By Mia Maysack, PNN Columnist

Recently I was asked how I've managed to deal with agonizing pain every day for over 20 years. The answer is far from simple, as it has been an extraordinarily long road that I'll continue to travel for the rest of my life.

After over a decade of attempting mainstream remedies such as pills, injections, procedures and other therapies, I reached a point of hopelessness that led to contemplating the possibility of giving up. I had become tired and sick of being sick and tired.

I still am!

At the beginning of my holistic journey, I felt as though all my options were exhausted. Enough already with the corporate approach to medicine, along with being treated as either a drug seeker or experimental lab rat.

To be clear, I'm tremendously grateful for all the avenues I've been able to travel, as well as the providers who did what they could to help me along the way. I am even thankful for the doctor who initially misdiagnosed my ear infection as swimmers ear -- even though it almost cost my life and led to a permanent state of discomfort.

I wouldn't be who I am without those experiences, nor would I now be in this position to assist others in the treacherous journey that is chronic illness.

Acknowledging grief, as real a symptom as the hurt itself, was a first step for me. I had to come to terms with knowing what I experienced was not a personal punishment, and also develop a relationship or coexistence with it that was mandatory for my survival.

After growing in affirmation of those truths, I was then able to wrap my mind around acceptance. That didn't mean I liked the situation and I still don't!My illness doesn't define who I am as a person or where I'm able to go from here -- based on the things that I can control.

This would be about the time some of you may question the merit of what I'm speaking about. So let me take this moment to break it down.

Is an altered state of mind going to address or correct all my problems? No.

Am I suggesting the idea that "positivity" cures? Also no.

I am reminded of a medical professional who endured a traumatic spinal injury and was told they'd never walk again. This began a four month long meditative process for this individual, who envisioned having surgery to the point of feeling its physical effects. Needless to say, they are not only walking again, but still practicing medicine.

Of course, there are things that cannot be "fixed." But shifting gears in how we think about a problem cultivates space for an opportunity to no longer dwell on what we're unable to change. Instead, we can invest and focus on what we can change.

Dwelling isn't the same as grieving, so give yourself permission for having thoughts of "screw this!"

Exploring new territory is what it means to be human. When we decide our experiences are opportunities for evolution, there's always a chance of merging onto an on-ramp that leads to personal growth and acceptance.

That's another benefit of meditation that I encourage you to study for yourselves. When our bodily systems are more relaxed and we're breathing adequately, there's often improvement in how were feeling. Each moment consists of evolution because things are always changing,

It took a while, but I've come to embody that same sort of energy. There's a lot throughout the world I cant do very much about. But there are small things I can handle with great love, which includes coexisting with the different aspects of my life. Compassionate nurturing is a monumental and radical task, but it's vital and necessary.

Mia Maysack lives with chronic migraine, cluster headache and fibromyalgia.Mia is the founder of Keepin Our Heads Up, a Facebook advocacy and support group, and Peace & Love, a wellness and life coaching practice for the chronically ill.

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What I Learned About Meditation and Acceptance - Pain News Network

It was one of those mornings our alarm didn't go off, I had a throbbing headache, the dog had an accident on the new carpet, and the apartment was a mess. Snapping at each other was almost an inevitability when my fianc suggested that we sit down and do a five-minute meditation together something we had been talking about doing for seven months. It was as good a time as any.

The first joint meditation session wasn't as calming as I expected, though. Our dog didn't stop barking just because our eyes were closed, and I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I needed to relax instead of just letting myself get there five minutes felt like an eternity, but at least we tried.

The next day, I suggested we give it another shot, make it a part of our morning routine or just something we turn to when stress is getting the best of us. So, we sat down on the couch for another five minutes, which thankfully went smoother than our initial try (there was way less peeking at the clock!).

It's been a few weeks of practicing now, and while I always feel significantly better after just a few minutes of deep breathing, I also swear the daily ritual is helping me to be a better partner.

Sitting down and listening to a guided meditation has given me the opportunity to calm myself down and more thoughtfully express myself, instead of just marathon venting. I also find that I'm a more patient listener. Additionally, there's something cool about the act of meditating at the same exact time. I feel more connected to my partner because we're working through this stressful time in life and searching for solutions silently, yet together. Neither of us feel exactly well versed in meditation, but after each session, we've chatted organically about the instructor's soothing voice, what we liked about each practice, and how it made us feel.

Curious for an expert's opinion on meditation for relationships, I reached out Mia Rusev, a licensed clinical social worker at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital.

"Certainly, any stress-reducing activity is good for relationships," Rusev said. "Meditation, in particular, helps us reset our nervous systems, which allows us to respond from a more centered place, or kind heart or wise mind, rather than reacting to whatever is emotionally triggering us at that moment or what can be referred to as the racing mind. Meditation allows for a widening of our window of tolerance and this can be helpful in navigating relationships."

