Unlocking the Sacred Power of Cacao

You may have heard some of the recent news reports boasting about the health benefits of chocolate, though it has not just recently become a prized resource. This ancient treat has been enjoyed for generations and is part of a rich cultural history in South America — and with reason.

Cacao Can Heal

Cacao, the bean from which chocolate is made, has been said to have healing properties as well as benefits for both the heart and brain. Studies have shown that those with high blood pressure can benefit from a daily dose of dark chocolate. Cacao is also rich in antioxidants, which may help to prevent diseases like cancer
. In fact, cacao contains antioxidant properties in much higher quantities than common food-sources lauded for being rich in antioxidants, such as red wine or green tea. Best of all, chocolate is known to make people feel good almost immediately! Studies have shown that pure forms of chocolate (meaning rich in cacao) can provide short-term feelings of euphoria, and an overall feeling of comfort.


Now, in saying that, you must realise that standard mainstream chocolate, like Cadbury, contains copious amounts of processed sugar, preservitives, sweeteners and more chemicals.Supermarket chocolate has been processed so much that the flavoniods have been destroyed in the manufacturing process, loosing all health benifits, so you are just consuming chemicals and calories. It is also packed with refined sugar.

The good news? Is that you can make your own chocolate. With using real organic cacao powder which has 4 times as many antioxidant flavonoids as red wine, and 21 times more than green tea. Cocao is a source of phytonutirients like cardio-protective polyphenols, beta-carotene, aminos, protein, omega 3, calcium, zinc, iron, copper, sulphur, potassium and possibly the best food source and muscle relaxing, stress relieving magnesium, so you can eat as much as you like.

Ingredients for chocolate balls:
1. Cocao beans(if you buy the beans, roast the on high temp in over for around 40 minutes until the peel starts cracking. Unpeel the peel and then grind the beans to a powder) or you can buy cocao powder already made.
2. Agave syrup
3. almonds
4. oats
5. water
6. olive oil or extra virgin coconut oil if you like the coconutty taste.

Directions:
1. Put Cocoa powder in a bowl.
2. Add some water and olive oil and agave syrup. Taste and if you would like it sweeter add more agave, thicker add more powder, smoother add more water. Get creative.
3. Add chopped almonds and oats (you can add anything, mint, fruit etc)
4. Roll into ball!
5. Ready to eat or put them into the freezer to harden.

Fluoride- The Hidden Danger

Sure, fluoride is said to fight tooth decay. Many kinds of toothpaste out on the market today contain it as a preventative anti-cavity measure, along with harmless ingredients like baking soda and inactive matters. But did you know that by using toothpaste that contains fluoride, you might be contributing to some serious future health problems in you or your children? And that fluoride may not actually be of any help against cavities? After reading this article, I think you’ll be prepared to purchase a safe and effective non fluoride toothpaste.

Fluoride in our drinking water has been around since the Cold War. In fact, fluoride has been implicated in several controversial articles, including one report that was supposed to run in a popular magazine but never made it past the censors. Still, for some reason, this substance is found in most Australia drinking water. How can this be? Let’s look at some of the properties, history, and pros and cons of fluoride.

Fluoride is a reduced form of the element fluorine – a very volatile, highly reactive element in the halogen group. It is thought by the general public to be safe to children’s teeth and bones and especially helpful in the growing process. But now research is showing us that fluoride causes certain cancers and has been linked to Down’s Syndrome. What are the effects of long-term fluoride consumption in humans? Unknown. Some research exists to indicate that fluoride may contribute to thyroid problems later in life.

Overfluoridation can also cause damage to teeth – the exact opposite of the effect we’re told fluoride has! Called dental fluorosis, the condition is caused by an excess of the substance; its characteristics include the presence of white flecks on teeth and a weakening of the dental surface. Children are especially vulnerable because of their small size and their rapid tooth and bone development – in fact, in 2006 the American Dental Association suggested that babies have their formula prepared with fluoride-free water to avoid fluoride-related problems. How is this not common knowledge?

There are a number of ways to maintain your oral health care without fluoride. Choose fluoride-free toothpaste. Ingredients like baking soda and hydrogen peroxide will clean and neutralize your mouth without accumulating in your system. You should also check out variety of articles on natural dental care for some thoughts on making your own mouthwash and incorporating herbs into your oral care routine. Also, you should call your water company and find out their fluoridation levels. Stay informed and don’t fall into the fluoride trap!

What is Quantum Physics?

Quantum physics is a branch of science that deals with discrete, indivisible units of energy called quanta as described by the Quantum Theory.

