Month: September 2016

Depression: It’s Not All In Your Head

Editor’s note:  While I find this piece interesting and it certainly provides useful information, speaking for myself, I believe the primary cause of most if not all mental suffering is due to the constructs of our society.  Either eliminate money or provide a universal basic income so that people will no longer have to concern themselves with how they will feed/house/clothe/educate themselves and their families.  Release free energy devices to the public.  Release healing techniques that actually WORK and do not create a host of unnecessary side effects.  Remove the 40 hour work-for-someone-else-and-make-them-rich bullshit and instead, have a system where people are free to share their gifts with their communities.  Have educational/religious/cultural centers that actually support the well-being of the human mind/body/soul/spirit.  Create small communities again.  Slow down.  Meditate.  Remember who we really are.  Live to play and create and connect with others.  These are the things that will eliminate depression and the like – over and above diet.  

Kelly Brogan, M.D., Green Med Info
Waking Times

No, it’s not “all in your head.” Depression and all of its relatives are manifestations of glitches in the immune system and inflammatory pathways—not a neurochemical deficiency disorder.

Psychiatry: A Very Special Specialty

Psychiatry, unlike other fields of medicine, is based on a highly subjective diagnostic system. Essentially you sit in the office with a physician, and you are labeled based on the doctor’s opinion of the symptoms you describe. There are no tests. You can’t pee in a cup or give a drop of blood to be analyzed for a substance that definitely indicates “you have depression” much in the way a blood test can tell you that you have diabetes or are anemic.

Psychiatry is infamous for saying “oops!” It has a long history of abusing patients with pseudoscience-driven treatments and has been sullied by its shameful lack of diagnostic rigor. Consider, for example, the 1949 Nobel Prize winner Egas Moniz, a Portuguese neurologist who introduced invasive surgical techniques to treat people with schizophrenia by cutting connections between their prefrontal region and other parts of the brain (i.e., the prefrontal lobotomy). And then we had the Rosenhan experiment in the 1970s, which exposed how difficult it is for a doctor to distinguish between an “insane patient” and a sane patient acting insane. Today’s prescription pads for psychotropic drugs are, in my belief, just as harmful and misguided as physically destroying critical brain tissue or labeling people as “psychiatric” when really they are anything but.

Is It All In Your Head?

My fellowship training was in consultation-liaison psychiatry, or “psychosomatic medicine.” I was drawn to this specialization because it seemed to be the only one that acknowledged physical processes and pathologies that could manifest behaviorally. I noticed that psychiatrists in this field appreciated the role of biological actions such asinflammation and the stress response. When I watched fellow psychiatrists consult on surgical patients in the hospital, they took these brain-body connections much more seriously than they did in their Park Avenue offices. They talked about delirium brought on by electrolyte imbalance, symptoms of dementia caused by B12 deficiency, and the onset of psychosis in someone who was recently prescribed anti-nausea medication. These root causes of mental challenges are far from the “it’s all in your head” banter that typically swirls around conversations about mental illness.

The term psychosomatic is a loaded and stigmatized term that implies “it’s all in your head.” Psychiatry remains the wastebasket for the shortcomings of conventional medicine in terms of diagnosing and treating. If doctors can’t explain your symptoms, or if the treatment doesn’t fix the problem and further testing doesn’t identify a concrete diagnosis, you’ll probably be referred to a psychiatrist or, more likely, be handed a prescription for an antidepressant by your family doctor. If you are very persistent that you still need real help, your doctor might throw an antipsychotic at you as well. Most prescriptions forantidepressants are doled out by family doctors—not psychiatrists, with 7 percent of all visits to a primary care doctor ending with an antidepressant prescription. And almost three-quarters of the prescriptions are written without a specific diagnosis. What’s more, when the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health did its own examination into the prevalence of mental disorders, it found that “Many individuals who are prescribed and use antidepressant medications may not have met criteria for mental disorders. Our data indicate that antidepressants are commonly used in the absence of clear evidence-based indications.”

So we have overprescribing, but we also have some very sick women struggling in ways that are dismissed as “psychiatric”. In 2014 Scottish researchers addressed the gap between what the science says about the causes of depression and what patients experience when they find themselves caught in the default web of psychiatric care. In their paper they highlight the value of what I practice: psychoneuroimmunology. Indeed, it’s a mouthful of a word, but it simply refers to examining (and respecting) the complex interplay between various systems and organs of the body, especially those that syncopate the nervous, gastrointestinal, and immune systems in a brilliant dance that in turn affects mental well-being. These researchers point out that many patients who are told they have psychiatric conditions originating in their head or related to some (fictitious) brain chemical deficiency actually share real biological imbalances related to their immune-inflammatory pathways. These patients show elevated levels of inflammatory markers in their blood, signs that their body is on the defensive, activating processes that can result in unexplainable physical symptoms and that are diagnosed as psychiatric rather than biologic. And rather than treating the underlying biology, they are instead relegated to a lifetime of therapy and medication, to no avail.

Brain Body Connection

The idea that depression and all of its relatives are manifestations of glitches in the immune system and inflammatory pathways—not a neurochemical deficiency disorder—is a topic I explore at length throughout my book, A Mind of Your Own. This fact is not as new as you might think, but it’s probably not something your general doctor or even psychiatrist will talk about when you complain of symptoms and are hurried out of the office with a prescription for an antidepressant.

A multitude of studies now show an undeniable link between gut dysfunction and the brain, chiefly by revealing the relationship between the volume of inflammatory markers in the blood and risk for depression. Higher levels of inflammatory markers, which often indicate that the body’s immune system is on high alert, significantly increase the risk of developing depression. And these levels parallel the depth of the depression: higher levels equates with more severe depression. Which ultimately means that depression should join the ranks of other inflammatory disorders including heart disease, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, cancer, and dementia. And it’s no surprise, at least to me, that depression is far more common in people with other inflammatory and autoimmune issues like irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, insulin resistance, and obesity. All of these conditions are characterized by higher levels of inflammation.

