The ABCs of Meditation | The Chopra Center

The ABCs of Meditation

by: Tamara Lechner 

Whether you are starting a new meditation practice or want to deepen an existing practice, getting back to the basics and putting attention to your intention is a wonderful way to remind yourself of why you meditate. The alphabet is where many of us begin our journey as students on this planet, so here’s a little alphabetical reminder of the benefits of meditation.

A is for Awaken

Meditation is a way to awaken purpose, awaken health, awaken abundance, awaken connection, and awaken creativity. You can allow your true self to reveal and awaken your pure potential through meditation, including guided meditation or silent or mantra meditation.

B is for Being

To sit and be—without thinking, without effort, without judgment—is the gift of meditation. We are not our past, nor are we our future. Be present.

C is for Connection

Connection is twofold: connection to self and connection to those around us. At first these might seem separate but as you connect to your source through meditation, the recognition that we are all waves of the same ocean deepens.

D is for Detachment

Detachment reveals the great paradox of life: In order to acquire something, you have to relinquish your attachment to having it. When you recognize the only genuine source of security is living as your true self, then you can more easily detach. Meditation helps you to get present and detach.

E is for Ego

According to Eckhart Tolle, author of books on ego like A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, ego is any image you have of yourself that gives you a sense of identity. Ego likes to separate us from others rather than encourage oneness and connection. Meditation acts as a tool to silence the ego and allow the true connected self to be seen.

F is for Flexibility

People with flexible minds are adaptable, open, and resilient. Like bamboo in the wind, they are strong but pliable. Being flexible allows you to embrace your day rather than bracing for it. Meditation cultivates a flexible mind.

G is for Gratitude

Meditation reminds us how everything fits into a greater plan. It connects us with spirit, God, or the universe, and with this connection comes gratitude—gratitude for who we are and what we have. Gratitude has been proven to benefit our physical, physiological, and mental health.

H is for Happiness

Happiness increases when you meditate. Studies have shown that the centers for emotional processing are just one of the areas that change significantly with a meditation practice. People who meditate regularly report higher levels of well-being and are less bothered by aches and pains. This all translates to increased joy.

I is for Immunity

The immune system is highly influenced by your mind. Meditators get benefits to their immune system’s function, including increased antibodies and decreased inflammation.

J is for Joy

Meditation leads to joy. Once you believe that the universe is working for you and that everything is happening for your good, meditation can help by turning up your awareness and allowing you to witness the joy in every situation. You will begin to notice if and when you are struggling or resisting the natural flow.

K is for Karma

In its simplest form, karma might be described as an energetic loop where every action generates an equal force of energy that returns to us—what we sow is what we reap. In meditation, you tap into your ability to make spontaneously correct choices for yourself and for all those around you.

L is for Letting Go

Want to let go of a habit that doesn’t serve you? Meditation is a tool to allow you to step outside your pattern and change it. Meditation also helps you to let go of the past and forgive by training your mind to stay present.

M is for Manifest

Manifest can mean to reveal presence or make an appearance. When you meditate, you are more clearly able to manifest goals that align with your highest self.

N is for Namasté

This popular word, which you might have heard at the end of a yoga class, is both a spoken Indian expression and a symbolic gesture that means “the God within me greets the God within you.” Namasté is the recognition that we are all equal and share a common divinity.

O is for Om

The primordial vibration Om (or “aum”) is sometimes chanted at the end of meditation or as part of a longer mantra used throughout meditation. It is considered the most sacred sound in Hinduism and Buddhism.

P is for Peace

In the words of the Dalai Lama, “If every 8-year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.”

Q is for Quiet

Meditation is practiced quietly in order to quiet the mind. Note that quiet and silence are not the same thing in this case. When the world around you is loud, busy, or filled with distractions, the quiet that meditation provides doesn’t occur by turning off these stimuli but by focusing elsewhere, which gives you the perception of quiet.

R is for Raja or Royal Path

Raja yoga is frequently referred to as the “royal path to yoga” because it focuses on practices that take your awareness inward and promotes the integration of the mind, body, and spirit. Meditation is one of these practices.

S is for Subtle Body

This is where the magic happens—outside any physical construct and in a non-local place. Your mind, your ego, and your intellect all work together to form the subtle body.

