British Medical Journal Study Without Vested Interests in Statin Drugs
by Paul Fassa Health Impact News
The saturated fat lie is officially exposed now that the British Journal of Sports Medicine, a division of the BMJ (British Medical Journal), emphatically declared:
Saturated fat does not clog the arteries: coronary heart disease is a chronic inflammatory condition, the risk of which can be effectively reduced from healthy lifestyle interventions. (Emphasis added)
Of course, the lie may persist for some time. Health Impact News readers and a relative handful of knowledgeable consumers already know this.
Even so, most mainstream and even holistic doctors, nutritionists, and most health writers, orthodox and alternative, still maintain the prevailing false dogma of saturated fat as the villain creating poor heart health. More on that here.
Cholesterol is Essential to Your Body
Some health experts out of the saturated fat dogma box even call cholesterol an innocent bystander trying to help curb inflammation. The importance of cholesterol for overall health has been observed by many over the past decade.
They include the first phase of our skin for transforming sunlight into vitamin D3, building cell walls throughout our bodies, and comprising most of our brains’ structure. Reducing cholesterol artificially with statin drugs often leads to early dementia and other serious side effects. More on that here.
Other sources say the plaque could be formed from excessive calcium intake that doesn’t get into bone-matter because other nutrients that help calcium get into bone-matter are missing. Magnesium, silica, and vitamin K2 are vital for keeping calcium out of the blood where it can collect and form plaque in blood vessels. (Source)
None of this is new to Health Impact News‘ extensive coverage of false fat dogma and promotion. But the BMJ paper disclosed a surprising cardiac inflammatory source: unresolved childhood trauma. Their study determined that:
chronic stress increases glucocorticoid receptor resistance, which results in failure to downregulate the inflammatory response.
With the recent suicidal death of comedian Robin Williams still fresh in our minds and hearts, I thought I would spend the last part of this series on depression considering the physiology of addiction in general and the nutritional profile of an alcoholic, along with some helpful nutritional and herbal support protocols.
The question I would like to explore and hopefully shed some light on is, “What comes first: depression or addiction? ” My immediate suggestion is that addiction comes first. Here’s why I think addiction comes before depression.
Quite simply put, alcohol depletes B Vitamin in the blood stream and over time literally cooks and petrifies the liver. The liver then can no longer process its chemistry, chief among which is the conversion of blood sugar to glycogen (inositol) for brain fuel. The brain’s energy depends on glycogen, and without B Vitamins, the pancreas cannot make insulin. Without insulin, blood sugar cannot be delivered to the brain and the cells of the body. A severe drop in energy occurs which triggers a craving for sugar. Alcohol turns to sugar in the blood stream. The social drinker turns more and more to alcohol for sugar, not to mention inhibition and escape from reality. As liver function is compromised, vital nutrients such as iron and glycogen, as well as hormones, fail to be released into the blood stream, and left-over hormones do not get deactivated. Without nutrients and sugar, the brain cannot function. Its chemistry becomes desperately imbalanced. Depression sets in.
This is not to say that clinical depression doesn’t come before addiction, especially to prescription drugs and, of course, recreational drugs. Alcohol, of course, is a drug. So, a person who is depressed may turn to drugs and alcohol for a mental and emotional “high.” In this instance, depression does come first.
As I considered in the previous post of July 22nd, depression is a spiritual event. It is the suppression of love, the imprisonment of the Self; a prison from which escape seems increasingly impossible. Suicide is often chosen as the only way out.
WHAT SUICIDE ISN’T
Suicide is not a cowardly act nor a show of weakness. On the contrary, it takes a huge amount of courage and compassion. Courage to do the irreversible and compassion for one’s family and close friends upon whom the person will no longer be a problem or a burden. Suicide totally removes one from the stressful and overwhelming reality of one’s world. If you have time to read a well-written and thoughtful article which appeared on Facebook in the wake of Robin’s suicide, click on this link to open a separate window. “The Death Of Robin Williams, And What Suicide Isn’t” by Elizabeth Hawksworth.
