Listening inwards vs. Listening outwards

A Tibetan Singing Bowl - a musical and healing tool for the soul

Why are we not (as a rule) playing our true role in this world? Why are we sick? How can we eat junk food without feeling bad on the spot?

Its all about how well we listen inwards and how pre-occupied we are with what we hear from without.

As children we are in tune with ourselves. It is during this time that we start training ourselves to be out-of-tune. We do it to please others (Our parents, elders and friends). We do it to please ourselves (First taste of chocolate is usually enough ;) ). We learn from our teachers the values of discipline - to dogmas that we are taught, not to what our soul requests. We dream of being something exciting and end up "doing the right thing"...

It is all in the training. We train ourselves not to react badly to things we would rather not give up. Tasty and unwholesome foods are a good example. It may give us a stomach ache at first - but who would give up on a craved desert just to prevent an ache? We train ourselves to be good workers - at a job we would rather not work at. We argue that having a job in today's economy is nothing short of a miracle so who are we to be so thankless? We train ourselves to ignore the minor discomforts that are our body's way of signaling that we are living wrongly. After all, it's not like a little headache ever killed anybody? We are too busy to stop and ask - why is my head hurting? And so we train ourselves to ignore this. Eventually the body will rebel at this habit but by then we will be really sick...

Habits are a seriously hazardous tool. We tend to grow into habit and then find it very hard to break it. We can cough a little bit when we start smoking but everyone knows its just till you get used to it... Getting used to bad habits doesn't mean not paying a regular price for this adaptation process. We do. Eventually the price is high enough for the body to start shouting again.

So what am I suggesting?

I believe it is about time we grew up a little as a race and took on the challenge of listening inwards. Listening to the minor aches and pains, to the instinct that says - its a bad idea, to our soul. Logically, we know what to eat and what not. Its time to adhere to that and then listen again. Not all that is healthy as a rule is good for us. Each of us is an individual and thus prone to reacting differently to common "Generally regarded as Healthy" foods. Its time to listen to the body's requests regarding physical activity, sleeping habits, furniture choices, work load and all the other habitual elements in our life.

More challenging but not less important: It's time to listen to our soul's voice in regards to our calling. Our profession is a crucial choice in life - are we listening now? Are we doing what our soul desires? Are we fulfilling our Dharma? Our destiny? Our happiness and our health depend on it. Our world too. If we work in the wrong profession we are rarely satisfied and it shows...

Basic human needs - Nourishment part I

Will you give me what I need?

What do we all need to survive? What constitutes the very basic human needs?

Ask anyone on the street and you will get to a very different list... Each will give you his or her list of habits and some basic biological needs. Not all will agree on the degree of importance of each need.

I will address this question from both a Naturopathic point of view and a personal spiritual one.

Naturopathically speaking, our biological primal needs can be summed up in four lines:

1. Nourishment

2. Removal of toxins and waste

3. Motion

4. Vitality

Remember that each of the above needs has to be supplied on all the human planes of existence - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social and ecological. From the single cell to our environment - everything needs the above list.

If we take a baby,Our beginning, the needs are:

Physical Nutrition: We all need the basic suckling, mothers milk but it starts even earlier - during pregnancy, we need the sustenance that comes from our mother. If our mother is under-nourished, we suffer for it. During both pregnancy and nursing the mother is in charge of double feeding for them both. My experience here shows that good quality wholesome foods help a lot and that a good supplement regimen (Consisting of a very good multi-vitamin + personal adaptations) makes the difference between a reasonable pregnancy and nursing phase and superb ones. I have never had a patient truly eating well and on supplements from the pre-pregnancy phase that suffered pre-ecclempsia or diabetes or any other radical complication (And I've professionally supported very many pregnant woman over the years). When a baby does not get breast fed it still needs this nourishment. It can be raised on alternatives but I would suggest home made after learning the formula from a Naturopath. I have treated many babies fed on industrial alternatives and they all needed support due to this fact. It just doesn't come close to real food.

