The marketing of some supplements make it sound like these products are wonder remedies that can eliminate certain health conditions. Some companies even claim that their products are the only ones that contain certain key ingredients or are manufactured using unique methods.

Are these claims actually valid though? Do these products really supply your body and your cells with vital nutrients that are needed for optimum health? The shocking truth is that most supplements sold in stores are not beneficial to your health as claimed! In fact, they can even be quite harmful under certain circumstances.

First of all, almost all vitamin and mineral supplements that are sold in grocery stores and pharmacies contain ingredients that are synthetic. This means they are not natural and have been formulated in a lab somewhere.

Another important point is that synthetic supplements contain vitamins and minerals that are only fractions of real nutrients. It is almost like getting only 6 eggs in a 12- egg carton. Thus, most supplement products sold either at a drug store, grocery store, or any other supplement store will contain these synthetic nutrients and are not full factors of vitamins and minerals.

The Dangers of Synthetic Nutrients!

There have been studies done to show that many people who ingest synthetic supplements have these pills still in their digestive tract somewhere. If a supplement is all ?natural and in whole food form then this will never happen since the body easily and readily processes the ingredients accordingly because they are recognizable to the cells. When an ingredient is foreign (synthetic), the body doesn’t know what to do with it many times and can sit in your system indefinitely. Don’t let this happen to you!

GOD created fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, roots, and sea plants to supply our bodies with all of the nutrients that our cells require for optimum health. These GOD given whole foods are the only true source of nutrients that our bodies recognize and benefit from. Through photosynthesis and other divine processes, these natural foods draw up nutrients out of the soil through their roots and convert them into a form that our bodies can recognize and absorb.

Synthetic supplements can actually cause a person harm. If taken long term, remnants of these synthetics can be stored in a person’s joints and cause arthritic conditions and other joint problems.

They may even get stored in the liver or kidneys and cause deposits that impact your overall health. Additionally, in an attempt to process these synthetic nutrients, the body will actually use up vitamins and minerals to try to rid it of these unrecognizable compounds.

It does not make any sense to take a product that will strip you of vital nutrients when you are trying to receive these nutrients in the first place. Therefore, most of the products out at the market are a waste of money and can harm you. Additionally, store bought supplements are usually made with ingredients such as artificial colors, crude oils, coal tar, pesticides and other contaminants that can be toxic to your cells.

Many of the products you see in the market have also been sitting on a shelf for indefinite periods of time. Some products on the shelf may be years old. I would strongly recommend staying away from such products. You need to learn how to read labels if you are to find a good supplement but as I have discovered there are not many in most stores.

Your body can only recognize and absorb substances that are natural and in whole food form. Fruits and vegetables contain nutrients in perfect ratios and proportions. Vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, bioflavanoids and other bionutrients are in perfect balance in these foods. Your cells can only be nourished with the perfect ratios and proportions of these natural whole foods. God knows best!

Most supplements contain isolated nutrients, synthetic nutrients, and inappropriately combined nutrients. You can not just take individual nutrients from many sources and then combine them into one supplement. This is how many of the supplements on the market are manufactured. This method of combining and manufacturing results in a product that is not useful or healthy to your cells.

Even if a supplement contains all natural ingredients, it may not be serving you well. Nature and whole foods have the only perfect combination and proportions of nutrients. When you start pulling vitamins here and minerals there from many sources, you destroy these unique nutrient combinations and proportions that your cells require for proper assimilation and absorption.

As an analogy, let us take water for example. The molecular structure of water is H20. In this perfect structure you have a compound that is vital to life. Now, let us take the H2 (Hydrogen) away from the O (Oxygen) and you are left with 2 separate compounds. Hydrogen on its own can be very dangerous and highly explosive. Oxygen under certain circumstances can also be very dangerous and explosive.

Before the separation of the Hydrogen and Oxygen we had a substance that was very nourishing. After the separation, we have two volatile compounds that are no longer nourishing to your cells as before.

As you can see from this simple example, you can not go in and start separating substances because you change not only the molecular structure but also the health benefits of a particular compound.

Whole Food Supplements

Creating a whole food supplement is a very complex process. There are many factors to take into consideration when manufacturing a nutrition product. There are not many companies in the world that can create a whole food supplement that retains all the natural components required for your cells. My "motto" is if you are going to spend money on nutritional supplements then buy ones that are in whole food form and benefit your health. Why would you want to waste your money on inferior products, synthetic compounds, toxic fillers and isolated nutrients? Just buy the best and you will feel the results!

So, are there any nutritional supplements that are good for you and provide the benefits that are claimed? Well, through my personal experience and extensive research, there are not many products out there that can deliver nutrients in whole food form that is required by your cells.

There are some great products available at health food stores, however, you really need to know what you are looking for as far as ingredients and processing methods. It would be in your best interest to learn how to read labels and ingredients.

TRUE NUTRIENTS ONLY COME FROM NATURAL INGREDIENTS

Rino Soriano is a Holistic Wellness Consultant & Health Coach. He specializes in educating people on how to create optimum health for themselves. Rino had chronic fatigue syndrome for over 4 years and healed himself through self empowerment and holistic healing modalities.

