 been created if it weren’ t for an ar gument. Although we are often harried, there is still occasional downtime
between calls at the firehouse known as Engine 2, which is nestled on the
outskirts of the university campus (I transferred here from downtown
Austin’ s Central Station in January 2002). So we’re constantly coming up
with ways to keep ourselves busy. The competitions are endless: Who can
climb the fire pole hand over hand without using his feet? Who rules the
roost when it comes to Ping-Pong? Who can collect the most money in his
firefighter boot for Jerry’ s Kids, our annual muscular dystrophy fund-
raiser? Who can hoist the 180-pound dummy over his shoulder, carry it up
the back stairs, through the dormitory, and down the front stairs in the
shortest amount of time? So one day in 2003, when James Rae (aka JR), Josh Miller, and I were
sitting on the station’ s front porch, we started talking about health and
cholesterol levels, and as always, the discussion soon became a squabble
over whose cholesterol level was lowest. I was sure mine was, but so was
Josh. JR, who had no idea, wanted to play along, so the next morning the
three of us drove over to the People’ s Pharmacy and had our cholesterol
levels checked. Josh’ s level turned out to be 168, mine was 199, but JR’ s
was a whopping 344. My level, much higher than I had expected, caused me to lose the bet. But I had an excuse: The day before, I had raced in the Dirty Duathlon (a 5-
kilometer trail run, followed by a 25-kilometer mountain bike ride, endingwith another 5-kilometer trail run), competing against my ex-triathlon
competitor and friend Lance Armstrong and a slew of others (I came in
third, Lance was first). As a reward, I let myself eat my once-a-year
cheesebur ger with all the trimmings—not something you want to do just
before a cholesterol test and not something I’ve ever done again. But because JR’ s cholesterol was so high, it took all the heat of f me. It turned out that all the males in the Rae family had died of heart disease
before the age of fifty-two, except JR’ s father, who had under gone triple
bypass sur gery at fifty-four. As one of the fire department lieutenants said
when he heard about JR’ s tests: “The man’ s a walking heart attack.”
Furthermore, JR was married, the father of two young children, and only
thirty-three years old. So rather than pulling JR out of a fire someday, we decided to rescue
him through a healthy diet. I had always eaten well at the station. Sometimes JR and Josh would join
me in dining on my plant-based creations. But now we made a concerted
effort to start a healthy lunch wagon. (A  wagon is a family-style meal in
which we help each other prep, cook, and then clean up; it’ s a cultural
tradition at firehouses throughout the world.) Every day we prepared
wholesome sandwiches, tacos, veggie bur gers, and wraps with hummus and
vegetables on whole wheat or corn tortillas. A few months later, when the Austin Fire Department held a contest for
the healthiest lunch wagon, Engine 2 entered and won—another notch in
our competitive belts. Over the next year and a half, given our tendency to do everything to its
fullest extent, and to support JR on his quest to buck the Rae family
tradition, we developed a full-blown, plant-based eating schedule around
our twenty-four -hour shift: lunch when we arrived at noon, dinner that
evening, breakfast the next morning, and lunch before we left for home
again at noon. A year later, JR had his cholesterol checked again. It had only come
down to the 270s. I suspected he needed to commit to our eating lifestyle at
home as well as at the fire house, so I asked JR to eat all plant-based for just
three weeks, then have his cholesterol level checked once more. The results? His cholesterol had plummeted to an impressive 196—a
drop of 146 points (or 57 percent) from his high of 344!Since that time, JR and Josh were promoted to the rank of driver and left
Engine 2 for other firehouses, and new firefighters have joined us. Today
we have a fresh stable of plant-powered eaters here at Engine 2. We’re more
passionate than ever about our diet. What’ s more, several other Austin
firefighters, lieutenants, captains, battalion chiefs, and the doctor of the fire
department wellness center have made the switch to plant-eating—and all
with eye-popping results. E2 POP  QUIZ
Q: What percentage of heart attacks occur with people who have
supposedly heart-healthy cholesterol levels? A: Thirty-five percent of all heart attacks occur in people with a total
cholesterol between 150 and 199 mg/dl, numbers most physicians
and the American Heart Association consider desirable. THE ENGINE 2 PILOT  STUDY
Truly my father ’s son, I decided at this point that it was necessary to
complete a more formal study to prove the ef fectiveness of the Engine 2
Diet. I wanted to bring more people on board to show the dramatic impact
of an all-out, plant-based diet on a wide cross-section of people, from
professional athletes to working moms and dads, from couples to singles,
from meat eaters to vegetarians, from the very healthy to the not-so-healthy. By the winter of 2006, armed with a medical director (a doctor for the
Travis County Sherif f’s Department), a community Web site, and a lab to
test lipid profiles, I was ready. Now all I needed were participants to make
the Engine 2 Pilot Study a reality. I put out the word, hoping to find two dozen volunteers. Within two
weeks, I had to cap the number at sixty-five. Far more people than I’d
expected were ready and willing to clean up their diets and their lives. Among my volunteers were my thirteen-year -old next-door neighbor,
grandparents, vegans, cancer survivors, world-class triathletes, multiple
sclerosis patients, lawyers, business owners, and doctors. Also included
were a few additional firefighters (male and female), a storm chaser, and the
director of advancement for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.Several people had to drop out, and some people joined in a few days
late, but all in all, fifty-eight people finished the six-week program. And they got results! The study was a raging success. The level of that success can be measured by the before-and-after
markers I used to track changes in participants’  health. Before starting the
diet, everyone in the study took medical tests to obtain benchmarks for
everything from weight and blood pressure to a full lipid profile, which
includes total cholesterol level, LDL  cholesterol, HDL  cholesterol, risk ratio
(LDL/HDL), and triglycerides. After finishing the program, these markers were checked again. (In Engine 2 Vital Signs, page 97, I will explain in more detail what
these markers mean, and ask you to have them checked so you can track
your own magnificent success. But for those of you who have trouble
remembering: LDL  is your bad, or lethal, cholesterol, and HDL  is your
good, or healthy, cholesterol.) The most impressive result was the decrease in the group’ s average
overall cholesterol level from 181 mg/dl to 142 mg/dl, an average drop of
39 points, bringing them well below the magic number of 150, which
makes you heart attack proof. The average LDL  cholesterol fell from 109 to 77, a drop of 32 points,
also bringing them below the second magic number, 80, which not only
makes you heart attack proof, but also helps you to become resistant to
other chronic diseases. The greatest total cholesterol drop for an individual was 91 points (from
216 to 125), and the greatest LDL  drop, 78 points (from 189 to 1 11). We
also saw a total mean weight loss of 10 pounds, and our group average
weight fell from 172 to 162 pounds. The average weight loss for men was
15.0 pounds, and for women, 8.5 pounds. THE SECOND STUDY
On June 5, 2008, fifteen people (thirteen firefighters and two
civilians) embarked on a second, twenty-eight-day Engine 2 Pilot
Study. As with the first study, the results were mind-boggling! The
group started with an average total cholesterol of 197 mg/dl. Twenty-
eight days later, this number had dropped to 135, or 62 points (30
percent). The group started with an average LDL  cholesterol of 124mg/dl; this dropped to 74 mg/dl, or 50 points (40 percent). And the
group’ s average weight went from 203 to 189 pounds, or an average
loss of 14 pounds per person. This hard-core evidence shows the
powerful results that are within the grasp of each and every one of
you. This means you! The significant weight loss was particularly startling because not
everyone in the Pilot Study had wanted to


 exhalation
to th e count of four. Use this breathing technique anytime yo u’re feeling
stressed. Lion’ s Br eath — Simhasana :  This silly-looking breath is ef fective at
toning th e throa t, mouth, and ja w, and clearing out the lungs and bronchial
passages. T o practice the lion’ s breath, sit on your heels with your knees
wide open and place your hands on the floor in front of you. If it’ s
challenging to sit this way, you  can stand and place your feet wide apart
instead. T ake in a deep breath through your nose, and as you exhale, open
your mouth wide, stick out you r tongue, and say the word ha  emphasizing
the h  on the exhale, as if you are a lion roaring. If you want to add another
physical compon ent to complete the asana, b ring up your hands and make
claws as you exhale. It’ s great for releasing negative ener gy.Bridge P ose — Setu Bandhasana :  Begin by lying on your back with your
knees bent and your feet flat on  the floor. Place your feet hip-width apart
and parallel, your toes forward, and your arms alongside you  with your
palms facing down. Press your palms down and lift your pelvis up. If you
can, bring your hands together on the mat underneath your pelvis and
interlace your fingers. W alk your shoulders inward toward your spine, and
lift your  pelvis even higher. Loo k straight at the ceiling, and keep your head
steady. H old for  five to ten breaths. T o lower, separate your hands, bring
your palms to the floor, and lower your pelvis to the gro und. As a
counterpose, bring both knees to your chest and roll gently side to side to
massage your back. Bridge po se stimulates the thyroid, parathyroid, and
thymus glands. Shoulderstand — Salamba Sarvangasana :  Shoulderstand is a more
advanced pose, so if you’re a beginner, do it at a wall (see below for
instructions) or with a spotter. Place a thinly folded blanket or towel on
your ma t, and lie down so that the blanket is underneath your head, neck,
and sho ulders. Bring your arms alongside you with your palms facing
down. B end you r knees with your feet flat on the floor. Press your hands to
the floor, and bring your legs straight into the air while lifting your lower
back. B ring you r hands up to support your back, and move your elbows
inward toward your spine. Keep your head straight and steady; do not turn
it to the side. If you would prefer to use a wall, start in the same position
with you r mat perpendicular to  the wall. Bend your knees and place your
feet against the w all. Press your feet into the wall to lift your pelvis, support
your lower back with your hands, and walk your feet up the wall. If you feel
stable, bring one foot away from  the wall and then th e other to exten d the
legs stra ight up toward the ceili ng. Remain in the pose for a few  breaths or
a few minutes depending on your ability level. T o lower, bring your bent
knees toward your forehead a nd gently roll your back to the floor. If
continuing with the sequence sh own here, move on to plow pose. If you’re
ready to wind down, do fish pose ( matsyasana ; see page 174 ) or reclining
butterfly pose (see page 55 ). Plow Pose — Halasana :  T o begin, lie d own with a thin ly folded blanket
underneath your  head and neck. Rest your arms alongside your torso withyour palms facing down. Bend both knees with your feet flat on the floor. Press into your h ands and lift your legs. W ith your legs joined a nd straight,
bring them over your head until your toes touch the floor above your head. Y ou will  be folding your body c ompletely in half. Y ou can either leave your
arms on the floor or bend your elbows and support your back with your
hands. Hold the pose for several breaths. T o come out of the pose, lower
your knees toward your forehead and gently lower your back to the floor,
one vertebrae at a time. T o recover, do reclining butterfly pose (see page 55 )
or hug your knees to your chest, and roll your back out side to side. Healing the Emotional and Energetic Body
For many of us, one of the hardest things to do is to speak truth. I’m not
referring to telling the truth, wh ich at times is challenging in and of itself. I’m talking about speaking you r inner truth, the truth that resides within
