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Healing Yourself With Binaural Beats: Facts & Fiction

Binaural Beats

Binaural Beats Brain: A Shutterstock Licensed Image

When the final trickle of sadness evaporated, I became a fan of binaural beats therapy. In just 15 minutes, the unscientific new-age-ness of it all had evaporated and was immediately replaced by a measurable, grounded, and healing experience. I was more relaxed and I felt as though my brain and heart went through a (healing) car wash.

Recently on the fringe of alternative medicine, binaural beats returned to the scene with the backing of double-blind scientific trials, and a long list of brilliant supporters, including scientists, doctors, healers, and patients. What was originally thought to be a fluke in early ear and brain quasi-experiments, has become a powerful, if not profound, treatment for depression and anxiety, and potentially, a variety of physical conditions.

The binaural beats modality is the latest to emerge in “frequency medicine,” a broad category of healing techniques that tune to our body’s rhythms, patterns, sounds, and vibrations in order to gently guide, nurture, and improve them.

Binaural beats are essentially brain entrainment and live under the umbrella of Sound Wave Therapy, which some practitioners and therapists are using for everything from healing seasonal sadness disorder and improving sleep deprivation, to increasing IQ and even helping erectile dysfunction.

Do Binaural Beats Work? You betcha.

 

Binaural Beats: What is it?

The word binaural comes from the Latin, “with both ears.” The broad definition of binaural beats therapy is: when a person is presented with audio stimulus, there is a change in their brain activity.

More specifically, binaural beats are an auditory experience whereby the receiver listens in a dichotic manner (a unique frequency in each ear), where each frequency is lower than 1500 Hz, and the difference between the two frequencies is lower than 40 Hz.

Because of this dissonance, the listener perceives a cadence or beat that is absent from the audio being played. This can produce a meditative experience whereby the mind, heart, and body become more relaxed. The belief is that if our bodies and hearts are relaxed, they stand a better chance of healing. In most cases, the audio or music file being played in a binaural beats session is melodic, peaceful, and enjoyable.

Some scientists have called binaural beats “tech meds” or “digital drugs,” and they might be right. Patients and devotees of binaural beats say the experience is akin to meditating for 30 minutes, smoking marijuana, or ingesting a small amount of CBD oil.

In all, binaural beats certainly aren’t dangerous and seem to have the potential to help millions of people.

Binaural Beats: How Does it Work?

Brain entrainment occurs when audio or light stimuli are used to coax our minds and hearts into new states of relating to our bodies and spirits. In other areas of science, entrainment occurs when a fluid attaches to and drags other fluids or solids along with it. It can be said that entrainment is where one element inspires other elements to attach to or follow it.

In Jungian psychology, this can be represented by “matching and leading,” whereby the therapist validates and mirrors specific phrases and behaviors in the patient, and then over time, makes healthy adjustments to these phrases and behaviors, thereby matching the patients and leading them to more conscious states of being.

In binaural beats therapy sessions, patients sit comfortably or lay on their backs. The practitioner places headphones on the patient and then plays a series of audio files. Some binaural beats music is melodic and hummable, and some is more akin to ambient, new-age electronic music.

During the session, a FitBit or similar device is used to measure heart rate and brain activity. In most scenarios, the results are clear and decisive: binaural beats therapy is a powerful modality for relaxation and healing.

Binaural Beats Effects & Benefits

  • Here are the benefits that are most often reported:
  • Sleep Improvement
  • Relaxation
  • Meditation
  • Focus
  • Mental Clarity
  • Immune System Boost
  • Decreased anxiety
  • Decreased depression
  • Heightened feeling of peace
  • Increased life enjoyment
  • Binaural Beat Science

While many claim to experience changes in physical conditions, scientific studies are still a little vague on this point. Additionally, science has recently found that binaural beats might not produce any effect on the personality, which this reader finds hard to believe.

One scientist reports that, because the thalamus is not affected during most binaural beat therapy sessions, any improvement in physical, emotional, or mental conditions could be limited, and difficult to prove.

Not all the science points to binaural beats being the new cure-all, but most of the tests show measurable improvements in emotion and mind states.

Some of the more clever healers and practitioners out there are trying to find their own groove and unique value proposition in the market. As such, there is now a variety of repackaged and rebranded binaural beat therapies. While each one seems to march to its own drum, when compared to the basic tenets of binaural beat therapy, their offers are essentially the same.

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The military has increased its investment in experimental technologies, especially tech-focused on relaxation and mind/body control. This has tremendous and widespread implications because when the military invests, the business world tends to follow. We’ll see a variety of devices that produce effects similar to binaural beats in the coming months. Body and mind-enhancing tech is finally here to stay.

As binaural beats therapy evolves and as more research is funded, nuances in treatments, technologies, and methodologies will emerge. At present, the results and trends are promising.

Binaural Beat Technologies

If you’re hankering for a hunk of binaural beats tech, there is an emerging pile of technologies that will satiate both ear drums, and more. Here is a list of the headphones with the effective frequency responses for the therapeutic implementation of binaural beats.

  • Bose QuietComfort 35
  • Audio-Technica ATH-M50x
  • Sennheiser HD 202 II
  • CozyPhones Sleep Headphones
  • Shure SE215-K Sound Isolating Earphones

If you’re into binaural beats science, you might try the Muse and Muse2, which, according to their website, sells “immersive meditation devices that provide real-time feedback on mental activity, heart rate, breathing, and body movements. I love the Muse and Muse2. I have both of them and have found them to be extremely effective for mental, emotional, and physical health improvements.

If you’re interested in the future of humans and consciousness-tech, including binaural beats technologies, check out the Transformative Technologies Conference. It’s an unusually comprehensive event featuring brilliant scientists and those interested in advancing human consciousness.

Binaural Beats In Summary

The Dalai Lama once said, “It takes a long time for me to settle into a deep meditation. If you can invent a device that will help me get into a deep meditative space, I will use it.”

While much of the transformative technologies space is still in early experimentation, the trends in research and the recent release of a long list of products point to a massive paradigm shift. Not only are the emerging technologies aimed at pacifying and healing pained and anxious spirits, they are also hoping to heal the body.
In a matter of five years, this category of technology went from “fru-fru-woo-woo” to powerfully and thoughtfully embedded in scientific research and trials. The next five years will astound us.

Many scientists (artificial intelligence, hardware/software, data science, etc.) who are in the conscious-tech space believe heart rate and brain waves are the key doorways that will lead us to meditative states and improved physical conditions.

While vibrational, energy, and sound healers have believed in (and proven) the power of induced relaxation for centuries, so far, scientific research is still playing catch-up. The belief is simple: When our spirits are peaceful and aligned, our bodies will follow.

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Can Mindfulness Dismantle Our Truthfulness, Positivity, And Flow?

 

Mindfulness

Mindfulness – The Trendy, Undisciplined Vacuum: A Shutterstock Licensed Image

Can Mindfulness Be a Bad Thing?

