Archive for the ‘Holistic Guidance’ Category:
Which Wolf Do You Feed?
Science tells us that our bodies are 99.99999% empty space and energy. Within our cells are atoms and within those atoms is a whole lot of nothing. But that nothing holds the potential for heath or disease.
Our bodies are composed of energy. Now energy can have different qualities. Energy also vibrates at different speeds and densities. As energy vibrates at slower and slower speeds, it becomes more dense and more solid. Take water as an example. Energy and temperature are linked. As particles vibrate faster and faster, they build heat. As particles vibrate slower and slower, they become colder and lose heat. So when water vibrates at a slower speed and loses heat, the temperature decreases, and water eventually freezes to form ice. If we add heat or increase the vibration and speed of the particles of which the ice/water is made, then the ice will melt and once again turn into water. If we further increase the speed of the particles, increasing the heat, then the water will eventually evaporate and become a gas.
The same thing happens within our own bodies. Our bodies are 80% water and 20% matter. And even that 20% matter is not really solid, but it only appears to be solid because it is energy vibrating at a very slow speed.
Yoga scriptures tell us that energy is of three kinds: Sattvic, Rajasic, and Tamasic. Sattvic energy is very light energy. It moves at a very high vibration. It is pure and made up of Light. It has the quality of peace, joy, bliss, and has a calming effect on the human being. Rajasic energy moves at a slower vibration. Yet Rajasic energy is the energy of motion itself. It is activity and has the qualities of passion, materialism, and brings out in human beings the desire to succeed, to make money, to obtain power, and even can begin to produce greed. Tamasic energy is very heavy. It is dark, dense, dull, and stagnant. It holds the quality of inertia. It vibrates at a very low speed. It is a cold energy. It brings out all the negative qualities in the human being: anger, hatred, jealousy, possessiveness, darkness, and evil.
The Yoga scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, tells us that there are only two Lineages: the Lineage of Pure Light and Energy (Prana) and the Lineage of Mind/Ego. Mental energy is made up of mostly Rajas and Tamas. Mind is a very heavy. It is composed of mostly solid, dense, dark energy with just enough motion and passion to stir it up and keep it moving and active in our perception. Matter is just another term for Mind. Mind is that slow vibrating 20% solid energy which makes up our human bodies.
We have a choice. And this is what we have forgotten. We are 99.99999% empty space, which is energy. We choose a certain percentage of that energy to be solid to create this physical reality. But it is all an illusion created by Mind, created by us as individuals. Everything in the world is ruled by these three energies (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas), called the Gunas. Even the elements fall into combinations of these three energies. And we are nothing but elements. Our bodies are broken down into elements, minerals. We survive on minerals and elemental compounds.
Just like a barbed wire fence is mostly empty space with just a little bit of solid form to hold it all together, we are mostly empty space with just a little bit of solid form holding us together. Yet that solid form is our own choice.
But please remember, with that choice, comes a price. Rajasic and Tamasic energies comprise this solidity. Yet, Rajasic and Tamasic energies will control you, bind you, manipulate you, and bring disease (dis-ease) into your system. Disease and sickness lead to old age and death.
Sattvic energy is light in weight and of a high vibration. It is the quality of pure Light. It moves at a very fast speed energetically. It builds a great amount of heat. By increasing the amount of Sattva within our systems, we increase the amount of life sustaining energy that the ancients called Prana, Chi, Qi, Mana, and Tao. This vital life energy is the very energy that our Soul is composed of. This is not religion. This is science. It is the science of nature, a science we have forgotten.
Food is meant to nourish and sustain our bodies. We SHOULD be eating for this vital life energy. Instead, most of us eat for pleasure and out of desire. We eat for our Minds and Egos. Food is meant to be consumed for replenishing the vital nutrients, the vitamins and minerals that our bodies need in order to maintain proper functioning of our organs and internal life systems.
Food is also energy. Everything is energy. What we consume also falls into the three energetic categories. There are foods that are light and of pure energy. There are foods that are of a more active and passion forming energy. And there are foods that are of a more dark, dense, and inert energy. When we consume foods that are of the passionate and darker energies, we become more passionate and darker/denser as a result. What we eat, we become.
We are composed of atoms. Atoms are made up of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Most of the matter in our bodies is due to the density of the protons and neutrons in the atom. Electrons are of a very light and fast moving energy. Some atoms have more electrons than others. Some atoms have more protons than others. Generally the substances in life that have more electrons also have more oxygen, and the substances that have more protons contain more hydrogen.
