The Eden Magazine December 2021 by Maryam Morrison

SANTA BARBARA BIRD SANCTUARY WHERE PARADISE ISN'T JUST FOR

HUMANS

SEIZE MEDITATIVE MOMENTS

By Rabbi Daniel Cohen

DECEMBER 2021

EDEN T H E

MAGAZINE

THE MATRIX IS

REAL

An interview with Matthew Wood

TIPS

TO IMPROVE

SELF-ESTEEM By Lura Berg

THRIVING

THE HOLIDAYS WITH GRACE AND GRATITUDE

By Shelly Wilson

e t o N s ' r Edito Welcome to our December issue,

The holiday season is usually filled with joy, happiness, family reuniting, sipping champagne, sending greeting cards, and wrapping presents. But are we aware that all this fun comes with enormous wastes? According to "Seaside Sustainability," after the festivities are all done from wrapping paper, leftover foods, plastics used to store the items, and Christmas tree gets dumped outside, we waste over 25 million tons of garbage. We throw away 38,000 miles of ribbon, 11 billion worth of packaging materials, 15 million Christmas trees, and 2.6 million cards in the United States alone. All these can be avoided if we do our part by simply sending an e-card to our family and friends, using a pot plant tree, making sure recycling, instead of using the wrapping paper, using a recycling bag. For more information on how to do your part this Holiday Season, please visit https://solaronearth.com/have-yourself-a-green-holiday-season-with-these-10-tips/. Let's Green this Holiday season with no waste, to be a positive part of the global crisis. From all of our team, we are wishing you a blessing and Happy Holidays.

Maryam Morrison

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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

SHELLY WILSON

SHERRI CORTLAND

8 4 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e e May May 2021 2021

ARTIN MARDIROSIAN

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.

SASHA GARY

EDWARD HAKOPIAN

ALEXIA MELOCCHI

ANGELA DUNNING

MICHAEL

JOE SANTOS, JR.

VITO TROTTA

PHYLLIS KING

GREG DOHERTY

SHERI DETERMAN

ISABELLE RUEN

GRETA PAZZAGLIA

JAYITA BHATTACHARJEE

NANCY E. YEAROUT

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 MICHAEL SASHA GARY VITO TROTTA PHYLLIS KING JOE SANTOS, JR. ANGELA DUNNING NANCY E. YEAROUT SHELLY WILSON SHERRI CORTLAND JAYITA BHATTACHARJEE CONTRIBUTING STYLISTS + MAKEUP ARTIST EDWARD HAKOPIAN GRAPHICS & PHOTOGRAPHY GREG DOHERTY ISABELLE RUEN SHERI DETERMAN ARTIN MARDIROSIAN (Nexision) GRETA PAZZAGLIA 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. 5 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Table of Contents 10

BE HERE NOW

PARADISE ISN'T JUST FOR HUMANS By Leslie Crane Rugg

SEIZE MEDITATIVE MOMENTS

BE HERE NOW By Oliver Burkeman

SEIZE MEDITATIVE MOMENTS By Rabbi Daniel Cohen

5 TIPS TO IMPROVE SELF-ESTEEM By Laura Berg

BUYING SUSTAINED INGREDIENTS CAN HELP PRESERVE SOME OF THE RAREST WILDLIFE By Nathan Sen DVM,WRU

LIVING IN COLOR A LOVE STORY, IN SICKNESS & IN HEALTH By Mike Murphy

MEETING ANXIETY HEAD-ON By Melanie Gibson

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IS THERE A LINE TO GOD? By Carmel Niland

THE MATRIX IS REAL AN INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW WOOD By Gail Torr

WE'RE TRENDING THE WRONG WAY 2020 OVERDOSE DEATHS HIT A NEW ALL-TIME HIGH By Melody Madaris

Cover by Rochelle Brodin @RochelleBrodinPhoto

Life is Essential, Feel it 70

SPIRITUAL GROWTH CHECK POINT; THREE EASY STEPS TO SHIFT FROM STRESSED TO BLESSING By Sherri Cortland, N.D., Jill Lebeau, & Amit West

WHAT IS CODEPENDENCY, AND WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT? By Mary Joye, LMHC

PEANUTS FOR PENNY A COBINED STORY WORKBOOK FOR CHILDREN AGES FIVE THROUGH NINE By Linda McCain

THRIVING DURING THE HOLIDAYS WITH GRACE & GRATITUDE By Shelly Wilson

HOW MEDITATION CAN DESTRESS By Jayita Bhattacharjee

RECLAMING OUR UNLIVED LIFE By Angela Dunning

HUMAN POTENTIAL THE UNFOLDING OF A UNIVERSE By michael

HOW TO FIND OUR PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE By Phyllis King

MY PERSPECTIVE ON MY UNCONVENTIONAL.....

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Life is your Creation

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Paradise

Humans ISN'T JUST FOR By Leslie Crane Rugg

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eaven on Earth... Shangri-La... Eden... Paradise... We all search for that special place that takes us back to nature and innocence, a place of safety and harmony where all our needs are magically met. A perfect haven we might experience early in life and, if we're really lucky, again much later. That story, like many an archetypal journey, is about loss and redemption. This particular story also reminds us of our place in the global ecosystem and our responsibility to creatures we mistakenly view as ornamental commodities. And so we begin far off on the western tip of a western province of a western Pacific island. There amid a tropical rainforest, dense with mangroves, palms, and fruiting trees, separated only by meandering rivers and a sacred lake, lived a rare and spectral bird who flew as the sun rose and roosted throughout the heat of the day. This black palm cockatoo was a mature male, strikingly feathered in charcoal gray and a patch of red on each cheek just below his all-seeing eyes. As was his ritual, he soared above the canopy of trees to soak up the morning rays before foraging on the ever-moist ground for a meal that would exercise his prodigious jaw, capable of cracking the thickest hulls of his favorite Pandanus nuts. Occasionally, he would pick seeds from black bean trees or choose a juicy orb from a cockatoo apple tree. It was a wonderful leisurely life except when those alien two-footed creatures invaded his homeland to cut down Merbau trees for lumber or, worse, shoot to kill or trap and steal members of his family. Then one day in 1965, by human count, his life was turned upside down. He, too, was captured and taken away from everything he knew. Over the years, he was bought and sold several times, forced to live in lands completely foreign to him. Finally, the older sister of the last shah of Iran purchased him for her private rare bird collection at her estate, first in Hollywood and later in Montecito, California. But that is not the end of El Greco's story, for that was the name the princess gave the black palm cockatoo, still proud after all he'd been through. Along with a Hyacinth macaw named Phoenix, El Greco held a place of honor, perched on a gold statue.

collections in Montecito and then opened an avian service and supply center in nearby Summerland. She also maintained her contacts with private collectors, including the princess. And that is how the worlds of Jamie and El Greco fortuitously converged. She got to know him well when she came to the princess's estate to provide bird care and grooming for the collection.

Entering his life while owned by the princess was a young woman educated and trained in exotic animal care and management. Jamie McLeod's first job after college was working with animals in fields of conservation and entertainment, Her heart, however, belonged with birds, and she returned to the Santa Barbara area where she first managed private avian 11 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

That relationship became all the more vital when the princess died in 1996, and her collection was dispersed. El Greco ended up in a bird store in yet another city on consignment. Obviously rare and valuable, he was kept away from the public, placed in a dark back room where he fretted, went on a hunger strike, and withered. Did he dream of his rainforest? Did he miss his bonded pal Phoenix, sent off to a breeding farm? And where was the sun he worshipped? After several months the store owner contacted the princess's family and asked them to come to get him before he died. Half his feathers and cheek patches had turned white, and he was a bag of bones. The family promptly complied and called Jamie, hoping she could restore him to his proper glory. Jamie already loved El Greco. She took him home, had him properly diagnosed by an avian specialist, and tube-fed him nutrients and medicine for six months to counteract infections that had compromised his liver. He regained his health, and in gratitude, the family gave him to Jamie. She renamed him Buddha for his return to the light and for the enlightenment he had brought to her. She also introduced him to a different Hyacinth, which gave him his spirited spark again. Buddha played a significant role in leading Jamie to two conclusions. The rare bird market was not only saturated by people indiscriminately breeding captive wild birds, but also the illegal avian trade of trapping, selling, and often smuggling parrots and cockatoos from their native habitats was morally and ethically bankrupt. And now our story turns to the Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary, which Jamie founded in 2004 on the same site as her retail establishment. Buddha's dramatic and traumatic history became only one of the hundreds of parrots who, over the years, needed a permanent haven. Each bird came with a story, which often began with its owner not understanding the nature of a wild bird. Because the most important lesson is that parrots are not domesticated creatures. They have the intelligence of a human five-year-old and the emotional ego of a two-year-old. When they reach maturity, they become possessive, hormonal, demanding, loud, easily frustrated, often destructive to a home, people other than their favorite, and even to themselves. Parrots can be highly entertaining and teachable but also narcissistic. A human who takes on a lifelong commitment to a parrot must be prepared for its dominant needs and attitudes – code for natural avian behavior. 12 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

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COME SEE FOR YOURSELF. VISITORS TO THE SANCTUARY ARE WELCOME TO WALK ABOUT OR TAKE DOCENT-LED TOURS

tive pet parrots instead of impulsively buying or adopting a bird. And anyone selling or rehoming a parrot without also requiring a crash course in why not to have a parrot at home is doing a pet lover a serious disservice... which will only result in relinquishment to havens such as Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary.

Let's talk "loud" for a minute. The noise generated by a jet engine is measured at 145 decibels. The squawks emanating from a cockatoo measure 135 decibels; a macaw's scream is 106 decibels. The human ear can only stand 105 decibels before hearing damage occurs. Think about that in your house! And while we're at it, let's go back to "lifelong." Parrots in captivity, depending on the species, can live as long as 90 years! The most likely outcome of living with a parrot is that it will outlive its humans. Three kinds of people acquire exotics as pets or members of their families. Ideal parrot owners, who have cherished their parrots, make legal provisions, leaving instructions and money for the bird's care and placement for the rest of its life. Often that placement is the Sanctuary. The next best owner has family or friends who may not be able to care for the surviving bird but relinquishes the parrot to the Sanctuary with funds to support it. Then comes the unsuspecting and naive person who loves the idea of owning a bird but doesn't have a clue or the capability to care for a parrot. Oh, how wonderful to have a bird that talks. Oh, how wonderful it is to have a parrot that matches the living room décor. Oh, how wonderful to have a parrot that will sit on my shoulder and go everywhere with me. Oh, how funny that my parrot loves potato chips and guacamole with a sprinkling of birdseed. No, no, and no! The parrot imitates the family member who swears and becomes a constant embarrassment. The parrot only matches the décor until the fickle homeowner decides to change styles, and then where does the parrot fit in the house? The parrot will sit on a shoulder only to use it as a runway to take off and fly away. You didn't know that clipping wings can be a matter of safety as well as a precaution against losing the bird permanently? You got your dream job, but you're not at home for 16 hours a day, and you wonder why your parrot has plucked out its feathers? Or you come home to find your bird dead because the diet you capriciously fed the bird was totally toxic. These bird owners may well love their parrots, but they don't know how to love them well. Without the desire or the wherewithal to be educated, to learn how to handle them properly, to watch for signs of stress, to realize birds are truly not feathered humans, dogs, or cats, people should first visit the Sanctuary to learn the reality of having cap14 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

What does a superior haven look like? Visitors to the Sanctuary are in for a rare treat, as rare as some of the parrots they will meet. The Sanctuary replicates a tropical paradise so that the parrots are surrounded by a lush setting reminiscent of their ancestral homes in Central America, South America, Africa, Indonesia, and the neighboring countries Down Under. During the day, the parrots are outdoors in species- and size-appropriate aviaries, furnished with perches, ropes, swings, and toys. The pond and waterfall area provide the perfect photo opportunity while the parrots take turns getting misted on natural wood perches. Throughout the site are pathways with comfortable seating for visitors to enjoy ocean views and breezes. At night the birds are housed in cabanas where they are protected from cold and any predators. The Sanctuary kitchen is a beehive of nonstop activity since the birds are fed twice a day. Preparing their special diets takes as much time as filling their bowls and then cleaning them.

The Sanctuary flock eats only fresh or freshly cooked foods consisting of fruits and vegetables, nuts, and grains. In fact, Jamie has made an in-depth study of parrot nutrition, creating several formulae under the brand name of McLeod's Parrot Cuisine. She learned early on that diet and nutrition are key to avian health.

Treated like a pesky pigeon if she lived in her own country, an Australian galah, actually hatched in Las Vegas, is the youngest of the Sanctuary cockatoos. When she was relinquished, her people neglected to name her. On her application, they had merely written: "to be determined." Her Sanctuary name became TooBee. Two of our female cockatoos constantly wait for their Mr. Right to come along. One was relinquished when her owner became homeless, and another who was too possessive and aggressive.

A HUMAN WHO TAKES ON A LIFELONG COMMITMENT TO A PARROT MUST BE PREPARED FOR ITS DOMINANT NEEDS AND ATTITUDES – CODE FOR NATURAL AVIAN BEHAVIOR Of course, the heart and soul of the Sanctuary are the parrots themselves. Currently, the resident flock numbers about fifty, and they include such species as the smallest half-moon conures and caiques to the loudest cockatoos – alternately referred to as squawkatoos – the most talkative Amazons, the smartest African greys, and the grandest boldly colored macaws.

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Sometimes, people feel so guilty or ashamed at the condition their birds have fallen into that they abandon them. That's how Doodle, a constant feather picker and severe self-mutilator, came to the Sanctuary. She was left at the entrance to the nearby zoo in a box with a note that read, "Hi. I'm Doodle. Please help me." The Sanctuary did just that. Jamie determined that the only material Doodle couldn't penetrate was bullet-proof Kevlar. For years Doodle wore Kevlar vests sewn by a friend of the flock.

case for Kali, a Moluccan cockatoo, who terrorized the man of the house. Kali also had the typical ear-splitting screech made worse by the curse words he had been taught. The family's answer was to drug him – for an entire decade – with an anti-psychotic to keep him quiet and contained. When Kali eventually came to the Sanctuary, the first order of care was to wean him from the drug and allow him to be himself again.

Other times, people's emotional needs take on impulsive undertones that always end badly for their parrots. Kona, a yellow-naped Amazon, and Bo, a green-winged macaw, we're owned by a woman who considered her birds as children. Yet, she acted so childishly that her parrots resorted to aggression in order to stop this woman from behavior no human parent would ever permit a child to do. Severe bites to the tongue and nose finally resulted in the birds finding peace and sanity at the Sanctuary. Parrots do communicate, often in our own languages, but they also resort to instinctive behavior. If we make a choice to bring them into our homes, we can't expect they will take on human manners, but they may very well imitate what they see and hear. Too often, parrot owners aren't prepared for the extreme bonding that takes place when a mature bird chooses one person as to its emotional mate. Everyone else in the family becomes the enemy. Such was the

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Not all parrots come with horror stories. Quite a few of the Sanctuary flock have been relinquished because their aging owners realize they can't provide the quality of life their birds are used to. Relinquishment in every instance is as much an emotional decision as is the desire to acquire an exotic creature in the first place. Just as it is for parrots, it's also hard for people not to give in to emotional impulses. We want what we want when we want it. But consider... A market existed for rare species, so Buddha was snatched from nature and freedom to become a commodity and a possession until he became king of the Sanctuary. TooBee was an object undeserving of a name until she became the pink jewel of the Sanctuary. Doodle was allowed to maim herself nonstop until she was dressed in gentle armor at the Sanctuary. Kona was unappreciated for the talent she had until she became a singing star at the Sanctuary. Bo became sweet, gentle, and eager to pose for photos with Sanctuary visitors no longer on constant guard. Kali may still have on/off tendencies, but everyone at the Sanctuary admires his voice. Every parrot at the Sanctuary has a story that is compelling and reflects the best and worst, the smartest and most ignorant of humanity. If visitors come away with just one lesson learned, it's to be respectful and

responsible for these feathered beauties. The Sanctuary's Skylar Learning Center is where Avian Adventure classes are offered to children, adults, and senior groups. While the Sanctuary's primary mission is to ensure the quality of life to all its relinquished parrots, its other goal is to educate, giving people a bird's eye view into parrots in the wild, their place in the global ecosystem, what is necessary to protect them, how they have contributed to culture, and what responsible ownership really consists of. As a result of the pandemic and its impact on schools, the Sanctuary plans to make these classes virtual, available through Zoom. The Sanctuary's website also gives extensive information about its work and the parrots it serves. For people active on social media, the Sanctuary has a presence on Facebook, Instagram, and its own YouTube channel. Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary is featured in a PBS/Nature documentary entitled Parrot Confidential. The Sanctuary and Jamie are also the subjects of two other documentaries, Under Her Wing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV4T64LC1sc and Taking Flight: Fires, Floods & Festivals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5EhZgkMbu.

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As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary survives on grants and donations. The last four years have been particularly difficult, starting with the Thomas Fire, then the Montecito Mudslide, and finally Covid-19. The first two disasters resulted in multiple evacuations and some facility damage. The pandemic caused public closure for 15 months. These cumulative hardships scrambled our nest eggs meant for long-term sustainability, as Sanctuary Director Jamie describes the Sanctuary's current financial position. Unlike most businesses and attractions whose inventory could be shelved, the Sanctuary's doors were shuttered, but the parrots had to be fed, watered, interacted with, taken to the veterinarian, and shown love every day of every month until our grand reopening at the end of June 2021. Sanctuary staff and volunteers were the flock's essential workers.

Now the Sanctuary is rebuilding its presence, reminding old friends to come to see their favorite parrots and inviting new visitors to become friends of the flock. Come see for yourself. Visitors to the Sanctuary are welcome to walk about or take docent-led tours. For the ultimate experience, visitors can reserve a behind-the-scenes program consisting of a personal half-hour with the Sanctuary Director, followed by a docent-led tour and a photo opportunity with several of the parrots staged by Jamie. Once you've been to our parrot paradise, you'll feel the urge to return often. There is magic to this Summerland spot unlike any other. The Sanctuary will touch your heart in ways you can't imagine. The parrots are calling. You hear them, don't you? You will soon. Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary 2430 Lillie Ave. - Summerland CA 93067 805-969-1944 @sbbird.org www.sbbird.org Special Thanks to: Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary Article by Leslie Crane Rugg Edited by Dina Morrone Photography by Rochelle Brodin, Jamie McLeod, and Jack Nilles Makeup & Hair by Diego Valdovinos for Adriano Hair Salon Model: Anastassija Makarenko

Support is needed in all forms – first and foremost in big-dollar donations. The Sanctuary is lucky to have the annual assistance of a few foundations but would welcome help from more foundations, families, and individuals to prevent unfortunate year-end shortfalls. The Sanctuary is also grateful for tangible contributions such as helping to keep the Parrot Pantry stocked. Providing quality of life, quality food, and quality care to the Sanctuary's resident flock is a fund-consuming but necessary and rewarding endeavor. When making end-of-year donations or donations any time of the year, please remember Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary. The Sanctuary barely survived this year, and the flock is depending on us. Please help us thrive on more than a wing and a prayer in 2022.

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www.biddingforgood.com/ofs?

BE HERE

NOW By Oliver Burkeman

We’re living on borrowed time. “The average human lifetime is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short,” says Oliver Burkeman. If we’re lucky enough to live until we’re 80, we get just four thousand weeks. Yet most of us spend much of that time over-extended, feeling pressured to meet impossible societal demands—to “get everything done”—rather than optimizing our enjoyment of the time we have through meaningful work and building fulfilling lives with those we love. The pandemic brought home how short life is and caused many of us to rethink how to better apportion our time between jobs, family, friends and community. Most time management gurus preach becoming more efficient and maximizing every minute. But Burkeman contends that approach doesn't meet the post-pandemic moment and leaves us more stressed, anxious, and isolated from each other. In Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Burkeman offers a truly revolutionary, Anti-Time- Management approach to the way we live.

