Dutch army brings in yoga teacher to help soldiers de-stress

DutchNews, October 19, 2016

Photo: American Forces Press Service 

The Dutch armed forces have brought in a yoga teacher to see if yoga exercises can help soldiers process stress and traumatic experiences, according to the AD. 

Johan Noordloos will focus primarily on teaching army sports instructors to incorporate yoga into their programmes, the paper said. 

Noordloos told the AD that yoga and being trained to kill are not incompatible. 

Dutch soldiers do kill, but they do that to protect others, he said. ‘This is the world we live in,’ he said. ‘But I can help people who have been trained to deal with war to experience peace.’ 

The lessons will be voluntary and no soldier will be forced to take up yoga, although officials say they do believe the practice will be useful. 

‘Being in the army puts soldiers in stressful situations,’ spokesman Jeroen de Vries told the paper. ‘Yoga can help restore the balance in their lives. We want to find out if it helps them deal with difficult situations more easily.’ 

Jean Debie, head of the VBM military union, has welcomed the move. ‘Why not learn the technique if it helps your relax and beat stress,’ Debie said. 

According to the AD, yoga is already used in by the British and US armed forces.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… "Wow, Kryon, how long is that going to take?"

The Humans in the room control that and those listening later and reading. When you leave this room, what are you going to do? Go home, report this, rub your hands together, and wait for it to happen? It won't. For the Humans in the room and the old souls hearing and reading have got work to do, and I've told you this before. You've got work to do.

There's an alliance that you're going to have to create with one another and with another group - the young people of Earth. The youth of this earth are changing the way things work. Can you see it? You're not supposed to sit around and watch them either, because they need you, old soul.

It's time for you to align with the indigos and the concepts of the youth of the planet. Do not think for a moment that their age shows their wisdom. These two attributes are not commensurate with one another; they're not linear. These young people may be older souls than you are! Don't think that because they've got technology that you don't understand that you can't be one with them. Their technology is social networking, the very thing we are talking about, where everyone can talk to everyone. The new consciousness on the planet starts in two areas - the children and the old souls.

Conclusion

This is the message of the day. The recalibration of awareness is going to change systems, education, government and finance. Those who don't choose to be spiritual at all will still move with a new awareness, for they will be aware of something that they are not aware of now - a softer way of living.

We close with a trite statement that we've given before, but that many have stated in jest: "If women ran the world, they would never send their sons to be killed on a battlefield."

Many laugh. How trite, how simple minded. Indeed, there have been women leaders who have put wars together; they had to. They sent their sons, so that's not really a correct statement. However, it's more right than you may think, dear ones.

So now I will make the statement I have made over and over in these recalibrated channellings: "When recalibrated Humans run the world, there will come a day when they will never send their sons into the battlefield." You see, awareness will change all of that. They will eventually see the wisdom of unification, new ways to settle issues, and the intuitive attribute of putting things together instead of tearing them apart.

There will be a time when government armies will not need to be large, and weapons will not be as powerful. Slowly, government won't need them. Slowly, slower than you want, these things will happen as the old soul carries his light and looks at the masters of the planet and emulates them.

You've all heard it: There will come a time when the masters will come back to Earth, and there are many who are waiting for this. However, it has already happened! They couldn't come back until the alignment was right and now it is right. This is what you are feeling in 2012 and beyond. It's starting to happen, and they're back. But they're not back as corporeal Human Beings. They're back as the energy of recalibrating of the awareness of God.

I wouldn't say these things unless they were true. Watch for these things, dear ones. Remember where you heard them first and when some of them start to occur in your news. And when you see the earth working in this fashion, dear one, maybe you'll realize that what I have given today is real.

Be circumspect. There is no perfect timing. Humans will create all this at their own pace. Do not be in fear of the things that might follow, for I say it yet again that the old energy will show itself soon in survival mode and it won't be pretty.

In this beginning of new energy, stand tall and turn on your light. Darkness will shirk before you. That is the truth of the day.

I am Kryon, in love with humanity.

And so it is.

KRYON.

Meditation hope for mental health

Google/ UKPA – 11 June 2012

A month of meditation training alters brain wiring in ways that could open the door to new treatments for mental disorders, research has shown.

Research into meditation training

 could lead to new treatments for

 mental disorders

Scientists looked at the effects of integrative body-mind training (IBMT) on two groups of university students.

