This is a brilliant TED talk on a new approach to treating cancer. Danny Hillis lays it out beautifully in a way even a techno-bumpkin such as myself can grok it. Take 20 minutes and open to a new paradigm of healing.

Perhaps it’s time to stop blindly trusting the pharmaceutical companies with our health care and begin to take responsibility for ourselves by doing our own due diligence regarding our health care options.

Bad Medicine: The Glaxo Case

I had the pleasure of presenting two meditation workshops at our local college yesterday. As I suspected, there was quite a response from people wanting to find better ways to deal with stress in their lives.

If you attended either of these sessions and would like to purchase the recorded meditation that I’ve created to support those wanting to incorporate this into their lives, I’ll have the audio file available for download soon.

Although in the interest of being green I encourage people to download the file to their listening device, until it is available, I have CDs available for order. Please contact me if you’d like to purchase one or would like more information.

CDs are $15 – Audio file will be $10

Thanks for attending. It was fun working with you.

Local singer/songwriter Emily Spiller is such an inspiration to watch, especially if you love seeing music in the making. It’s hard to believe that huge voice is coming out of this little pixie of a girl.

Emily lays down vocal harmony tracks on her loop sampler, then sings the mainline. She and her band of robots put on a fabulous show. Grab any chance to see her live.

She’s got Soul comin out of her soul…

I get ridiculously impatient with myself when I’m learning something new. Some madness within has me believe that as soon as I decide I want to know something, I should be masterful at it. Like the decision alone is some kind of download of adequate information and experience…

I loved watching Trinity download the pilot program in The Matrix. I could easily think of all sorts of programs I’d like to access. Just plug me in…

But I learned something about learning that I thought was pretty cool. It’s that there are four distinct phases to learning anything. And it makes so much sense…

• Phase I – unconscious incompetence (you don’t know what you don’t know)
• Phase II – conscious incompetence (you’re becoming aware of what you don’t know)
• Phase III – conscious competence (you’re becoming aware of your growing mastery)
• Phase IV – unconscious competence (mastery is now just part of your reality)

Think about something you’re learning about and figure out which phase you’re in. With any luck it will make you more patient with your process.

This half hour interview with Stephen Cherniske, author of  The Metabolic Plan: Stay Younger Longer, is well worth the time. If you appreciate a truly common sense approach to wellness, backed by extensive research, you’ll enjoy this. Brilliant man; important message. Being well doesn’t have to be hard… it’s as simple as tipping the seesaw of damage and repair in your favour.

Here’s to a life long-lived…

I was at a Social Media event the other night and one of the people I was chatting with was talking about her daughter’s 600 friends on Facebook. She was lamenting trying to explain to her daughter that she didn’t actually have 600 “friends.”

It got me thinking about friends and how we develop our understanding of true friendship. It usually happens during our teen years. My sister, who has daughters now in their twenties, tells me that during their teens “friendship” was highly volatile, to put it mildly. Your best friend one week could turn on you in a moment should you arrive at school with the “wrong” brand of cellphone. Next thing you know, you’re outcast into the land of social hell.

In this era of Facebook friendships and online social networks, do our kids really get a chance to learn about real friendship? The kind that abides time and hardship. Will they get to experience the kind of friends who’ll call BS on you when you’re lying to yourself? Friends who’ll lift you up when you’re shortchanging yourself?

Maybe these virtual relationships are just part of our evolution. It’ll be interesting to see the world this web-connected generation creates as they move into their twenties and thirties. Perhaps as a result of having a large number of “lite” friendships, they’ll hold a more global view, drawing us all toward a more inclusive world. Perhaps these kids will end up being more autonomous, yet equally able to create empathic connections with all kinds of people. Perhaps it is these e-relationships that will actually help us shift from a you OR me world to a you AND me world.

It seems we too often fear change. And so often that very change is what moves us forward into new paradigms that fit perfectly what we need. I prefer to remain optimistic.

Today, let’s remember Peace. With heartfelt gratitude for those who gave “the last measure of devotion,” let’s focus on experiences in our lives when we knew real peace. Times when we made peace with others we had been in conflict with. Feelings of acceptance and curiousity when we encountered differences. Acts of generosity and courage in the face of all that pulls us in the other direction.

Today, instead of focusing on war, let’s remember Peace.

Brilliant film – brilliant idea. Clearly we can’t wait for government or business to address the threat of global warming. It’s time to take the reigns back and use our group mind to generate innovative solutions. The film is about 15 minutes long with fabulous animation. I found it totally inspiring. We are so creative. There is no limit to what we can co-create when we are willing.

As John Lennon so beautifully put it…

Imagine

The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist

This is my book choice for this month. Twist’s experience as a global fundraiser and involvement with the Hunger Project has given her a unique perspective on our relationship with money. I’ve had several ah-ha moments reading this book. I highly recommend it if you’re seeking a paradigm shift in your perception of money and its role in your life.

Here are a couple of excerpts.

Scarcity: The Great Lie

“We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don’t have enough of. We don’t have enough time. We don’t have enough rest. We don’t have enough exercise. We don’t have enough work. We don’t have enough profits. We don’t have enough weekends. We don’t have enough wilderness. We don’t have enough weekends. Of course we don’t have enough money – ever.  We’re not thin enough, we’re not smart enough, we’re not pretty enough or fit enough or educated or successful enough, or rich enough – ever. Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we’re already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something.”

Sufficiency: The Surprising Truth

“Could it be that the surprising truth, the revelatory truth of our time, is that our relationship with money is based in an unexamined, unquestioned set of assumptions that are myths and lies and that spur us to act in ways that rob us of the satisfaction and fulfillment we’re looking for in life? Could it be that the key to turning around a runaway, unsustainable economy, culture, and almost frightening time in the evolution of civilization is in confronting and embracing the surprising truth that there is enough, we have enough, we are enough, and that at the heart of every circumstance is that possibility and that opportunity?”