The Global Conversation

Tag: disease

  • The road to higher consciousness is not easy

    By savoring every moment as a gift from heaven for what you are learning about yourself, you will one day ascend from the ashes to victory. As you stretch your new wings and shake off the debris from the fires that extinguish your suffering, you will have been transformed into a greater being than before.

    As I travel down the road to recovery from my stroke, I think about what I’ve been through, where I am and where I’m headed. My stroke was not just a physical situation. Yes, on the physical level, I had a hole in my heart that allowed a blood clot to pass through and land in my brain, causing an ischemic stroke, which paralyzed my right side.

    BUT there was a huge spiritual component to why I had a stroke. I went through a total transformation of self, moving from an ego-based mindset to a more heart-centered consciousness, the final goal being to find an inner balance between the masculine and feminine principles within. This was my karma, the road to a more enlightened way of being for me.

    But having such a life-altering experience so that one can be elevated to a new level of consciousness is certainly not what I wanted or expected. I didn’t think it would have to be that hard. Boy, was I wrong! Trying to become a more conscious soul, at any level, is not an easy task, nor is it for the delicate spirit. It takes a lot of fortitude, a lot of perseverance and a lot of faith! It also takes the ability to align your vision of what you want with what the universe has destined for you, since you are co-creators of your life.

    As you follow your path to fulfill your destiny, you know you will encounter obstacles along the way, bumps in the road that will cause diversions, distractions and downright disruptions to your progress. You might fall umpteen times into the psychological chasm of doom, and claw your way out just as many times. And each time you feel yourself falling, you grasp for something to hang onto to avoid falling into the depths of the mire.

    You may start by replacing the negative thoughts that are responsible for your plight with positive thoughts. Dis-ease, whether physical, emotional, mental or spiritual, begins with a thought. The energy of a negative thought can reverberate throughout your entire energy field and manifest into an imbalance that becomes an energetic blockage, giving rise to any number of afflictions. By replacing these negative thoughts, which come from your “egoic” fear-based mind, with positive ones, which come from your heart, you are giving yourself a chance to heal the mind-body connection, where one’s thoughts and emotions affect one’s health through chemical changes in the brain that have an impact on the immune system.

    On a more profound level, and most importantly, is your connection to your divinity, the source of all of creation that is always there to support you through thick and thin. But to fully commune with this inner power that shows us the way to our own magnificence, to our absolute truth, you must disengage yourself from your egoic mind that feeds on fear, and move to your heart center, where your divine essence resides.

    Having both a positive outlook and a genuine relationship with your own inner sacredness will help uplift you as you find your way out of the darkness and into the light, to your own brilliance where you shine brightly in your own glory.

    But the journey to your radiance is not a swift one. It is not a race to the finish. It is a process, one that could take a lifetime, depending on how deeply rooted the obstacles in your path are, and how many you have. Do not try to take the quick route to that inner light, as there is none. You will always be confronted by some sort of gremlin just waiting to throw you off track. This is how you grow into your own full potential, by confronting the encumbering monster, possibly battling with it, but ultimately dancing with it as its partner. It’s better to make your enemies allies instead of adversaries, as it makes the path to your illumination much easier. All your obstacles will become sources of encouragement instead of deterrents, since, in truth, they are simply facets of your psyche, showing you what you need to do to reach that inner sanctum.

    By taking it one step at a time, savoring every moment as a gift from heaven for what you are learning about yourself – who you are at the deepest soul level – you will one day ascend from the ashes to victory. As you stretch your new wings and shake off the debris from the fires that extinguish your suffering, you will have been transformed into a greater being than before. You will have reached a new level of awareness.

    (Erica Tucci had a full life as a corporate manager of a Fortune 500 company, a healing arts business owner and an author. It all came to a screeching halt in June 2011 when she had a stroke. During her recovery, she gained much wisdom about what’s really important in life and she re-entered the world with a new mission in life. She now wishes to use her story as an inspiration for others facing life challenges, which we all have, big or small, as well as continuing the work she was doing before her stroke, helping women find their “yin radiance” through their authentic voice and their own healing. She considers herself the Radiance Muse, inspiring you to live your life brilliantly. For more information, visit www.ericatucci.com and www.radiantsurvivor.com.)

