When I was growing up, the health of the environment was far from top of mind. The world I knew and played in every day was taken for granted. When I had my own children, I became a little more environmentally astute. I started with recycling, hoping that engaging my children in that practice, might have an impact. As my awareness evolved, I realized the important role parents play in educating their children on ways to preserve their future and their world.

Environmental educator David Sobel said, “One transcendent experience in nature is worth a thousand nature facts.” Studies have shown that when children are connected to nature between the ages of 5 and 10, they’re more likely to develop more compassion about their environment, a compassion they’ll likely carry throughout their lives. So what can you do to help your child develop an interest in environmental preservation? The following steps show how easy it can be!

Create a Nature Trip

Go for a nature walk, picking up cans, bottles, paper along the way, all of which can be recycled. This exercise will raise awareness about the damage from littering and encourage personal responsibility for keeping the earth clean. A nature field trip is also a great way to motivate children to ask questions about flowers, birds, trees, and more. The more children know about the life cycle, the more interested they will become in preserving it.

Start a Garden

Getting kids involved in the food that comes into the house naturally improves their food choices, thus reducing the risk of obesity. Further, teaching kids to garden and allowing them to choose what vegetables they would like to grow, encourages healthy eating habits and a dedication to locally grown, seasonal foods.

Visit a Recycling Plant

Try taking your children to a recycling plant where they can witness the recycling process from garbage to product. Many plants offer tours, so check your local community.  Kids will find it fascinating, and they will better understand the importance of recycling.

Create a Compost Bin

Composting is an ideal way to instill a sense of environmental advocacy in children. No matter where you live, you can compost. Plus, kids love it! Composting is such a great exercise for kids because they can witness the entire cycle of the food off their plate (that would normally go into a landfill) into useful soil that is garden ready. By composting, children will learn to value organic wastes as a resource instead of thinking it is useless garbage. Composting is a great way to empower your children by helping them understand how their actions can have a positive effect on the environment.

Turn Off Lights and Preserve Water

Kids are notorious for leaving lights on, and as they advance into the junior high years, showers go on forever. The best way to teach children the value of saving resources is to make a game of it. For example, every time a light is left on or a shower goes beyond a certain limit, they have to put 5 cents in a jar for each slip-up. Conversely, if they haven’t left any lights on and have honored the water limitation, 5 cents goes in to the family jar. At the end of the month, the family can select a fun way to spend the money, maybe even donate it to an environmental effort.

Remember, children want to help. And if they can do something that grownups do, they’re in.  Not only will you be teaching by example, you’ll be allowing them to get involved and connected to Mother Earth. They’re never too young or too old to for you to teach them about the value of preserving their planet for their future.

Soil 101 – Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K)

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are the three main staples, the top three macro nutrients, of any soil and any garden. They are essential for plant growth, so keeping them at the correct levels is very important. But how the hell do you get these three elements into your soil?

Let’s start with number one, nitrogen.

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is indeed the number one constituent for healthy growth in your plants. It is what basically makes up chlorophyll and it gives us that fresh green colour in our plants. It is a huge part of our atmospheric surrounds, but it cannot be utilised in this form by plants, which I’ll explain more about later in “nitrogen fixing”.

Nitrogen comes in both natural and synthetic forms, the latter being common commercial fertilisers and common shelf products like urea. The problem with these synthetic forms (besides the massive amount of oil that go into their manufacture) is the overdose amounts a lot of farmers dump on their crops.

Yes, you can have too much nitrogen. This excess simply runs off and eventually seeps into the soil where it joins the ground water and contaminates it. It will usually be marketed as a “nitrate” or “sulphate”. Often, crops that have been over fertilised with nitrogen lack stability and the rapid green growth of the plant soon outweighs its lagging root system, much like the legs of a commercial chicken. The plant eventually gives way and generally dies off, usually with a good amount of burning appearing on the leaves as well.

If there isn’t enough nitrogen in the soil, the opposite can happen. The leaves/plants won’t grow. Their existing leaves will turn a patchy yellow colour and they’ll soon die off randomly.

Well, that all sounds rather bleak doesn’t it? How then do you get nitrogen into your soil naturally and organically? I’m glad you asked.

