How I Avoid The Flu

While many people seem to view getting sick as a part of life because everyone else is getting sick, I don't subscribe to that philosophy and belief system.  After all, it is a belief system whether anyone wants to agree with me or not.  Our human body is designed to be healthy, but when we throw external factors and stressors against it constantly, can we expect it to be healthy?

Many people feel that doing a few things like eating some warmed up frozen vegetables or maybe a salad here and there is being healthy.  Often people think that if they take a walk once a month or visit a fitness center regularly, that this is healthy behavior and all they need to do.  While these things are good things to do, they are just one part of the whole when it comes to the health of our body.

Too many in our society believe that they are healthy, when in reality they only do healthy behaviors as the need or time arises.  If everyone was truly practicing healthy behaviors, our fitness centers would outnumber the Walgreen stores in our cities and our grocery stores would be selling much different products than they are.  If you don't believe me, count up how many fitness centers are in your local community versus how many drug stores there are or take an inventory of how much space the healthy food takes up in a grocery store versus the junk food isles.

At one time, I used to get colds and flu just like everyone else.  When everyone was sick around me, I would pick the flu up at some point.  While I thought I was healthy, I have found out that I really did not understand what this meant at the time.  We can fool ourselves like I did much, but unfortunately in our society, we do not have healthcare.  We have sick care!

What Does It Mean To Take Responsibility For Your Actions?

This morning, one of my twitter followers posted this question.  I thought it was interesting because I have struggled with this at times in my own life. To state a little more, Frank Fine said most clients struggle with this even though they tell you they are doing just that.

Frank Fine ‏@frankfine asked, "What does it mean to you to take responsibility for your own actions?"

My initial response was simple or as simple as you can state in a tweet of limited characters.

@frankfine Realizing that my choices create my outcome and I chose my actions/behaviors/thoughts whether they are healthy or not healthy.

While I thought I had explained what I meant clearly, I soon found out there were gaping holes in my explanation.  Another twitter follower pointed this out and when they did, they made me really stop and think about what I had said.  Here is what they tweeted.

Reclaiming Healthy Touch After Trauma

While this was a term paper I wrote for school many years ago, I think it is still relevant today.  Yes, I have learned a great deal since that time, but the information is still solid.  The term paper was on reclaiming healthy touch after trauma.

In the paper, I discuss various considerations and aspects of working with someone that has been traumatized through abuse, rape, or other means.  There is discussion about how different forms of bodywork can be helpful and more details about each one.

Why reclaiming healthy touch is important is the beginning of the paper and it also touches on the subject of how trauma affects the brain.  Looking for the evidence of trauma in the body is also a major consideration because if you don't know what you are looking for, it will pass right before your eyes.  You will not even see it.

With all survivors of trauma, there are special considerations that you should be aware of  in working with them, but by all means this is not an exhaustive list.

I still remember my first time working as a volunteer at a domestic violence resource center.  We were doing full body massage on the participants.  One individual came in and got under the sheets while staying fully clothed.  There was no way that this trauma survivor could allow me to work on them without their clothes on.  I learned that day, that you can touch someone with their clothes on and have profound effects.

It helps that I too was a trauma survivor.  It is easier for me to understand what a trauma survivor is going through when I know firsthand in my own body how that feels.  My body did not always like to be touched and it took someone with healthy and safe boundaries to break past this.  I know first hand how difficult it can be to reclaim healthy touch.

For the full paper, click on the following links.  I have broke it up into sections so it is easier to read and navigate.

Reclaiming Healthy Touch 

1. Introduction
2. Why Reclaiming Healthy Touch Matters
3. How Does Trauma Affect The Brain
4. Evidence Of Trauma In The Body
5. Special Considerations Reclaiming Healthy Touch
6. Full Body Massage And Trauma Survivors
7. Other Forms Of Body Work Helpful To Trauma Survivors
8. Reclaiming Healthy Touch In My Life
9. Sources And Additional Resources

If you would like to read more about my story and how I healed my life from trauma which involved conversion disorder and paralysis, my book can be found on Amazon.  It is called Hope And Possibility Through Trauma by Don Shetterly.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Is The Food You Eat Killing You?

I know at one time, I never really worried about what I ate.  In fact, I doubt I even understood what good nutrition was.  I grew up in a home that had a big garden and so we enjoyed fresh vegetables much of the year or even canned produce through the winter.  I didn't realize for a long time that vegetables came from the store.

Unfortunately beyond that, we didn't practice good nutritional eating skills in the house I grew up in.  We didn't have an overabundance of candy or soft drinks, but we had plenty of cookies and other things.  Until I got sick in high school, much of our food was fried or cooked in ways that weren't healthy.

I'm glad we didn't have all the candy that there is on the shelves today.  I'm glad we didn't have the sugar flavored coffees and endless supplies of junk food.  Heck, I'm grateful we didn't have "normal food you now buy" that is so adulterated with foodstuffs and ingredients which in my view, are not healthy.  The food manufacturing industry wasn't quite as toxic as it is today.

Consume far too much sugar...

These days, everyone consumes far too much sugar.  In fact, if people really stopped to look at how much sugar they consume in their day, maybe they would wake up.  Maybe you're one of those people like I was that didn't pay attention to this.  Don't just assume that the products you buy or the things you eat don't have added sugar.

Most people barely eat whole foods in a day.  They miss out on the phytochemicals, the enzymes and the raw vitamins and minerals.  They miss out on the live stuff that helps fuel the body and keep it healthy.  The whole foods helps counteract some of the junk that we stuff into our body.  Every day, we do a whole food smoothie and you can read about it in my blog post at Making Whole Healthy Food Smoothies.

Sure, you may have gotten this far in life and have no health issues that you know of at this moment.  The more junk and sugar and non-whole food stuff that you consume, the more you're taking on a risk that could get life threatening.  It really can.  Just observe the increase in cancer and diabetes and other health ailments.  So many of these things can be prevented or reduced, but once we get past that point of no return, then we play havoc with our lives.

Start paying attention to what you eat...

If you want to change the course of things in your life and really take care of your body, then start paying attention to what you eat.  Know what is in the stuff you consume.  Read the labels.  Take notice of it.