Rino clearly shows how the body is highly intelligent and can heal itself…once you know the proper information that is. He also teaches how the body is programmed for perfect health, however, due to stress, pollution, nutrient deficient food and polluted water the human body becomes overloaded and needs help to restore itself.

With Rino’s expertise, learning how to create optimum health is very easy.

Rino now offers online health seminars educating and empowering people to create optimum health for themselves.

Educating & Empowering People For Optimum Health

Rino’s book How To Create & Maintain Optimum Health For Life is receiving excellent feedback. http://www.healthsecretsneverbeforerevealed.com

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It is useful, therefore, to describe in detail the processes involved in actually doing these exercises. This will help beginners to start out using the correct techniques before moving on to potentially more dangerous heavy weights. If it also helps more experienced lifters to redress some of the little faults that have almost imperceptibly crept in over the years, all the better.

In this article we’ll take a close look at the seated calf raise.

MUSCLES TARGETED: soleus

STARTING POSITION

Sit erect on the seat facing the machine.Position the thighs under the pads and place the balls of the feet on the near edge of the step.Position the feet and legs parallel to each other with the toes pointing straight ahead.Allow the heels to hang off below the step.This is the starting point for each repetition.

UPWARD MOVEMENT

Keep the torso erect and the legs / feet parallel, push up on toes as high as possible.Push up off the step.

DOWNWARD MOVEMENT

Allow the heels to slowly lower back to the starting position.Repeat or finish set.

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2. Ask her if she will be your Spiritual Success partner, in other words, you will support each other’s SPIRIT.

3. Determine who will make the phone call and at what time. Calls should be made either five times a week or daily.

4. During the call: LISTEN to her feelings of the moment, TELL her what you heard and ASK what she needs inside for her challenges of the day (this is like a prayer need.)

For example: She might say, "I am feeling overwhelmed. I need reassurance that I’ll get everything done."

5. Offer a prayer OR affirmation. For example, if she’s feeling overwhelmed, you might say, "I see you calm and centered, guided to do what you know is most important."

6. Take YOUR turn. Share your feeling of the moment and challenging need for the day. Be brief. You don’t need to offer long stories and details.

7. Remember that this conversation is confidential and sacred. Keep it as a commitment and stay on a high plane when you are the listener. Avoid the temptation to solve her problems, to judge others she might be in conflict with, or to get involved in her story. Your job is to remain objective, give caring feedback, and help her focus on her inner need to solve her own problem. Honor her boundaries and set yours as well: this is not true confessions. You also have private lives.

8. At some point, be sure to share goals, dreams, and the big picture. Your job is to constantly see your partner as capable of achieving her goal, and reaching her

highest potential. Be her CONSTANT reminder that she can do it, and

acknowledge her achievements, however small, along the way.

9. Be willing to call even when you feel down. Be careful not to use this relationship for chronic complaining, although from time to time you can ask permission for a one minute "dump" session and list your disappointments and gripes with the understanding that she is only listening and not "handling your stuff." She can suggest resources.

10. Keep your partner in your prayers daily.

11. Be brief; ask permission for longer conversations when necessary and establish a ground rule that you will each be up front with time demands. Always acknowledge each other for being there and release any other expectations. E-mail encouragement.

12. Celebrate often. Praise her achievements. Relish the fact that you are part of her success energy and she is part of yours. Remember your "Oscar" speech.

13. Extra: At some point you might want to schedule a "strategic planning day." During this time together, you can:

? Share goals, action plans

? Suggest resources for each other

? Write your personal mission statements

? Brainstorm marketing ideas

? Swap time management secrets

? Trade useful information or processes for life balance

? Loan each other books and tapes

14. Always promote your partner in a positive light. Remember that your ability to support her greatness is reflective of your own.

© Ana Tampanna

Ana Tampanna, “The Alligator Queen,” is author or the “The Womanly Art of Alligator Wrestling.” To learn more about her books in addition to her speaking and coaching services, visit her site at http://www.alligatorqueen.com. NOTE You’re welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end). Ana would appreciate a copy of your reprint. ana@alligatorqueen.com.

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Now since the ancient days of the traveling mistral or fireside Shaman, every culture around the world had storytellers that instructed youths and adults on how to find happiness when it seemed to be lost. Knowing that people sometimes can not bring claim to their problems or just will be simply bored with allot of technical jargon. So they invented fabulous stories to captivate our imaginations using the symbols that resonate deep within our minds from a time before language was ever created. The same place in a baby turtle on Galapagos Island knows to run to the ocean as fast as possible and zag or zig when it sees a shadow from above without ever seeing a hawk or gull before. Allot of tales have to do with helping a child to follow its instinct’s when a care giver or parent is insufficient in his roles as a teacher or becomes just down right abusive. Under harrowing circumstances, how can a child retain what it knows to be true in its heart under such constructs. Or reshape them in the future to save their lives? As Carl Jung and the women that proceeded him; Woodman, Pinkola Estes, Von Franz; the found these stories of regained truth in the fairy Tales and Myths of the world. For your listening pleasure, I have encapsulated one as an example.

Bluebeard

Three daughters were raised amongst their mother and father, plus two brothers. But before the youngest daughter reached puberty the father and the two brothers were sent off to war. Not to return for many years.