We are born as electric, wild creatures, infused with limitlessness, and empowered by the infinite array of energies found in every galaxy throughout the universe. There are subtle-bodied energies, planetary and other-realm influences, magnetic pulls, angelic blessings, and the biochemical reactions that result from living in a vast, 3-dimensional, physical reality.

We are powerful, to say the least…

Mindfulness is a concept that has been steadily injected into our social media feeds since the early 2010s. There are thousands of mindfulness teachers, corporate trainers, new-agey yoga folks, and beautiful monks seeking to enlighten the world with this simple modality. The concept goes something like this:

By being aware of our conscious Self, actions, and emotions, and focusing solely on the present moment, we can become calmly aware of our realities, bodily sensations, and natures, and objectively engage with our realities.

It all sounds wonderful, beautiful, and transformative. Who wouldn’t want to live in such a way? When embracing this ancient Buddhist tradition, what could possibly be harmful or restrictive to us? How, really, can mindfulness limit us?

The problem with mindfulness is that it’s been co-opted by the New Age movement. You remember this movement, right? It’s the often narcissistic, over-feminized, spiritual ideology that teaches people to objectify and worship themselves. Meanwhile, it rejects the idea that it takes work to improve ourselves.

The New Age is the same quasi-religion that promised a perfect balance out of one side of its mouth while exalting the spiritual ego out of the other. This mish-mash style of spiritual development sounds good, but sometimes it’s nothing but rainbow-colored quicksand.

The New Age as the Selfie of Spiritual Ideologies.

The way that mindfulness is often taught isn’t necessarily damaging, it’s just that it has limited value, and might not help us evolve. While it might keep us out of trouble for 10 minutes, mindfulness is missing a long list of steps and experiences. And it’s filled with presumption.

Today’s corporate mindfulness is nothing but a stolen final-phase, poorly extrapolated from meditating monks. It’s the most overused brick in the foundation of the faux-spiritual paradigms amidst today’s convenient spiritual truths. The way that mindfulness is currently portrayed, marketed, and taught is half-baked at best.

Every day we see trendy snippets from the world’s purest liberation practices flowing through our feeds. These snippets are comforting, but without context, they circumvent the pathways to liberation and enable our denial. To truly liberate, we must begin by acknowledging who we are. We must embrace our compositions and desires, not judge them. We have to start by practicing and perfecting the person we’ve become, so we can understand what and who we are seeking to abandon.

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We need to love ourselves, despite our mistakes. This requires that we explore and express our passions with abandon. If we don’t know our curiosities and desires, how can we move through them? How can we expand?

Many students of mindfulness have created a new personality to justify their goals and the money they paid for the mindfulness classes. They’re not investigating their uniqueness and power, they’re avoiding it, having relegated their true Self to a locked, labeled closet. They’re afraid to be themselves, so they picked a prettier “me.”

Unless you’re an avatar, you probably can’t extinguish your nature by avoiding it. It’s better that you celebrate it and love it to death.

After all, the ego is the I am, and without the ego, we are not.

While pursuing mindfulness, if we aren’t also honoring our emotions and shortcomings, we’re adopting temporary self-identities and fooling ourselves. To rebirth ourselves and embark on a path toward authenticity and liberation, we might not always be peaceful and mindful. Those pleasant ideas might be the antithesis to our evolution!

To take full advantage of this physical reality that we were born into, there are times when it’s vital to be wild, aggressive, hateful, and full of rage. How else can we know the spectrum of our humanity? And how else can we embody empathy with the hope of helping humanity transform?

Do you see the truth here?

  • If you cannot be authentic, you cannot know your limitations or expanded potential.
  • If you do not embrace who you are in this moment, you have no platform from which to evolve.
  • If you do not begin with accepting your desires and affections, you cannot know what is truly important to you.
  • This means that without letting it all flow, you cannot know your path to liberation.

Our true Self is the unrestricted one. In our exploration of our true Selves, we can become aware of our vasanas (problematic attributes and latent tendencies), and then consider releasing them. Heck, we can even enjoy them for a time. We might have moments where we feel a deep peacefulness, and we might begin to taste our true natures and Selves. But if we have not accepted and loved ourselves along the way, we will arrive at the precipice of liberation without having paid the price of admission. We will be forced to turn-around and begin again.

Wait, aren’t we all permitted to expand and enter the kingdoms of Heaven and expanded consciousness?

Yes. We all have tickets to the eternal realms and our most evolved Self, but most of us are obsessed with how we appear to others. Most of us are stuck in hierarchical paradigms that offer no promise of self-acceptance or liberation. The majority of souls living on this planet right now are obsessed with OPP – Other People’s Opinions.

In general, we don’t form our paths and personhood from self-exploration. We create ourselves by believing in religions, trends, misinformation, and self-limiting ideologies. Why? Because we all feel less-than, and we all feel guilty.

Rather than celebrate this complex universe and the gifts we’ve been given, we squash them with political correctness, over-analysis, and self-judgment. Rather than seek forgiveness and the healing of our guilt from within, or in partnership with the divine, electric universe, we ask forgiveness from our religious leaders, families, lovers, and friends. We might also demand it from strangers.

This type of projection-styled life results in two things: a long, repetitive journey – and a failure to achieve our objectives related to self-realization.

Can I choose to be who I truly am, right now?

Sadly, we cannot expand unless we relax into who we are at this moment. We have to forget about the “shoulds” that are over-sold to us by religions and new-ager ideologists, and instead, invest in fully accepting who we are right now. This includes allowing our anger, prejudices, desires, addictions, and bad habits.

To be mindful is lovely. But if we’re ignorant and resentful of who we are, our mindfulness will be based on a projection, illusion, and the false Self. This means it will be based on fantasies and result in experiences that only our false, temporary, contrived Selves will experience. This leaves us completely out of the picture.

In this case, our pursuit of mindfulness will result only in temporary, elusive, possibly damaging, alter-ego gratification – and nothing else.

Where do we go from here?

There’s a reason mindfulness has become so popular in corporate culture: everybody wants to be told that 10 minutes of meditation per day will enable them to change the world – and make money at the same time. It’s a scam.

There’s no simple formula for self-exploration. There are thousands of paths that could lead to expansion and liberation. While everybody is unique, and no path is absolute for all Beings, below are a few steps that might lead you to know and accept who you are right now.

These ideas might also help you break free from your limiting, temporary, and fantasy-based self-identities:

– Accept and love everything about yourself without limits. Remember that every aspect of you is a gift, and it provides a pathway toward a related but more evolved aspect.

– Encourage yourself to explore the people, activities, and beliefs that make you feel good, delicious, excited, and free.

– Enjoy actively participating and validating these aspects. If you love food, find ways to celebrate it. If you love punching people’s faces, take a boxing class. If you love sex, find sexual partners who might fulfill this desire-base.

– While having these experiences, allow yourself to deepen your appreciation for them. As you experience highs, relish them with every part of your Being.

– When you see holes in your beliefs, lows in your experiences, and unforeseen repercussions that make you nervous, consider how you might up-grade or release each of them.

