Food and Health

We can use food as a healing tool - given a little time and patience, here is a list of some foods and health giving properties. Vegetarians are more conscious of what they eat, they have to be so this information is especially useful. I always recommend cutting back on meat consumption, if you do eat meat, concentrate on a diet of healthy wild Alaska Seafood! And maybe only one meal a day with meat... So try some of this out, proof is in the pudding as they say. People will experience different effects based on the state of their own health, and if we let things go too far then it takes stronger medicine. Why let it get that far?

Almonds – It is usually best to remove the skin as it is astringent, by blanching. As with all the nuts raw is best. All nuts can be soaked in water for 8 hours to make the enzymes more available to the body. Excellent protein for people like me (vegetarians) good for the eyes

Walnuts - for angina and lowering cholesterol

Cashews - for the adrenals & pancreas

Pistachios - everything your body needs

Bananas - for energy they can be good for both constipation and diarrhea. They should be not under ripe or too ripe

Black pepper - fresh ground is a good blood purifier, aids in the digestion of food, good on melons to stop intestinal gas. Boiling a half a teaspoon peppercorns in water for 5 minutes is said to be useful in treating arthritis and asthma.

Beets - for the liver, good for hemorrhoids, which is a sign the liver is toxified, Yogi Bhajan recommended a fast twice a year eating cooked beets to cleanse the liver.

Celery - has a sedative effect, calming the nervous system. Good intestinal cleanser

Chiles - are extremely high in Vitamin C and A. Beneficial for the circulatory and digestive system. They have been used as a cure for ulcers. The pulpy part and seeds attached to it are the hottest part and maybe removed. They take some getting used to as they have a bit of after burn effect!

Coconut - contains all the essential amino acids. The milk is good for bones and teeth, and is useful for treatment of urinary diseases, constipation, vomiting, fatigue, nervousness, and general weakness.

Dates - are a good laxative, good energy source, not harmful to teeth like other sugars. Make a youth maintaining drink with milk

Garlic - gets rid of fungi and is a natural antibiotic and is helpful for seaman production

Ginger - removes poisons in body, gives energy

Grapes – C vitamin, as mono diet can transform the bloodstream and detoxify the body to overcome chronic diseases. Natural laxative. Green grapes clear the complexion

Honey –has been used to treat asthma, hay fever, allergies, digestive disorders, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, hemorrhoids, bad complexion and weak heart. No more than a teaspoon or so a day though

Lecithin – the oil found in soy beans is also found in the brain and is a coating for the nerves. It can improve memory and overall brain function. It is also helpful with heart problems and poor circulation. It can clear skin conditions, stimulate the growth of hair. 2 -3 tsp per day. Larger does require calcium lactate to balance the excess phosphorus.

Legumes – dried beans build up hemoglobin of blood, sprouted they are even better. Mung beans are the easiest to digest.

Lemons – excellent vitamin source. Purifies the blood. They are very acid but the effect is to alkalinize the body, very useful in treating liver disorders. Sore throat, cold, fever, dissolve lemon juice and honey in hot water for a soothing drink.

Mangoes – are helpful with liver disorders and menstrual disorders, and people trying to gain weight. Mono diet of mangoes and milk improve health and vigor. Also helps with poor eyesight, constipation, indigestion. You can make an excellent Mango lassi with yogart (drink) you find this all over India.

Mustard greens – high in calcium, A, and C. One of the most healthful vegetables consumed. The chlorophyll builds and purifies the blood.

Onion - to build the blood supply keeps parasites away (The state of Punjab India claims to have no cancer by eating 1 raw onion/day) Yogi Bhanan had us eat raw onions before going over for teacher training in India to defend against intestinal parasites, I had no problems over there. How to eat that much onion, Mexican food…

Oranges – much like lemons

Parsley – rich in minerals, building the blood, helpful in treating diabetes, cleansing the kidneys, regulating the calcium balance in the body. Good breath freshener (especially after eating garlic) Parsley juice for purging the body of poisons can mix with other veg.

