Cell Phones in Cars and Buses

I have just returned to Auckland from Wellington on the day bus which left yesterday at 9 am. I always enjoy this trip with a good driver at the helm. The scenery is refreshing, and you can relax and enjoy it all the more because you are not the driver. The social aspect of travelling with people from other towns and countries is enjoyable. Of course, the refreshing, social and relaxing aspects of travelling by bus all go to pot if you have a driver whom you do not trust or who is on edge. I was lucky that the same good natured driver who drove me down ten days ago was on the run to take me back. It was a great trip.

However, I want to draw attention to the one environmental factor which is often a concern to me whenever I am jammed in with people in a crowd for an extended period, such as traveling long distance on a bus. That concern is cell phone radiation. I found on this trip, as is often the case, that I had to move seats, away from the person behind me who was using her phone constantly. It was difficult to find a suitable place to sit, i.e, one where there wasn’t a cell phone sitting in the pocket behind the seat you were about to sit in, or to avoid a cell phone in use. Cell phone usage seems to be the main preoccupation of the younger traveler these days.

When a phone is in use, the radiation I can sense is much more than when the phone is idle. However, an idle phone, if it is kept in the pocket behind your seat in the bus, has a perceptible deleterious effect on the nervous system. The most easily recognizeable, and the first, symptom is extreme headache. If you continue to sit there, then other disturbing reactions develop such as an inablity to think clearly, shaky movements, and arthritic-like pain in the arms and legs: Circulation is impaired through cell phone radiation, beyond what you would expect from sitting for an hour or so at a time, which is the reason your legs become swollen.

It is definately a good thing that drivers in New Zealand and other parts of the world are now forbidden by law to use cell phones while driving. This is a common sense law which has been a long time coming. Using a cell phone while driving is obviously going to increase your chances of ‘accident’, since all your attention cannot possibly be on the road and the conditions about you if you are holding a phone. But there is yet another thing to consider which probably won’t be addressed in the near future by common law, since most people do not recognize its danger to health and brain function, and that is that a cell phone within a metre or so of your brain will affect your brain impulses even if you are not using it. Simply having a cell phone in the car will undermine your nervous system which will fractionally alter your speed of reflex action and your decision making.

The brain and nervous system work on electrical impulses from the body’s own electrical system. The healthy functioning of the nervous system, to which the brain is a central part, is disturbed by interference from other electrical impulses, such as those from cell phones or overhead high tension wires, cell phone towers, etc.

Here is an example of just how the radiation energy from a cell phone can interfere with the electical workings of another electrical device.

First of all – an admission – I have been using a cell phone for the past six months (again),one which my daughter has lent me in order to get work. I avoid keeping it with me during the day, and remove it from the room at night, which has minimized exposure to its radiation. However, I will have to relinquish this phone in the near future, as it is evident that even minimal use after a six month stretch is affecting my health. I need to get a flat which has a land line.

Anyway – back to the example of how a cell phone’s energy can affect another device which is also electrically driven.

I had my portable CD player on its shelf playing a CD. I think it was Brooke Benton singing ……On the shelf above it, about 18 inches away, I had the cell phone recharger cord strung across leading to the cell phone nearby which was being recharged. I happened to be in the room when two texts came through, within about a minute of each other. As I stood at the door, the CD player seemed to forget what its purpose was, to play the CD coherently. It began stammering and cutting out, although there is no scratch on this CD which would cause it to falter. Simultaneously, the cell phone gave its signal that a text had come through. The CD player resumed its business of playing the CD. A minute later, another text came through from the same person. The same thing happened – the CD player seemed confused and did not resume its normal function until the text had come through and the light disappeared off the phone. It is possible that having two devices drawing electricity from the same source meant that one device, the CD player, had to make way for the extra energy demanded by the incoming text.

