Meditation Tips

Thought
“I can’t stop my thoughts from racing” is the most frequent complaint I hear from people who are trying to meditate. When you want your mind to be still and clam, is it drawing up shopping lists, writing letters, daydreaming, re-enacting movie plots of having imaginary discussions with your spouse or boss? Take heart, you can stop it.

Here are some steps to take:

Accept that your mind wants to wander off. That’s its nature. So relax. Don’t get stressed out about a racing mind. You are not your mind. Your mind is the horse that leads the chariot of your higher self. It naturally wants to run. Be patient and you can learn to direct your mind as you wish, rather than letting it drag you around.

If you notice that your mind is doing something other than meditating congratulate yourself. You just recognised that your mind was wandering. The moment that you notice where it is, your mind is no longer on walkabout. At that instant your mind is present with you. That’s great! Appreciate your ability to see that your mind was wandering. Pat yourself on the back!

We tend to get frustrated or angry when our minds trail off. Stop that! Be happy that you noticed. Welcome your mind back to the present and invite it to focus on your breath. Even if it only stays still and focused for a few seconds before racing off again, be glad for those few seconds.

Your mind, and your meditation, will respond better to a little encouragement than to a scolding. Be as patient with your mind as you would be with an energetic child, or an errant puppy. Celebrate every moment of awareness as a success!

Posture
Sitting in the right posture gives you more powerful meditations. You need to gradually build up the strength in your back and the flexibility in your legs to set comfortably.

To find the right posture every time, sit on a firm cushion that is high enough for you knees to rest on the floor when your legs are crossed.

If you do not know where your sit bones are, cup your hands deep underneath your buttocks and locate them. These bones and your knees are the base of your posture. Extend your spine straight up and rock slowly forward from the hips until you are resting solidly on your sit bones. This is the best angel at which to sit for meditation.

If you need support to stay in this position, sit against a wall and place a pillow in the small of your back.

Over time this position will come to feel natural for you, and your meditations will be more beneficial.

Breath
When you sit for meditation focus on your breath rather than on the thoughts that fly through your mind. Whenever you find your mind racing, return your focus to your breath. This is a universal teaching from almost every school of meditation.

You can usually improve your meditation by allowing your spine to extend up with the rhythm of your breath. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.

With each inhalation allow your spine to extend up, while keeping your neck and shoulders relaxed. With each exhalation, allow your spine to continue extending up through the crown of your head. Up on the inhalation. Up on the exhalation.

Let your thoughts go where they will. Just focus again and again on extending your spine with the movement of your breath. Up and up and up. Meditation will eventually meet you in the still place between your breaths.

Focus
Quality meditation depends upon quality of focus. Learning to meditate means learning to focus your mind. Practice bringing your attention to a particular goal of your choice, rather than letting your focus wander through a sea of ideas, dreams and memories.

Focus on the breath has been recommended in previous newsletters. Here are two more points of focus to help your meditation.

If you meditate with your eyes closed, direct your attention to the spot exactly between your eyebrows. Let your eyes float up toward that spot and keep them there. Stay relaxed, and allow your awareness of that spot to grow. How small a point can you find there? What colour is the tiniest point you can see there. How dark is the space around the point. When your focus wanders from that point simply bring your attention back. Don’t get angry at yourself. Don’t worry about it. Just focus again and continue meditating.

If you meditate with your eyes open, focus your full attention on a point one metre in front of you. Let your eyes be half-closed, and let your gaze be soft, rather than staring. Allow your attention to rest on the point in front of you and be aware how broad your field of vision is without moving your eyes from that point. Maintain that focus and meditation will come to you.

Buzzing
At then beginning of your meditation try humming a soft note or “buzzing like a bee” for about eight breaths. This creates a strong vibration that can help draw on you into a deeper meditation.

Feel where in your body the vibration is coming from, and where it moves to. Breathe into these spots. Sometimes folding back the front “flaps” of your ears with your fingers makes it easier to feel the vibration. Hmmmmm.

Breathe Deeply
Breath is the focal point in many forms of meditation. One way to use your breath to give you a deeper state of meditation is to let it reach into the floor of your pelvis.

Breathe in and allow your breath to sink softly down into the “bowl” created by the bones of your pelvis. Feel your breath circulating there. Imagine that the skin and organs at the floor of your pelvis can lift and receive your breath, the way a well-trimmed boat’s sail receives a breeze.