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Photo by SABINA STURZU

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ventually, in virtually every spiritual and religious tradition, you’ll encounter the same advice when it comes to time: that we’re better off confining our attention to the present moment than struggling to manipulate what’s coming next. “Trying to control the future is like trying to take the master carpenter’s place,” cautions one of the founding texts of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching, in a warning, echoed several centuries later by the Buddhist scholar Geshe Shawopa, who gruffly commanded his students: “Do not rule over imaginary kingdoms of endlessly proliferating possibilities.” But the version of this thought that has always resonated the most for me comes from the modern-day spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti, who expressed it, in a characteristically direct manner, in a lecture delivered in California in the late 1970s. “Partway through this particular talk,” recalls the writer Jim Dreaver, who was in attendance, “Krishnamurti suddenly paused, leaned forward, and said, almost conspiratorially, ‘Do you want to know what my secret is?’ Almost as though we were one body, we sat up… I could see people all around me lean forward, their ears straining, their mouths slowly opening in hushed anticipation.” Then Krishnamurti, “said in a soft, almost shy voice, ‘You see, I don’t mind what happens.’”

on. And we can still respond, to the best of our abilities, should bad things nonetheless occur; we’re not obliged to accept suffering or injustice as part of the inevitable order of things. But to the extent that we can stop demanding certainty that things will go our way, later on, we’ll be liberated from anxiety in the only moment it ever actually is, which is this one. And yet attempting to “live in the moment” to find meaning in life now, brings its own challenges. Have you ever actually tried it? It turns out to be bewilderingly difficult. Several years ago, I visited Tuktoyaktuk, a small town in the extreme north of Canada’s Northwest Territories. At the time, it was accessible only by air or sea or, in winter, by the route I took, which involved traveling in an off-road vehicle along the surface of a frozen river, then driving upon the frozen Arctic Ocean itself. My journalistic assignment concerned the fight between Canada and Russia for oil resources beneath the North Pole – but naturally, having heard so much about them, I also wanted to see the northern lights. Several nights running, I forced myself outside into minus-thirty-degreeCelsius cold – a temperature at which the moisture inside your nose turns to ice the moment you inhale – to find only the darkness of thick cloud cover.

I don’t mind what happens. Perhaps these words need a little unpacking; I don’t think Krishnamurti means to say that we shouldn’t feel sorrow, compassion, or anger when bad things happen to ourselves or others, nor that we should give up on our efforts to prevent bad things from happening in the future. Rather, a life spent “not minding what happens” is one lived without the inner demand to know that the future will conform to your desires for it – and thus without having to be constantly on edge as you wait to discover whether or not things will unfold as expected. None of that means we can’t act wisely in the present to reduce the chances of bad developments later 24 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Photo by NEGA

A MORE FRUITFUL APPROACH TO THE CHALLENGE OF LIVING MORE FULLY IN THE MOMENT STARTS FROM NOTICING THAT YOU ARE, IN FACT, ALWAYS ALREADY LIVING IN THE MOMENT ANYWAY, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.

It wasn’t until my last night there, shortly after two o’clock in the morning, that the couple renting the neighboring cabin at my bed-and-breakfast tapped excitedly at my door to tell me the time had come: the northern lights were on display. I threw some clothes over my full-body thermal underwear and stepped out under a cathedral sky, filled with moving curtains of green light, sweeping from horizon to horizon. I was determined to relish the exhibition, which the next morning locals would describe as a particularly impressive one. But the more I tried, the less I seemed able to do so. By the time I was getting ready to return to the warmth of my cabin, I was so far from being absorbed at the moment that a thought occurred to my mind regarding the northern lights, which to this day I squirm to recall. Oh, I found myself thinking, they look like one of those screensavers. The problem is that the effort to be present at the moment, though it seems like the exact opposite of the instrumentalist, future-focused mindset, is, in fact, just a slightly different version of it. You’re so fixated on trying to make the best use of your time – in this case, for an enriching experience of life right now – that it obscures the experience itself. You resolve to stay completely present while, say, washing the dishes – perhaps because you saw that quotation from the bestselling Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh about finding absorption in the most mundane of activities – only to discover that you can’t because you’re too busy self-consciously wondering whether you’re being present enough or not. The attempt to “be here now” feels not so much relaxing as rather strenuous – and it turns out that trying to have the most intense possible present-moment experience is a surefire way to fail. My favorite example of this effect is the 2015 study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, in which couples were instructed to have sex twice as frequently as usual for a two-month period. At the end of this time, the study concluded, they weren’t any happier than they had been at the start. This finding was widely reported as demonstrating that more active sex life isn’t as enjoyable as you might have imagined. But what it really shows, I’d say, is that trying too hard to have a more active sex life is no fun at all. A more fruitful approach to the challenge of living more fully in the moment starts from noticing that you are, in fact, always already living in the moment anyway, whether you like it or not. After all, your self-conscious thoughts about whether you’re suffi-

ciently focused on washing the dishes – or whether you’re enjoying all the extra sex you have these days since agreeing to participate in that psychology study – are thoughts arising in the present moment, too. And if you’re inescapably already in the moment, there’s surely something deeply dubious about trying to bring that state of affairs about. To try to live in the moment implies that you’re somehow separate from “the moment” and thus in a position to either succeed or fail at living in it. As the author Jay Jennifer Mathews puts it in her excellently titled short book Radically Condensed Instructions for Being Just as You Are, “we cannot get anything out of life. There is no outside where we could take this thing to. There is no little pocket, situated outside of life, [to which we could] steal life’s provisions and squirrel them away. The life of this moment has no outside.” Living more fully in the present may simply be a matter of finally realizing that you never had any other option but to be here now.

Oliver Burkeman is the author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking and wrote a popular long-running column on psychology for The Guardian, “This Column Will Change Your Life.” His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Psychologies, and New Philosopher. He lives in New York City. His website is www.oliverburkeman.com. 25 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Photo by PATRICK MALLERET

“What is a soul? It’s like electricity—we don’t really know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room.” ~Ray Charles

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Seize Meditative

MOMENTS By Rabbi Daniel Cohen

story is told about a farmer who misplaced a valuable watch somewhere in his barn. He asked everyone to search up and down to find his precious heirloom. Unfortunately, despite hours spent looking for the timepiece, it was nowhere to be found. Later in the day, a young boy announced to the farmer with great joy that he had found the watch. Astonished, the farmer asked the boy how he was able to find it even though so many others had searched high and low without finding it. The boy responded, “Well, once the barn was quiet, I put my head to the ground and heard the watch ticking.” We may only hear our inner voice when we turn off the outside world. “I have spent many days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.” ~Rabindranath Tagore

We live in a world bombarded by noise. Wherever we go, we’re confronted by sounds and sights vying for our attention. Drivers are often distracted, and it’s not uncommon to be interrupted during dinner by our personal devices. Sitting in front of our computers, we have trouble staying focused. We experience a jolt of joy when we receive texts and when our posts are liked on Instagram and Facebook. We run from place

to place, seemingly accomplishing more but in reality thinking less. “The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.” ~ Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther How do we forge the sacred space to realize our innermost dreams? The secret is seizing meditative moments. The concept emerges from the belief that we each possess within us an inner voice, compass, and guide that reflects a higher power and purpose. I know it may sound strange, but each of us is born with this inner voice. It’s implanted from conception. It’s a divine homing device that yearns to unleash light, love, and impact in the world. It’s the “still, small voice” that is strong and resonant, calling on us to pursue what is right and purposeful in our lives. The voice reminds us of who we are and who we are destined to be. From personal experience, I know this reality to be true. I’ve heard it, and you likely have, too, in various moments in your life. When have you heard it?

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We all know deep down that life has a purpose. We want to make a difference in the time we are here. The following scenario speaks to the universality of this quest and searches within all of us. The voice is there. Imagine the ecstasy of being alive moments after being in mortal danger. Imagine the experience of being drawn under the waves in the ocean until almost losing consciousness and then breaking the surface and gasping a lifesaving breath of air. At that moment, you possess a super consciousness of being alive. In that instant, you are fully cognizant that your life is in balance. Some might call it God or a holy spark inside; some might say it’s our consciousness. Regardless, the voice declares that we are born into this world for a mission. In the broadest terms, we’re here to serve the Almighty. Life possesses a purpose. You’re not a random collection of molecules. You experience joy, guilt, love, sadness, hope, and the boundless and ever-flowing yearning to leave this world a better place for having lived in it. When we recognize this voice, this fire inside, and it animates our daily lives, we soar. When we experience it, we know it to be true. In the words of theologian and author Frederick Buechner, “The place God calls you to be is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

out a soul. It’s no wonder the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote, “Boredom is the root of all evil.” When we’re not living in an awareness of the moment, life becomes a blur, and we meander aimlessly through it. But each new day is a day for a revival of the dead. Every day our souls can sing. We can lead a life on a higher frequency. You may be wondering: Do I have a voice inside of me that will arise to ignite my quest for meaning in life? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” Every human being, regardless of our faith tradition, possesses an innate homing device for holiness. We are divinely designed for spiritual greatness. Deep down, we all know this is true. For this reason, in the crisis situations in our lives, when the shell of numbness to our inner fire is broken, we’re able to hear it; we feel it, and we yearn to live by it.

Every moment in which we do not cling to a higher power, we’re not complete. We’re all charged with infusing the physical and temporal with eternity and holiness. In these moments and in this awareness, we’re truly alive! The amount of time we remember our purpose in life is the amount of time we’re living life at the highest level. As Eleanor Roosevelt shared, “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for a newer and richer experience.” When we experience every day without an awareness of our purpose, we’re deadened to life. It becomes a semblance of death. We need to revive ourselves every day and every hour. When we perform a good deed, we should remember that the goal isn’t simply the performance but the ignition of our inner pilot light. Each person possesses a spark of the divine—the soul—that compels our quest for meaning and significance. The more we align our thoughts and actions with nourishing this life, the more alive we will feel. Mindlessness without mission is like a body with-

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Popular motivator, mentor, and inspirational speaker Rabbi Daniel Cohen’s unique blend of authenticity, humor, wisdom, and insight help anyone better navigate contemporary society and lead a life of legacy. Rabbi Cohen has served in the rabbinate for over twenty years and is the author of What Will They Say About You When You Are Gone? Creating a Life of Legacy. www.rabbidanielcohen.com

Have you been struggling to live your Best Life? Do you feel stuck? Professor and trained therapist Laura Berg is a trauma survivor who understands the struggle and knows how to overcome it.

Photo by DARIUS BASHAR

Berg’s new book, Thriving Life, shows you how to transform your Life by learning how to not only survive but thrive. She created the methods in this book to help people everywhere when they need a boost, no matter what is going on in their lives.

Thriving Life serves as a reference. Each chapter discusses a specific issue that many people struggle with, such as defining your own happiness, dealing with rejection, and setting limits in relationships. With practical tips and a step-by-step approach to help you find what makes you happy, Berg will teach readers how to stop victimizing themselves and find strength in asking for help.

Tips to Improve SELF-ESTEEM

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By Laura Berg

ow self-esteem is a powerful manipulator that can control us for a long time if we let it. Have you wished to be able to flip a switch and change your attitude and mood? Has someone ever hurt your feelings, and their words made you feel insecure about who you are? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, follow these hints to help boost your self-esteem. 1. Appreciate yourself. Be thankful for your gifts and talents. There are many gifts you have that others do not, and it’s time to appreciate them. For example, remind yourself that “I am a great reader,” “I am a great listener,” “I am a great helper,” and so on. 2. Avoid being judgmental toward others. At times, people are notorious for gossiping and talking about others. Stop this habit if you find yourself participating. It shows insecurity about yourself, and it only makes you feel worse afterward. 3. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Comparing only makes you think of everything you don’t have and causes your self-esteem to drop. You’re a unique person, so just be yourself and learn to accept the person you are. 4. Make a few goals that you can reach and work toward them. Set goals for yourself, like asking for a raise or applying for a new job. Also, set smaller goals, like not watching television until the weekend, for a validating feeling of accomplishment. Aim for goals that will help you accomplish things you want to get done. Achieving goals, even small ones, is a big booster for self-esteem. 5. Make a contribution. Do something to help others, and you will feel great. For example, help a friend with their résumé, offer to take your elderly neighbor shopping, volunteer for something, and so forth. It is helpful for everyone involved. Believe me when I say that you have high value with a unique set of abilities. If you don’t know your potential, it’s time to find out. Judging yourself against someone else is not the way to do this. Their success or

failure does not determine your value. You do. You are capable of so much more when you stop looking at your shortcomings and failures. The real question is what you are going to do with your potential. Your purpose reaches far wider than the little space, so many of us find ourselves in. Your unique abilities are meant to make a difference in this world. This is true for every person, including you! Deep down, you know if you are living up to this potential.

"For most of my life I felt stuck, as though I was just trying to survive life one day at a time. I found it difficult to move beyond the traumas in my past to live the life I deserved. I wrote this book to share with others my experiences and the lessons I learned that helped me overcome the obstacles in my life that were holding me back. I’m hoping that these stories and the advice I share in this book will help the reader live a more joyful and thriving life." Your dreams are not too big or unrealistic. Be honest with yourself. When you believe you can do something, the answer to how will come when you open up to the possibility. You are the one who has the ultimate power in deciding your own value. When you see your value, you won’t need to compare yourself to others. All you need to do is endeavor to reach your own potential. So, what do you do if you catch yourself comparing? Change your focus. If the other person is succeeding with their talents and abilities, that’s great. Allow that to inspire you to succeed at your own goals. If they are struggling and falling short of their greatness, why would you want to see that as a reflection on them? Honor their journey as separate from yours. You will be far more productive, focusing on fulfilling your own potential rather than how you compare to others. From now on, let go of this old habit of self-sabotage. It doesn’t serve you well and may discourage you from being all you can be.

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YOU ARE CAPABLE OF SO MUCH MORE WHEN YOU STOP LOOKING AT YOUR SHORTCOMINGS AND FAILURES. THE REAL QUESTION IS WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO WITH YOUR POTENTIAL Acceptance Well-meaning people may tell you that you have no right to feel sorry for yourself and should put a smile on your face. If you would simply change your attitude, you would be doing better than you are. Ignore those well-meaning people. Your feelings are yours. Don’t let others attempt to manipulate your emotions. It helps to be optimistic when you can. Often, this requires a process. You may feel sad or angry at first. Even when you have processed your immediate issues, there will be more issues to sort through, and you may have more bad days. Denying your situation keeps you from accepting it. When you accept your pain, you can be free from its chains. Do you accept your life as it is now? If not, can you identify what is blocking your acceptance? I knew someone who refused to accept the reality of her life and for months used to admit she was hitting her head against a wall. When I saw her last, she was smiling and told me she had finally accepted her life. She said, “The only good thing about hitting your head against the wall is that it feels so good to stop.” Do you know if you are hitting your head against the wall? What will happen if you stop? Practicing acceptance means that you accept yourself, others, and circumstances just as they are. Take responsibility for things you have control over and surrender the rest. Practice acceptance by telling yourself what you are working on accepting and have already accepted. If someone tells you they don’t accept you or something about you, it’s their issue and not yours. You don’t have to defend yourself when you are being questioned. If it’s a self-care decision, saying you feel it is appropriate is enough. If you don’t want to meet a friend for a drink because you’re not feeling social, it’s okay to say, “No, thank you.” You don’t have to explain yourself to anyone. Some people will try to guilt you into making a decision that is contrary to what you need. When you accept yourself and decide to take care of your needs, that’s when you’ll start to feel happier and healthier. Practice saying no without explanation and be confident that you are doing what is right for you. Excerpt from Thriving Life: How to Live Your Best Life No Matter the Cards You’re Dealt.” Reprinted with permission from Health Communications, Inc. 32 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Laura Berg is a professor, author, entrepreneur, trained therapist and award-winning parenting expert. Among her many accolades, she has been named one of the Top 10 Mom Entrepreneurs, Savvy Mom of the Year, and was awarded YouTube’s Silver Play Button. For more information, please visit her website at: lauraberginc.com.

34 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e NOVEMBER 2021

OLLYWOOD CLOSE UP

NEW FAVORITES & MUST HAVES

By Vito Trotta

This holiday season let your inner beauty shine and your outer beauty glow !

Vito Trotta

Freelance Beauty Contributor vitotrotta.com IG: vitotrottahair

Anti-stress CBD drops from GLO SKIN is a definite must have for dry winter skin. It contains 1000mg of CBD along with other adaptogens like reishi and ashwagandha to sooth skin and tone down redness, also very helpful with irritation brought on by cold, dry weather. Clinical results show 90% said skin was calmer after one week of use. certified cruelty free. Anti-stress CBD drops | $125 | Gloskinbeauty.com

Baggage Claim eye mask from WANDER BEAUTY is a new favorite and a must have for me. I am always on the hunt for a product that will de-puff, hydrate and brighten my under eyes. Minimizing the appearance of fine lines and dark circles. Made with calendula, camu camu, and aloe leaf extract alongside hyaluronic acid for maximum results. Suitable for all skin types. Vegan friendly, gluten free and cruelty free. baggage claim eye mask | $55 | Wanderbeauty.com

Miracle Moisture spray leave in conditioner from DAILY DOSE is a new favorite of mine to use on set with talent. I use it to prep and protect the hair before heat styling. The customized formula smoothes away unruly, frizzy and dry damaged hair to reveal smooth naturally beautiful hair. With no harsh sulfates or parabens and most importantly cruelty free. miracle moisture spray | $24.95 | Dailydoseme.com

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Buying Sustainable Ingredients

CAN HELP PRESERVE SOME OF THE RAREST WILDLIFE By Nathan Sen DVM. WRU

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WILDLIFE CONSERVATIONIST/VETERINARIAN ON THE FRONT LINES SAYS IT IS POSSIBLE FOR ORANGUTANS, ELEPHANTS, AND MONKEYS TO COEXIST WITH PALM OIL PLANTATIONS

he island of Borneo, divided among Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia, is home to one of the world's oldest rainforests. Borneo also produces about 80 percent of the world's palm oil, a vegetable oil considered vital for global food security. In the U.S., palm oil is widely used in everything from snack foods and chocolate to cosmetics.

bly. "By national law here in Malaysia, for example, all palm oil must be produced sustainably. There is also a strict ban on forest burning, as well as other initiatives to change palm oil production's impact on our planet.

But palm oil production is also blamed for Borneo's disappearing rainforest, destroying wildlife habitats, including those of the orangutan, which has become the face of a global anti-palm oil movement.

"One of the government's initiatives is to stop the development of any new palm oil plantations and improve the production of our existing plantations. This is being done by introducing better trees that can produce more oil, and by improving the oil extraction process to increase the output, so the industry does not require more land," Sen elaborates.

"In the past 50 years, things have gone from bad to worse. Efforts to preserve the area's wildlife need to be ramped up," stresses wildlife conservationist and veterinarian Nathan Sen, DVM, whose first job out of vet school involved rescuing orangutans.

Another program involves creating wildlife reserve areas along riverbanks. "By not planting against the rivers, orangutans, elephants, and proboscis monkeys can now use the river's edge for their habitat," says Sen.

Now, as manager of Malaysia's Wildlife Rescue Unit and leader of the Sabah Wildlife Department's new endangered species conservation unit, Sen is bootson-the-ground in Borneo. He sees the sad realities.

