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Bank Bail-ins Threaten Savings

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A Crisis Worse Than ISIS? Bail-Ins Begin

by Zen Gardner – Dec 30, 2015

EllenBrown.com

While the mainstream media focus on ISIS extremists, a threat that has gone virtually unreported is that your life savings could be wiped out in a massive derivatives collapse. Bank bail-ins have begun in Europe, and the infrastructure is in place in the US.  Poverty also kills.

At the end of November, an Italian pensioner hanged himself after his entire €100,000 savings were confiscated in a bank “rescue” scheme. He left a suicide note blaming the bank, where he had been a customer for 50 years and had invested in bank-issued bonds. But he might better have blamed the EU and the G20’s Financial Stability Board, which have imposed an “Orderly Resolution” regime that keeps insolvent banks afloat by confiscating the savings of investors and depositors. Some 130,000 shareholders and junior bond holders suffered losses in the “rescue.”

The pensioner’s bank was one of four small regional banks that had been put under special administration over the past two years. The €3.6 billion ($3.83 billion) rescue plan launched by the Italian government uses a newly-formed National Resolution Fund, which is fed by the country’s healthy banks. But before the fund can be tapped, losses must be imposed on investors; and in January, EU rules will require that they also be imposed on depositors. According to a December 10th article on BBC.com:

The rescue was a “bail-in” – meaning bondholders suffered losses – unlike the hugely unpopular bank bailouts during the 2008 financial crisis, which cost ordinary EU taxpayers tens of billions of euros.

Correspondents say [Italian Prime Minister] Renzi acted quickly because in January, the EU is tightening the rules on bank rescues – they will force losses on depositors holding more than €100,000, as well as bank shareholders and bondholders.

. . . [L]etting the four banks fail under those new EU rules next year would have meant “sacrificing the money of one million savers and the jobs of nearly 6,000 people”.

That is what is predicted for 2016: massive sacrifice of savings and jobs to prop up a “systemically risky” global banking scheme.

Bail-in Under Dodd-Frank

That is all happening in the EU. Is there reason for concern in the US?

According to former hedge fund manager Shah Gilani, writing for Money Morning, there is. In a November 30th article titled “Why I’m Closing My Bank Accounts While I Still Can,” he writes:

[It is] entirely possible in the next banking crisis that depositors in giant too-big-to-fail failing banks could have their money confiscated and turned into equity shares. . . .

If your too-big-to-fail (TBTF) bank is failing because they can’t pay off derivative bets they made, and the government refuses to bail them out, under a mandate titled “Adequacy of Loss-Absorbing Capacity of Global Systemically Important Banks in Resolution,” approved on Nov. 16, 2014, by the G20’s Financial Stability Board, they can take your deposited money and turn it into shares of equity capital to try and keep your TBTF bank from failing.

Once your money is deposited in the bank, it legally becomes the property of the bank. Gilani explains:

Your deposited cash is an unsecured debt obligation of your bank. It owes you that money back.

If you bank with one of the country’s biggest banks, who collectively have trillions of dollars of derivatives they hold “off balance sheet” (meaning those debts aren’t recorded on banks’ GAAP balance sheets), those debt bets have a superior legal standing to your deposits and get paid back before you get any of your cash.

. . . Big banks got that language inserted into the 2010 Dodd-Frank law meant to rein in dangerous bank behavior.

The banks inserted the language and the legislators signed it, without necessarily understanding it or even reading it. At over 2,300 pages and still growing, the Dodd Frank Act is currently the longest and most complicated bill ever passed by the US legislature.

Propping Up the Derivatives Scheme

Dodd-Frank states in its preamble that it will “protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts.” But it does this under Title II by imposing the losses of insolvent financial companies on their common and preferred stockholders, debtholders, and other unsecured creditors. That includes depositors, the largest class of unsecured creditor of any bank.

Title II is aimed at “ensuring that payout to claimants is at least as much as the claimants would have received under bankruptcy liquidation.” But here’s the catch: under both the Dodd Frank Act and the 2005 Bankruptcy Act, derivative claims have super-priority over all other claims, secured and unsecured, insured and uninsured.

The over-the-counter (OTC) derivative market (the largest market for derivatives) is made up of banks and other highly sophisticated players such as hedge funds. OTC derivatives are the bets of these financial players against each other. Derivative claims are considered “secured” because collateral is posted by the parties.

For some inexplicable reason, the hard-earned money you deposit in the bank is not considered “security” or “collateral.” It is just a loan to the bank, and you must stand in line along with the other creditors in hopes of getting it back. State and local governments must also stand in line, although their deposits are considered “secured,” since they remain junior to the derivative claims with “super-priority.”

Turning Bankruptcy on Its Head

 Under the old liquidation rules, an insolvent bank was actually “liquidated” – its assets were sold off to repay depositors and creditors. Under an “orderly resolution,” the accounts of depositors and creditors are emptied to keep the insolvent bank in business. The point of an “orderly resolution” is not to make depositors and creditors whole but to prevent another system-wide “disorderly resolution” of the sort that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. The concern is that pulling a few of the dominoes from the fragile edifice that is our derivatives-laden global banking system will collapse the entire scheme. The sufferings of depositors and investors are just the sacrifices to be borne to maintain this highly lucrative edifice.

