The Eden Magazine January 2022

JANUARY 2022

EDEN T H E

MAGAZINE

PETER COYOTE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE TURNING TOWARD LIFE

By John Siddique

6

LISTEN & LOVE MINDFULLY

By Sheera Agllurie

TIPS ON

CREATING AN

ECO-FRIENDLY NURSERY

By Stephanie Moram

FEEL IT,'TILL YOU HEAL IT

By Shelly Tygielski

e t o N s ' r o Edit Welcome to our January issue,

A conscious consumer understands and is aware of how our consumption impacts society and the world.

The value of our role in society should go beyond our purchasing power. We need to take a more serious look and rethink how we consume. Conscious consumption is just one part of tackling climate change, the health of our environment, the safety of other species with whom we share the planet, and improving society's status.

I recently purchased a new sofa. When I saw it at the store, it looked aesthetically pleasing, was the right color, and was comfortable. But after the sofa arrived, I sat down to watch my favorite television show, and I suddenly felt something pricking my leg. It felt like a sharp needle. I thought that perhaps I'd forgotten to remove one of the tags. But instead, I was horrified to discover that it was a duck feather. I never purchase animal products! I never knew that many couches are padded and stuffed with feathers. I called the furniture store the next day and asked them to replace it with a feather-free couch. They informed me that all their sofas were stuffed with feathers. So I told them to come pick it up, and that I would be shopping elsewhere.

Until I received the new sofa, which took a little over one week, I chose to sit on the floor when I watched television. No animal should be tortured or have to die so that I can sit on a comfy sofa or for any other furniture or goods in my home.

In 2022, please consider being more aware of your consumption, and please choose not to purchase any items of any kind that are made with animal products.

May the new year fill your life with good health and happiness.

Maryam Morrison

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The Eden Magazine

@The Eden Magazine

Photo by Jess Bailey

@The Eden Magazine

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DINA MORRONE

Maryam Morrison

SASHA GARY

SHELLY WILSON

SHERRI CORTLAND

ARTIN MARDIROSIAN

VITO TROTTA

SHERI DETERMAN

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ANGELA DUNNING

PHYLLIS KING

ISABELLE RUEN

EDWARD HAKOPIAN

MICHAEL

GREG DOHERTY

GRETA PAZZAGLIA

ALEXIA MELOCCHI

MEET OUR TEAM

Photo by ISABELLE RUEN

Discover the path to a peaceful life among other living beings. We are all made of vibration and light in the universe to manifest our energy around all livingness.

JOE SANTOS, JR.

JAYITA BHATTACHARJEE

NANCY E. YEAROUT

EDEN T H E

MAGAZINE

Since 2010

The Eden Magazine is a free online publication focuses on spreading compassion to all Sentient Beings living in a healing and peaceful world FOUNDER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MARYAM MORRISON EXECUTIVE EDITOR/ CONTRIBUTING WRITER DINA MORRONE COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR/ CONTRIBUTING WRITER ALEXIA MELOCCHI CONTRIBUTING WRITERS MICHAEL SASHA GARY VITO TROTTA PHYLLIS KING JOE SANTOS, JR. ANGELA DUNNING NANCY E. YEAROUT SHELLY WILSON SHERRI CORTLAND JAYITA BHATTACHARJEE CONTRIBUTING STYLISTS + MAKEUP ARTIST EDWARD HAKOPIAN GRAPHICS & PHOTOGRAPHY GREG DOHERTY ISABELLE RUEN SHERI DETERMAN ARTIN MARDIROSIAN (Nexision) GRETA PAZZAGLIA WEBSITE www.theedenmagazine.com 325 N. Maple Dr. Po Box 5132 Beverly Hills, CA 90209

To purchase a copy visit us in www.theedenmagazine.com

Eden Magazine is a non-profit monthly online magazine. We aim to create a better environment where we live among other living beings in peace and harmony. We support artists that their work matches our criteria. If you would like to submit your artwork, article or/and your photography for our future issues please contact Maryam Morrison at; maryammorrison@theedenmagazine.com The Eden Magazine reviews article content for accuracy before the date of publication. The views expressed in the articles reflect the author(s) opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher and editor. The published material, adverts, editorials, and all other content is published in good faith.

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Table of Contents 10

PETER COYOTE

By Dina Morrone

22

32

22

2022 THE YEAR OF THE AUTHENTIC POWER

By Phyllis King

28

WAR HORSE CREEK INNOVATIVE PROGRAM RESCUES WILD MUSTANGS FOR VETERAN TRANSITION TRAINING

32

8 IN 10 AMERICANS SAY COLLAGE STUDENTS WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES DESERVE SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS

36

36

WHEN REACHING FOR PERFECTION IS STOPPING YOU FROM ACHIEVING MORE

By Cathy Spaas

46

SHIFT HAPPENS

By Lisa M. Roseman, M.T.S.

50

TURNING TOWARD LIFE

By John Siddique

50

55

BEE SCARED AND PLANS TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING

By Richard Faith

57

SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

By Erica Komisae, LCSW

62

28

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FOLKS

By Joey Santos Jr.

57

Cover by STEPHANIE MOHAN

Happy 2022 66

YOUR LIFE DECLUTTERED

By Kate Evans

68

66

LISTEN & LOVE MINDFULLY

By Sherra Agllurie

70

HOW MEDITATION SHAPES THE MENTAL HEALTH

By Jayita Bhattacharjee

76

FEEL IT 'TILL YOU HEAL IT

By Shelly Tygielski

82

DIAGNOSIS

By Lynn Barett

68

88

A NEW YEAR, A NEW INTENTIONAL YOU

By Shelly Willson

94

OUT WITH THE NEW IN WITH THE OLD

By Nancy E. Yearout

96

70 76

82

6 TIPS ON CREATING AN ECO-FRIENDLY NURSERY

By Stephanie Moram

100

96

DIGITAL HEALTH SOLUTIONS DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE ACCESS TO QUALITY BEHAVIORAL

By Michael Gorton, MD, JD

100

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PETER

COYOTE

By Dina Morrone

W

elcome to the world of Peter Coyote, a multi-award-winning actor, author, director, screenwriter, narrator, and activist, opens up to us at The Eden Magazine about the many aspects of his extraordinary life, from the glamour of Hollywood to the humble life of a Buddhist Priest.

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Photo courtesy by hanspeterschneider.com

How did your childhood growing up on the East Coast influence the life choices you made?

I was lucky enough to grow up in both an urban and a rural environment. My parents were sophisticated people who loved theater and music and had many artist friends.

My dad's great passion was raising Charolais cattle (which he and his partner smuggled across the Rio Grande by painting black spots on them to disguise them as Holsteins) to avoid the prohibitions on them created by the Angus and Hereford lobbies.

I was working on the ranch at ten years old under the foreman, and it was the best thing my dad ever did for me. It got me out from under his thumb, and I learned about people who were never going to go to college—for whom life was simply work. They did everything at the speed they did anything—hammering a nail, throwing a bale, smoking, or drinking a beer. I learned what brilliant problem solvers they were and never forgot rural people.

Not sure if it's an East Coast or West Coast thing, but when my family lost all our money, I lost my beloved ranch and wound up in the West, and I've been here so long, I'm a Westerner. But that's a whole other topic.

What was it that first inspired you to become an actor?

What were the first steps you took towards pursuing this career path?

Well, the truth was that I wasn't inspired to be an actor. I was a poet in college--part of the black turtleneck, Camel cigarette crew. And one day, in the student union, the drama teacher, half in the bag, a wonderful man named Ned Donahoe, dropped into the poet's corner, and addressing me said, in a stentorian voice, "I'll bet it's never occurred to you that theater is a dialogue on issues of critical importance played out before an audience."

I was stunned and said. "No, to be honest, it hadn't occurred to me."

On my mother's side, there were a lot of social activists and communists in our family—labor organizers, teachers, people who wouldn't overthrow a pushcart but were trying to get a square deal for working people.

I never forgot their example or the way my government lied about them. I saw grown men and women in tears in my living room during the McCarthy period, broken by the same kind of rats currently trying to overthrow our electoral process. I never forgot them, and I'll never stop struggling to protect democracy.

He challenged me to come audition for his theater company. I did, and he accepted me, and he put together a group of really talented people. He wasn't very patient with 'academic' theater. "The basketball coach uses his first string. Why should I settle?" Anyway, I did two shows a year for four years, inspired by him. And after I graduated, I went to San Francisco to pursue a Master's in Creative Writing, but I joined a kind of moribund theater, the remnants of a company taken to NY to start Lincoln Center, which took the best actors with them.

I stayed in that company for a year or so, but it wasn't a good fit.

Then one day, I passed our smaller theater we were renting to a company called The San Francisco Mime Troupe. They had their lobby festooned with photos of crazy-looking commedia dell'arte performances. (Think Punch and Judy with people.) They also had two of the most astounding looking women I'd ever seen, Kay Hayward and Sandy Archer. I auditioned for them the next day, was accepted, and given all the responsibility I could handle--including directing the first national tour of a very dangerous show called The Minstrel Show, which was 12 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

used to expose the racism of minstrel shows. We were arrested multiple times on the tour when people realized this was a story that could have been written by Malcolm X. Anyway, I stayed there for a couple of years and dropped out and into the counterculture and co-founded a group called the Diggers. I forgot all about 'art' per se in my efforts to imagine a culture better than the one I'd inherited. It was only a decade and a half later, after my dad died broke, I was a single father of a daughter, working for the Governor of California and I had great success at that job, which convinced me that I didn't need to just think of myself in terms of the counterculture. I had helped create and sell the policies that swelled our budget from $1 million to $16 million a year, made friends and relationships with conservative Senators and Congresspeople, and won their respect. So, I decided to try "the Big Board"— the movies. I gave myself five years, figuring if it didn't work out, at least I wouldn't die with the 'what-ifs." But I got lucky.

At what point in life did you choose the path of Buddhism and why. Is this something you searched out on your own?

Well, I've told this story in both my books, Sleeping Where I Fall and The Rainman's Third Cure, so I don't want to talk it to death. My childhood was pretty troubled, and in my early teens, I began reading the Beats—grownups as critical of the current times as I was, only educated and far more literate. They were all involved with Buddhism and talked about it so much I began reading up on it. The idea of Enlightenment was the perfect carrot to swing in front of the nose of a horse-stupid, overweight adolescent who was cripplingly shy around girls. The idea of it stayed on the back burner somewhere in my mind, and after ten years of heroin and too many other drugs, and with a child to look after, I realized I had to get my life together. I was chasing a woman (who I later married) who was a serious Zen student, and so I began sitting at the San Francisco Zen Center (AND going to therapy), and it stuck.

In 2015 you were ordained a Zen priest. Please tell us where this happened and a little bit about the experience of that moment.

By 2012, I'd been studying Zen for nearly forty years.

My teacher was involved in a three-year priest's training program and asked me to take it. I told him I'd never be ordained, but he said it didn't matter, just see what I learned, so I signed up. I was so impressed by the caliber of the people taking the training that by the time it ended, I really wanted to up my commitment and game, and so I agreed to be ordained.

Ceremonies are interesting because they actually change you when they're well done. It took about a month after I was ordained before I began realizing I knew things I hadn't understood I'd known. My teacher had predicted

that this would happen, that the "lineage would begin to speak through me," and it did. About five years after that, I was transmitted—which means my teacher invested me with the authority to be independent and ordain my own priests. After that, I vowed not to teach publicly for five years. That period was up during the pandemic, and I began doing public dharma talks.

Originally featured in Santa Rosa Press Democrat, in 2018. The photographer is Alvin Jornada

For our readers, who don't practice Buddhism or those just now embarking on a path of Buddhism, please speak to them about the beauty of this practice, what to expect, and what their focus should be in the beginning.

First of all, the Buddha was a man—a normal man with extraordinary logical and analytical powers. Everything he taught me is available to any living human. It's not in conflict with any religion. It is a practice, a way of living, in which we try to model the Buddha's behavior.

The Buddha had two basic insights: 1) Dependent Origination, which means everything depends on other things for its existence. Nothing from an atom to an elephant stands single and alone. This is as true for the awareness we call our "self" as it is for everything else. Because nothing exists singly, Buddhists describe things as 'empty' of self. We would not be here without sunlight, water, oxygen, pollinating insects, microbes in the soil to nourish our food, etc. What this means by implication is that we are not "fixed" in a given way. The thing we refer to inside us is an awareness without a physical referent like an organ. That means that most of our behaviors are either inherited or habitual, and we have the freedom to counter them.

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The other "ground" of existence he pointed out was 2) Nirvana. Because everything is empty, in the next moment, we can choose to do things completely differently and be free. To do that, we need to learn to drop our habitual responses to events and what arises in the mind, and exists with a kind of interior stillness, which we practice through meditation. From that stillness (as opposed to our normal egocentric perceptions), we can see things as they actually are and respond appropriately.

That's the short course.

Please tell our readers a little bit about Project Coyote, what they can do to get involved, donate, and where they can go to learn more about this very worthy cause.

Project Coyote is a very worthwhile project that teaches people to understand and live with apex predators. There are many things we do. We have taught local farmers

how to protect their livestock with guard dogs and fences without having to set traps and use poison, which they really appreciate. We have been successful in many states at stopping "sport-killing" contests, where people will compete to see how many coyotes, lynx, or badgers they can kill in a weekend.

It destroys an environmental niche, is ignorant in the extreme to think that we humans get to define what deserves to live and what doesn't. You can find Project Coyote at: https:// www.projectcoyote.org/, and I hope that readers will check it out. We know enough now to know that when we weaken environmental links, very destructive things occur. A coyote eats about 2,000 rats a year, so you can take your choice as to which you'd rather live with. We saved Marin Country over $250,000 a year by ending the poisoning and trapping of predators, and the farmers are greatly relieved and love the new systems we taught them.

Your most recent book, Tongue of a Crow, is your first poetry collection. Tongue of a Crow is a very intriguing title. What motivated you to write this book of poems at this particular time? And can you share a little bit about why you chose this title?

Well, it's a line from a poem in the book. But on a deeper level, it means opening ourselves to what nature has to tell us. There used to be a superstition that if you slit the tongue of a crow, it could speak English. In fact, they can imitate English words without slitting their tongue. I feed twenty crows every day and call them in when I'm throwing out shelled peanuts. They know what the word breakfast means and come running.

As an award-winning voiceover artist, your voice is one of the most recognized voices. Today, many are trying to break into that field. How did you break into this line of work, and what is it about working behind a microphone that gives you the greatest satisfaction?

When the counterculture ended, I wound up in San Francisco, broke, and the idea of maybe getting a few ads occurred to me.

I made a CD with about ten characters talking about what a miserable person Peter Coyote was in various dialects and accents, kind of showing off my wares. It was very funny. I took it around to every ad agency in San Francisco. And before long, I was making triple scale. Then, after some success in films, I was put into the "celebrity voiceover" category, where it's kind of fun for people to recognize the voice of the actor speaking, but you're not really endorsing the product. As I got better known, and after I met Ken Burns, I pretty much stopped doing advertisements and concentrated on documentaries--many of which I do for free to help out worthy causes I believe in.

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What would you like to say to young college students today about the power of their own voice, their actions, and activism?

The most important thing I could say is KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. Too many protests today aim at the wrong target and become campaign videos for people you wouldn't agree with. A protest is a CEREMONY. It's an invitation to a better world, not an opportunity to express your anger and outrage. If you think back to the earliest Civil Rights demonstrators, look at them carefully. They dressed as if they were going to church. They never raised their voices, except in song. They were disciplined, and the accumulation of that behavior set them apart from the bigots beating and spitting at them.

I don't eat any red meat anymore. It's too environmentally expensive, thousands of acres of plant food dedicated to cattle feed, the incredible amounts of methane they produce (second leading contributor to carbon in the atmosphere), and also the cruelty of these timid, basically wild, curious animals.

I don't eat tuna because it's overfished, and I don't eat octopus after seeing My Octopus Teacher.

Too many protests today are aimed at the police or legislators. It's the wrong audience. The only audience that counts is the mass of people living between the Alleghenies and the Sierras. They are watching, trying to determine who they trust and whose side they'll be on. Disrespectful behavior, screaming, destruction of property turns them off. That's what elected Nixon and Reagan after the Sixties. Here are four things I think should be considered in any protest.

1) Dress as well as you can. It's hard to peg people as terrorists when they're put together.

2) Have MONITORS in yellow vests scanning the crowd. At the first sign of trouble, they blow WHISTLES, and all the real protestors sit down! Let the police take out their aggression on the provocateurs and others destroying the neighborhood.

3) Be silent. Let signs do your talking, and let America see your discipline and self-control.

4) Go home at night. You can't tell the cops from the killers in the dark. Leave and come back the next day, rested, fed, and with the energy to remain disciplined.

With regards to diet, what is one food item you crave and what food item will absolutely not eat and have cut out of your diet?

I always seem to crave noodles, and I crave bacon, but I rarely eat it because pigs are so badly treated in commercial farming. You can buy a cow that was petted to death at Whole Foods (graded at five on a care scale).

You can't buy a pig above a two. So occasionally, if a local farmer raises pigs in a nice way and butchers them himself, I'm okay with a little bacon as a scarce rarity. I used to raise pigs, and I know how sensitive and intelligent they are.

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What does a day in the life of Peter Coyote look like?

I get up at 5:30 or 6:00 and meditate. Then, if I have memorial services or something to do, I perform them.

Walk and feed my dogs Take a cup of coffee and watch the news Try to write for two or three hours (or fulfill work appointments) Chores after lunch Walk the dogs around five, feed 'em Eat around six while I watch the news Then I turn my brain off and watch some TV series: Succession, Rust, Doc Martin, The Knick, A French Village. I'm all over the place.

Try to practice the guitar every day (fail) And get enough sleep (fail) Special Thanks to: Peter Coyote Cheri Head Photography by: Stephanie Mohan

An Excerpt from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Meet Buddha Masks, Meditation, and Improvised Play to Induce Liberated States

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Meets Buddha

By Peter Coyote

B

uddha watched the two men approaching. He noticed their collapsed posture and frayed clothes, noticed too that the large white horse was lame in its right front foot and that both steeds were deeply tired and underfed. He imagined and then materialized a bucket, walked to the spring, and filled it with fresh water. He imagined and materialized a long cutting blade like he’d used when he was young in Nepal and collected a goodly pile of grass. Then he blew the coals of his fire into flame and set the tea kettle on to boil. As the strangers approached, he stepped forward without hesitation. “Let me take your horses.”

The Lone Ranger thanked him and dismounted stiffly. Tonto noted the stranger’s dark skin and bare feet, the tidiness, and meagerness of his camp. “We can’t stay here long,” he whispered to the Lone Ranger. “He’s got less than we do.”

The Lone Ranger corrected him in a whisper: “If he’s a fan, our visit will be enormously important to him.”

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“Sure, we’ll eat his food and bury him in our importance,” Tonto muttered to himself.

The Buddha indicated several soft pillows, which the strangers hadn’t previously noticed, and invited them to make themselves comfortable.

While they settled, Buddha stripped the saddles and turned them upside down to dry in the sun. He flipped the saddle blankets and hung them over cottonwood branches to air out. He gave each horse a bucket of water and gently examined their feet and legs. Finding a stone in Silver’s right front foot, he pried it clear of the hoof with a stick. Silver nudged him with his head, and the Buddha said, “You’re welcome.”≠

The Buddha returned to the fire, poured the tea, and set some naan bread before them, spiced with wild onions and some roasted peppers. The Lone Ranger ate him greedily. Tonto ate slowly, sampling and enjoying the strange flatbread. “I could teach this guy to make fry bread,” he thought. The Lone Ranger turned to Tonto and said in a low tone designed not to travel-- “This guy is an impeccably trained servant. Let’s wait around for his master. Maybe he’d be good for a loan.”

“Yeah,” Tonto said derisively. “Maybe he’d like to back a tv series.”

Missing his tone, the Lone Ranger returned to his supper. “You never know,” he muttered.

Enlightenment is not something we think about but express in each moment. Each [masking] exercise is designed to alter some sense of the body’s feelings about “normal” by coaxing you to imagine, move, stand, behave, and project yourself in ways that appear to you as counterintuitive and definitely not you.

These simple games expose the borders and soften the sense of self by encouraging you to explore attitudes, feelings, physical postures, intentions, and behavior beyond the safety of your known persona. If, for instance, you begin to move in a way that does not feel like you, it’s possible to become fully aware of that resistance, identify it, and study it clearly rather than dismiss it or flee its influence. Why is it not you?

What’s wrong with it, other than your discomfort?

If your normal posture and social strategies represent a desire not to be noticed, being compelled to behave boldly or aggressively will awaken a host of resistances, worries, and previously rejected feelings. If you fear that spontaneous responses might expose you as foolish and reveal unconscious baggage or if being out-ofcontrol frightens you, these exercises will have revelatory value. They may initially feel off-task or trivial, but they’re extremely practical for highlighting aspects of the self normally consigned to invisibility.

The more familiar you are with your habits and partialities, the more easily you can alter them. These exercises address the unconscious directly, feeding it new information and strange associations, which nudge it off balance and onto high alert. It is that high-alert state seeking normalcy that, when presented with an unknown mask, scrambles to assemble a new, coherent personality that matches associations with the face in the mirror.

