Built up on the very property where Amma was born, Amritapuri is now the headquarters of Ammas worldwide mission and the spiritual home for Ammas monastic disciples and hundreds of householder devotees. All the residents have dedicated their lives for realising God and serving the world. Everyday, Ammas children from across India and abroad flock here to have Ammas darshan. She sees each and every one, listens to their worries, consoles, encourages, provides new direction to their lives.

Amritapuri is the living example of the ancient Indian ideal the whole world is one family (vasudhaiva kutumbakam). Here you will find people from all parts of the world speaking different languages and having different customs and religions all living under one roof. In their quest for the meaning of life, each has forgotten their differences and become a child of Amma.

When people come to Amritapuri Ashram for the first time, they are almost always surpriseda remote fishing village on a small island cradled between the backwaters and the Arabian Sea has become the centre of a silent spiritual revolution..

The rest is here:

Ashram - Amma, Mata Amritanandamayi Devi

Just as your New Years resolutions are slipping away, your activewear is tucked in the back cupboard and your Crossfit colt doesn't recognise you anymore, Instagram fitness celebrities have cult followings. And as we follow the glamour and #blessed lives of these role models, we continue to fight off the fads and phenomena about everything from caffeine to cartwheels. We don't need thigh gaps. We don't need to tone up. We need the truth.

Following a sold out debut season, Joana Simmons (aka Joy) is taking the lies out of Lycra: Airing her workout and work stories as an aerobics instructor and exercising all sorts of demons from body image to active wear; gym, Jim and GIN.

Featuring a high-powered soundtrack of pop and rock staples, original songs and honest anecdotes, Confessions of an Aerobics Instructor is pure endorphin-inducing entertainment. Joana's background in comedy makes her a non-conventional and at times nonsensical instructor and this combined with her tales of what REALLY happens in the fitness industry will not only get your heart pumping, it will touch it too.

Barging into Melbourne's only Vaudeville Venue, Speakeasy HQ, for the first three Friday's in March, this is one season not to miss.

Tickets are available at https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=251940.

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CONFESSIONS OF AN AEROBICS INSTRUCTOR Barges into Speakeasy HQ - Broadway World

The Freedom Caucus is a rowdy band of GOP US House members most famous for triggering government shutdowns, pushing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and driving former GOP Speaker John Boehner from his post on the theory he wasn't conservative enough. And now they're coming for your certified-organic food.

Back in December, the Freedom Caucus released a "recommended list of list regulations to remove." Among its 228 targetsranging from eliminating energy-efficiency standards for washing machines to kiboshing rules on private dronesthe group named the National Organic Program.

Merrigan warned that "forces of darkness" are "coming together and saying, 'Let's sharpen our knives on organic.'"

Operated by the US Department of Agriculture, the NOP was established by the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 to set uniform national standards for foods and agricultural products labeled "USDA Organic," replacing the patchwork of state-level standards that had held sway for decades previously. The NOP ensures that food labeled organic really is raised without synthetic pesticides and fertilizersit also oversees USDA-accredited organic certifying agents and takes "appropriate enforcement actions if there are violations of the organic standards," according to the USDA.

As of 2015, annual organic food sales stood at $39.7 million, representing nearly 5 percent of total food sales. And sales for organics are growing at an 11 percent annual clipnearly four times the rate of overall US food sales.

It's not clear what the Freedom Caucus meant by putting the National Organic Program on a list of regulations to "remove"; the staff of US Rep. Mark Meadow (R.-NC), the Freedom Caucus stalwart who authored the list, has not returned my calls and emails asking for clarification. Organic food makes a strange target for deregulation, because organic regulations only apply to farms and food processors that voluntarily accept them. They prohibit, say, the spraying of synthetic pesticides only for a very certain kind of operationones that want to be certified organic.

Maybe it's a budget-cutting move? The Freedom Caucus document claims that the NOP's "cost" stands at $256 million, without naming how it defines cost. But the NOP's annual budget is just $9 million. And dismantling the NOP would generate massive chaos in the food market. A federally enforced, uniform, and fairly stringent set of rules would give way to a hodgepodge, leaving consumers flummoxed about what "organic" means.

