The benefits of meditation are many and varied from reducing stress to increasing one's cognition and creativity. Additionally, meditation heightens our concentration, allowing us to be more productive.  read more »

Lauren C. GorgoRemember in the last update when I said...."if we can walk through this VERY narrow doorway, fully present and completely void of an agenda, we will experience a major shift on many levels"?  read more »

Americans spend twice as much as residents of other developed countries on healthcare, but get lower quality, less efficiency and have the least equitable system, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The United States ranked last when compared to six other countries -- Britain, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, the Commonwealth Fund report found.  read more »

It is now being proven scientifically that a happy and healthy outlook to both ourselves and to life affects our mind in many noticeable ways. We do not get such a mindset by ignoring or denying negative feelings and pretending to be happy. Rather, we do it by becoming a good gardener, methodically and carefully removing the weeds of discontent while cultivating beautiful flowers.

Qualities such as kindness, compassion and forgiveness are the seeds we want to plant in order to cultivate a beautiful garden. But the self-centered ego's need for grasping, gaining and selfishness easily buries them. We are all capable of losing our cool, getting caught up in hot emotions and causing harm.  read more »

Jason WachobI'm not your typical yoga person.

In fact, I don't even come close to fitting the profile of a yoga person. First of all, I'm a dude. I'm tall (6'7" to be exact). Yes, is the answer to your next question: I played basketball. I played for four years in college at Columbia, in New York City. I also was president of my fraternity.  read more »

Awakening the Spine"We have three friends: gravity, breath, and wave (connected with the supple movement of extension along the spine). These three companions (fused in one) should be constantly with us."

According to Vanda Scaravelli, author of Awakening the Spine, "we have lost contact with our bodies, and re-establishing this connection is what we try to do. The body should respond immediately to the requests of the mind. The less the gap between the two, the more efficient the action will be."  read more »

In Step two of the 12 Steps of recovery, we're asked to Come to Believe that a Power Greater than Ourselves Could Restore Us to Sanity. What 12-Steppers tell you in the beginning is that you can choose your own concept of what that Higher Power is, as long as you choose something. That said, one big criticism of 12-Step programs is that even though they say you can choose your own HP, they really mean God when they say God. The subtext: if you don't believe in God, you're not going to make it. And if you argue about it, you're not willing. And you have to be willing to make it. And if you don't believe now, you'll come around eventually. This leaves some people feeling like they can't do 12-Step recovery.  read more »

PORT MATILDA, Pa. – The walk down a hill at the St. Joseph Institute ends at the Forest Chapel, nestled in the woods between two streams. Only the sounds of chirping birds and a breeze blowing through leaves pierce the silence.

It's a serene setting where co-owner Michael Campbell hopes visitors experience a spiritual reawakening — regardless of whether one is seeking a religious retreat or a personal wellness break.

Frazzled Americans look to such destinations increasingly to decompress from their mile-a-minute lifestyles, redefining the concept of "spiritual travel." State tourism gurus in Pennsylvania in recent years have produced literature promoting what they called "growing interest in spiritually based retreat destinations."  read more »

If you are heavy, it could be making you sick and tired and age prematurely. And I don't mean heavy with fat ...

I mean heavy with heavy metals -- like mercury!

Unfortunately, toxic mercury problems are common. Along with polar bears, beluga whales, ducks, otters, panthers, and all river fish as well as most large ocean fish, we humans are poisoning ourselves with mercury at ever increasing rates.

There's no doubt about it, mercury is the most alarming, disease-causing source of environmental toxicity that I see daily in my practice. Many of patients have toxic levels of mercury -- and they're not alone. I personally suffered from mercury toxicity and chronic fatigue syndrome --which I cured myself from, in part by getting rid of the mercury in my body. So I know about this first hand.  read more »

hey do not love that do not show their love."

William Shakespeare

As the month of love begins and Valentine's Day approaches, I've been giving a lot of thought to love. (It's hard to avoid thinking about it when stores' shelves are stocked with all things red and pink and heart-shaped!) It's complex, fascinating term that can many so many things to so many people. It brings people the greatest joy and the deepest pain. It's hard to describe but undeniable when you experience it. It's something that can bring the biggest smile to your face or create a puddle of tears in your pillow. Love is pretty amazing. And, for that reason, I'm going to be celebrating a month of love here at Positively Present. For the month of February, I'm going to be writing all about love -- and not just romantic love, either. I'm going to be writing, as I always do, about life, but this month I'm going to be incorporating a whole lot of love into those posts.  read more »

I am not a yoga person, which is why I need yoga. Too bad my best efforts to exercise my willpower long enough to attend a yoga class have culminated in trips to the bodega (formerly trips to the bar) to reward myself on my way home, undoing my efforts and then some. Yoga does not come naturally to me. I am not flexible, I cannot relax regardless of how many deep breaths I enlist to sooth me, nor do I feel at one with the concept of spandex yoga attire at the moment.

I have always aspired to be a yoga person, but since my new year's resolution was to stop doing things that I hate to do because I believe they will pay off one day, I had finally crossed yoga off of my to-do list.  read more »

By now, your New Year's resolutions made in the euphoria of the first days of the decade will have shaken out. The new "exercise routine", "diet regime", "watch less TV", "limit time on the internet", and "stop smoking" resolutions may have already fallen by the wayside. The ones that count will keep holding.

We are still in January. What is it that you would really like to improve or change in your life? What would you like to see change in our world? And how would you like to be part of that change? How will you be inspiring yourself this year?  read more »

The dream is a little hidden door
in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul....
-- C. G. Jung

We live in a world in which we are saturated by so much information, but how much of this information nourishes our soul or reveals the real meaning of our life? In a world of so many choices how can we know what is right for our true self? When we are asleep and are no longer caught in the chatter of the mind, dreams can speak to us about the mystery of our soul and its journey in life. They can guide through life's maze and reconnect us with our divine purpose. And yet in order to understand the meaning of their messages, we have to reclaim this ancient language of images and symbols.  read more »

We first heard the saying practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty, many years ago when we were at Findhorn, the renowned spiritual community in Scotland. It always struck us as being the most obvious thing to do, that practicing kindness and beauty should be a natural expression of who we are.

Although wonderful in its intention, recently there appears to be some confusion about it, particularly the practice random acts of kindness part. This misunderstanding seems to arise from the idea that the receiver might not appreciate the kindness, that it might even make them apprehensive or distrustful. Sadly, this speaks more about the suspicious world we live in than about the nature of kindness. It is a shame that this maybe the case, but if so then what is needed are more acts of kindness and done by more of us, not less.  read more »

Just like dressing for success puts our best foot forward, dreaming for success can help us achieve our biggest goals this year.

Last year I shared 10 great tips for having big winter dreams. But more important than having big dreams is knowing how to work with all the dreams we have. Here's how to make every dream count, no matter how small.

1. Remember your dreams and write them down. Even if you only remember a word or name, color or feeling, write it down. Dream recall increases the more we practice it.

2. Go for what makes you happy in dreams. Some traditions insist that to be happy in waking life you must pursue pleasure in your dreams. Being successful in 2010 means being bold, so start by doing what you want in dreams even if it's something you would never do in waking life. It's just a dream--go for it!  read more »

The last 10 years seems to me to have been a long decade. I know that time is supposed to 'speed up' as we get older, but the "Millennium" celebrations, Y2K and all the hype about the 21st century seems like ancient history. A decade ago, we still weren't at war in two countries, 9/11 hadn't happened, George Bush was still promising a bipartisan administration, climate change was still a bit of an arcane scientific debate for most of us, New Orleans was still having a non-stop party and Google was a minor start-up. YouTube didn't exist at the turn of the century, eBay and Amazon were still babies, and the real estate bubble was just beginning. Steve Jobs had recently returned to Apple after spending 13 years with NeXT, the iPod and iTunes were concept just beginning to be developed and the iPhone wasn't even in sight.  read more »

Spirit Recovery was born out of a a desire to create a non-denominational program for the growing numbers of people who are seeking to recover and increase their spiritual consciousness. We designed our programs so people can reclaim their authentic state as spiritual beings — like becoming children again, loving life completely and fully, while maintaining the wisdom of our adult experience. Living an authentic life.  read more »

In the previous blog, I explored the first energy center and healing the cultural wounds that have bound us to negative beliefs about sexual pleasure. This blog is about the second energy center and the healing of relational wounding from our families of origin. Great sex is not simply a matter of all the parts working properly and having fun with a willing partner. There are important components that make erotic encounters really flowing at all levels: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

As our consciousness increases we also become more aware of the quality of the connection with our partner at any given moment, and if there is a sense of disconnect it will be evident. In long term, committed relationships, a sense of distance is a common experience; it happens on occasion to anyone. Sometimes we feel very connected to our partner and sometimes distant, but if this feeling of disconnect persists, there is work to be done to rebuild the trust which is the foundation for exploring Conscious Loving, or Level II of sexuality.  read more »

Is it now time for President Obama to heed advice from past presidents and other wise beings, advice to guide this history-making president as he goes forward.

For instance, with all the criticisms being shouted out against him, Obama might find some solace if he paid attention to Abraham Lincoln's words: If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.  read more »

I once proposed to my husband that we choose 'Devotion' with a big 'D'. I meant that we would be completely devoted to each other 100 percent. Let me define that a little further. That would look like we idolized each other. We would see each other as God and Goddess and there wouldn't be any 'if, and or buts' about it. Period.

One of the ways I defined it meant that we could make 'loving, critical assessments' of the other. You got it - criticisms - and the other would lovingly take it for what it was - a guru-like practice that the criticized one needed to hear and subscribe to. Yeah, right. I was quite naive. That was a long time ago; we've been married for 30 years!  read more »