To really grasp the fact that depression is not a disorder primarily rooted in the brain, look no further than some of the most demonstrative studies. When scientists purposefully trigger inflammation in the bodies of healthy people who exhibit no signs of depression by injecting them with a substance, they quickly develop classic symptoms of depression. And when people with hepatitis C are treated with the pro-inflammatory drug interferon, as many as 45 percent of those individuals develop major depression.

Depression: It’s a Lifestyle-Body Mismatch

So when people ask me about why we’re suffering from what appears to be an epidemic of depression despite the number of people taking antidepressants, I don’t think about brain chemistry. I turn to the impact of our sedentary lifestyles, processed food diets, and unrelenting stress. I turn to the medical literature that says a typical Western diet—high in refined carbs, unnatural fats, and foods that create chaos in our blood sugar balance—contribute to higher levels of inflammation. Contrary to what you might assume, one of the most influential risk factors for depression is unstable sugar. Most people view diabetes and depression as two distinct disorders, but new scientific findings are rewriting the textbooks. One game-changing study published in 2010 that followed more than 65,000 women over a decade showed that women with diabetes were nearly 30 percent more likely to develop depression. This heightened risk remained even after the researchers excluded other risk factors such as lack of physical exercise and weight.

Personalized lifestyle medicine that accounts for the role of the environment in triggering inflammation and the manipulation of the immune and endocrine systems is the most sensible way to approach those individuals who would otherwise be candidates for multiple medications. It turns out that it may not all be in your head—but rather in the interconnectedness among the gut, immune, and endocrine systems.

It’s time we rewrite the textbooks. And it’s time we treat depression for what it really is.

About the Author

Dr. Brogan is boarded in Psychiatry/Psychosomatic Medicine/Reproductive Psychiatry and Integrative Holistic Medicine, and practices Functional Medicine, a root-cause approach to illness as a manifestation of multiple-interrelated systems. After studying Cognitive Neuroscience at M.I.T., and receiving her M.D. from Cornell University, she completed her residency and fellowship at Bellevue/NYU. She is one of the nation’s only physicians with perinatal psychiatric training who takes a holistic evidence-based approach in the care of patients with a focus on environmental medicine and nutrition. She is also a mom of two, and an active supporter of women’s birth experience. She is the Medical Director for Fearless Parent, and an advisory board member for GreenMedInfo.com. Visit her website.

Sourced from: http://www.wakingtimes.com/2016/09/20/depression-not-head/

Research Proves Raw Milk Prevents Infections And Boosts Immunity


Alex Pietrowski, Staff Writer
Waking Times

In 1948 Michigan became the first state to require all milk sold to consumers to first be pasteurized, thus beginning the war on raw milk. The national effort to prevent people from obtaining raw milk has become so absurd that state and local governments around the country are willing to sick S.W.A.T teams on U.S. citizens to protect us from the potential harm in consuming raw milk which has been a dietary staple for generations.

The ostensible premise for such militant enforcement of food law is of course public safety, as authorities say that certain manufacturing processes do not prevent the bacterial contamination of milk, and the government now claims that raw milk is too dangerous for human consumption even though it is entirely possible to produce it without contaminating it.

Advocates of the consumption and free sale of raw milk describe pasteurization as a process that destroys the real nutritional benefits of milk in an effort to prevent the risk of contamination.

“In response to the public’s concerns, regulators and hygienists improved the practices of caring for and milking cows as well as how milk was distributed to consumers (Gould et al. 2014; Leedom 2006). At a similar time, a heat-treatment process that could kill microbes, known today as pasteurization, was introduced to further ensure milk safety. Pasteurization requires heating milk to a specific temperature for a minimum period of time, and then quickly cooling it back down to refrigeration temperatures (4°C).” [Source]

Yet, the damage done to raw milk by the pasteurization process, as described below, is widely known to destroy most if not all of the nutritional benefits of milk.

“Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer. Calves fed pasteurized milk do poorly and many die before maturity.” [Source]

In 2014, an important research study into the benefits of raw milk, conducted by The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology looked at a group of pregnant women in rural Europe to determine what benefits the consumption of raw milk had on infants and young children. The findings of the investigation concluded that raw milk is an important nutritional food that can dramatically impact early immunity, especially in regards to the prevention of respiratory illnesses which are quite common in infants today.

“Early life consumption of raw cow’s milk reduced the risk of manifest respiratory infections and fever by about 30%. If the health hazards of raw milk could be overcome, the public health impact of minimally processed but pathogen-free milk might be enormous, given the high prevalence of respiratory infections in the first year of life and the associated direct and indirect costs.” [Source]

“The main finding of this analysis was an inverse association between consumption of unprocessed cow’s milk and rhinitis [cold or runny nose], RTI [respiratory tract infections], and otitis [ear infection],” wrote the authors. “The effect was strongest when cow’s milk was consumedraw; boiled farm milk exhibited an attenuated effect.” [Source]

The consumption of raw milk actually helps infants build immunity to certain infections and diseases, even though the U.S. government claims that it has no nutritional benefit whatsoever.

“According to the research, raw milk works a lot like breast milk in providing protective, anti-infective health benefits to children. Compared to highly processed commercial milk, raw milk was found to help lower C-reactive protein levels, which are directly associated with inflammation. Raw milk, in other words, works against inflammation, while processed milk may help promote it due to its altered proteins.” [Source]

Raw milk is still widely consumed in the U.S. in spite of government efforts to prevent access to this natural food, and in spite of evidence demonstrating the positive benefits of raw milk consumption on childhood immunity.

“In America, 80 percent of the Amish studied by Dr. [Mark] Holbreich consume raw milk. In a study published earlier this year, Dr. [Bianca] Schaub’s group showed that European children who consumed farm milk had more of those regulatory T-cells, irrespective of whether they lived on farms. The higher the quantity of those cells, the less likely these children were to be given diagnoses of asthma.” [Source]

In addition to helping to prevent respiratory illness, raw milk also aids in the prevention of allergic diseases, as noted by Moises Velasquez-Manoff in a piece for The New York Times on possible cures for the allergy epidemic.