In the Malaysian parts of Borneo, the states of Sabah and Sarawak, there is a stable population of orangutans numbering between 11,000 and 13,000. The Malaysian wildlife and forestry authorities have taken the necessary measures, so now this wild population lives mostly inside a protected natural habitat area to thrive.

Forest destruction is a rallying cry for the anti-palm movement. "Palm oil is called a golden crop. Its production is a valuable source of income, which has contributed to this worldwide ecological concern. In some areas of the world, local farmers dreaming of a better livelihood have burned down forests and converted the land to oil palm plantations," Sen explains. But more recently, he sees glimmers of hope that may cause people to have a different perspective on the palm oil controversy. The situation is shifting toward peaceful coexistence. "The forest is one of Mother Earth's greatest gifts to humans," says Sen. "Palm oil can be produced more efficiently than other vegetable oils such as soy or rapeseed (canola)." It can also be produced responsi-

This strong governmental support of national wildlife conservation programs has a positive influence on the country's palm oil farmers. In the Malaysian parts of Borneo, the states of Sabah and Sarawak, there is a stable population of orangutans numbering between 11,000 and 13,000. The Malaysian wildlife and forestry authorities have taken the necessary measures, so now this wild population lives mostly in a protected natural habitat to thrive. This strong governmental support of national wildlife conservation programs positively influences the country's palm oil farmers.

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"WHILE YOU MAY NEVER SEE AN ORANGUTAN IN THE WILD, YOUR FOOD AND PERSONAL CARE PRODUCT PURCHASES CAN HELP ENSURE THESE WONDERFUL CREATURES HAVE SAFE HOMES FOR GENERATIONS TO COME." "Ten years ago, farmers wanted to keep wildlife out of their plantations. I see a big change in that mentality," Sen confirms. "More farmers now feel comfortable about coexisting with wildlife. They realize they share the forests with elephants and orangutans. They are allowing them to roam freely across their land. They are coming to understand that if we treat our wildlife with respect, the damage they may cause to the crop is quite negligible." He adds that he is very encouraged to see that orangutans are beginning to use Malaysia's palm oil plantations as their habitat. It's yet another sign that the country manages the delicate

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balance between caring for its wildlife and its economy. Is the war on palm oil still justified? If palm oil were to be banned, it would need to be replaced by less land-efficient crops. And as Malaysia has proven, palm oil production can be accomplished while protecting wildlife and forests. But there is still much work to be done. "Many people still don't realize that palm oil is the most sustainable choice. For sustainable palm oil production to expand globally, there must be a demand by the public. Be vocal about asking companies to source their palm oil from producers who are protecting the rainforests. And buy from companies that have already made that important commitment, such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Unilever," recommends Sen. "While you may never see an orangutan in the wild, your food and personal care product purchases can help ensure these wonderful creatures have safe homes for generations to come."

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Great love stories inspire us to seek passion in our own lives, to get in touch with our deepest core emotions, and make the world a little bit better -- what author and philanthropist Michael Murphy describes in the bittersweet memoir of his wife’s battle with metastatic breast cancer in Living in Color: A Story of Love in Sickness and in Health This is a love story like no other – and one in which the love keeps coming long after his wife’s passing, through a special foundation set up to provide low-income women with advanced cancer the resources they need for their healing and recovery. Murphy was only six months into his unexpected love affair with his second wife, Margot, when he discovered a lump in her breast. For the next nine years she fought her cancer, armed with a fierce love for life. With Murphy by her side through the good, the bad, and the worst, Margot showed her husband how to truly live. “I left behind all my doubts, fears, and guilt because I knew that what I wanted most was to live in color,” Margot told Murphy. Murphy tells the story of their relationship and Margot’s fight for her life with engaging warmth, honesty and unflinching detail – taking himself to task for his past transgressions. By doing so, he shows how a relationship can grow past the obstacles in its path thanks to love and the willingness to work toward emotional maturity. “I’m different because Margot, in life and in death, taught me the true meaning of love, which is compassion and forgiveness. I am a much better man,” he says. Helping others is the focus of Murphy’s life now. A visit with a single mom who also had stage 4 metastatic breast cancer inspired him to start the Love from Margot Foundation, which provides low-income women with advanced cancer the resources they need for their healing and recovery. To date, more than 200 women in California have been directly helped, with many more receiving assistance nationally. “I think about all the women I’m helping in her name, all the families that gain a few extra months, years, or even decades with their loved ones because we are able to provide support, and I look up to the heavens and smile,” Murphy says.

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LIVING IN COLOR

A Love Story, In Sickness and In Health By Mike Murphy

t’s been hard to find the right doctor to administer her chemo since we returned home. It turns out the port in her head has to be opened with a special electromagnetic device that unlocks it, and there are very few physicians who have this equipment.

“You may only make it another day or two,” he replies.

Finally, once again, with the help of our advocate Gwen Stritter, we found a guy who can do it—a doctor in Walnut Creek who once studied under our wonderful Dr. Tripathy from USC. But we need to make that appointment.

His eyes are compassionate but unwavering. He keeps talking directly to Margot. “Have you discussed end-of-life procedures?” he asks.

However, this time, no amount of staying in the moment, twenty minutes at a time, can keep her out of the hospital. She’s panicking, which is exacerbating her breathing trouble. We make it till morning, but when we get up after a sleepless night, I can see the signs of oxygen starvation. Her parents arrive, and I explain the situation to them. We all agree—she must go to the hospital. I called 911 for an ambulance, mentally thanking Dr. Stritter for that piece of advice back in January, which seems like a lifetime ago. I call the office of our new doctor and explain what’s happened. Thankfully, he reassures me that he can see her at the hospital. “I’ll come tonight,” he says, “as soon as I finish with my last patient. Please have her medical records ready, including the latest scans.” On Monday, she just had a CT Pet scan Monday—I asked her father if he could drive to the clinic to pick up the report, which we’ve not yet had time to collect. As promised, the doctor arrives a little after five. Margot’s immediate family members are all gathered around her—Martha, Paco, and Lola. I introduce everyone and give him the short version of Margot’s case history, showing him her recent records and the new scan. He listens carefully and asks a few questions. He strikes me as forthright but also soft—a good combination in a doctor. “I have to be honest with you,” he said. “You need chemo immediately. But it’s Thursday, and it’s Memorial Day weekend. The drugs you need are hard to get hold of, and if I can’t get them tomorrow, before the holiday weekend, it will be too late.”

I can’t even pause to let in what he’s just said. All I hear is that there’s still a chance. “Well, you’d better go find the chemo,” I tell him.

I jump in. “It’s all in her health care directive. She doesn’t want to be kept alive by machines if that’s the only option.” I don’t know why he’s asking us this now—I just want him to go track down those drugs. Gently but firmly, never looking away from Margot, he says, “I know. But I want to hear it from her.” Her voice is still surprisingly steady. “I don’t want a breathing tube. If you can’t get the chemo, or it doesn’t work, and my time has come, I’m ready.” Now he turns to me. “Are you okay with that?” “Yes.” We agreed on this long ago, but I’m glad her parents and her sister are here for this discussion too. “Okay. I’ll do everything I can to get that chemo. But please prepare yourself for what will happen if I’m not able to find it.” He leaves the room, and we sit in silence—Margot and the four people she loves most in the world. Even though the shock, I register that there is something perfect about this moment—the fact that we are all here with her on the day we’ve just found out could be her last.

Margot looks at him, her gaze steady and unafraid, and asks the question none of us dares to voice. “How long do I have?”

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You always think you have one more day. Despite the fact that we’re almost exactly at the six-month point— six months and two days, to be precise, since that meeting in the doctor’s office—it feels like we can go on forever, one more day at a time, so long as we keep hope alive. Even though we’ve talked endlessly about death, it seems unreal to me now that I could actually lose her in one more day. Margot’s mom breaks the silence. Tears are streaming down her face, and she’s struggling to speak, but she asks “Gotti” (Margot’s nickname since she was a little girl), “what do you want from each of us for the rest of our lives?” Now we’re all crying, except Margot. She seems strangely peaceful and calm. We’re sitting in a circle, and she turns first to her father. I can barely hear what she’s saying through the storm of fear and sadness that’s pounding in my head. She’s telling her father, “I want you to find faith. It doesn’t matter what kind, but you need to believe.” He’s not much of a religious man, and he’s struggling with his own health problems—she wants him to discover the comfort and freedom that faith has given her. She turns to her mom, who’s been such an angel these past six months, barely leaving her side. “You’re the most graceful and unselfish woman I’ve ever known. I want you to get out, to see the world, to travel. Don’t dwell in grief.” To Lola, the little sister she’s always stood up for and protected, she says, “Don’t be sad. Continue to be an amazing mother to your kids. Remember, you don’t have to be perfect.” Finally, it’s my turn. She’s looking at me, her eyes clear and peaceful, shining with more love than I’ve ever deserved. I hear only four words. “Be a good man.”

HELPING OTHERS IS THE FOCUS OF MURPHY’S LIFE NOW. A VISIT WITH A SINGLE MOM WHO ALSO HAD STAGE 4 METASTATIC BREAST CANCER INSPIRED HIM TO START THE LOVE FROM MARGOT FOUNDATION, WHICH PROVIDES LOWINCOME WOMEN WITH ADVANCED CANCER THE RESOURCES THEY NEED FOR THEIR HEALING AND RECOVERY. 42 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Mike Murphy is the author of Love Unfiltered, a Wall Street Journal bestseller. His mission is to share exactly how he has been able to co-create a life of freedom, abundance, purpose and love. He is the president and owner of Volkswagen Oakland and founder of the Love from Margot Foundation, which he established to honor his late wife. The foundation supports low-income women experiencing advanced cancer with emergency funds, education and resources needed for recovery. He is also the founder of Mountains of Hope, a transformational retreat center in Colombia, South America dedicated to delivering cutting-edge healing modalities to those who suffer from cancer, addiction and disconnectedness from life. He is also the creator of The Creation Frequency Online Course dedicated to teaching people how to create the life of their dreams, his book of the same name was released in 2018. He has been interviewed by Larry King and other show hosts.

43 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT

KIMBERLY An Interview with

Meredith

A Medical Intuitive, Trance Channeler, Psychic Surgeon, Hands-on Healer, & Spiritual Teacher

Kimberly’s Shaman lineage dates back to her maternal great-grandmother, Josephina, who initially practiced shamanic healing in Italy. She later settled in Jamestown, New York where her work was highly respected. Kimberly Meredith is the founder of The Healing Trilogy, a non-denominational ministry that welcomes and accepts people of all race, religion and spiritual beliefs. "We truly honor and respect every living soul."

WE BELIEVE THAT GOD IS LOVE AND BY ACCEPTING THE POWER OF OUR HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS, WE CAN BE HEALED AND HAVE PEACE ON EARTH Kimberly’s spirit guide is Edgar Cayce, the father of holistic medicine, a Medical Intuitive and the most documented psychic of the 20th century. Edgar is guiding Kimberly to carry out his work in holistic medicine and push God’s presence to the forefront Through her healing mediumship and blinking eyes, Kimberly is directed by God to perform laying-on of hands or psychic surgery. She can “scan” or see into the body faster and more accurately than the fastest MRI and thermography machines. Kimberly has healed and helped many thousands of people, removing tumors, restoring hearing, curing cancer, correcting immobility, and completely healing people of many types of physical and emotional disease through the Holy Spirit. Kimberly leads miraculous worldwide healing events during which many are healed. 44 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Hello Kimberly, thank you for being with us today; you had a near-death experience; please tell us about it and how this incident changed your life? It's great to be with you today! Yes, I had two Near-Death Experiences, both of which completely changed my life. Before the accident that resulted in my first NDE, I was living a completely different life. I wasn't a healer; I was working on my career in the television industry, for which I had given a great deal of effort and dedication. I wasn't expecting my life to be turned upside down and completely transformed. But that's what happened. I was involved as a pedestrian in an accident with a car. This led to my first Near Death Experience. And soon after, I would have yet another accident and a second Near Death Experience. Both of these experiences changed me forever. I left my body, traveled through a beautiful tunnel of white light and clouds, and I encountered beings of light, including my ancestors, and I ultimately encountered God and the energy of the Holy Spirit. After I returned to my body, I heard the voice of God telling me that I was chosen to heal cancer and diseases. And that began my journey of healing -- first of myself because I couldn't even lift my head for more than a few minutes, and I was told I'd never walk again -- and after I recovered, I began to use my gifts to help others to heal, which is what I do today and every day. I describe these experiences in greater detail in my book, Awakening to the Fifth Dimension.

Do you believe that connecting to the higher consciousness is a gift, or can anyone tap into a higher state of mind? I strongly believe that anyone can connect to higher levels of consciousness. We are all beings created in the likeness of God, and this means that we all contain and are made of God Frequency woven within the fabric of our being; the trick and the task before us is to raise our conscious frequency to match the high vibratory frequency of God which already exists inside us in an unconscious state. Since birth and even before we were born into this momentary lifetime, we are already high-dimensional, high-frequency beings. But we are unconscious and unaware of our true nature and our true being; Coming into this life, our consciousness picks up on the frequency of this Third Dimension that we've been born into. We give into lower frequency patterns of thought and feeling, such as greed, anger, hate, jealousy, war, fear, sadness, callousness, indifference, despondency, and suffering. The task before us is to raise our level of consciousness, to embrace and match our true, innate, and inborn frequencies, which are reflections of the Creator who created us. Those frequencies are always of the highest orientation because they come from a place of pure love, kindness, acceptance, joy, and generosity of spirit. When we match those frequencies to the best of our abilities, we re-emerge from within ourselves, like caterpillars turning into butterflies, like phoenixes rising from our own ashes, and we are re-imbued and re-baptized with our innate heavenly qualities. That is how we come closer to the God love frequency.

You are a Surgical Hands-on-Healer. Please tell us more about it. As a hands-on healer, I am a vessel for God and the healing energy of the Holy Spirit, which flows through my hands, eyes connecting me into the person or animal receiving the healing. As they receive the energy of the Holy Spirit into their bodies, they experience significant improvement in whatever medical conditions they're facing, both physical and emotional. During your channeling, do you receive a message from the Divine Energy, Angels, or spirit? Yes. As I offer myself as a vessel for the healing energy of God, I receive many coded messages from my guides, who are Jesus, angels, Ascended Masters, and even Mother Mary and the Holy Spirit may choose to use me as a vessel to communicate important messages to the person receiving the healing. Many of these messages may come in the form of coded blinks through my eyes. But I can also receive information visually and audibly as well.

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Would you please tell us about the afterlife? The Dalai Lama compares the transition from this life to the next as merely a change of clothes. In this metaphor, clothes are the body, and the body is the soul. Just as our bodies existed before we put on clothes, so too have our souls existed before we came into this life. And just as we continue to exist even after we have taken off our clothes, so too will we continue to exist after we have slipped out of this soul container we call a body. Our natural state is to exist as souls, which are energy. Energy is never destroyed. It just changes form. So too, are we never destroyed. We change form from time to time, like changing clothes, but the true and actual essence of who we are lives on. We existed before what we think of like our lives, and we will continue to exist after we leave this life. There is nothing to be afraid of. From my deep experience, an afterlife is a place and a frequency of deep love, deep acceptance, deep understanding, and profound knowing. If you imagine the place you have ever felt most safe, most at home, and most comfortable, love it's like that -- only better!

and across space. So rather than being a single slice of a being, you are, in fact, a sumptuous feast, a never-ending banquet.

GOD IS NOT RELIGION. GOD IS LOVE. WE HONOR ALL PEOPLE AND FAITHS

After we leave our physical body, is our soul traveling to a different dimension? The real reality is that as multi-dimensional beings, we already exist in higher dimensions. We exist beyond linear time. So, in reality, all time exists simultaneously. The past, the present, the future all exist simultaneously. But the slice of identity we call "me" or "I" has limited awareness as it exists embedded in this time slice we call "now." But your Higher Self has greater awareness of your entire nature across time 46 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Any advice to those who are trying to be more connected to higher conciseness? Always remember, God loves us infinitely deeply, without variation, without lapse, and without fail. God is Love and understands us far better than we can ever even understand ourselves, let alone each other. We are like blind fish in a dark pond. But within each of us is a light of the soul. And this light can guide us and reflect to ourselves and each who we really and truly are. We are not creatures of flesh and bone. We are creatures of love and light. And when we return to that knowing and embrace that knowledge, we can re-become who we already truly are. We re-awaken to ourselves and re-emerge from ourselves. This is a cycle we have been through many times. The cycle of forgetting and remembering. So we are here to forget, but we are also here to re-emerge into remembrance. A swimmer would never become a stronger or better swimmer if he or she never touched the water. The water is our adversity. It is everything we are afraid of.

But by swimming through that adversity, we become better and stronger swimmers. And what may have drowned us in the past in time becomes an easy swim in the afternoon sun. We are strengthened by everything we face, even if we don't realize it at the time. We often think we suffer alone. In fact, all of Heaven is with us. We are never alone, we are never forgotten, and we are never abandoned. Even in our darkest times, God is with us, angels are with us, Ascended Masters are with us, and the Holy Spirit surrounds us always. You can try meditating even just a few minutes a day. You can invite God into your heart. You can walk in nature and contemplate God and ask that your connection to God be strengthened. You can pray. You can chant. You can sing songs. You can serve others with a humble heart. All of these are ways to deepen our connection to the Divine Creator. And of course, one of the best ways to serve and connect with God is by loving others. God invites us and longs for us to love each other to the greatest depth that we can. What is next for you? My book, Awakening to the Fifth Dimension, is going to be released on December 7th. In addition to delving into my own story with greater depth, it's also packed with practical tools, tips, and prayers to help you raise your own consciousness into the Fifth Dimension, which is the Dimension of Divine Love and Miracles. The book also has a great deal of information on how to stay healthy in the modern world. Plus, there are a lot of delicious recipes for healthy meals for every diet plan and healing smoothies! I also offer an ongoing series of interactive webinars classes to help people raise their consciousness and experience healing in their own lives. You can also catch my radio show, ON KCAA RADIO, the Medical Intuitive Miracle Show, where we explore the topics of health, healing, and consciousness in greater detail.

And I also offer individualized, one-to-one mediumship readings and healing sessions for adults, children, and animals, which are available in person and over Skype through my website, TheHealingTrilogy.com. A Non-Profit Organization. @meredith.kimberly

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Photo by Daria Litvinova 48 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e NOVEMBER 2021

Meeting Anxiety Head-On: How Horror Movies Helped Me Face My Fears How Horror Movies Helped Me Face My Anxiety By Melanie Gibson

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Meeting Anxiety Head-On: How Horror Movies Helped Me Face My Fears, Melanie talks about how she was able to draw parallels between facing her fear of scary movies and learning to face her anxiety head-on. For as long as she can remember, she had an overwhelming fear of scary movies. Her partner suggested that they start watching movies during the day to make them less haunting. When she was finally diagnosed with depression, anxiety disorder, and bipolar disorder in 2010, she felt a sense of relief that the terror had a nice. She finally saw her mental illness in the light and figured out how to battle it. That knowledge makes things seem not so scary after all. A ghost has haunted me for nearly twenty years.

Photo by Erik Witsoe

In the early 2000s, I eagerly watched The Ring on HBO with my family…at night. Big mistake. I was so shaken by the now-iconic image of drowned ghost girl Samara with her sheet of dripping black hair and grey skin that I couldn’t sleep that night. I vowed never to watch it again and generally stayed away from horror movies.