The change in radiation levels, from an inactive phone to one which is being used for texting, can be easily discerned if you are sitting still, on a bus, for instance. The radiation which sudden;ly becomes intensified by a nearby phone being in use causes a kind of painful piercing over the skull which affects the intuitive/psychic centre as well as the whole nervous system. Pain in the ears is experienced by myself after several minutes of someone using a cell phone nearby. The radiation causes a build up of fluid within the ear, even without the offending phone being near one’s own ear.

Sensitive people really must be careful with cell phones. If the electrical impulse from an incoming text will interfere with the playing of a CD, then the brain which is also a sensitive mechanism which works on electrical impulses, will also be affected by cell phones used by other people or by oneself.

The safest place for a cell phone to be, whilst travelling in a car, is in the boot.

Risk of Using Rat Poison

Read merrilyn’s  ‘Organic Rat Poison’ for a homemade rat poison idea.  This post gives some organic solutions to  the problem of rats and mice.

About a week ago I saw a commercial pest eradication van leaving our hotel grounds in Glenfield. I hadn’t seen the driver at work, so I wasn’t sure what he was up to. Was it going to be a fumigation of our rooms, or was he here to lay poison for rats. Either way, I thought it would mean trouble. After a few days I could taste poison  around the hotel. My vision was affected. For days it was blurred and my eyes bloodshot and burning. I had terrible pain in the heart when lying down. This, for me, is  always a symptom of  chemical poisoning, usually rat poison. I had a serious headache, nausea and a runny nose. I also had several days with diaorrhea, brought on by the intestinal flora being upset and the acidophillus being killed off. My joints seemed frozen when I went to do my piano playing jobs. My mental function was also impaired. I could tell because piano pieces that I normally play well were a struggle to perform. The slowed up mental state and the frozen nature of my fingers and arms really was a big concern.

The poison  seemed to be everywhere – in the kitchen, and even out in the garden. I did my yoga-breathing exercise on the lawn- actually to alleviate the severe depression which had hit me this week. But yoga on the lawn, rather than improve the state of depression, was more effective in pin-pointing the reason for the depression which had come on for no apparent reason: No doubt now – this was for sure a chemically-induced state of depression due to  rat poison. I could taste it on my clothes.I could smell it on my hands. Touching my face after doing the yoga on the lawn caused a burning sensation on the face. Then I realized there were plastic containers which contained rat poison, in the garden, all about the property. One was situated only about 20 feet away from where I had been lying on the lawn for yoga exercises. I had seen a dead rat lying a few feet away from one rat-poison recepticle near the kitchen.

I showered and changed all my clothes immediately, although they were fresh just before doing the yoga. Now they were contaminated. I kept them apart from anything else I might touch or wear. Shoes were the vehicle for the transportation of the pesticide right through the hotel. After realizing this, I removed these before entering my room to avoid contaminating the carpet and everything in the room. Many people live here and walk to and fro the kitchen and other facilities, so before long, traces of the poison had been tramped all over the premises. Only a trace is needed for depression to set in.

I took care not to walk near the rubbish collection area – that seemed to be one of the worst places affected by the poison. I could taste it strongly in this area. Either there was more bait put around this area which I could not see, or rats were carrying the stuff here when they came about their inspections for the night.

Cats must surely be affected as they walk bare-foot over this territory. Birds must be afftected also, as they eat worms off the grass.

My guess is that many people have been suffering depression in our hotel this week. I have noticed that the mood generally hasn’t been as jolly as it usually is.

Now, about five days after putting up this post, I am sure the rodent man has put insecticide around the utility areas as well, which compounds the rat poison problem. These days, unfortunately, poisoning such as this is quite common in New Zealand;  Warehouses, shops, storage facilities, hotels, and other places of accommodation often use drastic methods  to kill insects and this outside method to kill rodents and insects as well.