“In Europe, the consumption of unpasteurized milk has repeatedly correlated with protection against allergic disease.” [Source]

Final Thoughts

Aiming a gun at someone, kicking down their door and destroying homes, farms, and uneaten food in the name of safety is an affront to public safety in its own right. In light of the fact that we have credible scientific research backing up the notion that raw is not only not as dangerous as they’d like us to believe, but that it is actually good for you, it begs the question of why the government would treat is as such a dangerous controlled substance.

Take a look at the following video of the 2011 police raids against Rawesome Foods in California where armed police raided a raw foods outlet, destroyed high quality food and arrested the owner, James Stewart.

About the Author

Alex Pietrowski is an artist and writer concerned with preserving good health and the basic freedom to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. He is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com and Offgrid Outpost, a provider of storable food and emergency kits. Alex is an avid student of Yoga and life.

Sourced from: http://www.wakingtimes.com/2016/08/23/research-proves-raw-milk-prevents-infections-and-boosts-immunity/

Our Right To Informed Consent Being Usurped – Will You Resist?

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

zika-resistBy Alex Pietrowski

Through case-law, as well as by the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, it is well established as a legal precedent in the United States that an individual has the right to informed consent of any invasive medical procedure.

No right is more sacred, or is more carefully guarded by the common law, than the right of every individual to the possession and control of his own person, free from all restraint or interference of others, unless by clear and unquestionable authority of law…To compel any one, and especially a woman, to lay bare the body, or to submit it to the touch of a stranger, without lawful authority, is an indignity, an assault, and a trespass…  ~Union Pacific Railway Co. v. Botsford (1891)

Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state. No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure. ~Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell (2012)

This is quite common sensical, yet now we find a pressing need to extend this to include the right to not be poisoned without our consent, as state and corporate powers are granting themselves the authority to spray people with dangerous and toxic chemical insecticides… for public health, of course.

Fighting Aerial Spraying of Toxic Zika Insecticide Naled

Florida residents have begun to fight back against the aerial spraying of the insecticide Naled which is being used to control the spread of the Zika virus by killing adult and young mosquitoes in targeted areas. Organized and organic resistance is growing, as many people are voicing objections to having their persons, families, homes, pets, and surrounding areas sprayed without consent.

“If you’re going to spray, we should have a say,” chanted protesters during a heated meeting atMiami Beach City Hall recently. This is the information age, and as one protestor pointed out it doesn’t take a genius to look up the health risks of Naled.

Naled is moderately to highly toxic by ingestion, inhalation and dermal adsorption. Vapors or fumes of naled are corrosive to the mucous membranes lining the mouth, throat and lungs, and inhalation may cause severe irritation. A sensation of tightness in the chest and coughing are commonly experienced after inhalation. As with all organophosphates, naled is readily absorbed through the skin. Skin which has come in contact with this material should be washed immediately with soap and water and all contaminated clothing should be removed. Persons with respiratory ailments, recent exposure to cholinesterase inhibitors, impaired cholinesterase production, or with liver malfunction may be at increased risk from exposure to naled. High environmental temperatures or exposure of naled to visible or UV light may enhance its toxicity. [Source]

The EPA ad the CDC maintain that when used in proper dosages and applied at the proper times in the proper manner it does not pose a risk to humans or household pets, which is in itself debatable; however, residents are not only speaking on behalf of themselves, but also for other insects, plants, wildlife and waterways that are being treated as well.

Spraying Airline Passengers Without Consent or the Right to Decline

Another startling example of this is practice of spraying airline passengers with toxic pesticides during flight. A toxic insecticide, d-phenothrin is commonly used on airlines to prevent the spread of insects from one region to another, and is often directly sprayed on passengers. It is toxic, according to this fact sheet:

‘d-phenothrin is low in toxicity when eaten, breathed in, or applied to skin or eyes. When d-phenothrin gets on the skin, it can cause skin sensations like tingling, itching, burning, or numbness at that spot. These sensations usually go away within 48 hours. d-Phenothrin can also be mildly irritating to skin and eyes. Reported symptoms from eating or breathing in d-phenothrin are rare, but can include nausea, vomiting, throat irritation, headaches, and dizziness.’ [Source]

cabin-spray

This practice is done ostensibly to protect public health, yet spraying people with a low-level toxic poison entirely contradicts this, and world bureaucrats see this as permissible.

This process is being referred to as “disinsection,” a word that seems to have been made up by the TSA or airline industry. Disinsection, or the spraying of an insecticide or pesticides on planes, is now permitted under international law. The Department of Transportation says that the supposed intent is to protect public health, crops and agriculture, and the environment. [Source]

The following video was posted on YouTube with a description of events:

This is on a China Eastern flight from Shanghai to Sydney. The hostesses sprayed this all through the cabins about 30 minutes before landing. I was told to stop filming.

I personally don’t think being subject to a pesticide spray while I am stuck in a pressurized cabin is protecting my health; it’s just the opposite—it’s an assault. What happens to people with asthma or someone like me who suffers from an auto immune condition and is uber sensitive to chemicals? [Source]

Surprisingly, very few people are willing to directly confront things like this as they’re happening; however, not everyone has become a sheeple. Here is a thought-provoking video from a woman who was on a flight to Australia when she vocally objected to the practice. She says she looked to other passengers for support, but not a single person would voice concern along with her. When the plane landed she was escorted off the plane by six police officers.

Final Thoughts – Playground Bully Logic

Americans, and people all over the world, are being pressed evermore by big government and corporate authoritarians to forfeit personal sovereignty under the weight of authoritarian decree and the guise of ‘public health.’

It’s playground bully logic, really. If you want something from someone and you’re bigger than them, just take it, as there’s a one in a thousand chance that the underdog will object, let alone fight back.The flip-side of this logic, however, is that when even the smallest and seemingly weakest stand up to bullying, bullies nearly always shirk away in defeat. Will you resist this latest assault on your rights?

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ~Amendment IV to the U.S. Constitution

Read more articles from Alex Pietrowski.

