Jazz vocalist Stacey Kent and her husband, tenor saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, return to Salt Lake City on Monday, March 20, at the Capitol Theatre for a concert featuring music from the "Great American Songbook."

We havent toured as much (this year)," Kent said in an interview. "Every year has a different rhythm and this year weve been smarter about our touring. Even though were relaxing, Jim and I are working on a big project. Its an orchestral composition with a 53-piece orchestra, and Jim has written some beautiful new songs.

Along with her husband and their children, she said they are relaxing, skiing and composing in Colorado.

Gordon Hanks, founder of the Jazz SLC concert series, considers Kent and Tomlinson part of his extended family.

"They are an amazing husband-and-wife team and a crowd favorite, Hanks said.

Though the idea of working day in and day out with a spouse could seem daunting to some, Kent said she relishes the experience.

Besides being husband and wife we are best friends," she said. "It sounds corny, but when we were lined up on a blind date by some friends of friends, we hit it off immediately. It was love at first sight. We liked the same music, laughed at the same things and had complete respect for each other, plus the push-pull tension we have between each other keeps things interesting. The formulas work for us.

Interestingly enough, music was not in Kents plans when she was in college, she said. She sang and enjoyed music but everything changed when she studied abroad in London, enrolled in a graduate program in music and drama, and met Tomlinson.

Had we not met, I probably would have remained in the academic world, but it all changed with that encounter," she said. "My life would have been so completely different, but when you are young, like we were, everything can change at the drop of a hat.

Kent is fluent in Portuguese, French, German and Italian and adds that to her vocalist repertoire.

Ive always been interested in language and there is something very intimate and personal if you can sing to people in their own language," she said. "My grandfather was such a pivotal mentor in my life. When I was growing up, we used to listen to all types of music together. He looked at life with such tenderness that it affected me deeply in the way I listen to music. Brazilian music resonates with us because of that intimate connection.

Rest assured, that whatever language Stacey chooses to sing, it will be heartfelt and emotional, Hanks said. She never disappoints.

If you go

What: Stacey Kent and Jim Tomlinson

When: Monday, March 20, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South

How much: $29.50 for general, $10 for students with ID

Web: artsaltlake.org

Phone: 801-355-2787

Jeff Metcalf is a professor of English at the University of Utah and an avid jazz fan.

Originally posted here:

Stacey Kent's at home with Jazz SLC concert series - Deseret News

Photo Credit: Christiaan Colen / Flickr

Since 2009, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have been allowed to search electronic devices carried by citizens or noncitizens as they cross the border into the United States from other countries. More recently, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly suggested this digital vetting should also include harvesting social media passwords. Kellys proposal prompted legal and technology experts to respond with an open letter expressing deep concern about any policy that demands that individuals violate the first rule of online security: Do not share your passwords.

Travelers themselves responded, too, looking for ways to avoid surrendering their device passwords to federal agents. One approach what we might call the Nothing To See Here method tries to make a device unsearchable by erasing the hard drive before travel, uninstalling social media apps, letting the devices battery charge run out or even wiping the device if an emergency or duress password was entered.

The Id Love To Comply, But I Cant approach involves exotic solutions like installing two-factor authentication on the device or social media account, and then making the second factor (such as a passcode or digital key) available only in a remote location. Retrieving the second factor would require a warrant and travel outside the border crossing.

These methods are dangerous because they put an already stressed traveler in the position of defying law enforcement at the border, a legal environment that is designed to support the government and not the traveler. Following this advice properly also requires careful execution of technical skills that most travelers dont have. And the degree of advance planning and preparation required might itself be considered a sign of suspicious activity requiring deeper scrutiny by border officials.

But its tempting to wonder: Could computer scientists and software designers like me create a better password system? Can we make Id Love To Comply, But I Cant the only possible answer for every traveler? In short, can we create passwords even their owners dont know?

