Your Power Element is Earth

Your power color: yellow Your energy: balancing Your season: changing of seasons Dedicated and responsible, you are a rock to your friends. You are skilled at working out even the most difficult problems. Low key and calm, you are happiest when you are around loved ones. Ambitious and goal oriented, you have long term plans to be successful.

Got that one right.

Quote of the day:

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
~ Mark Twain


Image of the day:


BODY
~ Muscle Soreness is Necessary for Improvement -- "If you go out and jog the same two miles at the same pace, day after day, you will never become faster, stronger or have greater endurance. If you stop lifting weights when your muscles start to burn, you won't feel sore on the next day and you will not become stronger. All improvement in any muscle function comes from stressing and recovering."
~ Change you life with a bunch of little questions -- "The next process is 100 questions or so that you need to ask yourself in a deliberate manner from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to sleep at night. Some of these questions you ask too often and some of these questions you never ask yourself. This is the stuff of your life and once you question it you can make 100 little changes and your life will never be the same."
~ Nutrition Tip: Go Bananas! -- "If you need to recharge your batteries before your evening workout, then the fruit in the yellow jacket is perfect for you." Unless you are trying to lose fat.
~ Jet Lag Is All About Chemical Reactions In Cells -- "Circadian clocks regulate the timing of biological functions in almost all higher organisms. Anyone who has flown through several time zones knows the jet lag that can result when this timing is disrupted."
~ Spider venom may yield virility -- "Scientists have discovered a potentially marketable contraceptive in the venom of Chile’s black widow spider, whose bite is fatal to many but can also cause prolonged, painful and involuntary erections in men."
~ New diet shrinks calories, carbon footprint (AFP) -- "A soon-to-be-published weight-loss book helps dieters reduce not just their intake of calories, but the negative impact of their food consumption choices on the environment."
~ Nifty Flash Reflexology Map -- "Most Flash sites make me cringe. This one, however, is lacking the semi-standard lame techno track & glacial load time. It’s a handy map of your foot with reflexology areas all laid out for you to poke and prod."


PSYCHE
~ Brain Electrodes Zap Depression -- "Deep brain stimulation may offer help for severely depressed patients."
~ Smoking may increase risk of depression -- "Persistent smokers appear to be at increased risk for becoming depressed compared to never smokers, results of a long-term study of Finnish twins suggest. On the other hand, this association was not seen in individuals who stopped smoking many years ago."
~ Diners Spend More In Lavender-Scented Restaurant -- "The effects of smell are rarely researched in psychological studies. That's why it's great to come across this study by Gueguen and Petr (2006) on the effect of different smells on how much time and money people spend in a restaurant. But not, as you might imagine, the smell of the food, but the smell of lavender."
~ How employers can help boost the happiness of their employees (and how you can boost your own happiness) -- "Yesterday I made the case that employers should care whether their employees are happy: happier people outscore their less-happy peers on performance and productivity. So how can employers help make their employees happier?"
~ Freud, neurobiology and psychotherapy -- "American TV discussion host Charlie Rose has a series of programmes available online where some of the world's leading researchers discuss Freud, neurobiology and the latest in psychological treatments for mental illness." I saw the first one of these and it was awesome.
~ The A.P.E. Method to Get Out of a Bad Mood -- "You may be wondering, should I get out of a bad mood? Suppose that our answer is already, YES. Now, what do we do? Karen Reivich, co-author with Andrew Shatte of The Resilience Factor, suggests some concrete steps."
~ My Turn: The Real Burden of Eating Disorders -- "At a clinic for anorexia sufferers, I found real girls behind the sensationalized images of this tragic disorder."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ William Meredith: 1919-2007 -- "According to the poet Edward Hirsch, Meredith "has looked generously and hard at our common human world...his work reverberates with old-fashioned terms such as fairness, morale, cheerfulness, joy and happiness." Meredith passed away on May 30, 2007, at the age of 88."
~ Public Gives Clinton, Giuliani Best Odds of Winning Nominations -- "According to a recent Gallup Panel survey, the public thinks Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani have the best chances of winning their party's 2008 presidential nominations. Clinton is given slightly better odds than Barack Obama among the Democratic field of candidates."
~ Fired McCain Campaign Aides Sound Off -- "Two former aides hired to spearhead religious outreach for presidential candidate John McCain say that they were virtually ignored by the campaign and that McCain's top campaign strategists are intent on winning votes of religious voters without having to develop serious ties to faith communities." McCain's hypocrisy in action.
~ Clift: How Osama bin Laden Haunts Bush -- "Al Qaeda had a plan—and it is working. Osama bin Laden’s survival may be the Bush administration’s biggest political failing."
~ With an Empire to Build, Who Needs an Iraqi Parliament? -- "Away from the media's gaze toward partisan politics, however, a much more significant story was developing in Baghdad that essentially went unreported. On May 8, a majority of Iraq's parliament signed a petition demanding a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops. But the United States isn't listening to that message, much less heeding it."
~ 'Sgt. Pepper' at 40 -- "There's a lot of irony to the celebrations today of the 40th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beatles' landmark record could have been the beginning of something grand, an era in which ears, minds, and imaginations opened and grew wide with possibility; in hindsight, however, it seems more like the last gasp of a vibe that, even as early as 1967's "Summer of Love," was already giving way to a sensibility more hollow-eyed, desperate, and mercenary."
~ Bush's Climate-Change Feint -- "The White House yesterday showed that it still knows how to play the American press like a harp."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Google Super-Brain to Harvest Human Behavior -- "Google is planning to build a powerful “human database” computer, and has full backing from the U.S. government to do so. What is the database going to do? Provide a “general life assistant” that will be able to predict what you might need before you even realize it."
~ iPhone's Secret Ingredient: Google -- "When it comes to Apple's widely anticipated new gadget, both companies are starting to see the benefits of friendship."
~ iTunes new audio format -- "This week, Apple's iTunes Music Store began selling some songs in a new audio format that the company says has two advantages over its previous offerings: The tracks are free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, meaning you can play them on devices other than an iPod, and they have higher audio quality. The new iTunes Plus tracks also come at a premium: $1.29 compared with $0.99 for the old format."
~ Google Buys Feed Distributor FeedBurner -- "Online search leader Google Inc. said Friday it purchased FeedBurner, which helps bloggers and podcasters syndicate and make money from their online content, for an undisclosed sum."
~ Astronomers Find Their Third Planet With Novel Telescope Network -- "Astronomers using the Trans-atlantic Exoplanet Survey (TrES) network of small telescopes are announcing today their discovery of a planet twice the mass of Jupiter that passes in front of its star every 31 hours. The planet is in the constellation Hercules and has been named TrES-3 as the third planet found with the TrES network."
~ Recycled garden compost reduces phosphorus in soils -- "Broccoli, eggplant, cabbage and capsicum grown with compost made from recycled garden offcuts have produced equivalent yields to those cultivated by conventional farm practice, but without the subsequent build up of phosphorus."
~ Japan warned over whaling plans, threatens to quit IWC -- "Japan was warned Friday it risks international anger if it includes endangered humpbacks in its annual whale cull, after threatening to pull out of the 75-nation International Whaling Commission."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Big Mind. Buddha Mind. One Mind -- "Since me and you really are interdependent, dependently arising and empty of inherently existing essence, there really is no me and there really is no you. So, how about that parking space, can I have it?"
~ How about a nice game of 3-D chess? -- "This week on Integral Spiritual Center...."
~ Conversations: The Buddhist Blogs -- "Here are some excellent recent posts from the Buddhist blogs. Enjoy!"
~ Belly center neutrality -- "Each center has it’s own form of “one taste”, and each one can appear in different ways."

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Today marks one month that I have been living in an in-between place. But rather than just being present to the discomfort inherent in this state, I have been clinging to the past and/or looking to the future for relief. Both of these things just cause more pain.

There is no value in looking backward and longing for what I once had. The past is gone -- inaccessible. It's fine to cherish the memories, but clinging to what was in the hope that it will somehow return is pointless. It will never happen.

Likewise, looking to a future that can, by definition, never arrive is also a waste of time. The future is always right around the corner, and it can only be that. To have hope is to live in the future rather than being present to the in-between place I am in.

Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It's the kind of place we usually want to avoid. The challenge is to stay in the middle rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid. Becoming intimate with the queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere only makes our hearts more tender. When we are brave enough to stay in the middle, compassion arises spontaneously. By not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like we know what's happening, we begin to access in our inner strength.

~ Pema Chodron, The Places That Scare You

In reality, there is always only this precious present moment. If I am not living in the present moment (and I'm usually not), I am dwelling in the past or in the future -- both of which are illusory.

It is only in the stillness and simplicity of presence — when we are aware of what we are experiencing, when we are here with it as it unfolds — that we can really appreciate our life and reconnect with the ordinary magic of being alive on this earth.

~ John Welwood, Ordinary Magic: Everyday Life as Spiritual Path

Maybe she will come back to me, maybe she won't.

I can live my life longing for the past we shared that seemed so promising and filled with love. But the past is just that, the past. Anything that happens between us from now on -- good or bad -- will be different than what we had before.

Change is the only constant.

I can also live my life hoping that she will return to me and that we will have a life together. But I have no control over that. It's simply a distraction that removes me from the present moment.

Or I can live in this painful present moment, embrace the uncertainly, and let it soften my heart. This is the hardest choice to make. No one wants to feel anxiety and pain.

Staying with volatile energy gradually becomes more comfortable than acting it out or repressing it. This open-ended tender place is called bodhicitta. Staying with it is what heals. It allows us to let go of self-importance. It's how the warrior learns to love.

~ Pema Chodron, The Places That Scare You

I love her deeply, but I have to accept the life I have now, without her. I have no control over whether or not that will change. So all I can do is be present to this anxiety and volatility and hope that it can soften my heart, make me more open, and allow me to grow as a person.
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From The World as I See It, by Albert Einstein:

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.

This is today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

Letting Go of Holding On

Renunciation does not have to be regarded as negative. I was taught that it has to do with letting go of holding back. What one is renouncing is closing down and shutting off from life. You could say that renunciation is the same thing as opening to the teachings of the present moment.... Renunciation is realizing that our nostalgia for wanting to stay in a protected, limited, petty world is insane. Once you begin to get the feeling of how big the world is and how vast our potential for experiencing life is, then you really begin to understand renunciation. When we sit in meditation, we feel our breath as it goes out, and we have some sense of willingness just to be open to the present moment. Then our minds wander off into all kinds of stories and fabrications and manufactured realities, and we say to ourselves, "It's thinking." We say that with a lot of gentleness and a lot of precision. Every time we are willing to let the story line go, and every time we are willing to let go at the end of the outbreath, that’s fundamental renunciation: learning how to let go of holding on and holding back.

~ Pema Chondron, Tricycle, The Buddhist Review, Vol. I, #1

 

Quote of the day:

"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it."
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Image of the day:


BODY
~ The 30 Day Mass Plan -- "Got 30 days before your summer job at Pizza Hut starts? That's just enough time to complete this program and add some spicy meat to that mozzarella body of yours."
~ How Fat Tissue Works -- "Jaswinder K. Sethi and Antonio J. Vidal-Puig review current knowledge on how fat tissue works in our bodies. They describe the biochemicals released by fat tissue and how they help keep the internal environment of the body stable by either storing fat or burning it to produce energy."
~ Flaxseed Halts Prostate Cancer Growth New Study Shows -- "A new US study suggests that flaxseed, which is rich in omega 3 fatty acids and lignans, can stop prostate cancer tumours from growing."
~ Oatmeal: A Healthy Belly Fat Burning Food -- "Oatmeal is among the best when it comes to healthy carbohydrates and "quality" calories. Due to it's high fiber content and high levels of certain fat-burning antioxidants it can also be considered a "fat burning" food." Some recipes.
~ 'Good' Cholesterol Levels may be Slightly Boosted by Exercise -- "Regular exercise appears to modestly increase levels of high-density lipoprotein, or "good," cholesterol, according to a meta-analysis study in Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals."
~ Omega-3 fatty acids reduce blood pressure: study -- "A diet with liberal servings of fish, nuts and seeds rich in nutrients called omega-3 fatty acids can help lower a person's blood pressure, according to a study released on Monday."
~ Natural Compound And Exercise Boost Memory In Mice -- "A natural compound found in blueberries, tea, grapes, and cocoa enhances memory in mice, according to newly published research. This effect increased further when mice also exercised regularly."


