Divine Downloads

 Put in the GPS coordinates of your heart and see where it takes you...

·         Your heart is not to be taken lightly. It’s a tool, a breaker board for new connections. Let’s jumpstart the board and get new switches/matches.

·         It’s all in your head anyway—the low self-confidence.

·         You’re not alone in this—there are others that have your best interest at heart.

 

·         It’s not about “winning” it’s about getting ahead to be “visible”.

·         The more you shine, the more you know…

·         Whatever it is, you are guided and protected.

·         Don’t let this Virus or Anything get you down; you were meant to RISE.

·         Blow up your own balloons once in awhile. Throw your own party; there may not be many left…

·        (Keep an ear to the ground and nose to the grindstone.)

·         Never let yourself down for not being all you can be.

·         You are powerful, beautiful, enchanting…don’t let them tell you differently.

·         The Breath that is in you breathes new life into this World.

·         Don’t muzzle yourself for the sake of “ice cream” (reward). I scream or you scream for Ice cream.

 

·         We are not fighting for the cure anymore, we are fighting for the cause.

·         Let’s unprotect the protected and disable the armaments.

·         We are not alone in this fight, but we have to fight.

·         We have to not let fear take us down.

·         It’s the Intuitive Way that will rule the day.

 

·         “You are not alone, you are not alone, you are not alone.”

 

 

·         Carry the bags of your heart and drop them at the door.

·         Offer advice, give advice.

·         Don’t wait for anything but yourself to catch up with your past and outrun it

·         You are not your past, that’s in the rear-view mirror

·         Sometimes you have to say “yes” to things and people you’re not sure about—the certainty comes later. Say “yes” first.

 

 

·         A New Day is dawning, ripe with anticipation and reward.

·         The True Writer is the True Prophet—Emerson and Thoreau both had been dialed into and were channelers—out of their breath came prophecy/poetry, not from intellect alone. “Whether from behind or within a light shines” and it will keep shining.

·         Watch you moods and your thoughts all day. Just record them—listen to their dialogues--it’s all about you (and others).

 

·         How do you muzzle a country? You put a mask on them and say it’s for their “health”.

 

·         The silence is what’s killing us.

 

·         It’s not that no one is caring it’s that no one is doing anything about it.

 

·         What are we being “fed” by the National media corporations and the fast food chains?

 

 

·         The lesson is to not give up on your dreams

·         Don’t follow your dreams, lead them.

The Link between Gluten-sensitivity and Mental Illness

The book, “Nutrition and Mental Illness”, states very clearly, “celiac disease may be responsible for many cases of ‘schizophrenia’. Evidence is accumulating that links various psychiatric disturbances with malabsorption caused by cereal grains, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that for many individuals, daily bread is much less than a blessing (53).”

I used to be gripped by a social anxiety and depression since I was 10, until I realized I was gluten sensitive. At that point I learned I could literally affect my ups and downs by what I ate. This is not to say I don't still have an existentialist malaise, but I realize I have the power to affect my mood swings by cutting out all flour products, most dairy and processed sugar foods.

What if Emily Dickinson’s baking bread every day was a contributing factor of her isolationist, paranoia and agoraphobia!? 

According to the New England Historical Society website, Emily learned to bake bread at 14, and after attending the Amherst Academy for a few years came home. She is known to have baked bread literally every day. Her mother was in ill-health and an invalid that was the excuse for why Emily stayed home, but who knows that the bread baking contributed to her agoraphobia (fear of going outside in public), which has been linked to celiac and gut-related disturbances. A nervous collapse and breakdown happened once while she was making cake (the culprit!) and she later died from what was termed Bright’s Disease. 

According to the book, "Nutrition and Mental Illness":

Symptoms of Hypoglycemia:

Fatigue, irritability, nervousness, depression and crying spells, vertigo, or dizziness, faintness, insomnia, mental confusion or forgetfulness, inability to concentrate, anxiety, phobia and fears, disperceptions, disruptive outbursts and headaches” (64).

Pyroluria

“Closely ranked in creativity to the compulsivity of the histadelic patient (low-histamine level) is the pyroluric patient. Many great people in history have shown the signs of pyroluria. Among them are the poet Emily Dickinson and the scientific philosopher and discoverer Charles Darwin.

“…Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin may have suffered biochemical abnormalities that produced the physical and psychiatric symptoms of pyroluria.   Any change in routine or involvement with people outside the family group provoked stress, which could manifest itself as a tremor, palpitations, insomnia….

“They shared boughts of depression, blinding headaches, nervous exhaustion , change of handwriting, and family dependence.” Both ended up choosing to live in an intentionally reclusive lifestyle, rarely going outside, let alone to parties or even church, “they became retiring and avoided even the closest friends, except through correspondence.” If this isn’t a diagnosis of agoraphobia I don’t know what is. Agorophobia as defined by Psychology Today:

“For some people, leaving home can be a reason to panic. Translated from Greek as "fear of the marketplace," agoraphobia refers to a fear of any place where escape may be difficult, including large open spaces or areas with crowds, as well as various means of travel. People with agoraphobia may avoid situations such as being alone outside of the home”

After all, if gluten sensitivity is linked to agoraphobia, and Emily Dickinson had symptoms of agoraphobia then it only connects that she may have had gluten-sensitivity. In which case eating bread every day would have sent her immune system into a tail spin:  creating gut-brain anxiety and phobia, thus contributing to her reclusiveness. However, this disability in normal brain function would have given her the time and material to construct such intense metaphors and personifications so necessary for her poetry.

