Vital Stream Naturopathy

A spiritual perspective helps me to make sense, or at least be more accepting, of the objective world. It helps me to nurture an inner core, which serves as my compass for navigating through life. When I get away from my spiritual practices for too long, it becomes harder to cope with the demands on me. I lay awake at night repeating the same thoughts. My day becomes more mechanistic. I am distracted in the evening, rather than enjoying my family. I need to cultivate spirituality to connect with life and get joy from the simple things in life. And it does not take money, a good job, or a Ph.D. to get that joy. It does require surrender.

So what is spirituality? We use the term spiritual in so many contexts, such as cosmogenesis, anthropomorphic genesis, religion, wisdom, life practices, nonmaterial aspects of a lifeform, morphic fields, and more. I am talking about spirituality as an experience of recognizing, accessing and engaging an inner subjective part of your being so as to achieve a more optimal state of wellbeing.

Cultivating spirituality is a process of looking beyond the material, objective reality and letting go of rational, mechanistic thought. This entails an element of surrender and often engenders a sense of vulnerability. In looking beyond and letting go, we may receive inspiration, see a subjective inner world, or find subjective meaning from an objective outer world event or form. This is not escapism, nor is it fantasy. It is seeing from a more expansive perspective, feeling with naïve innocence, and being connected to clarity and knowingness.

Eastern religions teach physical and mental disciplines for cultivating spirituality. Examples include meditation, asana yoga (physical postures), bhakti yoga (devotional practices), and buddhist dharma (life practices/values/wisdom). These practices help us to connect with our body and slow down recurring thoughts. The judeochristian religions also teach practices for cultivating spirituality, such as prayer, contemplation (including introspection and reflection), brotherhood (community), and sacrifice. These practices help us to connect with our inner core and embrace a reality greater than ourself.

Practice some of these exercises: (1) Pause and take in the world around you, noticing how sights, people and events make you feel. (2) Pay attention to the inspirations that come to you in quiet moments. (3) Look for the cycles and patterns of events and outcomes in your life. (4) Pay attention to whatever task you undertake and to what your inner voice says and feels. (5) Seek out moments and places where you can embrace your vulnerability and surrender to your inner self.

Steven Koda, ND

Warning Signs

• Flu-like symptom include fever, body aches, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, and occasionally runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
  
• Warning signs in children that signify an urgent need for medical attention include:
  

• Fast breathing or difficulty breathing
  
• Bluish skin color
  
• Cries inconsolably; cries if touched or moved
  
• Lethargic and difficult to awaken
  
• Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
  
• Flu-like symptoms improve, but then return with fever and worse cough
  
• Fever with a rash
  
• See our page on “Fevers in Children”
  

• Warning signs in adults that signify an urgent need for medical attention include:
  

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
  
• Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
  
• Sudden dizziness
  
• Confusion
  
• Severe or persistent vomiting
  

Prevention:

• Avoid actions that impair your immunity:
  

• Avoid sugar. Even small amounts of sugar can significantly impair your immune function for hours, making you more
  susceptible to the flu.
  
• Manage your stressors. Prolonged stress decreases your immune response, making you much more susceptible to
  a flu infection.  Studies show that prolonged stress is at least partially responsible for 90% of all illness and disease.
  Consider meditation or prayer to reduce stress.
  
• Get enough sleep. Insufficient sleep decreases your immune response. Most people need about 8 hours per night for
  optimal health.
  

• Practice good hygiene
  

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
  
• Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.
  
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Germs spread this way.
  
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
  
• If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone
  except to get medical care or for other necessities.
  
• While sick, limit contact with others as much as possible.
  
• During the winter most heating systems dry out your mucous membranes making you more susceptible to viruses.
  Get fresh air regularly.
  

• Boost your immune system
  

• Exercise. Regular exercise boosts your immune system.  (Note that too little or too much exercise may impair your
  immune system)
  
• Diet. Brightly colored fruits and vegetables are packed with healthy phytonutrients that can strengthen your immune
  system.  Eat 5-9 servings per day of fresh organic fruits and vegetables.
  
• Supplementation for maintaining a healthy immune system. View Paul Bergner’s “vitamins and herbs for flu” and
  “vitamin D for flu.” During flu season increase your intake of these nutrients to the following levels:
  

• Zinc                25 mg /day
  
• Selenium          200 mcg/day
  
• Vit A                10,000 IU/day
  
• Vit C                 500-1000 mg/day
  
• Vit E                100-200 IU/day
  
• Vit D                4,000-10,000 IU/day
  
• EFA’s                1 tablespoon/day (e.g. cod liver oil)
  

At the first signs of flu-like symptoms:

• Supplements to consider:
  

• Consider an herbal supplement with several of these constituents:
  

• Propolis
  
• Sambucus nigra (Elder)
  
• Eupatorium (Boneset)
  
• Yerba santa
  
• Glycyrrhiza glabra (but not if have high blood pressure)
  
• Astragalus
  
• Quebracho
  
• Olive leaf
  
• Euphrasia (Eyebright)
  
• Grindelia
  
• Verbascum (Mullein)
  
• Achillea
  

• Vit C powder 1,000-2,000 mg three times per day to bowel tolerance (for 4 days then taper off).
  
• Vit A 25,000 IU three times per day for 3 days, then decrease to twice per day, then once per day over next 6 days.
  

