Fasting--Day 13 and 14

I spent the day reading an inspiring book by Cheryl Russell titled THANKYOUOLOGY: How the Art of Saying Thank You Transforms your Life! Cheryl was raised in the Unity Church and has practiced a life of positively affirming what is Good and True. But in recent years, she has paid special attention to being thankful for everything in her life. She describes how the deliberate act of taking time to say thank you to your body, your friends and family, your co-workers and bosses, the people who inspire you, and of course God can facilitate a more rewarding life experience. She shares a wonderful personal story about a time when she was given only 60 days to move out of the home she had occupied for 9 years, as the landlords had decided to move into the home themselves. She was devastated and panic stricken, and she was in the middle of a huge fundraising campaign for the non-profit that she worked for at the time. After the initial shock, she managed to gather her wits about her and put her "thank you" practice into action. So, with only 3 weeks left to find a new living situation, she sat down and wrote a thank you letter to God:

Dear God,


Thank you for my new place to live. I love it so much!
1. Thank you for the gorgeous ocean view.
2. Thank you for the peaceful sounds of silence.
3. Thank you for the fresh clean feeling of my home.
4. Thank you that my furniture fits perfectly.
5. Thank you for the birds and gentleness around me.
6. Thank you for the great outdoors for my daily walks.
7. Thank you for the friendly neighborhood.
8. Thank you for the home that feels SO magical!
9. Thank you for the affordable rent.
10. Thank you for a May 7, 2005 move-in date.


With Love and Hugs,
Cheryl

Within 12 days, she had found a new home that met every single request she had made in her letter! In the Gospel of Mark (11:24), Jesus tells us, "whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." By writing a letter to God, and thanking Him in advance for what we want, we are doing a Jesus instructed. And, I suspect there is something especially powerful about writing down our prayer requests.

For people who are struggling health issues, Cheryl recommends making a daily practice of thanking your body, especially the part that is giving you trouble. She uses alliteration to make is fun. Here are some examples:

Thank you stupendous stomach!
Thank you lively liver!
Thank you exquisite eyes!
Thank you glorious gallbladder!
Thank you brilliant brain!
Thank you precious pancreas!
Thank you terrific teeth!
Thank you splendid spleen!
Thank you intelligent intestines!
Thank you clever colon!
Thank you eloquent ears!
Thank you scrumptious skin!

Well, this probably gives you the idea. You can make up your own for any part of your body and repeat it from time to time throughout the day. You may be pleasantly surprised at what a positive effect this practice can have on your total well-being. In Masuro Emoto's work on water, he found that positive words directed at water created completely different crystalline structures and colors than those in water that had negative words directed at them. Since our bodies are made up almost entirely of water, it would make sense that positive words directed toward them would have a profoundly positive effect.

Here is the song Thank You by 33 Miles:



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Day 13 (January 14):  Still feeling good. Slight nausea from time to time, but nothing major. My weight was 97.0, blood pressure was 96/70, pulse was 81, and temperature was 97.9. Experienced some stuffiness in my right sinus for several hours after waking. My roommate says I have color in my face for the first time since she saw me. Still experiencing some gas, but no bowel activity. Drank 3.5 quarts of water. My vitamin D levels are low at 30. Optimum is 50, so I will need to supplement once I come off the fast.

Day 14 (January 15): Still feeling good. Slight nausea from time to time, but nothing major. My weight was 96.4, blood pressure was 90/54, pulse was 80, and temperature was 97.7. The uterine bleeding has finally stopped. Still experiencing some gas, but no bowel activity. Drank 4 quarts of water.

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A good friend sent me this article today and I wanted to share it with everyone:

A Study on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Giardia by Leo Galland

In 1991, my colleagues and I published a study of two hundred patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and demonstrated active Giardia infection in 46 per cent. Most of the patients with giardiasis had only minor gastrointestinal symptoms but were really ill with muscle pain, muscle weakness, flu-like feelings, sweats and enlarged lymph nodes. In fact, 61 per cent of fatigued patients with giardiasis had been diagnosed elsewhere as suffering from chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS), compared to only 19 per cent of fatigued patients without giardiasis. Cure of giardiasis resulted in clearing of fatigue and related ‘viral’ symptoms (muscle pain, sweats, flu-like feelings) in 70 per cent of cases, some reduction of fatigue in 18 per cent, and was of no benefit in only 12 per cent.

In 1990 I presented a paper before the American College of Gastroenterology which demonstrated Giardia infection in about half of a group of two hundred patients with chronic diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain and bloating. Most of these patients had been told they had irritable bowel syndrome, which is commonly referred to as "nervous stomach". I reached two conclusions from this study: (1) Parasitic infection can be a common event among patients with chronic gastrointestinal symptoms. (2) Many people are given a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome without a thorough evaluation.

My presentation was reported by numerous magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times. My office was flooded with hundreds of phone calls from people who were suffering with chronic gastrointestinal complaints. Most of them had been given a diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) by their physicians. The standard treatment for this syndrome had not helped them. All they had received was a label. Many had been told there was no cure. In evaluating these patients, I found that the majority had intestinal parasites, food intolerance or a lack of healthy intestinal bacteria.

These conditions were not mutually exclusive. Many patients had more than one reason for chronic gastrointestinal problems. Treating these abnormalities as they occurred in various patients produced remarkably good therapeutic results. A year later, researchers in the Department of Family Medicine at Baylor University in Houston reported findings similar to mine. Despite the research and the news reports about parasites, I still find that intestinal parasites are a common and often unsuspected cause of mystery illness.


Galland L, “Intestinal Protozoan Infestation and Systemic Illness”, in Textbook of Natural Medicine, 3rd Edition, Volume 2, J. Pizzorno and M. Murray, editors, Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, St. Louis, 2005, pp. 655-660.

Galland L. “The Effect of Systemic Microbes on Intestinal Immunity” Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) R. Jenkins and J. Mowbray, editors. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. London. 1991. pp 405-430.

Galland, L., Lee M., Bueno H. and Heimowitz C. (1990) “Giardia lamblia infection as a cause of chronic fatigue.” Journal of Nutritional Medicine, 2, 27-32.

Galland, L. (1989) “Intestinal protozoan infection is a common unsuspected cause of chronic illness.” Journal of Advancement in Medicine, 2, 529-552.

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If the only prayer you said in your whole life was "Thank You" that would suffice.

Meister Eckhart (1260-1327), German Theologian, Philosopher, and Mystic