The Eden Magazine July 2022

EDEN T

E

Y20 JUL

H

N IZAGAM E

WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE ABOUT

MAZ

Jobrani

THE DANGERS OF

PERSISTENT STRESS

BY GERALDINE MAIR

SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE WAYS TO BOOST

YOUR MOOD

BY JARRETT ROBERTSON

INTUITION & PARENTING

SENSITIVE CHILDREN

BY HEATHER NARDI

THE LIGHT WITHIN

A HUMAN HEART

BY LARS MUHL

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The Eden Magazine

@The Eden Magazine

Photo by Jess Bailey

@The Eden Magazine

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DINA MORRONE

Maryam Morrison

JOE SANTOS, JR.

PHYLLIS KING

EDWARD HAKOPIAN

ALEXIA MELOCCHI

ARTIN MARDIROSIAN

ANGELA DUNNING

ZEE

SHERI DETERMAN

BEN ROLLINS

SASHA GARY

SHERRI CORTLAND

GRETA PAZZAGLIA

GREG DOHERTY

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PHILIP SMITH

ISABELLE RUEN

MEET OUR TEAM

Photo by ISABELLE RUEN

Discover the path to a peaceful life among other living beings. We are all made of vibration and light in the universe to manifest our energy around all livingness.

EDEN T H E

MAGAZINE

Since 2010

The Eden Magazine is a free online publication focuses on spreading compassion to all Sentient Beings living in a healing and peaceful world FOUNDER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MARYAM MORRISON EXECUTIVE EDITOR/ CONTRIBUTING WRITER DINA MORRONE COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR/ CONTRIBUTING WRITER ALEXIA MELOCCHI CONTRIBUTING WRITERS ZEE SASHA GARY PHYLLIS KING JOE SANTOS, JR. ANGELA DUNNING SHERRI CORTLAND JAYITA BHATTACHARJEE GUEST WRITER PHILIP SMITH CONTRIBUTING STYLISTS + MAKEUP ARTIST EDWARD HAKOPIAN GRAPHICS & PHOTOGRAPHY GREG DOHERTY BEN ROLLINS ISABELLE RUEN SHERI DETERMAN GRETA PAZZAGLIA ARTIN MARDIROSIAN (Nexision) JSQUARED PHOTOGRAPHY @J2PIX WEBSITE www.theedenmagazine.com 325 N. Maple Dr. Po Box 5132 Beverly Hills, CA 90209

To purchase a copy visit us in www.theedenmagazine.com Eden Magazine is a non-profit monthly online magazine. We aim to create a better environment where we live among other living beings in peace and harmony.

We support artists that their work matches our criteria. If you would like to submit your artwork, article or/and your photography for our future issues please contact Maryam Morrison at; maryammorrison@theedenmagazine.com The Eden Magazine reviews article content for accuracy before the date of publication. The views expressed in the articles reflect the author(s) opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher and editor. The published material, adverts, editorials, and all other content is published in good faith.

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Table of Contents 8

SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE WAYS TO BOOST YOUR MOOD

By Jarrett Robertson

14

28

MAZ JOBRANI

By Dina Morrone

22

INTUITION AND PARENTING SENSITIVE CHILDREN

By Heather Nardi

28

8

LIFE AFTER DEATH

By Chris Westfall

34

34

DEVELOPING SELF WORTH

By Teal Swan

42

THE LIGHT WITHIN A HUMAN HEART

By Lars Muhl

46

SUPPORTING PEOPLE WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES AS THEY AGE

By Dr. Craig Escudé

42

22

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54

50

WRITTEN IN THE STARS, A STORY OF LOVE AND LOSS

By Jayita Bhattacharjee

54

ARE YOU HURTING YOUR BEST FRIEND WITHOUT EVEN REALIZING IT? 5 WAYS YOU MIGHT BE MISTREATING YOUR DOG, AND HOW TO DO BETTER

By Daphne Nachminovitch Senior Vice President of PETA's cruelty investigation Dept.

Cover by

ARTIN MARDIROSIAN (Nexision)

Life is Essential, Feel it 58

ARE YOU A LIGHT WORKER?

By Sherri Cortland

64

58

MEET YOUR SOUL FIND YOUR SOULMATE 5 STEPS TO GET THERE

By Phyllis King

72

THERE IS A RIGHT TIME TO ACT: TRUST THIS

By Angela Dunning

78

HOW DO THE 5 ELEMENTS GUIDE YOU TO TUNE INTO THE RHYTHMS OF YOUR MAGICAL LIFE

By Jill Lebeau & Amit West, M.A.

64

80

A NOD TO THE UNIVERSE

By Heidi Connolly.

90

CHANGE, WHAT IT IS DOES IT EVEN EXIST?

By Zee

94

WATER YOURSELF FIRST

By Anne Douglas

72 80

78

98

90

THE SUN BAKES WILDFIRE SMOKE, CHANGING ITS TOXICITY

By Jakie Rocheleau (Covering Climate Now)

98

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Simple, Effective Ways to BOOST YOUR MOOD

By Jarrett Robertson

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Photo by Mark Landman

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I

grew up in Kingston, Ontario, where hockey was my ultimate dream. I was extremely fortunate that my talent and hard work earned me a scholarship to the Ivy League, where I played hockey for the Brown University Bears. After graduating in 2006, before transitioning into the financial services industry, I spent two and half years playing semipro hockey throughout the U.S., trying to make the big leagues.

Shortly after my hockey career was over and I “hung up the skates,” I was lucky to connect with an old friend who helped get me involved in the fitness industry. It was from there that I learned so much about overall health and wellbeing, and it’s those things that have been paramount in my success, both personally and professionally.

Photo by LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS & Drobot Dean?AdobeStock

What I found is that, like anything in life, you can research more, dig deeper, go further, climb higher, etc., but what I have learned is that it’s the littlest things that we can do every day that will actually help us get started—the prologue, if you will. People do not plan on failing, but people do fail to plan.

I help motivate people by always looking for a solution on how to achieve success or solve a problem and by always being positive. Life is not too short; life is extremely valuable.

Small changes you can make every day can lead to big results Water Two reasons WHY drinking water is so vitally important to your overall health and wellbeing and will be just the catalyst you need to start drinking a little more H2O. 1- Drinking Water Helps Maintain the Balance of Bodily Fluids The functions of these bodily fluids include digestion, absorption, circulation, creation of saliva, transportation of nutrients, and maintenance of body tem10 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

perature. This is everything our bodies need to do in a day, and water helps them do it!

2- Water Helps Energize Muscles Cells that don’t maintain their balance of fluids and electrolytes shrivel, which can result in muscle fatigue. When muscle cells don’t have adequate fluids, they don’t work as well, and performance can suffer.

Make Yourself Laugh Next time you’re in the car or somewhere by yourself, try laughing. You don’t have to think of anything funny; just start laughing. By laughing before you start your day, your workout, a meeting, an activity, or whatever it may be, you’re setting yourself up to feel awesome (proven by science).

•

Short‐term Benefits - Laughing stimulates your organs. Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air; stimulates your heart, lungs, and muscles; and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain. Think about the person that you run into who has just finished laughing. You immediately know and ask (or say), “Wow, you’re in a good mood,” or “What’s so funny?” And chances are, you smile right along with them. It’s contagious!

•

Long‐term Effects - Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can affect your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity. Watch things, listen to things, and do things that you like and that make you laugh. It’s healthy!

•

Increase Personal Satisfaction Laughter can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations. It also helps you connect with other people. Go figure! People want to be with people that make them smile. You want to be with people that make you smile, so be the person who laughs and smiles.

is what scientists associate with activities that involve our imagination, memory, and intuition, including our “eureka” moments.

Listening to music set in the 50 to 80beat range puts the brain into an alpha state.

Music Most of us have learned that music is for entertaining. Listening to music can also be therapeutic, relieving feelings of stress so that you can concentrate better. Research suggests that there are 6 kinds of music to listen to that can help you improve your mood, relieve stress, concentrate better, be more productive, increase your focus, and feel awesome.

How to improve your Emotional Intelligence and why it’s more important than IQ

Note that 4 out of 6 recommendations (and potentially 6/6, depending on your preference) have no words.

This is very important!

• Classical - Listening to classical composers can enhance brain activity and act as a catalyst for improving your health and wellbeing. The absence of words seems to be the main factor, as songs that contain lyrics have been found to be a distraction when you’re trying to focus.

• Cinematic - Cinematic music scores can be empowering, lift your spirits, and brighten your mood. How is it that a movie scene can cause you to burst into tears or have you on the edge of your seat in a battle scene? The music is scientifically designed to move you in ways you can’t do on your own. Try watching one of your favorite scenes in silence; I promise it will not have the same effect.

• Music Between 50 and 80 Beats per Minute - An “alpha state of mind” is what scientists associate with “right-brain” activity, or our subjective senses of imagination, creativity, memory, and intuition. When we are awake, we are typically in a state of mind known as “beta,” a heightened state of alertness where brain wave activities are between 14 and 30 Hz. When our brain slows to between 7 and 14 Hz, we’re in a more relaxed alpha state of mind, which allows us to be more receptive and open and less critical. The state of mind

Why EI Is More Important Than IQ A growing body of evidence suggests that a quality we’ve overlooked may be more important than we realize.

This quality is emotional intelligence, and many today believe it’s more important for business success than IQ. IQ v. EQ We all know about IQ. IQ stands for “intelligence quotient,” and it is basically a measure of academic intelligence. IQ is determined by your performance on standardized tests with a variety of different tasks. IQ is very important if you’re going to college, but what about in life generally? Emotional intelligence, which is also called emotional quotient (EQ), is your ability to perceive, understand, and regulate emotions. It is, therefore, the foundation of all people skills or “soft skills.” Finally, EI can be learned, and IQ cannot. Through skills and training, you can improve your emotional intelligence, and this is why it’s now playing a key role in business management.

Success in Life A high IQ is no guarantee of success in life. Rather, studies have shown that people with EI are more likely to be successful in both their personal and professional lives. The reason is that IQ helps you solve problems, learn things, reason, and remember details. But with high emotional intelligence, you’re more self-aware and more in control of your emotions. You’re also more empathetic and positive. These are factors that have a greater impact on success than academic intelligence or hard skills. Emotions drive people. High

An “alpha state of mind” is what scientists associate with “right-brain” activity, or our subjective senses of imagination, creativity, memory, and intuition.

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emotional intelligence is linked with high motivation. People with high EI have a drive that goes beyond the desire for money or title. Their inner motivation pushes them toward achieving their goals.

degree of compassion and understanding of human nature. People with high EI find it easy to connect emotionally with others. This is why EI is important for business; it translates to stellar customer service and excellent "soft skills" or people skills.

EI for the Future One of the reasons why EI research is on the rise today is that it seems to have more relevance to the changing modern business world. IQ helps with innovation, and that’s important. But IQ can’t solve the major problems the world faces today. In fact, people are more stressed, lonely, and isolated today in this high-tech world that IQ has given us. IQ also doesn’t help us connect with others or build strong relationships. IQ is far from useless. It helps in many different situations, with logic, problem-solving, creativity, and learning new things. But without a strong foundation of EI first, it’s impossible for us to realize all that our IQ can help with. Improving your emotional intelligence can make a major difference in your life, both professionally and personally, by teaching you more about your own emotions and those of the people around you.

Social Skills Emotionally intelligent people are widely respected by those they know and work with. They generally like people, and they can quickly build genuine rapport and trust. They don't like "playing games" with people. They also build relationships and personal networks well.

How to Develop EI for leaders Self Awareness People who have a healthy sense of self-awareness are what you might call “comfortable in their own skin.” They maintain a good understanding of their own emotions and how their emotions impact those around them. Self-awareness usually includes a healthy level of self-confidence and an ability to laugh at oneself.

Self Regulation In addition to understanding their own emotions, people who are emotionally intelligent can demonstrate maturity and restraint when revealing them.

They don’t suppress or repress emotions but employ judgment and control when expressing them. They think before acting, and they are open to change.

Motivation Emotionally intelligent people are generally optimistic and are driven by inner motivation rather than by a desire for money, titles, or social acceptance.

They have an inner resilience that makes it hard to shake their confidence. Failure is not a big deal to EI people.

Empathy Strong emotional intelligence comes with a high 12 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

Jarrett Robertson is a former pro hockey player and physique competitor who continues to draw upon everything he learned about overall health and wellbeing to inform his approach to life. The Brown University graduate has been a financial adviser for more than a decade and continues to run his firm in Toronto, Ontario.

He is also a consultant at Canada Life. With Make It A Great Day, he brings his message to the masses, helping more people achieve greater success through mastering their own human potential.

Robertson strives every day to project positivity and aims to help motivate others to do the same by reminding us that, “Life is not too short, but life is extremely valuable. Make it a great day!”

For more information, please visit www.makeitagreatday.ca, or follow the author on Instagram at @_makeitagreatday.

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Maz

Jobrani

By Dina Morrone

M

az Jobrani, comedian, actor, and host of his own podcast, Back To School with Maz Jobrani, had the privilege of performing at the White House in 2016 when he introduced the First Lady, Michelle Obama. His standup comedy specials include, Immigrant, which was filmed at the Kennedy Center, and is a NETFLIX original, as well as three additional solo specials on SHOWTIME, Brown and Friendly, I come in Peace, and I’m not a Terrorist, but I’ve played one on TV. His latest standup comedy special Pandemic Warrior is available now on PeacockTV. Jobrani sits on the board of the Persian American Cancer Institute (PACI.org) and works with International Society for Children with Cancer.

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I think that my parents initially thought that we would all go back to Iran one day, but that never happened. I think it's a pretty common story, but the way I like to describe it is simple, we packed for two weeks and stayed for forty years!

You were born in Iran, and your family moved to North America when you were six years old. How did this cultural shift impact your life?

As a kid, I wasn't fully aware of the gravity of the situation. I think kids are resilient, and they adapt quickly. However, as the years went on and we settled in America, I could see the effects the move had on my family. I think my parents initially thought that we would all go back to Iran one day, but that never happened. I think it's a pretty common story, but the way I like to describe it is simple, we packed for two weeks and stayed for forty years!

What do you recall as your first impression of being in a new land and culture?

Again, as a kid, I made friends pretty fast. However, I remember the difference between kid stuff in Iran versus America.

For example, in Iran, I would only have about a half-hour or an hour of cartoons on TV every afternoon. In America, I could 16 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

watch hours and hours of cartoons every day. Similarly, in Iran, we had some treats that I loved as a kid, but once I came to America, it was a sugar rush heaven. Twinkies, KitKats, Starbursts, you name it, I ate it. And don't even get me started on McDonald's!!!

When did you know you wanted to be a comedian?

And why?

When I was around ten years old, I discovered Eddie Murphy.

Through watching Eddie, I learned about other comedians, and began watching them. I loved them all. Then, when I was 12 years old, I auditioned for the school play, and once I stood on a stage, I was in love with being in front of a crowd. So I told my Iranian parents that I wanted to be an actor and a comedian, and they told me I was crazy. It took many years of negotiating with my parents for me to get into show business and for them to accept my choice.

It took many years of negotiating with my parents for me to get into show business and for them to accept my choice.

Photo by Storm Santos

If you were to choose another art form to pursue, what would it be? And why?

One of my dreams is to be a rock star. As a matter of fact, there's a comedy show that a friend of mine, Josh Adam Meyers, runs called the Goddamn Comedy Jam where comedians get to tell a few jokes and then sing a song with a band and rock out. It's one of my favorite things to do. If I could play an instrument and rock out every night, I would!

Besides the obvious of making people laugh, when you are up on stage, what are some of your other goals?

The main goal is to make people laugh and have a good time. People come to comedy clubs to forget and get a break from all of life's difficulties. That said, as a comedian from a Middle Eastern background, I also want people to see us differently than they're used to seeing us in the news. For the past 40 years, the only side most of the world has seen of us on TV or in movies is usually the negative side of our people. So if someone can see me and get a positive image of our people, then that's icing on the cake.

What makes you wake up every day and get into action?

Nowadays, our first dog (a mini-Goldendoodle, Yasu) usually wakes me up with her barking. That said, she's also a great partner for napping, as she likes to nap throughout the day. In terms of my drive, I was taught by my dad, who was a successful businessman, to always keep moving. I'm always trying to come up with new projects to work on, and no matter what happens in the week, I try to get on stage about 5-10 times a week and do standup.

Who are some of your comedy heroes?

Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin. The usual suspects. Eddie was an amazing performer, and Pryor and Carlin were great social commentators. Whenever a comedian can make me laugh and think, they've got me!

You have also acted in movies. Please tell us about your experience working on set? How has being a successful comedian helped prepare you for performing in front of a camera?

When I first started, I had more experience as an actor. Since that first school play at the age of 12, I kept getting on stage throughout my life. Once I decided to pursue acting and comedy professionally, my acting gigs would help subsidize my comedy. Now that I have found some success in comedy, the roles have reversed. I think that they both complement each other well.

The good news is that when I'm not acting, I still get a chance to get in front of an audience and perform almost on a nightly basis. That helps calm the nerves when a role comes along, and you have to perform in front of a bunch of people on set.

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Are there any charities or foundations you are passionate about, and if so, please tell us about them?

I lost my sister to breast cancer, so I have set up a scholarship in her name at UC Berkeley - The Mariam Jobrani Scholarship, where we help pay for female students to travel abroad.

I am also on the board of the Persian American Cancer Institute (PACI.)

On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

At a fundraising event with Behrouz Vossoughi

Where do you like to go to relax and clear your mind?

It's usually my bed, watching my favorite shows. I also love King's Road Café, where they have the best coffee in LA and perhaps in the world!

What has been a career-high moment you will treasure for the rest of your life?

Having the honor of introducing Michelle Obama at a Nowruz event at the White House would be right up there. Also, getting a chance to deliver the Commencement Speech at my alma mater UC Berkeley in front of 45 thousand people in 2017.

How do you stay grounded and focused?

Well, there's no reason not to be grounded.

