Author Archives: blevine32
31 Jul
2013
MBG: 7 Great Reasons To Add Chia Seeds To Your Diet
The Aztecs and the Mayans used chia seeds as a staple of their everyday diets, alongside corn and beans. “Chia” is the Mayan word for strength, and these ancient peoples understood the important health benefits of these seeds.
The Mayans would grind chia seeds into flour, press them for oil, and drink them mixed with water. Ancient people considered these seeds magical due to their ability to increase stamina and energy for long periods of time. However, once the Spanish conquered Latin America, they introduced their own foods and prohibited the farming of chia.
However, chia seeds have recently made a comeback in modern diets as researchers have discovered the hidden benefits from this ancient super seed. Here are just seven of the various reasons you should add this superfood to your diet today.
1. Pack in your fiber.
The American Dietetic Association recommends 20 to 35 grams of fiber per day, yet most people only consume about half of that. Chia seeds deliver almost 50% of your necessary daily intake, with 11 grams of fiber per ounce. Fiber is necessary for ultimate health, but especially for digestion and weight loss.
2. Trim the fat.
Chia seeds absorb up to 12 times their weight and expand in your stomach, making you feel full and curbing your appetite. Chia seeds help reduce your caloric intake by filling you up and helping lower the energy density of certain foods — ultimately, assisting greatly in weight loss.
3. Get your omega-3s.
Chia seeds are a concentrated sources of omega-3 fatty acids, and they actually have more omega-3s than salmon. Omega-3s are critical for brain health, and chia contains five grams per one ounce serving.
4. Build your bones.
One ounce of chia seeds has 18 percent of the recommended daily intake of calcium. Chia seeds can help promote better bone and oral health.
5. Boost heart health.
Studies have shown that chia seeds can improve blood pressure and increase healthy cholesterol while lowering bad cholesterol. Chia seeds can help you maintain a healthy heart — a crucial element of your health.
6. Get your phosphorus.
Your body uses phosphorus to synthesize protein and repair cells and tissues. Chia seeds contain 27 percent of your daily value of phosphorus, and can help your body heal and repair itself faster!
7. Fill up faster.
Tryptophan, the amino acid that’s popularly known for making you sleepy, is also found in chia seeds. Not only will it make you want to take a nap, but it also helps regulate appetite, sleep and improve mood.
Sidenote: In the book Born to Run Chris McDougall writes about the Tarahumara Indian tribe in the Mexican Copper Canyons eating Chia seeds as part of their daily diet. These tribe members run hundreds of miles a week in sandals.
31 Jul
2013
7/31 Quote: Melody Beattie
“Letting go doesn’t mean we don’t care. Letting go doesn’t mean we shut down. Letting go means we stop trying to force outcomes and make people behave. It means we give up resistance to the way things are, for the moment. It means we stop trying to do the impossible—controlling that which we cannot—and instead, focus on what is possible—which usually means taking care of ourselves. And we do this in gentleness, kindness, and love, as much as possible.”
~Melody Beattie
31 Jul
2013
Patience
“Patience is the key to joy.” ~ Rumi
Ahhhh… patience.
This is a virtue I am developing.
Patiently, of course. 🙂
I have this thought from Epictetus on my whiteboard whenever I used to feel my patience wane: “If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”
How’s your patience?
Remember, it’s the key to joy.
31 Jul
2013
NYT: Garry Davis, Man of No Nation Who Saw One World of No War, Dies at 91
On May 25, 1948, a former United States Army flier entered the American Embassy in Paris, renounced his American citizenship and, as astonished officials looked on, declared himself a citizen of the world.
In the decades that followed, until the end of his long life last week, he remained by choice a stateless man — entering, leaving, being regularly expelled from and frequently arrested in a spate of countries, carrying a passport of his own devising, as the international news media chronicled his every move.
Garry Davis, a longtime peace advocate, former Broadway song-and-dance man and self-declared World Citizen No. 1, who is widely regarded as the dean of the One World movement, a quest to erase national boundaries that today has nearly a million adherents worldwide, died on Wednesday in Williston, Vt. He was 91, and though in recent years he had largely ceased his wanderings and settled in South Burlington, Vt., he continued to occupy the singular limbo between citizen and alien that he had cheerfully inhabited for 65 years.