In a May 2013 article in Forbes titled “The Cyprus Bank ‘Bail-In’ Is Another Crony Bankster Scam,” Nathan Lewis explained the scheme like this:

At first glance, the “bail-in” resembles the normal capitalist process of liabilities restructuring that should occur when a bank becomes insolvent. . . .

The difference with the “bail-in” is that the order of creditor seniority is changed. In the end, it amounts to the cronies (other banks and government) and non-cronies. The cronies get 100% or more; the non-cronies, including non-interest-bearing depositors who should be super-senior, get a kick in the guts instead. . . .

In principle, depositors are the most senior creditors in a bank. However, that was changed in the 2005 bankruptcy law, which made derivatives liabilities most senior. Considering the extreme levels of derivatives liabilities that many large banks have, and the opportunity to stuff any bank with derivatives liabilities in the last moment, other creditors could easily find there is nothing left for them at all.

As of September 2014, US derivatives had a notional value of nearly $280 trillion. A study involving the cost to taxpayers of the Dodd-Frank rollback slipped by Citibank into the “cromnibus” spending bill last December found that the rule reversal allowed banks to keep $10 trillion in swaps trades on their books. This is money that taxpayers could be on the hook for in another bailout; and since Dodd-Frank replaces bailouts with bail-ins, it is money that creditors and depositors could now be on the hook for. Citibank is particularly vulnerable to swaps on the price of oil. Brent crude dropped from a high of $114 per barrel in June 2014 to a low of $36 in December 2015.

What about FDIC insurance? It covers deposits up to $250,000, but the FDIC fund had only $67.6 billion in it as of June 30, 2015, insuring about $6.35 trillion in deposits. The FDIC has a credit line with the Treasury, but even that only goes to $500 billion; and who would pay that massive loan back? The FDIC fund, too, must stand in line behind the bottomless black hole of derivatives liabilities. As Yves Smith observed in a March 2013 post:

In the US, depositors have actually been put in a worse position than Cyprus deposit-holders, at least if they are at the big banks that play in the derivatives casino. The regulators have turned a blind eye as banks use their depositors to fund derivatives exposures. . . . The deposits are now subject to being wiped out by a major derivatives loss.

Even in the worst of the Great Depression bank bankruptcies, noted Nathan Lewis, creditors eventually recovered nearly all of their money. He concluded:

When super-senior depositors have huge losses of 50% or more, after a “bail-in” restructuring, you know that a crime was committed.

Exiting While We Can

How can you avoid this criminal theft and keep your money safe? It may be too late to pull your savings out of the bank and stuff them under a mattress, as Shah Gilani found when he tried to withdraw a few thousand dollars from his bank. Large withdrawals are now criminally suspect.

You can move your money into one of the credit unions with their own deposit insurance protection; but credit unions and their insurance plans are also under attack. So writes Frances Coppola in a December 18th article titled “Co-operative Banking Under Attack in Europe,” discussing an insolvent Spanish credit union that was the subject of a bail-in in July 2015. When the member-investors were subsequently made whole by the credit union’s private insurance group, there were complaints that the rescue “undermined the principle of creditor bail-in” – this although the insurance fund was privately financed. Critics argued that “this still looks like a circuitous way to do what was initially planned, i.e. to avoid placing losses on private creditors.”

In short, the goal of the bail-in scheme is to place losses on private creditors. Alternatives that allow them to escape could soon be blocked.

from:    http://www.zengardner.com/a-crisis-worse-than-isis-bail-ins-begin/

Embrace Your Greatness

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30 Challenges For 30 Days Of Greatness

| December 12, 2015 

30 Challenges For 30 Days Of Greatness

by Marc Chernoff,
MarcAndAngel.com

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but so few think of changing themselves first.

How disappointed would you be to get to the end of your life and discover that you were made to be great while all you did was wait around?

It’s time to get present, challenge yourself, and change things for the better!

Will you be able to change everything? No. In fact there may be lots of things you want to change that can’t be changed. But YOU can still change!

Even when you are no longer able to change a situation, you are challenged to change yourself. And that makes all the difference in the world.

With this simple truth in mind, here are my challenges to you for the upcoming month – a positive to-do list for 30 days of personal greatness:

1. When a new day begins, challenge yourself to smile genuinely and gratefully.

2. When you don’t get what you want, challenge yourself to appreciate that there are lots of people in this world who will never have what you have right now.

3. When holding on no longer seems reasonable, challenge yourself to appreciate the fact that nothing in life is permanent, and to realize that once you embrace this you can do almost anything you wish because you’re not trying to hold onto anything anymore.

4. When you catch yourself thinking the grass is greener elsewhere, challenge yourself to water the grass you’re standing on.

5. When you absolutely can’t control what’s happening to you, challenge yourself to control the way you respond to what’s happening – in your response is your power.

6. When it seems like problems are stacking up, challenge yourself to face these problems positively.

7. When there seems to be little hope, challenge yourself to find some.

8. When the road ahead seems too rough, challenge yourself to acknowledge that there’s absolutely nothing about your present circumstances that prevents you from making progress, one small step at a time.

9. When you catch yourself overthinking things, challenge yourself to take a step forward instead.

10. When you are completely uncertain about what the future will bring, challenge yourself to make the best and most positive use of the present.

11. When you have two good choices, challenge yourself to go with the one that scares you the most, because that’s the one that is going to help you grow.

