Reduce your cancer risk by 50%

Cancer is certainly a big source of stress for most of us who are aware that the daily exposure to pollutants and chemicals we must endure almost guarantees we will contract cancer at some time in our lives.

This is a video by Dr. Mercola of Mercola.com; you may review the text of this post at his How To Reduce Your Risk Of Cancer by 50% blog entry. This is wonderful information, empowering for anyone who wants to take back control of their health and wellbeing, proving again that simple is often better when it comes to holistic health and wellness.

Please enjoy the 5 and 1/2 minute video and take back your power!

The one thing that will get rid of stress

Could this be you?

"What is the one thing that will get rid of my stress?" someone asks.

I ask back, "What is the one thing that caused it?"

That usually prompts a litany that goes something like this: "Well, I've had to work late the past few weeks. Sally is out sick, so I'm covering some of her work. Plus, I have a new client; big project, big headaches, you know how it is. Little League started last week, so I have to rush home, pick up Jimmy and Bobby, grab dinner on the way over there. My husband Dan can't help as much as he used to because his company has him traveling a lot now, after his promotion. I noticed a water spot on the kitchen ceiling after that rain we had, I think there's a leak in the roof…I'll have to call someone on that when I have a second. Yeah, speaking of the kitchen, lately I've been experiencing a bit of heartburn…what's up with that? Oh, and our dog is at the vet…the neighbor's little boy bit him…cute kid, but a little strange; I don't think his parents pay enough attention to him……"

At first sight, you may think there are a lot of things causing this woman's stress although she is hopeful that one thing will cure it. You may even identify with a lot of her stressors if you are overwhelmed with work, family, house, dog, and other tasks.

There are a lot of ways to reduce stress in this situation: have another co-worker help with Sally's tasks; ask another Little League mom to take the boys and arrange to drop off her kids after the practice.

However, if this is you, and if you carefully read between the lines, you will see that there really is only one thing that causes stress: YOU. Your attitude and behavior determines whether you are stressed-out or stress-free.

Does the fictitious, overburdened worker-wife-mother reciting the litany of problems have a choice? Do you have a choice? Absolutely.

The thing you need to examine is your motivation.

What motivates you to live a stressed-out life? What motivates your attitude and behavior? Boiled down to the most basic components, it's a combination of three things: status, money, power: wanting them, getting them, keeping them.

I'm not implying any of these things is bad in and of itself, but if you really want to beat stress and not just complain about how it's ruining your life, you have to do it on an honest playing field.

Frankly, I think there are a lot of people out there who just want to complain about it. In fact, complaining about stress has become a status symbol; if you're not stressed out, there must be something wrong with you. Not only that, people moan and groan about how stressed-out they are, but use every excuse to reject every stress-reducing or stress-eliminating technique they read about because it's too hard, it's too easy, it takes too much time, it won't work for me (even though they have never tried it), it costs too much, it's too cheap so it must not be any good, I'm too busy to go to it…..and on and on. If you are one of those people, then God Bless You…you're going to need it.

To get back to motivation: if you truly want to reduce stress and achieve a stress-free lifestyle (yes, it really is possible!), you must be completely honest with yourself.

If, along with the money, status, or power, you have high blood pressure, a heart condition, Acid Reflux Disease, high cholesterol, insomnia, constant headaches, and (fill in the blank), you must feel disease and suffering is worth the status, money, and power.

That's fine, and I truly have no problem with it, but if that is what you have chosen, you must also realize that you can choose how you deal with the stress it can bring.

For the people who really do want to reduce stress, back to the original question: "What is the one thing that will get rid of your stress?"

Answer: YOU.

YOU are the best disease-preventative you have. YOU are the only thing that will get rid of your stress. It calls for making big changes in mind and emotion, attitude and behavior, to reconsider and revise the way you think and act.

A while ago I wrote about the Ecosystem of YOU. I want to emphasize again that YOU are a whole and holistic system (whether you treat yourself that way or not) of spirit, mind, emotion, and physical body. Whatever you do to one part of YOU affects every single other part of you, your whole person.

To get rid of your stress, take responsibility for yourself. Don't expect your employer, your doctor, you mother, your family to take care of you. They won't. They're too busy expecting you to take care of them. (If that wasn't true, you probably wouldn't be working late, paying for anti-anxiety or antidepressant medications, and rushing around like a headless chicken to get all the errands done.)

If you can't change your attitude or behavior, you must leave the circumstances that cause your stress, or get help in coping with them. Just as with any repetitive physical injury that returns if you continue the behavior that caused it, if you are suffering mental or emotional stress but remain in the circumstances that cause it, you may find temporary relief, but no lasting cure.

