I don’t even know where to begin, to explain the experience I just had in New Orleans these past few days. Urban Zen Foundation hosted a Well-Being Lounge at Eve Ensler’s VDAY/SuperLove celebration of VTOTHETENTH. Over 30,000 women came to the Superdome - it was their first time back since they were housed there in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. First when I arrived, it was truly a profound experience to be in the building that was so seriously part of the recent history of our country. I am sensitive that way. When Donna’s husband, Stephan Weiss first passed away - it took me a year to walk into his studio (where I now work out of) without shedding a tear. There is something about monumental buildings, whether personal or deeply special, that sends chills down my spine. Anyhoo..Upon arrival, the UZF team worked in an insane and intense amount of time to make this lounge into an Urban Zen-esq experience for the women of the Gulf to get a taste of what our healing methods are all about. Massage, yoga, nutrition and aromatherapy were the 4 modalities that were represented.  We had arranged for 150 therapists/yoga teachers/aromatherapists from around the country to volunteer and pamper these women with love and attention. We set the room up with massage tables, yoga mats, a nutrition bar where we served fresh watermelon and mint juices. I believe that 5,000 women walked thru our door. By day 2, other lounges merged with ours, as we were full of foot traffic. Our friends and sponsors like nutritionists Kris Carr of Crazy Sexy Life and Jill Pettijohn of www.jillpettijohn.com held the juice bar along side the Tsalon who served chilled tea, Gaiam donated the yoga mats, my beloved Young Living Oils were a huge hit offering these ladies essential oil education and bottles to go home with, and so on. Dr. Jamie Naughright, Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman really made this healing event exemplify Urban Zen’s purpose. Even a few of our UZIT’s (Urban Zen Integrative Therapists as Jamie calls them) showed up from New York. We are in the process of training them to go into Beth Israel Medical Center as we speak.. the pilot program that was launched at the Well-Being Forum a year ago next month.Simultaneously, on the main floor, inspirational speakers, dancers, and a plethora of special women and some men got up on stage and spoke about the hope that the audience can have for the future. I think assuring the women that they were not alone…and support was there…was evident in every woman who walked out of that room. It was so powerful. This was the second VDAY event that I’ve been apart of. The first was back in 2004 where I produced a poster ad campaign for www.50millionwomenvote.orgкомпютри, which was in partnership with my client at the time, Moveon.org. Everyone from Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinhem, Isabella Rossellini to Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Carlton took the picture for the poster ad. It was a blast to produce. I cherish Eve Ensler and her team, Susan Swan, Purva Pandy and Cecile Lipworth. Not to mention the phenomenal event producers Kevin Sanford, Ed Murphy and Doug Cook who without UZF couldn’t have accomplished what it did. Working a 72-hour stretch with maybe 6 hours of sleep in total, is always a spanking to my mind, body and soul but I did my best to help out… I was “on loan” for this event as I am knee deep in producing our Spirituality for Kids event next month but it didn’t matter – it felt like a mini- Well-Being Forum level of physical labor that was exerted. My co-worker Yonghee Joe was magnificent at setting up the whole space. However when I saw these women, who basically have so little, get their first massage in life, I know that, no matter what my circumstances are. I would have done a 144 hour stretch with 12 hours sleep for them to have this experience and hopefully transform their lives, even in a small way.Oddly, a man came in at 730am on day 2 and just showed up. He was big and burly with a strong southern accent. He came right to me as I was hanging the RAISE AWARENESS INSPIRE CHANGE signs all over the door and said, “I heard what y’all were doing down here”.. I said “yes” – and, then, with his big heart wide open and a profound tear in his eye, said “I am so humble for what you are doing for my city, that I came here to help you!” and he started hanging signs with me. He has NO idea how much he affected me and at the end of the day, I gave him a big smile full of pure love and admiration. I heard tons of stories this weekend where my heart was wrenched.  And, for some reason, the hope in this man’s being was just beautiful to me that I know I am meant to help others in this lifetime. Another special moment related to a circle of humorous, loud women (kinda stuck out in our mellow zone of healing), they just looked so full of life.  I was walking by and this woman in a bright yellow top was screaming in her fun Southern accent, “We are SISTAHS helping SISTAHS!” Again…a giggle came from within. My other favorite memory was when I had been in charge of playing Gabrielle Roth’s music in the lounge throughout the event, and DK’s delicious healer, Ruth Pontvianne changed out the music for a few hours.  