the language of the soul

In the beginning, we are told, “was the word”, but behind the word is an even greater power: the breath. Have you noticed that words are simply specific formations, shapes and movements of breath?
In the end days, it is said: all the secrets and mysteries will be revealed. Those end days must be approaching, because today the breath itself seems to be revealing those secrets to us. It seems that the secret of life has been right under our nose all the time!
But it should come as no surprise, since almost every spiritual teacher throughout time has pointed to the breath in some way, and every contemporary healer makes use of the breath at some point.
Almost all the ancient languages use the same word for air, wind or breath, as they do for life, vital energy, or spirit; or the animating principle of life. This principle, this spirit of life, is called chi, ki, prana, or energy.
The breath is often overlooked and underestimated in our search for the source and meaning of life, yet the author of Genesis tells us that “God took the dust of the earth and formed the body of man, and breathed into the nostrils of man the Breath of Life, and man became a living soul.”
So, is it any wonder that today, we can find our way back to God, we can meet the source of life by turning to the breath – or more specifically – to what is referred to in the Book of Genesis as ‘neshemet ruach chayim’ – “the spirit of life within the breath”.
The author of Genesis understood something that the yogis have been teaching since early times: that there is a difference between the air we breathe and the life giving principle contained within it. This inner breath, also called chi, ki, prana or energy runs through body, mind and soul.
The movement of spirit in the body is reflected in the movement of breath. As the Sufi Master Hazrat Inayat Khan writes: “The healing power of Christ, the miraculous power of Moses, the charm of Krishna, and the inspiration of the Buddha – all these were attained by breath.”
The Course in Miracles teaches us that: “A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible, it is necessary.” This universal experience is the breath, is breathing!
In the Nei Ching: Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Chinese Medicine, we read: “In ancient times, there were the so-called spiritual men; they mastered the universe, and controlled yin and yang. They breathed the essence of life and were independent in preserving the spirit. Their muscles and flesh remained unchanged.
Spiritual Breathing is to psychosomatic illness what penicillin is to infection. Spiritual Breathing is the quickest way to clear your head, settle your stomach, calm your nerves, and open your heart. It will uplift you, center you, and ground you in your being. Spiritual Breathing opens your heart to love and fills your body with light and life.
In the Songs of Solomon, we read: “Breath restores me to my exact self”. Maybe that’s why one of the most powerful modern spiritual breathing methods is called “Rebirthing”. It offers us a spiritual technology of awakening to our essence.
Breathwork is a spiritual technology for purification and awakening. When you work with the breath, you automatically develop spiritual skills. To play with breath is to play with the subtlest form of matter. That’s why people who have mastered spiritual breathing can accomplish so much on the level of subtle energies.
Spiritual Breathing makes it clear that the original creative life force energy that built our bodies in the womb is still available to us, to maintain and even rebuild the body.
Yoga is the science of union (with god). And yoga holds as a central truth that breath is the connection, the bridge between mind and body, between the visible and the invisible. Breath connects us to each other, and it connects all of us to god, nature and existence.
Every breath can be a prayer, an invitation, a demonstration of our faith, our trust. It can be an expression of forgiveness, gratitude and surrender. Tremendous power is to be gained through combining meditation and breathing.
Each of us must walk his or her own unique path. And that is the empowering aspect of breathwork: no one can do it for you! Yet, we are all breathing the same breath. It is not just a philosophy. It is in fact a reality! The same atoms and molecules of air, the breath that Jesus breathed, Moses breathed, Buddha breathed, that same breath is flowing into you right now!
If you want to go into the deepest realities of life, and to reach the highest states of consciousness, then you will have to awaken to the breath. It is the path, or at least the doorway to your essence, your core, your soul, your heart of hearts.
Breath and breathing techniques are now being taught all over the world. Breath awareness leads to the healing of stress, emotional problems, substance abuse, subconscious blocks, fears and anxieties.
The Angel of Breath is at work on the planet! This Angel of Breath brings fire and light to everyone on the spiritual path. Evolutionary contractions in the form of natural disasters, social upheaval and wars, are doing the work of pushing spiritual seekers out of their comfort zone and into the dynamic working zone of spiritual awakening, purification and rebirth.
It seems to me that everyone is born a spiritual master. But we forget and lose touch with our essence, our purpose, our source. The sadness, anger, and the love of a child is total: it seems infinite. That is a reflection of the power and nature of their spirit. As children, we are forced to choose between following outer authority and listening to our inner divinity.
You can begin to re-incorporate the life of spirit in your body and being. Simply breathe in a conscious way. Practice breathing in a peaceful, accepting, trusting, loving, grateful, forgiving, inviting and surrendering way. Incorporating these attributes through spiritual breathing makes manifesting them in reality easy and effortless!
More than knowing, believing or doing it, when you are breathing it, you are “living” it. You are “being” it. Opening and relaxing the breath is like opening the doors to your soul. Allow every fiber of your being to be bathed in this life that flows from god. Spiritual breathing has been called a biological experience of divine energy.
It takes courage to live a unique and inspired life. It requires that you turn to your own inner truth. That inner truth can be reflected and expressed through every breath you take. Breathing is like a language: the language of the soul.
Spiritual Breathing can take you to the eye of the storm in your life. Spiritual breathing can help you balance yin and yang, peace and power, rhythm and harmony. Learn from the breath itself. Follow your own bliss!