It's not like I'm saving lives. I'm just telling jokes. And I am lucky enough to do what I love in life. That keeps me grounded!

What has been the most rewarding gift about being a father?

There are so many things. I always tell my single friends they should be dads because it's one of the most rewarding things in life. I honestly love every minute of it. Sometimes, the kids will surprise you with something funny, creative, or emotional, and you just melt. It's the best!

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Where do you find inspiration that becomes comedy gold?

Ha! That's an unknown to me. I try to be open about my life and the things I observe.

I talk about those things on stage, and sometimes the audience finds it as funny as I do.

That's what becomes my best bits.

Please tell us about a place you are itching to travel to and why?

I love to travel in general. However, I'm super excited to be going back to Italy with my family this summer. I spent a year abroad there when I was in college, and I haven't had a chance to go back in a while. I hope to get back into speaking the language and soaking it all in. I encourage everyone to travel as much as they can. I think it makes us more citizens of the world.

Tell us something most people don't know about Maz Jobrani?

I would say that most people don't know I'm a pretty chill and often serious person. People are used to seeing me being silly on stage.

But, in real life, I'm much more low-key.

What spurred you to write your memoir, I'm Not a Terrorist, But I've Played One On TV? My manager, Ray Moheet, encouraged me to write it because many comedians were writing memoirs back then. So I'm happy I did it.

It was an exercise in self-reflection and led to some great career moments as well.

What's next for you professionally?

I continue to tour. I will be going to Europe in the fall and doing many more US dates.

All my dates are at mazjobrani.com. I also continue pitching TV shows and hope to star and write on my own show in the near future.

Speical Thanks to: Photography: Artin Mardirosian (Nexision) Poster of A simple Wedding: Team of A Simple Wedding

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www.sodastream.com TURN PLAIN WATER INTO FRESH SPARKLING WATER IN SECONDS

WE BELIEVE THAT SOMETHING AS SMALL AS SPARKLING YOUR WATER AT HOME CAN SPARK A HUGE CHANGE IN THE WORLD

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An Excerpt from Holistic Health Pathways from The Sensitive Ones: Healing and Understanding Your Child's Mental Health

INTUITION AND PARENTING SENSITIVE CHILDREN

Photo by Elia Pellegrini

By Heather Nardi

H

ave you ever experienced a time when you just knew something was off? Maybe you were driving home from work, and you had a feeling you should take a different road, so you did and later found out an accident occurred where you usually would have been driving. I am sure you can think of many examples when tuning in to your intuition— or ignoring it—produced a notable outcome. I shared some of my experiences with you, from meeting certain people to starting a networking group and attending a specific class. Your intuition is the compass guiding you toward greatness. Dr. Seymour Epstein said, "Intuition involves a sense of knowing without knowing how one knows."

to listen to your innermost self. First, you need to recognize who you are, to discern clearly what is your own voice, untangled from the multitude of confusing voices inside you from others, past and present. Listening to yourself and your inner voice is a skill that can be acquired through self-reflection, meditation, and self-knowledge.

I felt connected to my growing intuition as I experienced my awakening. I learned to listen to, rather than ignore, the guidance of my intuition. This is the voice of your soul. It is not easy

Trusting and believing in your own intuition without needing to justify or defend it is part of becoming a person with your own opinions and ways of thinking. I came to this

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It does take courage to trust yourself and rely on your own instincts. As a culture, we have learned that we should look at things logically. There seems to be a high value placed on logic or reasoning. We need to use both our heads and heart. This is listening to all aspects of ourselves, which help us gain a complete view of life.

Growing up, I was taught the power of thought, logic, and reasoning. Schools teach us the basics, but they neglect emotional intelligence. I don't ever remember being taught about intuition or listening to my feelings. Instead of speaking up, I often suppressed what I felt in order to go along with others and blend in.

Ellie's experience with stomachaches and headaches in elementary school, being diagnosed with opposition defiant disorder, and in middle school having a conversation brought up about her possibly experiencing dissociation are symptoms I believe came from the lack of connection to her knowing. As an intuitive young woman, she is a deep thinker and can be absorbed in her own world.

Everyday life felt pointless, dull, and boring, which showed up as depression. And anxiety showed up because she wasn't connected to the now or present. She was focused on the "what ifs" and the future.

When she experienced a stomachache, she was told she was alright, but Ellie knew something was wrong. I listened to Ellie, but then I would try to fix what was causing her pain instead of allowing her to feel the pain and learn from the feeling.

I should have let her share and express her feelings with no action but love from me.

My mistake came from never letting her strengthen her intuition through personal experience.

Please talk with your child about events when they may have ignored their intuition and let them know how important it is to listen. Keeping kids focused on self-talk and feeling recognition will help them center their voice, reduce self-doubt, and maintain interpersonal boundaries. With our help, children learn that they have feelings that guide their behavior and that their feelings reflect their needs, wants, and beliefs.

When I began to share how I felt and used my intuition as a guide, it opened the space for Ellie to do the same. Start by shutting off your inner critic who needs to rationalize everything and just listen— without judgment. You must first be will-

ing to hear the truth in your heart. Keep a journal or a dream journal, or start a synchronicity notebook to write down all your so-called coincidences. Start simply following your hunches and prepare to be amazed by where they lead you.

Life is a journey of self-discovery. Each day, we learn more about ourselves and how to navigate the world around us. When the world is full of opposing forces, it can be hard to do what we feel is right. Standing at the center of the spectrum requires that we remain acutely aware of both extremes of an idea, emotion, or experience and attuned to our needs.

Photo by Africa Studio/Adobestudio

point as we traveled the path of Ellie's, my daughter's, mental illness. I began to be open to my intuition and followed what I felt was next with our journey.

Photo by Pixel-Shot/Adobestock

Trusting and believing in your own intuition without needing to justify or defend it is part of becoming a person with your own opinions and ways of thinking.

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In standing at the center, we will feel most comfortable with ourselves. The key is to be an attentive steward of our emotional and physical selves; this provides a stable foundation on which we can effectively navigate life's challenges.

Intuition will help us make choices that align with our morals and beliefs, even if those beliefs are contrary to society.

Ellie's struggle with anxiety and depression meant there was a lot of darkness before the light of coming off prescription medication. Once she was able to find love and understanding of herself as a sensitive empath, she was open to self-discovery and healing. Being an empath is often considered a blessing and a curse, though I prefer to say "challenge" instead of "curse." One of the challenges is that the depth of our feelings can develop physical and emotional symptoms. Many of us struggle with people-pleasing and poor boundaries. The blessing is empathizing deeply. We are very intuitive and skilled at reading people, circumstances, and situations more than others. We are renowned as natural healers, creatives, and deep thinkers.

Unless you know that you are a sensitive empath, you may find life to be challenging or even experience a mental health problem. Being a sensitive empath brings great awareness of the emotions of others, which can make us vulnerable to anxiety and depression.

For highly sensitive children, too many emotional and physical stimuli can cause them to behave erratically and even develop behavioral problems. So, they are often medicated. This ongoing pressure to be "normal"—whatever that is—often leads to a culture of kids medicated for their "behaviors."

This is an example of how society sees some children as normal versus different. When we don't understand their differences, it creates a much more significant problem. It causes a lack of self-acceptance that often continues into adulthood.

If you're a sensitive empath, chances are you've had to hide your true self, which 24 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

caused you to feel isolated and misunderstood. That's why it's important to spend time learning about what it means to be a sensitive empath. Don't hide in a world of duality, where you pretend to be something you're not. Instead, live in the present moment fully and be yourself. When you live in that place, you can teach your children to do the same.

Our society is filled with duality—good and evil, right and wrong, beautiful and ugly. But while this division exists in so many aspects of life, you can still find harmony and balance in your own life. I am someone who feels like I live in the in-between, a space between two contrasting conditions, creating a balance. My balance falls between the realms of spiritual/religious, mainstream/holistic, intuitive/logical, and strong/weak, to name a few. We live in a world of extremes. It can feel bold to live your life in the in-between. Some might think that this is the easy way out. I embrace this space by creating my own experiences based on my needs and intuition.

I no longer want to be the chameleon who mirrors other people's actions or emotions. I strive for alignment with who I am and choose to create the world where I want to live. Embrace your in-betweenness! I believe in the importance of balancing mainstream and traditional medicine and found life-changing transformation in holistic or alternative modalities. I call myself a Catholic, and I also use spiritual practices that support me. No more being a chameleon, adjusting myself to be what others want me to be. I can choose how I show up and who I allow into my life.

I believe in creating what is best for you. As I share our journey, I hope you take what feels right to you intuitively and leave the rest. Create your own healing journey.

Becoming aware of your personal power and choosing to be a healthy, sensitive empath has everything to do with how you perceive yourself and the world around you.

Author, speaker, coach, and Empath Mama Heather Nardi dedicates her career to supporting highly sensitive and empath moms in living healthy, empowered lives.

She draws from her extensive education as a Holistic Life Coach and spiritual practitioner to create specialized tools and programs for sensitive mothers.

Her writing has appeared in The Highly Sensitive Refuge, Thrive Global, Elephant Journal, and Medium.

You can follow Heather on Instagram @theempathmama and learn more about her and her work at empathmama.com.

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s

ofia Milos

It has just been announced that Sofia has been cast in Astoria by actor/writer Theo Nicholas Pagones, a story about the Greek and Albanian mafia where Sofia will play the Greek Matriarch.

And later this year, the movie Fake News a film noir starring Sofia and Eric Roberts will be released.

A

ctress Sofia Milos, best known for her role as Detective Yelina Salas in the international hit television show CSI: Miami, graced our cover back in February 2016 for our Valentine's Issue.

Sofia has been keeping busy with her professional career. Soon, you will see her in Gravesend, directed by William De Meo, a limited 80's Brooklyn-based series on Amazon. Sofia plays Tina Telva alongside a stellar cast that includes Armand Assante, Chazz Palminteri, Fran Drescher, Gina Gershon, Mario Cantone, Vincent Pastore, Marty Kove, William Forsythe, Andrew Dice Clay, Paul Borghese, Peter Gaudio, and Gabriella Palminteri, who plays Sofia's daughter.

You will recall Sofia from many of her memorable television roles, like her head-turning performance in The Sopranos in the role of Neopolitan Camorra boss Annalisa Zucca. Or as Daria in the Robert Zemeckis produced Project Bluebook, Dick Wolf's NBC show Chicago Justice, as a district attorney, Criminal Minds Beyond Borders as Greek chief of police, Alexandra, The Border, as special agent Bianca Legarda, and on Curb Your Enthusiasm, as Richard Lewis' girlfriend "Sofia", to name a select few.

When Sofia is not busy working on her craft, auditioning, and reading scripts, she enjoys staying physically fit through workouts, yoga, long walks, dance, and proper nutrition, or spending time on ZOOM with her mother who resides in Rome, Italy, or cooking up delicious healthy Italian meals she sometimes shares on Youtube. www.SofiaMilos.com

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Photo by Photocreo Bednarek/AdobeStock

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LIFE AFTER DEATH T

By Chris Westfall

hey beat me to it, the Client thought to himself.

I wanted to leave, but they pushed me out. Bagged, tagged, and gagged. He sat back in the seat, unable to start the car because he didn’t know where to go. His thoughts went to his wife. How could he tell her what had just happened? What about his daughters? The lower-school semester would be over soon. That private school tuition, times two, wasn’t going to take care of itself. Where would that money come from? His wife had her business, but they shared the household expenses. Two salaries were needed to keep the boat afloat.

Considering his lost paycheck, he had a sinking feeling.

What would his wife do, or say, or think of him? He started the car. He didn’t know where he was going, but he needed to drive. Needed to get out of that parking garage. Needed to distance himself from his former employer.

The post-rush-hour traffic was light, and before he knew it, he was on the other side of the airport. The only thing going faster than the cars around him was his mind.

He was beaten. Robbed. Powerless. He found himself, two hours later, cruising in the general direction of his neighborhood. Along the journey, he had played out the conversation with his wife 397 times in his head, finally deciding to go for an even 400 before pulling into his own driveway. His imagination was running his personal version of the

movie Groundhog Day. Turning off the engine, he realized he had gone through nearly every possible scenario: divorce, separation, high anxiety, stomach ulcers, a Xanax addiction, humiliation, mistrust, and disgust. His wife would bail out, taking the kids; – he was sure of it. She was brilliant, beautiful, capable, and successful. She deserved better. She couldn’t count on him.

He couldn’t count on himself. But who was counting?

He was damaged goods. Returned without a refund. His former company had been gutted like a fish; he was a discarded bone. His unimaginative CEO had used her imagination (and his detailed reporting) to sell the company to the investors just the way they wanted it: namely, without him in it.

Sitting in his garage, he wondered if he had heard all of the conversations that had taken place in the conference room.

Details on the severance package were fuzzy, as well as timelines and even how he would return his laptop. At some point, he decided the speculation about his impending divorce wasn’t getting any better inside his car. Time to go in, say what happened, and face the music.

His wife was cleaning up a broken dish when he entered the kitchen. “Well, hello there,” she said from a kneeling position near the sink. She stood up, placing a dustpan filled with blue ceramic chunks on the counter. “You’re home early!”

He told her everything.

29 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

She knew he had wanted to leave the company for a very long time.

“They got me. The division was cut to the bone and sold. I’m done.”

She came to him and touched his face with one hand and then two, cupping his chin between them. She pulled him closer, leaned in on her tiptoes, and kissed him softly on the mouth.

He shut his eyes and wondered if he deserved that kiss. Or even if he deserved her.

She shut her eyes. Every ounce of her being was full of gratitude. At last, she thought. We have everything we need.

Her almond eyes looked up at him, with the tiniest of tears coming to rest inside her bottom lashes. Her skin, impossibly beautiful from any angle or distance, caught the light perfectly without effort or intention. He loved her deeply and wanted to take care of her – not because of some antiquated gender ritual or outdated family concept; He simply wanted to give this woman what he believed she deserved.

Which was, in a word, everything.

But how could you give someone that which you had lost, that which you had not, that which had been taken from you?

“Oh,” she said, her brown eyes darting ever so slightly as she looked up at him. He was bracing for impact, the scolding that would begin with her deep disappointment, leading to the imminent logical and well-deserved conclusion that separation, and ultimately divorce, was what he really deserved. After all, if his job was gone, how could she stay?

How could she leave? His wife saw a man who wasn’t broken.

Did the change in his employment happen in the exact way that he wanted? She didn’t care. The victory was his – and theirs. All was not lost. Everything was gained. They were together.

What more did they need?

Would they be able to step into the 30 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

simple pleasures of life, somehow, and embrace what he had been given? She knew the answer was yes.

She couldn’t wait to find out what that world would be like. The barrier that was keeping them apart was finally removed. That barrier had been keeping her husband from himself, and by extension, from her.

She saw the diligence in this man. He tried so hard. He worked hard. Wanted to do more. Be more. Achieve more.

She knew he had hired a Coach. The investment was money well spent. Her husband wanted to break free from his professional prison. Why not get some help, she reasoned.

Looking into his eyes, she saw the tears he was fighting to contain. His tears were trapped behind his eyes, kept back by that same fighting spirit that held him back in his job. She cried for him, the tears he would not allow himself to shed. But her tears were tears of joy.

At last, he was returned to her. A dark spot was removed. They had been separated by his work. Now they were reunited.

She held both his hands. A shiny gold and silver wedding band rested on his third finger. Did he know that his ring would always be her favorite piece of jewelry?

Supporting his hands, she spoke. “You are free.” And then, lifting her eyes to his, “You. Are. Free.” She hugged him close and whispered in his ear. “Look at us! We are okay. You are okay. Oh my God,” she said, pulling back to look at his face. “Thank God that’s over.”

And she laughed.

Before he knew what was happening, so did he. They held each other in a deep embrace, hugging and laughing.

They shared the same breath.

His career was imploding. But he was not.

The dishes were broken. But he was fine.

His wife saw that everything was not only okay. Everything was just right.

Soon, she knew he would feel something he hadn’t felt for a very long time. Because, inside of the tears in his shining blue eyes, she saw it.

Hope.

There is always hope.

She had been holding on to it for so long, and all she wanted to do was to give it to him. She didn’t know-how.

She struggled to find a way to let him see who he was. To tell him of the universe she saw inside of him. To help him find the freedom that, today, this morning, was finally his. And hers.

And theirs.

“This is the absolute best thing that could have happened to us,” his wife said, wiping away a tear. He laughed even harder. She nearly shouted, “It’s a gift!

The Client was held in the middle of awful circumstances, what looked like the greatest defeat of his life and career, supported—surrounded by nothing less than love.

In his wife’s smile, he was more than his career. Much more.

He didn’t know if the universe had his back, but he could feel his wife’s hands there close enough for him. He glanced at the dustpan. Jagged pieces of what was once a blue dinner plate were piled on top of each other.

His wife always picked up the pieces.

He was so worried about supporting her. Then he realized that she was supporting him.

Perhaps that’s how love works?

Where he imagined disappointment, he found joy. When he stepped outside of the story inside his head, he saw the natural state around him. Namely, he

knew that he was loved. He was love.

Not a corporate castaway. Not a failed foot soldier. Not a discarded fish bone.

Standing next to the kitchen island, beside the dishwasher, six feet from the microwave, an idea started to sink in.

He was okay.

He thought of the Kurt Vonnegut quote from his book of the same name: “If this isn’t nice, what is?

He had everything he needed. What more could he ask for, at this moment, right here, and right now?

His thinking settled down.

He and his wife sat down at the round white breakfast table in the kitchen.

She asked him about how it all shook out. A wave of curiosity overtook the room. “How,” she wondered, “did they do you this favor? What did they say?

What was the experience like for you?”

From the kitchen table, instead of the conference table, realizations popped up all over the place. He saw that there was nothing sinister in their morning conversation. A business decision had been made. He was informed of the decision. He had some decisions to make himself. The first one? He had decided not to listen when the lawyer and the HR director were telling him the details he needed.

He took a drink of water.

Companies get bought and sold all the time. He had not been consulted on the decision. But that consultation was not part of his job description. So why was it part of his expectation?

