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New medical procedure could delay menopause by 20 years - Doctors remove a small piece of ovarian tissue, which is frozen to preserve it. When women enter menopause, the frozen tissue can be thawed out and grafted back into the body at a site with a good blood supply, such as the armpit.
6 Ways to Return to Neutrality — And Why It’s a Good Idea
I’ve talked about neutrality for years. It’s a useful state of awareness to cultivate, especially as an antidote to “charge” or emotional activation.
Emotions can generate charge. They stimulate the nervous system, causing pulses to race, breathing to shallow, adrenalin to surge. Attention! Pay attention!
Charge can be important. For example, charge is helpful if you’ve got 14 minutes to make it to your gate before your flight departs. It’s also useful as an aspect of self-awareness. If you feel an activation occurring, your autonomic system is letting you know that something requires your conscious attention.
Neutrality is a state that can be achieved once you’re safely on the plane, or perhaps checked into your hotel to await the next day’s flight, having missed the doors closing by two minutes.
Cultivating neutrality begins with acceptance of what is.
I walk in a federal wildlife refuge nearly every day. The refuge is wetlands and riparian forest, with a river winding throughout. Teeming with wildlife, it is a privilege to be there in the early morning hours, observing the animals as they go about their business.
There are quite a few great blue herons in the refuge. I’ve had the good fortune to observe their actions up close on many of my walks.
They’re solitary birds, patient and purposeful. They stand with their feet buried in mud on the shoreline, intensely focused on the water under their feet. Watching for fish, they wait quietly, fully present to the moment.
When they spy a fish, they move like lightning. Their sharp beaks penetrate the water, grasping the fish.
They tend to walk about as they grapple the fish into position for swallowing, dipping it into the water as they walk, only to grasp it again, hopefully parallel to their throat.
I watched one heron follow this process, walking slowly forward, releasing and reclaiming the fish repeatedly. Until the fish got away.
The heron ceased moving, staring at the water.
I created stories in my mind—the expletives, the frustration, the pent-up energy dissipating, releasing as the bird stared at the water.
Slowly, the heron turned around, and walked purposefully back to the shoreline, sinking its feet into the mud, casting its gaze intently at the water at its feet.
It is what it is. The charge of the capture and the dance of preparation to indulge, the loss of its prey.
Staring at the water, finding neutrality and acceptance.
The reset. It is what it is.
How to Find Neutrality
- Acknowledge the activation, the charge.
- Acknowledge the emotions.
- Accept what is so…for now, this is what it is.
- From above your head, bring down a ball of golden, Cosmic energy into your crown chakra, imagining it filling the entire crown.
- Notice that the charge in your body, and even your emotions dissipate, as your crown vibrates with the neutral energy of the Cosmic field.
- Reset your energy by grounding, owning your body, your energy and your experience.
This post courtesy of Spirituality & Health.
Coping with a Mass Shooting
A mass shooting is never easy to understand or cope with. With recent back-to-back shootings in the United States, it seems like the violence is increasing, while our safety and security decreases. It’s normal to feel afraid, to want to hunker down inside the safety of your home or apartment. And it’s okay to feel untethered, like not a whole lot seems to make sense any longer.
In the wake of another mass shooting, everything can feel unreal. It can feel like the violence will never end, and that each of us is at greatly increased risk to be involved in a future mass shooting. The fear can be overwhelming and debilitating.
What can you do to cope with a mass shooting? How can you feel safe when the threat of violence could occur in any public place?
How to Cope with a Mass Shooting
Coping with a mass shooting is never easy, and each person’s method for coping with the news of a new mass shooting somewhere in America is going to vary. There is no single “right” way to cope with the feelings of anxiety, fear, and confusion surrounding an act of violence like this. But here are a few concrete steps you can take right now to try and keep your anxiety and fear at bay.
1. Turn off the news, take a social media break.
While I’m not usually a proponent of ignorance, too much exposure to the constant drumbeat of the media analyzing the aftermath of a mass shooting can result in more harm than good. Research has shown that exposure to media after witnessing a violent act can be connected to feelings of anxiety, trauma, and depression. It’s not a stretch to imagine that same holds true if we watch too much television coverage or keep seeing the descriptions of violence and the angry responses to such violence on social media.
Now might be a good time to take a little break from social media and television. Maybe just a day or two, so that you can focus on what’s really important in life — your family, friends, and the difference you make in the world.