Start by watching your breath. Do what the Buddha did at the moment of enlightenment: follow the breath as it comes and goes. Feel the sensations of breath, the movement of breath in you. Be a witness. Observe, notice, pay attention to what is happening inside you each moment, and be aware of the one being aware!
Add to that the willingness to let go, to surrender. And then begin to conspire with the life that surrounds and permeates everything in existence. Breathe consciously. Feel the expansion and contraction of life! Celebrate the flow of life and marvel at the mysteries that life reveals to you through the breath.
Seek out others who are committed to breath mastery. Share your experience. No one is free until we are all free. But if only one of us gets free, everyone will be liberated!

Breathe peace and love, freedom and safety, energy and aliveness, love and light. And watch the world within you and around you change forever.

That which we most require for our spiritual growth is the silence of the desire and the tongue before God, Who is so high: the language. He most listens to that of silent love. St. John Of the Cross

Silence is as deep as eternity, speech as shallow as time. Carlyle

The best shrine man can ever create for the Supreme is in his own heart. There are places where holiness pervades, but that which makes them holy is the human soul living in the consciousness of God. We can all create such shrines, by the absence of anger, by the practice of humility, compassion, forgiveness and faith. When every act is made an act of devotion, then the living Presence is felt within. But we cannot feel the Presence except in the silence of our inner being.

As long as there is any unrest within us, we cannot hope to percieve or reflect the Spirit of God. Nor can we penetrate into the innermost recesses of the being. When, however, all turbulence ceases, then we grow conscious of the Divine Presence and have a realization of the inner life.

There are two ways to practice silence. One is through absence of thought and the other is through fullness of thought. The second is productive of great strength. When we try to empty our mind, there is danger of its falling into dull negative state, which opens it to many possible weakening influences. This is often the origin of mental depression, melancholia and those forms of insanity which are due to obsession. When on the contrary, we are able to fill the mind with one dynamic thought, not only does it fortify us against outer and inner dangers, but of itself it will empty the mind of all alien thoughts. Even a weak person by following this method will soon develop a certain tranquility and strength. There are two opposite elements constantly playing on the human mind. The one, known in Sanskrit as Tamas, creates a state of heaviness, dullness, indiscrimination and dejection. The other, called Ragas, carries the thought to the opposite extreme of over activity, turbulence, noisy aggression and obstentation. The two kinds may seem to resemble each other outwardly. One overpowered by dullness may appear tranquil, but it is very different condition from the serene stillness, where all the faculties of the mind are wide awake and full of light.

This higher form of silence, however, cannot be acquired in a moment. To cultivate it, we must master all our forces and this means steady practice. First we must try to have a healthy body, for any physical disturbance easily destroys the silence of the mind. But a healthy body is not all, a healthy mind is better. It gives spiritual health, which is the best of all. This being a less tangible form of health, people do not attach so much importance to it; yet without it, we can never have true health of mind or body.

Spiritual attainment requires great patience. It appears at times almost beyond our reach, because it seems to call for so much sacrifice; but we must make sacrifices for everything we earn on any plane; and in reality spiritual sacrifice is not so great because the return is so much richer and more enduring.Whenever we follow our higher instincts, instead of our lower, we humanize the animal in us and the noisier, more excitable part of our nature is quieted. The idea of silence is not merely avoiding action; it is bringing all our scattered and undisciplined forces wholly under our control. As long as our heart is agitated, our mind is stormy and our nerves are distracted, it is not possible for us to have unobstructed vision or the power of clear decision. But when the moments of stillness come, we have flashes of understanding which make our path clear.

