tag:www.naturalawakeningsnj.com,2005:/categories/wise-wordsWise Words Wise Words | Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey Healthy Living Healthy Planet2024-03-03T06:13:25-08:00urn:uuid:22510e31-7ac2-42b8-9ae6-4670c44453f02024-03-03T06:13:19-08:002024-03-03T06:13:25-08:00It’s All Good With the Right Attitude2024-03-03 06:13:19 -0800Jerome Bilaos<p>Would you agree with me that
life is better when we have the right attitude, when we are grateful, when we
see what is good and what is possible? It’s like a bright, sunny day in early
spring. The temperature is just right, the air is fresh and the sky is the most
perfect blue. When I have the right attitude, I see things differently and hear
things through a much more tolerant and clearer filter. For me, it brings an
appreciation for living, good friends and family even more than I have every
day. </p>
<p>The research is clear that
having an attitude of gratitude can improve mental health in addition to
physical health. When my attitude is right, I sing more, dance more, play more,
and my inner child appears more. I feel more creative and alive, and I’m able
to accept life as it comes to me with a better approach to dealing with it. I
handle situations, problems and even business challenges differently. I really
like the way I act and interact when I’m on a great attitude high, and the
rewards I reap in that state feel exceptional. </p>
<p>I truly wish that I could stay
in that place though, where every minute of the day is filled with over-the-top
excitement aligned with the good things that come with a great attitude. Yes,
that would be extremely hard to maintain. But, as we all know, if you want
great things, the key is practice, practice, practice. Then, as they say, rinse
and repeat.</p>
<p>With peace, love and laughter,</p>
<p>Joe & Asta Dunne, Publishers</p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:5a2ea4dc-5dbc-4971-8715-d62b8ee0ff002024-02-25T16:30:08-08:002024-03-14T18:42:40-07:00Jeffrey Smith: Preserving the Nature of Nature2024-02-29 06:29:00 -0800Kelcie Ottoes<p>Microbes are essential for human and planetary health. These single-cell organisms exist everywhere—from the bottom of the ocean to inside the body—forming symbiotic relationships with their environs. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41430-021-00991-6">Soil microbes</a> can increase crop yield, nutrient density, carbon sequestration and water retention, while microbial networks in forests shuttle vital resources that support trees. In the ocean, microalgae produce much of the <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ocean-oxygen.html">world’s oxygen</a>. Our bodies have more microbes than cells, and the likelihood of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41430-021-00991-6">developing a chronic disease</a> is closely linked to gut microbiome composition and activity.</p><p> </p><p>Scientific understanding of these vital microscopic creatures is in its infancy, and human tinkering threatens their existence and ours, according to <a href="https://jeffreysmith.org/page/getstartedhere">Jeffrey Smith</a>, a leading spokesperson on the dangers of genetically modified organisms (GMO) and champion for the preservation of the “nature of nature” for more than 25 years. “We’re still discovering what the microbe army does on our behalf, unseen,” he says. “There are around 1 trillion microorganisms, and I’m told we’ve characterized far less than 1 percent, but we’re kind of in awe of the magic that they perform every day.”</p><p> </p><p>Smith’s activism began with a lecture by a genetic engineer that blew the whistle on biotech giants like Monsanto that were preparing to plant genetically engineered crops. Once introduced, GMOs would cross-pollinate, reproduce and be a permanent part of the food supply, the engineer warned. As a marketing expert, Smith knew that without the right messaging about the dangers of GMOs, companies developing and marketing modified crop seed would likely succeed with their plans, endangering the health of consumers. He made it his mission to educate everyone about the harmful effects of GMOs, including <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3791249/">toxins, allergens and genetic hazards</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Celebrated neuroscientist and pharmacologist Candance Pert once described Smith as the “leading world expert in the understanding and communication of the health issues surrounding genetically modified foods.” Smith has written two books, including the bestseller <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Seeds-Deception-Government-Genetically-Engineered/dp/0972966587"><i>Seeds of Deception</i></a>, released five movies, spoken in 45 countries and trained tens of thousands of people to advocate for life without GMOs.</p><p> </p><p>He also founded the <a href="https://responsibletechnology.org/">Institute for Responsible Technology</a> (IRT), a nonprofit dedicated to protecting nature’s genetic integrity and biological evolution by preventing the outdoor release of GMOs and toxic agricultural chemicals into the food supply. According to an October 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center, about <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/18/about-half-of-u-s-adults-are-wary-of-health-effects-of-genetically-modified-foods-but-many-also-see-advantages/">50 percent</a> of U.S. consumers believe that GMOs are worse for people’s health than foods with no genetically modified ingredients. IRT played a role in that education.</p><p> </p><p>More recently, Smith has turned to a new threat: gene editing of microorganisms with commercially available, inexpensive CRISPR kits that anyone can try, and are even part of some high school science programs.</p><p> </p><p>While most genetically engineered microbes are expected to die in the wild, their potential impacts are unknown and unpredictable. Smith worries that a home hobbyist will unintentionally create and set free a modified organism that imperils oceans, soil, forests or humans. “What's very concerning is what we may do to the microbiome,” he explains. “By genetically engineering microbes with novel traits, we are introducing unpredictable outcomes that are unretractable. We’re risking human health and the environment with each release.”</p><p> </p><p>To save the planet’s smallest and most essential organisms, Smith is seeking worldwide awareness, engagement and new domestic laws through his for-profit company <a href="https://protectnaturenow.com/">Protect Nature Now</a>. Ultimately, his aim is to unite leaders around the globe to stop the uninhibited tampering with microbes and protect the integrity of microbiomes that positively contribute to human health, regenerative agriculture and environmental conservation.</p><p> </p><p>The last piece of saving our microbes, Smith says, is creating a curriculum so that future generations can learn to protect and respect microbes, too. “People always ask, ‘What can I do to help?’ And my answer is, it depends on what a person’s abilities, resources and interests are,” he explains. Smith encourages individuals to become educated about GMO risks, share the message, demand that lawmakers protect vital resources and financially pressure GMO food manufacturers by consuming organic products.</p><p> </p><p><i>Kelcie Ottoes is a content writer for sustainable businesses, specializing in blog posts, case studies and white papers.</i></p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:dcbbb10f-4abf-402e-9f6b-227ee0cb43ce2024-01-25T08:17:50-08:002024-03-02T06:25:51-08:00Mimi Guarneri on Treating the Heart With Love2024-01-31 06:29:00 -0800Sandra Yeyati<p>After graduating first in her class at The State University of New York Medical Center, Dr. Mimi Guarneri began her career at Scripps Clinic, in San Diego, as an attending physician in interventional cardiology, where she placed thousands of coronary stents. Recognizing the need for more comprehensive and holistic approaches, she founded the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine and served as medical director for 15 years, combining state-of-the-art cardiac imaging technology with lifestyle programs and alternative therapies like acupuncture, healing touch, meditation and yoga to diagnose, prevent and treat cardiovascular disease. </p><p>Guarneri is board certified in cardiovascular disease, internal medicine, nuclear cardiology and integrative holistic medicine. She is a founder and president of The Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine; co-founder and medical director of Guarneri Integrative Health, in La Jolla, California; and a clinical associate professor at University of California, San Diego. In 2012, The Institute for Functional Medicine honored her with the Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award. Guarneri is the author of <i>The Heart Speaks: A Cardiologist Reveals the Secret Language of Healing</i> and <i>108 Pearls to Awaken Your Healing Potential</i>.