A Period for Fasting and Prayer

"These are, O my God, the days whereon Thou didst enjoin Thy servants to observe the Fast...Thou hast endowed every hour of these days with a special virtue..."

Baha'u'llah

Every year, right before the beginning of the Spring (21 March), Baha'is throughout the world observe a 19-day religiously ordained Fast which requires abstinence from food and drink from sunrise to sunset. These 19 days (2-20 March), for me are a period of reflection and renewal of my commitment to serving my Lord and putting my affairs back in order.

Yeah, every year it seems things get out of hand. Thanksgiving and excess eating during the traditional holidays are sometimes the culprit. New pounds are put on and need to be shed. In comes the Fast to help out.

As the season change, it is a good time to detoxify the body, to cleanse it, to give the digestive tract a much needed rest. And in comes the Fast to help out.

And maybe I've gotten so busy in the previous year that I have inadvertently squeezed daily prayer right out of the equation, and my life is no longer balanced in the way that it ought to be. In comes the Fast to get me back on track and provide the spiritual revival that will take me though another year.

Yes the Fast is a requirement in my Faith. And so it has become a yearly ritual with me for the past 19 years -- a ritual that keeps me in harmony, balanced and focused on the things that might otherwise be neglected.

Some fasts are difficult to endure, but I find that when I perform the Fast during the time period right before Spring, there appears to be extra divine assistance to help me through. Perhaps that is because I start to focus on the divine and the countless blessings the Creator bestows. Whether this is a placebo effect or not, I don't know...but the blessings do seem to flow.

The Holy Writings state:

"As regards fasting, it constitutes, together with... prayers, the twin pillars that sustain the revealed law of God. They act as stimulants to the soul, revive and purify it, and thus ensure its steady development."

And what else does it do for the individual?

"Fasting is the cause of the elevation of one's spiritual station."--'Abdu'l-Bahá

There are many writings about the purpose of the Fast. One of my favorites is that it preserves one from severe test in the upcoming year. And I don't know about you, but this is something I can sink my teeth into ... cause my life is test-y enough as it is.

Have you ever thought about Fasting as a yearly ritual before Spring? There are so many things that it does to balance your life, your spirit and your being, and that is in addition to the purely physical benefits your body derives from it.

When you focus on the things of the spirit which is what I generally do while Fasting, you find that the absence of food and water from sunrise to sunset is nothing when compared with all the blessings and bounties that come from being obedient to this religious commandment issued forth from the realm on High.

"We have enjoined upon you fasting during a brief period, and at its close have de-signated for you Naw-Ruz (Baha'i New Year) as a feast. . . . The traveler, the ailing, those who are with child or giving suck, are not bound by the Fast; ... Abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sundown, and beware lest desire deprive you of this grace that is appointed in the Book."

This year I plan to reread Gleaning from the Writings of Baha'u'llah during the Fasting period; this was one of the first books I read prior to joing the Baha'i Faith almost two decades ago.

If you do decide to participate in the Fast and are new to it, I offer this one small gem of advice that may be helpful for the purely physical part of fasting.

That is: always break the fast each night with a cup of something hot. My preference is herbal tea, but it could be a cup of hot water or hot water with freshly squeezed lemon juice added to it. The hot water actually causes the stomach to expand after it has shrunk from going without food for long hours. It kind of readies the body to accept the food and not suffer the shock that it might otherwise alert you to.

Here are a few resources to help get you in the spirit of fasting:

• 12 Health Benefits of Fasting
• The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting (Extracts from the compilation)
• Fast Call for Bread and Tea (a poem on fasting written by a friend)

Whether you decide to try fasting for one day or many days anytime during the period from 2-20 March, know that millions of people from around the globe are doing the same thing. You are not alone.

Of course if you are sick or nursing or are a female in her menses, you are not bound by the Fast, and probably should not be fasting. While this is a spiritual law, part of the law offers exemptions for certain categories of people. And it goes without saying that you should consult with your health care provider prior to beginning any new regimen with your diet.

I love fasting because fasting "loves" me back! Get your healthy serving of this benefit in the upcoming days.

Note: Due to formatting difficulties, you can take a look at the complete resource list for this post here:

http://healthy-servings.recallinghealth.net/A-Period-of-Fasting-and-Prayer.html

Health Humor...The History of Medication

"My home is the home of peace. My home is the home of joy and delight. My home is the home of laughter and exultation. Whosoever enters through the portals of this home, must go out with gladsome heart. This is the home of light; whosoever enters here must become illumined...."

Pilgrims Note attributed to Abdu'l-Baha

Hey,

Found this little snippet of health humor in the HEALING THROUGH UNITY NEWSLETTER for September/October 2005.

