September 2006 Archives

What kind of people are we? What kind of person am I? We are often searching for means to answer these questions.

'What's your sign?' had become quite a common means to get a fix on someone's personality or compatibility with one's own, at least in the days when Linda Goodman was reigning queen of the book stores. I remember teen days spent poring over 'The Libra Man' or the Aries ditto, just because the flavor of the month happened to be that particular sign. I don't know if my study brought me much insight into astrology, but it did give me a greater tolerance for different types of human beings in general. Linda Goodman made each sign appear as if they were the best for humanity, for this world. That's probably what the larger meaning of astrology is supposed to be, in any case - an abiding love and tolerance for one's fellow human beings.

In the world of management, two other ladies, Myers and Briggs, a mother-daughter team, acquired a fan following in the area of classifying personality into types. Inspired by the work of Carl Jung, Myers-Briggs' work led to Isabel Myers-Briggs creating the Myers Briggs Typology Inventory, which explored your personality type based on your own preferences. Take the Jung typology test to discover your own personality and the part extraversion or intraversion, intuition, judging, sensing, feeling, thinking and perceiving play in it.

After getting your personality report, you may be interested in knowing what kind of jobs and careers suit you, what it is like for people who live with you, and what are your greatest strengths and weaknesses. Find out more about your personality type and its characteristics, and whether these really fit your own self-image.

After this, you are bound to feel sorely tempted to make other loved ones undergo the personality test as well! Hope plumbing each other's psychic depths is fun. Don't get carried away. Remember the larger picture, etc.

Dieters, particularly women, often half kill themselves trying to reach a size that fitted them back when they were in high school. The truth is, the ideal weight is not as cast in stone as one would think. After a couple of kids and more, and a gradual change in lifestyle, its OK to carry a few extra kilos, as long as they remain a few. So what is your ideal weight? Use this handy calculator to get an idea of your realistic BMI.

Many of us try different regimens of diet and exercise, but the plateau we hit after the first few euphoric days of weight loss and lowered inches often serves to discourage us. The result is more failed dieters than the world can hold. What keeps us on the path of healthy weight loss? How does one stay motivated? Check out this one-woman system for sensible weight loss.

Don't feel doomed to be overweight, even if you presently are. Finding out more about the causes that keep us overweight is one step to conquering them. In any case, be thankful you don't look thin enough to be kicked out of the Madrid fashion week! 

Madrid did the unthinkable. Leonor Perez Pita, director of Madrid's fashion week, issued a ban on models whose Body Mass Index was less than 18, with the WHO declaring that a BMI of at least 18.5 was the norm for health. In the third week of September, this revolutionary ruling from one of fashion's European events, which had its echoes in Milan, and in London, brought the issue of overly thin models into the focus of international media.

For years, the images of extremely thin models and actresses, fed daily to girls and women through the media, had produced a morbid fear of becoming fat. When Madrid's Leonor Perez Pita issued the now famous ban, she cited the incidence of anorexic girls imitating fashion models as the main reason for discouraging a display of such gaunt ramp artistes. In fact, it is not only fashion shows that encourage anorexia. In fact, air brushed and computer touched up photos of celebrities may have the exact same effect, and we need a daily reminder of reality to come to terms with our own bodies.

While the Madrid ban, and its echoes in Milan, have angered many skinny models, a lot of us may actually be heaving inner sighs of relief. How wonderful that it is no longer necessary to be a size 0! Just let out the breath you've been holding.   

Our feet grow only till a certain age of our life. After we have settled into an adult shoe size, these dependable appendages are likely to stay the same till the very end. But the amount of weight they have to bear becomes quite different at different times. From being thin and lithe athletes, we may turn into middle aged dumplings - with the same sized feet! Little wonder then, that feet are often the signs of our health, or lack of it. The bottoms of our feet begin to lose their rounded character as we grow older and carry more weight. They flatten, and acquire a weary look. Feet also become susceptible to many ailments - fungal infections due to poor hygiene and little opportunity for feet to 'breathe', corns and sore spots, painful ingrowing toe nails, and of course, ulcers and lesions associated with the condition known as 'diabetic foot'.