</p><p> </p><p><b><i>What is holistic cardiology?</i></b></p><p>It’s about treating the whole person—body, mind, emotions and spirit. If you have a tree with sick fruit on it, you can keep cutting off the branches, or you can ask, what does the tree need? Does it need more sunlight or water? How is the soil? Does it have minerals? </p><p>With patients, the question we should be asking is why does someone have diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease? And then you ask, what is the soil of a human life made of? That soil is made of micro and macro nutrients, physical activity, having a purpose in life, joy and a good night’s sleep. At our center we call these the pearls of health.</p><p> </p><p><b><i>How do you diagnose people by listening to their stories?</i></b></p><p>We know through research that relationships between patients and physicians affect outcome. People who bond with their physicians have lower cholesterol or blood sugar levels because they’re more likely to be compliant with medications. We also know that events don’t happen in isolation. When people have major, life-changing events—death of a spouse or child, divorce—all of a sudden, they start having cancer, sudden death and heart attacks. </p><p>So, when I look at someone that had a heart attack, I don’t just want to know about their symptoms the day of the attack. I also want to know what was going on six months before, because that’s where you find the story. “I’ve been under stress. I lost my job. I lost my house. My wife told me they wanted a divorce.” This is where you start to get the stories that add up to the ultimate cardiovascular event. </p><p> </p><p><b><i>How do you translate that inquiry into the healing journey?</i></b></p><p>Everyone needs something different at a different point in their life. Some people need to change what they’re eating or start walking, but then you have to look at why they’re not taking care of their physical body. Depressed people say, “I have 20 friends in this pack of cigarettes.” They don’t say, “Let me eat Brussels sprouts and take a walk.” I have to deal with the underlying issue, which could be things like depression, stress or loneliness. I also want to know my patient’s spirituality, because if they believe in a higher power, we can tap into that to give them strength and help transform what’s going on. </p><p> </p><p><b><i>What tools do you have in your integrative medical arsenal?</i></b></p><p>The whole framework of integrative medicine is to understand and use the wisdom of other global healing traditions. For a patient with back pain, I may use healing touch, acupuncture, massage and medication. I may send somebody who is stressed to transcendental meditation training. I may pull from Ayurveda to help people with digestive issues.</p><p>The most important thing is looking at your life and finding joy, meaning, purpose, looking at where you can serve, where you can connect. This is the piece that is missing in many people’s lives. Also, look at where you are holding onto anger. Have you done your forgiveness work? How can you begin to practice gratitude?</p><p> </p><p><b><i>Why do you say that patients are motivated not by fear but by caring?</i></b></p><p>They’re motivated by love. Love is the secret ingredient. People will do everything for three months after a heart attack, because they’re terrified, and then they go back to their old ways. They start to gain weight, because they never did the deep work to look at what got them there in the first place.</p><p>A perfect example is one of my heart patients who came in with a walker. She said she had sciatica, and immediately we gave her a shot for her pain. We also did some acupuncture. I got a beautiful message from her the next day, which made no mention of the shot or the acupuncture. Instead, she said, “I felt so much better from the second you gave me a hug.” It’s that kind of connection that makes all the difference.</p><p><i>Sandra Yeyati is national editor of </i>Natural Awakenings<i>.</i></p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:8e39b320-249f-4779-87ae-97e938244f722024-01-01T13:37:17-08:002024-01-01T13:37:26-08:00Healing Pathways2024-01-01 13:37:16 -0800Jerome Bilaos<p>In a commitment to make trauma-informed therapy more
accessible, Healing Pathways is thrilled to introduce a unique opportunity.
From January 22 to May 4, 2024, they are offering counseling sessions with
their skilled student intern, Patricia Sonia, at a reduced rate of $30 per session.</p>
<p> Patricia Sonia, currently pursuing her second master’s
degree in social work, brings a wealth of experience to the field of mental
health. With her first master’s degree in art therapy, she offers a holistic,
and culturally inclusive approach to healing, as she can provide counseling in
both English and Spanish.</p>
<p> The internship period presents an invaluable chance
for individuals seeking support to engage in sessions that are not only
cost-effective but also delivered by a therapist dedicated to fostering a
compassionate, trauma- informed environment. Patricia’s background in art
therapy adds a unique dimension to her practice, ensuring a comprehensive and
personalized therapeutic experience.</p>
<p> As a trauma-informed therapy practice, Healing
Pathways understands the importance of making quality mental health care
accessible to all. Patricia’s reduced-rate sessions provide an opportunity for
individuals to embark on a transformative journey without financial barriers.
Seize this chance to work with Patricia and take a positive step towards
healing and relief.</p>
<p> <i>Conveniently
located in Basking Ridge. Contact us today via phone/text at 908-434-6008 or
email admin@healing-pathways.org to schedule. Visit Healing-Pathways.org for
details. See ad, page 12.</i></p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:ccf1a8be-60c1-4db0-bc4b-537d1280822c2024-01-01T13:26:45-08:002024-01-08T11:06:47-08:00Letter from The Publisher2024-01-01 13:26:45 -0800Jerome Bilaos<p>In my publisher’s letter last December, I wrote about personal
commitments on an every day level. To work on ourselves, to make sure our
attitude, behaviors, and good actions were intact and aligned to grow as a
person. To grow, improve and make progress as a mom or dad, as a better friend,
and a better human. In addition, we suggested that helping others was helping
ourselves, and how important that is to our souls. </p>
<p>Now, one year later, I look over how I’ve done. Over this past year I
have worked on my own suggestions, my tolerance, my acceptance, and my
decisions. So much improves when I concentrated on changing me, the one person
I do have control over. For me, the
biggest surprise of the year has been the decisions I made to release stress.</p>
<p>When I pay attention to who I am, how I act and what I want to change,
thoughts just seem to appear. Awareness and clarity expose denial. </p>
<p>When I set the time aside to review me, when my desires are to improve,
although not easy, I can face my fears, understand my true honesty, and
understand the protective barriers I have built. This is what has allowed me to
absolutely change my life for the better. When I made a hard decision but a
correct one to drop the stress that was affecting my life, the reward has been
life changing for me. </p>
<p>So my non-resolution for 2024 is facing fears, removing stress, nurturing
myself, applauding myself and others. In general, to stay on the good side of
who I am. A person looking for progress in my development as a human
being. As you may know I love the motto
“See the good.” My hope for everyone is we can see the good in ourselves. It
seems to be an area we brush aside quite easily. On the AA coin there is another motto, “To
thy own self be true”. In 2024 and
thereafter be proud of yourself, be good to yourself, be a better person.
Everyone around you will reap the rewards along with you. </p>
<p>My wish for all of us is to live life, enjoy it all, be a good person,
spread peace, help others, be compassionate, don’t judge, and keep improving.
