Today I sent e-mails to all the organizations I know I’m a member of, telling them that I’m leaving. I’ve been having mixed feelings about organizations for a while now, but when my Higher Self told me that being a member of these organization was not only not aligned with, but even detrimental to my soul’s Highest Path and Purpose, I decided to leave. According to my HS, there are organizations that are aligned to be a member of, but I have yet to find any.

It was very weird to send the e-mail to Norsk Målungdom and Miljøpartiet Dei Grøne, because  those were my favourite organizations, and NMU was my first serious one. I still agree with the organizations. I want everyone in Norway to choose Nynorsk over Norskdansk, even though there are some evil plans that intend to ruin Nynorsk once and for all – that’s how I see it, anyway. Even though voting in elections is not aligned with my soul’s HPP, it’s not detrimental either, so I will still vote for MDG. And of course I’ll still wear the T-shirts. :)

Rosine and I are no longer in a relationship. We broke up two days before New Year’s Eve. Now that I feel more at peace with it, I’m writing a blog post about it.

Our relationship was not aligned with her Highest Path and Purpose, or anything else, really. On the contrary – it was detrimental to it. She had a bad gut feeling about it for some time, and we both agreed that breaking up was the best decision, but it was hard. I spent the following days trying to focus on other things, yet kept thinking about the memories she gave me.

We both still love each other very much, and that’s what makes it difficult. It would have been much easier if we hated each other. I love her enough to let her go, though. I see her as a very good friend more than I see her as my ex-girlfriend. No matter how much it sucked, we had to do it. I’m certain we made the right decision, even though it’s sad.

Rosine and I are – in our own words – wonderful, amazing and awesome, and we will probably love each other forever, even if we never see each other again. We’ve spent barely a year together, yet I’ve never felt so close to anyone. It was an incredibly good year, and that means a lot coming from me – this lifetime has been very good most of the time, so far. I hope we can have an aligned relationship in another lifetime, or even in this one.

No matter the circumstances, I enter this new decade as an optimist.

As I wrote earlier, I’m communicating with my Higher Self. A lot has happened since the last post. The most important one is that I’ve went from being a negative soul to a positive one, which means I get my energy from “source” instead of other people. That means a lot to me, since it was my primary motivation when I bought the book. My HS and I have also made a training plan that’s aligned with my goal of being healthy and fit.

The plan is part of my 30-day trial, starting in January 2010, as early as possible. Here it is:

Monday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Swimming; 7 minutes warm-up, then interval training (4 minutes, then 1 minute of slow swimming) for 25 minutes. Stretching.

Tuesday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Running; same as the swimming, except I run (preferably barefoot, actually).

Wednesday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Weightlifting for 25 minutes – 9 for strength, and 16 for endurance. Stretching.
• Swimming.

Thursday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Running.

Friday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Swimming.

Saturday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Running.

Sunday:

• Biking for 30 minutes, starting at about 16:30.
• Weightlifting.
• Swimming.

We’ve also decided a sleep schedule for me. I will get up at 5:00 in the morning, and go to sleep when I’m tired. Talking to my HS is so much fun! I love her (my soul works primarily with feminine energies, thus she’s a “she”) very much. Actually, since she’s me, I love myself very much, and that’s awesome. :) Time to get to work on the Third Pillar of Health!

For quite some time now, I’ve been connecting to my Higher Self (my soul). I’ve been planning to write a short blog post about it, but I’ve felt that I knew too little. I still know little, but I want to write it anyway. :)

I bought Unlock Your Intuition, because Rosine recommended it, and started trying to connect. First, I had to do a ritual with a candle five days in a row. Then, I purchased a pendulum at a store in the long, bowed building by Domkyrkja in Oslo, and then cleared it by washing it in cold, then warm running water three times. I programmed it by asking it to show me ‘yes’ and ‘no’, as well as ‘undecided’, but I’ve hardly ever gotten that last one. Then, I started working on the exercises in the book, and although I was kinda skeptical in the beginning (actually, I still am sometimes), the answers made sense – especially the fact that I didn’t just get random answers on percentages.

