The Gurus Of Hip-Hop

The Gurus Of Hip-Hop by Adisa Banjoko

I came across the above article on the website for The Mind Body Awareness Program - a splendid yogish program for at-risk and incarcerated youth which was founded in part by Noah Levine (the author of Dharma Punx).  

As I was recently explaining to a friend, I’ve been fumbling over the idea of being my Self completely.  My mini-journey-of-sorts right now is a bit tangled up.  It is a healthy mixture of renouncing external self-identifiers and embracing the fact that many of these (my external IDs) don’t mesh well in the eyes of many Beings within our current social paradigm.  A letting go of these identifiers and an embracing of them at the same time.  Mildly paradoxical and quiet apparently something I am having trouble articulating.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I don’t want to squeeze myself inside a new-agey box.  I don’t want to paint myself in a singular light (socially).  I’m NOT in a singular light.  I am in love with many things at once, and they are not contradictory.  Politics and Oblivion.  Potato Chips and Raw Foods.  Hip-hop and Meditation music.  Inertia and Yoga.  Just as I was voicing my love for inner-city social work and yoga on the beach, I came across the above article.  I mean, c’mon, couldn’t have spoken louder.  I am not a fad, I am an Ocean.

Enjoy the article, let me know what you think.

And for good measure here is my healthy/growing/beaming niece Sophia @ 3 1/2 months:

Sending some of her strength to all of you!

Discovering Your Ayurvedic Body Type

In recent months I have put a lot of time and effort into learning about the Ayurvedic way of health and being.  I’ve read a few books - the most helpful of which is “Perfect Health” by Deepak Chopra.  Since I have been down here in Florida, I have scheduled a consultation appointment with an Ayurvedic practitioner, but before that I took several questionnaires in order to find out my dominant body type or “Dosha”.  Ayurveda believes that each person is created with a certain dominant dosha or doshas, which may very easily become imbalanced, resulting in discomfort, illness and disease.  The goal of Ayurveda is to keep your Doshas in balance through diet, exercise, meditation, etc.

Here is a great questionnaire that may help you determine a bit more clearly just what your dominant body type.  It’s not really a refutable substitute for a face-to-face consultation with a trained Ayurvedic doctor, but it is a great first step!

Yoga and the Power of Positivity

© Laura Susan Henry

May 22, 2008

The mind is a powerful aspect of the self. Becoming aware of how it shapes our lives and our perceptions can begin on the yoga mat.

Yoga is a holistic form of exercise; it challenges the body, mind, and spirit. The psychological aspects of your practice can be a complex adventure, but the simplest mental principle to remember is that your thoughts create some of the most powerful energy in your body. We have all heard of someone becoming “sick from worry” or of “glowing” with happiness; your mental state and mood can literally alter your physical state and health. In yoga, the act of deliberate positive thought helps you explore your body’s potential for health, beauty, and serenity.

Forget “I can’t” and Embrace “I can”

It is the most obvious and sometimes the hardest lesson to remember: the moment you tell yourself that you are not capable of something, you cut yourself off from the possibility of achieving it. Every action begins in the mind. Visualization is the first step in creation.

Whether it’s touching your toes or lying in savasana for five minutes, the attempt must start with the positive affirmation that “I can…” And if your goal is not met by a first, second, or tenth attempt, it is simply a matter of “I can’t yet…”

Talk to Yourself

Without even being fully aware of it, most of us talk to ourselves throughout the day, often in a harsh and critical manner. If we make a mistake, forget something important, or fail at a task, we might tell ourselves that we are “stupid” or “worthless.” Many of us look in the mirror and fail to see our own beauty and instead tell ourselves we look “fat,” “old,” or “tired.”

It is a difficult habit to change, but turning negative self talk into positive reinforcement can begin on the yoga mat. For example, in the moments at the beginning of your practice when you are centering your attention on the breath, create a self affirming mantra to carry throughout your practice and your day. Practice a simple mantra such as, “I am beautiful, I am bountiful, I am blissful.” Positive thinking changes your attitude and outward appearance; happiness is visible in your expression, in the way you walk, and even talk.

