Sing For Your Health

Café Singer
Edgar Degas
GNU Free Documentation License

A friend of mine posted on her FaceBook page a poster extolling the health benefits of singing which inspired me to write todays article. Here's a tip! Try singing and chanting for your health!

Singing, laughing and chanting make the sternum (the breast bone) vibrate which stimulates the immune system as the oscillations boost the thymus, a small gland in the chest behind the sternum which controls the production of the body’s key defense cells called T lymphocytes. When you sing or shout, pray or chant, laugh or listen to music, whether it be recorded or played live by many musicians, the Thymus is stimulated.

The early Greeks referred to the Thymus as the "Seat of Life Energy", but western medical science has not always understood the function of the thymus gland. Now the thymus is recognized as a gland closely related to the immune system, stress, and general well-being.  It directs life-giving and healing energies of the body, and is strongly influenced by an individual's physical environment, social relationships, food and posture.

The thymus becomes smaller and smaller with age and almost disappears in the end. It is largest and most active during the neonatal and pre-adolescent periods, but by the early teens, the thymus begins to atrophy.

Some researchers believe that different infections and cancers in old people are closely linked to the decline in T lymphocyte production. Hence, stimulating the thymus in some way either through laughing, chanting or singing can be helpful in maintaining or improving health as we age or experience illness.

Chinese Medicine uses Tapping the Thymus to help stimulate the production of T-cells, which are primary immune factors. Practiced daily, tapping will also increase the size of the thymus.

Vibrations in the throat also stimulate the Thyroid, the gland which produces hormones that regulate metabolism and the body’s energy consumption and body weight.

So now you know! The Fountain of Youth was inside YOU all the time. Keep laughing and singing for a long and healthy life!

What do you do to stay young and healthy?

Learn more about Chanting

Edited 4/30/17

A Video For Mom

An art project with a Mother's Day message using PostIt notes!
Here's a cool video for Mother's Day!



"Such a cool project. apparently they were not quite finished and somebody asked if the Post Its were for writing on. From then on people kept streamin up to write messages of love for their Mums. As yet another testament to why I love Kiwis, this was up all weekend and nobody vandalized it at all." ~~Shanti, Shanti

Click here for photo

Happy Mother's Day 2009

Happy Mother's Day 2010

edited 5/9/17

Celebrating Winter Solstice In The Year 2012

On December 21 share with me the rebirth from darkness into light as our annual cycle of life begins again in the Northern Hemisphere.

Winter Solstice has always been one of my favorite days of the year. One reason is all the holiday celebrating, decorations and focus on giving. The other reason is I know that from this day, the light begins to return, the days begin to get longer instead of shorter and I know that spring will come.

This year people seem to be paying a lot more attention than usual to this pivotal day because of all the media attention with "end of the world" predictions. Truth be told, the world we knew began "ending" in 2001. Is any part of your life the same as it was before 9/11? We have been moving into the new world for 10 years.



The following information is a good explanation of what I believe is happening around this Solstice without the hype of many other things I've read or heard. I would love to hear what you think about this info.

"All prophecy is fluid and changeable. The future is not set in stone. The reason is simple. We create our own reality through our collective thinking otherwise known as the mass consciousness. What a prophet "sees" is one of the probable outcomes of our future. If we don't like what the prophet has to say, we have the power to change it.

Cosmic cycles are nothing new to our ancestors. They are a part of the lore and history of many ancient civilizations. The Mayans studied them with a passion, and they served as the foundation of their sky religion. Even Plato was aware of the most important cycle for our planet occurring every 25,920 years, which he and others called the Great Year.

Today we find ourselves at the end of the 2160-year Age of Pisces, the beginning of Aquarius, the close of the Mesoamerican fifth world, the ending of the Kali Yuga (Iron Age) of the Hindus, and the extreme end of the Great Year."

source: fromthestars.com



And then this from Griffith Observatory

"Some have claimed an alignment of planets occurs on winter solstice, 2012, and will cause a catastrophic reversal of the earth's magnetic field. There is no such planetary alignment on winter solstice, 2012, and even if all the planets did align in this fashion, it would not cause such a reversal of the Earth's magnetic field. There have been numerous planetary alignments and they have had no effect on the Earth."