    If you would like to contribute an article you have authored to the Guest Column, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Please label the topic: “Guest Column.”)

     

  • Decide to be healthy with exercise

    In my last article, I suggested that you add yoga to your physical exercise routine especially if you feel worry, anxiety, or hate. Today I am still contemplating exercise. We are choosing whether we live healthy or diseased. If you have a choice, don’t you want to choose to be the healthiest that you possibly can be?

    Do not be the person that talks about exercising and then doesn’t follow through. You owe it to yourself and to the rest of the world to stay here with us for as long as possible. You have a lot to share. You have a mission that you may not have found yet, but it’s there waiting for you. If you are ever admitted to the hospital you have a 30-40% less chance of dying if you have a regular physical routine – even if it is just walking three times a week for 15 minutes! You are also 50% less likely to die a premature death if you are active. So please add physical movement to your routine.

    If you do not have a physical activity routine, then I am asking you why not? Most people say they don’t have enough time, they are too tired, or they can’t afford it. It’s time to get rid of the excuses and simply do it. Decide now that you will implement a physical activity plan that starts at a reasonable level for you and increases over time. Track your progress and plan for future upgrades. You are the only person who can take care of yourself and keep yourself healthy, and this is one of the only ways to do it. If you don’t have time to exercise, then do you have time to be dead? I know I don’t. I still have things left that I want to accomplish.

    Start simply and slowly at your level. Choose whatever activity you enjoy from walking, functional exercise, or structured exercise! Don’t overdo it at the beginning so you don’t hurt yourself or burn yourself out. Start slowly and build up slowly. Keep at it. If you miss a session get right back to it as soon as possible. No one can do this for you. After you exercise you will feel great and your energy level will increase over time as your build up.

    (Beth Anderson is a Certified Holistic Health Coach and a Certified Natural Health Practitioner. She is the founder of Holistic Health Hotspot in Evansville, Indiana and author of The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life. Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. An expert in holistic and alternative health, Beth thoroughly enjoys educating and inspiring people to learn about the truths of food, consumer products, environmental issues, and life choices. She speaks nationally and publishes articles regularly on several internet wellness sites. Beth provides individual and group holistic health coaching and works with companies to provide wellness programs, workshops, and individualized coaching services for employees. You can find Beth on Facebook  or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)

  • The war on drugs

    (This week’s Addiction & Recovery column is hosting a guest article written and contributed by Mary Warner.)

    If only the symptoms of a disease are treated, the victim may feel better for a while, but the symptoms will eventually return because the disease was not cured.
    One cannot cure the dis-ease of illegal drug use by trying to eliminate drugs. The cause must be found and eliminated. “The real question is why are millions of people so unhappy, so bored, so unfulfilled that they are willing to drink, snort, inject, or inhale any substance that might blot out reality and give them a bit of temporary relief?” (Ann Landers, syndicated columnist)

    The cause can be discovered by talking respectfully and nonjudgmentally to drug users and listening to how they feel (perceiving the feelings behind the words) and to what they believe.

    The cause and cure can be discovered by caring and by putting ourself in another’s place, imagining what we would do if we had the same experiences, the same educational background, and the same beliefs as the illegal drug user and then treating others as we would want to be treated if we were in someone else’ shoes.

    Drug abuse by young people could be eliminated by respecting our children, paying attention to them, treating them the way we want them to treat us, and educating them about using drugs – telling them what to expect, letting them know the consequences of their actions (aside from being punished) and trusting them to make the right decision, and by setting the example that we want them to follow.

    Children learn the right way to live by watching the behavior of the older people whom they respect and look up to and following the example that is set for them. If they see these people using cold medicine, painkillers, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, diet pills, alcohol, and tobacco, they learn that using drugs is the right thing to do.