After just four weeks, or 11 hours, of training scans showed physical changes in the brains of the volunteers.

Nerve fibres, known as "white matter", became denser, providing greater numbers of brain-signalling connections. At the same time there was an expansion of myelin, the protective fatty insulation surrounding nerve fibres.

The effects were seen in the anterior cingulate cortex region of the brain, which helps regulate behaviour. Poor nerve activity in this part of the brain is associated with a range of mental problems, including attention deficit disorder, dementia, depression, and schizophrenia.

The study, reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, built on previous research based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans that first flagged up brain changes induced by IBMT. Scientists revisited results from two 2010 studies, taking a closer look at what the scans revealed.

One involved 45 US students from the University of Oregon; the other 68 students from China's Dalian University of Technology. The researchers found greater density of axons, or nerve fibres, after two weeks of IBMT training, but no change in myelin formation.

After a month both increases in axon density and myelin were seen. Students undergoing IBMT also reported improvements in mood, experiencing reduced levels of anger, depression, anxiety and fatigue. They also had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Study leader Professor Michael Posner, from the University of Oregon, who carried out the original US research, said: "This study gives us a much more detailed picture of what it is that is actually changing. We did confirm the exact locations of the white-matter changes that we had found previously. And now we show that both myelination and axon density are improving.

"The order of changes we found may be similar to changes found during brain development in

early childhood, allowing a new way to reveal how such changes might influence emotional and cognitive development."

Many suicidal men had problems in childhood: study

Reuters, Mon Apr 6, 2009 5:41pm EDT

A high school student (L) walks towards a group of female students chatting in front of a school in Tokyo November 9, 2006. (REUTERS/Kiyoshi Ota)

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Teenage and young adult men who make serious suicide attempts often had emotional problems at age 8, while most suicidal women succumb to depressions that develop after puberty, Finnish researchers said on Monday.

Nearly four out of five suicidal men tracked in a study in Finland had exhibited problems as 8-year-olds that were evident to their teachers or parents.

"Most males who commit suicide or need hospital care after a suicide attempt have high levels of psychiatric problems at the age of 8 years," wrote Dr. Andre Sourander of Turku University Hospital in Finland and colleagues.

"The main finding of our study is that severe suicidality in adolescence and early adulthood has different childhood trajectories among males and females," they wrote in a report published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The study tracked 5,302 people born in 1981, of whom 27 men and 27 women made serious suicide attempts by age 24. Of those, 13 men and two women died.

According to the World Health Organization, 877,000 people worldwide kill themselves each year. For every suicide death, anywhere from 10 to 40 attempts are made, the U.N. agency estimates.

Males tended to use "more lethal" methods, while female suicide attempts were mostly by intoxication or poisoning, according to the Finnish study.

In what they termed a "pathway of persistence," 78 percent of the suicidal males had displayed bad conduct at age 8 such as disruptive fits of temper, disobedience, aggression or cruelty toward others, destroying of property, stealing, lying, inattention or hyperactivity.

No such pattern was seen for the girls. Sourander's team said previous research has shown "female suicide attempts are often used to communicate distress or to modify the behavior and reactions of others." Most mood disorders affect girls after puberty, they added.

They urged effective screening to detect and treat childhood disorders, in the hope of reducing suicide rates.

"This focus is particularly important among males with severe conduct problems because, during adolescence, they usually do not seek mental health services," Sourander wrote.

(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Maggie Fox)

Is depression good for you?

By Tom Geoghegan, BBC News Magazine

Pills aren't the answer to helping many people recover from depression, says a report out this week. But there's growing evidence that gloominess could be a positive experience.

What depressed the cavemen? It may strike us as a particularly modern malaise for a time-poor, fast-paced society but a new reappraisal of depression suggests it has always been around.

A leading psychiatrist says that depression is not a human defect at all, but a defence mechanism that in its mild and moderate forms can force a healthy reassessment of personal circumstances.

Dr Paul Keedwell, an expert on mood disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, argues all people are vulnerable to depression in the face of stress, although to varying degrees, and always have been.

The fact it has survived so long - and not been eradicated by evolution - indicates it has helped the human race become stronger.

"I have received e-mails from ex-sufferers saying in retrospect it probably did help them because they changed direction, a new career for example, and as a result they're more content day-to-day than before the depression."

One woman left an abusive relationship and moved on, he says, and might not have done if depression had not provided the necessary introspection.

