Mind Tuning

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
Marcus Aurelius

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The human mind is a tuned instrument. A piano tuner uses tuning forks to strike precise tones and calibrate the keys of the piano to those tones. A guitar player might use a pitch pipe to tune the guitar. If the string vibrates at the correct frequency, the note played will be predictable and the result may be music the way the artists want it to sound.

Our nervous systems attune to our surroundings. We have the ability to adapt our mental/emotional vibration to our immediate environment without even being aware of it. When we are babies, mother may rock us and sing lullabies to soothe us. She is helping tune our personal vibration to a calmer, more harmonious melody.

Music is powerful based on in its ability to affect our nervous system. Martial music is intended to stir us. Nations never pick lullabies as their national anthems. They select music with powerful rhythms and swelling melodies that make us breathe a little deeper and make our hearts beat faster. If the anthem is working, we may feel a chill or a tingle up our spine that says our nervous system is tuned in.

At sporting events, fans cheer and chant, and that vibration and emotional energy has a direct effect on the players. The home field advantage is largely based on the crowd’s ability to transfer their personal energy and enthusiasm to the minds and bodies of the players. It is particularly observable in basketball where, in the confined space of an indoor arena, the crowd’s emotions clearly affect the team’s performance. Of course, the team’s play affects the emotions of the crowd too. People pay a lot of money for the opportunity to have their personal vibrations synchronized with a winning team and thousands of other excited fans.

Sports events, concerts, theatre, dance, cinema, television, radio, computer games, gambling machines, and even church services are all means for modifying our mental/emotional/physiological states. The computer gamer, for instance, after several hours struggling to build a civilization or to destroy the forces of evil, will have tuned in to the rhythms of the game, and to some extent become an extension of the computer. A good game will require total focus of attention. The player will have adrenaline pumping and will be thinking of nothing but the game. After an intense session, the emotional state induced by the game may last for hours, even days. The emotional after-effects are likely to be a synthesized feeling of empowerment, alertness, and possibly irritability. The gamer’s nervous system is abuzz, as it would be for some people after a night of gambling, a boxing match, a bull fight, or a parachute jump.

We seek these activities because they induce in us feelings of being alive, excited and powerful. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but some of us can become addicted to the feelings. We might also become so used to our habits of mind tuning that we aren’t aware that other more subtle mental states are also available.

Meditation is a tool for settling the mind and body into a state of calm awareness. It is an antidote for the buzzy adrenaline induced states that are so attractive to the bored. By meditating we can re-tune our minds and bodies to their natural vibrations. The erect but relaxed posture, the calm breathing, the downcast eyes, the folded hands each helps our nervous system to quiet itself. We can calibrate our mind and emotions to the subtler vibrations.

In the quiet calm of meditative states we can perceive our subtle feelings. We can get to know ourselves. Our music, our rhythms need not be imposed upon us by the world. We can find our own harmony in the quiet moments.

This week, pay attention to your mental and emotional states. Observe how they change, and notice what you do to change them. Pay attention to the sensory stimulation to which you expose yourself. What does the sound and visual stimulation do to your nervous system?

How do the machines around you affect you?
How does the physical environment affect you?
How do the people around you affect you?
How do you use your body to alter the state of your mind?
What media or other experiences do you use to alter your states?

Examine the usual state of your mood. Are you usually jumpy, tense, irritable, bored, sleepy?

Practice meditation and notice the effect it has on your mental and emotional states. Do you find yourself calmer, more responsive, more flexible in your responses?

Energy and Healing

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."
Plato

We are swimming in a sea of energy. There is virtually no place where there is no energy. Physicists describe the zero-point field where empty space still contains vast amounts of energy. Our bodies flow with rivers of kinetic energy in the form of blood and bio-electric energy in the brain/nervous system. Our cells are like tiny batteries holding varying energy potentials. We take in food and the cells transform it into energy. Our skin radiates thermal energy. Some people (probably more than you think) see auras, which appear as glowing energy around the body. Some can perceive the chakras, which are energy centers in the body. Some of those people have considerable success manipulating the energy flow to assist in healing. Acupuncture works, reportedly, by altering the flow of the bio-energy the Chinese call chi or qi.

