Connecting to the Spiritual Dimension
October 29, 2010 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Featured, Spirituality
The secret of attraction is to love yourself. Attractive people judge neither themselves nor others. They are open to gestures of love. They think about love, and express their love in every action. They know that love is not a mere sentiment, but the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe. – Deepak Chopra
What does it mean to be spiritual, what does it mean to connect to the spiritual dimension, and how does it relate to living a Low Density Lifestyle?
When I use the term spiritual, what I mean is living a life that is connected to a divine force, to the pulse of the universe. This force, this pulse, is the field that is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of the universe.
Some may call this God—and some may give this God a specific name—and some may call it by something else: the Divine Force, Great Spirit, Soul, Universal Spirit, Universal Mind, Universal Intelligence, Universal Consciousness, Zero-Point Field, etc. However you view this, it is important to understand that there is an underlying force that is at the heart of the universe.
This force is unlimited, infinite, undying and eternal. It is both outside and within us; it is everywhere and in all things. We are connected to it at all times; the less blockages and densities you carry in your body, heart and mind, and the more readily you feel the pulse and flow of the universe within you, then the closer is that connection.
The connection is felt every time you allow yourself to relax, be silent and be still, because it is at these times that the static of unceasing noise that blocks the frequencies and signals that emanate from the Zero-Point Field is quieted. Mother Teresa said:
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…We need silence to be able to touch souls.
When you are living a Low Density Lifestyle it is much easier to feel that connection, because the static does not overcome the silence, whereas when living a High Density Lifestyle you will have a hard time feeling that connection, because the static is always there.
People who live a High Density Lifestyle also need a way to find that connection, but unfortunately the way they do so is usually by partaking of things that are detrimental to their health and well-being.
They will ingest drugs—pharmaceutical and recreational—and drink excessive amounts of alcohol, all as a means of making themselves numb, getting away from their stresses and trying to feel a connection with something.
In addition, since they have a hard time being still, they will look for the thrill, for something that gives them the buzz and the adrenaline rush, something that has a sense of adventure and risk, all in the name of feeling a connection with something greater than themselves.
Now, I am not saying you shouldn’t go and have fun, it’s just that some people take it to the extreme. They feel that this is how they make the connection to the force of the universe. Because they are so caught up in the High Density Lifestyle, they don’t realize that all they need to do is stop and be still, and within that silence will come the flow that brings forth the pulse of the universe.
Feeling the connection to the spiritual dimension also means holding love in your heart—loving yourself, those close to you, and all the inhabitants of the planet. Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe, and when you feel love in your heart, you create an open energy circuit that connects you to the sacred flow of the universe.
Rumi said, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
The barriers you have built within yourself that stop you from feeling love are the very same densities and blockages that stop you from living a Low Density Lifestyle. It is so important to surrender and let go of the things that hold you back from feeling love in your heart, because when you do, you can come closer to the Universal Force and be FREE – FREE stands living in a way that focuses on Flow/Relaxation/Effortless Effort.
There are many ways to feel connected to the spiritual dimension; for some it occurs from attending a church, synagogue, temple or mosque, while for others it is more personal—prayer, meditation, silence, walking in the woods, or some other way.
However you find your method of expression, one thing you need to understand is that spirituality is an everyday affair. You are not just spiritual when you go to church, synagogue, temple or mosque; or when you do the more personal way of expressing your spirituality.
Spirituality, and feeling connected to the spiritual dimension, is something that should be realized at all times. For instance, in the Zen tradition, there is no distinction between spiritual and non-spiritual moments. “Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes,” is a Zen saying.
When that understanding is embedded in every cell of your body, your connection to the spiritual dimension becomes second nature, and all your actions will be directed in that way. You are in the flow and every movement you take and every achievement you make is done with effortless effort.
Yoga: The Divine Union
October 23, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Movement And Exercise
In yesterday’s article I gave you 10 outstanding yoga videos, all of which were excellent.
Some of the videos were historical in nature and traced back to the roots of modern yoga, showing some of the modern masters of this ancient art. There was a video from 1938 of Krishnamacharya, the grandfather of modern yoga. And there were two others video with his disciples, BKS Iyengar, founder of Iyengar Yoga, and Sri K. Pattahbi Jois, founder of Ashtanga Yoga.
The aim of yoga is to help the practitioner enter into the flow state, and as such it is a movement approach that definitely can be a strong aid in helping to live a Low Density Lifestyle.
