Serotonin & Women’s Health
A HAPPY SUNDAY TO YOU!!
OOPS. Gabriel’s Birthday is this Wednesday, it wasn’t Friday… that’s a little embarrassing….
First matter of importance (to you? Probably not. To me? Absotively posolutely)… WEATHER UPDATE. Sunny? Check. Gorgeous? Check. And getting hot… 90 degrees today!!!
Ahh I actually managed to be able to sit long enough (back still aching) to go to Shabbat on Friday, which I so love – the longest meditation I usually do – 45 min consecutively and also many short stints of meditation, probably totaling somewhere around an hour and a half.
Speaking of meditation, I am being more drawn to it. I go to the group meditations held at the Tree several nights per week, and I’ve started meditating before bed almost every night as well. I’m an early to rise person and am also feeling drawn to meditate in the mornings. I find it such an interesting feeling – that I am being drawn to it – I’m not really choosing it… its more… choosing me? This winter, I wasn’t drawn to meditate much at all, and I didn’t fight that feeling. Now, I want to, I look forward to it.
Yesterday Thim and I made a fantaaaaaastic smoothie:
Aloe
Mango
Gogi
White Gold Honey
Yesterday was this month’s ‘Alive With Gabriel.’ For those who are not familiar, this is a live teleconference done once per month. It runs about an hour and a half, with the first half about nutrition/health, where Gabriel talks about a chosen subject for a while, and then finishes with questions, and the second half spiritual matters, usually just Q&A (satsang). They are always fantastic, and this one was as well. I’d love it if they posted all of them on youtube (don’t worry, I’m continually advocating for it), but somehow it just doesn’t always happen, so I will do my best to summarize some of the key things:
In honor of Mother’s Day, Gabriel began talking about serotonin and how it relates to women’s health. Namely, it seems that the majority of women are serotonin deficient. In fact, Gabriel did a study this March on all the women who attended our ‘Sacred Relationships’ course, and found that 90% of the women were serotonin deficient. There are many physical implications of serotonin deficiency, particularly fatigue, but what stood out to me (and many of the women there), was the emotional implications. Dr. Cousens explained that there are emotions we typically see from women who are serotonin deficient:
Over caring
Over loving
Not taking care of oneself
Neediness
Seeking love and approval from the outside
Excessive talking (no kidding, he actually said that there’s a difference in this!)
Feelings of sadness and depression
Feelings of overwhelm
Feelings of being unloved and alone
The majority of people on depression meds are women. Gabriel explained that when women are not serotonin deficient, they are much more ‘go with the flow’, happy, and lighthearted. So, if we are serotonin deficient (which, as it seems, is likely), some of the measures suggested are:
Making sure we’re asleep between 10pm and 2am
Tryptophan (if needed, 500 mg in the morning and before bed)
Exercise, particularly in the morning, both for overall health and in order to allow tryptophan to enter muscles (optimally, pair tryptophan in water with some pomegranate concentrate from Premier Research Labs).
Eating a good breakfast!!
Omega 3’s – particularly flax and hemp
General loving relationships and healthy lifestyle
Stress reduction
This blog is a getting long, so I think I’ll tease you a little – the next post, I’ll write about Gabriel’s personal morning drink and what he’s found to be the best breakfast ever!
Cowabunga,
Courtney
