What’s Your Score?

November 11, 2009 natalia 3 Comments

In December of last year, I wrote a two-part blog titled “What I Really Want to Do Is Direct.” But I never got to finish it—to include the essential final touch for any movie: the score! After all, what’s a great film without a great soundtrack?

I’ve always been super proud of my dad’s contribution to music in the last century. He was born in 1906 (yes, you read that correctly) and he had a hand in so much of the great music of the ’50s through the early ’90s, including a great many movie soundtracks. (He passed in 1992, but I like to think he was “promoted” to work on “the music of the spheres.”) Sometimes he’d take my brother and me along to early screenings of the films whose scores he was involved in making, before the music had been added. There’s something disconcerting about a film without music, and the same can be said of life without music.

Sometimes life gets heavy and we need to psyche ourselves up if we are to persevere with our highest ideals, our greatest sense of purpose, our most inspired energy. In such moments, I’ve found that nothing beats switching on a personal life soundtrack. Everyone should have one: music that can resuscitate our power and sense of purpose when we need it, or simply re-center us and remind us of our joy, our inner passion, our essence.

So, if you don’t already have a personal motion picture soundtrack for your life that will lift you up when you’re feeling down for the count in the middle of the fourth round, I encourage you to make one. I think everyone will enjoy seeing their Natalia Rose Institute Friends’ personal soundtracks! Simply post yours as a comment, and it will be listed right here to help inspire others.

To help get you started, your movie soundtrack is ideally a compilation of music that makes you feel instantly more yourself, reminds you of aspects of yourself that you enjoy most, or just makes you feel at home. It should have the power to bring you quickly back to your center, and to give you the energy to serve your highest purpose of productivity and conductivity.

In the spirit of sharing, I will start the ball rolling by offering my soundtrack here. It might seem really hokey to you, but I’m not afraid of hokey, and this is what works for me!

“America The Beautiful” by Lee Greenwood
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Lee Greenwood
“Burning Heart” (from Rocky IV) by Survivor
“The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and The News
“Dogs in the Yard” (from Fame) by Paul McCrane
“Give Yourself to Love” by Kate Wolf
“We Don’t Need Another Hero” (from Mad Max) by Tina Turner
“God Love Her” by Toby Keith
“I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” by Barbara Mandrell
“It’s A Great Day To Be Alive” by Travis Tritt
“The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA” by Donna Fargo
“I Can’t Be A Slave” (from the country soundtrack of The Prince of Egypt) by Toby Keith
“I Got Mexico” by Eddy Raven
“Independence Day” by Martina McBride
“Any Dream Will Do” (from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) by Andrew Lloyd Webber
“Let The River Run” by Carly Simon
“Let Your Love Flow” by The Bellamy Brothers
“Little Bit O’ Soul” by The Ramones
“Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin
“The Moment of Truth” (from The Karate Kid) by Survivor
“Sidewalk Surfin’” by Jan & Dean
“Put Some Drive in Your Country” by Travis Tritt
“Born to Boogie” by Hank Williams, Jr.
“Six Days On The Road” by Dave Dudley
“You’re The Best” (from The Karate Kid) by Joe “Bean” Esposito
“When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going” by Billy Ocean
“We Shall Be Free” by Garth Brooks
“Watchin’ The Wheels” by John Lennon
“The Last Dragon” (from the movie) by Dwight David

Here’s to the music you make, from your fellow DJ at the great party of life!

Natalia

Sprouts, Wings

The Ultimate Luxury: Fresh Produce and the Traveling Kitchen

October 5, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

On August 25th I could be found in the lap of luxury at the larger-than-life Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in the storybook Swiss Alpine village of St. Moritz. Just one month later, on September 25th, I was checked in at the Courtyard Marriott in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Boy, did my coach ever turn into a pumpkin! That aside, what I want to underscore here is that a first-class trip through life is determined not by the number of stars at the hotel entrance, but by the quality of life force flowing through the cells (the stars, if you like) of your body’s internal pathways.

I have enjoyed the good fortune of a colorful life that’s taken me through a wide variety of experiences. But no matter where I am or where I go—whether I have the good fortune to ride in the “front of the plane” and be escorted through fairytale European villages in a Maybach, or to zip through Manhattan’s underbelly in its equally fabled subway system (where I am more often found)—one thing never changes: traveling through life in a clean-celled body is always a first-class experience.

A clean-celled body is the epitome of luxury, so no matter how posh or depraved material things are around me, I can ensure a pleasure-filled life experience by keeping my system clean and high-vibing. Sure, my life experience can be enhanced by certain luxuries, but it’s not dependent (either way) upon outside circumstances.

Life in a clean-celled body is grand wherever you are! This is why I make the daily choices that are central to this way of life. I want to LIVE every moment—to drink in fresh air, breathe deeply, and feel my heart center expand. When I have a clear, open (gas-pressure-free) skull (most people don’t know what this feels like), I feel my spirit dwelling within a sensory body of flesh and blood, which is nothing short of amazing. It makes every moment—everywhere, with everyone—enriching and pleasurable.

When I boarded the flight to Switzerland, my clean-celled tool kit traveled with me. (Rule #1: Have your key ingredients with you; don’t leave them to chance.) My “traveling kitchen” filled with frozen fresh-pressed juices, organic carrots, raw goat cheese, lemons, organic baby greens, stevia, and of course dark chocolate were all in tow. These went into a suitcase in the, uh, “bowel” (aka cargo hold) of the plane. My colon-cleansing devices, and the normal stuff like running and hiking shoes, were also in there.

My personal lifestyle quirks also help me get to know my new surroundings quickly. That’s because I always visit the local markets, which is a superb way to get to know a new place and its people. Upon arriving in St. Moritz, despite toting along my own fare, I was much more interested in the local produce, the local raw cheese selection—and, of course, the local dark chocolates (this was Switzerland after all)! So, I set out on a mission to find the best produce, dark chocolate, and raw goat and sheep cheese in the area. After an immensely pleasurable stroll through the hilly village, I discovered exactly what I was looking for—a little local store run by a couple who refreshed their produce daily with the bounty of the small, local farms.

There before me was a cornucopia of the most appealing just-picked blueberries and raspberries, ripe cherry tomatoes on the still-verdant vine, about ten different varieties of hydroponic greens and sprouts, and the sweetest, crispest, juiciest carrots! And to top it all off, there was a selection of local raw goat and sheep cheeses that went beyond my wildest daydreams!

Fortunately, I was there for a whole week, so I had time to taste them all—there were the sweet, creamy, and soft cheeses; a Manchego that I would have liked to bring back by the case; and others like a Locatelli (a goat-style Pecorino Romano) that I would never have believed was made was with raw goat cheese if I hadn’t known the proprietress was an equally enthusiastic raw goat and sheep cheese connoisseur. This outing to the produce market became a daily ritual over the course of our week in that gorgeous mountain retreat.

We were there for my husband’s best friend’s weeklong wedding celebration, where no expense was spared and the food and drink flowed day and night from one over-the-top venue to the next. The hot Russian girl band was flown in from Moscow; the top DJ flown in from Johannesburg; even Maori (that’s right, as in New Zealand) priests and performers were brought over the Alps to help our friends seal the deal and give their guests the time of their lives. We danced into the wee hours of the morning to these “Spice Girls of Moscow” and the other entertainers who kept the parties raging day after day, night after night.

In between, we stole away to recover in the pristine mountain air, cycling to the purest icy lake to swim and then bask in the glow of the late-summer sun.

But every night, do you know what accompanied me to all the posh venues, where gourmet dishes were plated for the most discerning, worldly palates? That’s right, the real pinnacle of fine dining was my local peasant produce! I discovered a long time ago the remarkable quantity of baby greens one could fit into an evening bag. When all the air is removed, you can fit about half a pound of those greens into a Ziploc back and it takes up a minute amount of space (think vacuum-packed greens). My little evening bag doubled as my tool kit. (Who needs lipstick, cash, or an ID? Make way for the really important stuff like goat cheese). I could make a feast with the items from my bag: a base of baby romaine, topped with some veggies from the served dinner, a generous squeeze of fresh lemon, a touch of stevia, and the crowning glory of some goat cheese. Every meal was for me a bonafide masterpiece!

Then there was the chocolate, of course! Since it’s a treat that begs to be passed around and shared, I take at least three bars with me whenever I go out. In the end, I have a stunning meal regardless of what is on the menu—particularly at weddings and organized seated gatherings, where it can all be very unpredictable, and where what we call the “good stuff” (i.e., raw veggies, avocado slices, raw cheeses, and such) are usually in short supply.

I pull my items out ever so discreetly. After all these years, I am not shy, but nor do I want to draw attention to myself or cause offense. However, what invariably happens is that my makeshift salad looks so appealing in contrast to the served dishes of cooked animal protein and starch that everyone around me wants to know what I’m having…then I briefly explain that I keep an unusual diet…no, I’m sorry this isn’t on the menu…but there’s a great roadside produce stand at the top of the hill…sure, I can draw you a map… (Hey, I’m supposed to be off duty and on vacation here! Here’s the website—I’m going back out on the dance floor!)

