runner11

This is what I've always thought. Narcissism is like a defense mechanism.

You can't convince a skeptic, because even if they did a "scientific study," they would just draw the conclusions that they want. For example, if you showed that running a marathon depletes qi, they would study and see the effects of running a marathon, and conclude that it was caused by the blood glucose and electrolytes being depleted, not something esoteric like qi. It doesn't matter how many cause and effects are studied; qi itself cannot be physically seen under a microscope, so therefore it doesn't exist according to western medicine. The same goes for jing, shen, meridians, etc. Even something like acupuncture points, which have been proven to western medicine to have significance, have been explained to be stimulating different nerves of the body. The question is, if you're going to study this form of medicine that is several thousand years old, and acknowledge that it does offer benefits, why stop short of accepting it for face value. Why do we have to say, "Yea it works but not because of these strange energies that we can't observe or measure. It's simply manipulating nerve endings, and can help with reducing pain." It's not like the ancient Chinese had to resort to esoteric explanations because they lacked understanding of the human body. They had a very thorough understanding of the physical body. They just weren't constrained to having to literally see something to accept that it exists. I know I'm probably on the fringe here, but I think that western medicine has gone so far down the wrong path and has become so corrupted with pharmaceutical money, that I literally don't trust it for anything, except for maybe a few useful technologies like MRIs and Xrays.

This modern scientific approach to nutrition is very materialistic. We are a society that values what modern science has to say as gospel, and anything not backed by peer reviewed journals is seen as quakery. We have a study that shows that pomegranates contain antioxidants, so therefore pomegranates will make you healthier. We don't look at the whole diet in relation to where you live or the season. We just say, olive oil has omega 3 fatty acids, so that's healthier than butter. Its no surprise that a culture that views the human body as a mechanical series of organs that each perform a job, would also view food as a combination of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that react a certain way to cells of the body. People want to break down food to the point where they're throwing around words like antioxidants and branched chain amino acids, but they're missing the big picture. From a TCM perspective, its the flavors in the food that nourish the various organs, as well as containing the essence of the food. If we eat food that lacks various flavors, just because we think the ingredients are healthy, that's not a healthy diet. I also think that the idea that a supplement could be better than a whole food is a testament to how far removed from nature we have become, and how arrogant we have become as a society. Some might say a perfectly vine ripened tomato is healthy because its sweet and acidic, adds a beautiful color to summer salads, is cool and refreshing, balances the bitterness of greens, etc. Others might say tomatoes are healthy because they contain lycopene, so here's a pill that has lycopene. We have people buying things like pomegranates, olive oil, quinoa, and all kinds of other foods from half way around the world just because some scientific studies tell us that they're healthy. Olive oil is great, if you live in California. Where I live on the east coast, 99% of the olive oil on the store shelves has already gone rancid. Local grass fed butter would be the healthy thing to eat where I live, but good luck convincing people of that. materialistic society materialistic view of the body materialistic view of our food I think what's good for the body and the spirit is eating good food with good people.

I drink my tap water, which comes from our well which is very deep. We live on top of a mountain, so its very pure. Its very hard water loaded with minerals. It has a unique quality, where you might not think you're thirsty, but you take a sip and then you end up gulping down the whole glass. Not because it tastes amazing, but because of something else. Probably all the minerals act as electrolytes, helping to hydrate you. Kind of like gatorade except natural. If water can have properties according to TCM, this water should be cool in nature since it comes from deep underground. It does seem to have this property. I can't drink it in the winter at room temperature; its too cooling. I feel like it has to be warm or hot to drink in the winter. As far as bottled water, it all tastes like plastic to me, and city water always tastes like chlorine. I like good well water right out of the faucet.

