Archive for May, 2014
How to Grow Old the Right Way Up
Saturday 31st May 2014
21. Bricks for Breakfast
I had planned to write about diet today. A brick for breakfast came to help with extra inspiration. During my adventures with my new bread-maker, I have produced a couple of bricks, even though this second time I did remember to add the yeast!
In both instances, butter and jam have made easier chewing and swallowing
It all made me reflect on how at all levels, we all encounter bricks we need to chew and swallow: bad news, things that don’t turn up as we wish, difficult people and situations that make us feel as if we are trying to swallow bricks or to squeeze juice from them.
I think the solution is to add butter… and jam for good measure! Paraphrasing Mary Poppins, “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”
Like butter, we should be soft and adaptable in body and mind, in order to adapt to circumstances, and to bear with everyone around us without changing our nature.
Like jam, we should try to be of a sweet nature and sweeten and make palatable all life around us.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS
1. I am not a health practitioner of any description. The tips I will be giving are directly related to my personal experience and my experiences with family and friends who seem to have benefited from those tips. Please if in doubt, always consult a qualified practitioner.
2. With their permission I will be mentioning in these pages the names and expertise of many people who have contributed to my current state of health. See also the Links page. Whenever possible and relevant, I will be leading you to their websites or giving you a direct contact if you ask me. Nobody is or will be paying me or rewarding me in any way for doing so. I will be doing it because they are wonderful practitioners, to whom I owe much and to whom I am very happy to direct people to, for the benefit of all. I don’t and won’t recommend anyone whose help and expertise I haven’t experienced and benefited from directly.
How to Grow Old the Right Way Up
Saturday 24th May 2014
20. Dream-Live-ing
A few days ago, at the end of a lovely walk with my wonderful partner, I dropped in to see a friend of mine, much younger than me, but who gave me, a most valuable and important lesson.
We had been discussing her dream of becoming a full time Yoga teacher and having her own Yoga studio. As you will see she certainly has the wisdom to be more than just a Yoga teacher.
When she asked me if I had a dream, I answered without thinking twice: “I stopped dreaming.” The answered surprised me more than it surprised her, especially since not long ago, I suggested my readers to get busy dreaming!
Then Sarah said something very wise: she reminded me of the beautiful film UP (If you haven’t seen it, I strongly recommend it) and of how the wife of the protagonist didn’t feel her dreams of living exotic adventures had been thwarted, as she had been living the great adventure of love.
I have been churning and turning around these ideas since that day and I have realized that although I have always prided myself of being a dreamer I had been experiencing recently, the pangs of disillusion at my failure to date, to bring to reality some of my most cherished dreams.
After all, I dreamt of creating an Art-Eco-centre for over twenty years. As the youngest of a large family, I have dreamt of success and recognition all my life. I confess one of my dreams is still- yes, I am still dreaming!- to not only to make a living but, a fortune with my talents and hard work. I’ve got a large family to help in my country and there are so many good causes in this world one could support… plus, I would love to have my own house, with space for my workshops, concerts, exhibitions… that is the big dream.
Success and recognition have been remarkably elusive, but I obviously have been forgetting all the dreams I have actually made reality, mainly because I have been living those dreams for a long time.
When I was 17, I wrote an imaginary obituary according to which I would come to live in Britain and marry an English Orchestra director. That, I did! The orchestra was made of only 10 instrumentalists, but they were utterly fantastic. You can still find our Orbestra CD’s on the internet and in my websites.
I also wrote that I would become a best seller writer in England. I am at it!
Since I was 14 I dreamt of a love relationship like the one I have with my wonderful partner. We are going to complete 10 years of what I call Superconductive Love, a love that seems to keep going in a never ending loop of tenderness, passion and compassion.
Over years of extreme poverty and struggle, I dreamt of having a life of ease, support and love. That, I have.
I hope you don’t forget ever as I did, that sometimes one stops dreaming because one is living one’s dream.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS
1. I am not a health practitioner of any description. The tips I will be giving are directly related to my personal experience and my experiences with family and friends who seem to have benefited from those tips. Please if in doubt, always consult a qualified practitioner.
2. With their permission I will be mentioning in these pages the names and expertise of many people who have contributed to my current state of health. See also the Links page. Whenever possible and relevant, I will be leading you to their websites or giving you a direct contact if you ask me. Nobody is or will be paying me or rewarding me in any way for doing so. I will be doing it because they are wonderful practitioners, to whom I owe much and to whom I am very happy to direct people to, for the benefit of all. I don’t and won’t recommend anyone whose help and expertise I haven’t experienced and benefited from directly.
