Category Archives: December 14, 2010

Life Force Lesson #2: Rediscover The Life Cycle

Do you remember learning about the life cycle in grade school? Perhaps you were shown a circular diagram of a frog at its various stages of development. Or perhaps it was a seed sprouting roots, then sprouting stalks and leaves, then flowering, and then seeding again. Well, in the interest of expanding your worldview and coming to understand every aspect of your individual life in the context of all life, it’s time to get back to the basics of biology.

Life Is Change

Perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned from the life cycle is that all organisms are in a constant state of change. Life is always in flux, evolving or devolving according to sequences of cause and effect. Life can change for the better or for the worse, but it will never stand still. This means that every choice we make in our lives will set off a sequence of events that will ultimately have life-generating or life-deterioratingresults. No choice is perfectly neutral. Moreover, anything that attempts to suppress or obstruct the natural life cycle will set off a cycle of decay and decomposition. This, too, is the life cycle at work. That which cannot flow or grow ultimately breaks down, to make room for healthier, more sustainable life forms.

Life-Generating v. Life-Deteriorating

Everything you do has an effect. Your actions effect you, your environment, and every living being around you. In this context, I have found that life-generating and life-deteriorating are extremely helpful terms. You can apply them to every situation you find yourself in. Logically speaking, life-generating thoughts, behaviors, and actions cause life-generating effects; and life-deteriorating thoughts, behaviors, and actions cause life-deteriorating effects. Now, this may sound terribly obvious at first read, but fully taking in the meaning of this concept and applying it with focus and intention to every choice you make might take some practice before it becomes second nature to you.

For example, there are life-generating thoughts, life-generating foods, life-generating relationships, life-generating activities, life-generating occupations, life-generating ways of caring for the body, and on and on and on. Then, of course, there are the life-deteriorating ones.

Another way to think about this concept is in terms ofsustainability and unsustainability. With our increased awareness of environmental issues, we’ve come to use these terms a great deal in our household vocabulary. If it helps, you can use sustainable and unsustainable interchangeably with life-generating and life-deteriorating. Sustainability refers to practices that do not deplete or damage resources essential to life on this planet. Unsustainability refers to those practices that do deplete and cause permanent damage to our natural resources. These terms are most commonly used to describe agricultural and industrial practices, but you can apply them just as accurately to every aspect of your life such as your diet, your health, your relationships, and your work.

Author Daniel Quinn uses the terms takers (to describe members of unsustainable, life-deteriorating civilizations) and leavers (to describe those who support the interconnectedness of all planetary life). Thom Hartmann uses the terms older culture (referring to wise, indigenous, sustainable cultures) and younger culture (referring to hierarchal, greed-based societies). Taking in any of these terms, or conceptual pairings, will help to increase your perception. (For more about the differences between these two approaches to life and their effects on us all, I highly recommend reading Thom Hartmann’s book, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, as well as various books by Daniel Quinn and Derrick Jensen, especially Jensen’s A Language Older Than Words.)

Please do not misinterpret me: I’m not suggesting we should live in a black-and-white universe. I do not mean to oversimplify the world we live in; I am awed by its immeasurable range of creative expression. I am simply calling your attention to two opposing trajectories: one that results in positive change (growth and evolution) and another that results in negative change (deterioration and degeneration). Between these two polarities lie an infinite variety of choices and outcomes. Practically speaking, however, I can say this with confidence: Every choice we make will set off a series of reactions that will ultimately either vitalize or devitalize life.

The very interplay of the opposing forces of growth and decay is what makes our world so dynamic. These opposing forces are necessary in nature. Our calling is simply to learn how to read them so we can support our lives and nurture them to their fullest potential. If we learn the natural laws of cause and effect, we can use this knowledge to choose and createpositive life experiences, instead of letting experiences unfold haphazardly, without consciousness or intention.