Love Yourself

Ahimsa, or non-violence, one of the yamas (principles of abstinence) in yoga, must first be applied to the way we treat ourselves. Often, we berate ourselves for failure, laziness, and imperfection. Rather than holding yourself accountable for what you perceive as shortcomings, understand that perhaps on any given day, what you really need is rest or that in reality, the things for which you put so much pressure on yourself really don’t matter that much anyway. Remember that the best you can do is always more than good enough.

Be Proud

Setting goals for yourself is a great motivator. But say you don’t reach them in the time you allotted for yourself? Rather than throwing your hands up in despair, be aware of your progress. Congratulate yourself for every step you make closer to your goal.

Don’t Create a Present Based on Past Experiences!!!

Trying new things can be scary and daunting, but just because you haven’t done something before doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of it. Taking a risk is necessary to accomplish anything. Live in the present and enjoy where you are now. Look forward to where you are going, in your practice and your life.

Chopra on Cigarette Smoking, Alcohol, and Drug Abuse

The following is an excerpt from Deepak Chopra’s book Creating Health.  Chapter Five in its entirety.

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If cigarettes, alcohol, and “recreational” drugs were eliminated from society, we would have nearly empty hospitals. A large percentage of patients admitted to a hospital for illness can trace the origins of their disease, or the conditions that aggravate it, back to smoking, drinking, indulging in recreational marijuana or stronger drugs, and sometimes to a combination of all three. I will talk briefly about the danger to health that they represent, but we are all aware that smoking, drinking, and drug abuse receive very little support in our society. Warnings, good intentions, and even public awareness campaigns do not do much good here. The important question, then, is what it really takes to stop these obviously threatening abuses.

Cigarette Smoking

More than seventy million Americans smoke, and the reason they do is that they are habituated - many physicians would say addicted - to nicotine. Nicotine is a poison that the body can get used to, as it gets used to alcohol. Once the body gets over its initial dislike of nicotine, then the “pleasurable” effects of smoking support the habit. These pleasures are largely in the mind - the smoker looks on cigarettes as either a stimulant or a relaxant, depending on what he mentally needs.

Smoking is undoubtedly a significant contributor to our two major killers, heart disease and cancer. Coronary artery disease is fifty times more common in smokers than in nonsmokers. Compared with nonsmokers, people who smoke one pack of cigarettes a day are eight times more likely to contract lung cancer. This likelihood increases to eighteen times if between one and two packs a day are smoked, and to twenty-one times if a person smokes more than two packs a day. The actual death rate for smokers is 70 percent higher from coronary artery disease, 500 percent higher from Bronchitis and cancer, and 1,000 percent higher from lung cancer than it is for nonsmokers. Smokers are far more likely to develop other diseases of all kinds, among them emphysema, ulcers, and cancers of the mouth, esophagus, stomach, and bladder. So-called low-tar cigarettes often contain higher quantities of other toxins and low-nicotine cigarettes in general usually lead smokers merely to smoke more packs a day.

Without question, smoking is a disease and warrants immediate medical attention. All sorts of programs to help people to quit smoking have been put forward, and almost all can be effective. The group programs sponsored by the American Cancer Society and various hospitals have had notable success. These groups offer the sympathetic support of other smokers who are trying to quit and this is a great help when anyone suffers the real and sometimes prolonged withdrawal symptoms of nicotine addiction. Sutdies have shown that no single method is the key. Those people who have stopped successfully usually try several times, using a variety of approaches, before the become entirely free of their habit.

I believe that smoking ends wit ha single “mutation” in the brain that offers the thought, “I have no desire for this anymore.” With this insight comes the spontaneous realization that “I can quit, it is easy for me.” In other words, it is not really the treatment that is working - rather, it is the newfound attitude that there is no problem in the first place. When this insight is allowed to enter the mind, then any treatment will work, including simply stopping.

