i'd love to be an omnivore, and i'd even more love not to be misunderstood when i talk about diet!
being an omnivore is a sign of great health, that's what we're set up to be.
diet is also a palliative, once one finds out one's imbalances and which foods heal them.
in my case diet is a wonderful release from a suffering past, so i know i'm luckier than if i had remained ignorant about the subject, but i'd be even luckier still, were i so healthy as to be able to return to omniverousness.
it's horrible having limits that most others can't relate to, but i make lemonade, and have fun doing it.
anything's better than going back to hell, as in wales so aptly describes the grungy feeling of trying to live on what doesn't agree with you.
my diet is a stretched out band-aid over a difficult series of ptsd memories, and lord love us, it works!
everybody's mileage will vary according to the individual biology, psychological architecture and environment.
deep down i have a hunch one day i will find another healing that might restore me to the sovereign state of omnivority, lol.
or to living on the prana in air maybe... this is not so far fetched, as already i am amazed how little quantity my body needs compared to before i understood which were 'superfoods', so high in curative and nutritive values that quality could easily replace much quantity.
food is fascinating...the roots of our choices go so very deep, changing radically was neither an easy nor attractive option, until i learned to make it so, silk purse from sow's ear, if you will.
i love it when people are healthy and happy with how they eat. this, however, is not very common, and on the good side, people are becoming ever more open to new choices, which i find a pleasure to encourage, hoping always that there may be a similarly profound change in one's ability to better self-regulate one's own health, that i had.
for example, my partner has had an 80% reduction in pollen allergy, since becoming vegetarian. she could probably knock out the last 20% if she liked saunas more.
:) ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
The benefits exist only with sufficient heat (<65 C), and the vapourization of water on the stones to increase humidity rapidly. Steam baths and saunas both use steam for healing, but in the sauna the steam is invisible. The temperature is needed to get deep into the muscles, and to stimulate surface blood vessels which then clear the skin of crap.
I usually go for about 80 C, but spray some water around on the walls and benches before I sit down, so the heat is not so dry and the sweat starts straight away. I often put birch oil in the water for added aromatherapy ;-)
Saunas are also intended to be quite dark.
Most people outside of Finland do not know how to use the sauna or 'soorna', as they call it. Harrumph. I heard all the horror tales abut 40 C hotel saunas with a notice saying do NOT throw water on the stones! You can't be me, I'm taken
The 'vihta' is kept in water. Before you flick yourself with it, you place it briefly on the hot stones to create more steam and heat up the leaves.
The possible painful part is that the swish of the vihta creates a waft of very hot air in it's wake. That hot air never reaches you, but it can reach a neighbour. Sauna etiquette thus demands that you take this into account. You can't be me, I'm taken
Neither is nudity threatening. As I said the sauna should be dim. Running to the lake is a different matter. Rarely are saunas unisex, except in families. But often men and women in a group take turns in the sauna, and relax outside when it is not their turn. This means the trip to the lake is visible to the relaxers. Men tend to run naked to the lake. Women tend to take a towel which they discard at the jetty. When men return from the cold lake after a swim, there's very little to see ;-)
It's all done in the very best of taste ;-) You can't be me, I'm taken
No, I love it. You don't need to educate me on it. I was just wondering if the Finns did that too. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
