Perception
is
everything.
How
I
perceive
myself
directly
affects
me.
The
way
I
perceive
myself
defines
who
I
am,
and
so
by
making a decision to see myself a
certain
way, I decide who I become. How I perceive the world and its processes,
directly affects not only my interactions with it, but also what is
really
going around me. By making a decision to see the world a certain way, I
decide
what the world around me becomes. So, make no mistake - I create my
own
reality.
There exist differences of perceptions, or perhaps even distortions of
perceptions, and I've seen examples of these in the context of health.
One, an
overweight person calling a healthily slim person - too skinny.
Another, a
person eating cooked, dead, dehydrating, tasteless unless filled with
spices
and condiments, void-of-nutrients food, calling the habit of eating
fresh,
nutritious, hydrating, delicious, luxurious food in the form of fresh
fruit and
veggies - a deprivation, an ascesis. Or, an over-eating person calling
the
healthy habit of eating only when hungry - an unhealthy restriction. Or, an
over-training person
calling a
healthily active person - sedentary.
Last week, and not only then, I was wondering about my problems with
lack of
rest. At some other times I was pondering about my attitude towards
fasting and
my apparent disinterest in refraining from eating during the several
years
since I went raw. I was also wondering about how this relates to my
instincts,
and my approach of following them. The answer came, unexpectedly, as it
usually
happens in the universe that always delivers the answers, and I shifted
my
perception. In the last couple of days I suddenly developed a sore
throat, a
sign of detox, most likely from some substances that I once ingested in
my life
and that are still stored in the fat tissues of my body. This morning I
decided
to take a sick leave, which is something that does not happen very
often (it
never does ha). I did so because I realized the lack of thirst or
hunger and a strong
desire to lie down. So I took Julia to school, came home, and then went
to bed.
:) I closed my eyes and lay like this until about 3pm in the afternoon
(I had
to go and pick up Julia again). The term fasting is completely and
inappropriately corrupted. When people talk about fasting, they mean
deprivation, abstaining from doing things that they would otherwise
enjoy doing,
self-discipline. This is so wrong. So I am not going to use the word
fasting
here, I will say I was resting instead. This was a totally luxurious,
delicious
experience. I enjoyed every bit of it, lying in a cozy bed, with my
eyes shut,
completely relaxed, feeling how my body was doing a million little
things that it
could not when I was active, understandably so. I thought of the cells
of my
body which, instead of chasing the millions of processes that occur
when I drink
and eat and walk, could finally do the overdue maintenance. This was a
repair
and cleanup time. I felt good. I felt my body regenerating. Make no
mistake -
listen to
your body.
I
closed my eyes to relax completely, to switch off as much of the
external noise
as possible. I did not make my thoughts drift completely away, and when
lying
down like this, managed to come to various conclusions, including one
mathematical proof of an idea that had been on my mind for some time.
But I did
drift away several times, each time feeling slightly clearer, stronger,
more
energized than before. When I finally got up, I brushed my whole body
with my
skin brushes, the little one for the face and the big one for the rest
of the
body, then had a shower and then another lie down, eating a lovely,
red, juicy
watermelon. Now tell me this it not a total indulgence!
I finally overcome my mental blockage about resting. I finally got it.
Good.
All it takes is to listen and respond to the signals of the body, which
I had known, of course. I
look
forward to doing it again. In fact I am going to do it tomorrow, to
give my
body a complete rest, and my throat a chance to recover completely,
because I
felt like
I wanted to keep going today. I did not want to get up or eat or drink,
but
once I got up, I felt like eating something juicy again. So I am going
to give my body a chance to rest. This prospect feels as good as a
prospect of going away for a dream weekend in Cairns. :)
9th December 2009
It's clear to me. I now think that the lack
of rest might have largely contributed to my detox. Rest is needed for
repair and cleanup, and so lack of rest leads to various problems which
over time
might accumulate to something more serious. This is why people can get
a cancer from lack of rest. Stress kills. Oh, and eating only when
hungry approach makes even more sense to me now, for similar reasons.
Why put food in when the body is busy doing something completely
different, and gives an obvious sign of it, lack of hunger. Going
against the body signals is going against the perfectly set processes,
disrupting the harmony, body struggling to overcome the extra burden,
chaos, and in the long term, repetitive patterns resulting in
manifestation of problems, a disease.
13th December
2009
A
very
passionate
and
cute
video
by a
rawesome beauty queen, which brings a smile to my face:
29th December 2009
The recent dietary patterns I observe is
eating 3 or 2 larger meals per day (as compared to grazing all day in
my earlier years of raw), and having my first meal after 12 noon (I am
not hungry in the morning), and fruit mono is my preference as usual
with some salads sometimes. This all has to do with being more in tune
with my instincts than ever before (true hunger for example). I feel
good, grounded, calm, balanced, relaxed, energetic.
The plants I planted are getting bigger. Observing them grow brings me
joy.
31st December 2009
My short article at 30 bananas a day forum:
In response to
http://www.30bananasaday.com/forum/topics/id-like-to-know-dr-opinion-and
http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/blog/?p=283
Dear Lighty,
The trouble with most books on empirical sciences is that as soon as they are printed, the information in them may become outdated. This is why reading most recent papers in (internationally-recognized) scientific journals is a more accurate way of learning about the current state of science.
Wrangham argues that human ancestors learned to tame fire and cook food 1.9 million years ago [1], which changed our appearance (small jaw etc) and made us human. His book was published in May 2009. However, in October 2009, the scientists announced the discovery of Ardi, the humanoid and our ancestor from 4.4mln years ago, well before the invention of cooking, that already had the human-like features, including the ability to walk upright, small face and small canines [2, 3].
When browsing through those recent papers on Ardi, it is evident that the scientists still speculate about the details and there is a number of various hypotheses, which is the standard feature of empirical sciences in which hard-core proofs do not exist. Nevertheless, some conclusions emerge, such as the raw diet consisting of less hardy matter. This makes sense, for example, bonobo have less prominent jaw when compared to common chimpanzees, and their diet, besides the soft fruit, consists of much softer green matter than the tough vegetable matter present in the diet of common chimpanzees. Also, bonobo are also far less aggressive than common chimpanzees [4].
It is worth mentioning here that an interesting theory explains the evolution of human brain through the lenses of our frugivorous origin [5].
(A minor note, as far as the mathematically flawed calorie model, its inaccuracy has been explained extensively at other posts on this forum.)
Love,
Gosia
References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catching_Fire:_How_Cooking_Made_Us_Human
2. “Ardipithecus ramidus and the Paleobiology of Early Hominids”, Tim D. White et al, VOL 326 SCIENCE, 2 October 2009, page 64
3. “The Ardipithecus ramidus Skull and Its Implications for Hominid Origins”, Gen Suwa et al, VOL 326 SCIENCE, 2 October 2009, page 68
4. “The Social Behavior of Chimpanzees and Bonobos: Empirical Evidence and Shifting Assumptions”, Craig B. Stanford, Current Anthropology, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Aug. - Oct., 1998), pp. 399-420
5. http://www.kaleidos.org.uk/