Issuu

CONSCIOUSNESS | ENTELECHY | INTENTIONAL HEALING COMMUNIT Y

MegaZEN VOLUME 6

WELL-BEING JOURNAL

THE CONSCIOUSNESS CONNECTION THE KEY TO HEALING THE BIGGEST CHRONIC DISEASES OF OUR TIME

I S S UE HIGHLIGHTS:

Health & Nutrition M I N D - BODY W ELLN ESS Food for Thought

Urban Harvest

Are You a Clean Liver?

Parenting SENSITIVE TOPICS Sex Talk and Timing

Don't Call It a Diet

183

Personal Delivery

214

Lifestyle CONSCIOUS LIVING Getting an Earful

Generation Frustration

Retiring from Retirement

110

Staying Power

122

Maneuvering the Midlife Crisis

176

Contributions ARTICLES & POETRY A Work of Art

172

A Life-Changing Appointment

220

Poetry Lounge 226

Appearances SPEECHES & CONTRIBUTIONS Fireside Talk with Tracy Anderson

The Consciousness Connection

It's Allowed

150

The Courage to Lead

206

Second Opinion TA K I N G A C LO S E R LO O K Prescription for Profit

Prescribing Caution

The Ugly Side of Beauty Products

138

The Ecology of Oncology

188

WARNING MEGAZEN IS HAZARDOUS TO THE HEALTH OF YOUR SENSE OF POWERLESSNESS AND LIMITING BELIEFS ABOUT HEALING. RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT REGULAR EXPOSURE TO MEGAZEN LEADS TO THE PARTIAL OR TOTAL LOSS OF SELF JUDGEMENT, WHICH MAY RESULT IN THE PE R M A N E NT F U S IO N O F M I N D, BO DY & SOU L .

KEEP OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN Me gaZEN has be e n shown to spontane ously raise self-esteem in laboratory tests. Women who are pregnant or nursing should avoid MegaZEN in order to prevent the awakening of consciousness in a new generation. If you or a family member experience a shift in consciousness after reading MegaZEN, contact your Higher Self immediately.

WELCOME TO THE 6TH VOLUME OF MEGA ZEN

Wide Open Spaces Creating a place for expansion and awareness

hat a year it has been for us! We’ve experienced so many wonderful things and unexpected challenges this past year that it would be impossible to share all of them here. We only hope that your year was filled with as much enlightenment and excitement as ours.

One of the most exciting (and stressful) things we experienced this year was moving our home. While we loved where we lived previously, we really felt it was time to do for ourselves what we did for our business several years ago—move out of the city and get closer to nature. So, we finally made the leap and moved to an amazing location where we can appreciate the rolling hills and wide open spaces every day. We’re also excited about the fact that our children now have lots of room to play. What was most interesting about the move was that even in the midst of packing boxes and coordinating movers, we could feel an increasing sense of expansiveness happening in our lives. It wasn’t just because we knew we were moving to the country, but because of the opportunity we finally had to throw out, donate or give away so many things we hadn’t realized we’d been hanging onto for decades. Quite often, when we purge our lives of the things we don’t really need, we experience a sense of relief and expansiveness that makes room for new things to enter. The same could be said of purging our emotional and spiritual house of the feelings, relationships and behaviors we no longer need. So for us, this move wasn’t just a physical one, but a spiritual one. It’s amazing how being in the expansiveness of nature works to open the mind in a similar way. It’s when our mind is open and free of the clutter of the past that new realizations and the answers we’ve been seeking can enter, but we have to create the space for them first. In this issue of MegaZEN, you’ll find out how to do just that with tips from Habib’s new book, The Clarity Cleanse: 12 steps to finding renewed energy, spiritual fulfillment and emotional healing. Also included you’ll find informative articles on how to avoid toxins in cosmetics, when and how to talk with children about sex, how to be an urban farmer with limited space, the danger ear buds pose for hearing loss, understanding the millennial generation, how midwives benefit birthing, maneuvering the midlife crisis, and more. As always, there is plenty of insight and inspiration provided through our Poetry Lounge and exciting updates on the outreach efforts of the Love Button Global Movement. Thank you for making this year such a blessed one for us. Our lives have become a richer and deeper experience simply because of your presence in them. As we continue on our journey, we look forward to the gifts that come from the comfort of old friends and the exciting opportunities that arise from meeting new neighbors. Love and Light in the Year Ahead,

Dr. Habib Sadeghi & Dr. Sherry Sami

BE H I V E OF H E A L I N G

By Dr. Habib Sadeghi & Dr. Sherry Sami

wanted to share with you an amazing story from Reader’s Digest that’s turned out to be one of the magazine’s most read articles in its 95-year history. Considering the pocket-sized publication reaches 10.5 million people each month, that’s saying something. What’s unique about this story is that it’s a great example of the influence of the mind on health, as well as how synchronicity lines everything up to put us in the right place at the right time.

L .I.G . H .T. A RTICLES

Acting & Illness The synchronicity of health and healing

Jim Malloy (75) was a retired engineer who often spent time as a medical actor faking various illnesses to help medical students in their studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Over the years, he’d faked all kinds of physical maladies and diseases. To him, it was a fun part-time job and an interesting pastime in his retirement. One day in February 2013, Jim took his position on the gurney and received his illness assignment, an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). In this serious condition, the main blood vessel that supplies blood to the abdomen, pelvis and legs can enlarge, swelling up for years until it bursts, often times without a single symptom. In most cases, and without preventative medicine, it’s fatal. When Ryan Jones, a third-year medical student, entered the room, Jim followed his script and complained of lightheadedness and stomach pain. When Ryan pressed down on Jim’s abdomen, he was shocked at what he found—a

M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

FOOD FOR

THOUGHT ALTERING BRAIN CHEMISTRY WITH NUTRITION

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

MENTA L HEA LTH

By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

or decades, the only interventions available to those with mental health problems were heavy medication and talk or shock therapies. Just over 50 years ago, Abram Hoffer, Ph.D., M.D., became one of the first physicians to suggest that biochemistry played a significant role in psychiatry and that correcting chemical imbalances in the brain for mental health patients could improve their quality of life. C ON T I N U E D. . .

M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

GETTING AN

EARFUL INCREASED VOLUME THROUGH EARBUDS RAISES HEARING LOSS RISK

By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

PA R E N T I N G

e see them everywhere. They’re in restaurants, cof fee shops, bookstores, department stores, and city parks—kids staring down, lost in their cell phones or other electronic gadgets, with earbuds jammed in their ears, completely oblivious to the world around them. Many times, the music they’re playing on their phone or MP3 player is so loud, an observer can hear it from several feet away. While much research has examined how the overuse of technology affects child brain development, a new concern is arising regarding the risks children face for premature hearing loss, particularly when using earbuds. ALL-DAY AUDIO

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since the dawn of the MP3 player back in 2001, 13% of American children between the ages of 6 and 19 have acquired some level of noise-induced hearing loss. That’s more than 5 million young people.1 According to audiologists, hearing loss in teens is about 30% higher now than it was in the 1980s and 1990s.2 Though attending rock concerts poses a great threat to premature hearing loss, the significant increase in hearing loss among today’s generation of younger people is being attributed to the daily use of earbuds with their cell phones and MP3 players. Twenty-five years ago, people used their Sony Walkman Personal Stereos for about half an hour per day, either while jogging, working out, or doing some other short-term activity. When the activity was finished, so was their listening time. They were also using headphones that went over the ears. Back then, it wasn’t as common to turn the volume up too high because the simpler technology couldn’t handle the output, and the sound would become distorted. At the same time, these devices ran on two AA carbon batteries with limited lifespans, so using them for hours on end wasn’t an option. Today, cell phones and MP3 players can last for years and have batteries that are rechargeable. Because cell phones are also computers, kids can listen to music or watch videos for hours on end while using earbuds that are inserted into the ear canal about a half inch from the eardrum. The digital technology makes sound crystal clear, so there is no real incentive to keep it low. In fact, kids have a strong tendency to turn the volume up to drown out exterior noise from things like crowds and traffic. With earbuds being so close to the hearing mechanism inside the ear, the risk of hearing damage occurring at lower levels is very real. Just by placing the source of sound closer to the eardrum, earbuds have been shown to increase volume by 9 decibels when compared to other hearing appliances.3 Based on the increase in patients audiologists are seeing, it’s been estimated that anywhere between 15% and 25% of children listen to their devices at hazardous levels. 4 C ON T I N U E D. . . M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

URBAN HARVEST

GROWING MORE OF YOUR FOOD IN THE CITY TAKES CREATIVITY By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

hether organic food is or isn’t more nutritious than conventionally grown produce has been a topic of debate for quite some time. Even in the light of studies that clearly show that the benefits of organic food are greater, commercial food producers still insist the difference is negligible.

An analysis1 of 343 individual studies by the University of Newcastle, published in the British Journal of Nutrition2 , has shown that not only is organic food more nutritious than conventional produce, but it provides up to 60% more of specific antioxidants (polyphenolics), which protect us from chronic disease. In fact, the concentrations of these antioxidants are so much higher that eating the usual three servings of organic fruits and vegetables per day is the equivalent of consuming 1-2 extra portions of conventional produce. Organic produce contains substantially less heavy metals and is 48% less likely to contain cadmium. The largest exposure to cadmium - classified as a probable carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - for non-smokers, is through high levels in food as the result of caustic fertilizers used in mass farming operations. The study also found that pesticide residues - which accumulate in the body over time and act as neurotoxins - were four times higher in conventional produce, and that nitrate and nitrite levels were 30% and 87% lower in organic fruits and vegetables. A 2016 study, also from New Castle University, showed similar results when comparing organic and conventional meat and dairy products; organic milk and meat contain 50% more healthy, anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants.3 It’s clear that we all need to be eating more organic fruits and vegetables. For lots of people, that can be difficult because the price of organic produce is often higher, sometimes significantly so, for certain items when compared to conventional. If you live in the countryside, one of the solutions is to raise more of your own food. Even if you live in the city or suburbs, you can become an urban farmer and grow your own organic produce, which will improve your health while saving you money. It’s all about being creative with the amount of space you have.

PALLET GARDENING

A pallet is a wooden base on which large boxed items are usually stacked so they can be transported easily via forklift and moved to other locations or loaded onto trucks. Any store, such as Best Buy, Costco, Home Depot and grocery stores that receive large deliveries of items or deal with “big box” products like electronics or appliances, will generally have extra pallets they’re willing to give away, if you ask. Simply lay one or more (based on your available space) on the ground or a patio. Fill in the gaps between the planks with a good quality soil. Plant your vegetables in the rows. No tilling the ground is required, and it’s much easier than using raised beds. It also limits weed growth. At the end of the season, stack and store the pallets until next year.

VERTICAL GARDENING

Your trellis must have support. If it’s not leaning up against a wall, you’ll need to be sure it’s an A-frame style to provide proper support, balance and weight distribution as the vines bear fruit. You can plant the vines directly in the ground next to the wall where your trellis rests, in pots at the base of the trellis, or even in a small raised bed over which your A-frame is constructed. Metal A-frame trellises of varying sizes can be purchased directly from any garden center.

H EA LT H & N U TR ITION

Ordinarily, vegetables that grow on vines like cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins can take up as much as 12-24 feet as they grow along the ground. Most people don’t know you can grow them vertically and save 95% of that space. All you need is a metal or wooden grid for the vines to climb. That could be a stretch of metal fencing, a piece of wooden trellis from the home improvement store, or a wooden frame with some wire webbing you’ve stretched across yourself. Just be sure it’s sturdy and about 6 feet tall. With regard to width, each vine you plan to grow on it will need about 18 inches to fan out.

TRACY ANDERSON

FIRESIDE TALK INTERVIEW WITH DR. HABIB SADEGHI

OCTOBER 2, 2017

n October 2, 2017, fitness and health expert, Tracy Anderson, sat down for the first in her new series of Fireside Talks with Dr. Habib Sadeghi to discuss the release of his second book, The Clarity Cleanse: 12 steps to finding renewed energy, spiritual fulfillment and emotional healing. Below is an excerpt from the special event held at Tracy Anderson’s Brentwood Studio in Los Angeles.

Q: I find that when people find clarity, they find relief, self-empowerment, and a great deal of healing. What made you title your next book, The Clarity Cleanse? A: There are moments in our lives when we are presented with situations that leave us dumbfounded, perplexed, completely unsure of what to do. Often, we are thrown into a panic, our days and nights spent anxiously worrying about what action to take. Maybe we just learned that our spouse has been having an affair, that our job is being terminated in an already tight job market, or that we have a life-threatening illness. Since we can’t avoid such trauma, wouldn’t it be

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

of immense value if there was some way we could know the right course of action when faced with a decision we have to make and yet, simply don’t know which way to go? When I was diagnosed with cancer over twenty years ago, my first reaction was sheer terror. I felt as if I’d been handed a death sentence. That there might be a path to a robust, healthy future was the furthest thought from my mind, until a friend pointed me in a direction that simply hadn’t occurred to me. Flying in the face of pretty much everything my doctors told me I needed to do (other than the barest minimum of excising the tumor), I went in a direction that few people would think of going in at such a time. Instead of looking outward to authorities who were certain of what I should do, I looked inward to a deeper part of myself. It was from this place within that clarity came, in the process, not only freeing me of cancer, but transforming every aspect of my life. The essence of my discovery is that our core being contains all the clarity we require in any

situation that arises and threatens our peace, stability, and happiness. When we access this clarity, our fear is spontaneously ousted, replaced by an incredible sense of empowerment. That feeling of empowerment has never left me. Whatever difficult decision or trauma we may be facing, the clarity we need is there in each of us. It’s simply a matter of sweeping aside all that obscures what we already know deep within. This is why my new book is entitled, The Clarity Cleanse.