Make 2024 and every year a year of hope, while appreciating and being true to
you. </p>
<p>~ Joe Dunne, Publisher</p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:9372becd-d688-4e51-9a93-5a436428c4622023-12-31T22:03:05-08:002024-01-31T14:37:17-08:00In the Natural Awakenings - January 2024 Graceful Aging Issue2023-12-31 22:03:04 -0800Jerome BilaosAs you embark on this new year, let the January edition of Natural Awakenings be your compass for positive change. May the insights and knowledge within these pages inspire you to create a life in harmony with your well-being and the well-being of our planet. Happy reading and a wonderful start to the year!<hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:67f37129-1084-4efa-954f-b472b54033862023-12-19T16:07:45-08:002024-02-07T16:24:17-08:00Sharon Bruckman on Celebrating a Labor of Love2023-12-29 06:29:00 -0800Sandra Yeyati<p>In 1994, Sharon Bruckman started a natural health, conscious living magazine called<i> Natural Awakenings</i> in Naples, Florida. Within a few years and with the help of partners and collaborators, she turned that single edition into a national franchise. In an industry that has seen so many publications fail, <i>Natural Awakenings</i> thrived under her steady leadership, at its zenith amassing 95 franchisee-publishers across the U.S., including Hawaii and Puerto Rico. </p><p> </p><p>Last year, Bruckman sold Natural Awakenings Publishing Corporation to KnoWEwell, P.B.C., while still retaining her original magazine, essentially switching roles from franchisor to franchisee. As <i>Natural Awakenings</i> celebrates its 30th anniversary, she reflects upon her journey. </p><p> </p><p><b><i>What inspired you to launch </i></b><b><span>Natural Awakenings<i> magazine?</i></span></b></p><p><b><i> </i></b></p><p>It was divine intervention. I was going through a big transition in my life and praying about my livelihood—asking God to use my talents and passions to serve others in a way that felt fulfilling—and I heard a voice say, “Start a magazine.” It was surprising, because I had no background in publishing, so I started exploring the possibilities.</p><p> </p><p>I noticed a need for a platform that could bring together all the holistic-living resources available in our community. This was before smartphones, social media, and the internet. If you didn’t see it in print, you didn’t know what was happening in your hometown. Our mission statement today is as clear as it was in 1994: to be a natural lifestyle publication that empowers people in our communities with the knowledge, resources, and connections to lead healthier lives on a healthy planet.</p><p> </p><p><b><i>How did the decision to turn it into a franchise come about? </i></b></p><p> </p><p><span>I had a knack for starting up small businesses based on passions of mine, but when I launched the first edition of <i>Natural Awakenings,</i> I never considered franchising it until I met John Voell II, who had a background in it. The whole thing was intimidating for me, especially in the beginning. I’ve had to step out of my comfort zone most of the time in this business, but I’ve come to understand that being out of my comfort zone isn’t a bad thing. It’s an exciting place where I can grow, open myself to new possibilities and feel most alive.</span></p><p> </p><p>Luckily, I learned how to manage the business one new franchise at a time, and our staff and skillsets grew with each new publisher who brought their own strengths and perspectives to the family. It became a collaborative environment. I loved how the publishers got used to working together and solving issues.</p><p><b> </b></p><p><b><i>What are the qualities of a successful team leader?</i></b></p><p><b> </b></p><p>One is leading with your heart. I discovered that people need to feel valued and hear they’re doing a great job. I often express my appreciation and empower them to let their talents and strengths shine. People need love, kindness and encouragement. I don’t hold onto grudges and come to each encounter fresh. I strive to be open and honest.</p><p> </p><p>I’ve learned over the years how to be a better mediator and negotiator through challenging conversations with publishers and staff members. The key is to reach for the highest and best result for everyone involved. It isn’t about being right. I don’t jump to the battlefield. I’ll speak my mind about the difficult stuff in a noncombative way—a way that comes from my heart and with openness, so people can feel safe to respond on that level.</p><p> </p><p><span>To succeed, you also need tenacity, a willingness to work hard and clarity about your mission. Overwhelm is the norm in this business, making it necessary to practice extreme self care. People say my best trait is how well I handle stress and always have a calming effect or attitude.<b></b></span></p><p> </p><p><b><i>How did you help the franchisee-publishers succeed?</i></b></p><p> </p><p>Working with publishers, you could predict which would thrive and which wouldn’t, depending upon their beliefs and statements. The ones that said, “No one wants to advertise,” you knew weren’t going to make it because of their attitude. The publishers that worked on their personal growth and on creating and manifesting what they wanted were much more likely to succeed.</p><p> </p><p>At one of our publishers’ conferences, I remember motivational speaker Chik Shank of LifePower Seminars had us walking on glass and fire, bending steel bars and performing other amazing feats. We did things we never believed we could do, and it changed your whole perspective. That was one of our most powerful conferences; when people left, they said, “I didn’t think I could walk on fire; I guess I can sell an ad.” It’s about breaking through belief systems.</p><p> </p><p><b><i>Do you have any mantras or personal beliefs that provide strength or resilience?</i></b></p><p> </p><p>I like using “I am” statements because they’re two of the most powerful words. What you put after them shapes your reality. I’ll assert: I am vibrantly healthy. I am loved. I am full of abundance. I am always protected.</p><p> </p><p>I remind myself to stay in the present. When feeling discouraged or challenged, I turn to a YouTube video by Esther Hicks, who says repeatedly, “Everything always works out for me.” The way she says it, accompanied by lovely background music, makes it sound so sensible. If you repeat it enough, you begin to believe it. </p><p> </p><p><i>Sandra Yeyati is the national editor of </i><span>Natural Awakenings<i>. </i></span></p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:a0d41c57-494a-4ad4-980e-b2489c38a4492023-11-16T15:16:27-08:002024-01-08T07:49:14-08:00Deepak Chopra on the Quantum Body and Achieving Peace2023-11-28 03:30:00 -0800Kimberly Whittle<p>Deepak Chopra, M.D., is a pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine and one of the most inspiring philosophers of our time. He is the founder of The Chopra Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a health company at the intersection of science and spirituality. Chopra also is a clinical professor of family medicine and public health at the University of California San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He has authored more than 90 books translated into more than 43 languages, including numerous bestsellers. Chopra collaborated with Jack Tuszynski, Ph.D., a physicist, and Brian Fertig, M.D., an endocrinologist, on his latest book, <i>Quantum Body: The New Science of Living a Longer, Healthier, More Vital Life.</i><br></p><p><b></b><br></p><h4><b><i>What inspired you to write this book? </i></b></h4><p>It is a celebration of the most surprising turn in my life. When I was practicing medicine at an exhaustive, hectic pace more than 30 years ago, I started meditating and had a life-changing breakthrough vision of a human body shimmering as a visual image—the quantum mechanical body. I became a writer, and my book, <i>Quantum Healing</i>, gave me my first boost. But at the time, the topic of meditation was considered fringe. Thirty-seven years later, the fringe has moved to the center, and new studies are overturning long-held mainstream medical beliefs. Hence, the time seemed right to take a second bite of the apple.<br></p><p><b></b><br></p><h4><b><i>What do you mean by the quantum body?</i></b></h4><p>Any physical body is an activity in consciousness. You experience your body through the five senses. Physical reality is experienced in the field of awareness that is outside of our body, and the field of awareness inside our body is called the interoceptive awareness. Meditation helps us transcend our physical and mental body and is the spirit of consciousness. Pure consciousness is the source of mind-body and the universe. The causal body is the source of every experience we have; it is your soul and the same thing as your quantum body. Quantum body exists to bring about all the healing needed at every level.<br></p><p><b></b><br></p><h4><b><i>How can we modulate our epigenetic activity and restore homeostasis to reduce stress and inflammation?</i></b></h4><p>Mind and body are inseparably one. Increase your sensitivity to interoception and the whole of your inner and outer being will be affected. You can do this through meditation, practicing vagal breathing, doing yoga and improving your sedentary lifestyle. The greatest gift of self-awareness is to live with love, truth, beauty and bliss as your goal. Ultimate well-being requires no less.