When it comes to the connection between food and sex, “Like hunger, libido is a basic instinct. Both can influence behavior, making them priorities over other needs,” explains Uma Naidoo, M.D., a nutritional psychiatrist, chef, and author of This Is Your Brain on Food. “Both hunger and libido involve similar chemicals like dopamine, which activates the brain’s pleasure and reward centers.”

While oysters and dark chocolate are well-known for sparking desire, you might be less familiar with herbal aphrodisiacs. Though scientific evidence remains limited, many cultures have long used various plants to ignite sensual pleasure. Let’s explore some traditional herbs believed to enhance your amorous mood.

(Note: Most herbal aphrodisiacs lack strong scientific backing for their sexual benefits. Even if they are healthy foods, it’s best to start with small amounts. Also, consult your doctor before trying any herbs, especially if you’re on medication.)

Vanilla

According to ancient herbal lore, vanilla is a powerful nervine that may stimulate sexual appetite. Its rich, delightful aroma can uplift mood, soothe the senses, and potentially boost sexual stamina. Originally used by the Totonac Indigenous people of Mexico as a love elixir, vanilla remains one of the most enduring and luscious aphrodisiacs worldwide.

For a sweet treat that will warm your heart (and belly), try recipes like blueberry cheesecake overnight oats or no-bake peanut butter cookies.

Ginkgo Biloba
Native to China, ginkgo biloba is credited with various health benefits: enhancing circulation, supporting brain function, lowering stress by reducing cortisol, and possibly helping with erectile dysfunction. Available as tablets, capsules, or tinctures, it’s also enjoyed as an herbal tea to give your brain an aphrodisiac boost.

Saffron
One of the priciest spices globally, saffron (from the Crocus sativus flower) has been valued in ancient medicine for its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antidepressant effects. Regarding sexual health, a small study involving 38 women suggested saffron might improve lubrication and reduce pain during sex, especially in women experiencing antidepressant-related low libido.

Saffron also adds exquisite flavor to dishes—try it in healthy pumpkin soup or warm-spiced milk to awaken your senses.

Tribulus Terrestris
Known as gokhshura in Sanskrit, Tribulus Terrestris has a long history of use in Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine to support sexual health. Though some modern studies have examined its effects, the evidence remains inconclusive, and further research is needed. Commonly found in supplement form, it’s wise to consult a healthcare provider before using this herb.

Ashwagandha
This powerful Ayurvedic herb has been traditionally used to promote overall health and enhance mood. Its anti-inflammatory qualities have led practitioners to recommend it for improving erectile function and sexual desire in both men and women. Recent research links ashwagandha to mood support and stress reduction, with one study indicating it may improve sexual function in healthy women.

Potential Side Effects
Before adding any new herb or supplement to your routine, consider possible side effects. “A little goes a long way, and even healthy foods can be harmful if overused,” warns Naidoo. “Pay attention to how your body and mind respond, and if you experience any negative effects, reduce your intake or consult a medical professional.” She also highlights that dried herbs and supplements are more concentrated and potent than fresh herbs, so it’s important to follow recommended dosages.

The post Culinary Herbal Aphrodisiacs That Have Been Keeping Sex Great appeared first on Table for Change.

During the ceremony, an unexpected visitor arrived — Ravana, the powerful king of Lanka, who had been granted near-invincibility by Brahma, the creator god. The sudden appearance of Ravana caused great alarm among the gods, compelling them to disguise themselves to avoid confrontation.

To escape his attention, each god transformed into a different animal or bird:

• Indra became a peacock,

• Yama turned into a crow,

• Varuna took the form of a swan,

• and Kubera — the god of wealth — chose to become a chameleon.

These transformations were not mere acts of camouflage, but strategic efforts to remain unnoticed and protect themselves from Ravana’s formidable power. The plan worked — Ravana, unaware of the divine presence, eventually left the scene.

In gratitude for the animals whose forms they had borrowed, each god offered a divine blessing. Kubera, in his chameleon form, bestowed upon the creature a unique and lasting gift — the ability to change its color at will.

This sacred blessing ensured that the chameleon would forever possess this extraordinary ability, allowing it to blend with its surroundings and shield itself from danger.

Thus, according to Hindu tradition, the chameleon’s color-changing ability is not merely a biological trait, but a divine gift — a sacred symbol of adaptability and survival, granted in recognition of its role in protecting the gods during a time of great peril.

The post Why Can a Chameleon Change Its Color? A Story from Hindu Tradition appeared first on Table for Change.

Skin Benefits

1. Potential Acne Fighter
A 2012 study published in the Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences highlights neroli’s antimicrobial and antifungal properties, thanks to compounds like limonene. Dermatologist Daniel Lanzer suggests it may help reduce acne by targeting bacteria and yeast.

2. Enhances Skin Radiance
Neroli’s strong antioxidant properties can promote skin cell regeneration and impart a healthy glow. Lanzer recommends diluting a few drops in carrier oils like coconut or avocado for a natural skincare boost.

