March 2019

Hello, and welcome to this edition edition of my Natural Alternatives Newsletter!

I hope you will enjoy reading this issue.

If you like this e-zine, please do a friend and me a favor and pay it forward!

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“The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well.” ~Hippocrates

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IN THIS ISSUE:

1) 5 MEDITATION TECHNIQUES TO GET YOU STARTED

2) HOW TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR DOPAMINE LEVELS NATURALLY AND NEVER FEEL DEPRESSED OR ANXIOUS AGAIN

3) FOUR HOME REMEDIES TO TREAT FACIAL ACNE

4) UPCOMING NO COST ONLINE EVENTS (Navigating The Dark Night Of The Soul...)

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1) 5 MEDITATION TECHNIQUES TO GET YOU STARTED
by Elizabeth Scott, MS

Meditation is widely recommended as a healthy way to manage stress, and for good reason. It provides many health-enhancing benefits, like reducing symptoms of stress and anxiety, relieving physical complaints like headaches, and even enhancing immunity to illness. If you read more on the health benefits of meditation, you will likely become even more motivated to make it part of your life.

Basics of Meditation

Meditation can be practiced in many different ways. While there are numerous different meditation techniques, a common thread runs through virtually all meditative techniques:

Quiet Mind: With meditation, your thinking mind becomes quiet. You stop focusing on the stressors of your day or your life’s problems, as well as solving these problems. You just let that voice in your head be quiet, which is easier said than done. For example, start thinking about nothing now. (It’s OK, I’ll wait.) If you’re not practiced at quieting your mind, it probably didn’t take long before thoughts crept in.

Being in the Now: Rather than focusing on the past or the future, virtually all meditative practices involve focusing on right now. This involves experiencing each moment and letting it go, experiencing the next. This, too, takes practice, as many of us live most of our lives thinking toward the future or relishing and rehashing the past.

Altered State of Consciousness: With time, maintaining a quiet mind and focus on the present can lead to an altered level of consciousness that isn’t a sleeping state but isn’t quite your average wakeful state, either. Meditation increases brain activity in an area of the brain associated with happiness and positive thoughts and emotions, and some evidence shows that regular practice brings prolonged positive changes in these areas.

Meditation Techniques

Researchers generally classify meditation techniques into two different categories: concentrative, and non-concentrative. Concentrative techniques involve focusing on a particular object that's generally outside of oneself: a candle's flame, the sound of an instrument, or a particular mantra. Non-concentrative meditation, on the other hand, can include a broader focus: the sounds in one's environment as well as internal body states and one's own breathing. There can be overlap with these techniques, however; one meditation technique can be both concentrative and non-concentrative.

There are many, many different ways to meditate. Here are some categories of meditation techniques so you can understand some of the main options and how they differ from one another. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but it can give you some ideas.

Basic Meditation Techniques: This involves sitting in a comfortable position and just trying to quiet your mind by thinking of nothing. It’s not always easy to do this if you don’t have practice with it. But a good way to begin is to think of yourself as an ‘observer of your thoughts,’ just noticing what the narrative voice in your head says, but not engaging it. As thoughts materialize in your mind, just let them go. That’s the basic idea.

Focused Meditation Techniques: With this technique, you focus on something intently, but don’t engage your thoughts about it. You can focus on something visual, like a statue; something auditory, like a metronome or tape of ocean waves; something constant, like your own breathing; or a simple concept, like ‘unconditional compassion’. Some people find it easier to do this than to focus on nothing, but the idea is the same—staying in the present moment and circumventing the constant stream of commentary from your conscious mind and allowing yourself to slip into an altered state of consciousness.

Activity-Oriented Meditation Techniques: Activity-oriented meditation is a form of mindfulness that basically combines meditation with activities you may already enjoy, or with new activities that help you to focus on the present moment. With this type of meditation, you engage in a repetitive activity or one where you can get ‘in the zone’ and experience ‘flow.’ Again, this quiets the mind, and allows your brain to shift. Activities like gardening, creating artwork, or practicing yoga can all be effective forms of meditation.

Mindfulness Techniques: Mindfulness can be a form of meditation that, like activity-oriented meditation, doesn’t really look like meditation. It simply involved staying in the present moment rather than thinking about the future or the past. (Again, this is more difficult than it seems!) Focusing on sensations you feel in your body is one way to stay ‘in the now;’ focusing on emotions and where you feel them in your body (not examining why you feel them, but just experiencing them as sensations) is another.

Spiritual Meditation: Meditation can also be a spiritual practice. (It does not have to be, and certainly isn't specific to any one religion, but can be used as a spiritual experience.) Many people experience meditation as a form of prayer—the form where God 'speaks,' rather than just listening. That’s right, many people experience ‘guidance’ or inner wisdom once the mind is quiet, and meditate for this purpose. You can meditate on a singular question until an answer comes (though some would say this is engaging your thinking mind too much), or meditate to clear their mind and accept whatever comes that day.