Rusev also added that practicing meditation together is an opportunity to motivate one another and keep each other accountable which is something I've also personally experienced.

"As you both learn to take a deep breath before an important conversation, for example, the recipient now knows this is a sign to pay special attention with an open heart and without defensiveness."

At first go, meditating was just something I hoped would turn a bad morning around and it did. But now, it's also a simple activity that's teaching me the patience I need to be a more supportive and loving partner, and that's certainly worth way more than five minutes of my day.

Click here for more health and wellness stories, tips, and news.

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I Started Meditating With My Fianc, and I Swear It's Making Me a Better Partner - POPSUGAR

Evergreen columnist writes about the confidence, lessons art has given her

LAUREN PETTIT

Have a story of your own you want to submit to Culture Brew? Let us know at mint@dailyevergreen.com.

KASSANDRA VOGEL, Evergreen columnist October 29, 2020

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For my seventh birthday, my mom asked if I wanted to be enrolled in art classes, and I immediately said yes.

I was a little bit of a loner when I was younger, and I think my mom thought it would be a good way for me to express myself and gain some confidence.

I was so excited to take art classes, my mom even said I took to it like a duck to water. Little did we know, this budding interest would grow into a passion that I would appreciate for the rest of my life.

I can remember the first sketch I ever finished. It was a dog. Short, chubby, with hair like a mop and tongue hanging out of its mouth. It was simple but it made me react.

The feeling I get from seeing a finished piece is unmatched by anything else. Because the product resulting from so much time and work sits before you, causing an indescribable awe and happiness it was something I had never felt before, and I was hooked.

In art school, I started out with charcoal. After a couple of years and many pictures later, I then graduated to pastels. Each level required that I complete a certain number of pictures in different categories, as well as exercises in perspectives and shapes.

Around fifth grade, I finally began working with oil paints. While I had loved working with charcoal and pastels, the experience of painting with oil was totally different. I loved it immediately. As I moved through the different levels, I continued to be surprised by how much I could achieve.

I would often look at a reference photo and wonder if I was skilled enough to create the picture, but at the end of each piece, I was reassured that I was skilled and capable of making something beautiful.

Oil paints are a unique medium. Unlike charcoal and pastels, they are very forgiving. Working with oil paints, if you mess up, you can wipe away your work or wait for it to dry and paint over it. Because painting requires working with brushes instead of your fingers, I also feel that it allows for more detail.

While there are many advantages to oil paints, it can also be more complex. There were new things to consider like mixing colors and drying time.

Instead of grabbing a pastel with the perfect color, I had to learn how to mix colors that may change slightly when the paint dries. I also had to begin to plan out my paints better in order to preserve the work in still-wet areas.

But that is part of the beauty of art, especially painting it is a constant learning process. Whether it be different mediums, a new technique, or just finding something hidden inside yourself, art always has more to offer.

I will always be thankful for my mom and for her willingness to invest in me. Throughout my time as an art student, she encouraged me, her eyes always lighting up when I brought home a new picture, and she saw potential in me, enabling me to explore myself through art.

Painting has given me many things: skill, confidence, but most importantly patience. Painting is my meditation. It is often the only time I am able to be alone with my thoughts.

That is why my favorite part of a painting is putting in the fine details. I do not have to think so much about where things go or figure out anything complex. I can allow my mind to wander while I paint the hairs on an animal or a ripple on water. Sitting there, working like that, two or more hours can slip away into minutes.

The calm that painting brings me has been especially essential during the pandemic and as our country has become an increasingly stressful place to live.

I was and still am surprised by my art, the final products being something I did not think myself capable of creating.

It reminds me that there is no limit to what can be learned or refined, nothing we cannot achieve if we put care into our labor. I need to paint so that I can be reminded of these things during these practically impossible times.

Although I now have less time to paint than I used to, every so often, I find some time late at night to work and emerge reassured that everything will be okay.

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'Painting is my meditation' The Daily Evergreen - The Daily Evergreen

Introduction: Global Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market, 2020-26

This meticulous research representation highlighting crucial elements across present and past timelines feature innovative developments in the market ecosystem that thoroughly determine high potential investment returns in Global Mindfulness Meditation Apps market.

The report takes into account decisive factors and makes accurate deductions and assessments in the historical and future timelines, favoring accurate growth predictions and forecast estimations amidst volatile dynamics and fast changing market forces. The report lends workable insights on revenue generation trends, product and service portfolios, geographical dominance, as well as vendor activities and promotional inclination, collectively ensuring healthy growth outlook over the years.

