Her Yoga Reaches Out charity has held Yogathons on both coasts and collected more than $1 million to help children and their families.

A recent article in Forbes says that innovation is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. It sounds clich, but it stands to reason.

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I wonder: Does a person who perspires a lot say a personal trainer or certified yoga instructor possess a greater capacity to transform innovative ideas into realities? I have no way of knowing, but after meeting Sarah Gardner, Im inclined to say hell yes!

Sarah is indeed a personal trainer and yoga instructor, hailing from Wayland, MA (just west of Boston). She recalls driving down a major highway in 2009 and saying out loud, "I want to have a Yogathon at Gillette Stadium to help kids in need."

For the sake of context, Gillette Stadium is the home of the New England Patriots. Its a big venue. Up until that moment, Sarah had never spearheaded and organized a fundraising event in her life. (That moment in the car was the 1% of inspiration.)

Fast forward to Sunday, April 27, 2014, when more than 1,000 people will pack Gillette Stadiums Dana Farber Fieldhouse for theYoga Reaches Out (YRO) Yogathon benefiting Boston Childrens Hospital and Citizen Schools. Since Sarahs first Yogathon in 2010, YRO has held annual Yogathons on both coasts, has raised more than $1 million, and distributed those funds to numerous organizations focused on helping children and their families. (These last two sentences these describe the 99% perspiration.)

In a 2012 article, Sarah spoke about her motivation and purpose.

I started YRO to bring the yoga community together to create seva [selfless service]. If we can take the power of yoga and direct it toward helping children in need, then what we practice on our mat is taken off the mat to truly make a difference in the lives of others. Its simple, helping children in need is my main goal and the mission of YRO.

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Sarah Gardner raises money to aid children through Yoga Reaches Out

Catherine Dunphy came to seminary in her mid-20s, full of passion to work in the service of the Catholic church. By the time she left, for many reasons, she had lost her faith.

"I had this struggle where I thought, 'I don't believe this anymore,' " said Dunphy, now 40 and living in Toronto. "I felt I had no space to move or breathe. I felt like an outcast."

Now, 10 years later, she is part of a new online project aimed at helping others like herself who are isolated by doubt in a sea of believers. Called Rational Doubt: The Clergy Project Blog, it debuts this week on Patheos, an online host of religion and spirituality blogs.

Rational Doubt is an extension of The Clergy Project, a private online community of clergy who, for a range of reasons, no longer believe in God. Started three years ago, the initiative has grown from just a handful of anonymous members who supported each other on online forums and discussions to a current roster of more than 550 priests, ministers, nuns, rabbis and even a few imams.

The blog's goal is lofty: to engage and support clergy and laypeople who are not members of The Clergy Project but who doubt or reject religion and feel they cannot confide in friends, family and colleagues. Clergy Project members -- all former clergy who no longer believe in God -- will write posts, answer questions and engage in discussions about religion, nonbelief and the journey between the two.

"There are a lot of nonbelieving clergy, and the fact that they can't come out is having a negative effect on their lives," said Linda LaScola, a founder of The Clergy Project and editor of Rational Doubt.

"People should not have to suffer that way."

And they do seem to suffer. LaScola, a qualitative researcher, studied nonbelieving clergy with Daniel Dennett, a Tufts University professor. The two researchers found signs of depression, stress and debilitating anxiety.

After publishing their work, they helped found The Clergy Project with Richard Dawkins, the atheist and evolutionary biologist, and Dan Barker, a former minister who is now a secular activist.

"I hope the blog will provide encouragement and support to people who are in the same predicament as the people in The Clergy Project," Dennett said. "I think there are a lot of them out there."

Read more here:
Losing my religion: Clergy who no longer believe gather online

Rhinebeck, New York (PRWEB) April 24, 2014

Omega Institute cofounder and New York Times best-selling author, Elizabeth Lesser, sits down with Oprah Winfrey on the Emmy Award-winning series Super Soul Sunday April 27, 2014, at 11:00 a.m. ET/PT on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. In this heartfelt episode, The Healing Power of Love, Oprah speaks with Elizabeth, who describes her sisters battle with cancer and how becoming her bone marrow donor transformed their relationship.