The NOP's appearance in the Freedom Caucus' cross-hairs has caused alarm in organic circles, and it's not hard to see why. The Freedom Caucus' zeal for deregulation is nothing new, but until a few week's ago, the veto pen of Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate meant that the group could obstruct legislation and make plenty of trouble, but not actively legislate. Now there's a new new sheriff in towna fast-food scarfing Republicanand the GOP runs both aisles of Congress. Suddenly, the Freedom Caucus has jumped from fantasy island to a perch quite near the center of Washington power.

Dismantling the National Organic Program would generate massive chaos in the food market, leaving consumers flummoxed about what "organic" means.

Kathleen Merrigan, who served a long stint a deputy USDA secretary under Obama, has sounded the alarm. Merrigan is a canny DC operator who chooses her words carefully, and she knows the politics around organics as well as anyone. In addition to her recent USDA experience, she served as the head of the USDA agency that oversees the NOP under Bill Clinton, and she helped craft the federal act that created it while working as a Senate staffer in 1990. According to aPolitico account of her remarks at a food conference last week, Merrigan warned that "forces of darkness" are "coming together and saying, 'Lets sharpen our knives on organic.'"

Merrigan declined to be interviewed for more detail on what she meant by her "forces of darkness" remarks. She did confirm that she had the Freedom Caucus document in mind, as well as a Jan. 12 op-ed by the father-and-son lobbyists Marshall Matz and Peter Matz, of the powerhouse DC agribusiness lobbying firm Olsson, Frank & Weeda. In recent years, Marshall Matz's clients have included Nestle, agrichemical/seed giant Syngenta, and FMC, which makes carrageenan, a seaweed-derived food thickener that has emerged as a controversial additive in processed organic products like almond milk.

In their op-ed, the Matzes applauded the Freedom Caucus' naming of the NOP. But rather than call for the USDA's oversight of organics to to be nixed, they call for it to be "reformed." They acknowledge that organic food now represents a "significant market." And rather than focus on the NOP, the Matzes instead raised questions about another key USDA organic component, the National Organic Standards Board, a 15-member panel that, among other things, has a huge influence over what non-organic substances can be added to organic food.

The National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances, as it has been known, has long been contentious terrain, pitting Big Food companies with organic subsidiaries against watchdog groups like the Cornucopia Institute. Broadly speaking, the corporations want wide leeway on additives, while the watchdog groups demand strict limits. In their op-ed, the Matzes declared that the "NOSB should leave the issue of food ingredient safety to the FDA."

In an email exchange, I asked the Matzes to clarify their position. Do they mean that food companies should be able to put any additive they want into, say, organic cookies, as long as the Food and Drug Administration deems is safe? They declined to say.

So what Merrigan called the "forces of darkness" coming for organic are indeed pretty obscure about exactly what they want. Does the Freedom Caucus really want to nix the National Organic Program to save $9 million per year? The $39.7 billion organic-food industry, whose participants include giant companies like General Mills and Nestle-owned Gerber organic baby productswould likely push back pretty hard. But with lobbyists like the Matzes operating in Trump's Washingtonand looking reasonable compared to Freedom Caucus deregulatory zealotsthe time might be ripe for making organic standards more friendly to corporations.

Originally posted here:

"Dark Forces" Are Coming for Your Organic Food - Mother Jones

Organic food has never been so popular among American consumers. Ironically, thats bad news for the brand that made organic a household name namely, the Austin-based Whole Foods.

On Wednesday, Whole Foodsreported what is arguably itsworst performance in a decade, announcing its sixth consecutive quarter of falling same-store sales and cutting its outlook for the year. The company is closing nine stores, the most it has ever closed at one time. A mere 16 months ago, Whole Foods predicted it would grow its 470 U.S. locations to more than 1,200.

[Your favorite organic brand is actually owned by a multinational food company]

The problem is one that chief executive John Mackey probably didnt predict when he first opened Whole Foods as a neighborhood natural foods store 36 years ago: Organics, then a fringe interest, have become so thoroughly mainstream that organic chains now have to face conventional big-box competitors. Mass-market retailers were responsible for 53.3 percent of organic food sales in 2015, according to the Organic Trade Association; natural retailers clocked in just north of 37.