The Invisible Garment - 30 Spiritual Principles That Weave the Fabric of Human Life

I've had the pleasure over the last couple of weeks to work with the audio-book version of The Invisible Garment by Connie Kaplan, a lovely tapestry woven of words and brief musical interludes to distinguish the source of various quotes throughout the book.

Connie teaches that your Invisible Garment is a metaphor for the twelve interwoven principles that you are born to embody in this lifetime. For me, it was refreshing to find another person who believes we are here not to learn a lesson or make up for past-life mistakes, but to BE who we were born to be. As we share our special talents, we affirm our membership in and contribute to the wholeness of the universal energetic consciousness and, as Connie says, the "tapestry of society." By talents I don't mean learned skills but rather spiritual traits like Generosity, Unity, and Harmony (three of the principles Connie teaches).

Connie was gifted with this information following the death of her father. She was visited by two light and spiritual beings who could only have been angels. She was asked by them to bring the Invisible Garment information into the physical world and to share it with anyone who asked. Over a period of months, the information was gifted to her through her dreams and meditations. Following that, she shared the information by doing Invisible Garment (or Soul Contract) readings with an ever-widening circle of family, friends, and others. For almost a decade, she compiled readings and tested the data before confidently sharing these deep and meaningful truths with an even wider audience through books and CDs.

There are thirty principles in all. All of them play a part in life, but based on the placement of the planets in your astrological chart, up to twelve principles have special meaning for you and play a prominent role throughout your lifetime. You determine your most active principles by examining your astrological chart, but your Invisible Garment is Not - repeat Not – an astrology reading. The astrological chart is used only for the numerical value of the placement of the planets, for example, Sun 14 degrees, Moon 09 degrees, and so on.

The best way for me to explain your Invisible Garment is to show you mine, so I will briefly take you through my own reading. Please understand this will be only a hint of the wonderful things you can learn through your own reading. To include all the information about each of the principles in my personal Invisible Garment would take many, many pages! (And, frankly, my transcription skills would not do it justice!)

You will need an accurate astrology chart. Mine comes from the ASTROLABE Free Astrology Chart page, an instant, online service.

Here are my principles. You may notice that I have only eleven in my list since the two planets Jupiter and Saturn, even though they are in different astrological signs, both have the degree number of 24 so they also share principle number twenty-four. Please note, we must let go of worldly meaning of these words; the spiritual meanings are quite different. Connie tells us, these "words don't define you, they point you toward your inner self." Your principles describe not what you are here to do, but what you are here to BE and to share.

Sun 14 - Ecstasy
Moon 09 - Awareness
Ascendant 02 - Purity
Mercury 15 - Resistance
Venus 10 - Reciprocity
Mars 25 - Desire
Jupiter 24 - Humility
Saturn 24 - Humility
Uranus 21 - HarmonyNeptune 22 - Dreaming
Pluto 23 - Randomness
Mid-Heaven 29 - Movement

Sun (The primary reason you came to live a human life)
14 Ecstasy "Ecstasy is simply the divine flow of energy. It is energy or light flowing with absolute freedom to express itself and experience itself. The Principle of Ecstasy has the potential to be always new, awake, and creating the present. (It is "living in the present moment.") Ecstasy occurs when all the bodies - the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and energetic - are perfectly aligned so energy can express itself truthfully. The whole being is alive, alert, and awake to its reality. People whose charts include Ecstasy often find that slow, intentional physical movement gives them a strong sense of being present to the divine. Body prayer and other types of moving meditation are sources of ecstasy for these people."

[Michelle says: That certainly describes me! I love the gentle, flowing movement of qigong. Practicing qigong is when I feel most whole and at peace; it is definitely my portal into the presence of divine inspiration, as is labyrinth walking.]

Moon (Your mastery – your most reliable staff or plumb line; the gift you bring to the world)
09 Awareness "Awakens life to a self-conscious perspective. …awakening is more than just an awakening of conscious attention, it is indeed a spiritual awakening to the vast possibility of oneness between the self and the divine. …because awareness does require one to experience both ends of a pole or both sides of a question, it's not always a comfortable principle. We do not generally like the idea that spiritual maturity may bring emotional or physical pain. Yet it is true that when we expand enough to encompass all of humanity, we encounter the suffering of humanity."

