Women's Health

'I Tried Going Vegan For A WeekHere's What Happened' Women's Health As food trends go these days, going vegan is about as cool as you can get. Not only does eating a diet of just plants promise to lower your cholesterol and make your skin look positively glow-y, but its devotees carry a certain aura of righteousness ...

Original post:

'I Tried Going Vegan For A WeekHere's What Happened' - Women's Health

Arthur Mola/Invision/AP

Leilani Munter's funding for her car -- a project she has been working on for five years -- is led by A Well-Fed World, a nonprofit that responded after she gave a speech for winning an award as vegan athlete of the year.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Leilani Munter will return to the racetrack for the first time in two years when she competes Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.

For the environmental and animal-rights activist who races cars, Munter will compete in the Automobile Racing Club of America season-opening race thanks to sponsorship that she views as a product of several years of work, with the purpose of looking ahead to her advocacy work.

Munter will drive her "vegan-powered" car, which has sponsorship from a collection of nonprofits, to promote a plant-based diet. In addition to the car, the funding will also support a tent that will give away vegan food samples for four days during the Daytona race weeks.

"When I'm going to vegan festivals or clean-energy events, it's preaching to the choir," Munter said Wednesday at the track. "I'm standing there talking to a bunch of people who already get it. ... For me, I always feel like I'm making the most difference being at the track.

"This one, giving out the food, will probably be the greatest impact I will have."

Her funding for this car -- a project she has been working on for five years -- is led by A Well-Fed World, a nonprofit that responded after she gave a speech for winning an award as vegan athlete of the year.

"I was starting to give up on the vegan car," Munter said. "I was like, 'You know, I have emailed all the people I know, I have been talking about it for years, and it's just not happening. Maybe it was just too soon to try to do something like this.'

"Then, just giving that 10-minute acceptance speech, I got the call two or three weeks later."

Among the athletes who will be at Daytona over the next week to support the cause is former NFL player David Carter, and one of the chefs will come from a vegan food manufacturer.

"We're serving the kinds of foods race fans are going to find at the track," Munter said. "I'm not going to show up with kale. I'm showing up with vegan chicken wings and meatballs -- stuff they would expect to find at the race track. ... We're not going to open minds if we're not putting food in their mouths.

"That is the moment where people change."

Every time I sit in the race car, a little part of me is thinking, 'This could be the last green flag that I take. This could be the last time that I sit on the starting grid.'

Leilani Munter

Getting people to change is why the 43-year-old Munter still races. She has competed sporadically in developmental leagues in both stock cars and IndyCar over the last several years as she devotes time to her causes.

Her most recent races have included promotion of documentaries "The Cove" and "Blackfish." Earlier this year, she was banned from SeaWorld property after the park called the sheriff while she was standing outside the gates with flowers and a sign mourning the death of killer whale Tilikum.

Munter, who spent nearly four years dedicating most of her time to the climate crisis and mass-extinction film "Racing Extinction," where she drove a Tesla, said she doesn't worry that her activism or news of her SeaWorld ban could turn away sponsors. She also knows that her activist-themed sponsorship isn't designed for longevity. She has competed in just eight ARCA races since 2010, having finished as high as 12th twice -- at Chicagoland Speedway and Kansas Speedway in 2014. Both those races came with the Venturini Motorsports team, which she will race for on Saturday.

"These were all nonprofits [sponsoring me these races]," Munter said. "They don't have multimillion-dollar budgets where they can run a full season. I never really expected any of them to turn into a full season.

"That comes with the territory of me being an activist and wanting my car to carry these cool messages. ... You work really hard, you get the car on the track, you get one race and then you're starting over again."

Because of that, Munter knows Saturday could be her final race. But she never knows, as her activism continues.

"Every time I sit in the race car, a little part of me is thinking, 'This could be the last green flag that I take. This could be the last time that I sit on the starting grid,'" Munter said.

"I savor every moment. ... It's been two years since I've been in a car. It could be never that I'm in a car again."

Link:

Leilani Munter 'vegan powered' for her ARCA return - ESPN

SATURDAY, FEB. 18, 2017, 3:34 A.M.

By Eve Glazier, M.D., , Elizabeth Ko and M.D. Andrews McMeel Syndication

Dear Doctor: One of my resolutions for the new year was to become a vegan, and now my girlfriend is saying Ill have to take supplements to get enough vitamin B12. Why cant I get B12 in my diet, and what will happen if I fall short?