Vendor Landscape The report draws references of an extensive analysis of the Mindfulness Meditation Apps market, entailing crucial details about key market players, complete with a broad overview of expansion probability and expansion strategies.

Deep Relax Smiling Mind Inner Explorer, Inc. Committee for Children Stop, Breathe, and Think PBC The Mindfulness App Mindfulness Everywhere Ltd. Ten Percent Happier Breethe Insights Network, Inc. Simple Habit, Inc. Calm.com, Inc. Meditation Moments B.V. Headspace, Inc.

Available Sample Report in PDF Version along with Graphs and [emailprotected] https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/4228625?utm_source=PM The segment outlook section of the report is a highly decisive information hub to unravel segment potential in directing impressive growth and steady CAGR valuation. Additional details on SWOT analysis of each of the mentioned market participant is poised to accelerate growth tendencies besides reviewing the growth scope through 2020-25.

Global Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market: Type & Application based Analysis

Analysis by Type: This section of the report includes factual details pertaining to the most lucrative segment harnessing revenue maximization.

IOS Android

Analysis by Application: Further in the subsequent sections of the report, research analysts have rendered precise judgment regarding the various applications that the Mindfulness Meditation Apps market mediates for superlative end-user benefits.

0 5 Years 6 12 Years 13 18 Years 19 Years and Above

Report Offerings in a Gist: To identify correctly major underlying market forces that gradually underpin growth To comprehend future growth potential of the mentioned segments, inclusive of geographical outlook. A thorough evaluation of the entire competitive landscape gamut has been analyzed, isolating growth rendering strategies and industry forerunners To correctly isolate growth enablement determinants. The report lends clarity in understanding the commercial viability of the Mindfulness Meditation Apps market ecosystem.

Read complete report along with TOC @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/reports/index/global-mindfulness-meditation-apps-market-size-status-and-forecast-2020-2026?utm_source=PM

COVID-19 Impact Analysis This intensively researched report presentation has been prepared in real time parlance, rendering substantial attention towards COVID-19 outbreak that has lately wreaked unprecedented damage across industries, stagnating growth.

The report lends attention towards evaluating the market in terms of exhaustive research in the times of COVID, as well as devising appropriate come back protocols to restore normalcy.

Crucial details on product type and application facets have also been categorically included in this versatile research report on global Mindfulness Meditation Apps market. To instill a real-time analytical review of market forces underpinning growth, this report section broadly classifies product type and application as major fragments. Each product type tagged in the report represents total revenue generation tendencies in the Mindfulness Meditation Apps market, besides helping readers to correctly gauge and identify the revenue potential of each of the segments through the growth tenure, 2020-26.

Competition Evaluation The competitive landscape specific to global Mindfulness Meditation Apps market further illustrates relevant growth favoring information pertaining to the vendor landscape with a specific focus on corporate growth strategies embraced by leading players, followed religiously by other relevant contributing players along with notable investors and stakeholders striving to etch lingering growth spurts despite high intensity competition and catastrophic developments. Regional Outlook: Global Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market

In-depth research findings reflected in this report opine that despite the unprecedented outbreak and lingering implications of COVID-19 and its reformatory reforms reflected across industries, the immediate and future specific implications have been thoroughly classified and elaborated in the report to encourage unbiased market discretion.

Some Major TOC Points: Chapter 1. Report Overview Chapter 2. Global Growth Trends Chapter 3. Market Share by Key Players Chapter 4. Breakdown Data by Type and Application Chapter 5. Market by End Users/Application Chapter 6. COVID-19 Outbreak: Mindfulness Meditation Apps Industry Impact Chapter 7. Opportunity Analysis in Covid-19 Crisis Chapter 9. Market Driving Force And Many More

A dedicated chapter on COVID-19 analysis has therefore been included in this versatile report to encourage future-ready business discretion aligning with post COVID-19 market environment.

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A deep and insightful reference of the regional outlook has also been prioritized in this report on global Mindfulness Meditation Apps market. Pertinent details in the realms of import and export activities, manufacturer activities, such as product base expansion, facility expansion projects as well as technological milestones have been mentioned in detail in this report.

About Us: Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.

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Global Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market Expected To Reach Highest CAGR By 2026: Deep Relax, Smiling Mind, Inner Explorer, Inc., Committee for...

GT's Living Foods is the incumbent in the U.S. kombucha market.

The incumbent in the U.S. kombucha market, GTs Living Foods, has partnered with wellness brand Chopra Global created by alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra to encourage people to incorporate mind-body health through meditation into their daily self-care practices.

This marks Chopra Globals first national partnership since the recent launch of its mobile app that provides science-based guidances to help people enhance their well-being.

