Your Real Journey

"The world can not be discovered by a journey of miles. . . . only by a spiritual journey . . . by which we arrive at the ground at our feet and learn to be at home." - Wendell Berry

Sort of reminds me of the Wizard of Oz - one of my favorite stories. When Dorothy asked the Good Witch why she didn't tell her sooner that she could've gone home all along by clicking her heels together 3 times, the Good Witch replied, "You wouldn't have believed me . . ." Dorothy had to go through her journey to find the Truth and so do we. Safe & Joyful Travels, Rena

The Law of Least Effort

When it comes to healing, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing defines, "The Law of Least Effort," as this:

Accepting people, situations, and events as they occur. Taking responsibility for your situation and for all events seen as problems.

And relinquishing the need to defend your point of view.

Choose Wisely and Consciously

Today's thoughts, feelings and actions are creating your tomorrow. Yesterday's thoughts, feelings and actions have created your experience today. Choose wisely and consciously. - Rena Greenberg

You Have No Idea What You Are Capable Of

"If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves."

- Thomas Edison

What Result do you Desire?

Today is a great day to remember that thoughts and actions have consequences. They are cumulative. Every thought and action leads to a result, whether we desire it or not.

Keep Your Eyes Open

No matter how great your trial, keep your eyes open and you will find the gift.

- Rena Greenberg

Use Your Gifts!

The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party but they say nothing. And if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them silently away.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Equal in Weight

"Deeds of kindness are equal in weight to all the commandments."

-The Talmud

This Common Food Ingredient Is As Addictive As Cocaine

This is a very informative and enlightening article about the dangers of Fructose by Dr. Jim Mercola. Before we can access the subconscious mind to make the changes we want to make, we need to make a conscious decision that it makes sense to make the changes we say we want to make. My hope is that this article will help you to do that.

Overeating is not just psychological - it's physical, too, as a result of the foods that are already in our system.

Warmly,

Rena

By Dr. Jim Mercola:

The majority of Dr. Johnson’s research has focused on how the number one source of calories in the American diet might cause obesity, high blood pressure, and a number of other common diseases.

He didn’t start by looking at fructose however. It began when he realized that uric acid is a major component of obesity high blood pressure and kidney disease.

In fact, he discovered that newly diagnosed adolescents with high blood pressure had elevated uric acid levels 90 percent of the time. And by lowering uric acid in these obese, hypertensive adolescents, he was able to normalize blood pressure in 87 percent of all cases.

The question was: What raises uric acid?

It’s been known that meats and purine rich foods can raise uric acid, but it turns out that one of the most potent ways to raise uric acid is via fructose!

You probably already know that fructose is a sugar, but you may not realize is that it’s distinctly different from other sugars as it’s metabolized through very specific pathways that differ from those of glucose, for example, and through its distinct metabolic action, uric acid is generated.

In fact, fructose typically generates uric acid within minutes of ingestion.

But let’s take a step back and look at what uric acid is, and how it’s linked to fructose consumption.

What is Uric Acid and How Much is Too Much?

Uric acid is a normal waste product found in your blood. High levels of uric acid are normally associated with gout, but it has been known for a long time that people with high blood pressure, overweight, and people with kidney disease, often have high uric acid levels as well.

It used to be thought that the uric acid was secondary in these conditions, and not the cause – but Dr. Johnson’s research indicates that it could be a lead player in the development of these conditions, rather than just a supporting actor, when its levels in your body reach 5.5 mg per dl or higher.

At this level, uric acid is associated with an increased risk for developing high blood pressure, as well as diabetes, obesity and kidney disease.

Interestingly, uric acid functions both as an antioxidant, and as a pro-oxidant once inside your cells.

So, if you lower uric acid too much, you lose its antioxidant benefits. But if your uric acid levels are too high, it tends to significantly increase inside your cells as well, where it acts as a pro-oxidant.

Dr. Johnson believes the ideal range for uric acid lies between 3 to 5.5 mg per dl. As already mentioned, above this range your risk of developing all the problems listed correlate quite well.