Make little changes each day.  Trying to change all at once can be overwhelming, but make it a goal that you replace something that is junk or full of sugar with something that is more healthy.  Replace soft drinks and coffee with pure water, not some adulterated sugar flavored beverage that claims to be healthy.

Start making yourself whole healthy food smoothies using a Blentec Blender.  I will tell you that this has been one of the best things we ever did.  We don't get sick and we don't do flu shots.  We have a much more responsive and healthy digestive system.  We feel better and don't need to go to the doctor constantly for everything.  Whole food smoothies are nature's medicine.  If you truly care about your body, you will strongly consider doing this.

Take an inventory of what is in your cupboard and look at all the sugar amounts plus other ingredients.  Now, I do realize the food manufacturers try to hide some of the ingredients and there are some I don't think they actually list on products.  Be careful when reading the labels, because sometimes they are very tricky.  Get to know what you consume.

We've only got one body in this lifetime.  If we abuse it, it will try to keep up for a time. If we continue abusing our body, it will not be there for us.  Minor changes in what you eat can make big differences.  We all owe it to ourselves to be the healthiest we can be and we owe it to the ever increasing costs of health care to try to help ourselves, rather then just sit back and let our food kill us.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Healthy Oatmeal Breakfast

I saw something similar on a google search the other to what I am about to share.  However, I can't find the link and I wish I could.  So, the thank you goes out to whoever it was.  You inspired me!  However, I'm making this different than what was shown anyway, so in many ways I was inspired their creation to create my own healthy oatmeal breakfast.

The way I create this oatmeal is to my taste.  You don't have to follow what I do.  You are free to create whatever it is that works for you, using ingredients that you enjoy and love.  I'm just giving the basic oatmeal breakfast that I find healthy and satisfying.

The other great thing about this recipe is that it doesn't take that long to make, doing it the way I do.  If you are in a hurry, than this should not take more than about 10 minutes to prepare and make this.  It might take a few minutes longer than that, but not much.  Here are the instructions and ingredients.

We Are What We Take In

It seems like far too many humans go on autopilot these days.  I don't think they mean too, but they just do it.  It seems to be more of an unconscious action to me from what I observe.   When we do this, it keeps us from fully realizing what we take in and what we are.

We all seem to know that what we take in, we become.  It is like the old proverbial saying, "Garbage In - Garbage Out".

In fact, I remember learning that saying in a computer class where if you put garbage numbers in, don't expect something good to come out of it.

Healthy Body...

If you want a healthy body, but you put bad food in constantly and plenty of it, more than likely you're not going to get a healthy body.  If you don't read the labels and know what you're putting into your body, it is impossible to expect a healthy one.


Healthy Mind...

If you want a healthy mind, but you take in all the latest sensationalized headlines of the day, the latest bombastic political headline and all the fear that is propagated each day, the mind will definitely struggle.  You might be a little oblivious to how much it impacts you, but from observing others, I think it is pretty easy to see.


Healed Life...

If you want a healed life, but you fixate upon the horrors only, it will make it difficult.  No, I'm not saying ignore them because when you've been through trauma, ignoring it will not make it go away.  I know it isn't easy to reverse the impact of trauma on your life, but to have a healed life, you have to go in and take that control back, pushing past into and past the fear.


Peace...

If you want to have peace, but you constantly engage in the hateful rhetoric of the day, most likely you're not going to find peace.  There is far too much unconscious hate that is being spewed these days online and if you don't limit it, it will overwhelm you and take you as far away from peace as is possible.


Expanding Mind...

If you want to have an ever expanding mind, approaching life with excuses or reasons why something won't work, will keep your mind limited.  Far too often we approach new ideas and new ways of looking at things as foreign objects that are our enemies, rather than potential friends.  Yes, not every idea out there is a good one for us to explore, but if we automatically decry anything new, we're holding our mind back.


More Of A Human...

If you want to be more of a human, than it is best to learn what being a human means.  It involves respect and compassion for one another.  It involves seeing others through the eyes of love, not the darkness of hatred and fear.  Being human is more of an endeavor to realize that we are all on this planet to succeed and by working together in common bonds, we will be better than we are today.


We Are What We Take In...

We are what we take in to our body, mind, spirit, and overall existence in this world.  Even if we are unconscious of what we do every day in this regard, it is still part of us and still activity that we embrace.

It requires a conscious effort to be aware of all that we are in the mind and body, not just what we think we are.  Consciousness is born out of awareness and the more aware we become, the more fully our life shows up

In my view, it is part of the human existence to become more aware and more conscious of who we are.  It is part of our overall growth and experience.

Each day, we get the opportunity to discover a little more about the world we live in and who we are as humans.  May that process never stop and may we challenge ourselves to be more today than we were yesterday.

#Conscious

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Down Time in Life

Written by Don Shetterly

I recently saw a post on twitter about this subject and could not help but write about it myself.  Downtime in life is something we all avoid.  We think it is as nasty as swimming in a mud pit or something.

Yet, downtime is so important.  It is quite necessary to the healthy function of the mind and the body.  It is necessary for the nervous system to not get overloaded and refresh itself.

Downtime helps us enjoy the finer moments of life and the world in which we live.  It keeps us from going off the deep end and diving into a pool with no water.

The Twitter tweet I'm referring to is this one.

“When children are overwhelmed they lose the precious down time they need to explore, reflect and release tension. ” https://t.co/nwlROQVHUv

— jason hilkey (@hilkeyj) August 1, 2016

One thing we don't realize is that especially in this day and age we keep ourselves going almost 100% of the time.  We, therefore, expect our children to keep up with this pace and so we teach them through our example that downtime is not important.  If we cannot do it for ourselves, how can we expect our children to learn proper healthy behaviors from our example?

One activity or meeting after another...

I've seen it a million times when doing massage where people are so busy, they have no time to stop.  It is one activity and meeting to another.  One activity or club or sport to another with their children.  It is almost like we are doing everything we can to avoid downtime in our life.

This is not normal and healthy behavior for humans.  Our bodies are not designed to run constantly.  Our minds are not designed to go from one continuous task to another.  Our nervous system is not healthy when we don't give it time to come back into balance.