Dear Reader: Your girlfriend has done her homework vitamin B12 is a nutrient that is essential to human health. And while it occurs naturally in a wide range of animal foods, B12 is not found in any plant foods. As a vegan, youre now going to have to rely on supplements to be sure you get enough B12.

Why is it so important?

Vitamin B12 is a bit of a workhorse. Not only does it play a key role in the proper functioning of the brain and the nervous system, its crucial to the production of red blood cells in the bone marrow. As though that wasnt enough, B12 also aids in DNA and RNA synthesis, and is involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Research shows that B12 also has a hand in maintaining mood and memory.

The body does not store B12, so you need to ingest it every day. Beef liver and clams have the highest concentrations of the nutrient. It is also present in varying quantities in red meat, eggs, poultry, shellfish, milk and milk products. Many breakfast cereals and some dairy products are fortified with B12. For vegans, there are non-dairy milks, meat substitutes and nutritional yeast products to which B12 has been added. Dietary supplements are widely available.

What happens when B12 is in short supply?

Considering all the roles the nutrient plays in health and well-being, the list of symptoms is long and sometimes quite serious. People with a B12 deficiency may feel weak and tired, the result of the vitamins role in producing the red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body. Since B12 helps maintain the protective sheath around your nerves, a lack of the vitamin can lead to strange sensations like numbness or tingling, as well as problems with balance or walking. Mood and memory may also suffer.

In extreme cases, B12 deficiency can lead to megaloblastic anemia, a blood disorder in which the red blood cells produced in the bone marrow are unusually large, malformed and immature.

And while your girlfriend is right about your need for vigilance in getting enough B12, she may do well to examine her own B12 status. Recent studies suggest that up to 40 percent of the population, vegan or not, may be flirting with B12 insufficiency. Due to physiological changes associated with aging, the elderly are at increased risk of vitamin B12 deficiency. Individuals who have undergone weight-loss surgery must also make a special effort to get enough of the nutrient.

As for you, a newly minted vegan, we recommend that you seek professional advice, preferably from your family doctor, to be certain that you forge a wise nutritional course.

******

Eve Glazier, M.D., MBA, is an internist and assistant professor of medicine at UCLA Health. Elizabeth Ko, M.D., is an internist and primary care physician at UCLA Health.

******

(Send your questions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla.edu, or write: Ask the Doctors, c/o Media Relations, UCLA Health, 924 Westwood Blvd., Suite 350, Los Angeles, CA, 90095.)

Read the rest here:

Vitamin B12 deficiency possible with a vegan diet - The Spokesman-Review

Written by PETA | February 15, 2017

To us, the people who run 3 Brothers Vegan Foods are culinary heroes. They perform the noble task of shipping vegan pizza to the hungriest pizza lovers nationwide. This delivery service will be a game-changer for you.

More and more people are learning that cows produce milk for the same reason that humans doto nourish their young. Calves on dairy farms are taken away from their mothers when theyre just a day old and fed milk replacers (including cattle blood) so that their mothers milk can be sold to humans. With so many delicious vegan cheeses available now, switching to cruelty-free options is a cinch.

3 Brothers pizzas are made to order and promptly frozen. You can store them in the freezer for up to six months in their original packaging. The companys delectable Margherita pies are available in packs of two, four, or six and are ready to heat and eat on delivery. Check out all the pizza collections here and note that you can also get a variety pack of four pies.

The Seitan Buffalo comes with seitan, buffalo hot sauce, and vegan homemade blue cheese.

The Works is topped with vegan meatballs, seitan sausage, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and soy pepperoni.

The Bianca features cashew ricotta cheese, cashew buffalo cheese, and spinach.

Vegan Bianca Pizza

A post shared by Besart Astafa (@3brothersveganpizza) on Dec 4, 2016 at 4:20pm PST

The Backyard BBQ features grilled tofu, red onions, and cashew cheese.

For shipping purposes, 3 Brothers ships on Monday and Tuesday. Any orders placed after 1 p.m. on Tuesday will ship the following Monday. Pizzas arrive in recyclable, oven-safe, and microwave-safe containers and are encased in an insulated cooler bag with ice packs.

Want to learn more about the reasons why people are making the switch to dairy-free choices? Check out these 18 images that big dairy doesnt want you to see.

Have you been thinking about going vegan but havent taken the plunge? Order our free vegan starter kit to help you make the switch!

I Want a Vegan Starter Kit!

