Red wine myth

This time last week the London Marathon was taking place. Over 37,000 people took to the streets of London to run, walk or hobble the 26.2miles. The participants ranged from 'elite athletes', the average 'fitness' person to 'fun runners'. Some actively competed to win the race or to get their own personal best time and others just wanted to finish the run and were not concerned about the time.

Many people believe that competing in such a race is not only a demonstration of their fitness but that it is a good thing to do for the body. That it is a way of keeping the body healthy and toned and in good shape, that it is a good workout for the heart and lungs. Even when the body says very loudly to some people that it is not good for them, they go back the following year and try again!! One celebrity runner collapsed last year at 23 miles and rather than realising this was a message from the body to say “no more please”, she returned this year determined to finish the course this time and did so.

From an esoteric and energetic perspective, marathon running is extremely harming for the body. In order to push the body through that sort of endurance exercise one has to shut down and ignore all the messages the body is giving that say, “please stop,”  “this is hurting me”, “this is harming me, my muscles are sore, I can't breathe, my legs are weak” and so on. Indeed for some, running a marathon is fatal, as the heart is pushed too far and runner collapses from a heart condition and indeed a young woman did lose her life this year running the marathon. How many deaths will it take? How many people need to collapse exhausted? How many injuries are required? ……before people realize the harm that running a marathon does to the body?

The awareness that running a marathon may not be so good for the body is even reaching mainstream press. More evidence is accumulating of the harm of such endurance exercise and the detrimental effect it can have on the heart and in particular, right heart function. This report highlights that people who undertook endurance exercise showed evidence of right heart strain. Even Prof Sharma who is medical director for the London Marathon and therefore presumably pro-marathon running states that "my personal feeling is that extreme endurance exercise probably does cause damage to the heart in some athletes. I don't believe that the human body is designed to exercise for as long as 11 hours a day, so damage to the heart is not implausible." However, the more one becomes aware of the body and honours it, it becomes quite clear that even lesser forms of exercise than 'extreme endurance' are not beneficial for it. 

Marathon running is a totally loveless form of exercise. In other words, someone who runs a marathon has to shut down the natural loving messages from the body and override them with the mind in order to keep going against everything the body is saying. The more attuned we become to the body, the more aware we are of how our every choice affects it. The consequences of those choices are either healing or harming and very simply marathon running is very harming and not at all healthy or healing.

Why do we put ourselves through such intense and harmful forms of exercise??

Many people feel it is a great achievement to run a marathon and that is their motivation. However, the need for achievement and recognition comes from an inner emptiness - that is part and parcel of being human. Until that is, we waken up to who we really are and realise the fullness of our being with and in love. It is only the love that we are within that can truly heal the inner emptiness - all other outer forms of stimulation and achievement are simply temporary fillers that do not fill at all....but simply keep us distracted from feeling the emptiness. The more we connect to the love that we are, the more we can catch ourselves looking for these outer fillers and identifiers and realise how false they are. Also, we become more aware of the importance of listening to the body and honouring it's feelings and not overriding them with the mind.

This takes time and practice and I know in my own journey it is all too easy to get caught by engrained ways of being and behaving. It takes effort and conscious choice to say no to those behaviours that are not self loving and which are actually harming, but the more we do it, the easier it becomes. There is much more to being self loving than one might think initially and the most frequent word to be used by someone developing self love is no.....no to late nights, no to alcohol, no to caffeine, no to dairy/ gluten, no to judgement, no to emotions, no to gossip and no to aggressive forms of exercise - like marathon running!!

I use to think it was good to be tough, to be hard, to push my body beyond any pain factor – following the old but untrue adage that ‘no pain, no gain’. Whether it was in the gym or on a mountain bike or climbing up a hill – no was not an option, giving up was not an option, I was determined to make it up to the top of the hill no matter how painful it was or how tired my muscles were or how short of breath I was! How crazy is that! I totally disregarded the messages from my body, driven by my mind to get to the top! All for what? To say I had achieved something? I had reached the summit? So what?? All of that need for achieving, to be recognized for something, no matter what it is, comes from not knowing who we are in-truth. When we know who we are, there is no need to do or achieve any of those things. The focus completely changes. The purpose and motivation completely changes. Everything is the same and yet everything changes. Love, connection with people not need for achievement, recognition or acceptance becomes the true operator, the desire to express with the energy of love and gentleness in whatever one does at work, at home, at play and with people everywhere.

This begins with us being self-caring and self-loving for we cannot truly care for or love another if we do not care or love ourselves. We need to realize our own preciousness, our own beauty and delicateness and begin to treat ourselves accordingly by being gentle with ourselves in thought, word and deed eg being self-accepting of our self-perceived flaws and stopping the self-critical and judgmental ways, being gentle in exercise and not pushing our bodies harder and harder in the gym, going to bed early and not burning the candle at both ends, eating nourishing and healthy food and drink and stop the poisoning with alcohol, gluten, dairy, junk food and sugar, honouring the feelings of the body and not overriding them with the loveless mind.