I encountered  poisoning  such as this when I was in Australia, but at the time, New Zealand definately seemed cleaner and ‘greener’ as far as rodent killer and domestic insecticides went.  However, sadly, I think many Aucklanders  have become increasingly more like the Aussies in their widespread use of rat poison and ant and cockroach killer. We are conditioned by advertising on television and  the very existence of these chemical killer companies. The ‘spray and walk away’ approach teaches us to be generally uncaring and insensitive to our surroundings, our environment, and all the creatures who live in it. As I write this, people are hacking  out beautiful gardens and lopping down trees around Auckland to make less work for themselves and control nature, completely oblivious to the fact that the birds’ habitat is being destroyed and the wonderful colour of a garden is turned to dust. This kind of attitude seems to go hand in hand with toxic chemical usage.
Wellington, by comparison, seems to value its gardens and surroundings. While I was living in Wellington over a three year period, I never encountered problems with toxic chemicals. The cooler climate has something to do with it, but Wellingtonians do seem to be a more gentle, milder-natured lot who just love their city and its surroundings.

Just how one can educate people into respecting the beautiful environment we have here in Auckland, to take care of the gardens, instead of cutting them all out, for the benefit of all;  into not using poisons such as rat and ant and cockroach killers because of  detrimental effect on bird, animal and human life, is something which cannot be achieved in a day. Where are you, Helen Clarke?

Pendulum Diagnosis

Learn How To Use A Pendulum:  The pendulum can be a useful tool in ascertaining what foods are suitable for you to eat. The pendulum can also be useful in detecting the site of a health problem in a person, and in showing where the appropriate acupressure points are to help the condition.

Some healers are very clever at diagnosing with a pendulum. Most healers I have met who work this way claim they have  a guide, or sometimes several guides, who help them from hidden realms.

My friend Gottlieb was a Spiritual Healer. He was used as a tool for healing many people. Gottlieb had started out using a pendulum in his early days of healing, he told me, but had switched to using a pen for diagnosing. The use of a pen enabled him to pin-point problem areas on an anatomical chart. Gottlieb then used the pen to define the specific acupressure points on the anatomical chart which would help the condition when massaged. With his pen, Gottlieb was able to tell you what year you had a serious illness, the year you had your first child, or what year a family member died. Gottlieb taught me how to use the pen for diagnosis. However, I haven’t yet mastered pen diagnosis and I am still using the pendulum.

Getting skilled at using a pendulum can take quite a bit of practice, but some people, in touch with their “Higher Self”,  take to it very quickly.

First of all, you need to purchase a pendulum. It doesn’t need to be an expensive thing- a cut glass prism on a string, such as you can buy at most ‘Two Dollar’  shops, will do the trick.

You need to practice using the pendulum regularly to become skilled. Choose a time when your mind is at ease. Early evening is good for most people – not too late, as it is not a good idea to use the pendulum at all when you are tired.

Basically, a clockwise motion gives a positive answer; an anti-clockwise motion gives a negative answer. Once you get skilled, you might be given other insights into a person’s health and situation from watching the movements of the  pendulum.

To begin practice, it is a good idea to do a breathing exercise such as the one listed on the post ‘Maximize Your Prana Intake’. This exercise, which only takes five minutes of your time, increases prana energy, oxygenates the blood, improves your mental function and releases stress. Alternatively, you could count the breaths as you sit in your chair, counting ‘ONE’ as you breathe in, and ‘OM’ as you breathe out. This can be done silently or aloud if you are standing or are in a seated position.

After doing the five minute exercise to maximize your prana intake, which is a standing exercise, sit comfortably and quietly on a chair. Sit upright and do not slouch. The feet should be flat on the floor.

You need to ‘tune’ your pendulum to begin with. It will probably take a few days, or weeks, of practice before you can sense what length you need to leave between your fingers and the pendulum to get the best results. A  pendulum  on a long string will move more slowly and take longer to reach an outcome of positive or negative than if it is on a short string. The length of string is a matter of personal preference. When you get more experienced, even a heavier pendulum can be held close to the weight so that you get a very quick result.