Similarly, unrealistic expectations are revised when depression sparks a more humble reassessment of strengths and weaknesses.

In Britain one in four men and one in five women are estimated to suffer depression during their lifetime, and one in 20 suffers it at any one time.

Creativity

Dame Kelly Holmes has spoken in the past about how the depression she suffered in 2003 made her a stronger person, a year before her double-gold performance at the Olympics. Alastair Campbell has said it was the making of him.

But there are other qualities depression generates, not just resilience, says Dr Keedwell, author of How Sadness Survived.

"Psychological unease can generate creative work and the rebirth after depression brings a new love affair with life."

Aristotle believed depression to be of great value because of the insights it could bring. There is also an increased empathy in people who have or have had depression, he says, because they become more attuned to other people's suffering.

Depression can be traced all the way back to the Stone Age, say Dr Keedwell, when close-knit communities of about 50 people would have identified it quickly. The rest of the group would have rallied round and changes followed, such as a new role for the individual.

Some remote communities are more aware of it. The Banda tribe in Uganda calls it "illness of thought" and those affected are allowed time out from the group, a concession not extended to many with the condition in the UK.

The high and rising incidence in the UK and US - compared to countries like Brazil and Mexico - could be due to the breakdown of family bonds and the fragmentation of society. And compared to past decades, there are increased expectations of success.

Anti-depressants, which were reported this week to have little clinical benefit for many patients, have a part to play, says Dr Keedwell, especially in severe depression. But an individual must address the social or emotional cause either on his own, with a loved one or with a professional.

"Don't beat yourself up about being depressed, in most cases it will run its course provided you take yourself out of the situation that caused it.

"I know that's an easy and glib thing to say, because I'm not a single mum living 12 floors up in a high-rise block. Sometimes it's not easy to escape but that's the fault of society, not the fault of depression."

GWB, not GDP

Politicians have recognised this and happiness is a word that has recently entered the political debate on both sides, with David Cameron saying that improving society's sense of well-being is one of the central political challenges of the times - GWB (general well-being) and not GDP (gross domestic product).

A happiness agenda is a laudable aim but one that is meaningless, says Phillip Hodson, a fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, because happiness is not something you can buy in Tesco.

"Everybody's life is full of occasional misery and we are going to suffer. All life ends in grief, unless you are lucky and you and your loved ones all die simultaneously in some plane crash.

"So I applaud the government for trying but I think the happiness agenda can be simplistic. You can't legislate for happiness."

He agrees with Dr Keedwell that depression, however horrible, does imbue people with a useful resource.

"You would never ask for it or want it this way. But people who work through it, with a professional or with friends and family, for those people who have an awful journey, they are better travellers."

But identifying the cause and addressing it is easier said than done, says Stuart Summerfield, 68, from Chesterfield, who has suffered from depression throughout his adult life. Although he believes he has a genetic predisposition to it, he blames its severity on his possessive mother.

She never acknowledged his illness and made it difficult for him to seek help, but her death in 1999 relieved him of caring duties and sparked a recovery. He is now involved in running a self-help group.

Superman

"I don't think that knowing the cause is always the route out. Changing circumstances is a major part of it but it's not always something you can change. Sometimes the big problem is admitting what the situation is."

He concedes it has helped him in some ways because he has a new appreciation of life.

"They say adversity makes you stronger, so I should be Superman by now."

But it is an "awful journey" and not a price worth paying for longer-term gain.

Spears hospitalized; loses right to see kids

CNN

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Britney Spears was derailed yet again in her struggle to get her life back on track, losing custody of her two sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Spears appeared conscious as she was taken from her home.

A court commissioner Friday gave sole physical and legal custody of the former couple's two little boys to Federline and suspended the troubled pop star's visitation rights.

Spears was hauled away from her home to a hospital by paramedics a day before, after police had to intervene when she refused to return the children to Federline after a court-monitored visit.

Commissioner Scott Gordon ordered another hearing January 14.

Federline had previously been awarded temporary custody of 2-year-old Sean Preston and 1-year-old Jayden James because Spears has defied court orders, resulting in limitations on her visitation.

"I'm not happy about any of these events," Federline attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan said when he left a closed-door emergency hearing Friday afternoon. "There's no winners here."

Federline was not in court for the hearing, Kaplan said.

The attorney had said he did not expect the ruling to be released until Monday, but it was issued shortly after the hearing concluded.

