Keeping the “general” in your body happy

liver_energyA healthy liver is not only crucial in detoxing our body and staying fit and healthy, it influences strongly our mood, enthusiasm and the joyfulness of being in there here-and-now.

In Chinese medicine the liver is often compared to the strategic general at the head of an army, utilising the power of body and mind to keep us in a state of equilibrium.

The liver is an amazing organ, dealing with hundreds of tasks and working overtime in dealing with carcinogenic materials and other toxins that bombard the body. One of its primary functions is the storage of blood and regulating the flow of blood to the circulatory system in accordance with our physical activities. When the body is resting the blood is kept in “storage” for the next phase of activity.

In addition the liver controls the activity of muscles, tendons and bands, ensuring a smooth interaction of joint and muscle movement. When we speak of a low level of “liver blood” in the body this is reflected on tendons becoming stiff and inflexible, causing stiff body movement and joint pains. We literally can’t move to do the things we want to do.

But there is much more that comes to play on an emotional and psychological level. In my book Yield and Overcome I go into more detail on how the body organs are related to elements and cyclical seasonal influences. On a subtle level the liver is home to the ethereal soul, that continues to exist after death. It is about transmuting the challenges we are faced with in this world and following our true calling or soul path. As we grow spiritually we bring a little of “heaven to earth”.

When the ethereal soul becomes separated from its “physical home” it loses connection to its true destiny and meaning in life. We lose sense of direction and being in the here and now. When plans and visions start failing or when we are forced to do things we find to be meaningless, we either start feeling depressed, listless and low on energy or have bouts of anger and resentment. We blow our lid at the smallest irritation.

When we see a person following his or her calling watch the glow and enthusiasm in their eyes. The liver expresses itself in the eyes. In the same way a diseased liver or one that is out of balance will show in the “grey” of the “living dead”.

The good news is that the liver has an enormous capacity to regenerate itself. Dr. Max Gerson, MD ( 1881-1959) assumed it would take 12 to 15 generations of new cells to form a totally new and healthy liver. He specified a period of about 18 months to fully heal and restore the liver of advanced cancer patients. However experts believe that the amount of toxins the human body has to cope with today will require a longer period of two years or more.

So in our modern world the liver energy is confronted with on the one hand the many distractions on a mental plane while at the same time having to deal with major challenges on a physical level.

Some questions that arise in connection with the liver energy are:

  • How do I feel when I get up in the morning? Am I joyful or depressed?
  • Have I found my place in the bigger picture of things?
  • Do I really enjoy my work?
  • Where do I really feel at home?
  • Where is my energy or enthusiasm blocked?
  • Am I feeling constantly tired and listless?
  • Do I have a problem with anger management?

Apart from liver-cleansing nutrition there are various good methods of bringing your liver energy back into flow, but more on that in my next blog

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Thoughts about cancer

Quantum healing energyAny person who has been diagnosed with cancer will tell you that it strikes you like a thunderbolt, causing a paradigm shift in more ways than one. I have lost close family members and many dear friends to cancer, most of them in the prime of their lives. The disease is a scourge of our time and it is hitting more younger people and children than ever before.

Cancer is described as the uncontrolled growth of cells from normal tissue. The body has a defence system that maintains a state of dynamic equilibrium in the body. A disturbance of this equilibrium can be caused by chemicals, radiation, tobacco, a diet of mainly processed foods but also drugs, a high stress level and chemicals used to treat cancer. There are over 200 different cancers known to occur in humans.

There is no easy answer as to why some people are affected and others not. Statistically your risk factor is increased if you live mainly on processed foods, smoked most of your life or had a family member somewhere down the line, who had cancer.

But why do some people contract lung cancer, who have never smoked in their lives or are diagnosed with cancer while seemingly doing everything right to minimise the risk – from exercising regularly to eating healthy foods. There is no plausible answer. Every individual and every body reacts differently to the exterior and internal risk factors. There are many imponderables and cancer is perhaps one of the least understood diseases of our time.

The fact is that we live in an age where all of us and the planet itself is experiencing an unprecedented exposure to toxins that poison our air, water, earth and especially our food.

In addition, during the past two decades we have been inundated with gadgets causing electrosmog such as cell phones, microwave ovens and compact fluorescent light bulbs that interfere with the natural electromagnetic field of the human body.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified in 2011 mobile phone radiation as Group 2B – possibly carcinogenic. That means that there “could be some risk” of carcinogenicity. A lot of additional research into the long-term, heavy use of mobile phones needs to be conducted.