T is for Transformation

Through meditation the mind and the body are transformed right down to a cellular level. Telomerase is another “T” word. It controls the age function of cells and recent studies have shown that meditation can positively impact the aging of cells by lengthening the telomerase.

U is for Unique

Your meditation is unique to you; there is no correct way to meditate. Whether it be mantra or silent, with music or without, in a group or on your own, whatever style of meditation works to keep you showing up for your meditation practice is the perfect style for you.

V is for Vitality

Meditation leads to vitality—the ability to flourish with a balanced physical, mental, and spiritual body. When your mind is at peace and you have left behind the patterns of stress and anxiety that are so common in today’s society, vitality comes more easily.

W is for Wholeness

Wholeness is also known as unity consciousness or the state of enlightenment, in which there is complete freedom from all conditioning, including habit, past experience, and karma.

X is for Ex- …

Meditation is helpful in kicking unhealthy habits to the curb. If you want to be an ex-smoker, an ex-drinker, or an ex-anorexia sufferer, meditation can help. Check out the Chopra Addiction & Wellness Center for more information on how to release unhealthy habits and get on the path to wellness.

Y is for Yoga

Yoga, the way many people think of it, is the asanas or physical postures; however, yoga actually has four limbs: karma, raja, gyan, and bhakti.

Z is for Zen

"Zen" is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese character "chan," which in turn is the Chinese translation from the Indian Sanskrit term dhyana, which means “the development of witnessing awareness.”

Now that you know your ABCs of meditation, there’s no reason to delay your next meditation.

About the Author

Tamara Lechner

Tamara Lechner is a happiness expert and Chopra-Certified Primordial Sound Meditation Instructor. Her mission is to be so happy that those around her cannot help but step into her light. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada where she just launched a webinar series called "Happiness Handbook." For more information, check out her website www.ahamoments4u.com.  

Indias low pharma costs are good for drug companies, good for consumers

India is a shining light in the global pharmaceuticals industry with its unique blend of low-cost manufacturing, R&D infrastructure and skilled workforce. These attributes, in addition to the country’s gigantic domestic market and world dominance in generics production, make it an appealing location for companies looking to outsource.

India’s growing economy, population and demand for Western medicines also bolster the market and encourage partnerships between Western companies and Indian production centers.  CLICK HERE TO READ

PRE-ELECTION HOMEWORK (not Trumps hair or ill behaviors)-National drinking water infrastructures

EPA Releases Survey Showing $384 Billieeded for Infrastructur

• From Water Law & Policy Monitor

• 
  
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• By Pat Ware  

The Environmental Protection Agency released a report June 4 showing that $384 billion in improvements are needed for drinking water infrastructure through 2030.

The total includes the needs of 73,400 drinking water systems across the United States, as well as American Indian and Alaska native village water systems, according to the report, which is based on a survey of public water systems.

EPA's Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment: Fifth Report to Congress identifies the investments needed for thousands of miles of pipes and thousands of treatment plans, storage tanks, and water distribution systems.

“The survey released today shows that the nation's water systems have entered a rehabilitation and replacement era in which much of the existing infrastructure has reached or is approaching the end of its useful life,” EPA Assistant Administrator Bob Perciasepe said in a statement accompanying the survey.

The estimate represents infrastructure projects necessary from Jan. 1, 2011, through Dec. 31, 2030.

EPA allocates drinking water state revolving loan fund grants based on the results of the assessment. The survey must be submitted to Congress every four years under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Needs Remain the Same

EPA's fourth survey, released in March 2009, estimated needs of $335 billion over a 20-year period starting Jan. 1, 2007.

The needs in the most recent survey are comparable to those in the 2009 assessment and to the survey released in 2005, both of which have been adjusted to 2011 dollars, EPA said.

EPA noted a recent assessment by the American Water Works Association citing a significantly higher number needed for water infrastructure.

A 2012 report by the American Water Works Association estimated that more than $1.7 trillion would be needed for water projects between 2011 and 2050.

The estimate is significantly higher than EPA's because it is based on a different set of assumptions about pipe replacement and investment and covers a longer period of time, EPA said.