By promoting the thought that smoking is difficult to stop and by backing this up with detailed descriptions of the physical addictiveness of nicotine, doctors in fact are making it difficult for people to quit. They are helping a wrong attitude, a wrong reality view, to sink its roots into the minds of their patients. This helps explain, I think, why people continue to harm themselves by smoking even though they are aware of the danger they face. The willingness to stop comes when the idea of danger is NOT present.

Alcohol

No one any longer argues with the fact that alcoholism is a disease. Alcoholics are subject to distinctly higher than average death rates (these rates increase even more if they are also smokers). People with a history of heavy drinking experience a death rate three times that of nondrinkers. Their deaths are commonly caused by diseases of the digestive system, suicide, automobile accidents, and malnutrition. Destruction of heart muscle, brain tissue, liver, pancreas, and stomach occurs frequently as well.

When it comes to occasional drinking of alcohol, however, society and the medical profession tend to display a different attitude. Some physicians have gone so far as to suggest that small amounts of alcohol may even have beneficial effects. By this they usually mean that one drink, say a glass of wine, temporarily lowers blood pressure and releases inhibitions and worries. it is interesting to note that in a survey in which people were asked, “What constitutes excessive alcohol consumption?” the definition of “excessive” was whatever exceeded the respondent’s own intake.

I believe that alcohol is a toxin. It impairs clear perception and motor coordination. It has poisonous effects on the heart, liver, and brain that do not seem to be reversible. It contributes to senseless deaths from automobile accidents that number twenty-five thousand fatalities a year. Anything that harmful, even in small doses, is not a legitimate part of perfect health; therefore, I recommend complete abstinence from alcohol.

What causes alcohol addiction in the first place? Some people may be predisposed to alcoholism, either by heredity or by family upbringing. Identical twins who have been separated at infancy and raised apart have been shown to develop similar drinking habits after they grow up, and if one becomes an alcoholic, the other tends to at around the same time. Other people tend to drift slowly but steadily into alcoholism, starting with occasional drinking in adolescence. I think it is significant that both drinking and smoking begin in the teenage years for most people, at a time when the self is confused and unformed. This helps both habits to become ingrained at a deep level of the personality and makes it difficult for healthy adult thought patterns to displace the established mindset. As with smoking, the treatment for alcoholism requires a single, deep-seated change in attitude. Successful group programs like Alcoholics Anonymous offer support to make this inner change come about. Without it, no change is really possible.

Recreational Drugs

The term recreational drugs loosely includes all the various substances people take to enhance, distort, or otherwise affect perception. A person initially resorts to using such drugs because the experience with them is pleasurable. In our society the range of pleasures can be derived from many sources, mainly alcohol, opiates (morphine, codeine, heroin), marijuana, cocaine, and various hallucinogens like mescaline and LSD. But an enormous list could be gathered of substances that alter brain chemistry and therefore could be said to affect the mind. People opposed to the use of coffee, tea, and even sugar may with some reason label them drugs.

In the last decade, scientists were fascinated to discover that the human brain is capable of synthesizing chemicals very similar to opiates. They named these endorphins, from end-, which means from within the body, and orphin, which has the same root as morphine. The “endogenous opiates” are the body’s own pain relievers and in fact prove to be much more powerful than painkillers you can buy in a drugstore. Recent investigation has also shown that the brain possesses distinct receptor cells for receiving these endorphins. An opiate we might be given from outside (called an “exogenous opiate”) exerts its painkilling effect on the brain by binding to these same receptors. That such receptors have evolved at all means that there must be some use for them; the inner and outer opiates seem to serve the same function just because they fit into the same receptors.

Yet the brain can also be affected by the entire list of drugs given at first, including very powerful, mind-altering hallucinogens. The implication is that receptors must exist in the brain for these too, or for their analogues (their chemical equivalents). In other words, we must be capable of synthesizing such drugs or their analogues inside ourselves, to an extent at least; otherwise, why would we have evolved the receptors to bind them? This conclusion offers a clue to the perplexing question of why people have sought and experimented with mind-altering drugs since time immemorial.