See more here:

Animals are not - PETA (blog) (press release)

No sooner has Richard Curtiss Love Actually reunion been announced than a rival emerges to its thermonuclear romantic charms. It is the burgeoning closeness between Ms Pamela Anderson, latterly of the beaches of Los Angeles County, and Mr Julian Assange, currently of the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

By way of a recap, the association first came to light last October, when the Baywatch legend was photographed arriving at the embassy to visit the Wikileaks founder, carrying what she said was a vegan meal. Very shortly after, some hokey-cokey over Assanges internet access being cut (by Ecuador, as it turned out) prompted some of his supporters to speculate that he was dead. If hes dead, shrieked confirmed inadequate Roosh V, Id have that food tested. Some fingered Pamela as a possible Hillary Clinton agent, with the various theories doing the rounds including the suggestion that she had given him apoisoned vegan sausage.

And yet if we may pose the question indelicately was the passing of the sausage in the other direction? Over to our two principals, who cant wait to be stagily coy about their relationship, and at considerable length.

First up is Pamela, who speaks to Grazia, with the magazine allowing her to explain why she demurred from answering whether she was in a relationship with Julian. Its very difficult to talk about when youre under surveillance, explained Pamela, hinting she has more viewers at Langley than she has had since being voted off in round one of Dancing on Ice in 2013 (after a series of stumbles, Keith Chegwin would eliminate her in the skate-off).

As she took Grazia into her confidence, Pamela was keeping under the radar at a party for a lingerie brand at Annabels nightclub. Right out of the Salman Rushdie hidden years playbook, that one. Though looking at the transparent lace dress she turned up in, I need hardly tell you Who Wore It Better. Hes a great guy, she went on, of Julian. I dont want to say anything about whether theres aromance. So, lets say were just good friends.

Grazia goes a bit further, alleging they have had a series of dates at the Ecuadorian embassy. Im not sure where else they would have dates, unless for their sixth anniversary hes planning to show her the inside of apolice van, followed by dinner at the Heathrow detention area. After all, if its not old hat to mention, nearly five years into his monstrous pussy-out, Julian is still wanted in Sweden to answer sexual assault allegations.

But what does the man himself have to add on the romance/showmance? Plenty, if his subsequent interview with an Australian radio show is anything to go by. I mean, I like her, shes great, he says of Pamela. Are they in love? Im not going to go into the private details. Come, come. Shes an attractive person with an attractive personality. And furthermore: Shes no idiot at all shes psychologically very savvy.

Note the well-placed psychologically. I love how Julian manages to make even a compliment sound proprietorially undermining. Other people think youre a moron, Pamela ONLY I SEE THE REAL YOU. But theres more. Youve got people like Pamela Anderson who are independent because they kind of manage their own career, the Putin stooge judges. She cant really be squeezed by, you know, a TV executive. All right, all right Ithink she gets it now, Julian. Shes not on the telly any more.

In some ways, none of this should be a surprise confinement can be aturn-on. I imagine Julian has all sorts of unfortunate cases writing to him as penpals; he may even be engaged to six or seven of them. Since he has been inside, the Yorkshire Ripper has had more girlfriends than Mick Jagger, so it seems reasonable to assume that a whole spectrum of notorious incarcerations can be an aphrodisiac. (Unless were putting the Rippers appeal down to the rapes and hammer murders.) Only this week, Britains Most Dangerous Prisoner, Charles Bronson, got engaged again, this time to a former soap opera bit-part player, who told the Mirror: I used to think he was a violent thug, but from the moment I read one of his books, I just had to write to him he was the inspiration I have been waiting for all my life.

(Incidentally, to all those Assange bros now planning to write very silly 4,000-word blogs claiming I am literally equating Julian Assange with Peter Sutcliffe and Charles Bronson: you go right ahead and break ground on those bad boys, my darlinks. If it falls to me to keep you off the streets for an afternoon, so be it.)

As for Pamela, she does seem far too nice to be mixed up in all this. Its so rare that he has someone to come and visit him and bring him things, she says, of Julian. So I want to be able to do that for him.

Of course, his social life wasnt always so sparse. Time was Julian had a constant stream of famous visitors at the Knightsbridge-based embassy, who always stopped off at the nearest grocer (Harrods) to pick up something yummy for him. Their significant funds coupled with their significant lack of imagination meant this was almost always a hamper. I was told by one who saw it that his room ended up almost wicker-walled, with Julian always able to produce a potted stilton or some whisky marmalade for Kathy Lette, John Pilger, Yoko Ono or whoever was on the afternoon shift. (Never mind those stories of Barney the Purple Dinosaur being played on a deafening loop at Guantanamo. In some ways, you have to concede that the Assange celebrity guestlist was the most sophisticated psychological torture ever conceived.)