your hea rt. The truth that is the pure essence within your personal soul, the
voice th at comes from your h ighest Self and gives authenticity to your
words. It speaks of who you ar e as an individual and brings light to your
uniqueness in every way. In the third and  fourth chakras, your personality develops to formulate
your pas sions an d love. But it’ s  in the fifth chakra that these f ormulations
are exposed to the world through your words and verbal expression. Fear of rejection or of not fittin g in may be a reason why you feel you
can’ t sh are who  you are. Y et who you are is what God breathed into your
soul, and you will feel balanced only when you share that with the world. L IVING IN  T RUTH
Far from  being an easy task for most of us, living in truth m eans living
authentically in every moment. When you take this to heart an d put it into
practice, you truly realize how incredibly challenging it is. It is humbling
and ego- crushing, in a way. Unle ss you are consciously working at this, you
aren’ t generally  cognizant of how much untruth can infiltrate your life.Most of the untruths aren’ t harmful or pivotal to changing your destiny, but
they are like little grains of sand that can build up to a mountain. Think of  the reasons why you might not tell the truth or the entire truth. Sometimes we don’ t say the t ruth because it’ s not convenient, such as
telling your boss that you were late because you were stuck in t raf fic rather
than bec ause yo u got into an ar gument with your spouse. Or  maybe the
untruth comes from fear of embarrassment. For example, you accidentally
schedule a date with a new hot guy on the same night as you had already
committed to another date with a nother guy who isn’ t so hot. So you lie and
say you’ re sick. Or perhaps you tell an untruth because you fear  rejection or
you feel  bad for the other perso n. There are many reasons why you might
tell an untruth, and most of them are linked to fear. Fear is a low and slow
ener gy. Once you reach the fi fth chakra your body, mind, and soul are
already vibratin g at a higher frequency so you can easily connect to your
spiritual self. Any untruth or lie  you tell inside or out will corr ode the link
between you and your higher self. Therefore it’ s not about the bent reality
that you’re telling but rather your alignment with your own integrity and the
higher vibrations of truth and love. B EING  A UTHENTIC VERSUS  B EING  N ICE
Authenticity is about lifting the false masks of your identity as a person and
revealing who you are to the w orld. W e all wear masks. Som etimes we
wear the mask of someone who works, who plays, who is a spouse, friend,
son, daughter, sister, brother, and so on. And we tend to wear dif ferent
masks fo r dif fer ent people. Living in the truth is about discarding all those
masks a nd inste ad exposing yourself to the world as you are. People who
live authenticall y show little dif ference in their attitudes and app earances no
matter who is before them. S ometimes these people are referred to as
“genuine and real” or even “down-to-earth.”
If, on the other hand, you are c onstantly worried about pleasin g others
or afraid of wha t others might th ink of you, you are not only wearing masks
but also changing those masks d epending on who is in front of you. Being
nice, or people pleasing, is the antithesis of truth. It’ s impossible to be
genuine or authentic and be a p eople pleaser. If you morph into  what otherpeople want or what you think they want, you deny who you a re and your
needs and desires. Y ou can  begin to counter this tendency by first finding out w hat you
truly wa nt, need, and desire. Get to know yourself and your true  nature. For
example, if you hate golf but you go golfing with the guys every weekend
because you want to fit in or to climb the corporate ladder, you aren’ t being
true to yours elf by doing it. Eventually your dislike for golfing will show


 witness to the drama rather than an
engaged participant. The observer has begun to put a slight distance
between itself and the observed. The second step is the stilling of the mind. This is not achieved by force
or indeed by any action at all. Doing anything is the opposite of being still. Because we have spent our whole lives in activity, non-doing is extremely
unfamiliar. Most of the time it occurs by accident—out of the blue, one
notices that the stream of consciousness has ceased, like turning  off a water
tap. Sexual activity is so often associated with ecstasy because it is one of
the few times that most people can be fully distracted from their minds. Whether a person tries to make it happen or not, what creates stillness in the
mind is simply that the observer  is able to continue to stand apart for longer
than a moment. Gaining some distance between the observer and the observed is so rare
that the second stage of ecstasy occurs quite infrequently. For most of us the
excursions away  from mental activity last only a few seconds. But if we
manage to achieve the second stage, stillness takes on a surprising aspect. Our attention reveals to us that silence has its own dynamism. The still
mind, though devoid of thoughts, quivers and vibrates all the same. There is
a kind of trembling anticipation  that can go one of two ways. Either a new
thought will be born to bring back the internal dialogue or the faint
trembling of silence will lead to even deeper silence. Poised here at the edge of ecstasy, you cannot make your mind choose
one way over the other. Even people who have experienced silent mind
many times, such as in prolonged practice of meditation, do not go past the
front room of silence at will. But if the mind chooses to plunge into deeper
silence, the third stage has been reached. This deeper silence doesn’ t quiver;it cannot be disturbed by even the faintest activity. One experiences it like
the softest black velvet or the deepest dark cave. Anyone who has come this
far is now truly “standing outsid e. ” Of course it would be just as accurate to
say that you are standing inside, because inside and outside have lost their
difference. Y ou are merely there where ecstasy is. The fourth and final stage requires nothing new on your part—once your
attention has been captured by deep silence, the inner transformation is
complete. What ever is to happ en next dawns of its own accord. One is
brought face to face with pure Being, pure awareness, pure joy. In ancient
Sanskrit terms, sat chit ananda,  eternal bliss consciousness, reveals itself. A
Christian saint might call the same experience “the face of God. ” The poet
of the Song of Solomon put it in lover ’s terms:
My eyes are radiant with your spirit;
my nostrils fill with your fragrance. My ears delight in your music,
and my face is covered with your dew. But these are images only. The fact that ecstasy exists is the promise that
kindles our faith on the path to love; tastes of it are the water that refreshes
our quest. We take faith from those living masters who have reached the
goal. They stand apart from us, yet they are clothed in the same flesh and
bones; they move, act, breathe, and live as the rest of us do. Only secretly,
in their realized  souls, do they know with utter certainty that, like the two
birds in the tree, they are Self while we are self. I often turn to a few pages of dialogue between an Indian discip le and his
master that bring this contrast to life for me. The disciple is resisting the
idea that there is anything beyond the world of the senses. He is the
questioner; the answerer is the South Indian master Sri Nisar gadatta
Maharaj:
Q: Is your world full of things and people as is mine. A: No, it is full of myself. Q: But do you see and hear as we do. A: Yes, I appear to see and hear and talk and act, but to me it just happens,
as to you digestion or perspiration happens. Q: If you are the world, how can you be conscious of it. A: Cons ciousness and the world appear and disappear together, hence they
are two aspects of the same state. As long as the mind is there, your
body and the world are there. Your world is mind-made, subjective,
enclosed within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on
the thread of memory. Q: So is yours. A: Oh, no. I live in a world of realities, while yours is of imagi nings. Your
world is personal, private, unsha reable, intimately your own. Nobody can
enter it, see as you see, hear as you hear, feel your emotions and think
your thoughts. In your world you are truly alone, enclosed in your ever-
changing dream, which you take for life. My world is an open world,
common to all, accessible to all. In my world there is communit y, insight,
love, and real quality; the individual is the totality. All are one, and
the One is all. As many times as I have read this passage over the years, it never fails to
move me at a level deeper than emotion or memory or even insight. I feel
brought face to face with the real, and I stand in awe of a person who can
say of the mate rial world that it is the merest speck fleeting through his
mind. But it is also heartening to realize that such great masters began as
ordinary people. The only difference between them and any one of us is that
the masters set foot on the path,  beginning the journey of soul- making that
leaves time behind. Eventually  the path ends, and the foundation of our
world, which stands upon mem ory and mind, crumbles, leaving a new
world of unimaginable realness. Understandably, Maharaj’ s disciple was
intensely curiou s about what this new world is like, but his master could
only answer him from a place beyond words:
Q: How do you know that you are in the supreme state. A: Because I am in it. It is the only natural state. Q: Can you describe it. A: Only by negation, as uncaused, independent, unrelated, undivided,
uncomposed, unshakeable, unquestionable, unreachable by effort. And yet my state is supremel y actual, therefore possible, realizable,
attainable. There may be those who would find this a discouraging description,
riddled with paradox. How can the unreachable be reached or the
indescribable be real. I can only turn to those arrows of light that hurtle at
us from that world, the moment s of ecstasy that quiet all doubt and still all
questionings. It takes a long time before such experiences born in the
deepest silence can be translat ed into time and space. A life filled with
chaos is extreme ly difficult to fill with ecstasy. While you are caught in the
ecstatic moment, however, all of reality seems like a miracle. The very root
of the word miracle  reminds us that it derives from the Latin mirar e, “to
behold with rapt attention. ” No better definition of ecstasy has ever been
given. To those  who have gained entry  to ecstasy there is no reason to ask for
more. No transformation is as all-embracing, and after returning to the
everyday world,  the great gift seems to be not the intensity of remembered
joy but the revelation of truth. One moment of genuine ecstasy removes a
lifetime of doubts—you realize once and for all that spirit is real. You know
from firsthand experience that you are the divine essence. In that sense
ecstasy is the most immediate and yet the most far off of experiences. It is
immediate because it is unden iable; it is distant because it will take a
lifetime to secure ecstasy as a permanent reality. Fortunately this journey,
itself creates ecstasy, being the path to love. OceanofPDF. comLOVING  PRACTICE
Cultivating Inspiration
ONE OF THE most beautiful proofs of ecstasy is delivered in a moment of
inspiration. I have already discussed signals from spirit which hint at a
reality beyond that perceived by the five senses. But inspirati on is much
more than a hint—when you feel inspired you find yourself thrust into a
world where ordinary objects and events are full of light, as if illuminated
from within. This inner light is truth, and when we suddenly see the truth,
we gain insight, clarity, and objectivity. Insight enables you to know your own heart. Clarity enables you to accept without illusions. Objectivity enables you to view any person or situation with compassion. At triumphant moments when you say to yourself, “That was really
inspired,” all three qualities come together, and the feeling  of that union is
ecstasy. Sadly, most people do not attain even a few of these qualities until
late in life, when the maturation of experience allows the obstacles to
inspiration, particularly fantasy, projection, and judgment, to fall away. Even then moments of inspiratio n may be rare. But the root word of inspir e
means “to breathe in,” which implies that inspiration should be a simple
thing—as natur al as breathing. When we say that someone has been
inspired to write a love poem, we


 attack. The young Indian doctor who was on call at our clinic that night
had sounded panicky when he phoned me, reporting that Elaine had
vomited twenty times in less than three hours. He notice d a droop
in her left eyelid and a slight facial tic, which made him fear some
kind of brain incident. He guessed that a tiny tumor, probably in the
pituitary, was beginning to hemorrhage, and he therefore had had
no choice but to get her into an ambulance as fast as possible. Now Elaine was no longer in pain and lay on the stretcher
sedated. Her symptoms had receded as unexpectedly as they had
begun, and a CAT scan, much to my relief, disclosed no sign of a
brain tumor. Incredibly, her entire sheaf of test results still indicated
that she was perfectly healthy. Nothing made any sense. As Elaine slept, I looked down at her worn, drawn face. It
occurred to me that this was the most relaxed I had ever seen her. In
her rst oce visit she had presented herself as a secure, successful
businesswoman. She owned her own public relations rm, with
twenty employees under her (they were all men, she took pains to
inform me). Whatever lay beneath this condent persona, I wasn’t
going to nd it that night. I scheduled an oce appointm ent on her
chart and in the meantime called her family doctor in Houston to
see if he could clue me in. He was not encouraging. “Elaine. ” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with her, not that I
have ever been able to nd. She has had about sixty of these attacks
in the past ten years”—Elaine had neglected to tell me that when
she came up to Boston—“and I recently told her that there was
nothing more I could do. ”
I asked him for his best guess at an accurate diagnosis. “Hysteria,”
he shot back. “No doubt in my mind. You’ll never be able to shake
her of this thing, but good luck trying. ” With obvious satisfaction he
abruptly ended the conversation. The next morning I asked Elaine about the previous attacks. Looking embarrassed, she admitted that these had occurred o and
on for fteen years, dating from when she rst got married. Did she
have a happy marriage. She turned red and looked away. “I wasraised a strict Catholic, and I feel I have a duty to remain in this
marriage. Happy. My husband treats me very well, and I respect
him as a good man. ” It turned out that because of a preexisting
organic condition, her husband had never been able to have
intimate relations with her. She described their current relationship
as caring and close but platonic. “Do you know what your doctor in Houston thinks is wrong with
you. ” I asked. She answered angrily, “He thinks I’m hysterical, of course. I’m
sure he told you that. ”
“Do you know  what is mean t by the term hysteria.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>
Q: What did Ray experience during his accident, and how did it affect him?,
A: Ray experienced immense pain, but it did not turn into suffering. He instead felt a sense of calmness and security, which helped him heal his knee wound without the need for further surgery.
Q: What was Elaine's initial reaction to the doctor's suggestion to meditate?,
A: Elaine was hesitant and reluctant to agree, possibly due to her past experiences and conditioning.
Q: What did the doctor suggest to Elaine, and how did she respond?,
A: The doctor advised Elaine to seek instruction in primordial sound meditation, and she eventually agreed to try it, leading to her newfound sense of peace and connection with nature.
Q: What is the author suggesting about the role of the psyche's need for self-protection?,
A: The author is highlighting the importance of acknowledging and addressing the underlying fear of death, which is often suppressed, and the need to confront and overcome it to achieve true self-awareness.
Q: What is the author's opinion on the concept of self-acceptance?,
A: The author believes that self-acceptance is crucial for true freedom and that it is not about achieving a specific goal, but rather about being aware of one's true nature and accepting oneself.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>I do not count, time, or control my breaths. No eort is being
made to cause certain thoughts to come or go. There is no particular
feeling I try to either induce or avoid. I do not pay atten tion to my
body in a special way or attempt to relax any part of it. If I start to
fall asleep, I do not resist the impulse. What am I doing, then? The best answer is that I am just not
doing; I am engaged in getting the normal activity of the mind to
turn into silence, but without coercing it to do so. I am getting past
the inner noise of thoughts and feelings in order to reveal what the
silent witness inside me is really like. This is how the mind naturally
opens to itself and heals. “Not doing” sounds like doing nothing at all, but there is a subtle
dierence. The thinking, feeling mind is in constant motio n. If it has
the thought “Slow down, be silent,” that is a movement, too, and
will not make the mind stop. No thought can make it stop. One
might try just sitting, waiting  for the mind to stop of its own accord. There are meditations of this sort in the vast tradition of Indian andZen practice, but most novices who try this method nd it extremely
exhausting and unproductive. A mind left to its own devices tends to
run here and there like a drunken monkey, as the Indian  scriptures
say. To watch one’s mind reel around for an hour can be intensely
disturbing. Moreover, there is no reason why the mind should reach
silence during the vigil. One can try gathering the mind to a point, which is called
concentration. This form of discipline is often compared to trying to
make a candle ame hold still in the wind. Concentration is not like
active thinking, but it still falls under the category of motion, since
the mind has to be brought back to its focus every time it wanders. Enormous strain is involved, and the results may be very small
compared to the eort required. The deeper you go into it, the more dicult “not doing” seems to
be. How can any form of mental activity ever make the mind be
still? The ancient rishis mastered this extremely exacting art after
they observed that the mind has various layers. In this observation,
they agreed wholeheartedly with Freud. However, they were not
interested in the meaning  of each layer (whether it stores away
childhood fears, repressed anger, or submerged sexual desires). They
simply observed that the mind’s deeper layers are not in as much
motion as the supercial ones. This insight made them realize that meditation must be a vertical
process—a dive into the mind’s depths—not a strugg le on the
surface. Somehow the meditator’s attention has to penetrate the
chaotic surface activity of the mind, pass through all the layers of
subtle thought, and at last arrive at silence. Instead of subduing a
drunken monkey, the appropriate metaphor is much more subtle:
Meditation is like creeping through a herd of sleeping  elephants
without waking them up. In order to dive through every layer of the mind, one needs a
vehicle that can carry one beyond the thinking process. In
primordial sound meditation the vehicle is called a mantra, a
specic mental sound deriv ed from Sanskrit but with no verbal
meaning. A mantra is chosen solely for its ability to gradually bring
a person’s attention to quieter and quieter levels of the mind.Since everyone’s mind has innumerable layers, the choice of a
mantra and the precise instructions for using it are extremely
delicate. If chosen, taught, and used correctly, a mantra is as nearly
eortless as mental activity can be. It begins like a normal thought
but fades to fainter and fainter degrees of sound without getting
lost, until it disappears entirely, leaving the mind in complete
silence. Many forms of meditation use some kind of sound or visual image
as their vehicle. That might make it seem that one technique is as
good as another. However, there are any number of important issues
to consider when evaluating a form of meditation—above all: Did
my mind actually nd the silence I was seeking? Was I
psychologically comfortable during and after the meditation? Did
my old self begin to change as the result of having meditated? Is
there more truth in my self? Every person has to decide these crucial issues for himself. Patrick, a friend of mine, began meditating more than a decade ago
in order to rescue himself from a disastrous personal and nancial
fall. “In the late Seventies I was just barely emerging  from the
rockiest period  in my life. For several years I had invested heavily in
the real estate market, accumulating rental properties quickly on a
very speculativ e basis. It was an exhilarating venture at rst, and I
found myself in a powerful nancial position, at least on paper, with
assets in the multimillions. “You


 since my body needs protein, I figured I am better off
eating the best quality wheat, pesticide/herbicide residues (if there are any) be damned. Think about it. The difference betw een
seventeen percent and fourteen percent protein is about 25 percent. That perce ntage difference is the key threshold of nutritional
deficiency that makes teeth fall out. We can't afford to accept 25% degradations in our nutritional quality in something that  we eat
every day and that forms the very basis of our dietary. Please unders tand here that I am not saying that high protein wheats can't be grown organically. They certainly can. The founder of
Great Harvest Bakery performs a valuable service locating and securing high -protein lots of organically grown wheats for his
outlets. But  often as not Organic products are no more nourishing than those grown with chemicals. Until the buyers at Organic
whole food wholesalers get better educated about grain, obtaining one's personal milling stock from them will be a dicey
proposition. Sometim es Organic cereal can be far worse than conventional. To make a cereal Organic is a negative definition; if it hasn't had
chemicals, then its Organic. Grain is one of the few foods that will still produce economic yields of low quality seed on ext remely
infertile soil or when half -smothered in weeds because herbicides weren't used for reasons of ideological purity. Vegetables will
hardly produce anything under those conditions; carelessly grown fruits and vegetables are inevitably small, misshapen,
unmarket able. But seed cleaning equipment can remove the contamination of weed seeds in cereal grains (at a cost. ) The price the farmer receives for Organic cereal grain is much higher, so it is possible to accept rather low yields or expen d more
money for cleanin g out high levels of weed seeds from the field -run harvest, and still make a good profit. A lousy Organic cereal
crop like this might even make a higher profit because the farmer has been spared the expense of fertilization, of rotation, of weed
control. I  remember once I bought a sack of Organic whole oats that were the smallest, most shriveled, bitterest oats I've ever tried
to eat. We ended up throwing out that tiny, light (lacking density) seed in favor of using the "conventional" whole oats that  were
plump, heavy and sweet. Wheat is not the only cereal that is damaged by industrial milling. So are oats. Most consumers have never seen whole oats; t hey
look very much like wheat berries. But rolled oats become rancid and stale on the shelf much like wheat  flour on the shelf. Another pitfall about using whole grains is that to be nutritious they must still be fresh enough to sprout vigorously. A see d is a
package of food surrounding an embryo. The living embryo is waiting for the right conditions (temperatu re and moisture) to begin
sprouting. Sprouting means the embryo begins eating up stored food and making a plant out of it. All foods are damaged by
exposure to oxygen, so to protect the embryo's food supply, the seed is surrounded by a virtually airtight s eed coat that permits
only enough oxygen to enter for the embryo's respiration (yes, seeds breathe slowly). Often the embryo is located at the edge  of the
seed and has its own air intake port. When the seed coat is removed or damaged, the innards are expos ed to air and begin
deteriorating rapidly. In the case of oats, especially rapidly, because oats are the only grass -based cereal that contains large
quantities of oil –five percent oil, more or less. That's why oats "stick to your ribs. " Rolled oats become stale and lose their flavor
(and nutritional content) and perhaps become rancid very rapidly. So we make porridge from whole oat groats that we coarsely