Suddenly, in the most chill, quiet, rhythmic time Brazilian hip hop started blasting thru the speakers… I jumped so high to change it back J it was hilarious! PS Gabrielle Roth danced on the main stage for what she called “15 Minutes of Ecstasy” – she had all the ladies in the audience up, out of their chairs sweating and MOVIN’ THEIR BODIES! The energy just lifted, I wanted her to do it again and again it was soooo much fun!Two more personal highlights of the weekend…when I first got onto the main floor of the Superdome, my eye caught a film crew off to the side shooting Eve … Now imagine this HUGE stadium, 3x the size of Madison Square Garden in my mind and as my eyes focus in.. I see my beloved Barbara Kopple, the two-time Academy Award Winning Director for whom I was fortunate enough to produce her Hamptons Mini-Series for ABC Television 7 years ago.. I hadn’t seen her for a few years and lets just say it was a personal LOVEFEST for me as well. Then, at the after party of the Vagina Monologues performance on Saturday night, I had seen the beautiful actress, Kerry Washington, who just left the stage. Kerry and I have had a very fun history between us, as years ago she used to come to all of my Moveon.org events. We would always smile at each other back then. Well.. about four years ago my dad had called me and said, “Rach – do you know this young actress.. Kerry Washington?”, I said , “Um Dad.. she was at my event last night.. why?” Turns out that our dads were the bestest of friends to the point where her parents were at my parents’ wedding (who have been divorced for 33 years).  So, when Kerry and I saw each other at the party, after not seeing each other after that connection had been made, we were huggggggginggggggg. A Katrina victim came up to us in the midst of it and started telling us her story…she had lost her husband, her son, her cousin and 3 other important people in her life in the hurricane… she was telling us about the hardship of how FEMA had only given her $350 and now they are trying to get her money back. Kerry and I were squeezing each other from this…and again.. I felt how fortunate I was…and, even more so, I know even more that my mission in life is to act as a AGENT OF CHANGE for as many people as I can, no matter at what levels I can have an impact. Now I wasn’t going down to New Orleans and not experiencing the hurricane’s streets firsthand. I was fortunate that I had first visited this incredible city a few weeks before Katrina hit, and had made a few friends there. At that time, I was dating a man from New Orleans, with whom I still remain close, so it was such an important thing for me to go back there. When the hurricane first hit, I was still a publicist for my family’s PR firm and I instantly I started a clothing drive for Anthony and my friend Angela’s family and friends, out of my own office in NYC. I worked nights, weekends, got FEDEX accounts donated and did what I could to immediately send relief to the few I had in my close range because, really, who knew where the bigger relief engines donations were ending up. I’m not hating on them but if you know me, I’m very hands-on and I feel better when I’ve touched someone as closely, and personally, as possible. So, before my flight home on Sunday, in my utter exhaustion, my dear friend Angela drove me thru the 9^th Ward and it was so profound. First, because she had lived it and thankfully her family gotten out before the hurricane hit.  Anyway, the sadness of seeing the deserted, desolate streets of broken down houses and signs on the homes saying “2 DEAD DOGS HERE” or “AMERICA NEEDS HELP”, were so mind-blowing! It was smacked in my face that this is what is going on in my country and I thought what is our government doing about it. How could we be spending TRILLIONS in Iraq, yet we can’t save one of America’s great cities…and its people…our citizens.  I had ANGER inside. Then a Porsche convertible with the top down with music blasting drove by us. I thought to myself “Are you kidding me?” Then I saw a couple playfully riding their bicycles thru the barren streets.. And I thought to myself.. What’s next? Disney???? As I arrived at the airport and reality set in, that once again, I had this life-altering experience on many challenging and celebratory levels, a solid representation of the wonderful people that were on my journey this weekend were on the plane with me. Gabrielle, Barbara, her crew (which included David Hocs, a sound man I’ve known for 10 years whose shoulder thankfully was my pillow on the flight home), Kevin and even the queen of the weekend herself, Eve Ensler. I sat diagonally behind this incredible visionary of a woman wondering what must have been going thru her mind.. and how she was completely glowing from her baby (VDAY) being all grown up! I caught eye to her New Balance sneakers for some odd reason and thought to myself throughout the flight, I hope  I can walk in those comfortable shoes one day and hands-on effect the world as she did. What an inspiration!!!! 