It is interesting to note how the practice of silence enters into the heart of every vital religion. Whether it takes the form of quiet reflection, inaudible prayer or some other special ritual of worship, it has always one aim in view and that is to make the heart of the worshipper detached from the influence of the loud and distracting material world. The Quaker mystics fully realized the value of silence and carefully incorporated it in their mode of worship. The following gives an example of their faith: “First began the stilling of mind and soul. The intellect needs to learn how to be still, no less than the body, if it is to concentrate all its powers. This bringing of the mind awayfrom its distractions and restlessness to a single and sustained attention on God, is the crux of the whole matter. The re-collection of God under some aspect of his boundless immensity-His greatness, His awful sanctity, His enfolding Being, His Presence in the soul of man-these are cosmic thoughts in themselves casting upon the mind the hush and still wonder which is the avenue to contemplation.

Thus we pass to the centre of our silence. The will is at its highest activity. Just as an insect poised in the air, seeming motionless, with wings in such rapid motion that they are invisible, is all the while sustained by its resistence to the air, so the will in this listening is not passive. It holds fast to its rest in God by sustained resistance to all that would drag it down or invade its silence. This is very far from making the mind with God to the exclusion of all else. Not in words, or visions, or signs, did we look for the communications of God. Thoughts rising spontaneously, movements and stirrings welling up from the depths of the soul, the inner glory of God hidden in the soul of man, emerging, filling the Temple, none of these word images conveys what can be conveyed. Only we knew God, and we knew that we knew Him.’’

The Practice Of Silence has to do with every part of our system. There is a silence of the body, silence of the mind and silence of the heart. Until all these are tranquilized, we can not know what true silence is. The body is silent when it is free from both motion and tension. It must be wholly relaxed yet firm and quiet. This is gained by the practice of posture, which is one of the most essential exercises in developing the power of meditation. Posture teaches us not only to hold the body still in some fixed position at a special time, but at all times to avoid every superfluous motion and maintain equilibrium. Nothing helps more to conserve our physical energies than this form of silence. The mind acquires silence through the persistent practice of discriminative elimination and concentration. As it comes in contact with the external world, it learns to distinguish between vital and non-vital, real and unreal; then discarding the unreal and non-vital, it focuses itself with order upon the object of its attention. The heart grows still and full of gladness through meditation, which is an unbroken flow of the thought and feeling towards the Ideal. In the inner realm serenity, not inactivity, brings the sense of silence. Perfect balance and calmness never fail to generate great power throughout the whole organism. Only in this state do we see the manifestation of the highest intelligence.

Exercises in silence are like exercises given to soldiers; a sort of spiritual drill. Their effect must be seen in all that we do because whatever we undertake with the aid of a well-disciplined mind, trained to absolute attention, cannot fail to be more efficiently done. This is why it is so needful for us to gain more and more the habit of silence and one-pointedness. Only then we can make an inner island, which no storm can overwhelm. This is the purpose of all spiritual practices. Thus, if a person who is distracted with thoughts of sickness, sorrow, perplexity, can sit quietly and hold thoughts of purity and divine wisdom, very soon he will begin to feel the unbounded nature of his own soul and of the cosmic life of which he is a part; and his whole being will be filled with strength and tranquility. When we practice silence in the times of disturbed situations i.e. detach our thoughts wholly from the distracting condition and hold it firmly on some higher thought even for a few moments, it will restore our equilibrium; we shall be lifted out of the condition and feel as if we had been bathed in fresh clear water. Whenever we spend even a moment in silent communion with our spiritual Ideal, we are revived and ready to start on our way once more.

How can we hope to hear the subtle voice of the Spirit as long as we are listening to all the noises of the world? It is not possible. That is why silence is so necessary. We must close all our senses, because it is through these doors that the sounds of the world reach us. If we wish to commune with God, we must disconnect ourselves from all distracting influences. No one is nearer to us than God, but we must know it. The more we are engrossed in the world, the less do we have the opportunity to seek Him. When we are not awake and attentive on the higher plane, things of the Spirit do not touch us. Purity of heart, openness of mind, and willingness to follow, constitute the whole of spiritual life. When we have these, God bestows on us all His choicest gifts. We must work with one-pointed devotion, with a sense of concentration, and with undepressed heart. We must also cultivate the power to receive. Then nothing can hold us back. If we live a silent, prayerful life, striving to strengthen our purpose and quieten the noisy voice, God makes our steps steady and unfaltering, fills us with His divine wisdom, and bless us with the consciousness of His Holy Presence.