Now, atoms converge to form molecules, and molecules converge to form compounds. Molecules can be simple, made up of a few atoms, such as water, or can be very complex combinations, such as our DNA. Yet, our very DNA is just energy. It is a certain combination of atoms that becomes a very map for everything from our physical characteristics to the genetic potential for diseases. From our biological lineages, we have a wonderful possibility and a great burdon all wrapped up into one. Our possibility comes from the fact that we are the only species on the entire planet that have the ability to transmute energy. We can change our physical form. We can change the combinations of atoms in our very body. We can affect our own cells and our own DNA. We do this through changing the combination of energy density within our bodies. We can change the amount of Sattva, Rajas, or Tamas of which we are composed in any given moment. We hold a great burdon because we carry within our DNA our parents energetic blueprints. Thus, we carry within us their energetic Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas combinations as well as atomic combinations and genetic potentials for certain diseases.
Food is just one of the ways we bring energy into our beings. And there are certain elements that our bodies do not naturally produce when our energies are so solid and of a low vibration. Thus, we need to consume elements like zinc, iron, and calcium. Our bodies run on minerals. Minerals feed our Light bodies. They are directly connected to the Sattva energy within us. The very elements that are within stars are within our own bodies. We are literally composed of star dust. So, the idea that we are star children really is not far fetched or inaccurate. Our entire planet is composed of the same elements that are within a star and were there during the formation of a star. We would die without sunlight, and yet the sun itself is one giant, burning star.
Our bodies run on a few specific minerals and elemental compounds: calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, sodium, sodium bicarbonate, and manganese. Urinary and salivary pH tells us just how much of these minerals our bodies contain. If we are low in these minerals, our bodily fluids become acidic. When these minerals are in a proper balance in our bodies, our bodily fluids are alkaline. pH stands for the potency of hydrogen. The more hydrogen we have in our bodies, the more acidic our bodies become. The more oxygen we have in our bodies the more alkaline we become. If you connect the dots, you will begin to discover what I have discovered. That is, that hydrogen, acidity, lack of minerals, low pH, low/slow vibrational energy, Rajas and Tamas, and Mind/Ego are all interconnected. In the same manner, oxygen, alkalinity, abundance of minerals, normal to high pH, high vibrational energy, Sattva, and Light/Consciousness are all interconnected.
Yoga is the process of turning base matter into energy. Food is a critical component of this process. And alkaline food is a part (yet not the whole) of this topic of Food.
Simple deduction will lead you to discover that alkaline food is Sattvic in nature. Alkaline food has the ability to increase our positive, light, pure, life sustaining energy. It has the ability to also bring our minds into a calmer, more peaceful, more loving, positive state. We can literally become primitive animals or conscious energetic beings through what we eat alone.
Minerals increase our pH, making our bodies alkaline by nature. Yet, most of the minerals in our food and water have been stripped and removed due to farming, food processing, and water purification. We are 80% water, and so we need to replinish that water with highly alkaline mineral water. Yet most water in existance today is stripped of all minerals, rendering most water acidic. Pure water, straight from the ground, is alkaline. Yet, because we feel it is safer and necessary to cleanse and purify our water (and due to our low immunity and the acidity of our bodies, it probably is), we remove all the minerals and fail to replenish those minerals in adequate amounts when the purification process if finished. If minerals are added back into the water, usually, if you test the pH of the water, you will discover that not enough minerals have been added to bring the water back up to a pH of 7 which is considered netural (1-6 pH is acidic, 8-14 is alkaline, 7 is neutral). So we flush our bodies with acid water and that 80% of our bodies becomes acid. If we eat 20% acid as food, we all develop latent tissue acidosis, and the process of disease and decay and degeneration begins.