In the following statement, Dr. Johnson explains just how closely tied uric acid levels are to fructose consumption:

“If you give animals fructose, they develop diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and fatty liver. And in most of these conditions, if we lower uric acid, we can prevent many of these conditions, [although] not completely.

So lowering uric acid seems to benefit some of the mechanisms by which fructose causes disease.

So a very important point is that if you take two animals and you feed one fructose and feed the other one the exact same number of calories but give it as dextrose or glucose, its only the fructose-fed animal that will develop obesity, insulin resistance, fatty liver, and high triglycerides, signs of inflammation, vascular disease, and high blood pressure.”

This bears out in humans as well. Over the last 20 years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in fatty liver disease throughout the world, and studies done by Dr. Johnson and a group of researchers at Duke University showed that people who develop fatty liver drink a lot more soft drinks, and ingest far more fructose than the average person in the community.

Folks, this is exactly why I am so passionate about educating you on the dangers of fructose! I am thoroughly convinced that it’s one of the leading causes behind the massive rise in needless suffering from poor health and premature death.

One of the people who truly opened my eyes and educated me on this issue is Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at University of California in San Francisco.

If you still haven’t watched his excellent lecture on the dangers of fructose and other sugars, I strongly recommend you take the time to do it. (I’ve published it in two parts. Click here for part 1, and here for part 2.)

How Much Fructose are You Consuming?

It’s no secret that we are eating more sugar than at any other time in history. In 1700, the average person ate 4 pounds of sugar a year. By 1800, it was 18 pounds. By 1900 it was about 90 pounds.

Today, about 25 percent of all Americans consume over ½ pound of added sugars a day, according to Dr. Johnson's research. That kind of consumption equates to more than 180 pounds of sugar per year! And it just so happens this statistic dovetails nicely with the statistics showing that one in four Americans is either pre-diabetic or has type 2 diabetes.

The two main sources of that sugar are high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and table sugar.

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day.

However, for most people it would actually be wise to limit your fruit fructose to 15 grams or less, as it is virtually guaranteed that you will consume “hidden” sources of fructose from most beverages and just about any processed food you might eat.

Since 55 percent of HFCS is fructose, one can of soda alone would nearly exceed your daily allotment. It is easy to see that anyone who is drinking three, and certainly four will easily exceed 100 grams of fructose per day,

Are Fruits Good or Bad for You?

Keep in mind that fruits also contain fructose, although an ameliorating factor is that whole fruits also contain vitamins and other antioxidants that reduce the hazardous effects of fructose.

Juices, on the other hand, are nearly as detrimental as soda, because a glass of juice is loaded with fructose, and a lot of the antioxidants are lost.

It is important to remember that fructose alone isn’t evil as fruits are certainly beneficial. But when you consume high levels of fructose it will absolutely devastate your biochemistry and physiology. Remember the AVERAGE fructose dose is 70 grams per day which exceeds the recommend limit by 300 percent.

So please BE CAREFUL with your fruit consumption. You simply MUST understand that because HFCS is so darn cheap, it is added to virtually every processed food. Even if you consumed no soda or fruit, it is very easy to exceed 25 grams of hidden fructose in your diet.

If you are a raw food advocate, have a pristine diet, and exercise very well, then you could be the exception that could exceed this limit and stay healthy. But in my experience that is far less than one in 1,000 people and probably closer to 1 in 10,000 people.

So please, carefully add your fruits based on the table below to keep the total fructose from fruit below 15 grams per day.