So it came to the time that the youngest daughter was itching for a mate. So her and her two sisters were riding in the commons on Sunday as the finest men and women paraded out and about on horseback in all their finery. When the youngest of them spied a man with a blue beard. The older sisters were taken a a back by his appearance. “Look at that Blue beard, how revolting!” said the oldest with the second oldest consented with a guffaw. But the youngest remarked he was quite striking. The sisters starred in disbelief at their sibling. The second oldest mentioned he was rumored to have been married several times. The oldest concurred and added his wives have never been heard from again. ” But he is quite cute” said the youngest as she rode off to make his acquaintance.

Within the month the youngest was married and living in his castle. Now the castle with its moat is the symbol of the subconscious’s. It represents the journey from your skull across the water barrier to your brain. This is where all the fun happens, if you like it or not. Because the drawbridge slams shut once you enter..

One day after a week of marriage, Bluebeard announced that he must go on a prolonged journey to pay for her luxurious room and board. A normal occurrence that happens even today, making the woman feel like she is married to a stranger. He handed her the keys to all the rooms of the castle including one small key. This was to the room she was to never enter upon. Unless desiring serious consequences to her well being. So he left and she of course checked out all the rooms. Especially the one with the little key!

When she opened that door she was taken back by a mass of congealed blood on the floor that had leaked and splattered out by all the corpses she now found lying upon the floor and nailed to the walls. Arms to the right and the heads stacked to the left. Here was all his past wives. This represents the skeletons in the closet we all have/ the problems, obstacles, and challenges we must face to get to a better life. But like she did, we find it easier just to close that door as quick as we found it. We always think we can clean out the cobwebs of the closet another day. But like Daffy Duck, every time we put things off, we get the closet emptying onto our head an avalanche.

Now the woman tries to hide the key in a cupboard. But it leaks blood onto the floor. She hides it in a pantry, but the blood gives up its location. No matter where she hid it, the blood soon gave it up. This represents the time when we see where change is needed in our lives, we can not escape or deny it. We must face it to bring change. If we do not… Bluebeard enters once again and asks for the keys. Now the cost of our mistakes get higher, and eventually may lead to death if w do not answer them. She gives him all but the one. He knows right off the bat she has been in the room. He now represents the man who is afraid of us seeing him for what he is, who wants to blind us to the truth about his abuse. For he fears change the most. He has to admit to the abuse he has received in the past and feel the guilt for the abuse he has given. If you change he must also. So he becomes quite irritate. On another level it is our own shadows who will not let us rest until we bring the change necessary to our lives. For this time it welcomes the danger into your home, for all harm that comes to you, granted under great duress, you invited in. It is the spanking that has been put off too long.

So Bluebeard chases her through the castle, our minds, with a sword ready to kill her. Her sisters appear to help her and keep a look out for her brothers coming back from war. Now since at the age of puberty, the youngest daughter had no healthy male figure in her life, she could not tell by his beard like her sisters that he was dangerous. The oldest had the father and brother to teach them what a loving man is. The youngest did not. So the return of the brothers is the healthy animus returning to save the youngest sister. So now in the distance the smoke from the dust cloud of her brothers on horseback can be seen. The sisters yell to them and they increase their pace to a full gallop. Bluebeard is ascending after his wife proclaiming ” I do not want to hurt you, I just want to bash your brains in.” She is almost to the top steps where her sisters sits, when the two brothers bust into the room and dispatch the blue meanie. It is never too late to have healthy men in your life to learn from. They will teach you as friends how to find a healthy mate. For the brothers come in time to slay the shadow Bluebeard and prepare the youth for a healthy marriage in the future. Now did you ever think a fairy tale could ever be that important?

Summary…. In our adolescence it is important to have a healthy sex role model to shape our construct of what a loving male or female is so we will be attracted to a healthy mate. Bluebeard is a fairy tale about what happens when this does not happen by absence or abuse by a sexual role model.

This is fairy tale interpretation. There is a story for everyone. There is no mistake that you have made that has not happened already without a story of how to solve the problem.

Come and see…

About The Author

Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin is propietor of Docspond Life Coach Services (www.docspond.org) where he individual consultations, group facilitation, and key note addresses that provide mission and message to the bottom line that promotes finacial growth. Also he is owner and designer at Norgeforge Illumination Studios (www.norgeforge.org) providing SEo to design in web and print.

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PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

Background:

“Prior to my association with the armed forces of Great Britain and the United States I served as Assistant Commissioner in Command of the Riot Squads of the Shanghai Municipal Police Command from 1925 to 1940. During this period, our force handled over 2000 riot calls of all types and descriptions, including shooting affrays, many of which were against armed robbers and kndnappers. In addition, the squads were responsible for the investigation and tracking down of vice-rings and narcotics smugglers.”……….

“…….The art of close contact fighting includes fighting with and without knives; firing of a pistol under every conceivable condition and at every possible position likely to be met in actual combat during day or night……….”

