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ОглавлениеA Holistic Approach toward the Treatment and Cure for Diabesity
This life’s five windows of the soul
Distort the Heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When we see with, not through, the eye.
— WILLIAM BLAKE
We are spiritual beings living in human physical form. Although most of us identify with our physical body, our capacity to thrive depends on so much more. The physical body is an amazing arrangement of natural elements, but it is virtually worthless without the vital life force that makes the body’s roughly fifty trillion cells work together to form dynamic, creative, energetic beings, capable of doing so much good.
Vedanta philosophy (veda means “knowledge”) describes this vital life force as prana, which stays constant even as we progress through different phases of life.1 The Rig Veda is believed by historians to be the oldest available document in human history, dated from 10,000 to 4000 BCE. Prana, the vital life force, connects the physical body to the mind — to our discerning intellect, knowledge, and wisdom, which help us distinguish the right path from the often-easier wrong one. Prana helps us to consciously make the right choices every moment of every day so that we can reach or remain in a state of balance and bliss with the universe, when we live life in perfect harmony and congruence with our own values and with nature.
Our foolish misidentification with the physical body is the root cause of overindulgence in sense gratification, through excessive consumption of food, drink, smoking, and drugs. This foolishness also leads to overattachment, which translates to destructive emotions, such as lust, anger, greed, arrogance, and possessiveness.
When we look beyond the physical body and realize that there is so much more to us than our five physical senses, we can connect with the ever-powerful, all-knowing forces of nature that are continually helping us heal and find balance and bliss. We can then realize that there is actually no “space” between us and the vital forces of nature. We, and everything around us, are made up of the five elements of fire, water, earth, air, and ether (or space).
If diabesity is a state of energy imbalance due to overconsumption, Turbo Metabolism is a state of harmony between the mind, body, and universe. This state of harmony can only be achieved by understanding and optimizing the free flow of energy throughout all three.
In ancient Indian philosophical texts, prana or life force is described as energy that should flow freely throughout the body through psychic centers of energy, documented as chakras as early as 800 BCE.
The Sanskrit word chakra literally translates as “wheel” or “disk.” In yoga, meditation, and Ayurveda, this term refers to wheels of energy (or life force) throughout the body. There are seven main chakras, which are roughly lined up along the spine, starting from the base of the spine through to the crown of the head.2 They are roughly aligned with the spine but can be visualized in the front of the body as well. To visualize a chakra in the body, imagine a swirling wheel of energy where matter and consciousness meet. This invisible energy, called prana, is the vital life force that keeps us vibrant, healthy, and alive.
According to WebMD, Ayurvedic medicine — also known as Ayurveda — is one of the world’s oldest holistic (whole-body) healing systems. It was developed thousands of years ago in India.
Based on the belief that health and wellness depend on a delicate balance between the mind, body, and spirit, the primary focus of Ayurvedic medicine is to promote good health, rather than fight disease. But treatments may be recommended for specific health problems and are unique to each individual based on their mind-body constitution.
Yoga and Ayurveda are essentially inseparable sisters. Although yoga makes most people think of poses where people twist themselves like pretzels, its fundamental tenets are an eightfold system of universal morality, personal observances, postures, breath control, mastery over the senses, concentration, devotion, and ultimately, union with the divine. Hence, yoga is much more of a way of living than merely a practice of poses.
The Chakras: Energy Flow in the Body
The chakras, these swirling wheels of energy, correspond to massive nerve centers in the body. Each of the seven main chakras contains bundles of nerves and major organs as well as our psychological, emotional, and spiritual states of being. This life energy is always moving: We are living in a dynamic system that is constantly in motion, rebalancing itself, repairing, and healing all the time. Thus, it is essential that our seven main chakras stay open, aligned, and fluid. If there is a blockage, energy cannot flow. Another way to think about this is in terms of our personal growth and evolution. As we mature from infancy to adolescence to young adulthood, and from adulthood onward to middle age and beyond, we become wiser and priorities change. Our worldview changes, as do our needs. Growth and healing happens wherever energy flows. Energy flow requires awareness.
Awareness neutralizes some of the rigidity of fixed ways of thinking and keeps energy flowing smoothly. It allows us to understand when to hold on to things and when to let go. It creates the ability to choose consciously rather than acting in automatic, predictable ways. Because mind, body, soul, and spirit are intimately connected, awareness of an imbalance in one area will help bring the others back into balance. This shift in our mental paradigm is what is required for us to adopt a new way of living.