Despite all my conviction, I never want to offend (particularly when I am an invited guest), and I know it’s unusual to bring one’s own food to an event. Therefore, I am truly discreet when I am in this type of situation. However, to my very pleasant surprise, in this case my fellow guests not only weren’t bothered in the least by my traveling kitchen and resulting creation, but thought it was pretty cool (and that was before I pulled out the multiple bars of chocolate to pass around)! This gesture never elicits an untoward reaction—quite the contrary. Even my husband, who never knows what the reaction will be and whether he will want to crawl under the table and hide, enjoys the opportunity to boast about his wife’s bag of tricks and how she keeps him in such great health.

In the end, careful adherence to the clean-cell principle, combined with lots of fresh mountain air and sunshine, enabled me to enjoy all this fun and frivolity (which with the typical fare, combined with the wine and the late nights, would have been aging and acidifying) and not be any worse for wear.

Back in Bethlehem, PA, a month later, I was cruising around looking for a fresh produce market. I would be staying in with the kids for the night, and the small town didn’t appear to offer much in the way of decent restaurants, so we searched for a farmers’ market. But sadly, after asking around, all we found was a warehouse store. I’m sure there were some amazing co-ops and fresh markets, but in a pinch they were not evident. But even this warehouse store at least offered organic boxed baby greens and other non-organic produce for which I was grateful. And hark! I had my traveling kitchen, so there wasn’t much I was really dependent upon. I wanted some extra lemons and carrots, so my daughter and I ran into the store while my husband and son waited in the car. We stood at the checkout line and paid for our earthy-looking groceries.

I was put off but not surprised by the plastic smells and endless aisles of needless, harmful items. But I didn’t express this to my daughter. Living in a world apart from the mainstream American lifestyle of strip malls and warehouse stores, I had almost forgotten these places and their life-annihilating products existed. It was my daughter who commented. I wish I could remember exactly how she put it, but she was astounded at the carts lined up at the checkouts full of plastic, boxed foods and “wormy poop” (I had to chuckle when I finally realized she was referring to ground beef)! She couldn’t believe that people could eat hamburgers knowing what they are made of. She noted the pallor of the children and the girth and weariness of the patrons. Even though New Yorkers are a far cry from living in harmony with nature, many of us don’t see this kind of consumption. Furthermore, every store we went into reeked of plastic. I began to understand what water feels like when it’s sealed in a plastic bottle.

Back at the hotel, I tossed a great big salad (in a bowl I got at the dollar store—another toxic store that I had to put to use under the circumstances). I put together all the great items I don’t leave home without, as well as those things I picked up in town. Once again, a little preparation and effort to stick to what I know works best kept me in the great life-wave. It’s never ideal to be exposed to poor-vibration energy like chemically cleaned, poorly ventilated, non-life-generating stores and hotels, but if you can keep this exposure to a minimum and hold fast to what creates and maintains clean cells, you can still surf the great life-wave!

Whether you’re in Bethlehem, PA, Saginaw, MI, St. Moritz, or Tuscany, riding in the back of a Bentley or riding shotgun on the Greyhound, the ultimate luxury is in your hands. Never forget it!

Here’s to the ultimate in luxury—clean cells and all the love and vitality they bring!

Ever One,
Natalia

Perspectives

Till All Success Be Nobleness

September 25, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

I discovered this work in a moment in my life when I was at a serious crossroads. As many of you may have read in my personal story in the Detox Community, I struggled a lot with being in a body and in a world of untruth (though I didn’t understand it quite this way at that time). So much so that I either had to discover a life-changing breakthrough or leave this world behind. It’s often a rock-bottom moment that catalyzes the greatest change. Only when life-depleting patterns wear us down do we become hungry and open enough to receive something completely new and life-saving.

Well, the other day, for the first time in perhaps months, I switched on the television. I was thinking I would jump on my trampoline and stretch to some daytime television for laughs. I was immediately reminded of why I keep that devise switched off. All the programs—every talk show, drama, movie, and commercial—were produced not only to reach the lowest common denominator, but also to program the consciousness of the viewer!

How is it that millions of people can sit around allowing their minds to be programmed by the subliminal messages in the ads and shows? How does anyone believe that a fat-free, 80-calorie yogurt is going to make them thin? How does anyone not see that the actress promoting denture grips only needs dentures because she has been eating steak and other unfit foods for decades? While one commercial sells and glamorizes the consumption of inhuman substances, the next one celebrates the innovation of a drug, denture cream, or incontinence product. Why don’t people make the connection? If I let the whole thing get to me, I would go out of my tree!

Instead, I switch it off. But all the while, millions of people go on watching. I think it’s good to check in on what the masses are doing now and then—to come down from my clean-celled mountaintop experience and be reminded that my purpose here is to be of service. The trouble is that when I take a look at all the norms of society, I come face to face with the disturbing causes and effects that I know will follow.

All the lies—from which I only escaped by the skin of my teeth, years ago—are still out there, clutching people so tightly that they can barely breathe. What force is driving the rampant ignorance and over-consumption? The answer: the greed and power of corporations and their minions. But for such programmed thinking to take root at all, people must blindly accept and follow whatever the machinery of our mainstream culture feeds them. This is an important point because it means that the programmers could just as easily be disempowered, if only people woke up and rejected their programs! I believe that if we expose the folly and offer people a new way to care for their bodies, they will be pleasantly astonished and thus more open to revolutionizing other areas of their lives.

Even if we are unable to see the causes and the effects of our actions, we are still subject to them. It brings me great happiness to see more and more people learning to see through the lies, but what of the millions upon millions of those who remain in the dark? They keep handing more power to those who are enslaving them! This is not a conspiracy theory, but a tragic truth of the modern age. Living in disharmony with the laws of life cause all the pain and disease in our world. Brand marketing and pharma-government “health care” are power- and money-driven enterprises that have little to do with what is true or good for us. Don’t be fooled by their consumer-messaging strategy. All you have to do is step out from the ranks of the living dead to recognize this. The trouble is that most people surrendered their own clear-eyed authority to the mental and behavioral programming long ago.

Self-government is what we should be able to achieve as a society. Not anarchy, but SELF-GOVERNMENT. Self-government works when we have such a strong moral compass and are so in touch with the truth (not dogma, not religion) of clean living that any larger body of government is not only superfluous, but an insult. But when I look around, I see our country adrift in highly dangerous waters, far from the grounding wisdom of self-government.

I have loved this country with all my heart, but once again, I now find myself at a personal crossroads where I know there must be a breakthrough or else certain disaster. Key liberties are sifting through our fingers like sand because too large a portion of the population has been hypnotized, turned into marionettes in the greedy hands of power and consumerism. The powerful few are ruining the country for the rest of us. In this world of duality, of light and dark, light must regain its rightful percentage of power in order to survive. But darkness is snuffing out so much of our human potential and breeding scary new paths to destruction. Just for example, consider the irradiation of all non-organic greens because of a spinach scare a few years ago, or the swine flu (more on this later).

Yet, most Americans seem content as long as Walmart and Dunkin’ Donuts remain open. It is actually pretty impressive: In the last fifty years, the power-driven few, the so-called tastemakers, have managed to render more than 95 percent of Americans brain-dead while still showing a pulse and holding down a job and family.

I’ve held my tongue long enough. It’s time to get more vocal, to seize the chance to wake everyone up. I believe in the highest good of humankind and the beauty that we all have the potential to manifest. But we cannot manifest goodness and beauty until we detonate the old, destructive blueprint that has imprisoned the masses and replace it with a life-generating one. No one can achieve this alone. It takes a world of intrepid individuals who share a vision and take the initiative to build on it.

There is work to be done. We can still get excited about fitting into cute clothes and swapping cleansing recipes in the short term, but we must also work to cleanse the world of all the lies, programs, and agendas that hold our futures and our children’s futures in jeopardy. We need to expand our consciousness beyond the limits of self-identity and assume our places in the human community. It all starts with the desire to see and learn the universal laws of life. As more and more of us do this, we will lift the consciousness of those around us. Eventually, we as a people of higher consciousness will be able to dissolve the programs that have for too long robbed us of our personal liberties.

From the overcrowded arteries of New York City to the sleepy byways of small towns across America, we have communally surrendered mass quantities of our personal liberties over to sales agendas of all kinds. We have surrendered our power to think for and govern ourselves. And the more we buy into the lies, the more we surrender.

