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What is Your Living Space Revealing About Your Mind Space?

Posted on by colinchenery

Are your living and work spaces conducive to the mind space and tone you want to develop in your life?

I was recently visiting an ancient Buddhist temple in Kyoto-Ohara, Japan. It is called Sanzen-in Monzeki and is beautifully maintained. It is magnificent in every season and this northern hemisphere summer setting meant I have now seen it in all four seasons – the spectacular red maples of autumn (or fall), snow covered beauty in winter, colourful flowers of spring and the incredible greenery of summer.

Having green matcha tea and serenely overlooking a garden that looked as if it was out of some celestial heavenly realm, made me feel like I was in heaven. I reflected on the beauty, harmony and peace it emanated and how conducive it was for attuning to the same qualities within. I could see some people who were also calmly present while others were less settled and preoccupied even in such a beautiful and sacred site.

Such places are so beautifully designed as places for meditation and cultivating conscious presence in every moment. The indoor-outdoor design of screens and walkways of beautiful timbers set amongst gentle water ways and many decades of detailed gardening have such a unique beauty.

There are many ways we can deepen and broaden our sense of living-being by cultivating qualities that become more meaningful as we mature and develop. Such qualities of peace, beauty, connection to nature, and harmony rate more with age for some, more so as modern life becomes more intrusive and busy. Reading or listening to inspiring people, quality time with friends or loved ones, inspiring or deeply resonating music are other delights that inspire such qualities, as can the environmental spaces we live in or frequent.

I am so grateful to people who create places that inspire a feeling in me that stays well after I have been there, because it appeals to a quality of experience that already resides in the presence and being-ness that we all share deeply within.

In any wilderness setting it is easy to feel such a harmonious connection with nature that also resonates with a strong inner consciousness of being in the moment. When we feel alert calmness of mind and heart, with a sense of connection without and with all things around us, such a moment reflects a happy state of presence.

In art, architecture and garden design there are some wonderful examples around the world of inspired human design and refinement of detail that invokes a similar sense of sacredness, beauty and harmony. Isn’t it great how ancient and modern, famous and unknown private finds can gift us a subtle and deep reflection from within the creator or artist through the medium of their trade, impacting all who experience it. We can all be universal consciousness expressing and enjoying itself through us. My favourite examples of art forms that combine human ingenuity and nature, are the many traditional gardens throughout Japan I have visited and are yet to visit.

In our modern world, we have even more means at our disposal to create and control our living environments. Blending natural elements into human design and manufacture that are conducive to spaciousness, calmness and peace are places that can make people stop and take note, take some breathes and become fully present in appreciation of the space they are in. It does not have to be extravagant. How many times has a simple inexpensive yet thoughtful setting inspired you to stop and reflect in appreciation for a moment? In truth, at such times people can be enjoying being brought out of their stream of thinking into conscious presence even for a just a few moments.

There are also countless examples of people who find simple small ways at home or work places to create an arrangement and space somewhere that is consciously or unconsciously there to connect them to a state of being while going about their day or evening. Does your living space reflect this to a degree or could you nurture yourself and others by addressing this more in your own space?

While some chaos and clutter can be unavoidable, it can also be contained as organised mess in storage and out of the way areas. Otherwise clutter can induce cluttered mind activity through association, the hidden anxiety that goes with accumulated disorganisation and the mounting neglect and ‘clean up’ it infers.

Most people set up and maintain their living spaces in a way that reflects how they want to feel and as well as the most practical set up for their belongings and space available. However, sometimes it can take on a life of its own until it reflects old aspects of yourself that can be good to move on from. Or maybe a refresh assessment and decision to transform a living space is timely and can be done simply with what you have access to already?

Sanzen-in Monzeki 1

A simple flower arrangement can communicate a present time and changing element that communicates beauty and care. Some degree of empty space and simplicity punctuated with a few items that reflect your own taste and lifestyle themes can inspire calmness and creativity. It may not suit everybody right at this time, but simplicity is a theme that I hear again and again from those refining their living space as part of a positive shift in energy and mindset.

Yogic vedanta and ayurvedic principles contain useful concepts of the three gunas; sattva, rajas and tamas. They are applied to consciousness, health, environment, lifestyle and all aspects of reality.

Sattva reflects calm energy and refinement of spirit that invokes purity and balance. As it infers balance, any imbalance is associated with negative symptoms of the other two gunas.

The quality of rajas is activity and excitement. Imbalanced, rajas can be associated with attachment, excessiveness, fickleness, reactivity and compulsiveness.

The quality of tamas is inactivity and inertia. Imbalanced, tamas can be associated with depression or suppression, envy or infatuation, fatigue or stagnation, feeling stuck and unmotivated.

All three are required in a positive sense as we are human doers as well as human beings. High excitement and busyness can be embraced from inner stillness and with periods of inactivity. Balance is not getting lost in activity and attachment, nor is it indifference to things and others by tamasic detachment. A sattvic state embraces all three gunas if they are balanced – rajasic energy not becoming over-active and dominant, nor tamas becoming stagnant and obstructive.

It may be a helpful to assess the presence or absence of sattvic aspects of your own living and working environment. Does your living space inspire balanced energy with an aesthetic sense of homeliness? Do various objects or overall content and design refine and energise in a calming way? Does anything or any aspect distract or deplete your energy from being fully present and where you want to be in life? Is something there to make a statement or cultivate a genuine quality? Could disorganisation and clutter be further minimised?

Likewise, does your desk or work pace have elements to reflect being as well as doing in aesthetic ways? Is it organised with some area of space rather than cluttered and jam packed.

Bedrooms should invoke peace and calmness and be absent of stressful associations with work and activities as well as free of clutter and stagnant energy. They should be conducive to rest but also good to wake up rested and ready for the day. Lighting, colours as well as content and design can be considered this way rather than just aesthetic value. Living and work spaces can encourage a mood and mindset that suits you and your lifestyle inducing a sense of calm positivity and goodwill. Objects and images associated with negative, reactive or dysfunctional themes would not be sattvic.

Updating and aligning your personal and work spaces to reflect the quality of consciousness and results you want to cultivate, can be a powerful part of shifting energy and flowing more of who you are into your life and impacting others.

The Backbone of Health and Happiness

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When it comes to diet, stress management, dealing with any health and lifestyle issues or deepening your own personal spiritual life there is one common key factor. If you have high levels of stress, churn over repeated discussions in your head about certain things, procrastinating about certain compulsive or ingrained habitual behaviours you want to change or have a persistent ongoing concern, then the following is especially relevant.

The backbone to all of these areas is self-love, because it impacts our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. Before you assume that is just rewarding and nurturing yourself, which is great, the self love I am referring to goes deeper than that.

We really cannot receive or convey love fully unless we are open and accepting within ourselves to fully experience our own love, independent of our personal and unique expression of it.

The body and mind are only fully healthy when there is an accepting and loving foundation to our state of being. Cell function, hormonal balance, brain function, immunity, digestion, the microbiome in our bodies as well as cardio vascular and nervous system health are all impacted by our emotional and mental tone and what messages we are giving ourselves each and every day. It is a feedback loop between mind and body so balance or imbalance can be self-reinforcing. Self-love is a tonic for stress, anxiety, physical imbalances and the key ingredient to personal wellbeing.

To explore our own potential in having a personal and experiential spiritual aspect to life, requires a sensitivity to frequencies of love, compassion and good-will. Our sense and expression of these can only be authentic or deep if we draw on these qualities of consciousness regularly within and towards ourselves as well as others. Our relationships or sense of connection is also empowered, as people recognise and are drawn to someone who emanates comfort and self acceptance with love in themselves.

So what is self-love at its foundation? If we contemplate love aside from specific associations with romance, love of family or friends, love of a pet or a life passion, then we must look to what all these contexts (and any others) have in common in terms of what we recognise and know as love. If love is inclusive of these different relationships and feelings, it is also deeper and more universal than what distinguishes each of them.

In line with many spiritual teachers and traditions, I relate to the essence of love as being the recognition and spontaneous sense of oneness. When we recognise a living aspect of ourselves in another living being or in nature or life around us generally, then there is a sense of connection and unity that underlies all form and differences which are temporary and changing.

We can feel a sense of oneness when on our own and it is possible in any situation with others. It may be conscious or only semi-conscious at times but we respond positively nonetheless when this feeling arises from within, and especially when it is a mutual experience with others. There is a pure beauty, happiness and goodness that comes with a deep sense of unity as our being-ness includes our own world and others.

This is where meditation or coming back to simple mindfulness can be of great assistance. The mental narratives of our conditioned mind are often negative in tone. This is a primary cause of stress or disturbance and can be tied in with chronic illnesses. Even if they are positive, identifying with our commentaries and conceptualisations is losing ourselves in a mental construct rather than being in an alert state of presence in the here and now and experiencing it as it is. Absorption in mental constructs creates a sense of disconnection from ourselves and others. It is a tension of misalignment which may have become subtle in its normality and is a root cause of underlying discontent and unhappiness.

Our mental narratives and conceptualising are generally conditioned by the past and projected onto the present or into the future. This puts us out of sync with feeling love and oneness in the here and now because true love and presence is a living and spontaneously arising feeling from the nature of our consciousness which is timeless rather than a projected concept or time-bound thought.

Being aware of our thinking and narratives then shifting gears when they are not useful or positive is a great practice of self-awareness and beginning to adjust old thinking patterns. In most cases, they are actually not that positive or useful, unless part of a creative or problem solving process. The greatest practice we can do in our busy lives, is to take opportunities every day to not think at all and just ‘Be’.

This does not mean putting pressure on ourselves to have no thoughts which is a practice of frustration and inner conflict. It means that we take time to just be and observe. If that observing includes an open hearted acceptance and mindful awareness of each thought as it arises, as well as our breath, body and immediate surroundings, then the mind will settle down and we can begin to feel a deeper peace and be restfully energised.

This is a practice of self love in and of itself. Unity and connection within ourselves wherever we are at the time arises from the conscious space in which you are reading this now. Even if there are things about ourselves or a situation we would like to change or improve in time, in any single given moment we can practice letting go of our attachment to an outcome or future-based projection we have constructed, and simply accept be here and now. Trusting issues can be resolved out of this presence is a totally different way of going about life for someone who is constantly pre-occupied.

Positive thinking can be a great means to an end, as it can make thinking more constructive and absent of self-sabotaging and limited conditioning. The thinking mind tends to focus on what distinguishes things from each other and whether they are favourable to us or not. This is the dimension of separateness where fear and concern, attachment and aversion become more activated. It is also how we get drawn in and become reactive to life.

However, settling into the essence of our living being and consciousness through mindful presence can be an end in itself. Its value is in the moment as well as being cumulatively and progressively beneficial.