We are composed of billions of cells. Those cells are like fish in a fish tank. If the fish is living in acidic, low pH water, the fish will become starved for oxygen. Bacteria, yeast, fungus, and mold (microforms) will develop in the waters. The fish will die. The same thing happens in our own bodies. Our cells are our fish. If our internal fluids are acidic, then we develop bacteria, yeast, fungus, and mold in our bodily fluids and in our blood. Live Blood Cell Analysis will show you just how acidic you are by showing you just how much of these microforms are in your blood. These microforms are the very agents of the Rajasic and Tamasic energies within our own bodies. These microforms crave the very foods that will prolong their existance: pasta, white flour, sugar, rice, yeast, beer, fermentation, meat, bread, cheese, mushrooms… anything made from or with bacteria, yeast, fungus, and mold. Try to cut these out of your diet and not eat any of these for a solid month and tell me that you do not crave any one of these things. It is not YOU that is craving these things. It is the microforms that are craving these things. Rajas and Tamas are not just on a physical elemental level. They are energies, so they are on a mental, emotional, and spiritual level as well. We are dimensional beings. Our very thoughts and emotions can make us acidic or alkaline.
Our billions of cells are all like individual fish. Each cell is an individual life form. We think we are this one main conscious entity. Yet within our bodies are billions of living, breathing (yes, cells breathe through cellular respiration), reproducing life forms. Each cell has an individual task it performs. And cells are grouped by their function. Our cells consume food and excrete waste just like we do. Our cells have little body parts. And according to function, cells are divided into little nations within us. There are cells that make up the blood. There are cells that make up the heart that pumps the blood. There are liver cells, lung cells, immune system cells, and skin cells, just to name a few. And all of these cells work individually and yet also in perfect harmony with eachother in order to create the universe of YOU. Your apparenly solid form is only due to the billions of individual life forms within you working diligently 24/7.
Take care of your body. Take care of not just the external body. It is more important to take care of the internal body. Take care of your cells and they will take care of you.
Cells live and die. But before they die, they make a 100% exact carbon copy of themselves to carry on their work when they die. Now, if a cell is attacked and damaged due to an acidic and low energy internal environment, that cell will become wounded and will not reproduce properly. Thus the celluar copy will be different, imperfect, and flawed. Ageing, diseases, and cancer are all caused due to cellular malfunction. This damages our DNA. It changes our DNA. And thus our genetic code changes over lifetimes and is passed down over lifetimes.
Can you imagine the genetic possibilities if we only change the way we eat? How it will affect our DNA? The future of our race and our children and their children? There is a DNA molecule within each cell.
Flawed, damaged cells within the heart cause corinary problems. Damaged cells within the endocrine system cause endocrine and hormonal imbalances and malfunctions. Flaws within the skin cells cause wrinkles. Liver cells become overworked due to having to filter out acidic and toxic fluids. Joint cells can become undernourished and overused leading to arthritis.
Diet can reverse disease, sickness, cancer, ageing, and even death.
Medicine needs to evolve in order for us to evolve. Nutrition and medicine needs to begin even before the cellular level. It needs to begin at an energetic level, for we are energetic beings. We are 99.9999% space and energy.
Choose well.
There is a Cherokee tale about two wolves. A grandfather is having a conversation with his grandson. It goes as follows:
“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego. The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old chief simply replied, “The one you feed.”
So, again, choose well. Which energy do you want that 99.99999% of your empty space to be composed of? Which direction do you want your life to take? What do you want your thoughts to be composed of? Your emotions? Your spirit? Which Lineage do you want to belong to? The choice is yours. We all have free will. Choose well.
Until next time.
In Love and Highest Light,
Jennifer Jacobsen (Urja)
How Yoga Can Assist In Cancer Treatment
by Jennifer E. Jacobsen, LMT, RM
Owner, Lakulish School of Yoga
Saint Augustine, FL
YOGA is becoming more and more recognized as an accompaniment to cancer treatment. Mostly viewed and experienced as a way to relax the mind and to tone and shape the body, Yoga is a very ancient science that is misunderstood in today’s society. While the benefits of Yoga surely can include a calm mind and fit body, Yoga is a way of building and maintaining healing energy while removing the more damaging patterns and behaviors that otherwise drain this precious, healing resource. To be a Yogi, one must master one’s mind.
Mental, emotional, and physical stress stem from a mind that has become destructive rather than constructive. While most people live their lives in search of creativity, success, abundance, and a sense of accomplishment, they often do so at the expense of their own well-being. Most of the time, this is unconscious. Some people live very successful and creative lives, and then there are people who intend to live very successful and creative lives yet do not know how to. At the end of the day these individuals feel mentally, emotionally, and physically drained and exhausted.