grind to grits (steel -cut oats) in an electric seed/spice mill just before cooking. It is not easy to cook oat grits. They take a lot longer than rolled oats and if not done exactly to the recipe I'm about to give you,
will almost inevitably stick to the pot badly and may also froth over and mess the stove. Here's how to cook them. Coarsely g rind
(like cor n meal) your whole oats until you have one cup of oat grits. Bring exactly four cups of water (no salt) to a very hard boil a t
your highest heat. You may add a handful of raisins. Light or turn on a second, small -sized burner on the stove and set it as low  as
possible. Into the fast boiling water, slowly pour the ground oats, stirring continuously. Take about 30 seconds to pour it a ll or
you'll make clumps. Keep on the high heat until the water again boils vigorously. Suddenly, the mixture will begin rising  in the pot
and will try to pour all over the stove. This means it is all at boiling temperature again. Quickly move the pot to the low b urner;
that instantly stops the frothing. Then cover. Let the porridge cook for 30 minutes, stirring once or twice to p revent sticking. Then,
keeping it covered, turn off the heat. They can be eaten at this point but I think it is better to let the oats finish soakin g on the stove
for at least two to four hours. Then reheat in a double boiler. We usually start a pot of oa ts at bedtime for the next morning. See why people prefer the convenience of using rolled oats. But
once you've eaten oats made right, you'll never prefer the flavor of rolled oats again. And if the human body has any natural
method of assaying nutritional  content, it is flavor. Nutritionally, millet is almost the same story as oats. Millet seed is protected by a very hard hull. Cooking unhulled millet  is
almost impossible. After hours of boiling the small round seeds will still be hard and the hulls remai n entirely indigestible. Worse,
the half -round hulls (they split eventually) stick in your teeth. But prehulled millet, sitting in the sack for weeks and months, lose s
a lot of nutrition and tastes very second -rate compared to freshly -hulled millet. It is possible to buy unhulled millet, usually by
special order from the health food distributor –if you'll take a whole sack. Millet can be hulled at home in small batches. Here's
how we figured out how to do it. There probably are better ways. Using a cheap ste el-burr flour mill, set the burrs just far enough apart that the seed is ground to grits, but not flour. This pops the
hulls loose. An old mill with worn -out burrs works great for this job. Then you have to get some hand seed cleaning screens just
large en ough to pass the grits but not pass the hulls (most of them). Window screen or other hardware cloths won't work. Seed
cleaning screens come in increments of 1/128 inch; we use a 6/64" round screen. Other batches of millet might work better wit h a
screen on e step larger or smaller. It will take you a little ingenuity to find hand -held screens. They're used by seed companies and
farmers to clean small batches of seed for inspection and are usually about one square foot in size with a quality wooden fra me. Larger frames made of the same screening material are used in big seed cleaning machines. (The hulls could also be winnowed out
by repeatedly pouring the grit/hulls mixture back and forth between two buckets in a gentle breeze. ) After you've screened out most  of the hulls, the rest will rinse out, floating off as you wash the grain prior to cooking. We never
hull more than enough millet for two or three meals and keep the uncooked (unwashed) millet in the freezer in an airtight jar. It is
interesting how peopl e will accept poor nutrition and its consequent sickness as the price of convenience. If you eat much buckwheat you should also figure out how to hull (sometimes called groating) it yourself. Someone should writ e a
thorough book on the home milling of cer eals. And perhaps sell the equipment by mail. Probably would be a good little homestead
business. Something else you need to keep in mind about seed. Even though the embryo's food supply is protected by the seed coat, it st ill
slowly deteriorates, steadily  oxidizing and losing nutritional value. Eventually old seed looses the ability to sprout. The decline in
germination ability matches a decline in nutritional quality. Any seed you are going to use for eating should possess the abi lity to
sprout, strongly and rapidly. (After you've comparatively sprouted a few grain samples, you'll know what I mean by this. ) Fortunately, cereal grains usually sprout well for quite a few years after harvest if they have been stored cool and dry. Eat ing dead
or near -dead seed s will help move you closer to the same condition yourself. Finally, one more warning about buying store bread. Salt -free bread tastes "funny" to most people. It bakes fine, salt is not
necessary to the leavening process, but no bakery could stay in busine ss without salting their bread. The standard level of salt is
two percent by weight. That is quite a lot. Two percent equals one teaspoonful per pound. I'll have more to say about the evi ls of
salt later on. I imagine some


 a negative or depressive
psychosis. People who are ill or who suffer are rarely cheerful and happy. Anxiety, apprehension and
consequent depression form the rule in sickness of every nature. It is rarely possible for one to
remain mentally or emotionally indifferent to physical discomfort. A certain measure of self-pity
creeps into the consciousness of the most sanguine and stoical. When we consider the nature of
colitis, it is not surprising that the sufferer becomes depressed and anxious. Many so-called
neurotics
 and
psychotics
 are such only because of long standing colitis. In at least ninety-five percent of cases of chronic colitis, constipation is an outstanding feature. It
frequently continues over a period of years, during which time the sufferer tries laxatives,
purgatives, teas, oils, enemas, colonic irrigations, and other means of securing “relief’ from his
constipation, never once realizing that the constipation is only a symptom. Although these measures
often afford some temporary relief, they serve, in the end, to aggravate greatly the condition. All colitis sufferers complain of indigestion, both gastric and intestinal, and of rumbling of gas
in the intestines, with more or less pain, sometimes of a colicy nature. They have a sense of
fullness and uneasiness. Commonly there is a dull and constant or sharp and intermittent headache. Many of these patients complain of a feeling of stiffness and tension, even pain, in the muscles of
the neck, often with pain just below the juncture of the neck and the head. Frequently they describe their symptoms as a “drawing sensation.” Most of these cases appear
anemic and dysemic. They are thin and undernourished, as a rule, although colitis is by no means
115confined to the poorly nourished. The tongue is commonly coated, the taste unpleasant, and the
breath offensive. There may be a feeling of extreme exhaustion, with a lack of enterprise and ambition. Nausea
may develop immediately upon the expulsion from the colon of a large accumulation of mucus. Invariably this is followed by a feeling of great relief. In colitis the facial expression is one of dejection and misery, frequently combined with anxiety,
although many try bravely to repress their feelings,
 while others appear to be in a constant state of
unconcealed apathy. The patient may become very nervous, irritable, excitable, even border on
melancholia and hysteria. Not only a trial to themselves, they become a trial to everyone about them. In severe and long
standing cases, the patient’s whole thinking centers on his physical state. Few conditions can
compete with colitis in engineering obsessions. Many colitis sufferers become habituated to the taking of drugs. They try everything that is
advertised as a remedy. They exhaust the list of laxatives, cathartics, tonics and digestants. They
go from one physician to another, studying their symptoms and confusing their feelings. Enemas,
cascades, irrigations, different methods of dieting, and psychiatrists are all tried in vain. Some
study anatomy, physiology and foods and acquire an extensive technical vocabulary, often quite
meaningless. It has been suggested more than once that the milder types of insanity often have their origin in
colonic irritation. At least mental diseases requiring restraint have evolved in colitiis sufferers. Such cases at least make it clear that the mental
reactions
 to colitis are real and not mere fancies. One man of great prominence gives as his opinion that a chronically diseased colon forms the
basis of more mental and physical troubles than any other single functional abnormality. Most important in caring for the sufferer with colitis is to ignore symptoms and the acute
exacerbations, and to recognize and remove the cause of the suffering. We are fully convinced that
the development of colitis is concomitant with the retention of toxic waste and its accumulation in
the blood and lymph. Whatever will free the body of its accumulated toxic load will prove
adequate care for the colitis sufferer. The mind of the patient and the mind of the one who cares for him must both be freed from the
tyranny of local symptoms. The discomforts must be persistently minimized for the reason that the
mucus, the gas, the rumbling, the spasticity, the constipation, and the nervous irritability, are
neither singly nor collectively the cause of the trouble. Recovery cannot be expected without complete and prolonged rest, away from friends and
relatives and away from the enervating environmental factors. Physical rest means going to bed
and remaining there. It means ceasing physical activities and relaxing. Mental rest requires poise. It means the elimination of worry, fear, anxiety, and depressing emotions. Sensory rest requires
quiet and freedom from sensory excitement. Physiological rest can be obtained only by going
without all food. Fasting soon results in a relaxation of the spastic bowel and stomach. Instead of bulk-free diets, a fast is indicated. Fasting speeds up that part of metabolism that
eliminates waste and rejuvenates fatigued nerve and cell structure. It permits the body to establish
a normal blood chemistry in its own inimitable manner. No man understands how to establish a
normal
blood chemistry. No one can either duplicate or imitate the ways of the body in re-
establishing its normal blood chemistry. The continual irritation of the bowels by drugging can only add to the suffering of the patient, as
this makes the condition worse. Medicated enemas are highly irritating. Enemas containing
116soapsuds, molasses and other such substances are also to be condemned. It is important to know that colitis is but a part of a general irritation and inflammation of the
mucous surfaces of the body (it would have been called but a few years ago, a general catarrh) and
that whatever frees the patient of his colitis will, at the same time, free him of his other
itises
 in
other regions—in the nose and throat, in the womb or in the bladder, to name a few local mucous
membrane inflammations. The common condition called diarrhea is simply a colitis of short duration. Not serious in the
average case, and lasting but a day or two (to a few days) it is the rule of many to neglect the state
of the colon and resort to means of suppressing the diarrhea. Often the condition is nothing more
than a temporary irritation of the bowels by unsuitable or fermenting food. This is especially true
when it develops in children. But repeated crises of this kind tend to evolve chronic colitis. As long ago as 1918, Richard C. Cabot, M.D., of Harvard University Medical School and the
Massachusetts General Hospital, wrote in his book for social workers,
A Layman’s Handbook of
Medicine:
 “Simple diarrhea or acute colitis of adults gets well as a rule in a week or ten days. The important remedies are rest and warmth and starvation.” He indicates that this same care is
best for infants and children, although he thought that a purge at the outset of the diarrhea should
help. The impotant thing for us to note, however, is the recognition of the value of the fast in
diarrhea. I think it should be added that a week to ten days constitutes more time than is required
for most cases of diarrhea to come to an end if fasting is instituted at the first sign of diarrhea. Often two or three days are enough. Amoebic dysentery is a form of colitis that is said to be caused by an amoeba. It is quite
common in many parts of the world and I have had opportunity to handle a number of cases coming
to me from Mexico and South America. I do not think that the dysentery is caused by the amoeba,