[Michelle says: Compassion is also mentioned within the principle of Awareness, and I strongly relate to that. I seek troubled people to help them overcome stress-related illness. I also practice Tonglen which is best described as a prayerful, energetic healing technique in which one concentrates on those in need of healing while inhaling their pain and illness, and sending out healing and compassion with the exhale breath. I digress, but if you would like to know more about Tonglen, please read Tonglen Healing]

[From this point on, I will give you just a pertinent sentence or two from each of the principles that are in the chart so that you can get an idea of the information that is in store for you when you do your own chart using the book. Please keep in mind, these are very brief; just a couple of drops from the proverbial ocean. You will receive much, much more valuable information from the book or CD!]

Personal Pillars – Your unique interface with the world.

Ascendant (Behavioral body – your personal ethic)
02 Purity "Purity is the ability to recognize the essential nature of any form. It is the ability to distill any error that has been attached to a form whether the error is ideological, psychological, or physiological. Purity is the ability to liberate oneself from patterns of error that are present in perceptual reality and instead to experience the intent of cosmic order."

Mercury (Mental Body – how you process spiritual information)
15 Resistance "Resistance is a friction that causes energy to experience itself, transform itself, and realign itself with greater purpose. You are inserting something that interrupts the flow of energy and allows a creative interfacing with form. You receive energy from the cosmos and transform it into appropriate messages and/or information for humanity."

Venus (Emotional Body – how you give dimension and meaning to life's experiences)
10 Reciprocity "Reciprocity guarantees that what goes around, comes around. For example, let's say that you touch a tree, does that tree touch you as well? Yes, in a way, it does. There is a reciprocal relationship between you and that tree. Through reciprocity, humans consciously enter Oneness."

Mars (Physical Body – your relationship to your body)
25 Desire "Spiritually defined, desire provides a never-ending call toward Home. Desire drives one…to be reunited with Creator. Desire as a spiritual principle is based on the integration of the interchange of Light. [One student said:] 'Desire changed me from longing to be loved, to longing to be Love.'"

Universal Pillars – Cosmic forces that give larger and less personal support to your life.
 

Jupiter (Universal Support – your personal safety net)
 

Saturn (Limitation Support – determines the way you perceive the realm of form)
24 Humility "To be humble is to be authentically aware of the true nucleus of the essential self. It is arrogant to think yourself grander than you are. It is equally arrogant to think yourself less than you are. Humility has to do with lifting your own veils [that hide your Light] and telling the truth to yourself about yourself. Humility is letting go of our compulsion to prove we know more than we do."

Uranus (Support of authentic self – jolt-like reminders to be your real self)
21 Harmony "People who are contracted with Harmony are the people who integrate the 'is not.' They work in the negative space of the piece of art that is life. They find worship in the sacred darkness because they know the power of the unseen work. This is not the dark of the psyche, but instead of the unseen realms, the Mystery, the black sun behind the sun, the spiritual foundation of all that is."

Neptune (Birth group support – connection to collective consciousness of all the people born during the months Neptune spends in one degree of the zodiac)
22 Dreaming "Spiritually defined, dreaming is the ability to shift into non-ordinary states of consciousness. Dreaming is a direct encounter with energy in the dimension of Truth. It does not necessarily require being asleep to experience dreaming, it does however require a relationship with the Void, the sacred whirlpool of primordial energy."

Pluto (Ultimate victory over life – the way you go through darkness and return to the light; also, your archetypal energy)
23 Randomness "Spiritually speaking, randomness occurs in that moment when all potential is present, and nothing is certain. I like to use the kaleidoscope as the metaphor for randomness. When you look through a kaleidoscope, you see a pattern. When you turn it slightly, everything is totally chaotic momentarily, and then another pattern crystallizes. That next pattern is something you can hardly believe was potential in the pattern before. The new pattern can have completely different colors, and completely different structuring."

Mid-Heaven (Your unique soul energy - how you are as an individual and how you have pledged to live your essence in this lifetime)
29 Movement "Movement is actually the other end of Placement [the first principle]. When the zero principle [Placement] and the twenty-ninth principle [Movement] come together, the circle becomes whole. Movement is the force that keeps one going, that keeps one evolving. It constantly pulls one into potential and possibility. Movement is the aspect of form that magnetizes one toward the realization of highest potential. It is the force that animates the cosmos, and it drives every form toward its destiny."

It's me again – Michelle. Unfortunately I have to wrap this up – I wish I could continue…there is so much more I would like to share with you! – but before I close, I want to assure you that if you want or feel in need of guidance or affirmation of your spiritual path, I do believe that working with the principles in The Invisible Garment: 30 Spiritual Principles That Weave the Fabric of Human Life can help you to identify and fulfill your personal, spiritual purpose of BE-ing and (as goes hand-in-hand) of fulfilling your place in the universal Oneness.

The audio book, from which I wrote this review, is only available from: the e-shop at Generosity Incorporated.