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Ambitious, dominator, Ruthless, Dictator. Vine relates to the soul quality of authority. In the positive state the person is very capable, sure of himself, able to carry conviction, has all the qualities of a good leader – a very strong willpower and an unfailing presence of mind in any ticklish situation. He is ambitious and wants to get to the top and to hold the reins. But with all these qualities of head, the positive Vervain type person remains humane at heart. He remains the wise, loving leader of the people, who understands their problems and guides them to solve them. He uses his position and his leadership qualities in the service of the people and in return gets their cooperation automatically.

But in the negative VINE state the person is obsessed with only one idea – to dominate others. In his quest for power, he throws to winds all ideas of fairness and foulness, ” Everything is fair in love and war’ becomes his motto. In the pursuit of his ambition, he proceeds ruthlessly removing any obstructions in the way. He rides roughshod over the feelings of others. He wants power to dominate others, and to secure this power he will use any means. When he tastes power, he wants to have more and still more power. He cannot stand any opposition, and would crush it by any means. He is like a dictator or a tyrant who wants to subjugate others by force, into obedience. Persuasion or reasoning has no meaning for him. He is over-confident of his righteousness. It hurts his ego, if somebody dares to express a different opinion. With such a closed mind and an intensely selfish approach to life which is totally cut-off from his higher self, the power that he holds makes him cruel and insensate to the aspirations or feelings of others. Such a person is always surrounded by power-brokers, yes-men and flatterers and seldom can claim a true friend who could give him sincere advice in time of need.

Whether it is a parent who rules his children with an iron rod or a school master who is over-strict to maintain discipline in School or a dictator who over-runs other countries in his mad rush for power, they have one thing in common – rigidity and inflexibility of mind and will, and ruthless approach to opposition bordering on cruelty,

A direct reflection of this mental state on the physical side is painful rigidity and stiffness of the muscles and joints, high blood-pressure and a score of other tensions and disabilities.

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Indecision, double mindedness, uncertainly, postponing. Scleranthus relates to the soul quality of stability and balance.

In the positive Scleranthus state, the person has poise and a balance of mind which is not disturbed under any circumstances. He takes his own decisions and sticks to them and is not influenced by others’ opinions.   People respect him as a reliable person. In the negative Scleranthus state the person does not know his own mind which is always vacillating between two options. He cannot make a decision, he takes long to come to a decision, goes on postponing it till the last, and when ultimately he speaks of his decision, nobody believes that he would stick to that decision. In his inner most heart he himself is not sure of the finality of his decision—he may still change it at the last moment. He has what they call’ a grasshopper mind’. The worst part is that he does not take anybody’s help to arrive at a decision. He is incapable of taking a quick decision.   So he goes on postponing it, thereby wasting much useful time. Sometimes he may come to grief and suffer irretrievable loss because of his indecisiveness. He may fail to make a quick decision whether an emergent case should be shifted to a nursing home, which is expensive but reliable, or a doctor should be called in to attend to the patient.

The patient may die due to delay in giving treatment, while crossing a busy road, he may find himself stranded in the middle of the road undecided whether to put a step forward or backward, and may be over-run by a fast moving vehicle. According to an anecdote S. Pratap Singh Kairon, the late Chief-Minister of Punjab, witnessed a squirrel being crushed under the wheel of his car, inspite of the best efforts of his driver to save it. Mr. Kairon asked the other 2 gentlemen sitting on his side in the car, why the squirrel died. One said it was its fate to die as she did. The other man replied, perhaps the driver was not adept in making a save in such emergencies.

“No” replied Mr. Kairon very firmly. “The squirrel lost its life because of its indecisiveness. It could not decide whether to go to the right or go to the left’. Similar is the fate of the people who have a vacillating mind”.

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Do you know of any natural treatments to ease childbirth?

According to several medical studies and quite a few mothers I’ve met, red raspberry leaf tea eases and speeds up labour.

Squeeze the juice of an orange into a cup of strong, red raspberry leaf tea (one ounce of dried leaves steeped in 20 ounces of boiling water will make more than a day’s supply). Drink one to three cups or about a pint daily, during the last month of pregnancy.

I’m a vegetarian and planning to nurse my baby. Some of my friends say that I wont be giving the baby proper nutrition. Is this true?

Not at all, as long as you get enough nutrients from vegetarian sources. In fact, it’s been shown that vegetarian mothers have considerably less pollutant chemicals in their breast milk than their meat-eating sisters. This has been attributed to the fact that many chemicals enter the body as a contaminant of animal fat and are then stored in human fat.

What I’d advise is making sure that your daily intake of protein, calcium, vitamins B2, В12, D, iron, and zinc is sufficient. Your best sources would be:

For protein:               Pulses combined with grains, nuts, or seeds; or a combination of any plant food with dairy products or eggs

For calcium:               Aside from dairy products, you can get a good supply from fortified soy milk, pulses, dark-green leafy vegetables, as well as nuts and seeds.

For vitamins:               Whole grains, brewer’s yeast, dark-green leafy vegetables, dairy products, and supplements (A balanced В complex with at least 3 meg. of vitamin В12, taken 1-3 times daily is recommended.)

For vitamin D:           Fortified soy or regular milk, and a good multivitamin (which your doctor has probably advised) will fill the bill.

For iron:                     Dark-green leafy vegetables, torula yeast, whole grains, dried fruits Combining  citrus   fruits  with   iron-rich foods will help you get the most of your iron.

For zinc:                     Wheat germ, whole grains, eggs, cheese, pulses, and nuts

My friend, who’s pregnant, has been using lecithin to control her weight gain. Is this safe?

I would not advise taking it during pregnancy. Though lecithin is a natural fat emulsifier, found in eggs, nuts, soybeans, and liver – among other natural foods – and has been used safely with kelp, vinegar, and vitamin Вб as a diet aid for years, recent studies at Duke University Medical Centre in Durham, North Carolina, have shown that lecithin when given to pregnant females can cause birth defects.

Altering eating habits, and not using diet aids, is the only safe way to control weight during pregnancy! Keep in mind that if a mother is inadequately nourished, it can affect fetal growth, which is why doctors no longer restrict weight gain to twenty pounds, but are more in favour of a twenty-eight to thirty pound gain.

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