Some years on, and ... well, its true that you can safely ignore the best-before dates on a lot of those foodstuffs. But I would imagineJulians tinned pt stocks are nearing dangerously low levels. Indeed, the welcome attentions of the strictly vegan Pamela means Julians latest batch of documents from the Kremlin is only the second most-guarded secret in that room, bumped out of its hiding place by his now uber-sensitive supply of foie gras.

Wikileaks is one of the only reliable news stories because its just the truth, concludes Pamela, bravely resisting getting bogged down in The Obvious. I really believe history will look back on him as such an importantperson.

So do I, old stick. For now, there is a distinct spring in Julians step. On Valentines Day, he reactivated his five-years dormant Twitter account (yes, yes there goes the neighbourhood) with a flourish, announcing: Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated (in a curious plot). But of course in what else? Clearly, this is all heading for a headline-grabbing two-shot on the embassys Juliet balcony, and I urge our lovebirds to proceed to it without delay.

Read more:

Pamela Anderson and Julian Assange: friends with vegan benefits - The Guardian

Deep breaths: Simple breathing techniques such as counting slowly as you breathe can work well for children. Photograph: iStock

In previous articles in the series, I emphasised the importance of responding in a calm way to your childs anxiety. In this article we look at how you can teach children to relax themselves when they experience worry and anxiety.

Generally, a key feature of problematic anxiety is that the child is out of touch with their body. They are often living too much in their heads (which are full of anxiety-laden thoughts, ruminations and worries). Frequently, the goal is to help them get out of their heads and live more in their bodies; you want them to stop over-thinking and to start living. Sometimes, anxiety is caused by the mind misunderstanding the bodys basic signals as in the case of a panic attack. For example, an anxious teen might notice their heart breathing faster, causing them to worry that they are having a heart attack which, in turn, causes their heart to beat even faster and so the anxiety escalates.

Tips for going forward Take time to think of what relaxation techniques might work for your children.

Remember, all techniques are best practised as a daily habit, so they can be drawn upon in crisis or peak of anxiety.

There are lots of classes that teach children relaxation skills either directly such as yoga or indirectly such as sports training. Make sure your child is involved in some of these.

Many of these relaxation skills are now is integrated into teaching in schools (teaching mindfulness or relaxing to music). Check with your childrens school what might be available.

Dr John Sharry is a social worker and psychotherapist and co-developer of the Parents Plus programmes. He will delivering a talk on Promoting Positive Self-Esteem in Children in Kilkenny on Monday, March 20th, and in Dublin on Wednesday, May 10th, and a workshop on Parenting Young Children in Cork on Saturday,, April 1st. See solutiontalk.ie for details. The fifth article in the six-part series will look at how parents can help children challenge the negative thoughts underpinning their anxiety.

Read the original post:

Breathe, exercise, be body-aware: anti-anxiety tips for children - Irish Times

LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / February 18, 2017 / Virginia Beach is known for its white sand beaches as well as the waterfront locations along the Chesapeake Bay. The culture of the area spills over to the shore with a relaxing atmosphere, live music, golf courses, hiking and biking paths, shopping and art venues. Diamond Resort Reviews its two resorts in Virginia Beach, each of which reflect the seaside elegance and warmth of the traditional Southern charm. The town comes alive during the summer months with fairs, live music, and a variety of outdoor activities for groups and families. Even in the off-season, the area has developed extensively, drawing in crowds year-round as there is never a lack of things to do.

https://www.instagram.com/diamondresorts/

Diamond Resorts International Oceanaire Resort sits just steps away from the beach. From your room and throughout the resort you will have views of the breathtaking coastline, access to year-round events and incredible sunsets. The Virginia Beach Boardwalk is a destination in and of itself. With food, games, and an Aquarium, a simple walk can turn into an all-day excursion. If you are looking for some nature away from the surf, notable attractions including False Cape, First Landing, and Cape Henry Memorial State Park are a short distance away. Diamond Resort Reviews experts tout the resort's four oceanfront pools, jetted tubs, and a fitness center with state of the art equipment. Whether you want to ride a bike along the boardwalk or just look at the ocean, you can do it here.

