September 2006 Newsletter |
| From Alan |
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Howdy from Houston. My friend Maud Lipscomb is profiled in our Artist's Way column this month. Maud creates intricate multi-media collages interface-ing the sacred and the harsher realities of life. This month she is featured in a solo show "breathing spaces." See her show--- September 2 - 29, 2006 at The Jung Center
5200 Montrose Boulevard Houston Texas 77006
713 524-8253 http://www.cgjunghouston.org/
My friend Joel Nichols died this month in San Miguel de Allende. He stayed at our house for the month of July while seeking treatment options here in Houston. I was mighty impressed, and inspired by his courage, humor, and kindness through his last months on this earth.
That said, I had earmarked September as our issue for living longer and healthier. So here are a few options to consider. All the usual suspects are accounted for: eating well, exercise, relaxation, balance, drinking enough water...You know the drill. It's just good to remember the details for those times we "slip and fall" of the healthy bandwagon.
I'm off to Austin in a few days for Genpo Roshi's Big Mind meditation retreat. I am so there...
Have a fabulous Labor Day weekend and a great beginning to your Fall.
Love your way,
Alan Davidson |
| In this issue |
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| The Artist's Way--Maud Lipscomb |
The principal truth I am discovering in this journey is non-duality - my belief that all life is connected.
Maud Lipscomb
See
More images from Maud |
| Joel B. Nichols |
Joel B. Nichols transcended early Sunday Morning, August 13. All day Saturday he was surrounded by loving Mexican and American friends that supported him in letting go. The Cancer had taken over his pain center and he lay resting comfortably. Early Sunday morning, in his bed beside Rogers he had stopped breathing.
Read full eulogy... |
| Embodying Grief |
Embodying Grief: Using Our Bodies to Heal Our Grief
by Alan Davidson
 I had been looking forward to and bracing myself for seeing The Names Project Quilt, which was recently on display here in Houston. It was my fifth time to see a display of The Quilt, and the experience has always been a healing, as well as painful, process for me as I faced the many panels that have come to represent the agony of grief and the poetry of life for our community. The upstairs display at the convention center—the new additions to The Quilt that reflect the lives and deaths scarred by AIDS— have always been especially moving for me.
Having bartended in the gay community for 11 years, it didn’t take long for me to recognize the panels of friends, acquaintances, customers, and community leaders. It also didn’t take long for the familiar sensations of shallow breath, contractions in my chest, and the clenching of my belly that accompany my feelings of sadness, helplessness, anger, and grief. The journey downstairs to the main exhibit, I knew, would only intensify these sensations and feelings.
Read full article |
| Balance for Living Longer |
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Balance for Living Longer
By Karen Cheney
 Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. In fact, take ten deep breaths and concentrate on relaxing your whole body one muscle at a time. Congratulations, you’ve just extended your life.
You have dinner guests arriving at 7:00 p.m. and a report due to your boss before you can leave the office, and your recently widowed 88-year-old mother, who lives 1,500 miles away, is on the line for the third time today.
Worst of all, your daughter’s body has recently been invaded by a rebellious, resentful, and thoroughly unlikable teen spirit.
Everyday stress? Or can these blood pressure-elevating events cause lasting harm?
It depends—both on how long you're experiencing stress and, equally important, on how you perceive it, according to scientists who have studied the link between stress and aging. Short-term stress can actually be a good thing. "Stress is a positive experience if there is a feeling of control and satisfaction. You need challenges," says Bruce McEwen, Ph.D., head of the neuroendocrinology laboratory at Rockefeller University and author of The End of Stress as We Know It (The National Academies Press, 2002). In fact, stress drives evolutionary change because it improves our memory of important events and helps us adapt. "If something emotionally arousing occurs, you want to remember that," says James McGaugh, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience at the University of California, Irvine. Stress is nature's way of making sure you do.
Read Full Article |
| Going Flexitarian |
Going Flexitarian: Where to Begin?
By: Moriah Shemer
The explosion of healthy eating in recent years has gone hand in hand with the birth of "flexitarians." These are people who are part-time vegetarians in order to have a healthier diet, but who also consume some meat and/or seafood.
Today, vegetarian foods and recipes can be found everywhere. However, the abundance of information available can be overwhelming for someone who is new to the flexitarian lifestyle. For all those interested in reducing their meat consumption, here is a list of initial steps to take and resources that may be of help.