Now, to top it all off, the government wants to make flu and swine flu vaccinations mandatory. The first step is to scare us with propaganda, to make us sufficiently frightened for our lives, and then present the miraculous vaccine that will save us. Now, if you know how disease originates and the conditions viruses require in order to thrive, you would not be frightened at all by this hype, much less permit the vaccine to be pumped into your bloodstream (with who knows what ingredients controlling DNA codes and triggering cellular dissonance). But just like the millions of people who get the flu shot, run/walk for cancer, and take cold suppressants and vitamin supplements, those who do not understand how the body works will line right up and even thank the government for its generosity.

This time, schools will be the site of mass inoculations. They say swine flu has a particular penchant for the under-25 set. In fact, a school in Montgomery, NJ, held a mock practice inoculation last week—that’s right, to give the kids a certain sense of comfort and courage in preparation for the event. As each child went through the mock drill, they were rewarded with a gift and praised for being “good germ fighters.”

Of course this is all in the name of protecting children—to the tune of a $20,000 grant from the New Jersey Health Officers Association in cooperation with the state Department of Health. But the parents—regardless of socio-economic standing—seem oblivious of what’s going on. The majority of the students in my children’s classes are fed “school lunch”—that revolting, toxic sludge that gets mixed up with lard, sugar, and salt and is served with a spork. Parents are so uneducated about health that they will follow the government down any misguided path. Instead of questioning the government’s vaccination requirement, the majority of parents appreciate it! Most parents will continue blindly accepting whatever the government and the food industry offer until something terrible enough happens to wake them up. Sadly, this comes at the expense of our children’s blood chemistry!

So, will we make a breakthrough in this moment when the world has set up all these misguided causes that are leading to tragic effects? Will we wake up and change ourselves and our society, or will we just sit and watch the consequences tumble like an avalanche around us until we are snuffed out? There’s no time to snooze, my friends. We must take full responsibility for recognizing what is going on and act accordingly.

I have always been a patriot. My family lineage dates back to the Revolutionary War, and I have romanticized this country as much as anyone. But in expanding my consciousness, I have come to recognize the limitations of thinking as isolated groups or nationalities. We are an evolving, interconnected humanity. In that light, I urge you to contemplate these great lyrics as I do now—not as a citizen of one country or another, but as a citizen of life.

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

—From “America the Beautiful,” words by Katharine Lee Bates, melody by Samuel Ward

Roots

A Salad in Motion Remains in Motion

September 17, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

When you launch into a diet high in living foods, you will discover that these foods contain a force that creates motion. Non-living foods (cooked proteins, cooked starches, nuts, etc.) do not have this effect on the body. Given the physical laws of motion, if you eat foods with no life force, your intestines will be mostly stagnant.

When living foods suddenly enter your stagnant, acid-waste-impacted intestine, you may feel like you swallowed a bunch of expanding jumping beans! People usually embark on a diet of living foods for the weight loss and digestive benefits, so they are perplexed when their midsection suddenly starts moving and expanding!

One thing I am stressing to everyone these days is that WE MUST ALL BECOME SCIENTISTS. People are too quick to cry confusion in the face of all the conflicting information circulating in health and raw food circles. If everyone would just take a moment to sit with the common scientific sense of chemical reactions and what we know about the laws of motion, they could find all the answers they need without opening a single book or visiting a nutritionist, spa, doctor, or raw food guru.

Pay close attention now, and you’ll gain something of real value. I’m going to give you two scenarios that illustrate the two important concepts that will serve you well in this lifestyle:

1. Imagine taking the remains of dinner and tossing it into a garbage can. Seal the lid. The next morning when you wake up, go to the garbage can and open it. That stench is noxious carbonic gas that has started to grow rogue bacteria. This is what happens in your body—but your body is much warmer, so the chemical reaction and resulting bacteria are much more pernicious.

Now imagine what would happen if you took fruit—the cleanest, healthiest food known to humankind—and added it to the garbage, or to the contents of your stomach, at this moment of chemical decomposition. Would that be healthy? Health means cleanliness, so even though fruit is wonderful, it is not going to generate health in this scenario. Since the chemical reaction in the body is already troublesome, the fruit in this case would just make it worse. If you are bloated and gassy and have not moved your bowels, it’s time to think scientifically about what your next move should be: something that reduces the gas and bloat and annihilates the bad bacteria.

Given the kinetic motions and chemical properties of foods, when you place fruit sugar on top of acidic waste and gas, the result is more gas, fermentation, and putrefaction. This scenario adds insult to injury, contributing to the intestinal distress, and ultimately endangering the bacterial balance of the intestine and constipating the bowel.

Therefore, if you were a scientifically minded live-foods enthusiast, you would take one of the following steps:

(a) wait to have a bowel movement (use an enema, if necessary) to remove waste and gas before it creates more gas and supports the proliferation of bad bacteria;

(b) choose a vegetable juice or vegetables, which will have a neutral effect at worst, and a beneficial effect at best, by hydrating the waste and contributing good microbes to fend off the bad bacteria (ideally, you would first consume some quality probiotics to help the process along); or

(c) just wait a few hours before eating or drinking to give the body a chance to clear up this digestive upset (which is commonly caused by poor food combining, poor food order, overeating, eating while stressed, etc.).

Remember, living food is only potentially health-generating. It is only health-generating if it has an advantageous chemical reaction with everything else going on in the great petri dish of the body.

2. Next, imagine the average person off the street who has consumed mainstream food or “gym head health food”—meaning lots of high protein, lean meats, soy, peanut butter, etc. This food is dead; it has no kinetic energy. Living foods are alive; they have a lot of kinetic energy.

Again, most people come to living foods because they want to lose weight and heal digestive issues and other illnesses. So they don’t expect what usually happens as soon as they eat their first living-foods meal—a ballooning midsection with lots of gas and motion! But if they put on their scientific thinking cap, they would remember Newton’s first law of motion: “A body persists in its state of rest or of uniform motion unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force.” Dead food piled on top of dead food keeps the intestine pretty dead. But add living foods—with all their live enzymes kickin’ around having a party—to that dead system, and that system will be moved according to the rate and force of the added food. Living foods will act upon the body in a state of rest.

It’s important to understand that this is ultimately a very good thing. If living food enthusiasts of all levels keep their science caps on and make choices that minimize the development of new carbonic gas—following my guidelines for food order and combinations—they will eventually have clean, contracted, healthy cells. This will correlate to a lean body with tremendous vitality. As you progress, keep this in mind so you don’t fall into the trap of misunderstanding the changes your body undergoes as you introduce more living foods into your diet.

Here’s another scenario: If you’re like me and you enjoy lots of raw salads, along with cooked vegetables, goat cheese, and dark chocolate, you will see your body contract a lot because the goat cheese and chocolate are not expansive in the body like grains and fruits are. This is a good choice if you want to get really nice and lean. But remember that the goat cheese and chocolate can stick in the body (even though they are better than many other foods and very helpful in this lifestyle). But if you switch it up and add fruits (even appropriately timed on an empty stomach) or some all-raw, water-containing meals like blended raw soups and bananas after consuming a lot of goat cheese and chocolate (or fish, which is also contracting, not expansive), your midsection will very likely swell up. This is because even cleaner, living foods, with all their enzymes and motion-filled energy, will hit and awaken the acidic waste residue from these other foods that haven’t fully left the body.

Most people will assume that this reaction is unfavorable and means that the cleaner living food meals don’t agree with their system. But this is not the case. The all-raw hydrating substances are just having a chemical reaction as they meet and help eliminate the acidic waste. This is why many people think that raw foods don’t agree with them when, in fact, it’s a temporary state of awakening the old matter in the intestine. The only way to help clean out the waste is to introduce these ultra-clean living foods (think of them like soap for the intestine), allow them to awaken and magnetize the waste, and then eliminate the awakened waste from the bowel. (You never want to awaken and then fail to release, as all great scientists know!)

If you understand these principles, you can use this knowledge to play with your food choices. For example, I love my goat cheese and dark chocolate, and I’ll enjoy them for several days in a row (with a raw salad and maybe some steamed veggies, but only after I’ve had my green lemonade that day)! I know that the cheese and chocolate, while not heinous, are imperfect, but I enjoy them. I also enjoy my all-raw meals. Currently, my favorite meal is to start with some just-in-season Honeycrisp apples, followed by a raw green salad with lemon and stevia, followed by my ultra-favorite banana-carob-alfalfa-sprout “milk shake” topped with shredded coconut.

This all-raw meal is going to create a bit of temporary expansion in my system when it hits the residue of anything impure (like the cheese and chocolate that didn’t fully leave; only water-containing fruits and vegetables, their juices, and young coconuts fully leave the body, and even that only occurs in a clean, microbially sound intestine). But am I going to freak out because of it? NO! I’m expecting it and using it as a “cleanup tool”—a tasty one at that! I’m doing it on purpose. I’m a scientist and I know exactly what I am doing in my intestinal petri dish. When the water-containing living-foods meal awakens anything sticky or acidic in the intestine, it hydrates it, magnetizes it up and out of the tissues, and carries it out of the body. Therefore, as soon as it leaves with the next morning’s bowel movement, I am better off, despite that temporary expansion.