Allowing for a more serene vacation atmosphere, Diamond Resorts' Turtle Cay Resort is located just off the boardwalk. The Diamond Resorts team works to provide a relaxing environment, a small oasis in the midst of the crowd. Beyond the typical retreat activities, travelers are urged to venture a mere 35 miles south of the resort to visit the aviation museum, as Virginia Beach sits in the cradle of the birth of flight. As the cultural hub of Virginia, the city features the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts with year-round plays and musicals. There is also a fantastic outdoor concert venue where you can take in both local bands and larger acts depending on the current schedule.

About Diamond Resorts International

Diamond Resorts International, with its network of more than 370 vacation destinations located in 35 countries throughout the continental United States, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa, provides guests with choice and flexibility to let them create their dream vacation, whether they are traveling an hour away or around the world. Our relaxing vacations have the power to give guests an increased sense of happiness and satisfaction in their lives, while feeling healthier and more fulfilled in their relationships, by enjoying memorable and meaningful experiences that let them Stay Vacationed.

Diamond Resorts International manages vacation ownership resorts and sells vacation ownership points that provide members and owners with Vacations for Life at over 370 managed and affiliated properties and cruise itineraries.

Diamond Resorts Reviews - Diamond Resorts International: http://diamondresorts-reviews.com

Diamond Resorts International Timeshare Reviews: http://diamondresortstimesharereviews.com

Diamond Resorts (@diamondresorts) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/diamondresorts

Diamond Resorts International Why Vacations for Life - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuBW2aWUO5s

For more information: http://www.diamondresorts.com

Contact Information:

Angela Triano Tel: 551-574-8332 trianoangela@yahoo.com

SOURCE: Diamond Resorts International

Originally posted here:

Diamond Resorts Reviews - Virginia's Most Relaxing Beaches - Yahoo Finance

By Emily Sohn By Emily Sohn February 18 at 8:30 AM

Eat better, drink less, exercise more, sleep enough: Its common advice for heart health and its frequently ignored. Just 3 percent of American adults meet the standards for healthy levels of physical activity, consumption of fruit and vegetables, BMI and smoking, according to recent study.

But a major lifestyle overhaul isnt the only way to help your heart, studies suggest. Even small changes can make substantial differences.

Eventually, little changes can add up, says David Goff, director of the cardiovascular sciences division at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda.

Any small change you make in a positive direction is good for you, he says. Its not an all-or-nothing phenomenon.

[Heart attacks in women can be different and more deadly than in men]

Physical activity is a perfect example, Goff says. Official guidelines, which recommend 30 minutes of moderately intense activity on most days, are based partly on evidence of substantial health benefits from doing 150 to 300 minutes of exercise each week, according to a 2011 review study by researchers at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. Those benefits include reduced risks of coronary heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure.

But the guidelines also come out of an assessment of what is obtainable for most people, Goff adds. And while it would be ideal to get at least 150 minutes of exercise weekly, getting less than that also has benefits. When the researchers looked at deaths from all causes, they saw the sharpest drop in mortality when exercise jumped from half an hour to an hour and a half each week.

Just getting up for a minute or two to interrupt bouts of sitting may also improve health, the study noted. And moving for as little as eight minutes a few times a day provides the same cardiovascular benefits as 30 uninterrupted minutes.

If you cant find 30 minutes a day, try to find five or 10 or 15, Goff says. Anything is better than nothing.

The some is better than none philosophy applies to dietary improvements, too, Goff says. According to the National Institutes of Health, an ideal meal plan includes lots of fruit, vegetables and whole grains, with limited amounts of fatty meat and tropical oils.

[More than half a million heart surgery patients at risk of deadly infection]

But eating an imperfect diet with more of the good stuff is better than giving up entirely. Thats a conclusion from a 2016 study that created food-quality scores from the self-reported diets of about 200,000 people. Over about 25 years, the study found, people whose diets scored lowest had a 13 percent higher risk of coronary artery disease than did people in the second-worst group.

Even just switching out soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages can help eliminate a couple hundred calories a day and control weight. That helps lower blood pressure, levels of harmful cholesterol and the potential for diabetes all risk factors for heart disease, Goff says. Large long-term studies have shown that people who average one sugary drink a day have a 20 percent higher risk of heart attack than people who rarely drink any.

Its not just food and diet, adds Michael Miller, director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in and author of Heal Your Heart: The Positive Emotions Prescription to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Heart strength can also come from battling stress by boosting emotional health in simple and unexpected ways, he says, such as enjoying a good laugh.

In a small 2005 study, Miller played movie clips for 20 people. When participants watched a scene that made them laugh, 19 of them experienced dilation of the blood vessels. In contrast, a stressful scene led to constriction in 14 of the 20 viewers. Since then, Miller says, other small studies have found similar results, including one showing that vessels stayed dilated for 24 hours. Dilation allows more blood to flow, decreasing blood pressure and heart rate.

