4-PART COMMUNIQUE:

HEALTHIEST THINGS I KNOW

FOR THE HAPPIESTNESS OF YOUR HEART, THE #1 WAYS I KNOW ARE: LOVE & OPTIMISM/POSITIVITY.

Ever since about a decade or less ago, when I saw a pair of bunnies on Youtube.com that were somewhat bemusingly named “Healthiness” & “Happiness,” I have been fascinated by these two threads of well-being; I covered the overall best way I know to attain healthiness of the body in my last issuance of this 4-part communique; today’s block will focus on happiness, of of-course the spiritual/emotional heart rather than the cardio-heart.

I really believe in Love – I believe it is probably the single best thing for your personal well-being.

Living in Love will provide you with the best Life, which is best for your body, your spiritual-heart, your cognition, & your soul.

But I am going to focus on Positivity/Optimism, here.

Because there’s one very important belief I have found, since being a teenager: Things are what you make them; for the largest part & with what you do with them. Life is then a collection of all the things we have made it, along with the things we cannot control. This says we should go with the ‘hot hand’ – whoever is radiating that eudaimonic attitude & self-actualized being at this very moment;

But for each of our own responsibilities, over our own Lives, Optimism & Positivity will help us make the most of, & appreciate the most in, Life.

I feel this does the most or nearly the most for making us happiest.

What is Positivity?

Positivity is a way of seeing people & things: you see the best things in each of them; this helps you get the most out of them, & nurture them.

Optimism is a way of approaching things: it is where you believe that “I can do this,” for everything you actually can accomplish.

(I have said it is best to have a “Tempered Optimism,” having spread a belief in Optimism & Positivity for around 10 years or so in popular English philosophy forums: not “I can fly,” but more an unlimitedness – stemming from our I-believe unlimited human potential – tempered by the confidence we have in our abilities based on experience, & based on the content we have planned to execute, or perform: for example, the goodness of our manuscript’s story, should inspire a good deal of confidence in our performance of it.)

Those are the definitions.

How I Learned Positivity

Flash back half my Life, amid the turmoils of depression, at 17 years young:

I chose Positivity over some much more unsavory options, to help get thru a depression from a break up of a long high school relationship with a girl –

&, I can say 15 years later:

Not much has served me better, than choosing to be Positive.

Why Is It So Good?

Well, when you start looking for how good things COULD be, you will find ways that actually get you there – to the ‘place’ where things actually ARE good.

Doesn’t Being Positive Mean Being Fake – I Don’t Want To Be Fake!

If you tell this to a depressed person, some will say “It’s fake, I don’t want to be fake.”

As important as ‘being true,’ ‘having integrity’ can be, if you are severely depressed something is more important than being integrous: being alive.

If you have to answer the very hard question, Would I rather be dead, or a little bit “fake,” but alive, & honestly actually having good times again, maybe even helping others – just by correcting something actually worse: being excessively negative, & by choosing to be Positive/Optimistic?, I hope you choose Life over endless rule-following or perfectionism.

When considering taking on Positivity/Optimism into your own Life, or presenting it to someone else, consider a fruit-bearing tree, transplanted to your yard, takes root – it will grow fine, just like other trees.

. . . Likewise transplanting a belief in Positivity, a supremely healthy thing, into your beliefs, whatever they may be, will itself grow still, & will bear much & great fruit for you – for the rest of your life.

So, if you are depressed, even tho you might have to force it at-first, it becomes natural & produces much happiness & personal growth for you.

* * *

For the rest of us, Optimism & Positivity will help you make the most of your Life’s opportunities, & get the most out of everything that comes into your Life.

Positivity & Optimism also do wonders for your Lovelife & social-life – think of socialitic graciousness, as well as virile displays of power-doing, for example.

* * *

I will close with a couple helpful, inspiring quotes:

One time, A Wisewoman in my Life said to me, “Life is a feast full of starving fools;

Dig in.”

The Bible says similar: “For the despondent, every day brings trouble; for the happy heart, life is a continual feast.” – Proverbs 15:15.