What if Sylvia Plath’s daily breakfast of white toast with jam and black coffee every morning was a recipe for undigested proteins getting into her bloodstream and causing severe anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts!? 

“Celiac patients are classically very thin, and have a protruding relaxed abdomen. Facial expression is usually shriveled and drawn, suggesting a state of melancholy. In fact the psychiatric picture of the celiac child is not unlike that of the schizophrenic child. Both are dissociated from the world, weepy, and introverted. Celiac patients are also subject to mood disorders such as extreme depression and anxiety. These mood behavior swings occur after cereal grains are eaten and subside when such food is carefully avoided (54).”

Dr. Green was quoted as saying:

“Schizophrenia used to be called bread madness”

https://www.glutenfreesociety.org/bread-madness-schizophrenia-or-gluten-sensitivity/

Zelda Fitzgerald is known to have suffered from schizophrenia and later institutionalized. She is known to have drunk corn liquor and gin regularly and to excess. If she was allergic to corn, or any chemicals in the gin that wouldn't have helped. The Fitzgeralds were always drinking to excess, and toxic  substances are a genuine probability for not only affecting the gut-brain balance, but also neurologically as well. Zelda painted a lot later on, and heavy metal toxicity can affect skin and brain. She suffered from “stomach problems, asthma, and eczema, all of which may have had an allergic basis. There are known immune issues associated with schizophrenia….” (67).  Not to mention the hormonal imbalance of having a baby, and the lack of support from Scott leaving Zelda for months on end….

The treatments were morphine and bromides enemas, which caused her severe rashes, headaches and eczema on her face and neck. (Milford 169). It became a vicious cycle.

“diet is the crucial factor in treating gluten-sensitive schizophrenics”.

An emerging group of people with gluten sensitivity have such psychiatric and neurological disorders as schizophrenia, ADHD, depression, and bipolar syndrome, and “a higher rate” of some antibodies, said Dr. Peter H.R. Green, director of the Columbia University Celiac Disease Center in New York, another summit sponsor.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Could it be as simple as that? Is the creative artist merely a toxic gut-brain cocktail? Not minimizing their efforts, however, a good probiotic could have helped...but we may not have had the kind of angsty writing we so love.

So maybe we really we are what we eat (and drink)! 

The Philosophy of Pokemon

 

My Cliff Notes Version of a Pokemon Episode, as relates to Life (somehow).

“It looks like you want to prove you have skills somehow, right?

Ash-“That’s exactly what I want to prove.”

[gets admitted to take the Pokémon League admissions exam]

[Brock, Misty and Ash see Nurse Joy at the school and wonder what she’s doing there!]

Nurse Joy- “I came here for the exam because my work keeps me too busy to travel very much. It’s perfect for people whose age or health keep them from traveling around. And it’s also nice for people like me who can’t ever seem to get away from work."

[Later]

James- “I want to live my dream instead of my…my reality.”

Teacher-[Slide show presentation begins]- “Identify these Pokémon….by their shape/flame, swirl, etc…

Jesse- “These questions won’t make you a Pokémon master!”

Teacher- “For your information, young lady, a Pokémon master must understand all aspects of their Pokémon’s life in order to achieve oneness with their Pokémon”

Jesse- “Uhh, You’re not making any sense at all.”

[Leaves angrily, slamming the door]

[Later]

---Ash gets lowest score, along with Jesse and James

[Embarassed]

Ash-“Pokemon isn’t about Tests it’s about Battles!”

[Battles with Teacher and wins]

[James gets expelled for using two Pokémon]—“I never play by the [rules]”

Jesse-“ Uhh, He failed again..”

Meowth to Jesse- “Don’t think of it as Failing, think of it as Not Succeeding.”

James (crouching in the corner) “I’m such a Loser”

 

Team rocket blasts off—interference with everyone’s test scores—Ash can take the test again, but he says he is better off getting the badges himself on his own.

Misty- “You’ve proved you are a great battler, so maybe that’s what the test was there to show you.”

Narrator “Many roads lead to the Pokémon league. Ash’s chosen path is to win all 8 gym badges, only then can he continue on to reaching the ultimate goal: becoming a Pokémon master.”

[Cue song]

“I want to be the best, that ever was, to beat all the rest, yeah that’s my cause…”

By Blue Ontario's Shore

 

Poem by Walt Whitman

 

“I myself make the

only growth by which

I can be appreciated

 

I reject none,

Accept all,

Then reproduce all in

My own forms

 

A breed whose proof is in

Time and Deeds

 

What we are we are,

Nativity is answer

Enough to objections,

 

We wield ourselves as

A weapon is wielded,

We are powerful and

Tremendous in ourselves,

 

We are executives in

Ourselves, we are sufficient

In the variety of ourselves,

 

We are the most beautiful

To ourselves and in ourselves

 

We stand self-poised in the

Middle, branching thence over

The world…”