Hair Benefits

1. May Relieve Scalp Irritation
Neroli’s antimicrobial qualities can support scalp health by addressing dandruff and itchiness. Add a few drops to your detangler or leave-in conditioner for both a soothing effect and a delightful fragrance.

Additional Wellness Benefits

1. Reduces Stress and Anxiety
Research has shown neroli oil can have a calming effect when inhaled. Studies indicate its aromatherapeutic properties may help lower anxiety and even reduce blood pressure.

2. Alleviates Menopause Symptoms
A randomized trial found that postmenopausal women who inhaled neroli oil experienced reduced stress and blood pressure along with increased libido, suggesting it may support hormonal balance.

3. Eases PMS Discomfort
In a clinical trial, students who used neroli oil reported relief from PMS symptoms like pain, bloating, and mood swings.

4. Supports Pain and Inflammation Relief
Preliminary animal studies suggest neroli oil may interrupt pain signals and reduce inflammation, although more research is needed.

5. Provides Aromatherapeutic Comfort
Neroli’s comforting and refreshing scent has long been used in aromatherapy. Keep a bottle handy for a quick mood boost or add it to your diffuser for a calming home environment.

Precautions

Neroli oil is non-phototoxic, meaning it won’t cause sun sensitivity. However, dermatologist Lanzer advises against applying it directly to the skin without dilution to avoid irritation. Always perform a patch test before use and exercise caution around children, pets, or individuals with respiratory conditions.

Blending Suggestions

• Stress Relief: Combine neroli with lavender, ylang-ylang, and marjoram for a relaxing blend that may also lower cortisol and blood pressure.
• Romantic Vibes: Mix neroli with rose and sandalwood for a sensual aroma.
• Uplifting Calm: Balance neroli’s mellowness with bright notes like geranium and grapefruit.

The Bottom Line

Neroli oil offers a versatile range of benefits for skin, hair, and emotional well-being. Its delightful scent alone makes it worth incorporating into your routine, whether as an essential oil or your signature fragrance.

The post Neroli Oil: More Than Just a Pleasant Scent—8 Potential Benefits for Skin, Hair & Wellness appeared first on Table for Change.

In conforming to societal norms and expectations, many of us find ourselves deeply unhappy. We chase wealth, fame, and material possessions, indulge in unhealthy habits, and consume endless streams of negativity through media. To escape insecurities and existential emptiness, we numb ourselves with distractions and substances. Often, our relationships with others—whether partners, children, or animals—become expressions of control rather than genuine connection. Meanwhile, we continue contributing to the destruction of ecosystems, species, and communities across the globe.

Our lives often reflect silent despair masked by a cheerful exterior. Despair, in one form or another, always feels close at hand.

But what if healing was as simple as stepping outside? What if reconnecting with nature could help us find balance and restore our sense of purpose?

While conventional therapy often takes place in clean, controlled environments, ecotherapy—or “green therapy”—offers an alternative. It emphasizes healing through connection with the natural world. This simple yet transformative approach can rejuvenate the mind, body, and spirit.

The Benefits of Ecotherapy

Ecotherapy, rooted in a deep connection with nature, offers many benefits:

• Interconnection: It reminds us that we are part of the same life force that animates all living things.
• Perspective: It puts our personal struggles into a larger context, revealing their insignificance in the grand scheme of life.
• Balance: It highlights the give-and-take nature of life, teaching us to restore harmony in what we consume and contribute.

Studies show that time in nature reduces anxiety, depression, and blood pressure while boosting self-esteem, vitality, and overall health. It even fosters a sense of belonging.

14 Simple Ways to Practice Ecotherapy

Here are some inexpensive, easy ways to incorporate ecotherapy into your life:

1. Take a walk in your yard, neighborhood, or local park.
2. Breathe in the scents of nature, noticing subtle aromas like flowers or fresh grass.
3. Walk barefoot on grass to feel grounded and refresh your energy.
4. Sit under a tree or lean against it to experience its calming presence.
5. Go bird-watching and see how many species you can identify.
6. Collect natural treasures like feathers, shells, or leaves for creative projects.
7. Gaze at the sky or ocean to expand your perspective and calm your mind.
8. Plant a garden with flowers, herbs, or vegetables to nurture life.
9. Capture nature’s beauty with photography—whether it’s dewdrops, sunsets, or landscapes.
10. Press flowers to use in crafts like handmade cards or scrapbooks.
11. Build a bird nest to offer something back to wildlife.
12. Forage for wild edibles, ensuring you’ve done proper research for safety.
13. Walk in the rain to reconnect with the elements and feel invigorated.
14. Sit in silence, doing nothing, and simply absorb the tranquility of nature.

By spending just 10 minutes a day consciously engaging with nature, you can transform your life. Ecotherapy is a powerful antidote to the stresses of modern living, helping us reconnect with ourselves, others, and the world around us.

The post Ecotherapy: 14 Types of Earth-Centered Healing You Will Love appeared first on Table for Change.

