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The Hot Yoga Method is practiced in a heated room to ease muscles and joints, prevent injury and aid the healing of existing injuries, as well as promoting detoxification through sweating.At Hot Yoga by Gema I am bringing a new style of yoga, I have 12 years experience in yoga and have combined all my studies and courses done all over Asia into one Unique Sequence. The sequence is Hot Yoga, Power Yoga, Astanga Yoga, Hatha Yoga.I also teach children’s yoga 3-9 years old and soon to come 9 – 15 years old.
All students are welcome at all levels; you’re never too young or too old to do yoga.
Yoga is about listening to your body, moving in the course the body wants to open up and let the flexibility to be progressed. Yoga is not a competition, it is for you to release your stresses through life and endure your practice.
FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT: HOT YOGA
Devotees on their way
My Experience of Chhath
I am a permanent resident of Kolkata, but I never witnessed the celebration of Chhath Pooja here. Lakhs of migrant residents from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states of India and Nepal as well, celebrated their most ancient festival along the bank of river Hoogly, the sacred river that flows through the city. On 6th November this year, around 2pm, I went to a famous ghat on the bank of river Hoogly opposite to Eden gardens. It was an unique photographic journey to witness how people performed their rituals with so much devotion and faith. I saw hundreds of devotees sitting on the banks quietly with their offerings to Sun God and some performing their rituals with half of their bodies immersed in the Ganges, and some with fire, called ‘Homas’. I was closely looking at them, and I was amazed by their dedication, devotion and complacency. Thousands of devotees were found proceeding towards the Ganges with their offerings, all cladded in bright clothes and ornaments, and many were found on their way to lay prone on the roads touching their whole body (Ashtanga or eight parts of the body) on the Earth and performing ‘Dondis’(Surya Namaskara -Sanskrit: सूर्यनमस्कार, Sun Salutation). Many of the family members, including newborn kids were found lying on the roads waiting for the main worshipper of the family to crossover their bodies as a way to get blessings from them. Most of the main family worshippers were found to be the eldest ladies of the family. Through Chhath, I rediscovered my religious India, in a new and beautiful way.
Chhath Pooja
Chhath is an ancient Hindu Vedic festival of worshiping Sun God, as the Rigveda contains hymns worshiping the Sun God and describes similar rituals.Historically it is native to eastern Uttar Pradesh, North Bihar of India and Mithila State of Nepal.The Chhath Puja is dedicated to the Sun and his wife Usha in order to thank them for bestowing the bounties of life on earth.The God is worshiped during the Chhath festival to promote well-being, prosperity and progress. In Hinduism, Sun worship is also believed to help cure a variety of diseases, including leprosy, and helps ensure the longevity and prosperity of family members, friends, and elders. Environmentalists claim that Chhath is the most eco-friendly Hindu festival.
Regions Celebrating Chhath
Although the festival is observed most elaborately in Mithila Province of Nepal,Terai-Madhesh region of Nepal, Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and UP, it is also more prevalent in areas where migrants from those areas have a presence.The festival is celebrated in the regions including but not exclusive to the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, as well in various countries worldwide.
Timings
Chhath puja is performed on Kartika Shukla Shashthi, which is the sixth day of the month of Kartika in Bengali calender. This falls typically in the month of October or November in the Gregorian English Calendar.
History
The rituals also find reference in the Sanskrit epic poem Mahābhārata in which Draupadi is depicted as observing similar rites. It is assumed that the oldest Purohits were requested by the kings to come and perform the traditional pooja of the Lord Sun. They used to chant the ancient Rigveda texts and a variety of hymns for worshiping the God. In the ancient time of Mahabharata Chhath pooja was celebrated by Draupadi and Pandavas of Hastinapur (present Delhi) for solving their instant problem and regaining their lost kingdom. It is also assumed that the Chhath puja was first started by the Surya Putra (son of Sun God) Karna. He was a great warrior and had ruled over the Anga Desh (Munger district of Bihar) during the Mahabharata period.
Ethymology
The word chhath means sixth in Nepali, Maithili and Bhojpuri languages and the festival is celebrated on the sixth day of the month Kārtika of the Hindu lunar Bikram Sambat calendar.The word is a Prakrit derivation from the Sanskrit ṣaṣṭhi, meaning sixth.
The Goddess who is also worshipped during the famous Chhath Puja is known as Chhathi Maiya. Chhathi Maiya is known as Usha in the Vedas. She is believed to be the beloved younger wife of Surya, the sun god. The rituals signify rising sun as well as setting sun.
Rituals and Traditions of Chhath Puja
It is believed that worshipers of the Chhath take holy bath and follows a period of abstinence and become separate for 4 days from the main family. Throughout the period he is believed as the pure spirit and sleep on the floor having single blanket.
Devotees offer prasad to Sun at the Chhath such as sweets, Kheer, Thekua, bananas and other fruits included in a small bamboo tokari. The prasad is cooked without salt, onions or garlic with maintained purity. It is a four days festival which includes:
On the first day, devotees take bathe early in the morning in the holy water of Gange and bring some holy water to their home to prepare the offerings. The home and its surroundings should be cleaned at this day. They take only one meal a day known as kaddu-bhat cooked only by using the bronze or soil utensils and mango woods over the soil stove.
On the second day, the day before Chhath, devotees keeps fast for whole day and break their fast in the evening after sunset after the worship of Sun. They offer Rasiao-kheer, puris, fruits in the puja. After taking meal in the evening, they go on a fast without water for the next 36 hours.
On the third day (day of Chhath) they offer the Sanjhiya Arghya at the ghat of riverbank. After Arghya, they wear the single saree of turmeric color. Other family members are waiting for getting the blessings from worshiper. At the night of Chhath a vibrant event of Kosi is celebrated by lighting the lamps of clay diyas under the covering of five sugarcane sticks. The five sugarcane sticks indicate the Panchatattva (earth, water, fire, air and space) the human is body made up of.
On the early morning of the fourth day (Paarun), devotees along with their family and friends offer Bihaniya Aragh at the ghat of riverbank of Gange. Devotees end their festival through breaking the fast by having the Chhath prashad.
Six levels of purification in Chhath ( a belief)
The belief of fast and cleanliness of body on the festival identify the detoxification of the body and mind in order to set up the body and mind to accept the cosmic solar energy.
Standing in water with half of the body inside the water diminishes the escape of energy as well as facilitates the prana to elevate to the sushumna.
Then the entrance of cosmic solar energy takes place in the pineal gland, pituitary gland and hypothalamus (known as the Triveni complex) through the retina and optic nerves.
In the 4th stage Triveni complex gets activated.
After activation of the Triveni complex, spine gets polarized and body of devotee gets transformed into a cosmic powerhouse and gets the Kundalini Shakti.
At this stage the devotee is fully able to conduct, recycle and pass on the energy into entire universe.
Benefits of the rituals (a belief)
Devotee of the Chhath puja can improve the immunity of body.
A variety of skin infections can be cured through the safe radiations of sunlight.
It increases the fighting power of blood by improving the performance of WBC.
Solar energy provides the power to control the secretion of hormones.
Significance
Chhath puja has a special significance during the Sunrise and Sunset periods. The Sunrise and sunset are the most important periods of the day during which a human body can safely get the solar energy without any harm. That’s why there is a myth of offering the Sanjhiya Arghya and Bihaniya Arghya to the Sun at the Chhath festival. During this period the solar energy has low level of ultraviolet radiations so it is safe for the human body. People perform the Chhath puja in order to thank the Lord Sun for the lives on the earth as well as to get blessings.
The ritual of Chhath puja provides mental calmness (by detoxifying the body and mind), enhances the energy level and immunity, reduces the frequency of anger, greed and jealousy as well as lot of negative emotions. It is also believed that following the Chhath processes helps in slowing down the ageing process. Such beliefs and rituals of the Chhath make it the most significant festival in the Hindus ever.
[ Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhath and www.varanasi.org.in/chhath-pooja ]
Papilio glaucus, the eastern tiger swallowtail, is a species of butterfly native to eastern North America. It is one of the most familiar butterflies in the eastern United States, ranging north to southern Ontario, Canada, and is common in many different habitats. It flies from spring until fall, during which it produces two to three broods. Adults feed on the nectar of many species of flowers, mostly from those of the families Apocynaceae, Asteraceae, and Fabaceae. P. glaucus has a wingspan measuring 7.9 to 14 cm (3.1 to 5.5 in). The male is yellow with four black "tiger stripes" on each forewing. Females may be either yellow or black, making them dimorphic. The yellow morph is similar to the male, but with a conspicuous band of blue spots along the hindwing, while the dark morph is almost completely black.
The green eggs are laid singly on plants of the families Magnoliaceae and Rosaceae. Young caterpillars are brown and white; older ones are green with two black, yellow, and blue eyespots on the thorax. The caterpillar will turn brown prior to pupating. It will reach a length of 5.5 centimetres (2.2 in). The chrysalis varies from a whitish color to dark brown. Hibernation occurs in this stage in locations with cold winter months.
The eastern tiger swallowtail is the state butterfly of Alabama (as well as state mascot), Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and is the state insect of Virginia.
Description
The wingspan ranges from 7.9 to 14 cm (3.1 to 5.5 in) with females being the larger sex. Southern individuals are larger than northern ones. Males are yellow with four black "tiger stripes" on each forewing. The outer edge of the forewing is black with a row of yellow spots. The veins are marked with black. The postmedian area of the hindwing is black with yellow spots along the margin. The inner margin of the hindwing has small red and blue spots. The ventral forewing margin has a yellow bar that is broken into spots. This broken bar is present in both sexes, and is used to distinguish P. glaucus from its close relatives.
Females are dimorphic. The yellow morph differs from the male in having a blue postmedian area on the dorsal hindwing. In the dark morph, the areas that are normally yellow are replaced with dark gray or black. The bluish postmedian area on the ventral hindwing has one row of orange spots. A shadow of the "tiger stripes" can be seen on the underside of some dark females.
P. glaucus is one of a few species of papilionids known to produce gynandromorphs. Most bilateral gynandromorphs are hybrids of P. glaucus and P. canadensis that are found along hybrid zones. Color mosaics are found in the central part of the species range.
Taxonomy
The first known drawing of a North American butterfly was of an eastern tiger swallowtail. It was drawn by John White in 1587, during Sir Walter Raleigh's third expedition to Virginia. White named his drawing "Mamankanois" which is believed to be a Carolina Algonquian word for "butterfly". This species was later described by Carl Linnaeus in his 10th edition of Systema Naturae in 1758. Some taxonomists place P. glaucus, along with the other tiger swallowtails, in the genus Pterourus.
The eastern tiger swallowtail was formerly considered a single species with a vast range into northern Canada and the eastern United States. In 1991, the subspecies Papilio glaucus canadensis was elevated to species level, thus reducing the range of P. glaucus to south of Canada. In 2002, another closely related species, P. appalachiensis, was described by H. Pavulaan and D. M. Wright from the southern Appalachian Mountains. These two species can be separated from P. glaucus by size; P. canadensis is smaller and P. appalachiensis is larger. These two also have a solid yellow bar along the margin of the ventral forewing. P. canadensis females are not dimorphic, and P. appalachiensis females are rarely black.
Similar species for the dark P. glaucus female include the pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor), the spicebush swallowtail (Papilio troilus), and the female black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). B. philenor differs from the dark morph P. glaucus by the row of light-colored spots on each wing margin. P. troilus is more greenish, and has two rows of orange spots on the ventral hindwing. P. polyxenes is smaller, and the ventral hindwing has two rows of yellow-orange spots.
Distribution and habitat
P. glaucus is found in the eastern United States from southern Vermont to Florida west to eastern Texas and the Great Plains. It is common throughout its range, although is rarer in southern Florida and absent from the Florida Keys. In 1932, a single specimen was collected in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is believed to have been an accidental introduction from North America.
P. glaucus can be found almost anywhere deciduous forests occur. Common habitats include woodlands, fields, rivers, creeks, roadsides, and gardens. It will stray into urban parks and city yards. Because it has adapted to many different habitats and host plants, P. glaucus is a generalist, and is not considered threatened. Papilio glaucus is considered to be one of the most polyphagous of all swallowtail species. This is likely due to genetic traits and differential detoxification abilities. However, as compared to Papilio canadensis, at the northern overlap between the two species, P. glaucus survive very poorly through their first larval instar when settling on a quaking aspen (Populus tremeloides) tree and their survival rate under those conditions are approximately 15%, whereas P. canadensis thrives on this food plant.
Adults are seen from spring to fall, although the exact date varies depending on the location. In the south, they are seen from February to November; in the north, they are seen from May to September. P. glaucus produces two broods in the north and three in the south. The first broods yield the smallest adults.
Behavior
Eastern tiger swallowtails are diurnal, and are usually solitary. Adults are known to fly high above the ground, usually seen above the tree canopy. Males seek females by patrolling habitats containing the larval host plants. During courtship, the male and female fly about each other prior to landing and mating. The male releases perfume-like pheromones during courtship to entice the female into mating.
Adults use a wide range of food sources, most preferring to nectar on sturdy plants with red or pink flowers. Many members of the families Apocynaceae, Asteraceae and Fabaceae are used as common nectar sources. Males participate in a behavior called puddling, in which they congregate on mud, damp gravel or puddles. They extract sodium ions and amino acids from these sources which aid in reproduction. Males that puddle are typically fresh, and puddle only for their first couple of days. Females will occasionally puddle, but do not form congregations. Adults have also been seen feeding on dung, carrion, and urine.
The eastern tiger swallowtail, Papilio glaucus, is probably the most polyphagous of all 560+ species of swallowtail butterflies in the world.
Life cycle
The butterfly may have one or two generations in the north, while southern areas may have three. Time duration for various stages is as follows:
Egg - It takes three to five days for eggs to hatch.
Larva - The caterpillar has five instars.
Pupa - The chrysalis stage lasts nine to eleven days, or over winter hibernation.
Egg
Egg
Females lay their eggs singly on the host plant leaves, preferring to oviposit on host plants near nectar sources. The egg is round and green, later turning yellowish green with reddish dots. The size of the egg is large for a butterfly, being 0.8 millimeters (0.03 in) in height and 1.2 millimeters (0.05 in) in width. It takes between 4 and 10 days to hatch.
Caterpillar
The caterpillar eats the leaves of the host plant. It will rest on a silk pad on a leaf, with the edges of the leaf folded over itself and held together with silk. The first three instars are brown. A large white spot, known as a saddle, is found on the abdomen. After molting to the fourth instar, the caterpillar becomes green. The swollen thorax has two black, yellow, and blue eyespots. These eyespots are much smaller than those of the similar-looking spicebush swallowtail caterpillar. A yellow and black transverse stripe is present between the first and second abdominal segments. It is concealed between the folds of the segments when the caterpillar is at rest. The abdomen is spotted transversely with light blue. Before pupating, the caterpillar will turn dark brown. It will reach a length of 5.5 centimetres (2.2 in). The caterpillar of P. glaucus is impossible to distinguish from the caterpillars of P. canadensis and P. appalachiensis.
Chrysalis
The chrysalis measures 3.2 centimetres (1.3 in). It hangs from a surface by a silk girdle around the thorax and a silk pad at the base. The chrysalis varies in color, ranging from off white to dark brown. It is often spotted with green and dark brown. Lighter-colored chrysalids often have a dark lateral stripe along each side of the body. Two horn-like projections are present on the head; one is found on the thorax. P. glaucus chrysalids can be found in a variety of places, but are commonly found on tree trunks, fence posts, and in ground litter. It hibernates in locations with cold winters.
Host plants
The caterpillar feeds on host plants of many different families. Common host plants used are those of the families Magnoliaceae and Rosaceae, with species including tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), sweet bay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) and wild black cherry (Prunus serotina). It also feeds on other members of the family Rosaceae, as well as members from the families Lauraceae, Oleaceae, Rutaceae, and Tilioideae. Aspens (Populus sect. Populus), birches (Betula), and willows (Salix) have been recorded in older literature as host plants, but these are used by P. canadensis. Host plants of P. glaucus include:
Wild black cherry (Prunus serotina)
Ash (Fraxinus species)
Cottonwood (Populus species)
Wafer ash or hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata)
Common lilac (Syringa vulgaris)
Sweet bay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana)
Tulip poplar or tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Willow (Salix species)
Defense against predators
The first three instars of the caterpillar are bird dropping mimics, coloration that helps protect it from predators. In later instars, the eyespots on the thorax serve to deter birds. Like all members of the family Papilionidae, the caterpillar of P. glaucus possesses an osmeterium, an orange, fleshy organ that emits foul-smelling terpenes to repel predators. Normally hidden, the osmeterium is located on the first segment of the thorax, and can be everted when the caterpillar feels threatened. The combination of eyespots and osmeterium makes the caterpillar resemble a snake.
Since adults are palatable, dark morph females use Batesian mimicry to protect themselves from vertebrate predators by mimicking the poisonous pipevine swallowtail. Dark morph females are more prevalent in the south, where B. philenor is more common.[
Yoga is a spiritual, mental, and physical practice that’s been around for centuries. Today, there are several types of yoga that vary in difficulty and speed. While different yoga types feel different, yogis and scientists alike will tell you they are all extremely beneficial for your mental and physical health.
Increasing Flexibility – yoga has positions that act upon the various joints of the body including those joints that are never really on the ‘radar screen’ let alone exercised.
Increasing lubrication of the joints, ligaments and tendons – likewise, the well-researched yoga positions exercise the different tendons and ligaments of the body.
Surprisingly it has been found that the body which may have been quite rigid starts experiencing a remarkable flexibility in even those parts which have not been consciously work upon. Why? It is here that the remarkable research behind yoga positions proves its mettle. Seemingly unrelated “non strenuous” yoga positions act upon certain parts of the body in an interrelated manner. When done together, they work in harmony to create a situation where flexibility is attained relatively easily.
Massaging of ALL Organs of the Body – Yoga is perhaps the only form of activity which massages all the internal glands and organs of the body in a thorough manner, including those – such as the prostate - that hardly get externally stimulated during our entire lifetime. Yoga acts in a wholesome manner on the various body parts. This stimulation and massage of the organs in turn benefits us by keeping away disease and providing a forewarning at the first possible instance of a likely onset of disease or disorder.
Excellent toning of the muscles – Muscles that have become flaccid, weak or slothy are stimulated repeatedly to shed excess flab and flaccidity.
Complete Detoxification – By gently stretching muscles and joints as well as massaging the various organs, yoga ensures the optimum blood supply to various parts of the body. This helps in the flushing out of toxins from every nook and cranny as well as providing nourishment up to the last point. This leads to benefits such as delayed ageing, energy and a remarkable zest for life. Source Unknown. To know more visit www.yogagurusuneelsingh.com )9810210802
The lymphatic system is part of the immune system where cleansing of blood, and the detoxification of our bodies takes place. A huge network of lymphatic vessels recycles blood plasma by removing fluid from the tissues, filtering it, and carrying it back into the bloodstream.
These are 10 foods to add into your diet to boost the lymphatic system:
* Water
May not be a food item, but essential to life. Drink plenty of clean, purified water. Water keeps the lymph fluid hydrated and flowing smoothly.
* Cranberry
Cranberry is an amazing emulsifier of fat which means it helps break down excess fat for the lymphatic vessels to carry away.
* Leafy greens
That green nutrient has powerful cleansing properties and beneficial effects on the blood and thus on lymph fluid as well.
* Nuts and seeds
The essential healthy fats found in seeds like chia, nuts, olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado, play a role in fighting inflammation. They also strengthen our inner organs walls.
* Adaptogenic herbs
Goldenseal, Echinacea, and Astragalus are three herbsthat help alleviate inflammation and congestion of the lymph nodes and vessels.
* Garlic
Garlic boosts immune function and combats harmful microbes. It improves circulation and aids in the cleansing of toxins. It boosts the function of your lymphatic system and contains antibacterial qualities.
* Ginger / Turmeric
Both have beneficial effects on digestion and circulation; two systems that are tied directly to the processes of the lymphatic system. Also they help reduce inflammation, thin blood and improve circulation.
* Seaweed
Sea vegetables help the body detox and eliminate excess fluid that can build up in tissues and slow the lymphatic system down.
* Citrus
Citrus fruits aid hydration, carry powerful antioxidants and enzymes, and help cleanse and protect the lymphatic system.
ROMANIA - Cocor Spa Hotel
Situated only 50 metres from the beach in the summer resort Neptun-Olimp, Cocor Spa Hotel provides excellent facilities to spend an unforgettable vacation.
The hotel rooms have warm colour tones and a calming ambience, boasting delightful garden views or a panoramic view of the outdoor pool.
Unwind and enjoy the natural healing effects of the sea and nature. The individual spa packages will help you to eliminate stress, to feel the detoxification effects, and to rediscover beauty.
Romania is an interesting country to visit, whether you want to relax at one of the attractive resorts or explore the ancient culture with well-preserved traditions and folklore.
Hotel Rooms: 242.
Hotel Facilities
General
Restaurant, Bar, 24-Hour Front Desk, Garden, Terrace, Non-Smoking Rooms, Rooms/Facilities for Disabled Guests, Elevator, Safety Deposit Box, Heating, Luggage Storage, Shops in Hotel, Airconditioning.
Activities
Sauna, Fitness Centre, Spa & Wellness Centre, Massage, Children's Playground, Jacuzzi, Turkish/Steam Bath, Hammam, Indoor Swimming Pool, Outdoor Swimming Pool.
Services
Meeting/Banquet Facilities, Business Centre, Laundry, Breakfast in the Room, Ironing Service, Currency Exchange, Souvenirs/Gift Shop, Shoe Shine, Car Rental, Tour Desk, Fax/Photocopying, Ticket Service, ATM/Cash Machine on site.
Internet
Wireless internet is available in the entire hotel and is free of charge.
Guest Parking
Free private parking is possible on site.
Hotel Policies
These are general hotel policies. As they may vary per room type; please also check the room description.
Check-in
14:00 - 00:00 hours
Check-out
11:00 - 12:00 hours
Cancellation
If cancelled up to 1 day before the date of arrival, no fee will be charged.
If cancelled later or in case of no-show, the first night will be charged.
Children and extra beds
All children from 1 to 5 years stay free of charge for extra beds.
All children from 5 to 12 years are charged 25 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
All further older children or adults are charged 35 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
Maximum capacity of extra beds/babycots in a room is 1.
Pets
Pets are not allowed.
Accepted credit cards
Visa, Euro/Mastercard
The hotel reserves the right to pre-authorise credit cards prior to arrival.
