Breakfast Fuel: Chia Porridge with Cherry Concentrate, Maca, Protein Powder and Linseed

Trying to keep the post-menopausal weight gain down and supply myself with enough nutrients to keep me going for the morning I've come up with this as my current breakfast. The added bonus is that it is low-carb, high in omega 3 fatty acids. It has a few things that are good for my joints as well as providing fuel for my morning run.

Take one small-medium breakfast bowl and add 2-3 heaped tablespoons of chia seeds (black or white, doesn't matter). Add boiling water to 3/4 fill the bowl. Stir until the mixture thickens up. Add one scoop of rice protein powder (one that tastes nice - some are plain awful), a heaped desertspoon of linseeds or LSA (ground linseed, sunflower and almond mix) and then sweeten with Cherry concentrate. If you need to balance the hormones then add a teaspoonful of maca as well. Stir the mixture again and enjoy.

A breakfast cup of ginger tea or Teccino goes nicely with this. You don't need to do anything special to make ginger tea just get some ordinary dried ginger, put a pinch of it in a mug and add hot water. It's a great way to kick charge the digestion for the day. But if you hanker after a coffee flavor go for the Teccino.

My experience treating my arthritic ankle with magnetic therapy, ayurveda and Trul Khor Tibetan yoga.

I was a little skeptical about whether magnetic therapy would work on my ankle but I was getting desperate. I'm only in my fifties and I'm not about to give into aging just yet. Getting up at night was getting to be a bit of a shuffle though. Not one for dosing myself with mainstream medication I looked at the alternative. To be frank I was a bit peeved to be getting the condition at all. I do yoga and eat vegetarian - why would I get arthritis? Unfortunately it is a bit of a family trait, it's just another consequence of those genes in my body involved with inflammatory processes..

Copper of course is good but it does leave a rather green stain on your skin.

Indian ayruvedic medicine said it was a Vata imbalance - groan - its alway Vata stuff with me. So making sure I put plenty of warming (but not hot) spices in my cooking: cumin, tumeric, coriander, fennel, asafoetida and small amounts of mustard seed. Energy blockages and poor digestion can aggravate the Vata element.

Warmth and movement are good.

Looking somewhat skeptically at magnets as a solution I found that Web MD actually said they might work for some arthritic joints. Worth a go then. I initially tried a couple of locally purchased Hematite/magnetite bracelets but despite their name and supposed metaphysical properties they weren't magnetic, not that I could tell anyway, and they certainly didn't do anything for me. I looked for something stronger and found http://www.powerstonemagneticjewelry.com/ The ankle bracelet they advertised that was combined with Carnelian, that the ayurvedic practitioners recommend, had a joiner with actual magnets so I go one to try. It only took a few days to come all the way from America. Within an hour of putting it on I noticed, with a great deal of surprise, that the pain in my ankle had lessened and I had more movement. Improvement has continued. I wear the anklet most of the time, even sleeping but take it off when I'm near water, swimming and showering etc. I'm thinking of getting one for my other ankle now which surprisingly has improved as well but might still benefit from one of its own. I'm not saying it would work for everyone but it certainly worked for me.

Looking further into the energy blockages I did what I've been meaning to do for some time and god Tenzin Wangyal's book and CD about Trul Khor (Tibetan yoga) "Awakening the Sacred Body" which is particularly good for clearing blockages. I as much impressed with the energy releases I've been getting from these exercises as I am the magnetic therapy. Together with a few dietary tweaks I'm back on top of things. Definitely more mobile and enjoying running, which I started doing after, not before, my ankles started packing up.

BBC article on the dangers of overly browned meat helping to cause brain plaque.

If you have the APOE gene that predisposes you to Alzheimers you may be interested in this article published on the BBC news site yesterday

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26323720

For more information on the genetics of Alzheimers check out http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/alzheimers-disease-genetics-fact-sheet.

Fortunately not a problem I have to worry about but since I have a fascination with genetics I come across these things.

Sprouted Lentil Burgers with Cashew and Pine Nut Pesto

I invented this recipe for myself. It has no gluten, onions, garlic, meat, dairy, sugar, salt, tomato or hot spices but the few people I've tried it out on reckon it tastes great.

