By Charles Eisenstein -- Depression, anxiety, and fatigue are an essential part of a process of metamorphosis that is unfolding on the planet today, and highly significant for the light they shed on the transition from an old world to a new. …
Professor Alexander argues this discovery is a profound challenge both to the right-wing view that addiction is a moral failing caused by too much hedonistic partying, and the liberal view that addiction is a disease taking place in a chemically hijacked brain. In fact, he argues, addiction is an adaptation. It's not you. It's your cage. ...
If we can't recognize the oppression of others I have to say we've not learned much from the oppressive forces of psychiatry. I keep letting these sorts of messages from those harmed by racism to penetrate my being that I might learn to eradicate oppression everywhere I see it. As long as abuse is happening anywhere in our human family we are all harmed. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
I remember the first time I encountered Ram Dass' book Be Here Now. I found it at a garage sale when I was in college. I had never heard of it and had no idea it was famous. It was truly an AHA moment for me. All these years later, remembering those three words as mantra continues to inspire. BE HERE NOW. It might be considered cliche in some circles but given I remember the first time I heard it and it was long before it became so colloquial, I still like it and it brings me to mindfulness. It's important for people to find their own way of coming to mindfulness.
In this second part of using the Somatic Wisdom Technique, I’ll ask you to return to that place of discomfort to find out how to transform that area of distress. Start with picking an area of the body that you found to be the most “charged” or in need of greater attention and care. Then begin by sitting comfortable in an upright posture. For some that may mean sitting in a meditative posture with legs crossed. For others that may mean simply sitting in a comfortable chair.
Newsweek did an article on the Hearing Voices Movement. I missed it a few days ago. It's a very positive report. This is big. How wonderful that such a mainstream magazine took this predominantly positive stance. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
By Will Meecham
Bessel van der Kolk’s 2014 book, The Body Keeps the Score, reminds me of how strongly both my physical and mental condition have been shaped by trauma. Spinal arthritis, abdominal pain, chronic muscle aches, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and many other problems combine to form an inner ledger of the abuse, bereavement, and neglect of my childhood and the uproar, frustration, and terror of my adult experience. Why should this be? Why should trauma have such profound effects on body and mind? It’s useful to remember what it means to live as a human organism. There are many ways to explore this, but let’s try an outside-in approach. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
We pass on our dysfunction to our children. We got our dysfunction from our parents. We're all in this together. We, now, can choose to break the chain as we become conscious and change our own behavior. We need not blame ourselves for how we find ourselves. We really need not blame anyone. We can, however, by recognizing it, start to change the pattern and free future generations. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
YES, thank you...don't believe the hype about how essential drugs are in severe cases. It's possible to make healthy choices and avoid neurotoxic and dangerous drugs most of the time. People need to be offered options as a very real possibility. As it stands now people are often misled to believe they need drugs when another method of care may actually be more appropriate for long-term positive outcomes. "Alternative" care needs to become mainstream so that people might become truly and deeply healthy. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
by Ron Unger
When people are seeing the world really different than we do, it’s often reassuring to think that there must be something wrong with them – because if they are completely wrong, or ill, then we don’t have to rethink our own sense of reality, we can instead be confident about that own understandings encompass all that we need to know. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
If there are whole parts of yourself that you are always running from, that you even feel justified in running from, then you’re going to run from anything that brings you into contact with your feelings of insecurity. And have you noticed how often these parts of ourselves get touched? The closer you get to a situation or a person, the more these feelings arise. Often when you’re in a relationship it starts off great, but when it gets intimate and begins to bring out your neurosis, you just want to get out of there. So I’m here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