Whichever meditative techniques you use, the potential benefits are clear and numerous, making it one of the more commonly recommended stress management practices.
Source: verywellmind.com

For more about meditation for health click here

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2) HOW TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR DOPAMINE LEVELS NATURALLY AND NEVER FEEL DEPRESSED OR ANXIOUS AGAIN
by Christina Sarich

Dopamine is the brain’s master chemical. This single neurotransmitter is responsible for a plethora of mental and physical processes. By learning how to stimulate your own dopamine levels naturally, you can overcome depression, anxiety, apathy, and fear, while boosting feelings of pleasure created by this amazing little neuron.Dopamine is what rewards certain behaviors in us so that we do them again, and why certain drugs are so addictive. Cocaine, heroine and other opiates cause a dopamine “super reward”which makes their use highly desirable, until you experience the dopamine crash that comes once the illicit drug is absent from the physiology.

The opiates bind to the opiate receptors in the brain, increasing a dopamine release, but once gone, there is an ever-increasing need for more opiate (or other drug) to induce the same dopamine-high. This is what causes drug addicts to resort to ever increasing, negative behaviors to get their next “fix.” The dopamine high is that desirable.In experiments conducted with mice, when the same nerve bundle that causes an opiate release was stimulated when they pressed a lever, the mice, left to their own devices, would press the lever thousands of times in an hour, due to the pleasurable feelings the dopamine would induce. A later experiment (conducted unethically on a human being) showed a similar response. Over the course of three hours, a person would press a button which triggered a dopamine dump thousands of times to get an immense emotional boost.

We get little dopamine dumps in our brains with less destructive behaviors – like making money, having s.ex, and even winning a video game, but there are dopamine boosting activities that can regularly boost our “pleasure” neurotransmitter, without causing an addictive backlash.

We have a certain number of dopamine neurons in the brain, and they are smaller than other neurons, making up less than 0.0006% of the neurons in the human brain, but we can stimulate the powerful nerve bundle in the brain that links dopamine neurons with their targets in the forebrain.

Dopamine does more than just boost our happiness quotient, though. It is also responsible for regulating our muscle movement, improving cognitive function, helping keep us focused, make decisions, evaluate problems and solve them, and regulating the secretion of prolactin.

Dopamine is undoubtedly, extremely important for our wellbeing and happiness. Without high dopamine levels, we tend to experience depression, sadness, confusion, fear, negative thinking, rumination, and other emotional obstacles.

Following are some 100-percent-natural ways to increase your dopamine levels:

Exercise

Exercise elevates dopamine D2 receptors in the brain. It also happens to increase serotonin, and other endorphins in the body as well. Regular exercise can help prevent depression, reduce stress, and strengthen the mind just as much as it strengthens the body.

Make a List and Cross Off the Things You Accomplish

The brain dumps a little dopamine every time we successfully accomplish a task – no matter how big or small. To get even more dopamine “hits,” then break up big tasks into smaller pieces, and check them off one by one. This habit also has a tendency of keeping you moving toward your goals, and clearing the mental clutter in your mind.The Principles of Self-Management state that if a task represents a change of 25% (or bigger change) in your life routine, you will feel disinclined to finish it, and often end up self-sabotaging or giving up. Conversely, making small changes (around 10%) keep you going in the right direction, and increase your pleasure.

Eat Dopamine-Increasing Foods

The essential amino acid, tyrosine is a precursor for dopamine. By eating foods that contain tryrosine, you can naturally boost dopamine levels. Find tryrosine in things like:
Eggs,Green tea,Milk,Watermelon,Coffee,Almonds,Bananas,Dark Chocolate,Yogurt.

Reduce Your Lipopolysaccharideds

It’s a big word, but it is basically an endotoxin that causes your immune system to go berserk. Lipopolysaccharides also inhibit the production of dopamine.  By eating foods which protect the gut, such as yogurt, kefir, kimchi, and taking probiotics, you can lower your lipopolysaccharides, and allow dopamine to be created with ease.

Detox

While we’re on the topic of toxins, it is important to regularly detox. The accumulation of too many toxins in your body can prevent dopamine production. There are a myriad ways of detoxing, from green juicing, to taking activated charcoal, or doing a yogic master cleanse. The less toxic you are, the more super-charged your dopamine levels can get.

Listen to Uplifting Music

One of the easiest, and quickest ways to get a beneficial dopamine dump in the brain is from listening to music. Music creates “peak emotional moments” by making our brains “sing.”Music has been helping people feel uplifted since Paleolithic times. It’s that tried, and true.

Get Creative

It doesn’t matter if you express your creativity by doing arts and crafts, or writing an entire symphony, any creative activity increases levels of dopamine. Dance, take a figure drawing class, write a poem, cook something new, or even attack an auto-repair project with creative gusto, and you’ll be rewarded with higher dopamine levels.