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– As you experience projection-failures and relational breakdowns with the people and events that you once thought were valuable, make a note of what you learned from each one.

– Practice gratitude often.

– Consider what you’ve learned. Look within yourself to see how you have participated in these things. Seek to understand why you may have chosen them, why they were successful, and how they may have been less than adequate.

– Explore the possible reasons why you objectified and over- or under-validated yourself, others, and the events that unfolded.

– Allow yourself to feel and express the emotions that are related to your explorations, celebrations, and disappointments. Let it all out.

– Ask yourself why you chose these people, events, and passions in the first place. Answer honestly.

– Forgive everyone involved in each of your disappointments.

– Own the choices that led you to be involved with these people, events, and passions.

– Forgive yourself.

– Upgrade your beliefs and continue exploring what feels enjoyable, connective, and real.

Explore, experience, accept, forgive, emote, let go.

Throughout this process, you’ll evolve.

To improve your realities, both internal and external:

  • Embrace relationships, thoughts, intentions, rituals, and ideologies that are infused with liberating principals. Don’t skim off the top, devour the entire stew.
  • Seek love only from those who fully accept you for who you are, and what it means to love you.
  • Most importantly, be yourself. Be fully embodied and authentic in this lifetime.
  • Allow your desires to move through you, not solely for your pleasure, but also so you can learn to dissolve the false-Self and embrace your true, eternal Self. You can’t simply step into a new identity without first absolving the prior.

You are the embodiment of a trajectory that holds every answer you seek. There are no limits, other than those imposed by your oppressors and your loving heart.

Let it all out. Be authentic. Forgive everything. Allow the universe to accept, love, and perfect you.

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Why Many Of Our Relationships Are Not Fulfilling

relationships

Unfulfilling Love & Relationships – A Shutterstock Licensed Image

Not long ago, men held jobs, women cared for their families, most people smoked, and a fair number of us lived past 80. Most folks lived within their limits, and according to pre-approved societal roles. Religions were clearly defined and vehemently defended, and far too many people were judged, then relegated to the outskirts of society. In the midst of all this, somehow, it seemed people were kinder and better to each other.

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?!

Even though the 60s revolution was vital for the expansion of our collective consciousness, it was built upon self-gratification through connection. Well, dancing and sex. The core ethos of the movement was all about rejecting any form of oppression, and embracing our impulses.

The hippie archetype loved to regularly peel-back the onion, with the hope of seeing far beyond the limiting constructs of self, family, religion, and suburbia. While it was laced with a colorful and benign narcissism, the hippies established the precursors for tech-obsession, selfies, and selfishness. While some of these things might bring us to our knees, overall, the 1960s was a spiritual and evolutionary success.

As the automotive, housing and education industries began to manipulate and subjugate the average American through overpriced loans and inadequate products, people began to feel the pinch. Within the pinch, they began to disassociate, isolate, and become depressed. To satiate their self-loathing, people everywhere began to seek solace in fantasy, through the forms of news, television programming, and movies, all contrived and dispersed by billionaires and conglomerates, for the sole purpose of monetizing what I like to call, “the collective, American obsessive disorder.”

To counteract this disease and its related trends, somewhere in the early 1980s, America took a nosedive into a grotesque obsession with a horrific display of greed. By the mid-1990s, the predominant generation was depressed, self-obsessed, debt-ridden, polyamorous, and exhausted.

Wait, What Exactly Are You Saying?

I’m exaggerating, of course. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that, as a species, we’re in deep doo-doo. Indeed, this is not the time of our lives or the best it’s ever been. It’s more like what David Bowie said,

“We’re not evolving; we’re not going anyway.”

The critical elements to our current state of mind and heart include a variety of relatively new concepts, including projection, selfies, ego gratification, and self-expanding intentions. While these things are taking root, we’re also grappling with skyrocketing costs of living and the potential decimation of the earth. Good times!
What is Projection, and How Does it Hurt Us?
Projection occurs in a few ways:

  1. When we believe our hangups, problems, and limitations stem from other people, rather than from within ourselves or as a result of our behavior. An example: When we are fearful of commitment, we might blame the other person for their inability to commit
  2. When we believe the stories, mental images, and emotional impressions resulting from our past to be the truth in the present moment. An example of this type of projection might be when we’re having a slightly heated discussion with someone, and we begin to feel like they’re attacking us. In this case, we might be thrusting the emotional residue and imagery from childhood experiences onto the other person or into the present discussion.

Suffice to say, projection isn’t very useful and it can be downright damaging. At the very least, when we project onto other people, we prevent ourselves from seeing the moment and the other person for what they truly are. Many people are addicted to projecting, which is why they cannot successfully participate in healthy relationships.

Why Are People so Insanely Obsessed With Themselves?

The selfie began in the late 1990s with cute pics of people with their computers. While it started as an innocuous trend, it has evolved into a hurricane of smiley faces blowing kisses at their camera phones. If you peruse the images posted by your Facebook friends, you’ll notice that a fair number of them are selfie-obsessed. While your healthier friends share varieties of pictures, the selfie-addicts only post their “I love myself” snapshots. Luckily, this gives us the perfect excuse to unfriend. My rule? A few selfies per year are good, five selfies buh-bye.

How Does My Pursuit of Ego Gratification Limit My Relationships?

When it comes to love relationships, there are three entities to consider: you, your lover, and the relationship. When it comes down to clout, the biggest shareholder in the trio is the relationship. This means that when you’re wandering the world seeking validation and pleasure, your relationship might be suffering from malnutrition, and a broken heart. While it seems logical to seek the joys in life, only fools believe that relationships will not inhibit their prior senses of freedom, at least to a small degree.

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Love relationships require lots of watering before they can endure steady streams of ego gratification. If you want to wander, and also desire a fruitful relationship, focus on the bond for three years. After that point, it’s probably safe to reintroduce your wild meanderer back into the equation. It’s only then that your relationship might have enough substance to counter-balance your inner Indiana Jones.

Why are my Self-expanding Intentions a Coitus Interruptus for Intimacy?

It’s wonderful to seek self-expansion, but when in a relationship, the path to liberation can be difficult, unless both people seek the same forms of freedom, and at the same pace. Either way, it’s difficult to establish long-lasting relationships before we hit 35. Prior to that, we barely know who we are, and might be unable to concrete lasting, connected, and humble relationships.

You can go off to the mountains and sit with your guru or spiritual master, but take your partner with you. Before you leave on your quest, understand that each of your egos might require distinct or opposing modalities in order to be successfully apprehended or healed.

How Do We Break All These Trends?