Cross-talk between the brain and heart explains the potential long-term benefits of laughter, Miller says, particularly when laughter is intense enough to induce crying. Belly laughing releases endorphins, triggering receptors in blood vessels to produce nitric oxide, which in turn, dilates blood vessels, increases blood flow, reduces the risk of blood clots, and more.

[Heart doctors are listening for clues to the future of their stethoscopes]

People are far more likely to laugh when theyre with friends, Miller adds, adding yet more evidence of the health benefits of being social.

Accumulating evidence suggests that another easy and enjoyable way to help your heart is to listen to music. During recovery from surgery, several studies have shown, listening to relaxing music leads to a reduction in anxiety and heart rate. And in a 2015 study, Greek researchers found reductions in how hard the hearts of 20 healthy young adults were working after 30 minutes of listening to rock or classical music.

I tell my patients to dust off their old LPs now that LPs are coming back and listen to a piece of music they have not heard in a long time but in the past made them feel really good, Miller says.

Also on his list of recommendations: mindfulness meditation and hugging. Both, he says, look promising in studies of heart health and heart repair.

Considering that stress probably accounts for a third of heart attacks, he says, it can have a dramatic effect if you do all of these things in sync.

Small lifestyle change help at any age, suggests a 2014 study that started by assessing cardiovascular risks in more than 5,000 young adults in the mid-1980s. Twenty years later, people who had made even small but positive changes such as losing a little weight, exercising a bit more or smoking a little less showed less coronary artery calcification than people who didnt change or changed in a negative direction. Coronary artery calcification is a risk factor for heart disease.

For the best chance of success, Goff suggests taking on one little change at a time.

The idea is to make a small change and then make another small change, he says. Its about changing the way you live over years and years, not hours and days.

Read more:

I tried the Chinese practice of sitting the month after childbirth

Dreaded stomach flu wreaks havoc on families and its only going to get worse

Potential side effects of the drug Trump reportedly takes for hair loss

See the original post here:

To take care of your heart, even little changes can help - Washington Post

My shaman blows smoke in my face.

In Spanish, he tells me to think with my heart, not my mind. Moments later our thatch hut collapses like a technicolor circus tent. The girl behind me pukes. The girl beside me cries tears of joy.

In this moment, I see my life laid out like a high-tech, panoramic Facebook program. I see my own icon in the center of the screen. Connected to my icon are small pipes filled with pulsating energy the color of sangria. Each pipe is connected to a person I know: my girlfriend, my mother, my brother, my girlfriends grandparents and my father.

I came to the jungle to be free of anger. I came to the jungle to stop being such a neurotic. I came to the jungle to be a more loving person.

A voice, which I recognize as the voice of the dead philosopher Alan Watts, tells me to put myself into other people. The shamans whistle grows louder and the colors become more vivid. I think about helping everyone in my life. The pipes swell and I see energy from my picture push into the pictures of other people. The field of focus shifts from my icon to theirs. Then it expands outward to peopleI have never met. Trees in woods I have never been to. I feel an overwhelming sense of warmth push down on me. My body collapses onto the wood floor. The deepest feeling of love that I have ever experienced in my life presses me through the ground.

***

Two years later I sit on a cushion in a Kansas community center. The Buddhist senior teacher, though she refers to herself as a senior student, tells me that my mind is like a judgmental monkey, constantly grabbing branches and tossing them aside. She says that it is the minds nature to be anxious and dissatisfied. Dont try to change it, she says. Just notice it and return to the breath.

Like so many others before me, I experienced a state of unconditional love under the influence of entheogenic plants. Yet, there was a comedown. After weeks of bliss and a feeling of deep interconnectedness with everyone and everything, my neurotic mind reared back into first gear. The usual criticisms of other people and myself, anxiety about the future, and a lingering feeling of discontent reemerged. So, I looked toward all the travelers before me Ram Dass, Jack Kornfield, Larry Brilliant who found a way to access the peace, equanimity and compassion characteristic of a psychedelic experience without the plants.

All signs pointed toward meditation.