The Three Chakras of Matter
The first three chakras, starting at the base of the spine, are chakras of matter. They are more physical in nature. These chakras can also be thought of as symbolic of our most basic needs for survival — food, water, and shelter — and body organ functions, such as the capacity to excrete waste and to reproduce. These are dominant in our infancy and childhood, as the top priority at that time is to survive.
First chakra: The chakra of survival, stability, security, and our basic needs, the first chakra encompasses the base of the spine, the bladder, and the colon. When this chakra is open, we feel safe and fearless. It is the energy of feeling connected to the Earth in a way that is safe and nurturing. Having issues with safety and security can lead to problems with addiction to foods or money, or hoarding behavior that attempts to compensate for lack of safety and security at some prior point in life.
Second chakra: The second chakra is our sensuality, creativity, and sexual center. It is located above the pubic bone, below the navel, and is responsible for our creative expression. Issues related to sensuality and creative expression at any stage in life can lead to imbalances in our sexuality, such as insecurities, dysfunctions, or sex addictions later in life.
Third chakra: The third chakra is located in the area from the navel to the breast bone: the pit of the stomach. The third chakra is our source of personal power, our self-worth and determination. This is the seat of the “fire in the belly” that drives us to move forward. Imbalances at this level can lead to overidentification with the ego, manifesting as arrogance. This energy may be most powerful during our adolescent and teenage years.
The Four Chakras of Spirit
These chakras speak to our higher needs of truth, freedom, enlightenment, and bliss.
Fourth chakra: Located at the heart center, at the middle of the seven chakras, the fourth chakra unites the lower chakras of matter with the upper chakras of spirit. The fourth is spiritual in nature but serves as a bridge between our body, mind, emotions, and spirit. The heart chakra is our source of love and connection. It is at the level of the heart that we can expand the body horizontally. Think of it as opening your arms to hug or hold hands with a loved one or to hold hands with the people on your sides.
When we work through our first three physical chakras and into the fourth chakra of love and connection, we can open the spiritual chakras more completely. Our need for connection manifests itself in young adulthood as the most powerful. As we move and mature through adulthood, getting wiser, our needs change, as should our awareness.
Fifth chakra: The fifth chakra, located in the area of the throat, is our source of communication, verbal expression, and the ability to speak our highest truth. The fifth chakra includes the neck, thyroid, and parathyroid glands, jaw, mouth, and tongue.
Sixth chakra: The sixth chakra is located between the eyebrows. It is also referred to as the “third eye” chakra. It is our center of intuition. We all have a sense of intuition, though we may not listen to it or heed its warnings. Focusing on opening the sixth chakra will help you hone this ability, thus making choices that are in alignment with your values.
Seventh chakra: The seventh chakra, or the “thousand-petal lotus chakra,” is located at the crown of the head. This is the chakra of enlightenment and spiritual connection to our higher selves, others, and ultimately, the universal divine.
Figure 2.1. The seven chakras
Awareness: A Powerful Tool for Aligning the Chakras
Being aware when your chakras are out of balance is the key to aligning them. Our bodies are in constant flux between balance and imbalance. Unless you have an apparent problem in one area of the body, imbalances can be difficult to detect. That being said, building awareness of your body-mind connection is a good start in learning its signals and clues.3 Awareness is a way to find equanimity in the midst of the perturbations of life. By becoming aware of where we might be stuck in our thinking, by adopting a mindful attitude and a relaxed posture, we can allow energy to flow more freely. Yoga and meditation show the way to achieve this.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
When we are focused only on our physical needs, energy is unable to flow freely to help us achieve balance between physical and emotional/spiritual needs. Of course, this does not mean that physical needs are unimportant. In fact, as posited by Abraham Maslow, human beings have a hierarchy of needs composed of five levels, from basic survival needs to self-actualization:
1. Survival: food, shelter, and clothing (base chakra)
2. Safety: both physical and economic (base chakra)
3. Love and belonging: friendship, intimacy (middle chakra)
4. Esteem: confidence and achievement (higher chakra)
5. Self-actualization: achieving one’s full purpose with creativity (highest chakra)
Physical needs related to survival and safety need to be met first before moving up to love, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. When we feel threatened, we revert back to our survival and safety needs. When this happens, our focus is on hoarding energy to survive: Appetite is increased, especially for calorie-dense foods loaded with sugar and fat, and the body enters the mode of being thrifty so that the energy “burn rate” is slowed down. Thus, the impairment of metabolism that leads to diabesity results from the state of feeling threatened and shifting into overeating, energy hoarding, and “thrifty metabolism survival mode.”