Perhaps the human organism is meant to experience a wider range of consciousness than we suppose. Mind-altering drugs apparently work at all because our internal system of receptors and analogues is already available. What is unclear now is exactly what natural, healthy condition of mind and body would induce altered states as a normal part of life. It may be that when our quota of these states is not ordinarily fulfilled, we tend to fill the gap with analogues from the outside.

However, the pharmacological analogues, not having been designed for us spontaneously by our body’s innate wisdom, have their toxicity. The recent increased use of these drugs has brought to light the fact that toxicity accompanies almost every one of them. For example, marijuana was thought until recently to be relatively safe but now has been shown to affect unfavorably the immune system. The principal active ingredient in marijuana (THC) localizes in high concentration in the spleen, among other places. The spleen is an important site for the manufacture of T-lymphocytes, a specialized part of the immune system important in fighting off cancer as well as various infections. The T-lymphocytes in the bodies of regular marijuana smokers fight against disease less well than normally. Not only are fewer T-lymphocytes present, but they are also sluggish and slower to divide when faced with an enemy force, namely potential infection.

Data on the impairment of the immune system from the habitual use of marijuana has not received the publicity it deserves. In a significant finding by one Columbia University study, the antibodies produced by marijuana smokers declined drastically during one month of heavy use. When smoking was totally discontinuted, however, the antibodies only returned to normal levels very slowly, and even five weeks later there were signs of a decrease. Athough this finding of immunotoxicity (damage to the immune system) is most striking in the case of marijuana, it is apparently induced by other drug addictions as well. Unless attitudes toward drug-taking change significantly, we face the porspect oflarge numbers of people who use recreational drugs becoming highly susceptible to disease.

These drugs are also harmful just because they do alter the mind by directly acting on brain tissue. Simply from daily observation, one commonly sees the the euphoria induced by drugs in time changes to something quite different. Drug users of all types not only tend to addiction and require larger and larger doses to satisfy their urge, but the actual effect of the drug on the brain changes. Pleasant sensations give way to lethargy, withdrawal, depression, dullness, and other psychologically damaging states. Sometimes physicians refer to these as “underlying states of mind,” but it is just as likely that continued use has in fact altered the structure of the brain tissue. The brain centers responsible for emotions and biological rhythms are stimulated by many recreational drugs, and there is evidence that this artificial enhancement leads to some sort of overtaxing, or burn-out, with the sad consequences we all observe in our society.

I don’t need to belabor the point that drug taking does great harm to young people, making the difficult transition to adulthood even more difficult and almost wrenching. And drugs obviously contribute directly to crime, accidents, suicide, and murder. Achieving a natural beneficial enhancement of concsiousness can be a great stride forward in personal development, as we shall see. Drugs may imitate such a state for a little while, but in truth they are its enemies.

Smoking, drinking, and drug abuse exist because they satisfy a natural need that has become a craving. To solve the problems they create, we must look once again to the human mind. Why do some people crave mind-altering stimuli? Can we substitute other stimuli - those that need no outside agent - that would actually be helpful to a perfectly healthy existence? My answer is an unequivocal yes. Mental techniques exist that are far more enjoyable and life enhancing to practice than using alcohol, nicotine, and other toxic drugs. We will explore them in the second half of this book.

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My emphasis added. As I continue to read through this book and come across his follow-up to these points, I will post those as well!

Sinus Solutions by Erin Hull

I noticed that sinus congestion remedies were getting the most hits, so I pulled this short article from an issue of Yoga Journal for you guys. I hope it helps someone! Please keep my Neti Pot post in mind. My own experience has taught that Neti is hands down the best nasal decongestant technique . . . nothing has worked better for me. Be a champ and let me know what works best for you!

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When your sinuses get inflamed and clogged with mucus, all you want to do is crawl under the covers. But to clear up that clouded head, you’re better off getting up and moving around, says Jeff Migdow, a physician who directs a yoga teacher training program at the Open Center in New York City. To relieve symptoms, he recommends doing poses (below) that elevate the head and open the chest. “To get more out of your practice,” he suggests, “first drink some ginger tea and inhale its vapors.”

