Down to Earth...

It was such an inspirational weekend. So isn't each day and moment supposed to be an experience and inspiration for better living for the next days and years. Why are we not doing this all the time? Part of my job as a dietitian is to remind this to my patients, friends, family and most other people I connect with and myself. Well believe it or not reminding it to myself is the most difficult, and I am learning that for me the best way to remind myself of how important every moment in my life is by doing yoga everyday. If one day goes by I don't do it I feel horrible and miserable and worse if more days pass without any yoga. No one is perfect, I am not able to do it every single day, a few days may pass by but I try to get in some yogic breathing or awareness or consciousness or other exercises in my day to make it meaningful to me. Anyways we can't get anywhere without struggling through miserable times either. Well that was part of my inspirational weekend. I struggled a lot through my yoga class realizing that it has nothing to do with me being tired or hungry or out of practice for a day or 2, but that I am struggling through my life at the moment and that was why. I had to keep reminding myself to breathe and let whatever was stressing me get through me...most things have to end at some point. So its okay, struggling is good. When it comes to coping with stress, your breath is one of the best remedies there is...and its free!
Because, this breathing and struggling helped me to cope with the miserable, yet must-know and learn from type of journey in the later hours. So later during the weekend I read more of Harvest for Hope and miserably learned again that what we eat nowadays is not the product of nature or mother earth but is the product of food science made in labs with no care, no love, no concern for beings. Even if we think we are eating healthy and buy all organic and stuff...there is so little we know and even less we can control. But nothing is impossible!
So how can we give back to Mother Earth? We took so much from her, we poisened her soil and plants and water and played around with the genes of her useful products, melted the wonderful icebergs and destroyed coral reefs, rainforests to leave many useful living creaters to be extinct! We may not be able to return all the lost back to alive but we can give back to the Earth to help it heal and recover from the torture we have done to her so she can once again give us useful and healthy products for us to continue living.
Some Ways to give back to Earth and save Our Lives:
- use less electricity, gas, water.
-  unplug electrical devices when not is use such as toaster and cell phone charger.
- watch less TV and go out more to spend more time with nature.
- drive less and walk more or ride a bike or at least use public transportation.
- recycle paper, plastic, cans, glass and especially electrical stuff such as batteries.
- or resuse, plastic containers make good pen or crayon holders, glass containers can be reused to store dried herbs, coffee, teas, dry beans, dried fruits, occasional sweets, candy, pins, sewing materials, jewelry, etc.
- when shopping bring your own paper bags or hangbags or choose paper instead of plastic when asked and then recycle the paperbags.
- grow your own vegetables and herbs (all you need is a small garden or dirt and seeds in big pots in a balcony or window sill).
- As much as you can buy organic, local and seasonal fruits and vegetables.
- Eat more plant proteins such as beans, legumes, lentils instead of animal proteins such as meats, poultry and fish.
- drink mostly water and less of juices, sodas, alcohol and other sweetened and high calorie drinks.
- Whenever you get a chance protest against GMOs (genetically modified organisms- plants) and the use of pesticides.
- use organic cleaning supplies for your home such as vinegar and baking soda, and clorax and seventh generation products seem to be environment friendly. (http://www.clorox.com/, http://www.seventhgeneration.com/ )
- spend time with children to teach them about the environment and let them observe and learn from you.
- take action with Greenpeace or learn more about them: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa
I'm sure there are more ways to give back to Earth so let your creative imaginations take you forward and share some of them with me! Peace...

The Earth.

Today is Earth Day! What does Earth mean to you? Dirt, living things on earth, the world, recycling, mountains, or living as a whole with all the living things on earth. So, probably the living things that come to your minds right away are us human beings, animals and maybe you also think of plants. True, but what about the soil, the air, landscape, and the rest of the universe such as the sun and stars. Are they not living as well? A very debatable and perhaps controversial question. Well thinking scientifically I would say yes they are living because all of them have cellular molecules that use different molecules or particles to make energy for themselves and then produce other molecules that can be used to make energy in other cells. For example, think of the air, we might not like to think of it as having cells or bacteria in it, but it does and they travel in and out of us all the time. These cells are not necessarily bad, it could be carrying chemicals that produce the smell of the fig tree you are now approaching and then translate to a wonderful crisp after the rain smell that could make you fall in love with summer and the fig tree so much that you go and eat a few figs off the tree. Well later as you digest the figs and absorb the nutrients your body can and is meant to absorb, the remnants and some left over cells of the seeds from the fig pass out from you which later hopefully mixes with soil (not oceans). And this soil which could be miles away from where you live, maybe will produce another fig tree or plant and so on...So this shows how almost everything on and inside and outside of earth is so unbelievably connected. This was probably a complicated and weird way of explaining it but its reality. I'm realizing again and again that we humans alone don't realize how connected we are to each other by simply breathing, yet alone how humans are so connected with the rest of the earth as I described in the example. Is this surprising to you or does it seem nonsense or stupid or a waste of time? Well then I hope you do more research on this on your own and start saving the world, the earth and yourselves from what we humans have disastrously created....the toxic earth! Otherwise, this earth that we step on and share the air of every single day is not lasting much longer! And we may become extinct just like the dinosaurs!
Also I recommend you read Harvest for Hope by Jane Goodall to learn more about these issues and find ways on how to save ourselves and the earth from disappearing. I am reading it right now. Other great and amazingly related reads are books from Deepak Chopra.
And, if you have never heard of or seen a fig tree or never had the experience eating fresh figs from the tree itself I strongly encourage you to get that in your life experience. They are so delicious and incredibly healthy for you. Well we now know that figs and other fruits are very healthy for us from research that the money spending governments provide, but before studied science, people probably ate it because it smelled and looked good.
Wait, not the end yet...I just remembered a great way to help you understand. One of my favorite movies The Bandit (Eskiya in Turkish) has a line towards the end that goes something like this.... the shot and dying man says, I am scared, and a friend, a much older man responds, don't be scared, you are only going to go back to the soil and the soil will use minerals from your body to create a flower, and then a bee will use the nectar from that flower to make honey which someone could later be eating, and maybe that person will be me...Ah, isn't this beautiful!