I thought it would be nice today to look at the ancient roots of yoga, in order to help give a context for understanding the wisdom of this traditional modality, whose aim is to create a divine union between body, mind and soul.
Yoga (Sanskrit, Pāli: योग yóga) refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
In Hinduism, it also refers to one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, and to the goal toward which that school directs its practices. In Jainism it refers to the sum total of all activities—mental, verbal and physical.
Raja Yoga meditation
Major branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy include Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Hatha Yoga. Raja Yoga, compiled in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and known simply as yoga in the context of Hindu philosophy, is part of the Samkhya tradition.
Many other Hindu texts discuss aspects of yoga, including Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Shiva Samhita and various Tantras.
The Bhagavad Gita (’Song of the Lord’), uses the term yoga extensively in a variety of ways. In addition to an entire chapter (ch. 6) dedicated to traditional yoga practice, including meditation, it introduces three prominent types of yoga:
* Karma yoga: The yoga of action
* Bhakti yoga: The yoga of devotion
* Jnana yoga: The yoga of knowledge.
The Sanskrit word yoga has many meanings, and is derived from the Sanskrit root “yuj,” meaning “to control,” “to yoke” or “to unite.” Translations include “joining,” “uniting,” “union,” “conjunction,” and “means.”
Outside India, the term yoga is typically associated with Hatha Yoga and its asanas (postures) or as a form of exercise. Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy is called a yogi or yogini.
The Indian sage Patanjali
It was the Indian sage Patanjali, who lived in the second century BCE, who is widely regarded as the founder of the formal Yoga philosophy. Patanjali’s yoga is known as Raja yoga, which is a system for control of the mind. Patanjali defines the word “yoga” in his writings, specifically the second sutra of what became known as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
Hundreds of years later, yoga’s evolution continued with the development of Hatha Yoga by Yogi Swatmarama, in 15th century India.
A Hatha Yoga pose
Hatha Yoga differs substantially from the Raja Yoga of Patanjali in that it focuses on shatkarma, the purification of the physical body as leading to the purification of the mind and prana, or vital energy.
Compared to the seated asana, or sitting meditation posture, of Patanjali’s Raja yoga, it marks the development of asanas into the full body “postures” now in popular usage. Hatha Yoga in its many modern variations is the style that many people associate with the word “Yoga” today.
The goal of yoga ranges from improving health to achieving Moksha. Within Jainism and the monist schools of Advaita Vedanta and Shaivism, the goal of yoga takes the form of Moksha, which is liberation from all worldly suffering and the cycle of birth and death (Samsara), at which point there is a realization of identity with the Supreme Brahman.
In the Mahabharata, the goal of yoga is variously described as entering the world of Brahma, as Brahman, or as perceiving the Brahman or Atman that pervades all things. For the bhakti schools of Vaishnavism, bhakti or service to Svayam bhagavan itself may be the ultimate goal of the yoga process, where the goal is to enjoy an eternal relationship with Vishnu.
Yoga also helps your body maintain a stable relationship with itself while going into a calm, neutral state of peace.
So whether you see yoga as a form of exercise that allows you to move in a more flowing way, or as a way to achieve a higher state of consciousness and a sense of liberation, either way, by practicing this ancient art, you will find yourself on the path of living a Low Density Lifestyle.
10 Outstanding Yoga Videos
October 22, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Movement And Exercise
I have talked about movement and exercise as a way to help you achieve more of a flow state.
Yoga is an excellent way to help cultivate the flow state.
With that in mind, here are 10 outstanding yoga videos that you can watch right here – feel free to watch one or all.
They can all help you to realize the flow state.
1) A guided meditation with Bridget Woods Kramer, a leading Anusara yoga teacher, filmed on the clifftops of Cornwall, England.
2) The breath and body move as one in the Ashtanga Yoga tradition. This classical path harnesses the power of the postures to reveal the pure awareness, freedom, and depth of all that is yoga. Renowned teacher Richard Freeman masterfully guides you through this precise union of breath, alignment, and flowing postures as taught to him by master yogi K. Pattabhi Jois of Mysore, India.
3) Intro to Ashtanga with Richard Freeman.
4) Yoga for Beginners with Patricia Walden.
5) Vinyasa Flow Yoga Intro with Seane Corne. Vinyasa Flow Yoga is an experience to reconnect you to your personal sense of Spirit and strengthen mind and heart, as well as your body.