Fruit Serving Size Grams of Fructose

Limes 1 medium 0

Lemons 1 medium 0.6

Cranberries 1 cup 0.7

Passion fruit 1 medium 0.9

Prune 1 medium 1.2

Apricot 1 medium 1.3

Guava 2 medium 2.2

Date (Deglet Noor style) 1 medium 2.6

Cantaloupe 1/8 of med. melon 2.8

Raspberries 1 cup 3.0

Clementine 1 medium 3.4

Kiwifruit 1 medium 3.4

Blackberries 1 cup 3.5

Star fruit 1 medium 3.6

Cherries, sweet 10 3.8

Strawberries 1 cup 3.8

Cherries, sour 1 cup 4.0

Pineapple 1 slice

(3.5" x .75") 4.0

Grapefruit, pink or red 1/2 medium 4.3

Fruit Serving Size Grams of Fructose

Boysenberries 1 cup 4.6

Tangerine/mandarin orange 1 medium 4.8

Nectarine 1 medium 5.4

Peach 1 medium 5.9

Orange (navel) 1 medium 6.1

Papaya 1/2 medium 6.3

Honeydew 1/8 of med. melon 6.7

Banana 1 medium 7.1

Blueberries 1 cup 7.4

Date (Medjool) 1 medium 7.7

Apple (composite) 1 medium 9.5

Persimmon 1 medium 10.6

Watermelon 1/16 med. melon 11.3

Pear 1 medium 11.8

Raisins 1/4 cup 12.3

Grapes, seedless (green or red) 1 cup 12.4

Mango 1/2 medium 16.2

Apricots, dried 1 cup 16.4

Figs, dried 1 cup 23.0

Glucose Makes Fructose Even More Potent!

Fructose consumption clearly causes insulin resistance, whereas straight glucose does not. Insulin resistance can eventually lead to full blown diabetes.

Interestingly, glucose actually accelerates fructose absorption. So when you MIX glucose and fructose together, you absorb more fructose than if you consumed fructose alone.

This is an important piece of information for people who want to make a better effort at controlling their weight. With an epidemic of obesity going on in this country – two out of three people are overweight, and one out of three is obese – it has become clear that fructose is the single most important factor in this epidemic.

A Second Uric Acid Trigger

In his studies, Dr. Johnson found one more common substance that also elevates uric acid levels, namely beer!

It turns out that the yeast and all that’s used to make beer work together to make beer another powerful uric acid trigger.

The classic “beer belly syndrome,” is also quite similar to metabolic syndrome, and includes abdominal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia (high triglycerides), high blood pressure, and even insulin resistance.

While this concept is still new, pilot studies support Dr. Johnson’s findings, so beer consumption is also something to definitely consider when you’re watching your weight and trying to improve your health.

How to Restrict Fructose Consumption

In his book, The Sugar Fix, Dr. Johnson reviews the effectiveness of reducing fructose intake to help prevent or treat obesity. He provides detailed tables showing the content of fructose in different foods – an information base that isn’t readily available when you’re trying to find out exactly how much fructose is in various foods.

The fructose content of fruits that I included above came from his work.

The results of following the suggestions in this book are backed up by a controlled clinical trial, in which overweight people who followed the diet saw significant improvements in weight and blood pressure.

Reducing sugar in your diet can be tough for some people. After all, sugar is just as addictive as cocaine! But it’s possible, and Dr. Johnson provides helpful guidelines for doing so in his book.

It calls for following a very low fructose diet for two weeks, which has the effect of “rebooting” your system. Sugar activates its own pathways, and the more sugar you eat, the more sensitive you become to it, and the more your body starts absorbing. By cutting out sugar for a period of time, you can reduce the hyperactive metabolic system that has developed, and start over.

What Sweeteners Can You Use?

It’s worth noting here that some alternatives that would appear healthy to most people are still loaded with fructose.

Agave syrup, for example, is being falsely advertised as “natural.” It is actually HIGHLY processed and is 80 percent fructose. The end product does not even remotely resemble the original agave plant and has virtually no nutritive value. For more information about agave, please see my previous in-depth report on this topic.

Likewise, honey is very high in fructose. Although its fructose content varies, it typically contains about the same amount as HFCS, or more. So even though honey contains many other beneficial nutrients, you’ll want to use honey very sparingly.

A far safer alternative is to use pure glucose.

You can buy pure glucose (dextrose) as a sweetener for about $1 a pound. It is only 70 percent as sweet as sucrose, so you’ll end up using a bit more of it for the same amount of sweetness, making it slightly more expensive than sucrose—but still well worth it for your health as it has ZERO grams of fructose.

Remember, glucose can be used directly by every cell in your body and as such is far safer than the metabolic poison fructose.

Another option is to use the herb stevia.

While you’re making this fresh start, you will want to learn as much as possible about reading labels, which I’ve addressed in many previous articles, and becoming familiar with the fructose content of everything you eat.