How to Grow Old the Right Way Up
Saturday 17th May 2014
19. Immortality
If a bird could stop
In the midst of its flight
And contemplate itself,
The miracle of stillness,
Perhaps it would be happy
What makes us so unhappy
Are yesterday; tomorrow;
What it was, what will be,
Between sorrow and hope.
What we had or we didn’t.
What will get or not;
What we were or we weren’t
What we will be or not.
If I could stop this instant
This smile, or this kiss
Or this air… or this me…
And so often it is possible, just by being present in the moment.
Patrissia Cuberos
Mindfulness is a way to be present, therefore, immortal: still, in and within the instant.
Hugh Poulton has been my most valued mindfulness and yoga teacher for many years.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS
1. I am not a health practitioner of any description. The tips I will be giving are directly related to my personal experience and my experiences with family and friends who seem to have benefited from those tips. Please if in doubt, always consult a qualified practitioner.
2. With their permission I will be mentioning in these pages the names and expertise of many people who have contributed to my current state of health. See also the Links page. Whenever possible and relevant, I will be leading you to their websites or giving you a direct contact if you ask me. Nobody is or will be paying me or rewarding me in any way for doing so. I will be doing it because they are wonderful practitioners, to whom I owe much and to whom I am very happy to direct people to, for the benefit of all. I don’t and won’t recommend anyone whose help and expertise I haven’t experienced and benefited from directly.
How to Grow Old the Right Way Up
Saturday 10th May 2014
18. Apple, Pear and Spaghetti
My mother considered herself enormous: probably elephantine. Not surprisingly everyone agreed with her. I remember her complaining often about her feet and commenting about the strain on them of having to carry “such weight”.
However, compared to modern standards dictated by our affluent culture, she was just moderately obese: a typical apple shape with a middle that was, probably 1/3 bigger than her hips and breasts.
My father instead was spaghetti shaped: a slim, delicate bone structure supporting what seemed to be just skin.
It is interesting for me to read recent scientific conclusions about the effects of body shape on the possible illnesses that will affect your health in the future.
My mother, a true apple shape, died, age 73, most probably of a combination of Alzheimer’s and diabetes, but ultimately of a severe sugar drop caused by the difficulty to monitor if she needed an insulin injection or a sugar bust. She had a strong, healthy heart, till the last day of her life.
My father had a waistline that would have won a Miss Universe contest. However, he had his first heart attack at the age of 63. The disease finally killed him 10 years later.
I am sure my mother, daughter of a wealthy salt mine owner, never knew the meaning of hunger, let alone starvation, but I don’t remember her particularly overeating and, although, in comparison to the average Colombian, she was a sweet tooth, she would hardly fit the current western standards of the misnamed ‘indulgence’.
Instead my father, an adventurer, ran away from home at the age of 12, to become a cabin boy in order to escape a domineering mother. He must have endured a fair share of hunger in those days. As an adult, being an Insurance Broker, he used to walk the length and width of broad Bogotá, for 12 to 14 hours every day. His heart should have been strong… Sadly, he smoked: no more than 20 a day, but I suspect he started very young… Perhaps at the age of 12.
I am half my mother, half my father. Unfortunately I did seem to inherit my father’s chest, therefore I am a Pear! I hope I have inherited his heart only in nobility, honesty and love. Like him I was the spaghetti type until about 10 years ago (when I met my partner! You can blame him, and blame the ease and happiness of my current life in comparison to my younger years!). I do struggle at the moment, trying to keep my weight down; more so since my Thyroids has had different problems since my early childhood. It has decided to be slow now!
So, whether we are Apples or Pears or Spaghetti, more important than being classified or ‘Determined’ by inheritance, early habits, etc, I think moderation is the key, but also the conviction that we can change many aspects of our life/body/mind, with the power of our will.
Most diets work, simply because they regulate our eating habits. But of course watch out for the ‘indulgence’ in excess of dieting.
Particularly, be aware that no diet, no remedy, no exercise routine, can replace a peaceful mind, a heart full of love, a purpose for your day, a purpose for your life.
Paraphrasing Mystical writer Andrew Harvey: The mind is a berry patch; eat only the best ones.
Happy eating.
Patrissia Cuberos
News: Talking about ‘Determinism’, the publication of my first novel, The Secret Life of a God, and Book I of The Thermodynamics of Love Trilogy, about a boy ‘Determined’ by birth and upbringing to be powerless, yet, ‘determined’ to change his luck, is hopefully imminent.
The novel is dedicated to the hidden God in each of us.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS
1. I am not a health practitioner of any description. The tips I will be giving are directly related to my personal experience and my experiences with family and friends who seem to have benefited from those tips. Please if in doubt, always consult a qualified practitioner.
2. With their permission I will be mentioning in these pages the names and expertise of many people who have contributed to my current state of health. See also the Links page. Whenever possible and relevant, I will be leading you to their websites or giving you a direct contact if you ask me. Nobody is or will be paying me or rewarding me in any way for doing so. I will be doing it because they are wonderful practitioners, to whom I owe much and to whom I am very happy to direct people to, for the benefit of all. I don’t and won’t recommend anyone whose help and expertise I haven’t experienced and benefited from directly.
How to Grow Old the Right Way Up
Saturday 3rd May 2014
17. Destiny or Choice?
Will I be happy?
Will I be rich?
Will I find love?
Those questions and many more complex ones have pressed the human mind since the dawn of time.
Our ancestors looked at the stars, convinced that if those twinkling eyes could guide them through the perils of a sea voyage, they must also hold answers to guide them through the hazards of life.
They created all manner of divination systems and tried to read the signs of anything and everything that fell into their hands.
But hang on! Hands! Soon enough, they realized that hands had those very peculiar lines, which resembled a map: a personal one, to explore and perhaps to explain the mystery of their lives.
My precocious wonderings started when I was about eight years old, together with an early awareness of the fact that every day there were choices to be made, which could lead to different consequences. I could choose to eat my sister’s boyfriend’s Valentine’s gift, a chocolate dog that sat day by day sad and forlorn on her shelf with “eat me!” written all over his face. But the consequences might be very costly! More so since my sister was 15 years older than me, and enormous in my view!
I opted for the middle way choice, and nibbled it slowly and consistently, starting with the tail. My sister only discovered my mischief when the only bits left were the front paws and the head. With my clever choice I delayed the punishment for a couple of months, and it was gentler than if I had eaten the whole thing in one go. She couldn’t help finding my cunning very amusing!
Soon I discovered the map written on the palm of my hand, so curiously different from the ones on the hands of my brothers and sisters.
By the age of 10, aided by my own instinct and the one book on the subject I found in my limited home library, I became a School Celebrity as I undertook enthusiastically the reading of palms, surrounded by a circle of curious, huge 16 to 18 year olds.
Soon enough also, I was worrying, literally to death! about the fact that my lifeline was noticeably shorter than most people’s. This discovery only came to confirm existing fears as I had been born and grown up against all odds, with a murmur in the heart, a weak liver and a very fragile constitution.
I wondered if having been born and having survived was my fate and if it was all written in immutable characters all over my hands or….if I had any choice.
I worked out, aided mostly by the Greek system that my life would end at around the time when I would reach 41. My increasing poor health seemed to confirm this possibility.
Part of me accepted this happily. I dreaded old age with all its health hazards of which I had already experienced more than my fair share. I also hated the idea of becoming even uglier than I already thought I was.
But then, one day, I reached 36. I was by then the mother of two young children, and I was convinced I had only 5 years to live!
I went into a huge depression. Then, helped by homeopathy and weekly visits to a psychiatrist, but perhaps more than anything by my resilience and my unorthodox faith, I pulled out and I decided I wanted to live. And I wanted to live a full life, free of fear.
From that moment on, my life became a whirlwind of events, some happy some very unhappy. By the time I reached 41, I had experienced a several forms of death, represented by the horrors of two years of sever depression, and the death of my marriage to a man I loved very much, but also by the death of my old self. Instead I experienced the birth of my wonderful youngest son, together with my own birth as a new, stronger, happier person.
I had to face life alone in a foreign country, with four children, no family or relatives, no money or support. Yet, I’ve never fallen into depression again.
Curiously enough, the life and love lines in the palms of my hand developed extra branches as I found a fulfilling way of living and a wonderful love relationship….
To summarize, in my view, hands, and other forms of divination, probably contain some sort of map which shows our genetic heritage and the particular circumstances that surrounded our birth. But as with all maps, it also contains thousands of possible turns and routes, which are entirely our choice to take.
Till next time, trusting you will make the best choice for your life today and every single day of your life.
Patrissia Cuberos
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS
1. I am not a health practitioner of any description. The tips I will be giving are directly related to my personal experience and my experiences with family and friends who seem to have benefited from those tips. Please if in doubt, always consult a qualified practitioner.
2. With their permission I will be mentioning in these pages the names and expertise of many people who have contributed to my current state of health. See also the Links page. Whenever possible and relevant, I will be leading you to their websites or giving you a direct contact if you ask me. Nobody is or will be paying me or rewarding me in any way for doing so. I will be doing it because they are wonderful practitioners, to whom I owe much and to whom I am very happy to direct people to, for the benefit of all. I don’t and won’t recommend anyone whose help and expertise I haven’t experienced and benefited from directly.
patrissiacuberos 