12. When you are going to do something – anything at all – challenge yourself to do it with enthusiasm and devotion.

13. When others say your ideas are crazy, challenge yourself to do what feels right anyway, to not care if your goals seem crazy to others, and to remember that the crazy ideas are the ones that often have the greatest impact.

14. When there are lots of excuses for why you can’t get it done, challenge yourself to focus on all the reasons why you must make it happen.

15. When you find yourself wishing for instant gratification, challenge yourself to admit that if you could have it all instantly, it would not be worth having – for the real value of accomplishment is in the accomplishing.

16. When mistakes are made, challenge yourself to learn from them, laugh about them, and waste not a minute on past outcomes you can’t control.

17. When you find yourself trying to control too much, and thus enjoying too little, challenge yourself to let go, relax, take a deep breath and appreciate “what is” for a while.

18. When there is needless drama and negativity surrounding you, challenge yourself to look the other way.

19. When your own negativity tries to break through, challenge yourself to recall that you are in control of the way you look at life, and then use your struggles and frustrations to motivate yourself rather than annoy yourself.

20. When you find yourself running in place attempting to fix and fight the old, challenge yourself to build and grow something new instead.

21. When doing the wrong things is easier, challenge yourself to do the right thing, even if no one else will ever know – because YOU will know.

22. When you catch yourself praying for an easy life, challenge yourself to pray for the strength to endure a difficult one that’s worth living.

23. When everything seems jumbled and rushed, challenge yourself to take a step back so you can see things clearly again.

24. When you meet someone new, challenge yourself to be patient with them, to pay attention to them, and to remember that everyone you meet has something important to teach you.

25. When you don’t like someone, challenge yourself to identify an insecurity within yourself that they are triggering.

26. When someone treats you poorly, challenge yourself to treat them with kindness and respect anyway – not because they are nice, but because you are (and then walk the other way if you must).

27. When a negative situation gets emotional, take a deep breath, and challenge yourself to remember that inner peace begins the moment you decide not to let another person or event control your emotions.

28. When someone you meet is lost, challenge yourself to help them find their way.

29. When a friend falls down, challenge yourself to be the first to extend a hand.

30. When each day has ended, challenge yourself to appreciate that you have done your very best.

from: http://www.bodymindsoulspirit.com/30-challenges-for-30-days-of-greatness/

Rare Nevada Earthquake

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12/11/2015 — Earthquake strikes Volcanoes next to famous AREA 51 base in Nevada

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A rare M3.1 earthquake has struck the volcanoes next to the famous “AREA 51” base in Southern Nevada.

three volcanoes struck in 12 hours time dec 11 2015
Above: Past 12 hours of earthquakes (up to 930am CT December 11 2015) , showing M2.7 and greater in the United States. The epicenters of the events show the only locations to experience any noteworthy movement are three dormant volcanic fields.

________

Do not confuse this with a “UFO crash” (lol!) or a bombing range test — the depth of the earthquake was at over 8km / 5 miles below the surface.

This movement at the ancient volcanic complex next to Area 51 is part of a much larger seismic event underway (currently) on the West coast of the United States.

area 51 earthquake volcano dec 11 2015
Above: Google Earth search of the USGS earthquake coordinates shows the M3.1 earthquake striking between the long dormant AREA 51 volcanic fields at a depth of over 5 miles.

________

In addition to the long dormant (extinct) volcanoes next to Area 51 showing activity, we see that the ONLY other locations to have M3.0+ activity are other volcanic locations to the North and South.

The swarm of earthquakes to the North struck Challis Idaho, which is the Westernmost portion of the Yellowstone Magma chamber, and a location where a man was almost killed in geothermal activity a few months ago.

Challis, ID is also the location where the USGS went to install new monitoring equipment after a M5.0+ earthquake struck the location 2 years ago.

4.9 yellowstone idaho earthquake april 12 2014

________

To the South of the Area 51 earthquake location , Cerro Prieto volcano showed up with an earthquake swarm as well, topping out at M3.1 in power.

This dormant volcano was forecast to show movement in the most recent earthquake forecast video issued on December 8, 2015.

cerro prieto earthquake forecast dec 11 2015

_______

See the forecast calling for Cerro Prieto volcano to show movement here:

________

Overall, this seismic unrest at the dormant volcanoes along the West coast was expected.

The locations which are showing movement were all named out in the above forecast video, literally called out each location by name , Central Idaho (Challis), California border (Cerro Prieto), and Western Nevada near the California border.

_______

Information on the AREA 51 earthquake from the USGS:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nn00522233#scientific_origin:nn_nn00522233

from:    http://dutchsinse.com/

Triggering, Mind Control, Personal Power & Responsibility

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Syed Farook and the new world of emotional “triggers”

December 5, 2015

mindcontrol2By Jon Rappoport

Warning: this article is an emotional trigger about emotional triggers…

“Conceive of it this way. Far up in the sky you have people, individuals, who are inventing the fulfillment of their most profound desires, making them fact in the world, no matter what—and way down below, miles under the earth, you have other individuals who could be doing what the sky dwellers are, but they’ve bamboozled themselves into thinking they can’t. Instead, they think they’re trapped in every little response they might have to any old stimulus that comes along. Both groups of people are creative, but they’ve channeled their imaginations and creativity in vastly different ways. Waking up may be hard to do, but you either do or you don’t.” (Notes for Exit From The Matrix, Jon Rappoport)

Some brilliant media pundits are now suggesting that the accused San Bernardino shooter, Syed Farook, may have been “triggered” by the Xmas party at the building he later attacked.