While there’s no formula for stepping into the present moment and making commitment your priority, without these things, your relationships don’t stand a chance. Here are a few ideas that might help you liberate yourself amid tending to your loving relationship:

  1. Stop taking selfies. Only take heart-centered pictures with both you and your beloved in the frame.
  2. Stop believing that you have to give 50% to your relationship for it to work. This is a lie. You both have to give 100%. Life is too difficult to expect anybody to pick up the slack, even when it’s their turn.
  3. Stop believing that personal liberation requires hiking in the Himalayas, going to raves without your partner, or hitting the bars with your friends. Personal liberation is the relinquishment of the ego so that you can experience the eternal self. It’s not about adventures.
  4. Spend lots of time loving and serving each other.
  5. Reduce the number of distractions in your lives.
  6. Reset your goals to include joy, intimacy, awareness, and deep connections with others.
  7. Relinquish the temporary self-identities that inflate your ego.
  8. Relinquish one expectation per week. Pretty soon, you’ll have enough space in your mind and heart to allow the other person to be themselves. This will help your relationship thrive!
  9. Remember that the other person is not you, and you are not the other person. You are each unique bundles of particles barreling through space at insane speeds. It’s a miracle that you can pour orange juice into two glasses and drink them together. It’s also a miracle when two souls successfully love together.
  10. Allow for fewer expectations, and more space. When you finish giving each other space, give each other some more space. Allow the space to speak to both of you. Dance separately, and then together, within the space. Let your relationship with each other include a dialogue with the space. More space, more clarity. More clarity, more joy. More joy, more love. Rock on!
  11. Gentle kisses on cheeks, sweet love notes and foot massages also help.

One of the saddest reasons why our relationships are not fulfilling is that we spend more time using the words “I” and “me” than the pronouns “you” and “us.”

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Praying With Humility: Changing Yourself And The World

change yourself

Praying Hands, Change Yourself – A Shutterstock Licensed Image

It’s perfectly appropriate to defend our belongings, lives, and loved ones, and to yearn for specific relationships and life-experiences. It’s also suitable to desire titles, positions, gobs of money, and the highest levels of success. You might even have fantasies of domination or revenge. It’s all part of the play.

While goals and desires can be conjured through intentions and focused effort, prayers tend to require a separate set of conditions and attributes. If all whimsies and pangs of hunger were equal to prayers, then prayers for football team wins, stock windfalls, and military massacres would dominate the supernatural circuits, and crowd the fulfillment funnel.

For a prayer to be considered “fair trade,” it’s probably best it meets one or more of these conditions:

  • Reflects a personal, life or death situation
  • Is born from pure, heartfelt intentions
  • Stems from a place of humility
  • Reflects a measure of reverence
  • Does not require that other living Beings be hurt, punished, or killed
  • Results in improved conditions for one or more people, the results of which do not threaten other living Beings
  • Enhances an individual’s or group’s health, safety, mental capacity, attitude, emotional state, spiritual
  • wholeness, comfort, relationships, or general well-being, including yours
  • Expedites a person’s psychological, emotional, or spiritual evolution, including yours
  • Inspires and invites feelings of positivity, kindness, and generosity
  • Provokes compassion or empathy from anyone who might hear the prayer
  • Immediately increases the vibration of the person praying with humility

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If your prayer doesn’t embody any of the above attributes, it might be more of a hope, desire, or goal than a prayer. Authentic and humble prayer does not generally involve the ego — it requires vulnerability and selflessness. For example: praying for a financial windfall is probably egoistic, but praying with humility to receive money to pay for your Mother’s surgery, might have measurable appeal to the Universe’s vibrational, response-network.

How do we create and improve our realities?

To up-level our selves and lives, we start with a feeling or a sense, then we slowly churn it into an intention. Once it’s embedded in us, we imagine related scenarios, outcomes, and destinations. Within these elusive dreams, we form agendas and implement actions, thereby moving us toward the fulfillment of our desires.

To accelerate our journeys, we might use games, leverage, strategy, or cunning. We might also engage our friends, allies, and demons. These are the systems and rackets that rule our physical lives within our three-dimensional realities.

It’s perfectly moral to have goals, dreams, and fantasies that are self-serving. Even a measure of greed can produce positive feelings and outcomes. It’s also permissible to dance with shadows and invite devils to dinner. What separates goodness from evil is not our thoughts or associations; it’s the upshot of our efforts. If hints of our intentions, and hosts of our actions, produce favorable conditions, we still might be invited to sit at the right hand of the divine.

When we’re in the aggressive pursuit of achievement and position, it’s not necessarily harmful or bad, but it’s probably not prayerful. Prayerfulness requires our vulnerability. If our prayers are muddied with desires for pleasures and trinkets, they can become superfluous, even benign.

What if we wish to shift something unique, deep, and lovely? What if our desires are perfectly pure and egoless? What if we have the heart, soul-intention, and desire-base of a child? What, then?

Strangely, the Universe, born from light, has the heart of a child. This child is not infantile; rather, She is the embodiment of the deepest and most profound truths in all of reality, and throughout all galaxies and realms. Whether you see Her as a God, Avatar, Master, or Guru, or the embodiment of pure electromagnetic energy giving birth to matter and circumstance, She is truth itself.

When we beckon the Divine, we enter into a courtship with eternal light. It doesn’t matter if we’ve named him Jesus, Buddha, or Elm Tree, and it doesn’t matter whether we’re rich or poor. What matters most is that we have chosen to bow to a Supreme Being, which is also us. As we embody the purest humility, we see through the eyes of the Divine, and into forever. It’s in this state that prayers are immediately fulfilled.

Once we are in a complete and humble prostration to the eternal Self, we can be anyone or anything. In this position, we can share every tidbit of our pain and let it all out. We can be sad, angry, or delighted. We can be full of love, rage or hate. We can be selfish, and we can beg. Most importantly, as we lay our hearts and burdens at His holy feet, we free ourselves. This is how every soul, regardless of religion, can be immersed in the bosom of eternal light, and be born again.

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Genuine prayer is not easy. It comes at a price. To connect with and shift the fabric of reality through prayer, we must first admit that our self-identities and personas are temporary and barely real.

While we might not need to embody our purest selves at the start of our prayers, we need to be open to our unraveling. Without a doubt, to achieve a durable state of prayer, we must acquiesce to the All-That-Is, from the cores of our beings.

Praying with Humility: The Reality Of It All

When leading and participating in Native American and Pagan rituals, I’ve seen people heal themselves of hatred, depression, and disease. I’ve felt spirits exit bodies, and I’ve seen miraculous transformations in the most broken and horrid people.

Through deeply intentional and action-based prayers, I know that anything is possible. Even if for a moment, we can strip ourselves of our false identities and desires, and open our hearts to the vibrations of pure light, we can co-create any reality.

To begin praying with humility, sit in silence, and bow to the eternal master. Call out to your angels, guides, Gods, and helpers in all the realms. Yearn to be opened. Beg for the light to blow you away.

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The Art Of Superfoods: How to Eat Them Correctly

superfoods

Superfoods are yummy! A Shutterstock Licensed Image

While we have hundreds of options for every meal, we tend to eat the same foods over and over again. We are creatures of comfort and habit, after all. Even when our palettes are feeling adventurous, we tend to select foods that have similar attributes.