Kapalabhati breathing can also help. This forceful technique, also called “breath of fire” or Skull Shining Breath, consists of quick nostril exhalations that emanate from the abdominal muscles rather than the chest, and is said to cleanse the nasal passages and lungs. (You should have some tissues on hand.) If you’ve never tried Kapalabhati, it’s best to learn from an experienced yoga teacher. Try it in Utkatasana (Chair Pose), pictured [below]. Migdow advises against relying on the over-the-counter nasal sprays, which he says just irritate the sinuses. So instead of dashing to the medicine cabinet for a decongestant, try some hot tea and these poses.

Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose)

Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)

Utkatasana (Chair Pose)

Ardha Chanrdasana (Half Moon Pose)

Kapotasana (Pigeon Pose)

Sphinx (Cobra Pose Variation)

Hip-Hop&Veganism

Neti Pot Overview and Demo

Curious Irrigation Practices (D.M.)

Jala neti, literally meaning “water cleansing”, has been used by yoga and ayurveda practitioners for thousands of years. It is where the practitioner rinses out the nasal cavity with water (usually salted) using a neti pot. Neti pots are ceramic or metal and they resemble a tea pot.

I have found this practice useful living in the Santa Fe area due to the fact that it is so very dusty and rich in a seeming continuous cycle of pollen as well as other sinus allergens. In fact, I attribute my continued lack of allergies, after having a really severe and one time juniper attack, to my periodic practice of Jala neti.

It may take a little time to accept the idea of actually doing Jala neti, but once you have tried it, learned to relax around it and come up with your own before and after procedures, you will find that it is quite easy and very relieving. Whenever I do it, afterwards, I wonder why I don’t do this more often. Your head feels so much clearer and everything seems much brighter having done this.

There are a few different levels and variations on this practice. I am going to describe the way I do it which is the most basic, simple way I know of. I will include slight variations that seem like they may be useful and worth trying.

You will need to do this over a sink, in a bowl on a table, in the shower, tub, or outside.

Fill the neti pot with warm water. Some people like to start with boiling water to sterilize the water and the pot, then let the water cool. It shouldn’t be too hot or too cold. The hot water would burn your nasal passages and the cold is just not effective, comfortable or relaxing. I usually use water that is a little above body temperature.

You will then mix in a little uniodized sea salt. I usually put in a pinch. I have heard it measured out to being at about one percent of the amount of water you are using. This may take a couple of tries to get it right. I suggest erring on the side of too little salt, as too much will burn your sinuses. The salt is supposed to be cleansing and acts to get the water to the proper Ph balance for your nasal cavity.

After the salt is fully dissolved and the water is at a proper temperature, you will put the nose cone of the neti pot into one of your nostrils. Make sure it is firmly in place and sealed well by twisting and adjusting as needed. Point the spout straight into the nasal passage so its not blocked by the inside of the nose. Relax your entire head as much as you can, all the muscles inside and out. Open your mouth and begin breathing only through your mouth.

Next, bend forward from the waist, over what ever you have decided to do this in. Bend so that your nose is the lowest point of your head. Turn your head so that the nostril with the spout in it is the top nostril, allowing the water to begin flowing through your nasal passages. Do this as slowly as needed so the water doesn’t run out over the brim of the neti pot. You also may need to adjust the tilt of your head from the crown to jaw direction if water starts coming out of your mouth, tilt so the crown is lower.

Once this step is done, you should gently blow your nose through both nostrils to clear water and mucus from your nose. In ayurveda it is recommended not to ever blow your nose only through one nostril and not to blow too hard.

Now it is time to repeat this process to the other nostril.

Sometimes you have to do this a few times depending on how clogged your sinuses are. There have been times when I did this that the water just wouldn’t go through due to my sinuses being so clogged up. If you are going to do this, its good to remember to do it before its too late and your sinuses are totally stuffed up.

When you are finished with both sides, you should do some things to completely drain and dry the sinuses and nostrils.

First, bend forward from the waist and let your head hang, looking down to the ground for a few moments and then looking at the knees for a few moments. While doing these bends, breath in through the mouth and out through the nose.

Then, standing upright do some rapid breaths through the nose with more emphasis on the out breaths.