Law professor Steve Cron, who is not involved in the Spears-Federline matter, predicted Spears will face sanctions from the court for her behavior.

"My guess is that she won't be seeing her kids for a while," said Cron, who teaches at Pepperdine University in Malibu.

Gordon has little option other than to further reduce the time Spears can legally spend with her children, Cron said, "at least for the time being until she gets some help. She's obviously a very troubled person."

The 26-year-old pop star remained hospitalized Friday.

Her latest troubles began around 8 p.m. Thursday when officers were called to her home to help resolve a dispute over her refusal to turn the children over to Federline, as dictated by their custody agreement.

It took two to three hours to resolve the conflict, said Los Angeles Police Officer Ana Aguirre.

"There was a time where she was within the residence and wasn't available to be speaking to the officers, apparently," she said. "There was no threat to the children."

"Police resolved the conflict," Aguirre said. "Both children were turned over to her ex-husband Kevin Federline for custody, and she was in fact taken to a local hospital for medical treatment."

Early police reports said officers thought Spears might have been under the influence of some substance, but Aguirre said there was no evidence of that.

"Our understanding is that was not the case," she said.

Officers at the scene determined that paramedics "needed to be called" but it was unclear why, she said.

"We're not aware of any type of injuries that she sustained" and she was not combative with authorities, Aguirre said.

Spears wasn't arrested in connection with the custody dispute, Aguirre said.

"There was no actual crime that was involved," the police spokeswoman said.

Kaplan said he went to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after Spears was admitted there, but he declined to provide details about the pop star, her ex-husband, or their two sons.

Spears' mother, Lynne Spears, also would not disclose information about her daughter's condition. "Just say prayers," she told the celebrity news show "Access Hollywood" by phone Friday.

Hospital spokeswoman Simi Singer wouldn't confirm or deny reports in entertainment media that Spears would be held for 72 hours for psychological evaluation. The reports didn't identify their sources.

Spears "needs an enormous amount of help to find out why the erratic behavior," said Ruth Schreibman, a marriage and family therapist who does not treat the pop star.

"Is she bipolar? Is she depressed? Is it postpartum depression? Is it drugs and alcohol?" she said. "There's just so much attention and it's such an accelerated speed of life that how can there be any normalcy?"

Spears and Federline were married in October 2004. Her life has spiraled downward since their divorce in July. She has been photographed without underwear and appeared to be drunk and out of control in public. She shaved her head, beat a car with an umbrella and spent a month in rehab.

She had hoped to regain her pop crown with a much-hyped performance at MTV's Video Music Awards in September, but it was universally panned by fans and critics.

Still, Spears' latest album, "Blackout," earned positive reviews when it was released in October and brought Spears her first No. 1 hit in years, "Gimme More."

However, Spears remains a paparazzi target for her bizarre antics, which include frequent stops at gas-station bathrooms and holing up in a hotel room with a paparazzo.

Her 16-year-old sister, Jamie Lynn, made headlines last month when she announced that she is pregnant.

Osteoporosis 'link to depression'

BBC News

Depression may increase the risk of the bone disorder osteoporosis in premenopausal women, a study suggests.

A US study found 17% of depressed women but just 2% of those not depressed, had thinner bone in a part of the hip.

It found depressed women had overactive immune systems, making too many chemicals that promote inflammation including one that promotes bone loss.

The Archives of Internal Medicine study compared 89 depressed women with 44 non-depressed women, all aged 21 to 45.

Osteoporosis affects half of all women, and one in five men, over the age of 50.

It is estimated to cause 60,000 broken hips each year in the UK, costing the NHS £1.73bn.

After bone mass reaches its peak in youth, bone-thinning continues throughout life, accelerating after menopause.

Hip bones are among the most vulnerable to fracture in osteoporosis patients.

The researchers, from the National Institute of Mental Health, found these bones were particularly susceptible to thinning in depressed premenopausal women.

Dr Richard Nakamura, NIMH deputy director, said: "Osteoporosis is a silent disease. Too often, the first symptom a clinician sees is when a patient shows up with a broken bone.

"Now we know that depression can serve as a red flag - that depressed women are more likely than other women to approach menopause already at higher risk of fractures."

'No drugs link'

Other risk factors for osteoporosis - such as calcium and alcohol intake and contraceptive use - were similar in the two groups.

The depressed women were taking anti-depressant medications, which have previously been linked to an increased risk of fracture.

