mind body planet

The other day I was i our local coffee shop and I was browsing the books shelves. I typically only buy the old relics on the older shelves, but this time I thought I would hop on over to the newer book section and see if there was anything worth looking at. I saw of course all of the political books and takes on the lives of the candidates that make me want to vomit from political overexposure. I also found plenty of great looking graphic novels that I would never put down until I had sucked out all of the life from those pages. Then I came upon a book that peaked my interest and made me think of all of you readers out there. The huge text books weighed a ton and cost relatively little and I’d like to talk about it right now.

The book is titled Alternative Medicine: the definitive guide by Anderson and Trivieri. This book is basically the ultimate guide to anyone who wants to know all of the methods in which they could seek help for any particular medical condition.  It is set up i a really great style where it is listed first by the different types of conditions that you could hope to heal or remedy with an alternative or complimentary treatment. Conditions as simple as a skin rash all the way to things like cancer which may people choose to treat i ways other than chemotherapy since it is so hard on the body.  After the listings of the conditions it goes on to list in depth each of the different kinds of treatment methodologies that the books has to offer. It is ot meat to be ay kind of a medical text, but for those who really want to know anything about an alternative healing mode. For me I personally found all of the sections on Yoga, Herbal healing, and Chiropractics to be very close to how I myself would explain these methods within the context of a discussion of healing. The way it is presented is a bit dry at times, but they make sure to include plenty of cool diagrams ad pictures to really paint a picture of all the different styles of learning that may be ended to entice people to read and remain interested in such a large book.

IF you are out there wondering what certain modes are about and if there are other ways out there to aid in healing with some condition that you have, pick this one up because it will really help you find what you are looking for.

Today I want to move away from the super weighty issues and away from the political rants as I am want to to do. I was talking recently with one of my good friends who is a music therapist and we were discussing various ways in which she uses her methods to help people with the problems that they are facing in their daily lives from various outside influences. We were discussing the various issues that she has dealt with both physical and emotional. She has personally had over two hundred clients that have met her more than ten times to complete a regimen that she personally created for them. She works in a private clinic and so she gets all of her business through private inquiry as opposed to others who will get their base from whatever program they are a part of. Other practitioners of this form of therapy may deal specifically with one type of population and then specialize in treatment of those types of maladies. Her clients have a great range of variability. They  are people that come in with children who have mental disabilities, couples having marriage problems, or people looking to relieve some kind of mental dissonance that they believe music can cure in some way. 

My friend was a graduate of the Berklee college of music up in Boston and she has told me a good deal about the program that she went through. Basically she was given an amazing education in how to not only play and write music, but she was also taught how to interact with people through the medium of music in order to overcome, at the deepest level, some kind of mental blockage that music alone can release. She got to spend many years do exactly what she loved and at the same time she picked up an amazing set of skills and an interesting perspective on disease and mental illness They also taught her how to run a successful business through this medium of therapy but she has chosen, with the poor job market and all, to become a part of something already created and then move on after a time. 

At this point she has been telling me that most of her client base has been coming from sort of similar populations of people. On the one hand she has lots of people who have relationship problems and are seeking marriage counseling that is more intimate than simply talking with a counselor. She is also getting plenty of people who simply wish to learn how to play. That is another big part of what she does is that she teaches every single one of her clients how to apply themselves to something as revealing as a musical instrument and they can take that away and do with their gifts as they will. I think that that is the real magic of what she does for a living. 

This week we got a big mix of what seems to be extremely troubling news about the financial state of the country and the world at large. Some pretty big actions have been taken by some of the biggest investment banks and the government to try and salvage the economy and the structure of our society at this point. I have been trying my best to simply ignore the things that I have been hearing because there is nothing I can do about it. All that the people down here on the bottom can really do is hope that everything works out in the end and try to keep going without the comfort we held before.

One of the way that I am doing this is by looking at a lesser known story from earlier in the week. This week GM unveiled their new electric car called the Volt. They held their little press conference and showed off the vehicle. I am sure that everyone who left that day with their corporate gifts in hand was happy to see the newest model, but sharing a question that I am also having around this story. What is the price for such a car?

GM showed off their new car as the latest in a long line of electric designs that has put this one at the fore. In terms of the marketability of this vehicle I think that they surely kept that in mind when designing it. We all have see the Toyota Prius, I love it, out there on the road and thought about how funny the design of the body is. It doesn’t look to me to be that aerodynamic and for many the fact that it is not what could be called stylish would shoot it right out of the pool of new cars they’d buy. The Volt ont the other hand is designed to be the most aerodynamic car GM has ever built thus making it look and handle like a sportscar of old. This sort of contradicts what we would think of when we imagine a hybrid or fully electric car but they have pulled it off here.  GM has also managed to create a product that those who car about environmental initiative can feel happy about. The battery life on this one is around forty miles and then the gasoline engine kicks in to keep the battery charged for hundreds more. It is also only about four cents a mile on avaerage to drive and charge this little baby up for around eight hours a night.