Emotional nutrition: During pregnancy and nursing the emotional nourishment is just as important as the physical one. A classical (and sad) research with gorillas discovered that a gorilla baby fed with its mothers' milk but without her touch and presence will die ! The value of balanced emotions on the mothers part during pregnancy and between the parents and the baby once it is born is beyond critical. It gives us our emotional-base.

Spiritual nourishment: We live at an era that people rarely appreciate the value of spiritual living. Many people go to work for the financial sake and have no feeling of self realization in their work. This vibe is an under-nourishment factor on the spiritual level. Not only do THEY feel under nourished - they vibrate spiritually on an under nourished vibe and this is what their children take from them on this plane.

[End of part I]

Basic Human Needs - Detoxification part I

One of the classical tools to aid detoxification - Organic juices

The second part of our basic needs according to the Naturopathic perspective is the removal of toxins and waste. 

Remember how you felt when you were young? You were more  vibrant, your skin unblemished, your breath sweet etc... One of the reasons we loose all of this as we age is because we accumulate toxins.

Can it be reversed? To a great degree - yes !

It's spring time and the body feels as vibrant as it can for all the amazing spring energy in the air. This is the best time for a good clean up program ! I am not going to give you specific instructions in this blog and for a very good reason - detoxification is a challenging thing even when tailored by a pro. Alone, without a personally tailored program you may well come out of such an effort feeling worst then you came in. Do yourself a favor and go see a Naturopath.

What do I want to share with you in this blog post? Perspectives. On how to know if you need a detox, on the rules of detox and tips that may improve the process.

So... Do I need a detox?

If you do you may be suffering from one or more of the following:

1. Bad mouth odor or body odors
2. Lots of gas in your digestive tract
3. Skin eruptions
4. Allergies
5. Difficulty digesting fats
6. Foul smelling urine (Even when you drink enough)
7. Excessive weight (Whether you are stuck or more so if you are in the process of loosing it fast)
8. Recurrent headaches
9. Bad habits such as smoking or excessive alcohol consumption
10. Strange reactions to mild alcohol consumption (Falling asleep / pain in joins etc.)

And when in doubt - detox :)

How about the rules of safe Detoxification?

When going through a cleanse it is imperative that you do it right. The toxins that are cleared during this kind of a process may have accumulated throughout your life and on the way out, when in the blood, they can make you feel quite bad. If the organs of elimination are not functioning well or your vitality is low you might suffer quite a bit during the detoxification with less then optimal results.

1. Make sure you rest well during the detox
2. Make sure a health professional (Naturopath or Chinese Medicine practitioner) checks that your elimination organs are functioning well enough for the detox (Live & Kidneys mainly) and that your vitality is up to par.
3. Find the Detox most suited to your needs - there are many.
4. Do not undergo a water based fast for more then 3 days in a row without professional supervision.
5. When in doubt stop the program. Some symptoms are a sign that the detox is happening but some mean that your body is not up for the task.

Remember - a safe detox is a good detox !

Tips for a really good detoxification process:

• Combine several tools of different orientation (Nutrition / massage / Sauna when appropriate / Classical Hydrotherapy / Trampoline / Physical exercise / Herbology / Aromatherapy etc.) - not all at once of course.
• Cleanse the mind not just the body (More about this in a future post).
• A professional enema can upgrade the detox when relevant.
• Keep yourself  warm - especially during fasting if applied.
• Brush your skin regularly (e.g. With a natural loofah during the shower).
• Breathing exercises raise your vitality and improve the detox.
• Physical exercises are usually a must - but find your dose and don't over do it.
• Make sure you are not deficient in vitamins and minerals.

Have a colourful and radiant spring !

Focusing your life

How focused are you?

How many times of late have you realized your thoughts are chasing their own tails? Jumbling and confusing you or just shifting your attention one way when your intention is trying and failing to think of other things? Can you keep a line of thought through? How about when you are tense or tired?

More and more children and adults are given drugs to help them concentrate. Is there an alternative? Are we malfunctioning or simply lacking the tools to live out a focused life?

There are many tools out there that claim they can help with ADD and other "syndromes" of attention issues. In order for one to know which are effective and good and which are detrimental there are two ways to go: Try them out or ask the right questions and you will know in advance...

