20/6/15 
Greetings. I went to see the Medical Herbalist a few days ago, the one I spoke of in an earlier blog. After a two hour appointment, I walked out with a tonic specifically made for me and a prescription only high dose Vitamin C with bioflavanol. In summary, the Herbalist told me that my diet was deficient in protein and explained what that repercussions of that underneath my skin are. It is easy to see that what has troubled me for decades may in fact be linked in part at least to my diet, ‘we are what we eat’ has a lot of merit.
For the next 6 months she wants me to eat at least 50g of protein with every meal and she also asked me to cut out alcohol and reduce coffee to a minimum. One of the things that both do is stimulate and stress the adrenal system and this inhibits the uptake of vitamins and minerals. So I’ve taken up the challenge, after all… it was my choice to go and see her and spend the money, so it would be a waste of money to now negate her professional wellness advice. I am on this mission for 6 months and will reassess over-all then. It’s not easy to just ‘drop’ a habit like coffee and alcohol, so I will watch this space myself with interest.
At the Buddhist Centre on Wednesday night we studied and talked about a particular teaching that revolves around the antidote to anger and aversion. Anger in this context doesn’t mean full blown outburst where you yell and scream or speak loudly “I’m so angry”, it is more about the many little subtle regular thoughts that are untrained minds are subjected to “damn, I forgot to buy the milk” or “hurry up!!!” (to the slow driver in front of us), or just before when I went to turn my laptop on and it was completely flat battery “damn!”. These little thoughts on their own may seem harmless enough but added up, may amount to a big lot of dissatisfaction, which we usually don’t like so we work our little butts off to get back to a feeling that we do like (we want to ‘get rid of’ the feeling unsatisfied all the time) and so the problem with attachment goes on and on… ‘I only want to feel good, I don’t want to feel bad’. From a Buddhist perspective, this is one of the root causes of our suffering…
I’ve had good days (there goes the subtle judgement again) since last post. I have felt more enthused than I have in a long while, feeling even upbeat sometimes (yeeha). I am glad I am feeling more refreshed since I came through the difficult times a few weeks ago. I am most happy about the fact I got through by turning my mind towards the things I know that work and by resting up and relaxing. I have got some more days off soon from work to fully charge up, plus I’ve got some native plants to plant!
I went for dinner at a friend’s house last night then we went to a pub with the singles group I sometimes go to. It’s not really my thing anymore, the old pub scene, however it doesn’t hurt to make an effort and put yourself out there sometimes. It does open life up a bit more and adds to social connection. There were about 25 of in the group and I chatted with several, some old friends and some I just met last night. I got home about 10pm (go me!) and even though my social scene has changed so much in recent years (we didn’t used to go OUT until 10pm sometimes!) I am happy (yes I said happy) where I’m at. It can be pretty tempting to stay in your comfort zone and while I am in love with my comfort zone, I do also go outside it on purpose sometimes because I want to make sure that I can… you never know when life will bring things in that will bring on discomfort, so knowing you’ll be okay ‘even if’ is a good strategy aye.
This weekend I’m off to a Marae to sleepover. I am studying Te Reo this year at night class. Since my teenage years, I have always felt a connection with the Maori culture and I’ve always enjoyed being around when the guitars are brought out and the spiritual side of the culture. So tonight me and my classmates are off to be taught formally about the protocols and why things are done as they are on a Marae. I will recap my experiences afterwards. Ka kite ano.
Tiff
Nice Tiff: tricky trying to suspend our own judgement tape. You can wish me well on that, just as I wish you well on yours!