We'd like to thank Lisa Johnson and the LIFECO WEBSITE for allowing us to
reprint the articles that Udo wrote for their site.  Lisa writes an introduction
to their business, based in Turkey, which recently expanded to Munich & London.
 

Hello, wherever on this beautiful planet you live: Where do we start?

Udo ErasmusWe have to start with life, because life is what makes this planet special, precious, and delicate, all at the same time, and in our known universe.

Life is the standard by which to measure everything we feel, think, say, and do. If something protects life and nature and supports the growth of life in nature, it is good. If something threatens life and hinders growth, it is not good. This is the standard for a planet that supports life. Life is the highest standard here.

If we were to use this standard to make decisions, we would make many wiser decisions. We would run our industries differently. We would govern differently. We would revere and care for life in more practical ways. What happens when we live to standards lower than those set by life? We get pain.

Pain is not our enemy. Pain is our friend. Pain pushes us to change. If we make the right kind of changes, the pain that motivates us to change goes away. Pain is life’s message to us when we go off track. Embedded in life’s energy is a feeling.

One name for that feeling is wholeness. Other names include peace, love, courage, contentment, wisdom, truth, freedom, presence, God, and joy. The feeling of life is not created by our thoughts and beliefs, but discovered by a practice (knowledge, know-how) that moves our awareness from world and mind, deep inside, where we can discover more of our nature. See my list of resources to find out how.

We, as individual human beings, need to re-connect our awareness to our core so that we feel taken care of. When that is done, we can begin to make care-ful decisions for our selves, others, and nature. We can begin to live from inspiration. It’s time we find out what we are and what is true about life, body, mind, and planet... (unless, we want a lot more pain.)

Sooner or later, life will get our attention.

Pain: A Message from Life
Healthy fats guru Udo Erasmus talks about pain being a catalyst to make positive changes in our life. 

We can measure everything we think, feel, say and do by one standard – life.

But when we live below the standard set by life we experience pain. Pain is a message from life that we need to change.

There are four different forms of pain – heartache, physical pain, mental-emotional pain and environmental pain. Each form expresses itself differently, but they are all life alerting us to set better standards.

Heartache 

Like the body hungers for food and thirsts for water, the heart longs to be fulfilled. Heartache is our life calling to us to be fulfilled.

This is our core pain. It is not well understood, although poets, bards, writers, sages, and masters regularly address this theme. We often blame our core pain on other people or on situations past or present.
 
The truth is this pain, (also called loneliness, longing, ennui, emptiness, uneasiness, sorrow, and many other names) is the pain of our disconnection from the core of our being and the feeling of our inner essence. This disconnection is a natural part of getting to know the world. What is unnatural is that so few people find their way back to themselves.

Heartache is the call of our heart for our (not someone or something else’s) attention. The call is subtle, persistent, and sometimes very intense. If we acknowledge this call, it will lead us back to our heart. With a little help from those who know, the heartache will turn into an intense joy with life, a deep and solid contentment, or the feeling that we are wonderfully and unconditionally cared for. We feel fulfilled, inspired and even find our true passion.Flower

Someone once told me that a life of purpose requires a personal experience of the divine. I believe that although we usually leave this to last, the feeling of living fully present, aligned with life, is really the starting point of a life of wholeness.

Physical Pain

This is life, filtered through our physical being, telling us to set a higher standard of caring for the body. This means to eat, drink, and breathe to higher standards, avoid poisons, ensure optimum digestion, and move without bashing into physical obstacles.

The pain of degenerative diseases is largely based on inflammation triggered by not getting enough good food and essential nutrients, while getting too many carbohydrates, toxic molecules (industrial chemicals, plastics, pharmaceutical drugs, pesticides, heavy metals), processing- or food preparation-damaged food molecules, too much toxic radiation, and taking too little care of our digestion. Inflammation puts pressure on nerve endings which triggers physical pain.

Secondary to inadequate physical standards are viral, yeast, fungal, and bacterial infections. Inflammation also triggers pain from infections. The pain reminds us to set higher standards.

Mental-Emotional Pain

LadybugThis is life, filtered through our thoughts and moods, telling us we need to raise our standard of thinking and responding to our thoughts. Negative thoughts and emotions can lead to actions that are out of line with life, others or nature, which threatens our survival. Because survival is threatened, life lets us know through pain that we need to choose better thoughts, emotions, and actions.

Positive thoughts and emotions toward life, others, and the planet lead to better outcomes, and therefore bring pleasure rather than pain. Inherent in our mental and emotional make-up is the need to contribute. We feel better when we help or heal than when we hurt or damage life, others, or the planet.

Wisdom comes from living in line with life from within and by respecting and accepting others and nature. Wisdom expresses itself in taking no more than we need and giving what we can to those around us.


Environmental Pain
 

This is life, filtered through our environment, telling us we need to treat our planet with more care. If we ‘uglify’ our surroundings, we make them painful to look at.

