Lucas Jackson/Reuters: The world is growing smaller. And larger. See our list of the world's 10 fattest countries below. Here, a man walks past the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Aug. 17, 2009It's a big world, after all. We're talking to you, American Samoa. Kiribati, too.

CHICAGO — If you tend to pack on a few pounds over the holidays, blame it on globalization. As the world has grown smaller, we’ve all grown larger — alarmingly so. In countries around the world, waistlines are expanding so rapidly that health experts recently coined a term for the epidemic: globesity.

The common fat-o-meter among nations is body mass index (BMI), a calculation based on a person’s height and weight. The World Health Organization defines “overweight” as an individual with a BMI of 25 or more and “obese” as someone with a BMI of 30 or higher. (To see how you weigh in, use this calculator by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.)  read more »

Photo: © 2009 Jupiterimages CorporationInstead of getting your energy from food, work or other people, spiritual author Deepak Chopra suggests finding infinite energy from the spirit that lives within you.
Where do you get your energy? Until you know the answer, your sources of energy will be limited. Food can only supply so many calories, and quite often, if those calories come from fat or sugar, there is actually a falling off or dulling of energy. If your energy comes from being with people, you won't be energized when you are alone. If your energy comes from working, it will last much longer and be more renewable but eventually bring fatigue.  read more »

I've been hooked on Netflix streaming for the past few weeks. It's served me as a useful post-book revision wind down, but not so useful in granting a good night's sleep. I've plowed through loads of my queue and started exploring indie documentaries. My latest obsession is the BBC special, The Atheism Tapes.

"Six renowned intellectuals debate whether God exists in these fascinating interviews with playwright and atheist Jonathan Miller. Highlights include playwright Arthur Miller discussing the anti-Semitism he's faced and his disbelief in God. Other participants are biologist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion; theologian Denys Turner; physicist Steven Weinberg; and philosophers Daniel Dennett and Colin McGinn." - from Netflix  read more »

I admit it – I’ve watched The Secret and read Lynn Grabhorn’s self help book Excuse Me Your Life is Waiting. Both discuss how intentions & thoughts are just another form of energy and how positive and negative energy (or a positive or negative way of thinking) is the major contributor to whether we achieve success or failure in our lives. Can this be true? If it was as simple as just changing the way we think, wouldn’t we all be healthy, happy and rich?  read more »

A cool girl that comes to the yoga studio had been buried in a gigantic book for a few weeks right up until class time. It was one of those books that you knew had to suck you in because it's a commitment just to lug the thing around. I asked her what it was and she started to describe a fascinating story about a man that had escaped from prison, fled to Bombay and lived in a slum where he provided medical aid to the residents. She said she had never been to India but the author's use of language took her there. Interesting. Next thing I know she finished the book and passed it off to me. Oh no! This book has almost a thousand pages, what if I start it and I hate it? I'll feel bad reporting back. I felt like I had made a huge commitment accepting her gift, but I had some travel coming up and it would be something to do on all the flights. It had a place in my life now.  read more »

How I Beat My Stress & Anxiety Through A Little Known Meditation Technique!






If you are looking for a way to meditate that anyone can easily master and benefit from, then I am happy that you have found my page. I was in the same boat as you. I had heard about the benefits that could be achieved through meditation but I felt confused with all the different types of meditation.

I just wanted to find a simple way that would reduce my awful stress levels and make me feel happier and more like myself again. My story will help you avoid the costly mistakes and save you lots of time. I hope you enjoy it!  read more »

TEDMED 2009: The Future Of Mind-Body Medicine

This morning's session at TEDMED 2009 was a great moment for HuffPost Living. First up was HuffPost Living's Medical Editor, Dr. Dean Ornish, who also approved all the food served at the conference. Ornish, while standing on stage holding his beautiful baby girl, spoke about intimacy and how those who are lonely, depressed, or isolated are more likely to get sicker. "Anything that promotes connection is healthy," he said. He focused his talk around the fact that we're beginning to rediscover ancient spiritual truths and how it relates to our health and well being.  read more »

Love & Detachment.

We often hold negative associations with the concept of detachment. "She seemed so detached," we overhear someone say with a pained look on his face. We may perceive someone who is detached as uncaring, irresponsible, unloving, or any number of other things. We are made to believe that attachment is what brings happiness. We often confuse love and attachment.  read more »

Putting Two and Two together

Many of you have seen this video of Jill Bolte Taylor, some may have read her book. I did. What I find interesting here is when you overlay her experiences of consciousness on top of the "recovery" process.

We have multi-dimensional realities and perceptions within us. The traditional recovery process gives only surface level attention to the deeper aspects of our consciousness. What we suffer from is our loss of awareness and conscious connection with our greater Consciousness. We are huge creative beings that have been born into a "reality" that is very small minded and literal in interpretation interaction. Living disconnected from our right brain consciousness is certainly enough of a loss of true reality to cause great discomfort and even more disturbing a very skewed perception of our self, the world , others, potential, etc.... Reality is not literal , reality is more dream like than reasonable.  read more »

I was all set to interview Eric Swanson, coauthor (with Yongey Mingur Rinpoche) of "Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Find Freedom," when I realized that my main question--"Can you give me some concrete steps to quiet the mind?"--was already addressed in his book. So he and Harmony Books graciously gave me permission to reprint parts of chapter seven on "Attention." Here, then, is the step-by-step approach to mindfulness or meditation--the basic practices of quieting the mind--provided in "Joyful Wisdom":

Reprinted from JOYFUL WISDOM: EMBRACING CHANGE AND FINDING FREEDOM Copyright © 2009 by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Published by Harmony Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Step One: Objectless Attention

The most basic approach to attention is referred to as "objectless"--not focusing on any specific "scene" or aspect of experience, but just looking and marveling at the wide range of scenery as it comes and goes....Objectless attention involves settling into this "is-ness," simply watching thoughts, emotions, appearances, and so on, as they emerge against or within the background of "space."  read more »

In Part I, I discussed how working out with free weights, or bodybuilding in general, your muscles would shorten and cause inflexibility. I pointed out how yoga will provide an alternative for the off days to give relief to sore muscle tissue, eliminate toxins and lengthen the muscles once again.

In this segment, I’d like to offer that our body and mind aren’t always balanced evenly. Did you ever notice that one side of your body is stronger than the other? Well, this comes from being right or left-handed. If we were all ambidextrous we might be better balanced, but we’re not, so we favor one side over another. By the same token, the mind will only push through so much pain before giving up, so the weaker parts fatigue earlier in repetitions.  read more »

gettyDr. Frank Lipman of the Huffington Post wrote an interesting post about "2 Questions To Ask That Are More Important Than a Diagnosis." I was intrigued by his piece because he combines Western medicine with some Eastern philosophies, and achieves a nice balance of handing some of the responsibility for good health to the patient without going too far into the Secretesque way of having good thoughts do all the work (and if you accidentally complain one day, all the disease comes right back home).  read more »

Elisha Goldstein has written a helpful post on how to forgive when it seems impossible. In his piece called "Refusing to Forgive: 9 Steps to Break Free," he tries an experiment regarding the grudges we keep. He writes:

Let's try a little experiment. Think of someone in your life right now (maybe not the most extreme person) who you are absolutely holding a grudge against right now. There is no way you are willing to forgive this person right now for their actions. Picture that person and hold onto that unwillingness to forgive. Now, just observe what emotions are there; Anger, resentment, sadness? Also notice how you are holding your body right now, is it tense anywhere or feeling heavy? Now bring awareness to your thoughts; are they hateful and spiteful thoughts?

Most people who I do this with find this to be an uncomfortable experiment that elicits feelings of tension, anger, and thoughts of ill will toward the other person. This is not conjuring these feelings out of nowhere; this is just bringing to light what is already within stirring around. There is a common misperception that forgiveness means condoning the act of the other person. Forgiveness simply means releasing this cycle of torture that continues to reside inside.  read more »

Friday, I shared Five Surprising Facts About Happiness. Well, most people tell us all this is great, but who has the time to work on being happier? These days we can barely make it to the gym, let alone add on a set of “happiness exercises.” But there are easy, quick things we can do each day to become happier that take maybe five minutes, even less.

Do at least one thing per day completely. By that, I mean, experience it fully, without going off into your head and thinking about what you need to do later, what you’re worried might happen, or whether whatever you are doing is a good use of your time. Just do it, and savor it. It can be anything – a meal, your shower, even a conversation – and you don’t have to plan it in advance. What’s more important is that you pick something you usually rush through or do distractedly and instead be completely present while you are doing it.  read more »

For many years, I’ve enjoyed the attributes, and the results, of working out with weights at my gym. It’s a national chain gym, which provides the most elaborate, sophisticated and creative exercise machines for specific muscles, plus, treadmills, stationary bikes, rowing machines, racquetball courts, swimming pool, saunas, and aerobics classes of all kinds.

But, even with all of that variety, my favorite place is still the free weight room. Don’t get me wrong, I use the other areas frequently, but for the purist, the free weights are still the place for a great work out of muscle building and toning.  read more »

Remember how everything is brighter when you first fall in love? Have you ever felt the special feeling of oneness during or after lovemaking? You are fully connected with your partner on the physical, emotional and spiritual plane. Nothing matters but the two of you, almost floating in the air with satisfaction and closeness. All worries and doubts have disappeared, and you are completely relaxed. Your body tingles with delight, and your heart is beating joyously and with love. You disappear into the eyes of your partner and everything you do, look at and touch suddenly has a special glow.  read more »

The practice of mindfulness/awareness meditation is common to all Buddhist traditions. Beyond that, it is common to, inherent in, all human beings.

In meditation we are continuously discovering who and what we are. That could be quite frightening or quite boring, but after a while, all that slips away. We get into some kind of natural rhythm and begin to discover our basic mind and heart.

Often we think about meditation as some kind of unusual, holy or spiritual activity. As we practice that is one of the basic beliefs we try to overcome. The point is that meditation is completely normal: it is the mindful quality present in everything we do.  read more »

There is a lot of bad news around. No news in that. Does it get to you? I limit the amount of news I read, hear or watch because it gets me down. Being grateful for what is immediately around me alleviates unnecessary stress, and restores my spirit.

1. Control Your Attitude In response to my recent post 4 Steps to Enrich Your Life I received the following from one reader:  read more »

Fear and greed are potent motivators. When both of these forces push in the same direction, virtually no human being can resist. And doctors -- despite many expectations to the contrary -- are human beings.

This is one reason why medical costs in the U.S. have spiraled out of control, yet we are among the least healthy people in the developed world.

On the fear side, consider this email I got from a physician friend who had read galleys of my book Why Our Health Matters: A Vision of Medicine That Can Transform Our Future which will be released September 8, 2009:  read more »

Hara Estroff Marano penned a fascinating article about jealousy called "Jealousy: Love's Destroyer" in the last issue of "Psychology Today." Since this deadly sin is one of my most unbecoming qualities--or so I have been told by friends--I was anxious to find out, perhaps, why I am so jealousy and what I can do about it.  read more »