Many theorists have suggested ther are five main ideas represented in Quantum Theory:

1. Energy is not continuous, but comes in small but discrete units.
2. The elementary particles behave both like particles and like waves.
3. The movement of these particles is inherently random.
4. It is physically impossible to know both the position and the momentum of a
particle at the same time. The more precisely one is known, the less precise
the measurement of the other is.
5. The atomic world is nothing like the world we live in.

While at a glance this may seem like just another strange theory, it contains many clues as to the fundamental nature of the universe and is more important then even relativity in the grand scheme of things. Furthermore, it describes the nature of the universe as being much different then the world we see. As Bruce Lipton said, "Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it."

Bruce Lipton, PHD, is an internationally recognized individual who is bridging the gap between science and spirit. He has been a guest speaker on dozens of TV and radio shows, as well as keynote presenter for national conference - you can check his website out at http://www.brucelipton.com/

There is alot out there, that we are not taught about in Schools. It is our job then, to seek out this knowledge and incorporate it into our lives.

White bread is dead

Why is the color of white bread so white when the flour taken from wheat is not?

According to nutritionalist, Sam Worthington, "it’s because the flour used to make white bread is chemically bleached, just like you bleach your clothes". So when you are eating white bread, you are also eating residual chemical bleach. Flour mills use different chemical bleaches, all of which are pretty bad. Here are a few of them: oxide of nitrogen, chlorine, chloride, nitrosyl and benzoyl peroxide mixed with various chemical salts.

One bleaching agent, chloride oxide, combined with whatever proteins are still left in the flour, produces alloxan. Alloxon is a poison and has been used to produce diabetes in laboratory animals. Chlorine oxide destroys the vital wheat germ oil. It will also shorten the flour’s shelf life and nurture insects.

Besides, in the process of making flour white, half of the good unsaturated fatty acids, that are high in food value, are lost in the milling process alone, and virtually all the vitamin E is lost with the removal of wheat germ and bran. As a result, the remaining flour in the white bread you buy, contains only poor quality proteins and fattening starch.

So why is flour so bad?

Highly processed white flour or wheat flour is missing the two most nutritious and fiber-rich parts of the seed: the outside bran layer and the germ (embryo). Flour contains high proportion of starches, which are complex carbohydrates also known as polysaccharides. Leavening agents are used with some flours, especially those with significant gluten content, to produce lighter and softer baked products by embedding small gas bubbles. Flour has been refined and processed. A diet of refined foods leaves many people malnourished, constipated, enervated and vulnerable to chronic illness.

The more refined foods a person eats, the more insulin must be produced to manage it. Insulin promotes the storage of fat, making way for rapid weight gain and elevated triglyceride levels, which can lead to heart disease. Over time, the pancreas gets so overworked that insulin production grinds to a halt, and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or diabetes sets in. Either way, the body is getting little or no fuel from the food you eat and tries to convert muscle and fat into energy.

So ditch the white bread all together and opt for whole wheats and whole grains. I use buckwheat as an alternative to flour! You can use buckwheat to make yummy pancakes or savory crepes.

Here's why buckwheat is so cool and is the new "flour"

1. Buckwheat is energizing and nutritious
2. Contains no gluten
3. Buckwheat is available throughout the year and can be served as an alternative to rice or made into porridge.
4. It is actually a fruit seed that is related to rhubarb and sorrel making it a suitable substitute for grains for people who are sensitive to wheat or other grains that contain protein glutens.
5. A Grain That's Good for Your Cardiovascular System
6. Better Blood Sugar Control and A Lowered Risk of Diabetes
7. Helps Prevent Gallstones
8. Low in saturated fats
9. rich in potassium and phosphorus

Check out World Healthiest Foods (www.whfoods.com) you can search most foods and find out their nutritional benifits.

SOY- Do you think it's healthy?

So you thought soy milk, soy sauce, tofu and all soy products are healthy? Well think again.Eating soy foods will destroy your thyroid and leach calcium from your bones.

Dont believe me? Well read on.

Soy, due to its phytic acid, causes calcium to be stripped from the body, and impairs absorption of all minerals. Soy suppresses the thyroid gland, leading to serious problems.

In fact SOY BEANS are possible the worse thing for you. A naturpath student from Griffith University, Sarah Antico, say's "there is copious amounts of research on soy beans, and the findings are scary, do a simple Google search and im sure you will discover why".

What you will find is that "basically, the genetically modified soy beans changes the structure of your DNA and soy beans raises your hormone levels through the roof". They are especially not good for guys, because of the high level of estrogen in them (causing low sex drive and infertility). SOY milk and all SOY products are a bit of a scam. We are OVERCOMSUNMING soy... Pick up a product of any processed food ie dorito chips, seaweed crackers, chocolate, anything, and you most likely find soy in the ingredient list. Our bodies are trying to FIGHT away the soy as we dumping so much of it in our bodies without realizing.