Starting with GTs Synergy raw kombucha line that has previously debuted three varieties through its Rooted In Nature campaign this fall Gingerade, Heart Beet and Tantric Turmeric, the partnership is also expected to include the companys other portfolio brands in the future.

Tonia OConnor, CEO of Chopra Global, wrote me via email about how the value of GTs Living Foods aligns with their companys commitment to consumers health and wellness.

GTs Synergy, like Chopra Global, was founded on the platform of advancing well-being and promoting healthy lifestyles, OConnor noted. Offering their subscribers free access to our new well-being and meditation subscription app further demonstrates GTs Synergy dedication to serving its customers.

She added: We are thrilled to partner with a company that values Chopra Globals self-care guidance and the opportunity to share a co-branded content series with new audiences in different formats.

I finally didnt feel so alone

As a reputable spiritual leader who is best known for his philosophies about how mindfulness can help people achieve success, Dr. Chopra has taught a number of top-notch celebrities including Oprah and Madonna how to meditate since the early 90s.

But Chopra Globals latest partnership truly hits home for GT Dave, the self-made billionaire who started fermenting kombucha at his parents kitchen as a teenager, and later created his own beverage empire that accounts for more than 40% market share of the category.

[Dr. Chopra] was doing what I think my parents were trying to do incorporating a different culture and lifestyle into the Western mindset, Dave recently told me, while describing how he was exposed to the Eastern way of living during his multiple trips to India as a child.

GT Dave's childhood exposure to the Eastern way of living contributes to his recent partnership with ... [+] Dr. Deepak Chopra.

The experience in India, including filling up a bucket of water from a well to take showers and meditating in a scorching hot weather, seems like yesterday for Dave.

There was a very strong emphasis on being mindful and living your life as if today was your last day, he said, and the whole conversations about counting your blessings were basically the foundation laid for me early on, which I am incredibly grateful for.

Recalling his early journey of selling kombucha, Dave stressed how foreign the concept sounded to the general public since there hasnt been a major focus on gut health and the benefits of probiotics until recently.

When somebody as high-profile as Deepak [partners with GTs Living Foods], it kind of gives [us] credibility, Dave said. Its so wonderful because, to be honest, I finally didnt feel so alone.

No plans for M&A or IPO

Rather than sitting on his laurels after being named an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2020 Greater Los Angeles by EY, Dave has bigger plans for GTs Living Foods continuing to scale against volatility in the marketplace, including the ongoing pandemic.

Were anticipating a greater emphasis on health [after] COVID, and we want to further this conversation of health is really your wealth, he said, adding how an increasingly competitive probiotic beverages market legitimizes his companys decision to branch out into adjacent functional beverage categories, such as water kiefer and wellness shots.

Dave noted: When you have multiple brands on the shelf that are making more or less the same product, it reinforces that this is not a trend or snake oil, but a substantial category that is here to stay.

The last thing the widely known kombucha king would do is selling GTs Living Foods or going public, citing how maintaining the companys originality and authenticity is key to ensuring its long-term profitability.

My goal was and is always to make the best kombucha, and I dont think I could say that with certainty if somebody else owned my company, Dave said.

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GTs Synergy Partners With Chopra Global To Encourage People To Incorporate Meditation Into Their Daily Self-Care Routines - Forbes

James Carmody, PhD;University of Massachusetts Medical School

Have you ever wondered why its so much easier to worry than to relax? COVID-19 has us all on edge. We spend our days now planning how best to keep ourselves and our community healthy. But even when there isnt a global pandemic, when we might expect our minds to quiet down and enjoy some peace, they soon come up with worrisome scenarios.

Worriedness is not the concerns that occasionally pop up over a sick child. Worry goes past constructive, hopeful planning. Instead worry takes over, occupying our attention to no good effect. Its toll on health and wellbeing is well documented as we are left tense, sleepless, preoccupied and distracted around the very people we care for.

Its not just you. Brain function studies suggest why worry takes a toll on our overall health. When our attention is not occupied with what we are doing, linked regions such as the default mode network become active. These systems work away in the background of consciousness, envisaging futures compatible with our needs and desires and planning how they might be brought about. One of the main features of worry is the focus on what could go wrong.

In this way we humans are wired for worry; its survival value is evident in the effortless persistence and universality with which it occurs. We want things to be better for ourselves and the people we love, but lifes unpredictability gives rise to fear that they wont be and to imagining the things and circumstances that might stand in their way.

This planning threats is important to ensure survival. Its downside is the worry, anxiety and unease when it is given free rein and unnoticed, takes over the mental store. And studies in which people are prompted at random times through the day to record what their attention is on at that moment show that it wanders for much of the day. On automatic pilot in other words.

The flip side of worry are those moments of flow, when our attention is effortlessly absorbed in what we are doing. Those vigilance-oriented brain networks are less active when our attention is focused on what we are presently doing. And as you might expect, the same study found that people rated they were happier when their attention was focused on what we are doing than when their minds were wandering.

Fortunately, there are many ways of quieting our minds so that we spend more time in that happier present moment. And several decades as researcher, clinician, teacher, and practitioner of several popular mind-body programs has shown me that they draw on a couple of simple mind-body principles that counter these default tendencies and their effects on our feeling life. Recognizing those principles helps to see how these techniques are linked with one another and so creatively adapt them in your everyday life.

Mindfulness brings us into the present by cultivating attention to the senses. Meditation for example, brings attention to the sensations of breathing. It takes a little practice; the pull of daydreaming is strong. Our mind wants to default back to thinking and planning.

Yoga and tai chi also direct attention to the flow of sensations; usually those from the sequence of movements. This contrasts with activities like prayer, self-compassion and visualization which have their relaxing effect by countering the ambient narratives unsettling tone with reassuring thoughts and images.

The mindfulness that each of these activities develop gives helps you to focus the mental operating system and a capacity to self-regulate it. Studies have shown that just a few weeks of mindfulness practice help with increased attention regulation, working memory, awareness of mind wandering and reduced worry. Imaging studies, similarly, show reduced background planning activity, y and enrichment of neural connections that facilitate attentional and emotional self-regulation.

The wellbeing benefits that come from integrating mindfulness into your life have been confirmed by multiple studies, and programs are offered online to suit all tastes and circumstances. What do you have to lose?

Back to Healthy Living

Original post:

How Meditation and Mind-Body Programs Reduce Worry and Help You Stay Present | SBM - Society of Behavioral Medicine

Back in September, a blue-checkmark Salem account appeared on Instagram with a YouTube link to a forty-minute-long mixtape called STAY DOWN. The following week a video post appeared of the duos Jack Donoghue driving a pickup truck through a nighttime lightning storm, scored by a delicate, uncharacteristically tender, synthpop-inflected ballad, along with the caption SALEM STARFALL *OUT NOW*.

Given the rest of the news that day, Salem announcing their return after eight years of near-total silence seemed cosmically trivial. The West Coast was on fireit hadnt even been a week since the skies over the Pacific Northwest turned an Old Testament shade of orange. There were children locked in cages on the border, a president stoking civil war, genocides breaking out around the globe. Before the day was over, 901 more Americans would be added to our city-sized population of COVID-19 dead. The idea that anyone in the middle of all that could even care about an intentionally obscure, notoriously divisive witch house project having a comeback seemed deeply fucked up.

But the world has become noticeably more Salem-like in the eight years theyve been away, and not just becausedespite breaking up on the verge of crossing over and a concerted critical effort to discredit them artisticallytheir aesthetic vision has managed to permeate pop culture and fashion. Everyday life has become noticeably darker, more chaotic, increasingly feral. The haunted, paranoid death trip they evoked a decade ago in the King Night video has become the national mood. Unlike nearly everyone else making music right now, Salem seems to get what the new world were in is all about. And what theyre saying is: give up.

The snippet of Starfall that they posted on Instagram didnt prepare me for the whole thing: a swooning shoegaze-emo-rap hybrid that climbs to heart-rending highs before melting down in a psychedelic waterfall of cascading rave synths. It feels landscape-sized despite clocking in shy of three minutes. In the video, Donoghue and John Hollandthe groups only other member since the departure of Heather Marlatt, who has said that she was pushed out but seems to have come to a reconciliationchase tornadoes across the plains of Oklahoma and Texas, soaking wet and chain-smoking, looking as exhausted and spiritually wrung-out as two people stepping into the daylight after an all-night binge. When a towering tunnel cloud, shot from terrifyingly too-close, breaks into frame while the song melts down for the final time, I felt a rush of weightlessness, the sickening vertiginous thrill of sudden freefall. I punched the replay button again, then again.

Once you get close enough to a tornado, whether or not you end up in its path is out of your control. Seeing that funnel cloud through the lens of a camera speeding toward it, its hard not to remember how many catastrophes were rocketing towards as a nation, a civilization, a species, and how close we are to the point where none of usnot even the most powerful people on the planethave a say in how it turns out. For all we know, we may already be past it.

Collapse is the major theme of Fires in Heaven, the bands first album since 2010s King Night. Sometimes that means collapse on a personal scale. On the opening track Capulets, Donoghue raps a deranged chopped-and-screwed monologue over the dusty, haunted Dance of the Knights movement of Sergei Prokofievs ballet Romeo and Juliet, flatly describing what goes through the head of someone choosing addiction over anything and everything else: Ask me what Im doing with my life / Aint shit to tell yall [] Rather burn some foil / Smoke some powder off some clean folds. The overall mood is like finding yourself somewhere isolated with someone whos much crazier, and on a lot more drugs, than you realized when you got in the car with them.

But the more you untangle Fires in Heaven, the more you realize that theyre talking about collapse on a larger scale too. The video for Red River opens with surveillance-style footage of Chinese commuters, their heads boxed in by facial recognition tags and their bodies overlaid with stick-figure gait analysis. Then, what seems at first to be a critique of digital-age totalitarianism zooms outward to show the systems that drive itin America as well as Chinaand the chaos and rot at their core. Mass consumption breeding endless piles of waste. Shipping containers stacked neatly in row after row, then tumbling into disorder. A cargo ship sinking with alarming speed. Red river, red river / Wash over me, Donoghue mumbles through a bank of filters and pitch-shifting effects until he sounds less like a human than a suicidal AI letting its batteries run out. From this angle, theres no light at the end of the tunnel.

A sense of hopelessness and letting go permeates Fires in Heaven. In horrorcore moments like Capulets and the homicide fantasy Crisis, giving up comes as a violent release. Other times its gently seductivethe title track is lotus-eater synth-pad psychedelia that pulls you softly down into a bottomless pit of sticky cotton-candy bliss, disturbed only by twitchy trap hi-hats emulating the faint, itchy aura around an opioid high. Even the few uplifting moments wind up with their bottoms falling out. Starfall has all the markings of a swooning love song for the ages, but by the end, the protagonist has walked out on his lover in the middle of the night, convinced that shelike everyoneis beyond saving.

The first time around, this attitude got Salem labeled nihilists, which maybe they were. Now it comes off more like collapsitarianism. The term often refers to people who are proactively working to bring about collapse of one sort or another, from deep ecologists dreaming of human extinction to Boogaloo Boys trying to kick off a new civil war for any number of reasons, including for the sheer fun of it. But it can also describe people who simply believe that collapseor, more frequently, the collapsehas already started, and is already past the point of being undone.

A sense of hopelessness and letting go permeates Fires in Heaven. The first time around, this attitude got Salem labeled nihilists. Now it comes off more like collapsitarianism.

Collapsitarianism is hopelessness on a global scale. But hopelessness isnt necessarily a bad thing, the way that most people think. Losing hope lets us see the world around us as it is, and all the problems in it that require confronting. Hope, either for untenable endless growth or for a return to pre-Trump normalcy, is the reason that no matter which side wins, in a few days well elect a president without an adequate plan for solving any of the interlocking terminal-level catastrophes we face. Hopelessnessa pragmatic, tactical lack of wishful thinkingis what drives projects like the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, where scientists are trying to safehouse the planets genetic diversity against the forces weve let loose in the world. People across the country have given up hope for the future, and have started to concentrate on creating the world they want in the here and now, from communes in the woods to guerilla raves happening in the midst of a pandemic.

Buddhism teaches that hope is a form of desire, and that desire is the root of all suffering. The path to spiritual freedom begins with letting go, as anyone whos ever gotten sober can attest. One of the reasons I kept going back to the Starfall video over and over again was because I couldnt exactly identify what it wasbesides good audio production and clever editingthat had me hooked. Eventually I figured out that, unexpectedly for something coming from Salem, it was because it brought me peace. Theres a palpable feeling of liberation and release that Donoghue and Holland emanate after coming dangerously close to a storm. The world is falling down, but if we let go and fall with it we can still find bliss. FL

Read more:

With Fires in Heaven, Salem Wrote a Meditation on Giving Up Control - FLOOD Magazine

Take a tour of this sustainable home

The architecture firm Palma has built a compact holiday home on the Pacific coast of Mexico that is inspired by the traditional architecture of the area. The home uses natural materialsdried palm leaves, straw and stone to keep the indoors cool even on the hottest days.

What makes this building unique is its layout: the structure is divided into two parts by a terrace with a round void in the roof. Designed specifically for yoga and meditation, the skylight not only lets the sun into the room, but also promotes natural ventilation.

On one side of the house is a bedroom and on the other is a living room connected to a small kitchen. Both buildings have a palapa roof, typical of the tropical town of Litibu. The tall canopy made of palm leaves provides excellent weather protection and prevents the room from overheating. In addition, the architects covered the walls with special pigmented plaster, which helps avoid moisture accumulation, which is especially important for a coastal area.

Although the building is only 538-square-feet in size, almost all rooms have direct access to the garden, which makes the home seem larger and limitless.