PSYCHE
~ New treatment for depression — marriage -- "People who are looking to ease depression may have a new treatment option — marriage." Unless, of course, you marry the wrong person.
~ Breaking Down the Brain: Problems with the Logic of Double Dissociations [Developing Intelligence] -- "If one type of damage leads to difficulty on task A, but not task B, and a different type of damage leads to the opposite pattern of performance, then tasks A and B must rely on distinct neural mechanisms ... Right? Given what everyone knows about computers, you might think this inference is perfectly valid... The brain is a computing machine of some sort. Yet some debate has recently emerged about the logic of such double dissociations in cognitive science."
~ To Understand How Brain Learns To Move Our Muscles, Math That Powers Spam Filters Used -- "A team of biomedical engineers has developed a computer model that makes use of more or less predictable "guesstimates" of human muscle movements to explain how the brain draws on both what it recently learned and what it's known for some time to anticipate what it needs to develop new motor skills."
~ A Guide to Cultivating Compassion in Your Life, With 7 Practices -- "I believe compassion to be one of the few things we can practice that will bring immediate and long-term happiness to our lives. I’m not talking about the short-term gratification of pleasures like sex, drugs or gambling (though I’m not knocking them), but something that will bring true and lasting happiness. The kind that sticks."
~ Study Finds Possible Depression Predictor in Poor Sibling Relationships -- "Small spats among brothers and sisters have been around as long as there have been brothers and sisters, but new research now suggests that more serious childhood sibling strife could be directly linked to depression in adults."
~ Brain Activity Reflects Differences In Types Of Anxiety -- "All anxiety is not created equal, and a research team at the University of Illinois now has the data to prove it. The team has found compelling evidence that differing patterns of brain activity are associated with each of two types of anxiety: anxious apprehension (verbal rumination, worry) and anxious arousal (intense fear, panic, or both).Their work appears this month online in Psychophysiology."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Democratic Debate Report Card -- "As Mark Halperin scored it from New Hampshire, Hillary won the bout, while Edwards and Biden landed jabs."
~ Parsing Last Night's Democratic Debate -- "Three points about last night's Democratic debate in Manchester, N.H."
~ Immoral and Tortured Legal Justifications to Legally Justify the Immorality of Torture -- "Stuart Taylor for The National Journal discusses how the Bush administration disregarded any considerations of elemental morality or lessons of history in choosing to use torture, but instead sought ways to pervert legal meaning to justify the decision."
~ Capital Sources: The Art of Interrogation -- "Coercion doesn’t work. Empathy is a more powerful tool than you might think. A veteran Air Force interrogator who grilled prisoners in Iraq talks about how to gather information during wartime."
~ Judge Dismisses Charges Against Teen Gitmo Detainee -- "A military judge on Monday dismissed terrorism-related charges against a prisoner charged with killing an American soldier in Afghanistan, in a stunning reversal for the Bush administration's attempts to try Guantanamo detainees in military court."
~ In Hollywood, Creative Women Are Still at the Back of the Bus; Way Back -- "Less than a fifth of Hollywood's screenwriters are women, and the reasons behind this disparity are less than encouraging."
~ Will Electronic Voting Reform Create New Ways to Steal Elections? -- "Elections have been stolen in America since the 18th Century -- and top elections experts are warning that Congress's latest attempt at regulating voting machines won't change a thing."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Is Microsoft's Surface computer the next big thing? -- "When I first saw Microsoft's new, top-secret project, it was shrouded under a black cloth. Execs from Redmond told us that this mystery product would change computing forever. Then they whisked away the drapery with a meaningful flourish to reveal ... a freakin' table?"
~ Why the rumored discovery of the Higgs boson is bad news for particle physics -- "Some call the Higgs boson the Holy Grail of particle physics. As the only undetected element of the field's theoretical masterpiece—the "standard model"—the Higgs guarantees a Nobel Prize for the experimenters who find it first. Now the European Union has spent an estimated $8 billion to build the world's largest particle accelerator, the large hadron collider, to finally track it down."
~ Study: Chickens Beat Columbus to America -- "Why did the chicken cross the ocean? To get to America before Columbus - and from the other direction - according to a new report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
~ Ancient Frogs Rafted to the Caribbean -- "South American frogs used rafts to colonize Central America and the Caribbean."
~ For spider-strength silk go back to basics -- "If you want to spin silk like a spider then you need to rethink your starting material, Oxford University scientists have discovered."
~ Duetting birds with rhythm present a greater threat -- "Birds that sing duets with incredible rhythmic precision present a greater threat to other members of their species than those that whistle a sloppier tune, according to a study of Australian magpie-larks reported in the June 5th issue of Current Biology."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ The Mind Outside The Brain (Part 1) and The Mind Outside the Brain (Part 2) -- Deepak Chopra looks at "mind fields."
~ Holotropic Breathwork -- "On Saturday I participated in a "No Frills Breathwork" workshop, and it was a fascinating experience. The technique is based on the work of Stanislov Grof and his Holotropic Breathwork. Having seen the awesome potential of altered states of consciousness entered in a variety of ways, both incorporating the use of mind altering substances and not, I am especially drawn to this potentially powerful tool."
~ Rationality and Spirituality -- "Highly recommended piece . How many people do you know who are pre-rational? Maybe the better question is Do you know any that are rational?"
~ BLOG: Guest Blog: The Last Word (Timothy Melody) -- Another quest post on KW's blog.
~ Buddhist Geeks 22: The Dualistic Conundrum - Insight Meditation and Primordial Awareness -- "In the next episode with Insight Meditation teacher John Travis, he discusses how both the gradual and sudden schools of enlightenment fit in with the practice of vipassana meditation."
~ Process and Difference: Between Cosmological and Poststructuralist Postmodernisms -- "The above is the title of the book published in 2002 by the State University of New York Press, edited by Catherine Keller and Anne Daniell. It is one of the contributions in the Suny Series in Constructive Postmodern Thought. The purpose of this book is to explore the interstices between the two brands of postmodernism in the title, generally represented by Whitehead and Derrida."
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Quote of the day:

"People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest."
~ Hermann Hesse

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Growth Hormone Does Not Improve Sports Performance Or Increase Muscle -- "New research on the effects and the detection of growth hormone doping at the Garvan Institute in Sydney takes the international sporting community one step closer to stamping out drug cheats. Lead investigator and endocrinologist Professor Ken Ho said: We were surprised to find that human growth hormone has no effect on muscle mass or sports performance." That's what they said about steroids for the first thirty years, too. Morons.
~ 6 New Exercises For New Muscle! -- "More exercises from Christian that you probably never tried before. Each is terrifically effective and each is guaranteed to make your fellow gym rats assume you're some sort of mad scientist slash exercise physiologist."
~ Master Athletes Age Better than Non-Exercisers -- "Master athletes are older men and women who compete in sports at a very high level, no matter how old they are. They are healthier than age-matched people in virtually every category that has been measured. Of course they are more fit, as measured by their maximal ability to take in and use oxygen. They have lower cholesterols, comparable to those of people in their twenties."
~ Studies Dispel Myth Of Cancer-causing Red Meat -- "Recent studies published in the journal Cancer Science have disproved the common myth that consumption of red meat increases colorectal cancer risk. Published by the world's largest society publisher Wiley-Blackwell, the study also found that consumption of fish and fish products was similarly inversely related to the risk." Yeehaw!
~ Study reveals bias by pharma firms in trials -- "Clinical trials comparing cholesterol- lowering drugs are far more likely to yield results favoring the one whose maker paid for the research, scientists say in another study that shows bias in company-backed efforts."
~ Coffee associated with lower liver cancer risk -- "Drinking coffee appears to lower the risk of developing liver cancer, according to findings published in the medical journal Gastroenterology."
~ Older men may not live as long if they have low testosterone -- "Low levels of testosterone may increase the long-term risk of death in men over 50 years old, according to researchers with the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine." Some of us have been arguing this point for years.


PSYCHE
~ Evolution Of Animal Personalities -- "Animals differ strikingly in character and temperament. Yet only recently has it become evident that personalities are a widespread phenomenon in the animal kingdom. Animals as diverse as spiders, mice and squids appear to have personalities. Personality differences have been described in more than 60 species, including primates, rodents, birds, fish, insects and mollusks."
~ Brooding weighs on mind and body -- "New studies suggest that those who ruminate a lot may have higher blood pressure and heart rates, less effective immune systems, surges of stress hormones that strain the heart, more depression and perhaps even shorter life spans." Ah, welcome to my world.
~ The Positive Psychology of Shopping -- "In fact, it has been so long since I have been in a mall that I wonder how they stay in business. I am not alone in wondering this. As a result, the competition for consumer spending—and marketing to consumer emotions—are increasingly critical to retail success. This past weekend, a crashed computer sent me out to America’s largest electronics retailer, Best Buy. Armed with the sales circular and a budget, I walked into a store where previously I have had frustrating experiences that have sent me off to competitors. But this time was different."
~ Innate kindness and the moral brain -- "The Washington Post published an interesting article last week on research suggesting that human traits like generosity and altruism may be innate."
~ Neuroscience and education -- "This week’s Economist has a short article about how neuroscience could be applied to education: Researchers hope that a better understanding of the way the brain works will improve education for all children, not only those with educational problems. But it will be some time before this grand vision becomes reality...."
~ Managing Emotions in the Workplace -- "How does the attitude of one employee affect those of others? "We engage in emotional contagion," says Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor who studies the influence of emotions on the workplace."
~ Why Susan Blackmore Has Given Up -- "Susan Blackmore, skeptical scientist, drug legalization advocate, former true believer in (and serious researcher of) psychic phenomena, and avid Zen practitioner explains why she has concluded all that psychic stuff is pure bunk."
~ Scientists study background brain activity -- "A U.S.-led team of neuroscientists has determined the 98 percent of brain activity considered background noise is, in fact, important."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ LeBron James is just like Michael Jordan, on and off the court -- "Let us be quite clear. The Cleveland Cavaliers are the only team worth cheering in this year's NBA Finals. As admirable as Tim Duncan is, I have no desire to spend the entire offseason listening to how he and the Spurs—and the sainted Gregg Popovich—do things The Right Way, and how they are such good examples to The Children, especially after the way they thugged it up against the Phoenix Suns."
~ Why Libby's Sentence Was So Tough -- "The ex-White House aide, now facing 30 months in prison, was a victim of the quirks of federal sentencing guidelines."
~ Campaign Matters: GOP Should Debate Bush's Incompetence -- "Gingrich says his party has to confront the reality of the president's failure. The candidates should begin the process tonight."
~ Can McDonald's Alter the Dictionary? -- "The burger giant declares war on the definition of 'McJob' as low-paid, dead-end employment. Its first target: the OED."
~ Oprah picks latest book, gives rare interview with McCarthy -- "Nothing is predictable about Oprah Winfrey's book picks except for their sales."
~ Fahrenheit 451 misinterpreted, says author -- "Ray Bradbury declined to accept his Pulitzer in person because he wouldn’t have the chance to explain that Fahrenheit 451 is not about censorship but the ill effects of TV."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Geoengineering: a quick fix with big risks -- "Radical steps to engineer Earth`s climate by blocking sunlight could drastically cool the planet, but could just as easily worsen the situation if these projects fail or are suddenly halted, according to a new computer modeling study." See also: If Cutting Carbon Isn't Enough, Can Climate Intervention Turn Down the Heat? -- "Geoengineering could help stave off global warming, but it could also create some big problems." var bool_dhtmlPOPup = true; //restarting dhtml popup exclusively. /*var mathRandom = Math.random(); if( mathRandom < .5 ) { var bool_dhtmlPOPup = true; } else { var bool_dhtmlPOPup = false; } */ ~ Noise Pollution: The Next Frontier -- "It turns out that fossil fuel is interfering even more actively with our happiness than Bill McKibben wrote in a recent issue of Mother Jones. The daily noise created by fossil-fueled machines—traffic, and my two pet peeves, leaf blowers and jet skis—are making humans cranky and chronically stressed out. A growing body of studies has shown that noise—even noise we think we are "used to"—triggers the body's fight-or-flight instinct, depressing the immune system and taxing the heart." I HATE leaf blowers, especially right outside my door, at 7 am on a Saturday morning.
~ Melting Glaciers Flowing Faster -- "As glaciers melt, they pick up speed and add to sea level rise, research finds."
~ Economic impact of hunger affects all Americans -- "While thirty-five million Americans feel the physical effects of hunger each day, every household and individual in our nation feels the economic effects. So finds a new study released today by the Sodexho Foundation and researchers affiliated with Harvard University School of Public Health, Brandeis University and Loyola University."
~ China's unveils new climate change plan -- "On the heels of Bush's bluster of the week, China today released its first comprehensive plan for climate change. But as the NY Times reports, it too isn't much to sing about."
~ Tree Planting, Worm Farming on World Environment Day -- "Australian protesters held a "picnic rally" against the logging of native forests while hundreds of Indian policemen swapped guns for spades to plant trees on Tuesday to highlight World Environment Day."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Sesshin and ordination: the aftermath -- "I received Jukai (called, rather grandly, 'Bodhisattva Ordination' in these circles) from Taiun Jean-Pierre Faure who led it. Jean-Pierre was a student of Deshimaru and is head of Kanshoji and ex-head of la Gendronierre Temple, he has also received transmission from the Soto sect in Japan so you might say he has a good pedigree. He gave a number of very interesting taisho's on Dogen and teachings from his own heart. So I am now 'Shonin', meaning 'True human being', just like the famous Shinran Shonin and Nichiren Shonin. That's something to live up to."
~ Eros or Oops? -- "Isn't the proposition of a Kosmic force which magically accomplishes everthything that asks for explanation, as much, if not more, a philosophy of Oops? Of not asking and investigating further? I believe the answer to this question determines one's outlook on life."
~ Finding dharma in the 'me' era -- "The meaning of self is on the table at Chuang Yen Monastery - in particular, what Buddhism teaches about letting go of the self - when a quirky question comes up in class: Could the Buddha make it in America today?"
~ 4 Stages of Competence -- ebuddha links to a good article -- "Related to Integral Practice, in the evaluation approach to various skillsets, in various dimensions of life."
~ Life: Depression, Meditation, Wilderness -- "The fact is that the world shapes our brain and our brain shapes our mind and moods. There is no detached Cartesian 'cogito' from which we look out upon the world. We are our activity; we are the world around us, from the computer in front of us to the birds in the trees - all of these 'things' become mental as they are shaped by our brain, and they in turn shape the way the brain will enact the next moment of our reality."
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You have to check this out -- click and drag the mouse up and down to zoom in or zoom out.