And while we might rarely stray far from our norms, we are all highly susceptible to marketing ploys, especially for products that promise health benefits. This is especially true of superfoods.

What are superfoods? Superfoods are the nutrient- and antioxidant-rich meals and snacks that seem to promise miraculous benefits. While the marketing of superfoods is a fascinating game of “who is more successful at promoting limited, scientific trials,” superfoods indeed show promise. Not only do they often taste delicious, but they also burn cleaner, and feel better in our bodies, especially when compared to the usual All-American fare of grease, flesh, and fries.

While a handful of superfoods have only gained notoriety in recent years, some of them have been popular for centuries. The best ones promise to improve your heart, liver, kidneys, brain, and more. Some say they can alleviate depression and facilitate the release of stored and stuck emotions. Superfoods That Cleanse Cleansing 101 with Kate Leinweber

Regardless of the hype and limited scientific studies, superfoods are packed with nutrients that many popular foods lack. If you believe that nutrients like vitamins and antioxidants are healthful, look no further than superfoods.

Common Questions About Superfoods

We all have questions about our superfoods. How much superfood is too much? What if a superfood contradicts our health by benefiting one organ while harming another? You might be wondering if green superfoods are better than non-green superfoods (they’re not). You might be looking for the best brain superfoods or the ones that provide the most energy. You might be recovering from an illness or exhaustion, and want to find the superfoods that can expedite your recovery.

Some foods pretend to be super when they’re not. When building your power-diet, look beyond hipster trends and marketing. When shopping for the healthiest foods, consider only the ingredients and health benefits. When constructing a nutritious diet, nurture all of your significant organs with vitamins and nutrients that can help them thrive.

While a few of these foods taste like bitter medicine, most of them are absolutely delicious. Here is my superfoods list:

Fruits, Nuts & Seeds

Blueberries: These lovely little berries contain compounds called anthocyanins, which can prevent cancer, heart disease, and dementia. They’ll also give your immune system a big boost.

Acai Berries: Pronounced “ah-sigh-EE,” these tiny red berries have more antioxidants than other berries. Their biggest claim to fame is that they stop cell damage that leads to the most harmful and deadliest diseases.

Goji Berries: Grown by monks for thousands of years, these tart little berries contain vitamins C, B2, and A, along with with iron, and a host of antioxidants. Many say that Goji Berries boost immunity, fight heart disease, improve brain function and digestion, and prevent cancer.

Aronia Berries: Also known as Chokeberries, these berries are high in vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. Some scientists say that Aronia can also help prevent cervical, skin, breast, and colon cancers, along with liver and heart disease.

Ginseng Berries: In addition to improving mental and sexual function, Ginseng Berries are said to decrease cholesterol, fight cancer, and lower gut inflammation.

Strawberries: These berries are full of vitamin C, manganese, folate (B9), folic acid, fiber, potassium, and antioxidants. Strawberries also might reduce high blood pressure and cholesterol, help manage blood sugar, and improve your brain function as you age.

Tomatoes: Not only are Tomatoes one of the most popular superfoods; they are cancer-fighting warriors. They contain lycopene (the antioxidant phytochemical that also helps prevent heart disease), along with vitamins A, C, and E — all enemies of free radicals, the pesky critters in bed with cancer.

Blackberries: Blackberries are chock-full of polyphenols, chemicals that reduce the inflammation that leads to heart disease and cancer. They also help breakdown sugar, which will lower your chances of Type 2 Diabetes.

Watermelon: This delicious fruit is full of vitamins, potassium, and lycopene, an antioxidant. It may help curb your risk of cancer and diabetes, and brings benefit to your heart. Watermelon also helps protect your joints, and it has amino acids that can improve your workouts.

Apples: This crunchy fruit is rich in phytonutrients, antioxidants, flavonoids, and fiber. They may reduce the risk of cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease.

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Pomegranates: This delight, also known as “Punica Granatum,” is a shrub that produces luscious, tiny, tangy, red fruit. It’s chock-full of fiber, protein, and potassium, and has high levels of vitamins C, K, B9 (folate), and more. Pomegranates have extremely potent antioxidants (punicalagin) that can out-power red wine and green tea by about 300%. By reducing chronic inflammation, they can reduce the risk of heart disease, arthritis, fungal and bacterial infections, cancer, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and obesity. Some studies show that Pomegranates can improve memory and sexual function. Awesome!

Avocados: While many believe that Avocados are vegetables, Avocados are delicious, high-calorie fruits. They’re filled with lutein, beta-carotene, and healthy fats and acids, and are infused with vitamins C, E, K, B-6, riboflavin, niacin, folate, magnesium, and potassium.

Flaxseeds: These tiny seeds are a nutritious source of healthy fat, antioxidants, fiber, protein, and essential fatty acids like Omega-3s. Many scientific trials seem to point to the idea that Flaxseeds can help lower the risk of diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.

Chia Seeds: Important long ago to the Aztecs and Mayans, Chia Seeds are cousins of mint. Loaded with antioxidants and fiber, they’re a great source of protein, calcium, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, B1, B2, B3 (niacin), and potassium.

Pistachios: These ancient, edible nuts are rich in phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, copper, choline, and betaine. Pistachios are jam-packed with B-vitamins and vitamins A, C, E, and K. These little green and brown morsels are also helpful in reducing inflammation, boosting immunity, aiding digestion, reducing Macular Disease (AMD), and improving health. They also have aphrodisiac properties.

Almonds: A great source of vitamin E, Almonds help reduce inflammation, which can lead to diseases like cancer, and they can protect against cognitive decline. Almonds can also help prevent heart disease, increase insulin sensitivity, and help to protect your gut.

Can Sweets and Beverages Be Superfoods?

Dark Chocolate: With a higher content of flavonoids and polyphenols (antioxidants), Dark Chocolate is a powerhouse against disease-causing free-radicals. This delicious treat can improve heart health, cognitive function, and vision.

Green Tea: If you want to keep your heart healthy and decrease your risk of cancer, Green Tea can be a powerful ally. This healthy beverage can also improve brain function, reduce stress, soothe arthritis, clear acne, and help fight against urinary tract infections.

Kombucha: Fermented beverages and foods like Kombucha can improve intestinal health, boost the immune system, and reduce the risk of allergies and chronic diseases. The same is true for all fermented and probiotic-heavy foods. If Kombucha’s alcohol content is not your thing, you’ll receive similar benefits from sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, miso, and yogurt.

Seaweed, Algae, and Grass

Seaweed: Nori, Kelp, Wakame, Kombu, Dulse, Blue-green algae (Spirulina and Chlorella) are excellent sources of protein, carbs, fiber, minerals, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and vitamins C, B, A, and E. Rich in iodine, these water-weeds are helpful to people with hypothyroidism. Seaweed can also help with weight loss, heart health, and the gut.

Wheatgrass & Barley Grass & Blue-green Algae (BGA): These bitter but nutritious cereal grasses are cousins to our favorite leafy vegetables, but these rich green foods pack a 10x more powerful punch of beneficial phytonutrients. While they might be a bit hard to swallow and enjoy, your body will appreciate their luscious benefits.