Most of us were not raised to attend to the subtle sensations of energy. The world of our consciousness is on a macro scale and consists of awareness of things that can be easily seen, felt, heard, smelled and tasted. Think of the sense of smell. If you grew up with a race of people who had no noses and you could smell, how weird would that make you? Nobody would believe you. How could there be smell? You can’t see it. You can’t touch it. You can’t hear it. There is nothing there, the noseless would say. On the other hand, if dogs knew how little we can smell they would be shocked. We look at a beautiful sunset and wish our dog could have the same appreciation of it, while our dog smells a tuft of grass and can’t understand why we aren’t interested. Can’t we smell the beauty of the thing, so rich, complex, and vibrant? How nose-blind we humans are from a dog’s perspective.

We do see light well on a fairly narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum. We have machines that can see infra-red radiation and x-rays that are farther out on the spectrum, so we believe in them. Our radios and cell phones also work by perceiving energy vibrations at a certain frequency of the electromagnetic spectrum. We can’t see that energy, but we know it is there.

Since some people can quite easily see the movement of subtle energy in a human body, perhaps we all have some capacity for such perception. Some humans have the capacity to play complex pieces of music on a piano using both hands moving independently. To those of us who can’t do that, it seems miraculous. Some people can juggle multiple objects in a way that astounds those of us who can’t. Clearly some have a natural talent for such things. It comes more naturally to them than to the rest of us, but most of us could learn to play the piano if we had good instruction and a lot of practice. The same goes for juggling. If you had to learn to juggle in the next 6 months or face execution, you could probably learn to juggle.

It is possible that our life depends on becoming more attuned to our body energies. Health problems, according to ancient healing traditions, are related to dysfunction in the flow of subtle energy in the body. When the flow is restored, healing occurs and pain is gone. There are many ways of accomplishing this.* Perhaps we can start by attending to the subtle sensations of our body. In a meditative way, tune in to your body. Where do you feel tension? That would be an area of blocked energy. Where do you feel vibration? That would be an area where energy is moving. Notice where you feel hot or cold. Do some parts of your body feel heavy, sluggish, empty or agitated? Maybe an energy stagnation issue. Or maybe the flow is chaotic or confused.

Energy seems to respond to intention and visualization. If you form the intention in your mind to smooth out the flow of energy in your body and visualize that happening, you might be able to sense a change for the better. For instance, you can visualize energy as light flowing through you, through your arteries and veins, flowing through your nervous system and your bones or lighting up every cell. Or the flow can be like water. Imagine you are being showered with life force energy. It can be like a steady rain that you collect in your upturned hands or that just fills your body like a jug. Or think of yourself standing under an energy waterfall. Bright, light energy flowing over you and through you soothing the system and renewing your vitality.

The hands of healers give off a measurable electromagnetic vibration and we all have energy flowing in our hands. Rub your palms together for 5 to 10 seconds. Feel the vibrational sensations and heat. Hold your hands in front of you palms facing each other maybe a foot apart. Bring your hands closer together and notice what you feel. You may feel the heat, but you may also feel something more subtle. You may have the sensation that there is a force field between your hands. It may feel a little bit like the repulsion one can feel pushing two magnets together. Lets assume that is a subtle energy vibration emanating from your hands.

Now you can use that energy to harmonize the energy in different parts of you body. Imagine, for instance, that the energy flowing out of your hands and fingers is like the teeth of a comb. Then use it to comb through the energy field of the rest of your body smoothing out energy tangles. Use your hands as a comb or brush to gently smooth out your aura, whether you can see it or not.

Whether you buy into all this right now or not, recognize that the paradigm of how our body/minds operate is shifting. Open yourself to the possibility that we are energetic beings, and that we can learn to increase the coherence and harmony of our energy fields bringing us better physical and mental health. The information on how to do it is out there if you want it.

Ration quotidienne ;-))

Envole-toi pendant que tu es encore libre...

INVASION DE PUB NON DÉSIRÉES

Je suis désolé des encadrés publicitaires qui apparaissent quelquefois au bas des messages "postés".
Il semble qu'il ne soit pas possible de les enlever sans créer un compte avec Google différent de celui déjà existant (Adsense). Pour ce faire je devrai fournir certains renseignements confidentiels et je ne suis pas d'accord avec cette politique.... Il faudra donc vivre avec jusqu'à ce que je trouve une façon de m'en débarasser.

