health brief

Consider a Tree

by Martin Buber

We should listen to the wild. It answers all our questions and opens our heart. The song of birds, trees and grasses touches our soul. Many faith traditions consider nature to be filled with Spirit. My own tradition, Judaism, celebrated a “new year for trees’’ this past full moon. Nature-based mindfulness practices such as “forest bathing” and our understanding of the healing effects of trees and nature is expanding. While evidence accumulates, the physiological mechanisms at work are still not clear. Is it chemical? Is it evolutionary? Time in nature demonstrably reduces stress, calms the monkey-mind, enhances emotional well-being, and nourishes our soul. As a Spiritual Director and nature connection guide, I am driven by the attunement, wonder, and awe we feel in nature. Our souls come alive. We feel connection to and a relationship with the universal web of life, to our heart, and to love. Nature teaches me to listen deeply, critical to spiritual direction. Knowing how ecosystems function doesn’t dampen our awe and wonder. Did you know that subspecies of Albert’s Squirrels are specific to the various subspecies of Ponderosa Pines across the Rockies? Each squirrel subspecies has a taste for the particular cambium of the subspecies of Ponderosa Pines. Evidently, they have very discriminating palates! Here are some general approaches to connecting to nature. • Attune your senses. Take time to feel into your body, smell the smells, and taste the air. Listen to sounds both far and near and all around, and open to your peripheral vision. • Just sit. Nature responds to us and we to it. To feel into the natural flow of life, we need to be still to allow and observe. • Be with a tree. Sit, converse, breathe, hug. Whatever moves your heart. Make sure to ask permission first, and approach the tree with reverence, and remember to thank it when you leave. • Wander. Let nature call to you and go to whatever catches your attention or pulls you. Do not analyze or evaluate; just follow your intuition. • When you leave your natural space, give thanks. It often helps to journal or integrate what came up in your time in nature.

Contact Martin Buber at jongottsegen@gmail.com

Use Green Tea Extract and

Curcumin to Ward Off Oral Cancer

Early signs of oral cancer can include white patches, sores and lumps inside the mouth, biomarkers known collectively as oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD). To see if two natural chemopreventive agents—green tea extract and curcumin— could reverse these conditions, researchers in India tested 60 people with OPMD, splitting them into three groups. One group was given 400 milligrams (mg) of green tea extract in a capsule, as well as a gel; a second group was given 475 mg of curcumin; and the third received a combination of the first two treatments. After 12 weeks, researchers found that the supplementation had significantly reduced OPMD biomarkers in all three groups, with particularly strong results in the combination group, suggesting a synergistic effect.

Try Mindfulness to Improve

Cardiovascular Health

Mindfulness training can lower blood pressure and positively influence behavior that promotes cardiovascular health, report Brown University researchers.

The study published in Plos Oneinvolved 43 people with hypertension. In eight weekly 150-minute sessions, participants learned mindfulness meditation movements and techniques, including eating food mindfully, while also receiving instruction on hypertension risk factors. By the end of the year, they reported improvements in stress levels, diet, physical activity and alcohol consumption. On average, systolic blood pressure fell by six points and diastolic pressure by one point, a small, but significant improvement.

Try Ginger to Lower Diabetes Markers

Ginger root (Zingiber officinale), used historically in traditional medicine to treat indigestion and nausea, may also help people with Type 2 diabetes, suggests a new study from Brazil. Researchers conducted a randomized, double-blind study of 103 people with Type 2 diabetes that were taking medications. Those taking 1.2 grams of ginger powder for 90 days experienced a significant drop in the level of fasting blood sugar, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol compared to those taking a placebo.

Forgiveness for Heart Health

by Laurie D. Wheeler

One way to promote a healthy heart is to heal the feelings we harbor within our heart, such as grief, anger, frustration and resentment. In the process of letting go of our baggage is the willingness to forgive. This key word is about choice and a direct path to empowerment. It is a conscious choice and action which gets results. Just wishing or hoping for results doesn’t usually work in this regard. The following are some ways you may find helpful: ~ Make a decision to focus your attention on what you want as an outcome and to feel it in your heart. It makes it easier to override what the ego holds onto. ~ Decide that you are no longer going to suffer from the boomerang effects of unforgiveness. ~ Be clear that your only outcome is for peace and not to change or punish the other person. ~ Be willing to see the person who hurt you as a lesson and opportunity to learn. Be grateful for this opportunity to make the change that is needed. ~ In the process of forgiving another, you forgive yourself. This is often the hardest to do – forgive ourselves. ~ Remember, as you forgive, you are not condoning or agreeing with the other person or their actions. ~ We begin to practice and find value in offering blessings to another. What we need to forgive in others is often something in ourselves that is hidden from our awareness. Be humble enough to see this is a wonderful beginning to peace and empowerment. Whatever we hold onto, holds us back from being our Divine self. Allow Peace to be your goal – it’s not your task to change another person, just yourself.

Contact Laurie D. Wheeler of WellnessWithin at 505-772-0970. She is a 25-year transformational holistic practitioner restoring the whole person through holistic medicine and DreamVision work. See ad page 19.