but I am convinced that the amoeba and the medication aimed at this microbe tend to perpetuate a
disease that, initially is but a simple inflammation of the bowel. The disease would “run its
course” in a week to ten days in almost all cases, if not complicated by feeding and drugging. When the true cause of the disease is understood and removed a speedy return to health follows,
but if these cases are treated in the usual manner, the disease may last for years and end in death. Drugs to kill the amoeba, medicated enemas to kill parasites—these build ulcerative colitis and
proctitis. The fact is that the war that is supposed to be made on the amoeba too often kills the
patient before the
disease is controlled
. Some day amoebicides,
parasiticides and germicides will
be given up as they tend to kill the patient. Instead of making war on the amoeba, the fast provides an opportunity for the body to cast off its
nutritive redundancy and its toxic load and the diarrhea comes to an end. Whatever part the
amoeba plays in the causation of the disease, it cannot be specific nor can it be primary, as this
microbe ceases to annoy when the fast has progressed for a few days. Two lovely young girls of the same family, citizens of this country, but living with their parents
in Mexico City, where the father was stationed, developed a sickness diagnosed as amoebic
dysentery, a disease very common in Mexico. They had been treated in the regular manner: Drugs to kill the amoeba and plenty of “good
nourishing food.” In spite of the drugs, perhaps because of them, the dysentery persisted; in spite of
the nourishing


 and "Miley-bright". The next summer we would have a different teacher who would
give us the same lessons over again. I did manage somehow to get
ahead in the speller as far as 'inc omprehensibility.' I mastered it so
well I could spell down the school on Friday afternoons. I got ahead in
reading, also, through McGuffey's 5th. The best teacher who ever came there was old Bill Jenkins. He
was known as a shiftless fellow and an alcoholic; but when I was in
the second reader, he taught us how to read out loud in a manner I
never forgot—how long to pause for comma, semicolon and period, to
give rising inflection for a question and how to scan poetry. I can
recall going to winter school only two terms. I left school at 17 and
did not go back until I was 23 years old. Just about the time I was
ready to leave school somebody started a drive to raise money for a
new school house. My father gave the largest donation, a tidy sum for
those days, forty dollars. When I was a small boy, I developed a curiosity concerning the
world, however it is put together and what makes it tick. Now in my
84th year, I have that same curiosity. On the home farm, when my
father had a particularly tedious job for his boys to do, he would
always say to them: "Don't take George along. He will be asking so
many questions that you never will get anything done." Until I had grown up, the home fa rm was about the only world I
knew. Maybe once every fall I would go with my father when he took
a wagon load of cotton to market at Talladega, 25 miles away. That
was a 3 day journey, one day going by mule team, a day in town and a
day driving home with the things we had bought. It was a memorable
day at our house when we got our first brass lamp and mother got her first cook stove. When I visited Mo unt Vernon (Virginia) the home of
Washington some years back, the k itchen fireplace reminded me of
mother's cooking outfit when I was a boy. The chains on which the
pots were strung to cook Farmer  Washington's dinner were still
hanging there. The Heard farm was more level than the average for the Alabama
uplands, but rocky and stumpy. We cultivated cotton mostly with the
hoe and bulltongue plow. Crabgrass, weeds, briars and bushes grew
fast. The soil was thin and poor. It to ok several acres to produce a bale
of cotton. As a growing boy I dreamed a lot of the big world outside. I
wanted to do great things, but I had only vague ideas as to what I'd
make of myself. One day when my oldest brother and I were hoeing in
a particularly rough spot, I suddenly said to him: "Fayette, I never,
never would make my home in such a country as this." But, not
knowing what else to do, I stayed on for 10 years after that. CHAPTER 2. I STRIKE OUT ON MY WAY
 When I was 19, going on 20 years old, I suddenly decided to visit
my brother Fayette, who lived at Baleyton, Cullman County, about
100 miles north of the old home farm. For some years I had nursed the
urge to better myse lf. Now I had got the idea into my head that my
oldest brother, who had a family and a farm of his own could help me
get a start. Anyhow, I could stay at his house until I had found myself
a job. It was before daylight on January 2, 1887, that I left home to
catch the train at Talladega. A younger brother hauled me to the
railroad depot, 25-miles away, in a two-wheel cart. As I sat in the
waiting room, I heard a telephone ring for the first time in my life. Fascinated, I watched the station agent talk into a box on the wall:
"Number 10, going north, on time." For my first journey out into the world, I had only the fourteen
dollars that my cotton patch had brought me. But when he came to tell
me goodby, my father slipped a five -dollar bill into my hand. Then my
mother came and said to me: "George, I want to hear from you, but I
want always to hear good news." I have never to this day forgotten or lost sight of those words. As long as she lived I kept one purpose in
mind: to make my life yield good news for my mother. So I left home in the winter dawn, wearing the tight-fitting coat
and britches mother had made for me of homespun jeans. I wore
heavy brogan shoes, their soles covered solid with big-headed tacks. I
lugged a heavy cardboard satchel that held all my belongings. I had
never in my life rode a train before. The cars seemed just to glide
along as if I were riding on air. Al l that day I watched the country roll
past the car window, brown fields, grazing cattle and farm cabins, but
mostly pine woods. It was 2 o'clock in the morning when the train got
to Cullman. I found a hotel room for twenty-five cents. The next morning about sun up a livery stableman came around. "Where do you want to go, sonny?" he asked me. "How much would you charge to
take me to Fayette Heard's house eighteen miles from here on the road
to Baleyton?" "That would cost you a dollar and a half." "I" believe I could walk the 18-miles in a day," I told him. "The
dollar and a half would be good wages for me." So I had my breakfast and struck out on the big road to Baleyton,
lugging my bag. After 60 odd years, that 18 mile walk on a January
day seems about as hard a day's work as I have ever done. I followed
the narrow winding white sandy and mostly level wagon road across
hollows and mostly through wild country where scraggy blackjack and
post oak with tall pines grew. All day long I met up with just one
fellow traveler by the name of Andy  Cash. I sat down by the road to
eat the cheese and crackers I had bought for lunch. I had never tasted
cheese and crackers before. To a tired and hungry boy they were like
food for a king. As I sat there a man rode up on a black mule, headed
toward Cullman. "Where are you going, young feller?" he asked me. "I'm on my way to Fayette Heard's house," I told him. "He's my
brother." "Why, I know Fayette Heard. He's my neighbor. You have a
good long piece to walk yet, sonny." I trudged on with my satchel getting heavier all the time. It had
been dark a long time before I re ached Brother Fayette's house. A few
days later that same mule rider, came over and hired me for $10 a
month and board. My new job was to help around the grist mill, cotton gin and saw mill. Between times I would do general farm work. My day began at 4 o'clock in the morning. I had to chop wood and draw
water to keep the boiler going till dark. At 8 o'clock I would shut
down the mill and trudge home to supper dead tired. But that tough
schedule lasted only till the ginning was done. Mostly on the farm my
work was lighter, but there were da ys all through the year when we
would run the mill to saw lumber or grind corn. CHAPTER 3. IN WHICH I BREAK INTO SOCIETY
 As I soon learned, friendly people lived in the neighborhood
where I worked. Socially, they accepted the hired man as an equal. Where everybody worked with their hands, a man was judged for
what he was, not by what he did for a living. There was a church close by and I got an invitation to Sunday School. Before I went, my
employer took me to town and I bought my first full suit of store
clothes. So I felt dressed up and important. At first, I was terribly
bashful; but as I got acquainted with the young people I mustered
enough courage to sing with them. In all my 20-years, I had never once gone with a girl. But at
church a certain fine-looking miss, about 18-years old, with light
brown hair and sparkling brown eyes, plump, ruddy complexioned and
decked out in gingham, had caught my eye. I wondered why she
always came to Sunday School so far behind her family. One Sunday
afternoon, all dressed up in my new suit, I was idly carving the bark
on a giant pine that stood by the big road. All of a sudden that same
young miss, Ida Ogletree was her name, came along. I had not spoken
a single word to her. She stopped and asked me what I was carving. "Oh, it's nothing," I answered diffidently. My new suit made me strangely bold. The first thing I knew I
was asking Ida why she always came late to Sunday School. Then I
discovered that


 my early  twenties, but i t was only after I met with myofunctional
therapists Joy Moeller, Barbara  Greene, and Karen Samuel in 2006 that I
learned the correct position of the tongue. Until then, I hadn’ t given it a
moment’ s consideration, and most likely my tongue had been flopping
about without a home for the previous thirty-two years. Between them, Joy,
Barbara, and Karen have devo ted almost a hundred years to reeducating
people on the placement of the tongue and facial muscles in order to
address a variety of detrimenta l issues that af fect the development of the
jaws and teeth. S pending thousands of dollars on orthodontic treatment can
be in vain if po or habits such as mouth breathing, tongue th rusting, and
incorrect swallo wing are not addressed. And you may be ab le to avoidorthodontic treat ment altogether if these habits are not permitted to develop
in the first place. In th e correct re sting position, three-quarters of the tongue should press
gently a gainst th e roof of the mouth with the tip of the tongue placed just
behind t he top front teeth—the s ame place we put the tongue to make the N
sound “nuh.”  Just like nasal breathing, optimal resting tongue posture is not
a recent  discove ry; for thousands of years it formed an important part of
Eastern yoga and the religion o f Buddhism. Y ogi Bhajan, who introduced
Kundalini yoga to the United States in 1968, accredited the upper palate and
the tip of the tongue as the tw o most important parts of the  body. The
ancient Buddhis t scriptures of t he Pali Canon contain passages describing
how the Buddha pressed his tongue against the roof of the mouth for the
purposes of controlling hunger and the mind. This illustration  shows the facial characteristics of a nasal brea ther and
is based on the Irish International and LA Galaxy soccer captain Robbie
Keane:
Note the  forward position of th e jaws, high cheekbones, airway size,
and wid th of the face. The jaw i s strong and positioned well forw ard so that
the chin  is nearly as far forwar d as the tip of the nose. When  cartoonists
draw illu strations of a dominant male, his strength is often conveyed by arugged and exaggerated jaw. S ocially, a wide facial structure and strong
jawline are considered healthier and more attractive than a recessed chin. And not only is  the classic squa re jawline more likely to get you a date, it
might also be beneficial to your bank balance. In a paper written by
researchers from the School of Business at the University of California at
Riverside, men with wider faces were found to be stronger negotiators,
commanding a signing bonus of nearly $2,200 more than their narrow-faced
counterparts. In  a separate stud y by the same authors it was found that
companies led by men with wider faces also achieved superior financial
performance. Throughout our evolution, social anthropologists have regarded facial
appearance as a determinant in establishing societal rank and individual
roles. Beauty is not just skin de ep, and Aristotle was right whe n he stated
that “Beauty is a far great er recommendation than any  letter of
introduction.”