Harmful childhood experiences (even those not remembered consciously) can force us to close our hearts in an attempt at self-protection from further pain. There is no such thing as perfect parents. We all have “baggage” from our pasts and we construct walls of emotional scar tissue to close over our unhealed wounds. This protective barrier locks us in and others out and can inhibit our ability to develop close connections with others. The degree of this self-protection is equal to the severity of our perceived wounds.

Attachment Styles and Relationships

The attachment styles that develop in childhood stay with us for a lifetime. They influence our feelings of security, the personal meaning given to our experiences, and the ability to develop and maintain closeness with others. We all have perceptions and behaviors across the continuum of attachment styles; however, we tend to adopt one primary style.

Couples Treatment

We are biologically designed to seek and maintain attachments with others through which we learn the lessons of love, inter-dependence and trust. The quality of our core relationships has a profound effect on our health and well-being. Studies show that the level of marital happiness is the strongest predictor of overall life satisfaction.

When we enter into relationships, both partners bring along all their unresolved conflicts, fears, hurts and expectations. There is a strong tendency to recreate abusive, neglectful, or in other ways hurtful relationships from childhood with our adult partners. These old dysfunctional patterns become indistinguishable from current emotional triggers. A stacking of emotions can occur whereby an event in a current relationship triggers the unleashing of old feelings and reactions, creating a confusion of powerful old hurts and new ones. If our emotions in a situation are disproportionate to the provocation, we are probably bringing up an old hurt.

The tendency to unconsciously attract relationships that reenact past conflicts and beliefs is called “repetition compulsion.” This drive to repeat familiar patterns, no matter how painful or self-defeating, is very powerful. For example, adult children of alcoholics frequently marry alcoholics, and an abused child with a high tolerance for maltreatment may grow up and attract high levels of stress and conflict in his/her marriage. We unconsciously are attracted to people who allow us to revisit our childhood issues in an attempt to get it right.

To be successful in relationships, we must also learn how to blend our differences. When couples fall in love, differences are easily tolerated, and both work hard to please each other. However, as we become more familiar and the stresses of life take their toll, our best behavior is quickly eroded. Soon our little differences become annoyances and our predominant attachment style emerges. Partners commonly have different styles, which guides their attitudes and behaviors in relationships. We often attempt to change the other person to fit more comfortably with our own beliefs. This rarely works. The following is how the various adult attachment styles look in relationships.

Laws of Couple Relationships

Relationships are one of the most challenging paths for achieving emotional and spiritual growth. Few other experiences provoke the depth of our fears, insecurities, and vulnerabilities. Some people believe that it is much easier to be alone. There are easier paths, but none offer the opportunities for personal development inherent in intimate relationships. Unfortunately, most of us have no clue how to navigate through the challenges that intimate relationships provide. We are not born knowing how to create a successful relationship, we do not learn Relationship tips in school, and self-help books offer minimal help. Most of us usually end up following what our parents taught us about relationships. Having a solid grasp of how relationships work is particularly important if you must deal with challenging children. There are four basic laws of relationships, that when understood, can make the road to intimacy easier to travel. If more couples understood the laws, then perhaps the divorce rate would not be so high. They include the following:

Transference: This is the unconscious identification of some person in your current life with some significant person or situation from your past. A demanding boss can elicit childhood feelings of not being good enough. Having lived with a malcontent mother may cause you to overreact to your wife’s criticism. If your father was emotionally unavailable, you may be attracted to a husband who is distant and withdrawn. We truly do marry our mothers and fathers at least once. We all have expectations of behavior in current relationships based on previous experiences. We do this regardless of whether the past experiences were positive or negative. If we liked how our parents treated each other and us, we seek to replicate that in a current relationship. If our childhood experiences were less than positive, we also unconsciously seek to replicate that. If a pattern is not healed, then it is continually recreated until it is healed. This is why some people divorce and immediately remarry someone just like the previous spouse.

The magnetic attraction that draws us to someone is not just about physical appearance. The chemistry present in the beginning stages of a relationship might really be about transference. We are attracted to people who remind us of our parents. It is not uncommon for us to see what we want to see. We can project qualities onto a person based on our expectations. When the infatuation wears off and the reality sets in, problems can occur. Sometimes the qualities that we initially find attractive in a partner later become an annoyance.

Mirroring: “Put down the magnifying glass and pick up the mirror.” Most of us believe that we marry for ideals such as love and romance and practical reasons such as security, companionship, and starting a family. What we are also doing is picking someone who will help us recreate old familiar family patterns. By their very nature, marriages force the issues we have carried with us since childhood into the forefront. Intimate relationships are the mirror that reflects back to us all our emotional baggage. This is no cruel joke, the purpose is to help us face and heal our unresolved issues through repetition. You can not hide your “dark side” in an intimate relationship. Eventually all your hidden demons will emerge.

Blaming your partner for your unhappiness and other problems is futile. It is difficult to see our own shortcomings, yet quite easy to see someone else’s. What we do not realize is that what we do not like about the people closest to us, really is what we do not like or accept about ourselves. If we do not currently have a partner, then mirroring occurs with other players in our lives. It could be with our children, roommates, or co-workers. The more intimate the relationship, the more powerful the mirroring.

Trying to change your partner is another road to futility. The harder you try to make someone else change, the more you alienate them, and the more powerless you become. You can not change another. The only person you have the power to change is yourself. The irony is that if you change, they will have to change. It takes two to tango. The “emotional dance” between the two of you can not continue if one partner refuses to dance. The relationship must then adapt by choreographing another dance.

Remember, life is your movie and you are the director of the movie. Your thoughts, perceptions, and actions are the script. Change these, and your movie changes. People who are successful in life are people who take responsibility for their lives. They do not blame others for their misfortunes. Blaming others leaves you a powerless victim. Owning your experience is a key to happiness. If you believe that every occurrence in your life presents a lesson and an opportunity for growth, then nothing bad can ever happen to you. This philosophy does not take away the pain of life’s tragedies, but it can help buffer them. So why not think this way? Having a personal meaning helps us to cope with life’s challenges in a purposeful way.

The very nature of a woman is strength and compassion and the essence of her being is to nurture. A woman takes a long journey in her entire life fulfilling myriad roles in the society. Little does she realize that the vision she holds so dear can only be brought to reality if she has nurtured her own body well – with good thoughts, lifestyle and above all, good nutrition.

After a galloping phase of infancy and early childhood, where the nutrition is completely taken care of by the elders around the child, comes the most crucial phase in life. This is the phase of adolescence (which is Latin means ‘to grow up’), which is the period between the onset of puberty and full maturity (i.e. 10 to 21 years).This is the time when child begins to see himself / herself as an individual and exercise his/ her choice for everything. The influences experienced by an adolescent often make a template for shaping the life of an adult. While trying to keep pace with the rapid physical changes and peer pressure, intense concern with appearance and weight and an active lifestyle, the adolescents often neglect the importance of nutrition. This is more observed in girls as they focus on their appearance more than what could make them a healthy individual. The biological, social, psychological and cognitive changes that occur during adolescence can significantly affect nutritional health.

Nutrition for adolescent girl:

The biological process of puberty is characterized with rapid growth in height and weight, changes in body composition and tissues and acquisition of primary and secondary sex characters. The average duration of puberty in girls is 4 years, with a range of 1.5 to 8 years. Nutrition needs parallel the rate of growth with the maximum nutrition demands occurring during the peak velocity of the growth. Sex hormones estrogen and progesterone contribute to changes in body composition which cause fat deposits. Research has shown that pubertal girls experience 44% increase in lean body mass and 120% increase in body fat.

The changes in the body composition have important implication for nutritional needs especially with respect to energy, iron and protein.

Importance of Breakfast:

Eating a good breakfast increases thinking power and helps maintain a healthy body weight. Eating at breakfast time helps to stop snacking on high calorie bars and confectionery at break time and so can help keep the total calorie intake also low. Having a fortified cereal for breakfast helps to meet the adolescent calcium and iron needs.

What should an adolescent girl eat more?

This is the age when the body demands more of calcium and iron. Lack of calcium intake can have a detrimental affect on bone growth as this is the age when the gain in bone density is maximum (up to 90%). Milk, cheese and yogurt are the best sources of calcium. Teenagers also need equivalent of a pint-and-a-half of ordinary milk or a pint of fortified milk each day. This can be made up of milk on breakfast cereal, milk in tea, coffee, milkshakes or smoothies.

Iron is another nutrient which is to be taken regularly. Iron is found in plant foods which need to be combined with vitamin C rich foods, for example a glass of orange juice (vitamin C) with beans (iron) on toast. Other vitamin C rich foods are citrus fruits (orange, lemon, lime and grapefruit), kiwi, nectarines, mango, blackcurrants and drinks based on these fruits. Potatoes are also a good source of vitamin C. Alternative good sources of iron are eggs, fortified breakfast cereal, whole meal bread, broccoli, spinach, prunes and apricots.

Adolescent girls should also eat diet high in protein in order for proper muscle growth. Some of the good sources of protein are cheese, yogurt, milk, eggs, beans (all types such as kidney beans, butter beans, beans in tomato sauce), peas, chick peas, lentils and peanuts. Vegetables are rich source of vitamins, including vitamin A and C, and folate, minerals, such as iron and magnesium, and fiber. Besides, they are low in fat. One should have 2 to 4 servings of vegetables each day.

In summary, the best nutrition advice to keep your adolescent healthy includes encouraging her to:

• Eat a variety of foods
• Balance the food you eat with physical activity
• Eat plenty of grain products, vegetables and fruits
• Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol
• Eat a diet that is moderate in sugars and salt
• Choose a diet that provides enough calcium and iron to meet the growing body’s requirements.

Nutrition for the Young Woman:

Young women undergo dramatic changes while moving from adolescence into their early twenties. These include physical, social, cognitive, and emotional development. At a time when nutrient requirements peak, the lifestyles of young women may compromise their food intake placing them at risk for many nutritional imbalances.

Most attention directed to this age group tends to be on issues of weight including obesity, dysfunctional eating, and eating disorders. Although these are important, this emphasis completely ignores the nutritional health concerns that face young women. Dietary deficiencies — most notably iron, calcium, and folate — are commonly related to inadequate energy intakes or the omission of whole food groups Lifestyle trends can also influence young women’s diets. Lack of discipline in eating and the shift in food consumption from meals to snacks becomes the order of the day. Scientific reports mention that as the number of eating episodes increase so does the mean intake of energy, total carbohydrates, and sugars.

Iron deficiency is the most common nutrient deficiency among older adolescent girls and young women due to iron losses during menses and poor dietary intakes. The consequences of iron deficiency are subtle but serious, including decreased work performance, impaired body temperature regulation, and altered intellectual performance. Young women should also eat foods rich in iron as mentioned for the adolescent girls.

There is also a concern about calcium intake of young women because of its association with bone health in later years. Maximizing peak bone mass during the first two to three decades of life can prevent osteoporosis. Dietary calcium improves bone accretion, but 60% of females aged 13-17 years are reported to consume less than the recommended intake of milk and milk products, the best source of calcium. Vitamin D is needed along with calcium to build strong bones while excess sodium, protein, caffeine, and phosphorus may compromise bone health.

Another critical nutrition concern, relates to the inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables. These food groups are sources of key vitamins, such as folate, which is linked to the prevention of neuro-tube defects in offspring, and heart disease and cancer in later life. The antioxidant and photochemical content of fruits and vegetables also have a role in preventing heart disease and cancer. Consuming fruits and vegetables daily with particular attention to adequate folate intake should be a nutritional priority for young women.

Nutrition for the Pregnant and Lactating woman:

When a young woman is getting ready for bearing a child and nurturing it, she needs to prepare her body well in order to provide adequate support to another being growing within her. In this phase of her life she needs to pay attentions to;

• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Engage in physical activity regularly.
• Gradually lose body weight
• Women who are trying to become pregnant and ordinarily drink alcoholic beverages, should stop drinking or cut back on the amount drink.
• Quit or cut back on smoking to improve health.
• To minimize the risk of having an infant with a neural tube defect, eat a highly fortified breakfast cereal. Choose foods that provide 100 percent of the Daily Value (DV) for folate.
• It is advised to include in daily eating pattern:
  • At least 3 servings of low fat milk and milk products as a source of calcium – a must for bone health.
  • At least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
  • Two to three servings of meat or alternates a day.
  • Five or more servings of grain products depending on energy requirements.
• Pregnant women should try to eat a well-balanced diet including foods naturally rich in folate, such as orange juice, strawberries, cantaloupe, dark green leafy vegetables, asparagus, broccoli, and cooked dried peas and beans. Pregnant women are also likely to need greater amounts of foods fortified with folic acid, such as breakfast cereals or enriched bread, rice, or pasta, or they should take a vitamin supplement.

Nutrition for the Elderly Women

The aging process is associated with many changes in hormonal and physiological function, some of which are gender related. In women, one of the most dramatic hormonal changes is the striking reduction in estrogen production that accompanies menopause. This period of life and the later, has special nutrient requirements.

Nutritional status has an enormous effect on health throughout life and has no less impact in the elderly. With increasing age, body requires less energy because of a decline in physical activity, a loss of lean body mass and a fall in the metabolic rate. Raising the activity level will increase the need for energy and help avoid gaining weight. Weight gain often occurs in menopausal women, possibly due to declining estrogen.