From the simple pedicure that removes dirt and revives our feet with a moisture laden massage to more treatments and products aimed specially at feet, any strategy that pays attention to these vital ends of our bodies is welcome. Pampering the feet feels great at any time - after a long and tiring walk, during a bad cold, and even after a bout of enjoyable but strenuous dancing!

Care of the feet becomes even more important when one is suffering from a degenerative disorder like diabetes. This is emphasized by every physician you visit to monitor a diabetic condition. Apart from this, so much is revealed by feet that they deserve special care at all times. Cracked heels, feet puffed with fluid due to water-retention, feet marred by ill-fitting footwear - all these reveal a reluctance to care for ourselves in an important way. Do your best for your feet, and you will find they never let you down. Forget them, and your signature tune could well become, 'My feet are killing me!'.

24th to 30th September is World Reflexology Week, and if you haven't yet had your feet and hands treated by a reflexologist, you could be missing something. In 1913, Dr. William Fitzgerald introduced what he called 'zone therapy' to the West. He had noticed that different areas of the feet and hands were linked to other organs of the body in the same zone. In the 1930s, it took physiotherapist Eunice Ingham, with her path-breaking book 'Stories the Feet Can Tell' to bring reflexology well within the reach of ordinary people seeking relief from a variety of disorders ranging from arthritis and migraine to digestive problems and stress.

The strange thing was, although Ingham is credited as the founder of reflexology, because she pointed out the direct connection between treating specific reflex areas in a person's hands and feet in order to relieve and influence other organs, ancient cultures as far back as Egypt in 2330 B.C seemed to have had their own form of reflexology. Get answers to your queries about reflexology or find out more about reflexology history, schools and practitioners .

Why does a foot massage feel so good even when done by an amateur, such as your partner or lover? Reflexologists certainly know how to reach every bit of you - through the soles of your feet!

Eastern traditions like Buddhism and Hinduism may lay more emphasis on meditation, but it is not entirely absent or unknown in the Christian tradition. It is only that Christians have viewed meditation more as a form of contemplative prayer - a time to be still...and know God. In such a view, the spirituality underlying all world religions seems to be showing its true nature. For what is meditation if not the stilling of the mind so that it can perceive the larger, looming nature of reality, above the petty and fragmented pieces of our routine existence?

The Bible may not explicitly mention 'meditation' in too many places, but if you want to evolve your own personal meditation as a Christian, find some very useful suggestions and methods that could put you on the path to contemplation. In fact, Christian meditation is very real to those who practise it, even when, like John Main, they have been introduced to it by a guru from another religion.

Finally, while orthodox traditions may underline the rosary and prayer, and humility rather than the clear-eyed contemplation that meditation represents, meditation by itself is such an intensely personal spiritual activity that practitioners of all hues are likely to pursue it in every age. Besides, the boundaries of prayer and meditation do merge for the most sincere meditators. The corner marked for prayer in a devout household may well become a place for meditation. 

One of the characteristic features of Zen humor is the way it approaches the question of death. It seems difficult to imagine people feeling light-hearted enough to laugh at the thought of their own demise, but this appears to be routine among practitioners of Zen. Read how  Zen humor breaks through the intellectual barrier, permitting us to glimpse something at the moment of laughter.

Zen humor in everyday life can turn routine incidents into something illuminating. The quirky nature of such humor has prompted many people to compile a ton of jokes around a Zen librarian. Many of these can have you tearing your hair out because they seem to be beyond understanding. But some of them are really precious, like this one submitted by Bill McKenzie, Illinois, USA.

'A patron was reading a book in the library and heard a loud meowing of a cat.

She went to the Zen Librarian to complain.

"The cat is irritated," said the Zen Librarian. "Why?" asked the woman. "Because you are concentrating on him rather than what you are reading." '

Through such Zen offerings do we understand our own limitations, and the limitless nature of true reality.

Some of the deepest truths about life can be understood only with a fine appreciation of the absurd. It is when we laugh at the ridiculous nature of reality that we also learn to handle it with great finesse, or so the evidence from Zen practitioners would seem to suggest. A great deal of story, anecdote, riddle and joke has sprung up around this particular form of Buddhism. In the Zen way, it is OK to laugh out loud. In fact, only by doing so may one be seen to be getting closer to the truth. Zen jokes make us wonder why we are taking our petty concerns oh-so-seriously. They remind us that in the midst of logic and scholarship, saintliness and ceremony, there is still the wisdom of the fool!