Alex Pietrowski is an artist and writer concerned with preserving good health and the basic freedom to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. He is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com and Offgrid Outpost, a provider ofstorable food and emergency kits. Alex is an avid student of Yoga and life.

Sourced from: http://www.activistpost.com/2016/09/right-informed-consent-usurped-will-resist.html

Virginia Woman Feeds 150 Hungry People For $20

Editor’s note: As this article states, this is proof we do not need government to fix our most important issues.  Left to ourselves, without force and intrusion, we can accomplish great things.  

By Daisy Luther

You know what I find absolutely beautiful?

When a person takes over something that is usually left to be done by the government, does it a thousand times more efficiently, and does it with a true sense of compassion.

One of the major arguments that people have against less taxation and smaller government is that there will be no one to help the poor. If you don’t want to see a huge percentage of your money extorted from your paycheck and funneled into expensive government programs, then you’re accused of “hating poor people”  or being a racist.

But think about it: it’s human nature to resent being forced to do something like “give” your hard-earned money to the government so that they can dole it out to others. However, when force is not involved, then true compassion and generosity can shine through, and I believe it would do so far more often.

If charity is dying, it’s because the federal government is killing it. It’s because nonprofit organizations take our donations and pay their CEOs and directors enormous salaries. (The director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America earns $1.8 million, the president of United Way Worldwide earns $1.2 million, and the CEO of Goodwill earns $850,000. source)  Don’t even get me started on fake charities like the Clinton Foundation, which are just a way for rich folks get donations and shift around money that they don’t want to pay taxes on.

We can do so much better than that.

Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals.  ~ Margaret Mead

True charity is voluntary.

A common question asked of those of us who object to taxation and big government is, “Who will feed the poor?”

Here’s one answer: People like Lauren Puryear.

The 29-year-old Woodbridge, Virginia resident and founder of For the Love of Others, a community group that helps individuals in need, has set an impressive goal.

She’d like to feed 30,000 people by her 30th birthday.

Puryear, who is a mental health clinician, began helping to feed the hungry several years ago. She founded For the Love of Others in 2012 after her grandmother passed away.

“She just always had a really big heart, and taught us growing up to take care of other people, and love other people,” said Puryear of her grandmother.

And, she has found a clever way to make her goal a reality: Couponing.

Puryear began feeding those in need by conventional methods, but using coupons is helping her assist not just hundreds, but thousands of people, as she told What’s Up Woodbridge:

At first I just started off by doing Thanksgiving baskets for needy families, and Christmas wish lists for children. Then as years progressed, God laid other missions on my heart – one, feeding the homeless…I would just buy things in bulk from Costco and BJ’s. But then I was introduced to couponing, and once I learned how to coupon, and once I saw what I was able to buy for little to no money, I said ‘Oh my goodness, this is like going to be my ticket to really, really help people.’

Depending on the items, Puryear said she can feed as many as 150 people on just $20:

There are coupons in the Sunday paper, or online that you can print … so I collect as many as I can, match them to the store and that is how I am able to get the items for free.

Puryear has delivered 5,000 meals so far, and is confident she will reach her goal next year.

She told NJ.com that “The joy of helping other people does not compare to any other accomplishment in my life,” and she is teaching her 5-year-old son to help others too.

It is very important to teach him to help other people. The little things we take for granted, the food we throw away every day…and if we just spread a little more love around, the world would be such a better place.

I could not agree more.

When the government gets involved, though, millions of dollars go to waste. Tax dollars go to pay high overhead expenses, nice offices, salaries, and other administrative costs. At the same time, they often squash the efforts of ordinary people who want to help, by citing public safety, food regulations, and anything else they can come up with to hide from us the fact that they’re obsolete. In 70 American cities, it is actually illegal to feed the homeless – kindness can get you arrested.

Lauren Puryear is a perfect example of what we can do voluntarily. She isn’t waiting around for the government to fix the problem. She is efficiently helping others because she is kind, generous, and intelligent.

If you’d like to make a donation to help Lauren Puryear feed the hungry, you can go here.

Sourced from: http://www.activistpost.com/2016/09/virginia-woman-feeds-150-hungry-people-20-proof-government-obsolete.html

Energy Update – Crystal Skull Activations

Editor’s note: While I follow these energy updates, I don’t post them much on my site.  However I wanted to post this one given what I experienced today during rest time.  It was a definite first and it perplexed me for a bit. As I laid in bed, eyes closed, I heard this loud, piercing ringing just outside of my right ear.  It didn’t hurt but it was enough of a noise to make me sit up and ask out loud “what the hell is THAT?”.  I tuned inward, relaxed and felt it was incoming energies doing their thing to my body.  Then I received confirmation reading the piece below. Gotta love those moments.  I have also been having an unusual amount of gas and bloating – even for me and my sensitive polish tummy.  

Energy Update ~ Crystal Skull Activations

September 23, 2016

By Lisa Brown, 09/23/2016

OMY Huge… Crystal Skull Activations…… They started a couple hours ago and increase in power. Wowzers’s on how intense these are. (We love intense, while we moan through it all, and no we don’t require pain here, that’s the old way). Expansion of the bones & teeth are an understatement. Right ear adjustments too. Pineal feels like it’s about to explode…. These are awesome as our bones become more “bendable” for “shapeshifting” as they release density and make more space in the physical bone itself… This plasma energy will take your breath away while it works through the system and yes nausea with the amount of gas activating can be substantial for some…. Throat muscles, brain… seems we’ve got it all going on….. breathing breathing breathing… no resistance (which causes the muscles to tense and make it “worse”)…. total flow… lots of turmeric and now adding in some MSM, already brushed the teeth/gums (as the teeth absorb foods/liquids and that is painful in itself)… Neem Mouthwash… oil pulling in a abit….. Off to run errands and get outside to see if the intensity subsides, since nature always brings balancing energies…….

WE love upgrades! We love expansion. We welcome, embrace and breathe through these alot… oh yeah, tongue swells with these too. Seems everything is a part of upper body calibrations, since the last 2 weeks was lower body and now that’s gone. lol. Gotta love it!

Just sharing for those who notice/experience too. Oh yeah, crystals/start particle still activating under the skin/eyes too.