The search for the unknowable password

Developing unknowable passwords is an active area of security research. In 2012, a team from Stanford University, Northwestern University and the SRI research center developed a scheme for using a computer game similar to Guitar Hero to train the subconscious brain to learn a series of keystrokes. When a musician memorizes how to play a piece of music, she doesnt need to think about each note or sequence. It becomes an ingrained, trained reaction usable as a password but nearly impossible even for the musician to spell out note by note, or for the user to disclose letter by letter.

In addition, the system is designed so that even if the password is discovered, the attacker is unable to enter the keystrokes with the same fluidity as the trained user. The combination of keystrokes and ease of performance uniquely ties the password to the user, while freeing the user from having to remember anything consciously.

Unfortunately, in our border travel scenario, the agent could demand that the traveler unlock the device or application using the subconscious password.

A team at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, proposed a different solution in 2016. Their solution, called Chill-Pass, measures an individuals unique brain chemistry response while listening to her choice of relaxing music. This biometric reaction becomes part of the users log-in process. If a user is under duress, she will be unable to relax enough to match her previously measured chill state, and the log-in will fail.

It is unclear whether CBP agents would be able to defeat a system like Chill-Pass by providing travelers with, say, massage chairs and spa treatments. Even so, the stresses of daily life would make it impractical to use this kind of password regularly. A relaxation-based system would be most useful for people undertaking high-stakes missions where they fear coercion.

And just like with other plans to make CBP scrutiny impossible, this might end up attracting more attention to a traveler, rather than encouraging officers to give up and move on to the next person.

Can you score security?

In 2015, Google announced Project Abacus, another solution to the Id Love To Comply, But I Cant problem. It replaces the traditional password with a Trust Score, a proprietary cocktail of characteristics that Google has determined can identify you. The score includes biometric factors like your typing patterns, walking speed, voice patterns and facial expressions. And it can include your location and other unspecified elements.

The Trust Score calculator constantly runs in the background of a smartphone or other device, updating itself with new information and recalculating the score throughout the day. If the Trust Score falls below a certain threshold, say by observing a strange typing pattern or an unfamiliar location, the system will require the user to enter additional authentication credentials.

Its unclear how a Trust Score authentication might affect a border search. A CBP agent could still demand that a traveler unlock the device and its apps. But if the agency couldnt disable the Trust Score system, the phones owner would have to be allowed to hold the device and use it throughout the agents inspection. If someone else tried to use it, the constantly recalculated Trust Score could fall, locking out an investigator.

That process would at least ensure a phones owner knew what information federal agents were collecting from the phone. That hasnt been possible for some arriving travelers, including U.S. citizens and even government employees.

But the Trust Score system puts a lot of control in the hands of Google, a for-profit corporation that could decide or could be compelled to provide government with a way around it.

So now what?

None of these technological solutions to the password problem is perfect, and none of them is commercially available today. Until research, industry and innovation come up with better ones, whats a digital age traveler to do?

First, do not lie to a federal agent. Thats a felony and will definitely attract more unwanted attention from investigators.

Next, determine how much inconvenience you are willing to tolerate in order to remain silent or to refuse to comply. Noncompliance will have a cost: Your devices could be seized and your travel could be seriously disrupted.

Either way, if and when you are asked for your social media handles or passwords, or to unlock your devices, pay attention and remember as many details as you can. Then, if you wish, alert a digital civil liberties group that this happened. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a web page with instructions for how to report a device search at the border.

If you think that sensitive materials might have been compromised in the search, notify family, friends and colleagues who might be affected. And until we figure out a better way change your passwords.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Megan Squireis aProfessor of Computing Sciences at Elon University.

Visit link:

Why We Should Not Know Our Own Passwords | Alternet - AlterNet

By Louis Gore-LangtonLouis Gore-Langton , 13-Mar-20172017-03-13T00:00:00Z Last updated on 13-Mar-2017 at 14:51 GMT2017-03-13T14:51:30Z

Organic may be less sustainable and less beneficial to consumer health than previously thought, according to new research.

Organic has been a growing trend throughout Europe, making a continued expansion since the 2008 recession in which sales dropped dramatically.

