by Tosha Silver

If you feel drawn, let it enter your Being, releasing any old ideas of constriction or limitation and returning Your true essence as expansive, radiant Light.

“Divine Beloved, Change Me into someone
who can give with complete ease and abundance,
knowing You are the unlimited Source of All.

Let me be an easy open conduit for Your prosperity.
Let me trust that all of my own needs are
always met in amazing ways
and it is safe to give freely as my heart guides me.

And equally, please Change Me into someone
who can feel wildly open to receiving.
Let me know my own value, beauty and
worthiness without question.
Let me allow others the supreme pleasure of giving to me.
Let me feel worthy to receive in every possible way.

And let me extend kindness to all who need,
feeling compassion and understanding
in even the hardest situations.

Change me into One who can fully love, forgive
and accept myself… so I may carry your Light
without restriction.

Let everything that needs to go, go.
Let everything that needs to come, come.
I am utterly Your own.

You are Me.
I am You.
We are One.

All is well.

- by Tosha Silver

Tosha Silver is the author of “Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead” and believes that spirituality is utterly authentic to each individual soul, rather than trite canned, or predictable.

You can find out more at www.toshasilver.com.

The brain consists of millions of cells known as neurons. The function of these cells is to fire a neurotransmitter into the synapse. The synapse is a gap between the two nerve cells that when bridged by a neurotransmitter, will trigger the next neuron to fire. Think of it a bit like dominoes falling sequentially after the first one is knocked over.

The difference is, once the neuron fires to activate the next link in the chain, the neurotransmitter is sucked back into the nerve in what is called re-uptake. This is analogous to each domino popping back up ready for the next fall.

Within each neuron is a delicate system of electrical balance. This mechanism is at the very foundation of every action your body plays out, voluntary or otherwise.

Nutritional Neuroscience

Many factors can contribute to how well your brain functions chemically. Of course there are many genetic, emotional and environmental factors that affect the brain dramatically, but for this discussion, let’s focus on the chemical science going on. (We will save neuroplasticity for another conversation..) With a quick trip to the health food store, you can give one of your most precious organs a revitalizing dose of nutrients. Here is a short list of some common mind drugs.

(Note: These statements are based on research and personal experience and have not been evaluated by the FDA—or anyone for that matter!—and are purely intended as food-for-thought.) (No pun intended.)

Circulation enhancers

- Ginkgo biloba – One of the most common brain boosters, ginkgo is a tree thought to be several thousand years old. It helps the brain receive oxygen from the circulatory system by dilating the capillaries in the brain thus allowing for more red blood cells to nourish brain cells.

Ginkgo is also a powerful anti-oxidant, a helpful defender of free radicals which contribute to sickness and disease.

Antioxidants

- Powerful anti-oxidants help the brain ward off old age by countering enemy free radicals. These are best consumed in a diet rich in leafy green vegetables and fresh berries. Here are some of the main groups:
– Vitamin E (20,000 iu): Broccoli, carrots, nuts, papaya, pumpkin, red peppers, spinach, and sunflower seeds.
– Vitamin C (100-500 mg): Berries, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, grapefruit, honeydew, kale, mangoes, peppers, sweet potato and tomatoes.
– Cardenoids (Beta-carotene): Apricots, asparagus, beets, broccoli, carrots, corn, kale, mangoes, collard greens, spinach, sweet potato and watermelon.
– Selenium (20-100 micrograms):
– Flavonoids and Glutathione.

Serotonin enhancers

- Created by brain cells and stored in vesicles, the neurotransmitter serotonin affects mood, arousal, aggression and clear thinking.

Enhancing levels can serve as an antidepressant but will also sedate and lower sex drive. Predecessors include meat, fish and other protien foods. At night the pineal gland converts serotonin to melatonin which aids sleep.
5HTP, St. John’s Wort, Prozac.

Mind Energizers

– Can affect alertness, arousal, vigilance, mood, energy, motivation, concentration, focus, verbal fluency, visual enhancement.

A very basic enhancer, vitamin B allows the body to convert food to energy. Specifically if you are a vegetarian, you may need to supplement B-12 as it is typically found in meats and some fish. Adding B-vitamins to your diet will affect mood, energy, alertness, learning, memory, verbal fluency, concentration, focus and vision.

Brain Hormones

– Many brain hormones are synthesized from cholesterol. Stress and changes in our biological clocks can affect your chemistry and can influence memory, sex drive, mood and levels of energy. May even affect creativity and overall awareness.

As the production of such hormones decreases with age, it may be helpful to supplement them as the body ages. Includes supplements such as pregnenalone, the precursor to several different brain hormones.

Choline

– A predecessor to acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that helps with learning, focus and memory. Increasing the supply will result in a perceptible enhancement in focus. Another way to increase levels of choline is to take an herb such as Huperzine A which reduces the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which breaks down acetylcholine.