Let me suggest a few questions :)

1. Are you living right? is your lifestyle promoting focus or disrupting it?
2. Are you toxic? Lead poisoning (for example) can lead to deteriorated attention capacities.
3. Are you in the habit of promoting your attentive abilities naturally? For example are you meditating regularly?

Many more questions can be asked here and every question above raises ten more on the same issues. Allow me to suggest a few ideas on the matter:

A. When you are tired, undernourished, toxic, stressed out (etc.) you are bound to have  

     issues with you focus.

B. When you tire your mind out but don't take the time to give it a good rest (a.k.a. 

     meditation) your mind is bound to function less efficiently...

A is easy to understand - If you are tired from lack of sleep your mind is less effective. Deficiency in vitamins and minerals cause dysfunctions depending on the deficiency but as a rule effect the mind greatly. My blog series on basic human needs covers this well.

B is somewhat illusive to the western mind. In the east it is common knowledge. So what is it about meditation and other mental practices that can make the difference so much?

Meditation practices are numerous and can be divided into two for the sake of this explanation: Mindful meditation that observes the mind and thoughts and Zen like meditations that seek to achieve a quiet mind. Achieving the goal of a focused and clear mind can be done using both types for different situations but my experience shows that for the main goal of focusing and clarity the Zen type is stronger. It helps us connect with the here and now and put aside the past and the future. It stops the noise of relentless thinking and allows for our thoughts of choice to emerge unhindered and clear.

Whether you are a teenager mid exams or a college student - your studies will improve greatly with a healthy lifestyle combined with meditation training and habit. It is just as valuable to any adult coping with financial / marital / social ordeals. As a matter of fact anyone will benefit from this combination.

So you finished a chapter of healing with us, now what?

Most people understand how to follow our instructions during therapy. It is after a chapter of therapy is done that they enter a state of "Limbo" where the rules can appear unclear. Allow me to suggest a few tips for this stage:

1st thing - don't forget we are here :)

Whether you find yourself dealing with more of the same health issues or a new symptom: Talk to us ASAP. Don't wait "a few weeks" to see if it goes away... Small symptoms (And especially new ones) tend to be much easier to heal earlier rather than later.

Don't stop our recommendations without first talking to us.

Unlike many drugs, stopping most natural therapies will not cause harsh symptoms but that doesn't mean there isn't a "right" and "wrong" way to do it. Also, not all therapies need be stopped once you are well. Prevention is a very good idea. Talk to us and we will help you maintain good preventative measures. Not all you got from us during therapy need be used on the long run and some things are not used for active phases but are great for prevention.

Technical updates

If you have a new email (!), phone number, address, online kupat holim code, child (Mazal Tov!), or have gone through any other major change, its probably a good idea to update us. In this way we can remain effectively at your service in the future.

Long term followup

If you are suffering an illness that has yet to heal or is in remission and are taking a break from our therapy, Don't wait too long for the next appointment. If more then a month goes by the time it will take to get us up to speed will leave little time for new suggestions and therapy and advancement will be slower.

Qi Gong sessions

If you are in an on-going therapy in the present you are welcome to join us for our Qi Gong sessions (+ Breathing exercises and meditation) for FREE. If you are not in therapy at the present you are still welcome to join us for a symbolic fee.

Seasonal sessions

If you are done healing what you came to us for and have ended this chapter - don't disappear till you need us again. Coming once to twice a year for seasonal checkups will keep us in the loop with your life events and changing health so we can better intervene if your health drops and practice prevention where possible and help you stay healthy. It is also an opportunity to work on bad habits one at a time over time.

Time as a factor in health

“Time is the great healer”

How long will it take me to get better? Why isn’t my health better already? Is there such a thing as instant healing? Why should I go through a long process when a pill can relieve my distress in an hour?