Eat Up – Life is a Feast =)

Thank You.
Joe Valentyn

P.S. For my part, I cured my depression, mostly thru choosing & making into a natural attitude, being Positivity; but there were a few other things I am going to break from the natural course of this 4-part communique on & share, because they helped me & I hope others heal their hearts/emotions from depression:

Love – Live in Love; if you have just come off a romantic relationship, this may in fact come last, rather than first, but as you may’ve guessed, it is still hugely important. ‘Love is the answer;’ it is the guiding force of Man; Live In Love for maximal fruits in Life.

People – Be Around People – not always to share deeply your problems, fears, & the like, tho that too. But just feeling connected & knowing People do live in happiness, even if they have been thru breakups, losing loved ones, & other vicissitudes is hugely helpful. They can provide some things you may not, if they are a trusted friend, parent, or the like. Push Yourself To Be Around People.

Time – looking back, severe depression seems crazy – it no longer makes any sense to consider killing yourself, etc: *That is why Giving Stuff Time will help you see things clearly – after all, “hindsight is 20/20.”*

Change – Change Your Routines – A rut is what I call it when we get into a habit of doing stuff which is draining, deleterious, or otherwise less than desirable. Change It Up: Do a new, good habit where you used to do a sagging, bad habit. Change Your Routine. You could try new things: go for walks in Nature, go to shows, start to write, watch comedy, reconnect with old friends, vary your experiences in some way that gives you more of what you need/want, while also swapping out a non-great routine. Changing Your Routines from draining or deleterious ones to nurturing, nourishing ones will have a doubly-good effect: in with the good, out with the bad. This may be exactly what you need.

The most important way to heal emotionally, I would still say is Positivity/Optimism. When you start to believe you can do so much, you will light like a flame on paper – & this – Optimism/Positivity – is almost-necessary to most fully self-actualize. Positivity presents things in their best light – gives you the best thing about them – & lets you get the most out of them. Purely from a functional standpoint, both are ‘fly,’ haha.

– Joe

P.P.S. I would also briefly add regular, vigorous, or as vigorous as you safely can, exercise & also probiotic cultured foods like kefir or sauerkraut, particularly ones where the probiotic bacteria number in the trillions, not millions or billions, if you can, may help quite a bit.

Sodium deficiency also has been said to be able to cause depression – so you could consider getting the test recommended, or just add a moderate amount more Himalayan or sea salt to taste & see what that does for you.

Thank You.

The previous part, on the healthiest thing I know to attain physical health, is at http://joevalentyn.org/press/2015/06/11/healthiest-things-i-know-part-one/

Amazing how how happy & good for revelry each of these are.

The Cocteau Twins is pretty loopable, too.

Fri-day – Fun-day — Have Fun Everyone =)

“& i feel fiiine . . . “

This is not a response to the “free trade deal” that recently advanced, but it certainly may apply, as well to a large number of other things.

Also, altho I’ve had this to say for around a year, credit to E. J. Dionne for recently mentioning this/a similar point in a write-up of his recently in The Washington Post:

Bernie Sanders: The new St. Nick

We are a social species – a community – a single group all together – Life is not an Ironman contest for the ‘survival of the fittest;’

& Anyone whose stated mission is to help “99%” of people flourish, is obviously on the side of “Us” – The World.

The fact is, things like economic populism help secure basically-Everyone’s being provided for; & that is much closer to the final purpose of Government – the point at infinity –  the full self-actualization of Government to a Government of Utopia.

Thank You.
Joe

I don’t think there is.

…The End, haha.

Given the magnitude of temperature change we are fairly certain we caused in the last century alone – about 1/9th of an ice age’s worth, according to NASA –

& Looking at these Kyoto Protocol reduction targets:

I am troubled to see we are almost across-the-board reducing carbon emissions 20% compared to the 1990 levels of greenhouse gases.

I used The IPCC’s & Carbon Brief’s numbers, & the Kyoto Protocol targets in the table above, & crunching these numbers, I found that even meeting the Kyoto protocol targets, we would have just under 12 years of emissions left, before we lost a favorable chance at keeping heating under 1.5 degrees Celsius.

We’d have 35 years of emissions left until we lost a favorable chance at holding global warming to under 2 degrees C – again: even meeting the Kyoto targets – which many say is the top number we would want to endure, due to the reckoned afflictions arising from climate change.

