Jai Guru, My brother is suffering from extremely high blood pressure and is not responding to the medicines prescribed by the doctor for the past few months. I suggested him some healing affirmations, but his will power has gone extremely down and is very depressed due to his anxiety caused by his increased heart rate. In what way can I boost his energy apart from sending healing prayers?
—Sharmila Chakravarty, India
I am very sorry to hear about his difficulties with high blood pressure. Please do continue to pray for him, and you can ask the Healing Prayer Ministry to pray for him, as well.
It is very important that he should engage in his healing process in some way, beyond just taking his pills. This will help his healing, and also help prevent depression. And since he seems reluctant to do affirmations, please do ask him to at least watch this short video that I made about this Powerful Healing Affirmation, by Paramhansa Yogananda.
Focus deeply at the spiritual eye, and repeat three times:
“I will with my own will, which flows from the divine will, to be healthy to be well, to be prosperous and spiritual, to be well, to be well.”
Paramhansa Yogananda also stressed that most foods have more vitality in their raw state. He was not fanatical about it, but he did say that most people would benefit if they ate 50-90% of their food raw. This can seem daunting if you are not used to it, but one way to increase the raw food in one’s diet is to always start the meal with a raw fruit, or a vegetable salad. In this way you bring your full appetite to the raw food first, instead of at the end of the meal, when maybe you are no longer hungry.
These raw foods are known to be very helpful for high blood pressure: Beets, carrots, ginger, apples. They can be grated up and eaten as a salad, or blended in a high powered blender, such as Vitamix. You don’t need to eat them all together – but they are good this way. Use only a small chunk of raw beet at first until you get used to it.
Cucumbers are also helpful. And many people find that cayenne pepper lowers their blood pressure quite quickly – often within hours. Several studies have found that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables helps lower elevated blood pressure.
Another strategy, besides striving to increase raw fruits and vegetables, is to consciously decrease foods made with white flour, white rice and white sugar. These tend to spike insulin and that can be an aggravating factor for high blood pressure. Change the proportion on the plate to reflect a big increase in the fresh foods, and a decrease in the “white” foods mentioned above. Many people will find that the body responds well to such a plan…
And the good news is that dark chocolate is also helpful for high blood pressure, if it’s at least 70% cocoa solids. And it helps depression, too. So maybe these dietary changes will be easier to embrace if he knows he can top of f the day with a small chunk of dark chocolate. Life is about joyful balance!
