Health And Wholeness

health and wholeness is a broad category and different people may define it different ways. In this article I will be referring to health and wholeness in the sense of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health and wholeness, with a special emphasis made upon the latter three (emotional, mental, and spiritual). The reason for this special emphasis is you don't necessarily need to be physically perfect in order to be truly healthy and whole.

For example you can be crippled or physically handicapped in some way, maybe blind, or deaf, or lame, or perhaps you are not the perfect physical specimen, not so attractive, maybe overweight or underweight, and still with all these seeming physical imperfections you can yet be healthy and whole when it comes to what really matters. That said, there are still certain laws of health which, if followed, will keep your physical body in good health, and in tune to positive thoughts and healthy emotions which originate from an often untapped spiritual level of being the superconscious mind. More about that later.

Now, we all have our physical body to carry around, and some of us seem to mostly live in a survival of the fittest mode (sleep, eat, work, procreate). Others tend to be more emotional. Reasoning and analyzing are the lot of those who have a dominant mental make-up. And still others seem to be more intuitive and susceptible to divine impressions from a higher level of consciousness than that of the conscious or subconscious levels of mind. They live mostly from the spiritual level of being. Lets take a look at each category (physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual), beginning with the physical.

When you stop and think about it much of society is geared towards catering to the physical body. Look at all the clothing and shoe stores. There are places where you can have your hair done, or get a pedicure and manicure, and have make-up put on, all for dressing up the physical body. The entire world transportation systems are for getting the physical body from one place to another. Every restaurant, or food product imaginable is for the body. Houses and apartments are all shelter for the physical body. Education, college, and money all work in one accord to provide comfort and security and pleasure to the body. Hospitals and doctors are here to repair the body if something goes wrong with it. Every imaginable sex practice is out there for the very brief sex pleasure of the body. A very popular body centered emphasis in our day and age is diet and nutrition, weight loss, fitness and bodybuilding programs. I am sure the list goes on. If physical health and perfection is what you desire there is a lot of information out there about how to go about accomplishing this to the very art.

The important thing, as far as health of the physical body goes, is to eat fresh living food (fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts etc.), as well as dairy and meat (in moderation) if you are not a strict vegetarian. Add exercise and fresh air and pure water to all this then you are sure to maintain physical health. But remember there are other laws governing your overall being and breaking any of these laws can manifest in ill health even if you are eating the perfect diet. This brings me to the emotional category.

We all have an unseen emotional or astral body to carry around too and when we feed this body with negativity it can eventually manifest in ill physical health. I like to say the subconscious mind is the mind of our emotional body. If this aspect of our mind is filled with negative emotions and wounded memories we need healing at this level. It all needs to be replaced by healthy food in this case positive emotions.

A lot can be said about the subject of the emotions but I will emphasize only two areas at the emotional level which seem to cause many of us so much pain. I am speaking about hurting someone emotionally or psychologically either by manipulating them, controlling them, psychologically abusing them, or maliciously gossiping about them, slandering them, and backbiting about them (basically sending negative energy their way.) If we practice this we open the door for our eventual ill health, maybe manifesting in a disease.

The key to emotional health and wholeness is to not hurt anyone (or yourself) psychologically or emotionally. Actually this is one of the many manifestations of what love is. However there is a fine line between maliciously hurting someone elses feelings, or hurting them by way of constructive criticism and positive reinforcement. The latter two are for their betterment, but the former is destructive. It all depends upon your motive. Being hard on yourself, or working yourself up into a depression, or even thoughts of suicide, are ways you attack yourself destructively. And this can have an effect on your physical health if you persist in it. There is a fine line between healthy criticism towards oneself, and health destroying hate towards oneself. So not only should we not attack others (maliciously or by way of slandering, backbiting, gossiping etc.), but we should take care not to destroy ourselves emotionally. What we allow into our emotional body is very closely tied in with the mental category, which we will look at next.

getting into the mind can be a deep subject. The obvious areas of the mind include the conscious and subconscious aspects. The not so obvious area is what has been termed (in spiritual literature) the superconscious level of mind. This latter belongs to the spiritual category but compliments what I will share here about the conscious and subconscious levels of the mind. It is said we have a right half and left half of the brain. Those who are dominantly left brained are said to be more analytical. Those who are mostly right brained are more intuitive and visionary. I will speak more about this in the spiritual category.