Pineapple – invigorating effect on the curative forces of the body. Good for the kidneys and liver when they are over stressed.

Potatoes – very nourishing, cleanses body tissue. Cook whole with skin in tact to protect nutrients. Skins help balance the acidic white of the potatoes. Useful in ridding the body of toxins such as uric acid. Potatoe peel broth each morning may be helpful in loosing stiff joints.

Pear - juice (fresh) can melt kidney stones and fibroids (with black pepper)

Sweet potatoes - for energy

Daikon Radish - for the liver

Water Chestnuts - for eyes, ears, nose, throat

Happy Memorial Weekend - Let us Pray for Peace - It starts with Inner Peace

Sat Nam!

The paradox of choice

Here is an interesting link on a video about having too many choices in our lives, and how marketers maybe exploit that a little. Keeping with our theme of money and the meaning of life a few post ago. Check out the video below. This is where it pays to have a neutral mind... and the way to that is through the practice of meditation...

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/93

THE TAO OF POOH

I ran across this review, might be an interest book eh?

A few lines out of the book:

Literally, Wu Wei means “without doing, causing, or making.” But practically speaking, it means without meddlesome, combative, or egotistical effort. It seems rather significant that the character Wei developed from the symbols for a clawing hand and a monkey, since the term Wu Wei means no going against the nature of things; no clever tamperingl No Monkeying Around.

The efficiency of Wu Wei is like that of water flowing over and around the rocks in its path–not the mechanical, straight-line approach that usually ends up short-circuiting natural laws, but one that evolves from an inner sensitivity to the natural rhythm of things.

. . . Cleverness, as usual, takes all the credit it possibly can. But it’s not the Clever Mind that’s responsible when things work out. It’s the mind that sees what’s in front of it, and follows the nature of things.

When you work with Wu Wei, you put the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole. No stress, no struggle. Egotistical Desire tries to force the round peg into the square hole and the square peg into the round hole. Cleverness tries to devise craftier ways of making pegs fit where they don’t belong. Knowledge tries to figure out why round pegs fit round holes, but not square holes. Wu Wei doesn’t try. It doesn’t think about it. It just does it. And when it does it, it doesn’t appear to do much of anything. But Things Get Done.

“Having trouble, Piglet?”
“The lid on this jar is stuck,” gasped Piglet.
“Yes, it . . . is, isn’t it. Here, Pooh, you open it.
(Pop)
“Thanks, Pooh,” said Piglet.
“Nothing really.” said Pooh.
“It’s easy.” said Pooh. “You just twist on it like this, until you can’t twist it any harder. Then you take a deep breath and, as you let it out, twist. That’s all.”
“Let me try that!” yelled Tigger, bouncing into the kitchen. “Where’s that new jar of pickles? Ah, here it is.”
“Tigger,” began Piglet nervously, “I don’t think you’d better…”
“Nothing to it,” said Tigger. “Just twist, and … ”
CRASH!
“All right, Tigger.” I said, “Get those pickles off the floor.”
“Slipped out of my paw,” explained Tigger.
“He tried too hard.” said Pooh.

And when you try too hard, it doesn’t work. Try grabbing something quickly and precisely with a tensed-up arm; then relax and try it again. Try doing something with a tense mind. The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard–one that thinks too much.

. . . But down through the centuries, man has developed a mind that separates him from the world of reality, the world of natural laws. This mind tries too hard, wears itself out, and end up weak and sloppy. Such a mind, even if of high intelligence, is inefficient. It goes here to there, backwards and forwards, and fails to concentrate on what it’s doing at the moment.

Podcast Link:

Lester Brown [Scroll down to Part 2]

Lester Brown is interviewed by The Current and lays out an apocalyptic view of the future. He “founded both the Worldwatch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute, and over the decades, he watched the world’s population explode and consume with abandon, oblivious to how it’s spent itself way into the red, environmentally speaking. Global warming, depleted soil and water resources, deforestation, overfishing — humanity has pushed the very natural systems that sustain our species to the breaking point.”

