Humane society volunteer Barb Timmer raised enough money through selling T-shirts to have outside play area for dogs like George, a shephard boxer mix. George and many other dogs are available for adoption at the Humane Society of Richland County.(Photo: Jason J. Molyet/News Journal)Buy Photo

ONTARIO - Barb Timmer has been a faithful volunteer at the Humane Society of Richland County for six years.

She saw a particular need almost right away.

"I've been wanting a fence ever since the first dog I walked got loose," Timmer said. "Luckily, I sat down and eventually the dog came back to me."

Timmer raised $4,000 for fencing for play yards through the sale of T-shirts. She found a company called Merch on Amazon that does print-on-demand T-shirts.

Some of the shirts feature pictures of dogs at the shelter.

To get to the site, visit ItsTheTruthDesigns.com.

Humane agent and shelter director Missy Houghton has four or five of the T-shirts.

"They hold their size well," Houghton said. "They're soft and comfortable to wear."

There is a need for dogs to be able to burn off energy. Houghton said the exercise lowers stress levels and makes the dogs more adoptable.

Timmer initially came to the humane society to walk dogs. She developed an interest in the adoption events and started helping with those.

Today she is the volunteer coordinator.

Timmer says she wasn't sure she wanted to be at the humane society.

"I was kind of leery of coming in here," she said. "I thought it was a sad place, but I found it was a happy place. I love spending time with the animals."

During a recent interview in the play yard, a young boxer mix named George romped with the volunteer.

Timmer has been a nurse at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital for 38 years. The Mansfield native married her high school sweetheart, Mark.

"We met in 10th grade," she said. "He's not the animal lover I am, but he tolerates the time I spend out here."

The Timmers have a dog and a cat at home. Timmer said she's partial to golden retrievers.

Through continued T-shirt sales, Timmer hopes to raise money for "things that are considered luxuries to a shelter." Those include a shed to store equipment and MP3 players for relaxing music.

Timmer said her greatest satisfaction as a volunteer is seeing an animal come out of a bad situation and go to a loving home.

"They're really happy here until they hit the jackpot and get adopted," Timmer said. "They have the care, the attention and the love that they need."

Timmer is a big part of that success.

"What she does, you can't put a value on it," Houghton said. "She is so willing to go above and beyond.

"We wish every shelter had a Barb Timmer."

mcaudill@gannett.com

419-521-7219

Twitter: @MNJCaudill

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Some residents of Madison, Wis., are no eligible for a groundbreaking program that allows doctors to prescribe organic fruits and vegetables.

The Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program, or FVRx, is focused at the neighborhood level and started earlier this month. It comes from the financial support of Wholesome Wave, and from a partnership between Willy Street Co-op North, and UW Health Northeast Family Medical, which are within a block of each other.

Wholesome Wave is a national group that is dedicated to affordable, healthy, local food for all. Its mission is to empower underserved consumers to make healthier food choices by increasing affordable access to fresh, local food. It funded the pilot with a $23,000 grant to the city of Madison.

Im extremely pleased that the city of Madison was awarded a Wholesome Wave grant to implement a Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program, said Madison Mayor Paul Soglin. By collaborating with partners at Public Health Madison and Dane County, Willy Street Co-op, Second Harvest Foodbank, and UW Health Northeast Family Medical Clinic, the city continues to illustrate how government and the community can work hand-in-hand to increase the well-being and health of all of our residents.

A patient can qualify for aid to help purchase produce and join the co-op if their doctor deems that they don't food security, or reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food.

To qualify for the aid, a patient has to answer yes to one of two questions: In the last year, have you worried about having enough food until you could buy more, or have you actually run out of food before you could buy more?

A Boost to Co-op Membership The aid comes in the form of a packet that includes a coupon to become a co-op owner, and 60 $2 coupons that can be used in the produce department until the end of the year. Participants can also join a program at the co-op that offers an additional 10 percent off groceries, and a free coupon to attend one of the co-op classes, which would normally charge a fee.

FVRx coupons can be used in conjunction with other co-op sales and coupons, including those redeemed via another new co-op program, known as Double Dollars, or any time a customer shops at any of the co-ops three locations.

The co-op is invested in continuing to expand the ways in which we can help address food security in Dane County, said Kirsten Moore, director of cooperative services. In addition to our established Access Discount Program, we are excited to work with our public and private partners to test new programs like Double Dollars and FVRx.

