The prevailing belief systems of our time are invented.
I hope this doesn't make anyone too sad or angry, but a small look at history makes it quite obvious. It's also obvious when you travel to different countries and see entirely different belief systems, many contradictory, yet all applicable to life on the same planet. Christianity, for instance, is interpreted dramatically differently depending on the period of time you look at, though all of it is based on the same man's life.
Unfortunately, most of us are run by whatever mantras were recited to us through our childhoods and as adolescents. The tapes keep playing, long after they are coming from the outside. We internalize them and recite them forever.
As I read more and more from books on healing how important it is to have positive and supportive belief systems, I have mostly noticed that I'm not too messed up. :) Apart from that, I have still learned that a lot of the beliefs I would fight to convince other people of are not even my own. I mostly have cherished them because they are more modern, new, or progressive than older ones, so they seem great, since this is by comparison. Yet they still came from somewhere else. I'm sure the next generation will have even more modern, new, or progressive ones. The point is: why not make up your own?
When my parents were kids, the mantra was "go to college, work hard, you'll get a good job." Most of us have noticed life, success, and happiness are not quite that simple. Especially my parents.
When I was a kid, it was, "have fun. You're young, and if you don't have fun now, you'll find yourself with a family and less freedom. You could miss your chance."
Of course, it was never stated in such a way, but that was the implicit idea. Maybe I just absorbed it from the environment too, as I psychically tuned into all the less than happy parents who did as they were told and who found themselves with unrealized dreams. The new mantra is probably "better" than the old in that it at least allows you more freedom and also implies confidence in the person that "you'll turn out fine, don't worry about the future, do what you love or choose to do." But I found myself actually feeling pressure during and after college, "I've got to have fun!! How do I have fun!? I only have a few years before I'll be too old to have fun!" How absurd is that? Does my life end on the day of my 30th birthday or something? I think not.
What if we looked beyond both of these Life Rules?
For instance, it became so ingrained in me, whether through family or friends, that marriage and family meant selling my soul, giving up my freedom, and being boring, that I practically went into shock when I realized I wanted to get married. One of the supposedly happiest things to happen to someone--finding The One had me chasing my own tail, trying to reconcile the supposedly irreconcilable facts of "I'm not selling my soul, nor giving up any freedom" yet "I'm getting married." Getting married isn't cool anymore, hadn't I gotten the memo?
At this point, it became obvious that my mental constructions weren't really making sense. I wondered where they came from and why I still had them. I wondered what construct I would make if I was to chant the perfect mantra to the next generation.
I guess it would be: do whatever you feel is right, and ignore what you have learned it supposedly means
Only You have the power to give anything meaning.
Sometimes I think people my age are now under so much pressure to be "different" so they won't be accused of caving in to the status quo, that they're more limited than they even would have been in the first place! I'm really so exhausted by trying to make sure I have fun (which, by the way, comes pretty naturally to me on its own), am different enough, and seem "cool" that I have finally just given up. By the way, everyone on the face of the earth says they don't care what other people think, and that's a big load of crap.
My entire generation has, in a way, collapsed under the general baby boomers' collective disappointment, which partly has turned into a high divorce rate, lots of therapy, and new mantras begging their kids to have fun. It has given us the sense that work and family were in some way the source of this unhappiness. Many young people naively now believe marriage = unhappiness or corporate job = unhappiness which is so pathetically simplistic, it's downright silly.
Please: Stop Making Rules. Stop Trying To Figure It Out.
You're not going to learn how to conduct your own life by seeing divorce and saying, "ok, marriage ends in divorce, so I just won't get married." Can we be a LITTLE more sophisticated than this?
THERE IS NO RULE OF THUMB FOR LIFE
Marry young, marry old, don't get married
Have kids young, have kids old, don't have kids
Go to college, don't go to college
Get a job, take a break and live at home
Travel, don't travel (that's a big one. People of my generation MUST travel, you are cool if you travel, and if you don't you probably don't have a sense of adventure or enough culture to be interested in traveling)
Move to a new town, stay in the town you grew up in
Have a religion, don't have a religion
Work a desk job, work a physical, outdoor job
Live downtown, Live in the country
Work for a large corporation, work for a small business, work for a non-profit
Be the breadwinner, be a housewife
Be thin, be fat
Be womanly, be manly
Why does anyone care what their kids do anyway? Does any parent really have the illusion their kids Belong to them in the sense of ownership? We belong to our families only in the sense of a communal connection of belonging. We borrow our kids from God and send them on their way to find God again however they like. Is there any other definition of parenting?