Michel

Les vertus anticancer du soleil

Ce n’est pas d’hier qu’on nous dit que le soleil favorise le cancer de la peau. Les dermatologues nous tiennent ce discours depuis fort longtemps. Les naturopathes, de leur côté, ne sont pas de cet avis. Ils continuent de soutenir que le soleil est un facteur naturel de santé.

Évidemment, il faut en faire une utilisation normale. Il n’est pas question de permettre que le soleil nous brûle la peau. Tout coup de soleil constitue un abus d’ensoleillement. Même le plus petit des coups de soleil est à éviter.

Il convient donc de s’exposer régulièrement au soleil, mais d’une façon intelligente. Ceci permet alors à la peau de produire la précieuse vitamine D qui joue un rôle déterminant dans la santé, notamment en permettant la fixation du calcium dans les os.

La peur du soleil semble heureusement en perte de vitesse. De nouvelles études, conduites par des chercheurs américains, mettent en lumière certains avantages reliés à l’ensoleillement. En permettant notamment de favoriser la production de la vitamine D, l’ensoleillement diminue les risques de cancer.

Les chercheurs soulignent qu’il est souhaitable de s’exposer au soleil un quart d’heure plusieurs fois par semaine. Ce recours au soleil doit se faire sans utiliser de crèmes solaires car ces dernières bloquent les bienfaits de l’ensoleillement sur la peau.

La protection qu’on peut ainsi tirer d’un ensoleillement modéré mais régulier est importante dans la prévention de plusieurs types de cancers. Il est question notamment du cancer de la prostate, du poumon et du côlon. Cette façon de s’ensoleiller permet également de prévenir le cancer de la peau.

C’est le Dr Edward Giovannucci, professeur à l’Université Harvard, qui a principalement mené ces recherches sur les vertus anticancer du soleil. Il est certain que les travaux du Dr Giovannucci seront fortement contestés puisque les médecins ont décidé depuis longtemps que le soleil était dangereux. Avant qu’ils admettent qu’on peut tirer des bienfaits de l’ensoleillement, surtout en matière de prévention de plusieurs types de cancers, y compris celui de la peau, il s’écoulera sans doute beaucoup de temps.

Mais point n’est besoin d’attendre la bénédiction médicale pour profiter des bienfaits du soleil. En s’y exposant fréquemment, mais toujours avec modération, en prenant bien soin de ne jamais se brûler la peau (ne serait-ce que très légèrement), ces bienfaits et beaucoup d’autres encore sont à notre portée.

Les peaux très blanches, peu pigmentées, sont celles qui demandent les plus grandes précautions. Dans leur cas, au début, il est sage de ne pas s’exposer au soleil pendant plus d’une dizaine de minutes chaque fois. Ces personnes doivent aussi choisir le bon moment pour s’exposer au soleil. Celui du début de l’avant-midi et de la fin de l’après-midi leur conviennent particulièrement bien. D’ailleurs, ces types de peaux blanches permettent facilement de produire de la vitamine D à partir d’une exposition modérée au soleil.

5 Powerful Reasons to Eat More Slowly

Slow, eating, slow food, digestion, digestive system, stressMany people rush through the day, with no time for anything. When they have time to get a bite to eat, they gobble it down. That leads to stressful, unhealthy living.

Here are some reasons you should consider the simple act of eating slower:

1. Lose weight. A growing number of studies confirm that just by eating slower, you’ll consume fewer calories -- in fact, enough to lose 20 pounds a year without doing anything different or eating anything different. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register that you’re full. If you eat fast, you can continue eating past the point where you’re actually full.
2. Enjoy your food. It’s hard to enjoy your food if it goes by too quickly. Make your meals a gastronomic pleasure, not a thing you do rushed, between stressful events.
3. Better digestion. If you eat slower, you’ll chew your food better, which leads to better digestion. Digestion actually starts in the mouth, so the more work you do up there, the less you’ll have to do in your stomach.
4. Less stress. Eating slowly, and paying attention to our eating, can be a great form of mindfulness exercise. Be in the moment, rather than rushing through a meal thinking about what you need to do next.
5. Rebel against fast food and fast life. A hectic, fast-paced, stressful, chaotic lives -- the Fast Life -- leads to eating Fast Food, and eating it quickly. Rebel against that entire lifestyle and philosophy with the small act of eating slower.


Sources:

Zen Habits July 13, 2007

Souci (Calendula officinalis)

Originaire des régions méditerranéennes, le souci est cultivé autant pour ses qualités ornementales que pour ses propriétés médicinales. Cette plante est utilisée depuis de nombreuses années en homéopathie et en phytothérapie, particulièrement sous forme de teinture mère. Aujourd'hui on l'utilise abondamment dans l'industrie cosmétique et dans la fabrication de produits dermatologiques.

Ce sont les capitules floraux qui sont utilisés. Ces capitules contiennent des flavonoïdes, des carotènes et des petites quantités d'huiles essentielles.

Propriétés :

Le souci possède des propriétés antiseptique et antibactériennes. Il est particulièrement efficace contre le staphylocoque et les trichomonas. C'est également un excellent anti-inflammatoire. Il a également démontré être efficace contre les œdèmes et il possède des propriétés cicatrisantes.

Le Souci (Calendula) est utile dans les cas de:

* Le traitement des affections de la peau
* Les affections buccales (pour prévenir ou guérir les aphtes)
* Guérir les crevasses et les petites plaies
* Soigner les piqûres d'insectes
* Soulager les brûlures légères ou les coups de soleil

Mode d'emploi :

On utilise le Souci, principalement en application locale. On le retrouve, sous son nom botanique (Calendula) dans des crèmes et pommades à usage dermatologique.

On peut également utiliser le Calendula sous forme d'extrait liquide ou teinture mère pour application locale, externe.

Pour les affections buccales, utiliser un extrait liquide sous forme de bain de bouche ou de gargarisme.

On peut remplacer l'extrait liquide (teinture-mère) par une infusion de fleurs fraîches ou séchées.

Précautions:

Ne pas ingérer de Calendula sous forme de tisane ou quelque autre façon, si ce n'est sous supervision d'un médecin ou d'un naturopathe qualifié.

La tomate, le fruit qui procure l'éternelle jeunesse !

Pour garder un esprit alerte et une bonne acuité mentale, rien de tel que de se gaver jour après jour de délicieuses tomates. C'est ce que révèle des recherches pratiquées notamment sur des religieuses, dont certaines ont atteint l'âge de 100 ans.

Une étude pratiquée sur 88 femmes âgées de 77 à 98 ans a démontré que celles qui présentaient le taux sanguin le plus faible en lycopène étaient quatre fois plus susceptibles d'avoir besoin d'aide pour se déplacer, s'habiller et se nourrir, que celles qui présentaient un niveau de lycopène au-dessus de la moyenne.

Un tel résultat permet d'émettre la théorie que le lycopène, un antioxydant abondamment présent dans les tomates, aide à prévenir les dommages des radicaux libres dans le cerveau et dans l'organisme en général.

Une autre étude italienne a montré que manger de la purée de tomate contenant 16,5 mg de lycopène tous les jours durant 21 jours, élevait de façon très significative la concentration d'antioxydants dans le sang. Les dommages des radicaux libres causés à l'ADN des cellules diminuaient dans une proportion de 33%.

Pendant un certain temps les scientifiques pensaient que le pouvoir de la tomate, de neutraliser les dangereuses substances présentes dans notre organisme, provenait de sa teneur également élevée en vitamine C. Mais une étude a révélé que même privée de toute sa vitamine C, la tomate continuait à jouer son rôle protecteur.

Le lycopène est un antioxydant très puissant. Chez l'homme il se concentre particulièrement dans la prostate, et plus son taux est élevé et plus faible est le risque de cancer de cette dernière.

Ces avantages ne se limitent pas à la prostate, les chercheurs ont également constaté que le lycopène inhibe très efficacement la prolifération de cellules cancéreuses responsables dans les cancers du sein, des poumons et de l'endomètre.

En plus de sa richesse en lycopène et en vitamine C, la tomate est un bon apport en vitamine A et en potassium.

Les pastèques et le pamplemousse rose contiennent également du lycopène, mais la tomate est de loin la meilleure source. Tous les produits à base de tomate, tels que les sauces, la pâte de tomate et même les tomates en conserve.

Pour retirer le maximum de lycopène de la tomate, essayez de consommer des fruits bien mûrs. Cuire la tomate dans un peu d'huile (un bon choix serait une huile d'olive extra vierge de première pression à froid). Cela permet de libérer le maximum de lycopène de la tomate.