In general the conscious aspect of our mind thinks, reasons, and analyzes. It is programmed by its environment, upbringing, education, culture, peer pressure, genes, and so on. The subconscious mind is programmed by conscious influences coming from without, and also by unconscious impressions from the past. It is said we become what we think. Think thoughts of fear, depression, hate, etc, we program that into our subconscious and emotional body, and eventually we become what we think. But also we carry over a lot of unconscious impressions that are already programmed into our subconscious which is why everyone manifests different personality traits, some in need of more healing then others from the get go.

The main emphasis of this mental category is to guard our mind and nip negativity in the bud, not allowing it to enter the interior recesses of our being where it can create havoc or future suffering. Unfortunately sometimes unconscious set ways of thinking creep upon us and we become something we really are not (as far as the spiritual aspect of our being goes).

To be emotionally and mentally healthy and whole means to be spiritually in tune with the highest level of our consciousness, the super consciousness, so that there is a steady flow life and energy from that level of consciousness flowing into our subconscious and conscious levels of mind all the time cleansing and healing them as it is allowed to flow through. The end result is a healthy and whole person, even a new person. This brings me to the last and final category of this article, the spiritual category.

Being spiritual is not to be confused with being religious. Someone who is religious can be operating from a physical, emotional, and mental level only, but be void as far as being spiritual goes. In context of this article being spiritual means living your life from the spiritual level of your being first and foremost. By living from that super conscious level the mind, emotions, and physical health fall into place and are balanced. The esoteric or mystical side of all religions emphasize this same point in so many different words. yoga and meditation in particular teach someone how to get in touch with the highest aspect of their being.

It is one thing to be trained and programmed from without by books, teachers or what have you. But it is another thing to be nourished and inspired from within from that level of consciousness which is beyond reason, beyond thought. All the confusion in religion happens when people try to be moral, or religious, or ethical or spiritual from the level of their mind, emotions and willpower only. At most the end result is self righteousness or a man made god which is only a dead image or form of the truly spiritual. On the other hand someone who is spiritual is someone who is naturally spiritual by living from that level of consciousness which is above the conscious and subconscious mind, and above what is termed the emotional or astral body.

Those who are mainly right brained often experience glimpses of this level of consciousness and they sometimes try to share what they perceive. Some write, some paint, some sing, and some dance etc. Everyone has their own unique way to bring that light and love to the world which they sense in the silence and stillness when the emotions, reasoning and physical body are calm and collected.

As we spend time to do that which is most important of all overall health and wholeness are the end result, as well as more love towards ourselves and others.

To learn more about physical health, weight loss, proper diet and nutrition, fitness, self help, emotional transformation, yoga and meditation, please visit my website at http://body-mind-soul.net Here you will find a choice selection of ebooks, cds, programs, articles, and products emphasizing a healthy body, mind, and soul for overall physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.

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The Theory Behind Atkins Diet Attractive To Dieters

Knowing about how the body works is what makes followers of the atkins weight loss diet believe it will benefit for them. The body is essentially fueled by sugar, whether it is organic sugar found in lots aliments, processed sugar added to a mass foods or the kind heaped on your cereal or into coffee or tea. As far as your body runs short of normally extracted sugar, it heads towards the carbohydrates and breaks it down into sugar. The theory in back of atkins soft diet limits the carbohydrates within reach for conversion, forcing the body to rely on unlike reserves such as fat stored for in reserve use.

In search for ways to lose fat drives dieters to all types of methods, various original and excellent not so groundbreaking, but many have been drawn by the theory in back of atkins weight loss diet to the point of high recognition. Being able to eat straightforwardly all the red meat, fish and even many deserts they might crave, a mass are enticed by the theory in back of atkins high-protein diet, which allows them to eat aliments other diets forbid although burning the fat built up in their system.

Appreciating the atkins Soft diet basics
The atkins weight-watch results in a process called ketosis, where the body burns fat rather than carbohydrates. The basic plan of the atkins diet is to unbendingly interdict carbs for two weeks and eventually re-introduce a limited supply of carbs and other foods, including promoting the use of exercise.

Throughout the ongoing weight control stage, the carb intake is increased to 25 grams everyday. The atkins soft diet primarily allows the consumption of plenty of meat, poultry, fish and eggs, and gradually allows the consumption of additional vegetables and fruit as well.

Starting the atkins Weight-watch: The Induction Phase
These aliment should be avoided: milk, pasta, potatoes, bread, carrots, and beans. In this stage of starting the atkins soft diet, it is essential to check the carb content of your foods so you can avoid anything with stashed carbs. Reaching the process of burning fat by preference to carbohydrates is the first step in starting the atkins weight loss diet, and the top vital one. This process of starting the atkins high-protein diet is recognized as the induction phase.

