Friday, May 25, 2018

Delicious Chia Lemonade


Chia seeds are widely available and have tremendous anti-inflammatory qualities.  Being rich in Omega 3 fatty acids they help with arthritis, joint pain and ulcerative colitis and as well they lower the C-reactive protein levels in the body.  Chia seeds also help to stabilize blood sugars and reduce blood pressure.  They don't go rancid and have no pests, so they can be grown with out the use of any poisons.  Why not try this delightfully easy, delicious and nutritious, refined-sugar-free recipe today?  Have some fun quenching your thirst today!   

© Josephine Laing 2017

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Natural Rhythms, Cycles and the Etheric Period



We sleep and then we rise.  We take naps or have quiet times amidst the flow of our busy days.  The tides run high and then they run low.  We always have this pattern of increased energy and then a time of rest or less and it is natural and normal and good.

Here it is, now spring again, coming up out of the cold and slowed growth of winter.  The grasses and plants are reaching for the sun once more.  The warming days are resulting in an abundance of photosynthesis and growth is abounding everywhere.  Later in the fall, the annual plants will shrivel, fade and die; along with the leaves from the trees, they will fall, returning to the ground from whence they came.

Similar patterns can be seen in the movements of the moon through the various constellations in the heavens above, or the larger patterns of the sun and other planets dancing more slowly across the sky full of stars.  They arise, pass on by and then later they return again.

Like the sine and cosine waves, curving up and then rounding down, we have the natural cycles of our daily body clocks.  These underlie the larger intervals of our bio-rhythms rising and then fading every few days or so   In the grander scheme, birth and childhood give rise to puberty which rises up further into adulthood rounding into maturity and followed by old age and death.  

Similarly, the monthly cycles of women begin with the quiet clearing of the womb progressing into an interest in a more social time as the egg matures.  This can be followed by conception and a rising up into the cycle of new life or it can move once more into quieter times as the body prepares for and then begins it's cleansing time again.  

Patterns like these don't usually stop.  After menopause, if we pay attention to our body's subtle cues, we can notice our own etheric period.  This is not a twenty-eight day cycle like a woman experiences for forty years or so after her menarche.  The etheric period is more like a three month cycle, slowly coming up out of a more quiet time for a few weeks, then moving into a companionable way of being, followed by a further rising up into a gregarious way of being for several weeks and then rounding the curve into a month or so spent going deeper and deeper within.  And though it is not commonly acknowledged in our culture, men have these same sorts of cycles as well.  Male menopause is increasingly being accepted as a real phenomenon.  And it is all good.

So, let's stop resisting and start giving ourselves over to these natural rhythms and cycles.  We are not meant to continuously crank out productive hours like machines, day after day, year after year, in some sort of corporate ideal.  We are naturally much less efficient then that.  Isn't it time we let ourselves be who we truly are and stop riding ourselves so hard, cranking up the caffeine, trying so desperately to stay afloat?  How about if we let ourselves admit that we'd really rather go out and play, or take a nap, depending on the time of day or month or year?  Doesn't that sound like a refreshing change?  We are the ones who are creating these sorts of work-a-day patterns after all.  So, perhaps the time has come for us to try on the idea of joining the rest of nature and freeing ourselves to stand up for who were designed to be.   

© Josephine Laing 2018