Just before I was paralyzed from a Conversion Disorder, I was working 18 hours a day in my job, almost 7 days a week.  I was trying to be the best and be everything for my boss, the company, and those that I worked with every day.  I didn't know what it meant to take care of myself.  I didn't know what downtime was.  I was just like everyone else that I kept going and pushing but never stopping.

Conversion Disorder stopped my life...

Conversion Disorder brought me to a complete stop in life.  There was nothing else I could do but stop and start to figure out how to function in life once again.  It was a slow process, but it started by listening to the birds and feeling the sunshine and enjoying the little things in life.  It started by learning how to relax and stop and let go.

The process wasn't an overnight success.  It took me years, but I knew that if I went back to the Conversion Disorder experience, the second time would not be as fortunate for me.  It was a strong motivator to change my life.

Downtime and relaxation are critical to our well-being.  It is critical to the health of our mind, our body, and our nervous system.  If you read the news or watch the current political climate, you can see strong evidence, that our mind, body, and nervous systems are anything but healthy.

When we neglect down time...

When we neglect downtime, it is then that stress builds up in our lives and connects with past experiences where illness can begin to show up.  We've seen the alarming statistics about how much we continue to spend on healthcare, but yet we aren't any more healthy than we were 20 years ago.

We can all do so much to help improve the health of our own mind, body and nervous system.  It is a choice we make to either take care of ourselves or not.

If we don't make this an important part of our life, who will?  If you wait for someone to tell you to do this, you will probably never hear it.  If you wait until your health has gone past the point of no return, you will wish you had paid more attention and given yourself the downtime you need.

If we truly want to pass something beneficial on to our children, we will learn how to enjoy downtime and teach our children through example.  In the process, we will be giving ourselves one of the greatest gifts we can by taking care of the one and only body we get in this lifetime.

Do you get enough downtime in your day (not in a week or month or year, but in a day)?  If not, what will you start to do today to change that?

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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What More Could You Be Doing?

Our health is one of those things that we think about, know about, and act on every day, but sometimes we just don't do as much for our heath as we should.  So, my question to you is, what more could you be doing for your health?

It sounds like such a simple question but in all reality it is not.  If we all did as much for our health as we should, our country and the world would be far healthier than it is.  Health care costs would be lower and people would most likely not be as cranky because of pain.

Part of the problem is that we see the doctors as holding the key to our health, rather than impacting our health through our daily actions and activities.  We think because we have insurance for when something goes wrong, that we can put off the little healthy activities that add up.  It is part of our human behavior to do this.

I am always amused when I hear people talk about how healthy they eat.  I worked in a fast food restaurant and people would order the salad bar and then add on fries and a milkshake.  I always sat there dumbfounded, but hey in the fast food world, its profits over health.  We weren't allowed to encourage people to think about what they eat.  We were to sell them as much as we could get them to eat.

People talk about how healthy they are...

I see people talk about how healthy they eat, but then if you go into the grocery store of certain areas, it does not match what people claim.  If you look at the overall obesity in these same areas, there is plenty of evidence that people don't eat as healthy as they think they do.  Look at how much produce is purchased versus how many soft drinks, snacks, and processed foods go through the cash registers.

How many people go and gulp down sugar-flavored coffee drinks every day.  Do you realize just how many calories are in one of those things?  If not, do a google search and you'll find the answer.

If you aren't reading the labels in the grocery store, you're eating stuff that is of questionable value and most likely full of sugar or other things that do nothing for your health.  I am constantly amazed at what is put into foods in the grocery store.  It blows my mind and if you don't read every label, you're going to get bamboozled.

Activity that gets you moving...

How many people go out and walk or take part in activity that gets them moving where they can burn some calories, move the toxins from the cells, and get those joints a rocking?  We've all got the same amount of minutes in a day and its really up to us in how we use those minutes.  Are you being effective with your minutes?  If not, what can  you do to change that?

Diabetes is fast becoming a major health issue in this country and so much of this is caused by lifestyle choices.  If you keep dumping sugar and junk into your body, sooner or later it is going to catch up.  Why not start cutting back on sugary drinks or sugar in your diet.  Add more "water" to your day.  Keep a glass of water close to your desk and see how many of those you can drink in a day.

There are so many things we can do to impact our health, but for whatever reason, we don't do them.  We talk about it.  We sometimes mock those that don't do it.  Yet, we're right in there making the same poor choices.

About medications and doctors...

Just because you're on a medication that has balanced whatever issue out in your life, it doesn't mean that this condition is okay.  It just means the medication is replacing your role in the condition.  Yes, I know that there are some medications that are needed and I'm not telling you to stop your meds.  What I am urging you to do is think about your role in the situation.  What more could you be doing?

Don't expect your doctor to have the time to hold you by the hand.  Many doctors are so overwhelmed with patient loads that they have little time to counsel you.  Many really want to help, but outside factors, including your willingness to change, often prevents them from doing what they need to do. Far too often, doctors have their own paradigms of healing, so why not learn on your own and discover how you can interact with your own health.

We all make choices on our health.  We all make decisions as to whether we're going to work to be more healthy or not.  Often, everyone waits until they are at the critical emergency state before we wake up and start to do something.

Our health is not going to improve on its own if we keep treating our mind and our body like garbage dumps.  So, I'll end with the question I started with on this blog post.   

What more could you be doing for your health?

Feel free to leave a comment of what you think you could be doing to help your own health.  See if you can come up with a plan where you take action and do something.  You may just be saving your own life from misery, pain, and expensive medical bills.

#health

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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My Healthy Green Tea Latte

A friend of mine introduced this delicious drink to me, and I thought I'd share it with those who read this blog.  I love this healthy green tea latte.

It is not difficult to make either.  I have a Nutribullet that I use which makes it super easy to do.  Best of all, it doesn't cost as much as a commercial latte beverage.

Now, I can't vouch for the specifics of the healthy part, but the ingredients I put into this are healthy in my mind, so I think it is something good.  The best part of it is that it doesn't have all that sugar that you would normally get in commercial beverages.

I'm really trying to cut back on sugar and by drinking this first thing in the morning, it helps me set my tastes and desires for food so I'm not wanting as much sugar.  Plus it feels soothing to me and I like that, because it helps me take the edge off of stress that seems to show up in a day.

