Tuesday 28 February 2012

Food For Thought

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH – THE SOURCE OF MERCY – THE MOST MERCIFUL

It's not just food, it's also how we think about food.

I have been thinking about this a lot recently. I have made an observation that when people learn a lot about health and nutrition, even though they enjoy better overall health when they act on their knowledge.

Personally, in the past I only had positive associations about food. When I ate some chocolate, my main thought was that I was getting energy from it. Cheese, for me, meant protein. Milk was calcium.

My life changed in many ways as I learned a lot about good nutrition. As I put my knowledge into action, I lost weight, my skin tone even improved and I felt fantastic compared to how I would always felt and got sick on and off.

Now, I don't personally think sickness had anything whatsoever to do with my new diet. My new diet was excellent. So what was the cause? I think the root was the fact that now I was acutely aware of all the foods that were 'bad' for me.

Eating chocolate no longer meant energy for me. Now it meant sugar (bad) and saturated fat (bad). So when I ate chocolate (which I find hard to resist), I was really telling myself that I was taking stuff that was bad for me into my body, whereas in the past I was affirming it's good qualities. The shift was in my mind and it was creating stress.

Similarly, I found myself obsessively reading labels for sugar and fat contents and feeling guilty when I ate something that had high contents of sugar, salt and fat. Funnily enough, I was actually imagining the internal damage they were doing to my body like a negative visualization. That's OK if we avoid the foods but it's not so handy if we eat them anyway.

I have been wondering if this could have created a negative placebo effect (a nocebo effect) that resulted in me getting more sickness. I think it did. The solution was to change what I told myself about foods.

Of course, it is important to eat a healthy diet. Diet is crucial for health. A healthy diet can reduce the likelihood of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer, as well as a number of other illnesses, and it can increase mobility as well as mental clarity.

But we also need to think wisely about food. It would make more sense to think of the positives we get from all foods and then just choose the ones that we know to be better for us in the long-term.

When we have a slip-up day from our diets (which I think most of us do), then we might simply remind ourselves that there is actually energy and nutrients to be obtained from whatever we are eating.

And, of course, I don't think it would be wise to test the power of food beliefs by eating typically high sugary, salty, and fatty foods and just telling ourselves that we are getting good nutrition from them.

I am talking about a sensible balance, where we eat wisely and healthily, but merely observe our minds a little, catching ourselves when we think negative about what we are eating.

Eating healthy is a choice. But choosing to eat healthy foods is different from cutting out unhealthy foods. On the surface it's the same, but the difference is in the mind. Cutting out unhealthy foods labels unhealthy stuff as bad, while choosing to eat healthy focuses, instead, on what is healthy. The difference is in the mind.

As we go through life, learning new things, we need not always dismiss what we knew or believed in the past, swapping it for new knowledge. Oftentimes, the wisest thing to do is to build on what we have learned up until then. That way, life doesn't have to be black and white, new instead of old, but can take on many textures and shades along the way. We can take in the new, but also retain what was good about the old.

That's how I think of things anyway. So that's just some of my thinking about food. As I said, it might not apply to you but it applies to more people than we would imagine.

Monday 13 February 2012

Nature's Voyage.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE SOURCE OF MERCY, THE MOST MERCIFUL.

Nature's Voyage.

When we speak of "relaxation" many will immediately think of, for example reclining in a comfortable chair in front of a television, relaxing in the garden or taking a holiday or leisure break. You might feel that you are already relaxed, however if you consciously check all of your muscle groups and your state of Mind you will usually soon discover that the reality is very different indeed. You might well find tension in various muscle groups preventing complete relaxation as well as tension and stress of the Mind. Pleasant and welcome though these more general forms of relaxation might be, they are not what we mean by "Relaxation" at a deeper level. 

Deep Physical Relaxation. 

The benefits of learning and regularly practicing deep physical relaxation simply cannot be understated which is why we often discuss this most important subject. In a state Deep Physical Relaxation brainwave frequencies automatically become slower, moving from the normal Beta rate to the slower Alpha rate. In very general terms, Beta may be thought of as the frequency of the Conscious Mind, while Alpha and Theta are the frequencies of the Subconscious Mind. Now in order to function in the material world, interact with others etc Beta brainwaves serve a valuable function; after all it would be impractical to walk around in a permanent trance like state when dealing with daily life. However, Beta is also the frequency of the Ego Mind which revels in "trying" to do things, and the more we "try", the more we are likely to "fail", simply because the Conscious, Ego Mind is almost powerless.

Source of all True Power is from our interface with our Subconscious Mind. When we sideline the powerless Conscious, Ego Mind and open ourselves to the Power of the Subconsciousness, then there is nothing we cannot achieve effortlessly. Most top performers in any sport, martial artists and others are accessing the power from the Subconscious Mind to achieve their great feats, which to them are effortless. It is only when the Conscious, Ego Mind intervenes that failure is almost inevitable.

The Alpha and Theta states are also the states of "inner connection" and "interaction" as with Remote Viewing, Mind  Projection etc, none of which are possible through the Conscious Mind. The more we relax, the slower our brainwaves become, and the more open we become to the source of true power. Nature's Voyage integrates powerful brainwave entrainment to facilitate Deep Physical Relaxation, which become progressively easier until once again becomes a natural ability, opening you to a much  greater potential, particularly when backed by Concentration and Imagination.

Single Pointed Concentration.

The ability to totally concentrate at will is not only extremely beneficial but in fact is one of the most important of all abilities, and one, together with Deep Physical Relaxation, upon which many other abilities ultimately rely. The benefits of developing the ability to totally concentrate at will includes but is not limited to the complete control of thoughts, absolute peace of Mind, self-confidence, inner strength, will power, ability to focus your Mind, improved memory, ability to make and carry out decisions, more control over your daily life, ability to study and learn much more quickly and efficiently, control over extraneous passing thoughts and not giving in to them, freedom from needless, annoyance, obsessive, compulsive or upsetting thoughts, routines and habits, inner happiness, the development of valuable abilities, more advanced powers of the imagination including visualization, and the ability to focus effectively. 

Many people have considerable difficulty in concentrating for more than a few seconds at a time, with the Mind constantly jumping around from thought to thought and subject to subject without any sort of conscious control or structure whatsoever. People are often heard to complain for example, “I cannot possibly think of a hundred things at once”, but therein is a real issue they are indeed thinking of a hundred things at once instead of just one single thought, the immediate task in hand or point of focus. Another expression for this inability to concentrate on a single thought is “Monkey Mind” an expression that describes the Mind constantly chattering away, endlessly creating mental "noise", thus dimming its true power, abilities and therefore effectiveness. Diluting the Mind with thoughts is like diluting anything; the totality of its effectiveness will be reduced in proportion to the amount of dilution as the concentrated effectiveness is scattered and dissipated. A single strongly focused thought is extremely powerful “Phenomena” which to most people would seem to be completely miraculous are easily possible by means of single pointed, completely focused and concentrated powers of the Mind. I hope you can now appreciate just how valuable the Power of Concentration really is both alone and with Deep Relaxation and Imagination.

Imagination.

When considering imagination it must never be confused with mere fantasy, unreal thoughts or simply as a “figment of the imagination”, but rather as an extremely powerful, natural ability that every human being without any exception possesses. 
Within the inner spheres of reality, as everyone will discover everything desired can be brought into manifestation by the use of will, intent and the power of focused, concentrated imagination. Thoughts take shape instantly and the more power and emotion projected into thoughts, the more real they become and the longer they will remain. Thoughts are vibration, manifestations of Energy. Most thoughts are transient in nature, that is to say they manifest, linger for a time depending on the focus and concentration applied and then dissipate. 

To create something more permanent for example the use of Imagination with as much will, intent and concentration as possible. By constantly making use of and thinking about a particular desire, for example a home, the more solid and real it will become and the longer it will persist. As we already know, the entire Ether of Universe consists of vibration, which is Energy. Thoughts, emotions and powers of the imagination are therefore also degrees of vibration of the same Energy. Keep in Mind that Energy cannot be created or destroyed by us and it can only be influenced. It is the interaction and influence of Energy by Mind that results in the manifestation of the objects that are the focus of and are therefore influenced by the imagination in accordance with Divine laws. Exactly the same laws also apply to Expression of Experience into the physical world. Before anything at all can manifest as a reality into the physical world it must first be preceded by thought, a very powerful characteristic of which is imagination supported by focused, single pointed Concentration, with Faith, Belief and Feeling. I hope you enjoy this Nature's Voyage, the first of many powerful tracks I am developing and making available exclusively to help you to achieve your fullest potential in the most enjoyable and effective way.