fermented foods but not enough. We supplement.

What we take: American Health Probiotic CD with 10 strains and 12 billion CFUs but there are many good brands out there including Innate Response Formulas Flora 50-14, MegaFood MegaFlora and Nutrition Now PB8. All can be purchased at www.iherb.com (use BOT164 at checkout for discount on first order).

What to look for: A brand with multiple strains of bacteria and at least 5000 CFUs. CFUs are Colony Forming Units.

Because we have trillions of good bacteria and hundreds of strains, it is good to rotate formulas every 3 months once you have a good foundation.

You really are what you eat.

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health and DIY Health & Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.

 

 

Machine or Fiesta?

By Leave a Comment

For years I have used the analogy of a car, a computer or a machine to help people relate to and understand the intricacies of their bodies. I have referred to our bodies and health in terms of hardware, software, viruses and worms and virus protection – language that, we obsessed with technology people, can relate to.

Recently I came across this “poem” in Eduardo Galeano’s book Walking Words that made me re-think how I think of my own body.

The Church says: the body is a sin.                                                                            Science says: the body is a machine.                                                                   Advertising says: the body is a business.                                                                        The body says: I am a fiesta.                                                                                                        From Walking Words by Eduardo Galeano, 20th c Uruguayan writer,                                        journalist and “poet laureate” of the anti-globalization movement.

What if, instead of thinking of our body like a machine, a car or a computer that can be replaced, we treated our body (and I mean the whole thing, inside and out) as our most prized and valuable possession, as a precious, irreplaceable gem?

The body is a sacred garment. Martha Graham

The machine analogy may help us to understand the body  – there are many moving parts to putting on a good party as we all know, but treating the body like a fiesta, like a really good party, not just a sum of its parts, it certainly a lot more fun.

Take a moment to be still, to listen, to observe. Feel the pulse, hear the breath.

J. Ruth Gendler, writes in Notes for the Need for Beauty, the body is “like a Mayan festival with many different musicians playing throughout the village, the rhythms weave in and out of each other creating a music of many layers and depths.”

Cacao Nibs

By Leave a Comment

My favorite source of Cacao is Cacao Nibs which are broken up pieces of the cacao beans with the shells removed. One ounce of cacao nibs (about 3 tablespoons) contains 3 grams of protein.

Cacao Nibs are one of the best dietary sources of magnesium of which most Americans are deficient. If you’ve forgotten how important  Magnesium is please reread http://www.intentionalhealthnews.com/articles/magnesium-101

Cacao Nibs are also a good source of calcium, iron, copper, zinc and potassium and fiber. They may be a better source of antioxidants than even blueberries or green tea.

How to use: In smoothies, in yogurt or oatmeal, in baking or by the handful. They are crunchy, more like a nut, and not sweet but definitely chocolaty AND, the important key word, satisfying. You might think they are bitter or just bland at first but like anything new give them the benefit of the doubt and keep using them.

Look for Raw (though technically none are raw – they can be sun dried or slow roasted), Organic, preferably Fair Trade, Cacao Nibs I buy mine from my local Mom’s Organic Market but you can find them almost anywhere including Amazon or www.iherb.com (use BOT164 as a coupon code for a discount on your first order).

The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain.       Thomas Jefferson

My favorite way to consume my cacao nibs is in a smoothie and my most favorite combination is:

ABCD Smoothie -A great afternoon pick me up

1 banana                                 2 Tbls Almond Butter                                                                       3 Tbls Cacao Nibs                 4 pitted Dates                                                                                     4 ice cubes                             ½ cup water or coconut water

Blend until thick, smooth and creamy. Enjoy!

 

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for medical counseling. Intentional Health and DIY Health & Wellness does not treat, prevent, cure, or diagnose any disease or ailment.