Moringa: Also known as “Moringa Oleifera,” Moringa is a plant known as the miracle tree and horseradish tree. It’s a potent antifungal, antiviral, antidepressant, and anti-inflammatory. Low in fat, Moringa is chock-full of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B-6, and much more. Moringa works quickly in the body, which might result in the almost immediate passing of gas.

Vegetables and Fungi

Kale: This dark, leafy green vegetable has more iron than beef, and it’s packed with nutrients, including lots of vitamin C, and 700% of your recommended vitamin K. Kale’s antioxidant quercetin will also boost your immune system.

Romaine Lettuce: Romaine Lettuce is a remarkable superfood. It is said that this crunchy vegetable can prevent vision problems, help protect the eyes from a variety of disorders, and deter muscular degeneration. An excellent source of vitamin K, Romaine Lettuce, will help to protect your bones and prevent aging diseases like osteoporosis – all because it’s jam-packed with vitamins A and C, potassium, and many B vitamins. It’s also one of those veggies that’s capable of fighting cancer cells.

Beets: Beets are a profound source of phytonutrients (betalains), and more specifically, betanin and violaxanthin. These nutritive elements provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support for the body. To get the biggest health-bang from your beets, steam them with their skin, instead of boiling them, for no longer than 15 minutes. Beets can also reduce tumor cell growth by inhibiting the normal growth of pro-inflammatory enzymes.

Mushrooms: Shiitake, Button, Creminis, Reishi, Wood Ear, and Lion’s Mane mushrooms are soft, delicious, and nutritious. Rich in vitamins B, D, and K, many mushrooms have cancer-fighting and anti-inflammatory powers, help lower cholesterol, and are natural immunity-boosters. Reishi mushrooms, in particular, fight disease, lower inflammation, suppress allergic responses, reduce tumor growth, and more. Lion’s Mane mushrooms protect against ulcers, heart disease, cancer, inflammation, dementia, depression, and anxiety. Wood Ear is a popular mushroom found in Chinese cuisine and medicine. It can lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of cancer, coronary heart disease, and arthritis. Mushrooms are wonderfully healing and nutritious!

Peppers: From sweet green or red bell to smoking-hot habañero and Scotch bonnet, these delicious, crunchy “berries” contain helpful compounds called capsaicinoids (like capsaicin), which provide extraordinary anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-cancer, and heart-healthy benefits.

Protein, Legumes, & Carbs

Eggs: A popular breakfast food, your body will benefit from eggs any time of day. Eggs are loaded with proteins, minerals, healthy fats, and a variety of trace nutrients. A large egg contains 5g of fat, 6g of protein, and our essential amino acids. Eggs are also jam-packed with iron, phosphorus, selenium, and vitamins A, B12, B2, and B5 (among others).

Beans & Lentils: From kidney, black, navy, pinto, and chickpeas (Garbanzo) to soybeans, dried peas, and lentils, these low-fat, anti-aging foods are low in calories and sodium, high in fiber, and excellent sources of protein. They’re also chock-full of complex carbohydrates and essential fatty acids, like omega-6s. Beans and Lentils also help regular sugar levels and are therefore helpful to anti-diabetes diets.

Wild Salmon: Since many media outlets are reporting that farmed salmon might lead to a host of health issues, your best choice is Wild Salmon. With antioxidants and anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, Wild Salmon is an excellent addition to your regular diet. It also has immune-supportive selenium, energy-producing phosphorus, and muscle-building protein. Wild Salmon also has heart-healthy niacin, vitamin B12, vitamin B6, potassium, and vitamin D, which is terrific for bones.

Sweet Potatoes: Sweet potatoes, especially the purple ones, are rich in fiber, vitamins B and C, minerals including iron, calcium, and selenium, and antioxidants like beta-carotene, which protect the body against ‘free radicals’ and reduce the risk of cancer. With all its fiber, Sweet potato can be helpful to digestion and improve blood sugar levels.

Oils & Spices

Garlic: For centuries, Garlic has been used to prevent diseases and improve the immune system. With increased consumption of Garlic, some population studies are showing reduced risks of cancers, including cancers of the stomach, colon, esophagus, pancreas, and breasts. Garlic is also known to be an effective treatment against high blood pressure and can help reduce the effects of diabetes. Some studies point to the idea that Garlic (with all its antioxidants) can help prevent conditions like Alzheimer’s, dementia, the common cold, and other infections. In general, Garlic can defend against harmful organisms, bacteria, and parasites.

Olive Oil: Not only is Olive Oil a delicious additive in salads and other dishes, but it’s also jam-packed with antioxidants like vitamin E and has anti-inflammatory properties. With healthier monounsaturated fats, choosing olive oil over butter on occasion can lower the risk of heart disease.

Ginger: Ginger contains gingerol, a powerful medicinal from China that can be helpful against inflammation, heart disease, motion sickness, nausea, muscle pain, cholesterol, cancer, Osteoarthritis, and menstrual pain. It can help to fight infections and improve brain functions.

Curcumin: Curcumin is found in Turmeric, Turmeric’s primary medicinal element. Curcumin is known to be an antioxidant, helpful to inflammation, and reducing the effects of diabetes. If possible, consume your Curcumin with black pepper, which will keep the Curcumin in your body for more extended periods. Mixed with piperine, Curcumin will be more effective. Curcumin is an excellent source of magnesium and iron, and it will boost your body’s antioxidant enzymes. It can lower the risk of brain and heart diseases, and help with depression and some chronic diseases. Although some studies are not all that flattering of Curcumin, the majority of them show that Curcumin can produce healthful benefits.

Summary of Superfoods

While there are many short-term benefits of using this list as your sole diet, there are also dangers. When we hammer our bodies with specific foods over long periods, there’s a chance we can develop allergies. This is not true in every case, just something to consider. After all, millions of people regularly eat bowls of rice and experience zero negative side-effects.

If you’re into superfoods for weight loss, you might consider removing the carbs and fat from the above list, like avocados and nuts. You might also consider upping your protein intake, eating smaller and more frequent meals, or committing to 60 days of intermittent fasting. If weight loss is your game, exercise is paramount.

We don’t need red wine or trendy alcoholic beverages to keep our bodies clear of toxins. Given the miracles of scientific extraction, we don’t need any intoxicants at all. We need delicious, organic foods, positivity, prayer, simple rituals, and love. In all things, remember to love yourself – that’s where our journeys toward health begin.

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The Humble Life Of Yoga Master, B.K.S Iyengar

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Iyengar Yoga – A Shutterstock Licensed Image

As trendy as yoga has become, when it’s properly practiced it can help earnest people release physical and emotional toxins, and reach deeper levels of clarity and self-realization. Improperly practiced or bastardized, yoga becomes nothing more than an ego-serving, adrenaline-inducing exercise.