His Coach would say that he was making the impersonal personal. And the Coach would also say that taking things personally was perfectly normal. How could someone not take the disintegration of their company (and, potentially, their livelihood) personally? Somebody pulls away from the career you’ve held for a decade; you’re going to have some thinking around the transition. Who wouldn’t?

Chris Westfall is one of the most sought-after business coaches and keynote speakers in the world. He has helped launch over five dozen businesses, and has appeared on ABC NEWS, NBC TV and CNN. A regular contributor to Forbes, he has worked with thousands of leaders at Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations and high-tech startups.

A coach to entrepreneurs and executives around the globe, his clients have appeared on Shark Tank, Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank-Australia. He regularly consults with top-tier universities and is the author of three other books, including Leadership Language.

Find out more on his website: http://westfallonline.com Or http://easier-book.com

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WeGym

Smart Resistance Band System

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WeGym is a trendy sports brand owned

by WeGym inc in the US. Its purpose is to redefine the fitness scene with intelligent technology and creative product design to provide users with portable and accessible fitness programs. WeGym was founded on the belief that every person should have the accessibility and privilege of living an active and healthy lifestyle.

Product Title: WeGym Smart Resistance Band - Rally X Rally X consists of two elastic bands with two sensors that record your workout data; unique wrist and ankle bands help you to achieve any form of exercise. It is also easy to set up and use.

WeGym is dedicated to helping people live a more active and healthy lifestyle through our portable, smart AI technology fitness equipment and intuitive app.

We are a cutting-edge fitness technology company worldwide, and our system can track individual real-time feedback on each movement you make. Spring up every beginner and fitness enthusiast's workouts at any movement and anywhere with an easy setup and carrying concept. As we bring up our slogan, "Every KEY FEATURES Moment Counts."

WeGym Training APP: Predictable and achievable training goal with smart AI 1. Guidance • The portable home gym equipment personalizes your training plans.

• Before exercise, you can set goals and select free courses on the APP through WeGym training app.

• During exercise, the intelligent gym bands resistance will record and analyze your motion data and also provide real-time feedback during your exercise.

2. Adjustable Length & Resistance The gym bands resistance has two resis-

tance ranges: 8.8~61LBS (Black), 7.7~55 (Hybrid), 6.6~40LBS (Orange). The back exercise equipment has passed the fall test and resistance test and got several patent certificates, which is suitable for various training methods.

3. Portable for a workout anywhere • 1m2 smart gym, only 2.5lb to carry.

• Workout without limits; you can take it with you wherever you go, whether at home or outdoors, no matter whether the weather is good or bad.

• Ergonomic Design and durable use • With 42 hours of battery life on a 2-hour charge.

• IP54 natural latex waterproof material, 3 layers of environmental friendly latex, and aviation • Aluminum material with unique patented technology, making sports healthy and safe.

http://www.wegymsports.com

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An excerpt from How To Love Yourself

Developing Self Worth

By Teal Swan

Wondering about Worthiness

Lack of self-worth is a by-product of a lack of self-love. But conversely, a lack of selflove is also a by-product of a lack of selfworth. To understand how a lack of selfworth leads to a lack of self-love, we have to first look at the idea of worth in and of itself. Worth is defined as the quality that renders something desirable, useful, or of quality. And worthiness is the quality that renders something desirable, useful, or of enough quality to have value.

So many people are walking the surface of the earth with terribly low self-esteem. The core of this poor self-esteem is the feeling of not being valued. When we value something, we regard it as having worth to us because it is useful, important, and beneficial. And it is this understanding that gives rise to the realization that can change your entire life. The realization is this: Value is entirely based on needs and preferences.

This means that value and worth is a very subjective experiences. If a man is a car 34 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

salesman and someone brings him a horse, he will not value the horse. But that does not mean that someone else won't value the horse infinitely more than a car. If a parent values logic and knowledge, that parent will prefer a child who is academic rather than artistic. If that parent has a child who is artistic, this child may feel as if he or she has no value. But that does not mean that another parent won't value an artistic child more. In this scenario, the child is the horse being brought to the car salesman.

So worth is based on desirability, usefulness, quality, and value. But the question is: to whom? Most of us define the worth we have to ourselves by how much worth we have to others. If you are filled with self-hate, then you likely believe that you are undesirable, useless, flawed, and of no value to yourself. But this is actually impossible because you live with yourself, inside your own skin, every single day. Because this is the case, obviously, you are of tremendous value to yourself.

Photo by Velizar Ivanov

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People who develop shame also have terrible self-worth. They are stuck in their insecurities, seeing themselves as the dust of the earth. They never focus appreciatively on themselves. The substitute for real selfworth in their lives is the thought that they are humble.

Authentic Self-Worth True self-worth, on the other hand, stems from the understanding that imperfection exists alongside perfection. They know this imperfection doesn't mean that they have more or less worth than anyone else. They view other people as objectively different but equal to them with regards to worth, and so, in this way, they view existence on a more horizontal plane.

If we take this worldview a step further and accept that the world around us, including the people in it, are all projections of ourselves, we find that there can be no superiority and no inferiority. All that exists is . . . our self. When we can do this, our war with the world ends, and when the war with the world ends, our war with ourselves ends.

When it comes to the concept of selfworth, you might want to consider throwing it away. "Worth" is a completely ab-

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Think of it this way. The quality of being present is worthless in a society that values doing. The quality of external beauty is worthless in a society for the blind.

Perhaps the reason that you feel like you have no worth or value is that the very real qualities which you came in with (qualities that would have held infinite value to other people) were not considered valuable to the people that comprised your family or the culture or society you were born into.

For example, if you were born with artistic talents but landed in a family that valued the quality of scholarly intellect above all else, they may not consider your gifts valuable, and therefore, you would have received the message that you were not valuable. However, if you had been born into a family of artists, your gift would have been instantly recognized as valuable, and therefore, you would have felt as if you were valuable. The sad reality is that you can be born into a society, culture, or family that is incompatible with you because your own innate value is not in alignment with their specific needs and, therefore, values.

Photo by Adobestock/ chika_milan

People who are described as "prideful" are often vertical thinkers. They have terrible self-worth because they cover over their deep insecurities by becoming arrogant.

The substitute for real self-worth in their life is the thought that they are better and more important than others.

stract concept. You cannot objectively determine the value of something. Worth has no basis in reality because it's entirely subjective. The criteria created to determine a person's worth are entirely dependent upon the society he or she is born into.

So if we don't think we are good enough, how can we possibly love ourselves? There are two plausible answers.

The first is to reach a state of perfection, and the second is to let go of the belief that we are not good enough.

Photo by Adobestock/

But just saying it doesn't make self-hate go away. The roots of self-hate grow weeds in two opposing directions: the direction of pride and the direction of shame. Insecurity is at the heart of both conditions, where you start to see the world comparatively.

We call this comparative worldview vertical thinking. This is an important concept to grasp. People who think vertically tend to experience the world through a perspective where they are either better than or worse than (on top of or beneath) the people, things, events, and circumstances in their life.

True human worth is impossible to determine. Another way of looking at value, rather than saying that value doesn't inherently exist, is that value is inherent in all things, but the value is not going to matter in certain situations or to certain people.

loved exactly as we are. So if we don't think we are good enough, how can we possibly love ourselves? There are two plausible answers. The first is to reach a state of perfection, and the second is to let go of the belief that we are not good enough.

If you are going to look at value as being inherent in all things, you can think about self-worth as a kind of light that is always there. It can't be taken away from or added to. It can't be earned or lost. It simply exists. It's an unchangeable, untouchable light that is always flowing. The things that you confuse with worth, like positive personality traits, achievements, or talents, are nothing more than a stainedglass window that you have erected in front of that light so the light can express itself in beautiful ways.

In order to understand your true selfworth, you must begin looking for the quality inherent within you already— the things that make you desirable, the ways in which you are useful, and the value that you do have. Self-worth stands on the tripod of present endowments, potentials, contributions, and successes.

Likewise, the things that you confuse with worthlessness, like negative personality traits, failures, and shortcomings, are nothing more than cobwebs you have spun in front of that light, preventing it from expressing its beauty. No matter what you put in front of that light, and no matter what you do to enhance or suppress that light, the light of your own worth is always there.

Try to accept that it is pointless to try to get someone to change their needs. It is a much better strategy to find someone who has a need that is compatible with you. And it is a guarantee that you will be seen as valuable to someone. Who might that someone be? If value were entirely based on needs and preferences, the most important question to ask yourself is: who needs and prefers me?

Recognizing Your Own Self-Worth Lack of self-worth begins with the idea that we are not good enough exactly as we are, and therefore we can't be

A present endowment would be a part of your nature that is enjoyable, such as, "I am a person who cares deeply about the well-being of those around me." Potential is an innate capability or capacity within yourself, such as, "I have the capability to convey love to others." You can focus on past contributions or successes by thinking of ways in which you have contributed to the well-being of others, of the world, or of yourself. An example might be, "When I was six, I saved a baby bird from dying when it fell from its nest," or "I got a promotion two years ago at work."

The key here is that in order to find self-worth, you have to look for it.

Your focus has to switch from looking for the ways in which you lack worth to looking for the ways in which you have worth already. If your focus has been pointed at a lack for many years, it may take some effort to retrain yourself to focus on what is there instead of what isn't there. But it's my promise to you that you can retrain yourself into your natural state, which is one of self-appreciation. Self-appreciation is the fertilizer for self-love.

Teal Swan is an international speaker, bestselling author, and survivor of severe childhood abuse.

Today, having integrated her own harrowing life experience, she inspires millions of people around the world toward truth, authenticity, freedom, and joy.

Teal's mission is the transformation of human suffering into an empowered and authentic life.

She is the creator of the popular "Ask Teal" YouTube series, author of six internationally published books, and the artist of hundreds of frequent paintings. www.tealswan.com How To Love Yourself by Teal Swan is published by Watkins Publishing and is priced $17.95. It is available to buy on Amazon and in all good bookstores.

So many people are walking the surface of the earth with terribly low self-esteem. The core of this poor self-esteem is the feeling of not being valued.

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WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

Shirley

POWELL

This new transparent brand offers premium medical-grade products with high-tech formulated quality ingredients that are clean and work together naturally.

LaJeanell's quality skincare products are great for sensitive skin. "Our products are formulated with Aloe vera, Jojoba Seed oil in our moisturizer and Vitamin C, B and E and ferulic serum for healing properties and antioxidants," Shirley describes. "For those with sensitive skin, we recommend using our Retinol antiaging cream every other day."

LaJeanell inhibits beauty that transcends over time. "Our collection of makeup and skincare allows you to create looks across eras that are all America, classic, timeless, vintage, and effortless. Your makeup exhibits your fashion style, whether it is through the seasons or your sense of style," Shirley adds.

During the pandemic, former model and beauty expert Shirley Powell launched LaJeanell, an indie clean beauty health and wellness skincare and makeup brand made in the USA. Her brand features both gender-inclusive skincare and cosmetics formulated with quality ingredients and products that are dual-purpose, healthy, vegan, and sustainable resulting in a youthful appearance.

"When creating LaJeanell, I purposely sought to formulate a product line that provided beauty solutions for a busy and healthy lifestyle," Shirley says. "Laboratory scientists and doctors have formulated our skincare and beauty essentials. LaJeanell brings our customers easy-to-use high-quality natural skincare and beauty regimens complete with premium products."

American beauty can be seen as someone who is fresh, pretty, beautiful, and healthy. The phrase All American Beauty has been in the making for quite some time.

38 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

Wellness Entrepreneur Rises from Mental Health and Illnesses to Launch

LAJEANELL

a Clean Beauty, Vegan Skincare and Cosmetics Line

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It has been a long road of challenges trying to regain my health and lifestyle. Cleansing my entire system and changing to an all organic, natural food diet as part of the process.

"Time never stops, so let's all mature gracefully together."

Shirley suffers from debilitating clinical depression, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and autoimmune disorders. She has always been entrepreneurial with other successful businesses since age 21. After a serious stressful nervous breakdown, her entire anatomy system broke down. "It has been a long road of challenges trying to regain my health and lifestyle.

Over time, makeup has been inspired by Hollywood movies and celebrities. "In the 1950s, featured looks included a bright red lip.

While in the 1920s, the wing-eyeliner look was created," Shirley describes.

Cleansing my entire system and changing to an all organic, natural food diet as part of the process. English and western medicine and many supplements are still a daily routine. And yes, I still have flareups that are treated and maintained by my knowledge and experience as well as my most wonderful health care physicians," she explains.

"When you go through these types of trials and tribulations, you go through a huge transition. Your health is of utmost importance, as well as having a purpose. It's been a hard and enduring road, and I am grateful for how far I have come," she adds. "I went into a vocational rehabilitation program to restart and get self-sufficient again.

Beauty, health, and wellness are the deck of cards I was given, and I am playing out my hand. As an entrepreneur and model, I found myself searching for health-conscious quality makeup. As a result, I found "Customers experience a youthful skin appear- the need to create a line that providance after using our products, and our line ed a solution to the problem. I founded diminishes the appearance of fine lines and wrin- LaJeanell to provide quality skincare solutions. It resulted in a great selection of natkles," Shirley adds. ural and organic makeup."

"I give God all the glory to where my story is now. My story has many chapters, and I have more chapters to conquer. I have a purpose and am excited to see where they take me," she continues. "Helping others feel better and look better when life seems so dark. Faith and strong convictions will lead us to great outcomes."

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Shirley's journey is continuing to expand the LaJeanell line with haircare, supplements, and additional beauty and cosmetic products that are both efficacious and transparent in their clean and vegan ingredients.

LaJeanell's founder, Shirley Powell, brings more than 40 years of business experience.

She represented two high-end luxury cosmetics companies. As an entrepreneur and model, she found herself searching for health-conscious quality makeup. As a result, she found the need to create a line that provided a solution to the problem.

Shirley founded LaJeanell to provide quality skincare solutions. It resulted in a great selection of natural and organic makeup.

Her vision was to include antiaging components in the product line. Thus, giving users a younger look without going under the scalpel. Shirley, who is compassionate and empathetic, loves helping others and supports K9 Companions and NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). https://www.lajeanell.com/

LaJeanell Skincare Products Offered: Daily Sunscreen Skin Protective: LaJeanell Sunscreen Lotion provides broad-spectrum SPF 55 protection in a long-wearing formula. It combines the unique barrier-forming properties of Zinc Oxide along with Octinoxate for additional UVA/UVB protection.

Hyaluronic Acid Moisturizer: LaJeanell's unique Hyaluronic Crème effectively reduces the appearance of hyperpigmentation and dark spots and deeply moisturizes the skin.

Enhanced Retinol Treasure Anti-Aging Crème (Encapsulated Retinol 0.5%): It has powerful, efficacious qualities to repair and boost your skin's collagen levels and provide you with a powerful aid in the fight against aging. Retinol is a form of Vitamin A that, when applied topically to the skin, stimulates collagen production.

Advanced Golden Glow Serum: LaJeanell's unique Ferulic Acid and Vitamin potent serum (Vitamin C, B & E) provide an antioxidant boost for your skin. This formula creates a super serum that works on multiple levels to ensure beautiful skin.

"Our quality makeup products are great for sensitive skin as they are made with organic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and natural healing properties," Shirley says.

"Our cosmetic line is made with the highest quality ingredients and is vegan, cruelty-free, fragrance,

and preservative-free. Each product is free of synthetics, parabens, formaldehyde, and phthalates."

LaJeanell Cosmetic Products Offered: Dramatic Lashes Black Mascara: This unique product has a dual purpose. It works for lashes and brows, allowing for buildable intensity without clumping or smudging.

Neutral Lip Liner Pencil: LaJeanell's wooden, sharpenable lip liner pencil provides laser-focus precision and a clean, well-defined application. Delivering unstoppable color and relentless glide over moisturizing formula saturates with budge-resistant color.

Multi-Purpose Lip, Cheek, and Eye Shadow Color: Provides soothing and intense hydration.

This product has Regenerative Properties to help heal dry lips and improve elasticity. The Preservative-FREE Formula has rich pigment and requires a minimal application for full impact. Available in the following shade names: Shirley, Autumn Leaves, Summer Breeze, Winter Holly Berries, and Spring Blossom.

Moonlight Lume Pod: LaJeanell's unique creamy formula and sheer color blend effortlessly to create shimmering accents. The Moonlight Lume Pod contours and brings dynamic highlights to all skin tones. The mistake-proof cream color is quick and easy to apply. Leaving you a youthful, seductively sheer, and naturally glowing finish.

It's perfect for highlighting and sculpting. At the same time, warming the eyes, cheeks, lips, and body. Also features a 100% Vegan Brown Faux Mini Duo Brush! The Duo brush is perfect for on-the-go use.

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By By rolffimages/AdobeStock

42 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

Ta Human Heart he Light within

By Lars Muhl

T

hat well-known feeling of "I" and of being bound to the physical world is gone. The closest analogy I can use to describe my present state is that of Light flowing within indefinable darkness. I am still "myself," but the physical boundaries that define "I" have been dispersed. Even though there is a sensation of the ethereal substance which still invokes a feeling of self, it is the higher Self, freed from the noise of the personality, a core of pure consciousness slowly spreading and merging symbiotically with everything around me. However, in spite of this feeling of utter unification with all things, there is, at the same time, an undefinable feeling of a veil that leaves me with a perception of a threshold toward the ever-expanding Light. I'm unable to grasp the depth of my experience, but somehow I know that it will connect me to the frequency that one day will provide access to the gateway I am looking for.

My soul yearns to be set free from this state of separation. I remember the time Calle de Montségur introduced me to the Shaft of the Soul. The Shaft of the Soul is a metaphor that describes the very moment a soul leaves the physical reality. In my mind's eye I can see myself standing in the shaft with Calle as he shows me how all images are, in fact, one image; that all people are but one person; and I realize how

the disintegration of the physical reality that I am experiencing at this moment is actually the state I have to be in so I can travel through both time and space, leaving behind the three-dimensional reality, becoming one with all other souls and seeing all images as one image. In essence, we are all kings and beggars, executioners and victims, heroes and villains, adults and children, women and men – until we are no longer any of these singular fates but merely the simultaneous sum of all experiences.