Isn’t that cool?!

So let’s all keep our science caps on and consider the chemical reactions and the laws of motion as we make our meal choices. This way, we can use food and our food preferences as tools for our health, while understanding the various reactions occurring in the body. It’s really fun getting to know your body in this new way.

Here’s to the kinetic energy of living foods and harnessing the laws of science to improve our life experience!

Sprouts

School Days

September 15, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

I dropped my two kids off for their first day of school last week. Tommy and Thandi are in the second and fourth grades, respectively. Parenting is a daunting enterprise and, as any seasoned parent can tell you, it only becomes more challenging as children get older. This is why I want to take some time to discuss the importance of organizing your life so that you do not fall into the same trap that so many parents do—using your kids and busy life as an excuse for not cultivating the most life-generating space possible for yourself.

Parents who aren’t fully committed to doing the work it takes to cleanse and maintain their bodies will often say, “I just don’t have the time” or “I really wish I could—if only I had a team of helpers like the celebrities do!” What separates someone like you, who wants to gain and implement higher knowledge no matter what the obstacles, from someone who can read about it, agree with it, and yet continue to do the very things that keep him/her heavy, lethargic, and stuck in cycles of deterioration?

Of course, there are those at the other extreme, who do nothing but focus on their youthful image and surface beauty as an end in and of itself. That is the old-energy breed of self-care, characterized by non-life-generating practices such as excessive exercising and plastic surgery. What I’m talking about is setting up your life so that vigorous, daily physical activity, high-vibration-quick-exit eating, mediation, colon cleansing, and the other elevating practices are seamlessly integrated into your day as priorities—not sidelined, as they so often are.

Ironically, when we put ourselves first by incorporating these life-generating activities into our daily routine, we become less self-centered, more openhearted and more generous. When we have more to give, what we give is of a much higher quality! By keeping our cells clean and our hearts and minds open and uncluttered, we can’t help but conduct love and light. This allows us to become better leaders in our families and far beyond—inspiring life-enhancing changes and awakenings among our friends, co-workers, and even strangers!

As long as we live in the modern world’s paradigm of untruth, we need to neutralize the disharmony in our environment by using all our life-generating practices and tools, while looking forward to a world that will one day be naturally harmonious and need far less neutralizing! Eventually, as our brothers and sisters become more aware and make the necessary changes in their life choices, our whole world will ring with joy. But until that time comes, we need to bring this song to life in our cells by using these daily measures.

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When a parent makes life-generating practices a daily priority, the whole family reaps the rewards. By contrast, typically the mothers who say that they do not have the time for these practices—e.g., shopping for wholesome produce, bouncing for fifteen minutes on a rebounder (or enjoying any other chi-activating, lymph-cleansing activity), meditating, unwinding with a soak in the tub before consuming their evening meal, and so on—are the same ones who will stop for fast food or give their kids school cafeteria food and then spend hours on the phone or flipping through the tabloids! There is always time, energy, and yes, even money for the life-generating practices. But there are just as many life-deteriorating choices that offer instant gratification and temporary distraction that can mire the uncommitted individual in a purgatory of uninspired life experience.

The key is for parents to create a new blueprint for living—a new paradigm filled with the life-generating practices that serve the whole being. When the family leaders follow the socially conditioned blueprints of the modern lifestyle, they not only perpetuate the paradigm of untruth for the next generation, but they also seal the doom of their children’s physical, mental, and emotional imbalances! While parents would never willingly give their child Parkinson’s or other debilitating diseases, all too often they will feed their children packaged junk foods and sodas and place them in front of video games and the TV for hours on end—which will lead to the same result! The longer we avert our eyes from the truth, the longer we will walk around in the dark, banging into walls that we could avoid by switching on the light.

Here’s what parents need to know: diseases will manifest in the modern paradigm of “childcare.” That is a given. How the illness will manifest varies from child to child, but discerning health experts can usually predict the category of disease simply by knowing exactly what the child has been exposed to and how the body reacts to those onslaughts. Will the illness be an autoimmune disease like Hashimoto’s, endometriosis, lupus, lymphoma, cancer, or multiple sclerosis? Will it be a neurological imbalance that will make the child grow into a socially handicapped teen and adult on the autism spectrum, only to culminate in Bell’s palsy or Parkinson’s? (Don’t think for a second that those food and drug chemicals and flashing screens don’t affect the central nervous system—they do, and the more a child is exposed to them, the more quickly and the more acute the illness that surfaces will be.) Or will it manifest as inner distress that leads to substance abuse and/or eating disorders?

The physical manifestations of exposure to pollution and radiation through the consumption of food, drink, and medication are growing more monstrous all the time. Yesterday’s imbalances (with the exception of a few epidemics) affected the few. They have been supplanted by today’s much more vicious illnesses, which affect whole portions of the population. The diseases of tomorrow will be exponentially more disastrous, affecting so many more. If things don’t change soon, they could mutate humankind into beings we don’t even want to imagine—think Shaun of the Dead or 28 Days Later!

Today’s artificial, toxic way of life is making people more unpredictable and dangerous. Consider the fact that virtually all of the recent school shootings, from Columbine to Virginia Tech, have involved mood-altering drugs and antidepressants like Ritalin, Paxil, and Luvox. Yet, the number of children taking Ritalin nationally jumped from 500,000 in 1987 to more than 6 million by 2001! Of course, this makes for a very sad equation for our young people, who suffer the most when parents are asleep at the helm. All of this can be avoided with a generation of conscious parents.

Your children will not love you more because you buy them the Wii or keep a storehouse of candy at home. I’ll tell you, my kids love me plenty and they get NONE OF IT. In fact, they appreciate the way we live because they understand it. Yes, they go to school and learn their arithmetic, but at home they get an education in the things that will ensure the best life experience for them today and always. At home they learn what is life-generating, what is not, and most importantly, WHY. Lids love to know why! At home they learn the Universal Laws of Nature. And they enjoy it—they eat it up! They can discern between quality entertainment and common mind poison. At their tender ages, they know more than most adults do about the basic laws of life. This is what we need to be teaching the young if we want a beautiful, fruitful life experience for them and a healthy planet for them to live on.

It’s time to stop trying to assuage the guilt of being in an office all day or being otherwise distracted by giving them these artificial forms of food and entertainment. They will not love you more for it any more than you love yourself more when you overeat or drink too much! The child’s soul knows that you are providing them with harmful substances, but as their addictions to these things grow, their relationship with their “supplier” grows more complicated. Supplementing junk food and junk entertainment for the real stuff of life, love, and truth will never serve anyone’s highest good. But it will make you poorer – in your pocketbook, in your creativity, in your child’s priceless personality.
It’s never too late to transition the whole family toward a new paradigm of truth! I know there’s someone out there saying, “Well, Natalia, don’t you understand that some of these parents are single working moms and dads, that they might be financially challenged and juggling several jobs?” I once saw a bumper sticker on our handyman’s truck when I was a kid that read: “I’m so poor I can’t even pay attention!” I fully realize that many parents are facing financial challenges, but that does not mean they can relinquish responsibility for precious human life! Living in the “Life-light,” as I like to call it—that wave of Life Force Energy that floods the clean body and illuminates the consequently clear mind and heart—is not a luxury for the rich and idle. It is a necessity for a healthy life.

The more you live in the Life-light, the better your life experience is. It’s the only place from which you can make fruitful choices. To say that there are no resources for life-generating action, only for the rat race and the cheap, crass consumption of dead food and media, is the ultimate in impoverished thinking! You can be poor and live in a richer body, mind, and heart space than any king! I know a homeless man who collects cans to get money that he spends on organic produce at our local health food store. He is robust and glowing. The store manager responds to this man’s dignity and gives him a fresh vegetable juice and other goodies when he comes in. By contrast, the same store is full of well-heeled Upper-East-siders who are lethargic, pale, and fat, loading up on diet bars and organic white flour!

I fully appreciate the challenge of making time for those things that keep us in the Life-light. I am not living in a bubble. I live in the middle of Manhattan with two school-aged children and a household to maintain (it’s very important to keep your space clean and clear if you want a clean, clear body and life experience). I have more e-mails and phone calls and projects than I can ever keep up with; I often work late into the night after I’ve tucked everyone into bed. But I do not compromise on those things that keep my cells ringing with health, my heart open to love my family, and my mind uncluttered and peaceful.

Living each moment of each day surfing the great life-generating wave comes first, as it is the seed for the entire garden of my life. Sure, I fall off my surfboard now and then when I am less than vigilant than usual, but for the most part, practice has afforded me skill, and it will do the same for you! Besides, the falls are never in vain, for they remind me how important it is to remain vigilant and how undesirable the alternative is.