Free of our narratives and concerns about past or future allows the unchanging and continual primacy of being become the foundation of our doing. Allowing time to practice and experience this regularly leads to recognition of a wonderful quality and sense of being. This spectrum of feeling is pervaded with love and compassion for it is a unified field of awareness. It does not need to be willed or manufactured, as many practitioners confirm generation after generation, because it arises spontaneously when we give it mind and heart space.

Even if you know this conceptually, it is not the same as actually allowing yourself to ‘be that space’ here and now. Applying it daily develops the art of being and doing without getting lost in the doing. When we are in conscious being, we experience the primary essence of ourselves and others as the same universal essence.

In a state of conscious being, what we may like and dislike about ourselves or others becomes transitory, relative and superficial. It doesn’t define us in any moment. When an issue arises that actually matters, it can be approached without reactivity because it no longer matters completely. The primacy of conscious being keeps things in perspective.

There is an inherent perfection in formlessness that helps us accept and work with the relativity of form. The way we face and perceive life situations may reflect aspects of our character but are not absolute truths or who we really are.

In presence we don’t become anaesthetised, but rather more perceptive, accepting and capable of acting creatively without reaction. We can more deeply love with a penetrating awareness.

Ultimately, conscious awakening is a deepening understanding through personal experience that unlimited conscious love is what we are at the core of our own living essence. Complete love is always here and now – self love is about opening up to it here and now from within, then letting it fully infuse our awareness and ‘doing’ with each breath.

Photo credit:DieselDemon on Visualhunt/CC BY

How to Optimise Circadian Rhythms and Your Health

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All forms of life have adapted to the circadian changes in the environment specific to the seasonal and daily cycles of our planets rotation and their location on it. Physiological cycles of all living organisms match geophysical conditions. Our brain and complex body systems as well as our intestinal microbiome are no exception, and they in turn condition or impact our physical and mental health. Knowing the key factors to align your circadian rhythm, lifestyle and environmental conditions will enable you to better optimise health, longevity and resilience to chronic illness.

What is our Circadian Clock?

The master controller of our molecular and systemic cycles for optimal health is a small region in the brain called the superchiasmatic nucleus. The various systems that function and influence our circadian rhythms of our digestion, immune system, mitochondrial functioning and microbiome include what can be called ‘peripheral clocks’ to the master controller. Together, master controller and peripheral clocks are important conductors in orchestration and synchronisation of our overall functioning and ongoing health of mind and body.

Outside stimuli like day or night, activity or sleep, feeding and fasting times and temperature are collectively called zeitbergers. Conflict between zeitbergers and our circadian rhythms is linked to metabolic disorders like insulin resistance and pre-diabetes, as well as disruption to leptin (our hunger hormone) and cortisol (our stress hormone) levels.

Many other important functions like the 24 hour cycles of mitochondrial metabolism (eg, sugar versus fat burning) and cyclic gut bacterial sensitivity to melatonin (our sleep hormone) are part of the systemic cycles coordinated by our circadian clock composed of the master controller, peripheral clocks and conditioned by zeitbergers.

The Importance of Regular Sleep Patterns

Chronic disruption of our circadian rhythms is linked to diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. Sleep deprivation as one disrupter, is associated with these conditions as well as deterioration of cognitive and brain functions, lower performance levels, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, depression, immune dysfunction and diabetes mellitus [1].

These conditions are notably associated with aberrant compositions of intestinal microbiome, called dysbiosis. The fact related health conditions can be transferred in mice through dysbiotic microbial transfer and the conditions can be improved with functional microbial transfer or antibiotic treatment supports that microbiota, metabolic diseases and misalignment between the body clock and geophysical time are linked [2].

Inflammation is linked with many chronic illnesses such as diabetes, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory bowel disorders, auto immune disorders and various brain disorders like alzheimers and schizophrenia. There is also a link between sleep and inflammation related to microbiome, cytokines in the blood, and inflammasomes. Inflammasomes are protein complexes that form in cells and produce pro-inflammatory cytokines in response to certain changes. They are also a key regulating mechanism for sleep [3].

The Importance our Daily and Microbial Cycles Being Co-ordinated

Light, temperature, availability and type of nutrition are 4 key factors for healthy synchronised physiological and microbial cycles on a daily, monthly and seasonal basis.

The importance and roles of microbiome (the overall communities of microorganisms inside us) have been covered two recent posts. The circadian cycles of our microbiome are part of our microbial system stability. Coordinating these with our circadian cycle is a major factor for metabolic health.

Microorganisms in our bodies are responsible for digestion, conversion of digested material to energy, regulating metabolism including weight gain or loss and determining our response or sensitivities to foods, drugs, and pathogens. Disruptions to their functioning is a major factor for inflammation (associated with practically every chronic illness and condition), systemic and immunity issues.

Life and death cycles of our microbiota follow daily cycles and rhythms according to rest or activity patterns which include energy harvest for our body and brain, DNA cell repair, cell growth and detoxification. Regular and optimal timing of food intake and available nutrients is an important influence on these cycles.

Research shows our microbial cycles are conditioned by our behaviour and molecular rhythmicity and the coordination between these two levels. This new understanding highlights the importance of stability and optimal functioning of the intestinal ecosystem through activity, sleep and eating cycles.

How Do We Optimise Physiological and Microbial Circadian Rhythms?

  • Light and Behaviour are key factors for our master controller – exposure to sunlight upon waking and activity as well as low exposure to blue light (LED or bright lights) and rest at night help the master controller drive regular circadian rhythms in sync with peripheral factors. Electric lighting and travel across time zones are modern challenges to the circadian clock mechanisms including light-dark conditions during jet lag or shift work.
  • Feeding times are a central driver for peripheral body clocks which show some interdependence by influencing shifts in microbial cycles away from the overall circadian rhythm of the master controller. Tests indicate it is not the high-caloric, high-fat content of diet responsible for metabolic disease as much as the mistiming of nutrient availability in relation to circadian metabolic activity. So while quality and type of food does impact quantity and diversity of our gut microbes, consider timing as a key lifestyle factor.

Beneficial ways to maintain circadian clock alignment are:

  1. Feeding times: limited to 9-12 hour daytime windows is ideal and helps regulate body weight and metabolic health [4] as well as inflammation, it also helps overcoming any challenges related to disrupted sleep patterns, travel across time zones or insomnia. Allow two or more hours between the evening meal and sleep.
  2. Regular times for sleep and rising has the same benefits as limited feeding times.
  3. Exposure to sunlight upon rising (20 mins or more outside is ideal) activates daytime cycles. Dimming lights and leaving blue spectrum lighting off in the evenings after eating and at least two hours before sleep helps activate the night time cycles.
  4. As an added tip, combining sunlight exposure in the morning and night time darkness exposure with a corresponding 20-30 minute period of morning and evening ‘earthing’ (barefoot on earth, sand, or gravel) can assist with sleep issues, inflammation and can provide good mental relaxation at the start and end to each day.

Articles on this website share effective and powerful approaches to maintaining mental and physical health and approaches to inner peace and awareness based on my personal and professional experience, functional medicine approaches and the latest research from journals. If this article was interesting or useful to you, please make a comment below.

References:

  1. P.B. Jarreau, Why Your Gut Microbes Love Intermittent Fasting, Medium Corp., https://medium.com/lifeomic/why-your-gut-microbes-love-intermittent-fasting- 5716948281a3
  2. A day in the Life of the meta-organism: diurnal rhythms of the intestinal microbiome and its host. C.A. Thaiss, D. Zeevi, et al., Gut Microbes, Vol.6, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2015.1016690
  3. M.R. Zielinski M.D., Sleep and Inflammation – Intimate Partners in Health and Functioning, Thrive Global. 2017, May 16. https://medium.com/thrive-global/the-fascinating-link-between-inflammation-and-sleep-9d57c2eca013
  4. A. Zarrrinpar, A. Chaix, et al., Diet and Feeding Pattern Affect the Diurnal Dynamics of the Gut Microbiome. Cell Press, Vol.20. 2014. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2014.11.008

Photo from <“https://visualhunt.com/re2/bd796d“>VisualHunt.com< quote added

The Revolutionary Key to Optimal Health and Energy – Part II

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Immunity

According to Dr. Hyman, Director of the Cleveland Clinic for Functional Medicine, our “gut flora can be causing cancer” as different microbiome imbalances can be related to different chronic conditions. Microbiome imbalance is being linked to bowel disorders, diabetes, neurological disorders, cardiovascular disease, cancer and autism – all the prominent chronic conditions and killers increasing steadily at this time.

Activation of our immune system activates a general and specific inflammatory response according to the signal compounds triggering it and this affects our whole body. It becomes a problem when it’s prolonged or even permanently switched on. So how it is, that microbes that are part of our ecology can regulate our body cells and our immune response, without instigating a major immune response themselves? Recent science has identified Toll-like receptors (TLR’s) that recognise patterns or molecular signatures of symbiotic microbiota molecules versus pathogenic derived molecules. Put simply, TLR’s help our body identify which communication is from friend or foe. When receptors for TLR’s are low, or there is inappropriate or unregulated activation of TLR’s, our immune system becomes highly sensitised and begins to attack everything in its own unique way. This along with other factors like Immunoglobulin (IgG) activity can be tied in with the huge increases in sensitivities and allergies occurring in many people mainly since the industrial age.

Toxins in our foods bond with proteins in the food, stressing and reducing our oral tolerance to chemical exposure. These toxin bound proteins also activate our immune response and general inflammation that is related to most of our modern chronic illnesses.

Improving our tolerance to foods and environment is about supporting diversity and balance of our microbiota. A diverse primarily plant-based diet with moderate and regular exposure to pathogens in our environment educates and refines the immune system of our gut.

Mild sicknesses, especially as we are growing up or from a change of environment, can be our natural way of developing our immunity and resilience. Centenarian’s around the world today have mostly had childhood sicknesses we now inoculate against, sterilise our environments and try and avoid at all costs. Children are being prevented with medications, domestic products and separation from the natural environment of having exposure to environmental microbes. Low risk illnesses like mild fevers and headaches are prevented or halted by medications so the immune response is halted from its full cycle to encode lifelong resilience. Overkill measures to protect our young and lack of outdoor environmental exposure is robbing the latest generation from gaining adaptable microbiota that practice, refine and remember successful immune responses to pathogenic stressors.

Sayer Ji (Natural Health Researcher and Educator) says that health and good immunity is not about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria and viruses but how they work together. He gives an example of the viral aspect of our microbiome which includes bacteriophages who help regulate certain bacteria. Viruses are a necessary source of certain genetic information looking for chromosomes to convey a horizontal transfer of often important genetic information to host cells. About 7% of our functional protein coding genome is retroviruses. So despite feared ones, like HIV, this category of microbiota is important to us. For example, retroviruses are responsible for neuroplastcicity that has helped our brains develop through evolution and remain functional and adaptive throughout our lifetime. Retroviruses were needed to evolve the placenta in pregnancy. Viruses like bacteriophages in our system are not necessarily bad.