MYSTERY RANGES-

“In order to create simulated combat conditions for training purposes, I planned and supervised the erection of indoor mystery ranges at Areas B-2, A-3, E and F. These ranges were originally developed by me in connection with police work in China and were first used in military training in the courses given to the British Commandos and the British Army. In the mystery ranges a simulation was affected of actual battle noises, conditions under which shooting affrays occur, especially in house to house combat. The training included methods of entering closed and locked doors, methods of bursting open such doors, methods of using trap doors, methods of roof top figthing and firing on moving and possibly concealed targets. Under varying degrees of light, darkness, and shadows, plus the introduction of sound effects, moving objects, and various alarming surprises, an opportunity is afforded to test the moral fibre of the student and to develop his courage and capacity for self control.”

“The course consists of practical war methods of shooting with the one-hand gun, in which any man of average intelligence can be taught to draw, load fire and hit his opponent within a second.”

“This is not a new fangled idea, but a proven method which has been in use in the far-east since 1919, against some of the most dsperate criminals in the world - men who were, (in most cases), known killers, who preferred always to shoot it out, rather than being captured and finishing up in front of a firing squad, etc…..”

“All affrays were on the run - up and down stairways, over roofs, down cobbled alleyways, or in very crowded streets. Ninety percent of the shooting was in the dark and the majority of hits were within four yards. Some of the police were killed by being shot in the back at a matter of inches distance only.”

“Students should be informed that the average shoting with the one-hand gun is over, so far as they will be concerned, in a very few seconds. There will no time to reload. If there first shot takes longer than a third of a second to fire, they will not be the one to tell the newspaper about it. It is literally a matter of the quick and the dead - so they can take their choice.”

Pretty comprehensive sounding to me.

Instead of attempting to define and/or qualify Fairbairn’s thoughts and methodology ad nauseam, it’s best to let him tell it!

Again, the above quotes sum it all up.

Copyright 2003 www.thetruthaboutselfdefense.com ©

Carl Cestari began his study of the martial arts with judo at the age of 7 under the direction of Yoshisada Yonezuka. During the past forty plus years Carl has dedicated his life to studying the martial arts, hand to hand combat systems, history and religion. What makes Carl unique is his combination of martial arts, law enforcement and military and real world experience. Carl has been exposed to a multitude of people with a wide variety experience. The following is a list of some of Carl’s ranks and honors. Shinan (Founder) Tekkenryu jujutsu Ryokudan (6th degree) Koshinkai Karate under John Burrelle Godan (5th degree) Jujutsu under Clarke of the World Jujutsu Fedaration (now defunct) Sandan (3rd degree) Nippon Kempo under Narabu Sada Nidan (2nd degree) Judo under Masafumi Suzuki Shodan (1st degree) Judo under Yoshisada Yonezuka Shodan (1st degree) Shukokai Karate under Kimura, Kadachi and Yonezuka Shodan (1st degree) Daitoryu Aikijujutsu Instructors Certificate- Charles Nelson System of Self Defense under Charlie Nelson http://www.thetruthaboutselfdefense.com

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As you can see by the chart below, the Ornish and Pritikin diets at 70% and 80% carbs, are definitely high carb. One means used to distract people’s attention away from the fact that the Atkins diet is basically an unhealthy food plan is to compare a "low carb" diet to a "high carb" diet. However, neither one is the best solution.

Although the in-depth research of Dr. Dean Ornish, using his high carb/low fat diet, has uncovered some amazing findings and produced phenomenal results in reversing heart disease, as a weight loss program and regular eating plan, it has some drawbacks. The Ornish diet, as with Pritikin, is proving to be too low in healthy oils from fish, olives, nuts and seeds. Plus, it may also raise triglycerides and lower HDL (good) cholesterol.

This chart shows you carb, fat and protein comparisons:

Carbs Fat Protein Atkins 3-20% 45-65% 25-35% South Beach 10-25% 50-70% 20-30% Healthy 50-60% 20-30% 20-25% Ornish/Pritikin 70-80% 5-15% 10-15%

Diets at both the top and bottom extremes have their problems. Anyone can lose weight on a diet ? fad or otherwise - for a week, a month or even six months. But, for a weight loss program to be truly effective, your diet must become part of your lifestyle and the basis of everyday food choices. Besides health concerns, too many people find both low carb and high carb diets difficult to stick with for a lifetime. Your best bet is to develop a low calorie, healthy eating lifestyle that includes regular moderate exercise.

About The Author

Moss Greene is the Nutrition Host at Bellaonline.com. Visit her web site at http://www.bellaonline.com/site/nutrition to find out how to look better, feel your best and have more energy -naturally. Join her free health and fitness newsletter by going to http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art2919.asp

nutrition@bellaonline.com

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Who wouldn’t want to live like Oprah? She has billions of dollars to do with however she likes. She has luxurious estates in beautiful places. She has powerful and influential friends. She is adored by millions and has influence beyond comprehension. Yet, these things are not what inspired my article. What I am sharing may surprise you. So how do we mere mortals get to live like Oprah? Read on.

Like Oprah, you too can live a life of gratitude

I was incredibly moved to read about the “Legends who Lunch” event Oprah planned recently. Here is undisputedly one of the most influential and successful women today, planning an event to pay tribute to the “legends” who have contributed and paved the way for her and others. She identified 25 women “whose steps created a journey of no boundaries” for her generation. She wanted to “thank them, celebrate them, and rejoice in their spirit.” Then she invited 45 women who have benefited from these trail-blazers to come help honor these legends. What a show of gratitude!