In addition, when processing soy, the use of hexane is needed. Hexane is strictly prohibited in organic food processing, but is used to make “natural” soy foods and even some that are "made with organic ingredients". Hexane is a neurotoxic petrochemical solvent that is listed as a hazardous air pollutant with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).What are we putting into our bodies?

Who hasn't heard of the marvels of soy? The marketing bandwagon has touted soy as the next perfect health food for decades. In fact, its health benefits have been aggressively pushed in advertisements on national TV. And from 1992 to 2006, soy food sales increased from $300 million to nearly $4 billion! That just goes to show that soy has fast become synonymous with healthy eating. But could something that sounds so healthy be actually dangerous? Before you take another bite of tofu and another gulp of flavored soy milk,think about the effects on your body!

Soy contains goitrogens which lead to depressed thyroid function.
It also contains phytates which prevent absorption of life enhancing minerals.

It is also loaded with phytoestrogens which sometimes block the hormone estrogen and have adverse effects on human tissues! It causes Breast Cancer, Brain Damage and Infant Abnormalities!!!

Soy foods, such as soymilk, soy sauce, tofu and “veggie burgers,”. It aint good.

Soy contributes to joint pain, and often merely discontinuing all soy and drinking lots of water to flush out the poisons will make the pain vanish. The highly-touted phytoestrogens in soy have been linked to increased cancer, infertility, leukaemia and endocrine disruption.

It is child abuse to feed a baby soy formula.

A baby fed soy will receive, through the phytoestrogens, the equivalent of approximately five birth control pills per day! The damage is incalculable. The British government is considering legislation to control the sale of soy-based baby formula - when will the rest of the world take notice?






Check out http://www.cornucopia.org/2009/05/soy-report-and-scorecard/?gclid=COHw8ryCkp4CFZMtpAod9lfjow for more information or http://www.mercola.com/Downloads/bonus/dangers-of-soy/report.aspx?gclid=CJafhbyEkp4CFY0vpAod6kEHpg

Awakening the Conscious- Creative Short Story

It has been a long week at work. I can feel my tension drip away, as I walk out the office doors. Towering behind me is the 23 storey building I work in. As the glass revolver doors spit me out, I could not be happier. Despite the smog of the city I feel the warmth of the afternoon sun pierce through the clouds as I try to block out the stress of the day.
Waiting to cross the road my thoughts are shattered by the penetrating noise of traffic. I feel myself drowning in the racket of cars, buses, trains, trams and people, but a sigh of relief comes over me when I cross the road and begin the journey home.
As I casually walk along the foot path i hardly notice the people walking past and instead my thoughts focus on tomorrow. Without notice I then think back into the past and out of nowhere a memory is sparked from high school. However my thought is suddenly disrupted. I have arrived at the usual fork in the footpath, and for the first time I hesitate to walk down my path home. The same memory of high school springs back as I remember the poem the road less travelled, and while the author’s name escapes me, I remember the line “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”.
The unexpectable urge to take the second path ignites a feeling of excitement so I decide to go with it. As I walk along the pathway the hard concrete turns into lush green grass and the trees and bushes become much denser. As I peer around the bend, I see an old wooden seat, pushed up against the strong trunk of a willow tree which beckons me over.
As I sit perched on the seat I close my eyes and take a deep breathe in. The clean oxygen fills my lungs and the far away sounds of the city evaporate. In that moment my memory flashbacks to a time I felt connected and in unity with nature.

Suddenly I am 22 again and sitting under a mammoth oak tree with friends.
“Let’s do it then” my friend turns to me and says.
“Okay I am ready for it!” I say without hesitation. As I put my hand out and receive a white square piece of paper about 5mm big.
“Don’t be scared or worried, I have done this plenty of times and I am hear with
you” my friend says with enthusiasm.
“It is a psychedelic experience that forces you to face up to issues about your own life and mind, and if you are at all mentally unstable, unhappy with your life or yourself, if you have any unresolved mental conflicts, then it isn’t suggested you take it” my friend says with a serious look and deep tone.
“But!!!” she exclaims
“For those who are suited for it the experience can be so rich and rewarding in a multitude of ways” she says with great conviction.

Not long after consuming the LSD we started to laugh uncontrollably about anything and everything. It was a kind of laughter that I haven’t experienced since childhood, a deep and overwhelming mirth that shook my whole body to the core. The tears began streaming down our cheeks, as we gasped happily for breath.