Breathe out and keep your focus in your pelvis. Imagine your exhalation swirling there, keeping the “sail” of your pelvic floor gently filled. Continue breath in and out with this focus for five minutes.

Practicing this exercise at the beginning of meditation will help bring a calmer state. During the day it can help you to feel more “grounded” and less stressed.

Smooth sailing!

Toxins Take Their Toll

Your body is full of poison. That is its natural state. Digestion, metabolism, and simple cellular activity produce small quantities of toxins. Pollution in the air and water, plus chemicals in the food and drinks you consume can put toxins into your body. Any kind of synthetic drugs can also increase your toxicity.

Your liver and kidneys are constantly processing these toxins, and your lungs, skin, mouth, urine and faeces are always eliminating them. Toxins can be retained by your liver and held in your tissue (muscles, ligaments, and fascia) where there is tension.

Frequently your natural cleansing system gets overloaded. When the level of toxins in your body increases beyond your capacity to eliminate or convert them, your general state of health deteriorates. Your immune system, blood circulation system, and glandular system are all affected. You may feel more fatigued. You may feel older than you ought to.

One of the easiest ways to improve your health is to help your body eliminate toxins. This is especially important after surgery when the body is inundated with drugs, and for anyone with a stressed liver. Bodywork like ZentherapyÒ can also increase the level of toxins in your blood stream, because it releases the toxins stuck in the soft tissue.

These are a few simple techniques that you can do to help your body get rid of the poison that it does not need!

Choose two or three of the following to get your de-tox program started.

1. Dry skin brush daily before showering: Using a stiff, natural fibre brush, stroke your body from feet to neck. Seven quick strokes towards the heart on each area is ideal. Exclude your face, genitals and breasts. The dry brushing cleans and tones the skin, and stimulates your lymphatic system. Brushing wet skin has a much less profound affect. Clean, stimulated skin can eliminate toxins best, and the whole exercise takes less than two minutes.

2. Castor Oil pack once per week: Apply a thin layer of Castor Oil to your liver area, on the right side from navel to mid-side, below the breast to the top of the pelvis. Cover in cling-wrap, place a hot water bottle over this, then wrap in wool or blankets to keep warm. Rest for one hour or overnight. The hot water bottle draws extra blood to the liver. The Castor Oil penetrates the skin and helps the toxins to pass more easily out of the body.

3. Salt bath once or twice per week: Fill a bathtub with hot water. Mix in one or more cups of salt (Epsom salt, Radox, sea salt, etc), and ½ cup of Bicarb Soda. Soak for 20 minutes. Hot water brings more blood to your skin, the salt helps draw toxins out, and the Bicarb Soda neutralises the toxins so you do not re-absorb them.

4. Apple cider vinegar bath an alternative to salt baths: Fill a bath tub with hot water. Mix in two to four cups of apple cider vinegar. Soak for 20 minutes.

5. Bicarb Soda mouth rinse twice daily or as needed after bodywork, surgery, or illness. Mix two teaspoons of Bicarb Soda in 80 ml. Water. Thoroughly rinse your mouth and gargle, then spit it out. This draws toxins out of the mucus membranes in the mouth that can cause bad breath and headaches.

6. Self Massage (Ayurvedic) twice per week: Using 50 ml of sesame or almond oil massage your entire body before you shower and after a dry skin brush. Begin at your head and work down your body to your toes. Massage circularly over the round bones, belly and joints, and use long strokes over straight areas of your arms, legs and spine. Take from 5 to 20 minutes to do the massage and use a firm and loving touch. Pay attention to the feeling. Enjoy it! Allow the oil to absorb for a few minutes then wash and rinse in a hot shower. The oil, friction and heat clean the skin and help carry toxins in the blood stream out.

7. Diet: Eat more simple, raw, easy to digest foods. This helps reduce the strain on your liver and keeps your body clean. Foods that are highly processed, or loaded with diary, wheat, caffeine or animal fats create more work for your liver and the rest of your digestive system. Raw fruits and lightly steamed vegetables are better. Try juicing fruits or vegetables, especially beetroot, for a delicious de-tox breakfast. Dandelion tea also helps the liver to purge toxins.

8. Drink two or more litres of water per day. Exercise, sweat, sauna or steam to flush your skin and blood.

For more ideas on de-toxing talk to your natropath or homeopath.

Beat The Winter Blues

Depression can cloud your mood any time of year, and many people feel especially effected during winter when the days are short and the weather is colder. If you suffer from severe depression you should talk with a good counselor. If you feel mild or moderate depression there are some natural remedies that are worth trying.