Q: Your last book, Within, was an incredible source of healing for so many people. What is one takeaway you hope people will discover from reading The Clarity Cleanse?

I’m all for the professionals who do research and are experienced in the many walks of life that affect our wellbeing. We need thorough study, double-blind trials, peer reviews, and replicable experiments. As important as these are, their purpose should be informational. In any situation, we need to be equipped with the facts as they are presently understood. What we don’t need is someone dictating to us.

I want my readers to learn to question. I want them to question the doctors, the standards established by government agencies, the pronouncements about health in the headlines, and the advice anyone offers them in any aspect of their lives. Only by questioning can we begin to take back our power from those who would rob us of it, misguidedly believing they “know best.” My readers will find specific examples of the kinds of questions we all need to be asking. They’ll see how asking the right questions has changed the course of many patients’ lives, and in no small number of cases, plucking them from the jaws of death. As they increasingly learn to tune into their own intuition, they will find that they have the ability to sift through the information society presents them, discern the facts, and make wise choices that will empower them in every dimension of their lives.

Q: What is the one thing we can do today to begin living up to our full potential? A: With the discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton almost 400 years ago, the older mystical ways of viewing reality began to lose their grip on the human mind, with the result that we found ourselves increasingly inhabiting a mechanical universe. Creation was seen in terms of a clock that God wound up and that, well, had been

SPEECHES & APPEARANCES

A: The aim of The Clarity Cleanse is to help readers restore power over their lives. We live in a culture that likes to do our thinking for us. Anywhere you turn in modern society, someone is trying to tell you “the way things are” and therefore, what you need to do, how you ought to think, and the way you need to live. My own profession is particularly good at this, warning of dire consequences if we don’t heed everything they tell us.

they might be mistaken - countless people died unnecessarily. If you think this has changed, you are mistaken.

On one doctor’s website, the statement is made that a particular procedure is safe, and the correct course of action in line with all the facts, but then adds that they will follow this procedure “until the facts change.” Right there is the problem.

“Only by questioning can we begin to take back our power from those who rob us of it, misguidedly believing they ‘know best’.” In my new book, The Clarity Cleanse, I cite various cases in which physicians were certain of the science—until they weren’t. Because they had been practicing the established protocols unquestioningly—more than unquestioningly, with huge resistance to even the suggestion that

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BE I N G C L A R I T Y

Featured On:

CONFLICT TOUGH CONVERSATIONS DON’T HAVE TO DEVOLVE INTO DRAMA

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

CONFRONTATION WITHOUT

By Dr. Habib Sadeghi & Dr. Sherry Sami

goop intro: Disagreements are an inevitable part of life—common among lovers, friends, strangers, co-workers, Twitter followers— and not inherently bad. But sometimes the divide between individuals’ beliefs/thoughts/actions can feel oppressively large, a gap too wide to bridge or ignore. For seemingly impossible-to-navigate conflicts of every kind, we’ve long turned toward co-founders of the remarkable integrative health center Be Hive of Healing, Dr. Habib Sadeghi, and Dr. Sherry Sami—who never fail to produce unparalleled, level-headed guidance, regardless of the quagmires we throw at them. If confrontation without conflict sounds like an oxymoron—Sadeghi and Sami explain that often the people who do the best job at pissing us off are the same people who present us with the best opportunities to learn something unexpected about ourselves. The answer to why someone irritates us to no end, it turns out, could be remarkably enlightening with a slight perspective shift, whereas trying to force someone to change, or just out-and-out hating them is rarely (if ever) effective (never mind far from enlightened). While this doesn't mean we should put up with someone else's sh*t, Sadeghi and Sami’s advice changes the way we approach confrontation (or as we’ve come to fondly call it, carefrontation) to resolve many of the universal hang-ups surrounding perennially fraught relationships and difficult conversations.

M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

A QUESTION OF

CHARACTER WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE INTEGRITY

By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

We are immensely grateful to our beloved teacher, Dr. Michael C. Jensen, whose brilliant lecture: “Integrity: Without It Nothing Works!” is the source of linguistic abstraction used generously for this article.

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

PHILOSOPHY

M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

T 1

o me, integrity is a matter of a person's word, nothing more, nothing less. What you do is what you say, and what you say is what you do. For a person to have integrity, their word must be (as integrity is defined in the dictionary) whole, complete, unbroken, unimpaired, sound, in perfect condition. In the matter of integrity, the primary question is what constitutes a person's word?

FOR ME MY WORD IS:

WHAT I SAID: Whatever I said I will or will not do, I am obligated to follow through on, in the timeframe I have promised. I honor the requests of others and respond to each one in a timely fashion, explaining whether or not I can meet their needs. Any request I fail to respond to becomes my word because I have not given that person a definitive answer as to whether I can or cannot help them. I’ve left them in a position to assume that I am available to assist them, and so they’re counting on me to some degree. For example, if a friend leaves me a voice mail on Tuesday asking me to help him move house over the weekend, and it's now Friday afternoon, and I haven't responded, I've left him with the assumption that I will be available to help. In this situation, my failure to respond in a timely manner has given him my implied word that I will be showing up, therefore, I must.

WHAT I KNOW:

Whatever I know to do or know not to do, I will go about exactly as I know it is meant to be done and on time, unless I have explicitly said something to the contrary. Whatever I have committed myself to do, I will do to the very best of my knowledge and capability, and with the quality of service I would desire of anyone doing the same for me. There is no cutting corners or doing a half-baked job. The quality of my work is a direct reflection of my quality of character. There are times when patients of mine occasionally have difficulty paying for their services. In these situations, we always work something out based on the person's circumstances. I would never turn them away. In any case, it makes no difference what my arrangement is with any patient, regardless of whether they’re struggling financially or if they’ve flown in from a distant country to see me; I treat every patient with the fullest capacity of my knowledge and the greatest skill of my service.

WHAT IS EXPECTED (UNEXPRESSED REQUESTS OF ME): Whatever I am expected or requested to do or

not do by anyone with whom I desire to have a workable relationship (even when not explicitly expressed) I will do on time, unless I have clearly said something to the contrary. When I have phone consultations scheduled with colleagues or patients, I always do my best to call them at the time they are expecting. If for some unforeseen reason, I’m not able to make the call on time and wasn’t able to notify them beforehand, I always ask if the present time still works for them. If not, I’m always happy to accommodate them at their earliest convenience. This is very important not only to preserve my integrity but to ensure that my personal and professional relationships remain healthy, workable, and free of hidden resentment. If I cannot uphold my word, I do not offer excuses; I offer other options. Powerful people aren’t in the habit of explaining themselves because having integrity makes it almost entirely unnecessary to do so. They’re doers; they’re about getting it done. It’s about doing what’s expected, not making excuses. How many times do we sign our names to something without understanding what’s expected of us only to become resentful later on when we realize what we did? At the same time, I do not make blind assumptions or unexpressed expectations of others. If I assume something of someone - because they cannot read my mind - I understand that they have not given me their word. To keep my working relationships healthy and communication clear, I must change my unexpressed assumptions to explicit requests that are heard and understood. I cannot expect others to hold themselves to the same standard of integrity I demand of myself.

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

“Fostering personal integrity is a psycho-spiritual evolution and is one of the most valuable ways to move life forward in all respects.”

WHAT I SAY IS SO:

Whenever I have given my word to others as to the existence of some thing, fact, or state of the world, my word includes being willing to be held accountable for such statements to the extent that others can find evidence of what I have asserted and validate it for themselves. In other words, I can’t just say things and expect people to believe them; I have to back up what I say with real proof. Whether I’m speaking with friends over dinner, counseling a patient, giving a presentation at a conference, or having an article published in a journal, my personal integrity and professional credibility rest on the fact that every claim I make is properly supported and/or provable by primary sources, citations, hyperlinks, or other means. My claims are not true simply because I said so. My word is only as good as the truth that stands behind it.

5 STANDING FOR SOMETHING:

PHILOSOPHY

What I stand for – that is, what I say my life is about and for what I can unquestionably be counted on – whether expressed as a declaration made to myself or one or more people, or what I allow people to believe I stand for, is a part of my word. I opened my medical center based on a certain spiritual philosophy and specific healing principles. That is something I stand for and believe in. Therefore, those ideals become part of my word, how I live my life and interact with others. I established Be Hive of Healing to create a space in which a healing intentional community could take root and grow. That is the purpose I have chosen for my life, and so it becomes an integral part of my integrity. I also founded the nonprofit organization, the Love Button Global Movement, to foster more loving interactions between people in the world because I believe in the power of love to heal all things. This is something else I stand for which is also an integral part of everything I say and do. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, I take a stand for love, or as I say to my patients, I choose to step into my loving. In this way, the essence of integrity is the ability to ground what we believe in principles greater than ourselves and to always live in service of those ideals. Living with integrity is a holistic way of being. Therefore, my principles cannot be compartmentalized into certain areas of my life and excluded from others. The integrity of what I stand for and what I can be unquestionably counted on permeates every part of my life.

6 MOR AL, ETHICAL, AND LEGAL STANDARDS: In addition, the moral, ethical, and legal standards which

I have not explicitly declined are a part of my word. For example, there are many therapies I provide that are not necessarily part of the American Medical Association’s recognized protocol of services. So when patients come to see me, they sign an Informed Consent statement that fully explains all of my moral, ethical, and legal liabilities, obligations, and disclosures regarding my approach to treatment. As a physician, whatever I assure my patients of regarding various interventions, outcomes, risks, and so on, means that they can assume that I’ve given my promise to uphold those standards to the extent that I am able. Similarly, I make every effort to be clear with everyone in my life about what I can do for them or what they can depend on me for, as well as what I am unable to provide. I have found living honestly and openly in this way while recognizing my limitations, is the most ethical way to build trust within relationships.

M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

BE H I V E OF H E A L I N G

Exploring the Purpose of Relationships Innate Cooperation Towards Harmonious Balance is the Way of the Universe By Dr. Habib Sadeghi & Dr. Sherry Sami

f you look closely, it’s amazing how even the smallest part of life can mimic the form and function of the largest. For example, the human cell has a round nucleus at the center, around which move various organelles, like the mitochondria and centriole, performing their various functions and maintaining balance. In the same way the solar system, which is immeasurably larger than the cell, also has a nucleus at the center (the sun) around which all its associated parts (the planets) rotate, performing their proper functions and gravitational influences to maintain the structure and balance of our planetary environment.

For our answers, let’s go back to the cell and see how it works. When a sperm cell fertilizes an egg, the universe’s intention for its highest manifestation is a human body. The cell understands that it isn’t an island unto itself in nature, but exists as part of the greater process to produce a baby, and thus surrenders to the intention the universe has for itself in this broader plan. This shift of awareness away from the self to its connectedness to everything around it in order to fulfill a larger intention is what we call self-actualization. With this purpose in mind, the fertilized egg begins to generate other cells, which also divide and continue to do the same. Soon, the cells are specializing into brain, lung, liver and kidney cells, all branching out to create organs and organ systems that support each other. This level of function is called collaboration, as the many cells now work together to bring universal intention into reality. Eventually, the baby is born, and the cells continue to be of service to the universe’s manifestation by keeping the baby happy, healthy and developing into the greatest expression of itself.

L .I.G . H .T. A RTICLES

This kind of innate cooperation to achieve effortless balance is programmed by the universe into every part of nature, including us. Universal intention to become the highest expression of oneself is woven into the energetic fabric of every living thing. An acorn doesn’t have to struggle to become an oak tree. It simply does because it surrenders to the universe’s plan for greatness already within itself. It’s the universe’s intention that it become the broadest, strongest and tallest oak tree it is capable of being, and so it does. Likewise, the universe’s intention is that we also become the highest manifestations of ourselves and in turn, create a world that’s equally accomplished and enlightened without struggle or resistance. So if this is the intention of the universe, then why aren’t we the greatest expression of ourselves, why is the world so out of balance, and why does it seem so hard?

In the same way, each human being is a cell in the body of mankind. Therefore, in order for the universal intention of balance and peace to be achieved in the world, we too must be self-actualized. This means not identifying with our flesh as separate persons but with our spirits, and understanding that we are connected with everything and everyone around us in an endless web of energy to which we play an integral role. Secondly, we must work together through collaboration to achieve this universal goal of peace, which means putting aside selfish desires for the greater good. Finally, the actions that we take must be in service of the common goal. C ON T I N U E D. . .

