In the ancient Indic language of India, the healing science of sun bathing is called Atapa Snana.  While Sun gazing is a strict regimen of gradually allowing sunlight into your eyes at specific periods of the day.

Sun gazers report a variety of benefits. The most basic are improved health, increased energy levels, clearer thinking, an increase in awareness, and results from what is called wish fulfillment. If you are considering sun gazing, please research this as much as possible. For starters you can read more on this website Solar Healing Center.

The circumstances and ideas of the present age of how we should stay away from the sun is depriving us to fully benefit from the sun.

“Too much of everything is not good.”

Like how sodium in appropriate amount is essential to our health but it can also be detrimental to the body in high quantities raising your risk for several potentially serious medical problems. How sugar provides a quick source of energy but high intakes could contribute to diabetes and obesity. The list could go on but we get the point.

Yes, too much of the sun’s warm rays can be harmful to your skin. But don’t completely shun the sun, as moderate sun exposure has numerous health benefits that go beyond just vitamin D.

In the book The Healing Sun, author Dr. Richard Hobday documents a wide array of studies which show that the sun protects against cancer of the breast, colon, ovaries and prostate. It can also prevent diabetes, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and high blood pressure, osteoporosis, psoriasis and seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

I know a friend that had a skin cancer, and the army doctor told him to be in the sun to cure it. It drew the cancer right out of the scap. This video presentation explains fully how we’ve been systematically lied to about the sun and skin cancer for years. How many know that there is no definitive proof that the sun alone causes skin cancer?

EATING your way CLEAN with FRUITS vs JUICING  – High Carb

New year is always a great time to kick start new projects, new programs, set goals, make healthier choices, start a dance or singing class, and to generally bring focus on new intentions for the year.

If you’re still recovering from the Christmas festivities, or have just had no time and are already back at work perhaps these tips can help you start today.

All of us have heard that the greatest thing we can do for our body and for that extra kick in motivation is to Alkalise!

If you are suffering from lethargy, have weight problems or water retention your body is probably overly acidic. When you alkalize your body through proper eating and healthy living, you can overcome all sorts of discomforts, reach your ideal body weight and literally have more energy for all the things you want to do.

One of the most obvious signs of acidity is excess body fat. When your body is acidic, it tries to neutralise the acid. One of the ways it does this is to store excess acid in fat, which can lead to that puffy feeling. When you alkalize your diet, your body sweeps through and removes this buildup.

To alkalize you need to eat more alkalizing foods and fewer acidic foods. In this way, you can create a healthy diet that will help you reach your ideal weight without “starving” yourself.

Juicing and fasting / abstaining from food is one way. But time and time again its proving that for most people it disrupts their metabolism and only works as a quick fix rather than having long term success. Most people break a fast in desperation to satiate hunger and the unhealthy relationship to food is re-instilled.

So the new option to try is to eat your way clean!

All fruit is alkalizing, and so are all leafy green. Vegetables are next. But nuts, seeds and oils are on the border of being neutral acidy/alkalinity. If you focus on making sure you eat all alkalizing foods for each meal, guess what you will be on your way to an alkaline body very quickly.

On the opposite end of the alkalizing spectrum is the acidic side: sugary and manufactured foods, meats, fish, dairy products, bread and other cooked grains, drugs, alcohol and caffeine. Pork and Parmesan cheese are a few of the extremes. To neutralize the acidity of just one cup of coffee you need to drink 12 glasses of water!

Most people get their daily calories from concentrated foods – too much protein, too much fat, and too much sugar sprinkled on top. These meals are generally smaller because they are caloric-ally dense and acidic.

When we make the switch to high carb foods we need to eat more quantity. The trick is not to under-eat in calories otherwise the body goes into starvation mode and can wreak havoc to the metabolism. Under-eating is the biggest reasons why most people can’t sustain ‘diets’. Most, if not all basic bodily/brain functions require glucose, not eating enough ‘good carbohydrates’ will have the body screaming for the ‘dense/acidic’ foods to get its fix.

When you start making changes to alkalize the body, toxins will be released. You may feel ill temporarily, but push through it, once they are eliminated they are gone and a surge of energy will take its place. Make sure you drink at least two litres of purified water or fresh juices per day (you can include enemas or colonics – they aren’t necessary but they do speed things up in the early stages.) so your body can flush things out quickly.

