Feeling tired? Exhausted? Lacking concentration? Lacking motivation? Whilst energy drinks, coffee, and pharmaceuticals may offer a quick short-term solution and “hit” of energy, they are not doing you, your loved ones or the planet any favors.

If you’d like to get off the roller coaster ride of energy highs and lows, it might be a good idea to consider other options. Following is a number of lifestyle choices and rituals specifically targeted to help improve energy levels. I encourage you to challenge yourself this next month by making a conscious effort to implement these alternatives in to your everyday life, and take note of how you feel in four weeks’ time.

Invigorate your body and mind. Take a few minutes to give yourself an energizing massage. Focus on your breathing. Stretch and exercise your body. Movement is the key to a healthy body, mind and soul. Moisturize your skin with invigorating oils. Nourish yourself with a well balanced meal and drink an adequate amount of purified water each day. Radiate with life.

Diet

Give up stimulants such as coffee, sugar and mainstream chocolate for one month and make a conscious effort to become aware of the difference in how you feel. Yes, you may suffer withdrawal symptoms such as headaches and fatigue for a couple of days but once you push through these 2 – 4 days, you’ll come out the other end feeling so much better.

Choose herbal teas instead of coffee.

Choose protein rich foods such as nuts, seeds or hummus on carrots, cucumber and celery as snacks instead of chocolate and sweets.

I used to be a coffee-a-day girl… nothing serious… just the usual morning “pick me up” that I became dependent on. But one day I started to think that coffee had control of me and I detested the fact that I “needed” my coffee fix. So I decided to give it up. The first day was horrid. I lay in foetal position for 4 hours with a splitting headache that no painkiller could suppress. But then something magical happened after day-two, I no longer had that “need” for my morning kick starter and it was like a cloud had been lifted off my mind. More clarity. More energy. Myore morning motivation.

General dietary advice for sustained energy, health and wellbeing
Graze rather than overeat. Large meals are harder to digest, place a strain on your organs and can result in indigestion and sleepiness.
Eat a balanced, nutritious diet based on organic and biodynamic wholefoods: fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, nuts and seeds.
Choose a wide variety of brightly colored fruits and vegetables that are in season.
Take either a heaped tablespoon of ground flax, pumpkin, sesame and sunflower seeds, or a tablespoon of blended seed oil. My favorite is Udos Omega 3:6:9 Oil Blend.
Eat probiotic-rich foods to improve your digestive and immune health. eg, kefir
Drink clean filtered tap water and herbal teas.
AVOID alcohol, caffeine, smoking, processed foods and take-out food with added chemicals and processed ingredients; AVOID fat free, diet, low or no cholesterol packaged foods. AVOID cage eggs, dairy and meat that is not pasture fed. AVOID refined table salt, sugar and margarine. AVOID soft drinks, cordial, bottled juices and vitamin waters that are full of sugar and artificial additives.

Exercise
Being unfit and overweight places a massive strain on the body, depleting your energy. There is so much research out there stating that regular exercise is one of the best physical stress-reduction techniques, that it relaxes tense muscles, helps you to sleep, improves blood flow to the brain and releases chemicals called endorphins in to your blood stream giving you a feeling of happiness. Oh, and the fact that a little exercise each day is wonderful for improving stamina and oxygenation of the body.

For the next month make the effort to move your body every day. Whether its a brisk 15 minute walk around the block, a half hour jog in the park, a yoga class, workout at the gym, swim at the beach, laps in the pool, or bicycle ride, do something to get your body moving and body sweating.

Personally I really start to feel it if I dont exercise for a few weeks: I become more lazy and sleep in that little bit longer, I become brilliant at conjuring up reasons why I deserve my sleep ins, my mood drops, I lack inspiration and no longer have that spring in my step or vibrant energy that I love so much. The simple truth is that movement is the key to a healthy body, mind and soul. Your body loves to move. It was designed to move.

Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is a true holistic approach to healing in that it uses oils extracted from plants and flowers to treat the physical, mental and spiritual body. Essential oils stimulate receptors in the nose which relay messages to the limbic system, the part of the brain that regulates emotions. The use of essential oils is nothing new, dating back thousands of years. The most beneficial part of aromatherapy, in my opinion, is that it can be incorporated into daily life via creams, massage oils, bath oils, compresses and for burning in an oil burner; and that blends can be tailor made to suit your requirements, for example, to uplift and invigorate.