In the image ab ove, the jaws are set back and the airways are smaller,
resulting in diminished athletic performance. Had the jaws bee n in a more
forward position, the nose would be straighter and smaller. Th e eyes look
tired as the fac e sinks downward, and there is poor definition of the
cheekbones. Chronic, habitual mouth breathing is also associated withpostural changes that result in decreased muscle strength, reduced chest
expansion, and impaired breathing. Interestingly, researchers have found
that mouth breathers are more likely to be male. While the above image is exa ggerated somewhat, these features are
identifiable in thousands of children and adults who have fallen between the
cracks o f the health care system and were not encouraged  to breathe
through their nose. These same individuals often suf fer from poor health,
low ener gy, and reduced concentration. In the words of Dr. Y osh Jef ferson:
“These children do not sleep well at night due to obstructed airways; this
lack of sleep ca n adversely af fect their growth and academic p erformance. Many of these children are misdiagnosed with attention deficit disorder
(ADD) and hyperactivity.”
Dr. Egil Peter Harvold, an ex pert in orthodontics and craniofacial
anomalies, carried out extensive  research into the development of the facial
structure of monkeys in the 197 0s, discovering that the restriction of nasal
breathing over several years led to a lowering of the jaws, crooked teeth,
and other facial deformities. While today we would consider it  dreadful to
experiment on innocent anima ls in this way, hundreds of thousands of
children take part in a simil ar experiment and experience  the same
craniofacial ano malies due to the ef fects of mouth breathing. D r. Harvold’ s
studies paved the way for the treatment and prevention of th e improper
development of the jaws and fa ce and is accredited almost single-handedly
for introducing a branch of or thodontics known as functional appliance
therapy to North America. A 2012 study investigating the long-term changes to facial structure
caused by mouth breathing noted that this seemingly “benign” h abit “has in
fact immediate and/or deferred cascading ef fects on multiple physiological
and behavioral functions.” Infa nts and children who breathe through their
mouths due to n asal obstruction  are likely to develop crooked  teeth and a
longer, narrowe r face, permanently af fecting their appearan ce. Mouth
breathing also has a significant impact on the health of the chil d, including
restriction of the lower airways, poor quality of sleep, high stress levels, and
a lower  quality of life. Rese arch has suggested that habitual mouth
breathing may even be connected to sudden infant death syndrome.Hold On to Y our T eeth! Over the past few years I have been asked to give talks on nasal breathing at
dental c onferences in Europe, Australia, and the United States. Each
conference presents a wonderful opportunity to speak with international
experts in dentistry and related disciplines, including orthodontics. There
are two specific groups within  orthodontics that hold opposing views:
functional orthodontists and traditional orthodontists. A fu nctional orthodontist places  emphasis on attaining the correct facial
profile of the face as well as str aightening the teeth. Functiona l appliances
are worn by the child in order to help guide the growth of the face, jaws,
and teet h to reach their full gen etic potential. The commonly held view of
functional ortho dontists is that overcrowding of teeth is not because the
teeth are too big, but more likely because the jaw is too small as a result of
mouth breathing or thumb sucking. The course of action therefore is to
gently expand the jaws and guide them forward to make room for the teeth,
with extractions only carried out as a last resort. In c ontrast, the primary emph asis of traditional orthodontic s is to
straighten the teeth, with the facial profile and airway size receiving
secondary consideration. Crowded teeth are usually treated by extracting
four per fectly good premolars and retracting or pulling the fron t teeth back
to cl ose up the excess space created. This retraction sometimes  causes the
face, especially around the lips, to look caved in, and the nose and chin to
become more prominent. This retraction of the front teeth may  also cause
problems with the joint of the jaw if the lower jaw is forced back too far. When th e lower jaw is too far back, it encroaches on the upp er airways,
decreasing airway size and negatively af fecting athletic ability. If you are the parent of a child who may be under going orthodontic
treatment, I would like to impart some advice from i nternational
orthodontist Dr. John Mew, who has devoted his life to ensuring the normal
growth of children’ s faces:
•   F irst ask the orthodontist ho w many permanent teeth will b e
initially removed and how many more may need extracting
later. Sadly, most children who receive traditional retractive
orthodontic treatment lose 4 premolar teeth, and nearly half ofthese ch ildren will not have room for their wisdom teeth,
leaving them with 24 teeth. This  can be completely avoided by
helping to ensure normal growth of the face to accommodate
all 32 teeth. •   Ask your c linician whethe r he or she is confident about
avoiding an increase in the verti cal growth of your child’ s face. Y ou hav e the right to be inform ed of all types of treatment and
to be warned of likely problems. Knowledge is empowering. The best approach to determine the
treatment option s for you and your child is to research both fun ctional and
traditional orthodontic treatment. Selecting the correct approach will have
repercussions on  the well-being of your child; it is well worth  investing a
little tim e to determine a more noninvasive solution. Extraction s should


 nutrient that naturallyprevents the body from forming harmful fatty deposits in the arteries. Sea weeds are a wonderful source of minerals and should be eaten in soups
and salads. Other invaluable fortifying foods are algae of all kinds (such aschlorella and spirulina), lecithin, brewers yeast, and fresh bakers yeast. Manypeople have had very unpleasant experiences trying to eat living bakers yeast andso use brewers yeast instead. But brewers yeast is cooked and the proteins itcontains are not nearly as assimilable as those in raw yeast. Raw yeast is sopowerful, it feels like pep pills! It takes a special technique to eat raw yeast because in the stomach and
intestines the yeast does the job it is supposed to do: convert sugars into alcoholand carbon dioxide gas. The entire digestive tract then bloats with gas and theperson will feel very uncomfortable for some time. However, raw yeast is amarvelous source of B vitamins and proteins and can make someone feel veryenergetic—if they know how to use it. The secret is to eat live yeast very firstthing in the morning on an empty stomach and then, not eat anything at all forabout two hours, giving the stomach acids and enzymes time to kill the yeasts anddigest them before adding sugars from another meal. Some like to eat yeast infresh cake form, buying it from a bakery. Others prefer dry granular baker’s yeastblended with water into a sort of “shake.” This is not a bad place to put your rawegg yolk either. If you need it sweetened to drink it, use an artificial or herbalsweetener like nutrisweet or stevia. Live yeast cannot consume milk sugars verywell. So if you can handle dairy, try one or two tablespoons of granulated liveyeast, an egg yolk and a little raw milk or yogurt, well whizzed. Wheat germ is also a great, rich food, but is usually rancid unless it is taken out
of the refrigerated display; unless it is refrigerated, in a dated package and fresh,don’t eat it. Herb teas and roasted grain beverages are healthy beverages, along
with mineral and distilled water avoiding where possible chlorinated and
fluoridated water. Diet Is Not Enough
Those isolated, long-lived peoples discovered by Weston A. Price had to do
hard physical labor to eat, had to walk briskly up and down steep terrain to getanywhere. But today, few North Americans output very much physical energy inprocess of daily life or work. Not only cars, but all of our modern conveniencesmake it possible to live without ever breaking into a sweat. We pay for this ease;it costs us a significant degree of health. Exercise has many benefits when combined with excellent nutrition. It creates
an overall feeling of well-being that can not be created by diet alone. Exercisingtemporarily makes the heart beat faster, increasing blood circulation throughoutthe body right out to the tips of your fingers and toes. This short-term elevatedflow of blood flow brings increased supplies of oxygen and nutrients to all parts ofthe body, facilitating healing and repair. Without revving up your engine every daymany of the body’s systems never get the sludge burned out of them and neverperform optimally. Exercise also changes the metabolic rate so your body burns more calories–
not only while you are exercising, but also for a 24 hour period following exercise.This maintains a healthful body weight into old age, or helps to lose weight. Mostpeople find that exercise in moderation does not increase appetite, so that it ispossible to consistently burn more calories in a day, and gradually reduce weight ifthat is desirable. It is necessary to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound of weight.Most forms of exercise allow you to burn 300 to 600 calories per hour at amoderate pace which would be achieved by doubling the resting pulse. Withouteven considering the weight-loss benefit of achieving a raised metabolism, an hourof daily exercise continued for a week or two dependent upon the type ofexercise and pace should lead to one pound of weight loss if the caloric intake is
held constant. The flip side of having a higher metabolism is rarely appreciated but is
extremely important. Recall the basic equation of health: Health = Nutrition /Calories. Exercise permits a person to eat somewhat more while not gainingweight. If the food is nutrient rich, the body has a chance to extract more vitamins,more minerals, more amino acids. The person who remains slender by rigidlyreducing their food intake to near starvation levels may lack vital, health-buildingnutrition. And only exercise moves lymphatic fluid. The blood is pumped through the
body by the heart, but the lymphatic system, lacking a heart, requires muscularcontractions to move from the extremities of the body to the central cavity. Thelymphatic system picks up cellular waste products and conducts these toxins todisposal. Frequently, people with rheumatic aches and pains or other generalizedmuscular discomforts physicians like to give Latin diagnostic names to can give uptaking pain pills if they will but begin exercising regularly. Only when they beginmoving their lymph can they begin to detoxify properly. There is another benefit from exercise which is not to be ignored, and that is