Studies in the USA and Europe show that the herb St. John’s Wort (Hypericum) is effective at alleviating mild and moderate depression. Several clients at my clinic report being happy with the result of using St. John’s Wort. In Germany it is the leading treatment for depression and is recommended 25 times more often than Prozac. Take 2ml mixed in water, three times per day.

Another natural antidepressant is the sea salt Kali Phos. Talk to your Homeopath, Naturopath or health store about it. You can take it as often as necessary for a relatively quick lift from depression without side-effects.

Improve Your Immune System

Your can minimize colds, flue and fatigue by keeping your immune system strong. Here are three techniques that make a huge difference when you practice any or all of them regularly.

1. Dry skin brush daily before showering: Using a stiff, natural fibre brush, stroke your body from feet to neck. Seven quick strokes towards the heart on each area is ideal. Exclude your face, genitals and breasts. The dry brushing cleans and tones the skin, and stimulates your lymphatic system. Brushing wet skin has a much less profound affect. Clean, stimulated skin can eliminate toxins best, and the whole exercise takes less than two minutes.

2. Hot & cold shower: This simple hydrotherapy has been practiced in Europe for centuries. At the end of your lovely steaming hot shower turn the hot water off and the cold water up for 10 to 15 seconds. It provides a strong boost to your circulation of blood and lymph, and stimulates the production of white blood cells. You may find it shocking at first, but a cold rinse becomes addictive! It strengthens your immune system and keeps your body warmer longer than a straight hot shower, by driving the heated blood deep into your body. It is the sudden change from hot to cold that is important, so just take a deep breath and do it! Cold rinse your whole body, with more attention to the underarms, hands, feet and genitals. NOTE: This is never recommended for people with weak hearts. The change in circulation may overload a weak heart. Also, avoid running the cold water over your head until the rest of your body is covered to prevent dizziness.

3. Trampoline exercise: Bouncing on a trampoline stimulates your immune system and is fantastic exercise. Ten to twenty minutes three times per week will make a significant difference. There is a good trampoline routine in issue 67 of WellBeing Magazine.

Getting It Straight

Good posture makes you look better on the beach, but does it really make a difference to your health? Absolutely.

Your ability to breathe fully and digest food completely are heavily influenced by your posture. Collapsed posture confines your breathing and puts pressure on your digestive system, limiting your body’s use of oxygen and nutrition. You cannot thrive at your potential with these constraints.

The energy that flows through your body is also enhanced or restricted by your posture. Nerves, acupuncture meridians and minute internal channels called ‘nadis’ all carry energy to where you need it.

Drooping posture creates blocks in the flow of your energy the way kinks in a garden hose impede the flow of water.

ZentherapyÒ, Rolfing, Heller work and Alexander technique are methods or organising your body in correct alignment. By balancing the physical structure of your body, they bring balance to your breath, digestion, energy, and overall health.

So stand tall, open your chest, let your shoulder blades slide down your back. Lift your spine up out of your pelvis. Use your posture to make room for your breath, fire up your metabolism and revitalise your personal energy!

Headaches

The severe head pain, nausea and dizziness that migraines bring can often be quickly alleviated. At the first sign of a migraine, immediately place your feet in a basin of hot water. Adding one teaspoon of dry mustard powder per four litres of water also helps.

If you can lie down, then do so, bending your knees and putting your feet in the hot water. Cover yourself in a blanket to stay warm. Keep your feet soaking for about 20 minutes, and continually add hot water from a kettle. Dry them well and put on warm socks.

If you are at work and do not have a basin, place your feet on a hot water bottle and wrap them to keep them warm.

If you headaches are tension related, put a hot water bottle or hot wheat bag on the back of your neck to relieve the pain.

Maintenance for Your Body

Touch your neck and shoulders. Are they as relaxed as they were after your last massage? How long will it stay like this?” is one of the most frequent questions I hear after a treatment. To a large extent it is up to you.

Imagine how you feel after you have eaten a delicious, nourishing meal. Satisfied. No sense of hunger. After a meal would you ever ask, ‘How long will I stay this way?’ You know that you have to nourish yourself on a regular basis to stay healthy.

After a rigorous physical workout at the gym or pool you can feel the healthy firm shape of your muscles. Does it ever cross your mind that your muscles will stay that way indefinitely without regular work?

Keeping yourself aligned, balanced and flexible - physically, emotionally, and spiritually - requires the same disciplines as keeping fit and eating a healthy diet. Your body will stay relaxed as long as you keep it that way.