The pineal gland, a tiny endocrine gland located in the brain, has long been considered by many as the “seat of the soul” and an important centre for spiritual and mystical experiences. It is believed that the activation of the pineal gland can lead to spiritual awakening and enhanced intuition, allowing individuals to tap into a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them.

But how can you activate this spiritual potential?

1. Meditation

Meditation is a practice that involves quieting the mind and focusing your attention on a specific object or thought. Some types of meditation, such as those that involve visualization or focusing on the third eye chakra, are believed to stimulate the pineal gland. By regularly meditating, you may be able to activate your pineal gland and tap into your spiritual potential.

2. Sun Gazing

Sun gazing involves looking directly at the sun during certain times of the day, usually during sunrise or sunset. Advocates of this practice believe that the sun’s energy can stimulate the pineal gland and promote spiritual awakening.

3. Yoga

Yoga is a practice that combines physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation to promote health and wellbeing. Certain yoga poses, such as the downward-facing dog, are believed to stimulate the pineal gland by increasing blood flow to the brain and reducing stress. By practicing yoga regularly, you may be able to activate your pineal gland and experience a greater sense of inner peace and wellbeing.

4. Sound Healing

Sound healing involves using specific frequencies and vibrations to promote healing and balance in the body. Some people believe that certain sounds can stimulate the pineal gland and promote spiritual awakening. By listening to or creating music that resonates with your soul, you may be able to activate your pineal gland and tap into your spiritual potential.

5. Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming is a practice that involves becoming aware that you are dreaming while you are still in the dream state. Some people believe that lucid dreaming can stimulate the pineal gland and promote spiritual growth. By learning to control your dreams, you may be able to activate your pineal gland and gain a greater understanding of your subconscious mind.

6. Fasting

Fasting is a practice that involves abstaining from food or drink for a certain period of time. Some people believe that fasting can stimulate the pineal gland and promote spiritual awakening. By giving your body a break from the constant processing of food and drink, you may be able to activate your pineal gland and experience a greater sense of clarity and inner peace.

7. Practicing Gratitude

Practicing gratitude involves focusing your attention on the things in your life that you are thankful for. Some people believe that gratitude can stimulate the pineal gland and promote spiritual growth. By cultivating a sense of gratitude, you may be able to activate your pineal gland and experience a greater sense of wellbeing and fulfillment.

8. Exposing Yourself to Natural Light

Exposing yourself to natural light, especially during the morning and evening hours, is believed to help regulate your body’s circadian rhythm and stimulate the pineal gland. By spending time outdoors and allowing your body to naturally sync with the cycles of the sun, you may be able to activate your pineal gland and experience a greater sense of connection to the natural world.

9. Avoiding Fluoride and Other Toxins

Fluoride, a chemical that is commonly added to water and toothpaste, is believed to calcify the pineal gland and inhibit its function. Some people also avoid toxic foods, alcohol, and drugs, as these substances are believed to interfere with the pineal gland’s ability to function properly. By minimizing your exposure to these toxins, you may be able to promote the health of your pineal gland and enhance your spiritual growth.

10. Using Essential Oils

Essential oils, such as frankincense or sandalwood, are believed to have powerful spiritual properties that can stimulate the pineal gland and promote spiritual awakening. These oils can be used in a variety of ways, such as through aromatherapy, massage, or diffusing them in a room. By incorporating essential oils into your daily routine, you may be able to activate your pineal gland and experience a greater sense of spiritual connection and wellbeing.

So if you’re looking to turbo charge your spiritual awakening and boost your intuition and psi abilities, there are a myriad of easy ways to activate your pineal gland.

Originally Published: wakeup-world.com

The post Unlocking Your Spiritual Potential: 10 Ways to Activate Your Pineal Gland appeared first on Table for Change.

With the destruction comes a wider acceptance of the scientific reality — and a growing motivation to contribute to solutions. But destruction also brings despair, fear about the future, grief, and panic. As we grapple with our new reality, contemplative practice can offer techniques for holding these challenging truths.

Spiritual practices are not alternatives to swift, wise action. They are complementary disciplines to education and activism. Spiritual resources can help us move from desperation to sustainable activism.

How do we get from anger to compassion?

Spiritual practice may not provide concrete climate solutions, but they do have the potential to shift consciousness. Practices and teachings can address how we relate to our grief, despair, and fear. These resources help restructure our understanding of what it means to be human, now, on our home planet.

Here are five tried and true contemplative practices from the Buddhist tradition that can help us hold the truths of climate change, species extinction, and the ecological crisis in our hearts and minds. While this list of practices is not by any means exhaustive, it is a beginning. Even though their roots are ancient, these practices are timely as we encounter the truth of suffering on a global scale.

1. Find a grounding in ethics

Some people see climate change as an ecological issue. Some see it as an economic issue. Some see it as a social issue. But, we know that human actions are at fault. In this sense, climate change is an ethical issue.

Our beliefs about justice — the values that we hold most dear — form the bedrock of our actions. These values are largely learned and assimilated from our culture. Each of us — as individuals and communities — can influence the values upheld by our culture.