<br></p><p><b></b><br></p><h4><b><i>Why is the quantum model for well-being important, and how do you plan to reach a critical mass of participants?</i></b></h4><p>Today, everyone is taking sides and is in conflict because they don’t agree with the perspective of others. As long as you engage in recycling trauma, the trauma leads to inflammation and disease in the body and in mental disorders. We have an inflamed world and will never solve this problem by any one side becoming the victor, because the intergenerational trauma will last for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.<br></p><p>This is the history of humanity since we were hunters and gatherers. Now the same tribal mindset spells extinction. We are sleepwalking to extinction unless we wake up. There is no hope for climate change, social and economic justice, racism, prejudice, health or joy. We need to cool down the world’s inflammation by starting with ourselves and creating an ecosystem where we can bring peace to our own families, social environment, ecosystem of relationships and communities; then we can reach a critical mass. A lot of people do agree that consciousness is a field and that we can aspire to a more peaceful, just, sustainable, healthier and joyful world.<br></p><p><a href="https://choprafoundation.org/" target="_blank">The Chopra Foundation</a> has launched two programs. The Certification in the Soul of Leadership is about how you become a spiritual leader, which I have taught at Kellogg [School of Management at Northwestern University] and Columbia [University] and given talks about at Harvard [University]. We received a grant to offer it free of charge. The other certification, Becoming a Peace as the Way Facilitator<b>,</b> is only $9.99. If you can’t afford it, we give it for free. If you focus on these two things and get the critical mass of people out there, the change we want to see in the world will happen.<br></p><p>That you exist should be a perpetual surprise, and you should be full of gratitude for existence itself. That is the most holy and sacred experience that we can have. What I am grateful for is that I exist.<br></p><p><br></p><p>Certification courses can be found at <a href="http://www.cfi.ChopraFoundation.org" target="_blank">cfi.ChopraFoundation.org</a>. To join the <i>Quantum Body</i> book discussion group, visit <a href="http://ChopraQuantumBodyDiscussion.KnoWEwell.com" target="_blank">ChopraQuantumBodyDiscussion.KnoWEwell.com</a><i>.</i> <br></p><div class="image-medium"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Body-Science-Living-Healthier-ebook/dp/B0BXKLMHV3"><img alt="" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1075944/fill/300x0/WW-DChopraBookCover.jpg?timestamp=1700176370"></a></div><p> </p><p><b></b><br></p><p><i>Kimberly Whittle is the founder and CEO of KnoWEwell, P.B.C. and the CEO of Natural Awakenings Publishing Corporation.</i></p><p><b></b></p><p><b></b></p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:515d70a4-bcfa-47e7-b935-4c75c36eef662023-10-15T13:24:43-07:002023-12-01T06:22:18-08:00Sam Stedman on Helping Kids Make Conscientious Choices2023-10-31 06:30:00 -0700Sandra Yeyati<p>Sam Stedman is the co-founder and publisher of <a href="https://www.ecoparent.ca/" target="_blank">EcoParent</a><i>, </i>a quarterly print magazine distributed in North America that is designed to help parents make better choices for their families. He holds a Ph.D. in experimental theater and ethical philosophy from the University of Toronto and was a university professor for more than 10 years in Ontario. Stedman lives in Belize with his 12-year-old son, Ransom.<br></p><p><br></p><p><b><i>How can parents inspire children to make eco-friendly choices?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>We need to get into the habit of doing the work, taking the time to research, learn, educate and be conscious of the choices in front of us so that we don’t make default decisions. Once you get past the surface level of reading labels and knowing what organic certification is, you have to keep taking it deeper. It’s ever-shifting sands. Science keeps developing. New certifications and concerns arise. New chemicals are developed to replace old chemicals that were bad. </p><p><br></p><p>We might get to a point where we realize we can’t make a reasonable choice because the information is impenetrable or requires another 15 hours of research. It might be a toss-up, a lesser of evils or an equal of evils, but being conscious and present to it is so important, and that’s what I want to instill in my son. I want him to know that I thought about the things we did and the choices we made, and that he can, too.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>How do you help your child cope with eco-anxiety?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>The word of the day around here has been acceptance. You have to accept situations as they are, and frustrating and heart-wrenching as they may be, when you literally can’t make a good choice, you also have to let yourself live in this world. </p><p><br></p><p>If you’ve ever done one of those carbon footprint calculators, most North Americans use up their global annual share of resources within a few months. I definitely use less than I used to and less than average, but I’m still using more than my share well before the year mark is over. How do you live with that? I wish I had good answers, but if we’re trying and we make our choices well, then we’re heading in the right direction.</p><p><b><i></i></b><br></p><p><b><i>Do you homeschool your son?</i></b> </p><p><br></p><p>At the start of COVID, we started homeschooling, but I discovered that I’m not a great homeschool dad in the sense of having all kinds of time to prepare curriculum and open up interesting possibilities. What we ultimately settled on, and this was a part of the shift and move to Belize, was an unschooling approach, which is the term for learning in the classroom of life, not having a set curriculum and instead being self-directed. </p><p><br></p><p>My son is free to create his own projects. It’s an interesting social experiment and a process of deinstitutionalization or de-schooling, as it’s called in the unschooling community, for myself and for him. I spent 30 years in school, from kindergarten to finishing my Ph.D., and what did it get me? I was a straight-A student, but when I graduated, nobody was giving me a job on a silver platter, and I had never been taught how to go out and make something happen. The hardest thing I ever did was give up my academic career to become an entrepreneur, but it was the best thing I ever did. So what I’ve been trying to teach my son is how to learn on his own, but more importantly how to make things happen in the world.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>Can you give an example of this self-directed learning?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>My son is a devotee of Minecraft, so he has built a lot of his education around that. He started a YouTube channel, which required him to learn how to edit videos. He also wants to build a survival multiplayer environment, which means that he has to be able to code his own twist on Minecraft. He had to create an excellent promotional video, which required that he write marketing copy, and he’s learning how to write the rules of the multiplayer environment in a clear way, which is technical writing. We never know where these projects are going to go, but it involves reading, writing, coding, video editing and an endless amount of troubleshooting and interfacing with different systems.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What is the key to successful parenting in this setting?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>If your kid is going to sit and play video games all the time and do nothing productive, and it’s not going to lead into fruitful territories, then they need more structure. You have to remain engaged. It’s great to allow him to direct everything, but his sphere of experience is still pretty myopic compared to an adult that has seen a lot more, so my job is to keep finding side trips and lateral movements that will keep him opening doors that he doesn’t even necessarily know are there.</p><p><br></p><p><i>Sandra Yeyati is national editor of </i>Natural Awakenings. </p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:eaec71dc-9fd0-439f-8817-1127dc56b9ac2023-09-15T16:52:41-07:002023-10-31T07:40:06-07:00Sophie Haruna Klimcak on Finding Awe and Wonder2023-09-29 06:30:00 -0700Sandra Yeyati<p>Sophie Haruna Klimcak is the co-founder and program director of <a href="https://www.wildawake.us/" target="_blank">Wild Awake</a>, a nonprofit in San Francisco. Drawing from her Japanese and Eastern European roots, she designs immersive, nature-based learning experiences that nurture deep caring for people and the planet. Klimcak holds a master’s degree in education from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and bachelor’s degrees in philosophy, neuroscience and psychology from Washington University, in St. Louis.