6) Morning Yoga – Tara Stiles shows a yoga routine that is great for waking up in the morning.
7) Everyday Yoga: Letting Go of Tension – with Rodney Yee.
A silent film of Krishnamacharya, granddaddy of modern yoga, in 1938. He was the teacher of BKS Iyengar and Sri K. Pattahbi Jois.
9) Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, the founder of Ashtanga Yoga, in 2002 at age 87 in London teaching an Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series Class. Here he helps a student in GarbhaPindasana while counting in Sanskrit…
10) B.K.S. Iyengar 1938 silent newsreel. Here is a young Iyengar doing advanced poses that constitute the advanced A & B ashtanga series. This is well before Iyengar dropped the vinyasa aspect from his practice and rebranded it as “Iyengar Yoga,” putting greater emphasis on alignment.
Movement: A Key to a Healthy, Happy Life: Part 1
October 13, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Movement And Exercise
For the next few weeks I will be writing about the subject of Movement. Movement comes in all shapes and sizes, but the common unifying denominator of it is that it is an essential part of living a healthy, happy and fulfilled life.
It is also an important ingredient for living a Low Density Lifestyle. The inverse of that is that a sedentary life is not conducive to living a Low Density Lifestyle.
We are born to move. Movement is essential to life—it helps get the circulation of blood and energy in your body flowing better.
Nothing in nature stays the same, as change is the only constant of life. And we are in constant motion in the dance of life: the world is a dynamic environment of energy exchanges.
Shiva and Shakti - The Hindu Gods that represent the Dance of Life
Movement of and by itself, no matter what type, by virtue of its ability to get the heart pumping and blood flowing, can help to take lactic acid and other toxins that build up in the muscles, organs and connective tissue and assist the body in metabolizing and excreting them. This can help to dissipate the blockages and densities in the body.
But there is an art to movement. Even though we are always in motion, and always doing things, there is a certain approach to movement that can greatly enhance being in the flow state – which is the state of heightened awareness, a state where the mind is still and you are activating more of your potential.
The type of movement I am talking about can be any type of movement that touches your soul—what your passion is may be different from someone else. But the key is to do something that is aimed at the mind-body unison.
This is the type of movement that touches a dog's soul
What would be best is if the approach focused on a number of things: the body, the mind, the energy system, the breath and stillness.
Granted, there may not be one approach you’re doing that may fit the bill and meet all these needs. But that’s ok. The trend nowadays is cross-training, to do a number of things that touch on each of the key areas that need attention.
The best philosophy in approaching what type of movement to engage in, in order to achieve a better chance of overcoming blockages and density in the body, and allowing you to attain a Low Density Lifestyle, is to practice an approach or approaches that both elongate your muscles and strengthen them. You need both—one creates flexibility and the other strength, and they go hand in hand in helping to create a dynamic flow in the body and mind.
Tai Chi - meditation in motion
There are many approaches that aim for this: from the East we have Tai Chi, Aikido, Kung Fu and other martial arts, along with Yoga; from the West we have Pilates, resistance work using a ball or bands, and strength training.
Then, of course, there are the various sports, which can put you profoundly in the zone when you become deeply immersed in them; and there is also dance, a modality that has its origins in the primal rhythms of the universe.
Some people mistakenly think that living a Low Density Lifestyle means having a body without muscle tone; they picture the image of a blissed-out wandering mendicant who has not a care in the world.
That is because many spiritual traditions caution followers to turn away from the body because they believe it to be a trap set by the ego to hinder transcendence.
But this is far from the truth. Whether you’re seeking spiritual harmony, soulful pleasures, or just want to sweat, training the body is as important as training the mind and spirit—you can’t have one without the other, and they are deeply interconnected.
To be continued tomorrow…
What is Enlightenment?
May 13, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Spirituality
Shinzen Young – What Is Enlightenment? A two-part dharma teaching from Zen teacher Shinzen Young.
Being connected to the spiritual dimension of life is an important part of living a Low Density Lifestyle. And when you start living a life that has a spiritual component to it, you start seeing and understanding that life has a deeper meaning to it.
What ultimately happens when you live a life with a spiritual connection is that you start becoming more enlightened – enlightenment is the ultimate goal of the spiritual seeker, and enlightenment is one of the positive benefits of living a Low Density Lifestyle.