EPA said its most recent assessment was conducted by a random sample survey sent to about 3,150 public water systems, representing large, medium, and small systems.

Aging or Deteriorating Pipes

The assessment shows that improvements are primarily needed in:

• distribution and transmission: $247 billion to replace or refurbish aging or deteriorating lines;

• treatment: $72 billion to construct, expand, or rehabilitate infrastructure to reduce contamination;

• storage: $39.5 billion to construct, rehabilitate, or cover finished water storage reservoirs; and

• source: $20.5 billion to construct or rehabilitate intake structures, wells, and spring collectors.

DEFINITE "NEED-TO-KNOW", PRE-ELECTION HOMEWORK ABOUT WORLD HEALTH SYSTEMS!

PLEASE NOTE THAT COUNTRIES AHEAD OF THE UNITED STATES HAVE WHAT WE REFER TO AS SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE!   HMMM-M-M-M-M. 

ALSO NOTE THAT WE ARE #37!!

World Health Organization’s Ranking of the World’s Health Systems

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Some people fancy all health care debates to be a case of Canadian Health Care vs. American. Not so. According to the World Health Organization’s ranking of the world’s health systems, neither Canada nor the USA ranks in the top 25.

Improving the Canadian Healthcare System does not mean we must emulate the American system, but it may mean that perhaps we can learn from countries that rank better than both Canada and the USA at keeping their citizens healthy.

World Health Organization Ranking; The World’s Health Systems

1 France 2 Italy 3 San Marino 4 Andorra 5 Malta 6 Singapore 7 Spain 8 Oman 9 Austria 10 Japan 11 Norway 12 Portugal 13 Monaco 14 Greece 15 Iceland 16 Luxembourg 17 Netherlands 18 United Kingdom 19 Ireland 20 Switzerland 21 Belgium 22 Colombia 23 Sweden 24 Cyprus 25 Germany 26 Saudi Arabia 27 United Arab Emirates 28 Israel 29 Morocco 30 Canada 31 Finland 32 Australia 33 Chile 34 Denmark 35 Dominica 36 Costa Rica 37 USA 38 Slovenia 39 Cuba 40 Brunei 41 New Zealand 42 Bahrain 43 Croatia 44 Qatar 45 Kuwait 46 Barbados 47 Thailand 48 Czech Republic 49 Malaysia 50 Poland 51 Dominican Republic 52 Tunisia 53 Jamaica 54 Venezuela 55 Albania 56 Seychelles 57 Paraguay 58 South Korea 59 Senegal 60 Philippines 61 Mexico 62 Slovakia 63 Egypt 64 Kazakhstan

65 Uruguay 66 Hungary 67 Trinidad and Tobago 68 Saint Lucia 69 Belize 70 Turkey 71 Nicaragua 72 Belarus 73 Lithuania 74 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 75 Argentina 76 Sri Lanka 77 Estonia 78 Guatemala 79 Ukraine 80 Solomon Islands 81 Algeria 82 Palau 83 Jordan 84 Mauritius 85 Grenada 86 Antigua and Barbuda 87 Libya 88 Bangladesh 89 Macedonia 90 Bosnia-Herzegovina 91 Lebanon 92 Indonesia 93 Iran 94 Bahamas 95 Panama 96 Fiji 97 Benin 98 Nauru 99 Romania 100 Saint Kitts and Nevis 101 Moldova 102 Bulgaria 103 Iraq 104 Armenia 105 Latvia 106 Yugoslavia 107 Cook Islands 108 Syria 109 Azerbaijan 110 Suriname 111 Ecuador 112 India 113 Cape Verde 114 Georgia 115 El Salvador 116 Tonga 117 Uzbekistan 118 Comoros 119 Samoa 120 Yemen 121 Niue 122 Pakistan 123 Micronesia 124 Bhutan 125 Brazil 126 Bolivia 127 Vanuatu