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Samara still found me. She showed up in my dreams every so often over the years. On nights I felt particularly spooked, I avoided mirrors and dark corners, troubled by the thought of her dark head and pale limbs appearing. I knew my fear was irrational. I knew it was just a movie, and the image I saw was just a regular girl with makeup and digital enhancement. I knew she wasn’t real, but she continued to stay with me and remind me that my fears traveled with me and lived inside me. A few years ago, for a reason, I can’t quite remember, my interest in horror movies outweighed by my desire to avoid them. My partner and I instituted Scary Movie Sunday, where we’d watch a horror movie in the early afternoon and pause it often to analyze it or, just as often, make fun of it. It was some kind of exposure therapy that helped me appreciate the art form, the stories being told (at least the better ones that had decent plots), and experience the thrill of terror in the comfort of daylight. One day a realization hit me: my anxiety was the ultimate jump scare. My condo has a privacy wall at the entrance, but I can still see part of the front door depending on where I’m sitting in my living room. I don’t know if this came from watching horror movies or just my neurotic tendencies, but I developed a fear of looking at the door and being startled by loud banging on the other side. Who or what would be doing the banging never came to mind. Nonetheless, I feared that sudden interruption to my quiet, planned life and threat to my carefully guarded safety.

That’s what having anxiety is like: a constant, nagging fear that something awful is going to happen. It’s hiding behind a door and waiting for that terrible moment to upend your life. When I watch a horror movie, I brace myself for the jump scare that I know usually comes. The anxiety of the wait is usually more uncomfortable to endure than the actual scare, The quieter moments that build impending dread feel like the waves of depression that can creep in and stay awhile.

Perhaps that’s how I can view the anxiety that, despite my sheer stubbornness to outlast it, still haunts me once in a while. I can face it, call it out for what it is, and remind it (and me) that it’s not real. The things I worry about usually don’t happen the way I fear they will. I’m still standing, and I have the tools and the mindset to fight the ghosts when they do threaten to haunt me. That knowledge makes things seem not so scary after all.

When I was finally diagnosed with depression, anxiety disorder, and bipolar disorder in 2010, I felt a sense of relief that my terror had a name. I could see my mental illness in the light and finally figure out a way to do battle it. Over the next ten years, I learned to live with and quiet the demons that haunted me. As for horror as a genre, I grew a real appreciation for books and movies that forced me to experience feelings I’d rather avoid. I began to love it so much that I’ve often thought about trying my hand at writing a horror novel. Perhaps that will be the ultimate exposure therapy.

THE THINGS I WORRY ABOUT USUALLY DON’T HAPPEN THE WAY I FEAR THEY WILL. I’M STILL STANDING, AND I HAVE THE TOOLS AND THE MINDSET TO FIGHT THE GHOSTS WHEN THEY DO THREATEN TO HAUNT ME At the end of 2020, which was a terrible year for humanity and for individuals, I told my partner I wanted to watch The Ring. He was surprised. He knew how badly it had shaken me and took care to skip over it and its sequels whenever we searched for movies. After the abysmal year we’d all had, I told him that why not end it by dealing with something that had tormented me since I was in my early twenties. I loved it. Knowing what would already happen, I was able to appreciate the artistry and well-done moments of horror, as well as nitpick the parts I thought weren’t done as well (the wooden dialogue being one of them). We went on, at my insistence, to watch the 2005 sequel Ring Two (hated it) and the third movie made in 2017, Rings (loved it). The next step of my own epic “Ring Cycle” is to read the original Japanese novel that started the craze, Ring by Koji Suzuki. I still dreamt about Samara after watching the movies, and as usual, I don’t think her intentions toward me were friendly, but we now had an understanding. We weren’t best friends, but we were on equal ground with each other and allowed the other one to exist in relative peace.

Melanie Gibson began taekwondo training at age ten. At age twelve she stopped taekwondo to pursue other interests, and resumed training in her early thirties. Although Melanie had academic and career achievements throughout her life, she struggled with mental illness and low selfesteem. After making some progress through psychiatric treatment and counseling, she knew she needed to do something more substantial to make lasting changes. Returning to taekwondo had always been in the back of her mind, and the timing was right. Taekwondo proved to be not only an opportunity to re-learn a beloved skill from her childhood, but also a means to build her self-esteem and confidence, and heal from old wounds Melanie is an author of the upcoming book, Kicking and Screaming: A Memoir of Madness and Martial Arts.

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Photo by BRAŇO

Is There a Line

to God? By Carmel Niland

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If we have physical DNA, then why don't we have spiritual DNA? What is a soul for anyway? These and other questions sent author Carmel Niland on a twenty-year search that took her to the furthest reaches of our world and our known history. The result is Our Spiritual DNA, a book that examines the possibility of spiritual DNA and challenges our current understanding of history, revealing a plan of how it is not only shaped by our greatest figures but by everyone else as well. After examining the lives of thousands of individuals across five thousand years, Carmel Niland saw patterns in behavior, character traits, and life purpose that allowed her to connect each individual to specific Ascended Masters. Guided by renowned mystics, she realized that, just as we carry physical DNA that shapes us across generations, we also carry an energetic code or spiritual DNA that links us back to the very source of our origins—a divine ancestry linking us directly back to God. Drawing on recorded history as well as thoroughly researched and verified channeled history, Niland explains that we all hold the God essence in us as archetypal energies. These energies are represented by 12 Ascended Masters who hold the 12 strands of our spiritual DNA. Each lifetime is chosen by us depending on what we need to learn. Thus, no matter how ordinary or extraordinary, every person on this earth is an aspect of one of these Ascended Masters. The author explores the role, energies, and essence of the 12 Ascended Masters who hold our spiritual DNA by examining various historical personalities that have been instrumental in shaping the world we live in, focusing on the master's Mother Mary and St. Germain, she depicts their archetypal energies in positive and shadow aspects of their incarnations and reveals how they stand at the beginning of the ancestral line to God. Revolutionizing the Western view of reincarnation allows one to understand your spiritual and genetic connection to God and realize that we are all one large family divinely connected across gender, race, and time.

cientists are beginning to unravel many of the mysteries and codes behind our physical world, making it easier to understand who we are. We know now that every human possesses DNA – the genetic code that makes us an individual. But, our spiritual world remains mostly incomprehensible, and the answers to the age-old questions of who am I or why am I here continue to mystify us. Over the years, as I tried to discover, who I was, I became increasingly fascinated with who everyone else was. Before long, I found myself on a quest to discover the true identity of an eighteenth-century diplomat and magician called Comte de Saint-Germain. A man who was long hidden in the shadows of the occult tradition and with whom I had become completely captivated. What began as a fascination with this alchemist became a search for buried treasure and an accidental discovery of the genealogy of God. In other words, I believe after many channeled discussions with him; I found the line to God and the real possibility that just as we have physical DNA, we all possess spiritual DNA as well. As I learned more about Saint-Germain, I became increasingly interested in what I saw at the curious links and connections between significant historical figures. Great circles of illuminated beings began to enthrall me — especially when contrasted with the darker circles of light who opposed them — Churchill and Roosevelt, who opposed Stalin and Hitler, or Sir Thomas More, who opposed King Henry VIII. I found myself asking, why do we have golden ages of enlightenment like the reign of Queen Elizabeth I surrounded by Shakespeare, Marlow, Spenser, Raleigh, Drake, and Bacon? Or of Lorenzo de Medici and his contemporaries Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, Machiavelli, and Botticelli? What created the unfettered imagination of the Romantic era with Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, and Shelley? What mysterious forces were at hand in bringing together the visionary Washington, Adams, Franklin, Paine, Hamilton, and Jefferson to found the United States of America? Or the spiritual awakening in Asia with the lives of Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Confucius: all born within fifty years of one another?

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Could it be a mere accident that people of such genius bloomed simultaneously in glorious bursts of creative energy? Or was it by design, part of a larger plan, a plan with elegance and complexity, a Divine Plan? And if so, what was that plan, and why did evil have to fit into it? Why are people born so different – some with towering intellects and creative gifts while others are born into lives where death extinguishes them almost before they begin?

and Hilarion, Pallas Athene and El Moyra, Lady Leto and Serapis Bey, and Djwahl Kuhl and Lady Fortunata. I wrote Our Spiritual DNA to help you discover who you are and what gifts, surprises, and challenges might be for you in your energetic lin

If there was evidence of a line to God, through a spiritual DNA, that exists in every one of us, how could I find it? It is said that characters who act out the human quest for self-knowledge, like Hamlet or Faust, have sooner or later dealings with angels, demons, and spirits. And I was no exception. Mysticism intrigues me. As a Catholic, that most supernatural and mystical of faiths, I was well versed in miracles, mysteries, and prophetic teachings and in the prophets who had a direct experience of God. Or others who communicated with angels like Isaiah or saints like Theresa of Avila. Through their experiences, I gained fresh insights into the human dilemma. Why not ask them or other historical characters directly for firsthand accounts of what happened to them? Surely, after their deaths, they would have all the answers and perhaps help me demonstrate spiritual DNA's existence. The question was, how? Wherever possible, I interviewed them using a channel, an obliging, disincarnate Gatekeeper who contacted them. He was a Tibetan lama who could move into other worlds, and there he would persuade famous people to participate and reveal their secrets. After researching the life stories of about five hundred people, both historical and contemporary characters with a worldwide spread of birthplaces, I found repeated patterns in these lives and, with the Gatekeeper's help, discovered the presence of twelve distinct energies that reflected their life stories. It soon became apparent that these masters brought into their lives specific qualities and purposes with each incarnation. You may be familiar with their names from your own spiritual work, but what you may not know is that every human being is an aspect of one of these energies from the very instance of their creation. These Master energies are called Mary and St. Germain, Lady Portia and Master Kuthumi, Lady Nada

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Carmel Niland is the former CEO and leader of various government agencies on gender, racial equality, human rights, and child protection in New South Wales, Australia. The author of A Darker Magic This Way Comes. Niland offers charts to help you trace your own spiritual DNA through the reincarnations of the Ascended Masters and thus discover your direct connection to the Divine. She also reveals the role of some of history's most influential figures as reincarnations of the Ascended Masters, among them Queen Nefertiti, Buddha's Mother Maya, Homer, Julius Caesar, Lao Tse, Merlin, Cleopatra, and Dante. Carmel currently lives in Sydney, Australia.

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Earth's Shell A NEW BEAUTY BRAND THAT'S GREAT FOR YOUR SKIN & THE PLANET

The American woman uses an average of 12 beauty products a day, containing nearly 200 chemicals that go largely unregulated by the FDA – according to a 2004 study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). On top of that, over 120 billion packaging units for the cosmetics industry are produced every year, making it pretty difficult for modern women to feel good about their self-care routine. Earth's Shell is a beauty brand that embraces sustainability and ingredient transparency to deliver simple, effective, and ethical skincare products. 56 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Photo by JERNEJ GRAJ

Created by Latina Cosmetologist Estefani German, Earth's Shell products are free of chemicals and toxic ingredients that harm the human body and our planet, cutting down on the carbon footprint of every order. They are formulated without parabens, phthalates, and mineral oils and are vegan, gluten-free, cruelty-free, sulfate-free, non-GMO with no harmful additives or fillers. Earth's Shell products are ethically sourced, natural, and Leaping Bunny Certified. In addition, they joined the One Tree Planted effort, planting a tree for every order. Earth's Shells' luxurious products prove you do not have to sacrifice beauty or comfort to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Rich in vitamins and essential oils, the multipurpose, all-natural collection includes detoxifying mineral-rich bath salts, a Bakuchiol and hemp facial oil, and a nourishing body oil with jojoba and jasmine. The brand is available at https://earthsshell.com

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Photo by PAULINA H. 58 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

THE MATRIX IS REAL

An Interview with Matthew Wood by Gail Torr

Matthew Wood has been a practicing herbalist for over thirty-five years. An internationally known author and lecturer in the field, he holds a Master of Science degree in herbal medicine from the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine. A professional member of the American Herbalists Guild, he is the author of several books, including The Earthwise Herbal and The Book of Herbal Wisdom. In his book Holistic Medicine and the Extracellular Matrix Matthew examines the function of the extracellular matrix, the inner ocean that unifies all our cells and controls them in a coordinated and integrated fashion. And how the extracellular matrix builds and repairs itself and how holistic therapy can be applied based on this knowledge. The cells in our bodies are not independent units. They do not control their feeding, elimination, migration, or reproduction; they are controlled by signals from the extracellular matrix (ECM) that surrounds them. This all-encompassing inner ocean unifies all our cells and holds them in a coordinated and integrated fashion. Says Matthew Wood. Revealing the stunning implications of the extracellular matrix, Matthew Wood shows how it clearly explains the actions and efficacy of holistic therapies. He explores the groundbreaking research of Alfred Pischinger, who discovered the ECM in 1975, and the role of the matrix in transmitting and enacting the genetic code, including the roles of the mitochondria, the nucleus, and ribosomes. Wood explains how modern drugs, directed at specific receptors on the cell membrane, interfere with bodily self-regulation. He details how holistic therapies modify the cell environment and strengthen the whole, bringing the body back to homeostasis and consequently offering true healing. He lives in Spring Valley, Wisconsin. www.matthewwoodinstituteofherbalism.com

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ou are a world-renowned professional herbalist with over 35 years of experience. Your new and highly anticipated book is called Holistic Medicine and the Extracellular Matrix - what is the extracellular matrix (or ECM), and why is it vital to our understanding of how the body works holistically? Thank you, Gail. The extracellular matrix (ECM) is important for a number of reasons. First, it is the foundation of physiology in the organism, from the cell to the whole being. Without knowledge of the matrix, there would be a yawning gap in our knowledge of how the organism works. This gap would be right in the middle, the focal point, the foundation for all physiological activity because the matrix provides the regulatory system for all the cells: they are completely controlled by it (feeding, elimination, migration, reproduction). The cells are not autonomous entities but act as a whole. Thus, the cell theory, for a hundred and fifty years (and still in many circles) the foundation of biology and medicine is proven to be wrong. And, at the same time, the basic premise of holism, that the organism acts on a whole entity, is now demonstrated. Despite this importance, the ECM is grandly ignored in biology and medicine or only described in a reductionist, non-holistic fashion. This is not just due to the prejudices of science against holism but derives in part because the matrix is hard to visualize. This book remedies that problem, describing the matrix both holistically and in detail, in an easy-to-visualized manner, for both the layperson and the interested professional. Your book explains that while cells are individual entities, they don't function on their own – how does the matrix regulate cells? Yes, the mechanism is called the "ground regulatory system." The cells are united by polymers (molecule-wide ' fibers') that hold a charge until there is a change (nutrition, hydration, temperature, etc.) This alters the charge on the polymers, and the change is registered simultaneously, throughout the organism, in all cells. There is a slight variation in the local matrix, from organ to organ, so that some areas are impacted more or less than others—justifying the ancient and modern, holistic and conventional idea that organs can get sick individually. Can you describe in simple terms how the extracellular matrix is involved in healing? The matrix is so all-important in the life of the cells that even aberrant cancer cells need and follow the signals received from the ground regulatory system. They usually shrivel up and die without input, leading to an important new area in cancer research. How much more so the healthy cells of the body. They require direction. I provided a chapter on wound healing because it is easier to visualize how the matrix supports local healing at the 60 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

body's surface. We can then see how it supports healing in the invisible interior as well. What is the importance of the extracellular matrix for science? Not seeing or understanding the matrix, or including it in our calculations, is like having a blind spot in the middle of our vision, keeping us from understanding the basic foundations and whole processes of physiology, cell biology, medical analysis and treatment, and holistic science and medicine. How can the discovery of the matrix affect traditional allopathic and complementary medicine in the future? This is a very good question. As Alfred Pischinger, the discoverer of the ground regulatory system pointed out, conventional therapy directs the drug to a molecular binding site on the cell wall, thus bypassing the selfregulatory system of the organism. This can only weaken self-regulation and self-healing. In other words, modern medicine is largely founded upon health-wrecking practices. In holism, so the other hand, treatment is geared to the whole—even if it can only be perceived through the symptoms, rather than the molecule-based analysis we are used to in reductionism (analysis based on the smallest part). Remarkably, science is now on the side of holism, while traditional reductionism is no longer justified as a scientific basis for medical practice. Why, if you believe the discovery of the extracellular matrix is so critical in the body's holistic healing, is the concept so little known or celebrated? Pischinger himself was a holistic physician on the staff of the medical school at the University of Vienna. He addressed this question, and his answer was simple: it is much easier, in the current intellectual environment, to think in a simplistic, cause-and-effect, linear fashion than to grasp all the parts and the whole which they form. As an artist, as well as a healer, I present it in terms of perspective. The amateur artist cannot get the correct relationship between the foreground and the background. It is the same medicine. The wrong perspective has been in vogue for so long that the vast majority of doctors and biologists simply cannot see the gaping hole in their model of biology. Holistic healers have an intuition of the truth—of the right perspective—it is time they also realized that their approach is founded on scientific reality. Not seeing or understanding the matrix, or including it in our calculations, is like having a blank spot in the middle of our vision, keeping us from understanding the basic foundations of physiology, cell biology, medical analysis and treatment, and holistic science and medicine.

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FEBE Candles The Perfect Gift for The Homeowner In Your Life

Based in L.A., FEBE Candles creates elegant home fragrances that provide a beautiful avenue for self-care. Its coconut wax candles and linen sprays refresh and reinvigorate all rooms of the home with ever-pleasant aromas that are vegan, eco-friendly, and cruelty-free. Chic and luxurious FEBE Candles offer notes of pure bliss that fill the air with invigorating aromas. The offerings make 62 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

a thoughtful gift for new homeowners and deserve a place on your table or nightstand this holiday season. Hand-poured in small batches out of L.A., this clean brand is a new player in the candle and home fragrance industries with its “gold glam jars” complement the modern decor and stand out with elegance and unique aromas. FEBE Candles is made with premium ingredients, and all offerings are vegan, eco-friendly, and cruelty-free. The gorgeous vessels are reusable for lasting enjoyment. The positive feedback has been incredible to date!

The founder is passionate about helping others on their self-care journey, creating atmospheres to host those you love. From a cozy candlelit night or a holiday gathering, the candles and sprays bring comfort and wellness to living spaces for all to enjoy. As lovely as the offerings are, consumers will be glad to know the brand gives back to local charities, including the local Elizabeth House in Pasadena that provides housing for single moms.

Here are three popular offerings from the collection. Cocoa Butter Cashmere • Already a best seller! • Scent Profile: -Top: Warm Rich Spices - Middle: Vanilla, Sweetened Coconut, Jasmine -Bottom: Sandalwood, Cocoa Butter • 12 oz coconut wax candle • Hand-poured in a reusable Gold Glam Jar • Features premium clean fragrance oils and essential oils • 45+ hour burn time • Lead and zinc-free cotton wick • $25 Man Cave • Scent Profile: -Top: Earthy Citrus -Middle Sweetened Coconut -Bottom: Rich Mahogany, Warm Vanilla, Sandalwood, Oak Moss • 12 oz coconut wax hand-poured candle • It comes in a reusable Gold Glam Jar

• • •

Features premium clean fragrance oils and essential oils with 45+ hours of burn time Lead and zinc-free cotton wick $25

Egyptian Linen & Lavender • Fresh, clean, and elegant luxury room and linen spray • A perfect mix of classy bergamot, Egyptian linen, and calming lavender • Made from premium, non-toxic ingredients • Luxury fragrance and juicy essential oils mixed to perfection with organic, gluten-free sugar cane alcohol • Safe and long-lasting, you can also wear it as a perfume or clothing spray • Price: $12.50 (1 oz. travel); $30 (4 oz.) Tobacco + Bay Leaf • Scent Profile Top : Fresh Citrus -Middle : Exotic Florals Bottom Warm Cedar, Rich Sandalwood Candle Care • 8 oz Hand Poured Candle Coconut Wax ... -------CANDLE CARE -Prior to burning your candle, trim the wick at least ¼ inch. -Keep the pool of wax free of wick trimmings and any debris at all times. -Place the candle on a stable, heat-resistant surface. -Avoid drafts, vents or air currents. -Burn for 2-4 hours each time you light the candle. -Accidents can happen, and a unattended lit candle can be a dangerous hazard. -Please make sure to look at the bottom of your candle for safety instructions

Tess Granfield is the owner and creative of a small batch candle and luxury fragrance company named FEBE. FEBE is a company built on the principles of inclusivity and human care. All products offered are non-toxic, vegan, eco- friendly, and cruelty free. Tess is also a student at ASU, working hard to always excel and balance both. After losing her job last year at the beginning of Covid, like so many others, her world was flipped upside down. Being in a crippling place of not knowing what comes next or how to even feel better, it brought her to a place of rediscovering her childhood love for candles and fragrance. FEBE is a company she hopes that can re-instill light for other people, as it has for her.

www.febecandles.com @febecandles 63 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

THE WAY I SEE IT By Joey Santos, Jr.

Dear Q

Life,

uite a bit going on lately, I see. I've been meaning to ask you about that. Anything I should prepare for today? You know how I hate surprises. You can tell me. What's the theme? Am I expecting company? How should I dress?

Am I the only one who speaks to Life as their best friend? In my opinion, Life is my best friend. I've known Life now for decades as I continue to dredge the waters in search of its many treasures that inspire me to look deeper and closer every day for the reward of one way of possibly understanding its meaning. One thing is certain, Life is always full of surprises and gladly tells you exactly as it is while getting up close and personal about it and insisting on your complete attention forbid any distraction. Remember, in this relationship there is no break time. Unlike other best friends where you can not speak or see each other for a few days, turn off your phone, or even get off the grid for a while, you know, simply detach! Nope. That's not happening here. When you detach from Life, you are DETACHED for life!

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What's that old saying? "Familiarity breeds contempt"? Try that one on Life and see what you get! There's another old saying, " Life, a funny thing." It's important to maintain humility in life, keep humble, keep a sense of humor (especially a wicked one). Life knows irony only too well! (If you want to know how much you'll be missed when you're gone, put your finger in a bucket of water and then remove it). Knowing Life is knowing yourself. In a strange way, we are one. We are to learn certain lessons from Life and a great many commitments we must make through ourselves, enabling ourselves to get the best out of "life". I keep a great many mantras in my spirit that I repeat and exercise to myself each day in gratitude. Here are a few from Max Ehrmann written in 1927 in the Desiderata: “Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.” "Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story." "Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for there will always be greater and lesser persons than yourself." "Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time." "Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism." "Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for, in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass." "Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth." "Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness."

"NURTURE STRENGTH OF SPIRIT TO SHIELD YOU IN SUDDEN MISFORTUNE. BUT DO NOT DISTRESS YOURSELF WITH DARK IMAGININGS. MANY FEARS ARE BORN OF FATIGUE AND LONELINESS." "Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here." "And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy." As I say, these are words to live by. THESE ARE WORDS TO LIVE BY! In this world we are "living" in, in this life we are blessed to have, there is no greater time than now to find our responsibility to it and honor our reflection from it. Life is my best friend. Make it yours! Find a purpose, find a reflection, use a mantra, a prayer, a reminder to be the best you can be. Dare I quote Dalai Lama, "There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday, and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do, and mostly LIVE." Namaste' (I bow to You.)

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

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BY COMMUNICARE

WE’RE TRENDING

THE WRONG WAY:

2020 Overdose Deaths Hit a New All-Time High

By Melody Madaris

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he United States has a problem— an opioid epidemic.

ed drug overdoses climbed a staggering 18 percent in the same period.

Did you know that 82 percent, or four out of five, pharmacy-filled prescriptions are opioids? Or that 2 million (6 percent) Americans over the age of 12 abuse prescriptions in a year?

In August of 2020, the American Medical Association warned that more than 40 states reported increases in opioid-related mortality. For instance, from April through June of that year, the number of fentanyl overdose deaths has increased by 133 percent.

The prescription drug epidemic is one of America’s most pressing public health problems. We want to help you learn to spot signs of prescription medicine abuse among friends, family members, coworkers, and neighbors. If we can see the signs, we can help stop addiction before it starts! Opioid Trends in the U.S. During the Pandemic Financial worries, anxiety, isolation, grief, changes, pressures at home and work, and an ongoing sense of uncertainty have become hallmarks of 2020. It’s been a tough year for most of us—and we’re probably not at our best in terms of mental or physical health. The stress and isolation have also increased substance use—or the pressure to use. Coronavirus-related social distancing and quarantining have been especially difficult for individuals with a substance use disorder and those at risk of developing one. COVID-prevention measures have forced individuals in recovery into isolation, decreasing access to treatments and opportunities for distractions from their addictions. In 2020 the sale of alcoholic beverages rose by more than 25 percent. A recent analysis of half a million urine drug tests conducted from midMarch to May 2020 by Millennium Health, a national laboratory service, also showed worrying trends, such as a 32 percent increase in non-prescribed fentanyl, 20 percent increase in methamphetamine, and a 10 percent increase in cocaine in the period. According to a national tracking system from the University of Baltimore, suspect-

The progression from prescription opioids to the use of illicit drugs is well documented. As users have migrated to illicit and far less expensive opioids, such as heroin or fentanyl, overdoses have dramatically increased. The spread of fentanyl is already unraveling years of effort aimed at reducing the number of overdose deaths. Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has stated that “Practically all the progress we made has now been reversed. And this is even before the pandemic.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdose deaths jumped 5 percent in 2019, accounting for 72,000 American deaths. We’re now facing even greater numbers. Our Black and Latin communities, which often lack access to affordable healthcare and addiction treatment, are most vulnerable. Recognizing Signs of Prescription Opioid Abuse The substance abuse epidemic has grown at an alarming rate, and we see terrifying numbers of overdose-related deaths: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drug overdose deaths are at an all-time high. In 2019, the number of people who died from a drug-involved overdose, including illicit drugs and prescription opioids, reached 70,630. In 2020, overdose deaths increased 29 percent of the 93,331 deaths recorded last year, 69,710 involved opioids.

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Photo by ELIA PELLEGRINI

Here are signs to watch for: • Lack of interest in other treatment options. Has your friend or loved one been made aware that there are alternatives to the drugs but still insists on taking the pills? •

• •

•

Complaining about vague symptoms and asserting they need more medication. A family member or friend may have been prescribed medicine some time ago but continue to talk about random symptoms to justify getting more drugs. To obtain the drug, they may engage in secretive or deceptive behavior. This may include asking to borrow money but giving a vague excuse for why. Or they may provide a questionable answer. Mood swings and other behavioral changes, such as becoming hostile or irritable. Acting extremely hyper or revved up one moment and then seeming sedated for unexplained reasons. Withdrawal from friends, family and society, especially those who have noticed a change in the person’s behav

•

ior or have expressed concerns that they may be misusing their prescription.

•

History of drug addiction. Your loved one may have a past with substance misuse and has developed a new reliance on a prescription drug.

• •

Stealing prescriptions, forging them, and other deceitful behavior. This includes getting multiple medications from more than one doctor or buying them from unreliable sources.

•

Unexplained flu-like symptoms such as joint and muscle aches, night sweats, and insomnia may be related to withdrawing from prescription medicine.

•

Using more than the recommended amount of medication. This happens when someone has developed a high tolerance for prescription medicine so that more pills are needed to achieve the desired effect.

IN SOME STATES, FIRST RESPONDERS SUCH AS POLICE OFFICERS AND EMS UNDERGO NARCAN TRAINING AND CARRY NARCAN. BECAUSE OF THE OPIOID CRISIS, THE U.S. SURGEON GENERAL HAS URGED THE PUBLIC TO ROUTINELY CARRY NALOXONE OR NARCAN, ESPECIALLY IF YOU OR A LOVED ONE ARE HIGH-RISK AS OPIOID USERS 68 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Fighting the Trend of Overdose Deaths According to DrugPolicy.org, accidental drug overdose is the leading cause of death in the U.S. for people under 50. Individuals between the ages of 25 to 44 have the highest death rates. But we as a community and as individuals can fight back against this terrifying trend by: • advocating for equal access to mental and physical health care for all, • destigmatizing the need for mental health or substance use services and • becoming trained in the prevention and reversal of overdoses. The availability of Narcan and training in its proper use is one positive step we can take against this overdose trend. You can think of Narcan like an EpiPen or CPR training: If you or a loved one are at risk of an opioid overdose, you should be equipped and know how to administer Narcan safely. How Narcan Reverses an Opioid Overdose Narcan is one of three FDA-approved formulations of naloxone, an opioid antagonist used to treat opioid addiction and as a rescue medicine for opioid overdose. Narcan works regardless of the opioid involved, meaning it can reverse an overdose whether the opioid is a prescription drug like Vicodin or a street drug such as heroin. What Happens to the Body During an Opioid Overdose? A person’s breathing slows down when they overdose on opioids. And when breathing slows, oxygen flow becomes limited. When oxygen levels fall, the heart rate and rhythm may slow down or become abnormal. The heart may stop entirely if the deprived of oxygen for too long. This oxygen deprivation may also cause brain damage and seizures. Insufficient oxygen can also cause pulmonary edema, a fluid leak that fills the lungs’ air spaces. One sign of edema is foaming at the mouth. Overloading the body with opioids can also suppress the gag reflex, making the person unable to swallow or spit. So, when the person overdoses vomit because of the excess fluid, they may end up choking. When a person overdoses, time is of the essence. Not reversing the effects of opioids in time could mean brain damage or death.

As an opioid antagonist, Narcan works by blocking the activation of opioid receptors and preventing the drug from producing rewarding effects like euphoria. But while opioid antagonists like Narcan can counter opioid dependency, the medication can also save lives thanks to its overdose reversal abilities. Narcan works regardless of the opioid involved, meaning it can reverse an overdose whether the opioid is a prescription drug like Vicodin or a street drug such as heroin. When a person overdoses on opioids, it becomes fatal when their breathing slows down, and they are without enough oxygen for 1 to 3 hours. Because Narcan reverses the effects of opioids within minutes and can last 30 to 90 minutes, the person has more time to be rushed to the ER or for emergency services to arrive. Narcan comes in two forms: a nasal spray and an injectable solution. Only a trained professional can give the injectable solution as it is administered intravenously. Narcan nasal spray is available in local pharmacies and drug stores without a prescription in many states. In some states, first responders such as police officers and EMS undergo Narcan training and carry Narcan. Because of the opioid crisis, the U.S. Surgeon General has urged the public to routinely carry Naloxone or Narcan, especially if you or a loved one are high-risk as opioid users. Overdose is Always a Medical Emergency While Narcan nasal spray is considered a safe medication, remember that an opioid overdose still requires emergency care. You should always call 911.

Melody Madaris, MRC, CRC, CMHT, EMDRII, ART, LCPC, is the assistant director of Communicare, a community behavioral health clinic serving six counties in Northern Central Mississippi. She manages more than 150 staff across seven outpatient offices, a residential co-occurring treatment facility and a mobile crisis response team. She is passionate about Communicare’s mission to help children and adults understand, manage and recover from mental health and substance use disorders. 69 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

SPIRITUAL GROWTH CHECKPOINT:

THREE EASY STEPS

TO SHIFT FROM STRESSED TO BLESSED!

By: Sherri Cortland, Jill Lebeau, and Amit West

t the heart of spiritual growth is the understanding and awareness of who we really are, the knowledge that we are an aspect of God/Goddess/Creator/ Source, and as such, we have the power to overcome our fear and create better lives for ourselves. Being conscious of who we are creates a foundation from which anything is possible, and it's this knowledge that allows us to continually increase our vibrations and live with unlimited ease. With this truth firmly entrenched in our psyche, here are three steps we can take to move forward… Step One: Stop living in fear.

A AN TI

VA LO PAV

Pho to

by TA

Making the decision to face our fears is a substantial step forward when it comes to taking control of our lives and accelerating our spiritual growth. One of the reasons that fear is able to take hold of us the way it does is because many of us try to avoid it instead of facing it head-on. We did not incarnate on planet Earth to live in a state of fear, nor did we land here to let anything have power over us. We focused our souls into these bodies to have experienced, and let's face it--Life is one unknown experience after the next. Rather than worry about the unknown, and instead of living in a state of fear, we can tap into our power and overcome the things that make us uneasy and cause us to struggle. If you feel that you have no power, let us assure you that you most certainly are a powerful being. If you fear having power, take a deep breath right now and remember who you are on a soul level—power is second nature to you. Keeping in mind that the universe gives us whatever we focus on and that we are chock full of power, it makes sense for us to stop focusing on the things we are afraid of because we will attract more of them into our lives. Here are a couple of action steps. Once you know what it is you're afraid of, examine it, recognize it, and then let it go. Stop dwelling on it. If you have trouble letting it go, try relating to it as an ally and guide, pointing you to a limited belief. Then, meditate with the intention on how to neutralize your fear. Sit down in a quiet place and ask your Higher Self to help you let go of the fear you're holding onto. Listen for advice and guidance from your Higher Self. Follow what your gut, that little voice within, says to you during your mediation. 70 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

To let your fear go, visualize it leaving you: like a bird flying south for the winter, off goes that fear. Facing fear is a choice. We can Feng Shui the fear; we can transform it moment by moment, breath by breath, and heartbeat by heartbeat. Now we're free to come home to ourselves and live our lives in peace, joy, abundance, and creativity. Step Two: Know that you are worthy of the Life you wish to lead If we don't believe we are worthy of having the Life we long for, if anywhere in our being or consciousness we don't feel worthy of how we desire to live, we will constantly get in our own way. The power of love is a very big universal deal, yet learning to love ourselves is something that many of us struggle with. We are chapters in the mind of God/Goddess/Creator/Source. We were born worthy. We were selected to be here for God/Goddess/ Creator/Source (aka ourselves) to have experienced. If we stay in a place of doubting our own worthiness, we will stall out when it comes to increasing our vibrational levels and expediting our spiritual growth. We will struggle instead of flowing and thriving with ease. Therefore, it is time to remember that there will never be another person like you. It is time to let go of any lack of worthiness you feel and take your place at the table. It is time to trust in the power of love and in the power of you. It is time to face any feelings of unworthiness you are harboring and transmute them. • •

Affirmation: I am worthy of all that I wish to live. Affirmation: I am (Your name here), and I banish (fear) from my Life.

Step Three: "With great power comes great responsibility" If this isn't a universal truth, it should be. For some of us, the thought of taking on responsibility is something that keeps us from hiding from our power. Our power is part of our being, and to move forward, to raise our vibrations requires us to take responsibility for who we are. Very often, there is fear surrounding the word respon-

sibility, and examining how we relate to this term can help us focus and transmute that fear. In a third-dimensional sense, responsibility can be easily be perceived as work or a burden. This 3-D thinking can translate into a feeling that our power is also a burden rather than a joyous gift that we've brought with us into this body. When we break the word down, we see that its true meaning is the ability to respond. To expand, to express, to experience; this is why we're here. Responding to these experiences on a spiritual level is how we learn and grow. When it comes to transcending, transforming, and expediting our spiritual growth, we will make progress more quickly by learning to view responsibility in 5-D energy. In 5-D, responsibility is about being conscious of our power and using it to bring joy to ourselves, those around us, and to our planet. Here's the bottom line: We all have the power to move from a life of struggle to the Life that we envision for ourselves. Remember that we are beings of love, not beings of fear, and direct your precious life energy towards creating a new paradigm of Heaven on Earth. You deserve no less.

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.www.Sherri-Cortland.com https://www.facebook.com/ChanneledGuidance Jill Lebeau is a spiritual psychotherapist and author of Feng Shui Your Mind: Four easy Steps to Transform Your Life rapidly. She is the co-host of The Amit West, is a transformational facilitator. Jill & Amit co-host of The Spiritual Sandbox Podcast. https://www.spiritualsandboxpodcast.com 71 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Photo by JENNY MARVIN

What is Codependency and What Can I Do About It? By Mary Joye LMHC, Codependency is often misunderstood — and under addressed. Unhealthy, codependent habits are difficult to break, and can significantly impair our ability to live authentic lives. But with the right tools, freedom from codependency is within reach. In her new book, Codependent Discovery and Recovery 2.0: A Holistic Approach to Healing and Freeing Yourself, licensed therapist Mary Joye provides practical tools to help you get your life back. With meditations, affirmations, a quick-fix chapter and easy two-column Life Lists that offer opportunities for self-reflection, the book provides an invaluable self-help experience for readers. What makes this book unique is that Joye explores not only the psychological roots of codependency, but also the neuroscience, spiritual and financial aspects. More importantly, she shows readers how to apply this knowledge to recover.

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t is said that your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness. As a codependent, your greatest strength may be compassion because you probably have a genuine desire to care for others and help them solve their problems. This is an admirable and noble trait, but if your compassion turns into a compulsion to help others while neglecting or exhausting yourself, or you have a hidden underpinning of resentment or anger when you do, you may be codependent. Have hope because you can learn to say no to others and yes to yourself, guilt-free.

The premise to the aforementioned addiction recovery model is that someone is dependent on a substance, and you have become codependent with them and are enabling them in some way. In truth, you have actually disabled them from becoming responsible for themselves. You will learn much more about how you no longer have to take the blame for anyone’s addiction here. An Excerpt is from Mary Joye’s new book, Codependent Discovery and Recovery 2.0: A Holistic Approach to Healing and Freeing Yourself.

Many of those for whom you care might cause you to believe that they are dependent on you, and some of them may be, but some are not. Most everyone, at one time or another, will have an actual dependent of some sort. These people are your responsibility, such as children, the elderly, a disabled adult, or anyone in your immediate family who needs you and lacks the ability to reciprocate. This is genuine, compassionate caregiving, not codependence. Yet, in this context, you may still burn out easily because of reticence to ask for assistance while caring for others or from doing too much for too many for too long. Caring about and for others who treat you badly is another dynamic entirely. It can also lead to an early demise from a lack of self-care and a false sense of overresponsibility or guilt. If you cringe when you receive a phone call from one of these people or organizations, you might want to examine your motives for saying yes when you mean no. This can also occur in your own home with addicted relatives, mooching roommates, or those who make you feel guilty by accessing your empathy through manipulating your feelings. If there are people in your life like this, it can cause you to give all your resources to stop them from asking and to relieve your anxiety. However, you are really giving until you give out—and this can be mentally, emotionally, and physically overwhelming. Over the long haul of your life, giving can render you the most in need with no one to help you. Most models of codependency rely heavily on a twelvestep addiction model, which is understandable but not quite comprehensive enough. This book is holistic and structured from eclectic and evidential viewpoints. It is built to teach you to learn how to live and give well in a supportive way to the body/mind/spirit trinity within you. 1. Your mind can change your thoughts. 2. Your spirit can help you believe in the possibility of change. 3. You will take physical action to achieve your goals.

