Living spherically for me is another way of expressing some of the ideas in Epigenetics (body/mind/spirit/lifestyle connections). In other words, it is the art and science of choosing the most constructive paths regarding the choices we make in our lives from day to day. As such, the following messages illuminate the importance those connections can play with respect to our lifestyle choices in the following areas. Enjoy.
…Courage
At some point you just have to jump in, fears and all. There is something courageous about it. ~ Ian Roberts
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
~ Marianne Williamson, A return to love: Reflections on the principles of a Course in Miracles
… The Power of Thoughts
“We become what we think about.” – Earl Nightingale
Mike Dooley, author and international speaker, eats, breathes and lives by the mantra, “Your thoughts become things.”
Could there much truth in this? There are many who believe one of the most important ingredients in the formula for success is the heartfelt belief that you can succeed at (pick a topic, event, thing, etc.), and is one that you must embrace and believe in to realize success. There are those who believe this is because your thoughts have a powerful impact on your attitude, your health and your body. As a matter of fact, there are those who say that we are the result of every one of our thoughts.
Geez…is there any science to support this notion?
In his book, The Biology of Belief, Dr. Bruce Lipton states, “In the past, we’ve been taught that living beings are like machines run by biochemicals and DNA. What we now know is that our entire biology is shaped by the intelligence of each of our fifty trillion cells. And the single most important way to influence them is through the energy of our beliefs.” And Deepak Chopra states in Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, “Our cells are constantly eavesdropping on our thoughts and being changed by them. A bout of depression can wreak havoc with the immune system while falling in love can boost it. Despair and hopelessness raise the risk of heart attacks and cancer thereby shortening life. This means that the line between biology and psychology can’t really be drawn with any certainty. A remembered stress, which is only a wisp of a thought, releases the same flood of destructive hormones as the actual stress itself.”
In other words, our thoughts are powerful tools. Our bodies respond to our thoughts.
Dr. John Sklare, author, psychologist and consultant for wellness programs, motivational and lifestyle change believes thoughts are actually electrical impulses that create biochemical reactions in the brain, and that these reactions release chemicals that impact every cell in your body. In that sense, the biochemistry of your body is the result of what you think. That is the basis of mind/body medicine that posits wherever a thought goes, a chemical follows. In other words, every mental impulse automatically gets transformed into biological information. By changing your thoughts, you can change your body, because the thought always precedes the action.
Talk about ‘food for thought,’ as well as another card stacking the deck as we age!
A final thought:
Watch your thoughts; they become your words.
Watch your words; they become your actions.
Watch your actions; they become your habits.
Watch your habits; they become your character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
… Generosity & Kindness
Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever. – Margaret Cho
From Chicken Soup for the Soul:
In our family-owned store in a small town in North Dakota I learned a lesson from my father one day: that work was about more than survival and making a sale….
One day shortly before Christmas when I was in eighth grade and working evenings, a little boy about five or six came into the store. His coat was tattered, his shoes were scuffed, and his hair was straggly. He looked around the toy section, picked up this item and that, and carefully put them back in their place.
My dad came down the stairs and walked over to the boy smiling, and asked the boy what he could do for him. The boy said he was looking for a Christmas present for his brother. I was impressed to see how kindly my dad treated the boy. Dad told him to take his time and look around. The boy did.
After about 20 minutes, the little boy carefully picked up a toy plane, walked up to my dad and asked, “How much for this, mister?”
“How much you got?” Dad asked.
The little boy held out his creased with dirt hand revealing 27 cents. The price for the toy was almost four dollars. “That’ll just about do it,” Dad said as he closed the sale.
Dad’s reply still rings in my ears. As the little boy walked out of our store that day, rather than seeing a little boy with a worn coat and scraggly hair, I saw a radiant child with a treasure.
~ LaVonn Steiner, Mott, South Dakota
…Giving
"Giving opens up the door to receiving. You have so many opportunities to give every day.
Give kind words. Give a smile. Give appreciation and love. Give compliments. You can give courtesy to other motorists while you are driving. You can give a smile to the car parking attendant. You can give a warm greeting to the newspaper stand person or the person who makes your coffee. You can give by allowing a stranger to go ahead of you into an elevator, and you can give by asking which floor they are going to and pressing the button for them. If someone drops something you can give a helping hand and pick it up for them. You can give warm embraces to those you love. And you can give appreciation and encouragement to everyone.