<br></p><p><br></p><p>Whether in an after-school setting with children or an outdoor adventure among adults, she and her team of naturalists, artists and healing practitioners invite people to mindfully gaze at the stars, invigorate the senses with ocean sound-baths, experience healing and community in a song circle, build empathy and connection through storytelling, and express creativity by painting with botanical pigments. </p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What inspired you to start Wild Awake?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>In the summer of 2020, my co-founder Shasha Du and I took a weeklong trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Every night we experienced this feeling of awe and wonder and reverence as we stared up at this stunning night-sky portal of infinite space and blazing stars. On the last night, we brought binoculars and stayed up to see the comet NEOWISE. At 4 a.m., it appeared on the horizon—this icy rock moving toward the sun and releasing all these gases behind it in a glorious paintbrush streak—and we literally screamed and held each other because we had never seen anything like that before. As educators, we decided that we wanted to keep those feelings alive in our hearts, and design for awe and wonder in learning.</p><p><br></p><p>You don’t have to travel to places like Joshua Tree or see a comet to experience wonder and awe. With the right amount of mindfulness and attention, everything is worthy of such appreciation—our backyards, our houses, everything. Feeling a sense of wonder requires us to take time to appreciate the textures of something in its entirety and realize where it might have been sourced from and how it’s supporting us and we’re supporting it—remembering that we’re interconnected. We offer local experiences to help people see that magic exists where they live.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>How do you define the learning process?</i></b></p><p> </p><p>Learning is super-creative, constructive, collaborative and social. The best kind of learning is when you’re following a thread of your own intuition and asking questions that are joyful for you. They're not questions someone told you to ask. You’re building your own worlds by a process of inquiry. I think wakefulness comes from bringing that attention to whatever it is that you want to go deeper into.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>How do you help people awaken to that learning spirit? </i></b></p><p><br></p><p>One of our most experiential offerings was a wildflower therapy workshop, which brought people in community to see the superblooms in the Bay Area. To make this a wonder-based experience, I created this little booklet for a mindfulness walk, inviting folks to choose one flower to develop a relationship with over the course of an hour-and-a-half. </p><p><br></p><p>The booklet had multisensory prompts to deepen that relationship, and I asked them to record a conversation with their flower. When do people stare at a flower that long, right? But it does wonders, helping you move a little bit slower in the world. </p><p><br></p><p>The next time they walk by flowers, they’ll notice them in a different way because they took intentional time to develop a relationship to local flora and to their own joy and wonder. Little steps like these can be radical in developing a love for what we may lose if we don’t protect and care for this world.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>Can you describe one of your favorite programs?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>Living in San Francisco with the bay surrounding us, we are always in a relationship with the ocean. It cools the planet, making it livable for us; it’s an amazing place to play and enjoy water sports; and it nourishes us through seafood. So, we designed a program that takes folks out to forage for seaweed. </p><p><br></p><p>It's not about filling our buckets with as much seaweed as possible, but rather bringing mindfulness to the experience. We marvel at the diversity of seaweed; you can see dozens of different kinds along our shoreline. People are curious about what makes seaweed a certain color or how it nourishes us. We learn how to harvest seaweed from rock in a way that it can regenerate and grow more seaweed. We make an offering to the ocean, saying, “Thank you,” remembering our mutual reciprocity.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What advice do you have for people that want to connect with nature?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>One of the most accessible ways of connecting to nature is by connecting to your own body. Putting one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart and noticing your breath can really help you drop into that space of deep calm and deep knowing. If you can, find your local dark sky and go out to see the stars. Look at the moon. Notice the way planets and stars move through the sky. Or, notice a leaf or a flower and be in a relationship with it by noticing it over time, returning to it and seeing how it has changed and how you’re changing inside, too. </p><p><br></p><p><i>Sandra Yeyati is the national editor of </i>Natural Awakenings. </p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:6a6570e6-e381-4770-914b-e3d3f9bdef5b2023-08-15T14:47:18-07:002023-09-29T06:43:39-07:00Stephen Cope on Finding Your Calling2023-08-31 06:30:00 -0700Sandra Yeyati<p>Specializing in the relationship between Eastern contemplative traditions and Western psychology, Stephen Cope has been a scholar-in-residence for more than three decades at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, the largest residential yoga center in North America. He also founded the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living, a global network of scientists that researches the effects and mechanisms of yoga-based practices. Cope is a classically trained pianist, dancer and psychotherapist, as well as the bestselling author of <i>Yoga and the Quest for the True Self</i>, <i>The Wisdom of Yoga</i> and <i>The Great Work of Your Life</i>. His latest book is <i>The Dharma in Difficult Times: Finding Your Calling in Times of Loss, Change, Struggle and Doubt.</i><br></p><p><i></i><br></p><p><b><i>Why is it important to find our calling?</i></b></p><p><b><i></i></b><br></p><p>In classical yoga, there’s a view that everybody has a vocation. The earliest myth that supports this dates back several thousand years to the Vedic tradition in India and involves the god Indra, who is said to have cast a vast net over the entire universe. At each vertex of this net there’s a gem, and that gem is an individual soul whose job is to hold together the net at that point.</p><p><br></p><p>This introduces the view that each of us has a responsibility to contribute our gifts in such a way that we hold together our little piece of the net. If we don’t, the net starts to unravel. <i>Dharma </i>is<i> </i>Sanskrit for sacred vocation or sacred duty, which comes from the root <i>dhri,</i> “to hold together”. It’s this fascinating notion that we have a responsibility to our own idiosyncratic genius, which sustains not only us by providing a fulfilling life, but also the whole world by taking care of our corner of the world.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>How can we find our life’s purpose?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>The practice of yoga and meditation is about increasing our connection with the subtle, internal world. Thoreau called it the distant drummer. While our culture constantly draws us out and distracts us, Eastern contemplative traditions invite us to quiet our monkey mind and listen inside to that still, small voice that is attuned to our deepest needs and to the way the world works. It’s that awake, or enlightened, part of the mind that can connect you to your true calling.</p><p><br></p><p>There are three questions that people can ask themselves. First: What lights you up? This an energetic experience in our bodies when we come close to the occupation or endeavors that are important to our soul. Get familiar on a day-to-day basis with what lights you up, then slowly move toward those things and integrate them into your life.</p><p><br></p><p>Second: What duties do you feel called to? I don’t mean those onerous things that are imposed on us by our culture. I mean a duty that if you don’t do it in this lifetime, you’ll feel a profound sense of regret and self-betrayal.</p><p><br></p><p>Third: What problems or difficulties are you facing in your life right now? Difficulties can point you to something that might be your dharma. Marion Woodman, a good friend and feminist who was diagnosed with bone cancer in her mid-60s, decided to close her psychoanalytic practice and devote the rest of her life to being in relationship with the cancer, investigating it as her calling. Very often, somebody’s calling is something really difficult they’re experiencing, like an unhappy marriage or dissatisfaction in career, and their dharma is to investigate what this means for their life.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>How do we follow the still small voice when it feels like we’re stepping off the cliff?