Food & beverage
The eating venues at the Cocor Spa Hotel have a distinguished atmosphere, serving refined dishes and beverages, optionally on the green terrace.
Sample traditional Romanian and international food at the Mon Jardin Restaurant, where you can dine in a pleasant ambience while listening to the live band. Mon Jardin seats up to 400 people, it is open from 07:00 to 23:00 and has a non-smoking area.
Sip a delicious cocktail or get a quick snack at the pool bar (open from 09:00 to 19:00) and the lobby bar, which is open 24 hours.
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Congratulations! You have just added new kittens to your family. How will you monitor the breastfeeding process, when is it possible to identify unusual behavior, and at which stage is it recommended to give them for adoption? All the tips to help you take care of the new ones
1. Supervise the lactation process of the puppies
A new addition with four legs for the family is an exciting line. But like having a baby, caring for the newborns is not simple and brings great responsibility and concern. To make the landing more soft, we've put together five tips for dealing with the sweet things that have just emerged.
2. Try to diagnose abnormal behaviors or symptoms
The development of puppies in a newborn group should be uniform and consistent. The weight of the young dogs should be monitored. If one of the puppies looks thin or less essential, contact your veterinarian. This will sometimes recommend adding supplements to the basic diet. It is important to remember that small puppies, just like babies, can get sick easily.
3. Keep the environment clean
As puppies grow and become more active, they will surely cause a bigger mess in their environment. Clean them at least two or three times a day to keep the environment clean and hygienic.
4. Lift the puppies and join them
Those born are thirsty for warmth and love. Puppies need a healthy and proper process of socialization in the world - which includes, inter alia, interaction with humans. Lift each cub on your hands several times a day. It is important that they become accustomed to the touch of a human hand on their bodies so that it will not feel alien to them as they mature.
5. Wait for the puppies to be 8 weeks old before giving them for adoption
In some countries, this principle is also anchored in law. Giving puppies before they reach this age is considered illegal. Puppies have to quit breastfeeding, and replace them with eating solid food before leaving. It is recommended to begin the detoxification process and to formulate a vaccination program before the pups leave your home.
For more information about puppies:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVoU4AYlOCc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYz0yakWnEQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFKz2UmNsxc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLlOFWiZrUg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC9CmijJ-cg
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-XelI0xxyw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6ziMBQ4vfY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve4GDkdgV8E
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV2P9BZV_LM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlGujyH2jrc
luasecrets.blogspot.pt/2013/12/finesmith-murder-mistery-h...
FINESMITH MURDER- female
-AZUL- Malika /Garnet
Detoxification pose by Peter Poses
My Experience
I am a permanent resident of Kolkata, but I never witnessed the celebration of Chhath Pooja here. Lakhs of migrant residents from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states of India and Nepal as well, celebrated their most ancient festival along the bank of river Hoogly, the sacred river that flows through the city. On 6th November this year, around 2pm, I went to a famous ghat on the bank of river Hoogly opposite to Eden gardens. It was an unique photographic journey to witness how people performed their rituals with so much devotion and faith. I saw hundreds of devotees sitting on the banks quietly with their offerings to Sun God and some performing their rituals with half of their bodies immersed in the Ganges, and some with fire, called ‘Homas’. I was closely looking at them, and I was amazed by their dedication, devotion and complacency. Thousands of devotees were found proceeding towards the Ganges with their offerings, all cladded in bright clothes and ornaments, and many were found on their way to lay prone on the roads touching their whole body (Ashtanga or eight parts of the body) on the Earth and performing ‘Dondis’(Surya Namaskara -Sanskrit: सूर्यनमस्कार, Sun Salutation). Many of the family members, including newborn kids were found lying on the roads waiting for the main worshipper of the family to crossover their bodies as a way to get blessings from them. Most of the main family worshippers were found to be the eldest ladies of the family. Through Chhath, I rediscovered my religious India, in a new and beautiful way.
Chhath Pooja
Chhath is an ancient Hindu Vedic festival of worshiping Sun God, as the Rigveda contains hymns worshiping the Sun God and describes similar rituals.Historically it is native to eastern Uttar Pradesh, North Bihar of India and Mithila State of Nepal.The Chhath Puja is dedicated to the Sun and his wife Usha in order to thank them for bestowing the bounties of life on earth.The God is worshiped during the Chhath festival to promote well-being, prosperity and progress. In Hinduism, Sun worship is also believed to help cure a variety of diseases, including leprosy, and helps ensure the longevity and prosperity of family members, friends, and elders. Environmentalists claim that Chhath is the most eco-friendly Hindu festival.
Regions Celebrating Chhath
Although the festival is observed most elaborately in Mithila Province of Nepal,Terai-Madhesh region of Nepal, Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and UP, it is also more prevalent in areas where migrants from those areas have a presence.The festival is celebrated in the regions including but not exclusive to the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, as well in various countries worldwide.
Timings
Chhath puja is performed on Kartika Shukla Shashthi, which is the sixth day of the month of Kartika in Bengali calender. This falls typically in the month of October or November in the Gregorian English Calendar.
History
The rituals also find reference in the Sanskrit epic poem Mahābhārata in which Draupadi is depicted as observing similar rites. It is assumed that the oldest Purohits were requested by the kings to come and perform the traditional pooja of the Lord Sun. They used to chant the ancient Rigveda texts and a variety of hymns for worshiping the God. In the ancient time of Mahabharata Chhath pooja was celebrated by Draupadi and Pandavas of Hastinapur (present Delhi) for solving their instant problem and regaining their lost kingdom. It is also assumed that the Chhath puja was first started by the Surya Putra (son of Sun God) Karna. He was a great warrior and had ruled over the Anga Desh (Munger district of Bihar) during the Mahabharata period.
Ethymology
The word chhath means sixth in Nepali, Maithili and Bhojpuri languages and the festival is celebrated on the sixth day of the month Kārtika of the Hindu lunar Bikram Sambat calendar.The word is a Prakrit derivation from the Sanskrit ṣaṣṭhi, meaning sixth.
The Goddess who is also worshipped during the famous Chhath Puja is known as Chhathi Maiya. Chhathi Maiya is known as Usha in the Vedas. She is believed to be the beloved younger wife of Surya, the sun god. The rituals signify rising sun as well as setting sun.
Rituals and Traditions of Chhath Puja
It is believed that worshipers of the Chhath take holy bath and follows a period of abstinence and become separate for 4 days from the main family. Throughout the period he is believed as the pure spirit and sleep on the floor having single blanket.
Devotees offer prasad to Sun at the Chhath such as sweets, Kheer, Thekua, bananas and other fruits included in a small bamboo tokari. The prasad is cooked without salt, onions or garlic with maintained purity. It is a four days festival which includes:
On the first day, devotees take bathe early in the morning in the holy water of Gange and bring some holy water to their home to prepare the offerings. The home and its surroundings should be cleaned at this day. They take only one meal a day known as kaddu-bhat cooked only by using the bronze or soil utensils and mango woods over the soil stove.
On the second day, the day before Chhath, devotees keeps fast for whole day and break their fast in the evening after sunset after the worship of Sun. They offer Rasiao-kheer, puris, fruits in the puja. After taking meal in the evening, they go on a fast without water for the next 36 hours.
On the third day (day of Chhath) they offer the Sanjhiya Arghya at the ghat of riverbank. After Arghya, they wear the single saree of turmeric color. Other family members are waiting for getting the blessings from worshiper. At the night of Chhath a vibrant event of Kosi is celebrated by lighting the lamps of clay diyas under the covering of five sugarcane sticks. The five sugarcane sticks indicate the Panchatattva (earth, water, fire, air and space) the human is body made up of.
On the early morning of the fourth day (Paarun), devotees along with their family and friends offer Bihaniya Aragh at the ghat of riverbank of Gange. Devotees end their festival through breaking the fast by having the Chhath prashad.
Six levels of purification in Chhath ( a belief)
The belief of fast and cleanliness of body on the festival identify the detoxification of the body and mind in order to set up the body and mind to accept the cosmic solar energy.
Standing in water with half of the body inside the water diminishes the escape of energy as well as facilitates the prana to elevate to the sushumna.
Then the entrance of cosmic solar energy takes place in the pineal gland, pituitary gland and hypothalamus (known as the Triveni complex) through the retina and optic nerves.
In the 4th stage Triveni complex gets activated.
After activation of the Triveni complex, spine gets polarized and body of devotee gets transformed into a cosmic powerhouse and gets the Kundalini Shakti.
At this stage the devotee is fully able to conduct, recycle and pass on the energy into entire universe.
Benefits of the rituals (a belief)
Devotee of the Chhath puja can improve the immunity of body.
A variety of skin infections can be cured through the safe radiations of sunlight.
It increases the fighting power of blood by improving the performance of WBC.
Solar energy provides the power to control the secretion of hormones.
Significance
Chhath puja has a special significance during the Sunrise and Sunset periods. The Sunrise and sunset are the most important periods of the day during which a human body can safely get the solar energy without any harm. That’s why there is a myth of offering the Sanjhiya Arghya and Bihaniya Arghya to the Sun at the Chhath festival. During this period the solar energy has low level of ultraviolet radiations so it is safe for the human body. People perform the Chhath puja in order to thank the Lord Sun for the lives on the earth as well as to get blessings.
The ritual of Chhath puja provides mental calmness (by detoxifying the body and mind), enhances the energy level and immunity, reduces the frequency of anger, greed and jealousy as well as lot of negative emotions. It is also believed that following the Chhath processes helps in slowing down the ageing process. Such beliefs and rituals of the Chhath make it the most significant festival in the Hindus ever.
[ Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhath and www.varanasi.org.in/chhath-pooja ]
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.
Only counting books I read (or soon-ish will have read) in their entirety…
Below are starting dates, titles, authors, and some quotes / comments that I could think of. :p Hopefully I have not typo-ed up the quotes too badly.
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22-Jan-2025: 1. Högt bland Saarijärvis moar (a.k.a. Under the North Star #1) by Väinö Linna
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26-Feb-2025: 2. The precipice: Existential risk and the future of humanity by Toby Ord
Weeeee: Morbidly fascinating disaster scenarios. Deep time. Mindfucks. Toby seems like a kind guy really, but -
Meh: A pronatalist position (unsurprisingly, heh), though he acknowledges the existence of antinatalism. Sometimes TTFMDA (Too Technical For My Dumb Ass).
“[The] passage of a star through our Solar System could disrupt planetary orbits, causing the Earth to freeze or boil or even crash into another planet. But this has only a one in 100,000 chance over the next 2 billion years.”
“On average, mammalian species last about one million years /.../ What can happen over such a span, ten thousand times longer than our century?
Such a timescale is enough to repair the damage that we, in our immaturity, have inflicted upon the Earth. In thousands of years, almost all of our present refuse will have decayed away. If we can cease adding new pollution, the oceans and forests will be unblemished once more. Within 100,000 years, the Earth’s natural systems will have scrubbed our atmosphere clean of over 90% of the carbon we have released, leaving the climate mostly restored and rebalanced. So long as we can learn to care rightly for our home, these blots on our record could be wiped clean, all within the lifespan of a typical species /.../
About ten million years hence, even the damage we have inflicted upon biodiversity is expected to have healed. This is how long it took for species diversity to fully recover from previous mass extinctions and our best guess for how long it will take to recover from our current actions.”
“But there is an alternative approach to population ethics according to which human extinction might not be treated as bad at all. The most famous proponent is the philosopher Jan Narveson, who put the central idea in slogan form: ‘We are in favor of making people happy, but neutral about making happy people.’ Many different theories of population ethics have been developed to try to capture this intuition, and are known as person-affecting views. Some of these theories say there is nothing good about adding thousands of future generations with high wellbeing – and thus nothing bad (at least in terms of the wellbeing of future generations) if humanity instead went extinct.”
“Investigate possibilities for making the deliberate or reckless imposition of human extinction risk an international crime.”
Me in margin: “Prison is better than breeding.” :D
NB: My non-breeding is extremely deliberate. Human extinction is a feature, not a bug, of my non-breeding. (Although I would remain childfree even if I knew Homo sapiens would “never” die out.) No, you can’t have my eggs for growing humans in vats. No, you can’t have my uterus after I die.
“Cosmologists believe that the largest coherent structures in the universe are on the scale of about a billion light years across, the width of the largest voids in the cosmic web. With the accelerating expansion of the universe tearing things apart, and only gravity to work with, lifeless matter is unable to organise itself into any larger scales.
However, there is no known physical limit preventing humanity from forming coherent structures or patterns at much larger scales – up to a diameter of about 30 billion light years. We might thus create the largest structures in the universe and be unique even in these terms. By stewarding the galaxies in this region, harvesting and storing their energy, we may also be able to create the most energetic events in the universe or the longest-lasting complex structures.”
...
Me in margin: “WOW! But, eh, meh, personally I kind of just want to upload photos and drink Monster.”
Toby: *disappointed noises*
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2-Mar-2025: 3. Sunnanäng by Astrid Lindgren
Collection of 4 Swedish fairytales, all of which begin with ”A long time ago, in the days of poverty…”
- Sunnanäng
- Spelar min lind, sjunger min näktergal?
- Tu tu tu!
- Junker Nils av Eka
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8-Apr-2025: 4. Röde Orm by Frans G. Bengtsson
Fave! Viking novel. Archaic language (as in, from the early 1900s or something…) and a number of Cool Girls^TM, but pretty funny. Also, they make a trip to Ukraine. :O
“Svarte Grim, hans fader, satt grinande i stor belåtenhet; han sade att han själv stundom känt sig lagd för skaldskap i sina unga dagar, fast annat kommit emellan.
- Men likväl är detta ett märkligt ting, sade han; ty pojken är folkskygg, och allra räddast är han när det finns flickor i närheten, fast han gärna själv ville ha det annorlunda.
- Dem behöver han inte vara rädd för nu längre, tro du mig, Grim, sade Ylva. Ty nu, sedan han visat att han är skald, komma de att hänga om halsen på honom, så många det finns plats till. Mer än en gång hörde jag min fader säga, och han var full av vishet i alla ting, att liksom flugorna kretsa kring all slags föda, och villigt smaka på allt, men lämna allt annat när de få lukt på honungskrukan, så är det också med ungmör när en skald kommer i närheten.”
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18-Apr-2025: 5. The fifth gospel by Ian Caldwell
Audiobook read by Jack Davenport, who has the second most beautiful voice in the world. (After Alan Rickman… D’: ) Haven't finished the book yet. I only listen to it at home where I can hear and fully concentrate on THE VOICE. :q
“On the bottom floor of our apartment building is Vatican Health Services. When Simon and I were boys, American priests would fly back to New York for their checkups rather than risk a trip to the Vatican doctors. Horror stories have followed every pope for half a century. Fifty years ago, Pius XII came down with recurring hiccups, so his doctor prescribed injections of ground lamb brains. Another papal doctor sold Pius’s medical records to newspapers and embalmed his dead body using an experimental technique that made the pope’s corpse bubble and fart like a tar pit while pilgrims queued up to view it. Ten years later, Paul VI needed his prostate removed, so Vatican doctors decided to perform the operation in his library. His successor, John Paul I, died thirty-three days into his papacy because our doctors didn’t yet know he took pills for a blood condition. So you might think our Vatican morticians would be world class, considering all the practice they get. But there’s no such thing as a Vatican mortician, and no such place as a Vatican morgue. Popes are embalmed in their apartments by volunteer undertakers from the city, and the rest of us settle for the back room at Health Services.”
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5-May-2025: 6. Superbugs: The race to stop an epidemic by Matt McCarthy
Fave!
“[It] turns out that humans have been consuming antibiotics for millennia, whether they knew it or not. Significant levels of tetracycline, a broad-spectrum antibiotic still used today, have been found in the skeletal remains of Sudanese mummies dating back to AD 350 to 550. (Beer brewed at the time appears to have been the source.) And in Egypt, samples taken from femoral bones of skeletons from the late Roman period at the Dakhla Oasis also show traces of tetracycline. (It’s unclear if booze was served there.) Not surprisingly, the rate of infectious diseases documented in these disparate populations has been exceedingly low.”
“[Henry Beecher] noticed that nurses were able to calm injured soldiers with injections of saline when they were administered as if they were shots of morphine. A single infusion of salt water enabled young men to tolerate agonizing surgeries without anesthesia, and it introduced the young doctor to the power of the placebo effect.”
“The FDA recently announced that there was insufficient evidence to recommend over-the-counter antibacterial soaps over washing with plain soap and water.”
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23-May-2025: 7. Radicalized by Cory Doctorow
Fave! A collection of 4 dystopian novellas. Short summaries from the book sleeve or whatever it’s called:
“If you want a better future tomorrow, you’re going to have to fight for it today. Here are four urgent stories from author and activist Cory Doctorow, four social, technological and economic visions of the world today and its near – all too near – future.
- ‘Unauthorized Bread’ is a tale of immigration, toxic economic stratification and a young woman’s perilously illegal quest to fix a broken toaster.
- In ‘Model Minority’ a superhero finds himself way out of his depth when he confronts the corruption of the police and justice system.
- ‘Radicalized’ is the story of a desperate husband, a darknet forum and the birth of a violent uprising against the US health care system.
- The final story, ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, tracks an uber-wealthy survivalist and his followers as they hole up and attempt to ride out the collapse of society.”
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27-May-2025: 8. Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates
Fave!
“It was rare that I did not closely consult with a husband, a father, or a brother after having examined a female patient of a genteel background, before revealing my diagnosis to the patient; where coarser females seemed to wish to be confronted with the truth, more genteel females shrank from it, as from a blinding light. Every detail of the genteel woman’s treatment was with the approval of a husband or a male relative, of course, for it would be he who would be paying my fee, & it would be his satisfaction I would have to provide, particularly in the case of certain “controversial” surgeries with which I began to be entrusted: requests by husbands of women concerned for their well-being, whether extreme agitation in the woman, or lassitude; manic laughter, or helpless tears; “frigidity” of the lower body inhibiting conjugal relations, or, perversely, an unnatural “avidity” of the lower body during conjugal relations – all these, forms of hysteria.”
“Removal of the ovaries was frequently prescribed in medical journals for the cure of neurasthesia; in more extreme cases, the removal of the entire uterus (thus, “hysterectomy”) was advised; in other cases, the surgical removal of the vaginal “clitoris,” like the appendix a functionless part of the female body described in Galen as hypersensitive to any touch, with a propensity to exacerbate excitation, anemia, sleepwalking, hyperventilation, overeating, anorexia, morbid thoughts, migraine, insomnia, atheistical tendencies, madness, & certain unspeakable habits of a degenerate nature more often associated with the adolescent male of the species.”
“(Indeed, it should be noted here, how, if they were well enough, the Laboratory patients cared for one another; a feature of female patients in general, that, in dire situations, in which they themselves might well be afflicted, they will set aside their own discomfort, to care for others more in need. Thus it has long been recognized by the medical profession, that females are natural-born nurses, midwives, & caretakers; & much of this labor is out of pure charitable instinct, with no need for financial remuneration.)”
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29-May-2025: 9. Monstergeschichten by Cornelia Neudert & Betina Gotzen-Beek
Kiddy book in German…
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14-Jun-2025: 10. Upp, trälar (a.k.a. Under the North Star 2: The uprising) by Väinö Linna
“Björkdungarna hade fått en lätt rodnad. Vattenfåglarna skriade på sjön och Varg-Kustaa dök trumpen och sturande upp vid den ena dörren efter den andra med ett vidjefång präktiga gäddor i näven. Han bytte dem mot bröd hos kvinnfolket. Aldrig hände det att han själv sa hur mycket han ville ha för en gädda. Kvinnorna kämpade med sig själva där de stod i skafferiskrubben och gjorde i ordning brödknytet:
- Bord man lägg dit ett till . . . så int han blir arg.
Kustaa tog knytet utan att se åt innehållet, morrade någonting och gick sin väg.”
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24-Jun-2025: 11. Im Labyrinth der Finsternis by Fabian Lenk
Kiddy book in German.
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18-Jul-2025: 12. The future of life by Edward O. Wilson
Fave! And a re-read.
“[The] human population exceeded Earth’s sustainable capacity around the year 1978. By 2000 it had overshot by 1.4 times that capacity. If 12 percent of land were now to be set aside in order to protect the natural environment, as recommended in the 1987 Brundtland Report, Earth’s sustainable capacity will have been exceeded still earlier, around 1972.”
“Is the Sumatran rhino dying of old age? Has its time come, like Great Aunt Clarissa on her deathbed, and should we therefore just let it slip away?
No, absolutely not, ever. Banish the thought! The premise of such a notion is demonstrably and dangerously false. The Sumatran and every other species that disappears typically dies young, at least in a physiological sense. The idea that species pass through natural life stages is based on an erroneous analogy. An endangered species is not like a dying patient whose care is too expensive and futile to prolong. The opposite is true. The great majority of rare and declining species are composed of young, healthy individuals. They just need the room and time to grow and reproduce that human activity has denied them.”
“In 1997 an international team of economists and environmental scientists put a dollar amount on all the ecosystem services provided humanity free of charge by the living natural environment. Drawing from multiple databases, they estimated the contribution to be $33 trillion or more each year. This amount is nearly twice the 1997 combined gross national product (GNP) of all countries in the world, or gross world product, of $18 trillion. Ecosystem services are defined as the flow of materials, energy, and information from the biosphere that support human existence. They include the regulation of the atmosphere and climate; the purification and retention of fresh water; the formation and enrichment of the soil; nutrient cycling; the detoxification and recirculation of waste; the pollination of crops; and the production of lumber, fodder, and biomass fuel.
The 1997 megaestimate can be expressed in another, even more cogent, manner. If humanity were to try to replace the free services of the natural economy with substitutes of its own manufacture, the global GNP would have to be raised by at least $33 trillion. The exercise, however, cannot be performed except as a thought experiment. To supplant natural ecosystems entirely, even mostly, is an economic and even physical impossibility, and we would certainly die if we tried.”
“Today about 10 percent of the land surface protected on paper. Even if rigorously conserved, this amount is not enough to save more than a modest fraction of wild species. /.../ At the risk of being called an extremist, which on this topic I freely admit I am, let me suggest 50 percent. Half the world for humanity, half for the rest of life, to create a planet both self-sustaining and pleasant.”
“Ranching and mining also commonly benefit from perverse subsidies. In Germany government support for coal mining is so high that it would be more economical to close all the mines and send the workers home at full pay.
In an analysis published in 1998, Norman Myers and Jennifer Kent of Oxford University placed annual subsidies worldwide at $390 billion to $520 billion in agriculture, $110 billion in fossil fuels and nuclear energy, and $220 billion for water. All these and other subsidies combined exceed $2 trillion, much of which is harmful to both our economies and our governments. The average American pays $2000 a year in subsidies, giving the lie to the belief that the American economy runs in a truly free competitive market.”