I don’t remember how many times I have already heard these and similar questions from my patients over the past 25 years of my practice. It is clear to me that time is a loaded issue and this is the reason I decided to write about it. My purpose is to promote a shift in attitude in regards to time in health. I recall a patient that came to me with a complex matter many years ago. It was to be her first acupuncture session and so I decided to treat her for one of the many issues only and with one needle so as to make it less challenging for her. A week later she came for her second appointment only to say thank you. Her health was all fine… For me it was a pleasant shock. I was happy for her of course and maybe someday I will be old enough and experienced enough to repeat that success. In the mean time I understand that often it is unrealistic and at times even wrong for the process to be this fast – lessons need time to be learned more often than not.

So what do I want to say about time?

I shall start with prevention – after all, a minute of prevention can save hours and days of healing.

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I don’t have time to prepare breakfasts. I have no time for sports. I cannot find time for a massage once a week. I don’t have time for meditations or breathing exercises…

The above sentences represent a central question in preventative medicine: “How do we cope with the idea that we have no time to spare in modern times when contemplating preventative habits?”. The first thing we need to establish is the understanding that there is no such thing as “no time”. We have 24 hours every day and the right question is how do we use up our time wisely? It's all about priorities. It’s not always simple to reorganize our priorities but it is often a crucial step for the process of change.

Another important factor: With every passing year our body becomes less and less forgiving towards our mistakes. It becomes more evident the older we get. When young people go out on the town and go to sleep very late the worst they feel is tired the day after. At the age of 40+ it might wreck the next day. At 50 it could take a few days to recover. There is a beautiful lesson to be learned here – our body expects us to be wiser as we age – and show it by making wiser choices J. It is also less forgiving.

In an age of a fast pace race after money, preventative medicine is confronted with a major obstacle. It is very hard to quantify. In the field of insurance it is calculated but out of the assumption that people don’t change. Understanding that where there is a will there is a way, a challenge of mine is to get the message through that preventative medicine is good for the economics. Maybe when people realize there is a lot of money in health they will start investing in health daily… It is very simple to understand the role of exercise or nutrition in prevention. Everyone knows ample rest is crucial for healthy functioning in every aspect of life. Tomorrow it can never happen. If it is important it has to start today. Right now. In prevention time is a vicious foe. You delay for a moment and by then it hurts.

It is time to start acting on what you know and believe that can prevent you from becoming sick. If you are not sure about something or what is best to do come and let’s talk about it. Today is the best time to start. Right now!

Next let’s talk about time and acute diseases

———————————————————————

I don’t have time to take a day off in bed. Work will not wait. My students expect me in class. It is not that bad, I will drag along for a few days and it will blow over. I have plans for this weekend, I can’t just cancel it all and rest.

Acute diseases are short lived, usually dramatic in nature and tend to blow over even without meaningful assistance. They usually behave this way due to us having a reasonable level of vitality. If not it would quickly turn chronic. These diseases are only slightly challenging timewise. They are short and so require only a few days of cooperation on the patients’ part. Weeks at worst case. Despite this, most people rush out and seek the easy way out. A quick fix / pill for their illness. Usually pricy in terms of health. What is our body asking of us? Is it so much to ask that we take a break for a day? A week? A little tender loving care?

I have seen many cases where a neglected or mistreated acute disease – where all the body needed was a little rest or such, gets complicated by lack of cooperation and deteriorates into a more complicated disease. When the body is clearly asking for attention it is important and wise to comply.

A day or two invested in health can save many more in disease.

And if we already deteriorated?

——————————————

I am tired of constantly taking care of my health. It is hard for me to be so busy mostly with my health – I have no time for life itself. I have been sick for so long, when will it end? How long have I got?

In degenerative and chronic diseases (Longer and usually more complicated by nature) time becomes a much heavier issue. Especially when the disease gets worst with time.

Time spent talking and not advancing, tires. Time well spent, often bringing the rewards of improvement, uplifts. Knowing how to translate the process of illness and health correctly will most often make the difference above (Learning to recognize the positivity of some signs that could be misconstrued as setbacks but are really positive on the long run are one example – such as the positive meaning of raising a high fever as a sign of high vitality in children). Sometimes taking a pause from therapy can mean deterioration and at other times much needed rest can help the process along. Time in chronic illness management can be both a hindrance and a great tool – it’s all about how well you understand time in the bigger picture.