Find out more about the functions of humor in Zen Buddhism and you may begin to have a different perspective on laughter and humor in general. While Zen humor usually delivers a powerful lesson, some have used it to create humorous descriptions of special activities. These Zen lessons from a biker have their own rueful appeal - they teach you that every activity can be approached with the appropriate amount of Zen-ness - perfect attention to detail and living every moment. When you have passed every obstacle that stands in the midst of such a path, you reach a sublime enjoyment of the activity itself - whether it is cycling, or painting, or whatever.

With Zen humor, you laugh your way into a supreme appreciation of the present moment.

If the evidence from your neighborhood feng shui shop is to be believed, the Buddha loved to have a belly laugh. In fact, the many laughing Buddhas you get to see usually emphasize the belly, a feature that sticks somewhat in our Western gullets. But having a belly laugh is a sensation all of us remember at some time, and the feeling of light-headed happiness that followed. Laughter releases endorphins and does our health a wonder of good.

I had a scary experience recently. Relating a joke to someone on the phone, I laughed so hard my breath stopped, I couldn't talk - for a few seconds I was simply gasping helplessly. Later I tried to recall what those few seconds felt like. Had I been afraid? Yes, a little, because I seemed to have lost control of my breath. But as soon as I finished gasping and managed to complete telling the joke I felt so happy. Not only the joke, but everything around it, just every little detail about life seemed to be exquisitely funny!

Which is why one has to be full of kind thoughts to those who send us jokes and comic forwards every day in the mail. While this can get to be quite a pain at times, specially when one is waiting for a vital e mail, at least the instinct of such people is not wrong - they're doing what they can in their small way to spread some light and cheer - even if it has become more of an automatic reflex. Give your e mail jokes the smile or laugh they deserve (or not), and build up your own joke database.

Keep those laughs coming!

How many sunny thoughts can we produce each day? The answer should be countless billion ones. But the truth is unfortunately different for many of us. The mind settles down into familiar, defeatist or defeated patterns, and we keep thinking along those tracks. How much such negative thinking is pushing us into disease has been well documented in recent times, but now, a definite thought and emotion pattern in a certain personality type has been identified as a major contributor to heart disease, strokes and a whole host of illnesses. Learn more about the type D personality and why you should take care not to be like this kind of person.

Its all very well to know that we should not get into the trap negative thinking, or should manage our emotions better. But what are some of the things that could be standing in our way? Well, addiction to some of the commonest substances like caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and sugar could be producing changed patterns in our brain that in turn affect out thinking. Or, we could be reaching out more for such substances when we are anxious or depressed, and reinforce the cycle of depressed thinking. Dr. Daniel G. Amen's book, aimed at helping people overcome anxiety and depression, shows startling images of people's brains taken using SPECT or single photon emission computerized tomography. With this, it is possible to perceive that prolonged drug use, alcohol abuse and high caffeine intake can actually produce changes in brain structure that are like major damage, or literally a 'hole in the head'. When this happens, is it any wonder if people's thoughts and emotions turn upside down?

The war against negative thinking can only be won by complete freedom from substance abuse.   

What makes the Rubenfeld Synergy Method so convincing is the truth that emerges from Ilana Rubenfeld's own life. In coming to grips with the pain and illness that was destroying her beloved music career, and in having the courage to use her own experience to reach out to others, Rubenfeld shows us that wisdom and compassion, healing and hope, do not have to be represented by hospitals and higher learning. Her mind and body work method has won its own place in the world, winning her the 'Pathfinder Award' in 1994 from the Association of Humanistic Psychology.

By combining elements of psychology and physiology, and the warm and receptive listening that is so important in reaching the inner depths of a person, Rubenfeld broke through the more limiting features of more conventional healing methods. In the numbers of people she has trained, taught, helped and healed, a woman's courage and resilience can truly be seen.

If you are interested in making Ilana Rubenfeld's wisdom work for you,  find a practitioner of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method.