2. Recognize your own needs.
Psychologists call this “self-care,” but what it means is to simply focus on what you need to feel emotionally safe. It’s not normal nor beneficial to feel anxious and on edge all the time, yet this is exactly what mass shooting violence can do to a person. Take extra time to focus on yourself and your loved one’s needs. Maybe it means taking some time out to lose yourself in a book, movie, or binge-watch a show on Netflix. Maybe it means going for a hike in the woods, volunteering at a local shelter or church function, or spending some extra time at the gym. Maybe it means spending the day baking or going to a museum with your children.
Whatever it means to you, spend some time focused on yourself and making sure you feel safe and secure.
3. Keep perspective.
It’s easy to lose perspective at times like these, to feel like the whole world is going in the wrong direction. Mass shootings, despite their increasing frequency, remain a relatively rare event. You’re still far more likely to experience violence at the hands of a family member or someone you know than a complete stranger in a random location because most violence is a personal expression of anger.
Bad things will always happen in this world, but the chances of something like a mass shooting happening to you remain very rare.
4. Take action.
For some, the need to do something in reaction to a mass shooting is overwhelming. If you’re feeling emotionally okay, then it’s good to turn your energy to taking action to help prevent future mass shootings. This may be getting involved in your local community to help educate others about coping with the aftermath of violence. It may be getting involved politically at a national level to help change the conversation since we’re the only country where these kinds of mass shootings occur with regular frequency.
Taking action can be empowering, even if change may be slow and take time.
5. Keep in touch, reach out to others.
Sometimes the connections we have with those around us need reinforcing and reassurance during stress times like these. Reach out to friends and family to just talk about what you’re feeling, what they’re feeling, to connect and remember the emotional bonds that keep you strong. Even just touching base and talking about the everyday kinds of things you normally talk about can help you feel more grounded. Bringing normality back into your life can be helpful.
6. Express yourself.
Some people feel better and more in control by expressing themselves. If you’re comfortable in sharing your opinions or thoughts, or just need to vent, you can do so privately by writing to yourself. If you feel like you need an audience to hear your opinion, you can turn to social media — if you feel up to taking the usual criticism or dissenting opinions that comes with posting to such media. Sometimes letting it out feels good — that’s why psychotherapy is so effective.
7. Practice meditation, relaxation & mindfulness.
You may not have much faith or belief in the value of mindfulness or meditation exercises. But at a time like this, taking time out of life to learn and practice such exercises can be greatly beneficial. There are many relaxation and meditation techniques available which we explain step-by-step here. It helps you focus on yourself and calm all of the voices and inner talk in your head. At times like this, such quiet and calm can be invaluable.
* * *
It’s so weird to me that as an American, one of the things we need to cope with is the idea that we may someday be involved in a mass shooting, or have to deal with its aftermath — even if from afar. Maybe someday, America will join the rest of the world and renounce the idea that access to guns is more valuable and more important than our fellow citizens’ lives and safety.
The Importance of Celebrating Milestones Together
Summer often brings more than the usual number of celebrations. Graduation ceremonies, engagement parties, weddings, baby showers, gender reveals, retirement parties, funerals, etc., etc. If you have friends and family, chances are you’ve been to at least a couple such events in the last month.
It got me wondering why we do them. Because we always do them, whether hosted by others or done on our own. We do them despite the potential for family drama, the expense, the agony of guest lists, and the worries about what to wear. We participate in events put on in our honor by well-meaning friends, whether they are truly in the style we want or whether we really want them at all.
Sometimes such events are joyfully surprising and happy for all. Sometimes, in an effort to please everyone, we don’t. There is no way out of them: If we don’t engage in the various yearly celebrations and rites of passage, there are people who will never let us forget it. Often we are left wondering if we should have or could have.
The fact is, people have been performing rituals to mark the cycle of the seasons and people’s milestone events for thousands of years. All religions have sacred rites to acknowledge the passage of time and changes in status by individual members. Every culture marks the seasons and significant changes in people’s lives (coming of age, joining a couple, births, deaths) with celebrations or ritualized events. A 2006 discovery of ritual artifacts in Botswana dating from 70,000 years ago shows us that such events have been happening for far longer than had been believed. To create and regularly repeat marker events seems to be part of what makes us human.
As the invitations roll in for end of summer parties and celebrations, let’s take a moment to think about what makes participation important. There is something enduring and significant about doing so. What does it all mean?
Ritual celebrations are important because they:
Provide structure and predictability in an unpredictable world: Even in the best of times, there are plenty of challenges and changes to stress us. Cultural and religious rituals hold something still. Whether marking a change in seasons (Solstice), a national event (think 4th of July) or a religious holiday (Passover, Christmas, Ramadan), these events come reliably every year. They tell us we’ve made it through another year. They also give us the opportunity to look forward to the next one and offer the possibility for doing it differently.
