Rouse yourself

"Research shows that feelings of loneliness can affect the body's immune system.

Taking a minute to rouse yourself from your computer to call a friend or meet for coffee can make a difference in your mood and energy level." (http://living.health.com/2009/03/17/3-easy-energy-boosters/)

Sprinklings of wisdom, part III

Dream more while you are awake.

Don't overdo. Keep your limits.

Sleep for 7 hours. (Or more!)

Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile.

Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.

When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, But he who restrains his lips is wise. - Proverbs 10:19

The more talk, the less truth; the wise measure their words. - Proverbs 10-19 The Message

Sprinkings of wisdom, part II

Call your family (especially your mom!) often.

Don't compare your life to others': You have no idea what their journey is all about.

Learn from the mistakes of others. You don't live long enough to make them all yourself.

Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

Try to make at least three people smile each day.

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

-Philippians 4:8 The Message paraphrase

Sprinklings of wisdom

I’m like a kid when there’s something new in my world: I want to wear it, use it, or talk about it as soon as possible. I just scanned our musty wedding pictures and want to post a few. So, here we go, along with a few “sprinklings of wisdom” to legitimize the pics' presence on this blog.

To go along with a wedding pic, hmmm, how about…

No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

Or maybe it’d be better to choose...

You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. Forget issues of the past.
Don't have negative thoughts over things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

Better yet...
.

Smile and laugh more.
Forgive everyone for everything.
Each day give something good to others.

The Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ Acts 20:35b

Comfort, that stealthy thing

Recently, friend Kurt shared a quote that both convicts and inspires me. It came to mind again when I was reading about Jesus’ encounters with the religious folk of his day. His words to them were bold and offensive, and his claim to be God – the I AM – outrageous! I call myself a Christ-follower: it follows that I am to act and be like him. I’ve got to say, outrageous makes me uncomfortable. Avoiding discomfort and pursuing comfort in my life is too high a “good” (I confess), all the while not being so good for me.

“…Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host and then a master?

Ay, and it becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires…

Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral…” – Kahlil Gibran

Love is...

Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we have learned here. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts." – Marianne Williamson

To the loving eye, everything is real. This art of love is neither sentimental nor naïve. Such love is the greatest criterion of truth, celebration, and reality… Love is the light in which we see light. Love is the light in which we see each thing in its true origin, nature, and destiny. If we could look at the world in a loving way, then the world would rise up before us full of invitation, possibility, and depth. - John O'Donohue, Anam Cara

picture taken by Seth 2008, Inca trail

Calming music

Research shows that listening to 30 minutes of classical music may produce calming effects equivalent to taking 10 mg of Valium.

http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/features/blissing-out-10-relaxation-techniques-reduce-stress-spot?page=3

"I play the notes as they are written, but it is God who makes the music." - J.S. Bach

Pleasant confusion

"I barely have a sense of what I mean when I say love, let alone what it means to you. That's as it should be; God save us if we ever believe we have figured love out. James Thurber defined love as "that pleasant confusion we know exists." It's the best definition I have heard, but you have to appreciate the difference between confusion and mystery. Confusion is what happens when you try to figure out a mystery. Mystery itself can be very sweet, just as it is."

- Gerald May...What I Think I Know about Love

waterfall in El Salvador; picture taken by Rebekah 2000
~
"Therefore understanding that rests in what it does not understand is the finest." -Chuang Tzu

Adult stem cell success

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.- Paulo Freire

Research using adult stem cells continues to yield successful treatments for many human diseases and injuries (though we don't hear much of it from the main media sources). I am one who believes there is no need to pursue embryonic stem cell (ESC) research when there are so many success stories using adult cells and cord blood. Over 70 diseases and conditions have already been treated through adult stem cells, helping patients overcome everything from juvenile diabetes to Parkinson’s and heart disease. (For an extensive overview, see http://www.frc.org/insight/adult-stem-cell-success-stories-2008-update-july-december)

There is a common misconception that ESC research hasn't yielded these same results because it's wasn't legal. It was. Only federal funding was restricted, until Obama lifted the ban just days ago [additionally, and sadly, “Obama left open the possibility of federal funds going to the creation of new embryos, rather than relying entirely on excess embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics.” (http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/religion/2009/03/19/obamas-stem-cell-order-reopens-the-culture-wars.html)] Many of the private ESC financiers see ESC research as an expensive failure. Even Dr. James Thomson, who first grew human ESC in 1998, has pulled his resources from embryos and invested in induced pluripotent (or iPS) cells, because, apart from the satisfying the moral dilemma, these cells are easier and cheaper to reproduce.