128 Guyana 129 Peru 130 Russia 131 Honduras 132 Burkina Faso 133 Sao Tome and Principe 134 Sudan 135 Ghana 136 Tuvalu 137 Ivory Coast 138 Haiti 139 Gabon 140 Kenya 141 Marshall Islands 142 Kiribati 143 Burundi 144 China 145 Mongolia 146 Gambia 147 Maldives 148 Papua New Guinea 149 Uganda 150 Nepal 151 Kyrgystan 152 Togo 153 Turkmenistan 154 Tajikistan 155 Zimbabwe 156 Tanzania 157 Djibouti 158 Eritrea 159 Madagascar 160 Vietnam 161 Guinea 162 Mauritania 163 Mali 164 Cameroon 165 Laos 166 Congo 167 North Korea 168 Namibia 169 Botswana 170 Niger 171 Equatorial Guinea 172 Rwanda 173 Afghanistan 174 Cambodia 175 South Africa 176 Guinea-Bissau 177 Swaziland 178 Chad 179 Somalia 180 Ethiopia 181 Angola 182 Zambia 183 Lesotho 184 Mozambique 185 Malawi 186 Liberia 187 Nigeria 188 Democratic Republic of the Congo 189 Central African Republic 190 Myanmar

Source: World Health Organization

REAL PRE-ELECTION HOMEWORK

Instead of the endless, self-aggrandizing babble of many of the candidates, this  is the type of fact we should be researching.  Child poverty is the WORST of 16 countries!

Republicans Only Contribute to the Dumbing Down of America

Republicans Only Contribute to the Dumbing Down of America

Donald Trump Had Police Remove a Clemson Professor in Muslim Headdress from Campaign Event

 Trump can entertain, I suppose, if you like narcissistic, sadistic viciousness. He, as all of that ilk, can pull on his (so-called!) "charm" based in specious remarks to try and seduce one to his way of thinking.  In my own opinion, and certainly corroborated by many others, he is a VERY DANGEROUS MAN.  There is no shortage of people who are terrified of a Trump presidency.

Of course, the demographics of the Trump sycophants (other than not knowing what that word means, reveal a "hu-u-g-e gaggle of not-so-bright haters.

Yet, just when one thinks they may have seen the bottom of Trump's dark hole, something else comes along. His facial expressions and body language surely underscore the story. This is yet just another of his sadistic actions!

"Occasionally he uses the local police to bully people who look like they might be Muslim. That’s what happened in Clemson. First, a little context......"

CLICK HERE TO READ OF HIS LATEST ATROCITY

Bernie "Rocks" CBS News Interview!

Time to stop trying to scare people words.  Bernie puts all the toxic rumors to rest...with fact!

CLICK HERE TO HEAR BRIEF CBS INTERVIEW!

Kahlil Gibran On Joy and Sorrow

The word "joy", but not "happy", or"fun", is examined.  My experience is always that bittersweet mix.  Gibran addresses this:

On Joy and Sorrow
 Kahlil Gibran

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, "Joy is greater thar sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Kamilah, Kahlil's mother. Painting by Kahlil Gibran

Kahlil Gibran On Joy and Sorrow

PLEASE READ! Debt forgiveness in Iceland! (fact-checked)

Iceland Forgives Mortgage Debt for the Population. Putting Bankers and Politicians on “Bench of Accused”

From a credible email I just received:

This is awesome. It shows when the people DO STAND UP they have more power and win against the corrupt bankers and politicians of a country. Iceland is forgiving and erasing the mortgage debt of the population.

They are putting the bankers and politicians on the “Bench of the Accused.” Which means I assume they are putting them on trial for corruption.

Now the rest of people of the world need to start doing the same thing. We all need to stand up and against all the corruption and fraud of the banks and politicians that are puppets of the banks and corporations.

The beauty of it is that they will have a load of cash to circulate into the economy and into service industries etc…instead of feeding it to the parasite bankers and out of the economy, great idea. If it was warmer I’d move to Iceland.

This could very well be the first chime of many to signal the Death of the World Banking System headed by our ‘good’ friends the Rothschild’s.

Iceland Strikes the First Major Blow Against the World Banking (Fraud) Cartel. This is what can immediately put money into the hands of many American’s.

The Us Government through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA own 96% of all bad housing loans. Many have stated, that in effect,

“The US Government is Foreclosing on itself.” This is the very definition of Insanity. It is a form of Suicide.

Major Banks only hold 3% of bad housing loans, 3%!