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2-Aug-2025: 13. Veterinary technician’s manual for small animal emergency and critical care by Christopher L. Norkus
Textbook that I bought for school ca 2017, but I only read the 1-2 chapters we were told to read. Now I’m gonna read the whole thing. Slowly. I hope it isn’t 100% outdated. Anyway, I don’t see a shitload of emergency cases at work, but it isn’t a huge book and I’ve vaguely been meanin’ to read it because I suck and… Anyway, I haven’t finished it yet, unsurprisingly. :p
“Acknowledgment:
A special thank you is necessary to my best friend Mark Holloway for his superior IT support in rescuing a majority of this book off of my dead laptop after I clumsily spilled soda on it.
C.L.N.”
(DO YOUR BACKUPS, PEOPLE, AND KEEP ONE COPY OF YOUR COMPUTER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN IN CASE OF A HOUSE FIRE)
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15-Aug-2025: 14. Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
Fave! And a re-read.
“In Winnemanoth, Gisla was married to Count Hugo. There had been some difficulty finding a date suitable for the immediate consummation of the marriage. The Church forbade all marital relations on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, as well as for forty days before Easter, eight days after Pentecost, and five days before the taking of communion, or on the eve of any great feast or rogation day. In all, on some two hundred and twenty days of the year sexual intercourse was prohibited; when these, as well as Gisla’s monthly bleeding time, were taken into account, there were not many dates left to choose from. But at last they settled on the twenty-fourth of the month, a date that pleased everyone save Gisla, who was impatient for the festivities to begin.”
“’Your brother is skillfully attended, I trust?’
‘He is surrounded night and day by holy men offering prayers for his recovery.’
‘Ah!’ There was a silence. Both men were skeptical of the efficacy of such measures, but neither could own his doubt openly.”
“Rebuilding the aqueduct would be a monumental, perhaps impossible, undertaking, given the sorry state of engineering of the day. The books which had preserved the accumulated wisdom of the ancients regarding these complicated pieces of construction had been lost or destroyed centuries ago. The parchment pages on which the precious plans were recorded had been scraped clean and written over with Christian homilies and stories of lives of saints and martyrs.”
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13-Sep-2025: 15. Something happened by Joseph Heller
Fave!
“I know so many people I want to be mean to, but I just don’t have the character.”
“I have this constant fear something is going to happen to him. (He’s the kid who gets stabbed to death in the park or falls victim to Hodgkin’s disease or blastoma of the eyeballs. Every time I know he’s gone swimming. Every time he’s away from the house. Every time I know my daughter is driving in a car with older kids I expect to be told by telephone or policeman of the terrible automobile accident in which she has just been killed. There are times I wish they would both hurry up and get it over with already so I could relax and stop brooding about it in such recurring suspense. There are times I wish everyone I know would die and release me from these tender tensions I experience in my generous solicitude for them. /.../
I think about death.
I think about it all the time. I dwell on it. I dread it. I don’t really like it. Death runs in my family, it seems. People die from it, and I dream about death and weave ornate fantasies about death endlessly and ironically.”
“[Human dicks] are such fractional parts of the total construction they might easily be overlooked if we did not dwell on them. They are arrogant and absurd in their haughty, sniffing, pushy, egotistical pretensions. (We let them get away with an awful lot.) They can’t even hold their lordly pose for half a day a week. What a feeble weapon indeed for establishing male supremacy, a flabby, collapsing channel for a universal power drive ejaculated now and then in sporadic spoonfuls. No wonder we have to make fists and raise our voices at the kitchen table.”
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2-Oct-2025: 16. The showman: The inside story that made a war leader of Volodymyr Zelensky by Simon Shuster
Fave!
“For the moment, Zelensky had not attained enough confidence or experience as a wartime leader to override the decisions of the military brass. His role had less to do with the war itself than with the way it was perceived, and he had the skills to play it well. At the same time, he seemed to treasure the opportunity not only to witness history but to shape it. Many of his aides felt the same way; one told me that he derived a kind of ‘masochistic pleasure’ from his life in the bunker and the vantage it afforded onto world-shaping events. Zelensky rarely talked about these feelings. But he also found it gratifying to be in this singular position of power and influence. Despite the danger and the stress, the separation from his family, the weight of the responsibility he bore, and the horrors he witnessed each day, the president felt privileged, even happy, to do the job that fate had put in front of him. Even on the hardest days it gave him a profound sense of purpose, and it made him feel alive.
‘My life today is beautiful,’ he said at the end of the press conference, when a reporter asked how he was holding up. ‘I feel that I’m needed.’ The previous week, as horrifying and tragic as it had been for him and his country, was also among the most exciting and fulfilling of his life. He would not trade it for any of the comfort and security he knew in his old life as a movie star. ‘I think the main purpose in life is to be needed, not just to be a blank space that breathes, walks, and eats. But to live, to know that certain things depend on your being alive, and to feel that your life matters to others.’”
“The battle of Kyiv, which raged through the end of March 2022, had a greater impact on the course of European history than any since the end of World War II. Had it ended differently, the Kremlin could have replaced Zelensky with a marionette and pushed the edge of Moscow’s dominion right up to Poland’s eastern border, effectively erasing Ukraine from the map. Instead the defense of Kyiv shattered Russia’s image as a military powerhouse, an image that had shaped the balance of power in Europe for generations.”
“[Olena Zelenska] set up training programs for Ukrainian trauma counselors and hotlines to make their services widely available. Convincing Ukrainians to seek psychological support turned out to be a major challenge. When we talked about it, Olena borrowed the English phrase ‘mental health’ because the concept is hard to describe in Ukrainian. ‘We have a particular distrust for terms that include the word psycho,’ she said. The term psychotherapy often evokes images of state-run asylums in Ukraine, places that are designed to isolate the ill from society. A lot of that stigma, Zelenska told me, has its roots in the Soviet Union, where generations of Ukrainians were raised to deal with trauma by hiding it away. The attitude, she said, was: ‘Deal with it, get over it, and if you complain, you’re weak.’
/.../ The Ministry [of Health] estimated that /.../ a third of the population, or fifteen million people, would require some form of mental health care. Olena and her husband were no exception. ‘You absorb it,’ she said of the war. ‘Each of us, including myself, have felt that our psychological state is not what it should be.’ Four months into the invasion, she said ‘None of us are okay.’”
“A special forces commando turned spymaster, [Kyrylo] Budanov cut a dramatic figure, appearing frequently on television to issue vague threats and dark hints of his plans. /.../ He promised to hunt down and ‘physically exterminate’ the perpetrators of the Bucha massacre, and he said it gave him pleasure to hear Russian propaganda refer to him as a terrorist. His deputy later declared /.../ that GUR agents were plotting to assassinate Putin and a long list of his lieutenants, including the heads of the Russian military-industrial complex.
GUR’s handiwork soon became the subject of fervent speculation, which earned Budanov a kind of cult following in Ukraine. In the early months of the invasion, explosions and fires often ripped through Russian military sites and fuel depots in the regions closest to Ukraine, and Russian officials blamed these incidents on Ukrainian drone strikes or saboteurs. At least twice in April, low-flying helicopters swept across the border and struck targets in the Russian region of Belgorod. Ukraine denied responsibility for these attacks, and the Kremlin tended to downplay them to avoid embarrassment. At the end of summer, as President Zelensky and his team grew impatient for the start of a major counteroffensive, these covert strikes became more daring and dramatic. They reached deeper into Russian territory, while official denials of responsibility from Kyiv became halfhearted, routinely accompanied by a wink and a mischievous smile.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a former officer of the GUR and an adviser to Zelensky at the start of the invasion, mentioned some of these attacks when we met in early August. Then he leaned back in his chair, looked at my audio recorder, and silently mouthed the words: That was us.”
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31-Oct-2025: 17. Bröderna Lejonhjärta by Astrid Lindgren
Fave! And a re-read. Swedish kiddy novel. Some dark shit. Just like the above book, it’s about a really brave, young, handsome guy who stands up to a psychopathic old tyrant with nukes. Wait, what -
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8-Nov-2025: 18. Die Brüder Löwenherz by Astrid Lindgren
The above book in German… :B Thanks to having read it in Swedish so recently, I didn’t have to look up every other word. :p I'm... I'm gonna finish it this evening.
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22-Nov-2025: 19. Rare earth frontiers: From terrestrial subsoils to lunar landscapes by Julie Michelle Klinger
I haven’t finished it yet... Fun fact: Rare earths are not literally rare. :)
“Toward what end is the Brazilian government undoing its own indigenous and ecological protection laws to mine São Gabriel da Cachoeira, a historically contested border region, shared with Venezuela and Colombia, when there are more easily accessible deposits under production in existing mining sites elsewhere in the country? And why have NASA and the US Department of Defense chosen to partner with Silicon Valley start-ups to mine these elements from the Moon, while the United States throws away hundreds of tonnes of rare earths annually in mine tailings and e-waste?”
“This definition of the greater good sets up a false notion that terrible health and environmental devastation are the unavoidable price to pay for sourcing rare earths. Abundant research on recycling and flex mining shows otherwise /.../.”
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Vegan FAQ! :)
The Web Site the Meat Industry Doesn't Want You to See.
Please watch Earthlings.
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You can reach me at yoze83 [AT] yahoo.com
One of the pioneers in the Philippine spa industry, Nurture Spa Village is a Philippine Dept of Tourism accredited spa chain, located in Tagaytay City and Pampanga, Philippines,
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Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a basidiomycete of the genus Amanita. It is a large white-gilled, white-spotted, and usually red mushroom.
Despite its easily distinguishable features, A. muscaria is a fungus with several known variations, or subspecies. These subspecies are slightly different, some having yellow or white caps, but are all usually called fly agarics, most often recognizable by their notable white spots. Recent DNA fungi research, however, has shown that some mushrooms called 'fly agaric' are in fact unique species, such as A. persicina (the peach-colored fly agaric).
Native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, A. muscaria has been unintentionally introduced to many countries in the Southern Hemisphere, generally as a symbiont with pine and birch plantations, and is now a true cosmopolitan species. It associates with various deciduous and coniferous trees.
Although poisonous, death due to poisoning from A. muscaria ingestion is quite rare. Parboiling twice with water draining weakens its toxicity and breaks down the mushroom's psychoactive substances; it is eaten in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America. All A. muscaria varieties, but in particular A. muscaria var. muscaria, are noted for their hallucinogenic properties, with the main psychoactive constituents being muscimol and its neurotoxic precursor ibotenic acid. A local variety of the mushroom was used as an intoxicant and entheogen by the indigenous peoples of Siberia.
Arguably the most iconic toadstool species, the fly agaric is one of the most recognizable and widely encountered in popular culture, including in video games—for example, the frequent use of a recognizable A. muscaria in the Mario franchise (e.g. its Super Mushroom power-up)—and television—for example, the houses in The Smurfs franchise. There have been cases of children admitted to hospitals after consuming this poisonous mushroom; the children may have been attracted to it because of its pop-culture associations.
Taxonomy
The name of the mushroom in many European languages is thought to derive from its use as an insecticide when sprinkled in milk. This practice has been recorded from Germanic- and Slavic-speaking parts of Europe, as well as the Vosges region and pockets elsewhere in France, and Romania. Albertus Magnus was the first to record it in his work De vegetabilibus some time before 1256, commenting vocatur fungus muscarum, eo quod in lacte pulverizatus interficit muscas, "it is called the fly mushroom because it is powdered in milk to kill flies."
The 16th-century Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius traced the practice of sprinkling it into milk to Frankfurt in Germany, while Carl Linnaeus, the "father of taxonomy", reported it from Småland in southern Sweden, where he had lived as a child. He described it in volume two of his Species Plantarum in 1753, giving it the name Agaricus muscarius, the specific epithet deriving from Latin musca meaning "fly". It gained its current name in 1783, when placed in the genus Amanita by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a name sanctioned in 1821 by the "father of mycology", Swedish naturalist Elias Magnus Fries. The starting date for all the mycota had been set by general agreement as January 1, 1821, the date of Fries's work, and so the full name was then Amanita muscaria (L.:Fr.) Hook. The 1987 edition of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature changed the rules on the starting date and primary work for names of fungi, and names can now be considered valid as far back as May 1, 1753, the date of publication of Linnaeus's work. Hence, Linnaeus and Lamarck are now taken as the namers of Amanita muscaria (L.) Lam..
The English mycologist John Ramsbottom reported that Amanita muscaria was used for getting rid of bugs in England and Sweden, and bug agaric was an old alternative name for the species. French mycologist Pierre Bulliard reported having tried without success to replicate its fly-killing properties in his work Histoire des plantes vénéneuses et suspectes de la France (1784), and proposed a new binomial name Agaricus pseudo-aurantiacus because of this. One compound isolated from the fungus is 1,3-diolein (1,3-di(cis-9-octadecenoyl)glycerol), which attracts insects. It has been hypothesised that the flies intentionally seek out the fly agaric for its intoxicating properties. An alternative derivation proposes that the term fly- refers not to insects as such but rather the delirium resulting from consumption of the fungus. This is based on the medieval belief that flies could enter a person's head and cause mental illness. Several regional names appear to be linked with this connotation, meaning the "mad" or "fool's" version of the highly regarded edible mushroom Amanita caesarea. Hence there is oriol foll "mad oriol" in Catalan, mujolo folo from Toulouse, concourlo fouolo from the Aveyron department in Southern France, ovolo matto from Trentino in Italy. A local dialect name in Fribourg in Switzerland is tsapi de diablhou, which translates as "Devil's hat".
Classification
Amanita muscaria is the type species of the genus. By extension, it is also the type species of Amanita subgenus Amanita, as well as section Amanita within this subgenus. Amanita subgenus Amanita includes all Amanita with inamyloid spores. Amanita section Amanita includes the species with patchy universal veil remnants, including a volva that is reduced to a series of concentric rings, and the veil remnants on the cap to a series of patches or warts. Most species in this group also have a bulbous base. Amanita section Amanita consists of A. muscaria and its close relatives, including A. pantherina (the panther cap), A. gemmata, A. farinosa, and A. xanthocephala. Modern fungal taxonomists have classified Amanita muscaria and its allies this way based on gross morphology and spore inamyloidy. Two recent molecular phylogenetic studies have confirmed this classification as natural.
Description
A large, conspicuous mushroom, Amanita muscaria is generally common and numerous where it grows, and is often found in groups with basidiocarps in all stages of development. Fly agaric fruiting bodies emerge from the soil looking like white eggs. After emerging from the ground, the cap is covered with numerous small white to yellow pyramid-shaped warts. These are remnants of the universal veil, a membrane that encloses the entire mushroom when it is still very young. Dissecting the mushroom at this stage reveals a characteristic yellowish layer of skin under the veil, which helps identification. As the fungus grows, the red colour appears through the broken veil and the warts become less prominent; they do not change in size, but are reduced relative to the expanding skin area. The cap changes from globose to hemispherical, and finally to plate-like and flat in mature specimens. Fully grown, the bright red cap is usually around 8–20 centimetres (3–8 inches) in diameter, although larger specimens have been found. The red colour may fade after rain and in older mushrooms.
The free gills are white, as is the spore print. The oval spores measure 9–13 by 6.5–9 μm; they do not turn blue with the application of iodine. The stipe is white, 5–20 cm (2–8 in) high by 1–2 cm (1⁄2–1 in) wide, and has the slightly brittle, fibrous texture typical of many large mushrooms. At the base is a bulb that bears universal veil remnants in the form of two to four distinct rings or ruffs. Between the basal universal veil remnants and gills are remnants of the partial veil (which covers the gills during development) in the form of a white ring. It can be quite wide and flaccid with age. There is generally no associated smell other than a mild earthiness.
Although very distinctive in appearance, the fly agaric has been mistaken for other yellow to red mushroom species in the Americas, such as Armillaria cf. mellea and the edible A. basii—a Mexican species similar to A. caesarea of Europe. Poison control centres in the U.S. and Canada have become aware that amarill (Spanish for 'yellow') is a common name for the A. caesarea-like species in Mexico. A. caesarea is distinguished by its entirely orange to red cap, which lacks the numerous white warty spots of the fly agaric (though these sometimes wash away during heavy rain). Furthermore, the stem, gills and ring of A. caesarea are bright yellow, not white. The volva is a distinct white bag, not broken into scales. In Australia, the introduced fly agaric may be confused with the native vermilion grisette (Amanita xanthocephala), which grows in association with eucalypts. The latter species generally lacks the white warts of A. muscaria and bears no ring. Additionally, immature button forms resemble puffballs.
Controversy
Amanita muscaria var. formosa is now a synonym for Amanita muscaria var. guessowii.
Amanita muscaria varies considerably in its morphology, and many authorities recognize several subspecies or varieties within the species. In The Agaricales in Modern Taxonomy, German mycologist Rolf Singer listed three subspecies, though without description: A. muscaria ssp. muscaria, A. muscaria ssp. americana, and A. muscaria ssp. flavivolvata.
However, a 2006 molecular phylogenetic study of different regional populations of A. muscaria by mycologist József Geml and colleagues found three distinct clades within this species representing, roughly, Eurasian, Eurasian "subalpine", and North American populations. Specimens belonging to all three clades have been found in Alaska; this has led to the hypothesis that this was the centre of diversification for this species. The study also looked at four named varieties of the species: var. alba, var. flavivolvata, var. formosa (including var. guessowii), and var. regalis from both areas. All four varieties were found within both the Eurasian and North American clades, evidence that these morphological forms are polymorphisms rather than distinct subspecies or varieties. Further molecular study by Geml and colleagues published in 2008 show that these three genetic groups, plus a fourth associated with oak–hickory–pine forest in the southeastern United States and two more on Santa Cruz Island in California, are delineated from each other enough genetically to be considered separate species. Thus A. muscaria as it stands currently is, evidently, a species complex. The complex also includes at least three other closely related taxa that are currently regarded as species: A. breckonii is a buff-capped mushroom associated with conifers from the Pacific Northwest, and the brown-capped A. gioiosa and A. heterochroma from the Mediterranean Basin and from Sardinia respectively. Both of these last two are found with Eucalyptus and Cistus trees, and it is unclear whether they are native or introduced from Australia.
Distribution and habitat
A. muscaria is a cosmopolitan mushroom, native to conifer and deciduous woodlands throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including higher elevations of warmer latitudes in regions such as Hindu Kush, the Mediterranean and also Central America. A recent molecular study proposes that it had an ancestral origin in the Siberian–Beringian region in the Tertiary period, before radiating outwards across Asia, Europe and North America. The season for fruiting varies in different climates: fruiting occurs in summer and autumn across most of North America, but later in autumn and early winter on the Pacific coast. This species is often found in similar locations to Boletus edulis, and may appear in fairy rings. Conveyed with pine seedlings, it has been widely transported into the southern hemisphere, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America, where it can be found in the Brazilian states of Paraná, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul.
Ectomycorrhizal, A. muscaria forms symbiotic relationships with many trees, including pine, oak, spruce, fir, birch, and cedar. Commonly seen under introduced trees, A. muscaria is the fungal equivalent of a weed in New Zealand, Tasmania and Victoria, forming new associations with southern beech (Nothofagus). The species is also invading a rainforest in Australia, where it may be displacing the native species. It appears to be spreading northwards, with recent reports placing it near Port Macquarie on the New South Wales north coast. It was recorded under silver birch (Betula pendula) in Manjimup, Western Australia in 2010. Although it has apparently not spread to eucalypts in Australia, it has been recorded associating with them in Portugal. Commonly found throughout the great Southern region of western Australia, it is regularly found growing on Pinus radiata.
Toxicity
a tall red mushroom with a few white spots on the cap
Mature. The white spots may wash off with heavy rainfall.
A. muscaria poisoning has occurred in young children and in people who ingested the mushrooms for a hallucinogenic experience, or who confused it with an edible species.
A. muscaria contains several biologically active agents, at least one of which, muscimol, is known to be psychoactive. Ibotenic acid, a neurotoxin, serves as a prodrug to muscimol, with a small amount likely converting to muscimol after ingestion. An active dose in adults is approximately 6 mg muscimol or 30 to 60 mg ibotenic acid; this is typically about the amount found in one cap of Amanita muscaria. The amount and ratio of chemical compounds per mushroom varies widely from region to region and season to season, which can further confuse the issue. Spring and summer mushrooms have been reported to contain up to 10 times more ibotenic acid and muscimol than autumn fruitings.
Deaths from A. muscaria have been reported in historical journal articles and newspaper reports, but with modern medical treatment, fatal poisoning from ingesting this mushroom is extremely rare. Many books list A. muscaria as deadly, but according to David Arora, this is an error that implies the mushroom is far more toxic than it is. Furthermore, The North American Mycological Association has stated that there were "no reliably documented cases of death from toxins in these mushrooms in the past 100 years".
The active constituents of this species are water-soluble, and boiling and then discarding the cooking water at least partly detoxifies A. muscaria. Drying may increase potency, as the process facilitates the conversion of ibotenic acid to the more potent muscimol. According to some sources, once detoxified, the mushroom becomes edible. Patrick Harding describes the Sami custom of processing the fly agaric through reindeer.
Pharmacology
Ibotenic acid, a prodrug to muscimol found in A. muscaria
Muscarine, discovered in 1869, was long thought to be the active hallucinogenic agent in A. muscaria. Muscarine binds with muscarinic acetylcholine receptors leading to the excitation of neurons bearing these receptors. The levels of muscarine in Amanita muscaria are minute when compared with other poisonous fungi such as Inosperma erubescens, the small white Clitocybe species C. dealbata and C. rivulosa. The level of muscarine in A. muscaria is too low to play a role in the symptoms of poisoning.
The major toxins involved in A. muscaria poisoning are muscimol (3-hydroxy-5-aminomethyl-1-isoxazole, an unsaturated cyclic hydroxamic acid) and the related amino acid ibotenic acid. Muscimol is the product of the decarboxylation (usually by drying) of ibotenic acid. Muscimol and ibotenic acid were discovered in the mid-20th century. Researchers in England, Japan, and Switzerland showed that the effects produced were due mainly to ibotenic acid and muscimol, not muscarine. These toxins are not distributed uniformly in the mushroom. Most are detected in the cap of the fruit, a moderate amount in the base, with the smallest amount in the stalk. Quite rapidly, between 20 and 90 minutes after ingestion, a substantial fraction of ibotenic acid is excreted unmetabolised in the urine of the consumer. Almost no muscimol is excreted when pure ibotenic acid is eaten, but muscimol is detectable in the urine after eating A. muscaria, which contains both ibotenic acid and muscimol.