I absolutely think atheism is a religion. I know most people would disagree with me, but I've given it alot of thought. First of all, its true that most religions try to explain why we're here. Granted, atheism doesn't try to come up with an explanation for this, it just goes to the default, which is that we're here by chance; this all just randomly happened for no particular reason or purpose. Fair enough. However, the other issue religion tries to explain is how we got here. This is something that atheism does dip its feet into heavily, and I have a hard time with a group doing this and then saying they're not a religion. I know what you're thinking. "But that's different! Its science! It's based on actual evidence!" The thing is though, its not. The big bang is a pretty far fetched idea. It doesn't exactly have a wealth of evidence supporting it. If there was a group who had no opinion on the matter, no feeling or intuition, they just based their beliefs about the existence of deities and the creation of the world on evidence, then that would not be a religion. And guess what, we have that group. Its called scientists. Science is not a religion for this reason. Atheism is the belief that no deities exist. When you form a group whose sole purpose is the repudiation of the idea of a God or Gods, something that science cannot prove or disprove, I would consider that a religion. Its a religion that has the belief that God doesn't exist, which is unusual as far as religions go, but a religion nonetheless. If atheism was based on science they would have no opinion on the matter, or maybe go so far as to say there's no evidence for a God, but certainly not say that God does not exist. That's not based on science.

I had one bad experience with it. It started when I accidentally ate some cashews, which I'm severely allergic to. Within minutes I had a rash on my neck so red and dry that I couldn't turn my head or my skin would crack and start bleeding. I went to a doctor who is a chiropractor but also does acupuncture. He admitted that he was contemplating which points to use. He was trying to decide between two sets of points. He said, "this will either make it better or worse." Well it made it worse. My whole neck became inflamed and felt like it was on fire. It started to crack and bleed and continued to get worse after I got home. I went back the next day and he used the other points, and my neck cleared up 80% within 30 seconds of putting the needles in, and was completely better within 20 minutes. I think this is a mistake that a dedicated TCM doctor would not have made. After that I researched and found a TCM doctor who is excellent. My advice would be to stay away from chiropractors who do acupuncture. I personally don't believe in it, but even if you do, chiropractics have nothing whatsoever to do with acupuncture. It's like a dentist who also sets bones on the side.

I don't know what happened that day, and neither does anyone else except for Zimmerman. What I do know is that the media tried their hardest to stir up racial tensions, and they succeeded. That whole thing was the final straw for getting rid of my cable subscription.

Traditional cultures ate much more fermented foods than we do today. We still eat some fermented foods, but their not quite the same. A few examples are bread, cheese, yogurt, and sauerkraut. The bread we eat has yeast added, which is not the same as real sourdough, which is fermented with wild yeast from the air. The cheese we eat in the US is fermented, but its mostly made with pasteurized milk, and the bacteria and molds that take over are much more controlled due to things like waxing the rind. Modern/cheap cheese is more a science than an art. Things like sauerkraut and pickles you buy in the store are usually lacto-fermented, but they are pasteurized, and often have vinegar added as well. Sometimes they aren't fermented at all, just brined in vinegar. Traditional American cured meats like ham and bacon used to be cured over a period of months, and sometimes years, hanging in a barn with nothing but salt. Virginia used to produce some of the best ham in the world. Nowadays, we use nitrates to cure it much more quickly. The advantage of this is that the meat is much less likely to go bad, and it cures much faster. The disadvantage is that the flavor doesn't even compare to the traditional way. Cured meats are an artisan food, like wine, and when done the traditional way can go bad very easily, but if it succeeds, the flavor is incomparable. It will have what the French call terroir, meaning that the flavor comes from the place where the food was made. When I buy good local cheese, its one of a kind. There's no other cheese like it. They couldn't make it in France even if they wanted to, because the exact types and ratios of different grasses that the cows eat, as well as the types of wild yeast in the air and the climate is unique to this town that I live in. I think that this way of eating, besides being more healthy, connects us to the place we live and to nature in a way that is missing with our current food system. Unfortunately, there's only a couple of people left in the US who still cure meat the traditional way. One is Mario Batali's father, I think in Seattle, who sells online, but its expensive. I plan to try to ferment my own hot dogs using local beef. If it turns out good, I will make like 5 pound batches and freeze it. Good sourdough bread is also hard to find, which is understandable, because its much more time consuming, difficult, and unpredictable to make. I've found it to be not worth all the effort, but that's just me. As far as fermented vegetables, I make my own. If you can find the real thing in a store, its very expensive because it has to stay refrigerated, or it will continue to ferment and the glass jar will explode. I bought a Harsch fermenting crock from Germany. It works amazing. The way its designed makes the whole process foolproof. Before I got this crock, about half of my ferments went bad and had to be thrown out. Since I got the crock, I haven't had a single ferment go bad. I make dill pickles, sauerkraut, and pickled carrots. Due to the nature of these vegetables, pickling cucumbers, cabbage, and carrots are the easiest to ferment, but there's many others that can be fermented. I plan to try banana peppers in the summer when I can buy a bunch of fresh ones. I wouldn't waste my money of probiotic supplements. It's like comparing a multivitamin to a farmhouse meal. Spend that money on some good pickled veggies instead. Realpickles brand is expensive, but they have the best pickles I've ever tasted. They also have lactofermented hot sauce and other veggies, or buy a crock and start making your own. Its so easy.