A NUTRITIONAL PROGRAM TO SUPPORT THE BODY WITH ALCOHOLISM AND DEPRESSION
St. John’s Wort has been known to relieve depression, and here’s why. This herb has a way of detoxifying the pathways in the liver that process and release stored vital nutrients into the bloodstream. (See the commentary below). It’s a liver detox herb, so powerful that it even destroys drugs, prescription and so-called “recreational” drugs, rendering them impotent and ineffective. That’s a drawback for someone on heart and other crisis intervention medications. You cannot take St. John’s Wort if you are taking prescription drugs for crisis intervention and prevention (such as heart attack, hypertension and stroke.)
A LIVER DETOX AND REPAIR PROTOCOL
You can detox your liver with a 21-day program. All you have to do is refrain completely from refined carbohydrates and take a few pills and capsules with your daily meals. There are two phases to this detox program.
Phase I: neutralizes many chemicals directly and excretes them in the bile. St. John’s Wort-IMT (3 capsules per day: 1 with each meal.) will destroy drugs by doubling the liver P450 enzyme action that makes drugs ineffective. NOT TO BE TAKEN WHEN ON CRITICAL PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS.
FOODS THAT FACILITATE LIVER DETOX
Phase II: Those not handled by Phase I must be further processed by: a) Sulfation: egg yolk, red peppers, garlic, onions, broccoli, Brussels sprouts; b) Glutathione conjugation: asparagus, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts; c) Glucoronidation: sulphur containing foods as in Sulfation (above); d) Methylation: choline, betaine, Folic Acid, B12, raw beets.
THE 21-DAY PHASE I AND PHASE II LIVER DETOX PROGRAM
(NOTE: The following products are by Standard Process Labs and Medi-Herb and are available only through healthcare professionals. It is not recommended to take these products without the professional management of a qualified healthcare practitioner.)
Hepatrophin (3/day) – Helps repair and rebuild the liver. Helps the liver release iron and other stored nutrients and hormones into the bloodstream.
St. John’s Wort-IMT (3) – NOT TO BE USED WHEN ON CRITICAL MEDICATIONS (See commentary below)
LivCo (3) – A synergistic combination of Schisandra fruit, Rosemary leaf and Milk Thistle seed (Silymarin).
A-F Betafood (6) – Raw beet tops for liver and gallbladder detox. Thins thick bile for passage through the bile duct.
Garlic (2 capsules/day) – Contains sulfur, allicin and methyl allytrisulfide. Purifies the blood. Kills yeast.
SP Green Food (6) – A cruciferous vegetable blend contains barley grass juice powder, buckwheat juice powder, Brussels sprouts powder, kale powder and alfalfa sprouts powder, all of which support the P450 enzyme system of liver detoxification.
Spanish Black Radish (6) – Supports gastrointestinal tract function, promoting the body’s detoxification mechanism by cleansing the colon through excretion of toxic materials. It also contains sulfur, which has an antibiotic action. It acts as a diuretic and promotes systemic detoxification by activating the liver’s primary detoxification mechanism, the cytochrome P450 and the Phase II enzyme system.
Cholacol II (4 tabs. 15 minutes before meals) – Bentonite clay grabs and absorbs toxic metals and chemicals being excreted by the liver and dumped into the intestinal tract for elimination. This prevents toxins from being taken up into the body during elimination through the gut.
The following commentary on St. John’s Wort-IMT is excerpted from the CLINICAL REFERENCE GUIDE put out to professionals by Standard Process and Medi-Herb. It is such an important herbal/nutritional supplement that I want my readers to fully understand it. So I am re-publishing it here.
