Live Past 100!

Hi Mom & Dad - please print this out and read it at your convenience.

We had a fun class last night where we listened to an audiotape of cutting edge research in the mind-body field of science (technically called Psychoneuroimmunology or PNI for short, if you care).

I thought some of this might interest you - "they" (the research team) did an in-depth study of people that live to be more than 100 years old and here's some of what they found:

1. Centenarians live a life based on joy (rather than deprivation).

2. Centenarians don't obsess about health or healthy living. They do generally eat and live in moderation, but because it's what they like and prefer - not because they're afraid of aging and dying. (Interesting note - there were no vegetarians or vegans among them. Apparently vegetarians don't live past 100.)

3. If you are healthy now, the probability of growing older and staying healthy actually increases. (The reasons this doesn't happen to many people is very interesting! It has more to do with cultural belief than anything else - and there are many scientific studies to back this up. If you live in a culture that believes you decline in health as you get older, that's what happens. BUT... If you live in a culture that believes that the older you are the stronger you are, THAT'S what happens.)

4. The brain and the mind do not deteriorate together. You can have an aging brain with deterioration that has no impact whatsoever on the quality of your mind.

5. Most centenarians have a "ritual" - something they do on a regular basis that identifies their joy in life.

6. The majority of centenarians rarely seek medical advice (outside of emergencies and traumas). Many have not seen a doctor in more than 45 years! They feel in control of their own health and would rather figure out how to change their lifestyle than have someone else control their health by giving them a pill. (It was brought out that all the advances in medical science has had absolutely no effect on these people living to be more than 100!)

7. Most centenarians are seen as "rebels", and are seen as wise. They don't like to be around "downer old people" and would rather hang out around youth because "youth is contagious".

8. They believe in a higher power. If religious, their god is kind and loving, not wrathful. If not specifically religious, they have a strong sense of spirituality.

9. They believe middle age is somewhere between 75-90. One person said "You can't know what middle age is until you die - that's when you find out."

10. They negotiate with life and find meaningful reasons other than disease for things - for example, one man admitted to waking up several times each night to urinate. The researchers marked him down as having prostrate issues, but he corrected them by saying that his prostrate is fine - he sleeps with dogs, they have fleas, and the fleas wake him up. Since he's awake he might as well go to the bathroom.

11. They have an absence of envy, live in the present, and are optimistic about the future.

12. They love their jobs, or love what they are doing. There is no concept of retiring and doing nothing.

13. They have no sense of aging. (My favorite response from one woman, asked how old she was: "My age is none of my business!")

14. They feel that they are liked and loved by others. (This was important regardless of whether or not they actually were liked and loved by others.)

15. They have a good sense of humor and laugh often.

16. Most centenarians die easily and peacefully in their sleep.

17. Advice tidbits from the centenarian group:

- Never take advantage of senior citizen discounts. It makes people treat you like you're old.

- Always ask "what can I do to help myself?" rather than "what can you do to help me?"

- Live as if you will be around forever. Imagine you are ageless.

- Be at peace with yourself.

- Forgive easily.


Love, Cynthia

Link to Qi Dao Newsletter

This is a link to "Qi Dao", a great on-line newsletter filled with research and articles on Tai Chi, QiGong, and other Taoist topics. Contributers are some of the top international names associated with the Taoist arts.

Of note in this issue: How to structure Tai Chi and Qigong practice into your daily life.

Enjoy & please share!

http://www.wishus.org/newsletter/Qidao_0609.pdf

Nutrition Tip Of The Day

Don't wear a white shirt when preparing and cooking beets.

Eating Healthy for the Week

I try to plan my weekly dinner menu around my Full Circle Farms organic food box. This is such a great service - especially in Alaska! Full Circle Farms is out of Washington State and you can join their co-op to have a box of fresh organic food delivered for pick up at a convenient location to your home or work. To find out more about them, see their website at http://www.fullcirclefarm.com/. If you decide to join, please mention my name as a referral - I would get some free organic produce and I promise to do wonderful things with it to benefit many people!

This week, some of the main food items were:

Spinach

Carrots

Salad Greens & Dandelion Leaves

Strawberries

Rhubarb

Asparagus

Potatoes, white & sweet potatoes

Tomatoes

Apples, Lemons & Mangoes

Working with these items, here is the menu I've made for the week:

1. Veggie Lasagna - with the spinach and carrots - plus I bought zuchini, yellow sqash, and a red pepper.

2. Asparagus Risotto & Salad - with the asparagus and a lemon. I'll make it with 1/2 risotto rice and 1/2 barley, plus fresh chicken broth I'm cooking right now in the crock pot.