Use the right knee as the ‘positive’ side, and the left as the ‘negative’ side. Start with the positive right knee side. Hold your pendulum about four inches above the knee. Swing the pendulum gently to get a slight back and forth movement. Now wait for the pendulum to begin to swing in a clockwise direction. At first, you might get no reaction, or the pendulum might swing anti-clockwise, or in no specific direction at all. You simply stop the pendulum if it is moving, and start again.

Then try the left side for a negative, anti-clockwise result. Don’t worry if the correct response does not appear. Just keep practicing. Stop the pendulum, swing it gently to start its motion, and wait to get the result. Do five minutes practice on each side in one sitting.

You could try holding your pendulum over a coloured object and ask “Is this article  red?’ Or, “Is this article blue?” Make sure you are getting the correct response from this type of question before you begin asking it what foods might be suitable for you, or whether or not a product has toxic chemicals in it.

It is important not to bombard the pendulum with questions when you first realize that you are able to use it. It is best to limit your questions to three at a time.  More than that can confuse the intelligence helping you, and your own as well. Often, when many questions are posed, the questions themselves become loosely formed and are not clear-cut. Sometimes we do not wish to accept the first answer because it is not the outcome we desire, so we may ask again. Asking a question twice should always be resisted. Accept the first answer.

Also remember that even when you are skilled at using the pendulum, you are not necessarily immune from making wrong decisions: you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

Curing Candida – Chronic poisoning

This story is about my own experience of chemical poisoning which occurred some years after being poisoned with, and recovering from, 245T.

I was fortunate that I had Walter Last’s teachings to help me, but I had to work out much of my own treatment this time round, as sensitivites were so great that I could eat very few of the foods which had proved successful on Walter’s diet.

This chronic candida was brought on by my own folly in  the 1980’s . I was living on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. I had the opportunity to buy a house which would reduce my mortgage considerably. While the house was under contract, the house burnt down. As if that wasn’t warning enough from my invisible guides, I went ahead and purchased the house for the section value. I was tempted because the property was a large one – a third of an acre – which would give us plenty of room for a garden. I also had ideas for using the foundations of the burnt-out house to rebuild a house there. The building inspector refused to allow this, which was another warning I paid no heed to. I bought a small cottage from the mainland and had it moved over by ferry, and then by crane, to sit on top of the foundations and floor boards which was all that was left of the original house. This was permissible according to the rules at the time, as the building was on skids, which meant that it was regarded as a temporary dwelling, although my actions did not make the building inspector very happy at all. “It looks a blimmin mess, Merrilyn”, he said.

I began clearing the property of all the burnt debris. This mission proved to be the enormous undoing of my health and that of my youngest child who was not yet going to school. He was accompanying me daily to the site.

The house had had an asbestos roof, and this had literally exploded when the house went up in smoke. In the explosion, a great quantity of plastic material in the form of wrecked appliances had fused with other materials in the heat. These toxic materials lay about in the mountain of poisonous ash all  over the floor of the building. Pieces of asbestos, large and small, and ash, were scattered over the extent of the property.

I began clearing the property, with my son’s help. I ordered a huge waste bin, and began filling it with barrow loads of ash and asbestos.

It wasn’t long before we both were extremely sick. Our eyes were bloodshot, the pupils almost non-existent, we both had chronic diaorrhea, the tissues of my nose had broken down and were bleeding constantly, and I was beginning to have fainting spells. These were very alarming, as I was suddenly paralyzed, rendered incapable of moving at all, and would have to lie on the ground until the paralysis passed. The mental anguish was terrible. I was barely hanging on to sanity. During these attacks, which I noticed came on whenever I visited the property, my heart would race so hard I thought it would stop.

The other important factor was that I could not eat anything much at all without a thick coating of candida covering my tongue. This would happen as soon as the food touched my lips. I thought I would surely die, if not from poisoning, then from starvation.

Once we went across on the ferry to Auckland. The fumes of the main street were suddenly too much for me and I collapsed on the street. I had worked out, simply by experimenting, that two aspirin alleviated these dreadful symptoms almost immediately. Garlic, calcium ascorbate powder and kawakawa leaves also averted complete collapse. So my son ran into a shop to get some of the only thing readily available in High Street of an afternoon- two aspirin, which I took right away.