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>Robert Frost stepped off a series of smaller curbs that added up to a cliff. He was concerned, as we all are, about security, making money and keeping his family safe, so he became a teacher. But there was a point at which he had to give up teaching and follow this deep voice that said, “Poetry is your calling.” He was 38 when he made the final decision to let go of other sources of income, and when he did that, his poetry came alive.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What advice do you have for fulfilling our life’s work?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>In the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita" target="_blank">Bhagavad Gita</a> [Hindu scripture], there are four pillars of dharma. The first is discernment—finding your calling in this lifetime. The second—the doctrine of unified action—is to bring everything you’ve got to whatever you decide is your calling. Third is to let go of the outcome, also known as relinquishing the fruit. The ancient yogis discovered that if you’re grasping for a particular outcome, it takes you out of the moment and into some future fantasized moment. By letting go, you empower yourself to be more present to the possibilities of the moment. The fourth pillar is to turn the whole process over to God or to something bigger than just yourself. My friends who don’t believe in a higher power or god understand that concept of dedication to the planet, to humanity or to all beings.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>Are you hopeful about the future?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>Very hopeful. The contemplative traditions discovered that human beings who were <i>jivanmukta</i>, or soul-awake, were special versions of human beings in that they had capacities of compassion, lovingkindness, joy, generosity and selflessness. Those qualities, which are developed in the practice of yoga and meditation, add to the common good. I’m hopeful that as we become everything we can be, we will have the capacity to solve some of the huge problems that we have. As reckless as we are these days with our world, human beings have very often risen to the challenge of complex dilemmas and resolved them. As we come together, we start manifesting unified action. The power of human beings working together for the common good is almost limitless.</p><p><br></p><p><i>Sandra Yeyati is the national editor of </i>Natural Awakenings<i>.</i></p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:d8ea6673-1884-4335-afda-15ed119561a52023-07-15T13:44:24-07:002023-08-31T10:04:53-07:00Maria Rodale: On Letting Nature Heal Itself2023-07-31 06:30:00 -0700Sophia Ellis Kreider<p>Bestselling author, activist and gardener Maria Rodale is a board member of <a href="https://rodaleinstitute.org/" target="_blank">Rodale Institute</a>, a nonprofit dedicated to growing the regenerative organic agriculture movement through research, farmer training and education. She is the former CEO of Rodale Inc., the global health and wellness media company that published notable books and magazines, including Al Gore’s <i>An Inconvenient Truth</i>.<br></p><p><br></p><p>Her own books include <i>Organic Manifesto:</i> <i>How Organic Food Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe, </i>as well as <i>Scratch: Home Cooking for Everyone Made Simple, Fun, and Totally Delicious</i>. In her latest work, <i>Love, Nature, Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden,</i> Rodale leads readers through her relationship with the plants, animals and insects that inhabit her garden and shares the life lessons these often misunderstood creatures taught her.</p><p><br></p><p><b>Why did you write this book?</b></p><p><b></b><br></p><p>It was a combination of sensing that “spirit” wouldn’t allow me not to and the recognition that I could write the book in my own way, with humor and irreverence. It’s been my experience that once we begin following the path that spirit provides for us, things become easy. As someone on the older side of life, I’ve also noticed that when I don’t listen to that guidance, I tend to really mess things up, so even when I don’t understand the path, I have to follow it.</p><p><br></p><p><b>What is the most significant message nature is trying to share with us?</b></p><p><br></p><p>The overarching message, which has been reinforced since I wrote the book, is that nature wants to feel free to do whatever it needs to do to heal things. The more we try to control nature, the more frustrated it gets. The same is true for people; the freer we feel, the happier and more productive we are. All efforts to control, whether it’s controlling human behavior or landscapers trying to control the landscape, are not helpful in any way. If we want to solve the climate crisis or the environmental crisis, we need to allow nature to be free and do its job.</p><p><br></p><p>The other message I received from nature relates to humans’ tendency to search for plants, take them, hoard them, eat them and rub them on our skin. In reality, we don’t need to do these things to benefit from plants. We can simply be in harmony with them in order to absorb their healing energy. So again, it’s about freedom, releasing control and trusting our relationship with plants and nature.</p><p><br></p><p><b>What role does courage play in exploring what plants, insects and animals have to teach us?</b></p><p><b></b><br></p><p>Many of us are afraid of having new experiences or have anxiety about things we don’t understand. When this happens, we can choose to stay in the fear or encourage ourselves through it. When we choose courage and curiosity, we often learn a new skill or power. For example, when I was journeying and getting to know mosquitos and ticks, I felt afraid but chose to keep going. While I didn’t come to love the mosquitos and ticks, I developed compassion and respect for them.</p><p><br></p><p>To understand what nature is communicating to us, we need to get curious and unlearn what our parents and culture taught us about how our garden should look or how we should interact with it. We can ask ourselves, “What am I afraid of? Where did the fear come from?” and listen for the answer.</p><p><br></p><p><b>What role does personal trauma play in healing our planet?</b></p><p><b></b><br></p><p>Trauma is the root of everything—crime, abuse and all the things that make us unhappy and destructive, both towards each other and nature. That’s one of the reasons I was excited to share the parents’ creed in the milkweed chapter. The creed teaches that in order to stop trauma, we must raise kids well from the start. The challenge is that our culture doesn’t provide the information we need to minimize our mistakes or prevent trauma in the first place. Openness to learning about ourselves is key to healing trauma. When we heal our traumas, we are less likely to project trauma onto other living beings, including nature.</p><p><br></p><p>If people respond to life with curiosity instead of fear, and love instead of control, we can evolve amazingly fast and have fun doing it. This is the wonderful work we can accomplish together with nature—envisioning and building new systems and ways of being on this beautiful Earth.</p><p><br></p><p><i>Sophia Ellis Kreider</i> <i>is a freelance writer in Lancaster, PA, and a regular contributor to</i> Natural Awakenings. <i>Connect at SophiaEllisKreider@gmail.com.</i></p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:b3adbcf8-85b7-4a93-9bfb-8232e4e2e1182023-06-15T14:08:29-07:002023-07-31T09:05:41-07:00Anne Biklé on The Nexus Between Soil and Human Health2023-06-30 06:30:00 -0700Linda Sechrist<p>Anne Biklé and David R. Montgomery, a husband and wife team, collaborated to write <i>What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health</i>. A biologist, environmental planner and gardener extraordinaire, <a href="https://www.dig2grow.com/" target="_blank">Biklé</a> earned degrees in biology and natural history from the University of California (UC) Santa Cruz and a master’s degree in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley. She uses her endless fascination with the natural world to explore the tangled relationships between people and their environments. She also helped Montgomery, a professor of Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, research and write <i>The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health, </i>as well as<i> Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life.</i> Exploring the connection between soil health and human health, the duo shows us how the roots of our good health begin on farms.<br></p><p><br></p><p><b><i>Why did you write this book?</i></b></p><p><b></b><br></p><p>It was a case of evolution, a progression of our research and thinking, as well as the culmination of a journey that we’ve been on, looking into how soils affect human societies. When you're a writer and you're constantly looking for connections and patterns, this is what can happen. When David was writing <i>Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, </i>he discovered that how we treated the land in the past shaped the way that the land was able to treat the descendants of people. In other words, if you don’t take care of your land, it doesn’t take care of you.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What effects do soil erosion and degradation have on our food supply?