One of my favorite quotes from Yogi Bhajan, and it's been very active in my life here the past week! :

Poke

Provoke

Confront

Elevate

Markets are really crazy right now, talk about holding onto your hats! Consumer sentiment is at it's lowest in 10 years, so the wash out is getting close, oil prices going parabolic, its going to $200 going once, going twice.... other than the commodities and sentiment, it is looking much more stable and premiums are coming in on risky paper (junk bonds). So do yourself a favor and tune out some of the news media.

So here are a few of my favorite Ayurvedic recipes. These are foods you want to mono diet with, or mix with fresh vegetables otherwise you loose some of the healing qualities. Ayurveda is the ancient science of healing and is part of yogic science. I use food as my primary method of healing & prevention followed by- herbs, tonics, and supplements, and meditation.

I may write on this a little more as it is a big subject for a post, and may add foods and their healing properties, dosa's matching food to your type etc.

Here is everyones favorite:

Yogi Tea

Add to one gallon of filtered water:

20 whole cloves

20 whole black peppercorns

20 whole green cardamom pods

5 sticks of cinnamon

2” of sliced ginger

1 black tea bag (optional)

This can be adjusted to taste but take care with cloves and cinnamon sticks.

Crush green cardamom pods with rolling pin, or mortar pestle

Bring water to boil and add all ingredients

Boil from 1 to 3 hours

If desired add one black tea bag at the end and steep for 5 minutes, acts as a binder

Strain

Let cool refrigerate

Milk is added from 1/4 to 1/3 ratio. Alternately use soy or nut milk. Honey to taste. Sometimes I will leave ingredients in over night if the tea is weak before straining. Anyone who sells bulk herbs and spices is a good bet to keep cost within reason. Like Azure Standard in Oregon (internet). Cardamom pods I hear are cheap if you go to the Indian section of town, otherwise an internet search. I spent $18 a pound for what I have, it does tend to last awhile though. Ancient Healing ways sells a kit for $15 I believe (1#). Each ingredient has a specific benefit: black pepper is a blood purifier, the cardamom is for the colon, the cloves for the nervous system, cinnamon for the bones, fresh ginger for preventing and healing a cold or flu or feeling weak. The milk acts as an aid to assimilation of the spices and coats the colon and stomach to prevent irritation.

Golden Milk

Turmeric is known as an anti-inflammatory and is good lubricant for the joints. It breaks up calcium deposits and is also good for the immune system helping the body overcome fatigue. Here is a delicious drink you can make with it. At our Solstice events of long days of White Tantric we are treated with this healing and delicious drink. We had this during Spring Cleaning the day I taught.

¼ to ½ tsp turmeric

½ cup water

8 oz milk of your choice – Moo, Soy, or Nut

1 Tbl edible cold-pressed almond oil

1 to 1 ½ tsp honey

Boil turmeric in water for about 8 minutes. You may have to add more water. Add milk and almond oil, bring close to a boil, then remove from heat and add honey.

You can alternately make a stock up of turmeric , this will last about 1 month in the fridge:

Boil 2 tsp of turmeric in 2 cups of water for 8 minutes until a thick paste forms

Ginger Tea

Ginger tea calms the nerves and energizes the body and mind. Good for colds and flu, good for women during the moon cycle.

2 cups of water

4 to 6 - 1/8 inch-thick slices of fresh ginger root unpeeled

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp honey

Bring water to boil and add ginger root slices. Boil until water is light brown, about 15 minutes. Add fresh lemon juice and honey.

Mung Beans and Rice (Kitcheree)

1 Cup Mung Beans

1 Cup basmati rice

2 bay leaves

1 – inch piece of kombu seaweed (the smooth leaf kelp on the beach around here, or other)

9 cups of water

4 – 6 cups of assorted vegetables (carrots, celery, zucchini, broccoli, zucchini, etc.)