When you see a mask as your reflection, several things occur simultaneously. A face, which is not your own,

offers feedback to the mind. Seeking order and coherence, the mind mines its resources, scavenging clues, such as previously stored images from fantasies and dreams, to reestablish a new equilibrium. From that plunge into interior space, awareness rag-picks among random memories, feelings, observations, and emotions to assemble a holographic new personality. The new identity is as multidimensional as the old and will include knowledge of the masked persona’s personal history, relatives, posture, attitudes toward the world, and pungent biographical details. It is as if everything you know about yourself transformed into a door through which to discover someone else. While your familiar identity remains in suspension, it will not trip you up with judgments, criticism, self-consciousness, and embarrassment. All its constituent parts that normally cause you difficulty are subdued. This occurs in the blink of an eye, and to anyone who has ever experienced the shock of recognition of a new character arising in their interior, it feels miraculous, as if that person had always been resident in your shadows, like an understudy waiting for their opportunity to claim the stage.

The mask’s persona perceives differently than “you” do and seizes possibilities that our ordinary self has excluded from its options. The masked persona responds to challenges or surprises with aplomb and rises to unexpected questions without hesitation or embarrassment and usually with glee and a pronounced attitude. The responses are ego-free or, more accurately, represent the ego of the mask, not your own. Furthermore, no matter how diffidently or unsure students may have been at the beginning of class, once masked, they stand before their peers as radically different people. Some will be insanely aggressive, others smoldering and cocksure; some will be barking mad, others perfectly normal. But always, the student becomes someone different from the person he or she was at the beginning of class.

During the 1960s, I had an African American friend named John Francis who traveled the entire country carrying a banjo and never speaking. He could neither explain himself nor ask directly for anything, but he occasionally resorted to writing notes. Yet, he was so turned by the silence that this tall, singular black man was able to travel wherever he chose and, to my knowledge, never experienced any negative reaction.

By choosing not to speak, he enhanced his hearing and general awareness, like a blind person. It is not that blind people, as a class, hear better but that, in the absence of sight, they have been forced to become more intimate with their remaining senses.

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"Clean water, the essence of life and a birthright for everyone, must become available to all people now"

Photo by SILA BAISCH

~Jean-Michel Cousteau

Abundance Corner

By Phyllis King

2022 THE AUTHENTIC POWER Photo by ISSAK ALEXANDRE

THE Y EAR O F

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I

t is human nature to see life in a vacuum. We focus on the experience we are in and often do not consider that the experience is part of something greater. That the choices we make to impact our own lives extend to others at the very least energetically, in that same forgetfulness, we diminish our own value when we do not see the interconnectedness of our choices in the greater reality. In 2022 I believe that will change.

Every cycle of time tends to have a certain flow of energy that benefits certain types of experiences over others. They take on a theme. Historically we know this be true. The soil can be ripe for certain fruits more than others. 2021 was ripe for relationships of all kinds. Many people found themselves dealing with all things related to forming relationships, whether it was personal or professional.

It was a side effect of the confined experience COVID ushered in in some ways during 2020. We were hungry for connection. We went outside of our comfort zone to uplevel our interpersonal and professional relationships in that we find personal meaning and connection.

This year, as we become a bit freer to move around and as the public continues to come to terms with COVID as a culture, we near the end of an interesting gestation period. A period where we have had to curtail our experiences and look forward to an unknown future. Our creativity and our inner drive have been bubbling and burbling below the surface like a volcano-ready erupt. It wants to erupt in the most beautiful ways, creating both meaning and value in life.

We seem to have the energy to do it.

We have been storing up.

As we move into 2022, more than ever before, I completely expect we will see people expressing their creativity in ways we have not seen in decades. We will see contribution to humanitarian issues become center stage for many. It is a year where individuals and organizations find energy and enthusiasm to break new ground. It directly correlates to being suppressed and contained. There is an urgency to manifest in our lives.

Human beings are creative by nature. We create our lives. Our minds and bodies must be free to express in all ways our mind conceives.

That is the purpose of the human experience. When these options are removed from our life, we begin to

ferment. That fermentation timed just right, as in this case will produce experiences that are interesting, full of texture and innovation.

HUMAN BEINGS ARE CREATIVE BY NATURE. WE CREATE OUR LIVES. OUR MINDS AND BODIES MUST BE FREE TO EXPRESS IN ALL WAYS OUR MIND CONCEIVES. On the micro-level, the day-to-day, the effect is that we will feel powerful, energized, and in the “zone.”

I expect this trend will be the theme for many in 2022. It is not even what happens from our creations that will be the focal point. Although in some cases, it will be the joy people feel from connecting to passion, purpose, and vision in a new way. The level of gratitude we will tend to feel collectively for our freedom and our expression will cause us to feel an enormous sense of power, not power in a domineering manner, but power as a means to create and express authentically.

The beauty of the COVID experience has been in watching people rediscover themselves and remember who they are at their core center.

In terms of abundance, I call that ACTIVATING THE ABUNDANT CORE. When our abundant core is activated, we become more magnetic in an effortless manner.

Life comes to us. We don’t chase what we want; we attract it through the course of our daily living.

I fully expect that 2022 will vastly exceed what 2021 could deliver in terms of authentic joy. As we say goodbye to 2021, we welcome the energy of power, truth, and expression. I say hello and welcome!

Known as the Common Sense Psychic (tm), Phyllis King has worked with tens of thousands of peoplein 25 countries. She is known for her practical and down to earth approach. She has been featured on, ABC, CBS and NBC TV, radio programs across the country, and has been published in over 70 print and online publications.

She has four books, including Bouncing Back, Thriving in Changing Times, with Dr. Wayne Dyer.

Her latest book The Energy of Abundance is available in bookstores now. Phyllis holds a B.A. in Sociology. www.phyllisking.com

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Life is your Creation

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GET SMART ABOUT CLEANING YOUR HOME WHILE WORKING AT HOME

GET EVERYONE INVOLVED - ASSIGN JOBS, DATES, PEOPLE Create a chore chart. Have a family meeting. Let everyone give their input on what they will do to contribute to a healthier, cleaner environment. When family members feel heard, they are more likely to participate.

SMART HOME CLEANING DEVICES ADD CONVENIENCE THE WHOLE FAMILY CAN ENJOY

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many families to share tight spaces for long periods like never before. Laptops, tablets, mobile phones are running in every room, quiet spaces are at a premium, and food containers are scattered throughout—a nervous breakdown in the making for those who cherish clean, sanitary surfaces.

Houses stay a lot cleaner when everyone goes to work and school. With everyone home, new strategies for cleanliness have to be formulated and implemented, and most are still fighting that battle.

Personally, I tend to be a spurt cleaner. I make piles. On quiet days when everyone is out, I clean said piles, starting with the counters and working my way to the floors. With everyone here ALL the time, I tried a few things to make life saner for us all.

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Set times in the day and/or week that things need to be gone from surfaces so the person assigned to clean the surfaces on a given day can reach them. You may decide to hire someone to clean surfaces, but there are plenty of chores to be done for them to do their job well.

INVEST IN SMART HOME CLEANING TOOLS THAT ARE MULTI-FUNCTIONAL An accomplished singer and actress, Bette Midler, is quoted as saying, “My idea of a superwoman is someone who scrubs her own floors.” I don’t consider myself a superwoman--just a smart one that uses technology to my advantage. With limited time or motivation to spend all day cleaning, I am always looking for new gadgets to try.

Dreame Technology recently launched their Wet and Dry Vacuum H11 and H11 Max that suck up all the dirty messes in one path, combining the actions of a broom, mop, and vacuum in one, using a separated two-tank design, the 900ml clean water tank sprays out fresh water and a cleaning solution onto the roller brush. At the same time, the internal dirt separation system removes dirt water out of the brush and sends it to the dirt water tank in real-time.

The convenience of a cordless system like this requires getting it back on the charging base at the end of use, but the smart screen on top will tell you battery power, cleanliness and add voice commands for operational guidance. Smart tools like this eliminate a closet of brooms, mops, and vacuums and get everyone excited about cleaning.

USE TECHNOLOGY TO KEEP EVERYONE ACCOUNTABLE If there is a job to be done, there is an app for it. But, you don’t have to get over-complicated because then you lose everyone. Keep it simple but consider using a simple task management app like Google Keep in the Google Play Store to create shared to-do lists and reminders, including items to pick up at the hardware or grocery store so designated shoppers can pick up the requested items when out and about.

Use online calendars to create reminders and set times to clean. When it comes to cleaning, the saying is true that many hands make light work, and with everyone working together, no one carries the burden alone.

And, speaking of light, consider installing smart switches to shut off lights either by voice or by the app at the end of the day to save electricity. We use these switches to set away schedules in our home, so it looks like we are home when we are not. We also make sure to buy devices with auto-shut-off features (i.e., coffee pots and irons) that could cause problems if left unattended.

With smart devices entering every sector of the home, consider ways you can add “smart” to your day to save minutes, consolidate tasks and get the family excited about becoming a team dedicated to an overall clean and healthy lifestyle.

ENJOY THE CLEANING POWER AND CONVENIENCE IN ONE PIECE

Sarah Peppel is a well-known lifestyle and entertainment writer. Founder of MamaLovesMedia.com.

Sarah is also an adjunct business professor, marketing consultant for locally crafted allnatural products, and an avid quilter and beekeeper. Featured in the Today Parenting Team, New York City Metropolitan Magazine, Thrive Global, Medium.com, The Phoenix, and multiple outlets across the Internet.

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War Horse Creek

INNOVATIVE PROGRAM RESCUES WILD MUSTANGS FOR VETERAN TRANSITION TRAINING

I

magine waking up to the sound of birds chirping in the woods. You step outside and take in a deep breath of crisp mountain air. In front of you is a small herd of mustangs, ready to start the day with you. For the next several days, you will have the chance to connect back with nature, yourself, and these incredible wild horses, what U.S. military Veterans experience when they come to participate in the innovative transition training program called War Horse Creek.

War Horse Creek is located on the 155 acres of Living Free Animal Sanctuary, nestled in the San Jacinto Mountains of Southern California. This Veteran-led program rescues wild mustangs from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and brings them together with military Veterans using an approach called Collaborative Horsemanship. Collaborative Horsemanship is all about encouraging the experience of a horse-human connection. It removes the "talk therapy" feel from the equation, allowing the Veteran to connect with nature, with the mustangs, and with other Veterans like themselves.

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Veterans must work to earn the trust and collaboration of the mustang, rather than use force or intimidation. These skills can be translated into every relationship they have, improving decision-making and long-term outcomes.

U.S Air Force Veteran Izzy Barakat developed a special bond with one of the mustangs, Libby, during her first session at War Horse Creek. As Izzy describes it, "For the first time in years, I felt a peaceful sense of just coexisting. It was the weirdest feeling. It felt like I had met up with an old friend."

Together, Izzy and Libby wordlessly connected, and their relationship has developed even further over the years. As Izzy puts it, "The Veterans that have come up to visit and attend the workshop at War Horse Creek did not leave the same. I know I didn't."

Why mustangs? At present, 41,000 mustangs have been rounded up from public lands by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and are now confined in overcrowded pens.

Mustangs are generally more independent, reactive, and mistrustful than domestic horses, making them difficult to train and ride. However, the very characteristics that make them hard to adopt make them ideal for equine-related programs.

War Horse Creek's program is changing public perception of mustangs from tragic burdens to highly valuable resources.

According to Ray Barmore, Executive Director of Living Free War Horse Creek, "Mustangs are, in effect, highly sensitive

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1200-lb biofeedback mechanisms that sense and respond to a Veteran's intentions, physicality, and emotions, mirroring back subconscious issues so that they may be identified and addressed."

"War Horse Creek is effective for Veterans at any stage of their transition, from newly released from duty to Veterans who have been out for decades, the results have been astounding," says Barmore. "Our goal is to raise enough funding to build out facilities and infrastructure, in addition to offering scholarships for Veterans to participate at no cost to them."

In addition to Collaborative Horsemanship, Veterans receive life skills training through one-on-one access to professionals from various fields around topics such as; financial literacy, interview and job retention skills, career consulting, conflict resolution, higher education, and trade school guidance, and wellness and nutrition advice. Gaining these skills will help to improve outcomes for Veterans and their families.

facilities for the horses who support Veterans within the program. With a goal of $150,000, funds will be used for: • Three new horse shelters • Fencing and gates for stable yards and corrals • A multi-use barn • Waterline and utility improvements • Grading and site work "The mustangs are the heart of our program," says Barmore. "We currently have 7 horses working with Veterans here at War Horse Creek. With expanded and improved facilities, we hope to be able to rescue additional mustangs who will, in turn, rescue the Veterans who come through our program. It sure is fitting that descendants of the horses which carried our forefathers into battle can now help bring our warfighters home."

A KEY OBJECTIVE OF WAR HORSE CREEK’S PROGRAM IS TO CHANGE THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF MUSTANGS FROM TRAGIC BURVeterans will also be able to enjoy the many recre- DENS TO HIGHLY VALUABLE RESOURCES ational activities on the Living Free Animal Sanctuary property, including hiking, fishing, kayaking, yoga, and more. Living Free is home to a large cat and dog rescue, and Veterans will have the opportunity to connect with the many rescue animals on the property, in addition to helping with any ongoing maintenance and construction projects.

Most importantly, Veterans will have plenty of downtimes to relax in the shade of our thousands of pine trees or around a campfire under the stars, enjoying the company of other Veterans like themselves. Ultimately, the goal of War Horse Creek is to inspire a sea of change in the way we, as a society, welcome our warriors home and reduce the cost of military service on Veterans and their families.

War Horse Creek's first big endeavor is Camp Harris, the facilities and infrastructure where Veterans will stay during the program. Thanks to the generosity of donors from around the country, construction has already begun on Camp Harris, which is officially dedicated to the late Randall Harris, military Veteran and former President of War Horse Creek. Veterans and local volunteers will be assisting with construction in the coming weeks, with a goal of completion by Spring 2022.

With Veteran facilities fully funded, the team is turning their attention to the mustangs. The team at War Horse Creek is eager to announce Phase 2 of the 2021 funding campaign, which is dedicated to improving 30 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

Those willing to support the mission of War Horse Creek can do so through a donation at living-free.org/whc Donors also have the option of a one-time donation to support facility build-out or can sponsor a horse's care with a monthly donation. $50 Monthly - Covers foot care for one horse $100 Monthly - Covers veterinarian care for one horse $300 Monthly - Covers the cost of food for one horse

For more information about War Horse Creek, visit our website at www.living-free.org/war-horse-creek.

We also encourage people to contact Ray Barmore at 951-659-4687 ext. 0 or email warhorsecreek@living-free.org.

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8 IN 10 AMERICANS SAY COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES DESERVE SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS

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A recent Intelligent.com survey found that: •

8 in 10 Americans support giving college students with mental health issues accommodations such as extra absences, extended deadlines, and more time to take exams

lot of students, according to integrative mental health specialist Dr. Brittany Fieri, which is why it’s important for schools to offer a variety of support systems.

•

86% of Americans who support these accommodations say mental health challenges can make it more difficult to perform to the best of one’s ability

“Accommodations like added time and excused absences can greatly help college students, but I also believe it doesn’t stop there,” Fieri says. “There are many ways that college students can be helped that are usually person-specific. Faculty and staff should take the time to get to know students and what they need in order to succeed.”

•

The plurality of Americans say depression is the number one mental health condition that should qualify students for accommodations

For Amy Pritchett, a student support specialist with online tutoring service Preply, giving students breaks to address mental health issues is long overdue.

•

54% of Americans who don’t think students with mental health issues should get special accommodations say it’s because students must learn to cope

“Mental health is the same as physical health and should be recognized as such in an academic setting,” Pritchett says. “If college students are feeling so overwhelmed, stressed, anxious or depressed that they need a day off from school to reset, then they absolutely should have this option.”

Just weeks into the fall 2021 semester, two University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students died by suicide. These incidents sparked new conversations about how colleges can support students’ mental health, particularly as more students struggle with anxiety, isolation, and depression amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

One possible way of alleviating some pressure students may feel is giving students who are experiencing mental health issues more flexibility on deadlines and extended time when taking exams. In September, Intelligent.com surveyed 1,250 U.S. adults to gauge support for these types of accommodations.

8 IN 10 AMERICANS SUPPORT GIVING COLLEGE STUDENTS STRUGGLING WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS IN THE CLASSROOM Support for giving students with mental health issues accommodations is widespread, with 82% of Americans saying they should have extra time to complete exams and homework assignments.

Eighty-percent of respondents also believe students dealing with mental health issues should be granted extra absences from class.

Eighty-five percent of those in favor of accommodations believe depression should qualify students for extended deadlines, followed by anxiousness (60%), stress (57%), and overwhelm (50%).

The transition to college can trigger these feelings for a

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Mental health challenges make meeting deadlines, performing well difficult, advocates say The top reason why Americans support extended time for tests and homework is that mental health challenges can make it more difficult to meet deadlines and perform to the best of one’s ability. Eighty-six percent selected this reason.

Additionally, 49% of advocates also want to encourage individuals living with mental illness to attend college, and 38% want to create a more equal playing field among all students.

Dave Evangelisti, founder and CEO of test prep service Test-Guide has seen firsthand how mental health issues can impact a student’s ability to learn and study.

There can be days when the student physically cannot focus on their studies because of various mental health issues like depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder,” Evangelisti says. “Extra assistance will help these students better learn the material, which is the whole point of attending a higher education institution.”

OPPONENTS WANT STUDENTS TO LEARN HOW TO COPE WITH LIFE’S STRUGGLES Among those who don’t think students with mental health challenges should be granted extra time for tests and homework, 54% say students must learn to manage life with a variety of struggles.

Jaimie Eckert, a spiritual life coach and founder of Scrupulosity Solutions, LLC, opposes accommodations for students with mental health issues on the basis that it may do more harm than good.

“Offering more excused absences will likely lead to more time alone in dorm rooms where students may engage in self-harm, self-medication, or lonely suicidal ideation,” she says. “I’m also concerned that special accommodations will enable the perpetuation of mental health disorders, rather than forcing students to seek long-term healing.”

Instead of giving students classroom accommodations, Eckert proposes another solution. “University students with mental health conditions should be placed in caring, supportive homes or dormitories with full-time adult staff, not young RAs. The goal should be to create a safe network where young people know they have to live up to the same expectations as everyone else but can be supported by truly caring individuals.”

AMERICANS WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES MORE LIKELY TO SUPPORT ACCOMMODATIONS According to our survey, 67% of Americans have dealt with a mental health issue in their life.

These individuals are more likely to support extended deadlines for students than those who haven’t dealt with mental health issues, by a rate of 87% to 72%.

Eighty-six percent of individuals who experienced mental health issues say students with similar challenges should get extra absences, compared to 66% of people who haven’t experienced a mental health condition.

Eighty-nine percent of respondents who experienced mental health issues support giving students extra time on tests and homework deadlines say it’s because these types of challenges make it difficult to meet deadlines and perform to the best of one’s abilities.

Among individuals who had mental health issues, but don’t favor giving students extra support, 45% say it’s because mental health issues are too hard to prove, and students will abuse the system. One in 5 in this group also say that giving extra support to students with mental health issues will make them weak.

A DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF SUPPORT, OPPOSITION FOR ACCOMMODATIONS We looked at how different demographics view this issue. While men and women have similar views, there is some divergence based on age and education level.

College attendees more likely to advocate for students with mental health challenges Eighty-two percent of survey respondents who attended college are in favor of giving students with mental health issues extra absences, compared to 72% of Americans who did not attend college. They also favor giving students with mental health challenges more time to complete tests and assignments, although in this case the gap is more narrow, 83% compared to 79%.

Fifty-four percent of college-educated individuals say these accommodations are necessary to encourage more students with mental health issues to attend college. Only 38% of middle school or high school graduates gave the same response.

Thirty-seven percent of middle school and high school graduates who oppose accommodations for students with mental health issues say it’s because it will make these students weak. Twenty-one percent of college-educated people who oppose accommodations gave the same reason.

Gen Z cites stress, anxiety as reasons why students should get extended deadlines, more absences Support for giving students with mental health issues additional time on tests and homework assignments is similar across age brackets, ranging from 78% among people 45 and older, to 85% among people 18-24 and 35-44.

As for extra absences, support is also high, ranging from 74% among Americans 55 and older, to 84% among 35-44 year-olds.

Adults ages 18-24 are more likely than people 25 and older to say anxiousness should qualify students for extended time on homework and tests (78% compared to 57%). This age group is also more likely to say stress should qualify students for accommodations (68% compared to 52%).

Among those who don’t support accommodations for students with mental health issues, individuals 25 and older are twice as likely as Gen Zers to say it’s because mental health issues are too hard to prove and students will abuse the privilege (43% compared to 19%).

All data found within this report derives from a survey commissioned by Intelligent.com and conducted online by survey platform Pollfish. In total, 1,250 American adults were surveyed. This survey was conducted on September 24, 2021. All respondents were asked to answer all questions truthfully and to the best of their abilities.

Thirty-nine percent of those opposed are worried the system will be abused because mental health issues are hard to prove. Twenty-seven percent believe accommodations will make students weak, and 17% don’t believe mental health issues are real.