And what is enlightenment? It is a life of wisdom, knowledge, insight and clarity of thought. It is about functioning at peak capability, and of feeling interconnected with all facets of the universe and of understanding on a profound level how the universe operates.
A person who is enlightened is also FREE: they are in the flow, they embody relaxation, calmness and stillness, and they act with effortless effort.
In theories of enlightenment, it is understood that humans go through an evolution of consciousness, and the more enlightened a person becomes in their lifetime, the higher up the evolutionary ladder of consciousness do they go.
According to this, these people are capable of thinking more holistically and truly understanding the integral connection between the world of science and matter and the world of spirit.
In the two-part video, Zen master Shinzen Young explains enlightenment and the steps to attaining it. After watching the two videos, you will feel more enlightened of body, heart and mind.
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The Life of Buddha
May 6, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Mindfulness, Spirituality
I’ve discussed about how connecting to the spiritual dimension is an important aspect of living a Low Density Lifestyle, and also the important of silence in connecting you to that spiritual dimension.
At the core of Eastern thought and philosophy is this understanding – that in silencing the mind, you silence the noise, the static, and the chatter that stops you from touching the spiritual force that is the central pulse of the universe.
Ultimately, according to Eastern philosophy, when you touch that spiritual force, you are cultivating the seeds of becoming enlightened, more self-aware, and more self-realized.
Enlightenment is one of the things that living a Low Density Lifestyle can do for you, because, as I said above, when you quiet the noise, you come into contact with both the universe within your soul and the universe of the cosmos.
Above, is a video that tells the story of Prince Siddhartha, who 500 years before Christ, went on a path of seeking that lead to spiritual transformation that turned him into the Buddha. Born into a life of opulence and great material wealth, he gave it all up to become a seeker – to find the answers to life’s deepest questions.
He founded the world’s first religion, and with it altered the way we all understand the nature and meaning of life.
You don’t have to be a Buddhist to enjoy this beautiful film – you can be Hindu, Jew, Christian, Muslim, Sufi, Sikh or any other religion.
Inherent within the film is a universal message: that spirituality plays a core role in life, and that it can be practiced just through the simple acts of kindness, compassion and love.
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The Nobility of Silence
May 5, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Mindfulness, Spirituality
In yesterday’s article, I told you of the importance of being connected to the spiritual dimension, and how that was an important aspect of living a Low Density Lifestyle.
When we are connected to that spiritual essence, we feel lighter of body, mind and soul, and when you feel lighter, you feel healthier, happier, and more in the flow. In other words, you are living a Low Density Lifestyle.
That spiritual force is something that can only be felt and experienced when we allow ourselves to be quiet and still, which allows us to hear the pulse of the universe.
Today, I would like to share with you words of wisdom from others, people who have touched that sacred aspect of life and have been able to articulate it well.
These words can help you at any time: when you are feeling happy and joyous, or at times when you are caught up in the High Density Lifestyle and need stress relief and a dose of healthy living.
These are words to carry in your heart at all times.
“We need time to dream, time to remember, and time to reach the infinite. Time to be.”
Gladys Taber (1899-1980)
“Listen in deep silence. Be very still and open your mind…. Sink deep in to the peace that waits for you beyond the frantic, riotous thoughts and sights and sounds of this insane world.”
From “A Course in Miracles”
“Let my doing nothing when I have nothing to do, become untroubled in its depth of peace, like the evening in the seashore when the water is silent.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
“The need for temporary solitude is so intense it amounts to an impediment, a malady, chronic and incurable like recurring malaria…. Like a remittent fever it is nothing you can banish. Outwardly we look okay, but inwardly we are desperate; gasping and frantic for something as integral to ourselves as the color of our eyes.”
Mirabel Osler
“When one is a stranger to oneself, then one is estranged from others, too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others…. Only when one is connected to one’s own core, is one connected to others….. And for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be re-found through silence.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001)
“Learn to be quiet enough to hear the sound of the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in others.”
Marian Wright Edelman (1939- )
“We seem so frightened today of being alone that we never let it happen. Even if family, friends, and the movies should fail, there is still the radio or television to fill up the void…. We can do our housework with soap-opera heroes at our side…. Now, instead of planting our solitude with our own dream blossoms, we choke the space with continuous music, chatter, and companionship to which we do not even listen. It is simply there to fill the vacuum. When the noise stops there is no inner music to take its place. We must re-learn to be alone.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001)
“Once, after a particularly claustrophobic, stressful and over-populated time when there hadn’t been air or space to escape to, suddenly, for a few days, I was alone. It was like emigrating to another planet ( in fact I was at home ). Who was this person I was living with, this strange, this reasonable, serene foreigner in the house: a becalmed woman who spent her time inwardly humming?”
