Rebirth, Realignment, Reconsideration

Today is officially Thanksgiving. That is probably the least meaningful aspect of the day for me.

Revisiting, and revitalizing this blog -- that is meaningful.

I retreat to this position from my presence on Facebook. Facebook has devolved into a toxic environment. And, due to the devolution of some of the longtime acquaintances, once close friends, now ideological strangers, I want a forum in which I can record my thoughts, for my own purposes, without  scrutiny by those for whom my respect is waning.

It will be necessary, at this juncture, to author a number of posts, initially,  to provide a foundation for my beliefs and their underlying motivations. I will begin that process, presently.

It's Been a Long Time Coming...

And, I am not sure how long it will last, but I've a few things to say. Keep returning, if you must, ad see for yourself.

Yogurt -- a Start at Healthy Eating

In my attempts to improve my diet and provide an enjoyable addition to my flavor palette, I decided to learn how to make yogurt at home.

Herein is contained the recipe and method for creating a healthy ingredient I now use when preparing my meals.

Things that you need:
1/2 gallon vitamin D milk
1-1 gallon crockpot, or nonmetallic pot
1-Digital, or other accurate thermometer
1-cooler large enough to contain the crockpot, lined with aluminum foil.
*1-small container of plain natural yogurt, natural or organic unpasteurized yogurt.

*Necessary to inoculate the first batch of yogurt. Subsequent batches will use culture from the previous batch made at home.

How to make the yogurt:

First, it is important to remember that sanitization is essential in this process. I would recommend bringing a large pot of water to a boil for rinsing utensils, and all surfaces that will come in contact with the culture.

After sanitizing the pot, pour the milk into the crockpot, or other vessel and begin to raise the heat until it reaches a 180° F. by bringing it up to this temperature, all of the residual bacteria will be killed allowing the yogurt cultures to thrive. Once the milk reaches this temperature, and before it begins to boil, remove from heat.

Allow the temperature of the milk to fall until it reaches 120° F. At this point place 4 ounces of the inoculate (packaged yogurt, or yogurt reserved from a previous batch) into a sanitized bowl and mix in an equal amount of the sterile milk. Add this mixture back into the pot of milk. Place the milk filled pot into the cooler, close the top, and allow to rest for 8 to 12 hours. The longer that the culture rests, the more tartness will be present in the final product.

After the culture has been allowed to grow, refrigerate the newly produced yogurt for two hours or more. At this time, the product should be stirred, and divided into clean containers for refrigerated storage.

For additional batches of yogurt reserve 4 ounces of each culture to inoculate the next. Each subsequent batch gets richer, and more flavorful.

Making Greek yogurt

Many Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern dishes require Greek-style yogurt. This type of yogurt is easily prepared using the yogurt described above as a base.

Place a clean piece of cheesecloth, muslin, or dishtowel inside a sanitized colander and suspend over a vessel that can hold two thirds of the volume of yogurt which will be placed inside of the cloth. Put the yogurt in the cloth and allow the whey to drain into the vessel. The results will be a thick paste of the yogurt in the cloth, and a considerable volume of whey in the lower vessel. Both products are extremely nutritional and have many uses in a healthy diet.

Ayurvedic Sense in Living -- Other Considerations

Along with diet it is also important to think about other physical needs. But since the mind and the body are so closely intertwined, we cannot neglect the mental and emotional needs. For this reason, it is important to perform certain tasks daily. The first of these is meditation.

What is meditation?

We often hear a discussion of meditation with respect to healthy living. Meditation involves sitting quietly, and removing the every day traffic of thoughts from your mind in order to experience a peace that comes from the release of tension in a temporal sense, and stress with continuing practice over time. This type of meditation is called concentrative meditation, because it involves focusing the mind to free the mind from distracting thoughts.

I will discuss the methodology of this type of meditation in the future. It is important at this time just to mention that the practice should be followed twice a day.

Since meditation is perhaps the most important practice we can perform, I wanted to list it first.

Creating a Comfortable Environment

All aspects of living are enhanced in a comfortable environment. Meditation certainly is facilitated by a comfortable environment. For some people this may require some work. One thing that will contribute to a comfortable environment is to remove clutter. This includes clutter within your house, and clutter within your life (debt, personal conflicts, and other disturbing factors). Clean and efficient surroundings provide a sense of comfort, which allows us to pay attention to the important task of living a healthful and productive life.

Another thing that can advance our sense of comfort and peace is to provide an atmosphere filled with invigorating aromas. This can be done with scented candles, incense, infusers, or other means. I intend to address the subject of choosing a proper fragrance in the future.