This is not a banking problem, it is a Government problem, they hold the loans!

We were just about to do a story on America Foreclosing on itself when this article came across our computer.

Under Sanders, income and jobs would soar, economist says - Feb. 8, 2016

CLICK TO READ!!! Under Sanders, income and jobs would soar, economist says - Feb. 8, 2016

Hillary Not Truthful About Wall Street Speaking Fees

CLICK HERE TO READ!

How to raise a “Dakota Fanning” | Soul’s Code

A child psychologist and mother of seven uses a method called, “show, remind and tell” to raise an ‘indigo child’

BY DR. CHRISTINE JAX-CASTILLO — If you are a parent, you probably question if you are making all the right moves to ensure that your children find their own spiritual paths, and reach their full potential.  You wonder how you can help your children to follow their soul’s code, while encouraging them to follow your rules.

How can you can teach them right from wrong, while teaching them to see the good in all things?  How can you keep them safe in a country where congresswomen and movie-goers are shot at malls, while relaying to them that fear is an illusion of the ego?  How to raise a “Dakota Fanning” | Soul’s Code

EMERGENY ALERT! Military stopping emergency water rations in Michigan / PLEASE READ AND CALL OR EMAIL!

Nearly 1,000 undocumented immigrants living with poisoned water in Flint, Michigan don’t have access to emergency services because they lack proper identification. The uniformed National Guard at the distribution centers posted signs that say a state-issued ID is required to get clean water.

The impact is devastating. Flint’s undocumented residents not only face contaminated water, but also increasingly punitive immigration raids and enforcement. They are faced with an impossible choice: either risk poisoning their families or separation by callous deportation.

Sign the petition: Tell Governor Rick Snyder to direct the National Guard stop asking for ID and to remove signs telling people ID is required for clean water.
Almost 15 weeks after a report exposing the high levels of lead toxicity in Flint’s water was released, Governor Snyderdeclared a state of emergency, and called in the National Guard.

State officials have already said that ID is not required to get clean water. Signs posted at the distribution centers needlessly intimidate undocumented immigrants seeking the help they need to keep their families from getting sick or sicker. They need to come down.

We cannot let Governor Snyder drag his feet any longer when it comes to ensuring the health and safety of Flint residents. Regardless of immigration status, everyone deserves clean water and access to aid.

Sign the petition: Tell Governor Rick Snyder to direct the National Guard stop asking for ID and to remove signs telling people ID is required for clean water.
Keep fighting, 
Irna Landrum, Daily Kos

"It's Not Hard to See the Colors of the Candidates"

..and THIS wants to be our Pres?/"Secret Service agents: Hillary is a nightmare to work with" | New York Post

“Good morning, ma’am,” a member of the uniformed Secret Service once greeted Hillary Clinton.“F— off,” she replied.That exchange is one among many that active and retired Secret Service agents shared with Ronald Kessler, author of “First Family Detail,” a compelling look at the intrepid personnel who shield America’s presidents and their families — and those whom they guard.

CLICK TO READ: Secret Service agents: Hillary is a nightmare to work with | New York Post

Fight The Common Core | Heartland Institute

In this Heartland Institute Policy Brief (PDF), Pullmann reveals some major weaknesses of Common Core. The program represents a major centralization of control over curriculum, contrary to the American tradition of decentralized control and funding. Instead of being “world class,” the standards represent a significant step back from what experts say are the standards America really needs. No wonder many states are now holding hearings on whether to back out of the Common Core project.  Fight The Common Core | Heartland Institute

42% of Democrats are in favor of socialism - MarketWatch

42% of Democrats are in favor of socialism

By Catey Hill

Published: Feb 1, 2016 7:09 a.m. ET

 

Just 17% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of the ideology

Reuters

Some people consisder Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to be in favor of socialism.

"Many Democrats are feeling the love for socialism.

More than four in 10 Democrats say they have a favorable opinion of socialism, according to a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults released in January by data and research firm YouGov; this percentage is nearly identical to what the researchers found in May of last year. Meanwhile, only about one in three say they have an unfavorable opinion of the ideology.