This article first appeared in AD Russia

A home in Ecuador with the most dreamy patio

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Mexico: A house with a meditation room on the terrace - Architectural Digest India

The car is happy again. I know this. I have neglected her for months with only the smallest of excursions to the market and post office and gas station. Three years old and she had only 20,000 miles on her. Which screams failure to me not great trade-in value. When I left Park City on a Thursday, the car was clean and road ready. When I returned and drove through the car wash the following Thursday there was red dust everywhere. And it came off all the outside surfaces but in the wheel wells and running boards and the carpeted floor in the backseat there is still red dust. I hope it lasts all winter.

I started in Blanding for three days of exploring secret, steep, rocky paths within the Bears Ears (former) National Monument area with a Hopi guide arranged by the sister of my heart. That story is part two. I left there and took Charles Hall Ferry across Lake Powell to Bullfrog and climbed (in the car this time) up the Burr Trail, inside the boundaries of the twin declassified monument Grand Staircase Escalante. I was headed to Boulder. My happy place for almost 20 years.

The Boulder Mountain Lodge, owned by Dave Mock, is a model of tranquility and civility. It includes an 11-acre bird refuge where I have seen the most elegant and sassy creatures exchange conversations and flight plans for so many years. The cattails and willows sway with the sunflowers and hollyhocks. It is a kind of sophisticated rustic without pretense. And the famed Hells Backbone Grill restaurant grew there about 20 years ago. Two women determined to create a respite with recipes from the best of the southwest. It was pretty much farm to table from the start because they sit in the most remote town in the lower 48 states with about 180 people. Garfield county with 5,000 square miles is home to about 5,000 people. Lots of open space in the red dust of the red state. Lots of ranchers and these two female restaurateurs.

There is no confusion when you drive off the pavement of Highway 12 onto the gravel driveway that you have entered a blue zone. There are signs Black Lives Matter and Biden and Harris and for their Congressional district Kael Weston a name that was new to me. The staff reflect the signs they are a rainbow of interesting kind humans.

I didnt know all the names of what I was seeing but the stars filled me with awe.

On my first night dining there was a kerfuffle on the patio. It had to do with issues of white privilege and supremacy. Service was refused. The whole restaurant was engaged in the unappetizing debate of prejudice. The unwelcome patrons stayed at their table for almost two hours with no food or drink until they were finally encouraged to leave. It was tense and uncharacteristic of the refuge but not the times.

Night Two was idyllic. First, I stumbled into a farm meeting about how to wind things down for the season a kinda tie up the horses and lock up the liquor conversation with the small tight-knit family of employees. Then, dinner with my friends who have created this magical place. I had a southwestern beef chili stew and a side of perfect fall weather. And the surprise to each of us the arrival of the daughter I did not give birth to and her husband who had run away for a night from their home in Kanab and ended up at the restaurant as I was sitting on the porch.

My final evening took a switch when I was invited to be part of a small 10-person dinner with congressional candidate representing District 2 Kael Weston. A Utah blue guy that is so exciting and principled that I want to vote for him. Twice. But I cant at all since he doesnt represent Summit County. Weston was born of pioneer stock from Milford. He graduated from the University of Utah in political science in 96. Then received a masters from Cambridge, was a Fulbright scholar in Amsterdam and worked on his PhD at the London School of Economics. He spent seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan in one of the most dangerous assignments of any State Department officer worldwide according to his commander, Robert Ford. He never carried a weapon he said just a notebook. But heres where it gets especially interesting for me. Yes he was on the ground at the Battle of Fallujah but he also wrote for Tina Brown at the Daily Beast, and New York Times and just in December he published a book, The Mirror Test, which the NYT selected as an Editors Choice and Military Times chose as Best Book of the Year. And I have since discovered he did a Fresh Air segment with my NPR hero, Terry Gross. Be still my heart.

And all those things would have been enough to make him at 48 a pretty interesting dinner companion but because I am convinced Park City is cosmic velcro in the universe, there was the just dessert. When he learned I lived here he confessed he used to volunteer at KPCW. He said it was in the days of the basement at the Marsac and he was living in Cottonwood Canyon. He would drive the dirt road (Guardsman) over to deejay in the late-night slot. When I asked him why he did that he said simply because it was the only place where I could listen to the BBC.

Weston had his assistant Tyler with him who also served in Afghanistan but didnt know Kael there. When Tyler learned about my role presenting talent for years, he asked me who was the hardest to book and what was my favorite night. I confessed it was one in the same Edward Snowden. Then we chewed on the politics of intelligence and should Snowden be returned to the States and stand trial.

When I left that dinner table, comforted with delicious conversations, I wandered to my room under the protected dark skies. I didnt know all the names of what I was seeing but the stars filled me with awe. When I woke up at 4 a.m. I did as I had been encouraged earlier I wrapped up and went outside on the grass, next to the pond and looked up at the Orionids meteor showers. There were shooting stars everywhere.