Trust me, this isn’t the last time we’ll be talking about fructose, or hearing about Dr. Johnson’s work. I’m passionate about helping you take control of your health and sharing this vital information with you, which can radically change your health for the better.

Craving Love Craving Chocolate

We all crave love. Whether we have a special love in our life or not, many of us seek a deeper, more encompassing love. Often we reach for chocolate out of a desire for that love. But the chocolate, no matter how comforting, will never satisfy our deeper desires.

In order to experience deeper, unconditional love, we need to be ready to receive such a love. Ask yourself, “How receptive are you to love?” If your answer is disappointing, realize that you have the power to change that, regardless of any past hurts or doubts concerning true love. To make this inner shift from feeling a lack of love to experiencing an abundance of beauty and bliss, begin by using your imagination.

Create an image of the perfect love—what it feels like, looks like, sounds like, tastes like. Make it real, in full color, enhancing your visual image with sound and feeling. Imagine how you’d breathe (deeply) how you’d look (what you’d be wearing) and how you’d sound if you were already experiencing the perfect love. The key is not imagining someone else out there to fulfill you, but creating the feeling (the vibration) within yourself of that in-love, blissful feeling. What we imagine, we bring toward ourselves.

The subconscious mind does not know the difference between what is real and what is imagined, so when you take the time to create an inner state of love, joy and fulfillment, your inner mind begins to act as if this were indeed true for you. When you radiate love, you begin to attract to yourself the same positive, delightful experiences you do when you are actually falling in love.

You can create a loving state and feeling within yourself by changing both your physiology and your mental focus. You know how when you hold your body in a slumped position, with your shoulders forward, and breathe in a shallow way, thinking worrisome thoughts, you tend to feel slightly less powerful and optimistic?

Well the opposite is true as well. Watch what happens inside yourself as you breathe deeply and fully, filling your body with life-giving oxygen, stand tall with your chest out, and put a smile on your face. You can’t help but begin to feel positive when you hold this pose! You can enhance that pleasant state and encourage exhilaration within as you couple your erect posture and full belly breathing with images of love and beauty.

If there was ever a time when you fell in love, imagine how you felt at that time now. Remember your wedding day or the birth of a baby, or the happiest time of your life. Use all your senses. Was there a particular song playing in the background? Were there any fragrances that you recall? How bright and vivid were the colors around you?

As you stand tall, with your mouth in a full smile from ear to ear, breathing fully and deeply, imagining a time when you were experiencing total bliss, increase your connection to your inner power by visualizing that you are standing in a ball of white or golden, radiant, illuminating light.

Create a simple phrase to make the image even more real for you, for example, “I am love,” or “The perfect love dwells in me”.” Remember to continue to bring your awareness to your posture and gently correct it so that it reflects that inner “in-love” state. Give yourself the following challenge. For 24 hours pretend to be this love. Make believe that you are already receiving and experiencing this deep level of love regardless of your 5 senses telling you otherwise.

Act as if it were so and see what happens. It can be very empowering to realize that our outer experience in the world is often a reflection of our inner state. So if we want to improve our outer circumstances and experience deeper levels of connection, love and beauty, it’s necessary for us to take charge of what’s going on inside ourselves.

With compassion for the stress and concerns we have accumulated in life, we can still very tenderly bring ourselves back to a more desirable state—perhaps similar to the state of love and openness we entered the world with. This can be accomplished with breath, movement, posture, facial expression and imagery. What we imagine, we create.

You’ll no longer need to reach for chocolate to experience love and comfort once you make a habit of invoking a loving state within yourself. Though there is evidence that there are health benefits to be had from eating chocolate—especially dark chocolate—there is also a great danger that indulging in too much chocolate could lead you down a slippery slope.

One or two pieces melting in your mouth can be quite satisfying, however, beyond that you could easily find yourself in the throes of sugar addiction and compulsive eating. If you can have a little, then enjoy, however if you mindlessly find yourself overindulging, it’s important to realize that the chocolate is triggering your blood sugar causing you to spiral into a state of wanting more and this is a physical reaction to the sugar in your body.