After the laughter resided, I reached a peak, a plateau of sparkling clarity and consciousness. The world was sound, a vibrating molecular dance from the infinitesimally small to the infinitesimally vast, deeper than anything I'd ever imagined.
I looked up to the clouds churning through an endless sky. I saw light and colour and vacillating patterns possessed of an indescribable essence. I realized that the world around me was alive and that all things spring from the Divine Ground.
“This must have been what the ancients felt when they spoke of the Great Spirit” I said aloud.

As we wondered back towards the music my mind split into thousands of multicolored fragments and the universe seemed to rip open. As I looked up at the trees it occurred to me how beautiful and strong they where. The complex mysterious equations that dictated how the trees were pushed up out of the ground towards the sky suddenly became apparent to me. I also realized how these equations dictated the growth of the grass, the rolling of the hills, even our very bodies. I had a sudden respect for the complexity of things, with an intensity that I hadn't had before, and this complexity seemed sharper in everything I turned my eyes towards. I made myself promise to remember that moment- that moment of complete unity and harmony.

As I opened my eyes I realized I had been reminiscing for quiet sometime, as the sun was beginning to sink beneath the horizon. As I looked around my eyes captured the essence of the greenery and a new profound appreciation swept over me. Golden flecks of sunlight bounced of trees and grass and a sense of calmness surrounded me. I suddenly realized that I was then living and thinking in the moment. My mind was not consumed with thoughts of the future nor of the past, but in that very moment. The realization hit me that I had not been living in the present moment, and that my thoughts nearly always reflected the past or the future

As I stood up and looked around I promised myself, once again, I would not forget this moment. Walking back along the footpath the luscious green grass turned back into hard concrete and although my surroundings changed, the feeling of unity and love stayed with me. Arriving back into reality, a young women passed me and instead of looking down I looked up, into her eyes and gave her a big smile and hi. With a surprised face, she looked back and smiled, looking slightly bewildered. Arriving on my street I realized that everywhere I looked I saw people wearing black, including myself, and wondered where the colour had faded too.

Looking around, i felt submerged in unfamiliar surroundings. The cold, hard concrete buildings and mechanically structures felt foreign and unnatural. The image of sparkling green trees and the soft grass summoned me back. I wondered how it is possible that we've come to accept this civilization we've built around us. I found myself wishing everyone could glimpse the path I had just taken. The path less travelled.

Miss Earth competition forgets the earth and focuses on the Missies!

With environmental issues becoming a more well known topic, organizations like Miss Earth promote themselves as taking a positive stance, however are beauty pageants really the answer.

Founder and organizer, Maria James, said Miss Earth is unlike other beauty pageants, as the candidates are well informed ladies from the age of 18 to 26 who have a strong passion for the environment.

“The girls undergo rigorous judging to ensure they will do a good job in representing Australia” Mrs. James said.

"They are beautiful girls trying to make a difference, and this is a great avenue to do so” she said.

Miss Earth has now been running for 5 years in Australia and Maria James only hopes it becomes bigger, better and more well known.

The funding for Miss Earth comes from Maria’s own pockets, so therefore the girls are required to find sponsors that may help them fly to Sydney for the final week, pay for their accommodation and food for the week.

This year there were 17 candidates from across Australia who attended the final week in Sydney.

Melissa Neigbour, was one of those candidates, who is a town planner but spends a lot her time dedicated to Project Survival Pacifica.

“The Miss Earth schedule required me to take a whole week out of my usual life which involves working as an environmental planner with Conics and working with the Project Survival Pacific team” she said.

“I was ready for a full week of press conferences, pageant training and environmental activities” she said.

“However, when the organiser introduced the judges and listed their credentials, it became apparent that none of the judges were involved in the environmental field nor did they have any experience in this area” she said.

“The schedule on the following day was booked in for tree-planting, however this activity was cancelled and instead the day was re-scheduled entirely for make up and hair for the preliminary judging that evening which was open to the public. This wasn’t what I had taken a whole week off work for!” she said.

Melissa was contemplating pulling out of the competition as she did not feel it was at all what it promoted to be.

When a stretched hummer arrived to take the contestants on a city tour, Melissa decided to pull out of the competition.

“At this point the legitimacy of Miss Earth as a pageant for earth-loving participants who will take action to protect the Earth from man-made pollution, really started to fade” she said.

Another candidate, Liana Gray from Alice Springs, runs and operates her own company called I Love Earth.com.

With a huge passion for helping the environment she thought Miss Earth would be a great way to raise awareness of environmental issues.

“It's important to be aware and think what kind of impact your action will have on the environment. Every action has a reaction, and the earth will respond to how we treat it” she said.

