Taking care of yourself may seem obvious to many people, but the reality of life is that we often don’t. We don’t eat well, don’t exercise, and we don’t take time out of our busy schedules to relax, whether it be with meditation, yoga, or just a walk in nature.
Last night for example, I watched a beautiful documentary movie made by, and about the health and well being of rappers, and it was not only entertaining, it was also very enlightening. It isn’t something I’d normally watch because I’m more old school when it come to music, but I felt like I needed to, and I learned a great deal about the health of people living in the inner cities, and LA in particular.
The gist of the film was about the alarming number of people, (black and white alike) who are getting Type 2 diabetes, and having strokes and heart attacks. Many well known people in this musical genre have died young, some as early as their late 20s, all because of the way they eat and the lack of exercise. These problems are not just with inner city people either, it’s happening all across America today, even to the very young.
As it has with many people in our country, the early death of friends served as a wake up call for many singers and songwriters, and they started looking for alternatives to fast food like McDonald’s and processed foods that don’t offer healthy organic foods. Most corporations in America today by the way are profit driven, and sustainability and health are not taken into consideration in their business plan. I will be writing more about this in a future article however, and what can be done about it and is happening already with new companies around the country, and some that have been in business for quite a while and are rethinking their motives.
It was also wonderful to see that there are people creating inner city and backyard organic gardens because they recognized that clean, wholesome foods aren’t available for people in the inner city. In fact, over 70% of the people in America don’t have access to natural products or organic food because there are no stores within driving distance that carries them. By the way, if you’d like more information on organic gardening and farming and how you can grow organic food in your own back yard please visit my Organic Gardening Blog website.
In addition to growing their own healthy foods, eating right and exercising, they’re also doing things like meditation and yoga, and one person started an inner city meditation program, and the results have been nothing short of amazing. One school district in LA had a more than 40% dropout rate, and children had symptoms of PTSD as bad or worse than soldiers who’d come back from Iraq and Afghanistan. But with as little as 10 minutes a day of doing meditation things turned around. The dropout rate has dropped significantly, kids are happier, and their grades are way up.
So now the aforementioned folks are eating organic food, many are vegetarian, and some vegan. They exercise regularly, and as a result they’ve discovered that not only are they losing weight, they’re also feeling more energetic and happier.
An example of the lack of consciousness in commercial food providers today by the way, is a sweetener called HFCS, which is short for High Fructose Corn Syrup. It’s commonly found in sodas and other drinks and foods, rather than cane sugar or natural sweeteners like Stevia.
Studies have shown HFCS to be indigestible, and as a result it gets stored directly into fat. And much of it is also made using a Mercury process on regular corn syrup, and a recent study showed that 49% of foods tested across the board that had HFCS in them, also had Mercury, which is extremely toxic to the body. Much has been written about this fact, and that recent studies have shown that mercury kills the neural network in the body, both in our brain and in our gut (we actually have more neurons in our gut than we do in our brain).
Another dangerous additive is aluminum and it’s being widely used as leavening for breads, especially breads made by large chain grocery stores like Fry’s and Safeway. Aluminum has been linked to Alzheimer’s, and is a heavy metal that shouldn’t be in the human body.
So now the big question: what are YOU doing for your health and well being? The power to change our lives, lies in us. We can choose to eat healthy or not, we can choose to exercise and take care of our bodies or not. I recommend that you look at what I call the End Game. Where will you be health wise in ten or twenty years with what you’re doing now, and what do you want your health to be like?
Stay tuned for more articles on meditation, investing green, and all things sustainable!