There are varied techniques for working with the toll of time – including them in long healing processes is crucial. It is very possible and realistic to cope with the experience of time during therapy and the right translation can make all the difference in the world.

Predicting what time will bring – now that is much more difficult. Answering the question “How long the treatment will take” requires a prophetic ability… Knowing how long a patient has left to live? Not among my talents… (And it has been proven that such knowledge can be a self-fulfilling prophecy). Knowing how to cope with these questions is a whole different ballgame. Learning to live in the here-and-now can be very helpful (one technique) especially with the “how long do I have left” question. This perspective helps teach the value of the moment and thus promotes a positive pro-active attitude to help us get to the next “now” as best we can. The right philosophical outlook can change the very fear of death. Fear is one of the strongest time-stress factors. The budhistic philosophy, for example, sees the end of a life as the beginning of another (Re-incarnations) and thus the fear of death is greatly reduced. Another wonderful philosophy is the one Ekhart Tole teaches in his book “The Power of Now”. A life focused on the here and now allows much better coping with life as a whole and especially disease.

There are several more time related conflicts we can talk about:

1. How many treatments do I need in order to heal?

2. How about instant healing treatments? What value and what dangers do they offer?

3. What could possibly be bad about instant relief from discomforts and symptoms? (Mind you, I’m not talking here about making an illness go away instantly, only the symptoms), what benefits can there be here?

4. Treatment frequency – the rights, wrongs and maybes in planning a therapeutic plan.

I will talk of these issues and more in a future article

Who am I?

The internal and external factors which form and define us and the freedom to truly be ourselves

In seeking purpose I often come across people who find it hard to define who they are. What is their role in this world? What were they meant to do? Identifying the essence goes through a fascinating journey but often gets stuck at that very basic question. When one can't identify one's own essential being, it leaves a vacuum hard to fill. In this article I will address that question regarding the influencing factors.

If you were born in a faraway land and raised by a herd of wolves – how would you be different from today? Would you have reached the same values? Profession? Family? Obviously, it is hard to answer that question or even imagine a life beginning like that although there are such stories. Moreover, it is hard to identify all the factors that influenced our identity over the years in a way that we could imagine being without them.

In this article I would like to review the most meaningful factors and examine them from a spiritual perspective, one that relates to the fact that our deepest essence is that of a soul and therefore arrives profoundly formed even before we are born, from previous lifetimes.

First, the more familiar factors:

Parents, family and friends – the major influence on our identity comes from the adults who raised us, normally our parents. To an extent they are the deepest role models. Quite often people find themselves acting "just like their parents", usually to their disappointment. Many youngsters promise themselves they won't grow up to be like their parents, and they often go as far away as they can in areas in which they were revolted by their parents' behavior, only to find themselves unconsciously acting just as they promised themselves they never would.

The rest of the family's influence is usually less dominant in the early stages of life, but growing up, siblings and other close relatives play a significant role. We turn them into a source either of imitation or of endless clashes and thus factors that mold us by fire.

Childhood friends often have a very strong influence. During adolescence it is sometimes even stronger than that of our parents. Since at this stage of life they might not be any more aware of their essence and role in life than we are, their impact can be random and often very confusing.

Teachers throughout life can add depth and inspiration when we come across such teachers.

Social norms have a very strong impact on us even indirectly. Some professions lost much of their prestige like teaching (important or not – this is a stigma educators are fighting now-a-days). Many teachers naturally deny this fact. Another profession suffering from being "non-profitable" is art. On the other hand, professions which suffered from a low image just a century ago, such as surgery, became very popular. Choosing the path should reflect our being, especially if we want to succeed and even more so if we wish to enjoy our occupation. It turns out that people define themselves by socio-economical needs rather than by their true essence.

Despite all these factors, it is clear that they are not all it takes. For instance, it is known that twins growing up in the same environment with the same parents and social circles can still turn out very different. It seems as though the missing link is much more significant in our self-definition than all of the external factors put together. When we think of ourselves we have a "feeling" of something being just right for us. Many times it is not in our conscious knowledge, in which case it is a feeling of some unseen destiny. Sometimes it is discovered spontaneously and sometimes with the help of a mentor. Either way we can thus get much more clarity as to the important question of "Who am I?"

