The ancients were very in tune with their bodies and what foods would promote health. They were masters at selecting specific foods that would nurture their bodies and prevent disease.
Research has subsequently shown that your longevity is based one-quarter on your genetics and three-quarters on your behavior and lifestyle choices.
So, then, what essential foods might aid you in promoting healthy living? Here are just a few:
♥ Almonds: Considered the #1 healthy food choice; high in protein and essential vitamins and minerals.
♥ Apple: Cleans teeth and gums; lowers cholesterol and detoxifies the body.
♥ Cabbage: An excellent anti-inflammatory that helps disinfect the colon, reduce the pain of headaches and rheumatic disorders.
♥ Celery: Helps reduce high blood pressure and purifies the blood.
♥ Figs: Contain a powerful healing agent that soothes mucous membranes and contains a bactericide, an anticancer ingredient.
♥ Flaxseed: A tonic for kidneys that encourages healing; flaxseed tea is said to help bronchitis.
♥ Garlic: Cleanses the blood and helps to create and maintain healthy bacteria population; boosts the immune system; tones the heart and circulatory system.
♥ Honey: Soothes inflammation; helps retain calcium in the body; mix with vinegar to relieve arthritis.
♥ Olives: An antioxidant; olive oil can lower cholesterol levels and is said to slow down the aging process.
♥ Onions: Cause the body to release toxins; increases blood circulation; works as an antibiotic and draws out infection.
♥ Vinegar: Helps more efficient use of calcium in the body and encourages strong bones, hair, and nails.
♥ Walnuts: Strengthens the gums and acts as an anti-inflammatory; encourages circulation; help keep the heart healthy.
Incorporate these foods into your next shopping list. Research also shows that if you perform a good habit for three years, the effect on your body is as if you’ve done it your whole life!
Your thoughts create your reality. One of the major problems with unconscious fear is that the brain can be in a state of constant anticipation of negative things. We then focus our attention to look for ways to validate these fears. From an evolutionary perspective, this act was meant to protect us. Fear is the gatekeeper of our comfort zone.
In modern times, these primitive fears keep us bound and are no longer helpful. What is helpful is to begin to think and respond differently, to hold a positive outlook.
The Benefits of Optimism:
♥ Research shows that optimism leads people to better overall health.
♥ Optimistic people are generally “luckier,” more successful, and regarded as more appealing.
♥ Based on the Law of Attraction (Like attracts like), by being optimistic, you will draw positive outcomes to yourself.
♥ Studies have shown that imagining positive outcomes releases fear.
♥ The more optimistic you are, the more you create a pattern of response that perpetuates your positive feelings.
Here are some steps to bringing about more positive thinking:
♥ Recognize what is NOT happening in your life that you would like to have happen.
♥ Identify what you CAN do to make it happen and focus on that.
♥ Fear and optimism cannot occupy the same space, so the more optimistic you can be and feel, the less fear you experience.
♥ Focus on one thing that makes you happy, that you are grateful for, and bring this into your mind whenever you experience a fearful thought.
You may be surprised that small steps toward optimism can bring about big changes.
The word “synchronicity” was coined by Carl Jung, famous Swiss Psychiatrist, to mean “meaningful coincidence.” For example, you need a service and two people mention the same provider, unsolicited, in one day. You’ve been thinking about calling a person and you suddenly see him or her while running errands.
Our lives have a narrative structure, and synchronistic events often reflect turning points and directional arrows in our narrative. They can also indicate that we are in a state of “flow,” and synchronicities have been referred to as the “angel’s way” of speaking with us.
When we are in a challenging place in our lives and without actively seeking support, we may find that help arrives in the form of an accidental sequence of events which occurs exactly as we need in order to assist us in moving through a circumstance or event.
People often report the following synchronicities:
♥ It is common for telephones, addresses, and wrong numbers to crop up in many stories so that individuals may connect.
♥ Synchronistic events are almost always present for two people to meet the first time or an important subsequent time.
♥ It is considered synchronistic when seeming bad luck turns out to have a positive significance.
♥ Sometimes something will delay you, and the delay leads to a more fortunate outcome.
♥ The more obstinate we become about the way we think something “should” be, the more likely synchronicities will come to speak to us.
♥ The kind of child we have is always synchronistic–sometimes making parents confront their own shadows, develop their own strengths, and so on.
Most important, if we pay attention to the meaningful coincidences in our lives, we can question their significance. Are they directional messages, are they action-oriented, are they symbolic?
