Source: http://spiritfeast.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-kinda-have-dog-now.html
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Gentle Advice For the Chronic Insomniac
My insomnia started as a result of emotional trauma, some ten years ago. As I was against taking drugs I resisted for a year, but got increasingly burned out and had to give in to them in the end. Herbal sleeping aids may help some but is not strong enough for me. Contrary to what many doctors tell you, some of the drugs that are supposed to help you fall asleep (but not necessarily stay asleep all night which a real sleeping pill would do), can actually work for years (Zopiklon in my case, you may need to look up the generic names, e.g. Lunesta in the USA). Doctors prefer to prescripe other "non-addictive" things such as Seroquel, which in higher doses is meant for epilepsia and psychoses... Well, it makes you drowsy and may work, but I'm not convinced the sleep quality is very good. One of the problems for many insomniacs is the lack of deep (restorative) sleep. This is for instance true in cases of fibromyalgia or chronic stress, where the nervous system is not able to wind down. Amitriptyline which is an old fashioned anti-depressant may help a bit in this case, but the side-effects are not very nice. They include dry mucus (for instance resulting in tooth decay and trouble speaking) low libido, and god knows what else that I have now forgotten. Anyhow, sleeping disorders may be very complicated and it's hard to get proper help. GP's and many psychiatrists like to make you think that you don't really have a problem because they don't understand the workings of the nervous system and the mind-body connection. I thought to compile a little list of things that I find helpful though, hoping that some of it might help others.
make sure that your bedroom is clutterfree. This is really, really important. Make it into a really cosy sanctuary with lots of soft cushions, a fluffy down duvet and good quality bed linen that has NO polyester in it. Change your sheets quite often, at least every fortnight. Make sure there are many layers of cotton underneath you if you have a foam mattress. Make sure the bed is soft enough to induce a feeling of security. The bedroom should never be used for anything but sleeping. I can't stress this enough! It really makes a difference. Sometimes sleeping on the ground floor can be a problem because you subconsciously may feel that someone could come in through the window. Try and see if this is the case. If you only have one floor, make sure the window is well blocked at least with heavy curtains if not in other more drastic ways.
make sure your bedroom is dark enough, and that it's neither too warm or too cold.
you might need to wear ear plugs. I have worn them for years...
According to Feng Shui, your head should face the East. You can always try... I turned my bed around but made other changes too so it's hard to tell whether this could have made a difference. Feng Shui also tells you not to have mirrors facing your bed, and to me that's really just common sense.
research has shown that having some carbohydrates before going to sleep is helpful. So the old adage about milk and cookies is correct. I find it calming to have some soyamilk or night time herbal tea along with a sandwhich or cake. Some say a small piece of dark chocolate is helpful.
alcohol can be bad for the quality of the sleep but sometimes a glass or two of wine can be helpful in calming the nerves. Don't make it into a habit, though.
lavender oil (make sure it's essential!) can be burnt in an oil burner or sprinkled onto something close to your nose. I find that it really does have a soothing effect. You might like to experiment with different brands, possibly from different countries of origin.
some incense may help. I find that some cheap incense from Thailand has a woody note that soothes me. You have to experiment to find out what works for you. There is also lavender scented incense but again you have to see which brand works for you. For me, the scent of rose is also conducive to positive feelings. If you can, keep some beautiful fresh flowers by the bed.
sit up in bed and meditate before sleep, if you can. If you have a helpful partner, he could stroke your back while you gently fall asleep.
get enough exercise in the daytime, for instance a half-hour walk or more. Then do some gentle exercise such as yoga or light weight lifting in the evening.
Qigong is very helpful in tuning in with your body and calming the mind. There's something you can do when you're already in bed - it's an exercise called LaQi, but it's by no means exclusive to Qigong. You hold your hands in front of your navel as if holding a bowl or a ball (the hands should not touch each other). Slowly separate them by moving the hands further apart, about half a meter. Then move them back again, slowly. Keep doing this for a while and find that your energies settle a bit (you're "collecting" and "building up" energy between your hands).
lying on a bed of nails (look it up online) for half an hour before bed is helping me feel more relaxed.
try and remember that your body does know how to fall asleep and don't buy into the mindclutter that tells you that you just can't. Breathe deeply, connect your mind with the whole body, and have faith that nature knows what to do. Don't get frustrated if this doesn't immediately solve your problem; rest assured that at least it's helpful...
going to bed at the same time every day is an important thing to strive towards even if the mind may make all sorts of excuses to avoid it. One problem could be the feeling of not wanting to get up the following day, and so you postpone going to bed... try and counteract this by sticking to the schedule and finding reasons that make getting up in the morning into a more pleasant experience. It could simply be having more time to wake up and having something nice to drink or eat that you can look forward to. If watching TV first thing in the morning works for you, then go for it! Whatever helps...