Uplifting and Invigorating essential oils
Lemon is reputed to have properties which can lift the spirits and overcome mental fatigue.
Peppermint is renowned for enhancing concentration and stimulating circulation.
Eucalyptus is renowned for restoring vitality and reviving spirits.
Rosemary is associated with clearing thoughts and is renowned for promoting circulation of energy.

Morning Ritual
Start each morning by body brushing your dry skin to stimulate the lymphatic system. Shower, and then gently massage your body with a light layer of body oil scented with invigorating essential oils to help wake up your body and mind. If you’d prefer not to use a scented body moisturizer then add a few drops of invigorating essential oils to the shower and transform your morning cleanse into an uplifting experience to help wake you up.

Daytime Ritual
If you work in an office, how about going for a walk in your lunch break in a nearby park, around the harbor, by the beach or simply around the block to help clear your mind and improve energy levels for a more productive afternoon. Use the opportunity to fill your lungs with fresh air. Find a quiet place and take a moment to focus on your breathing. With every inhale, breathe in energizing oxygen. With every exhale breathe out stress, fatigue and stale thoughts.

When Im at work, I make the effort to take regular breaks from my computer by getting up and going for a walk around the garden in the sunshine, to help recharge and refresh my mind. It works!

Afternoon Ritual
If you’re one that feels drowsy and lacking concentration around 3pm, please don’t reach for the nearest chocolate bar or coffee cup. It may be due to the natural cycle (and dip) of your circadian rhythm and the associated anticipation of sleep. Try burning uplifting and invigorating essential oils in an oil burner around this time, or sip on a stimulating herbal tea such as gingko, peppermint and schisandra that are all renowned for their uplifting properties.

Most importantly, please remember to be kind, gentle and patient with yourself as you’re learning these new ways of thinking, doing and considering. Keep in mind that every moment in the day is a new opportunity to make a different choice – a choice to help improve your holistic health and happiness that not only benefits you, but your loved ones and the planet we all share.

Improve Your Energy Levels by Sam Sample

We received an email yesterday from Dr Steven Joyals publicist, who, besides promoting his new book, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Diabetes, also explained how the doctor is a big advocate of the significant health boosting properties of common herbs and spices. We wanted to know more, so had a quick chat to the doc…

TGD: How did you come to be an advocate of adding spices to the diet in order to achieve good health?
SJ: The scientific data in support of spices like curcumin, ginger, rosemary, cumin, and cinnamon is strong.

TGD: How are spices best consumed for maximum impact?
SJ: Fresh or dried, spices have a wealth of health benefits. Scientific research suggests that spices/herbs like marjoram, thyme, and rosemary may help reduce the formation of cancer-causing substances called heterocyclic amines in grilled or broiled foods.

TGD: Have we come full circle, understanding perhaps what our ancestors did, that spices have profound health-boosting properties?
SJ: Before the pharmaceutical companies found disease profitable, ancient traditions like Ayurvedic medicine understood the value of herbs and spices in helping to maintain optimal health.

TGD: How can spices help someone with diabetes?
SJ: Cinnamon and cumin are two spices with interesting anti-diabetic properties. Scientific data suggests that these two spices can help support healthy blood sugar levels and reduce the oxidant damage from diabetes. Efficacious doses are about two teaspoons daily.

TGD: What are your must-have spices for your rack and why?
SJ: Ginger (anti-inflammatory), cumin (support healthy blood sugar levels, anti-oxidant), cinnamon (anti-oxidant, supports healthy blood sugar levels), tumeric (curcumin) {anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant), rosemary (anti-oxidant, anti-cancer) are all great spices and herbs for supporting optimal health.

TGD: Turmeric is often a spice touted for its amazing healing properties. What is it about turmeric that has such a big impact on the body?
SJ: Turmerics “secret” is curcumin, and this interesting ingredient has anti-cancer properties, antioxidant properties, and anti-inflammatory properties. In fact, several experimental studies, as well as human clinical studies, show benefit for curcumin in Alzheimers disease, a devastating neurological illness!