Mary Joye, LMHC, is a licensed mental health counselor and regular contributor to DailyOM.com. She was interviewed in O, The Oprah Magazine in an article titled “The Greatest Love” about her prior codependency and rise from it. Formerly, she was a professional singer/songwriter in Nashville at Warner Brothers. She reinvented herself as a licensed mental health counselor at forty-five. As a writer and therapist, she helps people get in touch with their emotions. Visit her website at: winterhavencounseling.com

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Photo Courtesy by ADOBESTOCK

Peanuts for Penny A Combined Story Workbook for Children Ages Five through Nine By Linda McCain

In “Peanuts for Penny,” author McCain shares a story about three eight-year-old friends. When one of them faces a serious illness, the friends come together to raise money for her treatment. This heartwarming tale is a testament to the power of children’s imaginations without limitations, as well as the power of friendship. What sets this children’s book apart, however, is that it is also a workbook. Included are questions at the end to encourage thinking and self-reasoning. The workbook portion not only stimulates knowledge retention; it also helps children develop important critical-thinking skills. “I created these Combined Story Workbooks (CSW) to provide children with entertainment, as well as something to stimulate them academically,” McCain said. “Living in a world such as this, children need to be equipped with one of their best protections against dangers: knowledge. And reading is one of the best ways to impart knowledge to children.”

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he next day, Samantha and Zack stood by their classroom door and waited for Penny to arrive. They both held on to their poster tightly; they were excited and couldn’t wait for show-and-tell time to share their poster with the rest of the class! Samantha glanced down the hall in hopes of spotting Penny walking towards the classroom, but there was no Penny. Zack walked a little further down the hall and peeped around the corner for her, but still no Penny. Finally, they went into the classroom and took their seats. “Good morning, class,” Mr. Austin said cheerfully and looked around at his third-grade students. “This is a very exciting day for us! The day you get to share your poster with the class and tell us why you chose the picture and the colors you did for your poster! Now, who would like to get us started?”

Samantha looked at him and blinked before saying, “You told me to. You told me to speak loud and clear. So I spoke as clear and as loud as I could,” she then put on a big smile. Mr. Austin smiled. “Okay, I understand. Well, thank you, Samantha, for trying to be obedient, but I think it’s okay for you to speak a little lower.” Samantha cleared her throat again and started her poster presentation, this time speaking a little lower. She pointed out the colors she’d chosen for her poster and explained her picture of a beautiful, colorful big Oaktree. Several other students followed with their presentation, and soon it was time for lunch, and then school was over for the day. After school, Zack and Samantha jumped off the school bus and ran down the sidewalk to Penny’s house while being watched by their school bus driver, Ms. Haltz. Zack lived right next door to Penny and Samantha, two doors down from them. They stopped suddenly when they saw Penny sitting on the front porch, then took off running towards her again! There was a light fall breeze, and Penny’s long pigtails blew in the wind as she sat with a blanket covering her. Samantha sat down beside her and handed her a pack of crackers she’d saved for her from her lunch box while Zack reached in his Winnie the Pooh lunch box and pulled out a bag of peanuts for her. “Mr. Austin sent you some peanuts, Penny. He had them as part of our snacks for our special poster presentation day.”

Samantha raised her hand eagerly, and Mr. Austin called on her. “Samantha, I want you to go to the front of the room, please. Speak in a loud, clear voice, and tell us about your poster.” Samantha got up and walked to the front of the class, cleared her throat, and yelled her name to the class so loud they all covered their ears, including Mr. Austin. Mr. Austin smiled and said to Samantha, “Sam, why are you yelling your name to the class?”

Penny looked at the peanuts and said, “Thanks, Zack, but I don’t feel so good today. My head hurts, and I’m not hungry. That’s why I missed school today. Mommy took me to the doctor again this morning because I’ve been feeling so bad and missing a lot of schools. My test results were back. I heard my mom tell my dad the doctor said I needed a new kidney! My mom is going to give me one of her kidneys…weird but good, I guess. We have to wait and see what the test results say, though, to see if her kidney is a good match for me.” “A new kidney? That means you will be like new, Penny, and then you can eat again, eat all the peanuts you want!”

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“No, Sam, no more peanuts for me ever again. They are not good for me now. I felt better than I did this morning and asked Mommy if I could sit on the porch to get some fresh air. She just went in to get me a glass of water.” Penny paused and looked at her friends. “I’m starting to feel bad again, so I better go in now.” Zack and Samantha hugged Penny, then told her they would see her later. When Zack got home, he rushed in the door then stopped suddenly when he heard his mother talking on the phone. “Poor little Penny. Lorna told me she took her to the doctor again today. She has been so sick. Well, it turns out the poor dear needs a kidney transplant. Lorna called me a little after they got in from the doctor. She was so upset! Said even though she may prove to be a match and can give her daughter one of her kidneys, they can’t afford to pay for the kidney transplant. The transplant will cost over four-hundred-thousand dollars!” Zack started to feel sad for Penny, and he wanted to help her but didn’t know-how. He was too little to work, he thought to himself, and he only got one dollar a week for his allowance. He thought about Samantha; she would help. He also thought about his older brother Mark, who had a YouTube channel and seemed to make a lot of money. The next day at school, Zack and Samantha approached Mr. Austin and told him Penny was sick and they wanted to help her. Mr. Austin looked at them sadly and said, “Yes, I’m afraid Penny is very sick, and now her parents will have to pick up her lessons and take them home for her to work on.”

Photo Courtesy by ADOBESTOCK

“We want to raise money to help Penny get a new kidney. She needs to get a new kidney put in her body so she can feel better. We want to sell peanuts for Penny. She can’t eat them now, but she loves them, so we can sell them to help buy her a new kidney,” Samantha said excitedly.

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“Samantha, Zack…you are so young, and while I think it’s very kind of you to want to help Penny, I think it’s best you leave it up to her parents and the grown-ups to do what they can to help Penny’s family raise money for her kidney transplant.” Samantha looked at Mr. Austin with pleading eyes and said, “Please, Mr. Austin, will you help us sell peanuts for Penny to help her get a kidney…please?” Mr. Austin looked at Samantha and just could not say no. “Okay, Sam and Zack, if your parents agree to us doing this, then I will help you.” That evening, when Mr. Austin got home, he called a parent of every child in his classroom after Samantha and Zack’s parents agreed to the “Peanuts for Penny Drive” to help pay for Penny’s kidney transplant. Mr. Austin looked at Samantha and just could not say no. “Okay, Sam and Zack, if your parents agree to us doing this, then I will help you.” That evening, when Mr. Austin got home, he called a parent of every child in his classroom after Samantha and Zack’s parents agreed to the “Peanuts for Penny Drive” to help pay for Penny’s kidney transplant. He told them they were going to do a peanut drive to raise money for Penny and asked them to donate bags of peanuts to sell. It was a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon. Parents, teachers, classmates, and members of the community showed up at the Huntington Community Center of their neighborhood to support the Peanuts for Penny Drive! Zack and Samantha were allowed, with the help of their parents, to organize and lead the drive. Mr. Austin thanked everyone for coming and called Zack to the center of the large area to give a short opening speech to get the event started. Zack cleared his throat and read his speech in a loud voice.

“Good afternoon; thank you for coming today to support Peanuts for Penny. Our friend Penny is not feeling well, and we want her to get better. My mom said, ‘We may be little, but we have a big heart, and that is the only thing that matters because Penny just needs people with a big heart that are willing to help her right now.’ We are selling bags of peanuts for Penny to help her family get money for a kidney transplant. My friend Samantha and I are selling bags of peanuts for a dollar. Please buy a bunch of them so we can make a bunch of money for Penny to not be sick anymore. Thank you.” The crowd broke into loud and thunderous applause with cheers for Zack’s speech and he and Sam’s courageous and determined effort to help their friend even though they were young children. There were three large tables with bags and bags of peanuts to sell. Parents chipped in and donated sandwiches, and desserts include cotton candy, candy apples, and pumpkin pie. There was also a popcorn stand and several stands set up with cold drinks.

Some of the teenagers organized a hayride and set up a dunking booth to add to the event and make it more fun. Penny sat with a paper tiara on her head, made by Samantha for her special day. Penny’s parents sat beside her and smiled happily, grateful for the love and support being shown to Penny and their family. By six-thirty, everyone was tired and started to head home. Some stayed behind to help clean the community center, pack up the food, and take down the games. At home, that night, Zack and his family counted up the money raised that day for Penny as a result of the Peanuts for Penny Drive.

Linda McCain is the original creator of the “Combined Story Workbook” (CSW) for children, written to not only entertain, but to stimulate academically and promote safety awareness. McCain, a cross-genre writer, is also the author of My Father, My Son, celebrating the strength of family and the importance of loyalty and friendship, and One Bad Decision, a thrilling murder-mystery set in the nation’s capital. Her love for writing started in college, where she majored in Secretarial Science and wrote poetry in her spare time. It was then that she submitted her first article to Essence Magazine on “The Cruelty of Child Abuse.” McCain is currently working on her next children’s book, titled Goodnight, Mr. White. To learn more about the author and her book, please visit: www.lindamccain.com blog at www.letstalkbookswithlinda.com.

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Photo by BEN WHITE 78 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e NOVEMBER 2021

Thriving with

during the Holidays Grace and Gratitude By Shelly Wilson

ecember’s arrival may stir up feelings of days gone by as well as worries related to holidays. As we recognize, the holiday season can be a very stressful time for a lot of people. This stress may involve shopping for gifts and the associated financial aspects as well as the interaction with family during get-togethers. A gamut of emotions may arise as we reflect on previous holiday experiences and even remember loved ones who are no longer with us in physical form.

on your breath, allow any extraneous thoughts to gently and easily move through your mind. Know that there is nothing pressing at this moment that needs your attention. Allow yourself to become fully present, right here, right now.

As always, we do have the power within us to create the reality we seek, and that does include setting our intentions for a peaceful holiday season. Instead of feeling stressed and overwhelmed, we can consciously and intentionally choose how we wish to feel as we approach any interaction or experience. The following words will guide you in grounding and centering your energy, which will help you feel more balanced, stable, and focused.

We’ll begin with visualizing your legs as tree roots growing deep within the earth to ground your energy. These intentional energetic roots are extending upwards into your root chakra, and a vine is wrapping around your legs, anchoring your energy to Mother Earth. This vine continues to extend upwards into your sacral chakra, your solar plexus chakra, and into your heart chakra. Pure white light is flowing downwards into your crown chakra, into your third eye chakra, into your throat chakra, and is now resting in your heart chakra. You are now grounded to the earth below and to the light above.

To begin, take a moment and breathe in deeply. As you focus

Envision beautiful emerald green energy at your heart and begin intentionally breathing in the energies of peace, love, ease, compassion, and unity as you exhale any heavier, lower vibrational emotions, including fear, worry, or doubt.

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Next, bring your awareness to your abdominal area, which is your solar plexus chakra. This is your power center. This energy center can be affected by the energies surrounding you. Centering involves connecting to the peace within. To do so, visualize white light at your core and then see that white light shifting to yellow as you take a few conscious breaths. This intentional shift of color reminds you that you are a confident, courageous, and empowered being with the ability to make conscious choices. As you attain and maintain the peace within, know that you can respond rather than react to external circumstances. The power lies within you. Once again, breathe in deeply as you exhale audibly while basking in the peace, love, and gratitude you feel in this moment. Be mindful of your breath as you become aware of your physical body. Know that you are love, and you are loved. And so it is. Practicing self-love and self-care every day and not just during the holiday season will create a ripple effect throughout our life. Rather than isolating yourself from others, consciously choose to empower and honor yourself with your choices. Since you are mind, body, and spirit, it is essential to take care of your physical and energetic health as well as your mental/emotional well-being. Rather than simply survive, you can actually thrive during this time with grace and gratitude. In addition, here are a few tips to energetically assist you with having a conscious and stress-free holiday season: Tip #1 - Be Here Now Become aware if you are dwelling in the past or constantly thinking about the future. Now is where we create. Spending time in the reflection of past experiences and considering our future is part of our human life experience. We just don’t want to miss out on the present moment. Tip #2 – Just Breathe Breath is life-force energy. We breathe naturally/autonomously. When we breathe consciously, we have the ability to modify the energy within ourselves, which, in turn, can affect the energy around us. As you deem necessary, intentionally become aware of your inhalations and your exhalations. Breathe in peace, love, ease, and compassion, and then exhale fear, worry, and doubt. When you are feeling anxious, overwhelmed, stressed, uncertain, or just a bit wonky, remember just to breathe! Tip #3 – Invest in You Take time for yourself and honor your emotions. Choosing to make yourself a priority is essential. Practicing self-love and self-care are extremely important for our physical health and mental/emotional well-being. 80 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Intentionally investing time and energy in your wellbeing will benefit you and those around you. Tip #4 - Honor your Emotions In each moment, allow yourself to feel the emotion as it arises. You have to feel it in order to heal it and clear it. Rather than setting the feeling aside for later when it’s more convenient for you to feel it, begin a practice of honoring the emotion at the moment. Your mind, body, and spirit will thank you! Tip #5 – Don’t Take Things Personally What other people say and do is a reflection or projection of their own personal reality. The same is true for you. Communicate clearly to the best of your ability, and don’t take things personally. Tip #6 – Cocoon for Clarity In essence, cocooning involves pulling your energy in as you become more aware of energy drains, whether it be people, places, or things. Gather your energy and intentionally bring it back to you. Tune in and listen to the guidance you are receiving. Cocooning may also involve resting/sleeping and establishing boundaries. Tip #7 - Strive for Balance Take time for yourself as you take time for others. Balance work with play, balance giving with receiving. There is no need to assign a ratio for the balance. Simply choose to recognize when adjustments may be necessary. Tip #8 – Be Thankful Gratitude assists with the flow of abundance. Being grateful for the blessings within the challenges is essential as well. As often as you can, choose to express your gratitude for that which you are thankful for.

Shelly Wilson is an author, intuitive medium and conscious creator who is passionate about helping people wake up to their greatness. She supports others as they navigate their own journey into consciousness to experience aliveness. Shelly’s books, 28 Days to a New YOU, Connect to the YOU Within, Journey into Consciousness and Embracing the Magic Within are available in paperback and eBook. She is also the creator of Cards of Empowerment and Clarity Cards. ShellyRWilson.com EmbracingTheMagicWithin.com

HOW

MEDITATION

CAN

DESTRESS By Jayita Bhattacharjee

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e sink into stress and anxiety when we become unable to handle the pressures and the adverse situation in our everyday living. So the question comes to, how do we supply the emotional resources given the increasing demand for it? We feel an immediate need to respond to the stressors as they become more challenging. But the question is, as you are stressed out, is a response necessary? So, how is stress management done? The interaction of demand and supply of emotional resources is the area where mindfulness meditation steps in for stress and anxiety management. It is the feeling that lingers long after the stressors are gone, which can be very relieving. How does meditation provide relief? How does it release the stress? It provides us the space to determine which of the feelings, emotions, energy, and attention are very demanding and, therefore, valid stressors and which are not. It is the ability to differentiate between the two that can make our experience very different. You feel immediate pressure when you suffer from the shortage of space in your mind and life. But you experience immediate relief when a meditative act gives you the space and clarity that you do need to sort out. This can be defined as the demand side aspect of stress management. The other key element is to look at the supply aspect of emotional resources. As per the scientific findings, brain plasticity, the brain’s ability to change and adjust, its characteristic feature to adapt throughout life brings in extraordinary goodness and relief. By engaging in meditation techniques to direct our minds, we see an increase in our mental resources, which puts us in a better position to handle a stressful situation. We become capable of meeting what is needed. Just as we have become very conscious of having a healthy body, it would be equally necessary to have a healthy mind. As you engage yourself in a mindfulness meditation act, clarity comes to your clouded mind, and you become potent and capable. That enables you to handle demanding situations very effectively. From this perspective, meditation for stress reduction allows you experience a calmer life. Stress Reduction….When you experience a stressful situation in your life, meditation prevents your

mind from getting out of control, such as the loss of a loved one or a failed relationship. As they create a spiral of high stress, they become demanding and challenging for you. Or even the challenging situation at the workplace can be very demanding, so meditation can provide immediate relief at that critical point. It gives you a better grasp of how to handle the situation, provides you with a heightened awareness of your emotions, and offers you more space to respond. For example, when you grieve for someone, you become aware of what is going on in your mind, and consequently, the process of grieving puts you in a better position to process your sadness and grief. But if you are unaware, then your emotions will tend to color your judgments and perception and exaggerate a situation much more than it is. It stretches your sense of what the situation demands of you, and the entire thing gets inflated or blown out of proportion. So, it is perceived to be beyond our means to handle. And that is when it turns to be the insidious cycle of stress. This is where meditation comes in to reduce stress. You begin to immerse in meditating, and it creates a space in your mind by reducing the demands as you learn to discern what is essential. This sense of distinguishing makes it seem less compelling than before. In the process, you develop skills you need to work with your emotions. So you grasp the reality of valid stress compared to inflated stress. So, handling the stress can be done peacefully. In this context, mindfulness meditation can be very instrumental in stress handling. The perception of stress and how can that be altered during meditation. Through authentic meditation practices, an alteration is possible in our perception of stress. The essential question is, how do we react to stress? To answer this, stress spans a range of reactions to sudden and unwelcome situations, which are unpredicted and go beyond our control. And the normal human reaction ranges anywhere from anxiety to panic. When stress takes over people, it influences the body and minds inevitably. It is the feeling of being pressured of having to handle challenging circumstances, and you become overwhelmed. When the suffering crosses the line, you reach out for help.

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MINDFULNESS MEDITATION

CAN BE VERY HEALING. THIS AWARENESS IS THE

ESSENTIAL KEY TO BEING IN THE HERE AND NOW. IT IS TO BE AWARE OF EVERY THOUGHT, ACTION, FEELING, EMOTION AND MOMENT-TO-MOMENT INTERACTION,SOUNDS, SMELL, AND SO ON.

Numerous research findings have confirmed that specific meditation techniques can lead to stress reduction and assist us in coping with it efficiently. The truth is, meditation can alter the way you relate to stress. You experience ‘tolerable’ stress when you perceive that a circumstance gets very demanding and is greater than your emotional availability, your ability to combat. That’s when the situation gets overwhelming, and stress gets its grip on you. ‘Intolerable’ stress can result when your resources to combat the stress are greater than the demands of an unwelcome situation. So you are willing to let yourself stretch a little further. Maybe because you perceive that the stress can be handled without it impacting you profoundly, so whether it is ’tolerable’ or’ intolerable’ stress, it all depends on the perception.

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There are certain types of stress which actually motivate us, drive us to make us grow, and go beyond our comfort zone. We are comfortable in stretching ourselves beyond the limiting boundaries as we perceive it as ‘needed’ stress which is essential if we want to go for a personal transformation. From this perspective, the stress mechanism has two aspects. How do you appraise it? How do you handle it? In other words, it is….How do you respond? How do you react? If the gap between our thinking and our needing to do something in the context of that stress isn’t too large, then we can handle that stress. But if it is otherwise, then you fail to handle that stress. That’s where meditation can assist you. When you practice meditation, it alters the perception of things, as you are no longer so actively engaged with them. You do not necessarily obsess with things or situations anymore—your identity changes. You undergo a transformation in your identity. It causes a distance between you and your problems. Consequently, you are less caught up in a stressful situation. You are not that much trapped in its emotions anymore. The problems that seemed like a mountain are then perceived as a lot more manageable. The process of meditation teaches you to learn how to observe the entire picture from a safe distance. You are no longer in the vicinity of it, emotionally. It allows you to evaluate a stressful situation with considerable detachment.

