inflammation

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May 20, 2010

Hello Blog

Posted by Molly under awareness, be present, boulder, detox, happiness, health, hope, inflammation, inspiration, meditation, one-pointedness, present moment, spirituality, transformation, Uncategorized, vipassana, well-being | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[17] Comments 

I’m back after an extended absence from the world of blogging. Finally I have the space and inspiration to get back to it, to share my experience, and to hear all about yours. What your heart feels, what you’re learning about yourself, the cobwebs, the crevices, the light and dark. What a journey we’re on. The world would be a very different place if we each had our own planet and we did this thing called life alone. Thank god we get to share  love, that wellspring of goodness.

Since I’ve been away from blogging I’ve had some fabulous experiences. I sat a 20-day Vipassana course in November. It was a doozy but I am incredibly grateful for the experience, for what I gained (or lost…depending on your angle).

I spent 2 weeks in February at the Optimum Health Institute. The Optimum Health Institute is a raw/living food detoxification program. You eat a raw diet designed for detoxification &  drink more wheatgrass than you ever thought humanly possible (you do other things with the wheatgrass as well, but they are better left off the blog). Why would you want to subject yourself to this? Some people go to treat “health opportunities” (that is OHI code for illness or disease, and feels much different when you say it…opportunity implies you can make a difference…this rings really true if you have a health opportunity like I have). Others go simply to clean up. After years of eating things that come from a can or a box and have lists of ingredients that you can’t pronounce, the body becomes a bit of a toxic dump. (Poor, poor temple. What have we done to thou?) At OHI you detox and come away feeling like a shiny temple inside. Truly. When I returned home people couldn’t stop telling me how amazing my skin looked, how amazing I looked. I do not eat an exclusively raw diet now, but 2 meals a day and all of my snacks are raw, and the cooked food I eat is food I’ve made myself so I know what is in it (no more dairy, refined sugar, gluten, caffeine….yes I broke that wicked black tea habit). The experience at OHI was a huge act of self-love.

Lastly, my favorite yoga teacher read a poem in class the other day by Hafiz. It moved me to tears. Of course I am also just really happy to be back at yoga, because status post the development of my health opportunity 3 years ago, it has taken a while for me to get back to her level of class. My gawd does it feel heavenly . The poem:

“Your Mother and My Mother”

Fear is the cheapest room in the house
I would like to see you living
In better conditions,for your mother and my mother
Were friends.

I know the Innkeeper
In this part of the universe.
Get some rest tonight,
Come to my verse tomorrow.
We’ll go speak to the Friend together.

I should not make any promises right now,
But I know if you
Pray
Somewhere in this world-
Something good will happen.

God wants to see
More love and playfulness in your eyes
For that is your greatest witness to Him.


Your soul and my soul
Once sat together in the Beloved’s womb
Playing footsie.

Your heart and my heart
are very, very old
Friends.


 

July 6, 2009

Flush

Posted by Molly under awareness, be present, boulder, change, happiness, ibs, illness, inflammation, inflammatory bowel disease, insight, life, meditation, present moment, spirituality, stress, transformation, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[41] Comments 

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Today is day 2 of a liver/gallbladder flush. Recently I started sensing the need to slow down and do a little cleansing/purging. I’ve heard a dear friend talk about amazing results with this flush for years, and finally the time felt right to do it myself. It isn’t your run-of-the-mill liver cleanse. It is a cleanse on steroids. It culminates in the excretion (that is the pleasant way to say it) of hundreds to thousands of “stones”. I know several people who have done this flush, and they all verify the results. There is no fasting which is really nice. We clean our cars, our homes, our workspace, it only makes sense to give the temple a deep cleanse every so often.

So I’m taking it easy, meditating, reading, and moving slowly. It feels good.

This weekend as I’m “flushing” out the stones, I’m going to do the same to my house/closet. There is a huge feeling of satisfaction brewing.

Check it out: The Amazing Liver Gallbladder Flush by Andreas Moritz

I’ll fill you in after this weekend when the “flushing” really takes place.

 

March 2, 2009

Turmeric for Good Health

Posted by Molly under arthritis, awareness, be present, change, faith, happiness, hope, ibs, illness, inflammation, inflammatory bowel disease, insight, life, listening, meditation, one-pointedness, spirituality, transformation, Uncategorized, vipassana | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
[23] Comments 

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I am feeling the need to extoll the health benefits of turmeric today. I discovered turmeric as a panacea when I became very sick in 2007. When you aren’t sure if you’ll ever walk normally again, you’ll do just about anything. Well it turns out that turmeric, which is also known as circumen, is  a member of the ginger family and has been around for thousands of years. It is revered as a staple in Ayurvedic medicine, among its many uses being taken in a warm glass of milk three times a day to ward off colds and flu. In Eastern religions it is used in ceremonies and pujas. And women actually wear it on their skin for good fortune. 

I started putting a half a teaspoon in water and drinking it once a day, and I have recently started doing this twice a day. Turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory, therefore it helps sufferers with diseases like arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. It is used widely in cancer prevention. It inhibits cancer cell growth and metasteses. It improves liver function, lowers cholesterol, protects against Alzheimers, and cardiovascular disease. And it is inexpensive. I buy it at the Vitamin Cottage in Boulder in bulk and it costs $4.16/lb (I buy a little over a 1/4 lb at a time). Or you could buy it in pre-packaged capsules, but it is far more expensive and you don’t really need the gelatin capsule. Note: I read somewhere that it takes a couple of months of regular use for the health benefits to take effect.

I can’t say that the turmeric alone is making the difference in my life, as I eat a clean diet, I exercise, meditate, do yoga, get acupuncture 2-3 times a month, and keep things simple. But it resonates for me that I should include it, so I do. And I live a fairly symptom-free existence these days. Except for when I break down and eat sugar and other unwholesome foods, which does occasionally happen. My how the body becomes the barometer.

Here is a good article on the health benefits of turmeric, and there is far more research out there on the world wide web. Western medicine is finally catching on.

 

 

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