Ten years ago, Marguerite Alston was faced with a major health challenge that would change her life forever. A malignant melanoma diagnosis sent her stress levels off the scale. Her future was suddenly uncertain.

“I vowed at that point in time that I would do all that I can to look after my body, mind and spirit,” she says, now fully recovered. “I wanted to learn all that I could about nutrition and gain a deeper understanding of what I can do to make sure I live a long, vibrant and healthy life and I never wanted to deal with cancer ever again.”

Before we bring you the second installment of our interview with the BodyMind Institute founder, Lars Gustafsson (see below), The Green Dove brings you this inspirational Q&A with Marguerite (pictured below), BodyMind student and now practitioner.

Students of the Institute not only learn the fundamentals of nutrition through body, mind and spirit, but also discover how to apply the information to their own lives to make gentle yet major shifts that last a lifetime.

If you missed part one of our interview with Lars, please click here.

TGD: What courses did you study at the BodyMind Institute?

MA: I started with the 90 Day Renewal course and have since taken the Level I, Level II and am currently enrolled in the Raw Certification.

TGD: Can you give an insight into what brought you to the Institute?

MA: In 2000, I went through some significant life changes that resulted in lots of stress throughout the year.

You just have to browse the web or your nearest book store to see the world is obsessed with dieting. Yet if statistics are accurate, were not just tipping the scales, were on our way to breaking them. It has taken many of us years of restrictions and meal replacements to figure it out: diets dont work.

From calorie counting to cutting out carbs, a Pandoras Box awaits those who still dare to follow the latest diet craze. Yet achieving and maintaining your ideal figure is actually more simple than what weve been lead to believe-and it comes with a bonus: vibrant health.

There is one major requirement thats needed on this path to ultimate wellness and the body weve all dreamed of: taking full responsibility. Taking charge and becoming our own nutritionist and not relying on big business to deliver a magic bullet that is nothing more than body-disruptive chemicals dressed in drag.

Perhaps its an assumption to say most of us were taught the same stuff in school, none of which covered off real nutrition and how to actually apply it. Yet, the lesson of nutrition is one of the most important life lessons we can ever learn. We also werent taught that nourishing ourselves is actually fun and can lead us to a full, love-fueled life. A nourished, healthy body results in clear thinking, more energy and, for many, a channel to the divine. No pill could ever compete with that.

Enter Lars Gustafsson: author, speaker, life and nutrition guide. Born in India to Canadian parents, he grew up living an authentic mix of tribal and western life. “This upbringing,” he says “created a balance between the scientific passion of the west and the ancient wisdom of the Far East.”

For 23 years, Lars has explored nutrition, fitness and healthy lifestyles. As founder of the BodyMind Institute-a global enlightened school of learning-he teaches that nutrition is so much more than just the food we eat. Its the total way we nourish our mind and body.

“Over these years I found that I needed to personally experience something in order to accept it as fact. In the end I have found that it is only through personal experience in the application of any information can you make your own informed decisions. Your own level of personal truth will grow according to your willingness to experience more.”

In 2003, Lars introduced The BodyMind Nutrition Certification online programs to meet an emerging demand for true to life systems, formulas and programs, creating the opportunity for people everywhere to discover and pass on a nutrition and lifestyle process that creates a personal discovery of balance in body, mind and spirit.

“I believe in the scientific method, that there are natural laws that govern our physical universe … yet in these 23 years I have often found the ‘unexplainable’ happening all around me,” Lars says. “These have created questions which led me to find hard scientific data that hasn’t found it’s way into the mass media or awareness of the masses.”

“Over these years I found that I needed to personally experience something in order to accept it as fact. In the end I have found that it is only through personal experience in the application of any information can you make your own informed decisions. Your own level of personal truth will grow according to your willingness to experience more.”

Most recently, Lars has teamed up with raw food nutritionist and expert David €˜Avocado Wolfe to deliver a program in raw food nutrition-a course that shares more than 15 years of Davids sought-after knowledge. With this course and other programs including 90 Day BodyMind Renewal and Sports Nutrition, the BodyMind Institute is changing the way we look at real nutrition, forever.

