What's the Big Deal about Equinoxes and Solstices?

DSU will be hosing a Spring Equinox even in the near future, but what is the big deal about the Equinoxes and Solstices, and why are they a source of celebration?

Here is one perspective:  Genesis 1:14 notes Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years...

So, from the earliest chapters in the Bible we learn at the least  the lights in the sky are used for telling day from night, for signs and seasons tracking, and for time keeping.  But other than temporal record keeping what makes equinoxes and solstices noteworthy?

Managing Cortisol Through Closing Loops and Removing Uncertainty

Cortisol is a vital steroid hormone produced by the adrenal glands, often called the "stress hormone" because it is released in response to fear or stress. It regulates essential body functions, including blood pressure, metabolism, glucose levels, immune response, and the sleep-wake cycle. It plays a central role in the body’s "fight-or-flight" response, providing energy to handle pressure. Chronically high levels can suppress the immune system.

 High Levels (Hypercortisolism): Chronic stress can cause weight gain, high blood pressure, insomnia, and mood changes.

Low Levels (Hypocortisolism): Can cause fatigue, nausea, weight loss, and muscle weakness.

Cortisol affects nearly every organ and tissue in the body.

The following came across my desk. I know many of these actions to be valid. Some of us need to incorporate these into our lives.

YOUR GREATEST POWER – Choosing Conditions

 

This short book by J. Martin Kohe was first published in the 1950s. Kohe argues that the ability to make conscious choices shapes every aspect of our lives. Kohe was an American author and psychologist born in 1908. This short series of excerpts highlights the concepts shared in this book.  The reader is encouraged to purchase the book for the in depth explanations that it offers.

The Third Chapter – Choosing Conditions

It is quite common to hear something like "but I can't help it. The conditions prevented me from achieving my desires." Kohe makes note of this:

"Anyone with a little common sense knows that you cannot [always] control conditions....what can we do? We can control our thoughts, and by controlling our thoughts, by using this greatest power, the power to choose, we are indirectly able to control conditions."

"We all know that there are good times and bad times. Some people can't even make a living in good times, let alone in bad times, mainly because they have failed to use this greatest power, the power to choose. When bad times come along, most people sit back, fill themselves its discouragement and wait for the government to do something about it. Others will use this greatest power, the power to choose, and will make a success even in bad times."

Kohe notes that if we could get beyond the excuse making the results would be much different:

"If there were only some way that people could be made to realize that this greatest power, the power to choose and choose correctly, exists within our own minds, that they could carry out the plans of their own choice and really live the way they may have dreamed of living. It is easy enough to blame conditions; it is easy enough to blame relatives; it is easy enough to blame the government; it is easy enough to blame anybody and everybody and everything, if one chooses to do so." 

"But any person who truely recognizes this greatest power, the power to choose, begins to make progress....he begins to realize that he is the one that is doing the choosing and that friends, although they mean well, cannot do his choosing for him, nor can his relatives. 

"Consequently, he develops real self-confidence based upon his own initiative. No longer does he depend upon conditions. No longer does he depend upon some figure of imagination, but instead, he depends upon himself; the results begin to tell right from the beginning of his realization. This realization seems so difficult because hundreds of thought are racing through our minds at such speed that we fail to recognize this simple yet amazing power to choose.

Are you realizing your greatest power, the power to choose? 

Coming next week: 

NEXT CHAPTER: Choosing Your Personality   

PREVIOUS CHAPTER: Choosing

ANCIENT WISDOM: Writings of Faith

This installment looks at the oldest recorded system of faith and notes that there are some common elements that are exhibited.

Hinduism is one of the principal faiths in the modern world and is the world’s oldest religion with complete scriptural texts that date back 3000 years to c. 975 BC.  

One of the core beliefs of this system is the importance of the search for a One that is the All.  In this system, like that of the hunter/gatherers, adherents accept their status as beings of lesser power that are dependent upon the divine.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 (Seed Oils Not an Only Option)

 The new version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 offers a significant change from previous versions.  The core of the new guidelines is to go back to "real food", not "processed and packaged" food.  It encourages a commonsense focus on healthy eating rather than a set of "limits" or "maximums."  In this short series of articles, each week will will look at an overview of one of the recommendations.  This is an introduction to these guidelines, you will find the full version of the guidelines online at: https://realfood.gov/#resources.  These articles are sourced from an Epoch Times article: The Science Behind the New Dietary Guidelines. 

Seed Oils Not the Only Option for Cooking Oil

The new guidelines recommend oils and fats such as olive oil, butter, or beef tallow.  It does not include vegetable oils such as soybean oil and corn oil as options unlike past recommendations.  

Authors of the scientific reasoning report wrote that to recommend eating seed oils such as soybean, corn, canola, and cottonseed oil is based on flawed science.  They wrote that seed oils have more polyunsaturated fats which are more prone to oxidation when heated.  This can be harmful to people with metabolic disease.  Not to mention that seed oils undergo an extensive processing to make them shelf stable and neutral in flavor.

Reality Filtering & Instructions Before Visiting Earth

These two instagram reels offer a bit of food for thought.  I hope that you may be able to view the link directly.  

The first demonstrates that YOUR brain filters your reality by what YOU deem important in the moment.  Your brain filters your reality

The second shares Instructions Before Visiting Earth, by James McCrae offering insightful instructions to the energy you that is within your body.  

Together these two reels demonstrate that your brain filters your reality and you are not just your brain.

If you are unable to view these videos directly I apologize.

The Spiral Grain of Time

Have you ever had a problem that you just keep revisiting over time? Many think of this as "linear time" bouncing back and forth between the present and the past, or of “not being able to let go of a problem. But what if, like trees and many plants, "time" grows like a spiral grain of a plant?

Does Our Brain Have Quantum Computer Components?

In preparing a brief presentation for our DSU lunch I found in my writing stack an article on Quantum Entanglement in Neurons May Actually Explain Consciousness which points out that Shanghai University physicists in China explain how entangled photons emitted by carbon-hydrogen bonds in nerve cell insulation could synchronize activity within the brain.

Their findings draw attention to a highly speculative theory on consciousness called the Penrose-Hameroff 'orchestrated-objective reduction' model. Proposed by the highly respected physicist Roger Penrose and the American anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, the model suggests networks of cytoskeleton tubules that lend structure to cells – in this case, our neurons – act as a kind of quantum computer that somehow shapes our thinking.

YOUR GREATEST POWER – Choosing

This short book by J. Martin Kohe was first published in the 1950s. Kohe argues that the ability to make conscious choices shapes every aspect of our lives. Kohe was an American author and psychologist born in 1908. This short series of excerpts highlights the concepts shared in this book.  The reader is encouraged to purchase the book for the in depth explanations that it offers.

The Second Chapter – Choosing

You are what you think you are is an old wise saying.  Kohe points out that often what we think is our limiting factor.

“That is what we need, if we are going to improve our...positions. If we do not change our thinking, we can never hope to change our ...positions. What most of us fail to realize is that a tooth grows from the inside out. So we much change our inner thoughts. As we change our inner thoughts...the outward change is bound to come about. So let us choose good, healthy thoughts."

Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 (Recommendations on Dietary Fat)

The new version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 offers a significant change from previous versions.  The core of the new guidelines is to go back to "real food", not "processed and packaged" food.  It encourages a commonsense focus on healthy eating rather than a set of "limits" or "maximums."  In this short series of articles, each week will will look at an overview of one of the recommendations.  This is an introduction to these guidelines, you will find the full version of the guidelines online at: https://realfood.gov/#resources.  These articles are sourced from an Epoch Times article: The Science Behind the New Dietary Guidelines. 

Recommendations on Dietary Fat

Saturated fat comprises the majority of animal fat and is usually solid at room temperature.  The saturated in the name means that the fat molecule has the most number of hydrogen bonds possible within its structure.  In comparison, unsaturated fats contain one or more double bonds between carbon atoms so more hydrogen bonds can be formed.  Unsaturated fats are mainly found in vegetable oils and are normally liquid at room temperature.  Artificially saturating a vegetable oil (called hydrogenation) results in an unsaturated fat becoming a "trans-fat" and solid at room temperature.  Limiting saturated fat intake has long been recommended for cardiovascular health.  Previous reviews found that reducing saturated fat reduces the risk of a cardiovascular event by 17 percent, but does not affect overall mortality.

YOUR GREATEST POWER – Discovering It

This short book by J. Martin Kohe was first published in the 1950s. Kohe argues that the ability to make conscious choices shapes every aspect of our lives. Kohe was an American author and psychologist born in 1908. This short series of excerpts highlights the concepts shared in this book.  The reader is encouraged to purchase the book for the in depth explanations that it offers.

The First Chapter – Discovering It

"You are the possessor of a Great and wonderful power."

"Millions of people are complaining about their lot, disgusted with life..."

"Once you recognize this power and begin to use it, you can change your entire life and make it the way you would like to have it."

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know and understand this power?  This short study series highlights excerpts from the book Your Greatest Power by J. Martin Kohe.  Your ability to make choices is the greatest power you have as a human being.  Learn more in this short series.

Keeping Harmony in YOUR Minature Universe

A Health article titled Your Body is a Minature Universe. Here's How to Keep it in Harmony offers the good advice of "the best remedy for calamity is to avert it; the best remedy for sickness is prevention." I then introduces us to the concepts of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It starts with the concepts that the human body is a microcosm–a miniature representation of the universe.

"TCM is far more profound that just acupuncture and herbs," the article notes. "It has a central concept, namely the dao and qi (pronounced "chee")". This article describes the dao as "the fundamental principle or the cosmic law. It is the rulebook that nature follows–be it the change of seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, or the cycles of life. While qi is the life energy that dynamically moves through everything. Think of the movement of qi as the flow of a river, and dao as the riverbed. Just as the flow of a river follows its natural path, qi flows harmoniously when it follows its cosmic path–the dao."