While there are many social-experimenters in the US and UK offering varieties of classes involving Party-in-Your-Pants Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar, and his Iyengar Yoga are the real deal, both grounded in spiritual truths and ancient texts. While some of Iyengar’s followers and teachers may come from a more egoistic state than their master, Iyengar’s teachings have endured the tests of time and dilution. They remain profound and penetrating.

“My Body Is My Temple And Asanas Are My Prayers”
— B.K.S. Iyengar

Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar’s career spanned eight decades, during which he developed and taught a unique version of Hatha Yoga. Hatha was founded in the early 10th century by Matsyendra, the yogi-saint known to be an incarnation of Avalokiteśvara, who has been honored in both Buddhist and Hindu traditions.

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Iyengar’s style focused on correcting alignment through the precise performance of yoga postures (asanas). This “new yoga” was the first popularized form that utilized benches, blocks, belts, sandbags, blankets, and other tools within the practice. This was not only revolutionary, but it also opened the doors for people with physical limitations to correctly perform the asanas without hurting themselves.

Yoga And Sex

Hatha Yoga was originally an extension of Tantra, the celebratory practice of physical and spiritual fusion of masculine and feminine aspects. With specific poses aimed at raising the kundalini or “life force,” Tantric aspirants were enveloped in blissful unions with the eternal consciousness of the cosmos. Tantra, as it’s practiced today, can be exciting, transformative, and yet challenging to master. It can also become addictive and inspire ongoing sexual promiscuity, which can detract from living a balanced, love-based life.

Have no doubt, yoga awakens our most coveted aspects, including our sexual prowess. This is why some yoga masters become sexual predators or at least sexual experimenters. The lure of multiple partners can be enticing and overwhelming, and eventually intoxicating.

But if we consider that most yoga asanas were designed to awaken the flames within us, how can we find faults in our desires, addictions, and yoga teachers? Sexual expression and healing have always been intertwined with the tenets of yoga. Eventually, it comes down to taking responsibility for our projections, and enjoying the outcomes, whether they result in disaster or bliss. Remember, there is no “other.”

“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.”
— B.K.S. Iyengar

Trendy Yoga

While it used to be an honor to be invited to study yoga, today, anybody can wander into a gym and sign-up for classic forms of yoga. Gym and yoga studio members can also engage with the more hipster versions of this ancient rite, including “Rage Yoga,” Metal Yoga,” and “Sailor’s Mouth Yoga,” the latest forms designed to massacre the ancient texts with ego and attitude. There’s even a USA Yoga Championship and The International Federation of Sports Yoga. Hooray!

While these concepts are exciting and potentially fruitful for their followers, they have nothing to do with the original yogic disciplines. Yoga is not a sport or a hobby. It’s a spiritual path that can lead to awakening. And while you might feel joyful, accomplished, and self-validated when competing, copping attitudes, or slamming shots of Jäger after downward-facing-dog, these activities tend to be more self-aggrandizing than transformative.

The Basics of Iyengar Yoga

Iyengar Yoga requires discipline as it strives to unify the body, breath, mind, and soul. What also makes Iyengar Yoga unique is that it focuses on learning and experiencing rather than pushing through a list of poses in one sitting. It’s all about quality instead of quantity. While this style of yoga veers from the traditional flow of Hatha Yoga, it’s equally calm, gentle, and mindful. While the practice of Iyengar Yoga does not require its students to adopt any set of beliefs, it follows this teaching to its core:

“Let us bow before the noblest of sages Patanjali, who gave yoga for serenity and sanctity of mind,

grammar for clarity and purity of speech, and medicine for perfection of health.”

BKS Iyengar authored many books on yoga, including “Light on Yoga,” which sold over 3 million copies, and became an international best-seller, translated into 17 languages. He also authored 13 additional books, including “The Tree of Yoga,” “Light on Pranayama,” “Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,” and “Light on Life.” Although he was a profound teacher and master, he never required his students to follow his personal, religious traditions. In fact, he would encourage them to remain devout to their birth religions and cultures, the sign of a true spiritual master.

The BKS and Ramamani Iyengar Family

Married to BKS in 1943, Iyengar’s wife was a humble, loving woman named Ramamani, for whom he later opened The Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India. During their loving marriage, Ramamani gave birth to five daughters and one son. Their children Geeta and Prashant continued the Iyengar Yoga legacy by becoming internationally-known teachers and authors.

Throughout her life, Geeta (1944-2018) focused on yoga for women and published “Yoga: A Gem for Women.” Prashant authored several books on yoga and served as director of the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Institute for many years. It is said that Iyengar’s and Ramamani’s other children Vanita, Sunita, Suchita, and Savita, led more secular lives. Yet, the lineage continues: Abhijata Sridhar Iyengar, their granddaughter, continues to each at the family’s institute in Pune, and in other countries.

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While many yoga masters fall under the tutelage of a guru very early in their lives, Iyengar did not hear the calling until his brother-in-law invited him to a class when he was 15. Not only was his brother-in-law a respected teacher of yoga, but Tirumalai Krishnamacharya is also often referred to as “The Father of Modern Yoga.”

“There is a universal reality in ourselves that aligns us

with a universal reality that is everywhere.”
— B.K.S. Iyengar

BKS Iyengar’s Early Education

BKS Iyengar lived a fascinating life. Born in a poor village in Karnataka, India, he was the 11th child of 13. After contracting influenza during the pandemic that ravaged his hometown, the young BKS was never the same. Before reaching adulthood, he was stricken with malaria, typhoid fever, poor nutrition, and bouts of tuberculosis.

By the time he was 15, he was ready for a change. Beckoned by his famous brother-in-law, the yogi Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, Iyengar moved to Mysore, India, and spent two years devoutly practicing yoga asanas. In 1937, when Iyengar was 18 years old, Sri Krishnamacharya ordained the young man as a yoga instructor and sent him to Pune to spread the gospel of asanas.

During the time of his study with Sri Krishnamacharya, the young Iyengar struggled. Since he neither showed spiritual promise or was a favored student, Iyengar was often assigned to the drudgery of household chores. Because of this, his relationship with Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya was often strained.

It wasn’t until Sri Krishnamacharya’s prize students moved away when Iyengar’s master training began.

While some students were given lighter exercises and less stringent schedules, Iyengar was taught a series of difficult postures, often being instructed to fast until he mastered specific asanas.

After teaching yoga for many years, Iyengar felt called to teach in other parts of the world. He spent time in Switzerland and Europe teaching violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Back at home, Iyengar taught celebrities Jiddu Krishnamurti and Jayaprakassh Narayan. He also taught the Queen of Belgium how to do a headstand, and writer Aldous Huxley and actress Annette Bening to perform his unique asanas. Iyengar continued to teach and lecture through to his death on August 20, 2014. He was 95 years old.

“Be inspired but not proud.”
— B.K.S Iyengar

B.K.S. Iyengar Quotes

“It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity.”

“Breath is the king of mind.”

“Yoga is like music. The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul creates the symphony of life.”