One of the recurring questions at holiday celebrations is: How to stay centered in your family when all the forces around (and in) you join to keep you caught in the same old roles and repeating patterns?

After twenty-five years of the self-help movement, we all know a heckuva lot about ourselves as individuals, but not enough about the collective forces impacting us—or how to address them. It crops up at family holiday gatherings—big time.
With each passing year as you face the same challenges, you begin to wonder: Even each one of our family-derived issues seem unique and individual, when you look around, it’s obvious how widespread such problems are.

The Buddhist psychologist John Welwood (author of Love and Awakening) once told me that a group of Buddhist psychologists met privately with the Dalai Lama to explain the troubled nature of American family life. As His Holiness first realized that so many Americans suffered with isolation and family problems, he began to weep for us. His compassion touched me, but also revealed that the alienation and negative family patterns many experience are in part universal, but also a byproduct of modern life.

What factors cause so many people to suffer from “family problems”? What could relieve them?

The mass immigrations of the last hundred years, along with industrialization, and the globalization of corporate values, have severed our connection to native lands and culture, while also weakening family ties. The end result is that each of us habitually winds up as an isolated consumer of information, ideas, and products. The same solo mentality kicks in even when it comes to healing and spirituality.

The old mantra, think globally, act locally has given way to the view that local and global are intrinsically interactive. But what’s less well known is that in the psycho-spiritual continuum– so are the personal and the collective as I discuss on my website www.collectiverealm.com (where I also offer workshops in a unique method that comes from Europe and addresses unresolved issues in the great family.)
Seeking healing and spiritual wisdom as individual goals, rather than collective transformation, may not be not as effective as some hope. It’s like when the food supply is contaminated, your individual power to eat healthy food will be lessened, despite your best intentions.

While I’m all in favor of positive intention, it may be over-emphasized because we’ve forgotten or lost the tools used in the past in nearly all societies to access collective transformation. Imagine a gospel choir raising the roof. Something special happens when people are united—making holidays a special opportunity for healing—if only we knew how to make it happen.
Both hurt and healing start in relationships, specifically in ours with our families. Much of the suffering in our families we trace to “poor parenting.” But nobody sets out to be a “poor parent.” Along with genetic makeup, parents transmit what was passed to them. Or they compensate for it sometimes to even worse effect.

Where did it all begin? Usually, with traumatic events in our ancestry that were never addressed. With the breakdown of traditional societal structures, our ancestors lacked support in coping with tragedies when they occurred. In the post-tribal, pre-psychological era, if someone died young, went into exile, murdered someone, or abandoned the family, people stiffened their lips and moved on. But surviving isn’t the same as coming to terms.