All this points at moving our targets DRASTICALLY further, as soon as possible –

Use incentives like subsidies & fines;

Use facts & argument to put the tradewinds of The World at our back – but get it done –

How do you want to answer our kids, & our future, when they look back into the past at us, into history at us: did we rise up, & throw everything we had a threat to The Human Race?

Let’s make that an honest Yes.

Halt As Immediately As Possible.

Thank You.
– Joe

4-PART COMMUNIQUE:

HEALTHIEST THINGS I KNOW

TO GET THE MOST LONGLIVED HEALTH OF THE BODY, THE #1 WAY I KNOW IS: JUICING.

My Grandfather was, & My Mom still is today, obsessed with vegetables – & to a lesser degree, fruit. That is one of the best things I have learned from My Mom & My Grandfather, & I am wanting to spread that Love to you, here & now, if it pleases you.

Your death risk is slashed – 42%! – if you manage to eat 7 servings of vegetables & fruits a day.

That’s amazing.

How Can You Best Get 7 Servings?
I would say, making fresh, preferably organic, mostly-vegetable juice, especially largely from sprouts, is probably the best way.

(Varied salads are a close 2nd, but you’d have to eat 14 cups (the measuring unit) of leafy greens to get 7 servings of veggies, they say.)

Why Juicing?

According to Stanford Medicine Cancer Institute, 1 cup (8 oz) of celery juice contains most nutrients found in 5 cups’ worth of munched-on celery. (I have heard really only the fiber is missing; that means 2 things: for one, my understanding is that you will absorb more nutrients from the freshly juicered vegetable juice & faster, ((because fiber is so difficult to digest,)) but it also means, you need fiber from other sources – i.e. juicing alone is not enough. Salads, nuts & seeds are good sources of fiber.)¹

A smaller amount of fruit – a lemon or lime, for example, juiced fresh into your plant juice – will make it taste great; importantly this makes it much more likely you will drink it often, if it tastes good, thereby slashing your overall risk of death by almost half.

The best thing I have heard tho, I’d like to tell you, is juicing vegetable sprouts – hemp, if it is legal where you are, or watercress sprouts are the top 2 I know of I will give for examples, tho I have never tasted hemp sprouts themselves personally –– only heard of their powerhouse nutrition  –– juicing sprouts like these gives anywhere from 10 to 100X the nutrition, pound for pound, of their healthy adult versions.²

I would have at least 2, &, ideally, I would estimate *4* mostly-vegetable juices a day to be pretty wonderful for your health.

When considering whether to start juicing, you might think of it this way: What better thing to invest in than more Life & better Life, for me or my family, or people?

If you DO want to juice, then, this “report” has a good recipe / recipe system for starting off – one that is both very tasty & very healthy:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/13/benefits-of-juicing.aspx ³

The last thing I’ll say is I’ve read what seems like thousands of anecdotes, & there’s scantly a condition I have heard of that people have not testified that juicing is helpful for –

If you like Life, or have a health problem already, I would say most often juicing fresh organic vegetables will help tremendously.⁴

To see results, give it a few weeks or longer.

Therefore, I suggest juicing – meaning juice which is mostly fresh organic vegetables – as the best general thing you can do for your health & longevity.

(((I did say general.)))

Bottom’s Up! — To Your Health.
Joe Valentyn

 
The next part, on the healthiest things I know for happiness – the largest part of emotional health – is now at http://joevalentyn.org/press/2015/06/29/healthiest-things-i-know-part-two/

(1) On salads: I believe moderately indulgent dressings – but still kicking MSG to the curb – & also healthy fish, poultry & eggs are fine on salads. I also believe in (the healthiest you can get) salt, black pepper (peppercorn), butter, sour cream, & even cream cheese, if you’re using it to hook someone on, or lure them to, amazingly healthy foods.

(2): Sprouts are not hard to grow & you can grow them indoors year-round, with a couple easy-enough daily maintenance jobs. They’re 1/10th the cost of buying them at the grocery store, & you can grow organic seeds with organic soil at a very affordable cost.