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When Reaching FOR PERFECTION

Is Stopping You From ACHIEVING MORE 36 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

By Cathy Spaas

O

vercoming perfectionism is quite a common challenge that professional performers and creative artists face, always wanting their work to be absolutely perfect before sharing it with the world. However, sometimes our pursuit of perfection can actually prevent us from engaging in more opportunities or keep us caught in a cycle of low confidence or self-esteem.

Facing The Inherent Difficulties That Come With Always Striving For Perfection These challenges can really hold you back from achieving your highest potential. It may sound like the opposite is true – you may ask yourself, 'how is being perfect a bad thing?".

But when you stay stuck in a certain vision - which is often unattainable in the first place - you close the door for flow and creativity to show you other options and possibilities that could upgrade your potential even more. Getting stuck in a cycle of perfectionism often leads you to develop a rigid mentality because you're too focused on a certain outcome. True beauty is often created when you align with the energy that wants to be born through you.

Therefore, striving for perfection can diminish your talent from breaking free and showing you what you didn't see yet. You can only see the next most aligned step when you have taken the first one. That is why creation, in whatever form, should never be molded down into something you think it should be from the start since your vision can only grow by each step that you take.

Unfortunately, perfectionism can not only limit your creative process but also prevent you from pursuing opportunities that could lead to success. There's the creative and the business/career element, and perfectionism can limit you in both spheres.

Don't let the representation of your talent get overshadowed by something as limiting as perfectionism. There are other ways to reach the highest results that don't hold your potential back and generate a more constructive environment for you to thrive in.

Identifying and understanding The Cause Of These Challenges Most artists, performers, and innovators are highly sensitive; we already have our brains programmed to be fully engaged and want to give our best. That's why so many Highly Sensitive People get burned out. Not because we can't handle the pressure, but just because we are so involved and committed and want to give our everything to the job/career/cause that we lose ourselves in the process.

This can be draining for your energy levels and cause a person to crash completely. Especially when things aren't working out the way you planned or wanted to and when you start taking failure or mistakes personally. As highly sensitive people, we tend to project everything onto ourselves, leading to very low self-esteem and little to no confidence.

Take a look at when you are performing or creating something new; is there space for you to drop the ball? What does your self-talk sound like when you make a mistake, or things aren't going the way you think they should? Very often, you will notice that the noise in your head after doing something "wrong" can be heartbreaking.

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It's far too common that what we say to ourselves we would be ashamed to say to another person and speak to them in that way. This usually entails feelings that we're not good enough or that our work wouldn't amount to anything.

leased, making you feel happy about yourself. Your subconscious belief system will reinforce your abilities, make you feel more confident on your next moves, and let energy flow even more. It's a spiral, but it's moving upwards instead of down this time.

What does your self-talk sound like?

Can you be kind to yourself, even when things go south?

Do you know how to be mild and gentle towards yourself?

Make space for falling short. Everyone makes mistakes. It happens to the best of us.

For me, this lesson was a huge process, but one that paid itself in full when applied.

Tips And Techniques For Moving Past The Quest To Be Perfect The management of the way you speak to yourself is crucial. Especially when you put the bar high, the need for kindness and a positive attitude towards yourself is indispensable.

Know that you will drop the ball, and that's okay. It's supposed to drop; how you respond to that, however, is what will show you how close or far from your top-level you are; can you swipe off and pick it back up again? You've got this!! Are you tearing yourself down because you feel like you've failed or it isn't working? Train harder! You're literally retraining your brain, and like any skill, it will take time and practice to get this right.

Get conscious about which record is playing in your mind, and dare to change it for a different tune when you notice that the substance of the current one isn't serving you any longer. The cool thing is that you are the boss! You're in charge of which thoughts you allow and which ones get dismissed. In doing this consistently, you are training your brain to work for you instead of against you.

By learning how to let go of the pressure and perfectionism that we put on ourselves and feel from the outside world, we can discover our talents on a deeper level and develop our strengths. This creates results from connection, flow, and fun. The outcome is not only a lot better than before when we are over judging ourselves and doing everything on our own because we believe we're the only ones that can do it. That only leads to bringing yourself and your team down and feeling completely drained. Instead, have fun in the process of growing, know that no one is perfect.

We are all a work in progress.

In my experience, you will find when you begin to love yourself, your relationship with everyone changes for the better.

You'll have more energy for new projects, and results that are beyond your wildest imagination can become possible.

Try striving for excellence instead. Perfection means going after something which you actually already know advance you can't achieve. It's a very frustrating, unrewarding, unproductive way of working/ creating. On the other hand, excellence means that you do your best and give all you've got, taking the circumstances under consideration that present themselves. Striving for excellence is lighter than trying to be perfect, but can you also feel the difference in attitude and the space this creates.

When reevaluating the situation, you will immediately sense excellence feels a lot more rewarding because it's a completely different way of assessing things.

Consequently, your brain will pick up on the confirmation that you experience towards yourself instead of the disappointment from not achieving the standards of perfectionism. Positive hormones will be re-

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Cathy Spaas is a world-class coach to professional performers, athletes, artists, and creatives.

She supports highly sensitive and intuitive individuals to make breakthroughs so they can thrive at the highest level, create their most profound work, and find lasting fulfillment.

Cathy has dedicated her life to guiding artists to navigate their shifting lives and career changes.

To learn more visit: https://cathyspaasacademy.com/

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CALLED

UPON TO SERVE

E Lenny Peters, MD, was born and raised in Kerala, India. After obtaining his MD and practicing medicine in the UK and Africa, he came to the US, where he served his residency at Montefiore Hospital, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and became a Gastroenterology Fellow at Wake Forest University. In 1987, he founded the Bethany Medical Center in High Point, North Carolina, which has grown from a single clinic to the largest independent medical group in the state, with 65 healthcare providers and 550 employees serving 1,000 patients from all walks of life daily. He is also the founder and CEO of Peters Medical Research and Peters Development, and served as the founding director of Bank of North Carolina, later becoming part of Pinnacle Bank. His charitable organization, The Lenny Peters Foundation provides grants or donations to needy individuals in the Piedmont Triad and many other worthy causes in the US and around the world. 100 % of proceeds from his book will be donated to orphans and cancer patients.

In Barefoot to Benefactor, Dr. Peters reveals how he overcame the daunting odds and biases against him by pairing his thirst for knowledge and zest for problem-solving with a profound yet straightforward mindset.

Dr. Peters lets readers in on how he conquered bigotry to stay on the path of his true calling. 100% of proceeds from his book will be donated to orphans and cancer patients.

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very business I had established had been profitable, and all my prayers had been answered. I had a wonderful family. I was a successful doctor. I'd established a thriving medical clinic, a lucrative real estate company, and a bank that was rapidly expanding. But I knew that God wanted more from me. God had not blessed me with such wealth and success just for my own benefit. It was time to return to India and invest my wealth where it mattered—in the children who, like me, had been born into poverty and longed for a future they deserved.

Since coming to America, I have returned to India many times, and we took the family on vacations throughout the world. They were growing up to appreciate their rightful place in America, their native home, and their rightful place as citizens of the world.

Yet for all our travels, it was to North Carolina and to High Point that my soul always returned, not the land of my birth.

It had been decades since I'd left India, and I had no desire to live there again. Yet, a question increasingly gnawed at me. Why had I been born in India? What was my purpose there?

Just as there was a reason for my success, I knew that there was a reason for my birth in India, even though I had always felt uncomfortable in that environment, as if I didn't really belong there. The way I have always operated—my way of thinking, my

very nature—was not very Indian at all. I was far more Western, far more cosmopolitan in my outlook and behavior. Yet I was born into that mystical land where poverty and hunger went hand in hand with a culture of celebration. Of all the places on earth, why had God ignited my life in India?

I needed to do something. I couldn't just walk away from India any more than I could return to India to live.

Clearly, God had arranged for me to first open my eyes in Kerala. Now that I was in North Carolina, he wanted me to open my eyes once again. It was up to me to give back a portion of blessings to the land of my birth.

I could have written a check to the United Way or other charity and felt good about it. I could have made a donation to a local university, as so many people do. But I felt I needed to do something deeper, something more meaningful and long-lasting, instead of just sending a series of checks.

I also felt compelled to do something for my faith. As a minority Christian in India, I felt a calling to share my blessings with other Christians there, these two thoughts—doing something meaningful and long-lasting, while also sharing my blessings with other Christians in Kerala, coalesced in my mind for weeks until I reached the point where I knew I had to return to India and search for an answer. I knew that if I sought the answer, God would direct me.

The plane set down at Trivandrum Airport. I passed through customs and greeted my brother, George, and my sister, Gladis, who were awaiting me. We drove to George's home in Kerala and caught up on what each of us had been doing.

George was married with children and well established in his career in education administration; Gladis was happily married to the doctor. We'd found her and had just returned to India after living in Africa for several years. As always, it was a treasure visiting my family and former home, but this time I wasn't there for socializing. I had work to do.

I met with the priest at St. Anthony's Shrine and explained to him my desire to help the people of Kerala. His warm smile told me I had come to the right man.

"God has sent you to us, Lenny," he told me as he poured us some steaming-hot tea from a silver teapot. He sat back in his chair and continued as we sipped the comforting beverage. "There are so many children here in Kerala, children

just like you once were—bright, curious, playful. But unlike you, they have no future. Some have parents who cannot care for them; others have lost their parents to sickness or accident. We care for them at a nearby orphanage, but we do not have the resources to provide much for them. We cannot afford to give them the education their minds deserve.

Indeed, it is a struggle just to clothe and feed them. If you could help these orphan children, God would bless you even more than he already has. Can I take you there?"

I met his smile with my own. I could think of no better way to give back to God than to care for his orphaned children.

After finishing my tea, I said to the priest, "I would be so happy to meet these children and learn more."

We arranged for a visit to the orphanage the following day, and I arrived promptly, so eager I was to meet not just these unfortunate children, but to meet my own future as well.

"I was determined to be a great doctor, someone of high regard," Peters shares. "To do that, I would need to work hard, pray hard, and trust in the Lord to guide me toward my destiny."

My driver took us up a windy road through the lush and gorgeous hills of Kerala until we came to a modest blue and yellow building adorned with a statue of Mother Mary. Over the door was a sign that read the Jayamatha Boys Home. A group of boys was playing football in the courtyard—what we call soccer in America. Their laughter was so refreshingly musical, but it quickly silenced when they saw the shiny chauffeured car pull up, and the priest and I emerged.

Instantly, I was surrounded by the curious faces of the boys, who, rather than beg for alms like in the city, remained polite and welcoming.

Yet I could not help noticing that they were indeed poor,

their clothing ragged and ill-fitting. I knew instantly, any help I offered them would be well spent.

We went inside, where I met with the administrator, a Jesuit priest, and I told him of my grandfather's school and what good memories I had of his efforts to help and educate the youth of Kerala. After some discussion over another pot of tea, I was shown around the building and introduced to the nuns and monks who taught the children, as well as the children themselves, who mostly giggled or hid their heads in shyness. I was so touched and, at the same time, so transformed to know that I could put my wealth to such a noble cause.

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"I'll tell you what," I told them after a long conversation about their needs (which were great) and their assets (which were not as great). "I can give you the financial support you need and help you to expand your services."

Their joy was uncontained. "Dr. Peters, that would be a most generous gift. Thank you, and God bless you," the priest said, as others in the meeting joined in with their gratitude.

I was thrilled to put my wealth to such a worthy cause, but at the same time, I wanted to be sure that I would spend my money well.

So I added, "In return, I would request a few things."

"We would be delighted to hear you out," the priest said. I could tell that he was both cautious and excited. I continued.

"I want a role in directing it," I said. "I don't want to interfere with the good work you're doing, but I'd like to put someone in to oversee the finances and make sure it's well organized."

I watched as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, no doubt concerned about losing control over his school. But that wasn't my intent at all. He could continue to run the school, but I wanted some fiscal oversight with the money I was prepared to invest. I needed to know the money would not be spent frivolously.

"I want you to hire more employees and expand your reach throughout Kerala. And I want whatever we do to be lasting. So I will commit to funding your program throughout my lifetime and thirty years after my death."

The smiles that radiated from each priest's and monk's face made it clear—we had a deal.

With the expansion of the Jayamatha School for Boys, my life was changed. I was able to turn a struggling orphanage into a vibrant community that served the needs of those who most needed it.

I was also giving back to God.

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43 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

THE HOME-BASED REVOLUTION: CREATE MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS FROM HOME

By Martha Krejci Women are often pulled in every possible direction all at once. Between working full-time, maintaining health and wellness, building a family, and making space for self-care, it’s easy to become stressed, overwhelmed, and fearful of missing out on the memorable moments life brings.

What if there was a way to start creating the life you deserve, one where you could have it all, right from the comfort of your home? Martha Krejci in her new book The Home-Based Revolution gives you practical tips to overcome outdated ways of thinking about your life and career.

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The Power of Affirmations Affirmations are a simple technique that has a powerful effect. Create a series of phrases that both support your strengths and help you visualize who you need to become to achieve your goals. A pro tip: don’t use somebody else’s affirmations.

Make sure that they’re your own. Using somebody else’s words over and over again will not help your mindset one bit because your subconscious won’t believe it. What you do is decide what you want your life to be like, decide how you’re going to serve, and decide how you’re going to show up in the world. For example, I choose to apply an ethical background to everything I do, so I choose to show up in a way that’s ethically in alignment with my soul. A deep desire for me is to always give back. I’m a spiritual person, so I always have that aspect as well.

But you can do whatever you want. The technique helps you see your future life.

You choose what your life is going to be in one year, three years, five years—really, the time doesn’t matter. It’s whatever your brain can accept. It’s whatever your brain can handle. And then you mentally rehearse what it will be like. You create affirmations that help you visualize your new future.

If you are feeling resistance, then extend the timeline. If your future is a full 180 degrees from where you are today, that’s pretty drastic. You may need to extend the timeline a little further down the road—it may need to be five years out in order for your brain to be like, Okay, I can see that now! Whatever it is, the time frame makes no difference; we’re just getting our brain to accept it.

You choose what your life is going to be like at that point, and then you just start choosing affirmations: “I show up in my world like this,” or “I am wise,” “I am wealthy,” “I am resilient,” “I am relentless,” “I am always seeking the best in other people.” These I am statements are puzzles that your brain will start to find ways to solve for you.

Affirmations are also a direct conver sation with God—claiming the gifts you’ve been given and declaring you are using them.

Whenever you start using affirmations, here’s a hack that will help initially. Your conscious brain is going to be like, Oh my gosh, no. You’re not wise or wealthy.

That’s a very common experience. But what you do is you just keep bearing down, bear down and get through it, keep doing it. Sometimes it is you versus your own mind. And it’s winner takes all. Your choice is to win this battle, so you’ll eventually win the war. This is essentially creating a habit and muscle memory for this activity that will then change your whole world.

There’s been a lot of work done in the sporting industry about mental rehearsal (think affirmations). One study actually compared physical rehearsal versus mental rehearsal. They got a group of basketball players to mentally rehearse shooting. And then they got another group to physically practice shooting baskets.

They found that the group who did the mental rehearsal was 23 percent more accurate over five weeks of the study. So, the scientists are saying, “Okay, this is good for sportspeople.” How about this being good for regular people? If we use mental rehearsal in our daily lives, then you can expect similar results. And affirmations are an easily accessible tool anyone can use.

I am statements are really built on this idea of mental rehearsal and the power of that. The more you position these ideas in your mind, the more your brain will start to make those things congruent. Your brain will find ways to make those statements true. If you are one of the many people who have thought, Oh, isn’t this a little nutty? Isn’t this a little crazy? The fact is, we now have very rigorous science, which supports that it’s actually an extremely powerful way to alter your mindset.

Martha Krejci is a high-vibin’ mama, wife, life coach, business coach and growth strategist, and social media marketing powerhouse who has taken the internet by storm. Martha’s intuitive marketing expertise has helped her make her first million in less than a year using a strategy she teaches openly through courses, group coaching, and other tried-and-true resources. From finding your passion to building a business that works, she teaches it all—and it’s all ready and waiting for you.

In The Home-Based Revolution, Martha Krejci shows you how to avoid stress and spend more time with those who mean the most to you by building a successful business from home.

After over a year of facing the challenges of quarantine and an economic shutdown, women across the globe reevaluating their careers and their impact on this Earth. The Home-Based Revolution arrives at just the right time—sharing practical tips, anecdotes full of wisdom, and the tools necessary for success.

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SHIFT

HAPPENS

By Lisa M. Roseman, M.T.S.

W

hat happens when life takes a sudden turn, and you find yourself thrown into a situation where there is a terminal diagnosis for a loved one? This is what happened to me when I discovered that my mother had Stage 4 cancer and needed fulltime care. Shift happens, right?

One minute my life was filled with new opportunities to teach, minister, and counsel, and then suddenly, all of that was placed to the side as I stepped into unknown territory as a full-time caregiver. Life can be turned upside-down in a moment, which is part of my story.

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A terminal diagnosis can bring a tsunami along with it. Stepping into a 22-month long journey of learning how to care for my mother was complicated. There was chaos: a strained relationship between a mother and daughter, an advancing illness, and me discovering how to rely on God in the most difficult of times completely. Have you have ever been in this situation? If so, you know much is required of you, and there may be times when you feel you cannot continue in your caregiving journey.

You are not alone in those feelings of exhaustion, frustration, and maybe even grief. The question is, how does one navigate through the twists and turns when the journey is so hard?

One may question God’s purpose and fight feelings of anger, hopelessness, and frustration in the face of these challenges. Is God present in such difficult circumstances? The Highest of Care: A Journey Through Cancer I was the sole provider of care for my mother, so the pressure, stress, and responsibility all rested upon me. At times I was overwhelmed, became isolated, and some days it felt like I was the one fighting cancer because my mother refused to fight for her own life. Along with those challenges came the process of learning about things like hospice care, pain management, setting up a safe place for her to live, and practicing self-care so I could have the stamina and capacity to keep going.

will never leave you— no matter what you feel in the moment.

Many encounters like this brought me back to a place of trust with God as He continued to reveal His faithfulness and presence. There were also visible signs that He was as work, some I would qualify as supernatural, miraculous interventions that could have only come from God.

As a minister and lay counselor, I thought my prayer life was strong and that my relationship with God was intact. Honestly, I was angry at God when the cancer diagnosis was received I questioned God’s purposes and could not believe that something like this could happen.

Self-Care Did you know that being a caregiver to a loved one can be all-consuming, and the critical need for self-care can be overlooked? This was true in my case. The first year of caring for my mom included intense emotional turmoil due to brokenness in our relationship. I was also afraid for her safety because she had a serious fall that resulted in a fractured spine and two major surgeries. I was so scared that she might have another accident, but there was only so much I could do to make the house safe. The constant worry for my mother resulted in endless sleepless nights, fatigue, and exhaustion.

“As I wept, I told God how utterly disappointed I was with Him. My hands beat on the steering wheel as I shouted, “Why and how could you let this happen?” I told God how awful His plan was and that I was not in agreement with any of it. In the throes of the upheaval, I felt guilt and shame for railing against God... overcome with pain, I heard the Lord say, Lisa, I can handle what you feel, and it’s okay if you feel that way. I love you and

By the end of the first year of caregiving, I had gained 30 pounds and then fell into a deep depression from the upheaval.

Becoming isolated, I was spending most of my time at home.

This was not good for me, and it was not good for my mother.

As I hit rock bottom, I reached out to a friend and started to reconnect with a few people who came alongside to offer support.

Self-care is critical for a caregiver; without it you will become depleted and unable to care for your loved one.

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“How could I arrange for more time away from home while making sure Mom had what she needed? Volunteers! I discovered that hospice care also included the provision of volunteers so that my mother would not be alone when I took time for myself. This allowed me to reconnect with friends, get prayer, go to the gym, and have time to go on walks on the beach to be with God.” In your journey of providing the highest of care, be sure to take care of yourself!

Miracles Do Happen Throughout the 22 months of caring for my mom, God made it evident that He was on the journey with me.

For the last ten years, I have been involved in an inner healing ministry called Sozo, which helps to build a stronger connection with God through relationships instead of religion. There is a vast difference between those two things, and I have certainly learned that personally and through counseling my clients. I have discovered that God does His best work in pain, crisis, and chaos. After all, that is when we turn to God the most, right? TThe reality of death approaching is often the time we turn to God. I knew my mother’s time was near when it came to the last couple of months of her life. Her tiny, frail body was weak, and she struggled with intense pain. Watching the cancer advance was so hard, as my heart broke for my mother and her circumstances.

The last week of my mother’s life was spent in what I call a “morphine sleep.” The highest care I could give to her was making sure she was comfortable and not in excruciating pain. The morphine helped as she became quieter and more still.

I felt the Lord prompt me to anoint my mother with oil. I heard her voice as I placed the oil on her head, hands, and feet. She was not able to speak because she was unconscious, but I could hear her speaking as if she was fully awake. She said, Lisa, I see what you are doing to my body and how you are honoring me. Taken aback, I went and sat down in the living room to reflect on what had happened. Clearly, something supernatural was happening. Ninety minutes passed, and I heard her voice once again. She said, Don’t feel bad or guilty that you won’t be in here when I take my last breath. It’s going to be okay, Lisa.