it really is best not to watch TV before bed, especially not an engaging movie. For some, reading a boring book helps but in my case it makes me have to focus and so it has the opposite effect. Looking through a magazine and dreaming about a beautiful home seems like a better option.
whatever is on your mind needs to be dealt with, so write it down or settle an argument before sleeping. Seriously consider cutting the cord with people who distress you on a permanent basis. Do whatever it takes!
footmassage to yourself with some pleasant oil is a good idea.
sometimes, soft music can help you drift off to sleep. The choice is obviously yours, it could be New Age music, nature's sounds (birds, rain, waves) or something alternative. There was a time when Steven Reich's drumming was helpful to me. Now I prefer complete silence.
last but not least; a sense of security is really important. You need to address the emotional issues that may make you feel insecure. Try and feel that nothing out there is out to get you, or that you are surrounded by benevolent forces that keep these negative energies at bay while you sleep. Having another person in your life that helps you feel safer could be a solution to some of these problems. Feeling vulnerable is not a crime...
As a side note, I'd like to add a few viewpoints on the way doctors often look at insomnia, especially in relation to a chronic illness of sorts. It's rare to meet someone who truly understands what it's like. You usually get referred to a psychiatrist, but they may not know much about insomnia per se (for instance, which medicines are really useful and not just "horrid addictive ones") and even less about the physical issues involved. If you're one of the unfortunate who suffer from ME, CFS and/or fibromyalgia, for instance, then the condition will affect your sleep in every conceivable way. It's all very well to talk about regular sleeping schedules, but when you're overly fatigued one day and extremely hyper the next, following a regular schedule can be next to impossible. It's also very disruptive if you are in a phase when you wake up a lot and thus loose hours of sleep. You may not be able to cope with the loss of even one hour of sleep. Getting up to do something else is just plain stupid advice. You might also find that you have to leave a party much earlier than anyone else because you can't cope with a disturbed schedule the next day).
I find it very stressful to try and juggle with medicines so that I can rest assured that I will fall asleep when I'm supposed to. It's already hard enough to motivate myself to stick to schedule! Doctors rarely understand any of this. A shrink I had said that for one thing he doesn't believe fibromyalgia exists, for another I just need to stay up for two days and then I'm sure to sleep! Yeah right. I'd sleep for 24 hours, wake up bright as a morning bird - at four in the morning! Try and stick to schedule - it does help. But you might have to be prepared for some anxiety in relation to all the arrangments that need to be made to ensure that this really works.
I find it very stressful to try and juggle with medicines so that I can rest assured that I will fall asleep when I'm supposed to. It's already hard enough to motivate myself to stick to schedule! Doctors rarely understand any of this. A shrink I had said that for one thing he doesn't believe fibromyalgia exists, for another I just need to stay up for two days and then I'm sure to sleep! Yeah right. I'd sleep for 24 hours, wake up bright as a morning bird - at four in the morning! Try and stick to schedule - it does help. But you might have to be prepared for some anxiety in relation to all the arrangments that need to be made to ensure that this really works.
Artwork: Digital photograph by author, all rights reserved 2010
Source: http://vivi-mari.blogspot.com/2010/01/gentle-advice-for-chronic-insomniac.html
how to manage mixed emotions
Last week, my boyfriend brought me gift from his business trip: a mood ring. I hadn't had one since the '90s and was thrilled. Back then they hadn't worked so well, but apparently they've upped the technology in these rings...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PositivelyPresent/~3/No2T_aWsYlA/how-to-manage-mixed-emotions.html
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
5 Tips for Being Happy
How to Be Happy
What makes life a joy for some, while a sad and frustration filled journey for others? It is karma? It is luck? Is it disposition? Is it fate? I don't think so. I think you are supposed to be happy. You are supposed to be full of joy and wonder, yet somehow, somewhere on this journey, things got out of control and you spiraled into the tedium of everyday life and found your life filled with conflict, suffering and the never ending pursuit of happiness.
How do you get out of this rut now? How do you find your way back to joy and peace? Here are 5 tips which I think you will find useful on the journey to reclaim your birthright - fundamental happiness.
1. Understand the Problem:
The first thing you need to do is understand the root cause for your angst. Why are you so restless and discontented? Why is your default state not happiness? To understand this, inspect this very moment of your life and study the situation honestly and openly. The root cause you will discover is time. You think in terms of time and time welcomes in the issue of "becoming" into your psyche. To put in another way, you are unhappy and bored with your life, because you have believed in an ideal or goal, which if you think you will achieve then you will be happy. This thirst for the ideal - seeking, destroys the beauty of your life just the way it is in the here and now. It kills the wonder of the moment.
