warming winter foods

This time of year we naturally tend towards hearty soups and stews.  The French have their cassoulet, the Chinese eat their snake soup in the winter.  As Paul Pitchford says in his seminal Healing with Whole Foods, "cold and darkness drive one to seek inner warmth."

But besides the thermal warmth of a hot stew, according to Chinese medicine certain foods have actual warming properties and accelerate your sluggish energy when the temperatures are cold (such as snake soup, but no recipe for that here, although we ate it when we lived in Hong Kong many years ago).  Paul Pitchford talks about the benefits of salty and bitter foods in the winter, and my acupuncturist reminded me that this is the time of year for bone broths and warming spices like ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.

Save the bones or bony back when you make chicken or get some beef bones, and simply put them in a big pot of water with some carrots, celery and onions and simmer for a long time, even over night.  Right now I have a whole bunch of chicken necks cooking on the stove to make a soup base (found two bags in the freezer from my last chicken order from the farm).  Or better yet, for a richer broth roast the carcass or bones in the oven with some vegetables before cooking.

These broths are delicious as is, or make a great base for all kinds of heart warming and hearty soups. And why not invite a few friends over to share your soup and shake off the winter doldrums?

finding the You in You

It's nothing new - that beauty comes from within, and that that beauty also entails youthfulness.  As Jane Brody explained in her recent NY Times article you can lather yourself with all the creams in the world, dye your hair, tuck your tummy - if you are miserable it shows.  And if you are happy it shows also.  The French word for the state of mind that makes you shine from within is épanouie  - the best translation is radiant. Radiance shines through.  When everything works well for you in life, when you are who you need to be (or working on it) and do what you need to do (or trying to get there), it goes way beyond manicured nails, the next bigger car, or a breast or nose job.

I'm never so sure what women are trying to achieve when they dye their hair or otherwise tweak their external features (granted there are exceptions).   After all the world's oldest model Carmen Dell'Orefice (she is 82!!!) with her signature white hair would no longer be Carmen if she dyed her hair.  She looks radiant and unique with it.  And if Sofia Loren had had cosmetic surgery to make her into a standard Barbie beauty she would no longer be Sofia Loren.  Her lips and eyes are so uniquely Sofia.

There is no one more unique than you!  And all that is special about you will come out and shine and glow and radiate when you do that inner work.  It's about finding the You in You.

we can buy calories but not real nourishment

That's what Charles Eisenstein wrote. Since my last blog post was about the importance of feeding the soul, in that case through mantras, I'll continue a bit along those lines. Gaining nourishment from food is a many-layered process that includes a lot more than counting the calories of a meal or dissecting its nutritional content. Those are quantifying analyses. But the soul also gets nourishment from the qualitative aspects in and around food.

DSC06717What might those elements be? The first thing that comes to mind has to do with how the food grew, was or was not processed, and how it was made. Vegetables and fruits grown in healthy and mineral rich soil on a small farm with loving care, grown without -ides (pesti-, insecti-, fungi-), harvested at the height of their ripe- or readyness, and used for cooking as soon as possible after harvesting, is incredibly nourishing to body and soul. Its intrinsic quality is so much more complex than produce that was harvested before ripening (bananas, peaches, tomatoes grown on large farms all get harvested before their prime to ensure unsquooshed arrival at the supermarket), had to be shuttled cross country or across continents, and then sits in the supermarket for another few days, before making it to our fridge, where it sits yet another few days. Same goes for meat, for those who do eat meat.  It matters in what surroundings the animal was kept, how it was handled, what it was fed, and how it met its end.  That quality, which we introduce into our body, has an influence on our spirit.

DSC06393Other elements that add a more ethereal quality to the food we eat are the care and love and interest with which we prepare and cook the food. A lovingly prepared and composed dish will have a better energetic quality than a quickly slapped together microwaved meal. Your homemade jar of jam has so much more qualitative depth than one from the supermarket that's been made industrially.