I propose that movement toward greater wellness need not happen at the expense of the powerless.

Just going about

I read in a book that a man called Christ went about doing good. It was very disconcerting to me that I am so easily satisfied with just going about.

- Daniel Taylor...In Search of Sacred Places

I too often have been “just going about” and not necessarily “doing good.” A little bland in wellness topics on this blog, I have mostly avoided highly controversial subjects (excepting, I suppose, my posts that point to Jesus) with maybe more concern for ‘feel good’ than 'do good.' Today as I was reading in the gospel of John, I was struck again at how in-your-face Jesus could be; he was downright outrageous sometimes. Inspired by his boldness, I am feeling the nudge to talk about edgy topics occasionally: wellness is often interwoven even in potentially alienating issues.

Please keep in mind that I respect differing ideas and opinions and have an expectation that another will respect mine. I really do appreciate the differences even while we don't agree.

This is the heads up. So, next up – stem cell research…

Spring present

"Mindfulness is the here-and-now approach to living that makes daily life richer and more meaningful," says Claire Michaels Wheeler, MD, PhD, author of 10 Simple Solutions to Stress. It's approaching life like a child, without passing judgment on what occurs. Mindfulness means focusing on one activity at a time, so forget multi-tasking! Staying in the present-tense can help promote relaxation and provide a buffer against anxiety and depression.”

I need to practice being in the present at this end of winter; so a suggestion to focus on immediate surroundings is especially pleasant now that spring has begun in Minnesota.

I get a thrill outta

- noticing the curly hollyhock growth of vivid green that promises hope as the snow cover melts; and as I uncover the soil on the south-side garden,

- watching the tulips’ turgid leaves emerge skyward,

- enjoying the quick rise of daffodils' delicate shoots, and

- marveling at the star-shaped explosion of lupine leaves.

Practicing being present is not so hard in today’s present.

St. Pat's "simply to serve"

In addition to enjoying a 20-year tradition of eating corned beef and cabbage (thanks, Sandbergs), it is fitting to remember the story of this day’s namesake.

Sixteen centuries ago, as a teenager, Patrick was taken from Britain as a slave to Ireland.
Later he escaped and returned to his homeland where his family urged him to stay and pursue a career.
But Patrick chose to leave comfortable, middle-class Britain and return to barbarian Ireland. So, in the early 400s AD, at great risk he left both his country and his parents, reaching out to "that race of people to which the love of Christ drew me and thus spend the rest of my life, if only I might prove worthy, simply to serve them in humility and truth."
Two centuries later, Patrick's spiritual descendants (Irish/Celtic Christians) took the message of God's love _back_ to Britain and western Europe. From http://www.aonotes.com/2009/03/16/one-teenager/

Do you suppose Pat was authentically happy? [see previous post :)]

Image from www.monasette.com/archive/2007_03.html

Authentic happiness

On a note of giving of self to others, I am intrigued by some of the research on authentic happiness.

The author of Authentic Happiness (Martin Segliman, 2002) recounts how, after a dispute over whether happiness comes from having fun or from showing kindness, he gave his students an assignment to explore the question. They were to “engage in one pleasurable activity and one philanthropic activity, and write about both.” The results were life-changing. The afterglow of the ‘pleasurable’ activity (hanging out with friends, or watching a movie, or eating a hot fudge sundae) paled in comparison with the effects of the kind action.

A large part

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it” – when you have it with you. -Proverbs 3:27-28

The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one's self to others. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Richer fruits

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

-Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865)

Slow work

Trust in the slow work of God.

We are, quite naturally,

impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown,

something new, and yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability

– and that it may take a very long time.

Your ideas mature gradually – let them grow, let them shape themselves, with undue haste.

Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make them tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be.

Give our Lord the benefit of believing that His hand is leading you,

and accepting the anxiety of feeling yourself

in suspense and incomplete.

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

waiting for spring on Water St.

A light on vitamin D

Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.

-Ecclesiastes 11:7

The body, psyche, and spirit benefit from light: light is from God, light is good! We feel better emotionally when there’s more daylight, we are lifted in spirit when the sun shines, and our body benefits by synthesizing vitamin D from sunlight's UV rays.