Friday, May 28, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
It's the...Soy??
Yes, after my disappointing revelation that coffee was totally messing me up, I had an even worse one. The soy milk, which is the only "milk" I like, might have been doing some damage as well. I have been enjoying soy in my latte almost as long as I have been enjoying my latte.
As Pranic Healers, we get together once a month for a "practice" session. During this, I had my friend work on my throat chakra because I'd had a slightly sore throat lately. I had also been unusually thirsty (though I always seem to be dehydrated no matter how much water I drink). She scanned and found the throat chakra to be very congested, and she also scanned my thyroid and found IT to be very congested. She has worked for a vitamin company for years and is very knowledgeable about nutrition and health. So this prompted a conversation on thyroid health. (I have also gained about 5 pounds in the last few weeks with no change in my diet and lifestyle which made me wonder about a thyroid problem because the thyroid controls the metabolism.)
Lack of sodium and iodine can cause thyroid issues, but also hormonal stuff such as estrogen levels. I am obviously nowhere near menopause and am not on any medications, so we ignored this for a while. Until it came out that I drink soy daily in my latte and have for years. My friend almost jumped up--soy has "estrogenic" effects. I didn't really know what that meant, and I REALLY didn't want to have to give up soy. So I did a little research. Within about 2 minutes, my hopes came crashing down: I found numerous problems with soy.
The following are some quotes from a website by a naturopathic doctor, Dr. Lam:
"There is ample evidence that the isoflavones contained in soy products, including genistein, are toxins. Isoflavones are inhibitors of thyroid peroxidase that makes T3 and T4."
"Soy acts as an competitive inhibitor of estrogen at the cellular estrogen receptor site, reducing the effect of estrogen in our body. At the same time, over consumption of soy can overwhelm many of the body's cells and may overload them."
"For adults, just 30 mg of soy isoflavones per day is the amount found to have a negative impact on thyroid function. This amount of soy isoflavones is found in just 5-8 ounces of soy milk, or 1.5 ounces of miso. Interestingly, while miso has the phyto-estrogenic effect, it does not have the enzyme inhibitory effect because it is fermented. Other fermented soy product include soy sauce or tempeh."
"Soy contains a variety of toxic chemicals, which cannot be fully metabolized by the body, unless it undergoes a long cooking, or fermentation process. Unfermented soy contains phylates, which acts as an anti-nutrient and blocks the body’s absorption of minerals from the gastro intestinal track. It also contains enzymes inhibitors that reduce protein digestion. Processed soy protein contains carcinogens such as nitrates, lysinoalanine, as well as a large group of anti-nutrients not found in traditional soy consumed in Asia. It also lacks calcium and causes a deficiency of vitamin D, both of which are not conducive for bone building."
Bummer.
I have often heard of the "dangers of consuming unfermented soy products," but honestly did not feel it was all that serious. It's just a bean! I also felt it was probably over-hyped by the meat and dairy industries who stand to lose money by us switching to this vegan product. I now feel I was wrong to underestimate the problems with soy--I had really not done any personal research into it until now.
Back to the coffee shop for solutions:
One place in West Seattle has rice milk. Uptown Espresso. My husband and I go. Terrible. Rice milk doesn't foam at all. That's out.
Organic milk. Starbucks has that, right? I called the one on Alki and they don't. C & P doesn't. Bird on a Wire Espresso doesn't.
Caffe Ladro! They have organic milk. I drink it. Not digging it. It tastes like....milk! Gross.
The problems with caffeine haven't been enough, until recently, to get me off coffee. But this loss of the soy option has, perhaps, finally taken my ritual away. Milk just doesn't taste good. If it's to be consumed at all, it should be raw so the enzymes are intact in addition to the vitamins. This twice-cooked (pasteurized + steamed) milk contains just about nothing nutritionally plus tastes bad.
I still haven't solved my dilemma.
Aside from this. This is my long-term solution. Investors, listen up.
I will, at some point, open my own cafe. It will be a primarily raw food cafe. It will be a place where you can grab a pick-me-up without having to harm your health. We all need to learn to cook from scratch, but sometimes, we still need some food or a drink in a hurry.