When you find yourself bingeing, it’s also very likely that there is a deeper need wanting to be filled. Return to your love image and phrase. Remember to act as if you actually are already living from the inner state invoked by that illuminating, inspiring image and phrase. If it feels false, remind yourself to fake it until you make it.

Your inner mind truly does not know the difference. It is simply responding to your feelings whether they are induced by “outer reality” or your new, more positive “inner reality” that you are conjuring up. In either case it is this current moment here and now and your reaction to it that will determine your future moments.

Your thoughts and feelings precede and influence all your actions. Whether you are craving love or craving chocolate, you can affect which direction that desire will lead you to, by selecting your inner state. If you choose love—congratulations!

This choice will make it much more likely that your future moments will be filled with that which you desire. If in this moment, you do not make that higher choice to change your state to one of beauty and bliss, know that the option is always there for you. It’s never to late to change the inner pictures that we hold.

All you have to do is imagine that it were already so by nourishing yourself with the sights, sounds, feelings and smells of being happy and in-love. Stand tall, put your chest out and put a smile on your face. Tell yourself the loving phrases you long to hear. Wrap your arms around yourself and give yourself some appreciation and acknowledgement for all that you do and all that you are. Open to the possibility of your life filled with love and see how your desires manifest the life that you are longing for.

By: Rena Greenberg

Truths to Simple Success

Truths to Simple Success

Albert Einstein said, "Everything should be made as simple a possible, but not simpler." This is an important secret to happy living: realizing goals, projects, and purposes and organizing and accomplishing them in a simple, yet prevailing fashion. This requires us to eliminate what's unnecessary while holding on to the essential details.

As we discover what's truly important, we know where to place our focus. We see what we must scratch in order to succeed. As American writer Richard Bach said, "The simplest things are often the truest."

Here are a few basic truths to simple success.

1. Maintain focus--keep your eye on the ball! Indecision breeds procrastination and the two create huge distractions. We only hit what we aim at. Stay focused on what's important.

2. Be honest--always! Nothing will make your life more complicated than lying--to yourself or others. Facing circumstances squarely may seem challenging, but truly--it's the simplest way to succeed.

3. Prepare. Everything you need or want has a way of showing up as soon as you are ready for it. The sooner you're prepared, the faster you'll realize results.

4. Have faith and persevere. Hopeful wishing is an excellent starter, but a not-so-good finisher. Faith is more than hope, and coupled with perseverance, faith will take you over the finish line.

5. Keep it positive. Negative energy, feedback, and focus complicate everything. The one thing you have full power over is your thoughts, words, and actions. Use them for good.

6. Stay educated. Gaining higher intelligence is fundamental to our growth. No one can really teach us without our permission. We must choose to learn.

7. Be courageous and change old habits. Breaking out of old, complicated patterns takes guts. If your purpose is worthy and your pursuit is sincere, with bravery you can establish behavior patterns, thoughts, and choices that feed simple, happy, and successful lives.

8. Go the extra mile. When you are spiritually compelled to reach out and serve (which we all are at one time or another) do it with high definition. What you put out comes back to you. Serve--and go the extra mile.

9. Drop the ego. You can't become the master of anything until you become the master of your own ego. While believing in yourself is important and healthy, inflating your sense of self by competing, acting, and believing you're better than others, will complicate your life in ways you cannot image. If your success is ego-based, you're failure is immanent. Love others instead and aspire to race only against yourself.

10. Be willing to work. My grandfather was a psychologist and he used to repeat a popular saying, "With all thy get--get going!" Healthy self- esteem grows with good, old-fashioned, hard work and anyone who's truly hit the mark will tell you that success isn't achieved without it.

We create complex lives and inherit difficult problems when we defy these straightforward truths.

For this week's homework, evaluate this list. Pick at least one principle and spend the week focusing on simplifying your path to success by making at least one of these principles part of your everyday life.

Rebecca Linder Hintze is an author, speaker, and family issues expert, who has worked in private practice for more than a decade, completing thousands of private sessions. Her unique ability to help clients unveil core belief patterns and facilitate the healing of dysfunctional family patterns has made her a leading expert on family issues. She is the international, best-selling author of, Healing Your Family History: 5 Steps to Break-free of Destructive Patterns.