Exhaustion, stress, and lack of energy all stem from behaviors and patterns of living that are in disharmony with the first two laws of Yoga: Yamas and Niyamas. The Sanksrit word Yama means “death”. The Sanskrit word Niyama means “death inside”. We must ask ourselves, what is it that needs to die in our external environments and in our internal environments? Of what can we let go? What is no longer needed? In which ways are we damaging ourselves, allowing our minds to drain our energy, and leading destructive rather than constructive lives?
Patanjali, a great Master of Yoga, has shone his light on a path we all must follow. In his legendary Yoga Sutras, he tells us that the reason our minds, bodies, and spirits are not at rest is because our minds are violent. It is the mind that seeks to hurt its own system and the systems of others. We are not truthful with ourselves. It is the mind that deceives its own self and attempts to be deceptive with others. The mind is a thief. It steals, covets, hoards, and eventually drains our energy in patterns of which most of us are unaware. Yet, for the Master of Yoga who has reclaimed his or her own energy through Yamas and Niyamas and the practices of Yoga, the mind is no longer an enemy, but it is a great friend.
The question that then forms in the mind is, what does Yoga have to do with cancer? Cancer appears in a body that is destructive rather than constructive. The internal cells are in a state of attack, and the body is a battlefield.
Science has been able to prove that cancer cannot exist in an oxygenated environment. Dr. Robert O. Young, head of the pH Miracle Center in Valley Center, CA, has demonstrated that when the pH of urine drops below 5, on the scale of 1-14, the chances of an individual developing cancer increase dramatically. A low internal body pH deprives the body of oxygen, and the blood becomes dirty. Our internal cells are like fish in a fish tank. If the cells are not bathed in pH balanced water, and if our “fish tank” is not kept clean, the body begins to lose more energy than it gains because it is forced to clean up a dirty internal environment. In a dirty fish tank, bacteria grow. The bacteria morph into yeast. The yeast morph into fungus. The fungus morph into mold. These toxins deprive the body of oxygen. The internal pH of the blood begins to drop, and the body goes into survival mode. The pH of the blood will only drop when the tissues in the body have become so toxic that they have entered a state of latent tissue acidosis. The degree of latent tissue acidosis is most commonly measured by urinary pH. A urinary pH of 5 or below signals severe latent tissue acidosis and a body that is severely deprived of oxygen. The state of the blood can clearly be seen in a Live Blood Cell Analysis.
How does a body end up in a state of latent tissue acidosis, and how can Yoga return a body to health? The world of Yoga practices spans every bodily system. A Yogic diet is an alkaline diet centered around pure, fresh, organic fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and low-acid grains. Making the body more alkaline is the key to eliminating latent tissue acidosis. Cleansing the body and bringing fresh oxygen into the system also makes the body more alkaline. Pranayama (building healing energy in the body through breath) brings fresh oxygen into the lungs, the blood, and the cells. Both Pranayama and Yoga Asanas (postures) cleanse the body’s internal organs, remove acidic toxins from the body, and cleanse and heal energy pathways in the body (refered to as Nadis in the Sanskrit language). The practices of Yoga are designed to clean the blood.
Aligning oneself with the Yamas and Niyamas destroys the damaging patterns and behaviors that make an individual more extrovert, stressed, and capable of draining the healing energy built through the Yogic practices of Pranayama and Asana. In fact, there is a Yama in Pranayama. It is therefore necessary to be mindful of one’s attitude towards oneself and others before the practices of Yoga can begin to heal the body. This is the reason Yamas and Niyamas are the first two steps in the eightfold path of Yoga.
It is exciting that Yoga has been recognized as a useful and helpful addition to cancer treatment. Yoga is currently being taught in conjunction to cancer treatment in Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, MC Anderson, and many other major cancer treatment centers. As a patient learns the ways his or her mind has become destructive rather than constructive, the practices of Yoga will naturally heal the body. The human body is remarkable by design. It contains everything it needs to heal itself, and the body is constantly amazing practitioners in the medical field. Unexplained miracles happen every day.
The practices of Yoga can bring a person who is out of balance into a state of balance. It can help an individual live a very long, happy, creative, and abundant life. It can assist a person to live free of sickness and disease, to move from a dark place into a place of love and healing light. This is my prayer for all of those who suffer with cancer or any dis-ease.
If you would like more information on how Yoga can help you with your internal battle for health, please contact Jennifer at the Saint Augustine Lakulish School of Yoga online at http://lakulishyogaschool.com or by phone at (904) 392-6588.
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