that it gives the person a chemical sense of well being. It actually will help toemotionally boost up people who are chronically depressed and make them smile.After a good workout, especially one done outside, everything seems brighter,more positive; whatever was bothering you somehow just doesn’t seem like thatbig of a deal now. I am not making pro-exercise propaganda. This is not a figmentof the imagination. An exercising body really does make antidepressantneurochemicals called endorphins, but only after about 45 minutes to an hour ofaerobic workout. Endorphins are powerful, with painkilling and euphoric effects equal to or
greater than heroin, but without any undesirable side effects. If chemists couldlearn to cheaply synthesize endorphins I’m sure that millions of people wouldwant to become addicted to them. Because I make such a point of getting in my
workout every day, my husband has accused me of being an endorphin junkie,
and he is right! I admit it, I’m really hooked on the feeling of well being Iconsistently get from any sustained exercise. I defend my addiction staunchlybecause it is the healthiest addiction I know of. I have also been accused of carrying exercise to extremes, and I admit to that
also. For a few years I trained for Ironman triathlons. I now think doing ironmandistances is immoderate and except for a few remarkable individuals with “iron”constitutions, training that hard can only lead to a form of exhaustion that is nothealth promoting. I have become much more sensible in my “old” age, and inrecent years have limited my participation to the Olympic distance triathlons. Iwas on the Canadian team at the World Championship in 1992, and intend to doit again in 1995. I do not find the Olympic distance exhausting, in fact I think it isgreat fun and truly exhilarating. I get to see all these wonderful age groupcompetitors from all over the world who look and feel fantastic. It does my soulgood to see a group of people aging so gracefully, not buying into the popularnotion that old age is inevitably disabling, depressing, and ugly. Sport brings adegree of balance to my life after spending so much time in the presence of thesick. I plan to maintain my athletic activities into old age, barring accident or otherunforeseen obstacles to fitness. To maintain basic fitness it does not matter so much what form of exercise is
chosen, as long as it is not damaging to the skeletal system or connective tissues.Many people are unable to run due to foot, knee, hip, or back problems, butalmost everyone can walk. Walking outside is better than inside on a treadmill,and walking hills is better than walking on flat ground. Exercise machines such asstationary bikes, cross country ski machines, and stair steppers work well for alot of people who live in the city, especially in the winter, or for those who hateexercise. Whatever you choose to do, it is important to at least double the restingpulse for 30 minutes no less than four days a week. This is the absolute minimumrequired to maintain the health and function of the cardiovascular-pulmonary
system. If your resting pulse is 70, you must walk, jog, ski, bike, swim or what
have you, fast enough to keep the pulse at 140 beats per minute for at least 30minutes. I have a strong preference to exercising outside in isolated places where there
is only me and the forest, or only me and the river. Running along logging roads inthe hilly back country, or swimming in the green unpolluted water of a forest riveris a spiritual experience for me. It is a time to meditate, to commune with nature,and to clear my mind and create new solutions. The repetitive action of running orwalking or swimming, along with the regular deep breathing in clean air, with nodistractions except what nature provides is truly health promoting. Sharing theseactivities with friends or family can also be great fun and some of the best in socialinteractions. It is one of my favorite ways of visiting with people. I don’t expectother people to be as enthusiastic about exercise as I am, but I do hope thateveryone will make an effort to be minimally fit as an ongoing part of their healthprogram into old age. Diet For A Long, Long Life
Some people not only want to be healthy, but they want to live in good health
long past the normal life span projected by statistical tables for Homo Sapiens. Dr. Roy W


 infinite passionate soul that wishes to express
itself. It’s the God within you, urging you to fulfill a deep sense of what you
were meant to be. All of our acts are measured by the inspiration from
which they originate. When your acts display the faces of intention, they
spring from a God residing within you. This is enthusiasm. When you
emulate the power of intention, this is where you’ll feel the passion you
were intended to feel and live. The beauty of feeling passionate and enthusiastic is the glorious feeling
of joy and cheerfulness that comes along with it. Nothing provides me with
more joy than sitting here and writing to you from my heart. Ienthusiastically allow these teachings to come through me from the Source
of all intention, the universal mind of all creativity. Put quite simply, I feel
good, I’m in a cheerful mood, and my inspiration provides me with joy. If
you want to feel great, look into the mirror, say to your image, I am eternal;
this image will fade, but I am infinite. I am here temporarily for a reason. I
will be passionate about all that I do. Then just notice how you feel as you
stare at your reflection. Being cheerful is a wondrous side benefit of
enthusiasm. It comes from being in the active side of infinity where there’s
absolutely nothing to feel bad about. A sense of belonging. In a world that lasts forever, you certainly must
belong! The active side of infinity inspires not only a strong sense of
belonging, but a strong feeling of connectedness to everyone and everything
in the cosmos. It’s impossible for you not to belong, because your presence
here is evidence that a divine universal Source intended you here. Yet when
you live on the inactive side of infinity, you feel a sense of alienation from
others. Your idea that this is all temporary and that you aren’t a piece of
God’s infinite perfection leads you to self-doubt, anxiety, self-rejection,
depression, and so many more of the low energies I’ve written about
throughout this book. All it takes is a shift to infinite awareness to leave that
feeling of misery. As Sivananda taught his devotees:
All life is one. The world is one home. All are members of one human family. All creation is an organic whole. No
Man is independent of this whole. Man
Makes himself miserable by separating
Himself from others. Separation is death. Unity is eternal life. This concludes my ideas on the active and inactive side of infinity. I urge
you to remind yourself every day, as frequently as possible, of your infinite
nature. It may sound like merely an intellectual shift of minor consequence,but I assure you that staying on the active side of infinity and reminding
yourself of it regularly will put you in a position to manifest your desires. Of all the quotes on this subject I’ve read, this observation made by William
Blake stands out: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything
would appear to man as it is: infinite.” Remember, we’re attempting to
clean up the connecting link between ourselves and the field of intention. Five Suggestions for Implementing the Ideas
in This Chapter
1. Since you already know that you have an
appointment with infinity and that you’re ultimately required to
leave this corporeal world behind, make the decision to do so
sooner, rather than later. In fact today, right now, is a great
time to keep that appointment, and get it over with once and
for all. Simply announce to yourself: I’m no longer identified
by this body/mind, and I reject this label from this moment on. I’m infinite. I’m one with all of humanity. I’m one with my
Source, and this is how I choose to view myself from this day
forward. 2. Repeat this mantra to yourself each day as you
remind yourself that God wouldn’t and couldn’t create
something that doesn’t last: I will exist for all eternity. Just as
love is eternal, so is this my true nature. I’ll never be afraid
again, because I am forever. This kind of inner affirmation
aligns you on the active side of infinity and erases doubts about
your authentic higher identity. 3. In a meditative stance, consider the two choices of
belief on this concept of infinity. You are in the truest sense, as
I’ve said previously, either a human being having an occasional
spiritual experience, or an infinite spiritual being having a
temporary human experience. Which of those gives you a
feeling of love? And which inspires fear? Now, since love is
our true nature and the Source of all, anything that creates fear
can’t be real. As you see, the feeling of love is associated with
yourself as an infinite being. Then you must rely on this feelingto tell you the truth. Your place in the active side of infinity
assures you of a feeling of security, love, and permanent
connection to intention. 4. In any moment in which you find yourself thinking
low-energy thoughts of fear, despair, worry, sadness, anxiety,
guilt, and so on, just for a moment stop and consider whether
this makes any sense from the perspective of the active side of
infinity. Knowing that you’re here forever, and always
connected to your Source, will give you an entirely new
outlook. In the context of infinity, living any moment of your
life in anything other than appreciation and love is a waste of
your life energy. You can quickly dissipate those lower
energies and simultaneously connect to the power of intention
by cleansing those lenses of perception and seeing everything
as it is—infinite, as William Blake suggested. 5. Take a few moments to reflect on the people you
were close to and loved who have crossed over. Being aware of
your infinite nature, and staying in infinity’s active side, allows
you to feel the presence of these souls, who can’t die and did
not die. In John O’Donohue’s book of Celtic wisdom called
Anam Cara, he offers these words with which I not only
concur, but I know to be true from my own personal
experience:
I believe that our friends among the dead really mind us
and look out for us... we might be able to link up in a very
creative way with our friends in the invisible world. We do
not need to grieve for the dead. Why should we grieve for
them? They are now in a place where there is no more
shadow, darkness, loneliness, isolation or pain. They are
home. They are with God from whom they came. You can not only communicate with and feel the presence of those
who’ve crossed over, you yourself can die while you’re alive and rid
yourself now of these shadows and darkness, by living in the active side of
infinity. This concludes Part I of The Power of Intention. Part II will be a series of
chapters describing how to put this new connection to intention to work in a
variety of ways in your life. As with the first part, read on with a mind that
is not only open to the possibility of your achieving all that you can
imagine, but to knowing that on the active side of infinity all things are
possible. Now, you tell me what that leaves out! OceanofPDF.comPUTTING
INTENTION
TO
WORK
“We are already one and we imagine we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. Whatever we have to be is what we are.”