Mirabel Osler
“There is pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is a society where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but nature more.”
Lord Byron (1788-1824)
“All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a room alone.”
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
“I am here alone for the first time in weeks, to take up my “real” life again at last. That is what is strange – that friends, even passionate love, are not my real life unless there is time alone in which to explore and discover what is happening or what has happened. Without the interruptions, nourishing and maddening, this life would become arid. Yet I taste it fully only when I am alone….”
May Sarton (1912-1995)
“Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty, unfamiliar and perilous….”
Thomas Mann (1875-1955)
“You do not need to leave your room… Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
Frank Kafka (1883-1924)
“The cure for all the illness of life is stored in the inner depth of life itself, the access to which becomes possible when we are alone. This solitude is a world in itself, full of wonders and resources unthought of. It is absurdly near; yet so unapproachably distant.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
“There is a silence into which the world cannot intrude. There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost.”
From “A Course in Miracles”
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Connecting to the Spiritual Dimension
May 4, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under High Density Lifestyle, Love, Low Density Lifestyle, Spirituality
A Good Day, with Brother David Steindl-Rast: A Lesson in Living a Spiritual Life
In the last article, I told you of the 12 spiritual practices to honor the earth.
Not only do these practices help you feel more connected to the earth, they also will help you feel more connected to the spiritual dimension of life. And being more connected to the spiritual dimension of life is one of the 12 steps to living a Low Density Lifestyle.
How do we define spirituality? You can say that spirituality is the divine force that is the pulse of the universe, and this force is unlimited, infinite, undying and eternal. This divine force goes by many names: Universal Spirit, Universal Mind, Universal Consciousness, God, and the Zero Point Field, to name a few.
This force is both outside and within; it is everywhere and in everything. Everyone is connected to it at all times; the fewer blockages and densities a person has in their body, heart and mind, then the closer is that connection.
Every time a person allows himself or herself to relax, be silent and still, the potential to connect to the pulse of the universe is there.
When someone is living a Low Density Lifestyle it is much easier to feel that connection, because the static does not overcome the silence, whereas when living a High Density Lifestyle a person will have a harder time feeling that connection, because the static and noise are always there.
Mother Theresa said, “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the 
friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.”
Feeling the connection to the spiritual dimension also means holding love in your heart—loving yourself, those close to you, and all the inhabitants of the planet. Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe, and when you feel love in your heart, you create an open energy circuit that connects you to the sacred flow of the universe.
Rumi said, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” The barriers you have built within yourself that stop you from feeling love are the very same densities and blockages that stop you from living a Low Density Lifestyle.
It is so important to surrender and let go of the things that hold you back from feeling love in your heart, because when you do, you can come closer to the Universal Force and be FREE.
There are many ways to feel connected to the spiritual dimension; for some it occurs from attending a church, synagogue, temple or mosque, while for others it is more personal—prayer, meditation, silence, walking in the woods, or some other way.
However you find your method of expression, one thing you need to understand is that spirituality is an everyday affair. You are not just spiritual when you go to church, synagogue, temple or mosque; or when you do the more personal way of expressing your spirituality.
Spirituality, and feeling connected to the spiritual dimension, is something 
that should be realized at all times. For instance, in the Zen tradition, there is no distinction between spiritual and non-spiritual moments. “Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes,” is a Zen saying.
When that understanding is embedded in every cell of your body, your connection to the spiritual dimension becomes second nature, and all your actions will be directed in that way. You are in the flow and every movement you take and every achievement you make is done with effortless effort.
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12 Spiritual Practices to Honor the Earth
May 1, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Environment, Spirituality
To close the series on the environment and living a Low Density Lifestyle, I thought I would offer you these 12 spiritual practices to honor the earth. This article comes from the website Spirituality and Practice.
Ultimately, our connection to the earth should be one that contains reverence and awe for the wonder, sanctity and sacredness of life, and these 12 practices can help you in feeling that connection.
Connecting to the spiritual dimension is also one of the aspects of living a Low Density Lifestyle, so these practices will help you both ways – feel more connected and grounded to the earth, and aid you in living a Low Density Lifestyle.