2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 onions chopped

½ tsp pepper

1/3 cup ginger root, minced

3 – 4 cloves of garlic

1 heaping tsp turmeric

1 heaping tsp garam masala

1 tsp crushed red chillies (more or less to taste)

1 Tbl sweet basil

Seeds of 5 cardamom pods

Sea Salt or Braggs Liquid Aminos to taste

Soak mung beans over night, wash beans and rice at least 3 times. Bring water to boil; add beans, bay leaves, and kombu seaweed; and let boil over medium high heat. When the beans are soft, 40 to 50 minutes, add rice, lower heat to simmer, and let cook for another 20 minutes.

Clean and cut vegetables, Add vegetables to simmering rice and beans and continue to cook for approximately 15 more minutes. In the meantime heat oil in frying pan, add onions, ginger, and garlic and sauté over medium-high flame until brown. Add turmeric, pepper, garam masala, and red chilies. Add this mixture to the pot with beans and rice. You will need to stir often now to prevent sourcing. Continue to simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes. Add extra boiling water if needed, ingredients should be soupy. Serve with yogurt. This excellent food if you are sick, breaking a fast, for the young and elderly, use as a healing mono-diet, is easy to digest.

This is an excellent recipe, you may substitute millet for the rice. It is spicy and will make you sweat. Sometimes I follow the recipe, but hold out the carrots, broccoli, and other veg until done cooking as I prefer my vegetables raw and add after it cools a little to the bowl. Yogi Bhajan believes it is essential to cook the trinity roots (onion, garlic, ginger) and the turmeric, so I do that. However I do not believe in cooking the veggies to death, but may make it easier if the digestion system is weak.

Have a good weekend!

update...

There is a book out there by the way with that same title: Money and the Meaning of Life, I didn't necessarily draw material from there specifically. It's a good read. Someday I will have clickable books in the sidebar.

Next week I will write some on another equally controversial subject: food. Specifically Ayurvedic food and drink. So be sure to tune in for that. I may stop with the email alerts I know everyone loves getting email. I will generally have, if works out an update of some sort every week.

There was some thought to a separate blog on money and investing... but that may be a retirement activity, we will see. If you want to know how peoples perception on fear greed and wealth, change on a day to day basis, put some money in the markets.

Even though prosperity comes and goes as it will, Yogi Bhajan came to the west and spent the first winter in Vancouver BC wearing newspapers around his feet for shoes, as he lost all his luggage and money, became homeless. Not only did he bring Kundalini Yoga to the west, but went on to form 14 corporations, Yogi Tea, WaheGuruChew, Peace Cereal, Kettle Chips, Akal Security.... to name a few.

Here's a few exerts from a daily blog I subscribe to on the horrific events going on 1/2 a world away:

“If economic textbooks had a chapter on how to destroy an economy, then Burma – renamed Myanmar by its ruling generals – would be a perfect case study. Cyclone Nogin was a natural disaster, but that was only the latest catastrophe to befall the Burmese. The other was man-made...

“The reality of Burma's economic mismanagement was seared in my mind when I last was there. Grinding poverty and government neglect were visible. On a Rangoon sidewalk, a young mother held baby so malnourished that it probably died not long after I gave her a small bit of money. It was probably more than she had ever had in her hands at one time, and far more than the malignant military government spends on any desperate citizen in a year.

"Half Burma’s national budget goes on the military for one of the largest armies in the world, with more than 400,000 soldiers. Spending on other needs is distinctly lower. The UN estimated that Burma spends about $1.25 per person per year on education and health combined.

"The fury of the cyclone missed Naypidaw. The spirits (Nats) killed fishermen instead of generals. The angry spirits may have missed their target, but the people know where the generals are."

Thoughts on money and the meaning of Life

Money has many symbolic images in our society: power, greed, happiness, love, freedom, fulfillment, dreams, second homes, cars boats planes, leisure-time, vacations, travel, end to world hunger, no more struggling. We assign so much to it. But the problem is we either can’t get enough, or have too much (really?).

Money can indeed provide fulfillment, and give us some of those things. But there is a flip side, researchers call it the ‘hedonic treadmill’ and you never can seem to get off, it can take on a life of its own, and no amount of ‘stuff’ completely satisfies. There is a tripping point- when the buying, shopping and dropping, and the satisfaction wears off – the thrill disappears, the only way to fulfillment- is to plan and scheme for that next big shopping binge. Retailers, marketers and sales people know this. So the price tag for the hedonic treadmill is pretty big- if it causes you to be away from friends- family, doing the things you like to do. So think always about what it cost.

So what else is there about money? Many people view money as a form of security. Are they right? No, not really- money will not provide the kind of security you might imagine. Just begs the question: What is happening to dollar assets? Feeling secure? Does the dollar value of your home feel secure? Does your job feel secure? The paper assets have lost value, and yet- ‘fear’ has everyone is rushing into T-bills and cash; and that which is supposed to be secure is becoming unsecure and worth- less. The move is at record levels out of “securities” (stocks) (funny name huh?) into the money market funds. The sky is clearly falling. We wanted all those things money can buy and with such intensity- and suddenly, we awoke from our sleepy little dream, to impending doom. So- is acting on fear, wise? I never think it is.

How do we feel secure with our money? Think of money this way; that there is a consciousness of money and it represents potential energy. If it sits somewhere unused (under the mattress) or is unproductive (buying and flipping un-built condos in Miami) it loses all that potential to do anything useful in the world, so it seeks to free itself, there is no value in it sitting there locked up, not even worth the paper it is printed on. It is only when we put it to work in a sensible manner, or release it by giving; that money manifest itself into its true power. We really can never give money away without it having an effect in the world. The only proof in this is to give some of it away- then see what happens in your own life. So having a balanced view of money is important, think in terms of doing ‘good’ with it, and it will do ‘good’ for you. If you have a little extra, use common sense always, and a balanced approach to weather any surprises that come up.

Perhaps the best security of all however - is not money itself; it’s the knowledge of who you are-- your soul purpose, giving so that you can receive, being in the flow of life, being in the flow of the universe. Fight this and you will know how it feels to be insecure. Life has a way of throwing in a test time to time, and probably when you least want it. You don’t want to have the mistaken identity when these come up- that this is a permanent roadblock to your personal advancement; quite often it’s challenge to be met, over come, and to propel you forward in life-. And who knows you just may meet the same challenge again, and at a higher level of consciousness. Will it be any easier? I seriously doubt it, but you will have the tools and courage you learned the first time to punch on through.

Remember money is no substitute for your own sense of self- the truth and wisdom within, and with the wise appreciation of its power it can bring that which you need.

Be Rich –

Live Rich

Mike

Here's a quick update to the blog. If you enjoy the music of Snatam Kaur - here is a link and sound clip as well as some photos. You can also visit her website where short clips of her music that loop. Snatam literally means: universal, nucleus, and friend to all. She certainly is.

http://www.snatamkaur.com/enewsletter/2008-04/video-audio/slideshow/

Welcome to the long- past due, and best of intentions blog, otherwise to be known as Mike On Life. I first began this project several years ago, and with the best of intentions- somehow it all hit the sidetracks. No words, thoughts, or manifestations - always in the background, never acted on. You know like writers block... Procrastination? Like that unopened can of tuna fish. Oh give me a break! The time is right, the planets are properly aligned. Lets see where this goes. Lets open that can!

So, aside from a few issues of getting off the ground- here we go...hold onto your hats, the official beginning- maybe without too much fan-fare, grand standing, or trumpets blaring...

OK... - but, before we begin, a little direction- the intention is to serve up an interesting cross section, anywhere beyond the mundane, I've read that before, give me a break kind of stuff. Although some of the focus is on yoga we will look at other interesting and perhaps different ways of looking at life, in sort of an off beat style, covering the physical, spiritual, and mental- not to leave anything out- as life is all about balance- and not over focusing on any one element. So... if you are inclined drop by-- be patient, the words may come easy but the bells and whistles... RSS feeds, links etc. will take some time.


Illuminate others- so their own self awareness extends beyond time and space...

Sat Nam! Mike

A little slice of Sat Nam:
Truth is our name, -our salutation -our celebration -of who we are.