Usually we go through a huge period then it subsides… dunno if this is an all-day thingy or just a few hours, yet it’s only 1:44 p.m. here now… so I guess we shall see! Happy galactictivations loves! ♥

p.s. I ain’t a woos and I can handle the toughest… we’ve been doing this for eons/this whole lifetime, yet this part of the phase is going to push all of our bodies hard, because of how much we’ve got to anchor in/embody right now, infusing light through the depths of the core of every little particle of our bodies now… While those entering “higher self LightBody mode” may not notice much at all, for there is a part of the process where you don’t feel the body for while. Then there’s the human that is primarily still carbon-based and chalks everything up to sickness or injury or diagnosis or whatever……

Cells/crystals are charging and shaking in our bodies too. Inner Earth should have movement and possibly some “shake realities” stuff up too.

Okay. Back later. It’s ship out packages of awesomeness time! ♥

Lisa Transcendence Brown ☼

Sourced from: http://www.lovehaswon.org/ascension-spirituality/energy-update-crystal-skull-activations

School Replaces Detention With Meditation With Remarkable Results

Imagine you’re working at a school and one of the kids is starting to act up. What do you do?

Traditionally, the answer would be to give the unruly kid detention or suspension.

But in my memory, detention tended to involve staring at walls, bored out of my mind, trying to either surreptitiously talk to the kids around me without getting caught or trying to read a book. If it was designed to make me think about my actions, it didn’t really work. It just made everything feel stupid and unfair.

But Robert W. Coleman Elementary School has been doing something different when students act out: offering meditation.

Photo from Holistic Life Foundation, used with permission.

Instead of punishing disruptive kids or sending them to the principal’s office, the Baltimore school has something called the Mindful Moment Room instead.

The room looks nothing like your standard windowless detention room. Instead, it’s filled with lamps, decorations, and plush purple pillows. Misbehaving kids are encouraged to sit in the room and go through practices like breathing or meditation, helping them calm down and re-center. They are also asked to talk through what happened.

Meditation and mindfulness are pretty interesting, scientifically.

Photo from Holistic Life Foundation, used with permission.

Mindful meditation has been around in some form or another for thousands of years. Recently, though, science has started looking at its effects on our minds and bodies, and it’s finding some interesting effects.

One study, for example, suggested that mindful meditation could give practicing soldiers a kind of mental armor against disruptive emotions, and it can improve memory too. Another suggested mindful meditation could improve a person’s attention span and focus.

Individual studies should be taken with a grain of salt (results don’t always carry in every single situation), but overall, science is starting to build up a really interesting picture of how awesome meditation can be. Mindfulness in particular has even become part of certain fairly successful psychotherapies.

Back at the school, the Mindful Moment Room isn’t the only way Robert W. Coleman Elementary has been encouraging its kids.

After-school yoga. Photo from Holistic Life Foundation, used with permission.

The meditation room was created as a partnership with the Holistic Life Foundation, a local nonprofit that runs other programs as well. For more than 10 years the foundation has been offering the after-school program Holistic Me, where kids from pre-K through the fifth grade practice mindfulness exercises and yoga.

“It’s amazing,” said Kirk Philips, the Holistic Me coordinator at Robert W. Coleman. “You wouldn’t think that little kids would meditate in silence. And they do.”

I want to be as cool as this kid one day. Photo from Holistic Life Foundation, used with permission.

There was a Christmas party, for example, where the kids knew they were going to get presents but were still expected to do meditation first.

“As a little kid, that’s got to be hard to sit down and meditate when you know you’re about to get a bag of gifts, and they did it! It was beautiful, we were all smiling at each other watching them,” said Philips.

The program also helps mentor and tutor the kids, as well as teach them about the environment.

Building a vegetable garden. Photo from Holistic Life Foundation, used with permission.

They help clean up local parks, build gardens, and visit nearby farms. Philips said they even teach kids to be co-teachers, letting them run the yoga sessions.

This isn’t just happening at one school, either. Lots of schools are trying this kind of holistic thinking, and it’s producing incredible results.

In the U.K., for example, the Mindfulness in Schools Project is teaching adults how to set up programs. Mindful Schools, another nonprofit, is helping to set up similar programs in the United States.

Oh, and by the way, the schools are seeing a tangible benefit from this program, too.

Philips said that at Robert W. Coleman Elementary, there have been exactly zero suspensions last year and so far this year. Meanwhile, nearby Patterson Park High School, which also uses the mindfulness programs, said suspension rates dropped and attendance increased as well.

Is that wholly from the mindfulness practices? It’s impossible to say, but those are pretty remarkable numbers, all the same.

 Sourced from: http://www.upworthy.com/this-school-replaced-detention-with-meditation-the-results-are-stunning

A neuroscience researcher reveals 4 rituals that will make you happier

Editor’s note:  I love this piece and absolutely agree with the advice given. Following these rituals will certainly make it easier to find happiness, or as I like to say, acceptance and contentment.   Finding gratitude – at least searching for it – helps and believe me when I say at times I have said “i have NOTHING to be grateful for” – but it is in the searching that can switch things in the brain.  If anything,  I am always grateful for a warm comfy bed.  And my child.  

You get all kinds of happiness advice on the internet from people who don’t know what they’re talking about. Don’t trust them.

Actually, don’t trust me either. Trust neuroscientists. They study that gray blob in your head all day and have learned a lot about what truly will make you happy.

UCLA neuroscience researcher Alex Korb has some insights that can create an upward spiral of happiness in your life.

Here’s what you and I can learn from the people who really have answers:

1. The most important question to ask when you feel down

Sometimes it doesn’t feel like your brain wants you to be happy. You may feel guilty or shameful. Why?

Believe it or not, guilt and shame activate the brain’s reward center.

Via The Upward Spiral:

Despite their differences, pride, shame, and guilt all activate similar neural circuits, including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, insula, and the nucleus accumbens. Interestingly, pride is the most powerful of these emotions at triggering activity in these regions — except in the nucleus accumbens, where guilt and shame win out. This explains why it can be so appealing to heap guilt and shame on ourselves — they’re activating the brain’s reward center.