But is organic really the panacea for the food systems environmental and health related problems?

A review of scientific literature analysing organic farming with seventeen different criteria found that a number of factors, including crop yield and consumer health, do not show such glowing results.

The study shows that the costs and benefits of organic farms have often been analysed in comparison to conventional farms with the same land area which does not take into account crop yield.

When the efficiency of farms is measured by yield, organic methods have been shown in numerous studies to underperform by around 19 25%. For some crops this figure can rise to as high as 30 or 40%.

Although the need for increased food supply is still debated because of the inefficiencies and inequities in the current system, yields do matter not only for farmers whose incomes critically depend on the yield but also for many environmental outcomes. Even if food production does not need to increase, higher yields could still be environmentally beneficial because we could take land out of production and restore natural ecosystemsthe study notes.

This is not only a problem for increasing output and satisfying the worlds shortage of food, but also for environmental degradation.

Land conversion for agriculture is the worlds leading cause of habitat loss and climate change. The world wildlife fund (WWF) state that 38% of the worlds habitable land is currently used for agriculture and that a further 120 million hectares will need to be converted to intensive monoculture farms by 2050 to continue feeding the worlds population.

Despite organic farms requiring more land for production, biodiversity within that land usually increases greatly under organic methods.

Health concerns are the number one factor motivating consumers to opt for organic products.

However, the study shows that the potential harm caused by pesticides in food is highly context dependent and that consumers in economically developed countries would be far more at risk than those in developing countries:

The only entirely unequivocal benefit of organic foods is reduced contamination from pesticide residues although this might not matter for consumers in high-income countries, where pesticide contamination on conventionally grown food is far below acceptable daily intake thresholds it could provide an important health benefit for consumers elsewhere.

Hans Muillmen of the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) however, told FoodNavigator that this does not cover the whole picture.

Food from industrial agriculture contains numerous pesticide residues. Consumers eat dozens of pesticides on a daily basis and the combined effects of these pesticides are not accounted for in the regulations. Industrial food is not safe. Organic doesn't contain synthetic pesticide residues at all and is safe.

A recentPAN release reported on the cumulative effects of different types of pesticides, saying that whilst individual residues are minor, western consumers still take on dozens of different types per day, which can be toxic.

The researchers said the literature review showed ultimately that whilst organic has huge benefits and requires larger amounts of research and funding,organic agriculture cannot be the Holy Grail for our sustainable food security challenges.

Instead, more emphasis should be placed on finding and utilising the areas where organic works best, and this requires trade-offs for separate problems like output and biodiversity.

Source: ScienceAdvances

Published 2017; DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1602638

"Many shades of grayThe context-dependent performance of organic agriculture"

Authors:Verena Seufertl,Navin Ramankutty

View original post here:

Organic is a single part of a sustainable food system, and only works in certain contexts: study - FoodNavigator.com

Sorry green-market-loving hipsters, but it turns out eating organic isnt always that great for the planet, and may only have a marginal effect on your health.

A new study published in the journal Science Advances reports that even though organic farms have the ecofriendly benefit of using fewer pesticides, they also use more land, which is harmful to the planet.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia analyzed organic crop farming across 17 criteria such as yield, impact on climate change, farmer livelihood and consumer health by looking at the existing scientific literature on its results. For one, they found the environmental benefits of organic farming can be offset by the lower yields of such crops (typically 19 to 25 percent lower than conventional farming).

While an organic farm may be better for things like biodiversity, farmers will need more land to grow the same amount of food, wrote Verena Seufert, the studys co-author. And land conversion for agriculture is the leading contributor to habitat loss and climate change.

The study also pointed out that reviews disagree on whether organic food offers a significant difference in nutrient content compared to conventional crops. While one benefit was found to be unequivocal reduced contamination from pesticides the authors point out that this might not matter for consumers in high-income countries, where pesticide contamination on conventionally grown food is far below acceptable daily intake thresholds.

For consumers in less-developed countries, however, the health benefit is greater.