As a result, past unresolved suffering creates what I consider a kind of ongoing Family Karma. The attitudes, patterns, inner imperatives, and pain become ingrained. That Family Karma penetrates both the atmosphere and interactions in our family (as jeu casino onlinegagner au casino en ligne,gagner au casino,methode pour gagner au casinoenquete eurobarre casino on netblack jack mocasino slot machineroulette anglaise r�gles du jeux,roulette anglaise,la roulette anglaisecasino games 2007jeu baccarat en ligneblack jack regolecasino jeux en franceeuro vip casinocasino jeux d argentbonus de casino sans depotcasino virtuel,casino en line,online casinowww produits casino frcasino poker en lignejeux baccarat gratuitesjeux casino poker gratuites ,jeux casino gratuit,telecharger jeux de casino gratuitesblog casino en lignecasino gratuites demojack black king kongcasino jeux argentinternet casinowww jeux casino comhttp www casinojeux gratuitsjeux gratuitesjeu pcregles du poker texas holdspielbank,spiel bank,realistische spielbankholdem poker softwarepoker game downloadenpoker net downloaddeutsche online pokerdraw poker spielregelntexas holdem kostenlos downloadspiele bankstrep poker on linegioco carteno deposit bonus pokertornei di poker gratisomaha holdgioco poker texanotavolo multigicotori pokerstrategie texas holdemstreap pokerstrip poker pcgiochi da pokerpoker texas holdem on linestrategie poker well as our psyche) so pervasively that resolving (or even seeing) that Karma isn’t any easier than climbing out of one’s own skin.

But what if at this holiday, instead of toughing it out, going it alone, or bowing out, you take the time to ask about your family history and listen with an open heart to both what is spoken and what remains unspoken? Where did they come from? What did they suffer? What were their lives like before you and this modern world ever existed? Were there tragic losses, heart-breaking separations? Were people left behind in guilt or shame? Were wrongdoings committed or denied?

When you look beyond your individual perspective to the Collective to which you belong, truth is revealed, and healing happens.

Place a friendly hand on the knots of the past, mourn the losses together, honor the forgotten, and atone for wrongdoing by sharing with those in need. Welcome the forgotten, and the outsider to your table. Bow to painful fates. For unknown, deceased, or highly difficult ancestors, don’t forget to feel gratitude for the gift of life they passed along to you. Doing any of these things will repattern your experience of the family collective and begin to transform karma into belonging, compassion and wholeness. – Alison Rose Levy

Assembled in New York City to be honored as Pioneers of Integrative Medicine by the Bravewell Collaborative, (a foundation directed by Christy Mack and devoted to promoting integrative health care), Andrew Weil, MD, and Larry Dossey, MD. and four more of this country’s leading integrative doctors dialogued candidly among themselves over lunch. What is the calling of a physician in today’s world? What must integrative medicine address to care for peoples’ health? I was fortunate to be a fly on the wall—or to be more accurate, the journalist with the tape recorder. These distinguished doctors with nearly four decades of research and clinical experience, had so much to say to each other. I sat and listened.

“Medicine comes out of a human tradition that’s passed on, from generation to generation. It aims to encourage what’s most important, what’s most authentic in each of us, and to find ways to maintain that in the face of the forces of dissipation, greed, acquisition, hatred, and the dualism of us vs. them,” offered Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, whose pioneering work with Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction has helped to clarify the scientific efficacy of mind-body medicine.

“Fun, love and pleasure are sustainable, fear, pain and guilt are not, and that’s true on a personal and a corporate level,” said Dean Ornish, MD, whose research has demonstrated that heart disease can be reversed through diet and lifestyle changes.

“When something’s wrong in the collective consciousness, it takes a toll psychologically and physically,” psychiatrist James Gordon, MD, the first chair of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy told his peers.

“The body politic is diseased. The body politic is ailing. If we only address health care on the individual level and not on the organizational, corporate, or social level, then it’s self-defeating. Medicine lies nested in a much larger culture and can’t move freely,” said Kabat-Zinn. “A shift needs to happen on multiple levels simultaneously. We’re at a crisis point.”

The pioneering physicians shared the view that the current crisis in health and hospital care arises, in part, from flawed infrastructures.

“We have ten to twelve million children without medical insurance. This happens in no other civilized, first-world country,” said Larry Dossey, MD, an internationally recognized advocate of the role of the mind and of spirituality in health care.

“[Through subsidies] the government has made unhealthy foods cheap and healthy foods expensive. Our priorities for health reimbursement are reversed. We reimburse costly surgeries and drugs, but don’t support the doctors talking to patients to prevent the need for surgery,” Andrew Weil MD, who trains integrative physicians, pointed out.

“If we don’t inquire into the cause but only bypass a problem, then we haven’t really solved anything,” offered Ornish. “The cause of suffering is viewing ourselves as separate. That will backfire because the truth is that we are all connected, so what affects one of us, affects us all.”

“Whether in medicine, or the body politic, a mis-diagnosis results in a mis-treatment.  Far worse than cancer, heart disease, or chronic pain, is chronic ignorance that’s blind to what’s fundamental in life,” said Kabat-Zinn.

“It’s not our diseases that are going to kill us, it’s our beliefs. In the 14th century, the physician Maimonides, offered a prayer,” said Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, who trains physicians in the art of caring. ““Inspire me with love for all of thy creatures. May I see in all who suffer only a fellow human being.”

Medicine is about creating a place of refuge no matter who you are,” said this noted healer and author, whose courses are offered in sixty medical schools nationwide, “Whatever your age, your race or your religion—your suffering matters. And when that place of refuge disappears no one is safe anywhere in the world.”

The six Pioneers with nearly two centuries of leading health care practice among them agreed on the prescription: Balance, well-being, integrity, health of the body politic, the embodiment of compassion, and freedom are the fundamentals. True freedom reveals itself in simple things we take for granted.

Kabat-Zinn points to “a sense of safety when you go to the hospital, a sense of well-being in your own body. Freedom means not having to wonder what’s being done in your name.”

“We have a lot of work to do,” Dossey acknowledged.

“It’s really about collaboration and it’s a conspiracy of love—so I feel grateful to the Bravewell Collaborative for the opportunity to be with agent provocateurs,” told Ornish the group.

(More of this conversation is on my ezine at: www.health-journalist.com)

Copyright, 2007, Alison Rose Levy. All rights reserved.

This elegant crowd included event MC Mehmet C. Oz, MD, the leading surgeon, bestselling author, and Oprah regular (who with his striking wife Lisa was clearly in his element), designer Donna Karan (stunning in black with an armful of bangles) and many household name doctors from both coasts. As we dined on healthy herb-crusted halibut, I had to wonder: If these donors and prominent physicians are worried about America’s health care system, shouldn’t we all be? (For more on this issue: www.health-journalist.com)