Are you currently doing any kind of exercise? I'm probably not as qualified as some others here to give advice, but I would recommend you try running. As others have said, exercise can be grounding, which may benefit you. I know I'm probably biased, being a runner, but I think running is about as grounding as you can get. It also does a great job of getting the energy circulating. If you decide to go for a run a few times a week, please follow these two pieces of advice. First is to run in nature if possible. On a trail is great, or else just a nice calm spot with a lake, or trees, birds chirping, squirrels running around, etc. Second, don't run with music, ever. I really believe this changes the whole experience, and makes it no longer meditative. Its then just exercise. Running is meditation for me. Sometimes my mind is clear, and sometimes I think about things that are bothering me. One thing is for sure, when a run is really difficult, you can't help but think about things, simply to take your mind off the physical suffering you're experiencing. Also, don't overdo it. It can be very draining if you run too much too soon. That goes for any exercise really.

I used to get raw grass-fed milk from a local farm. I stopped drinking milk last year due to the damp forming nature of dairy, and I feel much better, but I agree that the real thing can definitely have benefits. In TCM, dairy is extremely damp forming. Bitter foods tend to drain dampness. The Masai tribe have some type of porridge or drink that they make out of a very bitter plant, which I'm sure became a staple of their diet because of how much milk they drink. Also, dairy is incredibly nourishing. Probably the most nourishing food there is. This means its great if you haven't eaten all day, or if your underweight or vegetarian, but if you already get lots of nourishment it can be too much, which I think further contributes to the damp nature. In the west we tend to think of nourishment as "the more the better," but in TCM you can definitely have too much nourishment. Another example is organ meats. Meat is already incredibly nourishing, and organ meats especially. This is why TCM advocates eating very small portions of organ meats at a time. Too much is overwhelming for the spleen to extract chi from, causing the spleen to overwork and weakening the spleen. Anyway, as you said lots of cultures drink milk and are very healthy. You just have to listen to your body, and of course make sure its the real thing. Grass-fed, raw, and not homogenized.

A wooden desk with something old and heavy metal near it and something red like a cup or trash can on or next to or under it.

From what I understand, from the perspective of physics time travel into the past is not possible. This is because of the obvious paradox. If you went back in time and killed your parents then you wouldn't be born. Except you were born. Most physicists will say that only time travel into the future is possible. If time travel into the future occurs, its not like everything that you skipped didn't happen. It did happen, you just missed it. You would go into a machine and probably fly at a rate of speed close to the speed of light, and time dilation would occur. The increase in speed will cause spacetime to bend, causing time to slow down for you compared to everyone else on earth. So say for example you get into your time machine, and you travel for 200 years through space, and return back to earth. Lets say you are traveling at such a high rate of speed that from your point of view you were only on the ship for 2 days. It didn't just seem like 2 days, it was 2 days, for you. You slept 1 night, you ate dinner twice, etc. You only aged 2 days. People on earth experienced time differently during those 2 days. Spacetime didn't change for them, so for them it was 200 years. They died, and their children died. Then you came back to earth. When you look at it this way, you see that its not some mystical thing. Its based on hard science, and theoretically is absolutely possible. It is only a matter of time before time travel into the future occurs. Of course, once you travel to the future you can't change your mind and go back. That time already happened, but you were busy flying around in your time machine.