This was Monday's Daily Om, and a good piece of advice. Too bad so many of us are too wounded to have this kind of pure experience of love -- but it IS something we can work toward.

The Real Thing
Love Should Feel Good

Often in our lives, we fall prey to the idea of a thing rather than actually experiencing the thing itself. We see this at play in our love lives and in the love lives of our friends, our family, and even fictional characters. The conceptualizing, depiction, and pursuit of true love are multimillion-dollar industries in the modern world. However, very little of what is offered actually leads us to an authentic experience of love. Moreover, as we grasp for what we think we want and fail to find it, we may suffer and bring suffering to others. When this is the case, when we suffer more than we feel healed, we can be fairly certain that what we have found is not love but something else.

When we feel anxious, excited, nervous, and thrilled, we are probably experiencing romance, not love. Romance can be a lot of fun as long as we do not try to make too much of it. If we try to make more of it than it is, the romance then becomes painful. Romance may lead to love, but it may also fade without blossoming into anything more than a flirtation. If we cling to it and try to make it more, we might find ourselves pining for a fantasy, or worse, stuck in a relationship that was never meant to last.

Real love is identifiable by the way it makes us feel. Love should feel good. There is a peaceful quality to an authentic experience of love that penetrates to our core, touching a part of ourselves that has always been there. True love activates this inner being, filling us with warmth and light. An authentic experience of love does not ask us to look a certain way, drive a certain car, or have a certain job. It takes us as we are, no changes required. When people truly love us, their love for us awakens our love for ourselves. They remind us that what we seek outside of ourselves is a mirror image of the lover within. In this way, true love never makes us feel needy or lacking or anxious. Instead, true love empowers us with its implicit message that we are, always have been, and always will be, made of love.

Quote of the day:

"When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about."
~ Albert Einstein

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Progress Toward A Healthier Form Of Starch For Processed Foods -- "Scientists in Indiana are reporting progress toward development of low glycemic and slowly digestible starch, a form of starch that would be less apt to cause the spike in blood sugar - and perhaps sharp hunger pangs - that many individuals experience after eating bread, baked goods, and other high-carbohydrate foods."
~ Pilot Ginseng Study Shows Reduction In Cancer-Related Fatigue -- "North Central Cancer Treatment Group (http://ncctg/) (NCCTG) researchers, based at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., have generated preliminary data suggesting that a form of American ginseng provides greater improvements in fatigue and vitality in patients who receive the highest doses tested, compared to lower doses or no treatment."
~ Turbulence and the time machine -- "I recently sat down with the founder of Turbulence Training Craig Ballantyne and grilled him... Turbulence Training is a very time efficient, short workout program that builds muscle and burns fat without you having to spend hours in the gym. But how would Craig design a "last minute" fat loss program -- when we really do have no time ......"
~ Get Flat Abs Fast -- "Flatten your abs just in time for bikini season."
~ Avoiding Overuse Injuries And Burnout: Taking A Break Is A Winning Move For Young Athletes -- "Too much of a good thing can be harmful, especially when it comes to children playing sports. As more children and adolescents participate in organized and recreational sports, pediatricians are seeing an increasing number of children and adolescents with overuse injuries caused by too much training and not enough rest." This goes for adults too.
~ Low Testosterone Could Kill You -- "Low Levels of Male Hormone May be More Dangerous Than Previously Thought."
~ Anti-Inflammatory Effects Of Adiponectin In The Circulation -- "Adiponectin is a protein hormone excreted into the bloodstream by fatty tissue and it plays a role in the suppression of inflammation-associated metabolic disorders that may result in type 2 diabetes, obesity, and atherosclerosis. In the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Rosario Scalia and colleagues from Thomas Jefferson University studied the vascular protective actions of adiponectin in mice."


PSYCHE
~ Study Shows That Being Judgmental May Increase Risk of Anxiety -- "A recent study performed by researchers at the University of Vermont’s Department of Psychology explored possible links between anxiety and mindfulness skills."
~ Good news you may want to forget -- "It will come as a relief to many that forgetfulness is a tool the brain employs to avoid overloading with repetitive information."
~ Get Ahead of Summer Stress -- "To help prevent those small stressors from becoming big problems, Professor of Integrative Medicine at Portland State University and single mother of three, Claire Michaels Wheeler, M.D., Ph.D has authored a book called, 10 Simple Solutions to Stress."
~ Motivated Cognition in Relationships, or How Motivated Cognition Can Save Your Marriage [Mixing Memory] -- "In what ways is motivated reasoning used in relationships? I'm glad you asked. Let's start with attributions. Fincham and Bradbury⁴ conducted a 12-month study involving 130 couples in which the effects of different types of attributions on marital satisfaction were measured. They found that when participants attributed positive behaviors by their partners to situational factors, and negative behaviors to the partners themselves (as opposed to situational factors), their relationship satisfaction was significantly lower, 12 months later, than for participants who attributed positive behaviors to their partners, and negative behaviors to the situation."
~ Happy or Just Not Depressed? -- "How to survey your mood."
~ The Paradise Paradox -- "Happiness really does start inside."
~ Is feeling better as easy as ABC? -- "Below is an outline of the ABCDE method for disputing your thoughts. The idea is that your thoughts can generate your feelings. So, if you take active control of your thoughts, you are in turn taking active control of your emotions (Reivich & Shatte, 2003)."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ A Blog Is a Little First Amendment Machine -- "With blogging, an awkward term, we designate a fairly beautiful thing: the extension to many more people of a free press franchise and the right to publish your thoughts to the world."
~ Genes for Language -- "You would think that language as a general phenomena in the human species is genetically prescribed, but the peculiarities of individual languages -- such as whether a people uses a particular phoneme or not -- is the result of historical or geographical factors."
~ Can the religious left sway the '08 race? -- "Democratic presidential candidates are speaking openly about faith, competing for 'values voters.'"
~ What you missed while watching "Deal or No Deal" -- "Salon watches the third GOP debate so you don't have to: God frowns on Giuliani, Romney does weird math on Iraq, Thompson proposes a Bush morality tour, and more." See also: Republican Debate Report Card.
~ Newspaper War? Burkle vs. Murdoch -- "Ron Burkle is dipping into a possible challenge to Rupert Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones. It's not the first time the two titans have met."
~ The end of Bush's kangaroo courts? -- "The dismissal of two cases in Guantánamo Bay dealt a rightful blow to the administration's quasi-justice system for alleged terrorists."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Best Places to Get Free Books - The Ultimate Guide -- "When we were reviewing 10 of the best online resources for free books, we had a LOT of readers chime in with their own favorites as well. Thank you for all your helpful contributions!"
~ The Universe, Expanding Beyond All Understanding -- "Our successors, whoever and wherever they are, may have no way of finding out about the Big Bang and the expanding universe, according to one of the more depressing scientific papers I have ever read."
~ Study: Hurricane Surge 'Normal' -- "Global warming may not be to blame for the recent surge in hurricane activity."
~ 3 Teams Report Stem Cell Progress -- "In a leap forward for stem cell research, three independent teams of scientists reported Wednesday that they have produced the equivalent of embryonic stem cells in mice without the controversial destruction of embryos."
~ A miniature robot for keyhole neurosurgery -- "Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a miniature image-guided robot for use during keyhole neurosurgery. The MiniAture Robot for Surgical Applications (MARS) was designed and developed by Leo Joskowicz and his colleagues at the Hebrew University’s Computer Aided Surgery and Medical Image Processing Laboratory."
~ Cold Case Closed: 'Iceman' Mummy Bled to Death -- "Mummy scientists have determined the cause of death of the 'Iceman.'"
~ Nanomedicine opens the way for nerve cell regeneration -- "The ability to regenerate nerve cells in the body could reduce the effects of trauma and disease in a dramatic way. In two presentations at the NSTI Nanotech 2007 Conference, researchers describe the use of nanotechnology to enhance the regeneration of nerve cells."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ The magic of void -- "When there is an identification with content of awareness, with stories and their objects such as this human self, then void is not something that looks particular attractive. I am something, and object in the world, and void means an absence of that. It means death."
~ Karma and infinite causes -- "Karma, as anything else, can be filtered through a sense of a separate self, or an absence of identification with stories, and so also a separate self."
~ All in Your Head -- "Ross Laird, “interdisciplinary scholar and creative artist,” shared his notes from a recent presentation he gave to a panel at the conference of The Writers’ Union of Canada. With the panel being titled All in Your Head, he spun an eloquent and passionate call for artists to focus on psychological development, awareness and our Source that can be found whispering our original name in everything we somehow forget is our Self."
~ Buddhism: From Depression to Happiness -- "A local order member from Friends of the Western Buddhist Order often teaches a class here called, "Moving from dukkha to shraddha" (or from suffering to confidence). I haven't taken the class, but I know it highlights a pivotal point in the Buddhist path; a revolution of sorts from aimless pathlessness to spiritual progress."
~ My Q & A with Ken Wilber -- Part 2 -- "In January I participated in a conference call with Ken Wilber on Integral Spiritual Center, in particular the chapter on the shadow. The second part of the dialogue is 30 minutes of just he and I speaking about the shadow (posted under Media, 5/25/07)." [Subscription required.]
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An essay by Jerry Coyne in response to Senator Brownback's statements about science, faith, and evolution.

 

Whether he knows it or not, Brownback's forthright declarations, denying any possibility that empirical matters of fact might differ from those assumed by his creed, amount to nothing less than a rejection of the whole institution of science. Who is "we", and where did "our" conviction and certainty come from? Would Brownback believe these "spiritual truths" if he hadn't been taught them as a child, or brought up in the United States instead of China?

According to Brownback, we should reject scientific findings if they conflict with our faith, but accept them if they're compatible. But the scientific evidence says that humans are big-brained, highly conscious apes that began evolving on the African savannah four million years ago. Are we supposed to reject this as "atheistic theology" (an oxymoron if there ever was one)?

DON'T KNOW MUCH BIOLOGY
By Jerry Coyne

JERRY COYNE is a professor in the department of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, where he works on diverse areas of evolutionary genetics. He is the author (with H. Allen Orr) of Speciation.

Jerry Coyne's Edge Bio Page

Read the article.

Quote of the day:

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."
~ Kurt Vonnegut

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Double Trouble Hypertrophy -- "Most of us poor slobs have jobs so we don't have the luxury of doing two-a-days, but we figure since it's summer there are a bunch of feckless college students out there doing one bong hit after another who just might be able to take advantage of this program."
~ Metabolic Syndrome Points To Heart Health -- "Typified by high blood pressure, weight gain around the waist and problems regulating blood sugar, metabolic syndrome may also be associated with compromised heart structure and function, according to a paper published in the online open access journal BMC Cardiovascular Disorders."
~ Hormone That Signals We Are Full When Eating Also Curbs Fast Food Consumption And Tendency To Binge Eat -- "The synthetic form of a hormone previously found to produce a feeling of fullness when eating and reduce body weight, also may help curb binge eating and the desire to eat high-fat foods and sweets. The findings on fast food consumption and binge eating tendencies are based on a 6-week research study of 88 obese individuals."
~ Young gymnasts show high bone density -- "The high-impact tumbling of gymnastics may boost young girls' muscle mass and bone density, according to a small study."
~ A Little Something for all The Gentlemen… -- "Today is the monthly theme day here at the b5media Science and Health Channel. The theme for this month is men and our army company poorly paid militia of bloggers has cranked out some good stuff." Links a plenty.
~ Healthful Diet: Include Lots of Seeds -- "Seeds have been the staple of the human diet for millions of years. Humans and other animals who can gather and store their food have an advantage over those who can only graze. Our ancestors found that the easiest, most abundant foods to gather, carry and store are seeds."


PSYCHE
~ New brain cells may revive old neurons -- "The brains of adult mammals are slowly, constantly churning out new brain cells. Previously scientists assumed the fresh neurons acted simply as replacements for old and dying cells."
~ Scientists Discover Brain Area That Helps To Suppress Unconscious Actions -- "New research led by scientists at UCL's Institute of Neurology and Cardiff University has found that the brain's so-called 'supplementary motor regions', located in the medial frontal cortex, play a key role in suppressing unconsciously-triggered actions which occur when we encounter familiar objects and situations."
~ Religious nominalism & cognitive opacity [Gene Expression] -- "I am a proponent of nominalism when it comes to religion. Or, to put it another way, instead of a religion being a Platonic category with precise and specific boundaries, I think a more accurate model is a distribution of ideas and sentiments in the minds of human beings which is always in flux."
~ Taking Positive Psychology to Work: The Reframing Skill -- "Taking Positive Psychology to work means being realistic about what is going on and then taking charge of what one can control – in particular one’s own response. It does not mean glossing over the negative and pretending it does not exist."
~ Sports Psych -- "The competitive edge in the rink."
~ Learning field sense -- "Wired has an article on 'field sense' - a sportsman's ability to infer seemingly unknowable information from subtle perceptual cues."
~ Why You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks: Cognitive Lock-In -- "The ability to learn from experience is of central importance to human existence. It allows us to acquire many of the skills we need to complete a wide variety of complicated, multi-step tasks in an efficient manner. It also creates habit - a critical, if often overlooked factor in the product and service choices consumers make."
~ Origin of Deja Vu Pinpointed -- "Brain's hippocampus may play big role in causing bouts of deja vu."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Congress passes stem cell funding bill -- "Congress has passed legislation to ease restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research." See also: Bush vows repeat veto of stem-cell bill.
~ India giving out condoms at porn theaters -- "Health officials in western India are distributing condoms outside cinema halls screening illegal pornographic films, to promote safe sex and curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS."
~ Grading the GOP -- "The press has given its take on the latest GOP debate this week. Now let's see what the base thought. Our partners at MediaCurves.com played selected scenes from the CNN debate for 396 Republicans and independents. Watch the video to see how they responded to the clips in real time."
~ Doctors dissect Dr. Death -- "After eight years in prison, Jack Kevorkian—the self-styled Rosa Parks of assisted suicide—is making the rounds on the talk show circuit again. Our partners at MediaCurves.com asked 560 medical doctors of different religions to watch Dr. Death's appearance this week on Larry King Live. Click below and you'll see how the doctors responded in real time to clips of Kervorkian's appearance on King. For extra insight, their responses to his pro-euthanasia message are broken down by religion."
~ Bill Gates Goes Back to School -- "Harvard's most famous dropout returns for his diploma, 30 years late. His final exam: Can he save the world?"
~ The New Atheists -- "An outspoken community of atheists and agnostics is tired of being marginalized, insulted and ignored, writes Ronald Aronson."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Search for life in space getting closer -- "Scientists in Britain say they are making remarkable advances in the search for life in other solar systems, though results are more than a decade off."
~ Excitons play peek-a-boo on carbon nanotubes -- "In the quantum world, photons and electrons dance, bump and carry out transactions that govern everything we see in the world around us. In this week's issue of Science, French and U.S. scientists describe a new technique in nanotechnology that allowed them to zoom in -- way in -- and observe those quantum transactions on a single DNA-sized carbon molecule called a nanotube."
~ Cigarettes Top Trash List at Waterways -- "An international coastal cleanup clears 7 million pounds of debris."
~ Margin for profit in petrol prices no error, says economist -- "A University of Western Sydney economist says there is no doubt who benefits from any increase in petrol prices - especially when it comes to long weekends."
~ Birds, Bees, and Moths Drive Flower Evolution -- "Flowers evolve in a predictable fashion to match the mouthparts of pollinating birds and insects, rather than engaging in a gradual "arms race" between flower and pollinator, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis and the University of California, Santa Barbara."
~ Two Heftiest Stars Found in Milky Way -- "The stars are the heaviest ever recorded at 83 times our own sun's mass."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Work in Progress: Spiritual Altitude, Politics &Interpreting Art -- "The concept of a "worldview" is a fascinating one - Altitude helps us to think about the different lenses that human beings use to look at reality." This will be updated and expanded.
~ Washing Bowls -- "Among the forty-eight koans recorded in the Gateless Barrier is an exchange so simple that one might pass easily by it, were it not that its very simplicity draws to it a certain curiosity and wonderment. A monk said to Chao Chou, “I have just entered this monastery. Please teach me.” Chao Chou said, “Have you eaten your rice gruel?” The monk said, “Yes, I have.” Chao Chou said, “Wash your bowl.” The monk understood."
~ Great Artistry -- "Great Artistry requires the ground of disciplinary study. In my case, for example, Great Artistry begins when I commit deeply to my discipline of music composition. It is traditional to use the organizing principle of the Trivium to understand disciplinary study. The Trivium consists of Grammar (the rules), Dialectic (the relationships) and Rhetoric (the representation). So for the discipline of music composition, there exists the Grammar of tone, the Dialectic of harmony, and the Rhetoric of orchestration."
~ BLOG: Listen to Ken LIVE Friday, June 8th, at 1PM MST -- "Just a heads up to let you all know that Ken will be an exclusive guest on a program called "Of Consuming Interest", hosted by our good friend Jim Turner, on the Progressive Radio Network. The show is being aired live at 1PM MST, and you can tune in for free by simply clicking here."
~ Empty News Reporting - Integral Analysis? -- "Which brings up, of course, the clear emptiness of current news reporting. Entertainment, rather than worthwhile news. What entertains, rather than what informs. It would be interesting to see an integral analysis of this."
~ BLOG: Integral Leadership Review Interviews Robb Smith -- "In a fascinating interview published just today, Keith Bellamy from Integral Leadership Review (an online publication of integrally informed approaches to leadership) speaks with Robb Smith, the newly appointed CEO of Integral Institute. They discuss Robbs own perspective of what it takes to be an integral leader, as well as some of the unique challenges and opportunities that come with trying to bring a company like I-I to a new level of organizational development."
~ Lyin’, Cheatin’ Buddhists -- "During a recent conversation with a close friend that might call herself a recovering Buddhist (and I’ve met more than one) the subject of the importance of a teacher “practicing what s/he preaches” arose. As a teacher qualified to teach both English and yoga I hesitate to write this post, because I risk undermining my “authority,” but I also see the necessity in doing so. This is meant as a head’s up. A kick in the ass to those that would put a teacher, of any subject, on a plane higher than themselves."
~ Open Source Religion -- "I’m not militant about Open Source, but at the same time, I like the ethos of the Open Source and Open Access movements. So I was very pleased to hear this morning about Yoism, which claims to be the world’s first Open Source religion."
.

Today I made a decision that may cost me someone I love very much. But it's the right decision. Still, in doing this, I am forced to face my fears -- the greatest of which is losing the people I love.

I know where the fear comes from -- I was thirteen when my father died. Every major loss since then has been a replay of that original loss in one way or another. In the past, I have allowed the fear to dictate my decisions, but no longer.

I have often stayed in unhealthy situations out of fear. This has been bad for me and for the other person involved. Sometimes I need to distance myself from these kinds of situations, and until now I haven't known how to do it. Still, there is no comfort in knowing I have made the right decision for my life.

But there is a sense of empowerment from having faced down one of my darkest fears. It will be a daily struggle to stick with my decision, but I am committed to being healthy and whole. And this choice offers me (and her) the best chance at having that.
.

Wise words in Wednesday's Daily Om:

An Empowered Perspective
Importance Of Forgiveness

When someone has hurt us, consciously or unconsciously, one of the most difficult things we have to face in resolving the situation is the act of forgiveness. Sometimes it feels like it's easier not to forgive and that the answer is to simply cut the person in question out of our lives. In some cases, ending the relationship may be the right thing to do, but even in that case, we will only be free if we have truly forgiven. If we harbor bitterness in our hearts against anyone, we only hurt ourselves because we are the ones harboring the bitterness. Choosing to forgive is choosing to alleviate ourselves of that burden, choosing to be free of the past, and choosing not to perceive ourselves as victims.

One of the reasons that forgiveness can be so challenging is that we feel we are condoning the actions of the person who caused our suffering, but this is a misunderstanding of what is required. In order to forgive, we simply need to get to a place where we are ready to stop identifying ourselves with the suffering that was caused us. Forgiveness is something we do for ourselves, and our forgiveness of others is an extension of our readiness to let go of our own pain. Getting to this point begins with fully accepting what has happened. Through this acceptance, we allow ourselves to feel and process our emotions.

It can be helpful to articulate our feelings in writing over a period of days or even weeks. As we allow ourselves to say what we need to say and ask for what we need to heal, we will find that this changes each day. It may be confusing, but it is a sign of progress. At times we may feel as if we are slogging uphill through dense mud and thick trees, getting nowhere. If we keep going, however, we will reach a summit and see clearly that we are finally free of the past. From here, we recognize that suffering comes from suffering, and compassion for those who have hurt us naturally arises, enhancing our new perspective.

Quote of the day:

"There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love."
~Bryant McGill

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Taking Vitamin D may reduce cancer risks in women -- "The four-year study out of Creighton University in Nebraska found that women who regularly took vitamin D3 had a 60 per cent reduction in cancer infections compared to a group taking placebos."
~ Flexible Training Templates -- An interesting article on program design from Charles Staley.
~ Makeover Your Grocery Cart -- "Find the best foods for your diet whether you want low-fat, low-cal, low-carb or vegetarian."
~ Women's midlife weight key to future diabetes risk -- "People carrying excess weight who aim to ward off diabetes should try to lose the pounds before they reach middle age, Australian researchers suggest."
~ Current activity affects bone density in men -- "The more time young men spend engaging in high-impact physical exercise, the greater their bone mineral density, a new study of medical students shows."
~ Sugary drinks tied to extra pounds in preschoolers -- "Preschool children who are regularly given sugary drinks between meals are more likely to be overweight than their peers, new study findings suggest."
~ Surefire Way to Reduce Your Appetite -- "Do you eat too much? Exercising after meals boosts appetite-suppressant hormones, according to research published in the Journal of Endocrinology."