It is time to realize, accept and embody that we are already precious, we are already beautiful, we are already more than worthy of our own love and affection  without ‘doing’ anything or going anywhere or climbing any mountain or running any marathon. For if we do not love and accept ourselves, why should we expect another to do it for us? The greatest source of love is within, in your inner heart is the true source of love, strength and wisdom that no amount of outer fillers or achievements can surpass. So why not invest a little time coming to know the true you, that is already pure love, that needs not and cease the endless route of looking for love, for recognition, for achievement, outside of yourself?

How mad is it that we have become so separated and disconnected from our true nature of love and the wisdom of the body, that we can believe we are being healthy in running a marathon, when the truth is the complete opposite - we are in fact being extremely harming, completely loveless and in total disregard of the body!! Marathon Madness….

Some of you will already have received this article in a different format but for those who have not or who are just perusing the website I have posted this blog to provide a link to the page with the full document. It outlines how Esoteric medicine and Western Medicine can work harmoniously together to provide true healing.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, has called upon Christians to "wear proudly a symbol of the cross of Christ" every day. This is in the background of a case going to the European Court to allow employees to wear crosses at work. Some argue that as long as it does not interfere with one's work then people should be allowed to wear a simple symbol of their religion if they so choose. 

Whilst the Cross is often associated with Christianity it is in fact an ancient symbol that pre-dates the time of Jesus or Yeshua. It comes from the latin, crux, and was a Roman symbol of death and torture. So how does a symbol of death, torture and suffering come to be representative of The Christ - which is the energy of pure love that was embodied by Jesus/Yeshua?? Something about that just doesn't feel true to me...

From a Christian perspective, it is put forward that the Cross does represent the love of God as he gave his only Son to die on the Cross that we may have our sins forgiven and be saved. But what if, that is simply not true? What if, that is a mis-understanding, mis-interpretation or even a bastardisation of the true teachings of Jesus and The Christ? What if Jesus was crucified not because of God or being given by God, but because of Godlessness, Lovelessness in those who did not recognise him as the Soulful Master that he was, who did not recognise him as the embodiment of The Christ? What if Jesus was not the Only Son of God but that every human being on the planet is a Son of God who has the potential to embody and express the Love of The Christ as Jesus did? What if the only way to be 'saved' from suffering is to know that one is a Son of God and to embody and live that love on a daily basis? 

Of course some do use the symbol of the Cross to remind them of the suffering of Jesus, that suffering is a part of life that cannot be escaped by anyone, that they believe it can make it easier to accept their own suffering, knowing that Jesus also suffered, as the story goes. But what if this again is simply not true?? What if suffering is a necessary part of life only because we live in ignornance of our true nature, contained in a prison of our own making until such time that we come to a deeper truth? A deeper truth regarding our true nature, who we really are and how to live from there in such a way that what once would have caused suffering, no longer does. I know for myself, that even the experience of losing a loved one, something that for most is associated with a great deal of suffering, can be totally transformed, when we live from our essence of love and all that that brings. It has shown me that there is a different way to live and understand life rather than the somewhat limited perceptions I previously held. Of course, as always it is a work in progress for me such that when I slip into old ways of being, or am suffering in some way, I know that I am not living from my essence and can take steps to choose again. 

Thus the Cross can have many meanings and interpretations even within Christianity and for some it has none of those meanings. Indeed for many years I wore a variety of cross shaped necklaces with no religious or spiritual meaning whatsoever - it was just a piece of jewellery I wore and I didn't give it too much thought. However, knowing now that it was orginally used to mean death and torture, that that was the initial energetic imprint or seed of the Cross, I no longer feel to wear those necklaces. I will now often wear a heart shaped necklace instead - as for me that is symbolic of love. I could even say that that is symbolic of my religion, the religion of love, the religion of the soul. However, I do not need to wear a heart or symbol of the soul or argue that I should be allowed to wear it at work at all times as that is a symbol of my religion - far from it! To argue that the wearing of any symbol is required for one's religion is to miss the point altogether if we are talking about religion as being that which concerns one's relationship with God, rather than the man-made institutionalised versions we have today. Much more is revealed about one's religion through our relationships and way of relating and being with others than it is by any symbol. Thus, if I am wearing a heart necklace, but being angry, rude or judgmental towards others - it is the latter that truly reveals how I live my religion rather than the necklace! Rather than encouraging people to wear a cross every day as a way to portray their religion, how much more effective might it have been, if Cardinal O'Brien had asked people to be gentle and caring each day, both to themselves and each other??  To bring the love and gentleness of Christ into everyday activities and expressions - rather than putting the Cross around one's neck and arguing with one's employer??