Climate change is happening because of what we have valued and how we have conceived of our identity as human beings on this planet. The values have come from a dominant industrial ethos. Climate change, therefore, isn’t just a matter of what we can do. It’s a matter of what we should do.

Contemplative traditions teach moral reflections on our actions, speech, and thought. The Buddha emphasized ethics, śila, as a fundamental training for his monks. His monastic code of ethics was constructed around the idea of ahimsa, or non-violence. Essentially, the Buddha taught that ethical actions are those arising from a commitment to non-harm, gentleness, and simplicity.

Buddhism and other religious traditions have long identified love and compassion as motivators that drive effective and sustainable action.

If we extend śila to our relationship to land, water, natural resources, and animals, non-harm, gentleness, and simplicity become points of reflection for change-making.

Later Buddhist traditions developed rules of conduct, oriented towards compassion, such as the Bodhisattva precepts. These precepts extend from the idea that bodhicitta, or wise compassion, is the ground of ethical action and speech. We too can ground our activism, social engagement, and resistance in wise compassion. We can make our activism not about what we are working against, but what we are working for.

If we place our activism and relationship to the earth squarely among our deepest values and beliefs, we are more likely to turn again and again to the issue — not out of obligation, but out of genuine commitment.

2. Get comfortable with uncertainty

If there is one thing that climate scientists agree on, it is that we don’t know for certain what will happen as the earth warms. Evidence indicates that tipping points and crises cannot be averted. We have no how idea how much we can slow or ameliorate the suffering. We do not even know how long our species — and others — can survive changes that destabilize the conditions necessary for life. We are stepping into the void.

We want to know if our children and grandchildren will be able to visit the shoreline, walk in the forest, breathe clean air, and live in safety. It is human to fear that the world as we know it may be ending. This uncertainty can feel deeply unsettling.

Many of the Buddha’s teachings focus on uncertainty, not as an inconvenience, but as a source of liberation. The Buddha taught that nothing is certain, because nothing transcends impermanence. He called impermanence a “mark of existence” — an undeniable truth of what it means to be alive. To encourage his monks and nuns to face their mortality, he sent them to meditate in charnel grounds — open-air cemeteries — where they could witness decaying corpses.

The Buddha was not trying to torture his disciples. He was trying to free them. While awareness of our mortality stirs our deepest fears, it also frees us from the chains of attachment that bind us. The loosening of attachment helps us open to the truth that nothing is certain. Nothing can be taken for granted. This is how we learn to love the truth for what it actually is.

There is good reason to embrace the uncertainty of climate change as a liberating practice. The more we fear uncertainty, the more likely we are to avoid thinking about climate change. In fact, our worst enemy might not be climate denial, but rather a subtle, subconscious rejection of climate change, based on our fear of the unknown.

If, however, we embrace the truth of uncertainty, we can develop the courage to stay open and engage with the world. If we can accept the fragility of life on earth, we can invest ourselves in the possibility of collective action.

3. Work with emotions

Along with the discomfort of uncertainty, climate change can evoke many other difficult emotions. Witnessing ecosystem destruction and mass extinction, we respond with grief and sorrow. Encountering denial and global apathy, we experience anger. When we consider our children’s future, we experience trepidation and worry.

Anger can be a protective energy, a healthy response to that which threatens what we love.

Recently, I was talking to a European graduate student who was writing her thesis on the power of stories to affect climate change. The primary motivator for her work, she told me, has been anger.

Understandably, fear and anger often fuel activism. These primal emotions have kept us alive for centuries. They are good short-term motivators when we are in immediate danger. However, fear and anger are poor long-term motivators. Eventually, they result in stress and burnout — the insidious undoings of activists.

So, we need other chronic motivators for our work. In this area, spiritual traditions have much to offer. Buddhism and other religious traditions have long identified love and compassion, for example, as motivators that drive effective and sustainable action. The bodhisattva, a Buddhist archetype of compassion, typifies the possibility that positive and constructive emotions can be the primary fuel for activity. But how do we get from anger to compassion?

Tibetan Buddhism teaches that the states that we most wish to avoid are actually the key to our freedom. Instead of erasing emotions, we can metabolize them. If we take our reactivity into a contemplative space, it is possible to liberate the energy of emotion, transforming it into supple responsiveness.

We might start with an emotion like anger. When anger is heavily fixated on an object, it becomes isolating, contracted, and draining. When we take anger into a contemplative space, we can lighten our focus on the object and the story, turning inward to consider the emotion itself and our part in it.

When we take responsibility for our own anger, we can find its upside. Anger is not always reprehensible. It can be a protective energy, a healthy response to that which threatens what we love. That insight itself can liberate reactive, contracted anger into its deeper nature, a wiser, more inclusive resolve to act with decisiveness and courage in the interest of love.