Commentary: ST. JOHN’S WORT- IMT includes INOSITOL and MIN- TRAN and is present in a base of calcium, magnesium, alfalfa, carrot oil, and kelp, which all function synergistically to support the nervous system. St. John’s Wort is used in cases of mild to moderate depression particularly when side effects from standard anti-depressant drugs become intolerable to the patient. Also, it is usable with symptoms of menopause, neuralgia, sciatica, and spinal injuries. In addition to offering the known therapeutic benefits of ST. JOHN’S WORT, this product specifically supports thyroid function. This is critical as even sub-clinical hypothyroidism can be associated with incidences of mild to severe depression and manic-depressive episodes. Clinical studies have shown ST. JOHN’S WORT to produce similar and/or better results when compared to antidepressant drugs in the treatment of mild to moderate depression (Vorbach ED et aI., 1997; Pharmacopsych 30:S81-5). An additional benefit found was the absence of significant side effects. INOSITOL has therapeutic effects in mood disorders that are generally responsive to selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors. Clinical studies suggest that conditions including depression, pain and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) show beneficial results with the use of INOSITOL, but without the adverse side effects of TCA’s (Benjamin 1., et al. Psychopharmacol Bull 31(1):167-75, 1995).
IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO THE ABOVE
At least do this for your liver over a period of six weeks to help it detoxify, repair and rebuild.
(NOTE: The following products are by Standard Process Labs and Medi-Herb and are available only through healthcare professionals. It is not recommended to take these products without the professional management of a qualified healthcare practitioner.)
Livaplex – Start with 2 per day and build up to 6. This is a liver detox formulation of synergistic whole food nutrients.
Catalyn – 6 tablets per day, 3 with breakfast and 3 with dinner. This is a multiple vitamin and mineral supplement, the best on the planet.
Albaplex – 6 capsules per day (3 morn and 3 eve). This will help the kidneys and liver detox and support the immune system in dealing with infection.
Protefood – 3 capsules per day (1 with ea. meal). This will take sugar cravings away by balancing blood sugar.
Cataplex B – 6 tablets per day (3 morn and 3 eve) to build up the blood. Alcohol depletes B Vitamin.
Silymarin – 3 tablets per day. An herbal support for liver repair.
Disclaimer: None of the above recommendations and products are intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease but are solely intended to support normal organ and tissue function in the human body.
If I can be of any assistance to you with these programs, feel free to contact me by email. Until my next post . . .
here’s to your health and healing.
Anthony Palombo, D.C.
Email: dranthonypalombo@live.com
Visit my other blog at HealingTones.org for inspirational reading. As of today, 120 countries have visited my blogs.
Oh, this is too good to not pass on. Just when I’m preparing to write this third post on depression, Spirtual Ecology posted this amazing study on Facebook. No wonder there’s so much depression on the planet. We’re using up all our oxygen bitching and complaining.
New Study Finds Most Of Earth’s Oxygen Used For Complaining
SEATTLE—Following a multiyear study of atmospheric gases and their role in organic processes on earth, a team of researchers at the University of Washington reported this week that the majority of the oxygen on the planet is used for complaining. “By carefully measuring the processes of gas exchange, the respiratory capacities of living organisms, and resulting metabolic activities, we discovered that most oxygen molecules in Earth’s troposphere are used for the purposes of sighing, whining, and most commonly, complaining,” said the study’s lead author, James Lauderio, who noted that an adult human converts an average of 19 cubic feet of oxygen per day into petty grievances about acquaintances, nitpicking objections about popular media or the weather, criticisms about tasks they are performing, and general fussing with family members. “And while humans are the species most responsible for transforming oxygen into complaints, it’s important to note that other animal life, including mammals, birds, and reptiles, also convert massive amounts of O2 into displeased growls and screeches about their habitats and food sources.” Lauderio added that the research team has not been able to determine a verifiable upper limit to the number of complaints that can be produced from a single inhalation, with many human subjects reportedly producing upwards of 40 or more complaints with each breath.
Chronic complaint can lead not only to oxygen depletion but to clinical depression. It has to do with your hormones.