Grow organic.  Avoid the use and consequent intake of industrial chemicals.  If they create pain in the environment, they will create pain in the body.

If we burn up our oxygen, we asphyxiate ourselves. It took the plants that made our fossil fuels 2.5 billion years to create enough oxygen on this planet for air-breathing creatures to begin to exist. The burial of fossil fuels made it possible for high levels of oxygen to remain in our atmosphere. If we dig out and burn all the fossil fuel, we will use up most of the oxygen, and then it’s goodbye humans, mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and invertebrates (flies, bees, wasps, spiders, and many more).

Udo ErasmusWhen we burn coal, gas, kerosene, gasoline, bio-ethanol or similar bio-fuels, each atom of carbon removes two atoms of oxygen (to make carbon dioxide) from our atmosphere. Burning fossil fuels also costs us one atom of oxygen for each two hydrogen atoms (to make water). The depletion of oxygen, more than carbon dioxide production, is the long-term, irreversible consequence of our use of carbon-based fuels.

Only green plants can turn carbon dioxide back into oxygen. They’ve been doing it for 4.5 billion years. They’re dependable and time-tested. We hurt them at our peril. We need them for everything, and they need us for nothing. Who do we think is in charge here?

Water is the only non-polluting, sustainable source of energy that suspends all of the problems caused by fossil fuels, explosives, and fires. We can run everything on the ground on hydro-electricity. We can make fuel by using some of this electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. We can store water and irrigate dry places to make them green. Water is necessary for growing food, retaining water in the ground, and allowing green plants to turn carbon dioxide back into oxygen. Water is therefore necessary for hunger, thirst, and breath. We should be in awe of water.

If we pollute our water, we drink our pollution. Human wastes harbor infectious bacteria and parasites. Instead of cooking our food and destroying its nutritional value, we should cook our wastes to destroy parasites and infectious (unfriendly) microorganisms. Then we should return these wastes to the land, because they are the soil that became food that was used to make our bodies.

When we take soil from the land and flush it into rivers that take it to the oceans, we are ruining the land that grows our food and sustains our bodies. Research suggests that it takes 100 years to make an inch of topsoil. Plants take 20 essential minerals from the soil. Our fertilizers replace only 3 to 6. There are indications that we cut the mineral content of our soils in half about every 50 years. How long can we continue to do this?

What we call nature is dust, including us, invited by life to dance.

Although life is eternal and indestructible, the dancers are fragile and temporary. The dance is precious. We were invited to partake of the dance, not to destroy the dancers.

 

The LifeCo – A New Recipe for Life

by Lisa Johnson // www.TheLifeCo.com

Do you want to feel younger and more energetic? Many people do, but find it difficult to balance a healthy lifestyle with the stress and obligations of modern life. And with so much conflicting information about what is good for us and what isn’t, it is hard to know where to begin. The LifeCo aims to change that.

TheLifeCo LogoThe LifeCo is a healthy living company who is helping people improve their well-being by making small changes to their lifestyle. The industry offers so many options, it can be overwhelming for somebody to know where to start. So The LifeCo has chosen a limited selection of high quality products, services and information to give people a simple yet comprehensive set of tools to get on the path to better health.

The concept is the brainchild of Ersin Pamuksüzer, a Turkish businessman who was determined to live more healthily after he did a detox program in Thailand. Pamuksüzer sought ways to maintain the energy and improved digestion he felt after his detox while continuing his busy life in Istanbul. He started to make minor changes to his diet, exercise habits and environment. Friends and family became interested, and started to change their habits as well. As this concept gained popularity, Pamuksüzer decided to create The LifeCo to help people everywhere improve their quality of life.

Today The LifeCo offers a 360-degree approach to well-being. Their detox centers have programs ranging from in-depth retreats to home detox packages for those who can’t take a break from their busy schedules. Their Saf Restaurants are the first raw, vegan restaurants in Europe. Not only do they provide a much tastier option to traditional vegetarian fare, Saf London is at the forefront of the raw vegan cuisine trend in Europe. Their Well-being Center in Istanbul is the first of its kind offering an array of ‘well-aging’ therapies to keep people fit and young. The LifeCo has selected high quality environmental, nutritional, exercise and personal care products  - including Udo’s Choice products - to improve almost every area of our lives. Their website (www.thelifeco.com) is a great resource to help you start bettering your health. And their e-learning programs give people a chance to learn about different wellness topics at any time from anywhere.

The LifeCo first opened its doors in Turkey, has expanded to Munich and London and will be opening new ventures elsewhere in Europe and beyond in the near future.

 

 


Udo's website is a community resource for people interested in learning more about how fats affect health.  Udo Erasmus, Ph.D, has pioneered much of the ongoing public awareness on the dangers of trans-fats and the health benefits of Essential Fatty Acids, taken in the right ratios, from the right sources.

 

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