ABOUT SEABUCKTHORN

Sea-buckthorns (Hippophaë L.) are small shrubs in the genus Hippophaë, family Elaeagnaceae. Not to be confuced with buckthorns (Rhamnus, family Rhamnaceae). It is also called by variant names as "Sea-Buckthorn, seabuckthorn, sand thorn or seaberry.

The female plants produce orange berries 6.9 mm in diameter, soft, juicy and rich in oils. The berries are an important source of food for the winter for some birds, particularly thrushes. The leaves are food for several larvae.

There are 6 species and 12 subspecies native over a wide area of Europe and Asia, including China, Mongolia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Great Britain, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Finland, Sweden and Norway and also in ladakh region (india) where it used for making juices. The species vary from 0.5 m high to 10 meters high. They grow in sunny, sandy open terrains that are often dry and they tollerate salty sprays from the sea.

The commonest species, Hippophae rhamnoides, grows from the Atlantic coasts of Europe to northwestern China. In western Europe, it is largely confined to sea coasts where salt spray off the sea prevents other larger plants from out-competing it,

Nutrients and potential health effects

Sea-Buckthorn berries are edible and nutritious, but very acidic and astringent and therefore unpleasant to eat raw, unless 'bletted' (frosted to reduce the astringency) and or mixed as a juice with sweet, like apple or grape juice.

When the berries are pressed, the juice of the Sea-Buckthorn is divided into three layers: the top is a thick mass, the middle is creamy and orange containing high saturated and polyunsaturated fat, and the bottom layer juice blended with seiments.

The fatty ingredients are applicable to cosmetic purposes. The contents of the top two layers are used for ointments and skin creams. The bottom level can be used for food as corn syrup.

Nutrients and phytochemical constituents of sea-Buckthorn berries have a potential value as antioxidants that may influence inflammatory processes, cancer, or other diseases, even though no conclusive specific therapeutic effects are proven scientifically.

The fruit of the plant has a high content of vitamin C in a range of 114-1550 mg per 100 g [2] with an average content (695 mg per 100 grams). This is about at about 12 times higher than oranges. Sea Buckthorn fruit are thus among the best plant sources of vitamion c.

The fruit is also full of carotenoids, vitamin E, amino acids, minerals, food products, ß-sitosterol and polyphenolic acids.

The fruit and the nutrients in the fruit are used to improve general stamina and general wellness.

Traditional use for health purposes

In China and other mainland regions of Asia, sea-buckthorn is used over centuries to relieve cough, aid digestion, invigorate blood circulation and alleviate pain.

In Mongolia one usees extracts of sea-buckthorn branches against gastrointestinal distress in humans and animals.

Bark and leaves are used for treating diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems and for skin ailments.



Some words about meditation as a health improvement tool

Meditation makes you healthier. Meditation helps you relax and regain physical and mental strenght after hours filled with mental stress and physical struggle. It also help you to achieve better abilities of consentration and better mental and physical energy in your daily work and free-time, and to react more appropriately intellectually and emotionally to challenges and opportunities that afront you in your daily life. It helps lower blood preadsure and to improve the function of inner organs, such as digestion.

Meditation constitutes a systematic self-directed methodology to gain control over our impulses and gain freedom from doubts, fears and anxieties. This is especially true when we suffer from unhelpful thoughts and memories that continually ruin our day. Meditation will then gently guides us back onto a path of happiness and healing, and to self-confidence and compassion.

From the dawn of time, meditation has been a vital part of self transformation and holistic health. Today, the world is reawakening the art and science of meditation.

There are by now over 2000 scientific studies on meditation, showing the positive effects on mneditation.

What is meditation

During meditation one sits, stands or lays still, and focuse continually on one sole mental object. This object could be:

A word you reapeat inside youself. Such a word is called a mantra

A picture you have in your mind, or a series of pictures or sounds you go through,

A thought process with a predetermined sequens of thoughts, pictures or words that follow in a predetermined sequence

A repeating sound you listen to from a tape or wave generator.