DEPRESSION:THE ENDOCRINE CONNECTION
Hormones are designed to convey spirits into and through the body temple. They are produced by spirit and not by the brain. Your endocrine system of seven ductless glands is the sole domain of the spirit– your spirit. St. John describes them as “lamps of fire” in his Book of Revelation:
And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices; and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. (Rev. 4:5)
The “throne” in your body temple is your Pineal Gland, the seat of the Spirit of Love. “Fire” is an apt way of depicting the expression of spirit through the human capacity of the heart. The heart is the capacity for expression spirit, which issues forth as a flame at times . . . even as “lightnings and thunderings.” These lightnings and thunderings can be terribly destructive or terribly creative. It’s our choice as to which they will be.
I made a tone-setting statement in the first post of this series on depression which I will bring forward here.
Depression is fundamentally about the suppression of energy. In a certain sense, it is a spiritual event. All energy is love. Love is all that IS. Energy expresses through form, and when that expression is thwarted, suppressed or shut down, pressure begins to build behind the dam of resistance to whatever is trying to find expression, which is love or joy. The expression of love and joy allows for release of this energy. Elation is the result. On the other hand, suppression of love and joy prevents the release of this energy. Depression is then the result.
This is fundamentally and biochemically true. It’s also bio-energetically true. The life energy that courses through your body will flow in the direction of your response to environmental events; even if those events are feelings stewing inside your heart and mind. Your response to those events is what determines the production of hormones in your endocrine glands. (See my first post of this series for how this works.) Those hormones, by design and purpose, will be encoded by the kind of spirit that is brewing in your heart to deliver your message to your world. That spirit will accurately manifest the thought forms and intentions that you project in your expression. The end result will be your creation . . . and your experience. Look down in complaint and criticism and you will go down. Even your words fall to the ground. And you will become depressed. Your circumstance will deteriorate even further.
By the same principle of response, look up in praise and thanksgiving and you will go up. Even your words will rise to inspire and uplift your circumstance rather than cast it down in complaint and dissatisfaction. And you will quickly come out of your depression into elation. That’s the way the principle of response works. We move in the direction of our response. It’s a great principle. We can use it to our advantage or disadvantage, especially when we are under pressure. Just like the proverbial bar of soap that will pop up or down depending on the direction in which you point it. Look down and go down. Look up and go up. In this principle lies the cause and cure of depression. All other approaches from without in are but therapies, which have their use.
IMBALANCE IN BRAIN CHEMISTRY AN EXCUSE
I frequently hear what I will call the excuse that a person’s depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. This can be so and is the case in what is called “clinical depression.” Brain chemistry imbalance is at the root of such conditions as manic depression and bipolar disorders and paranoid schizophrenia. Well, what system produces brain chemistry? The endocrine system of hormonal glands. Who controls the endocrine system? I do. You do. We control our hormonal output by the spirits and attitudes we harbor and express through our feelings, thoughts words and actions. We are not victims subject to our brain chemistry and hormones. We are the masters of our brains and hormones. In the case of depression and all other forms of dis-ease in our body-mind-spirit continuum, we are their perpetrators not their victims. We victimize our endocrine system and brains. By the same token, we are their saviors and redeemers.
I am reminded of a story my mentor, Dr. Bill Bahan, used in his whole-health symposiums. This Italian fellow came to work with his lunch box every day. When he opened his lunch box to eat his lunch, he would always complain: “Ugh! Cream-a- cheese sandwiches! I hate-a-cream-a-cheese sandwiches!” Every day, when he sat down with his buddies to eat lunch, he would open his lunch box and exclaim: “Ugh! Cream-a-cheese sandwiches? I hate-a-cream-a-cheese sandwiches!” Well, after several days of hearing the same complaint every day, one of his buddies said: “Every day you bring the same lunch to work and complain about your cream-a-cheese sandwiches. Why don’t you have your wife make you a different sandwich?” To which this fellow replied: “My wife?! I’m-a-not-a married. I make-a-them myself!”