You know, the existence of Xmas contributed to setting him off because his religious faith was of a different type. Xmas was a grave insult.

There will be people, believe it or not, who think this “analysis” has merit.

“Well, sure, I can see that. Given the nature of his faith, it’s understandable that he would have left the party in a disturbed state, gone home, put on military gear, picked up a few auto weapons, a ton of ammo, and pipe bombs, waited for his wife to do the same, and then, on the spur of the moment, returned to the building…he was triggered.”

“Triggered” is the new reality. It’s mainly for the young and naïve, especially those who are looking for a way to become known at colleges. “Wow, I can get a few minutes of attention if I say I was triggered. I’ll go for it. It’s easy. I don’t have to do anything. I don’t have to achieve anything. This is all about not achieving anything. It’s a perfect excuse. I’m paralyzed. And the reason is, let’s see, I wasn’t warned by my professor that he was going to discuss a subject that had triggers in it. Yeah, I like it.”

Apparently, there is no bottom for idiocy. You think you’ve seen the worst, but no.

Yesterday, I included this quote from a New Yorker article. It’s worth re-reading:

Individual [Harvard law] students often ask teachers not to include the law of rape on exams for fear that the material would cause them to perform less well. One teacher I know was recently asked by a student not to use the word “violate” in class—as in “Does this conduct violate the law?”—because the word was triggering. Some students have even suggested that rape law should not be taught because of its potential to cause distress. (Jeannie Suk, The New Yorker, 12/15/14)

There are several underlying principles at work here. One is: If you give people an out, an excuse for not doing anything, a way to become a victim, a significant number who aren’t genuinely disabled in any way will reach for it and grab it.

And they’ll invent a back-story full of grievances. And traumas. And whatever it takes.

This is a form of art. Theater. It may be bad art and bad theater, but there it is.

“I wish I could write a play, a novel. Mostly, I wish I could create the future I really want. But it doesn’t look like I can. So I’ll do something different. I’ll cast myself in a play that’s already gaining steam. I’ll take on the role of victim. I’ll be the person who is in danger of being triggered every time I get out of bed in the morning. If I put everything I have into that role, I might garner a few good reviews.”

There is a larger point here. The whole business of promoting “triggering” is a propaganda operation. Its goal is to convince people that they live in a stimulus-response world—and that means a locked-up world. Stimuli appear…and inevitable responses follow. Period. End of story.

Freedom? A myth. Individual choice? Impossible. The human being? Merely a biological machine programmed to deliver x, y, or z, depending on the external provocations of the moment.

Individual power? No such thing.

This is the Pavlovian wet dream.

Since the dawn of time, leaders and the men behind and above the leaders have tried to install stimulus-response as the only form of human activity, and for obvious reasons.

Stimulus-response is the essence of mind control.

The perversely clever thing about promoting “triggering” as a valid and universal concern is: you will get people to program themselves. They’ll reach out for, and invent, any excuse to pretend they’re being negatively stimulated—and they’ll demand protection, which in the long run amounts to a fantasy about “safe spaces” they can inhabit—vacuums where no adverse content can set off little emotional time-bombs.

Another underlying principle at work: never consider raising up people so they can express and fulfill their deepest desires; no, instead take everyone to the bottom, where the incurably injured live. That’s the goal.

And if you can’t see the consequences of that program, you need a stirring wake-up call.

The Individual is endlessly creative. If, for whatever reason, he decides and believes he can’t consciously express that power in a way that meshes with his deep desires, he’ll invent his reality in a different direction—and that is his problem, it’s not someone else’s. The proof of the pudding? No one else can invent his desired reality for him. It’s his job. And it’s also, if he would see it, his joy.

This is not a matter of what’s fair or unfair, just or unjust. It’s a matter of fact.

The individual has freedom and power. The range of these capacities is endless.

What I’m writing about here is in no way a prescription for allowing public corruption to flourish and then blaming the individual for the circumstances in which he finds himself. Quite the contrary. All those students who are currently programming themselves to be “triggered”? They could be creating an entirely different atmosphere at their colleges.

They could be investigating, for example, where all the grant monies come from. I’m talking about grants for research on highly toxic medical drugs. I’m talking about pharma influencing the content of science courses and medical training. I’m talking about government money for research on toxic pesticides and genetic meddling. I’m talking about money for research on “brain mapping,” which is really a prelude to efforts to re-program brains and thus control them. I’m talking about money for research on better methods of mass surveillance. And so forth and so on.

Create that drama. Create the drama of discovering the truth about what colleges are really doing, and expose it, and put the sold-out researchers in the glare of the spotlight for the right reasons.

Or, dilly dally about “triggering” and have that party instead.

There certain incontrovertible facts. They have nothing to with what already exists or what did exist or what will exist. They have to do with the individual and his power to imagine and create reality. He can fathom and access this power and consciously use it to achieve his own purposes, or he can subvert those purposes and instead invent himself into a dead-end, where the substance of his life appears to be entirely under the control of external forces, with no hope available.