Raw food, Fries, Face wash and Forest

I write this on a little idyllic island just off Bali called Nusa Lembongan. The sunsets are magical from the heat haze that’s spreading far from the Borneo forest that is ablaze at the moment.

These fires are consuming the oldest jungle in the world, destroying the natural habitat of the last largest remaining population of Orangutans, (which literally translate to the people of the forest), its threatening the indigenous Dayak communities, and engulfing 40 million people in toxic haze. All in the name of planting Palm Oil.

As I lean into the calamity of the situation my heart cries in anguish for mother earth. The rape and pillaging of her precious resources seem to be accelerating in this very moment. Like it’s a race towards some dead-line to exterminate and disintegrate anything and everyone that might still be living in its natural organic order.

I came to Bali five years ago to immerse myself in a life of yoga, to heal from social traumas, to live more closely to nature, to live in community, there were many reasons but the biggest one was to give space to pursue the prime challenges of today’s time: what it means to live as a sovereign being.

This quest requires a lot of self reflection and self analysis. It turns out that humans are easily programmed, and to start peeling away habits and external doctrines from natural impulses is not an easy task to do ~ especially amidst all the ‘noise’ of fear and condemnation that society implants from the very get-go.

I came to appreciate how much a living food diet allowed my body to heal from many ailments, but it also facilitated another level of understanding of how much our food choices impact the greater world. I used to live on dairy, breads and packaged foods just like everyone else. I use to think that as long as I had my bit I was in the lead. I was the privileged and I deserved the best.

I now even more so believe that I am the privileged and I deserve the best. Just the best has changed. Rather than slabs of cheese and processed delicacies, beers, and barbecues which have a huge impact on the earth, I now wholeheartedly choose organic, unadulterated, cleaner and leaner choices. And with these conscious choices I make a stand for what I value most: A healthy planet, healthy relationships with ourselves and one another.

Palm oil is used by big corporations and pharmaceutical companies as the new fossil fuel and it is literally in everything that is known as conventional. Not only is it known as vegetable oil for deep frying, but its derivatives are used in the production of bactericides, cosmetics, soaps and detergents. It also goes by the names of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate which is literally in all products that foam. Check your shampoos and face-wash for it.

Here is a great article that will help you test your own usage. Be honest! http://blog.ucsusa.org/how-many-products-with-palm-oil-do-i-use-in-a-day

And here is what you are hunting for. The different names to Palm oil and its derivatives are:

Vegetable Oil, Vegetable Fat, Palm Kernel, Palm Kernel Oil, Palm Fruit Oil, Palmate, Palmitate, Palmolein, Glyceryl, Stearate, Stearic Acid, Elaeis Guineensis, Palmitic Acid, Palm Stearine, Palmitoyl Oxostearamide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-3, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Kernelate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate, Hyrated Palm Glycerides, Etyl Palmitate, Octyl Palmitate, Palmityl Alcohol

Whether you take a stand for nature, for the orangutans, or for your own well-being your choices will not only vastly improve your own health and prospects for longevity but it will inevitably be doing the same for other creatures, people and the environment. You see we aren’t separate from one another, it all comes hand in hand. It’s time to make a stand and not just wait for others to fix it.

Excellent viewing: Heart of the Haze http://www.channelnewsasia.com/tv/tvshows/getreal-s14/heart-of-the-haze/2227836.html

One thing I don’t want to use to help me with my handstands is the wall. That means I need to look for a few other interesting variations.

A few weeks ago I popped up a post of us practicing yoga on top of some blocks. That helped my skinny arms and tummy get strong.

Then I looked over from the blocks.  These bike racks hang out near where I hang out and so I thought I would see if there was a way for us to hang out together.

I tried a few push variations with me on top and pushing down with my armpits to bring my knees to chest. Then I realised I was finding a lot of things to push on but was there a way to get some pull action going on.

It lead to the upside down variation of shoulderstand, which I have called a flying shoulderstand, and you can check it out in the video below.

This gave great pull action around the armpits and also I tried to minimise momentum and use my tummy muscles to help me move around and into and out of the posture.  I am actually pretty weak so you can see a little swing here and there.

This would be better if I were higher off the ground so I could try and let my neck be a bit free.

The bare naked sky above you is good for you.  That ceiling and those walls just contain you.