Moore added that the data collected from the pilot will help the co-op determine how to continue and fund these type of programs for the future. We already have some great ideas to share in the next few months, and we look forward to launching new initiatives to expand these offerings, she noted.

Founded in 1974, Willy Street Co-op, with more than 34,000 owners and three retail locations,is the Madison areas largest consumer-owned neighborhood grocer offering organic, locally produced and conventional foods.

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Willy Street Co-op to Dispense Organic Produce Prescriptions - Gourmet Retailer

Ideal For: Students struggling with schoolwork or are having trouble focusing, who cant find an easy solution to escaping negative thoughts, and who like to be reminded to take a Mindful Moment by a pop-up notification on their phone.

Philosophy: Its easy to get overwhelmed with never-ending homework deadlines, tests, extracurricular activities, friendships, a complicated love life and other drama. When youre overwhelmed, stressed, or anxious on a regular basis, its hard to keep your head up and become your best in school and with the people around you.You dont need to struggle to meditate for 10-30 minutes every day; the consistency of a 3-5 minute practice is more important than the length of any practice.

Favorite Features: Aura sends you 3-minute meditations every day so you can clear your mind, create peace, and find comfort and confidence in yourself, free from stress, anxiety, and sadness. It also helps you take mindful breathing breaks for just a few seconds throughout the dayyou can set it for the frequency of your choice.

Whats Free & Whatll Cost You: 3-minute meditations, mindful breathing exercises and reminders, an unguided meditation timer with nature sounds, a gratitude journal, a list of daily goals list, Google calendar integration, and intelligent meditation personalization, which means that Auralearns your preferences. Premium is $11.99 per month ($7.92 per month if you choose an annual subscription) and gives you unlimited access to over 200 meditations, customized meditations based on mood tracking after check-in, as well as the option for longer, seven-minute meditations.

From the Founder: Teenage years are full of soul-searching, finding out who you are and what you stand for in this world. WithAura, you can make meditating a habit and learn more about yourself every day. Having the ability to focus on yourself and the present moment gives you the power to understand your identity, and in turn, build self-confidence and security. Become an even better person, friend, and student by understanding who you are and being comfortable with your mind and body. Daniel Lee, Co-Founder

Ideal For: The visualizers the insomniacs, those who like the structure of working a 7-day program.

Philosophy: In our accelerated, always-on culture, weve forgottenhow to just be calm, but it's a very valuable state of mind for many reasons, and we need to figure out how to bring ourselves back to that.

Favorite Features: Calm features special Sleep Stories, (because, hey, youre never too old for a good bedtime story), 7-Day programs for specifics like Loving Kindness, Gratitude and Self-Esteem, (everyone knows daily practice makes perfect) and the Breathe Bubble that guides your breath from inhale to exhale. Also, really pretty videos of nature-scapes with calming sounds as the backdrop to their home screen and meditation experiences.

Whats Free & Whatll Cost You: The 7 Days of Calm guided meditation program, Body Scan Meditation, timed meditation, Loving Kindness meditation, Breathe Bubble and three sleep stories. Also, the app is 100% free for every K-12 teacher on earthnice! For additional guided meditations, 7-Day programs and sleep stories, its $12.99 a month or $59.99 for the year.

From the Founder: Once we notice what the mind is doing, we have the opportunity to pull ourselves away from distractions and back to our focus. And for that first millisecond that we notice weve drifted away, we can observe what the mind is doing. Perhaps were worrying about something later that day, perhaps were ruminating about a past conversation. Regardless of whats pulled us away from the breath and broken our concentration, the act of noticing allows us to return.

Ideal For: The New-Age girl who is new to meditation and likes a lot of guidance.

Philosophy: INSCAPE was created for those who are seeking balance, calmness, and overall health. It's the same if you are going to a cardio class or a yoga session: you have to dedicate yourself to being healthy, and the same goes for meditation.

Favorite Features: Sleep library and sound baths, futuristic and carefully curated soothing sounds that accompany detailed guided meditations that get very specific when it comes to what to focus on and how to guide your breath. When you open the app each day, Todays Inscapes, a curated list of five different suggested meditations for morning, afternoon, evening, and late night.