---------------------------------------------------

The History of Medication:

2000 B.C. - Here, eat this root.

1000 A.D. - That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.

1850 A.D. - That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.

1940 A.D. - That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.

1980 A.D. - That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.

2005 A.D. - That antibiotic is unhealthy. Here, eat this root.

(From Suzanne in Malawi)

Here's the link to the site:
http://www.healingthroughunity.org/newsletter__september_2005.htm

While you're there you should check out the "Proof that Ice Cream Therapy Really Works!"

Are You EFT Tapping For Health?

"Treat disease through diet by preference, refraining from the use of drugs; and if you find what is required in a single herb, do not resort to a compounded medicament."

Baha'u'llah

EFT is a term that I have been bumping into a lot lately, but one in which I never really took the time to get a good understanding of .

EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique, and this morning while getting my daily healthy servings of Google Alerts, I caught this headline that read: Depression and Breakfast: Is Your Cereal Making You Depressed.

As a bonified sugar addict, I know the havoc that sugar causes to the body and so I clicked to read the article, which is posted here at:

http://mind.recallinghealth.net/Depression-&-Breakfast-Is-Cereal-for-Breakfast-Keeping-you-Depressed-.html

But, perhaps the most interesting thing about this article was the guy who wrote it, and what he does for a living. Check out the video that the article directs you to. You will learn a lot more about EFT and how the author claims to be able to help you tap your way to physical and emotional health.

Hmmm…something new and exciting all the time. Here’s a direct link to the video.

http://www.tap4health.com/video.php

Well, this is Lo and I gotta go … ‘cause I’m running for my life.

ABC 11 TV Headline Reads: Reducing Fat Doesn’t Reduce Cancer: A Commentary and Opposing View

Well, just when you thought you had heard it all.

Last evening I was sitting at my computer—minding my own business—when the nightly news came on. I caught a sound bite which said reducing fat doesn’t reduce cancer.

And for a moment I thought I would explode.

The first question I asked myself was: When were newspaper journalists first given a key to the meat industry’s bedroom?

To keep this post short—and my blood pressure down—I am only going to briefly address the two culprits in the publication of such outrageous misinformation given to the American public and other media outlets throughout the world.

1. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Need I say more. Medical doctors only have two weapons to treat disease: pills and surgery, and any thing that threatens the sell of these pills and surgery will be fought against with a skill and fervor as if their livelihood depended on it—and in their minds, it does.

However, the weapons that they now use to fight their enemy of good food and nutrition are much more sophisticated. These weapons now take the form of “scientific studies”, and since we are a rational bunch here in the States, we are expected to simply swallow these studies whole. No need to take a closer look. No need to read the fine print. No need to comment. (More on the specifics of the one major flaw in the study below.)

2. Newspaper journalists are supposed to present an unbiased view, but because they long ago decided that it would be too risky to offer alternative views on the issue of health and healing, it has become very difficult--if not damn near impossible--to find a story on health that is balanced.

When the alternative view is not offered, there can be no balance – scientific studies included. And it would seem that since they have taken the position of not offering views from alternative health care providers when it comes to publications from the JAMA, you would think they would go the extra mile and actually read the fine print of the studies, i.e. do a little journalistic investigation—I know, what a concept. But they don’t, they run with the story as it is, unaware or uncaring of its impact and import.

That thousands will die because of their lack of professionalism seems a small price to pay in beating out their competition with “breaking news.”

Yes, I’m upset—and I rarely get upset. So let me finish my point so I can move past this and get back to writing more articles to actually help people recall health to the body, mind and spirit, holistically.

First, let me point you to the actual article posted in the JAMA at:

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/295/6/629#REF-JOC60003-1

Here’s the hypothesis:

“The hypothesis that a low-fat dietary pattern can reduce breast cancer risk has existed for decades but has never been tested in a controlled intervention trial.”

You’ll note in the “Interventions” section, it reads:

“Women were randomly assigned to the dietary modification intervention group (40% [n = 19 541]) or the comparison group (60% [n = 29 294]). The intervention was designed to promote dietary change with the goals of reducing intake of total fat to 20% of energy and increasing consumption of vegetables and fruit to at least 5 servings daily and grains to at least 6 servings."

You see the researchers begun with a thought/proposition that reducing fat consumption by 20% might have an effect on the reduction of cancer. And it is regrettable that the study was not controlled enough to include participants who actually met that criteria.

Here’s what the researchers found:

“Dietary fat intake was significantly lower in the dietary modification intervention group compared with the comparison group. The difference between groups in change from baseline for percentage of energy from fat varied from 10.7% at year 1 to 8.1% at year 6. Vegetable and fruit consumption was higher in the intervention group by at least 1 serving per day and a smaller, more transient difference was found for grain consumption. The number of women who developed invasive breast cancer (annualized incidence rate) over the 8.1-year average follow-up period was 655 (0.42%) in the intervention group and 1072 (0.45%) in the comparison group (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.83-1.01 for the comparison between the 2 groups). Secondary analyses suggest a lower hazard ratio among adherent women, provide greater evidence of risk reduction among women having a high-fat diet at baseline, and suggest a dietary effect that varies by hormone receptor characteristics of the tumor.”