Laughter’s the best medicine, especially when we can laugh at ourselves. I’m not suggesting in this series of posts that appropriate medications should not be taken in cases of clinical depression and bipolar disorders of the brain. What I am offering is an opportunity to look more deeply for the cause and cure of depression. While you’re medicating your brain, take time to meditate on cause. If complaint brings you down, then try a little thankfulness. Some say they can’t be thankful and optimistic “under the circumstances” they find themselves. To that I would say: “Come up above your circumstances by expressing a spirit of joy and appreciation. Will it work? you ask. You won’t know unless and until you try it. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, to use an old cliche.
The Biblical guidance is: “In all things give thanks.” That would be a constant and continual source of blessing to your body, you brain and your heart. A greatly needed blessing to our world.
Here’s to your health and healing,
Dr. Anthony Palombo
Visit my HealingTones.org blog for inspiring articles on sacred energy.
WELCOME GUAM! Someone in Guam visited my blogs yesterday (July 28, 2014). Guam, a United States territory, is the largest of the Micronesian Islands, located just south of the Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean with the Philippine Sea to its east. This makes 118 countries that have visited my blogs.
In part 1 of this series on depression, we had a look at blood sugar imbalance as a cause of one kind of depression. In this post we could have a look at the gut-brain connection to find another possible cause, as all diseases seem to start in the gut. I will kick this consideration off with a short video clip by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD, author or Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), on the importance of a healthy gut flora. Here’s a link to a website on the gut-brain connection. http://www.depressionanxietydiet.com/gut-brain-connection-depression-anxiety/Dr. Campbell-McBride makes a good case for why there is so much mental illness and depression in increasingly more and more people. Diet and nutrition obviously play major roles in mental health issues.
There’s a great article in Scientific America, which I will excerpt here just enough to entice you to read the entire article. I highly recommend this article to my blog followers and visitors.
Think Twice: How the Gut’s “Second Brain” Influences Mood and Well-Being
The emerging and surprising view of how the enteric nervous system in our bellies goes far beyond just processing the food we eat.
As Olympians go for the gold in Vancouver, eventhe steeliest are likely to experience that familiar feeling of “butterflies” in the stomach. Underlying this sensation is an often-overlooked network of neurons lining our guts that is so extensive some scientists have nicknamed it our “second brain”.A deeper understanding of this mass of neural tissue, filled with important neurotransmitters, is revealing that it does much more than merely handle digestion or inflict the occasional nervous pang. The little brain in our innards, in connection with the big one in our skulls, partly determines our mental state and plays key roles in certain diseases throughout the body. . . .
“The second brain doesn’t help with the great thought processes…religion, philosophy and poetry is left to the brain in the head,” says Michael Gershon, chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, an expert in the nascent field of neurogastroenterology and author of the 1998 book The Second Brain(HarperCollins).. . .
The second brain informs our state of mind in other more obscure ways, as well. “A big part of our emotions are probably influenced by the nerves in our gut,” Mayer says. Butterflies in the stomach—signaling in the gut as part of our physiological stress response, Gershon says—is but one example. Although gastrointestinal (GI) turmoil can sour one’s moods, everyday emotional well-being may rely on messages from the brain below to the brain above. For example, electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve—a useful treatment for depression—may mimic these signals, Gershon says.Given the two brains’ commonalities, other depression treatments that target the mind can unintentionally impact the gut.
The enteric nervous system uses more than 30 neurotransmitters, just like the brain, and in fact 95 percent of the body’s serotonin is found in the bowels. Because antidepressant medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) increase serotonin levels, it’s little wonder that meds meant to cause chemical changes in the mind often provoke GI issues as a side effect. Irritable bowel syndrome—which afflicts more than two million Americans—also arises in part from too much serotonin in our entrails, and could perhaps be regarded as a “mental illness” of the second brain.