In contemplative practice, anger can become an inspiration for empathy. We discover that uncomfortable states, while they belong to us, are not to our’s alone. Many others also feel anger, including the people we have othered. When we recognize that this is how so many others feel, we can commune with the suffering of others. We redirect our attention from the story stimulating anger to our empathy for all those impacted by climate change — even the deniers. By redirecting our focus from a polarizing narrative to a uniting one, we start building a more sustainable platform for action.

4. Access new wisdom

In discussions about climate change, we seem to primarily access one way of knowing — the intellect. The climate issue is couched in the language of conceptual knowing. This conceptual approach — typified by Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth — is critically important. We need to know what is happening, and why.

However, our response will be much more powerful and resilient if we begin to access other ways of knowing, transforming conceptually-motivated activism into an activism of the heart.

There are two alternative ways of knowing that Buddhist practice and meditation generally rely on: bodily wisdom and non-conceptual wisdom.

Bodily wisdom

To encounter our human body is to encounter the natural world. We tend to forget that we are mammalian primates! The closer we come to the body, the closer we draw to the truth of our own wildness. This connects us to the planetary wildness that we aspire to protect.

While the mind is tugged into the past and future, the body is fully present. The body’s present wakefulness is one of its great wisdoms, and we can easily access that wisdom. It is as close to us as this moment’s inhale and exhale. While we want to stay mindful of creating a sustainable future, we don’t want to do that at the expense of missing our life. The body reminds us that we are here, now, and our presence is our most powerful resource.

Non-conceptual wisdom

Buddhist meditation also introduces us to the life beyond the conceptual mind — non-conceptual ways of knowing. The wider truth is that human experience is not just mental content. While we spend a great deal of time enmeshed in our world of ideas, there is more to the mental-emotional life than what we think and believe. There is a non-conceptual space in which all of this content arises, and that space can be sensed and widened through the experiences of body. In the practice of the Great Perfection, this space is identified as naked awareness, a part of our mind that is just experiencing, prior to forming ideas about our experiences. The space of awareness can be cultivated until it becomes a holding-environment for relative issues such as climate change.

We can make our activism not about what we are working against, but what we are working for.

As we begin to identify with non-conceptual space, we access a non-dual mode of perception. In the non-dual mode of perception, the illusion of separateness is perforated. This illusion of separateness may be one of the root causes of the crisis we are in. When we are caught up in that illusion, it becomes somehow okay that my consumption happens at your expense. If we are to live sustainably, we need to get used to the idea — nay, the reality — that we are all intimately connected. Meditation leads us there.

5. Find community

A friend of mine once attended a City Council meeting in her local community and ran into a woman who was repeatedly raising the issue of banning plastic bags. Discouraged, the woman said that she could not seem to earn the respect of the city council. My friend replied: “You don’t need respect. You need a friend. One person is a nut. Two people are a wake-up call. Three people are a movement.”

That friend was the environmentalist and author Kathleen Dean Moore, and her story inspired me. A small, committed group of people can change the world, as Margaret Mead said. Finding a community of activists might not be as daunting as we might think. It can be as simple as finding a few like-minded people and starting a conversation.

In order to gracefully lean into the challenges that we face as a planet, community is critical. But it also does double-duty, laying the foundation for spiritual life.

The Buddha’s close attendant Ananda once inquired of his teacher, “Surely the sangha [spiritual community] is half of the holy life?”

The Buddha answered, “No, Ananda, do not say such a thing. The sangha is not half of the holy life. It is the whole of the holy life.”

The Buddha felt very strongly about the power of community to support the path to awakening. He lived most of his life in intentional community, and identified sangha as one of the three spiritual refuges, along with the teacher and the dharma.

Now is a good time for the eco-curious in the dharma world. There is a growing community of people who seek both spiritual development and activism. If you are one of those people, now especially, you need not despair. Your people are out there.

As we are propelled forward by the consequences out of a warming planet, it is more important than ever that activists and contemplatives work together. We can benefit from an exchange of technologies. While I have highlighted five spiritual technologies to help contemplate climate change, activists have other tools and perspectives that can assist spiritual communities to take action. Activist communities have resources for education and technologies of peaceful resistance that can help contemplatives enact change.

While we grapple with the effects of climate change, we will need tools of resilience and inner work. As dharma practitioners, we bring essential gifts to the project of healing our world. Our challenge is to bring these gifts to bear and continue their development.

By practicing with ethics, uncertainty, emotion, wisdom, and community, we develop an intimate understanding that being human is about what we think and what we believe — and we deepen our ability to embody our work.

Embodiment sends an indelible message that peace and sustainability can become a lived reality. Even when they are imperfectly realized, we can inspire the sense that our lives have meaning, and that we are living our way into ever-increasing integrity with — and service to — our beautiful, unfathomable and sacred world.

Originally Published: www.lionsroar.com

The post 5 Buddhist Practices to Help Tackle Climate Change appeared first on Table for Change.

Concept of Yugas: Hinduism describes time in terms of cycles called “yugas” or ages. According to Hindu scriptures like the Puranas, each yuga has its own characteristics and durations. The four yugas are Satya Yuga (Golden Age), Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga. These yugas follow each other in a cyclical pattern, with the universe undergoing periods of creation, maintenance, and dissolution in a recurring manner.