Without dealing with how to find the answer to this question, in this article I'd like to ask a much more basic one: what is this unseen factor which enables us such knowledge?

Believers would define it as the soul, that same component in us which is part of the Divine Whole. Atheists usually have a hard time accepting the possibility of such a factor even existing. In spiritual circles, the idea of the soul is taken seriously, not necessarily in a religious way. My experience in life enabled me to open many windows to the soul I am. I've experienced things considered "esoteric" in a way I could no longer rule them out. They left me with the understanding that there is a certain layer in us which came to this world ready-made and not just as raw material. Among those I shall mention a few which many might have experienced but may not have bothered to deepen their understanding of the experience:

1. When my first child was 5 minutes old, I looked in his eyes and the depth reflecting from them was great. Even then they had that look asking "Where have you been?" (The fact that I ran all the way to the nursery trying to catch up with the nurses, didn’t spare me that look…). As soon as he grabbed onto the finger I held out to him, he relaxed.
2. When he grew up and his sisters were born, we saw how each one of our children expressed abilities in different areas. They were exposed to the same toys more or less and the same parents (more or less J after all, time leaves us slightly changed with each passing day) and yet their abilities were very different from one another.
3. My personal experience with past lifetimes turned a "weird" area into part of my occupation. It was "too true to argue with" – even for a rational type like me.

One way or another I came to a realization which is common in spiritual teachings, and that is that our existence here occurs in a number of dimensions, one of them being physical and another spiritual (there are more but not for this article). The spiritual dimension, AKA the soul, is the "I" we all identify with when we do what's really important for us and for the world from an inspired place.

In the coming articles I will address different meanings of this understanding as well as techniques which enable us to make use of this information in order to recruit these dimensions for a fuller, healthier and happier life.

Why we barely eat Milk Products

[Milk photo by Carl Revell]

(Now that Shavuot is over we can talk about it freely, but if you don't want us to ruin it for you for next year you might want to stop reading now).

Advertisements, such as the one calling us to have 3 portions of milk products a day, are broadcasted regularly on behalf of the Health Ministry and funded by the producers. The message being: Milk is important for healthy and strong bones and teeth etc, for growing kids and adults.

Not quite.

As far as I remember, the only mentions of milk in Harrison's medical "bible" are negative. The main reason we hear about the great health advantages of milk is because someone is paying for the PR. It's sad that most dietitians don't realize that.

Biologically there is no doubt. Milk products, like all animal products, raise the tissue acidity, increasing the transfer of calcium and other alkaline minerals from the bones to the tissues in order to counter the acidity. Milk is rich in calcium-3-phosphate which increases the urinary loss of calcium. In China, where milk was introduced only recently, there is a surprisingly low occurrence of fractures due to osteoporosis, much lower than in the Western milk consuming countries.

In other words – milk does not build bones. On the contrary, there is much evidence that it actually harms bones.

Milk is one of the most effective foods for creating mucous (along with white sugar, white rice and other processed grains, citrus fruit etc.)… It's hard to count the number of diseases where mucous accumulation is involved. For example: According to the Chinese Medicine, mucous is the basis for Gallstone formation. Another example involves most of the early childhood common diseases (Ear / eye infections, respiratory issues etc.)

There are several other aspects I shall mention here in brief:

1. Links have been found and some proven between dairy products and several types of cancer
2. Dairy product consumption has been linked to cardio-vascular diseases…

On top of all this let us not forget that non-organic dairy product will often contain minute amounts of drugs such as antibiotics / growth hormones etc. that the cows were given (Country dependant as to local regulations)

Those who want a collection of references to the above may request it by mail and we will send a presentation (In Hebrew… but the sources are in English) with plenty of citations.

Those who have already had the "pleasure" of over eating dairy during the recent holyday – you are most welcome to make an appointment and we will gladly dry you up :).

Happy After the Holydays.