Ibotenic acid and muscimol are structurally related to each other and to two major neurotransmitters of the central nervous system: glutamic acid and GABA respectively. Ibotenic acid and muscimol act like these neurotransmitters, muscimol being a potent GABAA agonist, while ibotenic acid is an agonist of NMDA glutamate receptors and certain metabotropic glutamate receptors which are involved in the control of neuronal activity. It is these interactions which are thought to cause the psychoactive effects found in intoxication.
Muscazone is another compound that has more recently been isolated from European specimens of the fly agaric. It is a product of the breakdown of ibotenic acid by ultra-violet radiation. Muscazone is of minor pharmacological activity compared with the other agents. Amanita muscaria and related species are known as effective bioaccumulators of vanadium; some species concentrate vanadium to levels of up to 400 times those typically found in plants. Vanadium is present in fruit-bodies as an organometallic compound called amavadine. The biological importance of the accumulation process is unknown.
Symptoms
Fly agarics are best known for the unpredictability of their effects. Depending on habitat and the amount ingested per body weight, effects can range from mild nausea and twitching to drowsiness, cholinergic crisis-like effects (low blood pressure, sweating and salivation), auditory and visual distortions, mood changes, euphoria, relaxation, ataxia, and loss of equilibrium (like with tetanus.)
In cases of serious poisoning the mushroom causes delirium, somewhat similar in effect to anticholinergic poisoning (such as that caused by Datura stramonium), characterised by bouts of marked agitation with confusion, hallucinations, and irritability followed by periods of central nervous system depression. Seizures and coma may also occur in severe poisonings. Symptoms typically appear after around 30 to 90 minutes and peak within three hours, but certain effects can last for several days. In the majority of cases recovery is complete within 12 to 24 hours. The effect is highly variable between individuals, with similar doses potentially causing quite different reactions. Some people suffering intoxication have exhibited headaches up to ten hours afterwards.[56] Retrograde amnesia and somnolence can result following recovery.
Treatment
Medical attention should be sought in cases of suspected poisoning. If the delay between ingestion and treatment is less than four hours, activated charcoal is given. Gastric lavage can be considered if the patient presents within one hour of ingestion. Inducing vomiting with syrup of ipecac is no longer recommended in any poisoning situation.
There is no antidote, and supportive care is the mainstay of further treatment for intoxication. Though sometimes referred to as a deliriant and while muscarine was first isolated from A. muscaria and as such is its namesake, muscimol does not have action, either as an agonist or antagonist, at the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor site, and therefore atropine or physostigmine as an antidote is not recommended. If a patient is delirious or agitated, this can usually be treated by reassurance and, if necessary, physical restraints. A benzodiazepine such as diazepam or lorazepam can be used to control combativeness, agitation, muscular overactivity, and seizures. Only small doses should be used, as they may worsen the respiratory depressant effects of muscimol. Recurrent vomiting is rare, but if present may lead to fluid and electrolyte imbalances; intravenous rehydration or electrolyte replacement may be required. Serious cases may develop loss of consciousness or coma, and may need intubation and artificial ventilation. Hemodialysis can remove the toxins, although this intervention is generally considered unnecessary. With modern medical treatment the prognosis is typically good following supportive treatment.
Uses
The wide range of psychoactive effects have been variously described as depressant, sedative-hypnotic, psychedelic, dissociative, or deliriant; paradoxical effects such as stimulation may occur however. Perceptual phenomena such as synesthesia, macropsia, and micropsia may occur; the latter two effects may occur either simultaneously or alternatingly, as part of Alice in Wonderland syndrome, collectively known as dysmetropsia, along with related distortions pelopsia and teleopsia. Some users report lucid dreaming under the influence of its hypnotic effects. Unlike Psilocybe cubensis, A. muscaria cannot be commercially cultivated, due to its mycorrhizal relationship with the roots of pine trees. However, following the outlawing of psilocybin mushrooms in the United Kingdom in 2006, the sale of the still legal A. muscaria began increasing.
Marija Gimbutas reported to R. Gordon Wasson that in remote areas of Lithuania, A. muscaria has been consumed at wedding feasts, in which mushrooms were mixed with vodka. She also reported that the Lithuanians used to export A. muscaria to the Sami in the Far North for use in shamanic rituals. The Lithuanian festivities are the only report that Wasson received of ingestion of fly agaric for religious use in Eastern Europe.
Siberia
A. muscaria was widely used as an entheogen by many of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. Its use was known among almost all of the Uralic-speaking peoples of western Siberia and the Paleosiberian-speaking peoples of the Russian Far East. There are only isolated reports of A. muscaria use among the Tungusic and Turkic peoples of central Siberia and it is believed that on the whole entheogenic use of A. muscaria was not practised by these peoples. In western Siberia, the use of A. muscaria was restricted to shamans, who used it as an alternative method of achieving a trance state. (Normally, Siberian shamans achieve trance by prolonged drumming and dancing.) In eastern Siberia, A. muscaria was used by both shamans and laypeople alike, and was used recreationally as well as religiously. In eastern Siberia, the shaman would take the mushrooms, and others would drink his urine. This urine, still containing psychoactive elements, may be more potent than the A. muscaria mushrooms with fewer negative effects such as sweating and twitching, suggesting that the initial user may act as a screening filter for other components in the mushroom.
The Koryak of eastern Siberia have a story about the fly agaric (wapaq) which enabled Big Raven to carry a whale to its home. In the story, the deity Vahiyinin ("Existence") spat onto earth, and his spittle became the wapaq, and his saliva becomes the warts. After experiencing the power of the wapaq, Raven was so exhilarated that he told it to grow forever on earth so his children, the people, could learn from it. Among the Koryaks, one report said that the poor would consume the urine of the wealthy, who could afford to buy the mushrooms. It was reported that the local reindeer would often follow an individual intoxicated by the muscimol mushroom, and if said individual were to urinate in snow the reindeer would become similarly intoxicated and the Koryak people's would use the drunken state of the reindeer to more easily rope and hunt them.
Other reports and theories
The Finnish historian T. I. Itkonen mentions that A. muscaria was once used among the Sámi peoples. Sorcerers in Inari would consume fly agarics with seven spots. In 1979, Said Gholam Mochtar and Hartmut Geerken published an article in which they claimed to have discovered a tradition of medicinal and recreational use of this mushroom among a Parachi-speaking group in Afghanistan. There are also unconfirmed reports of religious use of A. muscaria among two Subarctic Native American tribes. Ojibwa ethnobotanist Keewaydinoquay Peschel reported its use among her people, where it was known as miskwedo (an abbreviation of the name oshtimisk wajashkwedo (= "red-top mushroom"). This information was enthusiastically received by Wasson, although evidence from other sources was lacking. There is also one account of a Euro-American who claims to have been initiated into traditional Tlicho use of Amanita muscaria. The flying reindeer of Santa Claus, who is called Joulupukki in Finland, could symbolize the use of A. muscaria by Sámi shamans. However, Sámi scholars and the Sámi peoples themselves refute any connection between Santa Claus and Sámi history or culture.
"The story of Santa emerging from a Sámi shamanic tradition has a critical number of flaws," asserts Tim Frandy, assistant professor of Nordic Studies at the University of British Columbia and a member of the Sámi descendent community in North America. "The theory has been widely criticized by Sámi people as a stereotypical and problematic romanticized misreading of actual Sámi culture."
Vikings
The notion that Vikings used A. muscaria to produce their berserker rages was first suggested by the Swedish professor Samuel Ödmann in 1784. Ödmann based his theories on reports about the use of fly agaric among Siberian shamans. The notion has become widespread since the 19th century, but no contemporary sources mention this use or anything similar in their description of berserkers. Muscimol is generally a mild relaxant, but it can create a range of different reactions within a group of people. It is possible that it could make a person angry, or cause them to be "very jolly or sad, jump about, dance, sing or give way to great fright". Comparative analysis of symptoms have, however, since shown Hyoscyamus niger to be a better fit to the state that characterises the berserker rage.
Soma
See also: Botanical identity of Soma-Haoma
In 1968, R. Gordon Wasson proposed that A. muscaria was the soma talked about in the Rigveda of India, a claim which received widespread publicity and popular support at the time. He noted that descriptions of Soma omitted any description of roots, stems or seeds, which suggested a mushroom, and used the adjective hári "dazzling" or "flaming" which the author interprets as meaning red. One line described men urinating Soma; this recalled the practice of recycling urine in Siberia. Soma is mentioned as coming "from the mountains", which Wasson interpreted as the mushroom having been brought in with the Aryan migrants from the north. Indian scholars Santosh Kumar Dash and Sachinanda Padhy pointed out that both eating of mushrooms and drinking of urine were proscribed, using as a source the Manusmṛti. In 1971, Vedic scholar John Brough from Cambridge University rejected Wasson's theory and noted that the language was too vague to determine a description of Soma. In his 1976 survey, Hallucinogens and Culture, anthropologist Peter T. Furst evaluated the evidence for and against the identification of the fly agaric mushroom as the Vedic Soma, concluding cautiously in its favour. Kevin Feeney and Trent Austin compared the references in the Vedas with the filtering mechanisms in the preparation of Amanita muscaria and published findings supporting the proposal that fly-agaric mushrooms could be a likely candidate for the sacrament. Other proposed candidates include Psilocybe cubensis, Peganum harmala, and Ephedra.
Christianity
Philologist, archaeologist, and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar John Marco Allegro postulated that early Christian theology was derived from a fertility cult revolving around the entheogenic consumption of A. muscaria in his 1970 book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross. This theory has found little support by scholars outside the field of ethnomycology. The book was widely criticized by academics and theologians, including Sir Godfrey Driver, emeritus Professor of Semitic Philology at Oxford University and Henry Chadwick, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. Christian author John C. King wrote a detailed rebuttal of Allegro's theory in the 1970 book A Christian View of the Mushroom Myth; he notes that neither fly agarics nor their host trees are found in the Middle East, even though cedars and pines are found there, and highlights the tenuous nature of the links between biblical and Sumerian names coined by Allegro. He concludes that if the theory were true, the use of the mushroom must have been "the best kept secret in the world" as it was so well concealed for two thousand years.
Fly trap
Amanita muscaria is traditionally used for catching flies possibly due to its content of ibotenic acid and muscimol, which lead to its common name "fly agaric". Recently, an analysis of nine different methods for preparing A. muscaria for catching flies in Slovenia have shown that the release of ibotenic acid and muscimol did not depend on the solvent (milk or water) and that thermal and mechanical processing led to faster extraction of ibotenic acid and muscimol.
Culinary
The toxins in A. muscaria are water-soluble: parboiling A. muscaria fruit bodies can detoxify them and render them edible, although consumption of the mushroom as a food has never been widespread. The consumption of detoxified A. muscaria has been practiced in some parts of Europe (notably by Russian settlers in Siberia) since at least the 19th century, and likely earlier. The German physician and naturalist Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff wrote the earliest published account on how to detoxify this mushroom in 1823. In the late 19th century, the French physician Félix Archimède Pouchet was a populariser and advocate of A. muscaria consumption, comparing it to manioc, an important food source in tropical South America that must also be detoxified before consumption.
Use of this mushroom as a food source also seems to have existed in North America. A classic description of this use of A. muscaria by an African-American mushroom seller in Washington, D.C., in the late 19th century is described by American botanist Frederick Vernon Coville. In this case, the mushroom, after parboiling, and soaking in vinegar, is made into a mushroom sauce for steak. It is also consumed as a food in parts of Japan. The most well-known current use as an edible mushroom is in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. There, it is primarily salted and pickled.
A 2008 paper by food historian William Rubel and mycologist David Arora gives a history of consumption of A. muscaria as a food and describes detoxification methods. They advocate that Amanita muscaria be described in field guides as an edible mushroom, though accompanied by a description on how to detoxify it. The authors state that the widespread descriptions in field guides of this mushroom as poisonous is a reflection of cultural bias, as several other popular edible species, notably morels, are also toxic unless properly cooked.
In culture
The red-and-white spotted toadstool is a common image in many aspects of popular culture. Garden ornaments and children's picture books depicting gnomes and fairies, such as the Smurfs, often show fly agarics used as seats, or homes. Fly agarics have been featured in paintings since the Renaissance, albeit in a subtle manner. For instance, in Hieronymus Bosch's painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights, the mushroom can be seen on the left-hand panel of the work. In the Victorian era they became more visible, becoming the main topic of some fairy paintings. Two of the most famous uses of the mushroom are in the Mario franchise (specifically two of the Super Mushroom power-up items and the platforms in several stages which are based on a fly agaric), and the dancing mushroom sequence in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia.
An account of the journeys of Philip von Strahlenberg to Siberia and his descriptions of the use of the mukhomor there was published in English in 1736. The drinking of urine of those who had consumed the mushroom was commented on by Anglo-Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith in his widely read 1762 novel, Citizen of the World. The mushroom had been identified as the fly agaric by this time. Other authors recorded the distortions of the size of perceived objects while intoxicated by the fungus, including naturalist Mordecai Cubitt Cooke in his books The Seven Sisters of Sleep and A Plain and Easy Account of British Fungi. This observation is thought to have formed the basis of the effects of eating the mushroom in the 1865 popular story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. A hallucinogenic "scarlet toadstool" from Lappland is featured as a plot element in Charles Kingsley's 1866 novel Hereward the Wake based on the medieval figure of the same name. Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow describes the fungus as a "relative of the poisonous Destroying angel" and presents a detailed description of a character preparing a cookie bake mixture from harvested Amanita muscaria. Fly agaric shamanism is also explored in the 2003 novel Thursbitch by Alan Garner.
Himalayan Pink Salt
Looking to replace the chemically processed and artificially refined table salt in your kitchen with a healthier, more pure alternative Himalayan Pink Salt offers the highest mineral content of any natural salt and is prized for its myriad health, detoxification and nutritional benefits. This 250 million year old salt was borne of the Jurassic era and has been shielded from pollution and impurities for centuries. Its delightful grains in varying red, pink and white shades make for an intriguing conversation piece for your table as well as an additive-free flavor enhancer for your favorite dishes. All of our Himalayan salt products are “Gourmet Food Grade” and the very highest quality Himalayan salt available.
Pink Himalayan salt is loaded with over 84 trace elements for the body.
The 84 trace elements are Actinium, Aluminium, Antimony, Arsenic, Astatine, Barium, Beryllium, Bismuth, Boron, Bromine, Calcium, Cadmium, Carbon, Cerium, Cesium, Chloride, Chromium, Cobalt, Copper, Dysprosium, Erbium, Europium, Fluoride, Francium, Gadolinium, Gallium, Germanium, Gold, Hafnium, Holmium, Hydrogen, Ianthanum, Indium, Iodine, Iridium, Iron, Lanthanum, Lead, Lithium, Lutetium, Magnesium, Manganese, Mercury, Molybdenum, Neptunium, Nickel, Niobium, Nitrogen, Osmium, Palladium, Phosphorus, Platium, Plutonium, Polonium, Praseodymium, Protactinium, Radium, Rhenium, Rhodium, Rubidium, Ruthenium, Samarium, Scandium, Selenium, Silicon, Silver, Sodium, Strontium, Sulphur, Tantalum, Tellurium, Terbium, Thallium, Thorium, Thulium, Tin, Titanium, Tungsten, Uranium, Vanadium, Ytterbium, Yttrium, Zinc & Zirconium.
What About Table Salt?
Table salt or sodium chloride is extremely toxic. Some table salt contains aluminum hydroxide (a toxic metal and a known cause of Alzheimer’s). Regular table salt is usually iodized. Naturally occurring iodine is essential, but added iodine is considered a toxic metal.
What About Sea Salt?
The problem with sea salt is that many of the oceans waters are polluted with heavy metals like lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and more. Oil disasters and leaking tankers pollute our oceans even more. Today sea salt is not as good as it was in the past.
Our Himalayan Pink Salt is perfect to use when grilling or roasting meat, fish or chicken and this coarse grain size can be used at the table in a salt mill or grinder. Spread out a bed of this beautifully colored salt for your culinary presentations of meat, fish, fruit or cheese…even ice cream! There are so many ways to enjoy the delicious, pure taste and nutritional benefit of mineral-rich salt from the ancient Himalayan Mountains.
Benefits of Himalayan salt:
Experts have been astonished and amazed when they found out about the natural benefits of Himalayan salt. If such salt replaces the common table and commercial salts used in the market today, more people would certainly attain better health.
In a nutshell, the benefits of Himalayan salt could be summed up in the following 17 features.
1. Effectively regulates water level throughout the human body, which is vital to proper and ideal functioning of bodily systems
2. Promotes stable pH balance in the cellular level
3. Encourages ideal blood sugar health
4. Helps slow down or reduce common and unwanted signs of aging
5. Promotes hydroelectric energy creation within cells
6. Increases absorption capacity of food elements specifically within the body’s intestinal tract
7. Aids vascular health
8. Supports healthy respiratory function
9. Reduces muscle cramps
10. Helps relieve sinus problems
11. Improves bone strength
12. Naturally promotes healthy sleep patterns
13. Brings about healthier libido levels
14. Helps regulate blood pressure
15. Prevents formation of unwanted cellulite
16. Helps avoid arthritis, rheumatism, and gout
17. Helps prevent gall bladder and kidney stones
With such benefits of Himalayan salt on hand, no one has to stay away from salt any more. This makes Himalayan salt good news to numerous food enthusiasts and consumers today.
With more and more restaurants offering Himalayan Pink Salt
Characteristics: All-natural red & white speckled crystals, perfect for salt mills/grinders, high mineral content, dry, gourmet food grade
Grain Sizes Available: Powder (0-0.2mm), Extra Fine (0-0.5mm), Fine (0-1mm), Small Grain (1-2mm), Medium Grain (2-3mm), Coarse (3-4mm), Extra Coarse (4-6mm)
Colors: Red, Reddish Orange, pink, white
Packing: 10, 25, 50 kg pp bag
1, 2, 5, 10 kg cotton bag,
1, 2, 5 kg plastic jars
1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 kg 4ply cartons
Also available in custom Print Packaging
Disclaimer: We do not make any diagnosis or give medical recommendations. These products are not intended to cure heal or prevent diseases. Consulting with doctor is always recommended.
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OM Times Magazine : The Healing Power of Ayurveda
Ayurveda, the science of life, was a medicine practiced in India since 5000 years ago. It is gaining prominence in modern day as there are no side effects of Ayurveda. More and more people are showing faith & belief in this holistic and alternative medicine.
Ayurvedic medicine is based on the concept of 3 doshas or Tridosha, Vata (the lightest), Kapha (heaviest) and Pitta (medium built). Doshas are mainly the "force" or "faults" in the basic built up of our body and can go easily out of order or balance causing a disorder in the mind and body. Doshas are similar to the traditional western idea of the three basic body types – ectomorph ( leaner & delicately made), mesomorph ( built compact & muscular ), and endomorph ( built stocky). Ideologies say that most of us are built by these combinations.
The Ayurvedic philosophy preaches that everything in the world is made up of the tridosha, and these doshas combine 2 of the 5 elements of the earth, vata is ether and air; pitta is fire and water, Kapha is water and earth. A human body is prone to ailments and diseases when any one of these doshas in the body falls out of balance or is disordered. Bringing a balance to these doshas through ayurveda brings a balance to mind, body & soul and hence the truth, "science of life".
Ayurveda treatment recommends counseling, meditation, yoga, ayurvedic oil massages, healthy living, healthy eating and natural ayurvedic medicine and remedies to help the mind, body & soul achieve balance. Unlike anti-biotic medicine ayurveda does not kill disease bound organisms by remedies the ailment by restricting the growth of these harmful organisms and ultimately gets rid of them from the body forever, this method in ayurveda is called detoxification where the harmful toxins of the body are eliminated, never to return.
Ayurveda can treat every kind of disease existing in the world. It can also give longevity to humans suffering from cancer.
Common Ailments which can be treated with Ayurveda
Allergies Diabetes Insomnia
Alzheimer's Digestive Complaints IBS
Arthritis Depression Menopause
Asthma Eye Diseases Multiple Sclerosis
Ano-Rectal Disorders Eczema Obesity
Addictions Eczema Osteoporosis
Bronchitis Fibromyalgia Paralysis
Bulimia Fistula Pre-Menstrual Syndrome
Cardio Vascular Diseases Cervical Spondylitis Psychological Disorders
Chronic Fatigue Gastritis Prostate Problems
Chronic Pain Hemorrhoids/Piles Sinusitis
Colitis Migraines Skin Ailments
Constipation Hypertension Ulcers
Hypothyroidism Infertility Degenerative Arthritis
Ayurveda has magnificent treatment and therapies for renewing the body & mind. According to ayurveda if the mind is deeply centered and settled, the body will naturally heal faster and age slower. Most of the treatments involve massages with the use of therapeutic oils and decoctions prepared from natural medicinal herbs. These oils are prepared using 50 or more ingredients and have a profound healing effect. For eg: Mahanarayana thailam, a famous ayurvedic oil, meant for panchakarma and rejuvenation treatment creates a remarkable healing effect when it is applied to specific points by our trained therapists during a session of massage.
One of the famous Ayurvedic treatment is panchakarma also known as detoxification. Panchakarma includes 5 major cleansing procedures which are all meant to purify the whole body by the elimination of the accumulated toxins. The 5 basic procedures or "shodhanas" are Vamana (Emesis), Virchana (Purgation), Basti (oil & decoction enema), Nasya (Nasal administration) and Raktamokshana (cleansing the blood).
The other treatments are Abhangya, Shirodhara, spine and joint care, rejuvenation, stress management, anti aging & beauty treatments.
Ayurvedic treatments are also used to cure lifestyle diseases like Diabetes, Hypertension, High Cholesterol and all associated complications. These treatments given with yoga, pranayama & meditation assure a healthy life.
Yoga Journal
For more than 30 years, one magazine has reported on the expansion and revolution of the yoga movement. Yoga Journal has been there, serving yoga teachers and the ever-growing yoga community. Like the community, we've evolved over the years, and now are proud to present yogajournal.com–an interactive, in-depth, yoga community website.
Article Courtesy Humanity Healing :
Artwork Courtesy of Deb Graves :
tags:
ayurveda, debgraves, healing, yoga, wellness, empowerment, nature, omtimesmagazine, humanityheailng, sacredsapcestudio, deZengodesigns, deZengoDESIGNED, NamaspiritTN
ROMANIA - Cocor Spa Hotel
Situated only 50 metres from the beach in the summer resort Neptun-Olimp, Cocor Spa Hotel provides excellent facilities to spend an unforgettable vacation.
The hotel rooms have warm colour tones and a calming ambience, boasting delightful garden views or a panoramic view of the outdoor pool.
Unwind and enjoy the natural healing effects of the sea and nature. The individual spa packages will help you to eliminate stress, to feel the detoxification effects, and to rediscover beauty.
Romania is an interesting country to visit, whether you want to relax at one of the attractive resorts or explore the ancient culture with well-preserved traditions and folklore.
Hotel Rooms: 242.
Hotel Facilities
General
Restaurant, Bar, 24-Hour Front Desk, Garden, Terrace, Non-Smoking Rooms, Rooms/Facilities for Disabled Guests, Elevator, Safety Deposit Box, Heating, Luggage Storage, Shops in Hotel, Airconditioning.
Activities
Sauna, Fitness Centre, Spa & Wellness Centre, Massage, Children's Playground, Jacuzzi, Turkish/Steam Bath, Hammam, Indoor Swimming Pool, Outdoor Swimming Pool.
Services
Meeting/Banquet Facilities, Business Centre, Laundry, Breakfast in the Room, Ironing Service, Currency Exchange, Souvenirs/Gift Shop, Shoe Shine, Car Rental, Tour Desk, Fax/Photocopying, Ticket Service, ATM/Cash Machine on site.
Internet
Wireless internet is available in the entire hotel and is free of charge.
Guest Parking
Free private parking is possible on site.
Hotel Policies
These are general hotel policies. As they may vary per room type; please also check the room description.
Check-in
14:00 - 00:00 hours
Check-out
11:00 - 12:00 hours
Cancellation
If cancelled up to 1 day before the date of arrival, no fee will be charged.
If cancelled later or in case of no-show, the first night will be charged.
Children and extra beds
All children from 1 to 5 years stay free of charge for extra beds.
All children from 5 to 12 years are charged 25 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
All further older children or adults are charged 35 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
Maximum capacity of extra beds/babycots in a room is 1.
Pets
Pets are not allowed.
Accepted credit cards
Visa, Euro/Mastercard
The hotel reserves the right to pre-authorise credit cards prior to arrival.
Food & beverage
The eating venues at the Cocor Spa Hotel have a distinguished atmosphere, serving refined dishes and beverages, optionally on the green terrace.
Sample traditional Romanian and international food at the Mon Jardin Restaurant, where you can dine in a pleasant ambience while listening to the live band. Mon Jardin seats up to 400 people, it is open from 07:00 to 23:00 and has a non-smoking area.
Sip a delicious cocktail or get a quick snack at the pool bar (open from 09:00 to 19:00) and the lobby bar, which is open 24 hours.
My Experience
I am a permanent resident of Kolkata, but I never witnessed the celebration of Chhath Pooja here. Lakhs of migrant residents from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states of India and Nepal as well, celebrated their most ancient festival along the bank of river Hoogly, the sacred river that flows through the city. On 6th November this year, around 2pm, I went to a famous ghat on the bank of river Hoogly opposite to Eden gardens. It was an unique photographic journey to witness how people performed their rituals with so much devotion and faith. I saw hundreds of devotees sitting on the banks quietly with their offerings to Sun God and some performing their rituals with half of their bodies immersed in the Ganges, and some with fire, called ‘Homas’. I was closely looking at them, and I was amazed by their dedication, devotion and complacency. Thousands of devotees were found proceeding towards the Ganges with their offerings, all cladded in bright clothes and ornaments, and many were found on their way to lay prone on the roads touching their whole body (Ashtanga or eight parts of the body) on the Earth and performing ‘Dondis’(Surya Namaskara -Sanskrit: सूर्यनमस्कार, Sun Salutation). Many of the family members, including newborn kids were found lying on the roads waiting for the main worshipper of the family to crossover their bodies as a way to get blessings from them. Most of the main family worshippers were found to be the eldest ladies of the family. Through Chhath, I rediscovered my religious India, in a new and beautiful way.
Chhath Pooja
Chhath is an ancient Hindu Vedic festival of worshiping Sun God, as the Rigveda contains hymns worshiping the Sun God and describes similar rituals.Historically it is native to eastern Uttar Pradesh, North Bihar of India and Mithila State of Nepal.The Chhath Puja is dedicated to the Sun and his wife Usha in order to thank them for bestowing the bounties of life on earth.The God is worshiped during the Chhath festival to promote well-being, prosperity and progress. In Hinduism, Sun worship is also believed to help cure a variety of diseases, including leprosy, and helps ensure the longevity and prosperity of family members, friends, and elders. Environmentalists claim that Chhath is the most eco-friendly Hindu festival.
Regions Celebrating Chhath
Although the festival is observed most elaborately in Mithila Province of Nepal,Terai-Madhesh region of Nepal, Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and UP, it is also more prevalent in areas where migrants from those areas have a presence.The festival is celebrated in the regions including but not exclusive to the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, as well in various countries worldwide.
Timings
Chhath puja is performed on Kartika Shukla Shashthi, which is the sixth day of the month of Kartika in Bengali calender. This falls typically in the month of October or November in the Gregorian English Calendar.
History
The rituals also find reference in the Sanskrit epic poem Mahābhārata in which Draupadi is depicted as observing similar rites. It is assumed that the oldest Purohits were requested by the kings to come and perform the traditional pooja of the Lord Sun. They used to chant the ancient Rigveda texts and a variety of hymns for worshiping the God. In the ancient time of Mahabharata Chhath pooja was celebrated by Draupadi and Pandavas of Hastinapur (present Delhi) for solving their instant problem and regaining their lost kingdom. It is also assumed that the Chhath puja was first started by the Surya Putra (son of Sun God) Karna. He was a great warrior and had ruled over the Anga Desh (Munger district of Bihar) during the Mahabharata period.
Ethymology
The word chhath means sixth in Nepali, Maithili and Bhojpuri languages and the festival is celebrated on the sixth day of the month Kārtika of the Hindu lunar Bikram Sambat calendar.The word is a Prakrit derivation from the Sanskrit ṣaṣṭhi, meaning sixth.
The Goddess who is also worshipped during the famous Chhath Puja is known as Chhathi Maiya. Chhathi Maiya is known as Usha in the Vedas. She is believed to be the beloved younger wife of Surya, the sun god. The rituals signify rising sun as well as setting sun.
Rituals and Traditions of Chhath Puja
It is believed that worshipers of the Chhath take holy bath and follows a period of abstinence and become separate for 4 days from the main family. Throughout the period he is believed as the pure spirit and sleep on the floor having single blanket.
Devotees offer prasad to Sun at the Chhath such as sweets, Kheer, Thekua, bananas and other fruits included in a small bamboo tokari. The prasad is cooked without salt, onions or garlic with maintained purity. It is a four days festival which includes:
On the first day, devotees take bathe early in the morning in the holy water of Gange and bring some holy water to their home to prepare the offerings. The home and its surroundings should be cleaned at this day. They take only one meal a day known as kaddu-bhat cooked only by using the bronze or soil utensils and mango woods over the soil stove.
On the second day, the day before Chhath, devotees keeps fast for whole day and break their fast in the evening after sunset after the worship of Sun. They offer Rasiao-kheer, puris, fruits in the puja. After taking meal in the evening, they go on a fast without water for the next 36 hours.
On the third day (day of Chhath) they offer the Sanjhiya Arghya at the ghat of riverbank. After Arghya, they wear the single saree of turmeric color. Other family members are waiting for getting the blessings from worshiper. At the night of Chhath a vibrant event of Kosi is celebrated by lighting the lamps of clay diyas under the covering of five sugarcane sticks. The five sugarcane sticks indicate the Panchatattva (earth, water, fire, air and space) the human is body made up of.
On the early morning of the fourth day (Paarun), devotees along with their family and friends offer Bihaniya Aragh at the ghat of riverbank of Gange. Devotees end their festival through breaking the fast by having the Chhath prashad.
Six levels of purification in Chhath ( a belief)
The belief of fast and cleanliness of body on the festival identify the detoxification of the body and mind in order to set up the body and mind to accept the cosmic solar energy.
Standing in water with half of the body inside the water diminishes the escape of energy as well as facilitates the prana to elevate to the sushumna.
Then the entrance of cosmic solar energy takes place in the pineal gland, pituitary gland and hypothalamus (known as the Triveni complex) through the retina and optic nerves.
In the 4th stage Triveni complex gets activated.
After activation of the Triveni complex, spine gets polarized and body of devotee gets transformed into a cosmic powerhouse and gets the Kundalini Shakti.
At this stage the devotee is fully able to conduct, recycle and pass on the energy into entire universe.
Benefits of the rituals (a belief)
Devotee of the Chhath puja can improve the immunity of body.
A variety of skin infections can be cured through the safe radiations of sunlight.
It increases the fighting power of blood by improving the performance of WBC.
Solar energy provides the power to control the secretion of hormones.
Significance
Chhath puja has a special significance during the Sunrise and Sunset periods. The Sunrise and sunset are the most important periods of the day during which a human body can safely get the solar energy without any harm. That’s why there is a myth of offering the Sanjhiya Arghya and Bihaniya Arghya to the Sun at the Chhath festival. During this period the solar energy has low level of ultraviolet radiations so it is safe for the human body. People perform the Chhath puja in order to thank the Lord Sun for the lives on the earth as well as to get blessings.
The ritual of Chhath puja provides mental calmness (by detoxifying the body and mind), enhances the energy level and immunity, reduces the frequency of anger, greed and jealousy as well as lot of negative emotions. It is also believed that following the Chhath processes helps in slowing down the ageing process. Such beliefs and rituals of the Chhath make it the most significant festival in the Hindus ever.
[ Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhath and www.varanasi.org.in/chhath-pooja ]
A worshiper on her way to Sun salutation (Ashtanga Surya Namaskara)
My Experience of Chhath.
I am a permanent resident of Kolkata, but I never witnessed the celebration of Chhath Pooja here. Lakhs of migrant residents from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states of India and Nepal as well, celebrated their most ancient festival along the bank of river Hoogly, the sacred river that flows through the city. On 6th November this year, around 2pm, I went to a famous ghat on the bank of river Hoogly opposite to Eden gardens. It was an unique photographic journey to witness how people performed their rituals with so much devotion and faith. I saw hundreds of devotees sitting on the banks quietly with their offerings to Sun God and some performing their rituals with half of their bodies immersed in the Ganges, and some with fire, called ‘Homas’. I was closely looking at them, and I was amazed by their dedication, devotion and complacency. Thousands of devotees were found proceeding towards the Ganges with their offerings, all cladded in bright clothes and ornaments, and many were found on their way to lay prone on the roads touching their whole body (Ashtanga or eight parts of the body) on the Earth and performing ‘Dondis’(Surya Namaskara -Sanskrit: सूर्यनमस्कार, Sun Salutation). Many of the family members, including newborn kids were found lying on the roads waiting for the main worshipper of the family to crossover their bodies as a way to get blessings from them. Most of the main family worshippers were found to be the eldest ladies of the family. Through Chhath, I rediscovered my religious India, in a new and beautiful way.
Chhath Pooja
Chhath is an ancient Hindu Vedic festival of worshiping Sun God, as the Rigveda contains hymns worshiping the Sun God and describes similar rituals.Historically it is native to eastern Uttar Pradesh, North Bihar of India and Mithila State of Nepal.The Chhath Puja is dedicated to the Sun and his wife Usha in order to thank them for bestowing the bounties of life on earth.The God is worshiped during the Chhath festival to promote well-being, prosperity and progress. In Hinduism, Sun worship is also believed to help cure a variety of diseases, including leprosy, and helps ensure the longevity and prosperity of family members, friends, and elders. Environmentalists claim that Chhath is the most eco-friendly Hindu festival.
Regions Celebrating Chhath
Although the festival is observed most elaborately in Mithila Province of Nepal,Terai-Madhesh region of Nepal, Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and UP, it is also more prevalent in areas where migrants from those areas have a presence.The festival is celebrated in the regions including but not exclusive to the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, as well in various countries worldwide.
Timings
Chhath puja is performed on Kartika Shukla Shashthi, which is the sixth day of the month of Kartika in Bengali calender. This falls typically in the month of October or November in the Gregorian English Calendar.
History
The rituals also find reference in the Sanskrit epic poem Mahābhārata in which Draupadi is depicted as observing similar rites. It is assumed that the oldest Purohits were requested by the kings to come and perform the traditional pooja of the Lord Sun. They used to chant the ancient Rigveda texts and a variety of hymns for worshiping the God. In the ancient time of Mahabharata Chhath pooja was celebrated by Draupadi and Pandavas of Hastinapur (present Delhi) for solving their instant problem and regaining their lost kingdom. It is also assumed that the Chhath puja was first started by the Surya Putra (son of Sun God) Karna. He was a great warrior and had ruled over the Anga Desh (Munger district of Bihar) during the Mahabharata period.
Ethymology
The word chhath means sixth in Nepali, Maithili and Bhojpuri languages and the festival is celebrated on the sixth day of the month Kārtika of the Hindu lunar Bikram Sambat calendar.The word is a Prakrit derivation from the Sanskrit ṣaṣṭhi, meaning sixth.
The Goddess who is also worshipped during the famous Chhath Puja is known as Chhathi Maiya. Chhathi Maiya is known as Usha in the Vedas. She is believed to be the beloved younger wife of Surya, the sun god. The rituals signify rising sun as well as setting sun.
Rituals and Traditions of Chhath Puja
It is believed that worshipers of the Chhath take holy bath and follows a period of abstinence and become separate for 4 days from the main family. Throughout the period he is believed as the pure spirit and sleep on the floor having single blanket.
Devotees offer prasad to Sun at the Chhath such as sweets, Kheer, Thekua, bananas and other fruits included in a small bamboo tokari. The prasad is cooked without salt, onions or garlic with maintained purity. It is a four days festival which includes:
On the first day, devotees take bathe early in the morning in the holy water of Gange and bring some holy water to their home to prepare the offerings. The home and its surroundings should be cleaned at this day. They take only one meal a day known as kaddu-bhat cooked only by using the bronze or soil utensils and mango woods over the soil stove.
On the second day, the day before Chhath, devotees keeps fast for whole day and break their fast in the evening after sunset after the worship of Sun. They offer Rasiao-kheer, puris, fruits in the puja. After taking meal in the evening, they go on a fast without water for the next 36 hours.
On the third day (day of Chhath) they offer the Sanjhiya Arghya at the ghat of riverbank. After Arghya, they wear the single saree of turmeric color. Other family members are waiting for getting the blessings from worshiper. At the night of Chhath a vibrant event of Kosi is celebrated by lighting the lamps of clay diyas under the covering of five sugarcane sticks. The five sugarcane sticks indicate the Panchatattva (earth, water, fire, air and space) the human is body made up of.
On the early morning of the fourth day (Paarun), devotees along with their family and friends offer Bihaniya Aragh at the ghat of riverbank of Gange. Devotees end their festival through breaking the fast by having the Chhath prashad.
Six levels of purification in Chhath ( a belief)
The belief of fast and cleanliness of body on the festival identify the detoxification of the body and mind in order to set up the body and mind to accept the cosmic solar energy.
Standing in water with half of the body inside the water diminishes the escape of energy as well as facilitates the prana to elevate to the sushumna.
Then the entrance of cosmic solar energy takes place in the pineal gland, pituitary gland and hypothalamus (known as the Triveni complex) through the retina and optic nerves.
In the 4th stage Triveni complex gets activated.
After activation of the Triveni complex, spine gets polarized and body of devotee gets transformed into a cosmic powerhouse and gets the Kundalini Shakti.
At this stage the devotee is fully able to conduct, recycle and pass on the energy into entire universe.
Benefits of the rituals (a belief)
Devotee of the Chhath puja can improve the immunity of body.
A variety of skin infections can be cured through the safe radiations of sunlight.
It increases the fighting power of blood by improving the performance of WBC.
Solar energy provides the power to control the secretion of hormones.
Significance
Chhath puja has a special significance during the Sunrise and Sunset periods. The Sunrise and sunset are the most important periods of the day during which a human body can safely get the solar energy without any harm. That’s why there is a myth of offering the Sanjhiya Arghya and Bihaniya Arghya to the Sun at the Chhath festival. During this period the solar energy has low level of ultraviolet radiations so it is safe for the human body. People perform the Chhath puja in order to thank the Lord Sun for the lives on the earth as well as to get blessings.
The ritual of Chhath puja provides mental calmness (by detoxifying the body and mind), enhances the energy level and immunity, reduces the frequency of anger, greed and jealousy as well as lot of negative emotions. It is also believed that following the Chhath processes helps in slowing down the ageing process. Such beliefs and rituals of the Chhath make it the most significant festival in the Hindus ever.
[ Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhath and www.varanasi.org.in/chhath-pooja ]
Parsley is like a hot chick. You thought they were mostly for show by later on find-out they are way more than just a showpiece. Whatever am I talking about? Toxins of course. Parsley is a natural magnent to many of the toxins found in your body and when you dump a little into your meals you get a natural detoxification agent. So Parsley up and toss in some cilantro while your at it. Together they are both mighty-mighty-toxin removers.
SPORTS604 VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS 2010
Sponsored by Red Bull & Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant
photos by Ron Sombion Gallery & PacBlue Printing
About Sports604 -Basketball-Bowling, Dodgeball-Volleyball-California Kickball
"Vancouver's Fastest Growing Recreational Sports League"
Sports604 leagues aim to cover all the fundamentals of league play: structure, competitiveness, recreation, exercise and fun!
Levels range from beginners to seasoned vets. Not to mention, we do it with a bit of style. Not only do we include team t-shirts as a part of the registration fee, we love to rock in our socks to music! Yup, we crank up the volume when the whistle blows so everyone can get hyped before they play and groove while they play
.
SPORTS604 VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS 2010
Sponsored by Red Bull & Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant
photos by Ron Sombion Gallery & PacBlue Printing
About Sports604 -Basketball-Bowling, Dodgeball-Volleyball-California Kickball
"Vancouver's Fastest Growing Recreational Sports League"
Sports604 leagues aim to cover all the fundamentals of league play: structure, competitiveness, recreation, exercise and fun!
Levels range from beginners to seasoned vets. Not to mention, we do it with a bit of style. Not only do we include team t-shirts as a part of the registration fee, we love to rock in our socks to music! Yup, we crank up the volume when the whistle blows so everyone can get hyped before they play and groove while they play
.
SPORTS604 VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS 2010
Sponsored by Red Bull & Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant
photos by Ron Sombion Gallery & PacBlue Printing
About Sports604 -Basketball-Bowling, Dodgeball-Volleyball-California Kickball
"Vancouver's Fastest Growing Recreational Sports League"
Sports604 leagues aim to cover all the fundamentals of league play: structure, competitiveness, recreation, exercise and fun!
Levels range from beginners to seasoned vets. Not to mention, we do it with a bit of style. Not only do we include team t-shirts as a part of the registration fee, we love to rock in our socks to music! Yup, we crank up the volume when the whistle blows so everyone can get hyped before they play and groove while they play
.
the fruits of this plant are edible but very sour. there are no known folkloric use for this plant
P. bleo has been used for various purposes. In some areas, it is used as a food spice [1, 7]. This plant has been eaten raw as vegetables by some people in Malaysia and China or taken as a concoction brewed from fresh leaves [19, 36]. In addition, it is taken for detoxification and revitalizing the body [27, 28, 40]. Its fruit is consumed by some ethnic groups in Panama as a wild fruit [26]. The leaves of P. bleo have been traditionally used to treat cancer, hemorrhoid, hypertension, diabetes [32, 40], infections, gastric pain, headache, ulcer, and inflammatory conditions like rheumatism and asthma [28, 31]. Indigenous Colombians have used P. bleo to neutralize the effects of snakebites [33], to relax spastic muscles, and to alleviate muscle aches [29]. Apart from dietary and medicinal uses, this plant is a suitable barrier hedge because of its sharp spines, strong stem, and insect repellant properties [21]. In Central America, Kuna Indians used the crushed leaves to clarify drinking water [12]. Different methods of preparation have been reported for the plant. It is usually taken raw or as a decoction of its fresh leaves. Table 3 shows the traditional usage and different preparation methods of P. bleo. To the best of our knowledge, information on the specific preparation methods for some of the indicated traditional usages is not available.
source: hindawi.com
Benefits:
Warms the body, relieves aching joints & muscles. It not only used for bath powder but a great scrub and masque on your body!
Ingredients
Unrefined Organic Sea salt (sodium chloride), baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate), oatmeal (Avena sativa), sandalwood powder (Santalum Album) Lulur powder; fennel seed (Foeniculum vulgare) star aniseed (Illicium verum) eaglewood (Aquillaria Malaccensis) fenugreek (trigonella foenum) gandepure (Gaultheria fragrantissima) and salam leaf (syzsygium polyantha) french yellow clay (Argiletz), sandalwood essential oil (Santalum spicata).
Applications
Body Scrub: Wet your body, pour some powder on your palm, and start to scrub on areas you desire. For normal skin, scrub once a week. For dry skin, scrub once in two weeks.
Body Mask: To relieve skin problems like pimples, acnes on your skin, pour powder into a bowl and form a paste by adding drops of water and lather into a soft paste. The paste should be slightly sticky. Paste the masque on the affected area, back neck or arms. Leave it for 15 minutes to 20 minutes, rinse with water.
Bath use in a tub or basin/bucket: To soothe, deodorize & detoxify; dispense 2 tablespoons of herbal bath powder directly into freshly-drawn bath. Get naked. Sit back; breathe deep as to enjoy the soothing aromatic symphony. Repeat as often as needed. Re-seal package after use. To maintain products botanical integrity store in cool, dry place. Always recycle.
All three of our Herbal Bath Powders are gentle enough to use as scrub on the body before entering the tub. It will gently exfoliate, while drawing toxins out of the skin. Perhaps the best idea is to enter the tub, get wet, allow a few minutes for your pores to open, then mix up about a tablespoon with a little water to make a paste. Stand up in the tub and massage the paste all over your body. You can continue to stand there for a few minutes if you like or plunge back in the tub and enjoy this relaxing botanical soup. Good Stuff!
General Production Introduction: Sensatia Botanicals Bath Powders feature pure, unrefined, organic sea salt from Bali's pristine, still-rugged east coast. Along these quiet white sand beaches the sun drenched sea water is channeled through the myriad of sea grasses into canal systems (made of tree trunks) for evaporation. The sun and wind evaporate the ocean water, leaving the mineral rich brine. This live mixture is briskly stimulated by the salt farmer until the salt crystals form. The sea salt is then gathered by hand with wooden tools and sun-dried a final time. This natural, ancient harvesting method preserves the minerals and vitality of this organic treasure.