You realize that you can walk even further. You can break free of the habit of viewing these situations as blocking obstacles and begin to perceive them as challenges. You no longer try to see it as a disturbing element and just simply be comfortable all the time. As if you do, it will not take you to the growth area. But if your vision is to grow as a human being, then you might perceive it differently. Whatever stands in your way ultimately becomes the way. An obstacle might be recognized as a learning opportunity, where you may learn to outgrow your discomfort and fear, so you can know yourself better and be transformed. So, what changed? It’s the shifting of our perspective. Shifting the perception of a problem into a challenge makes the needed difference in how we assess a situation. Now, how do you evaluate your resources? Most often times, we are ignorant of how far you can go, what your limitations are, and the maximum extent to which you can stretch yourself. The truth is, when you engage in meditative practices, it brings you closer to reality as you are more in contact with yourself; you are in touch with your soul, your highest Self. Distractions do not easily pull you away. You have clarity in your vision. You are gaining practical wisdom as to what would be your real strength. Your assessment of your resources becomes realistic. When meditation becomes a part of your life, the capacity to concentrate gets strengthened. As a result, you can cope by solving that problem. The problem-solving abilities become much more accurate as your attention is grounded there. There is no deviation. Your mind is not pulled any other way. Consequently, you become more competent in trying to tackle that situation and come out triumphant. In addition, your capacity to regulate your emotions improves as well. As that directly results from meditation which makes you emotionally stronger. Numerous neuroscientific findings have proved it. Meditators handle a stressful situation better as they become less reactive to emotional stimuli. Instead of being reactive, they become responsive to it. They no longer cling to it emotionally. So, the way they cope with their emotions makes them much more practical and proficient. Their stress level drops, and they become less agitated. Being calm and cool, they can handle the crisis efficiently. Mindfulness meditation can be very healing. This

awareness is the essential key to being in the here and now. It is to be aware of every thought, action, feeling, emotion and moment-to-moment interaction, sounds, smell, and so on. An important aspect of mindfulness is to be absolutely non-judgmental. It comes when you allow yourself to accept just the way it is. To just sit with your emotions, thoughts, and feelings, no matter how they come, pleasantly or unpleasantly, whether they are welcome or unwelcome. Mindfulness has tremendous potential because it helps us self-regulate, and our resilience gets built up. Mindfulness can impact the ruminations that lead to anxiety and depression. e.g., when negative thoughts repetitively surface in our minds, we become depressive, and mindfulness cuts down all that by asking you to be attentive to the present moment. Mindfulness silences those voices and helps us focus on what is going on in the here and now. Additionally, it strengthens your memory. It downregulates adrenaline, adrenaline, and cortisol. Additionally, it lowers inflammation and strengthens the immune system. From this perspective, mindfulness can be a non-pharmacologic, therapeutic intervention. That’s where the power of mindfulness is. This way, we cease to be reactive and return to the present moment. Grieving ceases, and healing begins in the act of meditation.

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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RECLAMING YOUR TRUE SELF By Angela Dunning

Reclaiming

Our Unlived

Life “I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.”

Photo by AHMET SALI

~ Dawna Markova

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here comes the point, often when we reach mid-life, where we see with clearer eyes all of our wasted potentials. Those blazing opening lines of Dawna Markova’s elegant poem I Will Not Die an Unlived Life, burn us to the core as we recognize ourselves in her fearless, and I imagine, also fearful determination and statement of intent. All of our unlived life so far still lies before us, in serious danger of withering away, day by day. This moment of profound recognition is exactly when we need to turn what Gabor Maté calls “nonjudgmental, compassionate curiosity” towards ourselves and allow our tears of sadness and grief for our unlived life to fall, tumbling down our cheeks to release what never was and to revitalize us for what can still be. This is nothing short of reckoning with our life-todate and past, including our accomplishments and perceived failures. A reassessment of where our fear has held us captive kept us small and safe and stopped us from pursuing our dreams and callings, where we’ve allowed others to channel us in a certain direction, where we’ve allowed ourselves to take the easy route or the more socially acceptable one. And where we’ve bent to external pressures and listened to inner, critical voices and commands which keep us restricted and acceptable to others. It’s easy to reach this point and slide into despondency or depression as we viscerally feel our life’s time clock ticking with more urgency. Yet, this is also the moment when we can grasp a sense of urgency and utilize it in order to manifest all that we still wish to experience and achieve. As part of this process, though, we must also give ourselves permission to grieve for our unlived lives.

train, or begin the creative pursuit we’ve always longed to explore. I’ve known courageous women retrain in their 60’s and even their 70’s, as they follow a deep calling in their soul: something must be pursued before it’s too late. We can always keep learning and growing. We are adaptable creatures, and the longheld beliefs that it’s all downhill from midlife onwards are finally starting to crumble with each new generation and as life expectancy has increased.

IT’S EASY TO REACH THIS POINT AND SLIDE INTO DESPONDENCY OR DEPRESSION AS WE VISCERALLY FEEL OUR LIFE’S TIME CLOCK TICKING WITH MORE URGENCY. YET, THIS IS ALSO THE MOMENT WHEN WE CAN GRASP A SENSE OF URGENCY AND UTILIZE IT IN ORDER TO MANIFEST ALL THAT WE STILL WISH TO EXPERIENCE AND ACHIEVE Midlife can thus be a time of replenishment, of new life, in fact. It can be a big turning point full of new starts and beginnings but from a very different position. We are now older, wiser, bear more scars, and, hopefully, more insight into the truth of who we are and the truth of what we have been through to get here. Now we can gently guide ourselves towards that which really fills up our heart and soul, as we learn to companion ourselves with grace after so many years of refusing the call from deep within. * The extract of the poem by Dawna Markova is taken from her book I Will Not Die an Unlived Life: Reclaiming Purpose and Passion.

There is a lot of sadness involved and perhaps grief too, as we acknowledge and accept the unlived life we leave behind in the wake of our first half of life… It can be helpful during this hugely transformative time of life to employ a coach or therapist to help guide us as it can be a very tricky transition, with a tumult of feelings, regrets, and fears for the future. A supportive other can help us discover and unearth our as yet untapped true potential and find new ways to harness what truly makes our heart swell and brings new and richer meaning to our lives. It is never too late to start again, learn new skills, re-

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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The Healthstyle Emporium Sasha Gary

T T E L ING GO

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s we go through our daily routines day in and day out, it's easy to forget our dreams. You get so caught up in the mini-dramas in daily life, trying to get through the day.

Can you remember back at a time when you were a child, lying in the grass looking up at the sky, the clouds, watching the birds fly by, and listening to the sounds of nature? Not having a care in the world, other than being home at a certain time for dinner, as we begin to slow down to the end of the year, let's look through our lives like the eyes of a child. We were going back to our innocence and remembering our dreams. You can create the life of your dreams at any age. You are making new dreams come true! If you have lost your goals, what else would you like to do? So you begin to wake up each day inspired and excited about life again. When you know your values, what interests you, what are your hopes and dreams! That's how you create your vision! Creating your life by design, does that seem far-fetched to you? Then think bigger! Stop thinking so small. If you can dream it, you can achieve it! I love experiencing something new and asking the universe for more like the universe is my Alexa! I've been manifesting my big dreams! Dreams so big they will blow your mind. My dream car is a Jaguar! I didn't know it was my dream car until recently. I saw it at The Peterson Automotive Museum, and every car I fell in love with was a Jag. The next thing I knew, I kept seeing Jags everywhere! Then, I met my friend for sushi one evening, and he offered to drive me home, and I sat in the Jag! I knew in that moment I sat in the passenger seat my manifestation was coming true and closer to my reality. This is why the power of thinking big and dreaming big is so important. It gives your brain a place to focus and go after. My brain kept seeing Jaguar, and I got into a Jaguar. As we get closer to the new year, what will be your focus? Forget the past! The past is done. Look towards your future, your vision. Before bed, I visualize my life. The more you dream, the more you can help others too! Your spark, your light, your energy will excite them as well. I wish you the most amazing 2022 and a better mental attitude to help you thrive in your everyday life. Let's be kinder and have more compassion for one another and what we have all been through the past two years. Let's be lighter, more focused, more present in our lives and our family's life. The vision you create for yourself is a piece of the puzzle in the larger vision of this universe. The more intentional you are, the more aligned you will become. Every day I see all of the hummingbirds that fly into my tree. They are the sweetest bird on the planet. The hummingbird symbolizes joy, healing, good luck, messages from spirits. Hummingbirds are powerful and have positive energy! They bring a smile to my face and pure joy to my heart. Channel the hummingbird into your soul each day; let the hummingbird be a reminder to you to live in a state of positive energy and inspire those around you.

Sasha Gary is Gratitude Life Coach. actress, and writerin The Healthstyle Emporium www.theHSE.net. at is a 16 week online health program for women that shows you how to implement small sustainable changes one by one to help you with whole food nutrition, self-love and a conscious movement. Sasha is a yogi of 25 years, a crystal healer, and an avid sound bowl meditation participant and lives in Venice California! 89 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

90 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e NOVEMBER 2021

91 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e NOVEMBER 2021

HUMAN POTENTIAL

THE UNFOLDING OF A UNIVERSE By michael

uman potential is this a thing, and if so, what could be the benefit for you, me, and then there are the masses. Let’s not forget, we also have this round ball we know very little about under our feet. There is a short video of the plants that have had enough and decided to reinstate the balance on the planet. Do you think our driven mindset potential; will be of any use if this comes to pass? For centuries, scholars worldwide, from all cultures, have tried to establish some meaning of who these human beings are. How do they function, and what can we do to improve their system, be healthier, live longer, and develop a way in which humans can live with one another on a global scale. One wonders if this is even possible, considering their past history. Basically, in a nutshell, that’s all we are, a system within systems. Over time it’s proved to be the never-never ending of all stories. Throughout history, there have been many who have attempted to discover those still in hiding human secrets, which has eluded the best of our best. All one has to do is look around; the Human mindset has laden mankind with its untold variations;

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thus far, there exist a thousand road maps to represent who we think we are. And now, we, you, mankind, move towards another road map, a new era representation? Those so-called primitive beings of yesteryear used ancient symbols to describe the workings of this universe to help educate the people on how to function within their encompassing universe. Today we see the exact same symbolism replicated; this allows a program to function on a computer. Now again, we see these exact same symbols are also, the language used to validate Quantum Science. The number zero is the equivalent of a Yin broken line (- -), and the number one is the representation of a Yang solid line (---). Everything is as it has always been; today, we just make up newer versions for advancement or to just satisfy some human mind, playing at predictability. Only to then go on and pretend we jumped out of the box! When one’s ponders the depth of simplicity, it’s not from the progressive evolution of thoughts as previously assumed. It is none other than an unknown natural internal process, sifting through the mass collection of, over time, accumulated knowledge. Then transmuting an end result through what has been, crudely up till now, been labeled as feelings.

It’s a phoenix rising from the ashes, so to speak; it’s our AHA moments that free the human from the past onward to the next playing field of one’s independent living experience. Next, what begs the question is, do we move on from the past, or are we stuck, continually revolving in the same color? Is it circles or cycles? It’s unfortunate we haven’t recognized the exact same colored cycles, appearing different in today’s modern world, trick one into believing our independent world circumstances have changed. As long as we live in this environment, which is made up of a sequential series of laws, predetermined before humanity arrived, one has to consider, how can the past not be the future dressed up wearing a different king’s costume? Therefore it’s difficult to imagine that anything can function outside of these so-called natural laws while still living within this earth bubble, unless… Have you ever wondered which direction is progression? Now you may understand why this unanswerable phrase continues to haunt mankind throughout time. Is it the chicken or the egg, which came first? All thoughts, feelings, functions, and the way we perceive other humans are through a logical process. When one thinks with our human mindset, it’s called tunnel-vision. The end result for any independent being is to serve only the one doing the thinking. The greatest catchphrase ever created, you have heard it said a thousand times, “this was designed and created to help save a million people”, and you are so lucky, during this week only, do we have a special just for you, buy three and save! It has never been any other way, lucky us. We were all born preconditioned, we play both roles as seller and a buyer. Does something else exist; have we got it completely wrong? There has to be a different way; some hidden secret process must exist within this earthly construct, which mankind has yet to figure out. Hopefully, it’s something other than this massive self-created evolution of dog eats dogs. We definitely made a left-hand turn way back when and missed the bigger picture entirely. Ah, such is life; one lives in amazing satisfaction, as we travel through our universe with open eyes, unawares, via one’s constant recalculated vision of logical perceptions?

When logic functions via a single dimension life is set in stone. Are we not multi taskers therefore life appears as being multi directional. The universe is Absolute Life Living is Absolute. And then, we are told to choose one of these human versions, all lined up in a row, ready for us to begin the next transition. Are we like horses wearing multi-colored jockeys on our backs, or is it one’s colored past on our backs at the starting gate, fully aware there exists only one, first prize. Have you ever considered this term, Isness? What a strange and delightful little word? For centuries now, we have lived, functioned as automatics, thanks to the human’s reactive state of mind. If we moved to a proactive state of mind, being proactive almost sounds like a sales pitch, this world, our world, would look entirely different. Where to next, it’s hard to fathom. There are so many versions in the ether at the moment, bombarding us from every angle; no wonder confusion reigns supreme. Anxiety has found a niche in our human physic, and the red button has been pushed by many. What happens when a volcano goes off? It’s communicating something in a language we don’t yet fully understand. When anxiety goes off in our bodies, it’s communicating something we don’t yet understand. Although for now, we squash it down until the next episode. If we follow the same process with our partners, in the not too distant future, we have an eruption called divorce on our doorstep. You could call these an “Isness” as all three exist as undisputed facts. Become the sky. Take an axe to the prison wall Escape. Walkout like someone suddenly born into color. Do it now. ~Rumi Whatever the crises one faces, there will only ever be one of two choices, we either face it head-on, and our evolution continues. In the second option, we circumnavigate the “Isness” reality, and the potential human mindset creates an alternate world to live in, and the beat goes on. Consider this; virtual reality is the future existence of human potential; it’s safer and easier to deal with, as we are always the winner, virtually.

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HIGH ROAD TO HUMANITY By Nancy Yearout

Photo by ANNIE SPRATT

From Your Hands to Their Heart

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s the Holidays approach, the question arises, what gift do I give to my loved ones this year? What can I give them that will be remembered in their hearts for years to come? The answer was that the gifts that have meant the most to me and have withstood the test of time are handmade. The gifts that came from the heart. It is the ornament that someone took the time to create with their hands just for my tree or the handprint of a child imprinted in plaster of Paris sprayed with gold paint. These are a few of my favorite things. I have learned over time that it is the little things that we make with our hands and the gifts that come from our hearts that are treasured the most.

HESE ARE A FEW SIMPLE GIFTS THAT COME FROM THE HEART THAT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN ANOTHER’S LIFE. THIS IS THE ONE TIME OF YEAR WHEN WE SHOULD STOP AND TAKE THE TIME TO DO SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR OTHERS People remember when you take the time to bake cookies, candy, and treats for the holidays. The time and effort you take, and the love you pour into the baking create the magic. I mean, have you ever been given a fruit cake and thought what? The time that goes into making a real fruit cake is months in preparation. My grandma would start early with the process and pour rum on the cake wrapped in cheesecloth. These are memories that you just don’t forget. The old-fashioned Christmas traditions that are held dear in our hearts. As the world seems to spin out of control, there are a few traditions that we can carry on to the next generation to keep our world steadfast. Such as the reading of the night before Christmas to the children before bed and hanging the stockings with care. Some traditions never die, like caroling throughout your neighborhood to bring the joy of song to those who may not be able to get out this holiday season. You are giving a little bit of Christmas spirit to

the world with a song by using your voice to uplift others. These are a few simple gifts that come from the heart that will make a difference in another’s life. This is the one time of year when we should stop and take the time to do something special for others. It’s the perfect time to visit an elderly relative or to call them and say hello, I love you, and I remembered you this holiday season. Love is the cure for all the world’s problems, and I am hopeful that this holiday season that if we each take the time to do something with our hands to create love, we will make a difference. Make something beautiful for another person that comes from your heart. Paint them a picture, create a wreath for their door, a homemade card will do just fine. No gift purchased can be as precious as the one from your hands to your heart. Happy Holidays from my heart.

Nancy Yearout is the voice behind the popular podcast High Road to Humanity. www.HighRoadtoHumanity.com On YouTube and Bit chute, you will find her video presence on Nancy Yearout’s High Road to Humanity. This is the platform that she uses to interview experts from across the globe in various fields of expertise, health, religion, energy healing, yoga, dream experts, astrologers, mediums, psychics, and seekers of the truth. She is the author of Wake Up! The Universe is Speaking to You. Nancy is a psychic empath and an energy healer offering assistance to all who seek the truth. You can book a session with Nancy on her website to ask her questions. She will provide insight to enhance your journey in life and guide you in creating your dreams. www.NancyYearout.com. Nancy is an Inspirational speaker and will book by appointment. Nancy is also the owner and qualifying broker of a real estate company in New Mexico. Nancy will bless your home or land. Visit her website to book an appointment. 95 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e NOVEMBER 2021

Abundance Corner By Phyllis King

HOW TO

FIND

OUR PLACE

in the Universe

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hat is my place in the universe? Where do I fit? We discover this answer in the process of mastering the balance between our own ego and humility. It is in our ability to discern the inner voice speaking wisdom versus our desire to hear what we want to hear that we find our place in the universe.

frailty and vulnerability bravely. In that, find a way to feel the interconnectedness of life and reach for awareness of a greater reality than what we can see touch, taste, and feel. When we do that with sincerity, suddenly, there are no longer any borders. The rules change. Our intuition begins to get louder and more reliable. We find ourselves drawn to things, people, and opportunities that empower and delight us.

The desire to hear what we want to hear is so intense. It does not matter if it comes from our own mind, a mentor, or another source. If it is what we want to hear, we cling to it. We rush toward it. It is compelling.

THE DESIRE TO HEAR WHAT WE WANT TO HEAR IS SO INTENSE. IT DOES NOT MATTER IF IT COMES FROM OUR OWN MIND, A MENTOR, OR ANOTHER SOURCE. IF IT IS WHAT WE WANT TO HEAR, WE CLING TO IT. WE RUSH TOWARD IT. IT IS COMPELLING.

There are two directions that drive these compulsions where we become very confused. They are both rooted in insecurity. Human beings are terribly insecure no matter how confident we appear. The smallest thing can set us back in our day-to-day. Big things can derail our lives completely. We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to satisfy the hunger of insecurity to somehow believe we will be okay, even though we know we will have to transition out of our bodies at some point in life. That reality is inescapable. In the first direction, we think we are small, unworthy, and incapable. We say to ourselves, “Who am I to think I can achieve, or have or do such a thing?” “I’m nobody!” Or we go to the other extreme and think we are so special in the eyes of God that we are simply waiting for the call when the gigantic thing we think life has planned for us will arrive. Both positions make us vulnerable. They distance us from our place in the universe. They are both false. If our self-concept is poor, we are easy prey manipulated by our hunger for acceptance and positive reinforcement. We will hang our hat on anything that remotely resembles positivity taking us away from our center, our spot in the universe. We hang our hat on an idea, person, or situation that is fueled by our insecurity. This fosters more insecurity, making us feel more alone and less clear about where we belong. If we are hanging our hat on the “I’m special” part of the polarity, we become vulnerable to flattery. An outer voice merely needs to reaffirm how special we are, and we cannot wait to hear more. “You’re so talented!” “You’re a healer or a teacher!” Those flattering statements fit right into our self-concept, especially if it is a destiny that won’t require a lot of work to achieve. The challenge for human beings is to acknowledge our

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It is in the intuitive awareness of a greater reality that our insecurity begins to diminish. The awareness of our place in the universe becomes clear. Intuition becomes a normal skill we rely upon in our daily life. It is very human to look for tangible markers that tell us the way to our place in the world or the universe. The outer world will never satisfy our hunger for belonging. It is more a practice place to master our connection to divine guidance. When that connection is solid, we know our place in the universe. It is one of power, possibility, and love. It is available to anyone who finds the courage to face insecurity.

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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Happy

Holiday

Steven C. Barber Writer, Filmmaker and Project leader crew of Apollo 11 and crew of Apollo 13 monument at Vanillafire Productions Photography by Troy Warwick

native New Yorker, Steven C. Barber, is a writer and filmmaker living in Santa Monica, California. Steve is the great-nephew of Edith Wharton, the first female writer to win the Pulitzer Prize.

The Eden Magazine interview with Steven Barber about his life and passion for a grand slam in the summer of 2019, visualizing, conceiving, and having commissioned the APOLLO 11 CREW MONUMENT to celebrate man landing on the moon. Steven also built the crew monument of Apollo 13 that is at the Houston space flight Center celebrating the greatest successful failure in history.

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Hi Steven, you are a writer, filmmaker, and reatnephew of Edith Wharton, the first female writer to win the Pulitzer Prize; please tell us more about yourself. I was born in upstate New York, and my grandmother was Edith Wharton, and my grandfather was Bill Wharton. I spent all my summers at the Wharton Island on Wellesley Island in Alexandria Bay, New York. My summers were magical, there was a huge library with books dating back to the 1600s, and I think that’s how I became interested in literature. They are used to spending hours and hours and hours in the library.

The documentary on Apollo 11 is quite good, it is the history of the Gemini and Mercury and Apollo projects, from the 60s and 70s, leading up to the moon landing, and talking about the procedure and step-by-step, as to what it took to make the Monument of Apollo 11. The great Patrick Warburton from Seinfeld was kind enough to narrate the film for me, and he brings an incredible voice and resonance to the film like none other.

I spent my childhood in New York State and then moved to Kentucky to go to Western Kentucky University, and then made my way out to Southern California in 1984 to get into the entertainment business. What was the most challenging part of completing the project of building eternal tributes to America’s Astronauts, “Apollo Monument Project,” and what inspired you? The most challenging part about completing the project of Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 was finding the funding. NASA was very positive about the project once I’ve approached them and showed them the monuments that the Lundeen sculptors had already made, of Jim Lovell, from Apollo 13. They were very impressed with their work, and once I got NASA to say yes, I had to make 1000 phone calls to find the $1.5 million it took to get the full funding for both monuments. I was getting very discouraged until the very end. Still, it’s always darkest before the dawn and, I was able to get a yes from rocket mortgage out of Detroit, Michigan, and then get another yes from the Grainger corporation out of Chicago, Illinois.

In your opinion, why should people care about astronauts who haven’t flown into space for many years? The importance of remembering the men of Apollo and Gemini, And mercury, could not be greater, especially at this time, because we are standing on the shoulders of giants. Absolutely everything that is happening in aerospace with Richard Branson and Elon Musk, along with Jeff Bezos, is because of the men of Apollo Gemini and mercury. We must memorialize and remember American exceptionalism at the highest level. The Apollo Mercury and Gemini programs were not only the most outstanding achievement in the history of humankind, but they were also the most inventive and creative in the history of humankind. What charity is close to your heart? I just raised $200,000 to build Monument to the First NASA Female Astronaut to go into space, Dr. Sally Ride, and we will be placing her at the Cradle Of Aviation Museum, Long Island, New York, in June of next year. There are no monuments to any women or anyone of diversity from NASA, so this will be the first female Nasa Monument in history, and I could not be more proud.

Tell us about your documentary on the Apollo 11 mission?

What is next for you, Steven, any other upcoming projects that you are working on? Once the Sally Ride Monument is up, I will start working on the Hidden Figures Monument, which will be the first NASA female mathematics African-American Monument in History. 103 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

FORECASTING COMPOUND FLOODS IN COMPLEX COASTAL REGIONS

Coastal communities face more frequent floods in which rain, rivers, and ocean storm surge combine forces. A reliable system that accurately predicts inundation from these events is urgently needed. By Saeed Moghimi, Edward Myers, Shachak Pe’eri, Y. Joseph Zhang and Fei Yi

or coastal communities, it’s bad enough when a river overflows its banks and floods nearby roads, homes, and buildings. Now imagine a scenario in which a rainstorm not only overfills the river channel but also causes a landslide that dams the river and causes further flooding. Add to that a high tide and storm surge, possibly made worse by sea level rise and human-caused land subsidence. Welcome to the world of compound flooding events, where multiple factors combine and compound to inundate coastal regions. Recent examples of costly inland and coastal compound floods in the United States occurred during Hurricanes Katrina in 2005 and Irma in 2017. In Katrina, heavy rainfall and a record-setting storm surge inundated 80% of New Orleans for several weeks. Irma became the costliest hurricane in Florida’s history when high discharge from the St. Johns River combined with a storm surge. As the climate warms, many models predict more frequent occurrences of increasingly “wet” storms in the coming decades [Knutson et al., 2010], creating conditions favorable for compound flooding. Yet the processes that couple inland and

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coastal factors to drive compound flooding have not been carefully studied, largely because of their inherent complexity. This complexity is due in large part to the transitional nature of the physical interfaces between inland and coastal areas. The increasing number of compound flooding events in recent years, including during the record-setting 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, has highlighted the urgency and exposed gaps in our understanding of compound flooding processes. These events also accentuate a major pitfall of the current hurricane intensity scale, which is entirely based on wind speed. This singular focus overlooks potential rainfall and inland flooding impacts, leaving hurricane initial forecasts short of vital information about hazards and risks to people and infrastructure. To address these shortfalls, researchers from several NOAA offices—including the National Weather Service, Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, and the National Ocean Service NOS)— along with model developers and other partners from the wider scientific community are collaborating to develop analysis

and prediction capabilities for performing studies of coupled inland-coastal flooding. In particular, they are linking the National Water Model (NWM)—NOAA’s inland hydrology model—to NOAA’s coastal ocean models. Better Models for Better Predictions The model coupling project operates under the auspices of NOAA’s Water Initiative, which, among other goals, aims to develop, demonstrate, and implement improved capabilities for hydrologic prediction across environments. Model improvements include propagating total water levels upstream and downstream in coastal and estuarine systems, as well as in the riverine system, particularly during storm events. Such steps will help establish an integrated water forecasting system that covers inland and coastal waters and provides vital information to end users and stakeholders, including emergency management agencies on the state, county, city, or tribal level. This information supply, especially as it relates to floods, is crucial, considering the populations, properties, and economic activities at risk. Along with Katrina and Irma, other recent storms and events have wreaked havoc on coastal and low-lying areas. In 2017, during Hurricane Harvey alone, for example, tens of thousands of people in Texas required rescue because of high waters, and 68 died from direct effects of the storm. Flood damages from Harvey incurred a staggering estimated total cost of $125 billion [Insurance Journal, 2018]. It is therefore urgent to develop prediction capabilities to support accurate guidance for emergency planning. Such capabilities must account for complex interactions that occur inland, along coasts, and at the interface between these settings, including propagation of water backflows into upstream rivers, for example, and coastal flooding induced by river overflow and heavy precipitation. Challenges of Modeling Transition Zones For the purpose of modeling surface waters, traditional hydrological models are typically used to deal with watershed and inland processes, whereas hydrodynamic models are used to deal with oceanic processes. Coastal zone compound processes, meanwhile, occur in a transition zone between inland and ocean regimes. Simulations of the inland-coastal transitional zone—

and of compound flooding events—are best done using a single integrated model. However, constructing such a model poses formidable challenges [Santiago-Collazo et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2020] because coastal inundation and flooding are not directly proportional to processes in either the ocean or inland regimes (i.e., there is substantial nonlinearity among causes and effects). Using two separate models is not an ideal solution either—the nonlinearity makes it difficult to define boundary locations where information should be handed off from one model (inland) to the other (ocean). Collaborative efforts between the NOS’s Office of Coast Survey (OCS) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) supported by the Water Initiative have now led to an integrated modeling system that is based on a 3D ocean-to-creek model called the Semi-implicit Cross-scale Hydroscience Integrated System Model (SCHISM) [Zhang et al., 2016]. The new integrated model overcomes the aforementioned challenges and incorporates various approaches to improve its performance. For example, the model explicitly includes the NWM river network and flows in an unstructured mesh setup, meaning the shape and size of the overall grid, or mesh, of small areas—and of those areas individually (i.e., grid cells)—being simulated can vary, rather than using a fixed grid shape and size. This setup, which includes river segments that may be dry most of the year and get flooded only during intense precipitation events, improves the realism, and thus accuracy, of the new model. The model setup also accounts accurately for offshore bathymetry and the baroclinity of the ocean (which measures how well an ocean’s pressure gradients align with its density gradients) and thus fully resolves the effects of oceanic processes (e.g., storm surges, the Gulf Stream) on coastal flooding [Ye et al., 2020]. Basing the new model on SCHISM represents an innovative way to combine traditional hydrologic and ocean models into a single modeling platform. A key technological enabler is SCHISM’s robust “polymorphism”; that is, a single model grid can seamlessly morph between several representations: fully 3D, 2D depth or laterally averaged, or quasi-1D. This approach recognizes that the same level of detail is not needed across all parts of a simulation to maintain realistic portrayals, thus maximizing the computational efficiency of the model while ensuring accuracy.

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on water levels, whereas values far from unity indicate the presence of significant nonlinear compounding effects. We found that compound effects were significant during Hurricane Harvey in most areas around Galveston Bay (Figure 3a), except for on the ocean, in portions of the lower bay, and on high-ground areas in the watershed (where precipitation is the sole source of water) [Huang et al., 2021]. These results demonstrate that summing up the model results on the basis of individual forcing factors would overestimate high-water marks in most regions by at least 20% and that a single model that incorporates all factors thus should be used to avoid large biases.

Valuable Insights from Early Results We have successfully applied the new model in studies of compound flooding around Delaware Bay during Hurricane Irene in 2011, around Galveston Bay during Harvey, and along the coast of the Carolinas during Hurricane Florence in 2018 [Ye et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020; Huang et al.,2021; Ye et al., 2021]. In each case, the study domain included the entire U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico, with mesh resolution of about 200 meters in the coastal watersheds of interest. It also included all rivers and flood defense structures (e.g., levees) accurately resolved down to 1 meter resolution. The model has already provided valuable information on compound flooding processes. For example, our simulations of Irene, which included river flows, storm precipitation, and storm surge, predicted significantly higher inundation in parts of the Delaware Bay region, including Philadelphia, Pa., and Trenton, N.J., compared with simulations that considered storm surge alone. We have also been able to quantify the nonlinearity involved in compound flooding processes. To do so, we consider disturbances, or deviations, during flood events from typical ocean water surface elevations or from typical total water depths in a watershed [Huang et al., 2021]. One indicator of nonlinearity, called the compound factor, is a ratio of maximum disturbance values resulting from two types of calculations for a given location. The first is the maximum disturbance calculated in a simulation including all flood forcing factors (i.e., from the ocean and atmosphere, rivers, and precipitation). The second calculation sums the three maximum disturbances from simulations applying one forcing factor at a time. Compound factors that are close to 1 (unity) indicate negligible compounding effects of the different forcings 106 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

A second way to quantify and map nonlinearity is to examine whether total disturbances in modeled areas are dominantly explained (or not) by a single forcing factor. A factor is deemed to be dominant if it accounts for at least 80% of the total disturbance. If no one of the three factors contributes to 80% or more of the disturbance at a location, the nonlinear compounding effects there are considered significant. From a simulation of Hurricane Florence, for example, large portions of the coast of the Carolinas were found to have been influenced by compounding effects of multiple forcings (gray areas in. This observation clearly highlights the need for a holistic management approach considering all forcings in flood hazard planning and mitigation efforts before, during, and after hurricane events. From Models to Forecasts The new modeling system will serve as the engine for a new component of the current NOS Surge and Tide Operational Forecasting System (STOFS) to provide the inland-coastal flooding model guidance. This capability represents a major step forward in our ability to predict and plan for future compound flooding events. The modeling component is currently undergoing preoperational testing and is producing daily inland-coastal flooding forecasts. During the upcoming hurricane season, we expect to have this system ready for operational tests, producing 3D simulations and layered predictions for the East Coast and Gulf region once a day and 2D simulations (with depth-averaged predictions) four times a day during storm events. Similar modeling systems for the U.S. West Coast and Pacific Ocean basin are also being developed to serve as additional components in STOFS. A future challenge lies in the limited availability of high-fidelity data sets that seamlessly combine topography (land elevations) and hydrography (river and ocean depths). Such topobathy data provide a fundamental driver and major constraint for nearshore and coastal modeling systems.

Another challenge is the need to develop technologies to generate computational meshes that accurately represent complex morphological features in inland-coastal transition regions such as levees and meandering river channels. Unstructured meshes (e.g., Figure 1b) should be designed to use computational resources efficiently while resolving these important geomorphological features. We are investigating data-driven methods that enable automated generation of adaptable unstructured meshes. The goal is to guide choices of computational mesh sizes based on a set of rules derived from the underlying digital elevation model (DEM), watershed stream network, and levee database considered in a flood model, as well as from meteorological forcings such as predicted hurricane tracks. Some constraints on mesh sizes can be derived from the DEM, including rules to make sure that steep slopes in topobathy are properly resolved in the mesh. In future work, we also plan to use river network data from the NWM to guide automated algorithms that create meshes with the resolution needed to resolve smaller creeks and tributaries. To this end, the combined OCS-VIMS team will continue developing open source software packages in the Python computer language. These packages are specifically designed to automate mesh generation processes fully based on DEM and forcing conditions to enable on-demand flood forecasts during potential high-water events. The team will also provide intuitive web-based visualization tools to facilitate easy assessment of local conditions. For instance, a user could search for an address and click on a map to see time evolutions of water surface elevations, surface currents, and other variables at their location of interest. Through these continuing efforts, we hope to empower people living in coastal communities, first responders, mariners, and other stakeholders with clear, useful information so they can better understand, prepare for, and respond to treacherous flooding hazards. Acknowledgments We are grateful for funding support from NOAA’s Water Initiative (NA16NWS4620043) and the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP-C/NOAA/OAR05/18/2020). The following VIMS members have significantly contributed to the studies: Wei Huang, Hao-Cheng Yu, Jaime Calzada-Marrero, and Zhengui Wang. The following members of the NOS Storm Surge Modeling Team at the Office of Coast Survey also have significantly contributed to the studies: Soroosh Mani and Zizang Yang. The modeling component of the STOFS system is currently undergoing preoperational testing on the NOAA Research and Development High Performance Computing platform and the Texas Advanced Computing Center supercomputers supported by National Science Foundation.

References Huang, W., et al. (2021), Compounding factors for extreme flooding around Galveston Bay during Hurricane Harvey, Ocean Modell., 158, 101735, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2020.101735. Insurance Journal (2018), In Harvey’s wake: 68 dead; damage costs in the billions, 24 Aug., www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2018/08/24/499111.htm. Knutson, T. R., et al. (2010), Tropical cyclones and climate change, Nat. Geosci., 3(3), 157, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo779. Santiago-Collazo, F. L., M. V. Bilskie, and S. C. Hagen (2019), A comprehensive review of compound inundation models in low-gradient coastal watersheds, Environ. Model. Software, 119, 166–181, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.06.002. Ye, F., et al. (2020), Simulating storm surge and compound flooding events with a creek-to-ocean model: Importance of baroclinic effects, Ocean Modell., 145, 101526, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2019.101526. Ye, F., et al. (2020), Simulating storm surge and compound flooding events with a creek-to-ocean model: Importance of baroclinic effects, Ocean Modell., 145, 101526, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2019.101526. Ye, F., et al. (2021), A cross-scale study for compound flooding processes during Hurricane Florence, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 1,703–1,719, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-1703-2021. Zhang, Y., et al. (2016), Seamless cross-scale modeling with SCHISM, Ocean Modell., 102, 64–81, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ocemod.2016.05.002. Zhang, Y., et al. (2020), Simulating compound flooding events in a hurricane, Ocean Dyn., 70, 621–640, https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10236-020-01351-x.

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.

Saeed Moghimi (saeed.moghimi@noaa.gov), Office of Coast Survey, National Ocean Service, NOAA, Silver Spring, Md.; also at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo.; Edward Myers and Shachak Pe’eri, Office of Coast Survey, National Ocean Service, NOAA, Silver Spring, Md.; and Y. Joseph Zhang and Fei Yi, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point 107 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

WYLAND Foundation’s Fundraiser Gala

Photogrpahy by Sofia Stefou & Wade & Kristin Tettenburn Wyland Foundation founded by renowned environmental artist Wyland, the Wyland Foundation inspires people everywhere to discover the importance of healthy oceans and waterways through public art programs, classroom science education, and live events. Programs like the Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge, Clean Water Mobile Learning Experience, National Art Challenge and countless community events are leading the way to inspire millions of people to become creative, positive, and solution-oriented stewards of our marine resources.

The Wyland Gala on Sunday, Nov. 14, at the 777 Event Center in Laguna Beach raised $230,000 for the Wyland Foundation's programs for clean water and healthy oceans. Among the sponsors for the evening included Toyota, the Toro Company, Newport Beach-based law firm Hess-Verdon & Associates, Integrity Ingredients of Torrance, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Brian & Valerie Bugni of Las Vegas, Dana Wharf Whale Watching, municipal water district of Orange County, larson lighting and audio, saddleback college, and KCBS2/KCAL9. The Wyland Foundation's work includes educational outreach for area schools via a 1,000 square foot traveling clean water mobile learning center, national "water is life" art and classroom mural challenge, the annual wyland national mayor's challenge for water conservation, waterwise park improvement projects, and national cleanup projects and community improvement programs. The foundation was created in 1993 by renowned Laguna Beach-based marine life artist and conservationist Wyland who is best known for his 100 life size marine life murals around the world. The Wyland Foundation's mission is to ensure the future health of our coasts and waterways through an inspiring mix of art, science, and community action. "The Wyland Foundation provides one of the most important roles in the effort to protect our environment," said Steve Creech, President. "We inspire, inform, and encourage people everywhere to take action for the future of our oceans and waterways. Like everyone, the pandemic hit us hard, so we especially grateful for the support our supporters showed at our annual gala." www.wylandfoundation.org 109 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021

Green Philosophy As we enter the colder months, staying inside can leave us feeling disconnected from the natural world. Green Philosophy Co. is here to help alleviate the blues from staying indoors by bringing outdoor elements into your home. This company combines artistic design with natural plant life to bring you fun, funky, and functional interior décor and gifts.

Customers are obsessed with these tree-planting pillows! “Very impressed with the pillow. Even my 30yr old son thought they were cute and wanted one.” “Worth every penny! I never thought I could be so in love with a pillow.” “So soft!!! Absolutely can’t recommend enough!”

Not only does Green Philosophy Co. help elevate your indoor space, but they have also partnered with Trees for the Future to support our outdoor spaces as well. Trees for the Future is a nonprofit organization aiming to end hunger and poverty by helping farmers across Africa plant trees and regenerate their land. We’re planting trees in developing countries and communities through their ongoing partnership for every Green Philosophy Co. product sold.

Green Philosophy Co. woman-owned, California-based small business that got its start in an apartment. The founder’s love of plants dates back to childhood and led to studying plant biology in college. When founder Lillian couldn’t find the plant decor she was looking for, she decided to take matters (and a lot of green fabric). The succulent-shaped pillow she made eventually inspired Green Philosophy Co.’s line of plant-inspired decorative items. Today, the small but mighty team behind Green Philosophy Co. takes pride in our one-of-a-kind designs, quality customer service, and strong knowledge of the natural world. 111 THEEDENMAGAZINE.COM e DECEMBER 2021