The food guide for older women, includes information about:

• Whole, enriched and fortified grains and cereals such as brown rice and 100 percent whole wheat bread.
• Bright-colored vegetables such as carrots and broccoli.
• Deep-colored fruit such as berries and melon.
• Eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grain cereal products, especially those high in vitamin C and carotene. These include oranges, grapefruit, carrots, winter squash, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and green leafy vegetables. These foods are good sources of vitamins and minerals and the major sources of dietary fiber. Fiber helps maintain bowel mobility
• Low- and non-fat dairy products such as yogurt and low-lactose milk.
• Dry beans and nuts, fish, poultry, lean meat and eggs.
• Liquid vegetable oils and soft spreads low in saturated and trans fat.
• Fluid intake.
• Physical activity such as walking, housework and yard work.

Although researchers have been addressing the special nutrition needs of menopausal and older women, it is generally agreed that a diet rich in vegetables, grains, fruits, and calcium and lower in fat, alcohol, calories, and caffeine is a wise choice for these group of people.

Although, nutrition is an important component of human development at every stage of life, its focus changes with age. This is more relevant for women for they undergo many physical, biological and psychological changes as they age.

To the Chinese, earth is a living and breathing organism. The flow of her energy is expressed in the terrain – the slow, steep climb up the mountains, the rushed descent down the ravines and valleys, the smooth flow through the plains and the gentle pause for rest and nourishment on the banks of a river.
Extreme environment produces extreme people. It is not difficult to associate the aggressive mountains of Afghanistan with the rebels and terrorists who seek its refuge. It is equally easy to see how almost every ancient civilization was born and flourished along the calm and fertile shores of a river.
In the microcosm, the flow of earth’s energies can be assessed in the buildings that we live and work in: their shape, external surroundings, internal layout, compass alignment, road formations, presence of water and many other factors help in determining whether the structure is in harmony with nature or not.
Whilst swimming, it is necessary to understand the current of the water and to go with the flow. If aligned correctly, the force of the water guides and supports you in moving towards your goal. However, if you disregard the current and try to swim against the flow, the result is invariably a struggle and frustration.
Similarly, a building that is aligned with the cosmic forces is able to support its occupants far better than one that ignores it. Authentic feng shui is based on Taoist principles, the root of which is learning to “Go with the Flow”.
In recent years, Feng Shui has become popular as a tool for attracting and enhancing wealth, health, relationships, power and prestige. Unscrupulous feng shui practitioners would like us to believe that all our worldly problems are a result of ‘bad’ feng shui, which can be easily remedied by placing 3-legged toads, wind chimes and Chinese gods in precise locations.
However, authentic feng shui teaches us that our outer world is merely a reflection of our inner world. The cause of our problems is not the mis-alignment of the building, rather we are attracted to a particular building because it resonates our own mis-alignment! In the eyes of a skilled feng shui practitioner, the building where we live and work describes the inner struggles and blockages of the occupants. By treating and remedying the outer world, we receive the strength to re-align ourselves in our inner world. Feng shui is therefore often described as acupuncture in space.
It is only when our outer and inner world are in harmony, that true balance is achieved. From this balance arises lasting joy, beauty, creativity, love and abundance.

Education in Tibet

He began his education at the age of six and completed the Geshe Lharampa Degree (Doctorate of Buddhist Philosophy) when he was 25 in 1959. At 24, he took the preliminary examinations at each of the three monastic universities: Drepung, Sera and Ganden. The final examination was conducted in the Jokhang, Lhasa during the annual Monlam Festival of Prayer, held in the first month of every year Tibetan calendar.