• Sprout yourself a jarful of red or brown lentils, red if you can get whole red lentils. You'll need to sprout them 2-3 days until the rootlets start to appear. 
• Place in a blender with about a cup of cooked carrot and/or zucchini (you can vary what vegetable you add - sweet potato or pumpkin would work just as well).
• Add a large heaped tablespoon of chia seed and a similar amount or more of linseed. These two seeds are your glue and will hold the mixture together.
• Add plenty of cumin, tumeric, coriander, fennel etc to taste. I usually add a heaped teaspoon of each. These spices help to balance what Indian Ayurvedic doctors call the Vata element which I need to balance so those are the spices I often use. These spices also help with digestion. Tumeric, particularly is a good all purpose anti-inflammatory. Check out Web Md for all the details on why you might consider using more tumeric in your cooking. Not good for everyone though so check it out!
• Add about about a cup of water to the blender and mix. Add more water if the mixture "struggles" in the blender or if too sloppy add a little teff flour to thicken it once you've poured it into a mixing bowl. 
• Spoon large dollops into a pre-heated fry pan and brown both sides. 

While they cook make your pesto as follows:

Rinse your blender then add

• a cup of raw cashews
• half a cup of pine nuts - or whatever amount you can afford - they're quite expensive
• a good pinch of asafoetida Beware some asafoetida is mixed with wheat flour.
  
• a handful of fresh basil

blend

Put about two lentil burgers to a plate and pour a generous amount of pesto on top. Serve with any fresh edible flowers and leaves from your garden. For example marigold petals, mizuna, Italian parley, young kale - whatever is in season.

Perceiving high frequency sounds and other signs of a lifting of the veil of separateness that has been between our egoistic relative self and the absolute

Reading around the web of late I'm not the only one to have been perceiving high frequency sounds and other signs of a lifting of the veil of separateness that has been between our egoistic relative self and the absolute.

I thought at first I might have been getting tinnitus but the sound is directly influenced by my thoughts and meditation. When my thoughts are at their most positive or my meditations take me into emptiness it increases in amplitude. But apparently others are experiencing it, refer 8b: http://www.in5d.com/spiritual-awakening-quiz.html in an article called "How many of these 51 syptoms of spiritual awakening do you have?" I've also noticed I can perceive solar storms, a sensation in the head that leaves it feeling "full", like there is a lot of static. Then there is the fact that my meditations have been leading to work on my solar plexus. Refer:http://www.in5d.com/ascension-symptoms-body-vibrations.html. A few days ago I came across this youtube video on how to "See energy in the air": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3HvpLz0zOo .  He talks about going into a dimly lit room and learn to perceive the pixelation that's there if you look for it.  I'd come across this concept before from writings of a Toltic or South American shaman but can't remember who. The shaman said that if you stared at a point in space long enough, without blinking, it would become pixilated and that if you did this with objects they would become transparent. I tried this and it's hard not to blink but it and I did start to see the pixel effect.  I am mindful also that there are accounts of people with PSI seeing through objects to what's on the other side.  I don't know if this is related to the above effect or just their remote viewing ability.

Anyway... Having mused on all this the thought came to me that I might have also seen this effect sometime when I meditated.  I closed my eyes and told myself to just observe whatever was there without putting any judgements on it or any expectations of what it might look like. Slowly I became aware of a speckling.  As I watched it I seemed to be pulled into a center that was more finely pixelated, so fine it looked like silver but when I observed it closely it was clear it was a fine pattern of white and black dots and it was swirling.  It was a vortex pulling me in. Unfortunately an interruption ended that session.  When I came back to exploring I found it again but have not yet dwelled on it long.  I became aware of something else, this static/pixel pattern was different if I focused on the right or left side of my head.  The left was coarser grained, the right finer.  Something seemed amiss about this and I felt the need to bring them into some kind of harmony or integration.  I decide that one way I can work on this is spend time in both sides, maybe alternating between them.  Something like pranayama, alternate nostril breathing or maybe that's something that could be used in conjunction with this perceiving.  I also want to go deeper into that central vortex.  And the "white noise" sound - well that increases when I do this and there is a very strong sensation of opening or activity in the top of the head (the crown chakra).  Early days yet, still exploring, observing and self-monitoring for any positive or negative effects.  So far it all seems very positive.

Going back to the youtube video I mentioned I have to wonder if what I'm perceiving is the absolute consciousness that we've been separated from for the last six thousand years or so.

Life isn't about purpose, it's about being. Loving yourself enough to dare to be yourself and loving others, allowing them the same.

In a dream late this morning I was having a vivid full color dream.  I was having a conversation with a bloke who was dying.  He was saving that his greatest regret was that he had never found the reason for his life and  that he would die not having found it.  The dream me felt compassion for him but explained to him that life wasn't about goals or purpose.  It was about loving yourself and others enough to 'be as you are' and being that to the full. It was like the waking version of myself was a viewer of this conversation.  Then I woke up.

A meditation on an infinity of space

A short meditation that takes you into an exploration of space:
http://www.slideshare.net/dzyanna/an-infinity-of-space