Caffeine: Why We Like It

Do we know how often we consume it?
Caffeine is naturally produced in the leaves, seeds and fruits of many plants. Commonly found in coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate and a wide variety of over-the-counter medications. Let’s explore how Ayurveda could explain our daily inclination towards caffeine.

Why do so many enjoy it daily? Ayurveda sees it like this:

KAPHA-TYPE:
Some say they cannot wake up without it; this is usually a kapha-dominate person who enjoys the pick-me-up caffeine offers, without suffering from the usual jitters which plague other dosha-types. It is helpful for those who are slow to rise in the morning or like to sleep alot.

VATA-TYPE:
Some enjoy it for the flavor and don’t realize it is also a digestive irritant which flushes out the bowels; this may reinforce the desire for caffeine, as those who suffer from constipation, usually vata-dominate people, could benefit from this side effect. However, caffeine is also dehydrating and can easily give the jitters to the sensitive nervous system of a vata-type, which leads to insomnia and anxiety and is therefore not recommende for vata-types.

PITTA-TYPE:
Some enjoy the daily ritual of making that fresh cup of coffee or tea, however caffeine is acidic and bitter, despite how much sugar is added. If consumed on an empty stomach before breakfast, it only adds “fuel to the fire,” making the pitta-personality even more impatient and agitated.

Here’s an idea of the amount of caffeine in:

* Coffee, depending upon preparation methods, can contain from 30-120 mg per 8 oz
* Soft Drinks vary from 37-71 mg per 12 oz
* Dark Chocolate, 1 oz = 20 mg
* Anacin, 2 tabs = 64 mg
* Excedrin, 2 tabs = 130 mg
* No-Doze, 1 tab = 200 mg

We recommend you identify your dosha-type and consider whether caffeine’s side-effects are beneficial for your type. If not, you can try organically produced products which will be better for you, or less acidic products like Kona Coffee, available at a local grocer near you.

Remember, what we eat and drink can taste good and be satisfying, but there is a more serious function to these daily habits, they serve to create energy and supply the body with all the tools (essential nutrients) it needs to support a healthy immune system and sustain life.

www.amritaveda.com

Reiki Sea Salt Bath

by Roland Hasler

I am a psychologist-psychotherapist specialized in psychological dependency and live in Geneva, Switzerland.

I have been working with a healing bath using the Reiki symbols. This bath is perfect to center yourself, especially when under stress or pressure from others or from situations. It only takes 15 minutes to bring peace and quietness within yourself. It works for anxiety, depression, panic attack and other psychological complaints including psychological dependency, such as: drug-dependency and affective dependency (co-dependency).

Why does this Work?
The sea salt has the power to cleanse and purify. The Reiki symbols reinforcing this and raise the vibration as well as adding powerful healing energy. The Reiki energy also is attracted to the salt and thus this magnifies its power. The bath will harmonize your chakras and aura and will also cut you off from the source of any negative energy. The bath will also disconnect you from dependency and allow you to be connected to your own power and sense of self. This will make it much easier for you to understand the source of any issues or problems you are dealing with and help you to connect with the insight needed for you to heal. Like a spectator watching a movie of his/her own life, you’ll come out of the bath with more self-confidence and awareness of yourself.

First take a quick shower without using soap. Then fill the bath tub with water. As the tub is filling, sit in the tub and add two kilos (4-5 lbs.) of sea salt (you must use the large grained sea salt and not the fine, it doesn’t matter where it comes from, you can use the cheapest one as long it is sea salt!), sit in the bath tub until it is full (lukewarm water is fine). As the bath tub is filling, give yourself a light massage with the salty water all over the body and plunge your head under the water for a few seconds. When the bath is full stop the water and draw the Reiki symbols on top of the water as follows:

You must draw the symbols on top of the water by lightly touching the water and for each symbol say the appropriate mantra (name of the symbol) three times: master, power, Iava (Karuna), Shanti (Karuna), emotional/mental. At the end, use the power symbol again.

If you do not have the master or Karuna symbols, just use the symbols you know and it will work just fine.

Then relax and enjoy the bath for about 15 minutes (give yourself more massage and put your head under the water a few more times).

After 15 minutes, drain the water and take a shower without any soap, dry yourself and put on clean clothes.

You can take this bath at any time of the day.

Do You Believe What I Believe?

by Laura Scott

I believe in real butter and a big country kitchen where your friends can watch as you cook or help you, laugh and cry with you as we figure out the world, our children, each other, all the while cooking up life, nourishment and love.
I believe in old fashioned things, like manners, and love notes and swinging on big long rope swings.
I believe in the power of being present.

I believe in love.
Universal Love uniting us, unifying us, underwriting us.
I believe in Grace.

I believe in two ply and good plumbing.
I believe in fresh cut lawns, a perfect peach, and juicy watermelon.
I believe in hanging out on blankets and watching the sky swim by with someone you love.
The fresh taste of spring water.
I believe in silence.