I, personally, found it so empowering to learn that making choices that support the wellbeing of all life is the best insurance for wellbeing for the individual. When the great web of life is supported, each of our lives is enhanced, protected and supported. Think about it: when you keep your carbon footprint in check and revise your world view to support life, the air you and your loved ones breathe is more alkaline and life-generating which means your cells and theirs will be more vital, more inclined toward beauty, health and harmony, not cancer and illness. It brings well-being, open-hearted joy, beauty and real health insurance in its wake – things that money could never buy!

Whereas I was raised among a group worldview that reinforced selfishness and petty competition, it was a relief to learn that there was another way. I was put at ease in my heart when I learned I had the free will to reject that worldview and appreciate all people as equals. What an honor and privilege it is to interact with others when we can enjoy them without hierarchy. Each with his/her own unique qualities lends perspective and color to the greater human tapestry.

What a relief to see that the lens I was given was an illusion simply held in place by one group’s perspective (despite how large that group happened to be it was just ONE perspective)! It wasn’t the only perspective. Turns out it is not a life-generating one. It leads to decay – decay of the soul, decay of the cells and tissues, decay of communities, decay of our planet. It is a life-deteriorating paradigm.

After seeing my options (through increased perception), I could choose: the big-picture, life-generating approach where all humans are of equal value harmonized with my heart. That is a world that works for humans in the long and short terms. Who would choose petty, acidic, life-deteriorating competition for an illusionary spot on an illusionary hierarchy over freely conducting love and joy with our fellow man?

Consider ten choices you make today and follow their effects mentally out for the next day, week, month and year to determine if they are generating life in your world or deteriorating the fabric of your body, your relationships, the future you desire. They may include how you speak to someone, a business decision, what you eat for lunch or if you decide to get out for some fresh air or not. Notice if your choices are generally life-generating or life-deteriorating. How can you make them more life-generating?

This concludes our second lesson. In next week’s edition of The Rose Program Insider, we will build on this discussion with a closer look at what we mean by “life force energy.”

Ana’s Lazy Girl Food Tip: Easy Taco Salad

Salad to Go!

For a refreshing salad to take to work, to school, or to smuggle into a movie theater, look no farther than the produce section at your local supermarket. And I don’t mean piles of vegetables that take time to chop, peel, and grate (although we do love to prep with passion when we have the time). Most markets now carry fresh and delicious guacamole, pico de gallo, or salsa, and Belgian endive. Simply pile these dips onto organic greens, soak with fresh lemon juice (and a couple drops of Stevia, which you have stashed away in your purse or glove compartment) and scoop it all up with endive leaves for my favorite version of a taco salad.

Ana’s Sass

I am always happy to see women starting the journey of detoxification. Whatever gets your foot in the door, you can be thankful that it has brought you here. Let’s face it, most of us arrived at this point because other methods of weight loss have just not worked, and we want to look and feel our very best. We use skinny jeans, scales, mirrors, and comparisons to decide whether or not we’ve arrived, but those standards of measurement fail us again and again. It’s time to take a look at ourselves in a new light. Our bodies are not accessories. They are not symbols of wealth, status, personal power, or self-control. Being thin is not the new black.

Here’s what I’ve noticed: women throwing their bodies in front of each other like they’re the season’s hottest and most expensive handbag, or feeling inferior because their friend has a newer or better model. I’ve found myself thinking, Why can’t I have that slim-hipped, long-limbed shape that is so much more classic?! As if a body type indicates someone’s refinement or tastes.

For so long we have protested the objectification of the female body. But change starts with you and me! I will not treat my body as a status symbol or let it make me feel inferior as a person. I will not let it put me into competition with other women. My body simply moves me around the physical world in an unencumbered and joyful way. If we take the pressure off of ourselves by no longer treating the body as material possession, but instead an integral part of us, we can move forward.

 

Recipe of the Week by Natalia Rose Institute Executive Chef, Doris Choi: Fresh from the Farmer’s Market

Farmer’s Market Salad

This recipe is neutral, and will work with fresh goat feta for a protein meal, or with chopped avocado for a starch meal.

