of water like sweat and urine. These vitamins include the B vitamins (thiamin [vitamin B1], riboflavin [vitamin B2], niacin [vitamin B3], pantothenic acid [vitamin B5], pyridoxine [vitamin B6], folic acid [vitamin B9], cyanocobalamin [vitamin B12]) and vitamin C (ascorbic acid).
MINERALS
Minerals are similar to vitamins in that only minute amounts are needed. Their roles in the body include: maintenance of body pH (the amount of acidity and alkalinity in body compartments, which is very tightly controlled), the formation of bone and blood, nervous system function, muscular contraction and release, and normal enzyme activity.
There is a natural division among the minerals: we require some of them, such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus, in larger amounts (several hundred milligrams, or even slightly more than a gram), whereas we only require tiny, trace amounts of others, like chromium, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, selenium, and zinc. Vitamins and minerals can both be obtained from foods; however, the difference with minerals is that they usually come from within the earth's crust. Plants take in these minerals from the soil, and the minerals are ultimately eaten by humans or by animals.
HERBS
Herbs have been used since ancient times to cure a host of diseases. Available scientific research suggests that the inner workings of plants may be more complex than those of human beings. They are able to manufacture hundreds of compounds that help them survive in harsh environments, and these compounds have been proposed to be beneficial to the health of humans. Some constituents within a plant may be tied to its healing qualities, such as hypericin in St. John's wort for depression, or silymarin in milk thistle for liver disorders. You will notice that herbal dietary supplements are typically standardized to a certain percentage or amount of a particular compound that has known effects. In some cases, if you don't see this information on the label, you won't know how much of the active compounds you are taking, and, as a result, you could be getting a supplement that may not have the health benefit it is intended to have.
Many of us believe that since herbs have healing properties and are “natural,” they can be used indiscriminately. Let me caution you that this is not the case. Herbs are very potent substances and can deliver health benefits. In fact, several drugs are derived from plants. We must use herbs wisely and exercise caution when taking them, the same as we do when we use pharmaceuticals.
There are many methods of preparation to use herbs internally, in supplement form. Here are a few common ways:
Decoctions: The bark, berry, root, or seed of a plant is boiled to extract certain compounds; it may also be prepared as a tea.
Extracts: Herbs are pressed mechanically and then soaked in water or alcohol. The liquid they were soaked in is then allowed to evaporate. Extracts can also be made by applying heat to the plant matter.
Powders: An herb is ground into a powder, and then the powder is delivered in a capsule or tablet.
Tinctures: An herb is preserved in liquid. The liquid is usually alcohol, but may also be a nonalcohol form, like glycerin.
CHAPTER 2
WHAT ARE CHAKRAS?
A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
When it comes to the human body, there is much more than meets the eye. Ancient traditions embraced the concept of the person being an interwoven matrix of body, emotions, thoughts, and spirit. We can visualize ourselves as having layers like an onion, one layer tightly nestled on top of the next. The physical layer is what you see when you first meet someone. You see the color of their eyes, their skin, the texture of their hair, the size of their body, and their clothing. When they speak, you may start to formulate some idea about their emotional and mental state. You may start thinking to yourself, “How smart they are! And they seem so happy.”
Aside from what we see and assess about people or situations using our five senses, there are more subtle parts of us that add to our analysis. On a less obvious level, each person encompasses the accumulation of all of his likes, dislikes, fears, family issues, phobias, hang-ups about money and relationships, and the culmination of his upbringing, as well as his ability to create and show emotion, be powerful and loving, to communicate effectively, to listen to his intuition, and to connect with Divine guidance. Those multilayered parts of us are wrapped into the fabric of our being and, in a consolidated form, they become a focal point for how we live. We may not be showing them outright, but they collectively make up what we can refer to as our energy field, or the nonphysical, bubble-like structure around us that carries the essence of who we are. Some people have expansive energy fields. They walk into a room, and you feel them perhaps before you see them. With others, you may not know they are there until you bump into them. And then there may be circumstances when you are around someone and you start feeling drained, like their energy field has blanketed you.
If we zoom into the anatomy of a person's energy field, we see it is the culmination of many energy threads, and we can dissect the spectrum of different vibrations—these are called chakras or wheels in Sanskrit, also referred to as “energy centers” throughout this text, all of which correlate to important life issues. “Chakra” is not a new word. Its roots run deep into ancient East Indian texts that are thousands of years old. One way to envision chakras is like invisible doorways for energy to enter and exit our subtle body. Like a revolving door, each chakra lets in energy from the outside and removes it from the inside. There may be times the door opens wide one way but not the other, creating an imbalanced flow of energy, such as when we find ourselves taking care of others more than ensuring that our own basic needs are met. Other times, that door may be whipping open and closed so quickly that the energy in your body may feel overwhelming—this sensation may appear in the body as any number of physical manifestations, such as feeling butterflies in the stomach, the head spinning, the heart racing, and even the classic fight or flight response when we are afraid.
Chakras are positioned in the subtle body and correlate to physical organs. Another way to think about the chakras is like pearls on a necklace, hanging down your spine at the levels of specific endocrine glands. Symbolically, chakras represent a variety of aspects of our being—how we survive, feel, energize, love, speak, intuit, and connect. As we dive within the subtle body landscape, let's approach it from a symbolic perspective. Imagine that the human being has several layers, and in the chakra system, there are seven main ones.
Figure 1. The body with chakras
The first one is the obvious physical body—flesh and bones. Our physical body connects us symbolically to the issue of survival in the physical world: it allows us to eat, sleep, breathe, and drink. Think of the needs of infants—they need to feel safe, that they can trust, and that they are connected to a family that will provide shelter and food for them. If they didn't have these things, they could not survive. This aspect of our survival stays locked within the vibration of who we are throughout our lives.
You can imagine that if we don't trust or feel safe, we may have some issues with survival, and the opposite is also true. I have seen this with people's eating behaviors, especially in individuals
