tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54093947352090500162024-02-20T05:37:55.313-08:00Real World YogiIt's hard to be a yogi in the real world ...Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.comBlogger184125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-79339665935724922142021-07-08T13:51:00.006-07:002021-07-13T11:55:22.118-07:00Disenchanted Democrat<p style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 14.49px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Lately, I’ve been feeling a little soul sick over decisions that are made on our behalf; by “our”, I refer to Americans. I voted for Biden, not because I wanted to, but because I knew he was the only option for removing Trump, who I (still) believe to be a malignant personality.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The issues consuming me at the time of the election were children being taken from their families at the border and the disregard of the climate crisis. Even if I could go back, I would not vote for him, but Biden and the current administration have turned me decidedly, and for the first time in my voting life, against voting blue in the next election. Here's why.</span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">Loss of women's rights </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">This issue is simple. Transgender people have every right to identify as the gender of their choosing, and I should not be required to relinquish my rights as a woman to accommodate them. Women and girls should not be forced to use a women's restroom that men who identify as women are now, because of the Equality Act, legally allowed to use as well. Women and girls should not be forced to compete in sports against men and boys who identify as women and girls. I only have to point to the fact that there are men's teams and women's teams for the obvious reasons. If we all agree that Roger Federer playing against Serena Williams would not be a fair match, then we can all agree that men who identify as women should not compete against women. Insisting that transgender women are women does not negate the fact that transgender women are biological men <span style="font-size: 11pt;">who identify as women. That the democrats are leading the charge to steal women's rights in order to hand them to men who identify as women is to me a punch directly to the gut. Rather than respect women's rights, they are taking them away. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Any legislator referring to a woman as a "birthing person" or "non-transgender woman" is using hate speech toward women, because it's dehumanizing. These legislators are dangerous and need to be relieved of their power over the legislation all Americans live under. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">HIPAA</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">There are so many things wrong with the handling of the pandemic and its associated vaccines, I barely know where to begin. I guess I'll start with the democrats insisting we put blind trust into pharmaceutical companies' vaccines - the very same industry that pushed us to unprecedented levels of opioid dependency in a naked display of valuing profit over well-being. They then wonder what's with all the vaccine hesitancy. And doesn't requiring proof of vaccination go against the HIPAA laws that were at one time so fiercely protected? </span>I guess HIPAA was only a good idea when it was worth something politically. The fact that we were censored from voicing an obvious possibility, that the virus had leaked from the virology lab in the same location the virus was first detected, truly renders democrats a punchline.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">Don't get me wrong. I believe in science. Scientists are knowledgeable about the physical world, and we need their expertise. But we must also remember that they are people. They are fallible. They make mistakes, just as we all do. Research can be flawed. Of course we should question scientists and their work. No one is above questioning, especially when our lives are in the balance.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">Critical Race Theory</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">This is just sad. The "scholarship" this is based on isn't scholarship at all. It's someone's viewpoint, and a poorly constructed one at that. Convincing children of color that they are oppressed and should be angry about it is harmful to them, and their future prospects. If they are convinced the world is unfair and the odds are stacked against them, why work toward goals? Convincing white children that they are the recipients of unjustly acquired privilege, and that racism is written in their DNA is criminal. It's spreading a lie and poisoning souls.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Until now, the Democratic party always had my vote, if only because the Republican party has historically been a little too quick to declare war, a little too happy to sell the environment away to the highest bidder, and to use children as political tools in illegal immigration. But now the Democrats have lost my trust, and I don't see myself ever voting blue again.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #ffffe5; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I have started listening to some right-wing people, including Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro, and while I don't agree with everything they say, they are clearly smart, articulate, and motivated by doing the right thing. I would very happily vote for either one.</span></p>Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-42315382078789893722020-04-01T17:30:00.002-07:002020-04-01T17:35:10.589-07:00Messages to Our Higher SelfI had been noticing little messages before our current lockdown status about what I need to do to reach the next level of personal development, to become more fully who I am, and I think other people were having the same experience. I think the lockdown has driven the messages home a bit more, and I wonder if people are stopping to think about these messages. They are very simple, not grand changes. An example of a message I've noticed is, shifting your focus away from fear and toward love.<br />