30 Jul
2013
Study: Yoga Helps Incarcerated
One of the greatest benefits of yoga practice is that it trains us to stay calm when emotions and physical sensations get intense. This type of training not only allows our negative emotions to pass more quickly, but it encourages us not to impulsively act out from a place of anger, fear, or hostility. So, could this aspect of yoga practice be helpful to those who are incarcerated? A new study says yes.
In a recent 10-week study funded by the Prison Phoenix Trust, an Oxford, England, based charity that offers yoga classes in prisons, psychologists assessed the benefits of yoga for prisoners. Study leaders Dr. Amy Bilderbeck and Dr. Miguel Farias, who are Oxford University researchers in the Department of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry, found that prisoners who took one 90-minute yoga class each week improved in mood, had a decrease in stress, and were able to curb impulsivity. This last finding indicates that yoga may not only be a way of helping inmates deal with the stress of incarceration, but that offenders may have a better shot of resisting the temptation to commit crime again once they are back out in the world.
“Almost half of adult prisoners return to prison within a year, having created more victims of crime,” Sam Settle, director of the Prison Phoenix Trust, says in an article posted on the India Educational Diary website. “So finding ways to offset the damaging effects of prison life is essential for us as a society. This research confirms what prisoners have been consistently telling the Prison Phoenix Trust for 25 years: yoga and meditation help them feel better, make better decisions, and develop the capacity to think before acting–all essential in leading positive, crime-free lives once back in the community.”
Before and after the yoga course, all the prisoners completed questionnaires measuring mood, stress, impulsivity, and mental wellbeing. The results of the study were printed in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
“We’re not saying that organizing a weekly yoga session in a prison is going to suddenly turn prisons into calm and serene places, stop all aggression and reduce reoffending rates,” said Bilderbeck, who is also a yoga practitioner. “But what we do see are indications that this relatively cheap, simple option might have multiple benefits for prisoners’ wellbeing and possibly aid in managing the burden of mental health problems in prisons.”
30 Jul
2013
What is Satya?
What is Satya?
In English, the Sanskrit word Satya is translated to mean “truth.” Satya is one of the Yamas from the Yamas and Niyamas that Patanjali passed down in Yoga Sutras (arguably the most important yogic text).
The Yamas and Niyamas are the first two limbs of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. The Yamas and Niyamas can be best simplified as ten guidelines to purifying life and becoming a better person.
What does truth or Satya mean in the context of the Yamas and Niyamas?
Satya and Truth
Satya is honesty in all facets of your life. Honest behavior with honest thoughts and honest intentions. Satya will help guide us to true speech.
Thanks to Francisco Bjuan for the drawing!
Satya and Ego
Satya is an ego reducer. When you are living by the Yama of Satya you will not lie for social gain or social kudos.
While using Satya, we have to be mindful of the first Yama, Ahimsa, or non-violence. Ahimsa tells us that it is not always desirable to speak the truth on all occasions, for it could harm someone unnecessarily. We consider what we say, how we say it, and in what way it could affect others. If speaking the truth has negative consequences for another, then it is better to say nothing.
Why Do People Lie?
Rory taught us that if we lie, we are lying because we cannot be true with ourselves. We want ourselves to look better, feel better, and create our own virtual reality. Satya tells us that we need to ask ourselves why we are we lying. Do we have an ego that wants to be amassed with crap and be congratulated or do we want to be free and truthful? Rory said if we lie, we are lying straight to God. Our karma would be affected.
Conclusion
Satya, the Yamas and Niyamas, and yoga guide us to freedom…. to mental emancipation.
The reality is the truth is not always easy to face. Sometimes, the truths that we most need to recognize are the very same terrifying and painful truths that we are subconsciously working to ignore.
Acting in truth can require incredible courage and faith, but, from practicing Satya, I know that it can change our lives. Family will trust you, friends will trust you, and strangers will trust you. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali it is written, “When one is firmly established in speaking truth, the fruits of action become subservient to him.”