Whats Free & Whatll Cost You: The app is free to download and certain parts of the content library are unlocked, including a focus, mindfulness and mantra series, a new session each afternoon and a dream journey.To access the library of over 200 meditation sessions, the cost is $12.99 per month or $89.99 per year.

From the Founder: Research shows people have an average of 50 thoughts a minute. So, even if youre calming your mind down to 40, youre doing great. We were very thoughtful about the design, and how it had to be easy to use, beautiful, and accessible. We know your life is busy and theres pressure of school, sports, social life,working towards college, so meditation shouldnt feel like another to-do, it should be more of an empowering experience. Khajak Keledjian

Ideal For: The girl who has a variety of very specific needs and not a lot of free time.

Philosophy: Mindfulness meditation practice does more than simply help you regulate your emotions and attention; it also can impact your thinking. These meditations are designed for dozens of different situations and moods so you can find meditations for just about any moment and any feeling. Top meditation teachers from around the world contribute to the apps five-minute tracks, which make daily meditation accessible and doable.

Favorite Features: Simple Habit features super-specific meditations like getting ready for a test, interview, or public speaking, your commute home (on the bus, train, or car are all options you can select from) taking a break (specifically, taking a bath, a work break, or eating lunch) or even dealing with PMS. The meditations are also pretty short and sweet.

Whats Free: & Whatll Cost You: The app is free to download, and offersseveral months worth of free content such as On-The Go meditations, Study Break Boost, and Deep Sleep. Access to additional meditations such as Self-Love, Relieving Pain, and others are $11.99 a month, $99.99 a year, or, if you fall in love, $299.99 for alifetime.

From the Founder: One of the biggest obstacles for teens is that they feel like they dont have time to meditate or they don't know how. Studies show that brief meditation, even if it is just a few minutes, if practiced consistently, can have powerful benefits within a few weeks. Research has shown that mindfulness can not only reduce stress but also boost focus and creativity.Yunha Kim

Ideal For: Those who need help managing the stress of school or finals, coping with a breakup or a loss, dealing with anxiety or depression, and who want to use the app in combination with other therapies. It is also ideal for those who like to check-in, as there are dozens of different moods and states of mind to check in with before you start.

Philosophy: Stop, Breathe, Think allows you to chart how you are doing mentally, physically, and emotionally, then suggests meditations that will reinforce the positive. The app was actually initially created with teens in mind, surfacing out of a collaboration with through nonprofit Tools For Peace, where it was found that teens had a hard time going straight into meditation directly from class or extracurricular activities. So, each session started with a check-in, giving everyone the chance to reset. By recognizing and labeling emotions first, teens got one step closer to being present for the mindful or meditative activity, effectively bringing attention from out in the world to focusing inward.

Favorite Features: When you check in, the app recommends meditations personalized to how you are feeling. Theres a great Walking Meditation, Drop the Storyline (detaching from thoughts about something your anxious or worried about) Body Scan, and even yoga videos. It also takes you through the basics of mindfulness through its Learn to Meditate feature.

Whats Free: and Whatll Cost You: The ability to check-in emotionally and get recommendations for guided meditations, access to over 20 guided meditations, sticker rewards for progress, tracking your meditation streak, measuring your mental and physical state over time, a basic meditation timer, and yoga and acupressure videos for stress are all free. If you want to add additional guided meditations, its $4.99 a month or $41.99 a year for iOS, and for Android, there are three in-app packages between $0.99 and $2.99 that give access to 10 additional guided meditations.

Words From the Founder: Our goal is to continue to build on this personalized emotions based approach, to help everyone to gain insight into their mood, understand what impacts it overtime; and try recommended activities that support their resilience and ability to manage their emotions. Our users under 24, especially women, report the lowest mental state, with stress and anxiety as the top emotions chosen in the check in. We have over 6 million emotional check-ins to date, which gives us incredible data that we use to improve the app and make it even more helpful and effective for each individual user. Jamie Price, Co-Founder

Ideal For: The spiritualist, the nature lover, the girl who embraces a Wholistic approach to life.

Philosophy: Akasha is built around the five natural elements, each representing an area of your life: Fire represents the role of Love and Desire; Earth represents Success and Accomplishment; Water represents Flow and Productivity; Earth represents Harmony and Balance; Wood represents Innovation and Creativity. All of these areas interconnect, so the app integrates a way for you to work with yourself to help create the kind of life that you want.

Favorite Features: There is a short lesson and a meditation for each element and meditation within that element. Also, they have teenage girls covered. Theres the Hurt Love module, which explains why each of us has been hurt and how to love ourselves, Transforming Heartache into strength, and meditations for defining what success means to you, and how to stop being so self-critical.

Whats Free and Whatll Cost You: Free to download and experience one free track, Hurt Love: in Fire Element, one-time fee of $3.99 for access to everything else.

Words From the Founder: Stop holding yourself back, learn how to use concerns about yourself to be supportive to yourself.Transform your inner critic into your inner advisor and work with yourself, not against yourself. Tina Chadda, MD.

Ideal For: The music lover, the sound mixer, the aspiring DJ, the big kid who misses lullabies.

Philosophy: The ability to easily mix sounds and create your personalized ambiances helps teach you how to use sound & meditation to calm your brain, achieve better sleep, have more energy, better focus, decrease anxiety and enjoy your intense teen life.

Favorite Features: With Relax Melodies, you basically mix and match as many different sounds and melodies as youd likethere are hundredsto create a calming track, with the option to add a meditation. Some sounds are direct, like Rain and Cat Purring while others are a bit more obscure, like Eternity and Music Box.

Whats Free and Whats Not: Dozens of these sounds and meditations are free. For 122 sounds and melodies and additional coaching and meditation sessions, it costs $9.99 per month, or $19.99 for a full year.

Words From the Founder: - We approach meditation from an everyday life perspective, as an ordinary, natural and simple activitymuch like walking, practicing a sport or having a conversation with a friend. Simon Alex Brub, Co -Founder

Insight Timer is entirely free, and offers nearly 4,000 guided meditations (and chants, and guided movements, and nature sounds) from nearly 1,000 teachers, some of the most renowned of our time, like Eckhart Tolle and Tara Brach. You also have the option to join groups and leave comments on everything you watch or listen to, and read other peoples feedback, too.

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8 Meditation Apps to Try Now - TeenVogue.com

When we think of brain health, few of us consider meditation, yet meditation can be surprisingly effective to boost brain health. Thats because this simple act is effective for reducing stress and the resulting stress hormones that can have a negative impact on your brain.

Research published in the journal Psychiatry Research found that meditation improves blood flow to the brain and that these changes last long after the meditation is over. Scientists at the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA studied the effects of meditation on the stress circuits of the brain. Ten experienced meditators performed two types of meditation: a focus-based meditative technique and a breath-based practice. The meditators brains were scanned using MRI technology before starting, during the meditation practices and following meditation.

Researchers found that four regions of the brain were affected during meditation and that the two types of meditation states cause different patterns of blood flow to the brain; however, both techniques improved blood flow to the brain. Some of the brain changes continued even after meditation stopped.

While research in this area is still in its infancy, the positive impact of meditation on blood flow to the brain may have applications in treating brain disorders or stroke and in keeping your brain healthy for the long-term.

Related: 8 Ways Meditation Can Change Your Life

Meditation has also been linked to mood improvements, pain threshold increases, increases in immune system activity and improved bronchial and arterial muscle tone. Other research at the University of Wisconsins Center for Healthy Minds found that meditation can improve attention in children. While the studies show a wide variety of health improvements linked to meditation, they consistently show a reduction in stress hormones and a reversal in the effects of chronic stress.

While many people associate meditation with religion, its actually a simple technique that transcends religious beliefs. It is a mental vacation from the stresses of daily life whereby you center your mind and create a sense of peacefulness. The rewards are worth the minimal effort

Meditation is easy to learn, requires no expensive equipment and can be done almost anywhere. All you need is commitment and a small amount of time. While participants in the study practiced for one hour a day, even a few minutes daily will be helpful.

There are many different types of meditation. Dont get bogged down in finding the ideal one for you; that sort of quest is often just an excuse for procrastinating anyway. There are a million or more reason for not meditating, starting with I dont have time or Im too tired, but they are all simply excuses for not making your health a priority. No one has the time. How you spend your time is up to you.

Here is a simple, yet effective, meditation exercise. You can play peaceful background music while performing this meditation or you can have silencewhichever you prefer.

1. Sit in a comfortable position where you will not be disturbed. Close your eyes. Keep your head upright and shoulders relaxed.

2. Begin by breathing deeply and steadily. Do not force your breathing. Simply breathe as deeply as you comfortably can. Observe your breath.

3. Begin to allow your breath to expand your abdomen. Comfortably expand your abdomen with each inhalation, and then release your abdomen with every exhalation.

4. Continue breathing deeply for at least 10 minutes. The longer you can meditate, the better.

Meditation gets easier with practice. Take some time each day to meditate and your brain and your body will thank you.

Related:Dont Believe in Herbal Medicine? 10 Things to Change Your MindThe 5 Best Herbs to Soothe Your NervesShould You Actually Starve a Fever?

Dr. Michelle Schoffro Cook, PhD, DNM is the publisher of the free e-newsletter Worlds Healthiest News, president of PureFood BC, and an international best-selling and 20-time published book author whose works include: Boost Your Brain Power in 60 Seconds: The 4-Week Plan for a Sharper Mind, Better Memory, and Healthier Brain.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Meditation Improves Blood Flow to the Brain - Care2.com

The recent vote by the Senate to confirm Betsy Devos as Secretary of Education bothered me and not just because I felt she is grossly unqualified for the job. It reminded me that we are in a state of polarization, in partisan or left/right silos, where social media enables us to hear only voices that amplify our feelings. Fear of the other side is festered, along with an inability to achieve balance or promote pluralism. To find that equanimity, I realized that I needed not only to unplug from technology and the world, but to withdraw into myself, and to practice meditation.

Hindus are not the first or only people of faith to encourage meditation and reflection; but it is the Hindu concept of self-realization, with the goal of merging ones self into the [Divine] Self, that I am most familiar with. Whether identified through Greek words id, ego and superego, or Sanskrit words jivatma, atma and paramatma, human consciousness has multiple layers that we must penetrate to get to the Divine as part of our spiritual growth. The mind can be considered dual in nature with one lower and one higher, which are sometimes at odds with one another. Through mindfulness, we can merge the wisdom of the higher mind with the rationality of the lower mind, to reach enlightenment.

Paramahansa Yogananda

As Paramahansa Yogananda, a great Hindu monk, said, Self-realization is yoga, or oneness with truth the direct perception or experience of truth by the all-knowing intuitive faculty of the soul. Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of the Self Realization Fellowship, was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in 1893, to an affluent Indian family. He became a monk in 1915, gave many lectures and taught people how to attain direct personal experience of God and eventually wrote his life story, The Autobiography of a Yogi. According to American Veda author Phil Goldberg, Published just after World War II, this book remains the most influential memoir of a genuine master of the Vedic tradition ever written. It still inspires tens of thousands of new readers every year. But Yoganandas legacy extends beyond that iconic book. He arrived in 1920 and made America his home, establishing the world headquarters of his Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in Los Angeles, the Benares of America. For the next 32 years, his universal spiritual teachings and his Kriya Yoga practices reached millions.

Paramahansa Yoganandas description of Kriya Yoga is in his autobiography. According to the Self Realization Fellowship website:

The actual technique is given to students of the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons after a preliminary period of study and practice of the three preparatory techniques taught by Paramahansa Yogananda.

Taken together as a comprehensive system, these meditation techniques enable the practitioner to achieve the highest benefits and divine goal of the ancient yoga science.

Decades later, another Hindu guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, also came to the West, and brought with him another path to enlightenment: Transcendental Meditation, or its popular short form TM. Mahesh Yogi, who arrived in America right before the cultural and political revolution of the 1960s, said:

The goal of the Transcendental Meditation technique is the state of enlightenment. This means we experience that inner calmness, that quiet state of least excitation, even when we are dynamically busy. we have a natural and effective means to dissolve even deeply rooted fatigue and stress. This is the way to unfold full value of life.

Even in the first days of meditation we find that our eyes seem to be a little more open, our mind seems a bit more clear. Our feeling towards our friends seems to be more harmonious.

And then, as the practice continues every day, a time will come when we will start living life free from all stresses. We cleanse the awareness of all stresses and strains, leaving the conscious mind completely free in its pure value.

However, I found my path to meditation through the Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 6 is fully focused on Krishnas explanation of Dhyana Yoga, or the yoga of meditation. And so I turned to the translation of the Gita that my father gave me when I started college, by Swami Swarupananda of the Advaita Ashrama. In Chapter 6 The Way of Meditation, verses 20-23 provided the essence of what I need to practice.

When the mind, absolutely restrained by the practice of concentration, attains quietude, and when seeing the Self by the self, one is satisfied in his own Self; when he feels that infinite bliss which is perceived by the (purified) intellect and which transcends the senses, and established wherein he never departs from his real state; and having obtained which, regards no other acquisition superior to that, and where established, he is not moved even by heavy sorrow; let that be known as the state, called by the name of Yoga estate of severance from the contact of pain. This Yoga should be practiced with perseverance undisturbed by depression of heart.

Just as a good nights sleep, a nutritious meal or a good workout can benefit your mind and body, a good meditation practice can also provide a good foundation to counter lifes daily challenges. It is something I have had to practice sitting down and emptying your mind of all the days stressors does not happen at the flip of a switch. Rather, it is something that happens over time, with persistance and sometimes it takes a little longer to get to that space where you are free from pressure. The benefit? Being able to come back to deal with the news of the day, however depressing, and react and respond from that place of equanimity. And through a more sustained, deeper meditation practice? The hope is to reach a state of bliss, of self-realization.

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A Hindu's Practice: Education, Meditation and Self-Realization - Patheos (blog)

Connie Britton likes to keep her morning routine as simple and peaceful as possible. That means waking up with her 6-year-old son, indulging in a healthy and delicious breakfast , and taking a little time to focus on herself. The Nashville actress and Friday Night Lights alum tells SELF that since she has such a jam-packed schedule, she relies on those quiet A.M. hours to set the tone for her whole day.

My mornings are really about bringing things in that are going to be truly nourishing, she tells SELF. Thats not to say that the first part of her day is glamorous. Rather, she makes sure to practice self-care while also taking care of businessthat means feeding the dogs, her son, and herself, and fitting in a workout when she can.

While promoting her partnership with Quaker for American Heart Month , Britton spoke to SELF about the little things she does in the morning to make sure she feels energized and focused all day long.

Britton has been meditating for years20, to be exact. [Meditating] is something that Ive found to be really effective for so many different things, she says, but certainly for my health, stress levels, mental clarity, and general well-being.

Between working and taking care of her son, Britton doesnt have much time in the morning to meditate these days, especially if she and her son wake up at the same time. But shes found that since she has been meditating almost daily for 30 minutes or an hour through the years, she feels the effects even when she cant practice as regularly as she used to. A lot of times I think that young women think that [meditating] is not something to worry about, but if you start taking care of yourself at a young age, youll feel the effects of it as you get older, she explains.

Most of us dont have time to dedicate a full 30 minutes (let alone an hour) each day to meditation. But experts say doing it for just 5 to 10 minutes can be beneficial .

I think part of eating healthily for yourself is eating things you like, Britton says, and Ive loved oatmeal my whole life. Aside from the fact that she cant resist a good bowl of oats (topped with maple syrup, almond milk, and coconut oil), this breakfast is one of her favorites because her son loves it, too. I feed my son in the morning, and then I have some, and then boom, were both taken care of.

One thing Britton and her son differ on when it comes to oatmeal? Every now and then my son will go for raisins, she says, but Im not a raisin girl.

For Britton, finding time to sweat in the A.M. can be tough. Thats one thing thats tricky as a single mom, because any workout I do has to be at my house before my son wakes up. Thats why she saves the majority of her morning workouts for her days off. If I have a day where I take him to school and Im not working, I try to work out right after I drop him off, she says.

Because Britton loves being outside, she tries to exercise outdoors as often as possible. My favorite workout is any time I can get outside and go on a long walk or a hike.

Like most other meditation fans, Britton is big on yoga specifically the hot variety. I did yoga for years and loved it, but I actually injured myself so now I go with the hot yoga because it feels very healing, she explains.

Thirty minutes to an hour before she exercises, Britton fuels up with oatmeal. That protein- and carb-packed breakfast fave gives her the energy she needs to slay her workout, and leaving a little time to digest afterward keeps her from getting an upset stomach. After shes finished sweating, she reaches for a green smoothie to rehydrate. Thats a pre- and post-workout breakfast routine we can get behind.

You may also like: 3 High-Protein Breakfasts That Take Less Than 5 Minutes to Make

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Connie Britton on Why Everyone Should Start Meditating Daily - SELF

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..

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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

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

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