Saturday, October 29, 2011
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Skin & it's Care
I've been ruminating again. I can't believe how subtle (or not) skincare advertising is. I'm a hardcore believer in making your own from natural ingredients, and yet, I'm lured by the shiny labels and sweet smells - and the promises!!! Plus, who doesn't like to try something new, especially when we get bored with the same routine.... I've decided to keep making my own...for now. I like the idea that I'm holding out - and I hope you will, too. Even when it becomes difficult, I imagine that there's one more plant, one more person, and/or one more animal that breathes clean air and lives a little longer because of that action. I also plan to inform myself more. Check out the website for responsible persons, called Smart Skincare - see the Lucid Links List. Take care and be aware.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
My Own Thoughts
I've been on hiatus.
Thinking about things, digesting.
In the meantime, I discovered a new website that I think you'd like.
Global Mindshift.
Go have a look.
It's surprisingly concrete - discussions, videos and the like.
I've also been playing with the idea of changing directions.
I've only included quotes from others up to now, as you can see; but I've been wondering...don't I have something of my own to say?
I've asked a few friends to comment, and that's exactly what they said they'd like to see.
So...here goes.
I'm going to step forward and put my neck out.
What I've got to say is in the form of recipes (see Recipe column to the right).
The birth of my daughter has inspired me to act for the betterment of this planet and I've come up with some simple recipes that can be used in any number of situations.
I'll be adding them slowly over the coming weeks, so keep coming back :-)
You can easily make and use them while feeling super (guilt-free)!
Little to no carbon (or other) footprint.
In case you're interested in checking that out (what it is, etc), try going onto the Carbon Footprint website and calculate yours.
It can be pretty scary, so arm yourself with a few positive thoughts before going, and remember - YOU CAN ACT NOW.
Just do it.
Thanks
Thinking about things, digesting.
In the meantime, I discovered a new website that I think you'd like.
Global Mindshift.
Go have a look.
It's surprisingly concrete - discussions, videos and the like.
I've also been playing with the idea of changing directions.
I've only included quotes from others up to now, as you can see; but I've been wondering...don't I have something of my own to say?
I've asked a few friends to comment, and that's exactly what they said they'd like to see.
So...here goes.
I'm going to step forward and put my neck out.
What I've got to say is in the form of recipes (see Recipe column to the right).
The birth of my daughter has inspired me to act for the betterment of this planet and I've come up with some simple recipes that can be used in any number of situations.
I'll be adding them slowly over the coming weeks, so keep coming back :-)
You can easily make and use them while feeling super (guilt-free)!
Little to no carbon (or other) footprint.
In case you're interested in checking that out (what it is, etc), try going onto the Carbon Footprint website and calculate yours.
It can be pretty scary, so arm yourself with a few positive thoughts before going, and remember - YOU CAN ACT NOW.
Just do it.
Thanks
Friday, January 26, 2007
Where Psyche Meets Gaia
When we think of environmentalism, we call to mind a vast, worldwide movement that deals in imponderably complex social & economic issues on the largest conceivable scale...It includes everybody, because there is nobody the movement can afford not to talk to. Whenever I turn to an environmental issue, I find myself intensely aware that other, nonhuman eyes are upon me: our companion creatures looking on, hoping that thir bewildering human cousins will see the error of their ways...
We are living in a time when both the Earth & the human species seem to be crying out for a radical readjustment in the scale of our political thought...Is it possible that the...personal & the planetary are pointing the way toward some new basis for sustainable economic & emotional life, a society of good environmental citizenship that can ally the intimately emotional & the vastly biospheric?
Until just a few years ago, possibilities like this would have gone unnoticed...
Now there are signs that this is beginning to change from both [personal & planetary] directions.
Recently, in a private letter, the Australian rainforest activist John Seed put it this way:
"It is obvious to me that the forests cannot be saved one at a time, nor can the planet be saved one issue at a time: without a profound revolution in human consciousness, all the forests will soon disappear. Psychologists in service to the Earth helping ecologists to gain deeper understandng of how to facilitate profound change in the human heart & mind seems to be the key at this point."
...
There is one more significant current of change that deserves to be mentioned. The biologists have begun to pay attention to the psychological side of human evolution. In a recent work, the Harvard zoologist E. O. Wilson has raised the possibility that humans possess a capacity called "biophilia," defined as "the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms."
"Ecopsychology" is the name most often used for [the] emerging synthesis of the psychological (here intended to embrace the psychotherapeutic & psychiatric) & the ecological.
Ecopsychology suggests that we can read our transactions with the natural environment - the way we use or abuse the planet - as projections of unconscious needs & desires. In fact, our wishful, willful imprint upon the natural environment may reveal our collective state of soul more tellingly than the dreams we wake from & shake off, knowing them to be unreal.
Far more consequential are the dreams that we take with us out into the world each day & maniacally set about making "real" - in steel & concrete, in flesh & blood, out of resources torn from the substance of the planet...
I have been calling ecopsychology "new," but in fact its sources are old enough to be called aboriginal. Once upon a time, all psychology was "ecopsychology." No special word was needed. The oldest healers in the world...knew no other way than to work within the context of environmental reciprocity. Some are quick to see elements of sentimentality or romanticism in our growing appreciation of the sacred ecologists that guide traditional societies. There is nothing "mystical" or "transcendent" about the matter...
Theodore Roszak - Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. Roszak, Gomes, & Kanner
We are living in a time when both the Earth & the human species seem to be crying out for a radical readjustment in the scale of our political thought...Is it possible that the...personal & the planetary are pointing the way toward some new basis for sustainable economic & emotional life, a society of good environmental citizenship that can ally the intimately emotional & the vastly biospheric?
Until just a few years ago, possibilities like this would have gone unnoticed...
Now there are signs that this is beginning to change from both [personal & planetary] directions.
Recently, in a private letter, the Australian rainforest activist John Seed put it this way:
"It is obvious to me that the forests cannot be saved one at a time, nor can the planet be saved one issue at a time: without a profound revolution in human consciousness, all the forests will soon disappear. Psychologists in service to the Earth helping ecologists to gain deeper understandng of how to facilitate profound change in the human heart & mind seems to be the key at this point."
...
There is one more significant current of change that deserves to be mentioned. The biologists have begun to pay attention to the psychological side of human evolution. In a recent work, the Harvard zoologist E. O. Wilson has raised the possibility that humans possess a capacity called "biophilia," defined as "the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms."
"Ecopsychology" is the name most often used for [the] emerging synthesis of the psychological (here intended to embrace the psychotherapeutic & psychiatric) & the ecological.
Ecopsychology suggests that we can read our transactions with the natural environment - the way we use or abuse the planet - as projections of unconscious needs & desires. In fact, our wishful, willful imprint upon the natural environment may reveal our collective state of soul more tellingly than the dreams we wake from & shake off, knowing them to be unreal.
Far more consequential are the dreams that we take with us out into the world each day & maniacally set about making "real" - in steel & concrete, in flesh & blood, out of resources torn from the substance of the planet...
I have been calling ecopsychology "new," but in fact its sources are old enough to be called aboriginal. Once upon a time, all psychology was "ecopsychology." No special word was needed. The oldest healers in the world...knew no other way than to work within the context of environmental reciprocity. Some are quick to see elements of sentimentality or romanticism in our growing appreciation of the sacred ecologists that guide traditional societies. There is nothing "mystical" or "transcendent" about the matter...
Theodore Roszak - Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. Roszak, Gomes, & Kanner
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Jewelry without cruelty
In a world where romance & materialism are as closely intertwined as a bejeweled ring wrapped around a woman's finger, diamonds have become an almost universal symbol of love & the traditional engagement present a prospective bridegroom gives his wife-to-be. Yet, while it's an American truism that "diamonds are a girl's best friend," these precious gems have also become one of humanity's deadliest enemies, fueling bloody civil wars & slavery in Africa as well as the most extreme forms of terrorism ever unleashed against the United States.
For example, while Sierra Leone was mired in chaos, al Qaeda took advantage of the situation by using about $20 million worth of illicit diamonds mined there to pay for the September 11, 2001 attacks. Only after tragedy hit home did the West seem to take notice of the devastating impact that "conflict diamonds" were wreaking upon the world. Compelled to prevent future catastrophes, the international community implemented a new set of trade regulations in 2003 known as the Kimberly Process (see link under Lucid Links), which was intended to stop terrorists & anti-government rebels from using diamonds to finance violence, while allowing legitimate diamond dealers to continue their lucrative trade.
Through validating "birth certificates" for diamonds & packing the raw stones in tamper-proof containers upon export, the Kimberly Process has stemmed the sale of conflict diamonds & helped end hostilities in some countries. However, the system is far from perfect, & "dirty" diamonds continue to reach the market with astonishing frequency...Another major shortcoming of the Kimberly Process is that diamonds produced in dictatorships guilty of human rights violations are still defined as "clean" under the current protocols...
Fortunately, conscientious consumers do have alternative choices when purchasing diamond jewelry for their sweethearts...ethically motivated companies use advanced technologies, as well as recycled gold and other materials, to offer options that allow people to remain true to their hearts & their compassionate values (see links under Lucid Links).
Mat Thomas - VegNews: Vegetarian News Politics Food Travel issue April 2006
For example, while Sierra Leone was mired in chaos, al Qaeda took advantage of the situation by using about $20 million worth of illicit diamonds mined there to pay for the September 11, 2001 attacks. Only after tragedy hit home did the West seem to take notice of the devastating impact that "conflict diamonds" were wreaking upon the world. Compelled to prevent future catastrophes, the international community implemented a new set of trade regulations in 2003 known as the Kimberly Process (see link under Lucid Links), which was intended to stop terrorists & anti-government rebels from using diamonds to finance violence, while allowing legitimate diamond dealers to continue their lucrative trade.
Through validating "birth certificates" for diamonds & packing the raw stones in tamper-proof containers upon export, the Kimberly Process has stemmed the sale of conflict diamonds & helped end hostilities in some countries. However, the system is far from perfect, & "dirty" diamonds continue to reach the market with astonishing frequency...Another major shortcoming of the Kimberly Process is that diamonds produced in dictatorships guilty of human rights violations are still defined as "clean" under the current protocols...
Fortunately, conscientious consumers do have alternative choices when purchasing diamond jewelry for their sweethearts...ethically motivated companies use advanced technologies, as well as recycled gold and other materials, to offer options that allow people to remain true to their hearts & their compassionate values (see links under Lucid Links).
Mat Thomas - VegNews: Vegetarian News Politics Food Travel issue April 2006
Grounded in Gratitude
On the surface, gratitude appears to arise from a sense that you're indebted to another person for taking care of you in some way, but looking deeper, you'll see that the feeling is actually a heightened awareness of your connection to everything else. Gratitude flows when you break out of the small, self-centered point of view-with its ferocious expectations and demands-& appreciate that through the labours & intentions & even the simple existence of an inconceivably large number of people, weather patterns, chemical reactions, & the like, you have been given the miracle of your life, with all the goodness in it today.
It is easy, as Roger L'Estrange, the 17th-century author & pamphleteer, said, to "mistake the gratuitous blessings of heaven for the fruits of our own industry." The truth is, you are supported in countless ways through each moment of your life. You awaken on schedule when your alarm clock beeps-thanks to the engineers, etc...
Your morning yoga practice is the gift of generations of yogis who observed the truth...
Your body (for which you could thank your parents, the food that helps you maintain your good health, doctors, healers...)
When you awaken to the truth of this incredible interconnectedness, you are spontaneously filled with joy & appreciation. It is for this reason that one of the most transformative practices you can engage in is the cultivation of gratitude.
Patanjali wrote that santosha (contentment, or appreciation for what you have) leads to unexcelled joy...
If you're like most people, you notice what goes wrong more often than what goes right. Human beings seem hard-wired to notice how reality fails to meet some idea of how they think things should be...
If you limit your attention to how life lets you down, you blind yourself to the myriad gifts you receive all the time.
You can end this frustrating situation by mindfully shifting your attention. Begin by paying attention to the reality of what is rather than the desires you cling to...
One formal practice for cultivating gratitude, developed in Japan by a practitioner of Pure Land Buddhism, is known as Naikan, which means "looking inside." It's a structured method of self-reflection that encourages an objective survey of yourself & your relationship to the world...
Naikan can also be done as a daily practice & can lead you to the realization that you are rich indeed, & that you are not only not alone but are truly supported by the universe! You may even come to see the truth in the exhortation of the 13th-century mystic Meister Eckhart: "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was 'thank you,' that would suffice."
Frank Jude Boccio - Yoga Journal Magazine issue December 2006
It is easy, as Roger L'Estrange, the 17th-century author & pamphleteer, said, to "mistake the gratuitous blessings of heaven for the fruits of our own industry." The truth is, you are supported in countless ways through each moment of your life. You awaken on schedule when your alarm clock beeps-thanks to the engineers, etc...
Your morning yoga practice is the gift of generations of yogis who observed the truth...
Your body (for which you could thank your parents, the food that helps you maintain your good health, doctors, healers...)
When you awaken to the truth of this incredible interconnectedness, you are spontaneously filled with joy & appreciation. It is for this reason that one of the most transformative practices you can engage in is the cultivation of gratitude.
Patanjali wrote that santosha (contentment, or appreciation for what you have) leads to unexcelled joy...
If you're like most people, you notice what goes wrong more often than what goes right. Human beings seem hard-wired to notice how reality fails to meet some idea of how they think things should be...
If you limit your attention to how life lets you down, you blind yourself to the myriad gifts you receive all the time.
You can end this frustrating situation by mindfully shifting your attention. Begin by paying attention to the reality of what is rather than the desires you cling to...
One formal practice for cultivating gratitude, developed in Japan by a practitioner of Pure Land Buddhism, is known as Naikan, which means "looking inside." It's a structured method of self-reflection that encourages an objective survey of yourself & your relationship to the world...
Naikan can also be done as a daily practice & can lead you to the realization that you are rich indeed, & that you are not only not alone but are truly supported by the universe! You may even come to see the truth in the exhortation of the 13th-century mystic Meister Eckhart: "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was 'thank you,' that would suffice."
Frank Jude Boccio - Yoga Journal Magazine issue December 2006
The Moment of Truth
The climate crisis may at times appear to be happening slowly, but in fact it is a true planetary emergency. The voluminous evidence suggests strongly that, unless we act boldly & quickly to deal with the causes of global warming, our world will likely experience a string of catastrophes...
We can solve this crisis, & as we finally do accept the truth of our situation & turn to boldly face down the danger that is stalking us, we will find that it is also bringing us unprecedented opportunities...
There's something far more precious than the economic gains that will be made. This crisis is bringing us an opportunity to experience what few generations in history ever have the privilege of knowing: a generational mission; the exhiliration of a compelling moral purpose; a shared & unifying cause; the thrill of being forced by cirumstances to put aside the pettiness & conflict that so often stifle the restless humand need for transcendence; the opportunity to rise.*
When we do rise, it will fill our spirits & bind us together.
Those who are now suffocating in cynicism & despair will be able to breathe freely.
Those who are now suffering from a loss of meaning in their lives will find hope.
When we rise, we will experience an epiphany...
What is at stake is the survival of our civilization & the habitability of the earth.
OR, as one eminent scientist put it, the pending question is whether an opposable thumb & a neocortex are a viable combination on this planet...
Ultimately, it is not about any scientific discussion or political dialogue; it is about who we are as human beings. It is about our capacity to transcend our limitations, to rise to this new occasion. To see with our hearts, as well as our heads, the response that is now called for. This is a moral, ethical, & spiritual challenge.
Just as we can no longer ignore this challenge, neither should we fear it. Instead, we should welcome it. Both the danger and the opportunity. And then we will meet it because we must...
We should not wait. We cannot wait. We must not wait.
The only thing missing is political will. But in our democracy, political will is a renewable resource.
Al Gore - Vanity Fair issue May 2006
We can solve this crisis, & as we finally do accept the truth of our situation & turn to boldly face down the danger that is stalking us, we will find that it is also bringing us unprecedented opportunities...
There's something far more precious than the economic gains that will be made. This crisis is bringing us an opportunity to experience what few generations in history ever have the privilege of knowing: a generational mission; the exhiliration of a compelling moral purpose; a shared & unifying cause; the thrill of being forced by cirumstances to put aside the pettiness & conflict that so often stifle the restless humand need for transcendence; the opportunity to rise.*
When we do rise, it will fill our spirits & bind us together.
Those who are now suffocating in cynicism & despair will be able to breathe freely.
Those who are now suffering from a loss of meaning in their lives will find hope.
When we rise, we will experience an epiphany...
What is at stake is the survival of our civilization & the habitability of the earth.
OR, as one eminent scientist put it, the pending question is whether an opposable thumb & a neocortex are a viable combination on this planet...
Ultimately, it is not about any scientific discussion or political dialogue; it is about who we are as human beings. It is about our capacity to transcend our limitations, to rise to this new occasion. To see with our hearts, as well as our heads, the response that is now called for. This is a moral, ethical, & spiritual challenge.
Just as we can no longer ignore this challenge, neither should we fear it. Instead, we should welcome it. Both the danger and the opportunity. And then we will meet it because we must...
We should not wait. We cannot wait. We must not wait.
The only thing missing is political will. But in our democracy, political will is a renewable resource.
Al Gore - Vanity Fair issue May 2006
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