Many of you may have heard about "Food, Inc.," an Academy Award nominated documentary about the food business in the United States. I haven't seen it yet, but lots of people I know have and say it's very powerful. I'm mentioning it because on Wednesday night, 4/21, PBS Channel 13 (NY-metro area) is airing it at 9:00 p.m. and I will definitely tune in to watch. And I hope all of you in my area will do so as well! The description of the film: "A revealing look at the U.S. food industry and corporations that put profit before consumer health. This sweeping, shockingly informative documentary recounts how sick animals; environmental degradation; tainted and unhealthy food; and obesity, diabetes and other health issues are only the more obvious problems with a highly mechanized and centralized system, like America's, that touts efficiency as the supreme value in food production."
Sounds like China!
In fact, a news report I heard recently says the fish offered for sale in supermarkets comes largely now from Asia where regulations are loose and is contaminated. Charming, non? Why do we allow this food to enter our country?
I am grateful to have a winter farmer's market here in Norwalk that offers local, fresh food. (See above photo). The produce is grown about 20 miles away in green houses during the colder months by a farming family. The eggs are from a local farm and are a bit smaller and more delicious than what I get at a regular grocery store. The fish was caught the day before and brought to the market by a Maine fisherman. I'm eating in a way that is sustaining both for me (local food which is macro-biotic) and for local business people, not some big corporation here or in Asia. I KNOW where the food comes from. I KNOW it is not tainted. I am eating mostly plant foods, grains, and a bit of fish now and then. I feel healthy and strong.
How does this relate to peace? By not exploiting animals by treating them like they are commodities instead of living beings, nor polluting or clearing land and thus degrading the environment to raise cattle and other animals for food on a mass-production scale. By encouraging everyone to eat local and environmentally-friendly foods to support good health and businesses in their own area. Human health and animal health, both physical and mental, is tremendously important as we all try to live together in ways that bring harmony with each other and with our world. It's hard for people to live up to their personal potentials if they are sick.
As the author Michael Pollan says in his new book, "Food Rules," if it's a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant (factory), don't eat it. Processed food is sort of like plastic. It is food stripped of its nutrients to one degree or another. It's sitting on a shelf for a long time and I gotta wonder what keeps it from going bad. We are not automatons conditioned to think that food comes from a grocery store. We have to remember it is grown in the ground. We can become empowered about our food. What we can't do is sustain all the billions on this planet the way things are going right now. Just because it comes from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, nothing is the same as eating fresh foods and cooking it yourself. When you eat in a restaurant, Lord knows what's on that plate.
Check out my friend Erin's blog: http://letsbeselfsufficient.blogspot.com/
She and her husband built a small chicken coop, grow herbs indoors, and find ways to economize on natural ways to keep healthy.
Human beings come up with unbelievable ways to go bigger, faster, cheaper. Since we don't grow our own food any longer, we sacrifice our self-sufficiency and knowledge of what is right for us to eat unless we wake up and research ways to get food that really nourishes us. However, we can tend our own small gardens during warmer months and try to support farmer's markets and KNOW that the food we are fueling our bodies with is local and fresh, full of nutrients. We each deserve the very best for ourselves. We are each worth the time and energy. I enjoy how I feel eating this way!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Hippocrates: Still Hip Today
With the recent passage of the health care reform bill, the topic of medicine is on many people's minds. We have heard the good, bad, and ugly about modern medicine and how it's managed. My Dad told me once that in his opinion, good health is balanced in three ways: One third by Western medicine, one third by Traditional (natural) medicine, and the remaining third by Ourselves.
Hippocrates, the "father of medicine," seemed to embody this three-fold approach in his teachings. A Greek philosopher and physician born in 460 B.C., Hippocrates based his practice and theories on physical and rational observations and rejected the views of his time that considered illness to be caused by superstitions and by possession of evil spirits and disfavor of the gods. He felt the body should be treated holistically, not just in individual parts. Much of his "prescription" was self-directed.
On his list of methods leading to, and maintaining, good health:
Good diet of fresh foods, in moderate amounts
Walking and moderate exercise
Fresh air
Sunshine
Bathing
Proper Rest
Massage
Here is what Hippocrates said:
“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”
“Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.”
“To do nothing is also a good remedy.”
“Walking is a man's best medicine.”
“Let medicine be thy food, and food be thy medicine."