DSC06480Lastly, the context within which we eat the meal can nourish the soul. A nicely set table helps; taking the time to sit down as a family for a meal sets a comforting and warm tone of togetherness for the day or evening; and sharing a leisurely meal with friends imbues the food with a different meaning than eating alone.  And just think of those special holiday meals coming up soon.

Also look back at my post "food, glorious food."

feeding the body, feeding the soul

UntitledI am currently - sort of (on and off) - doing Deva Premal & Miten's 21-day mantra journey.  During the introduction to Day 5 Miten points out that just as we feed the body (with food obviously, but perhaps also with exercise and fresh air) we also need to feed the soul, that other part of us.  We can feed our soul in all sorts of ways.  I think anything that emphasizes the quality of life feeds the soul, such as beauty, friendship, love or serenity (did you notice that these are all things money can't buy?).Untitled 2 Mantra chanting, as Miten explained, is one such soul food.  In the German September 2013 issue of GEO was a small article on the benefits of singing together.  Researchers discovered that the hearts of a group of mantra singers beat in synchronicity.  The controlled breathing of mantra chanting, similar to the controlled breathing practised in yoga, slows the heartbeat down and strengthens it, which is so beneficial.  When a group chants mantras together each individual melds into the group togetherness through the common synchronized heartbeat.   Neat!Untitled 3

feet feet feet

Next on my very informal review of a few alternative healing therapies is reflexology, a therapeutic foot massage. Reflexology, or something close to it, was used both in ancient Egypt and ancient China.  Like many other alternative therapies it is a therapy that has been around for quite some time and we are re/discovering it in our search for less invasive, more gentle, and less expensive treatment methods than the allopathic (conventional) medical system.  Reflexology is a massage therapy and energy healing system applied to specific points under the feet and based on the assumption that specific areas of the foot soles relate to specific organs and areas of the body.  footchart

Similar to acupuncture, reflexology too aims to rebalance the body's energy flow, which in turn promotes healing.  Most of all reflexology is extremely relaxing.  If you believe nothing else about it, you will come out of a one-hour session very relaxed and content.

For more information check out the Reflexology Association of America, the New York State Reflexology Association and the American Reflexology Certification Board.

 

 

 

and now about aromatherapy

various essential oils Here is another gentle holistic therapy that acts on the entire body/mind/spirit continuum without side effects (unlike allopathic medications, which alter the body chemistry to counter-act symptoms and do so with side effects).  Aromatherapy, in contrast to homeopathy, which I wrote about recently, is a very ancient healing modality dating back thousands of years.

Essential oils are distilled from different plant parts and are massaged into different body parts, inhaled or even ingested.   Many essential oils have anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-parasitic properties, and may be excellent substitutes for antibiotics and other drugs with side effects.

two of my most used oils

I put a few drops of tea tree and eucalyptus oil in a bowl of hot water and inhale the steam for treatment of viral or bacterial infections of the respiratory tract.  Lavender oil (diluted in water and sprayed on) heals scar tissue and burns.  When my children had ear infections, I dripped a bit of warm (not hot!) olive oil with a drop of tea tree oil (or garlic, oregano or cinnamon oil) into the affected ear, put some cotton in it, and repeated this a few times a day.   The ear infection usually cleared without the use of antibiotics. My daughter swears by a drop or two of lavender on her pillow to sleep well.  Instead of commercial mouthwash I rinse with a few drops of peppermint and tea tree oil in water after brushing my teeth (tea tree is  anti-bacterial, peppermint is anti-inflammatory).  When my children had colds I used to put a diffuser in their room overnight with a few drops of eucalyptus and tea tree oil.

an essential oil diffuser

The sicker our body and our emotional health, the lower the frequency of the body.  Different essential oils have different electrical frequencies.  A properly trained aromatherapist can realign the body's "out-of-tune" frequency through a combination of different oils and different application methods on different body locations.  This is obviously much more complex than my little home remedies.

Please take a look at these links for further inspiration and information:  University of Maryland Medical Center on aromatherapy, www.aromatherapy.com, and health.howstuffworks.com.

