Wednesday, May 28, 2014

A Recipe for Love





A Recipe for Love
"There is no sight on earth more appealing than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone she loves."   

            -- Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)




The table is set with yellow daffodils, colorful plates, candles and sparkling champagne glasses. The lights are dimmed. The room is alive with the smell of a home cooked meal. Could love be in the air?
We begin with a salad of fresh herbal greens topped with cherry tomatoes, slices of avocado and a sprinkling of dried cranberries and sliced almonds. The salad is carefully prepared with health and taste in mind.  Love thinks about the little things that will make a meal an expression of appreciation and caring. The avocado is good for heart health and circulation. The cranberries are good for the bladder, the tomatoes and their lycopene are an antioxidant that is good for the heart and preventing cancer.

The champagne is popped and a toast is made to good health. As we begin to eat I explain the reason for each morsel on the salad. I especially mention the avocado and its sexual properties. Mention a little sex and watch a man’s expression change. He’ll put down his fork and give you a wink and then begin to search through the salad for all the chunks of avocado.

The main course is salmon poached in wine and potato and zucchini salad. On the side is a little dill sauce with a sprig of dill placed neatly over the salmon. I see the love in his eyes as he looks at the plate so neatly arranged. He knows this took thought and time. Isn’t this what love is really about?

Love at its deepest level understands, cares, appreciates and does for another things that wouldn’t be done for anyone else. Love understands moods and preferences. Love cares about safety and welfare as well as happiness. Love appreciates the totality of humanness. Love doesn’t look for perfection. Love understands that we are all a little imperfect and vulnerable. Love protects and love makes sure health and welfare are the primary focus.

Cook a meal with thoughtfulness and you will have a recipe for love.

Doctor Lynn


Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Here is another crazy diet plan that will make you howl!




“The werewolf diet—also known as the moon diet or lunar diet—may help you lose two to six pounds in a single 24-hour period and offers additional dieting advice that follows the phases of the moon. Celebrities such as Demi Moore and Madonna have reportedly followed this diet, according to Grazia.

Although it's up to you whether you want to run about in the forest and howl at the moon while following the werewolf diet, the main rule consists of a simple 24-hour water or juice fast during the full moon and new moon phases. This simple diet has the potential to help you lose up to 6 pounds in 24 hours, although it's more common to lose 2 or 3 pounds. At least some of this is water weight, but some of it is fat, too. If you need to be down a few pounds to fit into that dress tomorrow, this could be the perfect vehicle. And if you do it consistently with every cycle of the moon, you could easily stave off weight gain and even lose weight slowly over the course of a year depending on your other eating habits. By following the extended moon 
diet plan that covers all phases of the moon, you could lose even more weight.”

Now commons sense tells you that if you fast on nothing but juice for 24 hours you will lose up to 2 pounds whether the moon is full or not. However, when making potions such as Doctor Lynn’s Nectars the herbs are always put up on the full moon to extract the essence from the herbs and plants. The moon does draw energy. We know this by the tides.


“According to the theory of the werewolf diet, the moon exerts the same influence on the water in your body as it does on the oceans and tides. Therefore by fasting according to the phases of the moon your body may respond even more powerfully by flushing excess water and toxins from your body. Eating according to the phases of the moon, as recommended in the extended moon diet, may also aid weight loss.”

I am often asked about fasting. A 24 hour fast sometimes can help to cleanse the body and you will lose about 2 pounds, but as soon as you resume eating the pounds will come back. Nothing wrong with a daylong juice cleanse before a party or simply to cleanse and rest the digestive tract. Extended fasting is not healthy. The body requires nutrients and calories to stay healthy. A better approach would be to eat healthy with moderate portions. Losing and then maintaining weight is more about changing your lifestyle, than it is about continuing to diet.

But if the werewolf in you can’t resist giving a good wail to the full moon, a day of fasting might be just the quick fix for you!

Doctor Lynn








Sunday, May 25, 2014

Off to Aspen- here is what I am looking for…








I am looking forward to seeing the wild flowers. The Maroon Bells in Aspen offer a ride through nature with plenty of wild flowers to be seen. Sometimes a breath of freshness can come from stopping to enjoy the wildflowers in nature. The sight, the smell and the feel of something sure pure, so beautiful, and so innocent reminds me to take a breath and enjoy the moment.

If you have never really experienced a wild flower, by this I mean gotten close enough that you could almost become the flower,(the feel, the smell and the sight of it), I might suggest you give it a try. If you have had a moment transfixed by the beauty of a wild flower, then you know exactly what I mean when I tell you it is good to stop and smell the wild flowers!