The muscles, tendons, ligaments and organ systems of your body are always changing. They are either getting more relaxed or more tense, more flexible or more rigid, more energised or more exhausted. Bodywork like Zentherapy or Samvahan can initiate and accelerate positive changes. To keep developing a state of balance and health, you have to regularly work at it.

There are several things that you can do to help maintain an optimium state of heath. Eating a proper diet is critical. If you are not sure what the right diet for you is, talk with a nutritionist. Getting enough sleep is essential to balanced health. If you have trouble sleeping, you may want to visit a naturopath or psychotherapist. Samvahan massage is often very good at relieving insomnia.

Exercise is also vital, as you have read in the plethora of magazines and books on the subject. Choose an exercise you enjoy and make it part of your life. I recommend stretching or light exercise daily, and at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular work three times per week. If you are doing a strenuous workout, remember that at least one third of your time should be for stretching. Exercise without stretching can do more harm than good.

Whatever exercise you choose, it is important to perform it with awareness. Focus on the work your body is doing. Watch your breath. Pay attention to your heart rate. Notice which muscles move, and how your organs feel during and after the workout. Feel how the energy level of your body change as you exercise.

In every form of exercise extend you neck and spine to their full length. Imagine that your spine is an accordion that can be stretch from the crown of your head and the tip of your tailbone. If you cannot extend your neck while performing an exercise, stop doing it, or do it with less intensity until you can extend your neck. Any exercise that compacts your spine and neck will eventually restrict your movement and negatively impact your health.

Hatha yoga is ideal exercise, as are most martial arts. Hatha yoga refers to the stretching and poses that make the body limber, energetic and balanced.

There are many hatha yoga schools to choose from. Find a teacher you like who teaches a class that fits your needs. Satyananda Yoga, Siddha Yoga, and IYTA teachers usually take a gentle approach to poses. Iyengar yoga schools are usually rigorous, and Ashtanga and Bikram yoga schools are the most difficult and demanding.

You can begin your day with the ‘Salute to the Sun’ yoga routine or the Five Tibetan Rites. There is a good explanation of the Salute to the Sun in issue 68 of WellBeing Magazine.

The Five Tibetan Rites are described in Peter Kelder’s book, ‘Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth’. Try a yoga class, a martial arts class, or swim, bike, walk, dance, surf or rebound yourself into better health.

Finally, the strongest recommendation I can make for maintaining your health is to meditate.

Over time, meditation calms the mind, improves the function of the parasympathetic nervous system, and reduces stress. It improves your energy level. Even a short meditation has benefits, and daily meditation of 20 minutes or more can dramatically improve your health.

The ‘S’ Word

There is a moment in every treatment when change happens. It is not the moment of most effort, nor is it the moment of greatest pain, deepest emotion, or clearest reason. It is the moment of surrender. It is the time when you accept your condition in that second, and allow yourself the freedom to heal.

Surrender is not easy:
Often it takes an hour or more of painstaking focus, fighting your thoughts, resisting pain, to reach the point where you are able to relax into your body’s natural ability to heal itself. Sometimes it takes months or even years to reach this point.

Surrender contradicts your mind’s advice.
Your mind tells you to avoid pain and fear. It gives you other things to think about and urges you to stay in control. It warns you that reaching into that feeling, opening that inner door, letting down that wall, will be a disaster. It fills you with fear. It protects you with anger. It masks you with depression.

Surrender is not an intellectual decision.
You may say to yourself, “Yes, I’m ready to change,’ and still you feel frustrated and stuck in the same old patterns. When you are truly willing to change at a gut, level in your bones, in your blood, then surrender arises from deep in your heart. Bodywork can facilitate this inner change because it gives you an experience of surrender beyond your mind.

Surrender challenges your limits.
You have probably had experiences that were so challenging that you momentarily ‘checked out’ mentally. It is a common response when the intensity of feelings or physical pain become overwhelming. Confrontative bodywork can help you find the edge of your comfort zone and give you practice at staying present. Working with the discomfort, rather than fighting it, is the key to letting it go.

Surrender does not mean quitting.
In our culture the word surrender often connotes weakness. In truth, it takes greater strength and courage to surrender your pain, fear and limitations that it does to ignore them. You have to face your fears to surrender them. You have to recognise and acknowledge your pain to let it go. This kind of surrender is not 'giving up.’ It is stepping forward.