However, the current study found no link between these drugs and bone-thinning.

The researchers found 17% of the depressed women had thinner bone in a vulnerable part of the hip called the femoral neck, compared with just 2% of those who were not depressed.

Low bone mass in the lumbar spine, in the lower back, was found in 20% of depressed women, but in only 9% of non-depressed women.

The level of bone loss was at least as high as that associated with known risk factors such as smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise.

Blood and urine samples revealed that the depressed women had overactive immune systems, producing too many chemicals which promote inflammation, and not enough that keep it in check.

One of these chemicals - a protein called IL-6 - is known to promote bone loss.

The National Osteoporosis Society said much was still unknown about the disease, and said it would monitor further developments closely.

'Sleepless grumps' seen in brain

BBC News

Brain scans can show how the brain gets "tired and over-emotional" when someone is deprived of sleep.

US researchers kept volunteers awake for 35 hours and found huge increases in brain activity when shown images designed to make them angry or sad.

The research in the journal Current Biology points to links between mental illness and sleep problems, they said.

But a British expert said psychiatric problems could not be blamed solely on lack of sleep.

Teams from Harvard Medical School and the University of California at Berkeley used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at the brains of sleep-deprived volunteers.

This technique lets scientists look at blood flow in the brain in real-time, showing where the brain is most active.

After the volunteers had stayed awake for an extended period, they were scanned while being shown picture cards designed to provoke an emotional response.

Primitive brain

The researchers found that the parts of the brain linked to emotional reactions - the amygdala - showed bigger reactions (over 60% more) to the cards compared with a normally-rested volunteer.

Researcher Matthew Walker said: "The size of the increase really surprised us.

"It is almost as though, without sleep, the brain reverts back to a more primitive pattern of activity, becoming unable to put emotional experiences into context and produce controlled, appropriate responses."

He suggested that the findings might shed light on the connection between sleep and psychiatric disorders.

"Clinical evidence has shown that some form of sleep disruption is present in almost all psychiatric disorders.

"These findings may offer new mechanisms as to why."

Self-aware

In the UK, Professor Jim Horne, of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, welcomed the research, but said it would be difficult to use it to unravel the relationship between mental health and sleep.

He said: "This is a complex area - the big difference is that people with mental illness might not be aware that they are over-reacting or behaving irrationally, whereas someone with sleep deprivation would be more aware of this overreaction.

"In addition, we know that in illnesses such as depression, actually reducing the amount of sleep can be beneficial in moderation a well-supervised environment."

Professor Derk-Jan Dijk, a sleep researcher from the University of Surrey, described the findings as "interesting".

"While there have been a lot of studies into the effects of sleep deprivation, this is the first to show what is happening in the brain in response to these emotional stimuli."

Alcohol Problems Plague 1 Out of 3 Americans

Abuse, Dependency Affect Many but Few Seek Treatment

By Dan Child, ABC News Medical Unit. July 2, 2007


Whether it's binge drinking or addiction to alcohol, Americans have a real problem with the bottle.

So says new research released Monday, which found that nearly one out of three Americans can expect to have a problem with alcohol at some time during their lives.

"We found that 30.3 percent of the U.S. population at some time in their lives -- though maybe not currently -- has had an alcohol use disorder," said study author Bridget Grant of the Division of Biometry and Epidemiology at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

But the nature of this problem can vary widely -- from a sustained streak of binge drinking behavior all the way to serious physiological addiction to alcohol.

The findings, generated from face-to-face interviews with more than 43,000 U.S. adults, appear in the July issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

To find out whether subjects had experienced problems with alcohol, interviewers questioned them looking for the symptoms of alcohol abuse and dependence listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition.

What researchers found was that 17.8 percent of those interviewed reported that they had abused alcohol at one time or another, and 12.5 percent reported alcohol dependence.

But perhaps most sobering was the fact that few with alcohol problems ever reached out for help.

"What we found was that very few people who have lifetime disorders ever seek treatment," Grant says, adding that only 24 percent of those suffering from alcohol dependency seek help. The percentage of those seeking treatment for alcohol abuse is even lower, at 7 percent.

"This is a big problem in our society, and every time we write a paper it becomes more clear," says Dr. James C. Garbutt, medical director of the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Nearly 100,000 people die every year of alcohol-related causes. Alcohol carries a $200 billion or more cost to society. These are huge statistics."

Read More ....