Leadership Responsibilities

On November 17, 1950, His Holiness was called upon to assume full political power (head of the State and Government) after some 80,000 Peoples Liberation Army soldiers invaded Tibet. In 1954, he went to Beijing to talk peace with Mao Tse-tung and other Chinese leaders, including Chou En-lai and Deng Xiaoping. In 1956, while visiting India to attend the 2500th Buddha Jayanti Anniversary, he had a series of meetings with Prime Minister Nehru and Premier Chou about deteriorating conditions in Tibet.
His efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to Sino-Tibetan conflict were thwarted by Bejing’s ruthless policy in Eastern Tibet, which ignited a popular uprising and resistance. This resistance movement spread to other parts of the country. On 10 March 1959 the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, exploded with the largest demonstration in Tibetan history, calling on China to leave Tibet and reaffirming Tibet’s independence. The Tibetan National Uprising was brutally crushed by the Chinese army. His Holiness escaped to India where he was given political asylum. Some 80,000 Tibetan refugees followed His Holiness into exile. Today, there are more than 120,000 Tibetan in exile. Since 1960, he has resided in Dharamsala, India, known as “Little Lhasa,” the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-exile.
In the early years of exile, His Holiness appealed to the United Nations on the question of Tibet, resulting in three resolutions adopted by the General Assembly in 1959, 1961, and 1965, calling on China to respect the human rights of Tibetans and their desire for self-determination. With the newly constituted Tibetan Government-in-exile, His Holiness saw that his immediate and urgent task was to save the both the Tibetan exiles and their culture alike. Tibetan refugees were rehabilitated in agricultural settlements. Economic development was promoted and the creation of a Tibetan educational system was established to raise refugee children with full knowledge of their language, history, religion and culture. The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts was established in 1959, while the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies became a university for Tibetans in India. Over 200 monasteries have been re-established to preserve the vast corpus of Tibetan Buddhist teachings, the essence of the Tibetan way of life.
In 1963, His Holiness promulgated a democratic constitution, based on Buddhist principles and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a model for a future free Tibet. Today, members of the Tibetan parliament are elected directly by the people. The members of the Tibetan Cabinet are elected by the parliament, making the Cabinet answerable to the Parliament. His Holiness has continuously emphasized the need to further democratise the Tibetan administration and has publicly declared that once Tibet regains her independence he will not hold political office.
In Washington, D.C., at the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1987, he proposed a Five-Point Peace Plan as a first step toward resolving the future status of Tibet. This plan calls for the designation of Tibet as a zone of peace, an end to the massive transfer of ethnic Chinese into Tibet, restoration of fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms, and the abandonment of China’s use of Tibet for nuclear weapons production and the dumping of nuclear waste, as well as urging “earnest negotiations” on the future of Tibet.
In Strasbourg, France, on 15 June 1988, he elaborated the Five-Point Peace Plan and proposed the creation of a self-governing democratic Tibet, “in association with the People’s Republic of China.”
On 2 September 1991, the Tibetan Government-in-exile declared the Strasbourg Proposal invalid because of the closed and negative attitude of the present Chinese leadership towards the ideas expressed in the proposal.
On 9 October 1991, during an address at Yale University in the United States, His Holiness said that he wanted to visit Tibet to personally assess the political situation. He said, “I am extremely anxious that, in this explosive situation, violence may break out. I want to do what I can to prevent this…. My visit would be a new opportunity to promote understanding and create a basis for a negotiated solution.”

Contact with West and East

Since 1967, His Holiness initiated a series of journeys which have taken him to some 46 nations. In autumn of 1991, he visited the Baltic States at the invitation of Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis of Lithuania and became the first foreign leader to address the Lithuanian Parliament. His Holiness met with the late Pope Paul VI at the Vatican in 1973. At a press conference in Rome in 1980, he outlined his hopes for the meeting with John Paul II: “We live in a period of great crisis, a period of troubling world developments. It is not possible to find peace in the soul without security and harmony between peoples. For this reason, I look forward with faith and hope to my meeting with the Holy Father; to an exchange of ideas and feelings, and to his suggestions, so as to open the door to a progressive pacification between peoples.” His Holiness met Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1980, 1982, 1986, 1988 and 1990. In 1981, His Holiness talked with Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie, and with other leaders of the Anglican Church in London. He also met with leaders of the Roman Catholic and Jewish communities and spoke at an interfaith service held in his honor by the World Congress of Faiths: “I always believe that it is much better to have a variety of religions, a variety of philosophies, rather than one single religion or philosophy. This is necessary because of the different mental dispositions of each human being. Each religion has certain unique ideas or techniques, and learning about them can only enrich one’s own faith.”

His Holiness often says,
“I am just a simple Buddhist monk – no more, nor less.”
His Holiness follows the life of Buddhist monk. Living in a small cottage in Dharamsala, he rises at 4 A.M. to meditate, pursues an ongoing schedule of administrative meetings,
private audiences and religious teachings and ceremonies.
He concludes each day with further prayer before retiring. In explaining his greatest sources of inspiration, he often cites a favorite verse, found in the writings of the renowned eighth century
Buddhist saint Shantideva: For as long as space endures And for as long as living beings remain, Until then may I too abide To dispel the misery of the world.
For as long as space endures And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I too abide To dispel the misery of the world.