I knew I had also just met one at dinner.

If you know anyone in the giant second district who hasnt yet voted encourage them to give Weston a lookover. He wants to keep serving his country. It would be honorable for us to find a place for him at all the tables. And regardless of this election outcome I am gonna encourage Kael to come up and see how KPCW has changed but the BBC is still right here for the listening each Sunday in the Park

Teri Orr is a former editor of The Park Record. She is the founder of the Park City Institute, which provides programming for the George S. and Dolores Dor Eccles Center for the Performing Arts.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the Charles Hall Ferry.

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Teri Orr: The meditation of many miles, part one - The Park Record

Is Meditation Good For Digestion and Gut Health?

When my stress levels peak, that frazzled feeling of anxiety tends to come along with physical side effects. Headaches, insomnia, and breakouts are the three I'm most familiar with, but recently, I've felt like my worries have thrown my digestive system out of whack, too.

Looking for relief for my heartburn and nausea, I kept stumbling upon the idea of meditation, and wondering if practicing could support my overall gut health, whether I'm stressed or not. After all, I have taken plenty of meditation and yoga classes that have touched on the "rest and digest" concept of the parasympathetic nervous system.

Dr. Jaclyn Tolentino, DO, Senior Physician at Parsley Health, gave me more insight into why stress relief, like meditation, is commonly discussed with digestive health.

"The idea that meditation or other stress-management modalities can have an impact on our digestion comes from emerging research on something called the gut-brain axis. The gut-brain axis is basically the complex, bi-directional pathway between the brain and the GI tract," Dr. Tolentino says.

"This pathway actually encompasses a range of systems including the central nervous system, the sympathetic, parasympathetic, and enteric nervous systems, and the microbiota of the gut."

The brain and the gut, Dr. Tolentino says, have the ability to send signals back and forth to one another and this can impact the speed of the digestive process or even gut inflammation.

"Our gut also has its nervous system, the enteric nervous system, that can communicate with the brain and regulates certain digestive processes and functions."

An example of this brain-gut connection is the physical digestive symptoms that are commonly experienced when you're overwhelmed or super stressed out.

Dr. Tolentino adds that stress has been linked to issues like heartburn, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, cramping, and bloating, and could play a role in GI disorders like GERD, IBS, and IBD. It could also exacerbate symptoms of conditions like Crohn's Disease or ulcerative colitis.

"So this idea that meditation, mindfulness interventions, or breath work can have a positive impact on our digestive health really comes from this emerging understanding of the close relationship between our brain and our gut, and how stress can have a negative impact on GI function, as well as the gut microbiome," Dr. Tolentino says.

"It's definitely not quite as straightforward as 'meditation is good for the digestive system because it helps us manage stress,' but there is a growing interest in exploring the links between all of these things based on our emerging understanding of the way the brain and gut interact with each other."

While meditation and mindfulness might not be the end-all, be-all answers to improving your digestive health, Dr. Tolentino explains they can be used in a comprehensive treatment strategy.

"What you eat, when you're eating, the health of your GI tract, and your gut flora are all things that are playing a role in your digestion."

It's important to remember that controlling stress through meditation might not yield the same digestive results for everyone. Practicing every day for a week (while impressive!), doesn't mean your symptoms of issues will disappear, either.

"There's not going to be a magic number of sessions or minutes or days, after which someone is definitely going to see results. This is really about incorporating meditation into an overall strategy and your lifestyle for improving digestion and even resolving specific complaints or issues; which again, are going to vary among individuals, and most likely aren't caused by stress alone. Many problems are multifactorial, which means they often require multifactorial solutions."

If you do want to add meditation to your lifestyle routine to support your digestive health, there's two different ways you can do so, Dr. Tolentino says.

One would be using meditation to help reduce your overall day-to-say stress levels. From Headspace to Calm, there are plenty of meditation apps that offer a vast variety of guided sessions for all levels, whether you're experienced or just getting started. YouTube is another great option if you don't want to spend money on a monthly subscription this class by Yoga by Candace is actually curated specifically for digestive health.

The second way to utilize mindfulness for your digestive health is by practicing mindful eating, Dr. Tolentino says. This consists of "eating slowly, chewing our food thoroughly, being present, and really paying attention to the food we are eating and how we are experiencing it, and also being more aware of when we actually feel full."

These practices could benefit digestion by preventing a person from eating too quickly or too much at once. But again, it's important to remember that not all digestive symptoms are caused by stress or eliminated by a reduction in stress so if you have any concerns at all, reach out to your doctor for personalized advice.

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Meditation Could Help Support Your Gut Health Here's What You Need to Know - POPSUGAR