Poetry

LOVE POEM FOR MY COUNTRY

My country is for love

so say its valleys

where ancient rivers flow

the full circle of life

under the proud eye of birds

adorning the sky

My country is for peace

so says the veld

where reptiles caress

its surface

with elegant motions

glittering in their pride

My country

is for joy

so talk the mountains

with baboons

hopping from boulder to boulder

in the majestic delight

of cliffs and peaks

My country is for health and wealth

see the blue of the sea

and beneath

the jewels of fish

deep under the bowels of soil

hear

the golden voice

of a miner’s praise

for my country

My country

is for unity

feel the millions

see their passion

their hands are joined together

there is hope in their eyes

We shall celebrate.

SANDILE DIKENI from Planting Water

ONLY BREATH

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,

Buddhist, sufi, or zen.  Not any religion

or cultural system.   I am not from the East

or the West, not out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not

composed of elements at all.   I do not exist,

am not an entity in this world or the next,

did not descend from Adam and Eve or any

origin story.   My place is placeless, a trace

of the traceless.   Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two

worlds as one and that one call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner, only that

breath breathing human being.

~

There is a way between voice and presence

where information flows.

In disciplined silence it opens.

With wandering talk it closes.

From Rumi The Essential Rumi translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne.

SHACK CHIC

1.

Victory

To build a shack

and call it home.

2.

Houses are built on foundations

with walls and roof.

Homes are built with things

much deeper and less concrete.

3.

There are many ways to make music.

Sometimes it is a deep blue against the wall,

a bright yellow against fear,

another red to tribute imagination,

hopefully an orange to earth bad vibes

and my black voice

saying my life is beautiful.

4.

Temples are never built in one day.

But mine,this shack, was built in half a day.

5.

Nietzsche said:

“Hope is the ultimate form of defeat.”

We still raise ourselves,

somehow,

higher than hope.

SANDILE DIKENI from Planting Water

THE SUMMER DAY

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean -

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down -

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver New and selected Poems Vol. 1

SOME QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT ASK

Is the soul solid, like iron?

Or is it tender and breakable, like

the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?

Who has it, and who doesn’t?

I keep looking around me.

The face of the moose is as sad

as the face of Jesus.

The swan opens her white wings slowly.

In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness.

One question leads to another.

Does it have a shape?  Like an iceberg?

Like the eye of a hummingbird?

Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop?

Why should I have it, and not the anteater

who loves her children?

Why should I have it, and not the camel?

Come to think of it, what about the maple trees?

What about the blue iris?

What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight?

What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves?

What about the grass?

Mary Oliver New and Selected Poems Vol. 1

LOST

Stand still.   The trees ahead and bushes beside you

Are not lost.   Wherever you are is called here,

And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,

Must ask permission to know it and be known.

The forest breathes.   Listen.   It answers,

I have made this place around you.

If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.

No two branches are the same to Wren.

If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,

You are surely lost.   Stand still.   The forest knows

Where you are.    You must let it find you.

David Wagoner copyright 1976 from The House of Belonging Poems by DAVID WHYTE.

Soul Communion: The Ultimate Medicine
Who Am I?

I have a body, but I am not my body.

I can see and feel my body,
and what can be seen and felt is not the true Seer.
My body may be tired or excited,
sick or healthy, heavy or light,
but that has nothing to do with my inward I.
I have a body, but I am not my body.

I have desires, but am not my desires.
I can know my desires, and what can be known is not the true Knower .
Desires come and go, floating through my awareness,
but they do not affect my inward I.
I have desires, but I am not desires.

I have emotions, but I am not my emotions.
I can feel and sense my emotions,
and what can be felt and sensed is not the true Feeler .
Emotions pass through me,
but they do not affect my inward I.
I have emotions, but I am not emotions.

I have thoughts, but I am not my thoughts.
I can know and intuit my thoughts,
and what can be known is not the true Knower.
Thoughts come to me and thoughts leave me,
but they do not affect my inward I.
I have thoughts, but I am not my thoughts.

I am what remains, a pure center of awareness,
an unmoved witness of all these
thoughts, emotions, feelings, and desires.

- Bruce Burger - Esoteric Anatomy - The Body As Consciousness

NEWS

For a happy retirement,

strong social networks may be more important than having children and grandchildren around, according to University of Greenwich researchers, who analysed questionaires completed by 279 retirees across the UK.   Team leader Dr. Oliver Robinson said, “Our most surprising finding was that retirees who had children and grandchildren were no more satisfied with life that the retirees without them.   Being active in social groups was strongly correlated with higher levels of life satisfaction, however.”