Granted, anything that Oprah does gets press, so other hugely successful people may have made similar gestures that I didn’t hear about. But I honestly wonder if that is the case. I find her gesture genuine and inspiring.

Living a life of gratitude doesn’t mean throwing lavish parties, although that sounds like a mighty fine idea if you can pull it off. It means showing appreciation for what we have, whether it is a huge fortune, or a small windfall. It means saying thank you to others for what they have done for us, no matter how significant or trivial. It means thinking of others and being outward focused instead of thinking about “me, me, me” all the time.

So that’s the first way all of us can live like Oprah - feel grateful and appreciate everyday and everything that is good. I believe that one cannot be unhappy if one is truly grateful. Try it for yourself and see what happens. Follow Oprah’s example and keep a gratitude journal everyday. Write down at least five things you feel grateful for that day. Appreciate the simple things in life as well as the grand extravaganzas. I was told that the more grateful you are for what you have, the more the universe sends your way. It’s a very simple thing to do. Start today.

Like Oprah, you too can live a life of generosity Wayne Dyer said that “the measure of your life will not be in what you accumulate, but in what you give away.” And you don’t have to be filthy rich to be generous because aside from money, there are so many other things you can give away. Oprah is known for her generosity in the fabulous gifts she gives to her audience, and in her charity programs in Africa. But if you really pay attention, you’ll notice that she gives much more than that.

She generously shares her struggles and experiences, and in doing so, she gives others hope that they too can overcome whatever obstacles are in their way.

She generously shares her own life lessons, and in doing so, she teaches us wisdom.

She generously offers her affection. She appears to genuinely like her audience, her guests, and her staff. In relating to her, she made us more open to love and trust. What would happen with your relationships if you were more open and affectionate? How will people respond if you accepted them without judgment?

That’s the second way we all can live like Oprah - be generous with our time, our money, our talents, our support, our affection, and our love. What we send out returns to us tenfold. How can our lives not be improved by that?

Like Oprah, you too can live a life of evolution and growth

I admit that this is one of my values, so I get very excited about this. Life offers us lessons everyday and the only tuition we pay is our willingness to accept them. There is no better example of this in practice than Oprah’s “What I Know for Sure” articles that she writes. She takes everyday experiences and translates them into a lesson for how she wants to approach life. I don’t know if you have an opinion, but her life seems to be working pretty darn well to me.

This is the last secret I borrowed from Oprah - live life consciously. Allow and urge yourself to evolve and grow each day. Open your eyes to life’s lessons and live like Oprah. You could do worse in choosing a role model.

Copyright 2006 Inez Ng

About The Author

Inez Ng

Are your business results suffering due to an ineffective leadership team ? Find out what coaching with Inez Ng can do for your leadership team at http://www.Realizationsunltd.com. You can receive helpful articles like this each month by joining her list. Want to know about saving time handling emails? Check out her ebook at http://easyemailstrategies.com.

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Yet gender “differences” are often the outcomes of bad scholarship. Consider Admiral insurance’s data. As Britain’s Automobile Association (AA) correctly pointed out - women drivers tend to make more short journeys around towns and shopping centers and these involve frequent parking. Hence their ubiquity in certain kinds of claims. Regarding women’s alleged spatial deficiency, in Britain, girls have been outperforming boys in scholastic aptitude tests - including geometry and maths - since 1988.

On the other wing of the divide, Anthony Clare, a British psychiatrist and author of “On Men” wrote:

“At the beginning of the 21st century it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that men are in serious trouble. Throughout the world, developed and developing, antisocial behavior is essentially male. Violence, sexual abuse of children, illicit drug use, alcohol misuse, gambling, all are overwhelmingly male activities. The courts and prisons bulge with men. When it comes to aggression, delinquent behavior, risk taking and social mayhem, men win gold.”

Men also mature later, die earlier, are more susceptible to infections and most types of cancer, are more likely to be dyslexic, to suffer from a host of mental health disorders, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and to commit suicide.

In her book, “Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man”, Susan Faludi describes a crisis of masculinity following the breakdown of manhood models and work and family structures in the last five decades. In the film “Boys don’t Cry”, a teenage girl binds her breasts and acts the male in a caricatural relish of stereotypes of virility. Being a man is merely a state of mind, the movie implies.

But what does it really mean to be a “male” or a “female”? Are gender identity and sexual preferences genetically determined? Can they be reduced to one’s sex? Or are they amalgams of biological, social, and psychological factors in constant interaction? Are they immutable lifelong features or dynamically evolving frames of self-reference?

Certain traits attributed to one’s sex are surely better accounted for by cultural factors, the process of socialization, gender roles, and what George Devereux called “ethnopsychiatry” in “Basic Problems of Ethnopsychiatry” (University of Chicago Press, 1980). He suggested to divide the unconscious into the id (the part that was always instinctual and unconscious) and the “ethnic unconscious” (repressed material that was once conscious). The latter is mostly molded by prevailing cultural mores and includes all our defense mechanisms and most of the superego.

So, how can we tell whether our sexual role is mostly in our blood or in our brains?