“Yoga does not just change the way we see things; it transforms the person who sees.”

“There is no difference in souls, only the ideas about ourselves that we wear.”

B.K.S. Iyengar’s Legacy

As an Indian national hero, Iyengar’s government awarded him several prizes, including “The Padma Shri” in 1991, “The Padma Bhushan” in 2002, and “The Padma Vibhushan” in 2014. These accolades were heard around the world. In 2004, Time Magazine named Iyengar as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2005, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared October 3 as “B.K.S. Iyengar Day.” In 2011, Beijing’s China Post honored this prolific writer and teacher with a commemorative stamp.

More recently, the Oxford Dictionary recently defined the noun “Iyengar” as “a type of Hatha Yoga focusing on correct alignment of the body.” On December 14, 2015, Google honored what would have been Iyengar’s 97th birthday with a Google Doodle, a digital animation that was shown on browsers in India, North America, Europe, Russia, and Indonesia.

A true master of yoga, BKS Iyengar continues to inspire millions of people to improve their postures, health, happiness, and souls through his uniquely profound Iyengar Yoga.

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Enliven Your Mind And Immune System With Eleuthero And Caprylic Acid

Eleuthero

Eleuthero – A Shutterstock Licensed Image

I first became excited about Eleuthero root and Caprylic acid when doing bookstore and comedy tours. I had been pushing myself so hard, I became mentally foggy in the early afternoon. My energy had also decreased, and I was showing signs of fatigue, and a bit of despair. It turns out that the stress of touring was taking its toll. That’s when a friend suggested that I look into Eleuthero (Ciwujia, Eleutherococcus senticosus, Acanthopanax senticosus), a small shrub native to Northeastern Asia. Some call it Devil’s Bush, but its most popular name is Siberian Ginseng.

This 2000-year-old Chinese remedy is not related to American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) or the more famous Panax Ginseng. Eleuthero is unique. It’s an adaptogen that can help your body and mind handle stress. It has a long list of potential health benefits.

Here are the most popular Eleuthero benefits:

  1. Increased blood flow to the brain. Improves memory, concentration, clarity, and flow of ideas.
  2. Reduced fatigue and boosted energy
  3. Improved metabolism
  4. Improved cardiovascular health by helping with blood flow and blood pressure.
  5. Regulated blood sugar
  6. Improved mood and attitude
  7. Enhanced exercise
  8. Reduced instances of osteoporosis with increased muscle and bone strength
  9. Manages menopause by binding to estrogen receptor sites
  10. Reduced respiratory tract infections
  11. Improved lymphatic function, which results in reducing edema (swelling)
  12. Prevents and repairs nerve damage

While all of these things are positive, there are potential side effects when consuming Eleuthero, including confusion, insomnia, headaches, feelings of agitation, raised blood pressure, hormonal changes, nerve pain, and rash.

If you’re taking medications, there might be more extreme side effects, so please be careful. Always consult a physician when adding new herbs and supplements to your regiment.

What is Caprylic Acid (and what are its cousins)?

Also known as MCT Oil, Caprylic Acid is fatty acid distilled (fractionated) from coconut oil. MCTs comprise unique types of fat that most of us can easily and quickly convert to energy. While there are many brands, there are only four types of these medium-chain fatty acids (triglycerides).

Here’s how these four big-boys measure up:

  • Caproic Acid or Hexanoic Acid (C6): oily, unpleasant odor, water-soluble, boosts production of blood ketone (compounds produced during fasting that provide accessible energy for the brain and muscles)
  • Caprylic Acid or Octanoic Acid (C8): helps with weight loss, increases energy, boosts ketone production, fights cancer, antimicrobial
  • Capric Acid or Decanoic Acid (C10): similar to C8, but a little more potent, and might take longer for the body to convert the acid into ketones
  • Lauric Acid or Dodecanoic Acid (C12): a major part of coconut oil, antimicrobial, bigger molecules means it takes a long time to process, which is not helpful to brain function, energy levels, or other systems in the body

While coconut oil contains 65% MCTs, feel free to increase your intake of this luscious oil. Raw coconut oil is also helpful when trying to eradicate yeast. It also kills harmful bacteria, viruses, and other contaminants in your body.

Since many relevant tests now point to Caprylic Acid (C8) and Capric Acid (C10) as the most concentrated MCTs (10X that of coconut oil) and have emerged as the purest and beneficial MCT oils, they’ve become quite the rage.

Benefits of Caprylic Acid (C8) and Capric Acid (C10)

Since C8 and C10 are flavorless, you can add them to coffee, smoothies, and more, without having to endure any cumbersome aftertaste. Just be careful not to take too much. If you’re more sensitive than most, more than a teaspoon might result in an upset stomach or diarrhea.

Here are the most popular benefits of these helpful oils:

  1. Improves metabolism
  2. Increases physical and mental energy
  3. Provides an easy way to lose a little weight
  4. Increased feelings of tummy fullness
  5. Reduces appetite
  6. Less likely to be stored as fat
  7. Enhances exercise performance
  8. Beneficial for tooth infections, active bladder, and respiratory health

Over 30 years, scientists have studied various types of Ginseng, including Eleuthero, and their impact on competitive athletic performance.

The subject of a large-scale study with over 5,000 participants, Eleuthero emerged as a powerful ally in several categories:

  • Lung capacity was improved
  • Depth of breathing grew
  • Reduced restlessness
  • Increased stamina
  • Athletes saw a significant improvement in the length of time it took them to recover from a grueling workout or competition
  • Participants showed decreased chances of tissue hypoperfusion, hypoxia, hemorrhagic shock, or pulmonary embolism

Similarly, some of the studies that show the effectiveness of Caprylic Acid were equally positive:

  • Helpful in eradicating candida (fungal) infections
  • Superior and less expensive than the drug Diflucan
  • Effective anti-cancer, anti-aging, anti-Alzheimer’s disease, anti-Autism, anti-infection
  • Effective in general circulatory improvement

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While all of these results are encouraging, many people in the scientific community have not been friendly toward proponents of Eleuthero and Caprylic Acid. While several studies conclusively point to specific values of these brain and energy boosters, many other studies are inconclusive.

When seeking improvements in peacefulness, along with boosts in brain and immune system functions, it might be helpful to add Holy Basil, Gotu Kola, and Ashwagandha to your daily regiment. These herbs will give your body, mind, and heart a little relaxation amid all the passion, power, and excitement.

To improve your brain function and the immune system, you might also consider the following ideas:

  • Buy, cook and eat healthy, organic, whole foods
  • Reduce meat consumption
  • Increase your awareness of herbs and healing tonics
  • Exercise regularly
  • Selflessly serve other human beings
  • Meditate
  • Kundalini yoga
  • Prana (Pranic) breathing
  • Prayer
  • Monthly, quarterly, and yearly rituals of rebirth and renewal

In all things, assume that you and the Divine are working in unison to improve conditions and realities for yourself, and for all living beings, in all the realms, throughout all instances and trajectories of spacetime.