The tendrils of memory truly reach longer and deeper into our individual psyche than most of us can ever be aware of. What was it like to get a nasty cut on a knee the last day of school? Who helped when the pain was intense and the blood wouldn't stop? How far have we come from such physical events, and even bigger emotional events that surrounded them?

In the 1960s, one woman discovered that the body holds its own memories of past pain, and recognizing this is the first step in releasing many of the emotions, fears and blocks that may be keeping us from living to our own full potential. Ilana Rubenfeld enjoyed a career conducting a classical orchestra till a debilitating spasm in her back turned her to the vocation of helping and healing others. Over the next few years, she perfected a technique now known and recognized as the Rubenfeld Synergy Method to help people return to a more fulfilled life by healing past pain, tapping into their own reservoir of energy, and recognizing their own body signals. Ilana Rubenfeld has trained practitioners in this method, and continues to conduct certificate training programs in the US, in order to achieve a mind-body-emotion alignment for her clients.  Gentle intentional touch, movement, imagery, metaphor, Gestalt techniques and active listening are some of the ingredients of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method.

Very simple and powerful beliefs lie at the core of Rubenfeld's practice. 'Each individual is unique', 'The body tells the truth', and 'Awareness is the first key to change' are some of the values the method affirms. Benefits for those who have experienced RSM sessions range from increased self esteem to better management of stress, and resolution of painful issues, as well as improved interpersonal relationships at work and at home.

Often, we are not aware of how we are being handicapped by residues of past pain, and what we can do to overcome it. Psychotherapy is not a process everyone can afford, and yet, emotional barriers to leading a happy and fulfilled existence must be overcome. The Rubenfeld Synergy Method uses the wisdom of the body and mind to restore the balance of our emotions, achieving a quiet personal transformation.

What diets promote longer lives? In recent times, the way foods, specifically those containing free radicals, work to age us has been the subject of a lot of research and study. From this, many recommendations of healthy and organic foods have emerged. Of course, it was evident from grandma's time that we needed to eat fruits and vegetables to stay healthy. But what is the quantity of such foods we should have in our diet, what foods we should avoid, the relative merits of raw and cooked food are major concerns when we plan a healthy diet for ourselves. Find all these answers in this well-researched academic site on diets and longevity.

Funnily, a lot of the recommendations about calorie restriction for longer lives have come from research done on fruit flies! Get details about the advocacy of low fat and low protein diets and consider what changes you can safely bring into your own daily intake. Dem fruit flies can teach us a 'ting or two.

Finally, the most important thing about what you eat and whether it does you good seems to still be: enjoy what you eat - happiness counts! 

At some point, we have all encountered the old saying about it not being so important how many moments of life we have left, but rather how much life we are putting into each moment. Be that as it may, the desire to live longer than most is a very real one for many of us. In fact, all through human history, people have searched for the secrets of longevity and a lot of us would like the answer to the question how long will I live?

Considering the range and depth, the sheer breadth of human experience spanning the globe and many millennia, there can be no one recipe for longevity. But there do seem to be certain people and cultures that live very long lives. Some Russians, Japanese, and Americans find it easy to turn a hundred, while of course, even in the most deprived areas of the world, in rural communities with the most basic nutrition, there are occasional centenarians.

What can each one of us do to live longer and fuller, happier and fitter lives? There are different strokes for different folks, but there does seem to be a consensus about certain important parameters. Check out these hints for longevity distilled from medicine and research into long-lived individuals and communities.

Human beings are strange indeed. At both ends of the journey of life, we turn into wrinkled and shriveled creatures. But its the in-between that contains the essence - the whole business of living and loving. 

One of the features I find most attractive about going to a Chinese restaurant or eating a sushi dinner is the quantities of green tea that one can drink. I have always found this mild beverage a wonderful way to wash down a meal, though this is not a feeling shared by every body in the family. Being a tea drinker in the midst of coffee-loving friends and family, I kept fairly quiet about my preference, till the benefits of drinking green tea became fairly common knowledge.

In fact, the presence of a catechin called EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) in green tea is said to give it strongly antioxidant properties, and could be one of the reasons why Japanese men are less liable to have heart attacks and strokes even though their diets and lifestyles are comparable to Americans. Getting used to drinking a couple of cups of hot water every day, flavoured with wholesome green tea, seems to have a great deal to recommend it. Of course, the purity of the tea, and it's judicious use are important prerequisites to getting the best out of it. Find out more about warnings doctors have issued against excessive use. You may also be interested in one absolutely fabulous feature of green tea - it's helpful role in losing weight!

All in all, the green cup is one more reason to go Oriental. 

Garlic has been recognized as a healthy ingredient of food for so long that research into it also brought a string of garlic capsules and garlic products to market. If you have a natural aversion to the unmistakable flavor of pure garlic, and still want to benefit from its healthy ingredients, such products may be what you need. In its natural form, some of garlic's benefits are delivered by its being eaten in combination with other foods. Therefore, the sanitized version of garlic may be operating in a narrower band width of health than we know. Find out more from this interview with an expert.

Finally whether or not you eat garlic for its health benefits, you will undoubtedly be led to it by your taste buds. Some of the most delectable dishes from France and Italy rely heavily on garlic. Gourmets all over the world use garlic in different ways, whole cloves, crushed, sliced, cooked or raw. Learn more on the wonder herb and also check out some garlic recipes that you can try.

No one has to be a real detective to find out when you've been eating garlic. The fumes that this herb leaves behind are usually a disincentive to consuming it in large quantities. Although garlic is a popular ingredient in cuisines around the world, particularly Mediterranean, as well as Chinese and Thai, it is not the most popular item on the menu of many people for a variety of reasons. Snobs don't eat garlic because they associate it with less refined recipes! Spiritual seekers , particularly those who have acquired gurus from the East, may well frown upon garlic as a stimulant to be avoided. Eastern spiritual practices often forbid the intake of strongly spicy or aromatic food.

And yet, garlic has every reason to be championed by cooks and medicine men. The health benefits of this amazing herb, a natural anti-bacterial due to its key ingredient allicin, are well known. Garlic prevents stomach cancers, resists the build up of harmful metals in the body, lowers harmful cholesterol, and even has anti-viral properties. However, what has to be understood by the average garlic enthusiast is that how garlic is cooked is very important in delivering it's benefits to those who eat it. Find out more about the chemical properties of garlic and how its different enzymes work.

Meditation undoubtedly found its most exalted expression in Buddhism. This is because Buddha's experience of enlightenment was directly achieved by meditation, and the techniques he practised have been handed down in various forms down three millennia. What did the Buddha see when he meditated for years? On the basis of sheer imagination, we can assume he saw reality reduced to the power of ten, that is atomic particles, as well as reality raised to the power of ten, meaning the mysteries of space. Deep meditation has the power to produce the whole universe within the confines of our human body!

However, to reach this level its necessary to begin with the first few breaths! And, with meditation, its better to start off with total humility, not have soaring ambitions of how much one will achieve, and stay humble. Aching muscles, screaming thoughts, and a strong need to get up and run may well be the way our body and mind first responds to the attempt to sit still. Learn the basics of Buddhist meditation before you begin your own foray into creative sitting. What is wonderful about Buddha's method is that it emphasizes loving kindness, the feeling of 'metta' for the entire world and all humanity.  Each time you are sitting on your meditation cushion to sit still, you are actually doing your bit to heal the world.

Few of us can be complete strangers to meditation. At some time, each of us would have tried to achieve those few moments of peace, with eyes closed, or open, seated, or standing. Any attempt to either focus the mind completely, or relax it and blank out conflicting thoughts can be classified as meditation, and while Hindu and Buddhist methods are most commonly associated with meditation, it has a place in virtually every form of spiritual or religious practice. 

What makes meditation so important in present day living is that it can restore one to calmer thinking, lowered levels of stress, improved memory and other health benefits even with moderate amounts of daily practice. The efficacy of meditation in one's health, happiness and spiritual growth is considerably enhanced when one has learnt it from good teachers and in a suitably sustaining environment. Take the opportunity for a closer acquaintance with this valuable effort of mindfulness - the only way guaranteed to deliver eventual enlightenment.