Bone Deep

Many years ago, on a March day in a year when spring was visibly transforming the long winter, I dragged myself to my acupuncturist.  I was so fatigued, had no energy, was completely kaput.  I was despairing because part of me so wanted to enjoy the outer transformation underway and I couldn’t, I was feeling so bone weary.  I knew Babs would help me; she is not only a gifted and seasoned acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist, she’s a magnificent all-around healer.

Babs did her magic with her needles while telling me a story. She said, in Five Element Theory (classical Chinese Medicine), it’s believed that a cataclysmic summoning is required on Earth’s part to have Spring arrive.  Just think of it:  from small bulbs and meandering roots, trees and flowers require an extreme awakening and tremendous force to produce their transformative glory.  Where does this energy and force come from?  They get it from all the four and two-leggeds walking on top of the earth.  Hence, why it is a common occurrence that humans feel so wasted by the time Spring is underway.  We are food for Great Mother Nature.

So, it’s not only all those winter carbs we lean on or the post holiday overimbidements we are paying for necessarily.  How do we bolster our flagging selves, enrich our blood, our kidney qi in preparation for this auspicious time of year?

Babs prescription for me was bone broth.  This is something I start to make in January for comfort and continue on in February and March for my kidney qi, wellness and well being.  Bone Broth is a vital adjunct to any diet, especially those struggling with autoimmune disorders, leaky gut, joint and digestive problems.  This is an ancient remedy for what ails you.  The Chinese talked about it many millennia ago, Hippocrates associated it to gut healing, Jewish mothers everywhere have been passing down their chicken soup recipes for hundreds of years.

Benefits of Bone Broth

Many of our modern diseases are rooted in an unbalanced mix of microorganisms in our digestive system, mostly due to SAD (Standard American Diet) -- a diet that is too high in sugars and too low in healthful fats and beneficial bacteria.  Leaky gut is the root of many health problems, especially allergies, autoimmune disorders, and many neurological disorders. The collagen found in bone broth acts like a soothing balm to heal and seal your gut lining.

Bone broth is also a staple remedy for acute illnesses such as cold and flu. Recent studies on cartilage (the abundant base of homemade broth), show it supports the immune system in a variety of ways.  It's a potent normalizer, a biological response modifier, activates macrophages, Natural Killer cells and lymphocytes.  Bone broth contains a variety of valuable nutrients in a form your body can easily absorb. This includes:

Calcium, phosphorus, and other minerals	Components of collagen and cartilage
Silicon and other trace minerals	Components of bone and bone marrow
Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate	The "conditionally essential" amino acids proline, glycine, and glutamine

Healing benefits of bone broth:

Reduces joint pain and inflammation, thanks to chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine, and other compounds extracted from the boiled down cartilage and collagen.

Inhibits infection caused by inflammation, bacteria and viruses.

Fights inflammation: Amino acids such as glycine, proline, and arginine all have anti-inflammatory effects. Glycine has calming effects, which may help you sleep better, Arginine is effective fighting septis.

Promotes strong, healthy bones: bone broth contains surprisingly low amounts of calcium, magnesium and other trace minerals, but it plays an important role in healthy bone formation because of its abundant collagen. Collagen fibrils provide the latticework for mineral deposition and are the keys to building strong and flexible bones.

Promotes healthy hair and nail growth, thanks to the gelatin in the broth. Feeding collagen fibrils homemade broth can even eliminate cellulite.

How to Make the Most Nourishing Broth

The more gelatinous the broth, the more nourishing it will tend to be. Indeed, the collagen that leaches out of the bones when slow-cooked is one of the key ingredients that make broth so healing. If the broth gets “jiggly” after being refrigerated, it's a sign that it's a well-made broth. To make it as gelatinous as possible, add chicken feet, pig's feet, and/or joint bones.  All of these contain high amounts of collagen and cartilage.

Shank or leg bones, on the other hand, will provide lots of bone marrow. Marrow also provides valuable health benefits.  So ideally, you'll want to use a mixture of bones. You can make bone broth using organic chicken, whole fish or fish bones (including the fish head), pork, or beef bones. If you're using chicken, enjoy the roasted flesh first then throw the carcass into a pot, covering with water. Add a small amount of vinegar to help leach the minerals out of the bones. To ensure the broth is really gelatinous, add some chicken feet when you use the carcass of a roasted chicken, as some of the collagen will have been leached out already during the roasting process. You can also add vegetables of your choice into the pot.

The most important aspect of the broth-making process is to make sure you're getting high-quality bones.  Ideally, you'll want to use organically raised animal bones. It's worth noting that chickens raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) tend to produce chicken stock that doesn't gel, so you'll be missing out on some of the most nourishing ingredients if you use non-organic chicken. People living in the Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania are truly fortunate to be surrounded by lots of conscientious farmers.  Finding connection with these folks ensures good agriculture sourcing.  Many of these small-operation farms raise their livestock according to organic principles even if their farm is not USDA certified organic (the certification is expensive). Talk to them.                                 Sample Beef Broth Recipe

Below is a classic beef stock recipe excerpted from Nourishing Broth, including lamb and venison variations. For more nourishing broth recipes, consider Hilary Boynton and Mary Brackett's new GAPS cookbook,



The Heal Your Gut Cookbook: Nutrient-Dense Recipes for Intestinal Health Using the GAPS Diet.                                                            