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>In looking at the UN's “<a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/status-worlds-soil-resources?gclid=Cj0KCQjw7aqkBhDPARIsAKGa0oL-XGhSPch41Q9go30Fcl9TP9WxuBzwtFOdhqvNGiNcjkwUdtsqtf0aAiepEALw_wcB" target="_blank">Status of the World’s Soil Resources from 2015,</a>” the study concludes that 33 percent of the Earth’s soils are already degraded, and we're losing about 0.3 percent of our ability to feed ourselves—to grow food on this planet every year—due to soil erosion and soil degradation. That doesn't sound like a big number in any one year, but adding it up over the rest of this century, it comes to 30 percent of our ability to feed ourselves. Adding to this is the serious degradation of the world’s agricultural land from long-term farming practices, such as tilling or plowing, which is the villain in what is becoming a significant planetary problem that can be reversed with regenerative farming practices.</p><p><br></p><p>The plow is one of the more destructive implements that mankind has ever invented despite its ability to help feed us in the past. It contributes to soil degradation and erosion because it fundamentally alters the balance between how fast soils are being made and how fast they're being lost.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What are the benefits of regenerative farming practices?</i></b></p><p><b></b><br></p><p>Regenerative agriculture uses less fertilizer, less pesticide and less fossil fuel. It also increases the carbon content in the soil. Carbon-rich soil retains more water and contains more life, such as whole new worlds of microbial metabolites [the energy and nutrients needed to live and reproduce] that come from soil microbes. </p><p><br></p><p><b>Do farming practices influence the health of crops and human health?</b></p><p><b></b><br></p><p>Conventional farming practices use synthetic nitrogen, which degrades organic soil matter and alters the communities of life in the soil. In studies of organic versus conventional, we’ve found that there's almost always evidence that there are differences in micronutrients and phytochemicals, with organic crops having higher levels of both. Micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals that we need in trace amounts for our health—for example, selenium, boron, zinc and iron—which we need just a little bit of, but that little bit has an oversized effect on our health.</p><p><br></p><p>Conventional crops almost always have higher levels of pesticides and heavy metals. There's a lot of controversy scientifically about how much is enough to affect human health. The companies that make pesticides assure us that the levels in food are perfectly safe. But there are now scientists who are starting to investigate chronic exposure to even small amounts over a whole lifetime. How much does that influence our health? We think there are reasons to keep asking those questions.</p><p><br></p><p>It is highly suggestive that the idea of a connection between soil health, crop health and animal health translates into what's in our food. If we're getting more vitamins, phytochemicals and mineral micronutrients, which are shown to support health, you can make the argument that these regeneratively grown foods are probably healthier for us to eat.</p><p><br></p><p><b>What influence do farming practices have on livestock and human health?</b></p><p><b></b><br></p><p>The nature of what ruminants eat greatly influences the nature of the fats that are in meat and dairy. Livestock grazing on leafy green plants are getting an omega-3-rich diet. Ruminants that eat predominantly seed- or seed oil-derived rations in a feed lot are getting a mainly omega-6-derived diet. Omega-6 fats help trigger inflammation. We want our bodies to be able to trigger inflammation when we need it, but we also want it to turn off when it's done. Inflammation is not a process that just stops, so we need omega-3 fats, which are central to the process of terminating or quelling inflammation.</p><div class="image-medium"><img alt="" src="//cdn2.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1007723/fill/300x0/WW-BookCover-Montgomery_Bikle_20WW_20option.jpg?timestamp=1686863268"></div><p> </p><p><i>Linda Sechrist has been a contributing writer to </i>Natural Awakenings<i> publications for 20 years.</i></p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:bf9c6501-9d9c-4525-94b3-8daa8f805daa2023-05-15T16:57:24-07:002023-08-31T07:13:09-07:00Mark Hyman on Living Healthy to 100 and Beyond2023-05-31 06:30:00 -0700Sandra Yeyati<p>Mark Hyman is a practicing family physician and an internationally recognized leader, bestselling author, speaker, educator and advocate in the field of functional medicine. He is the founder and director of <a href="https://www.ultrawellnesscenter.com/" target="_blank">The UltraWellness Center</a>, founder and senior advisor for the <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/functional-medicine" target="_blank">Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine</a> and board president for clinical affairs for <a href="https://www.ifm.org/?hsa_kw=the%20institute%20for%20functional%20medicine&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_grp=79398164764&hsa_cam=6479100630&hsa_acc=4746158419&hsa_tgt=kwd-903661829008&hsa_ver=3&hsa_ad=434238175600&hsa_mt=p&hsa_src=g&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsIejBhDOARIsANYqkD1iOx0iDTPtyH-gqBs6gx5HNvKD5awkEWRZ3p8Oag069JOHvD0x56waAk4MEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds" target="_blank">The Institute for Functional Medicine</a>. He is also the founder and chairman of the Food Fix Campaign, dedicated to transforming our food and agriculture system through policy change, and hosts <i>The Doctor</i>’<i>s Farmacy</i>, a podcast with more than 150 million downloads. Dr. Hyman is a regular contributor to <i>CBS This Morning</i>, <i>Today</i>, <i>Good Morning America</i>, <i>The View</i>, Fox and CNN. His latest book, <i>Young Forever: The Secrets to Living Your Longest, Healthiest Life, </i>champions the latest science on healthy aging. <i> </i><br></p><p><br></p><p><b><i>How is the emerging science on longevity changing the way we view aging?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>Many things we’ve come to accept as a normal part of getting older are not. Decrepitude, frailty, disease, diabetes, cancers, dementia—these are optional. We can’t change chronological aging, but we can slow and reverse biological aging by influencing the hallmarks of aging, which are these underlying processes that go awry as we get older.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What are the hallmarks of aging?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>In my book I wrote about 10 hallmarks of aging, which are all part of one ecosystem of problems. They’re not separate; they influence each other; and they’re dynamic. It’s things like inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, DNA damage, zombie cells, shortened telomeres, microbiome changes and epigenetic changes, which are changes in how our genes are expressed. They’re all important, but the most important hallmark of aging is called deregulated nutrient sensing, which means how our body interacts with food and how that influences us for good or bad. Problems with nutrient sensing affect almost all the other hallmarks and make them worse.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>How can we address deregulated nutrient sensing? </i></b> </p><p><br></p><p>We have built-in longevity pathways and over 3,000 survival genes, and we can activate this innate healing intelligence at any time. A major way to influence four of these pathways is through food. I call them longevity switches, which we need to learn how to regulate to make our health span equal our lifespan.</p><p><br></p><p>The first one is activated by too much sugar and starch, which drives too much insulin signaling, causing diabetes, pre-diabetes, cancer, dementia, heart disease or obesity. When insulin is over-expressed, it causes weight gain, fat storage, inflammation and lots of other problems. </p><p><br></p><p>The next one is mTOR [mammalian target of rapamycin], a pathway that makes new proteins and builds muscle, but gets overstimulated because of our constant eating and snacking and eating before bed. mTOR needs to be inhibited periodically by intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating to allow autophagy to happen, which is like a recycling and repair crew that comes in at night and cleans up all the damaged proteins.</p><p><br></p><p>The other two pathways, sirtuins and AMPK [adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase], sense a lack of nutrients and switch on survival pathways. If we’re constantly eating sugar and starch, then AMPK and sirtuins are overstimulated, and they're not given a break to activate these pathways.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What is the role of exercise in longevity?