Eternal Recurrence: The idea of cyclical time is also connected to the concept of “eternal recurrence,” where the universe is believed to go through infinite cycles of creation, existence, and dissolution. This cyclic process is driven by the cosmic forces of creation (Brahma), preservation (Vishnu), and destruction (Shiva), known as the Trimurti.

Karma and Reincarnation: Another aspect of Hinduism that contributes to the cyclical view of time is the belief in karma and reincarnation. According to this belief, the soul (atman) undergoes a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth (samsara) determined by one’s actions (karma). Individuals accumulate karma over successive lifetimes, influencing their experiences in future incarnations. This cyclical process continues until the soul achieves liberation (moksha) from the cycle of rebirth.

Cosmic Cycles: Hindu cosmology also describes larger cosmic cycles known as kalpas, which encompass the lifespan of the universe. These kalpas are immense time periods in which the universe undergoes creation, sustenance, and dissolution. After each dissolution (pralaya), a new cycle of creation begins, perpetuating the cyclical nature of time.

Overall, the cyclical view of time in Hinduism reflects the interconnectedness of all existence and the recurring patterns observed in the cosmos. It provides a framework for understanding the transient nature of worldly phenomena and the eternal nature of the soul’s journey towards spiritual liberation.

Originally Published: www.hindu-blog.com

The post Why Time Is Cyclical In Hinduism And Not Linear? appeared first on Table for Change.

So what does the research say? Can animals actually smell fear? To get to the root of this question, researchers have largely taken human presence out of the equation, as animals such as dogs are known to respond to our expressions and body posture. Instead, investigators have focused on how animals, including horses and dogs, respond to various smells emitted by humans watching happy versus fear-inducing videos.

In a horse study, published in 2023 in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers had participants watch clips from a comedy one day and a horror movie the next.
After the participants watched each video, the researchers collected sweat samples from the viewers’ armpits using cotton pads and asked the participants to report how much joy or fear they felt while watching each clip. Then, the researchers presented the two swab samples from the same human to an assigned horse to see if it could discriminate between odors produced by humans during times of happiness and distress.

“At first we weren’t sure if the horses could differentiate between the odors,” lead study author Plotine Jardat, a doctoral student at the University of Tours in France, told Live Science.

But the horses reacted differently depending on which cotton pad they were presented with.

“When the horses smelled the joy samples, they used only their left nostrils,” Jardat said. “That indicates which part of the brain they are using to analyze the odor. In all mammals, the two brain hemispheres have different functions, and in an emotional context, it seems like the odor from the joy samples were perceived as positive by the horses.”

But when the horses were given the samples swiped during the horror film, the animals reacted much differently and not only sniffed the sample longer but also “used both nostrils” to catch a whiff, Jardat said.

However, Jardat was quick to point out that this doesn’t necessarily mean that horses know what fear is. “It’s not like when the horses smell another animal that they have the word ‘fear’ cross their minds,” she said. “But now we do know that [horses] can differentiate odors from different emotional states in humans.”

This raises a question: What specific compounds do humans produce in their sweat that causes a shift in the horses’ behavior?

Researchers propose that chemosignals, which are chemicals produced by animals that can affect the behavior of another animal, could be behind the horses’ reactions. In humans, there are several compounds in sweat, such as adrenaline or androstadienone (a pheromone-like protein) that could be causing a shift in odor during moments of fear. These compounds could also be carrying “emotional information” from one species to the other, the researchers wrote in the study.

In a future study, scientists plan to examine whether smelling fear could cause a fearful reaction in the horses and what kind of impact this could have on the animals emotionally by having them perform a range of tests after smelling the samples.

“We want to see if fear will modify their reactions to the tests,” Jardat said.

Meanwhile, in a 2018 study in the journal Animal Cognition, scientists tasked Labrador retrievers to sniff samples swiped from male participants’ underarms after watching either a scary or happy video clip. The researchers placed the sample inside a box with an opening and placed the box inside a closed room with two people: a stranger and the dog’s owner.

Similar to the horse study, researchers found that the dogs reacted differently depending on whether they smelled the scent of a fearful or a happy human.

“When the dogs smelled the odor of a happy person, they increased their interactions with the stranger in the room,” study lead author Biagio D’Aniello, a professor of zoology at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, told Live Science.
But when they sniffed a sample from someone who was fearful, the dogs had a completely different reaction.

“When they smelled fear, they would either go to their owner or they would go to the door and try to leave the room,” study co-author Anna Scandurra, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Naples Federico II, told Live Science.

The researchers came to a similar conclusion as the scientists in the horse study: The dogs’ reactions were likely due to chemosignals, suggesting that “interspecies emotional communication” was at play, the authors wrote in their study.

Originally Published: www.livescience.com

The post Can animals really smell fear in humans? appeared first on Table for Change.