So sensible, simple, logical! And amazing how far today's medical community has strayed. Hospitals like sealed boxes where patients go days and weeks without exposure to fresh air and sunshine; prescription drugs with powerful and toxic side-effects; doctors who specialize in only one body part as if it was disconnected to the rest of the body; no discussion of massage and other natural treatments; limited time to be heard by your doctor; little regard for the inter-relationship between disease and lifestyle; etc., etc.
A few times, I have mentioned to doctors what Hippocrates taught, and they look at me like I'm nuts. I think today's medical establishment would do well to reexamine what the father of medicine established as the basis for human health. I realize I have been following much of it for years and I feel really good. I'm still working on my inner life, but at least my body is in tip-top shape! I encourage all of my friends and family to resist processed foods, go for a walk or swim, get plenty of sunshine, fresh air, and lots of rest. In the end, one third of our good health resides within our control and TLC. That is very empowering, encouraging, and do-able. Please stay in touch and let me know your success in taking your health into your own hands.
Hippocrates, the "father of medicine," seemed to embody this three-fold approach in his teachings. A Greek philosopher and physician born in 460 B.C., Hippocrates based his practice and theories on physical and rational observations and rejected the views of his time that considered illness to be caused by superstitions and by possession of evil spirits and disfavor of the gods. He felt the body should be treated holistically, not just in individual parts. Much of his "prescription" was self-directed.
On his list of methods leading to, and maintaining, good health:
Good diet of fresh foods, in moderate amounts
Walking and moderate exercise
Fresh air
Sunshine
Bathing
Proper Rest
Massage
Here is what Hippocrates said:
“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”
“Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.”
“To do nothing is also a good remedy.”
“Walking is a man's best medicine.”
“Let medicine be thy food, and food be thy medicine."
So sensible, simple, logical! And amazing how far today's medical community has strayed. Hospitals like sealed boxes where patients go days and weeks without exposure to fresh air and sunshine; prescription drugs with powerful and toxic side-effects; doctors who specialize in only one body part as if it was disconnected to the rest of the body; no discussion of massage and other natural treatments; limited time to be heard by your doctor; little regard for the inter-relationship between disease and lifestyle; etc., etc.
A few times, I have mentioned to doctors what Hippocrates taught, and they look at me like I'm nuts. I think today's medical establishment would do well to reexamine what the father of medicine established as the basis for human health. I realize I have been following much of it for years and I feel really good. I'm still working on my inner life, but at least my body is in tip-top shape! I encourage all of my friends and family to resist processed foods, go for a walk or swim, get plenty of sunshine, fresh air, and lots of rest. In the end, one third of our good health resides within our control and TLC. That is very empowering, encouraging, and do-able. Please stay in touch and let me know your success in taking your health into your own hands.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
April 4: Prince of Peace Day
Today is Easter, a day celebrating the rebirth of Jesus Christ in the mix with pagan agricultural rituals (thanks to Constantine). It is also April 4, an important date for Martin Luther King, Jr.: When he delivered his important anti-Vietnam War speech for which he was vilified in 1967 and assassinated in 1968. Some say that it was the speech that lead to the assassination, a year to the day. Martin Luther King was a Prince of Peace for Americans, modern Americans, in an age when it matters most.
I keep thinking about Martin Luther King. Perhaps because I saw a moving documentary on PBS this past week about the Vietnam speech, read a very powerful OpEd piece in yesterday's NY Times, and watched the ever-intelligent Bill Moyers Journal on Friday night (PBS) with two scholars talking about MLK's legacy. But I think the reason he is in the forefront of my mind is because I have woken up to his message. His message is relevant today. His message is of course for peaceful, nonviolent means to, well, peace! Peaceful coexistence. Too bad he didn't leave longer. We might be further along on the evolutionary trail. I could say the same thing about Christ, but to me, Christ has a different flavor, more of a mythologic/symbolic figure people have created, but to my mind he is a place where we put our hopes and dreams and requires an unsure leap of faith which is more than my rational mind can make. MLK lived when I was alive. He is in my experience, in my cells.
Martin Luther King, Jr., of course, is known as the civil rights leader in the 1960s who brought (successfully, though hard-won) attention to the second-class status of black people in America. Things really changed in this country back then. White people kicked and screamed and there was violence, but not from MLK's corner. Like Gandhi (who he admired), he resisted violence. Most importantly, MLK brought JUSTICE for black people. For this, his family endured death threats, the bombing of their home, and he was stabbed. Talk about "terrorism!" (One scholar interviewed this week said that poverty is not the opposite of wealth; poverty is the opposite of justice. What a concept!). Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize. Shouldn't we have listened to him? Shouldn't we study and listen to him now?