Pictures to follow!


Doctor Lynn




Saturday, May 24, 2014

The Fourth Impediment to Mastering Your Life




Not Understanding the Importance of Intuition


Understanding intuition means to be open and sensitive to our surroundings. 

We accomplish this by finding quietude. At the core of our being is eternal stillness. It takes practice to find this deep inner stillness.   In this stillness we put at risk everything we have been taught because the truth (our intuition) puts us in opposition to our every day thoughts, beliefs and way of life.

When our sense of time, place, identity and security are peeled away we are confronted with a vast reality. It is the place of knowing beyond knowing. We need to trust ourselves if we are to truly know.

It is difficult to find and maintain this inner stillness within a stressful world. With practice, we learn to empty the mind and listen to our inner voice. Intuitive understanding emerges. This leads to self trust. (This is why we practice yoga.) ☺

If you want to master your life you must learn to trust yourself, body, mind and spirit.

Empty your mind. Free your soul and trust your inner voice.

Doctor Lynn



Thursday, May 22, 2014

The Two Questions










Who am I and what am I doing here? Bkakti the yoga of devotion

If the questions are asked with sincerity and thoughtfulness, they open up our inner desires and allow us to express our bare emotions without fear.

Whatever our desires, when we harness the energy of our emotions towards a chosen end, we move energy through our nervous system, into the sacral and up through to the heart.  This energy electrifies the body-mind.  Then our desires express themselves deep within the silence of our soul.  This is when things happen and answers come to us.  Once we open, we then desire to energize, and finally connect.

This connection to life is who you are and why you are here.

Doctor Lynn


Wednesday, May 21, 2014

A Recipe for Happiness -- Go Fishing











Got the blues? Need a little happiness lift? Eat your omega -3 fatty acids or fish that is! When we think of eating fish we think of heart health but fish high in omega-3 fatty acids also appears to help with mild forms of depression. Studies indicate that omega-3 fatty acids may help alleviate some of the symptoms of mild depression. When subjects were given omega-3 supplements along with their anti depressants there was a slight improvement in mood. Furthermore omega-3 fatty acids appear to be helpful with attention deficit disorder.

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for human health. The body does not produce omega-3 so we must get them from our diet. Salmon and other cold water fish are an excellent source as well as flax seed oil and bean oils. I preferred flax seed oil as the fish oil gives me an after taste.

But can that little pink salmon sliver of essential goodness really bring us happiness? Well just ask a bear during salmon season or river dwelling people who have depended upon the salmon’s return each year.
Salmon typically (depending upon the particular species) spend one to five years in the open ocean where they sexually mature. Then they make the great migration back to their birth place to spawn. The exact understanding of how they do this is not fully understood but scientist believes it has to do with their keen sense of smell. Seems the olfactory system (sense of smell) locks into the memory system the exact route back home.

Now that’s a happy thought for someone like me who has no sense of direction. If I could just smell my way home I wouldn’t need to learn how to use that navigation system. I could be anywhere, anytime and simply smell my way back. Now I wonder; if I eat lots of salmon will I improve my smell brain and thus my sense of direction?

So tonight I decide to make salmon for dinner and give it a test. Will the thought and the smell of fresh poached salmon send my husband running home with amorous thoughts? Would it make us spawn? No that’s another thought – let’s just stick with happiness.

Ancient mythology tells us that Salmon was associated with wisdom and venerability. In Celtic mythology fish and more specifically salmon were consulted for their wisdom and eaten so that the wisdom would be imparted upon the hero. It was believed that the Salmon ate the nine hazelnuts of wisdom, the primary source of wisdom in Celtic lore. The Salmon is associated with prophecy and inspiration because of its ability to find it distance spawning grounds.

The Salmon’s flesh is pink, although sometimes white. The Atlantic salmon tends to be farm raised where the Pacific salmon tends to be wild. I live on the Pacific Ocean which makes me only too happy to eat the salmon on the West Coast. Artificial chemicals do affect mood.
Pink is a color that has a soothing effect. It is said to reduce anxiety, calm frazzled nerves and relieve stress. Pink is emotionally comforting. It makes us feel happy. Eat Salmon and be happy!

Doctor Lynn




Friday, May 16, 2014

The Third Impediment to Mastering Your Life

The first two are – quiet the monkey mind and stop overdoing everything in your life. Slow down, take a breath and smell the roses.

















The Third Impediment to Mastering Your Life

Extreme physical and mental weakness will impair your ability to concentrate. Ill health will not prohibit the learning, but it will definitely impact it. Therefore we should be very careful to reduce stress, eat healthy, exercise, rest and play. A balanced and healthy life is a sure way to mastering it. But what if illness should strike? Pull back to your center, close your eyes and breathe. The gentle soothing movement of your breath will do much to nourish your body and your mind. The body-mind needs oxygen and nourishing blood flow to support health. Doing yoga poses and breathing will push fresh blood to your organs and throughout your body.
 So eat healthy, do yoga and breathe deep! Honor your health. It is the most important thing in your life. And remember that perfect health is a perfect balance of the energy known as your body, your mind and your soul.

You are a tri-part being. It would be a mistake to try and correct one part without addressing the issue as a whole; body, mind and soul.

“When health is absent wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot be exerted, wealth is useless, and reason is powerless.” Herophilies, 300 B.C.

Doctor Lynn   
             


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Aero*boga - The Two Questions

The Questions:Who am I and What am I doing here? Aero*boga 












Bhakti is about you and how your desires, practices and experiences play out as you go about your everyday life. What we really are seeking is the highest truth and our highest ideal and how to apply those attributes to our life. This is where the questions come into play; who am I and what am I doing here?

Doctor Lynn

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

A Recipe for Your Health

A Recipe for Health -- Is Champagne good for your health?

 Yes, it is! You thought it was only red wine and now you know it’s also champagne. Wow we can now drink ourselves to health. Well not exactly. Studies show that those who drink a glass or may-be two of wine a day live longer, are healthier, have better cognition, improved sex life and are generally over all happier than those who either don’t drink or drink too much. There are many reasons for this conclusion.
Wine specifically helps you to relax. It is especially good when dining. It improves circulation and improved circulation is good for both the brain inside your head and the brain below the belt. Blood and good circulation bring nutrients to the organs of our body. So we do have the ability to both think and procreate at the same time; although few of us use both our brains when making “whoopee.”

Wine is high in antioxidants and phenols which are good for our health by helping the body to fight off free radicals. Free radicals bombard our being every day including pollution, poor diet, aging and stress. Wine and more specifically all alcohol may just in fact help to kill bacteria from food that could make us sick. After all alcohol is an antiseptic and as a drinkable substance it may in fact be true that a drink of wine with a meal keeps the gut free of bad bacteria. In Biblical times wine was drank instead of water because water was not sanitary and because both wine and beer provided sustenance.

Now champagne is also shown to be good for your health or more specifically good for the mind. Champagne according to a study in The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry is packed full of those wonderful polyphenols, chemical substances derived from plants that are antioxidants which help cells avoid destruction from free radicals. The study showed that a group of neuron cells penetrated with champagne extracts demonstrated significant protection against damage to the brain.

The reason for this they concluded was the caffeic acid and tyrosol antioxidants in champagne contain anti-inflammatory characteristics. This keeps the cells protected against damage. Furthermore, caffeic acid and tyrosol also have the ability to remove toxic chemicals from the body. So although we think of champagne as a celebratory drink it actually may truly be a toast to your health.

My $300.00 bottle of champagne (given as a gift) Dom Pe’rignon 1996 may well have been worth the price. (See blog archives for more on the $300.00 bottle) Perhaps that is the question. Is a $300.00 bottle better for brain health than a $50.00 bottle or are they virtually the same? Does it count if you open a bottle….and well you know….once you open the bottle it needs to be finished?  I think not. I think it also means a glass or two to your health and beyond that you've had too much to drink. But it is so much fun to drink champagne. 

When I think of champagne I remember back to a couple of weddings I attended where the primary drink was champagne. Those were very jovial celebrations.  Can you remember your champagne celebrations? Most likely they were some of the times we remember the most; weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, engagements and so on. So bring them on; Dom Pe’rignons, The Venue Clicquots and the Louie Roederers with all their healthful antioxidants and joyous bliss for it is always a time to celebrate when we drink to our health.

 From: Recipes for Health, Sex, Happiness and Love
Doctor Lynn



Saturday, May 10, 2014

The second Impediment To Mastering Your Life









Engaging in heavy daily work/play schedules that make it difficult to find the time to practice concentration. With such a fast pace moving life and over stressed for time how does one find the time to stop and practice the art of concentration?
Every day I meet people who are over worked, stressed, and exhausted. Time, which is relative, seems to be the master. But practicing concentration only takes a moment. Master a moment, and you will want more, and when you want more quiet moments, you will find the time to concentrate and acquire them.

Here is how to practice a moment of quietude.
In my yoga class we do the sitting Zen. This only takes about thirty seconds. We stop and sit in Lightening (thunder bolt) Bolt or the Zen Pose. The pose is formed by a kneeling position with the tops of the feet on the floor and the buttock resting onto the heels with the knees touching each other. We then place our hands in our lap using the challis mudra. Place one hand on top of the other, making a cup, with the tips of the thumbs touching. This symbolizes being at peace and being content, and in that our cup is always full.

There are more bones in the feet and hands than any other part of the body. The weight of the body is constantly pushing down into the feet. This is the nature of gravity. Zen Pose exerts pressure in the opposite direction putting pressure on the tops of the feet, relieving strain and muscle fatigue and pushing energy up into the body.

Mystically when sitting on the feet in Zen Pose the body-mind feels lifted and elevated.  Pressing the tops of the feet into the floor produces a quieting of the body-mind.  In yoga the feet are important spiritual symbols. When we sit on them we push fresh blood through the muscles and bones. Pushing fresh blood into them symbolizes a regeneration of our spiritual self. They are the foundation that supports the temple of our soul, otherwise known as the body. They both support and carry us.

Sit quiet and embrace the peacefulness within. We then close our eyes, clear our minds, and focus on three deep long breathes. The mind is quiets, the body is relaxed, and serenity is found. Remember, the mind exists in three states. Serenity is one of them. Sitting quietly, peaceful and still you are in a place of serenity. Remember this moment. Serenity is one of the existing states of mind. The other two are dullness and chaos. Serenity is available when you learn to master your life.


Doctor Lynn


Thursday, May 08, 2014

Aero*boga











The two Questoins we must ask ourselves Who am I and what am I doing here?
Aero*boga follows the path of Bhakti the Yoga of devotion

Bhakti yoga is traditionally about discovering the love of our chosen ideals.  It is not about any religion, but rather about a spiritual path whereby you only need to become devoted to the possibilities within you.  For many people this is very difficult.  They are so concern with the actions and beliefs of others and how it affects them that they never seek to go inside and discover the true nature of themselves and how they relate to the world.

The questions - who am I and what am I doing here?


Bhakti – devotion to the possibilities that lie within you. Who am I? The peaceful devoted one. Why am I here? To discover that which I love, I can devote myself to, and in that the possibilities will unfold.

Doctor Lynn

Saturday, May 03, 2014

To Master Your Life








Because it's worth repeating...


There are three states of mind; dull that lethargic, passionate and active and quiet and serene. To master our lives we must learn to concentrate. In yoga concentration means to free your mind. When the mind is quiet and still, the mind is free.

There are six impediments that must be mastered if we are to discover this freedom.
1.    The first – the major obstacle in our way is that of unbridled emotionally. Remember the monkey mind, jumping everywhere. You must work on controlling your emotions as you move through life. Learn to breathe and let go.

The problem is balance. You don’t need to do a yoga pose to find balance, however yoga might be a helpful way for you to find balance body, mind and soul. An example would be the mountain pose. It calls upon you to be still, quiet, steady, and to go within beyond your body and your mind.  Listen quietly and you may hear the silence of concentration found within. It is in that moment you may, if you are aware, experience a moment of freedom.

To master your life you must learn to concentrate. To concentrate you must free your mind. To free the mind you must master the six impediments to mastering your life.

If you can, right here, right now, in this moment, take a deep breath and let it all go. You will have earned a moment of freedom. Once you taste it, you will want more.

Leaving yoga I was immediately met with a ping of emotion. I crossed paths with someone whose energy bothers me. I try to avoid this person, but she has a way of showing up, just when I get relaxed and off my mark.

I caught my breath and my balance, in one quick moment.  Then I pondered the situation, unperturbed by the emotion. What was this feeling and why was it affecting me?  People come into your life to help you master your emotions. Once mastered, you will no longer need them.
My life has constantly been challenged with finding balance. It has been a great gift, although there have been times when I considered the challenges a curse.

Perhaps you know what I mean – what challenges your balance and scatters your emotions? What pose challenges your balance? When in it do you feel the scatter? Once you become aware of it you will begin to learn how to master the pose and your life. The secret is to step back unperturbed by the emotion and ponder it, not from the ego, but from the opportunity to discover you and from that discovery grow and learn. Breath and ponder the yoga pose that challenges you. Hold to your center and then let go and you will find a moment of balance and once found you will want more.

 You must learn before you know. You must know before you master. This is the road to self mastery. Follow along…

Doctor Lynn