“I entered the room and went to the left side of her bed, and it was at that moment that I saw my mom literally lift out of her physical body... as my eyes followed her form, I could see that she was filled with light and the most beautiful aquamarine color, which was her birthstone... she then spoke, I am dealing with cancer, and I am watching it lose its power...

The only way I can put words to what happened is to say that I had a life-after-death encounter alongside my mother as she passed into eternity. In my 30 years of being a Christian, this was the most spectacular thing I have ever witnessed. I remember the message that came with this miracle, and this is what compelled me to write the book, The Highest of Care: A Journey Through Cancer.

You see, I provided the highest of care for my mother, and when all I could do was to keep her comfortable, and out of pain, God provided His Highest of Care and escorted her home. The message I received from God to tell others is, “tell everyone God is real; He is alive and that He wants you!”

She did not want me at her bedside; she did not want me to watch her go. I knew this and honored that request. I kept at my post in the living room as I watched her rest through a baby monitor video screen.

Here is where the miracle happened— it began one week before she passed. While watching the baby monitor video screen, the wall behind my mother’s head where she lay in the hospital bed changed. What appeared directly behind and slightly above her was the face of a lion. At the end of this article, look for my website to watch the video I recorded about what happened.

I knew that Jesus had appeared in the form of a lion and was there waiting to take my mother to her eternal home. For seven days, she rested in the presence of the lion, and then something spectacular happened!

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Lisa M. Roseman, M.T.S. is a theologian, a lay counselor, and an author with the mission of assisting people towards transformation and inner healing— spiritually, emotionally, and relationally. She is the founder of Sozo Freedom, an inner healing ministry in Southern California.

If you need spiritual support, encouragement or just need to connect, please visit: TheHighestofCare.com

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Photo by By LUCKYBUSINESS

TURNING TOWARD

LIFE

By John Siddique

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R

egardless of what brings you to the path, the first signpost is always marked by the arising of questions. Of course, you will read or hear about a rare few people who spontaneously awaken. But we can't guarantee that outcome or wish ourselves into being one of them; only grace brings awakening in the long or short run; everything else is your journey.

You are you, and where you are at this moment is where you are. The here and now is the key to everything. When awakening takes place, it will always be spontaneously through grace, and never because we've struggled for or wished or intentioned such a thing. Yet like a gardener learning to plant a garden, we may prepare our earth by feeding the soil, understanding the cycles of the sun, the moon, the rain, and the earth, creating the best conditions for the seed to open, to flower, and fruit. We also discover along the way that a cherry tree cannot become an apple tree, and vice versa, no matter how much we might wish it. As we move into greater awareness, we discover the great miracle of the garden of our own ordinary life.

At this point, you might find yourself questioning what is going on in the world around you, or you may be questioning the purpose of your own life.

Anyone who dares to reflect on life and its meaning find that things tend to boil down to three primary questions. I'll just place the three questions here without commentary because you know them already, and, in essence, they are why you are here.

You have always known these questions.

Who am I? What am I here for?

Is there a way to end suffering?

Seven other secondary questions feature prominently throughout the journey, which you will similarly find you already know: Who? What? Why, Where? When? What if? How? PAUSE FOR REFLECTION I invite you to pause for a minute and reread the ten questions above slowly to yourself and see where you feel them in your body, or your energy, concerning your life's journey. You may want to introduce these questions into your journaling from time to time.

Learning to turn toward awareness You can notice or even encourage a shift within yourself toward awareness by the way you frame your questions as you meet daily life situations.

For example, if we allow a movement from asking questions such as "Why is this person doing this to me?" or "Why is (insert difficult personal situation) always happening to me?" and instead try to drop taking the situation personally, and allow appreciation of any other person involved, then we're not coming from the place of it being a problem. Then we can ask things such as: How can I bring awareness to what is going on?

What if I choose to respond rather than react?

What really would improve the world?

How do I step out of my way to transcend this situation?

What if I choose to love and forgiveness with this other person?

Notice how these more reflective questions lead to greater awareness if we drop our resistance and allow the momentary vulnerability that comes with this turning around. If asked with this openness, all of our ten initial questions will take you toward a better way of meeting and experiencing your own life and other people. We restore our humanity instantly and easily with a simple shift.

As you begin to work more consciously like this, you will start to find that each question contains its own answer. With all of this work, I would encourage you not to search too hard for answers in your mind. Thinking is wonderful and has its place, but we can often go much further by dropping into our hearts and letting the question just exist within ourselves. This way, too, we begin to be able to stay more open and curious about life. The mind will always come up with its usual commentaries, of course – "Yes," "No," "How stupid this is," and so on. Yet as your awareness deepens, you will see that the mind in this mode is only doing its job of trying to protect you by digging into what it already knows as it searches for what to do. The mind without heart and awareness only knows what it has been conditioned with from the process of socialization. This often keeps us limited in our ability to respond and close to much of life while unknowing of our real depths and basic goodness.

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Our training usually tells us that someone else is responsible for everything that happens to us, and we may be reactive to even the slightest hint of allowing vulnerability. It can seem that our happiness, love life, situations, health, spirituality, and so on are either the luck of the draw or something we have to work very hard at to achieve. Our socialization training also tells us that we need to become a "somebody" who does things in a certain way to have a place in the world, beloved, be fed, belong, and be of value as a human being.

We tend to believe that these outward motions of thought energy are our lives. This belief makes it seem like the answers we seek can only be found if we are smart enough or have the right "life situation" or set of experiences in place. Yet no matter the situation, the voice of the soul is in there asking you: Who am I? What am I here for? As your deeper side starts to communicate more clearly, you might find that you feel that whatever you do is not enough to actually complete you or fulfill you fully. Please know this feeling is a good thing as it is the desire for wholeness. So all we want to do here is move beyond just feeling that and into a gentle place of unfolding that brings us into knowing our soul. Each of us can know and experience our soul and let our lives be shaped by it. This is the meaningful life we are talking about. This is the journey of awakening or enlightened living.

Before we know this and accept and appreciate the daily steps of our journey, we try pushing deeper into clinging to the conditional objects that we meld our identities with. We push with intensity into our emotional sphere. "I just need more," we say, or we just keep trying to switch things out to find a fit that will make us whole. "Perhaps this isn't the right house, or car, or relationship." We might lean into the pain of our past: "It's what happened in my family when I was young." Or: "If only we got rid of all of this kind of person, the world would be alright." Notice how these motions of thought into this type of feeling always seek separation or duality. Then it presents one side of the duality as the answer.

PAUSE FOR REFLECTION I invite you to kindly take a few minutes to reflect on your self-talk toward yourself and others. Let's not look for guilt or shame, but we're doing this just to see what is there, even if that is blanking out when you try to bring your attention to this place. The first step toward meaningful change is always acknowledgment of the problem. We meet it as best as we can at this particular time.

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The second step is to say "hello" to it rather than "go away", and this genuinely will change everything.

Perhaps try this with what is arising in you right now.

Can you just say hello with your kindness and love and let it be there? What happens next?

The journey begins It is said that the longest journey in human life is the journey from the head to the heart. It is of paramount importance that we meet our lives, these questions, and what comes from them at the level of the heart. The ordinary mind has a tendency to be reactive from its unconsciousness, which pushes and pulls us, trying to get us to our satisfaction or safety. We do need, at some small level, to satisfy our heads, but enlightenment or awakening is not something you can think your way to – if that were so, the world would look very different than it does right now. The ordinary heart at least has the possibility of emotional engagement, and the heart is rightly seen by so many of the world's spiritualities as one of the great doorways to truth and the deepest awareness within us that we might call the soul.

A SMALL HEART AWARENESS PRACTICE I invite you to sit upright and simply be aware of the space of the room around you; please don't try to go into or have a meditational experience. Rather, just allow yourself as best you can to be here and to feel the space of the room around you.

Allow yourself to feel the energy in your body while feeling the space in the room so that you have a physical sense of the life in your body.

As you become more aware of the space in the room and the energy of your body, you might notice that perhaps you feel it more in one hand or one leg, perhaps as vibration, or heat, or sensation. It's all okay.

Allow yourself to be easy for these few moments, don't concentrate or over focus, just use feeling and felt sense as best you can.

You can close your eyes if you like.

(Oh, now you can't read the page.)

Just take a moment like this.

I invite you now to simply place one hand on your heart and take another moment while allowing yourself to simply notice how this feels for you. I will not place any leading words here to suggest to you what you are supposed to feel. This is your journey; please notice for yourself with kindness.

The only reason we are doing this practice is to begin to get to know ourselves in this way.

Is there anything arising or sticky within you at this moment? Can you just say hello to it and let it be there without getting caught in trying to push it away? We are not trying to get rid of anything, but if we meet it like this with kindness, we begin the process of reintegration.

Please just let go of all effort now and rest into the space in yourself and the room – the feeling of living in your body.

When you have sat a few moments, you can conclude your practice when you are ready to. Sit like this as long as you feel you want to.

You may wish to journal for a few moments about your experience.

You can use this practice as often as you like; it will be different every time you do it.

John Siddique is best known as a spiritual teacher, poet, and author.

He is the founder of Authentic Living, through which he aims to encourage people from all walks of life to awaken to what he calls their "true naturalness".

Known for his authenticity, humour, and "feet on the ground" wisdom, his work has quietly reached millions of people. He has to date, published eight books. His teachings and writings have featured in Time Magazine, The Guardian, Granta on CNN, and the BBC. Scottish Poet Laureate Jackie Kay speaks of Siddique's writing as being 'A brilliant balancing act.'

Siddique is the former Laureate of the British city of Canterbury and British Council Poet in Residence at California State University, Los Angeles. He is also one of the most popular teachers on the meditation app Insight Timer, and his meditations have been downloaded over 2 million times.

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WE BELIEVE THAT SOMETHING AS SMALL AS SPARKLING YOUR WATER AT HOME CAN SPARK A HUGE CHANGE IN THE WORLD

SodaStream Terra SodaStream’s newest machine is here! Introducing the Terra, the better way to bubble. Sparkle your water at a push of a button with breakthrough CO2 technology, an enlarged carbonating button and dishwasher safe bottles.​While we continue to navigate our new normal, SodaStream helps consumers maintain the healthy habits many adopted over the past year and a half with delicious, customizable sparkling water right in your home.

SodaStream sparkling water makers enable consumers to transform ordinary tap water into sparkling water and flavored sparkling water at the touch of a button.

New features include: • Innovative Quick Connect: Easily locks the gas cylinder into place with one simple click • Sleek, modern design with matte color tones • Dishwasher safe carbonating bottle for more convenience • Bigger carbonation button for added comfort 54 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

www.sodastream.com TURN PLAIN WATER INTO FRESH SPARKLING WATER IN SECONDS

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Being a teenager in today’s “age of anxiety” is scary. Being a parent of a teenager is even scarier. Zoomers may seem more together, more confident and more independent than prior generations, but in fact, they are more anxious, lonely and emotionally fragile, and less resilient to stress, says psychoanalyst, clinical social worker and parenting expert Erica Komisar.

“We are asking children to handle more — more stress, more stimulation, more pressure, more choices and more decisions — without giving them a secure foundation of support, emotional security, and real and meaningful connections,” says Komisar.

Photo by DANILL ONISCHENKO

Her important new book, Chicken Little the Sky Isn’t Falling: Raising Resilient Adolescents in the New Age of Anxiety, is a comprehensive guide filled with compassionate and practical advice to help parents guide, educate and connect with their children on a range of current topics, including gender and sexual identity, anxiety and depression, disordered eating, ADHD, vaping, social media and bullying, to name a few.

Chicken Little the Sky Isn’t Falling: Raising Resilient Adolescents in the New Age of Anxiety, also contains valuable insights intended to help readers prevent, recognize and address mental health disorders, as well as help their teens navigate academic and social pressures, social media and technology usage, increased social isolation and family pressures. With Komisar’s guidance and support, parents will learn how to be beacons of hope and change, as well as how to raise emotionally healthy, resilient adolescents.

This excerpt is from Erica Komisar, LCSW's new book, Chicken Little the Sky Isn't Falling: Raising Resilient Adolescents in the New Age of Anxiety

Social/ Emotional

DEVELOPMENT

By Erica Komisar, LCSW

M

iddle adolescence marks a visible shift away from teens relying on the approval and support of their family to looking for the approval and support of their friends.

Though they may be consciously questioning or rejecting the culture and values of their family in favor of that of their peers, they take their family's internal guidance with them. If early adolescence finds kids pushing their boat away from the safety and security of their family, in middle adolescence, they find themselves in the middle of the lake, unsure in which direction they're going to paddle.

Part of this struggle is emotional, meaning they still need to be dependent on you to care for them, even if they don't admit it.

If there is no healthy dinner for them when they come home from school, they are more likely to eat Twinkies rather than make themselves a turkey sandwich or heat up leftovers.

This push into the unknown waters of independence is exciting but comes with a heavy dose of anxiety. It also comes with the need to deal with the loss of childhood and the feeling of isolation from their parents. Once teens mourn these losses of childhood, they can focus on the present.

Encouraging independence in action is different than demanding that our children be emotionally independent of us.

We shouldn't confuse emotional independence with competence in life skills. Your fourteen-year-old can be responsible for remembering her homework, and if she doesn't, you can empathize with her disappointment without shaming her.

You can help her figure out a better system for keeping track of her assignments and suggest ways she could approach her teacher for extra credit to bring up her grade. That's not the same as doing the assignment for her, packing her backpack, and going to the teacher yourself if she forgets to hand it in.

Teens are still practicing taking care of themselves physically and emotionally, and they still need and rely upon their parents to take care of them, including their bodies. It is an important developmental milestone when teens learn to regulate themselves and take care to eat well, sleep enough, dress properly, and organize their stuff, whether it's having their basketball uniform washed for the game the next day or making sure they are prepared for their test on Friday.

Middle adolescence can be a time when even well-adjusted teens experience significant depression and anxiety.11 Teens focus on and live their lives at the moment, both good and bad.

If your child is happy socially and doing well in school, it can feel like the best time of their lives. But if they are unhappy or not accepted by their peers, they may feel that they will be stuck in their unhappiness forever. This is why teens can feel particularly alone and hopeless.

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Middle adolescence is a time of idealizing people and movements. Teens are now loudly and passionately declaring their philosophical, religious, and political beliefs. They get involved with political campaigns, philosophical movements, and religious sects. This is true across history, as with Joan of Arc (who was seventeen when she took up the sword for France against the English) and environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who addressed the United Nations Climate Change Conference at fifteen. These beliefs, which mental health professionals and sociologists refer to as a person's socio-cultural identity development, are part of the process of individuation. It is one thing to separate yourself physically from your parents and another thing entirely to know what to take of what they gave you and what to leave behind. This is both exciting and terrifying.

Coaches, teachers, musical performers, sports figures, and political leaders become their new parental models, and they look to them for guidance and advice. At the same time, teens still feel the tug toward their parents and the safety of home. They may react to this unconscious longing as a threat to their emerging independence and may lash out at their parents for no obvious reason. Parents may be able to get through this period by being aware that their kids' hostile behavior and responses to seemingly innocuous questions or requests may not be a reaction to them but a reaction to their kid's own internal conflict.

11Schrobsdorff, “What’s Causing Depression and Anxiety in Teens?”

Teen social life involves moving from group activities to pairing off. Kissing and holding hands give way to more intimate sexual exploration. Kids are having intercourse at a younger age. According to the 2017 CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 39.5 percent of high school students said they had had sexual intercourse. Ten percent said they had had sex with four or more partners. Of the 30 percent who had sex in the three months prior, 46 percent of those had not used a condom. Kids who were sure of their sexual identity, whether they were heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual, had more sex than kids who weren't sure of their sexual identity.

Parents must not make assumptions about what their teens know about sex and when they become sexually active. The parents I work with are often shocked to learn how young kids are having oral sex, genital intercourse, and even anal intercourse. This is only one of the reasons that parents need to have conversations about sex and responsibility much earlier than they may want to. I discuss this topic at length in Chapter 4.

Pack behavior doesn't go away, but single-sex group activity gives way to coed activities. Couples form groups together, and parties are not just the guys sitting around watching football or the girls hanging out and having sleepovers. Mixed-gender parties bring up issues including social acceptance or rejection, social inclusion or exclusion, popularity, or fears of isolation.

Nature hates a vacuum, and teens seek out other adults to fill the vacuum left in their emotional life when they (necessarily) separate from their parents.

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Erica Komisar, LCSW is a clinical social worker, psychoanalyst, and parent guidance expert who has been in private practice in New York City for over 30 years.

As a psychological consultant, she brings parenting workshops to schools, clinics, corporations, and childcare settings.

She is also a contributing editor to the Institute for Family Studies.

She is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post. Visit her website at: www.komisar.com

RECLAMING YOUR TRUE SELF

By Angela Dunning

The Powerof “Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious.

You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept.” ~Anna Taylor

T

he ability to say No and set boundaries is a fundamental life skill. Unfortunately, many children are never taught or modeled this by their parents and other adults in their early lives.

It is the primary and ultimate act of self-care, the way to protect our bodies, minds, and spirit from violation, intrusion, and manipulation by others. It is a way to stand up for ourselves and to set and proclaim the limits of our tolerance of others’ behaviors towards us.

It is, of course, also how we respectfully relate to others as we,

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in turn, must respect the power of their No. There is a wonderful saying that was handed down to me during my professional training, which I think can also be applied to this topic. It is: “You only ever need to apologize once.” I think we only ever need to say No once. Yet, rarely is our first No heeded. Often we have to say it again and again until the other party gets and respects it. When power imbalances also exist in the relationships, this is very often the case, but it shouldn’t be. No matter to whom or why we are saying NO, that is our final, definitive answer.

A life coach I worked with some years ago told me: “The word NO is a complete sentence.” I was blown away by this fact. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had grown up in a household where clear, healthy boundaries were hardly ever set, and when they eventually were, they were more like ruthless and very unfair dictates because the opportunities for setting healthier boundaries had long since passed.

We don’t need to expand on, justify or qualify our No. We don’t need to endlessly repeat it or sugarcoat it. We don’t need to give something in return. No. We simply and clearly just say NO. So what is the power of saying No? Well, there are so many benefits in terms of how our relationships go, but I think even more importantly and perhaps less focused on is what it returns to us.

Not only that but learning and practicing to say No is a way of effectively beginning to heal old wounds and even trauma. Trauma especially results when a situation is too overwhelming for us, and often we can’t do anything to stop it from happening. To now be able to feel and express our anger, hurt and powerlessness connected to that time is immensely healing. Learning to say No is at the heart of this growth as we slowly practice saying No to others one step at a time. In so doing, we begin to recover our sense of agency and power; we begin to turn our default of feeling powerless all of the time into small acts of feeling our power AND acting on it.

Photo by MATTIA ASCENZO

After years or sometimes decades of giving away our personal power, agency and self-worth, saying No and sticking to our decision can return enormous doses of selfagency and power. It literally fills us up from the inside. We feel bigger, stronger, calmer, more certain, and more able to deal with situations and people who might previously have triggered our vulnerabilities and weak spots.

Saying No to even the smallest request can feel like an enormous achievement. And walking away from a situation, relationship or organization is another way we clearly communicate our No and, again, regain our power as we direct ourselves towards that which is going to be good for us.

WE DON’T NEED TO EXPAND ON, JUSTIFY OR QUALIFY OUR NO. WE DON’T NEED TO ENDLESSLY REPEAT IT OR SUGARCOAT IT. WE DON’T NEED TO GIVE SOMETHING IN RETURN. NO. WE SIMPLY AND CLEARLY JUST SAY NO.

We could say then that, ultimately, saying No is THE supreme act of self-care. It is vital for healing and recovery, especially from past trauma. And, it is the essential ingredient for healthy, fulfilling, and equal relationships in every arena. This one small word is, in fact, a hugely powerful act of selfhood and self-determination and one we should all be teaching our children and clients to wholeheartedly and confidently embrace as part of their every day, daily lives…

Angela Dunning is a regular contributor to The Eden Magazine. She is the author of The Horse Leads the Way: Honoring the True Role of the Horse in Equine Facilitated Practice. Angela writes regularly on Facebook: ebook.com/thehorsestruth.

You can learn more about Angela and her work helping people and horses at: www.thehorsestruth.co.uk.

61 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

THE WAY I SEE IT

By Joey Santos, Jr.

Folks 62 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

I

s it just me or do you feel as of late that people have become a rare breed?

I used to be a people person. My close friends and family often describe me as "never meeting a stranger." I loved the crowd. Parties were easy for me to navigate. From the moment I walked through the front door and found my way out the back door, I met half the room. I found people interesting, glamorous, sexy, intelligent, funny. I'd arrive early and stay late. Engaging in pleasantries and conversations often makes acquaintances, lovers, and friends. Even today, many of my closest friends were met and cultivated through social events, cocktail and dinner parties, theater, nightclubs, and travel. Especially travel! How I love to travel. Everywhere I've been, a new city, island, or country, I've made new friends with whom I am still friends today. It's not a boast. It's a toast. A cheer to a time when life and people were less complicated. A time when we were free to express ourselves with manners, politeness, integrity, conviction, character, complete sentences, and best of all, humor. Oh, remember humor? You know, when people said things because it was funny and we would all laugh together because it was funny. Wait. Flirting? Remember that lost art? Correct me if I'm wrong, but for most of us, our very own existence is a direct result of a successful flirt. For some, that's a tough pill to swallow.