So drop all your ideals and just attend to your life just the way it is. This is the pathway to joy.
2. Live Your Passion:
As I explained in the article, Stop the Madness of Self-Discipline, one of the most important things to do in order to live a happy life, is the discover and live your passion. If you can do this, you will be free from the clutches of society, for you will be doing what you love to do without a care in the world.
You will not be result oriented, as the doing itself will be the reward, and you will have something that no one can take away from you, as it is something that comes from within.
This is also one of the most important lessons for parents to learn. One of your biggest responsibilities is to help the child discover what it is that he or she loves to do and then help them to do that without concern for survival or success. Living your passion is one of the most essential aspects for living a happy and meaningful life.
3. Have Trust:
Our faith and trust in life is constantly challenged and over time eroded by all the endless failures and problems we are forced to endure. This loss of trust then leads to a life filled with worry and anxiety. We become obsessed with self-security and become completely immersed in our pursuit of happiness. So instead of living in trust and going with the flow, we become machines of fear and worry and have no peace within.
This peace and ability to live spontaneously comes with just being able to trust. Not trust someone or some belief, but simply just have trust in life. This then translates into not worrying and carrying the burden of self-interest constantly, which bring with it great freedom and joy.
4. End Isolation and Endless Self-Interest:
All of our endless thinking about ourselves and endless selfish activity isolates us more and more from the whole. It keeps on putting more and more walls around ourselves and eventually we find ourselves utterly alone and lonely, cutoff from the world, miserable and unhappy. So you need to change this approach, if you indeed what to live a happy life. You have to simply drop endless self interest and instead live in a connected way.
Connect with all aspects of life, be a part of the great play of life, connect with nature and others, connect with awareness and intelligence, this will bring you to happiness. Thinking about yourself, isolates you more, so just stop doing that.
5. Mediate:
All of the above tips I have given for being happy, are really a part of meditation. It is living a mediate life. Mediation is the process which start in time and then transcends it. So if you really want to be happy, want to be at peace, meditation is the way.
If you are new to mediation you can sign up for the free online learn meditation classes that are offered here on Mastery of Meditation and Yoga. If you are looking to deepen your practice, you can try the free online advanced meditation program.
If you have more tips for being happy that have worked for you, please do share them with us in the comments section below. Also, if you like this or any other article on the website, please share with your friends and family or Facebook, Twitter, etc. I appreciate your support.
Connect w/ Anmol
Related posts:- 10 Things You Should Do Everyday For a Happy, Meaningful & Good Life (Combined)
- Happy Buddha Meditation Video
- 10 Things You Should Do Everyday for a Happy, Meaningful & Good Life – Part 1
- 10 Things You Should Do Everyday for a Happy, Meaningful & Good Life – Part 2
- The Key to Happiness in Life
Source: http://anmolmehta.com/blog/2012/04/10/how-to-be-happy/
Monday, 25 June 2012
how to manage mixed emotions
Last week, my boyfriend brought me gift from his business trip: a mood ring. I hadn't had one since the '90s and was thrilled. Back then they hadn't worked so well, but apparently they've upped the technology in these rings...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PositivelyPresent/~3/No2T_aWsYlA/how-to-manage-mixed-emotions.html
Buddhists’ delight
James Atlas, New York Times: was I in a tent in northern Vermont? Much less a tent in the woods at a Buddhist meditation center, reading Sakyong Mipham’s “Turning the Mind Into an Ally” by the light from my smartphone? If you really want to hear about it (to borrow a phrase from Holden Caulfield), [...]
Source: http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/news/buddhists-delight
Sunday, 24 June 2012
Evolving Being in Action: Adrian A. Boniardi
Hi Everyone! My name is Adrian A. Boniardi. I am the founder of Meditar: Underwater Meditation. I was born a little over a year before man stepped on the moon for the first time, down in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EvolvingBeings/~3/2nqQWg9bzq8/
Saturday, 23 June 2012
Friday, 22 June 2012
Post Wedding Stress Syndrome - the Sweetness and the Bitterness
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Vivi-Mari & Martin |
Disclaimer: the title is made up and has no base in medical research.
So, I am now a wife and Mrs! Did I ever think that day would come - no! I look at my rings in amazement.
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| Married! |
Leaving the beaches I had come to love since Martin came to live with me was bittersweet, and I still miss them. They meant less to me while I was alone; sharing gave them a new lustre altogether and it was great to get away from everything and breathe sea air when needed, just a short walk away. It was a cold and in this respect an unusually magnificient winter. The summer on the other hand was very warm, and we tried to go out on the cliffs as much as possible despite the arduous task of emptying the house. People in Wales figure I must be used to the cold... I laugh. Finnish houses are double or triple glazed and the summers are usually quite predictable and often warm. How I will survive in the cold old house in Wales is a mystery, but I knew what I signed up for...