To me I can't really say that I feel a physical sensation with qi. I definitely feel jing, and can feel it when it circulates through my body like a gust of wind. Qi feels like being alive. The more abundant my qi is, the more alive I feel. This is not necessarily my energy level, because I can be energized by getting excited, doing something I love, eating sugar, or any number of ways, but abundant qi is different. I don't know any other way to describe it as just feeling more alive. Like my eyesight is more keen, my sense of smell is more acute. Food tastes better and my mood overall is generally better. Abundant qi makes me feel incredibly strong but also calm at the same time.

Just curious what you folks' opinion is about the ability for dreams to affect the physical body. Last night I had a dream that I was with some friends just hanging out and outside on a nice day, and we were doing handstands on the grass. In my dream I kept doing handstands for what seemed like an hour, having a good time and goofing around. When I woke up, I had a pretty bad stomach ache, which was weird because I didn't eat right before bed and felt fine before bed. I stayed awake for 20 minutes and I started feeling better. I'm sure we've all also had the kind of dream that's just a perfect scene, and it causes you to wake up in a great mood. And of course there's the erotic dreams which can lead to orgasm during the dream, but actually having a stomach ache after dreaming about handstands was really wild to me, and has never happened to me before. Anybody have any similar experiences?

Awesome, that's a lot of information. Thank you. I agree that using it to stay awake is when its not good for us, which is why I'm not drinking it right now lol.

I agree about it strengthening and bringing clarity. I know running brings a superficial suffering, but I think it still brings strength and clarity. I wish I've found another form of temporary physical suffering that doesn't zap so much energy. I've tried all different kinds of meditation, but its not the same. I feel like I need that physical suffering sometimes.

I don't drink a lot of coffee, but once in a while I love a cup of black coffee with eggs and toast. I read something that was kind of a bummer, that the TCM view of coffee is that it uses jing. I've read that its not the caffeine itself, but the herbal properties of the actual coffee bean that does this, because tea has caffeine and doesn't have this effect. Even if this is true, I think its fine in moderation. There's something about a cup of good black coffee with a nice breakfast that feels right.

I don't think libertarianism is perfect. It has its flaws like any other philosophy, because human nature is flawed. At this point, I don't care what party a candidate belongs to, as long as they are not corrupt. This is so rare to find, that they'll usually get my vote regardless of their party affiliation or talking points, with a few exceptions. The Monsanto Protection Act, NDAA, SOPA, the bank bailout, etc. These are things that any democrat, republican, libertarian, green party, or whatever party would only vote for if they were corrupt. If we got corporate money out of politics, I think we'd be amazed how much more our government would be "of the people," and I think the vast majority of people agree on the vast majority of issues.

I make sourdough waffles all the time. I keep my starter more runny, like the consistency of pancake or waffle batter. Then I just take some starter, and a pinch of salt, sugar, and baking soda, and an egg. Perfect every time, and much more flavorful than non sourdough. In summer I top with fresh fruit, and in winter maple syrup.

I'm really starting to think that this is all about the petrodollar. The only thing propping up the dollar is that it is what the world uses to buy oil. I think that's why we need to get rid if Assad and Ahmadinejad. They want to allow the world to buy oil in their own currency. Its like a proxy economic war that is being waged against the US by Middle Eastern Countries, and the only way to fight it is to topple those regimes. Its complicated and its becoming very volatile.