What one might conclude from the items highlighted above is that at no time in this controlled study did the intervention group reach a level of reducing their fat intake by 20%.

Moreover, they only increased their fruit and vegetable intake to one serving more than the uncontrolled group, and did not consume the five servings which would have placed them within the criteria for being a part of the control group.

And instead of the researchers reporting that the study was therefore invalid because the control group was not really under control, they merely reported that there was no significant reduction in cancer among the control group. In my mind, that is not the same thing, nor is it the truth.

Instead of strapping their results and starting off with a group who might actually and easily meet the criteria that was established for the control group (ie. a group which has already decreased their fat consumption by 20% as a matter of lifestyle, such as vegetarians), and comparing those persons with the general population, the “scientists” might have been able to achieve and report legitimate results.

I am no scholar, but let’s call a spade a spade. Give me a controlled study and give me scientific results, or report to me that the study was inconclusive due to the lack of a control group, and I am satisfied.

I’m only guessing, but probably after you have spent mucho dinero ($$) to conduct an 8 year study, the higher ups want to know the outcome. When the researchers had to cough up something, all they managed to do was to cough up phlegm. And that the JAMA then regurgitated that phlegm out to the American public is unacceptable.

That the media then continued to spew out these results through its outlets is perhaps the thing that concerns me the most. Because I certainly can understand why the AMA did what it did, I do not know why the newspaper industry did not feel impelled to challenge the findings, i.e. to do their jobs!

Where is my valerian supplement? These folks have gotten on my last nerve.

Well, this is Lo and I gotta go … ‘cause I’m running for my life.

What does “Money in the Mind” have to do with The Power of Money?--A Book Review

"If your parents had known about the rules of money, the information found in The Power of Money is what they would have lovingly taught you as you grew up."

Loretta Crosby, Editor, Recalling Health to Your Finances

Hi Friends,

Seems a while since we last communicated.

I have been busy writing and sharing great articles on ways to recall health to the mind body and spirit, and even ones on restoring your health using natural nutrition. Yeah, that’s what I do, in case you’ve forgotten.

You can take a look at the new health articles here:

http://natural-nutrition.recallinghealth.net/Health-Articles.html

http://body.recallinghealth.net/Articles.html

This week’s Partners-N-Health newsletter featured information on Ayurvedic Herbs and their health benefits. If you missed it, it will soon be posted on my natural nutrition site, so not to worry.

Next week’s topic will be of interest to you if you have problems with your cholesterol. I’ll show you 14 ways you can lower your cholesterol naturally without the use of drugs or other medicines which can potentially have side effects. Sign up for the newsletter here to have it delivered to your inbox next week. I also direct you to the best free report on cholesterol and health on the net. If you’re “cholesterol-challenged” in the lest bit, you do not want to miss this issue.

My new Get Out of Debt resource (i.e. to help you recall health to your finances) is now live at:

http://get-out-of-debt-advice.recallinghealth.net/

Which brings me back to the subject of this post (you’ll see why in a minute):

So What does “Money in the Mind” have to do with The Power of Money?

It all started with a dream that I had which ultimately led me to a book called The Power of Money.

Long story short, I awakened Friday morning with the image of a title in my head which read, “Money in the Mind”. Underneath the title was a name which was highlighted in blue and underlined. But I couldn’t make out the name (even in my dreams I need my glasses for the small print):-

Forgetting all about the image, later in the day I went slummin’ at the local thrift store hoping to find a long, inexpensive table for my work at home office. I browsed around for a minute or two before I ended up in the book section. (I always end up in the book section—if you’re ever looking for me in a store, ask the manager where the book section is and that is where you will find me:) -

Anyway, I found about 5 books on health and healing and herbal remedies, but beyond that I found a book entitled “The Power of Money”, paid .50 cents for it, and took it home and read it that evening.

Later I surmised that this had to be the title that my dream referred to because it was a book about money--one that I know is going to change my life and my relationship with money forever. You can read the book review that I just posted on my newest Get-Out-of-Debt-Advice resource here.

I really recommend you get a copy of this book if you are serious about being the best that you can be, while using the Word of God to enhance your life and your financial prosperity.

Amazon has this title in “used” form for about what I paid for it. Get yours there. Who knows, it just might be the best .50 cents you ever spent too…

Well, this is Lo and I gotta go … ‘cause I’m running for my life.