PSYCHE
~ Blogging on the Brain: 6/08 [Developing Intelligence] -- Lots of links.
~ Media Messes with Men's Minds Too -- "Body image in the minds of men."
~ Don't Stand So Close to Me -- "Here's a weird study that sometimes gets a mention in ethical discussions about psychology, and it's not hard to see why. Middlemist, Knowles & Matter (1976) designed an experiment to test how the speed and flow of men's urination in a public lavatory was affected by invasions of personal space."
~ Can You Spot These 10 Thinking Sins? -- "Let’s take a look at 10 common ways that negative thinking emerges (there are many more, of course) — get good at spotting these patterns, and practice replacing them with positive thinking patterns. It has made all the difference in the world for me."
~ Deconstructing 'Psychobabble' -- "My clinician colleagues might look askance at the above title. Some would raise a condescending eyebrow. But my professional field, mental health counseling or psychotherapy, is plagued by the same barriers to clarity as the legal profession."
~ "Disconnect" Doesn't Have to Be a Bad Thing -- "As a therapist, I know the importance of building quiet, reflective time into our insanely hectic schedules. It's a key component of my own mental and physical well-being. So I should know better, right? I emphasize this to my patients all the time, especially if they are experiencing high levels of stress and/or anxiety."
~ Know blood, know the brain -- "The Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism publishes cutting edge scientific research on brain scanning and blood flow, and it's just put a collection of some of the key papers from the last few years online, for free."
~ Put a Stop to Your Anxiety with These 8 Simple Tips -- "Now what I’m talking about here aren’t anxiety attacks or anything that serious. I know very little about such problems and possible solutions. But the following tips have helped me handle the lower levels of anxiety and worrying that most of us experience from time to time."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Is Al Jazeera about to Become Al-Foxeera? -- "Sources inside Al Jazeera confirm that there is an internal struggle underway that may dilute Al Jazeera's independence and steer it in a more pro-western, pro-US direction."
~ Democrats May Subpoena NSA Documents -- "Senior House Democrats threatened Thursday to issue subpoenas to obtain secret legal opinions and other documents from the Justice Department related to the National Security Agency's domestic wiretapping program. If the Democrats take that step, it would mark the most aggressive action yet by Congress in its oversight of the wiretapping program, and could set the stage for a constitutional showdown over the separation of powers."
~ Google spies on America -- "As Google grows older, it's becoming that kid who brings an M-80 to the neighborhood barbecue. While everyone else is goofing off with sparklers, Google blows up a trash can and freaks out the entire block. The latest explosion is Google Street View. The free-sushi-eating Googleheads dreamed up the idea to send a camera-equipped van to take 360-degree shots around the streets of San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, Denver, and Miami. Cool, right? Then the service launched last Tuesday, and Mary Kalin-Casey discovered that she could see her cat Monty in the window of her apartment."
~ Anglicanism in Crisis -- "Can the Archbishop of Canterbury lead his flock back from the brink of a rancorous schism over homosexuality?"
~ We'll always hate Paris -- "The public outrage over Paris Hilton's early release from her L.A. prison cell may be justified -- but why are we expending so much energy protesting the antics of a spoiled media whore?"
~ Why Michael Moore Helped Save Enemy Site -- "When the founder of the Web’s most popular anti-Michael Moore Web site ran into financial trouble because of medical bills, a very unlikely guardian angel came to the rescue."
~ Poems & Particulars -- "I’m mainly a poet, but lately I’ve been reading fiction. A couple of weeks ago I woke up at 3:30 in the morning to finish Ian McEwan’s Atonement. I loved it in the way I loved books when I was ten: in a fully-absorbed, can’t-wait-to find-out-what-happens, dream-about-it way."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Ticks challenge climate theory -- "As key players in the spread of disease ticks aren`t exactly man`s best friend but, according to Oxford University scientists, they may offer a vital clue that climate change is not to blame for an upsurge in many human diseases."
~ Amazon founder says still 'day one' for e-commerce -- "Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos said Friday he thinks it's still "day one" for e-commerce, but if he was just starting out as a young entrepreneur he might be putting his money elsewhere."
~ Scientists propose the kind of chemistry that led to life -- "Before life emerged on earth, either a primitive kind of metabolism or an RNA-like duplicating machinery must have set the stage - so experts believe. But what preceded these pre-life steps?"
~ 10 Ways to Green Your Home -- "Positive actions to tread more lightly on the planet."
~ Chimps Pass On Culture Like Humans Do -- "Chimpanzees readily learn and share techniques on how to fiddle with gadgets, new research shows, the best evidence yet that our closest living relatives pass on customs and culture just as humans do."
~ U.S. drought spreading in South and West -- "Drought now covers more than a third of the continental United States and is spreading, it was reported Friday." Especially here in Arizona.
~ Scientists reveal how supermassive black holes bind into pairs during galaxy mergers -- "Picture the Milky Way galaxy-a disk of stars and gas, a stellar spheroid and an enormous halo of dark matter. It spirals around a black hole that is supermassive-about three million solar masses. The Milky Way's total mass is about 100 billion solar masses-enormous to us but average among galaxies."
~ U.S. Religious Leaders Assert Need To Act on Climate -- "Episcopal, Catholic, Jewish and evangelical Christian -- agreed Thursday on the need to confront global warming, while other faith representatives questioned the climate change threat."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ The Integral Psychograph, A Personal Journey -- "The following article was written in response to a conference call in January 2007 concerning the Integral Psychograph with Integral Institute’s David Zeitler, and organised by Joanne Rubin of the Integral Psychology Affinity Group. While I have done my best to represent the material from the call when used, it does not necessarily represent the views of David, or any of the participants."
~ Comment: integral sex and gender studies -- "One of the most trenchant problems in terms of moving forward with a more integral view of sex and gender relations is the current view held by many postmodern feminists that history is replete with men dominating or oppressing women en masse, in a way analogous to the way that whites dominated blacks or indigenous cultures, for example."
~ Spiritual Altitude, Politics & Interpreting Art -- Updated from yesterday.
~ The Great Confluence -- "This week on Integral Spiritual Center...."
~ Integral Institute's Failure to Provide Cogent Analysis -- "Is now clearly on display. More silly Paris Hilton obsessions."
~ Winning the Integral Game? -- "I just read an excellent essay called Winning the Integral Game? by Scott Parker over at Integral World. After reading it this morning, I felt Scott was writing my exact experience with the work and world of Ken Wilber. What Scott describes as the transition from Wilber “fan” to Wilber “critic” is very similar to my own experience and description of the stages of Wilberism."
~ Big Love Integral, Module 2 -- "If you're in Seattle, or close by, and you don't already have plans, Saturday is Module 2 of my developing workshop, Big Love Integral, A Participatory Exploration of Conscious Romantic Relationship In An Integral Context."
.

I've been spending an awful lot of time feeling sorry myself over the last month -- and what a colossal waste of time that has been. My life is pretty good -- I have nothing to whine about. Sure, it hurts to lose someone I love. But life goes on . . . whether I participate or not.

So I have decided to revive a daily gratitude practice. The last time I did this it really helped me gain perspective on my life.

On this moderately hot day in the Sonoran Desert, I am grateful for air conditioning. I am also grateful that USA soccer is playing well in the Gold Cup. And I am especially grateful for garlic and herb chicken.

Oh yeah, I am grateful that I am healthy, doing a job I love, and have lots of good books to keep me company.

I am currently reading Joe Perez's Soulfully Gay, among several other books. I am grateful that he asked Shambhala to send me a review copy. I am also grateful that he had the courage to commit his story to paper.

What are you grateful for?
.

Satire from Andy . . . .

Next Week’s News

For the Week of Monday, June 11

Monday, June 11: Bowing to a hot publishing trend, J.K. Rowling will rewrite the last installment of the Harry Potter series to make Hillary Clinton the villain.

Tuesday, June 12: A man wearing a weird white cape and hat will climb onto the Pope’s vehicle and later be identified as the Pope.

Wednesday, June 13: At the G-8 Summit, President Bush will unveil a plan to phase out the environment by 2010.

Thursday, June 14: Nicole Richie will say that she does not know if she will have to go to prison, but just to be on the safe side she is starting a hunger strike now.

Friday, June 15: CNN will offer a new premium service in which it will broadcast the Democratic presidential debates but crop out former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska).

Saturday, June 16: For the second time in ten years, people around the world will get really sick of hearing the song “Candle in the Wind.”

Sunday, June 17: After being besieged by people claiming a $1 million reward for proof that they had sex with a congressman, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt will rephrase his offer, adding the words, “except Mark Foley.”

 

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

I used to think this quote was a load of shit. To me, it always seemed the pain of loss could never justify the risk of opening myself to love.

But a while back, at the very beginning of my most recent relationship, I had an opening experience which convinced me that not only is it worth the risk, it is my true nature to love, to be love.

The months that followed were the best of my life. I have never felt myself so trusting and open with anyone. I have never been willing to make so much space in my life for another person. I thought that I had found my life partner, and I even contemplated the idea of marriage sometime down the road -- something that has NEVER crossed my mind in any other relationship.

But it didn't last. There is still a chance that she will decide that it is worth it to face her fears and risk a life with me, but the more time that passes, the less I think that will happen.

Today it occurred to me that I have been mourning the perceived loss of her from my life rather than celebrating the joy I found with her.

So today, I am grateful that I risked opening my heart and experiencing such a profoundly deep love with such a special woman. I would not trade that experience for anything in the world.

What are you grateful for?
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Gary at Integral In Seattle, has been doing some fine work with integral relationships as part of his Big Love Integral project. Yesterday he posted a Spiral Dynamics model of relationship development that I thought was very interesting.

Here is what it looks like -- go to his site for an explanation of the context:

Beige, Basic Survival: We talked on the phone for two months, always deciding if we wanted to continue the long-distance conversation. Some close calls. Distance was, and still is, the hardest factor.

Purple, Tribal: Some feeling of magic around the relationship begins to develop. “The Universe brought us together.” Rituals begin forming. Recreational sex.

Red, Power, Ego: It didn’t take long for us to hit a power struggle in our relationship over keeping commitments. Because we brought later stage consciousness to it, we sailed through fairly easily.

Blue, Authoritarian, Rule of Law: We begin to set up how we do things. Who does what? What’s okay in the relationship, what’s not? Bring order and stability. A sense of responsibility toward each other.

Orange, Materialistic, Achiever: We want to have the best relationship possible. You are an amazing partner and you bring out the best in me (partner as status). The intersubjective “we” begins to develop internal values of its own.

Green, Egalitarianism, Equality: We are equals, 50/50 relationship (Deida’s Stage 2), we share some responsibilities, particularly around financial arrangements because of our long distance relationship status. Also a sense of “All We Need Is Love” tries to creep in.

Yellow, Existential, Systemic: Co-creation, we create and take responsibility for our own relationship and its evolution. We see the big picture of a shared higher purpose, and ease into chaos, change, flex and flow. Recreational sex still exists, but there's also a sense of co-creational sex (procreational sex was never really an option for us!).

I have absolutely no idea what relationship, looks like at Turquoise and beyond, but I very much hope to bring that perspective to you one day, as I think I've got one foot in it!

Some serious wisdom from Byron Williams at Huff Post:

Our Nation Focuses on the Wrong Message

We are trapped in a whirlwind of the salacious and melodramatic, clinging to the empty calories of the sensational nothing. Few claim to actually acknowledge it, but there is a reason that Paris Hilton's early release from jail made all the news wires or that the winner of American Idol instantly becomes a household name.

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt has become the nation's muckraker-in-chief, offering $1 million to anyone who can provide proof of an illicit sexual encounter with a high-ranking government official. More people seem outraged that Barry Bonds will break Hank Aaron's home run record than, say, the president's troglodyte pace to address global warming.

Iraq is America's first sacrifice-free war, which allows us the luxury in our petroleum-based economy to complain when gas prices creep toward $4 per gallon while we continue to buy SUVs that idle in the fast-food pickup line.

With the inconsequential garnering of the attention, you may not know that only 25 percent feel the country is headed in the right direction.