So how do you avoid falling off of the great life-generating wave that makes life so fruitful? By making the life-generating activities non-negotiable and fitting the rest of your life’s demands in and around them, depending on your personal wiring and your exposure to inharmonious substances. Some practices are simply sacred to my day, which I have discovered only after many falls off my surfboard. I have finally smartened up to the sacredness of these activities and made the decision to demand that my other daily activities work around them—NOT the other way around!

It’s not easy at all, and I’m sure I’ve unintentionally offended a lot of people in my community because it means that I must say no to many things that would otherwise compromise my resources. It means that I rarely volunteer for activities at my kids’ school or engage socially with the parents. I don’t, for example, go for coffee with the moms after dropping the kids off at school. Instead, I get on my bike and ride around Central Park or enjoy a run. I don’t make lunch dates, because that’s precious time for developing projects, meditating, or working on other aspects of my “garden.” Nor do I spend a lot of time texting, e-mailing, and chatting on the phone. Modern communication is a major time zap, and most of it is unnecessary and unsatisfying.

Communications can leach hours out of each day. I communicate as necessary (which still requires more of my time than I’d like), but not more. I indulge in the love and connection of my immediate family and my closest friends, but I engage very little with periphery acquaintances. In short, to create the life I want and to maintain the pleasures of a fruitful personal and professional life, I protect my world from those things that will dilute my power. I am not perfect at this—it’s a delicate balance, and there are no hard and fast rules that cannot be broken. It’s just a general setup that serves me well. Flexibility is a key ingredient! I love relating and engaging with others, but I am watchful that a little socializing doesn’t snowball into something that compromises my center. Besides, between business and school, there are already too many demands unrelated to my joy and my family’s joy that need tending to, so why create more of them?

Each of you has your own joy, your own dream, your own way of expressing yourself. Some of you love socializing over tea or veggie juice with the moms at drop-off, and you have enough time and domestic help to prevent this choice from forcing a compromise—you’ll still be able to get the best produce, keep your chi flow strong, and so on. Great, enjoy the social time! But if you spend two hours with the ladies, and then you have a house to clean and work that needs your attention, what have you accomplished in terms of a more life-generating body, mind, and heart that day? When it’s suddenly time to pick up your kids, you are weary and spent. That sets up all the dominos to fall. It may start with you eating the wrong things at the wrong times (like snacking on chips with your kids) and other life-deteriorating choices follow because you have knocked your biochemistry off-center.

So as your kids get back into their new routines as school, I encourage all of you parents out there—and this goes for non-parents, too—to enroll yourselves in the School of Life. Commit yourself to the following life-generating activities (which I further describe on my website and in all of my books):

• Vigorous physical activity (to get the chi flowing and clean the blood with the alkalinity of pure oxygen)
• Sunbathing or infrared sweating
• Colon cleansing like enemas or gravity colonics (frequency varies according to the individual)
• Guided meditation, or any other type of meditation that’s effective for you (please see my recommended meditation audios here and scroll down to CDs; or just focus on deep breathing until you fall into a recharging nap)
• Deep stretching and inversions (incline varies person to person)
• Daily raw vegetable juicing and of course consuming the most alkaline, water-rich plant food available to you as the focal point of your dietary intake

Your homework is to develop a new way of implementing as much of these life-generating practices as you can and to enjoy the fruits of this lifestyle in all areas of your life! Ah, school days!

Uncategorized

Dearest Friends . . .

September 13, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

Dearest Friends,

I realize that I have not written a blog or recorded a new audio for the community for some weeks. In addition to all the traveling I have done this summer and having my children out of school for the break which just came to a close, I have been processing some very intense experiences. I beg your pardon for the lag but it has been a time of great revelation and I’ve needed to minimize my expenditure so I could fully receive this new information. Many of you have been extremely patient with me as I have not been able to get back to you with your various requests and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your gentle understanding!

There is a time to inhale and a time to exhale; there is a time to receive and a time to radiate; there is a time to be the student and a time to be the teacher. These last few months have been my time to be the student — to receive and learn on a new scale. This process will only translate into me being a more effective conduit for you.

To your credit, not a single one of you has complained about the absence of material and for that I am extremely appreciative. You have been patient and turned to each other instead (the community has been bursting with brilliant correspondence, support, recipes and inspiration)! The selfless, loving support that is flowing among you touches my heart. I could not be more pleased and more humbled by how brightly your lights shine and how freely you share that illumination lifting one another up!

What you have learned (and I have enjoyed witnessing) is that there are enough of you on the community with sound understanding and leadership ability that you can lean on one another for your answers until such a time as each of you has mastered this work enough to find all of the answers among your own personal storehouse of knowledge and experience. I’ve also encouraged my precious associate Ana Ladd-Griffin, who is overworked as it is to try to respond to the community posts when she can steal a few moments away. She will have more and more of a presence on the community over the next few months as I segue her away from some of the day-to-day opperations so that she can do more teaching which is where her talents and knowledge are most needed!

My goal has never been to create followers but rather to give you the tools to your own mastery of this subject and it’s periphery subjects (Natural Law, the interconnectedness of all life, becoming literate in the Book of Life by becoming adept at discerning in the world around you what is life-generating versus what is life-deteriorating, etc.). To my immense delight I am observing your conversations on the community and seeing just that — you are mastering it and those of you who are getting it more quickly are lifting your sisters and brothers up! This is marvelous — well done!

I have several new articles, blogs and audios (and a new book in the works) that I am now ready to prepare for you. After the Advanced Training seminar next weekend (which I sense is going to be a uniquely special experience for us all), I will begin to pull those together so I can hand over some new material to you this fall. In the meantime, please know that the material that is out there now, particularly in Detox For Women (but all of it in effect) has never been more accurate or more timely. So as I gather more information to reinforce the foundational information in my previous books, writings and audios, bear in mind that the cornerstone has already been created. Keep studying, keep contemplating and integrating the material according to where you are each day on the transitional bridge.

I send my Love, Praise and Gratitude to you All always and I look forward to the day when you are all masters of your physicality so that you never suffer a moment for being in human form — but rather enjoy the experience immensely because of it!

Your constant surfing companion on the Great Life Wave — Kowabunga!

Natalia

Wings

Recent Article from Get Fresh

August 21, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

I wanted to share with you all an article I recently wrote for Get Fresh:

“The anatomics of your subatomics”
Who we are and what we’re capable of starts with our trillions of body cells. Are they clean, are they healthy and are they communicating properly?

Download the PDF here

Roots

A Nation of Addicts

August 18, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

Why is just about everyone you or I know taking a pill or some other substance to suppress emotional pain? Why is everyone numbing themselves, and why is it accepted as normal? What is the common denominator here?

A slow but steady detour away from the independent values that made our country great two hundred years ago has landed us in a nation addicted: land of the numb, mind-controlled, programmed masses. As a people, we have lost our consciousness, and with it a tremendous amount of wisdom. We have confused what is considered desirable with what is life-generating. We have lost touch with our true emotions—that voice within which speaks for inner balance and self-knowledge. Too many of us sleepwalk through life following a set of socially programmed norms that can only lead to ruin: physical, mental, and emotional.

The hard fact is that just about everyone is an addict today because a sinister social conditioning has quietly snuck its way into “normal” living: the consumption of foods unfit for the human body. These foods are profoundly harmful and highly addictive. That’s right: the most insidious addiction today is not to recreational drugs, but to grains, sweeteners, food additives, and preservatives (including hormones and antibiotics, just for starters) in the mainstream diet. Addiction, therefore, is a problem not only for the drinker, the smoker, and the drug abuser; it is a problem for every human being who is not aware of what he or she consumes.

But here’s the gem: the cause and cure of addiction hinge on the same all-important factor—consciousness. We can understand addiction as a loss of consciousness, and it’s ubiquitous in today’s diet-lifestyle, which in myriad ways poisons the biochemistry of the blood and ravages the intestine, cells, and tissues. Yet, we keep eating and living according to the customs that have been programmed into us by the so-called authorities, the media, and the influence of our peers. We have thus become little better than a nation of addicts.

When our inner voice knows better, when our spirit rises up to question the status quo and to resist the whole program, we are quickly labeled “depressed” or “chemically imbalanced” and written a prescription. In the meantime, the dictates of mainstream culture urge us to silence our distress with “comfort foods,” alcohol, drugs, and other mind-numbing diversions.

How long will we slap names on diseases without truly understanding them? How long will we continue suppressing the symptoms so that more virulent forms of illness crop up? How long will we blame the imbalance rather than its source? After all these millennia of medical achievements, we have missed the obvious universal law of nature: when there is pain, it is a call for change, not a call for suppression!

Social norms dictate not only how we should live, but also how we should feel. We are taught to avoid “negative” emotions and embrace only the “positive” ones. Over the generations, we have completely lost touch with the wisdom of our emotions. We have learned to repress undesirable emotions without even knowing that we are doing it. These repressed emotions become the harbingers of addiction.

