Sugar Blues


The book Sugar Blues- interesting, informative, is about the history of sugar, its effects, and I highly recommend it. It is not a recent book published in 1975, but it will take time before information in it will become obsolete, if ever. I will say it straight out, sugar is not OK for you, and if you believe otherwise, by the time you finish the book you may have a different view.

People have fought wars over the sugar trade, great fortunes won and lost, health has been destroyed, people indentured into slavery for it's harvest. Probably a big reason for many psychiatric diseases, madness, insanity, are more to do with sugar than anything wrong with the person. The brain is very sensitive to what is consumed by the body. Sugar is highly addictive and to believe otherwise, well just try and quit.

Sugar is responsible for a huge increase in diabetes. I met a doctor during my travels through Costa Rica and he told me that 50% of the patients he is treating are being diagnosed with adult onset diabetes and this includes a high number of young people contracting the disease. At the other end of the spectrum is hypoglycemia, which is also a huge problem with many people, it has so many symptoms and often mimics other diseases so it is often not diagnosed properly by the medical profession. Anything from funguses, microbes, parasites, mycosis, candida, yeast infections, hemorrhoids, eczema, sinus infections, panic attacks, poor memrory, anxiety, increased colds and flu, adrenal and thyroid weakness, food allergies fatigue, all are directly attributable to sugar consumption, and you can throw in learning disabilities and behavioral problems and many other diseases.

If you want to turn your health around look for foods low on the glymcemic scale, obviously no sugar, most sweeteners, (try stevia) stay away from white flour, white rice, white potatoes. You can find information on the Internet on the Glycemic Index with tables showing which foods are high or low on the scale.

I donʼt agree with all the recipes in the book to some extent like dried fruit and so forth, which tends to be high in sugars, it is best not to use much. Over time your taste change and sweetness is relative.

You can buy the book used for a few dollars.

-m

Kiritan

Chanting is a big part of Kundalini Yoga , in fact it has become my favorite part. It is quick way to calm, relax, renew, center, elevate oneself, and connect with the divine.

Here is an article "Yoga Rock Stars " that features a few well know chanters that have reached "stardom" - rock star status.

Wah! and Snatam are a couple of Kundalini rock stars in the article although there are many others. If you venture to Solstice sometime, it can get wild and crazy with chants sometimes sounding more like rock songs than chants... It's all in good fun and release all that pent up energy generated through the day and released at night during the Yogi Tea Cafe jamb session.

-m

Yogi Bhajan's Birthday Anniversary
August 26

I participate every year on some level for Yogiji's Birthday, it's an amazing event when you realize 1,000's of people are simulataneously chanting and meditating. Here is the agenda:

August 15 - August 25, chant 31 minutes of Guru Guru Wahe Guru, Guru Ram Das Guru at any time of the day.

In gratitude we celebrate the spirit and wisdom of Yogi Bhajan with 11 days of meditation leading up to the anniversary of his birth. Join the global community to connect with the spirit of Yogi Bhajan, offering thanks for all the blessings he so generously shared with us.

Then on
August 26, worldwide simultaneous meditation, beginning at 3:00 AM Pacific Daylight Savings Time: chant Guru Guru Wahe Guru, Guru Ram Das Guru for 11 minutes. It is also traditional to do 2.5 hours of Long Ek Ong Kars at a time best suited to your time zone.

Yoga

Yoga is a transformational experience, many just come into it to stretch, relax, strengthen the body- then find there is so much more. Going beyond the postures -- yogic text, meditation, breath technique, lifestyle requires more lifetimes than you and I are likely to have.

Although there are many different paths, you may find Kundalini Yoga a good experience, it is very structured; you may find that its a good supplement to other practices.

Yoga is the act of letting go, to be effective it must be practiced with discipline, and within guidelines- otherwise we just find ourselves wandering around without a map. Structure allows us to explore all the different aspects of yoga with a few minutes to an hour or more however much time you have.

August Classes:

Tuesdays 5:30 – 6:30 PM

Aug 5 – Stretching Series

Aug 12 – Upper Back & Shoulders

Aug 19 – Lower Back & Hips

Aug 26 – Runners & Skiers Conditioning Series

Coming in September!

Kundalini Yoga for Beginners

Tuesdays 7:00 – 8:15 PM

Hope to see you in class!

-m