    If children are not trusted to think for themselves, after having been told what to expect, the consequences of their actions, and after observing the right example set for them by their respected elders, they feel powerless. They may deliberately use something that they know will harm them. They might think that if they do, then at least they will feel powerful and accepted for a moment, or they won’t care, or they will hope that someone will understand how they feel and make their life all right for them.

    A feeling of powerlessness often leads people to rebel and deliberately choose the very thing they have been told to not choose (at best) or it leads to violence. It has been said that over half of the murders committed in this country are committed by people between the ages of 14 and 21.

    The cause of the dis-ease of selling drugs is the mistaken belief that money and material things will bring power, happiness, and satisfaction. This belief is the result of an education that is lacking in spiritual values, such as the kind of education that is forced upon children in public schools. The belief is further fed by advertisements and TV commercials.

    Making it illegal to sell drugs is not a cure, obviously. It makes the problem worse, just as it did with alcohol prohibition, by creating the opportunity for criminal hangs to make huge profits. Then gangsters kill each other (and many innocent bystanders) to protect their territories/markets and pay police and judges to not prosecute them. They adulterate their drugs in order to make more money, consequently causing injury and death to the users who will not protect themselves or get help because they know they are breaking the law and are afraid of punishment.

    Putting people in prison for using drugs is not a cure, obviously. According to an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Oklahoma, drugs are readily available in prisons.

    Punishing people for trying to make it in life the best way they know how – trying to pursue happiness – is against the Declaration of Independence and is inhumane. “If even a small fraction of the money we now spend on trying to enforce drug prohibition were devoted to treatment and drug rehabilitation, in an atmosphere of compassion, not punishment, the reduction in drug usage and in the harm done to users would be dramatic.” (Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize Winner, Economics)  Today’s illegal drugs were legal before 1914. Cocaine was in the original recipe for Coca-Cola. Drugs were not a problem. Addiction was treated as a health issue and not a crime.

    (Mary Warner is an aging (or perhaps “aged”) flower child/”hippie.” She lives with her husband in a 420-square-foot cabin in the woods with a black and white fur-ball and a black lab where she is creating a garden paradise.)

  • Total holistic health – cleanse and detoxify your body

    In Conversations with God, Book 1, we learn that “…all illness is self-created. Even conventional medical doctors are now seeing how people make themselves sick.”

    Let’s look at what you need to do in order to get healthy, stay healthy, and stop making yourself sick.

    There are three basic steps you have to take for stellar holistic health. If you are vigilant and careful, you can improve your own health, reduce occurrence of illness, heal yourself, and start feeling great! First you must cleanse and detoxify your body, inside and outside. Get rid of the toxins that are hanging around in your intestines, clogging your arteries, wearing out your organs, and causing symptoms. You must also detoxify your mind, thoughts and relationships. Second, you must learn to avoid toxins in everything possible from food, beauty products, air, water, household cleaners, emotions, and thoughts. Finally, you must nourish your body with good, clean, whole food and subject your body to nutrient-dense foods, exercise, positive thoughts, actions, and activities.

    Today we will look at cleansing and detoxifying your body, mind, and relationships.

    How To Cleanse and Detoxify Your Body

    Detoxifying and cleansing your body can promote weight loss, boost your energy, and help your body heal itself naturally from many symptoms including digestive problems, acne, and inflammatory issues. Detoxifying isn’t anything new, the ancient Eastern medicines have been promoting detoxification for thousands of years.

    In order to effectively experience a detoxifying cleanse, you need to relieve, clean, and nourish your body starting from the inside! Once your internal organs have experienced this refreshing break, they can work more effectively to do their jobs – and heal the body naturally.

    During a detox, the blood, intestines, and liver are cleansed by using fasting, stimulation, elimination, and nourishment. You can detox for a day or two, or for weeks, depending on your needs and goals. You should ask your doctor first if you have any kind of compromising condition such as pregnancy, chronic disease, or cancer.

    We are surrounded by toxins everywhere and in everything from our air, water, and food to our health and beauty products, household cleaners, and work environment. The body stores the toxins it can’t get rid of and will eventually have symptoms such as infections, fatigue, skin problems, mental fog, or even weight gain.

