Exploring the core of Well-Being at TEDMED2012

Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 April 2012 09:37 Written by Urban Zen Wednesday, 18 April 2012 09:36

Under the watchful eyes of the famous Robert Berk bust of John F. Kennedy, 1500 people gathered at The Kennedy Center to participate in TEDMED 2012.

Although this is the third year that Urban Zen has hosted our UZIT Sanctuary at TEDMED, it is the first year of the conferences “Great Challenges Program”, which allowed 2012 Delegates and the tens of thousands of TEDMEDLive viewers to vote on the 20 most complex and pressing challenges facing health and medicine today. These challenges will be explored throughout the next 12 months to achieve a multi-disciplinary understanding that is critical to tackling them via interviews with leaders from a variety of professions in a series of webinars to be posted by TEDMED.

Perhaps the most exciting collaboration between the Urban Zen Foundation and TEDMED is still ahead as the 2012 TEDMED committee has voted and the clear priority of all 20 challenges is the importance of wellness programs. Excitingly, number 22 on the voting ballot, “Inventing Wellness Programs that Work,” is a victory for everyone. From patients to caregivers and employers to employees, wellness – not illness – is the priority.

TEDxWomen: Reimagining Resilience, Relationships & Rebirth

Last Updated on Monday, 12 December 2011 10:44 Written by Donna Karan Monday, 5 December 2011 06:43

Attending the 2011 TEDxWomen conference offered a powerful platform to experience the fearlessness of women. After participating in the conference last year, I welcomed the opportunity to attend and absorb as much as I could from the amazing women who took the stage to share their insights on the topics of resilience, relationships, rebirth and reimagine.

What always moves me about the structure of the TED conferences is the intimacy and connectivity of it – I loved the brilliant curation of women and the complex subject matter. Hearing the individual stories of such a diverse group of women at this year’s TEDxWomen truly shed a light on how much we have to learn from our shared experiences. In fact, this beautiful eighth grade student named Claire Sannini particularly moved me. Claire was a speaker on the resilience panel and shared her personal and painful story of not fitting in, being excluded from the “popular cliques,” and finding her own voice. I know this story well – as a child, I certainly didn’t feel like I belonged, but it was also this discomfort that sent me on the journey of discovering my own power. Claire’s story really brought it home for me.

Exploring Innovative Healthcare at TEDMED

Last Updated on Thursday, 3 November 2011 07:55 Written by Urban Zen Thursday, 27 October 2011 01:40

Day 1:

Day one at TEDMED inspired the same anticipation of registration day in college. Repeat TEDMED guests were excited to see familiar faces and newcomers looked tentative as they found their way to badges, gift bags and daily schedules.

The first session began in the evening and lasted briefly, but long enough to inspire and ignite the audience. A theme of “personal medicine” emerged as speakers such as Ger Brophy of GE Healthcare spoke of advanced diagnostics that tell patients not just the geography of their cancer, but the cellular nature of their disease which enables physicians to reject traditional treatment and embrace other options based on the patients’ DNA, creating a truly “personalized” treatment.

Eythor Bender Ekso Bionics demonstrated “personal” robotics, worn like clothing, that enable paraplegics to walk with independence.

And finally, Juan Enriquez spoke of the shift within the pharma industry from research and discovery to mergers and marketing. With an average cost of $1.3billion to bring a new medicine to the market, delays are costing lives, including tropical diseases like malaria. Enriquez closed the evening by adding that until we decide if “regulation is just right or too tight” new drugs that will enable “personalized” medicine will never exist.

The Audacity to be Truly Happy

Last Updated on Sunday, 5 June 2011 01:27 Written by Urban Zen Tuesday, 24 May 2011 06:11

Last night, the Urban Zen Foundation hosted its fourth installment of facilitated conversations about Sustainable Wellness with Dr. Frank Lipman. Yoga luminary Elena Brower and life coach extraordinaire Lauren Zander were our panelists for this special evening. Our guests had arrived to hear these two gurus speak on cultivating true happiness in our lives. By the end of the night, their thoughts on personal triumphs and tribulations illuminated a journey of self-discovery which is universal to the human condition. An ever present quest for joy in a world filled with distractions, desires, and disappointments.

Dr. Lipman introduced the two women as “liberating, freeing” forces in a society where conglomerates of corporate corruption and hegemonic materialism reign supreme. The discussion, Dr. Lipman explained, is meant as a saving grace for all those “beaten down by the system.” Our current civilization is undergoing a “wellness revolution” where “we must be revolutionary to be healthy.” More and more people are beginning to realize the impact of holistic health. Most importantly, this holistic view of wellbeing is one of seamlessness. The demarcated lines separating Mind and Body are blurred by the advent of integrative practices ushered in by the Functional Medicine movement. In this age, scientists are now using epigenetics—the interconnectivity of lifestyle, environment, D.N.A.—to unravel the mysterious ties binding health and happiness with diet and exercise.

TED Talk Auditions

Last Updated on Wednesday, 8 June 2011 07:29 Written by Sonja Nuttall Friday, 20 May 2011 07:28

On Tuesday, May 24th, TED curator Chris Anderson and the rest of the TED team extended an invitation to a new kind of TED event. The TED team was holding auditions for the next round of TED speakers. Attending TED every year on behalf of Urban Zen is always a very special experience for me so this was truly a night I will never forget.

The auditions took place at the Maritime Hotel. The talks were intimately performed on a small stage with no set, as opposed to a massive auditorium with a huge set. We were given score cards and asked to rate the speakers on a scale of one to five. What a great way to get the TED community involved in an earlier phase of the experience.

The talks were incredibly inspiring. TED is a remarkable way to witness bold innovation and heart from passionate speakers, and this drastically different setting made the talks even more impactful. Of course, having a huge audience at the conference helps stir up excitement, yet the experience of seeing the talks in this new way was truly stirring. The speakers brought forth so much power from within and the messages resonated very deeply. Congratulations to everyone.

The entire evening was groundbreaking. It’s a very special thing to be able to add insight in a way that will only help to make the upcoming TED event even more powerful for everyone. A huge thank you to Chris Anderson for cultivating this very special community and allowing me the opportunity to further enhance the TED experience. I very much look forward to attending more events like this in the future and reporting back. We at Urban Zen are huge supporters of the TED community and always look forward to sharing more and more TED moments.