Happy New Year everyone!

As the year is changing I thought it would be appropriate to gather a top 10 of all our posts so far. I began the task and before long I realised that I had ended up with a top 20 before I even had gone through half of our posts.. So I decided to leave it and forget about the whole thing. Instead, I want to urge you to make 2012 a year filled with love. Because I can't think of any better answer to every question you ever had than love. What else is there to want or need? If all your thoughts, words and actions stem from love (and you know in your heart when that love is real) what could possibly go wrong? Living from love is the same as following your heart and that in turn means being happy. And it's what the wise people throughout time keep on saying, even if it is sometimes dressed in the word compassion. So whatever new year's resolutions you are making, let them grow out of love for yourself and for everything and everyone else in the universe, because really it's all one and the same.

<3<3<3

Emma

Clay pampering

Hello there! A week of Christmas has gone by, I hope you all got to enjoy it in the company of loved ones with good food and beautiful words. I've been working almost everyday but nevertheless enjoyed the week (I work in a cinema, mostly selling tickets). I consider my work as a kind of workout or challenge, where I get to practise my social skills and become more confident around people. And it has definitely worked wonders so far. Apart from working I've had many opportunities to conduct "normal" Christmas activities, such as watching films, reading new books, eating really well, and spending quality time with my family. I even had time for a small pampering session which involved a facial mask of natural green clay. Here's the evidence (extremely charming I know):

I want to talk a bit more about this green clay because it's actually quite an amazing substance (perhaps not aesthetically, at least not on my face). The real name for it is Bentonite or Montmorillonite clay, and it is formed from the weathering of volcanic ash. It occurs naturally in many different parts of the world, most notably in the US. Perhaps the most important medicinal property of green clay is its ability to effectively kill bacteria, something that has been shown through various studies and experiments. It contains massive amounts of trace minerals necessary for our health, commonly up to 75 different minerals can be listed.

The most common way of using this clay is probably what I did, to cover your skin with it or take a clay bath, and almost every spa provides such services. This method has been used throughout history to treat various illnesses such as skin infections, acne, ulcers, or arthritis, or to tone the body and reduce fat.

However, external use is not the only way to benefit from the healing properties of clay, and it is also used internally as an extremely effective natural detox method. This is basically due to the negative charge of the particles in the clay which attract other, positively charged particles such as toxins, bacteria, metals and pesticides. These bad particles adhere to the clay particles, which then transport the toxins out of the body.

Here's a list of some health benefits:

• cleansing of the liver, colon and skin
• balancing bacteria in the digestive tract
• improving nutrient assimilation
• strengthening of the immune system
• elimination of food allergies
• healing the body of food poisonings, viral infections and parasites
• treating arthritis, pain wounds, diarrhoea, stomach ulcers, acne, anaemia, digestive conditions
• effective in weight loss
• re-mineralisation of cells and tissues
• alkalisation of the body
• protection against radiation

There are different ways of consuming bentonite clay, but normally ca 1 tablespoon is mixed in a glass of water and drunk daily on an empty stomach.

In my opinion, considering all the toxins and radiation we consume and inhale daily and mostly without noticing, clay is a perfect way of daily healing. Without some sort of detox, our bodies are unable to get rid of all the bad stuff at a rate that would compare to the rate with which it is exposed to them. And the best part of clay is that it's really cheap and can be found in most health food/natural/organic shops everywhere.

More information about bentonite:

http://www.naturalnews.com/025854_clay_body_detox.html

http://curezone.com/cleanse/bowel/bentonite.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/032549_bentonite_clay_health_benefits.html

http://www.eytonsearth.org/drinking-clay-internal-use.php

<3

Emma

Healthier gingerbread

There is also no Christmas here without gingerbread so I had to make up a recipe for those too :)

Fiery Gingerbread

200 g organic butter (you can use coconut oil if you don't eat dairy)

2 dl coconut sugar

1,5 dl agave syrup

2 organic eggs

8 dl wholemeal organic spelt flour (buckwheat flour can also be used)

2 dl organic potato flour

2 tsp baking soda

3 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tsp ground cardamom

3 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cloves

a pinch of salt

freshly ground black pepper

1. Leave the butter out to soften for a while and beat into smaller pieces.

2. Add the coconut sugar to the butter.

3. Bring the agave syrup to boil and slowly pour the hot syrup in with the butter and sugar. Mix until even.

4. Add the eggs and turn until even.

5. Mix all the dry ingredients (except the black pepper) in another bowl.

6. Little by little, add the flour mixture into the dough and keep turning. Use your hands when the dough gets thick.

7. Shape the dough into a ball and wrap with clingfilm. Put into the fridge overnight.

8. The next day, pour a little flour on a table and roll out the dough with a rolling pin (we used a sigg bottle..). Use gingerbread-molds to press the gingerbread into their shapes. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper to get a nice little kick. Lift the breads onto a baking sheet with baking-paper and bake in 200°C for ca 5 min, or until they gain some colour.

Voilà!

I probably won't have time to post anything tomorrow, so Merry Christmas everyone!!

Lots and lots of love,

Emma

The clothes we wear

For a long time now I have wanted to write something about clothing. Wearing clothes is so obvious to us that we hardly think about it. Well of course we think about how we look and whether we're warm or cool enough, but how often do we really give a thought to what our clothing actually is made of? Acrylic fiber, for example, is something so complicated that I didn't understand any of the descriptions offered by Wikipedia. Same thing with polyester. No wonder these textiles don't feel good on the skin when they're so unnatural. Especially in the winter, synthetic fibres become static and make your hair stand up straight, and they're not even warm. Natural fibres are much more pleasant on the skin, and much more practical too.