Scientists are learning that the serotonin made by the enteric nervous system might also play a role in more surprising diseases: In a new Nature Medicinestudy published online February 7, a drug that inhibited the release of serotonin from the gut counteracted the bone-deteriorating disease osteoporosis in postmenopausal rodents. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) “It was totally unexpected that the gut would regulate bone mass to the extent that one could use this regulation to cure—at least in rodents—osteoporosis,” says Gerard Karsenty, lead author of the study and chair of the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University Medical Center.
Serotonin seeping from the second brain might even play some part in autism, the developmental disorder often first noticed in early childhood. Gershon has discovered that the same genes involved in synapse formation between neurons in the brain are involved in the alimentary synapse formation. “If these genes are affected in autism,” he says, “it could explain why so many kids with autism have GI motor abnormalities” in addition to elevated levels of gut-produced serotonin in their blood.
This may give us a new appreciation and meaningful insight into the adage “Listen to your gut feeling.” This article leaves little doubt about the importance of a healthy gut flora. There are numerous health products out there to help clean up your alimentary canal and keep it well supplied with friendly bacteria. Fasting is one way to give the gut a reprieve from its primary duty of digesting the seventy tons of food we pass through it over an average lifespan.
Dr. Depak Chopra recommends a one-day fast every week to foster the production of growth hormones and thereby add years to one’s life. I haven’t personally heeded his advice, but I have fasted for as much as seven days, and I can attest to the incredible impact fasting has on one’s mental and visual acuity and function.
Fasting is safer under the supervision of a health practitioner or physician and should not be done without proper preparation and professional guidance. I’m not going to spend time here on all the ways to help keep a healthy intestinal tract. That is readily available on the web and in health related books. I will only tout and highly recommend the 21-day total body cleanse put out by Standard Process Labs in their Purification Kit at a moderate cost of $250. That I make my readers aware of the gut-brain connection in mental health and illness issues, such as depression, is sufficient for this post. Until my next post in this series,
Here’s to your mental health and healing,
Anthony Palombo, DC
Visit my second blog at HealingTones.org for inspired writing on the spiritual and energetic aspects of health and life.
In the last issue, we gave in depth consideration to the problem of identifying with one’s disease, and I suggested one could easily identify oneself as a human being who simply has a limitation, for example, in handling alcohol in the case of alcoholism, or sugar in the case of diabetes, rather than continuing to identify oneself as “an alcoholic” or “a diabetic,” thereby fixing the condition firmly in consciousness as incorrigible. We looked at the roles that consciousness and imagination play in creating reality. Essentially, to use an old aphorism, As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
We are human beings with physical, mental and emotional capacities, which are subject to disease and dysfunction. In the next few issues we will take each of these capacities and examine their purpose and, more to the point, what causes them to become ill and what nourishes them back to health. Let’s take the mind first, since it is probably the capacity we use and abuse most in our lives. It’s also the capacity that is generally over-medicated with drugs that have very dangerous side effects.
BODY AND MIND ARE INSEPARABLE
First of all, the conscious mind is a capacity of the physical body. It is a fluid, energetic substance that arises out of the physical body as long as life is present. So, in addressing mental health, we have to address physical health, which I will do in my next issue of Health Light. Let’s consider in this issue the design, purpose, and function of our mental capacity.
Like the water in this picture, the conscious mind is designed to reflect and focus the light of intelligence, or truth. In other words, the human mind is a light-bearer, to use a Biblical metaphor. Ideally, it has a luciferous quality about it that lends insight to our thinking and contemplation by casting light on an issue or situation.
NOURISHED BY TRUTH
The mind is driven and nourished by truth. Truth is what the mind is ideally interested in and seeking. Nothing settles the honest mind like truth. Conversely, nothing unsettles it like untruth and being lied to.
Untruth is at the root of all mental illness. There are other factors, of course, such as chemical imbalance in the brain, malnutrition and physical illness, all of which affect the mind’s ability to function. Ultimately, however, at the root of all mental illness and insanity is the lie, the untruth, the dishonesty, the deceit and denial, the ingenuine, the pretense, amnesia from past trauma, and buried memories of unresolved hurt, just to name a few factors. These form the underlying cause of mental illness. (I will address the physical and chemical factors and some natural solutions, along with alternative solutions to emotional trauma, in the next issue.)