As a student of the BodyMind Raw Nutrition, the 90 Day BodyMind Renewal and the Nutrition I certifications, I wanted to reach out to Lars, to hear first hand how these online courses are bringing real nutrition to people at their own pace, in their own time. What I discovered is a man with a passion that goes beyond simply developing courses. Lars Gustafsson is making a difference, one person at a time through life-enhancing education that literally changes lives.

So passionate is he about reaching those who share his dream to make a difference, that with David Wolfe, Lars is offering free entry to the BodyMind Institute Level I BodyMind Nutrition Certification for those who sign up for Davids Raw Nutrition Certification. Its a $1,500 gift, he explains, to reach those who also want to make a difference-to their own health, the health of others and the health of the planet.

“Lets bring about a stunning shift to our planet together,” Lars (pictured left) says.

We hope you enjoy part I of our interview with Lars (below), as he takes you behind the scenes of his passion that is giving back in a big way. Next Monday (May 17) we will share part II of this special interview.

To find out more about Lars and the BodyMind Institute, please click here.

The Body Mind Connection: The Key to Ultimate Health by Shanon Dunn. Main photo courtesy alicepopkorn

If there was a pump failure or major blockage in the citys sewer system, it’s not be hard to imagine what could happen. All of the pipes would back up when an immovable material came through, creating a gigantic crisis that would threaten the health of all who lived in the city.

Many of the devastating plagues and diseases that literally wiped out entire cities and communities arose from open sewers and improper waste disposal. If the sewer ever backs up, dangerous health problems occur!

Similarly in the human body, big health problems can stem from major blockages and toxic build up that occur over time in the digestive system. Think again of the analogy of your digestive tract being the “River of Life” or “River of Death” depending on what you choose to float down the river (for the most part of your life).

The digestive system can shut down if it becomes clogged with toxic residue because of nutritionally deficient “food-less foods” and “life-less drinks” ingested regularly over time. The build up of toxic materials within the bowel can cause a condition known as autointoxication as the poisons in the bowel are absorbed into the blood stream, which ends up toxicating the entire body.

Why does this happen? It’s no secret that the foremost reasons are improper eating and exercise habits. Modern civilization, especially the industrialized nations, have the greatest bowel disturbances. It’s why there is a major “war” being waged on bowel cancer. We’re told that it’s a mystery where bowel cancer comes from and yet native peoples living close to the land and nature do not experience bowel problems, and such diseases as diverticulitis and colitis are virtually unknown.

Colonic hygiene is central to the overall ongoing maintentance of health and vitality in the human body. That’s why fasting every once in a while (giving the “house a rest” from the digestion of foods) is so critical for maintaining optimal health and remaining disease-free. It’s why colonic irrigation therapy is a brilliant ancient wisdom that more and more people today are using to assist with “house cleaning”. And it’s precisely why clean water and a diet predominating in whole plant foods is so critical for maintaing a happy, healthy, clean digestive system.

The further we stray from natural foods and the more we depend upon unnatural and artificial foodstuffs, the more certain it becomes that sickness and disease increase in frequency and intensity. The way we grow, harvest, process and market our food is at the root of much disease in our population.

I don’t need to elaborate on the economic factors that today play havoc with the supply of food to the masses. But again, it’s why being self-care aware is so important. It’s why we need to THINK about what we put into our bodies and to take personal responsibility for that.

The beautiful thing is that despite the overwhelming influences of today’s commercially driven society, we also have access to so many great life-enhancing things. It simply gets down to the choices that you make for yourself.

The Importance of Cleaning House by Don Tolman

Don Tolman International publishes the popular P.O.W.E.R. (Pearls of Wisdom, Enlightenment and Results) weekly eZine with over 10,000 subscribers from all over the globe.

If you’re ready to discover the wisdom and power of Self-Care and Self-Education and receive *F.R.E.E.* tips and EVENT news from Don Tolman International, join our online community today and you’ll immediately be emailed a F.REE eBook entitled “WHAT MAKES A BALANCED DIET”. Subscribe to: P.O.W.E.R. now!

In Green Tea Living: A Japan-inspired guide to eco-friendly habits, health, and happiness, author Toshimi A. Kayaki shares timeless wisdom from her native Japanese culture through useful tips and anecdotes.