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What messages have you been getting?<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeGeNYh8eX4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeGeNYh8eX4</a>Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-59442882277269670022020-03-30T06:08:00.001-07:002020-03-30T06:08:33.424-07:00Remember Who You AreIf you're feeling fearful, I want to remind you that this is not about fear. This is about remembering to be present while we are here. No one goes before their time; we will all live a long life. This is a reminder to make our life meaningful, to really know each other and appreciate each other and our beautiful earth.<br />
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I've recorded a short meditation if you need a reminder of how much bigger you are than this.<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRqSVFsyzQU">Guided Meditation for Remembering Who We Are</a>Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-38609894978463604162020-03-23T16:52:00.000-07:002020-03-23T16:52:20.107-07:00Theory of LifeI have a theory. It's not all worked out yet. It's more of an outline of a theory. Here goes.<div>
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We are all a part of God. We each incarnate as a unique bit of God so that God in us can experience life by having a physical body. </div>
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Why experience life if you're God? Not sure. Maybe because you can't fully know who you are unless you know who you are not. </div>
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Being incarnate, one can experience the delight-fulness of earth. The miracle of a strawberry. Of water. Of the earth and all she gives us as sustenance. These are all miracles you can't experience as spirit.</div>
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On the other hand, in heaven, there is no fear, only love. There is no body to feel pain or to suffer. We are pure spirit in heaven. There is only complete, unconditional, words-can't-describe love all around us. We never feel threatened, lonely, scared, none of it.</div>
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On earth, we have a body that can feel pain, and our fear of pain causes us to suffer. People cause other people and animals, and the earth, to suffer. The suffering of other people, animals and the earth causes many of us to suffer. When we suffer over our suffering, we create an aura of negativity around us, and in this aura of negativity that gets bigger and bigger with each new person who suffers, more suffering can and will be experienced.</div>
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If we, instead, delight in all there is to delight in life, if we know how blessed and loved and protected we are, if we know that we've been given life to experience miracles and divinity present in and on the earth, then we will have an aura of healing around us. And there can be no suffering in this aura of healing, only love, healing, and the awareness of how delightful all that we've been given is.</div>
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The more people who reach this awareness, the bigger the healing aura will be and the less suffering there will be. There can be no suffering in the presence of healing.</div>
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Once all of us enter into this space, then we will have heaven on earth. We will feel the complete, unconditional, words-can't-describe love, and at the same time be able to delight in the miracles of a physical life.</div>
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Maybe this is our calling in life. To be who we are as unique expressions of the divine, to know we are loved and adored, and to delight in the miracles of life.</div>
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Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-7022053218429230022020-03-20T12:29:00.002-07:002020-03-20T12:29:58.458-07:00Life is GoodI bet if we all could remember that life is good, we could make this thing go away.Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-87237276714798082792020-03-14T05:56:00.000-07:002020-03-14T05:56:19.858-07:00The Viral MessageAs you know, I believe in messages.<br />
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This morning in meditation, I asked covid-19 what its message is for us.<br />
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The virus disintegrated and out of it ran a million angry men in suits, all fighting to get their way. It's reflective of the current social environment, people are mean to each other and put each other down. The apex is the criminal-in-chief himself.<br />
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One man ran right up to my face in this meditation, anger spilling out of him. But I wasn't afraid. At all. I knew he had no power over me. He could do nothing. He was almost like a wax figure. When he came up to my face and screamed in my face to scare me and I didn't react, he started to cry.<br />
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And I knew it's all from fear.<br />
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People are so angry with each other out of fear of so many things.<br />
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Being fearless protects us.<br />
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By "fearless" I don't mean you go skydiving or to the jungle or something (unless you really want to). It means, you live in a state of joy, of wonder at the amazing gift of life and the earth we've been given. It means you find life and living delightful. It means you walk around in a cloud of stars.<br />
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We have created covid-19 from fear.<br />
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We can get rid of it by being fearless.<br />
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<br />Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-33925111961781298502020-03-12T06:45:00.002-07:002020-03-12T06:45:48.910-07:00Our Bodies Are AmazingLet's talk about coronavirus.<br />
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All of the communications I'm getting about the situation are fear-based and anticipatory, as if it's not a matter of "if" but "when".<br />
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The fear about this virus is the real virus.<br />
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Let's do an experiment and see what happens.<br />