There will be no refined sugar.
There will be no pasteurized milk.
There will be no soy.
There will be no refined grains.
There will be fruit smoothies and green smoothies.
There will be healthy, raw breakfasts like cereal/raw granola with almond milk.
There will be healthy, raw snacks and healthy, raw desserts.
There might be healthy, raw lunches.
There might be caffeine (hey, you gotta make money).
Everything will be organic.
You can stay, surf the web, have a drink or some food and actually nourish your body.
You can be in a hurry and still eat/drink something good for you.
It will be designed entirely by me, an energy healer and nutritionist, and people will actually be able to trust what we sell because it's not designed just for profit, but for sustaining healthy bodies. It will be totally original and wildly, immediately popular... :)
Wish me luck.
As Pranic Healers, we get together once a month for a "practice" session. During this, I had my friend work on my throat chakra because I'd had a slightly sore throat lately. I had also been unusually thirsty (though I always seem to be dehydrated no matter how much water I drink). She scanned and found the throat chakra to be very congested, and she also scanned my thyroid and found IT to be very congested. She has worked for a vitamin company for years and is very knowledgeable about nutrition and health. So this prompted a conversation on thyroid health. (I have also gained about 5 pounds in the last few weeks with no change in my diet and lifestyle which made me wonder about a thyroid problem because the thyroid controls the metabolism.)
Lack of sodium and iodine can cause thyroid issues, but also hormonal stuff such as estrogen levels. I am obviously nowhere near menopause and am not on any medications, so we ignored this for a while. Until it came out that I drink soy daily in my latte and have for years. My friend almost jumped up--soy has "estrogenic" effects. I didn't really know what that meant, and I REALLY didn't want to have to give up soy. So I did a little research. Within about 2 minutes, my hopes came crashing down: I found numerous problems with soy.
The following are some quotes from a website by a naturopathic doctor, Dr. Lam:
"There is ample evidence that the isoflavones contained in soy products, including genistein, are toxins. Isoflavones are inhibitors of thyroid peroxidase that makes T3 and T4."
"Soy acts as an competitive inhibitor of estrogen at the cellular estrogen receptor site, reducing the effect of estrogen in our body. At the same time, over consumption of soy can overwhelm many of the body's cells and may overload them."
"For adults, just 30 mg of soy isoflavones per day is the amount found to have a negative impact on thyroid function. This amount of soy isoflavones is found in just 5-8 ounces of soy milk, or 1.5 ounces of miso. Interestingly, while miso has the phyto-estrogenic effect, it does not have the enzyme inhibitory effect because it is fermented. Other fermented soy product include soy sauce or tempeh."
"Soy contains a variety of toxic chemicals, which cannot be fully metabolized by the body, unless it undergoes a long cooking, or fermentation process. Unfermented soy contains phylates, which acts as an anti-nutrient and blocks the body’s absorption of minerals from the gastro intestinal track. It also contains enzymes inhibitors that reduce protein digestion. Processed soy protein contains carcinogens such as nitrates, lysinoalanine, as well as a large group of anti-nutrients not found in traditional soy consumed in Asia. It also lacks calcium and causes a deficiency of vitamin D, both of which are not conducive for bone building."
Bummer.
I have often heard of the "dangers of consuming unfermented soy products," but honestly did not feel it was all that serious. It's just a bean! I also felt it was probably over-hyped by the meat and dairy industries who stand to lose money by us switching to this vegan product. I now feel I was wrong to underestimate the problems with soy--I had really not done any personal research into it until now.
Back to the coffee shop for solutions:
One place in West Seattle has rice milk. Uptown Espresso. My husband and I go. Terrible. Rice milk doesn't foam at all. That's out.
Organic milk. Starbucks has that, right? I called the one on Alki and they don't. C & P doesn't. Bird on a Wire Espresso doesn't.
Caffe Ladro! They have organic milk. I drink it. Not digging it. It tastes like....milk! Gross.
The problems with caffeine haven't been enough, until recently, to get me off coffee. But this loss of the soy option has, perhaps, finally taken my ritual away. Milk just doesn't taste good. If it's to be consumed at all, it should be raw so the enzymes are intact in addition to the vitamins. This twice-cooked (pasteurized + steamed) milk contains just about nothing nutritionally plus tastes bad.