A piece of music you listen to

Two basic attitudes or approaches to meditation

As your entire being becomes absorbed in meditation, every stress and strain of daily life will fall from your shoulders. In a few short minutes you will become rested and refreshed. There are however two basic forms of meditation in respect to the way of concentrate during the meditative process:

In one approach, the concetration upon the object of meditation shall be total, without letting any other thought penetrate, something that is impossible in the beginneing, but that is learnd by time. This kind of meditation is especially good at producing skills in concentration and focusing. The essential skill of this approach of meditation is learning to concentrate, condense and compress your awareness to be totally focused on the very subtle object of the meditation.

In the other approach, one does not concentrate so firmly at the meditation object that other thoughts are let out. On the contrary one lets these thoughts easily penetrate and each of them play out for some while. When such a thought is recogized, and it has done its work, you just stop it and go back to the mediatation object. When skilled in this kind of meditation, these thoughts pop up without actually pushing the object of meditation out of your mind. This kind of meditation when effectuated for some time, actually works as a kind of selfmade psychoanalysis, and help solve psychological conflicts. The essential skill of this approach is to concentrate so much that the thought upon the meditation object is not stopped, but not so hard that other thoughts are stopped from penetrating.

So, before mediatation, you most first determine the object of the meditation process, and then you must determine if you want to use the first or the second approach to the meditational process.

The setting of meditation

The Physical place - this should be quiet, restful and still. The atmosphere should be serene, with no sense of hurriedness. However, when skilled in meditation, it is possible to meditate even if the place is noisy. In the practical life, it may be difficult to find the ideal restfull place, then one most content with a place that maybe is affected by some noise or other disturbances. Allthough this is not ideal, it is better to carry through the meditation as best as you can. Meditation that is somewhat disturbed is better than no meditation at all.

Your bodily condition - If should be clean and properly nourished. Use the nasal wash and brush your teeth. Wash your face, hands and feet. Take a moment and refresh yourself. Empty your bowel and bladder. Wear comfortable loose fitting clothes that will allow you to breath and sit comfortably. Stretch out any tension in your muscles, coordinate your stretching with your breath.

Your position - Using a proper chair or meditation cushions is ideal for meditation. It is important for the body to be comfortable and quiet, so that the mind can focus on the internal process of meditation. However, at times you may feel more comfortable in other positions or laying down. As long as this does not make you sleep, this is allright.

The breathing - Breath gently through your nose, and let your abdomen rise and fall with each breath. Let the abdomen and chest collapse and relax totally each time your lungs are emptied for air. Make a smooth transition between inhalation and exhalation. At the tip of your nose, right inside your nostrils, you can feel a slight sensation of coolness when you inhale and a very faint sensation of warmth during exhalation. By controlling your breath well, you help the restlessness, itchiness and tension melt away.

Timing of meditation - The best times to meditate is early in the morning, in the afternoon after work, or before you go to bed. Try to meditate at least one time each day. Meditate 20-30 minutes each time. Sometimes, if the efforts of the day make you extra tired and stressed up, you may melt away the stress by sitting down and take an extra short meditation of 5-10 minutes.

An easy way to start meditation

You can learn several meditation techiques from books, from personal gurus, or by attending courses. Here you have an easy meditation techique you can start with. This techique is a variant of the approach where you allow other thoughts to penetrate into the mediation.

Sit still in a quiet place. Close your eyes. Breath calmly.

Repeat the word "one" or another easy melodical word inside you, without any tention or struggle.

If other thoughts pop up during this process, just let these thought play some time, and then go back to the word that is the object of mediatation again, and continue the process.

An althernative way of easy meditation is the following. Here you should try not to let other thoughts penetrate at all. However, since the consentration upon the meditational object follows the breath, this is easy.

Each time you inhale, empty your mind for all thoughts

Each time you exhale, say the word "one", or another easy word inside you

An even easier way to start meditation

An even easier way of bringing yourself in a meditative state, is to listen to a meditation tape, or to a sound wave generator suitable for the purpose. Such equipents you can buy from the online store in this page (Tools for wellness).

Meditation upon a picture

In this meditation you consentrate totally upon some picture you have before you. This can be a picture of a landscape, a picture of a nice animal, a picture of a nice or interesting boy/girl/man/women - naked or clothed, or anything else you like. The process follows as such:

Concentrate first on the whole picture. Try to grasp the totallity of the picture without concentration on eny detail

Concentrate then on the deeper meaning of the pictured object to you, inellectually and emotionally.

Then concentrate on each detail, one after one.

Go through the details once more, but try now to grasp the deeper menining of the details for you, intellectually and emotionally

Go deeper into one of the details and split this up in even smaller parts. Consentrate upon each small part. Then upon the mening of each part to you.

At the end of the meditation, consentrate once more about the whole picture. But try this time to get a fuller understanding of the totallity by concentrating upon the relationships between the details of the picture.

This meditation can be done many times upon the same picture, and every time you will get a deeper understandig of the object of the picture and the meaning of it for you.

The first times you can use an physical photograph and look at it with your eyes. As you get practise, you can fetch the picture from your memory and go through it solely in your mind.

Meditation upon colors

In this meditation you shut your eyes and think you see nothing but black. Then you see a small blue field in the middle. The field grows until everything is blue before your eyes. Then the blue field shrinks again and everything is black again.

Then you see a little red field that then grows so you only see red before your eyes. Then the red field shrinks back again.

Do so for every color. Use half a minute for each of the colors.

Another time you can concentrate upon just one colour, but go through a lot of fine nuances of that particular colour.

As you get trained in this mediatation, you can make it more advanced by thinking about fields with many colours radiating from the middle, or fields with bands of different colours outside each other.

Meditation upon your breath - Kundalini meditation

Place a thick pad on the floor. Sit in a confortable manner upon that pad with your legs crossed. Listen to the sound of your breath. Can you hear "Hahm" on the intake and "Sah" on the exhale? This is the mantra to use in this exercise. Do not speak it -- just hear it in the breath. When I say "Hahm", I refer to the inhale, and "Sah" to the exhale. Try it for a few minutes. Hahm - Sah - Hahm - Sah. Make sure you are relaxed and not forcing your breath.

Next, visualize the air in the room as breathable light. With each "Hahm," you should imagine the light entering up through your nose, around the inside of your skull, and down your spine to the lowest tip of your coccyx (tail) bone.

As you exhale, you should visualize light of a slightly different shade going back up your spine, pushing out the light you inhaled. This second light is your personal Kundalini energy. The light should follow the same path, up your spine, over the top of your head, and out your nose. As it goes, you should hear the "Sah" part of your breath stretched out for a few long seconds. Continue this for some minutes. Haaahhhhm - hold - saaaahhh. You will notice yourself gradually physically relaxing, if you are doing it right. Continue this breathing for some minutes.

This exercise will give you an energetic and vitalizing feeling that rises gradually from the base of your spin up through your body. When doing this exercise, you should not feel exhausted or get any pain. If so, you do it too long or too forcefully. Regulate the time and muscular force you use so that it allways feels confortably.

Once you have this part down, and can do it comfortably, add some minutes with the following procedure: Don't hold your breath at the base of the spine, but just pause a moment. Then, using your stomach muscles, you should release the breath in short bursts, hearing "sah, sah, sah, sah, sah," as many times as it takes before your lungs empty. Keep up the light visualizations: The light will jump with the breathing. Repeat this still some minutes minutes. Haaahhhhm, sah sah sah sah sah sah. You may be able to see your energy increase with each breath.

However -If you begin shaking and jerking, know that is a normal reaction to the increased energy in your system, and you should not fight it. (Like a shiver down the spine, it is totally involuntary and natural.) Don't scare yourself into stopping the exercise at this point. Soon, the jerking motions will stop, and you may begin moving in a very fluid fashion.