By the time I had taken the aspirin, an ambulance had arrived to take me to hospital. At the hospital, a heart specialist told me that I had a heart condition called tachycardia, which is more or less a racing heart. The heart rate he monitored was nothing like the speed at which it was going before I took the aspirin. I wasn’t tested for poisoning of the blood at this stage, but told to go and see my doctor for some heart medecine.

I did not visit a doctor. I knew there was nothing wrong with my heart: these weird symptoms had all come on when I had started work at the section where the house  with the asbestos roof had burnt down. And now, I was unable to step on the property at all because I would collapse if I did. I knew my recovery depended upon my own efforts entirely: no one else except myself knew what conditions had caused my physical demise, and so I was sure that the best person to evaluate my health, and rebuild it, was myself.

So I sold up.  Sold what gear my friends and children could retrieve for me, and sold the property.

We went to Queensland and lived in  caravan parks for six months until I recovered. This was extremely hard work, especially with other menacing hazards to consider in the Australian environment, like hidden cockroach and ant killers. Even the celery was different to New Zealand celery.  New Zealand grown celery had been the perfect food, even if it was not organically produced, but I began to get a toxic reaction to the poisons which I could taste on the Australian grown celery. (Note – this does not mean that NZ celery is always safe to use – farming chemicals change from year to year, and from farm to farm. I have since bought celery here in NZ which has been virtually inedible because of the insecticide on it)  So organic celery had to be sought, which I found at the Eumundi markets. It was not always possible to get to the markets to keep a constant supply, so  I alternated eating this with bunches of non-organic stuff and took castor oil and calcium ascorbate Vitamin C to counteract the poison. Each day I had to work hard at staying alive. It took months before I began to feel that I might live.

The diet was not really a ‘diet’ – I ate the only things I was able to eat without rampant candida infection taking over my mouth and affecting the whole of my being. These things were CELERY, celery and more celery,  TUNA FISH IN OIL and GARLIC.  At first, these foods were all I could eat. Nothing else. But I was grateful I had been guided to the things which at least kept me alive without suffering. After a few weeks, I found I could add almonds to the diet, but I had to be careful with these and not eat too many.

I took CASTOR OIL, two tablespoons, at least twice a week and used ENEMAS almost every day for the first couple of months or so. After a couple of months I was able to add fresh lettuce to the diet. I could not take any cooked food except for the tinned tuna. This was, in the main, a raw food diet which worked as a detoxification mainatenance diet.

After about six months of the celery, tuna, lettuce, and garlic diet, I knew I had improved dramatically. With this realization came the insight that cooked broccoli would be tolerable and healthful for me. Sure enough, cooked broccoli was ok now. I think I introduced two raw egg yolks into the diet at this stage. These foods were safe for me now: I got none of the reactions I had had even three months earlier on these foods. I still had to be careful though. Sprouted grains and beans were still problematic because of the yeasts which they grow on them: with the soaking of grains and beans, the fermentation process starts right away. This is why they are unsuitable for people who have chronic candida due to chemical poisoning.

No other foods were tolerable until after about a year of sticking to my own dietary regime.

Supplements I used to help in healing this condition were LYSINE and VITAMIN C CALCIUM ASCORBATE POWDER. The common Vitamin C tablets,which most people use, were no use at all, as they fed the candida in the mouth. I took doses of 1000mg of calcium ascorbate two or three times a day, generally at mealtimes. If I had a reaction to a food, then I would take the third dose of 1000mg.

HALIBUT LIVER OIL was also useful- after a month or so on my celery diet, I began taking these. I would occasionally take two aspirin if I the candida reappeared:  sometimes it did through eating lettuce which was not fresh enough.