And Whole Foods is hardly the only store feeling the squeeze: Sprouts and Fresh Market, the second- and third-largest publicly traded organic stores, have also seen falling stock prices.

Whole Foods created this space and had it to all to themselves for years, saidBrian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones. But in the past five years, a lot of people started piling in. And now there's a lot of competition.

In many ways, the story of Whole Foods decline is also the story of how the organic movement took over the United States. Between 2005 and 2015, sales of organic food increased 209 percent, according to the Organic Trade Association. Last year, organic sales topped $43.3 billion.

The driving force behind this growth, most analysts agree, is none other than millennials: Consumers aged 18 to 34 are the largest buyers of organics, and theyre the most likely to consider themselves knowledgeable about their food. As they came of age, mainstream grocery chains have been forced to adapt, too.

Walmart ramped up its organics selection in 2006. Kroger introduced its Simple Truth brand in 2012 the stores chief executive, Mike Ellis,later said it was the stores most successful brand launch ever. Earlier this week, Aldi announced plans for a $1.6-billion U.S. expansion, with much of that growth aimed at offering a wider range of organic and gluten-free products.

By volume, the largest organic retailer in the United States isbelieved to be Costco,which in 2015 sold $4 billion of organic produce and packaged foods. Like Walmart, Kroger and Aldi, Costco sells organic produce for considerably less than do natural food stores, farmers markets or Whole Foods. In fact, lowering prices has been one of Whole Foods primary strategies for dealing with competitors.

Apart from shuttering stores and stalling expansion plans, the company is continuing to focus on 365 by Whole Foods, a two-year-old division aimed at launching stores for value-conscious consumers. Its also been dropping prices at its regular locations and mailing out national discount circulars, something it had not previously done. Speaking to investors Wednesday, Mackey indicated that he did not want to see too big of a gap between the prices at Whole Foods and those at stores like Costco and Kroger.

Whole Foods is hoping millennials can revive the company's lagging sales by opening a new store, 365 by Whole Foods, which has lower prices, a vegan restaurant and robots. (Jayne Orenstein,Dani Johnson/The Washington Post)

[What to expect from Whole Foods' new, low-price grocery chain]

But some organic advocates are concerned that lowering the prices of organic foods an apparent prerequisite for mainstream popularity can only happen at the expense of the movements early principles. This fear is not entirely new: Michael Pollan fretted about it in the pages of the New York Times when Walmart began selling organic Rice Krispie treats 11 years ago. But with results like Whole Foods, it is becoming more urgent, said Ronnie Cummins, the co-founder of the Organic Consumers Association.

Cummins pointed out that some of the most successful, most mainstream organic products dont meet his organizations strict definition of what organic should be. Those include the ubiquitous Earthbound Farms, which grows its lettuces in monocultures, and Aurora Organic Dairy, which has been criticized for running its operation like an industrial factory farm.

If youre a publicly traded corporation, you have no choice but to maximize short-term profits, Cummins said. But we are going to be complaining to Whole Foods if they decrease their quality to keep up with the competition.

That approach may be most profitable now, he acknowledges but Whole Foods needs to think long-term. After all, when the company was founded, there was barely even a market for organic foods.

More from Wonkblog:

The simple mistake people make when they try to eat healthy

Is organic food safer and healthier? The guy in charge of U.S. organics wont say.

You could soon pay more money for worse food. Thanks, Donald Trump.

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Why Whole Foods is now struggling - Washington Post

Organic food products have an 8.4 percent market share in Denmark, the highest anywhere in the world. Photo: Sisse Stroyer/Scanpix

A new international report highlights just how popular organic food has become in Denmark.

Organic products account for 8.4 percent of the total food market in Denmark, a higher percentage than in any of the other 178 countries included in the report. Switzerland and Luxembourg followed Denmark, with 7.7 and 7.5 percent organic market shares respectively.

At the same time, our organic first place position is a clear signal to the export markets around the world that Danish organic companies are producing exciting quality food products that are popular with consumers, he added.

The FIBL report also showed that Danes have the second highest per capita spending on organic products at 191. Switzerland topped that category with 262 in per capita spending. The country with the biggest overall market for organic products was the United States by a wide margin.

The report was released in conjunction with the Biofach organic food trade fair in Germany, which a record 54 Danish organic food companies will attend.

Its not just within Denmark that the countrys organic revolution can be felt. kologisk Landsforening reported that exports of Danish organic foods have set a new record in each of the past ten years. In 2015, organic exports accounted for roughly two billion kroner, a 15 percent increase over the previous year.

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No one buys more organic food than the Danes: report - The Local Denmark

Size of organic food market is around Rs 3,350 cr, industry estimates suggest its growing 30% a year

Arnab Dutta | New Delhi February 10, 2017 Last Updated at 01:00 IST

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is drawing up guidelines to regulate organic food.

The regulator will put up draft guidelines for organic packaged food and commodities in the public domain for suggestions next month.

Organic food exporters are now required to obtain approval from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. There are no guidelines for domestic players.

The draft will propose setting up of a committee to suggest changes in the certification method being followed now.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is drawing up guidelines to regulate organic food.

The regulator will put up draft guidelines for organic packaged food and commodities in the public domain for suggestions next month.

Organic food exporters are now required to obtain approval from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. There are no guidelines for domestic players.

The draft will propose setting up of a committee to suggest changes in the certification method being followed now.

Arnab Dutta

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FSSAI drafting organic food norms - Business Standard

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By | Morgan Brizee

HSU staff psychologist with a residential life focus, facilitating the One Breath meditation with students. Photo by Morgan Brizee

A long light grey table split the Recreation and Wellness Center room in half. Students and a staff member were on one side and the facilitator on the other during the One Breath meditation group class on Feb. 1.

Every Wednesday at 5 p.m., Craig Beeson teaches those who want to learn to destress and wind down. The group is run by Counseling And Psychological Services and is open to the HSU community including students, staff and faculty.

Beeson is a staff psychologist with a residential life focus and does workshops like One Breath in the resident halls on HSU campus.

I noticed when this [One Breath Meditation workshop] was on my mind, preparing for it, I was getting stressed about it, Beeson said. This is counterproductive, Im getting really stressed about a mindfulness presentation.

With a new semester starting up again, and most students being far from home, it can be easy to get overwhelmed.

Karen Zurdta, a 23-year-old English grad student, talked about how coming to this class has taught her to love herself more.

I was going through a tough time with school last semester and I got really sad and emotional, Zurdta said. I was having problems showing myself love and that I am worthy of good things.

Beeson is using the book, The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion by Christopher Gerner, to teach the class about not fighting the feelings you have but instead accepting them. The class goes over how to cope with issues from anxiety to insomnia that many students can relate to.

Matt Cunningham, a 25-year-old senior English major, has been meditating for five years and even went to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Ukiah, Calif. last spring to help with his practice of mindfulness.

Its kind of taught me to think of my thoughts and feelings as senses and to react to them like I would to any other sort of negative stimuli, Cunningham said. Mindfulness has helped me address those things more directly in a lot of ways.

The class begins with a group discussion of feelings and how to address them in a positive way. After about 30 minutes, Besson directs the group to close their eyes and focus on their individual breathing. He then moves on to telling the group to focus on one body part at a time, relaxing each body part individually, until the group feels their body and mind is calm. Beeson ends class by checking in with each member of the group on how they feel afterwards.

We talk about things like how to connect to yourself and live a more present, relaxed life, Beeson said.

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Mellow out with meditation - The LumberJack

After a brief pause during which it vacated its Sag Harbor quarters, Kadampa Meditation Center has reopened at 720C Montauk Highway in Water Mill.

Another change at the center, which offers weekday guided meditation instruction, a Friday evening class on Buddhist wisdom followed by a vegetarian dinner, and Sunday morning teachings, is the arrival of a new teacher.

On Sunday, Elizabeth Muzyka, who had previously been the centers primary teacher, delivered the first instruction at the Water Mill location, a talk, guided meditation, and question-and-answer session on karma, often called the law of action or the principal of cause and effect. She will offer a workshop on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the topic of love. The workshop is free for members, $15 for nonmembers.

Ms. Muzyka succeeds Gen Kelsang Norden, a Buddhist nun who served as Kadampa Meditation Centers teacher for the past five years. A native of Bath, England, who has taught Buddhism and meditation for more than 20 years, Ms. Norden has relocated to Houston, where she continues to teach.

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Meditation Center Reopens - East Hampton Star

Eileen Honey has made more than a dozen creative journals since 2007.

Reddingite Eileen Honey was never a diary-writer as a child, she remembered at her home last week over coffee, but since 2007 shes taken to creating intricate journals of her experience in life in abstract and concrete ways.

Honeys artistic journals are varied from the moment she begins work on them; she uses both blank journals, and old, well-bound printed books she finds in Mark Twain Librarys back room as her launching points.

She fills page after page with drawings, paintings, writings, paper clippings, her sons Cub Scout badges, and various other items and tokens shes collected over the years. Shes completed more than 12 since she began 10 years ago.

Sometimes Honeys journals follow a theme, and sometimes they progress less structurally. Often she intersperses her own writing and musings alongside visual aspects of the journal though she doesnt always leave her words legible.

I write a whole lot of stuff on the pages but I cover it up sometimes, she said. Often, I just have to put words down.

Pointing to one entry in a recent journal that was written near one of her birthdays, she noted that whats written there you cant read, but its really the lyrics to a song. Its a memory I was reliving, but [by obscuring it] Im not sharing it completely.

Sharing is an important part of Honeys journaling. She shares many of her pages on a personal blog, and plans to eventually pass these journals down to her son.

Two pages from one of Honeys journals.

While they dont carry the same narrative direction as a plain diary, Honey said she hopes her son will gain a bit of understanding from her journals.

Im hoping he will put these in his own library and will learn more about me by looking at these books than if he was just looking at an album full of photos. They tell a lot about me, and a lot about him, as well. Its kind of my little legacy, she said.

As an activity, Honey said, journaling is an anti-computer activity that allows her to focus on the past, present and future in unique ways.

When youre sitting doing this, it becomes a very meditative activity. You really get deep into what youre doing, which is totally contrary to using a phone, something I find very, very cool.

Honey at the crafting table in her art room.

Inspiration for each page comes from a variety of places, whether it be the phrasing of an advertising postcard in the mail, or the obituary of a woman shes never met (in this case that of Mary Margaret Kasiewicz, a Reddingite who died in 2015).

I never knew this woman who died when she was 70 years old, Honey said. But I saved it because she was amazing and her life was amazing. Even though she was physically challenged, she traveled to Antarctica on a research vessel. She deserved attention.

Sometimes I wonder what she would think about some woman cutting out her obituary who wasnt a friend of hers. But I valued her. Thats what journaling is. Not every page has [such a deep] reason, but many of them do.

For weeks at a time, shell find herself at her crafting table hour after hour, Honey said. At other points, she might not look at her journals for long periods of time.

But one way or another, its an art shes planning to continue for a long time.

I dont know if Ive refined [my process of journaling], or if Ive just changed [since I started]. Some of the pages are different now than they were then, she said.

Read the original:

Journaling is like 'meditation' for Reddingite - The Redding Pilot

On Sunday, the Portneuf Sangha and Meditation Center will show part 2 of a filmed talk by renowned Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. This 30 minute segment of the film, entitled The Practice of Peace, includes teachings by Nhat Hanh on mindfulness meditation and compassion. Thich Nhat Hanh has been actively teaching about peace and reconciliation for over 40 years, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. for his efforts to end the Viet Nam War. He was exiled from his mother country for 40 years. This remarkable talk was given in 1991.

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The morning begins at 10 a.m. with a thirty-minute silent meditation period with guidance offered for those who would like it. After the meditation, the filmed teaching will be shown, and a brief discussion will follow. Light refreshments will be served. Everyone is welcome, regardless of meditation experience, and chairs are available, or you may bring your own cushion. There is no charge, and donations are welcomed.

For more information, contact Paula and Tony Seikel at 775-3183 or seikel@ida.net or visit the website at portneufsangha.org to learn about all of the programs offered at the Sangha.

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Portneuf Sangha and Meditation Center to show film on Sunday - Idaho State Journal