Help people make important transitions: Some changes in our lives change us utterly. They change who we are related to, how we spend our time, how we are seen by others, indeed, how we see ourselves. For the individual and our community, traditional celebrations mark a “before” and “after.” They are a statement that from this point on, one’s life isn’t going to be the same.
A wedding is a statement that we’ve gone from being “one” to being part of “two.” A baby shower is more than a “showering” of gifts on an expectant couple. It also affirms their transformation from being part of a couple to being parents. A retirement party helps the retiree come to terms with the end of a working life and the beginning of something else — however they define their next chapter.
Foster and affirm connection: There’s a well-known phrase: “It takes a village to raise a child.” More to the point: “It takes a village to sustain all of us.” Whether cultural, religious, or personal, ritual celebrations affirm that we are not alone; that there are others who share our values, beliefs, and ideals. At the end of many wedding rituals, for example, those in attendance are asked to also make a vow to support the couple in their marriage. Baby naming ceremonies in many cultures include a moment of affirmation of community support and love for the new member of the family.
Provide models: Ritual celebrations provide children with a playbook for life. They give adults who love them an opportunity to explain the meaning of the event for the person being honored and for those who care about them. Children’s participation reassures them that there is a “family” of relatives and friends who will also help them when it is their turn to take a step into each new stage in life. Including our children acknowledges them as an important part of our families — too important to be left out of what is important. (The presence of children doesn’t need to be seen as limiting adult fun. If there are to be adult activities, kids can be at party for a while, then taken home to a sitter or sent to bed.)
Create memories: Family rituals are the stuff of family memories. Whether the “ritual” is unique to the family (a yearly camping trip, certain decorations at holidays) or part of a larger community event (attending the annual fireworks on the 4th, making costumes at Halloween), doing such things as a family and doing them every year are important building blocks of a family’s identity. “Remember when we would …” becomes a refrain heard at every family gathering.
Preserve a culture: When a culture stops celebrating what makes it unique, it starts to evaporate. Something precious can be lost if the rituals and celebrations that demonstrate a people’s history and values are discarded in favor of fitting in. The larger culture loses some of its richness and color when every thread of its social fabric is the same.
Keto Strawberry Cream Pie
Dessert can be a final course—or it can be a true finale. This show-stopping pie definitely fits the latter category. Imagine setting this on the table in front of family and guests. Who do you think would be able to resist the colorful, creamy treat? We thought so.
A little fluffier than cheesecake, the lighter filling is a great complement to a dense but sweet crust that will leave graham crackers in the dust. But the best thing? It’s low-carb, Primal and even keto-friendly.
Servings: 10 medium slices
Time In the Kitchen: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Chill Time: 4 hours
Ingredients:
Crust:
- 2 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 2 Tbsp. butter, melted
- 1 packet (or scoop) Primal Kitchen® Vanilla Collagen Fuel
Filling:
- 8 oz. organic cream cheese, softened
- 4 cups fresh strawberries, divided
- 2 cups organic heavy cream
- 2 Tbsp. Swerve (or more to taste)
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 1 Tbsp. gelatin
- 5 Tbsp. boiling water
Instructions:
For crust, blend almond flour, Collagen Fuel, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add butter and mix well.
Scrape the batter into a 9-inch springform pan. Smooth the crust mixture over the bottom and up the sides with your fingers or a rubber spatula.
*Note: if crust doesn’t come together, add a little more melted butter.
Place the pie on a cookie sheet (to keep the bottom from burning), and bake for 15 minutes at 350 ºF.
For pie filling, add boiling water to gelatin and whisk (by hand/hand mixer or in a standing mixer) until completely dissolved. Add cream cheese to gelatin and whip for about two minutes. (If using a standing mixer, scrape out cream cheese mixture into a side bowl.)
Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Then add vanilla and whip until stiff peaks form. Add the cream cheese mixture to the whipping cream and whip until just combined.
Mash half of the berries, and chop the other half.
Add the mashed berries to the whipped cream/cream cheese mixture. Using an immersion blender or mixer, blend until creamy with no lumps remaining. Add Swerve to taste.
Pour into crust and chill for four hours.
Nutritional Information (per medium slice, 1/10th of pie):
- Calories: 453
- Net Carbs: 8.7 grams
- Total Carbs: 13 grams
- Fat: 42 grams
- Protein: 10 grams
The post Keto Strawberry Cream Pie appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.
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