Here's the ingredients

• 1 Coffee cup of Water
• 1 Handful of Cashews
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Royal Matcha Green Tea Powder
• Small amount of Cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon of Honey

Here's how I make it

1. Place the cashews, water, cinnamon and Matcha Green Tea Powder in the Nutribullet.
2. Grind everything up good.  I usually shake the Nutribullet container and then run it a few seconds more.
3. Place the mixture in a small sauce pan and add the honey. (Hint:  I put the honey in a spoon that I can leave in the pan and as the honey warms up, it comes out of the spoon.)
4. Warm the mixture up slowly for a few minutes, to the desired temperature
5. Pour it into your coffee cup and enjoy

I buy the organic raw cashews at Costco and they are much cheaper than if I buy them in Publix or a regular store.  The Royal Matcha Green Tea Powder comes from Dr. Mercola.   I use organic honey that I get at Target.

Of course, the Nutribullet I have is by far one of the best things I've ever bought.  Sure, I have my Blendtec blender that I use for whole food smoothies every day, but for things like this, the Nutribullet just cleans up easier.  It is less mess!  It is simple to use!

If you do your research on the Royal Matcha Green Tea, you'll see just how healthy and beneficial this is to your body.  It is the high end tea, but using a half teaspoon in this beverage recipe makes it not as expensive.

Thanks Marie for sharing this with me!

    

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Hugging Gets Student Suspended In Florida

Our Cats Hugging,
Corey & Topanga

Seeing a headline story today that students in a Brevard County Florida school were suspended after they were caught hugging just blows my mind!  My first reaction other than shock, is that fighting and bullying go on all day long with very little done, but yet touching or hugging is the bad thing and causes someone to be suspended.  Am I the only one that sees how messed up this is in our society?

Yes, I am aware that students can do sexual movements in the disguise of hugging, but isn't a suspension just a little drastic?  Does it not send the wrong message?  After all, if parents modeled good behavior in their life, children would most likely imitate this behavior.  Maybe it would be possible for our society, our communities and our schools to stop the mind and thought control and instead teach our children how to make good choices.  Give them the tools rather than just the rules!

TO GMO label or NOT!

Wow, the US Senate finally did something to help protect us from the horrors of our food.  Yep, they went and passed a law about GMO labeling.  Hold on, did they actually pass a good law?  Well, it all depends upon who you want to ask.

If you ask the industry, they are all like smiles and happy and celebrating.  They got their way.  They can claim they did something good for consumers when its about as ridiculous as it gets.  Rather than making it easy to understand, they are making you scan a QR code to see if the product contains GMO ingredients.  Yep, I didn't misspeak.

I'm sure everyone wants to pick up every ingredient and scan the QR code to see what it has in it.  This makes so much sense - NOT!  Why not make it easy to see this.  Why not label it properly.  Oh, that's right, the food industry and their powerful lobbyists don't want you to know.  They love how they manipulate our US Senators - bought and paid for with your own grocery dollars.

I could be wrong of course and maybe they have better motives than it appears.  However, when you hide the ingredients, it doesn't make it a good thing.  Walk in any grocery store and pick up just about any product.  Then, tell me what is in it.  See, it isn't that easy is it?   They just bank on the customer being lazy and not looking at the ingredients anyway.

Have to be a food scientist...

You almost have to be a food scientist these days to even understand what's in the stuff you buy.  Far too many ingredients are not necessary, but hey - they dump them in anyway.  After all, if they can get you to eat a little more of their stuff, what's a little more sugar added in or high fructose corn syrup or many of the other questionable substances that some of us don't want to consume.

Now days, everything has far too much crap in it and we call it food.  Everything seems to be loaded with onion and garlic and for me, that's a difficult issue because those ingredients make me sick.  It doesn't matter to the food industry.  They obliterate the product and then add back spices like onion and garlic so no one knows the difference.

I still remember buying a can of peas and it actually had sugar added.  I wrote to the manufacturer questioning that and of course I got the bogus response that basically made no sense.  They didn't want to answer it because they know if they put sugar in it, people will like it more and buy more.  It has nothing to do with the reasons they try to proclaim.

I personally don't want all the added sugar, high fructose corn syrup and chemical ingredients that they put into food.  More and more, we are making our own stuff and not purchasing these products in the store.  Too many are not healthy for you.

If you aren't reading the ingredients...

If you aren't reading all the ingredients that are in each product, don't even suggest to me that you're eating healthy.  You're buying into all that the food industry wants you to believe.  Take a look at cancer rates and obesity.  Take a look at the record levels of diabetes.  Do you honestly think we are eating healthy in our society?  I'll give you my answer!  No we are not eating healthy.

The food industry loves an uneducated people.  They have hoodwinked the entire country into getting us to think if we look for the "low fat" or "healthy" on the labels, that's all we need to do.  The blindness of the masses.

GMO isn't something our grandparents had to deal with.  GMO is something new that has been done and while I'm sure the legitimate claims could be proven, food was not meant to be adulterated and poisoned with a chemical structure that was far from how it was created.  When you play God with our food, you're sentencing all of us to a life full of disease and poor health.


However, one thing we've done to try and counteract some of this is we have our whole food smoothies every day.  We get the live enzymes and unadulterated vitamins and minerals.  We get the natural phytochemicals and the fiber.  Using the Blendtec blender, our smoothies give our body the ability to absorb these without causing destruction to the food through processing.

Its up to each one of us what we do with the food we consume and how we find health through nutrition or not.  Of course, when they hide the GMO ingredients, it is hard to sometimes know what is in the stuff you eat.  The food industry has tapped into their evil side once again on the GMO labeling, but its hard to expect anything else since they are bought and paid for through their lobbyists and co-conspirators, the US politicians.


It is important to note that at the time I'm writing this, the law has not been passed in the house.  I'm not sure that gives me any comfort that the house will do the right thing.  After all, politicians are just bought and paid for by lobbying dollars.  They can grandstand all they want about how much integrity they have, but lobbying dollars pulls the chair out from under them on the political stage.