(3): www.mercola.com in general is a massively good site for health information, in my opinion. Joseph Mercola was an early critic of Vioxx, for example, a drug that killed 60,000 people & in the long run got banned.

(4): I would not use it as my only tool against cancer: check on Dr. Mercola’s advice, in that case in particular;

Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski’s “antineoplastons” may be good;

Also, cannabis oil is renowned to be effective for some/all types of cancer; I will have to do a lot more reading before I have good recommendations, but those are two leads I have found, that I feel reasonably comfortable giving as ideas.

For people with immune-system-related problems, such as you’re developing allergies, have dysbiosis of the gut & therefore acid reflux or other belly issues, or have an infection of some kind, I would recommend lacto-fermented foods made at home, which are up to 200X as strong as even the strongest probiotic pills; they are about as easy to make as hot chocolate. Use starter cultures. Body Ecology is the brand I use.

Take probiotics long enough apart from, if you are taking them, antibiotics.

Thank You.
– Joe

Disclaimer: The FDA has not reviewed these statements. Please consult a reliable health care professional for any health care decisions.

9 out of 10 deaths are from health problems, per W.H.O.;

But only 1% of our budget is spent on medical & health research.

A popular phrase often attributed to “The Father Of Medicine,” Hippocrates, says we should:

“Let food be thy medicine;”

We spend 00.04% of our budget on nutrition research.

“Prevention is the best medicine” is the time-tested, accepted wisdom about lifestyle choices influencing health; we spend 6.8 billion dollars, or 00.19% – about 2 tenths of 1% – researching “prevention” with our budget.

If you did invest in these with proportion to the problem — losing 9/10ths of soul-bereaving losses of family & friends to disease — one of the first things that would be obvious is vegetables particularly are incredibly, miraculously-almost, healthy for us, as a species;

In fact, 7 servings of vegetables & less-so fruits a day were recently found to lower our death risk by almost half – that’s all-causes mortality.

Here’s the crucial part: that is not reflected in our present farming or food subsidies at all —

Less than 2% of our 300 million acres of cropland here in our beautiful America are used for vegetables & fruits –

That has a lot to do with less than 1% of food subsidies going toward vegetables & fruits.

Let me help you:

9 out of 10 people die from health problems.

Vegetables & less-so fruits a day were recently found to lower our death risk by almost half;¹

But we spend less than 1% of farm subsidies on vegetables & fruits.

Further, we forage understanding for the long-haul with only .04% of our budget spent on researching healthy nutrition, the main cure to presently kills 9/10ths of us; & spend only 0.19% of our budget on prevention of this huge problem in general.

This is what I’ll say:

Invest; but do something even more valuable than investing alone:

Listen to the farmers who’ve grown these organic, non-GMO, & environmentally-sustainable foods: understand their successes we can model on, & help solve their challenges they’ve recognized thru years – sometimes generations – of experience.

Listen to the doctors who’ve understood preventative nutrition, exercise, & natural health interventions are essential to our health, not synthetic treatments “as dangerous as being in a war zone”; & who’ve have cultured their ideas to a highly progressed level. Joseph Mercola of Chicago is one such person; he lays out his ideas & research clearly on his website Mercola.com.

& Listen to the researchers, who, at some point, chose health for all, over money for one, that one being them, & researched natural medicines & other natural health interventions, & have put on solid ground the healthiness of Nature’s bounty, the healthiness of food over chemical.

Finally, listen to the bajillions of success stories of juicing & other natural healings of average people, that pharmaceuticals didn’t, couldn’t heal, & in way too many cases caused in the first place.

Let’s Invest In Natural Health, In Our Quality & Quantity Of Life, & Our Descendents’ Future.

Let me this communique this way:

Today, in 2015, you would have to work for 45 minutes, at minimum wage, to earn 2 cucumbers – I mean of course organic cucumbers. That is dehumanizing, that is not safe & smart as far as our health – it is outrageous on too many levels;

Let’s turn ourselves right around, & fix our health & inequality problems; let’s make vegetables a staple, affordable, & let’s understand them & other natural, important aspects of health, so we may have, as a country, a success story of our own, to tell our grandchildren someday.