M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

ARE YOU A CLEAN LIVER? THE IMPORTANCE OF LIVER DETOXIFICATION By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

FUNCTION & FAILURE

The liver is one of the hardest working organs in the body. It’s tirelessly working to detoxify the blood, produce bile that helps digest fats, breakdown hormones, and store essential vitamins and minerals like iron and vitamin A. Other essential functions include: • Processing nutrients absorbed by the intestines • Regulating blood composition to balance protein, fat, and sugar • Destroying old red blood cells • Producing chemicals to help blood clot properly • Breaking down and metabolizing medications and alcohol • Producing essential proteins and cholesterol • Removing toxins like bilirubin, ammonia, and others from the bloodstream These processes are so crucial to the body

that the liver is the only organ that can regenerate itself if damaged. That's a very convincing reason to keep the liver in tip-top shape. A typical sign of a sluggish liver is digestion problems, particularly difficulty digesting fats. Cirrhosis is a serious condition and occurs when liver tissue becomes scarred and can no longer function. Contrary to popular belief, alcoholism isn’t the only way liver damage can occur. Eating uncooked shellfish, long-term use of some medications like acetaminophen, chronic malnutrition, and exposure to chemicals can all contribute to liver damage. When enough of the liver tissue becomes scarred and non-functional, it can no longer regenerate itself, leading to liver failure and death.

H EA LT H & N U TR ITION

o matter what your health challenge may be or the healing protocol you're currently using; you'll never experience vibrant health if your liver is congested. A toxic body can’t possibly be healthy, and since the liver is the body’s largest detoxification organ, radiant health requires that it be in prime condition. Otherwise, toxins accumulate in the body, and health begins to break down. This can and does happen without a patient experiencing any specific problems with the liver. Most don't realize that by cleansing the liver, they can significantly improve or even completely eradicate physical problems that are related to toxic accumulation that they would never have associated with a sluggish liver.

Unfortunately, our modern lifestyles expose us to many environmental toxins that negatively impact liver function. Some of the risk factors connected to impaired liver function include low potassium levels, heavy alcohol use, IV drug use, exposure to industrial chemicals and environmental pollutants, obesity with a diet high in commercial oils and processed foods, high blood triglycerides, viral infections, and autoimmune diseases. Signs of impaired liver function include: • Digestion problems: bloating, gas, constipation, acid reflux or heartburn • Jaundice: yellowish tint to the skin or whites of the eyes • Inability to lose weight no matter how well you eat or exercise • High blood pressure • Moodiness or depression • Dark urine • Excessive sweating • Chronic fatigue M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

GENERATION

FRUSTRATION MILLENNIALS STRUGGLE IN A WORLD THATâ€™S TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THEM

By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

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n a way, we all become our parents. There comes a point in life when we all look back at the younger generation and think, “What’s wrong with these kids today?” Suddenly, we realize how different we are from the generation that came up after us and how our experience of the world during our youth played a big role in how we developed in such a completely different way. Naturally, this causes us to look back and romanticize our youth because well, things just aren’t the way they used to be. At the same time, this kind of reminiscing tends to cause every generation to view the one behind it as less informed, less motivated, less disciplined or lacking in other important characteristics. But is this really so? Yes, growing up during different times in history does shape us in certain ways that make one generation of people different from another, and yet we remain the same in the most fundamental aspects. Even so, someone somewhere got the bright idea to start labeling the generations, beginning with the so-called Baby Boomers and thus compartmentalizing us into groups that were more different from each other than we were similar. Naturally, this results in a lot of judgment from the current generation toward the up and comers. The fear is that they won’t be able to do things as well, aren’t as idealistic or responsible, and that the world will go to hell in a handbasket when the time comes for their generation to get into the driver’s seat. In the next five to ten years, the first wave of millennials or Generation Y, as they’re also called, will be taking a more prominent role in world affairs, and keeping with tradition, previous generations are already criticizing them before they’ve even begun. An article in TIME magazine declared, “They have trouble making decisions. They would rather hike in the Himalayas than climb the corporate ladder. They have few heroes, no anthems, no style to call their own. They crave entertainment, but their attention span is as short as one zap of a TV dial."1 While this might sound like a dead-on description of millennials, it’s actually the Baby Boomers’ criticism of Generation X, my generation, when we were in our 20’s in 1990. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Of course, this doesn’t accurately describe me or anyone I know, so perhaps we should give millennials the benefit of the doubt before we put them all in the same box. I’ve always been suspicious that maybe the real cause of a generation’s frustration with the one behind it has a bit more to do with the insecurity of losing their youth and vitality than it does with the younger generation’s lacking anything. C ON T I N U E D. . .

M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

PRESCR

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

SECOND OPINION

RIPTION FOR PROFIT HOW THE OXYCONTIN EPIDEMIC MADE BILLIONS FOR ONE FAMILY WHILE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS SUFFERED By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

e’ve all heard the stories about the corruption that goes on behind the scenes in the pharmaceutical industry or big pharma, as many call it. When there are long lists of competing medications doctors can prescribe from various drug makers, pharmaceutical companies have been known to go to great lengths, legal and illegal, to make sure it's their products that are being promoted to patients, especially when billions of dollars are at stake. Financial kickbacks, sending doctors on luxury vacations, and funding their own studies that show their products are “safe and effective”, are just a few of the tactics pharmaceutical companies have been known to use to ensure a prescription for their product ends up in the patient’s hand. The fevered selling of drugs by big pharma to doctors doesn’t always take into account the patients who can end up with medications that aren’t ideal for their conditions, or even worse, destroy their health and ruin their lives. No class of drugs runs a higher risk of being rushed into the market and harming patients in the process than pain relievers. It was only in 2004 that Merck & Co. was forced to withdraw Vioxx from the market, a drug developed to treat acute pain in osteoarthritis and other conditions. In the five short years Vioxx was available, it was found to have been responsible for up to 140,000 heart attacks in patients who took it.1 As patient death rates climbed and lawsuits mounted, patient advocacy groups begged the FDA to remove Vioxx from the market, but not before Merck & Co. made billions on the drug - $2.5 billion alone in the last year it was available.2 Today, America finds itself in the throes of another national health emergency caused by a pain reliever. This time it’s the opioid OxyContin and the tens of thousands of patients who have become tragically addicted to the drug and have even died from overdoses in the last 20 years.

PHANTOM PHILANTHROPISTS

What most people don’t realize is that unlike other drug companies that are publicly traded and manufacture similar products, Purdue Pharmaceutical, which holds the exclusive rights to be the only producer of the opioid painkiller, OxyContin, is privately held and owned by just one family. Although the reclusive Sackler family prefers to keep their association with Purdue a secret, the family, with assets worth over $13 billion, are known as high-powered philanthropists. They have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to universities and art museums for more than two generations. The Sackler name appears on galleries and wings at the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Harvard University, the Guggenheim Museum, the Louvre in Paris, the Royal Academy in London, and Peking University, just to name a few. Thousands of students receive their degrees each year from university schools that bear the Sackler name, which also graces various institutes at Cornell, Columbia, McGill, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sussex and King’s College London, most of which are dedicated to psychobiology and early childhood development. What nearly all the recipients of the Sackler family largess don’t realize is that the billions they collectively receive from their benefactor is a direct result of their massive success in monopolizing production of the highly-addictive opioid painkiller, OxyContin, and the illegal marketing practices that made it the go-to drug of choice prescribed by doctors for pain management for more than 20 years. The tragic result has been an epidemic of opioid addiction across America unlike any other health crisis previously seen, with hundreds of thousands dying of overdoses in the last two decades. As part of the Commission on Combating Drug

“Today, America finds itself in the throes of another national health emergency caused by a pain reliever. This time it’s the opioid OxyContin and the tens of thousands of patients who have become tragically addicted to the drug and have even died from overdoses in the last 20 years.”

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, President Trump stated that as of 2016, more than two million Americans had an addiction to prescription or illicit opioids,3 while the National Institutes of Health documented more than 64,000 deaths from drugs that same year, with opioids seeing the sharpest increase.4 Since 2000, more than 300,000 Americans have died from opioid overdoses, with two-thirds of all drug-related deaths in 2015 involving opioids. Over the last 20 years, the opioid crisis has made drug overdoses the leading cause of death in the U.S., far outpacing total deaths from car accidents or gun violence,5 costing the U.S. healthcare system nearly $80 billion per year.6 Even as the nation continues to reel from the consequences of the opioid epidemic reaching from the cities through the heartland, the Sackler family via Purdue Pharma continues to profit handsomely from their exclusive production of OxyContin, taking in $700 million domestically and $1.5 billion in sales through foreign companies in 2016.7

A DOSE OF DECEPTION

In 1952, three Sackler brothers, Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond, all psychiatrists from Flatbush, Brooklyn, purchased Purdue, which at the time was a small struggling New York drug manufacturer making products like earwax remover and laxatives. By the 1960s, Arthur was contracted by Roche, another drug maker, to develop an advertising strategy for its new antianxiety medication, Valium. The problem was that the effects of Valium were virtually no different from Roche’s other tranquilizer, Librium. Arthur’s solution was to outrageously and arbitrarily expand the range of conditions for which Valium was allegedly effective. While Librium was sold as a basic treatment for generalized anxiety, Valium was marketed as a specialized medication to treat “psychic tension,” a fictional term cooked up by Arthur that was subsequently claimed to be the root cause of everything from heartburn and gastrointestinal problems to insomnia, and restless leg syndrome.

Raymond and Beverly Sackler (2004)

“Even as the nation continues to reel from the consequences of the opioid epidemic reaching from the cities through the heartland, the Sackler family via Purdue Pharma continues to profit handsomely from their exclusive production of OxyContin, taking in $700 million domestically and $1.5 billion in sales through foreign companies in 2016.”

Who is this elusive family that is rarely seen but whose name appears everywhere in the elite worlds of fine art and Ivy League academics, and how did they become so successful marketing a product that would become the biggest catastrophe in modern medicine?

SECOND OPINION

The campaign was such a success that for several years, Valium was America’s most widely prescribed medication with over $100 million in sales. Because Arthur’s compensation depended on the volume of pills sold, truth wasn’t part of the prescription, and he became extremely wealthy in the process. Because of the historic sales resulting from this deception, Arthur would later become one of the first inductees into the Medical Advertising Hall of Fame. Yes, there is such a thing… if you can believe it. UNHEALTHY ALLIANCE

Not long after the success of Valium, Arthur had an epiphany. He intuited that print ads in medical journals could have a revolutionary effect on pharmaceutical sales, especially where it involved the so-called miracle drugs of the time like steroids, antibiotics, antihistamines, and psychotropics. Soon he’d convinced one of the most respected medical journals in the U.S., The Journal of the American Medical Association, to include a color advertorial brochure for drugs within its pages. From then on, the relationship between previously objective medical research and pharmaceutical corporations was compromised. The Sackler brothers were originally part of a millionaire clan, but it was their venture into painkillers that catapulted them into billionaire status. In 1972, Cicely Saunders, a hospice care physician, approached Napp Pharmaceutical, Purdue’s U.K. subsidiary, with the idea of creating a time-released morphine pill so cancer patients could sleep throughout the night without an IV. At the time, doctors were very reluctant to treat patients with strong pain medications of any M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

A PROBLEMATIC APPROACH EMOTIONAL ADULTHOOD IS THE KEY TO PROBLEM-SOLVING & RESILIENCY By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

y birthday is in April, but my wife, Sherry, and I celebrate my second birthday each year on February 10th or what we call the Day of Life, the day that marks another year of my victory over cancer. This year makes 20 years. An integral part of my long-term survival has been understanding how to relate to the problem of having cancer by practicing acceptance without trying to control the situation. I have had to learn what it means to trust in the greater process of life, without grasping for specific answers or wanting everything fixed immediately.

Our states of mind don’t always coincide with the biological phase of life we’re in. That’s when we get into trouble and have difficulty solving our problems, or make them worse. While that isn’t necessarily a good thing, it’s important to know that the four basic cultural states of being are normative terms, which means none of them are bad or wrong. However, becoming aware of how you’re approaching life’s problems can go a long way toward solving them if what you’re currently doing isn’t working.

To celebrate my 20-year milestone, Sherry and I went to dinner at a restaurant called Opaque in Santa Monica. It's located at 2020 Wilshire Blvd. and its entire staff is blind. After removing our watches and turning off our phones, Sherry placed her hand on the shoulder of our waiter, Michael, while I did the same to Sherry. We were then led into a pitch-black, windowless room. In the first minute or so, I nearly had a panic attack because I couldn't orient myself to my surroundings. I kept opening and closing my eyes to remind myself that my eyes were, in fact, open even though I could see nothing.

In infancy, we exist in a mostly parasitic symbiosis with others where we tend to take far more than we give back, if we give back anything at all. Life is all about us, our needs, and what makes us happy in the moment. Others are not a consideration because we operate entirely on

Once seated, I was able to accept my situation. At that point, an amazing thing happened. My other senses became heightened to help me navigate my way through the darkness. The food smelled more vibrant and tasted much richer. As I reached for things across the table, I could tell that even my sense of touch was sharper. This is what it means to have an adult, problemsolving consciousness. When something we rely on is suddenly gone, other senses sharpen and a new awareness develops to help guide us. But this can only happen if we're able to exercise personal responsibility and accept our present circumstances. SYMBIOTIC STATES

The quality of our life experiences is heavily dependent on the quality of our relationships. As a result of our experiences (mostly from early life), we adopt a state of mind that manifests as a way of being, that in turn, determines how we interact with the world and others. This becomes a template for how we approach obstacles. Our cultural states of mind mimic the four stages of human physical development: infancy, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. Our cultural states of mind are symbiotic states of being - how we relate to or work with those around us. Sym means together, while biosis means life. Two lives that come together to relate to each other in some way that affects their existence is a symbiotic constellation.

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

ONE WAY, MY WAY

“Many times, we'll avoid the parts of a situation we don't like by projecting them outward onto others through blaming and judgment, utterly oblivious to how we helped create our problem, just like an infant."