Considering that simply smelling vanilla raises testosterone levels in males and estrogen levels in females, you might be thinking, the nose! After all, modern research has shown that the scent of vanilla is correlated with a greater increase in sexual arousal for men than any other scent!

The most important organ when it comes to sexual health is connected to your nose and all other organs in your body. Drum roll please…I’m talking about your brain.

Your brain controls everything that happens in your body and sends the necessary signals and messages to each part and system — so if your brain’s not on board, you’re going to have a hard time getting in the mood, feeling aroused or even functioning.

There are so many factors involved in setting the mood – including sleep and stress levels, sensory experiences, mood and emotions, and the mental stories we tell ourselves about our bodies and sex. And that all comes from the brain.

It’s no surprise then that some of the same herbs that are optimal for brain health and function, can also make for wonderful aphrodisiacs. 

Three such herbal allies are: Ginkgo biloba, Ginseng, and Maca Root.

Ginkgo biloba

Ginkgo biloba can increase the level of nitric oxide in the blood, aiding blood flow by promoting the dilation of blood vessels. Increased blood flow means that your body is sending more blood to both the brain and the genitals, which can improve both sexual desire and function. Ginkgo also has a relaxant effect on smooth muscle tissue, and was found in one study to have a positive effect on all four phases of the sexual response cycle including: desire, excitement (erection and lubrication), orgasm, and resolution (afterglow).

Ginkgo doesn’t just support your sex organs – it was actually by observing a geriatric patient on ginkgo for memory enhancement who showed improved erections that researchers decided to look at this tree for its aphrodisiac potential. Because it improves blood flow, it helps to provide the brain with more oxygen and nutrients, thus supporting better cognitive performance. Ginkgo also promotes memory and improves mood – which is essential to intimacy.

***Because the plant’s extract can also act as a blood thinner, it’s especially important to consult your doctor before using this herbal supplement.

Panax Ginseng

For many years, Panax ginseng has enjoyed a reputation as one of the finest aphrodisiacs in the world. The word Panax, in fact, means “all-healing” in Greek and is thus a reference to the roots’ supposed revitalizing properties for the whole human body.

Like ginkgo, ginseng is said to enhance sexual desire and performance by boosting blood flow, enhancing energy and lowering stress levels. Although there are many types of ginseng, Panax ginseng, also known as Asian or Korean ginseng, shows the most promise when it comes to boosting your libido.

A traditional Chinese herbal therapy, ginseng has been shown to influence the nervous system, facilitating hormone secretion, thus benefiting both sexual drive and arousal. Ginseng can be taken as a supplement, but you can also cook with the raw root and add it to things like stir-fry, stews and soups, or brew it as a tea.

While this amazing plant can be an ally when it comes to your reproductive and cognitive health, it’s worth noting that it should be used in moderation and after consulting with your holistic practitioner. Because it can have some hormone-mimicking effects that could be harmful when used long-term, it’s not recommended to take it for more than six months. In the case of adverse effects, discontinue use immediately.

***Furthermore, due to its endangered status in many regions, please be careful to source this herb from sustainable suppliers who harvest in an ethical way.

Maca Root

Sometimes called Peruvian ginseng, native to Peru and known in the West as a superfood, maca is a plant that boosts sexual desire and performance by regulating hormones and improving mood and energy levels. This is because maca contains amino acids like arginine, which has been clinically shown to improve fertility and sexual function. Some studies suggest it may also improve semen quality, relieve symptoms of menopause, and reduce enlarged prostates!

Like Gingko, maca has an extremely long history. Primitive varieties were found in archaeological sites dating back to 1600 B.C. The maca root was later domesticated during the pre-Inca period, sometime around 380 B.C. The indigenous people used it for centuries to enhance fertility in humans and animals, and it was also commonly traded for gold and exported to feed the kings of Spain!

But in the 19070s, due to political uprisings and a change in the popular diet, the maca plant was pushed nearly to extinction. Thanks to the dedicated native peoples who relied on careful seed harvesting and resourcefulness to protect this wondrous plant from extinction, we can still enjoy maca today.

Families in the vicinity of Chinchaycocha (and the generations before them) are owed an insurmountable debt for their dedication to the preservation of this plant. Today, more than 10,000 acres of maca are planted annually, as maca is once again eaten up to three times a day by many Peruvians, from pro athletes to the elderly.

More than just decreasing stress and improving athletic performance, maca is also known as a nootropic substance, or a supplement that can enhance brain performance, including cognitive function, motor coordination, and endurance capacity. Maca has been shown to slow down age-related cognitive decline when consumed daily.

As you can see, there are many benefits to adding this wondrous plant into your diet! It’s worth noting that maca root is best consumed cold as some of the nutritional value can be lost in heating.

*As with any herbal remedy, it is recommended that you consult with your holistic health practitioner before consuming any of these herbs.*

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The deeper you dive into the healing of your body, the more you realize that each system impacts another – there is no way to separate them. So as you step onto the path of healing one ailment, you are really upgrading your whole being.

While our herbal allies can be a huge support, it’s important to remember that physical challenges, injuries or illnesses are just the body’s way of communicating an imbalance within us. It’s important go inward and listen.

What stories or repetitive thought patterns are affecting your health? Are you harboring stuck emotions? As you seek the healing powers of plants, you must also open your body up to receive their help. Are you ready to listen? Are you ready to receive?

Originally Published: wakeup-world.com

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The tick of life’s clocks

How can isolated human beings keep regular track of time, even when they’re disconnected from their surrounding environment? Quite simply, because biological rhythms are at the heart of life, regulating it all the way from the molecular level up to that of the entire body. These include not only our sleep/wake cycles, but also body temperature, hormones, metabolism and the cardiovascular system, to name but a few.

And these rhythms have many repercussions, not least in terms of public health. Indeed, a number of diseases are episodic—for example, asthma is more severe at night, while cardiovascular accidents are more frequent in the morning. Another example is shift work, which disconnects people from their environment. It may be associated with an increased risk of cancers in workers, prompting the WHO to label it as a probable carcinogen.

Rhythms also impact how we interact with other species. For example, African trypanosomiasis, also called sleeping sickness, is a disorder of our daily rhythm caused by the parasite Trypanosoma brucei, whose metabolism is also daily—just like our immunity.

Genes: the great clockmakers

The rotations of the Earth, moon and sun generate environmental cycles that have favored the selection of biological clocks.

A biological clock is a mechanism internal to organisms that, in the absence of an environmental signal, operates at its own frequency. The regular alternation of day and night has, for example, favored the evolution of the circadian clock (circa, meaning “approximately”, and diem, “day”).

The circadian clock mechanism was first discovered in the fruit fly, also known as Drosophila, in the 1970s. It is based on feedback loops in the transcription and translation of several genes—gene A promotes the expression of gene B, which in turn inhibits the expression of gene A—creating an oscillation. During the day, light induces the diminution of specific factors of the loop via a photoreceptor called cryptochrome. Interestingly, the key factors in the mechanism essentially only comprise a few genes named period, timeless, clock and cycle. However, the fine-tuning and regulation of the clock is based on a complex molecular and neuronal network that ensures its timing and precision.

There is no single, overarching circadian clock that would organize all of life, as the clock genes vary from species to species. But the principle remains the same: genes whose expression oscillates. Biological rhythms have been described in all the taxa (groups of organisms) studied so far, which comprise cyanobacteria (a type of bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis), fungi, plants, and animals, including humans.

In addition, various time givers (zeitgebers) synchronize the organism with its environment: light (the most studied to date), temperature and food, in particular.

An internal clock synchronized by the environment

One very concrete implication of this circadian clock concerns jet lag. This is the deviation of an individual’s internal rhythm from the time of the time zone they are in.

Environmental signals in general, and light in particular, help to re-synchronize the individual: light perceived at the end of the night moves the clock forward, while light perceived at the beginning of the night delays it. Light perceived during the day has no effect. In humans, light is not perceived directly by the molecular clock, but is captured in the retina and then transmitted via the retino-hypothalamic pathway to a central clock, where it modulates the synthesis of clock proteins. The system is not infinitely scalable, however: it takes the human body approximately one day to adapt to a one-hour time difference.

With Homo sapiens’ intrinsic circadian period spanning an average 24.2 hours, it is easier for us to travel west and lengthen our days than to travel east and shorten them. This is also why athletes and researchers who isolate themselves in the depths of the Earth end up being out of sync with time on the surface, and ultimately perceive fewer days than 24-hour solar days.

Other times, other clocks

The circadian clock is not the only clock mechanism that exists in nature. Many biological processes are seasonal, such as the migration of a host of birds and insects, the reproduction and hibernation of many animal species and the flowering of plants. This seasonality is generally dictated by several factors, including by what is known as a circannual clock in the case of many species. The mechanism of this clock has not yet been determined.

The clock mechanisms in marine species are also unknown, partly because of the oceans’ complex temporal structure. Marine organisms are exposed to the solar cycle of alternating day and night, which is superimposed on a series of lunar cycles, the most prominent of which is the tidal cycle (with a period of 12.4 hours or 24.8 hours). The semi-lunar and lunar cycles (14.8 days/29.5 days), linked to the phases of the moon, also strongly modulate the marine environment, via light and tides. The seasons also affect these ecosystems.

While complex, the temporal structure of marine environments is predictable, and biological rhythms linked to all these cycles have been described in marine species. For example, many corals synchronize their reproduction, laying eggs once a year over a very short period of time. Some marine worms swarm precisely once a month, in the darkest hours of the night, to initiate their reproductive dance before spawning and dying.

Interestingly, in 2020, our team of scientists revealed that biological rhythms are not limited to the coastal environment. We indeed showed rhythms in behavior and gene expression at a depth of 1,700 meters, in a mussel living in the hydrothermal vents of the mid-Atlantic ridge. Our work underlines that the temporal coordination in physiology is likely critical, even in the most extreme life environments such as the deep ocean.

Originally Published: phys.org

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