When we meet deceased family members or friends, we meet them in their purest form, freed from all the personal noise that colored their souls when they were incarnated and played their roles as uncles, aunts, fathers, mothers, and sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, etc. On the other side of the veil, all suffering and personal neuroses are put aside.

When we reincarnate, once again descending through the Shaft of the Soul, we accept responsibility for the tasks we were unable to transform in our previous incarnation. When the soul is leaving the physical realm, there are no "places" as perceived in the incarnation, only levels of consciousness. These levels manifest themselves in different ways. The physical level vibrates slowly. The higher the consciousness, the quicker the vibrational level.

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The best remedy for hopelessness, pain, grief, and longing is to abandon the ego's self-centered antics and begin to truly see others and do something for them.

Symbols, metaphors, and archetypical images are the languages needed in order to understand the earthly incarnation. A time will come when the incarnated soul realizes that this symbolic language is the only way humanity can experience and express ways of breaking through its physical limitations and can take the next step forward toward the inner, holographic, and multidimensional levels. The soul already contains this universal language within itself – it just needs to be activated. At this moment, humanity is too focused on finding technological solutions for every problem. But, as Calle de Montségur said, every time we use a GPS, we are turning our back on humanity's own inner GPS, or what used to be called intuition. Man's intuition is the finest and most accurate measuring device to be found in the physical world and provides, therefore, the best chance for inner contact with the Divine.

Despite this fact, we have managed to totally undermine our faith in our intuition.

A physical measuring device points outwards toward the noise-filled emptiness, while a spiritual measuring device points inwards toward presence and into eternity, our true home. That is why it is so crucial to acknowledge and develop our spiritual potential and demand that the limitations a narrow, scientific attitude has placed on humanity during the past few centuries are put aside, and a new, open, prejudice-free awareness is actively developed.

This development also requires a serious willingness to transform neuroses and sufferings. The best remedy for hopelessness, pain, grief, and longing is to abandon the ego's self-centered antics and begin to truly see others and do something for them. This is true both personally and collectively. If I long for or lack something, I know that the remedy lies in all those things I fail to give others. If I feel rejected, it is usually because I have adopted a rejecting attitude. Every44 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

thing I send out returns, at some point or another, to me. This law of reciprocity can be so subtle that the connection is not always obvious, but nevertheless, it is a living reality.

A pale, lilac light fills the room. I look around, disorientated, and realize I must have fallen asleep during the meditation.

Outside, a new day is dawning. The book lies on the bedside table. I open it, searching for the page of the missing verse. To my amazement, it is no longer blank! A couple of lines have been added with plenty of room for more text underneath.

I sit staring at this sentence. I recognize the Christian mystic Master Eckhart's famous words in it. Was this what Yeshua meant when He said to His disciples: "My Father and I are one"? That sentence, in all its simplicity, is one of the most revolutionary messages in the New Testament. It is a message proclaimed by someone who saw A through the Eye mentioned. In the writings of the Essenes, we find that if this all-seeing Eye was to close for just one second, all created things would instantly cease to exist.

"The Light of the body is in the Eye. Therefore, if you perfect this sight and make the two into one, your whole body will be filled with Light." This is how Yeshua is quoted in the Gospel of Matthew 6:22. And when He talks about Light, He means consciousness.

"When you make the two one, and you make the outer even as the inner and the above even as the below, and when you make the masculine and the feminine as one, then will the masculine no longer be masculine nor the feminine, feminine, and when you can see with new eyes and can see a new hand in the hand and a new foot in the foot when you have seen your true Image, then you can enter into the Kingdom."

This is what Yeshua says in the Gospel of Thomas 22.

How come we human beings have misunderstood or overlooked this essential information about who we really are? When Yeshua tells us we shall be born again in this life, could it have something to do with this new way of looking at things? To see everything anew means that we need to activate the Heart into a center of purified feelings – compassion instead of emotions. And the Pineal into a center of purified thoughts – visions instead of memories. Once we are able to fulfill this practice on an everyday level, we will understand that we are first and foremost spiritual beings, incarnated right now in a physical body, and how important it is to find the right balance between these two realities.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit. You should not be surprised when I tell you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it wills; you hear the sound of it but cannot see from where it comes or where it goes: that is how it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." 1 Could that have been what happened to Saul, on his way to Damascus to hunt down and kill Christians, when he suddenly heard Yeshua's words as an inner voice and lost his physical sight? For three days, under the guidance of an Essene therapist, he was taken through the rebirth initiation, the true baptism that Yeshua had taught the Essenes.

After three days, he had become transformed from the hate-filled Saul to Paul, the preacher of Love. The new inner sight became united with the outer sight of the eyes, and his seeing was restored. He began a new life. He could suddenly see. See himself and the trail of ignorance, death, and destruction he had dragged behind him wherever he went. He was, at once, granted admittance to a higher plane of consciousness. He now saw and understood that he had been given a chance to choose a new direction in his life.

swallowed up by the great fish and had to remain inside it for three days before being born again; of Lazarus, who was awoken to life by Yeshua after lying in the grave for three days; and of Yeshua Himself, who, after three days in the grave, rose from the dead.

Paul's story is also ours, as we, through sheer ignorance, drag a trail of misery and death behind us, caused by our estranged and detached way of living: buying, consuming, and throwing away. We, too, will be forced one day to wake up and take responsibility for our actions. No one in the Western world can imagine suddenly having to leave their house and home because of drought, floods, or other natural disasters. No one can imagine standing as a refugee at the border of another country and being flatly refused entry.

We need to wake up from our deep, more-or-less unconscious sleep and re-establish the connection between us and A. But it has to be real and not mere lip service. Words can be cheap. We see and hear this every single day when we are spoken to like sheep or cannonfodder instead of fellow citizens and equal souls, or when we, in turn, talk to others without respect for their integrity. We also see the emergence of clergy within the different spiritual communities who seems to have more focus on the marketplace or on maintaining their own status than on the spiritual wellbeing of their followers.

Fake news has become such an integral part of humanity's reality that its darkness insidiously corrupts everything in and around us with half-truths and lies. We need to break with our own lies first, and then the global ones can be addressed. The Knight of the Grail needs to slay the dragon within himself so that the Princesses of Wisdom, Sofia, and Shekinah, can regain their full freedom, not only in the world but, most importantly, in each one of us.

[1] The Gospel of St John 3:6

Lars Muhl is a Danish mystic, musician, and international bestselling author. Since his youth, he has studied the spiritual traditions of the world. In 1996 he was struck down by an unexplained sickness. A telephone call put him in touch with the seer Calle de Montségur, who got him out of bed and by whom he was an apprentice until the seer's death in 2007.

Lars' previous books include: The O Manuscript and The Law of Light. The Light Within a Human Heart.

Paul's is the story of Jonah, who was 45 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

People with IDD are susceptible to the same age-related issues as anyone else. IntellectAbility President Dr. Craig Escudé explains how to help them maintain a good quality of life, and why supporters must be trained to recognize signs of aging among this population group.

SUPPORTING PEOPLE WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES AS THEY AGE

By Dr. Craig Escudé

People with IDD are susceptible to the same age-related issues as anyone else. IntellectAbility President Dr. Craig Escudé explains how to help them maintain a good quality of life and why supporters must be trained to recognize signs of aging among this population group.

the same age-related ailments as any other person. Dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, vision and hearing loss, and many other chronic health conditions affect large numbers of people with IDD, but signs of those problems often go unnoticed by supporters.

The population of the United States is getting older quickly. By 2050, it’s projected that approximately 90 million adults will be over age 65. By 2030, it’s anticipated that one in five Americans will be 65 years old or older. These estimates include a large number of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). People with IDD are just as likely to suffer from

Since people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are living longer, we have to shift to ensure we’re addressing all the factors that affect individuals as they get older. Supporters need to learn to recognize how chronic conditions like dementia might appear differently in a person with IDD.

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Recognizing Signs of Age-Related Illness in People with IDD Unfortunately, people with IDD often show signs of earlier medical, functional, and psychosocial changes compared to those without IDD. With those changes comes a variety of symptoms that may be mistaken for behavioral changes in a person with IDD, especially if that person doesn’t use words to communicate. Signs of age-related illness might include: · Distancing themselves from others · Increased fear · Loss of interest in daily activities But people with IDD are also at higher risk for cognitive conditions like dementia or Alzheimer’s. Signs of these diseases might include: · Aggressiveness · Forgetfulness · Hoarding · Incontinence · Late-onset seizures · Loss of skills · Personality changes · Sleep disturbances · Verbal outbursts · Wandering

a PERSON, first, the life expectancy of a person with a mild or moderate disability is approaching that of people without disabilities. What that translates to is that they are also now more likely to experience many of the challenges that plague most of us as we age. This includes things like arthritis, dementia, declines in hearing and vision, and cardiovascular disease, all of which may never be experienced by people who die at an earlier age.

People with IDD are also known to show signs of aging around 10-15 years earlier than people without disabilities. This is particularly evident in the fact that people with Down Syndrome are much more likely to develop Alzheimer’s dementia than those without it and are more likely to develop it earlier in their lives, as well.

It’s estimated that around 10% of people with Down Syndrome may show signs of dementia between the ages of 40 and 49, and that rises to over 50% by age 60.

It can be extremely difficult to recognize these problems as symptoms of a disease, especially if a supporter hasn’t had sufficient training. Supporters include family members and paid staff such as direct support professionals, and can also include anyone in the medical field, such as doctors and nurses who help a person with IDD achieve a better quality of life. IntellectAbility’s Health Risk Screening Tool is designed to identify risk factors for conditions that worsen with aging. Also, training in person-centered support can help supporters become more aware of possible age-related symptoms they may encounter in a person with IDD. People with IDD are getting older. What I mean is that people with IDD are living longer than they used to. For example, as recently as the 1980s, a person with Down Syndrome lived to be only 25 years old. Today, the average Age is 60 and climbing. Thanks to better healthcare, advances in support and services, and, frankly, a shift toward seeing a person with a disability as

The better-educated supporters and clinicians are, the better the likelihood that a person with a disability will receive capable,

compassionate,

and competent healthcare and support

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Many people with IDD have challenges in communicating verbally and, therefore, may communicate in different ways than by using words.

Communication often takes the form of a particular behavior that may not be recognized by others as being a form of communication. Many times, these “adverse” behaviors may be interpreted as “just something that the person does” and not thought of as a way of expression. For example, a person with IDD who frequently becomes agitated around mealtimes may be communicating that they are having pain, such as a toothache.

They have learned to associate chewing with pain and therefore begin to become aggressive at times when they know that chewing will occur. To an untrained supporter, this type of communication may be missed, and the person may go on suffering for years.

An example relating to changes we see with aging is that a person who once liked to look at magazines begins to throw them at others because they can no longer see up close.

For anyone who works in a field where they are providing support and services for people with disabilities or who has a family member with IDD, training can be extremely helpful in learning common ways that people with IDD may communicate differently than expressing their feelings using words. And, for the person with IDD, having people around them that understand their “language” can mean the difference between suffering from undiagnosed health issues and living a healthy and pain-free life.

And in the most serious cases, it can mean the difference between life and death. For many years, the only way to really be trained about these topics was through “on the job” training by working in this field and learning from others who had worked there longer. That’s how I learned much of what I know and now teach to others.

In the past 10-20 years, I’ve seen more emphasis being placed on teaching health support information as well as person-centered skills to those who 48 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

work in this field. But we still have a long way to go. It is vital that healthcare providers, including physicians, nurses, dentists, and allied health professionals, as well as direct support professionals and other provider agency staff, receive formal education and training to support people with IDD to live healthy lives and reduce unnecessary suffering.

Training in this area has been hard to come by. But, in recent years, eLearning courses have been developed and made available to supporters and clinicians that teach concepts such as the Fatal Five – the most common preventable causes of illness and death in people with IDD, Person Centered Thinking, which helps supporters learn how to ensure that the person’s desires and wants for life are included in any type of support plan, and even clinical training for physicians and other healthcare providers that teach both IDD healthcare concepts as well as ways to improve communication between clinicians, supporters and people with disabilities. The better-educated supporters and clinicians are, the better the likelihood that a person with a disability will receive capable, compassionate, and competent healthcare and support, including for those that are aging.

1.“Demographic Changes and Aging Population – Rhihub Aging in Place Toolkit.” Demographic Changes and Aging Population – RHIhub Aging in Place Toolkit, ruralhealthinfo.org/toolkits/aging/1/ demographics#:~ 2. Ortaliza, Jared, et al. “How Does U.S. Life Expectancy Compare to Other Countries?” Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, 28 Sept. 2021, healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/ 3. Marks, Beth. “Age-Related Health Changes for Adults with Developmental Disabilities.” Impact | Volume 23, Number 1 | Age-Related Health Changes for Adults with Developmental Disabilities | Institute on Community Integration Publications, publications. ici.umn.edu/impact/23-1/age-related-health-changes-for-adults-with-developmental-disabilities.

4 Heumen, Lieke van , PhD. “Aging of Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD).” University of Illinois at Chicago, Disability and Human Development College of Applied Health Sciences, thearcofil.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Aging-and-I-DD-webinar-9.10.19final.pdf.

About IntellectAbility: IntellectAbility provides tools and training to agencies, governmental entities and supporters of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to foster early recognition and mitigation of health risks thereby improving health and wellness. One such tool is the Health Risk Screening Tool (HRST), of which they are the sole developer, producer, and distributor.

The web based HRST is the most widely used and validated health risk screening instrument for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. IntellectAbility also provides numerous health-related and person-centered service trainings for supporters of people with IDD. With unrelenting focus, IntellectAbility works to fulfill its mission of improving health and quality of life for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and other vulnerabilities.

For more information, visit ReplacingRisk.com.

Dr. Craig Escudé is a board-certified Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and is the President of IntellectAbility. He has more than 20 years of clinical experience providing medical care for people with IDD and complex medical and mental health conditions.

He is the author of Clinical Pearls in IDD Healthcare and developer of the Curriculum in IDD Healthcare, an eLearning course used to train clinicians on the fundamentals of healthcare for people with IDD.

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Photo by zana pq

50 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

Written in the stars,

a story of love and loss

I

By Jayita Bhattacharjee n the worst way possible, the loss that has come to engulf you has come to absorb you. With this spreading loss in our hearts, what dies is-- what was living inside us, what was breathing in life, in hope—in the blink of an eye, all is gone. A staring emptiness that you feel in your mouth that runs you dry. And somehow, you find those welling tears in your heart to travel to your eyes, and you give out a long, aching cry. And the world echoes with the sound of your loss. Have you heard that empty laughter that comes now and again out of your staring loss?

It is never the weight you carry, but how you carry it--the heaviness, the unspoken words—It’s all in the way you carry it.

How do you live and linger in the memories—to which there is no reply? Tears sting your eyes as life pushes you down to your knees, and the pain of an insane loss hits you out of nowhere, racking your helpless body with soundless sobs. How easy was it to lose someone you had always thought you would have forever? You weep for the past, which can never return. Love remains; its place remains. The recollections are still left—only the person is gone. Every moment, everything that you see and do, and your loss weights touch. When someone you love dies, the ashes do not live in the wind—they rest in the graveyard of your soul, darkening this life we once thought beautiful. When goodbye seems to be very long and finally, you accept it in your heart-- there will never come a time when you can truly say goodbye to the ones

whom you once held in your arms, whom you once rolled with, in the moments of everyday life.

Light, will you ever filter again through the leaves of my heart, or are you going to live the rest of my life searching for me? A voice whispered--grief does not change you; it only reveals your deeps with the rolling of time. The happiness of remembering had been taken away from you because there was no longer anyone to remember with.

It may feel like losing the memory itself.

There is a hole now, a hole invisible to the world out there. But deep down, this is the void that you carry inside. You carry it with you, within you.

Life, how could you be so unkind? It’s so much darker when the light went out than it would have been if it had never really glowed in the first place. You didn’t lose them at once; you lost them piece by piece every time you ran into the scent of their remnants. There is the memory you wanted to run away from, all this while, knowing what if, someday, it comes back all to break you down into the memories of yesterday; what if it chases you to the wall, and you find no escape?

You never really know what you have till you lose it.

It never gets easier; it only gets different. It never gets smoother; it only gets winding, more meandering. It just finds a way to flow. And when some pebbles stand in the way, it meanders somewhat.

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Gradually, I collect the broken pieces of myself and try so desperately to fit them together. Did they fit in a piece, or am I looking like a broken mirror? This is the feeling that I walk with as I gradually stroll on the pebbled shores of my life. How do you live with it, killing you inside and still wearing the most beautiful smile? Yes, I faced the inevitable. But the risk of never having to spend those years with you was far greater than this loss that caught my throat. But I will let not this sadness engulfs you, for all the beauty that remains. At the temple of our yesterday’s memories, there is a poem carved in the stones of grief. The poem is etched in a loss. But the strange thing about loss is that you can never read it; you can only feel it.

Yet through everything, you will find your roots, stronger and deeper, more grounded to your own self. Gifts of humility come to all of us. And it comes in abundance when life pushes you down to your knees.

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But looking back, I think we all carry the pieces of what we remember; we carry the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory there is no loss; there can never be any loss, in the true sense of the word. Your absence has gone through me like some coarse thread through a needle. The pain has seared me over and over again. The pain when listening to this story becomes so silent, and in the falling waters of my eyes, I sit down to understand this most defining loss of a mother’s life. And I dip the ink of my pain into the light of my thoughts, so it can flow on this paper, into something beautiful that can breathe alive. Its beauty feels so fresh--this is the lavender of my crushed love, the love of a mother for her son. And now, every line I write is painted with so many colors of my heart. The grief that knows not how to speak breaks us inside into a thousand pieces from a searing pain. The heaviness of my heart may seem to ease, as I can seem to give words to my grief that rains through the leaves of my heart. And, as it seems to fall in this silence, every word, every page, every chapter gets so very portrayed with so many falling colors of my soul. I never really knew; the last time I saw you.

The last time you held them in your arms, the last time you were cuddling together.

Who really knew which moment would be the very last? It is something that we leave to God. Some birds chirped, some leaves fell, someone out there gave his last cry, and all you know was someone breathed his last. And that was the end of everything. There it was, the reality, staring back at your face.

You never really know what you have till you lose it. It never gets easier; it only gets different. It never gets smoother; it only gets winding, more meandering. It just finds a way to flow. And when some pebbles stand in the way, it meanders somewhat. As a flow, it must. So, the brook runs. No worries anywhere. The world is still spinning. The birds are still chirping.

The morning breeze still smells of beauty.

It is just a different beauty now.

Flowers are still blooming; just that one flower got plucked and sent back to heaven. The scent of rain and the smell of flowers seem to be somewhat different now. The laughter of someone, his gurgling, his wild rushing to my arms—I will never get to hold that wild boy again. Life, is this the surprise that you had in store for me? Gone--he is gone-he is never coming back--the house is still there, but it will never have his footsteps anymore.

The walls will never echo his laughter anymore. The most defining loss of my life can either shape me into someone better, or it can make me sink in a sea of pain. The grief felt so cutting, so much so that I reached my hands out to my soul beneath the disguise of my beautiful smile.

This reaching was to dam the deluge of all the unbearable emotions. So, it can ease the pressure inside me and put on a smile on my trembling lips.

This is the loss that makes me question everything, makes me look around in wonder and doubt, to think, Am I safe? Do the clouds move again to show the light? Somewhere, deep down, I felt my throat was catching, and my feet got stuck on the sands. I wanted to move if only the grief did not cut through if only the rain would stop falling.

Looking above, I saw descending darkness in the sky. Looking around, I saw an unending sadness.

- Just when you were about to give up and go on living a life, with some broken pieces of yesterday, and wearing a beautiful smile, in front of this whole world, something beautiful whispers to your ears. Was that a whisper of eternity? Was that a light of love? Was there still something to live for? The memories of yesterday.

That is the way it happens. We lose ourselves sometimes, so we can find out who we are. And when by the grace of God, we do, we discover the

best version of ourselves. The most authentic one, who knows how to walk along the sandy shores of life, lovingly and fearlessly. How to take this unbearable loss, how to sit with it alone, face to face with the grief, and say to myself, “I am comfortable in this silence, when it is just me and my loss, facing one another.”

We no longer stare at each other; rather, we have accepted each other, as in this acceptance lies the light of peace that I was in search of all along. I hold this grief, and I hear total silence for a moment, that silent part of an aching cry whose pitch pierces my soul. Despite this cutting sadness, those memories feel like home to me. And whenever my mind begins to wander, it always finds its way back home. Is this the pain I can’t think my way out of? I can’t talk it away. At times, I curl in one patch of sunlight, lying over the grass, so you can lie beside them one more time. Then you sit with them as grief puts its arms over your shoulders. At times, this grief becomes your closest friend. And, at night, you cannot bear to hear your own breath. And underneath this stillness is the roaring of the gale that seems to tear away your holding silence. Silence—at times, this becomes the speaking silence that gives grief its own words. The depth of those feelings began to surprise you, but each time they hit you, I would discover that they hadn’t washed you away.

Yet through everything, you will find your roots, stronger and deeper, more grounded to your own self. Gifts of humility come to all of us. And it comes in abundance when life pushes you down to your knees. And it was those memories that made you humble enough, soft enough, to receive this grace and still call it a gift. What a gifted suffering that, after all this, you still find that life is a gift.

Jayita Bhattacharjee was born in Calcutta, India and later on pursued education from University of Houston in Economics, she had chosen her career as a trustee and teacher. Her Indian residence is in the vicinity of the famous Belurmath. Currently, she is settled in Tampa, Florida. Her love for writing on a journey of heart and soul was hidden all within. Looking at the moments captured in love and pain, joy and grief, the hidden tragedies of life...it was a calling of her soul to write.

Her books "The Ecstatic Dance of Life', " Sacred Sanctuary", " Light of Consciousness", "Dewdrops of Compassion" are meant to shed light on what guides a person to respond to the mystical voice hidden inside, to soar in a boundless expansion with the limitless freedom of spirit."It is in the deepest joy that I write with every breath of mine."

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Are You Hurting Your BEST FRIEND Without Even REALIZING IT?

5 Photo by Ben Hanson

Ways You Might Be MISTREATING YOUR DOG and HOW TO DO BETTER

By Daphna Nachminovitch, Senior Vice President of PETA’s Cruelty Investigations Department

54 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

W

hat if your best friend were to grab your phone out of your hand while you were trying to read an important text message and refuse to give it back? Imagine how you’d feel if you were trying to tell your friend that you were worried, lonely, or sad, but they interrupted you and shouted, “Shut up!”—or if your friend invited you over to their house but shoved you to the floor the second you sat on their couch.

Anyone who treated you like that probably wouldn’t be your friend for long. Yet many of us are guilty of treating our best friends—our dogs—in these and other cruel ways every day.

If you’re subjecting your canine companion to any of the following common types of cruelty, stop today—and if you know people who are doing these things to their dog, talk to them and help them understand that they’re harming their best friend:

Photo by Roberto Nickson

Many types of cruelty are considered “normal,” so dog guardians don’t think twice about the harm they’re doing their canine companions. Using choke collars or electric fences, confining dogs to crates all day (and/or all night), dragging them along on walks that are supposed to be for their benefit, and never letting them sniff, not to mention swatting, shoving, or yelling—that’s no way to treat someone who loves, trusts, and depends on you for everything.

1. Being a pain in your dog’s neck—literally Shock collars and “invisible fences” deliver painful jolts to dogs’ necks when they cross invisible boundaries, use their voices, or engage in other perfectly natural behavior. These devices can also cause anxiety, displaced aggression, burns, and cardiac fibrillation. Dogs who escape invisible fences— to chase a squirrel or in a panicked attempt to flee fireworks, for example—may be too afraid to return home because they know they’ll be shocked again if they try. And invisible fences do nothing to keep aggressive dogs and cruel humans out of your yard, leaving your dog completely vulnerable.

2. Locking up your pup like a prisoner Crating is solitary confinement—a cruel punishment for dogs, who are highly social pack animals. No one thrives in isolation, and dogs don’t just want contact with others—they need it. If deprived of social interaction, they become lonely, depressed, and withdrawn and can develop other psychological problems.

Choke and prong collars punish dogs by inflicting pain when they walk. These barbaric contraptions can cause serious physical damage—including spinal cord injuries and paralysis, crushed or fractured tracheas or larynxes, asphyxiation, dislocated neck bones, and bruising of the esophagus—as well as emotional damage.

Do better: Secure your property with physical fencing that lets pups frolic safely, without risk of escape or electric shock. If you have a dog who pulls during walks, find a humane dog trainer who can help you learn to teach your dog not to pull. It takes time and patience, but it is very doable if you’re consistent. In the interim, use a comfortable, well-fitting front-clip harness, such as the SENSE-ation No-Pull Dog Harness, to reduce pulling.

Crates also deprive dogs of the opportunity to fulfill their basic needs, including stretching out, walking around, looking out windows, and relieving themselves. Contrary to myth, crating does not speed up the housetraining process. It can actually prolong it because puppies can’t “hold it” for long and having no choice but to soil their crates can make them lose their instinct to keep their surroundings clean. And if a fire or flood occurs while no one else is at home, crated dogs have no way to escape. Dogs have burned to death and drowned, trapped inside crates.

Do better: Don’t make dogs prisoners in their own homes. Instead, take them for a long walk in the morning (“a tired dog is a well-behaved dog”), dog-proof your house, leave out plenty of chew and puzzle toys while you’re away, and come home on your lunch break or hire a trusted dog walker. Or take your dogs to a fully vetted doggie daycare or have them spend the day with a trusted friend or family member who works from home. Then give them some playtime and another walk when you get home.

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3. Turning walks into forced marches Walks aren’t just a bathroom break—they’re the highlight of a dog’s day and essential to good psychological and physical health. Walks give dogs not just exercise and fresh air but also a much-needed change of scenery, social interaction in the form of greeting friendly dogs and humans along the way, and the chance to sniff the “news” on the hydrants, fences, and trees using their remarkable sense of smell. You wouldn’t want to be rushed through your coffee-and-morningnews routine—and dogs don’t like being rushed, either!

Dragging them along at a hurried pace, staring at your phone instead of paying attention to them, regularly taking them outside for just a five-minute pee, or nagging them to hurry up is unfair and unkind.

willing to let your dog speak (bark) now and then, please don’t get one.

Dogs are sensitive, social beings who should be treated as members of the family with kindness and respect. The good news is that it’s never too late to become a better friend to your best friend.

Do better: Take dogs out often (at least four times a day), go to interesting places, let them choose which way to walk whenever possible, and always let them go at their own pace.

4. Bullying your best buddy If you hit, kick, slap, or otherwise physically harm your canine companion, you need to stop now. This is never acceptable. Being swatted with a newspaper or shoved off the furniture can be frightening and painful—both physically and psychologically.

Do better: Guide your dog into appropriate behavior using positive reinforcement only, such as treats and praise. If you want a punching bag, go to the gym—don’t take your issues out on your dog.

It’s also just cold and means to shush canine companions the minute they make a peep. Barking is as natural and necessary for dogs as talking is for humans, and your dog may be trying to communicate something important, like “I’m worried” or “The house is on fire!” Dogs who seem to bark incessantly are doing it for a reason.

Do better: Always speak kindly to your dogs, take time to find out what’s behind the barking (boredom, frustration, anxiety, lack of exercise, and inappropriate living conditions are common causes), and address it. If you aren’t

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Photo by Jonas Jaeken

5. Raising your voice at your dogs—and never let them use theirs Punishment-based “training” methods, including yelling, have serious long-term negative effects on dogs’ mental health. One study found that dogs subjected to punitive training methods had higher levels of cortisol—a stress hormone. In other words, screaming at dogs stresses them out and makes them sad and depressed.

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Spiritual Growth Checkpoint:

By Sherri Cortland, ND

Are YOU

a Lightworker?

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I

f you’re reading this article, my guess is that you absolutely, positively ARE a Lightworker, but if you’re not sure, here’s a checklist I found at www.Lightworkersgifts.com; take a look and see if any of these apply to you…

• You feel called to heal others • You want to resolve the world’s social and environmental problems • You believe that spiritual methods can heal any situation • You have had mystical experiences, such as psychic premonitions or angelic encounters • You have endured harsh life experiences that eroded the knowledge of your Divine perfection • You want to heal your own life as a first step in healing the world • You feel compelled to write, teach, or counsel about your healing experiences • You feel a sense of time urgency to fulfill your mission, and you know that you are here for a higher purpose; even if you are unsure what it is or how to fulfill it My gut was right—you ARE a Lightworker, and the time is now for a reminder of how important and powerful you are.

Lightworkers are souls who are currently incarnated as human beings.

The first wave of Lightworkers paved the way for the Indigos, Crystals, and Rainbows to be born, and they accomplished this by working hard to raise the vibrational level of human beings and our planet. Thanks to the hard work of the various Lightworker brigades who have come to Earth to help the human race and Earth evolve, much progress has been made, even though it often seems to move at a snail’s pace.

Here’s some advice from me: Trust your inner knowing—trust your gut. And when you find yourself in doubt, take the time to go within where you’ll find peace.

My Guides have often talked about how difficult it is for Lightworkers because we have so much on our plates: In addition to tackling our karmic issues and spiritual growth, we have dedicated ourselves to helping each other and our planet.

Some of us live in certain places to hold the light there, and some of us work in occupations chosen specifically to help us create and spread positive energy where it’s most needed.

We have a lot of work to do, and sometimes we need to give ourselves a break and cut ourselves some slack.

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For this reason, and to help you remember how important and powerful you are, here are some channeled messages from my Guide Group (The “GG”) to remind you of where you stand in the great scheme of the universe: You are among the many millions of people who are currently incarnated that we call Lightworkers, and many of you are not indigenous to planet Earth. Whether you have spent the bulk of your incarnations on Earth or other planets, if you are on Earth now, you are here on a special mission.

You were recruited because you are energy specialists, light specialists, and/or healing specialists.

You are part of a SWAT team for human evolution. Thanks for coming.” ~The “GG” “…Beloved friends, today is a good day to remember who you are. If you can’t recall because the veil of forgetfulness is still too thick, let me refresh your memory. You are an amazing, talented, and selfless Lightworker. You stand for what is good and right, and so often, without even realizing it, you do much to bring important and positive changes to our beloved planet Earth. Take some time today to celebrate who you are, what you have done, and what you are about to do in the days, months, and years to come. Celebrate yourself as we celebrate you. You are truly loved, and we thank you for your service to Earth and the human race. ~Gilbert “You are here with a plan and a mission. There are many items on your agenda. Some are for personal growth; some are for experiential purposes. If you are reading this message, you are also a Lightworker with items on your agenda to help move the human race forward.

Many of you believe that in order to make a difference, something big in nature has to happen.

This is a common misconception. It is the little things that very often make the largest impact, and that is what today’s message is all about. We hereby remind you to remember that it is the little things that count, to say a kind word instead of a negative word, and to remember to smile at others when appropriate and doable. In these ways, you will make a difference today and every day as you go about your mission as Lightworkers.” ~Charles “Be kind to yourself.

As a Lightworker, you are here on an important mission; you are part of an important project to

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help a species of beings and a planet. Your life on this planet is fraught with difficulties, but these challenges are opportunities that you have planned in order to expedite spiritual growth. It is not easy to accept that challenges are positive, especially when they appear to the contrary; however, if there were no challenges, you would not make the progress you are making nearly as quickly.

And so today, my message to you is simple, and I intend for it to be clear: Be kind to yourself—as kind as you are to others. Know that you are important to many, many souls who look to you for guidance and support.” ~Olexeoporath The bottom line is that a Lightworker is a very brave soul doing a very difficult job. Here’s some advice from me: Trust your inner knowing—trust your gut. And when you find yourself in doubt, take the time to go within where you’ll find peace, touch your essence, remember who you are, and realize that you are not alone.

Namaste.

Sherri Cortland has been communicating with her Guide Group, the “GG,” since 1987 via automatic writing.

Much of the information she has received is included in her four books, which were originally published by Ozark Mountain Publishing and are currently available on her website and on Amazon.

On Sherri’s website, you will find several free classes and meditations, along with more articles and workshops on video. https://www.facebook.com/SherriCortlandAuthor www.Sherri-Cortland.com

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Guru

Enjoy fresher breath and a balanced oral microbiome while helping the planet with

Nanda

We all know that single-use plastic water bottles have a huge negative impact on the environment and especially the ocean. But what about other products typically packaged in plastic, like mouthwash? And it isn’t just the bottles these breath fresheners come in. Most commercial mouthwashes are reformulated with chemicals that are threatening to marine life.

But now, a small and mighty new entry is changing that model with its innovative, concentrated essential oilbased formula - GuruNanda Concentrated Mouthwash!

Instead of swigging straight from a regular-sized bottle (and using up that bottle very quickly), you just dilute a few drops of Concentrated Mouthwash into the water and then swish. A single two-fluid oz. the bottle has as many “servings” as ten 16oz. bottles of conventional mouthwash. (The bottles are made of recycled plastic.)

That means less waste and a smaller carbon footprint.

(Bonus: it’s also super portable and TSA-friendly.)

Designed by a team of Western and Ayurvedic oral care experts, GuruNanda Concentrated Mouthwash is formulated with seven purpose-driven, sustainably harvested, pure, and natural essential oils. The product contains no alcohol, fluoride, preservatives, gluten, or toxic chemicals, and it is not tested on animals.

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ABUNDANCE CORNER

By Phyllis King

Meet Your Soul

Find Your Soulmate

5

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Steps to Get There

If we do not meet our soul and grasp the uniqueness of our being on a deep level, we will not vibrate from a soul level.

I

will never forget an interview with the nonconformist actress Bette Davis.

I watched it over 20 years ago. In that interview, she said, “being human is not for sissies.” That statement represented the core of her nature which was to push the envelope, speak her truth, and question the status quo at every turn. Ms. Davis was gifted with clarity of mind, purity of heart, and an undaunting spirit.

That state of being is one all of us should aspire to achieve. Her “sissies” comment reminds us in a very cute way that achieving clarity of mind and purity of heart requires courage. Without courage, we will not meet with the possibilities life can offer to us. Absent courage, we often succumb to the smallest version of ourselves.

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The human experience insists we remember we are creative beings creating our lives every second of every day. That is the task each of us came here to master. As we learn to turn inward with courage, our interaction with life becomes joyful. An existence subsequently creates itself that satisfies all of our heart’s yearnings.

This awareness of creative reality is most important as it pertains to attracting love and, specifically, soul mate relationships. If we do not meet our soul and grasp the uniqueness of our being on a deep level, we will not vibrate from a soul level. Consequently, we will be unable to attract a soul mate partner. Like attracts like.

We must first attain soul awareness to meet soul awareness in another.

Without soul awareness, we will instead attract relationships that cause us to grow in directions that encourage us to meet our soul. We often refer to those relationships as learning experiences. What we want more than to learn is to remember who we are. In that remembrance is where we gain freedom. Then the things we desire simply to come to us. Once we are centered on soul awareness, we automatically attract what we need. We are centered in divinity.

Enter the factor of courage. It requires courage to turn away from the noise of the external. That often includes the voices of well-meaning family, insistent culture, and misguided friends. Many of those closest to us unintentionally assert their non-truths upon us. Our desire to be part of a tribe is very powerful. We want to please and be accepted. If we cannot find the courage to reject external messaging and orient to external voices in our life, we will delay and even reject our happiness.

How do we learn to see and hear our soul’s essence and remember the truth of who we are?

-Take time every day to be still or in an environment that causes you to become aware of your thoughts. From that awareness, recognize you are separate from your thoughts. Watch your thoughts. The one who is watching your thoughts is your essence. Stay in that awareness for at least 20 minutes.

- Give your attention to thoughts, activities, and people who cause you to feel joy and happiness.

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Stay away from thoughts, activities, and people who cause you to feel bad. No exceptions.

- Stay away from the energy of worry, doubt, and frustration. You will then begin to flow with life.

Life will carry you to happy places.

- Set an intention for what you want to experience. However, stay away from “wanting” any specific outcome. Detach completely from outcome thinking. Rather put your focus on remaining in the flow of life. Trust that life will always bring you what you need. Then, life will always bring you what you need.

- See love as unconditional, not a trade agreement. Be unconditional love. Ask yourself, “ how would love itself handle this moment? This situation? This person?” In that, you will become love embodied.

We all came here to master the awareness that we are divine creative beings with dignity, purpose, power, and intention. The more we embody that truth, the more we will gain access to a true and enduring love – a soul mate itself.

Known as the Common Sense Psychic (tm), Phyllis King has worked with tens of thousands of peoplein 25 countries.

She is known for her practical and down to earth approach. She has been featured on, ABC, CBS and NBC TV, radio programs across the country, and has been published in over 70 print and online publications.

She has four books, including Bouncing Back, Thriving in Changing Times, with Dr. Wayne Dyer. Her latest book The Energy of Abundance is available in bookstores now. Phyllis holds a B.A. in Sociology. www.phyllisking.com

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THE WAY I SEE IT

By Joey Santos, Jr.

ness

Forgive 68 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

Not a very big word, is it? But for many, it's a very big action.

"I'm sorry." "Forgive me." "I forgive you." These are all things we've heard and said to other people that we've hurt, betrayed, or disappointed.

Have you ever met one of those people? (There are quite a few, actually.) You know, the ones who are constantly apologizing for something? All-day long, "I'm sorry, please forgive me." "Let's move forward." "Forget it. I didn't mean it." "Are you OK? I'm OK!" Etc.!

They go on and on to say nothing and mean less. They are either idiots or a rare breed of human destined to become the last empaths on earth.

I recently had my own test for forgiveness. A close and longtime female friend recently began getting on my nerves.

(My nerves have been on edge for some time for personal reasons.) At a party, she behaved immaturely, and I called her on it - loudly, impolitely, and in front of my guests. She was shocked by my response, broke into tears, and abruptly left the party. We didn't speak for a couple of months. But during those months, we were estranged, and I kept convincing myself that I was right in scolding her. And then I sat back and quietly expected and waited for her apology to move forward.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought about it! Then, suddenly, I heard my heart say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry! And I meant it deeply, sincerely. Why would I risk throwing away a meaningful, important friendship with someone I care for, love, like, and trust?

And the latter never came easy for me. For God's sake, I hold onto shoes I never wear. Meanwhile, I'd consider tossing out a kind and gentle friend? Wow. I really am sorry. These are the I'm sorry's that count, the ones that mean everything, the ones that have consequences. That's forgiveness. Not begging for it or demanding it in return but genuinely taking responsibility for our actions and forgiving ourselves first, then reflecting on that person, so they know it's true and they can hear and feel themselves say, "I'm sorry too."

I almost lost a friend. But in taking the time to listen and feel, I found much more and kept a forever friend.

Photo by Rémi Walle

So, what does "I'm sorry" really mean? Is it just a pacifier for the next time? Or is it deeper? An emotion rooted in something meaningful, a need to heal a hurt, a pain?

Joey Santos is a Celebrity Chef, Life Stylist & Co-Host of The Two Guys From Hollywood Podcast on iHeart Radio.

A Columnist for The Eden Magazine since 2016.

Joey was raised in NYC, Malibu, and West Hollywood. He is the son of Film & Television Actor Joe Santos, and his Grandfather is World-Renowned Latin Singer Daniel Santos.

To follow Joey on IG: @jojoboy13 To contact Joey; whynotjoe@gmail.com

For God's sake, I hold onto shoes I never wear.

Meanwhile, I'd consider tossing out a kind and gentle friend?

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THE ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIA ASSOCIATION (EMA) THE 5th ANNUAL IMPACT SUMMIT

T

he Environmental Media Association (EMA), a nonprofit 501(c)3, has grown into a diverse subsection of entertainment industry tastemakers, entrepreneurs in finance and technology, and green icons dedicated to the mission of promoting environmental progress.

EMA is a movement powered by celebrity role modeling, campaign work, social media messaging, yearround programs, and large scale annual events: EMA Awards/Honors Gala and EMA IMPACT Summit.

EMA’s mission is to provide a unified voice for our planet through entertainment, storytelling and education.

Two days Impact summit at the Pendry West Hollywood IMPACT is a premier business summit that brings together changemakers across the environment, education, and entertainment industries to focus on the potential of a green economy.

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Day 1- SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher invited EMA to join their Green Council, an initiative that will push for more sustainable production practices and storylines onscreen. In her panel, “How Talent Can Take The Reins to Green Productions,” we learned that Drescher turned down a seven-figure KFC commercial deal because she didn’t want to walk the unsustainable talk.

Lance Bass made it a family affair by bringing his environmentalists in the making to their first-ever EMA event. The actor and activist moderated the panel “Keeping Our Side of The Street Clean: Innovation In Auto Technology and How Everyone Can Be Part of The Solution.”

Day 2- The sustainable business summit featured an inspiring lineup of environmental activists and leaders of all ages, backgrounds, and industries.

Panel highlights included “The Butterfly Effect, Presented by EcoAge,” a conversation addressing sustainability issues at every level of the fashion supply chain with model Amber Valletta and fashion blogger Aditi Mayer, moderated by Livia Firth. The experts discussed how to make with less, make with purpose, and make with the suitable materials.

EMA IMPACT Summit panelists and speakers included: Debbie Levin (EMA President & CEO), Asher Levin (EMA Creative Director), Aditi Mayer, Afdhel Aziz, Angus Mitchell, Amber Valletta, Amy Smart, Ashlan Cousteau, Brandon 'Stix' Salaam-Bailey, Carter Oosterhouse, Christopher Bevans, Cynthia Taboada, Dan Fishman, David Wild, Degen Pener, Diana Davis, Douglas Alan Moore, Dr. Bhargavi Chekuri, Dr. Emily Sbiroli, Dr. Jay Lemery, Eli Roth, Eric Warmoth, Fran Drescher, Frances Fisher, Frank Coffaro, Garrett

Gerson, Hart Bochner, Howard Swartz, Isaias Hernandez, James Honeyborne, Jane Ewing, Janet Han Vissering, John Chester, John Rego, Katie Aselton, Kristy Drutman, Lance Bass, Leila Mashouf, Livia Firth, Marcus Benedetti, Maya Penn, Michael Tripp, Mike Sullivan, Nadia Bashier, Neeka Mashouf, Óscar Salas, Phil Rosenthal, Philippe Cousteau, Rachelle Snyder, Riddhima Yadav, Ronen Rubinstein, Sean Barron, Tania Kingsrud, Wawa Gatheru, Wendie Malick, Wolfgang Puck.

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OUR TRUE SELF

Photo by Andrey Kiselev/Adobe Stock

By Angela Dunning

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THERE IS A RIGHT TIME TO ACT:

Trust This

“Wisdom always waits for the right time to act, while emotion always pushes for action right now!” ~Joyce Meyer

O

ur ancestors and animals embody this wisdom deep in their bones. And yet, it is a knowing that many of us have lost in the process of modernization but one which is so vital to living a balanced and fulfilling life, as well as minimizing stress, conflict, and ill-health both within ourselves and with others.

No matter what our goals and aspirations are; no matter that they are coming from our heart and are part of our Soul’s path, we still need to listen to our body and our intuitive hunches about WHEN is the right time to act, when to wait, when to rest, and when some essential yet unseen element of growth and healing is still taking place.

As Joyce Meyer says, often it’s our emotions that drive us to act sooner rather than perhaps taking the necessary time to really consider if this IS something that is right for us. Our emotions can take hold of us, seizing us with a sense of urgency to act now! They literally hijack us and make us sure that action is imperative.

Like with anything in life, balance is the key.

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Just as we don’t hasten the butterfly out of her tightly wound cocoon or pull the plant up before her roots and stem have matured, neither should we rush to put out our next endeavor and initiative into the harsh light and noise of the world, too soon, or before we are really ready.

We must discern quietly and patiently when is the right time to launch something new, when we have the energy reserves to carry it through when the necessary piece of healing has been completed.

And when we can feel deep within ourselves a true faith and confidence in what we are setting out to do.

We know when all of these essential processes have taken the time they need because suddenly, we feel a sense of “rightness” within, and we just know: NOW it’s time to go ahead.

And yet, we push and race, scrabbling to be seen and heard among the crowd. Our compulsions are driving us ever onwards. We put unnecessary pressure on ourselves and probably also those closest to us. We create stress and imbalance simply by thinking we “should” forge ahead rather than slowing down and listening to the quiet whisperings of our body and intuition.

We never do ourselves any favors in this regard, and for many of us, it’s a lesson that must be endured time and again until we begin to heed the slow pace that is beckoning from within.

Photo by LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS/Adobestock

The truth is that there is never a need to rush.

This slowness is part of our body and Soul’s call to us.

We DO indeed have things that we need to manifest in the world, but there is always a right time.

So, our job then is to listen to and honor our hesitations, to notice our energy levels and our body’s responses, and to thoroughly monitor the thoughts, feelings, and drives which are pressing us ahead too quickly when everything else is urging caution and patience.

Patience is one of the most vital yet difficult qualities to embody in modern life. But the relief, creativity, and productivity it brings when we DO take our time are often paradoxically far more than we could have originally achieved.

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Angela Dunning is a regular contributor to The Eden Magazine. She is the author of The Horse Leads the Way: Honoring the True Role of the Horse in Equine Facilitated Practice.

Angela writes regularly on Facebook: ebook.com/thehorsestruth.

You can learn more about Angela and her work helping people and horses at: www.thehorsestruth.co.uk.

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Photo by Tony Campbell/AdobeStock

A

s you may or may not be aware, Los Angeles has a heartbreaking homeless cat crisis in the city—the number is estimated to be a staggering 3 million. The new film, Crazy Cat Lady, which can be streamed on Amazon Prime, and Apple iTunes, shines a light on how the lifting of the 13-year injunction against helping these feral cats and kittens has been met with inexcusable inaction from the city and how a group of animal rights activists and philanthropists are generously giving their own time, money and efforts to help resolve this ever-growing issue.

Crazy Cat Lady shows how feral cats are left to forage for food and raise their kittens in filth on LA’s streets.

Money is available to help these animals, but questions remain about why inexcusable inaction from the city has led to an exploding problem that we all witness every day.

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The film highlights the incredible efforts of animal rights activists and philanthropists such as Ady Gil and FixNation Co-founder and director Karn Myers. But the film also focuses on everyday heroes such as Jacqueline Navratil, Esmeralda Alvarez, Drew Weidhaas, and Donna Simms.

They have committed their lives to helping these animals against all odds, one cat at a time.

The film can be preordered on Amazon Prime, Apple iTunes, and other streaming services. In addition, the filmmakers have announced that they will generously donate 24% of proceeds from the download of the film to FixNation and other cat charities

Los Angeles has a heartbreaking homeless cat crisis in the city—the number is estimated to be a staggering 3 million

FILM AWARDS AND RECOGNITION The film has had phenomenal success on the festival circuit scooping up Best Documentary Film at Indo Global International Film Festival, Best U.S. Documentary at The Oaks International Film Festival, 2022, Best Documentary at Golden Gate International Film Festival 2021, Best Director at Malta Film Festival 2022, Best Original Score at Toronto Independent Film Festival of Cift 2022, Best Producer at Madrid Art Film Festival 2022, Best Producer at Barcelona International Film Festival 2021, Best Editor at Paris Play Film Festival 2021, Award of Merit Special Mention at Impact DOCS Awards 2022, Honorable Mention as Best Inspirational Film, Amsterdam IFF, and Finalist at Animalis Fabula Film Festival.

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A Nod to the Universe

By Heidi Connolly

The other thing Randy always did that left me wondering who exactly this brilliant guy was that I’d fallen in love with who held a steady job, but was also one of the weirdest people I’d ever met, was to sign his name with little superscripts at the end, like this: Randy Connolly*” Again, I had to be content with the non-answer I usually got until, one day, he admitted that the asterisk and quotation mark were his way of nodding his thanks to the Great Mother and the Great Father of the Great Oneness.

Photo by AdobeStock

Several amazing events have taken place over time that has revealed just how these things are connected and just how deep their meaning goes. A few weeks ago, I was listening to a chakra meditation my good friend and author Sherri Cortland has on her website in which she takes you through a chakra clearing and balancing that incorporates chanting syllables that relate to each chakra’s energy.

I responded strongly to the meditation, but the real kicker came when I asked myself, What if….? What if the single-syllabic tonal chakra chants were similar to Randy’s language? What if the syllables of “Ra,” “Ya,” “Koo,” “Ma,” and “Yee” each had a meaning beyond emotional communication? And why the heck hadn’t I ever thought of asking that before?

I

t took me quite a while to get up my nerve. Truthfully? I was almost afraid to ask what it meant, why he’d stuck it there. I mean, who tapes a piece of paper that says “RA YA KOO MA YEE” on it onto his back car window?

Randy, that’s who.

The only thing he’d tell me—my husband who passed in 2012—and only after many months of asking, was that it was the only written bit of “his language,” the one he was born with and had never shared with anyone, the one he’d never heard anywhere else from anyone else. He called it the “Language of the Emotions.” As our relationship grew, Randy used to speak words of this language to me when verbalizing during times of extreme emotion, as if there were no other way to articulate what he was feeling without its use. Looking back, it doesn’t really surprise me that English was actually his second language, given his dyslexia and problems with spelling and grammar.

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Flashback to about 12 years ago, as Randy made his transition and spoke his language for the last time. Only a few words, but words that would matter more than I can say.

I felt the circumstances even more painful because, as he lay dying, he also kept pushing me away. He is literally pushing away the love of his life. His wife. His partner. I was pretty hysterical at that point. Let’s face it, who wants to be rejected at a time like that by the one you love? And so I sat and cried a couple of feet away, not knowing what to do, afraid to watch as he took his last breaths.

Not only didn’t I realize what I was doing with my hands, which, it turns out, were, of their own volition, fiddling with a tape recorder on the table,

Every time he signed his name. Every time he climbed into his car, he gave a nod of thanks to the universe. but, because I couldn’t see through my tears, I wasn’t aware that I’d pressed the PLAY button. In fact, it wasn’t until months later, when I turned the recorder back on, that I heard the few precious syllables of Randy as he spoke his final words in “his language.” And it wasn’t until a couple of years after that, at one of the recording sessions for my audiobook of Crossing the Rubicon, the producer said, “Gee, it’s too bad we don’t have any audio of Randy. It would be a perfect way to incorporate his energy into the book since he wrote it with you after he died, right?”

Right.

This was when I shared the recording with a medium I knew who could translate the words for me: “Goodbye, my love…I’m coming home.”

This message was what I needed. The one that would, at long last, shift the energy of shame I had been carrying since Randy’s death.

Randy always said he (we) came from another planet. That his real name was Two Lakes of the Star Clan; when he napped, I found myself imploring him to remember to come back to me because he always seemed to go so far away when he slept.

Now I had my answer. He was not pushing me away because he didn’t want my love. He was pushing me away so he could “come home.” The more I held onto him, and the less his spirit and his body could do what they had to do—leave the physical realm.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. As I said, I’d meditated on Sherri’s guided chakra meditation and suddenly got it in my head to research each of the syllables of “Ra,” “Ya,” “Koo,” “Ma,” and “Yee.” What I found, if revelations are ever really “found,” was both obvious and mind-blowing.

Bear in mind that Randy misspelled every-

thing, so I had to be generous with my own spelling as I researched.

RA: Egyptian sun god, the creator of the universe, and the giver of life.

YA(H): One name for God; YA(A): goddess of fertility and love.

KOO (KU; also known as Akua): God of war, fishing, farming, with supernatural powers. (And now I appreciate why Randy called himself a “frequency farmer.”)

MA: Moon goddess; Mother goddess; warrior goddess.

YEE: As in John 10:34, “As ye are gods.”

To me, and I know Randy, who felt strongly on the matter, one finds the kingdom of God within. So if “ye” is the plural of “you,” we are all Gods…God is within each one of us. We are all God, and everything is included in that oneness.

Is the trajectory of these events and discoveries beginning to come together for you as it did for me? Because between the gods and the goddesses and the oneness, we’ve pretty much covered the territory of Randy’s daily reminders: the way to consistently express his powerful belief that he was a spiritual being having a human experience—and was grateful for that opportunity.

Every time he signed his name. Every time he climbed into his car, he gave a nod of thanks to the universe.

I keep Randy’s original printed 4” x 11” “RA YA KOO MA YEE” sign on my desk.

Over the years, it’s been on a shelf, in a filing cabinet, packed away, and misplaced.

Since chanting the tonalities of the chakras and feeling the frequency of the sounds, has taken on a whole new meaning and will continue to sit front and center in my life.

We are the sun. We are the moon. We are warriors. We are lovers. We are frequency farmers.

We are all God. We are all one.

When her husband Randy transitioned in 2012, Heidi Connolly’s life took a dramatic turn. Owner of Harvard Girl Word Services for over 20 years, Heidi focused on the work of others; now, through the writing with Randy of her awardwinning book Crossing the Rubicon, Heidi understands that she is capable of much more than she’d ever given herself credit, including her ability to communicate with the Other Side.

Currently, her multidimensional compass is set to the practice of writing, intuitive/mediumshipcoaching, spiritually guided healing music, and living life as a “Vacationing Angel.” Heidi’s newest book, The Gateway Café, is the enticing story of a teenager’s journey of awakening through inter-dimensional travel and angelic intervention.heidiconnolly.com 79 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

The Spiritual Sandbox

How Do the

Photo by Hamid Tajik

5

Elements Guide You to Tune into the Rhythms of Your Magical Life

By Jill Lebeau & Amit West, M.A. 80 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

D

id you know you have your own unique rhythm, one that enhances your ability to live in the magical flow? And we aren't talking about your rhythms on the dance floor… although those are good too!