I believe in dancing, skipping, singing, synchronicities and surrendering.
I believe in surprises, sunrises and life’s ability to flip a situation around in our favor faster than we can say, ‘Abracadabra.’
Because I believe in Magic.

I believe in Angels, Spirit Guides, Messengers, Ascended Masters, and more, all in regular constant communication with us.
I believe in their power, love, and support.
I believe in the power of laughter…
Of a good belch, and fresh sheets…
I believe in making intimacy and living love.

I believe in meditation and reflective thought.
I believe in freedom, Oprah, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Bono, Nelson Mandela, Immaculee Ilibigaza, Dr. Masaru Emoto, Martin Luther King, Buddha, Jesus, Einstein, ET, the tooth fairy, the Grinch, Charlie Brown, and children in no order of preference.
I believe in the unmistakable power of a smile to heal, unite, lessen, increase, provide, invite.

I believe in real love, destiny, free will and the power of our choices and our attitude.
I believe in soft passionate kisses that last for hours and fall into days … gentle caresses, tenderness.
I believe everything is possible.

I believe in the power of a buy one get one free sale, in the 20 percent tip and in tipping points.
I believe in the first snow fall of a season, and the smell of a fireplace burning.
I believe in the Faeries playing in my flower beds and the crickets that sing beneath my window through the summer night.
I believe in Heaven. Here, there, everywhere.

I believe in the quiet that comes after the storm.
I believe in the space between the spaces.
I believe that out of our suffering comes much good fortune.
And that Life is always in Divine Order, even when we can’t see it.
I believe there is always a Higher Plan.

I believe we are all one,
And in our oneness lies our greatest strengths.
I believe that when one of us is doing better, all of us are.

I believe in invisible things, forces not seen, unexplained and yet to be defined.
I believe in a Mother/Father God.
I believe in the Church of Nature.
And the power of miracles.
Like falling in love again after many years of being on your own, and instantly feeling reborn.

I believe in a good moisturizer, comfortable clothes and laugh lines.
I believe in aging and it’s place in our humanity.
I believe if we weren’t conscious of time’s perpetual passage we’d never push ourselves or pace ourselves.
I believe in faith.

I believe in skinny dipping, laughing under the full moon and throwing up your arms to the sky with complete abandon and shouting , “YES!!!”

I believe in the sun,
in the stars,
in the sea,
and in the cool, quiet, secret places in the woods.
I believe in peace.

I believe in all of us, even the forgotten.
I believe in our intrinsic goodness.
I believe we can, we will, we must stay connected.
I believe we are only as strong as our weakest spot.
I believe in sleep overs, a good cup of tea, waking up to the sounds of wild song birds singing.
Laughter.

I believe in you.
And I believe in me.
I believe in our power as individuals.
I believe in our collective power.
And the power of our evolving consciousness.
I believe in the power of all possibilities.
I believe in us.

I believe in love.

I believe.

Invisible Falcons

Greetings Brain Explorers!

I received this email this morning:

“Neil,

Journey to Ixtlan is the best thing Castandeda ever did.

I think the rest of his books suck.
Think be became a guru figure and it went to his head. He started saying anything…after that book. But Ixtlan is very good stuff.”

My reply:

“..The three books preceding are also good, particularly the 2nd one, but yes, I’ve always thought JTI was the best.

I don’t know if I ever told you, but one morning I got up, went onto my porch, and a peregrine falcon, like the bird illustrated on that book’s cover, was perched on the railing outside my front door.

Here is the REALLY really weird part.

When I saw it, I thought, “What is a WHITE SNEAKER doing sitting on my railing?”

I walked over to it, and it flew away.

I could not SEE the falcon with my brain at that moment, because such an event existed outside the realm of my daily experience. It was incomprehensible.

It was like the natives of Hawaii who could look directly at Captain Cook’s ships in the harbor, and still not see them.

My brain completely blocked out this event until eight hours later, when it finally dawned on me that a falcon had been sitting there.

The event was so incongruous with my daily experience, that I was unable to process that fact that a hawk had been sitting on my porch rail, so my brain interpreted as “sneaker on rail”.

That evening, it finally sunk in, and I “remembered” what I saw. but it took eight hours.

It was just like people who are abducted by aliens, and have no memory of the event, or experience missing time, because the even is so far removed from their daily experience that they can’t process the event, and may only recall it in memory regression some time later.

It is further, unfortunately, like many historical events, and you can guess what I am referring to, that simply cannot be acknowledged or seen for what they really are by the vast majority of people who are witnessing such events.

Often, seeing is different from perceiving reality.

Question: How have masses of the population been fooled in the past thirty years? Ten? Five?

*******************************

Later Brain Pereceivers!
Neil
www.neilslade.com