2 – 3 heirloom tomatoes, or Roma, cherry, grape, beefsteak, etc.
1 orange, peeled and sliced, and/or yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 handful yellow beans
½ bulb fennel, sliced thin
½ red onion, sliced thin
Basil to garnish

Cu-ba-mint Dressing

1 hothouse cucumber, or 2 – 3 Kirby cucumbers
2 – 3 garlic cloves, minced
Handful basil
10 sprigs mint
1 cup packed baby spinach
2 medium lemons, juiced

Blend all ingredients at high speed until creamy. Pour over salad and enjoy

 

Testimonial from Elaina

Dear Natalia,

I will start with thank you. A friend suggested your book. After several attempts to get me to read your book, I finally took a look and purchased “Raw Food Life Force Energy” and then another. It has changed my life. I had been overweight most of my live and planned on having the lap-band. Luckily, I was not a candidate and the docs recommended gastric by-pass. I knew I would not have that procedure. But I say luckily because I then knew that I would have to make the change from within and not depend upon a crutch. In addition I was turning 50 and realizing that I had to take the weight off myself and that was the impetus to change my lifestyle. So last March 2008, I started the 21 day program. My goal was to lose 50 lbs. by Aug (my 50th birthday). I have now lost 74 lbs. and would like to lose 30 more. It was much easier than I expected. This truly is a lifestyle change that has improved my health and appearance.

I am an optometrist and see most patients once a year and many of them ask me how I lost the weight. What diet did I follow? Most of them think that I had surgery. They are usually surprised when I tell them that I changed my eating habits and lifestyle. I explain to them that it is not a diet but a lifestyle. I then give them the name of your book.

It has not been the perfect journey and I do not expect it to have an end because it is the journey itself…the life force energy that propels me forward. Thank you and I continue to learn and by the way…I look terrific, feel terrific and people have noticed the “glow”….and I know it is the “good vibrations”…

Most sincerely,
Elaina

Glossary Term: Human Food

Human food: This might seem like an obvious term. Not so! People tend to assume that whatever is sold as food is human food. In fact, truly human food is a much shorter list. Food that is truly human implies that we would consume it, seamlessly assimilate and conduct its nutrients and then fully eliminate what remains through our bowel, skin and other eliminative organs. The foods that fit that bill are raw fruits and vegetables and their juices, raw young coconuts and mother’s milk when we are babies.

There are many other foods outside this category that we can consume and you are even expected to consume even though they are not so purely perfect. Some, like cooked vegetables are harmless and then there are others that only mildly compromise our systems such as raw goat and sheep’s cheeses, wild fish, organic free-range eggs, some whole and sprouted grains and even occasionally wild game, but they do run the risk of sticking slightly in the cells and tissues and taxing the organs to greater and lesser degrees based on how we combine them and what our intestinal fortitude is. But true human food is a narrow category and not what most people think it is.

These lesser offensive substances mentioned above should be consumed in the context of a life where one consumes raw green vegetable juice daily, enjoys healthy bowel eliminations, drinks living spring water, breathes clean, alkaline air, and receives adequate daily sunlight.

You can enjoy a great variety of foods if you enjoy them in this framework. The body just needs support processing the more dense and acidic substances. It’s also advisable to include foods that are not completely pure because we need to give ourselves the opportunity to detoxify slowly and safely, and break away from the addictive nature of modern eating. Cooked vegetables, raw nuts, dairy, and even small amounts of chocolate and wine make our lifestyles compatible with the modern world and help gently detoxify the modern body.

Natalia-ism on Interconnectedness

“The body exists as an interconnected, interdependent web. Fail to support this web, your body will not hold its form. We have to consider what this means for both the body and the planet, on a micro- and macrocosmic level.”

Natalia’s Advanced Training Workshop

Natalia’s Advanced Training Workshop is held quarterly in New York City. These special classes are designed to take students to the next level of learning, and teach them how to guide their bodies, minds, and spirits along the path to their highest good. It is a wonderful course for all levels of learning, from those who are looking to transform their own bodies, to those who would like to guide others.