I still haven't solved my dilemma.
Aside from this. This is my long-term solution. Investors, listen up.
I will, at some point, open my own cafe. It will be a primarily raw food cafe. It will be a place where you can grab a pick-me-up without having to harm your health. We all need to learn to cook from scratch, but sometimes, we still need some food or a drink in a hurry.
There will be no refined sugar.
There will be no pasteurized milk.
There will be no soy.
There will be no refined grains.
There will be fruit smoothies and green smoothies.
There will be healthy, raw breakfasts like cereal/raw granola with almond milk.
There will be healthy, raw snacks and healthy, raw desserts.
There might be healthy, raw lunches.
There might be caffeine (hey, you gotta make money).
Everything will be organic.
You can stay, surf the web, have a drink or some food and actually nourish your body.
You can be in a hurry and still eat/drink something good for you.
It will be designed entirely by me, an energy healer and nutritionist, and people will actually be able to trust what we sell because it's not designed just for profit, but for sustaining healthy bodies. It will be totally original and wildly, immediately popular... :)
Wish me luck.
It's the Coffee
I've been drinking a latte almost seven days a week since I was about 16 or 17 which makes that 11-12 years. Despite my obsession with healthy living, I have not seriously examined the potential impact of consuming a mild drug every single day for over a decade.
I remember when the coffee craze started--when all the Starbucks' opened up in the suburb I lived in and all the other ones nearby. I didn't care much about the drink at the time, just that it was a place to hang out when you are young, can drive, but don't want to be at home with your parents and are too young for the bars. Our local Starbucks turned into our hangout, and we would pass hours and hours there gossiping and maybe doing the occasional homework assignment. It was our favorite way to sit in the sun in the summer since there was always outside seating. I have countless cherished memories of sitting with my best friend Laura, summer day after summer day, during this bonding ritual.
This habit extended perfectly into college where the coffee buzz helped us all get to our 8:00AM classes or study for hours on end. After that, going to the neighborhood coffee shop just became my daily retreat where I would go to read for a while. It was a way to get out of the house and be around some people when I lived alone where it could sometimes get a little too quiet. My husband didn't drink coffee when we met, but I quickly converted him and convinced him that $8-$10 a day was worth it for some unhealthy drinks and a sugary snack (oops).
The habit has become so ingrained that I have rarely questioned it seriously, despite the fact that I read health information daily, and hardly an article on nutrition is published that doesn't include coffee in the list of no-no's (the others are sugar, alcohol and sometimes dairy). I have always had a really strong stomach, no real food sensitivities, and no food allergies. I thought I was immune to practically anything.
A couple of weeks ago, however, I was driving with my husband back home after having coffee somewhere, and I was just feeling so stressed out and irritable. I was in a big hurry to get back and do some things before work. I was feeling like I was fighting the clock. I suddenly snapped out of my head-spinning anxiety and realized, "I felt great all morning before we got our coffee. And I always get antsy right around this time of the day, which is after we go to coffee." Sometimes a new perspective suddenly jolts you, and you don't need to do any research or lab tests to confirm what you have just realized. My occasional crankiness wasn't just my personality.
So I undertook a very easy and very difficult experiment. Cut out coffee for a week and see how you feel. (I luckily never have withdrawal symptoms from removing caffeine.) I researched how much caffeine is in chai since I like chai lattes. There's approximately 1/4 to 1/3 the caffeine in chai. Not too bad. Decaf coffee has only a few milligrams of caffeine compared to around 150 per cup of regular coffee. Looks like I could have an occasional chai and decaf and probably still conduct the experiment. Don't have to totally give up my ritual....yet.
After only a couple of days, I noticed a huge difference. I was absolutely AMAZED. Rather than freaking out before work, running around, I was completely calm. I was calmer in the morning, afternoon, and evening. The calmness just seemed to snowball into downright...peace. Now, I also do a lot of other healthy things that probably contribute such as almost-daily meditation, exercise, and healthy eating. I now realized that coffee was completely tripping all this up. I had wondered why the healthy stuff wasn't having a bigger impact, and I now seemed to have my answer.