There are so many opportunities for you to give and thereby open the door to receiving."
~ Rhonda Bryrne, The Secret
… Angels
Angels are all around us, all the time, in the very air we breathe. - Eileen Elias Freeman
From Reid Tracy, CEO Hay House (publisher for my book, The Quest of the Fairies)
A couple weeks ago I was in Bristol, England, doing a Writer’s Workshop. As usual, I was in my hotel room the night before the event—getting ready for sleep, reviewing my notes and starting to feel nervous about presenting in the morning.
I turned off the lights and went to bed, when a light came on by the entry door. Surprised, I got up and tried to turn it off. After flipping the switch several times, I couldn’t turn the light off, so I went back to bed. Then, thirty minutes later, I got up to try it again—still with no luck.
After my second attempt I started thinking “Oh, it’s probably just Wayne Dyer and Louise Hay letting me know they’re with me on this trip”— my way of justifying my inability to turn it off.
About 15 minutes later, though, I got a text from my mom. My beloved Aunt Bonnie, who’d been battling cancer, had passed away. The minute I read her text, the light went out.
I went to sleep, thinking that the light was a sign from my aunt, telling me she’d made it to the other side and was now safe and at peace.
I decided not to tell anyone about this experience, because I wasn’t positive that there wasn’t just a problem with the light in that room. So, the next night, I turned off all the lights and waited to see if the light near the door would turn back on. It didn’t. In fact, during my stay, the light always went on and off—with that same switch—without any problems at all.
To me, that light was definitely a sign from my aunt, just like the signs sent by my sister when she passed away—For her, it was playing her favorite song “Angel,” by Sarah McLachlan, three different times, right when I asked for a sign that she was okay.
In past newsletters, I’ve shared the signs I received from Wayne Dyer and Louise Hay after they passed.
The inspiration that got me looking for and believing in these kinds of signs happened about 15 years ago, after one of John Edwards’ first-ever lectures in Australia, put on by Hay House Australia.
John and I were at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney Harbour. John’s mom had always wanted to come to Australia but had passed away and never made it. Inside the zoo, as we stood in front of an aquarium full of fish, he told me he was asking for a sign that his mom was with him.
As we both looked through the glass, a white feather came floating up from the bottom of the aquarium. When John saw it, he said “She’s with me.” Her sign to him is always a white feather.
I can tell you, I was blown away in that moment and have been a believer ever since.
…Enthusiasm
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. – Samuel Ullman
In Carl Reiner’s movie, If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast, Dick Van Dyke, among others who range in age from 90 to over 100, is the embodiment of enthusiasm in terms of a positive attitude toward life. At age 90-something he still dances and sings and smiles (all the time). His enthusiastic attitude is contagious! Enthusiasm is likely one of the keys to a life well-lived. It creates an energy that people cannot help but notice and subsequently feel inspired by, at least in spirit. And just like Lindsay Duncan’s character Katherine in Under the Tuscan Sun, Van Dyke’s advice is to “indulge your inner child.” When you indulge your inner child you can begin to look at life with the same enthusiasm and sense of wonder a child possesses: How does this work? Why does this work? Can I make or do this? Where can I learn more? Can you show me?
An attitude of enthusiasm also creates a sense of being in the present moment due to its singular focus in the now of whatever the moment is offering. Norman Lear once said, “I like living in the moment. There are two words we don’t understand the importance of – ‘over’ and ‘next.’”
…Friendship
“Your friend is your needs answered. She is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And she is your board and your fireside. For you come to her with your hunger, and you seek her for peace.” - Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
From poet and philosopher David Whyte’s book, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words:
FRIENDSHIP is a mirror to presence and a testament to forgiveness.…A friend knows our difficulties and shadows and remains in sight, a companion to our vulnerabilities more than our triumphs, when we are under the strange illusion we do not need them….All friendships of any length are based on a continued, mutual forgiveness. Without tolerance and mercy all friendships die.
In the course of the years a close friendship will always reveal the shadow in the other as much as ourselves ~
…to remain friends we must know the other and their difficulties and even their sins and encourage the best in them, not through critique but through addressing the better part of them ~
…the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.