Article source:   http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/08/485145450/senate-passes-a-gmo-labeling-bill-that-the-food-industry-likes

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Toxic Vegetables For Sale

As I saw the sign above the produce, I gasped with frustration and anger.  After all I was shopping for some healthy vegetables in Publix.  When I looked up, I was greeted with a sign that said, "these fruits and vegetables are coated with Food-Grade Vegetable Petroleum Beeswax and/or Lac Resin-Based Wax or Resin".

Oh, so delicious!  Give me some more of that stuff.  I like eating unnatural stuff on the healthy vegetables that the earth provides.  Yes, I love "petroleum" based products on my nice raw vegetables.  After all, that's the way they were created on earth to be consumed.  I'm sure they come out of the ground that way.

I know, I know, the reason for this is to help the shelf life.  I know, I know, these products have all been tested on lab rats to be 100% safe or that's what they tell us at least.  Poor rats!  I'm sure the food companies all have our best interests in mind when they add this stuff and they would never dare do something that would harm us.  The food companies would never do that to us.  Excuse me for a moment.... cough,,   cough,,,  sputter....

We Think We Lead Healthy Lives

Written By Don Shetterly

I'm more and more amazed at the behaviors I see every day when it comes to people's health.  We as a country claim we eat healthy, live healthy and do all we can to stay healthy.

Unfortunately, that is not true.

A recent news article showed just how much fast food consumption is increasing while everyone claims to be eating more healthy.  Just the kind of unconscious behavior that is alive and well in our world today.  People aren't in touch with what they actually do.  They lead themselves to believe they do more than they say they do.

I know - it is a harsh truth isn't it?  It doesn't sound nice.  We like to think EVERYONE else out there does these things, but we are all guilty of it.

If you don't believe me, go into your local grocery store.  See which things take up the most isle space.  It will prove my point many times over.

No one hardly eats food that is whole and unprocessed anymore.  Produce that is lightly steamed or cooked is a thing of the past for most.  Frozen vegetables or vegetables obliterated by cooking is what is for dinner!

I've had people tell me that frozen vegetables are the same as whole produce.  I hate to break it to you, but they are not.  Yes, they can measure out the vitamin and mineral percentages, but what is not accounted for is the enzymes and phytochemicals destroyed in processing.

In our house, we try to eat plenty of gently cooked whole vegetables in our day.  I can't remember the last time I went to a McDonalds or any other fast food place.  It is the place I eat at only if I'm starving and there's nothing else for 50 miles.

We don't go for the sugary coffees and energy drinks and soft drinks every day.  Most of the time, you'll only find water in our house to drink.

In 2009, we learned through Jeff Primack and Food Based Healing about whole food smoothies.  Nope, they aren't some mix or supplement that goes into them.  Nope, they aren't yogurt or ice cream or other nonhealthy stuff.  They are basic produce items.  You can read the blog post on My Flu Shot to learn more about them.

The other thing is, I don't get crazy worried about germs out there or other people getting sick.  To me, in my mind, if I do that it becomes nothing more than attracting that which I fear.  I don't need the extra stress and worry on my mind in this toxic stress world.

We also get bodywork with Dr. Paul Canali done frequently so our nervous system is more balanced and we're not taken under by the toxic stress.  I wish more people would do this.

So, when people come and tell me I should get a flu shot, I roll my eyes.  Why do I need to introduce that stuff into my body when I know how to take care of myself.  They claim that I will somehow put them at risk.  Really?  Then the flu shot is not that effective and if you have one, then using your facts, you would be protected.  So, the logic doesn't work at least in my mind.  Again, it is unconscious thoughts and behavior. 

It is a free country, and you can do what you want to do, but this is the path I've chosen.  Just know that I'm not in agreement with what most of this world does.  I think it is short-sighted and unconscious.

If people focused on truly taking care of themselves from what they eat to dumping the toxic stress, we'd all be better off in this world.  Of course, that feels like utopia to me, but I still hope that we as a world will wake up.

Are Your Nuts Healthy?

Just wondering when the last time you bought some healthy sunflower seeds to munch on as a snack?  Were they healthy nuts, or did they have stuff added to them that you didn't realize?  If you're like I was, I bought some Planters Sunflower Kernels and didn't even pay attention to the ingredients.  After all, who would think they would add so much junk into a natural product.  It seemed like such a simple purchase!

I know, I know - I've said it a million times.  You've got to read the labels, but on something as innocent as sunflower seeds?  Really?  Unfortunately you do, because if you see what I'm looking at right now, you'll most likely be as shocked as I am.

To Check out "What's In Your Pantry" blog post, click this link.

Some of the ingredients in this Planters Dry Roasted Sunflower Kernels include the following ingredients.

Most Diseases Are Reversible With Food

Did you know that most diseases are reversible with food? According to Jeff Primack, from QiRevolution.com, he has developed Food Based Healing Smoothies that have helped many people.

Just attempting to eat healthy is not enough because so often we either process, freeze or mutilate our food to the point of losing so many of the important nutrients, enzymes, vitamins and minerals. Just because we eat frozen vegetables or processed foods with healthy things in it, does not mean we are eating healthy.

Fruits and Vegetables contain naturally occurring photochemicals which Jeff calls, the spark plugs of the immune system. Humans do not generally get enough of them. Phytochemicals hide in the cellulose fibers of seeds, stems, skins and rinds of the fruits and vegetables we eat.

When is the last time you ate the entire apple including the seeds, stems, and apple peelings? Do you realize that the best part of the apple is in the seeds, stems and skin? Or you ate an avocado with including the seed and shell? What about the cucumbers that you buy in the store where you normally peel off the skin and eat the inside? (granted a waxed cucumber is probably not the best thing and our food industry is determined to wax every cucumber sold or charge outrageous prices for ones they don't). Just think of the fruits and vegetables you eat and how much of the "good stuff" of these do you throw away?

What Jeff Primack teaches, is how to make a smoothie using a high powered blender (found on Amazon - Blendtec TB-621) and dumping in all the fabulous phytochemical rich foods. We've been doing this for almost two years and not only does it really (and I mean really) help digestion, but we don't get the colds and flu like everyone else is getting. In fact, I overheard a conversation the other week about how these two people had been through two or three rounds of a cold and flu and it was almost foreign to me what they were talking about. If I feel anything like a cold or flu coming on, the smoothie usually knocks it out so quick that whatever was hitting me comes and goes within a day at the most.

At first, I wasn't sure if I could drink the smoothies. They taste good but sometimes you get ingredients that have off flavors and then it makes it hard to drink the smoothie. Once I got accustomed to it, I really don't mind it at all. It is part of our routine in the morning and we have gotten the prep work down to a science now so that it is not hard to prepare the stuff to put it in the blender. Our biggest problem is living in an area where produce in the stores is sometimes difficult to find. Sad that this happens, but it is true so it makes it a challenge at times.

There are so many nutritional things out there from Green Drink Mixes to Juice Plus to NingXia Red to Healthy Chocolate and so many other things. I know all these places have their research and their success stories and so on and so forth. I'm happy for them. However, when you have to start spending considerable money each month on a processed product that you can only buy from certain places or through some Multilevel Marketing (MLM) system, the questions in my mind run over each other trying to get answered! Sorry, but I'm just not into buying a product that someone claims and regurgitates the claims that it is the best thing since oxygen was discovered!

With the smoothies, I am using natural food that I can buy at my local market or I can grow on my own. I put it in a blender for a couple of minutes and drink it. That is all the processing there is. There is no heating and cooling and pressing into a pill or powder. There is no freezing or bottling and letting it sit in a warehouse or on a truck. There is no wondering what is truly in the product because I can see with my eyes and with my hands, just what is going into what I am consuming.

Even if phytochemcials are not something I specifically know about, it is not hard for me to understand how eating whole, natural and fresh fruits and vegetables is very healthy for a person. We've all been taught that we need to eat our veggies, so it is not difficult to understand how beneficial this is. If you're skeptical, than why not put it to the test? What do you have to lose? After all, I don't make any more money telling you about this if you do it or you don't do it. I'm just passing along something that I do and have had very positive benefits from.

Here are some examples of specific foods for specific diseases.

Kiwi - Helps to reverse Asthma
Avocado: Helps reverse heart disease, plaque in arteries and losing weight
Asparagus: Naturally Reverse Cancer & Detoxification
Bitter Melon: Naturally Reverse Diabetes and Improve Blood Sugar
Reishi: For Reversing Heart Disease, Chest Pains, Asthma & Depression
Maca: For Energy, Better Sex, Menopause, Fertility

Take a moment to look at Jeff's website along with the videos that he has put up on YouTube. It will explain much more and will give you further insight into the healing smoothies. If you want to get the smoothie formula book that I use, see the image link below to purchase this on Amazon.


Further Reading
1) Food Based Healing And Smoothies
2) Smoothies, A Year Later
3) Qi Revolution - Jeff Primack
4) Food Based Healing Introduction

Blog Post & Images (c) 2/20/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

Clutter In Our Life, Part 5

Clutter #5 - Food Choices

Part 5 of 10

In our lives, we clutter our bodies with very poor food choices. Before you start thinking and trying to convince me that you are the healthiest eating human alive, consider how many aisles in the store are for absolutely healthy eating and how many are questionable to say the least. If you don't know, take a trip to any local grocery store and you'll quickly see what I am talking about. Of course, you might be one of the rare people who do eat healthy and if so, I applaud you for it.

We as humans tend to fill our shopping carts up with the processed stuff and we rush past the produce section of whole vegetables and fruits. We pay little attention to the ingredients in the food we buy including such things as amounts of sugar, salt, high fructose corn syrup, additives and preservatives among other things.

We think that frozen vegetables and processed foods are just as healthy as the natural stuff but of course, we are only kidding ourselves.

There is much we should pay attention to in the food we buy and what we eat. The more conscious we are of this, the more healthy our body will be in the long term. What we put in our body is what fuels us through our day so if we put garbage in, we get garbage out.

Come back tomorrow for part 6 of this series, Clutter In Our Life. Below are the various parts to this series that you can read as well.

Clutter In Our Life Series
- Introduction
Part 1: Spending our hours watching TV news
Part 2: Keeping Ourselves Constantly Busy
Part 3: Numbing Ourselves
Part 4: Following Blindly
Part 5: Food Choices
Part 6: Health care, Doctors, and Medicine
Part 7: Hydrating Our Bodies
Part 8: Thinking We Have The Answers
Part 9: Exercise Is For Another Day
Part 10: We Fail To Evolve
- The 30 Day Challenge


Blog Post & Images (c) 3/20/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

How Awake Are We?

How awake are we? This is an important question to ask one's self. I'm not referring to hitting the alarm clock and pulling ourselves out of bed to start our day. I'm not referring to being asleep in the night time or awake as in the day time. This is the basic question of our lives that is philosophical, yet very real.

Through The Media:
If you watch the news and follow the accounts of what is happening in the world according to the different media outlets, there is a good chance that being asleep is normal routine for your life. Most of what is reported in the media is not balanced, not factual and not fair and balanced as some outlets would suggest. There is no more balance in the far left reporting than there is in the far right reporting. CNN, MSNBC, and FOX NEWS all have their biases and their own pools of thought that yield to their agendas. Yet, many millions of Americans take the news to be the authority on what is happening in the world. We even have pundit after pundit now analyzing the way we should look at news.

It is not a world that allows us to wake up no matter how much we may think it is. Try turning the news off for a month and only reading some headlines if you feel the need to know what is going on. If you tune out all the extra stuff and just focus on the main thoughts in a headline, you'll be surprised at how your view changes to the news. Try turning off the TV news and you'll begin to breathe much easier and find more enjoyment and peace in life. If you don't believe me - try it and see if you can prove me wrong!

Our Daily Activities
Another major area where we tend to "sleep in life" is that of what we choose to do in our day. Time and time again, I see people who are running to and from all kinds of activities for their children, all kinds of events and various other things as well as all the running in high speed that they do in their jobs. There is never a moments rest. All is about getting to this place and doing this or that, having this day filled up and that weekend booked with things. Granted, some of these things are good things but when they get to the point where you have no down time and no rest in a day or even in a week, they become interference and noise in our lives.