One lovely example is through “nitrogen fixing”, through “weeds” like clover or legumes such as peas, beans etc. What these wonderful plants do is fix atmospheric nitrogen (N2) to the ground in tiny nodules on their root systems, which are actually symbiotic bacteria called rhizobia. This bacteria is behind the actual process of fixing the gas to the plant. When the plant dies, this fixed nitrogen is released into the soil as it breaks down and can be taken up by other plants.

We can take advantage of this process by planting beans, peas etc in our garden beds from the onset, After they’ve grown, we can simply cut them off at the base and let the root systems break down into the soil, the top half we can compost or put back onto the beds to break down,  after you’ve harvested your peas/beans of course!

I even plant broad beans around my fruit trees in winter. This way I get a crop of beans, the tree’s root system benefits from the beans’ root system breaking down, and the plant itself contributes to the mulch.

I still follow the guidelines of crop rotation with my beans and peas, I try to cycle the type of pea/bean I plant on a four year rotation. So if I plant peas under one tree or in one bed, I won’t plant those peas there for another four years, This reduces the risk of pest and disease build up in the ground.

Other sources of nitrogen include, compost, manure, lawn clippings, blood and bone. See the end of the article for directions.

Phosphorus

Around 75-80% of phosphorus that is mined today is used to make commercial fertiliser as it is most common in solid form. See what I mean about oil/mining being a big player in the fertiliser industry? Phosphate occurs naturally after the breaking down of plant (and animal) matter so composts can be a good source of it, as the whole phosphorus cycle is a very slow one.

Regular introduction of compost can keep phosphorus at good levels. If you have low levels of it in your garden, the effects will be obvious. Your plants will hardly flower and leaves can take on an unnatural green tinge or darken off. Phosphorus is the “building block” of your plant’s growth system, which it takes in through its root system. So it’s important to have good amounts of it in there.

Phosphorous: Compost, manure, blood and bone. See the end of the article for directions.

Potassium

Commonly referred to as potash, this is what your plants and trees need to produce abundant flowers and in turn, fruit. It is also the main nutrient that plants use to get water from the soil and keep it in their leaves and stems. Prior to flowering, many gardeners will sprinkle a small handful of potash around the drip line of their trees (or any plant that produces through flowering) to increase the amount of blossom it produces. Potassium is also commonly labelled as potassium sulphate, though the organic gardener wouldn’t touch it in this form.

Most find that they don’t need to specifically add potassium to their gardens as it occurs naturally in manures and most organic fertilisers, though in small amounts (2-5%). It’s usually enough for the soil to get its fix if added at regular intervals. Blood and bone, rock minerals, potash, and wood ash all contain potassium that will be slowly absorbed into the soil.

Plants that are deficient in potassium will yellow slightly at the leaf edges. A good percentage will simply die off.

Good sources of potassium: manure, potash, blood and bone, rock minerals.

How to Add These Nutrients to Your Garden

Compost and manure can be added to a depth of say 2” on your beds or roughly 3-4 shovel fulls per square metre. You can turn it all over if you like, I prefer to leave it in layers (like lasagna) and let the plants do the work.

For blood and bone, add one handful per square metre. For potash, mix 1 tablespoon in 9 litres of water added to the beds. (This will work great).

For rock minerals, 1-2 handfuls per square metre is what you’ll need.

By rejuvenating your soil after each season with things like compost, manures, and a good handful of blood and bone per square metre, you’ll keep your NPK levels at their best and the results will show in what you grow.  These top three are the main constituents with your soil structure. There are other macro nutrients and micro nutrients that are also found in there as well, but as a rule of thumb, if you look after your NPK, everything else will fall into line. Happy gardening!

Bring up the subject of being able to heal yourself and you often will get looked at like you are either clinically insane or have just been dropped off by Alf. People are not yet ready to believe that the body is indeed capable of healing itself, which shows a complete lack of gratitude for the infinite intelligence it contains and the daily actions it completes for us. You know, the heart beating, lungs breathing, organs functioning, muscles twitching, neurotransmitters firing…all those things we don’t need to know how to do because our body takes care of it. So how can the body complete all these tasks, but not be able to heal itself? The answer lies between your ears, and it’s time for some rewiring. To be clear, I’m referring to your beliefs. The things that guide your actions, bring about your reality, and are backed up by your opinions. Sometimes we need to question our beliefs, in order to grow and expand. This is an opportunity to do just that.