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| The melancholy of the ice breaking in spring, Hanko |
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Just before the move, in Hanko |
We packed like crazy, as we are both diligent and wanted to make sure my things wouldn't get damaged in transit - we also wanted order so that packing the things up in a three storey house would be relatively painfree. We brought most things I own, as in the end replacing stuff is seldom an option when you're not well-to-do. It took a lot of effort to get a reasonably priced lorry and quotes, and to figure out a schedule for everything. We had to bring my three cats and the process was complicated beyond belief... in the end all went well and though we couldn't afford going on the same VIP flight as them the timing with another cheaper air company was perfect. It was the strangest thing to finally see them at the other end, after all the paperwork and worrying that they would be okay and let into a country with such strict rules! During all this, we also planned our wedding which was to take place three weeks after our arrival in the UK. I don't know... maybe a date in late September would have been better... but then we didn't know we'd be delayed and the venue we had chosen did not have other weekends open in the summer.
We went to the neighbouring town once a week to try on the dress I had made by seamstresses as well as the engagement ring that we eventually decided to design ourselves since we couldn't find a suitable existing one. The processes with these items was excruciating, as I was not quite confident that it would all come out alright in the end. It's not like we had designed dresses and rings before! In retrospect, things went quite smoothly nonetheless and the results were both good and well priced. Martin's Victorian style suit arrived on time and fit him perfectly.
We went to the neighbouring town once a week to try on the dress I had made by seamstresses as well as the engagement ring that we eventually decided to design ourselves since we couldn't find a suitable existing one. The processes with these items was excruciating, as I was not quite confident that it would all come out alright in the end. It's not like we had designed dresses and rings before! In retrospect, things went quite smoothly nonetheless and the results were both good and well priced. Martin's Victorian style suit arrived on time and fit him perfectly.
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Green velvet dress in natural materials only, made in collaboration with Anita and Mikaela in Ekenäs, made thanks to my dad's kind contribution. The process was tough but we ended up with something that did not feel tight anywhere and that hid my flaws. |
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| The Welsh bride |
When we finally arrived in Wales we were too busy trying to get the house into some kind of shape before our guests started arriving. All throughout the summer I went through a lot of painful processes regarding other people. On the one hand we had to decide who to invite and how to put guests up in the house. On the other, some people didn't let us know whether they were coming or not, and I was hurt by the nonchalance. In the end, some people promised to come but either told us at the last minute they couldn't afford it, didn't arrive at all without explanation, or just screwed things up. I was left with less guests than anticipated but despite my frustration I was by that time so exhausted I was glad the house wasn't as full as I had optimistically envisaged it. Those who did come were very helpful and cheerful and the ambience was good. My mother was happy here as well. Thanks to a select few to whom it occurred to help us we managed to get everything ready on time. Why someone like me who has limited energetic resources had to create a custom made wedding may seem silly... yet we both had a vision and were determined to make it come true. We were also on a budget and yes, we did stretch our limits both financially and energetically.
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| Ambience |
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| The Venue by night - a renovated chapel on a farm (photo courtesy of Adrian Roberts) |
In the end, what Martin and I were in charge of turned out really well, but many things left for others to take care of because we simply did not have the time and energy, were disappointing. The taxi driver whose minibus we had booked for the day to take people to the venue had decided to give up his company without telling us about it. Luckily we found out - but then he did the job alongside with other jobs and many people had to wait for a long time in the rain or had to give up altogether because the taxi didn't appear within a reasonable amount of time. A local journalist was one of those who never made it. My dad who is 78 had to sit with his bad hips on wet ground until one of the guests took him and his party back to their hotel. The caterers that we had to go for due to lack of inoffical options (DM Klassic Catering: http://www.dinewithmichelle.co.uk/) had promised a fabulous buffet but it turned out that all the wishes I had stated in a letter to them and discussed in person at the venue beforehand were ignored. They cost more than normal caterers and so we expected higher quality ingredients. I told them what a Scandinavian buffet/smorgasbord is like but they did not lay all the foods out at once as I asked them to. I had particularly looked forward to the trifle and the chocolate cake but the former was appalling and nothing like what I had asked for, and the former was served long after most people had left. We had these in lieu of a wedding cake. We had asked for a selection of Welsh cheeses but these were not brough in until all the foreigners had already left and then the caterers had the nerve to send us a substantial bill due to some imaginary "late addition". They also judged the space poorly and so a lot of my shabby chic decoration that I had spent months collecting in junkshops disappeared when they laid out their food. Trestle tables they had asked for were left leaning on the walls of the renovated chapel where the party was taking place... I felt very frustrated with my condition because I had not been able to make sure that everything was alright before the party started - I needed my rest.