Our bodies need the down time and the rest. We were not meat to multitask forever and ever in our lives. The brain and the body can not rest and repair itself when we're running in high gear. Try taking a look at your schedule for a week and see if you cannot cut in half all the things you do. Give yourself some down time where you might just go for a walk, or sit in a park or maybe read a book, take a bath or some other restful activity. One that does not involve the TV would be very important in these down times. And at the end of the week, see how you feel and see how life seems to you. I'm willing to bet that you'll see a difference in your life and things that you thought were helpful and important may appear differently.

Health Care
Another area where virtually most of us are asleep is in the area of our health. We tune into the media and health care ads to see what it is that we should do to keep our lives healthy. Some of us might consider the route of exercise as being the way we keep our self healthy. While this does help, health is much more than that. Some of us might be looking for a drug that helps some infliction that we face in our life or maybe a term that describes a condition we face. We feel that is healthy. Some of us feel that test after test prescribed by the medical community gives us the edge on preventive measures while in some ways, they are masking the true source of what may be going on.

Yes, some medical procedures are warranted and one should always make informed decisions but so many of us follow the medical establishment blindly because a Doctor makes some statement, or a internet site makes a claim or there is some "research trial" that suggests it is so. Do you know just how much research is done that is not being truthfully and honestly reported? Some of us might think that taking a flu shot is the best way to stay healthy when in fact, it is in all reality introducing the toxin into our system. I'm not advocating that all shots and vaccines are necessarily bad but I am urging people to open their eyes and be 100 times more informed than they are.

If you think I've fallen off my rocker, try to consider this? Listen to all the side effects of the drug commercials and in fact list them on a piece of paper. Now, take some time to ponder what these are. I'm sure you'll begin to see that some of these drugs can be more harmful than good. Realize to that with each drug that helps to alleviate some symptom in your body, it means that some other part of you is being turned off which of course leads to an imbalance in your body that will require further drugs or treatments. That's a mind blowing thought if you think about it.

Spirituality
One other big way people are asleep is through their spirituality. Yes, as spiritual as people want to be to themselves and the world, they are often asleep. Whether it is one church denomination or another or some spiritual self help group or even some new age/spiritualism thought pattern, they are all acquainted with being asleep to some degree. I'm often amazed at how one church feels they have more figured out than the next and they are the ones going to heaven while the others are going to be lost in Hell. I've even seen churches where clapping, instruments and certain activities are ok while it being considered wrong and sinful in others. Oh how I remember one church we went to that the church split up because some people liked to clap in a worship service while others thought it was immoral.

I'm more amazed at just how the new age spiritual movement tries to flee some of the teachings of the mainline churches. In it, they think that they have reached a higher enlightenment because they don't do things like the main denominational churches do. Yet, if they truly looked at what they did, they would quickly notice that their vocabulary and customs mirror that which is in the churches. Yes, there may be differences but if you look at the root of these things, you'll see the same elements in the churches.

Again, I ask you to take a look at yourself and see what is similar and what is different. Don't just follow someone's teachings or some book's teachings and treat it as the entire basis for life. That is being asleep. Question everything that is being taught and realize that much of what is being said, is nothing more than that person's own interpretation of what spirituality is all about. Spirituality is much more then following dogma or church teachings. Most of us limit spirituality though to something that has been regurgitated over and over throughout the ages without giving a thought to what is the true meaning behind our spirituality. I've got a feeling that there are going to be many surprised people one of these days when heaven and hell don't appear in the form they were taught.

All too often, we as humans look to others for our source of inspiration, knowledge and answers. We feel that the answers we seek to the conscious and unconscious questions of life, lie in what others tell us. In fact, the answers we all seek to life are within ourselves. This involves the spiritual, the physical and the mental. We all have the power within us to do much more than we realize and to understand much more than we allow ourselves to. Instead, we take the easy road and wait for someone out there to show us the way, to take us out of pain and to make up for our own insecurities. However, in doing so, we have given up the most basic part of our human nature. We have made ourselves powerless when in fact we are powerful.

Stepped On Toes
I realize that I've probably stepped on many toes here and I'm sure to those that read this, many are saying - yeah right - I don't do that or this writer is just not aware of what I know. You can take whatever road you want to take after you read this but at least consider how your life matches up to some of the things I've written about. I'm not asking you to take my word for this. I'm just hoping that you'll think about these things in an honest and truthful way to see if there is something within these words that sparks something in your brain. If you're not able to get to that place, than just hold this in the back of your mind for a future time in life where it will become more valuable to you.

It's In The Body
Many things that I now know in my life came to me many years ago. When I first heard them, I scoffed at them and tried to distance my life from them. I thought, how crazy can someone be to even think about these things. Yet, I have been shown things through very physical ways in my body that I could never understand before. When you see things through your own physical body and not as just some "unknown concept", you can know for sure that there is something to it. Too many follow too many unknowns when in all reality, the answers for most of what we need lies within us. That's all the further we have to go. If you can experience it in your body, than it is real.

Drake University Bans Plastic Water Bottles

The other day I was reading in the Des Moines Register about a story that just made me shake my head.  In the story, it was stated that Drake University in Iowa has now banned plastic water bottles.  In their defense, this was a student led initiative.  While they have banned plastic water bottles, it appears they are giving each student a refillable water bottle and making hydration stations plentifully available.

Yet, I am waiting for the moment when these same people who are so against plastic water bottles, ban all soft drink plastic bottles.  I mean, fair is fair, right?  Of course not!  I know the twisted logic that will not allow this to happen.

Before you think that I am completely missing the point, if you banned all purified bottled water, I would be completely behind you on that one.  To ban water that is carefully bottled and not just purified is short-sighted to say the least.  Of course, it means that you have to do your research and understand how each brand and supplier packages their water.

Pulse Meter And Autonomic Nervous System

I'm sure everyone looks at this in a different way than I do.  I'm talking about our pulse rate and how I use the pulse meter to monitor my health.  I'm especially concerned with the health of my autonomic nervous system, not just the pulse rate.

I'm going to attempt to try and explain what I look at and see when I use the pulse meter.  My goal is to improve my overall health, not just take one reading and extrapolate it into conclusions for all parts of my life.  It is extremely important to know your pulse rate among other key factors of your health.

Going to a doctor and having them check at that moment is never enough.  It only shows you what is happening to you in that single moment. 

How do we know what is going on each day if we've oblivious to what is taking place within us.  I have found that as much as I think I know what is happening, a pulse rate or blood pressure check can often show something quite different.  Our bodies and our minds are not always in sync with one another.