•   About 4 pounds organic beef marrow and knuckle bones

•   1 calf, beef, or pig foot

•   3 pounds meaty bones such as short ribs and beef shanks

•   1 small can or jar tomato paste (optional)

•   4 or more quarts cold filtered water

•   1/2 cup vinegar (leaches minerals out of the bones)

•   3 onions, ends removed  (skin may be left on)

•   3 carrots, peeled if not organic

•   3 celery sticks

•   1 bouquet garni made with parsley sprigs, thyme sprigs, and bay leaf, tied together

•   1 tablespoon black peppercorns, or green or white peppercorns, crushed

Directions

1.    Place the knuckle and marrow bones and optional calves foot in a very large pot (or ideally, a crock pot), toss with vinegar and cover with cold water. Let stand for 1/2 to 1 hour. Meanwhile, place the meaty bones in a stainless steel roasting pan. For a particularly aromatic stock, brush the bones with tomato paste. Brown at 350 degrees in the oven, about ½ hour. When well browned, add these bones to the pot. Pour the fat out of the roasting pan, add cold filtered water to the pan, set over a high flame and deglaze the pan. Add this liquid to the pot. Add additional water, if necessary. Bring to a simmer and carefully skim any scum that comes to the top. Afterwards, add the vegetables, bouquet garni, and peppercorns.

2.   Simmer stock for at least 12 and as long as 24 hours. (Again, if you do this in a slow cooker/crock pot, you’ll be able to leave it while you go about your other business).

3. Remove. Strain the stock into a large glass container. Let cool in the refrigerator and remove the congealed fat that rises to the top (use it instead of butter or oil in cooking). Transfer to smaller containers and to the freezer for long-term storage.

Note: The marrow may be removed from the marrow bones a couple of hours into the cooking, and spread on whole grain sourdough bread. If left in the pan for the entire cooking period, the marrow will melt into the broth, resulting in a broth that is cloudy but highly nutritious.

Variation: Lamb Stock

Use lamb bones, especially lamb neck bones and riblets. Ideally, use all the bones left after butchering the lamb. Be sure to add the feet if you have them. This makes a delicious stock.

Variation: Venison Stock

Use venison meat and bones. Be sure to use the feet of the deer and a section of antler if possible. Add 1 cup dried wild mushrooms if desired

much of the above info was gleaned from www.mercola.com, including broth recipe
for more info on the power of bone broth:  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/10/05/bone-broth-recipe.aspx

Half of Me, Whole of Me

This time of year, I always find other's words to be more meaningful than anything I can muster.  I need the comfort and joy that can be found leaning into them, inevitably finding some support.  So, with great appreciation to Parabola Magazine, The Society for the Study of Myth and ... (a rich and rewarding subscription gift to give btw!) for bringing my attention to the following hallow words of Thomas Merton:

"When I am not present to myself, then I am only aware of that half of me, that mode of my being which turns outward to created things.  And then it is possible for me to lose myself among them. Then I no longer feel the deep secret pull
of the gravitation of love which draws my inward self toward God. 

My will and my intelligence lose their command of the other faculties. My senses, my imagination, my emotions,
scatter to pursue their various quarries all over the face of the earth.  Recollection brings them home.  It brings the outward self into line with the inward spirit, and makes my whole being answer the deep pull of love that reaches down into the mystery of God."

—Thomas Merton from "No Man is an Island," (Shambhala, Boston) 2005 (first published in 1955).

May we all return to this inward gravitational pull as the season dictates.  May we bring home this recollection of other possibilities.

Returning: Authentic Movement in the Now

Sometimes we find ourselves in the throws of circumstances we know nothing about, and for which we have no reference point.  Perhaps it is precipitated by a shock, trauma, re-trauma causing a degree of disassociation. We are left almost bereft, uncertain, feeling outside of our normal self.  The world has turned upside down, we try to act, make decisions, behave to and in the completely unfamiliar.  What is, becomes living an estrangement; a betrayal of one's core truth.  In this disorienting position, we grapple with trying to reach an understanding with skills we don't have, that aren't in our normal milieu.  Perhaps the shock has us abandon our centered self, the place of understanding and homeostasis from which we usually operate.

Recovery is not immediate.  There is an unwinding necessary.  Typical destressing techniques don't work, aren't possible in this scenario.  Time is actually the healer, the thing that helps us regain perspective, bringing my externalized self back home.  Returning to the body as a point of reference, returning to the act of listening to the body is a salve that begins to heal the torn fabric of ourselves, our being.

In my mind this is the true value of the Authentic Movement (AM) form.  It's an invitation to return to what Is.  There is a client I have coached for several months and we have used AM in significant ways to reassociate (self)Presence as a prescription.  After a very difficult week of losses, I suggested she do some AM during our session.  Initially, she didn't want to; she felt too tired and she didn't want to do all the angry air punching she felt she would end up doing.  I asked her who in her believed she knew what her tired body would turn to in the moment of dropping in and stillness that is the beginning of the form.  That's a moment that is new, not laden with anticipation or agenda.  We are asked to breathe, sense and Be-- and then finally allow what is to manifest.


She described this session as I have described sessions, as many many others have described sessions, as being an affirmation of the body to Self, an experience of returning to what is true, now. When we stop, breathe, drop in-- the unexpected often happens.

We are our bodies in this way.  Our bodies are a source to return to for a reality check, for our truth to pass through and the rest of me to register.  All of a sudden, the frenetic head energy I've been running on all day is redistributed, transformed to include the rest of me.  I find my strength, my vertical in the presence of the body in the now.