On a different note, essential oils, such as citrus oils (lemon, orange) or herbal oils (rosemary, thyme) can be used in cooking and baking (cinnamon oil) by adding a few drops to cake or cookie dough or salad dressings for example.

Happy healing and happy cooking!

 

what about homeopathy?

As we are reaching the limits of absurdity of our Western healthcare system,  as in outrageous costs (see NY Times on the outrageous cost of medical procedures here vs. other countries), ineffective treatments, reimbursement nightmares, being treated like a number, dangerous side effects, to name just a few issues, more and more people are turning  to what they call "CAM," complementary and alternative medicine. Over the next few weeks I will present a few of those alternative therapies as a matter of inspiration.  I can't hide my bias for homeopathy, coming from Germany (where it comes from), and having grown up in France and Belgium (where pharmacies' awnings declare whether they carry homeopathic remedies, which many of them do, because it is a commonly accepted treatment method over there).

homeopathic over-the-counter remedies

Over on this side of the Atlantic homeopathy is oftentimes still poopooed as "nothing more than diluted water" out of sheer ignorance - but then there will always be skeptics until they open up their minds to new possibilities.

Homeopathy, like for example aromatherapy, works on the subtle energetic level.  The remedies realign and rebalance our frequencies (the higher your frequency the healthier and more joyful you are, the lower your frequency the worse your health and also your disposition and emotional wellbeing).  Homeopathic remedies come in dilutions so minute, that the original substance cannot be detected in them.  However, the pill or the water the pill has been dissolved in, has been imprinted with the subtle information of the original matter it was made of such as mineral or plant.  Strangely enough, the higher the potency, the more subtle the dilution - and lo and behold, the more powerful the effect.

Over-the-counter remedies, like the blue ones shown in the first picture, can be helpful.  They come in the lower potencies.  But the real help comes by seeing a homeopathic practitioner, preferably someone who is also an MD, and who determines the appropriate remedy via conversation to understand your symptoms, character, disposition, moods etc.  S/he may prescribe some of the higher potencies shown in the second picture, that should only be taken with appropriate instruction from a qualified practitioner as to how often to take them.

high-potency remedies prescribed by a homeopathic practitioner

Homeopathy is powerful, yet very gentle, and has no side effects whatsoever.  It is as effective for many physical symptoms as it is for emotional ones, such as depression, anxiety or eating disorders.   How the healing proceeds depends on many factors.  Oftentimes, I have taken a homeopathic remedy and after a few weeks the symptom has simply subtly disappeared.  Other times, the effect can be almost immediate.  It does happen, too, that other issues or symptoms disappear as well, or that you feel better in ways you would never have been able to anticipate.

Once, while I was still doing Taekwondo, I began taking a remedy.  A few days later I had to do a wood break.  My subtle energy had risen to such a level that the wood broke a split second before my heel actually hit the wood!

Please check out the American Institute of Homeopathy, The North American Society of Homeopaths and the National Center for Homeopathy for more information.  Happy Healing!

healing is shifting

"Doctors don't dispense wellness, they suppress symptoms," Dr. George Wootan, a pretty enlightened family practitioner from West Shokan, NY, said recently during a talk I attended.  There you have my gripe with allopathy, the Western medical healing paradigm.  Suppressing symptoms is not healing because it maintains the same underlying thought patterns. A friend recently posted something like this on Facebook:  "Has it ever happened to you that all of a sudden you see something in a totally different light, and you wonder how it happened, and why you did not see it in that light all along?"  A shift has happened.

Some of these shifts happen gradually over the years, some of them happen suddenly.  Eckhart Tolle describes such a sudden shift early in his first book The Power of Now.  After years of dread and depression he woke up one morning and suddenly the world looked bright and beautiful to him.

True healing comes from within.  It arises out of shifts in thinking, in consciousness.    I believe that almost all ailments are due to emotional hang-ups - such as negative thoughts and beliefs, emotional trauma, or past life residues.  When you clear these, through your own work and intent, or with someone's help, the energy channels open up and the shift happens, all by itself.