All in all I think that GM has made a winner here. I just hope that they don’t stop here and they move all the way in to the future with this design and they don’t kill it with the price.

MindBodyPlanet 23

It is the duty of the youngest generations of us to be idealistic and driven to change those things we see around us which give us pause. In my life there are plenty of things that force me out of my own little comfortable bubble and make me want to cry sometimes. When I find these inexplicable occurrences I choose not to ever hide my face and run away. These are lessons given to us from some higher power to make us open our eyes. 

You may be wondering why I have gotten myself all worked up and on this soap box. Well i am standing up here because I am now part of a little campus group that hopefully will turn in to something of a movement. We are a group of students for social change and we understand that as a group we must be committed to the betterment of social justice and living everywhere. We have structured ourselves much in the way of Amnesty international in our written guide, but we want to take a more active role in the social causes and how to change them. Where amnesty would be campaigning against the leader of a country who commits genocide, we would do the that but we would also look at the reasons buried under the genocide. 

One of our biggest committed issues is that of climate change. As you all know it is quite an intricate and divisive kind of issue in the country and around the world, and we want to take a big bite out of it. Our group has a greta liberal leaning in our stance on these issues and so we also wish to spread our word through dialogue. We have set up some speaking events as well as debates to try and bring more people in to the fold. At these events we will of course be giving out promotional gifts to help get our namer around. As with any group even promotional pens can turn your garage project in to Microsoft simply by landing them in the right hands. Through these meetings and discussions we want to not only further our own agenda, but try to bridge the political gaps that keep these issues in a dead lock. IF we as students can achieve even a few minor successes I think we can act as an inspiration or even a driving force behind some real change in the places where it really makes a difference. 

We have once again reached the fall everyone and the harvesting season has really begun. In just two short months all of the farmer’s markets will be slowing down or closing entirely. Our CSA’s will be puttering to a stop here around the same time and then we will be on our own to try and figure out how to make our food choices work and believe me you do have some options. For those of you out there whop don’t know already, you also have one other option to store up some food for the winter that you are currently able to find at the markets or in your CSA box.

Canning is a practice that I tout till the ends of the earth because it as gotten me through years of winter. When I was a kid it was normal part of every week that on sunday nights the whole family would can whatever produce we had left over because mondays were the farmer’s market days and we would survive off that food for the week ahead. Canning is a way to store food for yourself at home that will certainly last you all winter long and will definitely save you some money in the long run. It will take a small investment at first but it is well worth the pocket change from your student loans.

The art of canning begins with a trip to the store. In any supermarket you can find, in the isle with the plastic bags, ball jars. These jars come in all sizes from a pint all the way up to a two gallon jug. For most canning purposes you will need either the pint or the quart jars. The smaller jars are for things like jams and jellies and the larger jars are for your staples like tomatoes and pickles. When you have the jars the next thing to get will be a pot large enough to fit about six to ten jars or so. The pot doesn’t need to have a lid but it helps. You will also need some type of tongs and there are some that are made specifically for this purpose. Now you are ready to get to canning.

At this point I won’t go too much in to the actual process of canning because the process varies for every kind of food you wish to can. Here I would recommend that you go ahead and buy a book on canning. There are plenty of resources for this and even I still go out of a book to keep myself focused on the way the process is supposed to go.

Mind Body Plant 21

I know we are all hearing various things about the current presidential race on every issue you can imagine. Every day it seems that there is some new issue being brought up and some big time speech being made on the issue. I will go ahead and just say that I am personally affiliated with the Obama campaign and there are just a couple of reasons for that. One of them being his stance on the issues of those who are oppressed, his views on rising costs of health care and health insurance, and the other thing is his stance on global warming. His policies and views on the issue are quite progressive and it seems to me that he is the only one of the candidates so far that has been fully committed to actually looking and working toward some kind of a solution to this complex and impending issue.

Of course when you look at all of the facts of global warming and the things that have come out of the scientific community, you can validate just about any view you want to. There are as many scientists with their own models for the future out there as there are viewpoints on the issue. Though the consensus is that there is an issue and that global warming is a human caused phenomenon at this point more so that a natural cycle, the effects of that influence are the murky area. Many people believe that we are standing on the doorstep of a catastrophic failure of all of the earth’s systems. Other believe that this is just a normal cycle of the weather on this planet. Then there are the shades in between.