    During any kind of detox, you should avoid coffee, alcohol, refined sugar, smoking, and household poisons. Get plenty of rest and quiet time, and eat light foods. Avoid meat and fatty foods.

    Water Cleansing

    A great way to detox your gut immune system is to do a hot water detox. For 1-2 weeks, simply drink a mug of heated water (plain – no lemon or flavors) every hour or so. The hot water will open up the drainage in your gut and allow toxins to flow out. Repeating this every hour or so for a few weeks will completely boost your immune system naturally!

    For a gentle daily detox, drink a large glass of lukewarm water with lemon when you wake up. Give your body a half hour or hour before eating breakfast. This habit will help you rehydrate your body after sleeping and will wake up your digestion so it can perform its work later.

    Detoxifying Foods

    Many foods can assist your body in naturally detoxifying. Raw fruits and vegetables provide the most cleansing, especially greens such as broccoli, kale, swiss chard, dandelion, turnip, or beet greens. You can also do a 5-day juice-only fast and consume water and juices of fruits and vegetables only.

    Herbal and Special Detoxification

    You may also choose to use an herbal supplement that will promote gentle cleansing and elimination. Be sure to use completely pure herbal cleanse products without fillers, gluten, chemicals, and artificial color or flavor. Look for a product containing psyllium husk, marshmallow and licorice root, bitter gourd, and slippery elm bark.

    After you complete a digestive cleanse/detox you may wish to do a liver cleanse as well as a gallbladder cleanse, especially if you have suffered from headaches, mental fog or confusion, or lethargy. The best liver detox products will contain bio-available turmeric and milk thistle. There are also total cleanse products that are packed with bio-available chlorella, spirulina, or other algaes, and probiotics that can do wonders for your system and energy level!

    Detoxify Your Mind

    You must also detoxify your mind, thoughts and relationships. Negative thinking and attitude, gossiping, judgmental thinking, and toxic relationships are planting the seeds of disease in your system.

    A great way to start thinking more positively is to try affirmations. You can choose a daily affirming statement about your body, health, love, peace, or any area you need to work on being positive. For instance if you suffer from anxiety, use the affirmation “I am at peace.” Just thinking or meditating on affirmations can start reprogramming your mind.

    If you are a negative person, try to identify your negative thoughts, stop, and reword the thought into a positive one. Doing this day after day will help you to become positive instead of negative. For instance, if you think about a part of your body you dislike such as your nose or your stomach, think about all of the good things that body part does for you instead of your thoughts about the bad side. Your thoughts about how big your stomach is can turn into “My stomach helps me daily to digest healthy food and make me heal.” You might even start eating more consciously with thought like that!

    As far as relationships, if you are spending time with toxic people you have two choices: 1) Work to fix the problem, or 2) Eliminate the problem. Toxic relationships can take a toll on your health and it’s not worth it to maintain unhealthy relationships.

    Now you are on your way to detoxifying your body, mind, and spirit! In Part 2, we will examine how to avoid toxins!

    (Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of the Holistic Health Hotspot in Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Beth is helping people improve their lives through nutrition and lifestyle education, health coaching, and by helping others to learn to make informed choices. Beth continues to spread understanding of the connection between body, mind, and spirit and encourages all to discern the truth about food, consumer products, environment, and life choices. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)

  • The uphill climb from the bottom

    There I was, walking away from my family and towards the detox ward of the hospital. Overwhelming fear, coupled with a hangover and sense of humiliation, weighing on my thoughts and my body.  So many questions running through my head: What is this going to be like?  What are they going to do to me?  How can I get out of this?  Where would I go?  What have I gotten myself into?  I was walking into the complete unknown, and I was afraid.

    I remember very clearly the first thing that took place.  I was greeted by the doctor who ran the detox.  His name was Dr. D’ Amico.  He explained that I would be wearing the typical hospital gown; you know the one that is open in the back and ties around your waste.  He gave his reason for this: “You are sick.  You are suffering from a disease; therefore, you will be treated as any other person who is sick.”  This was my first real introduction to addiction as a disease.

    After changing into the hospital gown, the nurse took all of  my possessions, shoes and socks, clothing, and cigarettes.  There was no smoking in the hospital detox.  I was led to my room, basically an open area where there were two beds sectioned off from the rest of the hospital by only a curtain.  The curtain remained open all the time.

    I was tired and worn down.  Looking back, I felt relief to be out of the cycle of addiction and the pace of the life I had created.  A nurse came to my bed, bringing medication.  And I was told that because alcohol was one of the drugs I was withdrawing from, I had to take anti-seizure medicine.  Alcohol withdrawal is the most dangerous drug to withdraw from.

    My second day in detox was more challenging.  I was already feeling much better after a good night’s sleep and nutritious meals.  Feeling better sounds like a good thing, but for a person who is addicted, feeling good and healthy typically means that it is okay to start using again.  And that is exactly what I was thinking:  “I don’t need this.  I can do it myself.”  I don’t remember saying that, but I would not be surprised if I did, as I know I was thinking it!

    My addictive behavior did not end in the detox.  After the second day, when the nurse would deliver the anti-seizure medicine, I would store it under my tongue until she left the room.  I would quickly remove it and hide it under my pillow for future use.  I was saving it up so I could take more than one and hopefully get high.  Looking back on this behavior reminds me that I was not just a “normal” kid who liked to party a little too much.

    It was pre-arranged that I would go directly from detox to a 28-day inpatient treatment facility.  This is a very common procedure, because by the seventh day of detox, I was feeling on top of the world physically and mentally.  I was very resistant to going to a rehabilitation center.  (Most of the people who do not go directly to rehab relapse and begin using again shortly after their release from the hospital.)  After a brief intervention with my parents and the doctor, I agreed to proceed as planned.

    It is my hope that in the telling of my personal story here someone reading this will have a greater understanding of how to navigate early recovery either for them or for a loved one.  Alcoholics and drug addicts will convince themselves and everyone else that they just need to break the cycle of using and they will be fine.  I am here to tell you it just isn’t so.  Abstinence is not recovery!  And except for extremely rare cases, abstinence does not maintain.  For those who do simply abstain from using their drugs of choice without employing some form of self-improvement program, long-term recovery is much less likely to happen.  It is the addictive behavior that must be addressed.  The drugs are simply the symptom of a far greater issue.  I was not plotting my next binge when I was saving up the medication for “one last high”;  I was exhibiting the behavior of an addict.

    Addictive personalities do not simply go away with time.  It is debatable whether or not they ever go away.  From my personal experience in recovery, irrational thinking, obsessions, desire for instant gratification do not disappear from the recovering addict’s life.  What does go away is the obsession to use drugs and alcohol.  It does dissolve immediately.  For some, it can take years.  But the transformation does take place.

    The motto of the recovery community is “One day at a time.”  Indeed, this is the basis for most programs that deal with addictions.  And what a wonderful way to live life it is.  When we seek to keep things simple and we stop projecting our thoughts into the future or wishing the past was different, we remember that all we have is the breath we are taking this very moment of now.  We have the power to change who we are right now, but not by fretting over the past or fearing what may come next.  When we live one moment at a time in the awareness that the past is the past and the future is unwritten, we find our peace.  This is recovery.

    (Kevin McCormack C.A.d Is a certified addictions professional, as well as a Conversations with God Life Coach.  Kevin is a practicing Auriculotherapist, and a Spiritual helper on www.changingchange.net.  Kevin will be presenting at the CwG Recovery Retreat in Medford Oregon June 23rd – June 26th.  You can visit his website at www.Kevin-Spiritualmentor.com  To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@theglobalconversation.com)

  • Cure your stress and burn-out

    If you are tired, irritable, stressed out, sleep-deprived, burned out, or exhausted, there are quick changes in food and behavior you can implement to reduce your symptoms, heal yourself, and, in the long run, prevent disease. Stress causes and accelerates chronic and terminal diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and depression. Chronic stress will give you adrenal fatigue and make you feel like you are always either exhausted or wired or alternating between both!

    The stress of daily living has an enormous impact on your physical and emotional health – both good stress and bad stress. If you are experiencing back pain, dizziness, heart palpitations, low stamina, chronic infections, poor sleep, or food cravings, you may have adrenal fatigue. The adrenal glands sit on your kidneys and control hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. If your adrenal glands aren’t working properly, your thyroid and immune system will not function correctly. You may get infections repeatedly. You may lose your immune system function and your energy level may plummet.

    Here are 7 things you can do to reduce your stress level:

    1. Get enough sleep and sleep regular hours without exception. Go to bed at a decent hour every night. Go to bed at about the same time every night.

    2. Re-evaluate your priorities.Do you need to work after normal work hours? Do you need to check your email and smart phone constantly? Do you have normal conversations and relationships with people, or are you living on electronic and social platforms? You may have relationships, family, children, and friends who miss you and want to spend time with you relaxing and sharing. Slow down and enjoy life! Figure out what life is about – is it about money and “things”? Aren’t the people in your life worth more than things? Don’t forget about your pets!

    3. Eat whole foods – fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and grains. Eat only 100% whole grains and don’t consume bleached, refined, or processed flours.

    4. Cook at home as much as possible. Your recipes should be built by combining foods that just have one ingredient in them. This will automatically replace your consumption of processed foods with whole, healthy foods. You will know exactly what you are eating.

    5. Eliminate sugar, syrups, and artificial sweeteners. Drink water or green tea unsweetened instead of sodas, sweetened drinks, or coffee. Sweeten drinks with stevia extract – it is a natural super-sweet plant that has no calories or chemicals! Eat fruits instead of sweets. Start reading your food labels and figure out how much sugar you are really eating! It’s okay to eat 20-30 grams of sugar a day if you are healthy, but you might be surprised to know that there are 65 grams of sugar in that 20-ounce bottle of soda or sweetened drink.

    6. Eliminate or reduce coffee consumption. Eliminate caffeine altogether or, if you must, limit it to a cup of coffee in the morning. Be aware of everything you consume that contains caffeine. Carry fresh water with you at all times and drink it instead of anything else.

    7. Do an emotional cleanse. Most people benefit from digestive cleansing, but an emotional cleanse can also help dramatically. A Harvard study showed that men who are angry are three times more likely to develop heart disease. UCLA has found that stress seems to reprogram immune cells into more toxic cells that feed disease. An emotional cleanse can allow the body to reduce stress and toxicity. The most prominent stress-causing emotions are guilt, anger, shame, and negativity. Start doing self-reflection and identify the causes of these feelings if you have them. Work to rid yourself of the negativity, and if you need help, seek help from friends, support groups, or a counselor. While you are ridding yourself from the negative emotions and thoughts, replace them with positive ones that appeal to you – family, pets, friends, hobbies, work, art, anything that you love.

    Try one or more of these quick fixes and let me know how your stress level is!

    (Beth Anderson is a certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of the Holistic Health Hotspot in Evansville, Indiana. She is also the author of “The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.” Beth received her training from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Beth is helping people improve their lives through nutrition and lifestyle education, health coaching, and by helping others to learn to make informed choices. Beth continues to spread understanding of the connection between body, mind, and spirit and encourages all to discern the truth about food, consumer products, environment, and life choices. You can find Beth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HolisticHealthHotspot or email her at beth@holistichealthhotspot.com)

  • Is your life driven by fear or love?

    Fear or Love, that is always the choice before us as we walk in duality. Yet those two polarities will determine very different choices, behaviors, and even outcomes.

    Fear separates us from our eternal Source, locking us into miserable patterns of low self-esteem and victimization and, ultimately, it keeps us separate from each other. Love, on the other hand, unifies us into wholeness and brings us to trust in the magic and mystery of life again.

    So many of our institutions are still rooted in fear, however, and so many of us are programmed to follow the voice of an external “authority” even when that advice may be detrimental to our physical, mental or emotional well-being.

    Too often we blindly give our power away to medical “facts” or “statistics” that have no basis in reality.  We buy into the illusion of fear – fear of “loss” of some kind – and there is no greater fear than death.

    A couple of weeks into 2013, a dramatic headline in the UK papers caught my eye: “Drug That Prevents Breast Cancer for 20 Years.”

    It seems that Big Pharma now want thousands of healthy women to be given breast cancer drugs, such as tamoxifen or raloxifene, to cut their chances of contracting the disease, despite possible nasty side effects that include hot flushes, nausea, indigestion, weight gain leg cramps, depression, tiredness, headaches, blood clots, vision problems, voice changes and, even though rare, womb cancer!

    These drugs have not been designed to be used as preventative medicine by the way. Yet they are being put forward, based on a change in policy.

    We need to ask, how will they – the faceless, stern voice of “authority” –  determine which women to give it to? Who will be labelled as ‘high risk’? What about the side effects?

    The wide ranging side effects of today’s medical drugs are tolerated by those who are ill, but now we are asking otherwise healthy women to tolerate unnecessary side effects just because they will be labelled as being ‘at risk’ by ‘those in charge.’

    SPIRIT says we do not inherit disease, only the potential for disease.  The new science is now saying the same thing, but the old dogma refuses to die.

    Aside from the fact that Big Pharma is, most likely, rubbing its greedy little hands together, this is a nonsensical approach driven by fear, reinforcing the victim mindset that says we are are the mercy of our genes, and which blatantly ignores the latest discoveries in science – epigenetics – which demonstrate that our environment is the key to determining our health, or lack of it.

    Perhaps we should all cut off our limbs before they get gangrene?

    Jaime Tanna

    (Jaime Tanna is the founder of Energy Therapy and an active Reiki Master and Spiritual Mentor, Healer and Teacher. Together with his wife Jennifer, their unifying vision is to empower others through spiritual education and energy-based healing treatments, to help them become aware of their true natures, and to live more joyfully and consciously. You can visit their website at www.energytherapy.biz).

  • Moving from ‘fight or flight’ to ‘love and light’

    (This article was contributed by Guest Author Herby Bell, DC)

    After watching the militant Muslim reaction around the world — the purely insane response to a substandard film created by another fanatic about God knows what — I got to thinking about a startling analogy.

    I’m in the healthcare business.  My biggest competitor is the sick care business, and here’s how it works (and stay with me–I’ll connect the dots):

    We have an innate genetic intelligence that responds in a healthy way to whatever is in the environment.  Our environment has become increasingly deficient and toxic in terms of the water we drink to the air we breathe, along with countless other modern living stressors.  Accordingly, our body’s healthy, genetic response is to place us in a state of “fight or flight” in order to survive.

    The problem arises when this fight-or-flight state of being becomes the rule, rather than the exception, due to the ever-present and increasing environmental stressors. Dis-ease and ultimately disease ensue.  Maybe you’ve heard mention lately of addiction, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, depression, fatigue, decreased sex drive, anxiety, obesity, indigestion, lack of sleep…etc., etc.

    All of us are in some state of fight or flight, more often than not, when living in this culture–in this world.  Instead of decreasing the stress and improving adaptability by being taught to eat well, move well, and think well — the health care business — we are carpet bombed by literally dozens of sound bytes and video images per day about “taking” something to “kill” the pain or to trick our bodies out of their pristine, invariably reliable intelligence — the sick care business.

    Recently I gave lectures about this well-documented stress response to a local high school human biology department.  I asked the students to close their eyes as I played the audio only, including the side effects disclaimer of one of the drug commercials we hear on television, day in and day out.  The students reported that they did not even listen to or hear the words anymore, that it had become just background noise. The pretty images on television stick and the devastating side effects get reduced to white noise.  Good news for the sick care business, a subliminal auto suggestion marketing vehicle that pays off handsomely.  Repetition is the mother of all invention…

    All right, now back to the militant Muslims.  If the human ecosystem is barraged with stress and its correct and healthy response is to develop chronic lifestyle diseases, doesn’t it stand to reason that the collective ecosystems or the culture –any culture — is susceptible to the same reaction after being inundated with sick propaganda–here, there, everywhere!–and certain factions of that culture, like a neoplastic growth in cancer, will react in that deadly, perhaps unpredictable, but inevitable way?  It’s happening.

    We have to stop kidding ourselves.  The world is in a chronic state of fight or flight.  THE SICK CARE INDUSTRY IS NOT HELPING. Let’s teach our kids to eat well, to move well, and to think well and decrease our stress while bolstering our immune systems instead of waiting for some magic pill or potion to come along to save us.

    Let’s be honest that the preventable, man-made atrocities and insanity all around the world are directly related to how well a culture’s individuals are caring for themselves, how well they are eating, moving, and thinking.

    Let’s get out of the sick care business and into the health care business.  The well-being of the world may just depend upon it.  Let’s move from fight or flight to love and light.

    (Dr. Herby Bell is owner and director of Recovery Health Care, an integrated approach to addiction treatment in Redwood City, California. For more information please call 650 474 2121 or email:  herbybell@me.com.)

  • You can’t hoard happiness

    You can tell if you are addicted to a behavior or an outcome when the absence of it causes you to abandon your happiness.  This is the  definition of addiction from the book “When Everything Changes, Change Everything. ” The word “abandon” indicates that we are aware on some level that we have placed our happiness on something external to ourselves.  This definition becomes evident when we consider a popular television show in the United States called “Hoarding, Buried Alive.”

    If you have not seen this show or even heard of this thing called hoarding, it is quite shocking to see what types of distorted reality some people are operating out of.  In one of the most disturbing hoarding cases, a man had gone to his mother’s house because she hadn’t been seen in a few weeks.  He couldn’t get into the house and then he noticed a strong smell coming from what seemed like the basement. “I thought, there’s no happy ending here,” he said. “I just had a feeling. I had a bad feeling for years…It’s a terrible thing to deal with.”  Three days later, the police found his mother’s body under a pile of trash.

    Watching the people on this show, as well as knowing some personally, the hoarder is so attached to the items they possess that those items end up possessing them!  The idea that happiness comes from within has been so deeply forgotten that they desperately search for the thing that will bring them happiness, only to become buried under the weight of attachments.  So where does it start?  How does one get so distorted that they have become accustomed to living in squalor, with dead animals, feces, and mountains of garbage, clothes, and material possessions in some cases from floor to ceiling in their dwellings?

    One theory is that a trauma has occurred in the affected person’s life that has created the belief that their life depends on these items being in their possession.  The trauma was such that denial of their true nature was too painful for their ego to handle.  Childhood traumas can be neglect, they can be physical abuse, including sexual abuse, or they can simply be from growing up in a house where emotions are not shown.  These are just a few of the abuses many in society heap upon children.  These traumas will manifest themselves differently in adults, and even more so if the individual does not have a strong sense of resiliency.

    From the outside looking in, the obsession with materialistic possessions confounds most people because they look solely at the despicable conditions and wonder how anyone can tolerate that.  What is clear from the addictions and compulsions specialist’s point of view is that through a predictable path of events in the hoarder’s life, they suffer from a disease, and a lack of ease is exactly what it is.  They cannot easily ascertain their own ability to survive and find pleasure outside of the parameters they have set for themselves;  that is, they feel they must keep on collecting items and never give them up.  To give them up, they perceive they would be letting go of their comfort, happiness, and even possibly their survival.

    Can this type of behavior be changed?  Is there a chance for a recovery for the hoarder?  Of course there is a chance; it is rare, however, due to the reclusive nature of the disorder.  The statement “With him, all things are possible” comes to mind here.  The more difficult question is, however, how does the afflicted get to the space where they can even entertain seeking a spiritual resolution to their disease?

    How can we as a loving, caring community support these people and help them to find themselves once again and lead a productive, happy life?

    (Kevin McCormack is a Conversations with God Life Coach, a Spiritual helper on www.changingchange.net, Addictions recovery advisor. To connect with Kevin please email him at Kevin@theglobalconversation.com)