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| Some of my decorations before it all had to be arranged |
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| Trying to quickly rectify the badly arranged fruitbowls! |
Question is, how do you stop ruminating over the negatives? As someone said, it's not uncommon to feel so overwhelmed after such enormous and very personal efforts and to feel disappointed that everything wasn't as perfect as one would have hoped, though many things (such as the music) were better than expected. In my case, the efforts I have made and the physical transition to another country were humangous! The truth is, the party was a great success and most people did not suffer too much from the shortcomings or didn't know about them. It just went by so quickly and before I knew it I was rushed to the stupid taxi that wasn't going to be flexible as expected. We went to a "sort of posh" hotel but learnt the following day that we had been given the wrong information about check-in time and could have stayed at our own party much longer. I was tossing and turning in bed, whishing we had made other arrangments altogether. Had we decided to stay and party much longer, others would have stayed too. Now it seemed that we made such incredible preparations for a fairly short party. But you only get one go at something like this. And you have to live with the choices you had to make months before. You don't normally get a second chance either! This is one of the hard facts of life, maybe a lesson.
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| Darn rain! |
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| We didn't even have time to write our vows so we improvised (photo courtesy of Adrian Roberts) |
And yes, although I had tried to make sure I didn't have any physical ailments on the Friday and Saturday of our wedding, I did come down with a headache from all the stress and Martin had tachycardia... it rained heavily and it was difficult to get my aging ex-photographer Mom to take decent pictures of us! But in the end, I guess we do have a good collection as a couple of friends also helped out in this respect.
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| Married! The Townhall was beautiful and the ceremony was nicely conducted. It really felt like "this is it". We played "What a Wonderful Li(f)e" by The Real Tuesday Weld on entering.  Now everyone in Swedish speaking Finland knows... |
When we went back to pack up I cried floods of tears because it was all over. Martin looked perplexed. I said, I know I have complained but the truth is it was something so beautiful yet so ephemereal, and I couldn't bear it! Why must the good things in my life always be so very transitory?! There was yet another thing for me to process. I am way too scared of losing the good things... and way too incapable of enjoying them while they last.
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After the party the clearing up |
After the months of pressure and the two fleeting days of celebration, I certainly had a bad bout of postwedding blues. It dissipated over the course of the following week but it doesn't mean there isn't much to process still. When I had to deal with yet another person's complications I got extremely enraged. Martin thought all sorts of things about me that were anything but positive until I started screaming at the top of my voice for 15 minutes. I can't take anymore!! He held me and comforted me with wise words of understanding and accepting that I had so much disappoinment with people building up over the past few years and it all came crashing down on me. As we all know, expectations are harmful but how do you stop having them? To date I haven't seen any convincing evidence that this is entirely possible without taking very radical measures.
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| Just the two of us... |
I even had fantasies about Martin's evil ex, who stalked me online last winter and seemed unable to let go, having put a curse on us to make the wedding days as rainy and arduous as possible. He wants me not to become bitter and cynical, and this is probably one of my spiritual challenges today. What do you do when people are so unreliable, you think the best of them or at least give them the benefit of doubt, and you even entrust them with things that are important to you - and so many let you down. Some because they don't understand better, but many because all they want is to extract money from you (the people who did help us, who did my dress and my ring as well as the people who own the farm of our venue are however not a case in point, and this must be kept in mind). Martin says he has been through a similar process and dealt with the fact that you simply have to accept the way people are rather than close off altogether. Obviously, we are all different and for some, like me, this is a hard chunk to swallow and it comes late in life. I do not know why it all hurts so much and how I can somehow gather myself and be less emotionally affected by other people's actions and behaviour. Things you cannot change are things you must accept, it's as simple as that. I also feel guilty, of course, because maybe it's just me and there's a sordid reason why I have attracted certain people of low character...
The wedding especially has shown what people are made of, and not all of it is pretty or the way I would expect it to be. I do also realize that I mirror myself in that I have little tolerance with complicated people like myself, as dealing with myself is quite enough. I am not as tolerant as I'd like to be, and quite harsh in some ways. I'm fed up with ignorance or idealism. I actively seek that which seems somehow "normal" so that I can find my balance and my place in this new life situation. I need to find myself again, fine balance and sleep better, and redefine who I think I am as my self has changed. Only then can I possibly find a new way of relating to people. I hope, at least.