Among Republicans, those numbers look significantly different: Just 17% of Republicans have a favorable opinion of socialism, while 71% have an unfavorable opinion of it. And for the most part — no matter what the party — it is young people who are most in favor of socialism. Fully 49% of people ages 18 to 29 have a favorable opinion of socialism, compared with just 23% of those 65 and up."....

Also see: Karl Marx is the most assigned economist in U.S. college CLICK HERE TO READ MORE!

American veteran writes open letter: 'To My Friends Who Support Donald Trump'

Donald Trump look-a-like supporter

American veteran writes open letter: 'To My Friends Who Support Donald Trump'

 Leslie Salzillo

A traveling photographer who goes by “TheJeremyNix” recently penned an open letter after being baffled by friends who are Donald Trump supporters. Sound familiar? 

TheJeremyNix

In his bio, Jeremy Nix, a 42-year-old returning college student, says he was born cross-eyed and has “always seen the world in double vision.” His entire letter is a good spot-on read and can be found on his website.

Here are some excerpts from: To my friends who support Donald Trump:

I'm cool with you removing me from your friends list if you don't like this post. You can even disown me if you like. But Donald Trump isn't a good person, nor would he be a good president. I can understand a difference in politics. I can understand if you don't like a government run by Democrats. I can understand if you don't like certain ideologies, like Socialism. But I can't understand why you would support someone as hateful, sexist, racist and ignorant as Donald Trump.

The author says discrimination, such as Trump wanting to ban all Muslims, is not the answer nor is it acceptable behavior for a person seeking U.S. presidency.

The Japanese Internment camps were wrong, Segregation was wrong, Slavery was wrong. We fought wars amongst ourselves to rise above racism and hatred.  In WWII more than 60 million people died worldwide. Why? Because of twisted people who were whipping up the population into a frenzy and making ridiculous statements, killing innocent people simply because of their race or religion. 

Nix sees Donald Trump as having a brainwashing effect on some of his followers. There seems to be an odious mob mentality at some of the Trump rallies.

The kind of leadership Trump is displaying is irresponsible and dangerous. His virulent ideas are seeping into the brains of his supporters. Supporters who think it's okay to say things like "light the mother@!$%#er on fire" while a protester is being dragged out of one of his rallies. 

Adding humor, JeremyTheNix says:

He (Trump) is the crazy person at your dinner table who won’t stop running his mouth. The only reason he is allowed to carry on with his ugly hateful rhetoric is because you have too much respect for Grandma to get into a fist fight in her home. 

And in one of his final pleas, the writer adds...

​If you're not a racist, bigoted, misogynistic jerk, then voting for Trump simply because you don't like Democrats is wrong.  

Agreed, and I’ll be sharing Nix’s sentiments on my personal social network pages for my lurking Trump-supporting Facebook friends. I know I have them, but in my case, they rarely speak out given they’ve seen me, a staunch liberal, challenge, run off, or block right-wing extremists. It’s sad when you realize a buddy from college is a flaming tea partier, and though you want to understand them, some just have to go. Many of us are open to debate and discussion, but just don’t have the patience of TheJeremyNix who takes time to explain from a reasonable position. The same fans who support Donald Trump often support Rush Limbaugh, Ted Cruz and their ilk. These types of politicians are all from the “same church”—just different pews. 

Donald Trump supporter, all serious, in Tea Party uniform

Get Rid of the Tampon Tax | Alternet

Photo Credit: Shutterstock / Roman Prishenko

"If men got their periods and women did not, “[m]enstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event,” Gloria Steinemwrote nearly 40 years ago. “Men would brag about how long and how much. Boys would mark the onset of menses, that longed-for proof of manhood, with religious ritual and stag parties. Congress would fund a National Institute of Dysmenorrhea to help stamp out monthly discomforts. Sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free.”