Participating in artistic activities such as creative writing, photography and dance enhances psychological wellbeing, particularly in the elderly and in people with mental health problems, a study of six community arts projects in the north west of England has found.   Dr. Asiya Siddiquee and colleagues from the Research Institute for Health and Social Change at Manchester Metropolitan University found a significant increase in mental health and improvements in anxiety and depression.   Participants’ feelings of autonomy, being capable of controlling their lives, and sense of purpose in life were also significantly enhanced.

Children who talk frequently with their fathers about “things that matter” are less likely to experiment with smoking during early adolescence than those who don’t.    This is the finding of a three-year study by Dr. James White from Cardiff University, which involved 3,495 young people, aged between 11 and 15, who participate in the British Youth Panel Survey.   The young people were asked about the frequency of communication with their parents, arguments with family members and whole-family meals.   After three years, the responses of children who had remained non-smokers were compared with the responses of those who said they had experimented with smoking at some point.  Recognised risk factors for smoking, such as age, sex, household income, parental monitoring and parental smoking, were all taken into account.   Results indicated that one of the strongest protective factors for reducing the risk of experimenting with smoking in early adolescence was how often fathers talked with their children, both boys and girls, about “things that mattered”.   The frequency of family arguments and family meals did not have a significant effect.

[Human Givens Vol.17 No. 2 2010 p5]

The Power of Imagination.

More evidence of just how positive powerful imagination can be: students asked to imagine talking to an elderly stranger and finding out something interesting about them subsequently showed more positive attitudes towards elderly people in general than did a control group.   In a second study, non-Muslim participants who imagined a positive conversation with a Muslim stranger subsequently showed more positive attitudes towards Muslims in general.   (British Journal of Social Psychology, 2009.)

Living Abroad

Those who live abroad for a while tend to be more creative thinkers, claims a new study.   Students who had lived abroad were better able to come up with creative solutions to tasks and were also more likely to problem solve correctly when asked first to think about a time when they had lived abroad than students asked first to think about travelling abroad or the last time they had been to a supermarket.    The researchers suggest that being required to adapt to an alien culture might enhance creativity.   (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2009, 96, 5, 1047-61)  Source: Human Givens journal Vol 16 No. 3 2009

Good News for Middle Aged Coffee Drinkers!

People who drink three to five cups of coffee a day (termed moderate coffee drinkers), at least from middle age on, are less likely to suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease than those who drink little or no coffee, according to the findings of a study of over 1,400 people aged between 44 and 58 and then followed up 21 years later.   (Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2009, 16, 1, 85-91) Source: Human Givens Journal Vol. 16 No. 2009.

Sweeteners shown to reduce kidney function.

A recent study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology found that adult women who drink at least two diet sodas a day experience a 30% drop in kidney function over a decade.   Findings by Drs Julie Lin and Gary Curhan of Brigham and Womens’s Hospital in Boston indicate that artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose are to blame in the rapid degeneration of glomerular filtration rates in the kidneys of those consuming excessive amounts of artificially sweetened, diet sodas.

A 2005 study conducted by Dr. Morando Soffritti of the prestigious European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences and the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Centre confirmed what independent scientists revealed over 30 years ago: aspartame consumption leads to various illness and disease including cancer, nerve damage, seizures and premature death.

Similarly, sucralose, a chlorocarbon popularly marketed as the artificial sweetener derived from sugar, has be implicated in severe chronic illnesses including brain and nervous system disorders, migraines, cancers, and reduced immune system.

According to Dr. Soffrittis’s research group, most studies alleging the safety of artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose fail to use internationally recognized ‘good laboratory practices’ for conducting carcinogenicity bioassays and thus arrive at faulty, corporate-controlled outcomes.

Preferable options include natural foods like raw (Manuka) honey and raw agave nectar, which are healthy, enzyme-rich sweeteners that work well in moderation.   Natural stevia extract is another excellent option as it contains no sugar and no calories; it is completely safe and suitable for those with a diabetic condition or for those wishing to cut sugar intake.