The ancient yoga philosophy — which first systematically documented the chakra system in 800 BCE — long ago figured out what Western philosophers found out in the early twentieth century. The chakras correlate closely with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The base chakras are concerned with survival and sexuality, which is the base of the pyramid in Maslow’s hierarchy! The love and communication chakras around the middle (heart and throat) correlate with the love, belonging, and esteem portion of Maslow’s hierarchy. The crown and brow chakras of spirituality and intuition correlate with “self-actualization,” which was described by Maslow as the highest need.
Of course, these days, we might relate to an even deeper, more basic need than all the others: the need for Wi-Fi. I’ve modified Maslow’s pyramid accordingly!
Figure 2.2. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
The Triune Brain Model
According to the triune model of the human brain, first theorized by American neuroscientist Paul MacLean in the 1960s and described in his 1990 book The Triune Brain in Evolution, we actually have not one but three brains, or at least three independently functioning parts of the brain active at all times. We need to understand and master all of them to achieve Turbo Metabolism.
The most primitive part of the brain, the hypothalamus and brain stem, controls things like appetite, temperature regulation, and the survival instincts. This reptilian brain is designed to help us stay alive, and we could not live without it. Our “survival brain” would kick in if we were dropped on a desolate island or another planet.
This brain is designed to focus on the four F-words of survival: flight, fight, feeding, and fornication. It prompts us to run away from or to fight threats that might harm us, to eat whatever and whenever we can, and to have sex with whomever we can. The reptilian brain functions correlate nicely with the base chakras of survival and sexuality and with the base of Maslow’s hierarchy, the needs of survival and safety.
The second brain refers to the limbic system, which is the seat of emotion, including fear, rage, and happiness, and everything in between. This system also relates to our automatic, often irrational reactions and decisions: to eat the cookies in front of us, to engage in road rage, to impulsively yell at a loved one. This part of the brain can be found in most mammals, such as cats, dogs, horses, and chimpanzees. This correlates with the middle chakras of love, power, and communication. This would correlate with the emotional needs for belonging, love, and esteem in Maslow’s hierarchy.
The most recently developed part of the brain, the neocortex, is the site for abstract reasoning, processing, and long-term memory. The cortex makes up one-third of the human brain and is unique to more evolved species, such as some species of dolphins. In humans, this part of the brain does not fully develop until the age of twenty-five and is needed for making decisions that involve delayed gratification, things that may feel difficult in the short-term but beneficial in the long-term. This correlates with the highest chakras of intuition and spirituality. When we operate at the level of the neocortex, we make thoughtful, pragmatic decisions that take into account all the ramifications of our actions. Mind mastery is all about operating at this level, or having willful control of the decision-making system all the time.
Figure 2.3. The triune brain
Rewiring Your Hardware and Software
With awareness, we can reset our hardware and operating system so that we can acquire the beliefs and the skills needed to achieve our goals. To paraphrase master coach Tony Robbins, Turbo Metabolism is about story, state, and strategy. To achieve Turbo Metabolism, you must first and foremost believe in and tell yourself the right story: the belief in self-efficacy (the idea that you actually have control over your destiny) and in your own personal effectiveness. When the right story gets paired with the right mental state, we position ourselves to do great things. After that, it is simply a matter of finding the best strategy, our most effective techniques, and nothing is impossible.
You shift toward a healthier relationship with food and the world around you. The strategies and skills needed for achieving Turbo Metabolism are learning to shop for, plan, prepare, and cook the right foods that nourish us with the energy and intelligence of nature; to move the body as it is designed to move; to get enough rest and relaxation; and to have a supportive social environment — all while steering clear of toxins. These beliefs and skills obviously require our complete emotional buy-in and a supportive environment (for more on this, see chapter 3). Our software, that is, our systems for living, the attitudes required to achieve our highest potential — positive thinking, optimism, compassion, and benevolence — will help us become self-reliant, autonomous, healthy, strong, and vibrant agents for good. The goal is to become the very best versions of ourselves.
Facts and Fallacies
• You can cure diabetes today by going on a diet.
Dieting is temporary and faddish. Achieving health requires mind mastery. Diets will die. Lifestyle lives on.
• You can “fix” your body without attention to the mind.
Mind and body are intimately connected at every level.
RULES TO LIVE BY
• Develop awareness to uncover mind traps.
• Connect with the Earth to reestablish firm grounding in safety and security.
• Mind your thoughts because your whole body is eavesdropping. Your thoughts determine your destiny.
• Heal old wounds with attention, positivity, and optimism.
• Stop making excuses about past experiences and move on.
• Maslow’s hierarchy and the triune model of the brain confirm what the ancient wisdom of the chakra system tells us: our personal evolution requires awareness so that we can achieve self-realization, which is our highest need.