You can make more friends in a month by being interested in them than in ten years by trying to get them interested in you. - Charles Allen
…A Prescription for wellness
Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life — learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. – Robert Fulghum
For many years now I have touched base with the writings of Dr. Andrew Weil. In fact, he was central to some of my first inspirations for optimal health and wellness. In addition to a whole food prescription for optimizing health and healing, he offers the often overlooked intangibles to life’s ‘wellness prescription’ from a 1995 interview that I believe still holds true for us today:
Try to walk ten minutes a day, five days a week, increasing the duration gradually toward a goal of forty-five minutes a day.
Buy some flowers to keep in your home where you can enjoy them.
Try not to drink water that tastes like chlorine.
Spend as much time as possible in a natural setting.
Try a one-day ‘news fast’ where you don’t read, watch, or listen to any news for a day and see how you feel.
Read inspirational books in the areas of whatever moves your soul (i.e., self-help, poetry, spirituality, religion).
Make a list of people who make you feel more alive and happy. Spend time with them.
Spend five minutes being aware of your breath, focusing on maintaining a slow, deep, rhythmic cycle. Proper breathing is among the most overlooked aspects of good health.
Listen to music that you find inspirational and uplifting.
Do service work for a charitable organization, or for someone you know who is disabled or shut in.
Take a sauna.
Think of people who have hurt you or made you angry. Try to bring yourself to understand their actions and forgive them. Try to express forgiveness to at least one of them.
And finally…
I have followed Rhonda Byrne and other teachers from the movie, The Secret for more than ten years now, and have to say there’s something to it. And even if some may think their perspectives sound a little too 'out there’, my feeling is, what can it hurt, and why not give some of their mindset prescriptions a try - you’ve got NOTHING to lose! To that end, here’s another Rx for good health:
Think Thoughts Of Health
I want to remind you of your infinite power, and remind you to use it for your health! Here’s how: Think thoughts of health. Speak words about health. Be grateful for health. Say, “Thank you for my health,” in your mind multiple times in the day. Whenever you hear anyone speak of something that is not health, secretly in your mind repeat, “Thank you for my health. Thank you for everyone’s health.”
Remember not to empower something you don’t want by giving it your attention, because it inflames it and makes it bigger. So, with gratitude, let’s say: “Thank you for my health, thank you for the health of my friends and family, thank you for the health of everyone in my city, and thank you for the health of everyone in the world!"
Now we’re really using our infinite power for what it was meant for - the good of everyone!
~ Rhonda Byrne
… Leadership (and a bit of historical ‘humor’)
People want leadership, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand – not because they're thirsty – but because they don't know the difference. – Lewis Rothschild, “The American President”
~ A story told by President Lincoln in 1865 from the movie, “Lincoln”
“It was right after the Revolution, right after peace had been concluded, and Ethan Allen went to London to help our new country conduct its business with the king. The English sneered at how rough we are, and rude and simple-minded and on like that, everywhere he went, till one day he was invited to the townhouse of a great English lord. Dinner was served, and beverages imbibed, time passed, as happens, and Mr. Allen found he needed the privy. He was grateful to be directed thence. Relieved you might say.
Now, Mr. Allen discovered on entering the water closet that the only decoration therein was a portrait of George Washington. Ethan Allen done what he came to do and returned to the drawing room. His host and the others were disappointed when he didn’t mention Washington’s portrait. And finally, His Lordship couldn’t resist, and asked Mr. Allen had he noticed it, the picture of Washington.
He had.
Well, what did he think of its placement, did it seem appropriately located to Mr. Allen? Mr. Allen said it did. His host was astounded. Appropriate? George Washington’s likeness in a water closet? Yes, said Mr. Allen, where it’ll do good service; the whole world knows nothing’ll make an Englishman shit quicker than the sight of George Washington. I love that story.”
… Caring
It started last Christmas, when Bennett and Vivian Levin were overwhelmed by sadness while listening to radio reports of injured American troops. "We have to let them know we care," Vivian told Bennett. So they organized a trip to bring soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital to the annual Army-Navy football game in Philly, on Dec. 3.
The cool part is, they created their own train line to do it. Yes, there are people in this country who actually own real trains. Bennett Levin - native Philly guy, self-made millionaire and irascible former L&I commish - is one of them.
He has three luxury rail cars. Think mahogany paneling, plush seating and white-linen dining areas. He also has two locomotives, which he stores at his Juniata Park train yard. One car, the elegant Pennsylvania , carried John F. Kennedy to the Army-Navy game in 1961 and '62. Later, it carried his brother Bobby's body to D. C. for burial. "That's a lot of history for one car," says Bennett.
He and Vivian wanted to revive a tradition that endured from 1936 to 1975, during which trains carried Army-Navy spectators from around the country directly to the stadium where the annual game is played. The Levin’s could think of no better passengers to reinstate the ceremonial ride than the wounded men and women recovering at Walter Reed in D. C. and Bethesda, in Maryland .
"We wanted to give them a first-class experience," says Bennett. "Gourmet meals on board, private transportation from the train to the stadium, perfect seats - real hero treatment."
Through the Army War College Foundation, of which he is a trustee, Bennett met with Walter Reed's commanding general, who loved the idea. But Bennett had some ground rules first, all designed to keep the focus on the troops alone: No press on the trip, lest the soldiers' day of pampering devolve into a media circus. No politicians either, because, says Bennett, "I didn't want some idiot making this trip into a campaign photo op." And no Pentagon suits on board, otherwise the soldiers would be too busy saluting superiors to relax.
The general agreed to the conditions, and Bennett realized he had a problem on his hands. "I had to actually make this thing happen," he laughs.
Over the next months, he recruited owners of 15 other sumptuous rail cars from around the country - these people tend to know each other - into lending their vehicles for the day.
The name of their temporary train? The Liberty Limited.
Amtrak volunteered to transport the cars to D. C. - where they'd be coupled together for the round-trip ride to Philly - then back to their owners later.
Conrail offered to service the Liberty while it was in Philly. And SEPTA drivers would bus the disabled soldiers 200 yards from the train to Lincoln Financial Field, for the game.
A benefactor from the War College ponied up 100 seats to the game - on the 50-yard line - and lunch in a hospitality suite.
And corporate donors filled, for free and without asking for publicity, goodie bags for attendees: From Woolrich, stadium blankets. From Wal-Mart, digital cameras. From Nikon, field glasses. From GEAR, down jackets.
There was booty not just for the soldiers, but for their guests, too, since each was allowed to bring a friend or family member.
The Marines, though, declined the offer. "They voted not to take guests with them, so they could take more Marines," says Levin, choking up at the memory.
Bennett's an emotional guy, so he was worried about how he'd react to meeting the 88 troops and guests at D. C.'s Union Station, where the trip originated. Some GIs were missing limbs.
Others were wheelchair-bound or accompanied by medical personnel for the day. "They made it easy to be with them," he says. "They were all smiles on the ride to Philly. Not an ounce of self-pity from any of them. They're so full of life and determination."
At the stadium, the troops reveled in the game, recalls Bennett. Not even Army's lopsided loss to Navy could deflate the group's rollicking mood.
Afterward, it was back to the train and yet another gourmet meal - heroes get hungry, says Levin - before returning to Walter Reed and Bethesda . "The day was spectacular," says Levin. "It was all about these kids. It was awesome to be part of it."
The most poignant moment for the Levin’s was when 11 Marines hugged them goodbye, then sang them the Marine Hymn on the platform at Union Station.
"One of the guys was blind, but he said, 'I can't see you, but man, you must be beautiful!' " says Bennett. "I got a lump so big in my throat, I couldn't even answer him."
It's been three weeks, but the Levin’s and their guests are still feeling the day's love. "My Christmas came early," says Levin, who is Jewish and who loves the Christmas season.
"I can't describe the feeling in the air." Maybe it was hope.
As one guest wrote in a thank-you note to Bennett and Vivian, "The fond memories generated last Saturday will sustain us all - whatever the future may bring."
God bless the Levin’s.
And bless the troops, every one.
More to come…
…Happiness
…Gratitude
…Family
…Intimacy & Love
…Curiosity & Seeking Knowledge
…Commitment
…Imagination
…Forgiveness