I was very tempted to (and I did a couple of times) ask the same question twice in a row when I wasn’t sure the answer was right. That would mean that my subconscious mind would answer instead, because my HS would consider the question answered and give it to my subconscious. I’ve learned that the best thing to do is to simply trust that the answer is correct.

I’ve just started an exercise in which I’ll ask my HS at least 20 questions per day for two weeks. That seems like a lot, but it’s so interesting that I have no problem with it. I’ve asked about previous lifetimes today, and if you’re wondering, I’ve apparently never been a Viking. ;)

Maybe I’ll write more about this topic as I learn more. I’ll probably get some interesting experiences, and I think I will benefit tremendously from connecting to my HS. :)

I had about two days where I failed to stick to the pattern, but now I’m used to it. :) The trial is a success!

I recently started meditating and then journaling first thing in the morning, sometimes between going to the toilet and eating breakfast. Now, since I can’t think of a better trial, I will meditate and journal as I have been doing for about a week or so already, except now it’s a trial.

Here are the rules:

• Meditating for as long as I feel like, gradually going longer as I get better. (I’m currently doing two minutes, but starting tomorrow, I’ll do at least three.)
• Journaling for at least fifteen minutes – constant writing.

That’s it. :)

An update about going barefoot, now that I’m writing anyway:

I’m still walking barefoot. Last Friday I jumped over the edge of the pavement thing at the parking lot by the Kiwi store at Kringsjå, and landed in the leaves. I also landed on a broken bottle neck, cutting myself, but I didn’t realize before I got home. I wore shoes for three days – when I did go out, that is. I felt like Minotaurus, wearing those hooves. :S I found it hard and uncomfortable to walk with shoes, so I will try to avoid it as much as I can. My wound is almost completely gone, so I walk without shoes, fearing no infection anymore. :)

I’ve already started this somehow, but now I’m doing it publically. I will get up at 6:30 for 30 days. This means I’ll have to go to bed at around eleven, or even earlier, although I will simply go to bed when I’m tired. I don’t imagine it will be very hard – I’ve been an early riser before, and as early as at 5:00 for a long time.

This is the return of my old project, where I wanted to first fix my sleep, then my diet, and finally exercise. This time I’m back with my diet in order, and a fourth pillar of health. ;) I’m exercising as well, but it has the lowest priority at the moment. The love seems to be fine as well, but I will probably do some sort of 30-day trial on that too. So, right now I’d say that my diet project is successful – one down, three left. :)

The detailed rules for this 30-day trial are:

• I am allowed to take naps. However, I have to wait at least 1,5 hours between waking up and going back to bed, except between 10:30 pm and 6.30 am.
• No matter when I take naps, I have to be awake from 6:30 to 8:00.
• At 11:00 pm, I am not allowed to stay awake if I’m tired, except if I just woke up from a nap, in which case the limit is pushed back 1,5 hours at most.

I have conquered the second pillar of health. Now I’m going for the first one.

(Updated 20. September 2009 – added a fourth pillar.)

About three years ago, I actively started caring about my own health. I had almost no clue about health, so I started running three times a week. It made me better at running, but health isn’t measured by how well you run. However, this post isn’t about that. It’s about how I presently see health.

“Four Pillars of Health” have nothing to do with the pillars of the European Union, I simply think it’s a good way of putting it. :) All four need to be taken care of, because if you neglect even one, it might come back to haunt you. (Update 23.09.09:) Note that the pillars aren’t arranged in order of importance. They were, but I realized that they are simply important in different ways. I now view them as equally important.

The first pillar: Sleep

I see sleep as the most important pillar. I have done a lot of sleep experiments, and I find that sleep is the most important pillar regarding how I feel overall. There are different ways of sleeping, ranging from the most basic ones, like free running sleep, to the most complex ones, like uberman. I have tested some, but not all. Some are so difficult that I haven’t gotten to testing them properly yet. Perhaps I never will. The ones I have had luck with are varieties of monophasic and biphasic sleep. I haven’t been able to test anything really longterm, though.

The second pillar: Food

Food is incredibly important. To many, it’s only a matter of weight – I once heard from a sports guy that exercise was so great because you could eat what you want without getting fat. To me, food isn’t about being fat or not. It’s about quality of life for myself and others. The way I see it, what does the body good tend to also do the environment good, like organic food. Good food, like fruit and vegetables, is also sustainable. So, my rule of thumb is that if it’s not sustainable, I shouldn’t eat it. Sometimes I have no choice, though. The way things are organized right now doesn’t open for much organic agriculture – vote your local green party to fix it. ;)

Remember, when it comes to food, what’s important is definitely not only what you put in – equally important is what you leave out. If your goal is to eat healthier, leaving out milk products and refined sugars is where you should start, as well as red meat. My opinion is that our ability to digest meat is simply a survival technique – we don’t really need it, and it’s not very sustainable. And yes, fish is meat as well. Concerning taste, it’s something you get used to. It is possible to eat delicious, yet healthy food – and it is possible to live a great life without chocolate and potato chips.

The third pillar: Exercise

Exercise is nice, but it’s a pillar I have little experience with. The best exercise is to keep relatively active most of the time you spend awake. That’s better than spend your time sitting on a chair and exercise occasionally, but many of us don’t really have that option. Going for walks is a nice thing to do instead – most people can do it, too. “Real” exercise is nice as well – especially if you have fun while doing it.

The fourth pillar: Love

After I first wrote this post, my dear Rose reminded me that physical health is affected by mental health as well. I have only lately come to realize what a wonderful thing love really is, but it certainly makes sense to give it its own pillar. With love, I mean all kinds of love: physically expressed love (touching, sexual…), friendship, self-love, loving what you do, emotional balance, etc. – I guess you can think of even more. :) One of the most important reasons I can think of for including the pillar of love, is because my goal is quality of life. Love improves the quality of life, as well as health. :)

Why I’m interested in health:

People often assume that my interest in health is for longevity. I even hear “I’d rather die young and happy than die old and ascetic”. This is not the case. I pursue health for quality of life (and I’ve gotten some unexpected bonuses along the way, like less body odour and a girlfriend). :) In my experience, people who say this seem to assume that I am denying myself happiness, and that, say, eating pizza, not exercise, or wake up in the morning feeling like crap will make them happy, but make them die earlier. However, eating a standard western diet won’t necessarily make you happy – maybe you’ll enjoy each meal (which I do too, even though I’m raw!), but you’ll also open the doors for all kinds of diseases as you grow older. Why go for temporary happiness when you can make it last? :)

Guacamole with salad (or Gualad :þ):

This one is based on a meal I had at a meeting in Norsk Målungdom. I started with the same ingredients; cubed avocado, olive oil, and salt. Very fatty and salty, like the stuff you might crave when starting out as a raw foodist. :) Perfect for me in the beginning, and incredibly easy. Later, I added more ingredients and changed the recipe lots of times. You could say I reinvented Guacamole.

Ingredients:

• Avocado
• Lemon juice (or olive oil, etc.)
• Dried tomatoes (or salt)
  
• Tomatoes (and/or other fruits, like bell pepper. Vegetables and mushrooms should also do.)
  
• Leafy vegetables (I like lettuce or spinach. Anything will do.)
• (Optional:) Spices (like black pepper, finely chopped chili, garlic, etc.)

I usually take two avocados, one lemon, three dried tomatoes, and two tomatoes.

Simply mash the avocados until it looks like mashed potatoes, then put in the lemon juice and mix it. Chop the dried tomatoes in tiny pieces and mix them in as well. At this point you might want to add your spices. Then chop the tomatoes in as small pieces as you’d like. I like them as small as possible. Cut the leafy vegetables as small as you want. I use kinda big ones, but my mother prefers them very tiny.

I usually add mushrooms too. :)

Here with tomatoes, chives, bell pepper, spinach, and mushrooms. :) (Sorry about the bad quality.)

Summer salad:

I call it summer salad because it is one. ;) If you eat in season, you can’t eat tomatoes in winter, f.ex.

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes
• Mushrooms
• Olive oil
• Tamari
• Lemon juice
• Green leaves
• Chives
• (Optional:) Other herbs

I ate this almost every day when I was in France. It’s even better than the above recipe if you make it well. :)

Make the sauce by putting 4/7 olive oil, 2/7 tamari, and 1/7 lemon juice in a deep, little plate, preferably with a flat bottom, and mix it violently. :)

Cut the mushrooms in as thin slices as possible, and put them in the sauce. Make sure you cover them completely – they’re wonderful! Cut the tomatoes in moderately sized pieces, and mix everything together with your hands (you may want to wash them before and after). Remember to cut the chives and other herbs to a suitable size.

Pie:

Yes, raw pies are nice. :) However, they are very sweet and fatty, so you don’t want to eat too much of them.

I’ve tried this recipe, brought to us by Steve Pavlina. :)

About food in general, and specifically tomatoes:

If you can, buy organic. It’s (disputed, but) likely much better for your health, and it doesn’t ruin the soil. Sure it’s expensive, but support your local Green Party, and make that change.

I recommend so-called Andes and green zebra tomatoes. :) They’re pieces of paradise.

I have decided to limit my political actions – it isn’t good for me. I’ve been feeling that I have a responsibility for doing politics, or else the world will go to hell, but now I’ve realized something: if I do politics motivated by fear, that’s not much better. Sure, I care about the rest of the world, but the main reason for doing politics was fear for my own future.

I started getting interested in politics about three years ago, when I swiched from writing Norwegian Danish to writing real Norwegian. I became a member of Norsk Målungdom, and after some time there decided I wanted to pick a political party. I only knew of the biggest ones, so I felt the best party would be “Sosialistisk Venstreparti” (lit. “Socialist Left Party”). Then I learned that there is actually a much better party – “Miljøpartiet Dei Grøne” (lit. “The Environmental Party the Green Ones”). I was glad to learn about this party, and I agreed with everything in the program. I joined it about a year ago, determined to do what I could for the future.

The election is now over, and the party tripled its amount of votes in four years. I think it’s because it’s getting more visible, and people actually get to know it exists. As for me, doing politics sucks the energy right out of me. I might help out next election too, but until then, I want to do little to no politics officially. The only problem is that I have an official spot in the youth organization, although only as a substitute. They’ll probably do fine without me. When I’ve no energy left, I get into “don’t do anything and say “told you so” when the world goes to hell” mode, so I’d rather not waste it.

I have had more luck “converting” people in private life, so I’ll just keep doing that. MDG will keep growing. They don’t need my help with that. The future is green! :)

Some people might say I’m “dirty”. I don’t mean in a sexual sense, even though that is subjective as well. I’m talking about my not showering very often, and going barefoot for days without cleaning my feet.

During my second raw trial, in September one year ago, I first noticed that I started smelling less. At one point I hadn’t showered for a week, yet smelled nothing at all. Now I sometimes smell, and I think it’s when I eat a lot of fatty food. Last year I was going low-fat. Nevertheless, I don’t smell half as much as before. I used to smell slightly sweaty no matter what. As a consequence, when I broke my trial off after two weeks, the smell after/during P.E. classes was surprising. I’m glad to be rid of that problem. Now I only shower when I “feel dirty”, which happens every week or less.

When I first started going barefoot, I washed my feet every day… for about a week. Since then, I’ve simply used the doormat. The second week or so, someone asked me if I washed my feet when I got home. When I said I didn’t, this person was disgusted. Last weekend, I was at MDG’s stand at Karl Johan street in Oslo. Some guy walked past me as I offered him a flier, saying that he “wouldn’t accept anything from someone walking barefoot at Karl Johan”, apparently disgusted. He said something about bacteria and stuff, as well.

To me it seems like society at large is mysophobic. As far as I remember from biology in high school, contact with dirt is good. It keeps the immune system active. Children who grow up in “sterile” environments are much more likely to get sick later, and more severely at that, because their bodies aren’t used combat germs. As for me, I’m not afraid of getting sick, due to my boosted immune system. ;) I even pick up the peanuts I drop on the floor and eat them. Others could have a reason to worry, but I’m actually doing them a favour.

I used to think in the same way, and probably still do to some extent – I wash my hands after using the restroom, for example. After I started going barefoot, I’ve become more at ease with dirt. As a bonus, I save water. And anyway, it’s just dirt. :)