She recently shared a few with The Green Dove…

1 Create smoother, younger-looking skin with a green tea face pack. Grind up used green tea leaves into a powder, then mix with water and flour until it forms a paste. Wash your face, and then apply the pack for 10 minutes. Rinse off with water and follow up with your favorite lotion.

2 Drink green tea to lose weight. Drinking five cups of green tea a day can burn up to 80 extra calories!

3 Use wet green tea leaves to clean your house. Green tea is not only an eco-friendly cleaning option, but will leave your rooms sparkling and smelling fresh! Squeeze most of the water out of wet tea leaves, and then place on dirty floors or dusty surfaces. Brush the leaves back and forth in small strokes, allowing the tea leaves to pick up dust and dirt. Sweep everything into a dustpan when finished.

4 Use vinegar for even the most heavy-duty cleaning! Vinegar will shine up sinks and counters, as well as kill bacteria. Scrub the slime out of your bathtub, disinfect cutting boards; even combine 3 parts water to 1 part vinegar to wash your floors. Simple, cheap and most importantly, not harmful to the environment.

5 Mix your own vinegar conditioner for soft, shiny hair. In an empty plastic bottle combine 16 oz water, 4 tbsps white or rice vinegar, and 3 or 4 pieces of fresh rosemary or sage. Just as effective as expensive conditioner, but far more economical.

6 Make your sweaters look like new. Rub a sweater with the rough edge of a dry sponge to easily get rid of pilling fabric.

7 Repair dry or damaged skin with a soothing green tea bath. Steep one green tea bag in boiling water for 15 minutes, then pour the tea water into your bathwater. The vitamins and catechins in green tea will kill bacteria on your skin and smooth away imperfections, not to mention contribute to a relaxing bath!

8 Mix homemade sake lotion. This simple lotion and moisturizer only requires two ingredients and some time in the fridge. Mix 7 oz cold sake and 1-

Dr Brett Hill is now offering personalised life and wellness coaching. Whether you want help with a specific problem, dietary advice, exercise advice, emotional advice, business advice or all of the above, Dr Brett can use his extensive knowledge and experience to help you get back on track.

Dr Brett specialises in cutting through all of the clutter to quickly find what the core problem/s are and give you real, practical solutions that you can take away and start to work on straight away. Life and Wellness Coaching sessions can be either a one off or a regular monthly session to debrief on progress and then re-goal for the next month.

These life and wellness coaching sessions are open to anyone interested in improving their health, anywhere in the world. These sessions can be conducted in person, via phone or Skype.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to book a session.

Cost: $100 (Australian) for a half hour session.

Life and Wellness Coaching is a paid Green Dove sponsorship.

Years ago I read that children should be kept at least two feet from the television because of harmful electronic emissions. Is this still relevant? Is there a difference regarding this between older and new flat-screen models? – Horst E. Mehring, Oconomowoc, WI

Luckily for many of us and our kids, sitting “too” close to the TV isnt known to cause any human health issues. This myth prevails because back in the 1960s General Electric sold some new-fangled color TV sets that emitted excessive amounts of radiation-as much as 100,000 times more than federal health officials considered safe. GE quickly recalled and repaired the faulty TVs, but the stigma lingers to this day.

But even though electronic emissions arent an issue with TVs made any time after 1968 (including todays LCD and plasma flat screens), what about causing harm to ones vision? Dr. Lee Duffner of the American Academy of Ophthalmology isnt concerned, maintaining that watching television screens-close-up or otherwise-”wont cause any physical damage to your eyes.” He adds, however, that a lot of TV watching can surely cause eye strain and fatigue, particularly for those sitting very close and/or watching from odd angles. But there is an easy cure for eye strain and fatigue: turning off the TV and getting some rest. With a good nights sleep, tired eyes should quickly return to normal.

Debra Ronca, a contributor to the How Stuff Works website, argues that some parents might be putting the cart before the horse in blaming close-up TV watching for their childs vision issues. “Sitting close to the television may not make a child nearsighted, but a child may sit close to the television because he or she is nearsighted and undiagnosed,” she reports. “If your child habitually sits too close to the television for comfort, get his or her eyes tested.”