Those are the immortal cards and that is the immortal hand dealt on the table. Play them as you will.

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.

from:    http://www.activistpost.com/2015/12/syed-farook-and-the-new-world-of-emotional-triggers.html

Your Color VIbe for Sunday

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Sunday, November 29:   Mauve

Take time today to step back from all that is going on around you and just chill. There are things that have moved you in the past week that you need time to relish and reflect upon. Also these days, it is important to be aware of your dreams. It is not necessary to remember them bit by bit, however there are some significant messages and images that are coming through the dreamtime right now, and they will be of assistance to you in dealing with some of the issues that are before you. This is a day for knowing what is meaningful for you and making that a priority.Scan 132260001

Love Your Thyroid

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The Top 5 Super Foods For Thyroid Health

by Daily Super Food Love

thyroid-1Another epidemic is sweeping across the world. According to experts, there are as many as 30 million people suffering from a form of thyroid disorder in the United States alone – and half of them are undiagnosed. That is a staggering 12% of the nation’s total population.

Worldwide, approximately 430 million people are estimated to have a thyroid disorder.

Strangely, there is little concrete information about this problem worldwide since many patients and their doctors mistake the common symptoms for something else.

One serious cause of thyroid dysfunction is iodine deficiency. We get very little of it in our modern diet but iodine is a nutrient obtainable from food. It may seem overly simplistic to use food for thyroid health but it works and could be the answer in your particular case to getting this important gland functioning normally again.

10 Symptoms of Thyroid Malfunction

1. Fatigue: Persistent exhaustion no matter how much sleep you get.

2. Poor Sleep Quality: Being unable to sleep or wanting to sleep all the time.

3. Mood Swings: Feelings of sadness or anxiety.

4. Appetite Changes: Changes to food preferences or altered taste.

5. Brain Fog: Inability to concentrate or difficulty with simple cognition.

6 .Bowel Irregularity: Bloating, gas, constipation, or diarrhea.

7. Temperature Sensitivity: You persistently feel too hot or too cold.

8. Chronic Pain: Aches in joints or muscles for no particular reason.

9. Reproductive Issues: Infertility, miscarriages, or premature births.

10. Menstrual Changes: An increase or decrease in cramps, flow, or length of periods.

What Does Your Thyroid Do for You?

The thyroid hormones thyroxine (T-4) and triiodothyronine (T-3) produced by your thyroid gland – a butterfly shaped gland in your lower throat – are responsible for managing your metabolism, body temperature, and blood pressure. Though this part of the endocrine system is small, it is mighty. It literally effects all of you because every cell and organ in your body use thyroid hormones.

Hyperthyroidism (less common) is the term used when your thyroid produces too much hormones. It is also referred to as an overactive thyroid. This condition can result in unexplained weight loss, feeling jittery or anxious, inability to relax, lack of focus, rapid heart rate, fatigue, marked increase to appetite, deterioration of nails, skin, and hair, heart disease, irritability, sleep irregularity, and intolerance to heat.

Hypothyroidism (most common) is the term used when your thyroid produces too little hormones. It is also referred to as an underactive or sluggish thyroid. You may notice no symptoms initially but they tend to worsen as time goes by. Deficiency in these essential hormones lead to feelings of fatigue, depression, obesity, pain in joints, muscle weakness, deterioration of hair, skin, and nails, heart disease, poor memory and focus, and intolerance to cold.

Hashimoto’s Disease is an autoimmune condition. Your immune system malfunctions and sends out antibodies to attack thyroid tissue. Over time, the thyroid is beaten down and unable to function properly. The majority of patients with hypothyroidism test positive for these antibodies. It is important to keep your immune system strong and lower body-wide inflammation to prevent these antibodies from destroying your thyroid.

Your thyroid is stimulated by signals from your brain (hypothalamus) and your pituitary gland tells the thyroid gland to either produce hormones or to hold back. When the signals are blocked or false, it can result in serious repercussions throughout your system.

foods-for-thyroid-health-IG

Common Causes of Thyroid Malfunction

–Iodine or other nutrition deficiency.

-Graves is a genetic autoimmune disease that stimulates thyroid hormone production.

-Plummer’s disease is benign lumps that stimulate thyroid hormone production.

-Pregnancy can trigger thyroid dysfunction.

-Thyroiditis is inflammation that triggers excess thyroid hormone to flood the blood.

-Physical, mental, or emotional stress may affect how your thyroid functions.

-Environmental toxins are thought to play a role in dysfunction of the thyroid.

This condition can affect adults, children, and infants. Newborns tested and treated early respond well and the practice has prevented poor mental development.

There are synthetic hormones available (thyroid drugs are the fourth highest selling in the United States) that can eventually get your thyroid back on track. However, most patients have to have a thyroid that no longer functions for the synthetic replacements to work.

Preventing the destruction of your thyroid in the first place is a far better solution.

5 Best Foods for Thyroid Health

1. Seaweed and seafood (scallops, shrimp, sardines, salmon, and tuna)

2. Yogurt, eggs, and cheese

3. Coconut oil

4. Cranberries and cranberry juice

5. Baked potatoes (with skin)

5 Worst Foods for Thyroid Health

1. Soy products

2. Refined gluten grains

3. Sodas, alcohol, or excessive coffee

4. Hydrogenated oils (avoid processed or fast foods)

5. Refined sugar

Currently, there is no cure for autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s that cause extensive damage to the thyroid and result in conditions such as hypothyroidism. As with most autoimmune conditions, it is crucial to pay close attention to diet and lifestyle habits. It may not reverse thyroid damage completely but it will slow the advance and ease symptoms.