Choline is found in fatty meats and fish, so again if you are a vegetarian, you may need to add a supplement.

Methyl Donors

– This is another related chemical reaction where supplements will provide an additional methyl molecule that assist in the production of several substances in the brain.

Affect mood, energy, well-being, alertness, concentration, visual clarity, sexual well-being, and may help prevent age-related cognitive decline: DMAE & SAMe.

Omega 3 fatty acids

– This is something that not only affects the brain, but is also a powerful tool against inflammation.

Affect mood, clarity, serenity, mental stability, concentration and focus, vision: Fish or flax seed oil (1 tbsp each or around 1 gram), also contains phospholipids.

Please use caution and research this information on your own before experimenting with your own nutritional neuroscience. This summary is for your information only. You’re on your own, enjoy experimenting with your control group!

by Jon Heinrich

Bibliography:
Sahelian, Ray, “Mind Boosters: A guide to natural supplements that enhance our mind, memory, and mood.” St. Martin’s Griffin, New York, 2000.
Feature image used from Scientopia under fair use, educational purposes

Images used from Wikimedia Commons:

Human brain showing energy consumption
Wild Alaska Berries
Serotonin
Mind energy
Hormones
Choline metabolism
Methyl donors
Omega 3 fatty acids (flax seeds)

The Cancer Prevention Diet: Michio Kushi’s Macrobiotic Blueprint for the Prevention and Relief of Disease is all about how to stay healthy with a simple, delicious macrobiotic diet—and the good news is that you don’t have to be a millionaire celebrity to eat this way.

Macrobiotics, first mentioned in 1797 in Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland’s book, The Art of Prolonging Human Life is known as the anti-cancer diet. It consists primarily of grains, fruits, vegetables, seaweed, fermented vegetables, and a little bit of fish. This diet rich in vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals provides the magic combination that is the quiet cure for cancer.

Michio Kushi began to introduce macrobiotics in the United States in the early 1950s and is known as the father of modern macrobiotics in the US today. He has trained some of the world’s leading macrobiotic chefs and continues to serve as a living example of powerful conscious living through his life as an educator about diet, health, and world peace.

Harvard Medical School, The Framingham Heart Study and Tulane University are just a few of the organizations that have published research showing the benefits of macrobiotics such as:

– relieve high blood pressure
– lower cholesterol
– prevent heart disease
– treat sensitivity to chemicals
– improve immune function
– lower weight
– regulate the female hormone system
– and prolonging the life span, among others

“Let food be thy medicine, and
thy medicine be food.”—Hippocrates

The basic breakdown of the macrobiotic diet is:
50%-60% whole grains
25%-30% vegetables
5%-10% soups
5%-10% beans and sea vegetables

The diet also includes other holistic practices to nurture your mental and physical health including things like chewing your food 25 times before you swallow it and walking outside for 1/2 hour a day.

If you are trying to stay away from the typical American diet of processed foods, GMOs, pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics and sugar, this is a proven approach to excellent health. Most of us know someone close to us who have suffered from life threatening diseases, so you know how serious it is.

For more information, check out Michio Kushi’s book The Cancer Prevention Diet… and continue to check back with Meniscus Magazine for articles and recipes to try on your own. If you want to get started right away, start incorporating brown rice, steamed vegetables and fresh miso soup and you should start to feel it immediately.

- by Judith Longo

In addition to being a trained macrobiotic chef, Judith Longo is a New York City-based fashion designer, writer, Feng Shui consultant, artist, image consultant and yogi.

As 150 million people gather around the tube to watch the Super Bowl, so are hundreds of millions in marketing dollars. It is possible that the Super Bowl and the NFL have the master advertising channel.

Meniscus has started the Open Source Human Robot Project. We will be decoding the programs built into the human psyche that cause us to repeat the same motions over and over again whether they are good for us or not. By shining a light on the code that corporations and government use to harness consumers, we explorers will see how we play into it. For entrepreneurs, this shall shed light on ways in which to hook into the programs of the human subconscious.

Marketing is neither good nor bad, money is the energy which our culture operates, so it is a way of harnessing that energy. But if you are in the process of self improvement–whether as a marketer or a consumer–it is important to be aware of the larger forces at play.

The goal of this project is to shine a light on the programs that are running in our subconscious mind. By becoming conscious of them, we can release those that do not serve us.

Like Wikipedia, we welcome contributions to the code base, so if you see one of our human Programs that you’d like to shine a light on, please write us.

In this first workstream of the open source human robot project, we are going to deconstruct the American sports arena.

Primary Goal: Create a space where 80,000 subjects will gather and spend lots of money.

Secondary goals:
– Generate secondary income derived from broadcast rights and ad sales.
– Support Illusion Architecture Project plan goals (more to come on this)

Strategy: Overstimulation of the power and desire hormones prompting subjects to seek equilibrium via purchasing food, alcohol, branded merchandise and entertainment packages.

Tactics: