Mountain Views News          Saturday, July 19, 2014

9

HEALTHY LIFESTYLES

Mountain Views-News Saturday, July 19. 2014 

THE JOY OF YOGA


THE FOUR PILLARS OF 
WELLBEING


WHAT IS A TRADITIONAL 
NATUROPATH?

I 
am often asked what a naturopath is or what is naturopathy? Naturopathy 
means close to nature and or benefiting from nature. As a naturopath, I believe 
nature has given us everything we need to get well and stay well. The basic 
teaching of traditional naturopathy should sound familiar, “above all, do no 
harm”. Naturopaths in general specialize in wellness. That is to say, teaching 
clients how applying natural lifestyle approaches can help the body’s own 
natural healing and health building potential. As a traditional naturopath I 
do not “diagnose” or “treat diseases”, but rather recognize that the majority 
of sub-health conditions stem from lifestyle effects, and that the underlying 
cause of what we call “disease” (or, “dis-ease”) is improper diet, unhealthy 
habits, and environmental factors which cause biological imbalances leading 
to a weakening of the bodies’ natural defenses and subsequent breakdown in 
health.

 Naturopathy focuses on prevention; it advocates a wellness-oriented 
diet and lifestyle. Whole food or herbal supplements that support the body may be used until the body 
is back to operating correctly on its own. Naturopathy is often effective in dealing with chronic illnesses, 
such as arthritis or eczema, because these conditions improve when diet, lifestyle, and nutrient deficiencies 
are addressed. Many clients are able to reverse diseases such as hypertension and type II diabetes through 
diet and lifestyle changes. Additionally, naturopathy is a great choice for non-emergency acute illnesses, 
such as colds and flus, because it employs nutritional and lifestyle changes that support the body’s 
immune system.

 Traditionally, naturopathy was just a system of helping people return to health or learn to maintain 
health by teaching them to eat healthy foods, exercise regularly and use herbs and water therapy for 
restoring health. Today’s 
traditional naturopaths 
do just that. The 
traditional naturopath 
does not diagnose or 
treat illness but rather 
is a person’s guide to 
information about safe, 
healthy ways to change 
a lifestyle to bring 
about better health. A 
naturopath empowers 
you to take charge of your 
life and health and to 
gain back the confidence 
to make decisions about 
your health and your life.

 The tradition of yoga says that there are 4 pillars to our 
wellbeing.

 The first is a good diet consisting of foods that are sattvic, 
(steady, calm and peaceful) or in other words, nutritious, easy 
to digest, home-cooked and made with love. If your food is 
made with love – that love can be absorbed in your system. If 
your food is easy to digest, then it doesn’t use as much of your 
vital energy trying to process it and the nutrients are more easily assimilated. 

 The second pillar is who you are hanging around with. It is important that we surround 
ourselves with others that are on the path of growth. We need to choose our friends and 
choose wisely. If we are hanging around with drama we will have to work twice as hard to 
keep from buying into it. Better to just stay away and focus on what is good. Keep company 
with those who have realized some measure of truth.

 The third pillar is pranayama, or properly regulating the otherwise irregular and hurried 
breath. The aim of pranayama (breath exercises) is to gain control over the nervous system. 
By learning to regulate the breath we can learn to regulate the mind - our fourth pillar.

 Asana practices (yoga poses) are designed to help us learn to breathe. We learn to breathe 
in challenging situations. Learning to breathe then enables us to control our minds and the 
thoughts we think. Our mind tells us how to feel. So we need to train the mind to create 
the life we want. When we can do this – we can choose happiness.

 Sounds easy, right? It takes discipline. But there is only one place to start – the beginning.

 “Don’t worry. Be Happy.”

Namasté, René

Dr. Tina is a traditional 
naturopath and nutritionist 
at Vibrant Living 
Wellness Center


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What’s on YOUR Mind?

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THE WORLD AROUND US

 


Sloan Digital Sky Survey Expands Its Reach


Building on 14 years of extraordinary discoveries, the Sloan 
Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has launched a major program 
of three new surveys, adding novel capabilities to expand 
its census of the Universe into regions it had been unable to 
explore before.

 This new phase of SDSS will:

 --Explore the compositions and motions of stars across the 
entire Milky Way in unprecedented detail, using a telescope in 
Chile along with the existing Sloan Foundation Telescope in 
New Mexico.

 --Make detailed maps of the internal structure of thousands 
of nearby galaxies to determine how they have grown and 
changed over billions of years, using a novel optical fiber 
bundle technology that can take spectra of each different part 
of a galaxy at once.

 --Measure the expansion of the Universe during a poorly 
understood five-billion-year period of the Universe’s history 
when Dark Energy started to drive its expansion, using a new 
set of galaxies and quasars.

 The new survey is a collaboration of more than 200 
astronomers at more than 40 institutions on four continents, 
and it incorporates telescopes in both the Northern and 
Southern Hemispheres. With these two telescopes, the SDSS 
will be able to see the entire sky for the first time.

 “Over the last fourteen years, many people have used SDSS 
data to make numerous discoveries that have revolutionized 
astronomy,” said Michael Blanton of New York University, the 
director of the new survey. “We have mapped the large-scale 
structure of the Universe, traced out previously unknown 
structures in the Milky Way, and made unanticipated 
discoveries from asteroids in our own Solar System to the most 
distant quasars.”

 This new phase of the SDSS will provide a vast new database of 
observations that will significantly expand our understanding 
of the nature of the Universe at all scales, from our own galaxy 
to the distant universe. In our galaxy, the new SDSS will see 
hundreds of thousands of individual stars, including stars 
that were born at the birth of the Milky Way and stars born 
in the past few million years, just yesterday in cosmic terms. 
Measuring the compositions, positions, and motions of 
individual stars will reveal how the Galaxy evolved from the 
distant past to today.

 “The SDSS has observed more than half a million Milky 
Way stars over the past fourteen years, which I call a good 
start,” said Jennifer Johnson of The Ohio State University, the 
Scientific Spokesperson of the new SDSS. “However, from the 
Northern Hemisphere, the Earth blocks our view of a quarter 
of the Milky Way, and mostly obscures our view of the galactic 
center. So there are literally entire regions of the Galaxy that 
the SDSS has yet to see.”

 This new phase will complete the picture. In addition to the 
Sloan Foundation 2.5-meter Telescope in New Mexico, SDSS 
will use the 2.5-meter Irenee du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas 
Observatory, high in the Chilean Andes and home to the 
clearest skies on the planet. In addition to completing the full 
study of the Milky Way, the du Pont telescope will also observe 
stars in the nearby Magellanic Clouds, giving astronomers a 
better understanding of the Milky Way’s immediate environs.

 You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@MtnViewsNews.com.

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