Of course, excessive TV viewing by kids can cause health problems indirectly. According to the Nemours Foundations KidsHealth website, children who consistently watch TV more than four hours a day are more likely to be overweight, which in and of itself can bring about health problems later. Also, kids who watch a lot of TV are more likely to copy bad behavior they see on-screen and tend to “fear that the world is scary and that something bad will happen to them.” Nemours also finds that TV characters often depict risky behaviors (like smoking and drinking) and also tend to reinforce gender-role and racial stereotypes.

There has also been much debate in recent years on the effects of TV viewing on infants. A 2007 Seattle Childrens Research Institute study found that for every hour per day infants spent watching baby DVDs and videos they learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. But a 2009 study by the Center on Media & Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston found no negative cognitive or other impacts whatsoever on those infants exposed to more television than less.

While it may be inevitable that your kids will watch TV, the key, experts say, is moderation. Limit kids exposure to screens of any kind, and monitor what they are allowed to watch. As KidsHealth points out, parents should teach their kids that the TV is “for occasional entertainment, not for constant escapism.”

CONTACTS: American Academy of Ophthalmology, www.aao.org; How Stuff Works, www.howstuffworks.com; KidsHealth, www.kidshealth.org; Seattle Children’s Research Institute, research.seattlechildrens.org; Center on Media & Child Health, www.cmch.tv.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com.

Reason and emotion, mind and heart, are the regulators of the bodys response to whole food medicine. It has been demonstrated millions of times and for thousands of years that whole food diets, colonics, mono diets and fasting restore disturbances in metabolism, the immune system, respiratory function and mental outlook.

It is considered that the increasing levels of pollutants, chemicals, and food additives encountered by anyone living in an industrialized society can create a toxic overload in the body which can lead to more than 95% of all human diseases. The human body is designed to be able to clean and repair itself. It is only when it is overwhelmed, that good health goes south and greater Self-Care is called for.

Every moment of the bodys existence, whether in health or disease, is wrapped in and electro-chemical matrice of emotional molecules, generated by the limbic emotional centre of the brain. The neutral circuitry there causes neurosecretors to create actual molecules in response to emotions.

These emotional molecular crystalline structures are an electric chemistry that oscillates in frequencies that match anatomical and physiological structures throughout the body. In this, €˜like is drawn unto itself. Simply stated, the chemistry of the emotion we call “anger”, moves through the body as molecules, then, when we no longer need them, because molecules of calm have replaced their need in the body, they are collected and released by the bladder.

If anger doesnt erupt, or is not released, over time €˜feelings of resentment and hostility can develop and can become persistent. This constant state overwhelms the bladder because negative emotional molecules are going to wreak havoc. It may be as simple as a bladder infection.

If the feelings persist and whole foods – whose electrochemical messages that generate calm emotional feelings to release the stress molecules – are not eaten, the infection could lead to a tumor (for instance) to contain them. Over time and distance this could lead to cancer. Its intriguing to me that our language has even developed phrases that allude to this reality.

We usually say that, “these people love to, piss and moan.” For more of the science behind the creation of emotional molecules, see the discussion on ‘set point energy’ in The White Stone Carillon segment, starting on page 500 of the Farmacist Desk Reference. I think that you’ll find it fascinating. Impulses are the medium of electrical surges that generate and build into emotional states. The seed of all impulse is a feeling generated by neurons in response to an impression made upon our senses bursting for expression into action.

All of the bodys responses are created by emotional molecules of photo-electric biochemistry. For more information about the relationship between human emotional frequency and whole foods, youll find an entire section on Feeding Your Emotions in my Encyclopedia of Wholefood Medicine, the Farmacist Desk Reference (FDR).

__________________________________________________________________________________ Feeding Your Emotions written by Don Tolman. Copyright Don Tolman International 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Don Tolman International publishes the popular P.O.W.E.R. (Pearls of Wisdom, Enlightenment and Results) weekly eZine with over 9,800 subscribers from all over the globe. If you’re ready to discover the wisdom and power of Self-Care and Self-Education and receive FREE tips and EVENT news from Don Tolman International, join our online community today and you’ll immediately be emailed a FREE eBook entitled “WHAT MAKES A BALANCED DIET”. Subscribe to: P.O.W.E.R. now