After I recovered, I read somewhere that fish oil is great for removing toxins from the blood. I think this is why the tuna in oil was just the right food for me. No other tinned fish would do. Sardines, which I had used frequently when following Walter Last’s advice for the 245T poisoning, were not tolerable. Sardines and all other fish gave me a thick coating of candida in the mouth immediately it touched the mouth. I visited Walter Last in Australia while I was recovering. He thought that the reason the tuna fish in oil was so healing in this instance was that it was rich in iodine. Personally, I am sure it was the oil which made it tolerable,  as no other fish was tolerable until about a year of following my celery-tuna diet. Tuna is also a large deep water fish which possibly has less mercury and other contaminants in its flesh than  smaller fish which live closer to land. Whatever the reason, tuna in oil was the answer.

I practiced the exercise which I have recorded under  “Maximize your Prana Intake’, three times EVERY day, without fail. I also did a lot of singing of Praises from the wee hymn book I had with me, did a lot of Buddhist chanting, and  read numerous  beautiful  stories to my two young boys. A short run every evening, on the grass around the park, became part of my daily routine after about three months. All these things  helped greatly to aid my recovery and enhance  spiritual awareness and well-being.

At some stage in these six months I went for a medical check up in Nambour, more or less to document the effects of the sugar cane spraying which was going on near us at the time. (Soon after, we moved further north, away from this environmental hazard) The doctor examined my sinuses. She was horrified, because all the lining had been burnt out of my nostrils. She was quite angry and suggested that I might be a coccaine addict. Nothing I could do or say would alter her judgement, I felt: my story of just how my sinus membranes had become totally shot was just so unbelievable, I didn’t even try to convince her otherwise. I have NEVER touched coccaine in my life: breathing a mixture of asbestos  and plastic dust, mercury and lead-laden paint, and formaldehyde, from burnt particle board in one section of the house, gave me nostrils such as any cocaine addict might never experience.

I got a blood test done by a naturopath after some time of following my own detox regime. Mercury was still on the high side of ‘normal’. I believe I had eliminated most of the mercury and other poisons at this stage.

And this is how I suffered and conquered the third major health crisis in my life. It could easily have been avoided if I had paid heed initially to the idea that I shouldn’t have been worrying about material concerns. And to be opting for material gain at the expense of my own and my family’s health was sheer madness. What I had in the first place  was perfectly fine.

The Ha Ha Ha Breath/Quit Smoking

The cessation of the smoking habit can be made easier through yoga breathing exercises.  Below, I have listed a few of my favourite ones.This list includes exercises  such as the ‘Ha’ ‘Ha’ ‘Ha’ breath, which improves lung function and helps eliminate toxins, including nicotine and tar, from the lungs. This is a useful exercise to learn because it is a  quick exercise to do. Yoga Nidra, which  helps to oxygenate  and cleanse the blood, takes longer, but it also relaxes the mind so that it can realize the new aspirations you have for it.

The HA HA HA BREATH.  A great oxygenator of the blood which helps to expel toxins from the lungs. It is very easy to do:

Stand upright. Put the hands in prayer position in front of the chest. Inhaling, stretch up above the head with the hands still joined together in the prayer position. Hold the breath as you bend forward to put the hands on the bended knees. Lean the body forward, suck the tummy hard in, keep eyes bulged wide open with eyebrows stretched upward, mouth open, and say ‘Ha… Ha… Ha… Ha… Ha…’ until you have completely exhaled the breath. Make small, sharp ‘Ha’ sounds, more like a panting breath rather than a chant.

Put the hands together in prayer position again. Reach straight upward as you breath a deep breath in. Hold, then put the hands on the knees as before and repeat the ‘Ha’ ‘Ha’ breath until your lungs are empty.

Do once more from the beginning so that you do three complete rounds.

ALTERNATE NOSTRIL BREATH. This is good for the mind as well as the lungs. Sit in cross-legged position, left hand over the left knee with thumb and middle fingers joined, palm upward. Close the eyes. Put the right hand forefinger and middle finger between the brows.  Block off the right hand nostril with the thumb. Take a breath in through the open left nostril. Hold the breath,  block off the left hand nostril with the fourth finger, and breathe out through the open right.  Breathe in again through the right as you keep the left nostril blocked with the ringfinger. Then change sides as you hold your breath –  block off the right nostril with the thumb of the right hand – the two fingers still over the eyebrow centre – and breathe out through the open left nostril. Breathe in again through the left nostril, as the thumb holds the right nostril down. Change fingers so that the left side is held down, release the thumb from the right nostril and exhale  ……. and so on. Do five full rounds, then take the hand down from the brow to place over the right knee.

Now take one full breath in – hold- and breathe slowly out out as you sit, eyes closed. Repeat the full exercise another five rounds. (A round is the full cycle of breath in on one side, out through the other nostril, in through the same nostril, and out through the first nostril)

This exercise is very good for balancing the right and left side of the body. We tend to favour one side, but this exercise helps the weaker side of the body. Left brain and right brain functions are given energy and power through the practice of this exercise.

The BUTTERFLY EXERCISE. This is a beautifully gentle rejuvenating exercise, as the name implies. It is another great oxygenator of the lungs and blood, but it has value also because of the calm mind and emotions which result from its practice. Its calming effect is very helpful for people who are giving  up smoking or some other addiction. It is safe to do as often as you feel the need for its benefits.

Stand facing the sun or an open window if you can. Arms are in a nice rounded position against the body, the fingertips of both hands touching lightly together at thigh level. Now we begin the first of the butterfly movements: Eyes open, look ahead and breathe in slowly and deeply as you bring the arms up together in front of the body, fingertips of both hands still touching as you do so. Keep the movement going upward, hands touching, as you continue to inhale.

You now should have a full breath in, and the hands are directly stretched out above the head, fingertips toughing. Now, breathe out SLOWLY as you separate the hands, bringing them down to the side of the body like a butterfly so that they are level with the shoulders. This is the halfway position.

Now, breathing in again, move the arms up above the head, again like a butterfly, until the fingertips touch. You have a full breath in at this point.

Now, breathing slowly out, take the butterfly movement all the way down the side of the body, arms outstretched, until the hands meet at the thighs. The arms now are nicely rounded as they were when we began this exercise.

Now, breathing in again, slowly bring the butterfly arms right up to the side of the body until they are above the head again. Your lungs should be full of good fresh air. Hold the arms and the breath briefly, then exhale slowly, bringing the arms down in FRONT of the body until they are in a nice curved position, fingertips of both hands touching lightly, the hands resting on the thighs.

This is ONE full round. Do another two rounds to make three full rounds. Then rest, breathing normally with the hands at thigh level.

YOGA NIDRA  is a wonderful exercise for everybody who wishes to enhance their health and their enjoyment of life. See my post on YOGA NIDRA to save me from retyping this in here.

The SALUTE TO THE MOON is a soothing exercise which is very easy to do. It is  good to do any time of the day if you are under stress. It can help you to sleep if you practice  it before bed.

Kneel on the floor, or the grass if you are outside. Place the hands at the side of the body on the floor. Breathe in a full breath. As you breathe out, lean the body forward. Slide  the hands, which are flat down on the floor, forward , alongside the knees. They should end directly in front of your head  which is reaching to touch the floor in front of you. Join the hands together by making a triangle on the floor, thumbs touching, and index fingers touching above that. This forms the ‘moon’. Place your head into this triangle and rest there, breathing normally. Stay for three full breaths, then, as you inhale again, lift the body slowly to the upright sitting position and slide the hands along the floor until they are back where they started, beside the body and touching the floor.

Once you get the hang of it, you can do the movement easily and fluidly without looking at the instructions. Do three times in a row, with a full breath rest in between each ‘salute’.

This exercise is useful for flushing out poisons in the head area. This inverted posture is one which most people could do safely, whereas other inverted postures might prove difficult and unsafe for some.