Personally, it was one of the most anticipated days/nights that I have had all year. I dont know what other event I have been more excited for, as being emmersed in this medical world for the first time in my life was never expected…On Thursday, the very respectable Bravewell Collaborative, founded by Christy Mack, Penny George, Bill Sarnoff, and Ann Lovell had their annual panel and gala. It is one of the organizations who our May Well-Being Forum raised money for. We targeted educational videos for the medical schools as to where our money went. Bravewell funds the schools with integrative medicine education. I have SO much respect for them.Anyhoo… the daytime panels consisted of a Q&A where Dr Mehmet Oz was the host. He is as purely brilliant, knowledgeable, well-spoken as the world sees him on Oprah. I am so genuinely fond of him and his wife Lisa. He was honoring the top 6 Bravewell doctors of the year. Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn who was the first honoree.. a soothing voice of hope for medicine that truly comes from a deep-rooted spiritual mindframe, I felt his energy warm the room up…what a way to open the day! Dr Jim Gordon, a panelist from our May forum, who has taken integrative medicine into targeted conflict areas in Bosnia, the Gaza Strip, and New Orleans, whose wisdom has always been something I have admired. Dr Rachel Noemi Remen, who since she was 15 years old has battled Crohns disease and has taken her disease into a lifelong education of the medical system, wow-d DK, Sonja and I to no end. She was so heart-warming and eloquent.. All the power to her taking the female stance amongst this boys club. (I was fortunate to meet her with Sandra Gold of the Arnold P Gold Foundation, whom I love more than life.. and Dr Remen was purely excited about the Urban Zen Initiative and DK’s interest in raising awareness surrounding it. She assured me the importancy of having someone like DK speak their mind to the medical world so people hear her cry for it…it’s still always good to hear) Then, Dr Dean Ornish, his impact on the medicare system accepting alternative healthcare as well as getting McDonalds to have salad options is so beyond admirable but its amazing to know such a passionate man has effected so many in the mainstream world. Dr Andrew Weil, well- I must admit, I wanted to squeeze him! He was so adorable but besides that A BOTANIST - how fabulous is that - to have the knowledge of flowers, plants, essential earth essences combined with your medical wizardry..I now look forward to seeing his face in Origins and the healthfood stores… and finally Dr Larry Dossey… what an angel! I already adored his wife, nurse Dr Barbie Dossey of the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health, as she was a panelist, but to listen to her magnetic husband speak was such an honor.. His words stick with me.. ‘When things become unthinkable, things begin to stop, then things become mindless’… in other words KEEP THINKING! I had a interesting, trying week of highs and lows on so many personal and professional levels and woke up this morning finding solutions to the lows.. Im thinking Dr Dossey.. Im thinking!!!My love and gratitude to Christy Mack who has been a beautiful and incredible guide to me. She is from the state of North Carolina, which is my favorite place in this country where I lived for several months last year. But what Christy and her husband John have built at the new Duke Integrative Medicine building is absolutely phenomenal. My dream is to be able to live in both places so I can just have their veggie sandwich and be treated by Janet “Pokey” Schaeffer, my accupuncturist down there. What I would do for Dr Tracey Gaudet to deliver my baby one day.. still filling in the blanks in that equation …but there is hope for me.. haha (Check out Andre Leon Talley’s description of DIM in the November Vogue, page 100)I KNOW I am so fortunate to have to experience these world renowned doctors so intimately because of my job, but I have to say the highlight of my night, was when Sandra Gold told Dr Remen, while introducing us, that I am a “fighting force that will make my mark one day in this medical world” made me feel so good inside. Whoddathunk Id be in the medical world, I come from music, film, politics and event production. Encouragement like that, coming from a beloved, respected woman like that, just makes my body shake that I am surrounded by such royalty in the philanthropic world. Arnold is a lucky man!!! (he’s worthy of a whole other blog… I will write it one day) :) www.bravewell.org

I feel good! I feel strong! I feel happy! I feel focused! Why.. you may ask? I just did a 5day juice cleanse with Jill Pettijohn. Jill is a raw food nutritionist that we have known for years. She is amazing! Everyday for 5days, 6 juices were delivered to my office and every 2hours I had the most delicious drinks/soups. I was feeling tired, a bit rundown before I did the cleanse and now my energy levels are sky-high. I barely got hungry, and if I did, a glass of water did the trick. I want everyone in this world to feel this greatness. It was so much fun as my office who is filled with the brilliant clothing designers of the Urban Zen Collection did it with me and as a group we were laughing every moment we could on how good we felt. Never mind the fact that I lost 7lbs in 5days.. people say my skin is glowing.. I feel phenomenal!

Jill opened up Jill’s Cafe, a restaurant in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. www.jillpettijohn.com

Have I mentioned lately how much I love working at the Urban Zen Initiative? I get to tell all you wonderful people about the great, healthy experiences I have personally. I hope you get to practice them too…

When I first graduated college over a decade ago, all I wanted to do was make a difference in children’s lives. Funny, taking a job at Wilhelmina Models producing the Kids Search contest definitely did not fulfill my dreams other than making these children look better. I always wanted more. Life leads us through many difficult paths to get you to a place where satisfaction and excitement become a part of your everyday life. I AM FINALLY HERE!