When an extraordinary, meaningful occurrence has significance for us, we should question how we might let it guide or change our story.
We all have a shadow self. This shadow has been referred to by many names, for example, “the dark self,” “the disowned self,” “the repressed self,” to name a few.
So what is meant by one’s “shadow”? Carl Jung, a famous psychiatrist, spoke of the shadow as “. . .the other in us, the other that embarrasses or shames us, . . .the negative side of the personality, those unpleasant qualities we like to hide. . . .”
Often we disown or “cut off” our shadow self. We make statements like “I’m not angry,” “I don’t feel sad,” and so on as a way of denying a part of ourselves. We may have been conditioned not to allow ourselves to feel this shadow piece, perhaps in order to stay in control. Our shadow might also be a very positive side of ourselves that we have kept dark. In other words, our shadow could be a strength of ours that we have kept dark or hidden because of being fearful of expressing it.
Oftentimes at various junctures on our journey we meet our shadow more fully. We may get in touch with those repressed parts of ourselves that we can no longer deny. We encounter what author Gary Zukav might term “holy moments” in which we are challenged to become conscious of something inside of us as a way of having an opportunity to become more aware of who we really are.
It’s common to meet our shadow self when our deeper needs and values tend to change direction. Greeting the shadow self may even call for breaking old habits and cultivating unrecognized talents.
If we avoid confronting our shadow self, we will remain unaware of what life has to teach us. Avoidance may make us feel safer, yet the safety can create a kind of living death.
Everything with depth casts a shadow. The shadow is the quality that makes us human. As much as we might wish to reject it in order to try to be “perfect,” it is the shadow that gives us our humanity. Embracing the shadow as we move through our lives is what creates our healing or wholeness.
Do you sometimes catch yourself verbalizing thoughts that are self-defeating? Do you hope desperately for something yet limit what you think you deserve, thereby dividing yourself against yourself?
Or do you find yourself able to understand that your thoughts do, in fact, create your reality, yet still feel unable to move your awareness into any conscious action to change?
It is my view that awareness is the first step toward conscious living.
One must understand the dynamics of thought and how our thoughts create our reality. So how do you move through awareness into action? A necessary second step is willingness—that is, the willingness to hold consciousness in the moment toward what you wish to have or be.
For example, I may desire a more loving relationship with my spouse. My desire may not be congruent with my thoughts. Throughout the day, I may be lamenting that I do not have a loving relationship and focusing on the lack and the desire.
So what can you do to align your thoughts with the reality that you wish to create?
♥ Begin to act as though you already are what and where you would like to be. Concentrate less on the behavior and more on your thoughts.
♥ Stop yourself from verbalizing or thinking thoughts that are self-defeating. Bring your awareness back to the present and remind yourself that you are your thoughts.
♥ Use the power of visualization to support your conscious thoughts.
♥ See yourself manifesting what you desire. If you wish to be out of debt, visualize yourself out of debt. Add an affirmation that you repeat consciously each day: “I am free of debt” OR “I draw wealth to myself.” Choose words that resonate for you and that match your positive visualization.
♥ Marvel at all the wealth you actually have—water, air, food, sun, clothes, shelter, friends, love, laughter. If you find yourself lamenting over what you do not have, remind yourself of two things you do have. A wonderful thing happens when you delight in how really wealthy you are—more and more of what you want and need flows to you.
♥ Above all, be willing to do whatever it takes to make your visualization happen.
You may find it helpful to use the Heartliving mantra: “Ask the universe for what you need. Visualize yourself receiving it. Know that you will receive it. For you are worthy.”
Often early on in new relationships the other person will treat you well. The person may compliment you, shower you with gifts, or be extremely considerate. The key to a person’s behavior, however, is to pay attention to how that person treats themselves and the world around them. Observe the person’s behaviors or attitudes because most often people will eventually treat you as they treat themselves.
Is the person scattered or focused? —responsible or reckless? —inflexible or tolerant? —generous or selfish? —self-respectful or disdaining? —self-confident or arrogant? Or loving and kind to himself/herself?
The idea is that you can only truly love another person as much as you are able to love yourself. Be sure that the person loves and respects themselves and the world around them before entrusting that person with your heart. And you, too, must love yourself fully before you can love another.
On our soulful journeys, we are given many opportunities for partnership. It is through connection and vulnerability that we are able to experience real growth.
The ancients were very in tune with their bodies and what foods would promote health. They were masters at selecting specific foods that would nurture their bodies and prevent disease.