When you live out of tune with your own rhythms, you're out of balance… disconnected from being tuned in to your intuition, creativity, inspiration, passion, right actions, presence, inner peace, and joy. But no worries, we've got you covered. We're thrilled to show you how you can live a more exciting, abundant life by receiving mother nature's greatest teachings made easy!

Think about it. There are many different rhythms of life that you experience: The rhythms of Mother Earth within the seasons and their corresponding elements, the rhythm of your nervous system, Divine Timing and Orchestration, and the rhythm of dancing with Spirit, to name a few. In this article, which is part one of a series on rhythms, we focus on the magic and wisdom of the 5 Elements of Feng Shui and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

We invite you to consider the perfect balance for you in terms of doing and being, work and play? What feels good to another may or may not be the sweet spot for your optimal well-being and vibrancy. Of course, it's a complete waste of precious time and energy to compare ourselves to anyone else. Right?

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. There are gifts within each element that we can tap into to help us to live in balance.

So let's take a good look around and shine the Light on our earth, mama. There are such beautiful, magical ways life expresses its natural rhythms. Wakey, wakey, the sun greets us as it rises each morning, dazzling us at times with some pretty breath-giving sunsets as evening approaches. Ocean tides move in and out in response to the energetic forces of the moon and sun. The sea rises and falls, just as we experience the rise and fall of our chest and belly as we breathe in and out. Life expresses its rhythms in nature and within us… seemingly separate yet totally interconnected. The web of life has an ebb and flow, depicted in the seasonal energies throughout the year. The more aware we are, the more we can consciously tune into the dance of life, this dance we have with the Divine in form.

"When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way." ~Wayne Dyer The 5 elements of Feng Shui are masterful dance teachers, assisting us to experience more ease, flow, and balanced energy in mind, body, and spirit. It's so fun to take these awesome ancient wisdom practices for harmonizing and raising the vibes of our homes and apply them directly to our sacred mind-body-spirit home.

Let's start with the rhythms of nature and the elements. After all, we are a part of nature, of mother earth; we are not separate.

In her infinite wisdom, what is mother earth showing us about what our true nature and rhythm are all about?

Let's take a little mini-tour of the 5 elements. We see these elemental energies in nature, teaching us to go with the flow of life to create more ease, joy, abundance, trust, and faith. When we flow with what is, as opposed to being in resistance, we move with the current of life - not against it - as it ushers us along our unique journey of self-discovery.

Like the cycle of life, the elements flow through each year, peaking during particular seasons, during the course of each day, and even within your entire lifespan. They teach you about the way. Creation happens.

Every moment, every breath, every heartbeat invites us into that flow to awaken to the truth of who we are. Pure positive unconditional love, having a human adventure called life.

So, how do we tune into those rhythms?

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ergy. New ideas flow in, and we're aligned with the unlimited possibilities. Flowing with the rhythm of life once again, we're eager to see where life wants to take us!

Any time we start to fight against the reality we're in, rather than embrace it and go with the flow, we end up creating the stress of wanting to be somewhere other than where we are now in mind, body & Soul.

Late summer brings in the earth element.

Take it from mother earth and learn the secrets of generating abundance. You see, she never worries if there's enough, she just keeps on giving. Picture the Farmer's Market during harvest season. Juicy heirloom tomatoes, sweet plump peaches, every green vegetable imaginable - oh, the possibilities are endless! And that's what the earth element teaches us - that life is filled with unlimited abundance. Guess what? So are we.

Let's circle back to the elements, beginning with wood which peaks in spring as the first season to begin a new cycle of creation.

Wood energy is all about new. We see new buds sprouting on the trees, and we feel all pumped up to spring clean away. The warmer, beautiful weather inspires us to create something new and exciting.

When we tap into this element, we get proactive. Sparked by the energy stream of proactivity, the wood element reminds us that when unwanted things show up, we are free to shift our perspective, to see this as life happening for us, not to us. In that realization, we recognize that within our true nature, we really are free sovereign beings.

We can be, do or have whatever we want.

It's up to us to respond to life with the perceptions we choose. We can view life as a playground or prison. Either way, by the Law of Attraction, our perception summons more of the same stuff. If we practice viewing life as a magical, grand adventure, we'll experience a surge of pure positive en-

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Next up is the fire element, peaking in summer. Time to get all fired up, yes? The energy of summer is more sun, more fun, right?

With your focus on having fun, you might decide to go on vacation, to have an adventure somewhere, or perhaps relax in your backyard Divine hammock. The warmer weather inspires a delightful feeling of freedom and celebration. We love wearing shorts and tee-shirts and don't forget about that gorgeous summer hat. The fire element flows with the feeling of la joie de vivre, the joy of living. And in your choice to do the things that bring you joy, you raise your vibe. Now, you're a powerful attractor of more love, abundance, and vibrancy, and your heart is open, ready to receive all of the blessings that flow in.

Want to feel connected to the richness of life? Look up at the stars twinkling in the night sky. Take a walk along the coast and tune into the magnificence of the ocean.

Open and allow yourself to perceive the beauty, the abundance that's everywhere.

Photo by Melissa Askew

Just think about it when you're feeling grateful for all that you have, you don't waste time and energy worrying about whether or not you're going to get what you need. You just trust.

So, how do the elements teach us about rhythmic cycles in our daily lives? Think about this… you're going along merrily in your day, and out of the blue comes an "interruption" to your joyful day. A pile of kaka gets delivered to your front door. And you're thinking, wait a minute, I didn't order that! What just happened? You could easily think life is being so unfair to disrupt your happy day. And, if that's where your mind goes, you'll instantly feel powerless and crappy as a result. But… what if you recognized that life is giving you a gift? We know it's challenging to perceive kaka as a gift. That's where the 5 elements come in, guiding us to go with the flow no matter what. And again, we get it. It's not unusual for us to react in resistance, thinking things should be other than how they are.

Yet, when we're reactive, we fall into a low vibrational state of entanglement and pay a huge price by feeling disconnected from our power. Totally sucks!

The earth element inspires us to expand our experience of giving and receiving. We naturally tune into opportunities to be an uplifter for others. Just think about it - when you're feeling grateful for all that you have, you don't waste time and energy worrying about whether or not you're going to get what you need. You just trust. And trusting in yourself, as well as in the universe, is essential to feeling centered, grounded, and living in balance.

You can see how your abundance mindset creates positive expectancy that prosperity and good fortune will flow into your life.

And the bonus is… you learn that your happiness is independent of external circumstances. Why? Because trust allows you to realize that you are meant to live as the creator, not the reactor, of your life. This is how the earth element primes and leads you to cultivate and live in unwavering faith.

Want to experience the lightness and power of your Being? Tune into the metal element that peaks in autumn. The energy of metal connects you with your power to live as an alchemist… one who spins straw (obstacles) - into gold (opportunities). And there is the magic associated with the metal element because magic happens when we navigate through fear and transform it into faith. We delight in all the synchronicities that awaken us to the truth.

We were never powerless, nor separate!!

Faith reminds us to see the grander perspective in all situations. We have the power to co-create our life with the Divine. With faith as our guiding Light, it's so much easier to let go of trying to control all the things we absolutely can't control, freeing us up to direct our energy into shining our radiant Light. Just as the trees gracefully let go of their leaves in the fall, they teach us to surrender all that no longer serves us. Instead, we harmonize with our soul, guiding us to elevated states of consciousness, even bliss!! With our alchemizing magic at play, we feel lighter in all ways. Energetically, emotionally, mentally, and even in our bodies. The load has been lightened. Literally!

More than ever before, you're aware of the synchronicities, all the magic in life. And

with your focus on the magic, you draw even more magic to you, reflected in your day-to-day experience. How cool is that?!!

To complete the circle of creation, as autumn flows into winter, the water element draws us into stillness. Colder weather guides us inward to "be still and know." To allow ourselves to rest and recharge.

This is a time of stepping into the quiet unknown. The deep waters of our unconscious, our dreams, and our intuition.

There is so much richness in the mystery of life. This is the optimal time to take a deep dive into unexplored inner landscapes, the untapped realms of the consciousness that we are. Just as the winter trees draw their energy to their root system, we, too, go to the core of our Being. There we discover and revel in our Beingness.

Don't be afraid of the dark. Much of your unclaimed power awaits you there, waiting to be met, embraced, and loved back into the Light. This is also how we honor the dark womb of the Great Mother through which the spark of Life's Light is birthed and flows.

Think about the powerful energy of a flowing river. Just as it keeps flowing around huge boulders along the way, we, too, have the power to remain unstoppable on our journey of Self-discovery. We are magnificent beings of love. And love, dear friends, has the power to do anything.

Slowing down, relaxing into stillness, creates the space to contemplate our life. Our unique purpose, worthiness, and Divine gifts. The water element is all about going deep. In the stillness, we rest in the knowledge that everything that happens is for us to awaken to our true nature, pure limitless love, abundance, well-being, joy, and creativity. We relax, let go, and conserve our energy for a new chapter of expansion to begin in spring.

We hope you enjoyed and feel uplifted by what you read in this article. And if so, we encourage you to share it and share the love. Stay tuned! More on rhythms are coming soon!

Jill Lebeau- As a spiritual psychotherapist and author, Jill’s mastery is guiding people to live in the magical flow of ease, joy, abundance, love and freedom.

Jill is here to help you remember the truth of who you are, a magnificent Being of limitless love and expansion. As the Creator of your reality, you can be, do, or have, whatever you desire. It's Jill’s joy to show you how fast, easy, fun and thrilling it is to elevate into your highest vibration!

To learn more about Jill's please visit; https://www.easejoylove. com/ Amit West, M.A. - As a transformational facilitator, healer, guide, teacher, and ceremonialist, it’s Amit’s deepest Joy and honor supporting people on their awakening heart consciousness journey.

Informed by her own devotional walk of life. Remembering together the truth of who we are. Living life to its fullest, sharing our Light, love, gifts, and wisdom. Co-Creating life, guided by our ancestors, allies, and guides who are all here for, with and within us.

Connecting reverently with our mother earth, nature, and all sentient beings.

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Ivan Butorac

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About the series God Particle

T

his series consists of digital collages made out of original photographs created with mathematical precision.

Every piece draws you in and creates a portal to the subconscious mind. We as humans are considered a very intelligent species and are able to build computers and go to the moon and time a landing with a precision of a fraction of a second. Yet we are still in the dark when it comes to some of the most important questions: "Where do we come from?", "What are we doing here?", "What is the meaning of life?" and "What happens to us when we die?

Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia influenced by his parents, who are both established artists, Butorac was always in a state of motion and experimented with a multitude of media.

He studied at the Arts Academy in Belgrade and was constantly in flux.

Later in 2014 spent a year working for the artist Saint Clair Cemin in his studio in Brooklyn, NY. "Love for art started at an early age; I remember coming home from school with friends and watching their reaction after seeing my parent's art that was everywhere in the house; it was magical, and I discovered the power art and color have on human emotion and mood," says Ivan.

His work sits between meaning and no meaning; abstract and non-abstract, also geometric. He is not interested in conveying a message but more interested in posing questions: What does this look like? Does it remind me of something? How does this make me feel?

Art is about creating a space for the viewer. It is the discovery of one's own possibilities. It's about freedom, self-expression, following your interests, and going beyond the rational mind. I am interested in bringing light into the world". says Ivan.

"This series is dedicated to depending on the questions and maybe just maybe provide a glimpse into the answers and begins to scratch the surface of a mystery so wast that has puzzled the human mind since the dawn of time.

If you want to find the universe's secrets, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration. ~Nikola Tesla

Spray Can Exhibit Exhibition features large scale photographs shot both on medium format film and digital camera. I Art Sniper aka Ivan Butorac glorifies the Spray Can and merges two art styles: Popular Culture and Street Art/Graffiti. The spray can has its own powerful voice. It allows people to make an extension of themselves, so they can express their vision and voice. The can holds great power of the beholder. Art Sniper uses his powerful photography skills, keen sense of design and color to create mesmerizing workswhich hypnotize the viewer’s mind. All the work has been created as sculptural installations in the studio and then photographed.

Drawing on the elements of meditation and healing in nature, he acknowledges all those who yearn for self-expression and would risk everything, even freedom and life, to deliver their message.

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W

hen you are challenged – how do you tap into your moment of joy?

We all have the ability to manifest a day based on joy and understanding by beginning with a transcendent moment. Author and counselor Susan Lax offers such moments to get your day started in her gorgeous collection of stories, poems, and insights, A Heart's Landscape An Invitation to the Garden of Moments; Lax shares entries and photographs from her “Morning Inspiration” emails to provide readers with the insight, comfort, and healing needed to open their minds and live each day with an attentive heart.

The seeds for Morning Inspiration were planted when Susan Lax learned that one of her closest friends was diagnosed with cancer, and she was determined to find a way to bring light back to their bond. Respecting her friend’s desire to keep her illness confidential, Lax began sending her friend an email each morning at 6 a.m. designed to bring a moment of joy to her day.

This daily tradition continued for five months until one morning, Lax awoke with the flu and did not send her morning email.

By 7:30 a.m., Lax received a phone call from her friend. “Where is my morning blessing? Why didn’t you send it today?”

This would be the only moment in which the two friends discussed the emails aloud. For the rest of the year, Lax sent a short morning blessing, and eventually, her friend regained her health. Although the emails were only spoken about once, Lax understood the support they provided. From there, the Morning Inspiration newsletter was born.

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Morning Inspiration has evolved over time. What began as a message for women diagnosed with health issues became a crafted moment of inspiration for all types of people.

The email list grew to include men and women traveling through their individual challenging journeys.

Along the way, Lax began incorporating photography with her transformative messages. Through these shared moments, she continues to showcase the importance of finding time for joy. We may never be able to overcome grief, but we can learn to set it aside for periods of time and allow ourselves to experience life’s wonders through a positive frame of mind.

SUSAN LAX earned a teaching degree in creative drama from the Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology, and the Arts in Israel.

She taught creative drama at a local elementary school and continued her studies at the Chochmat Halev, where she focused on meditation and Jewish spirituality. Throughout her educational career, Lax also studied Jewish healing, sacred psychology, spiritual practice as a path of healing, healing aspects of death and dying, and guided meditation. Lax currently works as a spiritual counselor specializing in, but not limited to, those touched by illness, grief, and love through death. She lectures and leads workshops on the topics of awareness and making room for joy. Lax is the author of Morning Inspiration, an email newsletter released three times a week. In addition, she is the co-owner of Naot Footwear, a company that ethically manufactures handmade comfort shoes in Israel.

Please enjoy the Three pieces from the Susan Lax book A Heart's Landscape An Invitation to the Garden of Moments.

Susanplax.com

Susan Lax

kBUNCH OF ROSES =A GRANDMOTHER Being a savta (a grandmother) is a privilege that fills my soul with gratitude.

A bond that has taken me back to the beauty only childhood can offer.

A trusting glance is the face of hope and faith.

The story that needs to be passed on.

Their little hands will be those that shape the world with kindness, love, and compassion.

I think of that often.

Laughter shared with a child is the sound of loveliness.

As I hope my blanket of love continues to warm them, I hope they make room for dreams to be born.

Be one with your now as if it were all that is, because it is!

.COURAGE I have had many lessons of courage in my life.

With each lesson, I have received homework.

Some I have completed, and others are still a work in progress.

Courage has offered me the ability to reveal my shortcomings.

To embrace vulnerability.

Many years ago, I was taught how to pick a “good bunch of roses.”

Feel the flower; it should be neither too hard nor too soft.

Neither fully blossomed, nor totally closed.

On my visits to a flower stand, I take my time, deciding which bunch of roses will have the perfect bloom time.

I pay attention to matching the perfect-size vase to house the flowers.

Making sure the right amount of water is added.

It continuously amazes me how each rose at its own pace slowly opens.

Their beauty becoming more evident each day.

Every couple of days, I cut the stems, change the water.

Like roses, balance between the tough and the gentle, the closed and the open, is needed to witness our own beauty and growth.

Making sure we have the necessary water to quench the thirst our souls require to blossom.

Becoming the loving vessel that holds our soul.

Courage has visited when I least expected it, holding my hand as I took the next step.

My teachers have been people I know closely, others I have never spoken with.

In the classroom of my soul, courage has taught me to harvest my failures.

Self-judgment has a much harder time entering my moments.

Be aware of the lessons courage has for you as you attend the classroom of your soul.

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Photo by Angela Bailey

CHANGE WHAT

IT IS

DOES IT EVEN EXIST

By Zee

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We humans are intelligent beings, we know all the above, and yet for one reason or another, we do not want to acknowledge the situations we find ourselves living out.

H

ere is a phrase we have been told is a Truth, and via our thinking mind, we believe by logic reasoning to be Absolute. "Change is the Only Constant," and we use these 5 words so loosely every day to validate some form of difference when an answer avoids us.

The bizarre facts are that we humans can not give one ounce of meaning to what change actually is, other than the limited definition listed in a book! We all know the definition of change relates to something different, yes? And yet when we see clearly beyond what exists to the eye and what we interrupt within the mind or what we believe is knowledge absolute, change just may have many other definitions.

Change in real life there is no difference indifferent change does not exist

all it comes down to is a natural flow, a pattern in constant repetition which is never exactly the same, and yet it is!

Witnessed and defined as a cycle, an ever-flowing current, constantly moving forward in a repetition of repetitions.

The oceans follow in the footsteps of the day's progression; the tide rolls in, the tide rolls out. This also is a natural cycle, appearing different, yet it is a natural every flowing current always moving forward.

Confusion arises when the human eye is witness to that which appears different from previous observation; hence a word to describe this dilemma is born, change. It is, by definition, a limited understanding, a basic human ignorance of the world we live in, and a lack of understanding of the function in all of our surroundings, past and present.