Start a Positive Streak

Not only will this behavior increase dopamine levels, but it also happens to be the foundation for creating new, positive habits. See how many times you can do one new thing (like recycling your plastic or skipping soda) and mark it down on a calendar or tear sheet. See how long you can make the winning streak last.

Supplement

Dopamine levels can also be raised through supplementation. Try:

~ L-theanine increases numerous neurotransmitters in the brain, including dopamine. Green tea is a rich source of this plant compound.
~ Curcumin found prevalently in turmeric, effectively increases dopamine in the brain.
~ Ginkgo Biloba can raise dopamine levels.
~ Acetyl-l-tyrosine is a building block of dopamine, so a healthy dose of it supports the production of dopamine in the brain.

Meditation and Yoga

Meditation and yoga can effectively alter brain mechanisms that allow for bigger dopamine dumps. One of the reasons consistent meditators handle stress better, and usually feel good is due to an increase in GABA and dopamine. Meditation also releases us from the conditioned neural pathways which block the release of dopamine and other feel-good neurotransmitters.
About the Author: Christina Sarich is a staff writer for Waking Times. She is a writer, musician, yogi, and humanitarian with an expansive repertoire. Her thousands of articles can be found all over the Internet, and her insights also appear in magazines as diverse as Weston A. Price, Nexus, Atlantis Rising, and the Cuyamungue Institute, among others. She was recently a featured author in the Journal, “Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and Healing Arts,” and her commentary on healing, ascension, and human potential inform a large body of the alternative news lexicon. She has been invited to appear on numerous radio shows, including Health Conspiracy Radio, Dr. Gregory Smith’s Show, and dozens more. The second edition of her book, Pharma Sutra, will be released soon.

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3) FOUR HOME REMEDIES TO TREAT FACIAL ACNE
By Liz Connor

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

It might not taste great, but studies have found that this particular type of vinegar – which contains acetic, citric, lactic and succinic acid – can kill the spot-causing bacteria known as propionibacterium acnes. Mix together one part apple cider vinegar with two parts water, apply to a clean cotton pad and swipe over the face for a natural, blemish-fighting toner.

TEA TREE OIL

Tea tree oil is an age-old skin remedy that's always good to have in your bathroom cabinet. It can be bought for just a few pounds in most health food shops and is extracted from the leaves of the Melaleuca alternifolia – a tree native to Australia. When it comes to application, it's best to apply to a cleansed face, concentrating on any red or irritated problem areas. The smell can be off-putting at first, but it's often worth persevering; a 2007 study found that applying a tea tree oil to the skin can significantly improve acne after three months.

HONEY AND TURMERIC MASK

Honey has natural anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties, making it an excellent at-home treatment for killing spot-causing microorganisms. Turmeric has been used for centuries in both Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, to treat an array of health problems, thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties. The best way to tap into their healing magic is by slathering a DIY face mask over your skin. Mix half a teaspoon of turmeric with a tablespoon of honey and layer it evenly over a clean, dry face, avoiding the eye area. Leave it for 10-20 minutes, then rinse it off. Repeat once a week.

ZINC SUPPLEMENT

The mineral zinc can't be naturally produced by our bodies, which is why it's important to make sure you're getting enough of it in your diet. As well as aiding proper immune system function, it plays a big role in cell division, cell growth and wound healing. It's also one of the most studied natural treatments for acne, and researchers have found that those with spots tend to have lower levels of zinc in their blood than people with clear skin. Meat, shellfish, legumes and seeds are high in the essential mineral, but if you really want to make sure you're getting enough, try taking a daily supplement.
Source: irishnews.com

4) UPCOMING ONLINE EVENTS AT NO COST TO SIGN UP

I am excited to invite you to check out the following online events:

Navigating the Dark Night of the Soul: How to Turn Your Hardest Initiations Into the Gold of an Awakened Life with a renowned mystic teacher Andrew Harvey. The event is on Wednesday, March 13th.

How Medicinal Plants Can Fuel Your Spiritual Evolution: Essential Insights that Unify Natural Medicine, Ecology & Spirituality.

Supercharge your Chakra Practice: How to Heal Your Energy Centers & Unleash the Full Power of Your Life Force.

Discover the Power of Qi Medicine: Traditional Chinese Techniques to Prevent Disease & Activate the Healer Within You.
You can sign up even when the event is over or you are not able to attend. You will get access to the recording.

To check out the latest online events please go here

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VISIT THE NATURAL HEALTH STORE
Please visit the Health Store for organic health foods, vitamins, supplements, beauty products and more.

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PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE!

Thank you for reading.

Livia
www.natural-health-and-healing.com
Brampton, Ontario, Canada

P.S. If you have a comment or suggestion, just reply to this e-mail. Your feedback is important to me.

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