Seriously. We live in a time when something as innocent as a smile or wink can be blown out of such proportion that it causes lives to be threatened, some even ruined.

Hear me out. There are some real creeps out there. There always have been, there always will be. But when we know ourselves, the company we keep, and our surroundings, we become less likely to buy into their insecurities and blow a whistle at the mere mention of "pretty dress" or "handsome suit". Trust me, I'm a flirt. I always have been. And I have been flirted with and still am (on occasion) by the best. It's flattering and healthy for our egos. And, yes, there are some who approach with a lame game, a skank prank, a dreadful drawl, or a tipsy crawl. An eye-roll has always been good self-defense for those who still attempt the attempt. Or, if need be, call Security. But, in most situations, we need to get over ourselves and stop allowing negativity to run our emotions, thoughts, actions, and destroy our opportunity for growth, happiness, and prosperity.

I still believe in good people. I still meet them. They still thrill me, inspire me, remind me to do and be better. Now, as far as Folks are concerned, Good luck with that. It's time to (like we would say in the old days) Keep Movin'!

Joey Santos is a Celebrity Chef, Life Stylist & CoHost of The Two Guys From Hollywood Podcast on iHeart Radio.

A Columnist for The Eden Magazine since 2016.

Joey was raised in NYC, Malibu, and West Hollywood. He is the son of Film & Television Actor Joe Santos, and his Grandfather is World-Renowned Latin Singer Daniel Santos.

To follow Joey on IG: @jojoboy13 To contact Joey; whynotjoe@gmail.com 63 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

BEE SCARED AND PLANS TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING

By Richard Faith

B

ee Scared is a book that plants the seed of environmentalism in the minds of those who seek a way to help Mother Nature.

Helping Mother Nature comes with the mission of stopping Global Warming.

What better way to inspire a love of nature in small children than with a playful, relatable story about tiny creatures who share their world? In Bee Scared, author Richard Faith frames climate change and global warming challenges in an easy-to-understand, entertaining tale about disappearing bees and closed hives. Faith draws upon his own passion for environmentalism to craft a delightfully engaging story that delivers a very important message.

Bee Scared Publisher Gary Revel is the founder of Mother Nature Festival Live, Inc., and a member of the Board of Directors. Richard Faith and Gary Revel, along with the board of directors, and supporters, are on a mission to stop Global Warming.

From the book: Your Majesty, said the Scout Bee to the Queen of the Bees, The Honeybees are in trouble.

They are disappearing in great numbers!

What will the Queen do? Who will she turn to? How will she keep her hive safe from harm? Without bees, there will be no fruit, no vegetables, and no flowers.

Bee Scared, an Old Doc Turtle adventure from author Richard Faith, follows the Queen and her community of family and friends as they try to find a solution to this scary problem. They use music. They call on Auntie Bee. Even Old Doc Turtle becomes concerned! Can your young reader think of any ways to help Auntie Bee save the honeybees?

This delightful children's tale delivers a simple lesson

about the challenges of climate change and global warming — and the impact on nature's tiniest but mightiest of creatures — in a way that young audiences can understand. Bee Scared can help you open a dialogue with the curious young people in your life about the importance of conservationism and protecting the future of our planet.

50% of all income, both publisher and author income is being given to Mother Nature Festival Live Inc. This money helps the nonprofit work of effecting the turnaround of Climate Change for the benefit of planet Earth and Mother Nature. Ultimately, we will all breathe easier when we see Global Warming is no longer a threat.

Author Richard Faith is passionate about raising awareness regarding the impacts of global warming and climate change. He is also the author of the science fiction series, Megamerse, which features a superhero who fights for Mother Earth. Megamerse has been turned into a screenplay, and talks are ongoing with a movie studio. Faith's other book titles include I Can Barely See, said Mandy.

Manatee, Barkley & Silvia, Crocodilly Lilly: Not so Toothy A Grin and The Owl that Said What.

All the stories lend to environmentalism and work for hand in hand with the nonprofit work of Mother Nature Festival Live Inc. Richard and Gary have done numerous television, radio, magazine, newspaper, podcast, and blog interviews over the last year.

They are available for more.

Faith is also the executive director of Mother Nature Festival Live Incorporated (http://mothernaturefestival.live), a 501(c)3 nonprofit that works to educate, inform and inspire everyone to work together in the mission of stopping Global Warming.

YOUR LIFE

DECLUTTERED

By Kate Evans

How often do you wonder why your to-do lists never get done?

How many times have you started a new workout routine or committed to clean eating only to find yourself right back where you started two weeks later? And how many cleaning routines have you tried that never stick, leaving you feeling overwhelmed by your home, not knowing how to regain control, let alone where to start?

Studies show getting rid of clutter eliminates 40% of the housework.

I bet you've tried everything you can think of to create change; time blocking, meditation, setting alarms on your phone, even asking a friend to keep you accountable. But your life still feels chaotic.

The reason you can't find the motivation to maintain any of these healthy habits is far simpler than you might think: You need to declutter your home and your life.

When your mind is cluttered, it's hard to find the motivation to care for your home, and yet, how could you possibly expect 66 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

yourself to have a settled mind when your house is in chaos?

IT'S ALL CONNECTED For nearly 20 years, I have dedicated myself to empowering women to live their most authentic and joyful lives. As a therapist and life coach, I have the privilege of walking beside each woman I work with on her journey, and I learn as much from her as she does from me.

I see the overwhelm women face day today. It's very real and has to be addressed. That's why I created Soulful Space, a life coaching system that integrates your mind, body, soul, and space to create the life you deserve.

I'll share my secret with you: mind, body, and soul, which are what most wellness systems focus on, are a great start, but the missing ingredient is the space we live and love in.

Whether we like it or not, women still tend to do the majority of the care and keeping of our homes. When we were told we could "have it all," no one explained that we'd also have to keep doing everything we were already doing!

That's where the overwhelm comes in.

A connection has been found between clutter and unhealthy coping and avoidance strategies, like eating junk food, oversleeping, or binge-watching Netflix.

That's why I teach women the difference between what is selfish and what is self-care.

WHERE IT ALL STARTED The Soulful Space method wasn't born in one day. It was really born out of my own experiences as a woman with a cluttered life and home.

The clutter I used to live with led to a morning in the summer of 2017 when I woke up and couldn't stop crying. The tears wouldn't stop, and I was terrified. Had I broken myself?

No, I had overcooked myself. That was my warning bell.

I spent the next two years working on myself, my boundaries, and self-care, getting one step closer to who I wanted to be with each new challenge. I was really settling into this new me.

And you're going to have to work for it.

I didn't go from slob to decluttering and organizing expert overnight. I had to stop lying to myself about how "fine" I was so that I could actually be fine. I worked at it, and so will you.

Clutter addicts use clutter to keep the world at a distance because they fear reality.

I empower and teach women just like you the value of decluttering your mind, body, and soul while helping develop effective systems in your home or space, taking the chaos out of everyday life.

This integrative method reaches in and dissolves my clients' barriers, helping them find their truth, creating the home and life they have always wanted.

It is time to allow yourself the gift of mental, physical, spiritual, and environmental health. It's time to simplify this life of yours!

Then, in February 2019, I found myself sitting at dinner with my husband, glaring at our kitchen with disgust.

"What is wrong with you?" asked my very supportive, if sometimes confused, hubby.

"I can't stand this chaos anymore!" I spat out.

NEXT STEPS Identify your goals. Figure out what is getting in the way.

Create realistic, achievable solutions.

Feel in control of your life.

Feel pride in yourself.

Wise man that he is, he did not comment further.

All of that can feel like a tall order, but don't worry!

That's why I'm here.

A study out of Princeton University's Neuroscience Institute found people were more productive, less irritable, and distracted in a clutter-free space.

I had done all that work on myself, and I still wasn't happy! So, the Great Decluttering of 2019 began.

Every day I help overwhelmed women just like you declutter their lives and homes to create the joyful lives they deserve. With your hope and my skills in decluttering and organization, and health and wellness, we'll do the same for you.

Over the next three months, I touched about 90% of our stuff and decluttered about 35% of it out of the house.

So, I ask, are you ready for your joyful life?

80% of the things people keep when they "declutter" are never used.

Kate Evans is a life coach, decluttering expert, and the owner of Soulful Space, a virtual life coaching company. Kate helps overwhelmed women declutter their lives and homes. She has worked in the field of psychology since 2004, is an RYT-200 certified yoga teacher, is a member of the National Association of Productivity and Organization, and is currently working on a book bringing self-help and decluttering together for lasting change. To learn more about Kate, the work she does, and to read her weekly blog for your mind, body, soul, and space, go to www.soulfulspacecoaching.com. Kate can also be found on Instagram and Facebook @soulfulspace.coaching.

With each decluttered and file-folded clothes drawer, I felt lighter. With each torn apart, decluttered, and organized closet, I felt greater control over myself and my life.

At the end of those three months, I stepped back from my new morning routine of dishes and tidying and smiled. I now loved my kitchen. That was when it hit me: Caring for your home is self-care.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW You are perfect just as you are.

You can have the life you want.

You can have the home you want.

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listen and

Love

mindfully

By Sherra Aguirre

68 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

Excerpt from Joyful Delicious Vegan: Life Without Heart Disease

I

want to paint for you a picture of the complex and intelligent energy field we simply think of as our body. About eleven years ago, I decided to spend a week at a health and detox spa in the California desert. I was fighting burnout at work and coping with the recent death of my mother. Little did I know that I would meet someone who would forever change the way I thought about my health. Susana Belen, the founder of We Care Spa https://wecarespa.com, was the most energetic sixty-something-year-old I had ever met. Her petite frame, personal warmth, and flaming red hair made her a standout among the staff whenever she taught yoga and nutrition classes.

BECAUSE I AM NOW AWARE OF THIS WONDROUS INTELLIGENCE WITHIN ME AND IN EVERY ONE OF US—IN EVERY LIVING CREATURE AND EARTH ITSELF—I WANT TO RETURN THIS LOVE EACH AND EVERY DAY During one of her sessions, she shared a powerful metaphor. Susana asked us to visualize the trillions of cells in our bodies, each of which faithfully performs a very specific function necessary for our health. Each of these tiny, microscopic entities exists for no other reason than to promote our well-being according to its functional “intelligence.” She spoke with a quiet passion about their unconditional love for and devotion to us in a way that made me believe I could feel that love.

That night in my small cabin, after my evening meditation, I started to sob and could not stop. The stresses of my work and the loss of my mother had weighed heavily on me for months, and I realized that coming to this place and meeting Susana was part of my healing process.

Because I am now aware of this wondrous intelligence within me and in every one of us—in every living creature and Earth itself—I want to return this love each and every day.

I now feel a sense of responsibility and teamwork with the cells that make up my physical body. I know that if I eat poorly, expose my body to toxins (environmental or ingested), deprive it of rest, and subject it to high-stress levels, my cells struggle to protect me.

At some point, they try to get my attention—a mild headache, upset stomach, or low energy, perhaps so

slight that I hardly notice. Before I became aware that this was their way to communicate with me, whenever these mild distress signals appeared, my first thought was simply to stop the discomfort. Like the commercials tell us, I would take a painkiller, or whatever over-the-counter remedy was available. Usually, the symptoms would go away, and I’d return to my normal activities again without giving the matter much thought. By not taking the time to listen more closely to my body’s messages, I missed many opportunities to understand how my choices and actions were undercutting my health. I also missed opportunities to make early changes to practice better self-care. My cells worked harder to keep me well, and with the symptoms gone, it was easy for me to continue making the same food and lifestyle choices that compromised them in the first place. The behavior of our cells is the very definition of unconditional love!

If only we would listen and act out of love in return...

Sherra Aguirre is an articulate health enthusiast, environmentalist and food security activist. She founded and led a successful business for three decades, winning national awards for entrepreneurship, innovation, and service excellence.

She sold the company in 2016 to focus on sharing her passion for healthy diet and lifestyle.

Aguirre describes herself as high energy, in better overall health, and in many ways more fit than in her thirties or forties. She has practiced meditation and yoga daily for more than twenty-five years, and for many years has researched and read extensively about diet and lifestyle as the most important factors for achieving and maintaining good health. By adopting a whole plant-based diet, she improved her overall heart health and eliminated her hypertension despite a significant family history of heart attack, stroke, and high blood pressure. She is passionate about empowering others to maintain vibrancy and good health throughout their lifetimes. Aguirre writes about the healing qualities of compassion, simplicity, and gratitude, and the ripple effect vegan eating can have on individuals, families, and communities.

Her first book, Joyful Delicious Vegan is available from booksellers everywhere.

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HOW MEDITATION SHAPES

THE MENTAL Photo by BY PARILOV -ADOBE STOCK

HEALTH

By Jayita Bhattacharjee

70 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

M

editation unleashes the domain of a free spirit, and it has been integrated into some form or other by every spiritual path. If you ever wonder about the need to meditate, what is the necessity to delve into the sea of silence, then below are some of the facts that can answer your unanswered question.

Meditation gives you contentment Meditation is the daily habitual process of training your mind to learn how to focus so you can manage to redirect your thoughts. People who engage in meditation normally live happier lives compared to those who don't. It brings a flow of positive emotions and enhances constructive, creative thoughts. Daily meditation for a few minutes can fill your mind with aspiring energy that will pull you up from your sense of fatigue. Scientific findings will support this claim. As per studies conducted on a group of Buddhist monks, while they were engaged in meditative acts, the pre-frontal cortex of their brains (the area associated with happiness) was found to have extra activity. It leads to an enhanced self-perception and imparts a positive outlook on life. Meditators experience lesser negative thoughts, and they have not such negative perceptions of the world and surroundings around them. It gives you a happy, healthy emotional release. The inflammatory chemicals called cytokines are released in stressful situations, and affect mood and cause depression. The levels of those inflammatory chemicals are reduced. Happiness comes as the inflammatory cytokines go down.

Enhances self-awareness Consistent meditation helps you in gaining a strong understanding of yourself. And there, you grow gradually into the best version of yourself. e.g., As you engage in a self-inquiry meditation, you know yourself and can relate to those around you. You recognize thoughts that are destructive or self-defeating. So you can steer those thoughts towards a constructive pattern. As per studies, practicing Tai chi improves self-efficacy, and your belief in your capacity or ability to face the challenges sees an improvement. Mindfulness meditators feel reduced loneliness and increased levels of social contact compared to those who do not practice it. In addition, meditators can cultivate creative skills. There comes a pervading peace and a general calmness of mind though this feeling is subtle and fleeting by nature. It brings an awareness of what is present in your mind, what remains there so you can acknowledge it just to witness, but not to wipe the mind clean of any debris. It heightens your level of awareness. It makes you an observer and not an agitator or judgmental.

• Meditation curbs your stress, anxiety, and depression There is an immense transformative potential of meditation, and it should not be overlooked. As per the University of Wisconsin studies, meditation has displayed physiological effects on the brain. Researchers have found that the region of the brain that regulates anxiety and stress, that is found to shrink as you practice meditation on a consistent basis.

As you shift your attention to moment-to-moment experiences, meditation trains the mind and guides it to remain calm even in situations that might cause stress. They also direct the mind to go through a significant amount of reduced anxiety by unnecessarily worrying about the future.

• There is no need for a person to be religious in order to meditate Meditation has a wide range of benefits. It enhances calmness, makes you practice awareness, and eventually helps you to declutter the mind. The noteworthy thing is, you do not have to adhere to any particular religion to practice meditation and access its benefits. Many people define themselves as spiritual but not religious but still engage in daily meditation.

Contemplation is needed as a key component in many religions, but meditation is about making you aware of the present moment. Connecting with the stillness is the key from this perspective.

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Meditation assists you in your sleeping process Troubling insomnia that many dread is often mitigated by consistent meditation practice. For those that suffer from some form of sleep deprivation, be it chronic or occasional, meditation helps you fall asleep by triggering the relaxation response. A part of the meditative population has the opposite problem: they fall asleep the moment they begin to meditate.

•

Kirtan Kriya, a meditative method that combines a mantra or a chant with a repetitive motion of your fingers to assist you in focusing your thoughts, as per studies in people with age-related memory loss, has demonstrated better performance on neuropsychological tests. It increases memory, attention span, and mental alertness in older people. It boosts your mental clarity.

• The memory is sharpened due to meditation Most people go through an age-related memory loss. The memory stays sharp, and the focus and concentration on any given thing can remain steady, so you do not deviate from your focal point. Mindfulness meditation takes good care of this problem, as it trains you how to remain aware of the present moment while pulling away all the distractions from the mind. So distractions have less and less power over you, and you are more and more rooted in what this moment has to offer.

•

Meditation can be instrumental in fighting addictions Meditation helps you develop mental discipline, enhances your self-control, and brings an awareness of triggers for addictive behavioral patterns. So you can recognize them easily. As you meditate, it helps you redirect your attention, better manage the emotions and impulses, and understand the causes behind them. As per a study, a study in 60 people receiving treatment for alcohol use disorder found that engaging in transcendental meditation was associated with lower stress levels, reduced psychological distress, alcohol cravings, and alcohol usage after three months. It helps you better manage your food cravings. As per 14 studies, the findings are that mindfulness meditation assisted the participants in lowering emotional and binge eating.

• Meditation is accessible anywhere You do not need specialized equipment or a place, just a calm, quiet place for a few minutes of daily practice. There are two major forms of meditation:

72 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

Focused-attention mediation and Open-monitoring meditation.

Focused attention meditation focuses on a single object, thought, sound or visualization and emphasizes freeing your mind from interfering distractions. It may focus on breathing or mantra or a soothing sound.

Open monitoring meditation encourages enhanced awareness of all aspects of your surroundings and environment, guiding the stream of thoughts and enhancing the sense of self. It includes the awareness of suppressed thoughts, feelings, or impulses.

• Meditation generates kindness Certain types of meditations specifically enhance the positive feelings towards yourself and others, and so does it engage you in positive actions towards others in the community. In this sense, metta meditation generates continual kindness by developing kind thoughts and feelings towards yourself and others. Consistently practicing this, meditators learn to extend this loving-kindness externally, at first to the friends and acquaintances, and gradually it comes to extending it even to the enemies. As per a study of 50 college students, practicing metta meditation three times per week demonstrated positive emotions, better interpersonal reactions, and an enhanced understanding of others after a time period of 4 weeks. The more you practice, the more the benefits appear to accumulate.

•

Meditation helps us unlock unconditional well-being When we immerse in deep meditation, we are training our minds to be present at the moment without allowing ourselves to be caught up in external fascination or being repelled by whatever emerges in our mind-stream. We become able to meet each and every moment with composure, an equanimity no matter what challenges may appear in that moment. We have full access to the essence of each moment as it arises. We relate to our minds moment to moment with the qualities of being non-judgmental and aware. In doing so, we make the discovery that even situations, thoughts, and emotions that we may find unacceptable may hold spaciousness and peace. In the congeniality of the situation, we can unlock our creativity. This is how the journey of mindfulness begins, which leads us consequently to a sense of well-being.

appear and disappear in a flow and all we do is experience them without being controlling. We are just simply available to whatever arises and maintain the delicate balance between spontaneity and the commitment to working with the mind. Though the nature of well-being is innate, we need to unlock it and work on its stability to sustain it. So, we work on its unearthing and then find the essentialities in its sustenance.

Your life will always have its own challenges. In that sense, you can never assume your life to be freed from them. So the answer to these difficult situations is to find the means to make a breakthrough through the rising struggles and give you the streaks of joy. In meditation, the measure lies in how present we can be at the moment given the challenges and the pleasures that surface.

Every situation that reveals the challenges and delights becomes an opportunity for practice. To stay open and just witness their arising to meet them unconditionally allows us to meet every moment as it comes. We release the need to control, enhance or suppress whatever arises in the process.

As meditation gives rise to spaciousness, we can sustain the awareness of our emotional reactions and face challenges of all sorts in the healthy manner possible as they don't really measure up to anything about us. The challenges do not measure who we are. The authentic measure can be defined as what we are bringing to the moment we have now. If we bring our resilience, compassion, kindness, and confidence, no matter how we meet our challenges, we are giving it a good enough try.

Things are appearing the way they are. We do not exert our control on them. They come and leave,

Mindfulness becomes that essential element for stability and awareness, making it feasible to work with every moment. The deep sense well- being evokes the feeling of joy. And there arises the laughter of the soul. It emerges as we embrace the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen next.

Not knowing where this is going does not trap us in anxiety. There comes a relaxation as you feel; there was never a moment like this moment. And there's never going to be a moment like this one. From this perspective comes an unparalleled moment.

Exhilarated, we do not feel the urge to push or pull anything. Effortlessly, meditation takes us from complexity to simplicity.

Jayita Bhattacharjee was born in Calcutta, India and later on pursued education from University of Houston in Economics, she had chosen her career as a trustee and teacher. Her Indian residence is in the vicinity of the famous Belurmath. Currently, she is settled in Tampa, Florida. Her love for writing on a journey of heart and soul was hidden all within. Looking at the moments captured in love and pain, joy and grief, the hidden tragedies of life...it was a calling of her soul to write.