Bathing in a sea salt bath is recommended for skin diseases, rheumatism, joint diseases, after operations, gynecological problems, and for children prone to infection to strengthen the immune system and detoxify the body. The bath should be close to body temperature and should be 20-30 minutes long. During this time the body reaches the same salt concentration (inside and outside) as that of a pre-natal state. Minerals penetrate the skin in the form of ions stimulating natural cell growth. Bio-energetic weak points will be balanced and the body's own energy flow will be re-activated. The detoxifying effect after a sea salt bath can be compared to a 3 day fast.
Further observations show that the best sea salt bath results have been at the changes of the moon. At full moon one can expect optimal assimilation and conversely at new moon one can expect optimal detoxification.
We also include baking soda to soothe and neutralize itchy skin, oatmeal to smooth and calm, French superfine clay to draw out toxins, & flowers & spices for their natural botanical benefits.
Specific To This Product: Balinese Lulur is an ancient village remedy from the rice farmers of Bali. It has been handed down through generations and is recognized as a traditional medicine. It is believed to help warm the body, relieve aching joints as well as soothe sore muscles. The history is that the hand-crushed spice would be applied on the legs after a day's work of standing in the rice paddies. Today, lulur is becoming very popular in Asian spas, usually offered as an exfoliating, polishing treatment for the body. Locally, continually used by young woman to help aid in the recovery of troubled skin, as well as newborn babies to tauten the skin & fight infection. We use an ancient village recipe of sandalwood, fennel seed, star aniseed, eaglewood, fenugreek, gandepure and salam leaf as the dominant ingredients for the powder.
Also included in Sensatia's Balinese Lulur Bath Powder is Sandalwood essential oil. Sandalwood is known for its soft, sweet, woody, balsamic aroma, with excellent tenacity. Its odour effect is calming and anti-depressant. It has been used for centuries as both a perfume and a medicinal agent. The thick brownish yellow liquid is antiseptic, slightly astringent, soothing, rejuvenating and aphrodisiac. It is one of the few oils from the botanical world that actually gets better with age. When used in skin care, it is especially effective for raw, infected, oily, or dry skin, and also has proven to help in the treatment of itchy skin and acne. Sandalwood oil can help balance either dry or oily skin. There is no substitute for sandalwood's gentle, lingering aroma and is why it can be found as a component in almost every designer perfume
OM Times Magazine : The Healing Power of Ayurveda
Ayurveda, the science of life, was a medicine practiced in India since 5000 years ago. It is gaining prominence in modern day as there are no side effects of Ayurveda. More and more people are showing faith & belief in this holistic and alternative medicine.
Ayurvedic medicine is based on the concept of 3 doshas or Tridosha, Vata (the lightest), Kapha (heaviest) and Pitta (medium built). Doshas are mainly the "force" or "faults" in the basic built up of our body and can go easily out of order or balance causing a disorder in the mind and body. Doshas are similar to the traditional western idea of the three basic body types – ectomorph ( leaner & delicately made), mesomorph ( built compact & muscular ), and endomorph ( built stocky). Ideologies say that most of us are built by these combinations.
The Ayurvedic philosophy preaches that everything in the world is made up of the tridosha, and these doshas combine 2 of the 5 elements of the earth, vata is ether and air; pitta is fire and water, Kapha is water and earth. A human body is prone to ailments and diseases when any one of these doshas in the body falls out of balance or is disordered. Bringing a balance to these doshas through ayurveda brings a balance to mind, body & soul and hence the truth, "science of life".
Ayurveda treatment recommends counseling, meditation, yoga, ayurvedic oil massages, healthy living, healthy eating and natural ayurvedic medicine and remedies to help the mind, body & soul achieve balance. Unlike anti-biotic medicine ayurveda does not kill disease bound organisms by remedies the ailment by restricting the growth of these harmful organisms and ultimately gets rid of them from the body forever, this method in ayurveda is called detoxification where the harmful toxins of the body are eliminated, never to return.
Ayurveda can treat every kind of disease existing in the world. It can also give longevity to humans suffering from cancer.
Common Ailments which can be treated with Ayurveda
Allergies Diabetes Insomnia
Alzheimer's Digestive Complaints IBS
Arthritis Depression Menopause
Asthma Eye Diseases Multiple Sclerosis
Ano-Rectal Disorders Eczema Obesity
Addictions Eczema Osteoporosis
Bronchitis Fibromyalgia Paralysis
Bulimia Fistula Pre-Menstrual Syndrome
Cardio Vascular Diseases Cervical Spondylitis Psychological Disorders
Chronic Fatigue Gastritis Prostate Problems
Chronic Pain Hemorrhoids/Piles Sinusitis
Colitis Migraines Skin Ailments
Constipation Hypertension Ulcers
Hypothyroidism Infertility Degenerative Arthritis
Ayurveda has magnificent treatment and therapies for renewing the body & mind. According to ayurveda if the mind is deeply centered and settled, the body will naturally heal faster and age slower. Most of the treatments involve massages with the use of therapeutic oils and decoctions prepared from natural medicinal herbs. These oils are prepared using 50 or more ingredients and have a profound healing effect. For eg: Mahanarayana thailam, a famous ayurvedic oil, meant for panchakarma and rejuvenation treatment creates a remarkable healing effect when it is applied to specific points by our trained therapists during a session of massage.
One of the famous Ayurvedic treatment is panchakarma also known as detoxification. Panchakarma includes 5 major cleansing procedures which are all meant to purify the whole body by the elimination of the accumulated toxins. The 5 basic procedures or "shodhanas" are Vamana (Emesis), Virchana (Purgation), Basti (oil & decoction enema), Nasya (Nasal administration) and Raktamokshana (cleansing the blood).
The other treatments are Abhangya, Shirodhara, spine and joint care, rejuvenation, stress management, anti aging & beauty treatments.
Ayurvedic treatments are also used to cure lifestyle diseases like Diabetes, Hypertension, High Cholesterol and all associated complications. These treatments given with yoga, pranayama & meditation assure a healthy life.
Yoga Journal
For more than 30 years, one magazine has reported on the expansion and revolution of the yoga movement. Yoga Journal has been there, serving yoga teachers and the ever-growing yoga community. Like the community, we've evolved over the years, and now are proud to present yogajournal.com–an interactive, in-depth, yoga community website.
Article Courtesy Humanity Healing :
Artwork Courtesy of Deb Graves :
tags:
ayurveda, debgraves, healing, yoga, wellness, empowerment, nature, omtimesmagazine, humanityheailng, sacredsapcestudio, deZengodesigns, deZengoDESIGNED, NamaspiritTN
This process is a total body detoxification , which provides a unique method for eliminating toxins from the body such as:
Heavy Metals
Partially Oxidized Fats
Unassimilated Protein
Cholesterol Deposits
Uric Acid
Plaque
Lactic Acid
Chemicals that penetrate our air, water and food supply
Read about more of the benefits Body Cleansing @ knoxvillereflexology.com/services-2/body-cleansing/
Himalayan Bath Salts allows you to slip into an ocean of sheer energy! Imagine for a moment, that you are taking a dip in a pristine primal ocean, some 250 million years ago. Enjoy relaxing and rejuvenating effects while your body absorbs the 84 vital nutrients from these amazing Himalayan Bath Salts and your skin attains the soft glow of health. Himalayan Bath Salts have been used for centuries due to their well known healing properties. Historically, these miraculous Himalayan Bath Salts have been successfully used to aid in the alleviation of many conditions such as severe cases of dry skin, stimulation of circulation, hydration of the skin, to increase moisture retention, promote cellular regeneration, detoxification, and help in the healing of dry, scaling, irritated skin. Himalayan Bath Salts bathing provides a powerful cleansing and rejuvenating experience for body and soul; and may also help to reduce inflammation of the muscles and joints as well as bring relief from pain and soreness
The cleansing effects of a half hour sole detox bath (the technical term for a Himalayan Salt Bath using ancient Himalayan crystallized mineral salt) can be equal to a 3 day fast. Toxins are released into the water, while minerals from the Himalayan Bath Salts are absorbed through the skin. A Sole cleansing bath reduces acidity and balances the ph of the skin, it’s great for all skin types, and can be very hydrating. During the Himalayan mineral salt bath, rejuvenating bath salt is stored in the upper layer of the skin and binds water, keeping this major organ of the body well hydrated, while also maintaining the natural, protective layer of the skin. Bioenergetics’ deficits are rebalanced and weak links become strengthened, reactivating our body’s electric current. The temperature and makeup of this bath is comparable to the amniotic fluid in which our bodies were formed.
The efficacy of Sole (Himalayan Bath Salts) baths taken in conjunction with the phases of the moon enhances the effects of the bath. The full moon provides an added rejuvenating effect while the new moon provides for additional cleansing of the body. For the ultimate bath experience, pour a little more than 2 lbs of Full Spectrum Himalayan Bath Salts into an average sized tub, add just enough hot water to cover the salt. Wait 30 min. for the salt to dissolve, then fill the tub with water that is at the approximate temperature of the body. Enjoy the bath for 30 – 45 min, without using oils or soaps. Towel off without rinsing the skin. Rest for 30 min. (Sole baths have a positive effect on numerous ailments. They are, however, demanding on the circulatory system. If you suffer from a week heart or poor circulation, consult your doctor before hand. Foot baths might be a better choice.)
Your skin is an excretive organ that mirrors the condition of your intestines. When you take a brine bath, the salt minerals penetrate your skin in form of ions. This stimulation will cause natural cell growth in your living cell layers. Bio-energetic weak points will be balanced and your body’s energy flow will be activated. While anyone can benefit from a brine bath, it is particularly soothing for those with:
Various skin diseases.
Rheumatism and joint diseases.
A post-operative care regimen.
Gynecological diseases.
Recurring infections
Severe insect bites, blisters or wounds.
Skin irritations from poison oak, ivy or sumac.
How to prepare for bath:
For standard salt bath add one cup of Himalayan Bath Salt when you start running the water for bath. Most of the Salt Crystal will dissolve by the time the bath is ready. The ideal water temperature is 97-100 degrees (F) in order to match your body’s natural temperature, which allows for maximum transfer of minerals to enter and toxins to be eliminated. You should not use any bath additives, soaps, or oils. Soak yourself for 20-30 minutes. After the bath please do not towel dry or rub dry but let the skin air dry naturally. A 15-20 minute rest is recommended after the bath to allow for final trace minerals to be absorbed through the skin. Once you take your first bath with Himalayan Salt Crystals you will never go back to your ordinary bath salt again.
Moon Baths
Full Moon Bath
On the day of the full moon the body’s absorption potentials is at peak. At full moon, the body will absorb the most minerals from the salt bath. Weak points are harmonized and the body’s own energy flow is activated.
New Moon Bath
At new moon the body’s capacity for detoxification is at its highest. This is an ideal time for a cleansing salt bath. The saltwater bath has a “deslagging” effect, similar to a three-day fast. Weight adjustment and decontamination of the body are supported.
For either of the moon phase baths you can use more salt than a regular bath, but you would want to work up to higher amounts gradually over a period of many baths.
WARNING: While brine baths have a positive effect on many ailments, they are also demanding on your circulatory system. Please consider your age and your health. If you suffer from weak or poor heart circulation, are pregnant or have any health problems, always consult your health professional first.
Chunk Sizes: Chunk Sizes: 1-2 cm, 1.5-2.5 cm, 3-5 cm, 5-7.5 cm, 10-15 cm or Custom requirements
Colors: Red, Reddish Orange, Light Orange, white
Packing: 10, 25, 50 kg pp bag 1, 2, 5, 10 kg cotton bag, 1, 2, 5 kg plastic jars 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 kg 4ply cartons
Also available in custom Print Packaging
SPORTS604 VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS 2010
Sponsored by Red Bull & Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant
photos by Ron Sombion Gallery & PacBlue Printing
About Sports604 -Basketball-Bowling, Dodgeball-Volleyball-California Kickball
"Vancouver's Fastest Growing Recreational Sports League"
Sports604 leagues aim to cover all the fundamentals of league play: structure, competitiveness, recreation, exercise and fun!
Levels range from beginners to seasoned vets. Not to mention, we do it with a bit of style. Not only do we include team t-shirts as a part of the registration fee, we love to rock in our socks to music! Yup, we crank up the volume when the whistle blows so everyone can get hyped before they play and groove while they play
.
Benefits:
Comforting, relaxing, healing & antiseptic.
Ingredients:
Unrefined Organic Sea salt (sodium chloride), baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate), oatmeal (Avena sativa), french red clay (Montmorillonite), rose flowers (Rosa damascena), rosemary leaf (Rosmarinus officinalis), lavender flowers (Lavandula angustifolia), mint leaf (Mentha arvensis), lavender essential oil (Lavandula dentata), rosemary essential oil (Rosmarinus officinalis), roman chamomile essential oil (Chamaemelum nobile).
Applications
Body Scrub: Wet your body, pour some powder on your palm, and start to scrub on areas you desire. For normal skin, scrub once a week. For dry skin, scrub once in two weeks.
Body Mask: To relieve skin problems like pimples, acnes on your skin, pour powder into a bowl and form a paste by adding drops of water and lather into a soft paste. The paste should be slightly sticky. Paste the masque on the affected area, back neck or arms. Leave it for 15 minutes to 20 minutes, rinse with water.
Bath use in a tub or basin/bucket: To soothe, deodorize & detoxify; dispense 2 tablespoons of herbal bath powder directly into freshly-drawn bath. Get naked. Sit back; breathe deep as to enjoy the soothing aromatic symphony. Repeat as often as needed. Re-seal package after use. To maintain products botanical integrity store in cool, dry place. Always recycle.
All three of our Herbal Bath Powders are gentle enough to use as scrub on the body before entering the tub. It will gently exfoliate, while drawing toxins out of the skin. Perhaps the best idea is to enter the tub, get wet, allow a few minutes for your pores to open, then mix up about a tablespoon with a little water to make a paste. Stand up in the tub and massage the paste all over your body. You can continue to stand there for a few minutes if you like or plunge back in the tub and enjoy this relaxing botanical soup. Good Stuff!
General Product Introduction: Sensatia Botanicals Bath Powders feature pure, unrefined, organic sea salt from Bali's pristine, still-rugged east coast. Along these quiet white sand beaches the sun drenched sea water is channeled through the myriad of sea grasses into canal systems (made of tree trunks) for evaporation. The sun and wind evaporate the ocean water, leaving the mineral rich brine. This live mixture is briskly stimulated by the salt farmer until the salt crystals form. The sea salt is then gathered by hand with wooden tools and sun-dried a final time. This natural, ancient harvesting method preserves the minerals and vitality of this organic treasure.
Bathing in a sea salt bath is recommended for skin diseases, rheumatism, joint diseases, after operations, gynecological problems, and for children prone to infection to strengthen the immune system and detoxify the body. The bath should be close to body temperature and should be 20-30 minutes long. During this time the body reaches the same salt concentration (inside and outside) as that of a pre-natal state. Minerals penetrate the skin in the form of ions stimulating natural cell growth. Bio-energetic weak points will be balanced and the body's own energy flow will be re-activated. The detoxifying effect after a sea salt bath can be compared to a 3 day fast.
Further observations show that the best sea salt bath results have been at the changes of the moon. At full moon one can expect optimal assimilation and conversely at new moon one can expect optimal detoxification.
We also include baking soda to soothe and neutralize itchy skin, oatmeal to smooth and calm, French superfine clay to draw out toxins, & flowers & spices for their natural botanical benefits.
Specific to this Product: Sensatia's Flowers & Herbs Bath Powder also contains a wonderfully relaxing combination of Lavender, Rosemary & Roman Chamomile essential oils. Lavender essential oil is an excellent all-purpose oil for skin care. Its effect is antibacterial, pain relieving, healing for wounds, deodorizing, antiseptic, fungicidal, rejuvenating, and anti-inflammatory. It is also effective for acne and oily hair as well as itchy and cracked skin. Lavenderís fragrance has a calming and relaxing effect.
Rosemary essential oil aroma is woodsy, herb-like, and similar to lavender. The astringent and antiseptic properties of rosemary oil stimulate tissue circulation, the metabolism of the skin, and lymph flow. Rosemary oil plays an important role in stimulating cell renewal. It improves dry or mature skin, eases lines and wrinkles, and heals burns and wounds. It can also clear acne, blemishes or dull, dry skin by fighting bacteria and regulating oil secretions. It improves circulation and can reduce the appearance of broken capillaries and varicose veins. Rosemary oil is also helpful in treating cellulite.
Roman Chamomile's greatest benefits lay in its calming and relaxing abilities, especially on the nervous and digestive systems, the regulating and easing of the menstrual cycle, & the soothing & healing influence on the skin as well as a potent remedy for inflammatory conditions. This essential oil blend is remarkably relaxing and is considered an aphrodisiac.
ROMANIA - Cocor Spa Hotel
Situated only 50 metres from the beach in the summer resort Neptun-Olimp, Cocor Spa Hotel provides excellent facilities to spend an unforgettable vacation.
The hotel rooms have warm colour tones and a calming ambience, boasting delightful garden views or a panoramic view of the outdoor pool.
Unwind and enjoy the natural healing effects of the sea and nature. The individual spa packages will help you to eliminate stress, to feel the detoxification effects, and to rediscover beauty.
Romania is an interesting country to visit, whether you want to relax at one of the attractive resorts or explore the ancient culture with well-preserved traditions and folklore.
Hotel Rooms: 242.
Hotel Facilities
General
Restaurant, Bar, 24-Hour Front Desk, Garden, Terrace, Non-Smoking Rooms, Rooms/Facilities for Disabled Guests, Elevator, Safety Deposit Box, Heating, Luggage Storage, Shops in Hotel, Airconditioning.
Activities
Sauna, Fitness Centre, Spa & Wellness Centre, Massage, Children's Playground, Jacuzzi, Turkish/Steam Bath, Hammam, Indoor Swimming Pool, Outdoor Swimming Pool.
Services
Meeting/Banquet Facilities, Business Centre, Laundry, Breakfast in the Room, Ironing Service, Currency Exchange, Souvenirs/Gift Shop, Shoe Shine, Car Rental, Tour Desk, Fax/Photocopying, Ticket Service, ATM/Cash Machine on site.
Internet
Wireless internet is available in the entire hotel and is free of charge.
Guest Parking
Free private parking is possible on site.
Hotel Policies
These are general hotel policies. As they may vary per room type; please also check the room description.
Check-in
14:00 - 00:00 hours
Check-out
11:00 - 12:00 hours
Cancellation
If cancelled up to 1 day before the date of arrival, no fee will be charged.
If cancelled later or in case of no-show, the first night will be charged.
Children and extra beds
All children from 1 to 5 years stay free of charge for extra beds.
All children from 5 to 12 years are charged 25 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
All further older children or adults are charged 35 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
Maximum capacity of extra beds/babycots in a room is 1.
Pets
Pets are not allowed.
Accepted credit cards
Visa, Euro/Mastercard
The hotel reserves the right to pre-authorise credit cards prior to arrival.
Food & beverage
The eating venues at the Cocor Spa Hotel have a distinguished atmosphere, serving refined dishes and beverages, optionally on the green terrace.
Sample traditional Romanian and international food at the Mon Jardin Restaurant, where you can dine in a pleasant ambience while listening to the live band. Mon Jardin seats up to 400 people, it is open from 07:00 to 23:00 and has a non-smoking area.
Sip a delicious cocktail or get a quick snack at the pool bar (open from 09:00 to 19:00) and the lobby bar, which is open 24 hours.
ROMANIA - Cocor Spa Hotel
Situated only 50 metres from the beach in the summer resort Neptun-Olimp, Cocor Spa Hotel provides excellent facilities to spend an unforgettable vacation.
The hotel rooms have warm colour tones and a calming ambience, boasting delightful garden views or a panoramic view of the outdoor pool.
Unwind and enjoy the natural healing effects of the sea and nature. The individual spa packages will help you to eliminate stress, to feel the detoxification effects, and to rediscover beauty.
Romania is an interesting country to visit, whether you want to relax at one of the attractive resorts or explore the ancient culture with well-preserved traditions and folklore.
Hotel Rooms: 242.
Hotel Facilities
General
Restaurant, Bar, 24-Hour Front Desk, Garden, Terrace, Non-Smoking Rooms, Rooms/Facilities for Disabled Guests, Elevator, Safety Deposit Box, Heating, Luggage Storage, Shops in Hotel, Airconditioning.
Activities
Sauna, Fitness Centre, Spa & Wellness Centre, Massage, Children's Playground, Jacuzzi, Turkish/Steam Bath, Hammam, Indoor Swimming Pool, Outdoor Swimming Pool.
Services
Meeting/Banquet Facilities, Business Centre, Laundry, Breakfast in the Room, Ironing Service, Currency Exchange, Souvenirs/Gift Shop, Shoe Shine, Car Rental, Tour Desk, Fax/Photocopying, Ticket Service, ATM/Cash Machine on site.
Internet
Wireless internet is available in the entire hotel and is free of charge.
Guest Parking
Free private parking is possible on site.
Hotel Policies
These are general hotel policies. As they may vary per room type; please also check the room description.
Check-in
14:00 - 00:00 hours
Check-out
11:00 - 12:00 hours
Cancellation
If cancelled up to 1 day before the date of arrival, no fee will be charged.
If cancelled later or in case of no-show, the first night will be charged.
Children and extra beds
All children from 1 to 5 years stay free of charge for extra beds.
All children from 5 to 12 years are charged 25 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
All further older children or adults are charged 35 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
Maximum capacity of extra beds/babycots in a room is 1.
Pets
Pets are not allowed.
Accepted credit cards
Visa, Euro/Mastercard
The hotel reserves the right to pre-authorise credit cards prior to arrival.
Food & beverage
The eating venues at the Cocor Spa Hotel have a distinguished atmosphere, serving refined dishes and beverages, optionally on the green terrace.
Sample traditional Romanian and international food at the Mon Jardin Restaurant, where you can dine in a pleasant ambience while listening to the live band. Mon Jardin seats up to 400 people, it is open from 07:00 to 23:00 and has a non-smoking area.
Sip a delicious cocktail or get a quick snack at the pool bar (open from 09:00 to 19:00) and the lobby bar, which is open 24 hours.
ROMANIA - Cocor Spa Hotel
Situated only 50 metres from the beach in the summer resort Neptun-Olimp, Cocor Spa Hotel provides excellent facilities to spend an unforgettable vacation.