I would be a liar if I said my monkey mind has disappeared after my S.N. Goenka retreat, a retreat at the Garrison Institute, and two years of meditation without missing a day. But my mind is a lot quieter. I am less judgmental of people and myself. And I know more deeply what it means to think with my heart, rather than my mind. Ayahuasca showed me a plane of consciousness that the Buddhas, Christs and other sages of the world knew how to access in the absence of entheogenic plants. This plane is not a plane of hallucinatory visions, which for me have always been the ornamental frills of a psychedelic experience. It is a plane of unconditional love, and freedom from anger and fear. Meditation gave me a sustainable way to get back here without having to buy a plane ticket to South America.

***

My evolution of consciousness transformed my relationship with myself and my relationships with other people. It also changed the way I relate to activism. My political formation as a teenager came through the punk and alternative rock scenes. As I listened to bands like Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down scream, Fuck you, I wont do what you tell me! and The fire in the masters house is set! on Carson Dalys top-10 countdown, I was inspired to challenge the politicians, Wall Street bankers and corporate CEOs who seemed intent on dispossessing the poor, destroying the planet and turning everything into a source of private profit, like capitalist vampires trained in alchemy. One of my first Rage Against the Machine t-shirts had the lyrics Your anger is a gift! printed across the chest.

But a politics of anger is not sustainable, unless you are interested in having a heart attack before you turn 40. If you listen to talks by enduring political voiceslike Noam Chomsky, they very rarely get aggravated. When I went to Chomskys lecture in Boston a few months ago, titled Extinction or Internationalism, he was quite cool when he discussed the prospects of nuclear annihilation and environmental catastrophe. He even joked around. Howard Zinn was the same way. While to my knowledge they never dropped LSD or engaged in a 10-day meditation retreat, they embody the temperament that psychedelics and meditation can cultivate in people.

Through my experiences, I have becomea much calmer and more empathetic person, and that calmhas affectedmy approach to political activism. But that doesnt mean Im less engaged Ive become more politically active as a result.

Today, I see the violence that permeates homes, politics and the world as a consequence of the suffering experienced by individuals. This relationship to ill will led me to prisons where I teach meditation, mindfulness and nonviolent communication to people whose inner turmoil caused them to create turmoil in their communities.

My experiences abroad and at home also led me to have a much more compassionate view of the people I once felt anger toward like those CEOs, financiers, politicians andpeople who dont vote the same way I do.

At a time like this, it is especially important that words like empathy, compassion, understanding, composure and equanimity play a part in our political vernacular. When I see President Donald Trump or Sen. Paul Ryan speak about deregulating the oil industry or destroying public programs for the poor, I see two individuals who are suffering. I see menlike my younger self, filled with anger and fear, who werenever able to let it go, and who now exercise that anger and fear on a global scale. I cannot imagine what it is like to live with as much hate inside me as is inside Donald Trump. But, through empathy, I can act against him without hating him. This allows me to have compassion not just for the powerless, but also the powerful. It also allows me to stay free of the anger and fear that brought me to the jungle. In this tension between action against and empathy for, the seeds of a politics of love and radical social change can grow.

Read the original:

Ayahuasca, meditation and activism: On cultivating the mindful politics of love - Salon

One of those things I love about Facebook are those little factoids that one can pick up. Of course you always have to be careful. So, for instance, there is a meme going around my circles right now with a picture of the Stoic philosopher Chrysippus and the caption declaring he died laughing at his own joke.

One has to dig around a bit, but I did. And as it turns out there are actually two stories about how the great Stoic (often thought of as the second founder of the school) died. One is boring, he drank too much undiluted wine, fell into a stupor and passed away. The other claims he saw a donkey eating some figs and quipped Now give that donkey some wine to wash down the figs. Then, as the meme goes, he fell into a fit of laughter at his own joke, and, well, died. As to the humor of the quip, I guess you had to be there.

Through the near random associations of snapping synapses, this made me think of the way humor fits into Zen. And I renewed my web search.

I found a bunch of lists of jokes, most often leading off with the one about the Buddhist going to the hot dog vendor and asking to make me one with everything. It must be funny because people are always telling it to me. And, I do try hard to smile when they do.

Of course studies of humor are famously not themselves very funny. Dr Freuds study leaps to mind. Although I did find a pretty good article by Andrew Whitehead, She Who Laughs Loudest: A Meditation on Zen Humor. While he would never get through a dokusan (Zen interview) with his analysis, as a reflection on whats going on, I found it pretty good.