Clearly one part of cancer therapy is that we need to change or lifestyle and understand the way nature works. Modern medicine seems to take a one-track approach by “fighting” cancer with a cocktail of chemicals, dating back to 19th century Louis Pasteur’s theory that a cure of disease could only be achieved by destroying alien germs. His opponent Antoine Bechamp, in bitter rivalry with Pasteur at the time, believed that living entities called “microzymes” created bacteria in response to host and environmental factors. He claimed that bacteria could not invade a healthy host. Sadly Pasteur’s theory gained widespread acceptance in the scientific community with Bechamp’s thesis only recently returning from obscurity.

One clue in fighting cancer, is to keep the body’s natural immune system strong. Cells need a plentiful supply of fresh produce, harvested from good soils that can provide the essential nutrients to keep the body’s 70 billion cells in a natural equilibrium.

I am currently reading a fascinating book: “Healing – the GersonWay” which goes into much more detail on the topics discussed in this blog. The book outlines that an increasingly denatured, nutritionally empty, toxic modern diet is the main cause of today’s worsening health crisis. The Gerson Therapy puts particular emphasis on restoring proper functioning of the liver, which plays a crucial role in the detoxification of the body and restoring natural physiological activities.

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How to Deal with a Mean Colleague

People start misbehaving out of poor self-esteem and if they feel their ego is threatened

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Leadership in Liminal Times

During times of great change it is a leader’s job ito provide some firm footing for people, with assurances of what will not keep changing.

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Life´s a wave!

Alyce has some interesting thoughts on happiness and what can motivate employees

alyce gevers's avataralycegevers's Blog

I would like to start this morning with a quote from John Lennon:

When I was 5 years old, my mother always

told me that happiness was the key to life.

When I went to school, they asked me

what I wanted to be when I grew up. I

wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t

understand the assignment, and I told them

they didn’t understand life.

Are you happy?

I think these words from John Lennon are true for each and every one of us.  Who doesn´t want to be happy?  But for most of us, we´ve been trying to keep our head above water for so long, that we´ve forgotten how much we love to swim!

Have we fallen into the trap of believing that happiness is a luxury?

Do you subconsciously believe that happiness is reserved for the privileged or only to be had at great…

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What motivates employees?

Reino Gevers's avatarReinosBlog

There is a saying that at least every second worker is demotivated and has half his foot out of the door, looking for another job or with his mind on “automatic” in doing only those tasks that need to be done.

Employees often cite the reasons as having to deal with an annoying boss, a low salary, an uncomfortable work space, or stupid rules. Frederick Herzberg, Distinguished Professor of Management at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, is quoted as saying that even if managed brilliantly, most employees are still not motivated to work much harder or smarter.

“People are motivated, instead, by interesting work, challenge, and increasing responsibility. These intrinsic factors answer people’s deep-seated need for growth and achievement,” Herzberg is quoted as saying.

In our globalized market place there are fewer and fewer jobs out there that really fulfill basic human needs. There is no room for individual…

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What motivates employees?

There is a saying that at least every second worker is demotivated and has half his foot out of the door, looking for another job or with his mind on “automatic” in doing only those tasks that need to be done.

Employees often cite the reasons as having to deal with an annoying boss, a low salary, an uncomfortable work space, or stupid rules. Frederick Herzberg, Distinguished Professor of Management at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, is quoted as saying that even if managed brilliantly, most employees are still not motivated to work much harder or smarter.

“People are motivated, instead, by interesting work, challenge, and increasing responsibility. These intrinsic factors answer people’s deep-seated need for growth and achievement,” Herzberg is quoted as saying.

In our globalized market place there are fewer and fewer jobs out there that really fulfill basic human needs. There is no room for individual needs and growth potential. Even in formerly creative media jobs, employees are expected to conform to standardized “handbook procedures”. The result: People are becoming emotionally drained and burned out because they feel they are not being appreciated for who they are as human beings with soul needs.

Ygeneration

The “Y” generation of employees, those born between 1988-1994, are regarded as sophisticated, tech-savvy and immune to many of the “loyalty” values of their parents. They not only grew up with it all, they’ve seen it all and been exposed to it all since early childhood. Which means they are no longer willing to give full loyalty to a company, knowing they could be out on the street with the next recession or the next restructuring wave. They’ve seen mothers or fathers having sacrificed a lot of private happiness for a job, that has in the end left them “burned out”, cynical and bitter.

Of primary importance to the talented Y generation scouting the job market are values such as:

– Does the company go in sync with my own value system?

– Does it offer me room for personal growth, responsibility and honing of my talents?

– Do I feel comfortable and happy with the people around me at the workplace?

– Does it leave me enough time and energy to spend with my loved ones?

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Finding real nourishment

IMG_0144-001

We just had a wonderful workshop on the “Earth” Element. It comes at a good time here in the northern hemisphere with farmers bringing in their harvests. It is a time to reflect on what really nourishes us. It is not only about food.

What hurt or emotion am I still carrying around with me that burdens rather than nurtures me? Isn’t it time to let go?

More importantly: What am I feeding my mind with? My favourite motto is the ancient Zulu concept of Ubuntu. It not only means that we are formed and shaped by the people and the community around us. Ubuntu means taking responsibility for the well-being of all that is around us because it is that which makes us human.

Surround yourself with negative people and you become a negative person. Giving your body the right nutrients on a body and mind level is a major precondition to becoming a person with a happy and positive outlook on life. We are bombarded with electronic media and information from the Internet. What Information really serves and uplifts us? I like using social media like facebook. It is an important means of staying in touch and getting information, but sometimes it can be too much and is energy-sapping. We lose touch grounding, lose touch with reality or lose ourselves in a virtual world.

That is when it is time to find nourishment in nature, opening the senses to the wind on the skin, the smell of earth, the sound of birdsong, feeling the ground underneath ones feet.

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Health risk – artificial sweeteners

sweetener

Artificial sweeteners, taken by many people as a substitute to sugar, are toxic and a danger to your health!

Just a few days ago Nature magazine issued the results of another study, suggesting that artificial sweeteners may contribute, rather than alleviating obesity-related metabolic conditions.

Quoting the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, the research finds that differences in gut microbes may explain why some people can handle artificial sweeteners just fine while in an unknown percentage of others the sweeteners lead to diabetes.

Taken together, the data indicate that artificial sweeteners “may contribute to, rather than alleviate, obesity-related metabolic conditions, by altering the composition and function of bacterial populations in the gut,” Cathryn Nagler and Taylor Feehley of the pathology department at the University of Chicago said in a journal commentary.

Obesity and the related health risks including diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure are becoming a global problem because of what we eat and drink. Take this: One fourth of a bottle of ketchup is pure sugar. A spoonful of classic mayonnaise, for example, adds an extra 100 calories and 10 grams of fat to whatever you mix it with.

In addition a lot of people are unaware that their sugar intake can be massive if they have a habit of drinking sodas or so-called “energy drinks”. A classic can of coke contains the equivalent of about ten teaspoons of sugar. A 2007 study revealed that one or more sodas a day increased the risk of obesity by 31 per cent and the risk of metabolic syndrome by 44 per cent. Metabolic syndrome is defined by having at least three of the following: abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure or elevated trigloerides.

But that is only part of the problem. German consumer protection organisations have found that up to 70 different types of artificial sweeteners are finding their way into processed foods you buy in the supermarket.

We are having a great problem in telling our teenage son to avoid bringing home a certain “energy drink”. The food industry is very much aware that they have to catch consumers at a young age, making them dependent on the “sweet taste”. I see only a solution in effective health legislation, limiting the sugar content and artificial sweeteners in food.

Obesity is caused when the body has a higher energy intake than it can utilise. An athlete doing a daily run of about 30 kilometres would have no problem getting rid of the excess calories. The problem is that most of us have desk-bound jobs and too little exercise.

So what can be an immediate solution? Just try and replace the sodas with good water for a couple of weeks and see how much weight you lose. You can spice up the water with lemon, spices, apple chips or mint leaves – really tasty!

Try and do more of your own cooking with fresh produce from your own region. There is a saying that you are what you eat. Your mood and how you feel in your body is determined largely by what food you eat.

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Jamie Oliver: McDonalds Hamburger unfit for human consumption

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has won his long-fought battle against McDonalds, proving that their hamburgers are unfit for human consumption with the fatty parts of the beef “washed” in ammonium hydroxide and used in the filling of the burger.

The story has received little coverage in the mainstream media. Consumers appear bored or numbed by the numerous stories on food scandals in recent years. Or, we really seem to be going into denial as to how much the fast-food industry is destroying our health.

As I mentioned in my previous blog. What we eat is not only destroying our planet but also our health. There is more than enough evidence that the artificial substances in processed foods is responsible for much of the modern diseases such as diabetes, obesity, cancer and probably Alzheimer.hamburger

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