Restricting Fuel Intake Forces Use Of Reserve
Looking at the theory in back of atkins diet like a car and its gas tank, may make it easier to define. Placing an extra five-gallon could in the trunk makes the driver feel greater, knowing they have a reserve if there is not a station obtainable whenever the main tank runs out. If the body believes it may be awhile between meals, routinely whenever someone skips collations or oftentimes unpaired has one meal a day, it stores strength in the form of fat to be used although it runs shy of energy.

While on the trip, the car runs short of gas but by preference to ending the ride, the extra five-gallon can, carried for emergency, will satisfy the vehicle needs. The theory in back of atkins diet is that by restricting the fuel intake, in this case carbohydrates, the body is forced to go to the reserve tank of stored fat in order to have bare minimum fuel to keep running. The theory behind atkins low-carbohydrate diet does not completely cut down out carbohydrate intake, but it is badly limited in the first of the four stages of the weight-watch plan.

The weight-watch has proven successful for plenty people, but the problem comes in maintenance as the low-carbohydrate diet helps establish the amount of carbohydrates every person may ingest empty of gaining or losing weight, and the person must stick to that portion. Although the theory behind atkins soft diet sounds easy, considering all the aliments that contain carbohydrates, cheating could be a problem, which just adds more fuel to the tank of reserve fat.

Marc Simard
Fitness Author
http://www.dietmakemoney.com

More on the theory behind atkins diet:
http://www.dietmakemoney.com/the_theory_behing_atkins_diet.html

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How to Meditate Like Goldilocks

If Goldilocks were to leaf through a few meditation books, she might find some approaches to be too hot, others too cold. But soon enough, we know she'd land on a system that feels "just right" to her. She always does.

Meditation is like Porridge

When you take your first taste of meditation, it is good to follow your inner guidance. Too hot? Too cold? Find an approach that feels "just right" as it offers you a bridge from your every day state of mind into the clarity, awakening, and healing you seek.

Scattered Mind

In our ordinary state of mind, we rapidly alternate our focus between what is wanted and what is not wanted. This creates static in our vibration. When you focus in such a way that increases the split in your energy, you feel worse. When you deliberately select a focus that brings you into alignment, you feel better.

The more you become like Goldilocks, the more you can clearly tell which technique feels too hot, which one's too cold, and which one is "just right" for you. The more you follow your inner guidance, the more easily and swiftly you can bring yourself into a deep and beneficial meditative state.

The Missing Ramp

Most people give up their meditation practice (or never even begin) for one reason. This reason takes many forms but there is really only one reason. It may feel like "I don't have the time." Or it may show up as "I don't really understand how to do it." It may even look like "I try but I fall asleep."

All these obstacles to meditation are the same at their root. They may look different, but they are all evidence of something missing. The thing that is missing is a ramp.

Your mind is functioning at one frequency and meditation asks it to function at a completely different frequency. When you sit down in your everyday mental pace and ask yourself to jump levels with no ramp, you may be asking the impossible of yourself.

But when you have a ramp, you can do it. When you have a simple way to reliably move from the rhythm of your everyday mind into the rhythm of meditation, you advance rapidly. You begin to reap the benefits of meditation that usually take years and years to achieve.

Aligned Mind

A physical ramp will get your car from one level to another, but what kind of ramp will elevate your mind? The ramp that brings you comfortably into meditation is built of inner alignment. And just like Goldilocks, who knows a good ramp when she sees one, you will know you have achieved a shift in your vibration when you have found your inner alignment. It feels "just right."

Here is an exercise you can do right now to begin your inner alignment. Try this before you meditate and see if it changes the experience for you.

1 - Sit with your spine upright and close your eyes.

2 - Imagine a vertical beam of light running through your spine. It extends infinitely above your head. It also extends below you through the center of the earth and beyond.

3 - allow your muscles to relax and let this beam of light call your spine to a relaxed and powerfully upright posture.

4 - On each in breath, feel your breath begin at the base of your spine and let it rise through the beam of light to the top your head.

5 - On each out breath, feel the breath and the light expand outward to fill your whole body. Feel it illuminate and cleanse your physical cells as well as your energy body.

This simple process of beginning your alignment with the vertical axis offers many benefits:

It brings you into greater awareness of the now.
It promotes healing.
It heightens your sensory awareness so that you have more joy in your human experience.
It augments your insights and talents.
It increases your natural abilities by making you whole.

As you do this process, I recommend you approach it like Goldilocks. Find a way to do it that feels "just right."