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| Some of the lovely gifts given by old and loyal friends of mine - the samovar is ours but we received the gorgeous tea glasses. |
After the wedding I felt empty because first there was so much hard work and preparation and then there was "nothing". We had quickly bought a car, I quickly learned to drive in left-hand traffic with a British car on tiny and winding country roads, and we showed guests around - then they were all gone and the house was quiet. Well, there is that so-called real life when you have to start dealing with fixing up and renovating a house, adapting, making money so you'll survive, and trying to get money-hungry companies off your back (nasty surprises that took me right back to my former life...) - while one would expect to feel happy, in reality it's all quite daunting. But I also felt a sort of spiritual emptiness though. We talked about our beliefsystems as we walked along the beaches in Finland, and we also made plans for collaboration on a creative level. I'm glad we did because then came the circus and spirituality was at the bottom of the list of priorities. After the rumba, I felt nothing for any spiritual issues and that despite the fact that I've moved to a place where many spiritually minded people live and from what I can see, in general it's not very different from the way Martin and I look at things. But then I thought... spiritual emptiness is often a good thing, it means there is room for something new. What this will look like only the future can tell. First we have to make our life work for us on the mundane level.
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That was it... now real life begins with the process of acklimatization and the unfortunate debts. |
All photos are copyrighted!
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Source: http://vivi-mari.blogspot.com/2010/09/post-wedding-stress-syndrome-sweetness.html
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Boldness Has Magic, Power, and Genius In It + Giveaway!
Contributor: digitalart I'm the person who talks about magic, power, and genius, I can speak to a crowd of five thousand but when you put me in a room to network with 50 people, I become socially shy. It's an intimacy issue, in-too-me-see. I avoid networking. I'm attending the World Domination Summit with Chris Guillebeau [...]
Source: http://theboldlife.com/2012/06/boldness-has-magic-power-and-genius-in-it/
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
8 Step Ayurvedic Treatment for Healing and Addiction
Ayurvedic Treatment Program
Today's guest article is really special. It is an excellent guide on how to use the great power of Ayurveda to heal yourself naturally and nurture yourself back to health. Although the article is specifically about Ayurvedic treatment for addiction, the principles and methods discussed apply to any ailment or disease. This article is from Dr. Rajiv Parti, who is a rare combination of both Western medical training and Eastern holistic healing expertise and he shares his knowledge and wisdom on his excellent website and blog www.drraj.com.
If you would like to be a guest author on Mastery of Meditation and Yoga, please email me at anmol@anmolmehta.com.
8 Steps Ayurvedic Treatment for Addiction and More - Part 1
by Rajiv Parti, MD (aka Dr. Raj )
Ayurveda’s treatment for addiction recovery is a process: a lifestyle and a journey into wellness. It is an invitation to participate in our own wellness and healing, to co-create our full potential and to live every future day with a commitment to nurturing and valuing ourselves.
Ayurveda is a whole person non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical approach aimed at perfect balance – not a method in which we become pharmaceutically dependent patients. It teaches that all material forms in the entire Universe – including the human being - are made up of different combinations of five essential elements, the Mahabhutas. These Mahabhutas are: Space, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth.
Differing combinations of these essential elements create an infinity of material forms: differentiating a flower from a river, a mountain from a cloud, a human being from a star; But every material thing contains a combination of these elements – the cosmos and we are made of the same materials.
Ayurveda teaches that in human beings there are three dominant combinations of these elements that give us each our specific body mind constitutions: these three constitutions are called ‘doshas’, each one of the representing a vital dose of the essential elements in our own individual make up: Vata (the Air element), Pitta (the Fire element) and Kapha (the Earth element):
1. STEP ONE: Identifying the Doshas
Typically each one of us will have a dominant dosha that determines our over riding body mind constitution. We can be categorized as a planet of Vata types, Pitta types or Khapha types – and our inclinations, capacities and nature will be determined by our dosha.
Vata types tend to be highly creative, quick thinking, quick to learn and forget, lean, physically and mentally agile, involved in many things at one time, and prone to anxiety and overwhelm.
Pitta types tend to be leaders, extremely focused, goal oriented, driven physically and mentally and prone to bouts of anger, possible aggression, frustration and impatience.
Kapha types tend to placid, easy going, slower and heavier physically and prone to being anxious to avoid conflict, and experiencing mental and physical inertia or fatigue.
When the doshas are in perfect balance, we humans are well, functioning optimally, mentally and physically, living with vitality and in ease. When the doshas are disturbed, our wellbeing is obstructed, our mental and physical functioning is impaired, and we will live with fatigue and dis-ease.
At the heart of all Ayurvedic treatments therefore is the intention to restore balance to the doshas. Once this is achieved, wellness flows naturally.
Having diagnosed the individual’s dosha type and which doshas are experiencing stress, treatment will now focus on the removal of the stress.