• We recommend …
  

• Flew Away by Natura
  
• Wellness Herbal Defense Formula by Source Naturals (tablets)
  
• Quick Defense concentrated Rx-A defense factors by Gaia herbs
  
• If you get the flu, stay in bed or at the least significantly reduce activities and stressors for 7 days.  You may feel better
  after a couple days, however the immune response to the flu occurs in waves.  So after feeling better on day 3, the
  immune system continues to respond bringing on cytokine storms on days 4, 5 and 6.
  

• Home treatment
  

• Wet socks treatment
  

• Naturopathy at home - colds and flu
  
• See warning signs above

The Atlantic Monthly has a very good article on vaccination for swine flu - http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/brownlee-h1n1/3

Steven Koda, ND

A prayer is an earnest request.  There are two components of prayer: the request and the earnest feeling.  In prayer, as in seeking to manifest your intent, there is a male aspect and a female aspect.  The male aspect includes projecting the thought into the world.  The female aspect is th earnest feeling - opening yourself to receive the result.  When we experience these two components as one moment, we are praying … and our prayer is being answered.  The clearer the vision of our thought, and the more open we are to receive the response, the quicker our prayer is being answered.

The quality of our openness to receive - our earnest feeling - is determined by the depth of emotion we associate with the object of our prayer.  Emotional feeling is vital to manifestation.  Emotion is a vibrating, magnetic energy.  We propel our thoughts into the universe with our emotion.  The more powerful the emotion, the greater the force of attraction, and the more readily we move toward a worldly experience in which we manifest our prayer.  What we attract in response to prayer has nothing to do with what we are doing physically, or someone’s notion of how worthy we are, or how good we are, or what our supposed destiny may be.  It has to do with the emotional quality we attach to our projected thought – our vibration.

The key to manifesting a prayer is to find a way to feel good about the object of the prayer - not to wish for it, long for it, sigh for it, or feel discouraged about it, but just to feel good about it.  We do not have to explain our reasons, make excuses, or exceed some moral threshold.  When we feel good about the object of our prayer, we attract the experiences, people and things into our life at the same vibration as our good feeling.  The more we practice prayer in this manner, the more we may move the reality of our lives into experiences of higher vibrations.

One of the beauties of prayer is that we do not need to figure out how to create the desired outcome.  By focusing on the quality of our prayer, (the clarity of our vision and the emotion we feel about the vision), we attract the outcome into our experience. If we feel bad about the object of our prayer, we are attracting experiences at lower vibrations, such as fear, loss and neglect.  In such case we actually may be praying for the opposite outcome from what we hoped.

These concepts are very important when praying for the wellbeing of another.  Often when we pray for someone, we are sending out a desire begging god for healing.  In brief, we are trying too hard.  If we are sending, then we are neglecting the female aspect.  We are not moving toward manifestation of our desired outcome.  To pray we need to be open to receive.  Sending our will out merely blocks the ability to receive. Even asking for an outcome for the person’s highest good may be done in a way in which we are sending out our will, and thus blocking the receipt of healing.

One way of praying for the wellbeing of another is to contemplate the divine in such other person. Remember moments of joy involving the person.  Or create your own experience of the divine, and include a vision of the person at their best in that experience.  See the person whole, well, and vital - and feel the joy of witnessing their divine self.

How to Pray:  Before praying, contemplate your prayer so that you can be very specific in your request. Identify what you want and distinguish over what you do not want.  Identify affirmative wants and avoid negatives.  Ask for outcomes that are based on love, not fear.  For example, praying not to fail is a negative request.  When praying there is no negative.  You are in fear of failing.  So, what you are creating is fear and failure.  As another example, praying to feel better is a prayer latent with fear.  Praying to be rich is filled with a sense of lack.  When praying about feeling better, first ask yourself, “What is it about feeling well that I desire?”  Maybe the answer is, “I want to be filled with vitality and experience the joys and wonders of life.” You can even get much more specific than that.  “I want to feel the wind against my cheek as I gracefully ski the snow covered slopes and feel the sun on my back.”  Or maybe, “I want to share laughter with my children.”  In forming your prayer, get into that feeling place of what you really want.  Then bask in that vision and feeling.  Then expect it, listen for it, and allow it into your life.

Steve Koda, ND

Vital Stream Naturopathy

I found the DC FLI to be a very positive experience. We spent Saturday and Sunday preparing for our Monday meetings on Capitol Hill. The preparation included a keynote speech by a staff member of Sen. Barbara Boxer covering the typical daily activities of a US Senator. What most impressed me was the level of integrity perceived to be present among the young staff members working in Congress. The most significant thing I learned was that we actually can have a voice, and that our input can make a difference. The most effective way of having input seems to require some specific knowledge of the process. In particular, if our member is on a committee that has jurisdiction over an issue or is handling a current piece of legislation pertinent to our interests, they are very open to inserting language we propose (of course depending on our positions and the level of controversy, et cetera). As far as the bigger picture policies, getting effective action is much more of a challenge. There are so many legitimate and competing interests that it is difficult to get things done. What I perceived though is not that the special interests own any one person. It is that they have a sophisticated process. They learn to control the conversation. If we do not speak our interests, then all the congressional members hear is the detailed plan of the interest groups providing the input. I also learned that lobbying and being effective in Washington DC is very different than lobbying and getting things done in Washington State. Due to the number of people involved and the number and complexity of the issues involved, mastery of interpersonal skills seems to be the minimum requirement. There seems to be more need for expertise in human relations than for knowledge and expertise of an engineered solution. It seems to require diplomacy, integrity, patience, and relationships (not with special interests but with all the various people involved in getting the process done).

Steve Koda, ND
Vital Stream Naturopathy

Vital Stream Naturopathy’s blog is online.