Cotton is probably the most common material used for clothing and other everyday products such as sheets, towels, tampons, nappies etc. And even though this is a natural plant it's not so simple, because the word 'natural' lost its meaning long ago. Cotton fields only take up 3% of the world's farmland, but they are sprayed with 25% of the world's pesticides and herbicides, including some of the most toxic ones. This might be 'allowed' because cotton is not directly consumed as a food, but our skin absorbs stuff just like any other organs do. Imagine that you're probably sleeping in sheets full of toxins, rubbing your skin against them every night. And it's not just our outer skin, imagine the amount of pesticides absorbed from tampons.. In fact, we even eat cotton, through cottonseeds and cottonseed oil which is used in some processed foods and as feed for cows, entering our bodies through non-organic meat and dairy. Pesticides are not the only danger however, but dyes can be extremely toxic too, containing cancer-producing chemicals. Have you ever noticed how new jeans colour off on your skin? That's not such a good thing because the skin is just the gateway to the bloodstream and the rest of your body, including the brain. As if this wasn't enough, the biggest threat to 'natural' cotton is perhaps genetic engineering. Most cotton-production is owned by a Monsanto monopoly that pushes GE cotton as a 'green alternative'. The truth is, these plants have been genetically modified in a way that they either emit their own pesticide, or are resistant to mega-doses of pesticides. The problem with this is that other plants too become resistant to pesticides, resulting in a never-ending need of new ever more toxic pesticides. This is a real threat to organic cotton, as the GMO cotton crops spread with the wind and can settle in organic fields. If Monsanto inspectors then find these GMOs in an organic field they can basically fine the farmer for growing Monsanto-owned crops illegally. The farmer is then faced with the option to either pay Monsanto huge sums of money or to start growing the GMO plants and basically being owned by Monsanto. The 'cotton suicides' happening in India are a result of this. Basically, whenever you buy cotton that is not 100% organic, you can be pretty sure you're supporting Monsanto. And even if the cotton is organic, the dyes probably aren't.. If you care about these things, it might prove quite a challenge to go shopping, but I have as a rule to always wash everything I buy before I start using it, especially if it's not organic. It's good to wash them separately from old clothes the first time, in order not to contaminate the rest of your clothes. And also, an extra rinse programme can be used at the end. And this process should probably be repeated..a few times. And it probably still doesn't remove all the toxins. Plus you're still supporting Monsanto (unless you buy organic).. My answer: buy second-hand.

More cotton information:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/clothes/index.cfm

http://www.naturalnews.com/031266_GM_cotton_agriculture.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/030913_Monsanto_suicides.html

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/wuis-nfi020711.php

http://www.naturalnews.com/029904_organic_cotton.html


In addition to cotton, there are of course other fabrics that are also natural and much easier to find in a non GMO-version. In the summer I love to use linen and hemp because of their coolness. And wool is of course an obvious choice in the winter. And silk is an incredibly pleasant fabric, and it looks very elegant too.

Here's a blog about organic clothing.

If you want to know more about Monsanto:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto

http://www.naturalnews.com/033772_Monsanto_Roundup.html

http://bestmeal.info/monsanto/company-history.shtml

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/planet-2/report/2008/3/7-deadly-sins.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ENPyDuR23s

and a documentary film.


I hope you find what's important for you, and start manifesting it in your life.


Lots of love,

Emma

Yoga

As promised, I am back with a post on yoga. Last weekend I did an astanga yoga course, to help me get started with it in a proper way. It was a really good introduction, and consisted of three days. Day one was just about an hour of theory, we went though practical stuff and got a brief history of astanga yoga. What surprised me most is that even though it is quite an old practice, it was almost forgotten until about 80 years ago, when it hit another upswing in popularity and is now probably the most popular form of yoga. For me, I want to get into yoga because as I'm having tremendous trouble meditating, I think yoga could be another form of it, or a path towards it.

The two other days we did two hours of training per day. Since I am used to running, I found the yoga practice so much more calming, because you do it in such a slow pace, and you still get a super good workout. There is most definitely enough of a challenge in this for me, as I am sure I will never be able to learn all the poses, but I feel like I will gain a lot from trying. What I was left with after the weekend, besides sore thighs and abs, is a burning passion for this form of exercise and determination to commit to training. Today I did my first training at home, and I loved it. This is another wonderful thing about it, once you sort of get the hang of it, you can train at home by yourself whenever you want, all you need is a yoga mat.

I definitely recommend the course offered at Helsingin Astanga joogakoulu for all our Finnish readers.

Love,

Anna

The big D

The importance of vitamin D in basically every aspect of health is being stressed everywhere it seems. Especially on this latitude, where the sun feels like some distant dream during 8 months of the year, it's a simple fact that we need something to substitute sunshine with. Not only do we need vitamin D to maintain some sort of energy levels during the dark months, but it also provides some life-saving attributes to our physical bodies. It prevents toxicity and regulates the concentration of calcium and phosphate in the blood stream, and is thus an essential ingredient for healthy bones. Vitamin D also helps to cure internal inflammations and acts as an immune system by defending the body from bad bacteria. Low vitamin D levels has been associated with cancer, increased mortality, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, alzheimer's, influenza, and tuberculosis.

This super D is basically the only nutrient that needs to be taken as a supplement (unless you eat high amounts of fish daily, or live in Australia). The ridiculous EU recommendation of 5 micrograms per day is nowhere near enough, and should be converted to between 50 and 150 micrograms/day. It's most easily taken in liquid form, free from any other unnecessary ingredients.

Read more about vitamin D here, here and here for example. Or here.


Emma