Attending to the Happiness of Your Physical Self

One thing a person can do is to perform a self massage using a scented oil. This helps to relax the muscles, relieve tension, and promote circulation within the body. These actions are important to assist in removing toxins in a natural way from your system. It also allows a person to become more aware of their self. By paying attention to your physical self, an improvement in self-image can result.

Meditation, and sleep, both performed in a comfortable environment, are very important to the happiness of the physical self.

Sound nutrition , practiced consciously in a peaceful environment, contributes to this happiness. It is important to avoid eating while upset. This can lead to a disturbance of digestion, therefore interfere with the happy self. For this reason, steps should be taken to create a proper setting for enjoying meals.

Another consideration for physical happiness is exercise. Practicing yoga, taking walks, and practicing breathing are a few things that contribute to the physical and mental well-being. Yoga exercises should be practiced in the morning, after meditation, to loosen up the muscles, and increase circulation in preparation for the days activities. It should be repeated in the evening, before meditation to relieve the surface tension accumulated during the daily tasks. A long, leisurely walk through pleasant surroundings contributes a calming effect.

Getting going

I finally have something to record here. Lately I have been preparing food more often than I did previously. Also, with an eye to the subject of enlightenment, I have been studying some healthy living philosophies. This is not a new thing, but something that has been going on for some time.

Among other sources I have found the literary works of Sanderson Beck to be quite helpful. His work includes translations of many of the classical works from Asia, India, Greece, and other cultures.

His Web address : www.san.beck.org/

Other influences include Alan Watts, and of late, Deepak Chopra.

What I am going to talk about in this post is based mostly on information found at the Chopra Center website: www.chopra.com/

Ayurvedic Sense In Living - a diet primer

By far one of the most important things that we can do is eat in a way that is supportive of our living being. Also, in my opinion, eating flavorful and nourishing foods is one of the most enjoyable parts of life. With all of the cooking I've been doing lately and all of the variety of food I have been preparing and with the purpose of meeting those two needs I am looking to the way food is prepared in an ayurvedic way.

I don't know how it is for other people, but when I eat Indian food I feel better than what I eat some other foods. Perhaps it is because much of that food is prepared in a way that is sensitive to our body needs are from our food. Like many other things in the Hindi culture balance is a very important aspect. Any preparing food, it is important to balance the different kinds of nutrients so that we are fully nourished. One of the ways we can assure this is by paying attention to the six tastes.

By satisfying these tastes, we essentially provide for all of the necessary fats, carbohydrates, and proteins in a way which results similar to the food pyramid that is widely used to gauge diet.

The different tastes are: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Pungent, Bitter, and Astringent.

Sweet Tasting Food

This category includes carbohydrates such as rice, bread, pasta, potatoes, sugars. It also includes meat, fish, dairy, and chicken. The reason these food sources are considered sweet relies on the fact that they contain carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

Eating this taste of food is very satisfying, and is soothing -- comfort food.

Sour Tasting Food

This category consists of citrus fruits, tomatoes, berries, pickled foods (vinegar), and alcohol. This type of food is sour because of the acids -- ascorbic acid, citric acid, and acetic acid. They stimulate the appetite and assists in the digestive process.

Salty Tasting Food

this type of food includes soy sauce, and any food which has been salted with sodium chloride, or sea salt. The addition of this type of feature our diet enhances the flavor of other foods and stimulates the appetite.

Pungent Tasting Foods

this is the type of food that puts the spice in life. To me this category makes food worth eating. It includes the flavor of chilies, onions, garlic, peppers of all type (cayenne, black pepper, green pepper), other spices such as clove, ginger, mustard have the same effect. It is the essential oils contained in these foods that have the desired effect of promoting sweating, clearing the sinuses, and other stimulation.

Bitter Tasting Foods

Green leafy vegetables, celery, broccoli, yellow vegetables, beets, and sprouts are some of the bitter tasting foods. They contain alkaloids and glycosides. Very helpful in removing toxins from the system.

Astringent Tasting Foods

astringent foods contain tannins. This would include lentils, grapes, cauliflower, dried beans, lentils, pomegranates, tea, and green apples.

-- -- -- --

The best diet would include each of these tastes at every meal. My goal is to at least have them all every day. My progress towards this goal will be recorded here.

You never really know

I thought I had something to write here but, now it doesn't seem so.

I will be back soon, there are definitely some thoughts bouncing around in my head. Just a matter of grabbing one, bingo-ball style.

A first thought

The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path (to the Self) is hard.

THIRD VALLÎ
Katha-Upanishad
verse 14