But once civil rights for blacks was in motion, MLK's conscience became focused on the war we were engaged in, in Vietnam. How wasteful ($) in contrast to the poverty that existed then and still exists today. His awareness of the violence and waste of war really ticked off his supporters, the government (including President Lyndon Johnson), and many others who pigeon-holed him as just a civil rights leader--What was he doing coming out against the war? MLK was accused of being a communist. Imagine, this man, MLK, a man of depth who started to connect the dots between racial inequality, poverty, a government spending precious capital on a violent war overseas being accused of sedition. MLK apparently spent that last year of his life as an outsider, depressed, not understood. Then he was killed. God, it's like Christ. Two men of peace, killed. Like Gandhi. Like RFK. Like Lincoln. Like John Lennon. Always the same. The ones we need the most. The peace-makers. They are too much, we can't handle them, and so we kill them.
If you would like to read Martin Luther King's speech, "Beyond Silence," delivered at Riverside Cathedral in New York on April 4, 1967, here is a link:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html
Having read the speech (only a portion of it was covered by camera), I come away seeing that Martin Luther King saw plainly where we were--and where we were headed. What he said then, in 1967, could apply to where America is today, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Where we are with the uber-rich Wall Street robbers and the sinking middle class. In the PBS documentary I was lucky to watch last week, one scholar said that Martin Luther King, Jr., is the most important American we have ever produced. That's a huge statement, but I think it is the truth! He kicked ass. He was da bomb. And he acted entirely in peace. That is really huge. How he managed to be peaceful, that is the important part. Talk about will power. We all need to think carefully about America's place in the world. We have been war-mongering violent people. We have feared speaking out in favor of peace. Ask, "Can I go beyond silence?" I suppose, I just have!
I keep thinking about Martin Luther King. Perhaps because I saw a moving documentary on PBS this past week about the Vietnam speech, read a very powerful OpEd piece in yesterday's NY Times, and watched the ever-intelligent Bill Moyers Journal on Friday night (PBS) with two scholars talking about MLK's legacy. But I think the reason he is in the forefront of my mind is because I have woken up to his message. His message is relevant today. His message is of course for peaceful, nonviolent means to, well, peace! Peaceful coexistence. Too bad he didn't leave longer. We might be further along on the evolutionary trail. I could say the same thing about Christ, but to me, Christ has a different flavor, more of a mythologic/symbolic figure people have created, but to my mind he is a place where we put our hopes and dreams and requires an unsure leap of faith which is more than my rational mind can make. MLK lived when I was alive. He is in my experience, in my cells.
Martin Luther King, Jr., of course, is known as the civil rights leader in the 1960s who brought (successfully, though hard-won) attention to the second-class status of black people in America. Things really changed in this country back then. White people kicked and screamed and there was violence, but not from MLK's corner. Like Gandhi (who he admired), he resisted violence. Most importantly, MLK brought JUSTICE for black people. For this, his family endured death threats, the bombing of their home, and he was stabbed. Talk about "terrorism!" (One scholar interviewed this week said that poverty is not the opposite of wealth; poverty is the opposite of justice. What a concept!). Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize. Shouldn't we have listened to him? Shouldn't we study and listen to him now?
But once civil rights for blacks was in motion, MLK's conscience became focused on the war we were engaged in, in Vietnam. How wasteful ($) in contrast to the poverty that existed then and still exists today. His awareness of the violence and waste of war really ticked off his supporters, the government (including President Lyndon Johnson), and many others who pigeon-holed him as just a civil rights leader--What was he doing coming out against the war? MLK was accused of being a communist. Imagine, this man, MLK, a man of depth who started to connect the dots between racial inequality, poverty, a government spending precious capital on a violent war overseas being accused of sedition. MLK apparently spent that last year of his life as an outsider, depressed, not understood. Then he was killed. God, it's like Christ. Two men of peace, killed. Like Gandhi. Like RFK. Like Lincoln. Like John Lennon. Always the same. The ones we need the most. The peace-makers. They are too much, we can't handle them, and so we kill them.