More information on Dr. Soffritti’s study, see www.holisticmed.com/aspartame and www.janethull.com

Smoking in pregnancy and psychosis

Here’s another reason not to smoke in pregnancy.   It puts children at greater risk of developing psychotic symptoms in their teenage years, accoding to findings extrapolated from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Researchers from the universities of Bristol, Cardiff, Nottingham and Warwick examined data from 6,356 children who had participated in an interview about psychotic-like symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions, when they were 12 years old.   They found that just over 11% of the children had suspected or definite symptoms of psychosis and that smoking during pregnancy was associated with increased risk.   The researchers also observed a ‘dose-response effect’: the more heavily mothers smoked, the higher the risk of psychotic symptoms.

The study also examined whether alcohol use and cannabis use during pregnancy was associated with a higher risk of psychotic symptoms.   Drinking during pregnancy was associated with increased psychotic symptoms in children of mothers who had drunk more that 21 units of alcohol a week in early pregnancy.   Only a few mothers in the study sad that had smoked cannabis during pregnancy, and this was not found to have any significant association psychotic symptoms.

The reasons for the link between maternal tobacco use and psychotic symptoms are uncertain.   The researchers suggest that exposure to tobacco in the womb may have an indirect impact by affecting children’s impulsivity, attention or cognition.   It is estimated that between 15 and 20% of women in the UK continue to smoke during their pregnancy.

Dr Stanley Zammit, a psychiatrist at Cardiff University and lead author of the study, said, “In our cohort, approximately 19% of adolescents who were interviewed had mother who smoked during pregnancy.   If our results are non-biased and reflect a causal relationship, we can estimate that about 20% of adolescents in this cohort would not have developed psychotic symptoms if their mothers had not smoked.”

Zammit, S, Thomas, K et al (2009).   Maternal tobacco, cannabis and alcohol use during pregnancy and risk of adolescent psychotic symptoms in offspring.   British Journal of Psychiatry, 294-300. Source: Human Givens Volume 16, No 4 2009.  www.humangivens.com

Overweight

Being overweight in middle age increases the risk of dementia later in both men and women, according to the findings of a prospective study of 1,152 participants, assessed between the ages of 45 to 65 in 1963, 312 of whom were later diagnosed with either Alzheimer’s  disease or vascular dementia.   (International Journal of Obesity, 2009, 33, 8, 893-8.)

Keeping Active

Keeping active well into old age may be a lifesaver.   Researchers assessed over 1,800 people born in 1920 and 1921 and found that, compared with those who exercised for fewer than four hours a week, people who engaged in activities such as jogging or swimming for four hours a week or who walked for at least an hour every day were 12 per cent less likely to die between the ages of 70 and 78, 15%  less likely to die between the ages of 78 and 85 and 17 per cent less likely to die between the ages of 85 and 88.   They were also more likely to remain independent.   (Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009, 169, 16, 1476-83.)

Coronary Heart Disease

Anger and hostility are associated with the development of coronary heart disease in healthy people and with a worse outcome in those who already have it, a meta-analytic review of 44 studies has confirmed.   The harmful effects of anger and hostility were found to be greater in men than women.   (Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2009, 53, 11, 936-46.) Source: Human Givens Journal Vol.16 No.2 2009.

Solution: Practise loving-kindness.   See Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction.

Exercise after a Heart Attack

Many patients may not be aware of the importance of exercise after a heart attack.   Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast explored perceptions of exercise among patients who did not attend cardiac rehabilitation.   They found that participants thought that keeping active through daily activities was sufficient for health and viewed medication as more important than exercise.   The researchers conclude that health professionals need to communicate more strongly the benefits of rehabilitation programs and exercise.   (Journal of Health Psychology, 2009, 14, 7, 924-32.)

When heart attacks may cause PTSD

Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are common after a heart attack, according to the findings of Dr. Susan Ayers, University of Sussex and her colleagues Claire Copland and Emma Dunmore.

Seventy-four people who had experienced a heart attack in the previous 12 weeks and were attending cardiac rehabilitation programmes took part in a study.   Just over three-quarters were male and the average age was 62.   The participants completed questionaires assessing PTSD symptoms, as well as their perceptions of the severity of their heart attack and how far they believed their lives were in danger.   Physical health, anxiety, depression and impairment of social activities were also measured, and negative coping strategies such as denial and avoidance.

Sixteen per cent were found to meet the clinical criteria for acute PTSD and a further 18 per cent reported moderate to severe symptoms.   Unsurprisingly, all these people were also more likely to have poorer psychological health and social impairments.   Those who tended to use denial and avoidance coping strategies were more likely to develop PTSD symptoms - this was a more powerful predictor of symptoms than patients’ perceptions of the severity of the heart attack and the threat to their lives.

Dr. Ayers said, “Around 150,000 people in the UK survive the acute stage of a heart attack each year.  Feelings of fear, anxiety and depression are common after such an event.   The findings of this study suggest that a high proportion experience very severe distress and this has the potential to impair recovery, quality of life and threaten future health.   It is, therefore, vital that cardiac patients are screened for psychological distress, such as anxiety, depression and PTSD, and offered appropriate treatment if necessary.”

(Ayers,S, Copland, C and Dunmore, E (2009) A preliminary study of negative appraisals and dysfunctional coping associated with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms following myocardial infarction. British Journal of Health Psychology, 14, 3, 459-71)

Please see Trauma Therapy and counselling and other sections on this Caduceus website for alleviation of fear, anxiety, depression etc.  If you are going into hospital for an operation a session of deep relaxation and visualization will alleviate any anxiety.   Do contact me.

FEAR

Question:   How should one cope with fear?

Answer from the I Ching:

……Once we have acknowledged the presence of an evil element, we turn it over to the Cosmos for resolution and correction;  then we withdraw and think no more about it, so as not to become infected by it.

Turning the matter over to the Cosmos activates the power of Truth.

However, if we consciously dwell on the problem in an alienated way, if we try to have some intentional effect, or if we intervene by powerful means, the power of truth cannot come to our aid.

Involving ourselves in the matter means that our ego, whch distrusts the corrective power of the cosmos, has entered as the white knight in shining armour to do battle with the black knight of evil.   The intervention of our ego bars the Higher Power from helping us.

So long as we remain engaged with the problem the Higher Power is not free to act.

The hexagram states that we must be energetic in biting through the obstacle to unity.   It takes great energy to withdraw.

Forgiveness means that we try to understand how people are motivated to do wrong.

It is to understand the power that fear, doubt and bad habits of mind have over people.   It is also to understand that the Creative is capable of penetrating peoples’ hearts and of enlightening their minds….

Study Suggests Relaxation Response Induces Genomic Counter-stress Change

From Integrative Medicine 08.08.2008.

Is it possible that a simple relaxation response can alter the expression of genes?   A study appearing in the July 2 issue of the open-access journal PLoS One found the answer to be yes - potentially offering relief to people suffering from health issues ranging from high blood pressure to infertility as well as pain and rheumatological disorders.   Research performed in a collaboration between the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Genomics Centre at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center suggests that the relaxation response, a physiologic state of deep rest, can influence the activation patterns of genes associated with the body’s response to stress.

Touted as the first comprehensive study of the mind’s effects on gene expression, this investigation focused on the relationship between the relaxation response and the activation or repression of certain genes. The first phase of the study compared gene expression patterns in 19 long-term practitioners of different relaxation response techniques with those of 19 individuals who had never engaged in such practices.   The control participants then went through an 8-week training programme to determine whether initiating a relaxation response practice would change gene expression over time.

The results were conclusive.   Each phase of the study indicated that the relaxation response alters the expression of genes involved in inflammation, programmed cell death, and the body’s handling of free radicals  (those molecules produced by normal metabolism that can damage cells and tissues if not properly neutralised).   To validate those results, both phases were repeated in 11 participants - 6 relaxation response practitioners and 5 non-practitioners.   Results showed significantly similar changes in gene expression.

The relaxation response can be elicited by such practices as meditation, deep breathing, and prayer *(also Polarity Therapy & Therapeutic Touch, mindful body scan, deep relaxation & visualization) and has been documented in previous studies to alleviate anxiety, heart arrhythmias, high blood pressure, and post traumatic stress disorder. The Researchers of this study hope that their work will generate hypotheses that may later be tested in laboratory and clinical trials.

*my inclusion.

FIVE PRAISES A DAY

“Be healthy” is one of the aims of the Every Child Matters programme, and the mantra of five fruit and vegetables a day is promoted by those concerned with children’s physical health as one important means of achieving this.

Wouldn’t it be a good idea, then, to extend this maxim to include five praises a day, to put the spotlight on young children’s ongoing need for nurturing attention as well as good nutrition?

This is the idea which Carole Sutton, associate director of the Unit for Parenting Studies at De Montfort University in Leicester, and Martin Herbert, emeritus professor there, are trying to promote among those working with children and parents.