This is the way I suggest doing the basic Jala neti procedure. There are more advanced techniques if you decide to really go for it. You also will certainly come up with your own variations as you find what works best for you as well as adjusting for the reason why you are doing Jala neti.

I have used this to great effect here in the Santa Fe area, clearing out dust, pollen and untold varieties of nasal irritants. In fact, all this talk of nasal irrigating has got me to fondly eyeing my neti pot and sea salt. I am going to irrigate right now!

Loneliness and Technology

January 2, 2007

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PHOTO: Sebastian Diaz Morales

Forty year old Joyce Vincent had been lying dead in her London apartment for two straight years before the badly decomposed body was discovered by her landlord in April 2006. The story, quietly tucked away in British newspapers, profoundly upset readers around the world who saw her isolation as a failing of modern communities. As one outraged blogger put it, “Two years. She lay there. Alone, dead, unnoticed, and unmissed. How is it possible that in a city of about seven million, not one person noticed that a neighbor, sister, cousin or friend was missing?”

How, indeed: in an era of advanced communication technologies in which loved ones can be reached with a few clicks of a mouse or dial of a phone, it seems implausible that the number of solitary deaths have been on the rise in countries like the UK and Japan in recent years. Alienation, dubbed the “great emotional sickness of our era” by Italian filmmaker Michaelangelo Antonioni, remains a disease that even email, cell phones and online networking has been powerless to remedy. These days, some experts are even suggesting that our social bonds may be breaking down not in spite of these new technologies, but because of it.

A decade ago, when many North Americans were still just starting to go online, Apple, AT&T, Hewlett Packard and Intel funded a research project by Washington University to study the psychological and social effects of using the Internet. While most first-time users went online for social purposes, the studies showed a rapid decline in participation for social activities beyond the net and increases in depression and loneliness. While magazines like Fortune and BusinessWeek boasted the virtues of “interactive” sites such as MySpace and YouTube, most internet users were found to be joining fewer clubs, talking less in-person and hanging out with friends less often. While new tools were allowing people to network faster than ever, studies around the world have pointed to the shrinking social circles of tech-savvy consumers. A June 2006 study by Duke University concluded that the average American today only has two close confidants, while SwissCom Inc. found that 80 percent of all cell phone conversations took place with only four people.

Some critics have rebuffed the suggestion that technology has eroded traditional human bonds, noting that the interaction is simply taking place in different forms. “What it’s really doing is shifting the means of socializing,” says Barry Wellman, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto. In other words, the seemingly quiet and withdrawn teenager at family dinners could in fact be a witty conversationalist in online forums. This didn’t necessarily make her anti-social; it was simply a different mode of communication. While heavy internet users were spending less time with family and friends offline, they were keeping more regular contact through cell phone calls and email. The Internet has moreover been a godsend for some people who lacked opportunities for human contact, such as the elderly and disabled. Vilify it though we may, technology has so far played an invaluable role in keeping people integrated.

In themselves, email and cell phones are only a small part of the broader causes of loneliness in modern society. What these tools have done, however, is fundamentally change the nature of our communication with other people. While our new tools grant us the convenience of talking from a distance over a screen, they also exempt us from the intimacy that comes with face-to-face communication. The subtle nuances of facial expressions and body language are lost, and in return, we are spared the awkwardness and inconveniences of in-person meetings.

“There is something trying, even exhausting, about human interactions,” writes Laura Pappano in her book, The Connection Gap. “Why meet when you can e-mail? And digital video makes it seem like you’re there. Right?” While interviewing a terminally ill woman who chatted online to escape loneliness, however, Pappano discovered that the woman gradually grew cynical of the superficial interactions with her ‘friends’ – to them, she was merely a name on a screen, disembodied from her cancer and the world around her. They didn’t perceive the pain in her eyes or voice as she communicated with them. Her life and death had no impact on their conscience.