Read the original post:

Organic food isn't all it's cracked up to be | New York Post - New York Post

This story was originally published by Fusionand is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Its easy to think that buying organic food helps to support local communities and protect the environment from the heavy hand of big agriculture. But the reality is not so clear cut. A detailed new analysis finds that organic farming is not always more upstanding than its conventional counterpart.

One of trickiest challenges facing society is how to produce enough food for growing populations without wrecking the environment and local communities. A study published on March 10 in the journal Science Advances finds that organic agriculture is not the holy grail of sustainable agriculture that its image suggests.

Its not enough just to do organic, said Verena Seufert, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and a lead author of the study.

There is not a single answer to whether organic performs better or worse than conventional agriculture, she added.

The study finds that organic farming is better than conventional agriculture in some important ways.

The clearest benefit of organic agriculture is that farm workers are exposed to fewer potentially toxic pesticides, said Seufert.

Also, lower levels of pesticide residues are found on organic produce. This is of most benefit for people living in low-income countries, which tend to have weak controls on pesticide use. But it will make little difference to the health of consumers in the U.S. or Europe, for example, where pesticide residues on conventionally grown food are very low, the study says.

It also confirms previous findings that organic food is more nutritious, but the slightly higher levels of vitamins and other wholesome compounds are unlikely large enough to boost consumers health, said Seufert.

Organic agriculture is also a boon for financially fraught farmers. Farmers often struggle to make ends meet and must supplement their income through other activities, said Seufert.

Organic produce commands a higher price, making it more profitable, the study finds. However, organic farmers do not seem to provide better working conditions or wages to laborers, according to the limited available evidence, said Seufert.

While organic farms are friendlier to wildlife, such as bees, they are not always kinder to the environment overall, the study says. This is because organic farms produce less food on the same area of land compared to conventional farms. Lower organic yields mean that more land is put to work. And for the same amount of food produced, organic farms also tend to release more nitrogen pollution than conventional farms.

The new analysis is one of the most comprehensive to date comparing large-scale organic and conventional farming. It clarifies previous mixed conclusions on organic farmings green credentials. Other research has shown that smaller community gardens are important sources of organic produce, and have a plethora of socioeconomic and environmental benefits, such as saving on shipping costs and packaging and providing green spaces for people to enjoy.

This does not imply that organic agriculture is bad or should not be part of the solution. It just means we need to improve organic agriculture and make it better, said Seufert.

Amending organic regulations to better promote environmentally friendly farming practices, such as rotating crops, could help make organic farming more sustainable, said Seufert. Currently, organic regulations mainly focus on restricting chemical inputs such as pesticides and fertilizers.

If you want to make organic sustainable, you must include environmental best practices in regulations, she said.

In addition, researchers need to develop new crop varieties that are bred to perform well in organic systems, such as crops that can grow well with less fertilizer. Today, most of the crops grown on organic farms were bred for conventional agriculture where nutrient-rich chemical fertilizer is liberally applied.

John Reganold, an agroecologist at Washington State University, said that the new study agrees with much of his own findings on organic farming including that it better supports ecosystem services such as bio-pest control and healthier soils. But he said the future of farming will likely sit in the middle ground between organic and conventional agriculture, where farmers will use green farming methods alongside chemicals inputs. Such hybrid farming will be more sustainable by better balancing profit and productivity with social and environmental concerns, he said.

Organic farming is helping to drive a move towards sustainable agriculture by encouraging conventional farmers to adopt environmentally friendly practices, said Reganold.

Organic farming is pulling conventional farmers towards the middle ground. This will have a tremendous impact, he said.

And although organic produce is grown on only 1 percent of global farmland, it can have a strong influence on agricultural markets. It is the fastest growing food sector in North America and Europe. Consumers recognize and demand the organic food label, said Seufert.

Therefore, at the moment, organic is the most important way that consumers can influence how their food is produced, she said.

More:

Is organic always better? It's not as clear-cut as you might think. - Grist

Goldlink's new single is out now. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

Goldlink's new single is out now.