For this the therapeutic practices of Ayurveda center on creating restfulness, restoring calmness, nurturing the body-mind. The mind, and the subtle energy of the body-mind are all equal targets for therapeutic applications.
What you can do at home:
1. Find out your Dosha at http://doshaquiz.chopra.com/
Creating a stress free zone to allow the doshas to come in to natural balance, and support the individual’s natural intelligence at the physical, emotional and mental levels to re-emerge then becomes the foundation for all further treatments.
2. STEP 2 : Rebuilding the Body: Re-storing - Ojas
The Ayurvedic texts identify a substance called ‘Ojas’ as being the vital force of the body. Like honey is the essence of flowers, in the same way, Ojas is considered to be a secreted essence from our tissues, muscles, blood, plasma, fats and bones: produced by all healthy cells, imparting strength, radiance, luster, and power to the body and mind.
In addiction, this Ojas is being continually depleted – and ultimately the depletion of Ojas will eventually cause death. One of the main areas of focus therefore is restore Ojas in the body.
Ojas is mainly cultivated through diet – the useful product of food materials.
Therefore in Ayurveda, there is a major emphasis on diet.
Treatment should center around foods that support the restoration of Ojas, and also support sup: green vegetables, kale, parsley, spinach, rice, honey, almonds, strawberries, mangos, split mung lentils, amaranth, cooked lightly in spices that are also Ojas enhancing: cumin, coriander, ginger, fennel, cinnamon.
What can you do at home:
1. Cut out foods that are processed or pre-cooked
2. Stock up on lots and lots of green leafy vegetables
3. Try cooking with fresh spices: fennel or cinnamon or ginger
3. STEP 3: Restoring Natural Intelligence : Cultivating Tejas
Vitality in Ayurveda is not something that occurs only in the body. Tejas is the radiant vitality of the body-mind’s innate intelligence: the intelligence by which our cells innately perform a myriad of miracles – carrying oxygen molecules in our blood or releasing neurotransmitters or metabolizing nutrients from foods and identifying waste materials – simultaneously, continuously. Tejas is also the means by with which we can digest and process mental thoughts and impressions, and experience higher perceptual capacities;
Having strong Tejas therefore gives us digestive and information processing power at the mental and physical levels: cellular metabolic energy.
Restoring Tejas would involve calming the nervous system, through a variety of techniques that involve Panchakarma (a series of detoxification and purification therapies) and ‘Rasayana’ – the practice of destroying disease through the conservation transformation and revitalization of energy.
(see step 4)
4. STEP FOUR: Detoxification and Purification: Panchakarma
Pancha means ‘five’ in Sanskrit and ‘karma’ means action.
Panchakarma is a unique set of five detoxifying Ayurvedic treatments administered in three phases: the preparation, cleansing, and rejuvenation phases.
The first phase is oleation – ingesting and applying pure essential oils in order to mobilize the accumulated toxins in the body. The first of the five actions of Panchakarma here is ‘Swedana’ – the application of hot steam and warm oil therapies that loosen toxins and encourage their flow to the GI tract for elimination.
The second phase is the cleansing phase: now that toxins have been mobilized, their elimination is focused upon through a further three actions, all of which are administered gently through the application of medicinal herbal oils: Basti (intestinal irrigation); Nasya (nasal irrigation) and Vamana (oral elimination)
The final phase of Panchakarma is Rasayana: here medicinal and Ayurvedic oils are applied in uniquely restorative bodywork and massage techniques. Most famous of these is the practice of ‘Shirodhana’ – where warm oil is poured continuously on to the center of the forehead between the two eyes: acting as a powerful pacificier for the entire nervous system.
Further Rasayana would be pursued through Ayurvedic herb prescriptions using the healing properties of plants and flowers, for example:
Ashwaghandha – proven in some 216 medical to: confer immune system protection, combat the effects of stress, improve learning, memory, and reaction time, reduce anxiety and depression without causing drowsiness, reduce brain-cell degeneration.
Guggulu - purifying herbs. It cleanses unhealthy tissues, increases the white blood cell count and rejuvenates the
Brahmi – nerve tonic
Ayurvedic teas and tonics would be included in the diet every day to enhance healing, reduce stress for the rebuilding of tissues: pumpkin is a known sedative, nutmeg is a nervine, and chamomile is a digestive tonic and known sedative nervine herb.
What You Can Do At Home:
1. You can order many of these herbs and teas are available at reputable herbalists, and my own favorite source for these is at world center of excellence, with whom I have personally trained, The Chopra Center: http://store.chopra.com/showitems.asp?deptcode1=717
Stay tuned for part 2 of Ayurvedic Treatment for Addiction and More, where Dr. Raj will detail steps 5 through 8...