Thank You.
Goodnite.
Joe

(1): I have an article for everyone, not just government, on my recommendations for exploiting this fact to live a long, healthy life. I will post it soon. Thanks.

2015 June: That post is now up, at this location.

This was originally written about a week or so ago.

For the last couple weeks I’ve been talking about drug resistance due to antibiotics, in my circles of friends & family.

Did you know agriculture accounts for about 80 percent of all antibiotics used – & that the continuous low dose used for the majority of antibiotic dosing is what causes bacteria to survive & become increasingly hardy & drug-resistant?

— Here’s what this means for our bottomline: within just the next *15 years*, 100 million people will die, due to antibiotic resistant diseases (according to a new report commissioned by The Prime Minister, David Cameron, of England;)

— If we do not change policies & their executions smartly & strongly.

As much as I am a fan of gradual, meticulous, diversely-experimented-on,-then-rolled-out, political betterment, I also take into account the severity of a threat, & its urgency —

& Tailor my political response to that, beforehand.

— & Here’s what we’re looking at: about 10 Holocausts worth of deaths over just the next 15 years, globally, from diseases we are creating for ourselves.

Let’s really drive this home by putting this wicked, horrific, blight upon our Earth into perspective:

Let me preface the following list by saying I’m sorry to present this part, but, again, hopefully it brings home the point strongly & resoundingly:

If we do not politically change course, in the next 15 years alone we’ll be holding this:

BOB: DEAD.

MADELINE: DEAD.

OLIVER: DEAD.

OLIVIA: DEAD.

OPHELIA, LACY, MIZUKI . . .  DEAD, DEAD, DEAD.

In fact we’re talking about 100 million dead in 15 years, without change —

That’s 7 people.

Scroll down ’til you get the idea:
Continue reading →

We need groups or individuals to see these things thru, to their fruition in legislation & their execution:

Joe Valentyn’s Preliminary Legislative Path For The United States Congress, As Of March 2015

Reprinted from 2015, March 27th

(…)

Congressional Rule Reform:

Fix congressional rules to prevent excess power by the minority.

This is systemic – & systemic means fix now.

Republicans learned this with the recent Democratic filibuster of the anti-abortion provision Republicans fought for.

Campaign Finance Reform:

In my view, freedom should be sweeping but freedom of speech is not freedom of spending — speaking is specifically an exchange for informational purposes whereas spending is specifically an exchange for goods &/or services.

We must distinguish speech & money.

This is a medium-term systemic problem we must fix shortly that is creating financial collapses & other problems associated with a literal oligarchy – this where the founding fathers intended & we present, living today still want a constitutional democratic republic, forbearing gradual progression to a genuinely, in-foresight, better system.

After these congressional legislation systemic-problems, we must at some point address this:

Economic Security Reform:

We de-regulated, I am told, & crashed the economy, millions losing jobs and/or homes. Re-regulation & further regulation – which you like regulation if you like your house to not fall on your head – thanks to building code standards – & your food to not degenerate you but improve your nutrition – thanks to food standards – & your car to not cause an accident with the 7 members of your family in the car –

therefore financial standards & other standards – “regulations” – are the most basic of idea in government: law to stem the tide of grievous death, injury, & the like.

Campaign Finance Reform especially should help us achieve economic protections for consumers —

if only Dodd-Frank could have a full set of teeth.

(I am open to any good ideas about securing our economy – including protections against micro-trading-caused crashes, & any other economic bubbles.)

After these systemic Rule & Campaign Finance fixes, & the Economic/Financial Security fixes, I then, with a more fully functioning legislative system & security of economy, next in legislative priority I with my understanding of things would turn to the next thing:

Climate Change: a mismanagement problem threatening our planet very much; one which we should practice the Father of Medicine’s – Hippocrates’ – advice &, in the case of planetary “disease”, First, Do No Harm – do not solve our so-called “safe”-chemicals-caused problem with more “safe” chemicals; & instead, like the best doctors, we should turn to removing the thorn of the cause, & cease wasteful contributions to climate change.