Future health treatments for acute and chronic conditions will not only need to work with our microbiome ecology but do so on an individual level. This is a new area of development with many approaches of integrative therapies combining traditional and modern medicine. Mostly, mild treatments that help but don’t interfere with our full immune response will best assist healing and ongoing development of resilience. Lifestyle adjustments to diet, our activities and way we deal with stress to suit our own unique pathology and microbiome will become more specific and clear as science and holistic approaches to health become integrated.

Helping our microbiota for immunity:

  • Diverse locally grown foods are not only fresh but have their own helpful microbiome to provide useful information to our cellular and microbial compadres.
  • Wherever possible, eat organic foods not contaminated with sprays and chemical fertilisers and other chemical residues.
  • Playing and working or going barefoot in the dirt and natural environment exposure is an important part of our history, wellbeing as well as microbiome evolution and activation.

Environment

Chemicals in our environment (soil, air, living spaces, personal care and hygeine products, food and beverages) have been increasing exponentially. They impact our microbiome and gene expression. Additionally, deciding what microbes we allow and don’t allow in our living spaces, agricultural farming and elsewhere, without understanding microorganism ecologies, is causing great health issues for us and the environment.

Kiran Krishnan (Research Biologist) uses auto immune disease as an example, which can be triggered by medications or exposure to environmental factors like chemicals that “cause perturbations in the microbiome ecology that amplifies into a dysbiotic system we call disease”.

Epithelial cells line outer surfaces of organs, blood vessels and inner surfaces of cavities in internal organs (skin, lungs, gastrointestinal tract). Researchers and practitioners like Aristo Vojdani consider them one of the most important cell types in our immune system as they are the front line and channel of information between environmentally introduced compounds and microbes and the microbiota of our body and body cells. Environment and diet then impact their function and communication.

Apart from understanding microbial ecologies much more, many professionals are echoing traditional and complementary medicine views that we need to make friends with our symbiotic and pathogenic microbes in our bodies and environment. Exposure to pathogens has driven development of our resilience to disease and environmental change throughout evolution.

Using environmental factors to help your microbiota:

  • spend time outdoors in diverse ecosystems – research shows it impacts microbiome in the body and stress levels. The ocean, healthy rivers and forests provide this diversity in addition to outdoor time in your backyard or local parks.
  • eliminate chemicals in your home and household by finding chemical free products
  • growing your own food without chemicals and correct composting means diversifying microbial life in the soil that feeds the food you eat and contributes to better microbial diversity in your food.

Diet

Everyone has a unique microbiome make-up, however dietary fibre is a key part of the diet that affects type and amount of microbiota in everyone. It can only be broken down and fermented by enzymes from microbiota in the colon, one of the by-products being short chain fatty acids (SCFA). Apart from fibre enriching and supporting these microbiota, SCFA produced lowers pH of the colon limiting harmful bacteria like Clostridium difficile , and also stimulates healthy immune cell activity and helps maintain healthy glucose and cholesterol levels in the blood. Fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains are generally good sources of prebiotic fibers.

According to Dr. Datis Kharrazian (Clinical Researcher, Functional Neurologist and Professor), when we change our diet, we change our microbiome balance and therefore our gene expression. Exposure to chemicals also changes our gene expression – when genes are activated, switched on or off. This is becoming a factor in many specialist areas of medical and health professions.

Dr. Michael Ash, D.O. (Research and Clinical Educator) considers the right nutrients as crucial to healthy communication between microbiota and mitochondria. He explains microbiota use nutrients to direct function and maintenance of mitochondria, while mitochondria produce metabolites in their activity that contribute to smooth healthy functioning microbiota. This loop of “dynamic dialogue is a new area of research”, its substrate being our food which also contains information from bacteria in the soil it grew in. This is a link to why eating locally grown fresh food is a big plus to helping our bodies adaptability in its local environment.

Foods that help our microbiome:

  • Probiotic foods provide live microbiome and include live-culture fermented foods like kefir and certain yoghurts with a good range and concentrated active culture (look for recommended brands), pickled vegetables and sauerkraut, miso, tempeh, kombucha tea and kimchi.
  • In Japan some fermented seaweeds and fermented soy beans called nato (also providing Vitamin K) are good.

Diet Actions:

  • Eat a diverse diet with plenty of wild and local plant based foods, preferably organically grown in local soils
  • utilise water purifiers to eliminate consumed chlorines and flouridation and exposure in showers and baths
  • Complex carbohydrates including tubers, root, fuits (separate from other foods) and vegetables provide pre-biotic fibre
  • Include probiotic fermented foods, wild plants and probiotic supplements including spore based live cultures
  • Our microbiome have circadian cycles related to our own circadian sleep and activity cycles. Intermittent fasting of 12 hours plus, which includes sleep time, is believed to increase microbiota diversity, strengthen our immune system and protect us against leaky gut [1,2]

Probiotic Supplementation

In line with the great strides in this new and game changing approach to health, probiotic and prebiotic supplements are big business these days, expected to surpass $65 Billion by 2024.

Dr. Allan Walker, Professor at the Harvard Medical and Public Health Schools believes probiotic supplementation “can be be most effective at both ends of the age spectrum, because that’s when your microbes aren’t as robust as they normally are”. However, due to the added weight of research providing understanding about the large impact of dietary and environmental factors, many health professionals are utilising probiotic supplementation to support adjustments in diet and environment for people of all ages. Microbiome issues and treatments can be based on microbiome testing and symptomatic indications of microbiome imbalance. Many symptoms of microbiome imbalance or gut infections can resemble other conditions because they are so fundamental to so many systems and functions in the body.

A probiotic supplementation should have a good range and concentration of active microbiota, which should include spore base microrganisms that are activated in the acidity of the stomach and breed in the lower gut. Not all microbiota are capable of passing the acidity of the stomach alive to get to the needed sites. Some probiotics that meet this, also provide some organic pre-biotic nutrition for the pro-biotic content such as this one. Many gut specialists have their own recommended products and a range of probiotic formulas for different overall types of body and microbiome constitutions.

For specific issues there is no probiotic to suit everyone, as our microbiome are so unique. However, effective and quality probiotics to date have proving to be of significant help to people who have low numbers or diversity of bacteria.

As an example of future possibilities, a recent 2018 study of probiotics, combined a probiotic blend with an Aryurvedic compound of amalaki, bibhitaki and haritaki medicinal fruits (called Triphala). The experiment looked at how gut microbiota composition can be impacted by probiotics to impact how foods are metabolised to lengthen life spans. The symbiotic formula (Triphala and probiotic) was tested based on research that indicated the combination would synergistically perform in enhancing microbiota activity while maintaining balance. Tests were done on fruit flies who have about 70% similarity in biochemical pathways and the promising results produced an impressive 60% increase in the lifespan of flies fed with the symbiotic formula. While humans are not expected to have as dramatic a result there is much optimism about such formulas promoting longer life and good health with possible applications to be tested with disorders like diabetes, obesity, neuro-degeneration, chronic inflammation, depression, irritable bowel syndrome and some cancers [3].

References – Part II

  1. V.D. Longo, Satchidananda Panda, Fasting, Circadian Rhythms, and Time-Restricted Feeding in Healthy Lifespan, Science Direct 2016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2016.06.001
  2. C.A. Thaiss, D. Zeevi, et al., A Day in the life of the meta-organism: diurnal rhythms of the intestinal microbiome and its host, published online: 22 April 2015 https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2015.1016690
  3. Westfall, S., et al. Longevity extension in Drosophila through gut-brain communication, Scientific Reports (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-25382-z

Other Sources:

Many of the experts cited here have been quoted from the online series The Human Longevity Project at https://humanlongevityfilm.com/ and include:

  • Dr. Mark Hyman (Director at Cleleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine)
  • Kiran Krishnan (Research Biologist)
  • Aristo Vojdani PHD, MSC (Professor of Neuroimmunology)
  • Sayer Ji (Natural Health Researcher and Educator)
  • Dr. Datis Kharrazian (Clinical Researcher, Functional Neurologist and Professor)
  • Dr. Michael Ash, D.O. (Research and Clinical Educator)
  • Dr. Allan Walker, Professor at the Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Photo credit: IBM Research on Visual hunt / CC BY-ND (quote added)

The Revolutionary Key to Optimal Health and Energy – Part I

Posted on by colinchenery

Holistic and allopathic medicine researchers and professionals are emphasising the importance of looking after our microbiome as more and more research shows how vital this part of our physiology is for mental and physical health as well as longevity. Consider these three developments that are only a few decades in coming to light as fields of science transforming modern views of health and treatment:

  • Many experts are claiming microbiota are the basis of every disease and health solution there is.
  • Just as profoundly, is that for the first time, we are only just arriving at the initial stages of truly personalised diagnosis and treatments through scientific analysis of an individuals microbiome, genome and micro-RNA signature – millions of pieces of information so huge that only artificial intelligence can analyse the data to come up with a unique set of issues, recommended actions and diet. Considering there is no single food or diet perfect for everyone and that we are getting down to a holistic causal factor of disease, this is revolutionary.
  • New understanding coming to light embraces the latest in health science and the principles of traditional healing and transformational systems.
  • The science of microbiome and health is revealing what traditional medicine and cultures have known through the ages – that there is an intimate exchange of information and interdependence between our mind, body and gut, and just as intimately between our body, food and every aspect of our environment. The key to this is bio-chemical messaging via microorganisms, some even regulating body functions and gene expression.

Thus the power is coming back into our own hands to determine our health and wellbeing.

Microbiome

Microbiome is the trillions of microorganisms in our bodies of thousands of different species [1]. They actually out-number and have more overall mass than the total cells of our body. This remarkable fact is the reason why many health and research models are beginning to view humans physiologically as ‘holobionts’ (an aggregation of various species of organisms and their collective genomes – total DNA information – working together as a symbiotic ecology).

Our microbiome include bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses. In a healthy body they co-exist in a way that promotes health (symbiotically) overall. When the system is unhealthy or imbalanced by infections, certain diets, excessive or prolonged physical and psychological stress, overuse of antibiotics and some other medications, over exposure to anti-bacterial and anti-fungal products, insufficient or disruptive environmental exposure, imbalance in microbiota can result in insufficient symbiotic activity or excessive and disruptive pathogenic activity. This is called dysbiosis.

Dr. Mark Hyman (Director at Cleleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine) says that “there are more molecules in your blood from gut microbiome than your own human [cell derived] molecules” and the same goes for metabolites in the blood.

