MyNewsletterBuilder | Healing Arts 07/2009 (Preview)

Intuition is sometimes defined as the sense of knowing something without any empirical evidence. To some this is a divine source of knowing, while to others intuition is about listening to instinct. Everyone experiences flashes of their intuition from time to time – those are the “ah-ha” moments of understanding. In fact, most people walk around actively inviting their intuition to step in. This is what you are doing when you wonder, whether you are wondering about people, places, facts, ideas, decisions, etc.

In order to allow your intuition to guide you, you simply need to relax and listen to yourself. What some refer to as a gut reaction is often your mind trying to tell you something. In fact, the term gut reaction is very telling – oftentimes, large emotions will have a physical affect on our bodies. Our experiences of joy, sorrow, elation, anger, and fear are all physical experiences. If you have a physical reaction to something, listen to what that tells you, rather than ignore it for what you rationally know is right. Oftentimes, if you take time to honor and examine your initial emotion, you'll find that what you intellectually desire isn't actually counter-indicated.

The more you practice opening to your intuition, the easier it will flow through you. When you first start consciously calling upon your intuition, make a time and space to do so. Find a place to sit quietly and close your eyes. Then, call up the idea that you want to find clarity on and allow thoughts and ideas to flow into your mind. You don't need to follow any given train of thought, simply be open to hearing what occurs to you.

Immunity is an entirely holistic reality. As we all know, it is quite common for many people to come into contact with a disease but for only a few to actually contract the disease and suffer its symptoms. This tells us two things: one, that the people who remained healthy had immunity to the disease or their bodies were able to fight it off easily, and two, that the people who became ill were already susceptible to the disease.

From here, one might turn to the Ayurvedic principles of immunity, in which there are three types of immunity. One's natural immunity refers to that which we are born with – our immune system, with all its strengths and weaknesses, which is inherent to our bodies. One's status immunity refers to the alternations in immunity that are a result of age, season, or time- as a general rule, we are strongest when young, in spring, and in the morning. The third immunity status is that of gained or acquired immunity, which is the immunity we get through eating immune-boosting foods, having a healthy schedule of sleeping and waking, getting plenty of exercise, etc.

One's immunity is really a combination of all three factors, which is where Ayurvedic treatment can come in. Say you cannot live a lifestyle that is as relaxed and peaceful as would truly be suitable. In this scenario, there are certain foods to be eaten or avoided, and perhaps certain herbs or activities that would help to boost one's immunity. Where natural immunity is lacking, acquired immunity can be built. In Ayurveda, some commonly used immune boosting foods include honey, ghee, and milk, in various combinations.

In today's busy western society, healing is something that far too many people just don't really pay attention to. In terms of our medicine, the band-aid approach to healing has become the norm, and rather than healing the body and the root causes of the issues, doctors now prescribe medications to take away the symptoms of our problems. This can lead to a worsening, rather than a cessation, of the causal factors that brought those symptoms to the forefront in the first place.

When our bodies are out of balance, symptoms appear that are but signs of a deeper problem. While certain symptoms should indeed be taken care of topically, the deeper issues need to be addressed. Healing the whole body means re-balancing all the body's systems and ensuring that the needs of the body are being met.

The majority of dis-ease that people experience today is a result of a lack of real (whole and natural) foods in their diet, proper exercise, and enough sleep. Less than 10% of the population actually drinks enough water to meet the body's hydration needs on a daily basis, and we are all exposed to a large number of toxins in our daily lives, including the pollution in the very air we breathe.

In order to heal the whole body, we must also heal our lifestyles. Eating brightly colored foods, drinking plenty of water, getting good sleep at night, and plenty of healthy exercise is not the whole of what we must do, but they are essential parts of providing the body with what it needs to thrive, without which we have no hope of truly healing.

The adrenals, those ever-so-important glands perched atop our kidneys, are our stress responders. They respond by producing adrenaline, cortisol, DHEA, and aldorsterone. By design, they are meant to handle short-term stressors only and if stress is sustained, they can become overtired and depleted. Adrenals under stress can become over or under-active. In the most extreme cases, this manifests as Cushing’s syndrome or Addison's Disease-- overproducing of cortisol or inability to secrete cortisol, respectively.

Stress comes in many different forms. Physical, emotional, psychological stress is just as real as environmental stresses, relationship, or employment stress. A lack of sleep, lack of proper nutrition, allergies, toxins, fears, and insecurity are also all stresses on the adrenals. The majority of the American population is, at any given time, in some state of adrenal response. Because these are sustained stresses, many begin to experience some of the symptoms of adrenal stress, which include fatigue, PMS, increased appetite, poor sleep, slower wound healing, dizziness, high or low blood pressure, decreased immune function, thyroid stress, difficulty getting up in the morning, decreased libido, and many others.

While there are a number of adaptogenic herbs that can help return the adrenals to a healthy state, and supplements that support the health of these systems as well as the body as a whole, the only way to truly relieve the strain on the adrenals is to lower the stress factors in one's life. This is yet another case in which a lifestyle change is the one true way to heal the body and restore it to full health.

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In This Issue:

Listen To Your Intuition

An Ayurveda Concept of Immunity

Healing the Whole Self

Adrenal Stress and Health

Updates

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Help On the Bookshelf

Self help books are wonderful tools that can help keep you on track with your goals, provide you with gentle reminders about ways to live and heal, and are wonderful reference books. Find books from people whose teachings work for you, and stick with those. If you pick up a book and find that "fluffy" and "cheesy" are you first two descriptors, put it back on the shelf – that isn't the book for you. The more informative the book is, and the more the subject relates to one that you are actively interested in, the more likely you are to use it. So, as with everything, choose wisely, and you'll be rewarded by your choice.

The Amazing Pineapple

Not only is fresh pineapple juicy, delicious, and refreshing, but it is also very good for you. Fresh pineapple is chock full of bromelain and vitamin C, both of which are vital to your health!

• Bromelain encourages good digestion, is an anti-inflammatory and analgesic. It works to promote healing in the body, and is only found in the fresh fruit as it is destroyed by the canning process.

• Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that protects the body from free radicals and is used in tissue repair as well as collagen production in the body. Vitamin C can also help the body fight off infections.

Breathe to Beat Stress

Breathing deeply and slowly has an immediate effect on our bodies, calming and centering us instantly. It can relieve all types of stress and should be practiced on a regular basis.

Deep Yoga Breaths: sit upright with your spine in a straight line. First, place you hands on your chest and observe your breath. You will likely be breathing into your chest quite shallowly. Next, place your hands over your belly and focus on the drawing the breath all the way down into your belly. Take several breaths. Finally, place one hand over your chest and one over your belly and focus on the breath flowing into and out of your body, filling you up completely and then emptying all the way back out. Repeat several times, or for as long as desired.

Alternate Nostril Breathing: To breathe through one nostril only you will be using either your thumb and index finger or index and middle finger to stop the flow of air through the opposite nostril. One round would consist of inhaling right- exhaling left, inhaling left- exhaling right. Ten rounds of alternate nostril breathing is recommended.