Click these links if you want more info about
the Winter Solstice
or Celebrating A Celtic Christmas

Check out this Solstice poem and photo

Tell me how you celebrate the Solstice.

Celebrating A Celtic Christmas

c pts images

An Irish Christmas Blessing

The light of the Christmas star to you
The warmth of home and hearth to you
The cheer and good will of friends to you
The hope of a childlike heart to you
The joy of a thousand angels to you
The love of the Son and God's peace to you.

Many people don't realize that a lot of the customs we use to celebrate Christmas are deeply rooted in Celtic Culture, which is much older than the Christian tradition.

Advent Wreath, Holly and Christmas Trees come from Celtic traditions. Maybe you will want to celebrate a Celtic Christmas. To learn more click Celebrating A Celtic Christmas.

edited 12/23/15

Tartan Week: Celebrating Scottish Heritage

What butter and whiskey won't
cure, there is no cure for.
-Celtic Saying

We celebrate the legacy of our shared Scottish heritage 

every year during March and April's  

National Tartan Week

In the United States, there are more than 20 million people who can claim descent from Scotland, most of whom take immense pride in their Scottish heritage. Throughout much of the country, the first week of April has come to be known as Tartan Week as the festivities of Tartan Day have increased and are now celebrated throughout the week. The festivities include a wide range of activities, cultural events and ceilidhs ('KAY-lees' - parties with singing and dancing) that celebrate the vibrancy of Scottish culture, past and present.

Woodrow Wilson said: "Every line of strength in American history is a line colored with Scottish blood." And this year's Scotland Week once again confirms Scotland's place in the hearts of Americans - and Canada too!

April 6 designated TARTAN DAY by a Resolution passed by the U.S. Senate March 20, 1998

Numerous groups and societies throughout Canada and America have taken the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath (1320) as their national date to celebrate their Scottish roots.

On December 19th 1991, in response to action initiated by the Clans & Scottish Societies of Canada, the Ontario Legislature passed a resolution proclaiming April 6th as Tartan Day, following the example of other Canadian provinces. America followed suit on March 20th 1998, when Senate Resolution 155 (S.Res. 155), proposed by US Senate Republican majority leader Trent Lott, was passed unanimously.

For as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.
From The Declaration of Arbroath 1320.




How will you celebrate?

Hugs for you on Valentine's Day!

I'm sending you love and tea,
To warm your winter's day.
Think of me as you pour your cup
And all the good things we would say.

If we could be together now
Instead of miles apart,
We'd sip our teas and memories,
The sweet warmth fills the heart.
 ~~Susan Young

I appreciate you so very much!

Wishing you a Happy New Year filled with Fun, Peace & Joy!!!

Free Comments and Graphics

Happy New Year

The most amazing thing just occured. I had just walked outside into the cold brisk air and was looking toward a building in the not too far distance with the sun shinning on the mountains rising majestically behind it when suddenly the images of faces and flowers on the side of the building became the most astonishing burst of luminous color display of radiant rust and orange, raw umber and shades of deep greens. And just as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone. The images were again just outlines on a grey building wall. I would have thought I imagined it except for the gasp of delight from all the people on the sidewalk around me. But that never happened. I must have dreamed it. I'm not in the mountains and it's the dark of night. But does that make it any less real? Or the amazement of the experience any less joyful?

And then my friend stepped inside the building and came out in a bikini, went thru a gate and jumped on a rather wildish black beauty of a horse and rode it till it was calm. But that didn't happen either. But I remember it as having happened. So is the memory any less real?

Maybe it's the fever I have which I know is real because I have had the thermometer in my mouth as I write this and it reads 100.5.

Isn't the brain amazing?

Let the Magic Happen!!!

Oh well, anyway! Happy New Year!
( I wasn't that fond of 2008 anyway! )

As my friend JD says "Rise and Shine in 2009"! ...or something like that. I may be paraphrasing.



heart graphics by patswebgraphics.com