#1 – Belief You Are Healthy (when you are not)

As long are you have the belief that you are already healthy, you will NEVER be able to heal.

Since definitions will vary, for the sake of this article, let’s assume that healthy is a body free of any disease or discord. Disease includes chronic lack of energy, sleep, aches, pains, headaches, digestion issues, skin issues, libido problems, and nagging coughs, colds, flu’s, sore throats, and general stomach upset. Unfortunately, this eliminates 97% of the population.

Even if you have managed to stop the disease process, and have eliminated toxins from your diet and are eating clean and healthy food, you still have to uproot the deep seated challenges that are holding you back from true health. Otherwise, your body is still circulating contaminants often rooted in your digestive system through blood circulation that ends up infecting your organs, muscles, tissues, and bones on a daily basis.

In other words, you may have cleaned up your engine and are using premium fuel, but as long as really old, dirty oil keeps circulating through it, your vehicles performance will always be compromised.

I have seen many people claim that they are healthy, but their actions, body signals, and general appearance often say the opposite. This is not to say that these people are not doing a great job of currently feeding their system and that they are very passionate about their health (which I applaud), But if we do truly want to be healthy we need to look in the mirror and be straight with ourselves (and not stress out about it) and evaluate our true level of health.

Once we have done this, and we realize that we are indeed not as healthy as we would like, then the door opens and allows the right information to flow in as the body anxiously awaits for you to feed it the potent nutrition and right mindset to uproot your deeply seated challenges.

Until that moment, you will put a block on any healing process.

#2 – Belief in the Conventional Medical System

Another major stumbling block to healing is the belief that the answers lie within the conventional wisdom of doctors, scientists, and pharmaceutical companies.

The painful truth, which is self evident by the state of people’s health, is that they have done a poor job of increasing people’s vitality and removing the root cause of any disease process already present in the body. What they have done a good job of is diagnosing, labelling, enslaving, and managing people’s symptoms which creates lifelong customers, but unhappy ones at best.

Only in a system where you feel you have no other choice would people keep coming back to it. This is the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The stark reality of our current system is that it is a sickcare system, not a healthcare system. It does not promote healing…it promotes hiding, managing, and applying bloody bandages on a day-to-day basis to the sores that do not get better.

The conventional medical system is good at critical care and life threatening situations. It’s terrible at promoting quality of life and a healthy lifestyle.

So if you still believe in the conventional medical system in that it can create a reasonable quality of life and have largely shunned all other possibilities, you have created a permanent barrier to healing.

#3 – Belief in the Industrialized Food System

Our food system is not what it was 50 years ago, and if you believe you can heal yourself through it, you are in for a rude awakening.

The current mode of production and distribution has helped eliminate a large amount of nutrients in our food, and to add insult to injury, has laced them with toxic chemicals to leave them a fraction of the nutrient value that they would be coming from your own garden, or someone else’s who has made it a priority to produce clean food in gently tilled, nutrient rich soils.

Perhaps you need a refresher on how our food is produced, why it is harming you, and can rarely if ever heal you. This article is a great start.

The industrialized food system will provide some sustenance and nutrients for your body, but it can’t reverse any damage incurred over your lifetime. To do that, you require potent nutrition and supplementation so the body is given the power to heal itself.

As long as you believe that the current food system is good enough to help you become truly healthy, you will always have a barrier to healing.

#4 – Disbelief Your Body Can Be Healed

I understand, everyone’s situation is different. You have tried everything and nothing works. You’ve lost hope or have completely blocked the idea that your body is capable of becoming healthy again. Don’t continue tell your mind or body that. That is counterproductive.

Realizing that all situations are more acute than others, I can boldly say that healing is always possible. Now, this doesn’t mean it won’t be extremely difficult for some of you, and it doesn’t mean that the answers and protocols are easy to find, but I can say that whatever the body creates, it can eliminate.

I empathize with those who have found themselves in precarious situations. It’s not enjoyable, nor is it easy. I know this from personal experience…having gone through debilitating pain, doctors visits, and prescriptions that solved nothing.

However, the one thing they couldn’t take away from me was my faith. I believed that the answers were somewhere and that I just needed to keep moving forward until my persistence paid off and I found them. Fortunately, I did find these answers and put them in place over a period of 8 years, until I managed to give my body what it needed to completely heal itself (and the reason why I can now help others do it in a mere fraction of the time).

So if you don’t believe you can be healed, you are sure to not find the answers to true healing.

#5 – Disbelief You Can Find Someone Who Can Help Your Body Heal

If you do overcome the disbelief that your body can heal itself, then you need to overcome what is often the biggest trap of all, the belief you cannot find someone who can help your body heal.

Now, no one should describe themselves as a healer. The only thing that can take credit for healing is the body. It in the only thing that has the infinite intelligence required to govern effective healing, and actually put the processes into action that will ultimately lead to real healing.

A healer should be thought of more as a broker or facilitator. They recommend or provide the tools, the advice, and in some cases broker the kind of energy required for the body to overcome its disease through direct contact. Regardless of the method, they understand how to ‘translate’ the body’s signals and provide the things it requires to take care of itself.

However, if you are inherently skeptical about finding this type of person, one will never come into your midst, as you have created a monumental barrier to your own healing.

Your Beliefs Are Most important

Sure, there are plenty of other barriers to healing, like improper food and supplementation choices, doing things at the wrong time and in the wrong order, and ingesting toxic ingredients. However, the most debilitating barrier is a closed mind, because it leads to nothing but closed doors. This will never lead to an opportunity to heal the body.

Don’t make the mistaken assumption your body is not intelligent enough to heal itself. It could be the most costly mistake you ever make.

Superfoods are natural foods that have an array of nutrients that synergistically work to together to exponentially expand the individual nutritional components.  Many raw, organic vegetables fall into this category.  One of the world’s favorite superfoods is cucumbers.

Cucumbers are the 4^th most cultivated vegetable in the world.  Cucumbers are in the same botanical family as melons and squashes.  They are considered one of the absolute best foods for the health of the skin, joints, liver and  kidneys.  They are also a natural energy tonic with their rich array of phytonutrients and electrolytes.

Cucumbers are Rich in Silica

Cucumbers are loaded with the mineral silica, which is an essential component for healthy connective tissue (muscles, ligaments, cartilage, bone, & skin).  They are also full of ionic potassium, magnesium, and  vitamin C, which gives them a powerful alkalizing effect within the body.  Additionally, cucumbers are particularly rich in fluids that hydrate the skin, joints, and tissues.

More recently scientists have begun studying the unique lignans found in cucumbers.  These lignans include lariciresinol, pinoresinol, and secoisolariciresinol.  New research is linking these lignans with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease as well as breast, uterine, ovarian, and prostate cancer.

Cucumbers Inhibit Cancer Cell Signaling

Cucumbers also contain the triterpene phytonutrients cucurbitacins A, B, C, D & E.  These phytonutrients have been the major focus of some extensive research looking deeply into their abilities to inhibit cancer cell signaling pathways.

Fresh cucumbers have been shown to improve anti-oxidant levels within the body and inhibit pro-inflammatory substances such as COX-2 and nitric oxide.  The combination of alkalizing elements, electrolytes, and fluids make it one of the world’s best foods for enhancing energy levels.  Cucumbers are also great for stabilizing blood pressure and stimulating the body’s natural detoxification process.

Cucumbers Make For Beautiful Skin

Cucumbers are often used topically to enhance skin function.  The natural ascorbic acid and caffeic acid within the cucumber act to prevent water retention in the skin.  This reduces swelling under the eyes and helps the skin heal from sunburn, inflammation, and eczema.

Cucumbers are also very effective when eaten and applied topically for removing unwanted cellulite.  Cucumbers act to draw out excess fluids and tighten collagen which has the effect of a natural cellulite reduction.  Simply eat some cucumber, juice it and/or place the cucumber on the regions of water retention.

Get Your Cucumbers Organic

Cucumbers are typically highly sprayed with pesticides so it is necessary to get organic varieties.  If conventional is the only option, it is best to scrape off the green skin rather than washing.  Many of the chemicals are waxy and do not come off easy when washing.

Try dicing up cucumbers and adding some apple cider vinegar, oregano, and pink salt.  This makes a quick, electrolyte and enzyme-rich snack to boost energy levels.

Sources For This Article Include:

• http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=42
• http://www.naturalnews.com/028923_superfoods_nutrition.html
• http://www.naturalnews.com/032143_pH_levels_natural_remedies.html

There are a variety of things people do to food. Some of the most common practices are baking, grilling, frying, deep frying, and microwaving. However, if you are a true health nut, you cut back on the heat and destruction of food and focus on processes that leave it raw or lightly cooked so real healing can begin in the body. Here are the top 5 things health nuts do with their food.

Blending

One of the first things you will see in a health nut’s home is a high quality blender. It’s not uncommon to see a lot of affection towards it, including winks, smiles, and gentle rubbing.

Seriously though, a blender gets a serious work out in a health nut’s home for 3 main reasons: smoothies, soups, and dips.

A common staple in any health nut’s diet is a smoothie. Nothing wakes up a thirsty, hungry, and acidic body first thing in the morning more than a delicious, alkaline, and satisfying superfood smoothie. Not only that, but you can pack more nutrition in a single smoothie than most people can pack in for an entire day, which results in incredible healing benefits. It makes getting in your daily fruits, vegetables, super foods, fiber, protein, and healthy fats, incredibly easy.

Get some ideas with these fun smoothie recipes.

Another great use for a blender is making cold and hot soups. Blending your ingredients and making a smooth textured soup greatly assists in the digestion and assimilation of nutrients so that you are absorbing as many of the beneficial vitamins, minerals, and enzymes as possible.

Finally, another major use for blenders is making fresh and savoury dips.  Whether it’s an award winning almond hummus or a healthy mayonnaise, blenders make it incredibly easy to whip these dips up in a fraction of the time and with flavourful results.

In terms of staying fresh in the refrigerator, smoothies will typically last only 1-3 hours before they go “bad” (if no preserving agent is added), and soup and dip will last up to a week.

Juicing

Another important component to preparing healthy food is juicing. Health nuts will spend more time preparing a fresh juice in the morning than most people spend preparing dinner. True story.

Juice is a great idea because it allows you to maximize your intake of fruits and vegetables (you can often get 3-4 pieces of fruit into a 12 to 16 oz glass of juice), create superior and maximum absorption of nutrients and enzymes, and put little to no stress on the digestive system in the process. This is where some real healing can begin when done properly.

Not only that, juicing can create drinks that are simply amazing. The freshness combined with your creativity can result in an unlimited amount of recipes, and you can feel good about it knowing that the nutrients and enzymes are still largely in place, with no extra ingredients required!

In terms of staying fresh, juice should be consumed immediately after it has been rendered to enjoy the nutrients and enzymes at their highest value. However, it can last a couple days, depending on your juicing method and ability to store it in airtight jars.

Fermenting

Another popular thing health nuts do with their food is fermentation. Although not as prevalent as some of the other methods, it is perhaps the most important of all.

Fermentation is the art of taking a food medium, adding a probiotic culture, and placing it in airtight containers to allow the bacteria to replicate to create an end product teeming with probiotics, vitamins, enzymes, and other beneficial nutrients.

It’s very important to note that since we have 10 times more bacteria than cells in our body and  80% of our immune system lies within our digestive system, fermented foods are one of the most important things you can do for your health. True healing does not begin until you get these foods into your diet. And fermenting foods is a very cheap method of preservation. Done correctly, fermented foods can last as long or longer than that jar of pickles in the cold room, with way more health benefits.

To learn more about the benefits of fermented foods, check out this article.

Dehydrating

Many health nuts prepare their foods in a way that results in a lot less heat, leaving them much more “‘raw”, keeping delicate enzymes and nutrients intact for consumption.

A dehydrator essentially allows you to create food that would traditionally be baked at much higher temperatures, such as breads, crackers, granola, and crusts, and allows you to gently heat them at levels that keep the delicate nutrients intact. It also allows you to create dried fruit, “chips” (kale chips are outstanding) and other treats that can last much longer than their fresh counterparts.

Dehydrating can preserve food for an indefinite amount of time and is a great choice for hiking or long trips. I can assure you, carrying a dozen apples in your backpack is much bulkier and heavier than carrying 12 dehydrated apples. Dehydrating definitely has its benefits.

Soaking/Sprouting

A sure sign you are in a health nut’s house is various bowls on the counter (right beside the jars of fermented and dehydrated foods) with standing water, filled with nuts, seeds, and grains. There is a method behind their madness.

Nature has set it up so that the nut, grain, and seed may survive until proper growing conditions are present. Nature’s defense mechanism includes nutritional inhibitors and toxic substances that can be removed naturally when there is enough precipitation to sustain a new plant after the nut, grain, or seed germinates. When it rains the nut, grain or seed gets wet and can then germinate to produce a plant. So we are mimicking nature when we soak our nuts, grains, and seeds.

Nutritional inhibitors and toxic substances found in nuts, grains, and seeds can be minimized or eliminated by soaking. These inhibitors and toxic substances are enzyme inhibitors, phytates (phytic acid), polyphenols (tannins), and goitrogens.

Since nuts and seeds provide a wide array of healthy fats, protein, trace minerals, and nutrients it is a good idea to include them in your diet. Just make sure you soak them to ensure they provide the most benefits, with minimal side effects.

So if you are not a full blown health nut yet, and haven’t used a lot of these methods, what’s holding you back?

Nature provides an amazing array of resources to improve our health and boost our immunity.  Mushrooms are a type of fungus that are enjoyed by people all over the world and renowned for their nutritional benefits.  These have used in tonics, soups, teas, prepared foods, and herbal formulas to promote health and longevity.  In recent years, scientists have studied the medicinal benefits of mushrooms on the immune system.

There are thousands of different types of mushrooms with a small percentage being poisonous if consumed.  Most mushrooms are edible and include white mushrooms, morels, truffles, portabellas, chanterelle, shiitake, maitake, agaricus, reishi, oyster, and enoki.  While all of these mushrooms have nutritional benefits, some are far denser in unique immune stimulating compounds than others.

The most common nutrients found in the majority of mushrooms include thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), folate (B9), phosphorus, iron, panthothenic acid (B5), zinc, potassium, copper, magnesium, pyridoxine (B6), zinc, potassium, copper, and selenium.  All edible mushrooms are healthy for the body but some contain high levels of beta glucans, which are an extraordinary molecule that scientists are just beginning to understand.

Beta Glucan and the Immune System

Beta glucan is a powerful immune stimulating compound found in several mushrooms, yeasts, and other foods.  Beta glucan is a polysaccharide that is made up of multiple sugar molecules linked together.  The different types of beta glucan include 1,3-D glucan and Beta 1,6-D glucan,

Beta glucans are known by scientists as “biological response modifiers” that bind to the surface of innate immune cells, which allows the cells to have better coordination in their attack.  This reduces the tendency towards auto-immune reactions and hyperinflamatory activity when the body is under attack. This compound activates certain immune cells such as key T-cells, macrophages, natural killer (NK) cells and the cytokines interleukin (IL) 1 and 2.  Studies have shown that it inhibits the growth of cancer and strengthens the immune response to microbial invaders.

Beta glucans have been studied for their ability to mitigate cancer cell growth and reduce the symptoms of the common cold.  In one report by the Montana Center for Work Physiology and Exercise Metabolism they studied firefighters and tracked their cold/flu symptoms.   Firefighters have very physically and emotionally stressful positions that demand a lot out of them. The results of the study showed that those who took beta glucan instead of the placebo had a 23% reduction in upper respiratory tract infections.  “These results are consistent with previous clinical research involving marathoners, individuals with high stress lifestyles and the general population,” wrote Brent C. Rudy, the director of the Montana Center for Work Physiology and Exercise Metabolism.

Maitake Mushrooms  

Maitake means “dancing mushroom” in Japanese. It is said that people danced for joy when they found these mushrooms because they were worth their weight in silver for their remarkable healing properties.  Maitake has been found to contain high levels of the immune modulating molecule Beta 1,6-D glucan.

Agaricus Blazei Murill Mushroom

This mushroom commonly referred to as the ABM mushroom is grown in the rain forest of Brazil and is nicknamed “The Mushroom of God.”  Studies have revealed that the ABM mushroom has the greatest density of beta glucan in the world.  When human subjects were given ABM in their diet, they saw a 3000% increase in NK cells in the blood within 2-4 days.