The hotel rooms have warm colour tones and a calming ambience, boasting delightful garden views or a panoramic view of the outdoor pool.
Unwind and enjoy the natural healing effects of the sea and nature. The individual spa packages will help you to eliminate stress, to feel the detoxification effects, and to rediscover beauty.
Romania is an interesting country to visit, whether you want to relax at one of the attractive resorts or explore the ancient culture with well-preserved traditions and folklore.
Hotel Rooms: 242.
Hotel Facilities
General
Restaurant, Bar, 24-Hour Front Desk, Garden, Terrace, Non-Smoking Rooms, Rooms/Facilities for Disabled Guests, Elevator, Safety Deposit Box, Heating, Luggage Storage, Shops in Hotel, Airconditioning.
Activities
Sauna, Fitness Centre, Spa & Wellness Centre, Massage, Children's Playground, Jacuzzi, Turkish/Steam Bath, Hammam, Indoor Swimming Pool, Outdoor Swimming Pool.
Services
Meeting/Banquet Facilities, Business Centre, Laundry, Breakfast in the Room, Ironing Service, Currency Exchange, Souvenirs/Gift Shop, Shoe Shine, Car Rental, Tour Desk, Fax/Photocopying, Ticket Service, ATM/Cash Machine on site.
Internet
Wireless internet is available in the entire hotel and is free of charge.
Guest Parking
Free private parking is possible on site.
Hotel Policies
These are general hotel policies. As they may vary per room type; please also check the room description.
Check-in
14:00 - 00:00 hours
Check-out
11:00 - 12:00 hours
Cancellation
If cancelled up to 1 day before the date of arrival, no fee will be charged.
If cancelled later or in case of no-show, the first night will be charged.
Children and extra beds
All children from 1 to 5 years stay free of charge for extra beds.
All children from 5 to 12 years are charged 25 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
All further older children or adults are charged 35 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
Maximum capacity of extra beds/babycots in a room is 1.
Pets
Pets are not allowed.
Accepted credit cards
Visa, Euro/Mastercard
The hotel reserves the right to pre-authorise credit cards prior to arrival.
Food & beverage
The eating venues at the Cocor Spa Hotel have a distinguished atmosphere, serving refined dishes and beverages, optionally on the green terrace.
Sample traditional Romanian and international food at the Mon Jardin Restaurant, where you can dine in a pleasant ambience while listening to the live band. Mon Jardin seats up to 400 people, it is open from 07:00 to 23:00 and has a non-smoking area.
Sip a delicious cocktail or get a quick snack at the pool bar (open from 09:00 to 19:00) and the lobby bar, which is open 24 hours.
The kitchen is closed . . . visit to a former clinic for drug detoxification. The house has been empty for years and is at the mercy of decay . . .
Jeniang, Kedah, Malaysia.
Cayratia japonica (Thunb.) Gagnep. Vitaceae. CN: [Malay - Anggur hutan jari], Five-leaved wild vine, Bushkiller, Yabu garashi, Japanese cayratia herb, Sorrel vine. Native of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indian subcontinent, Indo-China, Malesia ecozone. Habitat - lowland and hill forest margins, including on limestone. Naturalized in United States and regarded as an invasive noxious species. Weed and folk medicine. Used as a traditional Chinese medicine to relieve swelling and heat, and to enhance diuresis and detoxification.
Synonym(s):
Cayratia japonica var. canescens W.T.Wang
Cayratia japonica var. ferruginea W.T.Wang
Cayratia japonica var. mollis (Wall. ex Lawson) Momiy.
Cayratia japonica var. pseudotrifolia (W.T.Wang) C.L.Li
Cayratia japonica var. pubifolia Merr. & Chun
Cayratia mollis (Wall. ex Lawson) C.Y.Wu
Cayratia pseudotrifolia W.T.Wang
Cayratia tenuifolia var. cinerea Gagnep.
Causonis japonica (Thunb. ex Murray) Raf.
Cissus japonica (Thunb. ex Murray) Willd.
Cissus japonica var. mollis (Wall. ex M.A. Lawson) Planch.
Cissus tenuifolia F. Heyne ex Planch.
Cissus cyanocarpa Miq.
Cissus leucocarpa Blume
Cissus vagans Carrière
Columella japonica Craib [Illegitimate]
Columella japonica (Thunb. ex Murray) Merr.
Vitis mollis Wall. ex M.A. Lawson
Vitis mollis Wall.
Vitis japonica Thunb. ex Murray
Vitis japonica Thunb.
Vitis leucocarpa Hayata
Vitis tenuifolia (F. Heyne ex Planch.) Laws in Hook.f.
Ref. and suggested reading:
www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-2706541
www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?410986
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayratia_japonica
floraofsingapore.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/cayratia-japonica/
ROMANIA - Cocor Spa Hotel
Situated only 50 metres from the beach in the summer resort Neptun-Olimp, Cocor Spa Hotel provides excellent facilities to spend an unforgettable vacation.
The hotel rooms have warm colour tones and a calming ambience, boasting delightful garden views or a panoramic view of the outdoor pool.
Unwind and enjoy the natural healing effects of the sea and nature. The individual spa packages will help you to eliminate stress, to feel the detoxification effects, and to rediscover beauty.
Romania is an interesting country to visit, whether you want to relax at one of the attractive resorts or explore the ancient culture with well-preserved traditions and folklore.
Hotel Rooms: 242.
Hotel Facilities
General
Restaurant, Bar, 24-Hour Front Desk, Garden, Terrace, Non-Smoking Rooms, Rooms/Facilities for Disabled Guests, Elevator, Safety Deposit Box, Heating, Luggage Storage, Shops in Hotel, Airconditioning.
Activities
Sauna, Fitness Centre, Spa & Wellness Centre, Massage, Children's Playground, Jacuzzi, Turkish/Steam Bath, Hammam, Indoor Swimming Pool, Outdoor Swimming Pool.
Services
Meeting/Banquet Facilities, Business Centre, Laundry, Breakfast in the Room, Ironing Service, Currency Exchange, Souvenirs/Gift Shop, Shoe Shine, Car Rental, Tour Desk, Fax/Photocopying, Ticket Service, ATM/Cash Machine on site.
Internet
Wireless internet is available in the entire hotel and is free of charge.
Guest Parking
Free private parking is possible on site.
Hotel Policies
These are general hotel policies. As they may vary per room type; please also check the room description.
Check-in
14:00 - 00:00 hours
Check-out
11:00 - 12:00 hours
Cancellation
If cancelled up to 1 day before the date of arrival, no fee will be charged.
If cancelled later or in case of no-show, the first night will be charged.
Children and extra beds
All children from 1 to 5 years stay free of charge for extra beds.
All children from 5 to 12 years are charged 25 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
All further older children or adults are charged 35 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
Maximum capacity of extra beds/babycots in a room is 1.
Pets
Pets are not allowed.
Accepted credit cards
Visa, Euro/Mastercard
The hotel reserves the right to pre-authorise credit cards prior to arrival.
Food & beverage
The eating venues at the Cocor Spa Hotel have a distinguished atmosphere, serving refined dishes and beverages, optionally on the green terrace.
Sample traditional Romanian and international food at the Mon Jardin Restaurant, where you can dine in a pleasant ambience while listening to the live band. Mon Jardin seats up to 400 people, it is open from 07:00 to 23:00 and has a non-smoking area.
Sip a delicious cocktail or get a quick snack at the pool bar (open from 09:00 to 19:00) and the lobby bar, which is open 24 hours.
ROMANIA - Cocor Spa Hotel
Situated only 50 metres from the beach in the summer resort Neptun-Olimp, Cocor Spa Hotel provides excellent facilities to spend an unforgettable vacation.
The hotel rooms have warm colour tones and a calming ambience, boasting delightful garden views or a panoramic view of the outdoor pool.
Unwind and enjoy the natural healing effects of the sea and nature. The individual spa packages will help you to eliminate stress, to feel the detoxification effects, and to rediscover beauty.
Romania is an interesting country to visit, whether you want to relax at one of the attractive resorts or explore the ancient culture with well-preserved traditions and folklore.
Hotel Rooms: 242.
Hotel Facilities
General
Restaurant, Bar, 24-Hour Front Desk, Garden, Terrace, Non-Smoking Rooms, Rooms/Facilities for Disabled Guests, Elevator, Safety Deposit Box, Heating, Luggage Storage, Shops in Hotel, Airconditioning.
Activities
Sauna, Fitness Centre, Spa & Wellness Centre, Massage, Children's Playground, Jacuzzi, Turkish/Steam Bath, Hammam, Indoor Swimming Pool, Outdoor Swimming Pool.
Services
Meeting/Banquet Facilities, Business Centre, Laundry, Breakfast in the Room, Ironing Service, Currency Exchange, Souvenirs/Gift Shop, Shoe Shine, Car Rental, Tour Desk, Fax/Photocopying, Ticket Service, ATM/Cash Machine on site.
Internet
Wireless internet is available in the entire hotel and is free of charge.
Guest Parking
Free private parking is possible on site.
Hotel Policies
These are general hotel policies. As they may vary per room type; please also check the room description.
Check-in
14:00 - 00:00 hours
Check-out
11:00 - 12:00 hours
Cancellation
If cancelled up to 1 day before the date of arrival, no fee will be charged.
If cancelled later or in case of no-show, the first night will be charged.
Children and extra beds
All children from 1 to 5 years stay free of charge for extra beds.
All children from 5 to 12 years are charged 25 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
All further older children or adults are charged 35 % of the room stay per night for extra beds.
Maximum capacity of extra beds/babycots in a room is 1.
Pets
Pets are not allowed.
Accepted credit cards
Visa, Euro/Mastercard
The hotel reserves the right to pre-authorise credit cards prior to arrival.
Food & beverage
The eating venues at the Cocor Spa Hotel have a distinguished atmosphere, serving refined dishes and beverages, optionally on the green terrace.
Sample traditional Romanian and international food at the Mon Jardin Restaurant, where you can dine in a pleasant ambience while listening to the live band. Mon Jardin seats up to 400 people, it is open from 07:00 to 23:00 and has a non-smoking area.
Sip a delicious cocktail or get a quick snack at the pool bar (open from 09:00 to 19:00) and the lobby bar, which is open 24 hours.
Benefits:
Soothing, calming, congested-skin relief.
Ingredients
Unrefined Organic Sea salt (sodium chloride), baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate), oatmeal (Avena sativa), french green clay (Illite), mint leaf (Mentha arvensis) peppermint essential oil (Mentha arvensis) spearmint essential oil (Mentha spicata) Tea Treel oil (Melaleuca alternafolia).
Application
Body Scrub: Wet your body, pour some powder on your palm, and start to scrub on areas you desire. For normal skin, scrub once a week. For dry skin, scrub once in two weeks.
Body Mask: To relieve skin problems like pimples, acnes on your skin, pour powder into a bowl and form a paste by adding drops of water and lather into a soft paste. The paste should be slightly sticky. Paste the masque on the affected area, back neck or arms. Leave it for 15 minutes to 20 minutes, rinse with water.
Bath use in a tub or basin/bucket: To soothe, deodorize & detoxify; dispense 2 tablespoons of herbal bath powder directly into freshly-drawn bath. Get naked. Sit back; breathe deep as to enjoy the soothing aromatic symphony. Repeat as often as needed. Re-seal package after use. To maintain products botanical integrity store in cool, dry place. Always recycle.
All three of our Herbal Bath Powders are gentle enough to use as scrub on the body before entering the tub. It will gently exfoliate, while drawing toxins out of the skin. Perhaps the best idea is to enter the tub, get wet, allow a few minutes for your pores to open, then mix up about a tablespoon with a little water to make a paste. Stand up in the tub and massage the paste all over your body. You can continue to stand there for a few minutes if you like or plunge back in the tub and enjoy this relaxing botanical soup. Good Stuff!
General Product Introduction: Sensatia Botanicals Bath Powders feature pure, unrefined, organic sea salt from Bali's pristine, still-rugged east coast. Along these quiet white sand beaches the sun drenched sea water is channeled through the myriad of sea grasses into canal systems (made of tree trunks) for evaporation. The sun and wind evaporate the ocean water, leaving the mineral rich brine. This live mixture is briskly stimulated by the salt farmer until the salt crystals form. The sea salt is then gathered by hand with wooden tools and sun-dried a final time. This natural, ancient harvesting method preserves the minerals and vitality of this organic treasure.
Bathing in a sea salt bath is recommended for skin diseases, rheumatism, joint diseases, after operations, gynecological problems, and for children prone to infection to strengthen the immune system and detoxify the body. The bath should be close to body temperature and should be 20-30 minutes long. During this time the body reaches the same salt concentration (inside and outside) as that of a pre-natal state. Minerals penetrate the skin in the form of ions stimulating natural cell growth. Bio-energetic weak points will be balanced and the body's own energy flow will be re-activated. The detoxifying effect after a sea salt bath can be compared to a 3 day fast.
Further observations show that the best sea salt bath results have been at the changes of the moon. At full moon one can expect optimal assimilation and conversely at new moon one can expect optimal detoxification.
We also include baking soda to soothe and neutralize itchy skin, oatmeal to smooth and calm, French superfine clay to draw out toxins, & flowers & spices for their natural botanical benefits.
Specific To This Product: We also add peppermint, spearmint and tea tree essential oils. Peppermint essential oil fights bacterial infection and reduces the oiliness present with acne and blemishes. It stimulates circulation and helps enliven dull, dry skin. Peppermint oil leaves skin feeling soft and silky. It also regulates and normalizes oily skin and hair. It constricts capillaries and minimizes the redness of broken capillaries and varicose veins. Peppermint oil leaves the skin feeling soft and silky.
Spearmint essential oil shares many of the same properties as Peppermint. With its fresh, piercing, minty-sweet aroma spearmint is milder than peppermint and better for children. Spearmint is helpful for the respiratory system. It is anti-inflammatory and active in expelling catarrh. It is good for both chronic and acute bronchitis. It has a calming effect also on the digestive system. It will increase bile production and calm digestive upsets. It is a good essential oil to use on indigestion. It may mitigate some of the effects of travel and seasickness. Spearmint impacts effectively on cystitis, general nervous upset and skin healing. It reduces breast milk production and combats hardening of the breasts. It stimulates a tired mind and helps with headaches, migraines, nervous strain, fatigue and stress. It can relieve the itching of pruritus; and helps with acne, dermatitis, congested skin and sore gums. The ancient Greeks used spearmint to scent their bath water.
Tea tree oil (Melaleuca alternafolia) is known and accepted internationally as an effective, disinfectant, fungicidal, bactericidal, and virucidal. Tea tree oil is used to treat acne, sunburn, dandruff, burns, oily skin, rashes, insect bites, cuts, infected wounds and used regularly will maintain clear, healthy skin.
GOVERNOR TOMBLIN DISCUSSES PROGRESS IN FIGHT
AGAINST SUBSTANCE ABUSE WITH ADVISORY COUNCIL
Announces $1.3 million in lawsuit settlement
funds to support efforts to curb epidemic
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (December 2, 2016) - Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin today met with members of the Governor's Advisory Council on Substance Abuse (GACSA), which he established in 2011, to discuss progress made in recent years in West Virginia's fight against substance abuse. Since it was created, GACSA has coordinated 20 rounds of community meetings in six regions across the state and helped drive major policy reforms to help curb this epidemic.
"When I established this advisory council, my vision was to create a community-driven approach to tackling our substance abuse epidemic," said Gov. Tomblin. "By working from the ground up, we have been able to address needs in specific regions across our state while making broad, statewide reforms.
"We now look at substance abuse as an illness, not a crime. We have increased access to life-saving Narcan. We've expanded and improved treatment and recovery services. And we established West Virginia's first-ever substance abuse help line, which has received more than 7,500 calls since it launched just over a year ago. This progress, and so much more, is making a difference for individuals, families, children and communities across the Mountain State."
At today's meeting, Gov. Tomblin announced that $1.3 million in funding, a result of a lawsuit settlement from drug distributors who allegedly helped contribute to West Virginia's substance abuse problem, will be used to support projects in the state ranging from residential treatment and recovery services for women, to detox/crisis stabilization beds for youths and adults and law enforcement-assisted diversion.
In addition, he shared that the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources has submitted a substance abuse disorder demonstration waiver for approval to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. If approved, this waiver would improve quality of care and outcomes for Medicaid enrollees with substance abuse disorder issues.
"Our work to bring more resources to West Virginia has not lessened, and we will continue bringing in everything we can to fuel our work to curb this far-reaching problem," Gov. Tomblin said. "Together, we are giving West Virginians back their lives, their independence, their families - and their hope."
Snapshot of Substance Abuse Resources & Programs in West Virginia
The 844-HELP4WV call line is available 24 hours a day, seven days per week and accepts phone calls and text messages. The website - www.help4wv.com - includes a live online chat application.
Substance abuse prevention services are provided in all 55 counties in West Virginia. More than 130 crisis detoxification beds in residential treatment facilities exist across the state with more sites under development. An additional 118 beds are designated for short-term, post-partum, youth and long-term treatment. Nearly 700 beds are available to those seeking help and support at peer and provider recovery homes and facilities. See map here.
The West Virginia Division of Corrections offers programs focused on combatting substance abuse in the state's prisons and jails. Nine Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) units in correctional centers across the state provide six-month to one-year courses of inpatient treatment with a total reach of 491 inmates. The RSAT model has been expanded to regional facilities.
Through a pilot program overseen by the DHHR, medication assisted treatment is available for paroling or discharging inmates who have completed substance abuse programs and show motivation for continuing treatment. This pilot program has been expanded through legislation passed this year and has begun development in regional jails.
Both prisons and jails offer outpatient substance abuse counseling programs, including 12-step peer-to-peer programs and a 39-session program focusing on addiction education, transitional skills for recovery and relapse prevention.
Photos available for media use. All photos should be attributed “Photo courtesy of Office of the Governor.”
Dr. McCombs’ Candida Plan (formerly The Lifeforce Plan) was born in 1992 while I was practicing in Chicago. I was working with several patients who had come to see me for help with multiple symptoms and health concerns.
In my book I talk about Elizabeth. She told me that she hadn’t felt well in many years and was living, as she put it, “half a life.” During her first office visit she described aching joints, almost daily headaches, irregular menstruation, digestive difficulties, steady weight gain, food allergies, insomnia, and increasing periods of depression. She was embarrassed that the parade of medical specialists she had seen over the years had come to think of her as a hypochondriac. After all she had so many symptoms, but no consistent diagnosis.
There was also a patient who had been suffering from pain in her right arm and wrist for approximately 6 months. Chiropractic care was helpful but it never relieved the pain completely. Her medical doctor had recommended drugs, which didn’t do much other than causing nausea and drowsiness.
A year earlier, in the winter of 1991, I had lost my father to a brain tumor. Although painful, his death was the spark that ignited me to study and research the physiology of the body, beyond just performing chiropractic adjustments. I knew how incapacitating and frustrating it was to be thrown into the medical system and watch the health of a loved one progressively deteriorate while nobody had an answer.
When these patients came to see me I was determined to explore their issues from a different point of view and not just dismiss them as if it was “all in their heads”. Through testing we determined that both were suffering from a fungal candida infection. At the time I didn’t really know much about Candida and the people that I had studied under didn’t really have much of a definition or working knowledge of it either.
I began looking at what would be the most effective natural approach. Through extensive research, and supported by their willingness to walk this path of discovery with me, a detoxification protocol emerged which would later be known as The Lifeforce Plan.
Within a couple of weeks, their symptoms began fading away as the fungus was eliminated and balance began to be restored in their bodies. In addition to eliminating the pain, they both experienced more energy, better sleep, weight loss, and a lessening of arthritic symptoms in their bodies.
I started using the plan on other patients with similar complaints and they also experienced the same successful results. Over time, I saw how the plan was able to increase the overall health and well-being of all of my patients.
These results inspired me even more to keep researching and trying different approaches in treating the body’s imbalances. The same enthusiasm I felt then I feel today and perhaps even more so.
The more I study the more I realize the vastness of what’s still left to discover about the miracles the body can perform when given the appropriate care, tools and support. This conviction and the ability to provide answers where there were only questions before, is the spark that continually ignites my dedication to remain in a constant process of learning and discovery, never settled in my ways and past experience.
The Candida Plan reveals a path to transformation, and that is why it is at the heart of my practice as a physician.
Visit for more: www.candidaplan.com/
152,975 items / 1,189,639 views
I have been rigorously without a break shooting Chhath Puja on Juhu Beach since many years , this is one cultural feast connecting my thread of Hope and Hindutva a message of Peace to the migrants from Bihar in Mumbai..
The colors of Bihar in hope harmony are visible as a unilateral essence of mutual coexistence of the Biharis in Mumbai the state of Maharashtra that they have unduly adopted as home..and work effeciently and progressively for its development and growth contributing to its prsperity.
About Chhath Puja From Wikipedia
Chhath (Hindi: छठ, also called Dala Chhath) is an ancient Hindu festival dedicated to Surya, the Hindu Sun God, Surya, also known as Surya Shashti.[1] The Chhath Puja is performed in order to thank Surya for sustaining life on earth and to request the granting of certain wishes. The Sun, considered the god of energy and of the life-force, is worshiped during the Chhath fesival to promote well-being, prosperity and progress. In Hindu mythology, Sun worship is believed to help cure a variety of diseases, including leprosy, and helps ensure the longevity and prosperity of family members, friends, and elders.
The rituals of the festival are rigorous and are observed over a period of four days. They include holy bathing, fasting and abstaining from drinking water (Vratta), standing in water for long periods of time, and offering prashad (prayer offerings) and aragh to the setting and rising sun.
Although it is observed most elaborately in Bihar, Jharkhand and the Terai regions of Nepal in modern times, and is more prevalent in areas where migrants from those areas have a presence, it is celebrated in all regions and major urban centers in India. The festival is celebrated in the regions including but not exclusive to the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Gujarat,[2] Delhi,[3] Mumbai[4] and Mauritius.[5]
Chhath puja is performed on Kartik Shukala Shashti, which is the sixth day of the month of Kartik in the Hindu Calendar. This falls typically in the month of October or November in the Gregorian Calendar.
It is also celebrated in the summer (March–April), on Chaitra Shashti, some days after Holi; this event is called Chaiti Chhath.[6] The former is more popular because winter is the usual festive season in North India, and Chhath, being an arduous observance, requiring the worshipers to fast without water for around 36 hours continuously, is easier to undertake in the Indian winters.