“In any problem situation, the most empowering choice is always to accept what is. That doesn’t mean approving of what is happening or blaming anyone involved. It simply means allowing the situation to be.”

MANIPULATIVE MANEUVERS

It’s not necessary to throw tantrums over problems to be an adult caught in parasitic symbiosis with others. While that can be the typical reaction for many, this state can manifest itself in many different ways. One of the classic characteristics is avoidance, not wanting to deal with the unpleasant parts of a situation. It’s like wanting a juicy piece of watermelon, but without the seeds. The situation isn't exactly to our liking, so we push the whole thing away. Many times, we'll avoid the parts of a situation we don't like by projecting them outward onto others through blaming and judgment, utterly oblivious to how we helped create our problem, just like an infant. While children will cry to get their way or motivate others to solve their problems for them, adults in parasitic symbiosis usually take a subtler approach. They often resort to various forms of control, either overt or covert. The controlling personality needs things their way, and like an infant, usually doesn't consider anyone else's needs. Because we're talking about a state of being through which we approach life, the odds are quite good that a controlling boss is very likely a controlling spouse and parent. This attitude isn't likely to help solve family problems or improve those relationships. How we do one thing is how we do everything. Our response is only a matter of degrees depending on the situation.

He had no idea what she wanted to discuss, as he had no desire to rekindle the relationship, and knew she felt the same way. Within minutes of meeting, she flew into a rage, accusing him of making her feel uncomfortable and trying to steal her friends. It's a good thing he was speechless because he couldn't get a word in edgewise. At the height of her upset, she burst into tears, insisting that he give up the group and his newly budding friendships so that she wouldn't feel threatened. As far as she was concerned, the group was her territory, her sandbox, and he couldn't play in it. She was taking all her toys and going home. Because she was making a huge scene and attracting attention from others in the park, he agreed to stop going to the group. He would have done anything to make her stop the hysterics, but then that was her idea all along. Naturally, I wasn’t happy with how he allowed her to manipulate him, but controllers always need people who are willing to be controlled. In allowing others to control us, we aren’t helping them, we are enabling them.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

the pleasure principle. We deal only with the things we like. The things we don't like, we push away. A consciousness stuck in parasitic symbiosis hasn't matured or become self-sufficient. It's based mainly on feelings and hyper-emotionality. In the infant’s mind, a desire arises that triggers an emotion, but there is no real cognition happening. Whether or not the child gets what it wants determines its emotional state because it has no capacity to self-regulate.

The manipulative personality uses a different kind of control. It can use physical threats, money, sexuality, feigned helplessness, co-dependence, and other mechanisms to take advantage of others and get what it wants. I know a man who had been attending monthly gatherings of a social group for professionals for about five months. The group had about 200 members, and he’d made some pretty solid friendships during that time. While wandering through the crowd one evening, he ran straight into a woman he’d dated for less than a year. Nearly 18 months had passed since their amicable breakup. Apparently, she’d been part of the group for several years. Surprised to see each other, they had a congenial 45-minute chat before going their separate ways. He thought nothing else of the interaction until he received a text from her later that night, asking to speak with him during the week. They decided to meet in a local park.

Other manifestations of parasitic symbiosis and/or infant consciousness include insecure M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

SEX TALK AND TIMING

HOW AND WHEN TO DISCUSS SEX WITH CHILDREN

By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

e’ve seen it many times on TV and in films—nervous parents gathering their children together, palms sweating, hearts racing, as they stumble over their words to give them the sex talk about where babies come from. The whole time the parents are thinking, “What if we tell them too much? Will this destroy their innocence? What if they ask about what we do?” Of course, the humor always arises from the discovery that the kids already know everything their parents are about to tell them and are completely blasé about it. What’s not funny is that children today are apt to learn about sex at much younger ages than their parents did, and from sources that are largely out of their parents’ control, and that don’t put sex in the proper context. From cable TV and films to the internet and more mature kids at school, children are regularly exposed to sex in a way that presents it as a freak show rather than a beautiful and sacred act of bonding. Public schools try to correct some of this misinformation through health class and sex education, however, the best place for children to learn about sex is at home, from their parents, who understand their sensitivities and needs. Even so, most parents think their children don't want to hear from them about sex, but the opposite is true. The 2016 Parent Power Survey conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found that 52% of children between 12 and 15 said their parents had the most influence on them when it came to sex. In contrast, when parents were asked, 60% thought their children's friends held more influence in sexual matters than they did. In reality, only 17% of children said they valued their friends' opinions about sex above their parents'. While 28% of teens between 16 and 19 said they valued their friends’ ideas on sex more, a slight majority of 32% said their parents had a bigger influence on them.1

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

TALKING POINTS Anyone can teach the biological facts of reproduction, but only parents are in a position to put this information in a context that best suits their family’s spiritual principles. Although there is no standardized approach as to how and when to share information about sex with children, it helps to keep a few things in mind.

1. TALKING TO CHILDREN ABOUT SEX DOES NOT HARM THEIR INNOCENCE.

Innocence is a function of attitude, not information. Children who understand that the purpose of sex is to express love and create life maintain a healthy view of sex and thus, retain their innocence. Without this understanding, children may be exposed to sex in a way that’s abusive or degrading, negatively impacting their view of sex and themselves. 2. IF YOU FEEL OVERLY NERVOUS OR INHIBITED WHEN TALKING TO YOUR CHILD ABOUT SEX, YOU MIGHT WANT TO REVIEW YOUR ATTITUDES ABOUT SEX.

Perhaps past experiences have caused you to feel that sex is bad, dirty or shameful. It’s very important to become conscious of these feelings before they’re unconsciously passed on to your children. Recognize that this is an issue for you that may require work with a therapist to begin your healing process. 3. DON’T WAIT TO SHARE EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT SEX WITH YOUR CHILD IN A SINGLE

them with too much information. Facts about sex should be shared gradually with increasing detail over several years, according to what information is age-appropriate. This approach works when sharing any information with your child as he or she grows, whether it be about handling money, relationships, spiritual values, or anything else. "The talk" is really a series of talks that should begin at a fairly young age.

PA R E N T I N G

TALK. Doing so risks waiting until your child has already been influenced by others, or overwhelming

4. GIVE INFORMATION ON A NEED-TO-KNOW BASIS.

If your five-year-old wants to know how Aunt Susan's baby is going to get out of her belly, he or she doesn't need to know how it got there. You don't need to provide that much detail at that time. However, if you haven't had any conversations about sex with your ten-year-old, then it's time for you to start. 5. ALWAYS ADMIT WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW.

If you can’t answer a child’s question, admit that you don’t have the information but will look into it and get back to him or her. Children will respect you more if you are honest and candid in the moment, than they will if they find out later that you misled them.

M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

THE CONSCIOUSNESS CONNECTION THE KEY TO HEALING THE BIGGEST CHRONIC DISEASES OF OUR TIME By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

recently had the pleasure of attending goop’s first annual health and wellbeing conference In goop Health - in Los Angeles. Not only was I honored to participate in the event with so many distinguished speakers, but I can’t remember a time when I’ve had such a positive response to one of my presentations. As a healthcare professional, it’s important to me that my words reach an audience with a clear message that includes action points they can immediately use to improve the quality of their lives. Whether or not I’m able to meet this intention largely depends on the organization for which I’m speaking. At the goop conference, interaction with attendees flowed in such an intimate and organic way that many people approached me to thank me immediately after my presentation. Since then, I’ve received many emails expressing gratitude and asking if my presentation is available for attendees to send to friends. This is a condensed version of my presentation, which I hope will help many others on their healing journey, as it continues to be shared.

the accepted lines can mean the loss of one’s reputation or career and even imprisonment. Still, it’s a path that must be tread if humanity and medicine are to progress. Ignaz Semmelweis, a 19th-century physician, was just such a person. He firmly believed that washing hands before surgeries and delivering babies could greatly reduce patient deaths from infection. At first, he was mercilessly humiliated by the medical establishment for something we think is quite obvious. We all know how the story turned out; today, the largest university in Hungary is named after him.

ESSENTIAL EVOLUTION

While modern medicine has its benefits, it’s obvious to most people that it has its limits, as well. For all its advanced technology and billions of dollars poured into research every year, modern medicine is largely ineffective when it comes curing chronic diseases like cancer and neuro-degenerative disorders like Parkinson’s disease, or any disease for that matter. While diagnostics have gotten much better over the last 60 years or so, how we end up treating the diseases we diagnose has not. Three generations ago, who would have thought that in the year 2017 we’d still be treating cancer with chemotherapy, an intervention that can be as damaging to health as its success rates are slim. At this point, it’s clear that if healthcare is to avoid stagnation and evolve to meet the challenges of the future (and the diseases we’ve been dealing with for more than a century), we simply must start to think about disease differently. We must reframe our understanding of everything from what disease is and why it occurs to how we interact with it. We have no choice. We must find another way of approaching disease beyond surgery and drugs, or our children’s children will find themselves facing the same chronic killers of their great-great grandparents. Of course, this requires going against nearly every institutionalized and established idea we have about biology and medicine. It means questioning the unquestionable sacred cows of modern medicine and risking being called a nutcase and quack. It means being a trailblazer in a profession where stepping even slightly outside

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

“Each one of us lives within our energetic frequency which is self-generated by our thoughts and feelings. It’s this frequency that permeates every cell of the body and plays a major role in its physical expression, whether that be health, disease or something in between.” INVISIBLE INFLUENCE

Just as Dr. Semmelweis instinctively knew there was an unseen factor causing illness and death for patients (in his case, bacteria), today there

is an equally powerful and invisible force at play in chronic illness that has yet to be recognized and incorporated into treatment. That force is consciousness.

It’s by accessing this unseen energy through our thoughts and then charging it in either a positive or negative way based on our feelings, that we guide our cells to build themselves in healthy or diseased ways. The idea that we build our bodies and create our state of health or illness from unseen energy might seem impossible at first until we realize that creating physical matter from unseen energy happens all around us every day. A seed placed in the earth absorbs water, germinates and then sprouts. The sprout needs nothing but invisible energy from the sun to conduct photosynthesis in which carbon dioxide, also invisible, is utilized to build its thin, fragile body into a massive tree. In fact, the trunk and leaves of a tree contain very little of the trace minerals from the soil in which it’s rooted. A tree literally creates its physical body out of thin air, the unseen energetic forces that we know exist and yet cannot experience with our senses. In very much the same way, we create our physical bodies from the invisible energy of the field.

“A tree literally creates its physical body out of thin air, the unseen energetic forces that we know exist and yet cannot experience with our senses.”

M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

SPEECHES & APPEARANCES

Human consciousness varies from person to person and is made up of the thoughts and feelings, both conscious and subconscious, that we experience about everything, from our jobs, relationships and the world around us, to how we feel about ourselves. Each one of us lives within our own energetic frequency which is self-generated by our individual thoughts and feelings. It’s this frequency that permeates every cell of the body and plays a major role in its physical expression, whether that be health, disease or something in between. At the same time, our personal frequencies are interacting with the energetic frequencies of other people and even the earth to create the collective energetic frequency of the planet in which all living things exist. It’s this collective energy of the universe that we all draw from and interact with that I call the field. Like fish in the sea, consciousness moves in, around and through us, impacting our lives every day. Not only do we interact with it,

but we simultaneously create it individually and collectively.

BE I N G C L A R I T Y

By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

ext to antibiotics, it seems that the most common and largely unnecessary prescription doctors write today is for some kind of corticosteroid. This is because corticosteroids seem to work, at least temporarily, to alleviate the symptoms of so many kinds of conditions. These days, almost everyone knows someone who is taking a steroid for one reason or another. It’s also common to hear about professional athletes getting regular cortisone injections for injuries. Because corticosteroids seem to be everywhere in this way, it can lead to a false sense of security in the mind of the patient, who assumes these medications are safe because almost everyone is taking them when in fact they come with serious side effects no one talks about, especially doctors. SUDDEN & SEVERE

Corticosteroids, including cortisone, hydrocortisone, and prednisone, mimic the effects of hormones produced in the adrenal glands, which sit on top of the kidneys. When prescribed in doses that exceed the body's usual levels, corticosteroids suppress inflammation. They're regularly prescribed for conditions such as arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and allergies. Because they suppress the immune system, they’re also prescribed for organ transplant patients to lower rejection rates, and for autoimmune diseases such as lupus. In these situations, and in the case of Addison’s disease, where the adrenal glands produce almost no corticosteroids on their own, these medications can be life-saving. The problem occurs when corticosteroids are prescribed too casually, especially during cold and flu season, leaving trusting patients incapacitated by serious side effects that they, and most likely their physician or emergency room doctor, know nothing about.

SECOND OPINION

PRESCRIBING CAUTION

SERIOUS SIDE EFFECTS QUESTION CONVENIENCE OF CORTICOSTEROID PRESCRIPTIONS

Corticosteroids can be taken by mouth (capsules, tablets or syrups), through an inhaler or intranasal spray, topically in creams, or by injection. One of the biggest issues with corticosteroids is that their side effects can come on suddenly and severely, leaving patients in a great amount of physical and emotional distress. More often than not, their doctors insist that what they’re experiencing isn’t from the medication - which is untrue - because M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

CULTURE CLASH HOW WE CAN END THE CULTURE WAR IN AMERICA By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

hen you visit another country, start a new job, enter a party or walk into a room, there is a definite vibe or energy in the atmosphere that lets you know right away whether you belong there. Either it feels right, or it doesn't. This energy is real, and it affects everything from our livelihood to our relationships, and is based on how well we synchronize with others. The most important aspect of this interplay of energies is that while it’s determining the quality of our individual lives, it’s simultaneously creating the collective quality of the life we all share on the planet. SIMILARITY & SYNERGY

When a group of people comes together with a common intention, each person’s energy syncs up beautifully, and they can accomplish their goal with relative ease. They all know why they’ve come together and what their part is, and go about executing it to its logical conclusion. In the process, each person’s job becomes a little easier because they’re all equally invested in the same goal. They’ve put their common need above any individual differences and, in doing so, accomplish twice as much in half the time, to everyone’s benefit. This doesn’t mean their work is completely problem-free; it simply means that they achieve their goals most of the time because they’ve made a conscious choice to be motivated by something greater than themselves. It’s the perfect example of teamwork. When people come together to form a team or even a society, if they truly share a similar intention, their frequencies don't just combine but magnify each other and exponentially strengthen their ability to achieve

their goal. When the positive energy among people reaches a certain level, it becomes contagious. It instantly elevates the energy of anyone entering the group and can even be so strong that it can draw people into it from outside the group, like the vortex of a tornado. We’ve all been a part of groups that are so positive and uplifting that the energy of them just sweeps us up. This is a phenomenon known as sympathetic overtone or sympathetic resonance. The vibrations caused by hitting any key on a piano will cause another piano in the same room to vibrate at the same note or frequency. This happens between other stringed instruments and even works with a tuning fork. When two or more similar energies come together to create a third wave or level of consciousness in human beings, we call this synergy. A LOSING STR ATEGY

The collective culture of a country creates its own sympathetic overtone which determines its state of being and drives its function, or too often, dysfunction. As easy as it is to be drawn into and uplifted by the positive energy of certain groups, it's equally easy to be sucked into a group's vortex of negative energy and be dragged down by it. Collectively speaking, it’s even easier still to degrade the cultural tone and quality of a country when there are a variety of these kinds of groups competing for attention. It seems you can’t turn on the TV these days without violent protest groups somewhere in the country wreaking havoc on their local communities. All the while, their angry and belligerent activists claiming their alleged misfortunes entitle them to

NATURE THAT

NURTURES CREATING A HEALING GARDEN AT HOME

By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

rom the Japanese Zen garden to the monastic cloister garden, nature has been used for healing since ancient times. Aside from medicinal plants and herbs, just physically being in nature has been shown to initiate specific healing processes in the body. One of the primary reasons I moved my medical center away from the dissonant energy of Los Angeles and into the countryside was to make it easier for my patients to access the healing power of nature. One way I’ve done this is by creating a healing garden that encompasses the entire front entry of my medical center. Sitting among the decorative grasses, succulents, and inspirational sculpture, patients have an opportunity to quiet the mind and allow the intelligence of their bodies to go about their natural healing processes without the interference of mental noise. It also provides time to reflect on personal issues and create the mental space for new realizations to come forward. In today’s hectic world, it can be difficult to find a place where one can properly connect with nature in a healing way. It isn’t practical to visit a botanical garden on a regular basis, and even walking out into the backyard sometimes just isn’t enough to gain the healing benefits of nature. It helps to have a dedicated space that both the mind and body can relate to healing, and that is easily

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accessible on a regular basis. Healing is both a physical and mental process, and the subliminal cues the mind receives from regularly visiting a garden that’s been designed for rejuvenation can have powerful effects. With this in mind, it might be a good idea to take a corner of the backyard and design it as your own personal healing garden, created specifically for rejuvenation and meditation. If you live in the city, you can accomplish the same thing by dedicating a portion of a patio or balcony for the same purpose, but with potted plants.

“Healing is both a physical and mental process, and the subliminal cues the mind receives from regularly visiting a garden that’s been designed for rejuvenation can have powerful effects.”

GARDEN CREATION TIPS Regardless of its location or how large or small your design may be, there are several things you'll want to keep in mind when creating your healing garden.

SEASONS:

SENSES:

Choose plants that engage all the senses with a variety of textures, colors, fragrances, and sounds.

TEXTURE: Add visual variety with plants of varying textures. A sensory rich garden includes plants with textures that are smooth, rough, ruffled, fuzzy, or lacey.

CONSCIOUS LIFESTYLE

Select a variety of seasonal plants and flowers so you can enjoy the garden through the full cycle of nature.

COLOR: Used as a visual stimulus, color is important for creating or

drawing attention to focal points and accenting other areas. Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow enliven and excite the senses, while cool colors like blue, purple, and white have a calming effect. All colors can be used, just be sure to avoid clashes in a single area, as that causes visual stress.

SCENT: Fragrance has a powerful healing effect on the body. Place

fragrant plants and flowers along walking paths and next to seating areas to get the most enjoyment from them. Planting jasmine next to a glider, or a creeping herb like thyme between walking stones so it releases scent when it's walked on, are good ways to add aroma. Incense burners and garden torches infused with scented oils are also good choices. C ON T I N U E D. . .

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RETIRING FROM

RETIREMENT FINDING YOUR SECOND PURPOSE IN LIFE

By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

f you’re like most people in midlife, you’re probably thinking much more about retirement. Did you put enough money aside and in the right places? Are you using the best advisors? Did you account for the cost of unexpected life events? Will the money last, or will you outlive your nest egg? Financial security is crucial, especially later in life, and you'll probably spend at least the next ten or 15 years asking yourself these questions more often as you hover over your calculator, spreadsheets, and financial statements. For lots of people, this hyper-focus on planning for retirement security completely distracts them from what they’ll actually do with their lives once they are retired. When we’re in our 40’s, many of us fantasize about retirement when it’s still 20-25 years off. We imagine how great it will be to travel and spend all our waking hours in leisurely activities. It seems like paradise, and we just can’t wait for it. Then it arrives, and we realize that we can only play so many rounds of golf and take so many cruise ship vacations before life starts to feel pretty empty. What happened? As human beings, there's an intrinsic part of our nature that needs to hold on to values that are greater than ourselves to have a happy life. We need to feel that whatever we're doing is contributing to life in a positive way, regardless of how big or small it might

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be. So, no matter how fun a life filled with idle amusements or entertainment for our own sake might seem, it doesn’t necessarily make the world a better place. That’s the void we feel in traditional retirement. Life loses its meaning or more importantly, we lose our sense of purpose. PURPOSE IN PERSPECTIVE

Between ages 30 and 60, we tend to derive a sense of purpose from our jobs. No matter what we do, most of us can see how some element of our work helps people either directly or indirectly. On some level, that makes us feel valued and needed. At the same time, we gain a sense of purpose raising a family and offering guidance to children as they grow. Eventually, the kids grow up and move away, and our careers come to an end. Then, we find ourselves asking, “Now what?”, and it can be tough finding a new purpose outside of family and work roles. Much of that has to do with how we define the word purpose. For lots of people, it carries the idea of something almost divinely inspired that possesses a person with such passion that they change the world in profound ways by doing it. That can be one way to live a purposeful life, but it’s not how it happens for the majority of us. When we ask, "What's my life purpose?", we're really asking, "What

CONSCIOUS LIFESTYLE

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MEDITATION BE H I V E OF H E A L I N G

L .I.G . H .T. A RTICLES

ANNUAL DOSE OF INSPIRATION FROM BE HIVE OF HEALINGâ€™S L.I.G.H.T.

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MAN OR MARIONETTE? PINOCCHIO AND THE METAMORPHOSIS OF MANHOOD

By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

veryone has a favorite fairy tale from childhood. What most people don’t realize is that fairy tales aren’t really for children. In essence, fairy tales are morality tales, stories created to teach us proper ethics and judgment to help us navigate the tough choices in life. Beneath the excitement of rescuing the princess or outsmarting the wicked witch is a subtext that’s meant to show us how to live, if not a happily ever after life, at least a more satisfying one. The moral of almost every story tells us that we can only live a more satisfying life by becoming the hero of our own story and slaying our inner dragons. SUBCONSCIOUS STRUGGLE

Since it was published in 1883, The Adventures of Pinocchio, by Italian writer, Carlo Collodi, has become one of the most widely read, adapted, and produced fairy tales of all. This is likely because the character of Pinocchio represents the archetype of the classic hero who experiences a metamorphosis and rebirth as a result of overcoming various internal and external challenges. Whether we know it or not, adults and children alike have been drawn to the story of Pinocchio for 134 years because we subconsciously understand that the struggle of the wooden marionette to break free of his tethers and become his own person is our life struggle, as well. In short, Pinocchio is carved from wood by his maker and “father”, Geppetto. Once brought to life by a fairy, Pinocchio is particularly precocious and ill-behaved, with Collodi describing him as a “rascal,” “imp,” “disgrace,” “ragamuffin,” and “confirmed rogue.” Geppetto, even calls him a ”wretched boy.” Part of Pinocchio’s bad behavior is his penchant for lying, which causes his nose to grow a bit longer

with each untruth. He eventually runs away with his human companion Romeo or Candlewick (Jiminy Cricket in the Disney film) to the Land of Toys (Pleasure Island). Once there, more mischief leads to Pinocchio becoming a donkey, joining a circus, and eventually becoming a marionette again, controlled by a vicious master. After escaping the island, Pinocchio discovers his father, Geppetto, is trapped inside the belly of The Terrible Dogfish (a whale in the Disney film), and that he must dive into the deep blue sea to save him. In return for his bravery and for acting responsibly, the fairy transforms Pinocchio into a real boy who commits to focusing on the virtues of hard work, good behavior and studying. LIES, LIBIDO & LEVER AGE

Through my professional mentorship services, I’ve worked with men from all walks of life. It doesn’t matter how powerful or wealthy a client happens to be, the struggle to find peace and satisfaction within himself and in an intimate relationship is a common challenge. In these cases, I always share the deeper lessons of Pinocchio, which can teach us how men lie to themselves and hold their lives back. In a Freudian sense, one might say that Pinocchio’s nose is symbolic of a man’s penis, and in order to achieve an erection and get what he wants from women, he’s got to lie his way into bed with them. Men of great influence are often womanizers who leverage their status to get what they want, including sex. I’ve worked with rock stars who are surrounded by an entourage that never says no to them, and hundreds of gorgeous women ready to give them exactly what they want. In a very real way, these men live their lives on Pleasure Island in a world of

STAYING POWER

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WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO STAY CONNECTED TO FAMILY & FRIENDS AS WE AGE By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

uman beings are social creatures by nature. As important as it is to have our alone time to unwind and de-stress, it’s equally important to health and longevity to remain socially connected. This becomes more challenging as we age. In our early years, it’s easy to take relationships for granted because people are all around us. In high school and college, we’ve got nothing better to do outside of school but hang out with our friends. By the time work and marriage come along, it becomes more difficult to make time for friends as other obligations demand more of our time, and some of the people we used to know start to fade out of our lives. Soon, children and all the responsibilities that go with them come along and before you know it, 20 years have passed without so much as sending your old friends a Christmas card. As the mounting responsibilities of life carry us away, it’s easy for friends to become strangers. C ON T I N U E D. . .

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SPREADS ITS WINGS LOVE BUTTON GLOBAL MOVEMENT UPDATES

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ime flies when you're spreading Love and we've been busy this year working with our amabassadors, donors, supporters and volunteers, to create and move forward with some great new outreach programs and humanitarian activities. We're excited to highlight and share some of the key events and campaigns for the Love movement.

GIFT BASKET GIVEAWAY More than 100 people converged on the offices of Be Hive of Healing in November to take part in the Love Button Global Movementâ€™s gift basket giveaway. Coming from as far as Palm Springs and Indio, volunteers helped assemble more than 300 gift baskets containing blankets, T-shirts, books, personal care products, and other items. Carpooling from the Be Hive offices, volunteers packed up the baskets and made their way to the Skid Row section of downtown Los Angeles, where the poorest residents of the city live and sleep on the streets. With lots of love (and Love Buttons in hand), the volunteers set out to distribute all their baskets. It was important to reach out to the homeless community with these essential items, particularly in late fall, as the weather turns colder at night. The volunteers were overwhelmed by the expressions of gratitude they experienced from their recipients and felt at the end of the day that the greater gift had been given to them.

PA R E N T I N G

P h o t o s : Ko u r o s h M . K h a j a v i w w w. l e i c a - m a n .c o m

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THE UGLY SIDE OF

BEAUTY PRODUCTS AVOIDING TOXINS IN COSMETICS

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By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

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ITâ€™S ALLOW IMPERFECTIONS

ACC E P TA N C E

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TENSION

LOVING

SENSUALITY & SEX

LETTING GO

OUTSIDE

NO ONE IS STANDING IN YOUR WAY ON THE PATH TO HEALING By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

WHOLENESS

ENJOYMENT

DIVINITY

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recently had the honor of speaking at the 30th Annual California Women’s Conference held in Long Beach, CA. This is a transcript of my speech. I took that opportunity to address the attendees about how they could take more conscious control of their health and lives by creating a context based on honoring the self in ten key ways. I call this method It’s allowed because we don’t need to seek anyone’s permission or have to wait for a doctor’s advice to start a healing journey. That journey begins by filling our souls up to overflowing. When we are fed spiritually, that healing energy spills over into every other part of our lives – including our health - creating changes that can only be described as miraculous. DISCOVERING THE COMMON DENOMINATOR

For every one man, ten women will be diagnosed with some type of autoimmune disease. When we look at autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis where the body starts producing antibodies and begins attacking or eating up the thyroid tissue or even vitiligo, where the body produces antibodies against the pigment in the skin, or alopecia that creates extreme hair loss, or perhaps multiple sclerosis, where self-generated antibodies attack the myelin sheath that protects the nerves, the research shows that some types of infertility and various cancers are caused because of a connection to the autoimmune disease. As a family doctor, I’ve been exploring why autoimmune diseases have such a predilection for women over men and why this disparity has been going on for decades. No one has been looking into it, and I wish I could tell you why. I wish I could tell you that the answer came to me in a dream or that it was provided by a prestigious, double-blind study, but that isn't what occurred. What occurred was a

realization I had while I was observing my little girl. At the time, she was 3 ½ and had a little bit of eczema on her forearm. As a result, she was fixated on wearing only long sleeves and did not want to play with other girls. While still a toddler, I had observed that she was constructing an internal world in which she felt she was less than others or not good enough in certain respects. My wife Sherry, who is a pediatric orthodontist and dentist, as well as the brains in our family, and I sat down and came up with an idea. We took some long socks that Hannah loved, cut the ends off and turned them into sleeves she could wear. It worked. She was so excited. The new colorful sleeves brought her confidence back, and she was able to get back outside and play with other little girls. At that point, I started working with my colleague, Dr. Robert Gross, who is Harvard trained with a PhD from Tufts University. We asked ourselves whether the sort of self-rejection my daughter had experienced could be the common denominator in all the autoimmune diseases that affect women. As our autoimmune patients came in, we began getting more detailed histories from them. We paid more attention to their biographies, and paid particular attention to how they felt about themselves. Instead of immediately putting them on a protocol of strong chemotherapeutic agents, high doses of steroids and other medications, we started prescribing them more non-traditional therapies. IMPERFECTION CORRECTION

The acronym we developed for the treatment is It’s allowed. The “I” stands for Imperfections. I've been privileged to work with some of the most brilliant and talented women in the world, but regardless of their level of success, it

“I've been privileged to work with some of the most brilliant and talented women in the world, but regardless of their level of success, it always becomes clear as we talk more about their lives that they have big and small ways of habitually criticizing or attacking themselves... Their sin is that they’re not perfect, whatever that means to them.”

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always becomes clear as we talk more about their lives that they have big and small ways of habitually criticizing or attacking themselves. The mental context in which they live on a daily basis is one where they are the villain who must be attacked for not being enough… on pretty much every level. Their sin is that they’re not perfect, whatever that means to them. By way of contrast, certain American Indian tribes have a tradition that when weaving cloth for clothing and such, they leave an imperfection somewhere in their work because that’s where they believe the spirit of life enters and exits. It is like a window into the next dimension. That was a profound discovery for us. We wondered how effective it might be to create that kind of context within a healing protocol. Could we find a way for these women, who were constantly attacking themselves emotionally, to release their self-directed negative energy outwardly instead of aiming it inwardly where it caused their bodies to attack themselves? How would we even monitor such a program with physiological markers that we could use with every patient? Once we set the program up, we took a baseline blood draw on each patient and then monitored their blood markers in a new sample taken every 12 weeks.

TENSEGRITY & INTIMACY

It’s allowed. The “T” stands for the level of Tension that has developed within oneself. We all have tension within us that starts from the time we wake up and continues to develop, but we look at it as a bad thing. We don't know how to move it around and allow it to sublimate into what we refer to as tensegrity, which is a level of tension that actually creates a deeper integrity within ourselves. It’s allowed. The “S” was the most enjoyable part of creating this program. It stands for Sensuality and Sexuality. We started asking questions, and found out that some of the women with autoimmune diseases hadn’t been sexually active for decades. The last thing they wanted to hear was another doctor telling them that even though they were juggling their jobs, kids and everything else, sex was still important. They didn’t want to hear it. To stress the importance of making time for sex, we provided them with a large collection of studies from the National Institutes of Health and other respected institutions. One study that looked at women with breast cancer showed that the number of women having the least amount of sex and the fewest orgasms had the highest rates of breast cancer. Nobody talks about that. I published similar findings in a piece I

wrote for my medical journal, MegaZEN, under the title, “Elusive Orgasm.” Women with the physical terrain that supported autoimmunity had the lowest levels of two of the most important hormones, oxytocin, and relaxin. More sex. Can you imagine walking out of a doctor’s office with that kind of prescription in your hand? To have that kind of conversation with someone requires a different kind of narrative. It requires a heart-centeredness that allows you to invest in another human being rather than just giving them the standard treatment. It’s so easy to write out a prescription for a steroid and have the patient take it as directed. That’s symptom management. To create healing, we have to establish a different context between doctor and patient. It requires inspiring a special kind of confidence through compassion in the patient, so she feels safe enough to share why she hasn't had sex in over a decade. It’s important for her to be able to share what’s occurring for her - not just physically but emotionally that might be impacting her health. What is the context of her current relationship? What are the challenges? What are the misunderstandings or misinterpretations? What is the wall that she keeps running into that’s taking her opportunity for intimacy away? It is this kind of personal conversation that encourages the body-mind connection. This was a conversation that wasn’t happening with these women at their previous doctors’ offices.

SPEECHES & APPEARANCES

The results we saw were astounding and have been shared in detail in my book, The Clarity Cleanse. The “I” of the process represents a way of holding or viewing one’s personal imperfections to help the patient go deeper and create an internal world conducive to healing. So many of us believe that the body, what we see, is all there is to us. The idea that there is a different world inside ourselves than the one we experience outside is foreign to most people. So we started prescribing things like meditation and dream incubations, which is a visualization process of reflecting on the day before falling asleep.

“It’s so easy to write out a prescription for a steroid and have the patient take it as directed. That’s symptom management. To create healing, we have to establish a different context between doctor and patient.”

ACCENTUATING ACCEPTANCE

It’s allowed. The “A” represents Acceptance. We hear it all the time, but what is it that needs to be accepted? It’s so easy to cover up imperfections with cosmetics, hair color, and so on. I would certainly look prettier if I took care of my receding hairline and a few other things, but what M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

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LOVE POWER OF

A CHAPTER FROM “THE BOOK OF CREATIVITY”

By Freydoon Rassouli

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When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. KHALIL GIBRAN

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ove is the intoxicating and bewildering energy that opens the flow of creativity. It leads us into a deeper experience, away from the weariness of the mundane life, toward the freedom and wholeness of expressing our creative nature. The feeling of love is the power that arises from our deepest evolutionary roots and urges us to create, to generate new life, to regenerate our species. This joyful feeling is the fountain of strength and creativity that is released when we are free from judgment and allow our limits to expand. Love is a mysterious ecstatic feeling that activates the inner life of an artist to create works that are uninhibited and freely and skillfully expressed. It is the energy that draws a person into the deeper and more sacred areas of the psyche. When people tell me they love a certain work of mine, it brings me confidence, but when I love what I am doing, it makes me fearless. Writing, painting, composing, observing and playing, all require daring submission to the process of being swept into this ecstatic energy, toward a transformation of the self, in a similar way to what happens when we fall in love with someone. Creativity comes in naming our own icon, in envisioning our own creative inspiration to make

our own journey to awakening! This is the beauty of dreaming and the process of giving birth to it in some form in our own life. When the power of love is directing the creative process, there is no need for enhancing or beautifying what is being created. The ability to create, which could take years of experience to achieve, can be expressed in one moment through the power of love. The thousands of skilled brush strokes of an artist cannot show what a single stroke led by love can express. Love connects the hearts together through the creative process. When we create through pure love, we make a safe place for others to dream through our hearts. We set them free to travel the valleys and peaks of transformation! If Huckleberry Finn finds his magic in the Mississippi River through Mark Twain, we dream with him as he explores the unknown. If Don Quixote fights his battles for his ideal woman, it is not ours to take away from the vision of Cervantes. If Beethoven creates a sonata inspired by his beloved, it is not our place to limit what he envisions. Works of art are created for a variety of reasons, but above all else, every creation flows from a source of joy and love. We live for the joy of being,

â€œThe feeling of love is the power that arises from our deepest evolutionary roots and urges us to create, to generate new life, to regenerate our species.â€?

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â€œWorks of art are created for a variety of reasons, but above all else, every creation flows from a source of joy and love.â€? and out of that joy, the infinite expression of form and learning and compassionate activity evolves. When I love what I do, I know that I am expressing my love in the form of a painting. My imagination is the driving power behind it, and just like other lovers, I am not concerned about what others would say about it. The consistent mysterious factor, which keeps the power of creation moving through every obstacle, is the inherent love of creating. Whether it is a child, an artwork, a way of life, inventions, new forms of healing, sculpture, weaving, composition, playing music, singing, dancing, bringing laughter to people, there are thousands of ways we can invite and welcome others to feel joy through our creativity! Love is the truth that brings eminence and raises our consciousness from the earthly plane to higher levels. The same way the moon is prominent among the stars, lovers stand out shining among other people. It is only through love that we can experience the exalted life that

we were meant to live. As we reach that level, the ordinary life begins to seem limited and confined and contained in a much smaller world. It is somewhat like the joy of playing in unlimited free space as opposed to being contained within the boundaries of a prison cell. When we are released from confinement, we become immersed in creativity, like the sun pouring infinite rays of its radiance upon earth. A creative person does not see the self, because it has been surrendered into the energy of love. The same way that a flower blooms as it feels sunshine, a work of art flourishes through the love of its creator. When creative work is evolved through love, what is invisible to the eyes becomes visible to the heart, because love comes flowing through it. Love can flow through anything, split it open, dissolve it, melt it, and make it bloom, or make the person so powerful that he can create what he could not even envision in his dreams. One of the most powerful instances of how divine love cultivates the creative power is the

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SEVEN STEPS TO MAKING YOUR LIFE

A WORK OF ART By Heathere Evans

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n the hustle of everyday life it’s easy to forget that each one of us is actually operating in two worlds. Most adults were raised to focus only on the world of doing: goals, lists, milestones, schedules, business, busyness and “what’s next.” But this approach only takes into account half of who we are, leading to a constricted life resulting in chronic stress, frustration, dysfunctional independence, overwhelm, and anxiety. Another, deeper aspect of who we are exists in the world of being, full of things that make our heart sing, connect us to our compassion, ignite our creativity, evoke laughter, and make us feel alive! When we ignore this essential part of who we are, our spirit is dampened and we feel off-kilter, disconnected. Our lives lose their meaning and we start wondering about the purpose of our work, relationships and the things that fill our days. TAPPING OUR WHOLE SELVES

The need to see and express the fullness of who we are as body and soul became so clear to me while having a conversation with a revolutionary entrepreneur who teaches wholeness to young girls, boys and adults. Her business, disguised as a sewing studio in the South Bay, actually serves a higher calling.

CONTRIBUTIONS

“Through one lens they were sewing pillows, purses, skirts, tops and stuffed animals. But seen a different way, they were actually being encouraged to access and cultivate qualities like courage, gratitude and intention.”

Based in Redondo Beach, California, Joyce Zappellini has taught hundreds to sew through day courses and camps for girls and boys, as well as evening classes for adults, since Sew Creative Café was founded in 1989. I first met Joyce five years ago when my two daughters, Caitlynn (then 12) and Jacquelyn (then 7), expressed an interest in sewing and I found her lovely shop. Walking in, there are bright, colorful fabrics, threads, and a row of sewing machines with samples of handmade treasures covering the walls. As my daughters worked with Joyce to hand-pick swaths of fabric and work on a variety of projects over the year, something interesting happened. Through one lens they were sewing pillows, purses, skirts, tops and stuffed animals. But seen a different way, they were actually being encouraged to access and cultivate qualities like courage, gratitude and intention. The physical action of sewing was creating a deeper connection to their spirit, and the self-esteem and self-confidence that resulted were palatable. “When we think we are just humans, slugging through our days without seeing our wholeness, we feel cut off, stifled and disempowered,” explained Joyce. “I know how much pressure there is on kids these days with academics and sports. My classes satisfy the creative part of the soul where everyone can express freely in a safe environment without the pressure.” BRINGING SPIRITUAL ESSENCE INTO PHYSICAL FORM

With each stitch, Joyce was seeing the students’ whole selves and encouraging them to cultivate it by bringing out their own authentic expression from within. Each project, therefore, becomes a physical representation of that wholeness, an expression of both body and soul, to behold and appreciate. In my work as a coach, I often use inquiry with teams and individuals for self-discovery and exploration. As I spoke with Joyce, I wondered what would happen if more often we chose to see one another’s wholeness in our professional and personal relationships. M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

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MANEUVERING THE

MIDLIFE CRISIS MAKING THE MOST OF MIDDLE AGE By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

o you’re cruising through life, and everything seems to be going well. The career is great, the family is good, and then one day you get the distinct feeling that everything and nothing in your life is wrong, all at the same time. You can’t quite name the feeling, but it’s a kind of discontent that throws you off your game, leaving you unfocused and unsure about your future. Of course, you feel guilty about having these feelings because you should be grateful that life is as good as it is right now, and you are. It’s just that you can’t shake the restlessness that’s telling you something is off; something's missing. BEYOND THE CLICHÉ

C ON T I N U E D. . .

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CONSCIOUS LIFESTYLE

In 1965, Canadian psychologist, Elliott Jacques, started seeing a lot of men in their 50’s expressing fears of aging. Many were concerned that they’d missed their true calling in life, while others regretted never accomplishing the goals they’d set for themselves when they were younger. It was very common for the men to pine over lost relationships from their youth, and nearly all of them were convinced it was too late to fix any of it. It was these kinds of feelings happening in middle age that Elliot Jacques first defined as midlife crisis.

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LESSONS ON LIVING FROM THE DYING Another great way to neutralize regret and help reset your priorities in midlife is to look at the difference between the regrets of the living and the regrets of the dying. According to Psychology Today, when categorized, the majority of regrets healthy people have concern education.3 These are followed by regrets about careers, romantic relationships and then parenting choices. For the dying, regrets are more fundamental and larger in scope. They don’t involve single events or lost opportunities, but instead focus on the way life is lived. Bronnie Ware is a palliative care nurse who treated hundreds of dying patients and wrote a book about her experience, The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying: A life transformed by the dearly departing.4 According to Ware, the most common regrets expressed to her by dying patients were: 1. I WISH I'D DARED TO LIVE A LIFE TRUE TO MYSELF, NOT THE LIFE OTHERS EXPECTED OF ME.

• People-pleasing is a difficult trap to escape. Midlife is the prime opportunity to reinvent yourself and be your own person. 2. I WISH I HADN’T WORKED SO HARD.

• This was expressed by nearly every male patient. The drive to achieve can leave men missing out on once-in-alifetime moments particularly with children, memories they’ll never have. 3. I WISH I’D HAD THE COURAGE TO EXPRESS MY FEELINGS.

• Suppressed emotions are never healthy, but how often do we not speak our minds just to keep the peace? Why do we have such trouble standing up for ourselves or asking for what we deserve? Why is it so hard to say, I love you? 4. I WISH I HAD STAYED IN TOUCH WITH MY FRIENDS.

• Things like careers, marriage and having children pull us onto new paths causing us to spend less and less time with our friends until we’ve faded out of each other’s lives altogether. Later in life, we find it's the history we have with our friends that's the real gift. As the saying goes, make new friends but keep the old, for one is silver, the other gold. 5. I WISH I’D LET MYSELF BE HAPPIER.

• In most situations, happiness is a choice, just like everything else.

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With this in mind, it might be a little easier to let go of individual regrets and focus more on the overall quality of our lives from this point forward. When we do that, we find a lot more to be thankful for, not to mention the opportunity to redefine who we are and what we’re about by making better choices through hard-won wisdom. THE POINT OF POWER

Other ways to help you move through regret include using the emotions you feel to push you to create new things and opportunities. There are countless success stories of people who lost everything and used their anger and frustration to rebuild a better life or bigger business empire. Think about how you could help others avoid the same pitfalls with the knowledge you have. Teaching others, especially young people, in this way can provide a unique kind of closure that’s very healing for the loss you feel. Above all else, remember to act on what you’ve learned. The past is gone; it has no power over you and never did. The point of power is always in the present moment because that’s the only place you get to make choices. Remember, it’s much easier to reconcile the regret of things you did rather than things you didn’t do. So forgive yourself, make a bold choice and move forward. No regrets.

Sources (1) The myth of the male mid-life crisis. CBS News Sunday Morning, (June 22, 2011) https://cbsn. ws/2yUGtbA (2) Sue, Shellenbarger. (April 7, 2005). The female midlife crisis: more women than men now report upheaval by age 50. The wall street journal, https://on.wsj. com/2EDXoW9 (3) Shrira, Ilan. (September 18, 2010). The biggest regret of your life: avoiding irrevocable mistakes. Psycholog y Today. http://bit. ly/2CXyqzt (4) Ware, Bronnie. (2012). The top five regrets of the dying: a life transformed by the dearly departing. London: Hay House.

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DON'T CALL IT A DIET HELPING YOUR CHILD LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT CREATING FOOD OR BODY ISSUES By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

ccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in six or 17% of children and adolescents between ages 2 and 19 are considered obese. Although the number of children dealing with significant weight issues in the U.S. has held steady over the last several years, it still means 12.7 million young people continue to face diet and exercise challenges on a regular basis. The prevalence of obesity remains highest for Hispanic children (21.9%), followed by black children (19.5%), white children (14.7%), and Asian children (8.6%).1 Although many children need to lose weight, getting them to do so can be difficult for several reasons. Lots of children eat unconsciously out of habit. Even so, when they are young, most children do not eat too much because of a food addiction or other complicated issues with food that affect many adults. It's very important to take an approach that helps your child lose weight but does not distort his or her relationship with food. Habits can be changed, but deep-seated psychological fixations on food are a much bigger challenge that some people spend their entire lives trying to conquer. It’s also essential that your child, no matter his or her body size, maintains a positive self-image throughout the entire process, and that he or she does not become obsessed with a particular weight or with looking a certain way. The focus should always be on the child, not the scale. Finally, getting children to eat healthier can be a tough sell, particularly if they’re exposed to sweet treats when they’re away from home. It can also be challenging if alternative foods aren’t as tasty as the treats or if the whole family isn’t on board with the effort.

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THE ECOLOGY OF

ONCOLOGY HOW DISEASE TAKES ROOT IN THE MIND-BODY ENVIRONMENT By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

any years ago, I was returning to Los Angeles from Hawaii and had rushed to the airport to make my flight. In the process, I’d put an apple I’d purchased the day before in my carry-on bag to eat on the plane because there was no time to stop for a meal on the way. As I passed through security, my bag was pulled off the conveyor belt by an agent who looked like he’d spotted something suspicious. Within seconds of searching my bag, he pulled out the apple and told me I had to throw it away.

SECOND OPINION

I was surprised. I’d taken food on flights before, and it was never a problem. He told me that as a remote chain of islands, Hawaii had its own ecosystem and that there were several types of insects that could invade various kinds of fruit. While these creatures were common and non-threatening pests in Hawaii, if accidentally introduced into the environment of the mainland U.S., they could proliferate and cause a great deal of damage to orchards throughout the country. Naturally, I threw the apple away, but the experience got me thinking about how such a tiny creature, which wasn’t a problem in Hawaii, could potentially cause so much damage in a different environment. The difference wasn't in the bug but in the habitat in which it found itself that determined whether it remained docile or became a danger. It reminded me of how disease can take root and develop in one person who does yoga daily and eats organic, while someone else who doesn’t make such healthy choices lives a disease-free life. Science is increasingly showing that it's the quality of the soil or physical terrain of the body, as I call it, that's more important in determining whether the seed of sickness, the germ or cancer cell, will take root and flourish, and why it does in some people but not others. OVERDUE ADMISSION

I’d heard at some point about how the Asian carp, which wasn’t particularly invasive in parts of Asia, became extremely aggressive when mistakenly introduced into American waters. Likewise, the Japanese knotwood was colonizing English gardens and treated like a weed when it wasn’t nearly as intrusive in Japan. Through various news articles, I recently became aware that the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the world's preeminent authority on cancer research, was finally starting to talk about the environmental differences in patients' bodies and why some people get cancer and others don't. They were suggesting that if we could figure out the secret, we could prevent the seed of cancer from ever taking root by reconditioning the internal environment or soil of the body in a way that was inhospitable to cancer. For over 60 years, science has been focused solely on a seed-only approach to cancer, examining tumors and how they behave without giving any thought to the environment within a patient’s body that allowed them to develop in the first place. Clearly, the cancer cell is only part of the picture in cancer research, yet historically that’s where 99% of our focus has been. Naturally, I was excited to hear that traditional medicine was finally beginning to look at cancer, not as a standalone invasive process, but as a relationship between the cancer cell and the host body that determines whether those cells proliferate and later metastasize, because I’d been saying it for years. Even in the presence of cancer cells, if the relationship between them and their environment isn’t mutually supportive, the cancer cells will be eradicated or remain in a dormant phase indefinitely. C ON T I N U E D. . .

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REALIZA AND RESILIE CREATING CLARITY IN A TIME OF CRISIS By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

he longer I live, the more I realize that the quality of my life experience isn't dependent on how many things and experiences I can acquire and hold onto, but how good I am at letting them go. When a personal crisis occurs, the context we place it in has as much to do with how we experience loss as the circumstance itself. By realizing we can choose how to define and ultimately experience a personal crisis, we gain a greater sense of control over our life at a time when it’s easy to be lulled into inaction by feelings of powerlessness. The first noble truth of Buddhism tells us to live is to suffer, but suffering through a tragedy isn’t the same as being immobilized by the pain of the experience. It doesn’t matter what the crisis is - a surprise divorce, the death of a loved one, a shocking diagnosis, or financial devastation - we can improve our quality of life during the event by making the choice between pain and suffering. Of course, we must first be aware that we even have this choice. Once we are aware, we can clear out the chaotic thoughts that cloud our thinking and decision-making during a crisis and create mental space for deeper realizations about how and why the situation occurred. C ON T I N U E D. . .

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ATION SECOND OPINION

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This awareness is what I call clarity and discuss at length in my book, The Clarity Cleanse: 12 steps to finding renewed energy, spiritual fulfillment, and emotional healing. It’s also the psycho-spiritual process I go through with all my patients who are dealing with a serious health crisis. I'm often the last stop for patients who've already been to the most prominent medical centers and specialists in the world, usually for advanced stage cancer, neurological conditions, and auto-immune diseases. Understandably, they're immobilized by the pain of their experience, but they soon come to realize that their best chance of healing requires their active participation, which means that they must redefine their circumstances and empower themselves by finding meaning in the situation. This is done by changing their perspective through clarity. PAINFUL POLARITY

our upset. In Buddhism, this is referred to as the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, the place where the soul cannot be satiated. It's as if we could eat the whole world and never be filled up. It's also the place where addiction resides. I call this way of being the judgmental realm because of the concrete and rigid way in which it defines experiences where whenever we don’t get what we want exactly how we want it; the result is great pain. We cannot consciously act from this state of mind, but only unconsciously react to our circumstances. The way out of this subconsciously inflicted pain cycle is by being willing to consider that there might be some benefit for us amidst all the upheaval, even if we have no idea what it could be. Just being open to that possibility expands our consciousness from that of a dot to a flat circle that now has a circumference and surface area. We now have two-dimensional thinking that while still polarized, can at least allow us to consider that the situation might not

If we think of a single dot, we know that it's a oned i me n sion a l e nt it y with no height, width or depth. When we enter a crisis be all bad. It’s the unconsciously, our beginning of peace stress response of mind and relief. is triggered, and “When we enter a crisis I often demonstrate our thought unconsciously, our stress response this progression process becomes for my patients by chaotic and oneis triggered, and our thought scrunching a deflated dimensional like process becomes chaotic and oneballoon down into a the dot. Everything dimensional like the dot.” tiny ball to represent is bad about the the dot, then flattening situation, and nothing it out like a pancake to take is good, as we collapse into the shape of a circle. a negative state of being. We’re the victim of someone or something DIMENSION & DEFINITION else, and we don’t know why this is happening to us. It’s so unfair, and we just want it all to go The final transition occurs when the thought away. Because our pain has no meaning outside of process goes from being two-dimensional to a our own victimhood, we're not easily comforted. multi-dimensional state or from the flat circle We often find ourselves reaching to things outside to a sphere with height, width, and depth. We ourselves for temporary relief or distraction from can think of it as finally blowing the balloon up

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to create a three-dimensional object with space inside to hold a deeper understanding. In this state, we have the ability to think through our feelings as we experience them in real time. This way we will not be subconsciously controlled by them. We can simultaneously be in the head and the heart as we begin to work through and make sense of our experiences. In this open state of mind, we can create sufficient space where the mental noise used to be for new realizations about our circumstances to arise. This is what I refer to as the state of clarity, the ability to free oneself from the polarity of a problem and remain open to the deeper answers as to why this situation has appeared in one’s life. When we have these answers, our previously senseless pain transforms into suffering, which is loss defined by meaning. When our pain has meaning, we can suffer it with courage and peace of mind because even though we may not be able to fix everything, we know why it’s happening and

brought them, their gratitude leads them to want to be of service in some way regarding their crisis. An example of this might be someone using the opportunity of being diagnosed as HIV positive to speak to young people about safe sex practices. Others use their experiences to greatly improve relationships or completely change their lives and start following their passions because life is too short. In many cases, these people end up saying that what they previously saw as a crisis turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to them. When our choices are no longer based on reaction but realization, we’re experiencing multi-dimensional thinking or clarity. A UNIVERSAL JOURNEY

When we’re born, our mental processes naturally function in a multi-dimensional way. All our experiences are integrated into the holistic nature of our development. We don’t judge anything as good

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SECOND OPINION

understand that or bad, but live part of the reason in the fullness of holds something “Being open to that possibility each experience good for us. Here, without resisting that there might be some benefit we are open to it, processing all possibilities for us amidst all the upheaval the totality of its the situation may expands our consciousness from emotional impact. We hold, which is why see our world as full of that of a dot to a flat circle.” I define this level of possibility instead of just consciousness as the consequence, which is essential imaginative realm, where to learning. Yes, we may touch an we are capable of imagining and open flame and feel the pain of being holding in mind other outcomes instead of just burned, but the experience isn’t all bad because the worst-case scenario. we’ve learned not to do it again. Getting our Often in this state of openness, even in the midst fingers singed was necessary for that realization. of great suffering, people shed their victim label So we process the temporary emotional upset, and begin to feel increasingly empowered, though receive the gift it contains for us and move none of the details of their situation have yet forward effortlessly. This is how we're created changed. Once they see the gift their crisis has to process experience.

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THE COURAGE TO LEAD

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BEING A CHAMPION OF CHANGE INSTEAD OF CONFORMITY By Dr. Habib Sadeghi in the Foreword for Dressed to Kill (Edition 2)

ood health is 90% prevention, and I believe in educating patients with all the lifestyle and dietary information I have available to me so that they can make the best health-supporting decisions for themselves. In 2014, I came across the book, Dressed to Kill, by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer that put forth a relatively well-researched theory that there may be a link between underwire bra usage and breast cancer. Building on this theory, I wrote an article that was published online for which I was mercilessly criticized in the press, not because the media offered any legitimate evidence to disprove the possible link between underwire bras and breast cancer, but because I was so bold as to draw womenâ€™s attention to an idea that modern medicine had deemed taboo. What follows is the foreword I was asked to write by the authors of Dressed to Kill for the second edition of the book. The online article in question was published in the 2015 edition of MegaZEN.

SPEECHES & APPEARANCES

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PERSONAL DELIVERY

MIDWIVES BRING SIMPLICITY & INTIMACY BACK TO BIRTHING By Dr. Habib Sadeghi

t might seem hard to believe, but relatively recently, in 1900, 95% of all babies were born at home. In 1938, the rate had dropped to 50%, and by 1955, 99% of all babies were born in the hospital.1 While hospital births seem perfectly normal to us today, the truth is that women have been helping other women have babies at home for hundreds of thousands of years, and the move to medicalize the birthing process is a very recent development in human history. BIRTHING BECOMES BUSINESS

Before the second half of the 20th century, most babies were born at home with the assistance of a midwife, a woman specifically trained in the birthing process and the needs of the female body. In fact, the term midwife comes from the Old English term meaning with woman. As hospitals were formed and later grew into profit-based entities, the push was on to reframe childbirth as a medical procedure that required oversight instead of a natural process of the female body. When birthing became part of the medical business model, the experience changed drastically for both mother and child. Because childbirth became the most common procedure performed at hospitals, the profit was good, but the process had to be streamlined to accommodate all expectant mothers. Unfortunately, this uniformity of process stripped away much of the attention previously paid to the spiritual and emotional needs of mother and child in favor of a sole focus on biological issues. Assuming a woman didn't have any complex health conditions in addition to her pregnancy, she could expect to receive the same treatment every other woman got with conveyor belt-like precision. Today, time is money. Birthing rooms can’t be occupied for too long, so extended labors aren’t encouraged. While most women are administered an epidural for their pain, this often slows down the dilation process. To speed things back up again, a woman is usually prescribed Pitocin, which

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induces contractions that are longer, stronger, and closer together. Unfortunately, the pain is often too intense, requiring another epidural injection. This slows down the contractions, which means more Pitocin, and so on. Eventually, this process creates contractions that are so severe that the baby’s heart and respiration rates become extremely distressed. Not long after that, the woman often finds herself being wheeled into the delivery room for an emergency C-section which was artificially induced by mostly unnecessary medical interventions. HEALTH RISKS, FINANCIAL RETURNS

In recent years, however, some health professionals have begun to take note of the increasing number of healthy women with no pregnancy complications who end up having emergency C-sections after induced labor or other unnecessary medical interventions. Research from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has shown that the risk of needing a C-section rises sharply when labor is induced, especially if it’s the first child.2 Unfortunately, as hospitals rush to be more competitive and serve more patients, the number of C-section births has continued to rise. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that between 1996 and 2007, the rate of C-section births for the U.S. rose 53%, the largest increase ever recorded. In Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Florida and Colorado, the increases were between 70%-80%. By 2007, one in every three U.S. babies, 1.4 million, were born via C-section.3 C-section births have become so common now that most of us don’t think twice when we hear someone we know has had one, but the truth is that a C-section is classified as major surgery. Lots of complications can occur including hemorrhaging and blood clots for the mother, or intensive care for the baby. Even though these risks increase with subsequent procedures, 4,5

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C-sections are now the most common surgery performed in hospitals.6 In order to keep women accustomed to C-sections, they're often told that vaginal delivery is no longer possible after the procedure. This isn’t quite accurate. Additional research from the ACOG shows that 60% to 80% of women can have a successful vaginal birth after a C-section.7 Perhaps the reason for this misdirection is that C-sections, being surgery, cost twice as much as a vaginal delivery.8

This isn’t to say that C-sections are bad. They save lives when they’re absolutely necessary. The real issue is why and how they became “necessary” for so many otherwise healthy women who choose a hospital birth.

intense feelings of euphoria, overwhelm, and bonding between mother and child. Oxytocin is also generated on a much smaller scale during breastfeeding. Because this big hormone rush that normally sets bonding patterns in place doesn’t happen during a C-section, feelings of attachment to the baby can be somewhat lessened. Studies of MRI brain scans from Yale University have shown some C-section mothers to be lacking in attachment to their babies or less sensitive to their baby’s upset than mothers who gave birth vaginally.9 Often monkeys given C-sections will ignore their babies. Oxytocin also works synergistically with serotonin as a mood elevator, which might explain why C-section mothers experience postpartum depression more often, but additional research needs to be done in this area.

Another concern with C-sections is that because the baby does not travel through the birth canal, a final surge of the hormone oxytocin isn’t triggered. Oxytocin is the “love” hormone that generates

In a vaginal birth, the baby becomes covered in the mucosal lining of the birth canal, with much of it entering its nose, mouth and sometimes the ears. This lining is populated with billions of

UNSEEN SACRIFICES

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THE APPOINTMENT THAT

CHANGED MY LIFE SURRENDERING TO THE PULL OF THE UNIVERSE

By Lisa Douthit

was diagnosed with my first cancer when I was 26 years old. I had my second diagnosis at 27, and my fourth by 35.

Although I don’t believe you can create cancer in your body, I do think there are physical, emotional, and spiritual components to illness, and I know I contributed on these levels to my own illnesses. I didn't intend to contribute to the breakdown of my body, I was simply doing my life the way I had always done my life. I was working hard, playing hard, and getting ahead. I loved to challenge myself and strived to be the best, work the hardest, and always do more. I’d learned early on that pushing myself beyond my limits got results. The problem was that each time I tried to touch my goal, I had to push even harder because it would jump just out of my reach. Sound familiar?

Ph o t o : J e n s L e l i e o n U n s p l a s h

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Although I understood that when you approached life with a healthy attitude, when you were steadfast in your commitment to self-care and balance, you could achieve miraculous results that would serve both you and the world, however, I had no boundaries and the hunger of a street addict for validation and accolades, so I pushed myself well beyond my body’s capabilities. My unrelenting exertions didn’t stop during my cancer treatments. I worked fulltime throughout my chemo and radiation treatments, and scheduled multiple surgeries around vacations and family events. Even as doctors removed internal organs, and treated the ones that remained with toxic chemical solutions and radioactive fire, I continued to focus on my never-ending to-do list. When my body finally got thoroughly tired of being ignored, it started to yell even louder. That was the beginning of the end that created a new beginning.

I woke one morning with double vision. I thought it was weird but didn't investigate because I was training for a marathon and late for my early morning run before work. It wasn't until around mile five that I realized I might have a problem. I noticed my gait was dramatically off - I was running like I was drunk - and didn't go back to normal when I got home. When my sister, a nurse, saw me later that week, she expressed more alarm than concern. Being a very efficient pusher herself, she made a few phone calls and got me in to see a specialist immediately. Within a couple of weeks, I was diagnosed with two life-threatening autoimmune diseases, and sentenced to a lifetime of medication and possible paralysis with no cure.

same flow state. The day I met with Dr. Sadeghi was the beginning of a profound shift in consciousness for me. I set the intention to find a different way to live in all aspects of my life. I’d like to say I was healed in that moment, but healing is a process and I still had some work to do. I spent the next year in bed in an almost completely catatonic state. I had three young kids at the time and an overburdened husband who was trying to raise them as he watched me fight to survive.

My body had finally called in the loans it had given me during the years I’d spent overextending its energetic bank and was now looking for payback. I could no longer control the trajectory I was on as I helplessly watched the life-force draining out of me.

The irony was that I was a healer too. My goal had always been to serve others in the highest and best way possible, but the way I’d been approaching my work ended up costing me my own health and wellbeing. What I didn't understand at the time was that Dr. Sadeghi’s inner healer was coming from a much different place than mine was. I was pushing through my life to help others, he was being pulled. I was curious and needed to explore how to make this shift, for my way was literally killing me. Even though I was doing what I loved, I realized that I was constantly trying to control the outcome of my work and my life. This forced me to work twice as hard to keep up with my own expectations. My unrelenting exertions caused a seemingly insurmountable breakdown of my body and soul. I was exhausted and suffering from low-grade depression because my body was so depleted of energy and nutrients. Since Dr. Sadeghi is in a state of flow with his higher self and purpose, he is being pulled by life, which actually fills his energetic bank. Because he treats his patients from this state of being, he offers them the opportunity to access this

“What I found was that the gap between illness and health is where you find your truest purpose and a way to live it that honors your body and soul.”

CONTRIBUTIONS

Desperate for a miracle, I looked to integrative healing since traditional medicine was offering me no solutions. Sitting across from Dr. Sadeghi opened the door to hope. My guess was that he saw a lot of people like me in his practice - Type A, get-it-done-at-any-cost people who could fix anything except the one thing that truly mattered, their health.

My soul was desperately trying to understand how to do things differently, so I could learn to serve others and receive from a state of balance and flow. I spent much of my time during those months in bed in meditation because that's all I could do. I also read everything I could find about spiritual transformation and chronicled the shift that was occurring within my being. What I found was that the gap between illness and health is where you find your truest purpose and a way to live it that honors your body and soul. As I went deep within, years of trauma were burned off. It felt like I was being recreated at the cellular level. Slowly, my strength increased as did my connection to myself and my higher power. Eventually, I crawled out of that bed, and over time was able to walk without a wheelchair. Now, I feel like I can fly! I’m fully back to my family and work, but am managing my life in M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

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POETRY LOU I WILL KNOT By Anne Shulman Open your heart Expand your chest Let go No. I will knot. Why knot? I do knot no. Such easy peasy Advice from someone Who spent 500 hours On the right to give it. I don’t cry on the mat anymore. I don’t cry. Knot. She told me to breathe into the knot. It worked. It all works, That’s knot the problem. I’m knot. I feel like a used nub of pencil. I feel worn. Where are we going? Where do we imagine we are going? I love the planet. I do knot understand the people. Why do we feel an allegiance to the way things are? Why knot try something different? Why have a terrestrial imagination when there is is the whole Verse? Photo: Atik sulianami on Unsplash

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UNGE CONSIDER By Abu Hafez Consider, Please. Come Sit Here, Long enough to consider.

Limped & Emptied Just for now! Come Sit here, Long enough to Consider. Please, Just for now.

So Just So that you may be touched By a new realm of possibility, Emptied out, Broken, Vulnerable- only then, Only Then, The SHOWING, that is US - together, WE, May Come in, Long enough, for you To softly allow IT to Braille you, in that de-light-full darkness.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Please, Consider, just for now; just now, that there is no one home - in your body right now.

Limped & Emptied to be worn Willingly by whom who whatever comes in, Just for now, Consider.

Consider a “For Rent” sign Large enough Now, outside in front of your guesthouse of your physical body: “Free For Rent Freely, ALL Welcomed.”

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STAY OUT By Abu Hafez For Ms. Annabelle Wallis - Who Embodies the essence of Courage to be Alive.

Stay Out Stay out! Stay, Out! No matter. No, Matter. Stay Out. Don’t let any one, Or any thing, Push you back unto Your shell - you’ve been there before. It’s safe. Warm. Comfortable. Looking Good. Come Out - Here, Now. No matter, No, Matter. Out Here, Where Life has always in all ways been yearning to Be With YOU.

Photo: Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash

PRAYING By Mary Oliver It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch

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a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.

BEFORE MAKING LOVE THEY COMPARE SCARS By Rick Benjamin For Margaret

beneath her navel where they lifted out twin sons, & the scar that is the same

She’s traced the map of his forehead like a path that leads to some place

line deepened where their daughter rose up thirteen months later.

she wants to go. & the year a knife entered his hip is a time toward which she would

You got me, he says, as their skins start to knit together

travel. What he wants just now is not to think about the blows

a path toward longing, their bodies already lost to the places

his body has taken, & as if on cue she says, me, I’ve only got these two, the line

where love has left its indelible marks.

CONTRIBUTIONS

At fifty-eight, he thinks he’s got his share, holds up his right hand where, alone, he’s got ten.

WHAT IF? By Abu Hafez What if the can, could peel off the label So mystery & wonder would be born? Wow! The can could be, might be a can of tomato? Tuna? Pickles? Water? Rock? Or even sardines?

Wonder is wondering who would show up, then Out here To play with Life, if there was no label of me on me? What if?

M E G A Z E N W E L L -BE I N G J OU R N A L

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MegaZEN Well-Being Journal - Volume 6