1. Attention
The great Catholic writer Ernesto Cardenal in Abide in Love observes: “Everything in nature has a trademark, God’s trademark: the stripes on a shell and the stripes on a zebra; the grain of the wood and the veins of the dry leaf; the markings on the dragonfly’s wings and the pattern of stars on a photographic plate; the panther’s coat and the epidermal cells of the lily petal; the structure of atoms and galaxies. All bear God’s fingerprints.” Go for a walk and look for God’s trademarks. Better still, use a camera to document evidence of God’s fingerprints in the nature.
2. Being Present
Annie Dillard has written: ‘My God, what a world. There is no accounting for one second of it.” Get personal with one small piece of the Earth. Sit in the dirt in your backyard. Play in the sand at the beach. Roll in the grass. Stand under a waterfall. Sense the Earth as an animal senses it. Be really present with your planetary host.
3. Connections
Share a story with family or friends, or write in your journal, about a time when you were humbled, soothed, or awed by something in the natural world. How did you feel connected to nature?
4. Devotion
Adopt a tree, a park, a beach, a waterway, or a piece of wild land, and look out for its welfare. Clean up in and around it. Write letters to officials and newspapers on issues that affect it. In its honor, include in your daily prayers petitions to alleviate the sufferings of dying plants and trees, polluted rivers and oceans, and toxic lands.
5. Hospitality
Invite some bugs into your house for an evening. Rent the fascinating and illuminating video Microcosmos directed by French biologists Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou. This documentary presents one day in a French countryside meadow where butterflies, ants, spiders, and many other insects cavort in their small and exquisite worlds.
6. Joy
Listen to Three Dog Night’s classic rock song Three Dog Night: Joy to the World with the lyric “Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea.” Imagine all the other gifts of God in the plant and animal kingdom that give you pleasure and fill your heart with joy.
7. Justice
Hold a Council of All Beings in your school, congregation, or community center. Each participant in the circle speaks for another life-form — an animal, plant, tree, body of water, etc., expressing the being’s concerns. You might talk about threats to the being’s habitat or freedom, the effects of pollution, natural disasters, and wars. After all the beings have spoken, talk as humans about your responsibilities to correct some of the environmental and cultural injustices you have identified.
8. Openness
Embrace your environment. Walk around the perimeter of your home. Explore it as if being there for the first time. What do you see, feel, hear, smell? Continue this process as you move further out into your community. Make a list of things you discover that you have never seen before.
9. Teachers
Find a teacher in nature and let her give you a lesson today. Here’s an example from Natalie Goldberg: “Be tough the way a blade of grass is: rooted, willing to lean, and at peace with what is around it.”
10. Unity
Susan Seddon Boulet’s shamanic paintings feature the intertwined figures of humans and animals. Her art brings us to a fresh appreciation of interspecies unity. Check out the book Susan Seddon Boulet: A Retrospective at your library, or Google “Susan Seddon Boulet Gallery” to find examples of her images online.
11. Wonder
Set up a wonder table in your home or classroom. Make it a place where people can display wonders of the nature world they have found — actual examples or photographs of them.
12. You
Rededicate yourself to the live lightly and respectfully on the planet. Repeat this vow:
We join with the Earth and with each other.
To bring new life to the land
To restore the waters
To refresh the air
We join with the Earth and with each other.
To renew the forests
To care for the plants
To protect the creatures
We join with the Earth and with each other.
To celebrate the seas
To rejoice in the sunlight
To sing the song of the stars
We join with the Earth and with each other.
To recreate the human community
To promote justice and peace
To remember our children
We join with the Earth and with each other.
We join together as many and diverse expressions of one loving mystery: for the healing of the Earth and the renewal of all life.
— U.N. Environmental Sabbath Program
quoted in Prayers for Healing edited by Maggie Oman
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The Coming Paradigm Shift in Health Care – Part 2
March 3, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Health And Wellness
The Paradigm Shift
A paradigm shift in health care is upon us, and it has the potential to bring momentous changes to the health of all. This shift is bringing integrative and holistic approaches to healing into the mainstream of medicine.
This paradigm shift in health care is a great thing, because it will help a lot more people realize the capability of living a Low Density Lifestyle. And it is an amazing thing, because not too long ago, these approaches were scoffed at by the gatekeepers of modern medicine.