Rajiv Parti, MD (aka Dr. Raj) is a world leading specialist in pain management with over 30 years practicing clinical experience. He was the Chief of Anesthesiology at Bakersfield Heart Hospital where he specialized in cardiac anesthesia for 15 years. Dr. Raj founded the Pain Management Institute of California, and under his direction it has served thousands of patients for acute and chronic pain relief. He now specializes in promoting spiritual wellness and personal growth with various non-traditional healing modalities. His new book “The Soul of Wellness “ is being released by Select Books in October 2012. www.drraj.com.
Connect w/ Anmol
Related posts:- Introducing Ayurveda- Alternative Medicine for Self Healing
- Sweet Ayurveda Treatment to Stop Emotional Eating & Lose Weight
- How to Make a Baby the Right Way – Ayurvedic Diet & Nutrition
- Best Alternative Medicine & Holistic Healing Treatments
- 5 Powerful Healing Meditations
Source: http://anmolmehta.com/blog/2012/05/30/ayurvedic-treatment-for-healing/
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Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Wanted: Urban Monks.
"All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else."-BuddhaI really like this striking image--the pagoda speaks of the timelessness of the Dharma while the buildings project the essential, utilitarian-nature of day-to-day modern life. Perhaps some might try and crop out the buildings from this picture believing they take away from the pagoda. But nothing in this world exists in a vacuum--everything exists in relation to everything else. If the world were full of nothing but serene, Buddhist, pagodas full of chanting monks, who would provide the upkeep of this world that must get done regardless of the Dharma? We need "urban monks," as well; lay people who bring the serenity of the pagodas to office buildings, prisons, schools, apartments and every nook of this world. We can touch places and lives that a lot the ordained monks can't ever reach.
I use to want to be a "traditional monk" because I believed it would provide a haven from a world that I perceived of as pure disaster. I didn't realize then how foolish and naive I was being. I was only seeing the disastrous suffering in the the world because I was filtering out the positive stuff. Through meditating upon the pitfalls of perceptions, I became aware that I was projecting the disaster that I was ignoring inside my mind, out onto the world. So, of course, all I was seeing was a chaotic world!! It is a delusional trick that we perform, so that we can blame the world for all our troubles, and not accept our responsibility.
It doesn't mean we're bad people for making these mistakes. You don't blame the baby for shitting in it's pants, do you? It's simply being a baby--and so are we. We are simply being a typical but loveable infant who is trying his/her best to grow. It's natural for a baby to make a mess of things--that's how they learn. How are you going to know that some things are less helpful in your life until you make a mistake?
So, it's o.k. to shit your pants from time to time--spiritually speaking, of course. Shit, itself, isn't bad either. To paraphrase my teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, without shit, we wouldn't have roses!! Our mistakes, fertilize the seeds of our good intentions to grow roses of happiness and peace. The key is to not blame yourself for doing something that human's can't help but do--make mistakes. This world itself is imperfect and flawed, so how could we not make mistakes? You are trying, and trying is a pro-active action. A lot of people are too afraid to try, so go easy on yourself.
PHOTO CREDIT: "Hong Kong Pagoda, and buildings" by Stuart Miles for Free Digital Photos.
I use to want to be a "traditional monk" because I believed it would provide a haven from a world that I perceived of as pure disaster. I didn't realize then how foolish and naive I was being. I was only seeing the disastrous suffering in the the world because I was filtering out the positive stuff. Through meditating upon the pitfalls of perceptions, I became aware that I was projecting the disaster that I was ignoring inside my mind, out onto the world. So, of course, all I was seeing was a chaotic world!! It is a delusional trick that we perform, so that we can blame the world for all our troubles, and not accept our responsibility.
It doesn't mean we're bad people for making these mistakes. You don't blame the baby for shitting in it's pants, do you? It's simply being a baby--and so are we. We are simply being a typical but loveable infant who is trying his/her best to grow. It's natural for a baby to make a mess of things--that's how they learn. How are you going to know that some things are less helpful in your life until you make a mistake?
So, it's o.k. to shit your pants from time to time--spiritually speaking, of course. Shit, itself, isn't bad either. To paraphrase my teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, without shit, we wouldn't have roses!! Our mistakes, fertilize the seeds of our good intentions to grow roses of happiness and peace. The key is to not blame yourself for doing something that human's can't help but do--make mistakes. This world itself is imperfect and flawed, so how could we not make mistakes? You are trying, and trying is a pro-active action. A lot of people are too afraid to try, so go easy on yourself.
PHOTO CREDIT: "Hong Kong Pagoda, and buildings" by Stuart Miles for Free Digital Photos.
~may all beings know peace~
Source: http://thebuddhistblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/wanted-urban-monks.html
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