The point is this, the wearing of a cross or a heart or a symbol of the soul or any other symbol of one's religion is not what it's about. And thus any argument or court case to insist upon it is equally fallicious. Anyone who knows the Christ, who knows the Love of God, knows that 'by their fruits ye shall know them,' not by their symbols and adornments. In other words, what matters is not the wearing of a cross or 20 crosses, a heart or 20 hearts, or any other symbol, but the purity and quality of the love and gentleness expressed through one's eyes, one's hands, one's words, thoughts and deeds. 

Feel free to discuss or share your views re the cross or other religious symbols or any of the points raised in the blog. 

This article highlights the growing numbers of people who are self-diagnosing a food allergy or intolerance. They suggest that many people may be saying they are allergic when they are intolerant or indeed that many may just be choosing a diet eg gluten and dairy free for 'lifestyle' reasons and not for genuine medical reasons. It points out the difference between an allergy where there is a definite immune response and there can be a serious medical condition and an intolerance which does not have the same immune changes and is perhaps more vague in symptoms as well. That said however, they also mention that there has been a significant rise (700% between 1990 and 2004) in children with anaphylactic reactions.

The article mentions that experts are concerned that too many people are self-diagnosing these conditions and restricting food groups that may be important. In addition they hope that people will stop self-diagnosing and refer to experts for advice before restricting foods. 

Unfortunately there continues to be much ignorance around the whole area of diet and how what we eat affects our health and wellbeing. Indeed, not just what we eat, but why we are eating it and how we are eating it will also energetically affect the body but more on that another time.

Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine present the energetic fact that 'the body is the marker of truth'  (SB) and reveals all our choices. It is by listening to our bodies that we can know for ourselves what is harmonious for it and what is not. The more we take the time to really feel how we feel after eating or drinking any substance, the more we will become aware of what is detrimental to the body and its health and what is beneficial for it. 

Is it possible that the rise in consumption of gluten free and dairy free foods is not because of a trendy food fad or a lifestyle choice that has no relevance to one's health......could it be that people are actually listening to their bodies and feeling the fact that these foods are detrimental to their wellbeing??? Could it be that there is growing awareness around the fact that neither of these substances are well digested by the human form and both are in fact energetically harmful to the human form?? A quick search on the internet will provide a number of articles on the fact that dairy and wheat are ill-digested by humans and have detrimental consequences. 

Of course both the dairy and wheat industries are huge and there are many people who would not want the real truth of how harming they are to be revealed. Thus why people are discouraged from listening to their own bodies and dismissed as just following a fad or a lifestyle choice as mentioned in this article.  

I use to eat everything and anything and I am certainly not one just to follow a fad. I 'loved' cheese, bread, wine and many other foods and was in complete ignorance of how they were affecting my body. I totally dismissed or ignored how my body was feeling and perpetually lived ruled by the mind. If I had listened to my body and honoured how it felt, then one hangover should have been enough to say alcohol is harming to my body if it makes me feel like this! Only by over-ruling how the body felt was I able to keep on consuming alcohol for many years. Likewise, feeling bloated after eating bread or heavy and sleepy after a big pasta meal were messages from my body saying this stuff is not so good for me. So when I said I 'loved' these foods, the 'I' that loved them was the part that was seeking comfort, numbness, distraction, reward, stimulation etc and that 'I' is the spirit that acts in disregard to the body. It is by listening to the body that we can come to know what is truly harmonious for it, what is caring and loving for it and what the soul would choose for it - where there is no need for reward and stimulation etc.  Instead we 'feel what to eat and not eat what we feel' (MB). So rather than allergy, intolerance, food fad or lifestyle - perhaps the true choice when it comes to food/drink is do we wish to be driven by the wayward spirit in disregard of the body or impulsed by the love of the soul to have a truly harmonious body?? Of course we have been so engrained in our wayward habits of eating and drinking that this takes time to unfold - but ultimately it is a conscious choice we can choose to make....or not!    A truly harmonious body will feel light, vital and vibrant before, during and after eating - providing we put into it foods that are harmonious for it. 

I have just been on holiday and ate foods that were just that and not once did I feel sleepy, heavy or bloated after eating. Fruit, eggs, fresh fish and vegetables lovingly prepared and cooked with garlic and chilli - yum yum! It is not correct to say that taking a dairy free and gluten free diet is cutting out essential food groups - rather it is essential to cut them out if we wish to be truly healthy and vital. Of course you don't have to take my word for it but you can be your own living experiment - try cutting them out for 3-6 months (it takes time for the body to clear them) and see how you feel. 

Feel free to share your diet experiences eg have you stopped gluten and dairy and if so, why? How have you felt since stopping them? Has there been any change in your body since you stopped them?