In yesterday’s article on the coming paradigm shift in health care, I told you about a recent Senate hearing on Health Care Reform, and that giving testimony were four pioneers in the integrative health field – Drs. Mehmet Oz, Andrew Weil, Dean Ornish and Mark Hyman.
In today’s article I will give you another example of the paradigm shift in health care and our movement towards a Low Density Lifestyle society.
This article is an interview that Dr. Dean Ornish did recently with Dr. Ralph Snyderman. Dr. Snyderman is is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the foremost and prestigious organizations of scientists in the U.S. and world. This group is skeptical of anything that cannot be explained by standard scientific reasoning, and so the fact that Dr. Snyderman is speaking so heretically means that the wheels are turning faster and faster with every bend in the road.
I’ll let the interview speak for itself:
Dean Ornish interviews Dr. Ralph Snyderman of the National Academy of Sciences
Dr. Ralph Snyderman is Chancellor Emeritus of Duke University and chair of the Institute of Medicine’s “Summit on Integrative Medicine” at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. The Summit s a 2-1/2 day historic event in which some of the most thoughtful and important thinkers are coming together to envision a system that can more effectively improve our health and well-being, integrating the best of traditional and non traditional approaches in healing. These approaches may play an important part in President Obama’s health reform legislation.
Dean Ornish, M.D.: This represents a departure for the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences who, in the past, might have been critical of these ideas. What do you think has shifted, and why?
Ralph Snyderman, M.D.: Our current system is in danger of collapse. This is a very critical time for our country to have a meeting with a new administration, a time of hope and expectation of change. The current system is highly flawed on the one hand in terms of what it does do, and on the other hand the things that it does not do–taking into account the needs of the patient when they are facing a severe, life-threatening disease. I give a lot of credit to the current President, Harvey Fineberg, who is committed to science and evidence-based approaches to care but also is open with an appropriate degree of humility that we need to recognize that there may be a lot of approaches which work that we don’t understand.
What is the difference between integrative medicine and complementary or alternative medicine? How would you respond to people like Arnold Relman, the former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, who said, “There’s no such thing as alternative medicine; there’s medicine that works and medicine that doesn’t work.”
Yes, but where I have difficulties in my own mind is the difference between something being scientifically proven and being intuitively obvious. For example, the issue of caring and compassion–does that need to be scientifically proven? When an individual is dealing with a very difficult problem and if we’re thinking about their health approach during that problem–the importance of maintaining will, motivation, empowerment–and the encouragement one could get from support groups or from mindfulness meditation, or from participating in yoga or from receiving acupuncture if the belief is that acupuncture may be helping with the particular problem–is that CAM or is that conventional, or is it common sense? Is it necessary to prove everything if the therapy itself causes no harm but allows the individual to feel empowered and motivated?
Integrative medicine uses the entire armamentarium, both traditional and nontraditional, to give an individual a full array of what they need to maintain and improve their health.
If an individual has a chronic disease such as cancer, integrative medicine may include everything that works and alleviates suffering. It recognizes that in addition to chemotherapy, the tumor is growing within a human being that is facing new fears, anxieties, and complexities in their life. What do they need to do to be able to navigate this very difficult path in which the therapies themselves might be very onerous; how do we enhance the individual’s will to be able to survive a difficult ordeal?
In the same context, many of the well-accepted treatments in conventional medicine are not proven to be safe and effective. For example, randomized trials showed quite clearly that angioplasties and bypass surgery neither prolong life nor prevent heart attacks in most people, yet this hasn’t altered the frequency with which those procedures are performed. Do you think there is a double standard, and if so, why? Do you think this conference may help in that regard?
I think that there is at some times a glaring lack of open-mindedness on the part of individuals that have come up in the same system that I have come up in–the scientific approach to understanding the pathophysiology of disease and the thought that everything that needs to be done or should be done should be scientifically proven. That is almost a religious belief that if we look at what is actually being done, we’re not particularly responding to that belief.
There are certain things that the medical enterprise tends to accept, whereas some people within the system react very negatively to things that are outside of the system. And I do think that on the part of some there is a double standard–that there is an immediate skepticism and rejection of things that would come into the system without it having grown up within the system.
Albert Einstein–no slouch as a scientist–once said: “Not everything that counts can be counted.” In other words, not everything that is meaningful is measurable. A few minutes ago you mentioned empowerment of the patient as something that’s important and yet it would be very hard to do randomized trials evaluating that.