Her books "The Ecstatic Dance of Life', " Sacred Sanctuary", " Light of Consciousness", "Dewdrops of Compassion" are meant to shed light on what guides a person to respond to the mystical voice hidden inside, to soar in a boundless expansion with the limitless freedom of spirit."It is in the deepest joy that I write with every breath of mine."

73 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

SPIRITUAL GROWTH CHECKPOINT:

ACCESSING OUR MAGIC By: Sherri Cortland

W

e all have magic within us; magic is, simply put, a way of being and doing. Using our magic means using our perceptions, will, and communication skills to let the world and the universe know exactly what it is that we desire. Some call it visualization or affirmation; some call it using “The Secret.” My Guide Group, the “GG,” calls it tapping into our power.

My Guide, Arthur, channeled the following about our magic through automatic writing…

As a human being, magic is the manipulation of energy. It knows exactly what you want, expressing what that is to the universe and knowing that it will happen. That is all there is to it. Decide what you want, express what you want to the universe, and expect that it will happen. There is nothing to dwell on or be anxious about. Put it out there and be confident in the results.

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How and why should you be so confident? Because human beings are spiritual beings, who are presently incarnated.

Human beings have power. They have the power to complete the “to do” lists they have created for themselves, and they have the power to ignore the “to do” list they have created for themselves. Human beings have the power to mold the world around them.

Many on this plane forget who they are, and that is normal, that is natural, it is what allows us to move through lifetimes learning and growing as we are wont to do. But remember who you are and that you are indeed a powerful being, well…that is spiritual growth available to everyone. And for our purpose today, we will call this power your magic because we know that word will grab your attention. You were born with power, and the time is now to use that power to move forward:

More than that, you have the power to create windows. Meditate and ask your higher self and/or your Guides for help in knowing what your “to do” list for this incarnation is and then ask the universe to provide an appropriate window for you.

While incarnated, we seek to learn everything we can and report that knowledge back to our higher selves.

The Creator also absorbs that knowledge because we are all sparks of the Creator. Over a multitude of lifetimes, our goal is to become a Creator as well. Is this shocking to you? Do you think there is only one Creator? Your Creator has given you and those who surround you the opportunity to become. You are a spark of the Creator, and you have the ability to grow and become a Creator, too.

Some start out as entities who first learn the letter A and then B and then C and continue to give themselves harder and harder objectives to meet.

Some choose one from column A and one from column B. It is up to the individual soul to plan and control their learning and growth.

What has all of this to do with your power, your magic? You can utilize your power to move forward spiritually by focusing on what is happening in your life and what is going on around you. You can do a self-analysis and look for life scripts, which are a

series of windows of opportunities to learn a specific lesson that was missed. When you identify a life script, note the details and resolve to do things differently the next time a similar window opens. In this way, you will begin to cross items off of your “to-do” list faster and with less drama and pain.

More than that, you have the power to create windows. Meditate and ask your higher self and/or your Guides for help in knowing what your “to do” list for this incarnation is and then ask the universe to provide an appropriate window for you. This is the magic of being human. You have this power. Use it.

Go in peace.

Arthur mentions looking for our life scripts and figuring out our missed windows of opportunities so that we won’t miss the next window that opens.

Because our windows become increasingly more dramatic as we miss them, a great goal is to try and learn a lesson as close to the ground floor as possible, rather than in the penthouse. Why? Because the earlier we recognize and successfully deal with a window, the easier they are to get through.

On my website, you will find articles that include step-by-step tips on how to conduct a life review and start recognizing windows of opportunity and relationship villains.

To access our magic is to access our power. And that is something that every one of us can do, starting today.

Namaste.

Sherri Cortland has been communicating with her Guide Group, the “GG,” since 1987 via automatic writing. Much of the information she has received is included in her four books, which were originally published by Ozark Mountain Publishing and are currently available on her website and on Amazon.

On Sherri’s website, you will find several free classes and meditations, along with more articles and workshops on video.www.Sherri-Cortland.com https://www.facebook.com/ChanneledGuidance 75 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

An Excerpt from Sit Down to Rise Up

Photo by ENCIERRO/ADOBE STOCK

FEEL IT ‘TIL YOU HEAL IT

By Shelly Tygielski

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W

hile self-care is traditionally viewed as an inner journey - a way to achieve our own mind, body, and emotional balance, author and meditation teacher Shelly Tygielski’s new memoir Sit Down to Rise Up: How Radical Self-Care Can Change the World shows that self-care can also be a powerful tool for spurring transformative collective action. We hope you’ll enjoy this excerpt from the book.

I once saw a greeting card in a local shop, written and illustrated by artist Emily McDowell from the brand Em & Friends. It read: “Finding yourself ” is not how it really works.

You aren’t a ten-dollar bill in last winter’s coat pocket. You are not lost. Your true self is right there, buried under cultural conditioning, other people’s opinions, and inaccurate conclusions you drew as a kid that became your beliefs about who you are. “Finding yourself ” is actually returning to yourself.

An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering who you were before the world got its hands on you.

This statement resonated so deeply with me that I bought the entire allotment of cards displayed on the rack. I kept the cards in my desk drawer for a few months, peaking at them every so often. When I moved into my own place, I framed one for myself, and I eventually sent the rest to people I thought needed to hear this message so that they, too, could be reminded that sometimes when we are buried, we may feel like we are dead, but we’re not. We are seeds.

Right after I was diagnosed with my chronic

eye disease, there was no relief, only fear of “what else do I have?” Several doctors took me down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out if I was afflicted with another disease, and most confirmed my worst fear — that my eye disease was a byproduct of something else. My rheumatologist was like Sherlock Holmes, looking for clues that were present and some that were not ever there. In the end, he settled on the diagnosis of acute ankylosing spondylitis; I tested positive for a genetic marker that is present in many people who have it (but not all), and I had an incident with tendonitis in my ankle a few months before. He gave me a few pamphlets to read and proposed a course of action: I would take a fairly new medicine being used to treat patients with various autoimmune conditions that required a once-per-month, in-office intravenous infusion. I didn’t question the diagnosis or the course of treatment.

His words washed over me; my brain was in as much of a fog as my eyes.

When I got home that evening, I searched “ankylosing spondylitis” on the internet, where I learned that, over time, this inflammatory disease could cause the small bones in your spine to fuse. As the vertebrae fuse, the spine becomes less flexible, and if the ribs are affected, it can make breathing difficult.

Seeing photos of people with an advanced progression of the disease made me feel broken. Ready to give up. I couldn’t imagine being blind, unable to walk, and possibly unable to breathe. My current living arrangement was toxic, and I knew I could not count on or expect my soon-to-be ex-husband to take care of me. If I didn’t have my son, I’m not sure that I would be here today telling you my story.

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I acknowledged that what I was experiencing emotionally was real but that it did not define me, and it did not have to be permanent. I gave myself permission that day to “feel it ’til I heal it.”

Quite robotically, I decided to follow the protocols prescribed by my doctors, which was the only way I knew how to get better. I couldn’t think clearly, and I had no faith in my ability to direct my own health or treatment. My only real hope was to prolong whatever “good years” I had left to make an impact on my son. I had no expectation of making an impact in this world beyond that. I crawled back into Liam’s bed that night, and after he fell asleep on my chest, I remembered being a freshman in that undergraduate philosophy class and studying Viktor Frankl. According to Frankl, there was one thing I could control: my mental state. I also remembered that, unlike my mother and her mother before her, I had the agency to leave the environment I was in.

think that I shouldn’t be feeling angry or don’t want to feel hurt. I would compartmentalize my emotions and put them away, telling myself I’d deal with them at another, more convenient time. This harmful resistance came naturally to me — I did it to protect myself — but in the end, it only masked the truth, created more suffering, and resulted in a physical illness. Now my boxed emotions were bursting open, and I had to deal with the contents at, ironically, the most inconvenient time of all.

The very next day, I started to look for a new place to live. I wanted to change my physical surroundings so that I could focus on my mental health. I resolved to complete my move two weeks before receiving my first infusion. I also made the commitment to myself to begin journaling each day again, a habit I had stopped years earlier. That day, my friend Helen drove me to the bookstore to pick up some books about how to heal autoimmune conditions. I only walked out with one thing: a bright red, lined journal.

This was the first sentence I wrote in the journal when I sat down that day: “I AM NOT BROKEN.” I looked up at the mirror across from the dining room, my eyesight better each day as the inflammation gradually dissipated. I stared myself down.

“I am not broken,” I said out loud to myself. Then I wrote: “But I feel broken, and I won’t be broken forever.” This was the first time I admitted I was struggling. Long before that dark morning, I had spent years lying to myself, covering up for the misery I was feeling and pretending like I was fine and that my marriage was fine. Admitting this was important because it was the first time I acknowledged that what I was experiencing emotionally was real but that it did not define me, and it did not have to be permanent. I gave myself permission that day to “feel it ’til I heal it.”

Normally, whenever I experienced any negative emotions, I would try to resist or ignore them. I would

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Shelly Tygielski is the author of Sit Down to Rise Up and the founder of the global grassroots mutual aid organization Pandemic of Love. Her work has been featured by over 100 media outlets, including CNN Heroes, The Kelly Clarkson Show, CBS This Morning, the New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Sit Down to Rise Up . Copyright ©2021 by Shelly Tygielski. Printed with permission from New World Library.

Visit her online at www.shellytygielski.com.

The Heartfelt Brand

K

THAT PUTS HERITAGE AT THE FOREFRONT OF DESIGN

nown for its oh-so-cute heritage-inspired baby bodysuits, Ojala Threads unveils its El Camino line in time for the gift-giving season. There's something for everyone for holiday shopping from keychains to ornaments, homeware, and apparel.

Founder Ramona says, "The inspiration behind this design is the current immigration debate in the United States. The role of wise folk has not changed throughout the ages. It is to them that we look to for guidance... the three kings were that during the times of Jesus. Who are today's wise men and women?"

The El Camino collection offers a beautiful retelling of the world's most famous birth story using Taino symbols this holiday. Giving a gift with meaning this season can profoundly impact families.

The brand has shown how fashion can do many things - build confidence, display pride in one's heritage, create avenues of expression. Ojala Threads does all of these things beautifully, all while paying homage to their Taínos culture, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean.

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The female and disabled-owned brand create a conversation around authenticity, providing parents with a teaching tool.

Babies look adorable in Ojala's bodysuits, and it plants a seed of pride in their culture that they carry with them into their futures. Now the El Camino series continues to do just that as well.

Purpose-driven designs speak to a Hispanic culture that creates a special unboxing moment. The unique packaging encourages anyone unwrapping to take their time as each fold represents an ancestor, a generation, and prepares the parent for an accompanying poem written by the founder, Ramona. A first-generation Dominican American born in New York City, her pride in her heritage shows in everything she does.

All designs feature non-toxic water-based inks, premium fabric, lead-free snaps, flexible shoulders for easy removal, and generous sizing guaranteed to last longer as baby grows. The premium cotton and spandex blend are softer to the touch than most baby offerings.

Folklorico Bodysuit - Honors the love of music and rhythms rooted in African drums and maraca accents. $25 Diosa Luna Bodysuit - Inspired by the connection between women and the moon. $25 Chacabana Bodysuit - A love letter to grandfathers. $25 Agua Bodysuit - Inspired by the Taino symbol for hurricanes. A reminder that storms have always come and passed. Even when their intensity sometimes surprises. $25 Buyiri Bodysuit - Inspired by the Taino symbol for bats. Bats are central to the Taino creation story. $25 Giving Back: As a social enterprise company, they take on new projects each year. The brand partners with Shopping Gives, letting you give back 1% from every purchase to organizations making a difference in the South Bronx. The latest endeavor is to open a children’s museum in the area. Ojala Threads creates baby bodysuits that honor heritage, values, and experiences. Their clothing features unique designs inspired by Hispanic heritage.

Follow them on Instagram @ojalathreads.

81 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

D

s

iagn0si

In this excerpt from my memoir, Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory, I am diagnosed with multiple personality disorder (MPD), which is now known as dissociative identity disorder (DID). Known as the “hidden disorder” because the mind shields itself from awareness in order to function, DID is a small child’s response to chronic abuse. Slowly, some of my alters introduce themselves and become a part of my conscious landscape. ~ Lyn Barrett

By Lyn Barrett

I

never wanted to be crazy. Almost from the beginning of my decompensation, when I had the energy to think about it, I wanted to be sane and normal, with a shot at happiness, just like other people. For me, that meant that I would resume life without a myriad of voices, without an endless stream of pain, without feeling like a victim, without the sense of unreality that so often enveloped me. Instead, my sense of self would be unified and integrated, my bonds with my real children would be renewed, I would have a loving relationship with another human being, and I would no longer be a victim. I would be a survivor, a thriver. I would own

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my own power and leave my pervasive sense of powerlessness behind.

Not surprisingly, relationships became a major theme in my therapy with Sonia. In my nuclear and family of origin, as well as with friends beyond my family, I had difficulties with intimate relationships because they required trust. Even though I thought I trusted people, I didn’t. My presenting part might put on a good show, but the rest of my system—the common term for the interaction of alters in one person—had a different story to tell.

Photo by MOLLY MEARS

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“How often did you blame others for your problems?” shot John in a seven-page typed letter excoriating me during the height of our breakup. He listed everyone whom he thought I had blamed for a whole truckload of sins. He twisted stories and included many mischaracterizations, but there was some truth in his observation. With the exception of Thelma, I didn’t know how to have friends, I didn’t know how to navigate complicated interpersonal waters, and I had a hidden lack of trust in other people. I was good at faking it, and other people saw me as a social, happy, friendly, capable person. This deep-seated trust issue was well hidden, even from me.

Once I began therapy with Sonia, my internal radar kept drawing me into therapeutic and real-life situations that challenged this pathology. Faith in a God who loved me just the way I was didn’t require a lot of intimacy, at least not at first. Connecting in Quaker meetings so I could watch how people interacted from a distance gave me a good idea of what “normal” looked like. Going to group therapy, in spite of huge triggers, got to the meat of the matter. Allowing each voice to come out and speak their truth to Sonia gave me more and more confidence in my real relationships. It wasn’t easy; in fact, it was excruciating, but my system kept thrusting me into situations that forced me to confront my dysfunctional perceptions.

The world is built on relationships. If I was to have any semblance of a normal, sane life, I had to move beyond my doubt, fear, and shame and learn how to be vulnerable and intimate. I fully expected memories would emerge to explain away the craziness I was experiencing, but, in the meantime, I focused on learning how to trust appropriately and navigate relationships.

I began to attend a new Quaker meeting when I moved to Bethlehem. One Sunday afternoon, I wrote in my journal, Meeting was nice this morning. It is a grounding place for me—a bit distant, which is okay.

But a place to see people who connect with me. To see that I am like other people, I am different, but not so different. Bright, strong people at meeting are vulnerable like me. A centering place. A grounding place. I think I am accepted and valued there too.

Because my mind usually functioned well even when my feelings were all jumbled up, I found myself studying and reading about Quakers or the Religious Society of Friends as they are formally known. Staying in my head touched my heart without requiring me to develop intimate relationships, which always ran the risk of hurting me. I could grow spiritually without

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jeopardizing my emotional safety. Gradually, I put my little toe into meeting by joining a ministry committee. We met at the home of Martha, a woman I knew through graduate school. One evening, I was agitated by something unrelated to the committee and broke down in tears. I was horrified. I was being vulnerable in front of people I hardly knew. I always tried to project strength, but here I was, letting down my guard and showing weakness.

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t be crying. Please forgive me.

I’m usually strong. Sorry,” I gasped, trying to regain control. Martha stood, walked around the table to where I was sitting, and put her arms around me.

“Lyn, we don’t love you because you’re strong. We love you because you’re you.”

Wow. I wasn’t expecting that. Here was real compassion and no expectation that I had to be strong.

I wasn’t ready to reveal all to these people—and that was sensible—but I learned that I could show weakness and still be safe and valued as a person.

A year after my hospitalization, I was forty-five years old and struggling with a diagnosis. This little threeyear-old waif named Rosie was in the center of my chaos, and the part of me who called herself Nanny claimed to be the one taking care of her. On top of that, other parts were popping out all over the place, claiming names and demanding a voice in my conscious mind. However, I was a smart, accomplished woman, and I didn’t buy any of it. I was sure it was all an invention of my imagination, which, I would learn later, is a clear sign of dissociative identity disorder, sometimes dubbed the “hidden disorder” since its very purpose is to hide the abuse from everyone including the one who owns it. Yet as preposterous as it sounded, having insiders or alters resonated with a deep, visceral part of me, the part of me that felt, that spewed raw, uncensored words on a page, that curled into a fetal ball on a regular basis, that lived in fear almost every second of every day.

Still, the functioning, the cognitive part, didn’t believe me for a minute. I wrote in my journal; I know you can tell I am having a hard time with this.

THE WORLD IS BUILT ON RELATIONSHIPS. IF I WAS TO HAVE ANY SEMBLANCE OF A NORMAL, SANE LIFE, I HAD TO MOVE BEYOND MY DOUBT, FEAR, AND SHAME AND LEARN HOW TO BE VULNERABLE AND INTIMATE.

It isn’t easy. You know I don’t want to pretend. I know some of this is real, but some of it seems like make-believe. I don’t want to make something up. I want to get well, to get healthy. Are you there? Will you help me?

Or: I am not multiple personalities, but I am screwed up and very confused. If I forget about names and just talk about feelings, then it will be okay.

On good days, I cut myself a break.

I’m here; I told whoever was there if anyone. When you’re ready, I’m here. I care about you. I want us to be partners, allies. I know it’s rough now for all of us. It’s confusing and scary, but I want you to know I’m here. And even though other people are important to me, you are most important. I want you to come first. No one, and nothing, is more important than you. Even though my real children were the most important to me, I knew I needed to put myself first, which meant prioritizing the alters I didn’t believe existed. I may feel sick, I may be complaining, but that’s because I’m confused.

It’s okay. It’s okay for me to feel sick if that’s what I have to do to get to know you. That’s how important you are to me. I accept it.

I accept you.

Rosie and Nanny didn’t go away. Others began to make themselves known. “Tell me, Sonia, what do you think?” I asked her, frantic, terrified to know the answer. “Do you believe

that multiple personalities exist? Do you think I have multiple personalities? I think it’s crazy, but I need to know what you think.” Throughout my years of therapy, Sonia submitted my diagnosis as a post-traumatic stress disorder, an accepted diagnosis that an insurance company would cover. On the other hand, multiple personality disorder was controversial and sure to raise the scrutiny of the claim’s office. Nonetheless, she forged ahead.

“Yes, Lyn,” she replied, “I believe there’s such a thing as multiplicity, and I believe you are multiple. What’s really important, though, is what you think.” I needed to hear her say that, but I still didn’t believe it. I decided to get a second opinion from a psychiatrist affiliated with Northwestern Institute. I prayed fervently, Who am I? Lord, please let me be one person. How can I live a sane life with myself and others if I am not one person, whole and together? Who am I?

I REMEMBER LITTLE OF WHAT HAPPENED EXCEPT THAT AFTER I’D TOLD THE DOCTOR WHAT WAS GOING ON, HE SAID HE SAW LITTLE REASON TO DOUBT WHAT MY OWN BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT WERE TELLING ME. HE CONFIRMED THE DIAGNOSIS.

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The days leading up to that appointment were tumultuous. Multiple voices vied for airtime, frightened, ashamed, confused. This new doctor was a threat. He wouldn’t believe me. He’d tell me I was bad or crazy. I was going to get into trouble.

I’m a bad girl.

He’s going to tell me I’m a bad girl.

But don’t hurt me.

Nothing.

I’m bad for thinking these things. I’m bad for writing them. He will tell me that. He will tell me that it isn’t true. He will tell me to go home and buckle up and get better. But he won’t say it like that. He will make it sound nice and supportive and professional and true. And I will go home and believe him and disappear.

I think I’ve tricked everyone.

I’ve tricked Sonia.

I’ve tricked the therapy group.

I’ve tricked my friends.

I’ve tricked myself.

Tomorrow night he will discover that I’ve tricked everyone.

And he will tell me that I’m bad because I have tricked them.

After school on a crisp fall Monday afternoon, I drove an hour into Philadelphia to meet with this new psychiatrist. On the way, an unfamiliar part of me took the wheel. She was alive and happy and began to have strong sexual feelings.

I can feel the energy in every part of my body. It’s electric.

I’m electric. The space between my legs was quivering and sending signals everywhere, making it difficult to concentrate on driving. Oh, wow. I love this! Watch out.

You have to drive. Be careful. Oooh, I can’t wait to meet this new doctor. Maybe he’s handsome. Maybe we can have some fun. Check the directions. Turn the corner. He can’t hurt us. Let’s do it! This part knew how to take care of the new doctor—she wanted to seduce him. Later, she would tell me her name was Sylvia.

When we got to the doctor’s office, Sylvia dutifully retreated into the background and let Lyn go into the session. I remember little of what happened except that after I’d told the doctor what was going on, he said he saw little reason to doubt what my own body, mind, and spirit were telling me. He confirmed the diagnosis.