Has American democracy morphed into an ostrich society by burying our collective heads in the sand -- ignoring the painfully obvious and important, opting instead for the insignificant?

I find frightening the amount of attention given to the level of inquiry about the presidential candidates' personal faith. Do we really need to know about the biggest sin that John Edwards committed? Or take a crash course in the Book of Mormon to decide if Mitt Romney will make a good president?

Soon we will be asking candidates what side would they have taken in the Scopes Monkey Trial?

What message does this send to those who do not share such beliefs? Are they irrelevant to the public conversation? Haven't we been down this path? If memory serves me correctly, it was the 2000 and 2004 elections -- and it didn't work out too well.

Now that Turkey's long-standing war with the Kurds in Northern Iraq is showing signs of a resurgence, the arguable bright spot in the misguided invasion carries the ominous cloud of additional chaos over a region already flush with problems.

There are potential thorny conundrums, none of them good, as tensions flair between two overlapping allies. As the Economist reported, many plans for an American exit from Iraq involve leaving some forces in the Kurd region. So a Turkish invasion would be a disaster, inserting NATO's second-largest army in the middle of a territory America is desperately hoping to keep calm.

Barack Obama gave a serious speech on poverty and what was reported was his quiet riot statement. The spin, given that Obama was speaking to a predominantly African-American audience, might have suggested that he was one step removed from calling for armed resistance.

Opposition to any type of immigration reform has been reduced to building a fence, providing no answer for the estimated 12 million individuals who are already in the country, and making amnesty the new inflammatory buzzword.

California, which boasts the nation's highest recidivism rate, is projected to soon spend more on its corrections system than state universities.

The theme for the Democratic-led Congress is A New Direction for America. But it doesn't feel like a new direction. It feels more like a rudderless vessel without a moral compass. We are locked in a reactionary posture at a time that cries out for proactive measures.

It would be too easy to lay the blame exclusively with our elected leadership. We all have a responsibility to stay engaged. I realize most lead lives that are more demanding than our parents, but active engagement is the price that a free people must pay.

Otherwise, we will be relegated to keeping up with the whereabouts of Paris Hilton, actively living out the bumper sticker that asks: Where am I going? And why am I in this hand basket?

Byron Williams is an Oakland pastor and syndicated columnist. E-mail him at byron@byronspeaks.com or leave a message at (510) 208-6417. Send a letter to the editor to soundoff@angnewspapers.com.

Damn straight.

Quote of the day:

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."
e. e. cummings

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Supplements and Fat Loss -- Some good research presented by Alwyn Cosgrove.
~ The Super-Accumulation Program -- "Coach Poliquin doesn't think you have the balls to do this program. He doesn't think you're physically or mentally tough enough. If you do it correctly, you may even lose 15 pounds of muscle mass. That's right, I said lose muscle mass. Intrigued? You should be."
~ Thirty Minutes Three Times a Week is Not Enough -- "If you have heard that you get maximum benefit from exercising for 30 minutes three times a week, you've been given bad advice."
~ The Molecular Basis Of Obesity Uncovered -- "Why does the same diet make some of us gain more weight than others? The answer could be a molecule called Bsx, as scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the German Institute for Nutrition (DIFE), Potsdam, and the University of Cincinnati report in the current issue of Cell Metabolism. Bsx is the molecular link between spontaneous physical activity and food intake."
~ Cinnamon Can Help Control Your Blood Sugar -- "A Swedish research team has again confirmed previous studies from 2000 and 2004, showing the positive effect of cinnamon in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. "
~ Vitamin D Fights Cancer--and That's Not All -- "A single nutrient that keeps bones strong, wards off cancer, and protects against tuberculosis, diabetes, colds, and the flu. Sound too good to be true? There's more: It's free. But you're almost certainly not getting enough."
~ A daily dose of pistachios offers potential heart health benefits -- "Adding to a growing body of evidence, new research shows that a daily dose of pistachios may offer protective benefits against cardiovascular disease, according to a study published in the Volume 26, Number 2 issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition."


PSYCHE
~ Need to make a decision? Get angry -- "The next time you are plagued with indecision and need a clear way out, it might help to get angry, according to a surprising new study."
~ Yoga May Help Treat Depression, Anxiety Disorders -- "Yoga's postures, controlled breathing and meditation may work together to help ease brains plagued by anxiety or depression, a new study shows."
~ A key to happiness: figuring out to keep your resolutions -- "Before I started my Happiness Project, I -- like everyone -- had repeatedly made resolutions to make positive changes in my life. Since I started the Happiness Project, I’ve managed to do better sticking to these resolutions. Recently I asked myself—why? What was different? Two reasons: accountability and salience."
~ Suffocating in a Relationship? -- "Where does "us" end and "I" begin?"
~ Book review: Living Well with Depression & Bipolar Disorder -- "John McNanamy is one of the growing number of expert patients who have written about their own health experiences and researched options for treatment. In his book, Living Well with Depression and Bipolar Disorder, McNanamy details the different types of depression and mania and methods of diagnosis. This book combines his own personal experiences, his interactions with other patients with depression or bipolar, and summarises other literature on the subject of mental health diagnosis and treatment."
~ Neural Mediators Of Attraction, Acceptance, And Rejection -- "Researchers from the University of Minnesota are reporting at the June meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping that an attractive woman's acceptance of a date with a male participant makes her appear more physically attractive to him and increases his brain activity in areas associated with reward or positive feelings. This does not occur if the woman is rejecting or unattractive."
~ Eyes Wide Shut: Closing-eyes Facilitates The Neural Processing Of Emotional Experience With Music -- "Closing the eyes is the simplest way for changing your state of mind, possibly by directing focus of attention inward to oneself. This has been long acknowledged by humans as reflected in ancient meditation methods as well as routine concentration and emotional acts. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging was used to discern the neural correlates of variations in emotional experience induced by closing the eyes."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ America: From Freedom to Fascism - full -- "Determined to find the law that requires American citizens to pay income tax, producer Aaron Russo ("The Rose," "Trading Places") set out on a journey to find the evidence. This film which is neither left, nor right-wing is a startling examination of government. It exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America since 1913 when the Federal Reserve system was fraudulently created."
~ Religion—our maelstrom of ignorance [Pharyngula] -- "We've got a new Gallup poll on evolution to agonize over. It's nothing but bad news—we are a nation of uneducated morons. Gary chose to weep over the political correlation: look how membership in the Republican party is tied to ignorance about science."
~ Let's just believe everything [Effect Measure] -- "We all know it is possible for people to hold two contradictory ideas in their head at the same time. Evolution and creationism are a case in point. Apparently in a recent USAToday/Gallup Poll, a majority of my fellow citizens responded they believe both are likely explanations for life on earth."
~ Six days at a Scottish monastery -- "In January, I went to stay at a monastery in northern Scotland. There was, I thought at the time, no more foreign place I could visit."
~ 4th Circuit Upholds Due Process Rights of 'Enemy Combatants' -- "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, widely perceived as the most pro-government federal appeals court, has ruled against the Bush administration's position that the president has the authority to detain indefinitely anyone he unilaterally identifies as an 'enemy combatant.'"
~ More Americans Agree Bill O'Reilly Is A Better News Source Than ABC News -- "This may alarm people who prefer their news served without an opinion: More people agree that Bill O'Reilly is a better source of political information than ABC News, according to a JWT survey conducted on behalf of Adweek."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ The Common-Sense World -- Deepak Chopra -- "In a series of recent posts I've been offering evidence of the possibility that the mind exists outside the brain. This isn't a concept that pleases materialists and skeptics of various stripes. The cruder ones complain that this is all "woo woo." The ad hominem ones deride my inability to understand basic science (this isn't to be taken personally--I assume anyone who thinks outside their rigid parameters would be equally scorned). The sophisticated ones invoke statistical errors and dubious research methods. But in essence the basis of skepticism comes down to a single claim that must be true and can never be violated. This is the claim that we live in a common-sense world."
~ Apple Extends Web Browser to Windows -- "Apple Makes Safari Web Browser Available to Windows Users."
~ Scientists Dish Up Rice Vaccine to Fight Cholera -- "Cholera toxin implanted in rice provokes strong immunity in mice while surviving the rigors of acid digestion."
~ Global Warming Not Behind Kilimanjaro Meltdown -- "Forces other than global warming to blame for disappearance of famous glacier."
~ Yahoo Weighs in on Free Speech in China -- "China should not punish people for expressing their political views on the Internet, Yahoo Inc. said Monday, a day after the mother of a Chinese reporter announced she was suing the U.S. company for helping officials imprison her son."
~ Competition, loss of selfishness mark shift to supersociety -- "How social or altruistic behavior evolved has been a central and hotly debated question, particularly by those researchers engaged in the study of social insect societies - ants, bees and wasps. In these groups, this question of what drives altruism also becomes critical to further understanding of how ancestral or primitive social organizations (with hierarchies and dominance fights, and poorly developed division of labor) evolve to become the more highly sophisticated networks found in some eusocial insect collectives termed “superorganisms.”"
~ India 'Bigfoot' Sightings Prompt Probe -- "Terrified villagers claim to spot families of hairy giants in northern India."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Where to begin? -- "A while back, a couple of friends told me that my “classical artistry” and now “Great Artistry” project I’ve been developing makes sense to them as artists, especially the aspect that deals with being familiar with the Great Ideas found in the Great Books, as part of the literacy of being an artist (or, the grammar, of being an artist). Their question was, ok, I get you, no, what should I read? Where should I begin?"
~ INTEGRAL VS. INTEGRATIVE - A Reply to Scott Parker - Elliot Benjamin -- "In Scott Parker's recent Integral World essay: “Winning The Integral Game?” he calls for genuine dialogue and constructive criticism of Ken Wilber's comprehensive philosophy and integral theory. I couldn't agree with Parker more, and I think that his depiction of the two rival camps of “fans “ and “critics” is an accurate and excellent depiction of the integral dilemma over the past few years."
~ Experiencing the Mystic -- "Perhaps the most interesting event happened on the coach ride home, when I experienced my own 'opening' or mystical event. Completely unasked for, and not striven for and separate from any specific practice...."
~ Buddhist Geeks 23: Feeding the Beast -- "In this episode, Warner talks about excited states like anger, the trouble with online community, and our attachment to ego. How do we “reinforce the Self” and how do we begin to work with our anger (trigger work? just noticing?)? Two questions Brad and Gwen talk about that we invite you to discuss in the comment section at Buddhist Geeks."
~ Framing the relative and absolute in spirituality -- "How do we describe our relative and absolute nature in spiritual/religious terms?"
~ Reich, orgasm and urdhvareta -- "One area that is somewhat ignored in Integral Theory to date is the significance of the psychosexual stream to overall development. One thing I appreciate Wilber for is in pointing out the difference between the Ascender and Descender biases and his argument that an Integral approach must balance these two tendencies."
~ Going beyond the comfort zone -- "Going beyond our comfort zone is part of many forms of learning, insight, clarification, development and so on… from physical exercise to relationships to learning languages to insight in the workings of the mind and much else."

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Some things I am grateful for today:

1) I felt pretty OK today even though I had only four hours sleep.

2) I learned not to blog when my subpersonalities are running wild. They speak their truths, but their truths are partial. I was embarrassed by that post this morning, but I left it up as an object lesson to anyone who is under the illusion that I have my shit together.

3) We had a brief but refreshing rain shower this afternoon that dropped the temperature into the low 70s and left the desert smelling clean and damp. Very nice.

4) That there is good music for a path with heart (For ---):

"The Dolphin's Cry"

The way you're bathed in light
reminds me of that night
god laid me down into your rose garden of trust
and I was swept away
with nothin' left to say
some helpless fool
yeah I was lost in a swoon of peace
you're all I need to find
so when the time is right
come to me sweetly, come to me
come to me

love will lead us, alright
love will lead us, she will lead us
can you hear the dolphin's cry?
see the road rise up to meet us
it's in the air we breathe tonight
love will lead us, she will lead us

oh yeah, we meet again
it's like we never left
time in between was just a dream
did we leave this place?
this crazy fog surrounds me
you wrap your legs around me
all I can do to try and breathe
let me breathe so that I
so we can go together!

love will lead us, alright
love will lead us, she will lead us
can you hear the dolphin's cry?
see the road rise up to meet us
it's in the air we breathe tonight
love will lead us, she will lead us

life is like a shooting star
it don't matter who you are
if you only run for cover, it's just a waste of time
we are lost 'til we are found
this phoenix rises up from the ground
and all these wars are over

over
over
singin' la da da, da da da
over
come to me
singin' la da da da, da da da
come to me

What are you grateful for?