The scrutiny of borderline cases of human sexuality - notably the transgendered or intersexed - can yield clues as to the distribution and relative weights of biological, social, and psychological determinants of gender identity formation.

The results of a study conducted by Uwe Hartmann, Hinnerk Becker, and Claudia Rueffer-Hesse in 1997 and titled “Self and Gender: Narcissistic Pathology and Personality Factors in Gender Dysphoric Patients”, published in the “International Journal of Transgenderism”, “indicate significant psychopathological aspects and narcissistic dysregulation in a substantial proportion of patients.” Are these “psychopathological aspects” merely reactions to underlying physiological realities and changes? Could social ostracism and labeling have induced them in the “patients”?

The authors conclude:

“The cumulative evidence of our study … is consistent with the view that gender dysphoria is a disorder of the sense of self as has been proposed by Beitel (1985) or Pfäfflin (1993). The central problem in our patients is about identity and the self in general and the transsexual wish seems to be an attempt at reassuring and stabilizing the self-coherence which in turn can lead to a further destabilization if the self is already too fragile. In this view the body is instrumentalized to create a sense of identity and the splitting symbolized in the hiatus between the rejected body-self and other parts of the self is more between good and bad objects than between masculine and feminine.”

Freud, Kraft-Ebbing, and Fliess suggested that we are all bisexual to a certain degree. As early as 1910, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld argued, in Berlin, that absolute genders are “abstractions, invented extremes”. The consensus today is that one’s sexuality is, mostly, a psychological construct which reflects gender role orientation.

Joanne Meyerowitz, a professor of history at Indiana University and the editor of The Journal of American History observes, in her recently published tome, “How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States”, that the very meaning of masculinity and femininity is in constant flux.

Transgender activists, says Meyerowitz, insist that gender and sexuality represent “distinct analytical categories”. The New York Times wrote in its review of the book: “Some male-to-female transsexuals have sex with men and call themselves homosexuals. Some female-to-male transsexuals have sex with women and call themselves lesbians. Some transsexuals call themselves asexual.”

So, it is all in the mind, you see.

This would be taking it too far. A large body of scientific evidence points to the genetic and biological underpinnings of sexual behavior and preferences.

The German science magazine, “Geo”, reported recently that the males of the fruit fly “drosophila melanogaster” switched from heterosexuality to homosexuality as the temperature in the lab was increased from 19 to 30 degrees Celsius. They reverted to chasing females as it was lowered.

The brain structures of homosexual sheep are different to those of straight sheep, a study conducted recently by the Oregon Health & Science University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho, revealed. Similar differences were found between gay men and straight ones in 1995 in Holland and elsewhere. The preoptic area of the hypothalamus was larger in heterosexual men than in both homosexual men and straight women.

According an article, titled “When Sexual Development Goes Awry”, by Suzanne Miller, published in the September 2000 issue of the “World and I”, various medical conditions give rise to sexual ambiguity. Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), involving excessive androgen production by the adrenal cortex, results in mixed genitalia. A person with the complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) has a vagina, external female genitalia and functioning, androgen-producing, testes - but no uterus or fallopian tubes.

People with the rare 5-alpha reductase deficiency syndrome are born with ambiguous genitalia. They appear at first to be girls. At puberty, such a person develops testicles and his clitoris swells and becomes a penis. Hermaphrodites possess both ovaries and testicles (both, in most cases, rather undeveloped). Sometimes the ovaries and testicles are combined into a chimera called ovotestis.

Most of these individuals have the chromosomal composition of a woman together with traces of the Y, male, chromosome. All hermaphrodites have a sizable penis, though rarely generate sperm. Some hermaphrodites develop breasts during puberty and menstruate. Very few even get pregnant and give birth.

Anne Fausto-Sterling, a developmental geneticist, professor of medical science at Brown University, and author of “Sexing the Body”, postulated, in 1993, a continuum of 5 sexes to supplant the current dimorphism: males, merms (male pseudohermaphrodites), herms (true hermaphrodites), ferms (female pseudohermaphrodites), and females.

Intersexuality (hermpahroditism) is a natural human state. We are all conceived with the potential to develop into either sex. The embryonic developmental default is female. A series of triggers during the first weeks of pregnancy places the fetus on the path to maleness.

In rare cases, some women have a male’s genetic makeup (XY chromosomes) and vice versa. But, in the vast majority of cases, one of the sexes is clearly selected. Relics of the stifled sex remain, though. Women have the clitoris as a kind of symbolic penis. Men have breasts (mammary glands) and nipples.

The Encyclopedia Britannica 2003 edition describes the formation of ovaries and testes thus:

“In the young embryo a pair of gonads develop that are indifferent or neutral, showing no indication whether they are destined to develop into testes or ovaries. There are also two different duct systems, one of which can develop into the female system of oviducts and related apparatus and the other into the male sperm duct system. As development of the embryo proceeds, either the male or the female reproductive tissue differentiates in the originally neutral gonad of the mammal.”

Yet, sexual preferences, genitalia and even secondary sex characteristics, such as facial and pubic hair are first order phenomena. Can genetics and biology account for male and female behavior patterns and social interactions (”gender identity”)? Can the multi-tiered complexity and richness of human masculinity and femininity arise from simpler, deterministic, building blocks?