For all the satirical conjecture, she was likely right on the money, especially on that last point. The bad news is there’s still no pending national bill to give away period-related products. The better news is the so-called tampon tax is currently being challenged all over this country and beyond.
Right now in the U.S., of the 45 states that impose sales tax, 40 levy it on sanitary napkin and tampon purchases. That’s not terribly surprising, considering that most items are taxed under individual state laws. But while sales tax codes are notoriously complex and often nonsensical, they are not immutable. Nearly every sales-taxing state offers exemptions for items that are deemed necessities, a list that should include sanitary supplies, considering that biology drives women’s menstruation, and thus the sales of tampons and pads. Yet just five states—Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New Jersey—don’t make women pay an additional fee for the monthly occurrence of their periods. Everywhere else, sanitary supplies are essentially considered “luxury” or “nonessential items.”  CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

My Day With Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton: Two Iowa Rallies Explain Why Hillary May Be About to Blow a Sure Thing | Alternet

"The Iowa Caucuses are the Coachella of politics. There’s nowhere else you can catch so many big names in one afternoon.
On Sunday morning, I sat in a coffee shop in Cedar Rapids, eating one of Iowa’s famous boxing-glove-sized cinnamon rolls, and scanning the Des Moines Register, which was cover-to-cover rally reviews. (“Glenn Beck Comes to Iowa to Endorse Cruz”; “Trump: I Could ‘Shoot Somebody’ and Keep Voters.”) Hillary Clinton was in Marion at 12:30, Marco Rubio in Cedar Rapids at 2, Bernie Sanders in Independence at 5:30. I decided to hit all three events.
I had woken up as an undecided voter, and I would go to sleep as one, too, but in between, I saw that Clinton and Sanders are appealing to two diametrically opposed impulses in Democratic voters. Clinton’s campaign is based on fear – fear that Republicans will return to power and undo all the progress Obama has made since 2009, just as they undid everything her husband achieved in the 1990s.."   CLICK HERE TO READ MORE!

3 Questions to Ask Your Child Every Night - Eyes On Heaven

"I had an adorable conversation with my three year old right before he went to sleep tonight. In fact, I have a pretty adorable conversation with my three year old almost every night before he’s off to bed, so I thought I’d share what we talk about. In addition to warming my heart, these conversations, I believer, are paving the way for future communication."

CLICK TO READ MORE

"Relationships: The Costs of Staying When We Should Leave" By Jack Adam Weber L.Ac., Dipl. C.H.

"To stay in a relationship that doesn’t work, with someone whose integrity is significantly lacking, creates a downward spiral. It is hurtful to every aspect of our health, and is bad for the planet. What follows below is not a black and white account, so consider it to the degree that it feels true.In our gut I think we know if a relationship doesn’t work, especially if we got into it (as we often do) for the sex, comfort, apathy, or our own loneliness. Yet, too often the fear, sadness, anger, and other difficult emotions we might have to face prevent us from leaving. Yet these are the same emotional places we denied to begin with, which, if we had faced and worked with them, could have prevented us from being frivolous with our precious hearts.The inevitable result of fearing feeling our emotional pain is that we lie to ourselves — at the beginning, during, and at the end of a relationship. We have to ignore our guts, our bodies, its depths. We shut down a big part of our hearts to stay in denial. We sacrifice our own integrity to stay.We become more of a taker than a giver because we have not found a way to be fulfilled by our own creative expression, because we have blocked this channel through the perpetual distraction of uncontrollable emotional codependency and acting out of old patterns."   CLICK HERE TO READ MORE!

10 Signs You’ve Bought ‘Spin’ | Wake Up World

31st January 2016

By Christina Lavers

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

We live in a world with an incredible imbalance of power. Whether you believe in ‘conspiracies’ or not, there is no doubt that a tiny fraction of the world population has the means to manipulate and sway public opinion in order to maintain a paradigm that promotes and maintains their ability to control and profit off the masses. Common sense would dictate that any group who had the wherewithal to successfully claw their way into a top position would naturally invest heavily in ensuring their interests were protected. As increasing corruption is exposed in so many areas of society, we would be naive to think collusion wasn’t happening at the highest levels as well.

For instance… Recently a German journalist, Udo Ulfkotte, came forward to expose how he and, according to his claims, many other journalists were coerced into not only slanting their stories in order to sway public opinion, but to sign their own names to articles that were written by CIA staff as a means to garner support for war. (see video.)

A retired U.S. Army Colonel, Lawrence Wilkerson, who worked as national security advisor to the Reagan administration and both Bush administrations, recently shared about what he perceives as the corruption inside the establishment and how corporate interests are driving foreign policy. (see video.).....

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE!