 Lower back pain is one of the most common chronic ailments in America. This is partly because of all the sitting we do. One of the consequences of sitting is shortened psoas muscles. This can cause pulling on the lower spine, leading to chronic back pain.
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 Losing weight is more complicated than calories in/calories out. We now know that given the same exact food, one person can gain weight and another won't. Much of this has to do with our microbiomes. What are our microbiomes? These are the billions of micro-organisms that live on and in our body. We acquire them at birth and they change throughout our lives depending on our environment. The human microbiome includes the genes of the microbes. Why is this significant? Because they outnumber our genes by 100 to 1, and while our genome is fixed, we have quite a bit of control over our microbiome. These billions of organisms that our body hosts have an incredible capacity to influence how many calories we extract from food, our insulin and hormone production, and even what we crave. We used to think weight gain/loss was as simple as calories in versus calories out. We now know it is much more complicated than this.
 Our culture measures success with money and power. What if instead, we measured success by our relationships, our ability to give of ourselves, and our level of happiness and contentment? We can begin to re-evaluate our definition of success, but first we need to take a look at one of the most common factors affecting our relationships, our health, and our level of well being. Our quality of sleep is directly correlated to all of these things.
 "Let food be thy medicine. Let medicine be thy food." – Hippocrates
One of the biggest scientific discoveries of the last 30 years is that food isn’t just energy, it’s information. It provides instructions for everything that’s going on in your body. You can change your gut flora, your hormones, your gene expression, your immune system, and so much more. It has a direct effect on every function, either for the good or for the bad, depending on what you’re eating.  We all have both a feminine and masculine side. Yin and Yang. Carl Jung termed it the anima and animus. Females have an inner male side and males an inner female.
 The law of attraction has been the source of countless books but is too often explained in a meta-physical way that can be a little abstract.
 Carl Jung said, "Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding about ourselves." Most of us know the power of projections. Whatever inner force, emotion, or energy we have not acknowledged, becomes a kind of demon. I mean a demon in the experiential sense - it becomes problematic for us. These emotions that we disavow are the same ones we project onto others.
 We might not make the time to meditate each day, but everyone makes time to eat. If we look at eating as an opportunity for mindfulness, we can experience food as not only a way to nourish and love ourselves, but each meal can become a time for enhanced awareness, gratitude, and joy.
 Solitary confinement is considered the worst punishment in high security prisons. Most would rather live among murders and rapists than spend a significant amount of time alone. How should we interpret this? Anyone who has attempted a silent retreat knows how excruciating it can be to sit with our own thoughts for an extended period of time.
 Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.
The Buddha told a parable and the teaching was: “If you get struck by an arrow, do you then shoot another arrow into yourself?”  If you don’t already meditate, take my advice: Start. It will be the best decision you ever make.
I found these statistics and felt compelled to copy them - it's mind-blowing that so much research has been done showing the benefits, yet so many people still don't practice it. If this much evidence showed a pill to be so beneficial, everyone would be taking it.  It’s Noon, and that same old feeling is back again. Whether it’s your lunch hour or study break, the same mid-day, drowsy, unmotivated emotions come trickling in. You need a pick-me-up, fast. Instead of reaching for an energy drink, try a tea meditation to calm the mind and release stress.
 The top best selling books on Amazon right now are adult coloring books. Why? Because it’s an alternative to meditation that reduces stress and calms the mind.
 Imagine that as a child you became separated from your parents and were lost for several hours in a crowded mall. The fear was paralyzing. There was a tightness in the chest that felt as if it might choke you. Even now, the same feeling comes back every time you worry. You try to push the feeling away by any number of things: overeating, drugs, alcohol, burying yourself in work, exercising excessively, shopping, watching tv - anything to distract your mind and numb out.
 It was the summer of 1933, and Albert Ellis was quite angry at himself because he could not talk to women.
“I was born and reared to be shy and scared.” says Ellis of his upbringing. “Throughout my childhood and teens I had a real social phobia."  Lucid dreaming is having awareness that you are dreaming, while you are dreaming.
What if right now you suddenly realized that you were actually dreaming and that in this domain you could do anything imaginable?  “Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” ~ Jim Morrison
 Experiencing emotions arise during our yoga practice is common, and even expected. Deeply embedded memories are stored in our body
 Several years ago I started having back pain. Like many people, I internalize stress – I’m not a screamer, and most people think I’m pretty even-keeled. That’s how I appear on the outside, anyway. A lot of people do this – but stress manifests itself in one way or another.
 Lori was sexually abused as a child and didn’t tell anyone until she was an adult. Without anyone to guide her or help her make sense of what had happened, she tried to get rid of any residual sensations herself.
 My palms were sweating. My heart was beating out of my chest. I could feel a bead of sweat trickling down the center of my chest. Sounds like I’m about to go skydiving, right?
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Shari Taylor, PhD
I write about human behavior, meditation, body awareness, and a variety of other things that pique my interest.
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