Dr. Ralph Snyderman
Let me give you a personal experience that was eye-opening to me. I was at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston–one of the finest cancer institutes in the world–as a visiting professor. They have an integrative medicine program there in which acupuncture is practiced.
I was making rounds and asked whether I would see a patient with breast cancer who had a recurrence of her disease. Her platelet counts were below the level they felt comfortable with to give her the next round of chemotherapy. I went in to see her and she was in a darkened room in which there was New Age music in the background–very pleasant herbal types of smells–and she was lying with an herbal mask over her eyes. At the foot of her bed was a Chinese physician who was arranging acupuncture needles along her thorax down to her leg. He said he was manipulating her platelet meridians to try to increase her platelet blood cell count. My immediate thought was . . . let me put it politely . . . I don’t particularly believe that acupuncture can work on particular platelet meridians to increase her platelet count.
What were you actually thinking?
“Bulls***!” I asked her, “How do you feel about this?” And she looked at me deeply with a look of concentration and total commitment and said, “I feel empowered.” And the power of that expression and those words almost knocked me over backwards. It had a physical effect on me.
On the one hand, in my own mind–it may have been my left brain saying I have no scientific basis to believe that the positioning of needles is going to function specifically on a platelet meridian. I just have no reason to believe that.
On the other hand, I had this intense belief–maybe the right side of my brain–that this was a good, powerful and important thing. This woman was empowered. This is a good thing. Who are we as the power brokers of the medical profession to deny this degree of empowerment?
So much of what we were trained to do in conventional medical education is to do things to patients–we operate on them; we give them drugs. What I hear you saying is that unwittingly this may rob people of that sense of being in control and empowerment which many studies have shown has therapeutic benefits beyond whatever additional effects the treatment itself may provide.
Absolutely. I think one of the biggest misconceptions that has emerged in our society is the delegation of healthcare responsibility from an individual to the so-called health care system. “I don’t need to worry about this anymore. It’ll be taken care of for me.” That is wrong. There is virtually no condition other than acute, emergency conditions where the individual may or may not play very much of a role–everything else, health promotion, wellness, disease minimization, even treatment of complex diseases requires a tremendous involvement on the part of the individual.
People like yourself have been trailblazers in conducting landmark scientific studies showing the power of integrative medicine which have been necessary to get the attention of medical leaders, that there are strategies that are equal or more effective than many of the dangerous things that we do.
At the same time, there are some alternative medicine practitioners who make unfounded claims that may keep people from getting conventional treatments that may be helpful to them. How do you respond to those critics who are concerned about the Institute of Medicine meeting giving more credibility to people like that?
Well, I am as non-accepting of medical quackery and unscientific approaches as anybody else. I’ve grown up as a card-carrying scientist and I know the power of science to answer questions, and for many questions I don’t know of anything better than scientific approaches to answer them.
What offends me are unscientific claims that would give characteristics to various processes or approaches for which there is not only no rational explanation as far as we know but no evidence that they even work.
I have received communications from individuals worried that the IOM is opening itself up to certifying medical quackery just by using the term integrative medicine. Absolutely not.
Sen. Tom Harkin is one of the speakers. He’s been put in charge by President Obama of those aspects of health reform related to public health, prevention, and wellness, including integrative medicine. How do you see integrative medicine as being an important part of health reform, and what can it contribute?
I think integrative medicine is going to enlighten the discussions of healthcare reform. In my lifetime, I have not ever seen a moment as ripe for productive change as we have right now. With the health care crisis on the one hand and a new administration that has hallmarked itself on meaningful, appropriate change, I think there is an aggregation of more and more people with courage that are willing to say: Yes, we do need fundamental changes in our approach to healthcare.
This will be resisted ferociously by many who will view any kind of change in ways that will try to scare people, but I think for the first time there is such a broad understanding that we need fundamental change. It’s almost as though we’re viewing health care from a telescope looking backwards. The IOM conference is opening the doors, opening the curtains, and saying there are other ways of doing things than the way we’re doing them right now.
I think it would be virtually criminal to load the current system with more and more and more of our precious dollars when it could be done so much better. We are just seeing the beginning of a mass increase in the uninsured and under-insured, and if we needed to provide a lot of resources to help such people I would be totally for it but to provide those valuable resources so inefficiently–ineffectively–I think is criminal. I think it is our responsibility to do everything we can to do it better. We’re so capable of doing it.