Sociobiologists would have us think so.

For instance: the fact that we are mammals is astonishingly often overlooked. Most mammalian families are composed of mother and offspring. Males are peripatetic absentees. Arguably, high rates of divorce and birth out of wedlock coupled with rising promiscuity merely reinstate this natural “default mode”, observes Lionel Tiger, a professor of anthropology at Rutgers University in New Jersey. That three quarters of all divorces are initiated by women tends to support this view.

Furthermore, gender identity is determined during gestation, claim some scholars.

Milton Diamond of the University of Hawaii and Dr. Keith Sigmundson, a practicing psychiatrist, studied the much-celebrated John/Joan case. An accidentally castrated normal male was surgically modified to look female, and raised as a girl but to no avail. He reverted to being a male at puberty.

His gender identity seems to have been inborn (assuming he was not subjected to conflicting cues from his human environment). The case is extensively described in John Colapinto’s tome “As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl”.

HealthScoutNews cited a study published in the November 2002 issue of “Child Development”. The researchers, from City University of London, found that the level of maternal testosterone during pregnancy affects the behavior of neonatal girls and renders it more masculine. “High testosterone” girls “enjoy activities typically considered male behavior, like playing with trucks or guns”. Boys’ behavior remains unaltered, according to the study.

Yet, other scholars, like John Money, insist that newborns are a “blank slate” as far as their gender identity is concerned. This is also the prevailing view. Gender and sex-role identities, we are taught, are fully formed in a process of socialization which ends by the third year of life. The Encyclopedia Britannica 2003 edition sums it up thus:

“Like an individual’s concept of his or her sex role, gender identity develops by means of parental example, social reinforcement, and language. Parents teach sex-appropriate behavior to their children from an early age, and this behavior is reinforced as the child grows older and enters a wider social world. As the child acquires language, he also learns very early the distinction between “he” and “she” and understands which pertains to him- or herself.”

So, which is it - nature or nurture? There is no disputing the fact that our sexual physiology and, in all probability, our sexual preferences are determined in the womb. Men and women are different - physiologically and, as a result, also psychologically.

Society, through its agents - foremost amongst which are family, peers, and teachers - represses or encourages these genetic propensities. It does so by propagating “gender roles” - gender-specific lists of alleged traits, permissible behavior patterns, and prescriptive morals and norms. Our “gender identity” or “sex role” is shorthand for the way we make use of our natural genotypic-phenotypic endowments in conformity with social-cultural “gender roles”.

Inevitably as the composition and bias of these lists change, so does the meaning of being “male” or “female”. Gender roles are constantly redefined by tectonic shifts in the definition and functioning of basic social units, such as the nuclear family and the workplace. The cross-fertilization of gender-related cultural memes renders “masculinity” and “femininity” fluid concepts.

One’s sex equals one’s bodily equipment, an objective, finite, and, usually, immutable inventory. But our endowments can be put to many uses, in different cognitive and affective contexts, and subject to varying exegetic frameworks. As opposed to “sex” - “gender” is, therefore, a socio-cultural narrative. Both heterosexual and homosexual men ejaculate. Both straight and lesbian women climax. What distinguishes them from each other are subjective introjects of socio-cultural conventions, not objective, immutable “facts”.

In “The New Gender Wars”, published in the November/December 2000 issue of “Psychology Today”, Sarah Blustain sums up the “bio-social” model proposed by Mice Eagly, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University and a former student of his, Wendy Wood, now a professor at the Texas A&M University:

“Like (the evolutionary psychologists), Eagly and Wood reject social constructionist notions that all gender differences are created by culture. But to the question of where they come from, they answer differently: not our genes but our roles in society. This narrative focuses on how societies respond to the basic biological differences - men’s strength and women’s reproductive capabilities - and how they encourage men and women to follow certain patterns.

‘If you’re spending a lot of time nursing your kid’, explains Wood, ‘then you don’t have the opportunity to devote large amounts of time to developing specialized skills and engaging tasks outside of the home’. And, adds Eagly, ‘if women are charged with caring for infants, what happens is that women are more nurturing. Societies have to make the adult system work [so] socialization of girls is arranged to give them experience in nurturing’.

According to this interpretation, as the environment changes, so will the range and texture of gender differences. At a time in Western countries when female reproduction is extremely low, nursing is totally optional, childcare alternatives are many, and mechanization lessens the importance of male size and strength, women are no longer restricted as much by their smaller size and by child-bearing. That means, argue Eagly and Wood, that role structures for men and women will change and, not surprisingly, the way we socialize people in these new roles will change too. (Indeed, says Wood, ’sex differences seem to be reduced in societies where men and women have similar status,’ she says. If you’re looking to live in more gender-neutral environment, try Scandinavia.)”

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory Bellaonline, and Suite101 .

Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

Visit Sam’s Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com; palma@unet.com.mk

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Moms are busy people. Raising a family makes you busy, but when you throw in the added responsibilities of running a business, you may feel like a professional juggler trying your hardest every day not to “drop the ball”. Today’s Mom Entrepreneurs are so busy juggling their family and business, some days it may be difficult to find time to breathe. The Business Mom believes the benefit and good advice of Moms who have already raised their families is priceless and will help you to set our priorities. A special thank you goes to the following Moms from NAFE’s For You Network for taking the time to share their thoughts and stories.

