A philanthropic foundation is offering to subsidize a mindfulness program for some Ohio schools. The practice of daily meditation is already being used in some schools, and backers say the simple bit of self-reflection has been improving behavior and test scores.

Congressman Tim Ryan has been such a fan of mindfulness that he wrote a book about it. The Democrat says the deep breathing exercises that he does every day are not about religion.

These are basic techniques that Marines are using, police officers are using, athletes have been using it," Ryan says. "You dont have to change any of your beliefs, you dont have to join a church, you dont have to do anything. You know, Im still Catholic."

Breathedeep

Ryan came to Cleveland with members of a Massachusetts company called Inner Explorer to promote mindfulness in schools. The non-profit organization produces a 10-minute exercise that students listen to online each day as school starts.

Taking deep breaths is a great way to calm down when youre angry or upset. It even helps when youre about to take a test, play a sport, or play a musical instrument," Laura Bakosh,Inner Explorerco-founder, says.

At the end of each exercise, pupils write in a journal.

Bakosh says relieving stress can help kids learn. She cites brain research from the University of Wisconsin.

Theres neuro-scientific research (that) stress inhibits learning, poverty inhibits learning. And more than half of our children are in high-poverty environments," Bakosh says. "So 51 percent of our kids are in those environments that have such significant stressors that they struggle with learning.

Spreading theword

The Cleveland-basedDBJ Foundation,named for David and Barbara Jacobs, is a supporter of mindfulness-based relaxation and wants to spread the practice,says Managing Director Joe Hudson.

Now were working really specifically to allow Northeast Ohio to have the benefit of this program, so were paying for half the cost of any classroom who wants to be involved in Northeast Ohio," Hudson says.

The total cost for the daily lesson is $450 per year for each school.

Putting it into practice

The foundation has been underwriting such lessons for three years at Melrose Elementary, in Wooster City Schools.

Two third grade teachers there, Ashley Tomassetti and Amber Cupples, swear by it. They team-teach a class that includes kids with emotional disabilities. They call the improvement in behavior they saw in the first year incredible.

"I would say their attention is definitely what was improving their emotion," Tomassetti says. Being able to deescalate themselves. If theyre crying or upset, theyre able to deescalate without an adult.

And emotional awareness, then using the practices at home with their siblings, trying to go to sleep at night," Cupples adds.

Emotional and measurableresults

Each teacher got emotional when recalling specific cases where children with problems at home would come to school and ask to do the mindfulness exercises.

Tomasetti mentioned one boy whose mother had been taken to jail the night before. At school, he asked his teacher to help him breathe.

He wanted to do it on his own with us there with him. And he journaled. He was able to get it all out. And that was huge because we teach thirdgrade," Tomasetti says. "For an eight-year-old boy to go through that and come out successful at the end of the day, get through everything...that was huge for us.

And that, says Tomasetti, has meant much less time spent on behavioral problems.

Congressman Ryan says Warren City Schools, using another version of mindfulness exercises, saw out-of-school suspensions five years ago drop from 250 five years ago to 14 last year.

He notes that the Marines and Army use a similar program for soldiers returning from the stress of combat. He says its not surprising that stress keeps kids from learning.

Of course your brain is not going to work properly if you have domestic violence in your home or you have a tough neighborhood or gangs or whatever. Your brains not going to function properly," Ryan says.

Concerns about religion

But there has been pushback in Ohio. Educators at Warstler Elementary in Stark County said they got good results using mindfulness in 2012, but the program was shut down when parents feared meditation may have religious connotations.

The teachers in Wooster say theyve had zero complaints because they made the recordings available to all the parents.

Still, supporting meditation or mindfulness could have political repercussions for Ryan. A conservative blogger has already mocked him as Congressman Moonbeam. But the Democrat laughs it off.

People will say what they want, but again, I would have a couple vets around me to make sure everybody knew how helpful this was," Ryan says.

The Inner Explorer organization is now offering the exercises in over 900 schools in 44 states. It plans a pilot program at Clevelands Campus International School.

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More Ohio Schools Turning To Meditation To Ease Stress And Help Grades - WOSU Public Media

Want to develop more kindness for yourself, for your loved ones, even for people you cant stand?Starting a practice of lovingkindness (known in the Buddhist tradition as metta), can help.The good news is you dont have to be an expert meditator to try it; you can add it to your existing routine, or use it as an entry point into a new practice.

To learn more, we spoke with expert Sharon Salzberg.Shes a co-founder of the esteemed Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and the best-selling author of many books, including Lovingkindness. (Her newest book, Real Love, comes out in June.)

We asked Salzberg about the benefits of lovingkindness meditation, and how it relates to mindfulness in general.To be mindful means to have a kind of interested, balanced awareness of whats happening to us, she explains.But because our inner critic may be very strong, mindfulness is not that easy to accomplish. For a lot of people, doing a practice like lovingkindness can change our default response from one of self-judgment, fear, or anger, to a sense of connection and greater spaciousness, and it can form a foundation for being able to practice mindfulness.Its a great experiment to try.

RELATED: 20 Weird Ways Breathing Right Can Improve Your Life

Start by findinga quiet place to sit, closingyour eyes, and drawing your awareness to the sensations in your body.You might feel your feet touching the floor, or your legs against the chair.Next, bring your attention to the in and out flow of your breathing at one spot.That could be the feeling of your belly rising and falling with each breath, or the sensation of air flowing through your nose.As you direct your attention to your breath, your mind will inevitably wander.When it does, simply notice it doing so, and without judgment, bring your attention back to your breathing.Try doing this for a few minutes to start, and gradually extend the length of your sessions until you can sit for 20 or so minutes at a time.It takes practice, but over time, youll begin to notice you feel calmer, more focused, and more aware of your moment-to-moment experience.

Once you get the hang of basic meditation, you can add lovingkindness by saying the following phrases, quietly to yourself or in your head:

May I be happy of heart.

May I be free from suffering.

May I be healthy and strong.

May I live with ease.

You might even place your hand gently on your chest to invoke a connection to your heart.

Next, say the same four phrases again, this time directed toward a loved one, friend, or benefactor:

May you be happy of heart.

May you be free from suffering.

Then try saying them for someone who youdont know well but is a part of your daily life, someone to whom you have a neutral feeling.Many of us are in the habit of going into that grocery store and looking right through the clerk instead of at him, even if youve seen him a million times, Salzberg explains. We often objectify people so they become like pieces of furniture to us, but through the offering of the phrases [to a neutral person] were learning to pay full attention to someone, rather than discounting them.

Next, say the phrases for someone you have difficulty with. The personcould be someone you know, someone you dont, someone you consider an enemy.

This step can be challenging, but its worth trying. We often categorize certain people as all bad, all the time, which may be our experience with them, but there is a rigidity to that way of thinking which keeps us afraid and cut off, Salzberg says.If we want to take some risks with our attention and try wishing for them to be free of suffering, things may begin to move within ourselves: You may still not like that person, you may still not want to bring them home with you, but you may be able to grow that sense that our lives have something to do with one another.

If youre having trouble really feeling lovingkindess for someone you consider an enemy, you can also try picturing them as a baby, or near death, or in an unusual setting.Salzberg explains: Although the phrases can be helpful in building a base of concentration, lovingkindness is also a practice that engages our creative imagination.The truth is that we were all infants once, and were so helpless and subject to the actions around us.And the truth is we will all die, so you can tap into the kind of poignancy to life that we all share.

RELATED: 14 Strategies to Become a Happier Person

If youre practicing lovingkindness for someone whos shown you bad behavior, you might also imagine them at a safe remove from yourself, such as on an island with no boat.As you work with them in mind, it might help you feel safe, like this persons not going to take advantage of me, Salzberg explains.

Finally, say the phrases again for all living creatures everywhere:

May all beings be happy of heart.

May all beings be free from suffering.

However we might like it to, the point of lovingkindess is not to magically change other people from afar.One thing I usually emphasize, Salzberg says, is that the essence of metta practice, and using the phrases, is paying attention differently. Its not trying to force yourself to feel something you dont feel, and its not trying to cover over some difficult feelings you might have with a kind of veneer of being saccharine. Rather, its about transforming our own way of seeing ourselves and seeing others in the world.

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When youre ready to give it a try, work it into your next meditation session.Salzberg says you can do it right when you sit down to meditate, or toward the end of a sitting.

Some people like it at the beginning because it creates a kind of warm environment so that you can go on to practicing mindfulness with a little more kindness toward yourself, she explains. Most people like to do it at the end, because its a reminder that the inner work we do when we mediate is not really just for ourselves, but its also about how we are with our families and friends and communities. It can serve as a really nice bridge between the inner life and actual life.

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Try This Meditation Technique to Quiet Your Inner Critic Once and for All - Health.com

Stress is harmful to our emotional as well as our physical health. A large body of scientific evidence now supports the mind-body connection. As Dean Ornish, M.D., points out in his most recent book "The Spectrum," "Stress can suppress your immune function, cause a heart attack or stroke, increase your risk of cancer, delay wound healing, promote inflammation, cause you to gain weight, impair your memory, cause depression, exacerbate diabetes and worsen your sexual function. Just for starters." Stress can also damage your DNA, which contributes to aging.

How does stress do all this? It initiates the "fight-or-flight" response: Stress hormones such as cortisol are released, muscles contract, blood pressure rises, blood clots more easily, arteries constrict, neurotransmitters in the brain such as serotonin are affected, sleep is disrupted, and often anxiety and depression ensue.

So stress affects our emotions, thoughts and bodies, but what many people don't know is that we can control our thoughts, thereby preventing this harmful cascade. We all have constant chatter going on in our minds, and particularly in people prone to depression and anxiety, many of these thoughts are repetitive (i.e. obsessive) and negative. This chatter prevents us from being mindful (focused) about a lot of what we do every day, including eating.

If you are under stress, and most of us are to one degree or another, consider a class in mindfulness meditation. You will learn how to sit in a relaxed position; how to focus on your breathing; how to control your brain chatter, particularly the negative and obsessive thoughts. If you practice mindfulness meditation every day, ideally first thing in the morning, you will find that you feel much more centered the rest of the day, that you are more positive and more focused, that your mood improves. As a result you will be less prone to anxiety and depression and your physical health will benefit as well.

Dr. Ornish proved 25 years ago that heart disease can be reversed with exercise and a plant-based, whole food, low fat diet. As he became more aware of the mind-body connection, he added stress reduction to his program, and his program is now approved by Medicare. His book "The Spectrum" includes a chapter about "the stress-management spectrum" in which he recommends mindfulness meditation.

You can find mindfulness meditation programs on the Internet. However, the best way to learn this technique is through a local class. I would highly recommend the secular Mindful Life Program, taught by Lara Bartels in Carbondale (http://www.mindfullifeprogram.org, phone 970-633-0163). The brochure reads: "Combine meditation training with practical, accessible and universal skills that empower you to engage in your life with attention and intention. Learn to experience life's events consciously and be able to respond with clarity and wisdom. Transform your life and cultivate genuine, lasting happiness."

To some, this might sound like a new age fad. But it is actually ancient, having been practiced by Christian monks as well as Eastern religious disciples for centuries.

Dr. Feinsinger, who retired from Glenwood Medical Associates after 42 years as a family physician, now has a nonprofit Center For Prevention and Treatment of Disease Through Nutrition. He is available for free consultations about heart attack prevention and any other medical concerns. Call 970-379-5718 for an appointment. For questions about his columns, email him at gfeinsinger@comcast.net.

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Doctor's Tip: How mindfulness meditation can improve health - Glenwood Springs Post Independent

For almost two weeks, I lived like a nun at a silent meditation retreat center.

But to do so, I had to be down with some of the centers basic ground rules.

That included waking up at 4 am, wearing baggy clothes, not exercising and meditating for 10 hours a day. It also required eliminating the use of wrong speech (lying, gossiping, etc.), which in this case, also meant not talking to anyone at all.

There could be no killing, which meant not eating meat and trying not to step on any ants outside.

Sex wasnt allowed, which meant complete separation of men and women, and no masturbation or touching someone else in any way.

You also couldnt consume any intoxicants like booze, cigarettes or in my case, coffee.

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To be fair, it isnt called a retreat.

Its a10-day Vipassana meditation course taught by SN Goenka.

The course describes itself as one of Indias oldest techniques of meditation, first taught 2,500 years ago. It is a practical method of self-awareness that allows one to face the tensions and problems of daily life in a calm and balanced way.

Basically, it shares the teachings of science (think Einsteins physics), the four elements (everything comprised of air, earth, fire and/or water elements) and what the Buddha who was a real person living 2,500 years ago discovered for himself: that everything from the universe itself to the tips of your toes, to that rose in your garden is an ever-changing, impermanent flow of subatomic particle waves.

And if we sit quietly and in stillness for long enough, we can actually begin to feel those waves in our body and breath and directly experience this subtle phenomena for ourselves.

Its kind of like how dolphins and dogs hear things we cant, and how a microscope sees things we dont see with the naked eye.

But because we arent trained to feel our own bodys subtle vibrations, we arent aware of whats actually going on inside ourselves. In essence, were a product of conditioned habits and dont even realize it.

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This becomes important when we enter real-life situations where we always find ourselves in an endless cycle of grasping and hating, of wanting more and wishing for less.

Instead, in the training, we basically see that if you keep on observing without judgement how the vibrations in your body come and go over time (all while remaining balanced, objective and equanimous), then youll be able to be less reactive and more responsive when you get triggered by an external event.

Basically, you allow yourself to think twice before sending that nasty email, yelling at your partner or eating that bowl of ice cream you didnt need.

Like I said before, I sat in meditation about 10 hours a day for intervals of 60 to 90 minutes at a time.

Once, I sat in total stillness for up to 90 minutes (and survived). I noticed the vibrations come and go in my body, and I observed my natural breath rise and fall.

Another time, I sat for 60 minutes, and toward the end, my body was on fire.

I wasnt sure I could tolerate the tingling, burning sensation in my left leg, but finally, the bell rang and I started to cry.

I felt relieved and victorious.

Youre probably wondering, Why go through pain to get to a place of inner stillness?

Because the whole point is to realize the pain is temporary.

Youre supposed tojust watch those sensations come and go, and by continuing to do that, we train ourselves out of our conditioned habit patterns of, say, scratching when we get an itch, or stretching out our legs every time we want to make a slight adjustment.

While I got used to sitting still and letting go of my urges to make sudden movements, my thoughts continued to run wild.

Even though I was trying to focus my attention on observing my natural breathing pattern and bodily sensations, my mind would wander and run with all kinds of fantasies, thoughts and stories.

Those thoughts included past relationships, new ones, guys I did and didnt like, exes whove broken up with me, people Ive dumped, people Ive hurt, mistakes Ive made and things I want to change about my life.

But, the thing about thoughts is, they come and go.

And thoughts are always about the past or future, not the present moment.

Thats why we use meditation: to focus on the here and now.

Is it a short breath? A long one? Is it more prominent in your left nostril? Your right one?

Whats happening in your left shoulder blade area? Sensations of tension? Cold? Heat? Tingling?

All that subtle stuff we rarely pay any attention to is what I focused on every day for hours on end.

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More than focusing on the present moment, I was learning to pay attention to the sensations in my body that were occurring in the present moment.

Inevitably, it made me slow down, which in our digital, fast-paced culturealmost seemed impossible before the retreat.

Above all, the course really allowed me to embrace the now because it forced me to view everything as impermanent.

From our smallest movements to our most impressive thoughts, everything comes and goes.

As I alluded to before, all of this is based on science and the law of nature that governs everything: With every action, there is an opposing reaction.

This rule applies to our daily lives, too.

For example, think about a heated argument.

If you can notice the sensation that arises in your body, like maybe a tightening of your heart when your partner is bugging you, then you can create the space to respond in a balanced way before even opening your mouth.

Youre still reacting, but youre not snapping at the person and making things worse.

With regular practice of this meditation technique, the immediate reaction naturally erodes over time.

We literally become more peaceful. Take a deep breath and relax takes on new meaning now, doesnt it?

The whole goal is not to be right, but to see things clearly. You act more with kindness and compassion and less with fiery passion.

Often, that means not taking things personally. It means really listening to someone elses point of view and taking it all in before immediately thinking about yourself and how the situation concerns you.

So, in 10 days, what did I learn?

That I was pretty darn fierce. That at the end of the day, my happiness rests on and within me.

And at the same time, I learned there really is no me after all. There are just these sensations arising and passing that I can then choose to act on or not, based on how well I observe them objectively.

Its all part of the law of nature, what some might call consciousness or even pure awareness.

In a strange way, after sitting there for awhile with over 100 other people, you actually start to feel the shared vibrational energy in the air.

You feel like you arent separate from anyone or anything else.

At one point, I felt like I was an airy mass of little tiny bubbles just floating in the room.

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I learned that pain is inevitable. Shit happens in life we cant control, but that doesnt mean we have to create more drama and stories around it in our own heads.

Weve lost loved ones. Weve broken up with people we cared for.

Weve been fired from jobs we thought wed have forever.

Weve gotten swindled out of money. Weve experienced all of this and more.

The pain in life is inevitable, but the suffering is optional.

Learning to be able to objectively observe the sensations in your body and your breath is a simple ticket to freedom and happiness.

But, it takes a commitment to practice.

To establish this new habit pattern, the course recommends meditating for a minimum of two hours a day.

I dont know if I can or will do that, but I am committed to change.

You just have to take one little step to get started.

The truth is, the real test for me occurred when the retreat ended.

My mom, who had kindly been cat sitting for me, appeared to have lost one of my two cats.

Instead of freaking out, I just went about what was practical: to have her look again and for me to drive home with my other cat.

Instead of yelling at her or guilting her into feeling bad, I told her if my kitty was gone, she was gone, and theres nothing we could do.

Without even realizing it, I responded to that situation with balance of mind, detachment and equanimity.

We ended up finding my cat under the sofa, but this instance proved how these teachings could help me in real life.

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Its been said we cant change what happens in life, but we can change how we relate to what happens.

After taking this course, Im pretty confident that whatever happens to me now, at least I have a toolbox filled up with gadgets I never had before.

Now, I can usethem to help others as best I can, and I can try to be kind to all beings as well as myself.

We ended each meditation with the words, May all beings be happy.

I think those are life goals we can agree on.

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I Didn't Speak For 10 Days, And I've Never Felt More Grounded In My Life - Elite Daily

Read James 2:14-26 James 1:25 (NIV)

Whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in itnot forgetting what they have heard, but doing itthey will be blessed in what they do.

Worshiping with fellow Christians is special. Being fed from the word of God, being taught and encouraged by singing and praying together, giving to meet the needs of others and remembering the sacrifice of our Savior all make the time we spend together a blessing.

But I think that too often the motivation to live more faithfully grows cold once the church services are over. We dont always take what we learn in church and live it out in our daily lives. If we leave behind what we learned while we were assembled together, we miss out on putting our discipleship into practice. Taking to the street what we have learned while we were assembled together, we miss out on putting our discipleship into practice. Taking to the street what we have learned means treating our families and neighbors the way Christ would. It means being the very best employees we can be. It means maturing as parents, as students, and even as citizens. As the verse from James quoted above tells us, it means for us to go beyond listening to acting.

Meeting together as Christians gives us the tools and understanding of Gods love that help us live faithfully. Wherever we go as we leave the service, we can resolve to share with others the unity and peace that Christs love inspires in us.

PrayerDear God, help us not to take the blessings of life in Christ for granted but instead to share them with those around us. In Jesus name. Amen.

Thought for the DayAlong with worship and fellowship, God desires our discipleship and service.

Andy Baker (Tennessee)

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Meditation - High Plains Journal

The auditorium at the University of the District of Columbia was dark Sunday afternoon not in the sense that nothing was happening onstage, but because the pianist Richard Goode prefers to play with the lights dimmed, to create, as Washington Performing Arts President Jenny Bilfield said from the stage, a meditative atmosphere.

Is that the opposite of outreach, presenting classical music in a setting of quiet reverence? Or is it a sign of the times to think about the whole picture of the concert and to care about the ambiance as well as the music? The proof is in the playing, and Goode, 73, a musicians musician, offered a performance of Bach and Chopin to more than satisfy not only the faithful but also anyone else who happened to be in attendance.

The program fell neatly into two halves. On the first were four selections from Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier, starting with the intricate triple fugue of the F-sharp-minor pairing through to the fluid stream of notes of the prelude in B. Although Goode sounded a little hesitant in a few places, his touch slightly rough, the lines in this prelude spooled from his fingers like oil.

[Richard Goode lends a lively voice to an exuberant all-Bach program]

Real love informs Goodes performance, and if that love becomes part of the focus of the afternoon, sharing place with the music as the player conducted his left hand with his right, sang along in places or paused with relish after the drama of opening notes of the A-minor prelude the listeners did not mind.

Each half of the program had one longer work surrounded by groups of shorter ones: the sixth partita, in E minor, on the Bach half; the third ballade, quiet and singing, on the Chopin half, embedded in a bouquet of nocturnes and mazurkas and topped off with the Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat. After the intricacies of the Bach partita, Goodes Chopin seemed a contrast indeed, with the E-flat nocturne (Op. 55, No. 2) as sweet and full as rose water against the clear Bach rain.

[Pianist Richard Goode makes an unforgettable evening]

But the initial focus on Bach attuned the ear to the intricacies within the Chopin pieces, such as the little hints of dissonance twanging at the edges of some of the phrases, laid in at a slight angle to make those voluptuous lines stick in the mind in, for instance, the C-minor nocturne (Op. 48, No. 1). A group of four mazurkas emerged as distinct, taut little worlds of rhythm and color. And if Goode was over-emotive in some aspects of his presentation, he was not overblown in his playing; indeed, the opening of the ballade was almost too restrained, leaving room for more effect when he finally unleased some fortissimos toward the end.

The last piece, the Polonaise-Fantaisie, was an exploration through the stars, dreamy and a little anticlimactic in that the heart of this program were the short bursts of insight offered in each of the smaller pieces that made it up. The encore returned to Bach with the Sarabande from the fourth partita, in D a small punctuation mark on an afternoon full of them.

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A pianist's personal meditation: Richard Goode plays Bach, Chopin - Washington Post

Photo: John Salangsang, INVL

Oprah Winfrey is one of many celebrities who practice meditation. She and spiritual guru Deepak Chopra regularly offer free 21-day meditation experiences through their app.

Oprah Winfrey is one of many celebrities who practice meditation. She and spiritual guru Deepak Chopra regularly offer free 21-day meditation experiences through their app.

Katy Perry

Katy Perry

Russell Simmons

Russell Simmons

Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman

Big Sean

Big Sean

Jerry Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga

Heather Graham

Heather Graham

Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres

Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar

Spiritual guru Deepak Chopra

Spiritual guru Deepak Chopra

Goldie Hawn

Goldie Hawn

Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon

Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul

Husband and wife: Producer Trudie Styler and musician Sting

Husband and wife: Producer Trudie Styler and musician Sting

Experts say meditation isn't hard. Here's how:

In 2016, media and radio personality Devi Brown launched Karma Bliss (www.karmabliss.com) to offer tools, resources and products for meditation and mindfulness. She gives these tips if you're new to meditation:

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Experts say meditation isn't hard. Here's how: - Chron.com

You know exercise is good for you, but if you're over 65, which is best? A study from Mayo Clinic found that high-intensity aerobic exercise can actually reverse aging on a cellular level.

High-intensity aerobic exercise or cardio includes running.

Mayo researchers compared high-intensity interval training (HIIT), resistance training and combined training in a 12-week study. They monitored molecular and metabolic changes in adults divided into age groups of between 18 and 30 and between 65 and 80.

All types of training improved lean body mass and insulin sensitivity, but only high-intensity training improved aerobic capacity and mitochondrial function in skeletal muscle.

Mitochondria are tiny energy-producing structures inside cells. They change with age and activity, and tend to decrease, both in content and function, as we grow older. One result is we have less energy.

In the study, high-intensity interval training also improved muscle protein content that not only allowed cells to create more energy, but to also cause muscles to get bigger, especially in older adults.

The ability of the mitrochondria to generate energy was increased by 69 percent among the seniors and by 49 percent in the younger group.

"We encourage everyone to exercise regularly, but the take-home message for aging adults that supervised high-intensity training is probably best, because, both metabolically and at the molecular level, it confers the most benefits," says Dr. K. Sreekumaran Nair, a Mayo Clinic endocrinologist and senior researcher on the study.

Study results are published in Cell Metabolism.

2017 NewsmaxHealth. All rights reserved.

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High-Intensity Aerobics Can Reverse Aging Process - Newsmax.com - Newsmax

Organic cotton textiles register no more than a footnote in the worlds cotton production, but Vishal Naithani wants to change that.

His company, Sustained Organic Living in Edina, selects certified organic cotton grown in India with non-GMO seeds. The products are made using only fair trade labor on the farms and in the factories.

The challenge for Naithani and his company, which is also known as Sol Organics, is to be able to create the level of interest among consumers for organic apparel that has been generated for organic food. For now, his chief weapon is price: He aims to price his products significantly lower than his online competitors and on par with high-quality bedding that is not fair trade organic.

Every family should have access to affordable organic cotton just like they have access to affordable organic food, he said. It shouldnt be only the wealthy who can afford premium products.

Sol Organics is one of a number of companies offering organic, fair trade textiles online or in stores. Companies such as Boll & Branch and Patagonia sell them. West Elm, Pottery Barn, and Target feature organic cotton that may or may not be fair trade. Naithani said Sol Organics is the only Minnesota-based company to do so.

Part of the reason Naithani acts as a maverick is that organic cotton hasnt grabbed the consumers attention like organic milk, produce and poultry.

Shoppers arent ingesting organic cotton as they do organic foods, so they may not see the benefit, said Mary Brett Whitfield, senior vice president at Kantar Retail, a retail consulting business. We havent trained shoppers to think about how cotton is grown or how it fits in the environmental food chain.

Conventionally grown cottons critics say the so-called fabric of our lives is a crop that requires lots of water and chemicals to grow. A pesticide-intensive crop, conventional cotton uses more than an average amount of pesticides, although the amount is in dispute.

Cotton covers 2.5 percent of the worlds cultivated land, yet growers use an estimated 10 to 25 percent of the worlds pesticides, according to Rodale Institute, a Pennsylvania organic farm and researcher. AMIS Global, an agriculture data firm, estimates the pesticide usage for cotton at closer to 5 percent, according to Cotton Inc., a U.S. trade organization.

In India, where more than 20 percent of the worlds cotton is grown, child labor is common. According to a Harris Poll conducted in 2016, three in five consumers would not purchase a cotton product if they knew it was picked by children or forced labor.

Naithani and others in the business believe that, in time, more consumers will search out organic sheets, towels and clothing. Only 5 percent of consumers purchase organic clothing, slightly higher among millennials, according to Kantar Retail.

The average price paid for a queen sheet set in the U.S. is $80, but organic cotton sets (300 thread count sateen) start at $240 at BollandBranch.com and $258 at Coyuchi.com.

At the wholesale level, organic, fair trade cotton costs only about 15 percent more than conventional cotton, Naithani said. He doubles the cost of the goods for his retail price while competitors triple the cost, he said.

The only way to get people to convert to buying organic cotton is to keep prices competitive. Costco and Wal-Mart have made organic food affordable, he said. We want to do the same for organic cotton.

At $119 for a queen set and $139 for a king set at solorganix.com (after a $40 instant savings), his prices are 30 to 50 percent less than comparable products online, but still nearly double what a conventional set costs at Kohls or J.C. Penney.

Naithani hopes to drop the price of his queen-sized set to $99 within two years, once the product reaches critical mass. Affordability is the tipping point, he said. It promotes access, which in turn creates demand and conversion to organic cotton.

Brett Whitfield sees organic cotton as early in its life cycle but poised for growth. Target and Pottery Barn recently expanded their organic textiles selection. Pottery Barns spring collections show fair trade, organic sheets and towels.

Target, which already had organic cotton sheets, clothes and baby items, added organic in its new Cat & Jack kids line. Its recent pledge to remove perfluorinated chemicals and flame retardants from textiles by 2022 shows a long-term commitment.

We know organic cotton is important to our guests, said Erika Winkels, a Target spokeswoman. It will continue to grow in the future, whether its home or apparel. Its not the be-all-end-all, but its important.

Naithani, who also sells his product on Amazon, hopes to break $1 million in annual sheet sales by next month. Thats still a fraction of the online retailer Boll & Branch, which sold about $40 million in organic fair trade sheets and towels in 2016.

Sols products are getting four- and five-star reviews online. His return rate is an enviably low 2.5 percent.

Increasing the demand for organic cotton creates this tremendous upside where everyone wins, the farmer, the consumer and the earth, he said.

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Can organic cotton become as mainstream as organic food? - Minneapolis Star Tribune

JON MORGAN

Last updated12:32, March 13 2017

We have to trust farmers, regulators and science that pesticide residues in our food are not at dangerous levels.

OPINION: Wellington Organic Week is coming up and I'm pleased. It gives my organic farming friends a chance to profit from this heightened interest in them.

But what I'm not happy about is the divisiveness of a crowd calling themselves the Safe Food Campaign.

They claim that only organic food is "safe" because all other food contains pesticides that are a risk to children's health. In a media release marking Wellington Organic Week, they spell out, with relish, what can go wrong - birth defects, genetic and hormonal damage, damaged immune system, and brain damage. All this from eating non-organic food.

Now, the organic growers and farmers I know would be horrified by these scare tactics. They know claims like this are without foundation and they know that they lead to counter-claims of equal strength which I will come to in a minute.

READ MORE:Kiwis take to organics as the sector goes mainstream

First, these claims. Every so often health authorities detail pesticide residues in food. The Greens and their mates see this as a chance to literally scare up more votes and toxicologists are forced to hose them down.

These experts say use of pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers, and veterinary medicines in all food is strictly regulated and pesticide levels are at extremely low levels, not remotely near what would be considered unsafe. These residuesaredetected more efficiently than they used to be because thetechnology to do so has improved.

If the Safe Foodclaims were true, youwould think the Cancer Society would be up in arms. But no.

This is what the society says: "There is no current evidence that shows very low levels of pesticide residues increase the risk of cancer. There is evidence which suggests eating lots of fruit and vegetables has many health benefits. These health benefits far outweigh any risk which might be linked with pesticide residues and you should not limit the fruit and vegetables you eat."

Strangely, the chemicals that organic farmers are permitted to use to replace conventional pesticides are not tested for residues in food but you can bet they're there.

The list is too long to show here, but these are three of the more dangerous ones.

Copper sulphate is used as a fungicide by organic farmers, despite its far higher toxicity when compared to synthetic alternatives.

Vineyard sprayers have experienced liver disease from exposure to it. It is corrosive to the skin and eyes, and is absorbed through the skin. It causes reproductive problems in birds, hamsters and rats. It has been shown to induce heart disease in the offspring of pregnant hamsters that were exposed to it. It has caused endocrine tumours in chickens. At normal application rates it is foundto bepoisonous to sheep and chickens. It isvery toxic to fish, crabs, shrimps and oysters.

There are cases where most animal life in soil, including large earthworms, have been eliminated by the extensive use of copper-containing fungicides in orchards.

Once a soil is contaminated with copper, there is no practical way to remove it.

Azadirachtin, also known as neem oil, is a toxic pesticide that is far more effective in killing foraging bees than synthetic pesticides.EUstudieshaveshown it kills 50 per cent of bee populations when they're exposed to a dose level 50 times lower than the recommended dosefororganicfarmers.

Pyrethrum is highly toxic to bees. Several studies indicate the possibility of a connection between pyrethrins and cancer, including one study showing a 3.7-fold increase in leukemia among farmers who had handled pyrethrins compared to those who had not.

Organic farmers excuse their use of these poisons by saying they have no alternative. Yes they do. They could use the pesticides conventional farmers use and are proved to be safe. But then they wouldn't be "organic" and able to charge more for their food and claim they are safer than other food.

You see. It's easy to slag off both organic and non-organic food for perceived dangers. But the fact is we have to trust the farmers, the scientistsand the regulators that they are keeping all food safe for us to eat. And I am sure they are.

Jon Morganis the editor of NZ Farmer

-Stuff

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Safe food campaign open to counter-claims of poisons in organic ... - Stuff.co.nz