Another sleepless night (last night), but rather than rant about it, I thought I'd post this excerpt from an article by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the current Shambhala Sun:

Have you ever noticed that your awareness of pain is not in pain even when you are? I’m sure you have. It is a very common experience, especially in childhood, but one we usually don’t examine or talk about because it is so fleeting and the pain so much more compelling in the moment it comes upon us.

Have you ever noticed that your fear is not afraid even when you are terrified? Or that your awareness of depression is not depressed; that your awareness of your bad habits is not a slave to those habits; or perhaps even that your awareness of who you are is not who you think you are?

You can test out any of these propositions for yourself any time you like simply by investigating awareness—by becoming aware of awareness itself. It is easy, but we hardly ever think to do it because awareness, like the present moment itself, is virtually a hidden dimension in our lives, embedded everywhere and therefore not so noticeable anywhere.

Awareness is immanent, and infinitely available, but it is camouflaged, like a shy animal. It usually requires some degree of effort and stillness if not stealth even to catch a glimpse of it, no less get a sustained look, even though it may be entirely out in the open. You have to be alert, curious, motivated to see it. With awareness, you have to be willing to let the knowing of it come to you, to invite it in, silently and skillfully in the midst of whatever you are thinking or experiencing. After all, you are already seeing; you are already hearing. There is awareness in all of that, coming through all the sense doors, including your mind, right here, right now.

~ Excerpted from: Meeting Pain with Awareness, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Shambhala Sun, July 2007.

 

This is an excellent article if you haven't read it -- it's worth the price of picking it up on a newstand.

Is there a link? Jonathan S. Byrd thinks there is and makes a good case. This is an excellent article, even if you end up not agreeing with the conclusions drawn. It is followed by some peer commentary and a response from the author.

[As an aside: this is a perfect example of why open-source publishing should be the standard.]

Here is an interesting excerpt:

The Case of Latent Inhibition

Latent Inhibition (LI) is defined as "the capacity to screen from conscious awareness stimuli previously experienced as irrelevant" (Carson, Peterson, & Higgins, 2003, p. 499). Carson, Peterson, and Higgins (2003) go into detail, testing several different traits and how low/high levels of LI have effects upon them. The study we are most interested in is the study where low/high levels of inhibition are compared with moderate/high levels of IQ and their respective creativity output.

A person with high levels of LI will tend to always see things the same way as before. "If an item was irrelevant before, it will be irrelevant again," is something that goes through the subconscious mind of a person with high levels of LI. Regardless of a person's IQ, if a person has a high LI score; they tend to do poorly on creativity testing. This is logical because a person who always sees things with the same stigma can hardly be expected to improve upon said object, regardless of how intelligent they are.

A person with low levels of LI on the other hand will not dismiss something as irrelevant based on past experiences. They re-analyze the object or situation again before coming to any conclusions about it. Here is where we see a big jump between the differences in IQ, those with a moderate IQ scored slightly higher than those with high levels of inhibition, but those with high IQ scored much better in creativity tests than their less intelligent test subjects. This also makes sense if you think about it, a more intelligent, more intuitive person who re-analyzes things will notice more, and extrapolate further compared to one who is less intelligent.

Reduced LI scores in humans has been associated with psychotic states or psychotic proneness, and as reduced levels of LI produce higher levels of creativity, one can see the correlation between creativity and psychoses. "These results support the theory that highly creative individuals and psychotic-prone individuals may possess neurobiological similarities, perhaps genetically determined, that present either as psychotic predisposition on the one hand or as unusual creative potential on the other" (Carson, Peterson, & Higgins, 2003, p. 505).

Read the whole article.

Here are some nice nature photos (found them here):

Quote of the day:

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you'll help them to become what they are capable of becoming.”
~ Goethe

Image of the day:


BODY
~ Troubleshooting the Deadlift: Part III -- "The final installment of Eric Cressey's deadlift masterpiece explains the many variations of this great lift. Now you can be a deadliftin' fool pretty much all-year round without going stale."
~ Obesity Drug Has Suicide Risk -- "An experimental obesity drug may be causing higher incidences of depression, insomnia and suicidal anxiety according to several media reports. Acomplia, made by Sanofi-Aventis, has been shown to help lower weight, cholesterol and blood sugar. A ruling about FDA approval is expected on July 27. The FDA briefing is available online."
~ Your Summer Workout and Meal Plan -- "Discover the TNT Diet and meet hundreds of others who have pledged to transform their bodies this season." Men's Health wants to Pump ... You Up.
~ Low-Carb Diets' Effects Linked To Rise In Newly Identified 'Starvation Hormone' -- "The benefits sometimes seen in those on a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet may depend on increased levels of a newly identified "starvation hormone" produced by the liver, according to a report in the June issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press. Two studies in the issue show that the hormone plays a critical role in the metabolic shift seen in animals after a period of fasting and in those fed an Atkins-like diet."
~ Is it Possible to be Both Overweight and Malnourished? -- "The stereotypical picture of malnourishment -- a very thin, starving person -- is no longer accurate. It is possible, and quite common, for people to be both overweight and malnourished."
~ Sweeteners, trans fat creating 'toxic food environment' -- "High-fructose corn syrup, used to sweeten most pop, may be decreasing insulin sensitivity in teens. That, in turn, may be contributing to increased rates of type 2 diabetes in young people."
~ Water-Rich, Low-Fat Foods Encourage Weight Loss -- "If you're trying to lose weight, eating the right foods may be more effective than eating less, U.S. researchers say."
~ Learning the Alexander Technique -- "To learn the Alexander Technique, as the method came to be known, you must relearn the most taken-for-granted movements. Sitting. Standing. Walking. Speaking. Example: A good friend of mine, who gave birth to her first child in March, takes Alexander classes to learn how to hold her baby without pain."


PSYCHE
~ New Meditation Guide Proves Mind Control Isn't So Farfetched -- "A remarkable new book from Swedish author Ingrid Fredriksson, Free from Dangerous Stress explains the ins and outs of meditation and yoga, setting readers on a path to manipulating their own brains for a maximum health effect."
~ Anger Can Spur Logical Thinking -- "Despite the reputation as being a catalyst for disorder, a new study suggests that anger can actually be a productive force. According to research conducted by psychologists Wesley Moons and Diane Mackie from the University of California at Santa Barbara, anger helps people make better choices and think more logically."
~ The Autobiographical Blur Between Fantasy and Reality [Developing Intelligence] -- "Children have often been claimed to blend reality and fantasy, but according to some this is a wild exaggeration of the truth. For example, renowned child researchers have written that "even the very youngest children already are perfectly able to discriminate between the imaginary and the real" and certainly a lot of recent research tentatively supports that idea."
~ Have I Been Here Before? -- ""Have I been here before"? In today's fast-moving world of look-alike hotel rooms and comparable corridors, it can take a bit of thinking to answer this simple question. University of Bristol neuroscientists working with colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) report in the early online edition of Science that they have identified a neuronal mechanism that our brains may use to rapidly distinguish similar, yet distinct places."
~ Did You Know? -- "Fast facts on antioxidants, depression, and multitasking."
~ Latest articles on executive functions and will -- "The scientific study of choice, aka decision making, willed action or executive functions, has provided plenty of new articles just during the past few weeks. Here we provide some of them."
~ A secret to happiness: re-frame something that’s making you unhappy -- "One technique for happiness is to “re-frame” – that is, to change your attitude or your thinking about something that’s making you unhappy. This sounds Pollyanna-ish, but I’ve been surprised by just how often it’s quite possible, and extremely effective."
~ Why Don't All Smart People Make Smart Choices? [Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)] -- "Have you ever known someone who is intelligent but still makes astonishingly stupid decisions again and again? According to a recently published study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, reasoning is a distinct skill, and not everyone possesses it in equal measure, even those people who are thought of as being intelligent."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ New Book Examines Communication And Aging -- "A new book by a University of Arizona researcher challenges long-held notions about how society communicates with its oldest members. The importance of this work is highlighted by the fact that people are living longer, and that seniors now outnumber those under 18."
~ Creationist Canard #1 : "Evolution is a theory, not a fact" [Galactic Interactions] -- "I had a long letter to the editor published in the Tennessean, as part of a segment on the question "should you take your kids to the Creation Museum?" I receive a fair amount of e-mail. This has motivated me to put up, so that I can reference it from now on, my own rejection of a couple of creationist canards. Doubtless you can find huge numbers of rejections of this elsewhere, since these are canards that creationists bring up all the time."
~ Would I do this story? -- "Though reporting on insurgents—or even "embedding" with them as in the case of Patrick Graham for his award-winning June 2004 Harper's article—is not uncommon, this three-minute profile of a twenty-nine-year-old member of an Al-Qaeda affiliate was different. Rather than focusing on the beliefs or lifestyle of Abu Abdul (a pseudonym)-a typical approach to covering insurgents-NPR's Baghdad correspondent, Anne Garrels, dedicated the majority of her segment to describing his military training, his involvement in several bombings, and his determination to blow himself up in the name of jihad."
~ Poll Shows Obama Most Electable Democrat -- "Obama, an Illinois senator, is clearly the strongest general-election candidate. He is the only Democrat who beats all three major Republican contenders: Giuliani, McCain and Romney. Clinton runs behind all three Republican contenders in head-to-head match-ups."
~ Free Speech for People Who Think Like Me -- "In his best-selling book The Assault on Reason, Al Gore name-checks Jürgen Habermas, Noam Chomsky, and I.F. Stone, digresses into the peculiarities of human brain chemistry, and, as expected, explains the intricacies of atmospheric science. He is, The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson recently wrote, “too ostentatiously smart to be elected president.” And as his book makes clear, he thinks the rest of us are hopelessly dumb." Reason magazine is not a Gore fan.
~ Politics: The Trouble With the Super-Rich -- "Well, there is a problem with the super-rich, several of them in fact. A bloated overclass can drag down a society as surely as a swelling underclass."
~ D.C. Fights For A Vote -- "Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) presided over a pleasant, if at times contentious, three-hour discussion of the bill that would give the District of Columbia--and its population of 581,530 residents (more than Wyoming)--a full voting representative in the U.S. House. The bill has attained a measure of bi-partisan support by coupling the representative for heavily Democratic D.C. with an additional one for heavily Republican Utah."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Professor proposes theory of unparticle physics -- "Howard Georgi, a physicist at Harvard University, has recently published a paper on so-called unparticle physics, which suggests the existence of “unparticle stuff” that cannot be accounted for by the standard model. Appearing in a recent edition of Physical Review Letters, the paper says that unparticle stuff would be very different than anything seen before."
~ Invasive Cuban tree frogs threaten native wildlife, damage utilities -- "North Florida residents accustomed to tiny tree frogs may feel jumpy — a giant Cuban species has colonized half the state and is moving north, a University of Florida expert says."
~ NASA satellites watch as China constructs giant dam -- "Some call it the eighth wonder of world. Others say it's the next Great Wall of China. Upon completion in 2009, the Three Gorges Dam along China`s Yangtze River will be the world's largest hydroelectric power generator and one of the few man-made structures so enormous that it's actually visible to the naked eye from space."
~ N.C. Man Fined for Converting to Biodiesel [commonground] -- "Bob Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against U.S. dependence on foreign oil. So last fall the Charlotte musician and guitar instructor spent $1,200 to convert his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil. He bought soybean oil in 5-gallon jugs at Costco, spending about 30 percent more than diesel would cost. His reward, from a state that heavily promotes alternative fuels: a $1,000 fine last month for not paying motor fuel taxes. He has been told to expect another $1,000 fine from the federal government. (News &Observer)"
~ Rove beetles act as warning signs for clear-cutting consequences -- "New research from the University of Alberta and the Canadian Forest Service has revealed the humble rove beetle may actually have a lot to tell us about the effects of harvesting on forests species."
~ DNA Used in Search for 'Lost Colony' -- "Scientists plan to use DNA to trace a lost early American colony."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Absolute Perfection & Relatively Pathetic -- "Witnessing this object is a recently emergent self, aware of the absolute perfection of it all, that is an order of consciousness higher, yet occasionally constrained by this inertia. And you know, this emergent self is realizing that this kosmic groove I speak of has more inertia than is generated by this object's personal history."
~ The Role of the Skeptic -- Deepak Chopra -- "Since skeptics are also a pattern of behavior of the Universe, they must have an important role. In their absence, unleashed creativity (the ecstatic evolutionary impusle of the universe, which proliferates in the midst of chaos, uncertainty and ambiguity) would become total anarchy. What do you think?" Join the discussion.
~ V on TV! -- "Friday, June 15 at 9:30am HGTV will finally air the segment of me working that they taped in April of 2006 for their show, That's Clever! As the date approaches at last, I've been remembering snippets of the experience of a 4 person crew + me in my studio (and how punchy we were by the end)." Congrats Victoria!
~ What is Meditation? -- "So I've been doing a lot of little sittings, here and there, when I'm smoking or have a few moments on my own wherever I happen to be at the time. I often have a thought that keeps recurring that says "Is this meditation? What is meditation?". The answer often comes as "anything can be meditation". A lot of the time I find that I grasp after a certain feeling. The feeling is usually one of exaltation and intensity, but the fact of the matter is that meditation isn't this feeling."
~ BLOG: Is There Such a Thing as Integral Shamanism? (TRANSCRIPT) -- Interesting read for those who care about shamanism.
~ What we let go of -- "When we deepen into who and what we are - notice more of the wholeness of who we are as individual human and soul, notice what we are as Ground (awake void), and work with this in our human life - it is also a process of letting go of identifications and beliefs. This takes many forms. We let go of…"
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Some things I am grateful for today:

1) I am grateful that I slept for nearly seven hours last night. It's amazing how a good night's sleep can make everything more clear, even the things I don't want to see.

2) I am grateful that I sometimes have the self-awareness to make hard choices. I have learned in the last year that ignoring reality is not conducive to happiness.

3) I am grateful that I now know what I want and need in a relationship. As I move forward with my life, as I now must, I have a higher standard that must be met for me to be happy.

What are you grateful for?
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Quote of the day:

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
~ Soren Kierkegaard

Image of the day:


BODY
~ How To Stimulate Maximal Fat Loss -- "Everything you wanted to know about how to bring those abs to the surface, and, given that it's Dave Barr, even some stuff you didn't want to know."
~ My one year re-birthday -- "At 10am one year ago I was on the tenth floor of the UCLA hospital having just finished a week of intensive chemotherapy that brought my blood count close to zero. At 10am the medical team performed a stem cell transplant. They call it "Day Zero" - the day you are literally "reborn" from a cellular level."
~ Studies may link athletes and hypothyroidism -- "My mood was great, my weight was fine, and my running times had never been better – I was in the best shape of my life. So why was I in my doctor’s office, being told I had hypothyroidism? How does a 21-year-old, daily runner with energy to spare wind up on medication to treat a condition commonly associated with middle age, lethargy and weight gain?"
~ Diet And Exercise Key To Surviving Breast Cancer, Regardless Of Obesity, New UCSD Study Says -- "Breast cancer survivors who eat a healthy diet and exercise moderately can reduce their risk of dying from breast cancer by half, regardless of their weight, suggests a new longitudinal study from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD)."
~ Fun Ways to Get Fit -- "We've got activities for every interest and every location. Get outside and get in shape."
~ Personal Trainers Beneficial In Or Out Of The Gym - Study Finds In-Home Personal Training Also Effective -- "Personal fitness training doesn't have to take place in a gym to have worthwhile health benefits or increase motivation, according to a study presented at the 54th American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Meeting in New Orleans." I could have told them that -- I have several in-home clients.
~ Study: Cereal Aids Recovery After Exercise - Breakfast Cereal And Milk May Be Better Than Sports Drink -- "Whole-wheat flake cereal and nonfat milk may facilitate recovery after exercise at least as well as a specialized sports drink, according to research presented in New Orleans at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Researchers hope the findings will help home exercisers who may find it convenient to grab a post-workout snack from their kitchen." I can see the Wheaties commercial now . . .
~ Dietary Preferences And Patterns May Be Linked To Genes -- "The relative amount of protein, carbohydrate, and fat that people choose to eat may be influenced by genetics, according to new research." This is why cookie-cutter diet approaches don't work. I thrive on very carbs, while others I need need lots of carbs to feel good.
~ Over-the-Counter Weight Loss Drug Approved -- DON'T DO IT -- this drug sucks.


PSYCHE
~ Yoga Improves Concentration, Motivation - Benefits Beyond Strength And Flexibility -- "Practicing yoga can lessen anxiety, heighten concentration and improve motivation in as little as eight weeks, according to research presented in New Orleans at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Researchers sought to quantify benefits that go beyond the strength and flexibility typically associated with yoga in the western world."
~ Women like guys who look like dear old dad -- "Women who got along well with their dads as kids are attracted to men who resemble their fathers, whereas women who had a bad father-daughter relationship do not."
~ Slow brain function linked with solo knee injuries -- "In a new study, researchers found measurable decrements in the brain function of intercollegiate athletes who sustained anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries that were not associated with a collision with another athlete or object." Interesting research, especially since I blew out my knee in a non-contact injury. It seems it was my brain's fault.
~ When Forgetting Is Good: Control Reductions at Retrieval [Developing Intelligence] -- "What was your 6th birthday party like? If you successfully retrieved that memory, you may now be ever so slightly less able to remember your other childhood birthdays. A variety of behavioral evidence has shown that such "retrieval induced forgetting" of strongly competing memories is fundamental to memory retrieval. In a new article in Nature Neuroscience, Kuhl et al. provide neuroimaging evidence which ties retrieval-induced forgetting to activity in prefrontal cortex."
~ Guide to Psychology Blogs - Part 4 -- "Here is part four of the most accessible psychology blogs on the internet. Read part 1, part 2 and part 3."
~ The First Instinct Fallacy -- "Test-takers: Your gut response isn't always right."
~ Judgment Under Fire -- "Decision-making when you're under pressure."
~ Codependency – When Caring Becomes Self-Destructive -- "Many of the characteristics of codependency sound like good qualities – caring, nurturing, unselfish and devoted. Some codependent behaviors are well-intentioned. But people in codependent relationships can quickly spiral into destructive, dysfunctional patterns of behavior."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Americans More Likely to Believe in God Than the Devil, Heaven More Than Hell -- "Roughly 9 in 10 Americans believe in God or a universal spirit, while fewer than 10% are firm in their belief that there is no God. Eighty-one percent of Americans believe in heaven. At the same time, 7 in 10 profess belief in the Devil and in hell. These updates of Americans' beliefs were measured in a May 10-13, 2007, Gallup poll survey."
~ Majority of Republicans Doubt Theory of Evolution -- "The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life. This suggests that when three Republican presidential candidates at a May debate stated they did not believe in evolution, they were generally in sync with the bulk of the rank-and-file Republicans whose nomination they are seeking to obtain."
~ New "Cheese Heroin" Threatens Youths -- "Cheese is a mix of derivatives from over-the-counter medicines like Tylenol PM and adulterated heroin, two sedatives that can combine to stop the heart."
~ Is Wis.dm Your Next Web Obsession? -- "Answer yes or no. This new social-networking site is based upon your responses to all kinds of questions."
~ Anti-War Marine Gets General Discharge -- "Marine Who Was Caught in Uniform at War Protest Gets Discharge 1 Notch Below Honorable."
~ House Passes Post-Virginia Tech Gun Bill -- "The House passed what could become the first major federal gun control law in more than a decade. The bill was spurred by the Virginia Tech killings and buttressed by help from the NRA. The bill would improve state reporting in background checks."
~ Twinkies Go Bananas: Hostess Turns Back Time for the Spongy Sweet -- "Company Returns Twinkie Filling to WWII-Era Flavor [banana cream]; Vanilla Creme No Longer Available."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Bacteria ferry nanoparticles into cells for early diagnosis, treatment -- "Researchers at Purdue University have shown that common bacteria can deliver a valuable cargo of "smart nanoparticles" into a cell to precisely position sensors, drugs or DNA for the early diagnosis and treatment of various diseases."
~ Human activities increasing carbon sequestration in forests -- "Human-caused nitrogen deposition has been indirectly “fertilizing” forests, increasing their growth and sequestering major amounts of carbon, a new study in the journal Nature suggests."
~ Plants recognize their siblings, biologists discover -- "The next time you venture into your garden armed with plants, consider who you place next to whom. It turns out that the docile garden plant isn`t as passive as widely assumed, at least not with strangers. Researchers at McMaster University have found that plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but they`re accommodating when potted with their siblings."
~ Top fossil hunter finds giant bird-like dinosaur -- "One of the world's top fossil hunters unveiled a previously unknown gigantic, chicken-like dinosaur Wednesday that may change evolutionary theory on prehistoric animals."
~ Next Generation Bulb: Aluminum Foil? -- "Thin panels made from aluminum foil, sapphire and gas offer efficient light."
~ Century-Old Weapon Found in Whale -- "A 130-year-old whale took a hit a century ago, but wasn't killed until last month."
~ Tibet To Ban Gold Mining To Protect the Environment -- "Local officials in Tibet plan to ban the mining of gold, mercury, arsenic and peat to preserve mineral resources and protect the environment, state media reported Wednesday."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ PODCAST: The Joshua Bell Experiment, part III -- "World-class musicians aren’t supposed to be street performers. But that is just what violinist Joshua Bell was in a recent impromptu performance in a subway stop in the American capital city. The reactions of the commuters were … interesting, as documented by the Washington Post."
~ Selfishness is "Heaven and Hell" -- "Now I don't believe in a physical, separate "Hell" or "Heaven" from the ones that we create and live in right here, right now. However, I agree with this parable in the sense that it points out the problems that come from being selfish, dualistic and trying to fight the Universal Law of inter-dependency and co-arising."
~ 5 Question Interview Series with Mike Weir -- "Michael Weir is the owner of Heritage Hypnotherapy Center located in Pittsburgh PA. Michael is a certified hypnotherapist with a personal mission to “empower each and every client to reach their highest goals”. His motto is “the answers are within”. Michael has graciously agreed to take part in my on going “5 Question Interview Series”."
~ As the family goeth, so goeth the character of God -- "This is a provocative article in Policy Review, that challenges the common notion that the so-called “modern age” or “modernity” leads to secularization and thus reduced religious and theological awareness and participation."
~ SCENE: Hurts More, Bothers You Less -- "A new video has been uploaded to YouTube, entitled Hurts More, Bothers You Less. When we taste the infinite Absolute of consciousness, the world is seen just as it is--radiant, perfect, and whole. The relative, however, does not cease to be. Quite the contrary, the pains and pleasures of our relative lives are intensified to an unimaginable degree."
~ Strength program -- "As mentioned in another post, I see this very clearly in the form of bodywork I am doing, where both the terminology and practices are great at the centaur and soul level (and allows for a continuing deepening here), but also create a ceiling for anything beyond - for unraveling beliefs and patterns which reveals what we are as Ground. It is fully possible to have a system that focuses on the centaur and soul levels, yet is transparent to and aligned with what is beyond."
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Some things I am grateful for today:

1) I had a light day today, which I needed. It's good to have some down time when things are rough.

2) I am grateful for my (newish) friend Susan.

3) I am grateful for old episodes of The West Wing. I own all seven seasons, but the first four are especially good medicine when I am down. They both make me laugh (and laughter is the best medicine) and inspire me.

4) And finally, I am grateful for a friend who wrote to me last night to let me know that my gratitude post last night was not humble -- in fact, it was filled with hubris, the exact opposite of humility and gratitude. He wasn't as blunt as that, but he was right. And I am grateful for the much-needed slap upside the head. There is compassion, and then there is idiot compassion. Sometimes true compassion is speaking hard truths, and I am grateful that he exercised some true compassion.

What are you grateful for?
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Beautiful . . . . Amazing . . . .