If you would like to read Martin Luther King's speech, "Beyond Silence," delivered at Riverside Cathedral in New York on April 4, 1967, here is a link:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html
Having read the speech (only a portion of it was covered by camera), I come away seeing that Martin Luther King saw plainly where we were--and where we were headed. What he said then, in 1967, could apply to where America is today, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Where we are with the uber-rich Wall Street robbers and the sinking middle class. In the PBS documentary I was lucky to watch last week, one scholar said that Martin Luther King, Jr., is the most important American we have ever produced. That's a huge statement, but I think it is the truth! He kicked ass. He was da bomb. And he acted entirely in peace. That is really huge. How he managed to be peaceful, that is the important part. Talk about will power. We all need to think carefully about America's place in the world. We have been war-mongering violent people. We have feared speaking out in favor of peace. Ask, "Can I go beyond silence?" I suppose, I just have!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Resting Is Important
Usually I write a new blog entry on Sunday evenings, but here it is Monday afternoon on a rainy day.
Although I have a swirl of ideas, feelings, emotions, and thoughts I'd love to share, I am resting/recharging lately and allowing the mental/soul activity to settle before I plunge back into expressing myself here.
It really is important to rest. Sometimes we are forced into it (illness, depletion) or find we rest because we are just feeling a bit blue and that's just how it is. That's when we know that a change is under way. As is appropriate for springtime: In a cocoon, eventually a butterfly!
Will write again soon...
Although I have a swirl of ideas, feelings, emotions, and thoughts I'd love to share, I am resting/recharging lately and allowing the mental/soul activity to settle before I plunge back into expressing myself here.
It really is important to rest. Sometimes we are forced into it (illness, depletion) or find we rest because we are just feeling a bit blue and that's just how it is. That's when we know that a change is under way. As is appropriate for springtime: In a cocoon, eventually a butterfly!
Will write again soon...
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Justice: Reacting to Indignities
Everyday indignities seem to be in my field of awareness right now. I've always been one to speak my mind when I sense an injustice against me or another person, but have noticed my reluctance to voice my opinion for fear of not being "politically correct" and because I am weary of what feels like an endless stream of new and innovative ways we humans inflict misery on each other.
What brings this to mind is the "latest" in medical technology which I was introduced to the other day when I took my mother for an outpatient hospital procedure. I walked in the patient area to find a 1/2" x 2" metallic label stuck on the middle of my mother's forehead. I asked her what that was and she said she didn't know. She laughed it off, but I could tell it offended her, wearing what looked like a UPC code across her forehead (left on for a few hours). Finally, a nurse explained it is a thermometer. Well, that is certainly innovative. In our "self serve" society, not having to take a patient's temperature is convenient for the medical staff but damned undignified for the patient! Like those stickers on raw fruit and vegetables that seemed shocking at first and are now ubiquitous, putting a sticker across a person's forehead is to me very disrespectful. As a friend says, as if branded like cattle and ready for slaughter.
In many cultures and religions, the forehead is a sacred part of the body. In yoga, this is the "mystical third eye" area, where we allow vision, clarity, enlightenment, higher thought to flow. In India, married women paint a red dot between the brows. In Judaism, teffilin (black leather boxes containing sacred scrolls) are worn above the forehead by devout Jewish men. There is symbolic significance to the forehead in Buddhism, Taoism, gnostic texts, and western wisdom teachings as this is the location of pineal and pituitary glands. There is also the connotation of "dunce" or being marked as an outsider. The next time my mother has one of these things stuck to her forehead, I will speak up (with her permission) and ask to have it removed. In a hospital setting, patients get cowed a bit, I think, as you are trusting the staff to do what is "best" for you, and maybe don't feel able or allowed to speak up.
One should always trust one's gut. It never lies. If we see with our mind's eye as well, we become more aware. If we have a voice, we can speak out against injustice (even small indignities) and not stand aside but stay true to ourselves and our beliefs. We can look out for ourselves and for others who might need our assistance. I for one am tired of following "political correctness" and pretending to smile while inside I am angry about another slight, another indignity. We have so much to celebrate, too! But there is a balance. I know in my gut and have seen with my mind's eye that I get more bees with honey than vinegar. That is a way to peace in the world: Speaking with kindness, but speaking what is right!
What brings this to mind is the "latest" in medical technology which I was introduced to the other day when I took my mother for an outpatient hospital procedure. I walked in the patient area to find a 1/2" x 2" metallic label stuck on the middle of my mother's forehead. I asked her what that was and she said she didn't know. She laughed it off, but I could tell it offended her, wearing what looked like a UPC code across her forehead (left on for a few hours). Finally, a nurse explained it is a thermometer. Well, that is certainly innovative. In our "self serve" society, not having to take a patient's temperature is convenient for the medical staff but damned undignified for the patient! Like those stickers on raw fruit and vegetables that seemed shocking at first and are now ubiquitous, putting a sticker across a person's forehead is to me very disrespectful. As a friend says, as if branded like cattle and ready for slaughter.