Surrender requires trusting the unknown.
Surrender means relinquishing the control of your thinking mind holds over you and letting the inherent wisdom of your body do the thinking, and the healing. Surrender simply creates the emotional and mental state that enables change to happen spontaneously at the deepest levels within you. It may only last for a moment. But that single moment of change is enough to transform your life.

Humming Away Insomnia

There are many causes of insomnia. It is almost always accompanied by tension in the neck and head. This tension can be soothed by the vibrations from your voice and breath, putting you in a more restful state. Little things do work, so give them a try.

When you having trouble sleeping, roll onto your back or side. Place the tips of your index fingers on the flexible flap of skin just in front of your ears. Press this softly down to close the ear. Take a deep breath in through your nose and start humming a buzzing sound, “zzzzzzz”, as you exhale fully through your mouth. Breathe in again and exhale completely as you buzz. Feel and listen to the vibration. Continue this softly for five minutes or longer to calm your mind and welcome sleep.

A second technique is to close your ears in the same way, “breathe in through your nose, then exhale through your nose humming a “mmmmmm” sound in your sinus cavity. Try this for five to ten minutes and watch how sleep comes to you.

Also, placing a hot water bottle beneath your neck and the back of your head will often help relieve insomnia. Sweet dreams.

Breathing Out The Pain

Pain is always transient. It is waiting to leave you. Your concentrated breath can encourage it out. Often when we feel pain we mentally close-off the affected area. We consciously retreat from the pain, giving it control. Usually you can reduce your pain by bringing your focus, your consciousness, into the pain. To do this you must work with your breath.

First, direct your attention clearly on the area that hurts. Imagine that your focus is a torch shining through the centre of your body, beaming on that precise area that is in pain. Mentally connect to the area.

Next, witness your breath moving through the area. Do not hold your breath. Focus on feeling your breath as it floats into and out of the affected area, as if that area were an extension of your lungs. Imagine that your breath is circulating through the tissue there. Imagine that your breath can embrace the tissue.

Finally, release your breath in long exhalations, carrying the pain away. Make your exhalations longer and longer, while keeping a gentle focus on the painful area. Breathe out softly until you feel your lungs are empty, then try to gently exhale a little more, and a little more. Notice how your pain dissolves as you breath out longer and longer.

Complete exhalation is the critical point. Pour your breath out without holding anything back, as if you are emptying water from a bucket. Let every “drop” run out. You cannot force it out; just let it empty completely. When you breath is completely exhaled, imagine that just a little breath can drift out. The pain will go with it.

This is especially helpful with sharp muscle pain, or tightness when stretching or moving. Sometimes touching the painful spot with your fingers helps you to keep your attention there. Long exhalations will also help relieve any leg or back pain you feel during meditation. Keep your focus clear and gentle. You will be amazed at the results you can achieve.

Hot & Cold Relief

Using hot and cold packs is one of the fastest, most effective ways of relieving pain. A hot water bottle and ice pack can be your best friends if you know when to use which. Here are some guidelines.

Heat increases circulation and soothes stiff joints. Apply heat to tired muscles, lingering muscle aches, and to muscles prior to stretching or exercise. Hold a hot water bottle on your abdomen to relieve abdominal bloating or sluggishness after eating. Soaking your feel in hot water can unplug congested sinuses and relieve migraine headaches. (Note: This also drains the blood from your digestive system, so don’t do it after meals.)

Use heat for 10 to 20 minutes at a time. Never apply heat when there is swelling, or when there is nerve pain (an electric or numb feeling.)

Cold relieves spasms, swelling, sciatica and other nerve pain. Apply cold after injury, and for acute pain (immediate and severe, rather than lingering and long-term). Cold to your neck and nose relieves nose bleeds.

Use cold for 2 to 10 minutes at a time, not more. Remove cold any time the treated area feels numb. Extended application of cold can damage tissue.

For stabbing pain or poor circulation in feet, legs or hands, try alternating hot and cold. Use 10 minutes of heat, then 2 minutes of cold, then repeat. Make the switch from hot to cold quickly.

Remember:

1. Wet is better. Water carries heat and cold deeper and faster into the tissue than a dry application. Place a thin, damp dishtowel under a hot water bottle or ice pack to improve the effect dramatically.

2. If in doubt whether to use heat or cold, use cold. Observe the results after two minutes, and change to heat if there is no improvement.

Ayurveda & Your Digestion

Ayurveda is the oldest system of medicine in the world. Developed 5,000 years ago in India, it is the science of balancing the components of human health using natural remedies.