I just returned from a 2 week trip to Israel and Jordan with the Urban Zen Initiative team. The holidays were so full of love and enlightenment and I feel so empowered and peaceful. The highlight of our trip was when we produced an Spirituality for Kids (SFK) event at the Ilana Goor Museum in Old Jaffa where we brought Israeli Muslim and Israeli Jewish kids together in arts, crafts, puzzles workshops that will hopefully effect these kids lives forever. Next month we are planning an event at the studio to raise consciousness and awareness and funds for SFK kids in New York and Los Angeles’ inner city schools as well as the Middle East and Africa. I was lucky enough to see a sneak peak of Madonna’s new documentary I AM BECAUSE WE ARE where she focuses on the lives of children from Malawi, showing the harsh realities of HIV/AIDS effecting them where the majority of these children are orphans as they lost their parents to the disease, showing the roadside torture that they go thru, showing the nitty gritty pain and suffering that these beautiful beings go thru because of poverty and then bringing the SFK program to them shedding light and hope into their lives. It is a incredible film!

Let me tell you more about this incredible organization I am so proud to be working with……

Spirituality for Kids (SFK) brings about sustainable change because it helps children to break the cycles and patterns that have existed for generations—cycles that lead to war, to poverty, and to transmission of disease.

As important as financial aid is to the worlds needs such as food, shelter, health and basic education, they do not address the root of the problem. In most cases we call it ‘victim consciousness’, where we claim that the child has no control of its future, doesn’t have a choice in the matter and that they are only the effect of their surroundings. It feels like why bother if they live in conditions of war, disease , gangs etc…

So what happens when the money runs out? What will have changed if the consciousness has not changed?

SFK addresses the core issue by helping children experience the spiritual truths that give them the hope and the help to impact their future.

They learn that their choices do impact them and the world around them.

They learn that they do have control over their destiny, because when they take control of their choices they take control of their future

They learn about cause and effect.

They learn that when you plant seeds ( in their actions and deeds) those seeds come back to them, in either positive or negative ways.

They learn that by caring and sharing, even if that sharing is no more then a smile, the unity that is created opens up avenues for options they never considered.

The power of the SFK curriculim is that it is not just taught, it is an experience. Over time the children apply and process what they learn so that it becomes a part of them.

The wider the scope of SFK education, the further the reach, the more we can get out there to affect more and more children in turn the greater the impact can be made, particularly in areas where cycles and patterns have existed for generations.

For

the first time SFK is part of the school curriculim in a school in Far Rockaway, Queens. Imagine that, English - First Period, Spirituality - Second Period, History - Third Period… THE WORLD IS READY FOR THIS CHANGE! Every school system around the globe should implement SFK into their curriculim. Id love your help spreading the word!

log onto www.sfk.org for more information…….

In love and light…

8pm, Wed, Aug 22, NYC

I think I got the bug that Rachel G. had last week.

Every time I fall sick, as few times as it happens–thank heavens, I do an important exercise of assessing why. I use the time between throbbing headaches, aching throat, and sniffing and sneezing, to consider what goop (kaph in ayurveda) I need to rid from my life, from my body-mind. In ayurveda, we talk about dushya, or the place in our body-mind where our tissues are weak and have a propensity for disease or imbalance. I work on strenthening that part of my being.

The circumstances contributed. It was a busy week, with the celebration of India’s 60th Independence. There were parties, clubbing, galas, a fashion show, and a parade. I was socializing and going formal every night. In addition, it was an auspicious lunar weekend and there was an important wedding to attend, someone I am very fond of. The wedding brought up all of my healing issues around marriages. Between being away for the weekend, late nights last week, lots of dancing, drinking, and general partying by night, and patients, meetings at the hospital, and writing deadlines by day, I was, ur, shall we say, overdoing it… And, though we overachieving doctors are accustomed to go for weeks on 20 hour days, in this world of toxins, my body needs more time to recover.