I personally lean a lot farther towards the side of a catastrophic problem looming on the horizon. I think that we have seen enough powerful storms and pollution related problems, that even if the warming is not what does it, the destruction of food systems and ecosystem are what will. We as a species have taken advantage of this planet and turned it on it’s ear. We have lived for much too long and changed too many things to say that we have no power to stop what is going on. Business can adapt, people can change their habits, and society can learn to function without all of its waste. I think I am just one of many right now saying the same thing. This all part of the pendulum swinging the other direction. We had the industrial revolution a hundred and fifty years ago, now we have to have the green revolution today. If we do not make the right decisions here and now, our children may suffer, and theirs may never have a planet to live on.

There are many things in our environment that we all very deeply depend upon. These are what we call the natural resources and I am sure we’re all quite familiar with what they are. IF you read the newspaper at all or watch the news from time to time you will notice that they are mentioned as being sort of ambiguously in danger of becoming depleted. This is true, but the news is designed in such a way that if you don’t actively seek out the real stories, then you are missing the big picture. Most people don’t fully grasp the fact that this planet is in a grave situation right now and is in deep need of better care. Right now though, one resource seems to be popping up more and more as the cornerstone of what may become a global conflict for its ownership and distribution.

Water is without a doubt the most threatened natural resource we have on this planet. It comprises most of the composition of our bodies and so must be consumer by every single human being daily or serious problems will arise. At present, many scientists around the world feel that the situation of our rivers, aquifers, and fisheries are being severely tested and maybe even completely destroyed. In many places water purification is an enormous issue. Water purification may remove: particulate sand; suspended particles of organic material; parasites, Giardia; Cryptosporidium; bacteria; algae; viruses; fungi; minerals such as calcium, silica, and magnesium; and toxic metals like lead, copper, and chromium. Some purification may be elective in the purification process, including smell (hydrogen sulfide remediating), taste (mineral extraction), and appearance (iron encapsulating). Many places around the world need to highly purify their water because of extreme industrial influence on particular streams and river beds. Governments usually dictate the standards for drinking water quality. These standards will require minimum and maximum set points of contaminants and the inclusion of control elements that produce drinking water. Quality standards in many countries require specific amounts of disinfectant (such as chlorine) in the water after it leaves the water treatment plant (WTP), to reduce the risk of recontamination while the water is in the distribution system. This is why in this country many of us choose to filter our water yet again in our homes with tao filters and Brita filters. In other countries though, the option just isn’t there.

All of the statistics point to the fact that the world’s water systems are in crisis. We need to take immediate action if we wish to stop the loss of life that is already occurring due to unsafe or la complete lack of water around the world. According to a 2007 World Health Organization report, 1.1 billion people lack access to an improved drinking water supply, 88% of the 4 billion annual cases of diarrheal disease are attributed to unsafe water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene, and 1.8 million people die from diarrheal diseases each year. The WHO estimates that 94% of these diarrheal cases are preventable through modifications to the environment, including through access to safe water. Simple techniques for treating water at home, such as chlorination, filters, and solar disinfection, and storing it in safe containers could save a huge number of lives each year. This is staggering for us, but many people live with these problems every day and we must do something soon.

Yert Crazy

I’m back at home today everyone and I am really missing my former abode in Ithaca. The week was very fun and I am now seriously thinking about it as a place I will look for jobs when I graduate. The only down side to that is that I hear the job market in Ithaca is very hard to break in to. I will certainly keep my hopes up though. For now I am looking ahead to the future, namely the semester which starts next week, and I want to move on with this blog. There is obviously still some run off from my week of fun and sun and so I will be bringing back our discussion of green home building. My friend Jamie who just moved to Ithaca will be the first topic on this discussion actually.

When Jamie was in college he lived for a year in what is called a yert. This was a project as part of his educational experience and he got credit for the experience. Basically a yert is a type of housing that comes from the areas of Mongolia and the steppes mountains. It is a small round house that is designed to be easily broken down and moved. At least that was the way the nomads of the time did it and still do today. What was different about this design was that it was not meant to be moved. This home was made with a green roof, or garden on the roof, it was constructed with very sturdy, heavy wood and metal parts. Though it was different hat that of the nomads, the point was that it was completely unconnected to modern housing. There were no lights in the house and there were no distractions. It was also built in the woods as to seclude it even further from all things civilized. 

This is just one design, but right now there are tons of options when it comes to homes built with the earth in mind. The point of homes like this is really to lower the ecological footprint of the inhabitants and the creation process. This can be done in a variety of ways. Some things like building with recycled materials or from minimally processed materials. Some types of materials like compressed straw bales are being used to compose the walls of homes as they are quite efficient with heat loss and retention. There are also homes being built out of material known as cob, which is essentially cob, clay, and straw. As the days go one the designs for the more high tech ideas increase, but these are options that are much more accessible to those without much money to fund such a project. 

I’m out of time for today, tomorrow we’ll come back with a little bit about a natural resource that is fast becoming one of our most precious natural resources. 

Cornell madness

So this week has been a lot of fun and I wish you all could have been here with me in the wonderful Ithaca, New York, but unfortunately we can’t all be in paradise or it would be quite crowded. I finished off my final day today with a very interesting trip on to the campus where my friend Mckenzie will be getting her masters degree. This was an invitational so different departments were set up around campus handing out promotional items and pamphlets about their programs. The Cornell campus is amazing. It is probably the most beautiful college campus I have ever seen. The whole campus is built around a lake and the gorges that have rivers carving through them. The main path is a big loop around the whole thing and it is mostly shaded and surrounded by rivers and beautiful plants that are native as well as planted. There is one section of campus just devoted to gardens and each one has a theme. Each one displays plants of the various seasons. Of course the spring garden did not look so well since it is quite hot right now, but the rest looked really beautiful. May favorite was the one called the plantation which was devoted strictly to those plants one would find on a Caribbean or South American plantation style farm. That was the first time I had ever seen a banana tree or a coffee bush, and when I saw them I was sort of struck by the influence these sort of invisible plants have had on my own life. As we walked around the campus we came upon her building where she will have her office and take most of her classes. Right behind the building is a huge construction site and I was a little curious so I asked about it.

The building that is going up on the campus is what is called a Leed certified building. Basically this building was designed to fit the criterion of the LEED certification of energy efficiency. The United States Green Building Council has laid out a strict set of guidelines that are meant to constraint the building design to make it as clean and efficient as possible. The certification goes on a scale from just certification all the way up to a platinum status for the best designs. The rating goes on credits given for things like Sustainable sites, Water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design. All of these things are weighed together to see what kind of impact this building has during its construction as well as what kind of impact it will have as it stands. I think that this is amazing for Cornell and I hope to see more buildings doing this in the future. For now though this is the first one that I have seen.

I just wanted to leave that trip for you all with a nice pleasant note for the future of Ithaca. It will just keep getting better up there are hopefully here as well.

Something’s Fishy

Hey all. I am still here up in Ithaca New York and I’m still loving every minute of this trip. This morning we got up and we did some harvesting of squash and zucchini. Then after breakfast we cleared some brush and did a little bit of weeding in the garden. After lunch we went for another hike, this time on a different trail. We came eventually to another waterfall and lagoon type of thing and we swam for a good long time. After a while I started to get hungry and my friend Jamie got out some fresh veggies that she had cut up before we left. We munched on those for a while until we had finished them all. I knew I was still hungry so I suggested that we walk back to the house and make some kind of a meal. On the hike back I was hurting. My head hurt and my legs were cramping and my back started to ache. I tried drinking lots of water and that type of thing but it didn’t help and so I just suffered on until we got home. When we got back to the house I sat down and tried to think of what I may have done that might have just drained me of all of my energy and left me in this sorry state of affairs. Then I remembered my diet. I have been a vegetarian before, for about two years, but now I don’t eat that way. Since I started staying at the house I have been eating their diet which is almost totally vegetarian. I had stopped my lifestyle as a vegetarian for this exact reason and I think that this is why I had this little episode today.

When I take a step back I can really see that my diet now is not just an omnivorous diet, but a diet centered around the vitamins and minerals in those foods. One of the foods that saved my life I think after I stopped being a vegetarian was fish. The first food I ate to break my habit was salmon and then I began taking fish oil supplements. Now I see that there is a huge value in these supplements that I was always missing out on when I was a vegetarian. Fish oils contain lots of omega-3 fatty acids which are great for the brain. The fish oil is also good for cholesterol, heart health, and blood pressure. I know that I after I began to take them I was feeling one hundred percent better and a lot of my aches and pains went away fairly quickly.  The fish oil companies did go through a little hype which may have given them a bad wrap, competing with promotional mugs on the counters at health food stores, claiming to be cure-alls. But the fact is that it is a valid and healthy supplement that was marketed badly for a short time.

Tonight I went to the store and bought myself a little salmon steak and cooked that up. I am already felling a lot better. I hope that anyone who needs this in their lives will hear the call.