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>If it were a pill, exercise would basically fix everything. It’s probably the most potent intervention there is, other than calorie restriction or fasting, and it works on many of the longevity pathways. The most important type of exercise is resistance training as you get older, because you need to build muscle. Without muscle, you become frail and dysfunctional. </p><p><br></p><p>Exercise influences our DNA stability; lengthens telomeres; preserves the genome; affects the proteins; regulates mTOR, AMPK and sirtuins; preserves mitochondrial function; prevents zombie cells; helps with stem cells; reduces inflammation, cardiovascular risk and diabetes; and it’s also really important for becoming insulin sensitive.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What is hormesis and how can it help with healthy aging?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>Hormesis is the idea that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. The concept is not new. We know that exercise, for example, is a stress on the body, but it actually makes you rebound stronger. When you lift weights or you run, it’s a stress, but you’re getting thinner and stronger. There are other forms of hormesis that activate longevity pathways. Hot sauna therapy reduces your risk of cardiovascular mortality by 50 percent. Cold immersion therapy has many benefits, like increasing dopamine, activating brown fat and regulating metabolism. Fasting is a kind of hormesis, and longer fasts—for a day, three days, a week—are very powerful.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What role does finding community have in this quest for longevity?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>The science is pretty clear that the body has innate systems that can be regulated by our thoughts. We now understand the mechanisms by which our social relationships and connections can influence our gene expression and everything from inflammation to insulin resistance to everything else, so building connection with others and building relationships and community is very important. </p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What longevity strategies do you implement on a typical day?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>A lot of this is just habit development and routine. This morning I worked out with my resistance bands for half an hour, took a steam shower and an ice bath, then had a longevity shake with goat whey, creatine, urolithin A and adaptogenic mushrooms. Then I took a walking meeting for an hour-and-a-half outside while I was on a call. Tonight, I plan to spend time with friends. I eat pretty simply most of the time. Last night, I had lamb chops, sweet potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, artichokes (which is a great prebiotic food) and some broccoli with lemon, garlic and olive oil. I take my supplements as well. So it’s very simple, very easy.</p><p><br></p><p><i>Sandra Yeyati is the national editor of </i>Natural Awakenings<i>. </i></p><p><br></p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>urn:uuid:f21fa1cd-4532-4dd4-ba52-d202e1ed8e6c2023-04-18T11:39:13-07:002023-08-31T07:45:57-07:00Carol Penn on Finding Calm in a Chaotic World 2023-04-28 06:30:00 -0700Sandra Yeyati<p>Dr. Carol Penn, double board-certified in family and obesity medicine, is a movement, meditation and mindset coach who teaches people to prioritize self-care to achieve their best and highest selves. She is certified in mind-body medicine, fitness and personal training, yoga and qigong, and draws inspiration and wisdom from a previous career as a dancer and dance educator with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Penn is the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Meditation-Time-Madness-Guidebook-Guardians/dp/1644840081" target="_blank">Meditation in a Time of Madness: A Guidebook for Talented Tweens, Teens, Their Parents and Guardians Who Need to Thrive</a><i>. </i><br></p><p><br></p><p><b><i>Why did you write your book?</i></b> </p><p><br></p><p>Because I was heartbroken after speaking to an 8-year-old in Parkland, Florida. I asked him, “Are you looking forward to going back to school?” not realizing his older sibling was one of the teenagers murdered in the Stoneman Douglas school shooting. He responded, “I feel like something bad could happen, and no one will be able to help me—not my parents, not my teachers, not even the president.” </p><p><br></p><p>An 8-year-old shouldn’t be afraid to go to school, and if that’s what our society is becoming, then children need resiliency skills, a way to self-soothe, and so do their parents. The book is a response to gun violence, but it also applies to the pandemic and other unprecedented events that cause that kind of internal chaos and disorientation that leads to mood disorders, depression, anxiety and suicidality. Whether it’s meditation, yoga, journaling or something else, mind-body skills can get you back to your center so you can function at a higher level from a place of calm and relaxed awareness, versus out of fear and nervousness.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>Why do you define meditation as relaxed awareness?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>Many people think that you have to sit in a certain posture and have no thoughts to meditate, but that isn’t true. We have 60,000 thoughts a day, and we don’t pay attention to most of them. Meditation allows you to slow your thoughts so they’re not as overwhelming and don’t interfere as much. When thoughts slow down and there’s space between them, your body also begins to slow down. Neurotransmitters like dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins are released in the brain, and you feel their downstream effect, which we call relaxation.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What is soft belly breathing?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>Many times, you get into this rigid kind of breath where you’re holding your belly in and your shoulders are thrown back. People think they look better if they have a flat, tight belly, and that’s how they’re moving in the world, but they’re not getting the full experience of the breath. Soft belly breathing relaxes the torso, particularly that area just below your navel. This type of breathing allows the diaphragm to push down and massage everything beneath it, improving digestion and elimination processes and allowing the lungs to fill out from their bases where you pick up all the oxygen and nutrients that need to be carried throughout the body. As you inhale, say the word “soft” to remind yourself to soften and let go of any muscle tension. As you exhale, say “belly” to be reminded not to hold that part of the body in a rigid way.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>Why do you say that movement is medicine?</i></b></p><p><b></b><br></p><p>Motion is synonymous with life. There’s always something moving, even when we’re asleep. Even gentle movement helps the body release endorphins, which elevate our mood, reduce pain and bring us pleasure. We want to bring that flow and fluidity into our lives so that we can tap into it on purpose. Have you ever noticed the less you move, the harder it is to move? Movement needs to be encouraged throughout the lifespan.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What movements do you recommend? </i></b></p><p><b><i></i></b><br></p><p>One starts in a standing position. Notice how the rib cage moves as you soft belly breathe. Soften the knees, drop the chin to the chest and as you inhale, lift the arms and feel yourself float away slightly from the body to create a gentle undulation of the spine. This stimulates the “mu” receptors that cause our brain to release pain-reducing endorphins, which reduce pain.</p><p><br></p><p>Another is to shake it off, like when a dog is walking along and all of a sudden their back twitches, they shake and then continue along their merry way. If we’re bothering them, dogs will literally shake it off. They don’t let it anchor in the body, in their muscles and in their nervous system the way that humans do. Some people wake up tired. Their jaw hurts because they were clenching their teeth all night. By shaking off that tension for one to three minutes, you loosen the tight ligaments where we habitually hold tension.</p><p><br></p><p><b><i>What is “taking your seat on your throne,” and how can it help us?</i></b></p><p><br></p><p>I came up with that when teaching women how to meditate from a seated position. Women wear so many hats that life can feel weary, so asking them to sit down as if they’re taking a seat upon the throne of their own well-being gives them a way of sitting that’s different than just plopping down and collapsing because they’re exhausted. It shifts the energy and mental picture. You are more than the exhausted mother, executive, wife or caretaker. There’s a regal elegance, calm and quiet strength inside, and we’re going to meet her in our time of meditation. </p><div class="image-medium"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Meditation-Time-Madness-Guidebook-Guardians/dp/1644840081"><img alt="" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/994852/fill/300x0/book-cover.jpg?timestamp=1681843048"></a></div><p> </p><p><i>Sandra Yeyati is national editor of </i>Natural Awakenings<i>. </i></p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.naturalawakeningsnj.com">Natural Awakenings North Central New Jersey</a></small></p>