Reishi Mushroom:

Reishi is rich in Beta1,3-D glucan which boosts macrophages, T cells, and cytokinetic activity.   Reishi is especially good at increasing the production of tumor inhibiting cytokines IL-1and IL-2.  Reishi has powerful analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-microbial affects in the body.  It also acts to protect the liver and detoxify the body of ionizing radiation.

Sources For This Article Include:

• http://www.wisegeek.org/what-are-the-different-types-of-mushrooms.htm
• http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/dietandnutrition/maitake-mushrooms
• http://www.naturalnews.com/023633_cancer_mushrooms_health.html
• http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/dec2009_The-Immune-Enhancing-Benefits-of-Beta-Glucans_01.htm

“How to be happy” is googled 55,600,000 times a month in the United States. Happiness is something every business pretends to sell. Pharmaceuticals, soft drinks, clothing lines, and just about every product you can purchase claim to offer happiness for a price. But what if you don’t have the money? No problem. You can buy it with credit. But the truth is, if we were happy we wouldn’t be spending so much money on crap we don’t need.

Happiness VS. Pleasure

Understanding the difference between pleasure and happiness is paramount. And from what I see, hardly anyone in our society knows the difference.

Coke started a marketing campaign, “Open Happiness,” implying that happiness is inside their bottles and within their soda, dancing among the fizzy sweet goodness, waiting to start a party in your mouth. The first time I saw that commercial, I knew a new trend was starting. While Coke wasn’t the first, it seems that every large business marketing their brand is now promising some degree of a happy, more joyful life.

At most, these products that are pushed on us in every way possible, 24 hours a day, offer pleasure and nothing more. They certainly don’t offer happiness.

Pleasure is short term. It comes in spades with happiness, but it comes at a price with consumption. And often that price exceeds the number on the price tag.

Polls show that in countries where people have less–less cellular coverage, less television, less shopping, fewer automobiles–they are often much happier than we are in our modern societies with all our toys. It seems the more we attempt to satisfy our every eager impulse, the emptier we feel.

Recommended: Sugar Leads to Depression – World’s First Trial Proves Gut and Brain are Linked (Protocol Included)

Fuck Convention, and Fuck Consumerism

Convention says you need to spend money to be happy. Convention says you need pharmaceuticals (or you will at some point) and a large home to be happy. Convention says you need to work your ass off for many years to achieve this. And convention says a lot of other stuff that doesn’t do us any good.

Convention produces marketing that is shoved down our throats to spur us on to stimulate an economy that will collapse if it doesn’t keep growing at an incredible rate. It’s all about selling us stuff: more vaccines, more cars, the newest phones, and bigger, higher resolution televisions. But the price we pay is a drive to work harder and harder and harder to keep up with the Joneses. All the while, we are bombarded with so much technology offering us convenience while it sucks up every spare moment we might have had. Most of us want this. Most of us need this, because when we stop and just sit still with our thoughts, we don’t like the massive void we feel. We think all that crap fills that void, when, in fact, it creates more and more of a void within us.

Let go of what you’re supposed to do, and do what’s best for you. Unplug for awhile. Unplug more often. Get away from the noise. Figure out what makes you happy, and start taking some time to do it. Make the time.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Fuck What Other People Think

My life really started to change for the better when I began letting go of what other people think of me. I do things for me. I don’t do things for someone else unless it’s out of love and/or the desire to help someone. It’s no longer because I want to impress someone. I used to live for other people, working the job that I was supposed to work, driving a car that I thought other people liked to see me in, wearing the clothes that people told me I looked good in, and constantly worrying about what other people thought. It takes a lot of energy out of you.

I realize that many people aren’t going to like my use of language in the previous two titles, but I felt for the sake of authenticity, well, fuck it.

I see a lot of my friends trying to please their parents at the expense of their own happiness, for their whole lives. I see these people choosing careers and their whole life’s path based on a need for their parents’ approval. And these are people with parents who will never, no matter what their adult children do, tell their son or daughter that they are proud of them. Nothing their kids do will ever be enough. But if it were, it wouldn’t have been worth it.

I tell people to go do something embarrassing, to go into a store where no one knows them and pretend to trip and fall. Or yodel. Go for a walk with their headphones on and dance across every crosswalk. I tell them to practice not worrying what anyone thinks. It’s liberating and it feels better and better every time you do it.

Recommended: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections

Fitness

If you haven’t heard, exercise releases endorphins. Exercise has many benefits on our emotional state. It’s actually very difficult to be miserable about anything in life when you’re exercising, (except maybe the exercise itself.)

Exercise has a knack for putting us in the moment. Other worries fade away. Things shift into perspective. The whole day is better after a good workout.

Give it some time if you’re new to fitness. Those benefits don’t come immediately. At first it can feel like a drain, and the initial soreness can be very painful. But like everything else, the good stuff takes work.

Diet

Poor nutrition and toxic ingredients prevent the body from working right. This includes the brain. The brain doesn’t work right when we don’t get the right nutrition. When the brain doesn’t work right, we feel like shit. This goes for the body, too, but I find it surprising how many people think that the brain’s ability to function properly, including (but not limited to), dealing with stress, remaining objective, and controlling anger, has nothing to do with physical health. Studies show that chemical toxins, both in food and in our environment, have a direct correlation to our overall wellbeing.

B Vitamins, D, oils

B vitamins, vitamin D, and healthy fats are absolutely essential to our wellbeing. Anyone suffering from depression or any other mental health issue needs to consider taking high quality supplements and changing their diet.

Staying in the Moment

We spend so much time wishing to be in a different time. With phrases like, “I can’t wait until…” and, “Remember when things were…” But we so often fail to realize that the moment you are in now could very well be a time you long for later.

Learning to stay in the moment has been absolutely life changing for me. There are rarely any problems in the present. Putting yourself in the moment, and staying there, is difficult at first, but it puts things in perspective. Exercise is a great way to do this. Yoga and meditation are also very good at teaching us to stay in the moment. Whenever life gets overwhelming, consider that the problems at hand are in the future. Right now, at this very moment, we have everything we need.

Perspective

Have you ever had a day where you felt great, and then you had one or two little things happen to you and all of the sudden your life sucks? Life is all about perspective. Our perspective is our life. And that means that our life, no matter where we are in it, is our choice. A terrible situation for one person can be an incredible experience for another. It all depends on perspective.

I was in prison, after having lost my daughter, my friends, the business I had just started, and what felt like my whole life. I had lost everything I thought I cared about except for my mom who came to see me every single chance she could. And in that prison, when I got to see my mother, I was filled with joy. I spent all week looking forward to visitation. Hugging my mom meant everything to me. I was in prison, and every day I got to hug my mom was amazing. This was after a year of being in jail where I could only see my mom through glass. Prison was wonderful because I not only got to hug her, I got to go outside, walk in the grass, exercise, eat raw vegetables, and feel the sun on my skin. I got none of this in jail. A year deprived of all of these pleasures put things in a whole new perspective. And I never let go of that.

It really is the little things in life that you’ll remember, that you’ll laugh about, that you’ll hold in your heart. No one (or at least, very few people) lays on their death bed agonizing over a bad business decision. Stay in the moment with a fresh perspective and look at the joy you can feel. It’s there. Sometimes you just have to look harder for it.

I Am Happy

I have been through more crap than most people who read this article would ever know. I carry pain with me at all times. There is a sadness that may never go away, due to a major loss in my life. But I am still, really, very happy. I love life. I live in the smallest home I have ever lived in. I have less stuff than I have ever had. I am starting Green Lifestyle Market and it is very stressful. But still, I am not only happy, I am joyful. I keep my diet clean. I exercise. I don’t give a damn what other people think of me because it’s none of my business, and I love being me. If you are reading this article, looking for your own happiness, I wish you the very best and sincerely hope you find it. I am sure it is with you, that it has always been with you, waiting for you all along.

Recommended Supplements:

• B-Complex #6  – Thorne Research
• Vitamin D – Thorn Complex
• Krill Oil
• Shillintong’s Total Nutrition Formula

Further Reading:

• Natural Remedies for Depression
• I’m Depressed
  
• Vitamin B6 and What You Should Know About it