This post puts the light on Vitamin D. D seems to be the present darling of supplements. Consistently we hear of some new favored nutrient or supplement – omega-3s a recent one – and it can be difficult to know which “pill to swallow.” Still I pay attention when my wholistic doc says this one’s worth a good look, as he did recently at my annual physical.

Though labeled a vitamin, D behaves more like a hormone in the body, relaying chemical messages (such as “absorb calcium from foods, and hey, you bone cells, take up this calcium”). Many folks are deficient in vitamin D: the estimate is about half of American adults and nearly one in three children.

“Vitamin D is a key component in helping the body respond to many different kinds of assaults and stimuli,” says Robert Heaney, PhD and professor of medicine at Creighton University in Omaha, NE (my alma mater). “In the absence of it you’re asking the body to defend itself with one hand tied behind its back.” (http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/05/20/cl.vitamin.d/index.html)

And there is evidence of a vitamin D-immune system connection. Dr. Adit Ginde, an assistant professor of surgery in the division of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, and his team from Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston, reports its findings in the Feb. 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine: "…our study provides support that lower levels of vitamin D are associated with an increased risk for respiratory infections, such as the common cold and the flu. And people who have pre-existing respiratory disease -- like asthma and emphysema -- appear to be at an increased risk for this association." (http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.aspx?docid=624380)

An overview of benefits: The Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database (http://www.naturaldatabase.com) reports that vitamin D (taken orally) is used for preventing osteoporosis, muscle weakness, enhancing immune function, preventing auto-immune diseases, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, bronchitis, and cancer.
National Institute of Health cites vitamin D’s role in the prevention of colon, prostrate and breast cancers; suggest that it might play a role in prevention and treatment of type I & II diabetes, hypertension, and more; and report that a recent meta-analysis found that use of vitamin D supplements (in primarily healthy, middle aged or elderly, and at high risk of fractures) “was associated with a reduction in overall mortality from any cause by a statistically significant 7%.” (For much more, see http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp)

So, what shall we do?

Eat fish, get outside, and swallow some supplements.

Though it is always recommended that nutrient needs should be met primarily through consuming foods, it is difficult for many of us to get enough vitamin D through food sources. Very few foods in nature contain it: flesh of fish (such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel) and fish liver oils are among the best sources; and small amounts of D are found in beef liver, cheese, fortified cereals and milk, and egg yolks.

Exposure to sunlight is good – but those of us older adults living in northern latitudes have a tough time getting what we need year round. From Nov-Feb especially, and likely Oct–Mar for those of us in MN, “The UV energy… is insufficient for cutaneous vitamin D synthesis...Americans aged 50 and older are at increased risk of developing vitamin D insufficiency. As people age, skin cannot synthesize vitamin D as efficiently and the kidney is less able to convert vitamin D to its active hormone form.” - (http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp)

So, supplements may be necessary. When looking for a supplement, look for cholecalciferol on the label. Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) could be more than three times as effective as vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and thus is preferable. The AI (Adequate Intake) for vitamin D is 200 International Units (IU) for adults under age 50, 400 IU for those 51 to 70, and 600 IU for those age 71 and above. As new studies continue to showcase vitamin D's potential benefits, more scientists are calling for increased recommendations. Some suggest as much as 10,000 IU --currently the tolerable upper intake daily.

At your next annual exam, it may be suggested (or you can ask) that your vitamin D blood level be checked to determine if supplementation is needed. I’d recommend you take ‘em up on it.
I’ll also keep encouraging spending time in the sun.

May you find delight in the light!

Oh, how sweet the light of day, And how wonderful to live in the sunshine! Even if you live a long time, don't take a single day for granted. Take delight in each light-filled hour…
-Ecclesiastes 11: 7-8a The Message paraphrase

Fish-oil-good

With the dry air of Minnesota winter, my skin needs hydration help. Learning that omega-3 fatty acids [specifically eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)] help regulate oil production to boost hydration and delay the skin’s aging process is great motivation for me to be consistent in downing fish oil gelatin capsules (my favorite: Carlson brand with 500 mg EPA & DHA).

Another skin benefit: a 2005 study in the Journal of Lipid Research reports “EPA can block the release of the UV-induced enzymes that eat away at collagen, causing lines and sagging skin.” (http://living.health.com/2009/02/12/fish-oil-good-for-skin/)

Because EPA is both an anti-inflammatory agent and an antioxidant, it can protect against sun damage and help repair it. ‘Tis good in winter and summer!