As soon as I returned home Sunday, I started Septilin, my favorite ayurvedic compound, that has guduchi, amalaki, licorice, manjishtha, and guggulu. It helped so I went back to my long schedule. I tumbled. My second favorite herb, a Chinese formula called Nazanol by Metagenics and sold in the US, has skullcap, cinnamon, schizonepeta, astragalus, bai-zhu, siler root. It was good. I woke up with dried sinuses. So I continued for a long day. Again I tumbled.

The lesson comes slow for some of us. That’s why I had to go to school for so long, I joke. Today, I have laryngitis, and I am using the time to cleanse, rest, and sit at home, eat chicken soup, give myself oil massage, a gentle foot massage, and just BE good to myself. Also from Rachel: Thieves from Young Living oils.

The biggest thing I have learned about bridging the best of western medicine and eastern healing is self-care for the healer.

There is a wonderful new book published by Knopf called “Final Exam.” We wish it were required reading for every doctor in this country. The author is a surgeon, Pauline W. Chen, who specializes in liver transplants. Dr. Chen explains that she went into medicine because she wished to save lives and quickly discovered that death would play a much bigger part in her practice than she had ever considered. As time went on she became aware of how sadly inadequate treatment of the dying is in our hospitals; she witnessed countless examples of surgeons visiting and staying connected to a patient right up to the moment it became clear that the patient was not going to survive, would not be leaving the ICU. At that point, most doctors stop visiting and remove themselves from what remains of their patients’ lives whereas, Dr. Chen sees this is the most important time of all for a surgeon to stay connected. Most impressively, she is fearless regarding the exploration of her own failings of humanity in her treatment of certain patients. This book is a wonderful blueprint for desperately needed reform regarding the medical world’s relationship to death and dying.

Cynthia O’Neal
Friends In Deed
The Crisis Center for Life-Threatening Illness
www.friendsindeed.org

The number one question people ask me is, “What do you eat?” Good question! Hopefully my answer can help you.

I follow a vegan, mostly raw foods diet because it makes me feel fantastic. But let me be very clear, I have done my homework and know how to eat this way. You can be what I call a “muffin and carb only” vegetarian and feel pretty tired and lousy. In my experience, a vibrant and effective vegan or vegetarian diet means that the majority of your food source comes from vegetables. No, I’m not a nutritionist (yet) or a doctor, but I am a patient and a survivor and as I said before, today I feel great, yesterday I felt great and tomorrow I plan on feeling even better. I may have a stage IV cancer, but since I changed my diet and lifestyle I rarely get sick and I have endless energy. In many ways I am much healthier now than before I was diagnosed.

Now just because I focus on integrative approaches doesn’t mean I’m down on western medicine. Absolutely not, I want to do my part on “The Team Kris” healing journey. I want to help create a world where east meets west and complementary care is the mainstream.

So back to the tools, if you are interested in making some dietary changes, here’s an interesting approach that has really helped me. It’s called the acid/alkaline theory. The body maintains a delicate PH balance. By eating a more alkaline diet (greens, veggies, juicing) as opposed to an acidic diet (high in animal products, processed foods and starch) you are flooding your body with chlorophyll, oxygen, enzymes, vitamins and minerals. As the Nobel Prize winning genius Dr. Otto Warburg said, no disease can live in an oxygen rich environment. Now that’s food for thought! Another trick that helps is proper food combining. If you make digestion easier, your body will focus on other important things, like building your immune system. Not everyone wants to be a vegetarian so proper food combining will help you reap the benefits from whatever sound diet you choose.

What we eat, drink, and think has a powerful effect on our overall health. Forget cancer, these are difficult times, environmentally, socially and politically. We need all the love, care and support we can get. My motto: junk goes in junk comes out. Ya gotta focus on the garden and focus on the sunshine. If it’s invented in a laboratory it will take a laboratory to digest it!