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All the spiritual leaders and great minds of history—including the Buddha, Christ, Socrates, and Jung—emphasized the importance of awareness. And contemporary teachers like Eckhart Tolle have made the concept more familiar to people today. However, there is still a great chasm between the desire to practice this virtue and the practical application of it. For so many people, living in the present is so hard to do. Nonetheless, it is the single most essential tool of personal liberation available to us. Once we start to live with awareness, we gain clarity about ourselves and the world around us. We see through the clutter of social expectations to hear our own authentic voice.

Any set of social expectations that fails to honor a person’s spirit and allow for its honest expression is an agent of repression, and is therefore antithetical to life. The emotions of pain, anger, and fear arise to tell us to pay attention. They come to us as friends, to pull our hand away from the flame. In heeding rather than repressing them, we can let them go, and also let go of our addictions. Soon, we can bring awareness to any situation, ideology, or question with a penetrating power of discernment. We can ask ourselves: “Is that a social conditioning or is a life-generating truth?”

We are a nation of addicts because we have been living in the dark. Too many widely accepted norms are destructive to our bodies, minds, and spirits. Our authority figures perpetuate the madness by creating more drugs for more illnesses and building more infrastructures to keep the vicious cycle alive. Frittering away personal power, we get ever more lost in the quagmire, blind to the road signs of our emotions. Addiction feels like a normal life experience rather than an aberration of nature. The modern ethos is to pacify feelings with all that glitters and sells. “Don’t feel this,” our culture whispers in our psyches. “You don’t need to feel sad. Here, take this instead. Have a donut and a latte. There, there. Now, isn’t that better?”

The cure for depression, obesity, and even cancer may be far simpler than we ever realized. It is time we (a) correct our biochemical imbalances through cleansing, and (b) expose destructive social norms for what they are and cultivate the power of conscious choice. It’s time we wake up to what we are really made of—as fully empowered human beings who know our own authentic needs and desires, not mindless automatons of an addiction-fueled society.

We all want to lead great lives and achieve wonderful things, but a great outer life is only possible through a healthy, balanced, and beautiful inner life. Let us feel deeply and let our emotions nourish our personal growth through smart, life-enhancing choices.

Uncategorized

Ana Ladd-Griffin

July 16, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

Hi There Everyone!

In addition to all of the other hats she is wearing here at Natalia Rose Institute, Ana Ladd-Griffin is also going to be managing the questions that come through the Natalia Rose Institute submissions inbox (they will no longer be coming to my inbox directly).

I love reading your mail and Ana will share much of it with me but in order for me to be of service to you and keep creating new content that will help you along on your path I cannot spend hours each day in front of the computer answering one email at a time.

Ana is fully equipped with the knowledge and the heart to be a sure-footed guide to any of you that reaches out to her. All I ask is that prior to sending her a question you read all the information on the website (all the books, blogs – both current and archived as well as the FAQs) to find your answers (which you will find therein more often than not). I have strictly advised Ana not to spend time responding to questions that are already answered in the Natalia Rose Institute books and online content. Spending time answering the same questions (99 percent of the time they are the same core questions) prevents us from using our resources to move forward with all the important information we still need to share with you. Yes, there is more — so much more!

As always, we encourage you to send us your testimonials and always appreciate your personal stories and suggestions for improving the site. Your input is extremely valuable to us as we wish to provide you with the best support possible. Ana is also available for personal consultations; her reputation for excellent counsel is spreading quickly. I am no longer seeing private clients but Ana is an adept at this work and I encourage those of you looking for personalized guidance to reach out to her. She can be reached at Ana@Detoxtheworld.com. You can read more about personal consultations with Ana here: http://www.detoxtheworld.com/about-personal-consultations-with-natalia-rose.php

Please keep checking the Events Page: http://www.detoxtheworld.com/events.php for upcoming gatherings as we have such a wonderful time together at our hikes and Detox Dates parties and I look forward to meeting more of you on these special occasions!

I will be traveling through the end of August but this Fall will bring many wonderful opportunities to connect!

With Love of Service to each of you,

Natalia

Sprouts

Energy: The Simple Truth

July 9, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

Dear Energy-Seekers:

Energy is a hot topic in our culture, and for many it is the ultimate currency. Just as all the misleading dietary information is confusing people, so is all the erroneous information about energy. I think it’s high time to set the record straight about energy. Fortunately, like all great truths, it’s really very simple.

There is only one thing to know about energy. Energy is a current of electromagnetic force of dual polarity (-)/(+). In the physical body it is at its greatest potential when the body’s cells are clean and clear. You are ENERGIZED when you have open pathways (no mucoid matter in the bloodstream, lungs, or throat and no waste matter stuck in the intestines or intestinal walls) and when the energy can move freely between the cells and tissues. I like to imagine cells conducting energy by “kissing” each other with electricity. Energy can only reach the cells and conduct if there are no blockages.

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Let’s be absolutely clear: You do not become energized by consuming calorie-dense substances. Instead, you become energized by removing blockages between cells and within pathways so that the electromagnetic current can travel like a lightening rod through the body. If you are feeling weak or lacking power for your workouts when you eat this way, it is ALWAYS due to one or more of the following three reasons:

1) You have awakened matter that your bowel cannot release on its own. Therefore, your center is blocked and the awakened poisons have been released into your bloodstream, making you feel ill and tired. You need either bowel cleansing or a less than perfect meal to give your bowel a break from the transition to clean foods—one or the other, but preferably the former.

2) You are so addicted to the stimulation of cooked proteins, whey or soy protein workout products, coffee, refined sugar, flour, soda, etc. that your body is not coping with the change. The problem is that you’re having withdrawal symptoms—not that the clean diet is failing to deliver energy. You probably need to transition more slowly. People are often deceived into thinking they need meat when, after a week of a meat-free diet, they go out and eat a steak and suddenly feel “energized.” This is a FALSE FIRE!

The wave of false fire is not real energy. It is just the stimulation of the acidic animal protein that an addicted body responds to. Additionally, when the animal is killed, the “fight or flight” hormone—adrenaline—surges through the bloodstream of the frightened animal. That adrenaline is in the meat when consumed, and is often confused with a feeing of energy—again, FALSE FIRE! Acidic, dense substances—whether animal flesh, dense nut/seed bars, protein bars, or yogurt and granola—can never give you real energy, only stimulation. To an unclean body addicted to the stimulation, continuing to consume such substances feels good and familiar. Stopping too suddenly leads to withdrawal symptoms and a feeling of weakness. Hence, people often associate a clean diet with feeling weak. This is why making a gradual TRANSITION away from the old foods, rather than going cold turkey, is so crucial. It will help you avoid many pitfalls!

3) You are mentally programmed to believe that only consuming calorie-dense substances can sufficiently energize you for a workout. The fact is, eating muesli, granola, a power bar, or a shake before a workout can actually physically drain energy from you. But mental programming is a powerful thing; for years you’ve been absorbing the erroneous propaganda that you need these substances for energy. So now it’s a case of mind over matter: work to reverse your thinking and align with the greater truth.

Most of all, keep an eye on the big picture of cleansing. A clear body is an energized body. Arnold Ehret said it nearly a hundred years ago in his equation: Vitality = Power – Obstruction. “Power” may not have been the clearest word choice. “Electromagnetic Conductivity” is more accurate. So, with all due respect to Ehret, I’ll take the liberty of rephrasing his equation: Vitality = Electromagnetic Conductivity – Obstruction.

Every time you’re feeling a little less energized than you want to feel, revisit these three points. Ask yourself how clear your pathways are and how well your cells are conducting the electromagnetic power. Even when you’re blocked, this energy is always lying dormant within you, ready to be unleashed. Do all you can to remove any blockages, and then watch your body come alive with the blissful vibration of life force conducting through you!

Then do the happy dance!

Here’s to your energy-kissing cells,

Natalia

Sprouts

Declare Your Independence!

July 1, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

If I had to choose a favorite holiday, I would choose Independence Day. This is not merely because it is the least consumer-oriented holiday or because I love my country (which I do), but it’s also because independence and freedom—on both the microcosmic and macrocosmic scale—are so essential to our lives.

I like to think of every day as a personal Independence Day. As a human on this earth, and particularly in this country, I can walk through life every day choosing what to allow into my sphere and what will ultimately make up my life experience. We each have the freedom to do this, but it takes vision, courage, and, yes, sometimes our own revolutionary war to reach that level of sovereignty. But once we win that sovereignty, we must protect it: we must soldier on and defend ourselves from destructive forces.

Some of you have had to soldier through a lot of conflict in pursuit of your personal freedom. This is a time to celebrate your hard-won independence, your triumph over false rulers. You’ve charted new lands (hopefully you were nice to the natives!). But, of course, this is only the beginning. You must set up essential infrastructures in this new land—for example, adjusting your grocery list, ensuring a daily intake of green juice, and scheduling rebounding time.

