Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal(Air). This is the same five element theory that underlies Acupuncture, Ayurveda, and Feng Shui. It is a blueprint for living in harmony with our environment and for eating the foods best suited to our individual constitutions and overall health.
Choosing foods that are both seasonal and local are simple keys to nourishing ourselves in harmony with the Five Elements. But diet is just a part of the answer. Our lifestyles and level of stress are also important to building and maintaining good health. .
Although individuals possess distinct and unique energetic profiles that bestow certain strengths and weaknesses, often certain lifestyle patterns, excesses, or unbalanced emotional states are more apparent in certain ethnic and socio-economic groups than others. In modern Western Civilization, for example, where stressful lifestyles are the norm -- heart disease is the leading cause of fatality.
Research points to the African Masai of the former Tanganyika and Jewish sects inYemen, who thrived on fat-laden, high-cholesterol diets, but never got heart disease until they emigrated from their native countries and adopted a Western lifestyle.
When researchers from San Antonio's School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas conduced studies to determine whether stress might be a factor in elevating cholesterol, their research conclusively confirmed it: They found that cholesterol increases after only one hour of either emotional or physical stress, such as overexposure to cold. Worse, they found that if you stay stressed for a few hours, your cholesterol can remain high for more than a week. When people were sent to Hawaii and fed two eggs a day, their high cholesterol levels dropped and remained low until they returned home and resumed their normal lifestyles. Studies conducted at Stanford Research Center and Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco also showed that cholesterol levels increase in medical students before exams and in accountants before tax time every year.
The rigors of modern western technological society clearly takes its toll. Although we can't, and shouldn't have to escape to a tropical paradise to reduce stress, we can learn to live more consciously by by adopting healthier patterns of thought, lifestyle, as well as diet.
Here are just a few ways to reduce the risk of heart disease and heal ourselves on a deep level:
Stop to check in with your breath. Breathe fully, completely and deliberately to reduce stress. . Take walks in the fresh air each day. If possible, benefit from early morning sunshine before 11:00 am.
. Turn to nature. Walk in the grass, the woods, or on the beach. Spread a blanket on the earth and have a picnic.
Devote time to deepening relationships. Create a healthy, happy heart through being connected..
Look above Form. Take time for visualization and meditation.
Contribute to others through volunteer work, community or church activities. Find a cause greater than yourself and lose yourself in it.
Include yoga, a martial art, or massage in your routine.
Garden and care for pets. Find ways to connect with Mother Earth.
Be generous with hugs to your friends and loved ones.
See: http://meditation-health.suite101.com/article.cfm/meditative_keys_to_diet_success