Said Elizabeth Lesser, All of us have conversations waiting to be had with the people in our livesconversations about love and forgiveness, about what we need from each other and what we mean to each other. We dont have to wait for a life-or-death situation to reveal what is in our hearts. Thats what I learned through this experience with my sisterthat the greatest gift we can give is our most authentic self. Thats as life-giving as a bone marrow transplant.

Viewers can join the conversation online via Oprah.com, Facebook, and Twitter using #SuperSoulSunday, @ElizabethLesser, @omega_institute. To find what channel OWN is on in your area, visit http://www.oprah.com/findown.

Omega is also pleased to announce Elizabeth Lesser will be a featured presenter at two of its upcoming conferences, Women & Power: Women/Men: The Next Conversation, September 1921, and Where We Go From Here: Building the Collaborative Commons, October 2326, 2014 on its Rhinebeck, New York campus.

About Elizabeth Lesser Elizabeth Lesser is cofounder of Omega and a senior advisor. She is the New York Times best-selling author of The Seekers Guide and Broken Open. For more than 30 years, she has studied and worked with leading figures in the fields of emotional intelligence and healinghealing self and healing society. For much of that time, Lesser was a driving force at Omega, helping to lead the organization, create the curriculum, and spearhead many of its programs, including the Women & Power conferences, which offer a dialogue between women in leadership positions in a variety of areasgovernment, religion, media, the arts, and more. Lesser helped Oprah Winfrey create the 10-week webinar for Eckhart Tolles book, A New Earth. Since then, she has appeared several times on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Oprah.com webcasts, and is a frequent host on the Oprah Radio channel on Sirius/XM.

About Super Soul Sunday Super Soul Sunday is the multi-award winning daytime series that delivers a timely thought-provoking, eye-opening and inspiring block of programming designed to help viewers awaken to their best selves and discover a deeper connection to the world around them. Recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Daytime Emmy award, the Alliance of Women in Media Foundation with a Gracie award and the Religion Communicators Council with a Wilbur award, Super Soul Sunday features all-new conversations between Oprah Winfrey and top thinkers, authors, visionaries and spiritual leaders. Exploring themes and issues including happiness, personal fulfillment, spirituality and conscious living, guests who have appeared include Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, Dr. Maya Angelou, Gary Zukav, Marianne Williamson, Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, indie.arie, Coach Phil Jackson, don Miguel Ruiz, and Thich Nhat Hanh. Home to Oprahs Book Club 2.0, the series has helped surge book sales of bestselling author Cheryl Strayed, debut novelist Ayana Mathis and bestselling author Sue Monk Kidd. A truly unique television experience, this groundbreaking series has attracted one of the most loyal, active and engaged social communities in television. Every episode has ranked in the top ten most social shows in broadcast television and cable, frequently spiking to number one (source: Bluefin Data). Produced by Harpo Studios, Super Soul Sunday presents an array of perspectives on what it means to be alive in todays world.

About Omega Institute for Holistic Studies Founded in 1977, Omega Institute for Holistic Studies is the nation's most trusted source for wellness and personal growth. As a nonprofit organization, Omega offers diverse and innovative educational experiences that inspire an integrated approach to personal and social change. Located on 200 acres in the beautiful Hudson Valley, Omega welcomes more than 23,000 people to its workshops, conferences, and retreats in Rhinebeck, New York, and at exceptional locations around the world. eOmega.org

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Omega Cofounder Elizabeth Lesser to Appear on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network's "Super Soul Sunday"

David Unaipon has been pictured on the front of Australias $50 note since 1995. A hugely intelligent man who nonetheless left school at 13, he lodged 19 patents during his life, revolutionised sheep shearing, devoted much of his time to attempting to achieve perpetual motion, wrote prolifically, and conceptualised the helicopter two decades before it became a reality. This is his story.

A warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers: this feature includes numerous images of a deceased person.

Almost half a century after his death in 1967, Unaipon has achieved some level of posthumous recognition through his appearance on our national currency, and in the annual David Unaipon award for Indigenous literature. Google even featured one of his mechanical designs on a front page doodle on his 140th birthday.

Unaipon was said to be the best-known Aborigine in Australia during his lifetime. But having researched his life and his scientific investigations, its impossible to avoid the conclusion that he would have been much better-known and more influential if he had been white.

Born David Ngunaitponi at South Australias Point McLeay Mission in 1872, his name was reputed to mean I go forward. He undoubtedly went further forward than most of his contemporaries he remains the only Indigenous Australian on a current Australian banknote. Yet what he tried to achieve remains largely forgotten.

Few Australians can identify him on the $50 note; even fewer would know anything of his life. His descendants arent entirely happy about his appearance on our currency either, yet that remains his most visible recognition. What did he do and why dont we know more about it?

Unaipons extraordinary ability was evident from when he first began school at the age of seven. One missionary wrote of him: I only wish the majority of white boys were as bright, intelligent, well-instructed and well-mannered, as the little fellow I am now taking charge of. In 1885, at the age of 13, he moved to Adelaide to work as a servant. His employer, CB Young, actively encouraged Unaipon to continue his reading and learning.

After working variously as a bootmaker, bookkeeper and storeman, Unaipon was eventually employed by the Aborigines Friends Association, which ran the Point McLeay mission, to travel and seek support for its work. A devout Christian (his father was the very first convert at the mission), he saw that belief system as quite compatible with Aboriginal spirituality. But that did not distract him from his continued investigations in science and engineering.

Unaipons ongoing renown rests heavily on his modified design for a sheep-shearing comb. He had come up with the basic idea by 1909, and he placed a provisional patent on his hinge modification, but despite being widely adopted, he never made any money from it, and the patent eventually lapsed a fate that befell all his subsequent patents as well.

Unaipons invention was neatly described in the Adelaide Advertiser in 1910 under the heading An Ingenious Aboriginal:

Read more:
How David Unaipon (Almost) Changed Our Nation

The way volunteer aerobics instructor Carmen Hemrick sees it, getting older is no reason to slow down. With retirement comes more leisure time, as well as the opportunity to use it to get active and focus on physical health.

Hemrick, 55, teaches aerobics at Christ the King Episcopal Church, 2800 W. Ina Road. Its the latest stop in her 30-year career.

A former Fitness ABC owner, Hemrick has taught at the YMCA and other locations around the area. A core group of about 20 women, many of whom are now in their 70s and 80s, have followed Hemrick at each stop.

I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing people sometimes people who havent exercised ever or hate exercise come in and discover its fun, Hemrick said. Theyll say My balance is so much better. Im able to walk a little bit farther. It also gives me satisfaction to have a lot of widows there who find friends. That makes me feel good because the class is enabling them to do that.

Hemrick offers hour-long classes three days a week. Her sessions contain elements of yoga, kickboxing, weight training, Zumba and step aerobics. She has a low-impact class designed for seniors and those not used to exercise. Students in that class sit in chairs as they work out.

Jeanette Maslowski, 69, has taken Hemricks classes for 20 years.

Its such a friendly group and she is such a caring person, Maslowski said of Hemrick. She just makes the classes good fun. We just love it.

Hemrick adapts well to each students needs, Maslowski said.

She tells us to go at our own pace and not do anything extreme, she said. She gives us advice on health issues and what we should do to compensate for difficulties.

Maslowski, who likes the classes so much that she often stays for a second class on the same day, meets with Hemrick and several other students for monthly luncheons.

Original post:
Aerobics instructor gets seniors moving, shaking