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Lyn Barrett is the author of Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory (publication date January 3, 2022), Koehler Books, and also DID Unpack: A Parable, available on Amazon.

Lyn is a speaker, retreat leader, and survivor of early childhood trauma, as well as a retired elementary school teacher, school principal, and church pastor. At 45, Lyn was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, now known as dissociative identity disorder (DID). From a happy wife and mother to a suicidal woman who felt the crazy fog of dissociation take over her life, she embarked on a journey to uncover the secrets that overwhelmed her. After suffering decades of inner chaos and deep pain, Lyn now lives a fulfilling and integrated life and considers herself a whole person again. Lyn is thankful for her excellent therapist, friends, and her dogged determination to heal. Lyn currently facilitates writers workshops and teaches a memoir class for dissociative writers, writes weekly blogs and a newsletter, and speaks on public radio, podcasts, and in other settings.

She holds advanced degrees from Lehigh University and Lancaster Theological Seminary. She can be reached through her websites at www.lynbarrett.com and www.dissociativewriters.com.

87 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

A NEW YEAR, A New Intentional You

By Shelly Wilson

T

he chapter titled 2021 has been written, and it's now time to begin creating 2022. As energetic beings having a human life experience, our thoughts have the creative power to determine events and attract experiences. Wayne Dyer reminds us that "our intention creates our reality." Are you ready to fully embody this concept and create consciously in the new year?

As we say our final farewells and close the proverbial door, we may choose to spend time in reflection and take a stroll through the experiences of 2021. Instead of attempting to recall all of the details, simply allow unfiltered thoughts, emotions, and memories to come into your conscious awareness while honoring each one and the feelings that may arise.

With the arrival of each new year, some individuals feel obliged to declare a resolution, which Google defines as a firm decision to do or not do something. Since we continuously grow and evolve, establishing resolutions feels rigid and restrictive.

Rather than stating resolutions for this new year, we can choose to set intentions and work with intentional affirmative statements. As we journey into 2022, allow yourself the opportunity to get clear as you embrace the newness and the potential infinite possibilities in order to truly create a new beginning or at least a new outlook.

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To create consciously and intentionally, we must first be mindful of the energy we are emitting into the Universe with our thoughts, words, and actions since this energetic emission can be reflected back to us with the Law of Attraction. Recognizing everything is energy and has its own frequency and vibration, what we focus on can become our reality. The radio signals we are broadcasting include our self-talk and the other extraneous thoughts running through our minds.

Our power of choice entails invoking the energy of words through clear, honest communication. In turn, we can use this same power to create consciously, and it begins with setting intentions. In his book, The Power of the Heart, Author Baptist de Pape states, "The intention underlying your actions and thoughts is energy. Any energy you expend always comes back to you, either directly or indirectly. So you want to act with that in mind. You want to act mindfully, from the heart, with love and Right Intention."

Any energy you expend always comes back to you, either directly or indirectly.

So you want to act with that in mind. You want to act mindfully, from the heart, with love and Right Intention."

Setting intentions involves working with our intuition and requires an awareness of our inner desires. The process includes connecting fully with our being — body, mind, and spirit — in order to align with the desired aspect of life or feeling.

As part of this practice, we are choosing to create an intentional statement or word of declaration.

In addition, the action of setting intentions also requires addressing our resistances and may even involve shadow work.

Invoking the energy within you, allow all of your desires, dreams, aspirations, and intentions to fill your conscious mind. Bask in the emotions you are feeling at this moment. Focus on how you want to feel and let the Universe work its magic on your behalf. Jack Kornfield encourages us to "be mindful of intention. The intention is the seed that creates our future." Gary Zukav shares that "every intention sets energy into motion, whether you are conscious of it or not."

RATHER THAN STATING RESOLUTIONS FOR THIS NEW YEAR, WE CAN CHOOSE TO SET INTENTIONS AND WORK WITH INTENTIONAL AFFIRMATIVE STATEMENTS The words I am are expressions of the highest aspect of ourselves. Every time the words I am are thought or spoken, we knowingly or unknowingly direct the Universe to manifest what we are saying, thinking, or feeling. Some power words you may choose to embody include: joy, love, peace, unity, creation, connection, magic, happiness, whole, healthy, and so on. In addition, you can formulate a power statement or intention by combining a series of words.

A few possible examples may include: embrace the magic, attain the peace within, just breathe, embody love, create consciously, be happy, and so forth. The options are endless.

Much like setting an intention, affirmations are positive statements intended to create new thought patterns and are meant to work in unison with the Law of Attraction. The affirmation itself is comprised of words that you choose to affirm and embody. Affirmations can be short, simple, and to the point, or they can be longer and more detailed.

The choice is yours. To be effective, shifting your perception and truly believing what you are stating is essential. Alan Cohen indicates, "When your

intention is clear, so is the way." Some potential affirmations you may be guided to work with include the following: • I am healthy, happy, and whole, just as I am.

• I am in the flow of abundance, and abundance flows to me with ease.

• The power is within me. I have the ability to create.

• I am confident, courageous, and empowered.

I am creating my reality consciously.

• I recognize that I am a creator, and I am creating my reality. I am surrendering to the Universe anything and anyone that no longer serves me in a healthy, positive and balanced way. I am releasing this now fully and completely. I choose to create my life and all of its experiences consciously.

• I recognize that I am not the same person I was yesterday, nor will I be the same person tomorrow as I am today. My being is continually healing and growing. I recognize my power as I tap into my inner knowingness. I trust in the process as it unfolds.

• I recognize that people may be in my life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. I acknowledge and appreciate that when a relationship may end, it is making room for a new relationship to begin.

As we embark on this new chapter titled 2022, I am setting this intention for you: May your journey into 2022 with intention and choose to fully embrace your aliveness with every choice you make, what words, statements or affirmation do you wish to embody for this new year?

Shelly Wilson is an author, intuitive medium and conscious creator who is passionate about helping people wake up to their greatness. She supports others as they navigate their own journey into consciousness to experience aliveness. Shelly’s books, 28 Days to a New YOU, Connect to the YOU Within, Journey into Consciousness and Embracing the Magic Within are available in paperback and eBook.

She is also the creator of Cards of Empowerment and Clarity Cards. ShellyRWilson.com EmbracingTheMagicWithin.com

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Nature Calling Us

By Dudley Evenson

F Dudley Evenson is an entrepreneur, author, life coach, and musician.

In 1979, Dudley and her husband, Dean Evenson, founded the awardwinning New Age record label, Soundings of the Planet. Together, they have produced over 80 albums and videos. A certified professional life coach, Dudley is co-author of Quieting the Monkey Mind, empowering readers to find inner peace in our often-chaotic world. Her recent book, A Year of Guided Meditations, takes the reader through 52 weeks of high-powered affirmations.

For more information, visit https://soundings.com

rom an early age, nature called to us. When I was young, there were woods behind our house in Virginia, and my sister and I spent a lot of time walking the trails and imagining they had been created by Native Americans who lived there long before we came. When my husband Dean Evenson was growing up in Staten Island, New York, he camped a lot with his family and even worked his way through college gardening and tending roses. The minister of his church got him interested in bird watching, which he continues to do to this day. Of course, now he often watches with his video camera or records the sounds of nature to use in our recordings.

Dean and I grew up in the suburbs, and typically a lawn, backyard, and a few trees are about the extent of 'nature' that most people get to experience. We both watched the forest and fields behind our respective homes eventually be paved over and more houses and roads built.

In 1968, we each moved to New York City and eventually met. We discovered we shared a common vision of using our media and music to make a difference in the world. We got caught up in all the culture and excitement such a great city offers, but something was missing for us. We rode our bikes and often would get caught behind a bus and were overwhelmed by the exhaust. In fact, living in a city became quite overwhelming, and we yearned to be fully immersed in nature.

When Dean and I found a little house to rent on 360 acres in upstate New York, our opportunity came. We were in heaven. It was a true tiny house created out of an old chicken coop, but it was home to us, and we loved it. We roamed the hills along with the deer and swam in the creeks with tadpoles. Once while

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sleeping under a tree, we awoke to find ourselves surrounded by a flock of wild turkeys. It was on that land we planted our first big garden, and what a harvest we had.

Dean and I had become involved in the early portable video movement and were led to document the emerging consciousness that was happening at the time. The first Earth Day had only just happened, and ecology was a fairly new concept. In 1972 we learned about the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden, and we made arrangements to attend with our video camera. It was there our eyes were truly opened to the importance of the natural world. Stewart Brand, the founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, had sent over 15 Native Americans to share their message about Mother Earth.

We were there listening, and we heard their message loud and clear.

There was a large camp set up outside of Stockholm for the international youth to stay with the goal of keeping them away from the diplomats who were in the main conference. At this gathering, we met Hopi elders Grandfather David Monongye and Thomas Banyacya.

They spoke of the Hopi prophecy, which seemed to indicate our society is at a fork in the road, and we can either choose to continue on our path of destruction or return to a path in harmony with the natural world. We sat around a campfire with Shoshone medicine man Rolling Thunder as he shared stories of his people who had lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years.

When we returned to New York to edit those videos along with others we had made in Sweden; we pondered how we could use our media to carry their message far and wide. The following year,

Dean was called out to South Dakota to videotape the occupation at Wounded Knee led by the American Indian Movement (AIM) to protest horrible living conditions and other issues. He stayed on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations for a month and gleaned more inspiration from the Lakota Sioux. In fact, a medicine man named John Fire Lame Deer had a vision at a Yuwipi Ceremony that said a person on the video team needed to start an organization that would carry the 'message of the pipe around the world.' He specifically singled out Dean and told him to get started. He didn't have much time.

When Dean returned home, we tried to start a group we called Friends of the Sacred Hoop to manifest the message, but it was years before that vision was more fully understood.

In 1977, we were living in Colorado and needed to go back to South Dakota to get permission to use video Dean had made with Henry Crow Dog, father of Leonard Crow Dog, who had been a leader at Wounded Knee. While driving through Kyle, we saw a poster inviting

people to Chief Frank Fools Crow's 88th birthday pow wow. We camped overnight there and the next morning heard that the singer-songwriter John Denver was over by the campfire. It turned out that Dean was invited to play flute with John when he performed for the chief. In watching that video many years later, we noticed a native boy looking up at Dean's flute with rapt attention. It turned out that that same boy said to Dean earlier in the day that his flute was his pipe. Dean kept saying, no, that's my flute. But the boy insisted it was his pipe!

In reflecting on these events, it became clear to us that the idea of carrying the message of the pipe around the world was being accomplished through the music we had been creating and sharing on our recordings. From the beginning of founding Soundings of the Planet, our motto has been Peace Through Music. The message of the pipe is one of peace. We have come to understand the call to action of carrying the message of peace through the pipe also applies to the flute.

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FIND A PLACE IN NATURE TO MEDITATE ON HOW YOU MAY CONTRIBUTE TO THE HEALING OF OUR PRECIOUS PLANET. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF PUBLIC PARKS, TRAILS, RIVERS, BEACHES, FORESTS, AND MOUNTAIN PATHS. ENJOY THE BEAUTY OF NATURE WHEREVER YOU FIND IT When we first made our first album in 1979, we wanted to use natural sounds and our music because we felt that they could touch people who lived in cities and make decisions about the planet's fate. Dean spent the night in the Sonora desert and recorded the birds at dawn. He brought those field recordings back to our makeshift studio, where we played our peaceful flute and harp music along with them.

The resulting album, Desert Dawn Song, really captured the peace of nature that we were hoping it would. The feedback we received even went beyond our original intention. People said they had never heard anything like it, and they needed it to help them relax or as background for meditation, yoga, or healing work. That album became a model for many other albums to follow.

Our early connection with the Native American wisdom has inspired much of our work. Everything we have done over the past half-century tends to lead back to that original intention of sharing the peace of nature with a world in great need of healing. If enough people can experience the blessing and beauty of the earth and fall in love with the natural world as we have done, there is a chance they will make choices in their daily lives that respect the needs of the planet and in the long run, benefit the humans who live here.

My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece. ~Claude Monet

We had an opportunity a few years ago to visit the glorious flower and water gardens of the impressionist painter Claude Monet. We have been longtime fans of his art, and we're excited to have the opportunity to travel to France and see his paintings in Paris. Yet, once we left the city and traveled north to Giverny, the small village where he had lived, we really came to understand why Monet loved nature so much. We also saw how he was able to add the human touch to what nature provides in such abundance. We stayed in a renovated inn near the gardens and walked there every day

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with our cameras. Dean even took his cedar flute and played it on the Japanese footbridge draped in wisteria overlooking the water lily pond. And of course, he made field recordings of the birds there, which became part of the soundtrack for our album, which we called Monet's Garden. We were also surprised to find many of the plants growing in Monet's gardens in ours. We have 15 different kinds of rhododendrons that all burst forth in color at different times. Fragrant azaleas, weeping willows, lilies, irises, and perennials of all colors and sizes.

Dean and I are blessed to live in the Pacific Northwest, next to a wild river and surrounded by forests and gardens. The woman we bought our place from planted all this before we came. Our job is to keep it beautiful. I guess that sort of goes along with how we feel about our life on planet earth.

It was here before we came. It is beautiful. It provides everything we need. Our job is to take care of it. Humans have the ability and responsibility to work in harmony with nature, not just to dominate it.

I have often felt humans didn't get kicked out of the garden.

We just forgot how to take care of it.

And worse, we humans despoil the planet with our overconsumption and our wasteful habits. We need to take small, everyday actions to lessen our ecological footprint, and we need to work with others and use our gifts, skills, and talents to transform our massive systems that depend on consumption to keep going.

But I digress. Suppose you can - spend time in a garden. If you don't have your own land, community gardens are in most cities and towns. Find a place in nature to meditate on how you may contribute to the healing of our precious planet. Take advantage of public parks, trails, rivers, beaches, forests, and mountain paths. Enjoy the beauty of nature wherever you find it. And if you see an area that needs help, please try to make it better.

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MASKTINI NATURALLY AWESOME LIKE YOU

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Give Sensitive, Winter Skin some TLC with Naturally Derived Masks Fall is officially here! The transition between seasons can be especially tough on our skin, with the new chapter often exposing us to dry central heating and cold winds resulting in dry and irritated skin. Nourish sensitive skin with Masktini's collection of skincare which balances advanced scientific formulations with nature's most nurturing,non-irritating ingredients—from detoxifying activated charcoal and Tahitian black pearl to soothing watermelon and marine extracts to brightening pomegranate stem cells.

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METAL HEAD GOLD BRIGHTENING MASK

This creamy metallic mask contains natural mineral micro-pigments that leave behind a subtle golden glow after it's washed off.

Cruelty-free and naturally derived Masktini's collection of masks is proven to help purify pores, soothe redness, brighten tone, fade imperfections, blur fine lines, restore elasticity, and reveal total radiance.

The collection includes the Brightening Vitamin C mask Metal Head, The Night Ranger Retinol Overnight Mask, and Twilight Zone foaming detox mask.

Lime pearl acids to restore smooth, even texture Papaya enzymes to calm redness and inflammation Hyaluronic acid to lock in plumping hydration Retinol to help boost healthy cellular turnover

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Stabilized Vitamin C to stimulate collagen production Pomegranate stem cell extract to brighten skin tone Sunflower oil to soothe redness and heal roughness Natural mineral pigments to leave a sexy golden glow

The brand is available nationally on amazon.

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Bamboo charcoal powder to draw out impurities Tahitian black pearl powder to gently resurface skin Botanical hydrating blend to restore moisture balance Activated warming complex to boost detoxifying powers 95 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

6 Tips on Creating

an Eco-Friendly Nursery

Phot by By WAYHOME STUDIO

By Stephanie Moram

D

esigning your eco-friendly baby nursery does not have to be overwhelming. It can be simple, enjoyable, and can even save you money. An eco-friendly nursery can be a gentle addition to the family and have a gentle effect on the planet. Creating a safe space for your new baby while protecting the earth we all call home is far easier than you may expect.

Some items such as furniture might be harder on your wallet. But remember, you do not have to purchase everything that is marketed towards you as a new parent. You can choose what makes sense for you and your family and what suits your needs best.

While shopping for your new baby, keep these tips in mind for creating a safe yet sustainable nursery. They are not only gentle on the planet but gentle on your wallet as well.

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Buy items that are meant to last.

When purchasing certain items, try to choose models that will grow with your baby over time. Such as a crib that will become a single bed for later. Perhaps, opt for fewer "children-focused" pieces so that they will last longer as your baby grows, which will ultimately extend the life of the item.

Buy items that are made with quality materials. Skip the pressed wood and look for real wood or recycled materials that will last. You might spend more money at the time, but think about how you can use it later or even resell it if your needs change. The chemical process of, and potential emissions from, pressed or fake woods can also damage the environment.

Be creative and resist the urge to overshop Does your new baby really need a wipe warmer? Will you even be using the crib or changing the table? Or is it more likely that you will use what you already have at home and forgo certain items altogether? Look around your home to see what items you can repurpose for the nursery before purchasing new. Take an old dresser and turn it into a changing table. Use old plastic containers or boxes and baskets as organizers for the room. Use that old bookcase and give it a fresh coat of zero VOC paint, and now you have a new item made with care and intention for your new addition. There is no need to buy something new if you already have an item at home that will serve the intended purpose.

As a new mom, the 100$ non-toxic and eco-friendly changing pad might be out of your budget. But what can you pass on to make that purchase work for you? Maybe you opted out of buying the sustainable and non-toxic changing table and only have the changing pad. Now you can change your new baby anywhere. Upstairs. Downstairs. While traveling. You can bring it everywhere. By being creative with your purchases, you can be more green and save some green at the same time.

DIY your own decorations for the room, or forgo fancy decorating and keep things simple. Who said you have to buy everything?!

Choose your paint wisely.

If you are thinking of adding some color and personality to the room, look carefully at your paint options. Household paint can contribute to poor indoor air quality and may contain harmful chemicals. After you paint a room, that strong smell is the off-gassing of VOCs from the paint. Look for natural water-based and low to zero VOC paint. There are some wonderful brands on Etsy. Green Planet Paints is also an option.

Shop local and thrift shop Purchasing brand new items is fun and exciting, but thrifting and shopping your friends' closets for some of your baby items can be just as fun. Support local stores that offer recycled or vintage items. Many of these items are cost-effective, and you are doing your part in keeping these items out of a landfill by giving them a new home. There are so many things you can find second-hand—decorations, organizational bins, baby bathtubs, books, bottles, etc.

Head to your favorite thrift store before you purchase that new furniture or baby gear. Perhaps upcycle a funky old dresser or a comfortable chair with a coat of non-toxic paint or new organic upholstery.

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Just remember to be vigilant with your second-hand purchases to ensure they meet safety standards and are not recalled. Making these second-hand purchases means you are making fewer new purchases, which is great for your wallet and the environment. Your baby doesn't need NEW; Your baby needs YOU! Organic mattress and bedding It is no surprise that babies spend most of their time sleeping. Whether they are sleeping in a crib, bassinet, or a safe co-sleeping arrangement, consider the materials where your little one will be putting their tiny head for most of the day. Many mattresses and bedding may contain harmful chemicals like PVC, formaldehyde, flame retardants, VOCs, and heavy metals. Not only are these chemicals harmful to people in general, but they can heavily impact the workers and the environment with exposure to these harmful toxins causing health issues and polluting our air, soil, and water.

water, 1 Tbsp unscented castile soap, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, 5 drops lavender essential oil (optional), and 1 tsp vitamin E. Add to a spray bottle and spray on your baby's bum and wipe with a cloth. You may need to wet the cloth before. Again, this is something you can do all the time, part of the time, or sometimes as it is convenient, just like cloth diapering.

The beauty of living green and creating your eco-friendly nursery is that you get to decide how far to go with it.

You decide what works best for you and your little one.

You decide how much and how little you want to make it eco-friendly. Switching to a green lifestyle doesn't happen overnight. Take a few green "baby steps" and slowly transform your nursery into a green space perfect for your new baby.

Purchasing an organic mattress and organic bedding is a valuable step in the right direction. These items might be more costly. But think about reselling these items when you are done.

Some great certifications to look for while purchasing your mattress and bedding are Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), Global Organic Latex Standard (GOLS), U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Forest Stewardship Council / Rainforest Alliance, and Organic Content Standard (OSC100).

Cloth diapering and DIY baby wipes I know. I know. Cloth diapering can seem intimidating.

But remember, it is not all or nothing when it comes to cloth diapering. It is whatever you decide it to be.

Perhaps, you only cloth diapers part-time when you are at home, and when you leave home, it is all about the disposable diaper because you simply don't want to deal with it. Maybe you want to be all in. This is customizable, which works for your approach. If the upfront investment is scary, you can look for second-hand options. There are many mom's groups on the internet that are a great place to start.

When it comes to disposable diapers, look for chlorine, fragrance, chemical, tributyltin (TBT), phthalates, latex, and paraben-free. Eco by Naty Baby Diapers is a great option.

Disposable baby wipes can be more convenient, but what if I told you that making your own can be super simple?

First, you will need to buy some organic cotton cloths at any cloth diaper retailer. Next, mix a solution of 1 cup

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Stephanie Moram is a Green Living Mentor and the CEO and Founder of Good Girl Gone Green, where she teaches busy women how to live greener and more sustainable lives without feeling overwhelmed.

Wanting to reduce the number of unnecessary and potentially harmful products she was bringing into her family's home, Stephanie began DIYing her own cleaning and personal care products.

Now with over ten years of experience, she has helped over 20,000 women live more sustainably and live with less, shop ethically, and reduce the overall amount of toxins they are exposed to.

With a combined social following of over 45,000, Stephanie has spoken at events like The Most Powerful Women in Network Marketing, Slay Online Sales Summit, Expo Yoga & Wellness Summit, and Be True Brand You. For her expertise, she has been featured on CBS Rhode Island, ABC Talk of Alabama, CTV Calgary, Edmonton 630 CHED, Huffington Post Canada, Vegetarian Times, Wall Street Journal, Green Child Magazine, Direct Sales Diva Magazine, and BlogHer. You can follow Stephanie on Instagram @goodgirlgonegreen_

Digital Health Solutions

Dramatically Improve Access to Quality Behavioral

Healthcare Services

By Michael Gorton, MS, JD

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I

n America, the state of mental health is alarming: in 2019, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 19.86% of adults experienced a mental illness, equivalent to nearly 50 million Americans.

While quarantines imposed by the pandemic have had a lasting effect on people with diagnosed mental health conditions – including increased feelings of isolation and loneliness -- they also bring about a new wave of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse disorders for people having no prior history of mental illness. Rates of substance use are increasing for youth and adults, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 7.74% of U.S. adults and 4.08% of youth having a substance use disorder in the past year. Suicidal ideation continues to increase among adults in the U.S., with 4.58% of adults reporting having serious thoughts of suicide.

What is more disturbing is over half of adults with a mental illness do not receive treatment, totaling over 27 million adults in the U.S. who are going untreated. The percentage of adults with a mental illness who report an unmet need for treatment has increased every year since 2011. In 2019, 24.7% of adults with a mental illness reported an unmet need for treatment.

What is most promising is the emergence and adoption of digital health solutions. During the pandemic, digital

The ethical adoption of behavioral telehealth is helping patients, caregivers, and families to meet the challenges of accessing care: most mental illnesses are treatable and behavioral telehealth makes it possible to manage these growing mental health concerns with more timely, efficacious services.

Recognizing the Key Benefits of Behavioral Telehealth COVID exposed major care gaps in mental healthcare services as it became evident that there was an inadequate number of behavioral health practitioners amid the increased demand for services -- leaving millions to fend for themselves.

health was a lifeline for those suffering from mental/behavioral health issues and those dealing with pandemic stress.

Many patients were able to open their laptops or mobile devices to speak with a mental health professional and get the care they needed. In many cases, virtual consults have also been shown to be as effective as in-person visits and actually preferred by certain age groups.

As patients struggled to get mental health care in the middle of the pandemic, behavioral telehealth was “the only game in town.” Behavioral telehealth is not an intervention itself but rather a mode of delivering services, increasing access to screening, assessment, treatment, recovery supports, crisis support, and medication management across diverse behavioral health and primary care settings.

As behavioral telehealth often became the first form of engagement with patients during the pandemic, a variety of providers and practitioners -- psychiatrists, primary care providers, mental health counselors, social workers, psychologists, addiction counselors, case managers, opioid treatment providers, peer workers – implemented telehealth programs.

Telehealth served as a pathway to personalized care. When incorporated in a hybrid approach, it enabled clients to receive both in-person and telehealth visits throughout their treatment process, depending on their needs and preferences.

In the U.S., approximately 111 million people live in areas reported to have a “mental health professional shortage.”

About half of the counties in the U.S. don’t provide access to even one psychiatrist.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services research predicts that there will be an increasing shortage of mental health care providers over the coming years and that shortages will become severe in multiple areas of services by 2025. Maximize Professional Availability: While telehealth services cannot be expected to resolve all treatment issues 101 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JANUARY 2022

THE ETHICAL ADOPTION OF BEHAVIORAL TELEHEALTH IS HELPING PATIENTS, CAREGIVERS, AND FAMILIES TO MEET THE CHALLENGES OF ACCESSING CARE: MOST MENTAL ILLNESSES ARE TREATABLE AND BEHAVIORAL TELEHEALTH MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO MANAGE THESE GROWING MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS WITH MORE TIMELY, EFFICACIOUS SERVICES for all patients who need help with mental illness issues, increased use and adoption are testimony to its value. With the ability to provide care by telehealth appointment, healthcare professionals can more effectively maximize availability.

Reduces Wait Times: In some states, patients are waiting months to see a behavioral health professional in person: • At one prominent healthcare system in California, months-long delays are typical for non-emergency patients seeking mental health care.

• One study found the average wait time to see a psychiatrist for an initial evaluation was 25 days -- more than three weeks. That same study found that some patients wait more than 90 days.

• In Phoenix, Arizona, therapists are booking six to eight weeks out, and some of these issues cannot wait.

Even worse, only 42% of adults and 51% of children with mental health problems receive treatment, and the average delay between symptom onset and treatment is 11 years.

All that waiting adds up to one more cause of stress, raising anxiety levels and exacerbating depressive tendencies. Those wait times have a very real impact, and according to a leading authority, you lose 1% of the patients every day of wait times. When there is a 21-day wait, 21% of the patients seeking care just will give up and not show up.

Scalability: Telehealth scales and improves access to care, offering the convenience and flexibility of scheduling appointment times and removing the challenges of commuting times to appointments. This ease of

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access is especially important for those living in rural and medically underserved areas, which may lack transportation and are often forced to travel long distances to connect with mental health providers.

Reduce Stigma: Behavioral Telehealth helps to reduce the stigma surrounding the receipt of mental health treatment: Stigma refers to “the fear of shame associated with acknowledging mental illness and seeking out the help of a professional.” A majority of employers have found a stigma around discussing mental health in their companies and have made it a priority to reduce the stigma.

In the meantime, some 47 percent of people still believe that therapy is a form of weakness and shy away from getting the proper treatment. With more and more access and conversations around the need for better mental health treatment, telehealth can be an integral tool to abate stigma by providing privacy and anonymity.

These services allow people to participate in therapy from the comfort of their home vs. visiting a therapist in person, where they may find eye contact with someone they know from the community who is also in the waiting room. Online appointments provide comfort and privacy that is often not possible during face-to-face meetings.

Receiving mental health care inside the comforting surroundings of their own home can also help many patients feel more secure and less apprehensive, and self-protective. It can allow them to feel freer to connect at a deeper level of trust and be more open to productive teamwork with their mental health care providers.

Telehealth services are ideally positioned to treat the whole patient, one of the vital lessons learned during the pandemic.

Primary care and specialty physicians utilized telehealth to provide diversified clinical care services for patients with chronic diseases, and behavioral telehealth providers offered timely treatment of concomitant mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, and stress. This coordinated approach to care can decrease the risk, prevalence, and progression of other disorders, as people with mental illnesses tend to have higher mortality rates than people without them, which can be linked to co-occurring physical challenges, like heart disease, diabetes, and HIV.

With growing recognition that it is no longer effective to simply treat one condition without treating the other, integrated digital health solutions that enable a balance and integration of telehealth, and in-person visits become even more valuable.

Beyond the Pandemic: Starting the Wellness Journey The time is now for a new patient experience that is digitally connected, consumer-centric, and focused on wellness. One recent survey showed 83% of respondents would use telemedicine through telehealth providers beyond the pandemic.

The search for the best behavioral telehealth treatment and wellness begins with a holistic behavioral telehealth solution that provides access to a wide variety of confidential mental health treatments, including psychiatric care, psychosocial interventions, talk therapy, and more. After reviewing patient needs, the optimal solution connects individuals to the best treatment and considers preferences such as physician gender and treatment type. This approach also facilitates seamless interaction between a patient’s primary care and behavioral health physicians to create effective and comprehensive treatment plans.

For example, patients can message primary care or behavioral health physician wherever they are, whenever they need it. They can simply answer a few questions and be connected through an audio or video visit with a doctor who can work to get to the bottom of the issue.

The best solution offers a care team that provides personalized treatment plans based on the unique needs of every patient, which enables ongoing interaction between the patient and physician, with follow-up questions free of charge.

In addition, whole-person care is provided, leveraging an integrated care team of top primary care and behavioral health physicians who can offer an array of health screenings and assessments to proactively determine potential risk factors to manage specific issues and conditions.

The Right Digital Health Solution The huge variety of solutions has created a new problem: which solution can be trusted to be clinically validated, ethical, and efficacious. It is important to look for digital solutions that have been properly evaluated and found to be effective components of health care programs.

In a post-pandemic world, digital healthcare won’t replace in-person visits but will work together with traditional care delivery and provide patients with an integrated care continuum. These new technologies have the major potential to truly be a lifeline for patients by providing faster diagnoses, better clinical outcomes, resolving stigma issues, and promoting health equity.

Michael Gorton, MS, J.D., CEO, and founder of Recuro Health.

Founding CEO and Chairman of Teladoc.

A quintessential entrepreneur, mentor, strategic visionary, and company builder, Michael leads the Recuro Health team, which includes several leaders from Teladoc, where he served as the founding CEO and Chairman for the first seven years of operations. Under his term, the company grew from a concept to one of the most recognized innovations in healthcare, with nearly two million patient members nationwide.

To learn more, visit www.recurohealth.com.

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ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE Will Only Get More Expensive

By Michael Allen A new estimate puts the cost of adapting and repairing coastal infrastructure damaged by climate change in the United States at hundreds of billions annually.

The sooner adaptation planning begins, the less expensive it will be.

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A

s the climate warms, the price of adapting homes and infrastructure to cope with increasing temperatures, heavier rainfalls, stronger storms, and rising seas will be staggering. Without a concerted effort to build better, new research led by Paul Chinowsky, an environmental engineer at the University of Colorado Boulder, shows that the cost of repairing and maintaining infrastructure in the United States could run to hundreds of billions of dollars annually by the year 2090. But if society acts early, this price tag could be cut by up to 30-fold.

Using a range of climate models and emissions scenarios, Chinowsky and his colleagues projected the likely effects of climate change across the United States, analyzing the damage to railways, roads, and coastal properties. They projected the price tag under three scenarios: no adaptation, reactive adaptation, and proactive adaptation.

In their design, no adaptation is a “business as usual” approach to infrastructure management that does not consider the risks posed by climate change. The reactive scenario takes no action to reduce future impacts of climate change, but implements retrofits or reinforcements to repair damage that has already occurred. Being proactive sets out to prevent damage from future climate risks.

For a coastal property such as a beach house, examples of these three approaches might be: leaving the house unprotected and then abandoning it once it is overwhelmed by the rising sea; doing nothing to protect the property but then putting the house on stilts after a flood; and preemptively raising the house or building a sea wall to ward off flooding.

For coastal properties, Chinowsky and his colleagues’ research shows that the financial benefits of early action vary significantly across the United States. In the South Atlantic region from Delaware to Florida, the cost of no adaptation could be almost US $600-billion per year by 2090. Implementing proactive measures could cut the financial burden to less than 10 percent of that.

The issue in the South Atlantic region, says Chinowsky, is that the coast slopes gently inland with little change in elevation for kilometers. This means storms can surge inland, damaging infrastructure far from the coast and causing cleanup costs to rapidly spiral out of control.

The threat posed by sea level rise and stronger storms to vital infrastructure varies throughout the country.

In California, for instance, high cliffs protect many

properties. “You have to worry about erosion, but you are not worrying about an unimpeded storm hitting and coming right in,” Chinowsky says.

Indeed, the economic impact is expected to be lowest in the Pacific region, with the cost to infrastructure hitting around $45-billion per year by 2090 with no adaption.

Acting proactively would reduce this by around twothirds.

Chinowsky says that to keep costs down, we have to start being proactive now. Infrastructure takes time to plan, design, fund, and build. “When we are talking about coastal regions, we don’t have the luxury to sit and wait,” he says.

He adds that managers already have viable, proactive solutions that can be implemented, such as raising infrastructure or relocating at-risk communities, but also restoring natural flood barriers like salt marshes, mangroves, and sand dunes. “It is not so much that we need to figure out a solution,” he says. “It’s that we have to make a decision to put a solution in place.”

A. R. Siders, an expert in climate adaptation at the University of Delaware who was not involved in the study, says the US levee system shows what happens if you don’t pay the upfront costs. “We don’t maintain our levee system, and we don’t do it because it is expensive.

But then the levees break, and there is a major flood and a major disaster, and then we are looking at costs that are astronomically higher than the costs it would take to maintain the levees.”

Siders says that the costs outlined by Chinowsky seem reasonable. She explains that Key West, Florida, recently estimated that it would cost $1.8-billion to elevate 250 kilometers of roads—enough to protect them for the next few decades. If you scale that nationwide, she says, “suddenly tens of billions of dollars doesn’t sound at all unrealistic. Or even hundreds of billions if we don’t get climate change under control.”

Michael Allen is a freelance science journalist and editor based in Somerset in England. Although he has a zoology degree, over the last few years he has found himself tackling stories covering a breadth of subjects, such as sonic tractor beams, composting toilets, snakebites, and suspected Russian spies. He regularly contributes to specialist publications based in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

This story originally appeared in "HAKAI MAGAZINE” It is republished here as part of The Eden Magazine partnership with Covering Climate Now, a global journalistic collaboration to strengthen coverage of the climate story.

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JANUARY 2022DECEMBER 2021

K TA EN FOR

GRANTED By michael

How blessed are we humans, surrounded by nature plus thousands of living creatures? Have you ever taken the time to actually notice? You may know them, for they are often referred to as non-sentient beings by many uneducated officials of this world.

Did you know this may be hard to grasp? In 2021, there will be 1,429 Million insects for every single man, woman, and child on this planet, and that is only scratching the surface. So be nice, folks; we wouldn't want them to wake up before we do, would we.

When one stops, one takes a moment to look at what surrounds the self, plants, flowers, water, dirt, other people, and behold; these green things are called trees. Their numbers are way beyond counting; they spend their whole existence stuck in the ground, swaying to and froing in the wind, refeeding themselves back into the earth to keep you, me, all of us future humans alive. This would have to be one of the greatest sacrifices, a definition of humility in action, this world has ever seen. Have you ever taken a timeout to ponder and consider their actions' enormity to benefit us?

So what is the message of being alive? It's you, who you used to be like your father/mother, as past generation memories alive and living here today 2022. And tomorrow are you, your son or daughter, physically moving down the timeline, no mind.

Every now and then, you may notice your actions, see yourself, and physically feel as if you are identifying as a sibling or parent. Just a coincidence, probably not; it's recognition awareness, a déjà vu, yet never knowing from where or why these odd connections occur. It is said that energy never dies; it just reinvents, manifests itself as it moves with a new identity, transmuting from one cycle into the next. In this world exist natural-earth-laws; do you imagine they are different for humans?

Don'tDon't be afraid, grasshopper; Love is a banana when no other food exists.

Language, taken for granted over eons of generations, has finally grown up and transformed itself.

FYI MSG me TTYL ASAP on FB LOL IMO, not to mention the connection of being hugged by a spider monkey is BTS G2G. Today it makes communicating so much easier when U can bypass the words for acronyms; now U R cool as YOLO, supposedly. Or you could just smile, having no idea what is being said, as U slowly move away, ROFL.

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Travel is one thing we have taken for granted; now, finally, it is once again possible as mankind slowly moves forward into this unknown existence of living? Did you really miss it, or were you just claiming bragging rights, just to talk about something completely different. Fear has certainly played a role in the assumption of never physically seeing far away sights and destinations. Not to mention that missing out has just placed travel at the top of everyone's bucket list. It'sIt's our newfound purpose of pondering, delivered to rekindle one's reason why the forty-hour week is so valid in maintaining one's focus. Remember to work towards each day, so you can conquer your many goals in the coming decades!

Heavy Waterfalls walk on raindrops memories past and lost reflect today's direction Who will awake first? There appears to be no awareness about this very serious question. And why not?

The many reasons are obvious. Everything on this planet other than mankind is a rock, a tree, a bird, a nonentity, all completely unseen, taken for granted. Why is it that their evolving consciousness has to this day remained virtually unnoticed? Are these living creatures just what we mistakenly think they are, or have they been hiding their true identity, capabilities by pretending to be dormant within our human intellect and vision!

A great example will have crossed the minds of those who spend time near the ocean. Here is where glorious wind shows off her true colors, her powerful forces; she is nature's roar, completely unmatched by any human intervention. Her sound is like music from the heavens, her punchless desirable. And so it is with all creatures great and small. Think seriously for one moment; consider what we have allowed a few small-minded humans to destroy! If and when nature's creatures awake, will you want to be here?

There is no doubting; when we have disappeared or moved on, they will still be here, thriving.

Examples exist everywhere; take the seven-day week.

We arrange our lives around these seven days 24/7, schedule everything, eating, sleeping, socializing within man-made time-cubes, all the while pretending we are at the helm. Then we push the repeat button on our pre-timed schedules and do it all over again for the next 50 years. Then we have intellects spending lifetimes explaining that time does not exist. Does it even matter? Will the yes/no result be a benefit for the greater good! What a useless pastime.

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It'sIt's none other than a wasted mindset masturbating itself to prove it is supposedly more intelligent than the rest of us mere mortals.

An intelligent human knows there is a difference between predigest, discrimination, and judgment. A blind person understands that all three are exactly the same.

There is an old saying, sang within the many cultures down through the ages, the words may not go exactly like these, but you'll get the message, you don't know what you have till it is GONE—something worth considering as we all journey willingly into the next decade.

Sunsets are Kool Are you up for a little experiment? Great, write down five items you know you take for granted, and then notice if they are more valuable than….. Does nothing compare to heartfelt relationships, especially the one we have with our partner, best friend, spouse?

Those special moments, that feeling of connection, their dismantling smile. We are all in; oneness is right here, standing in front of us, educating who we are if we have chosen correctly. At the end of the day, when all else has gone, power, money, wellness, nothing can compare to love, given, and received.

Has human critical thinking eaten the witch's red apple and fallen into a long lost sleep, waiting until the kiss of life reawakens the human mind. Taken for granted are the very things that give humans this life to enjoy; it's a relationship like no other. The Air we breathe, yes the body is adaptable, the water we drink, yes we are adaptable, Sunshine to replenish our human cells, we not so adaptable, so we cover-up.

This magical planet has freely offered up as a mother does, all that it has so that the human mind can create, has created, to benefit all mankind, then turned its back, forgotten who has provided the offering.

The past may be behind mankind, and yet it governs the directions we take as we move forward into our, not yours, not mine, our future, a reality that cannot be disputed.

Life is what's precious, not your job, not the next generation phone; it's the life you live with another life that is the fodder for one's soul. Now is a good time to make a note, take that for granted as a nation, as a race, and consequences will be yours, mine, all our future.

HIGH ROAD TO HUMANITY

Photo by LEKA

By Nancy Yearout

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Out with the New

In with the Old

T

imes changed when you were looking back and wishing you could turn back time to a period when manners were used, and respect for each other went without saying when a handshake sealed the deal.

Remember a time when we could go to a concert, a baseball game, or to the mall and see smiling faces. It is not just the recent pandemic that has changed society and the way we interact with each other; we have lost our sense of compassion for each other.

We need to get some of the old-school values back. Humanity has got to do a one-eighty and go back to the values of years gone by. We must remind ourselves of how our grandparents lived and what they stood for. How hard they worked to give the next generation a better life here on earth.

Over time we have lost our compassion and value for human life. Our lives are so precious, and it is such a blessing to be able to live out our dreams on this beautiful planet.

But many have forgotten this or not recognized the good and the positive that comes from kindness and Love.

As we begin this new year, let's begin with change. Change how we interact with each other. We have a choice; we can judge another or love them for who they are. We can be kind to each other or be cruel; it's your choice.

Truth be told, if more of us choose to be the example to live with integrity, values, and honesty, and compassion for our fellow man/woman, we can be the shining lights!

Be the example for your family or at your place of employment. You are the example by always having integrity, honesty, and non-judgment of others. I believe we have a chance if we stand up for what we know in our hearts and souls is right for humanity.

It's all-bout Love in 2022. This approach may sound corny, but Love and the energy of Love solve everything.

We are at a tipping point on our planet, and I believe if we all give a little of ourselves to make that extra effort to hold the old school values in place and to teach our children and grandchildren, to be honest, to have integrity, to love each other and be kind, we will ascend in no time.

Happy 2022

Nancy Yearout is the voice behind the popular podcast High Road to Humanity. www.HighRoadtoHumanity.com On YouTube and Bit chute, you will find her video presence on Nancy Yearout’s High Road to Humanity. This is the platform that she uses to interview experts from across the globe in various fields of expertise, health, religion, energy healing, yoga, dream experts, astrologers, mediums, psychics, and seekers of the truth.

She is the author of Wake Up! The Universe is Speaking to You. Nancy is a psychic empath and an energy healer offering assistance to all who seek the truth. You can book a session with Nancy on her website to ask her questions.

She will provide insight to enhance your journey in life and guide you in creating your dreams. www.NancyYearout.com.

Nancy is an Inspirational speaker and will book by appointment.

Nancy is also the owner and qualifying broker of a real estate company in New Mexico.

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