It is clear that even the organizers of such a big event Miss Earth Australia can forget this.

“The good news is that we all have choices, and you have a choice whether to ride in a hummer or not, you don't have to follow the others” she said.

Similarly though, Liana felt the competition was a huge let down.

“As a contestant of Miss Earth I felt we had achieved nothing in the way of raising awareness of environmental issues or to help the environment in a tangible way” she said

“I felt like the pageant was focused primarily on beauty and on creating a great ‘show’ for the Saturday night” she said.

The program to make us forget who we really are, what we are really part of and our purpose

There is no doubt that we have been programmed in a way that distracts us away from our purpose, as we work to serve the artificial world we live in.

Author and teacher, Allan Yarrington of Byron Bay NSW said people have been brainwashed by consumerism, TV, institutions and pharmaceutical companies, and this has created a very secular and detached society.

"We are like an ant colony that has been given a different program so that, instead of putting all our energy/power of creation into constructing our ant hill and feeding each other and our young, we forget to do our part in the plan (the dream) that ensures the safety and well being of our fellow ants and start to think only of our-selves” Mr Yarrington said.

“When all the ants’ think only of them-selves, the anthill does not get built, not everyone gets fed and the babies are left with no one to look after them” he said.

“The dream of the ant world falls into a state of chaos, collapses and finally fades away into oblivion” he said.

Although this is analogy, it seems to resemble what is happening around us.

Local artist and dancer, Bonny Jane, believes there has to be a shift in our consciousness, otherwise our world, and us, will deteriorate.

“The ancient Mayans prophesied the evolution of man, the growing developments in technology, the climate changes and the loss of human kinds sense of self” Miss Jane said.

“They also prophesied that there will be a huge shift in human consciousness, whereby some people will move forward, while other may not” she said.

“We can already see this happening in the world, with people waking up and questioning their governments, belief systems and themselves” she said.

With the average person changing careers at least fourteen times in their live, perhaps they are searching for a life with more depth and meaning.

A Time to EVOLVE

In this 21st century humankind has created copious amounts of new technology’s and material objects that ‘advance’ our society. However, there are more lifestyle illness and diseases ever before, more stress and more conflict.

To top it off, we are facing tremendous changes in our natural world, such as global warming, polluted waterways, rising sea levels and animal extinction. What have we done to ourselves and our planets? The increasing demand for consumption and consumerism has pushed our environment to the brink, and pushed humankind to the edge.

Basically as a society we are extracted natural resources from the environment to feed our desire for material products. In the past decade alone one third of the worlds natural resources has been consumed…gone… We are cutting, and mining and hawling and trashing the place so fast that we are undermining the planets very ability to live here. A staggering 80% of the world’s original forests are gone. In the Amazon alone we are losing 2000 trees a minute. So if you do the math’s you can work out how many trees has been cut down after reading this blog.


How is it that Australian aborigines lived in harmony with the environment for over 40 000 years, and yet, we have only been here for just over 200 years and we have already done so much damage to our environment, and our self’s. Our society today survives on constructs such as banks, courts, government, bills, statutes, money, insurance, machinery, engines, skyscrapers, concrete, steel, plastic, careers, titles, standings and much more. Human beings have become preoccupied with the material life, and in this process have lost their soul purpose. Unfortunately people have become consumed by expectations and belief systems that engross them, becoming unsatisfied and unfulfilled in their lives.

Perhaps, we need to take notes from the American Indians, Australian Aborigines, the Incas, and the Mayans, and start to live a more simply life in harmony with nature and one another.

Unfortunately this notion of living in harmony with the environment has been destroyed, and some suggest this is due to mass consumerism. More and more people are purchasing products that they believe will bring them happiness; however we consume far more than we need to survive.

Human life exists here because of animals, trees, air, water and land. Science, technology and Industrialization have destroyed all these things. It is quite obvious that human life is coming to a bleak end very soon, if we do not change the way we are currently living.

As you read and explore this blog, I ask you all to reflect. Give a thought to your spiritual and emotional connection to this land and the people that surround you.
We are all gifted people. Every single person that reads this has something to offer to the planet.

Welcome to Mind Body Spirit

This site, Mind Body Spirit, is committed to the creation of communities throughout the world of aware individuals. It aims to educating people on the eating healthy and evolving their spirit.

In order to create an environment of knowledge sharing and learning, there will be news articles, short features, information about events, facts and much more you can easily access.

This site will encourage you to grow your own food and support one another away from the endless rules and obligations we currently struggle under, in order to achieve lives full of peace, joy and abundance for all and take care of our earth so that it flourishes.