And you worry a lot, too. Why? In the short term, worrying makes your brain feel a little better — at least you’re doing something about your problems.

Via The Upward Spiral:

In fact, worrying can help calm the limbic system by increasing activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and decreasing activity in the amygdala. That might seem counterintuitive, but it just goes to show that if you’re feeling anxiety, doing something about it — even worrying — is better than doing nothing.

But guilt, shame, and worry are horrible, long-term solutions. So what do neuroscientists say you should do? Ask yourself this question:

What am I grateful for?

Yeah, gratitude is awesome … but does it really affect your brain at the biological level? Yup.

You know what the antidepressant Wellbutrin does? Boosts the neurotransmitter dopamine. So does gratitude.

Via The Upward Spiral:

The benefits of gratitude start with the dopamine system, because feeling grateful activates the brain stem region that produces dopamine. Additionally, gratitude toward others increases activity in social dopamine circuits, which makes social interactions more enjoyable …

Know what Prozac does? Boosts the neurotransmitter serotonin. So does gratitude.

Via The Upward Spiral:

One powerful effect of gratitude is that it can boost serotonin. Trying to think of things you are grateful for forces you to focus on the positive aspects of your life. This simple act increases serotonin production in the anterior cingulate cortex.

I know, sometimes life lands a really mean punch in the gut and it feels like there’s nothing to be grateful for. Guess what?

Doesn’t matter. You don’t have to find anything. It’s the searching that counts.

Via The Upward Spiral:

It’s not finding gratitude that matters most; it’s remembering to look in the first place. Remembering to be grateful is a form of emotional intelligence. One study found that it actually affected neuron density in both the ventromedial and lateral prefrontal cortex. These density changes suggest that as emotional intelligence increases, the neurons in these areas become more efficient. With higher emotional intelligence, it simply takes less effort to be grateful.

And gratitude doesn’t just make your brain happy — it can also create a positive feedback loop in your relationships. So express that gratitude to the people you care about.

For more on how gratitude can make you happier and more successful, click here.

But what happens when bad feelings completely overtake you? When you’re really in the dumps and don’t even know how to deal with it? There’s an easy answer …

unhappy sad frustrated personPoint out the things that upset you. ibm4381/Flickr

2. Label negative feelings

You feel awful. OK, give that awfulness a name. Sad? Anxious? Angry?

Boom. It’s that simple. Sound stupid? Your noggin disagrees.

Via The Upward Spiral:

[I]n one fMRI study, appropriately titled “Putting Feelings into Words” participants viewed pictures of people with emotional facial expressions. Predictably, each participant’s amygdala activated to the emotions in the picture. But when they were asked to name the emotion, the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activated and reduced the emotional amygdala reactivity. In other words, consciously recognizing the emotions reduced their impact.

Suppressing emotions doesn’t work and can backfire on you.

Via Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long:

Gross found that people who tried to suppress a negative emotional experience failed to do so. While they thought they looked fine outwardly, inwardly their limbic system was just as aroused as without suppression, and in some cases, even more aroused. Kevin Ochsner, at Columbia, repeated these findings using an fMRI. Trying not to feel something doesn’t work, and in some cases even backfires.

But labeling, on the other hand, makes a big difference.

Via Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long:

To reduce arousal, you need to use just a few words to describe an emotion, and ideally use symbolic language, which means using indirect metaphors, metrics, and simplifications of your experience. This requires you to activate your prefrontal cortex, which reduces the arousal in the limbic system. Here’s the bottom line: describe an emotion in just a word or two, and it helps reduce the emotion.

Ancient methods were way ahead of us on this one. Meditation has employed this for centuries. Labeling is a fundamental tool of mindfulness.

In fact, labeling affects the brain so powerfully it works with other people, too. Labeling emotions is one of the primary tools used by FBI hostage negotiators.

To learn more of the secrets of FBI hostage negotiators, click here.

Okay, hopefully you’re not reading this and labeling your current emotional state as bored. Maybe you’re not feeling awful but you probably have things going on in your life that are causing you some stress. Here’s a simple way to beat them.

thinkingMake decisions to do things you enjoy. Francisco Osorio/Flickr

3. Make that decision

Ever make a decision and then your brain finally feels at rest? That’s no random occurrence.

Brain science shows that making decisions reduces worry and anxiety — as well as helping you solve problems.

Via The Upward Spiral:

Making decisions includes creating intentions and setting goals — all three are part of the same neural circuitry and engage the prefrontal cortex in a positive way, reducing worry and anxiety. Making decisions also helps overcome striatum activity, which usually pulls you toward negative impulses and routines. Finally, making decisions changes your perception of the world — finding solutions to your problems and calming the limbic system.

But deciding can be hard. I agree. So what kind of decisions should you make? Neuroscience has an answer.

Make a “good enough” decision. Don’t sweat making the absolute 100% best decision. We all know being a perfectionist can be stressful. And brain studies back this up.

Trying to be perfect overwhelms your brain with emotions and makes you feel out of control.

Via The Upward Spiral:

Trying for the best, instead of good enough, brings too much emotional ventromedial prefrontal activity into the decision-making process. In contrast, recognizing that good enough is good enough activates more dorsolateral prefrontal areas, which helps you feel more in control …

As Swarthmore professor Barry Schwartz said in my interview with him: “Good enough is almost always good enough.”

So when you make a decision, your brain feels you have control. And, as I’ve talked about before, a feeling of control reduces stress. But here’s what’s really fascinating: Deciding also boosts pleasure.

Via The Upward Spiral:

Actively choosing caused changes in attention circuits and in how the participants felt about the action, and it increased rewarding dopamine activity.

Want proof? No problem. Let’s talk about cocaine.

You give two rats injections of cocaine. Rat A had to pull a lever first. Rat B didn’t have to do anything. Any difference? Yup: Rat A gets a bigger boost of dopamine.

Via The Upward Spiral:

So they both got the same injections of cocaine at the same time, but rat A had to actively press the lever, and rat B didn’t have to do anything. And you guessed it — rat A released more dopamine in its nucleus accumbens.

So what’s the lesson here? Next time you buy cocaine … whoops, wrong lesson. Point is, when you make a decision on a goal and then achieve it, you feel better than when good stuff just happens by chance.

And this answers the eternal mystery of why dragging your butt to the gym can be so hard.

If you go because you feel you have to or you should, well, it’s not really a voluntary decision. Your brain doesn’t get the pleasure boost. It just feels stress. And that’s no way to build a good exercise habit.

Via The Upward Spiral:

Interestingly, if they are forced to exercise, they don’t get the same benefits, because without choice, the exercise itself is a source of stress.

So make more decisions. Neuroscience researcher Alex Korb sums it up nicely:

We don’t just choose the things we like; we also like the things we choose.

To learn what neuroscientists say is the best way to use caffeine, click here.

OK, you’re being grateful, labeling negative emotions and making more decisions. Great, but this is feeling kinda lonely for a happiness prescription. Let’s get some other people in here.

What’s something you can do with others that neuroscience says is a path to mucho happiness? And something that’s stupidly simple so you don’t get lazy and skip it? Brain docs have an answer for you.

happy laughing friendsHave fun with friends. Business Insider

4. Touch people

No, not indiscriminately; that can get you in a lot of trouble.

But we need to feel love and acceptance from others. When we don’t it’s painful. And I don’t mean “awkward” or “disappointing.” I mean actually painful.

Neuroscientists did a study where people played a ball-tossing video game. The other players tossed the ball to you and you tossed it back to them. Actually, there were no other players; that was all done by the computer program.

But the subjects were told the characters were controlled by real people. So what happened when the “other players” stopped playing nice and didn’t share the ball?

Subjects’ brains responded the same way as if they experienced physical pain. Rejection doesn’t just hurt like a broken heart; your brain feels it like a broken leg.

Via The Upward Spiral:

In fact, as demonstrated in an MRI experiment, social exclusion activates the same circuitry as physical pain … at one point they stopped sharing, only throwing back and forth to each other, ignoring the participant. This small change was enough to elicit feelings of social exclusion, and it activated the anterior cingulate and insula, just like physical pain would.

Relationships are important to your brain’s feeling of happiness. Want to take that to the next level? Touch people.

Via The Upward Spiral:

One of the primary ways to release oxytocin is through touching. Obviously, it’s not always appropriate to touch most people, but small touches like handshakes and pats on the back are usually okay. For people you’re close with, make more of an effort to touch more often.

Touching is incredibly powerful. We just don’t give it enough credit. It makes you more persuasive, increases team performance, improves your flirting … heck, it even boosts math skills.

Touching someone you love actually reduces pain. In fact, when studies were done on married couples, the stronger the marriage, the more powerful the effect.

Via The Upward Spiral:

In addition, holding hands with someone can help comfort you and your brain through painful situations. One fMRI study scanned married women as they were warned that they were about to get a small electric shock. While anticipating the painful shocks, the brain showed a predictable pattern of response in pain and worrying circuits, with activation in the insula, anterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. During a separate scan, the women either held their husbands’ hands or the hand of the experimenter. When a subject held her husband’s hand, the threat of shock had a smaller effect. The brain showed reduced activation in both the anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex — that is, less activity in the pain and worrying circuits. In addition, the stronger the marriage, the lower the discomfort-related insula activity.

So hug someone today. And do not accept little, quick hugs. No, no, no. Tell them your neuroscientist recommended long hugs.

Via The Upward Spiral:

A hug, especially a long one, releases a neurotransmitter and hormone oxytocin, which reduces the reactivity of the amygdala.

Research shows getting five hugs a day for four weeks increases happiness big time.

Don’t have anyone to hug right now? No? (I’m sorry to hear that. I would give you a hug right now if I could.) But there’s an answer: Neuroscience says you should go get a massage.

Via The Upward Spiral:

The results are fairly clear that massage boosts your serotonin by as much as 30 percent. Massage also decreases stress hormones and raises dopamine levels, which helps you create new good habits … Massage reduces pain because the oxytocin system activates painkilling endorphins. Massage also improves sleep and reduces fatigue by increasing serotonin and dopamine and decreasing the stress hormone cortisol.

So spend time with other people and give some hugs. Sorry, texting is not enough.

When you put people in a stressful situation and then let them visit loved ones or talk to them on the phone, they felt better. What about when they just texted? Their bodies responded the same as if they had no support at all.

Via The Upward Spiral:

[T]he text-message group had cortisol and oxytocin levels similar to the no-contact group.

Author’s note: I totally approve of texting if you make a hug appointment.

To learn what neuroscience says is the best way to get smarter and happier, click here.

OK, I don’t want to strain your brain with too much info. Let’s round it up and learn the quickest and easiest way to start that upward spiral of neuroscience-inspired happiness.

Sum up

Here’s what brain research says will make you happy:

  • Ask “What am I grateful for?” No answers? Doesn’t matter. Just searching helps.
  • Label those negative emotions. Give it a name and your brain isn’t so bothered by it.
  • Decide. Go for “good enough” instead of ‘best decision ever made on Earth.”
  • Hugs, hugs, hugs. Don’t text — touch.

So what’s the simple way to start that upward spiral of happiness?

Just send someone a thank-you email. If you feel awkward about it, you can send them this post to tell them why.

This really can start an upward spiral of happiness in your life. UCLA neuroscience researcher Alex Korb explains:

Everything is interconnected. Gratitude improves sleep. Sleep reduces pain. Reduced pain improves your mood. Improved mood reduces anxiety, which improves focus and planning. Focus and planning help with decision making. Decision making further reduces anxiety and improves enjoyment. Enjoyment gives you more to be grateful for, which keeps that loop of the upward spiral going. Enjoyment also makes it more likely you’ll exercise and be social, which, in turn, will make you happier.

So thank you for reading this.

And send that thank-you email now to make you and someone you care about happy.

