Overcoming addictive behaviour part 2

St. John's Wort

Following my last somewhat negative page on addictive behavior, in which I characterized it as a number of very undesirable mind sets, and pointed out its huge drain on planetary resources, here is the good news.

Addictive behaviors can be over come.In my opinion a broad range of approaches can be of use here, and I would like to suggest a selection with out going into any great detail at this stage.
 1. Work on your mind, Catch, analyse and Reject all negative, selfish and generally unhelpful thoughts and communications.
2. Selecting your company can also be very helpful here.
3. In place of negative thinking, cultivate positive thoughts. For example think of things you are grateful for,  celebrate progress you are making, be grateful  for support from your friends and allies, and encourage them in their progress. Be clean, tidy and efficient. Be optimistic.
4. Engage in a challenging but worthwhile project.
5. Get help , remember you cant do it alone ,but only you can do it. Get a support group appropriate to your stage of development, and what you are trying to do. I'm thinking initially of twelve step groups. Sometimes, you might have to form your own group. For instance recently I pulled together a seed swap group,  which I am proud of.

6.There are various herbs which can help to calm down an addiction, or an addictive restless mind. Sage, Thyme, St Johns Wort, Chamomile, Calendula, Spearmint and Centurion are common and available ones. Get professional advice,read books or do internet research.which leads on to another useful practice learn how to study give yourself time every day , or at least a couple of set timed during the week dedicated to study and learning.

Then there are the simple things of life. 

• Drink at least two liters of  clean water a day.
• look after yourself, by preparing healthy nutritious food.
• Regularly take exercise .
•  Every day practice conscious breathing. That is calmly take ten deep inhalations and exhalations this will be very useful in the inevitable crisis you will have to face in the future.
•  Avoid processed drinks and food like poison.
•  Get into a regular pattern of exercise.walking jogging swimming cycling yoga are all good,
•  Get into a lifestyle where good hard work produces good useful things. For instance take up gardening or foraging, cycle to work. Heat your home with wood you collect cut and chop, take up wood work, it depends partly what your interests are where your talents lie.

All in all its mostly about installing helpful wholesome things in your life and rejecting things that you recognise are no longer useful.there are a lot of suggestions here. there is no point trying to install them into your life all at once.Its a gradual process. As long as you are making progress that's fine.
something else that can be useful,is to get a teacher or councilor or  a life coach for instance Skip Archimedies is an amazing teacher/healer/life coach, and his services can be found at www.skiparchimedes.com/em

That's all for today . Ill just finish with this hope for you . Believe in yourself . You can Do it .

Eddie

An invitation to forage

Get your greens from the wild: Part one.

I enjoy being outdoors not just for the fresh air, sunshine and exercise but also to supplement my diet in a exciting and sustainable way.

I have experience in sourcing seasonal wild edible plants.

Ramson:

Ranson is in the garlic family 

  


I have enjoyed eating this plant for a couple of weeks. Ramson is a Spring tonic, it grows in broad-leaf woodland - sometimes abundantly. 

Get your greens from the wild: Part two.

Linden or Lime Tree


The Lime tree of northern Europe is not a citrus tree, . it is so named because of a pronounced stringiness if the bark, which used to be used to make line , hence the name lime, or in German linden.. the blossom of the tree is very nectar rich and attracts bees. It can be collected for a flavorful nerve tonic tea. however i value this tree at this time of year for its edible Green leaves which have an excellent flavor and texture . . it remains good to eat longer into the summer than the other well known salad trees like beech hazel and elm which quickly toughen. it is mucilaginous indicating its relatively high protein content. All in all a very useful and accessible spring /summer addition to your daily salad.

Lime tree leaves

Wild oats and false oats

false oats

At this point some of you might be thinking that we are not going to satisfy our hunger with a few green leaves. Well, if you have a juicer you can concentrate nutriments from your green leaves. Further more you can exploit some extremely nutritious plants.

This weekend past, I was using my hand juicer to process that most nutritious of plants, the grasses, and I had great results with false oats and wild oats. This time of year while the seed heads are still green the juice has a milky quality. Somewhat reminiscent of packaged oat milk, but greener, sweeter and of course much fresher - definitely superior to the packaged product. 

I also made a good milky drink with other grasses, but some grasses were too fibrous to get through the juicer with ease, although the addition of nettles and chickweed helped. Also I put a few thistles through the juicer to good effect. Furthermore juicers remember this, there are no poisons grasses there are no poisons thistles, so if you want to be experimental with your juicer, this is a good place to start.