Category Archives: Health

Autumn

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Autumn is my favorite season.  I love the cool mornings, the sun with a lower intensity, and the energy as the season shifts.  Even though people consider spring to be a season of beginnings, my experience is that autumn is truly a time of beginning in my life.  After being cooped up all summer the energy begins to expand outward, but more importantly there is an inward expansion of energy.  As we move into September and October we find that the veil between the realms begins to thin and this is a perfect time to cultivate our inner space, clear out the old and begin to plant the seeds that will bring us fruition in the next spring and summer.

In the Five Element System, the fall is ruled by the metal element.  It is characterized by yin energy.  And what I am calling an inward expansion is usually referred to as contraction.  The wheel of the year passes from the summer where we have full-on vibrant yang energy to a transitional period of balanced yin and yang into a rising yin energy.  Right now we are in the balanced period, but I am anticipating the deepening of yin.  Autumn begins to see an increase in this yin energy: receptive, quiet, dark.

From autumn the yin increases until in the depths of winter we find us in full-on yin energy. While yin itself is contracting and stilling, the overall process of increasing yin is an expansion of yin. Hence I experience expansion within what would be overall considered a darkening, drying and withering phase.

When I am living in harmony with the seasons I find that fall is time for nesting and preparing for increased internal activities.  It is a time for coming home.  We are collecting our energy that was loosed during the year.  It is a good time for personal reflection – especially on the gains and loses of the year.  As we move deeper into the fall and the winter we will have ample opportunity to process the past year.  Emotions may arise from our deep inner pool as we emotionally experience at a greater depth the recent changes in our relationships.

Find below the Metal Element from my recently painted series:  Mandalas of the Five Element System.

Mandala for the Metal Element.

Mandala for the Metal Element.

Plastic

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bottles

Buy sparkly water in glass bottles and reuse again and again with reverse osmosis water.

About fifteen years ago a friend said to me, “you drink out of plastic bottles?”  That one statement was enough to end my use of plastic bottles.  I never reasoned it out.  It was really an intuitive decision.  Although, I have to admit, my intuition was “informed” by my training as an environmental chemist as well as an human physiologist.

Plastics are known endocrine disrupters.  This means that they mess up the way our normal hormones work in our body.  I’m not an expert on all their effects, but at the time I was studying estrogen in college and I knew that plastics as well as many other chemicals we use mimic estrogen.  Too  much estrogen can lead to an increase in inflammatory issues among other problems.

When the research on BPA (Bisphenol A) hit the news I just thought, “are we surprised?”

Then I was really shocked when people continued to use plastic and felt placated by the BPA free stickers.  My mind thought, “great, they have replaced BPA with some new chemical that is probably worse, but not tested yet”.

The bottom line is that plastic bottles leach chemicals that are harmful.  BPA is just one.  Another is a class of compounds called phthalates.  Phthalates are found in all plastics and other products like perfumes, cosmetics, personal care products and detergents.  When I worked in an environmental lab in San Francisco we were unable to get water that was free of phthalates – which means if you are not drinking reverse osmosis water or something like that you are probably drinking phthalates as well.

I’m prompted to write about this today, because I was just reading a recent study on how phthalates are linked to increased incidence of type II diabetes and insulin resistance.  This is a nice summary of the findings if you are interested.  Basically, people with higher levels of phthalate exposure (as measured by increased metabolites in their urine) have a higher rate of insulin resistance and type II diabetes.

I recommend everyone minimize their exposure to plastics.  Keep your water in glass, use glass containers to store food, and don’t heat food in plastics in the microwave.  Don’t be fooled!  Just because manufacturers will sell you food in plastic or plastic coated paper does not mean that it is safe for consumption.  And bless your liver.  It is busy breaking these things down and flushing them out of your body.

Glass is essentially made of sand and it is inert.  Even if some heavy metals find their way into the glass, scientists have found that glass has a low propensity for leaching.  Nothing in and nothing out.  Colored glass has the added benefit of energizing the water it holds, especially when set out in the sun for a few minutes.

To get a nice stock of glass bottles, buy some sparkling water and reuse the bottles.  I hope everybody does this right away so that people stop looking at me weird when I pull out my bottle.

 

Obstacles

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There are five obstacles to spiritual progress.  These obstacle were originally taught to me as the obstacles to meditation, but they can equally apply to anything we want to achieve in our lives.

  1. Doubt
  2. Not wanting to do it (aka laziness)
  3. Attraction to other things like drug of choice or worldly things
  4. Resentments, ill will, aversions
  5. Worry, restlessness, distractions

 

Doubt can take two forms.  First, it can be doubt as to whether what you are going to do is possible.  For instance, is enlightenment really possible? Does this method really work?  Or on a more mundane level – is it really possible for someone to start their own business and succeed?

Second, one can have doubt regarding their personal capabilities.  For instance, will it work for me?  Others have gotten enlightened, but I am capable of doing it too?  Or, others are successful at business, but maybe I do not have what it takes.

The remedy for doubt is to get more information.  Read about what you are going to do.  Talk to people that are doing it and/or have done it.  Try it as an experiment to see if it might work.  Also consider other options.  If you don’t do it, how will your life be?

Considering your other options is also a good antidote for not wanting to do what would ultimately be for your highest good.  If you want to be healthy, but keep eating food that makes you fat or sick then you encountering the obstacle of “laziness”.  The antidote is to contemplate what you really want in your life.  Think about what will happen if you get what you want as compared to the result if you don’t make the change.  When it comes to healthy eating think about being vibrant in your later years as opposed to having a stroke, heart attack and lying in bed recuperating.  (Post on death meditation may be helpful.)

The remedies for the other obstacles are similar.  Focus on what you want and what will bring you what you want.  Turn your back on the activities and things that will not bring you what you want.  Keep your resolve strengthened by contact with people with similar goals and by reading about what you want.

Finally, be gentle with yourself.  Sometimes knowing is not the same as doing.  We are not our subconscious mind, but the habits and beliefs that reside in our subconscious are influencing everything we do.  Part of the path is loving ourselves without judgment.  We move to take right action without making anyone or anything wrong – including ourselves.