I would then too focus on this:

Income Inequality: which, from the point of view of growth of our civilization, is simply inefficient: the lion’s share of the population eats cheaply – so they eat poorly; the lion’s share use cheaper tools, giving a worse result & a worse, more-frustrating experience. Every good & service we pay toward has a level of quality, & when the lion’s share of the population consumes lower quality everything all the time, our civilization is cast astray. & That is not acceptable. Do we want 95% to have low quality necessities? No. Greed is a sin. Share The Wealth.

I would add that

1) resolving the systemic issues of campaign finances & senatorial debate rules would avoid very important progressive, American causes like Climate Change & Inequality getting watered down when it comes time, or times, to reckon with them; &

2) another thing I would put forward for consideration is excessive corporate lobbying.

Wanna be a hero? Take up these important causes. Thank you as a citizen

Joe

In the version of the Bible I read, whomsoever Loves God, who you have not seen, but hateth his brother, who you have seen, is wrong.

“Brother” is a euphemism for people – including men loving women, & women loving men:

Including Romance.

. . . Romantic Love is not less than what begets Life;

& Forsooth, is a wellspring of miracles.

Share in its immense worth.

Do not neglect its immense importance.

Spend your last nickels & dimes on your LOVE —

Thank You,
Joe Valentyn

figure i: Anne Hathaway

(The earlier post on this is The Irreducible Infinitude Of Love: A Spry Conversation On Love, Romanticism, Counter-Enlightenment Ideals / Anti-Intellectualism, etc.)

<joe> man, i was just thinking, anne hathaway’s roles have been tasteful as heck: she played Fatima in Les Miserables, very very well, she played Catwoman in Batman, and Agent 99 in Get Smart – i used to love the old Get Smart on Nick At Nite as a kid. that is some tasteful roles.
(…)
<JohnGuru> I think shoe phone was a parody of Dick Tracy’s wrist phone
(…)
<JohnGuru> the origin of the word “dick”
(…)
<JohnGuru> in 40’s slang, a “dick” was a detective
<JohnGuru> in later jargon, it came to mean anybody who was up tight and institutionally repressed
<joe> lol sweet. urban etymologies. i used to like looking up rock & roll’s etymology
<JohnGuru> :)
<joe> oh
<joe> that sense
<joe> lol
<joe> lol
<JohnGuru> haha
<joe> etymologies are great
(…)
<joe> so yeah, what you said re rainforests, & also this court has found anne hathaway to have good tastes *bangs gavel*
(Later…)
<joe> but i am here to prove! lol
<joe> anne hathaway has good tastes – agent 99, cat woman, fatima
<JohnGuru> *nods*
<joe> lol
<joe> romanticism =)
(…)
<joe> romanticism is all about love really.
<JohnGuru> possibly
<JohnGuru> romanticism is a general term referring to idealising as time in history, a place, or a person
<JohnGuru> as/a
<joe> “The Magus Of The North” said something to the effect, ‘i want a woman’s loveletter more than i want a logical proof’
<joe> showing the value of Love over truth, as i’ve been noticing
<JohnGuru> like some people fall in love with the “old west,” and romanticize it
<joe> no, not really
<JohnGuru> oh yes
<JohnGuru> well, I can see that
<joe> that’s one sense<joe> but not as a philosophy
<joe> or its roots & real meaning
(…)
<joe> consider it vis a vis counter-enlightenment ideals, non-reductionism, & even some non-intellectualism
<joe> anti-/non-
<joe> Love as greater than truth/science/knowledge
<joe> is really my thrust
(…)
<joe> with romanticism
<JohnGuru> *nods*
<JohnGuru> sure, those are all good things :)
(…)
<joe> JohnGuru: but romanticism simply comes from romantic love poems, as well as chivalarous knight tales

{ . . .When we talked again, I had one more Cupid’s arrow to send out on this:

from my notes I said:}

“- i just have one question – when you found your wife, your girlfriend, your love interest, did you measure her vital signs – was she “the one” because she had good blood pressure, her pupils weren’t too dilated, her lips weren’t too pink — is that how you chose your Love? — or was it something amazing, beyond human describibility, perhaps something mystical —-”

{John laughed & agreed, in the short time for conversation we had.}

Love is the greatest thing you can get.

Love is the greatest thing you can gift.

Savor every moment of it.

Joe