Reminder #1: Children grow up quickly

Meli Van Natta’s son was seven years old and her daughter was four when she got into the real estate business. Meli of Prudential California Realty says, “I learned that children grow up quickly and you can never recapture the time that you miss.” If she had it to do over again, she would have arranged her schedule to spend more time with them even if it affected her business. Now that she is older (and wiser), Meli realizes that she could have delegated some tasks, maybe taken on a partner, and she didn’t have to attend all the social events that went along with the business. But, she was young, having fun, and feeling very powerful and successful with all the money she was making.

Meli’s kids don’t seem to feel that she neglected them. After all, they had time to go to Disneyland, the Zoo, and other places during the week when all the other mothers were at work. So, they didn’t mind too much if she worked weekends because of her schedule. They often helped her by stuffing envelopes, going with her to knock on doors, and sitting with her at Open Houses when she couldn’t get a sitter.

Both of Meli’s children are now happily married, well-adjusted adults with kids of their own. Her daughter has chosen to be a stay-at-home mom and is expecting her third child. Her son is the entrepreneur in the family. After a brief foray into the real estate business himself, he is now the proud owner of two successful businesses.

Meli’s Top Tips:

Learn when to turn off the phone and learn the difference between merely important and urgent. Take those vacations and make your days off sacrosanct. It may take you a little longer to reach your business goals, but you’ll be happier for it!

Reminder #2: Mom entrepreneurs can take advantage of their flexible schedule to share great times with their children

Robbie Motter of Contacts Unlimited was a single parent who raised her three children (who are now grown). Robbie loves being an entrepreneur. Robbie says, “If I had known then what I know now, I would have left the corporate world earlier so I could have had the quality time with my older children that I had with my younger daughter.” Robbie took a break from work each day when her daughter came home from school for about an hour and a half so that they could spend time together before returning to work and while her daughter completed her homework.

Robbie recalls that it was she had some hard challenges when she first became an entrepreneur. It took awhile for things to start to move forward and times were tough. Her two older children were not too supportive at first, as they were use to the big corporate paycheck. Many times they told her to go get a regular job, but she was determined to make it work. Before long it did, and they truly loved having her work from her home office. They shared great times together.

Robbie used to have her children help in the business. They stuffed envelopes or jobs like that, and they loved it. As they got older, Robbie let them answer the phone so they could learn the right way to do that.

Robbie’s son is an entrepreneur. He and a partner have owned a company for 18 years. Her two girls are not entrepreneurs–they like having a big paycheck, the perks, and all the benefits that a corporate job provides. Today all of her children are very successful, own beautiful homes, and make a fantastic salary with lots of benefits. They do not take their work home with them; they leave it at the office and come home to be totally with the family.

Robbie’s Top Tips:

When you run your business, and if you work from home, make your children feel a part of it. When it is family time, stop worrying about business and give your children quality time.

About The Author

Terilee Harrison, The Business Mom, is Mom to Jackie (12) and Cole (4). The Business Mom is helping mom entrepreneurs to “get a life” as they juggle running their business and raising their family. For free articles and to learn how you can contribute to Terilee’s upcoming book, The Business Mom Guide Book: More Life, Less Overwhelm for Mom Entrepreneurs (Wyatt-MacKenzie, Sept. 2006), please visit www.thebusinessmom.com.

Teri@thebusinessmom.com

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What if you could close your eyes, then open them a few minutes later and be relaxed, alert, and able to think clearly? Meditation can do that for you, and it’s easier than you might think.

Documented Benefits of Meditation

Less anxiety. Decreased depression Reduction in irritability and moodiness Better learning ability and memory. Greater creativity. Slower aging (possibly due to higher DHEA levels). Feelings of vitality and rejuvenation. Less stress (actual lowering of cortisol and lactate levels). Rest (lower metabolic and heart rate). Lower blood pressure. Lower cholesterol levels. Higher blood oxygen levels.

A Simple Meditation To Use Now

Don’t think meditation has to be difficult. Try this simple technique, and you’ll see results in minutes. Get comfortable, close your eyes, and tense up your whole body. Then breath deeply through your nose as you release the tension from every muscle. Feel each part relaxing, watching for parts that may escape notice, like a tight jaw. If you still have tension somewhere, tense up that part again, then let it relax.

Let your breathing fall into a comfortable pattern, and pay attention to it. Be aware of your breath as it passes in and out of your nose. Though your mind will wander endlessly, all you have to do is continually bring attention back to your breath.

Is your mind is still too busy? Try naming the distractions as a way of setting them aside. Try, for example, saying in your mind, “itchy leg,” “worried about work,” or “anger,” and then immediately return attention to your breathing.

Do this meditation for five or ten minutes, or for 100 breaths. When you open your eyes, you’ll feel relaxed, and your mind will feel refreshed. You’ll be better prepared for any mental challenges. Why not try it now?

Steve Gillman has been studying brain improvement, concentration, creative problem solving, and related topics for years. You can visit his website, and subscribe for free to his Brain Power Newsletter at: http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com/newsletter.html

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