Sourced from: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-neuroscience-researcher-reveals-4-rituals-that-will-make-you-a-happier-person-2015-9

Op-Ed On Current Geopolitical Landscape and RV/GCR

“WEAPONIZED MERCY”

September 23, 2016

Seems to me the RV is a weapon. And the New Powers That Be (NPTB) are using the RV to inflict weaponized mercy upon all sovereign nation states to exterminate the cabal once and for all.

Let me explain.

Take the recent India / Pakistan false flag event for instance. When the cabal attacked India via a faux Pakistani military unit earlier this week, it was like they were openly attacking Russia through its mandatory BRICS alliance. The cabal, therefore, is now trying to drag Russia into a war on every possible front before the RV–to stop the RV–so they can remain in power. Not gonna happen, but lets explore the possibilities.

Their multi-pronged false flag lead up to war approach includes ginned up conflicts in Syria, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Iraq, Ukraine, even the Black Lives Matters campaign and related racial shootings in large urban cities… even the NFL’s Colin Kapernick national anthem resistance campaign 100% a cabal set up (athletes have long been used as crisis actors–see Muhammad Ali pivoting Muslim).

All of these false flags are highly inflammatory planned distractions that make every attempt to incite riots in very sensitive cultural and religious hot beds, in order to change geopolitical strategy or public opinion in their demented favor. It’s all coordinated propaganda and thus not real. All of it. That’s right, 99% of all the major news networks and beloved anchormen you watch are fake, intelligence agency operatives, trained to mislead you and eliminate critical thinking, with the remaining 1% helpless waiting like sheep for slaughter as only 6 corporations control all the world’s media and pounce on new content providers without buyout offers before they know what hit them.

Yo, that goes for 90% of alternative news, political commentary websites and social activist blogs. All coordinated by a central messaging center, with oversight out of Eastern Europe. I know, it totally sucks right, finding this out for the first time, but keep exploring, it gets so much better. Trust me.

Now if the cabal believes they can still create order through chaos–which as a strategy has worked very successfully for many centuries–they must be still doing. Yet this tactic is clearly backfiring, and the cabal octopus of control simply cannot adapt fast enough to change the course of history–which in turn only accelerates their public exposure and immanent demise. Seriously, what good is a grand invisible conspiracy if nobody gives a shit?

Besides, Russia and India are way too committed to their common end goal of peace and prosperity to allow any meaningful escalation to occur in the Kashmir region. Isn’t it all just so obvious now given the timing of the RV, Paris Agreement, G20 and UN meeting? Seems their own playbook is now openly working against them and they just can’t audible to the right play call. Honestly, the big charade is not only out in the open, it’s become embarrassing to watch (see Hillary Clinton’s body double).

So as the pre-RV situation resolves for both Russia and India, they will simply allow diplomatic restraint to control the hysterical child (Pakistan) until it calms down before bedtime (RV) or permanently isolate their nation, putting them in a proverbial endless timeout, until either they apologize for all their past and present bad behavior or ask to play nicely again in the sandbox with the other 209 treaties nations (a la Turkey). And you know what, the BRICS nations are already doing this with every country… including the great United States of America. Their letting the once proud self-perceived king of the jungle wither and die at their own pace, by their own terms, and by their own choice.

Why? Because the BRICS nations know that these bad actors will be back, maybe never as strong or as powerful, or as well funded, or as motivated, but when evil does lurk its ugly head again in the future, they’ve set precedent as to how they will handle their misbehavior. Like a temper-tantrum throwing child who stops crying when they realign no one is listening anymore.

And this UN/BRICS diplomatic threat is permanent and absolute in its commitment to a strategy of isolation, which is why RV has been held back so long as to be used as a benevolent weapon for positive and sustainable change. Non-compiling sovereign nation states have no chance to escape their grasp, as none can exist post RV without acceptable ratification and implementation of the Paris Agreement–which by its default implements the gold standard–and literally over night creates a series of cataclysmic military and economic sanctions that would turn any population against their governmental leadership, as well as activate a unified world peace keeping force who can and will demand regime change.

So the benefit of continuous rebellion is net nothing. While the benefits of compliance and unity with the rest of the world is everything. Assuming this is truly our new earth reality, there truly is no safe haven for the cabal to regroup as every nation in the free world needs this new money to operate its daily affairs, and grow: which therefore makes the new financial system an instrument of weaponized mercy to be followed or else.

Shut the front door! Hallelujah! And you were worried in Topeka!

Free citizens of the world, be reassured that checkmate in this global chess game has long been called. And control for the soul of the world has long been decided. Love has won victoriously over fear, truth has overcome illusion permanently and unity has gracefully allowed destruction to leave with amnesty. All due to the sacred mandate of Heaven in Chirst’s name. Yes, we are intact entering an era of 1,000 years of white light, agape love, infinite abundance and relentless blessings as one happy family.

Brothers and sisters, that’s just the way it went down in our lifetime.

And it’s also why you will not see any meaningful military issues arise between either India and Pakistan; Israel and Palestine; Syria, Iraq and Turkey; Iraq and the US, or the US and Russian/Iran; as no small matter will be allowed to escalate into anything major moving forward. It just won’t happen.

This is also why every nation-state and its leaders are secretly waiting like well behaved boys and girls at the golden Chinese money trough so as not miss it’s flowing gold backed accounts. And why no nation dares risk their nation’s sovereignty over a few small territorial or hard asset matters, as everyone is terrified of facing international political irrelevance and global fiscal isolation. This is the way it always “should have been,” and well, now it is.

So expect your RV release here well before the end of September if not this weekend, and sit back to enjoy all remaining non-complying bad actors humbly and rapidly fall into line, as if by magic or inspired vision, for all will suddenly be humming the international harmony song or else be permanently removed from relevance in modern culture.

No nation can resist (Israel), no grouping of private families can overcome human ascension (dark nobility) and no higher alien species can reverse the truth of Christ with intellectual superiority (Annunaki).

Surrender is the only way because surrender is the eternal spiritual bottom line.

Sobeit.

Sourced from: http://www.ascensionwithearth.com/2016/09/weaponized-mercy-op-ed-on-current.html#more