— Thomas Merton
OceanofPDF.comIT IS
MY INTENTION TO:
RESPECT MYSELF
AT ALL TIMES
“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”

— Mark Twain
Here’s a simple truth to begin this chapter: You did not originate from a
material particle as you’ve been led to believe. Your conception at the
moment of your parents’ blissful commingling was not your beginning. You
had no beginning. That particle emanated from the universal energy field of
intention, as do all particles. You’re a piece of that universal mind of
Creation, and you must see God inside of you and view yourself as a divine
creation in order to access the power of intention in your life. Give this idea a healthy dose of your attention—right now in this moment
—as you read these words. Contemplate the enormity of what you’re
reading. You are a piece of God. You are a living, breathing creation that
emanated from the universal mind of the all-creating Source. You and God
are the same thing. Very simply put, when you love and trust yourself,
you’re loving and trusting the wisdom that created you; and when you fail
to love and trust yourself, you’re denying that infinite wisdom in favor ofyour own ego. It’s important here to remember that at every single moment
of your life, you have the choice to either be a host to God or a hostage to
your ego. Host or Hostage? Your ego is the set of beliefs that I’ve written about earlier in this book,
which define you as what you accomplish and accumulate in a material
sense. Your ego is solely responsible for the feelings of self-doubt and self-
repudiation that you may carry around. When you attempt to live by the
low-level standards of your ego, you’re a hostage to that very same ego. Your worth as a person is measured by your acquisitions and
accomplishments. If you have less stuff, you’re less valuable, and therefore
unworthy of


 has most
likely pinpointed the exact cause of an itch. When some sort of sensory
trigger stimulates our skin-e.g. an insect, hair, fibers, hives, or poison
ivy-a signal not even close to the place where you feel the itch is sent
lightning fast to the far end of our nerve cells. This triggers a release of
neuropeptide natriuretic polypeptide b (Nppb) molecules, a specialized
sub-set of neurons just for itching. They then begin an epic journey of
leaps to other nerve cells that race the message to your brain, telling it
to itch. And while it’s possible now to genetically change mice that don’t
feel itching, or pain, or heat, we still don’t know how to safely stop those
maddening itches for people. We know where and why an itch starts,
but we don’t know how to stop it. So for now we’re just going to have to
settle for some nice, simple, home remedies. When it comes to itching,
the best thing to do is figure out the cause of what’s causing the itch,
and treat that, since I really couldn’t tell you how to manage your Nppb
levels. For example, itchy dry skin would require moisturizing, while
contact with poison ivy would require something that would help with
the irritating oil in the plant.Itching
-If you are suffering from itchy,
sensitive, or dry skin, moisturizing
is a great way to go about helping
it. Another key thing to try is
switching to gentler soaps and
body washes (or better yet make
your own!) -Try to not go overboard with the
scrubbing. Soaps can strip the
skin of natural oils that are helping
keep it moist and protected. Oatmeal and Herb Paste
-If you find your paste too thin,
up the amount of oats in ¼ cup
increments, and the honey by 1
teaspoon. If it is too thin up the
water 1 tablespoon at a time. -To lengthen the shelf life, use
basil and mint essential oils
instead of the fresh herbs. 107Copyright 2014 everydayroots.comTips & TroubleshootingA good chunk of things that cause itching are accompanied by inflammation, just think of a big mosquito bite, or
a hive! The inflammation is an immune response to a perceived “invader” such as pollen or certain foods, and is
caused by the release of the protein histamine. We then experience what is known as “histamine-induced itch.”
The uncomfortable inflammation contributes to the intense urge to go crazy trying to relieve the itch, which only
makes the irritation worse. This recipe contains herbal essential oils and ingredients that will help cool the inflammation, and help relieve
itchiness. Witch hazel is a wonderful addition to any cream or salve as the naturally occurring resin and
procyanadin (a flavonoid) in it interfere with inflammation taking place, and eases any that has already occurred. Lavender and chamomile also have natural anti-inflammatory properties, while calendula is known as the
“eczema eater” because it is so powerful when it comes to relieving itchiness caused by eczema.Anti-Inflammatory Itch Salve
-7 1/2 tablespoons of carrier oil
-2 ¼ teaspoons of witch hazel
-3-5 drops each of calendula,
lavender, and chamomile
essential oil
-1 tablespoon of beeswax1. In double boiler heat beeswax and your carrier oil until the wax is
completely melted. Remove from heat. Add in witch hazel, essential oils,
and stir. The witch hazel will create small bubbles. 2. Pour into tin or jar and allow it to cool with the lid on. This will keep
in a cool, dark, place for up to a year, depending on the oil you used. Adjust the amount of wax if you want a softer or firmer salve. 108Copyright 2014 everydayroots.com ItchingY ou will need… DirectionsI personally love this recipe. It’s quite simple, but very effective and time tested (the native Americans used
juniper berries to relieve itching well before any fancy creams came out.) While the volatile oils in juniper berries
stop the itch where it is, cloves contain eugenol, which was originally used in dentistry to numb patients. This
numbing will also help deaden the feeling of itchiness, as itch and pain are closely related.Clove & Juniper Berry Salve
-10 tablespoons of olive oil or
any liquid oil
-1 tablespoon of beeswax
-4-5 drops each of juniper and
clove essential oil1. Melt your oil and beeswax together in a double boiler, remove from
heat, and then add 4-5 drops of juniper and clove essential oil. Stir. 2. Pour into tins and cover to prevent the essential oils from
evaporating. Apply as needed. 109Copyright 2014 everydayroots.com ItchingY ou will need… DirectionsY ou will often hear of a lotion or cream containing “colloidal oatmeal,” which is essentially finely ground oatmeal
helpful in relieving itchy, irritated skin. It is also often found in oatmeal baths, a common remedy for eczema or
psoriasis. It is wonderfully soothing and helps moisturize skin, as well as tame any inflammation, and discomfort
taking place. However, you don’t need to buy fancy lotion or even specialized powder to get its benefits, you
can make your own by grinding up a good quality oatmeal (not the instant kind!) until it is very fine. If you don’t
have something to grind it up, you can soak your oats in water for 20 minutes and then strain and use the water
to make a thinner version of this paste Added to this is basil, which contains eugenol like cloves do, mint, which
can help cool the sensation of a burning rash, and a bit of soothing honey. Now you have a wonderful blend that
will keep, at the very least, the worst of the itching at bay!Oat & Herb Paste
-1 cup of fresh chopped mint
leaves OR 2 tablespoons dried
-1 cup of fresh chopped basil
OR 2 tablespoons dried
-2-4 tablespoons of oats, finely
ground
-1/4-1/2 teaspoon of organic
raw honey
-Water1. Place basil and mint in a bowl, chopped roughly if they are fresh, and
bring water to a boil. 2. Pour the water over mint and basil so they are submerged. Cover and
let this steep for 20 minutes. In the meantime, grind the oats as finely as
possible (keeping a jar of pre-ground oats on hand is a good idea if you
find yourself needing relief often.) 3. Remove the solids from the basil-mint water and add the ground oats
and honey, stirring until a paste forms. This will keep, refrigerated, for up
to 1 ½ weeks. Apply generously as needed. 110Copyright 2014 everydayroots.com ItchingY ou will need… DirectionsLeg cramps are bothersome, but when they last for more than a few
minutes, they can become truly crippling. This familiar pain is triggered
when a muscle in the leg, usually the calf, contracts too hard (spasms)
resulting in a burst of pain. Y ou can experience leg cramps at night,
or during/just after exercise. When you exercise you can become
dehydrated, overexert muscles, and throw your electrolytes out of
balance. The last three are all related in one big way with electrolytes
being of particular importance, as some are vital for muscles to function
in the first place. Potassium and sodium, for example, work with calcium
to make a muscle contract, and release. If you lack potassium, you
have nothing to block calcium that starts the contraction, and you end
up with a spasm or cramp. Often times a cramp hits just after you finish
exercising because it takes energy to release the muscle, just like it
takes energy to contract it. Y ou stop moving, exhausted, and your body
lacks the fuel it needs to let the muscle relax. If you get leg cramps in the night, it is speculated that your muscles are
already in a shortened position, since most of us sleep with bent knees,
and may be stimulated to contract. Since it is already “shortened” the
muscle can go into spasm. Leg Cramps
-Since your muscle is seized up
the most straightforward, possibly
most effective, way to help it is
to stretch. Hold your legs out
straight, flex your toes upwards,
and if you can, lean forward and
grab your toes (I hate this position,
but it does help.) Hold for 5-10
seconds, relax, and repeat. -If you are lying down, prop up
your knees with a pillow or rolled
up towel. 111Copyright 2014 everydayroots.comTips & TroubleshootingBasil is wonderfully soothing to aching, spastic muscles. It contains both potassium and magnesium which are
hugely helpful, actually vital, for getting muscles to relax. For this you can also use basil essential oil and mix it
with carrier oil to make a rub. In this case, I suggest heating the carrier oil slightly before applying, as heat will
help loosen your muscle.Hot Basil Bath Towel
-1 cup of chopped fresh basil