Everything from comic strips jokes to cafe humor, to whatever--depicts the average person as barely awake, barely functioning, and totally grumpy until they've gotten their morning cup o' joe. Yet what's really true is that coffee can ruin your mood. This treasured beverage was actually having the exact opposite effect as what it is promoted as having, and in a big way.
How much does caffeine prevent us, as a population, from being the naturally peaceful people we are meant to be?
How many distractions do we need to get us through one more day??
What I have learned is: examine everything. ESPECIALLY things you do daily or almost daily. These are the things that add up in huge ways. Learn for youself, and don't trust everything you read. I have read lots of downsides to caffeine but none convinced me to give it up, being that I am still young and healthy. Something may be affecting you in a way that is either not common or not yet discovered or advertised. I am so thrilled--and peaceful!--to have figured this out.
I remember when the coffee craze started--when all the Starbucks' opened up in the suburb I lived in and all the other ones nearby. I didn't care much about the drink at the time, just that it was a place to hang out when you are young, can drive, but don't want to be at home with your parents and are too young for the bars. Our local Starbucks turned into our hangout, and we would pass hours and hours there gossiping and maybe doing the occasional homework assignment. It was our favorite way to sit in the sun in the summer since there was always outside seating. I have countless cherished memories of sitting with my best friend Laura, summer day after summer day, during this bonding ritual.
This habit extended perfectly into college where the coffee buzz helped us all get to our 8:00AM classes or study for hours on end. After that, going to the neighborhood coffee shop just became my daily retreat where I would go to read for a while. It was a way to get out of the house and be around some people when I lived alone where it could sometimes get a little too quiet. My husband didn't drink coffee when we met, but I quickly converted him and convinced him that $8-$10 a day was worth it for some unhealthy drinks and a sugary snack (oops).
The habit has become so ingrained that I have rarely questioned it seriously, despite the fact that I read health information daily, and hardly an article on nutrition is published that doesn't include coffee in the list of no-no's (the others are sugar, alcohol and sometimes dairy). I have always had a really strong stomach, no real food sensitivities, and no food allergies. I thought I was immune to practically anything.
A couple of weeks ago, however, I was driving with my husband back home after having coffee somewhere, and I was just feeling so stressed out and irritable. I was in a big hurry to get back and do some things before work. I was feeling like I was fighting the clock. I suddenly snapped out of my head-spinning anxiety and realized, "I felt great all morning before we got our coffee. And I always get antsy right around this time of the day, which is after we go to coffee." Sometimes a new perspective suddenly jolts you, and you don't need to do any research or lab tests to confirm what you have just realized. My occasional crankiness wasn't just my personality.
So I undertook a very easy and very difficult experiment. Cut out coffee for a week and see how you feel. (I luckily never have withdrawal symptoms from removing caffeine.) I researched how much caffeine is in chai since I like chai lattes. There's approximately 1/4 to 1/3 the caffeine in chai. Not too bad. Decaf coffee has only a few milligrams of caffeine compared to around 150 per cup of regular coffee. Looks like I could have an occasional chai and decaf and probably still conduct the experiment. Don't have to totally give up my ritual....yet.
After only a couple of days, I noticed a huge difference. I was absolutely AMAZED. Rather than freaking out before work, running around, I was completely calm. I was calmer in the morning, afternoon, and evening. The calmness just seemed to snowball into downright...peace. Now, I also do a lot of other healthy things that probably contribute such as almost-daily meditation, exercise, and healthy eating. I now realized that coffee was completely tripping all this up. I had wondered why the healthy stuff wasn't having a bigger impact, and I now seemed to have my answer.
Everything from comic strips jokes to cafe humor, to whatever--depicts the average person as barely awake, barely functioning, and totally grumpy until they've gotten their morning cup o' joe. Yet what's really true is that coffee can ruin your mood. This treasured beverage was actually having the exact opposite effect as what it is promoted as having, and in a big way.
How much does caffeine prevent us, as a population, from being the naturally peaceful people we are meant to be?
How many distractions do we need to get us through one more day??
What I have learned is: examine everything. ESPECIALLY things you do daily or almost daily. These are the things that add up in huge ways. Learn for youself, and don't trust everything you read. I have read lots of downsides to caffeine but none convinced me to give it up, being that I am still young and healthy. Something may be affecting you in a way that is either not common or not yet discovered or advertised. I am so thrilled--and peaceful!--to have figured this out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)