Most of what I am writing about is what I have learned.  If you find something that you know is not quite accurate, please - please - leave a comment and help give me some reference material where I can learn more.  I've had to figure this out on my own using my own life's experiences, so I'm sharing what I know. 

Please don't use this as a medical diagnosis because I'm not qualified to do that in anyone.  You would need to consult your medical provider for questions you may have.

Here's the three key things that I look at when I use the pulse meter on myself or on other clients.

1. Pulse Rate - When I look at this, I'm looking for where the reading is at and then comparing it to where it is after some deep relaxation or trauma release work or even breath work.  In many cases, this number will change, but a healthy autonomic nervous system will have the pulse come down with the work I just referenced.  If the pulse stays high (90 to 100 or above) and does not come down, this is something that needs attention.  It is not healthy for a pulse rate to stay high.  At one time, my pulse rate remained in the high 90's, but with deep trauma and autonomic nervous system work, it has now come down to a more health level.
   
   One thing I have seen is that in some people the pulse rate is very low and in my mind, that does not seem any healthier than the individual with a high pulse rate.  It is like the autonomic nervous system is exhausted or that's how I view it and see it.  You almost have to push the person up into a higher energy state, to get past the autonomic drag as I would view it. 
   
   Knowing where your pulse rate is at any given point is key to understanding what is going on deep within you.  Even in situations where I have had nightmares and I put the pulse meter on my finger, I've found out that my pulse isn't showing what I feel biologically is happening inside of me.  Often the two things are disconnected.  Don't assume that what you think you feel is actually what is going on within you.
   
    
2. SPo2 - The oxygen level of your blood is key to so much.  Oxygen is required to help carry nutrients to the cells so that waste can be carried from them.  If your oxygen level is low, than your blood will not be doing all that it needs to help your cells function in your body.  If I am correct, it will affect your energy levels and ability to deal with things from day to day.  It will set you up for physical ailments and situations that can pull you down even further. 
   
   Many of us don't breathe properly.  We don't fully utilize our breath in a day.  Due to overwhelming stress and a failure to go in and release old traumas, we tend to hold our breath because we are in survival mode.  More often than not, we don't even realize just how much we hold our breath or keep our breathing shallow.  The more we do this, the less overall oxygen we have in our blood. 
   
   The oxygen level is a key indicator of where someone is with respect to the autonomic nervous system and how much residual trauma is still impacting them in a biological way.  If you don't know what you're levels are, you are missing a key component of your healing and your life.
   
   
3. Pulse Wave Form - While not every pulse meter has this feature I don't believe, it is another key component of the health of the autonomic nervous system.  If you start to watch the wave form continuously on yourself and other people, you'll start to see patterns emerge.  I always picture the healthy pulse wave form being gentle rolling ocean waves.  I don't want them too high and peaked because it would be like a ship on some very stormy waters.  I want the wave forms to be robust enough to help me sail through my day. 
   
   The gentle rolling waves reminds me of peaceful waters on the ocean where things are more smooth sailing. The pulse waves are steady, but about the same height.  They are rolling and evenly spaced.  Each one just rolls on to the next one without any thought given as to how it happens.  So when I see this, I know that the body is in a more relaxed and calm state, not suffering from intense trauma triggers in that moment. 
   
   Most likely if you put a pulse meter on your finger, you would see that the waves are all over the place with some high and some at different levels.  However, if you take a few moments and focus on your breath or just relax and turn off the thoughts, you would see something different if you checked it again.  The wave form should typically should be more relaxed in a healthy state.  However, if your body is reeling from the after affects of painful experiences and stress in life, it may not automatically even out, until you've released that which is built up within you.  

Even readings that seem normal at this moment can change.  We all go through experiences that brings up triggers and past memories or experiences.  When these show up, our mind body adjusts to them in trying to regain balance.  It may be nice to read our different levels and think that we are fine, but this would be an illusion because life is a process of moving forward, not a one time event.

Often we need to engage in deep trauma healing work that releases from the core of the body so that these things don't impact us biologically, mentally, and emotionally.  If we don't do this,  you can quickly see with a pulse meter, the impact and effect they have upon your body.  Our nervous systems have elasticity to them, but if you stretch that rubber band too far, something is going to break.

You can also have a great impact upon your pulse rate and blood pressure just through your thoughts.  Unfortunately, this is often temporary if you are still feeding the beast with the unresolved trauma, stress buildup and past experiences still acting as host to your mind and body.

The pulse meter is a tool to help you understand your body more.  We as humans are much more disconnected from what is happening within us than we realize.  The more you explore these concepts, the more this will be an eye opening awareness.  It is a simple tool that if you learn how to use it and read it, you can be in much greater control of your life and health.

Pulse meters are much cheaper today than they once were.  One of the ones I use is pictured above.  If you click on the following link for the PULSE METER, you will see what it is.  They are simple to use, but I think they are something that should be a standard item of personal care each day.

While I know others look at pulse rate in a more medical setting, I look at it through the eyes of the health of the autonomic nervous system.  When this system is in good health because built up stress, past trauma and experiences are not weighing it down, then your overall mind and body and spirit are in good health.  You find balance at that moment which brings you deep peace, joy, and awareness.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Dream Lowering High Pulse Rate

A Dream Lowered My High
Resting Pulse Rate on
Street Articles.com

Is it possible for a dream to lower your high resting pulse rate?  Sure not, you would say!  But maybe it is possible.  Unfortunately though, you will need to click on the link to my article "A Dream Lowered My High Resting Pulse Rate" that can be found on StreetArticles.com.

High pulse rates are a very serious concern that  you should not take lightly.  I'm not advocating that you rush to the doctor (or you don't) and take medication immediately.  Of course, I'm not suggesting that my opinions and thoughts on pulse rate should be taken as medical advice.  (that's a disclaimer).

The thing that I am suggesting is that if you don't know what your pulse rate is at rest, than how do you know if it is high or low?  Without that basic knowledge of one's body, we have no idea how healthy we are or how balanced our nervous system is at that moment.  Yes, I know, the doctor checks it when you got to a visit but to me, it is far more important than an occasional reading.