In many cultures and religions, the forehead is a sacred part of the body. In yoga, this is the "mystical third eye" area, where we allow vision, clarity, enlightenment, higher thought to flow. In India, married women paint a red dot between the brows. In Judaism, teffilin (black leather boxes containing sacred scrolls) are worn above the forehead by devout Jewish men. There is symbolic significance to the forehead in Buddhism, Taoism, gnostic texts, and western wisdom teachings as this is the location of pineal and pituitary glands. There is also the connotation of "dunce" or being marked as an outsider. The next time my mother has one of these things stuck to her forehead, I will speak up (with her permission) and ask to have it removed. In a hospital setting, patients get cowed a bit, I think, as you are trusting the staff to do what is "best" for you, and maybe don't feel able or allowed to speak up.
One should always trust one's gut. It never lies. If we see with our mind's eye as well, we become more aware. If we have a voice, we can speak out against injustice (even small indignities) and not stand aside but stay true to ourselves and our beliefs. We can look out for ourselves and for others who might need our assistance. I for one am tired of following "political correctness" and pretending to smile while inside I am angry about another slight, another indignity. We have so much to celebrate, too! But there is a balance. I know in my gut and have seen with my mind's eye that I get more bees with honey than vinegar. That is a way to peace in the world: Speaking with kindness, but speaking what is right!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Movement: Where Is It?
A current topic of conversation for me lately has been whether this country is going down the tubes or not. For me, the answer is yes. But within the spiral downward, I am happy and optimistic about my life.
My husband and I were watching a PBS special tonight about Peter, Paul & Mary. They sang out against injustice in the early 1960s when the civil rights and the Vietnam War movements created a huge social rift. The program showed footage of them singing "Blowing in the Wind" at the 1963 March on Washington when Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The audience was a wave of people holding hands in the air, displaying a feeling of solidarity, of hope. Where is this sort of movement now?
Perhaps we have too many social and political problems in this country nowadays for any movement to grow up past grassroots efforts into a national presence for change. It seems that in my lifetime America has gone from the most prosperous country in the world (in terms of the average person living a quality middle class life) to a fractured land of too many opportunistic individuals focused on money and fame. I feel powerless, unable to express my frustration with the corruption and neglect I see around me, wishing there was a movement that I could join with my protest sign, singing "We Shall Overcome" or other anthem of change.
But, there is no movement. The children of the 60s haven't done much to make the world a better place. Every year we graduate millions of college students and is the world a better place? President Obama and Congress seem ineffective, "bought," or silenced by the Washington/Corporate Machine. Are people too busy to get out into the streets and protest like the old days? Too stressed? Afraid? Plugged into their iPods? I believe we are all trying very, very hard to hold onto what we have in fear of losing all that we have worked so hard to attain: Home, meaningful work, creature comforts, a safe community, education, transportation, recreation. With the economy the way it is, with people losing their jobs and homes and savings, I have to wonder how we can get ourselves--and this country--out of the situation we are in now. If there is a movement, please let me know. I want to join!
Today's entry on DailyOm.com is perfect for this blog. Enjoy!
http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2010/22514.html
My husband and I were watching a PBS special tonight about Peter, Paul & Mary. They sang out against injustice in the early 1960s when the civil rights and the Vietnam War movements created a huge social rift. The program showed footage of them singing "Blowing in the Wind" at the 1963 March on Washington when Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The audience was a wave of people holding hands in the air, displaying a feeling of solidarity, of hope. Where is this sort of movement now?
Perhaps we have too many social and political problems in this country nowadays for any movement to grow up past grassroots efforts into a national presence for change. It seems that in my lifetime America has gone from the most prosperous country in the world (in terms of the average person living a quality middle class life) to a fractured land of too many opportunistic individuals focused on money and fame. I feel powerless, unable to express my frustration with the corruption and neglect I see around me, wishing there was a movement that I could join with my protest sign, singing "We Shall Overcome" or other anthem of change.