Change is a construct of the human-mind Caught between being and becoming.

What is change? Change is nothing by definition; it has no meaning. It has no promise of tomorrow's opportunities.

What it is, is a logical delusion, a word humans have placed on an expectation when wanting an idea to materialize from their wishful thinking, and we call this positive. On the other foot, it defines as a negative as our love of reason to blame when human understanding falls short of an explanation of what is occurring in and around our human surroundings. Blame is the name; blame is the game this human race has on offer.

It provides an unparalleled rather absurd enjoyment, dares I say righteousness, and unfortunately, most humans love to play.

As the human race has advanced, now there is a statement with a hidden question? Have we advanced, or is this expectation none other than a forever-flowing current, dragging all of us with it? Always moving forward in a delusionary mindset assumption that we are in an evolving process, viva the evolution!

This is an impossibility when we are all aware the human mindset functions as a programmed computer, constantly reliving the future incoming tide from the well-built repeated patterns of our outgoing tidal past.

We observe so-called change every day.

Day is a great example, light today and dark tonight, and yet it is repeated every single day and taken for granted, never conceived as a change. When basically,

We humans are intelligent beings, we know all the above, and yet for one reason or another, we do not want to acknowledge the situations we find ourselves living out.

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Richard has an amazing life; everywhere he goes, the world manifests his needs, the concert without tickets then given by a stranger, attending an opening to a new fully booked restaurant, he is welcomed with open arms, buying a house with no job and no money down, refused a loan by banks and the 3rd says yes, his list of experiences is endless and happens in every country he visits.

He experiences all these changes in his life, and yet are they really a change. The fact is, the exact same luck thing happens repeatedly, so there is no change. Yes, the places are different, and the people wear different clothes, yet every situation is exactly the same. The mind is set in its observation, and change occurs; when one looks with big picture thinking, the reality is that something constant is happening!

Change in the here and now is a desperate expectation to make one's life better If language is to be forever understood, we may need to learn what it is we are actually saying rather than frothing off at the mouth, with meaningless words locked in definition prisons.

"A leopard cannot change its spots." This old saying contains many meanings. Basically, one's nature is ingrained, is constant, and will remain the same. We see this in our close friends; we know their habits, their trends; it's Mexican every Tuesday night at the two for one deal. New Year resolutions, and the list goes on…

Confusion reigns. It's like we are standing still on a moving treadmill constantly in flow, clutching at some kind of normal, while stuck in a cycle, an ever-flowing current, always moving forward, observing everything we pass and assuming that all that is before us, is in constant change.

The view appears different, we remain stationary.

So here it is, what do people do when they don't like change and yet have this need for change?

Thousands of people run off to the weekend seminar by our world-famous Silver Back; step upon the fire pit, and you will overcome FEAR and make a so-called change in the future life they will live. Fear of change is a phobia; it is a trait all humans have at a conscious or unconscious level Risk of the unknown is a disturbance in one's security on an inner level, developed due

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to the responses of one's early life experiences/ circumstances.

Every human is different, yet human, every tree is different, yet trees, every snow flack is different, yet snow. The world we know appears complicated and in constant change. The world we don't know is simple when we see and become aware of the similarities in situations and the not-so-different situations/circumstances.

Change sanity or survival in the end is there a difference Why bother to become aware in the first place when one's life is already full of meaningful purpose/distractions. For one, your stress levels will diminish; there's a blessing if nothing else. Life will revolve around a certain sense of inner-calmness. One's visual reality will alter.

Judgments will evolve into observation without any personal connection. Being sorry will vanish. One's being will experience a removal from the picture frame.

As child adults, the road is long, with its many twists and turns. Stand and discover the difference between "who I am" compared to "who I need to be." One is an endless repeating system, and one is a current constantly moving forward.

You choose.

There are 3 motions in life; one is moving forward into the unknown, one is to remain the same where one has settled, and the third and last is to remain forever in the past. Human choice is based on the needs of the independent individual. In this situation, right or wrong is a personal choice, not a generalization governed and directed by the masses.

Unfortunately, some of the previously written words may not sit well. No matter what your mindset dictates to you, no matter what your beliefs may be, CHANGE is an appearance produced by an observation delivered by one's preprogrammed mindset and nothing more. Once seen, the world is my oyster, is the little picture!

Please remember All is divine, All is sacred, All have already been sanctioned.

Life is your Creation

WATER YOURSELF

FIRST

By Anne Douglas

I

t's my nature to be nurturing.

When Covid-19 accosted the world in March of 2020, the time had come to devote me completely to my mother, who was suffering from dementia. The caregiver in me surfaced instantly, sure her daughter's presence would fix what ailed her. I've always been where I'm needed most, and my parents desperately needed me. I slid into my role as Florence Nightingale, prepped and ready for all responsibilities that may come my way. But early on, I faced the cold reality; heartbreak would be part of my daily routine.

It's March 22, 2021. A year ago, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. I'm in bed, curled up in a shape resembling a sleeping kitten. I don't bother to check the time; I know it's early. The windows in our bedroom are bare, allowing the sun to stream in, warming the room.

My husband currently works from home. Covid demands it. We relocate, moving from New York to our home in Rhode Island. Here, I'm an eight-minute drive from my parent's house. Tim's work calls begin at seven, with no commute; he's no longer up at five a.m. My job remains flexible. I hear him fill the kettle, waiting for its whistle. He's making us coffee.

I'm accustomed to our new lifestyle; despite the isolation I often feel.

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We spend more time together, something I need. He cares for me in ways no one else can. I'm suffering. I cry easily; when I do, he wraps me in his arms, wipes my tears, and says, ""We'll get through this together." His footsteps draw near; he's on his way up.

"Morning, sweetheart. How are you feeling?"

I'm not sick; I'm afflicted by overwhelming grief. I offer him the best smile I have and slide over.

"Do you have a few minutes to sit with me?"

"Of course." He sets two mugs on my bedside table, warm water with lemon, and a steaming cup of coffee. We struck a deal; he brings me coffee, and I fold his laundry. I'd do it anyway; it soothes me during this chaotic time.

He takes my hand and squeezes it gently. It's hard for him too. Side by side, we stare out at the ocean. Through the sliding glass doors, I count four surfers.

"Timbo, if Robby were here, he'd be out there too."

"So true; I miss him." I grab my phone and snap a picture, and text it to him.

"Surfers off Town Landing today." I caption the photo.

"Damn, that makes me jealous. Can't wait to be home." He's in North Carolina finishing his senior year at Elon University.

shared with my father and was unwilling to take phone calls from my sister and brother.

She's frustrated and scared. She understands enough to know something's very wrong. Her days are mass confusion. Yesterday she said, "Everything's upside down." My response comes naturally, and I take her hand in mine.

"Mom, I love you; I'm sorry everything is so difficult for you."

It's time for me to get up, stop procrastinating, and face what awaits me. Chores my mother performed before she forgot how, before dementia struck when her life as a wife, mother, and grandmother brought her so much joy. I throw back the covers, and my dog Briggs perks up. Her large, brown eyes follow me. She's anxious and needy, and so am I. In this year of Covid, she's never alone. I pick the clothes I wore yesterday, give them a sniff and decide they're clean enough. I've yet to drink my lemon water and coffee. I will after I run a brush through my hair and a toothbrush over my teeth. I'm barely presentable. When was the last time I showered? Downstairs I unzip both my grey and black backpack, making sure I have the essential items I need for the next eight hours. Phone, charger, iPad, water bottle, a protein bar, the book I'm currently reading, andmy knitting project. I've made eleven blankets since the start of covid; I'm halfway through my twelfth.

"The water must be frigid. Check your weather app." Our son is gritty and adventuresome, seeking opportunities that continue to challenge him. I cover myself with the soft cream blanket my daughter knit. I feel safe from the outdoor elements and responsibilities.

"Annie, my next call is in a few minutes. It will last an hour. Can I bring you something to eat?"

"No, I'm good." No, I'm not. Why bother lying?

We both know I'm miserable. Nothing feels good.

"What time are you heading out?"

"Within the hour." I'm afraid. Will today be worse than yesterday? My mother refused to get out of bed, eat half of the banana she

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When I'm restless, the word my father uses to describe my current state, I knit.

Tim sits comfortably in one of the creamcolored leather chairs I recently purchased.

His computer, two phones, and a notebook rest on the circular coffee table. His at-home office. He's on a work call. I tap his shoulder and wave. Looking up, he whispers, "when will you be back?"

"Not sure; I'll text you."

Bundled up, Briggs at my heels, I brace myself against the wind and head to my car. There's a herd of deer in the lower field; I count seven before Briggs barks, scaring them off.

Briggs, get in the car." She quickly obeys, afraid she'll be left behind. Our routine never varies; Heather, my parent's labradoodle, will be waiting. I tune into the classic rock for my five-mile drive. Queen is belting out; You're my best friend. Yesterday my mother said, "Anne, you're my best friend."

"Mom, you're my best friend too." I wonder if she remembers. My head hurts. Did I drink the warm lemon water Tim left on my bedside table? The door to their house is un96 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

locked, and I enter, wishing my mother were there to greet me. Her kitchen looks the same, but nothing feels familiar. It's too quiet. All Things Considered, is not turned on; her radio sits on a table in the corner, collecting dust. Her apron, purple and white, hangs on a peg; she no longer wears it; she doesn't remember how to cook. My headache's getting worse. I'm dehydrated. I take a glass from the cabinet, but the dogs are scratching at the door, asking to come in. They head for their silver water bowl; it's empty. Forgetting about my own thirst, I fill their dish with fresh water.

Looking around, I'm not sure where to begin.

The house is desperate for attention. I head to the sunroom and place my backpacks between the chairs my mother and I typically sit in.

Her plants are bone dry. She took pride in her green thumb. I locate her favorite beige watering can, the one with the long spout. Filling it to the brim, I roam the first floor, giving each a good soaking. I won't be held responsible if her plants die. I feel dizzy, my headache persists, and I need water. A noise from the second floor stops me; it's coming from my mother's bedroom. Is my father upstairs? I haven't seen him.

My mother's bedroom door is shut by climbing the thirteen stairs to the second floor. I enter anyway. I discover my mom in an awkward position. Her upper torso is in bed while her legs and feet dangle off the side.

She's diagonal.

"Mom, are you okay? Can I help?"

"Who's there? Who are you?"

"It's me, mom, Anne, your daughter." She utters a few words I don't understand. She's reaching for her glass on the bedside table. It's empty.

"Mom, are you thirsty? Do you want some water?"

"Yes, okay." I reposition her the best I can.

"Mom, I'll be right back. I'm going to your bathroom to get you fresh water."

"You'll be right back?"

"Yes, I'll be right back." I return and prop her up using my left knee and left arm for support. She drinks slowly and hands me her glass; it's empty. She's as dry as her plants.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Fixing her pillows, I pull up her blankets and tuck them under her chin. My head continues to throb; it's getting worse. I need water and a lot of it. It will have to wait. I crawl into my father's side of the bed, rest my head on his pillow and wait.

Maybe she wants to talk.

"Where are the kids? I thought they were coming?""Geoffrey and Esme will be here soon. Today's Monday; you'll see them Friday, five more days." I'm about to tell her about Robby and Fiona, but she's breathing heavily. She's gone back to sleep.

The porch door opens and closes.

We're not expecting anyone. Covid prevents her sisters and friends from visiting. It must be my father. I head to his office and find him at his desk.

His computer is on, and he's working on something I've never understood. He's a low-temperature physicist. The apple could not have fallen farther from the tree. I reach out and

touch his shoulder.

"Anne, I didn't hear you come in.

When did you get here?"

"I'm not sure. An hour ago, maybe two. I watered mom's plants and went upstairs to check on her. I thought you might be there."

"I was outside getting wood for a fire in the event she decides to come downstairs. I had the monitor in my pocket so I would hear her if she tried to get up. Is she awake? She's been sleeping all morning."

"No." Shaking his head, he utters one word.

"Damn."

"She was briefly. She drank a full glass of water." He doesn't respond.

It's not necessary. The mug on his desk is empty except for the dregs from his coffee. I decide he must need some water. I retreat to the kitchen and return with a large glass.

I place it on his desk.

"Drink some. You look like you need it."

"Thank you. Maybe I do."

I've always been where I'm needed most, and my parents desperately needed me. I slid into my role as Florence Nightingale, prepped and ready for all responsibilities that may come my way.

"Now," I say in a cheery voice. He knows better; I'm not cheery. Back in the kitchen, I wash the breakfast dishes and picture my mother standing at the sink, her bright yellow rubber gloves covering her hands.

The window above the sink looks out on her rose bushes that line the stone wall built by my father. Her favorite varietal, "Father Hugo," won't bloom until late Spring. I scour the counters, take out the garbage and sweep the kitchen floor. My headache persists. For a moment, I debate opening my father's liquor cabinet, drowning my sorrows in a liter of Grey Goose. I've done it before; it didn't end well. I'll be sober for three years this coming June.

There's no room for error. Making the wise decision, I fill a glass with cold water. Tomorrow, I'll remember to water myself first.

Anne Douglas is a writer, photographer, wife and mother of four.

She writes about family, the empty nest, caregiving, recovery and life after loss. You can visit her at: www.anniebdouglas.com 97 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e JULY 2022

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Less is MORE: Less CLUTTER, Less HAZARDS, Less OBSTACLES Sleek Socket by Socket Solutions, a small Houston, Texas-based company, is profoundly impacting an age-old problem in every home – messy, ugly, and dangerous electrical cords that clash with home décor?

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THE SUN BAKES WILDFIRE SMOKE, CHANGING ITS TOXICITY

By Jackie Rocheleau

A new study questions the narrative that dilution is the solution to pollution.

W

ildfire season is getting longer and more severe.

The fires send smoky gases and fine particles of burnt matter drifting through the atmosphere, and their harm can be felt by lungs miles away.

It’s plain that wildfire smoke is harmful, and studies have linked smoke inhalation to inflammation, cell death, and lung diseases, including asthma. But figuring out the connection between smoke inhalation and ill health is tricky—wildfire smoke comprises a complex mixture of particles and gases, and once in the atmosphere, photochemical reactions transform those components into different substances. But a research team from the University of Georgia might have a lead after testing how fresh and aged smoke differentially exerted their toxic effects.

Something Old and Something New As wildfire smoke rises into the atmosphere, sunlight spurs

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chemical reactions that alter the smoke’s original components (primary organic aerosols) and create new ones, so-called secondary organic aerosols, over the course of hours to days.

“That smoke is hanging out there for days and days and days, and it’s getting chemically cooked,” said Anthony Wexler, a professor and the director of the Air Quality Research Center at the University of California, Davis. Wexler was not involved in the new study. “And there are interesting questions there about how that’s changing the toxicity of this stuff.”

Once they enter human airways, the different aerosols likely take different routes through the body. Secondary organic aerosols are generally more oxygenated and soluble than primary ones. Primary organic aerosols are more readily taken up by fats, whereas secondary organic aerosols better dissolve in the bloodstream.

,, Photo by Landon Parenteau

Fresh smoke disrupted the way cells store and use energy. But aged smoke led to higher levels of cell death.

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Showing that components of fresh and aged smoke can be toxic in different ways challenges the idea that “dilution is the solution to pollution.”

But when Rawad Saleh began researching the health effects of wildfire emissions at the University of Georgia’s College of Engineering, the associate professor was surprised by the dearth of information on how wildfire smoke toxicity changes as the smoke itself changes in the atmosphere.

,,

To explore this research question, Saleh and his colleagues compared lung cells’ responses to fresh and aged smoke. They burned and tested three woods: pin oak, pignut hickory, and slash pine, all common fuels in a typical southeastern U.S. wildfire. The researchers burned each wood just to a smolder inside an environmental chamber calibrated to mimic the light intensity, temperature, and humidity of a summer day at noon. To age the smoke, the researchers turned on UV lamps, allowing the smoke to bake in the “Sun” for 2 hours.

Photo by Malachi Brooks

The researchers extracted smoke particles from the chamber filters and dissolved them into a solution they then dropped into small compartments housing lung cells. The lung cells, specifically, the bronchial epithelial cells that line the passageways into the lungs, faced both fresh and aged smoke from each wood.

This story originally appeared in "EOS," It is republished here as part of The Eden Magazine partnership with Covering Climate Now, a global journalistic collaboration to strengthen coverage of the climate story.

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Different Paths After reacting with UV light in the environmental chamber, the aged smoke from each wood differed from fresh smoke in several key ways. Aged smoke had fewer heavy metals and aromatics but did have more heavily oxygenated compounds. This, the researchers thought, drove different toxicity mechanisms. The fresh smoke’s aromatics and metals homed in on the cellular powerhouse, mitochondria, disrupting the way cells store and use energy. But in the aged smoke, oxygenated compounds led to higher levels of cell death.

Revealing these different toxicity mechanisms is “incredibly important,” said Laura Van Winkle, a professor of respiratory toxicology at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the study.

The results, published in the journal Atmospheric Environment, implied that different mechanisms may trigger the same symptoms (like coughing and trouble breathing) when someone inhales fresh smoke compared with when someone inhales aged smoke particles hours to days later. “And because of that, the treatments that are effective for…that person could be different,” said Saleh. But this assessment is still speculative at this point, he cautioned.

“What they did was great, but no study does everything,” said Wexler.

The researchers examined toxicity in only one type of lung cell, but lungs are made up of dozens of different cell types. Moreover, these cells don’t act in isolation but operate within bodily systems. The researchers also could not simulate the complexity of wildfire smoke and test all of its components. In wildfires, smoke is created from burning wood as well as from every other material in a fire’s path, from soil to animals to cars.

Smoke also includes gases, not just particles, which researchers did not analyze in this experiment.

But showing that some components of fresh and aged smoke can be toxic in different ways challenged the idea that “dilution is the solution to pollution,” said Van Winkle. “In California…secondary organic aerosol formation is a major source of air pollution,” she said. The question then is whether breathing in those aerosols is as troubling as inhaling smoke from an active fire. “This [study] says yes, it could be.”