Weekend Chatter.....

I've made the decision to surround myself with positive books and positive thoughts for a while. This is like anything else. It's a habit. Thinking negatively and my own personal downfall, cynicism, takes a deliberate effort to change.

I ordered a few books this morning based on the recommendations of Olivia at Happy Luau. Any of you who have not visited her blog, please do. She is someone whose thoughts resonate very well with my own - but she has the added advantage of being good at translating motivation to action which is not one of my finer honed skills.

So I am following her lead on the books. I've ordered "The Yoga of Eating" and "The Ascent of Humanity", the latter of which I suspect more succinctly says what I've been trying to say on this site for the past seventeen months. The difference of course is that Charles Eisenstein is an educated, clear thinker where I am tangential.

This changing.. this changing our thinking.. I've never believed is a matter of simply choosing to do it differently. It's a process of education, of learning. We have to learn to think differently. Saying "I refuse these thoughts" is useless unless we replace it with something else.

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On another issue, I was reading a blog this morning that seems to be promoting bigotry. She says (the only reason I am linking is for verification, not because I want to give her the link or unknowingly promote her blog.) that learning to say (and teaching others to say) "I hate fat people" will be one way to discourage people from eating too much, from getting fat to begin with. I find that manner of thinking to be small-minded and utterly hateful. In a way that is not typical of me, I left a snarky comment.

It wasn't anonymous. I own the comment and am willing to defend it.

The dialogue continues. Please feel free to come by and join. It could get interesting.. but please be nice. :)

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There are a lot of people who believe that shaming works, that we can shame people into changing patterns or doing things differently. Shame and fear. "I better not be fat because people will hate me and I'll be shunned" is very different than "I don't want to be fat because I respect my body and my life. I want to be healthy."

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So.. what do you do to stay positive?



~Chani

You'll have to pry my multivitamins out of my cold, dead fingers...

Last night I stayed up late to listen to a radio show which featured a panel discussing the new FDA guidelines on alternative health care.

A summary would be simply that the government wants to control all alternative health care methods, including our multi-vitamins.

I can't help but think yet again that this is all about profits for the health care industry. In India, as an example, homeopathy has become the #1 standard of healthcare because it is inexpensive and effective.

As I have spent more and more time looking into alternative treatments for many things, including high blood pressure and stomach trouble (both of which I have), I'm finding these herbal remedies do work and they are very inexpensive as long as you don't buy them from sheister websites on the Internet. Ultimately, a lot of it comes down to nutrition and providing our bodies with the things they need that we may not get through our daily eating. In other words, supplements.

This proposal concerns me because the more government control there is on these remedies, the more expensive they will become. Low income and poor people will be unable to take advantage of simple health maintenance protocols such as multi-vitamins. Under this proposed plan, a low income person would have to have the ability to pay for a doctor visit and a prescription. It would restrict everyone's access to alternative treatments of all kinds. We will have little choice at all.

Here are a few websites to check out if this topic is of interest to you.

Peter Barry Chowka

WebOutpatients.com

AltMed.com

and a book:

Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide (2nd Edition) (Paperback) by Burton Goldberg

Honestly, the US is beginning to scare the hell out of me. The marginalization of anyone who isn't wealthy is becoming more blatant by the day. The profit motive has gotten to a point of absolute insanity, not to mention immorality. Nothing is sacred anymore, not even human health.


Peace,


~Chani