It is believed that the ritual of Chhath puja may even predate the ancient Vedas texts, as the Rigveda contains hymns worshiping the Sun god and describes similar rituals. The rituals also find reference in the Sanskrit epic poem Mahābhārata in which Draupadi is depicted as observing similar rites.
In the poem, Draupadi and the Pandavas, rulers of Hastinapur (modern Delhi), performed the Chhath ritual on the advice of noble sage Dhaumya. Through her worship of the Sun God, Draupadi was not only able to solve her immediate problems, but also helped the Pandavas later regain their lost kingdom.
It is also believed that Chhath was started by Karna, the son of Surya Putra Karna who ruled over the Anga Desh (present day Bhagalpur district of Bihar) during the Mahabharat Age. He was a great warrior and fought against the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra War.
Its yogic/scientific history dates back to the Vedic times. The rishis of yore used this method to remain without any external intake of food as they were able to obtain energy directly from the sun's rays. This was done through the Chhath method.[8]
[edit] Rituals and traditions
Chhath is a ritual bathing festival that follows a period of abstinence and ritual segregation of the worshiper from the main household for four days. During this period, the worshiper observes ritual purity, and sleeps on the floor on a single blanket.
This is the only holy festival which has no involvement of any pandit (priest). The devotees offer their prayers to the setting sun and then the rising sun in celebrating its glory as the cycle of birth starts with death. It is seen as the most glorious form of Sun worship.
Bihar has a number of Sun temples, flanked by a surajkund or sacred pool of the Sun, forming a popular venue for the celebration of this festival.
The main worshipers, called Parvaitin (from Sanskrit parv, meaning 'occasion' or 'festival'), are usually women. However, a large number of men also observe this festival. The parvaitin pray for the well-being of their family, for prosperity and for offspring. Once a family starts performing Chhatt Puja, it is their duty to perform it every year and to pass it on to the following generations. The festival is skipped only if there happens to be a death in the family that year.
The prasad offerings include sweets and fruit offered in small bamboo winnows. The food is strictly vegetarian and it is cooked without salt, onions or garlic. Emphasis is put on maintaining the purity of the food.
[edit] The four days Of Chhath Puja
Day 1:
Nahakha (literally, bathe and eat):
On the first day of Chhath Puja, the devotees take a dip, preferably in the holy river Ganges, and carry home the holy water of the river Ganges to prepare the offerings. The house and surroundings are scrupulously cleaned. The parvaitin allows themselves only one meal on this day.
Day 2: Kharna (the day before Chhath):
On Panchami, the day before Chhath, the parvaitins observe a fast for the whole day, which ends in the evening a little after sunset. Just after the worship of earth, the offerings of Rasiao-kheer (rice delicacy), puris (deep-fried puffs of wheat flour) and bananas, are distributed among family and friends. From this day onwards, for the next 36 hours, the parvaitin goes on a fast without water.
Day 3: Chhath Sanjhiya Arghya (evening offerings):
The day is spent preparing the prasad (offerings) at home. On the eve of this day, the entire household accompanies the parvaitins to a riverbank, pond or a common large water body to make the offerings (Aragh) to the setting sun. It is during this phase of Chhath Puja that the devotees offer prayers to the setting sun.
The occasion is almost a carnival. Besides the parvaitin, there are friends and family, and numerous participants and onlookers, all willing to help and receive the blessings of the worshipper. Ritual rendition of regional folk songs, carried on through oral transmission from mothers and mothers-in-law to daughters and daughters-in-law, are sung on this occasion.
The folk songs sung on the evening of Chhath reflect the culture, social structure, mythology and history of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Nowadays, modern Chhath songs, largely Bollywood film remixes, have caught on, but the old tradition still goes strong with a great degree of sanctity. The three main linguistic regions of Bihar (the Maithili, the Magadhi, and the Bhojpuri), and all the various dialects associated with these, have different folk songs; but have an underlying unity in their dedicated to Chhath. The minor nuances of the Chhath rituals, such as in the Kharna ritual, vary from region to region and across families, but still there is a fundamental similarity.
Kosi: On the night of day three, a colorful event of Kosi is held. Here, lighted earthen lamps are kept under a canopy of five sugarcane sticks. The five sticks signify the human body made of Panchatattva (the five great elements - earth, water, fire, air and ether). This is a symbolic ritual in Chhath Puja, performed especially in those families where marriage or childbirth has taken place recently. The lighted lamps signify the solar energy sustaining the human being. People perform this ritual at home, during late evening on day three after making the offering to the setting sun. After that, it is done at the banks of the river on day four before making the offerings to the rising sun.
Day 4: Parna (the day after Chhath)
Bihaniya Aragh (next morning offerings): On the final day of Chhath Puja, the devotees, along with family and friends, go to the riverbank before sunrise, in order to make the offerings (Aragh) to the rising sun. The festival ends with the breaking of the fast by the parvaitin and friends visiting the houses of the devotees to receive the prashad. Witnessing Chhath being celebrated at the crack of the dawn on a river bank is a beautiful, elating spiritual experience connecting the modern Indian to his ancient cultural roots.
[edit] Yogic Viewpoint
There is also a yogic process of Chhath that may have been associated with the religious observance of Chhath puja, but the current religious observers of Chhath puja do not refer to the yogic process and may not even be aware of it.
[edit] The Yogic Philosophy of Chhath
According to yogic philosophy, the physical bodies of all the living organisms are highly sophisticated energy conducting channels. The solar bio-electricity starts flowing in the human body when it is exposed to solar radiations of specific wavelengths. Under particular physical and mental conditions, the absorption and conduction of this solar-bio-electricity increases. The processes and the rituals of the Chhath puja aim at preparing the body and the mind of the Vratti (devotee) for the process of cosmic solar energy infusion.[citation needed]
The scientific process similar to Chhath was used by the Rishis of yore for carrying out their austerities without any intake of solid or liquid diet. Using a process similar to the Chhath puja, they were able to absorb the energy needed for sustenance directly from the sun, instead of taking it indirectly through food and water.
The retina is a kind of photoelectric material, which emits subtle energy when exposed to light. Hence, very subtle electric energy starts flowing from the retina. This energy (photo-bio-electricity) is transmitted from the retina to the pineal gland by the optic nerves connecting the retina to the pineal gland, leading to its activation. The pineal gland is in close proximity with the pituitary and hypothalamus glands (together, three glands are called Triveni) due to which, the energy generated in this process starts impacting these glands. Consequently, the pranic activity becomes uniform, giving the Vratti good health and a calm mind.
[edit] Stages of Chhath (Conscious Photoenergization Process)
According to Yoga philosophy, the process of Chhath is divided into six stages of the Conscious Cosmic Solar Energy Infusion Technique (Conscious Photoenergization Process).[9]
Stage 1: Fasting and the discipline of cleanliness leads to detoxification of the body and mind. This stage prepares the body and mind of the Vratti (devotee) to receive the cosmic solar energy.
Stage 2: Standing in a water body with half the body (navel deep) in the water minimizes the leak of energy and helps the prana (psychic energy) to move up the sushumna (psychic channel in the spine).
Stage 3: Cosmic Solar Energy enters the Vratti’s pineal, pituitary and hypothalamus glands (Triveni complex) through the retina and optic nerves.
Stage 4: Activation of Triveni tri-glandular complex (pineal, pituitary and hypothalamus).
Stage 5: A kind of polarization of happens in the spine, which results in the Vratti’s gross and subtle bodies getting transformed into a cosmic powerhouse. This can also lead to the awakening of the latent psychic energy popularly known as the Kundalini Shakti.
Stage 6: The body of the Vratti (devotee) becomes a channel which conducts, recycles and transmits the energy into the entire universe.
[edit] Benefits of Chhath process
The Chhath process results in detoxification
The Chhath process stresses mental discipline. The discipline of mental purity is a result of this work. By employing a number of rituals, the vrattis focus on maintaining the cleanliness of the offerings and environment. Cleanliness is the most dominant thought that prevails in the minds of the devotees during Chhath.ÀÀÀÀÀÀ
This has a great detoxification effect on the body and the mind as mental moods can result in biochemical changes. Now comes the physical detoxification. The fasting paves the way for detoxification at a material level.
Detoxification helps in regularizing the flow of prana and makes the person more energetic. The natural immune system of the body spends much of its energy in fighting the toxins present in the body. By using the detoxification methods such as pranayam, meditation, yoga and Chhath practices, the amount of toxins present in the body can be reduced to a great extent. Thus, with reduction in the amount of toxins, the expenditure of energy also reduces and you feel more energetic. It improves the appearance of the skin. The eyesight can improve and the ageing process of the body slows down.
[edit] Benefits of Chhath Puja
Photo-electro-chemical effect: physical benefits
1.The Chhath practice improves the immunity of the Vratti’s body.
2.Antiseptic effect: Safe radiation of sunlight can help cure fungal and bacterial infections of the skin.
3.Raktavardhak (increase in fighting power of blood): As a consequence of the practice of Chhath, the energy infused in the blood stream improves the performance of white blood cells.
4.The solar energy has a great influence on the glands, which results in balanced secretion of hormones.
5.Energy requirements are met by the solar energy directly. This will further detoxify the body.
Photo-electro-psychic effects: mental benefits
1.A state of creative calmness will prevails in the mind.
2.To a great extent, all negative responses have their origin in the disturbed flow of prana. With the pranic flow regularized, the duration and frequency of occurrences of anger, jealousy, and other negative emotions will be reduced.
3.With patient and sincere practice, the psychic powers like intuition, healing, and telepathy awaken. This depends on the concentration with which the practice is undertaken.
[edit] Daily sun meditation (Chhath process)
In the fast lifestyle of the present times, it may not be possible to follow the Chhath process very often. The detoxification can be undertaken through pranayam, yoga, meditation and Conscious Photoenergization Process known as Chhath Dhyan Sadhana (CDS).
Chhath Dhyan Sadhana (CDS): Conscious Photoenergization Process
Assume a comfortable position (standing or sitting) with back and spine straight. With eyes closed, face the Sun. Inhale completely, as slowly as possible. Do not strain in making the breathing slow. Maintain your comfort level. As you breath in, visualize (feelingly experience) the cosmic solar energy entering through your eyes and moving to the pineal gland through optic nerves and charging the pineal–pituitary–hypothalamus complex. Now, as you exhale, visualize the cosmic solar energy flowing down the pineal gland and spreading throughout your body with a revitalizing effect.
Thus, the process starts with inhalation and ends in exhalation. This constitutes one round. It is suggested to start with five rounds (two minutes), and increase if time permits. On completion of the practice, thank the Sun for bestowing upon you the life giving solar energy. Thereafter, sit quietly for a minute, observing the good things in the environment around.
CDS should be practiced within one-hour window after sunrise or within one-hour window before sunset. Any person of any age can practice CDS. If you wish to practice CDS at any time other than sunrise or sunset, do not practice it in front of Sun. You can however, practice CDS in a room. Even a bed-ridden person can try and consciously draw in the solar energy while lying on the bed. With regular practice, he/she will notice an improvement in physical and mental health. For those who are not comfortable facing the sun, they can practice the technique in any room having proper ventilation. If you have time, you can also practice twice a day. Do not hurry in increasing the number of rounds, as there is no shortcut to success in this method. The nervous system of the body takes its own time in adapting and to be able to receive the energy.
Significance of emphasis on sunrise and Sunset periods
Only sunrise and sunset are the periods during which the majority of humans can safely obtain the solar energy directly from the Sun. However, there may be some exceptions. That is why, in Chhath puja, there is a tradition of offering Arghya to the Sun in late evening and in early morning. During these phases (one hour window after sunrise and before sunset), the ultraviolet radiation levels remain in safe limits.
OM Times Magazine : The Healing Power of Ayurveda
Ayurveda, the science of life, was a medicine practiced in India since 5000 years ago. It is gaining prominence in modern day as there are no side effects of Ayurveda. More and more people are showing faith & belief in this holistic and alternative medicine.
Ayurvedic medicine is based on the concept of 3 doshas or Tridosha, Vata (the lightest), Kapha (heaviest) and Pitta (medium built). Doshas are mainly the "force" or "faults" in the basic built up of our body and can go easily out of order or balance causing a disorder in the mind and body. Doshas are similar to the traditional western idea of the three basic body types – ectomorph ( leaner & delicately made), mesomorph ( built compact & muscular ), and endomorph ( built stocky). Ideologies say that most of us are built by these combinations.
The Ayurvedic philosophy preaches that everything in the world is made up of the tridosha, and these doshas combine 2 of the 5 elements of the earth, vata is ether and air; pitta is fire and water, Kapha is water and earth. A human body is prone to ailments and diseases when any one of these doshas in the body falls out of balance or is disordered. Bringing a balance to these doshas through ayurveda brings a balance to mind, body & soul and hence the truth, "science of life".
Ayurveda treatment recommends counseling, meditation, yoga, ayurvedic oil massages, healthy living, healthy eating and natural ayurvedic medicine and remedies to help the mind, body & soul achieve balance. Unlike anti-biotic medicine ayurveda does not kill disease bound organisms by remedies the ailment by restricting the growth of these harmful organisms and ultimately gets rid of them from the body forever, this method in ayurveda is called detoxification where the harmful toxins of the body are eliminated, never to return.
Ayurveda can treat every kind of disease existing in the world. It can also give longevity to humans suffering from cancer.
Common Ailments which can be treated with Ayurveda
Allergies Diabetes Insomnia
Alzheimer's Digestive Complaints IBS
Arthritis Depression Menopause
Asthma Eye Diseases Multiple Sclerosis
Ano-Rectal Disorders Eczema Obesity
Addictions Eczema Osteoporosis
Bronchitis Fibromyalgia Paralysis
Bulimia Fistula Pre-Menstrual Syndrome
Cardio Vascular Diseases Cervical Spondylitis Psychological Disorders
Chronic Fatigue Gastritis Prostate Problems
Chronic Pain Hemorrhoids/Piles Sinusitis
Colitis Migraines Skin Ailments
Constipation Hypertension Ulcers
Hypothyroidism Infertility Degenerative Arthritis
Ayurveda has magnificent treatment and therapies for renewing the body & mind. According to ayurveda if the mind is deeply centered and settled, the body will naturally heal faster and age slower. Most of the treatments involve massages with the use of therapeutic oils and decoctions prepared from natural medicinal herbs. These oils are prepared using 50 or more ingredients and have a profound healing effect. For eg: Mahanarayana thailam, a famous ayurvedic oil, meant for panchakarma and rejuvenation treatment creates a remarkable healing effect when it is applied to specific points by our trained therapists during a session of massage.
One of the famous Ayurvedic treatment is panchakarma also known as detoxification. Panchakarma includes 5 major cleansing procedures which are all meant to purify the whole body by the elimination of the accumulated toxins. The 5 basic procedures or "shodhanas" are Vamana (Emesis), Virchana (Purgation), Basti (oil & decoction enema), Nasya (Nasal administration) and Raktamokshana (cleansing the blood).
The other treatments are Abhangya, Shirodhara, spine and joint care, rejuvenation, stress management, anti aging & beauty treatments.
Ayurvedic treatments are also used to cure lifestyle diseases like Diabetes, Hypertension, High Cholesterol and all associated complications. These treatments given with yoga, pranayama & meditation assure a healthy life.
Yoga Journal
For more than 30 years, one magazine has reported on the expansion and revolution of the yoga movement. Yoga Journal has been there, serving yoga teachers and the ever-growing yoga community. Like the community, we've evolved over the years, and now are proud to present yogajournal.com–an interactive, in-depth, yoga community website.
Article Courtesy Humanity Healing :
Artwork Courtesy of Deb Graves :
tags:
ayurveda, debgraves, healing, yoga, wellness, empowerment, nature, omtimesmagazine, humanityheailng, sacredsapcestudio, deZengodesigns, deZengoDESIGNED, NamaspiritTN
This unique healing device has two parts: a two inch thick dome of pure crystalline Himalayan Pink Salt and a hand-crafted rosewood base that both supports the salt dome and houses two small light bulbs.
Please scroll down at page`s end for product pictures
Himalayan salt works in a number of ways:
When the Himalayan Salt Detoxer is warmed, the salt helps release negative ions that are anti-microbial, air purifying, skin purifying and that promote a sense of well being. Purifying the air by binding positive ions helps dust and allergens to settle.
The warmth of the stone causes the feet to sweat, allowing the salt to purify and cleanse. Toxins are pulled out and minerals pulled in, thus decreasing unhealthy acidity. This also helps ease tiredness, aching, and symptoms of stress caused by over-exertion.
As well, the Himalayan Salt Detoxer softens and gently exfoliates the skin as it binds with the salt through the moisture on the hands and feet.
It is the source of many vital nutrients. Himalayan salt can contain as many as 84 natural minerals vital to health that can be absorbed through the skin.
The Himalayan Salt Detoxer helps to re-attune the body to the Schumann resonance, sometimes called the heart beat of Mother Earth which helps ease nervousness, insomnia and lack of concentration while helping to clear cancer causing free radicals from the body.
How to Use the Himalayan Crystal Salt Detoxer
The Himalayan Salt Detoxer is used for foot detoxification, localized skin care treatments, manicures and pedicures, among many uses. For instance, some people use it:
For manicures or pedicures. Rest one hand or foot on the Himalayan Salt Detoxer while attending to the other hand or foot.
To re-invigorate tired feet and legs after work or exercise.
To lessen the pain of carpal tunnel or arthritic conditions.
How Long the Himalayan Salt Detoxer Should Be Used for Each Session?
Initially we recommend 10 to 20 minute sessions. When this is comfortable, an individual may progress to 30 minutes to a maximum of 60 minutes. It can be used for one long session or for a few shorter sessions during the day. Please discontinue use if there is any discomfort.
How Do I Turn It On and Adjust the Temperature?
Heat is controlled by using the UL-approved dimmer switch. Before using the Himalayan Salt Detoxer turn the dial on the dimmer switch to the maximum level for 10-20 minutes. Then, once the salt is a comfortable temperature, turn the switch back to the mid-point. Periodic temperature adjustment of the unit, by rotating the dimmer control switch up or down, may be needed. This will maintain the preferred level of warmth. Salt is a temperature sink (which means it holds heat very well), but temperature changes are not immediate so please take care, especially if you feel the dome is too hot. Even when removed from the base it will feel warm for a number of minutes.
Are There Any Precautions Before I Begin to Use the Himalayan Salt Detoxer?
We firmly believe in the benefits of the Himalayan Salt Detoxer, but we make no medical claims to cure, treat or prevent any kind of disease. Before using the Himalayan Salt Detoxer please seek appropriate medical advice if you have symptoms that are of concern. Such concerns may include:
Pregnancy
Already being under medical supervision
Currently taking medication for a pre-existing condition
Are diabetic or have diminished sensation in your feet
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please do not use a very wet cloth as this will dissolve the salt gradually or cause it to crack.
What Should I Do If the Salt Surface Starts to Look “Crusty”?
This is usually due to the surface getting damp either from the moisture content in the air, from a hand or foot that has touched the surface or from water droplets that have gone undetected. To prevent “crusting”, the Himalayan Salt Detoxer should be wrapped in a plastic bag then sealed OR kept lit on low when not in use. To repair moisture damage, wipe off the crumbly salt and put the Detoxer on high for 30 minutes to make sure it is thoroughly dry.
For your safety:
Use only for hands or feet.
Never stand, sit on or apply full body weight to the Himalayan Salt Detoxer equipment.
Do not use if the dome is cracked or split.
Discontinue use and seek medical attention if your skin swells or becomes inflamed.
Keep away from water and places where the salt surface may come into contact with water.
Never use when the cord or plug is damaged.
If you are pregnant, under medical supervision, or taking medication, consult your physician before using the Himalayan Salt Detoxer . Not recommended for use by diabetics.
Disclaimer: We do not make any diagnosis or give medical recommendations. These products are not intended to cure heal or prevent diseases. Consulting with doctor is always recommended.
________________________________________________________
Himalayan salt rock detoxification blocks. If you’ve tried the detoxifying pads, you know they can be very expensive. This is not only a cost saving alternative, because the salt crystal blocks have anti-bacterial properties, the whole family can use them for a healthier body.
* Warm the salt block using one of the following method.
1. Oven: 200 degrees for 5 minutes
2. Microwave: 30 seconds with 5 seconds increments to achieve desired temperature
* Place a towel on the floor and put the blocks side-by-side on top of the towel.
* As you can sit down in a comfortable chair, rest your bare feet directly on the salt block.
* 15 minutes treatment is all that is needed. Repeat once daily, as desired.
Cleaning
Simply wipe the Himalayan Salt Block with the towel that the Salt Block rests on. No additional cleaning is required, since these salt blocks are antiseptic and hypo-allergenic.
Caution
Use caution when warming the Himalayan Salt Blocks. Test the temperature of the salt block prior to use. If temperature is too hot set the bock aside for 15-20 minutes to cool. Repeat this procedure as necessary. Do not allow children to use this product without adult supervision.
Each foot-shaped block comes in a terrycloth sock; the set arrives in a cotton canvas carrying case with zipper top and handles. Each block is 4 ½” wide, 11″ long, 1″ thick.
If you are pregnant, under medical supervision, or taking medication, consult your physician before using the Himalayan Salt Detoxer . Not recommended for use by diabetics.
Disclaimer: We do not make any diagnosis or give medical recommendations. These products are not intended to cure heal or prevent diseases. Consulting with doctor is always recommended.
SPORTS604 VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS 2010
Sponsored by Red Bull & Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant
photos by Ron Sombion Gallery & PacBlue Printing
About Sports604 -Basketball-Bowling, Dodgeball-Volleyball-California Kickball
"Vancouver's Fastest Growing Recreational Sports League"
Sports604 leagues aim to cover all the fundamentals of league play: structure, competitiveness, recreation, exercise and fun!
Levels range from beginners to seasoned vets. Not to mention, we do it with a bit of style. Not only do we include team t-shirts as a part of the registration fee, we love to rock in our socks to music! Yup, we crank up the volume when the whistle blows so everyone can get hyped before they play and groove while they play
.
SPORTS604 VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS 2010
Sponsored by Red Bull & Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant
photos by Ron Sombion Gallery & PacBlue Printing
About Sports604 -Basketball-Bowling, Dodgeball-Volleyball-California Kickball
"Vancouver's Fastest Growing Recreational Sports League"
Sports604 leagues aim to cover all the fundamentals of league play: structure, competitiveness, recreation, exercise and fun!
Levels range from beginners to seasoned vets. Not to mention, we do it with a bit of style. Not only do we include team t-shirts as a part of the registration fee, we love to rock in our socks to music! Yup, we crank up the volume when the whistle blows so everyone can get hyped before they play and groove while they play
.