For a complete system of inner alignment that leads you into deep meditation in record time, comfortably and easily, read Dr. Rebbie Straubing's book "Rooted in the Infinite: The yoga of alignment" You can download the introduction and first chapter at http://RootedintheInfinite.com

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Flying Lessons

The first time that I saw Jet Lis film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (in a little theatre in Boulder, Colorado) I wept, fairly continuously, for about the first thirty minutes, and after that sat enraptured, amazed & deeply grateful for the beauty, power & truth that I felt being emanated from the film. Two days later I returned, for my second viewing. By the third time (all week-day matinees: cheaper & less crowded), the theatre clerks & I exchanged amused glances of recognition. By about the fifth time I was definitely feeling sheepish, if not downright embarrassed, by what I imagined was being perceived as clearly-addictive behavior. But I didnt care! I saw the film, over the course of about a month, no fewer than seven times. Each viewing revealed some new wonder, some previously-unnoticed level of meaning, or just an exquisite detail, that my eyes, ears & heart hungrily consumed.

And what was the cause, in this film (and later also in the re-made Hero) for my tears & rapture? For drawing someone who doesnt even really watch many movies, back like this, again & again, almost magnetically? Its a bit hard to articulate, though what I can say is that there was something being portrayed ~ in both of these films ~ with which I resonated so deeply, that at a soul- & cell-level I recognized, which so rarely, in this culture, is portrayed. It felt like coming home. Particularly powerful for me were the fight scenes: not for the conflict that was being enacted (I actually have an aversion to violence, per se), but rather for the fluidity & lightness ~ the Mastery of physical movement ~ that was being so beautifully demonstrated. Some who I spoke to about the film considered these scenes merely fanciful, a kind of science fiction that perhaps had been taken to an extreme ... but for me those scenes were ~ at long last ~ portraying a reality, something the very fibers of my being understood to be not only a possible, but also in many ways a preferable way of being-in-a-human-body. There was and is a knowing that: Yes ~ Flying is possible!

Now this love affair with movement-as-flight, with enlightenment expressed as human form & movement, has been with me for a while: As a child I adored the graceful connections between Terry Bradshaw & Lynn Swann; Later, Michael Jordan became my all-time hero. Then it was Bruce Lee. On a number of occasions Ive felt my life to be transformed by the performance of dancers: Mikhail Baryshnikov (who I saw in person for the first time when he was in his fifties, and stunning!), David Parsons (whose magical piece Caught still resonates inside of me), diego Pinon (a Butoh Master, whose sensual & organic explorations of human movement opened within me whole new realms of possibility re: intimacy & empowered vulnerability). Each year that Ive lived in Boulder Ive watched the world-class runners in the Bolder Boulder 10k race, and noticed how the winners (in recent years, Kenyans) most often have broken through their intense effort into a level of ease, of rapture, of something clearly beyond the physical ... In the realm of yoga asana, Richard Freeman has expressed this same level of power, grace & fluidity. Among the Tibetan Lamas that Ive encountered, it has been Mingyur Rinpoche whose light-filled physical presence has inspired this same level of appreciation for the kind of intelligence (genius, really) that can be manifest through & as a human body. To all of these beings (and countless others whove accomplished something similar): a deep bow of gratitude.

So how does this happen? This appearance and/or experience of flight? This transformation of a seemingly-dense human body into something capable of such magical displays?

As a starting-point for this exploration, it might be useful to learn a bit about the principles of fluid mechanics which create the aerodynamic force of lift in an airplane ... for perhaps the key to our own flight as yoga or qigong practitioners lies in the emulation of these physical characteristics. First, know that air, just like water, is ~ in terms of the (Newtonian) physical & mathematical principles to which it adheres ~ considered to be a fluid. Know also that lift can only be generated when a fluid is in motion. So, for instance, a wing must be passing through the air or the air must be moving around a stationary wing (or both) in order for lift to happen.

Most of the lift in an airplane is generated by its wings, and specifically by the way air flows around wings of a particular shape. What we notice about most airplane wings is that, when viewed edge-on, their upper surfaces are curved (convex) and their lower surfaces are flatter. As air moves around a wing of this shape, the air that goes over the curved upper surface undergoes two important changes: (1) it is reduced in pressure (by the centrifugal force of flowing across the curved surface); and (2) it is accelerated downward (as it leaves the trailing edge of the wing). The wing is then forced into the region of reduced air pressure above the upper surface of the wing by the higher air pressure beneath the wing; and the downward acceleration of the air at the trailing edge also forces the wing upward. Since lift is dependant on the motion of the air, it increases as the speed of the air increases. Lift also increases, to a point, as the angle that the wing makes with the airflow increases (past a certain point, however, an increased angle will cause the wing to suddenly lose its lifting ability).