And Mr Whitehead offered some points I was unaware of. As it turns out those Indian Buddhists who analyzed pretty much everything (I believe in their quest for salvation by finding the perfect list) had a list of the six kinds of laughter.

sita: a faint, almost imperceptible smile manifest in the subtleties of facial expression and countenance alone; hasita: a smile involving a slight movement of the lips, and barely revealing the tips of the teeth; vihasita: a broad smile accompanied by a modicum of laughter; upahasita: accentuated laughter, louder in volume, associated with movements of the head, shoulders, and arms; apahasita: loud laughter that brings tears; and atihasita: the most boisterous, uproarious laughter attended by movements of the entire body (e.g., doubling over in raucous guffawing, convulsions, hysterics, rolling in the aisles, etc.).

Now, Andrew Whitehead quickly notes this sort of thing is alien to Zen. But. And. In fact we do inherit as a founding story Mahakashapas faint smile at the Buddhas twirling a flower, which fits as the first of the Indian list, and I guess we could even call it Zens great inside joke.

Actually Zens spiritual humor tends to be a bit more slapstick. For instance in the great shaggy dog koan about master Baizhang Huaihai and a fox spirit, it concludes in the evening when the old master told his assembly the story of his meeting the spirit and what happened, which turned on questions of causality and freedom.

His senior student Huangbo stood up and said, Sir, what if the old abbot had given the right answer every time? What would have happened then? Baizhang smiled, perhaps like Mahakashapa, and fingering his teachers stick said, Come here Huangbo, and Ill tell you.

Heres a dangerous moment, if a somewhat different danger than between the fox and Baizhang, to encounter a Zen teacher with a stick in his or her hand.

Huangbo would become another of the teachers who created what we call Zen. According to traditional sources he was a giant of a man, standing nearly seven feet tall, while his teacher was barely five feet, short even for those days. When the younger monk walked up to his teacher, just before coming face to face and just out of reach from his teachers stick, Huangbo reached out and slapped the old abbot.

And the old abbot laughed, and laughed, and declared They say the barbarian has a red beard, but heres a red bearded barbarian.

Theres a joke. Okay, slapstick, sort of, but still its another of Zens inside jokes.

And thats the real question. Whats the inside joke?

Whats the real deal?

Well, theres a novel by David James Duncan called The River Why. I think the concluding chapter says it as well as Ive heard it. So, for your benefit, here it is. Oh, one thing to help with it. There are a lot of fishing images in the novel.

There was an old Taoist who lived in a village in ancient China, named Master Hu. Hu loved God and God loved Hu, and whatever God did was fine with Hu, and whatever Hu did was fine with God. They were friends. They were such good friends that they kidded around. Hu would do stuff to God like call him The Great Clod. Thats how he kidded. That was fine with God. God would turn around and do stuff to Hu like give him warts on his face, wens on his head, arthritis in his hands, a hunch in his back, canker sores in his mouth and gout in his feet. Thats how He kidded. That God. What a kidder! But it was fine with Hu.

Master Hu grew lumpy as a toad; he grew crooked as cherry wood; he became a human pretzel. You Clod! hed shout at God, laughing. That was fine with God. Hed send Hu a right leg ten inches shorter than the left to show He was listening. And Hu would laugh some more and walk around in little circles, showing off his short leg, saying to the villagers, Haha! See how the Great Clod listens! How lumpy and crookedy and ugly He is making me! He makes me laugh and laugh! Thats what a Friend is for! And the people of the village would look at him and wag their heads: sure enough, old Hu looked like an owls nest; he looked like a swamp; he looked like something the dog rolled in. And he winked at his people and looked up at God and shouted, Hey Clod! What next? And splot! Out popped a fresh wart.

The people wagged their heads till their tongues wagged too. They said, Poor Master Hu has gone crazy. And maybe he had. Maybe God sent down craziness along with the warts and wens and hunch and gout. What did Hu care? It was fine with him. He loved God and God loved Hu, and Hu was the crookedest, ugliest, happiest old man in all the empire till the day he whispered,

Hey Clod! What now?

and God took his line in hand and drew him right into Himself. That was fine with Hu. Thats what a Friend is for.

The secret is in that line. Perhaps its a fishing line. Perhaps it is the blood red thread we run into in a couple of Zens koans.

Another hint. Dont cling too tightly to that thread, that line. That said, held lightly like a good fisherman, it does reveal the joke. Actually the punchline is revealed everywhere and in everything.

And if you get it, theres at least a smile, and maybe, on occasion, even some rolling down laughter.

Youre welcome. After all, whats a friend for?

And, okay, if thats not clear, perhaps Ellen can help, at least a little.

Youre welcome.

After all, whats a friend for?

The rest is here:

What's a Friend For? A Small Meditation on Zen's Inside Joke - Patheos (blog)