Increasingly, both patients and doctors in the West are looking to the wisdom of ayurveda, and its time-proven treatments for everything from the common cold to cancer.

Here are tips that you can start using today.

These are some treatments for digestion that help almost, everyone, regardless of their body-type and the specifics of their digestive problem. If your digestion is sluggish, heavy, or gassy you may like to try these:

1. Eat a small piece of fresh, peeled ginger root before each meal. Start with a micro-chip sized piece, and when you get used to the taste, increase the size up to a ½ teaspoon. Ginger improves the digestive “fire”, and stimulates digestive enzymes, helping the breakdown of foods.

2. If you have trouble digesting dairy products, try eating them with a generous sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper.

3. Eat one bowl of whole mung bean soup every day. Spice it to your taste with garlic, ginger, black pepper, cumin, fennel, and/or turmeric. Mung bean soup is a powerful cleanser for the liver and blood, giving your entire digestive system a boost.
   

Home Remedy for RSI and Arthritis

In a pan, mix 2 tsp of dried ginger with 2 tsp of caraway and 4 tsp of rice flour (or wheat flour). Heat and add water slowly to create a thick paste. When the consistency is pliable, like peanut butter, add a pinch of yeast. Continue stirring and heating for half a minute.

Allow the paste to cool until warm then apply it to painful areas; the wrists and hand-tendons, or any sore joints. Allow the paste to dry and brush it off. One or two treatments daily for seven to ten days should bring relief.

Getting To The Bottom Of Your Health

Wellness requires good digestion. Your health depends on what food you eat, how you eat it, how your stomach breaks it down, how your small intestine absorbs the nutrition in it, and how your large intestine (your colon) gets rid of the waste matter. A breakdown or blockage anywhere along the line stifles your energy, starts discomfort that may become disease, and can lead to chronic illness.

Many physicians from all disciplines believe that poor digestion accounts for over half of the diseases we face. Your colon may be the last stop in your digestive system, but it is the first place to make a change if you want powerful results fast.

The two metre tube that is your colon is the wonder of the plumbing world. It helps separate the useable materials your body needs from the solid waste it doesn’t. It passes the good stuff into your blood stream and dumps out the rest.

The diets, pollutants and stresses that we all have today are extremely hard on our colons. When your colon gets clogged, coated or kinked, this process slows down, creating toxins that slowly poison you.

There are two common ways to cleanse the colon. First is an enema, administered by yourself or a health care practitioner. Between 100mls and 2 litres of water, medicated oils, milk or other liquids are fed into the last segment of the colon (sigmoid colon) through a tube inserted into the anus and rectum. Once the fluid is inside your colon, it dislodges old, hardened matter and cleans the intestinal wall. After retaining the fluid for five to thirty minutes, you expel it into the toilet, getting rid of all sorts of toxins and waste. Ask me or another health care practitioner how often, and what type of enema you might need.

Colonics work similarly to enemas and are much more thorough. They are administered only by professionals and reach deeper into the colon, using more fluid and cleansing more toxins than is possible with an enema. A series of three or more colonics can drastically improve your digestion, reduce bloating and gas, boost your energy level, and lower any excess heat in your body.

While the thought of cleaning out your colon may not be pleasant, the though of leaving it full of toxins, old waste and potential disease is horrifying. Don’t overlook this critical aspect of your health. You visit a dentist regularly to have your teach cleaned. Doesn’t your colon deserve the same care?

Old Is New : Ayurvedic Health Traveling across Europe and the USA, I was amazed by how many people are buying books, taking health retreats and visiting clinics that offer the latest craze in health care. Around the world people are discovering Ayurveda, the Indian science of medicine. Health journals are writing about it schools are offering courses in it, and every day people are lining up to experiment with Ayurvedic spas, make-up, teas, massage and medicines. Ayurveda has become something of a fad following Dr Deepak Chopra’s worthwhile and successful books on the subject.

Michael Trembath with Ayurvedic teachers Dr.s Smita & Pankaj Naram and their patient, H.H. the Dalia Lama

Ayurveda is, without doubt, one of the most powerful medical systems around. It is no fad in India, where it has been practiced for over 5,000 years. The treatments prescribed by ancient Indian sages can be tremendously useful for a huge range of illnesses. If you are ready to consider this “new” approach to health, do seek out a genuinely qualified Ayurvedic practitioner, trained in India.

Ayurveda, a Sanscrit word which means “the science of life”, is complex medical system that is vastly different from Chinese, modern or traditional western medicine. Ayurveda uses a unique physiological and anatomical framework to understand health and maximise your wellness on all levels.

From the Ayurvedic perspective, the five basic elements of the universe (earth, water, fire, air and space) combine in each cell of your body to create not only tissues, but also three constitutional characteristics that regulate your proper functioning. “Vata” or wind, regulates movement (ie muscular activity), “Pita” or heat, regulates transformation (ie metabolism), and “Kapha”, or liquid, regulates structure.

Each of us has a genetically determined predominance of one (or a combination of two) of these types. The predominance of wind makes Vata people active, thin mentally restless, creative and easily fatigued. They are like ants, always busy, moving, getting things done. They experience more arthritis, gas, joint pain, depression, fear, insomnia and constipation.

A predominance of heat makes Pita people fair, medium sized, excitable, with fast metabolism. They are like small birds, darting from bush to bush for a meal, hearts racing, temperatures high. They experience more anger, skin rashes, acne, jealousy and loose stools.

The predominance of liquid makes Kapha people slow, solid, tolerant and steady. They are like snails, gliding along in clam, heavy ease. They experience more obesity, pneumonia, asthma, drowsiness and shame.

A qualified Ayurvedic practitioner works with you to balance your Vata, Pita and Kapha, to eliminate illness and produce vitality. Herbs, massages, diet, enemas, exercise and lifestyle may all be part of your treatment. The genius of Ayurveda is the recognition that treatments effect people in different ways. No diet is good for everyone, nor is any particular medicine. Your predominant constitutional type will determine your reaction to a treatment.

Even more important than your constitutional type is the specific imbalance of Vata, Pita and Kapha that is creating your current health condition. Vata people can have a heat imbalance (swelling), just as Pita people can have a wind imbalance (muscle aches). An effective treatment will consider both your constitutional type and your immediate imbalance.

Fortunately, it is not necessary that you understand Ayurveda to receive its benefits. There are Ayurvedic doctors in most cities to help you, and I have been trained to do Ayurvedic diagnosis and cleansing treatments. My Ayurvedic teacher, Dr. Pankaj Naram, is one of the world’s best. He has treated over 200,000 patients, including leading politicians and spiritual masters in India and Europe.

Dr Naram’s and our plan is to offer you many kinds of Ayurvedic treatments to help bring vitality to your health. You can also read more about Ayurveda in Dr Deepak Chopra’s books “Perfect Health” and “Quantum Healing” or in Dr Vasan Lad’s “Ayurveda; The Science of Self Healing”.

Metabolism Tea

This “metabolism tea” is an Ayurvedic treatment for a slow metabolism. If your digestion and/or appetite are weak, it can help.

Combine in a teapot;

1 tsp minced, fresh ginger
the seeds from 2 cardamom pods, ground or chopped fine
a pinch of cinnamon
a pinch of fresh ground black pepper
a pinch of asafetida (available at Indian grocers and good spice shops)
Add 3-4 cups boiling water and allow to steep for 5-7 minutes.

Take small sips before and during meals. You can adapt the quantities of each of these spices to suit your taste.

Mung Dhal Cleansing Soup

Mung is a fantastic blood cleanser and good protein. This recipe makes a healthy meal that tastes great.

I make this soup at least once a week, and eat it over several meals. Dr Pankaj Naram, my Ayurvedic teacher in Bombay, has a thin mung soup every day.

Recipe (makes 6 servings)
1 cup dry, organic mung beans (soak overnight in one litre water, filtered if possible)
1tbs ghee (or vegetable oil)
3 gloves of garlic, finely chopped
2cm piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp cummin
6 cardamom pods
freshly ground pepper
1 large vegetable stock cube*
2 litres filtered water (for soup consistency)
1 bunch of spinach and/or three medium potatoes (optional)

Soak the mung overnight, then rinse and drain. Chop garlic and ginger and set aside. Combine fennel and coriander seeds and grin with mortar and pestle. Heat ghee over medium heat in a soup pot. When hot, add garlic and ginger and stir for 1-2 minutes, until lightly cooked. Add fennel, coriander, turmeric, cummin and pepper.

Split cardamom pods and grind seeds. Add to other spices and stir for 1 minute. Add drained mung beans and stir another minute. Dissolve stock cube in boiling water and add, along with remaining water. Bring soup to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 50-60 minutes, until mung is cooked. For a thicker dhal, add only 1 litre water, and half a stock cube.

For a heartier soup, add one bunch of spinach or beet tops, chopped, 7 minutes before serving. Alternatively, add three medium potatoes, peeled in large cubes about 30 minutes before serving. For a hearty stew, add both!

Serve with crusty bread and salad, or with rice and vegetable curry.

*Massel brand are what I consider large! Some stock cubes are unsalted. If this is the case ad 1/2 tsp salt, or more according to taste..

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The Sound

By Karen Prout, Journalist
(submitted after her first Samvahan treatment)

The touch of another sends ripples of distrust. A question marks through the body. Like a domino effect of question marks in the cells. What is that? What does he want? What’s going to happen next?

And then as if in preparation, all cells stiffen, harden, brace themselves for the onslaught, the energetic onslaught of another’s grabbing, pushing, wanting, the self-interested seeking. And every cell goes white hard, erect, the membrane walls closer down. No more osmosis allowed. No more permeability. And the membrane walls stop touching each other out of fear of being touched, and the membrane walls lose their malleability and penetrability.

And then finally through the walls comes this sound - at first a tingling, rustling, wide movement, then a thicker, denser, jiggling movement and then a deep sonorous AAAUUUMM. Thick and heavy and syrupy and dense and svelte as it finds it way between the cells, like honey, like maple syrup, soothing the cells into vibrating again. Soothing the cells into talking with each other. And down in the solar plexus, where they are most rigid, the cells begin to speak to one another again. They begin to move and touch and settle and listen and tease and coax and wriggle a little more.

And the sound keeps coming. The AAAUUUUMMM, round sound. Wide sound. It comes from the roof of the sky. It comes from the wide open spaces beyond the light. It comes with a trail of geese in its wake. It comes with an eagle watching over it. It comes with the deep belly of a whale echoing its sound. It comes with the wide mountains tops singing their joy. It comes with the green grass rustling its leaves. It comes from the bottom of the earth. It comes bringing with it all manner of voices, all manner of thoughts, all manner of emotions, for it is everything, and yet it is only the round sound.

And the cells wondered at this new sound. And their nucleus thought it knew this sound. And the nucleuses conferred and corroborated and queried among themselves. Then finally one cell yelp YES, YES, YES, YES, we know this sound. YES, YES this is our sound. YES, YES, let us let this sound in. Let us let this sound into our being, let is come and be with us, be part of us. Let us come together and open ourselves to welcome this sound. And as the cells and their membranes made way for the sound, the sound came amongst them and dwelt amongst them and soon they did not know what was sound and what was cell.

Pain Is Not Permanent

Stabbing, thobbing, grating, grabbing; pain can dominate your life. It takes your focus away from family, work, or exercise, and leaves little room for enjoying life. Don’t let this be the case for you or the people you love.

Pain, or the fear of pain, can be immobilising. In part, that is its purpose. Pain lets you know that something needs protection. It tells you to slow down, to change some behaviour, or to do some healing work. At the very least, it says “pay attention” to the source of your pain, before it gets worse.

This is true for muscle pain, such as you may feel in your shoulders, lower back, or hamstrings, and for systematic pain in your stomach, colon, kidneys, or chest. It is equally true for emotional pain. If you ignore it, suppress it, o deny it, pain of any type will come back with a vengeance.

Pain is a messenger. The message is to change. The moment to change is when you first feel the pain.

Ridding yourself of pain requires focus. You must connect with the root of your pain to be free of it. Bodywork like ZentherapyÒ can help you to identify a specific cause of the pain, come face-to-face with it, and let it go. Giving your time, your focus, your energy, to the troubled spots in your body or life is the only thing that will change them.

ZentherapyÒ is the fastest, most powerful tool that I have found for freeing pain. It brings your attention to the absolute “here and now”, where the pain lives. It gives you solid steps to take that change tissues, release tension, and break old, non-productive habits.

Even pain that is not lodged in tissues is often alleviated by the structural alignment and balance that comes from ZentherapyÒ sessions. Vibrational massage can also relieve deep-seated nerve or organ pain, by creating safe, soothing movement where the pain is “stuck”.

If you feel pain “all over”, accompanied by fatigue and sluggishness, you may have an overload of toxins in your body. See the articles on cleansing toxins and colonics, or ask me about ways to address long-term aches.

Whatever your pain, listen to its message and have faith that it can and will change. With persistence and courage, you will find the joy and comfort that rests within you as your natural state.