So how, in the context of a physical practice such as yoga asana or qigong, might we emulate the qualities that give lift to an airplane? Lets explore ... Creating or energizing physical structures which have the same shape as an airplane wing is something we certainly can play with: If I extend my arms out from my shoulders, like wings, I can cup my palms slightly, away from the floor, and at the same time deepen my armpits, while allowing my shoulders, biceps & the top part of my hands to feel puffed upward. In this way Ive created a shape similar to the shape of an airplane wing. And as it turns out, there are many other places in my body where Im able to create suction-cup-like structures, which will act to generate lift in this same way, when met with flow: the soles of my feet; my pelvic floor, my thoracic diaphragm, & the roof of my mouth, to name just a few.

Now that Ive created these structures which have the potential to give me lift when met with a flow of air, the next question becomes: how do I create a flow of air? I could, of course, go outside in a high wind, and see what happens ... But as yoga practitioners we like at least at times to practice indoors, and at all times for the practice to be moving in the direction of being internal, of being something that doesnt depend too heavily on external conditions. Luckily, our pranic bodies, like air and water, operate in many ways like fluids. Whats even more fortunate is that we can utilize the basic yoga/qigong principle prana follows citta (qi follows mind/intention) to create the high wind (high vibration) conditions that will ~ in combination with our wing-like structures ~ give us lift (transform matter into light, structure into flow). To do this, I simply imagine that Im facing a high wind (or standing waist-high in a fast-moving creek, facing up-stream) ... Its as simple as that. Then tilt your wings (and all those little suction-cups) slightly upward (into the on-coming wind or water), feel the upper surfaces of your body being drawn into the low-pressure areas above you, and feel yourself becoming lighter: little by little (or perhaps all at once) taking flight! (At this level of practice, what youll also discover is that remaining heavy in your heels, sitting-bones & coccyx actually supports the feeling of lightness of the body as a whole, particularly along its central axis ... Its kind of a paradox!)

So thats a way of working in the direction of flying which takes as starting-points: (1) our conventionally-perceived bodies (a collection of muscles, bones, organs, etc.); as well as (2) our habitual identification with our bodies (I am my body so what it means for me to fly is for this physical body to do more-or-less what an airplane does). And this can be an interesting and useful exploration.

What can also be interesting is to begin by challenging these basic assumptions, for instance by thinking: To the extent that Im currently perceiving my body as something solid, to this extent Im still caught in wrong views, in delusion. (And creating my yoga practice on the foundation of these wrong views is the equivalent, say, of building a philosophical argument upon a set of faulty axioms/assumptions.) What might happen if I begin instead with the assumption (adopt the view) that my body is of the nature of light, color & sound (like a rainbow)? Or that my body is of the nature of space, like the sky itself (am I then always already flying)? That instead of being continuous through time, my body is being created anew in each second (pulsing in & out of existence)? Or wondering: If the belief that I am this body is the basis of all suffering, and I somehow now let go of or at least soften around that belief ... If I am no longer identified with this physical body, then what might it mean for me to fly? (Who or what is it thats flying, if not this physical body?) I dont have the answers to any of these questions, but do feel very curious ...

What I do know is that many of us have had dreams of flying. In my own dreams of this sort, Im almost always flying in/as a body which looks just like my waking-state body. (There are Tibetan dream yoga practices in which we train in transforming our body into many different shapes ... so, for instance, we might choose to assume the form of a bird, or an airplane, to do our flying ... or might transform our body into the body of a particular deity, and simply hover in space in that form, or fly around with our consorts ...) What I notice in these flying dreams is that it is my intention (mind, will) that is the pilot, i.e. its via my thoughts (or mental body) that I choose the course of my flight. And how this takes a certain relaxed focus, which at times is quite precise & effective, and at other times less so. (Sometimes I crash-land.) And then I wake, and think: Ive just been dreaming of flying!

Now there is the story ~ perhaps youve heard it already ~ of the Taoist sage Chuang Tzu, who dreamed he was a butterfly, but then woke to discover again that he was a man. But then he wondered: now is it true that Im a man who has just dreamt that he was a butterfly, or am I really a butterfly who is now dreaming that Im a man?

Just something to consider, as you continue your research & practice of (yogic and/or mechanical) flying ... Om Shanti.

Elizabeth Reninger holds Masters degrees in Sociology & Chinese medicine, is a published poet, and has been exploring yoga - in its Taoist, Buddhist & Hindu varieties - for more than twenty years. Her practice has been inspired by Mingyur Rinpoche, Richard Freeman & Eva Wong. For more yoga-related writing & resources, please visit her website "Alchemy Of The East" at: http://www.writingup.com/blog/elizabeth_reninger

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