“I don’t want useless sounds. I want to select them,” complains Monica Vitti’s character in Antonioni’s 1964 film, La Notte. In today’s age of virtual communication, it has become all too easy for people to select and filter out the voices they don’t want to hear. It’s a world in which voices of isolated, impoverished individuals like Joyce Vincent all too easily lose their place. In the last hour before her death, Vincent surrounded herself with unopened Christmas presents and drowned out the silence with sounds from her TV set – a parting reminder to herself, perhaps, that she was still connected to a society that had long forgotten about her.

Jenny Uechi

propz

The Master Cleanse by Stanley Burroughs - PDF

http://healthandlight.com/TheMasterCleanse.pdf

Nasal Congestion Remedies

I figure it is that time of the year for many of us - - - at least I know damn well it is for me. I purchased a left nostril piercing a little over a week ago and have since contracted some sort of a cold. My nose is so irritated from my constant playing with the piercing, picking, and blowing that it is bleeding. Allergies don’t help. So I’ve been browsing for some natural remedies and preventative measures to take. Here are some (hopefully helpful) ones that I have come across:

Homemade Treatments for Sinus Congestion

By Kassidy Emmerson

Whether you have a cold, the flu, allergies, or other sinus problems, dealing with sinus congestion and fighting to be able to breathe is a hassle. There are many over-the-counter remedies you can try to clear out your nose so you can breathe freely again. But many of these products have negative side effects, such as drowsiness, dizziness, a burning sensation in the nasal passages and throat, and lightheadedness. And, not all of these products work. The next time you suffer from a stuffy nose and head, try these homemade treatments for sinus congestion.

One of my favorite remedies is mint. Peppermint, Spearmint, Wintergreen- it doesn’t matter. They all work well when sinus congestion interferes with your breathing normally. For light congestion, sucking on a strong mint can do wonders, believe it or not! To treat moderate sinus congestion, try drinking a piping hot cup of mint tea. To treat heavier congestion, place a few drops of mint oil in a large bowl half full of boiling water. (You can readily find mint oil at your local health food store.)Then, lean your head over the bowl and hang a towel over your head. Allow the vapors to work for a minute or so. Then try to breathe them in as your sinus congestion begins to clear out. Repeat the process two to three times a day as needed.

You can also place a couple drops of mint oil on a tissue or handkerchief. Hold it up to your nose and breathe in the fragrant aroma whenever you need relief from sinus congestion.

Another homemade treatment for clogged nasal passages is horseradish. You can use the root to make a vaporizer, the same as you use mint oil. You can also brew up a cup of horseradish tea. It’s just not the tastiest drink you’ve ever had. So, you can always take the easy way out and use horseradish sauce or grate up some root and cook with it. Ingesting horseradish this way won’t be near as effective, but it can work for you too. Eating garlic works well too in the battle against sinus congestion.

When I was a teen, I used to drink a Hot Toddy whenever I had a cold. This alcoholic drink- which contains whiskey- works miracles at relieving aches and pains. Keeping that in mind when I got older, I discovered that another alcoholic drink, a Bloody Mary, works quite effectively to relieve sinus congestion if you add a few ingredients to it. The best part is, you don’t even need to add vodka. I’m not sure what the bottled mixes contain nowadays, but stirring up a homemade treatment will ensure you’re getting the vital ingredients.

Mix together a quart of tomato juice, a half teaspoon of black pepper, 3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, one to two teaspoons of Tabasco® sauce, a teaspoon of lemon juice and a half teaspoon of garlic oil. Pour out a cup full and place the cup in the microwave for sixty seconds, or until it’s steamy hot.

Drink the tomato mixture slowly. Be sure to inhale the fumes so they can help unclog the congestion in your nose and nasal cavities.

Granted, you’ll feel like you can blow flames out of your mouth after you drink this. But if you want to breathe freely again, this tomato drink will do the trick. If you find out this mixture is too strong for you, tone down the ingredients to better suit your tastes.

I used to have a boss who didn’t believe in “sick days”. Once, when I had a head cold and could barely speak or breathe, my boss suggested that I take hot, steamy showers. He also suggested that I breathe in the steamy heat as much as possible. Try this homemade treatment for sinus congestion and you’ll find out how much it will clear your head.