But, there is no movement. The children of the 60s haven't done much to make the world a better place. Every year we graduate millions of college students and is the world a better place? President Obama and Congress seem ineffective, "bought," or silenced by the Washington/Corporate Machine. Are people too busy to get out into the streets and protest like the old days? Too stressed? Afraid? Plugged into their iPods? I believe we are all trying very, very hard to hold onto what we have in fear of losing all that we have worked so hard to attain: Home, meaningful work, creature comforts, a safe community, education, transportation, recreation. With the economy the way it is, with people losing their jobs and homes and savings, I have to wonder how we can get ourselves--and this country--out of the situation we are in now. If there is a movement, please let me know. I want to join!
Today's entry on DailyOm.com is perfect for this blog. Enjoy!
http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2010/22514.html
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Decide to Be Happy
I have been thinking a lot lately about happiness. I realize I am very happy. When I consider all of the energy I used over the years being unaware of how simple and easy it is to be happy... well, I'm not sure WHAT I would've done! Traveled more? Had children? Been less self-critical? You might say that these are three things that are my decisions. Aren't they? Who has to give permission for me to travel more? Me, that's who. Happiness is this way, too.
When the Dalai Lama's book, "The Art of Happiness," hit the shelves a few years ago, I ran right out and bought it, ravenous to read through and glean the "secret" I felt had eluded me for so long. The book is an interview with the Dalai Lama and even though he was fine with answering the many questions posed asking him to elaborate on happiness, he insisted throughout that it was really very simple. Are you ready? The secret to happiness is: YOU DECIDE TO BE HAPPY. That is what the Dalai Lama says. The interviewer didn't seem to get it, I guess, because he kept asking complicated questions as if trying to squeeze all the juice out of a lemon.
Have you ever seen the Dalai Lama? Of course you have seen the smile he always has. He is ALWAYS SMILING. Why is this man smiling? He had to flee his country of Tibet within inches of his life, traveling an arduous route through the Himalayas. His fellow monks left behind have endured decades of torture, death, and the Chinese efforts to destroy Tibetan native culture. He has not been able to return to his country since the 1950s. The Dalai Lama has many reasons to be unhappy.
I'll bet you're saying to yourself, "Right!!! Happiness is not a decision. My life is complicated and this is childish." So, does that mean happiness comes from outside somewhere, like from outer space? Is it inherited? Is it given to you, or does it reside inside of you already, repressed perhaps and desiring to come out and play?
Bliss starts right now, right here, from wherever you are in this moment. You can decide to be unhappy and miserable and blame everyone and everything for your problems. Or you can simply accept how things are and have some fun. Do whatever you want. You have permission! No one will mind! In fact, you will attract more positive people and experiences into your life by being happy and upbeat. Not falsely. It can be genuine. You have one life to live. You can live it as a sour puss or you can be a glowing ball of happiness. This is important for peace: Everyone has a gift and your authentic self is crying out to shine and be free, and this spreads person by person. This is not a myth. Let's have a party!
When the Dalai Lama's book, "The Art of Happiness," hit the shelves a few years ago, I ran right out and bought it, ravenous to read through and glean the "secret" I felt had eluded me for so long. The book is an interview with the Dalai Lama and even though he was fine with answering the many questions posed asking him to elaborate on happiness, he insisted throughout that it was really very simple. Are you ready? The secret to happiness is: YOU DECIDE TO BE HAPPY. That is what the Dalai Lama says. The interviewer didn't seem to get it, I guess, because he kept asking complicated questions as if trying to squeeze all the juice out of a lemon.
Have you ever seen the Dalai Lama? Of course you have seen the smile he always has. He is ALWAYS SMILING. Why is this man smiling? He had to flee his country of Tibet within inches of his life, traveling an arduous route through the Himalayas. His fellow monks left behind have endured decades of torture, death, and the Chinese efforts to destroy Tibetan native culture. He has not been able to return to his country since the 1950s. The Dalai Lama has many reasons to be unhappy.
I'll bet you're saying to yourself, "Right!!! Happiness is not a decision. My life is complicated and this is childish." So, does that mean happiness comes from outside somewhere, like from outer space? Is it inherited? Is it given to you, or does it reside inside of you already, repressed perhaps and desiring to come out and play?
Bliss starts right now, right here, from wherever you are in this moment. You can decide to be unhappy and miserable and blame everyone and everything for your problems. Or you can simply accept how things are and have some fun. Do whatever you want. You have permission! No one will mind! In fact, you will attract more positive people and experiences into your life by being happy and upbeat. Not falsely. It can be genuine. You have one life to live. You can live it as a sour puss or you can be a glowing ball of happiness. This is important for peace: Everyone has a gift and your authentic self is crying out to shine and be free, and this spreads person by person. This is not a myth. Let's have a party!
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