Good choices for your thyroid benefits your entire body. All of your systems are connected and they depend on each other to function properly. Choosing the right foods for thyroid health are also good choices for your heart, brain, and gut. All of you will feel the difference.

Source: dailysuperfoodlove.com, healthy-holistic-living.com

from:    http://www.realfarmacy.com/thyroid-foods/

Food, Nutrition, & Inner Knowing

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Heard of the Glycemic Index? Forget About It!

Heard of the Glycemic Index? Forget About It!

Originally published on Kelly Brogan MD.

With nutrition and wellness information omnipresent, it is important that we follow our inner guide and discover what works for us as individuals.

Forget about the Glycemic Index

We are so saturated with information. With stimulus. With advice. With authoritative edicts on health. A chain of gurus have come before me seeking to guide patients into the light of wellness. People are blinded by it, however. They feel confused, skeptical, and disenfranchised. And then they default to consensus and conformity around FDA standards of disease-care. There is a better way.

It involves awakening your inner guru. Getting in touch with your own inner compass.

This is necessary because there is no one just like you out there. No one has walked your path, accumulated your exposures. Grown and changed in response in quite the same way.

Modern medicine doesn’t acknowledge the vital importance of biochemical individuality. About how we are a unique collective of organisms, an ecology within that is connected to an environment without like a snowflake in a winter sky.

So, it only stands to reason that we would interact with our environments uniquely, and support ourselves through nature in a personal way. Nutrition is, perhaps, our most intimate dance with the living ecosystem of this planet.

Weston A. Price tried to tell us about individualized diets. Francis Pottenger tried to tell us about individualized diets. Dr. Nick Gonzalez tried to tell us about individualized diet. They were, in many ways, speaking a Truth that we weren’t quite ready to receive.

This is because we have been programmed, for decades to believe in an automated universe – one that could be explained neatly through scientific cause and effect – and one that interfaced with our robotic bodies in predictable ways. In this model, nature is “mostly stupid” as Alan Watts would say, in that it could be easily mastered and put in its place of subservience. Germs are tedious annoyances out to get us. Diseases are mistakes. Medications and vaccines are applied to one and all. And food is caloric fuel for our body machines.

When you look at food as part of our relationship with the living world beyond our skin, you understand that it is information, energetic, and complex in ways that we don’t have mechanisms to understand. This is why reductionist concepts like the “glycemic index” have always struck me as a misguided construct.

Now we have a brilliant study, perhaps one of the first of its kind, that decimates this false flag of nutrition consciousness. Published in Cell, an Israeli group of researchers followed 800 people with a prescribed diet for one week, assessing biological parameters from blood sugar to their microbiota. What they uncovered was a clear signal of Truth: the same foods affect different people differently!

Even obese, diabetic patients following formal dietary recommendations for a “healthy diet” found surprising information on the effects of foods such as tomatoes on their blood sugar. Of course, we know that there is more to the benefits of a diet than its benevolent relationship to blood sugar. We know that microbiota have a meaningful role in the metabolism and impact of foods on the body, and that food can directly impact the microbiota, enhancing strains required for its digestion.

We also know that the autonomic nervous system and associated individualized differences in pancreatic innervation can dictate whether one person thrives on a high carb (whole food) diet and another tanks on it. I’ll never forget the feeling of shattered nutrition dogma when Dr. Gonzalez discussed with me a patient of his whose insulin-dependent diabetes had resolved on a prescribed high carb vegetarian diet complete with multiple glasses of carrot juice daily. (We will be publishing this case soon!)

In summary, the Cell article authors state:

“Measuring such a large cohort without any prejudice really enlightened us on how inaccurate we all were about one of the most basic concepts of our existence, which is what we eat and how we integrate nutrition into our daily life.”

Because nutrition is one of the most basic concepts, our confusion is emblematic of how far we have come from intuitive living. This is why, the most profound healing involves a transformation of consciousness, a reclaiming of agency, a connectedness to the inner and out communities we thrive with, and a relationship to intuition.

 

I ask my patients, after 30 days of a whole foods, organic diet, to begin to observe their preferences for pastured red meat, fruit, and leafy greens. This observation requires mindfulness around eating and a daily practice of meditation (even a couple of minutes!) to clear the clutter so that you can actually feel what is best rather than reacting from your head. Because you are your own best healer.

from:    http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/heard-glycemic-index-forget-about-it-1?page=2

Dr. Steven Greer, Deep National Security State, UFO’s, etc.

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Dr. Steven Greer – How the Secret Government Works: The Most Explosive Expose

November 28, 2015

Dr. Steven Greer - How the Secret Government Works: The Most Explosive Expose

New Steven Greer disclosure video!

Here is the synopsis:

  • For those folks who want a very professionally performed investigation (ongoing for more than 20 years) on the UFOs, advanced technology, the cover-up, and curiously:
  • Carl Sagan compromised and swindled into debunking UFOs (see 2:08:00)
  • Donald Rumsfeld announced 1 day before 911 that Congress had lost $2.3 trillion unaccounted for, now updated to $8.5 trillion. (see 1:56:30)
  • Marilyn Monroe’s involvement (see 41:00).
  • Burl Ives the actor and 33rd degree mason (see 47:00)
  • Jack Kennedy wanted full disclosure and to make peace with the Soviets (see 49:00)
  • IMPORTANT: Listen to what he says at 2:43:30

It’s a long talk, but well worth the listen. So grab the non-GMO popcorn and lemon water before you hit the armchair.

from;    http://in5d.com/dr-steven-greer-how-the-secret-government-works-the-most-explosive-expose/

Fear, Perspective, & Awakening

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Circling the Wormhole

by Zen Gardner

Time once again appears to be behaving strangely. Not just the surreal blender of the whirled news, but the little slippages here and there, abrupt realizations that it’s not the time or date you thought it was. Things like that. Are you noticing? Time moving very quickly, strange sort of head spinning feelings when trying to track your thoughts, memory lapses, sense of fatigue for no good reason, or ringing in the ears with a touch of vertigo? It’s freaky. There are a lot of influences at work right now. Some good, some bad.

Perhaps we may have hit the edge of the wormhole in some sense. Or are there competing wormholes?

That’s an exotic thought perhaps. But that’s what appears to be happening in many ways. The overall perspective of the awakening was easier to see from afar just a year or two ago. Now the picture is getting muddled and appears like a hodgepodge of swirling influences and resultant reactions. Things are mixing together like the colors in a young child’s finger painting.

It’s apparently because we have entered some kind of vortex perhaps, where time and space subduct like esoteric tectonic plates. What we’re seeing in the surreal whirled about us is just another manifestation. The rapid acceleration of their plan is designed to throw us off, much like fast changing scenes in an action movie. If you get swept into it the results can be distracting and very disempowering.

We need to be careful to dodge the spiraling flak while maneuvering into and even reveling in the true energetic vortex. It’s nothing to fear as long as we’re aware of what’s going on around us and stay on our toes.  The changes are changing and the winds are picking up.

It’s a great time for letting go – but it will not be a pleasant ride for those who refuse to loosen their grip.

interfering waves1

Mixed Signals

Who knows the full plan? But we can track and watch and learn and experience. Knowing it’s all just a ride will save our spiritual hineys and keep our engines cooled during all this insanity.

It’s a strange dichotomy – watching the pre-placed dominoes fall yet being so enraptured with the awakening that’s happening, with so many catching on to what’s really going on. That’s the part I like to tune into but I have to admit this other stuff whirling around us doesn’t make it easy.

It’s clearly happening at a faster rate as the whirled stage antics escalate, yet it’s hard to put your finger on in many ways with all the crap we’re being told and so many swallowing the almost unavoidable fear propaganda campaign being waged. Some of those strange vibes you’re feeling are all the antennas picking up and resonating with this fear channel as the war on consciousness escalates. These and other signals interact causing a kind of wave interference.

Steer clear of it. That is not the wormhole to be anywhere near.

What we’re being shown by the big media projector is the exact opposite of what’s really going on.  Thankfully dot connecting makes things very plain, and when you learn to speak that language, damn it’s clear.

Don’t Get Sucked In

Funny thing about a wormhole – it can be a good one or a not so good one. These exterior manufactured influences are obviously meant towards more control and containment. Conversely, the positive spiritual influences are drawing us to deeper understandings, but they’re subtle and not that easy to identify in such an environment.

Discernment is the key, but it takes manning the rudder and sails intelligently. The threats to the alternative and independent media they’re making aren’t anything new. Clearly they’ve pre-decided this staged Paris event would be a kick off to the next level of many of their programs. Massively increased war budgets are passing without a whimper of consensus or protest while the NATO countries try to make an end run to occupy Syria and overthrow Assad and stave off Russia’s clean up job, something no one else would do since as we know ISIS is the West’s creation.

All while initiating draconian clampdowns anywhere and everywhere they can, fueled by continued terror events around the world which we’ll no doubt be seeing a lot more of to keep this tide of confusion rolling out.

dance_into_the_vortex

Your Personal Choice

So, we’re again at a crossroads, a place we should all be familiar with since we’re constantly having to make decisions on what to let into our spiritual field. It’s important to be aware of what’s supposedly, yes supposedly, going on but more importantly it’s a time to dig deep and remain grounded in loving, encouraging truth.

And revel in it.

The whirlpools are spinning. We’re continually swept into more choices, and it’s much like vortecies pulling us in different directions. Most importantly, we’re being pulled into a wormhole of Truth and Transformation, one we’ve been in for some time, and we can’t lose track of that.

So what do you do? Run in fear and hide from what could be a path to a greater reality and cling to the old world addictions to whateverthehell keeps you entrapped and ensnared?

Or venture on.

It’s an easy choice for me, thankfully. Adventure towards freedom vs trudging towards slavery should be a clear cut decision for anyone who’s even half awake. That may not be clear to those being played like pawns in the whirled matrix but it’s always obvious to the awakened.

Don’t let yourself get confused or discouraged by all of this. We’re sailing through very choppy waters and we need to move forward with dead reckoning, knowing our direction and with full confidence in the ships of our lives – even if it leads to heretofore unexplored territory as we navigate around the whirlpools of deceit.

Conscious, awakened truth calls, and it’s a place of safe refuge in times of rapid change and seeming uncertainty.

Love, Zen

from:    http://www.zengardner.com/circling-the-wormhole/

A Little Cat Wisdom

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10 Things We Can Learn From Cats That Will Make Us Happier, Healthier Humans

CAT PERSON

 

2015-11-25-1448468135-5323815-Brutus.2.JPG Photo Courtesy of Lori Johnston and Brutus

I recently wrote an article “What We Can Learn From Dogs That Will Make Us Happier and Healthier Humans” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-zawistowski/10-things-we-can-learn-from-our-dogs-that-will-make-us-happier-and-healthier-humans_b_7772094.html. Cats, clearly, would want to share their wisdom too. They have a different view of the world than dogs and both make our lives richer. While dogs are seemingly more concerned with your happiness, cats are more concerned with their own. What follows are 10 essentials to being more successful in work and life inspired by observations of my own cats, friends’ cats, and those that just show up for breakfast and dinner.

1. I love you but I love me more. Love yourself first. Clean your fur often, get 18 hours of sleep per day (or the human equivalent), eat little bits throughout the day rather than large meals and pursue things that interest you. Set high standards for yourself in all ways and stick to it as if no other options exist. Make yourself a priority at all times, physically, mentally and emotionally. When you are healthy in every way, you will see a world ripe with catnip mice and opportunity.
2. Accept the gifts and honor the intention. I will occasionally bring you a dead mouse or bird (or mostly dead anyway). It’s a gift. Even if it isn’t a gift you want, I gave it to you because I love you. There are gifts everywhere. Notice them, search for them and honor the intention of the giver whether it be a cat, some inferior animal (anything not a cat), a human or from the universe itself.
3. Focus on what you really want and be relentless about getting it. “No” is not an option. I’m hungry. You will get out of bed now and feed me or I will keep batting your eyelashes and walking on your hair as I cross your pillow. I will be pooping on the floor next to the litter box until you clean it out for me. I need to sit on the porch and I know you would love to get up right now and make that happen. Do the work to get what you need and want and enlist others to help you.
4. You teach people how to treat you. Role model how you want others to treat you and, gently but firmly, do not accept anything less. I would love for you to pet me now so I will rub on your legs and show you my charming side. And if you walk away I will follow you. Ok, now I’ve had enough so I’m going to bat your hand with my claws just slightly exposed. Please do not pet me when I am not in the mood.
5. Act like you are royalty. Be confident on the outside even if you’re not always there on the inside. If you fake being self-assured long enough you will trick your brain into believing it! Royalty does not do tricks, wear frilly clothes or acquiesce to any other ridiculous requests that are beneath me, might dirty my fur, cause me stress or wear me out. If I do something it’s because it’s good for me in some way. Yes, I’m sitting above you, staring down at you. As it should be.
6. Appearance matters. Clean your fur and wear nice accessories. Unlike dogs who will happily wear anything, with my kind the collar matters. It should reflect my personality. Bling, studs or simple elegance. I need my collar and other accessories to make a statement of who I am. Like it or not, your appearance shares how you feel about yourself with the rest of the world. Even though you have eloquent words, if your fur and accessories are a mess you undermine your royalty.
7. Be independent. I rely on you for food and water because I am in your house but I mostly rely on myself. I know that I get me through every day and am responsible for my own happiness. I love companionship but I need downtime too. I am in charge of my moods, emotions and needs.
8. Respect is essential. I will claw you, or at least respond with complete and obvious disdain for an extended period of time, if you wake me from a nap, take my catnip toy, bring a dog home or otherwise disturb my environment. And don’t bring home another cat either. I’m enough. I need all the attention you have time for. Please do bring home as many fish and birds as you like. Respect for me and our shared environment will make your life with me easier and I will be happy. I don’t need much but I do love respect.
9. Walk through your fear. Climb to very high places like on top of the door, refrigerator or a top shelf even if you don’t know how you will get down. Go where you want to go in life and don’t be afraid. You always find your way home even if you don’t know how you will do it while you’re on the journey. Being paralyzed by fear is for lower animals with much smaller brains than mine or yours.
10. Keep moving forward. You will land on your feet when you fall. And then act like you meant to do that. Don’t hold on to the act of falling, hold on to the act of being on your feet after the fall. We all fall from time to time. Get up and go forward. I don’t over analyze why I fell, enlarge the fall to a debilitating story about myself such as “I can’t do it” or “I’m not good enough” or “bad things always happen to me” or blame the fall on someone else. I don’t generalize the fall to other bad things that have happened or could happen. I leave it at, I fell. On to the next adventure.

While the advice dogs would give is more about emotional connection, happiness and love, cats are more practical and likely to teach you that obstacles and setbacks do not define you and that you are in control of your needs, emotions and goals.

Both perspectives are correct and necessary for a happy, healthy and prosperous life. Sometimes you have to take a hard stance with yourself particularly when considering where you are now and where you want to be but live every day to the fullest because the present moment is the only one we know we have for sure. And if you are lucky, you have furry companions close by to remind you what’s important.

from:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-zawistowski/10-things-we-can-learn-from-cats-that-will-make-us-happier-healthier-humans_b_8647868.html?utm_hp_ref=gps-for-the-soul&ir=GPS+for+the+Soul