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Let's all relax. Let's all know that our bodies are smart. Let's all know we are OK. Let's all check in with our bodies at the moment. Breathe. Close your eyes. Say, thank you, body, for being so brilliant for me, and vibrantly healthy. I love you, body. You are amazing!<br />
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We have two choices here: fear or love. It is up to us to choose. If we want to help tamp the panic, we can be fearless ourselves.<br />
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<br />Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-79985068888169448282020-03-09T15:35:00.002-07:002020-03-09T15:35:37.930-07:00IsolationThe coronavirus is like the culmination of where we've been heading socially. We interact on social media instead of in real life. Now the response to coronavirus is ensuring we stay apart even more.Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-13862959524570127772020-01-16T04:44:00.000-08:002020-01-16T04:44:50.492-08:00SymptomsI want to address the issue of fitness trainer Jillian Michaels talking about not celebrating the fact that the artist Lizzo is overweight.<br />
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Apparently, Jillian Michaels was talking to someone about how her weight-loss show, The Biggest Loser, wouldn't work today because we celebrate being overweight now, rather than view it as unhealthy, and the conversation involved Lizzo and the fact that she celebrates who she is, including her size.<br />
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Lizzo, I believe, took a break from social media following mean comments about her weight.<br />
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From what I understand, there is a lot of vitriol toward Jillian Michaels for saying what she did about Lizzo. To be clear, Jillian also said she and her daughter love Lizzo's music and think she's a great performer, she just doesn't pretend that Lizzo's being overweight is a good thing, because it's not, it's unhealthy.<br />
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I get why Lizzo would feel bad about this. It must be hurtful. But I also understand where Jillian Michaels is coming from. Being overweight is a symptom of a mistaken belief about oneself, and this symptom can harm the person's health and well-being. It stems from a person believing she/he does not have the right to shine, to be beautiful, just as smoking/vaping stems from the mistaken belief that a person does not have the right to breathe.<br />
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If we celebrate being overweight, if we make it OK, it's the same as celebrating smoking or alcoholism. These things are symptoms of a mistaken belief about oneself, and they should be addressed for what they are in a positive way.<br />
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There's a difference between being a bully and stating the obvious. A bully means to be hurtful, someone stating the obvious is just stating the obvious. We need to take the sting out of being overweight, being a smoker, an alcoholic or whatever, and treat the people who exhibit these symptoms with the kindness and understanding they deserve so that they can get to the heart of the issue and get better, rather than insist a symptom of a mistaken belief is OK. <br />
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The symptom of being overweight is a tricky one, because in our mass media society, the images of women we're led to believe are beautiful are too thin. This is also not OK. We all need to be at a healthy weight, and this is different for everyone. When we have a sense of self-worth, when we know we are meant to shine and enjoy life, we will all be at our own best weight.<br />
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<br />Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-45522158233922855912019-12-19T14:31:00.002-08:002019-12-19T14:31:13.993-08:00Ha haWouldn't it be hilarious if it turned out all this time, someone really were reading this blog?Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-79342956958725712832019-12-19T10:50:00.002-08:002019-12-19T10:50:41.271-08:00I Won't DespairDisappointingly (at best) House Republicans are obsequiously doing the criminal-in-chief's (CIC) bidding to attempt to keep the impeachment from being taken seriously by the American voter.<br />
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I keep asking no one (who is there to ask?), what is wrong with these people? Don't they have a conscience? How do they live with themselves? Everything they're doing to keep CIC in office is a lie. At every stage I've believed people would, when it mattered most, do the right thing. But they haven't. They're doing the thing they think will get them elected again, at the expense of self-respect.<br />
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Who wants to be elected based on lies?<br />
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<br />Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-34322396360705200692019-12-04T11:50:00.000-08:002019-12-04T11:58:03.696-08:00If I Were President<div>
I really want to get behind Elizabeth Warren and give her my full support for the Democratic nomination, but I can't, and here's why. </div>
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Policy idea #1</div>
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<i>Wipe away student loan debt.</i></div>
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But wait, I paid my student loan debt. Lots of it. For many years, as I toiled away at a very low-income job. Paid. Every penny. And it never occurred to me to get mad about it. I'd taken out the loans, I knew what I was doing!</div>
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Rather than let the next generation off the hook, they should learn how to decide how much to borrow without going into excessive debt, and then pay back their loans. They should learn to strategize for maximum value, like going to a community college the first two years, then transferring the credits to the university of their choice.<br />
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The other issue here is higher education shouldn't cost what it does. Elizabeth Warren (and of course, all the candidates) should consider some regulations on the salaries of top university administrators. Many of them make million-dollar salaries. Anyone who can't do an excellent job for under a million isn't qualified to do the job. The second thing I would look at is the textbook scam all universities engage in. Students have to use the most current version of the textbook, priced outrageously high, and they often can't buy an earlier version because the newer one was changed by three words. Used books aren't reasonable either. </div>
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Policy idea #2</div>
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<i>Bail out homeowners who are underwater with their mortgages instead of the banks.</i></div>
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I agree the banks should not have gotten bailed out for the mess they made with junk loans from predatory lending practices, but the homeowners should've known not to buy a house they couldn't afford. If a person buys a house out of their financial range, then can't pay when the balloon payments on their junk mortgage balloons, they should face some consequences. </div>
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When I bought my first home, the mortgage lender suggested a mortgage with a balloon payment. I went home, Googled it, and told him no thank you. I will take a 20-year fixed-rate mortgage from you, or from someone else. </div>
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Take responsibility for the state of your own affairs. </div>
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Policy idea #3</div>
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I have no idea what Elizabeth Warren's take on this is, but something I believe needs to be addressed is the untenable gap between what CEOs and other executives get paid relative to what everyone else gets paid. Everyone employed by a company adds value. Everyone should get paid according to their value, rather than some crazy inflated, unmerited figure. </div>
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Here's why I do like Elizabeth Warren. She understands the economy needs to be more balanced. This can be achieved partly by reducing the gap between what executives make and what the rest of the staff makes. She understands that the tech bros whose code is now running our lives through their social media channels should not be wielding the power we have handed them. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all of them, need to be broken up and regulated. They are addictive, causing an epidemic of anxiety and depression, and are easily manipulated to spread dangerous misinformation and pit people against each other. I have no social media accounts, and zero interest in handing my time, my mental space, my life away to some tech bros. The only candidate I've heard address this at all, is Elizabeth Warren. </div>
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Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-40373837490390090212019-12-02T13:48:00.002-08:002019-12-02T13:48:57.204-08:00RespectIn a moment of meditation recently, I was sitting in the clouds looking back at my life. I wanted to know the impact I'd had on the world during my time here.<br />
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I thought what I saw would have to do with meditation, that I would see the people I've in some miniscule way inspired or encouraged to meditate and the impact it's had on their lives.<br />
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But that isn't at all what I saw.<br />
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Instead, I saw people I'd worked with who I'd had to stand up to and set boundaries around. A friend I ghosted because it was clear she was no friend. Family members I have little to do with because that's what's best for me. Ex-boyfriends whose invitations on social platforms I've ignored.<br />
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What I saw was the impact that my having set boundaries had on these people in my life. They held no animus toward me. Instead, they learned something from it.To respect oneself.Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-46088720376983787092019-10-16T06:18:00.003-07:002019-10-16T06:18:38.544-07:00Your MessageIt is not what you say, what you wear, or what you achieve that is the message of your life.<br />
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Who you are is the message of your life.Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-45690084116768442252019-08-06T19:06:00.002-07:002019-08-06T19:06:57.549-07:00ImbalanceWhen I was in my early twenties, I was a reporter for a local newspaper on the Jersey Shore. I covered a town run by a Republican town council. They made a very unpopular decision to allow the sale of land in an area many residents thought should be protected from development. It was for an assisted living facility.<br />
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The residents were as vocal as they could be about it. They demanded to be heard. There were town meetings where people lined up, out the door, and spoke to the council about having gone to that land when they were young with their parents to see the egrets, or go fishing and the like. Adults cried over the thought of possibly losing this pristine land to another concrete structure and parking and traffic.<br />
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I spoke with all the members of the council about how they would vote after all the public outcry. They all said that there were many people in favor of the assisted living facility, they just didn't make it to the meetings, and they deserve to be considered too.<br />
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One of the members of the council, who asked to speak to me off the record, was very blunt. He told me the council had decided to vote for the development before the meeting. The meeting and what the people wanted meant nothing to them. They were going through the motions of "listening" to the people all the while planning to vote for the development. The developers had lined the council members' pockets, and that's how the council decided how to vote. There was no sense of duty to advocate for the people they represented, only the inconvenient necessity of having to pretend that they actually were advocating for their constituents.<br />
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This is what's going on with gun laws in this country that are allowing the mass shootings. The politicians who vote against gun safety laws do so because they have no interest in gun safety. They want to be in government to make changes that will enrich them and the people they care about. To get into government, they need money. And they take money, from the NRA, and then vote the way the NRA wants them to so they can keep getting money from the NRA and remain in government and get richer and richer.<br />
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How else can we explain that it's legal in the US to sell military style assault weapons to radicalized young men, and that when we demand changes in gun laws so we'll be protected from this domestic terrorism, nothing ever happens? Because these politicians are the same as the local town council that couldn't have cared less about what was best for their town and the people in it. It was all about personal enrichment at the expense of innocent people.<br />
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So who are these NRA? They're scared to death of the boogeyman. They want guns because they're paranoid that they'll need to protect themselves from a "stranger", and we'd better keep all these "strangers" out. Their fear is causing the violence that they're terrified of.<br />
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Innocent people are dying because rich people are afraid, and they're making other young, impressionable, easily brain-washed people afraid.<br />
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This country has an extreme imbalance of fear. You can feel fear in certain communities. Its energy permeates the space. And you can also feel peace and balance in other communities, where people are respected and respectful and happy and relaxed and not fearful. You can feel your anxieties lift just being in a space where vibration is high and in these places you know everything is OK, that life is good.<br />
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We need more of this. More raising vibration. More giving the cold shoulder to fear. More knowing that we are OK, nothing is going to happen, people are good. Because light is stronger than shadow.<br />
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<br />Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-486793602739306972019-08-06T16:46:00.002-07:002019-08-06T16:46:30.550-07:00Shine ...while you are here ...my cousin George told me that.Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-78966090719535502132019-07-16T12:13:00.000-07:002019-07-16T12:32:13.503-07:00Measles PanicThere have been measles outbreaks in New York and New Jersey, both in Orthodox Jewish communities.<br />
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As a result of the ensuing panic, the religious exemption from vaccinations that allows students to attend school unvaccinated has been revoked.<br />
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That's the only result.<br />
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This should, at a minimum, raise some questions among us, first being, why are the children who succumbed to measles not being looked at so we can find out why they got sick?<br />
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There are many other communities with high rates of unvaccination. They're all healthy - no outbreaks. Should we look at them to see how they've avoided measles without vaccination, while others have not? I would say it's worthwhile, but this research is not only not happening, it's on no one's radar anywhere, apparently.<br />
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If we really care to understand measles, and how to effectively protect against the illness, seems to me some research should happen within the populations now sick with measles, especially if measles was declared eradicated back in 2000 and with at least 95% of the rest of the population (herd immunity) vaccinated against measles.<br />
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Are there no researchers out there at all interested in looking at this? What might happen if we were to look at this? Maybe we'd understand the immune system and how to strengthen it a little better?<br />
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I guess there's not much money to be made from keeping people from getting the measles, unless it's by vaccines, in which case, there's plenty.<br />
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So, we have measles among us (or, among some of us), and no one cares to learn why, but the vaccine pushers are out in full force, and vaccinations are one more to add to the list of the don't-ever-speak-of-this-to-anyone-you-don't-know-how-they'll-react topics.<br />
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How has this become the state of our health care environment and our willingness to hear each other?<br />
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<br />Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-68988882304448981382019-06-19T11:25:00.001-07:002019-06-20T09:10:54.501-07:00First, Do No Harm<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The purpose of the medical establishment, put plainly, is to help people. Our medical system often does the opposite.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's a well-documented phenomenon. Read The Boston Globe's, "When doctors strike, fewer patients die" b<span class="label | bold font_primary margin_right_3" style="margin-right: 3px;">y</span><span class="author | align_items_center bold font_primary margin_right_3" style="align-items: center; margin-right: 3px;"><span class="bold"> Ryan Hoskins</span><span class="separator | bold"></span></span><span class="affiliation | color_gray font_primary" style="color: #767676;"> Globe Correspondent<span class="hidden--mobile">,</span></span><span class="margin_right_3" style="margin-right: 3px;"></span><span class="datetime | container inline_block" style="display: inline-block;"><span class="date | color_gray font_primary" style="color: #767676;">February 9, 2016, </span><span class="time | color_gray font_primary
margin_right" style="color: #767676; margin-right: 8px;">1:36 p.m. </span></span><a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/02/09/hoskins/QhjVuBHqnrjrT0wSeWRJII/story.html">https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/02/09/hoskins/QhjVuBHqnrjrT0wSeWRJII/story.html</a> to see what I mean.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here's a quote from the article: " ...a 2008 analysis led by Solveig Cunningham of Emory University attempted to bring together existing research on physician strikes to see whether patterns existed on patient impact. Five strikes — lasting from nine days to five weeks in places as varied as Los Angeles, Jerusalem (twice), Spain, and Croatia — yielded sufficient data to study. Researchers found that mortality in all cases either stayed the same or substantially declined when physicians walked out. In the case of the first Israeli strike of 1973, patient deaths dropped by 50 percent."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Uhm ...concerning?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Why do we go to the doctor so much? Doctors typically instill fear, and fear is harmful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Another study found the opposite is true of nurses, " ...Interestingly, studies of nurses going on strike show a negative effect on patient health. A 2012 study by MIT’s Jonathan Gruber examined nursing walkouts in New York State from 1984 to 2004. He found that patients admitted on days of labor actions had death rates 18.3 percent above the normal. It’s a reassuring indicator that nurses — more involved in bedside care and less involved in treatment plans — actually improve patient outcomes when staffed appropriately."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So what does this mean in our daily lives? What helped people in these studies is not the pharmaceutical the doctor prescribed, it was the presence of a caring person that made the difference in the health outcome.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How do we extrapolate this finding to our daily lives? Ask yourself, are you caring toward yourself? If you're facing a health issue, ask yourself in what way are you betraying yourself? Have you agreed to something you wish you hadn't? Are you with the wrong person for the wrong reason? Are you staying in a soul-deadening job because you're afraid of what will happen if you leave?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ask yourself these questions. You have the answers within.</span><br />
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<br />Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-48345447856574924172019-05-20T17:58:00.004-07:002019-05-20T17:58:56.256-07:00Mental Health = Soul HealthThe phrase "mental health" has never resonated with me. There's something off about it.<div>
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My mental health has always been fine, but my soul sometimes aches.<br /><div>
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Depression, anxiety, post-partum issues. These all fall under the rubric, "mental health", but I think they have more to do with the health of the soul.</div>
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Mental denotes mind. What is the mind? The brain? If you have a brain disease, they can test for that, and fix it.</div>
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If your soul is sick, there is no test. At least not a medical one.</div>
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It comes down to the difference between the mind and the soul.</div>
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The mind is a tool we use to live our lives. We have a destiny, that which our soul decided we could achieve if we choose to in this lifetime, and we also have free will to choose to achieve our destiny or not.</div>
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The mind is awesome in many ways but, but it's not a foolproof tool. It's easily manipulated. And it's limited. There are barriers we don't yet understand how to get around.</div>
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We use the mind to have thoughts about the soul, but the mind is not the soul.</div>
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When I think of someone struggling with depression, I don't imagine someone having uneasy thoughts. I imagine someone who feels detached from him or herself. That's a condition of the soul, not the mind.</div>
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Why in this culture can't we say, or even think to use the term, "soul health"?</div>
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We can't prove we have a mind any more than we can prove we have a soul, but we're OK using the term, "mind".</div>
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Ailments of the soul manifest in our bodies in all kinds of ways - not just what we refer to as mental health.</div>
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If you read medical literature, you'll often read that the reason some people get better and others don't is not clearly understood. Because they don't account for the soul in all of this.</div>
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So, how do we make sure our soul is healthy?</div>
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I don't have a definitive list, but this is a start:</div>
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1. Live the life you came here to live. </div>
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2. Do not see yourself as a victim.</div>
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3. Remove toxic people from your life and don't be confused about it, no matter what others tell you. </div>
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4. Don't judge yourself.</div>
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5. Don't be afraid.</div>
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More on this later.</div>
Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-44288141079763046652019-04-05T11:30:00.003-07:002019-04-05T11:30:48.923-07:00Be Who You AreI'm going to weigh in on the college admissions scandal currently in "the news".<br />
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At first I was super annoyed with the people who bribed their children's way into college. It was as if they thought nothing of taking an opportunity out of the hands of the people who'd legitimately earned those spots. It was a theft. And I still see it this way.<br />
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However, I feel there is a bigger concept involved that should be looked at.<br />
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The parents showed no faith in their children.<br />
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If they couldn't get into the schools they ultimately went to through their own efforts, then that should have been OK by their parents. Acceptance to or rejection from a specific school does not define someone.<br />
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The parents should have encouraged their children to be who they are, not to pretend to be someone they are not.<br />
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We all came here to be who we are. This is very important. We all have a unique destiny to, through free will, either see through or choose not to see through.<br />
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Whether we choose to see it through or not is up to us. But living a life that is not ours is harmful to our soul, to our health, and ultimately, to our world as a whole.<br />
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Galileo was born to see things as they are: differently from what everyone else believed. How different life would be if he'd done what everyone else was doing (read: cheat your way into an Ivy League school).<br />
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What a waste it would be to spend a lifetime living someone else's life instead of who we are.<br />
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It's also a mistake to worship specific things, like an Ivy League education. This is for people with a very specific learning style who want to go into certain fields. There are many geniuses who would feel stifled and limited by such an education.<br />
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And geniuses aren't just mathematicians and scientists. Every field has its geniuses.<br />
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We really need to value when a person is being true to who she or he came here to be. That person is the true hero.<br />
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Thoughts? Share your comments below.<br />
<br />Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-27770966166722572432019-03-22T20:57:00.001-07:002019-03-23T06:38:52.735-07:00How To Help OthersWhen I have a dream that's vivid, and I remember it long after I've had it, I share it here because it feels to me like a message and something that all of us can benefit from.<br />
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This morning I had such a dream.<br />
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I was in an airplane flying somewhere and there was an announcement that we would be exiting the plane and flying the rest of the trip on pillows through the clouds.<br />
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The next thing I knew, I was kneeling on my nursing pillow coursing through the clouds. The announcement was so matter-of-fact, I thought this has to be OK, even though it seemed awfully dangerous, and I looked around for my co-passengers to see what they thought of it all and it turned out, I was the only one flying in the clouds.<br />
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I knew I had no wiggle room for getting upset. The best hope I had was to stay calm and see my journey through.<br />
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I wasn't falling, or freezing, so maybe it was safe after all.<br />
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At a certain point there was another announcement, as though I were still on the plane. This time the pilot said we would be coming upon a mass of storming clouds, but not to worry, it was safe to pass through them. It only meant we would be flying over a beach and part of the ocean.<br />
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I saw the roiling clouds ahead and considered hanging on to the front of the pillow, but leaning down seemed too precarious, so I just maintained my upright seated position.<br />
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All seemed OK as I entered the roiling clouds, just as the pilot said it would be.<br />
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I looked down and I was flying over New York City; in fact, I was quite close to it. Close enough to recognize a lamp-post. An intact, shiny black lamp-post that suggested a much cleaner, more civilized city than its current incarnation.<br />
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I reached my arm out and when I got close enough, hugged the lamp-post and slid down to earth.<br />
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My journey was not quite over yet. Now I was in the city and had to decide what to make of being here.<br />
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Then I woke up. It was early and I wanted to go back to sleep, but the dream gave me an unsettled feeling and my bed was not the warm safe space it normally feels, so I left it.<br />
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Anyhoo, I've been thinking about my message. Thank you, guides, by the way, for delivering it to me and my blog-reading peeps (If I have any? Any at all? Leaving a comment to let me know would be awesome, by the way.).<br />
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To parse, I was in what seems on the surface to be a dangerous situation, leaving a plane to fly through the clouds on a nursing pillow. But I was safe the whole time. Even though it seemed as though I shouldn't be. Although I couldn't see who or what was keeping me safe, I was safe.<br />
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The pilot never left me, even though I'd initially felt kicked out.<br />
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Birth into life?<br />
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The plane was existence before birth. Then it was time to incarnate, and life is kind of like a flight through the clouds. We can't see whether we're safe or not. Life very often feels unsafe. Especially now that every bad thing that happens to the innocent can be accessed by just checking our phone, whether we want to see it or not.<br />
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I think this is my guide's way of telling me that although life can seem incredibly disturbing, and as though there is no one looking out for our well-being, or the well-being of our fellow human travelers who suffer at the hands of the more powerful over them, this is not actually the case.<br />
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It's important to remember that to help those who suffer wrongly, we need to focus on all that is good. This is the way to help them. Because we will make ourselves an environment that, when others come near us, they will know that they too are light, and so much grander and more amazing than anything any lesser being ever did to them, and they will no longer identify with what those others did. They will know who they truly are, and going forward, this will inform their experience on earth, not what others have done.<br />
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The people who are suffering are all around us, not just those who are far who we read about on our phones. We impact all who come into contact with us, so we need to make ourselves a healing presence in general. To become a healing presence, stop focusing on the negative. Be aware of the light within and let it shine. Be who you came here to be. Know who you are: a perfect being of light inside an earthly body, flying through the clouds on a nursing pillow.<br />
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And the more we focus on what is good, that we all are safe, that we can all become a healing presence, the larger the goodness and safety will become, until we create a heaven on earth. This is doable, because beings who want to be a healing presence outnumber lesser beings by far far far. The lesser beings just get more airtime, for the same reason we read Dante's Inferno, and not Dante's Paradiso.<br />
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That is the task before us. Let us all put down our phones. Our devices, whatever. They are feeding our minds too much negativity. Put them down and focus on growing our beautiful internal light, so that it will eventually reach the light of those around us and ultimately illuminate all, and there will be no more darkness.<br />
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<br />Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-1570474204511421702019-03-01T16:28:00.001-08:002019-03-01T16:28:19.569-08:00Be Fearless!The less fearful we are, the less we will have to fear.Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-23448718669879841402019-01-31T12:57:00.001-08:002019-01-31T12:57:33.141-08:00Social Discourse<div>
I recently saw something online about a no sugar/no carb challenge Jennifer Lopez made via (I believe) Health and Fitness magazine.</div>
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I was surprised and disappointed to see this message and it's been on my mind as something that should be in the public discourse, so I'm adding my voice to the issue.</div>
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I was surprised because in this moment of #MeToo, which we've taken too long to reach, it strikes me as taking a step back to where we were before we collectively understood how damaging these ideas are to both women and men.</div>
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Stopping sugar is fine, if it it disturbs your health and well-being (we are all different; some people can eat sugar without negative effects and some can't). But cutting out carbs altogether (unless there is a genuine gluten intolerance) is short-sighted, and can potentially set people up for future imbalances in their body and mental health. Who wants to, for ten days, restrict themselves in this way? What will take the place of complex carbs? If the fat stores in the body become depleted, how will this impact other parts of the body and mind?</div>
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Worse is the idea that women, at the expense of our mental and physical health, should be mindful of sculpting our body in such a way that will be attractive to men. I understand Alex Rodriguez is also making the challenge, but I've only seen pictures of Jennifer Lopez taking selfies of her figure for other women to aspire to. I can think of little more unpleasant: that women should deprive themselves to be found attractive to men, and that men would want this for us.</div>
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If I were to cut a food group out of my diet completely for ten days, it seems to me this food group would end up taking a huge amount of mind space. Is this really what we want to be focused on all day? How to avoid carbs?</div>
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It's unfortunate Jennifer Lopez and Health and Fitness didn't instead challenge us to let go of negative mind chatter and focus on all that is right in our lives. Instead, they want us to be trapped in a miserable cycle of restrictive dieting that could do long-term damage.</div>
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What is Jennifer Lopez actually getting out of this, besides exposure? A picture of her body at a moment in time, which will last only as long as she can withstand the restriction of certain foods. </div>
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Also, let's collectively remember that our bodies want balance. Moderation is what we should be after, not restriction. If we can't have things in moderation, then there is an emotional imbalance that <span style="font-family: inherit;">needs to be considered, not avoided by a diet.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I think the fundamental issue here is that the people who, in our mass media-run society, control the collective discourse, are celebrities, not necessarily smart or wise people, and this we need to change. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span></span><div class="yj6qo" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
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Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-50359457889513224192019-01-17T13:17:00.003-08:002019-01-17T13:17:31.276-08:00Lazy daysHave you ever been so immobilized by laziness that you're freezing cold and you can't seem to summon the energy to turn your body around to grab a sweater?Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5409394735209050016.post-84444277847289840662018-11-24T05:38:00.001-08:002018-11-24T05:41:02.766-08:00Let's Fall In Love With Ourselves Mother Teresa once said if we want less violence in the world we should go home and love our family.<br />
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I think we need to go home and love ourselves. That is the real work. If we love ourselves, then we will love our family. Real World Yogihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00369746226774623638noreply@blogger.com0