We have 22,000 functional genes, however an earth worm or a rice plant have double that amount of functional genes. Kiran Krishnan, a Research Biologist addresses how we conduct all of the functions we do in our complex systems. Microbiome in our system have about 3.3 million functional genes, about 150 times more bacterial and viral DNA than our human cells, and it is looking like 90% of our metabolic functioning is coded by our bacterial and viral DNA.

We get our microbiome initially from our mother while developing as a fetus and baby in the womb, then important added exposure to microbiome in the birth canal and breast feeding as an infant. Many practitioners now swab caesarian babies these days with vaginal mucus to compensate. The microbiome composition is entirely dependent on our mother until after breast feeding where diet and environmental exposure becomes the key source of beneficial or detrimental impact to our microbiome ecology.

Aristo Vojdani PHD, MSC is a Professor of Neuroimmunology. He observes that by our first year of life, we have an individually unique microbiome fingerprint that is locked in as our baseline complex cellular ecology. By age 2-3, the diversity of microbiota is increasing with increased exposure to foods and environment, while the variability in our ecology decreases. 78% of the microbiome is in the gut (about 2kg in an adult), the rest is found throughout all organs and fluids in the body including important microbiota in the skin which we’ll get to later.

How Do Microbiota Help Us?

While there is much research revealing new aspects each year about the symbiotic relationships between microbiota and the body, so far the following is known:

  • they stimulate the immune system, break down potential toxic compounds and synthesise certain vitamins and amino acids. An example is Vit B12 synthesis, which requires key enzymes found in bacteria and not in plants or animals [2].
  • they digest and breakdown complex carbohydrates and fibre in the lower large intestine.
  • They form short chain fatty acids (SCFA) – an important nutrient for muscle function and cellular integrity that also prevents certain chronic diseases, including bowel disorders and certain cancers [3].
  • Symbiotic microbiota protect the body from digested pathogenic organism contaminants and potentially pathogenic resident microbiota.
  • Certain species prevent over-population of harmful bacteria by competing with them at key sites of the intestinal membrane associated with immune activity and antimicrobial protein synthesis [4,5].
  • Other benefits of balanced microbiome include resistance to: food sensitivities and allergies, constipation or diarrhoea, painful joints and general inflammation, certain dental and oral hygeine issues, skin disorders, menstrual symptoms and susceptibility to yeast infections as well as bowel and digestive disorders.
  • There is cross-over communication and exchange of microbiota DNA and body cell DNA via micro-RNA including microbiota in our food.

Microbiota in our skin

In our skin we have 50 bacteria for every skin cell on and in the dermis and inside the glands. Lorenzo Drago, PHD (Professor of Clinical Microbiology) says “these are called ‘core microbiota’ because there is vital communication between these microbiota and the immunological system inside the skin.” Therefore, many skin disorders as well as other conditions that find entry through damaged skin, may also be due to an imbalance of these particular microbiota caused by anti-bacterial and other chemical exposure to the skin including synthetic cosmetics that decrease microbiota diversity.

Some bacteria in the skin produce short chain fatty acids (SCFA’s) that are important in modulating other bacteria who regulate yet other bacteria to maintain balance. SCFA’s also feed the cellular immune system of the skin.

Helping microbiota in your Skin:

  • switch to personal care, beauty and cosmetic products without chemicals and metals, and oil stripping alcohols and mineral oils
  • avoid hand sanitisers, anti- bacterial soaps and chemical detergents
  • avoid over-washing hair and skin to allow the skin to develop its own oil and microbiota balance. Over-washing depletes microbiota balance and creates obver production of skin oils.

Communication between microbiota, our cells and organs

SCFA’s are critical to communication between microbiota, mitochondria, other cell and organs. Marrin Edeas, PHD (Chairman of Mitochondria and Microbiota World Societies) explains they are influential in mitochondrial biogenesis (self replication that increases cellular energy and efficiency) along with other factors like free radicals, nitric acid (NO) and H2S (Hydrogen Sulfide).

“We believe that microbiota control mitochondria” directing their level and locations of activity and life cycles. As essential energy sources and regulators every in the body, so microbiota by regulating mitochondrial function are key factors to harmony within and between organs of the body.

Dr. Kharrazian expands on the intimate connection and two-way pathways between brain and gut. Most of the traffic is actually from the gut to the brain and is initiated by microbiota which have direct access to the enteric nervous system (ENS). This nervous system covers the entire digestive system from mouth to anus and has more nerve endings than the spine, so is very dense. It connects to the vagus nerve which goes directly to the brain impacting our homeostatic and metabolic responses to change and even impacts our mental states through influences on neuro-transmitters and hormone production. Our gut produces the same hormones our endocrine system can and is another two-way channel of gut and brain that affects mind and body.

Research is showing that food itself also communicates genetic information to our own genes. Vojdani describes microbiota as our short term senses responding in real time to signals from the body and the state of food and health of the gut. They communicate not only via the ENS, vagus nerve, hormones and immune systems to the mitochondria but also directly with miRNA (microRNA transcribed by DNA as a ‘DNA photocopy’ to transfer out of the cell nucleus to create proteins that activate gene expression. Epithelial tissue (such as the intestinal lining) is a medium for this two way communication between microbiota nd mitochondria that impacts the cell nuleus and gene expression. This is why many researchers now view our body cells and our microbiome as one integrated ‘holobiont‘ (an aggregate of various organisms and their collective genomes working together as one symbiotic ecology). At Cork’s APC Microbiome Institute, gut and brain research by Dr. Clarke and Professor Cryan has demonstrated diversity and activity of specific microbiota in the gut directly influencing miRNA expression in the brain (amygdala and prefrontal cortex) impacting conditions of fear, anxiety, social finction and depression as well as being critical to specific windows in brain development [6].

Dr. Dimitris Tsoukalas (President of the European Institute of Nutritional Medicine) states that there is more understanding emerging about these communication channels between mitochondria and the cell nucleus and how mitochondrial produced molecules “make our genome react to what’s happening”. (Genome is a term that refers to the stored information in DNA and chromosomes). Epigentics is leading a new area of study of what influences and changes our health. Out of this is greater understanding how diet, stress and environment influence cell damage and turn-over, telomere length (shortened by oxidative stress) and key markers of biological age, health and resilience.

References

  1. Ursell, L.K., et al. Defining the Human Microbiome. Nutr Rev. 2012 Aug; 70(Suppl 1): S38–S44.
  2. Morowitz, M.J., Carlisle, E., Alverdy, J.C. Contributions of Intestinal Bacteria to Nutrition and Metabolism in the Critically Ill. Surg Clin North Am. 2011 Aug; 91(4): 771–785.
  3. den Besten, Gijs., et al. The role of short-chain fatty acids in the interplay between diet, gut microbiota, and host energy metabolism. J Lipid Res. 2013 Sep; 54(9): 2325–2340.
  4. Arumugam, M., et al. Enterotypes of the human gut microbiome. Nature. 2011 May 12;473(7346):174-80.
  5. Canny, G.O., McCormick, B.A. Bacteria in the Intestine, Helpful Residents or Enemies from Within. Infect and Immun. August 2008 vol. 76 no. 8, 3360-3373.
  6. Hoban, A.E., et al., Microbial regulation of microRNA expression in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. Microbiome 2017 5:102 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-017-0321-3

Other Sources:

References 1-5 https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/microbiome/

Many of the experts cited here have been quoted from the online series The Human Longevity Project at https://humanlongevityfilm.com/

  • Dr. Mark Hyman (Director at Cleleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine)
  • Kiran Krishnan (Research Biologist)
  • Aristo Vojdani PHD, MSC (Professor of Neuroimmunology)
  • Lorenzo Drago, PHD (Professor of Clinical Microbiology)
  • Dr. Dimitris Tsoukalas (President of the European Institute of Nutritional Medicine)
  • Sayer Ji (Natural Health Researcher and Educator)
  • Marrin Edeas, PHD (Chairman of Mitochondria and Microbiota World Societies)
  • Dr. Datis Kharrazian (Clinical Researcher, Functional Neurologist and Professor)
  • Dr. Michael Ash, D.O. (Research and Clinical Educator)
  • Dr. Allan Walker, Professor at the Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Photo credit: IBM Research on Visual hunt / CC BY-ND (quote added)

How to Access More Energy, Resilience and Adaptability

Posted on by colinchenery

Optimising energy in our body is important for health of mind and body, in adding life to our days as well as days to our life. Current and recent research discussed here seems to be moving into more alignment with traditional and holistic approaches to healing and medicine. Also, some key aspects to health are becoming more clearly the leverage points to focus our efforts on for optimum health.

Mitochondria and micro-biome (our bodies micro-organisms) are two of these key aspects to total health throughout life. They are both impacted by our outer environment and inner environment which includes lifestyle, diet, our mental states and levels of stress. In this article we take a look at new insights and practical things we can do for mitochondrial health and functioning.

Mitochondria are more than just the power plants for all of the cells in our body. They are key players in a busy two-way exchange of information with each other, other organelles, other cells and a multitude of regulating systems throughout the body. There are thousands in each cell. They have evolved from bacteria and have many similar types of behaviour, including their life cycle dynamics, reproduction and migration based on demand for their functionality and the suitability of their micro-environments.

Maintaining youthful energy, appearance and body function is very much reliant on these little cellular power houses. In their role as energy producers they utilise electrons from oxygen we breathe with nutrients we consume to generate ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which is the chemical and electro-charged packets of energy our cells use to remain animated, alive and do pretty much anything. The liver, kidneys, heart and brain have some of the highest concentrations of mitochondria in the body. We want an abundance of mitochondria that are healthy and efficient for every function of our body to be operating well, including our metabolism, immunity, heart and brain health along with our body’s ability to keep adapting to stressors and rebuild itself continually.

Ageing

Mitochondria have a lot to do with your biological age which can be radically different to your chronological age. Biomarkers for biological age also include telomere length (ends of DNA strands), cholesterol LDL, glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity. Mitochondrial functioning has much to do with cognitive and other brain functioning as much as every other active process in the body including all metabolic and neural processes. Maintaining high functioning and numbers of mitochondria ensures ample energy for body functioning, dealing with oxidative stress, immunity and keeping cell life cycles (cell death and cell reproduction) up with the body’s wear and tear from ageing and stressors.

A Systematic View – Stress and Mitochondria

In recent decades, biology and epigenetic (the study of organism changes in relation to modifications of genetic expression) research is looking at the body and the living environment as interrelated and interdependent communities on a cellular level. Stressors and health conditions are relative to adaptability and interactions between systems rather than just two isolated players being a single stressor and the effected organs. Stressors don’t cause disease, but our response to stressors on every level, including our psychology, can set up systemic changes that can lead to disease.