3. Strawberry Rhubarb Pie - Ok, this one is gone already. I also added 1 of the apples and bought 2 peaches. I topped it with an oatmeal, wheat flour, brown sugar, and butter crumbly mixture.

4. Potatoes with Broccoli & Chicken, Salad - Sauteed white & sweet potato chunks with a side of broccoli (I still have some left from last week) and I buy a rotisserie chicken from New Sagaya City Market near downtown Anchorage. I prefer their chicken because it does not have nitrates as a preservative. I really like City Market, too, because it's the one place in Anchorage that really reminds me of some of the artsy gourmet markets near where I grew up (think Georgetown DC and Bethesda MD). For the chicken, I clean off the meat and cook the skin, bones & scraps into a fresh broth to use in other things - like the risotto.

5. Chef's Special Soup - any unused veggies will get cooked into a soup with the chicken broth as a base. This is so good! People that attended my Five Elements Nutrition workshop last weekend LOVED my soup topping choices of buttermilk or plain yogurt.

Extra fruit, carrots, and some of the dandelion leaves get juiced or eaten for snacks - juicing these is such a great way to get high quality nutrition into your kids.

So, I do eat meat but in moderation. I also eat red meat on occasion and I prefer buffalo (mashkode bizhiki) to honor my ancestors, but a good steak from range fed beef is also tasty! I don't eat much fish only because I personally don't care for the taste.

I hope this inspires some ideas for you!

Great Idea Ritual

I need a really great idea, so I'm going through my ritual:

1. Set intention.
2. Drink 1 drop of Iris flower essence in water - I love the way it stimulates creativity!
3. Turn on good music (tonight it's Prince MPLSound & ethnic drumming)
4. Do Tai Chi for an hour or so - gets the energy flowing and unblocks everything
5. Dream and see what happens, I know it will be fabulous!

Good night.

UPDATE: 6/11/09
After doing this, over the next week I had 3 incredible ideas - more than I expected and EXACTLY what I needed!

Essential Oil Travel Spray

Lauren posted this back in November after going to China, but so many people have asked for it recently I'm re-posting it again. It's GREAT on airplanes to ward off germs in the air around you. Be sure to spray it on yourself - not others.

1 oz. spritzer bottle filled with water

Tea Tree 6 drops

Frankincense 5 drops

Eucalyptus 2 drops

Lavender 8 drops

Rose Geranium 1 drop

SHAKE WELL BEFORE EACH USE

(Also makes a great bathroom spray)

Fear of Swine Flu?

In light of all the fear being spread about Swine Flu and other diseases, I would like to provide the following quote. Dr. Edward Bach is the founder of the Bach Flower Remedies. His insight below, from 1931, is extremely valid right now. Enjoy!

Dr. Edward Bach on the fear of disease:

"In this age the fear of disease has developed until it has become a great power for harm, because it opens the door to those things we dread and makes it easier for their admission. Such fear is really self-interest, for when we are earnestly absorbed in the welfare of others there is no time to be apprehensive of personal maladies. Fear at the present time is playing a great part in intensifying disease, and modem science has increased the reign of terror by spreading abroad to the general public its discoveries, which as yet are but half-truths.

The knowledge of bacteria and the various germs associated with disease has played havoc in the minds of tens of thousands of people, and by the dread aroused in them has in itself rendered them more susceptible of attack. While lower forms of life, such as bacteria, may play a part in or be associated with physical disease, they constitute by no means the whole truth of the problem, as can be demonstrated scientifically or by everyday occurrences. There is a factor which science is unable to explain on physical grounds, and that is why some people become affected by disease while others escape, although both classes may be open to the same possibility of infection. Materialism forgets that there is a factor above the physical plane which in the ordinary course of life protects or renders susceptible any particular individual with regard to disease, of whatever nature it may be.

Fear, by its depressing effect on our mentality, thus causing disharmony in our physical and magnetic bodies, paves the way for invasion, and if bacteria and such physical means were the sure and only cause of disease, then indeed there might be but little encouragement not to be afraid. But when we realise that in the worst epidemics only a proportion of those exposed to infection are attacked and that, as we have already seen, the real cause of disease lies in our own personality and is within our control, then have we reason to go about without dread and fearless, knowing that the remedy lies with ourselves. We can put all fear of physical means alone as a cause of disease out of our minds, knowing that such anxiety merely renders us susceptible, and that if we are endeavouring to bring harmony into our personality we need anticipate illness no more than we dread being struck by lightning or hit by a fragment of a falling meteor."

Dr. Edward Bach in “Heal Thyself”, 1931