In the book Go-Go Live: The Musical Life And Death Of A Chocolate City, writer Natalie Hopkinson uses Washington D.C.'s half-century-old sonic identity as a lens to magnify the historic intersections of race, class and causality in America's stratified capital. It's all intimate terrain for 23-year-old DMV (shorthand for D.C., Maryland, Virginia) native GoldLink, and the latest single from the rapper's forthcoming debut full-length provides a perfect "Meditation" on the theme.

Over Montreal producer Kaytranada's electro-bounce track, featuring Jazmine Sullivan on the hook, GoldLink channels a late-night party vibe that reverberates with nostalgia for his musical roots. The new album, still publicly untitled, marks a first for GoldLink, who debuted to critical acclaim with his 2014 mixtape The God Complex, as he attempts to pay homage to go-go. But it's the essence of the culture, rather than the sound palette, that he's most interested in distilling. "I want people to understand the culture of where the music came from and, to do that, I try and explain the feats and perils and the everyday experience of people from here who know that era," he tells NPR via email.

Instead of mimicking the rhythm of conga drums and cowbells intrinsic to go-go, GoldLink sets out to convey the feeling embodied by a late-night go-go on "Meditation." In double-time, he spits a stream-of-conscious flow to the object of his desire. It's an explicit romp that combines visceral reality with the romantic fantasies of an uncertain future in the country's former murder capital. The climax comes when the music fades, interrupted by a melee inside the club punctuated by random gunshots.

"I've been in so many situations like that off of the strength of growing up in Maryland and D.C," GoldLink explains. "Because the hoods were so close and the parties were so scarce, [seeing] so many people from different neighborhoods created tension. Then one thing leads to another." The music often underscored competing passions the romantic and the real which is part of the paradox that makes "Meditation" captivating. "It was easy for me to channel that reality and fantasy factor for that song because it really happened to me growing up," he says, recalling how it felt to spot a girl from a distance while mustering up the confidence to approach her. "You make up this weird scenario of you floating across the room and saying the best panty-dropping one liner of all f****** time ... Yet in reality, I'm with my homies and I got to make sure that everybody leaves in one piece."

The yearning he expresses for his love interest throughout the song also personifies the protective nature of D.C.'s relationship with go-go. "Go-go never really broke outside of D.C. because we, as the people, didn't allow it to," he says. "She was our girlfriend and we didn't want anybody else to f*** her. All that means to me is that, as D.C. folk, we take pride in preservation."

Unlike DMV rapper Wale, who's notably incorporated elements of go-go into his music, GoldLink's taking a less literal approach. The song's release is accompanied by what the artist refers to as an "animation audio visual" of complementary artwork by Darius X. Moreno, a DMV native who used rotoscope animation to bring his gritty painted interpretations of GoldLink's evocative sound to life.

Goldlink, Meditation Courtesy of the artist hide caption

"I was looking for an artist who could translate black culture well in today's time, nostalgically, and he nailed it," GoldLink, who's been working behind-the-scenes with Moreno to visualize the next phase of his career, says. "What draws me to his style is the way that it properly displays black realism, modern art and the sound of D.C. in the most accurate and honest way. He's from here and understands our culture."

The album also features production from other notable producers, including Matt Martians and Steve Lacy (The Internet), Louie Lastic (Soulection) and Sevn Thomas (Rihanna, Drake, PARTYNEXTDOOR). Lyrically, GoldLink promises to explore everything from survivor's guilt to spiritual affluence. But the album will serve primarily as a paean to a culture increasingly displaced and dispossessed in its own hometown.

"Go-go needs to be appreciated and the culture needs to be understood in order for people to enjoy the music," he says. "I want to reference [it], I want to educate, I want to shine a light."

"Meditation" is out now on Squaaash Club/RCA Records.

More:

GoldLink's 'Meditation' On Go-Go Links Desire And A Dark Reality ... - NPR

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.

Here is the original post:

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.

Read more:

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

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