Mitochondria are important players in most of the systems in the body. In terms of energy they are integral aspects of heat, ATP production, membrane potential of cells and are substrates for epigenetic modifications. Research at the Philadelphia Hospital, has been developing understanding of a relationship between mutation variations of mitochondria in response to mental and environmental stressors with body and brain illnesses.

In terms of the highly complex bio-chemical and bio-electrical information highways of the body, mitochondria also play key roles in responding to and impacting circulation, activation and cross-over of information between hormones, DNA, epigenomes (compounds that tell genes what to do) and proteins which include cellular memories of past exposure to physical and psychological, real or imagined stressors. These are at the heart of our adaptation to internal and external stress (Picard, McEwan, et al., 2018). Stress adaptation requires energy whether it is to adapt to physical, emotional or mental stressors. In a recent article ‘An energetic view of stress: Focus on mitochondria’, Picard and McEwan comment that all energetic functions including neural pathways of the brain require mitochondrial energy which comes with a collaborative and two-way functional level of communication.

Gene expression, cell division, growth, death and regulation can be presumed to be coupled with mitochondrial metabolic signals. It’s all about communication and working together as a complex community as well has health and functioning of separate parts. Mitochondria are in the centre of the coupling of the energetic environment with cellular behaviour through a multifaceted set of mechanisms and pathways. These include epigenetic modifications at a cellular level and production of stress hormones as part of the body’s adaption to changes in conditions.

In the absence of real stress, these stress hormones can ‘dysregulate metabolism’ which is associated with conditions like insulin resistance and pre-diabetic states, weight gain due to metabolic disruption from high levels of insulin and leptin-hormones. This is why purely mental stress, especially if its chronic, can contribute and create havoc and chronic health conditions over time.

Mitochondria and glucocorticoids are an example of chaotic loops we can get into. Glucocorticoids are powerful hormones with many roles including how we use sugar and fat and curb inflammation. In a reciprocal sense mitochondria are not only the source of systemic signalling molecules like glucocorticoids but are also affected by them. Therefore, certain degenerative cycles can develop as well as healthy functional ones. Leaving out much of the scientific detail, mitochondrial energetics may be tied in with functional or dysfunctional epigenetic regulation of the brain, food and energy seeking behaviours, along with psychological states such as depression and complex social behaviours.

Systemic and environmental factors in relation to gene expression and cellular function is a more recent specialised field. This research is pioneering stuff, the latest paper only out a month ago. It is shedding new views on the relationship of mitochondria and stress, exploring the mechanisms of a highly complex interaction of systems that ties stress and mitochondrial disease in a viscous circle that unchecked is related to inflammatory, metabolic, and neuroendocrine conditions that we are seeing more and more in the modern world. These insights are shedding new light on stress influences with cancer and metastasis; diabetes; neurogenerative disorders as well as cell ageing and age related physical and cognitive decline. The implication is understanding and scientifically refining holistic approaches to disease including consideration of mitochondrial function.

As a final note, it is interesting that females and males have qualitatively different mitochondria. Mitochondria inheritance in both sexes is from the mother’s lineage only, but there is gender variance because sex hormones also regulate mitochondria throughout life from conception. Picard and McEwin conclude that studies must differentiate and include both sexes based on the sex differences in mitochondria, stress physiology and disease risk.

Key aspects to healthy functioning mitochondria are:

  • Lifestyle, mental and physical health
  • A healthy diet, predominantly plant-based, which includes Intermittent Fasting
  • Exercise and exposure to acute temperature changes
  • Supplementation if needed

Fasting

Brief intermittent fasting and caloric restriction can help activate mitochondria, because during fasting the body relies on lipids and stored fats for energy, and this is the role of your mitochondria. Twelve hours plus of no food intake between dinner and breakfast can be sufficient to trigger many healthy responses to fasting. However, if fasting also includes some daily activity time, so energy levels need boosting by demand in activity, then NAD+ levels will increase to assist production of ATP in the mitochondria. Stimulation of NAD+ is also good for the many anti-ageing and metabolic functions it is crucial including improving mitochondrial functioning (Houtkooper, Auwerx, 2012). Thus a weekly, fortnightly or monthly day time or even 36 hour plus Fast, can be great to boost health and years to your life as well as dealing with any unhealthy fat.

Also during fasting, autophagy (cellular death) increases as the body goes into clearing out damaged cells and consuming those for added energy, so that dysfunctional mitochondria are reduced and mitochondrial synthesis is stimulated.

Exercise

Exercise has similar benefits to fasting, in terms of energy demand activating and improving mitochondrial function. In addition, exercise increases the need for oxygen throughout the body and provides it through the heavy breathing of high intensity exercise, increasing the number and functioning of mitochondria in muscles and metabolically related organs (Menshikova, Ritov, et al., 2006).

Cold

Acute cold temperatures seem do do a lot of good things for the nervous system and cells. Tests on mice shows a profound effect on mitochondrial generation and numbers by increasing a protein for mitochondrial synthesis (Chung, Park, Lim, 2017). While we may not want to do it, another study showed prolonged cold produced significant benefits in smooth and skeletal muscles and vital organs. Nonetheless, this shows acute and prolonged adaptation to changes in temperature is good for our mitochondria. So end a shower with a burst of cold. Don’t loose the ability to enjoy an invigorating dive into a cold ocean or river and bracing yourself against a brisk wind! Maintaining resilience and robustness from exposure to natures elements is inherent in our evolution and hard wiring.

Diet

Key principles for a mitochondrial friendly diet is to:

Stay Away from Sugars, Processed Foods and don’t over do some grains: simple sugars lack nutrients and are absorbed too rapidly for mitochondria to burn them up efficiently causing increased fat and free radical damage. Highly processed sugars, such as white sugar, simple processed carbs and sweet soda’s, are treated as toxins in the body. Some grains turn to simple sugars quickly also, depending on your constitution, so be careful of overdoing grains. Get fibre and carbs through a range of foods – vary root vegetables through the week, include a variation of grains, nuts, seeds, beans and legumes.

Eating the rainbow: a broad range of colours each day means a broad range of phytonutrients for your cells and information exchange with your bacteria. Leafy greens and sulphur-rich veggies like cauliflower, cabbage, kale and spinach help your body produce glutathione which is a key nutrient in anti-oxidation which involves the mitochondria and directly affects cellular heath.

Fatty acids: Omega-3 (in coloured fish, and a broad range of plant based oils) provide more efficient energy production by mitochondria with less free radical by-products than fuelling them with high amounts of carbohydrates. Fatty Acids like Omega-3 are also important in reducing chronic inflammation in the body.

Balance is needed in any diet and many experts suggest the Mediterranean diet as a good guide. Carbohydrates like pasta and root vegetables (not over-cooked) are balanced with plenty of vegetables, small sides of meat for meat eaters (traditionally small serves of white meats or seafood), quality olive oil, avocado and oils from various nuts. Not too many rich dressings and sauces. High sources of Omega-3 are seafood such as wild salmon, sardine and mackerel. In meats, high cuts of grass fed beef have Omega-3. Nuts (walnuts, cashews and brazil nuts) and seeds like flax (fresh flax as it goes rancid quickly, especially once its grounded or extracted) and also chia seeds are excellent. Also high on the list include mustard oil, deep green seaweeds as well as wild rice. Mung beans are the best of the beans. Vegetables like leafy greens, winter squashes, the cabbage family (especially cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts) are excellent for Omega-3. Omega-3 containing fruits include most berries, mangoes, and Honeydew melons.

Supplementation

Diet is king as natural fresh foods contain countless combinations of micro- and macro-nutrients and important genetic information for our cells – especially our mitochondria and micro-biome.

Here are eight key supplements that have stood out in my research, that can assist mitochondrial function as a back up to dietary sources:

  1. BioPQQ (Polyquinoline Quinone) Human trials show some indications this can promote mitochondrial biogenesis (creation of new mitochondria).
  2. Magnesium This is an important mineral for mitochondria as well as for repairing damage to DNA and other aspects of longevity. Studies suggest 70-80% of people in developed western countries may be low in Magnesium. A quality supplement that includes quality natural nutrients to assist in its absorption is best. Eat plenty of deep green plant foods and berries.
  3. B-Vitamins (including riboflavin, thiamine and B6) The whole Vitamin B family are co-factors for mitochondrial efficiency and functioning (especially nicotinamide in the B-3 family) and so are also linked to healthy ageing. Some studies suggest that as we get older our cells don’t absorb certain B vitamins as well as they used to, so Vit-B supplementation may be more valuable as we get older.
  4. Nitric Oxides These are also linked to mitochondrial health as well as cardiovascular health, and certain amino’s like L-Arginine and L-Citrulline can help increase Nitric Oxide production in the body.
  5. Alpha Lipoic Acid ALA supports the functioning and healthy life cycle of mitochondria.
  6. CoQ10 (or ubiquinol – it’s active extraction) is suggested in some studies to support mitochondrial respiration and metabolic regulation in addition to supporting liver, heart and cardio-vascular health. It is fat soluble so take with healthy oils like coconut, sesame, olive or avocado. According to Dr.Mercola foods rich in C0Q10 include grass fed beef, sesame seeds, Herring, Broccoli, organic pastured chicken and cauliflower.
  7. L-Carnitine shuttles fatty acids to the mitochondria assisting with fat burning and mitochondrial functioning.
  8. Omega-3 Fatty Acids supplements that are algae plant based can be helpful, especially where some food sources are limited. Fish Oil capsules are best used if you have a diagnosed deficiency because they can be too rich for some people, then act as immunity suppressants. Freshness needs to be checked for all oil supplements, even opening capsules before ingesting to check they are not rancid from months at room temperature is recommended.

Important Tips on Vagal Toning for Complete Health

Posted on by colinchenery

Much about good health and a healthy long life is now being linked to the ‘tone’ of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Because the sympathetic nervous system which invokes ‘flight or fight’ response is also commonly over-activated in stressful and fast paced living, it is more important than ever to tone the parasympathetic system for mind and body, in addition to high activity exercise.

Toning the parasympathetic system assists in repair and rebuilding to all cells and tissues in the body, quicker recovery and shifts into relaxation, lowering blood pressure, and helping recovery from adrenal fatigue. Having both the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems toned and balanced is important for mitochondrial functioning, lowering inflammation, regulating hunger and hormonal balance and boosting immunity.

The importance of regulation and health of microbiome in the body is tied in with the parasympathetic system health. Much is now being found out about the critical role bacteria plays for health regulation in the body and immunity. Consider the mass of our bacteria is greater than our own body cells, and our body cells contain 3000 genes while there are 2.2 million genes in the DNA of our bacteria with a cross-over of information between our body and brain and these critical bacteria. Microbiome, along with mitochondrial functioning will be covered in another article, but these are now considered two key factors in energy production, disease prevention, brain health and long term anti-ageing for healthy longevity and are also linked up with the tone and functioning of the vagus nerve.

The Vagus Nerve

A key component to the parasympathetic system that is now taking centre stage amongst many practitioners of health and healthy lifestyles is the vagus nerve. This is a two-way highway of energy and information between body and brain. Taking its name from the latin word for “wandering”, it is the tenth and biggest cranial nerve extending directly from the medulla (brain stem) to most of the body. It affects facial muscles and eyes when we relax and smile, connecting to our digestive system from our throat to all digestive organs, and connects with our heart and lungs. It’s connection to the digestive organs of the liver and kidneys mean it is not only impacting our digestion and metabolism but also detoxification and elimination of waste and by-products of what we eat, breath and put our bodies through with stress and over – or under-activity. A toned nervous system supports stability in mood, memory, and overall brain health. So there are many systems of rejuvenation and body functioning that the vagus nerve impacts, to indicate it is a key factor in a holistic approach to health.

Here are some conditions and health factors that are associated with the level of tone of the vagus nerve:

  • the bodies inflammatory response: many chronic as well as acute conditions are now understood to be associated with inflammation
  • Repair and cell growth of brain cells and assisting in memory
  • Depression and anxiety
  • Immunity including the level of T-cell and killer cell response to disease and body repair
  • Various addictions and compulsive disorders
  • Mental health disorders
  • Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Vagal tone can be indicated through the many bodily systems it affects and is generally measured directly through combined testing of heart and breathing rates, as well as heart rate variability (HRV) which is associated with the adaptability of your body to changes in external and internal conditions. HRV and vagal tone are closely correlated to one another – if one is functioning highly, then so is the other.

Vagal Toning

How do you ensure that you have good vagal toning? The same key factors recognised for vagal toning match most of the key factors recognised for acquiring and maintaining good health and healthy longevity! Here they are:

  1. Cold Exposure

    Acute cold exposure is shown by many researchers to activate the vagus nerve. It is a key factor to the Wim Hof Method which uses exposure to cold and breathing techniques for activating health and vitality. Just using ice cold water on the face is enough, or incorporating a brief cold shower into your usual shower routine. Within two weeks or less, most people notice a decline in the deep inhale or breath hold reaction to sudden cold, and notice a more relaxed response to the sudden exposure to cold. This indicates neural adaptation and vagal toning.

    Vagus nerve stimulation increases parasympathetic activity throughout the body and stimulates digestion and metabolism. Our bodies evolved to rely on such stimulation and environmental stressors like cold, which we now lack in the modern world of controlled environments. It only takes a little to strengthen and activate important functions of resilience towards these stressors which in turn enhances our resilience to stressors in general.

  2. Deep Slow Breathing

    The direct correlation between breath and heart rate (as well as HRV) and the vagus nerve that modulate or regulates them, means conscious breathing is also a quick, powerful and easy way to activate the vagus nerve. Research shows benefits to blood pressure and hypertension with breathing exercises alone. High breathing rates activate the sympathetic nervous system while slow deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system and so helps autonomic functions like the respiratory and cardio-vascular systems to go into repair and recovery.

The most basic exercise is to do 1-3 minutes of inhaling for a count of four, holding for a count of four, exhaling for a count of four, then waiting for another count of four before repeating. Doing this when your getting stressed at home or office, car or shopping mall will help brain function, effectiveness and comfortability go up and stress levels go down by releasing calming chemicals to feed your brain rather than stress chemicals to your muscles.

  1. Synchronised Movement and Breath like Yoga, Tai Chi and Xigong

    Just like what is said above, breathing itself activates the vagus nerve. Breathing associated with movement that stretches fascial tissue, muscles and joints while opening up energy channels have been found to be very effective in producing calming neurotransmitters like GABA in the brain and body. The traditional forms of yoga that incorporate activity with regular intermittent relaxation in poses like ‘sivasana’ can produce deeper and deeper levels of relaxation and endocrine production for relaxation and mood elevation. Also, particularly activating for the vagus nerve are relaxed movements with deep breathing that are expanding the thoracic (chest) region, inversions (legs up against a wall, various head stands, hand stands and shoulder stands) as well as sustained twisting postures with spine straight and chest out.

    In addition to those who have discovered the great benefits of yoga and Tai Chi, these types of activities are being used more and more by high performance athletes to assist in recovery and improved resilience to ongoing physical demands while the same holds true for resilience, good health and mood elevation throughout the challenges of life.

  2. Meditation and Conscious Presence

    After nearly fifty years of scientific studies, vast amounts of research has now been done on various types of meditation and the many benefits. In addition to increased vagal tone, positive emotions and thinking, and feelings of goodwill, studies done in schools and universities also show increases in concentration and brain functioning, and decreases in mental disorders and violent interactions.

    Meditation as well as general practice of conscious presence trains the mind to function effectively at brain frequencies that reduce sympathetic ‘fight or flight’ stress responses and increases vagal modulation. Greater insight, creativity, calm awareness, appreciation and mood elevation are among the many other benefits are confirmed in studies. So is the ability to respond and act in situations with less or little stress and adrenaline involved through this type of mind training.

  3. Exercise or High Intensity Activity

Exercise also has many studies showing it to be an effective way to increase the brains growth hormone, stimulate human growth hormone production during deep sleep, increase important receptor sites for mitochondrial functioning in and on cells, and help reverse cognitive decline and other aspects of ageing.

Exercise as a great stimulator of the vagus nerve may explain some of these benefits.

Walking, weight bearing exercise and high intensity training are all good. Weight bearing is especially good for reversing decline in bone and muscle density and decline of certain hormone levels in the body associated with ageing. So is interval training, in addition to being a very time effective way to build fitness. For interval training, try 10-30 minutes of walking, jogging or cycling 3-4 times a week, with periodic 1-2 minute bursts at maximum pace during each session.

  1. Probiotics and Dietary Factors

    There are many new studies in the last ten years indicating strong associations between brain function and immunity as well as vagal tone with microbiome (micro-organisms in the body) – especially bacteria in the gut.

    In addition, dietary factors like essential fatty acids (fats the body can’t make itself like Omega-3 and -6) are critical for cellular integrity, brain and mental health and nerve function. This includes vagal tone, which may be also why dietary fatty acids can help reduce heart rate and increase heart rate variability. A great source of these are in certain fish oils (organically farmed or wild-caught salmon are an example or Australian northern river fish like Barramundi are rich in Omega-3 and Omega-6 oils).

    Zinc is also a key dietary mineral for vagus nerve stimulation and preventing or improving various certain brain function disorders, mental health and anxiety. Good food sources include oysters, pumpkin seeds, cashews, mushrooms, spinach and grass-fed beef for meat eaters.

  2. Intermittent Fasting

Many health benefits are being documented and studied now on fasting, with more attention lately on short-term intermittent fasting. This also is being shown to help improve brain function and growth hormones, mitochondrial function, brain ‘fog’ and cognitive issues. Fasting and caloric restriction is also being associated with increased HRV again indicating vagal tone improvement.

The ideal is to not eat at least two hours before bed, which also improves sleep patterns. Best results are if most days, people can have a 12 to 16 hour window of not eating between dinner and breakfast. Immunity increases, detoxification and cellular cleansing (cellular death – apoptosis- and cellular reproduction cycles) are also stimulated. The 16 hour window of fasting (with an 8 hour window of healthy eating) is a great way to sustainably lose weight. The 12 hour fasting window is great for general health and weight maintenance (helping to keep down accumulation of unhealthy fat). Once every week, fortnight or month also try a 36 hour fast by only having fluids during one day to reset the body, stimulate many healing processes, increase resilience to disease, environmental and other stressors.

  1. The Power of the Voice

    Vagus nerve expert, Dr. Stephen Porges established Polyvagal Theory. He talks about the hard wiring in our evolution towards flight-or-fight stimulation including response to social communication which encompasses verbal and body language, vocal tone and non-verbal cues.

    A soothing voice for adults and children in gentle, slow and rhythmic tones coaxes the brain into a relaxed state faster and activates the parasympathetic nervous system, including the vagal nerve. This is true whether you are the speaker or listener. While the voice is powerful and effective for adults, it is great for young children for whom a modulated and calm voice is powerful for vagal and parasympathetic development and toning during years where much neural programming or conditioning is happening. It is powerful also for babies (especially combined with skin-to-skin contact) and can be utilised regularly and daily in combination with other approaches mentioned in this article.

    Singing, humming, chanting and even gargling all stimulate the vagus nerve which connects to the vocal chords and muscles in the throat. These all are shown to also increase the hallmark sign of vagal toning which is increase of heart rate variability.

  2. Social Lifestyle and Laughter

    Quite a few studies on social factors have linked healthy, active and supportive social life with healthy longevity as well as recovery from illness or trauma. In addition, laughter has been shown to be strongly related to good health as well as healing and recovery. Both socialising and laughter reduce cortisol and other stress related hormones, stimulate the vagus nerve and HRV while improving mood and happy hormone production. Unfortunately for some, excessive or heavy alcohol consumption is somewhat counter effective, so moderating consumption while having as much fun and shared frivolity is great for one and all!

  3. Acupuncture and Massage

Both acupuncture and massage stimulate the vagus nerve, increasing its activity and tone. Specific points and areas like the sole of the foot (reflexology), auricular (ear) acupuncture, points along the side of the neck (near the carotid artery) are especially good for this. They are also effective spots to assist people coming off anti-depressants and other psychiatric medication, assist people with neurodegenerative diseases, as well as general stress related issues.

In closing …. my intention is not to write a scientific paper here. There are many references related to these ten points above which be can provided for specific points on request. Many supporting studies can be found through a simple online search on any term or specific topic. Much is common sense and there’s enough information here to help you take control of stress levels and steer your way into better mind and body health. Having all points above as part of your lifestyle will help disease prevention, increased resilience, promote total health while increasing enjoyment and quality of life.

Important Fundamentals You Need to Know About Earthing Yourself

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Earthing and How It Works

Significant evidence is building up from research around the world that the body does not like being unplugged from the earth due to synthetic shoes and surfaces. This is a ridiculously simple yet logical factor in modern life, especially for city living. Bare-foot groups have even started up in cities internationally and on social media. The astounding factor, is that it could be one of the key factors in a huge array of systemic and chronic modern day health issues.

If you haven’t looked into it, this is a snap shot of the fundamentals from Clinton Ober’s book “Earthing”, co-authored with Stephen T. Sinatra M.D. (cardiologist) and Martin Zucker (health and alternative medicine author).

Being connected to the electrical charge and electron rich flow of the earths surface seems to be an intimate aspect of balance and regulation of practically every function and system in our electro-chemical bodies, including nervous systems, metabolic regulation, blood and heart health, hormonal and electrical cycles tied in with cycles in nature. The functioning of organisms such as bacteria and mitochondria that make up much of our mass is also being explored with building evidence of earthing as a health factor at this foundational level of longevity. Both mental and physiological balance and functioning is indicated along with improved alertness, energy and longevity.

Benefits

Some of the basic benefits are:

  • Rapid reduction of inflammation
  • Reduction or elimination of chronic pain
  • dynamic blood flow improvement improving multiple body functions and health
  • Reduced stress
  • increased energy
  • improved sleep and feeling rested when awakening including improvement to disrupted circadian cycles
  • Accelerated healing form injuries and surgery

Research and control group tests that discussed revealed the above benefits in the range of 80-100% of participants! (pp.43-48). Other tests show normalisation in the amount and rhythms of cortisol (the stress hormone) production.

The huge connection between many chronic and terminal illnesses with chronic inflammation is changing approaches to treatment through the health professions. The long list of conditions (p.65) include; allergies, Alzheimers disease, ALS and MS, Anemia, Arthritis, Asthma, Autism, Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, Diabetes types 1 & 2, Fibromyalgia, Intestinal disorders like Crohn’s and IBS, kidney failure, Lupus, general pain, Pancreatitus, Psoariasis and eczema.

Experiments also show a calming effect on brain frequencies and a normalisation in muscle tension (p79,80). An electro-physiology experiment on acupuncture points showed that grounding generated readings indicative of reduced inflammation and energised internal organs. The study suggests particular electron-transfer occurs in the highly conductive water-control meridians related to kidney and bladder including the major K1-UB meridian that has points related to all organs.

Cardiovascular, Respiratory and Nervous System Function

Grounding in quoted studies activated the parasympathetic nervous system (that calms body processes) while increasing respiration, stabilising blood oxidation and inducing a slight rise in heart rate. Continued increase in efficiency of oxygen update revealed an increase in metabolic activity. These physiological benefits emphasis how our bodies have evolved to utilise the energy of the earth as an integral part of its cycles, the regulation and balance of systems and biological processes.

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a well known part of recovery in sports, and ongoing studies showing less inflammation and faster recovery and healing means many sports medicine practitioners are using grounding with athletes during and after training and events.

Experiments on looking at the immune response following vaccination led Polish researchers to suggest earthing could be a primary factor in regulating endocrine and nervous systems (pp.87-100).

Dr. Steve Sinatra links earthing to low cardiovascular diseases in barefoot cultures and generations and cites his studies, observations and experiments that show “across-the-board benefits for common cardiovascular diseases like high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, and diabetes.”

Before and after blood studies show autoimmune system (ANS) changes and Zeta Potential (the electrical charge of blood cells) increases which allows for blood vessels to separate and blood viscosity to normalise. Clumping of cells and thick clotting blood is observed with many people with cardio vascular issues & diabetes. Diabetes is a modern scourge that impacts an estimated 3.4 million people a year and this number is increasing. Various doctors and studies in the book discuss significant results for diabetics, citing earthing as a missing link in the approach to improving or reversing this condition (pp.123-127; 129,130). The significant and rapid counteracting of inflammation and increasing blood flow from earthing provides significant and fast improvements.

HRV (Heart Rate Variation) factors also increase which is indicative of better physiological adaptation to stress and general internal and external changes.

Kidney function

Dramatic improvement and even reversal of kidney damage and dysfunctions is also covered in the book for people with diagnosed conditions and even those already on dialysis. The effect of earthing on sleep, improved circulation and electrodynamics of blood, normalising of cortisol (the stress hormone) along with less inflammation and pain are likely contributors to improved blood pressure for many people with issues commencing regular earthing (p.135).

Other Benefits

Other benefits discussed are improvements for Depression(p. 48,135,154); (pp. 148,149,169) much is added from researchers as well as testimonials on the disappearance of such inflammatory related chronic conditions like allergies, arthritis (p. 170), and back pain(p.177); inflammation of blood vessels, jet lag, Lupus, and MS (Multiple Sclerosis) (p.180-185); sleep apnea and stress relief (p.190); women’s issues like PMS, menstrual pain, menopausal symptoms (pp.204- 220); and, sports injury healing and recovery (p.221).

While earthing is not a claimed cure for autism, its observed to have a calming effect, improve sleep patterns, promote better speech and socialisation. This may be linked to recent autism studies showing links with brain inflammation and immune system dysfunction (p.172).

The Umbrella Effect of Earthing

Our skin is a great conductor for the flow of abundant and energised electrons from the earth’s surface (negatively charged). This endless source of electrons are not only used in antioxidant processes in our bodies to reduce free radicals and inflammation, grounding also provides a shield of energy around us at the same charge as the earths surface to lift the strong positive charged area (+ 350 volts) above the earths surface above our heads (p76,77).

General Health and Longevity

As an added note – latest research on health and longevity is finding much depends on the exchange of information between microbiota (micro-organisms) in our food, in our body (gut, deep in the skin and bacteria derived organelles in our cells for example) and how that impacts energy processing and metabolism. With the improvements of earthing on metabolism and other specific physiological changes observed, future research on any improved behaviour and health of needed bacteria in our bodies may shed even more light on how it effects so many benefits to all aspects of health.

ATP production in the mitochondria is a key to heart health, energy production as well as the rate and efficiency of cellular repair and reproduction. Various researchers and specialists are advocating that earthing has an impact on this core process to a healthy long life through its many benefits as well as supercharging the electrons being utilised in the ATP production line (p.142, 143). More research is needed on this.

The calming effect on the mind and physiological systems, the balancing of hormone/endocrine systems and the connection it gives to the earth make earthing a great part of general therapeutic wellbeing and as a benefit to mindful presence and meditation practices.

Connecting to the Earth

So if you or a loved one have any of the above health issues or you want to utilise earthing to further strengthen you health, vitality and resilience, then go barefoot wherever and whenever possible on grass, soil, sand (especially moist for conductivity) and gravel. Even concrete can have enough conductivity, depending on insulation under it, to have a positive impact. Vinyl and wooden surfaces do not conduct. A half hour to forty minutes are enough to activate many of the measured physiological improvements. Salt water wading is great as it is highly conductive. Fresh water is good although not as conductive. A barefoot walk in the grass for fifteen minutes can shake off jet lag or a headache.Alternatively, there are now earthing products to have you earthed or grounded during sleep or at the work desk. Look online at ‘earthing’ or ‘grounding’ sites for bed, desk and floor pads, bedsheets, patches for specific areas of pain and even grounded shoes.

Happy bare footing!

Recommended Reading

Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever! By Clinton Ober, Stephen T. Sinatra M.D. and Martin Zucker (Basic Health Publications Inc., 2014).

Photo credit: Riccardo Palazzani – Italy on Visualhunt.com/CC BY-NC-SA

Facing Death to Better Face Life

Posted on by colinchenery

There are three big benefits from contemplating death in a positive sense. Firstly, it adds to appreciating every living moment, making the most of it, and not taking things and others for granted. Secondly, it adds a sobering depth and motivation to contemplating the big picture of life and contemplating spiritual meanings. Thirdly, it gives perspective on what the little things and big things are in life and worth your energy and focus. In other words, what is important and not taking too much too seriously.

In terms of spiritual growth and general maturity, as we let go of fear and embrace life more fully, one of the final fears to face and move through is the fear of loss and death. It may not be the concept of death that is frightening but times in your life when you come close to it personally or with someone close, or when you get a sense of letting go fully into something unknown where your own sense of self is put to the test, then facing death and fear of death can seem pretty close.

Spiritual awakening as a transformation ultimately hits the chord of any fear of death, because true awakening marks the end of identification with the ego self. This can feel like a type of death for the part of us we are letting go. In the Bhagavad Gita (Gita 6:37-39), Arjuna’s question reveals one of the final fears and anxieties in the mind of one who has recognised the truths in Sri Krishna’s teachings yet still has doubt in himself to fulfil them. Self doubt feeds this final fear when we are poised to let go of what is tangible and familiar to the ego mind and step in faith towards the values and consciousness of the higher Self. Essentially Arjuna is asking what happens to a person who is unsuccessful in yoga (spiritual union) who has let go of material identity but has not mastered his mind, so ends up short on union of consciousness as well as material success and identity. It is a fear of being lost between worlds, of failure and loss in gaining nothing.

Sri Krishna’s answer (Gita 6:40-44) reveals the Gita’s view of life and death. He reflects on the immortality of spirit as consciousness and that anyone with good intentions and actions will never meet with an evil plight or death. The idea of reincarnation is a strong part of Indian thought and culture, providing a context and karmic rationale for both heavenly and worldly, life and death consequences for choices about living one’s life. Whether you are of a culture or personal belief in reincarnation back in the material world or incarnations through higher levels of spiritual realms beyond this world, the same principles apply, whereby salvation does not arrive by merit of a heavenly pass at death. Rather death is just a portal to further ongoing existence and where we continue to reap what we have sown, playing the main role in our own salvation and development towards true awakening.

Similarly (Gita 2:27-28) is less poetic but very clear and applicable to all of us whatever our faith, convictions or belief. Considering a universal truth in this world for those prescribing to different views of life beyond death, no one can argue about the inevitability of death. Krishna notes this and the veiled nature of existence before and this material life as a fact of life, so “why lament about it”?

That everything material changes and passes is cause to ponder the big questions about reality, before and after the fleeting time we have in our current physical body, and the profoundness of experience and consciousness accessible to us. Whatever our lifestyle, bodily deterioration is occurring gradually and is ever present on a physical level, until at some point the body will be cast aside (Gita 2:22).

Easwaran in his Gita companion says “It is good to face death with courage, but that is not enough; we must learn to face it with understanding.” (p.191). In a spiritual sense, through meditation and practice of presence generally, we can become familiar with consciousness that transcends sense organs and objects, including projections of mind. This transcendent awareness brings with it a sense of living awareness and identity independent of the body and thinking mind. Thus, an intuitive sense or even knowing of death as a doorway to another state of pure consciousness comes as a natural part of insight and realisation of the nature of this unchanging consciousness from which our ever-changing perceptions and responses arise.

Being mindful of death can be a means of making the most of each living moment, of the profoundness of every moment. Some saints and seekers do things to deepen this mindfulness. Saint Teresa of Avila kept a skull on her desk. Yogis, saints and masters in India sit before cadavers to meditate to help them transcend mortal mindedness. Warriors (spiritual and military) or those living in harsh conditions often use the inevitability of death to fuel their conviction and focus on their conscious choices, actions and life path. It fuels comradeship. It heightens the focus, conviction and mind power of shamans.

In the Gita (8:12-13), Sri Krishna gives Arjuna a crash course in how to die which is the basis for various meditations and mudras for unifying mind and soul, as well as preparing for optimum consciousness during death. Basically, the meditation describes withdrawing the vital energy and focus from body and senses into the mind where a mantra and intention towards the divine or consciousness of consciousness itself is the sole awareness accompanied by the sound of Aum. This is full immersion in pure awareness and presence. From there in Gita terms the consciousness transcends mind “into Buddhi, the higher mind, and finally into what is called the causal body, the seat of I-consciousness. Easwaran discussing this verse describes the process “like taking off an overcoat button by button, then removing your jacket, and finally your pullover, folding each piece carefully and setting it aside.” (p.194).

In normal meditation, some vitality is kept in the body to keep it living. Experienced meditators will vouch for a heightened sense of aliveness and awareness when in this state than normal body consciousness. Whatever the details of after death existence, Sri Krishna notes the unchanging nature at the seat of consciousness itself, which can be realised in life and continues after death.

Uniting all faculties “by the power of yoga” or the biblical “loving God with all your heart, your soul, your strength and mind” to achieve deep awakening requires sustained devoted and dedicated effort. It does not have to be complicated, done always with closed eyes, but rather a consistent part of being present while we attend to living our lives fully present in our selves, our environment and others. It does require a balanced character and approach to life. Spiritual teachings universally view development of the soul and ‘awakening’ as a cumulative result of mindful practice while living a meritorious life as the key to fulfilment and happiness, as well as readiness for when it is time to go.

Arjuna asks Krishna ‘what if we aren’t ready and haven’t got there?’ The assurance is when death is understood through contemplation and knowing the nature of consciousness itself, it looses its terror. Much of the problem with dying is the inability to let go, along with regrets about life. As Easwaran points out, in conscious dying “all attention is on where you are going: there is no attention on what you are leaving behind, which means no clinging. It’s not so much that you’re not afraid of death; the question simply does not arise”. In other words, like in deep meditation and practice of presence, the process is less about letting go of identification with thoughts and body and more an engagement with a known existential state of being.

Many people who have been in a dangerous instant where they thought they were about to die, experience no fear and an instant acceptance. I have experienced this a few times. My daughter experienced it when she fell from a cliff and thought that was it. As an observer in that instance I confronted my worst of fears as a parent then went into protect and rescue mode when I saw her mercifully injured but okay below. It is different for the person facing this moment for themselves, when all of life has lead to one key instant.

The cumulative effect of spiritual effort contributes to our level of consciousness at death. Meanwhile, we can enhance the experience and depth of conscious choosing in our daily lives as the layers of conditioning stored in the material mind is unravelled in the light of that consciousness and spiritual identification. The opportunity for continued learning and discovery, facing challenges “calmly, courageously, and compassionately” is part of our purpose.

I’ll finish with a final note from Easwaran that the getting of wisdom is not just learning more, but the capacity to learn from past mistakes while facing new difficulties by ‘detached intellect’. “Detached intelligence is the very source of wisdom … that acquired wisdom awakens us to the extent we listen to it, not so much in the head as in the heart.” (p.203).

Photo credit: h.koppdelaney via Visual Hunt / CC BY-ND

Recommended Reading:

God Talks To Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita, by Paramahansa Yogananda (Self Realisation Fellowship, 2nd Edition 1999)

The Bhagavad Gita, by Swami Sivananda (Divine Life Society, 15th Edition 2015)

Essence of the Bhagavad Gita: A Contemporary Guide to Yoga, Meditation and Indian Philosophy, by Eknath Easwaran (The Blue Mountanin Center of Meditation, 2011).

Steps That Will Lead to No Ordinary Moments

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It’s been over forty years since I first put on a Gi and started martial art training. Shin Kyu Sik, my first instructor (in Tang Soo Do) many years ago said to me, “If you are unlucky these days you may get into a fight once or twice in your life, but you fight battles within yourself every day”. That simple message applying my training to the inner game of life has stayed with me all my life. Since then I have studied various forms of Karate and Kung Fu spanning soft internal styles as well as hard external styles. Martial arts for me has not been about fighting another opponent as much as training mind and body to face large and small everyday battles of life effectively with alert calmness and equanimity. Of course proficiency in techniques is part of the art, but its greatest practicality in modern life is as a vehicle for strengthening mind and character. In the last ten years especially, passing this on to others as an instructor and coach is immensely rewarding.

In these interesting times as more momentum builds in social progress, the pressure to keep up with technology and social trends. At an entrepreneurial level to stay relevant in how we communicate and offer products and services we must also keep abreast of diversification and new niches of business. Information and knowledge is becoming as much a high demand and major commodity as is any material commodity product or service. Our times are becoming characterised by designer lives, where customised controllable environments, homes, transportation, fashion and interests are more accessible faster. Our mindset is also more important in adapting and thriving among more and more options, complexities of challenges, with a greater emphasis on competing and performing with our minds rather than just working with our hands. Self-doubt, negative beliefs, emotional and mental resistance to change, susceptibility to stress and many other challenges to psycho-emotional wellbeing are things we must combat in our lives more than ever. Creative thinking and cutting edge knowledge in a particular field of interest is becoming more important. Thankfully there are also more supports and sources of information on how to combat personal obstacles and build knowledge and skills than ever before.

The growing demand for insights and skills on playing the inner game of life is beginning to catch up with the expanding demand for tools of developing the skills, processes and knowledge needed to move forward in any given industry. Many of my posts refer to ‘conscious presence’ because it is a passion I have and I believe it is at the root of mastering one’s inner game, whatever the journey, as well as providing for spiritual growth.

Ancient philosophies such as Taoism and Zen, are perhaps easier to couch in modern terms than main stream religious sources, for their minimal religious terminology and universality in presenting principles for truth, righteous living and heightened consciousness. They make a play of paradoxes and opposites to help us pierce the dualism of mind and form to get to unity of pure consciousness and presence in the moment. In this way, practice and understanding promises a better conscious observation of mind-stuff as it arises and more conscious choice as to what we take on or let go in our individual approaches to life. Conscious observation of self is transformational in itself while also providing an inner platform from which to consciously re-design our own thinking and focus.

In the meantime the age-old clues as to what that foundation is, behind thoughts and feelings – conducive or not so conducive, still provide apt guidance towards the self awareness that enables self-transformation and development. In the end, contacting and aligning with the true substance of what and who we are beneath it all becomes the most authentic and rock solid foundation to being solid, happy and empowered. It is connecting and living from a deep conscious self awareness that enables us to know who we are, what we really want and know our purpose. It is where we can find fulfilment in what we are and do, as well as create lives where we can be and do more fulfilling things.

Because this seat of ‘self’ is beyond concept (thought) and form, words like ‘space’, ‘presence’, ‘pure consciousness’ ‘mindfulness’ , ‘essence’ and ‘state-of-being’ are modern terms for an awakening experience that might have once had associations with terms like ‘spirit’ and ‘God’. Whatever the words, for words are only words, it is an authentic and immediately personal experience that is relevant, liberating and empowering, that people are increasingly looking for (knowingly or sub-consciously). The age old trend for increasing peace and prosperity is becoming real for more and more of the worlds population.

As has often been the case historically, it is often in the face of challenges and adversity where we are most likely to go beyond our familiar dependencies and escapism to get to a new depth and breadth of being, because a real crisis occurs when the old familiar ways become inadequate. It is discomfort, inner tension and real life needs that drive us to dig deeper and open up to a greater source of strength, clarity or sense of purpose and connection in life.

This is where the training I began to discuss above can come in handy, as does the way we live in general. Practical training and philosophies can offer a form of view and experience that brings us to lucid moments at times we would otherwise go into ‘flight or fight’. Certain mind training provides reference points for the formless, where our ‘aha’ moments can arise. A principle that is referred to in the paradoxes and play of opposites in martial arts, Taoism and Zen is ‘non-action in action’ and ‘action in non-action’.

It is not very ‘zen’ of me to conceptualise this principle. .. however … it applies to an experience that could be described as meditation in action. In a pure moment of being present we can perform an action with full clarity and consciousness, rooted in the space and consciousness from which the action is occurring. If we are fully aligned and attuned in an action being performed, and identifying with the space or ‘non-action’ in which it is occurring, a quality of ‘nowness’ enables purposeful, creative and fulfilling focus to occur. Also conscious alignment and attunement with the stillness and being-ness from which any given action has arisen, is an inner action in and of itself – the action of aligning and attuning the consciousness itself.

This awareness in action while knowing the reason and benefits of what we are doing at any time in the day, nourishes the consciousness of feeling in the flow of life and energisation by doing something that invigorates a sense of purpose. This is compared to the dullness of biding time, doing something for the sake of it, being in a mindset of ‘having to do’ something we don’t want to do or really care about. These negative types of mindsets take us away from being empowered and conscious individuals living in sync with life in general. Transformation of consciousness and reality occur together.

A simple example comes from Zen in the form of Zen walking. Walking can be a mundane thing we do unconsciously to get somewhere we want to be or maybe would rather not be. However, even this simple process can be used as part of enjoyment and self-mastery, especially if we try it as a conscious practice a number of times. Try this version of practice on a weekend, start or finish of the day and go barefoot on wet sand or grass to get the full benefits of earthing and restorative electron flow in and around the body in addition to the exercise for mind. This helps balance and replenish mind and body as well as practicing mindfulness:

  • allow the breath to become open, flowing and fully relaxed
  • stand still and balanced, gaze slightly down along the nose, feeling through the legs and feet into the ground, breathe in the lower belly, arms relaxed by the sides or finger interlocked comfortably at the lower abdomen where you are taking the breathe.
  • Begin to walk slowly, steadily and purposefully in a circle or straight line with a soft steady gaze and calm natural breath.
  • Allow your steps to be slow enough to feel the point of balance on each foot rolls from heel to toes and the other foot lifts and moves forwards.
  • Try adjusting the speed until the walk feels slow, steady and natural – encouraging a strong sense of balance and being with each step and the movement during each step.
  • Do this long enough (5-20 minutes) that your inner body awareness and outer awareness feel unified (no boundaries) with breath and movement.

Once you do this you can subtly do it while browsing in a shop, walking from the desk to printer or table to refrigerator – any moments through the day to train oneself towards consistent mindfulness.

Waking up in conscious presence each day and appreciating the song of birds outside my window, bringing that wakeful presence into body awareness, the living space around me and then my actions throughout the day, adds so much to what I consider my quality of living and enhances my relationships. It is an aspect of where spiritual practice and daily living are one and the same. The accumulated store of conscious moments over days, weeks and years bring you to an enriched space where (to quote Dan Millman) “there are no ordinary moments”.

Photo from Visual Hunt (quote added)