Read more about Flexitarian |
| Living Longer...Exercise |
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Living Longer...Exercise
By Susan Crandell
 Regular physical activity has been shown to reduce your risk of heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and some cancers. Now we’re finding it also may add years to your life. That’s powerful medicine indeed.
There are no guarantees in life and even fewer in death. But if you wish to prolong the former and delay the latter, scientists can now pretty much promise that regular exercise will help. "So many of what we thought were symptoms of aging are actually symptoms of disuse," says Pamela Peeke, M.D., a University of Maryland researcher and author of Body for Life for Women (Rodale, 2005). "This is a monster statement." It means that your health is not just a throw of the genetic dice but a factor that is largely under your control. "Our bodies are built for obsolescence after 50," Peeke says. "Up to 50 you can get away with not exercising; after that, you start paying the price."
Read More... |
| You're Not Demented, Just Dehydrated |
 You're Not Demented, Just Dehydrated
by Peter Ragnar
There were no interstates at the time. Back in the 1940s, Route 66 was the best way to California. My folks had just bought a new tan English Ford, with a crank handle that you stuck into the front of the engine and turned to start the vehicle. I don’t know why they wanted to drive it from New York to the hot deserts of the American Southwest.
When a lone gas station owner urged Dad not to drive across the desert without strapping four canvas water bags onto the bumper, he listened. The old man told Dad, “You know, it gets up to 140 degrees in the shade at noon. Now, if you break down, you’re gonna get real thirsty. Soon, nausea comes on and you’re feeling real sick. When you’ve lost ten percent of your body’s water, you feel sort of giddy. Then your tongue swells up like it don’t belong in your mouth. Now, you can’t close your eyelids as the corners of your eyes dry up. Your skin turns blue. Then come the hallucinations. You see, you go crazy before you die.”
Read More hydration |
| New Treatment for Emotional Eating |
 New Treatment for Emotional Eating Provides Answer for Unsuccessful Dieters --
Cravings Subside in 80% of Cases
by Gary Craig
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) -- Stanford Engineer Gary Craig introduces a new do-it-yourself approach to Acupuncture that helps overweight Americans combat emotional eating. Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) addresses emotional eating at the level of the energy meridian system (or Chi in Chinese Medicine). There is no talk therapy involved, no drugs, no special diets, and it often works when willpower fails.
EFT is modeled after acupuncture but doesn't use needles. Instead, one simply stimulates certain meridian points by tapping on them with their fingertips. In 80% of the cases immediate food cravings subside in moments. Craig acknowledges, "while this is not yet mainstream thinking, hundreds of doctors, psychiatrists and psychotherapist are using EFT to help their patients change their relationships with food."
Read More... |
| The Key to Successful Weight Loss |
 What Does the Computer Program Do?
The Key to Successful Weight Loss, the first program ever to use the new technology of computerized EFT. It is obtainable on a CD which combines a major e-Book with an interactive computer program that helps you apply EFT to a variety of issues that affect your relationship to food. This program covers all aspects of handling emotional blocks to weight loss.
The Result?
You automatically reduce your destructive food cravings to a minimum and often eliminate them entirely through the use of EFT. You now eat in a manner that fully supports your weight loss – and you enjoy doing this!
The Key to Successful Weight Loss Software |
| Leadership in Action led by Mark Mooney |
 Leadership in Action,
Dallas, TX--
Sponsored by
The Strozzi Institute
Led by Mark Mooney October 12-15, 2006 Dallas, Texas In this conference we will deliver the foundational principles and practices required to develop your Leadership Presence and ability to perform effectively in today’s complex times. You will enhance your natural talents and develop new skills that will increase your capacity to effectively communicate and to lead yourself and others with an embodied sense of confidence and power. You will leave this course with increased clarity and renewed energy for what is most important to you. Leadership in Action will affect broad areas of your life, both professionally and personally. For sustainable change, either for building new skills and capacities, or moving through a personal impasse, this course is for you. Our work goes beyond insight and understanding. You will embody new skills and behaviors. We will join you in focusing on the challenges you face and the changes you want to make in your life.
For more information |
| Your Monthly Astrocast
by Michael Lutin |
 Michael
Lutin is the weirdly wonderful, wise and mad astrologer for VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE.
He doses your planetary advice with humor and whimsy.
Wisdom
of the Month... |
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