Nourish by truth, the mind will function happily and healthfully. It’s when the mind is starved from truth that it becomes a liar that lives in denial of problems in life, problems that are seeking resolution in the truth. A mind that is disconnected from truth and from reality becomes flighty, unstable and untrustworthy. Counselors and spiritual guides can help reconnect the mind of a person with truth and reality. Drugs, which too many psychotherapists administer these days, do nothing to get to the real cause of mental illness. They only help a person cope with their dysfunction by manipulating brain chemistry. Nutritional and herbal therapy offer more natural support to the healing of the mind, mainly because they address the chemical/nutritional imbalances in the physical body, which includes the brain, a topic we will explore next issue.
USE ACCORDING TO ITS DESIGN AND PURPOSE
As with all things, our human capacities function well and give no trouble as long as they are used according to their inherent design and intended purpose. A simple way of looking at the function of the mind is to understand its design and purpose.
The individual human mind is a very thin layer of rather fluid energy that is designed to be focused and concentrated in such a way as to form a lens through which one may look at things as through a microscope or a magnifying glass. Spread thin, it is of no value as a lens. It gets spread thin when we give it too much to think about at one time, or when we allow it to wander off into areas that are not its business, such as minding other people’s affairs or trying to see into the future or figure out the past. This is the state of a self-active mind. Anytime my mind wanders off, I simply call it back. You can talk to your mind, you know. “Come back here! That’s not your business! Stop worrying about that! Pay attention to what is right here in front of you!” And do it in a loving way. The mind always obeys the command of love and is drawn to love.
The conscious mind has a partner in the sub-conscious mind and memory. Like a water wheel, it dips down into the subconscious memory to pick up thought forms. It then forms new thoughts out of these stored thought forms. As long as it is connected and listening to the sub-conscious mind, the conscious mind shares in a stream of thought and ideas that makes it easy to re-member them, i.e. put them together in a new way for new thought forms pertinent to the moment at hand.
The conscious mind sometimes gets into trouble trying desperately to gather lots of “knowledge” in order to become “smart” or “educated.” It prides itself sometimes on how much it “knows,” most of which is nothing more than concepts and beliefs borrowed from others and from books. It can get so busy in its self-active state gathering information that it forgets its connection to the sub-conscious mind, its true source of stored information, causing memory failure, or the inability to re-member things. It even forgets its connection with the All that is, with God and truth, its Source of nourishment. Disconnected from Source, it spins out of control at times and can even lose its way in the dark and devious mind-made world of greed-driven production and consumption.
A RIGID MIND WILL BREAK
We can know only what we experience. Our experiences establish our authority. Concepts and beliefs we do not own from experience give us no real authority. We know “about” but we do not know in fact. This knowing about is illusional and can be dangerous as it sets us up for disillusionment. Disillusionment can be a blessing, but it can also be a breaking point for a rigid mind. We’ve all had a pet belief or concept challenged, even shattered. A mental break down may occur when one’s core beliefs about reality are shattered and the mind doesn’t have anything to hold onto that gives it a sense, though false, of “knowing” how things are. I wonder sometimes if the mind itself can be lost and shattered to the point of dissipating altogether, and if the substance the mind is made of can be regenerated. A broken mind can be mended and made whole again by love, compassion, and understanding. These are truth to a fragmented mind.
LISTEN TO YOUR TRUTH
Just as thoughts come in from without, thoughts are also coming from above and within. These are the thoughts that we really need to hear and entertain because they are coming from out of the River of Life and bear messages of truth. They are “our truth” that is looking for “our voice” to speak it into our world. We are often too busy listening to others’ thoughts and processing information from outside to hear what Life is saying to us from within. This is another way the mind can lose it connection with Source.