Your ability to maintain your independence and freedom is directly related to the governing body you put in place. Do you have a good Bill of Rights? A strong Constitution? Are your desires, intentions, and actions in harmony? Let’s not forget Abraham Lincoln’s famous words: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” He went on to specify: “this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Nor can you remain sovereign in the detox lifestyle and enjoy its abundant fruits if you are divided—part slave to the social norms, part free. Eventually the societal riptide will pull you under. Short-lived firecracker enthusiasm won’t cut it. Those who succeed in the long term are vigilant, flexible where needed, and have the stamina and strategy of great generals to defend their hard-won liberty, day by day!

Now let’s turn our attention to our troops and our veterans. When we think of supporting our troops, we usually think in terms of moral support, patriotic support, or financial support. Sometimes, we tend to support our soldiers like a cheering squad who sits around doing our nails while the team hustles out on the field; the cheerleaders merely pop out of their seats every now and then with a “sis-boom-ba!” The life of our nation and our planet is not at a pep rally or a football game. So why do we send our troops off to war while we watch our nails dry?

Whether fighting in the caves of Afghanistan or taking musket in hand against the redcoats, our soldiers on the front lines need our support on the home front. We, too, must be warriors (albeit peaceful ones), ever alert against forces that impinge on our freedoms. We must start at home, where the social norms of consuming hours of mindless media and heaps of packaged foods and unfit substances render us mere marionettes. We must begin with ourselves, and then lovingly nudge others awake to all that threatens our freedom. If mainstream forms of consumption, health care, and self-maintenance are turning us into addicts and slaves to widespread disease, it’s time to take a stand! We are the soldiers at home, so let’s defend freedom and independence right here!

Otherwise, despite all the lives and limbs lost by our troops and the trillions spent on the greatest weaponry in the world, we will have passively yet unforgivably allowed the deterioration of our hard-fought freedoms. I love my country deeply and I do not want to see this happen. But it is happening, just like rogue bacteria is taking over the intestine of the average unsuspecting American. We remain blind to that which is eating away at our liberties—from both the inside and the outside—at our own great peril.

I would like to suggest a new way of supporting our troops and honoring our veterans: via the path of personal responsibility. We support them by strengthening our country at home, starting with ourselves. We, as ambassadors of peace and a people of higher knowledge, each take responsibility for our own personal harmony. The more peace, love, and understanding we emit, the greater our chances of one day achieving peace on earth. It will only take a small percentage of people with a higher consciousness to ignite this movement—then it will spread like a glorious wildfire!

The more we depend on our soldiers to maintain our independence as a free nation without supporting their efforts from home and from within, the more we stand to lose. The good microbes can only fight off so much yeast and harmful bacteria. The inhabitant of the body must back up the troops with smart choices! Just as each cell in the body is a hologram of the entire body, we are each a hologram of our nation. Let us support our troops, our forefathers, and the birth of a beautiful new world.

Let freedom ring! Happy 4th!

Love,
Natalia

Perspectives

A Tribute to Michael Jackson and Neda Agha-Soltan

June 26, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

What do Michael Jackson and Neda Agha-Soltan, the beautiful young Iranian girl shot through the heart in Tehran earlier this week, have in common? They are mirrors—or what I like to call “perception-givers.” Their lives and deaths reflect to us the tragic effects of our commonly accepted ways of seeing, being, and engaging.

My father, Ben Barrett, was in the music business and recorded a great deal of Michael Jackson’s music—from the early days with the Jackson Five right up to the “Dirty Diana” album (one of the last albums he recorded before his death in 1992). My brother Roman and I spent a lot of time in the studios when our dad was recording; he would even take us with him on the nightshifts. So the two of us spent time with Michael playing video games and consuming “studio snacks” (sugar cubes, Hershey’s Kisses, Melba Toast, and Coffee-mate). Michael was always kind and engaging—never once inappropriate with us, just for the record.

I imagine that just about everyone born prior to 1980 feels an emotional tug in response to the news of Michael’s death. He was, after all, probably the most famous person after Jesus and Elvis. I’m certainly not immune. But what I feel is a tremendous relief for him. I can’t help but feel like Grace released him from the torment of his existence.

For many years, Michael lived with his parents and siblings down the road from us in Encino, California, on a street called Havenhurst just off the main road of Ventura Blvd. (famously referenced in Tom Petty’s hit “Free Fallin’” for you music trivia buffs). When he was a kid, Michael and his brothers would ride their bikes up to our house and visit my dad. Just take a moment to imagine Michael as a ten-year-old—that gorgeous little boy singing “My Cherie Amour”—riding his bike around his neighborhood like any ordinary, innocent kid. He was beautiful and, by anyone’s standards, uncommonly talented.

His father, as it is famously documented by his sister Latoya’s memoirs, was a hideous character. He was dominating, violent, and abusive. Young Michael’s truth was usurped by his father’s soul-annihilating abuse. From his father’s behavior and words came the stories and lies (reinforced by those who neither challenged them nor taught Michael to challenge them) that would imprison Michael for the rest of his life. To varying degrees, we have all accepted the stories and lies imposed upon us as children.

Yet, despite this, young Michael’s light shone so brightly. The brighter a light shines in the presence of a bully stuck in darkness, the more desperate that bully becomes to snuff out that light for fear of exposure. Many of us, in our defenseless innocence, have been at the mercy of such abuse. (Of course, these bullies, who have likely been abused themselves, need love more than most. But that is a separate issue.)

Young Michael was natural, innocent, exploding with creativity, and in enough possession of his own soul power to radiate his personal essence—making him and his music positively irresistible. Let’s all take a moment and acknowledge that what he expressed in 1970 in his recordings of “ABC” and “The Love You Save” was his true, irrepressible essence—inspiring, enchanting, and downright magical! That was the real Michael. That was before the world of UNTRUTH had at him. This, I believe, is what his spirit and soul are returning to as he sheds the cage of his physical body and the false stories it absorbed over the course of his life on earth.

Michael and Neda (whose name means “voice” in Farsi) are two innocent, pure souls who demonstrated the lies of our world and what we communally deem acceptable. The painful unfolding of Michael’s public life and the tragic, rapid-fire death of Neda in Iran have showed us the EFFECTS of the CAUSES supported by such a world. What happened to Michael and Neda could happen to any innocent, and indeed does—every second of every day. Dramatic displays of suffering and wasted life can sometimes jolt humans out of our programmed, blinkered ways of seeing so that we can begin to discern the truth. But then most of us get distracted again and fall back into our old ways.

To varying degrees, we are all PERCEPTION-GIVERS: those who reflect through personal experience the truths and untruths of our humanity. We must also pay attention and be PERCEPTION-GETTERS. This is the way of the Peaceful Warrior, who does not draw a machine gun or send out a drone against injustice. The Peaceful Warrior knows there is more power in simply holding a mental posture of attentiveness and knows exactly what to watch for. An effective Peaceful Warrior is fluent in the language of Life—able to discern between that which is life-generating and that which is life-deteriorating—and from there is able to make swift life-generating choices.

How perceptive are you? How adept a Peaceful Warrior? How many of the lies, stories, and life-deteriorating but commonly accepted ideas can you see though? What do you do with what you see? Do you passively pray that the world will change or do you change yourself based on what you discover?

Our world can change only if individuals truly perceive and understand the EFFECTS of every CAUSE, and can discern between life and death. How the term “life” is misused! That which is truly living is harmonious and beautiful. Can we stop going around saying “Well, that’s life!” when something undesirable happens? It would be more accurate to say, “Well, that’s death!”

If Michael was taking substances to ease his inner pain and these substances played a role in his passing, this would bear closer examination. Whether it’s pharmaceutical or recreational drugs, alcohol, overeating, or other perverse forms of consumption like excessive shopping and sex addiction, these numbing behaviors indicate a world of PAIN and UNTRUTH. We must acknowledge that the personal and communal pain is real, neither a minor blip on the screen nor an acceptable part of normal life. Perception-getters know that pain is the alarm bell sounding off against the error of life-destroying causes and actions. Furthermore, error begets error, growing exponentially and multiplying human pain.

Instead of trading one numbing behavior for another—say, drinking for smoking, or smoking for overeating, we must determine what is motivating this behavior. The fact is, like Michael, many people don’t want see the truth and go through the shedding process. But for those of us who do, perception can lead to freedom.

To get really personal, for the first time in a long time I was so overcome with emotion today that I just wept. I didn’t resist the urge; I was grateful no one around to say, “Please don’t cry.” It felt so good to shed my tears. The flood of tears came through me like a summer storm after a long, hot day—it drenched my face, neck and T-shirt. I was not lost in the emotion. Rather, I was able to observe it. I was delighted that what I was feeling (and for whatever length of time I had been holding onto it) was finding a release—an exit from my body.