“A widely targeted educational campaign requires a slogan that is pithy and to the point, especially if it is to have the awareness-raising virtues illustrated by the widely known ‘five fruit and vegetables a day’ programme,” they explain.   They acknowledge that ‘five praises a day’ is, like all maxims, a shorthand expression that requires elaboration - such as the need to praise specific behaviour (”I liked the way you helped your little brother to get dressed - that was very kind of you”), praise immediately without qualifiers or sarcasm, accompany it with a smile, hug, eye contact, etc.

“Praise is only one element of positive feedback, although probably the most potent one,  and needs to be defined as precisely as possible for maximum effect.   Parents do not always realise the extent to which these features of care-giving benefit children’s emotional wellbeing, self-esteem and other aspects of positive mental health,” they point out.

[Sutton, C and Herbert, M (2008) Five fruit and vegetables and five praises a day: the case for a proactive approach, Community Practitioner, 81, 4, 19-22]   Source Human Givens Journal Volume 15, No.2 2008

Parents using buggies

Parents using buggies that allow their babies to face them are twice as likely to talk to their baby when out walking than parents using buggies in which the babies face forwards.   “Both mothers and infants laughed more frequently using the face-to-face buggies.   Only one baby out of the 20 laughed during the away-facing journey, while 10 laughed during the face-to-face journey,” said lead researcher Dr. Suzanne Zeedyk of a study conducted for Talk to Your Baby, the early language campaign of the National Literacy Trust.   The findings were presented at the British Psychological Society Scotland’s 2008 annual conference.  Source: Human Givens Journal Volume 16. No.1 2009

School Children and stress relief.

Some teenagers who are preparing for GCSE examinations are turning to alcohol and cigarettes to relieve stressors such as volume of coursework.   Over a quarter of pupils report high levels of school-related stress.   The majority, however, use “adaptive coping strategies”, such as listening to music, watching TV, sport and exercise or walking the dog.   This finding was presented by Dr. Pamela Taylor, a psychologist with Salford Local Authority to the British Psychological Society’s educational and child psychology division’s 2009 conference in Manchester.  Source: Human Givens Journal Volume 16 No. 1  2009.

Background TV and young brains.

We know that watching TV is bad for the brain development of very young children.    Now researchers have shown that even just having a TV on ‘in the background’, while parents read and children play, is likely to have an adverse effect on development too.   Researchers videoed 50 one-, two- or three-year olds, individually, for an hour, while they played with various toys.   Their mother or father was also in the room, reading a magazine.   For either the first or second half hour, a TV was on and the programme being shown was an adult quiz show called Jeopardy.   When the TV was on, children looked at it for no more than just a few seconds at a time and less than once per minute.   Nevertheless, background TV significantly reduced both the amount of time children played and their focused attention while playing.   Shorter playing time and reduced focused attention are known, from other research, to have an adverse impact on cognitive development.   The researchers conclude, “Thus, background television disrupts very young children’s play behaviour even when they pay little overt attention to it. These findings have implications for subsequent cogitive development.”   [Source: Human Givens Journal Volume 16 No. 1 2009]

Psychological distress, such as anxiety, apathy, depression, fatigue and insomnia,

appears to increase the risk of pre-diabetes and Type 2 diabetes in middle-aged men, according to an 8-10 year study of over 2000 Swedish middle-aged men and 3,100 women, all of whom had normal glucose tolerance levels at the start.  [Diabetic Medicine, 2008, 25, 834-42]   Source: Human Givens Journal Vol. 15, No. 4 2008.

People suffering from anxiety and depression

prefer counselling over medication because they feel that it addresses their underlying problems and not just their symptoms.   This is one of the key findings in a review of UK and international research studies into the clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and acceptability of counselling, which was presented at the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy 2008 annual conference.   [BACP,2008. Counselling in Primary Care: a systematic review of the evidence. BACP.]   Source: Human Givens Journal Vol. 15 No. 4 2008.

Living in continuous fear of acts of terror

can harm your health, even if you have never been exposed to real horror.   The finding is based on questionaire responses from 4877 people attending a medical centre in Tel Aviv for a health check-up.   Researchers found that being exposed to terror acts did not affect people’s health scores but those who had a higher fear of terror did report having poorer health.  [British Journal of Health Psychology, 2008, 13, 2, 257-72.] Source: Humans Givens Journal Vol. 15, No. 2 2008

Money can’t buy happiness.

But giving it away can make you happy.   This is the finding from experiments in which students received some money that they could choose to spend on themselves or on others.   Those who gave it to others were the more contented.  [Science, 2008, 319, 167-8] Source: Human Givens Journal Vol. 15, No. 2 2008