In that state of disconnection the mind is no longer turned by the River of Life, which flows at a steady pace and is never in a hurry. This is the proverbial river that we sometimes find ourselves pushing to get ourselves down stream into the future quicker so we can get what we think is good for us, or what we want NOW. Pushing this river is tiring and can lead to exhaustion, even insanity. The mind gets tired of cranking out life instead of letting the River of Life turn it in its own steady flow and rhythm.
GUARDIAN OF BODY & SOUL
Not minding its own affairs, the mind easily forgets its responsibility to the body, to which it owes its very existence. Our minds can get so busy that they can’t even think clearly about proper nourishment for the body. Junk food and comfort food become our diet, eating on the run most of the time, or just skipping meals to have more time to work on a project. Some people skip breakfast altogether, the most important meal of the day, and ask their body and mind to function on a cup or three of coffee. Caffeine is a drug not nourishment. Little wonder our minds, kick-started with caffeine, spread thin and break down.
LOVE THE TRUTH ABOVE ALL ELSE
Truth, like water, seeks its own level. Let the mind be in love with the truth. If you love the truth above all else, you will always be drawn toward truth. Your body is one with truth. You can trust it. It cannot lie. Let your mind be still and gathered around the body to serve its needs. The body is in the moment – where the River of Life is flowing. Let the mind be in the moment with the body and open to the flow of Life from within. Trust the river flowing through the subconscious mind like a wellspring to bring you what you need to know in each moment.
RE-MEMBER WITH TRUTH
Let the mind get connected again to its storehouse of memory in the sub-conscious mind — re-member with truth. That’s where its connection with God is, with truth, with YOU. And if it tries to wander off into the past or the future, simply say to it. . .
Hey, get back here. Get behind me, not in front of me leading the way. I will lead the way with my spirit. I am the way for you. Trust me and I will lead you forth into creative ventures all in good time. I am the truth for you, offering you balanced control and freedom in truth. I am your life. Eat and drink at my table and fountain. You belong to me. I love and appreciate you. Take leave of your wanderings – and wonderings. Tend to the needs of my body, and my soul. That’s your soul purpose. I need you to keep watch over my heart and to shine my light into my world. You are my light bearer, not the light itself. I am the light of my world. How can I shine into the world if you are busy trying to be the bright one, the know-it-all? Be still and know Me and you will know all you need to know. Be still and know that I am. Be still and know all you need to know in each moment. Focus so that I can see what’s right in front of me needing my attention.
I’m not talking about the human ego here driving the mind to do its bidding like a task master. I’m talking about the authentic Self, the divine being you are, taking the mind in hand in a loving but firm way. In that identity, speak to your mind and retrieve it from its lonely wanderings. Heal your mind.
This poem by Martin Cecil speaks to the healing of the body-mind:
THUS IT IS
From age to age Love’s word rings forth,
“The truth is true and all is well
Unconquerable life prevails.”
O man, whose strident dreams Lead gravewards,
Return to calm and noble Character of Life.
Blaze forth pure virtue;
Depart false ambition’s restless schemes.
Busy thought and troubled feeling
Trespass not in virtue’s wise serenity
Where firm control and awful power Eternally abide.
Here earth’s pains are healed
And cruel chaos of mind’s spawning
Is called again to order and to beauty.
Thus it is, thus it has always been, and thus will it ever be so. My prayer for you is that you will come to know, if you don’t already, how it really is. Be still and let your truth find you.
To your health and healing,
Dr. Tony Palombo
Visit my Healing Tones blog for an inspiring journey through the quantum world of space-time and time-space, where we literally live on the threshold of infinity.
Tips on curcumin (curry) for brain, heart and sugar metabolism.
When you have 15 minutes to spare, you must take the time to view this video, “The Unconscious Mind Unveiled” by cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton. “Evolution implies that creation is incomplete.”
British Medical Journal Study Without Vested Interests in Statin Drugs
Health Light Newsletter 