According to the US Constitution, the President needs congressional approval before going to war. The only exception would be during dire circumstances where the time taken to get congressional approval would be a risk to our national security. The debate has to do with whether or not a "limited" attack on Syria is considered war. People who say the President doesn't need the approval of congress say that its not war, its just a "military strike." I disagree with this. A military strike with missiles is an act of war. If China shot missiles at a limited number of directed targets on US soil, we would absolutely consider it and call it an act of war. Our politicians are playing a game of semantics to try to skirt around the Constitution, and it is treasonous in my opinion. My second point is that we're not considering a strike because of humanitarian concerns. That's just a novel excuse. If Syria was located in the middle of Africa and they're chief export was spices, I can tell you that not only would we not get involved, but it literally would not even be on the news. Look how long it took to even hear about the state-led genocide that was going on in Darfur. I first found out about it from a banner someone put up in the NYC subway system in 2005. By then, the genocide had been going on since 2003, and the ethnic cleansing since 1991. What's possibly most concerning is that we wouldn't even necessarily be attacking Syria for our own interests. It will be largely to benefit the interests of our allies in the region, as well as the American corporations which are part of the military industrial complex and which greatly benefit economically from the waging of war. I look at war the same way I look at killing another person. If you don't have a damn good reason for it, then supporting it will be on your conscience. You can't wipe you're hand clean just because you live half way around the world and aren't pressing the buttons to shoot the missiles. If you support it, you bear responsibility.

Mainly just running for me, and occasional swimming. Something I've been trying to work on is moderation in endurance activity. I tend to get addicted to it, and I need that runner's high to feel good. Before I know it, I have no urge to relax, and I just want to work out constantly and eat lots of food. I'm trying to make a point to ask myself before I run, do I really want to run right now, or am I just looking forward to the energized runner's high afterward. If its the latter, I'll do something more yin, like sit on the beach and read a book.

Could have been an earpiece in one of his ears with someone instructing him on where to go, although I didn't see one. In a few years, after google glasses come out, when they have a contact lens version, you could blindfold yourself and have a video of what's happening being streamed live to your contacts. Pretty trippy. Obviously that technology isn't here yet, so I have no idea how he does it.

It seems that things that we in the west call intolerances can often be attributed to the body being out of balance; usually excess dampness. Wheat is very damp forming, and so is dairy, so it makes perfect sense that gluten intolerance tends to go hand in hand with lactose intolerance. I used to have what people would call gluten intolerance. If I ate a bagel I would get incredibly itchy all over my body. Sometimes I would scratch my neck until it would bleed. This also happened with milk, and miso soup. After learning about TCM it all made perfect sense. These are all very dampening foods. Miso is just beans and seawood, but its loaded with salt and is fermented with mold, both of which are dampening. I stopped drinking milk, and I eat limited amounts of yogurt and cheese. I try to limit bread or pasta to one meal a day at most, and try to include more drying foods into my diet, such as quinoa, beans, and millet. When I do this, I can eat wheat and dairy in moderation and feel great. I don't look at wheat and dairy as being some sort of poison. TCM views them as incredibly nourishing. So nourishing, that the body has difficulty digesting and assimilating it, to the point where it causes internal dampness. Wheat and dairy have become staple foods in the US, and I think that is the problem. These incredibly nourishing foods should not be eaten on a half full stomach. I'm not saying all wheat is perfectly fine. I'm a horticulturalist, so I know the dubious methods, such as radiation, that went into creating our modern dwarf variety of wheat, but I think it is an overreaction to shun heirloom varieties as toxic food for everyone.

I usually soak chia seeds in some water for about 10 minutes until they get gelatinous, then drink it. When I eat them like this it feels slightly cooling on my body. For example, I had no urge to make this drink in the winter, but in the summer I love it. Also, it doesn't seem to have a dampening effect on my body at all. In fact, I think it may help to drain dampness. I'll admit I started drinking chia fresca after reading Born to Run. Its what the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico drink during 100 mile runs, but I believe they also add fresh lime juice. I can't eat or drink anything even remotely dampening within a few hours of a long run, but I can drink a liter of chia fresca and be fine. Sometimes I increase the ratio of chia seeds to water, to the point that its like jello. Then I add some honey and eat it like jello. Its incredibly invigorating.