As I cried, all I could think of were the lies and the suffering those lies were causing. I wept for the beautiful boy, Michael, whose experience is a mirror for humanity. I wept in joy for all of our journeys, for despite how daunting it can be to truly perceive, it is a gift. It enables us to shed our old skins of untruth and renew ourselves. I wept for the gorgeous, young Neda and thanked her for her sacrifice, which has opened our eyes in invaluable ways.

One of my favorite songs is “The Nightshift” by the Commodores. It reminds me of my dad making music-magic in the studios on the nightshift—when most of the biggest R&B hits of the 60s, 70s and 80s were recorded. The Commodores recorded this song as a tribute to two of their friends who both passed in 1984: one was the legendary perception-giver, Marvin Gaye; and the other, the great Jackie Wilson.

I’ve posted the lyrics below as a tribute to Michael’s legacy and the mirror he offered mankind. I suppose this gives new meaning to his 1988 hit, “Man in the Mirror.” His fifty years on this planet were not easy for him. This is for you, Michael, may your pain not be in vain, and may your harmonies bring about greater harmony here on earth.

The “Nightshift” by The Commodores

Marvin, he was a friend of mine
And he could sing a song
His heart in every line.
Marvin sang of the joy and pain
He opened up our minds
And I still can hear him say:
Talk to me
So you can see
What’s goin’ on.
Say you will sing your songs
Forever more
ever more
ever more.
Gonna be some sweet sounds comin’ down on the nightshift
I bet you’re singin’ proud
Oh, I bet you pull a crowd.
Gonna be a long night
It’s gonna be all right on the nightshift.
You found another home
I know you’re not alone on the nightshift.
You found another home
I know you’re not alone on the nightshift.
Jackie, hey what you’re doin’ now? It seems like yesterday
When we were workin’ out.
Jackie, you set the world on fire
You came and gifted us
Your love, it lifted us higher and higher.
Keep it up and we’ll be there at your side.
Say you will sing your songs forever more
ever more
ever more.
Gonna be some sweet sounds comin’ down on the nightshift…

Aw—just download it and have a listen. It’s one of the greats!

Sprouts

My Top 10 List for an Outstanding Life Experience

June 20, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

1. Keep your center clear. When your intestine is clear, you’ll feel the bliss of free-flowing energy coursing through you. By contrast, a dense, weighted digestive system and impacted colon is a recipe for depression and sluggishness. To clear your intestine, eat quick-exit foods in quick-exit combos and spotlight bowel cleansing. Maintain this and enjoy the constant high!

2. Follow your dietary intuition—not the food police. Be your own highest authority. Don’t blindly follow the government’s food pyramid, the raw-vegan dogma, or the newest diet craze. Focus on the truths of the human body—of your body specifically, and your optimal level of transition. Outside of your truth, everyone has an agenda, a vested interest in making you follow their belief system. Don’t make your kids drink milk just because everyone else says it’s essential. Enjoy that occasional piece of fish, even after you’ve committed to being vegan, because it just feels right and it will make you happy. There is no dogma, only the truth of your body. Follow your truth and enjoy the power to decide for yourself!

3. Boost your Life Force Energy by keeping your mornings sacred. Just by resting your system with a period of fasting in the morning, you will boost the life force that animates your whole body and spirit. Stop cluttering up your center with food all day long. Enjoy the lightness of the morning before you take in anything. You will grow to love this time of day as you come to recognize the Life Force Energy within you.

4. Juice until dinner—one, two, or three days a week. Juicing will really help to open up your center and increase your Life Force Energy. At first, work your way up to this by juicing until lunch. This will really get the energy flowing and help your body catch up on the backlog of dense substances that are blocking your bliss, physically and energetically.

5. Make every day a “salad day.” Make yourself the juiciest salads with lots of cucumbers, tomatoes, lemon juice, and summer herbs like basil and cilantro. Remember what raw food is all about and make the most desirable, mouth-watering salad imaginable! Add some raw goat cheese or avocado to make it a totally satisfying meal!

6. Stretch your body. Get down on the floor and gently stretch your body—not to practice yoga per se, but just to open yourself up and relieve your body of the energetic stagnation and gas pressure between the muscle tissues and joints. Enjoy the easy bliss that comes from just a few moments of stretching throughout the day.

7. Discard the old programming, and embrace new stories that serve your truth. You are your own storyteller. Direct your own life by choosing what to accept and what to discard. Make way for all the love and joy you want to bring into your life by discarding the lies and misguided programs. Love yourself so much that there is only room for the beautiful truths in your heart. Watch what develops.

8. Pay attention to the people and places that are no longer part of your truth. Gauge your physical reactions. Do your palms get sweaty or does your heartbeat increase when you when you go to certain places? Are you really having a good time when you go out with certain people or is it a routine obligation? When you pay attention to such things you discover other parts of your life that are ready to evolve. It took me a while to recognize the many uncomfortable signals my body gave when I would walk into department stores. I finally understood that these places greatly repulsed my whole being. Now, unless it is absolutely necessary, I stay out. Another time, I realized that I could not open a tabloid/celebrity magazine without getting a little sick inside, so I stopped reading them—and now they look as foreign to me as a bag of Twizzlers! Recently, I had a strong reaction to a certain crowd. Now I have complete confirmation that there is no joy in that environment for me anymore, so I no longer engage with it. Don’t swim blindly and let the waves and rapids knock you around. Open your eyes and see that you have options!

9. Be impeccable with your word—your word is you! Don’t say things that are not true just to make other people happy or to keep yourself safe from their judgment. Be true to yourself. Of course, this starts with being honest with yourself. Have honest conversations with yourself as you address what you embrace and what no longer serves you. Be as courageous as you can be today and expand your courage every day as it opens you up more and more to your true self. When you are free to be your true self you will love yourself more and your life experience will be so much more fulfilling.

10. Find something you love more than food. Discover a passion, something that gets you out of your mind-chatter. It could be anything from painting to meditating to a particular subject that captivates your imagination, or just the pleasure of a walk with a good friend. Too many people lean on eating as an outlet for their mental reprieve. That should not be the role of a meal or a snack. Remember how great it was to be a kid lost at play for hours—not thinking, just creating and playing with the innocence of a clear mind? My passion is pursuing truth and eliminating illusions in all areas of life and then creating naturally from that incredible, ever-expanding perception. When I am creating, I am in my joy. What is your joy?

Here’s to an ever more outstanding life experience for us all!

Love,
Natalia

Uncategorized

Launch Time!

June 19, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

Hello Friends!

Thanks to all of you who attended the launch party for Detox Dates last night. The energy was just amazing and Doris’s food…well let’s just say much of the party congregated around her unforgettable creations! But what stood out most were the guests — I want to hang with you guys all the time!

Look out for the next event to be held in July (we will announce the date on the events page as soon as it is set: http://www.detoxtheworld.com/events.php). This time we’ll hopefully get clear skies and be able to enjoy the rooftop!

We’ve finally flipped the switch and turned on Detox Dates officially!

We have decided to keep the complimentary membership to the Detox FREE for the duration of the summer, until Labor Day (and then it will continue to be FREE to those who signed up this summer until JUNE 18, 2010 (one year from the launch date)!

So let all your friends know and start enjoying the space to express and connect with some of the most extraordinary singles on the planet!

To join, go directly to this link: http://www.detoxtheworld.com/dates-register.php

Or go to the home page and click on the callout “Detox Dates” at the top of the page.

In addition to the community of members there will also be exclusive content related to relationships that I know you will enjoy and benefit from.

To all the GUYS out there, I have to say that the number of gorgeous, bright, inspiring and highly-conscious girls on this list is unprecedented so don’t be shy about signing up. Otherwise, the guys we do have are going to be way too spoiled! But the fact of the matter is that the guys that are signing up are equally amazing so I think they can handle it!

Please note: We (naturally) honor those seeking same sex conscious dates.

In the spirit of relationships and in preparation for Detox Dates, I would like to recommend some literature that will help you grow in your understanding of love relationships (these books really helped me):

I also highly recommend Lee Harris and Story Waters relationship audios and videos, particularly Lee’s latest video lecture course, “New Energy Relationships.” You’ll find all of their work at Limitlessness.com. Enjoy!

Here’s to ever rising in Love,

Natalia

Uncategorized

Introducing Dr. Ginger!

June 9, 2009 natalia Leave a comment

Dear Friends:

I had the great pleasure and privilege of lecturing with the brilliant and gorgeous Dr. Ginger at last month’s Beam Green event. As I watched her I knew I had to share her with you.

I think you will find her enormously motivating. She has a particulary effective way of communicating with the uninitiated (your more mainstream friends and family). Enjoy the lecture and then you can visit her website at DrGinger.com.

Here is Dr. Ginger at Beam Green: http://media.rampard.com/beam_green/20090520/video4.asx

All Love & Support Always,
Natalia